"Together with one Voice" by Geoff Thompson

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.

Living Bible (TLB)

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.

See about this here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cSrqRdlFeo&list=PLIwb3xq_rxx2pBpsKZEvr8JTPC5dW_jSh&index=3&t=180s 

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

 

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Don’t miss the music in your walk with God!

 I had the privilege once again this last Sunday of leading the Parkrose Village United Congregation in worship.

Call to Worship:Romans 8:28. KJV
 "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." 

The sermon was based on readings from the book of Job. 


Don’t miss the music in your walk with God!

In today’s reading from Job we have some really interesting dialogue between Job and God.

For some background reading I have been looking at a bible study book by Charles Swindoll on the Book of Job and also a book called where was God on September 11.
I also watched Charles  deliver a sermon on the book of Job  on youtube to some newly commencing seminary students.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxwPenSSh7Q

What I am doing today will be nowhere as in depth as Charles Swindoll.
Job was a man who the devil asked of God permission to wreck Job’s life to test out how faithful Job really was.
How can we understand that?

We read these words at the start of the book.

Job 1 Living Bible (TLB) The reality that we have an adversary, the devil.

1 There lived in the land of Uz a man named Job—a good^[a] man who feared God and stayed away from evil. ^2-3 He had a large family of seven sons and three daughters and was immensely wealthy,^[b] for he owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 teams of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and employed many servants. He was, in fact, the richest cattleman in that entire area.

⁴ Every year when Job’s sons had birthdays, they invited their brothers and sisters to their homes for a celebration. On these occasions they would eat and drink with great merriment. ⁵ When these birthday parties ended—and sometimes they lasted several days—Job would summon his children to him and sanctify them, getting up early in the morning and offering a burnt offering for each of them. For Job said, “Perhaps my sons have sinned and turned away from God^[c] in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.
⁶ One day as the angels^[d] came to present themselves before the Lord, Satan, the Accuser, came with them.
⁷ “Where have you come from?” the Lord asked Satan.
And Satan replied, “From earth, where I’ve been watching everything that’s going on.”
⁸ Then the Lord asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth—a good man^[e] who fears God and will have nothing to do with evil.”
⁹ “Why shouldn’t he when you pay him so well?” Satan scoffed. ¹⁰ “You have always protected him and his home and his property from all harm. You have prospered everything he does—look how rich he is! No wonder he ‘worships’ you! ¹¹ But just take away his wealth, and you’ll see him curse you to your face!”
^12-13 And the Lord replied to Satan, “You may do anything you like with his wealth, but don’t harm him physically.”

How can we understand a passage like this?

Nonetheless tragedy as a result came on Job’s wealth and his household.

God’s goodness and justice

The whole book of Job tells us of the struggle Job had to stay loyal and worshipful to His God in spite of great personal loss.
He had  3 well meaning friends who gave him lots of so called good advice.
They accused him of being a sinner that he must have brought God’s judgement on himself.

When we are going through tough times there are often people willing to give us a theory or a solution to our problems.
They mean well but often all we really need is a friend,

a friend who listens and is also willing to be there for us no matter how much we might annoy them with our problems. 

Many great theologians and writers have commented on the problem of suffering and pain.
I don’t intend to do much on that today but just to say how sometimes we question God, and that’s a good thing, but in reality He is trustworthy and can manipulate our circumstances as we trust Him.

It is ok to get angry with God I must say.
He wants us to go to Him with where we are at.
Who we really are?
Just as we are.
He just wants us to be honest with Him.
Not to try and cover up our flaws.
When we do that is when we can start to fully realise the grace of God in our lives.
Just a couple of things from today’s Bible reading.

God’s Sovereignty “there is nothing He cannot do”.
God really pressed home the importance to Job of who He, God really was and His nature and Sovereignty.

God to Job

² “Why are you using your ignorance to deny my providence? ³ Now get ready to fight, for I am going to demand some answers from you, and you must reply.
⁴ “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much. ⁵ Do you know how its dimensions were determined, and who did the surveying? ^6-7 What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
³⁴ Can you shout to the clouds and make it rain? ³⁵ Can you make lightning appear and cause it to strike as you direct it?
³⁶ “Who gives intuition and instinct?^{[a] 37-38} Who is wise enough to number all the clouds? Who can tilt the water jars of heaven, when everything is dust and clods? ^39-40 Can you stalk prey like a lioness, to satisfy the young lions’ appetites as they lie in their dens or lie in wait in the jungle? ⁴¹ Who provides for the ravens when their young cry out to God as they try to struggle up from their nest in hunger?"

God is in control of everything,

even Satan.

He created our world and everything in it.

His ways are beyond human comprehension.

We might never fathom the reasons behind our own suffering or that of others while on this earth.

Yet he does offer us Himself-

His presence,

Comfort

 and love.

In the form of Jesus ,His only son who died on the cross for us. 

Who defeated death on the cross and became the personification of our sin and became our substitutionary
sacrifice.

Job suffered terribly and yet  through it all he stood firm.

This was his final statement to God.

42 Then Job replied to God:

² “I know that you can do anything and that no one can stop you. ³ You ask who it is who has so foolishly denied your providence. It is I. I was talking about things I knew nothing about and did not understand, things far too wonderful for me.
⁴ “You said,^[a] ‘Listen and I will speak! Let me put the questions to you! See if you can answer them!’
⁵ “But now I say,^[b] ‘I had heard about you before, but now I have seen you, ⁶ and I loathe myself and repent in dust and ashes.’”

If we really saw ourselves as we really are we might loathe ourselves also but how fortunate we live in the age of Grace and can repent of our sin and come to Jesus. 

When we do God sees us as made perfect in Him.

We are told that Job had all his life restored to him in more than the fullness he had experienced before the devil went to work.

There are 5 things in conclusion that Chuck Swindoll came up with.

1.  “There is nothing God cannot do.”

2.  “It is impossible to frustrate God’s Purpose”

3.  “God’s overall plan is beyond our ability to grasp”

(we do see glimpses of it but as we read in 1 Corinthians 13, "Now we see through a glass darkly, but then we shall see Him face to face") 

4.  “Our best response is to humble ourselves and rest in our father’s will”
(There is a chorus we learned years ago that goes like this: 
      "The Lord has a will,
And I have a need
To follow that will,
To humbly be still,
To rest in it,
Nest in it,
Fully be blessed in it,
Following my Father's will."

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5.  “Don’t miss the music in your walk with God”

In my conclusion Job had said these words earlier in

Job 19

²⁵ “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he will stand upon the earth at last. ²⁶ And I know that after this body has decayed, this body shall see God!^{[a] 27} Then he will be on my side! Yes, I shall see him, not as a stranger, but as a friend! What a glorious hope!”

What a glorious hope indeed!

And even more so when we can know Him before we die!

The words “I know my redeemer lives” are an integral part of arguably the most beautiful music in Christianity.

Handel's  "Messiah".

Out of the suffering of Job and those words Handel was inspired to give us such uplifting music.

I had given this sermon the title “don’t miss the music in your walk with God”.

I love to study Theology and the great theological questions.

Study the Bible.

What is it saying to me.

At this stage of life many of us here,
 we have probably done a fair bit of Bible study
 and pondering over things.

The whys and wherefores.

Why did this happen to me?

Why am I Here in this Nursing Home.

It is normal to do those things I guess.

But if we don’t understand everything, 

I certainly don’t, 

then we should not get hung up too much on our 
un-answered questions.

We are ministered to wonderfully here each week by our musicians, 
Kay,Marilyn and Lesley, 

Barry when he sings and Peter when he plays his guitar and sings and others from time to time.

Also in the midweek hymn singing and service and "singing with Stevie".
Music is a wonderful gift that God has given us.
As we sing praises to God we can be lifted right up to the heavenlies.
Lifted out of our current worries.

Pain and suffering is a problem, but we know our redeemer lives. 

I don’t pretend this is a subject where we have all the answers.

Just this week we have been reminded as a family just how challenging life is when start to talk about suffering.
An incredibly hard time for a family we know of and it has been for some time.

They lost their 11 year old daughter after years of suffering from an at this stage incurable condition. 

When we are in these situations , 

where can we turn to but to God?

There is no one else who can comfort us and give us hope.




Shall we enjoy some more of the music as we sing our final hymn.

Let God minister to us as we sing, "This is my Father's world"


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