Weekly Sermon Reflection Questions

The Corinthian church was quarrelling amongst themselves and Paul stepped in and appealed to a community who was hurting and divided. The church was not divided over doctrine; the disagreements were personality and preference driven and rooted in pride.

The start of a new year invites reflection on past lessons and future goals. This often inspires resolutions, new habits, and systems to optimise productivity. It can be exhilarating and sometimes even addictive when we start new productivity protocols or utilise productivity apps. But while personal discipline and productivity are good things, we can also pursue them to the detriment of our relationships.

God is faithful. He will keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our identity is tied to our traits and determines our purpose. Who you are determines what you do.
The baptism of Jesus reveals His identity and invites us to respond as His disciples.

READ | SERMON NOTES For Sermon Notes, please visit: https://tidings.wesleymc.org/sermon-reflection/righteous-anointed-beloved-traditional/ PONDER | REFLECTION QUESTIONS

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians starts with a thanksgiving prayer. The 12 verses in today’s text is actually one long sentence in Greek.

The redemptive work of God reflects His glory and involves all persons in the Holy Trinity.

The longest prayer by Jesus as recorded in John 17 reveals what was fundamentally crucial to Him before He was betrayed and crucified. It should cause us, as we end the year, to reflect on how we are to worship Immanuel in whose loving, compassionate presence we have received mercy and every good thing.

An avid runner, Pastor Ben began by sharing his experience completing a full marathon 15 years ago. What sustained him through the long race was a simple yet powerful resolve: keep on keeping on. Hebrews 12:1-2, which he memorised and wrote on his bib, reminded him that life is more like a marathon than a sprint.

Advent is a season of waiting, and waiting can be hard because our hearts long for hope, peace, joy and love. Today we celebrate the truth that God does not wait for us to be ready. For God’s love comes anyway.

In New Testament period, a couple is considered legally married after their marriage has been arranged by their parents, is sealed with a formal agreement and the bride price paid by the groom.

People in the Old Testament held a bad theology thinking that since they have the Temple of Solomon, God is obligated to defend the city, and their enemies cannot triumph over them. They treated the temple as a talisman.

Isaiah was addressing Israel who had lost their homeland that was destroyed by the Babylonians. They were also exiled to Babylon because of their corrupt ways, and they were experiencing the wilderness without any resources of their own.

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse” declares Isaiah 11:1. A stump is lifeless and can be written off as useless. The Jews in the time of Isaiah must have felt that they were such a stump: hopeless and with no future and written off by God. But a shoot is to grow from this stump. Jesus is the shoot, coming from the ancestry of Jesse, David’s father. As we celebrate Advent, let us focus on Jesus, the root and the shoot, the source and the fruit.

Advent is a season of waiting, hopeful watching and preparing our hearts for the coming of the Christ. It is a period of preparation for the birth of Christ, and His second coming.

READ | SERMON NOTES For Sermon Notes, please visit: https://tidings.wesleymc.org/sermon-reflection/left-behind-pp/ PONDER | REFLECTION QUESTIONS

Amid the lights, shopping, and festivities of the season, Advent calls Christians to something deeper: to reflect on who we are waiting for and how we are preparing our lives for His return. Scripture in this season does not invite nostalgia, it calls us to readiness.

“All that God does is done well!” This understanding comes from the Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism and second in authority only to the Hebrew Bible. We should keep this thought in mind as we enter to worship the Lord.

When you think about laments, do you see a picture of the sun setting into the mountains, or rising from them? May we, as a Wesley family stand in solidarity with our Brothers and Sisters-in-Christ who are in the dark valleys – now and always see the sun rising from the mountains, as we lament with them before the Risen Son of God, Jesus.

READ | SERMON NOTES Summary l This weekend marks a special occasion where we witness the confirmation and reception into church membership of 61 people. In addition, on Sunday evening, there will be baptism of infants, children and special children.

Do you know that the Holy Spirit also says ‘amen’? We must tune our hearts to the ‘amen’ the Spirit speaks in the middle of our doubts, in the silence of our hearts, and in the very core of who we are.

We have all been in troubling situations where we do not know what to do. It could be situations at work, home, health or other issues close to our hearts. In a world that salutes confidence, strength and decisiveness; the ability to solve problems, show capability and control becomes the identity for some. Admitting that one does not know what to do is dismissed as failure, weakness and loss of control.

Often, our prayers tend to be requests for help and divine intervention for ourselves and our loved ones. Indeed, it is important to turn to God for help, rather than other worldly sources. We should pray for ourselves and others.

Many of us struggle with prayer, especially when our prayers go unanswered or why God seems silent. Truth be told, we often treat prayer as a task, a ritual, or a “to-do” item in times of crisis. Our focus shifts to the request rather than the relationship.

Even in weakness, God’s strength sustains us; embracing vulnerability reveals divine power and deepens our spiritual understanding and dependence.

As we sit in the “messy middle” between joy and grief, hope and sorrow; and when neither hope nor joy is seen “at the end of the spectrum” – can we say, “It is okay”? Jacob’s earlier life was one of constant striving to negotiate and manipulate in order to get ahead.

In order to benefit from the blessings of belonging to the Kingdom of God we have to adhere to certain rules and regulations which we may find onerous especially as laid out in the Old Testament. Obeying the law is not a pre-requisite to salvation.

Salt and light portray the illuminating influence and role Christians have in society.

Jesus shared this message during the Sermon on the Mount with ordinary people.  He declared them to be salt and light of the world – a metaphor representing godly character that leads to godly responsibilities, which in turn impact and influence the world around us.