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Sunday 1 July 2012

Sunday Sermon Review - Building relationship with God..

Sunday Sermon Review July 1, 2012
 (from my home church that I attend regularly)

Psalm 146:1-2 Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul.  While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.

The service began with the worship leader reading from Psalm 145 and some congregational singing including the song " Blessed be Your Name" and "Blessed Assurance Jesus is Mine".

Psalm 145:17-19 says
 The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.

We had a guest speaker today by the name of Niko Engbrecht. He is an immigrant from Germany, come to Canada. Mr Engbrecht believes God is calling him to preaching so our church gave him a chance to explore that gift. Today was the first time in his life that he preached.

Mr Niko Engbrecht began by saying when he was in school in Germany, he was required to study the English language and at that time he hadn't felt it was important or that he would ever use the English language. But now he could see that it was a tool God was using to prepare him for life in Canada. He said he had said in years gone by that he would never preach or teach but now suggested it is wise to never say never because you don't know what God has planned for you ahead.
Mr Engbrecht chose 1 Timothy 4:13 for his text: Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
He said he prefers the KJV as it is the more accurate translation when compared with the Greek. The NIV translates the word exhortation as preaching whereas the KJV uses the word exhortation.

Who is Timothy?
His father was a Greek, mother was Jewish, he grew up with the Scriptures and was a student of Paul.

Three Tools to build Relationship with God

1) Give attendance to Reading: - We are not reading our Bibles enough. The Old Testament commanded to give 10% as a tithe, and the New Testament teaches to give our everything to God. Mr Engbrecht suggested if we have an average of 112 waking hours per week- are we willing to give God 10% of those hours for praying, reading Scriptures and service. That would be at least 11 hours per week.
Let us not be lukewarm in our relationship with Christ as the church in  Laodicea.

  Revelation 3:14-16 
14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
 15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Jesus doesn't want lukewarm. He wants cold or hot. Jesus left the glory of Heaven to die for us, the least we can do is to give Jesus top priority in our lives.
Read and study the Bible seriously everyday. Meet and socialize with God!

2) Give attendance to Exhortation:
As Christians, we represent Christ on this earth. If we involve ourselves in unChristlike behavior ( in speech, dress, lifestyle etc.) , we are misrepresenting Christ and the Bible.
So we need to exhort one another to live righteously. If we see fellow Christians living in sin and we do not warn them, we stand accountable to God as partakers of their actions. We need to give warning to the wicked, with Bible back-up to what we are saying. And we also accept exhortation from fellow believers.

1 Peter 3:10-11:  For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:
  Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.

3) Give attendance to Doctrine:
Mark 16:15 - And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Tell the good news to as many as you can wherever you are! We are to know the Scriptures and always be ready to give a word of testimony.

Satan likes to blind us. When we recognize our sin we need to repent. What is repentance?
Realize you have sinned.
Jesus died on the cross, shed his blood for your sin.
Change from within your heart, and do not repeat the sin.

Mr Niko Engbrecht ended the service with an altar call to salvation saying that we know we will all die. None of us know when we will die or if we even have a week left. God is not willing that anyone perish but that all come to repentance.

Revelation 3:20  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

The service ended with congregational singing - "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms"

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