Favoured by God—by Dr Marc and Keri Aguirre, & Pat Hlophe
May 14, 2023
Sermon summary:
What would be your criteria if you had to choose the mother of Jesus? God knew Mary's faith, faithfulness and humility, and that she trusted him.
She praised and glorified him. Whose favour do we seek? God's favour doesn't mean the absence of pain and suffering. Now is the time of God's favour.
Pat: As a single mum, partner with God as the father of your children.
Keri: God seeks godly offspring. We need each other to develop and deepend our convictions, and to find peace in challenging time. Parent with faith not fear. We are blessed to have spiritual formation to help each other.
Watch the full service here (the sermon starts at 50 mins)
Because Jesus reconciled us to God through the cross, we are called to pursue reconciliation with God, one another, and the world around us.
Jesus reconciles us to the Father and teaches us to extend his grace, helping us forgive one another, heal relationships, and walk together in peace.
The physics of the pendulum Picture an old grandfather clock in a quiet hallway. Its long brass pendulum swings steadily: tick, tock, tick, tock. Now give that pendulum a hard shove to the right. It does not simply glide back to the center and stop. It races right past the middle and sways just as far to the left. Left to its own momentum, a pendulum never rests at either extreme; it finds peace only when it hangs still at the center, held by gravity and its fixed point. The church behaves in much the same way. Push her too far toward one side of a truth and she does not gently settle into balance, she swings. Often for a whole generation toward the opposite error, and then back again, wounding people at both ends of the arc. And here is the crucial thing the clock teaches us: the pendulum comes to rest not by being frozen in place, but by being held. Balance is not the absence of force; it is the fixed point that keeps opposing pulls in tension so that the weight can finally hang still.