What Prayer is

What Prayer is

 let me ask you a question ‘What is prayer?’  I have no doubt that all of us expect to pray at some point during our service of worship.  No doubt many of you said prayers with your children at bedtime last night.  Some of you may have prayed this morning ..  What were you doing?  Do you believe it makes a difference?  What do you pray about?  Do you find it easy or difficult to pray?   

I want to concentrate on a couple of bible verses  in answering; ‘What prayer is.’  Read Luke 18 verse 1.  I want to draw your attention to the question the disciples asked of Christ – read verse 1.  Now think a moment about Jesus.  Here are 12 men who have spent three years with Jesus.  They have listened to Him preach with great power and authority.  They have witnessed Him work wonderful miracles.  They have listened to Him debate with the religious elite of His day.  Yet they come and ask Him to teach them how to pray.  I was really struck by that.  They could have asked Him to teach them all sorts of things and yet it is how to pray that they desire teaching on – Why? Why prayer?  I believe the answer to that question is found in what they had witnessed of the life of Christ – His life was bathed in prayer.  We read that He rose early in the morning and sought a quiet place to pray.  We read constantly of Him withdrawing from the crowds to pray.  Before major events in the gospels we find Jesus praying.  At the very end of His life what does He do?  He goes to the Garden of Gethsemane and prays.  From the gospel accounts Judas knew where Jesus would be – illustrating that this part of the garden was a familiar place of prayer for Christ.  So the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray.  So let us now see what He taught them.

Read Matthew 6.5-13.  When answering the request of the disciples; ‘teach us how to pray’ Jesus begins by assuming that they do pray.  Look at verse 6 ‘when you pray.’  There is an assumption there that the disciples do pray.  Jesus assumes that those who would be His followers pray and that it is a daily occurrence.  He then sets down some simple guidelines for them, and we should follow them also.  He tells them to go somewhere quiet and private – a place away from public gaze and distraction.  It is not that Jesus is saying we should not pray in public, nor with others – but that daily prayer is to be a private devotion.  So we are to go somewhere we won’t be seen by anyone but our heavenly Father and Jesus makes a promise to His disciples, and us – the Father will hear and answer.  So those are some of the practical things that we need to consider when we come to pray.  But what is prayer?  What are we doing when we pray?  Well let me share with you two things the Bible teaches about prayer.

Relationship.

I want you to look at Matthew 6.9.  When Jesus begins His prayer He tells the disciples to call God ‘Father.’  He uses the everyday term ‘Abba, Father.’  A biblical scholar called Joachim Jeremias has studied all the teaching on prayer in Judaism at the time of Christ and he says that nowhere did he read of God being addressed as ‘father’ in any Hebrew prayers or teaching on prayer.  So for Christ to address God in such a way was in fact quite revolutionary, almost scandalous in fact.  Yet the reason He did so was that right at the very heart, the very core of His teaching on prayer is that it is primarily about a relationship with God as Father.  Let me repeat that.  At the very heart, the very core, prayer is about a relationship with God as Father.  That is why Jesus begins His teaching on prayer with an intimate term of endearment.  He addresses God as ‘Father’ and teaches the disciples to do the same.  The address is to a personal God and not to something or someone unknown.  Such a personal address implies a personal relationship. 

If you go back to the Old Testament you will see time and again  that those who pray, pray not to some unknown god but, to God who is known to them and with whom they have a relationship.  For example how often do we read of God revealing Himself as ‘the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel.’  God constantly and consistently reveals Himself as personal. 

Read James 4.7-8.  Prayer is also the means of coming near to God.  James exhorts us to come to near to God because in drawing near to God we will be blessed by God drawing near to us.  The means of this drawing near is prayer.  What happens in this drawing near – READ 1 John 1.9 God assures us of the forgiveness of our sin.  God assures us of our relationship with Him that was once non-existent because of our sin but in prayer God assures us that our sin is forgiven and the relationship with God is restored.  Having that assurance in our souls we know the peace of God in our lives (Philippians 4.6-7). 

Prayer is therefore a relationship with God who is personal and who speaks.  Which leads us to the second point.

Communication.

  Read Revelation 3.20.  I know you have often heard them quoted in the context of coming to a personal relationship with God through Christ Jesus but I believe they also speak to us of communication in prayer.  Prayer is the speaking part of our relationship with God.  Our relationship with God depends upon birth – being born again.  However our fellowship (the quality) of our relationship with God depends on our behaviour.  Let me illustrate that for you.  Your children are your children by birth.  You cannot change that fact, nor can they.  However the quality of your relationship with your children is not determined by the fact that you gave birth to them.  The quality of the relationship depends upon their behaviour and your behaviour.  They remain your children but the relationship is maintained, strained or broken by behaviour.  We know from the Word of God that God as our Father is completely consistent in His behaviour towards us (He loves us unconditionally) but our fellowship with Him is maintained, strained or broken by our behaviour (our sin primarily).  Prayer is a means of maintaining our fellowship with God. It is the speaking part of our relationship with God. But please hear this – it is a two way communication – it is a dialogue and not a monologue.  We are often guilty of seeing prayer as us speaking to God, as something we do.  But look again at Revelation 3.20.  Do you notice who takes the initiative?  Jesus takes the initiative.  He is standing at the door.  He knocks.  He speaks and then we respond.  Please note that – our words in prayer are a response to God’s Word to us in Christ.  Our words are a response and not primarily an address.  We open our hearts and He comes in and eats with us.  He moves us to pray.  Our prayers are always a response to God moving in our hearts.  We may think we take the initiative but that is not true – God is in control and leading our hearts to prayer.  Prayer is a response.  Yes we bring petitions and requests to God in prayer but this only happens because God has moved our hearts to prayer.  I think we sometimes need to remind ourselves that prayer is our response to God having spoken first.

God wants us to pray but He does not need us to pray.  God knows already what we need.  Read Isaiah 65.24.  God said that even before we call He answers.  He knows what we need and He knocks on the door of our hearts to move us to prayer so that we might open the door of our lives and accept the gracious blessings He has in store for us- Matthew 7.9-11.  The key phrase in those verses is ‘how much more.’  However much we may think we know what is best for us in our lives God has even greater gifts of grace to give us.  God never has to answer our prayers but He does answer because as He said in Jeremiah 32.40-41 ‘I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.’  He answers because He delights to do good for you His children.  Therefore He motivates us to ask. 

Listen to these words of Paul in Romans 8.26-27.  These verses are commonly interpreted as meaning we don’t know the right words to speak and so the Holy Spirit takes our hearts cry and intercedes before the Father for us.  Yet that does not do true justice to the text.  What Paul is saying is that the Holy Spirit comes to our aid to help us pray aright.  It is a case of that we do not know what we ought to pray (ignorance) and also we do not pray well.  So the Holy Spirit comes and puts into words what we ought to pray but also enables us to pray aright – since He already knows the will of the Father.  So even in our weakness, in our inability to put into words the deep longings of our souls God in His desire to communicate with us has given us the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us.  The Holy Spirit gives expression to the inexpressible longings of our souls. Again I want you to note that it is God taking the initiative in prayer.  The Holy Spirit intercedes because we are unable to.  One writer wrote of this action of the Holy Spirit;  ‘this prayer is the very breath of the soul.’  I think that is a wonderful description of what the Spirit of God does in my soul in prayer – He breathes life into my prayers.

Conclusion.

I want to finish  with a word of warning to us all.  Often today prayer is treated as something to ‘start things off’ or to ‘bring things to a close.’  Often if there is a pastor present he will be asked to ‘say a wee prayer.’  Often people want me, or you as the christian, to pray for them because they treat prayer as a superstitious good luck charm.  All of these things take prayer lightly and are in fact belittling of prayer.  The words we use when we pray are sacred and not to be taken lightly.  Let me read  one pastor’s fantasised response to being asked to ‘get things started with a little prayer, will ya?’  ‘I will not! There are no little prayers!  Prayer enters the lion’s den, brings us before the holy where it is uncertain whether we will come back alive or sane, for ‘it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’’ (William McNamara, The Human Adventure, p.89).  I think we all would do well to take those thoughts on board when we come to pray.

Amen.

REJOICE IN THE LORD

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus

Prayer

Difficulties in Prayer

Isn’t it amazing the excuses you can find not to do something.  I am constantly amazed at my ability to find reasons why I should not do the job I planned to do.  Or why it would be better not to go running and just to read a book.  But what is not so amazing is how easily reasons not to pray creep into my Christian life.  By identifying the difficulties we encounter I hope we can also identify how to overcome them.

You have a desire to pray but it feels like such an effort and a burden that you are ready to give up.  You feel guilty for even thinking about giving up and so out of a sense of duty you pray.  Your prayers are empty of meaning and life because it is out of duty that you pray.  This leads to further guilt.  The more effort it takes to pray the more neglected your prayer life becomes and the more guilt ways heavy on your soul.  You feel alienated from God because of your lack of prayer, more guilt.  Your mind becomes more worldly and the result is that prayer gets pushed further down or even off the agenda.  Yet you still believe in prayer.  You still talk to people about prayer and about the necessity of prayer as a daily discipline in the life of a Christian believer.  With the result that you have two parallel lives – the public Christian face which may even on occasions pray in public and the private (real) life where prayer is virtually extinct = guilt again.  The end is a downward spiral of neglect and guilt which culminates in spiritual desolation and you walking in the wilderness.  Is that a fair description of the prayer life of many Christian believers?  I think it is and the reason I believe it to be so is because it has been my Christian experience on many occasions. 

Many of us have a desire in our hearts to pray.  We really want to pray each day.  We believe prayer is important for our relationship with God, with others and in our own lives.  We desperately want to have a good prayer life.  We talk about the importance of prayer.  We receive prayer letters from missionaries, Christian organisations and prayer requests from others.  We believe in prayer and yet the practical outworking of that in our daily lives is sometimes non-existent.  We are full of good intentions but that is all they remain – ‘good intentions.’  Why?  Why do we fail to put into practice what we believe about prayer?

  I want to identify for you some of the key things which create difficulties in our prayer life and feed the scenario I just outlined to you.

Sin and Disobedience.

Listen to these words of Jesus in John 14.21 .  Those are familiar words to us but they convey so much concerning prayer.  What is actually revealed to us here is the ‘cycle of intimacy’ in a believer’s life.  Jesus tells us that our love for Him is expressed in our obedience to Him, to His Word.  He then promises that if we obey Him He will reveal Himself to us.  This revelation of Himself to us will lead us deeper into a love relationship with Him and so the cycle continues.  But the opposite of that is also true.  If we do not obey Him then intimacy is lost.  If we disobey Him then we lose that revelation of Him in our lives and our love for Him starts to wane and with it our intimacy with Him. Isn’t that what happened with Adam and Eve when they disobeyed in the Garden of Eden?  Whilst they obeyed the commands of God they had intimacy with Him.  Whilst they obeyed the commands of God He revealed Himself to them.  But once they disobeyed intimacy with God was lost.  Their disobedience brought sin into the created order and placed a barrier between God and them and the result was a loss of intimacy, loss of revelation and loss of relationship.  Sin brought about a loss in their lives and it does the same to us in our prayer life.  Listen to these words in Proverbs 28.9.    If you disobey (turn a deaf ear to the law) then your very prayers are detestable to Him.  Strong words!  Listen to how David expressed it in Psalm 66.18.  David says if he tolerated sin in his life, in his heart then God would not have listened to his prayers.  Friends listen to me now – if you entertain sin in your life then you will have difficulties in your prayer life.  If you are walking in the ways of sin you cannot know intimacy with God.  If you disobey the Word of God then your prayer life will be a struggle.  In fact the Word of God says God finds your prayers ‘detestable’ because your walk reveals you do not love Him and you should not expect Him to listen when you disobey.

  2 Chronicles 7.11-22   I want you to notice a few things here.  Firstly in verse 12 God tells Solomon he had heard his prayer. This is an answer to Solomon’s two requests in 6.20, 40.  But read on to verse 14.  God tells Solomon here are the conditions for answered prayer:

(a)  Humility of my people. 

(b)    Seek my face in prayer.  Note that – ‘seek God’s face in prayer’ not ‘seek God’s hands in prayer.’  Too often we come looking for what is in God’s hands and not what is in His face – but I will come to that in moment. 

(c)    Repent – if they turn from their wicked ways – obedience. 

(d)    Then God promises to hear and to answer.  So friends this morning I want you learn from that.  Unconfessed Sin will bring difficulties into your prayer life.  In fact if it remains unconfessed it will stop your prayer life altogether.

Wrong Relationships.

In the passage from 2 chronicles 7 we read that God said He would answer prayers spoken in the Temple.  We know from the teaching of the NT that we are now god’s Temple of the Holy Spirit – 1 Corinthians 3.16.  We know that sin can hinder prayer but listen to these words from Matthew 5.23-24 and Matthew 6.15.  What do you notice about them?  Do you notice the teaching of each of them?  Jesus says that if you come to pray and there is a wrong relationship in your life then you must sort it out or the result will be that difficulties will arise in prayer.  Listen to what Peter says in a more specific way concerning prayer and the marital relationship – 1 Peter 3.7.  Peter warns that if a husband does not respect his wife, fail to love her as Christ loves His church, then a hindrance (barrier) will arise in their prayer life.  That is a very sobering warning to us all .  Friends wrong relationships are a reason we have difficulties in prayer.  It might be a relationship that needs a fence mended, an apology given or forgiveness asked.  It might be a relationship that is forbidden in the Word of God and you are persisting in it, or about to enter upon it and you wonder why your prayer life is beginning to be difficult.  Examine your life.  Examine your relationships and bring them before God and then mend the fences.

Loss of Focus.

2 Chronicles 7.14.  Matthew 6.6. I could list many more Bible passages which show that our focus in prayer is to be God.  The Psalms, especially, are replete with commands to focus on God in prayer.  The Bible teaches us that when we come to pray our focus is on God and not on anything else.  Listen to these words from Exodus 20.1-6 – they are familiar to us as the 1^st and 2^nd commandment.  But did you ever stop for a moment and think how they relate to your prayer life?  When you come to pray you are to have no other God but God on your heart and mind.  When you come to pray God’s glory, the worship of God is to be the focus of your heart and mind – not the ‘prayer list.’  It is easy to allow ‘prayer requests’ to become ‘idols.’  It is easy to forget that prayer is about a relationship with God and communication with God.  It is easy to lose the focus of an encounter with the living God, which should always lead us to worship Him before anything else.  So wrong focus can create difficulties in prayer because we come not thinking of God but of our requests.  The result is that our minds wander, stray on to the list of things we want God to do for us and that leads us to the next difficulty.  

Wrong Motives. 

READ James 4.2-3.  Again these may seem like harsh words but they are so true of our lives.  How often our prayer life becomes difficult because we come to God with wrong motives.  We come seeking His hands and not His face.  We come with a shopping list and then sulk when we do not get what we asked for.   John 2.1-11 and Jesus’ first miracle.  Jesus was attending a wedding at Cana of Galilee.  The wedding party has run out of wine, which would not only be an embarrassment but a social scandal at that time.  Mary, His mother, comes to Him makes a request of Him – a prayer to Him.  I want you to note the following about her request (prayer):

(a)  she came to Jesus – v.3.

(b)  she told Him what they lacked –v.4.  She did not tell Him what to do or when to do it.  She simply told Him what they lacked.

(c)  She left it with Jesus and told the servants to do whatever He said – v.5

You might think there is nothing out of the ordinary in that sequence.  But allow me to compare that passage with how we generally pray.

We come to Jesus – great start.  We not only tell Him what we lack, but how we would like it to be answered and when we would like it to be answered.  I know we should be specific in prayer but that is different than telling God what to do and when to do it.  We can, and often do, use prayer as a means of giving instructions to God.  We use it as a means of commanding God to do our bidding and the result is it becomes a burden to us because we have failed to trust God for the answer.  We think we must tell God how to answer our prayers and the result is we spend hours trying to work out the answer to the prayer request and then we proceed to tell God how to answer the prayer and all the time we say ‘we are depending on God to answer.’  While all the time we are in fact being ‘hypocrites’ because we do not trust Him to answer in any other way than the once we have commanded of Him in our prayers.  The result is that when God answers according to His perfect will, and not our sinful commands, we either fail to see the answer, have stopped looking for the answer and generally begin to give up on prayer.  The difficulty has arisen not because God does not answer but because He did not do our bidding.  It was a wrong motive in prayer and it leads to difficulties in prayer.

So when you come to pray come with the right attitude or motive.  Come, seeking God’s face, and not His hands.  Come not with the answer already worked out but with trust to a Father who wants only what is for our good.  When we come with the wrong motive/attitude fear is the driving force.  Fear and anxiety will rob us of our faith in prayer and will create the difficulties that will lead us to give up on prayer.

Practice and Perseverance.

 Luke 18.1-8 READ.  This is a well known parable about the widow who was persistent until she got an answer from her neighbour.  Jesus used the parable to teach the disciples about persistence in prayer.  One of the reasons we have difficulties in our prayer life is because we are not discipline people.  We give up very easily.  We do not stick at prayer.  Coaches and athletes speak of a thing called ‘muscle memory.’  It is where the athlete, in whatever sport, has practiced time and again an action needed – so much so that the muscle remembers instinctively how it is done – so that under pressure the muscle’s memory will repeat the action despite the stress of the moment.  Friends we need to develop a prayer memory so that even when the pressure comes, the storm hits and the stress rises we instinctively know how to pray.  That will only be if we persistently practice prayer.  That will only be if we make prayer so much part of our daily lives that without faltering our memory knows how it is done even in the midst of the storms of life. Jesus said ‘you do not have because you do not ask.’  The widow was rewarded for her persistence – it was an important lesson for the disciples and it is for us also.

   Exodus 14.15.  You might wonder ‘what on earth has that got to do with prayer?’  Friends, Moses was still praying when he should have been up on his feet and leading the people across the Red Sea.  There are times when difficulties in prayer arise because we are still on our knees when God wants us to be up and walking forward through a Red Sea path He has prepared for us.  Don’t you get frustrated with your children when they ask the same question repeatedly – even after you have given the answer?  Sometimes we are guilty of asking repeatedly when God has already given the answer.  The reason we ask repeatedly is because we have fallen into the trap of telling God what the answer should be or we have failed to have eyes open for the answer.  We are like the man sitting on the roof of His house as the flood water rises all around and who refuses several means of rescue because ‘I am praying the Lord will rescue me.’  He eventually drowns and standing before God he asks ‘why did you not rescue me? I prayed hard and long.’  God’s reply ‘who do you think sent all the means of rescue?’   Friends, like Moses, there comes a time when God has answered and we need to get up and walk forward.  To remain on our knees in prayer when we should be up and walking is a lack of trust, lack of faith and disobedience and the result will be difficulties in our prayer life.  So having identified some of the difficulties in prayer I hope we will now have a more Biblical understanding of how we can overcome them.

Amen

Spiritual maturity

The art of letter writing is really dying today.  With all our technology, email, text messaging and twitter receiving a handwritten letter is almost as rare as ‘hen’s teeth. The letter to Philemon is a very personal letter, but it is also an open letter which in all probability was brought  back  to  Colossae along with  the  letter  to  the Colossians.  Written by the apostle Paul, almost certainly whilst he was in prison in Rome, between AD56‐58 to Philemon in Colossae concerning a runaway slave called Onesimus.   We are told that not only had Onesimus runaway but he had, it appears, also stolen from his master – verses 18‐19.


Verses 1‐3 the greeting is different from the other letters Paul has written.  This letter follows the ancient form of a letter of commendation. More formal but not unlike how we  would set  out  a  CV  reference for  someone today. Paul‘s opening words are calculated to suggest that his appeal for Onesimus should be looked on favourably.  In verse 1 Paul tells us he is a prisoner of Christ and in verse
9 he tells us he is a prisoner for Christ.  He was a prisoner of Christ in that Christ had bought him with his blood and now he was in prison Rome for Christ and the sake of the gospel. Paul suffered for the sake of the gospel and this is a mark of his apostleship.  This in turn adds weight to his request for clemency for Onesimus.  Paul adds Timothy’s name to the appeal.  Paul greets Philemon, the owner of Onesimus, and also Apphia who is generally accepted to be his wife and would have been responsible for the day to day running of the household, including responsibility for slaves.   The greeting is also extended to Archippus who is the elder of the church, a church which Onesimus would have to join when he goes back to Colossae.

Verses 4‐7 we have a section of thanksgiving and prayer. Verses 4‐5 are very typical of Christian letters of the day. The greeting was followed by thanksgiving and prayer. This is a full thanksgiving – Paul tells them that he always gives thanks for them and he does so in his prayers.  He thanks God for them.   He tells them why he gives such thanks – verse 5 – because of their faith and love for Christ and his people.  In verse 4 we should note that the
‘you’ is singular not plural.   The ‘you’ that Paul is giving thanks for is Philemon.  Whereas the ‘you’ and ‘yours’ of the greeting and the ending of the letter are plural.   So although this is letter is addressed to Philemon it is also to be read in the church.
Verse 6 Paul prays that Philemon’s participation in the faith will be made effective because he has a full understanding of the gospel and of God’s love and goodness in Christ towards them both.  Paul throughout his letters makes it clear that knowledge precedes good works – Colossians 1.9‐10.

Verse 7 Paul knows all about the love that Philemon has for Christ expressed through his love for Paul.   Paul is alluding to the spiritual maturity that is found in Philemon because his faith is expressed in love towards others. The implication is that the love that he has shown to Paul and others will now be shown to the runaway slave Onesimus. How he treats Onesimus upon his return is Paul’s concern because it will be a reflection of Philemon’s Christian maturity.

Let us linger here for a moment.  There is an important lesson for us to learn here concerning Christian maturity.


How we love one another is a sign of our Christian maturity.  More importantly how we love someone who has wronged us, repented of the wrong they have done, and  sought  to  be  reconciled is  a  sign  of  our  Christian maturity.   We can do nothing about their part – the repentance and desire for reconciliation but are answerable for our expression of love when genuine repentance has occurred and loving reconciliation is desired.  I want you to note as well that Paul never told Philemon it  would be easy and he never seeks in this letter to justify any of Onesimus’ actions.   To our 21st century ears the very thought of slavery is horrific but Paul does not discuss the morality of slavery either.  Paul has written on behalf of one brother in Christ to another brother in Christ who has been wronged to bring about reconciliation for the sake of the gospel and the glory of Christ.   Remember the context and the purpose of the letter and don’t get sidetracked with other issues.





Verse 8‐22 the Plea for Onesimus. This is the heart of this letter and it is important for us not only to understand Onesimus’ situation but also to understand where Paul is at this moment.   Paul’s circumstances are significant. Because Paul is in prison he cannot do the things a free man could do to help a slave.  All he can do is write this letter of appeal to Philemon, asking for clemency for this new brother in Christ.   If Paul was a free man he could have applied to the officials to have Onesimus assigned into his care for a time. This was not uncommon at that time.   Onesimus was in a very vulnerable situation.   A runaway slave was protected by no laws and he was open to all manner of abuse.  In Rome he could be anonymous but if caught he could be beaten unmercifully and their life expectancy was short.   By asking Philemon to show mercy towards Onesimus Paul was asking Philemon to go against all the cultural norms of the day and by this request Paul is in fact giving rights and dignity to a class of people who no one thought worthy of even life.

Verse 8 Paul begins his plea for clemency by reminding Philemon that he (Paul) is an apostle.  Paul had authority in the church and he reminds Philemon that he was not afraid to exercise that authority but on this occasion he will not command Philemon to obey but will appeal for
‘love’s  sake’  that  Philemon agree  with  his  request  for clemency.

Verse 9 in the ANE ‘old age’ also conveyed authority on you and Paul mentions this second level of authority in his life.  Wisdom and authority were assumed to go with old
age but Paul here emphasises his feeble condition and situation.

Verse 10 now Paul pleads with Philemon for Onesimus. He calls the slave his son – this depicts the relationship of a teacher and a student in the faith.

Verse 11 Paul now uses a play on words in this verse. Onesimus =  profitable or  useful  –  Paul  uses  ‘chrestos’ which  meant  useless  and  ‘euchrestos’  which  means useful.    ‘Chrestos’  in  turn  sounds  like  ‘Christos’  –  the name of Christ.  We miss the humour and the subtlety of such a play on words.   It would not have been lost on Philemon.  Paul is showing how sensitive this situation is for everyone and he is showing tact in dealing with it.  It would seem that Paul introduces some humour into the letter at this point because what he is about to ask of Philemon is so radical that it may just provoke laughter.

Verse 12 – I don’t think Paul can make it any clearer how fond he is of Onesimus.  Paul also reminds Philemon that Onesimus had served Paul whilst he was in prison and Paul credits this to Philemon – verse 13.  Paul desires to keep Onesimus with him for the comfort and help that he brought him but he shows deference to Philemon, how could Philemon now refuse Paul’s request for clemency?





Verses 15‐120  –  Paul  shows how  he  understands that God’s hand was in control of this situation right from the very start.  Paul does not refer to Onesimus as a runaway but of their temporary separation which would lead to a permanent reunion.  Please don’t take that verse out of
context and use it for relationship counselling – as I heard some people do in the past.   Similarly he refers to Onesimus as a ‘slave’ which is a temporary situation and then as a ‘brother’ which is an eternal condition in Christ. Paul goes even further in verse 17, referring to Philemon in business terms as a ‘partner’, an equal with the apostle in the work of the kingdom of God.   Philemon was to receive Onesimus as if he was receiving Paul, his partner in the gospel.  Paul then commits himself to pay (verses18‐19)  any  financial  loss  incurred  by  the  actions  of Onesimus.  This shows Paul’s love for Onesimus and for Philemon.   He does not want Philemon to  suffer as  a consequence of his request but he also wants to make it clear that repentance and reconciliation also requires restitution.   Paul reminds Philemon of the debt that he owes Paul which should more than cover the debt owed by  Onesimus  but  never‐the‐less  Paul  will  pay  what  is owed.  Paul tells Philemon that in obeying this request he will refresh Paul’s heart in Christ – because the act of love in Christ will be seen by all.

Verses 21‐22 – Paul knows that Philemon will obey out of love for the Lord and for Paul.  In fact he is so confident of the Christian maturity of Philemon that he knows Philemon will do more than he has asked of him.   Paul knows that Philemon, because of the gospel, will treat Onesimus fairly and graciously.   He is confident of this because he knows Philemon’s heart and life are rotted in the gospel.

Verses 23‐25 Paul finishes his letter to Philemon with a standard  ending,  followed  in  many  of  his  letters.    He mentions those with him and commits Philemon to the grace of Christ Jesus.

We might well be appalled at the thought of slavery.  It is not something we encounter or would even countenance today.  Yet in the first century to suggest doing away with slaves would be akin to suggesting we get rid of all electrical appliances and any transportation that required oil, diesel or petrol to power it.  Society of the day never really gave the owning of slaves a second thought.  Yet, a careful reading of Philemon shows us that Paul expected a radical change in the relationship between master and slave, slave and master within the Christian church.   In Christ  relationships  are  dramatically  and  radically changed. Paul asked two men, in Christ, to do an amazing and courageous thing.  He asked Onesimus to go back to the master he had run away from and he asked Philemon to accept Onesimus back into his household without punishment.  In fact Paul hints in the letter that Philemon should even consider giving Onesimus his freedom (verse21).  We don’t own slaves and so the immediate context of this letter is removed from our everyday lives.   Yet, what of the principles taught here.

1.  When we come to Christ Jesus our relationships are changed – for the better.
2.  When we have wronged someone God asks us to repent, to return and to seek reconciliation with them.
3.  If we have been wronged and the person who has offended  us  repents  and  comes  back  we  are  to forgive and restore the relationship.  That may be a painful experience for us but it is what Paul teaches here.
4.  Sometimes we are called by God to stand against the way the world deals with broken relationships and in so doing we may place ourselves in a place of ridicule, outside our social circles and be misunderstood but we know we do it because God has called us to obey his word.  This is a sign of our Christian maturity – remember that.
5.  Authority – finally we need to take seriously the spiritual authorities that God has placed over us in Christ.  Those whom God has made overseers of his flock and who through the Word of God, not their own authority or position, but teaching the Word of God point out to us how God has called us to live we are to obey them.

 You may have such a broken relationship in your life – you may be an Onesimus who has run away and today  God is calling you to repent and go back. Or, you may be a Philemon and God is saying when that person comes back – show Christian maturity for the sake of the gospel of love.  Show clemency, the world may not understand and  may  even balk  at  what  you  do  –  but receive them as you would receive me.  Take a moment now and examine your heart and see if you are in the place of Onesimus, or Philemen – or even Paul where you have to exhort someone to do a radically difficult and counter‐cultural act of reconciliation in order that they might be spiritually mature.

Amen.

Grow up

I am sure many of you have had the experience of feeding a baby. The food does not look that appetising, all pureed down for easy digestion. After a certain period of time a baby moves on to more solid food. If you came into a home and found a 16 year old still being spoon feed baby food you would naturally assume there was something wrong with the child or that the child had never grown up. Sometimes we tell people to grow up and stop behaving like a child. Sometimes we are not brave enough to say it but we think it about the person. We all know people who are immature for their age. People who have never grown to maturity are stunted in all areas of their lives.  I want us to look to Hebrews chapter 5.12 to 6.3. We are going to be challenged, I pray, today about growing to maturity in our Christian faith. The important lesson for us all is to be moving on with Christ and no longer remaining babies in the faith.
The letter to the Hebrews was written to Hebrew Christians in Rome as an encouragement. The writer is disappointed with his readers for he expected them to be further on in their Christian faith than they are. Can I say to you all, as humbly as I can, I believe this is true of many reading this and also myself.
Context: Prior to where we began reading this  the author of the Hebrews has written of the priesthood of Christ and how that priesthood is eternal and therefore the sacrifice which He offered, Himself, is also eternal in its effectiveness.
Verse 11. This is quite an opening statement. The author desires to move on into the teaching and doctrine of the Christian faith but he states, quite plainly, that he cannot do so because they are "slow to learn." This is not because they had educational difficulties but because they were lazy about their faith and therefore slow to learn. Their minds had become dull over time because they had grown lazy in their thinking about the Christian faith. How many Christians today are lazy in their minds about their faith? How many will read the newspaper, magazines, or the latest novel but their bible lies gathering dust on the shelf? Take a moment to think of all the opportunities available to you, to learn more of your faith and how few actually avail of it. Think of how poorly informed, educated and thought through so many Christians are. It is not that there are no resources or opportunities to learn. In fact the very opposite is true but Christians are slow to learn because they have become lazy of heart and mind. The author of the Hebrews wants them to be ashamed of themselves and for this to be a motivator for them to awaken from this slumber and to move on from being babies.
Verse 12. The writer tells them that they had been Christians for so long that they had sufficient time to qualify as teachers of the faith but the reality was far from that. They had actually failed to go on in the faith, instead remaining as babies in understanding and belief. In Romans 2.21 and 1 Peter 3.15 we read that those who had progressed in the faith demonstrated this by an ability to instruct others in the faith. In their case they still needed elementary instruction in the faith. Their knowledge of the faith was minimal when it should have in fact have been advanced. The phrase the writer uses is that they were still in need of learning their 'ABC's.' They were still in the beginner's class when they ought to have been teaching the class.
Verse 13. This is the way the author sees it: 'Anyone' still occupied with the 'ABC' of the faith is still an infant and must be treated as such by the church. They are not 'acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.' He is saying that right living is missing from their lives because they have no understanding or knowledge of how a Christian should think or live. Because they are still feeding on milk they do not conduct themselves in the manner in which God expects.
Verse 14. However, mature people require solid food in order to be healthy and to be able to live a healthy life. Such solid food for the Christian is found in prayer, the Word of God, fellowship and in righteous living before God and man. Physically the results of a healthy diet are clear for all to see, as are the results of an unhealthy diet. The same is true of us spiritually. A spiritually healthy diet will enable the Christian to distinguish between right and wrong, between what is true teaching and false teaching. They will be able to distinguish good from evil and will not be in danger of going astray in their walk with God. You see if they lack perception then their Christian service will always be immature and partial.
6 verse 1 begins with 'Therefore' which moves the readers, and us, on to more solid food. The writer begins with 'Repentance' which may to us seem like 'ABC.' It remains the basic building block of solid food. He speaks of 'repentance from dead works' which relates to the legalistic Jewish ways that so many of his readers had left behind when they came to Christ Jesus. It also refers to genuinely evil acts committed by them before they came to faith in Christ. The writer wants them to understand that they have been forgiven and therefore there is no need to remain at that point but the time has come for them to move on. Now please understand what he is saying to them. He is not saying that repentance is unimportant. He is not saying that there is no need for them to confess their sins to God. He is saying that there is no need for them to go back to be born again.  They do not need to lay that foundation again. Think for a moment about the foundations of a building. They are essential to the safety and security of a building. Remember the parable of the wise and foolish builders. Foundations are vital for the structure to remain standing but you build on foundations. You do not dig foundations and then continue to lay them over and over again. No builder keeps laying the foundations. They are laid and the building is built upon them. You cannot do without foundations and you cannot ignore the foundations of a building. A foundation is laid for the sake of the building. The same is true of the spiritual life. You need the right foundations to be laid in your life if you are going to build a solid spiritual life. Friends let me say to you this is where many christians go wrong. Too many people today think that you can take a shortcut with the foundations and then they struggle in their Christian life.
A belief in the bible as the in-errant, inspired Word of God, containing all things necessary and sufficient for someone to be saved and to be mature in the faith. These are the foundations that enable you to move to maturity in your faith. 
Verse 2 the author now writes to them about 'instructions' which are different from 'foundations.' He mentions 'baptisms' or 'washings' which were different ceremonial rites and also of 'laying on of hands' both of which were widespread practices in antiquity. He then speaks of the 'resurrection of the dead' and 'eternal judgment.' These two topics go together as they remind the hearer that this life is not everything and one day it will come to an end. They are to be aware that one day they will rise from the dead and stand before the judgment seat of God. This was important in a society where most people thought that death was the end - has anything really changed in society in the intervening millennia.
Verse 3 - so they should be determined to press on with the help of God. They should have a set determination in their lives to move from milk to solid food. Without God's help such progress would be impossible but with God they would grow to maturity in the faith.
The author to the Hebrews wants them to understand that you cannot learn all of the Christian faith in one day. It takes time to teach and an effort to learn. There is the important task of teaching but there is equally the important task of listening. The problem with the Hebrews, and with many within the Christian church, their hearing is dull and their appetite for the Word of God limited. The author actually uses the word 'nothros' to speak of them, which means 'slow of mind.' It is hardly a compliment. It can be translated that they witlessly and senselessly forget what they have been taught. The task of teaching is difficult but so is the task of listening.
You know one of the saddest fairy tales is actually Peter Pan. When you read the story you realise how sad it is for a little boy to never grow up. It may seem magical and wonderful but it is actually a sad story. How many people who claim to follow Christ are in fact a spiritual Peter Pan? They have never having progressed from milk to solid food.
The challenge  is very clear, I hope:
Having come to faith in Christ have you progressed in the faith?
Have you laid the right foundations?
Do you have a desire to grow in your faith?
Are you putting an effort in to grow in your faith? There is no substitute for a disciplined regime of bible reading, prayer and Christian fellowship. If those foundations are not in your daily life then you will remain a child and your spiritual house will eventually collapse. To remain Peter Pan in real life is in fact not a fairy story but a tragedy. How many of you are Peter Pan spiritually?
Question is do you actually want to do anything about it? Hebrews says it is time to grow up.
Amen.

ITS NOT ABOUT ME

2 Corinthians 4 verses 1-6

It would appear that today being a celebrity is actually a job.  There are people who appear on the front pages of magazines and the gossip columns of newspapers and there only contribution to society is some sort of celebrity status.  Today, more than ever, we are surrounded by a culture which is totally selfish and self-absorbed.  Such pre-occupation with ‘self’ has even entered the Christian church.  I recently came across a  Max Lucado  book which was called ‘It’s not about me.’  I was struck by the title.  How far have Christians drifted from a focus on Christ Jesus to a focus on themselves that a Christian writer feels compelled to write a book with such a title.

 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 1-6. 

Context

 Paul has written to the believers at Corinth because he has changed his itinerary. He had planned to make two short visits to Corinth but had changed that to one longer visit.  Some false teachers had come into the church and were saying that Paul’s word could not be trusted, that he was not truly an apostle, that he was using trickery to deceive the believers and also that the money they were collecting for the persecuted church at Jerusalem was actually going into Paul’s own pocket.  So in preparation for his coming visit and to counter such lies Paul writes this second letter to them.  Paul’s personal authority and integrity has been challenged by this false teachers and at the end of the letter he assures them of the certainty of his visit and warns them that he will not fear disciplining those who have wandered from the truth of the gospel of Christ.  So that is the context behind the letter of 2 Corinthians.

More immediately the context of this passage if you look at chapter 3 verses 7-18, is that Paul has been comparing and contrasting the glory of the OT Covenant, which was transitory with that of the NT Covenant, which is eternal.  He further points out that the OT Covenant revealed their sin and brought condemnation and yet it was glorious, whereas the NT Covenant (in Christ) brings them freedom – see verse 17.    Paul concludes in verse 18 that the outcome of this glorious new freedom brought about by the New Covenant in Christ is that we (sinners under condemnation of the Law) are transformed into the likeness of Christ.

Verse 1 –Don’t lose heart

It is very easy to lose heart as a Christian leader.  Here Paul gives the answer to such failure of heart – remember who called you.   Humanly there was every reason for Paul to lose heart – he was many miles away from Corinth, he was being attacked personally and was unable to answer his critics in person.  His ministry was denied, his personal integrity questioned and from a distance he could see newborn Christians being led astray by false teachers.  But what about each of you ? Do you find times when you lose heart with the Christian gospel?  You look around you, maybe even within your own family, and children are going astray – walking away from the faith in which they had been brought up.  Youth leaders – years of hard work seem to bear little or no fruit in the lives of young people.  As an individual you strive with all your heart to follow Christ but you seem, like Paul, to have your personal integrity questioned and to have everything you worked for dismantled by the lies of others.  It’s easy to lose heart in the light of such things.  But at that moment, many miles from Corinth, under attack both physical and spiritual, Paul reminds himself and his readers that his calling (and theirs) to witness to the gospel was by divine appointment and not human choice.  If you hear nothing else today hear that – your calling into a living relationship with God through Christ, and your call to witness and service was and is a call on your life by God Almighty – therefore do not lose heart.

Verse 2 Paul then goes on to reject one of the central allegations of the false teachers that he used trickery and deceptive words to beguile them into following him and giving him money.  Look at what he says – ‘we.’  He includes them with himself here.  They have rejected the manipulative and deceptive ways of the orators of the day.  They have rejected the shameful practices of such people.  Instead Paul says they speak the truth plainly – and they commend it to the conscience of men.  In defending his words he does not appeal to factions or to partisanship.  He makes no appeal to the logic of his arguments, though he could have.  Instead he appeals to the truth of his words as witnessed to in their conscience when he spoke.  You see the temptation is always to manipulate the gospel to make it more appealing intellectually or more acceptable morally.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer described such tampering as ‘cheap grace.’  Paul will not tamper with the truth of the gospel to make it or himself more acceptable to the Corinthians, neither should we.

Why did he commend it to their conscience?  You remember the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and how the Lord Jesus after his resurrection walked along with them and explained form the Scriptures the truth about the cross and the resurrection.  What was it that burned within them as he spoke? - Their hearts, their conscience.  Can I say to you all that is our task in the year ahead– to commend the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the consciences of those we encounter as we serve Christ.  We commend it to their conscience that the Holy Spirit might convict them of sin and of their lost estate before God.  We commend it to their conscience that the Holy Spirit might bring them to repentance and faith in Christ and place the hope of salvation in their hearts that they would not lose heart.

Verses 3-4 Paul is a realist if he is nothing else as he writes to the church at Corinth.  Read verse 3.  Paul points out that the hearts of some of those who hear this truth plainly spoken will remain unmoved, untouched, some consciences will remain hardened even though the gospel has spoken to it – why?  Because their hearts are veiled.  Billy Graham once said that when the gospel is preached you need to have two pairs of ears to hear – one physical to hear the words of the preacher an the other spiritual to hear the Word of God spoken to you.  I believe that is why Christ often says in the gospel ‘let him who has ears hear.’  To hear not just physically but spiritually. 

Paul says such veiling of the heart, which deadens the conscience to the voice of God, comes from unbelief (which leads to perishing – eternal damnation) and the ‘god of this evil age’ – a reference to satan.  I want to stop there for a moment – pause where you are and listen to those words of Paul again – read verses 3-4.  Is that a description of your spiritual state and status this morning?  This morning is your heart veiled to the things of God, to the Word of God, because of your unbelief in Christ and because satan rules your heart and has blinded your eyes to the truth of the Gospel.  Be under no illusions – there is a spiritual battle being waged right at this very moment for your eternal destiny.  As you read these words satan and his cohorts are doing everything within their limited power to prevent the veil of your heart from being removed so that you might see ‘the glory of Christ’ as you read.

Verses 5-6 which leads me to these final two verses and which are at the heart of Paul’s defence of his ministry and of the gospel he preached at Corinth.   Lance Armstrong, 7 times winner of the Tour de France, recently wrote a biography which had the title ‘It is not about the bike.’  The focus of his biography was himself, naturally enough.  Paul would agree more with Max Lucado’s tile ‘It is not about me.’  Paul presses home his point that the gospel is all about Christ in these two verses.  Here he is defending his apostleship and the message he has preached amongst them and he does so by pointing not to himself but to Christ.  Paul says that when he preached amongst them his resolve, his hearts desire was to preach ‘Christ Jesus as Lord.’  Can I say to you this morning that the last two words give meaning to the first two words.  If Paul had written ‘I resolved to preach Christ Jesus’ and stopped there we would have thought nothing of it, but no, he resolved to preach ‘Christ Jesus as Lord.’  The significance for Paul is not just preach Christ Jesus but preaching him as ‘Lord.’  In other words preaching Christ as God incarnate.  Hence he takes his readers, and us, right back to the beginning of creation and the spoken word of God which brought physical light into physical darkness – so in preaching Christ as Lord – Paul is revealing the Light of the World who is the Word of God made flesh – who has come to bring light upon those who walked in darkness.  Can you see how Paul gathers hear the whole of Scripture into two verses.  Let me illustrate it even further for you.  To the Jews the most important thing was Light – the Word of God was a light unto their feet, a lamp for their path.  The pursuit of such light was the goal of the Jew.  To the Greek the pursuit of Knowledge was everything and to the Roman Glory was the aim.  In verse 6 Paul takes the hopes, the aspirations and the driving force behind each of those three major civilisations and he brings them to together in one sentence centred on Christ Jesus – read verse 6.  But the key to the whole verse is that without the light of God shining in their hearts, removing the veil from their hearts, they would remain in darkness, they would remain in ignorance and they would remain in shame.  The truth of the gospel of Christ was needed to be plainly set before them, to be commended to their conscience – which was Paul’s part (and our part today) but they required the illumination of the Holy Spirit to shine the light into their heart, to remove the veil that they might have the knowledge of Christ so that the guilt, the shame and the punishment of sin might be removed and the glory of Christ revealed in their lives as day by day they are transformed into his likeness.

You see in the OT Covenant we read these words – Exodus 33 verse 20 – God speaking to Moses after Moses has asked to see the glory of God - “no one can see my face and live.”  God hid Moses in the cleft of a rock and allowed Moses only to see His back pass by – if you read the text closely you will se that God told Moses that he would reveal his glory before Moses and declared his name – ‘faithful love and mercy.’  God’s glory was revealed in his name in the  OT hence the fear of even speaking his name.  Here Paul tells the Corinthians, and us, that the glory of God is revealed in Christ.  Not only is it revealed in Christ but they can do what was impossible under the old covenant – look into the face of God and behold his glory – John 1 verse 14.  Paul says – “It is not about me – it is all about Jesus.”

Friends  can I just encourage and challenge you with that sentence ‘It is not about me – it is all about Jesus.’  It is not about your reputation. It is not about your status or your organisation . It is not about me OR you.  It is all about Jesus.  Paul preached Jesus Christ as Lord and himself as his servant – may we follow that example. Amen.

Why do we come to Church

Nehemiah 12 – Re‐dedication

Why do you come to church?  Why do you meet at your church each Sunday? Why do you follow the service structure that you do?  What is it you are actually doing there each week?  Does it matter if you don’t turn up some weeks?  Does what you do there on a Sunday morning make any difference in your lives?  Does it mean anything to you? 

Chapter 12 of Nehemiah is all about worship and worship is why we come  Sunday by Sunday. William Temple, who was Archbishop of Canterbury in the middle of the 20th Century said this of worship:

“The most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable, and therefore the chief remedy for that self‐centredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.”




Worship is ‘worth‐ship’ and describes the act of the heart, the mind and the will whereby we acknowledge that God alone is worthy of our praise, our adoration, our worship.   Whilst the Word of God does not lay down a set structure for public worship for all people for all time a careful reading does give us important characteristics of worship.   Nehemiah 12 is one such part of Scripture which teaches us important truths concerning the nature of worship:

The Purpose of Worship

Why we worship is an important.  How would you answer someone if they asked you why you came to worship on Sunday?  If you look at verse 27 we see that the purpose of worship was to celebrate, to give thanks and to dedicate themselves to God.

Celebration – Look at verses 27 and 43 – celebration and joy  are the primary aspects of worship.  The celebration is not about us but about who God is, what God has done and what God has God has said.   The people of Israel celebrated these three things and they should  be  the  foundation  of  our  celebration  when we  come  to worship.   The people had joy when they came to worship.   Their songs on that day were a celebration and their joy was heard far away.   Worship was never meant to be a doleful and dreary experience.   Sometimes we need to be reminded of that because we come with heavy hearts and weary souls and we have no joy in the Lord.   Sometimes people leave worship more weary and depressed  than  when  they  came  in  and  that  should  not  be. Worship is meant to be the natural overflow of our joyful hearts.

Thanksgiving (verses 27, 31, 40) – secondly they acknowledged God’s gifts to them and we should acknowledge God’s gracious gifts to us.   What did they acknowledge?   They gave thanks that Nehemiah met his brother and heard about the state of the walls of Jerusalem.   They gave thanks that God enable Nehemiah to find favour in the eyes of Artexerxes who allowed him to travel to Jerusalem, who gave him letters for a safe passage and for the resources needed to rebuild the walls.  They gave thanks for God’s hand of protection against their enemies, for uniting the people in the work and for its successful completion.  I want you to note that they were specific in their thanks – as the old hymn encouraged us to do – we should count our blessings, name them one by one and you will be amazed at what God has done.  In verses 45‐46 we read that thanksgiving was not a one off activity but something which was recurring in their worship.

Dedication  –  they  dedicated  themselves  and  the  work  of  their hands to God.  It was a symbolic and public passing of ownership back to God.   Worship has that aspect to it – where we publicly pass ownership of our lives back to God.




Variety – look at verses 26‐29, 35, 41‐42 – there were a variety of instruments used in the worship of God and many different people participated in the leading of God’s praise.   Not only was there a variety  of  instruments  there  was  also  a  variety  of  voices  – sometimes it was one of the two choirs, sometimes a lead singer and sometimes the people.   The worship of God on this day was rich with variety and was for all to join in singing God’s praise.




Priority of Worship – look at verse 30.   There is something very significant happening here.   Do you notice what happens before
worship begins – purification.  Here at the beginning the necessity for a clean heart and a contrite spirit is taught and emphasised to the people.  Before they come to worship almighty God they seek His forgiveness and publicly, ritually go through an act of purification.

History  and  Tradition  –  look  at  verses  36,  45‐46.    Sometimes worship can become a battle ground between what is new and what is old.   Not so with Nehemiah and the people of Jerusalem. They were prepared to make use in worship of the words of their forefathers.  All the history of church worship is not to be rejected and everything new is not to be unquestionably accepted.


Public witness – read verses 31, 38 and 43.   Their worship was a corporate testimony to Almighty God.   They paraded around the walls and their worship was heard far beyond the confines of the city.  Our worship is a public witness to almighty God – what does it say to a dark and unbelieving world?  Would someone who has no faith in Christ know why we  come to worship every Sunday?  Would your children know why you have come by your conversation   on   the   way   here   in   the   car?   Or   over   dinner afterwards?  Unfortunately they may not.  Remember that worship is also a testimony of where our hearts are with Christ Jesus. Remember worship is part of our evangelism – so what does it say about us?




They were united in worship – verses 27‐28.   The people were brought together from near and far to worship God.   They were split into two groups going different directions around the walls praising God.   They met at the foot of the Temple steps and proceeded to worship almighty God.  Look around you this morning
– there are a variety of ages, backgrounds etc but we are united in the worship of Almighty God.  One day we will join a throng before the throne of Christ drawn from every nation, every tribe and every tongue and we will be one in our worship of the Lamb who was slain.  Church worship is supposed to be a foretaste of that unity – now ask yourself is it?  Worship is a united act of the people of God
– it is not a divisive act and if you are here to worship without
fellowship with others around you then you have sin in your heart and you need to repent.  If worship divides it is going against God’s divine plan and will.
Costly – verses 44‐47 – it cost the people of Jerusalem to worship God.  They had to bring the tithes into the Temple so that worship could continue – we should remember that.  But I want to broaden your horizon here  and I want you all to take this on board,



Quality – this is the last but not the least point in the passage – look at verse 42.  There was nothing haphazard in their worship – it was directed, it was led and it was of the very best that they could offer to almighty God.  We should desire in all our worship to offer God our very best.  The best of our abilities and talents.  The best of our musical abilities, the best of our heart and voices in praise should be offered to God.   When we come to read the Word of God it should not be haphazard, prayers should not be haphazard, music, choir, band whatever – it should be of our very best.


We come to worship because He alone is worthy of our worship.