Adam White

Key Verse: Psalm 103

When we come to church on a Sunday we bring lots of baggage with us: Happiness, sadness, excitement, disappointment, etc. But Whatever is going on, like David in this Psalm we must not forget about God. We must keep reminding ourselves who he is.

We need to learnt to speak and preach to ourselves more often. The world says “the first sign of madness is talking to yourself”, Martin Lloyd-Jones says “letting yourself speak to you is the first sign of madness”.

We must learn to speak to ourselves more often about who God is and just how amazing and vast he is. This is a choice we have to make everyday and it is amazing how quickly our focus can drift from God if we don’t so this regularly.

This is the key to our relationship to God. This is worship.

Worship is not just singing songs on a Sunday morning, it is everything we do in life. The whole act of orientating ourselves towards God is worship. We don’t have to come to church and “wait for the worship to grab me”. Just coming together is joining our lives, wherever we are at, in worship to God.

In Psalm 103 David starts focussed on himself but by the end the focus has shifted to the universe. By talking to himself he has got his head out of himself and onto the vastness of God. We must learn to do the same.

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Key text: Matthew 6:7-15 (particularly v12)

Different translations use different words for “debt” here but ultimately it means our sins. We are all in debt to God because of the sins we have committed again him and against others. Simply rebelling against God and going our own way incurs this debt. The price for this debt is death and eternal separation from God.

However, God has provided a way for us to be released form this debt. But it is not due to anything we do, it is through Jesus dying on the cross and paying it off for us.

This prayer is for believers, it is not meant as a salvation prayer therefore it shows that we don’t get cleaned of our debts once, as soon as we confess our sins we go out and start racking them up once again. Jesus is showing us through this prayer that we need to daily confess our sins and be forgiven. It’s not something God intended us to do once.

Jesus performed many miracles in his time on the Earth but forgiveness is the greatest of them all. Jesus showed in Mark 2 by forgiving the crippled man rather than healing him (although he did heal him on a few minutes later) that it is far more important that we are forgiven than to be healed physically. It is far better to crawl into heaven than to walk into hell.

But we are also to remember that forgiveness is something we give as well as receive. We are called not to hold grudges against anyone but to forgive them as we have been forgiven. Sometimes we can find forgiving others as a very difficult thing to do but it is important to do as unforgiveness can eat away at us over time.

This talk and all the others from this series can be downloaded from the Gateway Church Swindon website: http://www.gatewaychurchswindon.org.uk/audio/

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Key text: Matthew 6:7-13 (particularly v11)

Mark has been preaching through the Lord’s prayer in Matthew 6 for a few weeks now. I have to say that it has been one of the best series he has preached. I’ve missed a couple but every one I have heard has been excellent. I love the way each preach focuses on a different line of the prayer.

So this week we move onto to verse 11:

Give us today our daily bread

In today’s society, and in particular in the modern western world, we have become used to being able to pop down the shops to get bread. It is no longer common to wake up each morning and wonder where the food is going to come from. But Jesus clearly tells us to pray this. Why?

1) It’s about trust

Just because resource is easy to come by these days does not mean we should take it for granted. Praying this prayer daily helps remind us that everything from the air we breath to the home we live in and the food we eat is a gift from God.

We need to be careful not to forget this otherwise we may fall into the trap of thinking what we have is of our own doing and take pride in that and forget that only though God do we have what we have.

I was reminded only today I keep hearing stories of people not happy in the jobs and wanting to move on and that I have an excellent job which I prayed about a lot before getting. Every time someone asks me about my job it reminds me to thank God because it is only through him and his timing that I have the job I have. It was not my doing and I can’t ever allow myself to think that.

2) It’s about being content

God gives us everything we need but not always everything we want. We live in a culture where we are bombarded with advertising telling us we need more stuff. We need to learn to trust God for what we need and not be distracted by wants. We must go against culture and learn to be content. This prayer helps us focus on that.

3) It’s about our expectations

Jesus when being tempted in the desert used Deuteronomy 8 against Satan. That man does not live on bread alone. This daily bread is not meant to be only physical stuff but spiritual as well. We must ask God for the daily physical needs as well as our daily spiritual needs.

We need to not set our sights so low when praying to God. We must expect more. Even though God gives us just what we need he is also a generous father and gives us more out of grace and love.

This talk and all the others from this series can be downloaded from the Gateway Church Swindon website: http://www.gatewaychurchswindon.org.uk/audio/

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Key text: Deuteronomy 2: 1-9, 13-19, 24-31 (particularly v24)

There has been a lot of talk about mobilising the church recently and time to take new ground. In this text God gives 3 commands to achieve just that:

1) Get going

It is bad for us to stay still for too long. We get comfortable, lazy and start to wither. God doesn’t want us to get saved and then sit on our laurels. He wants us to be continually seeking him and moving on into the life he has planned for us. It can be so easy though to stop growing and progressing and to get complaisant where we are.

However, this is a trick of the devil. He wants us to stop. God wants us to get out of the trenches on a daily basis and take new ground for him. This could be spiritual or physical. The thing is though, we are not going to take this ground without first standing up and taking a step. Even if we fall over, it is better to fall over moving forwards than to fall backwards.

2) Get faith

Have faith in what God is saying. This is so important. We are not going to take ground without having faith. God has a purpose for us, he came and found us when we were lost and has planned our days out for us. We have to believe this if we are going to move anywhere for God.

If we don’t have faith then we are doing all things in our own strength and then our plans are either doomed to failure or totally pointless. We need to get caught up in what God is doing and go along with his plans.

God is huge and we need to realise that more. We box God up into something we can understand but God can’t be boxed, he is far too vast and complex to do that. But what we do need to do is get a bigger idea of God into our heads. The bigger God is the smaller we become and then we can focus more on him and less on ourselves.

3) Get fighting

Finally, even though God can do anything he wants, he still wants our involvement in everything. When he tells us to go take ground we know that it will be taken but we actually have to go and do it. God has chosen to work with us and through us in all things. We don’t do things on our own and neither does he.

We have to fight for the things God is telling us to do. So let’s fight more!

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I listen to a lot of preaches. I find that they are a great way for me to learn about God and the bible and a 40 minute preach fits nicely into a morning run or a lunchtime wander.

However, once a week I have to sit down at Gateway Church Swindon and pay attention to a real person talking at the front of my church. I find this quite a difficult thing to do as my mind will wander.

Thankfully, I discovered fairly quickly that if I made notes during a sermon I would stay focussed and take on board everything that was being said.

So it was this way this morning. I was sat making my notes as usual. It dawned on me though that despite always making notes and highlighting things which I thought were particularly relevant to me, as soon as church finished I knew I would forget it all. I always have the intention of going back over my notes but I very rarely do.

So it was with some inspiration from God that I came up with this idea: Every week I am going to write a blog post on the day’s talk.

I was told once that no matter how many preaches I listen to, the most important one is the one given at my church on that Sunday. The reason being that that is the sermon that God wants me to hear. This coupled with the fact that I remember things better if I rewrite them in my own words (as hard as this is for me to do) is the motivation for doing what I am about to do.

There may just be some Sunday’s where I don’t get the time to do this or I may just get lazy but my hope is this will be the start of me listening and also remembering what it is that God wants to say to me.

Let the blogging begin…

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1. Turn down opportunities that might be a good use of who you are but not the best use of who you are.
2. Never say yes to anything immediately, buy time to think and pray about it.
3. Practice the theology of enough. Don’t have a list of things that fall into the category of: I would be happy if______.
4. Ask God to deliver you from an unhealthy appetite for acclaim, approval, position, power, and honor that would push you to do more and more for the wrong reasons.
5. Pray to be released from the restless, gnawing greed for more money and more stuff.
6. Remind yourself daily of who you are and who you are not—be content to be you.
7. Carve out sufficient time alone with God for humble contemplation—give him opportunity to quiet your anxious heart and keep you focused on your “few themes.”

Read the full article at: http://theresurgence.com/7_things_to_simplify_my_life

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You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:13-16

This is a very well known quote from Jesus and is all about how we are meant to be as Christians in this world. But what does it mean to be like salt? I’m going to unpack some aspects of salt and see if it can help us understand the full meaning of what Jesus was saying.

Salt flavours

Why do we add salt to our food? Is it to add that great salty flavour to things? If you just eat salt on its own is it tasty? Of course not. Salt enhances the flavours that are already there and that is how we are meant to be. We are to go out into the world and enhance its flavours. We are to show people that there is more to this bland and seemingly pointless existence.

Salt cleans

Believe it or not but salt can be used as an environmentally friendly cleaning agent. And just like salt, we can be used to by God to clean up dirty aspects of this world. When I talk about cleaning up though I am referring to washing away the filth that comes along with sin and helping people get back on their feet.

Swindon Foodbank, Swindon Pregnancy Crisis Centre and Street Pastors are three great areas where Chirstians are using their saltiness to help people in need.

Salt preserves

Salt also used to be used as preservative for food. It was used to keep things fresh and stop them going rotten. We can do the same by hanging onto our morals in a world that is going more and more liberal with every passing second.

We are called to stand firm in our beliefs against increasing opposition. We will increasingly be seen as being bigoted and outdated as we “fail to keep up with the modern age” but we must preserve what God has told us to.

A topic like abortion has always been a point of contention and there seem to be lots of examples of Christians in the media for standing up for their beliefs and being prosecuted for them. It’s going to get harder and harder but we must not conform to the pattern of this world (Romans 12:2).

Salt heals

Salt is also used to heal wounds and we have been commissioned by Jesus to go and heal the sick (Matthew 8 ) with the power of the Holy Spirit. This is an easy connection to make.

Salt melts ice

Salt also melts ice (technically it absorbs water but the affect is the same) which, in a world where everyone is cold hearted towards God, it is our responsibility to go out and melt those hearts and guide people back to God through Jesus Christ.

Salt disappears

One final observation about salt is that it disappears into whatever you put it into. We are to do likewise. We shouldn’t stay isolated away from the world in our protective church bubbles but get out and into the community. Spread out amongst the people and dissolve into the world like salt does. However, we shouldn’t absorb the ways of the world but instead instigate change.

This was inspired by a recent preach at my church entitled “Let me tell you why you are here” by Nigel Howarth. You can download and listen to it from the Gateway Church website: http://www.gatewaychurchswindon.org.uk

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I heard this illustration about faith and thought I’d share it:

There were two rock climbers climbing up a mountain, they reach a ledge together but then the ledge starts to give way. They both look around for somewhere safe to jump to and notice two rocks that are jutting out on either side of the ledge.

The first climber sees the rock to the left, takes a good look at it and decides that it is really sturdy rock and they are sure it will support their weight so they jump to get to it. The other climber spots the rock to the right and doesn’t think it could possibly support them, but they have to make a choice so they jump.

Which climber do you think chose correctly?

Well the climber who had lots of faith in their rock found that while it seemed to support them at first, it soon gave way and they fell to their death. The climber that had only a little bit of faith in their rock though landed safely and the rock didn’t move.

The purpose of this story is to show that it is not how big our faith is that saves us, it is the choice of rock that we chose to place our faith in!

…and in case anyone is unsure of a good solid rock to chose, Jesus is a good place to start!

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In my last post on this topic I spoke about how we have a passive and active role in our sanctification. Here, in my third and final post on this topic, I will talk about six active disciplines that can help our pursuit of sanctification.

1) Bible reading and meditation

How are we to know God more and understand his will for us if we don’t commit ourselves to reading, studying and reflecting on what he has spoken to us?

People always complain that they don’t “hear” from God. While I do believe that God can speak to us audibly (although rare) as well as through our conscience, I do believe that the primary way that God communicates with us is through the bible. All of it.

It was only the other day that I read 1 Corinthians 10:27-30 in which the Apostle Paul is talking about not eating food that has been offered to idols, not because it in itself is wrong but because it may cause others who see you do it and don’t understand to sin in the hearts by copying. At first I thought this was totally not applicable anymore and discarded it but then only a day later I was watching a film called In Bruges with a friend. Anyone who has seen this film will know that it is hilarious but is full of swearing (and I mean full).

The person I was watching it with is a fairly new Christian and even though I knew in my faith that there was nothing wrong with listening to the bad language I was causing them to sin in their hearts by showing to condone it and almost recommend it. We stopped watching the film after only 10 minutes but it was a real eye opener to me on how the bible is vital for our growth, even the bits that may not seem relevant anymore.

The bible is a big book though (or more accurately collection of books) and can be really hard going. But, just like with sanctification, we are not called to read it all and understand it all as soon as we become Christians. It is a process that will last a lifetime, we just have to keep reading, studying, memorising and meditating on it as much as we can.

2) Prayer

“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.” – Ephesians 6:18

Where reading the bible is the primary way in which God communicates with us, prayer is the primary way in which we communicate back again. We are called to have a relationship with God and the way we have relationships with people is to talk to them. The more open and honest we are with people, the closer and more intimate those relationships can become.

We are to pray always for anything and everything and everyone. Prayer needs to become as important to us as breathing. Whenever we are troubled we need to learn to turn to God and give it to him in prayer (Philippians 4:6-7).

Prayer can also be one of the hardest things for us to do though, especially new Christians. I remember sitting in silence for about an hour, while my friends encouraged me to pray, because I was too scared to pray out loud.

Thankfully, I am finally realising how important prayer is and am becoming more and more comfortable with it. I still have my moments where clam up or where I don’t pray anywhere near as much as I should but I’m growing like everyone else and I’m learning as I go. Things just seem a lot easier to deal with when I pray about them though…

3) Worship

When I first became a Christian I really struggled with the singing part of church. But as I have grown I have found it is so important and has now become vital to my walk with God. Worship is how we thank God and give him praise (Ephesians 5:18-20)

To further prove that God knows what He is doing, a recent study showed that singing is actually really beneficial to you from a mental and physical point of view.

The bible says that we’ll all be singing to God in heaven, so my viewpoint is we’d better get practising here on Earth!

4) Witnessing

Witnessing has always been the hardest thing for me to do. I know that when I step out and do it I feel closer to God and I long to see people saved but I am still fearful of people’s reactions and putting them off for good.

The only way for people to come to know about God though (not counting God stepping in like he did with Apostle Paul) is for us to talk to people about it. I long for people to ask me about my faith or even challenge me on some of my beliefs. Until then I’ll try my best to be salt and light in the lives of those around me and keep an eye out for opportunities.

5) Self-discipline/self-control

Self control is vital in all areas of our life. Our battle against sin is about learning to have self-control and resist the devil. It also helps us be structured and persistent with bible reading and spending time with God.

I’m not sure there is any way of learning self-control other than practising it. When temptations come about (and they will), practise self-discipline but saying no and resisting. Easier said than done but you won’t get anywhere without trying…

6) Christian fellowship

And finally, sanctification is regularly a corporate process in the new testament. We Christians are all in this together and we have been brought together as brothers and sisters in God’s family to care for each other and help each other along. We are to nudge each other in love and support each other when we are in pain.

The best way to find this kind of support is to get in to a God-loving church and a home group where you can find good friends who will care for you and you can care for them. Nowadays there are churches of all shapes and sizes.

If you believe in Christ and are not part of a group of Christians you are at risk. You are like a lamb that has wandered away from the flock and is vulnerable to the world. Another illustration is to think of Christians as individual pieces of coal and the church is the fire. When you take the coal out of the fire it will slowly grow dim and eventually go out. Put it back in the fire and around other Christians and it will fulfil its purpose and burn bright for God.

View entire series

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