Sermon for Sunday March 6th

Sermon for Sunday 6th March 2022

 

Today is the first Sunday in Lent, the explanation of what Lent is, is given as:

 ‘A Christian season of preparation before Easter. The Lenten season is a time when many Christians observe a period of fasting, repentance, moderation, self-denial and spiritual discipline. The purpose is to set aside time for reflection on Jesus Christ—his love for us demonstrated by His birth, suffering, his sacrifice, his life, death, burial, and resurrection.’

Last week Mark encouraged us to make time every day, to break our routines, and make time to talk with God; to have ‘God moments’. Mark told us about ‘times on the mountain’ when we see more clearly, feel closer to God. These ‘God moments’ when we go into a quiet place and spend time with God are when our faith is strengthened.

I asked if I could do the message this week as I want to share something with you:

Maybe you can relate to my experience and find comfort and encouragement from hearing how God helps us through the difficult times.

 

A couple of weeks ago I wasn’t in a good place. It wasn’t that I had stopped talking to God but I was consumed with myself. The thing is, I was cross with myself, it wasn’t that anyone else had annoyed or upset me, I had upset me. I had said something that I wished I hadn’t and I kept asking myself why had I said it, why when I knew better, why when I think I may have upset someone, why when that’s not who I am trying to be, why, why why!!! And that’s how it went on, my eyes on me. And what was worse, because I was cross with myself, I became irritable and short tempered with others and that made me feel even worse because I had lost the inner peace and joy that I have from the love of Jesus! The constant conversation I was having with myself replaced any other thoughts and prayers.

 

Then Mark emailed a copy of the lent course in preparation for the Zoom Bible Study (we started it last Tuesday, some of you that don’t have zoom may have a hard copy, they are available for anyone to have), and I read through it and it was just what I needed to read. Reading about how much Jesus loves us made me feel so thankful that I was able to take my eyes off myself and I realised that I had been blocking the flow of love that Jesus pours down on us all. I hadn’t been listening to the Holy Spirit, I had allowed the devil to trap me into self-pity and self-absorption, I was sorry and asked for help not to repeat my mistake, but on my own, I couldn’t shift the mood I had put myself in. God gave me my inner peace back again. By focussing on my problem, I was doing all the talking (to God) but I wasn’t listening to Him. And so, reading the lent course meant I was listening to God’s word, turning my eyes to God, receiving His love and that released me from the trap that I had fallen into.

 

Now maybe you haven’t annoyed yourself like I did, but maybe it’s even easier to fall into that trap when someone else or some situation has made you angry or upset, the thing is, while you are stuck in the grip of unforgiveness your heart is hardened against the love flowing from Jesus. Only with the help of the Holy Spirit can you forgive and pour out Jesus’ love to others especially the people who hurt you.

Romans 12:14 says ‘Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse’

And of course, we are now living in a world situation where the threat of a war is getting ever closer. It is easy to become fearful of what lies ahead. In all of these times we’re not thinking that God loves me, He saved me, He forgives me, He is my Father, He will look after me, instead we get wrapped up in whatever has upset, angered or hurt us, or we live in fear of what may happen in the future or reliving regrets from the past. Our eyes shift from God to ourselves. Our minds are not open to what God might be telling us, our hearts maybe hardened because of situations or we may have closed down to protect ourselves from pain. We are no longer aware of God’s love pouring down on us, we forget who we are, a child of God’s, we forget to turn to our loving Father.

This is why it is perhaps more important than ever to remember who we are in Christ, we are new creations because of Jesus’ love for us and the sacrifice He made for us. Let us keep on remembering to put off our old selves and focus on what it means to be one of the children of God, living in His Kingdom on earth, so that we can be lifted above our circumstances and receive inner peace.

 He knows the beginning from the end, Jesus has already defeated death and anyone who believes in Him shall not perish.

1Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praise of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.

We have to be active members of God’s family, and I’m not talking about doing charitable works, I’m talking about the everyday effort we need to put in to making sure we have ‘God moments’, reading God’s word, listening to what the Holy Spirit is telling us, responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, allowing our hearts and minds to be full of the love of God, being in a close relationship with God and obeying His commandment:

Matthew 22:37 ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it Love your neighbour as yourself’

I believe If we don’t do the first commandment, we will not be able to do the second. We need to do our bit to get ourselves back on track when we find we’ve fallen into a trap and taken our eyes off the Lord. We will all have our own way of being close with the Lord, we must make the effort and time to do that, there is a danger that the longer our eyes and ears are turned away from Him, the harder our hearts will become.

Remember what Ephesians 6:10 tells us about putting on the Armour of God

V10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

So, lets remind ourselves of the armour who can tell me the 5 pieces?

Belt of truth

Breastplate of righteousness

Footwear fitted with readiness to spread the gospel

Shield of faith

Helmet of salvation

Sword Word of God

 

Do you think Jesus needed help from His Father in getting through the situations He was faced with?

We read in Luke 3 v 21-22 about John baptizing Jesus:

‘When all the people were being baptised, Jesus was baptised too. And as He was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased.”’

His identity, who he is as being related to God, is established in a sentence. How Jesus would need to cling onto his knowledge of being loved, as time went on!

Luke 4 v1 says that ‘Jesus full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert where for 40 days He was tempted by the devil’.

This time would have tested whether he would hold onto his identity as belonging to God and His knowledge of God loving him when things were really tough. When the conflicts came, when the opposition mounted, when he was threatened and unpopular, when he was suffering and apparently God-forsaken could he still hold onto the belief that God cared, would save, love and bring new life? You're my son, whom I love; I'm pleased with you.

Like Jesus we must keep hold of our identity, to a belief that our identity is also, like Jesus, wrapped up in God. That we are also loved and that he is also pleased with us – not because we get more things right than we get wrong but because we belong to him. Nothing more.

There will be so many things to knock us off course and so many things that shape our sense of who we are – the person who's lived with constant criticism; the one whose family was such a mess that they don't feel connected to anyone... If we have recognised our need for forgiveness and believe that Jesus is the Son of God that we will not perish but will have everlasting life- then our ID is found in Christ. That should affect our confidence now, our hope for the future – and our behaviour. We need to live as if we belong to him. The biggest temptation of our lives is to let go of our identity as being in God's family and to let go of a trust in God's power and knowledge and love, so that we give up doing things his way and take charge ourselves instead. It's then we need to remember what Paul said in Romans 8:38

‘For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels or demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’

Amen

 

Prayer

Lord, help us to know that if we mess things up, You still love us. Help us to keep our eyes on You with an open and grateful heart. We lift up those people who need to know that You are pleased with them, whatever other people may think of them. We lift up those living in fear and ask that you soften hardened hearts.

Lord We want to love You as much as You love us, fill us with Your Holy Spirit, guide us through this life, keep us on Your path. May we humbly praise Your name and rejoice in the knowledge of Your love and remain faithful until we come together for the glory of Jesus Christ,

Amen

 

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