Looking Back With Thanks, Looking Forward With Expectation Melbourne Chinese Baptist Church 27 th Anniversary 4 th October 2015

 Anniversaries are important. They enable us to look back to the original event and to give thanks for that event.  we remember a birthday,  or a wedding anniversary,  or the date we arrived in Australia,  or some other important event in our lives which has had an effect on how we live our lives today.

 In the church there are a couple of anniversaries we celebrate every year  Easter

 we can look back to our own personal anniversary

 Anniversaries are for looking back with thanks

Isaiah 53:11b-12  “..because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins... he exposed himself to death. He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.”

This is what God has done!

Isaiah 54:1-3  “Sing, O childless woman, you who have never given birth! Break into loud and joyful song, O Jerusalem, you who have never been in labour. For the desolate woman now has more children than the woman who lives with her husband,” says the LORD. “Enlarge your house; build an addition. Spread out your home, and spare no expense! For you will soon be bursting at the seams. “

God is at work among us, in order to fulfil his plans for the Melbourne Chinese Church. We need to be ready to receive whatever it is that God has for us

Romans 6: 4-11  “...just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.

 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. “

In looking back with thanks for what God has done, we look forward with hope and expectation for what God will do!