keeping going in the faith. Having deep roots

Mathew 13: 1-23 Matthew 7:21-23 New International Version (NIV) True and False Disciples 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ I am going to do a series of three talks on the subject of “Keep Going”. How do we keep going in our faith? Ginny reminded us last week that not all who join OM went on to continue to serve the lord and Steve encouraged us to look at TRUE DISCIPLESHIP. I was considering looking at this subject and what they had to say seemed to me to confirm that I should do this. Let me start by saying that I do believe that true believers do go on, and for those who do not, let us not not comfort ourselves or them by saying they are only back sliden. They may be, but perhaps they were never truly saved. I think that is clear from Mathew 7:21-23 THE MULTIUDE. We are told that a multitude gathered to hear the lord and he got out on the sea in a boat to speak to them. I think that in our day, if that happened, or if we filled a stadium, we would count that as a great success. Jesus did not look at it that way. He saw it as a fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah 6: 8-13 We like statistics, and as guides they are helpful in our work, but ultimately that only statistics that will really count, are the names recorded in the Lambs book of life. I want to be sure that my name is in that book READ ISAIAH 6: 8-13. Isaiah was told that people would not listen, and Jesus referring to this prophecy was saying that it was still being fulfilled. People would hear the parables, but not hear or understand them, and that was what was happening with the multitude. They heard, but did not hear. They certainly did not understand. They were like the seed that fell on the path/road and immediately the birds came and ate the seed. It did not take route, and for many they heard the word of god, but did not believe it. Some fell in the rocky places and sprung up quickly, but did not have deep roots. Others fell among the thorns and grew and the thorns choked them. I have known people, who seemed to be good solid Christians, whom I respected and looked up to, but you will not find them naming the lord as saviour any more, or if they do, they have a lesser place in the estimation of the church, because their lives no longer have a credible witness. Some went on for a good number of years before they fell away. Their roots were not deep and the cares of the world overwhelmed them. I take that as a warning. I ask myself the question, “How deep are my roots?” I take stock of my life. I want to hear Jesus say to me “WELL DONE GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT, ENTER INTO THE JOY OR YOUR LORD.” Mathew 7: 21-23 warns us that for many, that will not be the case even though they expect it. Jesus further warns us Matthew 24:12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, Gary reminded us that sometimes we grow tired, physically and spiritually and we need to take a break, eat, be refreshed and that is what God did for Elijah I think some grow tired, spiritually and give up. When we feel that way, as indeed sooner or later we all do, I find comfort in this. Matthew 24:13 But the person who endures to the end will be saved. I find that glorious. It motivates me to go on. I think that is why Mathew has recorded that for us. To motivate us to keep going with that end goal in sight of being admitted into Gods presence when we pass from this world. There are people in the bible, who seemed to be faithful believers, but proved false JUDAS Mathew 26: 17-25 All the disciples said, “Surely not I” They could not believe that any of their own company would be a traitor, yet this had been fortold. Jesus said woe to him, it would have been better for him, if he had never been born. Judas was trusted with the money. When jesus sent the disciples out and they worked miracles, Judas would have gone out like all the others and worked miracles. He seemed to be just like the others. Seeking truth, seeking the lord, lamenting his sin. Yet, his heart was turned and even when Jesus handed him the sop that identified him as the traitor, Judas still did what was in his heart. He betrayed Jesus to his enemies. Judas proved to be like the seed that grew up among the thorns. He would have heard the parable to and had it explained to him, yet that did not stop him doing what he did. Let us look at someone else Turn to Colossians 4: 1-14 (read it) From this passage I conclude we are to be alert and devote ourselves to prayer. Paul names people in this passage. People who sent their greetings to the church at Colossi, one of whom was Damas. The fact that he is mentioned here means that Paul held him in high esteem. Indeed Demas was with him in the ministry while Paul had his first spell in jail IT SEEMED TO PAUL THAT DEMAS LOYALTY TO HIM AND TO THE LORD WAS BEYOND QUESTION. Turn to 2nd Timothy 4:9-10 9 Do your best to come to me quickly, 10 for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry. The good, and loyal Demas had proved to be not so good or loyal. Paul is disappointed and lonely and wants Timothy to come and bring Mark with him for he was useful. In that one sentence Paul is saying that the person he relied on, “Demas” has let him down, and the person he had rejected “Mark” has now proved his worth and paul wants him. Sometimes it is the most unlikely people who truly have deep roots. Paul had argued with Barnabas about Mark and they had parted company. With passage of time, Paul has changed his mind. When I look back, I am so glad that I had a number of Barnabases who did not give up on me. They thought I was worth it. I trust they were right AMEN

I put the following in the village news letter. I had previously written an article in it where I said that faith was vital to life. Someone wrote a letter, that was not signed or addressed and left it at the chapel in response saying that they felt that they had to say that I only said faith was vital to life because I was not confident person. This is laughable, but it made me realise that what I had written was not clear and that I had to write something that was. Once I had written and submitted the following, I realised that if it were printed, it would come out at the same time as the "Uncover" course that the Quinta Church and St Johns plan to do as an evangelism event in the village. I think this is Gods providence. It could not be better. It is like saying we all have a problem and this is sin. If you take part in the course you will find the answer. Here is what I wrote in the village newsletter. Most people do not actually read the bible, yet they think that they know what is in it. When you actually read it a great deal of it will surprise you Mathew 5 and 22 reads as follows "Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. It is for this reason that I said in the last Wren that faith is vital, as indeed it is. This life is the journey to court and God is the judge. We are told in ~Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, This means we are all guilty of sin, it is our nature. We are all on the way to Gods Judgement, the question is will we settle with him now and accept the payment for our sin that he has provided in Jesus dying on the cross, or will we face him still guilty and face the penalty. In Pauls letter to the Romans Chapter one from verse 29 we read Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife deceit, malice, they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents. Without understanding, Untrustworthy, unloving, Unmerciful and although they know the ordinance of God that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but give hearty approval to those who practice them. I therefore say to all from 2nd Corinthian chapter 6 verse 2 For he says, "In the time of my favour I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favour, now is the day of salvation. The point is, we all need to settle the matter now. Tomorrow may be too late. In romans 6 and 23 we read For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is what we must do to get the gift of God, we must surrender and trust in Christ completely. When we know how unworthy we are, we marvel all the more at his love.

I found a frizbee

I found a Frizbee this evening as I walked round the office checking that it was locked up. I realised that it had to belong to the group in the conference centre who are mainly children. I took it in. I approached one of the men. He did not recognise it, but one of the girls thought that it belonged to a particular boy. I left, but I could hear a lot of young voices talking from the windows across the courtyard. They were terribley excited. I found it a great atmosphere. I loved it. Those who do not live here miss the opportunities for moments like it. I had heard one of the young women telling them the night before to say yes to Jesus. To invite him into their lives and there was nothing they could do but say yes and let Jesus in. Bearing all that in mind, as I heard all those young voices tonight over the courtyard. I prayed for the group. I have no idea who they are, but I prayed that many, if not all of them may be saved. I prayed that young womans message to them last night would bear fruit. AMEN

solved

As I expected, there were technical problems today after the upgrade, but they seem to have been solved.

Gods provision

I have returned from holiday. I hope I never forget the following. I recently upgraded my phone as I saw one at a price I thought good. this was my first holiday with it. I used my sat nav to get to destinations. However, one of the places I was booked into could not be found by my sat nav. Only the week before, I had seen my friend use his phone as a sat nav, so I decided to try mine to find out if it could locate the hostel I needed to go to. It did. My old phone could never have done that and without the new one, I would have been stuck for the night. I see it as Gods provision. He provided the phone, the bed to go to, the money and by watching my friend, I had instructions on how to use the phone as a sat nav just when I needed it.

Sign Language

A man who comes to the Conference Centre every year came twice this week. On Second occasion he brought his wife over. She is deaf and mentally retarded.  He pointed out the world map on our wall with the Logos hope and made a V shape with his hands and then little swimming motions.  I expect the V is the bow of the ship and the swimming motions are the ship sailing

2nd timoth 2

2nd Timothy chapter 2

I have always felt moved by Pauls letters to Timothy for I myself as a young man felt very similar to him.

It seems that Timothy was somewhat shy for Paul tells him not to let any man despise his youth and to stir up the gift within him.

Timothy in the first three verses, is being charged with the responsibility of teaching other men, and then theywould go on to teach. 

I presume that in this way the early church would multiply or certainly cultivate a good leadership team well able to teach.

Verses 3-7  Paul uses the imagery of a soldier , the athlete and the farmer.  The thing they have in common, it that they are single minded.  The soldier is not involved in the affairs of the world, the athlete endures difficulties to win and the farmer also endures to enjoy the benefits of the crop.

Think of andy murray. He got the best coach he could and trained in the best places in order to win.

So Paul is saying to Timothy that his life has to be like that. He needs to put in the effort to please the Lord. 

Paul gives to Timothy in versed 8-10 as an example of someone who is enduring.

If any one of us were trying to encourage someone in the faith as Paul was encouraging Timothy. Would we be able to give to them, our own lives as good examples to follow?  WE AUGHT TO BE ABLE TO.

Verses 11-13 the trust worthy saying

If we are FAITHLESS,  he is FAITHFULL.  That sounds very comforting, but in the context I am not so sure that it is.  I THINK IT IS A WARNING.

I think that in saying that he is faithful, and that he ( the lord) cannot deny himself, it is a warning to Timothy and to others that if we are not faithful then God is faithful to himself to carry out the punishment that he said he would. The context is in in verse 12

If we endure, we shall also reign with him; If we deny him, he also will deny us.

**Thus If we deny him, then God will indeed be faithful to himself by denying us.

Verse 14-19

It seems to me that none of the things Timothy was told to tell them would be new to the hearers for is told to REMIND  them and SOLOMLY charge them. In the presence of God not to wrangle about words.  Timothy was not telling them things they did not already know, he was reminding them.

Paul must have thought it necessary for them to be reminded.  We humans forget, or ignore lessons and we need reminding.

Verse 15, has always been of great value to me.   Tell the story of how I learned I could teach)

From this, verse, I realised that teaching was a solemn responsibility and that one day, I would be judged by God and have to give an account of what I teach. Therefore, I need to take care that on that day, I am not ashamed.  I have no idea how I may be influencing people for good or ill by the things I say and the things I write, but one day, God will show me.

For paul to bring this up must mean that this was going on.  You will recall that Paul had to rebuke those who said, “I am for Paul, I am for Christ, I am for whoever was their favourite speaker” and Paul says, Did Paul die for you? 

It is against this that Paul tells Timothy to be diligent in handling the word of God. 

Perhaps we have our favourite speaker, or our favourite author. People who have and are well used of the lord to win others and to influence them for good.  However, no matter how good they may be, they are not to take the place of what God has revealed.  Sometimes even the very best of authors and speakers get things wrong and it is up to us to make sure that our understanding of scripture is correct and not to accept something just because someone else says so..

I still find that there are things that I change my mind about.  We must be willing to be corrected.

A friend I have known for many years pointed out some areas of life where I have changed.  I said to him, well, there were reasons at the time for why I held to those views but when you are wrong then you need to be honest with yourself and admit you have been wrong and change accordingly to what the bible actually reveals and I hope that I go on doing that.

V 19. The lord knows who are his, ( we may not but god does)

Let all who name the lord abstain from wickedness. It is putting off wickedness that marks us out as belonging to the lord.

Paul uses the image of a large house where there are gold and silver vessels but also vessels of wood and earthenware. He is saying that we start as the vessels of wood and earthen ware.  Common and of no great value, but as we cast of sin then we become precious vessels for good work

Avoid worldly and empty chatter.  In this case, Paul is specific.  He names two people HYMENAEUS and PHILETUS.  He likened their talk to being like gangrene which spreads and is deadly.  These two people were going around saying that the resurrection had already happened, and by doing so they were destroying the faith of others.

We to need to be diligent in opposing false doctrine that could lead others astray.  The fact that people paid attention to these men, must mean that they were held in some esteem.

Paul is constantly warning Timothy to stay away from quarrelling.   He had to preach the truth

I have to conclude that as Paul emphasises avoiding quarrelling so much, this must have been going on in the church.  I can think of no other reason why Paul would say this to Timothy.

This is not to say that Christians never disagree ( because we do) but we should not quarrel to the detriment of others and ourselves. It is time consuming, foolish and leads to sin.

When someone opposes us, the gut instinct is to argue back.  Paul is saying to Timothy to stop and think and do the opposite. To be gentle in his reply so that perhaps his opponents may repent. We should not be involved in character assassination, and there are many matters that are only of secondary value.