Sermon Starters

October 29, 2011 at 8:29 pm (Sermon Starters)

Rev.
E. Anderson

This
is a simple outline for you to think about and meditate on. The introduction,
main thoughts and conclusion need further material to be added. It is an
outline for you to expand, develop more fully and fill in to spiritual profit
and inspiration. 

THE PRE-EMINENCE OF GOD’S WORD

Nehemiah 8-10

Here we see God’s Word coming into
its rightful place and a due emphasis placed upon it. The Book of the Law had
been both neglected and rejected and the consequence had proved disastrous. Now
there was not only a retuning to God, but also to His Word and from this real
amendment was to proceed and experience a state of divine blessedness. This was
to be a crucial stance and step in a forward movement. It was what God was
wanting to so and on this occasion must have been pleased by what He witnessed.
The prominent given to the Book can be noted:

1/. IN THE PLATFORM GIVEN TO IT- Nehemiah 8: 4

The pulpit and its due prominence
signaled the importance of the Word not the reader. It is the first record of a
pulpit and from this possibly starts the introduction of the pulpit. It was to
be a wholesome habit and practise. Attention was being drawn to an important
spiritual procedure.

2/. IN THE PERSON USED TO READ IT – Nehemiah 8: 4

Ezra, a good and able man, one
well-versed in the divine Writings, was the appointed person to do the reading.
He would be the kind of individual to read it well and read it in a pleasing,
understandable way. The Book  meant something to him and it
would come out in ministry as he read.

3/. IN THE REVERENCE OF IT – Nehemiah 8:3,6

They rose to hear it read and
stood on their feet for a very long time as it was communicated – v3. The next
day they stood for a quarter of the day (3 hours NLT) to hear it proclaimed. As
they listened they also praised the Author and humbled and worshipped. The
atmosphere was charged with high regard for God and His Word.

4/. IN THE READINESS TO HEAR IT EXPLAINED Nehemiah 8:8

It became apparent that they truly
wanted to know what it meant and how it should be interpreted and applied to
life. They realised they must come to know the significance of the law so that
it could be honoured in application.

5/. IN THE FINAL RESPONSE TO IT – Nehemiah 8: 9

There came the awareness that the
Book of the Law had been seriously broken and they were not acting out its
requirements hence their problems. Sorrow and repentance becomes manifest and a
mourning over this evil.

CONCLUSION

The end result was the will to do
what God said. From the good response they could enter into the joy of obedient
and doing what Jehovah required – 8: 10.

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Meet the Christian Ministers

October 29, 2011 at 8:22 pm (Meet the Ministers)

Chaplain John Baptiste

THE
CHAPLAINCY THAT GIVES YOU WINGS

AN AoG minister has made history
after becoming RAF’s first Pentecostal commissioned chaplain.

John Baptiste left his senior role
of Bexley Christian Life Centre in Bexleyheath after seeing an article about
chaplaincy within the the military in RE-Magazine’s predecessor, Joy Magazine,
February 2009.

Having spent previously in the RAF
from 1980-1995 – four years as a radar and communications technician and 11
years as as Air Traffic Controller – John felt convicted by the article. After
much prayer, he felt the Lord was calling him to return as a chaplain.

He says, ‘When I left the RAF in
1995, as far as I was concerned, that was it – I wasn’t going back. At that
point the military only endorsed chaplains from the major denominations, like
Anglicans and the Roman Catholics wasn’t one of them at that time.
It wasn’t even something I’d have considered 15 years ago.

‘But two years ago I discovered
that the AOG had become a sending group into the military when I read an
article in Joy Magazine entitled, ”Come fly with me”.

‘I thought that at 48 I’d be too old, but when
I looked into it I found out that I was ”young” enough and qualified enough to
join and I had the experience. I just had to work out whether it was what the
Lord was calling me to do’.

John started his officer training
and graduated in March 2011. Now based at RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire, he is happily
settling into his new role.

‘Being back in the RAF in this
role is totally different in that people see me as the chaplain’ he says.
‘There is an amazing openness towards spiritual things and a towards chaplaincy
because in the past 10  to 15 years, the
branch has gone on operations to minister to troops on the front line in Iraq,
Afghanistan and more latterly, Libya.

‘I think it’s true that when people
are in difficult and dangerous situations they think more about eternity and
often need emotional and spiritual support, and this is where chaplains are
able to be most effective.

‘Because chaplains are available
during the difficult times on operations, when we’re back home people are much
more open to talk to us. It’s a very positive role and one in which I can share
the love of Christ when appropriate’.

So just what does the role of an
RAF chaplain entail?

‘Here at RAF Lyneham I am part of
a team ministry’s John explains, ‘As a new entrant chaplain I have been sent to
a base with other chaplains in order to learn from them. We start the day with
morning prayers; people can make appointments to see us or just turn up for
advice, counsel or just a cup of tea and a chat. We integrate with the military
community and therefore have the freedom to go out and about on base connecting
with personnel at their places of work from the cook- house, flight-line and
police to engineers and administrators.

‘At RAF Lyneham, one of the major
duties of the station is to facilitate the repatriation of the fallen from
various military operations that the UK is committed to. Chaplains offer
pastoral support and comfort to the bereaved families as well as service comrades,
and are regularly impressed at the dignity and courage displayed during such a
difficult day. It’s a very formal part of the job’.

Pastor David Spademan, National
Chaplaincy Representative for Assemblies of God, said, ‘In 2008 Assemblies of
God was granted “sending church” status from the Ministry of Defence and we
became part of the United Navy, Army and Air Force board.

‘I am delighted that we have sent
pour first minister to be commissioned chaplain in the Royal Auir Force.

‘This is an historical moment as
John Baptiste is the first full time commissioned chaplain from a classical
Pentecostal church to be appointed by the MoD. I am
confident that he will represent us well.

‘In conversations with leading
chaplains from all three branches of the Armed Forces, I have been asked to
encourage more AoG ministers to become chaplains.

You need to have held full
ministerial status for three years and be under 49 years of age when you join’.

For more information, email david@rugbyclc.com

                                                         

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Wisdom’s Ways

October 29, 2011 at 8:17 pm (Wisdom's Ways)

Rev. A. Linford

MEDDLE NOT

”Meddle not with those that are given to
change” Proverbs 24:21,22

 

To meddle is to get mixed-up with,
and such mixed-up-ness often ends in hopeless muddle.

PRE-EMPTIVE ATTITUDE

“Fear thou the Lord and the Kingl”: Here is the advice of a concerned father to
an immature son. Youth can often be open to revolutionary ideas, and hot-headed
enough to try and put them into practice. But national peace depends on respect
for authority. ”Fear the Lord” will strengthen our will to do the right and
restrain our urge to adventure into dangerous and unnecessary experiments. If
we love God, His pattern of life for us will have priority’. ”Seek ye first
the Kingdom
of God,
and His righteousness” (Matt 6:33). To have God in our life is to preempt
evil. And if we accept divine authority, we will be more ready to submit to
human authority – “fear … the king”.

Both Peter and Paul exhort respect
for necessary human government, for only thus can social peace abound. ”Let
every soul be subject to the higher powers, writes Paul (Romans 13: 1), and
Peter follows with, ”Submit yourself to every ordinance of man” ( 1 Peter 2:
13). All authority issues from God, therefore we submit to its channelling
through governmental ministers, for the Lord’s sake. How far we should submit
to oppressive regimes is not easy to decide, but in general, even defective
government is better than no government: anarchy is lethal.

PRESUMPTIVE ACTION

Those that are ”given to change” are men of revolutionary tendencies, who
revolt against the laws of God and government. This attitude of ”change-ness”
is disruptive of social and national peace. When it enters the church it is
destructive of fellowship and effective testimony and dictatorial leadership,
it is equally true that there are some men, like Diotrephus, who ”love to have
pre-eminence”, and even defy God- given leadership (3 John 9). If we truly
fear God we will be ready to accept and obey divinely-ordained appointments.

PRAYER:

Let not pride make me an anarchist, O Lord.

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