Author: The Christian Campus

Sunday, 14 June 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.  (Matthew 5:6)

We saw last time that the mark of a true Christian is not that he feels righteous, but that he longs to be more righteous than he is. When it comes to righteousness, the blessed people are not those who think they have it, but those who feel their need of it.

The person who is blessed is one who has become poor in spirit. He mourns over his sins. He has become submissive to the will of God, and out of that comes a great hunger and thirst for God and for righteousness.

Aren’t you glad that Jesus did not say: “Blessed are the righteous, for they will be satisfied”? Where would that leave us? Nobody would be included, because none of us would be in that category.

Thank God he said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…” It is not the realization of the desire, but the desire itself that Christ pronounces blessed. If this desire is in you it is the realization that Christ is in you.

Righteousness and regulations

Just think about the professions in which so many of you serve; banking, law, teaching, finance, medicine, construction, manufacturing, the caring professions, insurance, and property development, etc. Every one of these worlds has its own world of complexity. Each one gives rise to a whole series of ethical questions.

Where are the boundaries between legitimate competition and destructive aggression? Where is the line between using the systems that are in place in your profession and manipulating them? Where is the line between appropriate reward and raw self-interest?

In any line of business there are some people who need to be restrained, lest they exploit others. That is why we have so many regulations. In every profession we have more and more regulations, endless documents, processes and procedures to be followed.

But every law that is passed has more loopholes than their authors ever imagined, and human ingenuity will always find them. “Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil” (John 3:19). We should never be surprised when sinners choose to sin, if we’ve understood and embraced what the Bible says.

What hope is there for righteousness in the business where you work? Only one, and that hope is that some people will hunger and thirst for it, that some people will actually choose it, not because of regulation, but because they actually want it.

Think of the impact if there were some people at every level of the business or profession where you serve who really hunger and thirst for righteousness. Imagine if instead of asking, “What’s in it for me?” people would begin to ask, “What would honour God and be good for others, as well as for me?” Ask God to make you that kind of person.

To these people who hunger and thirst for righteousness, Jesus says immediately after He gave the Beatitudes in the sermon on the Mount; “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world”

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall it’s saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” (Matthew 5:13-14).

This hunger and thirst for righteousness is of huge importance in every area of life. Today we’re asking the question: “How can I cultivate this hunger and thirst for righteousness?”

Appetite can be cultivated

Someone once said: “Hunger is natural, appetite can be cultivated.” We saw last time that the new nature hungers and thirsts for righteousness. This hunger is natural to a person who has been born again by the Spirit of God.

Appetite can and should be cultivated. You can learn to like and enjoy things that at one time you had no taste for. Paul said to Timothy, “Train yourself for godliness” (1 Timothy 4:7). “Timothy, there are certain things you can do that can help you advance in godliness.”

If you know of someone who survived a major heart attack, who by God’s kindness and grace made a good recovery, and ask him about his experience.

He most probably would say it felt “like an elephant sitting on my chest.” Then ask him what he liked to eat before his heart attack: “Burgers, chips, pizza, and ice cream.” He will also tell you that after the illness doctors told him to completely change his diet: “Low fat, low sodium, vegetables, fish, chicken (grilled, not fried) and some rice.” That will ask for a challenging change of lifestyle.

If you ask the person how he copes with the change, he probably would say: “At first it all seemed bland and tasteless, but after a while I thought: ‘This is not so bad.’ I felt better, and I had more energy.” Ask him about the burgers; “I don’t miss them as much as I thought. When I do, I think about the elephant sitting on my chest. Burgers and chips still smell good, but when I tried a few chips, they gave me a stomach ache. I discovered that my whole appetite has changed.”

A change of diet led to a change of appetite. We are using food here as an analogy, because Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” The point we making is that appetite can be cultivated. Change your diet and you will change your appetite.

If you’re new or connect for the first time to this church, you may have noticed that this congregation has a great appetite for the Word of God. Where did that come from? The appetite came from the diet. A congregation that has been feeding on the Word of God for years has an appetite to know more of God.

Regular diet shapes appetite over time

This is true whatever the diet happens to be: Feed a congregation entertainment, and you will create an appetite for entertainment. Feed a congregation pop psychology, and the church will have a great hunger and thirst for pop psychology. Feed a congregation the Word of God, and over time there will be a church with a great hunger and thirst for God.

Diet shapes appetite over time. This is a fundamental principle. You will want more of whatever you feed yourself on. So, that means we want to choose our diet very carefully.

Think about a young person who is really into computer games. Let’s call him Jake. Jake loves these games. He buys them, he plays them, he talks about them, he thinks about them, dreams about them. In the course of a week, he will spend twenty or more hours on the games, and still he has an appetite for more.

If someone asks him, “Jake, what are you doing with your life?” Jake doesn’t really know: He goes to class, does his job, hangs out with his friends, and does his thing with the games. His days are in large measure defined by his appetite, and his appetite is fed by his diet.

Most people have moments when we ask, “Is this really the best that I can do with my life? Could I not make better use of it?” But then these moments of insight fade away, and we settle back into the routine and the diet that we knew before.

What appetites are shaping your life? What is the diet that shaped them?

You like to work out? You like to sleep? You like to watch sports? Read? Watch lots of movies? There’s nothing wrong with any of these.

But here’s the question: Are the legitimate pleasures of my life holding me back from becoming all that Christ calls me to be? Is my appetite for God being diminished by my hunger and thirst for other things?

The best way to subdue any appetite is to cultivate a stronger appetite that will take its place. So how can I cultivate a desire for holiness? How can I have a greater appetite for God and for righteousness?

Five Strategies for Cultivating a Godly Appetite

Gain momentum from the first three Beatitudes

By this stage in the series, you might have guessed that this would be the first point, so we will deal with it briefly. And it is too important to miss!

The Beatitudes are progressive. Each Beatitude assumes the ones that have gone before. You can’t just hunger and thirst for righteousness, you have to start from the beginning. We’ve pictured them like rings that are reached by the momentum you gain from swinging on the previous ones.

This doesn’t mean you have to spend a week being poor in spirit and a month mourning over sins before you can move on. The momentum of realizing your poverty before God, seeing your own sins, and submitting yourself unconditionally to the will of God may happen all at once.

God may birth all of this in your heart with great power today. The point is simply that if progress is to be made, none of these elements, which we have pictured as rings, can be missing.

So, you can’t start at the fourth Beatitude and decide that you want to have a great hunger for holiness. But here’s the encouragement: If you become poor in spirit, mourn your sins, and submit your life to the will of God, you will find that a true hunger for righteousness springs from these roots.

Practice fasting from legitimate pleasures

“And calling the crowd to Him with His disciples, He said to them, ‘If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Mark 8:34)

One sure way to spoil your appetite is to snack between meals. If you snack on chips throughout the afternoon, you won’t have much appetite for dinner in the evening. The principle here is a very simple one: Restrict what spoils your appetite. Don’t snack between meals.

The point here is not that there is something wicked or sinful about a bag of chips, Doritos, Lays or popcorn, or what about biltong, all are good gifts from God. We’re talking about legitimate things here and not all will agree with me, but eating them at the wrong time and in the wrong amount will spoil your appetite.

Let’s apply that obvious principle from the world of the body to the world of the soul: Legitimate pleasures at the wrong time and in the wrong amount will spoil your appetite for holiness.

Legitimate pleasures can make you dull and sluggish in following after Christ. They can spoil your hunger and thirst to be all that you can be for God. Some of you can look back to a time in your life when you had a great passion to live all out for Jesus Christ. What happened? The appetite was spoiled by legitimate comforts and pleasures.

How do we keep the legitimate pleasures of life like sports, and travel, and hobbies, in their proper place? One answer is: By periodically fasting from legitimate pleasures. Fasting is a means of heightening self-control. It is a special gift that can be used to help you master something that otherwise might master you.

Suppose your diet has created an appetite for television or video games, and now you see that it’s your default pattern, holding you back from a more useful life. Take a month without television or computer games, or without golf, or six months without buying new clothes, or without leisure travel. Drop a sport for a semester. You’ll be surprised at the freedom it brings to you.

Fasting has the effect of cleansing out the body, and the same thing can happen in your soul by choosing to deny yourself a legitimate pleasure for a season. This is a great way to bring appetites that have become inordinate back under control.

Some Christians do this in the period at the beginning of the year. But why wait for the beginning of a year? Wean yourself off of the unhealthy appetites that are shaping your life.

Make yourself vulnerable to the needs of others

“Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness, for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:7-8)

How do you work up a good appetite? By getting some good exercise. Go for a brisk walk or a run, and when you come back, you find yourself ready for a good meal.

This is true when it comes to nourishing your soul. Extend yourself in serving others, stretch yourself out in meeting the needs of others, especially when you are serving others in great need, you will find that your hunger and thirst for righteousness will increase. Moving out of the comfort zone, to see to the needs of others. This will work up an appetite of thirst and hunger to do more in serving others, creating a willingness to do more. The less you do, the less you want to do!

Think about this in relation to our Lord: How did Christ practice this fourth Beatitude? He is the Righteous One. He has all righteousness in Himself. How could Jesus hunger and thirst for what He already had?

The answer lies in the incarnation. Jesus left the comforts of heaven and came into our world where righteousness had been lost. He humbled Himself and became a servant. He saw that the people were like sheep without a shepherd and His own heart was moved with compassion.

Make yourself vulnerable to the needs of others and your hunger and thirst for righteousness will increase. Simply seeing yourself as a Christian who needs to receive all the time will make you spiritually dull. But serving God and serving others will stimulate your spiritual appetite.

Let’s put these things together: Fast from some legitimate pleasure, at least for a time, and use the time, the energy, and the resources you gain from that to make yourself vulnerable to the needs of others.

Use your blessings and troubles as incentives to feed on Christ

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.” (John 6:47-51)

By faith we not only believe in the Lord Jesus Christ but we also feed on the Lord Jesus Christ, a nourishment to us. As you move through life, use these experiences as incentives to feed on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thomas Watson asks the question: How can we stimulate a spiritual appetite? Then, he says, think about what makes you eager to eat a meal. He offers two answers: 1. Exercise (that’s obvious). But his second answer caught you by surprise: “There are two things that provoke appetite. 1. Exercise 2. Sauce!”

What makes food more attractive? Sauce! This is the tomato sauce or tobacco moment. Let us now apply it in this way: God increases our hunger and thirst for righteousness by: The sweet sauce of our blessings, the sharp sauce of our troubles, and the hot sauce of our persecutions.

When blessing come learn to say, “God is so good, I want to know more of Him.” When troubles, difficulty or persecution come, learn to say,

“My flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:26).

Use your blessings, use your troubles, whether it be sweet sauce or whether it be hot sauce, as incentives to feed on Jesus Christ!

Trust Christ especially for your sanctification

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)

Some Christians feel they can trust Christ to forgive their sins, and they can trust Him to get them into heaven, but when it comes to becoming a better Christian, a more effective Christian, a more loving Christian, a Christian who is more like Jesus Christ, they feel completely hopeless.

They trust Christ for their justification and their glorification, but they do not trust Christ for their sanctification. Here’s my challenge to you: Think about Christ. He came to save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

Christ didn’t come just for the guilt of your sins or the consequence of your sins. He came to save you from your sins, and to deliver you from all that holds you back from a better life. What has He done?

He has triumphed over death and hell. He is seated at the right hand of the Father with all authority and power, and his Spirit lives in you. Christ is your righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

“And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

If you can trust Jesus Christ for forgiveness and if you can trust Him for entrance into heaven, why is it so difficult for you to trust Him to help you change by cultivating a new hunger and thirst for righteousness?

Hope is the key to all change

As long as you believe that change is beyond you, you will never change, because you won’t attempt to change. You won’t try to change, because you believe in the depth of your soul that any attempt will end in failure.

Somewhere deep inside, you believe that you will always be the same, that you can never be different, and without hope change never happens.

Let’s take a moment to shine the light of hope into the hearts of discouraged believers. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”. Why? Because “they will be satisfied”!

When you see Christ, you will be like Him (1 John 3:2). You’ve trusted Christ for this. Think what it will mean for you to be like Christ. Think of His wisdom, His compassion, His patience, His kindness, His righteousness, and His strength.

If you can trust Christ to complete His redeeming work in you then, why should you not trust Him to advance His redeeming work in you now? If you can trust Him to make you completely like Christ on the last day, why should you not trust Him to make you more like Christ on earth?

I’m inviting you today to trust Christ for your sanctification. This is where change begins, when you say, “There is hope for me to be a better person, to live a better life in Jesus Christ.” The person who knows that one day he will be fully like Jesus Christ purifies himself, even as Christ is pure.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God and for righteousness. They will not be disappointed.

Let us pray:

Father help us to go after a godlier life here and now on earth with everything that is within us, using every strategy and every opportunity. Shake us O Lord from this poor and half-hearted Christian life as if eternity is not looming. Grant us Father that hunger and thirst for You increases and Holy Spirit grow us to become more like our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, hasten the day when that hunger will be fully and finally satisfied in the presence of Jesus. And when we see Him, we will be fully like Him. Yes Lord, all through the grace of Jesus Christ the Righteous One in whose Name we pray, Amen.

https://youtu.be/dB2JH9Ser9I

Sunday, 14 June 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Matthew 5:6)

This fourth Beatitude is really a turning point in the series. The first three have been about our need, about our desperate position.

Blessed are the poor in spirit – being “poor in spirit” means I know that before God, I do not have what it takes. Blessed are those who mourn – I mourn because I see that my sins are many. They’ve been costly to me and to others, and most of all, they were unspeakably costly to Jesus Christ. Blessed are the meek – I grow in meekness because I see that God has not treated me as my sins deserve (Psalm 103). He has treated me with grace and kindness.

The first three Beatitudes are about seeing your own position. This fourth Beatitude moves us forward. It speaks about the desire that arises out of the work of the Holy Spirit in the first three Beatitudes. 

Roots-Life-Fruit pattern

There is a roots-life-fruit pattern to these Beatitudes: The first three Beatitudes deal with our need: We are poor in spirit because we do not have what it takes to live as God commands. We mourn because our sins are many. We become meek rather than self-willed and defiant, because we do not have the ability to direct our own lives wisely.

These are the roots of a godly life, and out of this awareness of our need, comes a deep longing for what we do not have: A hunger and thirst for righteousness and a desire to be like Christ, who is the Righteous One.

This is the life of godliness that springs from the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. The soul of a godly life is one that hunger and thirst after Jesus Christ and His righteousness. This life produces the beautiful fruit of mercy, purity of heart, and peace.

Then, there is an eighth Beatitude, which reminds us that the person who pursues this righteous life will not only be blessed by God but also be persecuted in this world.

Now, following our usual pattern, our aim today is to get inside what Christ is calling us to. What does it mean to hunger and thirst after righteousness? Then next time we will look at how we can pursue this.

A Relentless Pursuit

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”  (Matthew 5:6)

Hunger is more than a just an interest, it is an intense desire. A person who is really hungry will do almost anything to get food for his or her life depends on it. Hunger is the strongest of motives. It produces energy and it drives decisive action. It’s powerful.

This intense desire, this hunger and thirst for God, and this passion to pursue His righteousness is a hallmark of a true believer. Listen to how David put it:

“As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:1-2)

“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh faints for You, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1)

Think of the apostle Paul writing in the New Testament that is so striking after years of service in ministry towards the end of his life:

“Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and may be found in Him, nor having  righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteous from God that depends on faith – that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings…” (Philippians 3:10)

“I want to know Him,” as if he didn’t know Jesus already!

Let us look at three observations of hunger:

Three observations about hunger

Hunger is a sign of need

When you are hungry, your body is telling you something: It’s been too long since your last meal and you need to eat. Hunger indicates the absence of food in the body. It is the body’s awareness of its own need.

Jesus tells us that the ones who are blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. In other words, the blessed ones are not those who think they have righteousness, but those who feel they lack righteousness.

Here’s what it feels like to be a born-again believer: You don’t feel that you have arrived. You find yourself longing to be more like Christ than you currently are. You say, “I wish I was further along.”

Some people are confident of their own righteousness. The Pharisees were like that, but Jesus does not pronounce them “blessed.” The blessing does not belong to those who see themselves as paragons of virtue. The blessing is for those who see how far they have to go.

Other people are content in their sins. Jesus does not pronounce them “blessed” either. The blessing belongs to those who are not content to remain as they are, but have a strong desire to grow in righteousness. If that is you, Jesus says you are “blessed.”

Hunger is a sign of need, but also a sign of life.

Hunger is a sign of life 

Nobody teaches a new-born baby how to be hungry. They don’t need mentoring on this, where there’s life there’s hunger.

Spurgeon says: To hunger after righteousness is a sign of spiritual life. Nobody who was spiritually dead ever did this. If you hunger and thirst after righteousness, you are spiritually alive. 

When the Holy Spirit has changed our nature, that new nature hungers and thirsts after righteousness. The old nature never did, never could, and never would do so. The flesh never hungers after righteousness. It wants to go and sin. If you hunger for righteousness, thank God for it.

Hunger is a sign of need, a sign of life and also a sign of health.

 Hunger is a sign of health

A healthy appetite is a good sign that a person is well. But if a person loses his appetite, it is usually a sign that something is wrong. Apply this spiritually: If you have a deep longing to grow in Christ, that’s a good statement about your spiritual health. The sign of spiritual health is not to feel that you’ve arrived, but to have a great longing for more.

The mark of a true believer is that he never feels he has arrived at a righteous life. What does he do? He hungers and thirsts for righteousness. And this hunger is a sure sign of spiritual need, spiritual life and spiritual health.

Out of a relentless pursuit flows a holy passion.

A Holy Passion

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

All of us are involved in a quest for satisfaction. The great question is: Where will you find it? What do you think will satisfy you? Whatever you think will satisfy you, will become the great pursuit of your life!

If you think that satisfaction is to be found in achievement, then achievement will become the consuming passion of your life. If you feel that satisfaction will be found in leisure or retirement, then leisure and retirement will become the consuming passion of your life.

What do you think will give you real satisfaction? Is it being loved? Is it being appreciated? Is it to get revenge, to achieve a certain goal or position? Whatever you think will satisfy you, will become the consuming passion of your life.

Jesus tells us that there is one desire, and only one, that will be satisfied: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.” Why? Because they will “be satisfied”.

Here is the question: Is this what Christians today are looking for? Is this what we Christians want from God, or are we after something else?

 If you go into a Christian bookstore, you’ll see what those who profess to be Christians are looking for; happy families; great leadership, prophecies, growing churches, etc.

But what about righteousness? What do we know about hungering and thirsting for this? You will not find ten books on the pursuit of a righteous life in the Christian bookstore.

We want to be blessed, but Jesus does not say that we are righteous, if we hunger and thirst to be blessed. He says we are blessed, if we hunger and thirst to be righteous. Do you see how easy it is, even for Christians, to get this the wrong way around?

If someone asked you the question, “Why did Jesus die?”, there are many answers you could give that are faithful to the Bible. He died so that we might be forgiven. He died so that we might have eternal life. But if you look at the great statements of Christ’s death in the Bible, you will find that God places something else at the centre.

Here are three of the greatest statements about the atonement in the New Testament. All of them tell us what Christ did and why He did it:

“He [Christ] died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Corinthians 5:15)

“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:24)

“For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) 

The purpose of the passion of Jesus Christ is that we should have a passion for righteousness. Christ died to redeem a people who no longer live for themselves, but who live with a passion for holiness.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

 What do you know of this mighty longing after God? Is this passion growing in you, or has it been receding?

In this hunger there is also a strange paradox.

A Strange Paradox

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”  (Matthew 5:6)

The paradox that our Lord is talking about is hungering and being satisfied at the same time. How are we to understand this? When you feel hungry, you eat a meal, and when you have eaten you are satisfied. The food takes the hunger away, at least for a time. When you are satisfied, you are no longer hungry. But Jesus speaks of hunger and a satisfaction that exist together at the same time.

A. W. Pink says: Can one who has been brought into vital union with Him who is the Bread of Life, be found still hungering and thirsting? Yes, such is the experience of the renewed heart.

M. Lloyd Jones says: The Christian is one who at one and the same time is hungering and thirsting, and yet he is filled. And the more he is filled, the more he hungers and thirsts. That is the blessedness of the Christian life. It goes on.

This is the dynamic of the Christian life, and nobody has spoken of this more compellingly than A. W. Tozer: To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love.

Godly men and women have found joy in this mystery through the ages.  Paul says, I want to be found in Christ “not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith…” Why? That I may know Him!

“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death” (Philippians 3:9-10).

When we see Christ, we will be like Him. But where does that truth take the believer?

“Beloved we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He (Christ) is pure” (1 John 3:2-3)

The distinguishing mark of those who are righteous in Christ is that they long for righteousness. They are not people who sit around saying, “I made a decision twenty-five years ago.”

Is this you? Do you feel your need for righteousness? Has God awakened in your heart a great desire to be holy, a longing to be done with sin?

If this is the desire of your heart, you can be sure that you are a Christian. It is an “unfake-able” hallmark. But if this is not true of you, then I pray that God will use this to waken you up.

A Glorious Prospect

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

Choose the wrong thirsts, you will never, never be satisfied. Hell is a place of unending hungers and thirsts, where the soul is always being destroyed, because it can never be fulfilled. But Jesus says, the people who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed, because they will be satisfied.

What will it be like when the people of God are before the throne of God?

“They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore for the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water.” (Revelation 7:16-17).

God’s people will be satisfied, because Christ will give them the righteousness that they seek. This is the great promise of the Gospel!

“And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,” (1 Corinthians 1:30).

Jeremiah, thinking of the Last Day, says the people of God will give Jesus this Name: “The Lord our righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:6), and here’s what that means: If you are in Christ and Christ is in you, the hunger and thirst for righteousness that is in you will be satisfied.

The holiness begun in you in this life, will be complete in you in the presence of Jesus, and you will sin no more. When you see Christ, you will be like Him (1 John 3). Sin will no longer be in you, or in the people around you. There will be a new heaven and a new earth; it will be the home of righteousness, and all who hungered and thirsted for righteousness will be there.

Is that you? I plead with you, ask yourself: “Do I have this desire for righteousness? What do I know of this all-consuming passion? Is holiness the great quest of my life? Or have I substituted this for something else? What have I put in its place?”

Ask yourself, “Is there anything in me like the spirit in David when he said that his soul longed for God, or like Paul, when he said he was pressing on to know Christ?” Does that Spirit lives in me?

If the message today makes you feel your own need, then thank God! It is the Holy Spirit who is working in you. I invite you to come to Jesus Christ today: “Come everyone who thirsts, come to the waters” (Isaiah 55:1). Come to the One who is the bread of life, the living water.

If you have any hunger for righteousness at all, it is Christ who is provoking this, who is awakening this in you. He does not do this to mock you. He does this so that you will receive. He creates a hunger, a thirst for righteousness in you, so that you may be satisfied for all eternity.

Can we close with a prayer from A. W. Tozer? It is a heart-cry for holiness, the response of a heart with a deep longing for God. Will you make this prayer your own today?

Let us pray:

O God, I have tasted Your goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want You. I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made thirstier still. Show me Your glory, I pray that I may know You indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul ‘Rise up my love and come away.’ Then give me the grace to rise and follow You, up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Sunday 07 June 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

We continue in the Blessed Series as we look at the Beatitudes as Jesus teaches us what it means to progress into living a life for Him.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5)

This morning we looked at what meekness is and some places in life where we especially need to pursue it.

Meekness is being used “to the hand”. We thought about a wild horse that resists the bit and bridle. It’s out there in the field bucking and kicking, but you can’t get near it. But when the horse gets used to the hand, when the horse is broken as we say, it has dignity and poise and it becomes useful. The animal is at peace and it is altogether different.

We thought about the word submission, which means putting your mission under someone else, and we saw that this is what Christ calls us to.

You most probably know someone who have said to you, “I’m a really competitive person. I’ve always been like that in sports, and I am like that in business. I find this whole idea of submission very difficult.”

Surely the picture of the horse will help such a person. Wild horses do not win races, but by submitting to the bit and the bridle, the horse is able to win the race! That’s very perceptive! Wild horses don’t win races. Why? They have the strength, but the strength is not focused. Meekness brings strength under control, and controlled strength is a blessed thing.

We saw that meekness is about the taming of the temper, the calming of the passions, the managing of the impulses of your heart, and bringing order out of the chaos that would otherwise exist in the human soul.

We saw that meekness is a fountain of blessing. I want to get as much of this as I possibly can in my life. The more we grow in meekness, the more useful we will become.

How to Grow in Meekness

That’s what meekness is. We now come to the application: How can I pursue this? How can I get more of this? How can I grow in meekness?

How can I get more of this reflection of Christ in my life?

The first thing to say is that you can’t start from here! You cannot start by deciding to be meek. The whole point of our series is that there is an order and progression in these Beatitudes.

We have pictured the Beatitudes as a series of rings. Meekness is the third ring and you have to get there by means of the first two. You begin on the first ring, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

The first ring – spiritual poverty

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3)

The starting point is to realize that you don’t have what it takes before God. This is a place to which all of us can come. All you need to do is to take the law of God seriously. The law will bring you to a place where you are poor in spirit and Jesus Christ will meet you there. That’s where all progress in the Christian life begins, at the point of salvation.

The second ring – spiritual mourning

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4)

When you see your own need and realize your true position before God, you will find that the second ring of spiritual mourning is within your grasp.

Spiritual mourning is sorrow over our sins against God. You count up the cost of the damage a particular sin; a pattern of thinking or behaviour, has done to yourself and to others, what it meant for Christ to bear that sin, and you begin to hate what you used to love. The attraction fades and you experience the wonderful gift of repentance.

The third ring – meekness

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Matthew5:5)

When that happens, this third ring of meekness will come within your grasp. Think about how this works: There’s a progression.

Last time we pictured a man who is self-opinionated and overbearing. Perhaps he is in the company you work for, or perhaps he is in in your family circle. This person throws his weight around. He is short tempered and demanding. He always insists on his own way. Not much point in having a meeting because whatever he says goes.

Suppose he were to see his own spiritual poverty before God. Suppose he were to see that before God he is empty-handed. Suppose that led him to see that his own sins are many, and he learned the art of spiritual mourning. What would be the result of that? If this should happen to him, meekness would surely follow.

Getting on the first ring would take him to the second, and getting on the second would take him to the third, and so on.

The principle is simple: When I see my own sins, I am kinder and gentler towards the sins of others.

The man who knows how often he has been mistaken, will not insist on his own way. He will express his opinion, and then he will listen carefully to the wisdom of others and give weight to them. He will be meek.

The woman who knows that she has often stumbled into temptation herself will have sympathy towards the failings of others.

Spiritual mourning leads inevitably to meekness, by cutting the root of self-righteousness that always condemns.

Alexander Maclaren says: How different our claims upon other men would be if we possessed this sober sadder estimate of what we really are! How our petulance, and arrogance, and insisting upon what is due to us… would all disappear!

The man who sees that he depends on grace moves away from insisting on his rights. By “right” I would be condemned and lost forever. But God has shown me grace and mercy in Christ Jesus! When you experience grace, you will make more generous judgments towards others, you will think the best of them, and be lenient towards them.

This series is about how you can make progress in your Christian life. We arrive at meekness through the momentum of our repentance. Getting on the third ring of meekness is of huge importance, because meekness is not only a distinctive mark of Christian character, it is also a defining mark of Christian ministry.

A Defining Mark of Christian Ministry

Meekness is peppered across the New Testament, especially in relation to ministry. Sometimes the word Jesus uses for meekness is translated gentleness. Let us look at three examples: in teaching, in witnessing, and in confrontation.

In teaching

“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.” (2 Timothy 2:25)

In witnessing

“But in your hearts honour Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behaviour in Christ may be put to shame.” (1Peter 3:15-16)

In confrontation

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself. Lest you too be tempted.”  (Galatians 6:1)

So, meekness is of huge importance in life and in ministry. How can I grow in meekness? How can I get more of this in my life?

Ten Strategies for Cultivating Meekness

– Moderate your expectations of others

“He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:14)

If God remembers the frailty that is mine, I should also remember the frailty of others.

There have been some excellent books on marriage published recently. Think of a marriage relationship going through difficulties. You take two sinners, in the process of recovery, who commit to share their lives together. What did you expect? There are going to be challenges. God remembers that your spouse is dust. You should remember that too. It will help you to grow in meekness.

It is easy, especially for pastors and leaders to forget this, and assume that all Christians will be deeply committed, ready for sacrifice, engaged with the mission of the church, walking by faith, and living in full obedience to Christ.

When we find that this is not the case, and that there is a great deal of self-interest among many Christians, it’s easy to become disappointed or frustrated. I think every leader experience this in some way.

We need to remember that every Christian is a sinner in the process of redemption and recovery. If we apply the doctrine of sin correctly, we will moderate our expectations of others, and we will grow in meekness.Matthew Henry says: The consideration of the common infirmity and corruption of mankind should be made use of, not to excuse our own faults… but to excuse the faults of others.

– Find joy in evidences of God’s grace

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”  (Philippians 4:8)

This verse should be quoted in our homes every day: “Whatever is good, think about these things”. This is huge for overcoming frustration and disappointment, anger, and the promotion of meekness.

Think of a new housing development with fifty homes being built; all at different stages. In some, the walls are up, the roof is on, and you can already imagine what the finished houses will look like. You say, “This is going to be something great.” Other houses are only a hole in the ground surrounded by mud. You wonder, “Will this ever amount to anything?”

Christians are like houses in different stages of development. None of us are yet what we will be, but all of us will one day be complete. Learn to rejoice in every evidence of progress, even if someone’s walk with Christ is at the very beginning, even if it’s just a big hole. Thank God for that. Find joy in what God is doing in the lives of others. Learn to admire the grace of God in them. Remember that any faith, hope or love is a miracle of God’s grace.

– Remember how much you have been forgiven

“Whoever lacks these qualities is so near sighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” (2 Peter 1:9)

Peter lists the marks of a growing walk with Jesus Christ. He speaks about love, steadfastness and self-control, which gets to our theme of meekness; the strength under control.

He tells us that a person who does not have this, has “forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.” It follows that if you remember how much you have been forgiven, you will grow in meekness.

Matthew Henry suggests that we ask this question: If God should be as angry with me for every provocation as I am with those about me, what would become of me?

He who has been forgiven much, and knows it, loves much. Remember how much you have been forgiven and you will grow in meekness.

– Take time before you form judgments

“Know this my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” (James 1:19)

David says, “I said in my haste all men are liars” (Psalm 116:11). He jumped to conclusions, and this led him to make harsh judgments. In the book of Proverbs, we read: “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him” (Proverbs 18:17).

Take time before you form judgments. Spurgeon has a wonderful phrase here: “Little pots soon boil over.” Some people are like that. As soon as they hear some piece of gossip, they boil over with indignation. They make immediate judgments without even knowing if a thing is true.

Don’t be a little pot that soon boils over. Be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger. Take time before you form judgments.

– Make friends with meek people

“Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.” (Proverbs 22:24-25)

If a person is habitually angry, he or she is not the friend for you. Here’s the reason you shouldn’t make friends with an angry man: “Lest you learn his ways.” If you sit over lunch listening to the conversation of a person who is constantly complaining, the habit of their heart will rub off on you.

You may work or even worship beside someone who is habitually angry.  The Bible says “Don’t choose them as your friend.” Make friends with meek people. Cultivate closeness with people who will help you to be more like Jesus.

– Take pleasure in the joys of others

“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” (Romans 12:15)

I wonder which you think is easier: Rejoicing with those who rejoice, or weeping with those who weep?

Ted Olson, has a saying for young pastors that’s useful for all of us: “Irrigate your soul in the joys and sorrows of your people.” Isn’t that great advice? Water your soul.

I wonder if you will find this true of you: It is often easier to share other people’s sorrows than it is to enter into other people’s joys.

Listen to C. H. Spurgeon’s wisdom here: Sometimes, when I am ill, someone comes in and says, “I have been to see somebody who is worse than you are.” I never get any comfort out of such a remark, and my usual answer is, “You have made me feel worse than I was before by telling me that there is somebody worse even than I am.”

He points out that the great comfort for a meek person is to know that there are others who are doing better. He says: The meek spirited man is glad to know that other people are happy, and their happiness is his happiness.  

Meekness means you are glad for others who have more, as you are sorry for others who have less. Meekness allows you to find joy, not so much in what God has given to you, but in what God has given to others.

“I don’t have much money but at least other people have more! My health is poor but at least other people are well. My son or daughter is struggling but at least my friend’s son or daughter is doing well.” Rejoice with those who rejoice! That’s meekness and it is only possible by the Spirit of God. Be intentional about rejoicing in the good gifts that God has given to others, but not to you.

.– Discern God’s hand in the work of your enemies

“So Jesus said to Peter, ’Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given Me?” (John 18:11)

Thomas Watson asks the question: What made Christ so meek in His sufferings? His answer is: “He did not look to Judas or Pilate, but at His Father… ‘the cup that the Father has given Me’” (18:11).

At one level, you could say that the suffering of Jesus on the cross was a direct result of the decision of Judas to betray Him and the judgment of Pilate to condemn Him. On the cross, Jesus could have said “Look what Judas has done to Me! Look what Pilate has done to Me.”

But Christ did not do that. He looked to His Father: “The cup that the Father has given Me.” He discerned the hand of God, even in the work of His enemies.

As long as you see your life as a story of what others have done to you, you will live in disappointment, anger, frustration, and resentment, “Judas and Pilate and all that they have done to me.” You don’t want to live there.

Look at Jesus on the cross. When his enemies have done their worst, they cannot overcome him. See the glory of the Son of God as He says, “Father forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.” That’s what you want to be like, isn’t it?

– Walk daily in fellowship with Jesus Christ

“Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:29)

A yoke joins two animals, so that they can pull the plough together as they walk side-by-side. Jesus says, “Take My yoke upon you. Yoke yourself to Me. Walk with Me, and learn from Me. I am meek, and this is how you will find rest for your soul.”

None of us have meekness by nature. It comes from the presence of Jesus Christ in the life of a believer. And it grows as you imitate the Saviour to whom you have bound yourself and with whom you have chosen to walk.

– Anticipate all that God has promised

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5)

“Inherit” is a wonderful word. It speaks of a relationship in which something that belongs to someone else is willed, by their kindness, to you.

When God adopted you into His family, He also placed you in His will. That’s why Peter said, “You have an inheritance. It can never perish. It can never fade, and it is kept in heaven for you (1 Peter 1:4).

When God creates a new heaven and a new earth, who will He give it to? He will give it to the meek!

There are people who have much more than you do, but you can be glad for them. Why? Because all things are yours in Christ Jesus.

– Ask God to give you meekness

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” (James 1:5)

Then James describes the wisdom God gives:

“The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” (James 3:17).

Let us ask God for this meekness that Jesus teaches us about, for out of that the blessing flow.

Let us pray:

Lord, you said that a gentle and quiet spirit is of great worth in your sight. Please give me that spirit. Help me to curb this harsh tongue. Keep me from rash judgments, and help me to think the best of others. Help me to discern your hand working for my good, even when I face great difficulties, opposition and sometimes wounds. Help me to find pleasure in the joy of others. Help me to walk with Jesus Christ, so that a reflection of your meek Son, Jesus Christ, may be formed in me this day forward. In His Name, Jesus Christ our Lord we pray, Amen.

https://youtu.be/D6Yzcoof_i4

Sunday 7 June 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

We continue in The Blessed Series as we look at the blessings in the Beatitudes as in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 5.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5)

What is Christ calling us to here? What is it that Jesus is saying here? What is meekness? What does it look like?

What comes to your mind when you hear the word meekness? Is a meek person someone who is soft-spoken, or maybe a person who has a limp handshake, or perhaps a person who is easily pushed over and does not seem to have much of a spine?

Some will recall a hymn for children written by Charles Wesley: “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild…” When you put meek and mild together it gives the impression of being weak, limp, lacking strength, something that do not belong to a believer and not a blessing.

But we have seen that these Beatitudes are fountains of blessing. Jesus is telling us that there are some things we should go after and get as much of them in our lives as we possibly can. Jesus is telling us that one of them is meekness.

The Meaning of Meekness

When you begin to seriously study this Beatitudes, the question will arise: What is Jesus referring to here? What is this meekness that I am to go after and get as much of it into my life as I possibly can?

It is important for us to do a reset on the meaning of the word meek today, a reset of the mind, and to see that it is only possible through and by the power of the Holy Spirit. An understanding that meekness is not weakness.

The well-known commentator of the Bible, Matthew Henry wrote in his commentary: “A Discourse on Meekness and Quietness of Spirit,” in which he points out that in Latin, a meek man was called “mansuetus”. There are two words here: “manu” which means “hand,” and “assuetus” which means “used to.” Meekness means being “used to the hand,” which Henry says alludes to the taming of animals wild by nature.

The Bible compares our fallen human nature to the impulse of wild animals. God says in the Old Testament that His own people are like “a wild donkey and a restless camel.” (Jeremiah 2:23-24). Not a very flattering description of people.

Matthew Henry draws this conclusion: Man’s corrupt nature has made him like a wild donkey… but the grace of meekness, when that gets dominion in the soul, it alters the temper of it, bringing the soul to hand, and submits the soul to management.

Meekness is the means by which God tames the sinful soul by taming the temper, subduing the assertive self, calming the passions, managing the impulses of the heart, and bringing order out of chaos in the soul.

You go to work and one of the managers you report to is self- opinionated and overbearing. He is always throwing his weight around. He is short tempered with the staff and demanding, always insisting on his own way.

The man is not happy and you can see that. There is turmoil and frustration going on inside of him. You can see it at the meeting, where it spills out onto the people around him. If this man learns meekness, it will change his temper, bring it to hand, be tamed.

Think about a horse that has not yet been broken in: It bucks and it kicks, and when someone goes near to it, it resists the bit and the bridle. It’s not used to the hand. But when it gets used to the hand, the horse has a dignity and poise. The animal is at peace, and it is altogether different.

By nature, we all are like an unbroken horse. We resist God’s hand. We kick against Him. As long as we are fighting God, we cannot experience peace within ourselves. As long as we’re at war in ourselves, the turmoil will spill over onto other people in our family and in our workplace, in the church.

We see such people daily in our lives. Standing in the que at the licence office, or at home affairs and experience how they complain and act as if the devil is loose.

Now maybe he is in a hurry, maybe everything had gone wrong that morning, but the turmoil is obvious. Who knows what burdens he is carrying, and it begins spilling over, starting to manifest.

Without meekness we slide into an internal conflict of soul that manifests itself in anger, frustration, bitterness, resentment and turmoil. What does meekness do? Meekness tames the temper, subdues the self, calms the passions and brings order out of chaos in the soul. Meekness calms, soothes and it subdues.

Thomas Watson puts it this way: “By nature, the heart is like a troubled sea, casting forth the foam of anger and wrath. Meekness calms the passions. It sits as moderator in the soul, quieting and giving check to its distempered motions… Meekness of spirit not only suits us for communion with God, but for conversation with men.”

If this is what meekness is, then I want to get as much of it as I can into this fractured soul. C.H. Spurgeon gives us five words to describe meekness: Meekness is humble, gentle, patient, forgiving and contented. And what that means is; by meekness God delivers us from pride, harshness, anger, vengeance and ambition. Jesus is calling us to something very wonderful here:

Grow in meekness, and you will gain control over anger. Meekness will moderate your passions. It will subdue your impulsiveness. Meekness will change the way you speak. It will give you control over the harsh word and the sharp put down.

Grow in meekness and you will discover contentment. You will be reconciled to the position you are in. Meekness will help you to accept the difficulties that you face and even to see the hand of God in them.

Grow in meekness and you will enjoy peace. Meekness is being “used to the hand”, like the breaking in of a horse.

Another way to say this is: Meekness is about submission. Submission means you put your mission under (sub) the mission of someone else.

You take the dream of your life, the hope of your life, and you say “Because you are Lord, I put all this under You.” This is what a believer does. Christ calls us to put all our hopes, dreams and plans under His mission.

That’s what meekness does. It submits to God. And Jesus says that people who do this are blessed. Why? The ‘meek’ places all things in God’s hands and find, to their surprise, that God places all things back into their hands. That’s why Jesus says, “The meek will inherit the earth.”

What is the definition of this meekness? It is submitting to God’s Word, submitting to God’s Will and submitting to God’s people.

Submitting to God’s Word

“Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror.” (James 1:21-23)

The evidence that a person really submits to God is that they do and believe what Jesus says:

“Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24).

A church where the Bible it taught clearly and valued highly is a wonderful place to be, because our lives are nourished by the Word. This is how a believer grow.

But a church where the Bible is taught clearly is also a dangerous place to be, because all of us are responsible for what we hear! Nobody more so than the one who speaks. Do you receive God’s Word with meekness? Are you just talking about the Word of God, or are you doing it?

The self-willed person hears what God says in the Bible, but reserves the right to disagree: “God may say that, but I don’t believe it. That may be what God says, but it’s not what I want, and it’s my life.” Or worse, “This is what I want, so it must be what God says…and I’m going to do it anyway.”

Meekness is the ability to flex according to the shaping influence of God’s Word. You become like soft wax, so that God’s Word may make an imprint on your life, changing you into the character and image of Christ through the Holy Spirit.

Meekness is submitting to the Word of God and also submitting to God’s Will.

Submitting to God’s Will

There are times in the life of every believer when God puts you in a place you would not choose to be. It may come through difficult circumstances at work, in the family, difficulties in church, or in regards to your health.

When God brings you to a place you would not choose, what happens? Unbelief rises up from the flesh that always resists God: “This must mean that God does not love me.” Resentment grows and envy settles in: “Why does she have that blessing and it was not given to me?”

What does meekness look like when God puts you in a place that you would not have chosen for yourself?

See this picture as you come with us to a garden. It’s late and it’s dark. A few men are asleep in the garden. Further on, there is another man. His whole body is draped over a large stone. You walk closer and you see that he is sweating profusely. He is in an agony of soul. Then he says: “Father, if it is possible, let this cup be taken from Me. Nevertheless, not My will but Yours be done” (Matthew 26:39).

Imagine that picture! That’s meekness, Jesus submitting Himself to the will of the Father at an unimaginable cost! And this is what Jesus is calling us to do: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

Have you become “used to the hand” of God upon your life? Or are you like the wild donkey, kicking against the call and the claim of Jesus Christ upon you. Are you at war with yourself, and all the while your conflict is spilling over into the lives of other people?

Meekness is submitting to the Word of God, to the Will of God and also submitting to God’s people.

Submitting to God’s People

“Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Ephesians 5:20-21)

Paul is describing what it looks like when God’s people are filled with the Holy Spirit: They sing to each other in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. They’re always giving thanks. There’s one more evidence of people being filled with the Holy Spirit; they submit to one another.

If you’re not a member of a local church, to whom do you submit? This is a serious question: How can you do what God asks you to do in Ephesians 5, if you are not a committed congregant of a local church?

Meekness grows through the discipline of committed relationships in the body of Christ, God’s gift to the believer. Autonomous, self-directed Christians miss out on the blessing of meekness.

If the pattern of your life is to walk away every time a person upsets you, you cannot learn meekness. Meekness can only happen when you are upset, and you submit yourself to God in the middle of it.

There is an important distinction to be made between submission to God’s Word, submission to God’s will, and submission to God’s people. Submission to God’s Word and submission to God’s will are unconditional, but our submission to one other is not.

The apostles said, “We must obey God rather than men,” and there may be times when we say that too. But remember that the apostles said this when they were forbidden from preaching the Gospel.

The normal pattern of healthy Christian relationships is that we submit to one other in the body of Christ. Meekness is formed out of the difficulty of doing this:

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3).

That means I must listen to what others are saying and to what others think, and I must listen to it and give weight to it, even when I feel that I may be right.

Let us look at four practical snapshots of meekness in action, so that we can connect the dots of what this looks like in practice, and see how difficult it can be, even among the Lord’s own people.

Think of meekness: When you are opposed, when you are provoked, when you are disappointed and, when you are hurt.

When you are opposed

“Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.” (Numbers 12:3)

Why does the Bible say this? Think about what he had to endure. God calls this Moses out of retirement to lead the people of Israel who had been slaves for 400 years. What must the pressures have been like leading God’s people?

By God’s grace, Moses led them out of Egypt and across the Red Sea. He brought them to Sinai where God made a covenant with them. You’d think God’s people would be grateful to Moses, but they grumbled. “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children?” (Exodus 17:3). Can you imagine believing people thinking like this about Moses?

By nature, the flesh would have said in that situation, “You’ve never seen such blessing, and all I hear is you moaning and complaining about what you don’t like, I am out of here!”

But Moses was not like that, so here’s what he did: He prayed for those who said the most ungrateful things about him. He even said to God that he would rather have his own name blotted out of God’s book, in order that they not be blotted out.

Far from meekness being a brand of weakness! It should be obvious by now that meekness is beyond us, and is only possible through the Spirit of Christ.

Think of times when you are not as much opposed but being provoked.

When you are provoked

“When king David came to Bahurim, there came out a man from the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera, and as he came, he cursed continually. And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of king David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his on his right hand and on his left. And Shimei said as he cursed, ‘Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man!” (2 Samuel 16:5-7)

What a wretched man Shimei must have been. Maybe as you hear this story, you will think of someone who is a challenge like this man.

Shimei belonged to the house of Saul. He was Saul’s man and he had nothing good to say about David, even though Saul was long since dead, and David had been anointed as king over Israel. David was Israel’s greatest king, but Shimei didn’t have a good word to say about him.

Abishai, who was one of David’s loyal men, didn’t think the king should have to put up with this: “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head” (16:9).

But David showed meekness towards Shimei: “Leave him alone,” he said, “and let him curse” (16:11). And that’s what Shimei proceeded to do. Now let us get this picture:

“So, David and his men went on the road, while Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust. And the king, and all the people who were with him, arrived weary at the Jordan.”  (2 Samuel 16:13-14)

Shimei showed extreme, unjustifiable provocation towards the King of Israel, and David puts up with it. It would have been so easy for David to get rid of Shimei. But he puts up with him, that is amazing! That’s meekness.

Someone once said: How easily God could crush sinners, and kick them into hell. But He moderates his anger.

Meekness in action; when you are opposed, when you are provoked and also when you are disappointed.

When you are disappointed

“At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them!” (2 Timothy 4:16)

Sometimes we’re disappointed because our expectations are unreasonably high. But surely, after all the ministry Paul had poured into the lives of so many believers, it was reasonable for him to expect that when he was placed on trial in a court of law, someone would come and stand with him.

But nobody did… He says, “At my first defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me.” How would you feel if that happened to you?

Listen to the meekness in this… “May it not be charged against them”. He prays for the blessing of people who let him down.

When you are hurt

“When He was reviled, He did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly.” (1 Peter 2:23)

Jesus Christ could have said with absolute justice: “You wait!” But His justice is tempered with great mercy, and instead He says: “Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). That is meekness!

How did Jesus do that?

“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.” (1 Peter 2:23-24).

Meekness is seen in bearing wounds, forgiving injuries, and returning good for evil.

Matthew Henry says: “If this be Christianity, the Lord help us! How little there is of this among those who claim the name Christian… We are called Christians… we name the Name of the meek and lowly Jesus, but how few are actuated by His Spirit, or conformed to His example.”

We live in a country of lawsuits, where there has been such a loss of civility in public discourse and conversation. We live in a world of attack ads and attack websites. And what happens in the world creeps into the church.

It is much easier to be like Shimei than to be like David. But David has the Spirit of Christ. We desperately need to rediscover the meekness to which Jesus calls us here. He says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”.

Is that you?

But how can we do that? That’s where we are going next time… Jesus said:

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle (meek) and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:29)

Jesus is saying: “Bind yourself to Me. Walk with Me. I am meek. So, learn meekness from Me, and here’s what will happen: “You will find rest for your soul!”

There’s a hymn that was written for a congregation, but all of us can find it helpful and make it personal. Please pray it with me.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord and Father of mankind, forgive my foolish ways. Restore me in my rightful mind; In purer life your service find, in deeper reverence praise… Drop your still dews of quietness, till all my strivings cease. Take from my soul the strain and stress, and let my ordered life confess, the beauty of thy peace… Lord teach us this week meekness and work it into the deepest places of our lives. For the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and in His Name we pray, Amen.

Sunday 31 May 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

Welcome to this service where we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit and the establishment of the church as the body of Christ here on earth.

Our core Scripture this morning is from Acts chapter 2.

The chairman reports that the church congregation is at 120 people and that they do not have a building yet and are still meeting on the second floor of a rented place in the city.

Many discussions about many aspects are taking place whereof one is to replace a vacant leadership position to be filled. Besides that, not a lot is happening part of prayer and supplication. There is little money and very few people are attending due to so much fear out there that prevent people from hearing their message.

Does this sound familiar of some past experiences? Remember that this was the first and only church at the beginning of Acts chapter one. Christ has ascended into heaven and 120 believers was assembled in the upper room waiting for something that has been promised to happen.

Today all over the world many sermons are preached about what happened on that day. Many preached about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and on the power of the Holy Spirit and rightly so.

“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:1-4)

Many people today want that experience. A great number of people for their whole life run after the experience of what happened that day, but never get to walk in the fulness of the Promise, of the Holy Spirit here and now on earth. Why did the Holy Spirit come?

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him for He dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:15-17)

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14:25-26)

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you. And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no longer;” (John 16:7-10)

“When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore, I said that He will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:13-15)

What is the primary responsibility of the Holy Spirit and more so of the Holy Spirit that abides in a believer? So many in today’s culture identify themselves with the Holy Spirit, filled with a great deal of confusion and a lot of superstition. A form of faith that is event driven, being moved and inspired and motivated by something and by some atmosphere to get them excited again.

A form of faith that is broadly supportive of Jesus but also highly unstable by constantly depending on some new event to get going, to get inspired and to get excited. A kind of spectator Christianity supportive of our faith but turns out to be so easily swayed!

We in these times need Jesus Christ and we need the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth for us and in us. That is the primary function of the Holy Spirit; to change us more and more into the character and image of Christ so that we can be a living epistle so many can come to Christ by being baptised by the Holy Spirit into Christ!

So many walked away from God been in a church for years, even served in leadership for years, sold out to the institution because it enticed them by atmospheres and events. False preachers with a high influence and by there powerful voice and their self-entered position, their charisma misleading people away from the primary function of the Spirit of God in them.

What was the first thing the disciples did when the Holy Spirit was poured out? They allowed the Holy Spirit to bring Christ to the people.

“But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ears to my words.” (Acts 2:14)

Peter then describes the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. He preaches the Gospel and because of the Holy Spirit in him it’s quite clear that these people believed what he was telling them. If they didn’t, they would have argued with him or simply walked away. The Holy Spirit helps to hear and believe the Gospel!

Hearing and believing the Gospel

“When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’” (Acts 2:37)

That’s faith right there. They believe that Jesus is Lord and Christ. They take this seriously. If Jesus is Lord, and you have spent much of your life ignoring Him or resisting Him you are in trouble.

“And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptised everyone of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all that are far off, everyone who the Lord our God calls to Himself” (Acts 2:38-39)

Peter replied “Repent…” (v38). He tells people who are believing in Jesus to repent. That’s important. True faith is shot through with repentance. True repentance is shot through with faith. These are like two sides of a coin; you can’t have one without the other.

You will not repent until you grasp the love and mercy of God for you in Christ. But when you see that love and mercy, how can you resist it? Repentance and faith are birthed together at the cross.

This faith and repentance lead to baptism: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the Name of Jesus Christ…” (v38). Peter tells them to publicly identify themselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and receive the mark, the sign, the seal of God’s promise.

What is the promise? The forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit (v38). God will forgive you. He will reconcile you to Himself. Christ will give you a new life by the Holy Spirit, whom He will give to you.

The scope of the Good News

“The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:39)

The promise of God is for you, if you have come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You feel the weight of your sin and you see your need as the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sinful life, bringing this promise of a new life in Jesus Christ for you.

The promise is for your children. It is not limited to one generation that lived two thousand years ago. It is not locked in the past. The promise is never outdated. It spans the centuries, and it is for us today!

The promise is for all who are far off. The promise of forgiveness and new life in Jesus Christ is for people from every background. If you feel far from God today, this promise is for you. There is forgiveness and new life in Christ for those who are far off.

God promised that through the seed of Abraham people from every nation on earth would be blessed. Forgiveness and new life in Jesus Christ are God’s promise for people in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Antarctica! The mission of the church is to take this good news of Jesus Christ to every person and that by the help of the Holy Spirit in us.

The promise is for all whom the Lord our God will call. How does God call us? He calls through the Gospel by the Holy Spirit. God was calling those people right there as Peter was speaking about Christ. God is calling you today, as you hear the Gospel.

There is forgiveness for you in Jesus Christ. There is new life for you in Jesus Christ. So today, if you hear His voice, as the Holy Spirit come to you, do not harden your heart.

What does this new life in Christ look like? What does it look like when this promise becomes yours? What happens when the Holy Spirit delivers God’s promise in a person who repents and believes?

I want you to see the sweep of God’s redeeming work in a human life. What is true of you if you are in Jesus Christ?

What can be true of you if you come to Christ in faith and repentance today? What is that promise been brought to you by the Holy Spirit?

Regeneration – You have new life

“I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So, it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:5-8)

When God created the heavens and the earth, we read that the earth was formless and empty “and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Genesis 1:2). The planet was a dark, watery chaos, then God spoke light into the darkness. He brought life out of death, forming the beauty of the world.

John tells us that the same Spirit of God who hovered over the darkness is like a wind blowing into chaotic, dark human lives that are dead to God. He gives light to people who cannot see Christ’s glory (2 Corinthians 4:4). He brings new life to people who are dead towards God, enabling you to respond to Him (Ephesians 2:1).

Regeneration means that you have new life. The Spirit gives birth to spirit. There’s new life that was not in you before, but it is now. You see Christ’s glory and you are alive to God. The Holy Spirit brings us to union with Christ.

Union – You are in Christ

“Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3-4)

When Paul says “Don’t you know…,” he’s speaking about something quite basic that every Christian needs to know: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life…” (v4)

What is he talking about? Paul is not talking about baptism in water here. He is talking about the reality that lies behind baptism in water.

Here’s how the new life comes about: The Holy Spirit brings you a new life by plunging you into Jesus Christ, making you one with Him, so that Christ’s death and resurrection become effective in your life and experience.

You are united with Him in His death, and in His resurrection. You are in Christ and “in Christ” you are a new creation. You are a new creation in Christ.

Christ has done for us what we have failed to do. He has lived the life that we have not lived and cannot live, and when we are “in Christ,” all that He has done is ours.

The believing soul can boast of and glory in whatever Christ has, as though it were its own! That’s union with Christ. What it meant for Him was being nailed to the cross. What it means for you is justification.

Justification – You are declared righteous

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:1

“Justified” means that God declares you righteous in Christ. This is amazing for God justifies sinners and the ungodly can be justified in Christ.

How can God declare sinners righteous? “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood…” (Romans 3:25). As faith unites us to Christ, the power of His sacrifice of atonement becomes yours.

God justifies sinners through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and we are forgiven and declared righteous by faith in His blood, by believing in Him. As the Holy Spirit baptize us into Christ as we accept Him as Lord and Saviour, we become sons and daughters of God the Father whereof Christ was the firstborn.

Adoption – You are loved

“When the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So, you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:4-7)

“Adoption” means that God loves you as His own son or daughter. Notice the great initiative of God: “He sends His Son into the world…” (v4), and “He sends His Spirit into our hearts…” (v6). It is the special work of the Holy Spirit to persuade you of the love of God.

God communicates His love to us in two ways: He demonstrates His love for us through the cross: “but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8), and He pours His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit: “and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts  through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).

There is no love that you will ever experience in this world that will match the love of God. God loves you with an everlasting love. No one else can say to you “I will never leave you; I will never forsake you.” You might find someone who will say “I will never leave you… until death do us part.” But only God can say “I will never leave you!”

God rejoices over you because He already sees what you will be when His redeeming work is complete. That redeeming work is done in the life of a believer by the Holy Spirit as we surrender to the Lordship of Christ.

Sanctification – You will be holy

“May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)

Sanctification is the progressive work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a born-again believer by which you grow in the life that God is calling you to lead.

Bishop Ryle helpfully says: “Most men hope to go to heaven when they die; but few… take the trouble to consider whether they would enjoy heaven if they got there. Heaven is essentially a holy place; its inhabitants are all holy; its occupations are all holy… What would an unsanctified man do in heaven if by chance he got there? To be really happy in heaven, it is clear and plain that we must be somewhat trained and made ready for heaven while here on the earth.”

The Bible says “Without holiness no one will see the Lord…” (Hebrews 12:14). That doesn’t mean we are saved by being holy, but that the pursuit of holiness is evidence that you are in Christ, who justifies you by His blood.

Sanctification here is both a prayer and a promise. It is a prayer because Paul says “May God… sanctify you…” It is a promise because he says “The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it” (v24).

You will love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. You will also love your neighbour as yourself. And every believer that you have ever known will find that God’s purpose for them is brought to completion. What God’s grace has begun will be complete. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in you that will reflect Christ’s glory.

Glorification – You will reflect Christ’s glory

“When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4)

Here is what is yours in Christ: You are going to be with Christ, in glory, forever! Your whole life is preparing for that day. It is the Holy Spirit that prepares you for that day that you will rule and reign with the King of kings and the Lord of Lords.

Not only will you be in His glory, but the Bible makes it clear that His glory will be in you. Paul says “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

How do you view your Christian life? Right now, we Christians are a mass of contradictions. We love Christ, but at the same time we feel the pull of the world, the flesh and the devil. We trust Christ, but at the same time we struggle with many doubts and fears. We have new life, but at the same time we’re getting older and our bodies are subject to death and decay.

When you see Him, you will be like Him (1 John 3:2), no more contradictions. What’s at the heart of you will become the whole of you. Paul says our sufferings are not to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us. This preparation is done by the Holy Spirit as we submit to His authority over our lives, getting us ready for that day!

Consummation—You will see God

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:1-2)

Not a different earth, but a new earth. This earth will finally be redeemed, liberated from its bondage to decay (Romans 8:21). This planet will be free from the presence and even the possibility of evil.

And on this tremendous planet, John sees: “…the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” (v2).

Later John describes the open gates of the city, facing north and south and east and west. Here is a vast community of people from every nation on earth, redeemed by Christ, prepared by the Holy Spirit and rejoicing in His presence.

One picture isn’t enough: “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (v2). How can a city be a bride? It’s like a hologram with two pictures. First you see the life of the city, now add to that all the joy of a wedding.

“And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and He will live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.” (Revelation 21:3)

Everything that separates you from God is gone. God shares eternal life with all His redeemed people.

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And He who was seated at the throne said: ’Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also, He said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true” (Revelation 21:4-5)

Isn’t it amazing that God does this Himself? “There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’” (v4-5).

When we celebrate Pentecost, it is because all this is ours in Jesus Christ and it is revealed to us by the Promise, the Holy Spirit that baptizes us in Christ, in His body the church. 

It can be yours for the promise is for you. The promise is for all who are far off. Repent! Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ! By believing you will find life in His Name as you allow the Holy Spirit to do the work in you that he primarily has been sent to do.

Let us pray:

Father God, we acknowledge the gifts and all the power that come to us, that is in us because the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit is in His people. But we so easily run just after that and not allowing the Holy Spirit to change us into the image of your Son Jesus Christ, transforming us to reflect Him here and now so that many can be baptised by the Holy Spirit into Christ. Many that can become sons and daughters and call you Abba Father. Lord forgive us for our stubbornness and disobedience where the Holy Spirit is busy with the purpose you have send Him to accomplish in our lives. Forgive us where we chased after the power and the gifts and not after the Gift given to us. Holy Spirit have your way in our lives, let us experience You working in us for our own good and out of that will flow all the promises that is in You. Father thank you for your love, to give Your Son for us and for You our Lord Jesus Christ for not leaving us as orphans but send the Holy Spirit to complete the work in us. To You all honour and glory, we glorify your holy Name, and in Your Name, we pray, Amen.

Sunday 24 May 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

We continue in The Blessed series as we look at the blessings in the Beatitudes as in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5. 

Our core Scriptures are from Matthew 5 and Psalm 51. 

The Beatitudes are not telling us how to become a Christian but they rather tell what a true Christian looks like.

Everyone wants to be blessed. We want to be blessed in life, blessed in death, and blessed in eternity. In the Beatitudes, Jesus tells us about the life that is blessed and about the people who are blessed. But Jesus does more than just describe a blessed life, He gives us a way to actually pursue it.

Today we will be looking at how we mourn spiritually, focussing on how to cultivate spiritual sorrow.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”  (Matthew 5:4)

We saw last time that there are three kinds of mourning:

• Natural mourning is when you grieves the loss of someone you love;
• Sinful mourning is grieving over something God never intended you to have;
• Spiritual mourning is grieving over your sins against God, and this what Jesus is telling us here when He says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”.

Christ tells us that this kind of mourning is blessed. Spiritual mourning is so laden with blessing that we are to go after it and get as much of it in our lives as we possibly can. We saw last time that the more you know of this mourning, the more joy you will experience in your life.

We also saw that spiritual mourning is the key to overcoming habitual sins, sins we tend to go back to time and again.

The book of Judges tells the story of God’s people over several generations. If you read the book, you will discover that there is a repeated pattern and it goes like this: God’s people turn to idols; God allows them into the hands of their enemies; they cry out to God for mercy; God raises up a deliverer and everything goes well again; but then God’s people turn to idols again!

The cycle continues throughout the book. If we were to give a popular title to the book of Judges, we most probably would call it “How not to live the Christian life!” going round and round in circles.

You may recognize this pattern in your own life: Toying with sin; then falling into sin; asking Christ for forgiveness; experiencing God’s mercy; but then starting to toy with sin again.

How do you break out of that cycle? How do we avoid being the person who sits in church every week, having faith but remains unchanged for ten, twenty or thirty years? It happens and we see it around us and may even see it in ourselves as well.

Spiritual mourning is the key to breaking that cycles in our lives. Deliverance from that cycle starts with taking sin seriously, and that’s the focus of this second Beatitude: “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”

Today, we focus on the “How?” This is the practical question before us today and it is all about application. How can I practice spiritual mourning? How can I cultivate this godly sorrow that is laden with blessing? How can I break the cycle of habitual sin and go after true repentance?

If we can answer this question today, it will be of great value and that is exactly what we are doing from the Word of God. We have three basic points today and my advice is that you take notes to put into practice what Jesus is saying about spiritual mourning that will lead us into a great and lasting joy.

These three things are: How to see; How to mourn; and How to find comfort.

How to See

There’s an old saying: “What the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over.” For example; Johnny throws his ball in the house and bumps a vase over, and when Johnny cracks his mother’s vase, he turns the cracked side towards the wall: “What the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over,” he says. Nobody gets upset about something they don’t know.

We are talking about spiritual mourning. What the eye does not see, the heart cannot grieve over. But we can only enter into spiritual mourning over sins that we actually see!

How do you get spiritual sight? What is then the answer to that? To mourn over your sinful nature begins with seeing your sins.

There are three ways in which you can come to a clearer knowledge of your own sins: God’s Word; God’s Spirit, and God’s people.

• God’s Word

When you open the Bible, you are reading God’s words and His thoughts. As the Scripture gets into your life, you will begin to see things as God sees them.

By nature, we don’t see well. We justify what we do. We don’t see ourselves as others see us, let alone as God sees us. Reading the Bible is like putting on a pair of reading glasses. You begin to see what God sees. You get to know what grieves Him and offends Him.

Reading the Bible will open your eyes to the sins that lurk in your life.

“The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Psalm 19:8).

Reading the Bible will open your eyes to the sins that lurk in your life. The Word of God helps you to see and this is a wonderful gift of God.

Some good advice as you read the Bible, is to keep these five questions in mind when you read the Bible:

• What does this tells me about God?
• What does this tell me about myself?
• Is there a sin to avoid?
• Is there a promise to believe?
• Is there a command to obey?

Today we are focusing in on the question: As you read the Bible, is there a sin here to avoid?

Reading the Bible will open your eyes to see the sins you must avoid. Let us look at three verses from the Bible that would be familiar to you:

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”(1 Corinthians 13:4-6)

As we read these verses it clearly point out at least 7 sins. What are the things that grieve the Spirit of God?

• Impatience (love is patient)
• Envy, (love does not envy)
• Pride (love is not arrogant)
• Rudeness (love is not rude)
• Insisting on your own way (Love is not self-seeking)
• Irritable (Love is not irritable; it is not easily provoked)
• Resentful (Love does not hang on to past hurts)

All of these are offensive to God. They grieve the Holy Spirit. They ruin character and contradict the way of Christ. God’s Word will open your eyes to what God calls sin.

Read the Word and you will see where sin occupies your life. Leave your Bible closed and your eyes will remain closed to the sins lurking in your life. People not reading the Bible do not often see their own sins. Open your Bible start reading the Bible in this way, and God will open your eyes.

Do not read the Bible like the hypocrites to show the wrong in others. No, read it so that God can also change you. You can’t mourn over what you cannot see. It has to begin here and with you if you want to enter into a joyful life.

• God’s Spirit

Let us look at a very simple picture: Imagine walking through a dark room. There are hidden treasures in there and unopened gifts too. But there’s also all kinds of junk, and trash, and vile things that should never be there. There’s a bad smell because some rats got into the basement and died there, and they’ve been lying there for some time. Hidden in the corners, there are some living ones too!

That’s a biblical picture of your soul. God could show you all the junk in your soul by turning on a very strong LED floodlight. But if He does that to you, you would be completely and utterly devastated and you will never recover from it.

None of us could bear the full knowledge of the extent of our sin if all of it was all revealed to us at once. Thank God who is gracious and kind that He does not show us our souls with a floodlight, but by the Holy Spirit walking with a flashlight.

The Holy Spirit is always shining the flashlight into the hidden corners of your soul. Sanctification is a lifelong process as the Spirit leads us through the murky room of our soul. He illuminates hidden things in dark corners of your soul that we are not aware of, so that by God’s grace we can deal with the junk.

As the Bible opens your eyes to particular sins, ask the Lord to show you where they’re lurking in your life. Where have I been insisting on my own way? What is the hurt I’ve been holding onto? Where is impatience hiding in my life?

The Holy Spirit shows what the sins are, and the flashlight shows me where they’re lurking in my life.  When the Word of God through the Holy Spirit highlights certain areas in your sinful nature, use the prayer at the end of Psalm 139:

 “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” (Psalm 139:23-24)

Let the Word identifies what the sins are, and allow the Holy Spirit let you to see and then leads you to repentance to receive forgiveness that leads to a path of joy.

You do that through three gifts given to a believer: God’s Word, God’s Spirit and through God’s people.

• God’s people

“Confess your sins to one another and pray for each other that you may be healed.”  (James 5:16)

Other Christians who know you well can help you see where you need to grow. That’s why relationships with believers are such a gift from God. Therefore it is so important to belong to a body of believers, a local church and its life groups.

We are talking about today about putting into practice, so here is a direct challenge to every man who’s happily married today: Ask your wife, “What’s one sin I should be fighting against more strongly this week?” The person God has placed next to you will be a great help to you in this area. She might identify more than one area in which I need to grow. What she is saying will be insightful and will continued to help us to grow.

Ladies, if your husband asks you this question, don’t waffle with some statement about what a wonderful fellow he is except that you wish he would fold his socks, pick up his clothes, etc. What would help him grow as a Christian? What hinders him from being more useful to God than he is?

If you are not married or if your marriage is not at a place where there is a high level of trust, ask someone else who knows you well. Find someone who can speak into your life and listen to what they have to say. This is also a great area for honest discussion in your Life Group this week.

These are not easy questions to answer. You need spiritual light to be helpful here. Not only God’s Word, or God’s Spirit but also God’s people.

God did not call you to follow Christ with the intent that your life would remain largely unchanged for ten, twenty, or thirty years in your “Christian life”. Let us help one another to be on the growing edge of what it really means to be a follower of Jesus Christ and to walk in the comfort that brings joy!

It begins to see by what God gives me: His Word, His Spirit and His people to help me to recognise the areas that keeps me from becoming more like Jesus Christ.

How to Mourn

We want to be able to see sins to be able to enter into what Jesus is calling; “blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted”. Now the question obviously arises: How do I mourn a sin once I have seen it?

Let us look at four steps that answers that question:

• State your sin clearly, without excuse or without evasion

It is important to note that spiritual mourning is always over particular sins. Most of us experience times when we feel a general sense of our own failure. The devil takes us to focus on a general sense of our own failures. That’s not spiritual mourning and it does not move you forward. How then do you address a general sense of failure? You can only address particular sins that you are seeing.

You see, a hypocrite may admit that he or she is a sinner, but they never get down to naming a single personal sin. A hypocrite always keeps at the general level of sins and never goes further. Mourning over sin in general never moves you forward but just leaves you feeling miserable.

Spiritual mourning has a clear focus. It is mourning over particular sins that you have come to see through the ministry of God’s Word, through God’s Spirit and through God’s people.

Spiritual mourning begins by stating your sin clearly without excuse and without evasion: “I have acted out of envy. I have insisted on my own way. I have deceived and I have covered up, and this is a sin against God.”

You have to take it out of the dark place where the Holy Spirit shines a light on it. What has been internalised, need to be externalised. You need to look at it and see it for what it is and seeing the problem it is causing.

We now look at different verses in Psalm 51 as David goes into spiritual mourning for us to further understand mourning.

 “Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight” (Psalm 51:4).

Surely others were wounded by what David did, but at its heart, sin is an offense against God, and there is no such thing as a small sin against a great God.

State your sin clearly and without reservation. Then do the following:

• Weigh what this sin has done to you

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.” (Psalm 51:3)

David is looking at the effect of sin on his own soul. It is important otherwise one may just say sorry and carry on and never change. Think about the life of holiness to which God has called you to pursue. Think of where you might have been by now if this sin had not held you back.

Consider how this sin has limited your usefulness to Christ. Reflect on how it has dampened your worship, and dulled your testimony, and kept you at a distance from God.

Think about the other sins into which this sin has also led you: Sins of deception and pretence. Look at what this sin is costing you and count the costs. Think of what your life could be if this sin been left behind.

So state it clearly, look it in the face, and weigh what the sin has done to you.

• Recognize what this sin has done to others

Nobody sins to himself or herself alone. The people God has placed around you are all affected by your sins, even if it remains unknown to them.

Why? Your sins make you less effective in the kingdom of God and robs others of what they might have received from you.

Many of our sins are obvious. Often, they are sins against other people, clear evidence of it to others.

Our sins make us harder to live with, more difficult to work with, and tougher to love. Take an honest look at it and the effects in your life and in the life of others, and also to others you don’t even know.

Also consider what your sin did to Christ and what He has done for you.

• Consider what your sin did to Christ and what Christ has done for you

Jesus Christ did not hang on the cross for sins in general, but for sins in particular; sins with names, dates, and faces on them for which there was real punishment.

How do we know that? On the cross, Jesus bore the punishment for sin, and God being just, does not punish sins unless they are real, and they are particular.

So, the sin I am mourning was a sin for which Christ died. He suffered on account of this sin that has lurked in my life. There was a punishment for this that would have been upon me, but it was transferred to Him.

We have been asking: How do you break a pattern of habitual sin? How can you in your heart of hearts begin to hate what you used to love, and despise what you used to choose?

The diary of Andrew Bonar, a godly pastor from the 19th century, says:

“The answer is that spiritual mourning happens at the cross!

Come and see, come and see. Come and see the King of love

See the purple robe and crown of thorns He wears

Soldiers mock, rulers sneer as He lifts the cruel cross

Lone and friendless now He climbs towards the hill

Come and weep, come and mourn for your sin that pierced Him there

So much deeper than the wounds of thorn and nail

All our pride, all our greed all our fallen-ness and shame

And the Lord has laid the punishment on Him

We worship at your feet where wrath and mercy meet

And a guilty world is washed by love’s pure stream

For us He was made sin. Oh, help me take it in

Deep wounds of love cry out ‘Father, forgive.’

I worship, I worship the Lamb who was slain”

When we look at the cross, there’s more than seeing what sins did to Jesus. It’s also about seeing Jesus Christ in relation to what He did for you. At the cross you see how much you are loved!

You have been sinning against God and what does Jesus Christ do? He bears your sins in His body on the tree. One glimpse of the love of Jesus Christ for you will do more to you in your struggle against sin than a hundred commitments or a hundred disciplines.

Get your eyes up unto Christ to see how much you are loved! Only that can break your heart of what is breaking God’s heart and lead you into the joy of what Jesus is speaking about. Blessed are those who entered into spiritual mourning for Jesus comforts us.

So, we have looked at “see” for what the eye does not see the heart does not grieve; we looked at how to “mourn;” and let us now look at how to find “comfort”.

How to Find Comfort

“Have mercy on me O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.”  (Psalm 51:1, 9)

It is all about asking God. You come to see, you come to mourn it and now you are at a place you where you can really ask God. Now what did David ask of God?

–        Ask God for total forgiveness

Notice the emphasis on completeness, “abundant mercy” and “blot out all my iniquities”. Sins are blotted out by the shed blood of Jesus Christ because of the love for us. When your sins are blotted out, they are covered, never to be seen in God’s presence again.

God does not forget our sins as if He had amnesia. God knows all things. He knows who you are and what you’ve done. That’s what makes His love so remarkable. He knows everything about us, but in love He says He will remember our sins no more!

“For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, I will remember their sins no more.”(Hebrews 8:12)

“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord; I will put My laws into their hearts, and right them on their minds,’ then He adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” (Hebrews 10:17)

Sins that are under the blood of Christ are never in the mind of God! Does God know your past sins? Yes, every one of them. Are they on His mind when I come to Him in the Name of Jesus Christ?  The answer is no. When you come to God in Jesus Christ, know that the mind of God is for you and with you in love, and without reservation, no matter how many times you have come before and will come again.

Remember, we are justified by Christ’s blood, not by our tears. Forgiveness does not flow from the depth of your sorrow. Forgiveness flows from the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus Christ.

“Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God.” (Romans 5:9)

The question is never: “Have I become sorry enough to earn forgiveness?” The question is: “Is the sacrifice of Jesus enough to release forgiveness?” Definitely the answer is yes!

It’s not: “Have I done enough in order to be forgiven?” but “Has Christ done enough for me to be forgiven?” The answer to that question is yes!

Ask God for total forgiveness, but don’t stop there; also ask God for a clean heart.

• Ask God for a clean heart

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! (Psalm 51:2)

Notice how David keeps coming back to the effect of his sin in his own soul. He is asking God, “Cover my sin in your presence. But more than that, wash its effects from my life.

“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7)

Sin brings guilt in the presence of God, but it also brings pollution into the human heart. Sin makes the sinner unclean. It spoils the life and ruins the character.

Create in me a new heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in me.” (Psalm 51:10)

David’s heart led him into sin. Sinful acts come from a sinful heart. So he asked, “What will keep me from doing this again?” He didn’t want to go on repeating the same sin, so he said, “Create in me a clean heart. Give me a heart that hates what I once loved, and despises what I once chose.”

• Ask God for a renewed spirit

Spiritual mourning is always marked by and infused with hope. But when you get serious about mourning your sins, the enemy has tactics for stalling your spiritual progress. He can dull your conscience so you lose awareness of indwelling sin, and the junk remains in the room.

But when you get serious about addressing sin in your life, and the Holy Spirit is shining the light, Satan switches tactics. Once you see the weight of sin in your own life, the enemy will use that to try and crush you, “Look at all this junk! There’s no hope for you. Look at this mess.”

When Satan tempts you to sin, he tells you there is no harm in it. But when you have fallen into sin, he tells you there is no hope because of it! When he says, “You can never overcome this,” you need to remember that the devil is a liar, and ask God to renew your spirit.

“Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm51:8-11)

Look at Jesus Christ and remember it is the Holy Spirit that holds the light in the dark of your soul that brings hope. Ask God for a clean heart and a right spirit.

• Ask God for a useful life

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for the good, for those that are called according to His purpose.”  (Romans 8:28)

All things has to include your sins and failures. You may just find that God’s greatest work in your life begins at the point of your greatest failure.

When Satan tempted you, he meant it for your destruction, but God can use it for your everlasting good. That’s what the power of redeeming love looks like and it points to what God does through the cross.

Don’t waste your sins! Don’t waste your failures!

What good can God bring out of your greatest failures? Here are a couple of things that will come out of it:

Genuine testimony

“Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.” (Psalm 51:13)

When you see what God’s grace can do in your own life, you are motivated to share this with others.

Heartfelt worship

“O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.”  (Psalm 15:15)

The one who has been forgiven much, loves much!

 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)

There’s great joy to be found here! You will never mourn this mourning. You will never be sad over this sorrow. You will never repent of this repentance. This mourning is blessed. This sadness leads to joy. This repentance leaves no regret.

“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10)

Believers are people who know their own poverty. They look to Jesus for what they do not have, and know that in Him they have all that they need: “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).

Believers are people who know their own sins. They look to Jesus Christ for mercy and find joy in pursuing a holy life:“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4)

Is that you?

Let us pray:

Father God, teach us we pray the spiritual mourning in which a life is changed and joy is found that we may pursue it all our days until every tear is wiped from our eyes and there is no more. Because there is no more sin and You have made all things new through Your Son Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. In His Name we pray. Amen.

21 May 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

What a privilege to commemorate and especially celebrate the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ with you today.

Our core Scriptures will be out of Luke 24 and Acts 1.

Today we look at one of the most important and least understood events in the history of Christianity, an important day of the purpose and position of our Lord Jesus Christ.

His birth, His death, His resurrection, Pentecost, and Jesus second coming, many get a lot of teaching on but not so much on the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ascension is understood as Jesus physical departure from the earth and that Jesus will continue to be with His disciples and believers by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Is the Ascension something to get excited about? It is somewhat inappropriate to get excited about someone leaving. If my wife gets excited about me leaving, or me leaving permanently and saying that I will send someone in my place, something seriously is wrong.

But let us look at what happened as given to us in the gospel of Luke:

“And He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. While He blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.” (Luke 24:50-53)

The Word of God says; “and they returned to Jerusalem with great joy”. If my wife celebrates me leaving by throwing a big party after I left, a lot of questions will be asked.

Jesus spoke about His leaving on other occasions as well. At the Last Supper He spoke about it in length. After that the disciples experienced Jesus horrified death after suffering and also His resurrection evidence; that Jesus is alive, and when Jesus eventually left in such a miraculous way, we find the disciples filled with joy!

Something must have happened, for that what they once dreaded so much they are now celebrating. What is it that made the ascension a cause for celebration?

Let us follow the story from Jesus resurrection onwards. This is given to us and we going to look at it in the book of Acts and in the gospel of Luke.

“In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day He was taken up, after He had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen. He presented Himself alive to them after His suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:1-3)

For forty days after resurrection Jesus appeared to His disciples. Luke is here giving us the reasons and purposes of Jesus appearance to them and others.

Firstly, he is giving many convincing proofs that Jesus is alive and the fact of the resurrection being established.

Jesus appeared to His disciples on approximately nine to ten distinctive occasions and also to a group of more than five hundred people.

“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-7)

The second reason for Jesus appearances after resurrection was to speak about the kingdom of God, to prepare the disciples for the work of the kingdom.

They have now a new level of understanding. Previously they saw the cross as a huge disaster for the expected King to come as per their perception is now dead. But after the resurrection as Jesus is alive in appearing to them, they now see all the plans as Jesus told them beforehand.

What is interesting is the fact that Jesus was now not with them constantly. He appeared and teach, then disappeared, appeared and teach, and then disappeared again, weaning them away from His natural and physical presence.

Their faith was previously built on sight, face to face with Jesus. But now they have to build their faith not on sight but on believe!

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:10)

“So, we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight” (1 Corinthians 5:6-7)

For forty days Jesus helps them with this transition in faith to walk by faith and not by sight!

Now they are on top of the Mount of Olives and this time Jesus will not go down the mountain. What He had to do in Jerusalem is finished and had been accomplished. He is now going up, ascending into the presence of His Father!

“And when He had said these things, as they were looking on, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as He went, behold two men stood by them in white robes, and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-12)

This time they saw Jesus leaving. No more will there be natural appearances, the forty days is over, transition has taken place, evidence given, the Son ascended to the Father!

They now have to walk by faith and not by sight anymore as they return to Jerusalem filled with great joy. What made them so joyful?

Let us look at three things: the cloud, the blessing, and the promise.

The Cloud

“… He was lifted up and a cloud received Him.”

Was this just a weather report in Jerusalem that day, that it was cloudy and overcast? I don’t think so. The Bible is one truth and God ties the truth and revelations together in the most amazing way.

Remember that God is invisible, nobody has ever seen God, but He makes His presence known to His people.

How did He do it in the Old Testament? He gave His people visible symbols of His presence. In the desert Israel had a brim of fire at night and a pillar of cloud during the day. When Solomon build the temple, a cloud filled the temple as a sign of ‘God with us!”, a sign of God’s presence.  

When Jesus went up the mountain He was transfigured, a cloud came down upon the mountain and the disciples fell on their faces in the immediate presence of Almighty God!

This cloud Jesus blended into was no ordinary cloud but the manifestation, the manifest presence of Almighty God. Jesus was taken up, a cloud received Him, God the Father received His Son! Jesus Christ came from the Father to earth and is now returning to the Father, His work finished and now received by the Father! As the Father sent Him, He now receives Him.

This is the first time since Adam was expelled from the presence of God that a man, Jesus as man, entering into the presence of God, Jesus taking our humanity into the presence of God! The angels saw the first Adam expelled, and now they witness the second Adam; Jesus, being received by the Father. Jesus Christ, the first of many to be reconciled to God through our Lord Jesus Christ!

No wonder the disciples went back filled with joy. The closed door that had been closed for so long, now be opened. We can now enter into the presence of God because Jesus is there. Yes, because Jesus is there we can be there also!

It is much more important to have Jesus Christ in heaven than naturally here with us.

A person that has act against the law, who did not keep the law, will need a good attorney, and not only a good lawyer but one with compassion. When he visits you, you want to find his presence comforting so you can discuss your difficulties and challenges with ease as you find yourself in a cell. But the place you need him the most is not in the cell but him representing you in court. The relationship you establish in the meetings is valuable and critical, but the thing you most need is an able performer in court.

My greatest need on earth as a sinner is not comfort on earth but effective defence in the courtroom of heaven! A representative, an attorney, an advocate who will plea my case before Almighty God.

When Jesus ascended, He went right into the very place we need Him to be. We will find many ways to get through life in this prison called “world”; some with great success, surviving and decorating our cells here on earth through tricks, and bribery and bargaining, but on the last day, when the case is brought, we need an effective defence; Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour!

The disciples were filled with joy for they new where Jesus is and what Jesus is doing there.

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us” (Romans 8:31-34)

Your name is on His hand and on His heart. It is with joy that we approach the thrown of God.

The Blessing

A last impression normally makes a powerful impact on the mind, those who have lost a loved one knows that the last impression lingers. What was the last visual impressions the disciples had of Jesus?

“And He led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up His hands He blessed them. While He blessed them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven.” (Luke 24:50-51)

Just picture this, you are with the disciples and Jesus lifts His hands to you and He speaks the blessing of God onto you and into your life.

 In Scripture we see that a blessing is of utmost importance. Just look at Jacob deceiving his father Isaac to get a blessing. The blessing was not just a few religious words, no, it was a prophetic statement of what God would do in and through a person’s life. When the blessing was pronounced by Isaac over Jacob, once been given, it was irrevocable and cannot be taken back.

The Bible and its happenings are preparing us, preparing our minds to understand things of importance.

Here is something far greater: Christ is lifting His hands over the disciples and impart His blessing onto them! A blessing to be used through the earth with God’s anointing on them. The last thing they saw of Jesus was Him blessing them. But He has not finished blessing them, as He is ascending, He is blessing them, an unfinished work and is still blessing us.

Ascension is speaking of Jesus completed work on earth as man, but also of His continuous work of blessing His people. This blessing continues till Jesus Christ return for His people.

If you look up with your mind in faith unto Jesus Christ, what do you think He is doing? He always lives to intercede for us and also for the blessing of God in every circumstance.

So, the disciples left with joy, and Jesus Christ is right there where they most needed Him and He is continuously blessing them as he blesses all His people.

The Promise

The promise comes in two parts as seen in Acts chapter one:

“And while staying with them He ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said, ‘You heard from Me; for John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:4-5)

Jesus has ascended and will not be naturally visible, but His presence will be with the disciples through the Holy Spirit. What an advantage to the church and to believers that Jesus can now be with everyone at the same time!

There were times when Jesus could not be with His disciples. His human ability did not allow Him to be everywhere at the same time. He told His disciples that they will be His witnesses.

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

Just before He departed to heaven, He tells His disciples that they will be His witnesses to the whole world by the power of the Holy Spirit that He sends in His place.

As Jesus Christ ascends: He is in a place we most needed Him to be, on the right hand of the Father, He continues to bless us, and He sends the Holy Spirit into those who accept Him as Lord and Saviour.

Jesus Christ send the Holy Spirit so that the presence of God can be with every believer in every circumstance here and now on earth.

Do we now understand that the Ascension is a great celebration!

“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven”. (Acts1:11)

When Jesus return for us, He comes in glory and we will also be snatched up into His presence. The ascension is also a model for our rapture to come! What happened here with Jesus, will happen to His own when He comes again.

No wonder the disciples were filled with joy and therefore we can be as excited as they were, filled with joy.

The joy of the Lord is my strength. Jesus Christ is where I need Him the most, and He had to go so I could receive the help of the Holy Spirit. At His second coming, we will be taken up in like manner to be permanently with God!

Are you looking forward to that day and are you ready for it?

Let us pray:

Father God, we confess this morning that You have exalted Christ Jesus. You have given Him a Name above all names. In Him we have life and life in abundance. He is the exalted one, Our King, High Priest sitting at Your right hand also for our sake. He was and is and is the one to come for us. We are looking forward to enter into the cloud one day as we ascended into heaven to be with you always. We pray this in Jesus Name and at His Name every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord. To His glory and honour, Amen.

Sunday 17 May 2020

Ben Hooman

Matthew 5:1-11

We continue in the Blessed Series that we were in before the lockdown.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)

But before we continue, we need to recap what had been shared.

“Seeing the crowds, [Jesus] went up on the mountain, and when He sat down, His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying: Blessed …. (Matthew 5:1-3)

In the Old Testament God’s people gathered at Mount Sinai. God came down, but His face was never seen. The people were kept at a distance. Darkness descended. Fire and smoke covered the mountain. The trumpets were blasting (Deuteronomy 4:11-12).

The whole scene was so terrifying that even Moses said, “I am trembling with fear” (Hebrews 12:21).

If that’s how Moses felt, how do you think you or I would have felt?

But when we come to the Beatitudes, the scene is completely different. God has come among us in the Person of Jesus Christ. We see His face. He bids us to come to Him.

At Mount Sinai, God comes down to the mountain in terrifying splendour, and the people are kept at a distance.

But here the Son of God goes “up on the mountain (Matthew 5:1), and when He sits down, His disciples come to Him.

At Sinai, God spoke thundering words, so terrifying that the people begged that no further words would be spoken (Hebrews 12:19).

But here the Son of God speaks, not thundering words of condemnation, but wonderful words of blessing.

Who would not want to sit down and listen to God in the flesh tell us about the life that is truly “blessed”?

Don’t miss the word “blessing,” that is repeated here, and over and over, in the Beatitudes.

We saw that the words of Jesus in the Beatitudes have a profound effect on us in at least three ways:

–        We are finding the Beatitudes compelling

Jesus is speaking of a life that is blessed by God and shows us the path by which blessing is to be found. We want to be one of those blessed people!

This is also giving us the means by which we may pursue such a life. In this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is giving us a key to progress in our Christian life.

–        We also find the Beatitudes searching

Am I displaying the marks of a blessed person?

We also use the Beatitudes as:

–        A tool for discernment,

–        As a key to progress, and

–        As a window to worship

Jesus says that “the one who hears My words and puts them into practice is like a man who builds his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:23)

We looked at “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3)

Jesus does not begin with a class of all the great doctrines of the Bible. He does not begin by saying: let’s get you all involved in ministry”. He begins by saying: “let Me tell you what a person who lives under the blessing of God looks like”.

As we go through the Beatitudes we have to ask, “are these the things I am pursuing, and what evidence are there of these things in my life?

There is an image I asked for you to have in mind throughout the series. Imagine a child at the playground swinging from one ring to the next ring on the monkey rings. The key to swinging on the rings is momentum. The momentum of your swing on the first ring as you leave the platform, makes it possible for you to reach the second, and the momentum on the second ring makes it possible to reach the third, and so on.

Without momentum from the previous swing, the next ring would always be beyond your reach.

The Beatitudes are like a series of rings. How do you get to the fifth or sixth Beatitude? You start from the beginning. Everyone can do this but you have to realize that you start from the platform; Christ Jesus our Lord as your Lord and Saviour. On the first ring recognise that you do not have what it takes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit”. It is then when repentance come.

When holding on too long on any of the rings, will eventually let you lose momentum and you will get tired and let go of the ring. Losing the momentum, and you fall off any of the rings, you go back to the platform, back to Jesus and start anew in Him. “Lord, I do not have what it takes as you start swinging on the first ring of “Blessed are the poor in spirit”, knowing your own inability and that gives you momentum to the next ring as you surrender to God.

We looked at:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs are the kingdom of heaven”. (Matthew 5:3)

Poor in the spirit means that you recognize your poverty before God. This is the first mark of a person walking with God. Being poor in the spirit is where your blessing begins. It is the gateway that leads to the other blessings.

Poor in the spirit will impact your life in four ways:

–        You will give up the idea that God owes you anything.

Pride says, “I gave Him something. He owes me something bigger and better than what I got back”. A person who is poor in spirit says, “What do I have that I did not receive? I owe God everything and I can give Him nothing. God owes me nothing and He has given me everything”.

–        People poor in the spirit are not afraid to ask.

 Such a person will be much in prayer.

–        People poor in the spirit are in a position to receive.

Those that feel they have something to offer God are always come with their hands full, but only those that come to God empty-handed; aware of their need of Him, can receive.

In the third message we looked at “being humble”:

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you.” (1 Peter 5:5-6)

We looked at the curse of pride and that humility goes directly against the grain of today’s self-affirmation culture. Jesus does not say to believe in yourself but He says, “Believe in God, believe also in Me”. (John14)

We saw that there is a blessing in humility: It helps us to bear affliction, it nourishes our love for others, it strengthens us to overcome temptation, and it release you from the tyranny of self.

The way we cultivate humility is by measuring yourself by the Word of God, using the Word as a searchlight in your soul, and also to model yourself on Jesus Christ, learning from Him:

–        I can do nothing on my own… John 5:30

–        I have not come to do my own will… John 6:38

–        I do not seek my own glory… John 8:50

If these are the word of Christ, how much more should they be mine?

Humility is the grace that brings more grace!

Today we move on to the second Beatitude:

Mourning that are Blessed

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4).

What is this “mourning” that Jesus says is “blessed” without qualification?

There are three kinds of mourning: Natural, sinful, and spiritual.

Natural mourning is grieving for someone or something you have lost.

God gave you a wonderful gift, and now that gift has been taken away. The natural response is to mourn. Those who’ve been bereaved know about this. Jesus knew about this. He wept at the graveside of a friend.

The presence and comfort of Jesus in the journey of bereavement is a treasured gift to every believer, but that’s not what Jesus is speaking about here.

Here’s why: in the Beatitudes, Jesus is speaking about qualities we are to proactively pursue.

We are to go after purity of heart. We are to seek righteousness. We are to desire meekness. We are to get as much of these things that we possibly can.

Jesus is speaking about conditions of heart that are so laden with blessing, and He is encouraging us to go after them at any cost.

That is true of all seven Beatitudes, and the eighth that is added is; being persecuted for righteousness sake and that is simply the outcome of a life marked by the other seven.

We are to desire and to go after as much of these blessed qualities as we can get.

Nobody would say that about natural mourning. No bereaved person would say, “I want to go after as much of that as I can possibly get.”

So that is not what Jesus is speaking about here.

There is another kind of mourning that is described here as sinful mourning.

Sinful mourning is pining for something God has not given

“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:10)

There is no sin in natural mourning. Jesus wept. Grieving over something or someone God has taken away is modelled by Christ.

But there are other kinds of sorrow. Paul warns us about a worldly sorrow that leads to death.

You have an example of this in Ahab, the king of Israel. God gave him a palace and a kingdom, but next to the palace, there was a poor man by the name of Naboth who had a vineyard. Ahab set his eyes on Naboth’s vineyard. The Bible says; “And Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen…” (1 Kings 21:4)

 We might say today that he’s “pouting.” Why? Because he could not get his hands on the vineyard.

Another word for it is “coveting,” and it led to the murder of Naboth. Coveting is pining for what God has given to others, but He has not given to us.

This sinful mourning is a killer. It leads to death and obviously that is not what Jesus is speaking about here when He says “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”

Natural mourning that is the outflow of what God has given; sinful mourning which is a killing kind of a pouting after what God has decided not to give; and the third is spiritual mourning which is clearly what Jesus is speaking about here – sorrow over our sins against God.

Spiritual mourning is sorrow over our sins against God

A.W. Pink says,

“The mourning for which Christ promises divine comfort is a sorrowing over our sins with a godly sorrow”.

This is the godly sorrow Paul speaks about in 2 Corinthians 7:10. It is blessed because it “produces a repentance that leads to life.”

You know about natural sorrow. You may know about sinful sorrow. What do you know about godly sorrow, this “mourning” that is blessed?

This is a subject of huge importance to the church today, because true Christians are surrounded by a form of faith that has been so emaciated, so diluted, that it’s unrecognizably different from what Jesus speaks about here.

Thank God for great truth that we are justified by faith:

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

Why does faith justify? Why does faith justify and not works?

Answer: A believer is justified by faith because faith unites a person to Jesus Christ, who justifies, sanctifies and glorifies believers through the power of His shed blood.

This power is applied to the life of the believer by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.

Now here is the problem that has led to the Trivialisation of what is called “Christianity”, under the banner of Christianity today! A redefinition of repentance and a redefinition of faith.

Firstly, faith which unites a person to Christ, has been reduced to mere belief, an assent to certain truths of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Simply believing certain things will never change your life, as if believing what the devil, himself, knows to be true would change you.

No, Jesus Christ changes you!

Faith is the bond of a living union with Christ. And when Christ enters a life, He comes to forgive you and to make you holy. He accepts you as you are, but His grace will never leave you where you are!

The replacement of faith, which unites a person to Christ, with mere assent to certain truths, leads thousands of people to “accept Christ” without ever bowing to His Lordship in their lives.

We end up with a form of faith that does not change our lives. When the world despises that, they have the right to do so.

Secondly, repentance, which involves a change of direction, has been reduced to merely admitting that I am a sinner and saying a prayer.

Listen to two Scriptures today, and try to take in how far the Bible is from the kind of message that often poses under the banner of Christianity today. We quote one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament. Here is the call to biblical repentance:

“Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on him and to our God for He will abundantly pardon.” (Isaiah 55:6-7)

God says to the wicked “Forsake your way. Stop doing what you are doing. Turn! Stop thinking these thoughts”.

That’s a thousand miles away from merely admitting I’m a sinner and continuing on and don’t change!

Listen to this from the New Testament:

“But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: ‘The Lord knows who are His’ and ‘Let everyone who names the Name of the Lord depart from iniquity.” (2 Timothy 2:19)

If you are going to name the Name of the Lord, here’s what it means: “Depart from iniquity!” Not think of it or merely know there is iniquity but to depart from it!

The call of God to repentance, to a change in direction, has been replaced by merely “admitting you are a sinner,” and saying a prayer “asking Jesus to forgive you.”

Union with Christ that humbles the sinner and leads to a holy life has been replaced by an emaciated form of faith that can easily be added to the worldly prosperity dream preached today.

Faith has been redefined to accommodate our selfish requests. Repentance has been reshaped to fit our indulgence.

The result is that you have people by the thousands who “admit that they are sinners” and “accept Jesus,” but who have not experienced spiritual life at all.

How would that be known?

The evidence of this is that they don’t feel poor in spirit, they don’t know what it is to mourn over sin. They aren’t characterized by a deep hunger for righteousness. They aren’t merciful. They aren’t pure in heart.

They do not know, even in the gathering for worship, the joy and the blessing of a person who has discovered that in Christ they have all that they need.

This theme of spiritual mourning is of critical importance to the whole church in our time. It’s a message that all of us need to hear!

What does spiritual mourning look like?

Distinguishing marks of spiritual mourning:

Spiritual mourning arises from humility

Spiritual mourning follows naturally from becoming poor in spirit. When you see that you do not have what it takes, you will mourn over the sins that are yours, and mourn over the righteousness that you do not have.

We’ve been picturing the Beatitudes as a series of seven rings. Swinging on that first ring of being poor in spirit will lead you to the second ring of the mourning that is blessed.

You swing on the first and it will get you to the second and so on. You can’t begin on the second ring. You can’t suddenly mourn over what used to bring you joy.

Every sin holds a passing pleasure, that’s why sin tempts us. Nobody would sin if this weren’t true.

So how can you learn to hate what you used to love and love what you used to hate?  You have to start on the first ring!

Spiritual mourning is a matter of the heart

You might not be able to tell the difference between spiritual mourning and natural mourning in another person, but you can tell the difference in your own heart.

The Bible tells us the story of Saul, a high achiever with a twisted heart. Saul was the first King of Israel. He led his army into battle and then took plunder for himself and for his men. He cheated, deceived and stole, and then he lied to cover it up. But later he was found out. Samuel confronted him with the truth, and Saul had nowhere to hide.

So, Saul confessed. He said he was sorry. He said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord” (1 Kings 15:24).He must have had a very long face when he said it. Then he says something else to Samuel, “I have sinned, yet honour me now before the elders of my people” (1 Kings 15:30).

He appears sorry, but the truth is that he would have continued what he was doing, if he could. He says he is sorry but his focus is on damage limitation. There has not been a change of heart!

Spiritual mourning is the key to tackling what we call “habitual sins,” sins that keep recurring in a person’s life. A true Christian does not live in a cycle of sinning, saying sorry to God and then repeating the same behaviour, year after year after year and never changing.

Why do we know so much of habitual sin? Because we know so little about mourning. We miss the blessing and remain unchanged!

God’s kindness is meant to lead us to repentance, not to presumption. Here is a person who is content to sin and assume forgiveness but does not mourn, and does not change. That is not walking the path of repentance. That is walking the path of presumption.

What God is saying to us here? God announces mercy for mourners. Those who are not mourners have nothing to do with mercy.

Someone once said: “If you have never been down on your knees before God, feeling what a sinful man, or woman you are, I doubt hugely whether you will ever stand with radiant face before God, and praise Him through eternity for His mercy to you.” Spiritual mourning arises from humility, from the heart of a believer, and then also hope.

Spiritual mourning is infused with hope

Judas grieved over his sin in betraying Jesus, but he did not have spiritual mourning. Why? His grief led him to despair.

Grief that leads to despair is the work of Satan, not the Holy Spirit.

Satan brings you to despair of self, but he never brings you to hope in Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit brings you to despair of self and then also to hope in Jesus Christ!

That’s how you tell the difference between what the devil is trying to do in your life, and what the Holy Spirit is doing in your life. Hope is a signature mark of spiritual mourning.

That’s why the true believer is in Paul’s words, “sorrowful yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10).

It’s very fascinating that those two things go together.There are two sides to the coin on genuine Christian experience.

The true Christian always find him or herself saying, “Who is sufficient for these things?” but does not stop there for true mourning is infused with hope, knowing our “sufficiency is of God.”

The true Christian continues to say, “O wretched man that I am,” but he doesn’t end there. His mourning is infused with hope, so he says, “Thanks be to God who has given me the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The true Christian knows how to say with Paul, “I am the chief of sinners.” But she does not end there. Her mourning is infused with hope and she says, “By the grace of God I am what I am.”

This is very important: True Christians mourns their sins but they never end there. Our mourning is infused with hope, and so we lay hold of the comfort that is in Jesus Christ. Without that it’s not spiritual mourning, it’s just the devil trying to make you despair.

We have looked at the mourning that is blessed. But they will also be comforted.

The Blessing that those who mourn will receive:

“Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)

How will they be comforted? What in all the world can comfort people who feel the weight of their own sin?

A better question would be: Who in all the world can comfort people who feel the weight of their own sin?

Those who mourn find a friend in the “Man of sorrows”

The Saviour who spoke these words was known as the “Man of sorrows.” The prophet Isaiah announced that the Redeemer would be “a Man of sorrows” and “acquainted with grief” centuries before He was born.

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not”. (Isaiah 53:3)

Christ knows all about spiritual mourning, not because He mourned over His own sins. He had no sins to mourn. But He mourned over the sins of the world, and grieved over their devastating effect. See Him mourning over Jerusalem, coming down the Mount of Olives, He weeps over a city that rejects Him and is headed for destruction.

Why did He come into this world?

The mission of the Redeemer is to comfort those who mourn

Writing years before the birth of Christ, Isaiah spoke of what the Redeemer would do when He came. Why did He come into the world?

His mission is to “comfort all who mourn… to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Isaiah 61:2-3 NIV)

Christ accomplished His mission by bearing our sins… and carrying our sorrows!

“Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…”  (Isaiah 53:4)

 “But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; …” (Isaiah 53:5)

 “… and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

The Holy Spirit comforts the person who mourns by making what Christ purchased his!

There is a beautiful statement in 1 Corinthians 6. In it, Paul lists a catalogue of sins:

“Some of you were drunkards, revellers, swindlers, idolaters, adulterers… That’s what you were, “but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).

In Christ, the spiritual mourner can truly say:

“I am forgiven! I am cleansed! I have been washed. I am justified before God. I’m not the person I want to be, but I’m not the person I used to be. Sanctification has begun in me, and one day it will be complete—all because of the Lord Jesus Christ and through the work of the Holy Spirit.”

That’s the comfort for those who mourn! That’s why the true Christian is sorrowful yet always rejoicing. What do you know of this in your life?

Let us pray:

Father, we connect to hear Your Word today because we want to know You. We want to know the reality of life here and now that also secure us an eternal future. Our Father, by the help of the Holy Spirit to lay up for ourselves the comfort that is in Christ Jesus, sorrowful yet always rejoicing. In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray. Amen

https://youtu.be/nP023mkw_LM

Sunday 10 May 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

What a privilege to bring the Word of God into your homes this morning.

Have you ever been in a situation where you begged for a second change, or unexpectedly given a new lease of life? We are then thankful and want to make the best of the opportunity. But soon we forget the grace that had been shown, and pride creeps into our hearts.

May this last message in our series on “Facing the Times”, with a focus on life after a crisis, guide us to a new life of humility and gratitude.

Our core Scripture this morning is from Isaiah 38:18-20; 39:1-8.

In this story we see a great reflection of king Hezekiah, a godly man who faced an illness that brought him to the point of death. God heard his prayer and he made a remarkable recovery. This story is speaking to us directly as we find ourselves in the middle of a crisis.

As we look at Hezekiah, we saw that he went through different stages in this crisis. First the shock and turning to God in praying having hope, in the middle of this crisis in anguish, how faith get tested, strengthened and assured and today we will look at position after the crisis.

As we have gone through this series, we found that it has been speaking to us in a remarkable way to what we are facing as we walk through this crisis in these days.

As this dangerous virus entered our lives, we were all in a state of shock. Nothing like this has ever happened to us. We as believers then affirmed our hope, our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but as time goes on, we felt increasingly distressed and in anguish. Our faith gets tested, finding our faith not as strong as we might have thought. We looked at how our faith can be strengthened by the Word of God and by praying the promises of God. We then looked at the things in which a believer can be absolutely sure that even in these times that we are loved, we are saved and we are forgiven.

Today we are looking at the last part of this story and again it speaks directly and powerfully to where we are in this corona virus crisis.

Hezekiah was sick to the point of death; he cried out to the Lord in prayer; God healed him and add fifteen years to his life. Now here is the question: What use did this man make of those fifteen years added to his life? Or, personally to each and every one of us?

Here we are in this crisis, we are past the shock. We have experienced a great deal of anguish but we have our hope in the Lord and see that there is life at the end of this all. We see guidelines for getting the country going, some restrictions lifted and hopefully more to be lifted in the near future. We all want to get our lives back. Back to work, back to church, back to friends and families, back to travelling again. We continue praying for this crisis to be something of the past.

But what are you going to do with your life when you get it back? That is the question before us today.

Let us look at the story of Hezekiah; what he said, what he did, what he discovered when he got his life back, and how God’s grace prevailed.

What he said

“What shall I say? For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it. I walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul” (Isaiah 38:15)

Hezekiah said that “I walk slowly”, or as it might be translated “humbly all my years”. This was Hezekiah’s commitment and he was absolutely clear, saying: Lord, if you will give me my life back; if you will answer my prayers, here is what I am going to do: if you give me another fifteen years I’m going to live every day of my life before You in humility.

What would that look like? This Hezekiah tells us in the following verses as he describes the life his going to pursue. We see that a humble person seeks to glorify God and to seek the good in others:

“The living, the living, he thanks You, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children Your faithfulness” (Isaiah 38:19)

• A humble person seeks to glorify God.

Hezekiah is saying: ‘No one in the pit of destruction is going to be praising You, but You have saved me from that. You have promised me life, and I believe in Your promise.

So, I am going to praise You, I’m going to thank You, and if You give me another fifteen years, I’m going to praise You and thank You every day of my life’.

• And, a humble person seeks the good of others.

Remember at this stage Hezekiah is not a father yet. Children has not yet been born to him, but he believed that God will be faithful to His promise given to David, hat the line of David in which Hezekiah stood, would continue. So, he makes this commitment to God: ‘I will tell my children of Your faithfulness. I will make sure my family knows that You are God, and that You are good, and that Your faithfulness endures to all generations’.

Notice that the cycle of praise keeps on expanding. It starts with one man; Hezekiah praising and giving thanks to God, then his family joins in with him, and then the entire community:

“The Lord will save me, and we will play my music on stringed instruments all the days of our lives, at the house of the Lord.” (Isaiah 38:20)

Notice the movement from ‘me’ to ‘we’ in this verse. Hezekiah is saying: It is not just me that is going to thank the Lord, but all of God’s people is going to join in to praise Him with me. We are going to make music; we are going to sing praises to You O’ Lord. We going to do it in the temple and doing it all the days of our lives.

What a commitment! Lord, if You give me back my life, here is what I am going to do: I’m going to live my life humbly for Your glory, and I’m going to seek the good of other people.

That is what this king Hezekiah said. But what he did was something entirely different!

What he did

“At the time Merodach-baladan the son Baladan, king of Babylon, sent envoys with letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered.” (Isaiah 39:1)

Babylon was the rising superpower of that day, and so when envoys came from Babylon, Hezekiah really wanted to impress them. He was flattered and couldn’t resist showing off his treasure. Look what he did:

“And Hezekiah welcomed them gladly. And he showed them his treasure house, the silver, the gold, the spices, the precious oil, his whole armoury, all that was found in his storehouses. There was nothing in his house or all his realm that Hezekiah did not show them” (Isaiah 39:2)

Imagine what effect this must have had on the envoys from Babylon. Their eyes widen as they see the gold, and as they see the silver. They then go back to their crown prince saying that there is serious money over there in Jerusalem.

After the envoys from Babylon had left, the prophet Isaiah came back again to Hezekiah in the palace and ask him about these visitors.

“Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah, and said to him, ‘What did these men say? And from where did they come to you?’ Hezekiah said, ‘They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon’ He said, ‘What have they seen in your house?’ Hezekiah answered, ‘They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing in my storehouses that I did not show them’. Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, ‘Hear the word of the Lord of hosts: Behold the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord.” (Isaiah 39:3-6)

What do we learn right here? We learn that good people can make disastrous decisions. Hezekiah was a godly man, but here he acts in utter folly. A good man making a disastrous decision in showing future enemies all of the treasure of his house. An absolute disaster because this was what sowed the seed of the loss of Hezekiah’s kingdom in future generations, when a future king of Babylon would come and destroy the city of Jerusalem and plunder its wealth entirely.

When Hezekiah heard what will happen, he spoke one of the saddest sentences in all of the Bible. Isaiah had told him that his sons will be carried away, in other words this great loss will happen in a future generation. Hezekiah knew he was only going to live another fifteen years. He knew exactly how long he had left to live. So, when he hears this news that this disaster is not going to happen immediately, but that it is going to happen in a future generation, he knew it is not going to be on him but on his sons.

“Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good’. For he thought, ‘There will be peace and security in my days”. (Isaiah 39:8)

What sheer selfishness! No thought for a future. He actually says: who cares to what happens to other people. As long as I live a good life and life is good to me, there will be peace and security in my days.

Looking at these words, how can any one be that selfish? But God has told us that judgement is coming to this world, and you know, we might not be so far from Hezekiah as we would like to think, when he basically says, ‘judgement is coming, well as long as I’m not involved. The world can go to hell as long as we don’t go with it’. That is the spirit of Hezekiah right here.

What Hezekiah said, and what he did, were two entirely different things. He says he is going to live humbly with thanksgiving. He is going to seek the good of others.

What he did though was all about himself. “As long as there is peace and security in my days…” God gave him life and he lived it for himself!

Here is the question: How could a godly man behave in such a way? How could a king who prayed and whose prayers have been heard and answered, how could a good man who the Bible says was the best king Judah ever had, behaved like this?

The key is given to us in the second book of Chronicles where God tells us what is going on at this time in king Hezekiah’s heart.

We looked at what Hezekiah said, we looked at what he did and we now will look at what he discovered.

What he discovered

“In those days Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death, and he prayed to the Lord, and he answered him and gave him a sign. But Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud. Therefor wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem”. (2 Chronicles 32:24-25)

Here we see that this king that said that he will walk humbly, did not make return according to the benefit returned to him, but became proud. He said one thing but what he did was the opposite. Why? “for his heart was proud”.

Remember that Hezekiah was a godly man, the best king Judah ever had. The Bible says there was none like him before and none like him after. He was a true believer, and his prayers were heard and wonderfully answered by Almighty God.

But pride lurked in his heart and when God gave him his life back, the Bible makes it very clear what he did with his life: he lived for himself.

“And Hezekiah had very great riches and honour, and he made for himself treasuries for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of costly vessels; storehouses also for the yield of grain, wine, and oil; and stalls for all kinds of cattle, and sheepfolds. He likewise provided cities for himself, and flocks and herds in abundance, for God has given him great possessions.” (2 Chronicles 32:27-29)

God gives him abundant goodness, and what does he do with it? It is all for himself. Here is a man who says to God: you give me back my life, and I will walk humbly with You all of my years. But exactly the opposite happened when God gave him back his life! It is all about Hezekiah. He becomes proud in his heart, and what he does is all for himself!

The question that really reveals our hearts is not ‘will you pray in a crisis?’ most people pray in a crisis. No, the question that really reveals your hearts is ‘how will you live when the crisis is over?’ what will you do with your life if God gives it back to you? It is this question that exposes the heart of Hezekiah. God knows how to deal with a proud heart.

“Hezekiah did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud. Therefor wrath came upon him and Judah and Jerusalem.” (2 Chronicles 32:15)

What are we being told here? When Hezekiah’s heart became proud, he came under the discipline of Almighty God. Here is a very important biblical principle: God loves His own children so much, that He will not allow His own children to continue in sin. What did His wrath look like? Chronicles tells us very clearly how God dealt with Hezekiah, and how He will deal with us, if our hearts become proud:

“And so in the matter of the envoys of the princes of Babylon, who had been sent to him to inquire about the sign that had been done in the land, God left him to himself, in order to test him and to know all that was in his heart” (2 Chronicles 32:31)

When a person who has been blessed by God turns away from Him in defiance and refuses to repent, things don’t go so well.

The prodigal son knew all about this. He sinned against God and against those that loved him, and for a long time there wasn’t the slightest hint of repentance in his life. He remained in a far country, and things did not go well for him there. In the end he became desperate. He most probably told himself that what he needed was a new job, or new friends, maybe move to a new location. But what he really needed to do was to repent! He needed to humble himself. He needed to repent towards God: “I have sinned against heaven”. He needed to repent towards people in his life. The money he had taken, the trust he had betrayed, the work he had abandoned, the love he had spurned. The Lord Jesus says in the story of the prodigal son that eventually ‘he came to his senses’.

That is what happened to Hezekiah. He came to his senses, and the reason he came to his senses was that God left him to himself, so that the foolishness of his own proud heart was exposed.

What he said – something very wonderful, what he did – something very different, what he discovered – that his own heart was filled with detestable pride and not nearly as godly as he might have like to think.

The last think we need to see is how grace prevailed.

Grace prevailed

“But Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and his inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah” (2 Chronicles 32:26)

Here is something very significant in the Old Testament. The wrath of God in God’s mercy was postponed! It was held over for another time. It was postponed but was not removed. Justice must be done somewhere. Sooner or later, all sin must be dealt with, and this is why Jesus came into the world.

What we see in the Lord Jesus Christ is exactly the opposite we have seen in Hezekiah today. Hezekiah became proud in his heart, Jesus humbled Himself to the point of death on the cross. Hezekiah lived for himself. He was all about himself, filling the treasuries for himself. Jesus left the riches of heaven and gave Himself for the good of others. Most striking of all; when Hezekiah faced the prospect of the wrath of God, he thought, ‘as long as it is on others and not on me’.

“And Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they do” (Luke 23:34)

Jesus absorbed the wrath that was due to us, on account of our sins. He took it on Himself, so that for all who come to Him in faith and repentance, that wrath that was due to us is not only postponed, it is completely removed!

“There is therefor no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1)

Family, here is then the question that is before us today in these extraordinary days in which we are living: what are you doing with the life that God is giving you?

Maybe you see something of yourself in this story of Hezekiah. Maybe you say: ‘I have messed up, I have said one thing and done another. I have made commitments to God in the past but I have not kept them. I have even taught others, but I have not lived up to that teaching myself. I behaved like a fool! Now I see my own heart for what it is. I feel that there is no hope left for me’.

I want to say to you from God’s Word today: Yes, there is hope for you! There is hope for you in and through the Saviour that came for you and for me, Jesus Christ our Lord! The very fact that you are seeing the need of your own heart, is evidence of the grace of God at work within you.

Here is what you must do: you have seen that you need a Saviour. You have seen the need of your own heart. Now you must humble yourself. Thank God that Jesus Christ, His Son came into this world and bore the wrath for you, and then ask Him, ask Jesus Christ, God’s Son, to become your Lord and to become your Saviour. There is hope for you in Jesus Christ who died for your sins.

“He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised”. (2 Corinthians 5:15)

Will you bow with me before God in prayer?

Let us pray:

Father God, forgive the foolish pride of our hearts and that we so often take the life You give us for granted and depend on ourselves. Father, our hearts are exposed by Your Word. Thank you that when we see our own self-interest, we see our need for a Saviour, and we thank You that Jesus Christ is the Saviour we all need. Therefore, in humble faith and repentance we embrace Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. Grant cleansing for our sins and renew our hearts. Take our proud hearts and make us humble. Grant that in Christ we no longer live for ourselves, but as You give us life, let us live for the One who died for us and rose again. In His great Name, Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, Amen

Sunday 03 May 2020

Ps Ben Hooman

What a privilege to bring the Word of God into your homes this morning. I pray that God open our hearts and minds accordingly so the truth can be implemented in our daily lives.

We in the series of facing the times and we stay in the story of Hezekiah in Isaiah 38.

It tells the story of a godly king who faced an unexpected crisis. Suddenly right in the middle of his life, he was afflicted with an illness that brought him to the very point of death. In verse 1 the prophet Isaiah comes to tell him to get his house in order for he will die and not recover.

It is important to note that this was a godly man who walked closely with God:

“He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him.” (2 Kings 18:5)

What we see here is that Godly people also suffer. We see this in this story of Hezekiah and also in the story of Job, but also supremely in the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As we look at this Godly king Hezekiah, how did he respond to his crisis?

“Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord,” (Isaiah 38:2)

Isaiah then left the king’s bedroom but before he could leave the palace, the word of God came to him a second time:

“Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus, says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.” (Isaiah 38:5)

What a remarkable answer to the prayer of a righteous man. But what is also of particular value to us is that after he recovered, Hezekiah wrote down his inside experience, what he went through as he walked through this unknown crisis in his life. What he experienced is also what we experience in this crisis we find ourselves in here and now.

Last time we saw the king felt fragile; he felt anxious; he felt weary, but also feared being separated from loved ones; his life being cut off, and also feared the possibility that God might be against him.

We looked at his distress, his anguish, and we saw how his experience speaks to our experiences and how we must let our anguish lead us to Jesus.

What we look at today is the faith of Hezekiah, the substance of his faith as seen in Isaiah 38:15-17.

In a crisis we learn three things from faith:

In a crisis our faith will be tested, how your faith can be strengthened and, how your faith can be assured.

Faith tested

“What shall I say? For He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it. I walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.” (Isaiah 38:15)

When you go through an unexpected crisis your faith will be tested. Hezekiah is here writing after he recovered from his illness:

“A writing from Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:” (Isaiah 38:9)

Looking back at his crisis, filled with thanksgiving, he asks: What shall I say? God has spoken and God has healed me!

“…. I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold I will add fifteen years to your life.” (Isaiah 38:5)

God did what He promised. God healed him and brought him back from the very point of death. When he recovers, he rejoices in the answered prayer, but when he went through the crisis it was a different story.

What is he honestly telling us:

“I walked slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.” (Isaiah 38:15)

When this Godly king suffered, he struggled with great bitterness according to verse 17.

He is saying: Lord I have given my life to be Godly, pursued righteousness and have served you. I am now in the middle of my life and you allowed me to be afflicted even to the point of death. God, that is not fair. I walk slowly because of the bitterness of my soul”.

Just look at the honesty of the king. He is not coming out of his crisis, look back saying: I was afflicted and I just trusted the Lord! No, he tells us the truth that when he was afflicted, he struggled with bitterness.

He is telling us that a battle raged within him. He trusted God but when the crisis came, trusting God was not so easy.

Perhaps there has been a time when your faith has been tested, or getting tested right now in these unknown times we find ourselves in.

If that has been your experience, would it help you to know that it was the same for this most Godly king in the Bible. Hezekiah did not come out of this crisis with some note of triumph. He had to honestly confess that when he suffered, he found that his faith was not as strong as he thought it to be.

He says: I had great bitterness. That is the confession of a Godly man. Faith was tested and when you face a crisis, your faith is going to be tested.

Notice what Hezekiah says in verse 17:

“Behold it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; (Isaiah 38:17)

He says that God used this crisis and his experience for his own good.

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Even when the weakness of our own faith is exposed, God use that for our welfare.

 “For my welfare I had great bitterness.” How could God use this man’s bitterness for his own good? The answer is in verse 15 as he looks back at the bitterness that he felt:

“I walk slowly all my years because of the bitterness of my soul.” (Isaiah 38:15)

Walking slowly here simply means walking humbly. Some translations here read; I walk humbly all my years.

Therefore, this is what Hezekiah is actually saying: “I use to think my faith was strong, but when this crisis came, I did not do so well. I wish I could look back and say that I trusted God all the way, but I can not say that. I have to tell you that there was a great bitterness in my soul. God even used this for my welfare and used it to humble me. I am done with priding myself on the strength of my faith. From now on I will walk humbly, I will walk slowly all of my years.”

Pride lurks in all of our hearts and the worst form of it is spiritual pride. God may use a crisis to humble you, and may use it to humble all of us. He may do it in showing us that our faith is not as strong as we like to think.

What happened to the disciple Peter? At the last supper Jesus said to His disciples:

“Simon Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, where are you going?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward’. Peter said to Him, ‘Lord why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for You’. Jesus answered, ‘Will you lay down your life for me? …” (John 13:36-38)

He thought his faith was that strong. Later that same night it only took a servant girl to be asking:

“Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looked closely at him, said, ‘This man also was with Him’. But he denied it, saying, ‘I do not know Him’”. (Luke 22:56-57)

God used this to humble Peter, to make this confident man more like the Lord Jesus Christ. Later in the New Testament we amazingly find Peter, the gentle pastor writing these words:

“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you”. (1 Peter 5:6-7)

Here is the principle: An unexpected crisis will test your faith and God can use this to make you more like Jesus.

If you come to a time in your faith and your faith is tested, you don’t do so well. Let that experience humble you, let it show you how much you need Jesus and then thank God that your salvation does not depend on the strength of your faith, but on the strength of your Saviour.

Faith tested, and here is the second thing that is so important: How will faith then be strengthened?

Faith strengthened

“O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these is the life of my spirit. O, restore me to health and make me live!” (Isaiah 38:16)

It is hard to be certain of the precise order of events in this story, but I suggest this is how it unfolds:

Hezekiah became sick to the very point of death. Despite being a godly man, he struggles with bitterness. Isaiah the prophet visits him in his bedroom with a message from God to set his house in order for he is going to die. The king then turns to the wall and pray, weeping bitterly. Isaiah is on his way home but before leaving the palace, God speaks to him and direct him to go back to the king. Isaiah came back into the room and speaks the word of God saying that God heard the king’s prayer and will add fifteen years to his life. Hezekiah then prays with new faith and with new confidence, saying: O Lord, restore me to health and make me live!

Look at the pattern here: God speaks in verse 15, and in verse 5 He tells us what He said; that He will add fifteen years to the king’s life, that his prayer has been answered. We see the response of king Hezekiah in verse16 as he prays: Restore me to health and make me live!

Here we learn something of great importance on how faith is strengthened. The king had struggled, facing great bitterness, how is his faith then strengthened?

Firstly, Faith is strengthened by the Word of God.

How did Hezekiah overcome his bitterness? If you in a crisis and you discover your faith is merely strong enough, not as strong as you thought, how will help come to you?

The answer to that question is that faith is strengthened by the Word of God.

“But He answered, ‘It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”. (Matthew 4:4)

Your faith will be strengthened by the Word of God. When you in a crisis you need to feed on the Word of God. That is why we open the Word right here and now. By this means; by His Word God will strengthen your faith!

Secondly: Faith prays for what God has promised.

God speaks in verse 15, the promise is recorded in verse 5 and what does Hezekiah do? He prays in response to that promise.

Faith prays for what God has promised. The king prays and says: Lord you said you going to add fifteen years to my life. Heal me and make me live, give me these extra years.

It is good to always pray with an open Bible. In other words, look at what God has promised and then turn what God has promised into your prayers.

This is what Hezekiah models to us. When you see that God has promised something in His Word, the right response is to pray that what He promised will be yours, and that you will know it in yours by experience.

Faith prays for what God has promised. Let us look at an example: You read in the book of Philippians and you get to;

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. (Philippians 4:13)

You say to yourself: Look at that, Christ gives me strength! What are you going to do at that point? Are you just going to say that it is nice that God gives strength and carry on?

Or what are you going to do? You say: Lord, Your Word says you give strength and I ask that You give me strength to bear the burden that I carry right now.

That is when you turn God’s promise into your prayer.

You read in 1 Peter 1:8 about people that love God and believe in Him and that they are filled with glorious joy.

What am I to do when I read that? Am I to say some believers have more joy and that is nice?

 No, I am to say: Lord, if it is possible for others to have such joy because they know you and they love you, I want that too. Look in the Bible for any clue why they have that joy and you will see that in the verses before it, they know they have a risen Saviour, a living hope and that they have a glorious inheritance, and that is why they have this great joy.

Pray and say: Lord help me to see the value that is mine in our Lord Jesus Christ, even in the middle of a crisis.

When you see in Scripture that God promises to forgive, we don’t just respond to say that God promises to forgive sins.

No, it is to say: Lord as I repent of these sins, will you forgive me. You turn God’s promises into prayer. That is what faith does!

Faith prays with an open Bible and turns what God promises into prayer so it become part of your own experience.

When you face an unexpected crisis, your faith will be tested. How does your tested faith get strengthened? Faith is strengthened by the Word of God and faith will then pray for what God has promised.

The promises of God will strengthen your faith and faith strengthened will turn the promises into prayers so that what God promises will become yours.

We looked at faith tested, and we looked at faith strengthened, and we need to look at faith assured.

Faith assured

“… but in love You have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for You have cast all my sins behind your back.” (Isaiah 38:17)

Just take this in right now! When you face an unexpected crisis and your faith is tested, her are three things of assurance: I am loved, I am saved and I am forgiven.

“In love You have delivered me …” Literally the words are: God loved me out of the pit! Nothing is as sure as the love of God for you in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Father gave His only Son for you. On that darkest day of your life you can say: The Son of God loves me He gave Himself for me.

God did not redeem you because He had to but because He wanted to, that is how much He loves you. He has chosen to lay His life down for you and for me and that is how much He loves us!

How great is the love that the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God? In love He predestined us for the adoption of sons to the praise of His glorious grace.

Nothing in life, death or eternity can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus!

When you face a crisis, you can say with confidence that you are saved, you are delivered from the pit of destruction. “but in love you have delivered me from the pit of destruction”. The Bible speaks of an eternal destruction, a destruction tearing apart that never ends.

We hear a great deal about fear in these days. Fear of the virus, fear of a great recession. But Jesus says:

“And do not fear those that who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell”. (Matthew 10:28)

Remember Hezekiah is a godly king and the worst thing he could imagine would be to live and to die for sins and find yourself in the pit of destruction for ever and ever. With a full heart he thanks God from saving him from that.

Jesus Christ came into this world to save you and me from that pit of destruction. When born again you can also say: Lord, you have delivered me from the pit of destruction.

Whether things are better or worse today, whether in sickness or in health, facing the prospect of the following weeks and months, in Jesus Christ today we can say: I am loved, I am saved!

The third thing: We can say with great confidence: I am forgiven.

“for You have cast all my sins behind your back”.

How does God save us from the pit of destruction? Notice the word “for”, this is the reason, this is the explanation of what God does in order for you to be saved.

Godly people know that our sins are many. The closer you walk with God, the greater your own sins are revealed. There are only two places where your sins can be; either before God’s face, or behind God’s back.

The question that determine your future are not whether your sins are many or few, but are they before God’s face or behind God’s back?

Jesus died and He bored our sins so that we can repent of our sins. When you repent, God takes your sins from before His face and cast them behind His back. As far as the east is from the west, he cast them out of sight

“You have cast all my sins behind your back”.

Someone once said: If we cast our sins behind our back, God sets them before His face. But when we set them before our face in true repentance, God cast them behind His back.

Many people cast their sins behind there back and never come to real repentance. As long as you are casting your sins behind your back, they are right in front of God’s face!

What do we do? We bring our sins before your own face in genuine repentance and when you do that, God cast them behind His back, and when your sins are behind His back, you can cast it safely behind yours. That is forgiveness.

Faith tested, faith strengthened, and faith assured.

Life in these times are much less certain, more that we think. We make all our own plans and a tiny virus throws everything up in the air.

But how rich are we in the Lord Jesus Christ! On the darkest day of your life, you can say with confidence: I am forgiven, I am saved, and nothing can ever separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Therefore, we can face any crisis.

Let us pray:

Father we come into Your presence aware of our weakness and of the agree in which our own faith is tested and often showed up to be less than we think it to be. Strengthen us as we move through these days in which we live. Strengthen us by Your Word. Grant that we may pray what we see, and also believe as promised by you to make ours. Thank you today that in Jesus Christ, whatever we face, we are able to say with confidence that we are forgiven, we are saved and we are loved. May Your grace reign in our hearts. We ask this in Jesus Name, Amen.