Midweek Transmitted Divine Services WA

[Music] [Music] so [Music] so so [Music] so [Music] so so [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] so [Music] so so [Music] [Music] my [Music] so [Music] [Applause] so so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] you [Music] so [Music] [Music] is my [Music] change me [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] from me my [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Laughter] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign good evening dear brothers and sisters here and those connected in their homes our divine service will now commence and we can sing together him number 80 we will sing the first and the second verses [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign foreign [Music] let us pray together in the name of god the father the son and the holy spirit almighty and eternal god we have come together this evening to praise and glorify you to worship together to pray together to be encouraged together and father ultimately through your words to be perfected together and we ask father that you will look into our hearts and see that which is of great need to us because you know everything each and every individual situation and father we know that you can help according to our need we acknowledge you as the one true living god we recognize your hand of power in our life we recognize your intervention in everything that we have to work through the heavenly father and we are assured and convinced of your constant nearness and for this we praise and glorify you dear heavenly father we have also come here to hear your word to be led by your spirit to receive new insight and encouragement as we pursue this path to perfection and the return of jesus christ and we pray father that we are able to experience this in an abundant measure we have all come father with our petitions you know this again father and we pray that you grant that which we need we pray especially for those who are sick and sorrowful we pray for those who have lost orientation as it concerns the gospel we remember our brothers and sisters father who find themselves in difficult situations they sometimes do not know where to turn but we pray that we can always have orientation out of the holy spirit we are thankful that you give us a church which is in the center of our calling where we can learn and grow together always father and where our foundation can be on jesus christ always and part of this father is you have given us all the resources we need we are thankful that we have the apostolate and so we want to be bound to our apostle district and our chief apostle we want to share in the unity of your son we also want to share in the unity with our loved ones who have preceded us to be on the world and father we long to be together with him and your son jesus returns we pray that you preserve us in the face and allow that we can continue to grow and develop as you wish and now we ask that you fill us with the joy of christ and that the peace of christ is our portion and that the inspiration of the holy spirit creates a wonderful understanding of the word which has been prepared at your throne to heavenly father we pray above all things that you send your son that you hear us that you accept us in your grace and that you make us worthy we pray and ask all of this in the name of jesus amen my very dear brothers and sisters we have a bible word this evening out of the book of luke chapter 6 and i read verse 47. whoever comes to me and hears my sayings and does them i will show you whom he is like that's so [Music] come on and i will oh our foreign is [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you very much dear brothers and sisters this evening's divine service is our bible study service for this month and is customary with our bible study services i'd like to ask invite the entire vegas to come and do the bible reading evening beloved brothers and sisters and those connected our bible reading for this evening will be taken out of the loop 6 47 to 49 you can find yes there we go i'm sorry whoever comes to me and hears my sayings and does them i will show you whom he is like he is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock and when the flood arose the stream beat vehemently against the house and could not shake it for it was founded on the rock but he who heard and did nothing is like the man who built a house on the earth without a foundation against which the stream beat vehemently and immediately it fell and the ruin of that house was great thank you thank you very much to deacon so this evening's bible reading your brother sisters is out of luke chapter 6 47-49 i must admit it is such an exciting bible word this evening because it really tells us what the principles and what the foundations of our faith really are the scene that isetia by luke is very vivid and with this sermon there are few things that i feel we should clarify before we continue just about the context of the sermon are there some bible scholars who believe that this sermon is identical to the sermon on the mount which takes place in the book of matthew chapter five to seven uh there are other bible scholars who believe differently for a number of different reasons and i will share some of them the first thing is this sermon is substantially shorter than the sermon of the month and what we know about luke is that he often went into great detail and great context because he was a he was a physician he was a man of science he wanted to share every bit of information that he could he made his business to find out everything about a particular context before he spoke on that context so that refutes that this would be the same sermon the other thing that refutes it is if you look at the book of matthew chapter 5 it says that jesus was going up to a mountain in this particular setting jesus is coming down from a mountain and so dear brothers and sisters we have to then surmise that these sermons took place at different times in the same time period and that their content was largely the same so this sermon the sermon on the plane as it is called takes place in the spring of ad28 and jesus as masterful a communicator as he is knows exactly who his audience is it's the disciples when he spoke the sermon on the mount or taught that sermon the disciples were there they were very new there just being called and the sermon was open to them and to other people who were around by this time jesus had walked with him it had been a substantial portion of his ministry and now they were beginning to really understand the gospel as jesus taught it and he calls them alone again and he uses an example that they will so understand because for some of them who were there they grew up in betsaida and when that was happening they knew what was happening in the sea of galilee they knew that at that time when this parable is spoken the sand was hard it was alluvial sand and in the summer the sand was extremely hard you could quite easily think that you could build on that but when the winter rains came the sand became messy nothing could stand on it and anything that did not have a foundation would collapse jesus in fact says that there was ruin this house that was built on sand would be absolutely ruined and the disciples knew exactly what he was talking about because they grew up in that situation you know andrew philip peter they were born in bethsaida so jesus when he speaks to them he uses a language that they can understand he uses a particular geographic reference that they are very very familiar with and then he teaches them the value of building on a foundation now we know that the foundation is jesus christ but before you lay a foundation you have to dig and you have to dig until you get to bedrock you can't just make a foundation out of nothing you have to get to bedrock and your brothers and sisters that's the first port of call for our sermon this evening we have to understand that while jesus christ is the bedrock of our faith or sorry this the the foundation of our faith the bedrock of our faith is actually our election by god that is the bedrock we have been called by god we have been redeemed by jesus christ we have built our house of faith on the gospel of jesus but the rock of it all is actually our election the apostle paul in the book of second thessalonians speaks about it in second thessalonians 2 13 he says we are bound to give thanks always for you brethren beloved by the lord because god from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth that is the bedrock of our face our election by god before the foundation of the world and then we have now come and built and grown in this knowledge of jesus christ who is the foundation of our faith everything about our faith is built on jesus christ your brothers and sisters and when jesus spoke to these men he wanted to show them what the value of being wise was versus the peril of being foolish and in wisdom he said you will dig first you will find the bedrock you will then lay on that the cornerstone the foundation of your faith and you will build on that and if you want to take shortcuts your house of faith will be in ruins it's not always nice to look at it in that way dear brothers and sisters but that unfortunately is the truth the wise think into the future the foolish think only of the present and when we are wise and we have built on the foundation of jesus christ it means that we are willing to not only hear what jesus says to us but that as true disciples we are willing to follow what jesus commands us to do i see it sometimes you know in life you tell people hey it's a really good idea that you possibly explore this avenue or maybe try this or experience has taught us that maybe we should do it this way i know i know about it and what always gets to me is that it's senseless that you know about it and you don't do it so they know what the right thing is to do and people i think they call it know-it-alls you know there's some people you can never tell them anything because they know it all together but the action suggests that even though you know it you don't understand it and that your brothers and sisters is the process that we go through with the word of god hearing doesn't mean that we have understood the word of god understanding the word of god doesn't mean that we agree with the word of god an agreement with the word of god still does not translate into doing the will of god and it's when we go through that process from the time that we have heard the word absorbed it agreed with it that the next step is that we go out and do it because our faith is a faith that is based on action it is a faith that is alive it is based on the love of god and in the context of our faith love is a verb because we love we are compelled to do something we are compelled to build your brothers and sisters what good is it if we have the foundation but we do not build on the foundation and we think about the foundation in jesus christ but there are elements which have been made available to us for salvation they are called the sacraments and so we have access to the holy baptism which is we then experience the holy ceiling through the laying on of hands of a living apostle and pray and then our rebirth is complete but what good is it that we are born again in christ but we do not grow that is where our responsibility comes in that's where we kick into action because we then live this life of faith in a manner which is constantly seeking to please god and when that becomes our portion then we are like the wise who built on the foundation okay brothers and sisters if you think in any building project the first thing that you have to do before you even lay a foundation before you even start digging is you have to have a plan the plan needs to be approved but let's think about this plan god has already been the architect of this plan we refer to it in our time as the plan of salvation and when we look back through the ages we call that salvation history and when we look at salvation history all we can see is god being true to his words god constantly seeking to be in fellowship with us and in many instances mankind making decisions that lead them away from god instead of decisions that bring us closer to god dear brothers and sisters when we build on the foundation of jesus christ and we utilize the plan of salvation that god has provided for us then it means that we are not trying to build our own houses you know you get some of that guys they will build they have no skill they will do anything they build and it all looks really nice cosmetically aesthetically it looks really pleasing and then the wind blows and then that house is like the three little piggies you know there's just ruin straw everything is everywhere dear brothers and sisters it speaks about the danger of being superficial in our faith jesus was addressing this in this parable the superficiality that we see around the world today everything even masquerades as being good people say they love value-centered lives that's wonderful people say that they are inspired to create something that is greater than them that is wonderful those are not new concepts the lord jesus already showed us how to do that but we cannot say that we are living a life built on the gospel of jesus on the foundation of jesus christ if we do not believe in christ if we are not convinced of the gospel wholeheartedly and if we do not live according to the gospel so jesus in this bible verse that we have this evening verse 47 he issues three instructions he says come that's the first one whoever comes to me that infers that that is something that we bring to our relationship we come closer to our heavenly father because he is always inclined to us that's the first birth we come to him you have to hear his sayings which means we actually need to put ourselves in a position where we can be under the inspiration of the holy spirit where does that take place to brothers and sisters there are people who try and tell us all kinds of other things but in short the divine service is the primary mechanism that our heavenly father utilizes to prepare us for salvation to prepare us for the return of jesus christ the divine service and so we need to hear the divine service the other thing is of course you have to be there you're not there you can't hear you can't you know there's all these other things that link into that but we have to be an active participant in the divine service you know there's a saying that going to church makes you no more of a christian than standing in a garage makes you a car it's interesting you can stand in the garage all your life but you will never be a car and your brothers and sisters we can come to the divine services every divine service in every situation at every opportunity but if it does not change the way we live and the way we recognize our responsibility to our neighbor then can we call ourselves christian those who are the disciples of jesus christ who profess jesus christ who are baptized with water in the holy spirit and who are preparing for the return of jesus christ it implies action so while we share in word we also know that we have this incredible resource called the holy scripture when we build on the foundation of jesus christ we want to know more about the life of jesus christ which means we are not only hearing the word of god but we are constantly seeking opportunities to be in fellowship with jesus christ and with our neighbor we are constantly seeking guidance out of the holy spirit and so we read the holy scripture because scripture is born out of the holy spirit and it is good for us your brothers and sisters when we were young men we had a very wise deacon you know the deacons i don't know they were just are they another level the deacons they wise and this was an older deacon and he said to us before you read the scripture pray for the inspiration of the holy spirit because then you read with the understanding of the spirit your brothers and sisters that is still helpful for us today this is not a novel someone asked me have you read the bible from beginning to end i'm not going to discourage reading the bible from beginning to end but you know there are times in the bible when you must hear who married who and who was the son of who and that's like seven pages not even an audio book will get you through that but you know your brothers and sisters they are elements in the scripture which are so rich and which must be explored by us if we want to build on the foundation of jesus christ fellowship in the holy communion another part of the foundation of our faith your brothers and sisters when we come into the house of god and we hear the word of god and we are able to experience the sacrament of holy communion the body and blood of jesus christ which brings us into fellowship with jesus establishes our relationship with him and with our brother and sister that is an opportunity that should never be squandered let us always seek the fellowship the nearness of god let's build on this foundation that we have in christ the bedrock in our election the foundation of our faith in jesus christ and then we also have this apostolate which was given a very firm instruction to go and to teach and to baptize and to assure the believers of the return of jesus christ another element that has been given to us then yeah we've now heard that you must come you must hear and then you must do that's the process dear brothers and sisters that we are encouraged to go through this evening and then the bible reading i want to just share that before we conclude whoever comes to me and hears my saying and does them i will show you whom he is like he is like a man building a house who dug deep and laid foundation on the rock and when the flood arose the stream beat vehemently against that house and could not shake it for it was founded on the rock but he who heard and did nothing he's like a man who built a house on the earth without foundation against which the stream beat vehemently and immediately it fell and the ruin of that house was great we have seen the outcome of what happens when we build on the rock of jesus christ versus the rock of our own opinion when we build on the foundation of jesus christ versus the foundation of society or the world dear brothers and sisters and these two things are constantly at loggerheads with one another [Music] we want to choose the rock you know there's a actor called the rock sometimes when you see his partner that guy kevin hart he's like the pebble you have the rock and the pebble your brothers and sisters we don't want to build on loose shaky sand and pebbles we want to build on the rock and jesus said to the apostle peter you are the rock dear brothers and sisters the rock of the message of jesus the rock of the gospel we cannot allow that to be relativized in the time that we live people want to equate christianity a relationship with god being born out of the holy spirit with being a good person the reality is if we are born out of the spirit and ascribe to the teaching of jesus we will be good if all we want to be is good and not have a relationship with jesus christ we will never be fulfilled that is the difference fulfillment comes out of our relationship with jesus christ and then in the scripture it says to us you can't only say that you love god but you have a problem with your brother your sister jesus in this encounter he shares seven instructions with the disciples who were there he said love your enemies do good and lend be merciful judge not condemn not forgive give everything has this locus of control which is focused on the external forgive others love others don't judge one another lend to others do good to others dear brothers and sisters that is the we often hear it bedrock principles that is who makes us who we are if we can ascribe to the teaching of jesus and then if that becomes a key part of our life then we build on that utilizing the gift of the holy spirit utilizing the fruit of the holy spirit and we have as the pillars the corners here in our congregations in the book of acts it tells us what those four pillars were they continued steadfastly the apostles doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of breeding prayer those are what build the house of our faith dear brothers and sisters and on top of that is a roof and the roof that covers all of us is the grace of god and the brick that we lay into every one of those areas is a gift of the holy spirit and that makes our spiritual home here on earth already complete we're starting to build dear brothers and sisters let's be honest we are always a work in progress i think it was one of the distinct apostles on pentecost that said he felt like his heart was a construction site and dear brothers and sisters that's what we have to go through life is not always nice and kind and when the storms come let's not fall into a heap let's ensure that our house built on the rock of jesus is able to stand when the winds come let's not just be blown away tossed to and fro by every doctrine but that we continue to be built and focused anchored in jesus christ amen as we prepare for absolution there's so many things about this divine service especially this chapter that i just read to luke 6 35 jesus said you must love your enemies your brothers and sisters a child of god that is built on the rock of jesus christ is able to have the process to forgiveness let's be honest sometimes it's not always easy there are some things that are so heinous and so unspeakable and unthinkable that we will struggle to forgive but if we are willing to forgive we are willing to go through the process of forgiveness then as we grow and mature in our faith we become more and more able and brothers and sisters all we can do is pray that our heavenly father fills us with the nature of jesus christ because when we are filled with the nature of jesus christ then loving our enemy becomes just a little bit easier lending and doing good becomes just a little bit easier being merciful and non-judgmental accepting our neighbor for who they are with their imperfections and with their idiosyncrasies and with their scruples we are able to accept them as they are and we are able to see them as jesus sees them we are able to love them as jesus loves them that's the nature that we want to acquire that's what we want to constantly grow in and in order for us to do that we need to come we need to hear and we now need to go and do this is where the rubber hits the road this is where the message of the gospel has to be seen in the way we are able to live our lives and in the way we are able to see and esteem one another the way we are able to forgive each other in the way that we are able to be of service to one another as a year of repentance this evening i ask that replacing if number 215 can be pleasing the first verse so 215 the first verse [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so oh [Music] and now we can arise and pray the prayer of the world our father in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen in the commission of my sin that the apostle i proclaim unto you the glad tidings in the name of our lord jesus christ the son of the living god your sins are forgiven the peace of the risen one abide with you amen dear heavenly father we thank you that we can share in absolution father it is only as a result of the merit of jesus christ who loves us still who gave his life for us that we can live but we can be reconciled to you and that we can be redeemed dear heavenly father we do not take this for granted and we also recognize that it brings with a great responsibility a responsibility that means that we are accountable to christ and in this accountability father we constantly want to please him and so we pray that we are able to resist the devil that we are able to come closer to him but we are able to hear his word which is part of the reflection of our soul father and we are also able then to learn to absorb to understand and to do the heavenly father we ask that you will also bless the offerings which are brought we are thankful that we have the heart to offer we are thankful that you give us the opportunity to offer and father we do this out of our heart of love and the heart that has the full recognition that you have provided for us so graciously do you have any father we pray that you bless us in the coming days we ask that you prepare the way for us we remember all those who sorrow and mourn we remember those who struggle in their life of faith father we pray for those who are unwell we pray for those who are under doctor's orders and treatment and who are waiting for prognoses to be made available father we remember those who struggle in this time father we especially remember those who put their lives at risk for the well-being of others we think of our frontline workers we pray that you also help protect and bless and keep them we pray for our state authorities we ask that they can also make good decisions concerning every facet of our lives father both the medical the financial the social the local development opportunities that we have also father we want to be blessed we want to live close to you and we want to experience your hand of nearness and love always we pray that you will hear our prayer and that you accept us in your grace send your son we ask it all in jesus name amen the grace of our lord jesus christ the love of god and the communion of the holy spirit be with you all amen thank you very much your brothers and sisters please be seated there is a something nice happening this evening uh i have a letter here that i will pracy and this evening we'll be watching a little presentation and it comes from a group called the staying connected group the origin of the group really came out of covet 19 where there was struggle for connection we wanted to ensure that we didn't lose the connection not only in our congregations but also across our district church and specific work groups were put together you'll see something coming through on thanksgiving a little bit later this month but we would have seen stuff on easter there was a concert there for christmas so that was all put together by this group called the staying connected group given the ongoing impact of of covert 19 in our church now area specifically there were updates that were provided and one of the things that was fed back is we can do something to support our brothers and sisters as far as mental health is concerned so the group has worked together to put a series of message discussion the emotional the psychological and the mental health challenges presented by the covert 19 pandemic the messages are aimed towards different groups within the congregations and community and the first of these directed towards parents and working adults in coming weeks there will also be sessions released from children for adolescents and for senior members the toll of mental health and the importance of mental health especially in those particular interest groups so tonight is a message for parents and working adults this will be streamed into uh on youtube wherever you're watching and it will also be streamed into the congregation here this evening so i ask that you please give us your attention just for a little bit it's not too long and uh that will also then signal the conclusion of the divine service so we will not be back we wish you god's blessing we wish you all the best for the days ahead dear brothers and sisters and we assure you of our constant intercessory prayers on your behalf we pray that god continues to guide and be with us and provide for us in all things and we are convinced that this will be the case in the future so thank you hello brothers and sisters i am theresa nagle from the wellington congregation in new zealand on behalf of the new apostolic congregations of the western pacific region i would like to share this special message for our parents and working adults it is reassuring within the covert context when we see our communities focused on working together to keep everyone safe in public places like shopping centres and supermarkets our workplaces and the schools attended by our children adherence to the prescribed guidelines provide us with a level of confidence and confirmation of our shared humanity inspiring stories of healthcare workers and individuals who are going beyond the call of duty are reminders that ordinary people are accomplishing extraordinary acts of courage and service on the one hand covet 19 has reoriented us to that which is meaningful in our lives and communities on the other it has brought into sharp focus the fragility of our individual and collective resilience we have all to one degree or another being affected by the lockdowns and imposed covert restrictions for some of us our livelihoods jobs and the education and mental health of our children have been negatively impacted many of us have had to shift and rapidly adapt to working remotely or working from home while at the same time seeing to the educational emotional and entertainment needs of our children the absence of in-person interactions with our colleagues has led to feelings of isolation and disconnection for some concerns about the future of the workplace environment the security of our jobs versus the potential for outsourcing has and continues to occupy the minds of many exposure to the increasing noise of media and social media commentary criticizing the impact of lockdowns on the economy and employment and the mistrust of vaccination programs have further amplified the perceived uncertainty of our futures it is no surprise then that our individual and collective mental health and well-being is at risk according to recent statistics in australia and new zealand an increasing number of us are reporting difficulties with sleep loss of motivation getting trapped in spirals of worry and despair and are experiencing pervasive feelings of dread and anguish stresses that we used to take in our stride without missing a beat can suddenly feel like insurmountable mountains the challenges that we are facing on a day-to-day basis can bring up thoughts and feelings that feel sinister and unfamiliar due to the intensity and rapid onset and our usual ways of coping by white knuckling and pushing through are wearing thin and proving inadequate it is important to know that what we are feeling is entirely reasonable and normal no one but no one is exempt from emotional distress over the past year in churches around the world there has been a fuller and deeper understanding of the importance of psychological emotional and mental health you

Channel: New Apostolic Church Western Pacific District

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Length: 68min 50sec (4130 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021