Pastoral Letter 131
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Grace, Peace and Love to you all in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Last Sunday after the Service, again I headed to the Willoughby Armenian Evangelical Uniting Church to take the Service, covering for Rev. Hagop Sarkissian, who is on his annual leave. I have committed to take five Sundays till 11 September. The plan is going smoothly and after this Sunday, I have two more Sundays to cover. I am glad that we are extending our helping hand to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
All the remaining items from the Market Morning 2022 have been sorted out. Some packed for next year’s Market Morning, two full carloads of books were taken to the Lifeline Book Depot in West Linfield and two full carloads of items were delivered to Vinnies during the week, which were received with big thanks. Once again thank you for everyone, but especially to Virginia and Frank for their hard work.
Our next Combined Service with Lane Cove Uniting will be here at St. Andrew’s Longueville on Sunday 18 September 9:30 am, followed by Morning Tea, during which we will celebrate Father’s Day and have the Great Outback Fundraiser BBQ. The raised funds plus the plates of the day will be donated to the Frontier Services.
Be safe and well, continue to pray, remembering those who need care, support and love and let me know if any member of the congregation that you know of needs our help and prayers.
If you will not be able to join us at our face-to-face service, you can worship with us at home. Please light a candle and follow the attached Order of Service.
Here are some more prayer points for this week:
- Pray for the poor, the sick, the vulnerable, the struggling and the stressed.
- Pray for those who are unwell and struggling with different kinds of medical issues.
- Pray for world peace and ask for God’s blessings.
- Pray for and with the Sydney Central Coast Presbytery as it charters through challenging times.
- Pray for the hope that God gives.
Please let me know if you or anyone else has prayer points.
Best Regards,
Krikor
MESSAGE
Do Good and Please God
And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
Hebrews 13:16
Doing good was something always spoken of in the early Church. Believers were commended in practical ways to do good deeds; help the poor and the needy and care for the sick. Requirements for Presbyters, Deacons, those in leadership, was that they be servants and rich in good deeds. Giving to the poor was not an option in the New Testament, but rather one of the chief ways Jesus Christ emphasised dealing with money. He talked and taught about it and encouraged them to do so. We have many references and several examples in the Scripture, where Jesus talks about and demonstrates it in practical ways.
Also, the Apostle Paul followed this pattern and emphasised this as one of the traditions and principles of the Church. He appealed to the believers to help those sisters and brothers in Christ, who are in need. The best example is the Macedonians collecting money to help their sisters and brothers in Jerusalem.
This is a continual God-given responsibility and ministry of the Church. What a joy it is to live for others and help the least and not always secure only for us. When we realize the Heavenly Father is taking care of all of our needs, we will be more open to share this care and love with the poor.
We are commanded to continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise. To continually praise is to do it more than just in a church service on Sunday morning for an hour or so. But continually is 24/7.
Similar good deeds and actions are Praise Actions that can fill our days with worship to God. These Praise Actions will help us to take our worship beyond Sunday. So, let’s ask the Lord to bless our time and help us to do our best to help those who are in need.
As we reflect on both passages that we heard this morning, we can summarise the message in the following three main points. These are action plan to be implemented by those who proclaim that they are disciples and followers of Christ.
1. Confess the Name of Jesus
This morning I want you to think about something we love. If we love something, it is normally evident in our conversation. We talk about the person or thing that we love even when the conversation does not really involve that thing or person. I love to spend time with my son and talk about things that interest us both. No matter what we start talking about, the conversation eventually turns to sport; be it rugby, soccer or Formula 1, though in the last ten months his twin babies have taken over. We both love sports and now our gorgeous twins, so when we talk, naturally our thoughts are directed towards that, and we talk about them.
Similarly, as Christians we should talk about God that we believe in, as we affirm our faith in Him by saying the Creed, the Nicene or Apostles’ Creed, as we did this morning. We confess that Jesus is our Lord and Saviour, and we are His disciples. If we love God with all our heart, mind, strength and soul, He should be in our conversations taking a central place.
Why do we put God in the midst of our conversation? It shows His importance to us, our gratefulness for what He has done, and our willingness to be unashamed for the Gospel. It also paves the way for sharing our faith and spreading the Gospel. And, to top it all off, it pleases God. When we start including God in our talk, it is a type of worship.
2. Do Good
In Luke, chapter 18, a rich, young ruler comes to Jesus and says: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus’ reply is as follows. “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God.” Jesus goes on to tell the man to keep all of the Ten Commandments and tells the man to give to the poor. In order for us to do good deeds, we must go through the only One who is good. We must do the deeds God tells us is good. We must keep ourselves pure and obey the His commandments. That is a good deed and is thus considered good. We must give to the poor.
Doing good is a form of worship, and if we show no action of doing good deeds before men, we have no faith. There are an abundance of opportunities to do good deeds – all we need to do is pick one and start doing it. Doing good for people is not a chore; it is an act of worship.
Here at St. Andrew’s, we always think of the needy and the poor, that’s why after every fundraising function, we allocate some money to a certain charity. We regularly give to the Exodus Foundation twice a year, we support the Street Work, Frontier Services and many others. We support a family in Artsakh, offer our facilities free of charge to the Armenian Missionary Association of Australia to host gatherings for the refugees and to hold its fundraising activities to support those who are in need.
By doing this, we follow the commands of Jesus and do good deeds in God’s name and
3. Share with Others
We are always better off when we are willing to share everything God has given us. Just think about it. Yes, I know it is difficult to share our possessions with everyone as the early church did. But imagine what happens when everyone shares what they have, the world will be heaven.
I love how this principal is laid out in Scripture. 1 John 3:17-18 tells us this. “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on Him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear friends, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” Basically, God has given us everything we need to survive in this world. The catch is this. We must make sure that if He has blessed us with more than what we need, that we share it with those who are less fortunate so that they are not left in need. After all, it is God who has given us all things. He gave us the mind to achieve great things. He gave us our abilities to earn a living. He blesses us with more than we deserve. All things truly belong to God and not to us, so we need to share. When we get to the point where we share even our most cherished and loved possessions, we are truly worshipping God.
There is so much worshipping to be done! We have such a good God that we don’t have enough hours in the day to praise Him for all the things He has done, but the church must start by moving its praise outside its walls. Worship service is more than just an hour on Sundays. We are to develop a lifestyle of continuous praise and supporting others that lasts all day, every day.
How do we do this?
We take the first step of getting into God’s Word and praying every day.
Then, we take these Praise Actions.
We confess the Name of Jesus by including God in our daily conversations.
We do good deeds by following the example of Jesus’ ministry.
We share with others what God has so richly blessed us with, and we submit to our authorities.
We can have a life of continuous worship, if we apply these Praise Actions to our lives.
I hope and pray that the church will do its best to do good deeds, help the poor and the needy and please God.
Amen!