Dave preached this morning from Luke 1:5-22, 57-66, on the story about the birth of John (getting us ready for Christmas, five weeks today!) Zechariah was a priest, a descendant of Levi and had been chosen by lot to offer incense at the daily sacrifices, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Zechariah’s turn of duty was more amazing than most, for the angel Gabriel appeared to him and told him that his heart’s desire was about to come true: he and his wife, Elizabeth, would have a son at long last.

So incredible was this news to Zechariah that he didn’t believe it! He had been disappointed for so long that he didn’t dare hope this could be true. He doubted the message (and by implication God who had sent the message) and as a result was struck dumb.

It was not until the birth of his son all those months later when Zechariah’s silence was ended. Having been told by Gabriel to call his son John, a fact he obviously communicated to Elizabeth, he confirms her choice in writing to the priests and immediately was able to declare praises to God.

Those months of silence were not so much God’s punishment, however, as God’s way of preparing Zechariah for the job he had to do. In those months of silence, fear was turned to faith and resistance was turned to worship. Times of silence can give way to insight and creativity. We have to heed the Psalmist’s command ‘Be still and know that I am God’ (Ps 46:10) and must stop running long enough to listen. Elijah, in 1 Kings 19, does not hear God in the wind, the earthquake or the fire, but in a ‘gentle whisper’. Activity and productivity are not synonymous; instead, we need time and space and silence to reflect, to wait on the Lord and listen for His ‘gentle whispers’.

If we learn to do this, we find:
(1) new strength (Is 40:31)
Our weaknesses are exchanged for God’s strength and we can rise up on wings like eagle and find the energy to run again.
(2) a better perspective (2 Cor 4:18)
We press the ‘pause’ button, biting back our first reactions and learning to wait on God to find His perspective on situations. Proverbs tells us that ‘a gentle answer turns away wrath’ (Prov 15:1) and we often need the time to see things as God sees them, rather than from our limited vantage point
(3) we deepen our determination to persevere (Ps 27:14)
God whispers encouragement to us as we wait on Him and we realise afresh that the Lord is strong and mighty.

Silence is not a curse; it’s an opportunity. We need to use it to listen, to pray for others, to hear from God. Those of us who are so busy we feel we never have time for silence need to be intentional about listening and take the time to stop and listen. We need more than one ‘silent night’; we need to take time out daily to listen to the voice of God.

Worship is what we do with our lives, not something which is restricted to a few hours in a church building. Paul, in Romans 12, has urged us to offer our whole lives to God in worship and has shown us that our thinking needs to be transformed too. In Romans 12;3-8, he goes on to show that this kind of radical offering and sacrifice leads to humble service.

Humble service, however, starts with a right view of ourselves. “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.” (Rom 12:3) Life is a little bit like a tightrope walk. We can either fall off by having an over-inflated opinion of ourselves or by having an exaggeratedly low opinion of ourselves. Either extreme is wrong. Instead, we need ‘sober judgment’, viewing ourselves as Christ sees us, understanding how much God loves us and learning godly contentment (1 Tim 6:6, Hebrews 13:5). That way, we have the security of knowing whose we are and can serve freely, because we have nothing to prove. Our identity and calling are secure.

The body metaphor of the church is taken up in 1 Corinthians 12, but Paul makes the point here that there is a natural diversity in the church, just as there is in the body. We all have different functions and roles, but we are all important. We all have different talents and giftings. In the list that follows, Paul seems to randomly pick certain acts of service, mixing up the order to include those we view as ‘spiritual’ (such as prophesying or teaching) with those which we tend to think of as more unimportant (such as serving or encouraging.) His point, surely, is to show us that all acts of service are important and that there is no hierarchy of service. Instead, there is simply the need to fulfil our calling, doing the things that God has equipped us to do, according to the faith He has given us. It’s pointless comparing ourselves to others, longing for talents we don’t have or being dissatisfied with who we are. Instead, we do what we can: whether prophesying, serving, encouraging, teaching, giving, leading or showing mercy. The list is not exhaustive, and Paul will focus on other acts of service in other parts of the Bible. Our part is to understand who we are and to serve thankfully and humbly from grateful hearts that understand the debt we owe to God and are not willing to hold anything back from Him. As Tim Hughes sings, ‘I am chosen, I am free, I am living for eternity’. Having been given so much, we then say ‘And nothing’s going to hold me back.’ (‘Holding Nothing Back’, Tim Hughes)

Dave preached from John 17:9-21 last night, looking at the High Priestly prayer of Jesus. He reminded us that we are all engaged in spiritual warfare and that we have an enemy who is like a roaring lion (1 Pet 5:8-9). Nonetheless, we should not be afraid, for God has given us everything we need to stand firm (Eph 6:13) and has provided everything we need for victory.

Christ in us is more powerful than the enemy (Christ is described as the Lion of Judah; the enemy is only like a roaring lion!). Jesus prayed for His disciples in John 17 and included us in that prayer (John 17:20). We remain in the world even after Jesus ascended to the Father, but we are not of the world. Jesus’s prayer for divine protection for His followers, no matter what difficulties they go through, should encourage and inspire us. He warns us that the world will hate us and we will suffer for His name’s sake, but we are left here on earth for a purpose: to do His work and to spread the good news of the gospel. We are Jesus to a corrupt and dying world: He has no other plan but that the church should act as His body and be the means by which people come to know Him. We should not fear the enemy, for Christ has given us His power (Matt 28:18-20) and has prayed that the Father will protect us from the evil one (John 17:15). We can, therefore, be confident that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ and can be sure that the victory is won. As Aaron Shust says, ‘There is no power strong enough to fear’ (‘Greater is He’). Christ has won the victory!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPYeY5kX7cg

Remembrance Sunday is a time when we remember the sacrifices made during war. For many of us in England, war is just history to us. We may know that war still goes on around the world, but it does not touch our daily lives in the way that it did for our grandparents and great-grandparents. Nonetheless, Remembrance Sunday is the day that is set apart for us to remember those affected by war and to pray for peace.

Stephen preached from Revelation 22:1-5, reminding us that Scriptures teaches us to adopt a peaceful outlook. Jesus reminded us that ‘Blessed is the peacemaker’ (Matt 5:9) and urged us to ‘turn the other cheek’ (Matt 5:39). Wars arise, James reminds us, because of the sinfulness of the human heart (James 4:1-2). But a day is coming when there will be no more war, no more night, no more sickness, no more sorrow, a day when there will be ‘healing of the nations’ (Rev 22:3). When Christ comes, there will be perfect peace, for His hand is a healing hand and His kingdom will bring perfect peace.

Remembering is important, but as we look back and remember, we also look forward to the day of perfect peace which is surely coming.

There is nothing quite like a baptismal service! Celebrating new life in Christ and seeing people’s obedience and desire to follow Christ are great things. We had a wonderful time tonight!

Dave spoke from Matthew 28:19 on the subject of baptism. Some churches baptise babies, but in our church we baptise believers. He dealt with some frequently asked questions about baptism and also asked ‘what does baptism do for us?’ Baptism ultimately is a symbol of Christ’s death and resurrection (see Romans 6). It doesn’t make us a better person or have any magical powers; what it is is a symbol that when we accept Christ’s sacrifice as the means by which we are reconciled to God, we are dead to sin and can rise from the water just as He rose from the dead, a new creation. We obey Christ’s command to be baptised and declare publicly our allegiance to Christ. Sin has separated us from God and the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 6:23). We simply have to sink our pride, admit we can’t do it on our own and surrender the ownership of our lives to God.

We moved some of the older chairs from church to Beever Street:

Then we filled up the baptismal tank again:

Lorraine gave her testimony, explaining how her daughter’s baptism two years ago had been the start of her own journey to faith:

Then she was baptised:

It was wonderful to see three generations of a family being baptised. Here, Emma reads verses from James 5, watched by her mother, whose turn was coming!

Before…

… and after:

Karen reads from the Apostles’ Creed:

and is baptised:

Finally, her husband, Paul, was baptised:

After the service we had some food. Emma decided to take advantage of the wheelchair on hand:

Debbie volunteered to be photographed like this!

We are grateful to all who helped to make this a wonderful service and pray especially for those who were baptised as they continue to learn more about the Lord and grow in grace and in a knowledge of the Lord Jesus, as well as for all those in the service for the first time.

In the Bible study last night, we studied Romans 12:2:“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” J.B. Phillips, in his paraphrase of the New Testament, talks about ‘do not be squeezed into the world’s mould.’ The Message version says ‘Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.’

The first step to God recycling our minds as well as our bodies is our recognition that we are born into a sinful way of thinking, and our culture and philosophy feeds the lie that we can manage quite successfully without any reference to God. The devil doesn’t mind which ‘pattern’ or ‘way’ of the world we follow, so long as we are not following God. In one of the American presidential campaigns, anti-Bush followers coined the phrase ‘ABB’ – ‘anyone but Bush’ – as their slogan for the campaign. The devil’s slogan is ‘ABJ’ – ‘anyone but Jesus’. We can follow Eastern religions or humanist philosophies, atheism or any other cult or fad we like, so long as we don’t follow Jesus. The challenge is to recognise the mould and understand that we no longer have an obligation to be squeezed into it.

A mould forces something into its shape, whether that’s injection moulding for bottles:

or fancy cake shapes:

Our minds are shaped and influenced by the culture all around us – by the media, by music, by TV, by films, by peer pressure, by advertising, by our family. From birth, we are bombarded by ‘nurture’, often in ways that are directly contrary to God’s ways, and we need to be re-moulded so that our thinking is renewed and we can see things from God’s perspective and think His thoughts. Just as the water in a fish tank gradually becomes unclean and this change is not necessarily visibly noticeable, so too we often fail to see how the world is squeezing us into its mould.

The process of transformation and renewal required is not easy. It’s achieved by fixing our attention on God and being washed by His word. (Eph 5:26) The Message translates the rest of Romans 12:2 like this: “Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognise what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” The difference is profound and life-changing. And just as we need to wash our bodies on a daily basis to remain clean, whether we ‘feel’ dirty or not, so too we need to wash our minds in the word of God so that we can know how we should be thinking and can therefore discern, recognise and do God’s will.