Friday 10 January 2020

Holy Name 5 Jan 2020 Sermon


Holy Name 5.1.20 He Saves

Thanks be to God for making His name known to us. Before God revealed Himself by stages people did not think God was approachable; it was more fear than love.

In fact God wants us to approach Him. It is an extraordinary thing to be able to enter communication with God so easily as we can; simply to call on Him by one of His names, and there we are before Him.

When we consider what infinitely inferior creatures we are we must be astonished at such a privilege being granted us.

We would not get that far with the VIPs of the world. We would have to get through layers of secretaries and bodyguards to reach them!

Further to this, we have access to Almighty God even though we have sinned against Him.

If we have offended someone, normally that would lead to a cooling of relationship – not in God's world. He longs for the sinner to return and be restored to life.

The feast of the Holy Name is a chance for us to express our appreciation of God's infinite goodness, and to thank Him for arranging things so much in our favour.

We call on His Name for mercy, for grace, for anything that we need. We have many names for God. The Holy Name refers especially to the name Jesus, meaning He saves; capturing the essence of God's main stance towards us, which is one of saving us from sin, from death, from Hell and giving us the reverse of all these things.

Everyone needs saving at different degrees. Those who think they do not need it have become complacent, not heeding the shortness of their lives. Those who despair of salvation need to be re-assured and encouraged to ask for the mercy which can save them.

Anyone can call on this name. A man lying in the gutter can still look at the stars. Anyone can say, at any time, I repent; and make a new start.

Salvation of the soul is always the biggest thing, but we pray for everything, that all can be restored as to how God intended when He created the world.

We will grow in wisdom as we see that God grants some requests and not others.

We gain insight into how He thinks, and what He most wants. We can still ask for everything, only trusting in God to see the overall place of each thing, and not be relying only on our own viewpoint.

We can say with certainty that miracles are more likely to happen if more people have more faith. We pool our faith together and ask for all manner of blessings. We can do more together than we can on our own.

The power of the Holy Name is recognized by the devil who seeks to overturn that name – with blasphemy, obscenity, attempts to restrict its use.

The Name is a threat to the evil spirits and they want to deprive it of its power in any way they can.

To mock the Holy Name is like hanging by a rope over a canyon, and then cutting the rope!

Blaspheming only makes it worse. If, on the other hand, we speak the Holy Name with reverence, and approach with humility we have the basis for many miracles.

We also reparate for the insults directed at the Holy Name, which must run into billions.

Thank God for being so patient with us.

Blessed be God; Blessed be His Holy Name. Blessed be the Name of Jesus.

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