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Once again I had the privilege of leading the service at Parkrose this sunday.
Order of service,Bible Reading and Sermon follows.
Parkrose 17/7/16
Order of Service
Welcome and Call
to Worship : Psalm 92:1-4
Hymn: “To God be
the Glory” 128
Announcements:
Bible Reading: Colossians 1: 20-27 Living
Bible
Hymn: “On this Holy Lord’s Day morning” 256
Communion: Geoff
Offering
Church
Prayer: Geoff
Hymn: “I
cannot tell why” 481
Sermon: “GODS’
SECRET MADE KNOWN”
Hymn: “I love to tell the story.”
Benediction and
Vesper.
Bible Reading
Col 1:13-28
13 For he has rescued us out of the darkness and gloom of Satan’s kingdom
and brought us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, 14 who bought
our freedom with his blood and forgave us all our sins.
15 Christ is the exact likeness of the unseen God. He existed before God
made anything at all,[a] and, in fact, 16 Christ
himself is the Creator who made everything in heaven and earth, the things we
can see and the things we can’t; the spirit world with its kings and kingdoms,
its rulers and authorities; all were made by Christ for his own use and glory. 17 He
was before all else began and it is his power that holds everything together. 18 He
is the Head of the body made up of his people—that is, his Church—which he
began; and he is the Leader of all those who arise from the dead,[b] so that he is first in everything; 19 for
God wanted all of himself to be in his Son.
20 It was through what his Son did that God cleared a path for everything
to come to him—all things in heaven and on earth—for Christ’s death on the
cross has made peace with God for all by his blood. 21 This
includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies and hated
him and were separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now he
has brought you back as his friends. 22 He has done this
through the death on the cross of his own human body, and now as a result
Christ has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are standing
there before him with nothing left against you—nothing left that he could even
chide you for; 23 the only condition is that you fully believe
the Truth, standing in it steadfast and firm, strong in the Lord, convinced of
the Good News that Jesus died for you, and never shifting from trusting him to
save you. This is the wonderful news that came to each of you and is now
spreading all over the world. And I, Paul, have the joy of telling it to
others.
24 But part of my work is to suffer for you; and I am glad, for I am
helping to finish up the remainder of Christ’s sufferings for his body, the
Church.
25 God has sent me to help his Church and to tell his secret plan to you
Gentiles. 26-27 He has kept this secret for centuries and
generations past, but now at last it has pleased him to tell it to those who
love him and live for him, and the riches and glory of his plan are for you
Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ in your hearts is your only
hope of glory.
28 So everywhere we go we talk about Christ to all who will listen, warning
them and teaching them as well as we know how. We want to be able to present
each one to God, perfect because of what Christ has done for each of them. 29 This
is my work, and I can do it only because Christ’s mighty energy is at work
within me.
GODS’ SECRET MADE
KNOWN
Can you keep a
secret?
It’s difficult
isn’t it but sometimes we need to keep a secret so as not to embarrass people.
There are some
things we shouldn’t keep secret.
Eg If we know
someone has committed a dreadful and serious crime we should report it to the
proper authorities.
On the other hand
sharing other people’s secrets amongst our families and circles of friends is
Gossip.
Gossip is one of
the most deadly poisons on this earth.
There is also
always the danger of what they call “chinese whispers” where an original statement
gets mixed up as it is repeated and after several repeats can be nothing like
the original.
Little kids like
to whisper secrets in your ear at times as they like the idea of causing some
intrigue or for whatever reason known only to them.
It’s like having
something they can impress their siblings with or young friends.
“ I know something
that you don’t know.”
Many of us of
course keep things that might have happened to us in the past,
or things we have
done,
as a secret.
Quite often that’s
because of pride as we don’t want people to know of some shady or sinful thing
we have done as we want everyone to think well of us.
Keeping some of
these secrets can harm us as often
things like that keep us tied up in knots and we really need to confess sin in
order to know God’s freedom.
Sometimes we may
be trying to deal in secret with the effects of someone else’s sin against us.
We might have huge
deposits of resentment and unforgiveness built up in our hearts.
That sort of
secret we need usually to take to Jesus for healing.
Let’s get back to
our title today.
GODS’ SECRET MADE
KNOWN
The passage we
have had read to us today tells us of God revealing His incredible secret that
he had chosen to hold back until a time He deemed it appropriate to make it
known to the world.
The “secret” was
in the Old Testament all the time, and it was revealed in the New Testament, in
the birth,life,death and resurrection of Jesus.
There are two
sayings that go like this:
“The New is in the
Old concealed,the Old is by the New revealed” or
putting it another way
“The New is in the
Old contained, the Old is by the New explained.”
All the way
through the Old Testament the Jews were being drawn towards the coming of the
Messiah.
The problem was
that when He came the majority of them did not recognize that Jesus indeed was
the Messiah.
But in actual fact
the first Christians were Jews who did realize who Jesus was and responded to
Him.
We see their
response on the day of Pentecost when 3000 of them formed the first Church.
We read this again
from Paul:
“25 God has sent me to help his Church and to tell his secret plan to you
Gentiles. 26-27 He has kept this secret for centuries and
generations past, but now at last it has pleased him to tell it to those who
love him and live for him, and the riches and glory of his plan are for you
Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ
in your hearts is your only hope of glory.”
But God now does not want
this to remain a secret.
He want’s the whole world
to know.
Paul tells us in this
passage that he has been given the task of telling all of the plan God has for
everyone’s lives, those who will receive Jesus as Saviour.
He goes on:
“28 So everywhere we go we talk about Christ to all who will listen, warning
them and teaching them as well as we know how. We want to be able to present
each one to God, perfect because of what Christ has done for each of them. 29 This
is my work, and I can do it only because Christ’s mighty energy is at work
within me.”
Isn’t it sad that many of us hold back on telling
people we know, this open secret, about why Jesus came and died on the Cross
and was resurrected from the grave.
Perhaps it may be that we are Christians amongst
Christian people but not very Christian in our behaviour with others who are
not.
We might be frightened that people will ridicule us if
they know we are Christians.
But this open secret is the most important thing that
anyone can ever be told.
Again the following passage tells us how this secret works for us:
“22 He has done this
through the death on the cross of his own human body, and now as a result
Christ has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are standing
there before him with nothing left against you—nothing left that he could even
chide you for;”
Nothing left that God could even chide us for!
How liberating is that?
How wonderful is that?
Whatever secrets we have held back because we are
ashamed, our slate is wiped totally clean when we accept Jesus as our Saviour
with a repentant heart.
Now.
It is not just Paul’s responsibility to tell people
about Jesus it is also ours.
Paul is no longer on this earth and it is our
responsibilty as Christians to share Paul’s message and that of the whole
Christian Gospel as given to us in the New Testament.
I know this can be daunting for us usually but in this
country it is not yet a life and death matter to declare yourself a Christian
and to share your faith.
We don’t have to another Billy Graham but should be
ready to share the reason for our hope whenever we are asked.
If we go about our lives expecting God to provide
those opportunities He will see to it they arise.
In some countries in this current age to be a
Christian, let alone share your faith, can be very deadly.
Now:
We come back to our standing with God because of
Jesus.
“Christ has brought you into the very presence of God,
and you are standing there before him with nothing left against you—nothing
left that he could even chide you for;”
“nothing left that he could even chide you for;”
Nothing is hidden from God about our behaviour and yet
if we have Jesus as our Saviour we receive God’s total pardon.
As Paul says though,in Romans, that because we are
pardoned it is not a reason for us to just go on sinning to our heart’s
content.
“6 1.Well then,
shall we keep on sinning so that God can keep on showing us more and more
kindness and forgiveness?
2-3 Of course not! Should we keep on
sinning when we don’t have to? For sin’s power over us was broken when we
became Christians and were baptized to become a part of Jesus Christ; through
his death the power of your sinful nature was shattered. 4 Your
old sin-loving nature was buried with him by baptism when he died; and when God
the Father, with glorious power, brought him back to life again, you were given
his wonderful new life to enjoy.
5 For you have become a part of him,
and so you died with him, so to speak, when he died;[a] and now you share his new life and shall
rise as he did. 6 Your old evil desires were nailed to the
cross with him; that part of you that loves to sin was crushed and fatally
wounded, so that your sin-loving body is no longer under sin’s control, no
longer needs to be a slave to sin;”
We no longer need to be
slaves to sin.
We
read this wonderful passage in Romans 8
Romans
8Living Bible (TLB)
“8 So there is now
no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 For
the power of the life-giving Spirit—and this power is mine through Christ
Jesus—has freed me from the vicious circle of sin and death.”
How wonderful to be raised in newness of life with Jesus.
To become a brand new person.
Hopefully most of us here know the new life that Jesus
brings and have been growing in that new life for many years.
If not ,well, it’s not too late to enter into God’s amazing
secret that really is not a secret.
Is
there someone in your life you are able to share this wonderful secret with?
A
secret that isn’t a secret anymore.
A
secret that anyone can know the answer to.
And this is the secret: Christ in your hearts is
your only hope of glory.”
It’s hard to understand
what it means, “Christ in our Hearts.”
It doesn’t mean our
physical heart but in the place where our spirit resides.
This is where Jesus wants
to reside.
Praise God that He does and
He is our hope..
