Pastoral Letter 226
Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,
Grace and peace to you all in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
When I woke up this morning and as usual checked my email, the first one was from Penny, and she has written: “What a triumph! Great documentary, great audience. Thank you so much for inviting me to attend”. Naturally she was referring to the Documentary “The Golden Chain of Mercy”, which was Premiered last night in Sydney, in Event Cinemas, Top Ryde, on the Opening Gala Night of the Armenian Film Festival. It was a Sold-Out session with almost four hundred in attendance, including some from St. Andrew’s. The film which ran for 71 minutes was well received and almost every single individual made a positive comment about the production and the story line at the conclusion of the film. I was pleased to see some of the Uniting Church leaders at the screening, who joined us for the night, and they were so pleased to be there. Beside the historians, archival clips and photos, narration and the impressive music in the film, St. Andrew’s was featured with a brief part of one of our Sunday Services and could clearly hear the voices of Penny, Frank and Mark in the film, as the voices of the humanitarians and the witness ANZAC soldiers. Before the screening in my address, I said that I hope that the audience will find this groundbreaking documentary as fascinating as I do. Now, I am sure that they did. It was a great success for the Armenian Film Festival organisers as well the AMAA (Armenian Missionary Association of Australia) as the screening was in partnership.
I am glad to let you know that the film will be rescreened and if you want to see it and not to miss, please secure your tickets for the rescreening of the film on Sunday 25 August 2024 at 3:00 pm as soon as possible. Please go the following link:
https://www.stickytickets.com.au/gvh0u/syd__the_golden_chain_of_mercy.aspx
Our church programs and activities continue as usual, Sunday Services, Time4U, Movie/Pizza Nights, Father’s Day, the coming Spring Fashion Parade. In September will have guest preachers. On Sunday 15 September, the Lane Cove Community Chaplain, Liam McKenna will take the service, while I will be away in Armenia and the following Sunday, 22 September, the Presbytery Chairman, Rev. Keith Garner, will visit us and deliver the message. Please note and make sure to join us.
If you are not able to join us for worship, please light a candle and worship with us following to the attached Order of Service.
Here are some prayer points for this week:
- Pray for the sick, the poor, the homeless, refugees and those who feel lonely.
- Especially continue to pray for Virginia, knowing that the doctors have agreed with the family to do further chemotherapy, which is helping.
- Pray for those who are under the pressure of financial burdens and struggling to make ends meet.
- Pray for world peace, especially for the Middle East, Palestine, Israel and Lebanon.
- Pray for the Khanjian family and the AMAA, as the mourn the passing away of Mr. Zaven Khanjian, the Executive Director of AMAA. Funeral will be held next Friday (Saturday 3:00 am Sydney time.
Best Regards
In Christ
Krikor
MESSAGE
1 Kings 3:1-15
Solomon had just been anointed king and his father David had just died. God came to Solomon in a dream and in that dream, He says to Solomon: “Ask for whatever you want me to give you”. Solomon’s answer would reveal to God what was most important in his life.
If God were to come to us today and say: “Ask for whatever you want me to give you“, what would our answer be? Good health, a good job, a happy family, money? What is it we long for the most in our life?
Solomon’s answer is based on a number of things. We will look at these things that determined his answer and as we do, ask ourselves if these things are true about us as well.
1. Solomon loved the Lord and live for Him
Verse 3 tells us that Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the statutes of his father David. Those statues could be summed up by what David had told Solomon in 1 Kings 2:3: “Observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses“.
One of the big factors of what we live for is whether or not we love God. The evidence of that love will be a desire to live according to His word. The text might make it seem that Solomon was almost perfectly obedient. But it also makes David seem so. Solomon says that David was righteous and upright in heart. And we know that David committed some terrible sins – even murder and adultery. And we read that Solomon married an Egyptian. God had forbidden inter-marriages. And he worshipped God on the high places where Baal had been worshipped. Both Solomon and David had divided hearts.
But they loved the Lord and sought to live for Him. And especially as we know with David, there was repentance and deep sorrow over their sin
Do we love God? Do we strive to live for Him? When we sin are we truly sorry for our sin?
2. Solomon set his priorities right
To make our priorities right we need to have a correct view of God. We need to know God. Solomon says: “You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, …. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day” (3:6).
Solomon knew that God was a God of great kindness. The word for great kindness means mercy and favour. It refers to God’s covenant favour and mercy. It means that God is faithful to His promises. For us to place our priorities in the right order and to live according to these priorities, we need to know God’s promises and that He keeps His promises. That means that we know that God will work out things for our good. It means that He will bless us when we walk according to His word. And that He is merciful when we sin and turn back to Him. That means that we do not need to spend our lives striving for our rights and for possessions. It means that we live thankful lives and trust God in all things. It means we can live for Him rather than ourselves. Set and have the right priorities.
3. Solomon knew his role
Solomon states his role in verse 1 Kings 3:7: “Now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David”.
He tells us three things about his role.
a. His role has been defined by God – You made him king.
b. He has a role toward God – he is God’s servant and all that he does should be done in order to serve God.
c. He has a role which defines specifically how he is to serve God. That role is to be king – to govern the people.
One of the reasons we may fail to fulfill the role that God has given us is a sense of inadequacy. Solomon says in verse 3: “But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties”.
How can I be a good minister or leader in the church? What difference can I make, I’m only one person?
In Exodus 3:11 Moses said to God: “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?“
And Jeremiah said the good news is that God does not usually choose superstars to do His work.
And Paul said in 1 Cor 1:27: “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong”.
4. Solomon admitted his inadequacy & offered himself
When we come to God and admit we are inadequate to do the work then He can work with us. When we humbly offer ourselves to God in service, then we are open to His teaching us and shaping and moulding us to be the kind of servant that He wants us to be. To do that we need to be willing to give the priority to God and surrender ourselves to Him, because He is our priority.
But if we feel that our lives are full – we have no time to do anything else. I ask you two things?
What are your priorities? What or who comes first?
The order should be God, spouse, children, friends and fellow believers, work and so on. What is your order?
But there are a few factors that will help us to get our lives in order and to set our priorities.
We considered what it is that fill up our lives. The big items that we think about the most, that we work for the hardest, the things we would fight for the most if someone tried to take them away. The things that are our priorities.
We considered that God and serving Him should be most important. He should fill most if not all of our lives, our time and our desires. If we fill our lives with the smaller, less important things first, then there is no room for Him. Place Him first and there will be space for the lesser desires of our hearts as well.
God talked to Solomon in a dream “Ask for whatever you want me to give you“. Solomon could have asked for anything in the world. His answer, though, would show that God and serving Him was his priority.
How would we answer God? What would we ask for? Solomon had the right priority because of a number of attitudes or beliefs that he had.
We consider that Solomon realized his dependence on God. It is one thing to be humble and to realize that we cannot do something on our own. It is another thing to ask for help. How many times have we not realized that we needed help?
But God invites us to bring our needs and burdens to Him. That’s why God told us to bring our biggest need to Him. The need for forgiveness and salvation.
Jesus said: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Mat 11:28-30
Solomon knew He could not do the job of governing God’s people on his own. But instead of walking away from the role or hiding among the baggage as Saul did, He asked God to enable Him to do the work. “Give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong”.
5. Solomon had a discerning heart
Solomon needed a discerning heart.
What do you need to do what God is calling you to do?
Then God will not just be a priority in our minds, but our actions will reflect that priority.
Solomon also realized that God was the owner of His people. He asked: “Who is able to govern this great people of yours?” In other words, I am the king, but these people do not belong to me. Solomon already had said that he himself belonged to God. He called himself God’s servant.
What Solomon showed was an attitude that many Christians fail to have. We often consider what we have as belonging only to ourselves.
If we have an attitude that our lives, our possessions, all we have belongs to God, it will affect our priorities. It will mean that we will seek to glorify God in all things. Rather than ask, what is in this for me, we will say: “Lord, how I can use what you entrusted to me to build up your kingdom?“
God was pleased that Solomon did not ask for long life or wealth or the death of his enemies. For it showed that his desire was for the Lord.
We live in a materialistic society in which we strive to get more for ourselves. We compare what we have to others. God tells us that we are not to follow the way of the world but rather to seek His kingdom and to seek to build it up.
Jesus shared a parable in Luke 12:16-34 and told them this parable:
“The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”‘ But God said to him, ‘You fool! …
To say and to do the right thing, we need wisdom, God’s wisdom.
Amen!