Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries by Major Michael Ramsay, 07 January 2024
Today I have a bit of a quiz
for us. I am going to call out a verse and you tell me the reference. Let’s see
how we do.
1.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. (John 3:16)
2.
In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth. (Genesis 1:1)
3.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33)
4.
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
5.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)
6. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. (Psalm 23:1)
7.
In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go
down while you are still angry, (Ephesians 4:26)
I picked the Ephesians 4:26
verse because we talk about it almost every week in prayer meeting before Church
service. I believe it is one of Reinhard’s favourite verses. Does anyone have
any favourite verses? Or anything that you want to see if the rest of us know?
If so, call them out now…
New Year’s is often a time of resolutions.
Did anyone here make any resolutions for the New Year? Call out some of your
resolutions if anyone made any.
I was chatting with one friend
this week who said that they gave up drinking for January – and then they
thought about it a while and declared that they are giving up drinking on Wednesdays
in January. This year I resolved to keep up my daily Bible readings (as I have
done for many, many years now) and my daily exercises – mostly stretches. The
older I get the more I find I need to stretch my muscles. It works too. I was
injured during covid and walked with a limp for more than a year or even two and
by my exercises God made it so that I could walk again. It is the same with our
spiritual disciplines of praying and study. They strengthen us so that we do
not get injured in those ways either. Those are some of my resolutions.
In case you are looking for
some resolutions for the New Year, Paul in Chapter 4 of his letter to the Ephesians
has some good suggestions for us. He says, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I
urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Some of you
have verses to read out. Could someone call out:
·
Ephesians 4:2a: Be completely humble and
gentle;
·
4:2b: be patient, bearing with one another in
love.
·
3: Make every effort to keep the unity of the
Spirit through the bond of peace.
These are three very good
resolutions. The first one is to be humble and gentle. We know what it means to
be gentle. It means to speak calmly and quietly. It means to not use aggressive
language such as ‘You Statements’; we know what those are, right? …Things like ‘You
always do this” or ‘You always say that’ or ‘you never do that!’; often such
statements can be accompanied by finger pointing or other such non-gentle
non-verbal accessories. A gentle person also doesn’t interrupt people. Sometimes
excited, even well-meaning, people can do violence to people by cutting them off
mid-sentence. Paul says we should try to be gentle with one another.
He also says we should be
humble. Humility helps us to be gentle. If we are humble we don’t come across
as if we always have the right answer – we may actually have the right answer but
we don’t come across as if the other person’s perspective doesn’t matter. A
humble person who is correct will often let the other person speak, and
acknowledge their point before sharing her own wisdom in an affirming rather
than a demeaning, insecure, or arrogant manner. Paul says be completely humble
and gentle.
Paul also exhorts us to
resolve to be patient with each other, bearing with one another in love.
Sometimes this means we let someone finish talking and not cut them off just
because we think we know what they are saying. Sometimes it means that we let
someone complete a task, even if they are not as proficient at it as we are.
You know how it feels when every time you try something it seems like it is not
good enough for someone – they either take over from you or criticize you. Paul
says, ‘don’t do that’, 4:2b: rather be patient, bearing with one another in
love.
‘Ephesians 4:3: Make every
effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.’ This is
important. Many times we argue about things that are adiaphoron, matters of
spiritual indifference. It is really important to understand that whatever deep-seated
matter we are speaking about: sports, politics, religion, theology, whether its
pronounced tomato or tomato... as Christians we need to be unified. It is
really important that we stick together on the matters of significant importance
such as salvation for here and now and forever and the rest we can work out in gentle
conversation and study as we make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit
through the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:21 “when you heard
about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in
Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off
your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made
new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be
like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Some resolutions Paul suggests
for us that may show ourselves and each other that indeed we have put on our
new selves in the New Year are as follows (Some of you have other verses to read
out):
·
Ephesians 4:25 Therefore each of you must put
off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbour, for we are all members of
one body.
·
Ephesians 4:26&27: “In your anger do not
sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the
devil a foothold.
·
Ephesians 4:28: Anyone who has been stealing
must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own
hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.
· Ephesians
4:29: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is
helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit
those who listen.
· Ephesians
4:30-32 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for
the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and
slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another,
forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Ephesians 4:25: Therefore each
of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbour, for we
are all members of one body. This is a good resolution for us all. Speak
truthfully to each other. Don’t share a rumour. Don’t gossip. Don’t share wrong
information. Don’t guess. This can actually be a temptation. I know that I have
overheard many conversations where a person, well-meaning maybe, says something
just straight up wrong. Paul tells us to resolve to slow down when we are
chatting with one another and make sure that what we are saying is true.
Paul also says, Verse 26 “In
your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and,
Verse 27, do not give the devil a foothold.” Rheinhart reminds us of this all
the time. How long have you and Christa been married? 69 years? Rheinhart tells
us that one secret to a good marriage – and probably any relationship is this:
do not let the sun so down while you are still angry. Resolve to settle you
dispute or at least calm your anger before the sun goes down. If you don’t, by
morning you may find that things have already been blown far out of proportion –
or worse – you may find that the issue never gets resolved. In that case it
will nibble away at you forever or until you get divorced. Really, in your
anger, don’t sin and don’t go to bed while you are still angry at someone.
Paul also says that, Verse 28,
anyone who has been stealing must resolve to steal no longer, but must work,
doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to
share with those in need. I find this interesting. He not only says that we
should resolve not to steal; we should also resolve to make something useful to
share with others. I think that is important. It is not just that we shouldn’t
take something from someone; that isn’t enough. We should actually go out of
our way to make something for someone in need. I would encourage us to do this
as much as we can – and if you have any skills with your hands that is a great
way to do it.
Paul
says we should resolve to not let any unwholesome talk come out of our mouths -
only what is helpful for building others. When we are chatting with one another,
let us encourage one another pointing out the value and benefit of each other
and encouraging each other to continue to use their gifts to help out one another.
Let us
resolve this year and always not to grieve the Holy Spirit. Verse 31, let us get
rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every
form of malice. And 32, Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving
each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Forgiveness
my friends is the key to so much in life. It is when we fail to forgive that we
can be consumed by bitterness, rage and anger which can lead to brawling,
slander, malice and all the rest of that. Paul asks us to be kind and
compassionate instead and it is only through forgiveness that we can.
We
know what forgiveness is, right? Forgiveness is NOT something that we do for or
to anyone else. I often hear people say, I can’t possibly forgive him or her
for this terrible thing that they did. Whether you forgive something or not has
absolutely nothing to do with the person who hurt you. When someone does
something awful to you – lying, stealing, anything – they do that thing once.
When you refuse to forgive, you hurt yourself with that very same pain each and
every time. A person does violence to you one – you do violence to yourself
each and every time you fail to forgive that action. Whether you forgive someone
or not has nothing to do with them at all. Failing to forgive someone is like
being so mad at someone for punching you in the face that you punch yourself in
the face over and over again until they have learned their lesson – the only
one you are guaranteed to hurt is yourself. Paul says don’t do that. Instead be
kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ
God forgave you.
My
friends this is my encouragement to us today – let us resolve to encourage one
another in this way, not only in the new year but also in our new lives as new
creations in Christ; let us resolve to love one another.
Let us
pray.
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