By Rev. Brian Wilkie
Rev. Brian Wilkie
Pastor of St. Andrew's Christian Community
Rockland, Ontario
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| Rev. Brian Wilkie |
Pastor of St. Andrew's Christian Community
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PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast
Sunday, December 30th, 2018:
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now, here is today’s presentation.
Good Morning. I am
your host today, Brian Wilkie of St. Andrew’s Christian
Church in Rockland.
As we begin today, my
prayers of the Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ would encourage and
strengthen you today. As this broadcast comes at the tail end of 2018, I do
welcome you to the new year as it comes in a couple of days’ time. We hope that
through the coming year that Good News in the Morning will be able to continue
to strengthen you in your Christian walk.
I
thank all the people who have sponsored us in the past year and also those
who have already agreed to be sponsors of various shows in the coming year.
We are so glad for that support and financial support.
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Broadcast Title:
Spiritual Fitness Goals
Today, as we look at
the New Year, I know that many people have a habit of setting New Year’s
resolutions. I know that the audience that is listening to this program is
probably not having wild New Year’s parties that I need to warn you about.
You’re probably like me, after a few years when we first had children, we used
to set the clocks ahead on New Year’s Eve to midnight so the kids could
experience New Years Eve. It was New Year’s somewhere, right? They would go to
bed early and then we go on and enjoy a quieter evening together. But now we
set the clocks ahead for ourselves and we get to bed nice and early and start
the New Year with a good rest.
I hope, however, as you
spend your new year, that God is a real part of your celebration and that you
are filled with thanksgiving both at what he is given you in the past year and
the hope that you have for his promises in the year to come.
Spiritual Fitness Goals
I am going to share
to you today some spiritual fitness goals: Some things we can do or aim for in
our walk with Christ to experience him more fully and to serve him with joy and
thanksgiving.
I am going to read to
you from Ephesians, Chapter 4 versus 11-32. I’ve got to say this is one of my
favorite scriptures so you have probably heard me speak on parts of it before,
but let me read it to you now.
Ephesians
4:11–32
11It was he who gave
some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to
be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of
service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all
reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become
mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no
longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there
by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful
scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all
things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From
him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament,
grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Living as Children of Light
17 So I tell you this,
and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do,
in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their
understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that
is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all
sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in
every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
20 You, however, did
not come to know Christ that way. 21 Surely you heard of him 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.
25 Therefore each of
you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all
members of one body. 26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the
sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil
a foothold. 28 He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but
must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have
something to share with those in need.
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.
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for
the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger,
brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind
and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God
forgave you.
This is a full piece
of scripture talking about maturity and growing in Christ until the fullness of
holiness and the fullness of God’s love is evident in everything we do. We look
forward to that and we find ourselves making a new start at that over and over
again, as we sometimes stumble along the way and we need to get up and get
going again.
Caroline Arends makes
a celebration of this in a song from one of her early albums and the song
speaks about how every day is New Year’s Day. Would you listen to it with me?
SONG
New Year's Day, Carolyn Arends, Feel Free, 3:52
Every day is New
Year’s Day, as Caroline Arends says. The bible just tells us that we have a new
life in Christ. We are a new creation and we are able to be forgiven. Sometimes
I know that I get tired of confessing the same thing to God, having fallen over
and over again but I know that God never fails to forgive and that he is
working in us and through us to will and to act according to his good and
pleasant and perfect purposes. He has given us so many ways to become stronger
in our faith and fuller of his love.
As Paul talks in a
very practical sense, God has equipped us as a body. Some people, when they
think about the church, they think about a building or an organization that has
all kinds of bureaucracy and administration and levels and ins and outs. But
what Paul meant by the church was the people of God. It was people gathering
together to learn to love the Lord more, to learn to follow him more closely.
The church, still today, at its heart, is groups of people gathering together
to learn how to love better.
I am so delighted to
minister to a congregation of people who come not only on Sundays but during
the mid-week and are working in their own private devotions and in groups to
build themselves up and to let God do more work in them: To fill them with a
greater love for each other, for God and for all the world. These are people
who are trying to make themselves better. I do not know anybody in my
congregation who thinks of themselves as having arrived. Although they are
delighted to know that they are a new creation in Christ, that they have
received eternal life from him, they know that Christ is doing a tremendous
work day by day in them. They hope that as each day, as each week, as each year
passes that they will be more like Jesus.
Sometimes, Christians
are criticized for being holier than thou and thinking they are better than
other people, but what I’ve found in the people that I’ve ministered to, is
people who know that they need God’s grace every day. They are looking for ways
to be better vessels of God’s grace. They are looking to be more spiritually
fit. I do not know how you are when it comes to fitness but physical fitness is
not my forté. There are not very many kinds of exercise that I enjoy. Some of
the sport that I used to enjoy just doesn’t do my body as much good as they
used to. I come away with more aches and pains than muscles and endurance.
Fitness can be a tough slog, can’t it! I hope you are not in the exact same
situation as me. I am delighted to see some people who shame me by their
readiness to go out and make sure they get their walk every day, make sure they
do something active and keep going and try to keep their bodies fit.
That is all good
stuff but what about our spirits? What are we doing to keep our spirits fit?
This is another area where I hear a lot of people talking about what they think
they should be doing. “Yeah, I should do more of that. I should probably go to
church more often. I should probably read my bible more. I should probably work
on my prayer.”
These ‘should
probablies’ do indicate that we know what we need to do to grow in faith but
sometimes we find it hard to engage. It’s a struggle to engage in practices
that have a long-term payoff instead of an immediate reward. In fact that is
precisely why maturity is so important. Because when we are looking for
immediate rewards, Paul describes this as “infants, tossed back and forth by
the waves, blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning
and craftiness of deceitful people.” Yes, if we are not mature, if we are
looking for instant gratification, we will allow our ears to be tickled by any
kind of teaching that says, you can eat all the sugar you want and not get fat,
you can do everything you feel like doing and not get spiritually lazy.
Paul describes quite
clearly, as do the rest of the scriptures of God, that there are some things
that do not lead to life. There are some things that lead to death. There are
things that cause us to deteriorate in our mental state and in our physical
state. There are things that build us up. Paul encourages us as Christians to
remember that there are things that build us up and we should focus on them. He
speaks about the way we used to live, in the futility of thinking, ignoring God
and separated from the life of God and giving ourselves over to this pleasure
and that pleasure. Doing whatever feels right, whatever feels good.
Many of us have the
scars from that kind of living, mentally and some even physically. People who
have lived in such a way as to reap the whirlwind; Who have suffered pain and
distress, not only in their own lives but causing that pain and distress in the
lives of others because of the way they lived; in futile thinking and in a
failure to consider what might bless others and what might be good for the long
term.
In fact, Paul,
whenever he taught about Christ, though he taught about salvation by faith;
that is that God gracefully gives us a gift of salvation, not because we
deserve it or not because we have earned it but because he loves us. But in
that gift, Paul never neglected to teach the kind of life that God gives. God
gives a better life; a life that leads to joy and peace, not only for ourselves
but for the people around us.
But it doesn’t lead
there by the easiest path all the time. It takes decisions and discipleship to
grow and train in things of God.
But God has given you
people to help you along the way. If you go down to a fitness center you are
likely to find yourself a personal coach to help train you along the way, to
make sure that you are doing the things that really lead to better physical
fitness.
God has given us
apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to help us, to coach us
along the way as we pursue spiritual fitness. That is so much of the reason why
it’s important for us to gather together as Christians. Those people who are
teachers, pastors, prophets and evangelists and apostles, do not always wear a
label on their name tag saying that is what they are. For God is able to give
gifts of pastoring and teaching to people who are very much in the same place
we are.
As we gather
together, in small groups, even two or three, Christ is with us and so are the
gifts of the Spirit, to encourage us, to guide us, to help us understand
scripture together. We do have people who are specially trained in the church.
People who have taken years and years of training and there is nothing bad
about that. But if we rely only on that; if we don’t spend some time encouraging
one another, helping one another, peer to peer, life to life, heart to heart;
then we are missing something that God has given us. The image that Paul has is
one of growing to full maturity and towards that goal we’ll continue to seek
God.
I want to share with
you an older song from one of Ontario’s best known Christian singers, from a
few years ago. This is George Beverley Shea from his album, I’d Rather Have
Jesus, singing a song about drawing nearer to God. This song is a prayer: Just
A Closer Walk With Thee.
SONG
Just a closer Walk with thee, George Beverly Shea. I'd Rather have Jesus 3:06
If you want a closer
walk with Jesus, let me encourage you to desire that with all your heart. If we
want a closer walk with Jesus, there is very clear instructions in scripture
and in this passage from Ephesians about some of the things that we need to
give up in order to have more room for Jesus in our hearts. Paul tells us to
give up bitterness, rage, anger, brawling and slander and malice. He says if we
want to have room for Jesus, if we want to have room for the Holy Spirit in our
lives we need to give up those things. He tells us we can fill ourselves with
kindness and compassion, forgiving one another just as God and Christ forgave
us. Having kindness in our hearts makes more room for God, I tell you.
It was a delight and
it may seem odd for me to say so, but I was conducting a funeral for a dear old
lady in our church a couple of weeks ago. She was a dear old lady but she had
many issues through her life. Inserted into her bible was a little note from
this passage in Ephesians, saying, “get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger,
brawling, slander along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to
one another, forgiving each other just as Christ and God forgave you.” I am so impressed that a lady, well into her nineties, was
still working on making more room for Jesus in her heart.
I hope that through
this coming year you will do the things that help you become more spiritual
fit, that allow you to have more room for Jesus in your heart. As you let the
Holy Spirit cleanse you of all sin and fill you with God’s love.
Let’s have a word of
prayer together.
Almighty God, help us to enjoy our
friendship with you. We have stumbled around in the darkness and we are tired
of stumbling around in the darkness. We want to walk in the light. Lead us Lord
Jesus, lead us by the word of your scriptures and by the power of your Holy
Spirit. Lead us by the encouragement of others in the church and may you use us
to encourage and bless others as well. May everything in the coming year lead
us closer and closer to you. May ever opportunity be used by you to make us
more useful to you so that we might be blessed to be a blessing for others.
Lord, to every heart that listens to this broadcast, bring the new life that is
in Jesus, in more and more abundance, until in the fullness of maturity they
are filled with Christ and able to glorify your name in everything. I pray this
in Jesus’ name. Amen
As we conclude this
broadcast, there is a song that I hope will give you a chance just to take some
time with God. As Steven Curtis Chapman sings about the scripture that tells us
to be still and know that he is God, may you in your daily walk know him more.
SONG
25:17 Be still and know, Stephen Curtis Chapman, Deep Roots 2:57
Thank you
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May you
come to know Jesus Christ personally and profoundly. May the Holy Spirit reside
deeply within your heart, and may you feel our heavenly Father surrounding you
with his constant, abiding and accompanying love. Good News In The Morning is produced in the Studios of News Talk
Radio 580 CFRA.
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Rev. Brian Wilkie
St. Andrew's Christian
Community, Rockland, Ontario
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To listen to today's broadcast, click
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