Merredin Uniting Church

You can listen to the sermons at http://sermon.net/daviddekock

Last Sunday’s sermon on unity and having a new attitude (based on Philippians 2:1-11) has been posted.

Text: Philippians 1:12-20

Last week, we saw that we should have –

• A heart of confidence in God (believing that He can fulfil His promises)

• A heart of compassion for people (believing that God loves them as much as He loves us), and

• A heart of concern for the growth of the Kingdom of God (believing that God’s intention is that none should perish but that all should come to faith in Him).

Today we are going to look at the great Possibilities which the Gospel gives us when we commit to its Priority and see it as the Purpose and Pattern for our life.

In Philippians 1:12, Paul tells us that “what has happened to him has really served to advance the gospel”.

Oh Yes? Listen to what happened to him … (2 Corinthians 12:23-27)

He was imprisoned, flogged, exposed to death.
Five times he received forty lashes minus one.
Three times he was beaten with rods,
Three times shipwrecked, a day and a night on the open sea.
Constantly on the move,
In danger from rivers, bandits and his own countrymen.
In danger from the Gentiles,
in danger in the city,
in danger at sea, and in danger from false brothers.
He laboured and toiled, went without sleep, went hungry and thirsty, and was cold and naked.

And he says, “I want you to know that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel….

And indeed, the advancement of the gospel is our purpose too … it is God’s commission to us – Follow me and make disciples.

The Gospel offers us the great Possibility to do this in any and every circumstance. Follow me and make disciples…

In verse 14, Paul say, “Because of my chains” – because of, not despite: There is a huge difference.

“Despite my chains” implies that I am not constrained by them. I am bound up but despite that I pushed ahead. It is by sheer human effort that I can achieve in my circumstances.

“Because of my chains” tells us that the chains are the very reason why Paul and his colleagues “have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.” Paul used his circumstances to share the gospel – he made the most of every opportunity!

I believe that this means that we can find great possibilities for the Gospel just where we are. Paul was in chains and in prison but he saw that as opportunity to speak the word even more courageously. He did not think that he had to get out of the situation before he could do that! There was no “if only” or “when I” in his planning. He did what he could, right where he was.

We must speak and live the Gospel right where we are, in our situation.

“Where you are” is not a hindrance, but an opportunity.

Your unchurched friends are not a liability but an opportunity. Your family who have drifted away from Jesus are not to be mourned over, but to be prayed over. Your difficult circumstances are a challenge to live in faith.

The power of the gospel flows out of our confidence in God and our love for His people – as we heard last week.

We hesitate because we often fear ridicule, unpopularity, and social isolation if we are too vocal or demonstrative about our trust in God. But if we really trust God then the place we are is the place where God wants us to be and we must use the possibilities in that place to share faith and the good news. God has put us there for that very reason.

One of our goals this year, indeed, our primary goal is to serve 42 (10) people outside the congregation this year for the sake of the gospel. I believe that each of us can use our situation to do that quite easily. A friend, a neighbour, a colleague – we are connected to them in our life and we are, in a sense, therefore also obligated to share our faith with them – just as Paul was able to use his far more complicated situation of being chained to the guards in the dungeon.

How do we do this?

Well, we need first of all to recognize the Priority of the Gospel message. Paul says, “The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached.”

The priority is that Christ is preached. In Paul’s case he sometimes saw the gospel preached out of envy and rivalry, even selfish ambition; he said that the motive did not matter.

In our case we might feel inadequate to share our faith, we might be hesitant because we fear stumbling over the sharing of our faith despite its roots deep within us, but all that matters is that Christ is preached.

It is better to do the right thing even if it is done badly. It is better to do the right thing than to do nothing at all. It is better to do the right thing even if the motives are mixed or wrong. And the right thing is that Christ is preached.

Our priority is to be so convinced of our salvation in Christ that we are no longer hesitant to share our own hope with others, especially the ones we love.

When we preach Christ we are not simply preaching values, or another good way to live, we are preaching the very essence of life …

– God made us to live in relationship with Him, Adam sinned and we became separated from Him by default, our life lost its purpose and meaning – then Christ came, and through His atoning death, He gave us our life back, in all its fullness, with all its promise and potential.

And so Paul says in verse 21, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” He did not fear death and neither should we – death is not a threat but the culmination of life, and it bring us into the presence of the One who desires that we can see Him and know Him and walk with Him in glory.

But Paul did see Purpose in life, specifically, in his case, that his readers’ joy in Christ Jesus would overflow on account of him.

And I do not think that our purpose is much different. Because of our faith and hope in Christ Jesus, joy should be our benchmark. Our spirits must be lifted up. Our hope is sure, our destiny is secure.

As Paul tells us in Romans 8 – “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We are safe in God’s love for us, nothing can ever threaten that, nothing at all! And that is cause for joy.

The purpose of our life is to live in this joy, and to be absolutely content, fearing no threat nor disaster.

The Westminister Cathechism has, as its first statement of our faith, “The chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” This is our chief purpose, to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

And that must affect the Pattern of our life.

Not just to speak the gospel, or even just to believe it, but to live it.

If we believe it, it must shape our lives.

And to be quite blunt, if you believe the extraordinary claims of the gospel then you have no option but to live according to its extraordinary promise – that the God who spoke the universe into being is madly in love with you, and has shaped a destiny for you which involves a personal relationship with Him within the community of His people.

So, says Paul, “Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ … stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way.”

The great Possibility of the Gospel is realized when we, BECAUSE of our situation and circumstances are able to preach Christ as a Priority, to make the joy of Christ the Purpose of our life and to Pattern our lives so that we conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel.

And the outcome will be that not only will our own lives be content, but others will know that contentedness themselves.

May the joy of the Lord be your strength.

Rev David de Kock

The following is the handout that was given out to go with Rev David de Kock’s sermon “The Ten Words of Grace”.

1. They are rooted in a relationship with God

2. They outline human response to the grace of God

3. They move faith from the abstract to the actual by specifying behaviour

TEN IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

1. Do you honor anything or anyone above the one true God?
2. Has God been replaced by something physical or material in your life?
3. Have you dishonored God’s name by using it in a frivolous manner?
4. Is your work more important than your relationship with God?
5. Do you honor your father and mother?
6. Do you value human life?
7. Have you kept your marriage vows?
8. Do you respect other’s rights of ownership?
9. Do you tell the truth?
10. 10. Are you content with what you have or do you covet the possessions, relationships and successes of others?”

4. They require personal responsibility for the well being of the community

5. They illustrate the connection between our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationships with each other

By Rev David de Kock (Evening service)

In the introduction to her book, The Ten Commandments, Dr. Laura Schlessinger writes; “Each day we make many, seemingly minute decisions about things that don’t really seem earth shattering. So what if we broke a promise? So what if we find passion in another bed while we or they are still married? So what if we are too focused on work, TV, or clubs to spend time with our family? So what if religion is not a big deal in our lives? When one adds up all the so-what’s,” one ends up with a life without direction, meaning, purpose, value, integrity, or long-range joy.”

I doubt that you can find another passage in the Bible that so concisely, clearly and compassionately outlines the grace of God and the response to that grace human beings are called to make than the Ten Commandments.

So lets turn to Exodus 20 and read verses 1-17.
And God spoke all these words:

^?2? “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ^?3? “You shall have no other gods before me.

^?4? “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ^?5? You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ^?6? but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

^?7? “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

^?8? “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ^?9? Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ^?10? but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. ^?11? For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

^?12? “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. ^?13? “You shall not murder. ^?14? “You shall not commit adultery. ^?15? “You shall not steal. ^?16? “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.

^?17? “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

I want to about why the Ten Commandments are so important. Any document that has lasted as long and has exerted as much influence on humanity as this one must have something going for it.
1. They are rooted in a relationship.
Look at Exodus 19:4 – 6.
^?4? ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. ^?5? Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, ^?6? you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

These are not arbitrary laws that require blind obedience to an invisible authoritarian. Vs.5 says, “If you keep my covenant.” A covenant is a sacred promise between two parties. You can have a contract without having a relationship. But you can’t have a covenant without one. The Ten Commandments are like a wedding vow in many ways.
God pledges his power and love and promises and presence to Israel. In turn, God expects Israel’s loyalty to himself and compassion toward others. God didn’t jot down the Ten Commandments then answer Israel’s question, “Why should we do this?” by saying, “Because I told you so.” Often, God does tell his people to obey because, “I am the Lord.” But even then his commands are predicated on this relationship. The Ten Commandments are built on responsibility. God is as bound by them as we are.

That’s why, in part, the Ten Commandments don’t work with people who don’t have a relationship with God. Why should a person avoid stealing if he or she doesn’t acknowledge the God who said, “Thou shalt not steal.”? Why should a person honor their marriage commitments if they haven’t already made a commitment to the God who said, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”?

The power of the Ten Commandments lies not in the fact that they are laws, but in that they are descriptions of how people live in relationship with God. It is true that they are law. But more than that, they are words that describe a relationship.

2. The Ten Commandments outline human response to the grace of God.
Exodus 19:1- 2 uses the word ” After” twice. In the third month after the Israelites left Egypt—on the very day—they came to the Desert of Sinai. ^?2? After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the Desert of Sinai, and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain.

After what? Vs. 4 answers that question. “After I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself.”

And Exodus 20:2 says “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

Before God ever commands them to do anything or to refrain from doing anything, he saves them. Moses did not show up in Egypt with two stone tablets and say, “If you guys will agree to obey all these commands, God will deliver you from Egyptian slavery.” He showed up and said, “God has heard your cry and has sent me to deliver you.” Then, and only then, did God outline the response Israel was to make.

Exodus 19:4- 5 outline this order perfectly. Vs. 4 says, “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself.”
Vs. 5 says, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.” Deliverance first. Commandment second.

And you remember what happened just 40 days after they first received the commands? They decided to violate at least the first two of them by building the golden calf and having a pagan party. And what did God do? He forgave them and reissued the commands. That’s grace.

One objection we sometimes make about studying the Ten Commandments is that the law was nailed to the cross. We are saved by grace, not law, so why are we having a sermon on the ultimate example of law?
Well, even Paul in Romans, said that the law is good. But the law doesn’t save us, it does however describe how saved people respond to the grace that saved them.

3. The Ten Commandments move faith from the abstract to the actual by specifying behavior.
If you were to do a nationwide survey and ask people, “Do you believe in God?” I’ll bet the numbers would surprise you. A huge percentage would say, “Yes, absolutely, I believe in God.” But then if you examined their lives you’d find that what they profess to believe and how they live show very little correlation. I can say to Margie, “I love you.” But if I never act out that love in specific, concrete behavior, my words are empty.
Faith, like love, is too easily kept in the realm of theory. The Ten Commandments don’t allow us to claim belief in God without demonstrating that belief in concrete actions and behaviors. They require us to affirm our faith in the daily grind of living.

So instead of, “Do you believe in God?” the Ten Commandments ask us ten questions,

1. Do you honor anything or anyone above the one true God?

2. Has God been replaced by something physical or material in your life?

3. Have you dishonored God’s name by using it in a frivolous manner?

4. Is your work more important than your relationship with God?

5. Do you honor your father and mother?

6. Do you value human life?

7. Have you kept your marriage vows?

8. Do you respect other’s rights of ownership?

9. Do you tell the truth?

10. Are you content with what you have or do you covet the possessions, relationships and successes of others?”

To God, our answers to those specific questions about behavior and morality demonstrate our belief.

4. They require personal responsibility for the well being of the community.

The “you” in all these commands is singular. One of the reasons, maybe one of the top three reasons, our world is in such a moral mess right now, can be summed up in these words; “It’s not my problem.” Really, it doesn’t make a big impact on my life if someone in Perth covets his neighbor’s way of life. If someone in Kalgoorlie lies about a business investment, big deal. If someone murders an Indian in Melbourne, that’s just too bad. Those sins don’t affect me; it’s not my problem. The problem is, though, that almost everybody feels that way. And sooner or later you are going to be lied to, or robbed.
When God came down to the mountain, hundreds of thousands of people were gathered around its base. He didn’t address the crowd, though. He addressed each and every individual. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt. You shall have no other gods before me. You, standing there by that rock, and you over by that cedar tree, and you too, the one in the red turban who is thinking in his heart how glad he is all these other people are hearing all these commands. I’m talking to you!” There is a connection between personal responsibility and the well fare of the community. The Ten Commandments shout at the top of God’s voice, “It is your problem!”

Every lie you tell or tolerate, every covetous thought you allow to live longer than a flash, every secret lust, every act of dishonesty, all of them matter. And the only way we will see our world healed is if we take the personal responsibility to make it holier and healthier beginning with ourselves.

5. They illustrate the connection between our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationships with each other.

The first four commands describe our relationship with God. The last 6 describe our relationships with each other.

In Mark 12 Jesus answered a question about which was the greatest command. He said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this; Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” What Jesus did was summarize the Ten Commandments. Love God. Love your neighbor.

These days in our culture we’ve edited Jesus’ summation of the Ten Commandments from two down to one. As long as people love each other we’re happy. You can keep God, thanks. All you need is love. The problem is we can’t get everyone to love each other. You see God is love. You get rid of God, you lose love.

What sounds like a thoroughly New Testament teaching had its origin in the Ten Commandments. You can’t have a healthy, holy relationship with humans without having a healthy, holy relationship with God.

Sermon by Rev David de Kock (Morning service)

Texts: Leviticus 8:1-9, 1 Peter 2:4-12 & Mark 1:1-8

‘The Franklin Expedition to the North Pole in 1845, with 138 officers and men, carried a “1200 volume library, a hand organ playing fifty tunes, china place settings for officers and men, cutglass wine goblets, sterling silver flatware, and no special clothing for the Arctic, only the uniforms of Her Majesty’s Navy.” It was a noble enterprise, and they were nobly dressed for it. They all died. Their corpses were found with pieces of backgammon board and a great deal of table silver engraved with officer’s initials and family crests. Dignity was all.’ So writes Annie Dillard in her masterpiece of reflection on human expeditions and encounters with God, called “Teaching a Stone to Talk.”

Her experiences in the church’s worship are interweaved with commentary on polar explorations. She finds the amateurism distressing: “A high school stage play is more polished than this service we have been rehearsing since the year one. “In two thousand years”, she says, “we have not yet worked out the kinks.”

The attempts to be relevant are laughable: I have overcome a fiercely anti-Catholic upbringing”, she says, “in order to attend Mass, simply and solely to escape Protestant guitars.”

And though she says that “people in churches are like cheerful, brainless tourists on a tour of the Absolute” she cannot keep herself away, for this is the only bus heading that way. So she discards her dignity and throws in her lot with random people, joining the motley sublime, ludicrous people who show up in polar expeditions and church congregations.

But listen to this comment … “On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke?

The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. The ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares as we come in the door; they should lash us to the pews. For one day the sleeping God may awake and take offense, or the waking God may draw us out to where we can never return.”

“Week after week we witness the same miracle: that God, for reasons unfathomable, refrains from blowing our dancing bear act to smithereens. Week after week, Christ washes our dirty feet, handles our stinky toes, and repeats, ‘It is all right, believe it or not, to be people.’”

In the great mystery of our faith, God calls us into relationship with Him – into covenant. He knows exactly what it is that we are supposed to be and to do; we, for the most part, stumble along in the dark. We pore over the Bible to find the answers. Like a proud daughter after her first ballet lesson we do our worship pirouettes before our doting Father – its clumsy and graceless, but He smiles lovingly at us, as if we had rendered a world class performance of Swan Lake. We trip over our feet and our tongues, and despite it all, we are okay.

When God calls us, we have absolutely no idea of what it means and where it is going to lead us. We think we do, but for the most part, we are like a man lost, who refuses to ask directions. We go round and round, seeing the same landmarks and then at some point, we turn right, instead of left, and behold, there is our destination. Its never been far away at all.

The beginning of the Gospel is about John baptizing in the desert. All the people went out to him, for he was preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. They came because here was a man who seemed to know where he was going, and they were lost. Thousands were baptized by him but he always said that there would be one who would come after who would baptize with the Holy Spirit. While wholly within the mission of God, John was still playing with a chemistry set on the church floor – but he was warning the people to don their hard hats: the dynamite was about to explode.

And it exploded when Jesus preached his first sermon in Nazareth – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor; he has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

This was turnaround time, the stone was laid in Zion – the chosen and precious cornerstone. He called us out of darkness into His glorious light – He issued us with crash helmets and life preserving jackets, He lashed us to the pews.

And He called us … listen carefully to what He called us, “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God.” We are set apart from our fate, we are rescued from our destiny, we are set on a new course – indeed we are given new life.

Peter, in describing God’s turnaround of our destiny through the ministry of Jesus borrows the words from Hosea the prophet and turns them around. Hosea was instructed to take for himself an unfaithful wife. She bore two children and Hosea was instructed to name them Lo-Ammi (meaning “not my people”) and Lo-Ruhamah (meaning “not loved”, or “not having mercy”). They were symbolic of the destiny of God’s divided people: The Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah – people who were respectively “rejected” and “shown no mercy”.

Peter now says to us, once you were not a people (Lo-Ammi) now you are the people of God (Ammi-El); once you were not shown mercy (Lo-Ruhamah) now you have received mercy.

In Christ, Jesus has turned the tables on our destiny. In His death, He has given us life. By His stripes, we are healed.

We plod along on our journey, often not seeing its purpose and embarrassed about our worn clothes. But that’s not right. We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. It might not seem like it to us, but our garments are of splendour – sparkling white, washed in the blood of the Lamb. We are robed in glory, we are headed, with the heavenly throng, to take our place before the Throne – to cry out Holiness and Glory to our magnificent God.

And it begins with our baptism. The first record of a ceremonial washing in the Bible comes with the preparation of Aaron and his sons to be ordained as priests of the Most High God.

The Lord said to Moses, “Bring Aaron and his sons.” Moses washed them and then dressed them in magnificent robes. They were a chosen people, a royal priesthood for a holy nation.

When we are baptized, we too become a chosen nation, a royal priesthood and a holy nation. It might not seem like that to us, but nothing in God’s economy is as it seems. We pray poorly worded prayers, we sing songs out of tunes, we miss God’s cues in the events of life – but it changes nothing.

In faith, we have come; in grace we are blessed.

We play games with God but He takes us seriously, because that is His promise, His covenant. He does not doubt us, He will not forsake us.

We are adorned in royal robes, we stand at the foot of the Throne, God bends forward to hear our whispered prayers – and we are playing with dynamite. Not because it is dangerous to do what we do, but because God takes us seriously. He has made a promise which He will not break, not even bend.

Paul says to Timothy …

If we died with Him, we will also live with Him,

If we endure, we will also reign with Him.

If we disown Him, He will disown us;

If we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He cannot disown Himself.

God’s promise is certain and true, He will cleanse us, He will determine a new destiny for us.

If we reject His promise, He will allow Himself to be rejected, but He will remain faithful to His promise to us, because He has made Himself one with us in Christ.