Confessions

          I've got a confession to make, whenever I begin to prepare a message, I rarely             find myself thinking in evangelistic terms.
Whilst I am obviously concerned that men and women and of course young people,    Should come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I inevitably find myself being drawn to the question of.

How to encourage Christians, to move forward in the working out of their Christian faith.   ( And this of course includes myself   )

My wife often pointed out to me that the messages I bring generally seem to be directed towards Christians.
I don't apologize for this, as I consider it to be a very relevant part of the Christian Gospel.

Because I could quite easily stand here and preach a Social, or a Political Message,
to which most people would be able to say, Amen.
But it would serve no purpose for the Lord,   Nor would it provide any benefits for the kingdom of God.
Simply because it would be implying that the answer to the worlds problems lie only in our human effort.

And to do that would only compound the problem.

This world's many problems are there, because too many people are already seeking to find answers to them, in this way.

In their own strength.     Rather than looking to God.
And this includes many Christians.

This world is badly in need of Christians who look to God for answers,
Rather than relying on their own abilities.

Eph. Chapter 4 verse 11
"And his gifts were that some should be apostles some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,
To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ."

The purpose of any message in the Church is to point us to God.
And the need to do things God's way,      In His strength,       Not our own.

Just before Jesus was taken up into Heaven       He said to his disciples.
Acts. Ch. 1 v. 8
"And you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth."

But Jesus never intended for them to work alone,
Because He also said to them that they would have the power of the Holy Spirit to call upon.

The more Christians there are, that are equipped for ministry, The more likely it is that the Lord will be able to raise up evangelists.

If we are going to be profitable for the Lord there are a couple of things in scripture that we need to acknowledge.

The First and foremost, is found in 2 Tim Ch. 3 v.16
"All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness; that a man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."

Please take especial note of the words    For training in righteousness
We all need training in righteousness. It is imperative that we read the word of God Regularly for ourselves, that we may be fully trained.

No one can be profitable for the Lord unless they wholeheartedly accept that God's word is     "The truth.     The whole truth.       And nothing but the truth."
For Christians to pay little or no attention to reading Gods word is to be unrealistic.

Proverbs Ch. 30 v. 5 reads
"Every word of God proves true;
He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Do not add to his words,    Lest he rebuke you, and you be found a liar."

And in Romans Ch. 3 v. 4.
" Let God be true though every man be false"

Also to be truly effective in our service for the Lord.
Along with acknowledging the truth of Gods word. We must also fully realise the Importance of putting God first in every area of our lives.

In Matt Ch. 6 v. 33.We are encouraged to,
" Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness;"

But more to the point
In Matt Ch. 6 v. 24. We read
"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon."

Now we know that Mammon refers to money and riches.
But the inference here is that we must not treat anything else as a God.

I can't help but stress the importance of grasping the significance of these two fundamental issues.

It is very easy to take these two points and accept the truth of them with the mind, and miss completely the vital, or I should say the crucial importance they have, for us to be fully equipped for ministry.

When the Bible speaks about having faith in Gods word,
It doesn't mean to just believe,    Or to just give intellectual assent to a set of religious facts.

James tells us that "Even the demons do that and Tremble"

Surely if we are prepared to admit to the truth of the Bible,      With all its claims and promises,          It deserves some sort of positive response on our part.

After all the first commandment says.
"You shall love the Lord your God,      WITH ALL YOUR HEART,    WITH ALL YOUR SOUL        AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND."
This is not me speaking     This is the word of God

To be of service for the kingdom. The Lord must be our priority,

When did you last put God first.     And I don't mean by coming to church.
That is something you probably planned to do anyway.

I mean when did you last forfeit something you had planned to do.
To take advantage of an opportunity to do something specifically for the Lord.
Or even,    When did you last make an opportunity to serve the Lord

Perhaps we feel that we haven't been called to any particular sphere of service.
James goes to great lengths to tells us in Ch. 2 v. 20
" Faith without works is dead"

Perhaps we feel we haven't got the ability.       Phil. Ch. 4 v. 13 reads
"I can do all things in Him who strengthens me."

I was once advised by a Baptist minister
If ever you're asked to do something for the Lord, Say Yes immediately, and worry about it afterwards. That's the only way that you will find out how much you can trust the Lord to see you through

And Rom. Ch. 1 v. 16 says
"For I am not ashamed of the Gospel: It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith."

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is The power of God to salvation, it doesn't depend on our abilities.
Isn't this what we believe is the remedy all of worlds ills.

How can we justify ignoring such a challenge as this,
To be part of the great commission to go into all of world and preach the Gospel.

In Phil. Ch. 3 v. 8ff We read these words of Paul's
" 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 refuse,
In order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him."

In Luke's Gospel Ch. 9 v. 23.
He reports Jesus as saying to everyone present.
"If any man would come after me, let in deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.          For whoever would save his life will lose it;
And whoever loses his life form my sake,      he will save it." ----------
And in verse 26 He continues. "For whoever is ashamed of Me and of my words,       of him will the Son of man the ashamed when he comes in his glory".

A sobering thought.

Is there any of your possessions, that are worth more to you,
Than being instrumental in someone coming to know Jesus Christ as saviour and Lord.?

We occasionally sing a song in our worship time.

I want to serve the purpose of God in my generation
I want to serve the purpose of God while I am alive.

All your past years have gone forever.        And your future is unknown.
Perhaps tomorrow the Lord might have need of you in a way you are not expecting
Now is all the time you have.

This World believes that it can deliver itself from all its problems,
with its own resources and abilities.
These resources and abilities, generally lead to the use of guns and tanks

In the book of Hosea Ch. 1 v. 7.
, Referring to The house of Judah.     The Lord said.
"I will deliver them by the Lord their God;
I will not deliver them by bow,    nor by sword,     nor by war,     nor by horses, nor by Horseman."

There is only one person who can deliver this world from the way it is heading
And that's the Lord Jesus Christ

The world needs a Saviour. We know who that Saviour is.
Are we going to keep him to ourselves.

We all know of the story of Jonah,     How God told him to go and witness to Nineveh.       And after initially running away God brought him back with the help of a whale.
And then because Nineveh responded to the witness of Jonah,
God changed his mind and didn't destroy the city.

This made Jonah angry,      He felt that he'd wasted his time,
And that God never intended to destroy the city any way because he was a compassionate God.

Chapter 4 of Jonah has an interesting sequel.
Lets READ it Jonah Ch. 4 Beginning from verse 5
          Jonah went out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter, sat in it's shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. then the LordGod provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort,and Jonah was very happy about the vine.But at dawn next the day God provided a worm, which chewed the vine so that it withered.When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die , and said. "It would be better for me to die than to live."
But God said to Jonah,"Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?"
      "I do," he said. "I am angry enough to die." But the Lord said, You have been concerned about this vine, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.
But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand peoplewho cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city.

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In this little story about this vine, The Lord gives us an illustration.
Jonah was angry over the vine being destroyed, And yet as the Lord pointed out to him, he had done nothing to care for it and help it to grow.

This world is fast moving to a similar situation to Nineveh, it's plight is effectively in our hands as we take our place in the Christian church.

Are we going to run away from our responsibility as Jonah did

Are we going to be angry about the world and do nothing about it.

Or are we going to step out in Faith and see how the Lord will use us

As he used Jonah

AMEN