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What Would Happen If?
Worship Service: Sermon only - 14 Jun, 2009
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How to Be Part of the Christmas Story
Worship Service: Childrens Talk & Adult Sermon - 2 Dec, 2007
Two thousand years after Jehovah, creator of the universe, came down and lived among us as Jesus, there are still people walking in darkness. This is why the He came again in the revelation of the internal sense of the Word, and it is why He continues to strive to be born in the hearts of individuals even today. He came to the world in the dark of Christmas Eve, then again in the Age of Enlightenment. He has also come into the individual lives of you and I, first when we learned of His existence and love for us, then again when we first began to understand the deeper implications of His presence in our lives. Now He is calling you to help him be born?either for the first time or more fully a second time?in the lives of those people around you who walk in spiritual darkness or are trapped by a dragon of false teachings. Answer His call. Be an angel. Bring the good news to those who desperately need it. Tell the world that Jesus is God, and help them to understand what that means in their own lives. Go to www.PittsburghNewChurch.org for audio and video of this message. | By Glenn (Mac) Frazier, Pittsburgh, PA
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Part 3-Be the Church: Serve Humanity
Worship Service: Sermon only - 29 Jul, 2007
This is part three of our summer series, "Be the Church". In part one ("Connect with the Lord") we reviewed the seven basic components of a life in the church. Then last week, in part two ("Love One Another"), we discussed what it meant to be the church to one another as part of the communion of saints. This week, in part three, "Serve Humanity", are are going to talk about doing good deeds as a church. Good works are not optional. Which good works we do, and how and when we do them, are left to us to decide. But the Lord does not want people in this world to suffer and it is our obligation as his church to do something to make the world better. We start by shunning evils and performing our daily occupations, and also by being good citizens and good spouses and parents. But the Lord asks more of us. The world is full of natural as well as spiritual suffering, and we are not meant to ignore either. When doing good works, it is important that we do them justly and from good judgment. Indiscriminately giving money to anyone who asks for it, for instance, may do as much harm as good. At the same time it is a mistake to let our fears of doing the "wrong" good deed stop us from ever attempting good works at all. So long as we try to use our best judgement, and try to do it out of the kindness of our hearts and not merely with the hope of some reward, the Lord will bless us and lead us to become ever better at it. Now, natural charity is meant to be a foundation for spiritual charity, so in two weeks we will have part four, "Proclaim the Good News". To see the truth of this message and to learn how to apply it to your life, read Matthew 25:34-40 and True Christian Religion 459:13-17, then listen to the full audio of this sermon by clicking here, and then try out what you learn in your life. This sermon, along with the rest of the series, is available through the Pittsburgh New Church (www.PittsburghNewChurch), where it was preached, TheoBlog.com, the New Church (www.NewChurch.org), and for free at the Apple iTunes Store. * * * Matthew 25:34-40 "Then the King will say to those on His right hand, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me." "Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' "And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'" True Christian Religion 459:13-17. When the speeches were over, I held up my hand and asked permission, although I was a stranger, to give my opinion. The presiding officer put this to the meeting, and when it was agreed, I spoke as follows: 'My opinion is that charity is acting in every deed and employment from a love of justice combined with judgment; but from love that has no other source than the Lord God the Saviour. All that I have heard from those sitting on the benches on the right and the left are well-known examples of charity. But as the presiding officer of this gathering said in his introductory remarks, charity is in its origin spiritual, but in what is derived from this it is natural. Natural charity, if inwardly it is spiritual, appears to the sight of angels transparent, like a diamond. But if inwardly it is not spiritual, but purely natural, it appears to the sight of angels pearly, like the eye of a boiled fish. 'It is not for me to say whether the well-known examples of charity, which you have brought forward one after another, are inspired by spiritual charity or not. But I can say what the spirituality in it must be, for them to be natural expressions of spiritual charity. Their spirituality consists in their being done from a love of justice combined with judgment, that is, in a person looking to see, when he does something charitable, whether he acts from justice; and it is judgment which allows him to see this. For a person can do harm by kindnesses, and do good by things that look like doing harm. For example, harm is done by kindnesses if anyone supplies a hard-up highwayman with the money to buy himself a sword, although in asking he will not say this is his intention. Or if anyone helps him break out of prison and shows him the way to the woods, saying to himself, "It is not my fault that he robs travelers; I helped a fellow human being." To take another example: if someone feeds an idler, and takes care he is not compelled to work, saying, "Come into a room in my house and lie in bed; why tire yourself out?" anyone doing this is fostering idleness, Or again, if anyone promotes relations and friends of bad character to high office, in which they can set on foot many kinds of mischief. Can anyone fail to see that charitable deeds of this sort are not motivated by any love of justice combined with judgment? 'On the other hand, a person may do a kindness by acts which look like wrong-doing; for instance, a judge who acquits a wrong-doer because he weeps, utters pious expressions and begs to have his offense overlooked, on the grounds that he is his neighbor. Yet the judge in fact acts charitably, when he imposes the sentence prescribed by law, for by so doing he prevents him from doing further wrong and harming the community, which is the neighbour in a superior degree; and he sees to it that such a judgment is not a cause of scandal. Is anyone unaware that it is for their own good that servants are chastised by their masters, and children by their parents, for doing wrong? It is much the same with those in hell, all of whom love to do wrong, being kept shut up in prison and punished when they act wickedly, a punishment permitted by the Lord to reform them. This happens because the Lord is justice itself, and does whatever He does as the result of judgment itself. 'These facts allow us to see clearly why it is that, as I said before, spiritual charity arises from a love of justice combined with judgment, but from love from no other source than the Lord God the Saviour. The reason is that all the good of charity is from the Lord; for He says: He who remains in me and I in him brings forth much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. (John 15:5) also: He has all power in heaven and on earth. (Mat. 28:18) All love of justice combined with judgment has no other origin than the God of heaven, who is justice itself, and the source of all human powers of judgment (Jer. 23:5; 33:15) 'This leads to the conclusion that everything said about charity from the seats to right or left - that it is morality with faith breathed into it, piety with pity breathed into it, doing good to the upright and to the wicked, looking after one's relatives and friends in every way, giving to the poor and helping the needy, building hospitals and supporting them with gifts, endowing places of worship and doing kindnesses to their ministers, that it is the Christian brotherhood of old, or forgiving everyone his faults - all of these are splendid examples of charity, when they are done out of a love of justice combined with judgment. Otherwise they are not charity, but only like watercourses cut off from the spring that feeds them, and like branches torn from a tree. True charity consists in believing in the Lord, and acting fairly and righteously in every deed and employment. Anyone therefore who at the Lord's bidding loves justice and executes it with judgment is an image and likeness of charity.' | By Glenn (Mac) Frazier, Pittsburgh, PA
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Part 2-Be the Church: Love One Another
Worship Service: Sermon only - 22 Jul, 2007
In part one of our series, we reviewed our individual responsibilities to the Lord as citizens of his kingdom on earth, the Church. They are to live a life of piety (praying, reading the Word, and worshiping the Lord) and a life of charity (repenting, shunning evils, and serving other people) so that we may be born again. In Part 2, we are talking about how we can be the church to one another. In The Gospel of John, the Lord tells us, "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." A very powerful and important way we can keep this commandment is by supporting each other in one another's personal spiritual journeys. True Christian Religion teaches that the Church as a person's neighbor provides true teachings and good deeds by which that person enters the Lord's kingdom. If each of us is to be the church, then each of us is responsible for supporting our spiritual brothers and sisters as they try to understand truths and to do good deeds. It is because the church - which is made up of each one of us - helps us in this way that we are to love and honor our spiritual mother the church as one of the highest forms of neighbor. And when we are the church to one another and are loving the church in one another, we form a spiritual community of individuals striving to help one another to become better people. This community the Writings for the New Church call the "communion of saints". But the communion of saints also includes people you have never met. In Part 3, we will look at ways we as a church can be a good neighbor to the rest of the world in "Be the Church, Part 3: Serve Humanity". To see the truth of this message and to learn how to apply it to your life, read John 13:31-24 and True Christian Religion 145-146, and then listen to the full audio of this sermon by clicking here. This sermon, along with the rest of the series, is available through the Pittsburgh New Church (www.PittsburghNewChurch.org) where it was preached, TheoBlog.com, NewChurch.org, and for free at the Apple iTunes Store. * * * John 13:31-34 So, when Judas had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately. Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, 'Where I am going, you cannot come,' so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." True Christian Religion 145-146 Chapter V The neighbor who is to be loved in a higher degree is the church, and in the highest degree the Lord's kingdom. Since man is born destined for everlasting life, and it is the church which brings him to this, the church ought to be loved as neighbor in a higher degree. For the church's teaching is the means leading to and giving entry to everlasting life. It is the truths of its teaching which lead and the good deeds performed which give entry to it. This does not mean that the priesthood is to be loved in a higher degree, and the church because of the priesthood. It is the good and truth of the church which ought to be loved, and the priesthood for their sake. The priesthood only serves as a means, and should be honored to the extent that it so serves. Another reason why the church is the neighbor to be loved in a higher degree, and so more than one's country, is that one's country introduces one to secular life, but the church introduces one to spiritual life, the life which distinguishes man from living purely as an animal. Moreover, secular life is temporary, having an end, and is then as if it had never been. But spiritual life, having no end, is everlasting, so that the term 'being' may be used of it, but 'not-being' of the other form of life. The difference is like that between the finite and the infinite, which are incommensurable; for what is everlasting is infinite in respect of time. The reason why the Lord's kingdom is the neighbor to be loved in the highest degree is that the Lord's kingdom means the church throughout the whole world, what is called the communion of saints, and it also means heaven. If therefore a person loves the Lord's kingdom, he loves everyone in the whole world who acknowledges the Lord and has faith in Him and charity towards the neighbor, as well as all in heaven. Those who love the Lord's kingdom love the Lord above all else, and consequently have greater love to God than all others. For the church in the heavens and upon earth is the Lord's body, since its members are in the Lord and the Lord in them. Love for the Lord's kingdom then is love towards the neighbor in the fullest sense. For those who love the Lord's kingdom not only love the Lord above all else, but also love the neighbor as themselves. Love to the Lord is universal love, thus pervading every detail of spiritual life and also every detail of natural life. For that love dwells at the highest level in a person, and what is highest flows into what is lower, bringing it to life, just as the will does into every intention and thus every action, and as the understanding into every thought and thus every utterance. This is why the Lord says: "Seek first the kingdom of the heavens and its righteousness, then everything will be given to you in addition." (Mat. 6:33) The kingdom of the heavens is the Lord's kingdom, as is established by this passage in Daniel: "Behold, one like the Son of Man was coming with the clouds of the heavens. And to him was given dominion, glory and the kingdom, and all peoples, nations and tongues will worship him. His dominion will be a dominion for ever, which will not pass away and his kingdom one which will not perish." (Dan. 7:13-14) | By Glenn (Mac) Frazier, Pittsburgh, PA
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Part 1-Be the Church: Connect with the Lord
Worship Service: Sermon only - 15 Jul, 2007
Welcome to our series, "Don't Just Go to Church, Be the Church!" The church is not the priesthood, nor is it some abstract thing apart from you. The church is simply the group of people who follow the Lord, and you are called to be one of them. For the next several Sundays we will be talking about what it means to be citizens of the Lords' kingdom on earth. In our first part, "Connect with the Lord", we begin by reviewing what our personal, individual responsibilities to the Lord are. Put briefly, there are seven things the Lord wants us to do: (1) Pray, (2) Read the Word, (3) Worship, (4) Repent, (5) Shun evils, (6) Serve other people, and (7) Regenerate, or be born again. The first three are what are sometimes called the "life of piety", and the next three are called the "life of charity"; the last one is not something we do ourselves, but instead is something the Lord does for us as a result of the other six. To see the truth of this and learn how to apply it to your life, read Luke 17:20-21 and The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 124, 241-245 (included below), and then listen to the full audio of this sermon by clicking here. This sermon, along with the rest of the series, is available through the Pittsburgh New Church (where it was preached), TheoBlog, the New Church, and the Apple iTunes Store. Next week we will begin to talk about our responsibilities to the church in "Be the Church, Part 2: Support One Another". * * * Luke 17:20-21: Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, 'See here!' or 'See there!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you." The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 241-245: THE CHURCH What constitutes heaven with a man, also constitutes the Church; for as love and faith constitute heaven, so also love and faith constitute the Church: consequently, from what has been already said concerning heaven, it is evident what the Church is. The Church is said to be where the Lord is acknowledged, and where the Word exists; for the essentials of the Church are love to the Lord and faith in Him, both derived from Him; and the Word teaches how a man ought to live in order that he may receive love and faith from the Lord. That the Church may exist, there must be doctrine from the Word; because without doctrine the Word cannot be understood. Yet it is not doctrine alone that constitutes the Church with a man, but a life according to doctrine. From this it follows that faith alone does not constitute the Church but the life of faith, which is charity. Genuine doctrine is the doctrine of charity and at the same time of faith, and not the doctrine of faith apart from the former; for the doctrine of charity and at the same time of faith, is the doctrine of life; but not the doctrine of faith apart from the doctrine of charity. Those who are outside the Church, and acknowledge one God, and live according to their religion in some charity towards the neighbor, are in communion with those who are of the Church; for no one who believes in God and leads a good life, is damned. From this it is evident, that the Lord's Church is everywhere throughout the world; although specifically it is, where the Lord is acknowledged, and where the Word exists. Every one with whom the Church exists, is saved; but every one with whom the Church does not exist, is damned. The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 124: Piety consists in thinking and speaking piously; in praying assiduously, and in behaving then with humility; in attending churches, and in devoutly listening to the preaching there; in partaking frequently during the year of the Holy Supper; and in observing in like manner the other acts of Divine worship, according to the ordinances of the Church. But the life of charity consists in willing and doing good to the neighbor; and in acting from a principle of what is just and fair, and good and true, in every work and in every office; in a word, the life of charity consists in the practice of uses. Divine worship consists primarily in the life of charity, and secondarily in piety. Wherefore, he who separates the one from the other, that is, he who leads a life of piety, and not at the same time a life of charity, does not worship God. It is true, he thinks of God, yet he does not think from God, but from himself; for he constantly thinks of himself, and not at all of the neighbor; and if he does think of the neighbor, he has no respect for him, unless he is of alike quality. He also thinks of heaven as a reward; and for this reason there is in his mind the idea of merit, and also the love of self, as well as a contempt or disregard for uses, and thus of the neighbor; at the same time also there is present with him a faith in his own guiltlessness. From this it may appear, that a life of piety separated from a life of charity, is not the spiritual life which ought to be in Divine worship. (See Matthew 6:7-8.) | By Glenn (Mac) Frazier, Pittsburgh, PA
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Make Spiritual Victory a Habit
Worship Service: Sermon only - 8 Jul, 2007
Today's message: Leading a good life sometimes seems hard, but if we just make a habit of repenting then the Lord will do all the heavy lifting. To understand and apply this, first read Matthew 11:30, Heaven and Hell 528, Psalm 51, and Heaven and Hell 533 (all printed below), and then listen to the audio of this sermon. Matthew 11:28-30: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.? Heaven and Hell 528: IT IS NOT SO HARD TO LEAD A HEAVEN-BOUND LIFE AS PEOPLE THINK IT IS Some people believe it is hard to lead the heaven-bound life that is called ?spiritual? because they have heard that we need to renounce the world and give up the desires attributed to the body and the flesh and ?live spiritually?. All they understand by this is spurning worldly interests, especially concerns for money and prestige, going around in constant devout meditation about God, salvation, and eternal life, devoting their lives to prayer, and reading the Word and religious literature. They think this is renouncing the world and living for the spirit and not for the flesh. However, the actual case is quite different, as I have learned from an abundance of experience and conversation with angels. In fact, people who renounce the world and live for the spirit in this fashion take on a mournful life for themselves, a life that is not open to heavenly joy, since our life does remain with us after death. No, if we would accept heaven's life, we need by all means to live in the world and to participate in its duties and affairs. In this way, we accept a spiritual life by means of our moral and civic life; and there is no other way a spiritual life can be formed within us, no other way our spirits can be prepared for heaven. This is because living an inner life and not an outer life at the same time is like living in a house that has no foundation, that gradually either settles or develops gaping cracks or totters until it collapses.... Psalm 51: Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight? That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart? These, O God, You will not despise. Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, With burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar. Heaven and Hell 533: We can now see that it is not so hard to lead the life of heaven as people think, because it is simply a matter of recognizing, when something attractive comes up that we know is dishonest or unfair, that this is not to be done because it is against the divine commandments. If we get used to thinking like this, and from this familiarity form a habit, then we are gradually united to heaven. To the extent that we are united to heaven, the higher levels of our minds are opened, and to the extent that they are opened, we see what is dishonest and unfair; and to the extent that we see this, these qualities can be dispelled. For no evil can be banished until it has been seen. This is a state we can enter because of our freedom, since everyone is free to think in this way. However, once the process has started, the Lord works wonders within us, and causes us not only to see evils but to refuse them and eventually to turn away from them. This is the meaning of the Lord's words, ?My yoke is easy and my burden light.? (Mat. 11:30) It is important to realize, though, that the difficulty of thinking like this and also of resisting evils increases to the extent that we deliberately do evil things?in fact, to the extent we become used to doing them until ultimately we no longer see them. Then we come to love them and to excuse them to gratify our love and to rationalize them with all kinds of self-deceptions and call them permissible and good. This happens, though, to people who in early adulthood plunge into all kinds of evil without restraint and at the same time at heart reject everything divine. This sermon was preached at Pittsburgh New Church, and is available at TheoBlog.com, PittsburghNewChurch.org, NewChurch.org, and the Apple iTunes Store. | By Glenn (Mac) Frazier, Pittsburgh, PA
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God Speaks in Your Heart
Worship Service: Sermon only - 20 May, 2007
"Then they said to one another, 'Here comes that dreamer!'" (Gen. 37:19) The Lord gives us dreams and stirs our affections for spiritual things, and for good reasons; we therefore must learn to trust Him and to dream with Him. Think back to the life dreams of your childhood. Some may have been silly, but some were noble at their core. Where did they come from? And what happened to them? Sometimes our dreams are torn up by others, and sometimes we talk ourselves out of believing in them. All of our thoughts and affections are spiritual in origin. Some come from heaven, some from hell. The Lord is constantly flowing into our hearts to inspire and motivate us to do good things. Without the hopes and plans for the future that come from His influence, we would never strive to be better people. In the Word, Joseph and his brothers represent different parts of our minds. Joseph (and his little brother Benjamin) are the deepest, highest parts of us that receive the Lord's love and wisdom. The older brothers represent the more external parts of us that are necessary for daily life. Often, our external mind attacks our inner Joseph, especially when the Lord fills us with thoughts and affections that require us to change our lives in some dramatic way. As with Joseph, though, the Lord continues to guide and inspire us even when it seems that we have sold our inmost self into slavery. Even when we are trapped in the external concerns of the world, like Joseph in Egypt we will be protected and lead so that it all leads to good, if we permit Him to do so. So learn to discern which of your thoughts and affections are from heaven, so you can honor the Lord's inspiration when you find it in your heart. To see that this is true, read Genesis 37 and Divine Providence 287, and then listen to the full audio version of this sermon. It is archived at TheoBlog.com, and also available through www.PittsburghNewChurch.org, www.NewChurch.org, and the Apple iTunes Store. | By Glenn (Mac) Frazier, Pittsburgh, PA
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Was the Lord Born to Suffer?
Worship Service: Sermon only - 3 Dec, 2006
"Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. (Isaiah 53:10) When we think about the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger, words like "afflicted", "bruised", and "slaughter" do not come immediately to mind. "Innocence", "love", "peace", and "joy" are words of the Lord's birth. But the description of the Lord's life in Isaiah 53 is at once chilling and uplifting. Viewed wrongly, it seems as if the Lord was born on earth to suffer punishments from above so we wouldn't suffer. But "bearing the sins of many" doesn't mean that our sins are removed from us, but that the Lord, because of His victory over the hells during His life on earth, fights our battles for us when we shun evils as sins. The Lord was not born into a life of suffering, but a life of battle and of victory. Combat is not a pleasant thing, but the Lord loves us enough to fight our battles for us. When the angels heard this prophecy, they did not grieve for the Lord, but celebrated the victory that would save them and all of creation from the hells that threatened to overwhelm heaven. Take time this season to reflect on the circumstances surrounding the Lord's advent into your life. They may not always be joyful times, but then continue reflecting onward to the results of His coming and there you will find the angels bearing tidings of great joy. To see that this is true, read John 12:37-47, Isaiah 53, and Arcana Coelestia 9937:1-3, then listen to the full audio sermon, and finally try it out in your life in the coming week. This sermon is archived at www.PittsburghNewChurch.org and is also available at www.NewChurch.org and at the Apple iTunes store as a free podcast. | By R. Amos Glenn, Pittsburgh, PA
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How to Prepare for the Holiday Pandemonium
Worship Service: Sermon only - 26 Nov, 2006
"The voice of one crying in the wilderness; Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God." (Isaiah 40:3) Too often, we allow the "holiday season" overwhelm us. What starts out with happy anticipation of joyful gatherings and peaceful worship, instead ends up covered with anxious shopping and distracting office parties. This is not to say that gifts and office parties are bad, but our culture allows the evil spirits to push us into thinking more about the correct celebration of Christmans than about what is being celebrated. I call this "Holiday Pandemonium," the craziness that distracts us from what we really would rather be doing, enjoying friends and family and the peaceful holiness that surrounds us. "Pandemonium" has taken on the meaning of "wild, lawless confusion" but originally was the name John Milton used in Paradise Lost for the capital city of hell (from the Greek "Pan-" meaning "all" and the Latin "demonium" meaning "evil spirit"). Both of these senses are meant in "Holiday Pandemonium". How do we prepare ourselves for the Holiday Pandemonium so that we might avoid the chaos and anxiety as much as possible? The prophecy in Isaiah, repeated in the New Testament, tells us to prepare the way of the Lord, or more literally, to "sweep" the path of the Lord. We start the beginning work of repentance by reading the Word and thinking about our lives and what we really want. By doing the preparation work ahead of time, before the Pandemonium sets in, we allow the Lord ino our lives in ways that, though unseen, are powerful. It is like a baptism before the work of regeneration takes place. To see that this is true, read Isaiah 40:1-8, John 1:19-27, and True Christian Religion 531, then listen to the full audio version of today's sermon, and then try putting it into practice. This Christams season sermon is archived at www.PittsburghNewChurch.org and is available as a free podcast at the Apple iTunes store. | By R. Amos Glenn, Pittsburgh, PA
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Why Are the Ten Commandments So Negative?
Worship Service: Sermon only - 19 Nov, 2006
"From these considerations it is clearly manifest that so far as a man shuns evils, so far is he with the Lord and in the Lord; and so far as he is in the Lord, so far he does good, not from himself but from the Lord. Hence results this general law: SO FAR AS ANY ONE SHUNS EVILS, SO FAR HE DOES WHAT IS GOOD. "(Doctrine of Life 21) When we turn away from hell, which way are we facing? We often think of the Ten Commandments as a list of "Thou Shalt Not"s?the Lord telling us, like parents tell their children, all the things they are not allowed to do. But as we have learned over the past weeks, the Ten Commandments are not about limiting our freedom or making us suffer. So why are they so negative? The Doctrine of Life, which is drawn directly from the Ten Commandments, teaches that everyone in this world is suspended between heaven above and hell below. We are kept this way so we can freely choose which direction we want to turn. By birth we would naturally turn towards hell, but the Lord maintains our freedom and equilibrium and then educates us on how to turn towards heaven. We would assume that we would therefore be taught about how to do good. But in the 10 Commandments, we're not taught how to do good, but how to not do evil. Why? Good and evil are opposites and destroy each other when they meet. Since we are born with an inclination to evil, we cannot do good right away because the evil within us would destroy it. So our first job is to get rid of the evil. And as we shun those evils as sins, the Lord replaces them with good. We cannot do good without first shunning evil. The amazing result is turning toward heaven?not because we are choosing to tourn towards heaven, but because we are turning away from hell. If we choose to not look down at the ground, we can't help but look at the sky. Obeying the Ten Commandments by shunning evils as sins against the Lord is the surest way to reach heaven. To see that this is true, first read Doctrine of Life 53, Isaiah 1:10-20, and Doctrine of Life 18-21, then listen to the full audio version of this sermon, and, finally, try practicing it for a week. This is the tenth and final sermon in our Journey series, celebrating the Ten Commandments. It is archived at www.PittsburghNewChurch.org. | By R. Amos Glenn, Pittsburgh, PA