Pentecost 2008 Messages

Preek gelewer op Sondag 4 Mei – Lobatse Gemeente, Botswana
Skrifgedeelte: Efesiërs 4:25-Ef. 5:5.
Tema: Laat die Heilige Gees glimlag!

Daar word vertel van die seuntjie wat elke keer die teenoorgestelde gedoen het van wat sy pa hom gevra het. Elke keer as sy pa wou hê dat hy iets vir hom moes doen, het hy gevra: Moet asseblief nie vir my dit of dat doen nie. Dan doen die seuntjie presies wat sy pa wil hê, juis as gevolg van sy hardkoppigheid. Dit het lank so aangegaan, totdat sy pa op ‘n dag vir hom gevra het om nie ‘n glas water vir hom te gaan haal nie. Hy was flink oppad om dit te gaan doen, toe hy skielik snap wat sy pa met hom doen, en hy vassteek, en sê: “Ek sal nie!”

Maar weet julle, liewe vriende, wanneer ‘n mens vir die eerste keer na hierdie laaste gedeelte in Efesiërs 4 kyk, dan lyk dit op die oog af vir ‘n mens of die Here vir ons ‘n klomp moenies voorskryf. Moenie vloek nie, moenie steel nie, moenie kwaad word nie, moenie verbitterd wees nie, moenie humeurig wees nie. As ‘n mens op hierdie manier na die teks kyk, dan kan die Bybel vir ons net ‘n negatiewe lat word waarmee al die sondes gestraf moet word. Dink maar aan die kwaai juffrou Rottenmaier in die Heidi-verhaal vir wie almal bang was.

En daarom glo ek dat ons nie vanoggend moet vassteek by die negatiewe deel van Christenskap nie. Ons moet ook op hierdie eerste Sondag van ons pinksterweek vir mekaar gaan afvra – WAT LAAT DIE GEES VAN GOD GLIMLAG? Op watter manier kan ons God regtig gelukkig en tevrede maak?

- Hoe laat ons die Gees glimlag?
1. Praat onder mekaar die waarheid
2. Voorsien self in jou lewensonderhoud, en gee aan die armes
3. Praat net wat goed en opbouend is volgens die eis van omstandighede
4. Wees goedgesind en hartlik teenoor mekaar
5. Vergewe mekaar
- Hoekom doen ons dit alles? Omdat ons in liefde lewe, en soos Christus sy lewe as ‘n offergawe gegee het, ‘n offer wat vir God aanneemlik was, moet ons ook bereid wees om ons lewens op te offer.

Ons maak onsself dikwels so ONVERSTAANBAAR vir die wêreld. Ons optrede op in die kerk en ons optrede in die week PAS NIE! Wat pas by ons? Dank aan God.

Die seuntjie wat altyd die teenoorgestelde gedoen het, het later ‘n predikant geword.
As ons teenoorgestelde van stroom, wêreld doen moet ons onthou dat daar plek in die koninkryk van die hemel is vir rebelle (Dink maar aan Job, Johannes die doper, seuns van die Donder, Simon die Seloot, Petrus.) Angus Buchan as ‘n REBEL, wat uiteindelik die Here begin dien het, en kyk watter vrug dit vandag dra. ‘n Paar naweke terug het 60 000 man die “Mighty Men Conference” op sy plaas bygewoon!

Doen saam skuldbelydenis as gemeente

Genadige God,
Ons bely dat ons in gedagtes, woorde en dade teen U gesondig het;
Deur dit wat ons gedoen het,
En deur dit wat ons nagelaat het om te doen.
Ons het U nie liefgehad met ons hele hart,
En ons naaste nie liefgehad soos onsself nie
Wees ons genadig, ter wille van U Seun Jesus Christus
Vergewe ons, vernuwe en lei ons,
Sodat ons vreugde in U kan vind,
En kan wandel op U weg,
Tot eer van U heilige Naam.
AMEN.

Weet dat jy die Heilige Gees en God die Vader wel kan gelukkig maak! Ons kan dit duidelik sien in Sefanja 3:16-19:
16 Daardie dag sal daar vir Jerusalem gesê word: Moenie bang wees nie, Sion, moenie jou hande moedeloos laat hang nie!
17 Die Here jou God is by jou, Hy, die krygsman wat red. Hy is vol vreugde oor jou, Hy is stil–tevrede in sy liefde. Hy jubel en juig oor jou:
18 Ek maak dié bymekaar wat treur, ver van die feestelikheid af, dié wat uit jou uit kom en ter wille van jou die smaad gedra het.19 Ek gaan nou optree teen almal wat jou verdruk het, Ek gaan die kreupeles help, die verstrooides bymekaarmaak en die vernedering wat hulle moes ondergaan, in eer verander, in roem oor die hele aarde.



Sermon at Pentecost celebration in Lobatse on 11 May 2008.

Scripture: Eph 5:18-20, 1 Cor 2:12-1 Cor 3:4.

As a student I remember going to the Eastern Transvaal, South Africa, on outreach teams. It was wonderful times, and we were a jolly bunch, always laughing and joking. Sometimes the dullest joke would make us cry of laughter. On these tours we often took a translator, Simon, who was a few years older than us. Although Simon was a Ndebele, and not an Afrikaner, like the rest of us, Simon could understand Afrikaans very well. Often when we broke out into laughter, Simon would stand amused on the sideline.
One day we asked Simon why he didn’t laugh with us – was it the cultural gap? No, Simon (who was a few years older than we were) said, he was also like that when he was a student and a few years younger, but nowadays he is more subdued as he grew older. He did not find our jokes so funny anymore.
Unfortunately religious experience seem to work the same way in many Christians’ lives. After really making a decision for the Lord in their lives, they are normally very enthusiastic about their faith, just to fade away into adulthood, and eventually become lifeless Christians, who is more of a stumbling block to the gospel and a disgrace to Christianity than anything else. In our tour through Botswana we came upon a guy who previously was a vibrant Christian youth leader at university, but who has backslided into an armchair Christian who did not have any witness in his surroundings anymore.
We can often see that isolated situations, especially here in the vast, outstretched Botswana has that effect on people. Almost like a log pulled from the fire, we gradually become lukewarm, until we are ice cold, and burnt out. But should we just merely accept this process? Is this all that there is to serving the true, living God?
Looking again at our passages in Ephesians 5 and 1 Corinthians, it seems to me that the problem often is that we aim to get more of the Spirit. Most of us can think back of Spiritual experiences in our lives when we really gave our lives to Jesus Christ, or when we felt the presence of the Lord in a special way, or when we were overwhelmed by what the Lord is meaning to us. But after some time this feeling seem to fade away, because we can’t seem to keep the Spirit alive in our lives…
But if we closely study 1 Cor 2&3, we see that the big problem is not actually us not getting enough of the Spirit, but the Spirit not getting enough of us! If we look closely at these verses, we see that 1 Corinthians speaks of people being in three different phases. The first, referred to in verse 14: The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
In the first place it is clear that there are people without the Spirit of God. Although the Spirit of God works in every person, persuading him to become a child of God, the Spirit is only entering our lives ones we are born again by God’s Spirit, and when our spirits are renewed by God. These people will never understand the power of God’s Word unless they submit to the Spirit, speaking in their lives, and answer to Jesus’ knock on the door of their hearts.
In 1 Cor 3:1-3 Paul refers to believers that are still infants in Christ, and that are still worldly. These are people who are not able to digest the solid food that God wants to give them, but must still drink milk like babies. These are the people who are still behaving like the world, often quarreling and being jealous upon one another. A lot of Christians often fall in this category. This does not mean that they need more of the Spirit, but that the Spirit needs more of them…
Yes, they must be prepared to give more of their lives to the Spirit. They must open the closed areas of their lives, so that the Spirit may come in and renew it. Then they will be able to dig deeper into the Bible and understand more about what the Lord wants them to be and what the Lord wants them to do.
One can compare this to someone entering an old room. When Ananda and Reinette renovated the apartments for their new coffee shop, they found a room that was totally forgotten. It was even closed up totally, and they had to break in a door into the apartment to access it. Think how it must have looked after not being lived in for years! But when the light shone in, they were able to clean it, and make it useable for their shop.
What happens to us when we keep certain areas of our lives locked up, barred from the influence of the Holy Spirit? We will always be hampered, kept back by stumbling blocks. We will stay babies, unable to learn more, and to digest solid food in our lives. We will always feel that we lack something. Although it may probably be the Holy Spirit lacking something in our lives!
If we allow the closed compartments in our lives to be opened, we will experience a wonderful change. We will see that we will start speaking the words of the Spirit, with spiritual truths coming from our mouths in spiritual words. We will experience clarity in our judgement, and be able to see what the will of God is for our lives. We will have a hunger to learn more of the Word of God, and will sense the need to be instructed and taught every day.
I must also make a confession today… During the past year I have also allowed certain areas of my life to be closed up from the Holy Spirit. This also pulled me down into a state where I was not able to shine towards others with the Spirit’s light in me. During my silence time in the Oscar tour, a verse in Luke 11:35: “See to it, that the light within you is not darkness.”
I just realised how important it is to open up all areas of my life to the Lord, and to make sure that His light shines through me. That I had really surrender all to him, and allow him to make me a vibrant instrument in his hand. Do not feel alone when you experience the light in you become dark… Even Paul had to encourage Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:6,7 “6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self–discipline.”
Is it not interesting that the image of a fire, of light is used again here. The same image is used at the day of Pentecost when the tongues of fire appeared on top of the apostle’s heads. Yes, the Holy Spirit in us makes us shining, vibrant tools in the Lord’s kingdom!
In which of the three phases mentioned earlier are you? Only you will know where you really stand. Only you will know whether it is necessary to open the front door, the entrance of your life to the Triune –God, or whether you must also go and open that secluded room to the Lord. Or whether you must just fill the urge in you to live as a light of the Spirit by making yourself available to be taught and to be used to shine in Lobatse, Botswana, Southern Africa, and to the ends of the Earth!
AMEN!