Roblin Wesleyan Church

5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. - Colossians 4:5-6

1 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, 12 so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. - 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

Spiritual Conversation Curve:

Unreceptive "Gain a Hearing":

Receptive "Give Good News":

Seeking "Guide Toward Faith":

The Five Types of Prayer:

The Five Contents of Prayer:

Think of the endless possibilities in prayer if we applied the five types of prayer to the five contents of prayer.

Luke 2:14 “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.”

_____

No more lives torn apart

That wars would never start

And time would heal all hearts

And everyone would have a friend

And right would always win

And love would never end, no

This is my grown up Christmas list

_____

“What would happen, I wonder, if the armies suddenly and simultaneously went on strike and said some other method must be found for settling the dispute?”

1 John 4:7   Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

1 John 4:16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

1 John 3:1   How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

“My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn it or deserve it.” - Brennan Manning

1 John 4:19   We love because he first loved us.

Eph. 3:17 And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Values are the basic and fundamental beliefs that guide or motivate attitudes or actions.

- in the spiritual realm

- In a Humanistic society

- In Our Unbelief

Joy (Third Sunday of Advent)

Pastor Brock MacDonald

Peace & Preparation

Advent Means "Coming" - It's a symbol of and emphasis on our wait for Christ's return, in these 'last days'.

Advent is a time of remembering his deeds, and expecting his action.

Is. 9:1   Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan — Is. 9:2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.

Is. 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

Is. 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Matt. 4:12 When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee. 13 Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali 14 to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: Matt. 4:15 “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles — 16 the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”(Quoted From Isaiah 9:2)

Matt. 1:23 “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” — which means, “God with us.”

Is. 9:6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given…” And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Counselor = one who gives advice and direction, with implication that the advice given is wise and valuable

Wonderful  = be amazing; beyond understanding - the word for miracle

Ex. 15:11 “Who among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who is like you — majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?

Is. 25:1   O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelousthings, things planned long ago.

Luke 4:32 They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority.

- Dare to Hope

- Dare to Believe

- Dare to Love

How do we Hold on to Hope?

- Hold on to your courage and don’t give up

  o Heb. 3:6 But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.

- Own God’s Promises as Your Own

  o  Heb. 10:23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

- Prepare your mind for action every day

  o 1Pet. 1:13   Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

  o Encourage Yourself Daily that God Can Be Trusted

- Heb. 6:18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie,we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

Phil. 4:1   Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!

Phil. 2:3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

Phil. 2:12 work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Phil. 4:2   I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord.

1. Let Your Desire to Please God Override Your Desire to Be Right.

In all our beliefs — we have Love.

In essential beliefs — we have Unity.

In life style statements - we have Grace.

Phil. 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.

II. Influence Yourself and Others with Rejoicing and Gentleness.

Col. 4:5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

James 3:17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

James 5:8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.

Phil. 4:5 Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute!

Phil. 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer ... 7 And the peace of God, ... guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

III. Give Your Anxiety To God and Practice His Peace.

Phil. 4:8   Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.

IV. Change What You Think About.

The Mirror

19 Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. - Romans 1:19-21

Guidelines to help us:

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. - Phillippians 2:5-7

HOT

Gal 4:19 My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,

Eph. 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God

Gal. 5:19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Gal. 5:22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

Liminal Spaces - From Latin:

Limen, “Threshold” or “Doorstep” take you from where you are to where you are going.

Physical Liminal Spaces:

- Stairwells

- Hallways

- Elevators

- Break rooms

- Waiting rooms

- Hotel Lobbies

- Airports

Non-Physical Liminal Spaces:

- job loss

- college

- wedding

- graduation

- mid-life

- divorce

Liminal space is where transformation takes place, but we have to wait and let God use this often uncomfortable space to form us.

Quote: Richard Rohr Author & Theologian

“Where we are betwixt and between the familiar and the completely unknown. There alone is our old world left behind, while we are not yet sure of the new existence. That’s a good space where genuine newness can begin. Get there often and stay as long as you can by whatever means possible …. This is the sacred space where the old world is able to fall apart, and a bigger world is revealed. If we don’t encounter liminal space in our lives, we start idealizing normalcy. The threshold is God’s waiting room. Here we are taught openness and patience as we come to expect an appointment with the divine doctor.”

Psa. 139:23 Search me,a God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

A Prayer of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, (from Hearts on Fire) 'Patient Trust'

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages.

We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress

that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—

and that it may take a very long time. And so I think it is with you;

your ideas mature gradually—let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don’t try to force them on,

as though you could be today what time will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give Our Lord the benefit of believing

that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.