The Christian Service
The sermon emphasizes the importance of consecrating our service to the Lord, strengthening our will through faithful obedience, and forming habits that help us grow in our faith.
Mary Wilder Tileston emphasizes the importance of consecrating our service to the Lord daily, echoing the call from 1 Chronicles 29:5. She highlights the significance of obeying God's will humbly and gladly, as seen in the example of Isaiah. Tileston stresses the need to restore a weakened will by faithfully obeying even the smallest acts of obedience, leading to gradual growth in conformity to God's will. She encourages the congregation to break off evil, uproot sin, and deny self-indulgence as offerings to God, with the promise of receiving faith, life, and love from the eternal Source of love.
Text
Who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord? --1 CHRONICLES 29:5
My blessed task from day to day
Is humbly, gladly, to obey.
--HARRIET MCEWEN KIMBALL
THE only way to restore a weakened will is by exercising itself in details of duty, it may be in small.est acts of obedience, regularly done, "here a little, and there a little," content to grow by slow degrees into the use of lost powers through repeated acts of observance however trivial or unobserved. Faithful.ness to every smallest call of obedience, as it comes, is the means of gaining gradual accessions of strength, and thus tending more and more to higher degrees of conformity to the Will of God. Only by such simple practical dutifulness can habits be formed. --T. T. CARTER
Break off some one evil, seek to uproot some one sin, cut off some one self-indulgence, deny thyself some one vanity; do it as an offering to God, for the love of God, in hope once to see God; and some gleam of faith, and life, and love will stream down upon thy soul from the everlasting Fount of love. Follow on, and thou shalt never lose that track of light. --EDWARD B. PUSEY
Sermon Outline
- The Call to Consecrate Service
- The Means of Strengthening the Will
- The Power of Habitual Obedience
- Forming habits through simple practical dutifulness
- Gaining strength through repeated acts of observance
Key Quotes
“My blessed task from day to day / Is humbly, gladly, to obey.” — Mary Wilder Tileston
“Break off some one evil, seek to uproot some one sin, cut off some one self-indulgence, deny thyself some one vanity; do it as an offering to God, for the love of God, in hope once to see God;” — Mary Wilder Tileston
“Follow on, and thou shalt never lose that track of light.” — Mary Wilder Tileston
Application Points
- Make a conscious effort to consecrate your service to the Lord and seek to do His will in all aspects of your life.
- Start small by exercising duty in small acts of obedience and growing by slow degrees into higher degrees of conformity to God's will.
- Seek to uproot one sin at a time, deny yourself one self-indulgence, and do it as an offering to God for the love of God.