“How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down upon the collar of his robes. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.”
Psalms 133:1
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SOME EXCERPTS AND LESSONS FROM TODAY’S MESSAGE
MORNING SERMON
FOCUS: “LOVING AND HONORING ONE ANOTHER”
Text: [Romans 12:9-10]
“Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”
- LOVE ONE ANOTHER WITH BROTHERLY AFFECTION
- OUTDO ONE ANOTHER IN GIVING HONOR
– Our relationship inside the church should be intimate. We should be devoted to one another like a family sort of love.
– Our love should not be based on circumstance and should be innate.
– We are not only members of the same body; we are members of the same family.
– With difficult members – we deal and discipline them, but we don’t condemn them as outsiders.
– It’s more than liking and politeness. It talks about kinship and having a relationship.
– It’s about the prize that you fix upon your brethren after evaluating them. It carries the idea of love and respect.
– How do we show honor? We honor one another by preferring them over us.
– We should take the lead in respecting and honoring one another.
– Pride should be abhorred. There should be meekness and poverty of spirit.
– Our minds and hearts are stable manufacturers of filthy things. It is only by the Grace of God that we can overcome it.
– After all our efforts – all our service and accomplishments are poor and insufficient.
– Fellowship is more than socializing. Fellowship happens when together we are gathering, serving, forgiving, encouraging, and lifting one another
AFTERNOON SERMON
FOCUS: “GOD’S COMMENDATION OF TRUE GREATNESS”
TEXT: [MATTHEW 11:11]
“Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”
- THE COMMENDATION OF GOD TO JOHN
- THE COMMENDATION OF GOD TO THE ONE WHO IS LEAST IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
- SUBSTANCE OF THAT COMMENDATION
– John was God’s messenger to prepare for the coming of Christ.
– John was sanctified by God and prepared for his mission. ref. Luke 1:15
– John prepared the time that it was no longer about fulfilling the law but about asking for forgiveness and repenting of our sins.
– When Christ said, there is no greater person than John, Christ also mentioned that the “least person” in the kingdom surpasses John even more.
– This should lead us to ask. What makes the least person greater than John the Baptist?
– Many of them undoubtedly have received a small portion of faith, and are therefore greatly inferior to John; but this does not prevent their preaching from being superior to his, because it holds out Christ as having rendered complete and eternal satisfaction by his one sacrifice, as the conqueror of death and the Lord of life, and because it withdraws the vail, and elevates believers to the heavenly sanctuary.
– The value of greatness is derivative of the knowledge given to him by God.
– The greatness of John, the greatness of the least in the kingdom of God, and those who are in heaven are derived from the greatness of the gospel.
“All the true greatness of men is derived from and denominated by, the gracious manifestation of Christ to them. The best men are no better than he is pleased to make them. What reason have we to be thankful that our lot is cast in the days of the kingdom of heaven, under such advantages of light and love! And the greater the advantages, the greater will the account be if we receive the grace of God in vain.”
Matthew Henry
BELLA VISTA SERMON
FOCUS: “LOVE FOR THE BRETHREN IS A RESULT OF GOD’S GRACE THAT WHICH WE CAN NOT FIND IN THIS WORLD”
TEXT: [1 John 3:13-15 ESV]
Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
- Love for the brethren is a result that which we cannot find in this world.
- Love for the brethren is the result of what God did to you.
– If the world hates Christ, then expect that they will hate you as well.
– Don’t expect the world to love you. Where are you spending your love?
– We are already transferred from our former life to a new life that was given to us by God.
– We love the brethren because God loved us first. Love for the brethren is the reflection of God’s graciousness towards us.
– There’s a divine initiative of God that His love works in us (John 13:35).
– Not to love the brethren is to hate them. To hate them is to be a murderer. To be a murderer is to have no eternal life (1 John 5:11).
– The Christian love should not only be seen on Sunday but it should be seen daily.
– You don’t have to wait for them to approach you; you should first do it to them
– We must rely on God’s grace to show our love to the brethren.
– We must be led in showing love and service to the brethren.
Blessed LORD’s day!
To God alone be the glory!
HERALD OF GRACE COVENANT BIBLE CHURCH OF CAVITE 