Sunday Service - 22 August 2021 - 11:15 service

[Music] welcome this morning welcome to the pentecostals of sydney thank you for joining us today and we want to invite all of you our church family pos family and all that are joining with us to just make this time a dedication unto the lord as we lift up our praises and our worship under god the bible says to let us enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise and so we want to invite the presence of the lord wherever we are at our different locations but today is the day of the lord this is what a day that we want to rejoice and give him glory and honor that he alone deserves so why don't you join with me why don't you stand wherever you are if you can and make this special a special time of our communion with god and together as a church family although separated yet we are united in our worship and praise of our one true living god so let's lift up our voices in jesus name father we thank you for this time we thank you for your loving kindness we thank you for your tender mercies let god that you have poured out upon our lives we cannot thank you enough but lord in this short time that we have we want to exalt you lift you up let god and magnify your holy and your precious name and with all of our might let god we want to exalt you and give your praise lord we ask that you would commune with us that your holy spirit lord would saturate our homes and fill us with god once again with your power with your spirit and joy let god as we hear your word we ask you to anoint your servant as you speak to us through your word we give you thanks and praise in jesus name amen amen praise god the bible tells us that the name of the lord is a strong tower that we can run into and right now why don't we lift up that name that is above every name it's all got all power and authority whatever we are facing call on the name of jesus today [Music] look at his [Music] now let's break through gave us [Music] [Music] in jesus name [Music] crush [Music] gave us [Music] in jesus name [Music] in jesus name [Music] mercy with your mighty miracle with your mighty miracle [Music] gave us [Music] in jesus name [Music] jesus name oh [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Applause] jesus [Music] amen we serve a god that is alive and at the mention of his name he is as close and we can stand on that truth this morning that he is the god of the breakthrough even though we may not feel it we may not see it the bible tells us that we ought to just trust in him and we can worship with him worship with you this morning in your homes grab your family and worship with us god is great and he's greatly to be praised [Music] you are the undefeated one my life and my salvation when the wicked my enemies and my foes came upon me to eat [Music] my victory my refuge [Music] when i can't see my way and i really don't know what to do [Music] you are the undefeated ones my life and my salvation when the wicked my enemies and my foes came upon [Music] my victory my refuge you are the god of the breakthrough [Music] and i really don't know what to do [Music] so i'm going to praise you [Music] break through in my heart break you in my mind break through in my spirit break [Music] [Music] in my mind is [Music] [Applause] [Music] but i really don't know what to do [Music] is [Music] amen we serve a god whose mercy and grace never fails us it never fails us and it never fails to keep chasing us and running after us no matter what we do no matter what happens god will always be there to run after us so let's worship him [Music] so [Music] i love you lord for your mercy never fails me and all my days i've [Music] [Music] i will the goodness of [Music] god you have been faithful [Music] with every breath that i have [Music] of the goodness [Music] [Music] know i've known you as your friends [Music] oh [Music] i will see [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] your goodness [Applause] all is life you have been faithful [Music] all my life you have been so [Music] with every breath that i am [Music] yes amen every day that we wake up is another day that we can sing of the goodness of our god the bible says that thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on me and in the times that we are facing we can turn to the rock the rock of ages and we can believe that he is he is for us that he fights for us and i know it may not seem like that but we can't afford to take our mind our eyes off the one who holds our world in his hands as we sing and as we worship i pray that you would you would feel the words of this song that god is he is with us and we can believe and trust in him he is a faithful father and he will bring us through [Music] they say this mountain can't be moved they say these chains won't get regret but they don't know you like we do there is power in your name [Music] we've heard that there is no way [Music] they haven't seen what you can do there is power in your name [Music] so much power in your name [Applause] [Music] god we believe we'll see a miracle god we believe god we believe [Music] we know that hope is never lost there is still an empty grave god we believe no matter the world there is power in your name [Music] so much [Music] [Music] [Music] you are the way when there seems to [Music] seems to be no [Music] away we trust [Music] [Music] impossible yes [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] it is [Music] [Music] is [Music] god we believe foreign [Music] foreign [Music] oh yes we believe it because he's promised it our god is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think and if anything in the season that we're in our faith is being re-established strengthened we're believing god in this time that god will continue to bless us and meet every need in fact we continue to see it throughout the week uh we saw a young young man got the holy ghost in his bible study this week young lady getting touched by god wanting to be baptized and in spite of all that we're facing god continues to move amen we want to thank thank you again for joining with us at our sunday service here today a special day and we're glad that you're tuning in if you are uh part of this pos family uh we say thank you for being connected we want to just say how we miss everybody and we can't wait to see you face to face again but of course we do have a lot of online services and meetings and small groups and we want you to join in with us for that praise god but if you're from another church and another city another country we just want to say thank you for joining with us make sure that you are liking this that you share it you comment let us know that you're there let's get some engagement happening and if we are going to be restricted well we're going to we're going to we want to fill up our social media we want to flood our social media with the things of god with the word of god and with worship unto the lord praise god well before we get to the ministry of the word we just have a few announcements that we would like to make sunday school online is on every sunday and from 10 30 a.m to 11 10 a.m and so all of our our sunday school from pos we want to invite you age from 5 to 11 years old and the zoom details are on your screen or it's also on pos family page and make sure you turn your cameras on so that that young the kids can see one another amen uh we have our 24 hour chain that's continuing and we want to invite everybody to join in with us to nominate an hour that we can continually pray 24 hours uh throughout this time and so we want to ask you to come and join us and sign up and put your name down if you haven't already done so but to coincide with our prayer chain we also are starting a fasting chain and now you can also pick a day that you can fast each week and there will be a google sheet which will be posted on pos family that you can add your name to and we want to have a fasting chain going on uh to coincide with our prayer chain amen and as we seek the lord and consecrate ourselves praying and fasting in this season this is the time to do it we believe that god will continue to bless and honor his people and as i said earlier we have our connect groups joining in online if you are not part of a small group that are meeting every week and you would like to please contact us send us an email a message on through messenger and we can direct you to a group and also we have our main group of the church in midweek on wednesday night as well at 7 30 which everybody's welcome to join in with us for that our youth are also continuing with their small groups meeting uh every friday is at 7 30. and also this time we recognize that it has been a difficult time for a lot of people and some are struggling perhaps financially some are struggling with work and if you have had difficulty at this stage please contact us and let us know we can be of any help to you or if you would like to contribute to helping others again please communicate with us let us know so we can help one another at this difficult time amen and of course to give is our obligation to the lord is our action of faith and you can continue to give your tithes your offerings uh to the lord and of the the various ways through our website the church app or you can even drop it off here by contacting us make sure that somebody's here we don't have staff here at the moment during the week but we can organize for that if that's what you so desire and so let us pray i want us to pray for our giving also i want us to pray for a brethren and and our heart goes out at the moment to our uh brother samsoni ratawa and his son manasseh who are in hospital and this this dreaded virus is uh gotten them but they're doing okay but uh they're needing help they need god's help god's intervention and also for the moran family we want to pray for them this thing is real and uh we need to to be wise and in our approach and but we believe god can heal and so we want to pray for the whole moran family with michael and his family george uh jocelyn sister jocelyn and we want to ask god to heal them all of them at this time so lift up your voices and let's join together in prayer in the name of jesus lord we know that you're our healer we know that you are a merciful god who a high priest who is touched by the feelings of our infirmities and so lord out of your great mercies and grace we ask you to reach out with your power to bring healing right now to manasseh to brother some sony lord that you would touch them that you would recover them even while they're at hospital god that you would cause healing virtue to flow in their bodies right now we come against that sickness in jesus name we take authority over it and we call upon you lord the name of jesus we ask the virtue would flow and that your spirit would saturate that room that you would envelop that place with your holy presence look god and that they would be recovered with god completely in the name of jesus for the moran family look god we ask you in your mercy and in your grace that you would touch them lord and bring healing to them recover them with god as you strengthen their immune system as you give them the wherewithal let god the strength lord that they may recover for by your stripes we are healed today and we claim that promise we believe your word lord god we ask as the son of righteousness you would come into their rooms and let lord god the healing virtue that the wings of healing touch their hearts their bodies in jesus name we think of all the others also that are struggling today lord those that are struggling with work finances with with depression with distress with all kinds of anxiety lord god you have not given us a spirit of fear but of love and of power and of a sound mind and so right now we ask you to touch them touch every single one of us and strengthen our hearts and our resolve knowing lord god that all things are in the palm of your hand that you have worked all things out look god for those that love you according to your purpose so lord as we give today bless everyone with with financial needs look god with material needs with god we ask you to bless those that would give those who are unable to lord god continue to work in their lives we give you thanks and praise speak to us once again today through your word speak to your people that we may hearken to your voice anoint your servant today in the name of the lord jesus christ amen praise god praise god well this morning we are blessed we're delighted to have with us a special guest speaker coming all the way from the continent of north africa uh north africa north america i'm sorry but uh brother woodward is is no stranger to most of us uh he is now bishop of the capitol community church in frederick fredericton new brunswick canada uh he is of one of the leading voices in our movement an outstanding anointed preacher and teacher and this morning we are going to be blessed and want to thank brother woodward for making time for us to minister to us so let's open our hearts and let god speak to you in jesus name praise the lord everybody and greetings to my wonderful friends at the pentecostals of sydney pastor stan harvey and his wonderful wife robin are my dear friends and such stellar leaders and you are very blessed with a wonderful team that leads your church i know the last several weeks after such a lengthy time dealing with this pandemic and now into weeks of lockdown that's very rough and and very discouraging and we wonder just when this will all end but i'm grateful to you for remaining strong remaining connected to your church make sure this is a time when you lock into the vision and the heart of your church and your pastor is so very very important the early church they met in homes they didn't own church buildings they couldn't gather many times and and we're feeling the pressure of that and of course we're also feeling the pressure of the last days and so i want to encourage you to use this as a time to lock into god personally and lock into your church i know it's online and i know it's through social media and other means of communication but make sure you are staying there and if there is any silver lining in this dark cloud of coronavirus and delta variants and all of that it's that i have the great delight and the great honor of speaking to you and i know that small consolation but it's a real privilege for me and i do have something that i want to share with you today that i trust will be a blessing to you and no i'm not going to talk about coronavirus so that's a relief i'd like to pray as we begin today and thank you for watching this and again let's pray together let's hear god's voice in the middle of this today lord jesus i thank you for my friends i thank you for the wonderful nation of australia and most of all i thank you for the apostolic church the pentecostals that are so vibrant and powerful in that nation i thank you god for this local church the pentecostals of sydney and i pray that what i speak today would be a strength to them an encouragement to them and i pray your blessing on us today and i ask it in jesus name amen years ago i did a little study of a very unusual book in the bible and over the last year while we were locked down here i took our church through a study of this book it's a a strange little book in the bible it's the book called song of solomon it is undoubtedly one of the most unique books in the entire bible old or new testament and it's also one of the most disputed and one of the most difficult books to understand at one point it looked like this book might even be excluded from the canon of holy scripture because song of solomon contains very frank descriptions of sexual love and intimacy but if you go to the jewish people you'll find out that they revere this little book and they still read it every single year during the feast of passover and the reason why is that it paints a picture of an engagement and a wedding and a marriage you see israel understands that they were engaged to jehovah god on the night of the passover when he delivered them from egypt and israel understands that she was married to jehovah on pentecost when the nation accepted his covenant the ten commandments at mount sinai and then just before they entered the promised land moses spoke covenant promises over the people so today i'd like to speak to you about a subject that i would almost wager you've never heard a preacher speak about today my subject for your consideration is cinderella how's that for something really profound and spiritual but the song of solomon you'll see some similarities here as we progress and i think you'll know why in just a few moments just before they entered the promised land moses he picked up these images of of a people that had been redeemed by god and here's what he spoke in the book of deuteronomy he said to israel for thou art unholy people unto the lord thy god the lord thy god hath chosen me to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth and certainly we feel the implication of that as a new testament covenant people but please notice what moses said next the lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people he said actually you were the fewest of all people but it was because the lord loved you wasn't something about you that was so spectacular it was something about his love that was so profound it was because the lord loved you and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers that's why the lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and that's why he has redeemed you out of the house of bondman from the hand of pharaoh king of egypt know therefore that the lord thy god he is god he's the faithful god he keeps covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations you know the old testament in the same chapter where we read the ten commandments it says that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children and upon the children's children down through a family tree to the third and the fourth generation and i don't have to prove that to you you can read that in a newspaper that often the child of an abuser grows up to be an abuser the child of a drug user or an alcoholic grows up to repeat those sins and the sins of the fathers are visited down through a family tree three and four generations deep but did you notice what moses said he said god keeps covenant and shows mercy to those that love him to a thousand generations if you're a first generation apostolic believer your conversion you may not have anybody else in your family that knows jesus yet but you have blessed your family tree in every direction generations deep as long as the lord tarries because of your decision so god loved his people it's not that we did something to impress god it's just that god chose to love us it's a love story and this is song of solomon on the surface it's a book of romantic poetry it describes with frankness and yet with purity the physical attraction of a man and a woman to each other and it shows human sexual desire as god intended it to be it's not pornographic but neither is it prudish it's pure it's beautiful see the bible refuses to divide the sexuality of human beings from their relationship with a holy god because god is the originator of every part of human existence this modern idea that we see in our cultures today that we're just biological creatures and we've got desires and we live in a purely physical world and so just do whatever you want that is not evidence that we're sophisticated that's evidence that we are spiritual paupers god created the beauty of intimacy for a man and a woman in a beautiful marriage relationship now uh before we launch today let me say that many pastors in many churches have used song of solomon for a bible study on courtship and marriage that's wonderful they've used it for pre-marital counseling sessions also a great use of this book and they're truly practical truly biblical uh helpful purposes but we can't understand the depth of this odd little book in your bible until we look beyond this merely human love and we see the depiction of a greater relationship between humanity and god and as i've already said the jews understand this as an allegory of the love that existed between jehovah and israel but in the new testament we understand this on an even deeper level this book is an allegory of the love between jesus christ and his bride the church now as with any book that's a little obscure or a little different in the scripture there are often debates about details and and and people dispute this or that but we can learn much from the song of solomon if we just open our hearts to the spirit of our heavenly bridegroom now we had some fun with this when we studied at ccc uh during the pandemic months it was it was a great little study and one of the things we had fun with is because this book is eastern poetry it doesn't follow a clear linear thought progression i told the folks here that if we drew a map of this book it would look something like this screen behind me it would just be lines going everywhere and because this book um the song flows back and forth it goes between various speakers back and forth it shifts seamlessly from one scene to another scene without much of a definite storyline and and the poetry circles back on itself a few times and and there's a couple of dreams in here and they kind of confuse it is this a dream or is this not and and the themes are developed in this book because it's ancient eastern poetry it's not linear like a first world uh western nation it's eastern poetry and so uh it repeats key moments and key phrases over and over and and then there's one other little difficulty in this unusual little book in your bible that um it it's kind of comical but it also makes it a little hard to get the meaning it's the way the bride and the bridegroom complement each other it's it can't be taken literally to put it mildly for example he says in chapter one he says i have compared the o my love to a company of horses in pharaoh's chariots now i wouldn't recommend that you say to your beloved or your intended or your spouse uh or your betrothed i wouldn't recommend that you say you know my love you look like a horse but part of the problem with us understanding that compliment in modern times is we've forgotten just how beautiful and graceful horses can be when compared to other animals and we're also unaware of just how valuable they actually were in that ancient world but it's even more than that in the case of horses pulling royal chariots like these they would be elegantly even expensively adorned but it's even more than that the hebrew term here is feminine this is a mayor harnessed among the stallions which would be the ultimate distraction to them so he's actually giving her a very high compliment but we can't see it we don't live in that world or in that time he's actually saying you are so beautiful that like a mayor among the stallions i can't keep my eyes off you it's very high praise but our modern western minds don't quite understand the imagery and that happens quite a bit throughout this unique poem he says you have dove's eyes that's not so bad but when he says your hair is like a flock of goats that's a little much for us he says your teeth are like a flock of sheep boy those two compliments that sounds like something you might see in the morning maybe after you're married i'm not sure your navel is like a round goblet your belly is like a heap of wheat your nose is like a tower all of those compliments are very comical to us because we don't understand the imagery of ancient poetry so this little book is a little complex and a little twisty and turny for us and so it takes a little bit of biblical detective work but despite all of these obstacles there's still pretty broad agreement on the structure of song of solomon it has three sections and they describe the bride and the bridegroom in their engagement in their wedding and in their marriage and those sections are separated by two haunting dreams experienced by this young bride when she fears that her beloved has left her so taken as a whole this odd little book that's in your bible for a very good reason it is a beautiful portrait of marriage we leave our family of origin in the engagement we cleave to each other in the wedding and then we weave together a new relationship for the rest of our lives it's it's actually beautiful now a little background uh king solomon the first kings chapter 4 says solomon spoke 3000 proverbs and his songs were a thousand and five so during his lifetime king solomon collects 3 000 wise sayings and he shares it with his subjects some of them come from israel some of them come from other nations but he's wise he's the wisest man in the whole world and he shares this wisdom but the book of proverbs which we know as these wise sayings all compiled together there are only a few hundred proverbs in that book in written form so undoubtedly proverbs is kind of like a best of collection of wise sayings and in a similar way although this verse tells us that solomon wrote a thousand and five songs only one of his songs survived for us to read and this is it it is called the song of songs that's a hebrew superlative it's like you would say the holy of holies or king of kings or lord of lords it's the best of the best it is the greatest of all of his songs now sadly everybody knows about solomon's failures later in his life when he married many wives in order to establish peaceful political profitable relationships with other countries pagan countries that surrounded israel but in doing so solomon became entangled with the gods of those pagan women and he violated the law of the lord and he turned his heart they turned his heart away from the god of his father david the bible tells us in first kings 11 that solomon had 700 wives princesses and 300 concubines and watched this and his wives turned away his heart it's a very sad end it's like the wisest man in the world didn't follow his own advice but see the wonderful thing about song of solomon this strange little book it predates all of that backsliding it was written in solomon's younger years long before all those pagan wives and long before all those marriages this little book tells the story of his first and his true love the early reign of king solomon was the greatest time in all of history to be an israelite and first kings paints this magnificent picture for us the bible says god gave solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much and largeness of heart even as the sand that is on the seashore people came from all over for miles and miles just to sit in his presence to see his courtroom his palace and and also to hear his wisdom and the bible says this about solomon's reign for first kings 10 all king solomon's drinking vessels were of gold and all the vessels of the house of the forest of lebanon that's his palace they were of pure gold none were of silver they didn't have silver vessels in solomon's day why it was nothing accounted of in the days of solomon's like get that silver goblet get that silver platter out of here we don't do cheap silver here only gold that's how wealthy israel was in the early years of solomon's reign it was the greatest time in all of human history to be an israelite and so we come to this wonderful little book that's kind of strange a little obscure and sometimes a little confusing and i hope that by by the time we're done today that you'll understand just how beautiful it is and just exactly why god put it in his word song of solomon is meant to be understood on two levels it celebrates human love and intimacy but it points to humanity's ultimate purpose you my brother or my sister you were created to have intimacy and love between you and god not just between you and other human beings you were created to follow his wisdom and that allows us to be united with god and to be united with each other in the body of christ we can become wise rulers of our own selves and even of our world when we have god's wisdom and that's why the song of solomon ends with the bride and the bridegroom united in love and intimacy and they're in a garden filled with trees it's a picture of the garden of eden and and she says thou that dwellest in the gardens the companions hearken to thy voice cause me to hear it see this little bride she spends much of this book longing for her beloved he's not immediately present she longs for him and so at the end of this book that's kind of a summation point the picture is of a bride and a bridegroom in a beautiful garden it's a picture of god and humanity having fellowship together way back in the garden of eden it's like eden restored eden rebuilt and she says the companions hearken to thy voice other people hear your voice my beloved other people they follow your voice and she says cause me to hear it i've got to tell you i fell in love with that little verse while we were studying this book several months ago god other people hear your voice pastor stan hears your voice our leadership team hears your voice but it's not enough for me to go to a great church like the pentecostals of sydney where pastor hears god's voice no god my prayer is cause me to hear your voice and boy haven't we felt that during these months of restrictions and and gathering restrictions and lockdowns haven't you felt that god i need to be able to hear your voice myself because right now i'm being prevented from gathering with other believers i need to hear your voice so god other people hear your voice your companions hear your voice those that walk with you hear your voice but jesus caused me to hear your voice now today i i want to weave the threads of this beautiful little tapestry together and i want to look through the lens of the rest of scripture and just kind of show you how this book pictures the relationship between christ and his church by the time we put all these little puzzle pieces together you'll know exactly why god allowed this strange little book this love poem this song of all songs to be included in the bible now back to my title today thousands of variants of the folk tale cinderella are known and loved throughout the world thousands of variants but the protagonist is always the same sort of individual in every version of cinderella in any language or culture the protagonist is always a young woman and she is living in forsaken circumstances but her circumstances are suddenly changed to a remarkable fortune all because she ascends to the throne by marriage so it's told around the world thousands of variants of the folktale cinderella but although the story's title and its main character's name change across different languages and cultures in english it's the same as other languages the term cinderella has come to mean one whose beauty and attributes were previously unrecognized but now they have unexpectedly achieved recognition or success after a very long period of obscurity and neglect that's what we call a cinderella story in secular literature the earliest variant of the cinderella tale that we know of was recounted by the greek philosopher strabo he lived during the lifetime of jesus and he told of a slave girl named rodopas and radopos although she was born into poverty she eventually married the king of egypt and and strabo the greek philosopher during the time of jesus he told that story it was a cinderella story the story of rhodopus who was born a slave born a popper but married the king of egypt but let me tell you that although that's the earliest variant of the cinderella tale in secular literature nearly a thousand years before strabo's fictional story there was a real life cinderella and she first caught the attention of the king of israel now that king of course is solomon he's the son of david he's the third king of israel he is the wisest and the wealthiest man who ever lived and as i said he presided over the golden age of the nation of israel when the entire nation lived in peace and prosperity it was in his reign that the glorious temple was built and the royal palace was constructed extended and and it became glorious and people from distant lands they traveled to israel just to hear solomon's wisdom just to see his wealth for themselves solomon is a builder extraordinaire he's the chief architectural and engineering genius behind hundreds of construction projects all throughout the nation of israel this is what he says in ecclesiastes he's looking back over his life he said i made great works and i built houses and i planted vineyards and i made gardens and orchards and planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit he said i made pools of water to water there with the wood that brings forth trees solomon said i made the entire nation of israel a beautiful garden paradise now here's our story one of those magnificent estates was a vast vineyard in the fertile jezreel valley just north of jerusalem it was in northern israel it was near a tiny village called shunam it's about 50 miles from solomon's palace it's a beautiful massive estate a vineyard where solomon's servants where his citizens work here the king's subjects they perform the arduous back-breaking work of tending the crops and pruning the vines and picking the grapes and warting off thieves and chasing away predators and enduring the hot sun day after day after endless day and then when they get all done all that work after all those months because they were the servants of the king they had to give the proceeds of the vineyard to the royal treasury song of solomon 8 verse 11 refers to this solomon had a vineyard at baal haymon he let out the vineyard unto keepers he allowed them to tend his fields his vineyards his crops every one of them for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver so the solomon he was the king he owned the whole country all of the tribute all of the income came back to the royal treasury in the book of ecclesiastes that he wrote in his later years solomon tells us that because he was wealthy and he could do it and because he was wise and he wanted to understand everybody's perspective he tells us that he often undertook expeditions out into his kingdom he wanted to discover what life was like in various levels of society or he would take a journey to check on his vast land holdings all throughout the nation and obviously because he was the king of israel he would sometimes disguise himself so people wouldn't be terrified or just so he could check without them kind of putting on a facade when he arrived one day when solomon was traveling north to bale haymon and he was checking on his estates and in particular he traveled to this vast vineyard in the fertile jezreel valley when he was there in that vineyard his vineyard his eyes just happened to fall upon this beautiful peasant popper girl she just happened that day to be working right there in his vineyard and in the heart of the king of israel it was love at first sight but now king solomon has a dilemma because he and his true love they live and move in totally different orbits they occupy totally different worlds their random meeting well that was certainly improbable but for them a courtship totally inconceivable a marriage absolutely unimaginable solomon has all the power in israel but in matters of the heart it doesn't matter how much wealth or wisdom you have in matters of the heart solomon's like all the rest of us he's absolutely powerless you can't buy love and even if you could buy it who would want it if you had to buy it and this is what he refers to in solem song of solomon chapter eight and verse seven many waters cannot quench love neither can the floods drown it if a man would give all the substance of his house for love it would utterly be condemned you can't buy love now this is solomon's dilemma he's in love with a peasant popper girl who works in a vineyard in his kingdom and he's powerless what's he going to do because if he reveals himself as king he will terrify her and yet he loves her 175 years ago a danish philosopher named soren kierkegaard he wrote a book called philosophical fragments he loved this little bible book called song of solomon and so in his book philosophical fragments he penned a short story based on the book that he loved song of solomon and he simply called it the king and the maiden and today i'd like to just give you a few paragraphs of a modern english adaptation of kierkegaard's the king and the maiden here we go suppose there was a king who loved a humble maiden but she had no royal pedigree no education no standing in the king's court she dressed in rags and she slept in a hovel she lived the pitiful life of a peasant but for reasons no one could quite figure out the king fell in love with this girl in the way the kings sometimes do why he should love her was beyond explaining but love her he did and he could not stop loving her but there arose in the heart of this mighty king an anxious thought how in the world can i reveal my love to this girl how could i bridge the great chasm that separates the two of us his advisors of course they told him oh king that's easy all you have to do is command her to become your queen and it will be done because mighty king you're a man of immense power and every statesman fears your wrath and every foreign power trembles before you every one of your subjects they grovel in the dust just at your voice if you command it this poor peasant girl will have no power to resist she'll have to become your queen but you see power even unlimited power cannot command love the king could force her body to be present in the palace but he could not force love to be present in her heart he might be able to gain her obedience in this way but you see coerced submission is not what he wanted he longed for the intimacy of heart and oneness of spirit but all the power in the world brothers and sisters cannot unlock the human heart it must be opened from within so the mighty king met with his advisors once again this time they told him well try and bridge the chasm by elevating her to your position you can shower her with gifts and dress her in royal robes you can summon an audience of dignitaries and have her crown the queen but see the king thought about that and he thought to himself but if he brought her to his palace if she saw all the wealth and the pomp and the power of his greatness the king knew that she would be overwhelmed how then could he ever know if she loved him for himself or merely for all the things he had given her and how could she know for sure that he loved her and that he would have loved her just as much even if she had remained only a humble peasant this is the dilemma of the mighty king every alternative his advisor suggested came up empty and finally the mighty king realized that there was only one way to win the maiden's love without destroying her freedom to choose he had to become like her without power or riches or the title of king only then would she be able to see him for who he really was and not just what he possessed so one day the mighty king arose from his throne took off his crown relinquished his scepter and laid aside his royal robes he dressed himself in rags left the palace and traveled to where she lived all so he could win her heart yes the mighty king took on the identity of a poor popper all for love that's beautiful and kierkegaard wrote that because he loves song of solomon and that's the storyline this is what happened solomon left his palace and he returned to this vast vineyard he owned near the tiny village of shunam but nobody would have recognized him as the owner this time he didn't look at all like king solomon because he was disguised in the garments of a humble shepherd he did this just to see if a real relationship between them could even be possible but you see the shulamite girl has spent a lifetime apologizing for her poverty and her appearance and she just can't help herself even when this shepherd comes to her that's all she knows him as when he expresses his love for her she can't comprehend that anyone could ever love her even if it's just a humble shepherd she is totally embarrassed by her grubby face and her grimy hands she's embarrassed by her tangled hair and her threadbare clothes and her tattered appearance but none of this is her fault you see she is sunburned from working outside all the time she says don't look upon me i'm black because the sun has looked upon me i am burned my skin is burned from the sun hard work has made her garments shabby and dirty and she's scratched and sticky from picking grapes all day every day she says they made me the keeper of the vineyards but mine own vineyard have i not kept i'm grubby and tattered and dirty because of my occupation and even worse her step brothers and step-sisters they have treated her harshly she says my mother's children were angry with me and so she's apologetic for all of this her step-siblings have forced her to endure these long difficult days in the vineyard that now have marred her beauty and damaged her dignity and it seems like a permanent condition they made me the keeper of the vineyard i work out here hard for every day i i tend these vines and and i do all this work under this hot blazing sun and i don't have time to care for my personal appearance so i can't believe that anyone would love me because i'm so poor and i'm so tattered and i'm so dirty and i'm so ashamed but you see this handsome shepherd he sees what nobody else sees he looks beyond her battered appearance and he sees a beautiful bride when she puts herself down he picks her back up when she has nothing but words of despair he responds with beautiful expressions of love you see here's the point of song of solomon she sees herself as a cinderella but when he looks at her he sees her as the queen of his kingdom he says to her thou art all fair my love there is no spot in thee i don't see your tattered garments i don't see your grubby hands and your grimy face and i don't see all your shame and all your issues i don't see that when i look at you you are all fair there is no spot in me could i pause to say that when jesus looks at you he doesn't see your past he sees your future he doesn't see your problem he sees your potential he doesn't see the mess you made he sees the miracle he wants to make when he looks at you he sees the potential of a beautiful bride and he says when i look at you i see your future you are all fair my love there is no spot in thee now we don't know how long their courtship lasted but there are two spring seasons referred to in song of solomon in chapter two and chapter seven so it looks like their courtship went for a little over a year at least solomon revisited baal haymon repeatedly over several months and he was always disguised as a shepherd and his plan worked because eventually that shulamite girl we don't even know her name but she fell head over heels in love with her shepherd but there's a little bit of humor in song of solomon because she says this to him tell me o thou whom my soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon for why should i be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions this is kind of comical she can't quite figure out why every time her handsome shepherd shows up to meet her to court her to woo her she can never quite figure out why he never has any sheep and so this is her question where are your sheep all the other shepherds have sheep where are your sheep she can't quite figure it out and he never quite tells her eventually solomon's royal responsibilities call him back to the palace in jerusalem but not before this shepherd promises the shulamite girl i will return and when i return i will make you my bride she still has no idea how powerful he is she still has no idea that he's the king of the whole country she just knows that he's a handsome shepherd boy that she fell in love with but he promises her although i've got to go away i will return and when i return i'm going to make you my bride and he was gone a long time sometimes she dreams of him always she longs for him constantly her thoughts wander throughout this little poem to the wedding that he had promised but here's the thing that's so uh heart-wrenching and confusing about song of solomon although she longs for that and her thoughts wander to it and she anticipates it nothing happens for months and months other than her love for him nothing has changed in her everyday life please hear me she still has to toil in the vineyard every day she still has to tend the crops and prune the vines and pick the grapes and she still has to ward off thieves and chase away predators and she still has to endure that baking hot sun day after day after endless day nothing's changed in her life except maybe one thing now she also has to endure the harsh mockery of her family and friends because they simply don't believe that anybody could ever love her and even if that shepherd did love her they think he was lying he's never coming back he's never returning for you you're never going to become the bride of anybody and so they mock her and they're vicious whither is thy beloved gone o thou fairest among women whither is thy beloved turned aside that we may seek him with thee they are tormenting her they are mocking her that promise that he gave you isn't real the promise of his return that's not real you're just imagining that nobody would ever love you nobody would ever want you nobody would ever come back and marry you sometimes when she answers them she replies with calm assurance but other times you can see in this book that she battles nagging doubts sometimes she speaks with stubborn confidence but other times her eyes fill with blinding tears sometimes she responds to them with a very forceful courage but other times she struggles with tormenting fears but regardless of how she feels in that moment every time they ask and every time she answers her love for her beloved and her faith in his promise they remain unchanged they say to her they torment her they mock her what is thy beloved more than another beloved oh thou fairest among women what is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost so charge us in this day she responds with a stubborn confidence she says my beloved is white and ready he is the chiefest among ten thousand you can't mock me enough to make me forget his promise you can't torment me enough you can't doubt my words enough you can't do enough to me to make me forget that he said i have to go away but i will return and when i return i will make you my bride one day an ordinary spring day there was this great cloud of dust on the road and all the common people they ran to see what was going on and soon they could see a majestic procession making its way straight to the vineyard and the murmurs of the crowd they soon became excited shouts and you could hear people begin to say it's king solomon the king is coming to our vineyard and sure enough it was solomon he was arriving on his glorious chariot a royal box carried by poles on the shoulders of his servants guarded by 60 of his soldiers and with all the sweet incense being burned in honor of the king of the whole country it was like this huge cloud was winding its way out of the wilderness up that dirt road and entering the vineyard and on that day you hear the voices who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke perfumed with myrrh and frankincense with all powders of the merchant behold his bed his chariot which is solomon's 60 valiant men are around it of the valiant of israel they all hold swords they're all expert in war every man has a sword gerd on his thigh because of the fear in the night they're going to guard their king king solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of lebanon this is a glorious chariot winding its way up the road and the excited shouts get louder and louder because the king who owns the whole country is coming to their vineyard on this day you know that the shulamites abusive stepbrothers and stepsisters on that day no doubt they said you just continue working in the vineyard we're going to go check this out we're going to go see this royal spectacle after all what would the king of the whole country ever want with a popper peasant girl dressed in tattered rags but then solomon stops his chariot and he steps out and everyone's shock and surprise he gets out of his chariot and he walks directly into the vineyard imagine that shulamite's girl's surprise when she looks up from her labors to see the king of the whole country looking down at her perhaps her initial instinctive reaction was one of fear or shame knowing that the king of the whole country was gazing on a poor peasant popper girl dressed in rags but then as she looked closer and she gazed into his eyes she noticed something she hadn't seen a moment ago she noticed the smile on his face and the love in his eyes and on that day suddenly that little popper peasant girl clothed in rags she suddenly realized what her heart could hardly dare to dream it was her handsome shepherd boy and he had returned just like he said to marry her but what she hadn't known before is that face those loving eyes they didn't just belong to a humble shepherd he's the king of the whole country and he's come back to take her from her poverty to his palace the bible says in song of solomon chapter 2 and 13 the fig tree putteth forth her green figs and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell and he says to her it's springtime arise my love my fair one and come away that's the voice that's the person that's the cry that the church is waiting for in the 21st century arise my love my fair one and come away never has the world been in such turmoil countries collapsing governments gone terrorism everywhere violence and racism hatred and now we have disease just like the bible said pandemics we've got all of the signs of the times and then some but the church isn't focused on the signs of the times we're not focused on a pandemic or a war somewhere or a collapsing country or a collapsing economy or terrorism or racism what we're focused on is the soon return of the king of the whole world and we're waiting for his cry arise my love my fair one and come away in one instant her future changed forever because the king had come for her and he gallantly escorts her to his royal chariot to the amazement of everybody in the crowd that day and together they begin the journey back to the royal city of jerusalem where she will become solomon's queen the vineyard is left behind her the endless days of toil and suffering that's history her persecutors can never touch her and never taunt her again in one instant her rags are exchanged for royal garments her address immediately shifts from a poppers shack to a king's palace and best of all brothers and sisters she gets to spend the rest of her life with her beloved the king who became a popper also a popper could become his queen and in one instant it all changes and now that crowd that had persecuted this shulamite girl they are absolutely astonished on this day as they see a peasant girl riding in the royal chariot with king solomon and they're even more amazed to think that the mysterious humble shepherd that she always talked about all that time he was the king of the whole country and now their song has changed now their tune has changed who is this that comes up from the wilderness and she's leaning on her beloved and like every good tale of romance song of solomon basically ends as you'd expect and they lived happily ever after what a story it is brothers and sisters it's the story of the entire bible contained in a little book of a love poem you see the world doesn't understand you now because when you talk about your humble shepherd the savior who came was born in a manger and grew up in israel and died on a cross and you say he rose again they don't believe that you say he's coming back for you they don't believe that they don't understand you now because they only see jesus as a humble shepherd they don't know they don't understand that he's the king of the universe he's the king of kings and the lord of lords but can i tell you something else it's not just the world that doesn't see him in his glory at this moment can i just tell you that we don't see him in his glory either in this moment oh we love him and we trust him and we hold on to his promise that he's coming back and we hold on to his promise that he's going to make us his bride but can i tell you you have never seen your savior in his ultimate glory but we still love him peter the pentecost preacher he said whom having not seen you love in whom though now you see him not yet believing and in the meantime until he returns you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory brothers and sisters i don't believe we're very far from this appointment it will be different the next time jesus comes the world will see him and they will see his bride the church like they never could have imagined jesus himself said if i go and prepare a place for you i will come again and i will receive you unto myself that where i am there ye may be also i have a word for you today first of all i want you to think about the beauty of this story the god who robed himself in flesh he humbled himself we can't even imagine what a humiliation it was for the king of all kings to come to earth and be born not even in a palace that would have been a great humiliation to come from heaven to a palace but he didn't he came to a stable he came to a life of poverty and obscurity he humbled himself the king became a humble shepherd and he came and it's beautiful but i want you to realize that not only is this the story of the bible and not only is it so beautiful and powerful and this is the gospel that we preach that no matter how messed up you are and how poverty-stricken you are in your spirit and and how many tatters and scars and how much guilt and shame you have the king he wants you as his bride and he'll go to any lengths to win you and to woo you but you've got to respond but i want you to understand brothers and sisters that the last days it's a weary sometime there's a movement it's the devil himself pushing against the church he wants you to get weary in well-doing he wants you to give up just before the lord returns and he's pushing with all the pressure he can muster he has come down to earth with great wrath knowing that his time is short and there's a pressure in the end times but i speak to you today i know you feel isolated during this time and i know it's been difficult for you and i know it's been discouraging to go week after week after week after week with no real physical in-person connection with your church i know that's been difficult we've been through it here but i want to tell you that the next appointment that we have on our calendar as christians is not the end of the pandemic it is not the opening of our country oh we're all hoping for that we'll get there but the next appointment we have on our calendar is when the king of all kings shows up in the clouds of glory and comes to receive us to himself that's the next appointment for the church you cannot miss it you cannot let the pressure of the end times distract you from your relationship with god because as christians although to the world nothing has changed in our lives yes we go to the pentecostals of sydney and and we're part of a good church and we have a wonderful pastor and a great leadership team and we're so happy about that but as far as the world's concerned nothing's changed in your life you still go to work you still pay bills you still support your family you still get sick sometimes you're just living a normal life what's so different about you see they can't see that you hold on to a promise they can't see that you hold on to a hope and we are waiting for the call when our beloved speaks and says to us rise up my love my fair one and come away that is the hope of the church i'd like to pray with you what an honor and privilege it's been to speak to you today and i pray this word encourages your heart let's pray lord jesus i thank you for my friends in the beautiful nation of australia in the wonderful city of sydney god i can visualize that church building in the wonderful times of fellowship and the moves of your spirit we've had there and right now it seems that's all so distant from us and it's so difficult but god the reason we have that building and the reason we have our wonderful pastor and our ministry team and the reason we have services and the reason we witness and pray and give and sacrifice and the reason we're faithful is because we're preparing ourselves for a wedding we're preparing ourselves for the culmination of our walk with you and so i speak your word over my brothers and sisters in sydney don't be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we don't faint i speak your word over them encourage them today lift them up bind them together even while distanced lord jesus let your spirit flow there are no boundaries to the holy ghost let it flow from vessel to vessel even through this webcast today lord jesus i pray that it would flow into homes and families and god keep us focused on that day when our beloved returns thank you lord jesus for reaching us and loving us when nobody else did thank you for giving us a hope and a future bless your church today keep us until you're coming in the mighty name of jesus amen amen amen this is our opportunity to worship and pray together and make an altar in our homes so let's do that [Music] he is just for me love's like a hurricane i am a tree bending beneath the weight of his wind [Music] afflictions eclipsed by glory and i realize just how beautiful you are and how great your affections are for me and all how he loves us oh how he loves us how he loves us we are his portion and he is our prize drawn to redemption by the grace in his eyes if grace is an ocean we're all sinking so heavenly turns like a beautiful kiss and my heart turns violently inside of my chest i don't have time to make these regrets when i think about [Music] he loves us [Music] he oh us oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah he loves us [Music] oh thank you thank you god thank you lord for your love for your amazing love hallelujah thank you jesus what a powerful word for us today let me just encourage you from what we have heard as the brother would administer to us so powerfully that the door to love can only be unlocked from within and i pray today that our hearts would respond to him we are looking forward to that day when the bible tells us when the shout of the archangel and the trump of god shall sound but in the meantime we have the spirit of god dwelling with us within us and if you've never received that promise you can receive it today the spirit of god can fill you if you are hungry and if you're thirsty so right now as we close in prayer we're going to ask god to do a great work in our hearts as we open our spirits hallelujah father in the name of jesus lord we thank you for what we have heard here today thank you lord that while we were unlovable but while we were yet in sin and sinners with christ you came into this world and you died for us you gave your life for us you you became sin so that you can pay that penalty for us that we might become united with you lord we thank you we thank you lord that you've reached out to us i pray lord that our hearts would be surrendered and yielded and that we would respond to your hand to your touch to your invitation with a heart of love with god we we reach out to you today we respond with the spirit as hungry and thirsty and that wants to know you in a deeper way thank you lord for your spirit thank you for your love lord god that you would feel the hungry and the thirsty that you would cause us to experience the flowing and the abundance of your holy spirit dwelling within us as a promise fulfilled can lord god in each and every day lord god that we would look to you that we would be praying and watching and be ready for when the bridegroom comes and unites us together that we may be ever with you in your presence forevermore so bless all of our friends and family that are connected to this service here today have your hand upon us continue to lead us as we walk with you in this relationship and this this love affair with you our lord our savior our king go with us now give us an outstanding week as we give you praise and glory and let your blessings be upon all of us in jesus name amen amen thank you for joining with us make sure you comment you like and you stay connected with us don't forget prayer meeting on zoom for church family tomorrow uh tomorrow night at seven and every morning 3 a.m and 6 a.m you can join us at our zoom prayer meeting god bless you everybody

Channel: POSydney

Views: 444

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: sermon, Sydney, pentecostal, POS, Australia, worship

Id: _jL1eFRxZ7c

Length: 96min 1sec (5761 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 21 2021