I for one love sport and cricket but many of us make a mistake to let sport take the place of true religion in our lives.
It is not sustainable.
These guys need to be forgiven if they ask for it, ------Smith,Warner and Bancroft.
Let them continue to do what they are good at.
C T Studd one of 3 cricketing English brothers, tossed in wealth and fame, (he probably would have captained England), to become a missionary to spread the Gospel where it had hardly been heard of before.
SERMON 20/3/16 Renmark and Renmark West Uniting Churches.
This is the outline and recorded message presented on Palm Sunday 2016 at the 2 Renmark Uniting Church Services.
The Bible Passages are underneath the transcript.
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The Road to Jerusalem
In todays readings we see the enthusiasm for Jesus of the
common people as He road into Jerusalem on a colt.
They had no idea of His real mission and purpose and were
probably thinking on the lines here is our future King and Leader.
They were aware of the miracles He had been doing and this
turn out was in part a celebration of what He had been doing over the last 3
years, the 3 years He actively carried out His ministry on earth.
They were overjoyed and thinking He will lead us out of
oppressive lives we live under the ruling Romans.
Many of them had also just recently witnessed the raising of
Lazarus from the dead.
They were thinking Jesus was the promised Messiah.
They were probably thinking of Him as their Saviour.
Saviour from Death,
as they saw what happened with Lazarus.
They lay down palm leaves in His path as part of the
celebration.
The irony of the occasion however was that Jesus chose a
colt or donkey to ride on.
A beast of burden.
Usually triumphant kings in those days rode into town on a
war horse,
a symbol of strength and victory in battle.
But Jesus chose a beast of burden,
a servant animal.
Jesus was coming ,
although they did not know it ,
as the servant King.
Remember Him washing the Disciples feet.
The Son of God who had come to give His life for all
mankind.
People were casting off their outer garments and laying them
and palm fronds down in His path.
The Palm fronds and laying down of garments are given some
significance in other commentaries.
“Zechariah had prophesied, "Behold
your King is coming to you, gentle, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt,
the foal of a beast of burden"(Zech.9:9; Mt.21:5). Jesus instructs the
disciples to bring a donkey and a colt, and so they do exactly that--just as it
had been prophesied.”
“It is John's Gospel that informs us
that these branches were palm branches(Jn.12:13), but what was their purpose?
Why was this massive crowd stripping off their outer garments and throwing them
on the road? Well, thankfully, we have another biblical precedent of this to
provide us a clue.
If your Bibles are open, you may want to turn to 2Kings, chapter 9. In 2Kings
9, the prophet Elisha sends a messenger to give a Word from the Lord to Jehu.
After pouring oil over Jehu, the messenger said to him in verse 12, 'Thus says
the Lord, "I have anointed you king over Israel"'. After that
declaration, everyone who was present took their garment and placed it under
Jehu's steps, and they blew the trumpet, shouting, "Jehu is king!"(9:13).
So what does this mean for Jesus' entry into Jerusalem? It would imply that the
multitude recognized Jesus as a king
. Like in the case of Jehu, the garments and palm branches served as an
improvised red carpet.”
So regardless of the behavior of the crowd Jesus was calmly
and quietly riding to His certain death.
The crowd had no knowledge or suspicion of this.
Jesus came to us with one purpose.
To die for our sins on the cross.
To take our place.
To cancel the power of the devil.
To cancel the power of sin.
To rise from the dead and ascend into heaven.
(Having first descended into Hell)
To send us the Comforter , the Holy Spirit to allow us all
to be born again and enjoy victory in our lives over sin and death.
In the garden of gethsemane, the night of His betrayal, we
are told He was not looking forward to it.
The accounts tell us that he was in agony there and sweated
great drops of blood.
His disciples fell asleep.
He pleaded that if it were possible could His Heavenly
Father take this cup from Him.
But He had set His will, His face to the Cross.
He knew what had to be done.
None of the people on the road to Jerusalem had any idea
that this was all to come.
Even his Disciples were of thesame expectations as the crowd.
They had no idea that theirwinning team was going to be in disarray with the death of their Lord.
They did not handle it well.
They were to fall into a state of shock and disbelief and
fear.
Indeed even Peter when he later saw what was unfolding
denied that he had anything to do with Jesus.
3 times.
Only hours after saying he would never betray Him.
At this stage I would like to introduce an even more amazing
and spectacular triumphal arrival of Jesus.
A huge contrast to the Palm Sunday event.
And some of us just might be there to witness it live.
Listen to these few paragraphs from a book by Max Lucado.
(read from introduction in italics)
What a breath taking description on the return of our Lord
Jesus.
It is based on the book of revelation.
It is from Max’s book called “When Christ Comes”.
It is something that could happen in our lifetime.
Before we die.
It could happen tomorrow or in several years in the future.
It is not for us to know when but to be ready.
Next week we will be celebrating Easter once again.
I would like to share this from the very first message I gave
in Renmark a couple of years ago.
“The cross of Jesus begins for most of
us to have a profound effect upon us the day or the time we take ourselves, and
what we are, and we kneel before his cross as he hangs there.
Until we do ,this personally and individually, the Cross of Jesus is mostly and
mainly an historical event. A thing that happened 2000 years ago.
But when we kneel before our Saviour’s cross , when we kneel before Him hanging
on His cross, it is then it begins to have a profound effect upon us.
As we kneel , and look up into His face, the face of Jesus as He hangs upon His
cross , we see someone who utterly died to self, and as we look at Him and as
this realisation begins to come home to us ,
I can assure you we are shaken to the very core, and not only are we shaken ,
but ,
we are scared ,we are frightened to death by that terrible challenge to self.
As we look into His face we begin, and often it’s only a beginning , begin to
see how controlled, we are, by self.
We begin to realise how demanding self is.
That I always want to be first!
That I always want to get the biggest!
That one way or another I’ll scheme to get the best!
Give me the chance and I’ll put myself before you!
Driven by self ,all these ugly things as you kneel there, start to come home.
And you know that the Son of God is dealing with you.
When we kneel and look up into the face of Jesus on His cross, we begin to
realise what Love really is.”
God is Love.
Jesus is Love.
At our Easter service next Sunday, and we can begin today,
let us set our wills, our face towards the Cross of Jesus and allow Jesus to
shake us at the depths.
Shake us out of our ;
spiritual doldrums,
our self pity,
our unforgiveness of others,
our criticisms and condemnations,
let’s live in the power of His Cross!
And let’s look forward to His triumphal return to this
earth.
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Luke 19:28-40
28 After telling this story, Jesus went
on toward Jerusalem, walking along ahead of his disciples. 29 As
they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, he
sent two disciples ahead, 30 with instructions to go to the
next village, and as they entered they were to look for a donkey tied beside
the road. It would be a colt, not yet broken for riding.
“Untie him,” Jesus said, “and bring
him here. 31 And if anyone asks you what you are doing, just
say, ‘The Lord needs him.’”
32 They found the colt as Jesus said, 33 and
sure enough, as they were untying it, the owners demanded an explanation.
“What are you doing?” they asked.
“Why are you untying our colt?”
34 And the disciples simply replied,
“The Lord needs him!” 35 So they brought the colt to Jesus and
threw some of their clothing across its back for Jesus to sit on.
36-37 Then the crowds spread out their
robes along the road ahead of him, and as they reached the place where the road
started down from the Mount of Olives, the whole procession began to shout and
sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles Jesus
had done.
38 “God has given us a King!” they
exulted. “Long live the King! Let all heaven rejoice! Glory to God in the
highest heavens!”
39 But some of the Pharisees among the
crowd said, “Sir, rebuke your followers for saying things like that!”
40 He replied, “If they keep quiet, the
stones along the road will burst into cheers!”
There are gospel addresses on each night at 7pm until next Thursday.
I managed to catch the last 20 mins of an address by Len Walker.
He and his wife Nerida worked as missionaries in Colombia for some 15 years.
Len Walker,one of tonight's presenters.
I was too late to hear Bryan speak.
This is a marvellous exhibition and listening to Len speak I believe the Gospel is being presented faithfully, thoughtfully and without compromise.
I would recommend that anyone who is in the Riverland ,Berri,Renmark, Loxton, Waikerie,Barmera and other nearby towns get along to hear and see this unique presentation.
For many years around the world and in Australia many "tent" missions were held with many turning to God as a result.
There may be some reading this who have had their minds stimulated by the recent death of Billy Graham the well known Evangelist.
Well this is not Billy Graham but I am sure he would endorse this and so do I.
This is the message I shared with the Parkrose Nursing Home Church on 11/3/18
Intro
I want
to talk today about the Power of Presence.
1. On
our presence with others (ministering by our presence)
2.The experience of our coming into
God’s presence,
3. on
our presence with God and resting in His presence.
Ministering by our Presence
Some
few years ago now, I was going through a real dark period in my life.
I was
in the grip of a serious depression.
I was
a Christian and in fact this is only going back about 8 years.
I was
having trouble functioning as there was this so called “black cloud” hanging
over my head.
At the
peak of this a friend of ours had to move out of her quite small flat into care
in a nursing home.
It
took several months for the decision to be made that she was not well enough
ever to be able to go back into her flat and live independently.
To get
me out of the house and trying to function, rather than wallow in my thoughts,
we decided, Lesley suggested, that I would go and feed Bronte’s little cat
daily in her flat.
This
was until the decision was finally made that she wouldn’t be coming home and
her flat would be sold.
The
little black and white cat was very timid and frightened of me to start with
but because I was feeding her, she came to trust me and accept me.
I
would spend about an hour there each time daily, in mainly darkness, just me
and the cat.
I
tried praying in this time about the things that were troubling me but God
seemed miles away.
The
depression was not lifting.
The
walls seemed to be closing in on me.
I was
praying like mad all this time but the problem was my praying was really only
reminding me of my despair.
That
caused a worsening depression.
I was
focusing on the problem not Jesus.
For
people in this situation it is sometimes wise to tell people that you will pray
for them.
And
actually do so in their presence on occasions.
Eventually
the decision was made to sell the flat so I stopped going.
I
don’t remember who took the cat over.
In
that time we didn’t speak much,
the cat and I.
Many
of us talk to Pets and Animals as if they are human , don’t we?
In
fact any conversation was only one way.
I am
sure though the little cat took some comfort in my presence and in a strange
way I looked forward to my daily visit.
I felt
I at least was doing something useful.
I was ministering to the cat and in doing so to myself.
I am
sure many of you believe in ministering to your pets.
This is one of our cats who we minister to daily
I
longed for God to heal me and the situation at that time but God seemed remote.
Any
visits I had from friends or relatives during that time of depression did not
seem to help me.
I
could not communicate very well.
I was
very stand offish.
Their
presence didn’t seem to help although I knew they meant well.
Sometimes
people even seemed to be talking about me as if I wasn’t present.
Thinking
because I was not responding to them they probably thought I could not hear
them.
How
often we are so insensitive and guilty of that sort of thing.
During
this time we went on a 2 week holiday to Central Australia.
Our 2
best friends, husband and wife came with us.
I was
barely on the same wavelength as Lesley and our friends.
I
loved the trip but at the same time was a lot of the time overwhelmed with
depression.
On the 2009 trip to Central Australia
I was
really quite a kill joy most of the time.
They
were incredibly gracious and understanding.
Our
friends did not try and fix me, they just were there for me.
Whenwe minister to others sometimes its better
just to listen and be there rather than try and come up with our own recipe for
how God can fix it.
I was
being ministered to by their presence and love and their prayers.
I
don’t know if any of you have heard of Merril Womach.
He
died in 2014.
This
is from his obituary,
“Merrill is as well known for his
amazing vocal artistry and four-octave tenor voice as he is for his creative
entrepreneurship that built a national music service for funeral homes designed
to minister to families during their time of loss. Years
ago, while his fledgling business was growing, a private plane he was flying
crashed in the woods upon take off. Merrill not only beat the odds of surviving
the fiery plane crash, he also continued to sing and inspire others with his
strong faith in God.”
A documentary was made
about his recovery called “He Restoreth my Soul”.
Merrill
received severe burns over his whole face in that crash.
His
whole face was terribly scarred.
When
in recovery he become very depressed.
In
the documentary he said the thing that helped the depression lift was when a
friend came to his house one night and they just sat and talked and reminisced
about good times in the past.
There
had been much prayer and medical help before that but the simple presence of
his friend was the catalyst to finding the joy of living again.
This
is the reality of the ministry of our presence.
Now;
COMING INTO GOD’s PRESENCE
It’s
never too late to come into His presence.
We
come into His presence because of His Grace and outstretched hands.
“As
many as received Him to them He gives the right to become Children of God.”
We can
come within the veil, into His presence, because of what Jesus has done for us
on the cross.
At the
time of the crucifixion the veil in the Temple in Jerusalem was ripped from top
to bottom signifying we can now enter the Holy of Holies.
I got
the idea for today’s sermon from the title of the latest book by Neil Anderson.
It’s
called “the power of presence”.
Neil
has had a very active ministry as a seminary professor, pastor and author and
founder of Freedom in Christ Ministries.
He has written this book and shares some wonderful insights as he daily spends time with his wife who suffers from dementia.
Our
reading today from Psalm 95 he speaks about in his book.
Psalm 95:1-7King James Version (KJV)
95 O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. 3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. 5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. 6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. 7 For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
It
emphasizes coming into the presence of God with thanksgiving.
It
also finishes “Today if you hear His voice”
We
have been giving praise to God with a thankful heart.
What
will happen in our lives if today we hear His voice as we come into His
presence?
Will
it affect our own behavior?
Will
it be encouraging us to minister by our presence to others?
Coming
into His presence is responding to the call of Jesus.
When
we became Christians we invited and accepted Jesus to be our savior.
Coming
into His presence we can grow into our full salvation.
Our
Maturity as Christians.
Now we
come to
RESTING IN HIS PRESENCE
The
other day we were doing some babysitting at our place.
Indy
who is 5 asked me to help him put together a lego thing he was making.
I said
I have trouble getting down on the floor Indy so I might not be much help.
So I
sat there for about 20mins.
He did
not really need my help.
But he
was very pleased I was in his presence.
Little
kids often like to check you are still there and on their team.
We go
about our lives quite independently from God but we are comforted by knowing He
is always with us.
He is
always present.
In the
good times and the tough times.
We
practice the presence of God when we walk in the light.
“ If
we say we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not
practice the truth; but if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, then we
have fellowship with one another,and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all
sin.” 1 John 1:6-7.
God
has promised to never leave of forsake us.
His
Holy Spirit has come to indwell us as the Comforter..
He
will ensure we can rest in His presence.
He is
here with us both personally and as a congregation today.
Let’s
make sure we continue to rest in His presence
It is amazing how one can stumble across a treasure trove quite innocuosly.
I was invited to lunch one Sunday and my hostess showed me a small card commemorating the fact that the Queenstown Church of Christ Football team won their premiership in 1946.
It had an action pic on the front of a footballer.
(PRG-1316-4-34 State Library of South Australia)
Valmai told me a little bit about the footy club's background and this prompted me to to do an internet search.
Well it didn't take long to hit "gold".
Enter a vast collection of photography and some home movies all produced before 1946 by one W C Brooker.
W C Brooker (PRG-1316-3-481 State Library of South Australia)
He was a Pastor, Businessman, Evangelist, Sports Enthusiast and much more.
His collection I found on the the Website of the State Library of South Australia.
The file numbers for the collection are noted with each picture and the State library has given permission for these images to be reproduced here.
For any similar use one should contact the State Library of South Australia.
Below is the link to the online collection.
"DEATH OF PASTOR BROOKER (25/3/47 article in paper)
Church Of Christ Cleric For 42 Years Pastor W. C. Brooker, who died yesterday at the age of 72. was
preacher at the Church of Christ. Queenstown. for 42 years.
While still in the furniture business in Rundle street, city. Pastor Brooker preached at the church for
10 years. He gave up his business32 years ago to become a full-time preacher.
He made the decision to become a cleric after his seven-year-old son had recovered from serious injuries received in an accident.
He was born at Hindmarsh, and had lived at Alberton for 32 years.
He preached his first sermon at the age of 18, and delivered more than 10,000 addresses during his life.
He was Federal President of the Churches of Christ of Australia from 1916 until 1920. and was State
President in 1910.
He was on the State Home Mission committee for 30 years, and at the time of hisdeath was a member of the advisory board and a seal bolder. ,
Other official positions held by Pastor Brooker were chairman of the Port Adelaide Seamen's Mission for 17 years, president of the South Australian Alliance for five years, and a member and past chief
ruler of the Independent Order of Rechabites.
As a young man. he studied medicine for four years.
He leaves a widow and three children. Mr. William Brooker and Mesdames J. Hall and D. Broadbent."
I came across some of W C's photography last year in a Churches Of Christ Jubilee Pictorial Publication.
The book did not acknowledge the photographers.
When I found pastor Brooker's online collection I recognised some of the shots that were in that book.
At the time when I saw this book I thought how well the photographs had been done.
Obviously done by someone with a lot of photographic skill and knowledge.
I intend to do some more research on this man and his work and to do some more posts featuring his work.
