10:30 service, 5/9/21 - St Andrew's Cathedral Sydney

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so so [Music] hear the word of the lord for to me to live is christ and to die is gain paul wrote these words as he described the amazing love that god had shown him in saving him from sin and showering him with forgiveness they were words that described how for paul his soul had been shaped by what god had done for him good morning and welcome to san andreas cathedral in sydney australia my name is chris allen and we welcome you to our morning service of the word as we gather together as god's people around his word remotely as i said we gather together in this way to be reminded of god's love for us to worship god and to encourage one another this morning we welcome all fathers and grandfathers as we celebrate in australia father's day we give thanks for the wonderful gift of our fathers that god has given to us for some we remember with sadness and grieving others with joy and thankfulness little later we'll pray for our fathers for their role in the lives of our families and in particular our church this morning we also want to welcome to our pulpit bishop peter jensen who will preach for us over the next three weeks and we take a break from our series in isaiah the series that peter begins today is entitled words which shape the soul we begin our time now together by standing and singing our first hymn i will sing the wondrous story of christ who died for me [Music] i will sing the one the cries to die for me [Music] [Music] is [Music] i was lost but jesus [Music] oh [Music] in glory [Music] i was [Music] i was [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] days of darkness [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] please [Music] [Music] [Music] yes [Music] is [Music] us [Music] we have come together to meet with god and to take our part in the building of his church christ himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness by his wounds we have been healed let us acknowledge our failure to serve him as he deserves and return to the lord with repentance and faith praying together heavenly father you have loved us with an everlasting love but we have often gone our own way and rejected your will for our lives we are sorry for our sins and turn away from them for the sake of your son who died for us forgive us cleanse us and change us by your holy spirit enable us to live for you and to please you in every way for the glory of our lord jesus christ amen as high as the heavens are above the earth so great is god's love towards those who fear him as far as the east is from the west so far has he removed our transgressions from us in jesus christ our lord amen give praise to the lord call on his name make known among the nations what he has done let us pray heavenly father give us faith to receive your word understanding to know what it means and the will to put it into practice through jesus christ our lord amen the first bible reading is from jeremiah chapter 10 verses 1 to 10. hear what the lord says to you people of israel this is what the lord says do not learn by the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in heavens though the nations are terrified by them for the practices of the peoples are worthless they cut a tree out in the forest and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel they adorn it with silver and gold they fasten it with a hammer and nails so that will not totter like a scarecrow in a cucumber field their idols cannot speak they must be carried because they cannot walk do not fear them for they can do no harm nor can they do any good no one is like you lord you are great and your name is mighty in power who should not fear you king of the nations this is your jew among all the wise leaders of the nations and in all their kingdoms there is no one like you they are all senseless and foolish they are taught by worthless wooden idols hammered silver is brought from tarshish and gold from upaz what the craftsman and goldsmith have made is then dressed in blue and purple all made by skilled workers but the lord is the true god he is the living god the eternal king when he is angry the earth trembles the nations cannot endure his wrath this is the word of the lord thanks be to god we join together to say psalm 9 i will give thanks to you lord with all my heart i will tell of all your wonderful deeds i will be glad and rejoice in you i will sing the praises of your name o most high my enemies turn back they stumble and perish before you for you have upheld my right and my cause sitting enthroned as the righteous judge you have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked you have blotted out their name forever and ever endless ruin has overtaken my enemies you have uprooted their cities even the memory of them has perished the lord reigns forever he has established his throne for judgment he rules the world in righteousness and judges the peoples with equity the lord is a refuge for the oppressed a stronghold in times of trouble those who know your name trust in you for you lord have never forsaken those who seek you sing the praises of the lord enthroned in zion proclaim among the nations what he has done for he who avenges blood remembers he does not ignore the cries of the afflicted lord see how my enemies persecute me have mercy and lift me up from the gates of death that i may declare your praises in the gates of daughter zion and their rejoice in your salvation the nations have fallen into the pit they have dug their feet are caught in the net they have hidden the lord is known by his acts of justice the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands the wicked go down to the realm of the dead all the nations that forget god but god will never forget the needy the hope of the afflicted will never perish arise lord do not let mortals triumph let the nations be judged in your presence strike them with terror lord let the nations know they are only mortal glory to god father son and holy spirit as in the beginning so now and forever amen our bible reading from the new testament is found in philippians chapter 1 verses 15 through to 26. it is true that some preach christ out of envy and rivalry but others out of good will the latter do so out of love knowing that i am put here for the defense of the gospel the former preach christ out of selfish ambition not sincerely supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while i am in chains but what does it matter the important thing is that in every way whether from false motives or true christ is preached and because of this i rejoice yes and i will continue to rejoice for i know that through your prayers and god's provision of the spirit of jesus christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance i eagerly expect and hope that i will in no way be ashamed but will have sufficient courage so that now as always christ will be exalted in my body whether by life or by death for to me to live is christ and to die is gain if i am to go on living in the body this will mean fruitful labor for me what shall i choose i do not know i am torn between the two i desire to depart and be with christ which is far better but is more necessary for you that i remain in the body convinced of this i know that i will remain and i will continue with you for your progress and joy in the faith so that through my being with you again your boasting in christ jesus will abound on account of me this is the word of the lord thanks be to god i encourage you to be upstanding as we join together in affirming with christians across the ages what we believe about god and his love for us i believe in god the father almighty creator of heaven and earth i believe in jesus christ his only son our lord who was conceived by the holy spirit born of the virgin mary suffered under pontius pilate was crucified died and was buried he descended to the dead on the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the father from there he will come to judge the living and the dead i believe in the holy spirit the holy catholic church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting amen [Music] let us pray oh father in heaven we thank you that you have not left us in ignorance and darkness but have given us the light of your word and we pray now that by the power of your holy spirit our hearts will be opened our wills moved our faith strengthened and we may live in accordance with the will of our savior the lord jesus christ in whose name we pray amen amen words which shape the soul words which shape us and make us the persons that we're intended to be what words have shaped you what words have come to you and and made you the person you are perhaps you've been listening to what the world is saying these days it's interesting to see what our schools are saying interesting to see what we're told constantly in books and other places about who we should be take one slogan that is very popular these days you be you it's interesting and in the darkness which engulfs us because we have abandoned the god of the bible we have nothing to tell us and so we encourage each other with such words you be you be you do you for you as i've read in another slogan uh or in a book that i came across recently you be you transform your life by focusing on self-love or be awesome be empowered crush your limitations we're told with these words we try to shape the soul there was a moment in my own life there was a moment when i heard words which have shaped the soul of this man sinner though i am in fact precisely because i'm a sinner these words meant so much to me it was at the service at which i was confirmed by the bishop and he gave a text for us to remember and it was these extraordinary and marvelous words from paul's epistle to the philippians chapter 1 verse 21 these words entered my soul for me to live is christ and to die is gain rather different aren't they from you be you be you do you for you transforming your life into self-love no for me to live is christ and to die is gain these words were spoken or rather written by the apostle while he was in prison he knew not his future in terms of this life indeed his future looked bleak he was suffering in prison there were those not only was he in prison but there were those who were mocking him and even preaching his message for false motives life could well have been miserable in prison and death was a real possibility his future was obscure unclear to all he writes to his philippian friends in the philippian church where he'd preach the gospel and where they'd receive the gospel with joy and were living for christ and he writes to encourage them he writes to encourage them to be faithful he writes to encourage them to love each other he writes to encourage them to stand firm for the gospel of the lord jesus christ he is not sure whether he will see them again he is not sure what his own future will be he thinks it's likely that he will he thinks in the lord's plans it is possible that he will see them again but whether he will or whether he won't he says to them for me to live is christ and to die is gain this is what he understood life was about and this is what he gives us to shape our souls what did he mean by these words this morning we're going to use a set of little words short words prepositions to unpack the text as tools to see what it is that he's saying to us particularly today now for me to live as christ and to die is going listen first for me to live as christ what he means by this is that we live by christ we live in christ we live for christ and we live like christ first we live by christ yes of course we live we breathe and have our being we live on this planet so to speak for a period before we die but we are designed for eternal life and that life comes to us only through the lord jesus to know him is to have eternal life we live by the power of the lord jesus christ have you ever been lost i remember going to the royal easter show here in sydney with hundreds and thousands of people there as a little boy with my parents and suddenly i i couldn't see them anywhere i suppose i was four or five years old and i was lost for the first time of my life i i really didn't know where i was i was surrounded by adults who at one stage when i was with mom and dad seemed quite benign but now they were towering monsters threatening to devour me who were these people i felt helpless i felt anxious i felt fearful while i was lost the lord jesus tells the most marvelous parable in saint luke's gospel chapter 15 the parable of the lost sheep ninety nine hundred sheep ninety nine were safe one was lost you might think that the shepherd would think well 99 are good enough but no this shepherd does not think like that he leaves the 99 and he goes and seeks after that lost sheep and then a marvelous word a word that i always cherish he seeks the lost sheep until that word until someone once said to me holds the cross in it he seeks even to the cross until he finds that lost sheep the sheep is lost it cannot find its way home the sheep is lost it's frightened it's anxious it's helpless as i was that day and by the way of course i was found and so the shepherd comes and found finds the sheep he saves the sheep that day christ has saved us by his power for me to live is christ because he has brought me to life for me to live is to live in christ in the parable uh it's interesting in the in in hymns it speaks of jesus leading the sheep home but he does nothing of the sort he holds the sheep he puts on on his shoulders and he brings it home he doesn't let it walk home he carries it home and when we come to know the lord jesus christ we are told in scripture that by the power of the holy spirit we are united to christ we are in christ and all the wonders and beauty and marvels of be of christ himself are ours for we are in him and he of course is in us by the power of his holy spirit his future your future his spirit your spirit in him through his blood upon the cross you have been washed washed of all your sins in him you have eternal life you may trust him as the sheep did upon the shoulders of the shepherd to bring you home in christ for me to live is christ for i am in him and then we live for christ there's a marvelous word in uh in two corinthians chapter five which tells us that the christian life is a life in which our aim we make it our aim you know how it finishes you make it our aim to please him we don't live by a set of rules yes of course the rules exist the law exists it helps us but but it's not that we are living for a person there is someone for whom we die because we are living for this person and if you have been saved by christ what else would you be doing but living for him my aim is to please him by living as his servant the apostle goes on in this very passage to say they are to live worthy of the gospel to live worthy of the gospel that is how you should be living you believers in the lord jesus living lives worthy of the gospel part of that is of course knowing ourselves knowing our sin daily turning our back on sin and living for jesus now take one example i suppose not an apt example in our world here at the moment when we're locked in and that's the example of our speech is your speech that which always pleases the lord by words you see we can do enormous good but we can do terrible harm our words may not be honest words we may tell lies our words may not be loving words we may denigrate and assault other people our words may be covert words as we speak behind the back of someone and bring their reputation down do much good with our words when they're spoken with truthfulness and love because we aim to please christ we do much evil with our words as we speak with no love but only self-love and try to bring other people down what about your words how is your speech these days is it speech which pleases the lord for that is what you're called to do as a christian or is it speech for which the lord would shake his head with sorrow that you may speak like that is your speech an out gift of love or is it sin which guides your tongue well that's one example of the areas in which we must aim in all our life to please him we live by him we live in him we live for him and we live like him for as we live for him so we will grow like him transformation uh there's a wonderful text at the end of two corinthians chapter three which says that we are being changed in this life as we seek to please him by the power of his holy spirit we are being changed from one yes you listen from one degree of glory to another as we seek to please him as we do his will so we will become more and more like the person that you admire most in all this world namely the lord jesus even you may be like him because his spirit will take you and make you like him for me to live is christ by him in him for him and like him and listen listen it's not only that is it and to die is gain and to die is gain or as he says in verse 23 in this in this passage uh if i get go on living in the body this will mean fruitful labor for me but what will i choose i am torn between the two i desire to depart and be with christ which he says is far better far better our future is glorious and so again three little words our future what is it to be what is heaven like we have only the vaguest ideas uh and in a sense uh let's wait and find out because at the very center of the bible's picture of heaven is a person and you know who that person is that person is the lord the lord jesus christ and your future is first of all to be with him you're not going to be alone any longer you're not going to be lonely any longer you're not going to be despised and rejected any longer you're not going to be cut off for any longer you are going to be with him for all eternity and who better you will have the absolute security of being with him who is seated at the right hand of his father absolute security you will be um and again two corinthians five comes to our help here you will be at home you will be at home you'll have gone home isn't that good isn't that a great word here you're not at home you're out then when you die you will be at home at home with the lord we're home with the one you know and love you will be with him you'll be like him the changing from degree from glory to glory until you become like the lord jesus will be complete on that day and you will truly be like him at the moment your miseries are caused by sin the sin you still carry within you but then you will have the perfect freedom of not even being able to sin any longer the perfect freedom you will be resurrected bodily as he was you will be living with an eternal weight of glory what a future again as the apostle calls it with him and like him and you'll be living for him it's not a matter of sitting up there at the clouds singing endlessly and hoping that it'll stop soon or something like that the picture we have of our life to come is a life of activity a life of perfect rest in which we're active and our activity is again serving him we are fully engaged in pleasing him and ruling with him indeed the active rest of fulfillment meaning and purpose is what lies you are to be the person you were designed to be and so i guess we have a choice don't we i guess our society has a choice it's interesting to see what our education system is suggesting to our children that they're giving up the old school mottos aren't they and they're suggesting and said you be you what was it crush your limitations really you must be very powerful to do that you be you transform your life by focusing on self-love it's pathetic it's tragic it's godless it's sad it's very sad particularly when you have another most wonderful option before you to be transformed into the image of the lord jesus christ and then wonderfully extraordinarily you will be you you will be you not because you've tried to be you because you've tried to be him and he will make you the person you were designed to be you will be you because you are his you will experience the joy of serving him in perfect freedom listen the apostle also says these wonderful words in the third chapter in the third chapter of philippians he says all things i count as garbage he was a pretty successful man but he says i counted as garbage that i may be regain christ and be found in him not having a righteousness of my own which comes from the law but that which is through faith in him i want to know christ yes to know the power of his resurrection and to participate in his sufferings becoming like him in his death so that somehow i may attain to the resurrection from the dead and he says i consider everything lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing christ jesus my lord may i ask you a personal question what's your choice you be you or can you say from the bottom of your heart for me to live is christ and even to die is gain our heavenly father we thank you so much for the gospel of our lord jesus christ we thank you that in it we find forgiveness of our sins and the washing away of all our sins in the blood of jesus we thank you heavenly father for the wonderful gift of your spirit that transforms us from one degree of glory to another and we pray heavenly father that we may be those who serve the lord jesus out of thankfulness for all that he has done for us we pray that we may indeed find that serving him in life or in death is gain and treasure and we pray for these mercies heavenly father in jesus name amen [Music] what gift of grace is [Music] is my joy my righteousness [Music] only jesus for my life is [Music] is [Music] i need his [Music] my shepherd will defend me through the deepest valley here [Music] c [Music] is [Music] so [Music] so [Music] you [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] let us pray our father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as in heaven give us today our daily bread forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for the kingdom the power and the glory are yours now and forever amen almighty and eternal god grant that we may grow in faith hope and love and that we may obtain what you promised make us love what you command through jesus christ our lord amen our heavenly father today we bring before you all those who are fathers and those who have been father figures to us grandfathers uncles godfathers or simply someone you have placed in our lives who makes us feel secure and cared for we thank you for those who have shown patience love and care those who have taught us and disciplined us in love those who played games with us picked us up when we fell forgave us when we got it wrong those who have imitated your love for your children as much as they are humanly able and lord we pray for those who have not experienced this and who find this day painful for those with absent fathers whether physically or emotionally those with fathers who have not acted toward their children with compassion but have been harsh or demanding gracious god please extend your fatherly tenderness especially towards them today give them in abundance what they have not received from those who should have provided we also pray for those who have lost their fathers for those who will always feel grief at the death of a beloved dad please protect the happy memories they have and continue to pour out your comfort into the space that has been left we also pray for those who have recently become fathers for the first time or who have welcomed another child into their family and for those who are father to a child to be born in the coming months please equip them to fulfill the role you have given them in ways that will encourage their children to flourish and grow we ask in particular that these children will have a wonderful model of godly fatherhood one which points them to their true heavenly father and that through careful teaching these children will come to know and love the lord jesus and gracious god we ask you to draw very near to those who are struggling at this time as kovid continues to burden us and to strip away so many of the opportunities we have for relaxing and recharging many of us are suffering lord there are those who have too much to do during this time and are feeling overwhelmed and there are also those who suddenly find themselves without anything to do and have lost a sense of purpose for these and for all of us in our own particular set of challenges please help us to come to you every day in prayer to lay our fears and anxieties at the foot of the cross to seek your comfort and to find the things that we can be thankful for every day and finally lord we give you thanks for the life of our dear sister lynn who has returned to be with you her heavenly father free from sickness and pain we praise you for calling her and adopting her as one of your beloved children we praise you for her example of gentleness faithfulness and humility we praise you that as her body grew weaker her faith grew stronger and she knew that jesus was calling her home we thank you that you heard and answered our prayers that her children might be able to visit her in hospital and that in your kindness you bought michelle nigel and dean to be with her as she passed from this life please be with them as they grieve her death fill them with comfort that is ours through the resurrection of jesus through whom believers need not fear death but rather rejoice in the certain hope of reconciliation with loved ones we bring all of these prayers and petitions before you in faith knowing that you hear you care and that you are at your work in your world among your people for our good and for your glory in jesus name amen friends we're so glad that you've been able to join us this morning as we gather together in this way before we conclude we do hope that you might be able to join us straight after this service as we get together to have a quick chat to see how we're going on the zoom platform and then pray the details of our prayer meeting on the zoom platform will be on our website www.sydneycathedral.com sydneycathedral.com you'll have also noticed at the beginning and the end of our service we've been flashing up on the screen a qr code that is a way in which you can get in touch with us particularly a way in which you might share prayer points with us it's been a great joy on mondays as the staff gets together on zoom as well to be able to pray through your needs and the things that you have asked us to bring before the lord please keep sending those to us or at the very least let us know that you've been watching uh the qr code is on your screen now of course if you can't use the qr code you are free to email us or phone us in the more traditional way finally friends i want to remind you of your financial partnership with us here at the cathedral the details in how you might support the ministry here in the cathedral is also on our website under the section on giving or in the comments section of this youtube video friends we stand together once again and i do hope you'll be upstanding in your homes as we sing jesus the name to sinners dear it scatters all their guilty fear it turns their hell to heaven jesus the name high over all [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] it scatters all their guilty fear [Music] jesus [Music] his face [Music] [Music] his grace [Music] and [Music] his righteousness [Music] this is [Music] is [Music] i may not cross [Music] is [Music] let us pray lord god we rejoice in your greatness and power your patience and love your mercy and justice enable us by your spirit to honor you in our thoughts words and actions and to serve you in every aspect of our lives through jesus christ our lord amen [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] you

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Length: 66min 22sec (3982 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 04 2021