Gosnells Christian Reformed Church Podcast

You’ve probably seen it on the side of the big cardboard box that your latest toy or treasure came in – ‘Handle with Care’? Whatever’s in the box is breakable, fragile, valuable – you need to treat it with respect. How do you feel when someone doesn’t Handle it with Care? We don’t take that very well, do we? This Psalm says that the whole world is God’s; and everything in it. With that being the case, shouldn’t we Handle it with care? Shouldn’t we treat it the way God wants us to?

This is the last sermon in the ‘Order of Salvation’ series that we started a couple of months ago in Ro 8:28-30. Tonight we look at sanctification. It’s another step we play a part in, between God justifying us, and glorifying us. Paul says here that it’s like taking off a filthy set of workclothes after a hard day in the dirt and the dust and the grime; jumping in the shower and having our minds washed; and then putting on a new set of clothes, suited for the kingdom of heaven.

Love is big business, isn’t it? Every second song on the radio is about love or lust. Nearly every movie has a love interest, even if it has nothing to do with the plot. How many ads don’t use love or lust to try to sell you something? And maybe we shouldn’t be too surprised. Love is at the heart of our culture, because love is at the heart of everything. God has wired us for love. God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son. The greatest command is that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength; and the 2nd greatest command is that we love our neighbor as ourselves. And Jesus reinforces that by calling us to love each other as he has loved us.

This sermon is part of a series of sermons in which we look at various elements of the worship service. In this service we look at the joy of confessing our sins. This part of our worship service can easily become just a tradition. It should not be. The joy we experience in Christ is directly related to the depth of our humility before God. The more we understand the depth of our sin, the greater our joy in Christ will be.

The book of Acts is the story of the ascended Jesus taking the gospel from Jerusalem, into the surrounding country, and to the ends of the earth, by his Holy Spirit, through his church. This passage is especially significant for many of us. This was when Jesus took the gospel, for the very first time, into Europe. Lydia is the first European recorded to have ever accepted the gospel. And for 2000 years now, the gospel has ebbed and flowed in Europe to one degree or another; and gone out from there especially to Nth America and Australia. Now in our day, Jesus is especially taking it into the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Sth America.

Prayer’s an amazing thing, isn’t it? We simply close our eyes and address God in Jesus’ name, and we stand before God’s throne, praising him, asking him for the things we need and the needs of the world. Here, Jesus turns to our material needs. Jesus represents them here as daily bread. Things we’re all very familiar with, that we need every day – food, drink, money, transport, education, work, family, friends. Jesus, in his ministry years, was concerned about our daily material needs. And our Heavenly Father is just as concerned about all these things as well.

What do you think is the ultimate problem facing the human race today? Deuteronomy paints a picture of a perfect world where people love God and live in community with one another. Through Moses God restates the terms of the covenant with Israel in an effort realize that kind of perfect world. But with the reality of sin and covenant curses to contend with, the picture might look hopeless were it not for God’s amazing provision. We are not left to our own devices to keep the covenant. God says he “will circumcise our hearts.” (v.6) This is the solution to the problem we all face. With circumcised hearts we can love, obey and live for God! And that makes all the difference. Do we slip up, sin and break the covenant? Yes, but our hearts remain resilient and cling to God more and more as He reveals himself as the gracious covenant Partner.

What is your prayer life like? Why do you pray? Do you ever find yourself praying in a group hoping to impress the others? Or sometimes find yourself mistaking quantity for quality? I’ve notice with our kids, when they get to around 5 years old, they move from praying little set prayers we give them, to praying their own words. They get engrossed in praying for every possible thing they can think of, but then settle into a rut of saying the same words every prayer. At each stage we need to help them think about why they’re praying, and what they’re praying, and help them grow and develop in their prayer life. And sometimes it’s good for us to ask ourselves these questions too, so that we don’t stagnate in our prayer life; so we grow, so we develop.

What does it mean to covet? It mightn’t be a word that you actually use all that often. Maybe it helps to know that the word is generally translated ‘desire’ or ‘delight in’. To covet something is to desire it; to delight in it. And there’s nothing wrong with desiring, or delighting in the right things. So the Bible often uses it in a positive sense. The problems start when we desire someone else’s things – someone else’s wife, house, things. Then we’re in trouble. That’s coveting.

What does it mean to covet? It mightn’t be a word that you actually use all that often. Maybe it helps to know that the word is generally translated ‘desire’ or ‘delight in’. To covet something is to desire it; to delight in it. And there’s nothing wrong with desiring, or delighting in the right things. So the Bible often uses it in a positive sense. The problems start when we desire someone else’s things – someone else’s wife, house, things. Then we’re in trouble. That’s coveting.

This is one of those pivotal moments in the advance of the gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. Jesus transforms Saul from being disciple-persecutor to gospel-proclaimer. Humanly speaking, if it wasn’t for this event, Europe might not have become steeped in Christian teaching and tradition as we know it; Australia might never have received the gospel influence it has today. We can be very thankful to God for what he did here.

The gospel takes on a deeper understanding in this final farewell speech of Moses. We learn more about the liberating grace of God that calls us to covenant faithfulness. As Israel is about to enter the Promised Land, Moses restates the terms of the covenant which God has made with their forefathers. These are terms which have been spelt out with greater clarity throughout the book of Deuteronomy. All along Moses has been saying there are blessings that come with obedience and curses that result from disobedience. A careful reading of chapter 28 reveals the extent of that. But this covenant is no ordinary partnership. We discover the origin of the covenant that God made with Abraham is very gracious (Genesis 15). Amazingly at the core of understanding the whole Bible and the gospel in particular, is God Himself who fulfils the terms of the covenant perfectly. He has come in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ to give the blessings and receive in Himself the curses. It is the Covenant of Grace. Now

Capital punishment is getting harder and harder to find around the world. There was a time when most countries practiced it, but today only 58 still do, with 97 having abolished it. One of the reasons is that too many people on death row have been later found to be innocent, and released. And some have actually died for crimes that they were later shown to be innocent of. It helps you realize just how important this 9th commandment is.

The early church described in Acts 2 and 4 was one that practiced spiritual and practical care for each other. And faithful churches have tried to do the same ever since. So how can we practice that in detail today? One guide is the ‘one another’ passages in the NT. And this passage has 3 of them. God calls us here to love; to cling to what is good; and to do that in relation to God and each other.