REMEMBERING - TO WORSHIP - Fitzroy Gathering Reflection 8.11.2020
10/11/2020
This is the reflection part to the Fitzroy Gathering on November 8, 2020. With the restrictions that Coronavirus demands we have gone for these smaller gatherings to be reflective... quiet songs and more time to reflect on the Scriptures and morning on-line service.
I had preached on Joshua 24 on Remembrance Sunday. I tried to do two things. First of all remember:
JOSHUA 24: 2-6 (THE MESSAGE)
2-6 “This is what God, the God of Israel, says: A long time ago your ancestors, Terah and his sons Abraham and Nahor, lived to the east of the River Euphrates. They worshiped other gods. I took your ancestor Abraham from the far side of The River. I led him all over the land of Canaan and multiplied his descendants. I gave him Isaac. Then I gave Isaac Jacob and Esau. I let Esau have the mountains of Seir as home, but Jacob and his sons ended up in Egypt. I sent Moses and Aaron. I hit Egypt hard with plagues and then led you out of there. I brought your ancestors out of Egypt. You came to the sea, the Egyptians in hot pursuit with chariots and cavalry, to the very edge of the Red Sea!
I brought that forward to us now and asked that in the quiet with our eyes closed we found ourselves at the foot of Christ’s cross… and remember…
ISAIAH 53: 2-9 (THE MESSAGE)
The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
on him, on him.
He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn’t say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
LISTEN: You Did That For Me by Pierce Pettis
Don’t have to be ashamed
Don’t have to hang my head,
Shoulder the blame
Wondering if my life’s been in vain
Don’t have to be ashamed
Man of sorrow
Well-acquainted with grief
Dragged to the city dump
Spread-eagle on a cross beam
Propped up like a scarecrow,
Nailed like a thief
You did that for me
You did that for me
You wore the chains so I could be free
You did that for me
From remembering Joshua moves to present and future. Decisions we make now, impact what happens next. For Joshua that was all about worship
JOSHUA 24: 19-22 (THE MESSAGE)
19-20 Then Joshua told the people: “You can’t do it; you’re not able to worship God. He is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He won’t put up with your fooling around and sinning. When you leave God and take up the worship of foreign gods, he’ll turn right around and come down on you hard. He’ll put an end to you—and after all the good he has done for you!”
21 But the people told Joshua: “No! No! We worship God!”
22 And so Joshua addressed the people: “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen God for yourselves—to worship him.”
And they said, “We are witnesses.”
Paul does something similar in Romans 12. After Paul walks them through the theology of the Gospel he starts Romans 12 with… Therefore in view of God’s mercy… After we remember says Paul we need to make decision now…
ROMANS 12: 1-2 (THE MESSAGE)
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
LISTEN - Instrument by Pierce Pettis
Let me be an instrument of your peace
Let me be a tool in your hand
Crooked and warped though I might be
Let me do some good here while I can
Let me be a vessel for your grace
Let me the first one to forgive
Though the world may curse me to my face
Let me learn to bear it like you did
Make me faithful, make me grateful
Make me useful in this life
All this living without giving
Give me one more chance to try