We have grown in number and hopefully, this will be a new beginning in building up the Ramsey church of Christ and to reach out into the local community with renewed vigour and a zeal to grow spiritually as well as physically. We may have grown lukewarm in recent months and we need to stir up each other in good works and strengthen our faith and put our whole trust in the Lord.
I know that I’ve been weak and have fallen short on numerous occasions and not always been strong in my faith in more recent times but I’m greatly encouraged by the faith that has been demonstrated in these past few weeks by our Nigerian family who have placed their membership with us. They have put their complete trust in the Lord believing that God would guide their steps and provide a clear path for them to follow. God has chosen us to show to the world around us that we are His faithful followers and to demonstrate the talents that He has given us to use in order to bring Him the Glory and Praise in all we do and say.
I don’t know why yet, but maybe this is why God has chosen our small congregation and has blessed us with the new increase and as time passes we will come to understand why God picked us to lead the way forward as we begin this journey into the future with the membership we now have in our congregation. Everyone of you is important and we should all strive to reach out and show to the world around us who we are and who we serve by being good examples of good leaders and workers for the Lord.
We are to glorify our heavenly Father …
Matthew 5: 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
But at the same time we are not to parade ourselves as anyone special as we have all fallen short of His Glory otherwise we will not receive our reward that is laid up in heaven for us.
We may feel that we have done good, but we have only done what we should as His humble servants… There is much more to do and we need to use our God given talents to bring as many as possible to understand what they need to do in order to please Our Heavenly Father. But take heed to what the Lord says in…
Matthew 6; 1 “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. 3 But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.
I’m reminded once again when the Lord said… not to worry about things…
Matthew 6:, 25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?“ This has been shown how strong we need to be when we put our trust in the Lord and obey His word. We are to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to us. We need to ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7-8)
We have the world’s most important job to do and we have a golden opportunity to preach and teach God’s Word to those that we come in contact with and we have the room now to grow and study His Word in the hope and prayer that we can stop the lost from entering through the Broad Gate that we know leads to destruction and save them from being eternally lost. It’s our responsibility to reach out into this community and approach as many as possible with the truth. The Great Commission gives us a purpose beyond anything else that comes anywhere close. There are so many heading towards that broad gate who have no idea what lies beyond this life and we must do our best to make things work for them and get across how urgent this is because we have no idea when God will end the world and call time on us all. (Matthew 7:13-14)
It’s sad that so many people we know who have died and who did not obey the gospel and the truth is, many more will die and be lost. Let’s do our best to prevent this from happening to as many as possible by introducing them to our Lord and Saviour whilst we still have time on our side. We already know that there are many false prophets and preachers out there who are the blind leading the blind. We must tell them that they must enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. We must also appreciate that we can not save everybody. Some will sadly reject what we preach and not accept that we are the true one faith and serve the Lord.
We always need to be reminded that we have been saved by His grace, we have all sinned and even now as His servants we fall short, but we can at least own up to the sins we are guilty of and repent and ask Him to forgive us. Those who are in the world however, their sins remain unforgiven until they hear and listen to the gospel message and respond by first believing, then taking the big step to turn away from sin in repentance, in order to confess Jesus as Lord and Master, then to be baptised into Christ for the remission of their sins where they will receive the free gift of the Holy Spirit when Jesus adds them to His body the church. Then they begin this new life in Christ as a babe, then as they learn more and grow in a deeper understanding, they will gain the knowledge of what God requires as time goes on, then God will bless them with the wisdom to apply this in their new life in Christ.
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE.
It’s important for all of us to understand the importance of where we have come from and where we are going and to know we need to do the best we can right now.
So from this moment forward we can draw a line and begin a fresh new step forward in the work we have set before us. The past is behind us and should be left behind us, we can’t change what has gone before us but we can learn by our mistakes and not continue to repeat them. This is the present we are now living in which we can make a difference not only to our walk in Christ, but in the hope we can change others in the here and now to follow Our Lord and Saviour Jesus as we look forward to the future with the greatest ambition to please Our Master whom we serve and to do it with all of our hearts. We need to be certain of our future and where we are heading because we do not want to fail in our mission but to hear those words, Good and Faithful Servant, enter into thy heavenly abode and receive your reward which has been laid up for you.
Today is the first day of the rest of our lives. Treasure it and make full use of it as if it was your last day on earth. Don’t put off things for tomorrow as tomorrow may never come. This is the day the Lord has made. Use it wisely. Time marches on and one day God may bring this life to an end in the blink of an eye and time we be nomore to change a thing. Eternity is forever… which side of eternity do you want to be on…? Choose this day to serve Him in everything you do and say. Today is a new beginning for us all. Let’s pray that the Ramsey church of Christ can grow and be what the Lord wants it to be. Let’s march on and serve Our Lord and Saviour and bring Him even more praise and glory. And let’s hope that one day we will meet him in the clouds when we hear the trumpet call and time will be no more. Amen
Lesson is brought to you by: Robert H Brown
