This is the message I brought to the Parkrose Village congregation on 9/12/19.
The final delivery was slightly different.
Romans 15:4-13 Living Bible (TLB)
4 These
things that were written in the Scriptures so long ago are to teach us patience
and to encourage us so that we will look forward
expectantly to the time when God will conquer sin and death.
5 May God who gives
patience, steadiness, and encouragement help you to live in complete harmony
with each other—each with the attitude of Christ toward the other. 6 And then all of us can praise the Lord together with one
voice, giving glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
7 So
warmly welcome each other into the church, just as Christ has warmly welcomed
you; then God will be glorified. 8 Remember that Jesus Christ came to show that God is true to
his promises and to help the Jews. 9 And remember that he came
also that the Gentiles might be saved and give glory to God for his mercies to
them. That is what the psalmist meant when he wrote: “I will praise you among
the Gentiles and sing to your name.”
10 And
in another place, “Be glad, O you Gentiles, along with his people the
Jews.”
11 And
yet again, “Praise the Lord, O you Gentiles; let everyone praise him.”
12 And
the prophet Isaiah said, “There shall be an Heir in the house of Jesse, and he
will be King over the Gentiles; they will pin their hopes on him alone.”
13 So I pray for
you Gentiles that God who gives you hope will keep you happy and full of peace
as you believe in him. I pray that God will help you overflow with hope in him
through the Holy Spirit’s power within you.
The
Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission
of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights
reserved.
SERMON
“Together with one Voice”
We had this from today’s reading.
5 May God who gives patience, steadiness, and encouragement
help you to live in complete harmony with each other—each with the attitude of
Christ toward the other.
6 And then all of us can praise the Lord together
with one voice, giving glory to God, the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
This might not sound like a very challenging sermon title
but I can assure you it is.
I hope that today we realise and we see the need to be
together in one voice and to have the attitude of Jesus towards each other.
Last Friday night there was a wonderful thing happened at
the Parkrose Nursing home. The management had organised a Christmas Carol night
for all the residents.
Some of us helped in the music department.
It was a wonderful evening of singing and praising God
and a time of goodwill amongst all who were there.
Staff, residents and volunteers. Even the CEO.
Now not everyone there would have been Christians but the
Holy Spirit was definitely there in creating a wonderful time of harmony and
goodwill.
During the year amongst all those people , I can
guarantee, not all has been a bed of roses.
But last Friday night there was a pause in any animosity
with each other.
If you don’t take home anything else from today remember
how at Christmas when Jesus is given the pre eminence, goodwill prevails. This
means we let Jesus rule our hearts.
The secret is we need to do this in our lives all day long.
Have you ever heard someone say to you “we need to be
together on the same page”.
That’s probably a not so subtle suggestion that says,
“you don’t agree with me but you should!”
“and what’s
more, you are wrong!”
That flies in the face of being together with one
voice doesn’t it?
What about our politicians who can’t get on with each
other even in the same party?
The backstabbing, the overthrow of one Prime Minister
after another.
But really most of the time we are no better than
them.
Not on the world stage but in the circles of our own
lives.
The universal problem of mankind is that very quickly
we can disagree with others,
we can dislike them,
we can find
fault,
we can get angry.
We can be so angry that we go to war with some other
country.
At its worse level anger is behind murder and crime.
Of course there are lots of people we think are just
marvellous.
But sometimes it’s funny that they too
can fall out of
our favour with us,
when we find
out they are not quite what we thought they were.
We change our minds about them.
Why does his happen so often?
Why do we form opinions about people?
Why do we think “they””they” should know better?
Do we have a right to judge others?
As Christians how should we conduct ourselves in our
relationships?
To our fellow Christians,
and to those
who don’t share our beliefs?
Should we be different in this regard to those who
aren’t Christians?
Or should we treat everybody the same regardless of
their views?
If someone treats us very shabbily, how should we
react to that?
Do we turn the other cheek?
Do we confront them?
Tell them off?
Do we even give it a second thought as to what we
should do as Christians?
I am raising a lot of questions here aren’t I?
A great guide for us is that well known saying
“What would Jesus do?”
When we examine what He did as told to us in the NT,
there were very few times where He said anything in anger.
On the few occasions He did some would call that
righteous anger!
Do we have a right to righteous anger?
We read this earlier.
5 May God who gives patience, steadiness, and encouragement
help you to live in complete harmony with each other—each with the attitude of
Christ toward the other.
Let’s look at some of those words. 4 of them.
1. Patience.
If we learn patience we can learn to be
slow to speak,
slow to act.
Slow to react.
Patience allows time for us to think clearly what our
response should be.
This surely is an antidote to a quick temper.
Sometimes of course we can have a simmering slow
passive anger that can build up to make ourselves a mess.
2 Steadiness.
Here is a definition of steady.
(of a person) sensible, reliable, and self-restrained: eg. a solid, steady
young man.
not faltering or wavering; controlled
If we are Christians we are
to be filled with God’s Spirit.
To be filled with God’s
Spirit really means to be controlled by the Holy Spirit.
And if we are then we will
exhibit the fruits of the spirit.
Galatians
5:22-23 New International Version (NIV)
22 But
the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such
things there is no law.
3 encouragement and help
God encourages us through
fellowship with other Christians, their wise counsel, and also by His Holy
Spirit.
The Helper is one of His names.
If we are Christians He will
be living within our spirits and if we listen He will help and counsel us.
Of course if we have
Christian friends who are letting God’s Holy Spirit control them from within they
will be able to give us wise counsel.
4 the attitude of Christ toward the other
We should have the same attitude as Jesus would.
Isn’t that saying “What would
Jesus do?”
Are you getting the drift of
this?
Are we being drawn into
answering these questions?
One of the things that has
helped me the most is this simple but profound thought.
The need to give up my right to myself.
(Jesus could have struck down his tormentors but He
chose to ignore the right or power to do that.)
The need to give up my right to myself.
You might say that I couldn’t
do that.
I am not going to let someone
walk all over me.
Actually when you do give up
the right to yourself in God’s strength that won’t be your experience.
Paul says, “If it is
possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans
12:18).
Let’s listen to some of
Oswald Chambers from “My utmost for His Highest”
Those who are Christ’s
have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. —Galatians 5:24
“Those who are
Christ’s have crucified the flesh….” The cost to your natural life is not just
one or two things, but everything. Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself…”
(Matthew 16:24). That is, he must deny his right to
himself, and he must realize who Jesus
Christ is before he will bring himself to do it.
So if we do these things.
Realise we need to be looking at
and willing to sacrifice our natural instincts and reactions,
our self righteousness,
that’s when we can learn to
live in harmony as our passage suggests.
In harmony with those who are
with us and with those who are against us.
“6 And then all of us can praise the Lord together
with one voice, giving glory to God, the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ.”
We
need to live in harmony with our fellow Christians and also people who aren’t
Christians.
The
Bible teaches us they will know we are Christians by our Love.
What is the clue, the common denominator, to being together with one voice?
Jesus!
(The truce
of Christmas in 1914 war)
I spoke briefly about this.
How Jesus brought soldiers to a truce on Christmas day 1914.
Just one final word that I read some years ago that
has stuck with me.
"If we see where some Christian brother or sister is failing it is not ours to criticise and condemn but to intercede on their behalf."
So as we move through this Christmas season, let’s
endeavour to bring the message of our Saviour,
our living Saviour,
the reality of His presence
in our daily living,
so that we can know peace and harmony with our fellow
men and women.
And let’s continue to do this well beyond the Christmas
season.
OOS Sunday 08/12/19 at Parkrose.
Welcome: Geoff
Call
to Worship: Psalm 72:18-19 (KJV)
Hymn: “O come
all ye faithful” 89 4v
Announcements:
Hymn: “Never in all human story” 96 3v
Communion
Offering
Church Prayer
Bible Reading: Romans 15:4-13 Living
Bible (TLB)
Hymn: “Kindred in Christ” 250 4v
Sermon: “together with one voice”
Hymn: “Love came down at Christmas” 95 3v
Benediction
Vesper: Now unto Him
Cuppa time
