On Sunday 10 July 2022, Priest Darren Pedro conducted the central AVT divine service at Silvertown congregation. The divine service was conducted in English.

The Priest was accompanied by Priest N Marais, a music ensemble and the NACTV crew. This divine service was made available on NACTV, Cape Town TV on DSTV channel 263.  For members who were unable to watch the divine service, please find a detailed summary of the sermon: 

Opening Hymn: Come to the Saviour (EH:276)

Bible word: ‘Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”’ (Genesis 3:9)

Priest Pedro:

Thank you, so much dear choir. What a powerful message you just relayed to us, all that the Lord asks us, give Me your heart. That's what He asks of us today: give Me your heart. He wants all of us to experience His love, to experience His grace, to experience the power of His forgiveness in word and in sacrament. So, He invites us. He does not just say come into My presence. He says, come and give Me your heart. He says come whatever your circumstances, whatever you are going through, whether you're overwhelmed by the grief and sorrow of life. Whether you go through difficult situations and circumstances of life. Come to Me, come give me your heart. Even though we go through the joys of life, with jubilant praise that we come to the Lord. He says, come and experience Me. Come hear My word. Come hear My voice. Whenever we hear the word of the Lord, whenever we encounter Him, He must touch our hearts in a special way. Every encounter with God is a moment for us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, that it changes and transforms us more and more into the nature of Jesus.

Often when we find ourselves in the circumstances of life and overwhelmed by so many things, then we also hear a different voice speaking to us. The voice of the evil one. Then he also comes and he asks us certain questions. Where is your God? Why is He not helping you? Why has He forsaken you? Have we heard that voice before? It comes to us. We know, as those who believe in God as Christians today, we know that God is here. And it is no different today. God is here today. He's here to bless us. God the Father, the Creator of all things. The One who has started a good thing in you and will complete it until the day He sends His Son Jesus. He is here. God selected us and therefore He will care for us. He will provide for us. Provide for us our daily bread, is what we will pray later on in the prayer that the Lord Jesus taught us. God is here. God the Son is also here today. Jesus Christ, He saved us by giving His life on the cross so that we can experience the power of His salvific love. You know it's not only for us here on earth, but also for those in the beyond. Did we not just celebrate the feast of love a week ago during the divine service for the departed? The salvific power of God's love is available for all. Jesus is here. And God the Holy Spirit is still active today in our lives and in our hearts. We feel the movement of the Holy Spirit. It sanctifies us for our eternal future in Christ Jesus. The Holy Spirit is still active through the apostolate today. It teaches and reveals to us the mysteries of God's kingdom. God is here. Believe it. Know it.

God wants to flip the script on us a little bit today. He says to us, My child, you know where I am, now where are you? That's what He asks us today. You know where I am. Where are you? In this encounter of our Bible word, Adam and Eve committed a grave sin. And they realised their mistake. And out of guilt and shame, they hid from God. We can read it in verse 8, ‘And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden…’ They knew where He was: ‘…and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.’ Then comes our Bible word, ‘Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”’ That's the question the Lord asks of us today. I want to personalize the message of today for each one of us. God asks us today let's assess, let's evaluate the condition of our heart. Let's be candid about it. God knows where we are. He knows everything. He is omnipotent. He is omniscient. He's always omnipresent. In fact, God does not need an answer from us either. But He asked the question out of love, out of concern. Not to condemn. Not to judge. When He asked Adam and Eve the question, it was not to judge or condemn them, but out of love. God's purpose for you and I is to have fellowship with Him. He wants to be with us. He asks the question so that we can evaluate our condition. He asks the question because He is less interested in our position, and more interested in our disposition. That's what God wants to know. So, He asks where are you? You have moved away from me a little bit. You are far removed from Me, owing to the circumstances of life. Perhaps through what we go through. Perhaps we have prayed to the Lord and said, Lord, answer my prayers. And what did we hear? Nothing. Then we move away from Him and we allow this little voice of evil to ask the questions that move us. Let's listen to what God asks of us. Where are you? Let's put it into perspective. Let's realise that God wants to save us. He sent His Son Jesus, not only to perform miracles in our life, and to give us prosperity only. He sent His Son Jesus out of love because He wants to save our soul. He is interested in our salvation. We can read in John 3: 17, ‘For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.’ Where are you? God asks today.

Another question that the Lord asks and perhaps during the divine service, we'll elaborate on one or two questions that the Lord asks, and even Christ asks. But another question that God asked through the prophet Elijah when He spoke to His people. The moment when they were confronted and had a standoff with Baal, then the Lord asked, through Elijah to the people, how long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. If it is Baal, follow him. How long will you falter between two opinions? I'm thinking about our confirmands. Those who were confirmed and made a vow only a few months ago. And perhaps those who will make a vow in a few months to come. Learning about the depths of this vow, I renounce Satan and all his work and ways, and surrender myself to the triune God. The Lord asks how long will you falter between two opinions? Often dear young person, dear confirmand, dear young people, it's difficult to follow the Lord when things don't go our way. He says today, trust Me. Choose Me. Believe in Me. Follow Me. That's the vow we've made. Are we still true to this vow? Evil often gives us the path of least resistance. And when we face resistance, when we face difficulties, then it's so easy to give up. The Lord says today, don't give up. Trust Me. Follow Me. In belief, obedience, and the earnest resolution, to remain faithful unto my end. That's the vow that you've made and will make. And many of us have made this vow too. Let us develop a love relationship with Jesus, that we can always stand in amazement of His faithfulness and His love towards us. Choose Christ. Don't give up on Him. Do you know what Jesus taught in Matthew 6:24? It says you cannot serve two masters. You will love the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. When the Lord asks us today, how long will you falter between two opinions? Then we must say, but I choose the Lord. I believe in Him. I trust that my salvation lies in Him.

Another question that the Lord asked the prophet, Elijah, when he was hiding in fear of his life, wallowing in his grief. He was hiding in a cave and then the Lord asked him, why are you here? What are you doing here? Then Elijah explained to the Lord how people wanted to kill him. And the Lord said, get out of the cave. I need you. I want you to serve Me. Go and fulfil your mission. I am with you, do not fear. At some point in our lives, the Lord asks the question, whom shall I send? And courageously I am sure we all responded, here am I, send me. Do you remember that moment in your life? Here am I, send me. What has changed? Perhaps through the circumstances of life, we also move away from Him. We stopped serving Him. We start saying I am doing all these things, I am working for the Lord and preaching His gospel, and yet I face retribution. I forgive my neighbour, I do what is right and still, things go wrong in my life. Perhaps we look to each other and we say I'm the only one working. We said yes to serve in the choir, being a coordinator, playing in the orchestra, to come to the Lord, to serve Him as ministers. Then we say why am I the only one working? The Lord asks why are you here? What are you doing here? Get out of your cave. Get out of the things that scare you away. Come and serve Me. Let us gain perspective and grow in our maturity to understand the Lord's mission for us. Go and preach the gospel. Go and spread love. Go and love your neighbour. Let us leave the saving up to Him. That's His business. Our business is to preach the gospel. Our business is to love. Let us focus on what we must focus on and let the Lord do His part. Often, we want to do that which is the Lord's. Saving is not up to us. Changing how people worship and serve is not up to us. Let us also value each other's differences. We cannot all worship the Lord the same. We cannot all follow Him the same. It's in our differences that we also experience the Lord. Where Christ’s love is present, our Chief Apostle says, we can overcome otherness, and our diversity becomes an enrichment. Isn’t that special? In our congregations, we experience the otherness, and when Christ's love is present, we can truly experience that enrichment too. Get out of your cave. What are you doing here?

When the disciples were scared for their life, fearful of things happening, they had to wake Jesus up because they were scared of facing the storm in the boat. And then Jesus asked them the question, where is your faith? The triune God is here today. We said that at the beginning of the divine service. So now He comes and He asks us too, where is your faith? In the circumstances of life, what we go through, the difficulties of life, often things overwhelm us. Then we call to the Saviour too. Now the Lord says trust Me. If you believe that I am the Almighty God, then trust Me. Don’t only profess your trust with lips. But profess your trust in the way you live your life too. Live your trust. Can that be part of who we are? That when the Lord asks where is your faith, that we can truly say I believe that God will take me through this. Let us trust Him. Can I say stay in the boat, no matter what circumstances you go through. No matter the situations you face, stay in the boat. Jesus is there. Go and face your circumstances, knowing that God will take you through it. I think of the encounter where Jesus sent the disciples, who were on the shore, to the other side. He said get in the boat, and He went up the mountain to retreat. He went up the mountain to pray. And all the while He could see them sailing across. And when the storms came, Jesus saw them all the time. Then when He walked to them on the water (it's a different account) Peter gets out and goes to Jesus. But do we ever think of the 11 that stayed in the boat? Not everyone jumped out of the boat and walked to Jesus? There were those who stayed on the boat. They had to face the storms. They had to face their fears. And it says in Scripture when Jesus got into the boat, the storm calmed.  Sometimes Jesus is in our boat of life. And sometimes we must stay in the boat and wait till He gets in. He is present. Let's trust Him.

Perhaps one last question. The disciples walking on their way to Capernaum. Jesus asked them the question when they got to Him. He asked what were you disputing while you were on the road? And ashamedly they had to tell Him. Of course, Jesus knew what they were talking about. Jesus wanted them to assess and then to evaluate their heart’s disposition. Of course, Jesus knew they were arguing about themselves, who of us is the greatest? Now the Lord comes and He asks us too, what are you talking about? What are your conversations like? How do we answer that? What can we say? No one can answer for the other one. You must answer for yourself. I must answer for myself when the Lord asks me the question, what are you talking about? How do we talk about the church of Christ? How do we talk about our ministers? How do we talk about our neighbour? When we get home after the divine service, perhaps parents I speak to us, what are the conversations we have with our children? What are the conversations we have in front of them? Do we speak about the divine service? Do we talk about the word of God and tell them what Jesus maybe spoke about? Because let's be honest, sometimes the divine service goes over their head. Sometimes we struggle to get it down to their level. And then as parents, perhaps that’s our job too, to tell them what happened in the divine service. To tell them the message of God. And maybe dear children I say to you too, when Jesus asks, what are you talking about? Sometimes when we talk about our friends, when we talk about others, and we spread stories, whether it's on WhatsApp, Twitter or Instagram. Whenever we talk about these things, sometimes it becomes bullying when we say nasty stuff about our friends. Children, God asks you too, what are you talking about? Let our conversations be of Christ. Let that be saturated within our speech. A speech of love, a speech that speaks about Jesus.

We know that God is always present in our lives. We know that He has called us, selected us. Christ Jesus has saved us. The Holy Spirit sanctifies us, and now He comes and He poses the questions to us. Questions out of love. Questions that help us to evaluate our life, our heart’s condition. He asks us where are you? How long will you falter between two opinions? What are you still doing here? Get out of your cave. Where is your faith? What are your conversations about? Let these questions not just be a once-off, but let it mull in our hearts. It's important for our salvation that we think about these questions. God loves us. He wants to save us. He wants to forgive us. He wants to have eternal fellowship with us. Come let us look to Christ. Let's look to Him and answer Him by looking at the disposition of our heart. And when we do that, then we can answer that which the choir sang about at the beginning of this divine service: “Give Me thy heart”. Then we can answer here is my heart, God. Shape it. Mould it, form it and fashion it more and more into the nature of your Son Jesus. Amen.

Thoughts from Priest Darren Pedro