In the book, ‘A Proverbs Driven Life’ I was reading recently about Jacob and the way he sinned in attempting to gain, by his own devious and unethical ways, what God had already promised him.

Through His word God has given us many great and wonderful promises that we can trust in and depend upon, because He is a faithful God. Here are just a few of his promises towards us his children.

1. He will never leave us or forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5)
2. He makes all things work together for our good. (Romans 8:28)
3. He provides all that we need. (Matthew 6:31-33, 2 Corinthians 9:8)
4. He will bring us safely to heaven. (John 14:2-3)

Four promises. The first and the last promises we can do nothing about, but with promises two and three we can sin like Jacob in trying to get what we need through devious means and not trusting in the faithfulness of God.

The question we should all ask ourselves is: Do I rest consistently in those promises and Am I trusting God to fulfil His promises in His time?

So often we can act like Jacob by trying to bring about the fulfilment of God’s promises in our own power and strength, and thereby sin by not trusting in the faithfulness of God to bring about and fulfil His word to us.

God is faithful and we can trust and wholly lean on His faithfulness.

It was great to be together yesterday morning and join our voices together in joyful praise to our great God, who has saved us and transformed our lives through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday’s sermon, the fourth and final part of our “Worship His Majesty” series, entitled: “The Spirit, the Body & The Worship of God” is available to listen to or download from here, via our iTunes podcast feed.

For those of you with children in the Generations Sunday School, here’s the “Weekly Info” that we hope will serve you in following up with your children on what they sang and learned this week, and the verse to memorise for next week’s Sunday school.

Here’s the quotes from the sermon:

Donald Whitney:
“God will manifest his presence to you in congregational worship in ways you can never know, even in the most glorious secret worship.  That’s because you are not only a temple of God as an individual, but the Bible says – and far more often – that Christians collectively are God’s temple.  God manifests his presence in different ways to the living stones of the temple when they are gathered than he does to them when they are apart.”

Donald Whitney:
“How is your service quotient?  Is your church stronger because of you?   Nutritionists speak of “empty calories”; in order for these calories to be processed the body must use some of its nutritional resources, yet empty calories do little or nothing to nourish the body in return.  Calories from other types of food however, not only take from the body’s strength as they metabolise, they replenish it.  Do you receive more ministry from the church than you minister to it?  God intends for every member of the church body to be served by it, and there are times when even the most spiritually mature members will receive more ministry than they give.  Nevertheless, the goal for each of us should be to serve in the church in such a way that it is stronger because we are there.”

Sam Storms:
“Prophecy is not based on a hunch, a supposition, an inference, an educated guess, or even on sanctified wisdom.  Prophecy is not based on personal insight, intuition, or illumination.  Prophecy is the human report of a divine revelation.”

When trials and suffering come our way our first inclination can be to complain, and the second to pray and ask God to remove it. But it is through the trial that God wants to deepen our faith and produce holiness.

It is not for us to second guess God by asking “why?”, but instead for us to evaluate our reaction and learn more about our trust and confidence in a Sovereign God who works for the good of those he has called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Regarding why God appoints suffering for His servants, John Piper says :

Hebrews 12 tells us that God disciplines his children through suffering. His aim is deeper faith and deeper holiness. He disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

The writer to the Hebrews, referring to earthly fathers, says in chapter 12 verse 10:
For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

So when the trial comes, as it surely will, thank God for the opportunity to glorify him by our trusting in his sovereign will for our lives and using the situation to grow in our faith and in our holiness all for His ultimate glory.

As Peter mentioned in his blog post yesterday, just last weekend (5-6 February 2010) we had the great privilege of taking away our LIFE group (the 18-30 singles in our church) for a weekend away — an extended time of worship, teaching and fellowship together.

There was 40+ of us gathered at Hill House Christian Conference Centre, near Bridgwater, Somerset.  The topic for the weekend was “Passionate Orthodoxy” — the idea that we should passionately, enthusiastically pursue knowing the truth of who God is and what he has done for us, build our lives upon those unchanging, proven and established truths, and worship him and enjoy him all our days.

We had three teaching sessions, each with a time of worship, and then a final fourth session of extended worship.  God was gracious and faithful to each of us in attendance.  I believe God freshly challenged all of us with his Word, brought conviction by his Spirit, deepened our understanding and appreciation of his mercy and grace, and imparted fresh faith for our walk with him.

During the weekend we recommended Joshua Harris‘ new book “Dug Down Deep“, a book written and designed to help us ensure we are building our lives on the eternal truths revealed to us in God’s Word.  I’d recommend everyone grab a copy and read it ASAP.

You can read a review by Stephen Altrogge here.

The audio from the three teaching sessions can be found below, and if you click the link below you can see pictures of the weekend, taken by our resident photographer, Christian Lerke.  There’s also a short video Christian made of his view of the weekend (click on the very last image of the gallery).

(Click the following links to listen online or to download and listen off-line: PC users right click and save the file. Mac users ctrl+click and “save as”.)

Session 1: What Is Your Life Built On? (Nathan Smith)

Session 2: What Are You Living For? (Nathan Smith)

Session 3: Don’t Waste your Life: Wise Words for a Younger Generation from An Older Man (Peter Bowley)

CLICK HERE: Life Weekend Away Photos

This last weekend it was a real joy to spend time with the LIFE group (18-30’s single) of Grace Church and our friends from Spain, led by Pastor Stephen Phillips.

The theme of the weekend was Passionate Orthodoxy and it was wonderful to see the favourable response by all who those young people who attended.

Isaiah 26 verse 8 says: In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul.

This portion of scripture has been the basis of a statement of declaration entitled “Statement 268”  by many young people.  Louie Giglio, referring to this statement says:

Because I was created by God and for his glory, I will magnify him as I respond to his great love. My desire is to make knowing and enjoying God the passionate pursuit of my life.

Knowing God and enjoying God is the passionate pursuit of his life, that’s a wonderful expression of Passionate Orthodoxy. I trust that for all of us that is our desire — and a growing desire to make knowing God and enjoying God the passionate pursuit of our life whether we are young, middle aged or old.

If it’s not your desire then make it because the reason that you were created is to live for His glory and enjoy Him forever.

I hope you’ll agree that yesterday was a fantastic day, gathering together, fellowshipping together, worshipping together and being exhorted and encouraged through God’s Word together.

It was great to see so many new faces and guests, and to be able to meet some of our friends from the church we have a growing relationship with in the town of  Villisar, near Barcelona in Spain.

Pete Greasley, our friend and senior pastor of Christchurch Newport, was with us and preached an excellent, encouraging message entitled: “The Pursuit of Goodness and Mercy” from Psalm 23.  The audio available to listen to or download from here, via our iTunes podcast feed.

For those of you with children in the Generations Sunday School, here’s the “Weekly Info” that we hope will serve you in following up with your children on what they sang and learned this week, and the verse to memorise for next week’s Sunday school.