For the past 5 years I have been going through the book of Ephesians. The first time was at Bournemouth and I really went through quite quickly.
The second time was with Faith Baptist Church, Glengormley, This time was very detailed up until now and because of my soon departure the last 1 and a half chapters will have to be quite hurried.
This evening I posted a summary of my notes on chapter 5, verse 20 on my personal website, www.thewickens.info. It is the 50th message in the series. I enjoyed the lessons I learned and wanted to publish them on my site. Then it struck me that it would be a good discipline for me to do this on a regular basis.
Now I intend on going back to the first message and over the next few months I will begin at the beginning and go through each verse.
Hopefully it will be of help to someone both doctrinally and devotionally. Feel free to leave comments and criticisms.
As I have already mentioned I will soon be leaving Faith Baptist Church. Tomorrow I will post more about what is happening and the exciting times that are ahead for the church.
As my time at Faith is limited to keep up with the sermon notes on Ephesians you can get RSS feeds or e-mail updates from my personal site: www.thewickens.info
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Saturday, August 23, 2008
The Next Two Months
A couple of weeks ago we finished several series at Faith that we had been running for a while. In the mornings we have been considering our walk with God and we had four messages on walking in the Word and four messages on walking in prayer. If we get our prayer life and Bible reading right then most of the problems we face will be easily overcome.
In the evenings we have had 10 messages on resurrections in the Bible. We considered first of all the absolute certainty that every person will one day be raised; some to judgment and others to reward. Then we studied each of the passages in the Old and New Testaments that spoke of individuals being raised from the dead. Most of these messages are available to download from the church website or from a previous posting here.
Beginning Sunday, 7th of September we will take a bird's eye view of I Corinthians. Each message will consider one of the major issues Paul confronted at the Corinthian church. I am planning on 8 weeks for this over view.
Also on Sunday 7th, in the evening, we will begin a 4 week study on Heaven. I may extend this to 6 weeks but I will see how the Lord leads. Then for the final 2 weeks in October we will take a very current issue and look at it from a Biblical perspective. We did this last year and studied what God has to say about anger, addictions and (bio-ethics).
Before all that kicks off though, we have a prophecy Sunday (tomorrow). In the morning we wil consider the vital importance of prophecy. In the morning we will take a very high level look at the Millennial Kingdom, we will be spending a 1000 years doing something and I think we can find out a lot right now.
Next Sunday my own pastor, Tom Dotson, will be coming over from England to preach for us. I cannot tell you how excited I am about this visit!
Plan on being at every service and do not forget our ongoing verse-by-verse study of Ephesians at our midweek Bible study and prayer meeting.
I look forward to seeing everyone there!
In the evenings we have had 10 messages on resurrections in the Bible. We considered first of all the absolute certainty that every person will one day be raised; some to judgment and others to reward. Then we studied each of the passages in the Old and New Testaments that spoke of individuals being raised from the dead. Most of these messages are available to download from the church website or from a previous posting here.
Beginning Sunday, 7th of September we will take a bird's eye view of I Corinthians. Each message will consider one of the major issues Paul confronted at the Corinthian church. I am planning on 8 weeks for this over view.
Also on Sunday 7th, in the evening, we will begin a 4 week study on Heaven. I may extend this to 6 weeks but I will see how the Lord leads. Then for the final 2 weeks in October we will take a very current issue and look at it from a Biblical perspective. We did this last year and studied what God has to say about anger, addictions and (bio-ethics).
Before all that kicks off though, we have a prophecy Sunday (tomorrow). In the morning we wil consider the vital importance of prophecy. In the morning we will take a very high level look at the Millennial Kingdom, we will be spending a 1000 years doing something and I think we can find out a lot right now.
Next Sunday my own pastor, Tom Dotson, will be coming over from England to preach for us. I cannot tell you how excited I am about this visit!
Plan on being at every service and do not forget our ongoing verse-by-verse study of Ephesians at our midweek Bible study and prayer meeting.
I look forward to seeing everyone there!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Sermons or "Advice Talks with a Religious Twist"?
Over at this blog I read a comment that really struck me and I think it ties in with some thoughts I have been considering lately. It seems that the Reformed theology is having resurgence. While I appreciate their focus on the glory of God and His Sovereignty I disagree strongly with Calvinism and their eschatology. So while I see some strength in their position I wonder what exactly is attracting or driving so many believers to them.
This is the comment that caught my attention today and I believe is relevant to my current questions:
The key issue revolves around the lack of sound, Christ-centred Bible preaching. In particular it seems to come down to the inherent weakness of "advice talks with a religious twist".
Instead of concrete messages, working through the Scriptures in a systematic and thorough way I see a lot of imbalance, inconsistency and "seeker" sensitiveness.
In my own preaching I am working toward a different model of preaching than I have been using over the past year or so. Instead of most of the time being spent on topical and current event type messages I am focusing on verse-by-verse series and book overviews.
I will still preach topical messages and current event messages, but they will be the exception rather than the rule.
To be honest this is something I have tried to do in the past year, but I have not quite got it right yet. I do believe I am moving in the right direction.
Something I think about a lot is whether I preach standards or principles. While both are necessary I believe teaching the principles are the most important. If I focus on the standards then people may toe the line but never really know or accept why. As soon as the opportunity then comes they reject the standard. If, however, the focus is on the principle then that enables sincere and faithful believers to apply them to varying circumstances and consequently attain the correct standard.
Anyway, those were just some thoughts on preaching I wanted to share.
This is the comment that caught my attention today and I believe is relevant to my current questions:
"Our pastor doesn't proclaim to us what the Bible says and means. The messages are not revelations of the glory of Christ. They are advice-talks with a religious twist."
The key issue revolves around the lack of sound, Christ-centred Bible preaching. In particular it seems to come down to the inherent weakness of "advice talks with a religious twist".
Instead of concrete messages, working through the Scriptures in a systematic and thorough way I see a lot of imbalance, inconsistency and "seeker" sensitiveness.
In my own preaching I am working toward a different model of preaching than I have been using over the past year or so. Instead of most of the time being spent on topical and current event type messages I am focusing on verse-by-verse series and book overviews.
I will still preach topical messages and current event messages, but they will be the exception rather than the rule.
To be honest this is something I have tried to do in the past year, but I have not quite got it right yet. I do believe I am moving in the right direction.
Something I think about a lot is whether I preach standards or principles. While both are necessary I believe teaching the principles are the most important. If I focus on the standards then people may toe the line but never really know or accept why. As soon as the opportunity then comes they reject the standard. If, however, the focus is on the principle then that enables sincere and faithful believers to apply them to varying circumstances and consequently attain the correct standard.
Anyway, those were just some thoughts on preaching I wanted to share.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Getting Back the Passion
A couple of days ago I wrote an article concerning the lack of passion many seem to have for the Lord, a lack which many at some point experience.
A quick and accurate answer on how to get our passion back can be found in In I Samuel 7:3 the prophet Samuel commands the people of Israel,
Three clear steps are observable with one outcome: (1) Put away the strange Gods, (2) Prepare your hearts to serve the Lord and (3) Serve God only. The outcome will be that we will return to the Lord with all our hearts, God will be your passion.
What are the practical steps towards implementing such a course in our lives?
1. Put Away the Strange Gods - Get Rid of the Distractions
If something used to be your focus but no longer holds that place then in essence something has distracted you. It may be that you are in some state of depression or physical, mental, emotional or spiritual exhaustion so that there is essentially just a blur rather than any particular focus. Chances are, though, that instead of focusing on God you are focused on something or someone else.
My aim here is to deal with the changed focus rather than the absence of any focus. To regain the passion for God you must figure out what has taken pride of place, what is now the focus of your life.
2. Prepare Your Hearts to Serve the Lord - Get in the Presence of God
The word for prepare has many implications. The Hebrew carries the understanding of standing, figuratively and literally. It would not be out of place to infer a central tenant of repentance, of turning from sin and turning to God.
We prepare ours to serve the Lord by spending time in the Word and in prayer. This is the key to regaining our passion - read the Scriptures and pray. Let the fire of God's Word thaw your cold heart; let the Fire of the Word rekindle the flame of desire in your heart to serve the True and Living God; let the fire of the Word spread God's love through you to a lost and dying world.
3 . Serve God Only
Once we have turned from our sin and refocused our heats and minds on God then we must get on with the business of serving Him.
It is not enough to get right with God we must, by His grace, stay right with Him. We can make sure this happens by staying in the Word and by actively serving God with our lives.
The application to the Scripture above gives the broad headings of what needs to happen. Briefly I want to share further steps to help in regaining the passion:
It ultimately comes back to getting our eyes off of sin and self and back onto God and those around us.
Much more could probably be said and perhaps what has been shared could have been better written. However, I feel this is a topic I will be returning to in the coming weeks.
A quick and accurate answer on how to get our passion back can be found in In I Samuel 7:3 the prophet Samuel commands the people of Israel,
If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only...
Three clear steps are observable with one outcome: (1) Put away the strange Gods, (2) Prepare your hearts to serve the Lord and (3) Serve God only. The outcome will be that we will return to the Lord with all our hearts, God will be your passion.
What are the practical steps towards implementing such a course in our lives?
1. Put Away the Strange Gods - Get Rid of the Distractions
If something used to be your focus but no longer holds that place then in essence something has distracted you. It may be that you are in some state of depression or physical, mental, emotional or spiritual exhaustion so that there is essentially just a blur rather than any particular focus. Chances are, though, that instead of focusing on God you are focused on something or someone else.
My aim here is to deal with the changed focus rather than the absence of any focus. To regain the passion for God you must figure out what has taken pride of place, what is now the focus of your life.
- What consumes your thoughts?
- What do you do with your spare time?
- What are your goals and aspirations?
- What are your motivations?
- As well consider what habitual, known sin in your life is keeping you from God.
2. Prepare Your Hearts to Serve the Lord - Get in the Presence of God
The word for prepare has many implications. The Hebrew carries the understanding of standing, figuratively and literally. It would not be out of place to infer a central tenant of repentance, of turning from sin and turning to God.
- When we prepare our hearts to serve the Lord we are turning from sin to God.
- When we prepare our hearts to serve God we are standing with clean hands and a pure heart in His presence (Psalm 24)
- When we prepare our hearts to serve God we are in God's presence, spending time with Him
We prepare ours to serve the Lord by spending time in the Word and in prayer. This is the key to regaining our passion - read the Scriptures and pray. Let the fire of God's Word thaw your cold heart; let the Fire of the Word rekindle the flame of desire in your heart to serve the True and Living God; let the fire of the Word spread God's love through you to a lost and dying world.
3 . Serve God Only
Once we have turned from our sin and refocused our heats and minds on God then we must get on with the business of serving Him.
It is not enough to get right with God we must, by His grace, stay right with Him. We can make sure this happens by staying in the Word and by actively serving God with our lives.
The application to the Scripture above gives the broad headings of what needs to happen. Briefly I want to share further steps to help in regaining the passion:
- See God for the great God that He is
- Compare the temporary works of sin with the eternal fruit of righteousness
- Consider the greatest joy for yourself and those around you comes only when God is first in your life
- Understand the plight of the sinner plunging into Hell for a Christ-less eternity
It ultimately comes back to getting our eyes off of sin and self and back onto God and those around us.
Much more could probably be said and perhaps what has been shared could have been better written. However, I feel this is a topic I will be returning to in the coming weeks.
Abortion - THe Hidden Holocaust Part 7
I. The Slippery Slope
a. Small Steps to Big Changes
Just a few decades ago some of the medical reasons given today for having an abortion would have been unthinkable and entirely unacceptable. Yet by many small steps we have come to the place where children are being murdered for the most minor of reasons. And at the end of the day, there is no good reason to kill a child.
One study concluded that "Of all eugenic abortions prescribed on the basis of genetic history, one-half to three-quarters of the unborn children destroyed are not affected by the disease. More "normal" children are killed than ‘handicapped' children." (Pro-life Answers for Pro-choice Questions, page 223)
Some argue that if a child is going to be born with a debilitating illness, deformity or disease then an abortion should take place. Some suggest it while others strongly recommend it.
But the argument that began by dealing with severe cases has taken us a step at a time to the place where we have the phrase "designer babies" becoming main stream.
There are abortions taking place today on children on the medical basis that they are found to have Down syndrome, missing limbs, an extra finger or cleft palate.
The mother of a five year old girl wrote into the London Times in 1990 with this comment:
"I was horrified to read that many couples now opt for abortion rather than risk having a baby with such a minor physical imperfection. My daughter is not some subnormal freak... she can, and does, lead a happy and fulfilled life... What sort of society do we live in when a minor facial deformity, correctable by surgery, is viewed as so abnormal as to merit abortion?"
Many unborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome never have the opportunity to enjoy life. To many in today's society they do not deserve to live.
There is a recorded case in 1982 when a baby was born with a minor defect that would not allow food to pass into his stomach. This condition could have been easily fixed by surgery. However, because he had Down syndrome the doctor and parents agreed to allow him to starve to death. The public become aware of the situation and many families came forward offering to adopt him. But for some reason the parents preferred that their baby die.
That may sounds outrageous but a survey in the US revealed that two out of three doctors would go along with parent's wishes to deny life saving surgery to a child with Down syndrome. Nearly three out of four said that if they had a Down syndrome child, they would choose to let him starve to death.
This reason is just one of many given for allowing babies to be killed or to die.
But the slippery slope begins with small steps and each small step leads to the horrors that we see today.
There is an historical precedent set by Hitler. No doubt killing Jewish people on the basis of their nationality would have at one point been abhorrent to the vast majority of those involved. But first Hitler killed 275,000 handicapped people.
What was once abhorrent became acceptable and before the nation knew what was happening 6 million Jews had been murdered.
Holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg argues that the key to the widespread destruction of the Jewish people was the use of degrading terminology such as "useless eaters" and "garbage" which blinded society to the fact the real people were being killed.
One pro-choice advocate referred to pregnancy as a venereal disease and abortion as the cure. Others have referred to unborn babies as debris, garbage, and refuse to justify abortion.
Once the person has been dehumanised then we can take any action against them we like with minimal repercussions.
a. Small Steps to Big Changes
Just a few decades ago some of the medical reasons given today for having an abortion would have been unthinkable and entirely unacceptable. Yet by many small steps we have come to the place where children are being murdered for the most minor of reasons. And at the end of the day, there is no good reason to kill a child.
One study concluded that "Of all eugenic abortions prescribed on the basis of genetic history, one-half to three-quarters of the unborn children destroyed are not affected by the disease. More "normal" children are killed than ‘handicapped' children." (Pro-life Answers for Pro-choice Questions, page 223)
Some argue that if a child is going to be born with a debilitating illness, deformity or disease then an abortion should take place. Some suggest it while others strongly recommend it.
But the argument that began by dealing with severe cases has taken us a step at a time to the place where we have the phrase "designer babies" becoming main stream.
There are abortions taking place today on children on the medical basis that they are found to have Down syndrome, missing limbs, an extra finger or cleft palate.
The mother of a five year old girl wrote into the London Times in 1990 with this comment:
"I was horrified to read that many couples now opt for abortion rather than risk having a baby with such a minor physical imperfection. My daughter is not some subnormal freak... she can, and does, lead a happy and fulfilled life... What sort of society do we live in when a minor facial deformity, correctable by surgery, is viewed as so abnormal as to merit abortion?"
Many unborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome never have the opportunity to enjoy life. To many in today's society they do not deserve to live.
There is a recorded case in 1982 when a baby was born with a minor defect that would not allow food to pass into his stomach. This condition could have been easily fixed by surgery. However, because he had Down syndrome the doctor and parents agreed to allow him to starve to death. The public become aware of the situation and many families came forward offering to adopt him. But for some reason the parents preferred that their baby die.
That may sounds outrageous but a survey in the US revealed that two out of three doctors would go along with parent's wishes to deny life saving surgery to a child with Down syndrome. Nearly three out of four said that if they had a Down syndrome child, they would choose to let him starve to death.
This reason is just one of many given for allowing babies to be killed or to die.
But the slippery slope begins with small steps and each small step leads to the horrors that we see today.
There is an historical precedent set by Hitler. No doubt killing Jewish people on the basis of their nationality would have at one point been abhorrent to the vast majority of those involved. But first Hitler killed 275,000 handicapped people.
What was once abhorrent became acceptable and before the nation knew what was happening 6 million Jews had been murdered.
Holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg argues that the key to the widespread destruction of the Jewish people was the use of degrading terminology such as "useless eaters" and "garbage" which blinded society to the fact the real people were being killed.
One pro-choice advocate referred to pregnancy as a venereal disease and abortion as the cure. Others have referred to unborn babies as debris, garbage, and refuse to justify abortion.
Once the person has been dehumanised then we can take any action against them we like with minimal repercussions.
The Risks of Abortion
Over at the Times Online Melanie McDonagh has an interesting article titled, "Abortion Has Risks, Whatever the Research Says". Here is a brief paragraph,
While we are on this topic. I saw several examples over the weekend of the hypocrisy of many in the news media. When it comes to discussing crime, if a pregnent lady is murdered or hurt and loses her baby then they talk about two victims and they do not say foetus, but baby, child or some other endearing term.
If, however, they are talking about abortion and pro-choice then they will de-humanise the unborn child by calling it a foetus or embryo and they do not care about the loss of life, only the so-called choice and rights of the mother.
I would encourage you to listen to the news and spot these inconsistencies.
The danger we see here is that the value of a life is determined by whether or not the child is wanted. If they want the child, then it is a baby, a life and an individual should be condemned for taking the life of the unborn child. If the baby is not wanted then it is merely an embryo, a foetus and the government paid doctors can end that life with no question of morality or ethics.
My chief objection to abortion isn't the damage that it might cause the woman concerned; I mind that it kills the foetus. But if we are to take seriously the question of whether abortion may have problematic consequences, then we have to acknowledge that most of the research on mental health has not been conclusive.
While we are on this topic. I saw several examples over the weekend of the hypocrisy of many in the news media. When it comes to discussing crime, if a pregnent lady is murdered or hurt and loses her baby then they talk about two victims and they do not say foetus, but baby, child or some other endearing term.
If, however, they are talking about abortion and pro-choice then they will de-humanise the unborn child by calling it a foetus or embryo and they do not care about the loss of life, only the so-called choice and rights of the mother.
I would encourage you to listen to the news and spot these inconsistencies.
The danger we see here is that the value of a life is determined by whether or not the child is wanted. If they want the child, then it is a baby, a life and an individual should be condemned for taking the life of the unborn child. If the baby is not wanted then it is merely an embryo, a foetus and the government paid doctors can end that life with no question of morality or ethics.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Series Compilation - Death, the End of the Beginning
While many believe death brings an end to life, the Bible teaches death simply brings change and separation. We change from temporary bodies to eternal and we are separated from the temporal things so familier to us.
This series studies each of the resurrections that took place in the Old and New Testament and draws truths from the text as well as a single specific lesson for believers. Only a selection of the messages were recorded, for more detailed notes please contact us.
Scripture: John 5
Date: 25/05/08
Death___The_End_of_the_Beginning.mp3
Scripture: II Kings 13
Date: 1/06/08
fbc_missions_wickens_2008bsmall.mp3
Scripture: II Kings 4
Date: 15/06/08
Death___The_End_of_the_Beginning_Part_3.mp3
Scripture: Luke 7:11-18
Date: 22/06/08
He First Sought Us
Scripture: John 11
Date: 29/06/08
"If" You Believe
Scripture: Revelation 11
Date: 17/08/08
Two Witnesses
This series studies each of the resurrections that took place in the Old and New Testament and draws truths from the text as well as a single specific lesson for believers. Only a selection of the messages were recorded, for more detailed notes please contact us.
- 01. The Certainty of the Resurrection
Scripture: John 5
Date: 25/05/08
Death___The_End_of_the_Beginning.mp3
- 02. A Vision from God
Scripture: II Kings 13
Date: 1/06/08
fbc_missions_wickens_2008bsmall.mp3
- 03. The Son of the Shunamite Woman
Scripture: II Kings 4
Date: 15/06/08
Death___The_End_of_the_Beginning_Part_3.mp3
- 04. He First Sought Us
Scripture: Luke 7:11-18
Date: 22/06/08
He First Sought Us
- 05."If" You Believe
Scripture: John 11
Date: 29/06/08
"If" You Believe
- 06. Two Witnesses
Scripture: Revelation 11
Date: 17/08/08
Two Witnesses
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