20131231 What are you trusting in?

Like locusts...

Sketchnote: Sermon: Rev Wendy Watson

Watch night service: 

Count down to 2014?

What are you counting on?

Bible Text: Nahum 3:14-17

Graphic warning indeed!

And Nineveh was annihilated

What are your dreams for 2014?
Church filled till overflowing?
Well behaved children?
Well behaved spouse?

January is named after Janus,
Roman God of the doorway.
Janus is depicted as having two faces,
one facing backwards, the other forwards.

Ancient Romans reflected on the year gone by
and looked to the year ahead.

They looked backwards with pride
assured of their military prowess
of their able governance.
They looked forwards,
counting on prowess and governance
to keep, if not to expand their empire,
conquering lands, increasing slaves, land money.
Yet the Roman empire was to crumble.

Assyria likewise was powerful
and expected the next year to be better.
Nahum the prophet had a warning for them (Nineveh).
After they had repented (Re: Jonah) they backslid.

God say "I have had enough of you
Do as you have done before.
Depend on
your stocks (water)
 defences
merchants.

Even if you multiply like swarming locusts you will not escape destruction."

If you reject God
and worship mammon, money, sex
YOU ARE DOOMED.

And Nineveh was destroyed and obliterated for 2500 years.

Sermon illustration:

FDW (Foreign Domestic Worker)
Husband passed away 11 years ago.
Came to work in Singapore to earn money to raise her 3 sons
and put them through school.

Her dream:
"Next year I will be 50 years old.
My dream: for my 3 sons and myself to eat together with me as a family."

She added:
"If this is granted in this life , 'Thanks God!'  "

And then she added:
"Even if this is not granted in this life, 'Thanks God!'
I know someday we will sit together to eat: if not here on earth, at least in heaven "

(Such faith!)

Jesus stood at the doorway:
He stood at the doorway between heaven and earth when he came down to be born in a manger:
Looking backwards he could see the glory and harmony of unity with the Father.
Looking forwards he could see the agony of the cross.

Jesus stood at the doorway between Earth and Sheol:
Looking backwards he could see the many lives he had touched while here on earth.
Looking forwards he could see the many who would come into the kingdom until he comes again.

For you, as you look back,
 how has 2013 been for you?
work?
responsibility?
high points?
low points?
ups?
downs?
roller coaster?
joys?
sorrows?
pains?
disappointments
successes?
struggling?

What are you trusting in?
What are you counting on?
Jesus is the way
Jesus is the door

Will you place your trust in Jesus?
If you do,
you are assured of a place at the heavenly banquet table.