We're going to begin our worship now by singing to God's praise in Psalm 93.
It's the Sing Psalms version. You'll find it on page 123 of the Psalm book, Psalm 93.
We're going to sing from verse 1 to 5, the whole Psalm.
The Lord is King, His throne endures, majestic in His height.
The Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength and might.
The world is founded, firm and sure, removed it cannot be.
Your throne is strong and you are God from all eternity.
We'll stand to sing to God's praise the whole of this Psalm.
The Lord is King, His throne endures, majestic in His height.
The Lord is full in majesty and armed with strength and might.
The world is founded, firm and sure, removed it cannot be.
Your throne is strong and you are God from all eternity.
The seas, O Lord, have lifted up, He lifted up their voice.
The seeds have lifted up their weight, and made a mighty noise.
The Lord, in throne of highest strong, more powerful is He.
And thunder all the oceans' waves are breakers of the sea.
Your royal statues, hearts and firm, unchanging is Your Word.
And holiness adores Your hearts for endless days, O Lord.
Well, we've come to God in prayer now.
We'll just bow our heads in a word of prayer.
Lord, our God, our Father in heaven, as we unite our hearts together in prayer at this time,
we thank You that You are a God who has not turned His back away from His people,
but indeed who we have the assurance through Your Word that You look down upon us
and that You seek to meet with us this day as we come,
to offer up our prayers and our praise to You.
As we join together to hear Your Word and to come to seek understanding from it,
we thank You that we have every promise in Your Word to lean upon,
as well as every warning that Your Word gives us as well,
that we are to be a people who listen.
And so we thank You that we can come and meet with You anew today
and seek Your blessing on all that we do.
We thank You for this, Your day, a day that has been set aside for this very purpose.
There is a day that in the week that is different to all the others,
a day that we are to honour and to obey Your commands in,
to rest from our work, but also to come and to praise and worship You
according to Your Word and to Your truth.
So we ask Your help, Lord, as we come to do that,
that from the youngest to the oldest here,
our hearts will be enlarged by You and touched by You,
and that we will know that You have met with us through Your Holy Spirit
that promise that He is always near to us.
That we do thank You for each other and for all who are here today.
We thank You for the young children, Lord, and we pray for them.
Giving thanks again for the holiday club and for all that was done in that week.
Giving thanks for the creche and the tweenies
and Sunday schools will resume in the next few weeks as well.
We do pray for children and leaders alike to know Your blessing
and Your peace upon them.
We remember them, our young people, especially in this coming week
as they go back to school.
We pray for teachers and staff as they return.
We pray that they will feel refreshed after their holidays
and be ready for a new term.
And that children will come back, Lord,
helped by You and encouraged by You.
Whether it's starting P1 for the first time,
whether it's moving up a class or going into a new school,
whatever the situation may be, Lord,
we ask that You will be with each and every one of them
to lead them, to guide them, and to encourage them
every step of the way.
We thank You for every home and family.
And we know, Lord, that there are many different needs around us.
There are many who are ill at this time.
Many are in hospital and homes.
Many who are mourning and grieving in our midst.
And we do pray for Your comfort to be upon each and every one
as they have need.
May You draw near to us in that way.
May Your Word be blessed to us here throughout this day.
And whatever is preached and proclaimed today,
may You be in the midst of it all to bless Your people near and far
throughout our land, throughout our nation,
throughout nations of the world.
We pray that You will send Your Word out with power to convict,
to convert, and to bring people close to You
and to know especially the love of Jesus
and to put their trust in Him.
May You guide us all in His name.
Lead us, O Lord, into Your Word.
And in all that we do today and in all the days ahead,
may we seek to walk closely with You.
And all we ask, we ask for the forgiveness of our sins.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
I'm going to say a few words to the young ones.
Some of you will be going out in a wee minute.
Others will be staying in the service.
It's good to see you here today.
Sometimes we might have conversations with each other,
other young people, or maybe with your parents,
or people you meet in school.
And sometimes we can have little silly conversations sometimes
and maybe try and think about things that might be very different,
things outside the norm for us.
And one of the things I was thinking about this week
and I read this week was somebody asking a question.
And the question was this.
If you were to be an animal,
what animal would you want to be?
You can think about that for a wee minute.
If you were to be an animal,
what kind of animal would you want to be?
And there's maybe all kinds of answers that will come to your mind.
Maybe if you've got a dog at home,
you'd want to be a dog.
So you can just chase a ball all day
or just run around and then go for a wee sleep
and eat your food
and go for walks and do things like that.
Or maybe you've got a cat at home
and you see the cat.
The cat just wants to be the boss in the house
and to have everybody do other things for it.
Maybe you'd want to be a cat
or maybe you want to be something more exotic.
Maybe you want to be a giraffe.
To be really tall and to be able to reach up high.
Or to be a lion or a tiger.
Somebody that's an animal that's feared by people
and other animals as well.
So we can always think about maybe
different kinds of animals we would want to be.
But I wonder if any of you would want to be a sheep.
Anybody put your hands up if you'd want to be a sheep.
I doubt if there's many hands going up.
Well, there's one.
One hand's going up wanting to be a sheep.
Because I don't know if you want to be a sheep.
Anybody wants to be a sheep.
Because sometimes you look at sheep and you think,
my goodness, they seem to be just quite stupid sometimes,
don't they?
They always get themselves stuck in a fence
or stuck in a bog
or going off in the wrong direction.
And yet the interesting thing is,
when you think about a sheep,
the Bible often describes us as sheep.
And it's one of the best used illustrations by Jesus
and by others in the Bible to describe people
to be like sheep.
But how are we like sheep?
Well, there's a few different ways.
Sheep aren't very smart.
Sometimes, like I was saying,
they maybe go into a tight space.
And instead of trying to just turn around and go back out,
they try and keep going and force themselves through.
They're stubborn.
And so are we.
We can be stubborn sometimes as well.
And sheep, they'll often follow other sheep.
It doesn't matter where they're going
or what they're doing.
Even when they're going into a dangerous place,
they'll follow other sheep.
And so we can be like that as well too.
We can just follow other people.
It doesn't matter where they're going
or what they're doing.
We just keep following them.
But fortunately, sheep have a shepherd to look after them.
And if a shepherd is good and he loves his sheep,
he'll always make sure that his sheep are taken care of.
And that's the way we are as well.
We have a shepherd,
a good shepherd who looks after us.
So even when we go off in the wrong direction
or we get stuck or do something wrong,
we have a shepherd that looks after us.
And that shepherd is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the one we find described in the word
as the good shepherd.
In a psalm we know so well, Psalm 23,
that psalm reminds us that the Lord is our shepherd.
And that's the shepherd we want to know.
So when you think about being like other animals,
what kind of animal you would like to be,
maybe think about the sheep and how we are like sheep.
We can do the wrong things.
We can go the wrong way.
But we have a good shepherd,
the Lord Jesus Christ,
who came to bring us back on the right path
and to go the right way,
to help us and to save us.
May God bless these thoughts to us.
Well, we're going to say the Lord's Prayer together now.
You'll have it on your sheets.
We'll repeat the Lord's Prayer together.
Let's say the Lord's Prayer.
Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
We're going to sing together again to God's praise
now in Psalm 121
in the Scottish Psalter version.
You find it on page 416 of the Psalm books.
Psalm 121.
Again, we're going to sing the whole of this Psalm.
I to the hills will lift mine eyes.
From whence doth come my need?
My safety cometh from the Lord,
who heaven and earth hath made.
We'll stand to sing the whole of this Psalm
to God's praise.
I to the hills will lift mine eyes.
From whence doth come my need?
My safety cometh from the Lord,
who heaven and earth hath made.
Thy foot, thy foot, thy foot, thy will.
His slumber that he keeps.
Behold, he that keeps Israel.
His slumber that he keeps.
He slumber's not, nor sleeps.
The Lord he keeps.
The Lord thy shade.
On thy right hand thou stay.
The moon by night,
He shall not smite,
Nor yet the sun by day.
The Lord shall keep thy soul.
He shall preserve thee from all else.
in thy Emmanuel things.
We're going to turn now to read God's Word in the Bible.
We're going to read in the Gospel of Mark, reading in chapter 6.
And this is on page 1014, if you have the church Bibles.
Mark chapter 6.
We're going to take up our reading at verse 7.
Mark chapter 6, reading at verse 7 down to verse 29.
Let's hear God's Word.
And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two,
and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.
He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff,
no bread, no bag, no money in their belts,
but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.
And he said to them,
Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there.
And if any place will not receive you,
and they will not listen to you,
when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet
as a testimony against them.
So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.
And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
King Herod heard of it, for Jesus' name had become known.
Some said, John the Baptist has been raised from the dead.
That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.
But others said, He is Elijah.
And others said, He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.
But when Herod heard of it, he said,
John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.
For it was Herod who had sent and seized John,
and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias,
his brother Philip's wife,
because he had married her.
For John had been saying to Herod,
it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.
And Herodias had a grudge against him,
and wanted to put him to death,
but she could not.
For Herod feared John,
knowing that he was a righteous and holy man,
and he kept him safe.
When he heard him,
he was greatly perplexed,
and yet he heard him gladly.
But an opportunity came when Herod,
on his birthday,
gave a banquet for his nobles,
and military commanders,
and the leading men of Galilee.
But when Herodias' daughter came in and danced,
and she pleased Herod and his guests.
And the king said to the girl,
Ask me for whatever you wish,
and I will give it to you.
And he vowed to her,
whatever you ask me,
I will give you up to half my kingdom.
And she went out and said to her mother,
For what should I ask?
And she said,
The head of John the Baptist.
And she came in immediately with haste to the king,
and asked, saying,
I want you to give me at once
the head of John the Baptist on a platter.
And the king was exceedingly sorry,
but because of his oaths and his guests,
he did not want to break his word to her.
And immediately the king sent an executioner
with orders to bring John's head.
He went and beheaded him in the prison,
and brought his head on a platter,
and gave it to the girl,
and the girl gave it to her mother.
When his disciples heard of it,
they came and took his body,
and laid it in a tomb.
And so on, and may God bless
that reading from his word.
And before we come back to look at
some of that passage,
we're going to again sing to God's praise
in Psalm 32.
In the Scottish Psalter version,
it's on page 244 of the Psalm book.
Psalm 32.
And at verse 7.
There art my hiding place,
thou shalt from trouble keep me free.
Thou with songs of deliverance
about shalt compass me.
I will instruct thee,
and they teach the way
that thou shalt go.
And with mine eye upon thee set,
I will direction show.
We're going to sing from verse 7
to the end of the Psalm,
verse 11,
to God's praise.
And again we stand to sing.
The Lord my hiding place,
thou shalt from trouble keep me free.
Thou with songs of deliverance,
a bird shall compass me.
I will instruct thee and be teach,
the way that thou shalt go.
And with mine eye upon thee set,
I will direction show.
Then be not like the horse or mule,
which could not understand,
whose mouth lest they come near to thee,
a bridal must command.
And to the man that wicked is,
his sorrows shall abound.
But him that trusted in the Lord,
mercy shall compass round.
Ye righteous in the Lord be glad,
in him that upright,
in him he rejoice.
O he that upright,
in heart,
for joy lift up your voice.
O he that holy is.
But before we turn back to look at the Gospel of Mark,
we'll bow our heads again in a word of prayer.
Let us pray.
Lord our God as we continue in our worship as we seek your help as we turn to your word we
we thank you that it is a living word a word that ministers to our hearts and to our souls
and may you bring it alive in our own hearts today to bring that joy of salvation into our
hearts whether it's to know it once again or to know it for the first time that we would find
in your word the beauty of Christ and the love of Jesus shown to us the one who came who into this
world who you sent into this world for the salvation of our souls the one who gave his life as a ransom
for many so we thank you that your word instructs and teaches us and we pray that it will do that for
us anew today we continue to remember Lord all that goes on around us we know the many needs that
surround us and even in this past week the many things that have maybe shocked us in a sense we
know that in life there are many troubles and yet Jesus says to be of good courage for he has overcome
the world and so we pray that we will remember that and that others will be able to to take hold of that
message and even to share that message of hope found in Christ as Lord we prayed for congregations near
and far but in this past week our minds have been filled with events close to home for us in the
island of sky with a tragedy that unfolded there and we do remember all the families grieving at this
time and concerned for loved ones the many who are troubled in their hearts and in their spirits
we pray Lord for your comfort for your peace to be upon a people there and for those who minister
into that situation we pray for you to give words of wisdom of help to know what to say and how to say it
we can feel like helpless comforters at times but we thank you that as we lean upon you and trust in you
you assure us of giving words that we need as and when required so Lord may you minister into that
situation as well as the many needful situations around us too we thank you that you are a God whose
eyes are always upon the whole of your creation that even as the psalm that we sang together at the
beginning psalm 121 it reminds us that in our troubles in our days of wondering where we are to look to for
help that we can lift our eyes to the Lord so may you help us even now to lift our eyes to you and to
see that you are a God who is near and near to help guide us then into your word now as we come to it
help us that we will hear from it and recognize our own need in it too to choose wisely and to follow the
paths of life as found in Christ so Lord hear our prayers and continue with us now we ask we ask in
Jesus precious name amen we can turn back to our reading in the gospel of Mark chapter 6 and we're
going to look in particular at this event surrounding the life of King Herod and all that took place in
verse 14 down to verse 29 King Herod had met with John the Baptist many times he'd heard John the Baptist
speaking to him about the gospel the good news of Jesus and as we read there in verse 20
Herod feared God John knowing that he was a righteous and holy man and he kept him safe when he heard him
he was greatly perplexed and yet he heard him gladly so John the Baptist was someone who had ministered to
King Herod a great privilege to be able to minister to him but King Herod was in conflict in his own life
which way he would go which way he would choose and that's the theme of our service this morning
the choices we make and the consequences that they have we're going to look in particular at the choices
that King Herod made and how we can learn lessons for ourselves because our lives are full of choices
every single day we make choices some with great significance others less so but all of them
combining into our life and the way we are living and the direction that we are going in
we chose today whether we would come to church or not we might choose later what we will eat or what
we won't eat our life is always full of choice but the most important choices we make and should or
should make are based on what we find before us today in the Word of God and in the instruction
that the Word of God gives us the Gospel of Mark as you read through it you find the ministry of Jesus
going through different towns and villages meeting with different people all the time and all the time
people being presented with a choice are they going to listen or are they going to shun this teaching are
they going to follow Jesus or are they going to keep going in their own paths their own direction
the beginning of this chapter as Jesus comes in to Nazareth his own hometown he's ministering there
and the people are presented with the Gospel and yet so many of them just turn their back on it
and here we are gathered together under God's Word once again I'm sure most of us maybe majority of
us have been here on many occasions hearing the Word of God and the question is still do we accept it
do we believe it or do we ignore it what are we going to do today with the Gospel that we hear what have
you done with the Gospel you've heard in the past what choice have you made with it well in these verses
before us today we hear how John the Baptist the one who was the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ the
one who who went to prepare the way for him who was telling others that greater than him was coming after him
we read of him here and we see how his life came to an abrupt end how King Herod had it had him
beheaded and this was the result his death was result of the choices made by this man King Herod
he chose whether to have John killed or whether to spare his life and as you read there in verse 20
for a long time he had spared his life he had kept him safe but he found himself now in a very
difficult position where he was under pressure and what choice would he make in the midst of this
pressure the scripture is full the whole of the Bible is full of seeing people making choices
from the very beginning when you go back to the book of Genesis you find Adam and Eve presented with
choice in the midst of the garden would they obey the voice of God who had told them what they could
and what they couldn't do or would they listen to the tempter who had come into their midst and told
them not to listen to God but to make their own choices to do their own thing you see there they
chose wrongly and sin came into the world and all the consequences that that brought now we recognize
as we're talking about choices that we're always seeing God as sovereign and overruling in all our choices
but we also see our own responsibilities God's sovereignty and man's responsibility is always
before us but as you read through the scripture you see we're always presented with the choices
that we are to make but here in this passage King Herod after the events of the beheading of John the
Baptist has now heard something that's leaving him troubled he's hearing all about the work of Jesus
and he's hearing some who are saying John the Baptist has been raised from the dead and this leaves him
troubled John the Baptist has come back it's causing him a great fear and this passage before us as well as
speaking into the present situation of herod brings us into the past and the choices that he made and I
want us to think of these choices together those in the past seeing the choices he made seeing the
consequences of it and the pressure he was under and then bringing it into the present where King Herod is
now reflecting on his life and the choices that he has made and thinking of the consequences of it
so first of all we think of the choices that King Herod made and the choices that we make ourselves
somebody once said our outlook on life is not best expressed in words it is expressed in the choices
we make in the long run we shape our lives and we shape ourselves the process never ends until we die
and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility
our lives are shaped by the choices that we make as well as the Lord's sovereign will in our life
and as we read in this passage we see that Herod he didn't just make one choice that impacted his life
he made a series of choices at different points in his life that affected his whole life
and when you look at the many wrong choices that he made here you look at verse 17 and there we're giving
an insight into the choices that he's made in the past and the wrong choices that he's made in the past
we read in verse 17 that Herod had had John seized and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias
his brother Philip's wife
he was under pressure from his wife his wife didn't like John the Baptist and what he was saying about their
marriage and it being wrong and he was under pressure so he had him arrested and sort of
try to just push him away to the side but at the same time trying to keep him safe he didn't have to do
this he didn't have to put him in prison but it was the wrong thing to do it was the wrong choice
and the basis of this is on another wrong choice he made in his life he had married Herodias his brother's
wife he had made an unwise choice there it wasn't the right thing to do but he had a choice in it
and it was this choice that was really at the heart of everything that was going wrong in his life
he was enjoying hearing John the Baptist at one point perplexed and yet heard him gladly as it
says in verse 20 but now with Herodias in the midst of it she was trouble for him
and that's the reality of life for Herod here he's in the midst of the mixture of all the different
choices he's made in life and being pulled in different directions and so often it's the case
for ourselves too the choices that we've made maybe in the past are continually affecting our lives
some are good choices some are wise choices and have helped us go on the right way others we maybe
look back and think they were the wrong choices I've made they've had a maybe a lasting impact on my life
in a bad way but what we see as we look at Herodias and as we look at our own lives no matter the wrong
choices we've made there is always opportunity to come back and find the right path you think of people
who are in prison they're there because very often they've made a wrong choice taking a wrong decision
and there are consequences to these choices they find themselves now entrapped in prison
but the reality is prison isn't always walls and bars and locked gates we often find ourselves in prison
in this world because of the choices we have made we're not put locked away but we feel imprisoned in
our lives we feel like we're compressed in our lives under pressure in our lives because of the choices
that we've made but the scripture is there to help us and to guide us out of the sense of being in prison
to the freedom that is found in Christ and for Herod this was something that he'd been hearing about
again and again again as verse 20 just shows to us there is this enjoyment he had of meeting with John the Baptist
of hearing about the works of Christ he heard him gladly but pulled away in a different direction because of the wrong
choices that he made he feared when he was hearing about Christ but at the end of the day
he chose to ignore him and not to accept him the greatest choice in life he got wrong
and what about for ourselves today how are we choosing with this gospel how are we choosing with this Christ
who we hear about so often are we choosing to follow to trust to believe with all our heart
or are we turning away Joshua in the old testament that says these great words as he's surrounded by
people who are choosing many other different gods in life he says to them choose this day whom you will
serve but he says as for me and my house we will serve the Lord Joshua chose wisely but for so many
things it's an unwise choice we come to we reject or we turn away from the Lord
Dwight L Moody the great evangelist of many years ago he tells a story of a young Christian man who went
to university in England and he was studying there studying diligently but he was surrounded by people
who didn't believe in God and would often debate with him about how God is not real or we don't need the
Lord Jesus in our lives and this one day he was discussing debating with another student
discussing faith in the Bible and they were batting back and forth this Christian student he felt he
wasn't as well educated as eloquent in his language as this other student who was seemed to be more
advanced in his knowledge than him and he wasn't getting anywhere no matter what he said in this debate
he wasn't getting anywhere he was always getting an answer back that seemed to just push him further and
further away and in the end he said look I'm not as eloquent as you I'm not as good as debating as you
but he said what if I could prove to you beyond a shadow of a doubt that Christ is who he claims to be
would you be willing to acknowledge him as Lord and as your Lord to prove without a shadow of a doubt that Christ is real
and who he claims to be would you believe immediately the student he was debating with said no certainly not
it didn't matter what he would say what he would show of the reality of Christ this man was unwilling to believe
and you see that's often the problem with the knowledge of God it's not that the the facts aren't there
it's not that God cannot be known it's that the natural desire of our heart is to reject and to push God
away our natural choice in life is to shun God to push him further and further away
Herod is an example to us of that of choosing wrongly in his past he has made all these wrong choices
and all they have done is pushed God further and further away
but we're thankful that the scripture is full of others who remind us and show us that we can come
to Christ no matter the choices that we've made in the past and find with him one who is willing to
forgive to heal and to help just think of the gospel of Mark itself it's full of accounts of Jesus meeting
people who have made so many wrong decisions and yet they come empty-handed with nothing left they come to
Christ and they come to Christ and they find in him one who gives him everything that they need
the opposite is true of King Herod he came with maybe everything he needed but he left with nothing
because he rejected Christ Herod chose unwisely and so many times in his life
how will you choose today how have you been choosing to live your life how will you choose
to live your life as you go on our choices are always before us the second thing we see of Herod though
is he's surrounded by people who are putting pressure on him and this is something we can often feel
in our own lives to today the sense of peer pressure you can maybe say well it wasn't all Herod's fault
everything that happened here and the consequences it brought it wasn't all Herod's fault you could
blame it maybe on his wife or his wife's daughter you can say well it was their fault just in the same way
as you go back to Adam and Eve where the blame is seemed to be passed Adam blames his wife Eve blames
the serpent the buck is passed we can always try and pass the blame off to somebody else
so was Herod here was he just in a situation where it was somebody else's fault peer pressure was to blame
for the choices that we made that he made no he made the choice he chose everything that we see before us
here he made that final choice and he had to live with the consequences of it we all make our own choices
we can always try and blame others for the choices that we have made but at the end of the day the
choices are in our own hands Herod's wife Herodias had put pressure on him she had been almost constantly
putting pressure on him so so Herod had put John the Baptist in prison to try and get her off his case
but it wouldn't go away and she was still wanting more she wanted John the Baptist put to death
he was saying the relationship was wrong he wanted to keep his wife happy and he was in the midst
of this pressure what do I do who do I try and please and in our own lives we can come under pressure
from other people as well we will often have that sense of who are we going to please
it could be a husband or a wife it could be children or parents it could be our bosses at work
it can be our friends so often in our life there is this pressure coming upon us from all different
directions we have an abundance of peer pressure and it can keep us from doing what is right with God
and this is something we have to be so careful about the most important thing for us to do is not as our
friends want us to do the pressures to do the wrong things in life or to go to the wrong places
but the the pressure we should feel most is to do what is right with God to do what is right
in following the Lord Jesus and his commands something that Herod had heard so much about
and was gladly hearing and yet perplexed with and now just pushing away in verse 26 we are given a
great insight into the choice that Herod made in the pressure he was under when you read in verse 26 it
says the king was exceedingly sorry he'd found himself in this situation where he had to choose
under pressure what am I going to do am I going to please my wife or lose face with the important
people around me here these people had come to his birthday party who he'd tried to impress and he'd said
to Herodias his daughter I will give you anything you ask for up to half my kingdom she asked for John
the Baptist's head on a platter now what's he going to do he's torn in different directions he's feeling
this pressure he's greatly distressed he's torn in different directions he knew what he did was wrong
the choice he made was wrong but because of the important people around him he decided losing face with
them it was more important not losing face with them was more important than having John the Baptist beheaded
do you feel that kind of pressure today when it comes to the things of God when it comes to following
the Lord Jesus peer pressure starts from a very young age and in many ways it can sometimes seem
just harmless things going along with what others are doing having the same things that other people have
it'll follow us into our teenage years into our working life into our old age there's always a sense of
pressure the danger is that we let that pressure control every decision we make and especially when it comes
to the things of God to feel a sense of pressure that you're going to be different if you become a
Christian that your life is going to lack all joy if you become a Christian that you're going to have
nothing if you become a Christian that is going to affect the choices you have in the workplace or even the work
you're able to take to live for Christ brings with its other pressures but it brings the promise that he is with us
and he will honor us to be a Christian today is being in the minority in so many places
but does that make it wrong no because God is always calling us to himself
Herod didn't follow the advice of John he didn't listen to the gospel that John proclaimed to him because if he
had he would have been in the minority would have cost him in the short term he would have lost face with so many
but the greatest loss was in the long term and he lost or the danger was of losing his soul
and that is the pressure that we are under today ourselves we're torn maybe between doing what is right
with God giving our life to the Lord Jesus and keeping others who are close to us happy not losing face
with others
that's the decisions that we're always faced with
in the midst of it we are to choose wisely
maybe today you're finding yourself
you doubt if God is real
you doubt if it's going to make a difference
in your life
maybe today you're angry with God
because of something that's come into your life
into your experience
you're finding yourself in a rage against God
well sometimes these are not the right moments
to choose to reject God
but instead to come and ask questions about God
to ask
can he be real
is he real
can he help me
to put yourself in the right place with the right people
who are able to guide you
on the right path
sometimes when we're at our lowest
or our darkest point
God can come in the midst
but at other points like you see with Herod here
and the pressure he is under
he pushes God away
a man told a story about his father
his father who was struggling
to keep the house warm during winter
and they had run out of firewood
and they were struggling
and he was wondering what will I do
but he knew there was this tree out in the garden
and in his eyes the tree was dead
it had died in the winter
no leaves, nothing
and the coal just made the branches so brittle
that if you could just snap them
with your hand
in his eyes
the tree was dead
and so he decided to cut it down
and he used it as firewood
but come the spring
to his dismay
he realized that the stump that was there
was now sprouting new shoots
there had still been life
and the tree, a tree that had provided
so much fruit for them
in the summer months
was now gone
because of a rash decision that he'd made
thinking there's no life
in this tree
and it would take years
for that tree
to come back to bearing
as much fruit as it had once done
and he said to his son
don't forget this lesson
never cut down a tree
in the winter time
never make a rash decision
in the low times in your life
never make these kinds of decisions
in your worst mood
wait
be patient
the storm will pass
he said
and the spring
will come
in our own low points in life
or when we're angry with God
that's not the time
to just push him away
it's a time
to draw near to him
even more
to realize
the life
that is in him
to surround yourself
with people
who are able to guide you
and to help you
to show you the way to Christ
the life that is found in him
that he is
the one who is able to save
we are surrounded
by those who will tell us otherwise
there's peer pressure
all around us
and Herod
had all these people
around him
he didn't want to lose face with
but they became more important
than his own life
and his own soul
so for ourselves today
make sure we see
the precious nature
of our soul
and above all
the beauty of Christ
who is able to save our soul
and to choose wisely
and the final thing
just briefly we see
with Herod here
is the consequences
of all these choices
we come back to
looking at Herod now
in his present situation
he's reflecting on the decisions
he's made in the past
but here he is
in his present situation
and before
we see that in verse 14
to verse 16
and what he's hearing about Jesus
there in verse 14
is that he has been doing
amazing works
King Herod heard of it
for Jesus' name
had become known
some said
John the Baptist
has been raised from the dead
and this is what strikes fear
into him
and the reaction
to this news
of Jesus being
John the Baptist
raised from the dead
strikes fear
into him
his conscience
is still affected
even though there's
some time past
since John the Baptist
was put to death
it hasn't left his mind
and this just brings
that fear
back to him
he thinks he's going
to come face to face
with the one
he had put to death
the one
he now thinks
is raised from the dead
and this is a time
for reflection
for him
but it's a reminder
to us too
that we hear
of one who is
raised from the dead
one who we will come
face to face with
one who we must
appear
before
not John the Baptist
raised from the dead
but the Lord Jesus Christ
the one who was put to death
because of our sin
but the one
who we are reminded
in scripture
on the third day
rose again
who has ascended
to the father
who is coming back
to take his people
to be with him
the one
who we must
all appear
before
in a sense
of judgment
Herod
King Herod
was afraid
of meeting
John the Baptist
raised from the dead
what's your thought
of meeting
with the Lord Jesus Christ
raised from the dead
does that put you
fear
into your heart
or does it fill you
with a sense
of joy
if you don't believe
if you don't trust him
it will be fear
but if you believe
with all your heart
that he is Lord
and God of all
it will fill your heart
with joy
to know
that you will see him
C.S. Lewis
in his book
Mere Christianity
says this
when the author
walks onto the stage
the play
is over
God is going
to invade
all right
but what is the good
of saying
you are on his side
then
when you see
the whole
natural universe
melting away
like a dream
and something else
comes crashing in
this time
it will be God
without disguise
something so overwhelming
that will strike
either irresistible love
or irresistible horror
into every creature
it will be too late
then
to choose your side
that will not be
the time
for choosing
it will be the time
when you discover
which side
we have
we really have chosen
whether we realized
it before or not
now
he says
today
this moment
is our chance
to choose
the right
side
we are presented
with choices
all the time
and we are to
choose
wisely
what does it mean
to choose
wisely
well it was a message
that struck fear
into Herod
that this Jesus
had come
and if you look at
verse 12
it says
his disciples
went out
and proclaimed
that people
should repent
this is what it means
to choose wisely
this is the opportunity
that Herod himself
had
and passed by
and it's your choice
today
no matter
the choices
you've made
in the past
and maybe
we've all made
many wrong choices
and they've led us
into many wrong places
today
we have the opportunity
to choose wisely
to choose Christ
and to serve him
and to follow him
and to know
that that choice
is the greatest choice
of all
to know
him
who is our shepherd
who is
our Lord
to say with Joshua
but as for me
and my house
we
will serve
the Lord
choose
this day
whom you will serve
that is a choice
before us
the choice
before Herod
the choice
we all face
may we all
choose
wisely
and follow
Christ
as Lord
let us pray
our Father
in heaven
your word
reminds us
of the need
of the choices
that we make
in life
our greatest need
of all
is to know
Christ
as Lord
and we pray
that your word
and your spirit
will guide us
in making that
wise choice
this day
for we know
that the time
is short
and that now
even today
is the time
to choose
the right side
and so Lord
we help
we pray
for your help
your guidance
your instruction
to take away
the often
pressures we feel
and to know
the love of Christ
that's greater than all
so may you bless us
and help us
to that end
as we ask it all
in his precious name
Amen
we're going to conclude
by singing
to God's praise
in Psalm 85
sorry
Psalm 65
in the Sing
Psalms version
page 82
of the Psalm books
Psalm 65
we're going to sing
verses 1
to verse 5
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
we'll sing from
verse 1 to 5
to God's praise
and we stand
to sing
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
how blessed
are those
you choose
and bring
within
your
courts
of grace
we're
filled
with
blessings
in your
house
in your
most holy
place
with
awesome
deeds
of righteousness
you
answered
us
O God
our
Savior
full
of
far
the
sea
and
all
the
earth
abroad
after the
benediction
I'll go to the
door to my
left here
we'll close with
the benediction
now may grace
mercy and peace
from God
Father
Son
and Holy
Spirit
rest upon
and abide
with us all
now and
forevermore
Amen
thank you