Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/cpchurch/sermons/93525/the-churchs-witness-to-gods-wisdom/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] I've never gone head to head with someone, whether on the sports field or in your dealing with a free shoulder.

[0:14] ! I once went head to head with the Mayor, Kingston, and took in New Jersey by the Research Centre I directed. My name is Myrtle who has presented the Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability Disability It turned out that the mayor had a pure Scottish friend who designed the mace for the new Scottish Parliament at Hollywood.

[1:10] Then the mayor said to me, what beautiful words are inscribed on your mace? And he proceeded to quote the four words on this symbol of the Parliament's authority and founding values.

[1:27] Could you join the mayor of tension in naming those four words? They are indeed four beautiful words.

[1:38] They're inscribed in the gold only on the base. Integrity, compassion, justice, and wisdom.

[1:51] As we prepare to vote in Thursday's elections, whoever we're going to support as citizens, we should follow these meetings and strengthen those four values in the work of our Parliament and in the conduct of our public life.

[2:08] More words. Integrity. Commitment to honesty and truth. Compassion. Commitment to the welfare of others.

[2:21] Justice. Not to be committed to all. And wisdom. And commitment to exercising good judgment. And yet, all philosophers in our time acknowledge that while democracy needs these four values of the punch, it cannot generate the truth of integrity, compassion, justice, and wisdom, the integral of the politics of our politicians in the mind.

[2:56] So we must ask with the Old Testament book of Job, where can this be found? And the truth is what the standing dwells.

[3:09] In the breeze of the tragedy of our war-torn world, Ukraine and the police, and the damage of so many other places, and in the breeze of the complex troubles of our climate, women and people have a time striking hell.

[3:26] In the past that period that period that period that period that period that period that period that period that period that period that period that period that period that period that period Thank you.

[3:58] Thank you.

[4:28] Thank you. Thank you.

[5:00] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[6:02] Thank you. Thank you.

[6:33] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Second, as Gordon also played, on May 15th the General Assembly will elect its moderator and the Kirk's ambassador for the year, your brother Quincy.

[6:51] As we first done, we pray for Gordon, and he has given wisdom to convene the assembly, and with the Onajou encourage the local church with hope for a period of thanks.

[7:06] But third, on May 24th Pentecost Monday, we remember that God elected the church to witness to the risen Christ, to fully exclude the sentence of the gathered disciples.

[7:28] We pray for the first gathering of the disciples. We too debate about what we call him. So let's pray.

[7:40] Lord our God, your word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our God. As a nation, as the General Assembly of our church, that's the name of Marker Parish Church.

[7:58] Do us pray to God to receive your truth with loving hearts and receptive minds, that we may be afeited to your will and live always for your glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[8:18] Amen. I mentioned in our opening talk, your minister, Gordon, has given his blessing for the Kirk's session and to you, to develop fresh addition in submission and service, tearing his fear away.

[8:38] Confident in God's hope in Scripture and God's Spirit and prayer to guide you in my thoughts over the coming year.

[8:50] So today, we are setting up on a year-long adventure of faith as God's people in this place. Who knows where God will lead us?

[9:02] But we do know that God's word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path on this journey. God's word gives us two gifts for the way ahead.

[9:18] And I want you to put them in your pocket. And with you, you will be coming in. The first gift is that God's word gives us a sense of identity as the church.

[9:32] The scripture tells us we are. Our identity is to be shaped by God's story. And so from Pentatech of Sunday until the end of July, we shall be thinking about the story of who we are as the church.

[9:52] Of the church. The book of Acts. God's word also gives us a second gift. God's word gives us a sense of purpose as the church.

[10:05] The scripture tells us what we're for. Our purpose is to be witnesses to God's glory. And so this Sunday and over the next two Sundays, we shall be thinking about the church's witness in the letters of Ephesians.

[10:26] With these two gifts from God's word, we shall speak us in the new ahead. God's story and God's glory. Let us turn to our first reading from the letter to the Ephesians.

[10:41] And so this is the first reading from the Ephesians. And so this is the first reading from the Ephesians.

[10:53] The prayer is about to begin. In chapter 3 verse 1, we're at a point in Paul's letter when he's just about to pray for the church in Ephesus. From his imprisonment for the sake of the gospel, he writes, For this reason, I, Paul, the president of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, He says, For this reason, I kneel before the Father, for whom we hold gladly in heaven and on earth and light and say.

[11:38] Then you can take into the beautiful prayer for the church. But in the meantime, Paul digresses for twelve verses from 2 to 13.

[11:50] Why does he do that? What is it that Paul is so eager for the church in Ephesus to know before he prays for them? He doesn't want to pray for them until he has explained God's purpose.

[12:06] For his own life as an apostle. It is in understanding the nature of Paul's calling as an apostle that the church will understand its calling to.

[12:29] So what is Paul's calling as an apostle? To understand Paul's calling, we need to set it against the backdrop of the big picture that Paul has already painted in the first three chapters of his letter to Ephesus.

[12:49] In the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of Paul today, the world is vitally divided.

[13:01] In the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire that the Roman Empire of the Roman Empire that the good news that God's reign had begun to forgive sinners and heal the sick and set their breasts free. For this, Jesus was crucified, died and was buried, and on the third day, God raised him from the dead. This whistled Jesus and appeared first in his faithful women recitals, led to the faithful men, calling them to be his apostles, those he sent out into the world.

[14:10] Finally, the risen Christ appeared to Saul of Tarsus, and about you, the massacre of the church. After he encountered the risen Christ on the Damascus Road, he became Paul, an apostle, once he himself said, the least of the apostles. But Paul was making the most amazing commission of all the apostles, as he writes in verse 8 of the third chapter, the risen Christ.

[14:48] This grace was given to me. Preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable writings of Christ. Typically, into an ancient Mediterranean world that is literally divided, divided between godly godly Jews and godless gentrists who have godly Jews who have godless gentrists who have the godly Jews who have godly tux who have godly tux who have godly tux who have godly tux who have Thank you.

[16:03] Thank you.

[16:33] Thank you.

[17:03] Thank you.

[17:33] Thank you. Thank you.

[18:05] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[18:39] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[18:51] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[19:03] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[19:15] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[19:27] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

[19:39] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I have found this one of the most beautiful walls of show of those wisdom to create that one like a small world, to be clear for your families, your servants, your believers, and your willingness to share your faith in Jesus, if you want it, and a big election.

[20:13] That is our friends. That is our home. The real world is true God's glory. What is the future of the world? The language of the Esposalos challenges the church, the great community, the great identity that the community God wants to have for the new humanity.

[20:44] This identity and that witness are critical for world-threatened body, and the things, differences of nations, cultures, and things. Old and Ephesians gives Australian call of us to live in peace, of love and respect those who may do what they do what they deserve, we've not, because lies. We are called to live, they do God's good future. It's one of the humanity in Jesus' trust.

[21:24] So as we pray for our nation, let us pray for our nation, let us pray for our nation, let us pray for our church in this place, we pray for our church in this place, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and on the day of Pentacles, as we set out of this year together. Let us remember the two people. Let us remember who we are in God's story, as witnesses to God's glory. Amen.

[22:00]  Amen.