Father God. ( Matthew 6 v 9 )

 I was talking to my son John, and I said to him, I was never a perfect father,he replied I know,and I said,are there any perfect fathers?,and he replied,yes, in heaven. Yes that's true.our heavenly Father, that is a lovely thought, for He truly is a lovely Father. There are many absentee fathers in these days,of course there are those who belong to a certain church and they take the title father upon themselves ,and many have brought disgrace upon the name father. As a father I always appreciate being called dad or father,but not by my first name,it does not seem respectable to me.So it is when we speak to God we do not  address Him  any old way,there should always be that sense of reverence, of deep respect.We know that God is not male nor female although the Son became human,yet before time began ,when we did not exist,there is no question of gender.But in order to relate to us ,He choose to be know as Father,Son,and Holy Spirit. I mention this because there are those Christian who want to change those terms into what they would call gender neutral.It is a dangerous step to take,because it  deviates from the biblical revelation,and anything that deviates from scripture is wrong. We will continue this next time.

Perhaps, ( James 4 v 6 )

 I wonder if you have heard the saying,'The tail is wagging the dog', it originated in Tom Taylor's 1858.play'Our American Cousin'. A character in the play said,'Dun now I've got another,why does a dog waggle his tail?. Flo upon my word,I never inquired. Dun because the,'The tail can't waggle the dog. Ha! Ha!.'The tail is wagging the dog',describes a situation in which  an important person,organization, etc is controlled by someone or something that is much less important or powerful.We see this when trade unions start dictating instead of negotiating with employers.In 1 Samuel 14 , Israel is at war with the Philistines and  how  Jonathan the kings son ventured with his servant to attack a Philistine garrison. Just before he did that ,he said to his servant, 'Perhaps the Lord will act on our behalf', 'Perhaps', Jonathan does not dictate to God.There are arrogant people who think they can command God,to do such and such a thing..D R. Davis writes ,'Faith does not dictate to God,as if the Lord of hosts is its errand boy'.When it come to God ,we must be careful not to take the role of the tale wagging the dog'.

                                                       'Lets not forget the perhaps'

He was a nice man. ( Romans 3 v 23 )

    There he was as we sat watching the football, I managed to have a conversation with him,he told me a lot about himself,his beginnings in the county of Cornwall.Most of our conversation was about his job history which was very interesting,he was a trained engineer,he was 72 and was still working part time . I was praying that I might have an opportunity to witness to him, I know under John and Charles Wesley many Methodist churches came into being in Cornwall so I mentioned this to him and asked him did he ever go to church?.He said he was never a church goer,and his parents never forced it on him. I asked  him did he ever think about God? he said no,it never entered into his mind,He  was a nice person,he had a nice life style, foreign holidays,a nice wife,what could I say?,hopefully guided by God's Spirit,I said,'If you know Christ you go to heaven,if you don't know Christ, you go to hell', I left it at that,and we continued to watch the football. As I said he was a nice person, but nice people are sinners, he had no thought about God, and if he died in that condition he will certainly go to hell. Let us always bear in mind,that everyone is a sinner,and everyone needs our Saviour, yes the really wicked people,the really awful people,and the so called nice people.

Without fear or favour. ( Acts 20 v 25 - 27 )

 I was reading 1Samuel 3 in which we read of the young Samuel having an encounter with God,he did not know it was the Lord who was speaking to him,he thought it was Eli the priest but eventually Eli told him it was the Lord . So he began to converse with the Lord, it was simply to tell Samuel that the judgement that God ,would bring upon Eli and his sons was about to happen. The  next morning we read Samuel was afraid to tell Eli what God had said. Dale Ralph Davis comments,'No sooner is Samuel called to the prophetic task than he finds how difficult and heart rending that can be'.This does only apply to prophets but it also applies to preachers, if you are in the ministry,or thinking of going into it, bear that in mind. As a minister you will bring comfort and instruction to people,that's important, but you will also have to tell things things they don't want to hear. You should tell them about heaven but you will also have to tell them about hell,you will have to tell  them about the moral values of Gods kingdom. In the pulpit,  in the church I  ministered in ,there was a little rug,with the following words on it.''Preach the word'.

                                                       'Preach the word without fear 

                                                        or  favour'.

He cares. ( 1 Peter 5 v7)

In Mark 4 v 35-43 we read that Jesus and the disciples were in a boat ,when a severe storm came up ,the boat was nearly swamped. Jesus was asleep in the stern of the boat.and it appeared to them that He didn't care,so they woke Him and said just that,' Teacher , don't you care if we drown?. With that He got up and stilled the storm, and challenged them as regards their lack of faith.We are not so different from those early disciples, in our troubles we may think even though we don't say it,why is He not helping? ,why,oh why?,does He not care?.I want to leave with you the words of a song written by F,E.Graeff.

                                            Does Jesus care when my heart is pained

                                            Too deeply for mirth or song,

                                            And the way grows weary and long?

                                             Does Jesus care when my way is dark

                                             With a nameless dread and fear?

                                             As the daylight fades into deep night shades,

                                             Does He care enough to be near?

                                             Does Jesus care when I've tried and failed

                                             To resist some temptation strong;

                                             When  for my deep grief there is no relief,

                                              Though my tears flow all the night long?

                                              Oh, yes , He cares,I know He cares,

                                               His heart is touched with my grief;

                                               When the days are weary, the long nights dreary,

                                                I know my Saviour cares.'

Providence. ( Psalm 107 )

 It is always profitable to consider the providence of God,in his little book  'The mystery of providence',John Flavel asks this question,' How is it that you have survived so many mortal dangers, sicknesses, accidents, designs of enemies to ruin you?.'It is a good question to ask,and there  can only  one answer,God's providential care,why did I survive,when my younger brother died? why was I rescued from drowning.Often we will not understand God's providence at that time ,we may later grasp it in some measure .Let's consider the providence of God in relation to prayer, now it seems we think or hope God will grant us what we pray for every time ,but it will not happen ,God in His  mercy has a plan for all His children's lives. D R .Davis writes ,'Sometimes God's greatest kindness is in not answering our prayers exactly  as we desire'.I remember thinking I would like a certain job and so I applied for one,of course I prayed,coinciding with this my present job was coming to an end,and as we often say,'one door shuts another opens',and in the providence of God that happened. I would have loved it to have been in full time ministry but it wasn't to be,but I loved my new job and worked at it for 20yrs.Coinciding with that I became a joint leader of the church  I attended, and got my desire,regular preaching,it all worked out for the best in the providence of God. Again let me stress God has a plan for all our lives,He has promised to guide us,in what we call the providence of God, trust Him He makes no mistakes.

Repentance. ( Luke 19 v 1 - 10)

 I want to consider the subject of repentance,but first of all I want to tell you about a man called, W P.Nicholson ,he was born in Ulster/N.Ireland.He had a godly mother who prayed for him to be saved ,and her prayers were answered,he eventually went to Bible College,and after that he became a very  powerful  evangelist .my grandmother became a Christian under his ministry.Thousands of people were saved under his ministry,little Ulster was transformed,many who worked in Harland and Wolf's shipyard came to know the lord,their lives were transformed ,so much so, that the owners of the shipyard,erected a building  to hold all the items that had been stolen from the shipyard which the workers returned .Now let us think about repentance ,what does it mean?.it has with it regret and a sorrow.It is not always used for a godly repentance,as in the case of Judas whom we are told repented or showed great sorrow for what he had done,but he did not change his life.True repentance has with it sorrow,but goes further than just a emotional response. It is best illustrated  in the conversion of a corrupt tax collector we read of in Luke 19,who declared to our Lord,he would give half of his money to the poor,and right the wrongs he had committed.

                                             'True repentance goes beyond a

                                              merely emotional response'