Merredin Uniting Church

Sermon: Repentance and Peace by Dave Quinn

Texts: Malachi 3:1-4, Philippians 1:3-11 and Luke 3:1-6

In today’s readings we looked at three separate passages. The first one from Malachi looked forward 400 plus years to a time when to a man would come who would announce the coming of the Messiah. It also touched on the idea the people of God being refined and purified.

In the reading from Luke we saw the fulfilment of this prophecy. We see John was the one in the desert who was announcing the coming of the Lord. He also called the people to repentance and to make the path ready for the coming Kingdom.

Then in the final reading we saw Paul talking to the church at Philippi. He urges them to continue on in faith. He tells them of his prayers that their love would abound more and more and that they would be pure and blameless on the day when Christ comes again.

While these passages are from three separate sections of the Bible they have some common themes – Repentance, preparing the way and the people of God being right before the Lord when He comes again.

For the purpose of today’s message – Repentance and Peace – I want to touch on the main thoughts of John from the Luke passage.

But what was John’s message? His message at its very core was “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near”.

So what is this repentance? Is it just saying sorry to God and getting on with life? Well that is part of repentance – we need to say sorry to God for the wrong things we have done. But there is more to it than that. As the great evengelist/preacher Billy Graham says. Repentance is about stopping dead in your tracks. It is about confessing to God our sin, but it is also about turning around 180 degrees and heading in another direction. It is a turning from something and choosing a new path.

You might actually be surprised to know that the word repentance was not originally a church or Bible based word. It goes back to nomadic times. A time where people moved around a lot. Where they camped in one place and then moved on to another after a season. It goes back to a time before road maps and the trusty UBD or one our new favourite toys – the GPS.

The word repentance has connotations of being lost. Of not knowing where you are or where you are going. It has connotations as Billy Graham says of having to stop and turn back to where you should be going. When you know this, you can see why John used this word in the way he did.

Just like the nomadic person who is lost. Repentance means we need to turn around and walk towards God. Once we are with Him, we then need to commit to walking the way God wants us to walk. To walk in the path He created for us before the foundations of the earth.

So this begs a question – is repentance a one time thing? Is it just for those who are coming to Christ for the first time? Those of us who have been living the Christian life for a while know this is not the case. Repentance needs to be a lifestyle.

There are times in my Christian walk where I have strayed from the path before me. I have gone to the left or to the right. Sometimes I have subtly gone to the left or right and sometimes it was in wholehearted rebellion.

In these times where I have wandered off the path I have found that my love for the Lord is not as it once was. Like the church in Revelation 2:1-7, I had lost my first love. My love for His Word has grown dim. My heart and passion for prayer is just not there. My attitudes towards others slipped and I started to think my time and my resources are mine and not His. Suddenly sharing my faith with others is not a priority like it once was. And when I was serving God, I was just going through the motions.

If we are honest we all probably go through times like this?

In times like these I think we all need to remember that repentance is the key. We need to stop, confess and turn afresh to God. We need to recommit to walking along the road again. We need to recommit to walking side by side with Jesus, like the first disciples many years ago. We need to remember  John’s words from Luke 3 and Matthew 3:1-2, “Repent the Kingdom of Heaven is near”.

So why is this repentance so important? Well it because initially it leads to salvation, but during our Christian walk it also keeps us right with God.  It also leads to peace, the peace of God in our lives – the second part of my message today.

Now when it comes to peace we probably have different ideas of what peace is. If I asked us all to say what we thought peace was we would probably say things like – a nice holiday by the seaside or sitting on a hill overlooking a beautiful lake. Some might say a break from work or time away from the kids. Others might say peace is the absence of conflict or wars.

All of these are right, but they are not the type of peace I am talking about. The peace I am talking about is a peace that is not of this world and it not influenced by the things of this world. It is an unshakeable assurance that God is on control.

I once heard a story that illustrates this type of peace.

There once was a King who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best ‘Picture of Peace.’ Many artists tried. The King looked at all the pictures, but there were only 2 he really liked and he had to choose between them. He rejected all other paintings.

Out of the two, one picture was that of a calm lake. The lake was like a perfect mirror and peaceful towering mountains were all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace. Everyone said that this painting should and would win the 1st prize.

The other picture was different and had mountains, too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky from which rain fell and in which lightening played havoc. By the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall making a deafening noise. This did not look peaceful at all.

Behind the waterfall was a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest… feeding her babies! The mother bird was in perfect peace as she went about her duty…

The King chose the second picture. This picture won the prize much to everyone’s surprise!

Because, as explained by the King: “Peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise or no trouble. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart. That is the real meaning of peace. There must be peace in chaos!”

This is like the peace that comes from the throne of heaven – the peace that surpasses all understanding that the Bible talks about in Philippians 4:7-8. It is the peace that guards our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. It is the peace that regardless of circumstance anchors us firmly to Him who sits on the throne in Heaven.

Back in the year 2000 Larissa and I experienced this peace first hand. You see Larissa was having some back problems and she decided to go to the Chiropractor. Before she could be treated he asked for a full back x-ray.

The results of the x-ray were not what we expected. They showed a growth in Larissa’s pelvis about the size of an orange. It was in the bone at the top. Larissa came home and started to show me the x-rays. I quickly stopped her and said we needed to pray about this before we looked at the x-ray results. We pray and committed this to God. We asked Him to help us and we prayed that His will would be done. We then looked at the x-ray results.

It showed the growth could be a cancerous tumour, a bone cyst or a benign growth. Here we were – only married for four years with two young children. It would have been easy to go down the path of fear and panic, but God had given us that peace that things would be ok. In the storm of our life, it was like Jesus stood in our boat and said, “Peace be still”. Just like He did for the disciples on the lake in Luke 8:22-25.

Over the coming months Larissa had a biopsy to find out what it was (a slow growing bone cyst) and she had surgery to remove and repair the area. All the way through we had the peace of God. We knew it would all be ok. While people around us worried and were stressed, we were like the mother bird safely and peacefully in her nest.

We experienced first hand the words of Christ in John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid”. It was not a peace from this world, it was the peace of Christ Himself. It was the peace that allowed Him to be asleep in the storm on the lake, when everyone else is in turmoil and fearing for your life. The peace that helped Him to say, “Father Not my will, but Yours be done”, when He was facing the agony of the cross.

So how do we tie these two ideas together – Repentance and Peace? Or how do we experience this peace the Bible talks about. I believe there are two things we need to do to experience this peace of God – the peace from heaven.

Firstly, to experience God’s peace we may need to repent. I believe that repentance is the doorway to peace. We may have subtly wandered away from the path. We might need to recognize that we might be in the wrong. Our heart might not be in the right place and our attitude towards the things of God might have slipped. We may need to come to God afresh and commit to following His eternal pathway. Then we can experience the peace of God.

Secondly, to experience God’s peace we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus – Hebrews 12:2 tells us that He the author and finisher of our faith. We need to keep our eyes on the throne of Heaven where Christ sits. Not on the things of this earth (Colossians 3:1-2). When we keep our eyes fixed on the eternal Jesus, the problems and stresses of this life seem to shrink when we see them in light of eternity. When we look at them through the lens of heaven, they don’t seem to be so big. Then we can experience the peace of God for the first time or experience it anew.

If you are not experiencing God’s peace at the moment or you know in your heart that you have gotten off track, I would encourage you to turn to God afresh today. Come back to Him like the prodigal son came back to his father in Luke 15. And then commit to walking the eternal path he created for you before the foundations of the earth (Ephesians 2:10).

Our God is an awesome God and He loves you with an everlasting love. He longs for you to walk closely and intimately with Him each day. He longs to give you His peace today. Amen.

Good Day to you …
Well, it seems that December is pretty much the same all over the world, at least when it comes to the ministry. Everything slows down but at the same time it’s like drawing in a deep breath in preparation for a major physical (or in our case, spiritual) effort.

I am deeply in the process of fleshing out the practical side of the three key objectives (Mission, Visitation & Facilities) which arose out of our Strategic Planning Day, and of trying to correlate all the Volunteer Commitment forms, and of listening to hear clearly what God is saying on at least five different areas. At the same time we are waiting for the air conditioning and the phones to be installed. I gather that, aside from the very generous amounts which were already received, we have pledges for almost all the remaining cost of air conditioning for the Church Office and the Church itself. The phones will hopefully have been changed on Friday – the number at the church will be the old Manse number 9041 1117 and there will be a new number at the Manse 9041 2829.

So what is God saying? Let me spell out a little of what I am hearing. First, with regard to Dave Quinn’s process to the ordained ministry. It’s a fairly lengthy process of discernment – as it must be. We need to begin the process as soon as possible with an eye on October 2010 as a candidate selection date. In the meantime we need to explore the possibility of his appointment to the ministry of Pastor. The application, including for financial assistance, must be ready by the beginning of February. It’s looking hopeful and his availability to assist will help tremendously in our other plans. These other plans involve each of the four congregations in our Parish – each has a different ethos and spiritual dimension, and each a different purpose-filled future. I see life in each of them and am excited in the Lord for their potential. I am really praying for clarity in direction – all four directions!

It’s much easier in Merredin where there is a strong base in numbers and we have been able to define fairly clearly where we want to go. But in each of the other congregations there is a distinct “feel” for a spiritual outburst. We started praying for revival two weeks ago at our Wednesday Prayer meeting and I have come away from each of those meeting feeling quite exhilarated. As part of the meeting we are reading Ken Terhoven’s Breath of Heaven which is a challenge to revival in the church through the relating of the events in revival all over the world. Ken was a retired Church of England minister in my home town in South Africa and a very dear friend. He was a powerful evangelist in the main stream tradition who ministered in many parts of the world. He died of a heart attack in the pulpit after preaching a sermon in England. After his death, I was given his Bible – even the leather cover was worn out! Throughout he marked texts with dates and comments relating to his prayers. It’s a revelation!

Ken’s understanding was that re-vival is for the church – that Christians need “vival” again and that once the church is revived, then God will act sovereignly, even sometimes without preachers or Bibles, to bring people to repentance and faith. This re-vival has two aspects to it: first, there must be consistent prayer. Many revivals have come about because two or three people have gathered regularly (sometimes for many years) to cry out to God for a new Breath of Heaven. And second, those who pray need to fully examine their hearts and lives, to confess their sin and to become repentant. Then the work of God begins – as the repentant sinner now kneels humbly before the Throne of Grace, knowing that he or she is undeserving; no better than anyone else, and yet forgiven and made new.

Ken reports that time and time again, once this happened, that suddenly there came a spontaneous and unexplained surge of people turning to God. It wasn’t always exactly the same but frequently this surge happened in another place from the prayers. So a small group would begin to pray and then church leaders would meet and when they dispersed the revival would begin in pockets all over the country. The little group of prayers is often forgotten, but that’s where it always began – and this group were always very happy to stand back and let all credit go to the church leaders meeting. They simply bowed to the sovereignty of God.

So my wrestling in prayer is really about trying to see God’s plan for the four different congregations and our role in the region. I see an end picture but it’s on the other side of a mountain – a bit like Elijah’s little cloud in the distance that will bring the rain. To continue with the analogy to Elijah – there is an altar to be built, a sacrifice to be made and fire to be called down. Each of these has mountainous aspects and the process could be huge, but then, we only need faith the size of a mustard seed to move mountains. Isn’t God amazing!