Deuteronomy 28: 1-14 1 1 "And if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments which I command you this day, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God. 3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your beasts, the increase of your cattle, and the young of your flock. 5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading-trough. 6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. 7 "The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you; they shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways. 8 The LORD will command the blessing upon you in your barns, and in all that you undertake; and he will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you. 9 The LORD will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and walk in his ways. 10 And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of you. 11 And the LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground, within the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The LORD will open to you his good treasury the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the LORD will make you the head, and not the tail; and you shall tend upward only, and not downward; if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day, being careful to do them, 14 and if you do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
2 Acts 28: 17-end 17 After three days he called together the local leaders of the Jews; and when they had gathered, he said to them, "Brethren, though I had done nothing against the people or the customs of our fathers, yet I was delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. 18 When they had examined me, they wished to set me at liberty, because there was no reason for the death penalty in my case. 19 But when the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar--though I had no charge to bring against my nation. 20 For this reason therefore I have asked to see you and speak with you, since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain." 21 And they said to him, "We have received no letters from Judea about you, and none of the brethren coming here has reported or spoken any evil about you. 22 But we desire to hear from you what your views are; for with regard to this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against." 23 When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in great numbers. And he expounded the matter to them from morning till evening, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the prophets. 24 And some were convinced by what he said, while others disbelieved. 25 So, as they disagreed among themselves, they departed, after Paul had made one statement: "The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet: 26 'Go to this people, and say, You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive. 27 For this people's heart has grown dull, and their ears are heavy of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn for me to heal them.' 28 Let it be known to you then that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen." 29 * [No text] 30 And he lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, 31 preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ quite openly and unhindered.
3 This sermon forms the third of a series with my last two sermons at evensong, and the theme of the series is: witnessing to our Lord Jesus, and ways our enemy the devil will try to stop us being effective witnesses. A few weeks ago, we were looking at Jesus words to His disciples before He ascended into heaven about proclaiming the Gospel to all nations, about being His witnesses, to the ends of the earth. If we want opportunities to witness to Him, we only have to ask in prayer for those opportunities Lord Jesus, give me opportunities today to glorify your name give me opportunities to witness to you! So then we don t have to make opportunities to witness, just recognise them, when they just happen, as God answers your prayer! I also suggested that there might be some listening who were brought up to think of God a bit like the Queen: we may love Him and serve Him, but we shouldn t expect to hear from Him personally. We asked the question, How can you possibly bear witness to what you haven t personally experienced? The answer is simple you can t. I said then, and I say again today: God is not distant or remote! God s word the Bible says that nothing could be further from the truth. The Bible says that He knows and cares about every detail about you even the number of hairs on your head. God s word to you tonight is that He has so much more for you than you have yet experienced. God s word to you tonight is that he loves you and that he wants with you a close and personal and intimate loving relationship. James 4:8 Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Then a couple of weeks ago, in the NT reading, Jesus talked about putting your hand to the plough, and not looking back. If you re ploughing, and you look back, you won t plough a straight furrow, you ll veer off course. And the devil comes knocking at the door of our minds, like a dodgy double glazing salesman. He ll do his best to make us, to sell us, ways of thinking and being that ll make us ineffective as witnesses, by tempting us to focus on the past, rather than on the glorious future God intends for us. It may be that the problem is about longingly hearkening back to past sins we thought we enjoyed at the time maybe the life we had before we really knew Jesus the life we renounced when we were born again, or became Christians. It may be about wrongs done to us in the past: thoughts like, I ll forgive, but I won t forget! Brothers and sisters, that means we haven t really forgiven we need to forgive the way God forgives: as the Bible says, I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. It s worth remembering that every Sunday evening here, we say the Lord s prayer,
and ask God to forgive us in exactly the same way that we forgive those who trespass or sin against us. 4 Or the thought may be, I can t expect God to guide me I can t expect God to use me because I m the person that did that terrible thing back then and the devil tempts us to feel bad about past wrongdoings and sins we have long ago confessed and renounced, and which God has long ago forgiven and forgotten. Our NT reading this evening is about Paul, and about his very effective witnessing to Jesus in Rome, while he was waiting for his case to be heard before Caesar. His ministry was certainly effective all over the known world of the time were churches whose foundations were those who had heard the gospel from Paul, and made their own commitment to the supernatural living Jesus, inviting Him into their lives as their Saviour and Lord or Master in other words, they had become Christians. He went to Paphos in Cyprus and he talked to people about Jesus. He went to Antioch, and the local synagogue invited him to preach he talked about Jesus. When the Jews rejected the gospel, he didn t give up he went to the Gentiles there, and he talked about Jesus, and many became Christians. He went to Iconium, and he talked about Jesus, and many became Christians. He created such a stir that there was a major plot to kill by stoning... He went to Lystra, and he talked about Jesus. They stoned him, and left him for dead outside the city. When he recovered, he went on to Derbe and he talked to them about Jesus and so it goes on. The reading tonight is about events towards the end of Paul s ministry. And he lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ quite openly and unhindered. Above all, Paul was single minded, wasn t he? So what s the opposite of single mindedness? Have you ever had a decision to make and you were undecided about it? Sitting in the pub looking at the menu Should I have the burger or the fish? Part of me thinks, I really want to order the burger, because I really like their burgers Another part of me thinks, But I haven t had fish for ages I really want to order the fish But I had the burger here last time and it was REALLY good! But that bloke on the next table s got the fish, and he s really enjoying it
I m in two minds about it 5 That ever happen to you? Of course it did. And it s fine to be undecided about whether to have the burger or the fish. For more important issues, we need to get off the fence, we need to make a definite decision and stick to it. Many of us here have been the bride or the groom at your wedding. It s a big day. You ve been through your doubts and your fears, and now you ve decided that you re ready to take the big step. Do you remember that moment when you were asked, Do you take this person to be your lawful wedded husband or wife? For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, till death us do part? You had to reply to that. How many people here said, Well I ll try! How many people here said, Well hopefully! Of course not. That would not have been a foundation for a marriage, would it? It s no good going into marriage when you re still in 2 minds about it! We made a bold and definite statement: I do! This carton contains pure orange juice that means nothing added: no apple juice, no pear fruit, no preservatives, no colouring, no flavourings it s pure. That s what Jesus meant when he said, Blest are the pure in heart for they will see God. And our enemy the devil will do his best to tempt us to be in 2 minds about serving Jesus. I really want to serve the Lord but part of me God s word, the Bible, calls that Double minded. In the Old Testament, Psalm 119:113 says: I hate double-minded men In the NT, in James chapter 4: Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you men of double mind. (James 4: 8) We wonder why we are not seeing our friends and neighbours coming to Christ we wonder why our prayers and our witnessing and our ministry are ineffective? We wonder why we lack the courage to witness. James chapter 1 tells us that we must not suppose that a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways, will receive anything from the Lord.
6 I forgive others, but I won t forget! That s double minded. I really want to witness if only there were opportunities but I m not going to ask or pray for those opportunities double minded. I m a Christian, and Jesus is Lord of my life, But I still hearken back to those old sins double minded. So what exactly can we do about it? The evangelist Bill Bright tells of an old Native American (what we used to call Red Indian) Christian who said to his pastor, It s as though there s two dogs inside me a white dog and a black dog and they re always fighting! The pastor said, Which one s going to win? The old man paused and looked thoughtful. Then he said, The one that I feed. We can t control who knocks on our front door at home but we can control whether or not we say, Come in! Take a seat and relax! Have a cup of tea! That s called entertaining a guest, isn t it? Temptation will happen even Jesus was tempted and He rebuked the devil. When our enemy the devil knocks on the door of our mind with doubts and temptations, our job, Christian, is not to entertain those thoughts our job is to send them packing, and to send the devil packing, and as a deliberate act of will, to turn our attention back to the living Lord of our lives to Him who said, I am the way, the truth and the life. So that s the secret of Paul s powerful effective ministry! In following and serving the Lord Jesus, he was single minded about it! In 2 Corinthians he says, We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. In his letter to the Philippians, he says this: One thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what s ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3: 13b) Let us pray. Father we give you thanks and praise because you have said in your Word, Resist the devil and he will flee from you. * Praise and Glory to you, Lord Jesus, because when you were tempted, you rebuked the devil, and turned your mind to the truth that is the Word of God. Come, Holy Spirit, give me the grace now and in the days ahead, to root out double mindedness; make me single-minded in my desire to witness and to serve Jesus, my beloved Lord and Master, Saviour and friend. AMEN