Big Blessings

Message notes: Sunday 16th September 2012 Exeter Temple  
Ephesians 3:19 “And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

The Bible uses the word “full, fully or fullness many times including this verse. It is a very appropriate word for harvest time as it is a time when we recognise how “fully” reliant upon God we are for our survival. Also it is a festival when we express our “full” appreciation to him for all his provision.
Fullness has several different meanings.
1. Extravagance
There is that part of us that looks at the world and, instead of seeing the abundance of creation, sees a scarcity of resources. But we worship a God of abundance                                                                                                 This is sometimes it’s hard to believe when we witness or experience poverty. However this does not need to lead us to the conclusion that the Lord God is a god of scarcity. The infinite variety of creation, the way Jesus demonstrated generosity shows us God’s extravagance. Rather it is man’s wastefulness, greed and mismanagement that causes an imbalance in the distribution of resources.
A human being also cries out to be loved extravagantly. God acts abundantly here also.
God has displayed for all the fullness of his love for us.
Colossians 2:9
His love is demonstrated in Christ’s person and also by Christ’s actions.
Romans 5:8
The cross is a demonstration of love that holds nothing back, that goes to the most extreme act of self-sacrifice, and offers through that sacrifice access to the fullness of heaven.
“Everything of God gets expressed in Christ so you can see and hear him clearly. You don’t need a telescope, a microscope or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him that fullness comes together for you too. His power extends to everything.” (The Message)

2. Totality
Full also refers to something being totally crammed to capacity.
We are not just to sample the fullness of God’s love we are to be filled with it ourselves. “that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
This fullness is brought into our lives through the Holy Spirit.
John 3:5
A.W Tozer “The Spirit filled life is not a special deluxe version of the Christianity. It is part and parcel to the total plan of God for his people.”
Christians can be petty, competitive, materialistic, mean and angry.
Could it be that some Christians have never allowed the Holy Spirit to take total control of their lives? Could it be that some Christians were once filled with the fullness of God but they have let the devil take back ground in their lives?
Ephesians 4:17
Something is either full or it is not. It may not be completely empty but God has not promised half measures he has promised fullness!!

3. Readiness
Fullness can also mean readiness or ripeness? At harvest time we see fruit that is ready to be picked and corn that is waiting to be threshed.
The Old Testament looked forward to a time when God would come in full measure to his people but in the New Testament this is fulfilled.
Galatians 4:4
There is therefore immediacy in the message of the New Testament. The time is now. God has poured out his Spirit in order for there to be a harvest of his love in our hearts now. There is nothing, except our unwillingness to prevent us from benefiting from his fullness.

Harvest time will pass. The time is now because we don’t know when we will run out of time or time will run out on us.
Jesus also calls us to harvest now. He says that there are people who are ready right now to hear and accept his gift of love

God bless

Carol

Big Deal

Big Deal 

Ephesians 1:1-10
Alan's sermon notes  9th September 2012

I am really not bothered whether Dr Who gets exterminated forever by a Dalek. That also goes for any of the characters in the soap operas I never watch. I am not that interested that Miley Cyrus has a new hairdo that makes her look like Jedward because I have no idea who she is and even if I did she can do what she likes with her own hair!

On the other hand what really makes steam come out of my ears is people using mobile phones whilst they are driving and people who hog the middle lane on a motorway.
There are always going to be some things that are a big deal to us and things that pass us by because in our minds they are not that important.

There are many things that can be regarded as unimportant trivia, sin is not one of them
Sin is refusing to let God be the author of the story of our lives which is foolish because God as our creator knows best how our lives should be lived and we are turning our backs on the person who loves us most in the world. Our rebellion not only breaks God’s laws but breaks His heart.

1. Grave consequences

2:1 “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live”
How can someone who is dead in transgressions and sins at the same live in them? How can someone be dead and also alive?
The Bible describes humans as a combination of body, mind and spirit. When all of these three are working properly then there is harmony and wholeness. Paul takes the view that in every human being the spirit part is dead. This is part that should connect with our creator God who is Spirit.
In the Bible (e.g. John 17:3) life is defined as knowing God and to be in a relationship with Him. Life is used to express a state of union with God and death a state of separation from God.

Characteristics of a spiritually dead person.
V2 They arepowerless In a similar way because we are spiritually dead we have no choice but to “follow the ways of the world.”
V3 They are bereaved
When human beings experience spiritual death we are in state of bereavement for that lost relationship with God. Craving speaks of a longing, a desire, of incompleteness, of loneliness.
V 3b They are imbalanced
We were made to be balanced people, body, mind and spirit. It is the spiritual part of us, which is united to God that should be in control of our life and not the appetites or our bodies and minds. Our natural instincts are not wrong but they are meant to be controlled by our spirit. With the spiritual part of us dead then the needs of our bodies and minds rule our lives and because they are not meant to we end up with a dysfunctional world.
V3c They are doomed
Wrath is a strong word; it means God’s holy anger against sin and the resulting judgement.
We tend to see the wrath of God in opposition to the love of God but the two are not opposites, they need each other.
God would not be completely loving if he did not hate the things that rob us of living full lives; similarly He would not wrathful if He didn’t care about us because if He didn’t care he would be ambivalent.

2. Great Contrast
You were dead but now you are alive! What has brought about the contrast?

God was motivated
God knows our state and why we are in the state we are in.
v 3 “It’s a wonder God didn’t lose His temper and do away with the whole lot of us.” (The Message)
We deserve rejection and destruction but instead we are given life.

God acted It is foolish for someone who is spiritually dead to try to be live as a Christian. Something has to happen to change our state. Paul says; “that God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ.” It was His action. He gives new life.

God offered us the gift
“He took our sin dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did this all on His own with no help from us! Saving is all His idea and all His work. All we do is trust Him enough to let Him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish!” (The Message)

Salvation is salvation from death. We are not grateful to God because He sent Jesus to cheer up our lack lustre lives or just to untangle the mess we’ve made of the world. What the cross offers in not just forgiveness. It offers salvation. Forgiveness is part of the package but not the whole story. We are grateful to God because without His salvation plan we are dead.

God bless Alan

Big money

The outcome of a dispute between the two Russian oligarch’sRoman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky. The amount of money involved in the case is staggering. It is thought that Mr Abramovich has a net worth of £12.1 billion!

Sometimes Christians on have a “getting by” kind of attitude but actually in spiritual terms we are in the “big money” league. We are spiritual oligarchs!

Paul praises God in verse 3 because we every spiritual blessing is found in Christ. They are outlined from v 4 onwards.

1. Being Chosen  v 4

2. Holiness and blamelessness v  4

3. Adoption v 5

4. Grace v 6

5. Redemption through his blood v 7

6. Forgiveness of sins v 7b

7. Revelation of his will v 9

8. Our identity  v11-12

9. Salvation v13

10. The seal of the Spirit v13b

11. Heaven v14

12. Growing knowledge of God v17

13. Hope v18

1. Entitlement v 11-13a
Everyone on earth is a benefactor of God’s generosity because we owe our continued existence to the providence and the mercy of God, however these spiritual blessings can only be claimed by a person who is found to be “in Christ” This is the important clause. You have to be “in Christ” to claim all these blessings. If you are not a Christian they are not yours they do not belong to you. It is being “in Christ” that qualifies us to receive this inheritance of spiritual blessing. Our place “in Christ” is not gained through personal merit but won for us through the work of Jesus Christ himself on the cross. It is a condition that is on offer to all people everywhere and is accessed through faith.

John 1:12 “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name he gave them the right to become children of God.” Ephesians 1:13 “You were also included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed you were marked in him with a seal.”

2. Endorsement v 13b-14
Paul uses two illustrations of the Holy Spirit’s action in giving us assurance that all that is “In Christ” both now and in the future
“Having believed you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.”

Seals were used in the ancient world on invoices to authenticate them. A seal ratified a covenant or contract and endorsed it. The Holy Spirit has placed a SEAL on us, identifying us as a genuine member of God’s kingdom, marking us as his prized possessions and guaranteeing our inheritance of all God’s promises, wealth and goodness.

A deposit or down payment placed on an item declares an intention to complete the transaction. A portion is invested now to give assurance of future payments. The reality of the presence of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives today gives us the assurance that we will receive our inheritance in full.

3. Enlightenment
Unless our eyes are opened what we actually have in Christ, the inheritance he offers us is wasted on us. Esau in the OT is an example of someone who couldn’t see what was valuable and what was not.

In v 17-18 Paul asks that the believers be given revelation. The Holy Spirit is needed to give knowledge of God.

This is the most important prayer any believer can pray for another believer. It is good to pray for healing, for provision, for protection, for obstacles to be overcome but above all pray that those you pray for know him.

In Christ, God does not give us a donation towards things we need spiritually but a permanent inheritance to live upon. We need to start living as heirs of a kingdom, as children of God.

2 Peter 1: 3 says, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness.

God bless

Carol

Big Story

Hi everyone,
It is a long time since I did a blog and this is not technically a blog but Bible notes from Sunday's message at Exeter Temple preached by Alan.  Look out for these each week and I will also hopefully find the time to start proper blogging again soon.

Bible Reading:  Ephesians 1:1-10


There are 3 basic views about the way the world continues.

It is random
There is an ancient philosophy which said, “The comeliest order on earth is but a heap of random sweepings.” There is no purpose behind the universe.

It is circular
This is the sentiment behind the Disney film the Lion King, which theme is really all about what it calls the circle of life. Someone or something may have set the processes of nature going but they just now roll on.

It is linear
The Christian view is that the world has a definite beginning, that we are in the middle of an on-going story that will one day reach its destiny.

In the culture of Ephesus people constantly worried about their fate, thinking their future depended upon the movement of the planets or the will of angels and demons.

Eph 1:9-10 shows us that there is a BIG STORY that a loving God is writing for this planet,

1. It is a story which he has made known V9
In the Bible a mystery isn’t a puzzle to figure out, it is something that has been kept secret that has to be revealed. God is under no obligation to reveal his plans but we are told that it was his pleasure to do so. Hebrews 1:1 tells us how he has done this. As redeemed people, our testimony is an example in an individual of what God wants to achieve for the whole world.

2. It is a story that is centred on Christ V 9
In the story of the universe, past, present and future we cannot get away from Jesus Christ. The phrase “which he purposed in Christ” means that he is the organising focus. Christ’s nature is so written into creation that the universe only really works when it is working his way.

3. It is a plan that is carefully worked out V 10
The words put into effect in verse 10 represent the Greek word oikonomia which = economy which literally meant “household management. God has his house in order. As human beings there are many things that can come along and take things out of our control but this is not true of God.
Proverbs 19:21 Psalm 33:11
Some people are given to thinking that mankind rebelled again God and then God had to come up with a solution to get his creation out of the mess they made.
But that is not true. God knew that in giving man free will they would rebel. However because he wanted to have a genuine love relationship with human beings he went ahead anyway, writing the solution to the consequences of that before the world began.

4. It is a story that conclude with wholeness
The finale will be to “bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.” What sin fragmented by causing chaos God is bringing back into harmony under Jesus Christ. Ephesians starts off with outlining a big plot but the rest of the letter deals with how we work out God’s purpose of harmony in everyday life. It deals with barriers that existed between people in various areas of their lives (e.g race, gender, family roles) It is in our relationships that we tell God’s big story best.
Although we can resist God’s plan we can’t stop it. No human power, no demonic power no world power can stop God’s plan from reaching fulfilment. Time will one day reach its finish line; Because of this we have every reason to be hopeful about the future.

Isaiah 46:9b-10
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God there is none like me.
I have made known the end from the beginning,
From ancient times what is still to come.
I say: My purpose will stand and I will do what I please.

God bless
Carol

City prayers

When I pray I like to listen as much as I speak and the way that God speaks to me is often through my imagination and in pictures.
As I prayed for the South Western Division and our corporate challenge of reaching Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and part of South Gloucester the image that came to mind was of Salvationists with their shoes off, kneeling on the street, each with an ear to the ground. I had a real sense of this happening first in the cities in our region with representative Salvationists from different corps, centres and ministries in those cities coming together; maybe not just in the cities of the South West but further afield.
The Salvationists had taken their shoes off in the street because holy ground for them is not in their buildings, albeit that they are dedicated to God for his purposes but because we are called to serve him in the midst of our communities.
They were kneeling, as an act of repentance and humility, knowing that sometimes we have allowed our past, our position and our reputation to matter too much. It is a time to forsake those things for the sake of a nation which needs to see Christ, the Servant King. This is a time when many Christians feel marginalised and the temptation is to cling on to what makes us feel tall and approved of but we will best stand for Christ, if we first kneel beside him and serve.
And finally they had their ear to the ground because they need to hear the cry of lost and broken humanity.
This image particularly reminded me of words of William Booth
“Put your ear down to the Bible and hear him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face whose mercy you profess to obey and tell them whether you will join body soul and spirit and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world.”
I also felt that the taking off of shoes, the kneeling and the putting their ears to the ground was also something that Salvationist were doing before one another. No one ministry stood above another, everyone’s place of service is holy ground and the need for all of us is to hear the cry of the lost above the noise of our busyness and our internal affairs.
I do not know whether we need to literally take our shoes off, kneel on the street and put our ear down to the pavement but I do believe that if we go and pray in our cities in the spirit of unity, obedience, reverence, humility, repentance and passion for the lost, then God may hear from heaven and pour out his Spirit again.

God bless

Carol

Reasons and excuses

People are often called upon to give reasons for there actions but often those reasons sound like excuses.
For example here is the reason someone gave about why they didn't come into work. "I forgot to take in the Sunday paper, so after initially leaving the house I thought it was Sunday. By the time I had realized that it was in fact Monday, it wasn't worth coming in".
Reason or excuse?
I wonder how the shepherds explained the fact that they left their sheep on the hillside whilst they rushed off to Bethlehem to see a baby. Telling your boss that an angel told you to do it, seems a poor excuse, except of course, it happened to be true and history reveals that they did in fact have very good reason for their trip.
In John's introduction to Jesus he comments on the way in which people reacted to his coming. In Chapter 1:12 he says, “He came He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”
Some of the stories of those who either welcomed Jesus or rejected him are outlined in the gospel narrative. Whether their actions were based on good reasons or excuses is a matter of discussion and can challenge us to look at our own responses to Jesus and to his call upon our lives.
Take Joseph for example.
Joseph who had plenty reason to separate himself from Mary and her baby. What man wouldn’t be confused and hurt by the fact that his fiancé was pregnant knowing that he wasn’t the father? On top of that the girl seems to have taken leave of her senses by claiming that no other man has been involved and the pregnancy is the result of divine intervention, the child being the longed for Messiah.
He was bound to be upset, but he didn’t go down the route of disgracing Mary either by divorcing her publicly or going even further and have her stoned for adultery, which would have been his right. However it was also his right to handle the whole thing quietly and simply walk away. As a kind and gentle man he that is what he chose to do. The Bible says, “And Joseph her husband, was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.” (Matthew 1:19)
That was the reasonable, understandable and acceptable. But through a dream God presented Joseph him with reasons to accept Mary’s story as true and to bring the boy up as his own son.
He is reassured by an angel that Mary is telling the truth and that the baby is to be called Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
Joseph understood clearly what God expected of him, and was ready to obey! He would take Mary to be his wife and suffer the cutting remarks of a child conceived prior to their wedding. He would obey in spite of the fact that this child would be born under a cloud of adultery.
To avoid lashing out when we are hurt takes a great deal of self-control. Joseph is to be commended for the fact that he didn’t react to Mary’s news with angry impulse but with a thought-through plan that would minimise the damage and save face for everyone. It often takes self-control and good sense to do a good thing but it takes faith to do what you know is the right thing, the best thing, especially if you have the perfect excuses not to and nobody would blame you for not taking the risk.
Joseph rejected the excusable reaction but he also went beyond the reasonable reaction and accepted God’s call to make an obedient reaction.
There will be many times in life when the easiest thing will be to make a decision that comes from an emotional response or because it is the most convenient thing for us. Once made, even if we know in our hearts that we didn’t really do our best, we can ease our conscience with excuses. Then there are other times when we act with a clearer head and heart and convenience isn’t the issue but we settle for less than we feel we God is calling us to do because he calls us to go beyond the sensible, reasonable and culturally acceptable course of action.

Joseph is my kind of hero. He made no excuses and went beyond reason to be obedient to God.

God bless

Carol

Mood or Mindset

Here are Alan's notes from 27th November 2011. We probably won't have time to use them in cell groups before Christmas but it might be good to reflect on the Bible Reading and thoughts again in our own devotions. I will post notes from Sunday 4th December tomorrow

How festive are you feeling?
Do you have to get into the right mood for Christmas? What does it take for you to feel Christmassy? Cold weather? Log fires? Mince pies? Carols? Sprouts? Well maybe not sprouts!
There is essentially nothing wrong with the lovely traditions of Christmas which generate a happier atmosphere and a sense of well-being. In fact I get a bit fed up when we Christians get a bit poe faced about it all. But surely Jesus came to do more than change our mood for a season but came to change our minds and hearts for eternity.
In the Bible when the word mind is used, it does not just mean mental exercise or brain power but includes your whole attitude, your demeanour, your mind set—the whole way you live your life. It includes your internal thoughts and attitude as well as your external actions. It involves how you think, feel, and act.
In his letter to the Philippians Paul tells us that we don’t just need to know the mind of Christ, i.e, his opinion on stuff but we should have his mind. In other words it would be a really amazing thing if we could adopt his outlook, his attitudes, his response on everything.
1. Anything
“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death even to death on a cross.”
Why did Jesus Christ trade his rightful place in heaven for possibly something as inhospitable as a cavein Bethlehem. He could even have been born in the street. There is no cosy stable in the biblical account of his birth.
It was because the human race although given a perfect environment and opportunity to live for God messed it up. We messed it up so badly that with out intervention we face eventually being cut off from God, who is the source of all goodness for eternity.
But God was prepared to do anything that didn't deny his character to help us. He was prepared to take our mess upon himself so that we could get out of it. In Jesus, he placed himself in the same position as every human being and even lower.
A missionary told the story of two rugged, powerful mountain goats who met on a narrow pathway joining two mountain ridges. On one side was a chasm 1,000 feet deep; on the other, a steep cliff rising straight up. So narrow was the trail that there was no room to turn around, and the goats could not back up without falling. What would they do? Finally, instead of fighting for the right to pass, one of the goats knelt down and made himself as flat as possible. The other goat then walked over him, and they both proceeded safely.
Jesus saw us as trapped with no way to help ourselves. By dying for sinful mankind, He let us "walk over Him" so that we could experience forgiveness and receive eternal life.
2. Everything
The scale of what Jesus has done for us and wants to do for us suddenly becomes immense. When we really understand the coming of Jesus then we know we can't just adopt a mood of niceness until Boxing Day but that we must let him take hold of everything we are.
The old hymn puts it, “Love so amazing so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.
This is not about paying Jesus back for what he has done. Jesus is not a loan shark, who gives us what we need when we are down on our luck but is on out back forever getting as much out of us as he can squeeze for ever and ever.
Those of us who are parents will know that the arrival of your new baby changes everything. It bears no comparison with babysitting or helping at toddlers. You don’t just find there is a little more to do. You change. You have changed your status to mother or father. You think differently about yourself as a result. The way you live your life changes, decisions have to be made with consideration to how this will affect the baby. We know that a baby isn’t just for Christmas but for life.
Paul said this his letter to the Corinthians in the Message translatio:
“Jesus included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived in their own. Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at Jesus the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore, Now we look on the inside and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start is created new . The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from God who settled the relationship between us and him.”
3. Anyone
You can’t say after reading Paul's words that Christianity can ever just be about getting in a good mood once a year. Do you notice in those words that Paul talks about getting a new way of looking at things? In this he not only means how we view Jesus but also how we think about other people.

The rest of that passage from 2 Corinthians says. “God settled his relationship between us and him and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. We’re speaking for Christ himself.”
If we are going to speak on behalf of someone else we had better know them and their mind, their approach.
We have seen that Jesus approach was to selflessness, servant-hood and unlimited sacrifice.
We reflect this in the last item on our Prayer Beacon list of values.
CARING
“The cross is a demonstration of the sacrificial love of Christ and we believe that he calls us to acts of compassion and social justice. Pill Corps should be a place where action is taken to minister to those who are in need or who are hurting, both in our own locality and beyond.”
God bless

Alan and Carol