http://www.trinityopcnovato.org Serving Novato, Marin County, California and the World Wide Web. This site provides information about the Christian ministry of Trinity Presbyterian Church, OPC. This site also broadcasts the latest sermons and Sunday schools from Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Novato, CA. Our sermons seek to exposit Scripture, preaching Christ and the cross, and understanding the impact and demand of the Word on our lives. Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:45:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Copyright © by W. Reid Hankins and Trinity Presbyterian Church, 2011 info@trinityopcnovato.org (Rev. W. Reid Hankins) info@trinityopcnovato.org (Rev. W. Reid Hankins) Religion & Spirituality:Christianity 1440 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/wp-content/plugins/podpress/images/tpc-vertical144.jpg http://www.trinityopcnovato.org 144 144 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/?feed=podcast Sermons and Sunday Schools Serving Novato, Marin County, California and the World Wide Web. This feed broadcasts the latest sermons and Sunday schools from Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Novato, CA. Our sermons seek to exposit Scripture, preaching Christ and the cross, and understanding the impact and demand of the Word on our lives. Church, Novato, Marin, Hankins, Sermon, Christian, OPC, San Rafael Rev. W. Reid Hankins Rev. W. Reid Hankins info@trinityopcnovato.org no no http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/11/20/nine/ http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/11/20/nine/#comments Sun, 20 Nov 2011 19:59:23 +0000 Pastor Reid Hankins http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/?p=1532 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2011/11/20/nine/feed/ 0 0:00:01 Sermon preached on Luke 17:11-19 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 11/20/2011 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Luke 17:11-19 11/20/11 “But Where Are the Nine?” Thursday[...] Sermon preached on Luke 17:11-19 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 11/20/2011 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Luke 17:11-19 11/20/11 “But Where Are the Nine?” Thursday is our national Thanksgiving holiday. It’s a good thing that our country has a day to count our blessings. And yet this is not a day just to be thankful in general. It’s a day to thank someone. To thank God. Now yes, we should be thanking God all year long. That’s not to say that there is not a value in having a special day of thanksgiving. Certainly there is. But it seems the some of the greatest value is not simply to thank God on Thanksgiving. That, is what we should do everyday. Rather, the Thanksgiving holiday is especially a day to be reminded that we should be thankful, all year long. More than just a single day of thankfulness, it’s a day to reset our focus. We should be thankful people – thankful to God for all his many blessings. Especially for the blessing of salvation in Jesus Christ. You see, this is a common problem in man. We don’t thank God as we ought. We are really good at asking God for help, and not so good at thanking him afterwards. This passage demonstrates that. This will be our topic that we’ll reflect on today. Our passage begins with some geography. Jesus and his disciples are heading southward toward Jerusalem. In the process they are passing through the bordering areas of Samaria and Galilee. Here, as you could expect, you would find both Jews and Samaritans. In this passage, we find ten of them together, lepers, living as outcasts. Well, what I want us to notice first then is the great need of these lepers. They had a great, great, need. They were unclean. They needed to be cleansed. That’s what it says Jesus does for them in verse 14. They were sick. They needed to be healed. That what it says Jesus does for them in verse 15. They of course were also outcasts. We know that from the text. They are hanging out in this border country between Samaria and Galilee by this small village. There in verse 12 it notes that they stood afar off; at a distance. This of course was the normal practice for lepers. The law of Moses specifically required them to be outcasts, to live outside the camp – Leviticus 13. Leviticus 13 said they had to stay away from people and yell out “Unclean.” This meant they were outcasts socially. But also religiously – they were not allowed to enter the temple to worship, due to their unclean status. And so, the sum of it is this. They were unclean, sick, outcasts. They had great need. Well, having a great need means you usually have a big cry for help when you see someone who can help you. That is exactly what we have in this passage. Jesus shows up on the scene, and the ten lepers see help had arrived. Verse 12 says the lepers met Jesus there. They came to him for help. Verse 13 is their cry for help. “And they raised their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” Notice what this call entails. It says they lift up their voices. In other words, they speak up, and they speak up loudly. They aren’t going to miss their chance. Jesus was there. As an act of faith, they loudly call out to him for help. Next, notice the respect they show Jesus. They call him master. This is a strong word of respect. It acknowledges Jesus as a leader and a person of high status. In other words, they humble themselves before Jesus and exalt him in their request. Next, notice that their cry is one of desperation. Have “mercy” on us! To ask for him for mercy is to seek his pity. To seek his help. It’s to acknowledge that Jesus didn’t owe them something. They had not done anything to warrant his attention or healing. This is really important. Just before this pas[...] Luke Rev. W. Reid Hankins no no http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/11/21/being-vigilant-in-it-with-thanksgiving/ http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/11/21/being-vigilant-in-it-with-thanksgiving/#comments Mon, 22 Nov 2010 05:07:10 +0000 Pastor Reid Hankins http://www.novatoopcsermons.org/?p=969 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2010/11/21/being-vigilant-in-it-with-thanksgiving/feed/ 0 0:30:34 Sermon preached on Colossians 4:2 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 11/21/2010 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Colossians 4:2 11/21/10 “Being Vigilant In It With Thanksgivin[...] Sermon preached on Colossians 4:2 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 11/21/2010 in Novato, CA. Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Colossians 4:2 11/21/10 “Being Vigilant In It With Thanksgiving” This week our nation celebrates Thanksgiving. I like to take advantage of these sorts of important holidays in our country and use them to remind us of things that we are probably more inclined to be thinking about already. And so today’s message will think about thanksgiving. Not the holiday per se, but the actual concept of thanksgiving. What is thanksgiving? Well, of course it is giving thanks. But most specifically, it is giving thanks for something. It’s giving thanks for some thing we’ve received. It’s offering thanks for some blessing or benefit that you’ve received. It’s an expression of gratitude. It’s saying thank you out of appreciation for what was given to you. Of course, today we are most specifically talking about giving thanks to God. That’s not something we can take for granted. Our nation’s holiday of Thanksgiving is one celebrated by both believers and atheists. Of course, all of us can use this holiday to thank our family and friends for their love and care in our life. Yet, as Christians, we especially thank God for all that he’s done in our life. We thank God for countless things; for our family and friends; for the harvest; for our food and clothing and shelter; for our jobs; and especially and chiefly for our salvation. Our thanksgiving can come in different forms. It can be an attitude we have. You might be someone with a generally thankful attitude. Someone who goes around constantly feeling gratitude in your heart and mind toward God and others. Thanksgiving can also be expressed through our actions. We know that sometimes we give thank you gifts to others, or do some other action as a gesture of thanksgiving. And as Christians, we say that our obedience to God’s laws is done out of gratitude. We strive to have godly actions as a way to thank God for his wonderful salvation in our life. And yet the most common way I think we all express thanksgiving is verbally. It’s something we say. We use words to give verbal expression to our thanksgiving. Hopefully those words reflect an inner state of your heart; that you really are thankful, and your words are expressing that. It’s this expression of thanksgiving that we’ll be particularly considering today from this passage. Today’s message will consider how we express our thanksgiving in words; how we thank God with our words. That of course happens through prayer. We should express thanksgiving to God in all these ways, in our attitudes, in our actions, but yes, also in our words. We should tell God thank you in our prayers! And so today we’ll look at this verse about this very thing. First, we’ll think in general about how we ought to express our thanksgiving in prayer. Then we’ll consider the devotion we ought to have to this thanksgiving in our prayers. Last, we’ll reflect on the vigilance we should have in this thanksgiving. So let’s begin by thinking in general about thanksgiving in prayer. Look at this verse with me. You’ll note that the verse starts out as just a general command to pray. And yet the final part of the verse connects the thanksgiving with the prayer. It says that we should have thanksgiving in our prayer. Now for most of us, this probably seems pretty obvious. And yet, I think it’s obvious because the Scriptures have trained us in prayer. But it is important that we are told this. You see, the actual word for prayer in the Scriptures, grammatically, really places the focus on making petitions. The actual word in the Greek language draws our attention to the requests we make to God. That of course can be [...] Colossians Rev. W. Reid Hankins no no http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2008/11/23/more-than-all-the-whole-burnt-offerings-and-sacrifices/ http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2008/11/23/more-than-all-the-whole-burnt-offerings-and-sacrifices/#comments Sun, 23 Nov 2008 23:36:34 +0000 Pastor Reid Hankins http://www.novatoopcsermons.org/?p=201 http://www.trinityopcnovato.org/2008/11/23/more-than-all-the-whole-burnt-offerings-and-sacrifices/feed/ 0 0:25:46 In this passage Jesus summarizes the Law of God to an inquiring scribe.  The scribe responds relating the Moral Law with the Ceremonial Law.  As he does that, we see Jesus telling the man that he is not far from the kingdom of God.  Join us as we lo[...] In this passage Jesus summarizes the Law of God to an inquiring scribe.  The scribe responds relating the Moral Law with the Ceremonial Law.  As he does that, we see Jesus telling the man that he is not far from the kingdom of God.  Join us as we look at how understanding the Law in relationship to Christ is foundational to entering Christ’s kingdom.  And we’ll also see how this is a fitting passage to consider on this Sunday before Thanksgiving. (Due to technical difficulties, the entire sermon was not recorded.  Please refer to the sermon manuscript for the completion of the sermon.  We apologize for this inconvenience.) Passage: Mark 12:28-34 Author: Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div. Sermon originally preached during the Morning Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 11/23/2008 in Novato, CA. Click here for the manuscript. Mark Rev. W. Reid Hankins no no