A New Year Charge (Personal Peity)
The Gospel of Mark • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 2 viewsThis message was about building spiritual habits in the New Year.
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Transcript
Call To Worship
Call To Worship
Psalm 117:1–2 (ESV): Praise the Lord, all nations!
Extol him, all peoples!
2 For great is his steadfast love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the Lord!
Introduction
Introduction
During the Christmas break many sports leagues take the week or part of the weak off. We are a hockey watching family so yesterday when hockey resumed I was happy because it’s fun to watch fights and hits with goals intermixed.
We watch the Bolts and the Sabres and yesterday was some sloppy Hockey. So sloppy I turned it off. The PP were not connecting tons of dumb penalties. A lot of “Puck watching” (standing still while other people are doing something)
They hadn’t practiced or played for several days and it showed.
As Christians do to the weight of sin and the fall, the distractions of the world and the devil and our old desires we can also loose ‘playing shape.’
So As we enter into the New Year I want to call you to a return to spiritual disciplines a return to Personal Piety
What Is Personal Piety
What Is Personal Piety
PIETY Translation of a Hebrew expression and several Greek terms.
1. NIV used “piety” to translate the Hebrew idiom “the fear [or reverence] of the Lord” (Job 4:6; 15:4; 22:4; cp. REB).
2. NRSV used piety to translate the Greek term meaning “righteousness” (Matt. 6:1), where the concern was with an external show of religion (Matt. 6:2–6).
3. Piety translates two Greek terms for fear or reverence for God (Acts 3:12 NASB, NRSV; Heb. 5:7 NASB).
4. Piety represents the religious duty of caring for the physical needs of elderly family members (1 Tim. 5:4 KJV, NASB).
This is an old word, a you may hear today Spiritual disciplines.
These are the external acts of religious faith. Yes we have both a relationship and a religion.
The relationship leads to religion. This is not a popular word but let me explain.
Just as a sports player must do acts to keep his game up, so must a Christian. The differance between us is that we have the Holy Spirit to help us!. He leads us in the service of our God.
So This message is a call to you and me to seek our disciplines in the Lord this year, to commit to the actions the Lord calls us to do in the coming year.
Faith without works is indeed dead. Let’s look at some of the actions of faith.
Bible Study Reading
Bible Study Reading
16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
You to build piety must know the word, soak it in, old and new
Read it
Listen to it
Come here it preached
Application: (BREAK DOWN THOSE VERSES)
Robert McCheyenne Bible reading plan
Family Worship
Family Worship
1 “Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, 2 that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. 4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
So what is God’s will for your family,
So what is God’s will for your family,
to grow in sanctification, - That is to strive to become a better follower of Christ. Men you’re to be looking for how to level up your faith.
to abstain from Sexual immorality - this is the killer this is what our culture is all about driving you to seek easy cheap distracting pleasure that does’t last you could extend this to all quick pleasures, they’ll kill yah, we’ve all seen it and we all know of someone who has walked down the path of destruction the book of Proverbs tells the son to not go down to the Harlots house we have so many houses of harlotry abstain from them.
to make more disciples - This starts at home do you speak of the Lord in your walk in your comings and Goings? Do you hear of his ways from those around you? Does your wife rise up an bless the Lord, do your children? What are you doing to help? Sharing the word, singing the word, blessing others, giving to the expansion of God’s kingdom
the provide a defense for the hope that is in you, - the best way to speak of the faith is to know it
to provide for the needs of your family. - The Bible calls those that don’t believe worse then unbelievers
Corporate Worship
Corporate Worship
No such thing as a lone Christian. Covid lock-downs are over people must come back to the church.
I have heard that Today that all over the country Pastors have cancelled service. God sees this.
Look at what the Lord says about his bride.
2 the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.
The idea here is that God loves his temple, in the NT we know that the Temple is composed of all believers and Christ it’s cornerstone
16 Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1. Public worship is more edifying than private.
1. Public worship is more edifying than private.
3 Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together!
In private you provide for your own good, but in public you do good both to yourselves and others. And that is a received rule, that good is best which is most diffusive, most communicative.
Live coals, if separated, and lay them asunder, will quickly die; but while they are together, they serve to continue heat in one another. We may quicken one another, while we join in worshipping God; but deadness, coldness, or lukewarmness may seize upon the people of God, if they forsake the assembling of themselves together. It is more edifying, and therefore to be preferred.
2. Public ordinances are a better security against apostasy than private.
2. Public ordinances are a better security against apostasy than private.
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. 26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
In times of compromise, this is especially pertinent. He that wants the public ordinances, whatever private means he enjoys, is in danger of apostasy.
Possible risk of idolatry
Possible risk of idolatry
David was as much in the private duties of God’s worship as any, while he was in banishment; yet, because he was thereby deprived of the public ordinances, he looked upon himself as in great danger of idolatry:
1 Samuel 26:19 (ESV)
19..., for they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the Lord, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’
3. The examples of the most renowned servants of God have preferred public worship before private.
3. The examples of the most renowned servants of God have preferred public worship before private.
1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! 2 My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.
10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
It was so in the judgment of those who were guided by an infallible Spirit; those who had most converse with God, and knew most of the mind of God; and those who had experience of both, and were in all respects the best, the most competent judges. This was David’s heart . Longing, nothing else could satisfy. Fainting, it was his life; he was ready to faint; to die, for want of it. “For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness”
David was at this time a king, either actually or at least anointed. Yet, he professes he had rather be a doorkeeper where he might enjoy God in public, than a king where deprived of public worship. He would choose rather to sit at the threshold, as the original is, than to sit on a throne in the tents of wickedness; in those wicked, heathenish places where God was not publicly worshipped.
The apostles also, and early Christians bear record of this. How careful were they of taking all opportunities that the word might be preached, and the Lord worshipped in public! How many hazards did they run; how many dangers; how many deaths did they expose themselves to by attempting to preach Christ in public! Their safety, their liberty, and their lives were not so dear to them as the public worship; whereas, if they would have been contented to have served the Lord in secret, it is probable they might have enjoyed themselves in peace and safety. The Lord, how much soever above us, did not think himself above ordinances, though he knew them then expiring; nor did he withdraw from public worship, though then corrupted. Nay, he exhorts his disciples to hear them who publicly taught in Moses’s chair, though they had himself, a far better teacher. You find him frequently in the synagogues, in the temple, and always at the Passover. His zeal for public worship was such, as they apply that of the psalmist to him, “The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.”
Do you live as if a day in his court is better then a thousand elsewhere?
4. Public worship is the most available for the procuring of the greatest mercies, and preventing and removing the greatest judgments.
4. Public worship is the most available for the procuring of the greatest mercies, and preventing and removing the greatest judgments.
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; 16 gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.
The greatest mercies are those that are most available and of most benefit to an entire nation or church. Public worship is the most effective in declaring the Lord’s mercies, for example, in diverting corporate calamities. An example of this is Joel 2:15-16📷.
2 Chronicles 20:4, 9 , 15, 28
4 And Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord; from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.
9 ‘If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you—for your name is in this house—and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.’
15 And he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s.
28 They came to Jerusalem with harps and lyres and trumpets, to the house of the Lord.
Jehoshaphat also serves as an example
A corporate declaration was made, seeking the Lord’s mercy. And a corporate mercy was granted.
The Lord provided an extensive corporate mercy to Nineveh in response to the preaching of Jonah to the nation (Jonah 3:4-5, 10).
Peter was spared by the mercies of God through the corporate prayer of the church (Acts 12:5). The church received an animated corporate blessing in response to their corporate prayer (Acts 4:31).
We have seen this or heard the stories of God doing great acts of mercy for his people, for our nation I would say that had it not been for the prayers of the Church would God have allowed this nation so many years of wealth?
5. The precious blood of Christ is most interested in public worship, and that must needs be most valuable which has most interest in that which is of infinite value.
5. The precious blood of Christ is most interested in public worship, and that must needs be most valuable which has most interest in that which is of infinite value.
Ephesians 4:6–16 (ESV)
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says,
“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”
9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
The grace of Christ’s finished work on the cross seems to have higher influence on public worship than private. In corporate worship, Christ is uniquely recalled as crucified before our eyes (e.g. in preaching and the Lord’s Supper). As such, we are reminded that we are the purchased of Christ, and thus the gifts of his triumph over sin and Satan. In Ephesians 4, Paul pulls from the idea that triumphant conquerors would distribute gifts among the citizens.
Those gifts, in the church, are public officers, and consequently public ordinances to be administered by those officers (vv. 11-12). How valuable are those ordinances, which are the purchase of that precious blood, and which are the gifts Christ reserved for the glory of his triumph!
Be neglecting to be part of the fellowship of the saints you turn aside the gifts from God, the gifts of the word, the gifts of your pastor, the gifts of fellowship, the spiritual nourishment that is the Lord’s Supper.
Do you find your faith dry? Are you spurning the gifts of your heavenly father? There is a feast to be had, but you must be present to partake!
We experience this today with those we love
We experience this today with those we love
We have many instances nearer home to confirm this. Is not the rejecting of public ordinances the great step to the woeful apostasies amongst us? Who is there falls off from the truth and holiness of the gospel into licentious opinions and practices, that has not first fallen off from the public ordinances? Who is there in these times that has made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience, who has not first cast the public worship of God overboard? The sad issue of forsaking the public assemblies (too visible in the apostasy of divers professors) should teach us this truth, that public ordinances are the great security against apostasy, a greater security than private duties, and therefore to be preferred.
Public worship stabilizes us from being tossed to and fro (Eph. 4:14📷).
14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
No wonder if those that reject the means fall short of the end; no wonder if they be tossed to and fro, till they have nothing left but wind and froth. This was the means which Christ prescribed to the church, that she might not fall away.
Believing is the key to Piety
Believing is the key to Piety
Benediction
Benediction
Jude 24–25 (ESV): Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen