4th July 2025

4th July 2025


Pray (ACts)


Read (Philippians 2:19-24 focus v22-24)


Message (Alan Burke)


I try to avoid going to see the Doctor, not my mate who is a Doctor I quite like him but the Doctor that I’m registered with. Generally if I do go see the doctor it is because I have such a sore head from my ears getting bent that it’s easier just to go. Believe it or not I did try a couple of years ago to phone the Doctor to get an appointment but when I couldn’t get though I thought I just messaged my mate and he said “sure what’s the worst that could happen, I’ll be at your funeral sooner rather than later”, yes friends who are GP’s tend to be that helpful. The thing is when you go to the doctor or I go to the doctor when I really really really have to because my head is just so sore and my ears can’t take the bending what we all hope for is that that Doctor has put the hours in, studied hard, shown that they are competent. Would you be happy going to see the Doctor if they were just given a 6 week crash course fresh our of school and a mobile phone so if there was anything they couldn’t figure out they could just google the symptoms? Of course we wouldn’t be happy with that. 


Just a warning this is moving towards a rant but let me ask you would you be happy with going to the Dentist needing a filling if the person with the drill in their hand again wasn’t the dentist but rather the Dental nurse? Of course you wouldn’t be happy with that. But we are at a stage in the church that what we want is ministry on the cheep and with instant results, we don’t want to send someone to theological college or seminary for years that costs the denomination a fortune, and then to go on to show their spiritual development and maturity in a placement. Instead there are posts being made that will see people straight out of whatever walk of life they have come from even if they don’t know where the book of Genesis is in the bible doing what a previous generation felt you needed to be equipped and prove yourself before you were allowed anywhere near. 


Normally to become a minister in PCI you first have to apply which takes a year with some hoops to jump through. Then three years having theological study under those who have been set aside to do that role along with placements and constant examinations not only of your book smarts but also your spiritual development. Then you have a two year full time placement before you’re finally signed off as being a suitable candidate. That should be the kind of minister we want and that we know that we need. Many days I wish I had another 5 years at least in collage not because I enjoyed it but because there is so much more I want and need to learn from God’s word. This is the longest introduction or rant for only a few words here but they are that “you know that Timothy has proved himself”. We should want ministers and elders who have proved themselves, who have taken time and been prepared properly for the role that they have and what is more that they have proved themselves. For Timothy he had shown he was equipped in every way to go, for he had proved himself, he was entrusted by Paul. 


We each one of us should be those who are desiring to be lead just as Timothy had been with Paul, who had been as a son with his father. We should be those desiring to be lead so that if the Lord wills it we may lead others. What we have done in the past is someone who has been semi interested we have given them all the responsibility without the necessary training and support, may the Lord forgive us. Instead we are all of us in something more akin to an apprenticeship that never ever ends even if we prove ourselves, learning what it is to be a follower of Jesus Christ never stops, as we hear the word not just in one ear and out the other, we look to the intents of others and serve in the work of the gospel where we are in what ways we have been entrusted. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q12  What special act of providence did God exercise toward man in the estate wherein he was created?
A. When God had created man, he entered into a covenant of life with him, upon condition of perfect obedience; forbidding him to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, upon the pain of death.
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