Strength in weakness!
This weekend marks the last in the church calendar and from Next week we enter into the Advent Season…. For that, we shall be taking adventure into the Advent.
Theme: Strength in Weakness:
Let us Pray
Heavenly Father, in your mercy, great and wondrous things you have done in our lives, we thank you for how far you have brought us, may you keep us in true faith till the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ
Amen!
Kindly read for us Mark 13:24-37
“But in those days, following that distress, “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.
“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back-whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!'”
The word of God!
Thanks be to God
Mr. Kyei and cherished listeners, do you think of your life as an adventure?
Probably yes or no. As a child, I cherished the days we visited Kingsway and UTC in Accra to see Santa Clause, the one called “Papa bronya other words Father Christmas and had fun”? I was so excited about seeing Papa bronya or Father Christmas as Christmas approached in the years. … we visited the Cinema and the beaches: Fresh are the memories.
Mr. Kyei and listeners: As a young adult and adventurous for that matter; I spent some weekends in the pup and some Sundays at the Omotuo Special joints including all kinds of places you can imagine…. How time flies: Routine adult life have taken much Indeed out of me! I miss the childhood fun!
Friends, don’t be surprised to hear that I was once a fun loving fellow…once I was lost but now I am found, thanks be to God, for His abundant mercies and grace.
Circumstances of life had made some of us hard-knock adults. We have seen and experienced hard times in life? No matter our past, the Bible wants you listening now and all believers to see ourselves as the beloved children of God our Heavenly Father?
Next week the church calendar begins with the Advent Season.
Rev: for the sake of our listeners, what is the meaning of the word Advent?
Simply Advent means “Coming,”. The memory of Jesus’ second coming should develop and strengthen our child-of-God Adventures seeking to associate with the Savior of the world.
On such adventurous waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, my feelings of faith weakens over time.
Rev. kindly hold it for a moment, you said your feelings of faith weakens over time!
Yes, my feelings of faith have gotten weaker over the years.” Indeed you might not expect to hear that from a minister, most especially on a religious broadcast like this. Nevertheless listen carefully and reflect over your own past life.
I was raised in a wonderful home of 3 siblings. Growing up in a compound house, I can boast of having the basic necessities than our peers at the time. We were taught the ways of godliness: Attended church regularly. We learned that “God is love.” But then the hard-knocks of life came as I grew older.
Rev. I wonder what really happened to your childhood feelings of faith?
The reality of life made my feelings of faith grow weaker over the years. And indeed so it has been till today as I speak; my feelings of faith weakens with time.
Imagine, trying to live a moral life and be a good citizen. Yet you don’t feel the love of friends, family and neighbors. You see we count on people and things, due to Socio-Politico-Economic factors… but we end up disappointed.
Mr. Kyei, friends and Cherished listeners: Another reason my feelings of faith weakens is; seeing Christians doing things that are awfully wrong and heart breaking. Interestingly we have such people in our neighborhood or at places of work. It may be someone in your congregation. It may be a prominent politician or preacher. The heart breaker is that they talk righteously yet are involved in the worse of sins.
Rev. recent times, I guess making the experience worse is Social-Media,
On point, the omnipresence of a suffocating Social-Media chokes us more and more with examples of suffering and sin. Whether a fiction or real-life news, media reinforces the feeling that life is unjust, hard, and cruel. The sovereignty of God is only mentioned at Sunday-School through the telling of Bible stories. The youth of our day are confused!
Friends, once upon a time I had been confused in life, I assume you have had similar experiences too. Names, dates and circumstances obviously will vary, but we all had similar experiences at one point in life or the other.
Mr. Kyei, friends and cherished listeners; have you ever been disappointed with God? Maybe not; maybe your disappointment have left you angry, bitter, and unsatisfied. Yes I have been there again and again. From August to Date I have lost real amount of hard earn cash coupled with other abuses, and the song “Jesus lover of my soul” sounds strange.
Interesting to hear
Let’s think this through Biblically.
Borrowing from St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:10 “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” …. As said earlier, my feelings of faith has grown weaker over the period, yet in a far more important and a blessed way my faith has grown stronger.
Oh really, to God be the glory….Rev. This sounds confusing however we take a break
Welcome back
The hymn is …. Jesus lover of my Soul
If you just tuned in this is InTouch brought to you by LMM people of Christ with the message of hope… bringing Christ to the nations and the nations to the church. We are doing this in partnership with the ELCG
Rev over to you
Thank you!
I have been very careful described my own experiences.
Intentionally I talked about my feelings of faith. How life experiences made me feel in my heart.
Friends, action and reaction are equal but opposite in direction: In all these pay attention to the emotional reaction as I am at an important stage of today’s message.
Carefully studying Faith, theologians can conclude that it has two aspects.
There are two ways to think about faith.
One way is considering ones feelings. How we feel about God is internal and subjective. Unfortunately this is the way most people understand faith, so they say it doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you are sincere in your feelings and don’t hurt anyone, you are ok.
Friends, your feelings of faith is not ok. Though it is Biblical, yet the Bible does recognize this internal and subjective form of faith.
When Jesus was asked what commandment is the greatest in Mark chapter 12 also recorded in Matthew 22, Jesus quoted Deut 6:4ff saying “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul….” (Mark 12:29-30).
Friends before I conclude Jesus’ quote, I want you to understand that Heart and soul is within us, they are internal and subjective. Let me ask “What or who do you love heart and soul”? Do your feelings have focus? When your feelings of faith gets weaker, where is your focus then: is it on self as the subjective faith or on God as the object faith?
Rev. Following closely you are talking of 2 kinds of faith: looking to self, which is the subjective faith and looking to God is the Objective faith. You may proceed.
Bravo faith in the Bible has two aspects as I mentioned. The second way of understanding faith is far and more important. Quoting Jesus fulling in Mark 12:29-30 he said “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
What is the significance Rev.
Good question: Loving the Lord God means looking outside ourselves, totally looking to Someone greater than our feelings. This second aspect of faith is external and objective. This faith is a truth greater than our feelings. It is a focus for our life, for our heart, soul, and mind coming from outside us.
Rev. Permit me to ask, what is this external outside focus?
God’s gracious gift coming to the world through His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus should be the focus of our faith! This Advent’s message is about the coming of Jesus. Jesus once came and was born in Bethlehem.
Today’s message brings to us, Jesus from heaven. He comes to us in His words and promises. Jesus’ words and promises create faith. A faith not based on ones feelings, but an outward looking faith which is trust worthy. Jesus continually comes to make His claim upon our whole being: heart, soul, mind, and strength. Now is the time, the “time of grace,” as theologically called.
Rev. In advent, we often shift our feelings to things more fleeting than Jesus and His promises. For example, we understandably shift our focus of feelings to health… COVID is a challenge the world over
Good Health is a blessing from God, ironically it will sooner or later be taken away from us. What then is the object on which we focus our energy and devotion? Is it Family? Money? Education? Or what have you? All the aforementioned are part of life, they are blessings from God, but they are not the ultimate as far as salvation is concerned. Sooner or later they all will pass but the word of God remains… Hallelujah
Amen!
Friends, beloved and cherished listeners: The ultimate of things is God coming to us in His Son Jesus. More and more I have learnt, and still learning, to focus upon Jesus Christ and His promises…I counted on the rich things of life and lost them all, within a space of 4 months.
The hard times and the disappointments of life prompted me more and more to look outside myself to Jesus and count on His Words. In that way, my faith gets much stronger.
Maybe you should turn up the volume now, or at least I should be as emphatic as I can. As I experienced disappointments which shake my feelings, it is God’s Word that strengthened me… in a communique with a colleague, I remember saying I was kind of behaving like Jonah, I was looking to the needs of life and refusing to do God’s assignment.
Beloved, more and more, my heart, soul, mind, and strength are being drawn to God and Jesus. St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:7 said, “We live by faith, not by sight.” Feelings, emotions, reactions-and what have you are all the things of the senses, they are of “sight.” But “Faith,” on the other hand, is the response the Spirit of God works in us through His Word. Our experiences, good or bad should propel us to trusts the promises of God fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Rev. Jesus asks in Luke 18:8, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
This is an adventure, Jesus came long ago and was born in Bethlehem on the 1st Christmas day. By this message Jesus comes to you now in His words and promises. Jesus comes as the Savior and deliverer to those who look outside themselves to Him. Truly trusting and depending on Him in all their experiences of life.
Mr Kyei: Today’s text concludes, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. If Jesus comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say, I say to everyone: Watch!”
Rev. How do we watch?
Romans 13 states, “Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand.” Watch by focusing upon Jesus’ Words and promises.
Looking to myself and possessions, my feelings of faith grew weaker as I have been exposed by events of the times as a sinful being. I looked up and saw my Lord and Savior Jesus with His stretched arms to receive me there my faith in Him grew stronger!
Mr. Kyei, friends and cherished listener: “Jesus will not leave us nor forsake us, He is with us till the end of the ages.” “In His mercy, Jesus brought me this far, to witness to you through this message.. His grace is sufficient, His grace will lead His faithful’s safely home where we shall live and serve with Him and the holy angel in ever blessedness.”
May the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus be placed far and above all things in our lives now and forever more.
Amen.
Benediction
The Lord bless you and keep you
The Lord make His face shine upon You and be gracious unto you
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace, which surpasses all human understanding in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen!