Proclaim His Name
Notes
Transcript
Greeting - Prayer
Greeting - Prayer
Song
For the choir director: on the Gittith. A psalm of David. Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your name throughout the earth! You have covered the heavens with your majesty. From the mouths of infants and nursing babies, you have established a stronghold on account of your adversaries in order to silence the enemy and the avenger. When I observe your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you set in place, what is a human being that you remember him, a son of man that you look after him? You made him little less than God and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all the sheep and oxen, as well as the animals in the wild, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea that pass through the currents of the seas. Lord, our Lord, how magnificent is your name throughout the earth!
Song
Prayer
On October 31, 1517 in Wittenberg Germany a man by the name of Martin Luther Posted the following notice:
The Ninety-five Theses by Martin Luther October 31, 1517, Wittenberg, Germany
The Ninety-Five Theses The Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences
Posted: October 31, 1517 The Eve of All Saints Day Castle Church Wittenberg, Germany For oral debate on November 1, 1517
Out of love and zeal for truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following theses will be publicly discussed at Wittenberg under the chairmanship of the reverend father, Martin Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology and regularly appointed Lecturer on these subjects at that place. He requests that those who cannot be present to debate orally with us will do so by letter.
This man who was well studied in the word of God had come to a point where what he read in scripture was at odds with the tradition and practice of the Roman Catholic Church. As he lifted the word and looked out at the world around him through the lens of scripture he had concluded that there were certain practices in the church that were in need of challenging.
Out of his love and zeal for God he could not be silent so he sets up a time and place under the watchful eye respected men in which he would debate these theses publicly. This would act and ones like it, would be champions of the truth and would lead to the beginning of what we practice today as Christians.
When we look at the scriptures there are many warnings to know the truth, to evaluate everything in the light of the truth, to hold fast to the truth but we find in the scriptures and in the history of the church that at all times there are those that would distort and confuse the truth for their own gain.
There were indeed false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved ways, and the way of truth will be maligned because of them. They will exploit you in their greed with made-up stories. Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.
There words are filled with promises that lead astray and distract from truly following God.
These people are springs without water, mists driven by a storm. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them. For by uttering boastful, empty words, they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them.
When the word is not held in its proper position in the life of the people, the church, then the conduct of God’s household will drift from what is holy to what is worldly.
But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
There is a way that God’s people are to conduct themselves. There is right and wrong. Good and bad. but sometimes it is hard to know what is right. When you walk into a group that claims to be a Christian it can be hard discern if they are conducting themselves well. Like Luther we should be a people of evaluation and discussion.
As I thought about Halloween over the years and talked to others it can be difficult to know what is right, what is permissible but not beneficial and what is just wrong. Today is one of those days where the world and the church struggle against one another.
The scripture that seemed to come to mind for tonight was Romans 12:1-3
Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
The mind and life of one of God’s children is to be one that thinks and acts in light of what God had done.
Of the mercies he has given to each and every person who calls on Jesus’ name to be saved.
For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
All of God’s adopted children are those that call on his name. They look to heaven and call out in his name to be saved by the sacrifice of Jesus.
And some of you used to be like this. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Washed in the word, sanctified from corruption, justified before the moral law. These are a few of the great mercies that have been given in the name of the Lord and by his spirit.
In light of the great work, Paul urges them to present their bodies, their hands and feet as living sacrifices. To willingly and intentionally put yourself forward. Luther presented himself before the people to defend his theses. He wasn’t coerced, there was nothing in it for him, it was actually the opposite. He was responding to what God had done and as he had great passion for the truth, his actions followed his motives.
The Christian who does this is holy and pleasing before the Lord. And this is not to be a part of our mind and heart. It is not to be a sliver of our selves. It is to be the whole person.
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you except to fear the Lord your God by walking in all his ways, to love him, and to worship the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul?
There is blessing in the worship of the Lord and following his commands. What areas of our lives do we attempt to only give a portion of ourselves. Instead of all of our self.
“If you carefully obey my commands I am giving you today, to love the Lord your God and worship him with all your heart and all your soul, I will provide rain for your land in the proper time, the autumn and spring rains, and you will harvest your grain, new wine, and fresh oil.
It is also a life that is a continual worship. There are no holidays from this worship.
Therefore, through him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name. Don’t neglect to do what is good and to share, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.
People were created to worship God. To bring reverence and adoration to God. To speak of the greatness and affection that they have for God. Don’t we tend to compartmentalize when and where we worship. Do we not give worship to others. We look to God’s word and we really do not look at scriptures like
Do not have other gods besides me. Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. Do not bow in worship to them, and do not serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me,
The foolishness of men revealed in their worship of things other than God.
For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.
Gratitude for the work of God leads to the praise and worship of him. It leads to a heart and mind that elevates the thinking to the heavenly places, the things to come, and in the light of that raise their voices and give their lives to the will of God.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
Do not be conformed to the world. Like clay that has been taken from one shape to the next. Looking more and more like the world. The Christian is to be transformed by the renewing of the mind, the active work of the Spirit as it takes from where we are and makes us new. The work of God that makes us see the world through the lens of truth and then he gives the power to be changed.
In view of this, we always pray for you that our God will make you worthy of his calling, and by his power fulfill your every desire to do good and your work produced by faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified by you, and you by him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is the renewing of the mind that brings us here tonight. Why do we gather as God’s people on a night where the rest of the world parties? Because we want to walk worthy of his calling. We are experiencing his power to separate us from the world. To fulfill our desire to do good and so that Jesus name may be glorified.
The transforming of the mind give new desires to the heart, as the truth of God’s word gives us the will of God for our lives, and in light of that will we live for him. We come to know the good, pleasing, perfect will of God.
So in light of his mercies, were give ourselves as living sacrifices. And so we are to be filled with the Spirit.
And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit: speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music with your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.
Always giving thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ. And Praising his name.
Sing to the Lord, you his faithful ones, and praise his holy name.
Sing about the glory of his name; make his praise glorious.
Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and lyre.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name.
Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing praise to his name, for it is delightful.
Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted. His majesty covers heaven and earth.
Tonight I want to be a word of encouragement, to continue to make decisions like to one to be here tonight. To study the word and to be ready to discuss the truth contained in them.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Children, your parents have brought you here...
Adults
Luther
A song of ascents. Now bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord who stand in the Lord’s house at night! Lift up your hands in the holy place and bless the Lord! May the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.
For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Let us pray.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Blessing/Benediction
5 Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus,
