Merredin Uniting Church

Here is a photo that appeared in the Mercury on March 17. It shows some of our church members who took part in the Clean Up Australia Day event in Merredin recently.

Overall the 23 volunteers from Merredin collected 55 bags of rubbish, which included 10 bags of materials that could be recycled.

Eight of the volunteers, who were from our church, cleaned up the area around Roy Little Park. Well done to all those who were involved!

Texts: Romans 8:28-32 and Mark 1:1-11 (Audio Version: http://sermon.net/daviddekock)

The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ began long before Jesus actually arrived on the scene. It began even before John the Baptist, And before the prophets.. and Moses, and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. The Good News began already on the Day of the Fall .. immediately after man first sinned and brought separation between him and God ..

But John was the announcer of the Good News….

John came to prepare the way for the Messiah and this message was received with the same great joy with which the message of Jesus was received.

John, you see,  was the one spoken of by Isaiah … He was the voice crying in the wilderness “prepare the way of the Lord! Make his paths straight!”

And people who heard John saw him as the one promised by the prophets,

- the one who was to come before the Messiah … and so they went out to him in the wilderness

- out to him from Jerusalem, and Judea and from all the region around the Jordan … and they listened to his message

- and they responded to his call

- and in their thousands they were baptized for the forgiveness of sins.

“I tell you”, said Jesus later on, “I tell you that among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist…”

Why is this? Why did Jesus give John this high praise?

I think we often see John as a strange character….

We have this image of him with his camel hair clothing and leather belt, and his long hair and his diet of locusts and wild honey, He reminds us of the cartoons we have seen of a strange looking character who stands on the street corner waving a sign that says – “repent, the end is near.” John seems scary – frightening almost: – telling people that they are a brood of vipers, and that the axe of judgement is even now being laid to the roots of their lives,

And yet …… Thousands heard his message that the kingdom of God was near

- and thousands responded to his call to repent of their sins

- and thousands were baptized and made ready to welcome Christ into their lives.

What’s wrong with the picture we have of John?

I think that we are missing the marvel of what John called the people of Israel to receive as they came out to him at the Jordan……

John called people to be ready for the coming of Christ, by letting go of their burdens and receiving the forgiveness of God.

John said to all who came near to him that they could get a fresh start in life;

that they could begin again as newly washed individuals

- pure and holy in God’ eyes;

and that God would visit them and redeem them as promised by all the prophets of old.

John proclaimed the love of God,

the forgiveness God,

and the day of God’s coming,

…. and he made this personal and particular, by giving that love and forgiveness to all those who came to him and entered the river with him.

Today Matthew and Beth have brought their daughter to join them in that river. Abigail is too little to understand what took place in her life today .. but their parents … Matthew & Beth  … have heard and know the message of God’s love, and forgiveness, and they want their child to know and receive this message also.

The symbol of baptism is not specifically important but its message is profoundly significant ..

it tells that we can be ready for the coming of Christ ..

that we can let go of our burdens

and receive the forgiveness of God

Does this infant have burdens?

Does this little girl need forgiveness?

Perhaps not yet, certainly it does not seem so

but the time will come…

And she will realise, as we all have, that we are born into original sin … we are all sinners

And then the message that her parents, and we as a church, have proclaimed to her will find its merit in this baptism today.

As parents and congregation we have vowed today that we will bring the message to her as John did …

She are forgiven … she can let go of her burdens,

she can be ready for Christ ..

Today, through baptism, the path has been cleared before this little girl, it is still the task of Matthew and Beth, and us as congregation, to keep it clear and to set Abigail’s feet firmly upon it. And even if we fail, God will not, for His grace has reached into her heart in a way that is beyond our understanding.

You see, what John proclaimed and gave was hope,

the hope that peace in our lives is possible,

that the past can be forgotten,

that it can be washed away,

and that when the new comes, when God comes, we can meet him and stand before him without fear.

The call of John for us to repent is not a word of criticism nor a word that claims that somehow he is better than we.

No, on his lips the call to repentance is a word of opportunity

- it is a way into the future with God,

- it is a renewal our relationship with the Lord.

- it is a new beginning in our relationships with each other.

It is a foreshadowing of the message of the one to whom he pointed,

the one who preached peace to those who were far off, and to those who were near.

Peace in forgiveness,

Peace in the Spirit,

Peace in a new life,

Peace in a new heaven and a new earth.

Despite how John railed against the sins of those who thought they had none, his message was that of the one who followed him:

There is none so lost, that they cannot be found,

none so bad, that God still will not seek them out to save them, none so hopeless, that their life cannot be changed.

It is important for us to have this vision of God and to hold onto his promises.

It is important that we open our hearts to God, to admit to him what is wrong in our lives to ask for his forgiveness and to vow each day to live as he has shown us.

It is important, not only to have a vision of what God has done, is doing, and will do;

it is important that we be willing to confess our need for him and to accept from his hands the forgiveness he offers, the new life he gives

- the life which leads us to his Son.

It is what, in the end, we all need, and it is what God offers to us, it is what John pointed to as he spoke in the wilderness of the one who was to come after him.

God, who formed us in His image, and breathed His life within us, has a passion for us. He loves us so much, that He gave His Son, so that we would not be lost, but would come to everlasting life – which is an old-fashioned way of saying that our lives would be made wholly new and that we would, in this new life, be freed of the burden and struggles of the old life.

The invitation is to you, as much as it is to Abigail.

Text: Philippians 2:1-11 (Audio Version: http://sermon.net/daviddekock)

The world today looks for happiness in all kinds of wrong places – in money, sex, relationships and worldly success.

In Paul’s letter to the Philippians he tells us that he had found true happiness and strangely enough it is in none of these things. He is in prison, chained to a Roman soldier, unjustly accused and facing an early death and yet he tells us in verse 2 of our text that his joy is almost complete.

The only thing he needs to make his joy fully complete is for the church at Philippi to find a unity in Christ.

It seems that there was a minor disagreement between two women – Euodia and Syntyche. This is not earth shattering stuff but Paul could see the danger signs and so he appeals for unity with all the passion and arguments that he can muster – it is the one thing keeping him from complete joy.

First, he appeals to their unity in Christ (If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ).

Second, he uses the argument of God’s love (if any comfort from His love)

Third, he points to the unity which the Holy Spirit brings (if any fellowship with the Spirit),

and finally, he appeals to the tenderness and compassion of Christian love.

We started this series with a view on joy – we said that this life would be truly worth living only when it was lived in the kind of joy which Paul experienced. A joy which was uninfluenced by circumstances but which found itself utterly influenced by the goodness of God in bringing hope, salvation and love into our lives.

But one more thing is needed – it is the joy of unity in relationships with other people. As Paul begins to see warning signs in the relationship between Euodia and Syntyche he addresses this issue of unity in a most unique way.

Have you ever been in a strained relationship with someone? Did you see how it drained your joy? Not just in the relationship but gradually, steadily in every aspect of your life.

This is the danger of disunity. Paul saw it – and he also knew the answer to it. He knew that unless the issue was resolved, this life would not be worth living, and his joy would not be complete.

He urges them to a unity of mind (be like-minded), to a unity of emotions (have the same love) and a unity of wills (be of one spirit and purpose).

- A unity of mind does not imply that we must agree on every issue, but that we should have the same approach and attitude.

- A unity of emotions does not mean that we must love the same things but that we should have the same attitude of love.

- A unity of wills, means that we should have the same goal even if we do not entirely agree on how we get there.

The thing that destroys unity is wrong attitude. Paul speaks, in this context, of selfish ambition, of vain conceit and of looking only to yourselves (self-centredness).

Selfish ambition is not ambition, per se. There is nothing wrong with desiring to better oneself. The Greek word used here is in fact more correctly translated as rivalry. It suggests a competitive spirit in which one must fail for the other to succeed – it is dog eat dog. This is one of the most horrible aspects of our sinful nature, that we seek to win by destroying the other person.

Vain conceit, or vainglory, if we were to use the Authorised translation, is what William Barclay describes as “the desire for personal prestige”. Often this is an even greater temptation than wealth. To be admired and respected is fine, but to seek flattery and to puff oneself up is a disdainful thing.

I just love that advert where this bombastic idiot come up to the airline check-in and when he doesn’t get the recognition that he thinks he deserves he says to the attendant, “Do you know who I am?” She ponders him briefly and then speaks into the microphone, “Ladies and Gentlemen, here is a man who doesn’t know who he is.” Smart lady!

The opposite of such pomposity is the humility to which Paul calls us saying, “Consider others better than yourselves”. That doesn’t mean that you consider everyone else to be more gifted than you. Tiger Woods would never have to consider me a better golfer than him – that would be false humility!

And we need not consider everyone else as morally better than us – it would require considerable mental gymnastics for Mother Teresa to have thought that Adolf Hitler was better than her.

We are simply to consider others as more important than ourselves – this is the opposite of self-importance.

And then the third wrong attitude which Paul warns about is self-centredness. Martin Luther said that self-centredness was the heart of the human problem – “fallen humanity is,” he said, “man curved in on himself.” Someone else called it “the tiny dark dungeon of the ego”.

Instead we are urged to look to the interests of others. It is about how we treat our family, our neighbours, our work colleagues and members of the church. It is about what is central to our conversation, our concerns, our thoughts, our giving and our prayers.

What is the right attitude for us to have?

It is the attitude which is the same as that of Christ Jesus. He had no selfish ambition or self-importance or self-centredeness.

In verses 5-11 of our text – which was probably an early Christian hymn, we see the attitude of Jesus which should be ours as well.

First, Jesus let go of his natural status – He was in very nature God, and yet He did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped. Instead of climbing up the ladder of achievement, Jesus climbed down – He became a man. He started at the top but went down to the bottom because he was ambitious, but not for Himself, but for God and for us.

Second, we see that Jesus let go of His social status. He could not have started at a higher position – He was equal with God. He was King of kings and Lord of lords, but He made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant. Mark tells us in his gospel account that “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.”

Thirdly, Jesus let go of His legal status. He gave us His right to life, and “became obedient unto death –even death on a cross.”

Had Jesus been self-centred and looking after His own interests He would never have died. Instead He chose to die as a criminal. He gave His life as a ransom for many. He became like us so that we might become like Him; He became a slave so that we might go free; He died so that we might have life. He went from the Light of God to the darkness of death; from the highest height to the deepest depth.

Paul says that our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus – or, if we were to directly translate it, “This thinking is in you which was also in Christ Jesus”.

The implication is that we already have this attitude of Christ. Alec Motyer, former Principal at London Bible College says that the greatest glory of Christian ethics is that it calls us to be what we already are.

Think of it like this – Shaun Pollock inherited the cricketing skills of his father Peter. In other words, he always had it in him to be a great cricketer like his dad. But he had to work at it – he had to practice, he had to work his way into the South African squad just like everyone else, but he had an advantage – he already had it in him.

So also with us. We have inherited God’s blessing as co-heirs with Christ, and we have the example of Jesus to follow, yet it still takes a lifetime to approximate the standard which Jesus set for us.

This is the attitude which we are called to have. We are called to follow the example of Jesus Christ: to demote ourselves, to be downwardly mobile, to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, to serve others and to look to their interests.

As we do this, God promises to exalt us. We cannot exalt ourselves. If we try to, God promises to humble us. This is the extraordinary paradox of the Christian life.

This is why Paul could say that he was almost completely happy. He had given up his selfish ambitions; he had given up his self-importance and he had given up his self-centredness.

All he now needed to make his joy complete was for the church in Philippi to achieve unity by applying these things to their own lives.

And in the end, Christian unity is only achieved when Jesus has become our centre and our purpose – when we are beginning to turn our attitudes around so that they become like that of Jesus.

Hello all,

Just a quick post to let you know when our Easter services will be. They are as follows…

Merredin

April 1 @ 7pm Tenebrae
April 2 @ 9am Good Friday
April 4 @ 9am Easter

Mukinbudin

April 2 @ 6pm Good Friday

Bruce Rock

April 4 @ 11am Easter

If you are not a regular to our church, please feel free to come along to one of these services. We would love to have you join us for this special time.

God Bless,

Dave Q

What a wonderful celebration we will have today as we celebrate the Lord’s Day and new life. May you be blessed.

We welcome especially the family and friends of Matthew & Beth as their miracle baby daughter, Abigail, is baptized into Christ at the Merredin Church. It has been my prayer that this service would spark some wonderment in us of the love which God has for us all.

There are a couple of things which I need to highlight for each of our congregations.

Merredin: The Men’s Group got off to a good start on Wednesday with a barbeque and lots of talking about all kinds of interesting things. We decided to meet every Wednesday at 7pm. ($10 for tea and mission) We will meet twice each month at the church and twice we will go elsewhere. Once a month we will meet with the other Christian Men’s Fellowships in Merredin. The first of these will be a presentation by Julien Kreig from “:Working with Warriors” at the beginning of April.

On Sunday March 21^st at 6pm we will have a formal dinner at the church (suits & ties!!) to honor some of the long-serving members of the congregation. Come along, it will be much fun.

Sunday Night At Church (SNAC) meets at 6pm for Tea and a focused service afterwards including prayers for healing and renewal.

Bruce Rock: We are starting a Bible Study at Ritia McKenzie’s home, 20 Dampier St on each 2^nd Tuesday at 1pm. All are welcome. Anyone from Merredin is welcome to contact Margie and I for a lift.

There will be an Easter Sunday Service at 11am.

Mukinbudin: There will be Good Friday Service at 6pm.

Southern Cross: The services are held on the 2^nd and 4^th Sundays at 6.30pm. I am looking at restructuring the service. Anyone from Merredin wanting to attend the service is welcome to come along with me.

Finally, with Easter just around the corner, let us prepare our hearts for this celebration of God’s amazing love towards us. Some of the symbols of Easter have been fully absorbed into our everyday life. Hot Cross Buns on Good Friday and Easter Eggs on Easter Sundays are powerful motives. The buns speak of the Body of Christ, the raisins of His blood. The spices indicate preparation for burial and the cross speaks for itself. They are usually eaten hot with butter to symbolize anointing. Traditionally they are shared with morning tea after the Good Friday service. The eggs are the symbols of new life pointing to the Resurrection of Easter Morning. They have their root in the Jewish Pesach (Passover). In the old days they were hardboiled eggs roasted brown. The dark shell spoke of hopelessness and the golden yolk of new life while the white of the purity which come from God.

God bless you all

Rev David de Kock