Month: January 2023

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It’s time to rebuild: a concern for God’s presence and glory.

Sunday 22nd January 2023
Read: Leviticus 26:14-20; Haggai 1:1-15

Sermon: Haggai 1:1-15

Introduction:

Date: In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet (1:3; 2:1, 10, 20) to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest.

2 The people’s excuse: “It’s not time.”

3-4 Yahweh’s challenge: consider your commitment.

5-6 Consider the consequences.

7-11 Consider the curses and their causes.

12-15 The people’s response and its result
12 Response Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, (1) the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had sent him. (2) And the people feared the LORD

Obedience and fear (wholehearted reverence and respect he deserves as the one and only Lord) = good outcome

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Taken Up and Thrown Down

Sunday 15th January 2023
Read: Hebrews 1:1-14; Psalm 102

Sermon: Psalm 102

1-2. A request for same day service in the day of distress

3-11. All day, every day distress

12-22. “Now would be a good time to do what I’m sure you will do”

23-24. A plea of desperate last resort

25-28. Who laid the earth’s foundation? Whose children shall dwell secure? Who was taken up and thrown down for us? Hebrews 1:1-14; Matthew 26:39

 

“Taken up” = exalted & borne or carried-

Is 6:1 I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up;

Lev 16:22 The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself

Is 52:13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.

Is 53:12 he bore the sin of many;

Lk 9:51 “When the days drew near for him to be taken up he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”

 

“Thrown down”,

Gen 37:20 Joseph “thrown down” 

I Kings 14:9 = “casting away from someone’s presence or face,”

Jer 22:19 = “dumped”: shameful burial, like a donkey’s; 

ALSO = God’s total forgiveness of sin Mic 7:19, God casts the sins of his people into the depths of the sea forever[1]

 

If your days seem as solid as smoke, if your courage has withered, if sleep deserts you, you can’t bear to eat and you feel friendless, the object of taunting… “It’s time” to pray Ps 102 in the confidence that Jesus has prayed it for you, He was “taken up and thrown down” so that your sins could be “cast into the depths of the sea forever” Your prayer will be heard in His name.

 

[1] Ex 22:30 Defiled food to be thrown to the dogs; Ex 32:19 (Deut 9:17) Moses casts the tablets of the Law down to the ground; 2 Kings 13:23; 17:20; 24:20; Is 38:17 in which God has cast Hezekiah’s sins behind his back

 

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They forgot God’s works, his miracles and his judgements.

Sunday 8th January 2023
Read: Romans 1:18-32; Psalm 106

Sermon: Psalm 106

1-5 Praise and prayer

6 – 43 Israel’s sin and the need for God’s mercy

6 – 12 Israel’s sin and God’s mercy at the Red Sea (Exodus 14)

13 – 15 Because of their sin, God gave them empty souls (Numbers 11)

16 – 18 Because of their sin, God sent fire and judgement (Numbers 16)

19 – 23 Because of their sin, God set Himself against Israel (Exodus 32)

24 – 27 Because of their sin, God judged them in the wilderness (Num 13–14)

28 – 31 Because of their sin, God sent a plague (Numbers 25)

32 – 33 Because of their sin, God disciplined Moses (Numbers 20)

34 – 39 Because of their sin, Canaan was polluted (Deuteronomy 7; Judges)

40 – 43 Because of their sin, God gave them to their enemies. (Judges)

44 – 48 God’s mercy to Israel

44 – 46 God heard their cry

47 – 48 Praise and prayer to the merciful God

Benediction: 1 Peter 2:9-12

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YHWH proves that He alone is God.

Sunday 1st January 2023
Read: Isaiah 41:21-19; Isaiah 48:3-14; Isaiah 52:13-53:12

Sermon: Context of Isaiah 41 – 48

This series of passages explains how Yahweh presents His case to His people in exile that He alone is God and not one of these foreign gods.

Isaiah 41 Courtroom Gathered, Case explained

Isaiah 42 The LORD’s Case

Isaiah 43 Calling Witnesses

Isaiah 44
a) The LORD’s Challenge, and Counsel to His witnesses
b) Why the LORD’s Key Evidence Work
c)Prophetic Example

Isaiah 45 The LORD’s Testimony of His Integrity, & His Call to Respond

Isaiah 46 The LORD’s Stern Challenge

Isaiah 48
a) Repeated
b) Summing Up

How did Jesus fulfill the prophetic pattern? (Isaiah 52:13-53:12)

In today’s Babylon, where the world seems to be winning, it is important that we,  as God’s people, remember who God is, the one whom every knee will bend.