Previous Service
Welcome
“Lord, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, here on earth as it is in heaven, Amen”
Worship
Word
Please read: John 14
“If you love Me, keep my commandments.”
John 14:15
I started last week by stating that, “the greatest help ever, to our mental well-being, is to know, to realise, to experience, that God loves us, even that God so-o-o-o loves us. If we could start each day with this deeply imprinted on our hearts how different life would be for so many of us.”
The other side of this ‘coin’ is that we must also love Him and as it says in the text, we do this by obeying His commandments.
The one time, as a believer, that I thought I was losing my sanity was the time I disobeyed God’s call on my life to go to India on a two year mission. Following my disobedience, the decline didn’t happen immediately but slowly, slowly, only to get to the ‘pig-sty’ (cf. Luke 15:15) and realise something was not right in my life, as someone once said, “the cost of obedience is small compared with the cost of disobedience.”
I was helped by the counsel of an older brother in the Lord for whom I am eternally grateful and after repenting and obeying the Lord’s call, slowly, slowly, slowly, I started to know His closeness again and His peace that passes all understanding,
The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:7
As Spurgeon said,
“A man is not far from the gates of heaven when he is fully submissive to the Lord’s will.”
C H Spurgeon
I’m not saying that everyone who has mental health challenges is disobeying the Lord, rather this is what happened to me. If it helps anyone, that’s great. If it doesn’t help, that’s okay also. In this passage Jesus is starting to introduce some important references to the Holy Spirit (John 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-15) and the fact that when He goes away He will not leave them as orphans but He will come to them (John 14:18). He will do this by sending the Holy Spirit to them (John 16:7), and such is true for all believers. The word ‘love’ occurs eight times in the short passage John 14:15-24 emphasising it’s great significance and the overriding importance of “If you love me keep my commandments” (John 14:15). The Holy Spirit helps us to love Jesus by obeying His commandments and doing the will of the Father. In this way great things take place in the world, as the Church does the will of the Lord.
Quote of the week
“The tiniest fragments of obedience, and heaven opens up, and the profoundest truths of God are yours straight away. God will never reveal more truth about Himself till you obey what you know already”.
Oswald Chambers
Verse of the week
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
James 1:22
Let’s Pray
Heavenly Father, we praise You for Your great love for all the people of this world. Lord Jesus Christ we praise Your for Your great obedience to Your Father’s will, even to death on a cross. Holy Spirit we praise You for helping us to obey the Father’s will. Father God, help Your church to continually obey You for Your glory that much good be wrought in this world in Jesus Christ, Amen!