Merredin Uniting Church

Praise God for His wonderful grace. Hallelujah!

The Mighty Men Conference last weekend (and for me, the meetings which preceded it) were a great inspiration. The messages were simple – We need to have a recent personal testimony of God’s action in our lives; We need to know the freedom which we have in Christ which unshackles us from the laws, demands and fabric of the world; We need to have personal time with God every single day; and men need to take their place as prophet, priest and king in their homes and families.

Most amazing was that men came from right across Australia, from every denomination, age and maturity in Christ. And we were one. Our group from Merredin got split up (may have been intentional on the part of the organizers) and so I shared a tent with two men from Adelaide and shared in worship with two men from Kangaroo Island. Who we were was irrelevant – we shared faith stories and encouraged each other in our Christian journey. It was good.

Our focus this morning follows something of this sense of unity. Using that wonderful text from Philippians 2, I want to show that our unity is derived from our attitude (the way we look and respond to things). It is ambition, conceit and self-centredness which creates disunity. Paul calls us to “have the same attitude as Christ Jesus” who made Himself less, took the role of a servant and laid down His life.” It is this Christlike attitude which brings unity, joy and peace into our situation. Strained relationships drain out all our joy and the answer is quite simple – make the relationship right, even if it means that you have to “lose the point”. And have a good heart about it.

Tonight at SNAC I want us to look at why we come to church, and why God comes to church. When we come for the same reason then we are truly blessed – not just for the moment, but in our hearts and lives. We need to come to church and God wants to come to church and when we meet together we are filled with the Spirit.

Finally, we are starting a Men’s Group on Wednesday evening at the church. We will start at 7pm with something to eat and time to relax with each other. We have some ideas about where we want to go with the group and it would be good to talk through expectations that you might have too.

Rev David de Kock

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