[0:00] by singing to his praise from Psalm 87, Scottish Psalter, Psalm 87, on page 342 of the Blue Psalm Books, page 342. Psalm 87 on page 342.
[0:22] This psalm, of course, tells us that God will build his church across all nations and cultures and colors and languages. Upon the hills of holiness, he, his foundation sets. God, more than Jacob's dwellings, all delights in Zion's gates. Things glorious are said of thee, thou city of the Lord, Rahab and Babel, I, to those that know me, will record. Psalm 87, the whole psalm, standing to sing, if you're able.
[0:51] Psalm 88, in Zion's gates. Psalm 88, in Zion's gates. Psalm 88, in Zion's gates.
[1:05] Psalm 88, in Zion's gates. The Lord is on the night in Zion's gates.
[1:24] Be to the earth, our ceremony, the city of the Lord.
[1:38] Recap and be right to those that only will regard.
[1:53] Behold, in time of Sunday, the land of Palestine.
[2:08] And like wise in Philadelphia, this man was born again.
[2:23] And because Zion shall be saved, this man that had made, was born and he had his most kind, this man shall stop his heart.
[2:56] When God will heal, rise in time, that this man born was there.
[3:10] Let me ask you and bring the Lord my well-springs in the heart.
[3:29] Let's now bow our heads in a word of prayer. Let's pray. Lord our God, we thank you once more for the chance to worship you this evening.
[3:41] We give you praise for this day, a day set aside where we can worship you. We can come away from the things of this world, even for a short time, away from the worries and stresses and strains of this world and spend this day in the company of your people.
[3:58] Spend this day around your word, singing your praises from your word, reading your word and thinking of who you are. Spend in time thinking, as we heard this morning, of your promises towards us as your people, of your mercy towards us as a God who cares for those you call your own.
[4:19] In your word, we find these promises. In your word, we also find the warnings, warnings to your people to keep serving you well, warnings to those who as of yet are not yours, that if they want to live and truly live, that they must come to Jesus and find no hope and no help elsewhere but in him.
[4:42] As to his name we come this evening, as for his sake we gather. Help us for a short time to lay aside from our minds all the many distractions which lay heavy on us.
[4:53] We confess that our love for our Saviour is often so clouded by our love of ourselves, our love of this world, our love, Lord, of the gifts you've given us, of your goodness towards us, that we take these things and we let them cloud the priorities of his life, cloud the reality that we all must one day face the judgment seat of Christ, and on that day.
[5:17] And if we know him, we are safe. And if we don't, we are not. Lord, help us to have our minds and our hearts set on Jesus this day, even this short time together, as we meet together here as brothers and sisters, equal together before you, seeking to serve you, seeking to spend this time in your word.
[5:37] I pray just now for those here who are brothers and who are sisters in the Lord, for those of us here this evening who can say that we know Jesus, that we love Jesus, that he is ours and that eternally we are his.
[5:52] Help us for this short time to enjoy this time of fellowship, to know that as we meet together, we are meeting in your presence. We are not here because of a weekly pattern.
[6:04] We are not here to tick off a box for the week. We are not here for the sake of vain tradition. But we are here because your presence is with us. We are here because we know as we gather together we do so as sons and daughters, as brothers and sisters, worshipping a living God who commands us, but more than that, who calls us to worship you.
[6:26] A God who is with us. Your word is clear that where your people worship together, where your people meet to serve you, where your people meet to worship you and to praise your name, there your presence is with us.
[6:40] So we know for certain that this very evening that you are here, the eternal God who created and who sustains all things. That you are here this evening. Your presence is here because your people are here.
[6:53] Wherever your people are in this world, those who know and who love Jesus, you tell us that you have made your home in us. You abide in us. You dwell in us. You live in us.
[7:04] Help us to understand that as we go about our daily lives, as we begin this new week, as we perhaps find ourselves in situations and circumstances which try us.
[7:15] As we find ourselves in situations which are beyond our own personal ability. Lord, we come to you knowing that you never leave nor forsake us. We have a God who promises to keep his people.
[7:28] A God who promises to be with his people. To protect us. To show your never-ending love and mercy towards us. We pray this evening for any with us here this evening who as of yet cannot say that they know Jesus for themselves.
[7:44] Who as of yet cannot say that they love him. We thank you, Lord, for their presence here. We thank you for those here this evening who have come here for many weeks and many months and many years and some for tens of years.
[7:58] We thank you that they find themselves week after week in this place hearing the gospel. For we ask that even this evening, even this evening from your word, you would speak to them.
[8:09] That we cry out to you and ask for that salvation, Lord. You would show yourself to them as a God who is ready and willing to receive and to save all who come to you for salvation.
[8:22] We pray just now, Lord, for our brothers and sisters next door. We thank you for them. We pray for them in their witness. We pray for them in their lives as they seek to serve you also in this place.
[8:34] We also remember them in their time of vacancy. Lord, we ask that according to your will, you would give a servant to them, to be an under-shepherd to them, to lead them and to guide them.
[8:45] Lord, and together as both congregations, as two denominations, Lord, we would understand that we are united in our love for our Saviour and our joy and our eagerness to see your name known and worshipped in this community.
[9:02] We do pray for this community. We pray for those in our community this evening who are suffering, who are sick, those who are going through illnesses, physical and mental, those who are going through situations that perhaps no one else knows about.
[9:16] We ask you would draw close to those who are yours this evening, who are going through hard days and dark days. For those who are not yet yours, we ask, Lord, you would use even these dark providences to bring them to a saving knowledge of yourself.
[9:30] We thank you, Lord, for our family gathering here. We thank you for the brothers and sisters who worship here week after week. Lord, help us as a family to grow in not just our love for you, but to grow in our love for one another.
[9:44] We thank you, Lord, for the unity that you have given us. We know that unity is truly a gift from you. Help us to make the most of that unity. Help us not to neglect and to give you thanks for it.
[9:55] We pray also just now for our own congregation here as we seek to serve you in this place. Give us, we ask, gospel opportunities. Help us in the public worship, but help us also in our private time, Lord, to be faithful witnesses.
[10:10] We pray just now also for our friends from the Slavic Gospel Association who will be joining us. Indeed, our brothers from that group who will be joining us this week.
[10:21] Lord, if you are willing, we thank you for them. We pray especially for them just now, the work they are doing in Eastern Europe, the work they are doing also in Central and parts of Western, Lord, Asia.
[10:33] You know the exact countries they work in. Lord, we ask that you would bless the work of that group as they seek to support your people, to uphold your people, to encourage your people, as they also seek to share the gospel with those who find themselves at this very moment in a war zone.
[10:49] We do, Lord, pray, Lord, for the people of Ukraine once more. We pray especially once more for our brothers and sisters who are living in that country. Some we even know by name who are seeking to serve you.
[11:00] Some, even this very moment, who are meeting to worship you as we do, but are doing so in fear of their lives. Lord, we ask that we would see days of refreshing in this place. We pray to you now, Lord, again for our young people, the boys and the girls who are on this short time of holiday.
[11:17] We thank you for them. We pray for them. We pray for their parents and their grandparents, their great grandparents, for all those who care for the boys and the girls. We thank you that we find these boys and girls coming week after week to the Sunday school in the morning.
[11:32] We thank you, Lord, for the families, the mums and dads and the extended family who come out and who support the boys and the girls and who bring them to Sunday school. We ask you to bless these families.
[11:44] Lord, the gospel would go out even to these young folks, that they would, even in their young days, know the gospel for themselves and come to know Jesus. I pray once more for those in leadership over us.
[11:55] Lord, we pray especially now, Lord, as we look forward perhaps to the coming few weeks. We pray, Lord, for the king. Lord, we pray, Lord, for all go well. We pray first and foremost that, Lord, he would be saved.
[12:09] We pray for his own salvation. Lord, we pray as he takes on the various titles he takes on, as he ascends, Lord, to be ruler, Lord, of the Church of England, and as he takes on the various rules he takes on, and various roles he takes on, Lord, we ask first and foremost that he would come to know you, the king of all kings.
[12:30] You would soften his heart, Lord, and give him a saving faith, Lord, like our late queen and, indeed, our late sister had, Lord. Lord, she knew and she worshipped and she loved her Savior.
[12:43] We ask the same for her son. We ask again for those in leadership over us locally and nationally, Lord, that we would see more, Lord, more of your people in these places of power. For those, Lord, who are there, who are seeking to serve the country and serve our island, Lord, and serve the nation who are yours, we ask, Lord, for strength for them, for resilience for them.
[13:05] Give them wisdom, we ask, to serve you in a day of strange things and a day of small things. Help us this evening to have our hearts and our minds focused on you. We come again confessing our sin, confessing of this very day we have sinned against you in our thoughts, our words, our actions.
[13:23] That we have said and done and thought things that are wrong against a holy God. For you are holy in all your ways, but it is no sin to be found in you. You are perfect in all that you are and all that you do.
[13:35] We come just now to you, that holy God, and we find no righteousness, no goodness in ourselves. We find all our righteousness, all our goodness, all our perfection to be found. The one who calls us his own.
[13:49] If we know him this evening, the Lord Jesus Christ, for his sake and in his name we ask all these things. Amen. Let's turn to read in God's word, the letter of Paul to the Colossians.
[14:05] Colossians chapter 2, it's on page 924 of the church Bibles. Page 924, Colossians chapter 2.
[14:17] It's one of these short books and even if you know what it is, it's often quite hard to find it sometimes. Colossians chapter 2, on page 924.
[14:30] Carrying on of course our short series looking what it is to be a minister, to be an elder, an overseer. Colossians chapter 2. Colossians 1, sorry, Colossians chapter 1 on page 924.
[14:51] Let's hear the word of God. Colossians 1. Colossians 1.
[15:07] Colossians 2. Colossians 1.
[15:22] have heard before in the word of truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing, as it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved servant.
[15:42] He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit. And so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened of all power according to his glorious might, for all endurance, patience, with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption for forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
[17:01] And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him. If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
[18:39] Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy, that he powerfully works within me.
[18:55] Amen. We give praise to God for his holy and his perfect word. Let's once more sing to God's praise again from the Scottish Psalter, and this time Psalm 19.
[19:10] Scottish Psalter and Psalm 19. It's on page 223 of the Psalm books. Psalm 19 on page 223.
[19:21] We can sing verses 1 down to verse 7 of the Psalm. Psalm 19.
[19:57] The Lamb's God's glory to the Lamb's glory to the Lamb, the skies, its handward streams, the earth, the streets, through day and night, to night, the knowledge, teach.
[20:24] There is no speech, nor time to wish, their eyes that don't extend.
[20:38] There light is on through all the air, their words to the world's land.
[20:53] There light is on through all the air, their words to the Lord's glory to the Lord's glory to the Lord. The Lamb's glory to the Lord's glory to the Lord's glory to the Lord's glory to the Lord's glory. The Lamb's glory to the Lord's glory to the Lord's glory to the Lord's glory to the Lord's glory to the Lord's glory to the Lord's glory.
[21:12] after hot Saving to the end again And there is nothing from his feet That is in the beginning God's love is pep-peg and thongers The sword is still that lies God's testimony is most true
[22:15] And there is nothing from his feet Let's, for a short time, turn back to the chapter that we had Colossians chapter 1 Colossians chapter 1 We'll take the last two verses for our text to see In Colossians 1 and verses 28 and verse 29 Him we proclaim Warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom That we may present everyone mature in Christ For this I toil, struggling with all his energy That he powerfully works within me We're carrying on our series Looking at what is it to be a preacher, an overseer Just for those perhaps who are new Or those who have been listening A refresher for us When the Bible uses the word minister
[23:17] It's a word used as overseer The same word is used for elders As it is for ministers Why? Well, because it's one role Different functions Different jobs to do But we are here Both elders and minister And minister to serve As we saw that over the last few weeks In the last few weeks we saw What the personality of an overseer What the personality of a minister should be like What should your elders and myself be like?
[23:52] And we said and we kindly asked You wouldn't use it as a checklist against us But more just as an encouragement for us And for yourselves as a congregation What should you expect of us?
[24:05] And what should we expect Or strive to Ourselves So we saw what a minister should be like What an overseer should be like In private And in public Our personality And this evening we're Looking more at the role There's plenty of roles That a minister and overseer should be doing And we'll focus this evening On just one of those roles And the Lord's help Next week look at the second one of the roles And then we can take a break from a morning And our evening series at the same time So this evening we're looking at these two verses In Colossians And we're seeing the role of the minister In terms of his preaching What is a minister called to do In terms of his preaching?
[24:56] In him we proclaim Warning everyone And teaching everyone with all wisdom We present everyone mature in Christ There are many, many passages we can look at To see what is preaching We could dig into the very specifics Of what preaching is Of how we do it How often we do it How do we construct a sermon Construct a sermon All these things can be found In parts of scripture But for sake of time this evening Just an overview for us An overview What is a pastor's job like to preach?
[25:36] What does it look like? What do I What does any minister strive to do? Even any preaching elder What do we strive to do? What do we strive to do? We try And preach the word of God Well I say it's a short study But I'm going to say now There's five points this evening I think every week he gets more and more points There's five points this evening Don't panic They're broad points But there's five of them From these verses We can see first of all Our subject Our subject Then our method Then our goal Our sacrifice And finally our power So subject Method Goal Sacrifice And Power Power So first of all Our subject We can do this by doing a simple word for word study Of our two verses this evening
[26:38] Him We Proclaim This is the subject Of our preaching You think well yes Pretty obvious We've sat in church for the last 20, 30, 40 Plus years for some here We know what it is Ministers are supposed to preach about But I assure you For yourselves And the preacher alike We all need reminding What it is we're doing here this evening Are we here just for the sake of tradition?
[27:08] Are you doing there and I'm up here In my wee garb Just for the sake of tradition? Do we come out here twice on a Sunday And once on a Thursday Just tick off a box for the week?
[27:20] Why are we here? We're here to hear all about To praise all Of and to enjoy all of The hymn Spoken of here in verse 28 Who is that hymn?
[27:34] At the end of verse 27 It is Christ The hope of glory Christ The hope of glory Him We proclaim Why are we here this evening?
[27:45] We're here to proclaim To hear about To show our care and love for To hear more about The wonder of it is Our saviour Jesus So when the preacher preaches We are to preach Him A minister is not supposed to show Our own learning We're not up here to show Our own intellect Our own Perhaps Achievements In the academic world Whatever they might well be We're not here to lecture On topics of morality We're not even here to Give encouraging speeches And truth be told And some Myself and my brother Are discussing this Even the other day And even today So much of preaching Not for ourselves Not speaking even of our own Island But just in general And you see it online You see it on telly
[28:46] So much preaching today It's encouraging perhaps It's very Very enthusing at times It's It's often gives you A good start But what's that about?
[28:59] It's not about Jesus It's about how to make the best Of your life How to make the most of your life How to live a happy Fulfilled life It's just self-help Pat on the back Everything's okay Don't worry about it Kind of speak But Jesus is missing It's just moralising It's just Lecturing on morality It's just lecturing on nothing And at the same time Jesus is forgotten It's him we proclaim The preacher's job The overseer's job The overseer's job Is to proclaim Jesus All that he is All the time And the beautiful thing That makes the minister's job So beautiful is We can preach Jesus From all of scripture From the first page of your Bible To the very end page of our Bibles
[30:01] We see Jesus as it were On every single page From the Old Testament Right of course through To the Gospels of the New Testament We see Jesus on every single page Every single part of scripture is there To point us either forward Towards the coming Messiah The whole Old Testament All the stories All the accounts Some we looked at before already We saw Jonah together We'll see more in the future Lord willing All of the accounts Of the nation of Israel Messing things up again and again All the prophets All the priests All the judges All the sacrifices All the Old Testament Pointing towards The Saviour God is going to send Then we see Jesus in the Gospels We see his life His ministry We see the fact that He is truly God Fully man and fully God Then we see the early church starting
[31:03] We see the letters being written We see the church take root The early church take root We see it grow Every single page Every paragraph Every line We see Jesus It's the minister's job The minister's duty But also the minister's joy That we get to preach Jesus From every part of scripture The truth is And every preacher will know this The truth is That we would get far more Listeners Would be far more popular If we preached what we knew Would get us numbers You can very easily preach a sermon That will be fun And easy And enjoyable For everyone to listen to You can very easily Teach a sermon that will just Tickle everyone's ears And make everyone leave a place Feeling just so happy in life And so comfortable And so easy You can very easily
[32:05] Miss out every complicated part Of scripture Every hard verse Every hard chapter That is a confusing part Of scripture You can quite easily Just not touch it And carry on doing your preaching To the end of your days We're not called to do that We're called to preach Jesus From start to finish Every place we find him And we find him and his gospel Everywhere Everywhere We're called to preach Jesus We're called to preach As they were the full counsel of God We're called to teach The full counsel To preach the full counsel of God We're not called to pick favourite chapters Or pick favourite verses We're called to preach the easy parts And the hard parts We'll see in a second There are no easy parts When it comes to preaching That's why as we begin this new time of ministry together We're doing a mixture of the Lord's help We'll be going through sections
[33:08] Like in the morning We're looking through Mark And while we're taking a wee break For the next few weeks We will come back to Mark And carry on where we left off We'll finish a chapter 2 And we'll carry on For the Lord's help a chapter 3 And then we'll break Then carry on And then carry on Till we finish Mark And we'll go somewhere else And start at the start And go right through to the end I think why?
[33:35] Why are we doing this minute At times Verse by verse Study Why then is these Verse by verse Chapter by chapter studies Then mixed in with things like tonight Where we take passages From around scripture And do subject studies What is a minister?
[33:56] With the Lord's help We'll look in a few weeks time At what is prayer? We've got examples All the way throughout the Bible Because we're called as ministers To preach the full counsel of God That involves doing small, minute, word for word Line for line studies through whole books Mixed with big, broad studies Looking at who God is Like we're doing in the prayer meetings And again, one more encouragement The prayer meeting The prayer meeting is for everybody To come to Not just for the members Not just for those Who have certain ideas And certain plans It's for everyone to come to Open to everyone In the prayer meeting we're doing A very broad study From Genesis to Revelation Looking at the gardens The theme of gardens All throughout scripture Small studies, big studies Minute studies, broad looks at scripture Why?
[34:52] Because the job is to preach The full counsel of God As much as possible To preach as much as we can To show as much of our glorious God Our wonderful Saviour As we can That is our message We are to proclaim To preach Jesus and Him alone That is our subject We preach Jesus That brings us then to the method So we're to preach Jesus We preach Him Him we proclaim How do we do it?
[35:37] What is the method Of our preaching? There are three ways we see here Three main ways Of how we proclaim How we preach Jesus How do we share the good news of Jesus As those who are called to be ministers We proclaim We warn And we teach We proclaim We warn And we teach Him we proclaim We proclaim Warning everyone And teaching everyone With all wisdom Him we proclaim We proclaim The minister's great duty And the minister's great joy And indeed the preacher's great joy We get to proclaim Jesus Week after week We proclaim Jesus We proclaim It's a bit crude It's a bit It's a bit It's a bit rough A bit blunt But I won't say who But a colleague A well loved colleague Well loved
[36:38] In our own congregation Well loved Across the free church Quite simply said One day It's not a bad job this We're getting paid to read the Bible And talk about Jesus And he was saying it To encourage us But the truth is That is the job To read the Bible Talk about Jesus To encourage God's people To be involved in the community But for this evening We're just seeing the preaching To read the Bible And to talk about Jesus That is the minister's job In this pulpit Not to show off Not to show our own intellect And so on and so on and so on Our job is to proclaim Jesus The public proclamation Of the glorious Eternally important gospel That's our great joy Week by week By week Here's one area Among many Where a minister And congregation Minister And fellow Christians Where we have The same calling Yes I am up here doing it From up here Week by week
[37:39] But each one of us Brothers and sisters Each one of us Are called to do the same job We're all called To be ambassadors To publicly proclaim The good news Of our saviour That is our calling Week after week Not just the calling Of the one you've called To be your minister And we proclaim the gospel How do we do it?
[38:02] We do it with joy We do it with gratitude With thankfulness In our hearts We have a great And glorious gospel Of our great And glorious saviour Who has saved his people And because he's transformed us We then have the great privilege Of sharing that same We proclaim transforming good news To all who will listen to us We proclaim the gospel That is how we do it Also we give warning And we proclaim Warning everyone There must be This aspect of preaching There must be a warning aspect In our preaching Again it's much easier I assure you I'm sure you can imagine yourselves It's much easier If every sermon Was just sunshine And roses And every sermon Was just joy And peace But the truth is Scripture Gives us warnings If we are to be faithful And to preach As we said From all scripture We must also preach For warnings
[39:03] Scripture gives us Even this morning And even last week In the morning There are clear warnings In scripture Clear warnings There are warnings There are warnings Of course to Christians To those who know Jesus Who love Jesus Warnings to us Warnings for us To watch That we don't Of course backslide Warnings to us That we don't compromise In our faith Warnings to us As we don't For ourselves Find ourselves Falling into sin And so on And so on So of course Also warnings To those Who as of yet Don't know Jesus For themselves There are warnings To those Who as of yet Cannot say That they love Jesus You can't say That you know Jesus We heard it this morning We heard it last week We hear it every week The simple gospel warnings Of if you have a life And if Jesus Is not the centre Of that life Then you are in great danger If your whole life Is your world If your whole life
[40:04] Is the world If your whole life Is your finances Your finances Your plans Your ideas And so on And so on And so on All these things Die with you Go into the ground With you They don't impress God You must die With Jesus And to die with Jesus You must first live Knowing Jesus We are called as preachers To give warnings And there is no joy in warnings There is solemnity to it A great solemnity But I assure you There is no God serving God loving preacher Who takes any joy In giving these warnings There is no joy at all But yet we give them Because we are compelled to Because we are supposed to preach The whole word of God We proclaim We warn We also then see Teaching Teaching Teaching Teaching
[41:05] Everyone with all wisdom There is also the element That to To preach Requires The logical And the rigorous study Of God's word There is not the sense We open the Bibles And see where it lands And preach that verse There is As I am sure you know Many others Many hours Of study Many hours of work Our calling It is a great calling It is a calling It is to look into The context Of the original languages To read And to at least seek To understand The Hebrew of the old Or the Greek of the new To see the cultural context The historical context To then take that And to see How the Lord is using that To speak to his people Today in Tolstah Today in the wider Modern world we live in All that goes on As I were behind the scenes As we seek to teach God's people We proclaim We warn And we teach It is our joy
[42:08] To see God's people Grow in their faith That is what we are here for And we will see this more in a second Why are we here? We are here to share the gospel Yes To share the gospel to those Who as of yet Have no gospel knowledge Who as of yet Don't know Jesus But then our job is also To teach To up build To encourage Our fellow brothers and sisters In their faith To see you grow In your love Your understanding Of the Lord That is our job That is our great calling As ministers As overseers As we put as aware Of a hard study work in It is paid off When we see God's people Hear the word And grow from the word What is amazing is Is how much we actually Listen to God's word And how much we actually Take in In a sermon The very Very optimistic fact Says that
[43:10] For every hour of preaching Or every 45 minutes of preaching We remember 20% 20% 20% Now that is very optimistic Some say It is a lot less than that So just think For 10 12 hours of study And preparation Gets poured into 45 minutes Half hour of sermon All for 20% To be memorized And kept in our brains afterwards That is myself included You think What is the point?
[43:41] What is the point? The point is It is God's word It is God's word And yes we might remember 20% Or recall 20% If not Even less than that But it is God's word We are recalling And we have a promise As preachers And as listeners alike That God's word Never returns to him void God's word Never returns to him Not having accomplished What it is He plans for it to accomplish For all the study Is worth it We remember that God's word Is going out Our subject Our subject is Jesus Our method is clear And our goal What is the goal Of a preacher?
[44:22] What's the goal we find In our verse here? That, the end of verse 28 That we may present everyone Mature in Christ Present everyone mature in Christ So apart from the evangelical Come and know Jesus For yourself preaching Of course we want to see people saved We want to see people know Jesus That's a given here But what is our goal as ministers For our congregation For our members And our adherents also Who know Jesus for your saviour As your saviour For those here who know Jesus What is the goal of a minister?
[45:07] What is my own personal goal? Well it's this verse here We long to see And we long to present everyone As mature in Christ Very simply The preacher is responsible The preacher is responsible For the growth And the discipleship Of his people We said this before In the call that you signed When you called me When you actually read the wording It is so heavy So heavy The exact wording I should have taken it with me But Very much paraphrase But When I say yes to the call You're saying yes To having The spiritual care For the souls of your people In North Tulsa That is That is The reality of what you sign yourself Over to doing Or seeking to do As a minister The goal of whoever stands here Who comes after me in time
[46:09] Is to present the people Present the Christians in North Tulsa Free Church As mature in Christ It is my job to see And to help you To grow in your faith In your love of the Lord To help you mature In your faith In your love of the Lord To grow in that To nurture that To see how I can serve you in that That is where last week's sermon Is so important Where a minister is called To be gentle To be careful To be a servant hearted person Because our goal Is to serve the congregation As best we can There are times We serve the congregation By As Calvin said Using that That harsh voice To the wolves Yes But more often than not We serve the congregation By gentle care Guiding And leading We are not just here
[47:10] The minister you call Isn't just here To see people saved We are here to see Saved people Grow Discipleship It is perhaps sermon We have been very weak Not speaking of yourselves But in general The church has been so weak On discipleship Someone has saved Hallelujah Praise the Lord And we are so thankful for that Genuinely But then We can't just abandon them Not on purpose Not on purpose But you are saved now So you are alright That is found Nowhere in scripture Again and again The growth of Christians Is so important The idea of maturing faith No one is saved And knows everything No one starts their job On a first day And all of a sudden Knows how to do the job perfectly That is foolishness That is a bad boss Who expects that Of their people God calls us to grow And he calls the servants Your ministers Your elders To seek to help you
[48:11] In your growth We are here for your benefit We are here to serve you To present everyone mature In Christ Every week Every day Even every interaction In his congregation Every interaction In the community The personal goal Of the minister Is to see the people In his charge Growing in faith And maturing in your love Mature in Christ Not mature In my own personal Theological views This may surprise you But your minister And your elders I am sure Would disagree On plenty of things Plenty of secondary issues Plenty of tiny issues Or small issues Even more surprising Even more surprising Your minister And your elders And yourselves I am sure Would disagree On many, many, many Secondary Tiny issues There is time And space For these discussions Of course there is
[49:13] What are we called to do? To present you As a congregation Mature in Christ Not mature in my views Not mature in my own Theological quirks Not mature in what I think Is right Mature of the word of God Tells us That's why we preach The whole counsel of God It's not just Donald's Top ten favourite verses Each week We preach the whole Counsel of God Chapter by chapter At times Verse by verse Things you would never I assure you Want to preach from a pulpit Parts of scripture You would never want to dig into But we do We must It's our job Is to present everyone Mature in Christ Scripture deals with people's lives Scripture deals with sins Sins that we think No one else deals with Sins we think Won't affect this congregation I assure you We all have a private life And behind closed doors We have no idea what people's lives Are actually like No idea
[50:15] This Bible Deals with humanity As it truly is And week by week And Lord willing Month by month Year by year The Lord keeps us Decade by decade We will go through the word of God And see what we're saying to us And by going through it so carefully We will be built up in our faith And more and more mature Our goal is to present you Mature in Christ That brings us very briefly And it is will be briefly Onto the sacrifice The sacrifice of a minister Our subject is Jesus Our method is clear Our goal is to have mature Growing Full of love and grace Christians There is also sacrifice Verse 29 The Apostle Paul speaking He says For this I toil What's with this?
[51:08] Well this is presenting Mature Christians So in order to present Mature Christians For this I toil Struggling with all his energy For this I toil Struggling The Apostle Paul Who saw Jesus Who interacted with Jesus The Apostle Paul Who saw miracles And who was involved in the doing of miracles The Apostle Paul That first generation of the church Of all the power of the Apostle That he had He found it a struggle To minister to God's people I assure you for ministers That is And for elders and overseers That is a great relief for us The Apostle Paul himself Who was smarter than I ever will be Who had 30 years worth Of rigorous Scriptural knowledge
[52:10] And law teaching He found it A struggle He found it a toil The early church Struggled The early church grew There is a famous quote And it is not wrong The early church flourished Because of the blood Of the martyrs As the blood Literally of the martyrs Spilt into the ground The early church grew And blossomed And grew And grew The early church Our forefathers Who served the Lord Amongst great persecution They had A tough Tough job of it Brothers and sisters just now One brother in Ukraine He was involved in a group call And he was on the group call With myself and many many others And he was doing a teaching session And in the middle of a call
[53:12] Of course he is just on the outskirts Of Kyiv And the alarm goes off And this camera shakes And you think, oh man And he keeps preaching As if this isn't happening And we all get very nervous Thinking this man is in great trouble He's in great trouble It's another Sunday evening for him A normal day for him Great toil Great trouble So don't for a second think I'm saying That as a minister Our lives today Are so much harder Than you can ever begin to understand We're not We are ministers at this moment Who are serving the Lord In real distress Who spend their lives working And fighting for their family And looking after a family And then have to somehow find time To write a sermon And study for a sermon And preach it There's real toil There's real struggle But there is for every minister Toil and sacrifice For this I toil struggling There is mental as it were Sacrifice Mental sacrifice
[54:13] Now this is speaking In averages But the average sermon Is about 3,000 words long If you're preaching 3 sermons a week Give or take That's 9,000 10,000 words a week You're either writing or speaking So that's what Almost 100,000 words A month You're writing or speaking Every sermon takes Now this is very rough 10, 12, 15 hours to prepare So you're doing 45 hours a week Just on sermon prep perhaps Then of course you have Your pastoral work Which comes A very, very close second Almost an infinitely small close second Where of course preachers of the word We're here for Sacrament and word We're also here to be a pastor Preaching, work, study Pastoral Of course then your own personal life To ministers of kids and families And everything else There's mental sacrifice There's also spiritual attack Spiritual attack
[55:15] Spiritual attack And there's a time and place For this discussion And the Pope is not it But just safe to be said And you know this yourselves From other ministers But to be a minister To be a Christian first of all To be a Christian means You will face spiritual attacks And we've had these discussions before Privately and as a congregation Privately I've discussed with brothers and sisters here Who have faced spiritual attacks Who have been very honest about How hard sometimes And how real And how vicious these attacks can be It's no different for the minister No different for the minister at all One of the benefits of now being married Is at least now I can verify That these things aren't all in my mind Quite often one of the devil's best tricks Is to convince you that The spiritual attack you are feeling Whether it's spiritual Or something physical That's not actually happening It's all in your mind Well being married Then allows me to say Well actually
[56:17] Emma was that real Did that happen? And it did Spiritual attacks are real for the minister Talk to any minister You want on presbytery Across the presbyteries And they'll confirm to you That these things are real Also it's not unknowing You become a minister very much aware You will face an increase in spiritual attack And it makes sense Your job every week Is to be involved in the advancement of the gospel To be involved in encouraging God's people The devil hates that Of course he does It's against everything he is And he will strive to stop that as best he can There's time There's mental sacrifice There's also the sacrifice in terms of spiritual attack It's all the sacrifice It's worth it It's more than worth it Why?
[57:11] Because we proclaim Jesus And we end with the power What is the power of the preacher? For this I toil, struggling of all his energy That he powerfully works within me There's some here who have preached Some men here who have preached And you know yourself And I owe you The reality that For all the study you do All the work you do At the end of the day It's in his power you do everything You can spend your whole day From Monday morning to Saturday night In your study working on one sermon if you could At the end of the day All that work means nothing All that hard work All that good work Means nothing If it's not done in his power If the Lord isn't in the work If his glory isn't being sought in that work If you're not trying to do it in his strength In his power you will fail The sermon will be a disaster
[58:15] Not talking about the preaching of it There's plenty of bad sermons You preach The Lord then uses There's bad sermons That have been studied with God's power And preaching God's power And it feels like you're walking and talking In a vat of three-kill And you think, Lord, what was that?
[58:37] Lord, I'm sorry for the disaster I made of that sermon Plenty of Monday mornings For every minister you think, what am I doing? The Lord blesses the work on that Sunday We preach in his power We preach with his power His power alone For this I toil, struggling with all his energy That he powerfully works within me The sermon must be studied in his power It is preached in his power Training is good It's good It's good that ministers And indeed everyone who wants to preach There's some element of training But ministers get years of training That is good, that is right, that is biblical But all the training in the world All the practice All the education in the world Means nothing It means nothing For not preaching or seeking to preach In his power and for his glory His energy His energy
[59:41] His energy That powerfully works within me It humbles you In your preaching Because you're reminded For all your own efforts And for all your own attempts to be smart You're humbled as a minister when you're a member If he's not in it Then you can have a congregation at your feet A congregation hanging on your every word A congregation in raptures over you A congregation growing by the hour and growing by the week But if he's not in it There'll be no fruit for any of these sermons No fruit for any of a lifetime perhaps of work It means nothing For all the eloquence of a sermon For all the beauty of a carefully crafted piece of prose That captures our ears and carries us through scripture If he is not in it It means nothing It humbles you as a minister As a preacher When you're a member of it all that you seek to do
[60:44] It's all for his glory And all in his power Our subject We preach Jesus And him alone Our method We are to proclaim And to warn To proclaim And to warn And to teach Our goal To present Brothers and sisters Mature in faith Our sacrifice It's there but it's worth it And our power Our power is based in Jesus And in Jesus alone I'll finish just by saying what we said last week And all that sermon is fine But that sermon applies mostly to Christians What do we hear this evening?
[61:25] You say, well, that's fine, Donald But what's that got to do with me? I don't believe in Jesus yet Jesus hasn't saved me yet The reminder is Same as last week And the week before Same as next week Just to spoil next week's surprise The reminder is We are a preacher Whoever he might be Myself Whoever comes after me perhaps Whoever is before me But for all our efforts All our attempts We are just Men Just men Just men I'm right here today of course I seek to strive And as I said To toil And to struggle And to serve you And to preach for you And I will do that Till I'm called away from here Till I'm called home And that is the promise And the oath I made That day But I'm still just Donald Yes, called to be your minister And the role I am doing it I will do it seriously
[62:27] But your elders are still Just themselves The men here who have preached before You still preach just as yourselves If you have your hope based on any one man You will be sorely and very quickly disappointed when you discover that man is just simply a man Last week we said And we almost apologise We said the church has hurt many people And members of the church And ministers of the church Through our conduct And through us failing And reflecting our slavery We have hurt many people We saw that last week Same is true this week Don't put your hope in me And don't be hoping in any new minister Our hope as a people Is based on Jesus The true leader of this church Every minister Every elder We're just under shepherds He is the true good shepherd
[63:29] Who leads his people Without fault Without failing Who leads his people Truly, perfectly With full love With full care As he gently As he carries his people Home Slowly To be with himself It's him We serve Together It's him We seek to be built up in Together And the glorious Wonderful reality is As a minister You seek to To see your congregation grow As you spend your time Studying the Bible If you're doing it faithfully You grow along with your people There's not one sermon preached That hasn't hit me first Before it hits you There's not one text We look at That hasn't been I try to apply it to my heart Before I apply it to yours We preach the gospel to ourselves first Before we preach it to others And that way we grow together The structure is not top down In the church Structure is not top down
[64:31] We are servant leaders Servant leaders Our saviour was a servant leader The reality is The structure is bottom up We are there to support you As best we can In the Lord's help In his power Together we grow With one mind Together we serve our one saviour Together we become stronger With a final hope At the end of days We are presented As mature Before him Who we long to see Let's bow our heads now A word of prayer Lord God we thank you Lord For the reality of your word And the reminder of it What it is we've been called to do Lord we ask for wisdom And for encouragement For your people here this evening We preach now especially Lord for the office bearers here For the elders For ourselves as elders We pray for ourselves And our duties
[65:32] Help us to serve you faithfully In doing so then Help us to serve your people faithfully Who would see your name Praised and glorified in this place Once more we ask That you would work in the lives Of any here who as of yet Don't know you Lord You would transform them Through the preaching Of the full counsel of your word That through the continual preaching Of Jesus and him crucified We would see and hear Good news of some And of many come to know you Perhaps even For the first time Pray our children as we come to sing Our final item of praise We do so of hearts and minds Full of understanding And full of worship Knowing we praise you The God who hears our praise Let's call these things in and through And for Jesus' precious name's sake Amen We're going to conclude by singing And sing psalms Sing psalms in Psalm 65 Sing psalms in Psalm 65 That's on page 82
[66:38] Of a psalm book Sing psalms in Psalm 65 On page 82 Sing verses 1 down to verse 7 Of the psalm Psalm 65 on page 82 In Zion praise awaits you Lord To you our vows will pay To you all people will come near You hear us when we pray When we were overwhelmed by sins And guilt upon us lay You pardoned all our trespasses And washed our guilt away Psalm 65 verses 1 to 7 To God's praise To God's praise Amen The psalm is the psalm Is I on praise I wish you Lord To you our vows will pay To you all people will come near To you all people will come near You heal us when we pray To you all people will come near You heal us when we pray When we were overwhelmed by sins You heal us when we pray You heal us when we pray
[67:44] When we were overwhelmed by sins We went over their prices and good upon us came.
[68:03] You pardoned all their trespasses and watched our dinner away.
[68:18] I'd like to ask you to do something. We're in your works of peace.
[68:34] We're filled with plastics in your house. In your most holy place.
[68:49] With the wars and days of righteousness. You run so far.
[69:05] How still hope of fire the seas. And all the air not gone.
[69:21] By strength and power you for the hills.
[69:32] You harsh the ocean's voice. You calm the truth and all the grace.
[69:47] And still let me go to my heart. Amen. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you now and forevermore.
[70:04] Amen. Amen.