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Information Concerning Services At Warragul Presbyterian

Brothers & sisters in Christ,

May God sustain you through the various difficulties that this current COVID-19 crisis will cause you in your particular circumstances.

The elders met recently to discuss our response to the current circumstance.

In line with the latest announcement by the health authorities, we will be suspending physical Sunday services for a while.

In view of this we want to encourage ‘households’ to meet together on Sunday around God’s word and to pray together for their own needs and for the needs of the body of Christ and our community.

To help facilitate this, each week we will provide an outline of a service that includes the Bible readings and links to a couple of songs and a pre recorded Bible talk from Steve or Ray that continues to follow our preaching program.

This will be available later in each week, hopefully by Saturday morning.

Of course keeping in touch with others will be really important at this time, so it would be good to make use of phone and the various internet chat forums.

This crisis reminds us that church life does not depend on buildings or special effects but wholly on God and His word.

Psalms 46:1-3
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

Regards in Christ

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“The Righteousness Heaven Requires”

Matthew 5:20-48

Life is a gift. No one can choose to be born and very few choose when they will die. However, we are all required to make a choice during our lifetime which has eternal consequences.

Jesus says in Matthew 5:20
“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The Pharisees were an impressive people, but we are told to beware of them by Jesus, because they didn’t understand and correctly apply the God given Law.
They wanted to be noticed and praised by others for their practices and believed God was impressed with their self righteousness.

Jesus states in Matthew 6:1
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”

The Pharisees self righteousness failed to achieve the standard required for entering Heaven.
What is needed, is a far greater righteousness than those who simply practice law keeping.,

The Pharisees misunderstood the intention of the law and Jesus had to explain that it wasn’t good enough to just ‘not murder’ or ‘not commit adultery’, for we must not even hate or lust. Hatred is the seed that leads to murder and lust is the seed that leads to committing adultery.

The only righteousness that is acceptable to a perfect, holy God can’t come from within us.
It is a righteousness that can only be given to us from God by his Spirit through trusting in his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

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“The Genuine Righteousness Of God’s Kingdom”

Deuteronomy 30:1-10, Matthew 5:11-20

True or false?

  1. The Law was God’s way of salvation for the Old Testament people, but it didn’t work, so now we have Jesus.
  2. We don’t need the Old Testament anymore, because we now have the teaching of Jesus which is far superior.
  3. The Old Testament is a poor reflection of God, but Jesus is a better representation.
Genuine righteousness will attract hostility. It’s not just that genuine righteousness makes us look bad, it’s that it exposes how unrighteous our hearts really are, and that exposure is naturally hated by unregenerate hearts. That is why Jesus is so hateful to self-righteous people.
 
Christians can expect persecution when we publicly exhibit the righteousness of Jesus and we can expect to be hated and reviled and slandered by the world just as Jesus our master was. But we can rejoice, because our heavenly reward is so much greater than our temporal suffering. Our willingness to suffer for the gospel is evidence of our Lord’s righteousness; for it is confirmation of our faith in Christ’s righteousness by which we are justified.
 
We are to be as salt and light to the world. The world will only see the transforming power of Jesus and give glory to God our Father when we shine our light openly.
 
So how does Jesus relate to the Old Testament Law? Did Jesus come to abolish the law or did he come to fulfil it?
 
We can’t properly understand Jesus and his sacrificial death without reading and understanding the requirements and principles of the Old Testament.
 
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“Worship – A Pattern For Today”

1 Chronicles 16:1-36 : 13:1-14, 15:25-29

Chronicles was written for the returning exiles of Judah from Babylon to reassure them of Gods faithfulness towards his people.

The ark was symbolic of Gods presence amongst his people and we see King David involved in worship of God and the return of the ark to Jerusalem.

On the first attempt, the ark was carried upon a new cart and Uzza reached out to steady the ark when the oxen stumbled, but he was struck down by God and died.

The sin of Uzza should be a warning to us to take care that we are not brash or irreverent when dealing with the holiness of God.
Our worship should only be based on Gods word and through our Lord Jesus Christ.

On the second attempt, the ark was carried by the Levites and this time God helped them.

We have a natural tendency to change the true image of God for our own and to develop strange methods of worship which are unacceptable and disobedient to God.
It is only with Gods help that we can worship him in spirit and truth.

David danced for joy before the ark of God and he was generous to his subjects as the Lord had been gracious to him.
The people sang together with thanksgiving to the Lord.

Today we look at this beautiful song of David.

1 Chronicles 16:29
“Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come before him!
Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;”

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“Steadfast Love, Loving Kindness, Covenant Loyalty”

Genesis 24:1-67

The world has been under a curse ever since Adam and Eve sinned, but we are told that God is going to bless the families of the earth through a descendant of Abraham.

Abraham is very old now and Isaac is to be Abraham’s heir.
Isaac, who was thirty-seven when Sarah died at the age of one hundred and twenty-seven, is yet to be married; placing the promise of descendants in jeopardy. Abraham aged one hundred and thirty-seven, instructs his trusted servant to find a wife for Isaac, stating that she must be from his kinsmen back in Mesopotamia and not from amongst the Canaanites.

Abraham was adamant that Isaac should remain in the promised land and not go with his servant to Haran. Abraham is fully convinced of God’s faithfulness and trusts in God’s providence to provide a wife for his son from amongst his father’s house in Mesopotamia.

So the servant departs with a large train of camels loaded with valuable gifts to make the three year return journey. He prays and asks God to intervene, and almost immediately upon arriving at the city of Nahor, finds Rebekah drawing water from the well.  She meets all the requirements and readily agrees to go with the servant to be the wife of Isaac. She leaves her family to travel to a land she doesn’t know, to be the wife of a man she has never met. Just like Abraham when God called him, she steps out in faith and trust.

The servant returns with Rebekah to Isaac’s dwelling place, where he was then living in the Negeb. The servant then told Isaac everything that had been done to secure a wife for him. Isaac took Rebekah for his wife and he loved her and was comforted after his mother’s death.

Today’s sermon was by Steve Messer.

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“Why It Matters How You Are Buried”

Genesis 23:1-20, Genesis 49:29-50:26

A burial place became very important to Abraham after his wife Sarah died at the age of 127 years.

Abraham is described as a sojourner in the land of the Hittites, He had nowhere he could call his own to bury his dead. He was still an immigrant in Canaan even though he had gained rights to the well at Beersheba. 

He was highly esteemed as a prince by the Hittites, and they were willing to give Abraham the choicest of their tombs to bury his dead, but Abraham would not accept land as a gift from men, because it had already been promised to him as a gift from the Lord.

Rather than return to the past and his ancestral home to bury Sarah, Abraham paid Ephron’s asking price for the chosen burial land in Canaan with the interests of his descendants in mind.

This desire to purchase rather than borrow land at Hebron demonstrates that he had no intention of his or his descendants being servants to the Hittites. It also demonstrates Abraham’s growing faith and confidence in the Lord’s promised blessings.

Abraham obtained the new family plot as a pledge of greater things to come. He buried his much loved wife Sarah in a small part of the Promised Land where he would later be buried. This bore witness to future generations of Abraham and Sarah’s faith and hope that the Lord would do so much more, even after their earthly lives were over.

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“The Test”

Genesis 22:1-24, Hebrews 6:12-20 & 11:17-19

It has been approximately forty years since Abram left Haran to this point in the narrative and during that time Abraham has learnt what God is like through many different interventions and the provision of what seemed impossible; a son is born to him at the ripe old age of one hundred.

God now tests Abraham’s faith and his obedience to his commandments. In this passage, God requires Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the promised (only) son, on an altar.

Abraham’s faith that God would provide is now evident. God had previously made specific promises in regards to Isaac and Abraham trusted God to deliver those promises, even if he were to slay his only son.  Abraham believed God would provide the necessary sacrifice and that he and Isaac would return Gen 22:5.

This passage is a foreshadowing of God’s provision of His only Son, Jesus Christ, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. By faith, like Abraham, we will be saved through faith, by trusting in the perfect sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.

To hear more of the Abraham narrative click here

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“Laughing Concerning Isaac’s Promised Birth”

Galatians 4:20-31, Genesis 21:1-34

The birth of Isaac wasn’t a surprise; God always fulfills his promises.
It was truly astonishing that Sarah bore Abraham a son in his old age; Abraham being one hundred years old when Isaac was born.
Sarah laughs with joy at the birth of her son. Others may have laughed mockingly, but no one could laugh at the fact that what seemed impossible physically had not been impossible for the Lord God to accomplish. God’s purposes required the birth of the promised Isaac.

Ishmael and his mother were cast off from Abraham but God heard the cry of Ishmael and protected and provided for him in the wilderness. He promised Ishmael that he would receive blessings because he was Abraham’s son.

Abimelech understands that Abraham is blessed by the Lord. Abimelech and Abraham swear an oath together which is very significant in the Lord’s plan of redemption and an important step forward regarding God’s pledge of land to Abraham and his offspring.
Abraham is now at peace with Abimelech. He has permanent water rights and a place to dwell in the promised land of Canaan so that he is no longer a nomad.

“Great is Thy faithfulness!”
“Great is Thy faithfulness!”
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided-
“Great is Thy faithfulness,”
Lord, unto me!…

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“If You Sin Against God You Will Surely Die”

At the end of last year, we commenced a series in Genesis looking at the Abraham narrative.

What was Abraham really like, warts and all?

We took  a short break for a couple of weeks to focus on Psalms 80 and 81.

We now return to Genesis to pick up the Abraham narrative from
Genesis 20:1-18.

God’s plan to bless the nations was through Abraham, a man with many failings.

Even after God had restated his promises to Abraham, that Abraham’s heir would be born within a year, through Sarah his wife, a few weeks later Abraham permits Sarah his wife to be taken by Abimelech.

God restrained Abimelech and prevented him from sinning by warning him in a dream about the sin which was occuring and that if he didn’t return Sarah to her husband, then he would surely die. Abimelech quickly obeyed the Lord as soon as he woke the next morning, he also took Abraham to task for having deceived him.

Throughout this passage, we see Abraham demonstrating that he fears man more than he fears God and yet he is Gods choice, to be our father of faith.

Please listen to today’s sermon below or you can commence the series by clicking here for the full play list.