Word of Salvation – Vol. 44 No.30 – August 1999   Healthy, Wealthy And Wise   Sermon by Rev S Bajema on Jeremiah 9:23-24 Scripture Readings: Jeremiah 9:1-24   Dear Church of our Lord Jesus... Isn't this world we live in one huge ball of confusion?  Never before has there been so much insecurity in our nation as to who we are, and where we should be going.  The traditional values of progress, the belief that the scientists will find the answers, and we'll arrive in this great modern dream – it’s all gone!  The latest theory to hit our universities...

Word of Salvation – Vol.47 No.35 – September 2002   The Faithful Friend   Sermon by Rev S Bajema on 3 John 1-8 Scripture Reading: 3 John 1-13   Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ. This letter is one of only a few in the Bible addressed to someone in a particularly personal way.  Reading through it, we couldn't help but see that intimate note.  And didn't that word "friend" keep popping up?  As the Concise Oxford defines it, a friend is “one joined to another in intimacy and mutual benevolence independently of sexual or family love."  So there's a special...

Word of Salvation – Vol.47 No.43 – November 2002   The 'Fairest’ Friend   Sermon by Rev S Bajema on 3 John 11-14 Scripture Readings: 1John 2:28 - 3:10; 3John   Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ. All is not what it seems in your relationship with another Christian.  You've had a severe falling out.  Someone you had looked up to a lot, in the Lord, has put you in such a state that you wonder whether you are the Lord's at all!   It seems also that whoever else had been a help to you before has been quite clearly removed...

Word of Salvation – Vol.42 No.22 – June 1997   Being A Part and Not Apart Sermon by Rev S Bajema on Romans 12:3-5 Scripture Readings: H.C. Q&A 55; 1Cor 12:11-27; Rom 11:33 - 12:5 Suggested Hymns: BOW 100:3; 65; 450; 479; 503:6   Precious Body of our Lord Jesus Christ. This text is about belonging to the Church.  This text is about being an active part of the Church.  This text is about never being apart from the Church.  So far so good, you might be thinking.  Then why is it that more than 58% of Christians in Australia today...

Word of Salvation – Vol.46 No.19 - May 2001   Lost & Found   Sermon by Rev S Bajema on 2 Kings 22 Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 21:19 - 22:20   Beloved in the Lord, What do you feel when you’ve come to the end of the line?  That’s a time when we have to give something up, isn’t it?  Perhaps it was a job or business we had, or a course we were trying to study. We’ve tried our hardest.  We got whatever advice and help we could at that time.  We went as far as we could do.  And...

Word of Salvation – Vol.41 No.46 - December 1996   The Servant King   Sermon by Rev S Bajema on Isaiah 42:14 Scripture Readings: Matthew 3:13-17; Isaiah 41:1-16; 42:1-4 Suggested Hymns: BOW 96:1-3, 5; 286; 72B; 357:4   Congregation of our Lord. It has been said that this book of Isaiah is all about the Messiah.  So, in a more particular way than any other Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, the son of Amoz, seven hundred years before Christ was physically born and lived for a while among us, gives us a very clear view of what would happen. In fact, if...

Word of Salvation – Vol.42 No.30 - August 1997   Though Distracted, We're Retracted, for We are Contracted!   Sermon by Rev S Bajema on Judges 2:10-23 Scripture Readings: Judges 2:1 - 3:6 Suggested Hymns: BoW 332:1-3; 436:1-4; 99; 332:4   Church of Jesus Christ. Our text has often been used as a kind of introductory passage to the Book of Judges as a whole.  It is generally seen as setting out the theme for the rest of what follows.  But, we might well wonder – a theme for what?  Isn't Judges merely an interlude between the LORD's great deliverance with...

Word of Salvation – Vol.42 No.26 - July 1997   Now – Where’s Your Part?   Sermon by Rev S Bajema on Romans 12:6-8 Scripture Readings: Rom.12:3-8; 1Peter 4:7-11; 1Cor.12:1-11 H.C. Lord's Day 21, Q&A 55 Suggested Hymns: BOW 164:3; 66:1-3; 440; 206; 525   Dear Body of Christ. What we see here in this part of Romans 12, with this aspect of the gifts in the church, is part of a theme found right through the New Testament letters, whether of the apostle Paul, the apostle Peter or the apostle John.  We have already read from 1Peter and 1Corinthians, about...

Word of Salvation – Vol.42 No.3 - January 1997   A Win or a Sin?   A Sermon by Rev S Bajema on Proverbs 16:33 Scripture Reading: 2Thessalonians 3:6-15; Proverbs 16:9, 25, 33 Also Lord's Day 10   Dear Brothers and Sisters in our Lord. No one can deny that gambling is a major social problem.  One needs only to remember the inter-state television news story of those children being left in a car outside a casino while their mother was blowing the family budget inside. And locally, consider just the proliferation of pawn-broking shops, now in every suburb, exactly able...

Word of Salvation – Vol.43 No.45 - December 1998   True Peace this Christmas?   A Christmas Sermon by Rev S Bajema on Micah 5:5a Suggested Hymns: BoW 271; 277; 279; 268; 265 1st Reading: Micah 5:2-5; 2nd Reading: Matthew 2:13-23   Sermonette 1: THIS PEACE IS... LIVING DESPITE OUR STRIFE   Congregation, It has been nearly two thousand years since Jesus Christ came and shared in our humanity by being born in a stable in a small town in Palestine.  That's twenty centuries ago, since He lay as a baby upon an animal feeding trough. The Divine Deity graced us...

FULL CIRCLE! Rev Sjirk Bajema   Sermon 2 on Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 52 (Q & A 128-129) Scripture Reading: Psalm 115   Church of the Lord Jesus Christ...   Before we consider the way we end our prayers, let’s reflect on what has made up our prayer so far. We note that we began praying by looking up to where the Lord is - “Our Father who art in heaven.” Here is child-like faith. We know our place. To sum up, this is HIS POSITION.   And as we do that we know that we have to respect Him for...

IT’S NOT THE OUTLOOK – IT’S THE UPLOOK! Rev Sjirk Bajema   Sermon 1 on Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 52 (Q & A 127) Scripture Reading: Ephesians 6:10-20   Church of our Lord Jesus Christ... We ask that temptation won’t control us. It’s something so important that we need to ask it all the time. It’s in the Lord’s own model prayer, so it must be so! That’s why Answer 127 begins, “By ourselves we are too weak to hold our own even for a moment.” At some time in our lives we have all felt very afraid. Perhaps it was...

THE ONLY SOURCE & THE ONLY COURSE By Sjirk Bajema   Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 50 Scripture Reading: Matthew 6:25-34   Congregation in our Lord Jesus Christ...   We have before us the fourth request of the Lord’s Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer - that prayer Christ Jesus Himself taught His disciples so that they could pray in the right way to their Heavenly Father. The Lord’s Prayer, is the best model for all our prayers. If we’re to properly relate to our God we must follow the pattern this prayer sets before us.   Naturally it follows then that...

TO ERR IS HUMAN – TO FORGIVE IS DIVINE Rev. Sjirk Bajema   Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 51 Scripture Readings: Matthew 6:9-15; 18:21-35   Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…   A word that’s not very popular today is ‘sin’. But when has sin ever been something we have really wanted to talk about? Especially our own sin.   What is sin anyway? Many people in our society have not even heard of the word “sin”, and many others deliberately avoid speaking about it.   Isn’t a sinner a bad person - the car thief; the wife basher; the...

Where there's a Will there's a Way Rev. Sjirk Bajema   Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 49 Scripture Reading: Matt.16:21-28; Luk.22:39-46     Brothers and sisters, young people...   In this third request our Lord teaches us to pray, “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”   “Thy will be done!” We pray that God’s will be worked out in this world. Isn’t that a bit strange, though? I mean, that we ask God’s will to be done! Remember, what we have before us is the third request of the Lord’s Prayer. So we’re asking for...

Happily Ever After - by Rev. Sjirk Bajema   Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 48 Scripture reading – John 17   Dearly loved church of our Lord... We consider the second request in the Lord’s Prayer. It is here that we pray, “Thy kingdom come.”   Now “kingdom” is quite an old-fashioned word. It suggests knights in suits of armour riding on mighty steeds. And, there, right in front of them all, is the king! The good king. The leader of those who rescue maidens trapped by dragons and evil, despicable men. Those nasty creature are defeated. The people live...

Know Your Place Before His Face! by Rev. Sjirk Bajema   Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 46 Scripture Reading: Luke 15:11-24   Dearly loved church of the Lord Jesus Christ... If there is any one Bible passage that shows how God is our most ultimate Father, it would have to be ‘The Parable of the Prodigal Son’. Or, as the N.I.V. entitles it, ‘The Parable of the Lost Son.” That son was a bad boy. Totally despising the love he’d received so richly throughout his life, he thought he deserved his father’s possessions. And, then, showing even more his complete...

His Name Is Holy! - by Rev. Sjirk Bajema    Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 47 Scripture Reading: Revelation 4:1-11   Congregation in our Lord Jesus Christ...   The story is told of two men who approached the imposing statue of a famous and well-loved man. One of those men, a distinguished looking gentleman, gazed into the rugged face - a face so full of strength and tenderness. After a few moments, he slowly reached up and took off his hat. He allowed his white hair to be blown in the wind as he reverently honoured the memory of this...

Time To Pray   By Rev. Sjirk Bajema Heidelberg Catechism - Q/A 118   Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ… What is it like to talk to someone you cannot see, and who doesn’t speak back? Well at least not verbally anyway! How do we manage in that communication with the Lord when the way we relate to those around us is so visible? Or at least when we can’t see them face-to-face we can still know what they look like. Haven’t we all, at one time or another - perhaps even now - had the sense of a real lack...

His Say Each Day In Every Way - by Rev. Sjirk Bajema   Sermon on Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 44 Scripture Reading: Philippians 3:12-4:1   Congregation in our Lord Jesus Christ… This Lord’s Day is quite extensive. There is a lot here about the Tenth Commandment. But was there a particular phrase or sentence which stood out for you? Perhaps if you’ve got it open now, there’s a part that strikes you. Anything? Did you notice something in Answer 114? In response to the question, “But can those converted to God obey these commandments perfectly?” the Answer begins, “No. In this...