WIC WEEKLY 28 January 2018

Warsaw International Church Mobile +48 601 331 032 Worship every Sunday at ul. Miodowa 21 (near Old Town) at 11:00 AM Entrance from Schillera Street Email: pastor@wic.org.pl Website: http://www.wic.org.pl WIC WEEKLY 28 January 2018 Our news and prayer requests We are still in Ecumenical Prayer Week for Christian Unity (18-25 January), and ecumenical services are being held in Warsaw each day of the week. As an ecumenical church ourselves, we join in the prayers for the unity of Christians, wherever they may be. Our Annual Congregation Meeting will take place this Sunday. New members are also intending to join Warsaw International Church, and we look forward to the baptism of our Iranian friend Khashayar Nemati during the service on the same day. Please support Khashayar with your prayers, and please also pray for a constructive Annual Congregation Meeting. Our Fellowship Group meeting will have been held on Thursday 25 January at 6:30 pm at ul. Kredytowa 4. Last Sunday s sermon Bible reading: Exodus 3, 1-14 This story about Moses and the burning bush is one of my favourites in the Bible. I like the way it s told how Moses, when he sees the bush, thinks Now that s strange! and draws closer to it. Try to imagine this Moses he s an old man by now. Over here in Europe he would already have been living off his retirement pension for many years. But poor Moses still has to work, because they didn t have pensions in those days. He has to look after goats and sheep in a desert climate, with uninviting mountains all around. It s not even his homeland. He was brought up in Egypt, even though he was Jewish. The Israelites were being treated as slaves in Egypt maybe even building the pyramids. And as a young man, Moses had killed an Egyptian who had killed an Israelite. Moses had to flee the country, and he fled to the land of Midian present-day Jordan and part of Arabia. There he spent most of his adult life, looking after sheep and goats. He had dreamt of leading his people out of slavery, and instead he was now a tired old shepherd. Moses probably wanted to die. One day Moses sees the bush burning. He can t understand why it doesn t stop burning. Next he hears a voice calling him from the bush. And the voice says: I am your God. And you, Moses, will lead My people to freedom. What does Moses say? I m a nobody. He means it. How can God pick a tired old man to lead a nation out of Egypt? It s nonsense. But God says: I will be with you just go. What s Your name?, asks Moses. And God replies: I AM WHO I AM. Or, in a short form, I AM. I was talking to Sylvia s daughter Emma last week, and I promised to tell her a story. Emma has her own Bible in English and it seems she reads and understands it. You know, when I

was Emma s age, my mother bought me a Bible too. There was only one problem I couldn t understand it. It had lovely colour illustrations. But in those days, people were still working on a modern English Bible the New English Bible. So everyone used the King James Version. Beautiful, poetic language but it was published in 1603. As a 10-year-old boy, I couldn t understand 17 th century English. I would open the Bible, fail to understand anything, and put it back on the shelf. But one day, a strange thing happened maybe it was my own burning bush experience. I must have opened it at that same story we ve been reading Moses and the burning bush. There, in capital letters, was God s name: I AM THAT I AM (King James English). I don t know why, but it was suddenly as if I was looking into a deep ocean. It suddenly hit me that God wasn t who I thought He was. I can t remember maybe I imagined Him to be a nice old grandfather. But here, I suddenly began to realise that God has no beginning, and no end. He has always been, and He always will be. No one created Him He created everything! I can be burned up, destroyed, and God will still be there. The whole universe with its billions of galaxies can cease to exist and God will still be there. It was such an awesome feeling for me to know that God is always there. He never sleeps, He never dies. Moses must at least have had that same experience, when he heard God s name and thought about it. That s why we can rejoice in the Lord, and praise Him, as our psalm says because He is. But Friends, there is still more. In our verse of the week, at the top of your program, it says: Jesus said: I am telling you the truth. Before Abraham was born, I AM. There it is again! The Jewish people were arguing with Jesus, and Jesus says to them: Abraham saw My coming, and he was glad. And they laugh at Him. Are you crazy? You re the son of Joseph! Abraham lived 1,000 years ago and you re saying you ve seen him?! Then Jesus replies: Before Abraham was born, I AM. And the Jews know exactly what He s saying that He s claiming to be God. That s why they start throwing stones at Him because they think He s blaspheming in a terrible manner. You see, we often have a distorted view of who Jesus is even as Christians! At Christmas, people often think of Jesus as a poor helpless baby, born in a cold stable - we want to cuddle Him. And we think of the suffering Jesus though not as the pain of God, who paid the price for our sins, but as the pain of a poor young man who could have lived longer, if he had not been arrested and killed. On our crosses, Jesus is always hanging there, as though He never conquered death which a plain cross would indicate. So we feel sorry for Jesus. Here in Poland, you also see many pictures and sculptures showing a sorrowful Jesus: Chrystus frasobliwy. We want to give Him a hug and cheer Him up. We see Jesus the man, not Jesus the Word of God Himself. We see a helpless man, not the Saviour of mankind. As Christians, we should believe that Jesus Christ is indeed the great I AM. Our other two readings confirm this. Just like Moses falls to the ground before the burning bush, so John, in the Book of Revelation, falls at the feet of Jesus Christ who reveals Himself to him on the island of Patmos. And just like Moses hides his face, so Peter, James and John, on the high mountain with Jesus, fall face down on the ground when Jesus appearance changes, and His clothes become as bright as light, and His face shines like the sun. You may ask yourself, why did Jesus reveal Himself so dramatically? Of course, He does so to reveal His greatness to people. But there s also another reason God is calling people. He called the disciples to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. He called John, on the island of Patmos, to write the Book of Revelation. And He called Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Now, you may say: Oh yes, it s true that some people have a special call from God but God only calls a handful of people. I don t believe that. I think God calls everyone. I believe He calls you and me. Do you remember those words that Jesus once said: Many are called,

but few are chosen? Of course, this doesn t mean that everyone has to have a dramatic experience like Moses, or like the disciples but God does call us, in many different ways, even if we feel we are a nobody, like Moses did. The question is: do we hear Him calling? Not always. That s why we need hearing aids. I m sure many of you know I have a hearing problem it s getting worse, unfortunately, and I can t hear a thing without my hearing aids. Some people are sentenced to death they have a death sentence. I have a deaf sentence. But spiritually, we are all by nature deaf to God s call sin has made us spiritually deaf. However, God knows all this and that s why He gives us His hearing aids, in the hope that we will hear Him better. He gives us everyday experiences, in the hope that we will grow closer to Him as a result. He gives us the Bible, so we can hear His Word to us better. He gives us fellowship with Christian brothers and sisters that s a good hearing aid, because so often I hear God speaking to me through my fellow believers, and sometimes unbelievers! And He gives us prayer to get on the phone to God, and listen to what He has to say to us as we pray. My dear wife used to have a paper telephone in Sunday School, and when she lifted the receiver, it was a sign that she was going to pray and that the children should be focused on prayer too. Dear Friends, we are in the middle of Ecumenical Prayer Week for Christian Unity. Every day, for a whole week, services are being held in churches of various denominations, to which preachers from the different churches are invited. And of course, people come from the different denominations to worship in each other s churches it s completely ecumenical. The idea is to pray for Christian unity a very noble idea. Maybe by putting on that hearing aid, many people will listen to God telling them to unite around the only thing that can possibly unite the churches: Jesus Christ Himself, the great I AM. Let s take it for granted that God is calling each one of us though I can t possibly know in what way He s calling you. He doesn t force us to do anything, because otherwise we would be Christian robots. He just says go, like He did to Moses. Moses could have said: Sorry, Lord, I m too old and tired. But he went, and changed the course of history. What will you say the next time God calls you? Amen. This Sunday s readings 28 January is the 4th Sunday after Epiphany. Verse for the week: Listen to us, O God; look at us, and see the trouble we are in. We are praying to You not because we have done right, but because You are merciful (Daniel 9, 18). Responsive reading: Psalm 31, 19-24. Old Testament reading: Jeremiah 9, 23-24. New Testament reading: 1 Corinthians 9, 24-27. Gospel reading: Matthew 20, 1-16. Food of the Spirit "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). Is it not clearly taught in Scripture that every believer has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him? He may be quenching the Spirit of God, and he may not glorify God as he should, but if he is a believer on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit dwells in him. But I want to call your attention to another fact. I believe today that though Christian men and women have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, yet He is not dwelling within them in power. In other words, God has a great many sons and daughters without power.

Nine-tenths at least, of the church members never think of speaking for Christ. If they see a man, perhaps a near relative, going rapidly to ruin, they never think of speaking to him about his sinful course and of seeking to win him to Christ. Certainly there must be something wrong. And yet when you talk with them you find they have faith, and you cannot say they are not children of God. But they have not the power, they have not the liberty, they have not the love that real disciples of Christ should have. It is possible a man may just barely have life and be satisfied, and I think that a great many are in that condition. In the third chapter of John we find that Nicodemus came to Christ and that he received life. At first this life was feeble. You don t hear of him standing up confessing Christ boldly, and of the Spirit coming upon him in great power even though he possessed life through faith in Christ. In the fourth chapter of John it speaks of the woman coming to the well of Samaria, and Christ held out the cup of salvation to her. She took it and drank, and it became in her "a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (v. 14). That is better than in the third chapter of John. Here it came down in a flood into her soul. As someone has said, it came down from the throne of God, and like a mighty current carried her back to the throne of God. Water always rises to its level, and if we get the soul filled with water from the throne of God it will bear us upward to its source. But if you want to get the best class of Christian life portrayed, turn to the seventh chapter of John and you will find that it says of him that receives the Spirit through trusting in the Lord Jesus, "out of [him] shall flow rivers of living water" (v. 38). When the Spirit of God is resting upon us for service, we are anointed. Then we can do great things. "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty," says God (Isa. 44:3). Oh, blessed thought! " they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled" (Matt. 5:6). Oh, may God show us this truth. Have we been toiling all night? Let us throw the net on the right side. Let us ask God to forgive our sins, and anoint us with power from on high. But remember, He is not going to give this power to an impatient man or to a selfish man, or to an ambitious man whose aim is selfish. He will not give it till this man is emptied of self, of pride and of all worldly thoughts. Let it be God s glory and not our own that we seek, and when we get to that point, how speedily the Lord will bless us for good. Then will the measure of our blessing be full. Christ said, "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). On the day of Pentecost, ten days after Jesus Christ was glorified, the Holy Spirit descended in power. Perhaps some question the possibility of having the power of God now. They think that the Holy Spirit never came afterward in similar manifestation, and will never come again in such power. Turn to Acts 4:31 and you will find the Holy Spirit came a second time at a place where they were, so that the place was shaken and they were all filled with this power. The fact is, we are leaky vessels, and we have to keep right under the fountain all the time to keep full of Christ, and so have a fresh supply. A mistake a great many of us are making is that we are trying to do God s work with the grace God gave us ten years ago. If it is necessary, we say, we will go on with the same grace. What we need is a fresh supply, a fresh anointing and fresh power. If we seek it and seek it with all our hearts, we will obtain it. I firmly believe that the Church has laid this knowledge aside, mislaid it somewhere, and so Christians are without power. Sometimes you can take one hundred members into the church and they don t add to its power. That is all wrong. If they were anointed by the Spirit of God, there would be great power if one hundred saved ones were added to the church. When I was in California the first time, I went down from the Sierra Nevada Mountains and dropped into the Valley of the Sacramento. I was surprised to find on one farm that everything about it was green all the trees and flowers were blooming; everything was green and beautiful. Just across the hedge, everything was dried up and there was not a green thing there. I could not understand it until I made inquiries and found that the man who had everything green irrigated. He just poured the water right on, and he kept everything green, while the fields that were next to his were as dry as Gideon s fleece without a drop of dew.

So it is with a great many in the Church today. They are like these farms in California a dreary desert, everything parched and desolate, and apparently no life in them. They can sit next to a man who is full of the Spirit of God, who is like a green bay tree, and who is bringing forth fruit, and yet they will not seek a similar blessing. Why this difference? Because God has poured water on him that was thirsty; that is the difference. One has been seeking this anointing and he has received it. When we want this above everything else, God will give it to us. The great question before us now is, do we want it? Oh, that God may anoint His people! Not the ministry alone, but every disciple. Do not suppose pastors are the only laborers needing it. There is not a mother but needs it in her house to regulate her family, just as much as the minister needs it in the pulpit or the Sunday school teacher needs it in his Sunday school. We all need it together, and let us not rest day or night until we possess it. If that is the uppermost thought in our hearts, God will give it to us if we just hunger and thirst for it, and say, "God helping me, I will not rest until endued with power from on high!" Adapted from Secret Power by D. L. Moody.