There is such incredible power in God’s Word! Power to change. Power to make an impact in this world. That’s what Christianityworks is all about – in depth teaching straight out of God’s Word. Join Berni Dymet as he opens God's Word to discover what God has to say into your life, today.
It's such a simple word. Three letters. Just one syllable. So why is joy so elusive? We try so hard to find it –but, you know… Why is Joy in Such Short Supply? Well, it's great to be with you again this week and we are starting a new series on the programme called, "It's Time to Start Enjoying My Life". I really am looking forward to this series because "joy" is such a big issue in life. It's such a simple little word – just three letters, one syllable – "joy" and yet it seems in such short supply; it's more precious than gold or silver. Think about it, how many of the people that you know, would say, if asked, "I'm really enjoying my life?" And if I ask you, how much, on a scale of zero to ten, are you enjoying your life, right now? How would you answer? Most people hover somewhere around the middle or bottom half of that "zero to ten" scale. Why is it though that joy seems to be in such a short supply in this world? There's not one person that I know if I asked them, "Would you like to experience joy in your life?" I don't know anyone that would say, "Aw no, no, I don't think I need joy in my life." Joy is such a wonderful thing, it's such an important thing. Now I've travelled to lots of parts of this planet; places where people are really wealthy, I mean mega wealthy; places where people are moderately well off and places where people live in abject poverty. I know people who are rich and people who are poor, tall and short, black and white, thick and thin, but you know something? None of those distinctions seem to have much to do with whether they are enjoying their lives or not. Those external things, at the end of the day, that's not really where it's at. You can have everything that money can buy – the latest plasma screen, the biggest new car, the finest clothes, jewellery, all those things and more; a wonderful husband or wife and great kids – you can have all of those things and still not really be enjoying your life. I heard a well known, really wealthy business man on TV the other night and he can have anything he wants. You could tell though, as he spoke and you looked at him, you could tell that he had an unsettled life; he was looking for something. See so often, when it comes to joy and the levels of joy that we experience, they're so low and we blame those things on the outside. "Well, I'd enjoy my life if I had more money." "I'd enjoy my life if I had a better job." "I'd enjoy my life if other people weren't so difficult; if it wasn't for the politics at work or the tension at home, or my loneliness or … You name it, we can blame it – then I'd enjoy my life." You know what I am talking about; blame, blame, blame. But you know why I know that it's not the things on the outside that give us joy? Because I used to be one of the people that thought that it was. I could holiday in five star resorts, I did. Had gold plated taps in the en suite – you name it, I could have it and I had no joy. I actually felt desperately miserable. You see, there's a big swindle going on in society and I don't care whether you live in a wealthy country or whether you live in a poor country. Maybe you have heard me talk about it before perhaps and I take aim at the advertising industry. It's not really their fault because it's a symptom of a greedy society. See, they flash up on television and in the media and on radio, seductive images of success and they link them to the product that they are trying to sell us and the message is, "If you buy this product you will be happy." So you do – you buy that product; you spend your hard earned cash and you discover that there is just no joy in it. And so we watch the next ad and we buy the next thing and it still doesn't satisfy and we do the next thing and it still doesn't satisfy. "Oh, when I'm happily married, then I'll enjoy my life." But you know something? Another person can't make you happy! I have a wonderful wife – truly. Jacqui is my absolute favourite person on planet earth but I can easily still feel empty and hollow and unhappy, even though I have her; even though I have a comfortable home to live in. See, we live in a world based on greed. Companies know that so they trade on our dissatisfaction; they trade on our lack of joy; they trade on our desire to discover joy as the basis for earning more money to fill people's pockets to make them happy but it never does. That's the swindle! Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not against capitalism; I'm not against free enterprise; I'm not against people working hard – those things on their own though just don't bring you joy. And yet, over and over and over again, we go looking for joy in all the wrong places. "Ah, if I am entertained, I'll enjoy myself then." Sure for a short time, some entertainment might make us feel good but that's not what I am talking about. I'm talking about a deep, abiding contentment; a deep joy that never goes away – right through the highs and the lows and the ups and the downs and the good times and the bad times – a joy that's deep inside somewhere, that words can't describe. That's what I'm talking about. Joy; real, abiding joy! Now you might say to me, "Berni, is that what life's all about? Aren't you being unrealistic? Are you being a Christian hedonist – you know, the whole point of knowing God is that so you feel good?" Well, let me tell you something – one of God's greatest promises is the promise of joy when we have a relationship with Him – it's not an optional extra. He talks about it literally hundreds of times through the Bible. We are going to look at some of those over the coming weeks. Psalm 126, verse 5 says: Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. Jesus said … you can read it in John chapter 16, verse 24. By the way, if you have a Bible grab it, we are going to need it today. John chapter 16, verse 24: "Until now,” He said “you have not ask for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive and your joy will be complete.” Joy is not some optional extra in our relationship with God. It's an integral part of God's plan for our lives. So often God says He is going to do this or do that so that our joy would be complete. See, He wants complete joy for us – a joy that never fades; a sweet calm delight in our hearts – no matter what life throws at us. And it's a joy – a joy that comes from Him. Problem is so many people are trying to chase down this elusive thing called "joy", just looking in the wrong places. Whose Idea is Joy Anyway? There is something awesome about being around a person who has a deep sense of joy. Maybe you know one or two people like that. Often they are not sort of over the top, really out going people; sometimes they are quiet and gentle but you just know that there is something inside them that you want. They seem to cope so well with the curved balls that life throws at them. They seem to have so much to give. They have like…like a quiet, understated kind of gentle confidence – maybe confidence isn't the right word, maybe contentment is the word I am looking for – and that person's joy kind of invades our heart space. We just want to be around them. It feels good because they're safe and encouraging and they are just great to be around. Most of us only know one or two people like that but what we know is that we want to be around them because it does us a whole bunch of good. My hunch is we kind of all relate to that. Joy is a commodity that seems to be in such short supply. The advertising industry, as I said earlier, tells us "Buy this product and you will experience joy" – it never happens. It's a symptom of a greedy world – me, me, me, more, more, more. But the more that we chase after this precious commodity that we call "joy", the more … well, the more elusive it becomes. For much of my life I truly subscribed to the philosophy that if all my needs were met – all my desires – I would experience joy. I had the big house, I had the latest car, I had gadgets galore but they never brought me the joy and the contentment I was looking for. So where do you get it? Christians sometimes get a little bit uncomfortable with the fact that we are talking about "joy" because it appears to be self-centred that we would be chasing after "joy". When Jesus came to this planet, He came proclaiming … what? The Kingdom of God; the reign of God in our lives and people got confused. They saw the Roman occupation in first century Israel and they thought, "Here is this Messiah to set us free from that kingdom of oppression and re-establish God's Kingdom in Israel; like when David was King – back to the good old days." Now, that's not what He was talking about at all. He was talking about something that happens in our hearts. In Luke chapter 17, verse 20: The Pharisees asked Him about the Kingdom of God and they said when would it come? And Jesus replied “The Kingdom of God isn't coming in a way that you can see. People won't say “Here it is” or “There it is” because the Kingdom of God is within you. People thought it was a physical kingdom; God had another plan. The Apostle Paul – he puts it really well in Romans chapter 14, verse 17 – he's talking about religious rules here. But he says: The Kingdom of God is not a matter of food or drink but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Isn't that interesting? The Kingdom of God isn't about these physical things; not rules and regulations about what to eat and drink, it's about three things – righteousness which is what we have when we believe in Jesus and we experience His forgiveness; a right standing with God through our faith in Jesus Christ; getting our lives back on tract. And through that we then get a peace and a joy – these are the things that the Kingdom of God is all about. And they come to us not through buying the latest gadget or extending the house or renovating the bathroom. No, they come to us through the Holy Spirit. And it's not a peace and a joy that the world offers – it's not something you can buy off the rack in the store, not that at all – it's a gift from God and it's something that Jesus talked about over and over and over again. Flip your Bible across from Luke to John chapter 15, verse 11. Jesus disciples were afraid; Jesus is about to be crucified. Everything they have believed and seen over the last three and a half years is falling in a screaming heap and look at what Jesus talks about: I have said these things to you so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.” “I have said these things to you so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. Jesus is about giving us God's joy even in those incredibly difficult times and in fact, especially in those times, and making our joy complete. Let me share something really interesting and profound with you. The Greek word – remember the New Testament was written in Greek – the Greek word for "joy" used right through the New Testament, is closely related to the word for "free gift" and the word for "grace". You see, God's joy is this thing that He wants to lavish on us freely – it's part of His grace; it's an integral part of who He is and what He has done through Jesus Christ. And over and over and over again, what we see is that the joy that Jesus talks about isn't the joy from the world. It's the joy that comes from God. It's not some joy we conjure up for ourselves; it's not something we experience because something good happened to us today or we bought some new clothes or something. No! God is a God of joy. Now, I challenge you – no we are not going to go there today – but I challenge you to read just one chapter in the Bible, its Luke chapter 15. Jesus tells three parables: one is about a shepherd who loses a sheep; one is about a widow who loses a coin and one is of a father who loses his son. And in each case these people regain what they had lost. Jesus told these stories to explain to us what God is like. The point of it is the joy in God's heart when He gets us back. The father of the prodigal son responds with such joy, he just lavishes it on his son who once was lost but now is found – he throws a party. My experience is I tried to get joy hits in so many different places before I met Jesus. I had the money to spend, so I did. I spent a fortune trying to capture joy and get it in my heart, but I never did until one day I encountered Jesus Christ. His presence; His Spirit is what flooded my heart with joy. It overflows out of me into the lives of other people – not perfectly – but in a way that words can't describe. Peter the Apostle, puts it this way in First Peter chapter 1, verse 8: Even though you haven't seen Him with your own eyes, you love Him and even though you don't see Him now, you believe in Him and you are filled with an unspeakable and glorious joy because you are receiving the goal of your faith, salvation of your souls. I didn't realise it at first but as my relationship with Jesus began to grow, that unspeakable and glorious joy; a joy that – I'm good with words, but I can't find words to describe because it's unspeakable and glorious. That wondrous joy filled my heart. It's not something you and I can conjure up. It's God's joy and He pours it into our hearts, through His Holy Spirit as we experience His forgiveness and start to live in His goodness and ditch the rubbish we used to think and speak and do. That's why Paul wrote God's Kingdom isn't about rules and regulations and physical things. It's about righteousness and peace and joy – God's righteousness, God's peace and God's joy that are given to us through the Holy Spirit. It's totally out of this world. Jesus was talking about His peace – He said: My peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I don't give it to you the way the world does so don't let your hearts be troubled and don't let them be afraid, He says in John chapter 14, verse 27. See until we experience it we just don't understand it. Even when we do, it's impossible to find words to describe the wondrous reality of the joy and the peace Jesus Christ brings. They're not from this world; they come from Him. And we can look in as many holes and under as many logs as we like but it's not until we put our trust in Him, completely in Him, that we experience His joy. We dwell in His presence, we pray, we are filled with such a wonder and such an awe and such a joy unspeakable. Entering the Gates of Joy We have been talking about the fact that God's plan is to fill us with joy but sometimes people look at God from a distance and they say, "Well, you know, I don't believe that that joy is for me. I don't know." Let me share a story with you. I visited a barber's shop recently to have my hair cut and as Bert the barber went to work we began to talk. We talked about … well, all sorts of things – sport, as you do in a barber's shop, politics, interest rates. Eventually we ended up on the subject of God. Bert says to me, "You know Berni, I don't believe that God exists." "That's interesting," I said, "Why do you say that?" Here's what he said: "Well you just have to go out onto the street to realise that God doesn't exist. Tell me, if God existed, would there be so many sick people? Would there be so many abandoned children? If God existed would there be pain and suffering? I can't imagine a loving God would allow these things to happen." I thought about it but I didn't want to get into an argument with him so, when my haircut was done, I just paid and headed out the door. But just outside the door there was a man in the street, with long stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt so I turned around and headed straight back into the barber's shop and I said to Bert, "You know what Bert, barbers don't exist." He was a bit taken aback. He said, "How can you say that? I'm here, I'm a barber, I just worked on you." "No", I said, "Barbers don't exist because if they did there wouldn't be any people with dirty, long hair and untrimmed beards like that guy outside." But Bert was sharp as a tack. He said, "Ah, but barbers do exist – that's what happens when people don't come to me." "Exactly, that's the point – God does exist too but all that stuff you were talking about – that's what happens when people don't go to Him." End of discussion! You get my point? People want to criticise God from a distance but you can't do that. We are talking this week about joy – God's joy and if we want to enjoy our lives we have to enter into that joy. We can't stand at a distance and complain about God and can't say He's not real and criticise Him. If we want to have that joy we have to enter into the joy. I love poetry, always have. There's a beauty and wonder in taking something profound and expressing it in poetry. And the Book of Psalms; Psalm 100, verse 3 says this: Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us and we are His. We are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and praise His name for the Lord is good and His love endures for ever. His faithfulness continues through to all generations. God has a heart full; a God sized heart full of joy that He wants to pour into our hearts. That's what we have been looking at on the programme today. Jesus said it over and over again. He said: I have said these things to you so that My joy might be in you and that your joy might be complete. And where we kind of sit back at a distance, either totally scornful of God, as I used to be, or maybe kind of believing in Him at a distance; believing that … well, He's God but never, never really believing that … "He would want to fill me – me – with His joy." Come on, wake up! God's joy – a joy that we can't find anywhere else in this world; a joy that words can't express; a joy unspeakable – is an integral part of His plan for our lives. But we have to walk through the door; we have to enter into that joy, to "enjoy". That's what "enjoy" means, to enter into the joy. We need to ask and thirst and spend time with Him and pray and beat His door down and don't leave Him alone until He does what He said He would do – to give us His joy and so make our joy complete. It's a joy that fills us in the good times and the bad times. Ask, search, knock! Whoever asks receives! Whoever searches finds! Whoever knocks, well, to that person the door will be opened! If we as parents, evil as we are, give our children good gifts, how much more do you think our Father in heaven will give us good gifts when we ask? I have said these things to you so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
The only faith the Bible talks about, the only sort of Faith Jesus talked about was the sort of faith that moves mountains. The sort of faith that conquers the world! The sort that has powerful results. Conquering Faith There are times in our lives when we have to overcome obstacles. Now not every obstacle is there for overcoming, let me say. Sometimes they're meant to be there at least for a while, and sometimes they're meant to be there as a permanent feature. I don't know if you recall the apostle Paul's prayer to God about the thorn in his flesh that was hindering him, but three times Paul asked God to take it away, and God's answer was no, because that thorn in Paul's flesh was there to keep him humble. Even adversity, especially adversity sometimes, plays an important part in God's plan for our lives. But sometimes it's God's plan for us to overcome obstacles in our lives. Sometimes we need to be more than conquerors over our circumstances, in order to achieve what God's called us to achieve. When we have to conquer an obstacle that's way beyond our power or our wisdom or our strength, then we need to have faith – faith in the One who does have the power and the wisdom and the strength to make things happen. We need the sort of faith that conquers the world, and that's the sort of faith that we're going to chat about again today on the programme – world-conquering faith. So let's go back to Hebrews 11 and see what God has to say to us today about that sort of faith. Hebrews 11:29: By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so, they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith Rahab the prostitute didn't perish with those who were disobedient because she had received the spies in peace. And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Sampson and Jephthah and David and Samuel and all the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fires, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Isn't that just one of the most amazing passages? I get a real courage in my heart just reading that passage. So, what's God saying to us through His Word today? When the nation of Israel fled from their centuries of slavery in Egypt, and after they'd wandered for forty years in the wilderness, God finally let them into the land that He promised them through Abraham centuries before. Now you'd think, wouldn't you, that if the land was the land God had promised and He'd chosen and He'd provided, that God could ordain for them that they'd kind of waltz in there and settle down and take over, but that wasn't God's plan. The land was occupied by many nations and kings and tribes, and the Israelites had to take the promised land battle by battle. That's often God's way. That's why so often, life as a Christian seems to be battle after battle. That's why sometimes we think to ourselves: "Why is following Jesus this hard? Why doesn't it all just fall into place? What about the promises of God?" Well, the promises are there, just like the promised land was there for Israel, but they had to be taken (often battle by battle), and those battles, my friend, require faith. Faith pleases God and so those battles are our opportunity to grow in our faith, as we rely on God's promises to take us through, and that's pleasing to God. So Israel took Jericho ... by strength? No, by faith! And Rahab, the prostitute who'd harboured the Israeli spies before that battle, she was saved by faith. And then the writer goes on to list many situations and circumstances in the history of Israel where battle after battle after battle after battle had been won, as Israel God's people stepped into the breach and put their faith in their God. My friend, that's what the Christian life looks like. That's what we're meant to be living, and after each battle and each trial and each beating and each victory, you know what happens? Our faith grows stronger. We don't just become mighty men and women of faith by sitting here in our lounge-rooms watching the television, we become mighty men and women of faith by using our faith – by exercising the muscle of faith, so that it grows stronger and stronger with each battle. And one day we wake up and we're able to face bigger battles for Christ because now we have the faith we need to live through them. Let me share with you a letter I received awhile back from a woman, Elsie – an elderly lady, who used to support Christianityworks by sending some stamps every few months. Listen to the world-conquering faith of this frail old woman. She writes: Although I'm only a very aged pensioner' (those are her words), ‘I have been kept by God's grace through many years. In the last eighteen months, I have had both floodwaters and burning tree-embers over my veranda, but God has protected me through it all. Only last night the bush-fire threatened my home again, and I went to bed knowing that only our Creator could keep me safe. Berni, I'm sending you these stamps in the name of our miracle-working God, who fed thousands with five small loaves and two fishes, who burst open prison-doors, calmed tempests, split rocks and provided water, conquered death and defeated Satan, and who is coming again to take us all to His eternal home in glory. May these stamps help others to enter His peace. And so they did. We used those stamps in our very next mailing to our supporters, and in response to that mailing, I received a letter from another woman, who as it turns out lived just a few kilometres from Elsie, who'd been to the point of suicide when she received our letter, yet God used that letter to save her life. She wrote: "Thank you for saving my life." I believe with all my heart that that miracle was born out of Elsie's world-conquering faith. I rang Elsie, I told her what had happened, and she wept with joy. What an awesome God we serve, that this self-described "aged pensioner" can be filled with that sort of world-conquering faith. And as you receive God's word today, may you be filled with a passion to travel through the battles, through the fires, through the floods of your walk with Jesus, so that day after day He will grow in you the sort of faith that conquers the world. Unwavering Faith You know the thing that is absolutely the most difficult thing about faith? It's that sometimes when I believe in God for something, He doesn't give me the answer I was believing for. Sometimes when I trust in God to do something, something that's really good – something that's really powerful – something that truly would glorify His name, either He doesn't do it or He delays in doing it, or He does it in a completely different way to what I was expecting. You see, when it comes to faith, I just want it to be simple: I decide what needs to be done, I ask God to do it, and I believe in Him that He's going to do it and He does it! Hey, that's simple enough. How come God doesn't get it sometimes? How come He heads off in some tangent when I can see plain as day what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, and how it needs to be done? Now, as we've been exploring what Hebrews chapter 11 has to say about faith over these last few weeks, have you noticed that each of the examples so far has focused on successful outcomes of having faith in God? Yippee! But the Bible is nothing if it's not realistic, and so it also talks about those times when God doesn't seem to deliver on our prayers – when we've prayed in faith and He doesn't show up. Have a listen. This first passage follows on from the Abraham story. God had promised Abraham many descendants, even when he and his wife were old, beyond childbearing age, and He promised a land of his own – the promised land, in which his descendants would be like ... well, more numerous than the stars in the sky, and the grains of the sand on the beach. Question: How much of that promise did Abraham actually get to see? Well, only two small parts. Firstly, God gave him a son Isaac – miraculous to be sure, but only one – not the multitude that had been promised, and God fleetingly let him pass through the Promised Land, so what does the Bible have to say about these unfulfilled promises? Hebrews 11:11: By faith he received the power of procreation, even though he was too old and Sarah herself was barren, because he considered Him faithful who had promised. Therefore, from one person – and this one as good as dead, descendants were born – as many as the stars in heaven, as innumerable as the grains of sand by the seashore. All of these died in faith, without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them. They confessed that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth. People who speak in this way make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of the land they had left behind, they would have had an opportunity to return, but as it is, they desire a better country – that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, He has prepared a city for them. So, Abraham didn't even see the outcome of his faith. All but two of the Israelites that finally centuries later left slavery in Egypt, perished in the wilderness and never saw the Promised Land; only their children did, and yet God commends them for their faith. God's plan, God's promises span centuries, right down to the birth of Jesus. God's promise of many descendants is what gave Jesus to us, and you and I today are still being blessed. Because Abraham trusted God, because Israel trusted God, you and I are blessed in Jesus who came through God's promise to Abraham. God's plans span millennia, way beyond Abraham's life! Abraham's life was just one small piece in the overall jigsaw puzzle, and yet God commends Abraham for his faith. See, that's the big picture – that's the truth. You and I, our lives, are just one small part in the overall scheme of things, in God's whole plan for the human race. And sometimes from our narrow perspective, well, we can't see the whole picture. In fact, I'd suggest that our perspective is inherently way too narrow ever to fully comprehend God's big picture. So often, God makes promises and we step out in faith into these promises, and things don't go quite the way we planned, and yet those apparent failures are critical in the overall plan of God. Again, listen to what Hebrews has to say further on, on this very thing. Having regaled us with all the successes of faith that various leaders and kings and prophets had, the writer of this book of Hebrews under the hand of God turns his attention to the apparent failures of faith. Hebrews 11:35: Women received their dead by resurrection, but others were tortured, refusing to accept release in order to obtain a better resurrection. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death; they were sawn in two; they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats – destitute, persecuted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in the deserts and mountains, in caves and holes in the ground, yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better, so that they would not apart from us be made perfect. So, you read that, and it seems to me that having faith in God is more important to God than the outcome of that faith. Stepping into the firing line with a distinct possibility of getting shot, trusting in God, is more important to God than whether or not we get shot. That's what the Scripture is telling us, and it's true. What we're interested in is a narrow form of success – success in our little bit, but sometimes our apparent failure, or what you and I would call failure, is a critical element of the jigsaw in God's overall plan. Just think: What if Jesus had been saved from the cross? Where would you and I be now? But I'll tell you something. I bet you the disciples were praying to God in those final hours that Jesus would be saved – that He'd be spared. I bet you that had you and I been one of those disciples, that's exactly what we'd have been praying, right? It's not always about winning each battle. Sometimes God's got a bigger picture and what pleases Him, and what He commends us for, is a faith that stands an unfailing faith, despite the outcome. Overcoming Faith Well, we're going to conclude our time together in this particular series by looking at what Hebrews chapter 11 has to say about the sort of faith that overcomes obstacles – the sort of faith in God that'll help us overcome difficult circumstances. Often we hope that if someone is against us that our faith will mean that we'll end up winning, and they'll end up losing. That's a good thing to believe for, isn't it? Do we see something of that in the Bible? Well, yeah, we do. We often see God's people in the Old Testament, whether under the leadership of Moses or Joshua or David or Jehoshaphat or quite a number of judges and kings and prophets, turn to God in times of distress, and God goes out there and fights the battles for them and gives them victory over their enemies. Sometimes that's what the Lord does in our lives, and when we just feel to get out there amongst it and the forces of hell are unleashed against us, there is absolutely nothing wrong with praying in faith for victory, so that the Lord's will can prevail. There's been many-a time in my life when I've been up against it; when it seems that people came against this ministry of Christianity Works and our mission to share the good news of Jesus with many, many people around the world; when our finances have been so difficult that we couldn't really see how we could possibly continue; when people that we relied on failed us, and left us in a difficult spot. Please don't ever think that just because I'm here on the radio proclaiming the good news of Jesus, none of these things happen to us; they do, and the more we preach Christ, the more the enemy unleashes his armies against us. That's par for the course. So, when we're in a tough place, should we turn to God as our first resort instead of our last? Should we rely on His faithfulness to overcome the obstacles and opposition that we face? Absolutely we should, because He's our God, and yet that's not always what He has in mind. Sometimes His victories are so different to what we're expecting. There's something that Jesus said to His disciples in the final days before His crucifixion that must have seemed so outrageous and so plain wrong to them, as they heard it, and as they lived out the next few days. This is what He said. Have a listen. John 16:32-33: Jesus said, ‘The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered each one to his home, and you will leave me completely alone, yet I am not alone because the Father is in Me. I have said these things to you so that in Me, you may have peace. For in this world you will face persecution, but take courage; I have conquered the world'. The first verse speaks of the coming fear and trials that the disciples were already beginning to face. You'll each scatter! You'll flee to your homes! You'll leave me alone! Man! If Jesus had been saying that to me, I wouldn't have been impressed. You'll face persecutions. Zippedy doo dah! There's a promise of God that we can stand on, and yet in the very next breath, He's saying: But I'm telling you these things so that in Me, you might have peace. Have courage! For I have overcome the world; I have conquered the world. Words are cheap. Not so long after this, they see Him arrested, tried, beaten to within an inch of His life – the flesh literally hanging off His back where He'd been whipped, lugging a cross – a huge wooden cross – up to Golgotha, where He's nailed to the cross, and there He dies. And yet this miracle man Jesus had said to them: Take courage! Be of good cheer! I've overcome the world; I've conquered the world. Let me ask you this: When He was hanging there on that cross, did He look like much of a conqueror – much of an overcomer – in the eyes of His frightened, disillusioned disciples who'd fled, who'd left Him in His darkest hour, just as He'd predicted? Not likely, and yet just a few days later, He was raised from the dead – just a few days later, to their absolute disbelief, even though He'd been telling them this would happen. The One whom they'd seen dead and lifeless was alive again. He truly had conquered the world. He'd conquered the grave; He'd conquered death; He'd overcome the very worst outcome of all – the outcome of dying. Do you see how the immediate circumstances of His trial and crucifixion shroud the ultimate victory in the disciples' gaze? And so, my friend, it often is with us. So often we're focused on the short-term victory in this or in that – a victory that all too often involves saving our skins (let's be honest), when all along our Father in heaven is working out His ultimate victory in our lives. And in order to realise that ultimate victory, for a time, we have to suffer. Have a listen to how the apostle John puts it. 1 John 5:4: For whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? Ultimately, it's the one who believes Jesus is who He says He is who conquers this world – because in Jesus Christ, you and I have victory over the grave; we have victory over death; we have victory over this world. And as we're travelling through the short-term pain of a lifetime, that's what keeps us pressing on to the end – the truth that in Christ Jesus, we have life eternal. Peter the apostle says this. 1 Peter 1:6: In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while, you have to suffer various trials; so that the genuineness of your faith – being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. To that you and I can shout: "Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Through Him, we have victory over the grave." There are going to be times in this life when you and I feel like losers. Peter was writing that to a bunch of people who had been tarred and feathered and burnt on stakes at Caesar's parties. These people weren't just suffering various kinds of trials; they were dying for their faith, but in those moments to them, and in those moments to us, God is faithful. His love is unfailing; His promises are true, and we have all that we need to make it through. For me to be able to serve you with this truth today is such an incredible privilege. As I walk through my trials, as I suffer through my things, I need this word just as much as you do. I need the encouragement and the power of God's Word just as much as you do, so please take this truth; hold it close to your heart; because through your faith in Jesus Christ, as weak and as tenuous as it may feel sometimes, you have already overcome the world. I've said these things to you that in Him, you may have peace.
You know, I wish I could tell you that God is primarily concerned about our comfort and convenience, but that's just not true. He's much more interested in our character and maturity and so He often calls us into radical, uncomfortable faith. Radical faith Have you ever felt God asking you to do something that is so radical so counter-intuitive that you felt that you were going mad? I have on more than one occasion, and as I speak with great men and women of God as I interview them as I meet them and get to know some of the giants of faith that I go to church with, that I work with, here's what I've discovered listening to their stories. The more open we are to God the more we spend time in prayer, the more we take God's word to heart as though it's true and as though it's actually meant for us, the more God asks us to do crazy things. I have a dear friend who against every personal desire and aspiration that he had for himself and his family, moved across the other side of the world to take on a job for years that God had called him to do. Now most days were a struggle, most days he was homesick, most days he didn't really understand why God had called him into that place. But four years on, as he was heading back home again, can I tell you the impact that his presences, his skills, his wisdom, his insight and energy and persona has had, not just on the organisation that he worked for but in the lives of tens of thousands of people that organisation ministers to, is just enormous. And the more we listen to God, the more we find Him asking us to do crazy things. Radical things, things we wouldn't consider doing if it was left up to us. And that's exactly what happened to Noah. We're looking today again at faith in this series I've called simply, "Having the Sort of Faith that Conquers the World". It's a phrase you find a lot throughout the bible and no where more so than in the New Testament book of Hebrews, chapter 11. It's a chapter that talks a lot about faith, the sort of faith we need to make it through the trials and the temptations of life. The sort of faith we need to see the big picture, to get life into perspective. The sort of faith that we need to please God, because without faith, without the assurance of things we hope for and the rock solid of evidence of faith in our hearts of the things we can't yet see. It's completely impossible to please God. Now, I want you to put yourself for a moment in Noah's shoes. You're living a happy life. Okay, the world around you is a bit corrupt but there is nothing new or surprising about that. You, your wife, your family, you're having a great little life there and God says to you, "Hey Noah, I know you live miles and miles and miles away from the nearest lake or ocean, but I want you to build a hulking great big boat. A big one! We're going to call it an ark because I'm going to flood the world, kill everyone, and you and your family and two of every species of animal are going to be the only ones that survive. So get to it. Start building this boat." Now you and I know what happened. We know how the story turns out. But, poor old Noah had none of the benefits of the 20/20 hindsight that you and I have. He didn't even have the Bible that we have to believe in God through, he'd never even heard of Jesus. All he knew was that this God came along and told him to build a boat in the middle of nowhere. Talk about feeling stupid. Imagine going home to the little misses that night and she asks, "How was work Noah?" "Well? I was chatting with God and we've come up with this great plan, we are going to build a boat. A big one! An ark!" She says, "A boat? Are you crazy?" And not just the little misses, imagine what the neighbours had to say? "Hey have you seen what Noah's up to? He's really flipped his lid this time. He's building, wait for it … an ark!" "Nah, not even Noah's that crazy!" "Yeah, really an ark, 300 cubits long!" The laughter, the ridicule that must have gone on down at the local pub each night as Noah and his sons built that ark! What does God tell us in Hebrews chapter 11 about this? What's God's summation of Noah's craziness? Look verse 7: By faith, Noah warned by God about events yet unseen, respected the warning and built an ark to save his household. By this he condemned the world and became an air to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith. What Noah needed to do this extreme thing was extreme faith, and he yielded extreme results. I've had some times in my life when God has called me to do the craziest things. "Berni … leave your secure high paying consulting career and become involved in this media ministry that's stopped doing what is meant to be doing. That's almost broke and ready to shut it's doors! Berni, go and start broadcasting your Australia programs in Africa when there was only one guy I even knew in Africa! Berni going and hire a man in India to start broadcasting your programs over there, even though there isn't a single door open to start doing what I'm calling you to do! Berni…." Yeah ok, today it's a thousand radio stations airing these programs, today its millions of listeners each week, today it seems like the obvious thing to have done. But each time God called me to do something crazy … it was just that dead set crazy. Maybe not as crazy as Noah's gig, but that didn't help me at the time. So when was the last time God called you to do something crazy? Something happens in that place that I can't quite explain. There are many times that I've listened to sage advice from mature men and women around me and that's been the right thing to do. But at those major turning points, the truly crazy ones, there's been a pull in my heart from God that was as scary as it was unmistakable. And at those turning points, the "Noah" points, I've pretty much had to ignore the sage advice that I was getting from the people that I trusted and just go with the call in my heart. At those times it's been scary and at those times I've made some mistakes. Not everything always worked out the way that I'd planned it in my head. We didn't always get everything right the first time. Things didn't always happen as quickly as I wanted them to happen. It was 8 years from when I felt the call to go and tell people about Jesus until I took on the role that I'm doing now. It was almost 3 years between when we hired that wonderful man in India and when God actually opened the doors to a weekly radio audience on a major secular network of 30 million people each week. It never felt much like faith, it was uncertain, it was murky, it was unclear, but often when with this dream in our hearts, and with a certain reality that we'd rather look like idiots, that we'd rather fall flat on our faces and fail, rather than miss out on what God was doing. At times I'm prepared to admit to the people around me, that I looked like an idiot. But then, so did Noah. And the God that Noah served and the God that I serve and the God that you serve, never ever chastises us for having too much faith. Sometimes, not everyday, but sometimes faith is doing scary crazy, counter-intuitive things that God calls us to do: By faith Noah, warned by God about events as yet unseen, respected that warning and built an ark to save his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with that faith. So what are you waiting for? Uncomfortable faith We've been chatting over these past few weeks about faith, not in a theoretic sense but in a "rubber hits the road" sense. Because faith is that thing we need to get through the things that we can't handle on our own. Faith is what we need to move that great big obstacle that's blocking our way when its way to big for us to climb over, or crash through or walk around. Faith is what we need to overcome that one nagging sin in our lives that keeps on coming back to rob us of the joy and peace that Jesus came to give us. And faith is what we need to go and do the difficult things that God sometimes calls us to do. The inconvenient things, the uncomfortable things, the things we rather not have to do thanks very much Lord. So that's the sort of faith we're going to chat about right now – uncomfortable faith – because no one ever had an impact in this world by playing it safe right? When Jesus calls us into a place to make a difference in someone's life, it's often because that persons life is, well, a bit of a mess and it's going to hurt us to have to be in that place with that person. When Jesus calls us out of our nice safe comfortable existence to go and do something for him, I can guarantee you it's not going to be convenient and it's not going to be comfortable. It requires faith. People sometimes ask me, "Berni why is it that even though I believe in Jesus, I don't know, somehow it doesn't feel real. There's no passion, there's no fire. There's no excitement." And my response is always the same. I ask them two questions. Question 1: How much time do you spend quietly each day alone with Jesus, with the door closed and the bible open? Question 2: What are you doing with your faith? How are you living it out? Now Question 1 is really important because, unless we're spending that time alone with Jesus each day, growing in a dynamic relationship with Him, well, shazam shazam there's not going to be much of a relationship. But today I want to focus on Question 2, What are you doing with your faith? And when I meet someone who has that vague unsettled feeling about their faith, the sense there should be something more, there should be power, there should be impact, I can almost guarantee you that in effect they're a spiritual couch potato. And by that I mean, they're not living out their faith. They're not getting out there and making a difference in this world, taking risks, putting it all on the line for Jesus. And just like someone who spends their life sitting on the sofa, channel surfing cable TV, drinking soft drinks, eating chips is going to end up feeling lethargic, the Christian who isn't exercising their faith is going to feel precisely the same. Don't believe me? Well, it's exactly what the Bible tells us. In James chapter 2 verse 26 says: For as just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead. So as we come to look at faith again today, we're going to do so from the perspective of Abraham, a man who was called out of the comfort of his ancestral home in Ur, which is around about where modern day Bagdad is today, have a listen. Hebrews chapter 11, beginning at verse 8: By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he set out not knowing were he was going. By faith, he stayed for a time in the land which had been promised to him, as in a foreign land living in tents as did Isaac and Jacob who where the airs with him of that same promise. But he looked forward to the city which had foundations, who's architect and builder is God. By faith, he received the power of procreation. Even though he was too old and Sarah herself was baron. Because he considered him faithful who had promised, therefore from one person and this one as good as dead descendants were born. As many as the stars of heaven and innumerable as the grains of the sand by the sea shore. Now, perhaps you remember that story. Abraham is the father of Israel the nation. He and his wife Sarah in their mid seventies were childless, a source of great anguish and shame that equated God's blessing with having lots of children and having your own land to live in. And so what was God's solution? To promise Abraham and Sarah many, many of descendants if only they'll leave their safe and comfortable ancestral home behind and go out on a journal thought the wilderness, though all sorts of strange and weird and wonderful places only God knows where. A familiar story to many I suppose. And yet what we often miss is the context, let me say it again the definition of God's blessing in that time and in that culture – in fact you see it over and over again in the Old Testament – is firstly that you had lots of children. And secondly you own your own land to live in. If you had both of those things, then you were considered to be blessed of God. The more children, the more land you had, the more quiet openly God was in the business of blessing you. But if you didn't have them, then you were considered to be cursed of God. Obviously you'd done something wrong. Obviously you must have been a bad person. That was the thinking. Now Abraham, was a wealthy man. He had lots of flocks of animals which means he had a lot of land. So when God called him out of that and onto his journey with this promise of many children, do you see what God was asking him to do? God was asking Abraham to give up that one half of the blessing that he already did have, in order to get the other half, which was lots of descendants. And what made this so crazy was that he and his wife were in their seventies, way pass the age where Sarah could bare children. Abraham and Sarah had to let go of this blessing and step out in faith, God knows where, in order to get that blessing. My friend that is so often how God works. So long as we think our lives are about being comfortable and safe, no risks, no need for faith, no need to rely on God for food and shelter and provision. So long as we make our comfort and our safety the priority, our faith is going to be dead. God's main aim isn't to make you and me comfortable; His main aim is to grow our character, by making us part of his plan, to touch and reach a lost and hurting world with His love. God's plan isn't that we should have a huge superannuation or pension fund so that we can spend our retirement indulging our senses in food and travel and luxuries and relaxation. His plan is to use us to reach out to our neighbour with His mercy and grace and love. And so the solution for the spiritual couch potato … the answer to getting rid of that lethargy and bringing a new vigour and anticipation to our faith? It's always the same. The one who would live a vibrant exciting faith, a life where the power of God is manifest before their very eyes, is the one who goes to God and pleads: Lord show me where you want me to go! Want to you want me to do? What sacrifices do you want me make? What risks do you want me to take so that the name of Jesus would be lifted up in this world. Oh Lord wherever you call me, and whatever it will cost me, I want to go! Give me the courage, fill me with your spirit. Show me where and how and when I can loose my life for you dear Jesus in order that I might find it. Friends, start praying prayers like that one, and I guarantee you that God won't take long to answer you. I guarantee you that before you know it you'll be at a place where you see God's power in action because frankly without it, you'd be in trouble! Ditching comfort and convenience God's word stands in such contrast to our hopes and our desires and our ambitions for comfort and convenience doesn't it? Yes God is a God of outrageous blessing, but it's a blessing that follows along behind our obedience to Him. You and I want to put the cart before the horse, so often! Because we've been taught over and over again that it's all about us. I come first. I'm the most important one. You know my parents immigrated to Australia from Europe just after World War 2. They brought us into this world, in this great new land of opportunity that they made their home. This land of freedom and of plenty that embraced them as new migrants, and what they wanted for my sister and myself was a better life than the one that they'd had. They'd worked so hard, they'd sacrificed so much so that we could have a great education, so that we could learn and study and grow and have all the things that they missed out on during that terrible world war. But the easiest thing for me as a recipient of their sacrifice, was to take all their serving of me, and misinterpret it to mean that it's all about me. But that is not what they meant at all! I mean, they taught me a very strong work ethic. But because I had parents who loved me and sacrificed for me the natural selfishness that we all have, that selfishness that was in me, twisted that around and so I lived most of my early adulthood in this belief that it truly was, all about me! In fact, the term "the me generation" was invented for my generation – The Baby Boomers. We were all pretty much like that. And that mistake is exactly the mistake that so many times we make as we misinterpret the love and the grace and the blessing of God in our lives. Jesus talked about this very thing, our tendencies to put the cart before the horse; to put our comfort and convenience before the will of God in our lives. Have a listen to what he said. There's every chance you're quite familiar with this passage. He was talking about our natural desires for enough food to eat and clothes to wear and all those physical needs that we seem to worry so much about. He was saying, "Look, don't worry about those things. Your father in heaven knows everything you need. And you're worth so much to Him, of course He's going to provide all your needs!" And the punch line, the executive summary of all that, went something like this. Mathew chapter 6, beginning at verse 33: Jesus said, look don't worry about these things, instead strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all other things will be given unto you as well. In other words, put God first. Put God's will first. But obedience to God first, sacrifice first, follow Him where He calls us first, and all those other things which by the way, aren't the main things, they'll follow along behind as surely as night follows day. Friend, He's not saying here that we shouldn't have our needs met, He's not saying we shouldn't have clothing or food, or shelter, Jesus is simply saying, "people get your priorities right". And getting our priorities right, putting Him first, takes faith. It does! When our funds are limited, and running low, it takes faith to take the first fruits of our income and give them to God to support his work. When there's been a global financial crisis, it takes faith to step out and use all our resources for the glory of God. When people are being critical when their being obnoxious, you know something … it takes faith to love them with the love which Jesus loved us. It takes faith to forgive them; it takes faith to hold them. And when it's hurting like hell, when the pain of our sacrifice for Jesus is more than we really want to take, it takes faith to say, "Father, not my will but let your will be done." Exactly what Jesus did for you and me in that garden called Gethsemane just before He was handed over to be nailed to that terrible, terrible Cross. My friend, Jesus isn't looking just for believers He's looking for disciples. He's looking for men, women and children who are prepared to lay down their lives and take up their cross each day to follow Him. He's looking for men, women and children who aren't in the business of saving their own skins for those who'll surely loose it, but who are in the business of laying down their lives for Him by faith, knowing that that's how they'll discover real life. By faith. Strive ye first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, get your priorities right. Put God first and all these other things will be given to you as well. You know why it takes faith? Because at the very time it feels like we're loosing something, at the time it feels like we're in a dangerous place, at the time I feels unfair, at the time it hurts, but truly I tell you, when we take up our cross, when we follow after Jesus with our cross on our shoulder, prepared to lay down our lives, that's when we discover true satisfaction. I think sometimes we spend way too much effort standing up for our rights so that we forget that we should be laying down our lives for Jesus. May God bless you as you live out your faith.
Christians are always talking about faith. My faith walk. Faith this, faith that. So what is faith? Not the theory? But what does it look like when you live it? The sort of faith that pleases God. What Is Faith? It's really quite amazing, but over a thousand weekly editions of this program, Christianityworks, have gone to air since it launched way back in 2004. It's been quite a walk of faith with all the obstacles that we've faced along the way and so today on the program we're kicking off a series of messages called, “Having the Sort of Faith that Conquers the World”. These two words “By faith” appear over and over again in the Bible. And in fact, if we go to the New Testament book of Hebrews, we'll see that's pretty much the place where they're most densely packed together. By Faith. Now faith, it's something that Christians talk about a lot – our faith walk, faith this, faith that. But what is faith? When and where do we need faith? How do we get it? It's something that Jesus talked a lot about so let me ask this, do we really understand what faith is? Do we really know what the outcome of faith is meant to look like in our lives? They're the questions that we're going to be pondering and exploring and journeying through together over these next few weeks on the program starting with today. Okay then, so what exactly is faith? Well I suppose that many of the people listening today perhaps you're one of them, would point me to Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1 to answer that question, it says that: Faith is the assurance of the things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen. Well and good, that's the most concise definition of faith in the bible, that's the stock standard definition, tickity-boo, who needs a series on faith? We know what it is: it's the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. But as much as we Christians quote that verse and its one of the most quoted Bible verses of all, do we really understand the context in which it was written? Let's look at it again, it says exactly: Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. So what's that word "now" doing at the front of the verse? What's that all about? Well, that word is called a conjunctive, in other words, it ties this verse to what came immediately before. Ah, so this verse doesn't stand alone, there is a context, something that comes before that we need to get in order to really understand the verse. So, what comes before? Well, here it is, the previous chapter, Hebrews chapter 10 and we'll kick it off just at verse 26. Listen carefully because we're going to unpack this in a moment. Hebrews chapter 10, starting at verse 26: For if we wilfully persist in sin, after having received the knowledge of the truth, then no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the advocacies. Anyone who has violated the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witness. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by those who have spurned the Son of God, profaned the Blood of the Covenant by which they were sanctified and outraged the spirit of grace? For we know the one that who said ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay' and again ‘The Lord will judge his people'. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But recall those early days when after you'd be enlightened you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to abuse and persecution. And sometimes partners with those so treated. For you have compassion for those in prison and you cheerfully accepted the plundering of your possessions knowing that you yourselves possess something better and more lasting. Do not therefore abandon that confidence of yours, it brings a great reward. For you needed endurance so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what was promised for yet in a very little while, the one who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back but we're not amongst those who shrink back or are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved. Now Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. So what's the context? The context is two things, the punishment that will surely come if we reject God's grace and mercy and continue on in sin and the second part is about the extreme trials that we're bound to face in life. In fact the Hebrew believers, the ones who were reading this letter, were facing incredible trials! They were being persecuted like you wouldn't believe. And so the writer of this letter was saying, you know something, you're going to struggle with sin, and you're going to face incredible trials and so what you need, what you really need to get you through, is faith. To tell you the truth if you put it like that I'd frankly rather be in a situation where I didn't need any faith, because faith is what we need when we're battling sin. Faith is what we need when we're in a dangerous uncertain place. Faith is what we need to be saved from something we can't save ourselves from. To persevere through situations and ordeals to make it out to the other side of something we'd rather not be in the middle off. Wouldn't it be so much better from were you and I sit, if we didn't end up in places were we actually needed faith? Because faith is the assurance of something we hope for, which by definition means we don't have it right now and we wish we did. And faith is the evidence of that thing that we can't see yet, because all we can see is what we're in the middle of which are our circumstances, and we're hoping for so much more. And yet, as we're going to see shortly that's exactly how God sets things up. You have sin in your life and I have sin in my life, but in and of ourselves we just can't get rid of. We've struggled with it for years and we couldn't' do anything about it until we started putting our faith in Jesus. We couldn't overcome sin or set things right until we put our trust in Jesus. And the same thing's true of the many obstacles we face in life. Perhaps you're someone who's been listening to these programs for a while and you're thinking to yourself, ‘Oh that Berni guy seems to have things all sorted out. What an easy life. He gets to be on the radio and tell us how to get it right.' But you wouldn't believe the challenges and the trials involved in getting out there and doing what Gods called us to do at Christianityworks. The attacks that come against the ministry because Satan doesn't want people hearing about Jesus, he doesn't want us doing what we are doing. The trials when people fail, when the finances are tight, you name it. It's either happened, or it' s going to happen. And just in the same way you face trials, you face temptations, you have mountains that get in your road and stop you from doing the things that God's called you to do. You have sicknesses you have struggles, and people come against you, financial issues – my friend that's what faith is for. Faith is the assurance of things we hope for and the evidence of the things that we just can't see yet. You and I need faith and that's why we're going to be talking about it over the coming weeks on the program. Big Picture Faith. Are you familiar with that term that saying that someone's lost the plot? What it means is that we've lost sight of were we are going, we've lost sight of the objective. We've managed to get things completely "out of kilter", "out of bounds", or "out of whack" as we as Australians like to say. "Oh man, hasn't he lost the plot!?" And often it happens when we become focused on just one thing in our lives, let's say a single relationship or a single thing that's not going quite right. When we're hurting, we focus on just that one thing that is hurting. Sometimes we lose the plot when we are so focused on making ourselves happy that we forget about everyone and everything else and somehow, the more we try to make ourselves happy the more empty we feel. It seems to me that they one sure way of feeling depressed is trying really, really hard to make yourself happy. So the reason we lose the plot is that we lose sight of the bigger picture, we're so focused on that one thing that we can't stand back. We're busy working hard at life, living life, peddling harder and faster and then the storm strikes especially when there is a head wind blowing and it's slowing us down. It is the easiest thing in the world to lose sight of the big picture, the context, the sense of meaning and purpose and direction that we once seemed to have for our lives and now the harder we go at it, the murkier it appears to get. What was once clear when we were young now seems to be blurry. Sometimes it's like we're living our lives in a fog. You know what I'm on about here right? And then one day you wake up and you think to yourself, I think I've lost the plot! That place right there is a scary place. I've found myself in that situation, when I'm busy working hard, even, working hard doing things for God, none of us is immune to this here. I don't get some exemption certificate from this stuff just because I work in a Christian ministry. This is real life. This is real stuff. What we're talking about this week on the program, in fact over the coming few weeks is faith. It's a phrase, two simple words, “by faith” that appear over and over and over again in the Bible, especially in the 11th chapter of the New Testament book of Hebrews. Now, we need faith for all sorts of things, we need faith in Jesus to be forgiven by God and to be set free to live an eternal life in His presence. We need faith to make it through the trails and the difficult situations and make it to the other side of those. And as it turns out we need faith to get a sense of the bigger picture, to keep the balance and sense of perspective right over our lives. So that we don't loose the plot or so that when we do loose the plot we can pick it up again. Have a listen to this. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 3: By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible … In other words, by faith we know that everything that was created, was created by Jesus. He is the Word of God that is being referred to there. The worlds, the cosmos, the universe, the little ant that crawls cross the floor, everything … the worlds were created by Jesus, God spoke them into existence through Jesus. "Let there be light.” He said, and there was light! “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place and let dry land appear.” And it was so, and God called the dry land Earth, and the waters were gathered together and He called them the Sea's. and God saw that it was good … and on and on. A universe that with all our brilliant technology we can only see part of, and the part that we can see with our radio telescopes is so big, its so vast that it would take light – travelling of course at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second or 300,000 kilometres per second – it would take light 15 billion years to travel from one end of the known universe to the other! Even the nearest star to the earth after the Sun is called Proxima Centauri, it's about 4.6 light years away. Now that doesn't seem too far does it? But if you and I were to hop into a car, say at 100km per hour and travel that distance of 4.6 light years, how long would it take us? Well, just about 7¼ billion years. And that's without any toilet breaks. It's the nearest star after the sun, and the rest are all much, much further away! Why is this important? Here's why. We live on this earth as though this is all there is. Now we know there is a sun up there and it's really big and its really hot and its about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometres away. We know that there is a universe out there that's huge. But day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, we live life really as though they don't exist. We live life as though the only thing that exists is my own "here and now", this instant: what I'm working on, what I'm doing, what I'm trying to achieve, what I'm feeling, what I'm struggling through, what ... Do you see my point? We completely loose sight of the big picture. I see all around me, every time I travel to India, I come back with a fresh realisation that the narrow privileged lives that we lead here in this affluent, blessed country we call Australia, is completely atypical, completely abnormal in the big picture of the rest of the world. And it's in this narrowness that we lose our way; its in this narrowness that we loose the plot. Let's look again at that verse on faith that I read out before. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 3: By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God so that what is seen was made was made form things that are not visible. Faith gives us the context that we need, faith is about knowing in our heart of hearts that there is God out there who made it all, He's so big, so powerful, so intelligent, so loving, so awesome that He created the whole cosmos. Even the bits beyond human science can see. And He placed you and me here on this earth in perhaps the only inhabitable place in the whole universe. That's the big picture. And so instead of telling our God how big our problems are we need to start telling our problems how big our God is. Instead of obsessing about this problem or that disappointment, instead of sweating over the little things in our lives, in faith we can stand back and see the big picture, the God picture, the faith picture. By faith we understand that God made it all. By faith we can rest in this God who loves us so much that He sent us His son to die for us. By faith! God-Pleasing Faith Now there is a huge part of me I have to tell you that wants so much to please God with everything that I think and everything I feel, and say and do, I really, really, really want to please God. Really I do! But someday it seems that all I have to do to blow it is to wake up and get out of bed in the morning. Does that make sense? You want to do what's right, you know what's right with all your heart you want to please God, but you just can't seem to do it. It's like there is a war going on inside you, you want to do what's right, but every time you want to do what's right, evil intentions are lurking there right over your shoulder, whispering into your ear. Well it's not just me, it's not just you. The apostle Paul who wrote almost half the books in the New Testament he had exactly the same problem and you can read all about it in Romans Chapter 7. So how do we please God? Let's go back to that book towards the end of the New Testament, the book of Hebrews chapter 11, which is where we have been spending out time together today, and let's have a look because there is an answer in there as to how you and I can please God. And the answer isn't working harder at being good. Let's pick it up, Hebrews chapter 11, beginning at verse 4: By faith able offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain's. Through this he received approval as righteous as God Himself given approval to his gifts. He died but through faith he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken so that he didn't experience death, and he was not found because God had taken for it was the tested before he was taken away that he had pleased God. And without faith, it's impossible to please God for, whoever may approach Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. That's really interesting because back there in the book of Genesis, chapter 4 when we read about Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve's two boys, were not really given a reason why it was that Abel's offering was acceptable to God, but Cain's wasn't. There's a bit of a hint. We're kind of told that there wasn't something quite right in Cain's heart, but that is all we're told. It certainly had nothing to do with physically what he did. Both Cain and Abel brought an offering to God. Cain's was rejected while Abel's was acceptable to God and as a result, out of envy, Cain murdered his brother Abel. So what was the difference between the two. The answer is faith. Its there in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 4: By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain's. Through this he received approvable as righteous, God himself giving approval to his gifts. He died but through faith, he still speaks. See Abel gave his offering to God in faith. And as God showed through His response to Cain, an offering without faith isn't pleasing to God at all. It's not just the physical act of making a sacrifice, that sacrifice has to come with faith. And again, we read that Enoch had been blessed by God because he's pleased God because of his faith. Executive summary, bottom line, what's God saying here? Hebrews Chapter 11, verse 6: You see without faith, it is impossible to please God. For whoever would approach Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. And it's not just here in the book of Hebrews that we discover the importance of faith in pleasing God. Jesus himself told people the exactly the same thing. When someone asked him, “Lord what do I have to do to be saved?” He answered quite simply, “Believe in me”. How often have you and I worked so hard at pleasing God as though anything we can do, can possibly add to what He has already done for us, and what He's planning on doing? Sometimes I think that we behave as though God is totally completely and utterly depending on you and me to fulfil His plans. As though without us, God's plans for this world are going to fall over in a screaming heap, and God's going to go, "Oh man! What am I going to do?" And so we work so hard, we work hard! And we bring Him the offering and we bring Him the sacrifice. We see all the problems facing us and so we bring in the offering from the field like Cain with little to no faith in our heart. Well, guess what? Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Would you please note that word, "impossible"? What it does not say is that without faith you won't please God quite as much through your labours as you would have done if you put a bit of faith in the mix. That's not what it says. The Bible clearly says that without faith it is completely impossible to please God. The Greek words used there for "impossible" mean literally to be completely without strength, impotent, powerless, weak, disabled. That it is unable to be done, it's totally impossible. Why? Because God is God. And He has put us here in this physical world that is removed from His spiritual dimension, yet the spiritual dimension, the God dimension, the presence of God is as real and as present as the nose on my face. The thing is that we just can't see it. Our act of Love, our act of pleasing God is honouring him by believing that He is, that He does exist and that He is in the business of blessing and rewarding those who seek Him. Why does he do things that way? Well, just think about it, God has something of a problem when it comes to eliciting a free will love response from you and me. If we could see God for what He is, if we could see Him face to face in all His power and in all His glory, hey, there would be no free will involved. In the face of that power, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. So He removes us from that presence, He puts us in a place where we lay hold of Him, not by seeing Him, but through a layer of adversity we call life. Through a cloud of unknowing, never quite seeing Him clearly in this life. And we lay a hold of Him, we honour Him, we love Him, we serve him, we obey Him by faith. And that is why without faith it's impossible to please God. Ask Cain, ask Abel, they'll tell you all about it, because by faith that story is still being told today. So the next time that you feel the need to work your back side off to please God, remember this, your work isn't so much the thing that pleases Him, it's not about the sacrifice so much, its about you, its about me, its about our faith! When we do what we do in faith, my friend, that is what pleases God.
The whole resurrection of Jesus thing – can be a bit hard to swallow. I mean – did it really happen? And if it did, what does it mean for us here and now? A Crazy Morning Let me paint you a picture. Just the other day, someone you love has passed away. You really admired and trusted this person. I mean, you'd seen them in operation and now they're gone. It's a shock. It shouldn't have happened. They were so young and so full of potential and promise; they had a future. And now that person's gone. It takes some time to come to grips with that sort of a loss. The shock, the sadness, even anger – we go through all sorts of different stages in that grieving process. You wake up with that dull headache in your head … what's it about? And then you remember your loss. But the phone rings and it's another friend and they're ranting and they're raving that this person who was dead, they're saying, "He's alive! He's alive! I've seen him!" Hang on a minute, what sort of a crackpot is this. What's going on? Is this some sick joke? But your friend's adamant. "He's alive!" Now what? How do you react to that? I mean, it's an incredible claim, an incredulous claim. Mad. You saw him die with your own eyes – arrested, crucified, buried and defiantly very, very dead. You know, in one sense it's almost easy to believe if you read it in the Bible. You know, it's something that happened a couple of thousand years ago to Jesus, I mean, long enough ago to make it safe. You know what I mean. Sure God could do anything, God could do that way back then, it was 2000 years ago. The question is, if you believe that Jesus rose from the dead again lets just transpose that into today, here and now. You get a phone call tomorrow morning, ‘Jesus is alive!' You saw him die … he's alive. Today we're going to put ourselves back in the shoes of the Disciples right there in that place in Jerusalem. This is the second message in a series of four that I've called, “The Price He Paid for You”. And it's about that part of the Easter story that involves the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What was that about? Did it happen, and if it did, what does it mean to you and me, here and now? Now, if we put ourselves back in the shoes of those Disciples, right there in that Jerusalem 2000 years ago with the Jesus they knew, all of a sudden it gets a whole lot harder to believe. It was a bit like that for Mary Magdalene: She went down to the tomb to embalm the body of Jesus and Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept she bent over to look inside the tomb and she saw two angels in white seated where Jesus' body had been – one at the head and the other at the foot. And they asked her, ‘Woman, why are you crying?' ‘They've taken Jesus, my Lord away,' she said, ‘and I don't know where they've put him'. At this she turned around and she saw Jesus standing there, but she didn't realise it was Him. ‘Woman,' He said, ‘why are you crying? What are you looking for?' Thinking that He was the gardener she says, ‘Sir, if you've carried Him away, tell me where you've put Him and I'll go and get Him.' And Jesus said to her, ‘Mary.' And she turned towards Him and cried out in Aramaic ‘Rabonni' which means ‘teacher'. Jesus said, ‘Don't hold onto me as I haven't yet returned to the Father, go instead to my brothers, the Disciples and tell them I'm returning to my Father and your Father and to my God and to your God.' And Mary Magdalene went to the Disciples with the news. ‘I've seen the Lord,' she told them.” He had said these things to her. See it wasn't only Mary. I mean, I love the fact that even though Jesus had told them time and time and time again He would rise from the dead, she looked at Jesus and it's so incredible to think that He could possibly be alive, she mistakes Him for the gardener. Do you know the joke in that? The Son of God has risen from the grave and Mary, I mean the humour here is just something else, Mary looks at Him and thinks he's the gardener – the guy that mows the lawns and weeds the garden and does the edges. But she wasn't the only one: After that Thomas, sometime they call him doubting Thomas now Thomas was one of the Twelve and he wasn't with the Disciples first came to them after He'd risen from the dead, and so the other Disciples said to him, ‘Thomas, we've seen the Lord, He's alive'. But Thomas said, ‘Come on, unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my fingers where the nails were and put my hand into His side where they pierced Him, I am not going to believe this rubbish.' Now work that out. Jesus' Disciples were in a house together and this time Thomas was with them, and though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, ‘Peace be with you, Shalom.' And then He said to Thomas, ‘Tom, come on, put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out put your hand into my side. Stop doubting and start believing.' And Thomas just said, ‘My Lord and My God.' Then Jesus told him, ‘Because you have seen me you believe and are blessed. But blessed are those who have not yet seen but they believe'. Now I don't know but I think I'm with Thomas. This is hard to believe when you're close to it. What do you believe? Maybe it's an uncomfortable question. Maybe it's easy to consign this resurrection of Jesus thing back into the past. Kind of like a fable that we give some moderate level of intellectual assent to; a kind of vague, half-believing insurance policy thing. But the Apostle Paul takes it very seriously. In Romans Chapter 10 verse 9 he says: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead then you'll be saved. 1 Corinthians Chapter 15 verse 17: If Christ has not been raised than your faith is futile. So for Paul the resurrection wasn't some optional extra; it wasn't some kind of distant myth; not something we can just kind of half believe, maybe. And we can say, "Look, I believe that Jesus rose from the dead." But see what Paul says here, "If you believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead then you'll be saved and if you don't believe from the heart that God has raised Him from the dead then you're wasting your time." What do you believe in your heart about the resurrection of Jesus? The resurrection can seem completely incongruous amidst the day-to-day realities of our lives. I mean, we get up and we go to work and we do all the stuff and we sit in meetings and we take the kids to school and we do all those day-to-day things. And you look around and you think, "Could Jesus in the midst of all this normality, could He have risen from the dead?" Now stick the resurrection right in the middle of your day-to-day reality and ask me, "Berni, in the middle of all this, do you actually believe that this Jesus was raised from the dead? I mean, it seems incongruous, it's an outrageous notion; it just doesn't fit. Come on Berni, do you really believe this stuff?" And my answer to you is, "Absolutely. I do. I believe in my heart that Jesus was raised from the dead." That's me. What about you? What do you believe, and if Jesus did rise from the dead, so what? What does it mean to you here and now, today? Living the Resurrection Okay, if Jesus did rise from the dead, what does it mean to you and me, here and now? What relevance is there in all of that for our lives? Can the resurrection of Jesus Christ have any impact on your life and mine today? I think they're the right questions to ask. I mean, why have a resurrection at all? Why did God plan it that way, and why did He make it central to believing in Jesus? Earlier we saw how the Apostle Paul said it was essential that without faith in this resurrection there was no point: "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” “And if Christ wasn't raised then your faith is futile." Okay, that's the theology if you like. Take that at face value. But why is it so important? Why does God put it right at the centre of believing in Jesus? It's not an optional extra, it's central. So I'm a pesky bloke; I keep asking these questions because truthfully, people never explained this stuff when I became a Christian at first, in terms that I could really understand and lay hold of. All these Christians were talking about the resurrection and the blood of the Lamb and all this sort of stuff, like it was really important. Well, great, but why? Believing in Jesus for me is a process; it's a lifelong thing that happens. And at some point I took the step of faith to believe in Him but what I discovered was there were lots of different parts of my life that didn't fit with Him – selfishness, anger, judgement – and I'm a really judgemental person naturally in the flesh, all stuff that actually stunted my growth. It's crazy how we want to hold onto the rubbish in our lives for dear life, but we do. And it turns out to rob us of life. You know, I used to spend most of my time being angry with people because they didn't measure up to my standards. They didn't see the world the way I did. And you know what, that robbed me of life. So instead of peace and joy, I was always angry. There was always resentment in my heart. Not rocket science is it. Its one thing to believe with our head or our heart in Jesus and to live it out authentically requires change and that's where the resurrection comes in. Again, the Apostle Paul writes in Romans Chapter 8: If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through His Spirit that dwells in you. Let's unpack that. You have the crucifixion, the death of Jesus, where Jesus paid for all our sins. You know, we turned away from God, we missed the whole point of creation, that's what sin is (we looked at that last week) but God is loving and just. We've all fallen short and so Jesus died for us, and when we believe in that, our slate is wiped clean. We're forgiven and we have a fresh start. Like a prisoner coming out of gaol having served his sentence. It's fantastic. But you and I know that getting rid of that rubbish in our lives that God calls sin, it's a life-long process. Come on, we're all naturally selfish. At least I am. Someone does us wrong somehow and we want anger and revenge and payback time. But Jesus turns around and says, "Do you want to believe in Me with your life? Well show me, go on. Go out and love your enemy, in fact pray for them." I don't know about you but that way of living just didn't come naturally to me. So the process of changing we discover changing those things is really hard. I mean, it's very hard, and in fact in some areas it's downright impossible. I was just talking recently with some friends and I know I'm a very outcome-oriented person and I expect everyone else to be the same. They're not. Some people are wonderfully relationship-oriented, much more so than I am. Now those people aren't outcome-oriented but we need them too. So what am I going to do? Do I spend my whole life getting angry with them? Do I spend my whole life complaining about people who are different to me and they don't fit with my way of thinking and behaving? I mean, Paul bemoans this reality in Romans Chapter 7 when he says: I can will to do what's right I just can't seem to do it. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrection is learning to live again. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through that same Spirit. God wants to bring life back to our bodies, colour into our cheeks. How many people need that in their lives right now, and they're looking in all sorts of strange places. There a people who are broken and hurt inside; there are people who are suffering from low self-esteem; there are people addicted to anger like I was; and we go looking for solutions in all these wrong places when the solution is staring us in the face. This isn't some theory, its actuality. The same Holy Spirit who breathed life back into the dead body of Jesus is the Spirit that wants to give us victory over the sin of our humanity and breathe life back into our mortal bodies. That's what the resurrection is about here and now. The Spirit wants to give us victory and a new life. Come on, this is great stuff, this is a great plan, this is good news. It's fantastic news! God wants to do for you and for me, here and now and every moment of every day for the rest of our lives here on earth, to keep changing us and setting us free and filling us with fresh new life what He did for Jesus when He brought Jesus back to life after the crucifixion on the Cross. God wants to give us a new life through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Isn't that awesome? In a moment we're going to take a deeper look at that, because Jesus, as it turns out, has something very, very special for you and me. A Certain Hope for Tomorrow Have you ever been in a place where you've lost all hope? Hope, as it turns out is a very precious commodity. We all need it in our lives to look forward to; to hope in the deep sense that I have future, I know where I'm going. And when there is no future it's tragic. When we lose hope it feels like our life is over, and that's the problem with death. We all die at some point physically. Some die young; others watch their bodies progressively give up the ghost. If God is God though, if He loves us the way the Bible says He does, then hope will be very, very high on His list, because the last thing that would do or He would want for us is to experience hopelessness and it turns out that hope is very high on His list indeed. That's what the whole resurrection thing is about. It's a funny thing, but when things are going bad in our lives, isn't it funny how hope breaks really quickly. Have you noticed that? Look at the Disciples: over and over again Jesus told them, ‘Guys, I'm going to be crucified but I'm going to rise again. Come on!' He told them lots of times, but when it happened, when He died, they were fearful, they were devastated, they were scattered to the four winds. They deserted Him; they completely lost sight of His promise of the resurrection, the thing that would give them hope. Actually most of them, as we saw before, needed convincing that Jesus was alive again. Bit like us. Life takes a turn for the worst, the first thing you do is you throw hope out the window. It's kind of natural. 1 Chronicles Chapter 29 verse 15 says: Our days on earth are like a shadow without hope. And let me get right in your face now for a bit, because we need some good teaching on hope. It's not ‘hope that it rains tomorrow' or ‘hope that it doesn't rain tomorrow', I mean the certain hope that faith in Jesus Christ brings. When we put our trust in Jesus in the good times and we lay down our lives and we love Him and we adore Him and we worship Him and we follow Him with our lives, I tell you what happens: when the storm clouds start to roll in, something strange and new and wonderful happens in our hearts. It's like that hope shines and won't go out. Peter the Apostle writes in His first letter, Chapter 1 verse 3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ … It's a beautiful passage, if you have a Bible grab it, and have a look: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by His great mercy He has given us a new birth into a living hope, the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (I love that) “a new birth into a living hope, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead into an inheritance that's imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for us who are being protected by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this we rejoice, even though now for a while we've had to suffer various trials. Boy that's an understatement. The people Peter was writing to, the Christians, were being tarred and feathered, burnt at the stake, fed to the lions, killed and Peter writes to them and says, “… but you know something, when you look at the resurrection of Jesus Christ we have a certain hope for the future.” Over and over again the New Testament talks about Jesus being the firstborn from among the dead. In other words, it points back to His resurrection. Jesus took all of our sin, He who knew no sin became sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God. So He died because of our sin and He's the first of many to rise again. He's the firstborn, the first one in this resurrection cycle and we put our hope in that because we too when we believe in Jesus, will rise again and have eternal life. One day when my body gives up the ghost, one day I'll stand before Jesus for ever and ever and ever. It's a historical fact that death couldn't hold Jesus down, and when we put our trust in Him, that's where we put our hope. Our problem is, we spend so much time hoping for the next pay rise, hoping for some temporal bauble here on earth that we lose sight of the living hope we have through Jesus Christ, through His resurrection. Let's do it again: By His great mercy He has given us a new birth. We are born again into a living hope, not an uncertain hope, not a hope that's fleeting and fading but a certain hope – the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading that is there for you, that is there for me, if we put our faith in Jesus. And if we're able to say before God in our hearts, ‘Jesus is your son, He died for me, He rose again', it's rock solid. And do you know the basis of that promise – it's the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Look at your life for the moment, the things that aren't going too well for you at the moment; the things that you might want to change. The reality is that we can't change some of them. Maybe God will change some of them, I don't know, but in the meantime He wants us to live life in the certain hope that we have a future, an eternal future. And we know that because we can look at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He defeated sin on the Cross – the wages of our sin became His death. But Jesus defeated that. He paid for my sin, He paid for my sin on the Cross and still He rose again even though He bore all that sin. And that's what awaits us. That doesn't compare to anything you and I can have on earth here. It just doesn't compare. That certain hope of eternal life with Jesus far outweighs it far eclipses anything we could have here and now. John writes in the book of Revelation Chapter 21; he gives us a glimpse, like a crack opens up in heaven and he's able to see inside: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, because the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea. And I saw the Holy City – the New Jerusalem – coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men and He will live with them and they will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There'll be no more death or mourning of crying or pain for the old things have passed away. Nothing, nothing comes anywhere close to that. We wander around down here in the weeds and the murky mire and we try to get hope and satisfaction out of all sorts of things that are going to pass away. What things on this earth be able to take with us when we breathe our last, come on? That's why God wants us to put our faith in Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus is God's call to set our eyes and our hearts and everything we are and all our hopes and dreams on heavenly things because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ – the first among many. That's where we are going when we trust in Jesus. Paul writes in Colossians Chapter 3 verse 1: If you have been raised with Christ, set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things on the earth because you have died to them. It is time my friend for you and me to start living our lives from an eternal perspective. When the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the central truth, central to what we believe in our hearts, two things change. Firstly, the Holy Spirit starts taking away the rubbish that God calls sin and giving us life here and now – vibrant and abundant life. And secondly, no matter what happens, no matter how sick we get, how poor we get, we know that one day we will stand before Jesus Christ. Cry Hallelujah!
That first Easter was so incredibly unfair. Jesus – the innocent man – was crucified and Barabbas – the man guilty of murder – walked off Scott free. If you were God, would you have done things that way? Let's Tarry a While It's interesting how when Easter passes us by we kind of quickly forget it and move on. It was a long weekend, it was a great time to have off and have a rest, have some chocolate. It comes, we eat chocolate, we have a long weekend, it goes, that's it, we move on, back to work, back to school, back to the empty house, whatever it is we do day after day and this week on the program and in fact over the coming three weeks we're going to dwell in Easter for a bit longer than just a long weekend. We're going to tarry and stay there a little bit longer. And today's program is the first message in a series that I've called, "The Price He Paid For You" and as well as talking about Easter over the Easter period we're going to do the unthinkable and spend the next few weeks after Easter doing it as well. Can you believe that because it's a big thing this Easter thing? Not as a religious holiday, I don't mean that, I for one am definitely not into religion, it just doesn't work for me. Not talking about religion, I'm talking about this big thing that God was up to at Easter. The thing that Jesus went through, the suffering, the persecution, the beating, the rejection and that death on the cross. You and I are so incredibly special to God which is what makes you and me worth dying for. He's handcrafted us, He's made us, He's set us free in this amazing universe, always loving us but with the freedom He gave us a free will to accept Him or reject Him and when it comes right down to this, according to God, He made us, He loves us, He gave us free will and the point of all of that was for us to know Him and have this fantastic relationship with Him here and now and for all eternity. But it doesn't matter which way we cut it each one of us in our own way we've rejected Him. I know I have, more often than we could ever imagine or count or recall and in doing that we miss the whole point. The whole point of creation, the whole point of life, the plan and the desire of God's heart. When we turned our backs on God and we all have, we miss the whole point of life, that's exactly what the Greek word for "sin" actually means. It means to miss the mark or as we might say today to miss the point. I know when I use the word "sin" people often write in or they call and say, "Come on, this is some kind of old fuddy-duddy concept, get with it Berni, get into today, sin just isn't relevant, it's something that priests or ministers talked about in the 1950's, get with it, it's old fashioned." I know, I know that some people think of sin that way but lets come back to Easter and the central point, the central problem of all creation is that we rejected God. We turned our back on Him, it's hard to come to grips with. People say, 'Well I'm not a bad person, I'm not that bad, I'm okay' but let me ask you, from the moment you were old enough did you put God first? Was God always first in your life? Did you live your life as though you belonged to Him? And the answer for all of us is, "No, we didn't." We've all done things; we've all turned away in our own way, in different ways; we've all turned our backs on God and at that Cross at a time that we now call Easter and we celebrate and we remember, on that cross God calls us home. The consequences, what we should have paid for rejecting Him, were paid for by His Son Jesus; He died to give us a new life. Okay God calls us to a life of sacrifice, God calls us to a life of giving, He gives us a fresh new life, a wholesome life with real joy and because out of His great love He reached out to us through Jesus, He opens the door to a real and dynamic and exciting and beautiful and wondrous relationship with God. At the heart of the message of Easter is the fact that Jesus paid the price of my sin and of your sin, of our rejection of God, our missing the whole point of creation and the fact that Jesus paid the price seems unfair don't you think? Let's have a read, we're going to go to the Bible, if you have one grab it, we're going to open up at John chapter 18 beginning at verse 38 and we're going to read through to chapter 19, verse 16. Here it is: What is truth, Pontius Pilate asked? With this he went out again to the Jews and said, 'I find no basis for a charge against this Jesus but it's your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release the king of the Jews? And they shouted, 'no, not him, give us Barabbas. Now Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion. Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged, the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head, they clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him and again and again and again saying, 'hail the king of the Jews' and they struck him in the face. Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, 'I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.' And when Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe Pilate said to them, 'here is the man'. As soon as the Chief Priests and their officials saw him they shouted, 'crucify him, crucify him. But Pontius Pilate answered, 'you take him, you crucify him. As for me I find no basis for a charge against him.' But the Jews insisted, 'we have a law and according to that law he must die because he claimed to be the son of God.' And when Pilate heard this he was even more afraid and he went back inside the palace. Where do you come from?' He asked Jesus but Jesus gave him no answer. 'Do you refuse to speak to me?' Pilate said, 'don't you realise I have the power either to free you or to crucify you?' And Jesus answered, 'you would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin. From then on Pilate tried to have Jesus set free but the Jews kept shouting, 'if you let this man go you are no friend of Caesars. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.' When Pilate heard this he brought Jesus out and sat him down on the Judges seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement. It was the day of the preparation of the Passover week, about the sixth hour. Here is your king' Pilate said to the Jews but they shouted, 'take him away, take him away, crucify him.' 'Shall I crucify your king?' Pilate asked. 'We have no king but Caesar' the Chief Priests answered. Finally Pilate handed him over to be crucified. Pretty amazing story we're going to take a look at it in a moment. An Innocent Man Not much regard for the rules of evidence if indeed there were any rules of evidence way back then. A good friend of mine by the name of Paul is a magistrate. Now, the more I get to know him, the more I realise how gifted Paul is to do that job. I've got to tell you, I'd hate to have to sit in judgment, this one goes free, this one gets locked up. And to make things even more difficult he's a magistrate in the children's court. Now Paul has this really balanced thing happening in his outlook. He weighs this against that in almost everything he does. I was saying to someone else recently that when I look at Paul, what I see is someone that I'm really comfortable with being a magistrate. I'm really glad that this guy is on the bench in the children's court because he's absolutely the right person to be doing it. When you look at the story of the crowd and Pontius Pilate and Barabbas and Jesus and this angry, ugly mob I see some of that in Pilate. When the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate and Jesus had been talking to him about truth, he says, "What is truth?" And he goes out to the mob and he says, "Look, I have looked into this man and I find no case against him, this Jesus." See he wasn't swayed initially in judgment by the religious leaders, who frankly just wanted Jesus dead because Jesus was threatening them. Jesus was going to the people and making sense to them and healing them and caring for them and loving them and standing up for them. That's why the religious leaders wanted Him dead. That's how poisoned that whole rule-based religion scene had become. See Pilate wasn't swayed by the same things that whipped up that mobbed. And all the way through this scene, over and over again, Pontius Pilate finds Jesus "not guilty". In verse 38 he says: ‘Look, I find no basis for a charge against Him'. Again in verse 4 of chapter 19: Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, ‘Look I'm bring him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him'. Verse 6 of Chapter 19: You take him, you crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him. And then again, down in verse 12: From then on Pontius Pilate tried to have Jesus set free. See he was a man who was fairly objective and he found no guilt in Jesus the Christ. Of course there's a marked difference between my friend Paul and Pontius Pilate in that ultimately Pilate was a weak man and he gave in to the crowd. He never changes his judgment mind you, but based on this tradition he just rolls over because of this angry mob. And ultimately he said, "Look, look at the life of Jesus, this man who healed people and who reached out to them and who cared for them, who taught them stuff about life that made sense, of course he's innocent." Innocent of everything except the fact that his goodness, his genuiness, stood out in stark contrast to the manipulation and the deceit of the religious leaders of the day. He threatened their power base, that's why they wanted him dead. Now the other player in this game is Barabbas. Barabbas is an interesting character. His name literally means "Son" which is what "Bar" means, "of the father" – "abba". "Barabbas" son of the father – Barabbas. We'll come back to that a little later. But he is a criminal. John tells us there in verse 40 that he'd taken part in a rebellion. If you go to Matthew's gospel chapter 27 verse 16, Matthew calls him a notorious criminal, so it was well known that this man was a crook. Mark Chapter 15 verse 7 and Luke Chapter 23 verse 19, they both tell us that Barabbas committed murder as a part of an insurrection. So here we have it. A well-known, notorious criminal, a murderer, Barabbas versus Jesus Christ superstar. This Jesus with rock-star status who healed the lame and the sick and the blind and stood up for the oppressed and the needs of the people against all of those of religious rulers from all that manipulation. He exposed the religious hypocrisy of those leaders. Huge crowds followed him, they listened to him, they saw him heal countless people, they saw miracles. The same crowds just a few days before, on the day we now call Palm Sunday, when Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey, they threw down palm leaves, they were shouting praises literally calling him "King of the Jews" – their Messiah, their Saviour. Yet now, just a few days later whipped up by the religious leaders, manipulated by them again, here they are, baying for his blood. "Crucify him". What a brutal response. No wonder politicians say that the opinion polls are fickle. There's a great saying: "A week is a long time in politics." And it was certainly true then as it is now. Look at it again. When they're given a choice they say, "We want Barabbas! We want Barabbas!" And of Jesus, "Crucify him!" When Pilate asked them about Jesus they said: "Crucify him". And ultimately Pontius Pilate went against his own impartial judgment. He was weak, he was afraid of the crowd. He had Jesus beaten, he had him handed over to be crucified. Wait for it, instead of Barabbas who got set free. Do you get it. It's a switch, it's a substitution that's going on here. Barabbas the son of the father was the murderer. He should have gone to the cross, but instead he was set free and the innocent Jesus was crucified in his place. And here's what God's saying to us through what happened. Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of Man. "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." God said that of Jesus. Jesus was also man. He often referred to Himself as the Son of Man. He was human, He was God in the flesh, He was perfect without spot or blemish. He was totally innocent. The Son of God – Jesus; the son of the father, the son of dad – Barabbas. God is a loving Dad. There's a radical concept here introduced by Jesus. The Jews didn't refer to God as Dad but Jesus called Him Abba – Dad. And this man, Barabbas – Bar-abba, son of dad – is the one who gets set free. It's the swap over, it's the substitution. The "Son of God" and the "son of God". Both with the same name. Jesus and Barabbas. The innocent is substituted for the guilty. Jesus went to the cross for Barabbas; Barabbas deserved it but Jesus wore it. Barabbas was the murderer but Jesus was killed. Barabbas was the one who hurt people and yet Jesus suffered in his place. Barabbas – the son of the father – was guilty and he went free. Jesus – the Son of the Father – was innocent and He went to the Cross. And who judged Him? Not Pilate. Pilate wasn't the one that sent Him to the Cross, it was the angry mob and the religious leaders – the very people whom He came to set free, whom He loved, whom He healed, whom He taught. They were the ones that turned against Him. They were the ones who had Jesus crucified. So what does that mean for you and for me here and now? Who is Barabbas Let me ask you something. Who was Barabbas? There was Pontius Pilate, there was Jesus, there was Barabbas. And then there was the angry mob in this story. To the angry mob, Barabbas was just that criminal and murderer and it was the Passover Festival. The Passover is the celebration of when God was releasing His people out of slavery in Egypt centuries before. He sent ten plagues on Egypt, on Pharaoh. And the final plague was the death of the first-born of all the Egyptians from Pharaoh's son through to a slave's son right through to the first born of all the animals. And yet here was the nation of Israel captive as slaves in Egypt. And God said to them: "Look, get a lamb, kill it, takes it's blood, smear it on the top of the door and the angel of death will pass over your house and you won't suffer that death – that death in the tenth plague." It was only visited on the Egyptians but not on God's people. And the way in which God's angel passed them over was by the seeing the blood of the lamb on the door posts. And so there's this tradition where the Roman Governor at the Passover Festival all these years later would release one criminal to the people. And this year that criminal was going to be Barabbas. Someone who had been part of an insurgency, an uprising; someone who killed multiple people. I mean, the worst sort of all criminals possible is who Barabbas was. Bar-abba – "son of the father", one of God's children. You see, you and I are Barabbas in this story. I said before that attitudes to sin vary enormously in our society and so many people see "sin" as an outdated concept. But the whole point of creation was us to have a relationship with God and to give glory to God but in our free will we rejected Him just as Barabbas rejected God, just as Barabbas went out and sinned. And when we did that we missed the point. And that's what God calls "sin". It's conspicuous, you can't hide it. We're all guilty of that and ‘the wages of sin is death'. See, God is wondrous and perfect and holy and awesome and a loving God and it's hard to imagine love and judgment in one person. Yet my friend Paul, the magistrate, I was talking about him earlier, Paul is a really fair and compassionate man, he's a great husband, he's a wonderful father, but he's also just. I look at him and it gives me some understanding at how those things fit together in God's nature. In His love, instead of letting you and me pay the price, in His love God sends Jesus, His Son, to die in my place. Now you and I might say, "Look, I'm no Barabbas. I haven't killed people. I haven't done all these horrible things." The point is, the moment we turn our back on God, the moment we reject Him, the moment we do one thing wrong – because God is holy, pure, perfect, clean – the moment we sin we deserve death. God's Word tells us "The wages of sin in death", and yet when we put our faith in this Jesus, in this Jesus who died on our behalf, we're forgiven. You too are one of the sons and daughters of Abba – Dad – God. We too are loved by Him and we too can put our faith in Jesus and believe with our hearts and with our heads that on this very first Easter, on that Cross, Jesus paid the price of our sin and when we believe in Him we have complete forgiveness. Finally, Pilate handed Him over to be crucified, so that the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying His own cross He went out to a place of the Skull which in Aramaic is known as Golgotha. Here they crucified Him and with Him two others, one on each side and Jesus in the middle. And Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the Cross. It read, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews'. Many of the Jews read this sign for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The Chief Priest of the Jews protested to Pilate, ‘Don't write ‘King of the Jews' but that this man claimed to be the King of the Jews.' And Pilate answered them, ‘What I have written, I've written.' When the soldiers crucified Jesus they took His clothes off, divided amongst them in four shares, one for each of them with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in a single piece from top to bottom. Let's not tear it they said, let's decided by lot who gets it. This happened so that the Scripture might be fulfilled which said, ‘They divided their garments among them and cast lots for my clothing'. So this is what the soldiers did. Near the Cross of Jesus stood His mother, His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw His mother there and the Disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Dear woman, here is your son and to the Disciple, here is your mother.' And from that time on this Disciple took her into his home. Later, knowing that all was completed and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, ‘I'm thirsty.' A jar of wine vinegar was there and so they soaked a sponge in it and put the sponge on a stalk of hyssop plant and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When He'd received a drink Jesus said, ‘It is finished'. With that He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit. That's the price, the price that Jesus paid for you and for me and Barabbas. And as much as we here in the 21st Century might have a cultural problem with the notion of sin, it doesn't change anything. It doesn't change God, it doesn't change who God is, it doesn't change why God created us, it doesn't change the reality that you and I have fallen short of the glory of God. You and I have both rejected God and it doesn't change the reality that He loves us so much that He sent His one and only Son. So many people in our society have this nagging sense of guilt, this nagging sense of inadequacy, this deep down sense that they're not good enough. And the reason is that we aren't good enough. And God comes to us to the Cross of Jesus Christ and cries out and says to us: I love you. You are my Barabbas, you are my child. I love you, I sent my Son to pay the price. Look at my Son, look at the Cross, put your faith in Him and you can have eternal life. A new life, a fresh life, a life that begins now, a life with me that goes on forever. When we believe Jesus we have the forgiveness that Jesus purchased. When we believe the door is flung open into a deep relationship with God, when we believe we have eternal life, we do. Anybody, the worst criminal, you, me even if he had believed … Barabbas.
Sin is such a funny word. Short – but judgemental. And yet this thing called “sin” lies at the heart of Easter. Jesus died to pay for our sin. So what does that actually mean – “sin”? Sin By Another Name This week we're still doing a retrospective on Easter and I thought we should ask a question. What makes Easter? Why did God do it? Why did God send His Son to die for you and me? Last week we saw that you and I are so incredibly precious to God. The Psalmist back in Psalm 8 asks the question. He says: I look up your huge skies, dark and enormous, you handmade the sky, the jewellery, the moon and the stars are mounted in their settings. Then I look at little old me and I wonder, why do you bother with us? Why do you take a second to look our way, God? It's a good question. And the answer is that we're so incredibly precious to God. And the more precious something or someone is, the more we do for that something or someone. Sadly in our world today, people pick the wrong things and make them precious. People pick wealth or they pick fame or they pick career or they pick status – always these external things – and they end up sacrificing their lives to them to no avail. But you and I are different. You and I are precious in the sight of God, in God's heart. And Easter is about Jesus on the Cross. Easter is about the most incredible sacrifice; the Son of God crucified, punished on our behalf. We've had a look at that already on the program over the last couple of weeks. But He was punished for you and for me. And for a long time I wondered, why? I mean, why did God go to those lengths? Look at me, look at you – we're not that bad. Okay, we're not perfect, at least I'm not, but isn't the whole ‘Easter, Cross, crucifixion' thing just a bit extreme? Christians talk a lot about "sin". Now for most of my life I thought of "sin" as being this really old-fashioned, stuffy, church concept. I mean, "sin"? Really? These days? Old fashioned, moralising, guilt trips. It belongs to a view of religion of the past that's not relevant today. People are writing books about it. A well known scientist by the name of C. Dawkins wrote a book called "The God Delusion" and someone who was writing that book up said this: The God Delusion makes a compelling case that belief in God is not just wrong but potentially deadly. And part of that is this notion that we have in the world today, that sin is some man-made religious concept. We live in a society that denies sin, whatever that might mean to you. Right? Wrong? Well they're fluid concepts, their circumstantial. It kind of depends what works for you. But the word "sin" – which I, for many years thought of as this stuffy, outdated concept – the word "sin" in the Bible literally means "to miss the mark". Today we say ‘missing the point of life'. And because of the society we live in – the society that puts ‘me' at the centre of my world, puts "you" at the centre of your world – we do whatever feels good to make us better and have more fun and more comfort. Okay, there's some social responsibility, but by and large we live in a selfish world. And in that society we kind of don't notice somehow that sin's going on. We notice the shotgun murders and that sort of thing, but in our lives day by day people deny the concept of sin. There's a wonderful parable called, "the boiling frog syndrome". You've probably heard of it. The notion that if you have some boiling water and put a frog in it the frog will jump straight out because it notices the water is hot. But if you begin with cold water and you gradually, gently heat the water the frog ultimately will die because he doesn't that the water is getting hot and it kills him. Global warming's a bit like that. I mean, we've been denying it for years. Governments and big business have been denying it because it's politically and economically expedient to keep pumping greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, slowly cooking the earth. It's been obvious but we've denied it. A while ago I went to see Al Gore's movie, "An Inconvenient Truth". Whatever your politics, whatever your views of matters "green" are, it's absolutely a "must see" if you didn't see it. He makes a point that the number of category 4 and 5 hurricanes have almost doubled in the past 30 years. The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled in the past decade. Malaria has spread to higher altitudes because of warming in places like the Columbian Andes – 7000 feet above sea level and at least 279 species of plants and animals are already responding to global warming by moving closer to the poles. It kind of paints a picture of a world out of control. It's so bent on consuming that we're prepared to destroy the planet. When we look at the facts they're obvious. The whole consumer treadmill, the economy based on greed, the boiling frog syndrome just denies that reality. We behave as though it doesn't exist. We do that with a lot of things. In the west where people are wealthy by global standards we ignore poverty, we ignore the wars and the starvation and the thousands of children that die every day of poverty. We just behave as though they don't exist. They still do but we just ignore them. The point of sin is that it's a bit like that boiling frog syndrome. It's deceptive. Through our selfishness we kind of rationalise; we deny the reality; we stick out heads in the sand and pretend. Well, it's not my problem. I'm not the one getting things wrong. The Apostle Paul in Romans Chapter 7 verse 11 writes this. He says: For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment deceived me and through the commandment put me to death. You see, sin is deceptive. In 2 Timothy Chapter 3 verse 13 he writes: Evil men and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. And Psalm 36 verse 2: With his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin. And that's right on the money. We kid ourselves. We try and behave as though sin doesn't exist. Just stop and think about the last 24 hours and say, what did I do to hurt someone? What did I do to step on someone? What did I do to ignore someone? What did I do that ruined their lives and my life? Come on, we are masters of self-deception. It doesn't matter how much we deny it, when we look around the world, around society, around our own lives, sin is alive and well. "Missing the point of life" is alive and well and people are slaves to it like lemmings jumping over a cliff and the price … the price is being robbed of life itself. It's walking around like a living dead. But God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him wouldn't perish but have eternal life. That … that right there is what Easter was all about. Simply No Excuse I'm going to ask you, have you ever been pulled over by a policeman for speeding. "Driver, do you know why you've been pulled over? Do you realize that you were exceeding the speed limit by whatever it is?" I have, and it's a horrible feeling. And you know there is simply no excuse. Speeding kills – it's as simple as that. Imagine speeding and killing a child coming out of a school, or someone you love or an elderly person crossing the road. Measured against the consequences, speeding is crazy; it's ludicrous; there's just no way you can justify it or you can excuse it, the consequences of speeding is death. Yet most drivers speed every day. That attitude "I've got to get there, just got to get there. I'll save 30 seconds, I'll save 1 minute, I'll save 2 minutes off my journey." That attitude completely misses the point, doesn't it? And that's such a good example of sin. "Sin" means "missing the point". Come on, look at our lives, look at the stuff that we want to descend into – being selfish, being greedy, just lying a little bit, a bit of deception, pompous egos, treading on people, crushing them – and then do you know what we do? We rationalize it. We justify it. We say it's everybody else's fault. They don't measure up to my mark, or they did me wrong, or that person over there hurt me and that's why I had a go at them. Come on! It misses the point and in God's eyes there is simply no excuse. We began the program today with the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 8, looking up at the heavens and the stars wondering, "God who am I that you should even give me a second thought?" The Apostle Paul takes that one step further in Romans Chapter 1 and verse 20, and he writes this: For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities, His eternal power, His divine nature, they've been clearly seen being understood from what's been made, so we are without excuse. In other words, you look around and you can't help but come to the conclusion that God is God. It's like speeding. When we deny God, when we turn away from Him, when we say, "No, no, no, I'm going to live my life buddy", there's no excuse. It's blindingly, glimpsingly obvious. Look around. The fact that God created it all is so obvious; God's majesty and His love and His wonders shine out through all the things He's made. I've said before, we are masters of delusion and so we are. Somehow for years I rationalised it but in my heart of hearts I knew that God was God, I knew that Jesus was the Son of God, but we get used to the fact that our lives are missing the point. We get used to the fact that we're off doing stuff and ignoring God. And then we try even harder to have a life of meaning. We work harder to earn more money or more recognition or to get a better career or … even though in our heart of hearts we know it's never ever going to hit the mark. It's like we've become slaves to it, we've become addicted to this sin, this treadmill, and we're compelled to keep going in the same direction. Put yourself in God's shoes for a moment. He creates you and me out of love, in His own image, and He gives us in this universe on this earth that He's made for us – He gives us the freedom to accept or reject Him. And this freedom comes from His love too. And He watches you and me take our freedom and reject Him and miss the whole point of creation and then suffer the consequences. And we do suffer. Missing the point brings suffering. Sin has its consequences. Loneliness, pain, doubt, isolation, a lostness, hurts, no real sense of identity. We get to a point where we've completely lost sight of the fact that you and I have been created in God's image – to delight in Him. And let me tell you, when God sees us in that state His heart aches for us. I was reading a book in my personal time with God the other day. In the Book of Judges when Israel had rejected God so many times and they came to God because God had sent punishment on them. They were defeated and the Amorites were fighting against them, and God said, "No, forget it, you people have rejected me so many times, go worship your gods, go worship your idols, go and suffer the consequences." Then God looked down upon His people and He saw them suffering and the Bible says He just couldn't help Himself. He had to go and help them. That's what God is like. He loves us. He wants to bless us. And when He sees us suffering the consequences of sin He can't help himself. His heart aches for us. And that's why, just at the right time, when you and I were still powerless to deal with any of that, when we were still busy rejecting God, just at the right time Jesus Christ died for the ungodly. He dragged that Cross to Calvary, He allowed Himself to be nailed to it. He took the burdens, the consequences, the pain of my sin and your sin once and for all. He paid the price that you and I should pay and greater love has no man than to lay down His life for His friends. And whoever believes in Jesus, believes that's exactly what happened there on the Cross of Christ at Easter. They're set free from the burden and the consequences of their sin. If we believe that with our lives we are free to have a relationship with God. We don't have to live under the burden of sin anymore, as slaves to sin with our whole lives missing the point. The moment we believe in Jesus its ground zero, it's a clean slate; it's a start again fresh. When we look at the Cross of Christ and say, "I believe", God our Father says, "My child, I forgive you". When we put our faith in Him the gates of heaven are flung open wide and there's a wild party. You might say, "But Berni, I took that step years ago and look at my life!" And I say to you, have you taken that step with your life. I mean, do you live your life in that reality every day? Come on, that's what Easter is. It's Easter every day because by shedding Jesus blood on the Cross, by His sacrifice, you and I have forgiveness every day. Through that empty tomb you and I have a new life every day – today, tomorrow, the next day, for all eternity. That's it. That's Easter. A Personal Call Well you know, you and I are looking back on Easter. Here we are, a few weeks past Easter and you might think, why is this guy still yapping on about Easter? Why are we still looking back at Easter? Come on we've had the chocolate, we've had the long weekend. We've moved on, let's get on with the rest of the year. Let's get on with something new and fresh and exciting. But hang on a minute, I just believe that it's Easter every day. I just believe that God wants us to live and walk and breathe and have our being in the reality of the fact that God became man in the person of Jesus Christ and that He suffered and died to pay for my sin and your sin. He took our death, the death that we deserved, on His shoulders and He died that death for us. He rose again and He gave us a new life – a forgiven life, a life eternally in relationship with Him. You see, you and I are so incredibly precious in God's eyes. Do we get that? He loves us so much He's given us this freedom to choose Him or to reject Him. And you know, every day we have that choice in the way we think, where we put our trust, what goes on in our heart, what we do, what we say, everything. Jesus died for every person who's ever lived – for you, for me and for billions of other people. That's a huge thing. He bore all of our sin. Have you done something wrong and you woke up the next day – maybe you've hurt someone, you had an argument, you said something you wish you could take back right? – and you woke up the next day and you realise, you remember back the stupid thing you did and the consequences and the pain and the hurt. You know, you've hurt someone you love, whatever it is, and you just have to live through the consequences of that. It's sin. It's a terrible feeling. You know what I'm talking about. Imagine if you could experience it in one time, the consequences of all the mistakes, every sin you have made in your whole life. How would that feel? It would be unbearable wouldn't it? If we could feel all our sin and the consequences of it in one moment I think it would kill us. It would be unbearable. So now put yourself in Jesus' sandals for a minute. He bares the pain, the punishment and the consequences of all the sins of the whole of the human race for all time at that one place on the Cross. My, how Jesus suffered. We just can't see this as some huge macro act of God in history – it is that but if we restrict it to that we miss the point. Jesus died for the one, He died for me, He died for you to set us free from the slavery of sin, the slavery of living a life that completely misses the point, the slavery of living a life that will end in eternal separation from God. You know the worse bit about slavery? It's the fear, it's the lurking knowledge deep down inside that we're missing the point of our lives. And at the end of the day there will be a reckoning. That makes the life of sin a true life of slavery. In Hebrews Chapter 2 verse 14 it says this: Since we're human, of flesh and blood, Jesus too shared in our humanity so that by His death He might destroy Him who holds the power of death (that's the devil) and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. For this reason He had to be made like His brothers and sisters in every way in order that He might pay the price for the sins of the people. How many people live life in the fear of dying? I used to. I don't any more because I know I believe in Jesus. I know that when I die I will go to be with the Lord my God, not because I'm such a great person but because I believe in Jesus. No more fear, no more lurking sense of a life without purpose, a life that's missing the whole point. Paul in Galatians Chapter 5 verse 1 says: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. In other words, the reason Christ did what He did was to give us freedom. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. You know, we can run but we can't hide. You and I can pretend that it's not there. We can do the boiling frog thing and say, "Sin's not an issue in my life. There's no such thing any more in this day and age." But sin is a reality, sin is slavery, sin has consequences. We keep on doing those same old, same old, same old things chasing after money or fame, treading on people, hurting people, whinging about people, whatever it is, whatever your brand of sin whatever your Achilles heal is – we keep doing that and it has consequences, it ruins relationships, it ruins our lives and it misses the whole point. I want to ask you again today, have you given your life over to this truth. I mean day by day do you walk, think your thoughts, make your choices in the wonderful knowledge incredible gift of life. Jesus died for you. Jesus paid the price for you. Jesus, here and now is calling you to be free of the slavery of sin and death once and for all by putting your faith in Jesus. Not just a single one-time act but a life lived in the truth and reality that Jesus died for you, that you might be forgiven. Jesus rose from that grave for you so that you might have a life eternal. This is not about taking a guilt trip here. It's about God calling you to Himself through His Son. Do you want that more than anything? Do you want to be close to God? Do you want to be with Jesus for the rest of eternity from this moment forward? Why don't you pray this prayer with me? Father,I've heard the message of Jesus today. I believe that Jesus died on the Cross for me and I want to accept Him as my Saviour, the one who set me free from the slavery of sin. But not just my Saviour, I want to accept Him as my Lord. I give my life, God, into your hands for you to be the Lord of my life above all other things, all other hopes and dreams and desires. Father, I'm so sorry for the things I've done in the past. I turn away from them right now. I want you to fill me up to overflowing with your Holy Spirit. Father give me the new life Jesus died and rose again to give me. I want to know Your peace and Your freedom and Your joy and Your love. I give my life to you in Jesus name. In Jesus name, Amen. This is where life is at. Not some rule-based constricting religion – freedom … freedom from all the things that we are enslaved to that ruin our lives. Freedom from wandering aimlessly through life towards a disastrous end, Freedom from the consequence of our sin and into a life with purpose and meaning and joy and wonder and glory, a life that only gets better and better, a life that goes for all eternity. Will there be trials in this life? Is it tough following Jesus? You bet you. Jesus never promises a bed of roses, He never promises a cake walk. In fact Jesus promises that when we put our faith in Him, there will be trials, there will be people and spiritual forces that come against us. But ultimately putting our faith in Jesus is about a new life. That's it. That's what Easter is all about. That's what Jesus was doing on the cross for me and you. All we need to do is to hear that message and let it sink into our hearts and hold onto that deep inside and never ever let it go. Easter. Jesus. Freedom. Life.
As we head towards Easter yet again, perhaps it's time to think about – well, what makes us so special, that God would do this Easter thing for us? An Intimate Knowledge It's always something special to me, that time of the year we call Easter. So we are going to carry it on a little longer this week in the Easter story. This is my 17th Easter since I became a Christian. And it just never ceases to amaze me what the Easter story is all about. It's a good time for us to think about what God was up to. I mean, Christmas seems like it was just a few weeks ago. Hey, you know, that's when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the whole baby in the manger thing; Jesus becoming a man. But Easter for Jesus didn't happen just a few months after Christmas. Easter for Jesus happened about 33 years later during the Passover celebration. It was the time when Israel celebrated the freedom that they had out of slavery. They'd been slaves in Egypt for a few centuries; God had sent Moses to tell Pharaoh to let His people go and God sent a whole bunch of plagues on the nation of Egypt. And the last plague, the most powerful plague, was the first born of every Egyptian family, their animals as well, the firstborn was killed by God and that ultimately convinced Pharaoh to let God's people go. But it didn't happen to the Israelites. You see, they were slaves in Egypt and God said to them, ‘Look, you get a lamb and you slay that lamb, and you put that lamb's blood on the top of your door frame and the angel of death will pass over your house and this plague upon Egypt won't befall your house. And so the Passover celebration was the celebration of the freedom that Israel received from slavery by the shedding of the blood of the lamb. And that of course is what Easter is all about. So here Jesus was in His early 30's and it's the Passover celebration and it's the time that we remember Jesus not only came to earth as a man, He not only walked through every trial and temptation that you and I do, He not only healed the sick and cast out demons and preached with power, He laid down His life for you and for me. He died for us! Now we will look at the how and why of that, but for me, Easter begins long, long before that. You look at God and you say, "Well, why did you go to such an extreme? What was this all about – you sending your Son, your only Son Jesus, your beloved and you let Him be spat upon and beaten and crucified?" Easter is God saying to us that you and I are "to die for". Now the term ‘to die for' is a contemporary term. If you're not aware it's SMS shorthand; you know, the kids as they send the SMS messages to one another often put the word "to die for" They don't write it out in full, they write it as 2di4 and it's shorthand for something that you just have to have. A girl might send an SMS to a girlfriend of hers and talk about a boy, say, "He was 2di4". A boy might look at a car or a motorbike and say, "That car or that motorbike is 2di4". Something that's ‘to die for' is something that you just have to have. And so that's why we're talking about it right now because that's what Easter's about. And this term "to die for" started me thinking, God was prepared to send His son "to die for" you and me. You and I, in His eyes, in His heart, we are "to die for". There's a beautiful Psalm. You may have heard me talk about this Psalm before. We're going to spend today looking at this Psalm. If you have a Bible grab it, open it up at Psalm 139 because Psalm 139 is a Psalm that I guess lays the foundations of Easter for me. It lays the foundations of "to die for". We're going to unpack this whole idea and have a look at what was going on in the Father's great and mighty heart. What was He thinking? How was He thinking about you and Me when He hatched Easter. Easter's a hard thing to get our hearts around; it's a hard thing to get our minds around, but Psalm 139 is a great place to start. Psalm 139 tells us just what was going on in God's heart. What drove God towards this amazing plan that we now call Easter? Let's have a read. If you have a Bible open it up. Psalm 139. We'll just look at verses 1-12 to begin with. This is what it says: Lord, you searched me and you know me. You know me when I sit down, you know when I rise up, you know my thoughts from a long, long way off. You discern my going in and my lying down; you're familiar with all my ways. Before even a word is on my tongue you already know it completely, Lord. You hem me in; behind me, in front of me, you laid your hands upon me. Such knowledge is just too wonderful for me. It's too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go to the heavens you're there. If I make my bed in the depths of hell you're still there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, If I settle on the farthest side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand me fast. If I say, surely the darkness will hide me and the light will become night around me, even the darkness isn't dark to you. The night will shine like day because darkness is like light to you. Isn't it a beautiful Psalm. They're not just words. This man who wrote the Psalm is pouring out his heart about how wonderful God is. And the three things that jump out at me in this short passages, the first few verse of Psalm 139: firstly how intimately God knows us. "Lord, you've searched me, you know me. You know when I sit down, you know when I get up, you know when I go out, you know when I lie down, you know what I'm thinking. Even before I say a word you know what words are going to be on my lips. Lord you know me." God knows us intimately. Sometimes Easter feels a little bit like a retailing phenomenon. You know, lets go buy chocolate eggs, have a long weekend, have a rest. And if God is a busy God and He doesn't have time for us then He doesn't love us. But that isn't who God is. He knows you and He knows me, everything we're thinking, everything we're doing, everything we're hoping for, everything we're for hurting for … God knows us. And secondly, He's on this journey with us. "Lord you hem me in: you're behind me, your in front of me, you've laid your hands upon me." It's interesting you know, when this was written all the other God's that all the other nations worshipped lived in static places. They lived in temples, on hilltops and people went up to the hills to worship them in their temples. But this God whom the Psalmist is writing about, this God spent 40 years on a journey in the wilderness with His people Israel. You can read some more about it in the Book of Exodus. This God sent up home amongst His people in the temple in Jerusalem when they finally crossed over into the Promised Land. This God has a heart to be with His people. It's His heart's cry. We hear it time and time and again from the beginning of the Bible, way back in the Old Testament, to almost the end. In the second last chapter of the Book of Revelation. God over and over says this: ‘I will be your God and you will be My people. And I will make my dwelling place among you'. God is a God who is on this journey with us. Even in hell, even in heaven, even if we go to the farthest part of the world, even there God is with us. His presence, His face – that's literally what the Hebrew means – His face is there. Even when it falls dark, surely the darkness will hide me and the light will become like night around me. But God, even in the darkness it won't be dark to you. The light will shine like the day for darkness is as light to you. God is in those dark places and He's not some distant God. This is not some unmoved mover. You know, someone who just doesn't feel for us. This God is a God who knows us – wonderfully, and beautifully and intimately – and He's on the journey with us. And I know that's hard for us to fathom. There are billions of people who've lived down through the ages and He knows each one of us more and more intimately than we can ever imagine. That's what God's like. He knows each one of us like that. And that for me sets the scene for Easter. He was There We're taking a look today at what was going on in God's heart. What was He thinking when He was dreaming up this whole Easter thing? It's an amazing plan. God sends His Son to earth to be beaten and spat upon and crucified, to die on that brutal Cross at the hands of men. Psalm 139, which is the Psalm we were looking at the break, tells us about His motivations behind Easter. It doesn't talk specifically about Easter, but it tells us what God's heart is for us. And we just had a look at the first part of that Psalm to show us that God knows us intimately, He's on every step of the journey with us. And that's huge … to know that God is walking every step of the way with us. There is nowhere we can go and be alone or apart from Him, even in heaven or hell. But how is it that He knows us this well? I mean, sometimes we don't even know ourselves, do we. We can't explain why we do what we do or how we react to something or why we did that. You and I are pretty complex creatures. There's so many layers to who we are. Some things are so deep inside us, we can't really understand them or talk about them ourselves. So how does God know? Well the writer of the Psalm goes on to explain that. Let's have a read now of Psalm 139 going on to verse 13 to 16. If you have a Bible, grab it. This is what it says: For God, you created my innermost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that so well. My frame wasn't hidden from you when I was made in secret, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days were ordained for me, they were written in your book even before one of them came into being. That's one of the most precious passages in the Bible to me. As I look back on my life, and you too, there's a mixture of wonderful and desperate; beautiful and ugly. We've both done some brilliant things and we've done some really stupid things. There are great heights and there are dark valleys. But when you and I were conceived, God was there. My innermost parts – who I am; your innermost parts – who you are. A DNA blueprint – the way that we look and sound and all our gifts and abilities and strengths and weaknesses – all that, those layers of complexity He created in our innermost being. He knit you and me together in our mothers wombs. Imagine you and I have been handcrafted by God. Distinctive, one of a kind, completely, utterly, amazingly, beautifully, wondrously made. Separated and different from any other person who has ever lived or any other person who will ever live. Intricately woven together, each strand of DNA laid down according to God's plan. But not only that, not only who we are, but everything that would ever happen to us. Look at it again. ‘All the days that were ordained for me, they were written in your book before one of them came into being.' I so despair when I meet people who waste away their lives worrying and complaining about their lot. Yes, some people seem to have better lives than others. Some people seem to get all the breaks and the benefits and the blessing and other people seem to get handed more difficult lives – painful lives. A bit like Jesus; people like the Apostle Paul. But that's all part of God's plan. There's a beautiful poem, you might have heard it once before and it goes something like this: My life is but a weaving between my Lord and me.I cannot choose the colours as He weaveth steadily, Sometimes He chooses dark threads and I in foolish pride Forget He sees the upper and I the underside. Not till the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly Shall God unroll the canvas and explain the reasons why The dark threads were as needful in the weaver's skilful hand As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He hath planned. You and I are what He made us to be. We're living the lives He planned for us, lives He always knew that we'd live. Nothing is a surprise to God. And when we put our faith in Him we experience the most incredible joy. I was having lunch recently with a women who is well into her 70's now, whose husband, quite a few years back, committed suicide. How devastating would that have been. But she put her faith in Christ. She spent time in God's Word and she has this quiet joy and a beautiful countenance about her. She could have lived the rest of her life bitter, but no, she's live it in Christ. And when we see the beauty of God's plan, handcrafted as we are by Him to live the life that He laid out before time began, we get some sense of what was going on in His heart when He came up with this plan for Easter. Because we can only live the life He has planned if we live it with Him. We have a basic problem, that problem is called "sin". It's the things that we've done wrong that keeps us away from Him. And that's what Easter's about. We're going to look at that shortly. That's Huge … As we continue to look back on Easter, one of the things that I hope we'll ponder is the reaction of the writer, the Psalmist, the person who wrote Psalm 139 that we've been looking at today. There's a sense of awe and wonder as He ponders how intimately God knows Him, how faithfully God hangs in there with Him, and the wonder of God's craftsmanship and plan. Look again at what the Psalmist writes in verse 6: Such knowledge is too high for me, it is so high I can't attain it. Verse 14: I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works, oh God, that I know very well. Verse 17: How weighty are your thoughts oh God, how vast is the sum of them. I try and count them but they're more than the sand on the beach. I come to the end and I'm still with You. Easter is the time when God sent His Son to die for us, to solve this basic problem of humanity that we have. A problem that God calls "sin". And I know, "sin" used to sound like such an old-fashioned, fuddy-duddy word to me too, but it is the problem of humanity. And we've been looking at that over the past few weeks. But the thing that oozes out of this Psalm for me – that speaks so much about God's motivation behind Easter – is His incredible love. We will never ever be able to wrap our minds and hearts around God's love completely. We'll never, ever be able to understand how God feels about us. God says in His Word that one day we'll stand before Him and all things will be revealed. I can't imagine … I just can't imagine looking at God; I can't imagine looking on the face of Jesus; I can't imagine knowing and understanding fully how much He loves us. And when He created you and when He created me individually and wondrously and perfectly handcrafted you and me – intricately woven together in our mother's womb – that was the most amazing act of grace because He knew when He did that, that you and I would reject Him. He always knew that. He always knew that to bring us back to Him, to save us from ourselves, to save us from what we deserve – which is an eternity without Him – He'd have to send Jesus to die on that Cross for you and me. No if's, no but's, no maybe's – you and I, our sin, our rebellion are no surprise to God. He always knew and He still created us. He still allowed us to be born and He still planned every day of our lives, even before any of those days existed at all. That blows me away. No wonder the Psalmist writes: How weighty are your thoughts to me oh God, how vast is the sum of them. I try and count them but they're more than the grains of sand on the beach. Because behind Easter is this amazing act of grace. Not just that Jesus came to suffer and die for our failure but that God always knew that by creating us He would have to do that. And yet He created us anyway. Could I encourage you never ever put Easter in some measured little box; never ever to consign Easter to some head knowledge thing, but like the Psalmist be blown away by God's love. Every breathe you take, every step, every hilltop, every valley, every twist, every turn, everything that we have to suffer and bare – live it in this awe and wonder of who God is and how much He loves you in Jesus. Life takes on a completely new meaning and vibrancy and colour. Doesn't matter how much we have to suffer, how much we have to weep, how many tears we cry, we know that God has a plan and He always, and God was there when you were handcrafted by Him in your mother's womb. God always had a plan for you to be who you are, for you to live the life that He's given you and for you to have a life through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. And for you and me to walk in wonder and awe of the completely unattainable knowledge of His love for us in Jesus Christ. We've been looking at that over the last few weeks and we've seen how His love plays itself out on the Cross. But right now, unless we are completely lost in the wonder of His plan and His love, you know what, I think Easter just becomes another long weekend, doesn't it? Listen to the Psalmist: God I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are so wonderful that I know full well. My frame wasn't hidden from you when I was made in that secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days that were ordained, they were already written in Your book before any of them as yet came into being. How precious to me are your thoughts oh God, how vast is the sum of them. Were I to count them, they'd outnumber all the grains of sand on the earth. When I awake I'm still with you. You see, you and I are "to die for" in God's sight. God created us. He knew that we'd rebel, He loved us and He knew that His Son would have to come and die for you and for me. That, my friend, is what Easter is about. Because your rejection of God, my rejection of God severed the perfect relationship that we can have with God. And God is good, He's righteous, He's perfect. Ultimately when we reject Him, when we sin, when we turn against Him, when we do what we know is wrong, somebody has to pay that price. Now, if you look at our law and our judges, they don't work perfectly, but if we do something wrong, someone has to pay the price. That principle of justice comes from the very nature of God. God is a just God and He's a loving God and God's justice and His love were in conflict. Justice demanded that we be punished, love demanded that we be forgiven. On the Cross they come together, on the Cross they merge. Through the death of Jesus the demands of justice are met and the demands of God's love to set us free, to have a new life, are met as well. Friend, Easter is about the central devastating sickness of humanity. Easter is about setting you and me free from our sin to give us a new life. That's what it's all about. That's why we celebrate Easter. The chocolates are nice, the long weekend is nice, the church services are nice for those who go but bottom line God sacrificed His Son so that you and I could have an eternal relationship with Him. It's relationship that begins the moment we put our faith in Jesus Christ. Let's call our sin for what it is – it is sin. And friend, as much as we look in the mirror and we see wrinkles and warts and failures and bad things, God knows those, that's why He sent His Son Jesus to die on a Cross for you and for me, and that my friend, is Easter. If you have never put your trust in Jesus, then you do not know the freedom of God's forgiveness. The moment we believe that Jesus died to pay for our sin and through His death we're forgiven by God, the moment we accept that and believe that my friend, we are set free to live a new life. That's why Jesus rose again – to give us a new life. And that new life begins here and now. That is Easter.
If God is a God of blessing – then what about all the suffering we go through? And anyway, if God does bless, does that just mean a new car and a bigger house? Does God want to Bless Me? Perhaps you've heard people say that we're “Blessed to be a Blessing”. But man, it's so easy to get the wrong idea about what God really, truly means by that word “blessing”. I see so much misunderstanding about God and His heart and where He stands on blessing us. There seems to be a couple of extreme positions on this whole subject of God's blessing – two opposite ends of the spectrum, if you like. On the one end, it goes something like this. God wants to bless me, therefore, I should believe Him for the new Mercedes convertible, more money and a bigger house and a big diamond ring. In effect it kind of reduces God down to some sort of sugar daddy: it's all about me, I am at centre stage – I name it and I claim it. And you know something, lots of Christians believe that. Now the problem that I have with that end of the spectrum is that when I take that and I hold it in one hand and I hold the cross of Christ in the other – when I look at Jesus, this Jesus that gave up everything for me; this Jesus who was nailed to a cross, beaten and bruised and brutalised, not even with the clothes on His back – and I compare those two things, you know something, this end of the spectrum over here, jars with that, don't you think? And it leads to some of the worst excesses – the tele-evangelists pressuring people for money and flying around in their private jets. Is that where that should end up? I mean is that what God's blessing is all about? The other end of the spectrum is you have to be poor to serve God. Money is evil. In fact, we just had a phone call, just the other evening, in the middle of the night, someone responding to a program, saying, "money is evil". Well, no that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says, “The love of money is the root of all evil”, but money itself isn't evil. "People who are rich are evil." I was talking to a man in India recently. India by and large, is a country of extremes – there is the very rich and there's a large, large number of very, very poor people. And this man was being very critical of a Christian leader who just happened to have a nice house in a nice area. He believed that it was wrong for him to have money. Then I looked at this end of the spectrum – you have to be a pauper to serve God. And then I go to the Bible and I read about Abraham, who was God's chosen man; he was very wealthy. I read about King Solomon, he was very wealthy. Yet King Solomon was still God's anointed leader over Israel. He was full of God's wisdom. Do you see the problem? You go to either end of the spectrum and you take teaching about God's blessing to the extreme and you know, I think you end up with the wrong answer. God is a God of balance and when we look at our lives, what we see is that we go through times of blessing, where there's joy and everything seems to be going well and we all go through difficult times. You see the problem. At one end you can have people getting the extreme prosperity thing in their heads and we can end up thinking it's all about us. It plays right into the hands of the world; it's the me, me, me – the next plasma TV, the next car, the next big thing. If you don't have that, obviously you don't have enough faith. On the other hand, if you have this perception that you have to be poor to be a Christian, well if that were the case, who would ever fund the work of the Lord on this planet? God has always chosen to fund His work through His people. And then on top of the pure monitory thing, there's the reality of tragedy and pain and suffering. I mean some of these things are indiscriminate – earthquakes, tsunamis, a young person who loves God dies of cancer, in a car crash or there's divorce or there's retrenchment or there's all that stuff of life that we all experience some times. Are you with me? So what's God's plan? Does God want to bless me or not? Is it okay for me to ask for His blessing? Is it okay for me to expect His blessing, or is that presumptuous? This is an important question. It is in a sense where the ‘rubber' of faith hits the ‘road' of life. It's when it comes to faith in God being active, right in the midst of life's realities today, the things we all have to face. We get up in the morning, we pray, we look forward to the day … How do I pray, what do I give thanks for? That difficult situation that's going be confronting me at work today, can I ask God to help me with that? Is God in all of that? That's why we are doing this series "Blessed to be a Blessing". I'm a simple man. I open the Bible, I see what God's Word says on a subject and you know God is largely a God of balance. I love to be empowered with God's Word and hopefully as we share these next twenty, twenty five minutes together we will both be empowered by God's Word. The problem with teaching on blessing is that you just can't take one verse and say, "That's it! See, God is a God who blesses; therefore I can ask Him for the next big car". You end up with an extreme position. Just as if you say, "You can't have any money to serve Jesus. You have to sell everything you have, give it all away", because Jesus did say that to one young ruler. I'd like to look at God's perspective; the whole thing. Is God a God who blesses? Well, let's just start with what we mean by the word "bless"? It has a number of different meanings but the main connotation is God's divine favour – God intervening to make something better or to give us something that will bring us joy or happiness, financial blessing, spiritual blessing, physical blessing, healing, anything and everything. God's divine favour – His blessing becoming active in our lives. The question is, is God in the blessing business? The word "bless" or "blesses" or "blessed" or "blessing", appears three hundred and fifty eight times in the Bible. The first time you see it is in the first chapter of the Bible, Genesis chapter 1, verse 22. Let's go there and have a bit of a look at what God's up to. Genesis chapter 1 is the account of God's creation. He creates the light out of darkness and the heavens and the earth and the oceans and the dry land and the plants. And the first time He creates a living creature, this is what He says: So God created the creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems. According to all their kinds and every winged bird according to its kind and God saw that is was good and God ... Listen to this: ... and God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas and let the birds increase on the earth'. The second time that the concept of ‘blessing' happens in the Bible is in that same chapter, a few verses on, verse 26: Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image and in our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, over the livestock over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground.' So God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him, male and female, He created them. God blessed them and said to them” – see, there it is again – “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over every living creature that moves on the ground.' And then God said, ‘I give you every seed bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it, they will be yours for food and all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground; everything that has breath of life in it, I give every green plant for food.' And it was so. That's creation! Let me ask you something – do you think God's in the business of blessing us? If God Blesses why do we Suffer? So we've looked at God's own account of His creation, Genesis chapter 1. The very first living creatures He creates, He blesses them. He says, "Go and multiply, increase in number and fill the earth." And He creates humanity, man and woman, and He hands the whole of that creation over to them. What an enormous blessing! You and I are joint owners in creation! Why? Because God created us in His own image and then He handed the whole thing over to us. Just stop and think about that for a minute. What a huge blessing! Right at the point of creation, God was in the blessing business. That's profound! And His plan for us was to live in relationship with Him – Adam and Eve. Genesis, chapter 2, verse 15: The Lord God took the man and put him is the Garden of Eden to till it and to keep it. A perfect plan of blessing and as you probably know, Adam and Eve rebelled. They did the one thing that God said, ‘don't do' and there were consequences. Rebellion against God always has consequences. To the woman He said, “I will greatly increase your pains in child bearing, with pain you will give birth. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you.” To Adam He said, “Because you listened to your wife and you ate from the tree about which I commanded you ‘you must not eat', cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you'll eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken – for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Enter pain and suffering because humanity rebelled against God. And for the rest of the history of humanity, there are consequences. Now you might say to me, “Berni that is so insensitive. If there's a still born baby, if tens of thousands are killed in a tsunami, if some young teenager is raped and murdered, how can you say that?” Here it is, God made us in His image but when who He is doesn't suit us, we try and remake Him into our image. God is a God of blessing – that was His plan, that's why He put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. But they rebelled and when that happens there is an interruption of blessing, there's an interruption in the relationship with Him. Have a look at it. In Leviticus chapter 26 is a perfect summary of where God stands on this. It's a summary of the old covenant; the relationship between God and Israel. And He lays out the relationship in this chapter. Let's go there and begin at verse 1. He says: Don't make idols or set up a sacred stone for yourselves, don't place a carved stone in your land to bow down to it because I am the Lord your God. If you observe my Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary, I am the Lord. If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commandments, I will send rain in its season and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field will be full of fruit and your threshing will continue until grape harvest and grape harvest will continue until planting and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land. I will grant you peace in the land and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid of them. I will remove savage beasts from the land and the sword will not pass through the country. You will pursue your enemies and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand and your enemies will fall by the sword before you. I will look on you with favour and make you fruitful and increase your numbers and I will keep my covenant with you. You will still be eating last years harvest when you have to make room for the new one. I'll put my dwelling place among you and I won't abhor you and I walk among you and be your God and you will be my people. I'm the Lord God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I broke the bars of your yolk and enabled you to walk with your heads high. But, but if your won't listen to me and carry out all these commandments and if you reject me and my decrees and you abhor my laws and fail to carry out those commandments and so violate this covenant, then I will do this - I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease and fever will destroy your sight and drain away your life. You will plant seed in vain because your enemies will eat it. I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies, those who hate you will rule over you and you will flee, even when there is no one pursuing you. See, God first and foremost is a God of blessing. He wants to be in relationship with His people and He is God – He gets to say this is how it is. And when Israel turned against Him, there were consequences. And you and I both have rebelled against God; we both have turned our backs on God at some point in our lives. I was talking to a man just the other day. He's my own age, he's a good friend of mine and he was talking about his three adult sons. This man had a dream to bless his sons. He's an entrepreneur. He's good at making money. He worked as a team with his sons; he wanted to build a business empire and to see them blessed and their children blessed. But one by one, they rejected him and his plans – they didn't honour their father. They went their own way; they turned their backs on him. It sounds like a parable, doesn't it? This is a true story – a friend of mine. And this is what my friend said to me, he said, “Berni, I really wanted to bless them, I wanted to give to them but now that they have rejected that, in their self-centered, selfish ways, I can't bless them.” and it's the greatest sadness of his life. That man is made in the image of God. What he said about his heart to bless his sons is exactly, exactly where God is coming from. God is a God of blessing, but when we reject Him, when humanity rejected Him, when you and I as individuals rejected Him, it interrupts the relationship. And it's in that relationship that we are blessed – that's God's plan. So we've all done that. Can we still go to God and ask Him to bless us? Can I ask for God's Blessing? I hope that as we have looked into God's Word so far on the program, it's had a profound impact on you. God's heart is to bless us – it's in His very nature. That's what creation was all about. A huge abundant, indescribable blessing from Him to us. But when we reject Him, when we try to reconstruct God in our own image rather than accepting Him for who He is, we interrupt that blessing. It's as simple as that. Now we have all done that, so can we still ask God for His blessing, for His favour, for His grace? Absolutely, because God is a God of forgiveness. I'd like to take you to a place, a prayer by a man called Jabez. Someone wrote a book about this a few years ago and it became very prominent, but this prayer is in the Old Testament. If you have a Bible, grab it. We are going to First Chronicles, chapter 4, verses 9 and 10. It‘s in the middle of nine chapters of genealogy, you know, so and so begat so and so who begat so and so who begat so and so - nine chapters - riveting! Smack bang in the middle of that God stops and tells us the story of this Jabez. Obviously He thought it was important enough to break this riveting flow of the genealogies. Good stuff, thank you Jesus. Here's the prayer of Jabez: Jabez was honoured more than his brothers and his mother named his Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, saying, “O God, that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory and that your hand might be with me and that you might keep me from hurt and from harm.” And God granted his request. Jabez gets called "You're a pain" by his mother. Imagine if your mother or my mother named us that. Not a great start in life is it? Mustn't have been for Jabez because Jabez cried out to God. He cried out to Him in desperation, out of his pain, out of his imperfect life. We don't know much more about him but what we do know is that everybody has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and he rejected God in his life at some point, just the way that you and I have. And in his desperation he calls out to God. You might say, "Berni, how do you know that Jabez rebelled?” Let me ask you, if you're a parent, what's the first or the second or the third word that every child learns? "No!" Isn't it? And God's Word clearly teaches that we all have turned our backs on Him. So Jabez is a fallen man just like you and I are fallen human beings. What does Jabez ask God? “God, that you would bless me indeed.” Not just any sort of blessing an ‘indeed' blessing; not just an ordinary blessing of God, “I really, really, God, want you to bless me.” Secondly he asks God to enlarge his territory. In the Old Testament, land was very important, in terms of blessing. I mean, land is somewhere we live. If you have a house in the suburbs, you might take that for granted. If you happen to live in a Liberian refugee camp in Sierra Leon, where you are listening to this program, you won't be taking land for granted. Jabez asks God to enlarge his territory. Thirdly that God's hand might be with him. What a great blessing that is! And fourthly, that God would keep him from hurt and harm. And listen to what it says, (Jabez is a person just like you and me) listen to what it says next. It says, “And God granted his request.” This man put his faith in God and he asked God for a blessing. Once I discovered this prayer, I started praying it regularly, with my own twist. I said, “God, that you would bless me indeed today. I want to see your presence; I want you to be with me. God, that you would increase my borders and my territory. That more and more people would listen to these programs.” You know, I started praying that two years ago when these programs were being listened to by a few people on a few stations and now they are listened to by hundreds of thousands, even millions of people in over eighty countries around the world. God answers those prayers. “God that you would send your hand with me that doors would open for the work that we do and that you would keep me from evil that I wouldn't cause any pain.” It is just the Lord laid on my heart. The point is we can ask God for blessing. God is a God of great blessing and blessing happens in relationship with Him. When we reject God – listen to me – when we reject God it breaks the blessing. Just like that friend of mine that I was talking about with his sons. God wants to bless you … God wants to bless me and there's a purpose; there's a reason for His blessing. It's not just for us but as we will see over the next few weeks on the program, God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others. But right from the beginning, right from the first creature that He created on this earth, He wanted to bless them. And when he created humanity, He wanted to bless them. And when He had a relationship with His people, Israel, He wanted to bless them. And we all turned our backs on Him and so God then gave us the greatest blessing that there could possibly be – He opened the door to a relationship with Him through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross. God is a God of blessing. Yes, we go through ups and downs in our lives, and we're going to have a look at some of those things over the next few weeks, but when I open the Bible I see a God who wants to engage, not just with humanity as a whole, but with little people like you and me and His heart is to bless us.
Sometimes, we can be walking in the promises of God, and things start getting tough. Opposition. Battles. What's going on? Is it time to give up? What happened to all those promises? THE SPIRITUAL BATTLEFIELD Well over these last weeks on the program we've been looking at the fact that it's time to take the Promised Land. God makes so many promises of peace and of joy and His protection and forgiveness and eternal life, the list goes on and on and you know you and I can come up with so many excuses in our lives as to why those promises couldn't possibly ever be for us. It's true, we do. In a sense those excuses are completely natural and understandable. There was a young woman who wrote recently in response to a program, I want to share with you what she wrote because it's kind of a road we all travel sometimes, this is what she said: For a while now I've been getting negative thoughts and saying negative things, I know the devil's doing it and not God but it won't stop. I want so much to do Gods will and to walk in His ways, am I going mad? Will this wreck my relationship with God? I so much want to do His will for His glory and not mine. I want to be a serving and faithful servant for Him. I have all these problems; I say bad and negative things. I can say things without thinking, I tell lies and other unchristian things, what does it mean for me? Is it going to ruin my relationship with God? See this young woman is struggling with the realities of life. She wants to live in that Promised Land but somehow she's just, she just can't see how it's for her, she just can't seem to get there. We all struggle with these things, we struggle with doubt, we struggle with our failings, will this wreck everything with God? We go over that over and over again. Listen to me, it is time to take the Promised land. Over the last three weeks on the program we've been looking at Israel. God promised to Abraham, the father of Israel, this land of the Canaanites, the Promised Land. And centuries later, centuries, after Israel had grown into a large and mighty nation in slavery in Egypt God brought Moses and through a series of miracles he brought the nation of Israel, His chosen people, out of Egypt, through the Red Sea and they wandered in the desert for forty years as God purified them. And then one day under the leadership of Joshua because Moses had just died, they're standing on the banks of the Jordan River and finally ready to cross into the Promised Land. And what they discover is that there's already a whole bunch of other people living there, the Canaanites and the Jebusites and the Amorites and all those other little vegemites were already there. And even though this was Gods Promised Land it wasn't going to be delivered to them on a platter like a pizza, they had to go out and take it, they were on a war footing. They had to fight battle after battle beginning with Jericho, they went through a lot of battles to take the Promised Land. You know something, it's the same with you and with me and with that young woman, we live on a spiritual battlefield. That is the reality of life. And the moment we step out and we believe in Jesus, the moment we step out and say, "Lord, I'm going to follow you in your promises", we step onto that spiritual battlefield. John Eldridge in his book Waking The Dead makes this powerful statement, he says: Things are not what they seem, this is a world at war. And then he goes on to explain what he means, he writes this: The world in which we live is a combat zone. A violent clash of kingdoms, a bitter struggle unto the death. You were born into a world at war and you will live all your days in the midst of a great battle involving all the forces of heaven and hell and played out here on earth. Until we come to terms with that war as the context of our days, we simply will not understand life. See this is why over the last few weeks we've been working our way through this series in the Book of Joshua called, "It's Time To Take The Promised Land" because the context is war. The devil is not going to hand us God's promises on a silver platter. In fact, he is going to try to rob us of Gods promises at every turn. We'd like to think, particularly those of us who live in the affluent west that being a Christian means living in the blessings of God and having a comfortable life and having plenty of money and taking it easy. Well I don't know if you've noticed but life is not like that especially when we step onto the spiritual battlefield by giving our lives to Jesus Christ. The moment we do that all the forces of hell are unleashed against us. That's the reality, we shouldn't be surprised. I think that the surprise element is what makes it worse. We have these expectations of an easy and comfortable life and when satan unleashes all his devils against us, of temptation, of doubt, failure and opposition and trials and on and on and on, over and over and over, we start thinking 'wow there must be something wrong with me'. Au contraire! Inevitably when we decide to take hold of the promises of God in our lives there will be a battle involved. Don't be surprised by this, it's in the Bible. C S Lewis in his book Mere Christianity put it like this: One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament, seriously, was that it talked so much about a dark power in the universe. A mighty evil spirit who was held to be the power behind death and disease and sin. This universe (writes Lewis) is at war. Wake up! The world is at war. The context of our lives following after Jesus Christ is a spiritual battlefield. See Israel was promised this land through Abraham centuries before they even got there. Do you think when God made that beautiful promise to Abraham that he expected battles and wars and stuff? Listen again just briefly to this beautiful promise to an old man, this impossible promise in Genesis chapter 15. The word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision. He said 'don't be afraid, I'm your shield and your very great reward'. But Abraham said, 'O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus.' Abraham said, 'you have given me no children so a servant in my household will become my heir. And then the word of the Lord came to Abraham, 'this man will not be your heir but a son who comes from your own body will be your heir' and God took Abraham outside of the tent and said, 'look up at the heavens and count the stars if indeed you can count them' and then He said , 'so shall your offspring be. And Abraham believed the Lord and God credited it to him as righteousness. And God also said to him, 'I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.' But Abraham said, 'O Sovereign Lord how can I know that I will gain possession of it? So the Lord said to him, 'bring me a heifer and a goat and a ram, each three years old along with a dove and a young pigeon'. Abraham did that he brought all of those things and cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other. The birds however he did not cut in half. And then the birds of prey came down on the carcasses but Abraham drove them away and as the sun was setting Abraham fell into a deep sleep and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him and then the Lord said to him, 'know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and they will be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years but I will punish the nation they serve as slaves and afterwards they will come out with great possessions. You however will go to your father's in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. And when the sun had set and the darkness had fallen, the smoking fire pot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham and said, "To your descendants I give this land. From the river of Egypt to the river of the Euphrates. The land of the Kenites and the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites and the Rephaites and Amorites and Canaanites and the Girgashites and the Jebushites. This was a serious promise, who would have ever had expected that is would involve battle after battle after battle after battle. IT'S TIME So let's go from that promise of God to Abraham centuries before into the midst of the taking of the Promised Land. Israel, under the leadership of Joshua, crossed over, they fought battle after battle, they'd taken Jericho and city after city has fallen before them. Why? Because that's what God promised and we're going to pick up the story in Joshua chapter 18, they're not quite half way through taking this Promised Land. There are twelve tribes in Israel, five tribes have their land and seven are left to go, seven have yet to get their Promised Land. It must have seemed like an eternity. You know when you face battle after battle, we're tempted to pull over and stop, to take a breather that kind of turns into a lunch break that turns into a holiday that turns into long service leave and before you know it we haven't got what it takes to keep going again. I tell you, in my life in this ministry Christianityworks, I've been involved now for just on three years and the call on my heart as I took over to start producing radio programs again we weren't on any stations three years ago and today we're on over seven hundred stations in eighty countries around the world. I have to tell you it was hard work, battle after battle after battle. Sometimes there were not enough funds and people said they'd help but then they realised how hard it was to do this work and they just didn't deliver and they fell by the wayside. And people criticised and people didn't understand, you know what I'm talking about and you get tired, you get exhausted. It would have been so easy just to pull up, to slow down, to give up, what a temptation. And yet there was this promise of God in my heart that He'd called me to do this. But we're all tempted to give up half way. You know the only reason I haven't is because along the way I've had some great teaching on this subject from a wonderful teacher called Joyce Meyer and there was just one message and God wrote this stuff on my heart, 'to keep going' and that's my prayer for you today, just this one message that in these few moments we spend together that He will write His word on your heart to keep on pressing forward into the promises of God. Whether we're struggling with fear or sin or addiction or a tough relationship and we hear about Gods promises so we set out on that journey of faith but after a while, oh it's hard work and there is opposition and there are battles and we want to give up, you know what I mean. In fact my hunch is you know exactly what I mean. And it was the same with Israel, they were almost half way into taking the Promised Land, if you've got a Bible open it up, lets listen to Joshua chapter 18. The whole assembly of the Israelites gathered at Shiloh and set up there the Tent of the Meeting. The country was subdued before them but there were still seven Israelite tribes who had not yet received their inheritance. So Joshua said to the Israelites, 'how long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers has given you. Appoint three men from each tribe, I will send them out to make a survey of the land to write a description of it according to the inheritance of each then you will return to me. You are to divide the land into seven parts. Judah is to remain in its territory on the south and the House of Joseph in it's territory on the north. After you have written the descriptions of the seven parts of the land bring them here to me and I will cast lots for you in the presence of the Lord. The Levites however do not get a portion among you because the priestly service of the Lord is their inheritance and Gad and Rueben and the half tribe of Manassah have already received their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan, Moses the servant of the Lord gave it to them. As the men started on their way to map out the land Joshua instructed them, 'go and make a survey of the land, write a description of it then return to me and I will cast lots for you here at Shiloh in the presence of the Lord'. So the men left, they went through the land, they wrote its description on a scroll, town by town, in seven parts and returned to Joshua in the camp of Shiloh. Joshua then cast lots for them in Shiloh in the presence of the Lord and there he distributed the land to the Israelites according to their tribal divisions. I love this passage because they're almost half way through and it begins by saying, "the whole land, the whole country was subdued before them". See so much of the work had already been done , God had done so many things, they were so far down the track and sometimes when we're tired of the battle after battle we lose sight of how far we've come. We look back and then, then we see the mighty hand of God at work in the victories. Isn't it the same in our lives? You get tired and you think, "argh Lord this is too hard". It's time to just take a quick look back and see all the mighty things that God has done in our lives. I get such great courage from just looking back, even over these last three years in the ministry of Christianityworks and I think, "man, look at what God has done." And once they've looked back Joshua asks the sixty four million dollar question. Joshua said to the Israelites: How long will you wait before you take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers has already given you? How long will you wait? See you're almost half way there. You take a breather, you pull over, you stop, you get set in your ways, you can't go any further, you lose heart, what are you people doing, how long will you wait? What came next? There was work to be done. They sent the men out, they looked forward, they divided up the land into seven portions. See God always, ALWAYS involves us in what's going on, He never lets us become spiritual couch potatoes, He sent three men from each tribe out to survey the land, to record the land and to choose the seven divisions. And next they came back to Joshua and in the presence of the Lord Joshua cast lots. Really what Joshua was saying there is, "we're going to leave this up to God, we've got some work to do but God is in charge. We're going to cast lots for this land between the seven tribes in front of God and we will let God choose through the lots who gets what land." See there's a message for us here. If we're a people thats pressing forward into the promises of God don't stop, don't pull over, don't give up. If it's a tough relationship that you've been praying over and the Lords has been leading you to do good things, to serve and to support, to humble yourself and you're tired and you want to take a breather and you think, "augh, it's just not going to happen" and get to thinking, "this isn't working, it's not going anywhere, it's time to give up". Or God's called you to something, a ministry or a job or whatever it is that somehow, as you look back you can see all the good things He's done. But the promises seem like such a long way off. Whatever the situation, how long will you hang around here before you take the land that God has already given to you. Come on! Get up and do the things you know you have to do, do them under God and, and what? Do you think God is going to fail you? Do you think God is just leading you up the garden path? Do you think that God has put you up the creek in a barbed wire canoe without a paddle? Are His promises faithful, are they worth following, are they worth it? THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD Well are the promises of God real? In a sense in theory we can all answer, "sure, I mean if God is God and He makes a promise then it has to be real". But you know something, the theory and the reality can be two different things. I shared a little before about the battles over the last three years that I've travelled through in taking this ministry from, I guess, pretty much nothing to reaching millions of people each week. Now I don't want any of that to seem remarkable because it's nothing that we did, God opened door after door and performed miracle after miracle to do that and it's what God's called me to do, He's called you to something different. So let's not compare as I share my story, hear what God is saying to you today about your story. Now I'm someone who knows the theory of God's promises as well as anyone. I mean a big part of my job is to study God's Word to put together these programs. So I'm "in the theory" if you like all the time but the reality has been that it's been lots of hard work and there have been disappointments and setbacks. And one of the hardest things has been often the people closest to us, people in our own Church, who haven't understood what we do or supported us or encouraged us, there's so many times the finances looked critical. It's still something that happens now and I find myself thinking, "why is it that the people in our own Church don't even support us?" Or one station where we've had a huge audience for a number of years was talking about taking our program off air and we've had to pray and pray and pray and then finally see God's victory. And sometimes I think, "God why can't it be easier than this? God why does there have to be so many battles along the way?" And you know what Gods answer has been to me, so that you my child would discover my faithfulness for yourself. See God wants us to experience his faithfulness, not in theory but in practice and you know something, I know so much more today about the faithfulness of God than ever have simply by travelling through battle after battle and seeing the victories that God has brought along the way. And there is such an intense satisfaction as I look back on that and I can truly say, "yes Lord, it's been hard work but all the glory goes to you and not to me because I could never have done this". The Book of Joshua that we've been travelling through these last weeks is about Israel's battles on the journey of taking the Promised Land. And when finally all the land is taken and allocated to all the tribes have a listen to what God's Word says, if you've got a Bible open it at Joshua chapter 21 beginning at verse 43. So the Lord gave Israel all the land that He had sworn to give their forefathers and they took possession of it and settled there and the Lord gave them rest on every side just as He had sworn to their forefathers, not one of their enemies withstood them, the Lord handed all their enemies over to them, not one of all the Lord's good promises to the House of Israel failed, every one was fulfilled. WOW! Let's just let that sink in for a minute. Not one of all the Lords good promises to the House of Israel failed, every one was fulfilled. When God makes a promise he never ever fails to deliver. When Jesus promised that He came that we would have life in all its abundance, that is a promise of God and it's a promise He intends to keep in your life and in mine. And as we travel through battle after battle and hang close to Him and just let those promises of God glow in our hearts and we hang on to them through this spiritual battlefield the devil comes after you with a meat cleaver and you fail some days and you stumble and you remember Jesus on that cross, you remember He purchased that life for you, we can know in our hearts that now, now it's time to take the Promised Land. And not one of all the Lord's good promises to you or to me will fail; every one of them will be fulfilled. It is time to take the Promised Land.
You know something – you and I can read about and listen to the promises of God until the cows come home. But eventually, eventually the day comes when we have to cross over into the promised land. Eventually the day comes for us to lay hold of God's promises and live in them. Sending Spies into the Land We've been talking the last couple of weeks about taking hold of God's wonderful and outrageous promises in our lives. It's not easy sometimes; it seems that we face uphill battle after uphill battle. And we're left wondering is this really what God's promises are all about? But my hunch is that when God makes promises he means us to believe them and to press through those battles like we believe them. A bit like Joshua: when he was about to lead the people of Israel into the Promised Land after centuries of slavery in Egypt and 40 years wondering through the desert, he was standing on the banks of the Jordan river, ready to cross over into that promised land. As we've seen over the last couple of weeks, God told Joshua that there would be lots and lots of battles. But he also reminded Joshua that this was the Promised Land and then, then Joshua did something that's bothered me for a long time. He sent some spies across the Jordan to check out this so called Promised Land. And you see here's the dilemma for me: on the one hand we're supposed to trust God. Without faith it's impossible to please God, right? And look at what God said to Joshua about the battles that they were going to face when they headed into the Promised Land. You can read this: grab a Bible and open it up, Joshua chapter 1, beginning of verse 5 this is what God says, he says: No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you or forsake you so be strong and courageous because you will lead these people to inherit the land that I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and courageous, don't be terrified, don't be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Isn't that just the most awesome promise from God? And when you get a promise from God like that, that's serious stuff. God is calling Joshua into a difficult place but encouraging him with his promises. And Joshua had a decision to make: to step across the Jordan, to head down the path that God had called him to and encounter battles one after the other, trusting in God, battling his way through to keep going. And it's exactly the same for us. When we step forward into the promises of God we're going to encounter battles. So Joshua gets this amazing promise from God but look at what he does. He hears the promises of God but before he heads off, before he crosses the Jordan to go into the Promised Land, he sends some spies across to check it all out. To go to the very first city that they were going to have a battle with which was the city of Jericho. Read it: in Joshua chapter 2, beginning of verse 1: Then Joshua secretly sent two spies into the land telling them: go and look over the land, especially in Jericho. So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there. Can I ask you a question? Is that really trusting God? God promises you the land, he promises you that he's going to be with you, he promises you that no one will be able to stand against you. And then, it's almost like Joshua doesn't trust him: he sends out spies into the land and they go and stay with a prostitute. Now the rest of the story is, we're not going to read it now, is that they check out the land. The king finds out and comes to try and kill them and Rahab the prostitute helps them to flee and they promise to keep her and her family safe when they come against Jericho. And when they came back to Joshua on the other side of the Jordan this is what they said, "The Lord has surely given the whole land into our hands. All the people are melting in fear because of us." Now this has bothered me for a long time. Why did Joshua do that? Why didn't he just trust in God and go and take what God had promised him? And why is it that God didn't get upset with Joshua for sending the spies and checking it out for himself? Well they're all good questions and the answer came to me one day when I was reading a story centuries later in the New Testament. It was when the apostle Peter was in jail and the angel came and sprung him out of jail. The angel woke Peter up in the middle of the night and said, "Get up quickly", and the chains fell off. And the angel said to him, "Fasten your belt, put on your sandals", and Peter did. "Wrap your cloak around you' said the angel, "and follow me." And Peter did that and the gates swung open. You can read about it in Acts chapter 12, beginning over verse 6. Do you notice something about that? The angel didn't dress Peter because he could do that for himself. The angel didn't put his sandals or his belt or his cloak on, the angel didn't get him to stand up; Peter did those things for himself because he could. What the angel did were the miracles that Peter himself couldn't do. The angel did the miracle of causing the chains to fall off him; the angel did the miracle of flinging the gates open. Now for me, I'm a doer: I plan and execute and achieve. I've been like that all my life. I go and get it. I'm a Type A personality. And the struggle for me is when God comes along and promises me all these things that for my whole life have eluded me: relationships and peace and joy and a quiet, calm delight. The promised land of God. I've a choice either to try and do this in my own strength, well that would never work, or I let God have the driver's seat and let him be in control and follow after him in faith. It's obviously the latter but you know something? We can say I'm not going to do anything and we become spiritual couch potatoes doing that. But God calls us to do our bit too. Joshua receives the promises of God and then he sends spies ahead into the land. Why? Because any good military operation always does its forward reconnaissance to see what's out there to plan ahead. And there's an important principle here: Joshua receives the promises of God. He had to cross over into that land to do the things that he could do and should do to plan and to look ahead and to organise the people and the armies and to get them through and then rely on the miracles that God could only do. Jericho was a fortified city, Jericho was impregnable but when they crossed over into the land God said to them march around for seven days blowing your horns and the walls will fall down. And sure enough, that's what they did; that's exactly what happened. God did the miracle. The problem with us is we receive the promises of God and then we kind of expect it all to go smoothly. We expect God to put everything on autopilot and we never want to think ahead or do the forward reconnaissance to look at what's likely to happen. There are obstacles, there are battles and you know as we follow after the promises of God the enemy and the world are going to come against us. And we need to get our minds around those things, in a sense we need to think forward and look forward and plan to know what to expect. To use the brains that God has given us and then to rely on the miracles that he is going to do along the way to do the things that we can't do to get us into that Promised Land. My Way or the Highway Now most of us like to be in control of our lives but at the same time we like to experience the promises of God. Problem is, those two don't always go together. It turns out that there's only one way into God's Promised Land. Joshua sent those spies and they came back with a good report. I want to have a look now at how Joshua led his people through the Jordan and crossed over into the Promised Land. See, we have to take the Promised Land just like Joshua and the Israelites. God doesn't deliver it like a pizza; it's there to be taken. Now I have a confession to make: I used to be a very much my way or the high way kind of guy. And every now and then that attitude still raises its ugly head. So it was a major thing for me to hand my life over to God. Not just kind of to believe in Jesus from a distance but to live my life for him, to truly call him the Lord of my life. There's a big difference and what I've discovered is that on the one hand you have to give up some things if you want Jesus to be the Lord of your life but on the other I can do so much more because instead of having to do everything in my own strength. He shows up and does miracle and after miracle in every department of my life and I look back on that journey and think wow I could never have done those things. But our natural instinct is to do things our way, to be in charge and in control and that problem is that that job belongs to God. And anyway, it's hard work. So what is it? What do we have to do to make Jesus the Lord of our lives? We've been looking at these last few weeks at taking hold of the promises of God, taking the Promised Land. Joshua leading Israel into the Promised Land after centuries of slavery in Egypt and 40 years wondering through the desert on the exodus. And this book of Joshua recalls the history. You go back to the promises of God and God promises to Abraham that he would give the descendents of Abraham this Promised Land. And God comes to Joshua when he's about to lead Abraham's descendents into the Promised Land and he says, "Everywhere where your foot will tread, I have already given to you." So Joshua, as we saw before the break, sent some spies across to check it out. He did the normal military thing that you'd expect any commander to do. Now, now comes time to cross over the Jordan River. They're going to have so many battles when they get there. Cities and nations who don't want them to have the Promised Lands. So it was so easy for Joshua to say, "Well, I'm in charge here, it's my way or this high way." But what Joshua did next, well there are some pretty amazing things that he did, four things in all. And it tells us who Joshua thought was really in charge. The first is he sent his officers through the camp to tell his people this, "When you see the arc of the covenant of the Lord your God being carried by the priests, then you shall set out from your place. Follow it so that you may know where you should go for you have not passed this way before." You can read that in Joshua chapter 3, beginning of verse 3. See, this whole nation of Israel was about to cross over into the Promised Land, who did Joshua put at the head of the nation? Was it Joshua? It was the arc of the covenant, the symbol of their relationship with God, the place where the presence of God rested. For Joshua God was at the head of the nation. And then there was another thing they did. You can go to Joshua chapter 4, beginning of verse 4. So Joshua called together the 12 men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each of the twelve tribes. And he said to them, ‘Go before the arc of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder according to the number of tribes of the Israelites. To serve as a sign among you. In the future when your children ask "What do these stones mean?" Tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the arc of the covenant of the Lord. See, Joshua got them to pick up these stones and on the other side of the Jordan River they built a monument honouring God. And what that monument was all about was saying: he did this, God did this, God achieved this. This is about recognising God's goodness for generations to come. It's about honouring God first. And then you think right, we must definitely be ready now to cross over into the Promised Land. Now this next bit is going to seem bizarre to us and even in their context it must have been a big call. Joshua decided to circumcise all the men in the nation because circumcision was a sign, an outward sign, of the covenant relationship between God and his people. Abraham did it to all his household and all Israelite males under the law of the Jews should be circumcised on the eighth day, it's part of their law. It's a symbol of the relationship between God and Israel and on the exodus in the desert between Egypt and the Promised Land for 40 years they hadn't been doing that. So it was time to set things right between God and his people. God said make flint knives and circumcise them. Makes me wince, my eyes water. They're ready to go, they're ready to cross over into the Promised Land. They must all have been there with such anticipation and Joshua says, "Woah, stop! Got a great idea! We're going to have a circumcision. All the males"' And not only did they circumcise all the males, they then had to wait there for several days for them all to heal. This was about getting the nation of Israel right before God in their relationship. And fourthly, before they went. Can you imagine this huge logistical operation of crossing over into the Promised Land? It was the time of the Passover, the time when they remembered back 40 years to when God had taken them out of slavery in Egypt. To the time when the angel of death passed over and killed all of the first born in the land of Egypt except for the Israelites because they killed the lamb and put the blood on the top of their doors and the angel of death passed over them. It was time to celebrate the Passover, to remember how 40 years before God had taken them out of Egypt. To look back and remember God's goodness. And see the four things that Joshua did? He put God at the head of the procession. He built an alter, a monument to God that would be remembered for generations. He got the nation right before God by circumcising all the males and then he celebrated the Passover to honour God. Sure, we want to cross over in the Promised Land just like the Israelites did but what this is saying to us is that God comes first. The arc goes first, we follow him, we take his lead. We put a marker here in faith to remember for generations to come what God's done. We get right before God, we honour God for what he's done. See here's the crunch: there's this huge promise ahead of them but they were going to take hold of that promise not in their own strength but honouring God first. It's not my way or the high way, it's God's way. Whatever the circumstances, whatever the outcome, his way and it's the same for us today. So many people believe in Jesus and they want to lay hold of the promises of God for their lives but they want to do it their own way. Jesus is Lord, we sing. Really? Then let's do it his way. No little compromises, no little shortcuts, no "I'll forget about him and not pray today", no "Oh well, I don't have to read his word the Bible today." Wake up! God's promises only happen one way, his way and Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life." This radical, edgy saviour. Not into pampering himself; he was into going out there and following God. The Promises of God I truly believe that the promises of God are for each one of us. Now let me share a part of my story with you because I'm sharing this not from a textbook but from a changed life. Twelve years ago my life was an incredible mess, I can't tell you the dysfunction and pain. Now that stuff happens to us. I'm not some kind of loser; I was a competent, successful businessman with all the trappings of wealth and success but inside, inside I was an incredible mess. And when you're in that place the promises of God seem to be, well, so difficult to accept. When God records in John chapter 10, verse 10 what Jesus said: The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy but I have come that you may have life and have it in all of its abundance. Literally superabundantly. Boy that can be hard to take when you feel down and out. When you think of Joshua there on the banks of Jordan, he really was on the threshold of a promise made to Abraham centuries before. And from Abraham the nation of Israel grew and they were in slavery and they were part of God's miraculous escape plan as Moses led them through the red sea and then 40 years in the desert. And now, here they are and Moses has just died. How impossible must it have seemed to Joshua when God spoke to him on the banks of the Jordan and said, "I have given you every place where you will set your foot as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to the Lebanon and from the great river Euphrates through all the Hittites country to the great see of the west. No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life because as I was with Moses so I will be with you. I will never leave you or forsake you." You know what our problem is? Sometimes when we look at God's promises and then we look at our circumstances, in our hearts we let our circumstances win every time. Because that's what we can see and it's the circumstances and the difficulties and the obstacles that fill our vision. Today I just want to say that God wants to remind us of what Joshua did. It was a step of faith against impossible odds. Moses was dead, all those people and nations and kings and armies were in this so called Promised Land. Jericho was fortified and Joshua sent some spies in the land to check it out. And they came back with a rosy report despite the fortifications around Jericho and he mobilised his people and he crossed over. But not only his own strength but by honouring God, by putting God first. You know something? I think it's time for us to do the same. No matter what circumstances we face, no matter how big the obstacles, no matter how big the fortifications of our enemies or how powerful they appear, I believe with all that I am that Jesus died so that we could live in the Promised Land, the kingdom of God, in a dynamic and vital relationship with him. And it's time to count the cost, to look at what that means, to send a spine to that land in a sense by opening up God's word and reading those promises for ourselves. Because there is a cost, we need to read about that cost. The things that we might have to give up, the sin in our lives that we have to lay down in order to realise the promises of God and then stepping out in faith. Just start honouring God, even when it's a mess, even when things aren't going well, even when it all looks impossible. Just as Joshua and the nation of Israel did, to start honouring God. Put him first in everything, draw close to him in prayer, in Bible reading, in the way that we live our lives. Come on, honouring him with all that we are and all that we have and with every hope and with every dream just laying that down before him. Just believing in faith that his kingdom will come and that as we simply walk in faith, putting him first, he'll step into those battles for us and with us and win them for us. And before we know it, before we know it, we'll look back and say, "Wow, look at what God's done, I really am in the Promised Land." What do you think? Where are you in your life? What are the battles that lay before you? Is it time to take your eyes off the battles and set them firmly on God and believe his promises and honour him and step forward in faith into his Promised Land?
Have you ever been standing on the threshold of something good – perhaps one of God's promises – and all of a sudden it's as though everything starts to go wrong? On the Threshold Have you ever stood on the threshold of something good, I mean something really good, something fantastic? Maybe it's the promise of a promotion, or the promise of a pay increase, or you've just fallen pregnant or your wife has and in the not too many months, there's going to be this new life in your family, or a great holiday, or a new home, or peace where there was conflict and you stand there and you think, "This is going to be faaaannntastic. I just can't wait". And then all of a sudden, it's like all hell breaks loose. Everything and everyone kind of comes after you with a pickaxe; at work and at home, in your heart and in your head, there's turmoil. And you think, "Hang on a minute. I'm about to step over into this Promised Land and well, it's supposed to be fantastic. What is going on?" We've all been there, right? So has God and today we are going to look at His specific Word that He wants to speak right into that. This week on the programme, we are going to look at this ‘Promised Land' thing. And the Promised Land was born when God promised a land to Abraham, the father of Israel, and centuries later Israel crossed over into that Promised Land. It started with this beautiful promise to Abraham that we looked at last week. If you have a Bible, grab it, open it up at Genesis chapter 13, beginning at verse 14. This is what it says: The Lord said to Abraham, after Lot had separated from him, ‘Lift up your eyes now and look from the place where you are, to the north and the south and the east and the west, all the land that you see, I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can count the dust of the earth, your offspring will also be able to be counted. Get up, walk the length and the breadth of this land for I will give it to you'. So Abraham moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which is at Hebron and there he built an altar to the Lord. What a stunning promise! What an incredible promise! What an impossible promise! See, Abraham was an old man and he and his wife Sarah hadn't had any children and from that promise began a long and winding road for the nation of Israel. Centuries later they travelled through the exodus, they went through this desert and they'd gone on this long journey. And Israel ultimately is about to cross over into the Promised Land and all of a sudden their leader Moses, whom God used to set them free out of slavery from Egypt; to go through the Red Sea; that amazing miracle, to guide them through the desert for forty years – all of a sudden Moses, their leader dies. And God comes along to his successor, Joshua, with some godly advice – more than advice, admonition. Now we are going to have a look at that today. It's in Joshua chapter 1, beginning at verse 1. This is what God said: After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, son of Nun, Moses' assistant, ‘Moses, My servant is dead. Now then you and all these people, get ready to cross over the Jordan River into the land that I am about to give to them, the Israelites. I have given you every place where you will set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to the Lebanon, from the great river, the Euphrates, all the Hittite country to the great sea on the west and no one, no one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead this people to inherit the land that I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong; very courageous. Be careful to obey all My law that the servant Moses gave you. Don't turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let the Book of this Law depart from your mouth but meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything that's written in it, then you will be prosperous and successful. Haven't I commanded you, Be strong and courageous? Don't be terrified; don't be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.' Just think about it. They have been on this long journey for forty years, the exodus in the desert and they are about to cross over into the Promised Land and Moses dies. Oh, fantastic! What lousy timing. They had this tried and proven leader and he is gone, and so the reins get handed over to Joshua, his assistant and God repeats the promise that He made to Abram and that He made to Moses; He repeats that promise to Joshua: "I have given you this land - I have promised this land to you and no one will be able to stand against you." Oh, that's not good; that's not good at all. If God has to promise you that no one is going to stand against you. All these different tribes and nations that are already in the land; they're not going to invite Israel in to take their land. They are not going to say, "Oh, God said you could have it, well sure, go ahead, take all our land." Not likely! Israel is in for a bunch of battles and then God says: "I will never leave you or forsake you." This is not looking good. God says: "Be strong and courageous," and again, He says: ‘Be strong and very courageous.' And a third time in that passage we just read, He says: "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged." Now you are Joshua, you were there forty years ago, on the other side of the Red Sea. You saw the miracle when Moses lifted his staff and the Red Sea parted and Israel passed through and all of a sudden Pharaoh's army tried to chase them and the sea came together again and Pharaoh's army was drowned. You were there. The euphoria of God's amazing miracle. You've spent forty years in the desert and you think, "surely it must be over by now. We are just days away from crossing over into this Promised Land, from realising the promise that God made to Abram centuries before". And now God's setting you up; preparing you for a tough time. He talking about battles and wars and being strong and courageous. This is life and death stuff. Is that what you expected of the Promised Land after all this time? That's why I've called this series of programmes, "It Time to Take the Promised Land" because it doesn't get delivered to your front door like a pizza. God's promise of a land flowing with milk and honey is accompanied by God's reality - battles along the way. You have to take the Promised Land. And it's the same today. You know what I've noticed? The rest of the world doesn't want me to have God's peace and joy. The rest of the world doesn't want me to live in God's promises. The devil wants to spoil God's plan for my life and every time God is about to do something amazing in my life, all hell seems to break loose. The devil just doesn't want me to have the Promised Land. Now Joshua could have sat up on his side of the Jordan River, heard what God was saying about not getting discouraged and about the battles and thought, ‘No, I'm outa here', but he didn't. He believed in God‘s promise and he crossed over and he went about taking the Promised Land. He knew it was time to take the Promised Land. Courage in the Promises Well, here they are. They are standing on the threshold of the Promised Land after forty years in the desert and all the trials, after the nation being in slavery in Egypt. Centuries before, God had promised to Abraham this Promised Land and they are standing on the Jordan and they are looking over the Jordan and what they see is this so-called Promised Land but there are all these people and tribes and kings and fortified cities and armies. On the one hand, they believe in God's promise, but on the other hand, they're looking at this reality. God calls us into His Promised Land here and now, today. There are promises all through the Bible about our relationship with God. Jesus said in John chapter 10, verse 10: The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy but I have come that you may have life in all its abundance. That's a promise! Jesus wants us to have an abundant life. He said: The Kingdom of God is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again and then in his joy, he went and sold all that he had and he bought that field. Again Jesus said in Matthew chapter 13: The Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant who is looking for fine pearls when he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and he bought it. Do you get the picture? When we give our lives to Jesus, lock stock and barrel, He invites us into a land of promise and He is saying that this land of promise; the Kingdom of God, it's like … it's like a treasure – that's what it is meant to be like. And the promises are so different to what the world promises. Not a physical land or physical wealth or all that other stuff but a Promised Land that is quite different. In Luke chapter 17, verse 20, Jesus put it this way: Once having been ask by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus said, ‘The Kingdom of God doesn't come because of your careful observation nor will people say, ‘Here it is,' or ‘There it is,' because the Kingdom of God is within you.' The Promised Land isn't something out ‘there' – it's not a new house or a new car or all that stuff. The Promised Land; the Kingdom of God is in our hearts. And so often we feel like Joshua standing on the threshold, looking back and then looking forward, wanting to believe in the promises of God but … they are so hard to believe-in some days aren't they? I'm going to talk right now about taking courage in the promises of God. This is so important because we normally focus on the things that we can see – all the problems and the obstacles that are in front of us. But God calls us to set our eyes on the things that are above; to set our eyes on heavenly things. Look again at what God said to Joshua about this Promised Land. Joshua, chapter 1, verse 3: I have given to you every place where you will set your foot as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to the Lebanon, from the great river, the Euphrates, through all the Hittite country to the great sea on the west. No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you or forsake you. Isn't it interesting, he uses the past tense; actually the Hebrew perfect tense. He says, "Every place where you will set your foot as I promised Moses, I have already given you." It's a done deal! As far as God was concerned, the Promised Land was absolutely a done deal. It was given and when God gives, who can block that? That's God's perspective, even though our perspective is all about the things that we can see – the obstacles and the enemies and the fears and the broken relationships and the people who are bugging us who are never going to change. I tell you, when I became a Christian twelve years ago, I had so much dysfunction in my life, I can't begin to tell you. And through that passage in John chapter 10, verse 10, where Jesus said: I have come that you may have life in all its abundance. I just let Him write that on my heart. Jesus wants you and me to have an abundant life. And if I looked at me and my life and the predicaments I was in, I had no right to believe that promise from Jesus! But the Holy Spirit takes His Word and He writes it on our hearts and He gifted me to lift my eyes to look at heavenly things. I believed so imperfectly, going through some things, I was so afraid some days and so lonely some days. But at the end of the day, what Jesus did on the cross for you and me was to remove all sin, all of the reproach of the past, and open the door to an abundant, outrageous, wonderful relationship with God. It's a done deal! It's past. It's completed. The abundant life has been purchased for you and me. And it's now time to walk in it. And the point of what God said to Joshua was there will be battles: I have given you every place where you will set your foot as I promised Moses. No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you or forsake you. See, the promise is a done deal. When people come against us, they won't be able to stand against us and rob us of the promises of God. And God will never leave us or forsake us. It's a completely different way of looking at things. Instead of looking at the problems, we look at the promises. It's completely different. And for me in my life, over these last twelve years, in every day, here and now, where I get my courage is in the promises of God, because when God promises something, nobody can take that away. And the focus of that promise; our relationship with Him, the Kingdom of God, the peace and the joy that flows from that, is where it's all at. All that other stuff - that will come and go – relationships and health and money – they're all temporary. What will last forever is our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Joshua literally means "God saves" and that's the same name that Jesus had, (Joshua was His actual Hebrew name), to lead us into the Promised Land and it is an act of faith to take courage in the promises of God. And we can do that because they're a done deal. Prospering in God's Word Now, God is expecting some stiff opposition for Joshua and his people when they cross over the Jordan to take the Promised Land. Remember we looked at that passage, Joshua chapter 1, verse 1 and the following verses. And three times – there is Joshua with all that he has been through, standing on the banks of the Jordan ready to cross over into the Promised Land – and three times God says to him; "Be strong and courageous", "Be strong and very courageous", "Be strong and courageous, do not be terrified, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go". I always a worry a little bit when God tell us "not to be terrified", you think, "Uh, oh, this is not going to be pleasant." That's often the way as we decide to lay hold of God's promises in our hearts. Things so often get a whole bunch worse before they get better. Jesus said: Peace, My peace I leave with you - My peace I give to you. Yeah man, that's what I want; that's God's peace; that's God's promise, I want that promise. Jesus promised that to His disciples just before He was about to be crucified at a dangerous and fearful time where there would be pain and loss and fear for their own lives. So He explains what He is on about. He says this: My peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I don't give it to you the way the world does. Don't let your hearts be troubled and don't let them be afraid. (John 14:27) We often have to deal with obstacles and fear to lay hold of the promises of God in our lives, I do, you do, we all do. And it's at those times that we grow, when we understand that that's the reality and that the promises of God stand amidst all the obstacles, all the uncertainty, all the things we look at and think, "I can never get through those on my own." That's the whole purpose of God's promises. So what's our part of this? Well, let's see what God said to Joshua. He said: Be careful to obey the law that My servant Moses gave you. Don't turn from it to the right or the left, that you might be successful wherever you go. Do not let the Book of this Law depart from your mouth, instead meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything that is written in it, then you will be prosperous and successful. See, God was saying to him, "You know where it's at. Let My Word come to life in your heart. Don't forget about it. Don't let it depart from your mouth". In other words, "don't let it leave your mouth permanently; instead meditate on it day and night. Do what it says and then you will be prosperous and successful." Meditate so that it becomes part of you, so that you start living your life My way, says God, then you'll be prosperous; then you'll be successful. You know, I know so many Christians who own a Bible. "Well, it's somewhere, I think. It's up in the cupboard or maybe it's at the bedside table or gathering dust somewhere." I want to tell you something about the Word of God. I would be a nervous wreck by now if I didn't spend time in God‘s Word every day. I'm in the front line of ministry, my job is leading people into the Promised Land through what I am doing right now, through these programmes; helping people to take a hold of God's promises and the devil is not happy about that. The world is not always happy about that, even other Christians sometimes, they don't always understand. And here we are, my wife and I and the team here at Christianityworks, in a ministry that's building and growing. Three years ago I started recording our first radio programmes. I didn't have a single radio station who had committed to airing them. Nothing. Just this call from God in my heart – a promise from Him written on my heart by His Holy Spirit. And today, just three years later, these programmes are being heard on seven hundred stations in eighty countries. There are millions of people listening. Now you might think, "WOW, that's fantastic; that's great," and it is. But do you have any idea how many trials, how many battles, how much opposition, the lack of funds, the uncertainty – any idea how hard that was along the way, and some days continues to be? We all have to go through this stuff in our lives. Whatever story and plan God has written for our lives. Yours is going to be different to mine. But as we step out into the Promised Land, into what God has called us to do, we are going to go through some stuff. And we will have a temptation to do it in our own strength or to give up or to compromise here and there. And the promise of God was, "Josh, get My Word into your heart. Meditate on it day and night; soak it in; let it never, ever depart from you and you will be prosperous and successful in what I've called you to do." In other words, do it God's way and not our own way. See, in His Word God reminds us of His promises and the Holy Spirit comes and writes them into our hearts in a way that we never could. What soldier would walk onto a battlefield without a weapon? The Apostle Paul, when he was talking about the armour of God in Ephesians chapter 6 says: The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. So many Christians walk out onto that spiritual battlefield and they leave God's Word, the sword of the Spirit, in the cupboard and wonder why they suffer defeat after defeat. That's nuts! God's promises are a done deal. People will come against us and they won't be able to stand against us. God said: I will never leave you or forsake you. And when we meditate on God's Word, when we let it become part of us, when we live it out through faith, that's when His success and His prosperity show up.
You know – God is full of promises. Amazing promises. But so often – it's hard to see how those promises fit into the reality of our lives – here and now. Promises, Promises, Promises Well, I am really excited because we're starting a new series this week called, "It's Time to Take the Promised Land". What sort of a series title is that? "It's Time to Take the Promised Land". Well, here's my hunch. We live in a world that promises so much: A world of brands and products and experiences and travel and luxury – a world that promises so much. Marketers talk about the brand promise. For example, here's my favourite. On TV, the advertisements for margarine or breakfast cereal or low-fat milk. Right? Have you ever noticed them? Here's what they look like. Here's the setting. It's a kind of trendy, today kind of kitchen and the sun's always streaming in through the windows. It's never raining; it's always sunny. Mum's smiling as she prepares breakfast. She's slim and happy and well-adjusted, and this well-adjusted teenager bounds in smiling and spreads margarine on their bread or pours the milk on their cereal or whatever, and then ... Then this cool-looking forty-something dad strolls in, and he is good-looking, and then he grabs a piece of toast and kisses his wife before he reads the newspaper. This is the sort of family and breakfast that most people would like to have, but the reality ... Well, the reality's a bit different to that ad. I mean, the reality is that there are millions of people watching that ad who don't know where their next meal's coming from. The reality is that a lot of the people watching that ad, their families and marriages are falling apart. The reality is, even if they aren't, they're bringing up teenagers and that's tough and there's dysfunction. The reality is, most people's families and kitchens and lives look nothing like those glossy images on the ad. Images selling margarine or cereal or milk, making a brand promise that if you buy this product ... well ... this is what your life will look like. You look at that in the cold, hard light of day, and it's absolutely nuts. Right? I mean, it's crazy to try to link a margarine to a well-adjusted family. New car ads are the same. They're always out on the open road; there's only ever that one car on the road, and the brand promise is if you buy me, you'll have the freedom to roam. Isn't it funny how the car ads never have someone stuck in peak-hour traffic, ever? See, there are so many things in this world that hold out a promise that they can't deliver. On the one hand, we want to live out those images of success the marketers kind of dangle under our noses. On the other, we so often ... well ... we never do. We never quite get there. It never quite works the way that the advert says it will, and that's the psychology of marketing. You create an image that creates desire, and the person sees the gap between the image and their reality, and so they spend money to buy that thing to buy the brand promise, and they discover it doesn't work, and so the marketers dish up the next image, and round and round and round we go, on this treadmill of broken promises. It makes our consumer economies go round, and here you and I are with this treadmill of broken promises, brands that never really deliver their brand promise, and God comes along with a promise. God makes lots of promises. "I'll be your God, and you will be My people, and I'll walk among you. I'll bless you and keep you and comfort you and guide you" ... Jesus said, "I have come that you may have life in all of its abundance." It's almost like God's painting this picture of a promised land – a land that's almost too good to be true – a land ... a life ... well, to you and me, it seems a bit like the kitchen and that family in the margarine ad. In the reality of our lives, the promises of God can be hard to swallow, especially when we're still on that treadmill of broken promises, going round and round and round ... In this day and age, God's promises are harder to accept than ever. Now ... now we're getting close to the heart of this new series, "It's Time to Take the Promised Land", because God is a God of promise, and brand Jesus is the one brand that actually delivers. God's plan is to lead you and me into His promised land – a land flowing with milk and honey, a land of blessing, but (here's the but) He involves us in that process and we have a part to play. The first step that we're going to talk about today in this whole thing of walking into God's promised land is accepting His promise in the first place; letting Him write that promise on our hearts, and believing it with all that we are; believing it with every fibre of our beings, with our very lives. You see, we can't have the promised land (we can't go there, we can't settle) unless first we believe it in our hearts. God is a God that calls us to faith, and faith means believing before we see it. Now we're going to talk about that very thing today because if we're going to talk about accepting the promises of God, you can't go there without talking about it: Faith. It's when we place our faith in Him. When we place our faith in His promises, then ... then He calls us on to cross over into that land, and to take the land. Now that's a shock and a surprise to me. We're going to be looking at that a bit over the coming weeks. It's really important that we understand the journey. God's promised land isn't like pizza delivery. You know, He doesn't ring the doorbell and deliver the promised land; God actually calls us out of the front door, to take a step of faith, and it can be a tough journey with battles all along the way. We're going to be looking through the book of Joshua over the coming few weeks in the Old Testament, because the book of Joshua is about the time that Israel crossed over into the promised land. They'd been in slavery in Egypt and then on the exodus for forty years, and the book of Joshua begins right on the threshold of the promised land, and they have an upfront decision to make. Do I really want God's promised land, really? And if I do, am I going to let Him write His promise on my heart, and carry it round with me through thick and thin – the bright sunny days, and the cold wet days? Well, today's programme is all about letting Him write His promise on our hearts, His plan for us to dwell in His promised land. As we're going round and round and round on that treadmill of broken promises, where many people have this empty unfulfilled life, we have a decision today to make. We can decide that it's time to step off that treadmill and to take the promised land. One Man's Promise So where does this term, "The promised land" come from? Well, it all begins when God promises some land to Abraham. Now God first engages with His people, Israel ultimately, through Abraham – the father of Israel. Abraham was living very comfortably indeed. He was quite wealthy, in a place called Ur, which is near Babylon or around modern-day Bagdad, and God calls him out of that place. If you have a Bible, grab it, and open it up at Genesis chapter 12. God calls him out of this place. This is what happens: Now the LORD said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your family and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. Incredible promise for Abram and Sarai, who were old. I mean, they were well into their seventies; they were childless, and there is a two-part blessing here, two-part promise: Land and children, but there in the comfort and the wealth, they believe God, so they step out. They up and leave all of that. They take their possessions and servants and animals, and they hit the road and head westward to a land called Canaan. Now, what happened when they got there? Well, we read about that in Genesis 12:6-8: When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time, the Canaanites were in the land. Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.' So Abram built an altar to the LORD who had appeared to him. Now just think about God's promise to this old man. Firstly, your descendants. The guy is seventy years old, and he and his wife have not been able to have children, but God promises him descendants. Not only descendants, but God says, "I will make you a great nation". Really? And, "I will give this land to your descendants". Imagine Abram. "But God, I'm in my seventies. I don't have any children. This land is occupied by the Canaanites". It was a pretty impossible promise, but right here, right in the middle of all this impossibility, the promised land is born. God promised it to Abram, yet Abram believed this promise with his life. How do we know that? Because he actually left his comfortable existence in Ur, and followed down the dusty trail of God's promise, over hill and dale, and he gets to this land of God's impossible promise – a land filled with Canaanites, who weren't about to say, "Well, yeah, sure, Abram. Take our land! We don't mind", and the childless Abram ... what does he do? He builds an altar to God. He honours God. He bows down and says, "Well, God, you know, even though this doesn't make a whole bunch of sense, I'm going to believe You", and God knows what's going on in Abram's heart. He takes him up a hill and makes the promise again. You can read it. Flick over to Genesis 13:14: The LORD said to Abram after Lot had separated from him, ‘Raise up your eyes now, and look from the place where you are: North and south and east and west, for all the land that you see I will give you, and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Rise up! Walk the length and the breadth of this land, for I will give it to you.' So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which were at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the LORD. I love how God lays out the land before Abram. Can you see that picture? They're on-top of the hill and God is speaking to Abram, who's thinking about this impossible promise, and little by little God is breathing this promised land into the man's heart. "Go and walk through it, as far as your eyes can see, and let Me make an outrageous promise," says God, "So many descendants you will have that they will be more than the grains of dust on the earth", and Abram built another altar and honoured God. See what's going on here? God is taking him through a process, a huge leap. He's an old man with no kids, and God is promising him a promised land full of his own descendants, and God's leading Abram gently into a place where he can believe. Like you and me, this guy's a man and he's human. He's struggling with it in his heart. We can read about it in Genesis chapter 15. Abram goes to God and says, ‘Look, I still don't have a son. I mean, this other man will have to be my heir. How's this promise ever going to happen?' Look at what God says and does (Genesis 15:4). God says: 'No, that man won't be your heir. No one but your very own son shall be your heir.' God took Abram outside and said, ‘Look towards the heavens and count the stars if you're able.' Then God said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be', and Abram believed the LORD and the LORD reckoned it unto him as righteousness.” What a beautiful picture! Abram is aching! He wants to believe in God's promises. He wants to believe in the land and descendants and mighty nations, but it's so hard. He just can't see how God could possibly deliver on this promise, so God takes him out to the stars – the Milky Weigh; this unbelievable sight, without the city lights and the smog. There are so many stars there, and finally the word of God, the promise of God, God's promised land drops into Abram's heart. Still he makes plenty of mistakes along the way. You can read about it in the next few chapters of Genesis, but the promised land is written on Abram's heart. Ultimately he has a son, Isaac. That's the only part of the promise he ever sees, and Isaac has a son called Jacob and Jacob has twelve sons, who are the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel. They ended up in slavery in Egypt and grew into a mighty nation and then Moses led them out through the Red Sea. And they experienced the desert, the exodus for forty years, and all of a sudden one day, this mighty nation of Israel was standing on the banks of the Jordan, ready to cross over into the promised land, but that took centuries to happen. We're going to look at that next week, but there on that night, under the stars alone with God, the promised land was written on Abram's heart, and he believed. God's Promise to Us I'm always so touched by the story of how God reaches out to Abraham. Sure; it's a story about Abraham, but Abraham's not Mr Perfecto Super-Christian. He's human; he's frail; he has struggles like you and me, and he struggles to believe in this outrageous promise from God. Then gently, and tenderly, the LORD leads him to believe in the promised land – this mighty nation. If you and I put ourselves in Abraham's shoes just for a minute, this old man, wouldn't we struggle too? Next week we're going to be starting in the book of Joshua and looking what it means to cross over into the promised land, and the battles involved in taking that promised land, and why God does it that way. I mean, this promised land was supposed to be flowing with milk and honey. Wouldn't you think you'd just arrive? Wouldn't it be like a summer resort with a swimming-pool and a bellhop to carry your bags up to your suite? Well, that's the next few weeks, but over the next few minutes, it's time for you and me to consider this promised land and whether we'll believe. Faith is the key to the promise. Faith is the gift from God, and the reason you and I are together today (no doubt) is that God wants to unlock the promise in your heart, as He breathes faith into you through His Word. As Israel went from Egypt through the Red Sea, and then forty years in the desert, how many Israelites that crossed through the Red Sea at the beginning of the exodus crossed through the Jordan into the promised land forty years later? Do you know? How many? Out of hundreds of thousands and probably millions, how many? Just two: Joshua and Caleb, and Psalm 106 tells us exactly why: They forgot the God who saved them, who had done great things in Egypt, miracles in the land of Ham and awesome deeds by the Red Sea. So God said He would destroy them, had not Moses His chosen one stood in the breach before Him to keep His wrath from destroying them. Then they despised the pleasant land; they did not believe His promise. They grumbled in their tents and did not obey the Law, so He swore to them with uplifted hand that He would make them fall in the desert. That's why today's message is so important. You and I, like Abraham, we look at the circumstances of our lives and we look around, and it's hard to believe sometimes in God's promises. Maybe we even have a grumble about God and His promises ... That's going to keep us out of His promised land. People sometimes say, "Well, Berni, you talk about this promised land. It's obvious what it meant to the Israelites back then, but what does it mean to you and me here and now?" Well, we need to go from the Old Testament to the New Testament. There's a transition from the physical land to the spiritual one - something that people struggled with when Jesus talked about the kingdom of God. They thought Jesus had come to kick the Roman occupiers out of the promised land, the physical land, but He was talking about something entirely different. There are so many passages we could go through in the New Testament, but a couple that really explain the promised land that God has given to us through Jesus His Son ... Let's have a look at them. Luke 17:20. Flick over to there: Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, ‘The kingdom of God doesn't come with your careful observation, nor will people say, “Here it is,” or “There it is”, because the kingdom of God is within you.' The promised land isn't something out there. It's not a new house or a new car or all that stuff. The promised land is the kingdom of God; it's God living and dwelling and ruling in our hearts. Again, Jesus explained it this way in Matthew 13:44: The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy he went and sold all that he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. The promised land is the treasure of God Himself in our hearts, our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name; Your kingdom come. John 14:23. Jesus said: If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to make our home with him. There are plenty of people who believe in Jesus for their eternal life. Jesus died for my sin; therefore I'm forgiven; therefore I have eternal life. Then what they do is, they kind of put it in their filing cabinet and file it under insurance policy, and live a miserable life. Jesus promised a lot of things – a rich, abundant life, as well as trials and persecutions. He didn't promise us it would be easy to follow Him; what He did promise is that our relationship with Him would fill us to overflowing with abundant joy and peace. That's where the promised land is today – in our hearts; in our relationship with Jesus Christ; in that abundance of life that comes through that relationship. Let me take you back to that starry night: Abram, and the LORD led him tenderly to the point where God wrote His promises on Abram's heart – a promise that Abram believed against all odds; a promise that God delivered against all odds. You and I are each under our own patch of starry heaven today, and the LORD is whispering of His promised land in our hearts – a land purchased by Jesus on the cross, a land of blessing that goes on forever. The Spirit of God will write that on our hearts if we let Him. He will give us the faith to believe if we'll ask Him. Is today that day when we open our hearts to God's promised land?
Stress is affecting so many people – in fact, it's a global pandemic. And what we've all discovered is that the shallow, band aid solutions that the world offers us, simply don't work. What we need is power. Power to deal with the stress in our lives, once and for all. Have a Cheerful Heart Sometimes we need to be pretty direct, pretty blunt about dealing with the blockages in our lives that are interrupting the flow of the power of God in our life. Because God means to bring all His power to bear to deal with the stress that we suffer from, but sometimes, we're working against Him and then we're wondering – hang on, where's that power that Jesus promised? So … … Sorry to be a bit blunt here, but it doesn't hurt every now and then we need to look in the mirror and ask ourselves some questions like that. So – are you one of those people that exudes joy or sadness; a positive outlook, or a negative outlook; encouragement or discouragement? Which one are you? Are you a sad sack? Or do you fluctuate between the two – up on the mountain-tops one day, down in the dumps the next? The reason I'm asking is that if you're someone who spends more than a little time down in the dumps, then it's having an impact on you … it's having an impact on the people around you … and it's having an impact on your relationship with them. That's pretty far-reaching. Because if we damage relationships, we damage career prospects, we damage marriages, we damage our children. This is serious stuff. Stress is debilitating and a negative, untrusting attitude that focuses on the problem rather than the on the God who can make all the difference, interrupts the power that He wants to pour out on us. On top of that, the world wants us to believe that we can wave a magic wand and make stress disappear. Here's what one of those body and soul web sites recommends. Ten quirky stress busters it's called. Chew gum, eat chocolate (oh that'll be just fine and dandy when you come down off your sugar high), get a cat, keep a diary, do some yoga, hum a tune, blow up a balloon, snack on walnuts (Well, that is a lot better than sugar filled gum and chocolate I have to admit), have a laugh or ring your mum. Oh please … stress is so much deeper and more profound in our lives. It's a constant companion for many, many people – everything stresses them, or if not everything, then they go through prolonged periods of stress over one or two very important issues or situations in their lives. You've probably figured out that eating walnuts (as good as that maybe for you) is not going to solve the problems in your life or relieve your stress. At least I'm hoping you have. You see the world's answer to stress is to conjure something up out of nothing. Or to apply en external band-aid, to heal a deep, internal wound. Have you ever had this experience? You're driving along in the car and it's bright and sunny – so you pop your sunglasses on. But gradually the clouds roll in and at some point you're thinking, it is so dark and gloomy today. Then you realise you're wearing your sunnies so you take them off and it's only then you realise that it's nowhere near as dark and gloomy as you thought it was. Sure the clouds have rolled in, sure it's overcast, but not that dark and gloomy. The attitudes of our hearts are a lot like those sunglasses. Some people are walking through difficult times, with a gloomy, darkened heart, and so the whole experience feels about a hundred times worse than what it really is. God knows that and that's why He's concerned over the state of your heart. Have a listen to some of the things He says in His Word about what's going on in your heart: An anxious heart weighs you down, but a kind word, cheers you up. (Proverbs 12:25) A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit. (Proverbs 15:13) A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. (Proverbs 17:22) God's interested in the state of your heart. He's interested in what's going on in your life. Now last time we chatted about how to get God's peace guarding your heart and your mind – do you remember? Philippians Chapter 4, verses 6 and 7: Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Simply by praying instead of worrying, giving thanks, laying out our worries and concerns and needs openly before God, He will replace the fear and stress and worry with His peace which will actually guard your heart and your mind. Imagine, God's peace standing guard around you to keep worry and stress away. That's a pretty good deal. But what the Apostle Paul goes on to say straight after that – writing as he is from his cell on death row – is equally instructive in terms of how to foster that peace and how to keep the cheerfulness and joy that God's peace brings, strong in our inside. Philippians 4:8,9: Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. So, instead of mulling over the bad stuff and what might go wrong, think about the good stuff. Now, you might say to me, I can't control what I think. Sure you can. When you find yourself thinking about something negative, you can choose to think about something positive. Try it, it actually works – and if you're struggling you go back to prayer and the Holy Spirit, who is – remember – guarding your heart and mind with God's peace, that same Holy Spirit is right there in you to be a part of that and to help you. Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as your counsellor and comforter. And now the exciting thing that happens, is that we get benefit from that on the inside, but other people, the people around us get benefit from that as it oozes out of us on the outside. Do you want to be glum? Do you really want to spend the rest of your life being downcast? Do you want to be feeling down in the dumps all the time? Of course you don't. So now you implement these two simple things – pray instead of worrying, and when you find your mind wandering into the down things, grab it back – with the help of the Holy Spirit who is on your inside and who's on your side – and focus it on the good stuff. The stuff that God is about in your life. The things that bring you joy, the things that God's doing, God's faithfulness, the fantastic things He's done in the past. And now, you are living a much, much better life on the inside. You're at peace. Your heart is cheerful – Jesus wants you to have a cheerful heart. Remember what He said to His disciples, John 16:33: In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. So, now your life is much better, now this peace and joy is oozing out of you, and all of a sudden – you can't help it – you want to encourage others. You're having an impact on their life: A cheerful look brings joy to the heart and good news gives health to the bones. (Proverbs 15:30) So the cheerful look on your face is going to bring joy to someone else's heart. The encouraging word that you give to them, the good news that you can share with them, is going to give health and life to their bones. Your joy touches their lives. Your life improves. Their life improves. Your relationship with them improves. All because you took the time and the wisdom of God to lay hold of the peace and the joy that God has for you. Talk about a stress buster! Not bad, eh? And on top of all that, the Bible tells us that the joy of the Lord is your strength. Do you get it? When we let the joy of God fill us amidst the gloom, all of a sudden, we experience His strength, and His power. Lift Up Your Eyes Well, over these last few weeks, we've been chatting about how to deal with the stress in our lives. Not that all stress is bad – some stress from time to time helps to get things done, gets us to sharpen our game and deliver and perform. Think about an athlete about to run the 100 metre dash at the Olympics will harness that nervous energy, let's call it, as they line up on the starting blocks. That's a good thing. It's just not good, if we're constantly living our lives under stress. And so we've been chatting –in this series that I've called Stress Busters – about dealing with the root cause of the stress. No band-aid solutions, like listening to soothing music, or having a nice cup of tea, or patting your cat. They're all nice and lovely, but when we're under real stress, all those things do is alleviate the symptoms for a short time. What we need, is to deal with the root cause of the stress. Now immediately people think stress, root cause – oh right. It's that person, that situation, that medical diagnosis, that thing out there – that's what I have to deal with. Well, perhaps you do. But pressure and stress are two different things. Those things out there put pressure on us. But stress is all about how we react to them, so if we're looking for the root cause of our stress, it lies inside us, in our hearts, in our minds. In what we feel and what we think. So we've chatted in this series about some real, stress busters. Things that deal with the root cause. Learning to trust in God. Learning how to develop a quiet confidence in Him and how to pray the prayer of peace. How to have a cheerful heart – if you missed any of those messages, you'll find them all in the Series Stress Busters on our website christianityworks.com. So … I'd like to bring all of those lessons together in a practical, case study if you will, by sharing the story of a woman called Hannah. She was the Prophet Samuel's mother in the Old Testament of the Bible. But as with many of the great things that God is doing, Samuel's entry into the world wasn't an easy one. At least, not for Hannah. It was a very stressful time. In fact, she was deeply, deeply distressed over a long period of time. So just sit back and have a listen to her story – it's real, it's stressful … and it's beautiful. Here we go, 1 Samuel 1:1–18: There was a certain man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham son of Elihu son of Tohu son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. Now this man used to go up year by year from his town to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord. On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters; but to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. Her rival used to provoke her severely, to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. So it went on year by year; as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. Her husband Elkanah said to her, ‘Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?' After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly. She made this vow: 'O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and do not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.' As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk. So Eli said to her, ‘How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.' But Hannah answered, ‘No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.' So Eli answered, ‘Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.' And she said, ‘Let your servant find favour in your sight.' Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer. It's a beautiful story isn't it? You can't help but feel for Hannah and what she was going through. It was a really big thing in that culture for her not to be able to have a child. The basic belief was that if you were a good person who honoured God, He would bless you with many children. But if you weren't, He wouldn't. So Hannah was looked down upon by all in sundry. Particularly, Penniniah, her rival we're told. The other wife who was delivering plenty of sons. Just imagine how much stress this was putting on Hannah. Firstly, she couldn't have children – any woman whose body clock is ticking and who desperately wants kids but can't have them – knows how devastating that is, just on it's own. But now add to that the constant niggling and whispering and derision from ‘her rival' – there they were, these two women, competing for their husband's affections – I just can't begin to imagine what an awful, additional layer of stress that heaped on Hannah. And then there were the social and religious expectations – everyone treating her like she was some sinner or leper. She could have spent the rest of her life wallowing in that morass of pain and self-pity. But Hannah took some decisive action. She poured it all out to God. Instead of constantly looking down at her terrible circumstances, she lifted her gaze and looked up to Him and, deeply distressed we're told, poured her heart out to God and asked Him to do something. And before she even got an answer, before she even fell pregnant, listen again to the impact of this prayer on her whole being, on her countenance, on her life: Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer. There you have it. The peace that passes all understanding. She did exactly what Paul the Apostle counselled his friends in Philippi to do over two thousand years later: Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God and the peace that passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7,8) We don't need to clean up our act before we go to God. We don't have to be all confidence and self-assured and ‘together'. He just calls us to come as we are and pour it all out. And you should never, ever be afraid to do that. In fact elsewhere, in the New Testament book of Hebrews, this is what God says to us about this very thing: Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16) Don't you love that word – with boldness. So as our time in this series – Stress Busters – draws to a close, let me counsel you to do exactly the same. Do what Hannah did – lift up your eyes and pour your stress out on God, and my friend, He will act. And whatever the outcome to your stressful situation, He will give you peace. That's just what He does. God is a God who brings His power to bear for the people whom He loves – His people, the people who have put their trust in Jesus His Son. He doesn't always take away the person or the situation that causes the stress, but what He does do, is He works in our hearts, He gives us strength and courage and joy and peace and power to remove the stress. But there's one thing … on thing that robs us of all that. And that's the thing we're going to talk about. Blackout Have you ever been in a power blackout? Here where I live, they're quite rare. But in many parts of the world, they're a daily occurrence and in some parts of the world, there's no power at all. I travel quite a bit and I regularly find myself in places where there's no power or there are constant blackouts. In a sense, you get used to it pretty quickly. When you're sitting and talking in a meeting and the power goes out, you just keep on talking until either the generator cuts in, or … if there's no generator, until the power comes back on. It's just a fact of life. You learn to live with it. But when I come back home again, to a place where the power almost never goes out, I have to tell you, it's a much, much better way to live. I think in the three years that I've been living in our current apartment, we've lost power perhaps once or twice. Many people are living their lives, spiritually, emotionally, morally, either in a state of regular power outages, blackouts, or in a place without any power at all. And the thing that flicks the switch on God's power in their lives, is their sin. Have a listen to this, the Apostle Paul, Ephesians 1:17–21: I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. Paul's praying that his friends in Ephesus would realise the certain hope, the riches of their inheritance, and the immeasurable greatness of God's power that they already have in Christ. The very same power that raised Jesus from the dead and put Him above everything and everyone. Do you see – God means to bring that power, that life-giving power, to bear in your life, to give you the new life that Jesus died and rose again to give you. But when we rebel against God, when we turn our backs on Him through our sin, the power stops. Why? What good father would continue to reward and bless his child when the child is rebelling? As much as the father loves the child, he stops the flow of blessing, so that the child will realise its mistake, and come back to him. It's what dads do. And it's the same with God: Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. (Galatians 6:7) One of the most stressful things that we can ever do is to rebel against God – we talked about that earlier in this series. And as God calls us back to Him, often He turns the heat up on our stress, as we live through the consequences of our sin and our rebellion. When we keep struggling against and kicking against God, when we run away from His goodness and His plans for our life, man, be prepared for a wilderness experience, right? And I know that there are a few people in that place right at the moment. You're experiencing extreme stress, because you've turned your back on God. Well, in a moment we're going to pray together. And this is what we're going to pray about. Peter said to them: ‘Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit'. (Acts 2:38) Do you see, when you repent, when you turn back to God, He promises you the power, the power of the Holy Spirit. The greatest stress buster of them all.
There are all sorts of things in this world that cause us stress. And I've heard so many ridiculous ways of relieving it – have a cup of tea. Take a hot shower. Okay – so they might relieve the symptoms for a short while. But what we need are some powerful solutions to the root cause of our stress. Trust in the LORD When you Google stress relief, mostly what you discover is relaxation techniques. Take a hot bath. Watch some television to get your mind off things. Spend more time with friends. Some will even tell you to go and practise yoga and meditation. Play stress relief games. Identify your stress responses and manage them. Well, it all sounds great, but here's the problem I have with all of those things. They're a bit like taking an aspirin for a headache. They may alleviate the symptoms for a short while, but they don't solve the problem by treating the cause. If your headache is caused by a brain tumour, hey; aspirin just ain't going to do it. You need something that goes to the root cause. The same is true with stress and anxiety. You know, a mistake we make when we think about the root cause of our stress is we imagine that the root cause is that thing out there somewhere that's causing us stress. It's that difficult person; it's that difficult relationship; it's the fact that I'm struggling with my finances or I've had a bad medical diagnosis from the doctor. It's that thing out there that's causing me the stress. If I can get rid of that, then I won't have any more stress in my life. That's our rationale. That's what we think, but stress is our response to a situation. Stress is something we do to ourselves. Of course, sometimes scary things happen. Someone we love dies, and the process of grieving is stressful. We lose our job, and the process of dealing with our finances can be stressful, but a lot of what we stress out about is totally manageable, except for the fact that we're stressing out over it. Stress, anxiety, fear ... Those things immobilise us. They stop us from doing the things we need to do to deal with the situation, so when I'm talking about dealing with the root cause of stress, I'm actually talking about dealing with whatever's going on inside you that's causing the stress response, because each and every day of your life and mine pretty much is going to bring along circumstances and situations and people and stuff that have the potential to cause us stress. It's one thing to have an initial response of fear or shock when something potentially stressful comes our way; it's another thing entirely to spend the rest of the week, the rest of the year, the rest of your life, stressing out about it. So let me share my number one, numero uno, stress buster with you right now. Trust in the LORD your God. I know it sounds like a cop-out; it sounds like a platitude, but in a moment, I'm going to tell you why it's the one solution that decisively deals with stress. Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. The thing that causes us stress by and large is when something that has the potential to negatively impact our lives is completely outside our control. Would you agree? The doctor tells you that she's detected a tumour on your scan, but she doesn't know yet whether it's malignant or benign, or whether they're going to be able to operate on it and get it all out. So much is out of your control in that scenario, and your very life hangs in the balance. Stress! Now bring God into the picture. There are three key facts that I want you to note about God in this stressful scenario: Here's the first one. He loves you beyond measure. In fact, He loves you so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die and to pay for your sins, to give you eternal life, so there's absolutely no question about how much He loves you. Secondly, nothing escapes Him. He never fails to notice what you're going through. If He knows exactly how many hairs you have on your head, and He does because the Bible tells us that, then He surely knows what you're going through, and the third thing is that nothing is outside His control. If He created the universe, friend, He has the power to deal with anything and everything that's going on in your life. Now, you put those three facts together and what you have is a compassionate, loving God who completely understands, and who has just the right plan for your life. He knows what to do, when to do it, and how to get it done, and He will do it. The Bible has a name for that: It's called faithfulness. The writer of the book of Lamentations was looking over the destruction and the devastation after the Babylonians had completely and utterly destroyed Jerusalem, and taken God's chosen people into captivity as slaves. He pours his heart out, which is why the book is called Lamentations, but then despite what he sees, despite the devastation and the pain and the stress that he feels in his heart, he comes to this conclusion. Lamentations 3:22-24: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. The LORD is my Portion, says my soul; therefore I will hope in Him. My friend, no matter what you're going through at the moment, no matter what lies ahead, no matter what the devastation and the ruin that your eye can see, your God is faithful; and when you put your trust in Him, all of a sudden, the stress goes away because He can and will act to make sure that His steadfast love plays itself out in your life. Look. Each one of us is going to die sooner or later, and along the way, each one of us is going to have financial problems, health problems, relationship problems, inadequacies, insecurities ... There are more than enough in each week to get you and me to stress ourselves into an early grave. Listen. Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. Let me tell you, no amount of relaxation techniques – yoga, TV, dinner with friends, hot showers, hot cups of tea – none of that stuff is going to come anywhere close to the impact of trusting your God with all your heart. He knows what to do; He has the power to do it; He loves you so much. Ok, we are going to die one day. That's part of His plan, but in the meantime, friend, He loves you so much. Whatever you're going through, He's in that place with you, and He is worthy of your trust. Develop a Quiet Confidence We kind of stress out about our kids and our jobs and how we look and what other people think. We stress out about tomorrow. What will that bring? We stress out about ... Well, we stress out about just about anything or everything. Let me ask you this. What are you stressed over right now? What's the thorn in your side that keeps on making you worry about this or that? Pretty much everybody can name at least two or three things that are causing them to stress out right at the moment. Jesus hit the nail on the head when He asked this rhetorical question. Luke 6:27: Can any of you by worrying add a single hour to the span of your life? Well, that's pretty much it. That right there just shows us how utterly useless worry and stress are. They don't achieve anything positive. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Stress and worry often immobilise us from doing the things that we can and need to do to deal with that situation that's causing us the pressure and the stress in the first place. We just kind of sit there on the sofa worrying about it, when getting up and doing A or B would actually reduce the risk or fix the problem altogether. Now you can call me crazy; plenty of people do ... Call me crazy, but let me throw this out there for you to think about. This is absolutely no way for you to live your life, or for me to live my life. Would you agree? I mean, being stressed all the time is totally nuts. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't achieve anything good, and yet countless people are caught up in chronic, repetitive, day-after-day, lifelong stress, and for what? So let me ask you, what if you could replace that with a quiet confidence? Not some false bravado; just a quiet sense of confidence on the inside that you know it's going to be fine. What if that were the overriding mind-set in your life, in place of the person who worries and stresses about everything? Would it be a worthwhile thing to achieve? Well, that's what I'm aiming for in your life today, not because I happen to be particularly smart or insightful or brilliant; I'm none of those things, but because the Word of God has the power to transform your life completely and utterly. If only you will receive this mighty, powerful Word of God in your heart today, your life can be utterly transformed. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. ‘This guy hasn't a clue what I'm going through. How can he possibly say that?' And in part you are right; I absolutely don't have a clue, but God does. I don't have the wisdom, but God does. I don't have the power to transform your heart and your mind and your thoughts and your emotions or your life, but God does. Have a listen to this. It's about a guy called Joshua. For the last forty or so years, he's been playing second fiddle to a guy called Moses, leading God's people (probably over a million of them) through the wilderness: Relying on God for food, and for water, and for protection every step of the way. Moses (the leader) has just died, just at the point when they're about to cross over the Jordan river into the land that God's promised them; just at the point where they have to gear up for battle after battle because the promised land is full of other tribes and nations, and they're going to have to take it by force. Just at that point Moses, the proven, trusted, experienced, wise leader ups and dies, and Joshua is put in charge. Stress? Absolutely! Stress with a capital ‘S”. This is life and death stress. If you put yourself in Joshua's shoes, man, you'd really be stressing. Right? Well he must have been, because this is what God says to Joshua right at this point in his life. Joshua 1:1: After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, ‘My servant Moses is dead. Now proceed to cross the Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I'm giving to them – to the Israelites. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given to you, as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness of Lebanon as far as the Great River, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites and to the Great Sea in the west shall be your territory. No one shall be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall put this people in possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them; only be strong and very courageous, being careful to act in accordance with the Law that my servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may be successful wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it, for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful. I hereby command you: Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.' No less than three times, God says to Joshua: ‘Be strong and courageous', and one of those times he says, ‘Be strong and very courageous'. Why? Because God has a plan. God is in this, and God will see His plan through, despite the overwhelming odds, despite the impossibility of the task. It's about God and who He is, not the enemy and who they are. Let me say it again: It's about God and who He is, not the enemy and who they are, and the foundation of Joshua's confidence is to be what? God's Word. "Stay in My Word; think about it; meditate on it day and night, so that it doesn't depart from you." As you read on through this book of Joshua, you see that under his leadership, Israel faced many, many life and death, stressful situations, but God called him to do it with confidence. You know, sometimes, our confidence is misplaced. We put our confidence in our strengths and abilities; we put our confidence in money or other people, but won't place our confidence in God. When He's the One we look to and we trust, lean on and co-operate with, then that confidence – my friend, it's never misplaced. Hey, listen. Without faith it's impossible to please God. God wants us to put our trust in Him during those difficult, stressful, dangerous, scary situations. That's the whole point! We develop this quiet confidence as we experience His faithfulness, and that's what carries us through. Pray the Prayer of Peace Listen. You and I are going to find ourselves in stressful situations from time to time; we just are. It's par for the course. In a very real sense, it's kind of what's meant to happen, and for anyone in a stressful situation right now, my prayer is that just knowing that gives you some comfort. We all end up there from time to time. The question now is, what do we do about it? How are we going to respond in this moment of crisis? Well, if you're anything like me, you've been taught that the right thing to do is to put your faith in God. That's exactly what we've been chatting about on the program so far in this series of messages. Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. And the other one that we looked at earlier, Lamentations 3:22-24: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. The LORD is my Portion, says my soul; therefore I will hope in Him. And what did He say to Joshua? Joshua 1:5-7: As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you. Be strong; be courageous, for you shall put this people in possession of the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them. Only be strong and very courageous. You see, each of those Scriptures that we've been looking at point us in absolutely the right direction, without a doubt, but anybody who's been in a deeply stressful situation, and particularly anyone who's there right now in that stressful situation, is sitting there thinking: ‘Well, look, that's all fantastic and nice, Berni. I know those Scriptures too, but how do I do that? How do I put my trust in God? How can I be strong and courageous when I feel so weak and helpless?' And unless you get the answers to those questions, then the Scriptures we just read and plenty more of them to boot, they're just going to make you feel more and more condemned – more and more like you're failing God, because you can't conjure up that trust and that faith and that strength. Am I right? So right now, we're going to get the answers to those questions and not from me, but from God because He always has the answers. God knows how you and I can lay hold of that courage and confidence in God, because He loves us. He tells us very clearly, very plainly in His Word how to do that, and to be honest, in my walk with the Lord over the past ... mmm ... almost twenty years, this has probably been the most important how-to that I have ever learnt. Are you ready? Here we go. Stress buster number three. It comes from Philippians 4:6-7: Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. This is a very plain piece of Scripture. There are not a lot of hidden meanings there, but you'd be amazed, amazed at how easily we skate over the surface of it and completely miss the point. I think I may have told this story once before on the program a few years back, so if you've heard it, just get over it (I'm just kidding). I was sitting in a Bible-study with a bunch of people who'd been Christians for many years, much longer than I had. We were studying this particular passage in Philippians 4. It was interesting; people hedged around – this, that; yeah, we all worry ... The discussion went on for ten or fifteen minutes and at the end of it, the Bible-study group-leader summarised it along these lines: ‘Well, yeah. God wants us to have peace but still, we're just going to worry, aren't we?' The crazy thing was that everyone seemed to nod in agreement with him and we were about to move on. Well, I don't know; I was only the new kid on the block, but I couldn't help myself. I kind of let out this loud, agitated, ‘No!' I don't think anyone had ever heard that before because there was stunned silence and all the eyeballs were on me, and I think my wife wished that the floor would swallow us both up, so I went at it with both barrels. I said, ‘Look at what this says. It's a promise from God through the apostle Paul, who (by the way) was sitting on death row in a dungeon when he wrote this thing.' God's saying, ‘Look. Instead of worrying, pray. The time that you would have spent worrying and stressing out about this stuff, take that time and spend it differently. Take that time that you would have spent stressing, and pray instead'. Thank God. Let Him know your problems and your needs and your requests, right there in the stressful situation that you find yourself in, and when you do that, says God through Paul, here's the promise bit: The peace of God which surpasses all understanding. There's this peace that in this situation, in this circumstance, simply doesn't make any worldly sense. That peace will not just fill your heart; it'll guard your heart and your mind in Christ. Now, think of the power of that. When worry comes along, when stress comes along and hits you, when it attacks you, when it knocks on the door of your heart and your mind, God's peace in Christ Jesus will be standing as a mighty, powerful, God-given sentinel to the door of your heart and mind. God's peace in Christ will guard your heart and your mind, and the impact of that: Think of a fortress being guarded by a mighty army. The opposing army simply can't get in, and so in this case, the worry and the stress just won't be able to get in because God's peace will keep it out. Hey, that's God's promise here, so let me ask you this: Do you believe God's Word or not? Do you believe that this is God's promise to you, or not? It's one way or the other. I don't know if they got it, these people in this home group that we were talking about, but I'm praying that you get it. The way that we appropriate the peace of God, the way that we lay hold of it, the way that we grab it with both hands and hang onto it, is by praying to God with a thankful heart, and pouring out our feelings and our needs on God. Let me tell you something. If you're in a stressful situation and you take this one promise, just this one Scripture (two verses) and start living it out by making it a habit to get away alone with God and pray and spend time with Him and pour your heart out and give Him thanks, I guarantee you that the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will become the sentinel of your heart and your mind and your life. There's your stress buster. There's your peace, and remember, it's a peace that given your circumstances, you really shouldn't be able to feel. You shouldn't be able to have. It's a peace that in the face of this stressful situation simply doesn't make sense. That's why Paul calls it the peace which surpasses all understanding, but you know what? It doesn't have to make sense, because peace is peace, and God's peace is God's peace, and I will take that in place of the world's stress any day. How about you?
Sometimes stress is triggered by other people or circumstances – things out there, many of which we don't have any control over. Other times, it's something that we bring on ourselves. Whichever of those two it happens to be, you and I, we need to know how to handle stress. The Stress of Circumstance I wish I could tell you that there is something that you could do to avoid every stressful situation and circumstance in this world. Wouldn't it be fantastic? But it just wouldn't be real. Because no matter who we are, where we live, how young or old we are, how rich or poor we are … there are going to be those days when tough, difficult, stressful situations and circumstances arise. Sure, some stressful things are avoidable. We've been talking about those already in this series that I've called, "Stress Busters". And when it comes to dealing with needless, avoidable stress – I'm definitely all for that! But some stressful situations are totally unavoidable, and they're the ones that we're going to chat about for a few minutes today. Because it seems to me that the trick isn't to hide our heads in the sand and pretend that we can make them go away. The trick is flourishing amidst the stress. Now, you might think that's a crazy idea! Flourishing amidst the stress? Get off the grass, who are you trying to kid? I know … I know that's what some people are thinking right now. But this isn't my idea. It's something that Jesus came up with. It's something that He said to His disciples right at the most stressful point in His relationship with them. He was soon to be crucified – the plot to kill Him was well afoot and His disciples could feel it. Not only was Jesus threatened, but they were probably wondering: well, are we going to be next? When they come to arrest Jesus and nail Him to a cross, are they going to do the same to us? There can't be any greater level of stress than that. So right at that point, right at that moment, this is what Jesus says to them: The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have said this to you, so that you may have peace. In this world you will face tribulation. But take courage; I have conquered the world. (John 16:32-33) So, the persecution is coming, they're about to be scattered, running in fear for their lives, and Jesus tells them in this world you will face persecution. The original Greek word there that sits aback of the English translation for "persecution" is thlipsis, it means pressure, stress – literally it means to have the life squeezed out of you. Just fantastic Lord, they must have been thinking. Thanks for that, just what we needed to know. A promise from God right in the moment when we're in fear of our lives and Jesus tells us – in this world you will have the life squeezed out of you. Perfect! But Jesus doesn't leave it there. He goes on to say: but take courage, be of good cheer, don't worry, because I have conquered the world. All this I've said to you so that in Me you might have … peace. The exact opposite of stress. Which would you rather have in your life – peace or stress? Well, peace obviously! But here's the nub of what Jesus is saying – you can have that peace, right in this place where the life is being squeezed out of you. Did you get that? Jesus is saying – look, you won't always be able to avoid the pressure, in fact one thing is for certain, you will have pressure, you will feel squeezed. But in the middle of that you can have confidence and peace, because I have overcome the world – something they would just see in a few short days later when Jesus rose from the grave and appeared to them. And friend, that's His message for you today. I love how this powerful truth works its way out in the life and the ministry of Paul the Apostle, who down the track, had more than his fair share of pressure. Have a listen to what he writes from out in the field, out on assignment preaching the Good News of Jesus into a hostile world. 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 8 to 11: We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of the affliction that we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we could not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again, as you also join in helping us by your prayers, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. There it is again, the same word that Jesus used for persecution, that exact same word thlipsis – unbearably crushed so that in their despair they thought they were going to die. You'd call that serious stress, right? And yet in the middle of all that, what gave them strength and peace? They relied on God. They trusted in Him. They were at the end of their tether, they had nothing left, life itself hung in the balance – so they did the only thing that they could do. That's what happens, especially, let me say, when we're in the business of getting out there and doing God's business; serving God. I find it to be true that whenever I'm serving God, opposition comes thick and fast. The more powerfully I feel called to step out and serve my Lord, the more powerfully Satan hurls opposition my way. It's as though the armies of hell muster in opposition and they unleash all their fury. I remember once, it was the first time I was to lecture at my old Bible College, where I'd been taught. It was a Thursday evening and I drove off from my home. Before I'd gone half a kilometre, three different vehicles had tried their darnedest to run into me. What's going on? I thought to myself. And then I realised. That's what happens when you're serving Jesus. Opposition, disruption, stress, pressure, they all get hurled at you from every direction. So, let's not be amazed. It happened to Jesus. It happened to Paul. It's going to happen – guaranteed – to you and to me. It's exactly what Jesus promised. In this world you will have thlipsisi – you will have tribulation, you will have the life squeezed out of you, but be of good cheer, be confident, don't be stressed, because I have overcome the world. And you know something, He has. Our confidence in those places at those times needs to be in Jesus – in Him and in Him alone. Sometime later, in his second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 4, verses 8 to 15, Paul puts it like this: We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So, death is at work in us, but life in you. But just as we have the same spirit of faith that is in accordance with scripture — ‘I believed, and so I spoke' — we also believe, and so we speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence. Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. Friend the message is clear. In this world you will have tribulation – but don't worry, because right in that place, Jesus is there, and He will carry you through. And when I've had nothing left in the tank, that's the only thing that's carried me through. Jesus. Let your confidence be in Him and in Him alone. Now that's what I call a stress buster! The Stress of Evil Evil seems like a strong word, doesn't it? I mean, by and large, you and I don't think of ourselves as evil people. We're not a murderer, or a rapist, or a child abuser, well, 99.99% of us aren't. And so, the word evil seems just a tad strong. I'm guessing you know the story of Adam and Eve. God put them in the Garden of Eden, they had a fantastic life, they could do whatever they wanted, except eat the fruit of one of the trees in the garden. That's all. I don't think there was anything particularly special about the tree – no magic potions, no hallucinogens in the fruit. It's just that God nominated this one tree to give Adam and Eve a choice – either to obey Him or not. God always gives us a choice. Genesis chapter 2, verse 9: Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So, what was the tree called? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Where evil is defined as anything that rebels against God. You see, up until the point that Adam and Eve ate the fruit from that tree, they had no idea what evil was. It may have been a concept, but they'd never experienced it in their lives. They didn't know it, they had no knowledge of it. And God warned them: The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may eat freely of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you will die.' (Genesis 2: 15-17) They couldn't say that they didn't know, right? But then the serpent tempted them, and Eve made the first move: So when the woman saw that the tree was in fact good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make someone wise, she took of its fruit and she ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was there with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. (Genesis 3:6-7) Would you say at that moment, when they, for the first time, knew for themselves the difference between good and evil, they were stressed? I'd think so – because the very next thing they do is to hide from God when they hear Him coming in the garden. Just think about how silly that is! But eventually God found them, and the consequences of their actions were devastating: To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.' And to the man he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.' … Then the Lord God said, ‘See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever' — therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life. Now again, would you say that this evil that they'd done in God's sight caused them stress? Absolutely it did, and it was a stress that lasted for the rest of their lives. Well, right there you have it – whenever you and I rebel against God, it is going to cause us pain and stress. I don't care what it is we do to rebel against Him, but there are going to be consequences. Serious consequences. A husband doesn't cherish his wife; a wife doesn't honour her husband. Stress? You betcha! A man decides that his life is all about making money and being wealthy – so he chases after riches and sacrifices everything. Stress? Well, let's take another look at what may well be a familiar passage to you: But those who want to be rich will fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. (1 Timothy 6:9-10) Now that's what I call stress. What about anger and dissension and strife, back-biting, dishonesty? Well the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like those. I am warning you, says Paul, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-20) Now that passage tells us that all that stuff is going to end in some serious stress – for those who do those things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But from experience we know that all of those things will also create stress here and now. Strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, all that jazz. Would you like to work in a place that has one of those things happening – factions and dissensions for example. Maybe you do – well, that's what you'd call a stressful workplace. Would you like to live in a family where one member is constantly drunk? Anyone who has, will tell you that that causes tremendous stress. You're getting the picture, right? Sin – sorry to put that word up there, but that's what God calls it, or if you'd prefer evil perhaps – evil always results in stress. That's the bottom line. It promises a lot up front, it's so seductive, but it only ever delivers us stress and trouble. Some people, and maybe you're one of them … I'm being very direct here, kind but direct … some people are wanting to hang on to some bit of evil in their lives, some particular sin and rationalise it away as though it was nothing. But it's like a thorn in their flesh – it causes them stress and pain over and over again. I am not going to forgive her for doing that to me!! Okay, don't forgive her, but you're going to suffer the stress of unforgiveness for as long as you care to hang on to that sin. My friend, if you want to rid your life of unnecessary stress, then the quickest and easiest way of getting started is to root out the sin in your life, to pull it up by the root and throw it out. The moment you forgive, the moment you deal with your pride, the moment you stop quarrelling with people at work and stirring up trouble – the stress in your life starts to subside. Why? Because God only labels something as evil, as sin, if it's going to hurt us. Get rid of the sin, it stops hurting. It's that simple. The only question is … what are you waiting for? A Time to Reflect If you had to sum-up your life right at the moment, where you're at, what you're feeling, the things that are causing you to stress out, the amount of pressure and stress that you feel under. What would you say in twenty-five words or less, where are you at in your life when it comes to stress, anxiety, fear and uncertainty? Is the picture that you'd paint me, a bright and sunny one? A bit overcast? Or maybe there is a great storm raging? I guess what I'm trying to do here is to hold up a mirror and get you to take a look at your life, yourself, your stress levels. Stress is a bit like a chronic disease, well actually, for many people, it is a chronic disease. I was listening to an interview on the radio just the other day of a man who had kidney disease. In the twelve months leading up to his diagnosis and treatment, he started noticing the symptoms, but being a typical male, he didn't go to the doctor. You know how it is, you're busy, you're focused on this or that, and this little symptom niggles away at you over here, and then it seems to go away, and then another one happens over there, and its kind of incremental, it builds up really slowly over time. After a while, he realised something was wrong, but he still didn't go to the doctor. So, by the time he was feeling really sick, and had it checked out, he was actually seriously ill. Its sometimes like that with the stress in our lives, tossing and turning at night, not feeling happy, this, that. But when you are busy, you kind of brush it aside, and all the time the stress is building up until something snaps. That's why people have break-downs. That's why relationships are torn apart. Most of us don't cut a pretty picture when we are under a lot of stress. It's not good for us and its not good for the people around us. So, how are you going? Are you noticing that things aren't what they should be? Are you burning the candle at both ends, wondering: Why am I so tired? Are you letting certain people get to you? Are money worries worrying you? Come on, what is it that has been niggling away there in your life? In you heart, in your mind? Bubbling away under the surface. And you've been trying to ignore it desperately, but the more you try to ignore it, the worse it seems to get. And as we sit here and speak about it now, you're really beginning to realise: You know what, something isn't right – I'm dealing with this stress and I've been trying to ignore it, and this is not right. God is a really practical God. You don't have to read very far in the Bible to discover that. And He is vitally interested in dealing with the stress in your life. Take Psalm 55 – its all about the treachery of a friend. Here it is in a nutshell – verses 20 and 21: My companion laid hands on a friend and violated a covenant with me, with speech smoother than butter, but with a heart set on war, with words that were softer than oil, but in fact were drawn swords. Its not very nice, but it happens, and it causes stress. See how God deals with really practical stuff that happens in our lives? Just as He was interested in the plight of King David back then, who wrote that Pslam, He is interested in your plight, in your circumstances, and in your stress. And the solution to that stress, comes in the very next verse of that Psalm – verse 22 of Psalm 55, and that's what I'd like to leave you with this week: Cast you burden on the Lord and He will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. Isn't that beautiful? Cast your burden on the Lord. He will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. And that is what I'd like to encourage you to do, starting this week. God wants to help carry your heavy loads. God wants to lighten your load. God wants to be part of the solution to eliminating stress and bring peace into your life. Friends, listen to it again: Cast you burden on the Lord. He will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. Come on, where are you at in your life? What stress are you grappling with? What are you struggling with and you are kind of thinking to yourself: I just can't cope with it anymore. I've been dealing with this for so long. I've been struggling in this relationship for so long. I've been struggling with this problem at work for so long. I've been struggling with my money problems for so long. I just can't deal with it anymore? Friend, we are often going to be under pressure. Pressure is often something we cannot avoid. Stress is our reaction to the pressure. Stress is what we do with the pressure. When you are lying there at night, turning it over in your mind, struggling, worrying, imagining all the bad things that can happen. Jesus is in that dark place with you. Jesus, who gave peace to His disciples is in that dark place with you. The Jesus that wants to bring peace to you is in that dark place with you. Cast your burdens on the Lord, He will sustain you, He will never permit the righteous to be moved. That is a beautiful truth. If you are struggling with some dark thing at the moment and you don't know how to deal with the stress, I want to take you and encourage you to read Psalm 55 this week. Maybe you read nothing else, just spend your time in Psalm 55 day after day after day. And experience the love and the power and the mercy of your Lord Jesus Christ. And in our next programme, in fact the next two programmes, in this series called ‘Stress Busters', we'll be discovering exactly how to do that. Where? Well, in the Bible of course! God's love letter to you. So I'm really looking forward to catching up with you again, next time around. Remember, cast your burdens on the Lord, He will sustain you.
Stress comes in all different shapes and sizes, but whatever its cause, none of us was made to be under constant stress and yet, that's how many people are living. In a constant state of stress. Well, it's time to do something about it. A Stress Free Life? Stress. For most of us, that word sends a shiver down our spine, and why wouldn't it? Who wants to be under stress all the time? And that's what it feels like for a lot of us, so what is it? Well, it's a state of mental or emotional strain or tension, and my dictionary adds, "Resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances", although I'm not sure that's always the case. We'll explore some of the main causes of stress in this series, but first, what sort of impact is stress having on our world? Well, a recent study conducted in Australia by the Psychological Institute (and by the way, I'm sure you'd probably find the same results no matter where you live) ... Well, the study found some interesting things about the reach and impact of stress. Here are the headline findings: 12% of people reported experiencing levels of stress in the severe range, with young adults experiencing significantly higher levels of stress and significantly lower levels of wellbeing than the general population. One in three reported experiencing depressive symptoms, with ten percent of these being in the severe range. One in four reported experiencing anxiety, with nine percent of these in the severe range. Young adults, 18-25, reported significantly higher levels of anxiety and depression than the general population. Although women reported significantly higher levels of perceived stress than did men, this didn't lead to differences reported in their levels of anxiety, depression, or wellbeing. Those people experiencing family or recent relationship-breakdown and those separated reported much higher levels of stress and distress, on all measures. If the relationship-breakdown had occurred more than one year earlier, reported stress levels were about the same as the general population. In the US, things appear to be more extreme. Seventy-three percent of people regularly experience psychological symptoms caused by stress. Almost half say that stress has a negative impact on their personal or professional lives, and the cost to employers in stress-related healthcare and missed work is estimated, in the US, to be about three hundred billion dollars a year. No wonder we want a stress free life! That idyllic life by the beach is looking pretty good to a few of us at this point. Right? But that's just not realistic and in fact, the reality is that a bit of stress in our lives isn't a bad thing. We enjoy a challenge, for instance, and working under a bit of pressure sometimes produces really good results. It's like a guitar or a violin. If the strings aren't under the right amount of tension and stress, it just doesn't work the way it was meant to. I know for instance after a longish holiday, say three weeks off over Christmas, I'm really looking forward to getting back into the cut and thrust of work. If we had no pressure, no deadlines, life would be missing something; and in any case, sometimes we're hit by circumstances that put us under a lot of stress, whether we like it or not. Take Jesus. He experienced huge stress. Luke 22:39-46: He came out and went, as was His custom, to the Mount of Olives and the disciples followed Him. When He reached that place, He said to them, ‘Pray, that you may not come into a time of trial.' Then He withdrew from them, about a stone's throw away, knelt down and prayed, ‘Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.' Then an angel from heaven appeared to Him and gave Him strength. In His anguish He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling down on the ground. When He got up from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief, and He said to them, ‘Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray, that you may not come into a time of trial.' The fact that Jesus' sweat was like drops of blood tells us just how severe His suffering was. This was stress, and it only got worse from here, as He was beaten and nailed to a cross. No, that completely stress free life isn't a reality for any of us. Even the rich and famous, in fact sometimes especially those people, suffer enormous amounts of stress. How many superstars have died from drug overdoses? What were they doing there in the first place? What drove them to drugs? The pressure and the stress of fame. So, sometimes stress is desirable; sometimes it's unavoidable, and sometimes we experience it because of our reaction to a particular person or set of circumstances, and yet the Bible says don't be anxious about anything (Philippians 4:6). So what sort of stress are you under right now? Is it the normal cut and thrust of life which, at the end of the day, you kind of enjoy anyhow? Then that's probably not such a bad thing, is it? It's manageable, and you know that with a few adjustments to your life, you could easily get things right under control. Then you're probably in a good balance, but if the stresses that you're under feel like a huge burden, like a heavy load that you're carrying around twenty-four by seven ... well ... that's not such a good thing. We're not made to be under that sort of constant pressure and stress, and yet many people live their lives like that. That's why we're kicking the year off with this series called, "Stress Busters" because God has a lot of things to say about how to alleviate the stress that you're under; lots of practical, powerful things to say. Hey, why should that be a surprise to any of us? God cares so deeply about you; what you're going through; what stress you're under, and the stepping off point for that is what Jesus said. We see it in Matthew 11:28-30. Jesus said: Come to Me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke of easy, and My burden is light. Jesus wants to lighten your load, so over these coming weeks, we're going to discover what He has to say about your stress, because Jesus didn't say this lightly. Jesus didn't say this flippantly. Jesus meant it – come to Me, all you who are weary and who are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Come on! Take My yoke upon you. Learn from Me. I'm gentle. I'm humble of heart, and with Me, you're going to find rest for your souls. Hey, that's a powerful thing, and that's why we're doing a series over these next few weeks called, "Stress Busters" because God wants to deal with the stress in your life. Stress we Put Ourselves Under You and I have this habit of putting ourselves under pressure and stress needlessly. Don't believe me? Well, right now, we're going to chat about how we do that exactly, and what we can do about changing our habits, because there are more than enough things out there that are going to cause you and me stress, whether we like it or not. There are going to be situations and circumstances completely beyond our control that cause us stress: The loss of a loved one; a difficult boss at work; financial problems; health issues ... There are plenty of things out there that are going to come our way, whether we like it or not, that are going to cause us stress. So, why would we possibly want to needlessly cause ourselves stress? Well, right now, we're going to chat about the main three reasons that we cause ourselves stress. I'd be surprised if you don't recognise at least one of them in your life. The first one is physical. Sometimes we think of stress as an emotional thing, even a spiritual thing; and of course, it is those things, but the physical reality is that God has given you and me a body, and there are three main things that we do to abuse this amazing body that God has gifted us. We eat too much of the wrong stuff, we don't get enough sleep, and we don't get enough exercise. How many times have you heard someone (including me) banging on about our diet and exercise and sleep? And yet still the first and most obvious thing that we can get wrong when it comes to managing our stress is how we treat our body, so come on. If the hat fits, wear it. Are you sick of feeling tired? Are you sick of feeling bloated and stressed and exhausted? Then do something about it. Last year, we had a whole series on the programme called, "Healthy living to a Ripe Old Age" and all of those messages in that series are available in the Resources section of the ChristianityWorks.com website, under the heading of Health. Grab them, listen to them, read the transcripts and please, if you're struggling because you're not treating your body properly, do something about it. 1 Corinthians 6:19: For don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? God expects you and He expects me to look after this amazing body that He's given us, and when we do, let me tell you, our stress levels drop dramatically. The second thing that we do to put ourselves under stress needlessly is constantly second-guessing ourselves: Constantly telling ourselves, "I'm not good enough. I'm not fast enough. I'm not smart enough." You know what that's called? Low self-esteem, and it might surprise you to know that this is a trap that I too find quite easy to fall into. Shocked? Here's how it works for me. I'm something of an achiever. I drive hard at things; I work hard; I try to deliver on-time ... It's just who I am, and when you're that kind of person, you can see not only all the things that you have achieved, but all the things that you haven't yet achieved, and so you start telling yourself, "Come on! You're not working hard enough for God. You should be doing better for God. You should be getting up earlier and working longer and delivering sooner. You need to get more done. Look at all the things you haven't done yet! Oh, Berni, you're failing God." You see how easy it is to do? Or at the other end of the scale, perhaps you only ever see your inadequacies, because you're constantly comparing yourself to other people. Anyone recognise that? It's like that song by Casey Chambers. "Am I not pretty enough or smart enough or liked enough or strong enough or articulate enough or" ... so we find all these ways to put ourselves under enormous pressure, and cause ourselves huge stress by believing this nonsense that we're just not good enough. Have you been there? Then I have a word from God for you today. 1 Corinthians 12:4-7: Now there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit; there are a variety of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each one, He has given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Did you get that? Each one of us has been given a particular set of gifts and abilities. They're all different, but they're given by the one God; and the gifts He's given you, He's given you by His sovereign will and choice. You are who you are because He made you that way. He didn't make a mistake. You're exactly who God purposed you and made you to be. Get your heart around that, and you're set free from this nonsense of, "Am I not pretty enough? Am I not good enough for God?" Hello? Is anyone listening to this? I for one need constant reminding of this stuff, because I can end up stressing out by having a wrong view of who I am. It's about trading in your self-image for a faith-image from God, and this God says that you're beautiful, and that you're just who you're meant to be. So you've been given gifts by God now to be that person, and to use those gifts. Hallelujah! And finally, the third thing that causes us needlessly to put ourselves under stress is not letting go of the past. So many people are still holding onto the failures and the hurts and the regrets of the past. How many people are living under the reproach of the past? Come on, the past is the past. You and I can't change it, and God is in the business of setting us free from it. Mark this. Before Israel was able to cross over the Jordan River and enter into the promised land, God dealt with their past. Joshua 5:9: The LORD said to Joshua, ‘Today I have rolled away from you the reproach of the past, the disgrace of Egypt.' And so that place is called Gilgal to this day. You've heard that saying, "Don't cry over spilt milk." Right? Yes, wipe it up. Yes, clean up the mess. Yes, learn from your mistakes so that you won't spill the milk again, but don't just stand there and wish you hadn't spilt the milk, and spend the rest of your life living in that one moment of failure, because you can't un-spill the milk. That just doesn't make sense. This Jesus came to set you free from the past, to bind up your broken heart, to give you a vision for the future, a new set of eyes to see, a new set of ears to hear, and a new life to live. Jesus came to lift the reproach of the past off your shoulders, so that it won't cause you any more stress. Come on. There are enough things out there for you to stress out over without your health, without these false feelings of inadequacy, and without your hurts from the past doing it all for you. Do you think? The Stress of not Enough It seems to me that there are three basic resources that you and I need to get by each day: Time, money, and expertise; and when we're short of any of those three basic resources – time, money, or expertise, that can cause us enormous amounts of stress. Let's start by looking at time. I don't know when the term time-poor started to fall into common usage, but these days, you hear it a lot. People are time-poor. In fact, once you have enough money to cover the basics in your life, time becomes an even more valuable commodity than money, and for many people, time is way too short. ‘If only I had a few extra hours in every day!' I've heard people say. Really? The more affluent we become, the more options we have for spending our time. Take social media. Right at the moment, eleven percent of the world's population are active Facebook-users. Just think about that for a minute, and they are collectively spending seven hundred billion minutes on Facebook each month. That's 1.33 million person-years every month on Facebook, and that doesn't count watching TV and all the other entertainment options available to us. No wonder we're time-poor! So what's changed? Why have we, all of a sudden, become time-poor? ‘Cos we're trying to cram too much into our day. We're always connected. We're always working and chatting, and we've forgotten how to have disconnected, quiet down-time. If that's you, if you're burning the candle at both ends, something has to give, otherwise the stress is going to kill you. Really, and in case you're one of these workaholics, who just has to work eighteen hours a day otherwise civilisation as we know it is going to come to an end, here's a different perspective – God's perspective. Psalm 127:1-2: Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. Unless the LORD guards the city, the guards keep watch in vain. It's in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for God gives sleep to His beloved. It's simply not God's plan for you to live like that, and I've recorded a whole series of messages on that called "It's Time to Stop Labouring in Vain". You'll find it in the Resources section of our website, ChristianityWorks.com. Now the second thing that causes us stress is a lack of money. Sometimes that's because people simply don't have enough money to get by, but sometimes, it's because we squander the money that we do have on impulse buys or on things we don't need; on food that we bought, and then because of our bad management, it goes off in the fridge, so we throw it out. I want to deal with wastage first because that's criminal. With people starving in the world, wasting money on stuff that we just don't need is criminal, but the problem is that advertisers have it down to a fine art. They seem to be able to get us to part with our money like nothing else, so the question you have to ask yourself, the thing that's going to get you to change your mind, is whether the stress of this is worth it; whether having all those things makes you happy or, at the end of the day, makes you stressed. 1 Timothy 6:9-10: Those who want to be rich end up falling into temptation, and they're trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich, some have wandered away from their faith and pierced themselves with many pains. So ask yourself, "Is it really worth it for me? Really?" Or is it time to get your house in order? Is it time to get money-wise? And again, I've recorded a whole series called, "How to be Money-Wise" that you'll find in the Living in Victory section of the Resources library at ChristianityWorks.com. Sort that out, and the stress goes away. Believe you me, it's worth it. And for those who are poor, desperately poor, let me say this to you: In fact not me, but Jesus. Matthew 6:31-33: Don't worry, saying, ‘What am I going to eat?' or, ‘What am I going to drink?' or, ‘What am I going to wear?' For it's the Gentiles who strive after all these things, and indeed your heavenly Father already knows that you need them all. But strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. God knows what you need, and He will provide it for you. So, Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. But in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. Your God will surely provide for you, and once you learn to trust Him to do the things you can't do and provide the things that you need that you can't acquire for yourself, the stress will be replaced by the most amazing peace and assurance. Finally, the other thing that causes us stress when we're without it is expertise. When I look at the ministry of ChristianityWorks that produces these radio-programmes, ok, I'm the front guy; you hear my voice, but without Max on the opposite side of the glass here in the studio and our dedicated team around the world, there simply wouldn't be any radio-programmes. One of the biggest things that you and I can do to cause ourselves stress is not to value and recognise the different abilities and capabilities of the people around us because when we don't cherish them, they desert us. I see this all the time: Leaders who think everybody should be exactly like them, so they drive their people hard and all of a sudden, there's no one left to lead. A true leader recognises other people's gifts and abilities. A true leader encourages and empowers people to be all that they can be, and whether we're leaders or not, we need other people around us who will co-operate in getting things done; because without them, we are going to be under stress with a capital S; because without them, we have to do the things that they're good at, and those things are invariably stuff that we're not good at. There's something incredibly stressful about being a square peg in a round hole. If I had to do Max's job here in the studio, I couldn't do it, and I've tried to get Max on the other side of the glass in front of the microphone, and he's not real keen on that either; because that's not his gig, just as much as what he does is not my gig. It's easy to be stressed by not having enough: Enough time, enough money, or enough expertise. But when we lean on God – hey; when we really trust in Him (come on, really), the stress starts to go away because what we discover is that God provides richly for those whom He loves. He just does. So if you're struggling under the stress of not enough, listen again, please, to this passage from Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In other words, don't look at the problem and keep turning the problem over in your mind, and just seeing the problem which then appears to be bigger than God. Instead, trust in the LORD with all your heart! Don't lean on your own understanding. And in all your ways acknowledge Him, and God will straighten out your paths. God will make it happen. God loves you. Do you get that? God absolutely loves you, and often we are going to be confronted with things that are much bigger than us. Pressure is different from stress. Pressure is out there; stress is our reaction to it, and God doesn't want you stressing out.
Many people are prepared to accept that God exists, even that He has the ability to bless us – or at least bless other people. But when they look at their own lives, well the reality doesn't appear to match up with the promise. What's going on here? The Blessing of Here and Now I sometimes think that Jesus would have benefited from the services of a good Public Relations consultant - you know, a spin doctor to dress up some of the difficult messages He had to get across. Take this one for instance: Matthew chapter 16, verses 24 and 25: Jesus told His disciples, “If any want to become my followers let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it and those who lose their life for my sake, will find it.” I mean, that picture of a cross is a brutal one. It's a picture of being nailed to a cross and dying a gruesome death. If any want to become my disciples then let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me. I mean, "Give me a break! Who wants to follow someone like that? I want to be healthy, wealthy and wise. I want to live on easy street! Take up my cross?? You have to be kidding me." Yes, Jesus could have used the services of a good P.R. consultant to get some spin on His message – to make it more palatable. No wonder it says in John's Gospel that many turned away from Him. Have a listen: John chapter 6, beginning at verse 63: It is the spirit that gives life; and the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that would not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one comes to me unless it is granted by the Father.” Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. Yep, Jesus definitely needed a spin doctor. And you know something? I so often hear people speaking about Jesus – whether it's a preacher preaching or a person telling me what Jesus is doing in their lives and what I hear is not about this gritty, authentic Jesus who was prepared to lose followers, in a world where the measure of a Rabbi's success – a key performance indicator, if you will – was the number of followers or disciples he had. But Jesus was prepared to lose followers because He wouldn't play by the world's rules. He never let them squeeze Him into their mould. You know, they were looking for a Messiah; a King like David; a powerful warrior to raise up an army and drive the Romans out of this, their Promised Land. That's what Israel was believing for, when Jesus came on the scene. After He miraculously fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fishes, the crowds wanted to grab Him and appoint Him King. Can you imagine that? He has been wandering around out there in the fields, speaking to and wooing the crowds, performing some amazing miracles, here he is – this obscure carpenter from Nazareth … Nazareth of all places; “Does anything good come from there?” And finally, Jesus hits the big time! He is pulling some serious crowds! Finally, they recognise how good He really is and they want to make Him King. Woo hoo!! So what does Jesus do? John chapter 6, verse 15: When Jesus realised they were about to come and take him by force to make him King, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. He withdraws! "Jesus … Jesus, what's the matter with You? You've made it – success at last. What are You doing?" He didn't need just a spin doctor; He needed a couple of good strategic planning consultants, as well. And He continued His journey … His inexorable journey to that ugly, brutal cross, where He was nailed and left to suffocate, hanging by the nails through His hands and His feet. He tells us why He did it. He tells us in this outrageous promise, why He did that. Listen again with me – John chapter 10. Verse 10: The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. He did this contrary to the thief, this thief who comes only to steal and kill and destroy. He did it that we may have life … real life and have it abundantly. Literally, it says in the original Greek language that sits aback of our English translation – "super-abundantly". Now, He wasn't talking here just about eternal life. Sure, He came that we could have eternal life and that's something we are going to be looking at later, but He is talking about our lives here and now. And in this passage He is painting a stark contrast between the imposter and the truth. Let's listen to a bit more of what He has to say. John chapter 10, beginning at verse 1: Truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So again Jesus said, “Truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. Do you see the contrasts in this passage: the real shepherd and the impostor; the true shepherd and the stranger; the good shepherd and the hired hand; Jesus and the thief who comes only to steal and kill and destroy? One sharp contrast after another. The real thing is Jesus and the impostor is the devil – the thin hollow promises of this world. And it's only the True Shepherd who brings abundant life and we know Him because He's the One who is prepared to lay down His life for the sheep. So we can bow down to the impostor, just as the devil said to Jesus when he dangled the kingdoms of this world under Jesus nose. Luke chapter 4, verses 6 and 7: To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then,” he said to Jesus, “will worship me, it will all be yours. We can bow down to that, but the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. Or we can obtain this abundant life by living out this truth: Jesus answered therefore, “It is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him alone. That's where the abundant life, that Jesus came to bring us, is to be found. The choice, however, the choice is ours and it's a choice that has not just eternal consequences – it has those for sure and we are about to look at them after the break – but it has here and now consequences as well. Jesus was talking about a shepherd and his flock, about the protection and the peace and the safety that we can have in His flock, here and now. Man, people are letting the devil plunder their lives, rob them of life, rob them of abundance, when all along, life in all its abundance is available here and now, through Jesus. And I ask myself, "Why would you do that? Why would you want to waste your life, dancing with the devil, into a Christ-less eternity, suffering all the pain of that deceptive dance along the way, when Jesus came to give us life and to give it to us in all its abundance? I mean, why would you want to do that?" The Blessing of Then and There Well, we had a look earlier at the blessing that God wants us to have, here and now. But the days of our lives tick by very quickly, don't they? You wake up and it's Monday morning and the whole week is ahead and before we know it, it's Friday again, heading into another weekend. And whether you just prayed that prayer with me during the break, or whether giving your life to Jesus is something you did years ago, or whether it's something you still haven't done yet, our time here on this earth is running out with every tick of the clock. It seems to me that the weeks are slipping by ever more quickly. You blink and they're gone and before you know it, another year is gone and we are into the New Year, and pretty much, we'll blink and this one will be gone too. It's like a video of a merry-go-round and someone speeds it up and before you know it that little merry-go-round is spinning around at a million miles an hour, and one day "BANG" with little or no warning – it stops! This little merry-go-round, called my "life" and your "life" stops – dead! Life on this earth will come to an end. I was listening to an interview on the radio the other day of a woman who woke up next to her husband because the radio alarm was going off in the morning and he hadn't reached over to turn it off. Well, there was a reason for that – he died of a heart attack in the bed next to her in the middle of the night. It makes you squirm because a lot of cultures, particular Western cultures, we are not so good at talking about death and coping with death, even though death is very much part of life, here on this earth. "What's the matter with Berni today," you might be thinking to yourself – "why is he going so morose on us?" Not really. Over the last few weeks we have been talking about the promise that Jesus made to give us an abundant life. John chapter 10, verse 10: The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. And when you look at it, that promise is a life and death promise, isn't it? The thief; the enemy; the devil comes only to steal and kill and destroy … to steal and kill and destroy, but Jesus came that we might have life and have it abundantly. See the contrast? Death and life! It's a contrast between an abundant life that Jesus wants to give us and the death the devil is hell-bent on delivering at our doorstep. Life and death. We live our lives believing that they will go on forever – that we'll never get sick and we'll never die. Of course, the facts are, that unless Jesus returns first, you and I are going to die, there's no denying that. But denying it is absolutely what we do, day to day. We sweep death under the carpet as though it's never going to happen to us – always knowing deep inside that it will, but trying to ignore that inconvenient truth. Life is for living, right? Who needs to talk about death and think about death? And so we try and squeeze as much out of life as we can, even if it's not all that satisfying, in the vain hope that we will stave off the inevitable, death, as long as we can. I used to be petrified of dying – absolutely petrified. I just couldn't fathom that I would have to let go of this life here on earth one day, or at least, that it would let go of me. And the thought of what, if anything, lay on the other side of the grave was just horrid. Either there was nothing and I would lose everything with the last breath or there was a God and indeed a heaven and a hell. Man, I was in serious trouble in that department. So I put my head down; I just concentrated on the here and now, living life, squeezing everything out of it that I could. And no, it wasn't satisfying. A decade and a half ago, something happened to change all this and it happened without me noticing it. A decade and a half ago I gave my life to Jesus. Now I noticed that bit – but without me realising it my fear of death evaporated overnight. I first realised it when I was flying in a plane to New Zealand. It was incredibly bumpy and rough flight and in the middle of this terrible landing in – wait for it – Christchurch, I all of a sudden I realised, I wasn't gripping my seat anymore; I wasn't afraid. I'd lost my fear of dying! Have a listen to what the Apostle Paul writes on this subject – it comes from First Corinthians chapter 15, verses 51 to 58: "Listen,” writes Paul, “I'll tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain. There it is – eternal life! The one thing we had all hoped for, delivered by Jesus through His death on the cross and His resurrection. What could be more abundant than that? I mean, it's great that we can have a rich and abundant life amidst all the trials of life here on earth. That's what we have been chatting about these last few weeks on the programme. Fantastic!! But the abundance; the overflow, goes beyond the grave, for ever and ever and ever and ever! And that knowledge … that knowledge of an eternal life is supposed to make a difference; a huge difference to how we live our lives here and now. Look at that last bit of that passage from First Corinthians 15 again: Therefore, because of what I have just told you about eternal life: Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain. In other words, the knowledge of eternity is meant to impact our lives, here and now, because it changes everything. It gives us hope, it gives us resolve, because at the end of this life there is something worth having; something worth more than absolutely anything and everything that this world has to offer – a life eternal. And yet, we are all so busy – head down, pedalling hard – that we have completely lost sight of the finishing line. And that finishing line is something, not to be afraid of but to look forward to. That finishing line is the best thing that can ever happen to us. Listen again to Paul, the Apostle. Philippians chapter 1, verses 21 to 24: “For to me,” writes Paul, “living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ for that is far better but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. You see this, Paul is not afraid of dying. Paul is torn between this life and an eternity with Christ. Not just does he have an eternal life foremost in his thinking, but he is literally torn between the two. Do you know what I think the Lord is saying to you and me as we are totally immersed in our respective here's and now's? He is saying, “Wake up, something much better is coming.” Again, Paul, Colossians chapter 3, beginning at verse 1. He says: So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on this earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Come on, wake up! Something much better is coming. Live life focused on eternity; with an eternal perspective because that is going to add a richness and an abundance and an anticipation that is better than anything this world has to offer. Come on, wake up! Journey in My Shoes Well, we have been talking about this abundant life in Jesus over these last weeks and we are almost at the end of that. And as I reflect on our journey together through God's Word, it seems to me that, well, this life in all its abundance can be an illusory concept. Something in a sense that we are content to hear some joker on the radio talk about because it makes us feel good and something that we are content to agree with, that Jesus could do that and He probably does do this "abundant life" thing for other people, in their lives but something that for many, well, it's never entered their minds, that this promise could possibly be for them. The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they might have life and have it abundantly. Friend, I'm here to tell you – He absolutely means it for you! We are so conditioned to chasing the things of this world, some of us, that we have lost sight of the things of God. I was definitely like that. For most of my life, reality for me was the wealth that I could accumulate on this earth. Reality for me was being happy, only it didn't really. I would sweep death under the carpet because I was too scared to think about it. And so I could hear the promise of an abundant life but it never meant anything to me. I was like that rich man that Jesus talked about in this parable: The land of the rich man produced abundantly and he thought to himself, “What shall I do for I have no place to store my crops?” And he said, “I'll do this – I'll pull down my barn, I'll build bigger ones and there I'll store my grain and my goods and I'll say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years, relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! For this very night your life is being demanded of you and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is for those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God. "The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy" – The thief is a deceiver; a liar; he robs us of the rich abundant life that Jesus came to give us. He robs us of life itself. As each day goes by, I have been walking with Jesus for a decade and a half, to this point – as each day goes by, I discover more and more this reality that richness is something we get from God. The blessings of righteousness, peace and joy are something that nobody in this world and nothing in this world have been able to offer me. And the more I get into God's Word, the more I discover the reality of who He is through Jesus Christ, the more I let the Holy Spirit scrape the muck out of me that God calls sin, the more this life in all its abundance is the reality that I am living out with my life. Oh and please don't give me this cop-out, "Well, Berni, you are a preacher on the radio. Of course, the promise is meant for you." Don't give me that because when the Good Shepherd came to me, I was a sheep that was lost far more than most. I was a man full of pride and success on the one hand, but suffering through the deepest failures of life on the other. If you could have seen me back then, you would never have picked me for what I am doing now and you would never have thought that Jesus promise of life, in all its abundance could possibly have been for me. That's the truth – it's the cold, hard reality. And yet by God's amazing … utterly and completely amazing grace, I can now tell you that I am like the man who found a treasure in a field. The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which someone found and hid and then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. My life – I'm completely sold out to Jesus. Not because I'm so great and clever guy but because the life He has given me is abundant. The life He has given me is exactly what Jesus promised – an abundant life! Imagine - He gave it to me – imagine!!
Most of us want to be happy, so we go looking for happiness …. everywhere. No stone left unturned, only to discover that we can't find lasting happiness. Because at the end of the day – happiness isn't what we're looking for. It's joy that we're after. The Blessing of Righteousness Over the last few weeks we have been having a discussion on this programme about the promise that Jesus made; an outrageous promise, in fact, of an abundant life. Here it is, have another listen, John chapter 10, verse 10: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. And I guess that the reason that it's so outrageous is that firstly, Jesus is saying that His purpose in coming to this earth, in stepping out of heaven into the physical dimension, taking on flesh, becoming a man, dying on the cross, rising again – all that – the reason He did that was what? “That we may have life and have it abundantly.” And it is for us because this promise is made in the context of a parable, where Jesus is the Good Shepherd; the True Shepherd and we are His flock. It's a beautiful picture with a deep and rich meaning to the agrarian audience to which He said it, back in the first century. "An abundant life", but what does that mean? I had a student ask me that once when I was lecturing at a Bible College. I was rabbiting on about this "abundant life" thing as though the idea of an abundant life was completely obvious to everyone. And one of the students, a woman in her sixties, asked me, she said, "But Berni, what is an abundant life?" You know something, I think that is a really, really good question. A little while ago we aired a teaching series called, “Financially Secure Once and for All”. It was all about the fact that God means us not to find our security in money; in wealth but in Him. However much we may have or may not have when it comes to financial wealth. Now, I was interested in the response of one man to that. He sent me a sharp email, declaring that he couldn't support anyone who preaches the prosperity doctrine. You know that false idea that if you believe in God in the right way and give lots of your money away to whoever is preaching that day, you will be rich. God will make you healthy, wealthy and wise, with a big house, big car, and a great job – on easy street! It's a false idea and we should have nothing to do with that because it puts our own wealth at the heart of things, rather than God's glory. And that is not – simply NOT what we are called to do. Anyhow, the point of me telling you this story is that, the moment I open my mouth about financial security, the man who wrote me that sharp email, assumed that I was talking about monetary blessing from God. But that was, in fact, the complete opposite of what I talked about in that teaching series. What I was talking about ‘God security' irrespective of the size of the bank balance, we might or might not have. And I wonder whether that isn't the obvious thing to fall into, precisely the same wrong assumption when we start talking about "an abundant life in Jesus"? That abundance must mean, well, healthy, wealthy and wise – easy street! And so people look at their lives and think, "Well, you know, I don't fall into the healthy, wealthy and wise category. I'm on struggle-street, not easy street. My life definitely is not all good or hunky dory, therefore this promise must either be false or for someone else." Do you see my point? We can be like that man who sent that email – we judge Jesus wrongly; we judge what He said from a worldly standpoint, rather than from a godly one. Back in the early church in the first century, a controversy arose about what foods they could eat and what drinks they could drink. Remember, early Christians mostly came out of Judaism with its legal demands about a whole range of things including food and drink. And the Apostle Paul was addressing this controversy in a letter to the Roman church. And the crux of what he had to say was this, Romans chapter 14, verse 17. He said: For the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. In other words, boys and girls, stop looking at this whole thing from a worldly viewpoint, because in so doing you are completely missing the point. God's Kingdom isn't a physical thing – it's something that happens inside you when you lay your life down; lay down your worldly desires, lay don't everything you want, for Jesus. It's about righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. We will look at each of those today, starting right now with righteousness, because that's the heart of an abundant life. Righteousness is a word that is bandied around a lot in Christian circles at least, and used almost never anywhere else. So what does it actually mean, "righteousness"? It means ‘a right standing with God'; it means the state that we should be in; the condition in which we are acceptable to a holy God. Now, we have all sinned and rebelled against God. That means there's an enmity; a hostility between us and God but the moment we accept Jesus, the forgiveness we have through His sacrifice on that cross, there is peace. Because the debt for our sin, which is death, has been paid by Him and now through our faith in Him and what He has done, God sees us are righteous. Just as the criminal, who has paid his debt in prison, once released, is now right with the law; so we are right with God through our faith in Jesus. That's why elsewhere in his letter to the Roman church, Paul has this to say, Romans chapter 5, verse 1: Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we now stand. See, we are back where we should be. We are justified; ‘made right,' through our faith in Jesus Christ and so we have peace with God through Him. The war is over; the battle is over; the enmity between us and God is over; the running away from God is over. And then, does Jesus say, "Well, okay. Now, keep on doing all the things you were doing wrong – that's fine, that's not a problem?" No! Just as He said to the woman caught in adultery, whom the crowds had condemned and wanted to stone to death. In John chapter 8, verse 11, Jesus said to her: … neither do I condemn you. Now, go your way and from now on, do not sin again. So, we are forgiven, back in relationship with God and then we are called to go and live out our lives and stop doing the things that have caused the problem in the first place. That's "righteousness", right there. Something that God gives us as a free gift through Jesus Christ – a right standing with Him and then something that we are called to live out in our lives. That's what Jesus came to give us, an abundant life! A life that begins with God's righteousness given freely to us and that then continues in that righteousness and there … right there is the blessing, because sin has its consequences. Sin is the thief that comes only to steal, kill and destroy but Jesus came that we may have life … real life, in all its abundance - righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The Blessing of Peace We are looking today at Jesus' outrageous promise of an abundant life. John chapter 10, verse 10: "The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came,” said Jesus, “that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Righteousness (we looked at that earlier) peace and joy in the Holy Spirit – those three are, in a nutshell, what the Kingdom of God brings to our lives. They are a fountain of blessing. And that little troika is put together not by me, but by the Apostle Paul, in dealing with the controversy over religious rules to do with food and drink that was raging back in the first century church. And in responding to that in his letter to the Romans he is saying, "Guys, guys, you have got a hold of the wrong end of the stick! Don't you get it? The Kingdom of God isn't about food and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." That's the context and that's why we are focusing on it today because in exactly the same way as some people were taking a "human; worldly" perspective of God's Kingdom, over a bunch of religious rules, back then, you and I can easily take a worldly view of this promise of an abundant life, through our consumer oriented, twenty first century mindset. I mean, when you hear the promise of an abundant life, what's the first thing that springs to mind? Enough money to get by? Being able to have a few of those luxuries? Aaah, easy street! I mean, that's the natural reaction, right? But is not what Jesus was saying. As I said earlier, this promise of an abundant life, comes set in a parable of a shepherd and his sheep, who lived in a difficult and dangerous world out there in search of pasture, where thieves often came and wild animals came to ravage the flock and where sometimes, the shepherd had to lay down his life for his sheep. There is nothing "easy street" about that, I can tell you. But if we stopped and thought about this whole ‘abundant life' thing for just a little while and thought, well, if I want an abundant life, what would be right up there … right up on the top of my list, numbers one, two and three, I think we might come up with the same list. 1. Righteousness – a right standing with God, finally; the enmity between us and God is gone. Finally, the threat of eternal judgement is gone. Finally, we are where we are meant to be – back in relationship and right standing with God. That is righteousness. 2. Peace – is there anyone here who doesn't want peace on every side of their lives; the absence of strife? 3. Joy – a deep delight that springs out of our relationship with God; a joy that transcends the ups and downs of life - a deep joy that's there 24/7. But right now we are going to focus on the second one of these, peace! And again, remember, we are not talking here from a worldly perspective, we are taking a godly view. And that's exactly what Jesus instructed His disciples to do when He gave them His peace. He was about to be crucified. The disciples knew that – they were in fear for their own lives as well. It was a scary, scary time. They had been following this amazing Jesus around for three and a half years – the miracles, the teaching, the crowds and now, all of a sudden, the dark cloud of death hung over their decision to follow Jesus. And Jesus says to them – He says, in John chapter 14, verse 27: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not let them be afraid. Do you see this "peace", not from the world's perspective; not the way the world gives it to you. He says, "Take My peace; My deep inner peace." The security; the safety that comes from being one of Jesus disciples - the sort of peace that sheep have when they are safe in the protection of their one true shepherd – the shepherd who is prepared to lay his life down for them. And the clear thing that Jesus is saying to them is, Look, My peace isn't the same as the peace the world offers you. That's why your heart shouldn't be troubled; that's why you don't have to be afraid. And as I have said previously, that promise of an abundant life – John chapter 10, verse 10, comes set in this story of a difficult, dangerous journey in the existence of a shepherd with his sheep. It comes set in the realities … the cold, hard reality of life and it's for that reason that you and I need peace because life is not always what we want it to be. Without that sort of peace we can't have an abundant life, can we? As I look back on my decade and a half now of walking with Jesus, through thick and thin, through some great places and some places that look very much like that valley of the shadow of death, that the Psalmist talks about in Psalm 23. His peace is one of the things that I value most about my relationship with Jesus – a peace that lasts, through every situation because it's His peace; it's His way, not the world's peace; the world's way. Paul, the Apostle, in Philippians chapter 4, writes about a peace that surpasses all understanding; the peace from God that guards our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Can I tell you – I so relate to that because so often this peace from Jesus just doesn't make sense? It completely defies logic and surpasses understanding because there are times when I should be afraid; I should be panicking; I should be running around like a chicken with my head cut off, but instead … instead I have a deep peace. Psalm 23, verse 4: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. That's the peace that Jesus brings! Friend, it is better … better than any bauble or any trinket that this world has to offer – this deep inner peace from God. A peace delivered into our very beings by the Holy Spirit, Himself. And it's a peace that only comes when we first have a right standing with God, through Jesus. That's why Paul, in his list of three things that the Kingdom of God is about, kicks it off with righteousness first, then peace because peace flows out of the relationship that we have with God, through Jesus. And then … then, once we have the relationship with God and the peace that comes out of that, the next thing; the icing on the cake is joy – the joy of the Lord. The Blessing of Joy You ask people this question: "What do you want out of your life?" And ninety nine percent of them will answer, "Well, you know, I want to be happy." And why not? After all who wants to be sad all the time? Who wants to live out their lives in darkness when the light of happiness beckons, just around the corner? But, you know, happiness isn't always what life dishes up, is it? As much as we want to be happy all the time, it just doesn't work out that way. In fact, happiness can be illusive because it depends on our circumstances; things going on around us. I mean, we are not happy when we are sick or when someone is giving us a hard time, or when we are struggling financially or when we are having an argument or a fight. I mean, you can't be happy at those times. So as much as it is something just about everyone aspires to, happiness is not all that it is cracked up to be. Happiness is linked to our circumstances and when we say we want to be happy all the time, what we are really saying is that we want all of our circumstances to be favourable – easy street, that's happiness. Well, my friend, life isn't like that. Mine isn't and yours isn't. We might have short times on easy street, but most of life isn't like that. And so, then we come back to looking at this promise that Jesus made about an abundant life and it's easy to imagine it's a sham; it's an unrealistic promise – the sort that politicians make before an election, only to renege once we have voted for them. I'm not saying all politicians' promises are like that, but you understand what I'm saying. In my country, at least, many promises are made during an election campaign, which never eventuate. And so happiness is a bit like that – a mirage in a desert. It can be illusory. John chapter 10, verse 10: The thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. But I came … I came that you may have life and have it abundantly. Surely, if I am going to have an abundant life just as Jesus promises here, surely I have to be happy, right? Well, in unpacking and understanding this promise so far today, we have been looking at how Paul, the Apostle, summed up what the Kingdom of God is about. People back then, when Jesus and later the disciples, were going around talking about the Kingdom of God, well, people kind of imagined that it was something physical, there was the Roman Empire - that was THE kingdom. But there had been other kingdoms before that so they were expecting Jesus to come, riding in on His shiny white steed, with His sword held high, leading a mighty army to boot the Romans out of Israel. That pretty much is what the Kingdom of God kind of painted to them; the picture that they thought of but Jesus had a completely different take, as Jesus often does. Luke chapter 17 and verse 20 – have a listen to this: Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees, when the Kingdom of God was coming and he answered, “The Kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” for in fact, the Kingdom of God is among you. So when it comes to Jesus coming to this earth in order that you could have a life and I could have a life, that we could live out abundantly, it makes sense to me not to look at from that human perspective, the way the Pharisees were, but from the perspective of God's Kingdom. And this is why we have been unpacking Paul's nutshell of what the Kingdom of God is all about – Romans chapter 14, verse 17 – Paul writes: For the Kingdom of God is not about food or drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Well, so far today on the programme we've looked at the first two of those: righteousness – a right standing with God, we live out in our relationship with Him and peace – the sort of peace that Jesus brings; the sort of peace that doesn't make sense; that surpasses all human understanding. But what about this third one; what about joy? You know what? I spent the first thirty six years of my life looking for happiness. I left no stone unturned in my quest for this happiness thing – wealth, a big house, expensive cars, marriage, children, status, career, fame, recognition, winning at everything I set my hand to – it was all about winning for me back then. Believe you me, I looked under every rock. I was persistent. And other than some fleeting experiences of happiness, I never found it. Why? Because unbeknown to me, I wasn't so much yearning for happiness, I was yearning for something much deeper; something more lasting and abiding. What I was after was "joy". And joy is different to happiness, in that, it doesn't rely on our circumstances. It doesn't come from out there, joy comes from within, from among us, from in our midst. It's a well inside us that bubbles up, no matter what is going on, on the outside. I have experienced joy on some of the darkest days in my life. Now you can't experience happiness at those times. To be happy, things out there have to be on the up and up – the sun has to be shining. But I have experienced great joy, right, smack bang in the middle of great pain. How? Why? Because it's a joy that comes from God and that well never runs dry. Let's listen again to what the Apostle Paul wrote, that the Kingdom of God was all about – Romans chapter 14, verse 17: For the Kingdom of God is neither food or drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. You see, the righteousness, peace and joy come when we are immersed in the Holy Spirit. They come from God through the Spirit, not from us. And Jesus describes how this works in John chapter 7, beginning at verse 37: Jesus was standing there and he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and let the one who believes in me, drink. As the Scripture has said, ‘out of the believers heart will flow rivers of living water.'” Now he said this about the Spirit, which believers in him were to receive; for as yet there was no Spirit, because Jesus was not yet glorified. The joy of the Lord, which comes from His Spirit within us, is like that. It bubbles up and then it flows out of the centre of who we are, out of our hearts, like rivers – not a tiny little stream, not even a modest or large river but rivers, a Nile and a Ganges and a Mississippi and a Rhine and an Amazon – rivers of living water. The Holy Spirit, with His righteousness, peace and joy, flows up out of us like a … like a flood tide of blessing from rivers of living water, into the lives of other people when we yield our lives; when we turn them back and live them for God. That's what the Kingdom of God is! And do you know what this overflow sounds like to me? It sounds like life in all its abundance and that's exactly what Jesus promised.
With all that life throws at us, not to mention our own foibles and quirks, it's easy to end up with quite a distorted view of what God our Father means when He talks about His blessing in our lives. What Jesus means when He talks about giving us an abundant life. The Child in the Father's House We are chatting together this week on the programme about living out the abundant life that Jesus promised us, a life overflowing with His grace and mercy and love and peace and joy and blessing. By that we don't always mean abundant finances or complete safety. God has a tendency not to wrap us in cotton-wool but to be with us out there in the middle of life – in the good times and the bad – with His presence, which is what gives us that sense of overflow; that sense of abundance. It's funny how most of us, in our heart of hearts, desire a life that's, well, perfect, blessed in every way: every relationship perfect, finances perfect, home-life perfect, our own sense of self perfect … everything perfect. But life just isn't like that. In fact, as you and I think back on our lives thus far, chances are that there are very few times, if ever, where we could tick the box in every part of our lives as having been perfect. And yet somehow, we yearn secretly, even subconsciously, for this time in our lives when everything will be just perfect. And the mere fact that it isn't can be so disappointing to many. And yet, I come back to the fact that Jesus promised this abundant life, not wrapped away somewhere in cottonwool, but out there in this precarious, sometimes threatening place that we call ‘life'. This is in fact, what He said – beginning at John chapter 10, verse 1: Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So again Jesus said to them, “Look, truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. As we saw last week, the life of a shepherd and the lives of the sheep back there in the first century, were indeed, precarious. As the shepherd would take his flock out onto the rocky plateau of Israel, in search of pasture, there were many threats – thieves, wild animals – and it wasn't unusual for the shepherd to have to defend his sheep; sometimes with his own life. And interestingly, in that beautiful prayer that Jesus prayed just before He was crucified, He actually said this about you and me, to His Father: John chapter 17, beginning at verse 12: While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them and not one of them was lost, except the one destined to be lost so that the scripture might be fulfilled. Verse 15: I am not asking you to take them out of this world but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. In other words: Dad, let's not take them out of all these situations and wrap them up in cotton-wool but rather, let's be with them and protect them from the evil one. Do you see how different God's perspective is? His promise is for an abundant life not a perfect one. And I have to tell you, as I have sat and thought about that a lot; it makes an enormous amount of sense. I'm a father; I have children – I love them very dearly. When they were young they lived with my wife Jacqui and me in our house, under our care and protection and with our provision. And that's right: that's why God gives us children, that's why He gives children parents. But there comes a time, in fact, it starts quite early, where as they grow up, we as good parents give them more and more responsibility for themselves, because one of the main parts of growing up is shifting the responsibility for their care from their parents to the children, as they become capable of accepting that responsibility. It's not always easy. It's one of the reasons that those teenage years can be so stressful because often teenagers – I know this was true of me – want to behave like children but still be treated like adults. In other words, they still want parents to do all the things that the parents ever did for them when they were little children, whilst at the same time, giving them all the freedoms that an adult has. Now there is tension, with a capital "T". They, in effect, want the best of both worlds – the perfect life. Sound familiar? And it's the same often, in our relationship with God. We want Him to fix everything; make everything perfect in our lives, whilst at the same time, we do things that don't honour Him that have consequences. And yet He is the perfect Father. Have a listen again to Romans chapter 8, beginning at verse 12: So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father”, it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ — if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. One of the most beautiful passages in the Bible, because it puts everything into perspective to me. Sometimes in the cut and thrust and the hurts of life, we lose our heavenly perspective; we lose sight of the fact that God is indeed our Father. In fact, Jesus called Him, “Abba”, which literally means, “Dad”. If we live our lives for Him; if we choose to be led by the Spirit of God, rather than by the desires of our own flesh, then we are indeed children of God and deep down, if we will let Him, the Spirit of God witnesses to us that we are His children – the children of the living God – and that means something. It means what Jesus prayed for you and me, back there in the Garden of Gethsemane. It means God's protection from the evil one rather than being wrapped in cotton-wool. I have to tell you, I for one would hate to be wrapped by God in cotton-wool, because I want to experience life and all that it's meant to be. That means sometimes we get hurt; that means sometimes it's hard; that means sometimes we are challenged. But, all along, God is our Father. Fathers know this – when our children are growing up, we don't stop being their fathers. We don't stop being there to help and advise when they need it. We don't stop caring and one day they will receive their inheritance from us. And it's the same with Dad, God! We are and always will be His children and His protection is always available to us. Can I tell you something? Somewhere in that knowledge, deep within, lies the source of abundance in my life – His abundance, not mine – His abundance in my life. He loves me, He wants me to know Him and to honour Him and to be all that He made me to be. To experience every day that He wrote down in His Book for me, before any of them ever existed. That's where the abundance begins – in our relationship with God; out there in the middle of life. See that story that Jesus told of the shepherd and his sheep: they were out there in this dangerous place, not wrapped away in cotton-wool, not sitting in a business class seat in a plane but out there in the cut and thrust of life. And it's out there that the knowledge of the faithfulness of my God, my Father gives me a sense of abundance that nothing else can give me. Above and Not Below We are looking today at the promise that Jesus made to give us an abundant life. Here it is in case you missed it earlier in the programme, John chapter 10, verse 10: The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that you may have life and have it abundantly. It's a beautiful promise and it's one that's always … it's always really touched my heart. It's a promise from Jesus that I take seriously. He came so that you and I could have life and not just have life, but have it abundantly. Now, "abundance" is an amazing word, isn't it? It means "plenty"; it means "overflow" – a very large quantity of something. But what if I told you that the original Greek word used here for ‘abundance' in John chapter 10 verse 10, literally means "super-abundance" – more than abundant; over the top abundance? Because that's exactly what it means. That's Jesus promise. And yet the promise is made here as a point of comparison – the promise is the second part of the verse. The first part of the verse is about someone else – the thief, he's called here in the story: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. And, in fact, as we have seen, this whole story where Jesus teaches us that He is the Good and True Shepherd of us, the sheep, is about the authenticity of who Jesus is as that Shepherd, verses the sham of the thief. Question is: why did Jesus make this beautiful promise in such a context? Well, of course the thief in the story is the devil and the original Greek word for the devil is "diabolos", which is the word from which we get our English word "diabolical". It means a slanderer; a false accuser. And elsewhere in the New Testament, in Revelation chapter 12 verse 9, the devil is also called "the deceiver" – someone who tricks people and leads them astray; away from the right path; away from truth, into error. That's the devil, here in the story – the thief who comes only to steal and kill and destroy. And so here Jesus presents us with an alternative – the thief or the True Shepherd. Now, you might say to me, "Well, that's no real alternative at all, is it? Who wants a thief who comes only to steal, kill and destroy? I'll have the Good Shepherd thanks, who came to give me a superabundant life." Of course, it's an obvious choice in the light of Jesus parable of the Good Shepherd here – He means for it to be an obvious choice because it is so obvious when you stop and think about it. Problem is we often don't stop; we often don't think about it because the devil doesn't always come to us looking like a thief. You know, like in a black beanie like he just broke out of prison. Quite on the contrary, in fact Second Corinthians chapter 11 verse 14, says: Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Isn't that true? The whole point of temptation is that it's tempting; it's seductive. Evil comes to us, wrapped in a wrapper that cries out to us, "Go on, open me, follow me, take me. I'm good, I'll bless you." The very first deception and temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden was exactly like that. Evil was dressed up as having benefit. That's why it's so diabolical – that's why the devil is a liar and a deceiver and so we are seduced by his lies and all of a sudden we are in the hands of a thief who truly came only to steal, kill and destroy – to rob us of the superabundant life that Jesus came to give us. Do you see the power of this parable? God wants to bless us. God wants to heap His superabundant blessing into our lives, but like any father, when His children are rebelling, He can't bless us because the blessing would reward the rebellion. When my children played up sometimes when they were young, the tap of father's blessing turned off. Sometimes they were punished by the removal of a privilege – no internet access for three months. Why, was I being mean? No! Because I was teaching them right from wrong and the basis of that lesson is that blessing comes when you do right and you lose it when you do wrong. Parents do that because, a) they love their children and b), we are wired by God to be like that. One of the very worst things that we can do – and you see it a lot these days – is to continue to bless our children when they are doing wrong. I want you to have a listen on one of the best explanations linked between obedience and blessing that I ever found in God's Word. It comes from Deuteronomy chapter 28, beginning at verse 1. If you have a Bible, can I encourage you to open up here – this is a really powerful passage – listen carefully to what God says to His people. Deuteronomy 28, beginning at verse 1: If you will only obey the Lord your God, by diligently observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth; all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the Lord your God. Blessed you shall be in the city, and blessed you shall be in your field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your livestock, both the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed you shall be when you come in, and blessed you shall be when you go out. The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing upon your barns, and on all that you undertake; he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. The Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give you. The Lord will open for you his rich storehouse, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all your undertakings. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. The Lord will make you the head, and not the tail; you shall be only at the top, and not at the bottom—if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today, by diligently observing them, and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I am commanding you today, either to the right or to the left, following other gods to serve them. But if you will not obey the Lord your God by diligently observing all his commandments and decrees, which I am commanding you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in your city, and cursed shall you be in your field. And then he goes on to list this whole bunch of not very nice curses. Do you see the causal link between obedience and blessing? Do you see that? And disobedience and the removal of that blessing - just as in any relationship between a parent and a child. But the thing that really strikes me here is the magnitude of the blessing – look at verse 2 again of Deuteronomy 28: All these blessing shall come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God. Don't you love how the blessing will come upon you but it will also overtake you – they will chase you down the street? This is the superabundant life that Jesus spoke about. Verse 13: The Lord will make you the head and not the tail – you shall be at the top and not the bottom if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I am commanding you today, by diligently observing them. Friend, listen God wants to bless us. And that doesn't always mean being rich and wealthy. Jesus wants to bless us with a life that is superabundant and rich so that His blessing chases us down the street and overtakes us. Do you get it? But that blessing happens when we are close to the Good Shepherd, safe in His care. It does not happen when we follow the thief and let him plunder our lives through deception and temptation because remember, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy but Jesus came that you and I might have life and have it abundantly. Our Dad in heaven truly does want us to be the head and not the tail; the top and not the bottom. I mean, what dad wouldn't want that for his children? A Different Perspective You know what I think happens as we grind away at life or at least, life grinds away at us? I think we lose our sense of perspective. We hear these promises from Jesus about an abundant life and then we look at the reality of our own lives – all the trials and temptations tearing away at us – and we come to the conclusion that, well, it may have been possible two thousand years ago to have this so called "abundant life", it may even be possible for other people but this promise definitely is not for me; I mean, can't be! Look at my life, I mean, really!! I said it before and I am going to say it again: His promise is for an abundant life not a perfect one. His promise is that we can have His blessings in the middle of the ups and downs of life. Deuteronomy 28, verse 2: All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God. Verse 13: The Lord will make you the head and not the tail. You shall only be at the top, not the bottom if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I am giving you today by diligently observing them. And how does that work? Well, Jesus told us – John chapter 17, verse 15: I am not asking you Dad, to take them out of this world. I am asking you to protect them from the evil one. See, we are blessed not by God taking us out of this world and wrapping us in cotton-wool, we are blessed in the middle of our lives, just as they are at the moment. We live in an "aspirational" world – by that I mean we are always hoping for something better out of life; we are always expecting things to improve. Sometimes they do but sometimes they don't and sometimes it takes much longer than we would like and so people … many people spend much of their lives grumpy and down and complaining and, before you know it, life has slipped away and we haven't enjoyed the life that God has given us. Friend, God's Word says that the joy of the Lord is our strength – Nehemiah chapter 8, verse 10: The joy of the Lord is our strength. Friend, it's time to start enjoying what we have – like those sheep in the story of the good shepherd. They still had to walk miles over rocky plateaus in search of pasture. Some days it was hot, some days it was cold, some days it was wet and windy and blowing – it wasn't always comfortable. But no matter, that's life; it's how it is. The point was that they were safe because they were with the good shepherd; the one true shepherd who they knew was prepared to lay down his life for them. And so they had peace and security and the deep knowledge of the life-giving love of their shepherd. Friend, that's what an abundant life is. So often in my life, in the past and yes, even now, I am confronted by circumstances that are difficult; circumstances that sometimes are painful; circumstances that I certainly wouldn't have chosen for myself. And the temptation … the temptation is either to curl up in a ball in the corner and give up or to come out punching and hurt other people. Have you ever felt like that? I do some days. I was sitting with a man just yesterday, over coffee, chatting about this very thing. He was going through some difficult things and I shared with him how, in my life – because I choose to spend time each day with Jesus; because I choose, albeit often imperfectly, to believe in Him with my life – I have this constant joy. Okay, sometimes I'm downcast, but it can't last long because the joy of the Lord is my strength. Friend, God is such a good God! He is the True Shepherd and He laid down His life for us. It's a totally different perspective on life and it's a perspective that, to me, has only come as I have developed a real, intimate relationship with Jesus. I believe it's a gift from Him. I believe it's the normative Christian life. I believe that it's not just for the so called ‘super-spiritual' but it's for everyone and the reason so many are missing out is because they haven't taken the step of faith to believe this promise from Jesus with their life. Listen … listen very carefully, Jesus meant it for all the sheep. He meant it for you, He meant it for me. Listen … John chapter 10, verse 10: The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. But I,” said Jesus, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. Friend, that is God's promise for me and for you!!
Life's full of its ups and downs. You and I we know that. Jesus knows that. That's why when He promised us an abundant life, He made that promise in the context of a story, a parable, about life's ups … and downs. The Shepherd and His Flock As we race through life day after day, one of the things that happens is that we somehow get conned or duped into the great lie of our times: if you earn lots of money and you spend it on this and this and this and this – this toy, these clothes, that holiday, this dining experience – if you live your life like that, then you are going to be happy. So, we try it again and again and again. Many spend their whole lives chasing happiness, only to be disappointed at every turn. And before you know it, they are looking back on a wasted life. I mean, how tragic is that? So, what's the answer? I think, as we head into yet another new year, now is not a bad time to be asking that question. What is life all about? What's my life all about? Am I going to be happy this year? And so, that's why today, we are kicking off a new series of programmes that I have called, “An Abundant Life in Jesus”, because so many of us have spent so much of our lives chasing happiness – me included. That's what I was looking for and that's what I could never find. So many of us wish we could be happy and yet we don't really know what happiness is, so we go looking for it in the wrong places. Jesus promised something outrageous to His disciples – to all those who follow hard after Him – He promised them an abundant life. In fact, a super-abundant life! Sounds fantastic, doesn't it? Someone once asked me, ‘What does that mean, an abundant life?' That's a good question. I mean, ‘super-abundant' sounds fantastic but what is it? What does it look like? Well, let's kick off by having a listen to what it is that Jesus actually says, so if you have a Bible, come with me please to John chapter 10 – we are going to begin reading at verse 1. Jesus said: Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep then follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.'” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So again Jesus said, ‘Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. 'The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 'The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.' That's a really interesting passage. It's a beautiful picture of a shepherd and his flock. Back in those days – let me explain the shepherd. The shepherd normally had a small number of sheep, fifty or a hundred sheep and literally, he knew each of them by name. Now sheep aren't stupid animals; they are actually quite bright but they are short sighted so the shepherd calls them and they hear him, they follow the voice; he leads them; he goes ahead of them and his job is to find them pasture and water and keep them safe. Now, being a shepherd was a tradition handed down from father to son. A real shepherd; the true shepherd who owned the sheep would literally protect the sheep with his life from wild animals and robbers. We will look at that later. And they would wander this rocky plateau and in winter he would bring them into the sheep fold, into the town or village by night and all the different shepherd's sheep would be in the one pen. And the next morning, each shepherd in turn would come and call his sheep. And he had a personal relationship with them – the sheep knew his voice and so they would follow just their shepherd, not anyone else's shepherd, just their shepherd and they trusted him and they felt safe with him. So this is the picture that the people had in their minds in the first century as Jesus was telling this story. This winsome picture of the lonely shepherd tending his flock, protecting them with his life - that's what Jesus was drawing on in this story. But did you notice they didn't understand what He was saying. Verse 6 of John chapter 10. Jesus used this figure of speech with them but they did not understand what He was saying to them. You and I, we wander through some difficult places in life – we truly do. When we are young, we think we are invincible; we think we can conquer every mountain, but life soon teaches us that we are more of a small boat on a great big, mighty ocean. And yes, Jesus promises an abundant life – we had it there in that passage. Again we will look at what that means, over the coming weeks. But look at the context … the context of that abundance, is as one of His sheep in His flock under the safety and the care of the True Shepherd. It's this picture of safety and protection and of a Shepherd who did, in fact, lay down His life to save us … to save us from the ravages of the devil; to save us from our own sin; to save us from God's judgement. Storms will come and go, wild animals will come in life and tear at our flesh, thieves will come to steal, kill and destroy, bad things will happen to good people. Is there any one of us who doesn't have something going on in our lives right now, that's hurts - something we wish wasn't there? Is there? Jesus never, ever, ever promised His disciples a comfortable ride - in fact, quite to the contrary. He said to them, at a time when there was fear in their lives, in John chapter 16, verse 33. He said: I have said these things to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you will face persecution but be of good cheer for I have overcome the world. The promise of this abundant life comes not as a promise to make all our circumstances, all our relationships, all our finances, all our futures rosy – that was never, ever what He promised. No! The promise of this abundant life comes to us in the context of the rough and tumble of life; in the context of a shepherd leading his sheep through a rocky plateau to find pasture and dangers all around. As we live our lives under the protection and the safety and the sacrificial love of this One True Shepherd, Jesus, then He says to us, “I came that you may have life and have it abundantly.” And because of the world in which we live, that abundant life was purchased for you and me at a price … at a very great price. The Thief and His Plan I was speaking recently with a group of people. It was a church service on a Sunday morning and I asked them this question. I said, “Is there anybody here in this room today that doesn't have at least one thing going on in their lives that hurts? One thing that they wish wasn't there? One thing that they want God to heal or to change or to solve or to take away? If you don't have at least one such thing in your life, raise your hand up in the air." There would have been, I'm guessing, over a hundred people in the room. Absolutely silence! I cast my eyes around the room – I just allowed the silence to hang there for a moment and not a single hand when up in the air – not one. These were people who believed in Jesus, these were people who had all heard Jesus say: John chapter 10, verse 10, that: The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that you may have life and have it abundantly. They had all heard Jesus promise an abundant life to them. Literally what Jesus says here – the original Greek language – it means a ‘super abundant life' and yet, everyone had something in their lives that was troubling them. And you know what it's like: your whole body can be healthy but you jam your finger in a door and the excruciating pain in that one finger is all that you can think about. The fact that the rest of your life is just fine at that point, is pretty much irrelevant. It's all about the bit that hurts – that's what we focus on. It's true isn't it? It's so easy to live our lives, focusing on that one bit in our life that hurts just at the moment: that difficult relationship, that financial pressure, that problem at work, the worry about what other people are thinking about us. It's pretty much different for each one of us. But when we have that one thing, or perhaps even two or three, that ache, that we wish would just go away - then it can consume us. It actually robs us of life. And as we saw earlier, the context of this promise of an abundant life was the story; the parable of the Good Shepherd - Jesus the Good Shepherd, we the sheep in His flock. Now this was a really familiar metaphor to those who were listening. They knew that the profession of the shepherd was one of honour, one of protecting his sheep. They knew that as a shepherd led his sheep out over the stony plateau of Israel in search of pasture, thieves would come and often attack and try and steal the sheep. Wild animals would sometimes come and attack and steal a sheep to eat for dinner. It was the reality of life for a shepherd and a true shepherd's job was to defend his flock. But let's focus for a moment in this story, on the thief. John chapter 10, verse 10: The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. Jesus is telling a parable here, a parable that's meant to reach into our lives – and the thief in this story is the enemy; the devil; the tempter; the deceiver He had referred to elsewhere. The one who dangles glittering baubles under our noses – trinkets and treasures that are so alluring, so seductive. They appear to promise so much. Can he get us to wander off? And other times … other times he simply comes to attack us: through circumstances, through other people. We see that in Job's story in the Old Testament, how the devil uses financial collapse, sickness, family breakdown, to attack Job. Paul the Apostle gives us a glimpse into the spiritual realm to tell us what's going on when we are under attack from this enemy, this thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy. Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12. He says: ... our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. See, there is a spiritual dimension to life and we ignore it at our peril. There is a devil who is our enemy; who sometimes comes dressed as an angel of light to deceive us. Other times, he sneaks up like a thief or attacks us openly, like a wolf. All that is in the Bible and we ignore it at our own peril. But look with me again, if you will, at what Jesus says about Himself: So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved and will come and go and find pasture. In summer, the shepherds would stay out overnight with their flocks and dotted around the place, were pens that had been built using really dense hedges. So by night, the shepherds would lead his sheep into one of these pens. But those pens had no gate, so he would sleep across the opening and, in effect, the shepherd became the gate – to keep the sheep in overnight, to keep them safe and sound so that none would wander off and to keep the thieves and the wild animals out. He would fight any that came, with his shepherd's staff and with his rod, a kind of club with spikes. He was the gate. He was their safety, so that they could come and go in peace. He gave them protection and so, safety and peace. And that is Jesus in our lives today, my friend. Make no mistake about it. The thief will come to steal and to kill and to destroy, to rob us of the abundant life that Jesus has planned for us. The wild animals will come to tear at our flesh, to corrupt our flesh. And yes, we can wander off in our own directions, but out there on our own, we are sitting ducks. The place of safety is with Jesus. The place of safety is close to our Shepherd – the one true Shepherd who would lay down His life for His sheep. Think about it. If we are constantly being ravaged by the devil, how can we have an abundant life? There are going to be struggles in our lives, and when they come, when things hurt, the place to go is Jesus – the One True Shepherd, the One who lays down His life for His sheep. He is meant to be our refuge. He can and He will protect us. What a pity that so many suffer through things alone when all along Jesus is waiting for them? The thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. "I came,” said Jesus, “that you might have life and have it abundantly.” A Super Abundant Life Happiness is great – it's great to feel on top of the world but then, some of the most satisfying moments in life don't always involve happiness. You can be exhausted; a complete wreck and yet experience a deep sense of satisfaction at what you have just been through or achieved. Or we can experience a deep sense of contentment in life even if all our circumstances and relationships and finances and all those things aren't quite what we want them to be. And we can experience a sense of peace knowing that we are safe, even though we might have some things going on in our lives that might be a threat. Or we can experience fulfilment at being comfortable with who we are and what we are able to do with our lives. And even more, being happy to let go of things that we aspire to, that maybe we are not able to do. Do you see my point? Happiness ain't everything! There are so many other things that go into making a rich and abundant life. And it's that abundance that we are taking a look at today on the programme. And with good reason – an abundant life is something that Jesus promised to His disciples. For me, one of the most fantastic revelations of God and this promise from Jesus of an abundant life, is that everything in my life doesn't have to be going perfectly well for me to be living an abundant life. Let me say that again because I believe it's incredibly important: everything in my life doesn't have to be going perfectly well for me to be having an abundant life. Now, this was a huge revelation because I don't think I can ever remember a single time in my life – maybe a week or two or a month or two, here and there – but over all very few times in my life where absolutely everything was perfect: every relationship, everything to do with my finances, everything to do with my work, everything to do with my hopes and dreams and aspirations and sense of self worth. Do you know what I mean? There is always something there to take the shine or the gloss off life. The Apostle Paul found that too. He had a thorn in his flesh. Now, we are not quite sure whether that was a physical ailment or a spiritual ailment, the Holy Spirit in His wisdom chose not to tell us that. Good thinking too! But have a listen to Paul. Second Corinthians chapter 12, beginning at verse 7: To keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness'. So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Humph! And this, from a guy who wrote almost half the books in the New Testament! See, there is always something, isn't there? And I wonder if that isn't God's plan. I wonder if everything was always going swimmingly well in my life, whether I would even bother seeking God out at all! I wonder if everything in my life was perfect, whether I would be of any use to you in these programmes. Much of what I talk about, in fact, pretty much all of what I talk about, is born out of the struggles and realities of life, bringing God's wisdom to bear in our lives. And interestingly, this passage where Jesus talks about His promise to give us an abundant life is set amidst the story of a struggle – the struggle of a shepherd to protect and feed his sheep. We read through it earlier in the programme. The life of a shepherd was a hard one – thieves, robbers, wild animals – the shepherd was called to protect those sheep with his life and many a time it cost the shepherd his life back then. Without the shepherd, the life of a sheep was precarious. A sheep out there on its own would be a sitting duck, to be picked off by a wolf or stolen or fall down some ravine. Jesus is telling a story here about life and death struggles. It's a parable that reaches deep into the realities of our lives. It's a story about a life lived out there in a challenging world in which Jesus Himself, through His death and His resurrection, becomes our True Shepherd. A pastor friend of mine told me a story once. He was ministering in a country area and one of his parishioners was a farmer, of sheep. Now the farmer told him, when he was a young lad, he always observed how the sheep would be standing grazing, but as soon as his father would go into the field, they would often lie down. So he asked his dad about that and his father told him that sheep only lie down when they feel safe and that when the shepherd is close, they know that they are safe, which is why they will often take that opportunity to lie down and have a rest. Brings a whole new meaning to Psalm 23: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; he leads me by still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk into the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff – they comfort me. You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long. “He makes me to lie down in green pastures”, which means I feel safe. And even though you and I can end up in the valley of the shadow of death, we don't have to fear any evil because God is with us – His rod and His staff comfort us. So often, friend, an abundant life is not about being taken out of the difficult circumstances of life. It's about experiencing the peace and the protection of Jesus – that One True Shepherd – right there; right in the middle of the difficulties of life; right there, smack, bang in that valley of the shadow of death. And the incredible power of that is this: if we choose that sort of abundance of life; the one that Jesus has to offer – the true one, not the imposters, not the false shepherds, not the ones that come to rob and to kill and destroy. If we choose the TRUE life, with the TRUE Shepherd, then it doesn't matter much what our circumstances are – good, bad, up, down, positive, negative – it doesn't matter, because even though we may walk through the darkest valley, we fear no evil because He is with us. People sometimes ask me, "How can you be so upbeat in the middle of a trial?" and my answer is: this is how – it's not me, it's Him because I have decided to live my abundant life through Jesus. The abundant life that Jesus promised – my One True Shepherd!
This whole Christmas celebration thing is of course a birthday celebration. And birthdays are all about celebrating new life. Would it surprise you to know that that's exactly what God has in mind for you to celebrate? Your new life. SILENT NIGHT There's a bunch of guys in the Bible who I envy. Now I know what you're thinking, the tenth Commandment: You shall not covet your neighbour's house. You shall not covet your neighbour's wife or male or female slave or ox or donkey or anything else that belongs to your neighbour. (Exodus 20:17) Yeah, we're not supposed to envy or covet anything because it leads to some really bad behaviour. I get that. But hear me out. If there was anyone I could have been with in the Bible, it would have to be those shepherds who were out there watching their flocks by night. We don't quite know what night it was. But you have to gather by what the angel said to them that Jesus had already been born so I prefer to think of it as Christmas night. Only to them, sitting there in the field watching their sheep, it wasn't Christmas night at all. It was just another night at the office doing what shepherds did. It was a mundane part of their lives. They may have been enjoying the evening. They may not have been enjoying the evening. It doesn't matter. They were doing what shepherds did out there on the side of a hill somewhere just outside Bethlehem. The sun had gone down like it goes down every night. And tomorrow morning the sun was going to come up again, like it did every morning and nothing much changed in between. Maybe the moon was out, maybe not. And in the absence of the bright light and the pollution you and I have to put up with these days, the Milky Way was spread across the firmament in all its glory and all was well with the world. That's the picture, that's what was going on. But on that particular night God had a plan to break into this world in the most amazing and spectacular way. In that region there were shepherds living in the fields keeping watch over their flock by night and then an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified but the angel said to them, 'Don't be afraid for see I am bringing you good news of great joy for all people. To you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour who is the Messiah, the Lord.' ‘This will be a sign for you, you will find a child wrapped in bands of clothing and lying in a manger'. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace among those whom he favours.' When the angels had left them and gone into heaven the shepherds said to one another, 'Let's go down to Bethlehem and see this thing that's taken place which the Lord has made known to us'. So they went with haste and they found Mary and Joseph and the child lying in a manger. When they saw this they made known what had been told to them about this child and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them but Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all that they'd heard and seen as it had been told to them. (Luke 2: 8-20) I often wonder how I would have reacted had I been with those guys on that starry starry night. I wonder how I would react if that happened to me tonight at home or on the way back from work or whatever mundane thing I happened to be doing tonight. Because for me, the idea of a cosmic light show and angels filling the sky and all that jazz, well for me, it's pretty easy to believe because it happened at a nice safe distance of two thousand or so years ago. Because you and I have watched the kids Christmas pantomimes so many times and sung the Christmas carols so many times, it's become part of our psyche that this thing with the shepherds actually happened. We accept it pretty much without thinking. But bring it back to reality and how would we cope if it happened to us here and now or if we'd been back there with the shepherds' back then sitting in that field on that night. I think I would be petrified like they were to start with. It would be so unexpected, so out of this world, so impossible and yet there they were and it was happening to them and God broke into their world in this startling 'in your face' kind of way. You know something? I believe that that's what God wants to do today in your world and mine. I believe God wants to shake us out of our comfortable little Christmas ritual, our "business as usual" approach to Christmas and get right in our faces and say, "Don't you realise what this Christmas thing is all about? Today, I'm bringing you good news for unto you a Saviour has been born for you". And the reaction He's looking for out of you and me is the reaction that the shepherds had. Because when the angels had left them and gone into heaven the shepherds said to one another, "Well, what are we going to do? Why don't we go down to Bethlehem and see what has taken place that which the Lord has made known to us." So they went with haste, they didn't dawdle; they went with haste. They found Mary and Joseph and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told to them about this child and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. God wants us to come to Jesus for ourselves – to worship Jesus for ourselves, to tell the world what we've seen. Imagine His frustration, His great frustration when He sees people, like you and me, just going through the motions at Christmas time. Imagine how that makes Him feel when on that first Christmas, He gave to you and He gave to me the single most precious gift that has ever been given in all of human history. So how about it? Will you grab onto this Christmas present with both hands? Will you come to Jesus and worship Him? Will you rejoice at what you've seen? Will you tell people what you've seen? Will you let Christmas impact your heart in the most miraculous way? Well, will you or are you just going to do the same old Christmas ritual this year like you've done for the past umpteen years? Because here's the thing, one day Jesus is coming back. One day, Jesus will return to this earth and when that happens it will make the cosmic light show that the shepherds experienced look like a little sideshow, I'm telling you. When Jesus ascended back into heaven this is what happened: So when they'd come together they asked him, 'Lord is this the time when you'll restore the Kingdom of Israel?' And he replied, 'It's not for you to know the times or the periods that the Father has set by his own authority but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and then you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria and even to the ends of the earth'. When he had said that as they were watching, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards the heaven suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards the heaven? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come again in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. (Acts 1: 6-11) See, that's going to happen one day, just as unexpectedly as the angels appeared before those shepherds, just as unexpectedly as Jesus slipped into the world the first time. One day this Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead. One day He will break back into our physical world just as unexpectedly as He did back then. Only this time there will be no mistaking Him, this time He will come just as He left, in amazing glory to gather His own unto Himself. So as yet another Christmas slips by, I'm going to ask you this … are you ready? Because one day Jesus is coming ready or not. And with all my heart, I want to wish you and those whom you love the most radically wonderful Christmas you have ever had. IT'S ONLY JUST BEGUN Today, as they say, is the beginning of the rest of your life. It's a funny time this time of year just after Christmas and just before we step into the hurly burly of a new year. It's a time of rest and reflection for most of us. For some, it's a time of regret. For others, it's a time of celebration. For some, it's a time of anticipation over what next year will bring. And yet for others, it's a time of fear and worry. At this time of year, we've all experienced those different emotions at different times so let's spend a few minutes looking back on the year that's just been. And perhaps a few minutes looking forward at what might be in the coming year. Christmas is such an incredibly special time because it marks a new birth, bringing a new life into this world is singularly the most special and privileged thing we can ever do. Any parent will tell you that, particularly the mother's in our midst, it's just so special. And it's that new birth that I want to revisit with you today because Christmas is a time to remember that in Christ you and I have a new birth, a rebirth if you will. And there are a few people today I know that need to experience that rebirth for themselves because you're wallowing in the regrets of the past. In the regrets perhaps of things that could have been but weren't, in the regrets of the things that shouldn't have been but were. But in Christ, something special happens. It's a new birth and for many, even for those who heard Jesus talk about it, it wasn't an easy thing to get a handle on. See there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said, 'Rabbi we know that you're a teacher who's come from God for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God'. And Jesus answered him, 'Very truly I tell you that no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again. Nicodemus said to him, 'How can you be born after growing old? Can one enter a second time into the mother's womb and be born?' And Jesus answered, 'Truly, I tell you no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born both of water and of spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, what is born of the spirit is spirit.' ‘Do not be astonished that I say, 'You must be born from above', the wind blows where it chooses and you hear the sound of it but you don't know where it comes from or where it's going. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit'. (John 3: 1-8) See, that new birth is about a new start in life. You've heard the term being born again Christian. Some people roll their eyes when they say it. They use it as a form of derision but Jesus means it for real. Jesus means it as a new start, as a complete rebirth, a fresh start, the slate wiped clean through faith in Him. Every now and then when I've had a really long day, I'm one of these crazy early starters, so in the late afternoon I might have a short nap and a shower to freshen up. And I come out of the bedroom into the living room and I say to my wife, "Ah, I feel like a new man." In a sense that's what Jesus is talking about because our faith in Him doesn't just bring forgiveness, it brings that 'new man' feeling as He wipes away all our sins and all the regrets and all the consequences of the past. See, new birth equals new start equals new life. When you're born again, the old life doesn't matter anymore, it's completely meaningless because your slate has been wiped clean. The Apostle Paul put it this way, he said: If anyone is in Christ there is a new creation. Everything old has passed away. See, everything has become as new. (2 Corinthian 5:17) So right at this special time of the year, I believe that God wants to give you a new start by reminding you that if you've accepted Jesus as your Saviour and your Lord, then you are a new creation, completely new. And the result of that, is that everything old is gone. It's completely wiped away which makes it completely irrelevant to you today and to all your tomorrow's. The powerfully operative word in this little verse is the short word 'see'. Let's listen to it again, 2 Corinthians 5:17. If anyone is in Christ there is a new creation. Everything old has passed away. See, everything has become new. God is imploring you to look at your life through His eyes. SEE! See that the effect of the new birth that you have in Jesus Christ means that EVERYTHING has become new. The past is gone, forgiven and done and dusted. Now, you can look forward to the New Year ahead in a completely new way, completely uninhibited and unconstrained by the failures and the hurts and the losses and the regrets that you have over your past. Completely unaffected by your low self-esteem, completely unaffected by nasty hurtful things that people have said to you and done to you because by the miraculous power of your complete rebirth in Christ through the Holy Spirit – you are a completely new creation. And as a result of that, everything in your life, everything in your world has become new. SEE! Nicodemus found that hard to believe and hard to understand. You and I can find that hard to believe and hard to understand. But your God wants you to live your life as though the slate of your past has been wiped clean. Because you know something? If you believe in Jesus, it has and what lies ahead of you is a completely new life full of exciting God-type possibilities and amazing things that God wants to do to bless you. And to let His blessing flow out through you into this parched land of people who are in desperate need of a Saviour. To Israel, His chosen people, at the end of seventy years in captivity as slaves in Babylon, He said this: ‘For surely I know the plans I have for you,' says the Lord, 'plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you. When you search for me you'll find me. If you seek me with all your heart I'll let you find me' says the Lord, 'And I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I've driven you', says the Lord, 'And I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. (Jeremiah 29: 11-14) Do you see? Are you looking? Are you hearing? Do you perceive what God is saying to you through His Word today? God has great plans for you and those plans are about your future. And He has made all provision for you through Jesus, to wipe your slate clean and to restore you and to bless you. And all He needs now is just one thing … He needs for you to take His Word into your heart, to believe it, to act on it as though it's true. Because you know something? It really is. And if you choose to step out into your future, a future that maybe would have been otherwise constrained by regrets and hurts from the past. But if you choose now to step out into your future knowing that the regrets of the past are completely wiped away – completely gone, completely irrelevant – if you choose to believe God and take Him at His Word and believe that you can live your life from this day forward on the basis of what God is saying about you is true, then what you're in fact doing is stepping out into your own rebirth. Christmas is a time of celebration of new life – the life of Jesus who slipped into this world to set captives free, to bind up the broken-hearted, to bring Good News to the poor. This Jesus, He came for you, He came to set you free, He came to bind up your broken heart, He came to bring you Good News and this is the Good News that I bring to you today. Today is the beginning of a new life – a life of freedom and a life of joy and a life of power and yes a life of sacrifice. A life that is so much more than any of us could have ever dreamed. This past year is done and dusted and in Christ you can leave behind. This New Year is full of possibilities, full of potential and in Christ, you can step out into it with the confidence of knowing that you'll be playing your small part in Gods mighty plan. Hey, if that's not Good News, tell me what is. YES IT'S FOR YOU As you look forward to the rest of your life, I know that some of what we've spoken about today isn't easy to swallow. Especially if you're in the middle of a rough trot. But remember, Mary and Joseph didn't have the big picture of what God was up to back then. They were immersed in trial after trial. But the beauty of it is that you and I do have Matthew, Mark, Luke and John's accounts of what they went through. We know the big picture, we can stand back and see what God was up to in a way that the players back then simply couldn't. To them, it felt like they were being swept along by events completely out of their control. On top of everything, of course, Caesar had declared that a census was to be taken, which in the absence of today's modern technology, meant that Mary and Joseph, like all the other people, had to travel back to their ancestral homes and that was a long slog. But from God's vantage point, these weren't unconnected, random events. These were all part of His plan to usher a Saviour into this world. A Messiah that nobody expected. See, God is the God of the unexpected. There are no events or circumstances that are beyond Him. There are no events or circumstances in your life that escape Him or pass Him by. He's across everything, in absolute detail, in the minutest detail, everything that's going on in your life. And I'm here to tell you that if your Christmas wasn't quite what you wanted it to be, wasn't quite what the advertisers said it should be, if you didn't quite get the standard issue Ho, Ho, Ho kind of Christmas this year, then your God is still with you today. Your God just showed up through His Word. Your God is with you in that place you're in right now. And nothing, not death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate you from the love of your God in Jesus Christ. And that my friend, is worth celebrating not just at Christmas time, but for every day for the rest of your life. And just as He was with Mary and Joseph, even though they didn't have the full picture, even though it was uncomfortable, so He is and forever will be, with you. I've called this series of messages "Old Story, New Twist". I did that for a reason. Because I know that this Christmas story, far from being some distant, archaic tale of which pantomimes are born, is a gritty, real story of the journey of the Creator of the Universe into the lives of men and women, into the lives of you and me. And when we look at that old, old story from His perspective (from the vantage point of heaven's balcony if you will), when we allow God by His Spirit and through His Word to guide us on that journey over the dusty trails that Mary and Joseph trod, we discover a God who is on that same dusty, difficult journey with you and me today. Peter the Apostle in 1 Peter 5 and verse 7 said that we should: Cast all our anxieties on God because he cares for us. So whatever anxieties and discomforts and fears and disappointments you happen to be carrying on your rocky road from this moment forward, this God who is above all your circumstances, this God who is in all your circumstances, this God who sent His Son to lighten your load, wants to take your burdens from you. So how about it? Is it time to hand all that stuff over to Him and to get on the journey and head towards the rest of your life with the joy and the anticipation and the excitement of a new life in Christ for you? Because Jesus came for you. He came to set you free. He came to bring you forgiveness and a future and a certain hope and an eternity with Him. That's what He ushered in, on that very first Christmas. And that, I reckon, is something worth celebrating at Christmas … and beyond.
Christmas is supposed to be a lot of things these days. And yet it doesn't always deliver all that it's meant to deliver. But then, the very first Christmas, it wasn't all sweetness and light either. If nothing else, it was a decidedly uncomfortable Christmas. OVERTAKEN BY EVENTS There are times in our lives when it feels as though circumstances or events outside of our control have completely taken over our lives. We've all been there and some people I know are there right now. Perhaps you were looking forward to a family Christmas and your marriage or somebody else's marriage in your family is starting to fall apart. Or perhaps, you find yourself completely alone or maybe sickness has struck and you're wondering how to get through it. And at this point, the whole idea even of celebrating Christmas seems completely irrelevant, off this planet. Despite what all the happy Christmas ads on television would have us believe, Christmas is not a happy time for many people. It's sad but true. Now, that's not to say that we're all going to have a lousy Christmas, no. But when we scratch the glitzy veneer of what Christmas has become in the twenty-first century, when you go below the surface, most people have something going on in their lives that takes the shine off what should be (according to what everybody else is telling us) the celebration of Christmas. Season's greetings, peace on earth, merrrryyyyy Christmas, ho ho ho. Yeah, right. Somehow the umpteenth re-enactment of the Christmas pantomime at Church and that nativity scene in the store window (if you can even find one anywhere these days) just doesn't seem to connect with life's realities when we've been swamped by a wave of whatever it is in our life, in your life, this year. I've had many a Christmas like that over the years. Truly, I have. Life can be tough sometimes. And when you're involved in ministry in any way, shape or form, you'll know that it's even tougher because the devil is on your case. You run into opposition and attacks sometimes seemingly from every direction and on those Christmases the pantomime version of Christmas simply isn't enough. You with me? But let's wind the clock back to the old, old story, to the days leading up to the birth of Jesus, the Christ. Because when I go back to that story, there's nothing safe, there's nothing comfortable, there's nothing pantomimey at all about it. The road to that very first Christmas was a hard road and it's on that road that we discover a God who's prepared to get on the journey with us. Think about the circumstances that had overtaken Joseph and Mary's lives to that point. Firstly, they'd fallen in love. Hey, that's a good thing, that's a great thing, that's a special thing. But then Mary falls pregnant to the Holy Spirit, out of wedlock in a day and age where that was a scandal. You can imagine how Joseph felt, right? – robbed, betrayed, dismayed, hurt, alone, disappointed, angry, the full gamut of emotions. Events had overtaken his life. This one painful event which was completely outside of his control. It hurt so much but being the good guy that he was, he planned to cut off the engagement and to dismiss Mary quietly so as not to make a big thing of it in public. Events, circumstances, things out there that were going to rob him, unbeknown to him at the time, of the very first Christmas. You see if you're in that boat, you're not the first one. This old, old story has a modern twist in its tail, does it not? The truth of that first Christmas (even though it happened two thousand years away) is here and now when you get behind the pantomime version and you check out what really happened. So there's young Jo about to be robbed of that first Christmas and then God. Whenever circumstances are about to roll over the top of us, it's always, always a case of 'then God' because this God who loves you beyond any measure that you would care to apply to His love, He always shows up. He showed up back then for Joseph. Let's have a listen: Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph but before they lived together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man, unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the Prophet, 'Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall name him Emmanuel which means God is with us'. When Joseph awoke from his sleep he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, he took her as his wife but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son and he named him, Jesus. (Matthew 1: 18-25) I wonder how many times you and I have skimmed over that old, old story with the attitude, "Oh yeah, I know that one. Yeah sure, it's fine," without ever really thinking about what it meant for Mary and poor old Joseph. The stress it put on their relationship, the glances and the whispers of scandal that happened in their tight-knit little community. And just when Joseph was about to do what he thought was the decent thing out of his pain – God showed up. God showed up in a mighty way to speak truth and comfort and love and destiny into Joseph's heart. I don't know how real that dream felt to him at the time, probably it was a really powerful dream if it was from God. But when he woke up it was still only a dream but it was enough for Joseph to act upon. He didn't have the Gospel accounts of Matthew and Mark and Luke and John to rely on back then, like you and I do have now, he didn't know how it was all going to turn out. But when he heard the voice of God he acted on it. Christmas is about difficult circumstances. Christmas is all about God breaking into this world in an exquisite blend of love and power and humility. Christmas is about God and it's about you. A LONELY JOURNEY Now I know that this is not going to come as any great surprise to you but I have never been pregnant. Something (by the way) that I've often given thanks for because I'm your typical male – the idea of going through childbirth is something I can't comprehend. Which is why, I guess, God didn't leave it up to men to be mother's – wise move God, wise move. Anyway, back to Christmas, I'm trying to imagine what it was like for Mary who was pretty much full term to travel from Nazareth the Bethlehem for the census. We don't think too much about it because these days the drive from A to B would take, umm, two to three hours I'm guessing; maybe four, if you took it slowly and you had a break for lunch along the way. You'd probably do it in a comfortable air conditioned car although even then, let's say a three to four-hour car ride wouldn't be particularly the most delightful experience for a woman who was close to full term, would it now? But back then it was a one to two-week journey. Tradition has it … if you believe all the paintings and drawings that Mary rode on the back of a donkey, of course, there's no Biblical evidence for that, we're not told how she got from Nazareth to Bethlehem. But for her sake, I'm hoping she was on a back of a donkey or riding in the back of a cart somewhere rather than walking the whole way because one thing's for certain she wasn't riding in an air conditioned car. My point is this … we often look back on the old, old Christmas story as though it's a fable or a pantomime or, I don't know what. It was so long ago and we've heard it so many times that we just have this two-dimensional view of what went on. Yeah, yeah Mary, Joseph, angels, shepherds, wise men, Bethlehem, manger, yeah all that jazz. And when we look at Christmas that way, it's almost as though we're closing our hearts off to the wonderful real, gritty, here and now things that God's wanting to speak into our lives. Mary and Joseph didn't have an easy run of it. It was time for a census. The Roman emperor had decreed that it was time to do a people stocktake. And the way they did it back then (before marks sensing, computer readable census forms distributed to each household) was that you had to head back to your ancestral home and for Joseph that meant Bethlehem. In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea to the city of David called Bethlehem because he was descended from the house and the family of David. He went to be registered with Mary to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. (Luke 2: 1-5) See, the Romans were nothing if not efficient administrators. They, in fact, had a huge impact on the distribution of the Gospel after Jesus' resurrection and ascension because of the road and port infrastructure that they'd built and the relatively peaceful and homogenous Roman Empire that dominated the known world at the time. But on this occasion, as far as Mary and Joseph were concerned, they were being a right proper pain in the backside. Quite literally for Mary if she was fortunate enough to have travelled the journey on the back of a donkey. I imagine that if you or I had been Mary or Joseph, we would have had a few choice words and thoughts about the timing of this rotten, lousy census. Why now? What a pain! How inconvenient! Mary is almost full term and she and Jo are travelling with a sea of humanity in all different directions heading for their ancestral homes, in their case that was Bethlehem. Isn't that how it feels when circumstances and events beyond us seem to dictate the course of our lives? Pretty frustrating, isn't it? – inconvenient and sometimes, downright dangerous and hurtful. But this census wasn't just some random event. It wasn't a happen chance thing. As with everything, God was in it because centuries before through the Prophet Micah, He had spoken to His people about their Messiah whom He would send who would be born in, yeah you guessed it, Bethlehem. Let's take a look, Micah 5: 2 and 3: But you O Bethlehem of Ephratah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel whose origin is of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labour has brought forth, then the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel. See, God had a plan. His plan was that Jesus, the bread of life as He later referred to Himself as, would be born in the town of Bethlehem, a word which literally means 'the house of bread'. God's plan was to speak powerfully to His people through the Words of Micah's prophecy and through the fulfilment of that prophecy in the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. My point is this, events are never random. Events that seem to roll over the top of your plans and your hopes and your dreams even never just happen by chance. Sometimes the most difficult and devastating events are the most powerful moves of God in our lives and through our lives and into the lives of other people around us. Of course, it never feels like it at the time. And rarely (if ever) does God give us the big picture if you will to explain what's going on and what He's up to when He's doing that and letting these things happen to us. But that doesn't change the fact that God's sovereign will is playing out right there and then. Psalm 135 verse 6 says: Whatever the Lord pleases he does in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all the deeps. So whatever that looks like in your life right now, remember your God is up to something good … I mean really good. NO ROOM AT THE INN Well, here we are on Christmas Eve and I'm guessing you know where I'm headed with this story, right? I remember a few years back, my wife and I flew from Australia to the US, to Chicago, in fact. That's a long flight, about twenty-four hours door to door. We had a room booked at a hotel on the Golden Mile in Chicago because I was speaking at an IT conference there and the conference organisers had set it all up for me. In LA where we had to clear customs, we discovered that they'd lost Jacqui's suitcase (along the way), fantastic! And then when we landed in Chicago, we had to part ways because I had to fly on for a couple of days to Minneapolis, St Paul. So the plan was Jacqui would catch a cab to the Chicago hotel and I would join her in a couple of days time. Now, it was her very first trip to the US of A. She doesn't do a lot of travel so heading to the hotel on her own was just a little bit daunting. So not only is her luggage missing but she has to find her own way to downtown Chicago and when she arrives, get this, she's told, "No, sorry but the hotel is fully booked." "Hang on, there's a conference here and my husband is the keynote speaker and the conference organisers have booked a room and ..." Well, you can imagine her despair, right? She was ready to cry and she's been travelling now for the last twenty-four hours so she's exhausted. She's alone in a foreign country, her luggage is missing and now they tell her there's no room at the hotel. Two hours it took to get it sorted. At one point they found a room but because the booking was in my name and not hers they weren't going to let her have it. Fortunately, the hotel manager got involved and saner heads prevailed. We did, by the way, eventually find her luggage but that's a whole another story. Now, if you have any sort of heart beating inside you, you'll be feeling a bit sorry for poor old Jacqui. A bit like a lost soul in a foreign land, all alone with waves of exhaustion and despair crashing all over her. For her fortunately, it all worked out. But if I now take you back to the old, old story, the first Christmas story, there was a couple who rocked up to Bethlehem for whom things didn't work out so well – Mary and Joseph. They've come down to Bethlehem from their hometown of Nazareth, up north. A few hours by car these days, as we saw yesterday but for them it's been a one to two-week journey by foot perhaps with the aid of a beast of burden to carry the full term, very pregnant, almost due Mary but perhaps not. It's a journey that makes our twenty-four hour flight from Sydney to Chicago look like sheer luxury by comparison. They're tired, they're exhausted, they're ready to get to their room and dive into the Jacuzzi and relax, but let's pick up their story: In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration that was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered, Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea to the city of David called Bethlehem because he was descended from the house and the family of David. He went to be registered with Mary to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there the time came for her to deliver her child and she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them at the inn. (Luke 2: 1-6) Much of the nation of Israel was on the move at this time because of this wretched census ordered by the Emperor Augustus. So, there really was a convention in town when they arrived in that small village, as it was back then, the village of Bethlehem. They weren't in downtown Jerusalem there on the Golden Mile but out of town in this hamlet. And frankly there weren't a lot of five-star or even two or three star hotels available, those that were choc-a-block. And so after, presumably, a few hours of schlepping around and discovering there wasn't a room to be had anywhere some kind inn keeper, seeing Mary's condition, offered them a shed out the back which housed animals. Now I don't know, sheep, goats, maybe the odd cow if he was really wealthy. Can you imagine how Mary's heart sank when she entered that stable where she knew she would give birth? After that whole fanfare with the angel and falling pregnant, not the normal way but through the Holy Spirit? Hey, surely God was with her. Surely, God knew what was going on, His Son, the very Son of God is about to be born. "My son too" Mary is thinking to herself and now I get a stinking stable? Come on you women who have had children put yourself in Mary's shoes, how do you feel? Not all that impressed, right? Your water's break, the pain starts and you lie down on the floor of a stable that's been pooped on and weed on by the assemblage of farm animals watching you give birth. Just fantastic. I don't know what you're expecting of Christmas this year. It's almost upon us and it's supposed to be great. The world hypes it up as being a great celebration, Christians and Churches hype it up as being a great celebration. I don't think that's how it felt for Mary on that day and I know that's not how it feels for a whole bunch of people today. But let me tell you this … God was in that place with Mar. He was watching over her, He was with her and yes He chose a humble, uncomfortable place for His Son – the Son of God, the Creator of the universe, to be born as a man. God often chooses humble, uncomfortable places for His people. It's just His way. But no matter how uncomfortable it may be for you, no matter how God forsaken this place may seem in which you've found yourself, I want to tell you this, God is with you because Jesus on that first Christmas, Jesus came for you. Do you remember what it was that the angel said to Joseph in his dream when he was explaining to him what had gone on with Mary falling pregnant? Matthew 1: 21-23: ‘She will bear a son' said the angel, 'and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins'. All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the Prophet 'behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call him Emmanuel which means 'God is with us'. Jesus is God on the journey with us. Back in Chicago when Jacqui stood negotiating with those difficult hotel employees over the counter, she no doubt felt incredibly alone, lost in a foreign land. Her husband off in another city, completely uncontactable. Perhaps, as you face whatever it is you're facing the same thoughts race through your mind as no doubt went through Mary's when she lay eyes on that crummy, stinking stable for the very first time. Doesn't God get it? How can He let this happen to me? Why doesn't He fix it? And so you're sitting here on this Christmas Eve wondering even what Christmas is all about. If that's you, if that's a bit of what you're feeling right now, then I have just one word for you from the Lord, 'Emmanuel'. God is with you. You are never alone. And though He may have chosen circumstances for you right now that you may not have chosen for yourself, on this day, on this Holy day, know this … your God is with you and that beautiful wondrous truth, this truth that we are celebrating right now, at this time that we call Christmas, that truth is something that nothing and nobody can take away from you. Your God is with you.
I don't know if you've ever thought of this, but on the surface of things, Christmas is a crazy idea! I mean, what exactly was God thinking by sending His Son to become a man – and to be born in some drafty, smelly shed out the back of Bethlehem? CHRISTMAS IS A CRAZY IDEA On the surface of things, Christmas is a crazy idea. I mean stand back and think about it … God's God, He created the whole universe. Okay, He's Father and Son and Holy Spirit, three persons in one, something that's not that easy to wrap your mind around. But let's just leave that to one side for the moment. God is God. God creates everything. We read about it in the first few chapters of the Book of Genesis. It's pretty straightforward description of what He did and it was amazing. And the crowning glory of all His creation is humanity – you and me, male and female. And the very last thing that He does before He rests to enjoy His handiwork of creation is that He hands the whole thing over to us. God said: Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind, cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind and it was so and God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind and the cattle of every kind, everything that creeps along the ground of every kind and God saw that it was good." Then God said, 'Let us make humanity in our image according to our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.' So God created humanity in His image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them. God blessed them and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue the earth and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over every living thing that moves on the earth.' God said, 'See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit, you shall have them for food and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and to every thing that creeps on the earth, everything that has breath of life I have given every green plant for food' and so it was. God saw everything that He'd made and indeed it was very good and there was evening and there was morning of the sixth day. (Genesis 1: 26-31) So far, so good. Adam and Eve go and enjoy all of this amazing creation but God does one thing, just one thing that is so crazy, inexplicable. The Lord commanded the man, 'you may freely eat of every tree of the garden but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it you shall die. (Genesis 2:16) Well, you know the rest. They couldn't help themselves, Adam and Eve, they just had to try to be like God. They ate from that one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the rest as they say is history. Sin entered the world, sickness entered the world and just as God had promised them death entered the world. Life became hard. That's something you and I can attest to – life is hard and all because God had to forbid them that one tree and they just had to try it anyway. Could it be all of your misery and mine hangs on just that one crummy apple? For Pete's sake, that's nuts! And then as humanity spirals ever downward, as we become ever more debauched and depraved, after that moment God mounts a rescue mission – He sends Jesus to save us. What's that about? Why didn't He just give them access to every last tree? Why did He have to hold that one tree back from them and why did they have to blow it for the rest of us and after all that, why did God mount that rescue mission and send Jesus? It defies human logic until you realise that love and logic have nothing more in common than their first two letters. Love isn't logical. Have a listen to this: But the free gift is not like the trespass for if the many died through one man's trespass, Adams, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift and the grace of one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. And the free gift is not like the effect of that one man's sin for the judgement following the one trespass brought condemnation but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If because of the one man's sin death has exercised dominion through that one much more surely will those who receive the abundance of the grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore just as one man's trespasses lead to condemnation for all so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. But the law came in with the result that the trespass multiplied but when sin increased grace abounded all the more. So just as sin exercised dominion in death so grace might also exercise dominion through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. (Romans 5: 12 - 21) There you have it. There you have the reason that God did what He did. If you love someone you give them free will, right? He gave Adam a free will by excluding that one tree and Adam chose against God and so sin, with all its consequences, entered the world for you and me. Now, before you think to yourself, "I am going to punch Adam in the nose when I see him in heaven." Ask yourself, if nobody in all of history before you had sin and ultimately you were living in that garden, would you have resisted the temptation? So sin entered the world through one man and forgiveness came though one man as well, Jesus. God sent Him into this world as that little babe we remember each year around this time so that we could be forgiven. And notice how that 'grace' word comes in. Forgiven by the free, unmerited favour of God so that we could know what? God's love. What greater expression of love is there than to forgive someone who doesn't deserve it? I guess only one, to do it and to take his or her punishment on their behalf, to give your life to suffer in order to purchase their forgiveness and their freedom. To step out of heaven into this hurly-burly of a sinful world and be punished even though you'd never done anything wrong. And this is not as some Plan B because Plan A didn't work. This was always Gods Plan A. God always knew Adam would blow it. He always knew that you and I would blow it. None of that was ever a surprise to Him and yet out of His great love, He gave us a free will to accept or reject Him. And out of His great love, He came to purchase us back from death by offering up His Son as His sense of justice demanded – to take all the fall for you and for me, to pay the price, to die the death. Now, I know you have a lot going on in these days leading up to Christmas – those last-minute presents to buy, the things to clear off your desk perhaps before you have a few days off, the turkey to buy, the decoration to get up, all that stuff. Now I know that you may not have a lot of time to think about this Christmas stuff but at the heart of Christmas lies a Father's love. At the heart of Christmas – in the most unhygienic, feed trough called a manger, in that even more unhygienic stable filled with animals, right where that child was born and lay and cried and gurgled – is a love so sublime that there are not enough words to describe it. There are no words ever invented that can really explain a love so great. So as you hurtle towards yet another chaotic Christmas, let me say to you quietly, kindly, gently, ‘Take a moment to wrap your heart around that love. Just let that love touch you deep inside and change you and change your life and change your world." After all, what do you have to lose? YOU WON'T DIE ALONE I know, it's kind of a weird perspective from which to come at the story of Christmas, but hopefully as we chat together, it will start to make sense. Death … dying is pretty much the one taboo subject left in our society. We can talk about pretty much anything else but not dying. And the last thing that you and I really want to think about is dying. But humour me because I want you to put yourself on your deathbed. Hopefully, quite a few years away from now, and imagine how you'll feel. Would you be afraid of dying alone? I'm guessing you would particularly in a hospital room, sterile, white, disinfected, clinical, with tubes coming out of you, those squeaky sounds the nurses shoes make on the floor. The idea of being completely alone at the end is a terrible thought. Now and then, you hear about an elderly person who died all alone in their home and their body wasn't discovered for seven or eight years. That's frightful. Imagine how the end must of come for them. Of course, you don't have to wait to die in order to be alone. So many people are desperately alone, sometimes through circumstances but mostly as a result of their sin. That may sound a bit weird but sin – turning our backs on God and going our own way usher's in death very quickly. That's what God promised Adam and Eve would happen if they ate from that one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that he forbade them to eat from. The Lord commanded the man, 'you may eat freely of every tree in the garden but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it you shall die. (Genesis 2:16) The result of that apparent minor transgression? Well, God said to them: I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers, he will strike your head and you will strike his heel. To the woman he said, 'I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing, in pain shall you bring forth children yet your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you. And to the man he said, 'Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and you have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you 'you shall not eat of it' cursed is the ground because of you. In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground for out of it you were taken, you are dust and to dust you shall return." (Genesis 3: 15-19) The immediate result of that sin was broken relationships, a broken relationship between God and Adam and a broken relationship between Adam and Eve. And broken relationships mean loneliness and strife. So … what was God's solution to that distance that we put between Him and us through our sin? How did He address that? Well, it's simple really. It was a complete no brainer for Him. All He had to do was to follow the longing of His heart and we know what that is because He tells us what it is over and over again in the Old Testament. Let's have a look at just one example, Leviticus 26: 11-13, God said: I will place my dwelling in your midst and I shall not abhor you and I will walk among you and I will be your God and you shall be my people. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be slaves no more, I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you to walk upright. The longing of God's heart is to be close to His people. He's our Father, He loves us, of course, that's the longing of His heart. And yet, through the whole of the Old Testament we see how God's people struggle to honour Him. In fact, the name Israel literally means 'to struggle with God'. They failed, all the time, over and over again. And over and over again, He forgave them. It was this constant merry-go-round and it wasn't working so here was His plan, a plan that, as I said yesterday, wasn't some fall back, it was always His Plan A. Are you ready for it? Here God's plan, John chapter 1:10-14. Speaking about Jesus, it says: He was in the world and the world came into being through him yet the world didn't know him. He came to what was his own and his own people didn't accept him but to all who received him, who believed in his name he gave them power to become children of God who were born not out of blood or out of the will of the flesh or of the will of a man but of God and the word became flesh and lived amongst us and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and of truth. (John 1:10-14) The plan was for God to take a giant step towards us even though we'd drifted so far away from Him that we really didn't know Him anymore. This God who had an intimate personal relationship back then in the beginning with Adam and Eve, the Word (that's Jesus), the Word became flesh and lived amongst us. That's what we celebrate at Christmas But can I give you the literal meaning of that verse because when you have that, it makes a lot more sense. It literally says that Jesus became flesh and tabernacled amongst us, set up His home amongst us, it's the language of the Exodus where God's presence travelled on the forty-year journey through the wilderness with His people in that tent, in that tabernacle. Jesus coming to this planet is Jesus stepping out and coming close to you to travel on your journey with you on your exodus. That's what makes this Christmas thing so amazing – to set you free, to make sure that you are never alone. Not through the problems of this life, not through the fractured relationships and the enmity that exists in this world through our sin, not through that time where we come to the end of this life and not for the rest of eternity. Christmas is Jesus coming close, Christmas is God following the desire of His heart to be close to you and me by sending His Son to be on our journey with us. Are you getting this? Is this touching your heart as I tell you this age-old story with a new twist? That new twist is that Jesus came for you. Jesus came to be on your journey. Jesus came to bring you comfort to bind up your broken heart, to bring release from captivity of your sin, to be on this journey every step of the way. And what a terrible price He paid for that so that we could see His glory and know Him and experience a one on one intimacy with Him. Now let me bring you back to your death-bed … what if, instead of being terribly alone on your deathbed you experience the very presence of Jesus right there with you on your journey with His love and His forgiveness and His grace and His peace and His mercy? What if instead of being terribly alone, you come to know as each second ticks by on that clock, you are drawing closer and closer to that time that you will see that Jesus face to face? I don't care what bad things have happened to you in your life. I don't care how lost and alone you may feel. It doesn't matter because Jesus is in this place with you and He will never leave you and never forsake you because on that starry starry night in Bethlehem, He came for you. He came to say, "I love you", He came to suffer and die for you. He came to rise again and give you a completely new life with your slate wiped clean. He came to set you free. He came to bring you peace. He came to be with you for every minute of every day for the rest of eternity. That's Christmas. That's what God was doing by sending us His Son. That's what we're celebrating or at least, what we're pretending to celebrate over this coming week. Do you get it? Jesus came for you and if you have nothing else to celebrate this Christmas then celebrate that. It's all you need to make your Christmas the best one ever. And remember, I'm praying for you that this message, this incredibly Good News of Jesus, will light up your heart with a joy unspeakable. A QUIET REFLECTION I just want to pick up on something really insightful my pastor said last Sunday, about being with someone who is dying. He made the point that one of the most powerful things that we can do is simply to touch that person. Whether it's holding their hand, or giving them a hug. I remember when my dad was in intensive care just before he died, that's exactly what the nurse told me to do. Why? Because that sort of intimacy brings a powerful comfort and reassurance to the person who is dying. You know yourself, just knowing that someone is here, standing with you, caring for you when you're going through a difficult time, is in and of itself truly powerful. It may not make the problem go away, but it brings a comfort that nothing else can bring. And in many respects, that is what the physical Presence of Jesus, which began on this earth on that first Christmas, is all about. Of course, you and I can't touch Him physically right now, but one of His great promises, just before He ascended into heaven was that He would pour out His Holy Spirit on every man, woman and child who believes in Him. I just want you to quietly reflect on that powerful, powerful truth. Because according to Jesus, that's even better than having Him around physically. Speaking about His departure and the Holy Spirit, He said this: John 16:7: Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. The Holy Spirit, better than Jesus, according to Jesus. More intimate than Jesus, because when the Holy Spirit fills us, He never leaves us. He is always there to empower, to comfort, to guide and to give us wisdom and power. With Jesus, if the disciples were in another place, then He wasn't there physically with them. But with the Holy Spirit there is no place that you or I can go to flee from His Presence. As the Psalmist writes: Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will cover me, and the light around me become night,' even the darkness isn't dark to you; the night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. (Psalm 139:7-12) What we tend to do is we chop God's great story up into little bits. We separate the birth of Jesus from His death, from His resurrection, from His pouring out of the Holy Spirit, from the powerful things that were ushered in through the early church. But you can't do that. All of those things happened because Jesus stepped out of the Spiritual dimension into the physical dimension, onto this planet to be close to us. That closeness, that intimacy, is like touching a dying person. You and I, until Jesus touches our lives, we are dying people. And then, He brings new life. And then He fills us with His Holy Spirit and then, you and I are never, ever, ever alone again for the rest of eternity. That's what Jesus' coming has given you. That's why Christmas is such an amazing time to remember this radical plan of God's to show us His love by being close to us, by touching us, even though we were dying in our sin until He came. My prayer for you … is that as you drink in this wondrous message of Christmas. As you reflect on it in your heart, the Holy Spirit will do an amazing work of joy in you, to cause your spirit to soar into heavenly places – and receive this amazing Christmas present that we call Jesus.
Question – When is Christmas not Christmas? When is Christmas anything but Christmas? Answer – when we just follow the well-trodden paths of the Christmas ritual, and forget completely what God was saying to us on that very first Christmas. THE PROBLEM WITH CHRISTMAS I don't know if you've ever thought of this but Christmas is a real problem for guys like me, preachers I mean. Year after year, we have to crank out yet another Christmas series. And for the first few years, that's pretty easy but then after a while you start thinking to yourself, "Well, how am I going to put a new twist on Christmas this year?" Last year, I approached it from this perspective, the year before from that perspective, the year before that from ... well, you get the picture. There are only so many different perspectives on Christmas. Well, we've all been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Yeah, so it's Christmas again, so what? If you live in the Northern Hemisphere it's an excuse for a few days off. If you live in the Southern Hemisphere as I do, it's probably the summer holidays that you're looking forward to more than Christmas itself. A chance for a decent break, a bit of a much-needed R and R and sure Christmas is part of that but the Christmas bit can be a bit of a hassle. Buying presents, figuring out who has Christmas lunch with whom and then perhaps scooting off to Christmas dinner with another part of your family. Kids, uncles, aunts, grandparents – it all gets complicated. And then there's the fact not everybody in the family gets on. You know Christmas day is one of the peak times of the year for domestic violence. Even if it doesn't get that bad you know there are going to be clashes or you're going to have to smile sweetly at someone that you don't really like or you just know that so and so is going to have too much to drink again this year. Those are the burdens that many people carry into Christmas, it's just the reality of life. So as things turn out, Christmas isn't just a problem for preachers like me who have to dream up something fresh and new each year, it's a problem for many, many people. I heard someone say once, a Bible believing Christian she was, "I hate Christmas, I wish we could just skip over it." It's pretty sad but it's the reality for many people even those who actually believe in Jesus. So Christmas gets something of a bad rap, I wonder how many people who are out there who would just love to skip Christmas. I wonder? Well, as you look ahead to the next ten days or so in the run up to Christmas, I wonder how you're feeling about it all, exhausted, frustrated, anxious, stressed. What are the emotions that generally accompany this thing we call Christmas in your heart in your life? What are you feeling? Is Christmas a problem for you? Can I be honest here? I struggle with the kids pantomime version of Christmas. I struggle with the whole Carols by Candlelight phenomenon around Christmas where people get together in parks and sing Christmas carols as though they believe them, when most of the entertainers up on the stage and on our television screens don't have the remotest faith that Jesus is actually the Son of God. It's like we wrap this whole Christmas in tinsel and lights and tie a neat bow around it. And we make it out to be this happy time, when the truth is, for many people, well, they struggle with Christmas. Now I don't mean to be a Christmas Grinch here. Personally, I love singing Christmas carols because they mean something to me but what I really want to know is why don't we sing Christmas carols all year round? Why don't we celebrate the coming of Jesus all year round? I remember hosting a Christmas in July service at our Church some years back. It's a bit of a phenomenon down under as many restaurants put on Christmas dinners in the middle of winter when it's cold and at the service we actually sung Christmas carols. I can't tell you the number of people who came up to me afterwards and told me how weird it was singing Silent Night in the middle of July. Yeah, we wrap a whole bunch of rituals up in a nice neat package in December and we call it Christmas. And it's all supposed to be sweetness and light and yet how much of it really, really, really speaks into our hearts about the wonder of what God did on that first Christmas? What I want to do today is to unsettle you, to drag you out of your Christmas ritual comfort zone and ask you, "Why do you do what you do at Christmas time? Why are you racing around buying presents for people who don't really need anything? Why do you put tinsel and Christmas decorations around your house and maybe even a Christmas wreath on your front door? What are the candles and the Christmas tree and presents and all that food really about? What do you do it for?" If you stripped away all that packaging and paraphernalia what would Christmas actually be for you? Luke 2: 8-14: In that region there were shepherds living in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified but the angel said to them, "don't be afraid, for see I am bringing good news of great joy for all people. For to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour who is the Messiah, the Lord." "This will be a sign for you, you'll find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger" and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, "glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace among those whom he favours." So if you took the packaging and the paraphernalia and the ritual and the racing around away, is that what Christmas would mean to you? Would you in your heart shout out, "Glory to God in the highest heaven. Glory, glory, glory. Hallelujah?" Because if not, don't you think you just might be wasting your time with all this Christmas nonsense that you go through each year? All this pressure you put yourself under, all these presents you buy and the money you spend and the decorations you put up and the food that you stuff yourself with – is that what Christmas is all about? Or in your heart, is it about the coming of Jesus Christ, the Son of God to be the Saviour of this world? The biggest Christmas gift of all history – the Son of God given to all humanity, given to you and given to me. So let me ask you, what is your Christmas all about? THE PROPHECIES OF OLD I guess when it comes to this whole Christmas thing; we see it from where we sit. And for most of us, our perspective (our take on Christmas) comes through the ritual that surrounds it – a ritual that we've acted out year after year for as long as we can remember. Sure, it's changed a bit. When we were kids it was all about the excitement of presents. But you know the deal, you know all the things that you do in the weeks leading up to Christmas, you know how Christmas Day is going to pan out. You know the carols you're going to sing and the food that you're going to eat and the people you're going to celebrate Christmas with. If it's at all possible, this exciting celebration of Christmas has become something of a routine for you. A bit of a contradiction but it's true for most of us, life is full of contradictions right? When it comes to Christmas we kind of narrow our view, we lower our gaze and focus on the well-worn familiar path of the Christmas ritual. Whatever that looks like for each one of us, we narrow our perspective and like Pavlov's dogs we get on with that part of life and in many respects, that's how it was on that very first Christmas two thousand odd years ago. Although it wasn't called Christmas back then. In fact, the first record of there being some celebration of Christmas doesn't appear until 354 AD, three and a half centuries after the birth of Jesus. And of course many of the modern-day traditions of Christmas that we celebrate on December 25th – for instance, eating turkey, having a Christmas tree, Santa Claus, presents, tinsel, lights, all of those are much, much more recent. In fact, the Christmas ritual that you and I take for granted today, as though it's been around forever, is little more than a hundred years old, it's a bit of a surprise, isn't it? But let's wind the clock back even further to that first Christmas. People by and large were just going on with their daily business. The big news in town was of course the census. The Romans had ordered a stock take of all the people and in the absence of the technology we use today, the way you did it back then was to go back to your ancestral home. And in the case of Joseph and therefore Mary, his embarrassingly pregnant betrothed, that meant going back to Bethlehem. The inns were full, the shepherds were out doing what shepherds did, tending their flocks in the field by night. Other than the disruption of the census, it was pretty much business as usual. And then wham, the light show in the skies in front of these shepherds. God broke into that "business as usual" in a spectacular way. You know what, I'm praying for this Christmas, God is going to break into your "business as usual" in a spectacular way too. All these people were just living their lives, just like we do, head down, doing stuff that they did day after day when all along God had promised a Saviour. There are quite a number of prophecies in what we now call the Old Testament (the Scriptures to the Jewish people) of the coming of a Saviour and principle among them is that He would be born in Bethlehem, Micah 5: 2-5: But you O Bethlehem of Ephrathah who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel whose origin is of old from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labour has brought forth then the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel and he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God and they shall live secure for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth and he shall be the one of peace. The prophecy of the coming of the Saviour in great power in this tiny humble little village of Bethlehem and by the way the word Bethlehem means literally "the house of bread". Remember how Jesus said, "I am the bread of life." How appropriate that He should be born in Bethlehem – the house of bread. And then there was the prophecy that He would be born to a virgin, now that's pretty outrageous when you think about it, Isaiah chapter 7:14: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look the virgin woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel which means 'God is with us. And that is, of course, exactly what happened. There are quite a few more prophecies about the birth of Jesus that were given centuries before that He fulfilled – His lineage, the slaughter of the infants by Herrod, His need to flee to Egypt. The bottom line was that there were plenty of signs, plenty of prophecies, plenty of predictions. Okay they were cryptic. I mean God revealed His Son in mystery and wonder. We always try to analyse God and put Him in a box. We try and figure out how He operates and then make a bunch of rules about Him. But you can't do that with God. He does startling, creative, outrageous things like sending His Son, Jesus as the son of a carpenter in humble circumstances in some shed out the back of Bethlehem. But the picture was always there, the big plan was always there. God had given some predictions about what was going to happen even as way back as His promise to Abraham. Right back there in the first Book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, God said to him, "Through you all nations shall be blessed" pointing forward to Jesus. But the people were just chugging along, business as usual and it was difficult (if not, impossible) for many of them to see, to perceive, to understand. Not all of them had the light show like the shepherds and the wise men. As I look at the world today, it seems to me that still today most are asleep to what God did back then and what God is doing now. The only difference is that we know the whole story, we know what was going on and how it ends. So as this Christmas approaches, you find yourself asleep to the wonder of what God is doing then let me say to you with all love and with all care, "Wake up. Don't be asleep through yet another Christmas." The wonder and the power of what God did back then, the doors that He opened for you through the coming of Jesus, the joy of what He brings to you today, the unspeakable glory that He opens up through His Son for you to spend eternity with Him, why would you want to sleep through that? Why would you want to be blind to that? Those prophecies of old which is the faintest hint of what was to come. But now we know, now we can see … the sheer wonder. THE REALITIES OF LIFE There is something incredibly powerful about "business as usual". If you think about how your life has played itself out, so far, I suspect that it's been ninety nine percent humdrum and about half a percent of wonderful mountain top joy and another half a percent of tragedy and loss. Sure, some people seem to have better lives than others. Some are born rich, some are born poor and very sadly for some people life is one long tragedy. I wish I could wave a magic wand and take all that away for those people who find themselves in that boat. But I just can't and yet for most of us, most of our lives are occupied by the normal every day, business as usual, monotony which consumes most of our time, most of our attention and most of our focus. Am I right? But beneath that monotony there is always, always, always a sneaking suspicion that there must be more. You've had that feeling, right? This sense that something is oppressing you, something is sidling you out of the sort of life that you think you should be living. There are in fact very few people on planet earth today that don't have that feeling. I used to have it but I don't have it anymore. I've always been someone who's tried to get out there and live life to the full. And all along, as hard as I tried, something was missing, things weren't quite right and I couldn't put my finger on it. I want to wind the clock back to what was going on in the history of Israel around when Jesus was born. Not just the history of the nation but the lives of the ordinary people like you and me. In fact there's a particular bunch of guys I want to focus on because they, to me, exemplify this "business as usual" but something was not quite right in their world. What am I yabbering on about here? I'm talking, of course, about the shepherds who were out watching their flocks by night. Now, no doubt you've sung the Christmas carol many times and heard their story many times. By the way, the fact that they were out there watching their flocks by night makes it pretty certain that Jesus wasn't born in December, Israel's winter. Average December maximums of fifteen degrees Celsius or around sixty degrees Fahrenheit and of course nights were quite a bit cooler. So in winter they generally brought their sheep into town where there was a communal pen where they were cared for overnight. So even though we celebrate Christmas in December, it probably didn't happen then on the first Christmas. Anyhow, here were these guys living out their "business as usual" tending their flocks by night but they weren't living as free men, they were living as men in an occupied country. The Romans of course had occupied and ruled most of the known world back then. And in fact, the Romans had been the rulers for the last sixty or seventy years in Israel. Now, in the overall history of Israel that's pretty short but for those shepherds it was all that they could remember. The Romans were tough task masters and what made it even harder for the Israelites is that they knew they were God's chosen people. They knew they were meant to be free and so they expected, kind of, sort of, maybe one day for God to send them a King – a Messiah, as He was called back then, God's anointed King – in order to boot the Romans out and restore the kingdom of Israel, to set God's people free. After all, God had done it before. He'd set them free from captivity in Egypt. He'd set them free from captivity in Babylon. He'd set them free from the Seleucid Empire through the Maccabean Revolt only a century and a half before. That was their simplistic understanding of what should be going on. So there they were, business as usual. But something wasn't quite right, they were oppressed and that simply wasn't the way it should have been. They were being robbed of the freedom, the life that they knew they were entitled to as God's chosen people. Does that sound vaguely familiar to you? Does that sound like anyone that you know? Now, people back then were kind of expecting this Messiah to come. But when you and I used this term "Messiah" we think of Jesus, right? That's not who they were thinking about at all. They were thinking more about a strong warrior king, someone like King David of old who could muster an army, defeat the Romans and set the people free. After all, isn't that what God promised to David years before? 2 Samuel 7: 12 and 13, He said to David: When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your ancestors I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come forth from your body and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. So in effect, they were looking in the wrong direction for a saviour because they misinterpreted what God was on about. They thought they were going to get another King David. Again a bit like, in fact a lot like people today, that's what was going on in the popular consciousness of ordinary people like those 'business as usual' shepherds back then and in many respects it's what's going on in the popular consciousness of ordinary people today. People are looking for someone or something to set things right. They know that life is not all it should be so they turn to money or career or reputation or luxury or holidays or friends, you name it. They turn to it expecting "it" to make things better but it never does. People have been looking in the wrong direction for a Saviour for thousands of years just like those shepherds and then God breaks into the world with such power and with such might and in such a surprising way that we can't even begin to imagine what He's up to. Luke 2: 8-14: In that region were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night then an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were terrified but the angel said to them, 'don't be afraid for see I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people. To you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour who is the Messiah, the Lord. This Messiah, this Saviour, He wasn't what they expected Him to be – He still isn't what we expect Him to be. What are you expecting Jesus to be? As we roll inexorably towards Christmas, yet again, what are you expecting to discover or are you so busy looking in a different direction that you're going to miss this amazing surprise in Jesus? Or are you running away as I was for many years because like the shepherds I was kind of afraid? This idea of God breaking into history by becoming one of us is too startling and too incomprehensible to begin to make sense. Just listen with me quietly to what the angel went on to say to those startled, frightened, 'business as usual', confused shepherds. Luke 2: 15 – 20: This will be a sign for you, you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger. And so ... When the angels had left them and gone into heaven the shepherds said to one another, 'let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place which the Lord has made known to us'. So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and a child lying in a manger. When they saw this they made known what had been told to them about this child and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told to them. (Luke 2: 15 – 20) Seems to me that you and I, like the shepherds, have a choice. We can continue to get on with business as usual, stay in our field and ignore Jesus. Or, we can go and check Him out for ourselves. The only question that I'd ask is this; so how well has your 'business as usual' worked out for you so far?
When I first started reading the Bible, it seemed to me that it was all about the things I had to give up - what I was going to lose. But what I discovered is that actually, actually God wants to bless us. His Wisdom brings blessing to our lives - as counterintuitive as it may seem, when we're sitting there wrapped up in our selfish desires. The Fruit of Discipline I can honestly say, as I look back on my life, that there is not a single time ... not one, where I have enjoyed being disciplined. I remember as a child – I was a lively sort of a lad as you can probably image. I was into everything and inquisitive and full of beans and since I was old enough to sleep in a bed, rather than a cot, I've been getting up at four or five o'clock in the morning – that's just the way I'm wired. I was never shy or retiring – I was always out there and into everything. So it's not surprising that growing up, I had more than my fair share of discipline – more than the odd belting when I grew up. Not that I am necessarily suggesting that's always the best way of discipling a child. And then as a teenager and a young adult when I was studying at the Royal Military College Duntroon, to become an officer in the Australian Army, that's where you learn what discipline is all about. And then later on in the workplace. I can honestly say there is not a single time that I have enjoyed being disciplined. But looking back on it, without that discipline, I think I would have grown up to be a horrid person, completely unbearable. See, discipline is never fun at the time but it's an important part of our lives. And I think it bears some thinking about so today we are going to spend some time unpacking this whole thing of "discipline". There's not one of us, I suspect, who can't think back to the time when we lived with our parents – those of us fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to grow up with our Mum and our Dad, or at least one of them. As we think back to those times what we remember is being disciplined and some of those memories are frankly, not very happy ones. I can remember how unfair discipline felt at the time – how much I hated being disciplined. Aw, man, why do things have to be like that? Why did God have to invent a world where we would have to learn by being disciplined? Well, today we are continuing on with this series that I have called “Wisdom that Works.” And right in the next passage of the Book of Proverbs, a book of wisdom, written by a wise old King Solomon to his young sons – right in the next bit that we are up to, we get an answer to this question: Why do we need discipline? So let's have a listen – we are looking at Proverbs chapter 6, beginning at verse 20: My child, keep your father's commandment, and do not forsake your mother's teaching. Bind them upon your heart always; tie them around your neck. When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you. For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, to preserve you from the wife of another, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes; for a prostitute's fee is only a loaf of bread, but the wife of another stalks a man's very life. Can fire be carried in the bosom without burning one's clothes? Or can one walk on hot coals without scorching the feet? So is he who sleeps with his neighbor's wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished. Thieves are not despised who steal only to satisfy their appetite when they are hungry. Yet if they are caught, they will pay sevenfold; they will forfeit all the goods in their house. But he who commits adultery has no sense; he who does it destroys himself. He will get wounds and dishonor, and his disgrace will not be wiped away. For jealousy arouses a husband's fury, and he shows no restraint when he takes revenge. He will accept no compensation, and refuses a bribe no matter how great. Now, the example that Solomon uses here to his sons is that of adultery. He kicks off by talking about the huge investment that he and the mother of these young men have made in them, through their commandments and their teaching and their wisdom and their reproof. And their council is to hang on to that – to bind it round their hearts, to tie it round their neck – why? Because the things that you have learned when you are young through discipline will protect you – they will watch over you, they will council you. When we head off and we want to do something stupid like adultery – but it could be anything – it could be dishonesty or it could be dissension or back biting – it could be anything – when we want to head off in the wrong direction, the wisdom given to us by our parents will be like a lamp and a light and show things for what they are. The wisdom of our parents and, for you and me, the wisdom of God, will protect us. Now wisdom always involves discipline – it always involves us being taught the hard way not to head off in a certain direction because that's where we are going to get hurt. You and I, we naturally shun discipline, but have a listen to what Solomon says to his lads and what God is saying to you and me, here and now: For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, to preserve you from the wife of another, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. Did you pick that up? “… the reproof of discipline is a way of life.” – to preserve us from the consequences of wrong doing. And then, of course, Solomon goes on to lay out the horrible things that happen to a young man who commits adultery, notwithstanding the seductive nature of what's on offer. Discipline is a way of life. Ouch! You see, we have this idea that if we are succeeding, things should always be getting better, things should always be on the up and up and we should be getting more influence and more success and more this and more that. That's the picture we have of life! And then all of a sudden, when things take a turn for the worse, we think to ourselves, "Oh, woe is me! Has God forsaken me? Where's God – what's He doing? Why is this happening to me – ME of all people – me?" Right? That's how we want to carry on. Come with me to the New Testament – a thousand or so years later on, after Solomon wrote the Book of Proverbs to the Letter of Hebrews chapter 12. Have a listen to what God has to say about discipline: Hebrews chapter 12, beginning at verse 7: Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children. Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us, and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later on it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. See, discipline is a way of life, as God's way of helping us to grow. Jesus said, “Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it to make it bear more fruit.” So the next time God is disciplining you – and this is not about punishment and justice – that happened at the cross when Jesus died for us – discipline is about teaching and learning and pruning so that we will be able to bear more fruit. So the next time God is disciplining you and disciplining me, let's remember there's a purpose that goes way beyond our desire for comfort and convenience – that purpose is that God has a plan. And instead of flapping around, wondering what the blazes is going on here, here's God's advice: Discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time. So, lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight the paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. In other words, don't fight it! Go with what God is doing – don't get your nose out of joint, instead, be healed. Now that … that's wisdom that works! Our Heart's Desires To be frank, when I first started reading God's Word in the Bible, my expectations of that stuffy old Book were pretty low. I thought it was pretty much irrelevant – truly! And that, "Well, if I am going to call myself a Christian, well, I suppose I'll have to pray and I'll have to read the Bible, just one of those chores; the price you have to pay to get eternal life!" Seriously, that's what I thought! So the last thing I expected was to discover this vibrant, living thing – God speaking His love and His grace and His wisdom into my life, in a way – get this – in a way that actually works. In a way that radically, makes my life better. And the last thing I expected was a God who wanted to bless me and having taught me His ways, to give me the desires of my heart. But that's exactly what I discovered. Page after page, verse after verse, as I read it and thought about it and how it might work in my life, I met a God; a Jesus, who wants to make my life better by getting rid of the sin out of my life. The stupid things that we all want to do and they end up robbing us of life – the life He always planned for us. And then, by taking our hearts and filling them with His love and humility and showing us the depth of joy that comes from living our lives for Him – living our lives with love for other people. My friend, let me tell you – with all that I am, that was the very last thing I expected to find. See, the funny thing is, the reason I held back my life from God for the first thirty six years of my life was that, I was afraid of what I would have to give up. I have always been pretty clever – I'm fortunate I have a quick, sharp mind, I have always been industrious and resourceful and so what I had done in my life was to take those natural talents (other people have different talents, but these were mine) and to use them for … well, to use them for me, of course. I'd figured out that I could use them to make lots of money. I knew that because I was strong and articulate and driven, I could crash through just about any obstacle that got between me and my objective of getting the sort of career and recognition and wealth that I hungered after. And deep, deep down I knew that if I invited God into my life to be my Lord and my Saviour, I'd have to get off my throne – I'd have to surrender that to Him! I'm not sure if I could have quite put it in those words back then but that was it. It wasn't that I didn't believe in God – I believed pretty much for most of my life, that He was out there somewhere. Yet I had this uneasy dread that one day, the day of reckoning would come. It's just that I duped myself into believing that my brand of evil and frankly – let's call a spade a spade – that's what my selfishness was – that my brand of evil was somehow, okay. It was good that I was driven; it was good that I was getting wealthy and recognised in my field and industry – it was good that I was making it. And that con job, my friend, is a con job that the devil is working out in countless people's lives walking this earth today. ‘It's not evil what you are doing – it's good; it's fine, it's okay; it's good that you are making it – sure, go for it. And if someone gets in your road, just roll over the top of them – squash them like a fly.' I wonder if, perhaps, you don't relate just a little bit to what I'm saying. This is a universal human condition. It's the condition that God calls ‘sin' and the worst thing is … the most dangerous thing is that we end believing that it's okay; that it's good. So have a listen with me now to God's wisdom on the difference between good and evil. It's wisdom that shines light on this oh-so-important subject and it's the sort of light I think, that makes us see evil for what it is. And my prayer is that it makes us desire good over evil. Let's have a listen – Proverbs chapter 10, beginning at verse 22: The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it. Doing wrong is like sport to a fool, but wise conduct is a pleasure to a person of understanding. What the wicked dread will come upon them, but the desire of the righteous will be granted. When the tempest passes, the wicked are no more, but the righteous are established forever. See, God being God, He always starts off by telling us about the blessing He has in store for us. God reveals Himself to us as our Father – Jesus literally called Him “Dad”. Listen to me, every dad wants to bless his children – we do! We love to bless our kids. God's no different. Look at verse 22 again – Proverbs chapter 10: The blessing of the Lord makes rich and he adds no sorrow with it. Friend, God wants to bless us and when He does, He makes us rich. I'm not talking about money – sometimes He blesses us financially – but money isn't what makes us happy. There is something deep inside that makes us happier – a deep abiding joy; the sort I could never find when I was working out my particular brand of evil on this earth - the sort that always eluded me. I thought I'd have to give something up, by giving up my evil ways, and sure, in a sense, I did. But the reality was that the prize was that one thing I'd been looking for all my life. I was living in the first part of this next verse without realising the blessing in the second part. Doing wrong is like sport to a fool but wise conduct is pleasure to a person of understanding. As I said earlier, I always had this deep dread down inside that one day this would all come unstuck – that one day something bad would happen – that one day this whole house of cards would come crashing down and that is exactly what God says is going to happen next verse: What the wicked dread will come upon them, but the desire of the righteous will be granted. I proved the first bit of that in my life because that's exactly what happened – it did all come crashing down. But I'm also discovering the profound truth of the second part now that I am living my life for Him, that “...the desire of the righteous will be granted.” God grants the desires of our heart when we are living our lives for Him. Elsewhere: Psalm 37, verse 4, he tells us to: Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. God wants to give us good things, like any father. And now the desires that I have going on in my heart – for the most part – spring out of a delight that I have in God. My point is, we all have things still to deal with – you do, I do – but more and more my desires flow from God's desires. You know what? God is a great Dad; a fantastic Dad! I am discovering that He really does wants to bless me with His joy and His peace and His love, right in the middle of the storms of life; right in the middle of the trials and the challenges. A lot of those haven't gone away, in fact, the more we step out onto the spiritual battlefield, to weigh in with our lives for God on this planet earth, the more things are going to come against us; the more our enemy, the devil, is going to come against us. But in the middle of all that, God wants to bless us. Take delight in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. That's the point! And how does it all end – this story of life, when we either live out a life of rebellion against God or a life of honouring God – what is the end game? Proverbs chapter 10, verse 25: When the tempest passes, the wicked are no more but the righteous are established forever. Friend, all those years I was conned, I thought to myself, I was going to lose something; I had to give up something to serve God. What a fool I was because what I have discovered is when we do lay our lives down; when we do give everything we are and everything we have to God, WOW! The blessings of the Father, God in heaven, flow in our lives and they make us rich and He adds no sorrow with it. That's who God is! That's the wisdom of God – lay down your life and you will find it. Try and hang on to it and you will lose it. Back to the Beginning Well, over these last four weeks – isn't it amazing how much wisdom there is in God's Word, as we have stepped through the Book of Proverbs in this series that I've called, “Wisdom that Works”? But we have only stepped through just a few chapters – there is so much more there. And that's the thing – people sometimes ask me – they say, "Berni, you produce hundreds of episodes of your radio programmes every year and you write books and all that stuff, don't you ever run out of ideas; don't you ever run out of fresh content?" And my answer to that is a huge NO! Absolutely not! If I get to do this every day for another hundred years, I'll still only have scratched the surface of God's wisdom. Is that because it's big and complicated, so that you need a PhD in Theology to understand it? No! God's Word is actually simple, practical and straight forward. It's just that, well, I'm such a slow learner – I need to feast on God's Word every day. And little by little He changes me. And you know, the more time I spend in God's Word each day, the less of it I read. Now, that sounds a bit weird, doesn't it? Let me explain. I used to try and plough through several chapters each day as though somehow, it was a race to see who could get to the end first. But then I stumbled on a passage written by Paul the Apostle. He was old and experienced and much wiser for it, writing to his young ministry protégé Timothy. This is what he said. First Timothy chapter 2, verse 7: Think over what I say for the Lord will give you understanding in all things. In other words, stop and think over what is in God's Word. That's when it makes a difference. I had a young listener email me recently and she said, ‘I have a problem – I am trying to read my Bible but by lunch time I can't remember what I read this morning.' So I said to her, ‘I had that problem too so what I started doing was reading less – not less often, but less in volume. And I started thinking and praying about it more. See, that's when it came together for me. God's wisdom is so powerful! But just like good food, we need to chew it over and swallow it for it to do us any good. So I encourage you to do that – to take His wisdom, chew it over, think about it and then, in prayer, swallow it. Let the Spirit of God write it on your heart – that's when it becomes part of us. And over a decade and a half of doing that I can honestly say that God's Word has become part of the fabric; the essence of who I am. That's what transforms us – that's how His wisdom starts working in our lives. We take it in little by little and the old maxim is true, we discover that "we are what we eat". And the place where I think is the best place for us to draw this four week series to a close, is the place where we began four weeks ago. Proverbs chapter 9, verse 10: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. If we read this stuff with a proud heart; if we are full of pride that we know better and we should be able to hang on to our own attitudes and our own sin– my friend, that is so often how we at first come to God's Word. So often! If that's how we approach God's Word it will profit us nothing! The beginning of wisdom; the starting point is the fear of the Lord. The beginning of wisdom isn't a hard, prideful, puffed up, a "full of myself" heart. The beginning of wisdom is a humble heart, a soft heart, a teachable heart, a heart that knows that without God it is poor, wretched, feeble and naked. A heart that seeks first to honour God, that's the place, my friend, where wisdom begins. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” – nothing else! And unless and until we are ready to humble ourselves at God's feet; unless we are ready to say, "Lord, I know I have been trying it on my own; I know I have been doing all this stuff; I know it doesn't work. Lord, I am going to lay my way down. I am going to lay my life down at Your feet. I am going to lay my pride and crucify it and lay it down." Unless we go that way then we are not demonstrating the fear of the Lord. And without the fear of the Lord our heart is hard and the wisdom can't get in. That's sad, because without God's wisdom; without His wisdom – let me tell you because I have been there, without His wisdom, frankly, it's a lousy life. My friend, I am going to bring you back to this verse – Proverbs chapter 9, verse 10 and ask you to consider in your heart where you are at. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. May the Lord soften your heart and open your heart and pour His wisdom and His love and His power and His grace into you.
God is a God of love and so we don't often think about Him hating things. But He does - He clearly tells us so in His Word. So - what are the seven things that God hates … things that are an abomination to Him? Do you know - because my hunch is … they're worth avoiding. Proud Eyes and a Lying Tongue One of the most common responses we receive from people who listen to this programme around the world is: well, how they've been blown away by how practical and down to earth God's Word actually is. Many people have never realised that God, in this thing that many consider to be a stuffy old book, the Bible, gives us such incredible, practical wisdom that makes our lives better. It's pretty sad because He does; God loves us. He reveals Himself to us as our Father. To the shock and the horror of the religious leaders of the day, Jesus actually called Him "Abba", which translated means "Dad". So if God's our Dad; if He loves us so much, why wouldn't He want to give us down to earth, practical advice? Well, He does and He has. That's why we are continuing this week in the Book of Proverbs; a father's godly wisdom and advice – King Solomon to his sons; God our Father, "Dad", to us. And today we are going to take a look at seven things that God hates. Now we don't often think of God hating anything; we think of God as the God of supreme love; a love so great that He would send us His only begotten Son. And that's the point: He loves us so much and He hates our sin so much that the way He sets us free from this sin; the sin that ruins our lives and separates us from Him, is through the supreme act of love in all of history – the death of Jesus Christ, His Son on the cross to pay for my transgressions and yours. So, does God love us – you and me right now, given all that we have done to rebel against Him? Right at this instant, in Jesus Christ, the answer to that question is a huge, resounding YES! Of that we can be absolutely certain. Believe in this Jesus who came to die for you and me, to pay for our sin and to rise again to give us a new life – believe in Him and we are forgiven. Full stop! End of story! But does God hate our sin? Well, in Jesus Christ, the answer to that question is also a huge, resounding YES! So gravely does God view our sin that He deals with it by letting His Son die for us to deal with them. And through King Solomon, God tells us the sorts of sin that He really hates. We will have a look at just two of the seven, right now. But first have a listen to them all – Proverbs chapter 6, beginning at verse 16: There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family. Now, for much of my life, I thought of all this religion stuff, "God stuff", as being a whole bunch of outdated moralising but the list we just read out there – the seven things that are an abomination to God – well, I'd have thought that none of those, well, we wouldn't have a problem with any of them. Take the first of them: haughty eyes – fancy God hating haughty eyes! But have you ever been around someone who looks down on you? I remember before I became a Christian, I visited a woman's home; an elderly lady, the mother of a friend of mine and I looked around it as if to say, "Well, this isn't decorated to latest fashion." And years later when I was in a desperate time in my life; when God had brought me down low, she was the person who gave me somewhere to live and encouraged me and strengthened me. And it turns out that she had noticed the way I had looked around her place all those years before; she had noticed my haughty eyes and remembered them. Why? Because haughty eyes are a sign of arrogance and superiority in the heart - looking down on people belittles them in order to exalt ourselves. I remember a woman, a Christian, who would every now and then would stick her head into our office here at Christianityworks and instead of engaging with our staff – asking them how they were, how things were going – instead of caring for the people, she looked around with haughty eyes. And those haughty eyes have brought her so much grief since that time – much, much grief. Listen to me – that sense of arrogance and superiority that some people have because of their ability or their position or their status or their wealth or ... or just their own distorted self-view, or all of the above – this is an abomination to God. God hates it! The original Hebrew word for "haughty" means "to lift up, to raise up, to exalt on high" and the only person we are meant to exalt on high is Jesus, God Himself. God doesn't share His glory with anyone and those people who look down their noses at others, for whatever reason, are doing something that is an abomination to God. It's something that God really hates. Now, number two on this "hit parade", on this list of things God hates, is a "lying tongue". Let me ask you, do you like it when someone lies to you? Do you like it when someone deceives you? Of course we don't! Lying equals deception; deception equals dishonesty and dishonesty makes a person rotten to the core. They purport to be one thing on the outside – sweetness and light – but on the inside they're something completely different. And so that we don't notice, they tell us lies. You know, I don't even like lies where people are trying to protect me and not hurt my feelings. Back in the days when I was in business, if we bid on a job and then missed out, ninety percent of those prospective clients – well, they wouldn't even give you an answer as to why. Me, I'd really like to know why even if it's because the CEO of our opposition was a friend of the senior manager and the client. That's okay, but tell me the truth so that I know; so that if there is anything that I can do better next time, I can take steps to improve. The lying tongue takes all sorts of different forms – from not telling the truth; in other words a bald faced lie – to (as a character in one very funny British sitcom, "Yes, Minister" once said,) being economical with the truth. In other words, not telling the whole truth! Even telling the truth in theory, but playing on the situation and the context so that the recipient gets the wrong impression – that is dishonest. We can be so clever in hiding the truth; we can think we are so smart, but listen to me: a lying tongue is an abomination to God; it is something that He hates. Now, let's just say – humour me – let's say that God is in fact God; that He is all powerful; that one day He is going to judge the living and the dead and that that judgement will have a huge eternal impact on us – you and me. Well, maybe the things that God hates are things we should avoid! God Hates Evil Now, as we continue looking at the sort of wisdom that works, God's wisdom, I'd have thought that it makes a lot of sense to look at things that God hates. So let's have another look at the things that God hates – the next two on the list. Earlier, we looked at haughty eyes – the sign of a proud heart - and a lying tongue. Right now we are going to look at the next three on that list, in fact, not two, three, that I read out earlier from Proverbs chapter 6: ... hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans and feet that hurry to run to evil. Those three seem to go pretty naturally together, don't they? “Hands that shed innocent blood” – I can't tell you the number of times I have seen this. Of course, I've never seen bloodshed – thank God for that – I'm absolutely sure there are many, many people listening around the world today who in fact have. In my experience what I have seen through, is people who lord it over and punish and riot and bully other people ... other people who don't deserve it. It's exactly the same – bullying is something that takes place all the time amongst kids at school, in the workplace. Someone who is strong, either because of their personality or their position or both, decides to start playing with someone else the way a cat toys with a mouse. It's so incredibly cruel. And sometimes the perpetrator doesn't even realise they're doing it – they are shedding innocent blood because the pain that this behaviour is causing the recipient, is beyond anything words can describe. Can I tell you: bullying; just toying with someone; treating them this way isn't some sport; it's a sin. It's something that God hates; it's an abomination to Him. It's something I used to do before I became a Christian – it's something I don't do now because it's wrong and because I don't one day want to be a sinner in the hands of an angry God. And some people ... some people in their hearts devise wicked plans – Proverbs chapter 6, verse 18. There are people who scheme: "How can I get back at this person; how can I make it so that they will never, ever do this again?" Now that old adage, "don't get angry, get even". Or, "How can I get my hands on something that I don't deserve or haven't earned? Perhaps if I do this and twist that and lie this way and deceive that person that way, perhaps then I'll be able to trick them out of that thing that I want for me." Jesus said, “Murder begins in the heart.” If you are angry with someone it is the same as murdering them in God's eyes. If you look at a woman or a man who is not your wife or your husband, with lust and desire, it's exactly the same as committing adultery. That's what Jesus said. What we do in our hearts and in our minds – what we think, the anger, the resentment, the vengeance we harbour, the scheming and the planning and devising in our hearts – that matters an awful lot to God. And wicked plans in our hearts are an abomination to God. Sometimes people make us angry and sometimes we want revenge or at least, justice which ultimately involves some form of recompense. It's a natural reaction but if we let that brood in our heart, bubble away instead of forgiving the person, the more it takes hold of us and grips us and takes over our lives, well, ultimately it turns into wicked plans. That's why the Apostle Paul, centuries later, wrote to his friends at Ephesus in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 26. He said: Be angry but do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. In other words, don't let it fester because if we do something else happens. There is a natural consequence to that and it's the third thing on our list that we are looking at right now, of the things that God hates – things that we do that are an abomination to God – it's “feet that hurry to run to do evil.” What happens in our hearts, overflows into our lives. The thoughts turn into actions, just as sure as God made little green apples and the more we allow some injustice or some evil desire to fester in our hearts, the more prone we are to devising wicked plans and the more likely we are to go and run towards evil, as a moth flies into a flame, to its own destruction. It's exactly what James writes in the New Testament, centuries after Solomon wrote this wisdom in the Book of Proverbs. James chapter 1, verse 13: No one, when they are tempted, should say, “I am being tempted by God”; because God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself does not tempt any one. But we are tempted by our own desire, being lured and enticed by it; then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. Do not be deceived. It's a natural cycle: cause and effect. Think evil, devise evil plans and ultimately our feet are going to run towards doing evil and towards our own inevitable destruction. This isn't some reluctant sinner here – let's understand – this is someone who is running towards sin; embracing sin; launching themselves into an evil act because of the darkness that they have allowed to fester and to brood in their hearts and their minds and ultimately, a darkness that controls them; a darkness that causes them to run to towards evil. This is such great wisdom from God. There are things that God hates – He hates them to the point where they are an abomination to Him. That's why our hearts are so important to God. That's why it is so important that we spend time each and every day with God, alone – to let Him direct our hearts; to warm them, inspire them, lead them, fill them with His Spirit and goodness and love and peace and mercy, because where our hearts are set upon God, friend, there's no room for evil desires to take hold, to conceive sin. Whatever it is in our lives – we are all different – whatever it is, this is wisdom from God that works and I implore you to heed this wisdom. If there is something going on in your heart – some unforgiveness, some evil, something you want to do that you know is rebellion against God – I want to encourage you, right now, to lay it down at God's feet. To go to God and say, "God, You have just spoken to me through Your Word. You don't tempt me, I am being tempted by my own evil desires and I know that that's going to lead to destruction. Father, I repent, I turn away from it and I come back to You because You are my God." I want to encourage you – this is God's Word; this is God's wisdom and it works. Lying and Dissension Today so far on the programme, the third message in this series that I have called, “Wisdom that Works”, we have looked at the seven things that God hates. Let's just recap - Proverbs chapter 6, beginning at verse 16: There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family. And we have managed to chat about all except the last two in that list: “the lying witness who testifies falsely and the one who sows discord in the family.” Now, law courts are not a place where I have spent a whole bunch of time. Once for a car accident I was in when I was nineteen years old, several times with soldiers who had been charged with this or that, when I was an officer in the Australian Army and once to be sworn in as a Justice of the Peace. I have never, for instance, been at a murder trial or anything like that. But I can imagine the gravity of proceedings in a serious trial. There is a lot at stake. I mean, justice itself in at stake – that there should be a fair trial with the burden of proof resting on the prosecution. The defendant is on trial – his or her whole future depends on the outcome. I mean, imagine if an innocent person were convicted. And to some extent the victim or the victim's family or both are on trial, depending on the nature of the alleged crime. In a sense, they feel as though they are on trial. For them, a large part of the healing and recovery process involves seeing justice being done. So, imagine in a highly charged; high stakes trial for a major crime with so much at stake, imagine that a crucial witness gets up on the stand and lies; that bears false witness and as a result there is a miscarriage of justice - either in one direction or in another. That's something of an abomination, isn't it? We can totally understand why God hates this and yet, people lie all the time, in day to day life. They say and do things in the workplace that will get their work colleagues into trouble. They tell the boss one thing and something else entirely is the truth. "Aw, well, you know, that's not the same as lying under oath in a murder trial." But what God is saying to us here through Solomon, in the Book of Proverbs ... what He is saying is "Yes, it is! It is exactly the same thing. It is an abomination to Me and it is something that I hate.” I trust that you find this bit of insight into God's nature and God's wisdom as sobering as I do. Last week we saw that Solomon kicks off this wisdom Book of Proverbs with a statement that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”, I trust that is becoming so clear why he said that. You know, we start bearing false witness pretty early on in our lives. Of course, I never once blamed my sister for something I did wrong! Not much! Of course I did! And I'm sure if you have brothers and sisters; you have been on the receiving end of that and the dishing out into that as well. And that leads us to the last of the seven things in this list of things that are an abomination to God – “... someone who sows discord in a family.” Families are such a precious thing – hard sometimes, isn't it, to be a part of a family? Whether it's husband and wife, with the stresses and strains of modern life, tearing away at the marriage and conspiring, seemingly, to pull them apart. Or the pressure of bringing up children, or holding down a job and paying the mortgage and putting food on the table. And as I remember, it's not that easy being a child and growing up in a family either. As we move into those teenage years, we want to spread our wings and have our own way and we are yet we are still subject to the authority of our parents, which is why there is so often conflict in families. Guess the point that I am making here is that there is already so much going on in life that puts pressure on families, the last thing that a family needs is pressure from within. The last thing a family needs is a husband; a father who is so domineering that his wife's personality is being suffocated or his children are being provoked. The last thing that a family needs is a mother who doesn't show respect to her husband and who undermines his authority in front of the children. And the last thing a family needs are children who deliberately set about rebelling and dishonouring their parents. In each of those cases it's about sowing discord into the family. And it's like sowing seeds for weeds – those weeds grow and thrive and take over the good fruit that should be growing in the family. I know that relationships in families can be highly charged and that's why God hates it when we sow discord into our families. Husbands - love your wives. Wives - honour and respect your husbands. Mums and Dads - nurture, love and discipline your children. Children - obey and honour your parents. It ain't complicated! And in living our lives that way in a family, that's how we honour God – that's how we show that this family who says it believes in Jesus; who professes a faith called Christianity, is different from the rest. Is a family ever going to be perfect? No! Am I ever going to be a hundred percent perfect father or husband? No! I'm me – I make mistakes, just as you do. But friend, when we set about being peacemakers in the home; when we turn the other cheek; when we discipline our children out of love rather than out of anger and resentment, then what we are doing is sowing good seed that will bear good fruit. I know it's a journey, this wisdom thing. I know it frustrating and I know that to sow peace rather than discord, involves sacrifice and pain sometimes. But it's pretty obvious isn't it - all seven things in this list that God hates, this list of abominations, is so obvious. Let's just look at them one more time. If you've got a Bible, go there and open it up. Proverbs chapter 6, beginning at verse 16: There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him; haughty eyes (which are the sign of a proud heart), a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely and one who sows discord in a family. It's quite a bundle of things! And let's make no mistake about it – God hates them. They are an abomination to Him and as much as we might want to sweep them under the carpet; as much as we might want to tell a little lie here and maybe upset the family there and look down our noses at this person there, and as much as we think, "Ah, no one notices – none of that matters," friend, these things are things that God hates. They are an abomination to Him and as we saw earlier, the beginning of wisdom; the place where wisdom starts, is with a fear of God. One day you and I will stand before God and we will be judged. One day we will have to stand before Him and give account for our actions. Now, I believe that I am saved and I am forgiven through Jesus Christ – it is pure grace; it has nothing to do with my works – but once we accept that, God calls us to start living in obedience to Him. Not many things – I mean, there only seven on that list - not many things He says, “Don't do!”, but there are a few. He loves us, He cares for us and the very few things He says, “Don't do”, are the things that are going to hurt you and me and the people around us. It is not rocket science – it is wisdom. It is wisdom that works.
Well this week we're kicking on with our second message in a series called Wisdom that Works - looking at some of God's mighty wisdom through the Book of Proverbs. And we're going to be chatting this time around, about trust, truth … and temptation. Trust and Honour God Welcome to the programme again this week and yes, we are continuing in a series that I have called, "Wisdom that Works". Now wisdom is an amazing thing – a seductive concept. I mean, who doesn't want to have more wisdom; who doesn't want to be wise? That's ridiculous isn't it? Of course we all want wisdom; of course we all want to be wise, but wisdom ... well, it's a double edged sword. Sure, it's about having the knowledge that comes from experience but theory is aren't enough. Someone who knows that treating other people well and loving them and sacrificing for them; someone who knows that but spends most of their lives not doing it, well, we wouldn't call them wise would we? In order for someone to be wise, they need to know it and do it. That's wisdom! And the sort of wisdom that God shares with us is the sort of wisdom that actually works. So we are spending some time again this week ransacking the Book of Proverbs in the Old Testament, written by King Solomon – one of the wisest men that ever walked the earth. And my encouragement to you is that we take this wisdom from God and actually apply it to our lives. Why? Because it works! Bottom line is that if we will take God's wisdom to heart; if we will take God's Word to heart it will make a real difference in our lives. God will make that difference in our lives through His Spirit and through His Word. And if we don't take it to heart, He won't! Can I say that again? If we don't, He won't! So let's get back into this great Book of wisdom; the Book of Proverbs and see what wisdom Solomon has for us about trusting and honouring God. Proverbs chapter 3, beginning at verse 1. He says: My child, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; for length of days and years of life and abundant welfare they will give you. Do not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favour and good repute in the sight of God and of people. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be a healing for your flesh and a refreshment for your body. Honour the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine. My child, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves the one whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights. So we're chugging along through live, stuff happens and we get impatient and we want to head off our own way and here's Solomon with the wisdom of age telling his sons, "Guys, this is just going to happen. You'll want to drift away from God – you just will – but don't do that. Don't forget what I told you: be loyal, be faithful. I know it won't always make sense to you but listen to me, write these words on your hearts." So, stuff is happening and life is not going the way we planned it and it's not making sense and so we have a wisdom decision point here in that place. We can flap around, we can carry on, we can head off our own way – most people do – or we can say, "Hang on a minute; hang on! Remember what God told me through Solomon?" That was wisdom that works: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding. In all you ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight. You see how we have a decision to make? Either we can believe this stuff and take God at His Word or we treat it like some useless theory lesson. Here's the promise: trust in God – don't try and figure it all out because you can't – just acknowledge God in how we live our lives. And listen, here's the promise; here's the dividend; here's the return on investment: if you do that God will straighten it all out. Listen to me, if we just honour God through the difficult times in what we say and what we think and what we do, God will straighten it all out. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Now, let me ask you: which bit of that don't we get? Why do we have to make everything so complicated? Are we going to be like those people I was telling you about the other week? Are we going to spend hours and hours and hours studying the Bible for studying's sake, as though it was some intellectual exercise, without ever really believing that it is meant to be true in our lives or are we going to take God at His Word? Are we going to take God's wisdom to heart? See, he goes on to tell us what it means to honour God: Trust the Lord with all your heart, don't rely on your own understanding, acknowledge him in all your ways and he will make straight all your paths. Don't be wise in your own eyes – instead fear God and turn away from evil. It will be a healing to your flesh and refreshment to your body. How often do people pierce themselves with many pains by turning away from God– by going and doing it their own way; by being proud; by being greedy; by being selfish? Honour the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce. In other words, put in first with all that you are and all that you have: ... and then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine. My child, don't despise God's discipline and get weary of his reproof? He loves you! He reproves the one whom He loves as the father does the son in whom he delights. See, this is such simple wisdom ... it is so simple. We want to go off and do it on our own and flap around and carry on and wander away from God and then we wonder why it is all falling apart. This is about trusting God and honouring Him – and the two go hand in hand. I absolutely love how practical God's truth actually is! And when we just simply put this into practice in the everyday things that happen in life – in the tense relationships, in just forgiving people, in moving on, in honouring God, in blessing other people when they curse us, in the simple things of life – they might be simple but often they are difficult – if we will just put this into action in our lives; when we choose to stop mucking around, flapping around, complaining, doing the "woe is me" bit and just sit down and decide, "God, come hell or high water, I am going to trust in You. I am just going to do the best I know how, I am going to honour You the best I can with what I have and who I am", do you know what happens? God honour that; God springs into action; He starts sorting out the mess. My friend, this is not – let me say this in capital letters – N-O-T ... this is NOT a theory lesson. God's wisdom is imparted into our lives when we take His truth into our hearts and live it out. Don't forget His teaching, let your heart keep His commandments because there is a blessing at the end of that – for length of days and years of live and abundant welfare they will give you. Do not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake you. Bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart so you will find favour and good repute in the sight of God. As you sow so shall you reap. Do it God's way and you reap the blessing – do it your own way and you reap the pain. This is not complex; this is not rocket science. True Wealth Now the next thing that Solomon talks about in the Book of Proverbs is money and wealth. Now a man that I have come to have a lot of respect for is a guy by the name of David Bussau. For a good many years we have attended the same church as David and his wife Carol. He is the founder of a ministry called Opportunity International; an organisation that now creates a new job in the developing world, something like every twenty second, or something outrageous like that. I heard David one day talking about the "economics of enough". Now he lives in a comfortable home and they constantly have people staying who are visiting for ministry reasons. He drives an ordinary car, dresses in ordinary everyday clothes. And he said he came to the conclusion many years ago that he had more than enough "stuff" – he just didn't need any more. It was the "economics of enough". Remember we are talking this week and the next few weeks about God's wisdom; wisdom that works. And we are doing that by taking a step through some of the powerful wisdom that we discover in the Old Testament Book of Proverbs which was written by King Solomon to capture the wisdom that he was handing down to his sons. And not surprisingly, fairly early on in the piece he talks about money – not so much money but wealth. Have a listen to what he says – Proverbs chapter 3, beginning at verse 13. He says: Happy are those who find wisdom, and those who get understanding, for her income is better than silver, and her revenue better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called happy. Now, there was a time in my life, in fact, for much of my life where I would have scoffed at this suggestion. "Aw, give me a break please. How can wisdom possibly be better than silver or gold and precious jewels? How can wisdom be better than anything that my little heart desires? No, I'll just have the cash thanks – show me the money." And for all that to make sense there are two things we need to know about Solomon. Not only was he blessed with great wisdom – he was one of the wisest men that ever lived – but he was also one of the richest men in all of history. And it all comes to Solomon when he prays to God – have a listen – as a young man. It comes from First Kings chapter 3, verse 5 right through to verse 13, so grab your Bible. First Kings chapter 3, beginning at verse 5: At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, “Ask what I should give you.” And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today. And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David, although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen, a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?” It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked for, both riches and honour all the days of your life; no other king shall compare with you. Right from the beginning, as a young man, Solomon had preferred wisdom over riches so he asked God for wisdom. What a brilliant thing to ask for! I wonder what you and I would have asked for if God had said to us, “Ask what I should give you?” So, all of his adult life, Solomon had both great wisdom and great riches. And having lived his life with both, out of his experience he was able to say to his sons: wisdom is so much better than anything else that you can imagine. Why? Why did he say that? Because the dividend; the return that this wisdom gave him was huge. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her; those who hold her fast are called happy. You know, that's a dividend statement that Solomon makes after a life of wisdom. As much as we try and kid ourselves, we know – we know through experience, we know deep in our hearts – that riches can never deliver that sort of dividend. We chase after money alone and it's a lonely, unhappy life. Believe you me, I've been there, done that, got the T-shirt and I can tell you ABSOLUTELY that wealth simply doesn't deliver that sort of dividend – a dividend of riches and peace and pleasantness and joy and happiness. Wisdom ... wisdom means that we learn God's truth and we put it into action in our lives. Even though sometimes; in fact, most times it involves sacrifice up front, like any other investment. We live out God's truth in our lives – that's what wisdom is – and we reap the rewards – peace, life, joy. Why? Because we know how to avoid the dumb things we used to do that caused us so much pain; because we know how to make good choices that bear good fruit. True wealth is living a life of abundance in Christ. True wealth is having the wisdom to build strong relationships and enjoy serving others and getting over our pride and our stupid tantrums. Wisdom is about ultimately enjoying life – whatever life throws our way. Friend, this is such great advice! But it only becomes true wisdom in our lives when we put it into action and the thing to put into action here is to seek after wisdom above and before riches, because nothing ... NOTHING compares to the dividends paid by wisdom; God's wisdom. The sort of wisdom that works! Impurity and Infidelity I remember back in college one of our lecturers in a subject about, I guess, the foundational issues of Christian living – said to each one of us who were training for some form of ministry or another - he said: there are three things that can bring you unstuck: girls, gold and glory (or in the case of women, guys, gold and glory.) In other words, people whom God calls to serve Him, often stumble in infidelity or because they start loving wealth too much. We spoke about that last week. Or because they seek the glory and they fall to pride. It's not a bad executive summary, is it? Girls or guys, as the case may be, gold and glory. Well as we roll on to the next piece of wisdom from Solomon in the Book of Proverbs, we are going to chat a bit about the girls, guys thing, or impurity and infidelity, because it's huge. Statistically, almost half of all marriages fall apart – and in fact, of those that remain, only fraction are what you would call happy marriages – the sorts of marriages where people really thrive. The facts about marital infidelity – sexual unfaithfulness to a spouse are astounding. Polls in the U.S. show that, although ninety percent of married people disapprove of extramarital affairs, fifteen percent of wives and twenty five percent of husbands have experienced extramarital sex. Now those numbers increase a further twenty percent when emotional affairs and sexual relationships without intercourse are included - so thirty five percent of women and forty five percent of men have been unfaithful to their spouse. That's frightening, isn't it? Marriage is supposed to be the most wonderful relationship - fulfilling, lifelong soul mates and yet, almost half of all men and over a third of all women have some sort of extramarital affair. That blows me away! But it's nothing new! Almost three thousand years ago Solomon, when instructing his young sons with the wisdom of his years, spends a whole chapter, in fact, a couple of chapters – the 5th chapter and another chapter in the Book of Proverbs, on this very subject. It's one of the first subjects he deals with comprehensively – maybe the stats were pretty much the same back then as they are today. Let's have a listen to what he had to say to his sons about infidelity. Proverbs chapter 5, beginning at verse 1: My child, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding, so that you may hold on to prudence, and your lips may guard knowledge. For the lips of a loose woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her steps follow the path to Sheol. She does not keep straight to the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it. In other words, the grass may well appear greener on the other side, guys, but this seduction that promises so much is going to kill you. Even though the thought of an affair may be oh so seductive, oh so tempting, it leads only to bitterness, pain and destruction. I remember a man I used to work with back in my days in the I.T. industry and he had two affairs outside his marriage – two that I know of anyway. I knew the husband and the wife quite well. He was lured into this trap; he followed his desires and his emotions and it almost destroyed both of them. By God's grace his wife was a godly woman and strong and with great faith and their marriage weathered the storm. But the pain and of course, as much as all may be forgiven, the memory never, ever, ever, goes away. And the crazy thing was, they had everything. And here's the advice that Solomon has for his sons – here's the wisdom that really works – Proverbs 5, beginning at verse 7: And now, my child, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Keep your ways far from her, and do not go near the door of her house; or you will give your honour to others, and your years to the merciless, and strangers will take their fill of your wealth, and your labours will go to the house of another; and at the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, and you say, “Oh, how I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. Now I am at the point of utter ruin in the public assembly. The advice - the wisdom that works? Keep away from relationships that can lead to infidelity. “My child, listen to me, keep away from her door.” Don't go there! Don't put yourself in a position of temptation. Don't spend time alone with members of the opposite sex. Don't form close bonds and relationships that could head in the wrong direction. Keep yourself to yourself – just don't go there or it will ruin you and you will spend the rest of your life regretting it. And the alternative? Well, it's pretty obvious – Proverbs chapter 5, verse 15: Drink water from your own cistern; flowing water from your own well. Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be for yourself alone, and not for sharing with strangers. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. May her breasts satisfy you at all times; may you be intoxicated always by her love. Why should you be intoxicated, my son, by another woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? For human ways are under the eyes of the Lord, and he examines all their paths. The iniquities of the wicked ensnare them, and they are caught in the toils of their sin. They die for lack of discipline, and because of their great folly they are lost. My friend, if you have a wife, enjoy her – if you are a woman with a husband, enjoy him. Do not be enticed into an extramarital affair, like almost half of all men and over a third of all women who are married are. Enjoy each other – God has given the wife to the husband and the husband to the wife so that they may truly enjoy each other, emotionally and physically and spiritually and be the best of friends and live their lives together for one another. Find fulfilment husbands, in arms of your wives; wives find fulfilment in the arms of your husbands. Sure, they are not perfect! Let's get a revelation here today – they never will be, ever – but they are the lifelong soul mate that God has given you and that ... that is the right place, the only place in God's eyes, to discover and to experience and to enjoy and to revel in the beauty of intimacy. Remember, forty five percent of men and thirty five percent of women – now you may think this is an odd subject for us to be discussing today but judging from the statistics, Solomon was right to make this one a high priority. My prayer is that you will never; never know the pain and the bitter regret of adultery. Please listen to God's Word today; please heed His warning! This is God's wisdom - it is wisdom that works.
Most of us intuitively know that wisdom's a good thing. Sometimes we're full of it - wisdom that is … and sometimes, we're full of ourselves and that's when we come unstuck. So - where do we find the sort of wisdom that really makes a difference? Wisdom Starts Here Hey, it's fantastic to be with you again this week. How quickly the weeks roll on by! And today I am really excited because we are kicking off a brand new series of messages called “Wisdom that Works”. Now, I don't know about you but I have done some pretty silly things in my life. We all make mistakes and the thing is that the mistakes have consequences. Sometimes those consequences are mildly annoying but other times, they are devastating. Sometimes we don't even notice some of the silly things that we're doing – they seem so trivial and yet we do them over and over and over and over and over again and the consequences compound and before we know it, we have a situation on our hands. Wisdom is about avoiding mistakes so that we can avoid the consequences. Wisdom is about taking the goodness and the experiences and the knowledge that others have developed and decide to apply in our lives so that we have a better life. Fewer mistakes, fewer consequences! And it's not just about avoiding mistakes, it's about knowing how to handle difficult situations. It's about knowing how to be proactive in making good things happen, rather than wallowing around in the consequences of repeated stupidities. In fact, there is a lot to be said for wisdom – the sort of wisdom that actually works. Okay, so exactly what is wisdom? I mean, intuitively, we know that wisdom is probably a good thing and most of us wouldn't mind having a bit more of it but have you ever stopped to think exactly what is it? Well, here's a dictionary definition: Wisdom is the quality of having experience, knowledge and good judgement and the soundness of action or decision by applying this experience and knowledge and good judgement. That's not bad! You boil that down and there are two parts to that. Firstly, knowing what to do and then doing it. Knowing what to do and then not doing it is pretty dumb and that's why I for one have done some dumb things in my life. Yes, sure, sometimes I didn't know what the right thing was to do, so I ran into a brick wall and it hurt and I learned that that particular thing doesn't work. Or perhaps, even better, I listened to someone else who had run into that brick wall before me and I learned from their experience. But sometimes, you know, we know the right thing, either because we just know – I mean, I know that it's wrong to rob a bank and I know that if I do, there are going to be some undesirable consequences – or because I have been down that road before or because I have listened to someone who has. So, sometimes we know the right thing to do – we have access to the knowledge but then we turn around and we don't do it. I know that drink driving is dangerous. I know that. Seen the road statistics lately? Seen the random breath testing stations on the road? Yea, so I have the knowledge, but if I get into that car, having had too much to drink and run over a pedestrian – you know, some people do that – then do I have wisdom? No, just the knowledge! For it to be wisdom you have to have the knowledge and then put it into action. Wisdom isn't just having the experience and the knowledge and the good judgement, wisdom is using it; acting on it; doing it; living it. Wisdom is only wisdom when it involves the knowledge and the doing. Does that make sense? Quite a few thousand years ago, King Solomon, King of Israel, David's son, was pretty much recognised as one of the wisest men on the planet. He had a few sons and so he decided to jot down some of that wisdom. We have access to that in the Book of Proverbs in the Old Testament and over these coming four weeks we are going to spend some time ransacking this Book for wisdom - getting as much of the proverbial Wisdom of Solomon as we can, so that we can put that to work in our lives. And that's the key: putting it to work. I can help by unlocking the treasure chest of wisdom, I can help even by encouraging you to put it to work but only you can make it happen in your life – only I can make it happen in my life. Remember this series is called “Wisdom that Works.” Okay, where do we find that wisdom? Where do we start? Well, let's start at the beginning of the Book of Proverbs, chapter 1 – the preamble; the introduction; the reason for wisdom. That's what it's all about. Proverbs chapter 1, beginning at verse 1: The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: For learning about wisdom and instruction, for understanding words of insight for gaining instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity; to teach shrewdness to the simple, knowledge and prudence to the young. Let the wise also hear and gain in learning, and the discerning acquire skill, to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. Hear, my child, your father's instruction, and do not reject your mother's teaching; for they are a fair garland for your head, and pendants for your neck. Well, isn't that what we have just been talking about? It's about getting good wisdom into us and for it to have a good outcome. God's wisdom – the sort of wisdom that actually works. There is plenty of wisdom out there that purports to be real but it's fake; it's a ‘me' centred wisdom which will eventually come unstuck. Not a God-centred wisdom at all and that, my friends, is the starting point of wisdom – shifting our thoughts and our hearts away from the seductive slight-of-hand that passes for worldly wisdom and coming back to the source of real wisdom – the sort of wisdom that actually works. Have a listen again to what Solomon writes about where to find wisdom that works – Proverbs chapter 1, verse 7: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. And the meaning of that word ‘fear' in that context isn't just fear of the consequences of God's judgement if we are rebel against Him – and there is that and it will happen – but awe and respect and reverence. When I was a young lad, if I played up, I knew I would get a belting from my Dad – but much better to live in respect of my Dad, knowing of course, that a belting was in the offing if I mucked up – but living instead in a good respect for my father and avoiding the belting all together. See, there are two sides to that "fear" thing and it's when we finally decide to stick our pride in our pockets, to realise that all along, "I've been trying to do it my way and hey, you know what, it isn't working so brilliantly well. It isn't bringing me the joy and contentment and the satisfaction that I've been craving for." Admitting that and saying, "You know something, God? I have been wandering out there, trying to do it my way and it's not working. I can reject and despise Your wisdom and instruction and live with the consequences, God, or I can yield my life to You and do it Your way." And throughout the Book of Proverbs there is a contrast between the wise and the foolish, between good outcomes and bad outcomes. And that's what we are going to be exploring over these coming weeks on the programme. But the starting point is here: Proverbs chapter 1, verse 7: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. And the choice is yours for your life and mine for my life. Question is: which way will we choose? Good Friends, Bad Friends Do you remember when you were growing up? You know when you were in those teenage years, your parents would tell you this or tell you that and we would just roll our eyes into the back of our heads, wouldn't we? "Don't hang out with the wrong crowd; be careful of the company you keep". "Yeh, yeh, yeh, right, what would they know – the oldies?" But it's really interesting in this Old Testament Book of Proverbs – thirty one chapters, packed, verse after verse with lots of wisdom. One of the very first things that Solomon talks to his sons about, in fact, the very first thing after talking to them about where to find wisdom - which is what we chatted about earlier - the very next thing is the crowd they hang around with. You know, maturity is an interesting thing. As we grow, we grow in our ability to discern what "good advice" is. Sometimes we reject people's advice because it is inappropriate or self-interested but what we are about to hear is some very good advice – some stunning advice, in fact and if we put this into action then it becomes wisdom. Now, any parent knows that if our kids keep bad company that doesn't auger well for their future because that bad company is a bad influence and it can be terribly, terribly destructive on our kids when they are growing up. And this is what Solomon has to say to these young me – his sons – about keeping bad company. Proverbs chapter 1, beginning at verse 10. He said: My child, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us wantonly ambush the innocent; like Sheol let us swallow them alive and whole, like those who go down to the Pit. We shall find all kinds of costly things; we shall fill our houses with booty. Throw in your lot amongst us; we will all have enough in the one purse”, my child, do not walk in their way, keep your foot from their paths; for their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed blood. For in vain is the net baited while the bird is looking on; yet they lie in wait—to kill themselves! and set an ambush—for their own lives! Such is the end of all who are greedy for gain; it takes away the life of its possessors. Okay, hopefully most of us aren't murderers – hopefully most of us aren't going to go and lie in wait and mug someone and rob them but we kind of do that sometimes in life, through our behaviour and our attitudes and dishonesty and aggressively looking after our own interests above other peoples' interests. And it turns out that keeping bad company is different from being around bad people. You go to work, you go to church, you are a member of a club, you interact with people and some of them are great and some of them are fantastic – they're wonderful to be with – and some of them are downright awful. That's life! When we deal with people sometimes, we have to deal with those people and everything in between. But it's not whether we are around them or not, so much, it's a question of influence. Let's go back to what Solomon said – Proverbs chapter 1, verse 10: My child, if sinners entice you, do not consent … My child, do not walk in their way; keep you foot from their paths; for their feet run to evil and they hurry to shed blood. Look what Solomon says – he says, "Look don't be tempted by bad company or listen to them when they say, ‘Come on, let's gang up on someone and kill them, just for the fun of it." It's a question of whether we take their advice and go with them; whether we keep their company; whether we let them influence what we think, what we feel and ultimately, what we do. Here's the chain of events: they speak, we hear. Now, when we hear, we have a decision to make – we either accept or reject. And if we accept, it changes our behaviour and if it changes our behaviour, that has consequences – that's the important bit. When we hear, do we accept or reject? Do we rely on them or not? Do we trust them or don't we? Do we put our faith in them, to the extent that we let them change what we do? It's not that we are around bad people; it's not even that we hear them speak – that's not the problem. It's when we are tempted by them and when we allow them to change what we do. It's a question of influence. Bad company can discourage us; it can lead us to complaining; it can be disruptive; it can make us suspicious; it can make us envious; it can make us dishonest; it can make us violent. Bad company is an entry point of bad influence from other people and I have enough issues in my life to deal with without taking on bad stuff from other people. Now, at the end of the day, all of us want to live a good life. Sure, we want to be comfortable, we want to be happy but part of that is knowing that we are living a good life - that there's a goodness that we are reaping the fruit from and God comes to us here – this is stuff from Solomon, it's from the Bible. And we might go, ‘Aw, come on, it's three thousand years ago. Aw, it's from the Bible – it's not for me.' Come on, this is good advice! God is giving us Fatherly advice, born out of His love because whilst bad company may entice us into action that appears to give us a quick win, ultimately that bad influence ... ultimately that bad influence leads us to destruction. Listen again to the consequences – Proverbs chapter 1, verse 17: For in vain is the net baited while the bird is looking on; yet they lie in wait, ultimately to kill themselves – they set an ambush ultimately, for their own lives. Such is the end of all those who are greedy for gain – it takes away the life that it possesses. See, they think they are ambushing the other guy through their bad deeds but in fact, they are ambushing themselves. They want to kill the other guy but their evil desires are going to destroy them. Come on, who do you hang around with? Who are the people whom you allow to influence you and are any of those ruining your life with a bad influence? Because if they are, it's like drinking in poison from them – it's time to do something about it. Bad company drags us down – bad company has consequences and we are going to sit here and go, "Well, that's a nice story from Solomon, Berni," and we can ignore it but there will be consequences. Or we can take it on board; we can say, "You know what, this advice from God through the Book of Proverbs; from Solomon – this is great advice!" I never really thought of it that way. Do you know something: there are some changes I need to make about the people I hang around with? The Value of Wisdom Now, the very next thing that Solomon talks about in the Book of Proverbs, after the beginning of wisdom and the impact of bad company, is the value of wisdom. Now, why do people make investments? Why do they take their hard earned money and buy shares in a company? Well, it's not for the fun of it so much – people make investments in order to reap a return. On the stock market, the price of a particular share goes up and it goes down, according to the market's perception of the return that they can make on their investment in that particular company. If the company has good prospects, the value goes up – if there are some bad returns, the value falls down. It's the way of the world! But it's not God's way – God has an investment that we can make in the good times that actually pays dividends in the tough times. In fact, that's the whole point of this particular investment. Intuitively we all know that wisdom is a good thing – we would all like so more of it and so you have to ask yourself, why is it that we are not all as wise as we can be? Why is it that we are not full to overflowing with the Wisdom of Solomon? Well, the answer is simple – because like any investment, wisdom requires a sacrifice up front. If I invest some of my hard earned cash in this company or that company on the stock market then the point is I have to use the money that I would have spent otherwise, for that investment. I have to make a sacrifice up front. It's locked away – the money – and hopefully it's locked away because it will earn me a good return. That's the concept of investing – sacrificing now so that we can benefit later on. It's the same with wisdom but the mistake that we can often make with wisdom is that we imagine that it's just about having the knowledge and the experience and the principles. I mean, all those are necessary but they don't become wisdom until we put them into action – until we live them out. That's when we demonstrate that we have wisdom – by living it. So, back to this question: why is it that we are not all living virtuous lives, reaping the harvest of our wisdom? Because we haven't bought into it! And when do we buy into a company? We do it when we think there is going to be a good return. The problem for most people is that they don't perceive a return on investment – the upfront sacrifice – when it comes to this precious commodity that they call "wisdom". So right now we are going to look at what accountants and economists call "ROI's" – return on investment. So let's dive into the Book of Proverbs; Solomon's advice to his young sons and let's see what it say about the ROI on our investment in wisdom. Proverbs chapter 1, beginning at verse 20: Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice. At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? Give heed to my reproof; I will pour out my thoughts to you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused, have stretched out my hand and no one heeded, and because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I also will laugh at you in your calamity; I will mock when panic strikes you, when panic strikes you like a storm, and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord, would have none of my counsel, and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way and be sated with their own devices. For waywardness kills the simple, and the complacency of fools destroys them; but those who listen to me, (says wisdom,) will be secure and will live at ease, without dread of disaster. I love the old Hebrew writings and the way they use picture language. And here we have this picture of wisdom as a person, calling out to us from the street corner in the middle of life, stretching out her hand – but everyone walks by and ignores her – they are too busy with life. Doesn't this just hit the nail right on the head? Earlier we looked at Solomon's advice to his sons about the company they keep – keep bad company and they will lead you astray and it will cost you a lot of pain. That's it in a nutshell! So times were good – his sons had a choice: listen to Dad; take his advice; turn away from the bad company or continue to hunt with that pack. Wisdom is something that so often comes to us when the times are good. When the economy is buoyant and returns are strong – she cries out to us; she stretches out her hand – invest in me! So we have a choice – we either go and invest; we act on the advice of God's wisdom; we live out that wisdom in the good times when it appears that we don't actually need the wisdom; when it appears that we don't need to make a sacrifice - we either do it then or we don't. And the whole point of wisdom is that we need to act on it in the good times in order to reap the reward in the bad times. Let me say that again: wisdom is the one investment we can make that delivers a dividend in the tough times. All the other investments come crashing down in the tough times but it's the dividend of wisdom that stands head and shoulders above the rest. Listen to what Solomon said again – Proverbs chapter 1, verse 32: For waywardness kills the simple and the complacency of fools destroys them but those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease without dread of disaster. So wisdom either helps us to avoid the bad times - as in the case of the advice about keeping bad company - or when the bad times hit, which of course, they inevitably do in life. We don't want bad times to hit but they always do. Eventually the cycle turns and the bad times hit. And see, wisdom helps us in the bad times. It's like putting away some savings today so that we have some spare cash on a rainy day – bad choices in the good times inevitably lead to bad outcomes and bad consequences. Wise choices however, the sacrifices that we make in living out God's wisdom, pays dividends. It may not lead to perfect outcomes that we always planned but wisdom pays dividends. In fact, it pays huge dividends in tough times. This is wisdom that works! Wisdom cries out to us – God cries out to us, "Listen to Me – sacrifice the things I ask you to sacrifice and I will be with you there in the tough times; in the bad times because God's wisdom is wisdom that works."
The world is full of good and of evil. You and I, we're called to live a life of good. A life that honours God. But what we need, are the life skills to allow us to do that. Fortunately God's already thought of that – and His Word is packed full of wisdom, full of the very life skills that we need, to live a life that glorifies Him. Treat People as Individuals One of the things that's incredibly precious to each one of us is our own name. It's an odd thing when you think about it. I mean, a name is just a label; it's a unique identifier, but if that's all that there was to it, we could just have a number. Why don't we change your name to 7449018? ‘G'day, 7449018! How are you?' It just doesn't have the same ring about it, does it? And there's a reason for that. Our name speaks something of our uniqueness into this world, and so we become incredibly attached to our names. I love the fact that my name is Berni; B e r n I with no e on the end, because that's how my parents spelt it, and that's how it is. I often find myself telling people when they're writing down my name, ‘There's no e on the end.' Why? I mean, does it really matter? Well, actually yes, it does matter to me, just as your name matters to you Think about this: God knows you by name. Isaiah 43:1: But now, thus says the LORD; He who created you, o Jacob, He who formed you, o Israel: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, and you are Mine.' When God thinks of you, He thinks of you by name. When He looks at you, He sees you and He knows your name. When you're in trouble (in distress) and you cry out to Him, He knows your name. Jesus put it beautifully in John 10:2-3: The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice; he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. Imagine, then, how it feels for someone else when you forget their name: When you've met them once, and then you see them again, and you just don't remember their name. That person's name is one of the single-most precious things they have, just as your name is one of the single-most precious things that you have, and when we remember other people's names, it so honours them. It speaks to them of the respect that we have for them. Honestly, I sometimes struggle to remember people's names. I travel round the world and meet many, many people, so for me, it's really quite an occupational challenge, but as best I can, I try to remember their names. I enlist help from our local staff to coach me, and to remind me of people's names. God remembers us by name. That's incredible! God Himself knows your name. How does that make you feel? So imagine the power of remembering and using the names of the people you meet. What a life skill! And imagine building on that and treating each person, interacting with each person, building a relationship with each person, based on who they really are. It's tempting, you know, to treat everyone the same, as though somehow we are all the same. Let's face it: By and large, our default position is that everyone sees things the way we do; everyone experiences things the way we do. Of course in theory, we know that's not true, but in practice, that's pretty much how we behave. And when people don't see things the way we want them to, when they don't react to things the way we expect them to ... well, we respond with surprise, with annoyance and oftentimes, in anger. Just as everybody has their own unique name, so everyone has their own specific God-given gifts. They tend to see things (just as, in fact, we do) through the lens of those gifts, and through the lens of their experience: The good things they've been through, and the bad things as well. Come on. What makes us imagine for one moment that people all see things the way we do? And why is it that we're so surprised when they don't? God's Word is pretty clear on this. Romans 4:4-6: For as in one body we have many members, and not all members have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually we are members of one another. We have gifts that differ, according to the grace given to us. Take a look at any roomful of people: Thirty, forty, a hundred, a thousand, and what you'll notice is that other than the odd pair of identical twins, everybody looks different; different hair-colours, styles, eye-colour, complexion, the way they dress, the way they talk, and even the identical twins when you get to know them are often quite different. So imagine ... I mean just imagine ... if we started working, living, interacting with people, building relationships with people, on the basis that everyone's actually different, rather than everyone being the same; on the basis of getting to know them – their likes and their dislikes; their strengths and their weaknesses, even in just the little things. Some people don't like to be rushed, so don't rush them. Some people like to be punctual, so when you're catching up with them, be on-time. Imagine if you took the time to figure out what makes people tick: Your wife, your husband, your children, your brothers, your sisters, your work-colleagues. Imagine how differently you'd be able to interact with them if you knew just these two things about them: The one thing that annoys them most, and the one thing that they find the most pleasing. Do you think that would improve your relationships? Do you think it'd bring more peace and joy to your life? It's not rocket science. God made everyone to be different, and it's time to start treating them that way. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly God is a God who rewards the good in us. It's a really simple fact. Like any good father, He wants to see His children live a good life. I know that's what I want for my children. Yeah, I want to see them succeed in their chosen profession, but more than that, I want them to be good people: People with good morals; honest; decent; hardworking; loving; caring for others. And like any father, when they were growing up, I tried to teach them those things. It didn't always go that well. Kids being kids, they didn't always get things right and as you well know, as teenagers, they often pushed the boundaries as teenagers do. And as an imperfect father, I didn't always get things right either, just quietly. But what was in my heart for them was to bring them up to be good people, and the best way as a parent to do that was to reward the good behaviour in them; to teach them that good behaviour, unselfish behaviour, honest and decent behaviour, has its rewards. I think that approach is pretty common to all fathers, even if (as I've said) we don't always get it right, and in fact, that's exactly the approach God takes with us. Galatians 6:9: So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time if we don't give up. So what God's saying to us here is, yes, sometimes the going does get tough, but hang in there. Keep on doing good because one day, at harvest-time, you're going to reap the reward that He has ready and waiting for you. God blesses and rewards the good in us. That's why Jesus said (John 12:26): Whoever serves Me, the Father will honour. In a world in which people more and more are preferring fifty shades of grey to simple black-and-white, you know, I think that's not such a bad model. It's so easy to take the good in people for granted when all along, the good in other people is really a blessing from God that could and should be rewarded in a way that encourages more good in this world. Just think for a moment how powerful-an agent of change the rewarding of good would be in your life, through your life. Think of the missional impact that the rewarding of good could have through you, as you implement God's approach – God's model of reward, and the rewards don't have to be all that big: A simple, "Thank you. I so appreciate what you did," will often suffice. So who in your life is doing good? Who could you reward today to encourage them to do more good? Because that's the model that God has ordained. Of course, not everyone is good all the time. Sometimes people are downright evil. The question is, so then what? By and large, the simplest thing to do when someone is doing something wrong, something that we know is bad, something that quite clearly is going to have terrible consequences, is ... well, just to ignore it. My wife and I were recently at a café having a quiet cup of coffee or at least, we were trying to. At the next table was a young mother on her mobile phone, chatting away. Opposite her was her one-year-old with a cup in his hand, banging it hard and loud on the table. Now back in my day, I would have taken that cup off him, and taught him that that was the wrong thing to do, even though it probably would have resulted in a tantrum. They have to learn, right? And the sooner the better because one day, that one-year-old is going to be a teenager and then, watch out! But not this mum. No, she simply ignored the child's bad behaviour and apparently oblivious to it, just kept on talking on her mobile phone. How that cup didn't smash in his hand I'll never know. This ignoring of bad behaviour thing starts quite early-on, and because dealing with bad behaviour takes energy – because it'll probably cause conflict along the way, we've all become quite adept at turning the blind eye; at ignoring it, hoping it'll go away, but that's generally not what happens. When we ignore bad behaviour, whether it's in a one-year-old at the café or in a work-colleague who's bullying someone, it almost always gets worse, so what's the answer? What do you do? How do you deal with that bad behaviour? Galatians 6:1: My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. In other words, God's calling us to deal with it. God's calling us, albeit in a spirit of gentleness, to confront the bad behaviour with the aim not of exacting revenge, but of restoring the person who's doing bad; with the aim of bringing them back to good behaviour. Now that bit about doing it in the spirit of gentleness is really important. If that young mother had put the phone down and screamed at the child in frustration ... well, that probably wouldn't have been the right approach, any more than you or I responding angrily (with revenge in our hearts) to someone who's doing us wrong. Take care that you yourself are not tempted into that, but when we do it in love, when we do it with gentleness, when we point out the mistake quietly and offer a better alternative to the person who's behaving badly, something surprising happens. God shows up. God honours that, and more often than we might expect, that person who's been behaving badly is restored to good. But that doesn't always work, so then what? People behaving badly in this world is simply a fact of life. We can try and do the right thing; we can try and talk about it to them gently, quietly, privately, to restore them to good behaviour, but let's be honest: It doesn't always work. It should; we wish it did, but it doesn't always work, so then, what do you ordinarily do in that situation? Let's say you tried once or twice to help someone deal with their bad behaviour, but they haven't responded well. What happens next? Well, most of us, we just give up. ‘Well, you know, I tried, but he's a hopeless case. He's never going to change.' Sound familiar? Sure it does. We just write them off and move on, leaving the bad behaviour to fester and harm not just them, but everybody around them. I'm not so sure that's the best approach. What do you think? Have a listen to the apostle Paul's advice to his young ministry protégé, Timothy. 2 Timothy 4:1B-2: I solemnly urge you, proclaim the message. Be persistent, whether the time is favourable or unfavourable. Convince, rebuke, and encourage with the utmost patience in teaching. In a nutshell, the older, more experienced Paul is saying to young Tim here, ‘Don't give up. Keep telling people about Jesus – the good news, the fantastic news about Jesus, whether the conditions are favourable or unfavourable.' Does that mean shoving religion down someone's throat? I don't think so, but what it does mean is not giving up on them. I have a very good friend who knows that some of the things that he's doing are wrong. The lifestyle that he's chosen for himself is just wrong, plain and simple. Now I care deeply for him, and so on the odd occasion, I've shared with him the good news of Jesus and by the way, deep in his heart, I know he believes, but his lifestyle is pulling him away from the Lord. He can't have his cake and eat it too, as the saying goes. As much as I care for him though, the one thing that I will not do – the one thing that I will never do – is endorse his bad choices; tell him that it's all ok, because whether the time is favourable or not, my heart is to convince and rebuke and encourage him with as much patience as I can muster, and of course to pray for him, because there's such incredible power in prayer. James 5:16b: The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. People are going to behave badly, but don't give up on them. Perhaps God's put you in their lives for a time such as this to be the one through whom His love, His grace, His mercy, flows into their lives. Don't give up. Have an Open Heart Can I ask you today just to picture the face of the person who's causing you the most grief, the most pain, the most problems in your life right at the moment? Ok. Do you have their image in front of your eyes? So now let me ask you: Yesterday, how did you respond to that person, in your heart, in your mind? What thoughts have been running through your head about them? What scenarios? What responses? What reactions have been playing themselves out over and over again in your head, and in your heart? How do you feel about that person right now? I'm guessing that there are a few answers there that you're probably not all that comfortable with. Perhaps those questions have taken you to a place where you'd rather not be because when people sin against us, we harden our hearts towards them and close off our lives, so (and here's my final question for you today) how did Jesus react to exactly those same people? Matthew 9:9-10: As Jesus was walking along, He saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and He said to him, ‘Follow Me.' Then he got up and followed Him. And as He sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came, and with sitting with Him and His disciples. Tax collectors were the scum of the earth back in those days. They were fellow-Jews who'd colluded with Roman authorities to exhort exorbitant tolls from people who passed by their tax collection booth on the road. So not only did they collude with the enemy who occupied and oppressed their land, they lined their own pockets at the very same time. No wonder they were hated and despised! But Jesus, instead of shunning them, invited one of them to become one of His disciples and then ... Then He went and had dinner with a bunch of these sinners, with the very same people who were hated and shunned by good, God-fearing Jews. Read on, and you discover He copped quite a bit of criticism for that, but His take on it was that it was exactly the people like them that He'd come to this earth to save, and let me be blunt here: If you believe in Jesus, if you claim to follow Him, it's exactly for people like these that God has put you on this earth: To share the love of Christ with them so that perhaps, some of them will be saved. So back to that one person I had you picturing a moment ago: Your most difficult person, your tax collector if you will. It's that person to whom Jesus has sent you. Be open. Be engaging. Show them the love that Christ has shown you, and the easiest way to get started in doing that is to look for the good in them. When someone's treating you badly, and you want to write them off because they're just too much trouble, and they're more than you can cope with right now, I want to encourage you to do something radical. Are you ready? Try looking for the good in them because let me tell you, no matter how badly someone's behaving, deep-down, there's always some good in them. That's exactly what Jesus did when He went to dine with the sinners and the tax collectors at Matthew's house. Matthew 9:11-13: When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, ‘Why does your teacher eat with the tax collectors and the sinners?' But when Jesus heard this, He said, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what it means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice, for I have come to call not the righteous, but the sinners.' Where others saw only sin, Jesus saw something worth redeeming. Jesus knew that if only these sinners, these social rejects, could experience the love of God first-hand, then the good in them would come to the surface. So often, the people who behave badly do so because they've never experienced unconditional love in their lives. No one's ever stepped into their lives looking for the good in them, and helped them to rediscover that good that they thought had been lost for ever. I'm here with you today because when I was one of those bad people, some of those who call themselves Christians stepped into my life, as Jesus did in the lives of these tax collectors and sinners, and they believed somewhere deep-down inside me, hidden though it may have been to their sight, that there was some good in me worth redeeming. All too often, we approach people like those tax collectors and those sinners with the attitude of, ‘Well, what's in it for me? How will they treat me? What will I experience? Will they hurt me again? What will other people say about me?' It's always with this me, me, me thing. Have you noticed? And yet Jesus had no thought whatsoever about what was in it for Him. The religious leaders, the religious powerbrokers of the day, the ultra-conservative, legalistic, rule-based Pharisees, they criticised Him. ‘Why does He mix with all those undesirables?' "Because I came to heal the sick," said Jesus. "Because I came for them; because these sinners are made in the very image of God, and I'm here to show them mercy." We can go to church; we can sing the songs; we can hear the sermons; we can pat ourselves on the back, but let me tell you, unless and until we look for the good in the sinner, we're just kidding ourselves.
If only you and I could always come first. You know, be numero uno in this world. But as much as that's our desire sometimes, Jesus doesn't give us that option. Because in order to be first, actually you have to come last. What a pain!!! The Power of a Tender Heart Kindness is a much underrated quality these days. Sure, we love it when other people are kind toward us in a world that seems to be moving ever faster, where things appear to be getting more and more transactional. In a world where people are retreating into digital, electronic friendships rather than real ones, yeah kindness when we experience it really stands out. When you hear that word kindness, you know exactly what it means; no definition required, right? But exactly what is it? Well, it's being nice to other people, surely. Hang on but which people? Because it's ever so easy to be kind to the people who are nice to us but a dictionary tells me that kindness is the quality of being friendly, generous and considerate. Great, and I'm sure that there are people in your life toward whom you find it incredibly easy to be kind quite simply because they're kind to you in return. But what about the difficult people in your life? Conflict lies all around us and it's conflict, in all its forms, that robs us of our peace and joy because we're quite simply not made to be in conflict all the time. Ask anyone would you rather have peace or conflict? Well, you know the answer. So let me ask you again, what about those difficult people in your life? Here's what Jesus had to say on this very thing. Luke chapter 6, verse 35: Love your enemies, do good and lend expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great and you'll be children of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked, eh? Well, he is. In fact he's been kind over and over again toward you and me. Even when we've been ungrateful, even when we've done the wrong thing, even when we've been wicked over and over and over again. Love your enemies, then. Do good to them, lend to them, be to them just as God has been to you: kind to the ungrateful and to the wicked. Why? Well it always bring peace? No, not always although it will substantially increase the chances of peace. Think about those times when you've been acting like a fool and the person you've been hurting turns around and responds to you in kindness. Nine times out of ten it's enough to disarm any sense of hostility you may have had in your heart, right? And whilst that won't always happen, what will happen is that God will notice. God will see you and your reward from him will be great. Like I said, kindness is such an underrated quality these days yet it has the power to bring peace and blessing to your life. But it's hard to be kind when you have bitterness and anger in your heart. One of the things that God's word talks an awful lot about is what's going on in our hearts, in your heart and in mine. There's a reason for that. The heart is the seat of our emotions and when we have bad stuff happening in there, deep on the inside, we can't help it, it bubbles to the surface. We end up speaking and acting that bad stuff out. So it's easy for me to say to you be kind to other people. It's easy to say but it's incredibly difficult to do with anger and bitterness bubbling away in your heart. Might I ask you today: who do you feel angry towards right at this moment in your life? Whose words or deeds have hurt you and left a root of bitterness in your heart? Toward whom have you hardened your heart in a defensive response against that pain? Because today I'm believing that God wants to set you free from that as only He can by his spirit and his word. Are you ready? Ephesians chapter 4, verses 31 and 32: Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander together with all malice and be kind to one another. Tender hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. It's quite a list there of destructive emotions: bitterness, wrath, anger, wrangling, slander and malice. And if I said to you today: put them away, get rid of them, let me tell you it wouldn't make an iota of difference in your life. But today, right here and now it's not me that's saying it, it's God through his word and he, he has the power to help you to do exactly that. When God speaks through his word as he is here, through Ephesians chapter 4, verses 31 and 32, when the Holy Spirit lifts that word off the page and writes it on your heart, He gives you the power you need to change. More power, in fact, than you'll ever need. So friend, take his word into your heart right now. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander together with all malice and be kind to one another, tender hearted. Forgiving one another as God in Christ has forgiven you. Replace all those negative emotions with a tender heart, as soft heart, a heart that feels and loves and gives. Just as God in Christ through His terrible suffering has forgiven you. Because armed with a tender, gentle, kind, forgiving heart, you can change lives with God's love. Armed with a tender, gentle, kind, forgiving heart, you can build bridges of peace, bridges into hurting, desperate lives that one day, one day, Jesus will walk across. Be tender hearted, forgiving one another as God in Chris has forgiven you. It's one thing to talk about kindness and tender heartedness. They're good things but words are cheap. A little bit of kindness here and there can be an incredibly powerful thing. When someone's having a bad day and you come along with a word of encouragement it can light up their whole world. But if all we ever do is speak, well it starts to wear just a little bit thin after a while because sometimes people need a helping hand and there's nothing quite as powerful as doing love. Not just speaking it but doing it in a practical way, right into someone's area of need. Actions, as they say speak louder than words. That powerful truth played itself out on the cross on Calvary 2000 years ago. 1 John chapter 3, verses 16 and 17: We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us. And so we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or a sister in need and yet refuses to help? We know that God loves us not just because he says he does but because through Christ's incredible suffering on that cross, we know he does. As a direct result of that sacrificial love that God poured out through the suffering of Jesus for you and me, you and I are called to lay down our lives for one another. That implies sacrifice, that implies suffering. It's not always convenient to lay down your life for someone else, in fact I'd go so far as to say it's rarely if ever convenient or comfortable to lay down your life for someone else. And then, just to remind us that we're not talking about some lofty theory here, the Holy Spirit guided the apostle John to bring it down to our level, to apply it practically to our lives and to our relationships. How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need yet refuses to help? The more economically developed a society becomes, the more self-sufficient we become, the less likely we are to help one another in practical ways. In places where life is an economic struggle, look people routinely help one another in practical ways because they have to to survive. But the wealthier we become the less likely we are to help. Listen Before You Speak Now when it comes to life skills that really make a difference, knowing how to listen, how to shut up and then when to speak the truth, well I think that they would have to be right up there in the category of absolute essentials. So why is it that so often we get this so wrong? Isn't it just the most amazing thing when somebody actually takes the time to stop and listen to what you have to say? I don't mean that they stop talking just long enough to figure out the next thing that they're going to say, I mean when someone actually takes the time to listen to you and really understand what it is that you're trying to get across. I have to confess, I am not naturally a good listener. I'm born to talk, to do what I'm doing right now. As a brash young IT consultant I used to think that communication was all about me talking and showing other people how clever I was. Fortunately, I had a mentor, a man 20 years my senior who took the time to teach me the incredible power of listening. It's something, by the way, that I'm still learning and I suspect that many of us need to keep working on it because listening, stopping, taking the time to understand someone else even if you don't agree with them, is one of the most important, the most powerful, life skills that we can ever learn. James chapter 1, verse 19: You must understand this my beloved, that everyone be quick to listen but slow to speak. We live in a world where the exact opposite is true. Whether it's face-to-face or on social media, everybody it seems is talking but very few are actually listening. Recently a good friend of mine in his 80s passed away and his widow asked me to take his funeral service. I was sitting with her, her daughters and the funeral director in their home planning the funeral and for the most part I just listened. At this point I quietly gave thanks to my mentor who all those years before had taught me the power of just listening. There were times in that two hours or so where frankly I thought they could have made up their minds much more quickly about this detail or that, but that wasn't the point. It wasn't about me, it was about them, their grieving process and the way they wanted to say farewell to their husband and father. I noticed too that even though she had a job to do, the funeral director was an incredibly good listener. I walked away from that time feeling so privileged at having been able to be there and just listen to them talk. Come on, it's a privilege to hear what's going on in someone else's heart. And it so honours the other person, it shows them such respect when we simply sit down, shut up and take the time to listen. Let everybody be quick to listen and slow to speak. But of course listening isn't something that comes naturally to many people. Most of us, I think, are uncomfortable with silence. We think that in order for the conversation to flow somebody needs to be talking and if nobody else is we'd better say something. Anything will do, just something to get rid of that uncomfortable silence. How often have you stupidly blurted something out just to break the silence? Pretending that you know about something that really you have no idea about? We've all been there and the people around you don't know whether to laugh or just be embarrassed for you. The more we speak, our thinking goes, the more knowledgeable it makes us look. When in reality the exact opposite is true. Along with the skill of listening, the skill of simply being silent is one of the most important life skills that we can ever learn. Proverbs chapter 17, verses 27 and 28: One who spares his words is knowledgeable; one who is cool in spirit has understanding. Even fools who keep silent are considered wise; when they close their lips they are deemed intelligent. At this point, I'm reminded of the young man by the name of Ben with whom I've been working recently. He's an expert in social media and digital communications. And of all the people I've met in my life, he more than anybody embodies this scripture. I recall we were in a meeting with some web developers planning something new. I jump here and ask a question there, share a thought. The head developer asked Ben whether he had any questions. ‘No', he said, "I'll just wait". He sat there without saying anything for quite a while, observing, thinking, listening. But when he did open his mouth, his few words displayed a wisdom and an insight well beyond his years. Instead of being keen to impress he was very much cool in spirit, calm, measured. Let me tell you, very, very impressive. At what point did we start thinking that talking was the most important part of communicating? At what point did we begin to imagine that battling on about things that we really don't understand, showing off with our many words, was the way to impress other people? This proverb is spot on. The one who speaks fewer words ultimately comes across as the more knowledgeable one and even the fool when he sits silent appears to be wise. In a world where everybody's trying to put their best foot forward, where so many people are trying to impress us with what they have to say, silence, knowing when not to speak, is more important than ever. The Bible is full of life skills, essential life skills. And these skills are very rarely taught explicitly in our upbringing. We're meant to pick them up I think by osmosis. But God doesn't leave these things to chance. One to spares words is knowledgeable; one who is cool in spirit has understanding. You've no doubt heard that old saying: we have two ears and one mouth so we should use them in the same proportion. In other words we should listen about twice as much as we speak. It's a good adage that remains every bit as true today as it was back when the pace of life and the pace of communication were much slower. But when we do finally speak, when we do open our mouths having listened and understood other people, what should we say? Well, let's start with another question. What do people usually say? In my experience it's one of two things. They either tell me what they want me to hear or what they think I want to hear. All too often people are pushing their own agendas so they tell us what they want us to hear, trying to get us to agree with them. That's why the shop attendant invariably tells you that you look fantastic in that item of clothing you've just tried on because what they want is the sale. Other times they'll tell you what they think you want to hear, to butter you up and gain favour that they can call upon at a later time because frankly, telling someone something that they don't want to hear often doesn't get good results. It's awkward, uncomfortable and often time leads to conflict. So when you open your mouth what should you be telling people? Ephesians chapter 4, verses 14 and 15: We must no longer be children tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness and deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. What should we be telling people? Answer: we should be speaking the truth in love. Not what we want them to hear to get them to agree with us and not what they want to hear to curry favour with them, but the truth. And not the truth in a rude, confrontational, disrespectful way. The truth delivered that way will rarely be accepted, even though it is the truth. No, we're called to speak the truth in love with kindness, with gentleness, with the other person's interests at heart. The older I get the more I find myself looking for people who'll tell me the truth. I want to know what they really think, what they really feel. I want to be dealing in the facts that will help me to make the best decisions even when the facts happen to point out one of my weaknesses, mistakes or faults. I respect that. What should we be saying when we speak? The truth, in love. Be the Hands and Feet of Jesus Now in the few minutes that we have left today I'd like to chat with you about the single most important, the single most powerful life skill of all. It's a skill, no perhaps skill's not quite the right word, it's a sacrifice that Jesus demonstrated on the cross toward you and me and it's a sacrifice that he's calling us to live out for the rest of our days on this earth. And that thing, that one most important thing is unconditional love. So let's dive back into God's word because this is truly powerful stuff. The thing about the unconditional love of God is that it's proactive. God stepped out of heaven in the person of Jesus Christ while we were still sinners. He didn't wait for you and me to clean up our acts, he didn't sit back like the Pharisees, the religious leaders of Jesus' day and judge and criticise us. God looked down on the likes of you and me and said, hey, they need help. I'm going to do something about this. Of course that was no surprise to him. He didn't wake up one day shocked at the sin that was ruining humanity, the sin that was ruining your life and mine. From before the beginning of time he knew, he always knew that one day he'd have to do something radical for you and me. Romans chapter 5, verses 6-9: For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, oh perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Most more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. That's what love is, that's what love does. It doesn't sit back and wait, it steps forward and acts and love is proven in the suffering of Jesus Christ which was decided upon and which happened before you and I ever cleaned up our respective acts. In fact it happened because God knew that without that act of radical love you and I would be doomed to the consequences of our sin. And that very same love, that very same proactive, radical love, the sort that steps out in sacrifice rather than sitting back in criticism, is the love that you and I are called to live out in the this world. Nothing more and nothing less. Radical, unconditional love. Jesus said this about you and me: very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and in fact will do greater works than these because I am going to the father. Sometimes we just apply that saying to the miracles that Jesus performed and that's great. When God performs miracles through us that's awesome but the greatest miracle, the greatest work that Jesus performed was his sacrificial love on that cross. And over and over again we, you and I, are called to live out that sacrificial love. The sort that steps forward and acts instead of sitting back and criticising. Jesus is calling you to great acts of love in a world that's hurting, in a world that's desperate to receive the love of Jesus Christ. Now I know, I know absolutely that living out that love isn't easy. We do it, you and I, so imperfectly, so often we feel completely inadequate to the task, completely overwhelmed. And when you do feel that way remember so did Jesus. John chapter 12, verses 27 and 28: Now my soul is troubled and what should I say? Father save me from this hour. No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name! Yes his soul was troubled yet still his focus was on glorifying God through his suffering. Living out the unconditional love of Christ towards other people is going to trouble your soul, it's going to bring you pain just as it did for Jesus. Loving sinners always, always involves sacrifice and pain and yet it is to the father's glory that you do that very thing for him.
So let me ask you, is ambition right, or wrong? I mean is it okay to be ambitious, or, if you believe in Jesus, is ambition something that you need to give up? As things turn out, it's not ambition itself that's the problem, it's the sort of ambition, the type of ambition that you have in your heart, that brings you unstuck. Dealing with Ambition So let me ask you, is it right to be ambitious? My dictionary tells me that ambition is a strong desire to do or to achieve something. A desire, a determination to achieve success. As someone who believes in Jesus, I've often struggled with this one, because success, well that can be truly self-seeking, self-fulfilling. Jesus, after all, said this – Luke chapter 9, verse 23: If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. I don't know, but that radical view – and it is a radical view – of what it means to believe in Jesus, to live your life for Jesus, well, it doesn't seem to fit too well with this notion of success. And frankly, I've lived my life, at least the first thirty-six years of it, often with the wrong sort of ambition in my heart. Here's what it looks like, this wrong ambition. You want to make a splash, you want to be noticed, you want other people to think well of you. You want, you want, you want … to be successful. Yeah, there's money involved. Hey, who doesn't want to have money? Who doesn't want to live in a nice big house and drive the sort of car that other people will notice? Who doesn't want to be able to afford the sort of clothes that'll make them look sharp and catch people's eyes? That's precisely how the thinking goes. And so what you do, what I did, is you climb over the top of other people, you walk over them, crash through them, even destroy them to get to your success. That's what wrong ambition looks like. I ought to know. When I was in business, I was known to make grown men cry. I wanted to win. I wanted to succeed. How about you? Does any of that sound even vaguely familiar? And I can tell you, sadly, you see that sort of behaviour even amongst people who profess to believe in Jesus. Jesus saw it too and this is what He had to say about this wrong kind of ambition. John chapter 5, verse 44: How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? That's the bottom line isn't it? How can we possibly believe in Jesus, how can we possibly follow Him and serve Him and love Him with all that we are, when we're seeking glory for ourselves? And that's what many people do. We want to put our best foot forward. We want other people to think well of us, to admire us. And when you do that, when you seek glory for yourself, it becomes virtually impossible to believe in Jesus. That sort of ambition, well, it's simply not God's plan for your life. But there is an ambition, a zeal that God does want you to have. Jim Collins is a man who, with a research team that he established, set out to determine what it is that sets the great companies apart from the ordinary ones. What are the common threads, the common attributes that run through truly great companies, when compared to the also rans? That was the question. So, he chose a number of stellar performers on the New York stock exchange, and set about doing the research to get answers to those questions. What he discovered, not surprisingly, is that one of the things that set the great companies apart was great leadership. And one of the essential leadership attributes that he writes about in his book, "Good to Great" is this: Great leaders embody a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will. They are ambitions, to be sure, but ambitious first and foremost for the company, not for themselves. I've thought about that … a lot. And the conclusion I've come to is that Collins' research simply bears out the truth of what Jesus had to say about ambition. Mark chapter 10, verses 42 to 44: You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognise as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are like tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; whoever wishes to become great must become your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be the slave of all. The sort of zeal, the sort of ambition that Jesus is looking for, in you and in me, is the sort that sets out to serve others. The sort that removes us from the limelight, the sort that gives up the clamour and the desire for glory. The sort that is driven to seeing others experience the love of Christ through the sacrifices that we make. Think about it. Who are the people you admire most in your life? Who has achieved greatness in your eyes? Come on, it's those who've served you the most, right? Those who've sacrificed the most for you, correct? Not the ones who've been self-seeking and sought to lord it over you. Later on in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul puts it this way, Romans chapter 12, verses 10 and 11: … love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour. Do not lag in zeal, but be ardent in spirit and serve the Lord. Yes be zealous. Yes be ambitions. Yes be driven. But for the purpose of showing honour to others. For the purpose of serving God. So, what drives you? What motivates you? What are you ambitious for? Yourself? Your own image? Your own success? Or for outdoing others in showing honour, and serving the Lord? Because God is looking for ambitious people. Driven people. Zealous people. People who will get on and serve Him for His glory. Are you one of those? I was at a function recently and I ran into a retired businessman, a man whom I'd met one time before. Now this man, over his career, had been extremely successful. He'd been the chairman of boards of some very large public companies. He would often appear in the business pages of the newspaper, being reported on with great respect. By any measure, he had been very successful and, you'd have to imagine, he was pretty wealthy by this time, in his early seventies. Now, he and I happened to pull up in our cars outside the function at the same time. We parked next to each other. And the first thing that struck me was the modest vehicle that he was driving. Certainly not one of those cars that screamed ‘success' at you. And as I chatted with him during the course of the evening, one thing stood out for me. His great humility. You don't often hear those two words in one sentence – greatness and humility. But actually, and this becomes pretty obvious when you think about it, true greatness only comes to those who are humble. Or put it the other way around, humility is an essential ingredient, perhaps the essential ingredient, to greatness. I think sometimes we over-complicate life. We try to imagine what success looks like and we think we have to jump through this hoop and that one, impress this person and that one over there, dress like this, speak like that, be seen, be admired … in fact what I see when I look around is a lot of people trying to please one another. So, let's take it back to basics. Let's look at something truly simple that leads to true greatness. Micah chapter 6, verse 8: He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Right there is a path to greatness – and let's face it, your greatness is a legacy that lives in other people's hearts. Greatness is how other people perceive you. Firstly, do justice. Be honest and decent. Stand up for those who are in a difficult place. Be the one that the other people can trust and rely on. Secondly, love kindness. Don't you love being around people who are kind to you? You want to be around them. You love them, because first they showed kindness to you. Love kindness. And thirdly, perhaps most importantly, walk humbly with your God. Don't seek the glory or the limelight. Don't try to be better than anyone else. Don't forsake God and go your own way. Just walk humbly with your God. That's what godly greatness looks like. Justice, kindness, humility. That's the greatness that's ready and waiting for you. Becoming a Good Person Wickedness is rather a strong word. I don't think that any of us really thinks of ourselves ever as being "wicked". According to my dictionary, wickedness is the quality of being evil or morally wrong. Someone who intends, or at least is capable of harming someone else. Wickedness is something that broods in a person's heart and then comes out in their words, their demeanour and their actions. So, might I ask you today – are you a wicked person? At this point, most of us are prepared to cut ourselves some slack. Well, you know, I'm not that bad. Sometimes I have bad thoughts about people and yep, sometimes I hurt other people, but ‘wicked', no that's too strong a word to apply to me. Really? Isn't it amazing how we want to flee to the middle ground when we judge ourselves, our own thoughts and intentions, our own actions? We forsake the black and white of right and wrong, good and evil, and we soften the blow of self-judgement with shades of grey. And in any case, other people, well, they compromise as well don't they? They make mistakes too. They do things that are morally wrong too. I'm not the only one, right? It's so easy to be led astray in a world that has such incredibly low standards. Psalm 1, verses 1 and 2: Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. How easy is it in this world to take the advice of the wicked, to follow the path that sinners tread, or to sit in the seat of the scoffers? It's so easy to do in the workplace, or in a social setting or even, let me say, in a church setting. When other people are behaving badly, we have a tendency to follow their lead, by stooping down to their level. The original Hebrew word used there for "happy" literally means to be happy because you are blessed. God wants to bless you. God wants you to be happy as you receive His blessing into your life. But that's not going to happen, if you follow the advice of the wicked, or tread in the path of the sinner, or sit in the seat of the scoffer. So whatever wickedness you have bubbling away in your heart, wherever you know you've gone astray by following wicked advice – right now is the time to turn away from it and instead, delight in God's Word. Instead meditate on it day and night. Because that's where God's blessing is to be found and that's the only place where true happiness will overtake you. Sometimes we find ourselves mired in the consequences of the mistakes that we've made, in the consequences of our sin, in the consequences of, let me be blunt here, our own wickedness. And when you're that low, it seems virtually impossible to work your way out of it. How can I possibly move on from this place, from all the things that I've done wrong? That's the question that rattles around in the hearts and minds of so many people. And sadly, because they can't see a way out, many of those same people end up wallowing in their sin and their wickedness for way too long. Me? I knew in my life that many of the things I was doing were wrong. I knew there was a God out there somewhere. And I knew I needed to find Him. My problem was, that I also knew that I didn't measure up. That He was good and I wasn't, no doubt, if I bumped into Him, I'd be in some serious trouble. Just in case you find yourself in that place, I want to share with you the way out. Unless and until our slate is wiped clean, unless and until the sins of the past are atoned for and our conscience is clean, the reality is, we simply can't move forward. So here's the good news. Are you ready? That's exactly why Jesus died for you. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 3: For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. Plain and simple, if you put your trust in that one truth, if you trust completely in Jesus, your sins are wiped away. You are forgiven. God's wrath is removed from you. It's an act of God's grace. It's an act of God's mercy. Where once you were mired in your sin, now you are completely free, completely forgiven. And it's at this point, that you can make the decision that you've been longing to make. To start living your life the right way rather than the wrong way. To start living for good, rather than for bad. Because after all ... Romans chapter 2, verse 4: Do you not realise that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? "Repentance" seems like such an old-fashioned word. But it literally means to turn – in this case, to turn away from evil and to turn back to God. It's a decision that we all long to make. We all want to live a good life. But the power to make that decision, comes only when we trust in Jesus. So, no matter what evil, what wickedness, what sin, the consequences of which you're living out right now, Jesus stands ready to forgive you, to set you free ... to give you a new life. And at that point, your life is going to start bearing good fruit. Really, really good fruit. I love fruit trees. I remember as a young boy, Mum and Dad had nectarine trees, peach trees, apricot trees, plum trees in the backyard. Man, in spring and in summer when those trees started producing their fruit, my sister and I would just go outside and it was amazing. What do I feel like today? Oh those plums look good, so I'd just pluck a plum off the tree, sit down on the grass and eat it. So sweet and tasty. And the nectarines, when they were ripe, wow! There's something about fruit trees, right? So long as they have their roots down in good soil, and they get plenty of water, they are going to keep on giving. They are just going to yield their fruit in due season. And interestingly, it's that luscious, tasty, amazing abundant picture that God uses to describe the life that He wants you to live. Psalm 1, verses 1 to 3: Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of the scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all they do, they prosper. Chances are, you've never really thought of yourself as a fruit tree. But let's just sit down on the grass and look at this picture that God's painting for us. When we choose to do good rather than to be wicked, when we choose to become a man or a woman of God's Word, feeding on God's Word the way that a fruit tree feeds on the soil and the streams, the promise is that our lives will indeed yield rich fruit in season. Do you feel sometimes like there's not quite the overwhelming abundance of fruit that there perhaps should be in your life? Do you feel as though sometimes your leaves seem to be withering, your emotions are frayed, you're spiritually dry, you're completely spent? Then it's time to deliberately get into God's Word. Interestingly, the original Hebrew word used there for ‘streams of water' implies irrigation channels. In other words, a deliberate, man-made decision and act, to bring the water to the trees. And it's that same deliberate decision and act that you can make, to become someone who is immersed in God's Word. Because then, with goodness flowing into you, you won't be tempted to follow the wicked, the sinners and the scoffers. Instead, you'll be like one of those amazing fruit trees I was telling you about, yielding a bounty of stunning fruit in due season. That's the natural consequence of a tree that's planted in good soil, by streams of living water. Get Comfortable In Your Own Skin So here's the question. How comfortable are you in your own skin? How comfortable are you with your natural gifts and abilities, and your natural weaknesses and limitations and with handing over the sin that God wants you to deal with in your life? Once we believe in Jesus, our lives are meant to bear fruit. In other words, the faith we have in Jesus, is meant to change us, to flow out of us, and to impact the people around us. That's what Jesus said, John chapter 15, verse 8: My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. But the problem is, all too often we compare our fruit with the next person's fruit, and we feel as though we're coming up short. I can't do what he can do! I'm not as clever as she is. How come they can do that, but I can't? You've had those thoughts, right? And our reactions to that comparison can be really, quite negative and unhelpful. You can be a good person, honouring God, following Jesus, and yet ineffective in impacting this world with his love, make sense? In fact, I know people whose emotions are curled up in a hard ball like an armadillo simply because they think they don't measure up. It's like they have a cramp in their soul, wrapped up all tight and hurting, with this sense of, "I'm not worth anything. My life doesn't count for anything." But I believe that God wants you just to relax, to open yourself up to Him and to trust Him. 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 6 and 7: Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all of your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Part of letting go and letting God in, is humbling yourself. Accepting that the gifts and abilities that He's given you, different though they may well be from those people around you, are unique and special and valuable. Fruit comes inside skin. A banana looks different from an apple, which looks different again from a plum, or a peach, or an apricot, or a mango, or … whatever. So often, we look at the next guy's skin and come to the conclusion we're no good. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Your particular gift, your particular type of fruit, is what He has chosen in His Wisdom and His love to give you. And His plan, Jesus' plan, is that you should bear much fruit, for His glory. God cares for you, so cast all your anxiety on Him. Get comfortable in your skin, humble yourself under His mighty hand, for God will – He absolutely will – exalt you in due time. In the meantime, bear much fruit, for this is to the Father's glory. I don't know how you feel about that, but for me, it's really, really exciting. Of course sometimes we doubt ourselves. Take that self-doubt and cast it on God. He cares for you, He really does. And He wants you to bear much fruit, just the sort of fruit He created you to bear, for His glory. What God's doing with and through the next person, is completely irrelevant. Completely! That's His sovereign choice. Your job is to bear much of the fruit that He's made you to bear. And when you get those doubts happening, as we all do, cast yourself on God, for He cares for you!
When it comes to developing the life skills that we really need, the life skills that are going to lead to a much, much better life, there is none more important, than maturity. But what exactly is maturity, and where do you get it? Grow Up Let's be honest. Some people never grow up. Now, there are different aspects to growing up: Moving from childhood through those difficult teenaged years, into adulthood. One of them is taking responsibility for your life. Of course, not everything that happens to us over the years, good or bad, is under our control. Often storms blow in that we didn't see coming, and yet it's surprising how many things in our lives are, in fact, under our control; how many things we can change or influence through the decisions we take. A child look to his or her parents when something's too big for them to handle. In fact, even for the day-to-day, children rely on their parents for somewhere to live; for the food on the table; for the clothes on their backs. They rely on mum and dad to run them here and there, to come and watch them play sport or to get that award at the annual school speech night ... That's all as it should be, by the way, but the reason that teenaged years can be so difficult is that those are the in-between years when parents want to teach their children to take responsibility for themselves, and yet still live under their authority. That's confusing for the teenager and for the parents. It's why there's so much conflict often in those teenaged years. When we come through that process though, what we should be is responsible young adults. Sure; we have lots to learn, but we're meant to be responsible for providing for ourselves and for taking control of the direction of our lives, as much as that's possible, and for owning the consequences of our own actions. Yet so often as adults, we want to abdicate those responsibilities. We want to blame other people or our circumstances or whatever for our predicament, and that frankly is no way to live. There was a time in Israel's history where they knew, they just knew, that they'd gone astray. Ezra 10:1: While Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a very great assembly of men, women and children he gathered to him out of Israel. The people also wept bitterly. Now they had some incredibly difficult decisions to make, and what they came to was to take responsibility for their mistakes, and (listen to this; it's really important) to take action to rectify those mistakes. Ezra 10:4: Take action, for it is your duty, and we are with you. Be strong, and do it. What is it in your life that you need to take responsibility for? What is it in your life that you need to grab a hold of and, as difficult as that may be, deal with? Because until you take responsibility, things just won't be right, and yet one of the things that stops us from doing that is the blame game. Have you ever noticed how easy it is when something goes wrong to blame someone else? It's often our first instinct - our first response when something in our lives goes awry. In fact, in this day and age, it's almost a rarity to see someone taking responsibility for their own mistakes or shortcomings. There's a business bestseller called, “Good to Great” by a man called Jim Collins. He and his team undertook a huge research project to determine what factors set apart those companies with sustained stellar performance on the stock exchange from the also-rans; the run-of-the-mill; the everyday companies. On the question of leadership of the successful companies, he writes this: The leaders of truly great companies look out the window to attribute success to factors other than themselves. When things go poorly, however, they look in the mirror and they blame themselves, taking full responsibility. The comparison CEOs often did quite the opposite. They looked in the mirror to take credit for success, but out of the window to assign blame for disappointing results. When things don't go the way they should, what do you do? Do you blame someone else, or do you own the problem with all your heart, taking responsibility to the extent that some or all of it was as a result of your failings or limitations? Think of the last time something went wrong. Go on, be honest with yourself. What did you do? People blame their past; their parents; their upbringing; their spouse; those people out there ... In fact, some people (be honest) have become exemplars at living out the blame game, and the problem with that is that in your own eyes, your life is completely out of your control. It's everyone else's fault and never your own. Who or what do you blame when things go wrong, and how different would that be if like the truly great leaders, you instead took ownership of the situation? Because (listen to me) when we take ownership, all of a sudden, God has something to work with. When we take ownership, God steps in, in such incredible power. King David is arguably the greatest king that Israel ever had; the greatest leader, until Jesus came along a thousand or so years later. Here's the conclusion that David comes to. Psalm 51:1-4: Have mercy on me, o God, according to Your steadfast love; according to Your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You alone, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified in Your sentence and blameless when You pass judgment. That's why he was a great leader. That's why God got right behind him, and I don't know about you, but I want God working for me and not against me. Like it or not, we have to live with the consequences of the choices that we make, so on that basis, I don't know about you, but I'd like to make the best choices that I possibly can. Good choices, most times, yield good outcomes. Not always, of course. Sometimes other people don't like it when we make good choices; I'm sure you've experienced that. Sometimes unpredictable things happen to rob us of the good consequences that should have resulted from our good choices; that's just the way it goes sometimes, but most of the time, good choices lead to good consequences and bad choices lead to bad consequences. And as much as we may wish that it weren't true, sometimes we don't have what it takes to make the good choice; to take the high road. Maybe it's because of our own blind spots or because we're tired, or we don't have all the information, or our emotions lead us in the wrong direction. There are plenty of times in my life when I don't have what it takes to make the best choice. It intrigues me that even Jesus the Son of God, the Creator of the whole universe, found Himself in that place on more than one occasion because when He became a man, He laid aside His glory and His power, and became just like you and me. So, He had a big decision to make. Out of all those who'd been following Him, who would He include in His inner circle – those who, ultimately, would go on to build this fledgling thing called the church, when His business on this earth was done? Big decisions with huge ramifications there, in choosing those twelve, remembering that one of them was destined to betray Him. So how did Jesus handle it? Luke 6:12-13: Now during those days, He went out to the mountain to pray and He spent the night in prayer to God. And when day came, He called His disciples and chose twelve of them, whom He also named apostles. He involved God. I mean, seriously, all night He called out to His father in heaven; sat and listened, and received the guidance He needed to make the right choices – God's choices. Think about it. God sits above all; He sees all; He knows all, and above all, He loves you more than words can say. You and I do have to live with the consequences of the choices we make, so why wouldn't we involve God in them? I can't tell you the number of times that the answers have come to me just in the next passage of the Bible that I was due to read, or just waiting quietly on God in the early morning. God loves you. He wants to be involved in your life, and He's waiting right now to help you make the best choices. Be the Best you can Be There are certain things that, no doubt, you're incredibly good at. You have certain gifts, certain motivations in your hearts, certain things that you know you can do better than just about anyone else. Sometimes of course, we don't value those natural giftings enough because you live with your gifts and abilities twenty-four seven. The easiest thing for you to do is to think to yourself, "Well, you know, my gift – my ability? It's nothing special. Not like that person over there. If only I could be like her. If only I could do the things that guy over there can do. If only I could be as successful as them." Have you ever found yourself thinking those thoughts? Making those comparisons? Sure you have. We all have, and at that point, you beat yourself over the head with your natural limitations. At that point, you look in the mirror and realise how far you fall short in certain areas. With me, it was my lack of pastoral gifting. Hey, I'm supposed to be a minister. I'm supposed to care for people, and I do; incredibly so, but it seems that I don't have a pastoral bone in my body. There's no gifting; there's no anointing there. Not like my good friend Greg, who just seems to be an absolute natural at it. Do you see how easy it is to fall into those comparisons? Have a listen to God's take on all of this. Romans 12:4-8: For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually, we're members of one another. We have gifts that differ, according to the grace given to us: Prophecy in proportion to faith, ministry in ministry, the teacher in teaching, the exhorter in exhortation, the giver in generosity, the leader in diligence, the compassionate in cheerfulness. The bit that leaps out there for me is the bit that says we have gifts that differ, according to the grace given to us. So by God's sovereign choice, He made you and me differently, with different purposes in life, just as my nose has a different function to my big toe. Without my nose, I couldn't smell or taste. Without my big toe, I probably wouldn't be able to stand up and balance, and walk properly. Totally different, but equally important. Here's what I think. In our process of growing up – of maturing in Christ, one of the most important things of all is celebrating the gifts that God's given us, and equally, being completely comfortable with the gifts that He hasn't given us. God made you who you are. That was His sovereign choice, and He wants you to be completely delighted both with who you are, and who you aren't. You and I both know that there are always areas in our lives where we can improve and come up higher. Even though I'm not necessarily pastorally gifted, that doesn't give me a license to be rude and detached or uncommunicative. My people skills and relationship skills are really important. It's the same with you. Perhaps you're one of those pastorally gifted people. Praise God for that, but pastorally gifted people are rarely on-time for meetings, because they're the sort of people who will always make time for someone in need. That's in their nature. Equally, it's simply not right to use that gifting as an excuse for constantly being late. So, yes, there are always areas where we need to come up higher; areas where we need to work on our behaviour, even though they're not necessarily in the sweet spot of our gifting. Excellence honours God; it's as simple as that. I'm sure as we've had this conversation, God's touching your heart with one or two things that He'd like you to be working on, but (and this is such an incredibly important but) equally, struggling and trying to become someone who you aren't is never going to work. Here's God's take. Ephesians 1:6: He destined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace that He freely bestowed on us in the beloved. Now, let's think about what's going on in God's mind (in God's heart) when He destined you for adoption as one of His children through Jesus. Adoption is a big decision. Huge, in fact! And He did that out of His love for you; out of His pleasure; out of His will, pouring out His glorious grace on you, through Jesus. Just ponder that for a minute. What was going on in God's heart when He destined you for adoption into His family, through the incredible suffering of Jesus, His beloved Son? It's a whole different view, isn't it? What's the matter with us, that we can't get comfortable with how God made us, who He made us to be? What's the matter with us, that we want to compare ourselves and wish we were this or wish we were that? Get a revelation. God loves you just the way you are. Hey, He made you just the way you are. Do you have a few rough spots that need sanding back and polishing? Course you do. God the Holy Spirit has that process well underway; don't you worry, so instead of beating yourself up about who you are and who you aren't, what God wants with all His heart of love for you is for you to join hands with Him in that process of change, for His glory and His love. God wants you to be comfortable in your own skin, while at the same time working with the Holy Spirit to deal with the sin in your life, and we all have sin that's holding us back. Developing Your Faith-Image If I asked you, in twenty-five words or less, to write down who you are, what would you write? No, not some bland generalised statement. I want a sentence that captures your essence; your value; the important things about you. So, what would you write? What evidence, what feelings, what feedback would you draw on to write it? It's hard because we don't think too much about who we are, and yet who you believe you are, what you believe about yourself ... It shapes your thoughts, your opinions, your feelings, and your reactions and mostly, we rely on what other people tell us. Perhaps you were told once by a teacher or a parent, "You worthless child! You'll never amount to anything," and that, like it or not, has had a huge impact on your self-image, or perhaps you were always the last kid to be chosen on the team, as I was in the schoolyard; and even though you don't think about it all that much anymore, it still has a huge influence on how you see yourself. Self-image is a dangerous thing. The lies of this world are ruining many a life, even (let me say) the lives of people who with all their hearts believe in Jesus, so what's the alternative? One of my professors back in Bible-college days used to talk about replacing your self-image with a faith-image. In other words, deciding to believe what God says about you, rather than what the world says about you. For instance, try this on for size. John 1:12-13: But to all who received Jesus, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God, who were born not of blood or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God. Children used to taunt me at school because I was chubby and short; because I was gifted in the classroom and not on the sporting field, and it hurt – a lot, so then I'd come home and talk to my dad about it. He'd help me get my perspective right. He'd get me believing the right things about myself. I got a lot of comfort from my dad just being my dad, and I'm absolutely certain that it's because of him that those things from my childhood don't affect me these days, but not just him; also my Father in heaven. As I read my Bible day after day, my heavenly Dad speaks those words about who I am into my heart, and for me, it's been a simple decision to believe what Dad says about me, rather than what the world says about me. That is my faith-image. Do you believe in Jesus? Then He has given you the power to be His child; it's as simple as that. There's an important reason why believing what God says about you has such a huge impact on your life. Most of us believe the world, and that's what self-image is all about. The problem with that is that it's like looking into one of those distorted mirrors on Sideshow Alley, and believing that that's your body-shape. It's not reliable. Believing what God says about you ... well, that's a lot harder because often, God says things that the world doesn't say. The world may tell you you're worthless, while God tells you your worth by showing the price He was prepared to pay for you by letting Jesus die on that cross. The world tells you you're not talented, but God tells you that He has given you a unique gift – a unique ability and not only that, He has a call on your life: A destiny planned for you to live out. A carpenter hangs different tools off his belt. Two of the most common tools you'll find there are a hammer and a screwdriver. Let's say he takes the screwdriver and starts to hammer a nail into a piece of wood by gripping the shaft, and whacking the nail with the plastic handle. Is that a good use of the screwdriver? No! Is that the best way to get a nail into the wood? No! And yet how many people are living their lives like that, simply because they haven't yet figured out what God has to say about them? Because they don't know the unique gift that God's given them, the call that God has placed on their lives. 1 Corinthians 12:1, 4-6: Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. There are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. In other words, God has given you certain gifts, and those gifts are for the purpose, for the service, the activities that He has planned for you to do. Hammers are for driving in nails. Screwdrivers, on the other hand, are for screwing in screws. It's obvious! But you know, people tell you this; they tell you that; they shove you into a job that you were never made to do, and then ... then we wonder why we're not happy; why we're under stress and pressure at the moment. Just picture that screwdriver being used to hammer in the nail. Is that what your life looks like today? Are you doing something you were never designed to do? God made you with a purpose in mind. He gave you a gift that fits like hand in glove with the things that He has for you to do, and it's time to start believing what He says about you, rather than what the world says about you.
Have you ever wondered – how to live an extraordinary life? I mean no one wants to live a boring ordinary life. We all want to have some impact in this world. But … how? The Theory is not Enough When I finished high school almost 40 years ago now, my grades were good enough to mean I was selected to study medicine at Sydney University. And so I applied for a range of courses at different universities – that's how it worked back then. You applied for several things that interested you and then, depending on your grades, you had several offers on the table from which you could choose. One of the things I was accepted for was medicine, but something inside me – well, I just didn't want to do it, even though my parents wanted me to do it. I mean, what do you really know at aged 17 about what you'd be good at and what you'd enjoy – what you want to spend the rest of your life doing? Nothing! Fortunately though, they left it up to me and being a young lad with a sense of adventure – that desire to spread my wings and fly, I chose a career in the military instead. Now I can't tell you how many times I've looked back on that decision in the years since, and thanked God I didn't become a doctor. See, I hate the sight of blood, and well, I just couldn't imagine it! It's just not me. I chuckle to myself, and every time we talk about the idea of me becoming a doctor, my wife Jacky ends up shrieking with laughter, or rolling her eyes into the back of her head. She knows me better than anyone on the planet, and saying that I would make a good doctor would be like telling me that I could fly to the moon by flapping my arms. Now, given that I'm a bit of an academic, I wouldn't have any problem at all with the theory. I'm sure I could cope with all the study and the exams – no problem, but my problem would be when I had to come to stick a needle into someone, or cut them open with a knife and poke around inside them, and then put all the pieces back in the right place and stitch them up again. My problem with being a doctor isn't the theory; it's the practice, and that's the way it is with many of us when it comes right down to living an extraordinary life. We don't have any problem whatsoever with the theory. There are plenty of us who want to lead an extraordinary life, and we dream about it, but you don't plough a field by turning it over in your mind. People who live extraordinary lives are the ones that realise the theory isn't enough. The people who live extraordinary lives are the ones that get out there in the game, and give it a crack – the ones who are prepared to sacrifice and fail and get up and dust themselves off, and give it another go. And that's exactly what Jesus taught us about living an extraordinary life. Have a listen. Matthew 7:24: He said, ‘Look, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on a rock. The rain fell, the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it didn't fall because it had been founded on a rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and beat against the house, and it fell, and it was such a great fall.' Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at His teaching, for He taught them as One having authority, and not as the scribes. Well, should they have been amazed? All the religious leaders of their day were teaching waffle and theory and how to follow all these rules and laws that didn't make people's lives any better at all. In fact, it was making their lives worse. But the stuff Jesus was talking about – sure; it was about the very same God that all the religious leaders were teaching about, but He was teaching stuff that seemed to matter – real stuff; real-life things – things that people could take and do and live by, that would make their lives better and other people's lives better. But Jesus was warning them here. He was saying in effect: ‘Sure, you can come along and listen and be wowed by all that you hear, and entertained, and challenged, and that's great. But if all you do is listen, what good is that going to do you? None! Because when push comes to shove, when the going gets tough, it's all going to come crashing down round your ears. But, if you actually do the things that I'm telling you, it'll be like building your life on firm foundations. So don't just sit there and listen to me; do it!' Hey, maybe that's where Nike got their slogan from. And here's the bit that caps it off for me. When Jesus was done teaching them, what did He do? Did He go back to the office and get out His textbooks and get in some more theory so that He could dish out yet another sermon, yet another theory lesson to the masses? Let's have a read here at the very next thing that He did after His sermon on that mount. Matthew 8:1: When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed Him, and there was a leper who came to Him and knelt before Him, saying: ‘Lord, if You choose, You can make me clean.' So Jesus stretched out His hand and touched the man, saying: ‘I do choose. Be made clean.' Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. Then Jesus said to him: ‘See that you say nothing to anyone, but go. Show yourself to the priests and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.' See, what was the very next thing Jesus did after His message on doing instead of just listening? He went out and touched the leper. See, it was against the law to touch a leper, but He was so moved by compassion, He reached out and touched the leper, and healed the man. Now I'm not sure if you've heard this saying, but it's a great one. "A shepherd should never lose the smell of sheep from his clothing". In other words, we should always be hands-on when it comes to living out our faith. We should always be prepared to do our faith, not just believe our faith. With all my heart I believe in Jesus, and it would be the easiest thing in the world for me to be a theoretician – sit here in a nice, safe, clean, cloistered, albeit boring little radio-studio and just churn out these programmes – dish out the theory. But if there's one thing that Jesus teaches us, it's that theory isn't enough. The theory has to work its way out in practice in our lives. The easiest thing in the world is to nod wisely as we hear Jesus' words today, but it's much harder to go and do them. Let me leave you with this thought: Theoreticians aren't the ones who end up living extraordinary lives; it's the practitioners who do. Who's the great sportsman – the one who teaches the players, or the one who picks up the ball and runs with it? Who's the great teacher – the one who stays in the classroom, or the one who pulls alongside the student on the journey in his life? At some point, if we want to live extraordinary lives, we have to go and live them. We have to go and do them. For some of us, it's time to stop listening, and it's time to start doing. Powered by Faith In your life, let me ask you: Where do you get the sort of power that keeps you going, despite some of the difficulties and the obstacles that you face? Do you have that sort of power? Well, no, me neither – well, that's not quite true. Of course, in and of myself I don't have that sort of power, but when from time to time things get beyond me, I do know where to go to get it. Sound interesting? Well, let's take a look. In this razzmatazzy kind of world in which we live, we're supposed to have our own power. We're supposed to be strong and self-sufficient. We're supposed to be quick and smart and clever and all that stuff. That's the theory, and I guess in part, I'd agree with that. We should grow; we should mature; we should use the strengths and the abilities we've been given, but I don't care even if your name is Hercules, there are going to be times when the job before us is way, way, way beyond us. So, then in that place, where do you get that power – the power to live an absolutely extraordinary life? Well, let's take a look. The question is, what are you powered by? Here's what Jesus has to say on the subject because of course in our journey of discovering how to live an extraordinary life over these last few episodes, we've been following Him around through the account of His life in the gospel of Matthew to discover how it was that He lived His extraordinary life, and here's what Jesus has to say about power and where to get it. Matthew 8:5: When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, appealing to Him, saying: ‘Lord, my servant's lying at home paralysed and in terrible distress.' And Jesus said to Him: ‘I'll come and cure him.' But the centurion answered: ‘Lord, I'm not worthy to have You come under my roof, but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go' and he goes, and to another ‘Come' and he comes, and to my slave ‘Do this', and the slave does it.' When Jesus heard him, He was amazed, and He said to all those who were following Him: ‘Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from east and west and they'll eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' And to the centurion, Jesus said: 'Go. Let it be done for you according to your faith', and the servant was healed in that very hour. Now here was this centurion, a Roman soldier of the Italian cohort. He was faced with a problem that was way, way, way beyond him. His servant was sick, and obviously this servant meant a lot to him. What to do? No fancy emergency clinics back in those days; none of the advances in medicine that we take for granted these days as yet existed. Yet he's heard about this miracle-man Jesus, and in his simple mind, he decided that Jesus must have the power. But how to lay hold of that power? Well, get up and go and see Him! With a bit of luck, being a centurion, you'd get through the crowd to ask Jesus if He could help. But how does the centurion ask? Let's take another look (verse 8): The centurion answered: ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have You come under my roof, but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I say to one, ‘Go' and he goes. I say to another, ‘Come' and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this' and the slave does it.' The centurion sets out the simple soldier's logic of his faith in Jesus. He explains his reason for putting his trust in Jesus, and Jesus is totally blown away by this man's faith, and the moment this faith is expressed, it releases power. See, the centurion in and of himself didn't have the power to heal the servant, but he knew where to get it, and how to get it – by placing his trust in Jesus. See, is that it? Is that the end of the story? Well, not really. Of course, the centurion received what he asked for by faith, but interestingly, Jesus also received what He asked for by faith. It seems that Jesus actually practised what He preached, which is a pretty refreshing change when you think about it. Matthew 8:23: When Jesus got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. A windstorm arose on the sea, so great the boat was being swamped by the waves, but Jesus was asleep. So they woke Him and they said: ‘Lord, save us! We're perishing!' And He said to them: ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?' Then He got up and rebuked the wind and the sea, and there was dead calm. They were amazed, saying: ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the seas obey Him?' Well I'll tell you what sort of a man He was – He was a man of faith. He rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith, and then in faith He stilled the storm. Remember, Jesus had laid all His power aside to become a man. Yes, Jesus was the Son of God, but also the Son of Man! He had, in and of Himself, the same power as you and I do. What He relied on to do the extraordinary things that He did was God's power by faith, and as a result, He was able to still the storm; to feed the five thousand; to heal the sick; to raise the dead – by faith. Now, I try my hardest in my life. I marshal all my abilities and strengths whenever I'm faced with something I can't manage, because I kind of figure that I should be capable of doing these things, but there are plenty of times I'm called to do things that are actually way beyond me. I was sitting preparing this particular message at the international airport in Dubai, on my way from Delhi in India to Nairobi in Kenya. I'd just been to India to grow the reach and the impact of these very same radio-messages there, and now I was heading off to Africa to do the same on that continent. I can't tell you how often I'm on these trips, and I sit there and I look around and I think to myself: "Who do I think I am? What am I doing here? I mean, Dubai, for crying out loud! I can't make a difference in all these countries. These are all so foreign to me. I don't belong here", and then I remember the centurion – his simple logic. To him it was patently obvious that Jesus could do what he asked of Him, and then I remember Jesus who by faith stilled the storm, through the power of God Himself. See, for Jesus, it wasn't complicated. For the centurion, it wasn't complicated – not for the Christ, not for the soldier. Faith is faith – simple, sweet, pure, and it's that childlike faith that lays hold of the awesome power of God to do the extraordinary things – the things that are way beyond the natural – the supernatural. Looking for the power to do the extraordinary things? Looking for the power to live an extraordinary life? Well, I know exactly where you can get it. Tough Choices Now, in these last 4 episodes of the programme, we've only managed to get to Matthew chapter 8, out of 28 chapters, so we're going to cheat somewhat by jumping forward to the end of Matthew's account of Jesus' life and times to see, in part, how it ended. A lot of what our lives end up being worth has to do with the decisions that we make. We all make many decisions every day – dozens of them. Sometimes we make really lousy decisions and other times, we make good decisions. So, I'd like to look at perhaps the single-most important decision that's ever been taken in the history of humanity – the decision that Jesus took all alone, late at night, in a dark, lonely, scary place. They're the hardest decisions to take, don't you think – the dark ones, the lonely ones? And this was one of the hardest decisions that anyone will ever take, and also, the most important one. Matthew 26:36: Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to His disciples: ‘Sit here while I go over there, and pray.' He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and agitated. Then He said to them: ‘I'm so deeply grieved, even unto death. Remain here, and stay awake with Me.' And going a little farther, He threw Himself on the ground and prayed: ‘My Father, if it is possible let this cup pass from Me, yet not what I want, but what You want.' Then He came to His disciples and He found them sleeping and He said to Peter: ‘So, couldn't you stay awake with Me for just one hour? Stay awake and pray that you may not come into a time of trial. The spirit indeed is willing, but your flesh is weak.' Again, He went away for the second time and prayed. ‘My Father, if this cannot pass from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.' Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So leaving them again, He went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words. Then He came to the disciples and He said to them: ‘Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? See, the hour is at hand. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let's be going. See, my betrayer is at hand.' Now this, of course, was the decision of laying His life down for you and me, so put yourself in His shoes, and imagine being there deciding whether or not you're going to die for someone else, and not just die; suffer – not a quick, painless injection, as awful as that would be – not even the electric chair; certainly some pain there, but over pretty quickly ... Wouldn't that just be awful? But Jesus knew He was going to suffer for hours – the best part of a day, around 17 hours. Trial after trial, 5 of them in all; beating after beating, thorns driven into His skull, nails driven into His hands and feet, hanging there by those nails in excruciating pain for hours, until finally He didn't have the strength to breathe. That's how you died when you were crucified; you're suffocated. He actually lost the strength to breathe, hanging there by those nails, and so you died of lack of oxygen. All the while those nails tore at your wrist and your Achilles tendon – your whole bodyweight being taken on those 4 painful points. And so here Jesus is, hoping that His friends would support Him, but they fall asleep. Can you believe that? They actually fell asleep, and He's sweating blood in His most crucial hour, and He prays and He prays ‘Dad, if only You can take this whole thing away from me!' I'm sure there are a whole bunch of other things that passed between God the Father and God the Son in that dark, lonely, fearful place on that night. He was grieved – deeply grieved – greatly agitated. Why wouldn't He have been, with all that lay ahead? He was dying to pay for my sin and yours, so that we could be forgiven. He threw Himself on the ground and prayed: ‘Father, if it is possible let this cup pass from me, yet not what I want, but what You want', and that's the key to the most important decision ever made in all of history. No, He didn't want to die; but even in this dark place, He said to His Father in heaven: ‘Yet not what I want, but what You want.' Right there in that yes is where the ordinary becomes absolutely extraordinary. Jesus made a decision to submit His life – literally His very life – to the will of God His Father, and that changed the course of history. There are going to be times in both our lives – in your life and in my life – where we have one of those Gethsemane decisions to make, and they're never easy. They're always huge. I look back on a few in my life and I never, ever want to have to go through them again, but how we decide at that point has everything to do with the sort of life that we end up leading. If we're prepared to lose it all for God, then that's extraordinary! So many people want to hang onto their lives, and when we cling onto the things that we want in life, that makes for an ordinary life. When we're prepared to lay it all on the line, when we're prepared to go with the outcome that God has for us, even when it deeply grieves and agitates us, as was the case with Jesus, that's where true greatness lies. Most of us will never be called physically to lay down our lives for God. Some will, but most won't, and yet Jesus called His followers to take up their cross every day and follow Him, because there are much smaller Gethsemane decisions to be made each and every day in submitting our lives to God, so that we may live. "If any man would save his life, then he'll lose it. But the one who loses it for My sake", said Jesus, "Will save it." Weird – that last bit, but what He's saying is that when we try to hang onto everything for ourselves, that's what makes for an ordinary life, and eventually, an ordinary life comes to an end, but the one who lays down their lives for Jesus will live an extraordinary life, and that's a life that goes on for ever and ever and ever. Amen.
Jesus didn't do things by half measures. His compassion wasn't ordinary, everyday compassion. It was radical compassion. His power wasn't religious power. It was God's awesome power. Radical Compassion I have a confession to make. I'm not naturally a compassionate person. How about you? Now that doesn't mean that I don't care about people deeply. I do, but I'm not naturally compassionate. So, what's compassion? My dictionary tells me that compassion is a sympathetic pity and concern for the suffering or misfortunes of others. It's derived from an old middle-English word, that comes from an even older French word, that's derived from an even older Ecclesiastical Latin word, that means ‘to suffer with'. In other words, to feel someone else's pain, and then to act on that, and to do something about it. I'm pretty good at the second part – acting on it and doing something about it. I'm not always that good at the first part – actually feeling someone else's pain. Why? Because of the way I'm wired on the inside; because of my motivations and my personality-type. Read Romans chapter 12 in the New Testament, and you'll find several motivational giftings. Some of them involve a lot of compassion, and others don't. A leader who's too compassionate just won't get anything done. On the other hand, people involved in caring for others – well, they're naturally good at feeling someone else's pain, which is why we absolutely love people like that. So, why am I telling you this? Because today we're continuing our look at what it means to lead an extraordinary life by looking at how Jesus lived His life, and one of the things He had in His makeup (we see it quite clearly on a number of occasions) is compassion. And I guess, as we take a look at this side of Jesus, I just wanted to make the point that just because we don't all have compassion naturally wired into our DNA doesn't mean that we shouldn't show it from time to time. Have a listen to one of the compassionate things that Jesus did. Matthew 8:1: When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed Him. And there was a leper who came and knelt before Him, saying: ‘Lord, if You choose, You can make me clean. He stretched out His hand and touched him, saying: ‘I do choose. Be clean.' Immediately the leprosy was cleansed. Then Jesus said to him: ‘See that you say nothing to anyone, but go. Show yourself to the priests, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.' Great crowds followed Jesus. He was a celebrity, a megastar, doing what I do, preaching the gospel. Often I'm dealing with crowds, whether here through the radio, or when I'm speaking at a church or an event, and as someone who's naturally wired with not a huge amount of compassion, can I tell you how safe and how easy that is? Speaking in front of people, you're detached. You rely on the fact that as the guy upfront, you are separated from the crowd, and that could easily have been the attitude that Jesus took. "I'll stick away from the messy individuals with all those problems and pains that are going to inconvenience Me, and I'll just preach to the big crowds." We all have our ways of isolating ourselves from the pains and the problems of difficult people. Some live in gated communities. Some have stopped attending churches. We withdraw and we try to make ourselves comfortable, but Jesus met the leper – the leper who was smelly with open, pussy wounds; the leper whom others reviled, and whom God's own Law segregated from mainstream society. And when the leper said to Jesus: "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean", Jesus did the one thing that no one had done since this man started exhibiting the signs of leprosy. Jesus reached out, and touched him. Touching the leper – now that's compassion. That speaks of the value that Jesus placed on this one man in his isolation and pain and suffering. In fact, Mark's gospel account tells us that Jesus was moved with compassion, and that that's what caused Him to reach out and touch this outcast. And the sense of the original Greek word translated into the English word compassion was that it was a deep, gut-reaction. It was something that Jesus felt in the core of His very being, and it was that feeling (literally the feeling of suffering with that leper in His heart, in His belly, in His gut) that caused Jesus to reach out, to touch him, and to heal him. One of the reasons often we don't suffer with people is that we're too busy. When I think about who I am – because I'm a driven, outcome-focused, delivery-oriented kind of guy – time is at a premium for me. Now don't get me wrong. In the mix of things, we need people like that, just as we need people who are nowhere near as time-focused, but who have buckets of compassion in their hearts. And what I've noticed is that when I slow down and just focus on the individual at hand, when I take the time to understand them and what they're going through, I too can experience that sense of compassion, just like the next person. It's the speed at which we move sometimes that stops us from feeling and showing compassion. See, I want to skip right over the feeling bit, and the showing bit, to the doing bit. "What can I do to help this person?" That's my natural desire, and there's a 50-50 chance that you're like that too, but often that's not what they need. The biggest thing that someone who's suffering needs is someone to stop and to be moved and impacted by their suffering. Sometimes just to understand them – to listen to them – to be with them. I remember at a time in my life when I was suffering the biggest thing I've ever suffered in my 50-something years on this earth, there were some people who wept with me. That's in fact the most powerful thing anyone's ever done with me or for me. A truly extraordinary person is someone who shows compassion, whether or not it comes naturally. Truth is, if we'll just slow down a bit, take the foot off the accelerator a bit, we're all capable of suffering with someone. We're all capable of feeling their pain. We're all capable of showing them that we feel their pain, and that will be one of the most transformative experiences of their lives. I can tell you that because I've had to learn it – because it doesn't come naturally to me. I'm still learning it, and I'll be learning it until the day I breathe my last breath. That leper – I mean, I'm sure that he was absolutely over-the-moon at being healed. In fact, we know he was. Mark tells us he went racing round showing people what Jesus had done, even though Jesus had expressly asked him not to. This guy was completely, totally over-the-moon, and why wouldn't you be? I would be; you would be. But I'm absolutely certain that in the days, weeks, months, and even years that followed, as he sat quietly by the fire in the evening at home, remembering that day in his life when Jesus reached out and touched him, that it's the love and compassion that Jesus showed him that would bring tears to his eyes. What do you think? Compassion is one of the things that sets a person apart. Compassion is one of the things that enables an ordinary person like you and me to live an extraordinary life. Compassion, in this day and age, truly is extraordinary. Radical Power I wonder what the word power means to you. There's electrical power, there's political power, and then – then there's another type of power. It's a power that's completely set apart from any other power that you and I know about, think about, or have ever experienced, and that power is the power of God. Why is it different? Because it's greater than any power that you and I can ever experience anywhere else. Think of the immense power in a lightning bolt. It's so powerful, it's seriously scary. Well, all the power in every lightning bolt that has ever bolted down since the dawn of time is just a drop in the ocean compared to the power of God. And we're going to talk about that power right now, because it's that very power that is the key to leading an extraordinary life. When I was young, I learned the harder you work, the longer you work, the faster you work, the more you'll get done, the more items you'll be able to tick off your to-do list, and the more impact you'll be able to have in the lives of other people. But quite a few years ago, God convicted me to in fact pray more and do less. Let me say that again. Pray more and do less. Recently on the programme, I mentioned a young woman at my church – Lucy, who was convicted through one of the posts on my blog to do just that. And do you know what she reported? She said, "Wow! The things I do just have so much more impact now." After just a month, she said: "I'm having all these conversations with my friends about Jesus and one by one, they're coming to faith." I just smile to myself, because that's exactly what I found when I decided to pray more and to do less. And do you know why it is that when we pray more and do less, we get more done? It's because prayer unleashes the power of God, and it's the power of God that makes for an extraordinary life on this earth because the power of God is so much greater than anything we can ever begin to imagine. Now, engaging that power is something that Jesus didn't seem to have a problem doing; He just did it. You and I, of course, will say: "Yeah, sure, right. What do you expect? He's the Son of God, of course He had all the power. That's Him; I'm just me." But let's take a look at how Jesus tapped into that power – the power of God to do extraordinary things. Matthew 8:5: When Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, appealing to Him, saying: ‘Lord, my servant is lying at home paralysed in terrible distress.' And Jesus said to him: ‘Look, I'll come and cure him.' But the centurion answered: ‘Lord, I'm not worthy to have You come in under my roof, but just speak the word, and I know that my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me, and I say to one, ‘Go' and he goes. I say to the other, ‘Come' and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this' and the slave does it.' When Jesus heard him, He was amazed, and He said to those following Him: ‘Truly I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith. I tell you, many will come from the east and west, and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' And to the centurion, Jesus said: ‘Go. Let it be done for you according to your faith', and the servant was healed that very hour. Let me ask you something. Was there any uncertainty in Jesus' mind about the power that God had given to Him? Apparently not. He just did what came before Him, and what came before Him that day was a man of faith. Importantly not one of God's chosen people – not a Jew, but a Roman officer – one of those whose job it was to occupy and to oppress God's chosen people, but he was a man with faith. In fact, it was faith so great that Jesus marvelled at it: I tell you, many will come from the east and west, and will eat with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And it was this faith that caused the power of God to flow through Jesus and on into this centurion's servant who, by the way, was nowhere to be seen! Remote-control distance healing. Pretty amazing stuff! No wonder Jesus marvelled at this man's faith. By way of sharp contrast, when Jesus was in His hometown of Nazareth, He was able to perform very few miracles indeed. Why? Well, let's have a look. Mark 6:3: Because they took offence at Jesus and didn't believe in Him, He did hardly any deeds of power there. In fact, Mark 6:6 says He was amazed at their unbelief. I love that. With the centurion, Jesus marvelled at his faith. But here, with God's own people, He was amazed at their unbelief! In His own hometown. It seems to me that one of the keys to an extraordinary life is extraordinary faith. Let me say that again. One of the keys to an extraordinary life is extraordinary faith – faith that goes against reason, in the miracle-working power of Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus never turned anyone away who came to ask Him to perform them a miracle – to pour the power of God out upon their lives. Not one. Why do we walk around in the miry clay – feet heavy, shoulders hunched, when we have access to the indescribable power of God to get His will done on this earth? Question for you today: Would you rather that Jesus marvelled at your extraordinary faith in Him, or at your extraordinary unbelief in Him? Well, would you rather He walked away pinching Himself to make sure that the faith He'd just seen in you was for real, or that He walked away shaking His head, wondering: "How could you display such manifest unbelief in this Jesus you confess to believe?" There are so many things in this life that we can't do – so many mountains we can't move. There are so many things Jesus calls us to do in His name that, for some reason, we think we have to do in our power. Sure, life's full of mundane; full of challenges; full of hardships, but life is also full of the power of God, and it seems to me that the difference between the extraordinary and the ordinary is a bit like the difference between the centurion and one of those locals in Nazareth. It's Time to Go We are such masters of self-delusion, you and I. Come on, we are – well at least I am, and I know for a fact that so often the church is too. Take Jesus' great commission to His disciples. 'All power in heaven and on earth has been given unto Me,' says Jesus. ‘Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And remember, I'll be with you wherever you go, even unto the end of the age'. Matthew 28 – the very last thing Jesus said to His disciples. Notice what He told them to do. He told them to go – "Go on, get out there, get amongst them, this is what I've called you to do." And here we are, two thousand years on, building massive cathedrals – still sitting in our pews, expecting them to come to us. Now that's a little unfair. So many of God's people and God's ministries and God's churches are out there amongst it – going, just like Jesus told them to. Jesus didn't invite us to build a country club. He called us to go out into the world and be His hands and His feet, scarred as they are, and His voice and His heart of compassion to a lost and hurting world – to the parents of that little boy in the soccer club whose marriage is on the brink; to the guy who sits on the bench in the mall alone each day, a bit on the nose, in need of a good wash. When I was at Bible-college, I was required to go and spend two semesters with a ministry, doing practical field training. The ministry I went to as a raw, wet-behind-the-ears seminary student was Christianityworks – the very same ministry I'm involved in today. It makes me speechless to think, at a time when I knew so little, I was already writing and producing radio-programmes that would be heard by rather a lot of people. What was the principal of the college thinking? What were my lecturers thinking and come on, what was Jesus thinking, unleashing me in my ignorance to preach the gospel? Scary thought. Surely I needed to graduate first. Surely I needed to become a much deeper theologian first. Surely, there had to be something more – well, I wonder. Not long into His public ministry, Jesus sent His disciples out to do some field ministry training. He sent them off completely without Him, and without anything much else either, it would seem. These guys were just fishermen and tax-collectors – seriously uneducated, unqualified, unreligious dudes, with absolutely no qualifications to do what Jesus was calling them to do. I seriously wonder sometimes if Jesus really knows what He's up to. I mean, come on! Really! Have a listen to this. Matthew 6:6: Then He went out among the villages teaching. He called the Twelve and began to send them two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff – no bread; no bag; no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them: ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you or they refuse to hear you, as you leave shake the dust off your sandals as a testimony against them.' So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, anointed people with oil who were sick, and cured them. Now just stop and imagine that that had been you that Jesus sent out like a sheep to slaughter. He gives you the authority to cast out demons. You've known Him for ... mmm ... 5 minutes at this point. Are you feeling confident? ‘Oh and by the way, don't take any food or money or a change of clothes, ‘cos you won't need them.' What, is He dead-set crazy – this Jesus? Maybe He's on the same stuff as John the Baptist, that lunatic in the wilderness, was on not so long ago. Do you see how easy it is for us to think in conventional terms? Do you see how easy it is for us to sit in comfortable pews, in a comfortable church-building, and complain about the air-conditioning that's not working properly? See, to us, conventional equals comfortable. Conventional equals convenient. Conventional is all about enjoying the experience. In any case, we're not that qualified yet. We need to sit in those safe, comfortable pews just a little bit longer, before we get our hands too dirty. Let me tell you something, friend (and this is for me as much as it is for you) if we're someone who believes in Jesus, then Jesus has given us the authority to cast out demons. He has given us the authority to minister in His love, in His compassion, in His power, to those around us. And not only has He commissioned us, He's commanded us to go! Conventional wisdom says that I should never have been allowed to go out back then when I was so green, and tell people about Jesus, but that's what led me on to doing what I'm involved in now, that reaches far wider – to many more people than I ever, ever could have imagined back then. ‘Cos when God calls us, when God commissions us, His power flows around us and through us to achieve what He always planned to achieve. It was the same with those early disciples. Conventional wisdom says they should never have been sent out there on their own, but they weren't on their own. The power and the presence of Christ was with them and around them, and ahead of them and behind them, through the presence of the Holy Spirit. And as a result, they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, they anointed many with oil who were sick, and cured them. You know what I get out of this? Greatness is just about going. Just get up and go – go where Jesus calls you to go. Go where Jesus leads you to go. Just take the first few steps, as whacky and as weird as it may seem to you, because when He gives us the authority to do what He's called us to do, watch out! His authority gives us the power to prevail in what He's called us to do. There are many comfortable, suburban, pew-sitting Christians, who will live out their very ordinary existence in that church. Then, there are those crazy disciples who dare to go – who dare to accept the authority given to them; who dare to live out a truly extraordinary life.
There's an old proverb – never put things off until tomorrow, that you can do today. Jesus was a master at that. In just three and a half years, He turned the world completely upside down. A Team Player Other people can be such a pain in the neck, have you noticed that? I don't mean you I mean other people. It's always those other people isn‘t it? Its never you its never me we always blame someone else. They're the one that's being difficult; they're the one that's got it so wrong again! We're so full of ourselves aren't we? We imagine you and I, that we're indispensable, that no one else can do it as well as you and I can. If you want a job done right, you just have to do it yourself, and to some extent that is true other people are a pain in the neck sometimes and deep down we'll even admit that sometimes … ahh yeah ok, sometimes, yeah sometimes it is me. Sometimes it is you, and all the more reason then just do it then yourself! It's so much easier without the other people and ok you don't get quite as much done but there are far fewer headaches. Now we don't think like that all the time, but working with other people while it can be rewarding it can also be challenging, we're looking this week at how to live an extraordinary life. We're doing that by following Jesus around a bit like one of those twelve disciples, and watching Him, listening to Him, learning from Him, about how He lived His extraordinary life. On our last program we saw that the very first thing He did in His public ministry was to submit to God through baptism. One of the next things He did was to build a team. He was baptised, He suffered in the wilderness and then He began proclaiming the Good News: "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is near." Well that's all well and good, but the reason that there was no telly evangelists back then is that there were no tellies, there was no newspapers, there was no radio, there was no T.V, no internet, no mass medium of any sort. In fact, there weren't even sound systems or bull horns to speak to a large crowd! Nothing. Just Jesus, this carpenters son from Nazareth, the self styled Messiah who'd come to save the world. His ministry was about walking the dusty highways and byways of first century Israel and building a following. That was the reality and to do that He needed some help. So here it is, here is what He did. Mathew chapter 4, beginning at verse 18: As He walked by the sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers Simon who is also called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting their nets into the sea for they were fishermen. And He said to them, look follow me and I'll make you fishers of people. Immediately they left their nets and they followed Him. As He went from there He saw two other brothers James the son of Zeberdee and his brother John in the boat with their father Zeberdee mending their nets. And He called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and they followed Jesus. Now this was totally extraordinary in two regards. Firstly the rabbi went and called His followers, generally this was completely the other way around. You see some Rabbi's were just a bit more prestigious than others, so young men only men, would try and climb the social ladder by following the highest pegged Rabbi in the social scale that they possibly could. So it's a bit like trying to get into Oxford or Cambridge or Harvard to study a PHD. They're far more prestigious establishments than where I studied, you have to apply lots do only a few get in. That's how it was with the most recognised of Rabbi's. Whole families would caught them to try and leverage their social network to try and get their sons in as follows, as disciples – that's what they were called – of the most prestigious Rabbi, because that would advance their prospects. First extraordinary thing about Jesus team building approach was that He called disciples to follow Him, instead of the other way around where the disciples applied for kind of like an apprenticeship with him. And secondly, He went for fishermen to start with. Salt of the earth guys to be sure but very working class, very down the social order, very well … you know, fishermen. Smelly, not that educated, certainly not that well regarded and they came not from Judea, not from Jerusalem but from Galilee like Jesus. Really?! You can just see how the religious establishment in Jerusalem the chaps, the chaps trust, would have looked down their nose at these uneducated bumpkins. I caught the bus the other day and ran into a man who I'd known years before so I sat next to him and for the next 20 minutes or so he told me about all the important people he'd been having dinner with, he was just about to head off to the US to attend Harvard, he'd just had this well known Politian stay at his place … it went on and on and on. He didn't ask me about me, once! So I didn't offer. Sometimes I think that we think that a team if you're going to have one at all has to be full of classy people: people who have their act together. People who are well known, well regarded, people who are rung or three above us on the social ladder. A few rungs higher, so that by associating with them we can climb up a bit further, but not too far away that they're out of reach. Sometimes I think that we think that we have to go and chase after people and grovel to them and follow them, surround ourselves with winners not losers. Jesus turned that whole thing completely on its head. He didn't have people grovel to Him, He went and chose His team. He surrounded Himself with real salt of the earth people, almost deliberately picking the anti-establishment team. Tax collectors to sinners, the lot of them! See Jesus didn't go out there and pick the obviously "A" Team, He built an "A" Team. And what makes the Jesus model of team selection and team building so amazing is that this rag tag team of uneducated bumpkins founded what we today call the church, to which a couple of billion people still belong two thousand years on! Now that's an extraordinary life. Did having those twelve disciples have it's moments? Absolutely! Remember once His disciples failed to heal a boy and Jesus exclaimed “how long must I be with this faithless and perverse generation?” sure it was frustrating! Sure these twelve guys required Jesus to pour Himself into them, Sure one of them even betrayed him. But Jesus life was made all the more extraordinary by this down to earth heart desire to part off to lead to disciple a team, no matter what it cost Him. His life lives on still today through the Church all because He was passionate about the team, passionate about a community. Sounds like the makings of an extraordinary life doesn't it? What do you think? A Job to Do Now not only was Jesus a team player, but He was focused. He new He had a job to do, and that's what we're going to look at next. A great part of that was preaching and teaching. So, how do you kick off a career as a preacher? That was the challenge for Jesus. He was an absolute unknown. He was poor, not rich. He came from rural not very upmarket Nazareth, not from religion central Jerusalem. He was a carpenter, not a highly qualified Rabbi. He had all those rumours of an illegitimate birth hanging over His head from His childhood. And then there was the stigma of Herod killing all those innocent children under two, because of Jesus. See Jesus had a lot to contend with, and He had three and a half years to tell the world the Good News, to build a team that would go on to become the foundation the church for several millennia and to die and to rise again for you and me. Now, when you think about it that's a pretty tall order and a pretty short period of time. So how do you go about from being an unknown to becoming a respected teacher? Well oddly enough in my own little way, that's something of a journey I've been on and I can tell ya … it ain't easy! It involves a lot of hard work and a lot, I mean, a tonne of help and anointing and provision and empowerment by God. So let's have a look at how Jesus went about it. Mathew chapter 4, beginning at verse 17: From that time Jesus began to proclaim ‘Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near!' Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in the synagogues and proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So His fame spread throughout all Syria and they brought to Him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases, and pains and demoniacs, epileptics and paralytics He cured them all! And great crowds followed Him from Galilee to the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and even from beyond the Jordan. So, how does Jesus do it? Well to put it bluntly, He hit's the road. He puts himself out there. He starts to proclaim to declare to preach what was he preaching, what was he declaring? Anyone who's a Christian would have heard these words over and over again so that won't be anything new. "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near." But to the people listening, what He was preaching and proclaiming and heralding and saying and exhorting was outrageously radical! Here they were in this back water of the Roman Empire, this nowheresville if I can call it that, miles and light-years away from the seat of power in Rome. These people where less than pawns in the emporia's chess game I mean had it suited him he could have whipped them all out and turned their precious farm land into a car park and a shopping mall! I mean that was the reality. They'd been living this same subsistence life, just surviving boring insignificant little lives somehow believing that somehow because they were God's chosen people, maybe one day He'd send another King like David to set them free or if not when they died they might go to a better life although the Sadducees who were the religious leaders and the social elites, they didn't believe that. So who could be certain that if you were one of those poor uneducated farmers, or carpenters living there in bumpkins-ville Galilee and along comes this lunatic. Okay He was a very articulate lunatic and He starts crying out Repent! Just like that John the Baptist guy and look what happened to him! I mean, they chopped his head off! Repent. What does that mean? it means change your mind. It means turn around, it means stop living the way you're living. When you think about it that's just what the prophets of old had been telling Gods chosen people but other than perhaps John the Baptist, God hadn't sent one of them for 300-400 years! "Repent! The Kingdom of God has come near." Hang on a minute. God's in the temple over there in Jerusalem how could He possibly come near to us in Galilee? I mean only the high priest gets to go into the Holy of Holies and then only once a year and that's a big deal on the Yom Kippur on the Day of Atonement. How can the Kingdom of God possibly have come near to us? Here in Galilee? Impossible. This was an outrageous message and yet they listened. He got their attention. He was pulling massive crowds. Why? Because not only was He proclaiming good albeit unsettling and confusing news, He was healing every disease so they brought their sick and lame from far and wide. See the thing that got Him noticed was the power of God. God's anointing on His ministry. Without that there's no way He could have done what He did, and certainly not in such a short period of time - three and a half years - so what are you and I learn about Jesus, something that made His life extraordinary? He left the confines of His safe little carpenters shop in Nazareth, He hit the dusty road and went and did what God had called Him to do and what God had anointed Him to do. Was it safe? No! It got Him killed in fact. He always knew that's how it would turn out. But He did it anyway. I saw a great Tweet the other day and it said this: Many Christians worship on the alter of safety before they ask, ‘is this the will of God?' They'll ask, ‘is it safe?' You and I aren't called to precisely what Jesus was called to do in precisely the same way and yet in our own ways according to the gifts and the abilities and the resources that God's given us, according to the place He's put us in, we're called to do exactly that. To get out of the safe comfort zone our own comfortable little carpenters shop whatever that is, and hit the track Jack, and go and tell people about Jesus. And maybe you're a builder or an accountant or a cleaner or a counsellor or a web developer or what are you? Well we're using that. You and I are called to get out into this dangerous place and go and tell people the Good News. Not necessarily as preachers, perhaps a service as encouragers, as people who pull along side someone and proclaim Christ not with our mouths necessarily but with our hearts, with our hands, and with our lives. What sort of life would Jesus have lived had He stayed silent in the confines of the carpenters shop in Nazareth, extraordinary? I don't think so. Gift Based Ministry Over these past few programs we've seen that Jesus overcame His past which involved a pretty rocky start in life, we've seen that He drew a lot of His power from that fact that He humbled Himself and submitted Himself to His father in Heaven. We've seen that despite the initial cost to Him, He was a real team player and it's the team He built that ended up impacting this world. And we saw how focused He was on mission and objectives. Some great insights there, if you missed any of them I'll share with you at the end of today's program how you can catch them again online. But we're going to finish off today's message with an observation about how Jesus used His gifts to have an impact, because today in particular we're seeing how He went about getting the job done, being that team player being focused on His mission and right now as we're about to see, by using His gifts and abilities in the most extraordinary way. Lets pick up the story again, Mathew chapter 4, verses 23 - 25: Jesus went through Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people so His fame spread throughout all Syria and they brought to Him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases, and pains and demoniacs and epileptics and paralytics, and he cured them. Great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis Jerusalem, Judea and from even beyond the Jordan. Now you're sitting there thinking, well, I don't have the power to heal people, I don't have the power to cast out demons, if I did I guess great crowds would follow me too! But I don't, so they won't. So Berni, what are you banging on about here? Am I right? Sure I am! We all think that. But let me tell you what I think are the two most powerful, most powerful words in that passage. And they're not the words about curing every disease, every sickness; they're not about His fame spreading or great crowds following Him. You want to know what I think the two most powerful words in the passage are? I think that they're the first two words … "Jesus went”. And the reason they're so powerful is that unless He'd gone, unless He'd gotten up off the sofa, left His comfortable safe little carpenters shop and gone out throughout Galilee which by the way was the immediate surrounding area or region in which He lived, then none of what He did would have been done! And none of what He achieved would have been achieved! None of these people would have been healed, God wouldn't' have revealed Himself and it's pretty certain you and I today, 2000 years on wouldn't be talking about this Jesus. Would you agree? It all happened because Jesus went. And would you please notice the other thing about this with me, He didn't go to some far flung remote impossible place to start with. He didn't' even go up to Jerusalem in the beginning, He started in His own home region. Sometimes I think, that we think that in order to do something worthwhile for God we kind of have to set sail and go to the farthest place on this Earth. Now sure, some people are called to do just that and we call them Missionaries but far more people are called to use their gifts, their gifts and abilities that God's given them right in the place where they live, where they work where they socialise. It's about just taking whatever we have in our hands and using it to benefit others. I know some people who sit there and say, "Well how come God doesn't use me to have an impact in other peoples lives?' In my experience is that God is always up to something and if we're not involved its probably a whole bunch more about us not going that God not doing. There's a great guy who works in Christian media in the UK is name is David Letterhue. He's just one of those good guys, recently he tweets this: The winds of God are always blowing, but you need to set the sails. It's about hoisting our sails, its about throwing our hat in the ring, its about getting up off the sofa and going and just using what we have to hand. It can be as simple as knowing that your neighbours just out of hospital and fronting up with a meal and taking it over to their house. It can be as simple as offering to have a cup of coffee with someone at work who's looking a bit down and distracted. Ok maybe, God hasn't' given us the gift of healing the way He did to Jesus, but when we take stock of the gifts and abilities and natural strengths and motivations and resources that we actually do have, we start to realise how much God really has given us. I was sharing this story of the ministry of Christianity Works, this ministry that I work in producing these very radio programs with a group of business people just the other day. It's an amazing story, from nothing to a weekly audience of around, well, over 10 million. They were impressed. Hey I'm totally gob smacked every time I think about it or tell people about it! But my point to them is always this: we have a massive team let me see … eight people world wide, a whole organisation plus a handful of dedicated volunteers. None of us, none of us is anything very special at all! We just got together, we just each threw out our gifts in the ring, our abilities and our resources, we just believe that God was calling us and there's something. We took some financial leaps of faith I have to tell you, other people might call them risks, and off we went. Did we have a strategic plan? … oh well I guess … but we never imagined that God would do what He's done. We never dreamed for a moment that we'd be sharing the Good News of Jesus with so many people around the globe. The numbers and all the glory and the impact belong to God, because He did it, He's still doing it, not us. We just kind of figured that if Jesus went, well maybe we could follow along after Him? Maybe we could step out of our comfort zones and go too? So let me ask you, in your life, right where you live and where you work today, what are the opportunities, who are the people that you can go to with a helping hand? With your natural abilities and motivations and make a positive impact in their lives? So exactly what are you waiting for?
Life is no dress rehearsal. You blink, and it's gone. So … it makes sense to live an extraordinary life. Okay … but how? Where do you start? How do you turn things around? Why We Need A Mentor We're going to kick off something really exciting today on the program. Over the coming few weeks we're going to be looking at how to live an absolutely extraordinary life. I mean, we all wish we could. Some people are, some people … well, and some people not so much right? But just stop and think about this for a minute, what if you and I could live a totally outrageously extraordinary life, I mean a life that really impacts other peoples lives for the right reasons, instead of the wrong ones? A life that people will remember with a fondness and a gratitude, the sort of life that will have people queuing to deliver our eulogy at our funerals. And I know there are one or two people listening to me rabbitting on, thinking to themselves, "Yeah well that would be nice but …" you see there is always the butt. Well here is my challenge. No if's, no butts, do you want to live an extraordinary life, yes or no? If the answer is yes then lets have a chat huh? So what stops us from leading and extraordinary life? We can blame all sorts of things. We can blame our circumstances, we can blame our parents, our DNA, our personality type. The place or family or the time that we were born into and grew up in, the bad things that happened along the way and ok, perhaps just maybe a few of the mistakes we've made. But who we are, the abilities the limitations we've been given. How tall we are, the colour of our hair and our skin, how smart we are or aren't, all of those things are things we just can't change. I can't change who I am, you can't change who you are, but what we can do is make the most of what we've been given. The problem is with a lot of the self help rhetoric about the place, a lot of the motivational speakers, a lot of that genre of stuff is they tell you that you can be whoever you want to be; you can do whatever you want to do; you can have whatever you want to have. And my answer to that is … no you can't! it's just not true. I mean, I'd love to be a great artist but I can't draw or paint for nuts. I'd love to be a great photographer, but I just I just don't have the eye for it. I'd love to be a basketball player but I'm just too short. I'd love to be … Do you get it? It doesn't matter how positively I think, how hard I strive or how focused I am, I am never ever, ever going to be tall enough to be a great basketball player. Forget the fact I'm just getting a little old for that now anyway. So its not about being, doing, or having anything our little heart desires that's fairy land stuff. Its all about being realistic about who we are, what we're capable of and saying to ourselves, you know something? I want to make my life count, given the obvious constraints and we all have them even though they're different. I want my life to count. I want my life to make a positive difference in this world. Because if it's not, then we're living a sort of a meaningless existence an unfulfilling existence. I'll tell you want I think is the biggest reason that most people don't live lives that count its because we model ourselves on the wrong principles, the wrong beliefs and the wrong behaviours. We go to school, we learn how to read and write and do arithmetic but they don't seem to be any formal school to teach us life and how to live. How to be effective, how to be gracious. That bit of leaning, the most important bit of learning when you think about it, is pretty much left to chance in some cultures but not so much in others. And so we pick things up by watching our parents and mimicking them. Some of that is good, some of it's not. Which is why bad traits like anger and abuse get handed down from one generation to the next. We watch our teachers, we pick up things in the school yard and on television and on adverting billboards and somehow that all goes in the blender and our pops you. Out pops me. Good, bad and sometimes ugly. I mean, that's about it isn't it? And when you look at it that way, its just a little bit crazy and no wonder we're not living lives that count, lives that positive difference in this world. We've picked up some good habits and lots of bad habits. Some good attitudes but lots of wrong ones too. And the bad stuff we've picked up, that stuff you might hear Christians talk about and calling it sin, that bad stuff holds us back from really realising our potential to do good. Our potential to make a difference our potential to experience that satisfaction of using who we are and what we have to help other people. So what's the answer? Do we need a classroom and teachers and a curriculum on how to be the best person we can possibly be? You know, maybe. But probably in small doses. In a sense that's what these programs are about. But you know that old Chinese proverb: Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I might remember. Involve me and I'll understand. Its exactly what Jesus does and He still does with his disciples. Consider those first Twelve Disciples, they hung out with Him for about three and a half years. He taught them, He listened to them, He dealt with some of their wrong attitudes, He admonished them, He encouraged them, and above all He involved them. They got to watch Him to see how He responded and reacted, what He said, when He was kind and gentle, when He was tough as nails, when He protested, when He was silent. They got to model themselves on Jesus by being involved in His ministry. Now here's and idea, do you think what if instead of soaking it all up without thinking, what if instead of assimilating selfishness and loneliness and all that stuff from our culture, what if we deliberately followed Jesus around for a while and watched Him and listened to Him and let Him guild us, involve us, teach us, disciple us. Hey, that'd be cool! Well my friend that is exactly what we're going to be doing on the program over these next few weeks. See often we'll take on little things that Jesus said and did and we'll study it and we'll learn from it and we'll move on, but what if we took a look at His life and soaked it in on the basis there is simply no better role model on any planet in any galaxy in any universe than Jesus. What if we looked at some of the really familiar stories perhaps from a different angle, from a slightly different perspective as a student looking to his or her mentor? That'd be cool. And you know the amazing thing that happens when we do that? Is that all of a sudden Jesus starts involving us in His work. He starts discipling us, He starts teaching us and speaking to us thought what's going on in our lives. Because this Jesus isn't dead He's alive and anyone, anyone who would believe in Him, would follow after Him, to that person He sends His holy spirit to be our counsellor our advocate, our guide, our personal life coach. Want to know how to live an extraordinary life? Well lets take a look at Jesus. A Rocky Start In Life Now there are plenty of people in this world who want to blame the past for where they are today. You may want to say that sounds a bit harsh. You may have had a hard start in life yourself. Perhaps you were born into a very humble household, or you had a difficult family environment, or maybe like my parents you had to select through a war or two. Perhaps you lost your parents when you were really young. Someone who is listening today may have been abused. Another person may suffer from depression, yet another has gone through divorce. None of those things are pleasant. None of those things are things we'd wish on ourselves or on our worst enemy for that matter. What is it in your life, what circumstance, what relationship, what start in life did some damage to you along the way, huh? You know in an instant that thing that I'm talking about. So let me ask you this, to what extent are you still using that as an excuse today not to be living an extraordinary life? We Australian tend to be fairly blunt and direct, so I'm asking you a blunt and direct question … not to ruffle your feathers so much but to force each one of us to face facts. And the fact is, that the majority of people walking around on planet earth today has something in their past that's ruining their present and robbing them of their future. Now, lets turn back to Jesus. If you and I could model our lives on Him, if you and I could adopt Him as our life coach and mentor, if we could learn to live a life that looks a whole like Jesus, well man-o-man imagine what a life would that be? So what are we doing talking about our past, and then about Jesus? Because this whole thing about the past ruining our lives is one of the greatest scourges and epidemics of our society today. I mean, billions of people are being ruined because people let their past rob them of their present and there future. What do we learn through Jesus on that? What was His past? What was His start in life? What did that look like and how did He handle it? Well I guess that most people know the story, Jesus had a rather rocky start in this world. Mary fell pregnant out of wedlock … according to her the Holy spirit did it. Well, yeah right, who would believe that?! Then they had a long painful journey in her last weeks of pregnancy from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea, then to top it off the travel agent lost their hotel booking and they had to bunk outside in a shed with the sheep and the goats and the cows. Where the very first breath of air that the little baby Jesus took was filled with a stench of cow dung and sheep urine. But there was something else in His past. Something much worst than that that could have left a horrible mental scar and marred him and hamstrung him for life. Have a listen to this Mathew chapter 2, starting at verse 13: Now after they'd left an angel of the Lord appear to Joseph in a dream and said ‘Get up, take the child and his Mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.' So Joseph got up and took the child and his Mother by night and went to Egypt and remained there until death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken about through the Lord through the profit, out of Egypt I have called my son. When Herod saw he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated! He sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under according to the time that he had learnt from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the profit Jeremiah that a voice was heard in Ramah. Wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children. She refused to be consoled because they are no more. So there you have it. Infant genocide. Ethnic cleansing. All on account of Jesus. You don't think he knew about that when He was growing up? You don't' think people blamed him? You don't think this played on His mind and tore at His heart? You don't think that this one thing could have totally derailed Him from living his extraordinary life? See we don't often think about this, but this was in Jesus' past. This was on Jesus heart. This could have completely robbed him of His extraordinary life! But instead He declared, let us go onto the neighbouring towns so that I may proclaim the message there also, for that is what I came to do. Jesus was totally focused on His mission, on what God had sent Him to do. Now, I'm no physiologist, but I have friends who are. From them I know how complex and difficult it can be to let go of things in your past, things that are holding you back. Hey, and not just from the physiologist, I know from my own experience how difficult it can be to let go of the past. So here are my three essentials for letting go. For stopping the past from ruining your present and robbing you from a future. First, decide to change. When I went through a major loss in my life, there was a time a mourning and grief, hey, that's natural that's normal. But there comes a point when you just have to decide that the status quo isn't an option. It is time to move on. It is time to lay a hold of the extraordinary life that God has planned for you. Some people today need to hear that and they need to take that decision today. The second essential is, believing what God says and He says that if anyone is in Chris they are a completely new creation, all of the old things have past away. Look, everything, and I mean everything is new. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17. In other words, your faith in Jesus according to God is meant to set you completely free from the past. Now that's worth believing. And thirdly, for those people who have hurt me, for those people who have caused the loss in the first place … can I tell you that was the single most important thing for me. I've prayed constantly and I still do, that the Lord will bless them and they too would find Jesus. Praying for your enemies, blessing those who curse you, is what Jesus taught us to do. And now, I'm starting to live out that extraordinary life that God planed for me. So how about you? Jesus didn't let the past hold him back, and neither should we. Its time for you to live that extraordinary life that He planned for you. A Life Of Submission Well what's the next thing that we discover by looking at Jesus about living an extraordinary life, well you may not like it but here it is. Jesus submitted to authority. Ah, yuck really!? You see, we Australians in particular are known around the world for our lack of respect for authority, its kind of in the DNA of our culture to flaunt it, to rebel against it, to poke fun at it. A good friend of mine, in fact he is my mentor Graeme, he was an officer in the Australian Army during the Vietnam War and the lads the Aussies that were over there, they decided that tonight was going to be party night. No particular reason, they just decided they wanted to let their hair down and have a good night. So the Australian's being Australians the soldiers decided to declare that day would be a celebration of Ho Chi Mien's birthday. It's not that politically correct, but if you're an Australian you'll smile, you'll get it. It taps right into this innate desire we have as we would say to ‘take the Mickey' out of things. Ho Chi Mien was of course the head of the North Vietnamese independence movement who our lads and the Americans and the South Vietnamese were fighting against. So they drove around to the different units, declaring that today was Ho Chi Mien's birthday, but (and Graeme loves telling this story) when they arrived at the American's unit and rather loudly and boisterously as we Australian's do, announced Ho Chi Mien's birthday party was happening tonight back at the Australian compound, well, there was a blank look on the America's face, they just didn't get the humour. What planet are these Australians on? Why was there such a disconnect? Because by and large, American's are a patriotic bunch. They believe in truth and justice and the American way sorry to borrow that from Superman. And they respect their leaders, even though they disagree with them which they can do and do do in their democracy but they tend to respect authority in a way that Australian's don't. But whichever culture we come from, however much we do naturally respect authority deep down I mean really deep down most of us struggle with authority from time to time. You see authority is always fine until to disagree with a person in authority. I mean its fine having a boss at work, until you want to go in this direction when she wants to go in that direction and so we have our little silent protest. We resist, we pout, we undermine, we backstab and sometimes it breaks out into open warfare. Does that sound vaguely familiar? Because our base position is "I'm right and she's wrong". I mean I'm always right, it's my way or the highway. Now we have a problem. We struggle, we complain, we become de-motivated, so what can Jesus' life teach us about the importance authority in living out an extraordinary life? Well here's a little vignette, a short segment of Jesus life on this Earth and it speaks into this very thing. Have a listen. Mathew chapter 3, beginning at verse 13: Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptised by him. John would have prevented him by saying, ‘Hang on I need to be baptised by you, and you're coming to me?' But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so for now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness.' So John consented. Now these days, we kind of understand what baptism is. It's an outward sign of that we've died to self and that we've risen to Christ. It's a public expression or our faith in Jesus. But back then the only people who were baptised where proselytes. These were people who weren't born as Israelites – God's chosen nation – but who subsequently put their faith in the God of Israel. It was a sign that even though they weren't Jewish by birth, they had become one of God's people through faith in Him and that they would, wait for this, they would obey the Law of Moses. That was the key. And the reason that John the Baptist had been out in the wilderness baptising Jews was a sign of repentance of turning away from their sins and going back to God, submitting to back under the Law of God. Get it? So John was right to protest. "Hang on Jesus, what are you doing? You're the Messiah, You're Him! What am I doing baptising you for crying out loud? If anything, it should be the other way around." And Jesus answered, "Let it be so for now. For it is proper in this way to fulfil all righteousness." And Jesus had come to die for us, the perfect sacrifice, so that you and I could become the perfect righteousness of God. So that you and I when we put our faith in Jesus, have a complete perfect and forever right standing before God. Why did Jesus submit to John's baptism, the baptism of repentance, even though as the one man who had never ever, ever sinned He had nothing to repent from? This is why. Because this was the single most public, most visible thing that He could do to declare His submission to God through the Law of Moses. He wanted the world to know that He, although He was the son of God, although He had never once sinned, fully submitted, fully placed himself under the authority of the Word of God. It was the very first step He took in His public ministry. So how did His Dad in Heaven react? What was God's response? Mathew chapter 3, beginning at verse 16: And when Jesus had been baptised, just as He came up from the water, suddenly the Heavens were opened up to Him and He saw the spirit of God descending down upon him like a Dove and alighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' What an endorsement. I mean, imagine for a minute that you and I were to live for that? For God's endorsement. To please Him, to delight him by putting our lives under His mighty hand. By heading His voice. By loving Him. By obeying him. Imagine if that's the first thing that we did, the very first thing before stepping out into what God has planned for us? Just imagine the impact our lives would have? Its not such a bad start to have an extraordinary life.
The reason that so many people who believe in Jesus are struggling is, quite frankly, because they're not men and women of God's Word. They don't take God's Word seriously. Well, today, that's something we need to deal with, because there is such an incredible blessing waiting for you, in God's Word! God's Work Takes Time Waiting for something that you really want, waiting and waiting and waiting, is incredibly hard. Particularly if, during that waiting, you're enduring some kind of hardship. Some sort of suffering. Something that you've been asking God for, again and again, for Him to deal with. To bring a resolution to the problem, and end your suffering. You've no doubt been in places where sometimes, it doesn't seem as though a resolution, an end, is even possible. How long do I have to wait? Some people find it surprising that the Bible actually deals with that very question. It contains the heart cries of people who are exactly in that position. Like this particular guy, Psalm 119, verses 84 to 88: How long must your servant endure? When will you judge those who persecute me? The insolent have dug pitfalls for me; they do not live according to your law. All your commandments are sure; they persecute me with falsehood; help me! They have almost made an end of me on the earth, but I have not forsaken your precepts. In your steadfast love give me life, that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth. Hmm, it seems like this man is in fear of life itself. We never find out who "they" are, but they are certainly his enemies and they are certainly after his life. It doesn't get any worse than that. And in that place, it's easy to shake your fist at God, to be bitter and resentful of God, because he's not showing up. Yet notice how this man asks the question: How long must your servant endure? The psalmist remains God's servant, even when his life is being threatened. This isn't some fairy-tale. It's a real man, praying to a real God about the injustice and the danger that he's facing. And despite those things, he remains faithful to God. He continues to trust God – all your commandments are sure – and he's not swayed or drawn down to the level of the evil that's pursuing him. Even though ‘they' have almost made an end of him on this earth, he has not forsaken God's precepts. And he pleads his life into God's hands, so that when this stuff ends, when his suffering ends, he can continue to do good on this earth. That's powerful stuff! If you're suffering right now, I don't know when or how your suffering will end. I don't know how long you still have to endure. But I know this: In the middle of your suffering, in the middle of even the most dangerous and life-threatening of circumstances, you can choose to remain God's servant, to do good, to stay in God's Word and to plead your case, even your life, into God's hands. In fact that's the very thing that He wants you to do. Because His love for you reaches to the heavens. His faithfulness to the skies. When a storm blows in on your life, you need to know the truth about God. You need to know, not just in your head, but in your heart and in your experience. As you look back on your life, what are some of the amazing things that God has already done for you. I remember, even before I knew God, when I was a three packet a day smoker, He took me to a place, where I watched someone die of lung cancer. I haven't smoked a single cigarette since and that was over thirty-four years ago. I was set free from a serious addiction in that instant. God's hand is on our lives even when we have absolutely no idea. And when we know His love and His faithfulness like that, in our hearts and in our experience, we can, like the psalmist, proclaim: Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast. By your appointment they stand this day, for all things are your servants. If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. (Psalm 119 verses 89 to 92) When the whole earth shakes and trembles the Word of God is still firmly fixed in the heavens. God's Word is unshakeable and immovable. When generations pass, as they do, His faithfulness endures. That's what I call a rock-solid foundation. And it's that sort of foundation that you and I need in our lives to withstand all the challenges and the storms and the wilderness experiences. The reason I open my Bible most mornings is because that's where I choose for my foundations to be. I, like you, have things that come along to rock me and to shake me. Things that could easily blow me over. I so get it when the psalmist says there, if God's law, God's Word, hadn't been his delight, he would have perished in his affliction. Let me make it plain and clear. Unmistakable. In God's Word is your refuge, in God's Word is your strength. When you sit and listen to Him speaking into your heart, something happens to change you in the most incredible way. I know … I know that many people struggle hugely to get into God's Word, either because they think that they don't have time, or they imagine that it's too difficult. But take just that one Scripture, Psalm 119, verses 89 to 92, just spend some time in those three verses in the middle of your affliction and I guarantee you that the Holy Spirit will show up. I guarantee you that God will take that Word of His and breathe courage into your heart and life into your weary bones. Because that's what He does and that's what He wants to do. A Powerful Word I remember back in the days when I worked as a consultant in the corporate world, the brutality of office politics would never cease to amaze me. And even if you're not travelling through a patch at the moment, where you don't seem to have any human enemies, you can be absolutely certain that your enemy the devil is on your case. Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12: We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. And your enemy the devil is a pretty crafty individual. He's seen it all before. He's been around the block quite a few times more than you and me, and he knows how to strike you at your weakest point. He knows how to push your buttons. He knows how to lead you astray. 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 8: Be sober-minded and watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Sensational! Now, I'm not the sort of person that goes looking for a demon under every sofa and bed, but there is a spiritual dimension and there is a physical dimension. We live and exist in both places and we have enemies, seen and unseen, in both dimensions. So, would you like to be wiser than your enemies? Here's what God has to say – Psalm 119 verses 97 to 101 – have a listen: Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. So there you have the psalmist praying, talking to God. And he's saying how much he loves God's Word, what today we call the Bible. Of course back then, he only had the first five books of the Bible, the law as it's called, because the rest of it hadn't been written yet. But why does he love God's Word? Because God's commandments make him wiser than all his enemies. They give him more understanding and insight into complex and difficult issues, even more so than his teachers – because he thinks about what God has to say. Hey, God wants that for you too. He wants to impart His wisdom to you too. He wants to make sure that you are smarter, that you have more insight than your enemies, by speaking His wisdom into your heart. And it's all right there, in the Bible, ready and waiting! And it's never too late. You're never too old to receive the wisdom of God into your heart. I want to tell you about a friend of mine, Neil. He's well into his eighties and he's lived, shall we say, a pretty colourful life. After a recent operation his body is a bit frail now, but his mind and his wit are as sharp as ever. Recently, he decided it was time he had a Bible. Here's how it happened. He's been coming along to church for years. You know how it is, his wife had been dragging him along. At first he kicked and screamed and he didn't want to come. But after a few years, it became a bit of a habit. So, he rushes up to me after a service a few months back and says, “Berni I need your help. I've decided you're right. I need to start reading the Bible. Can you help me buy one?” Wow, that got me a bit excited, so I did. I ordered a study Bible for him online a few months ago in a contemporary English translation. At which point I promptly forgot about it. Just the other Sunday, before the service, Neil grabs my hand and says, “It's changed me you know, that book I've been reading.” Me, I've completely forgotten, so I stupidly asked him, “Which book?” A little surprised he answers, “Well, the Bible of course.” Ding, I remembered. But there was a light in his eyes. A spark in his voice. He was excited about it, because he realised that through the Bible, God had been speaking to him in a deep, personal, intimate way. God was digging around inside this old man's heart and unearthing things that had been binding him up and holding him back for decades. As I watched Neil and listened to the genuine enthusiasm in his voice, it brought such an incredible sense of joy to my heart. Here was a man who had discovered the power of God's Word. And it reminded me of this beautiful Scripture – Psalm 119 verse 103: How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! We're genetically programmed to like sugar, because it's a ready source of energy. Of course these days sugar is in everything and it's killing us. But back when that Psalm was written, sugar was a rarity. Either you had to be next to a fruit tree in season, or you had to fight the bees for their honey, which was always going to be mildly problematic. So you can imagine the psalmist talking here about this rare, exquisite, sweet thing called honey. And he's saying: “God your Word is like honey, only sweeter, only better. I love your Word more than honey.” Could I ask you plainly: Is that a discovery that, like the psalmist, like Neil, you've made in your heart? Because it's a discovery that's ready and waiting for you right now. A discovery that's going to light up your world in a way that's difficult to imagine. Darkness is a fact of life. Every night the sun goes down, every morning it comes up again. Light, darkness, light, darkness. It's an inexorable cycle. And the whole point about darkness is that you can't see. I mean, sight is arguably one of the most important of our five senses. If you don't believe me, blindfold yourself for 24 hours and just see how you get on. So when darkness creeps in on our lives, as it does from time to time, the problem we have is that we can't see through it. Think back to the last dark patch that you went through in your life. You were sad, you were broken, you were hurt, you were alone, whatever it was. I'm sure you remember it as though it was yesterday. Hey, it could even be that today is a dark day for you. So let me ask you, how well did you make decisions in those dark times? Should I go this way, should I go that way? Should I choose this, or let it pass? Should I choose that, or keep away from it because it's going to hurt me, or because it's not God's best for me? It's not easy is it? Even when things don't seem all that dark, the truth is that we're always making decisions with incomplete information. You and I don't know what tomorrow will bring. You and I don't know what other people are thinking and how they're going to react. You and I don't know what God's thinking and what His plans are. But He does want to tell us. He does want to shed light on the situation for us. He does want to guide our steps. And He does that through His Word. Psalm 119 verses 104 and 105: Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. In other words, when you read the Bible you get God's understanding of what's going on and you don't want to make the wrong decision. God's Word lights up your heart. It becomes, in a very real sense, a lamp for your feet, to help you take the next step and the next one after that. And a light to your path, to help you look up and see ahead. It's with that light that God wants to light up your heart. It's that light that God wants to throw out at your feet now, to help you take that next step. It's that light that God wants to shine on the path ahead, to give you some sense of where it's going. No, He probably won't give you the whole picture, but enough to get you heading in the right direction. He wants to do that for you, right now. Let's Get Things Straight Here Okay, today it's time to call a spade a spade. Fact: Most of the people who say that they believe in Jesus, don't read the Bible on a regular basis. Fact: Most of the people who say they believe in Jesus, when push comes to shove, will go with instinct over and above what God's Word says in making a decision – be it a big one, or a small one. Fact: Most of the people who say they believe in Jesus are suffering through the consequences of sin that could have been avoided, if only they'd given God's Word sway in their hearts. I wonder, are you like ‘most Christians', who don't take God's Word seriously enough to allow it to be the guiding light in your life? I'm not here to give you a guilt trip. I am here, simply to help you make up your mind. Psalm 119, verse 113: I hate the double-minded, but I love your law. There you have the person who wrote that Psalm, saying to God, “I am so sick of the double-minded. I've made up my mind God. I love your Word. I love what you have to say. I love the way that I can be rock solid in my faith, no matter what this world throws at me because I am a man of your Word”. That's the effect of what he's saying to God. Are you in a position to be able to say that to God? Or, to be blunt, are you swinging this way and that? Well, you know God, I'd love to be like that but reading the Bible, every day, I'm a bit busy you know and I have a lot of pressures you know and … then, I hear a message at church and I realise I should read my Bible, but then life takes over again ... well God, you know how it is. You see, double-mindedness doesn't work. James chapter 1, verses 5 to 8: If any of you lacks in wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. It's time to make up your mind. Are you going to be a man or a woman of God's Word, or not? Do you want to live a powerful, victorious life in Jesus, or not? Do you want to have God's Wisdom, God's guidance, or not? Do you want to have the joy and the peace that Jesus died and rose again to give you, or not? Because let me tell you, the "or not" quite simply is not God's will for your life. It's just not. Because when push comes to shove, when the going gets tough, God wants you to know where to flee. God wants to be your refuge place. God wants the best for you in those dark times. But unless we're ready, unless we have His Word in our hearts, that simply isn't going to happen. When disaster strikes, where do you turn? When people are nasty to you, where do you turn? When you just don't know which way to turn, where do you turn? Well, where do you turn? The Bible is full of verses about God being the place where we can and should turn. Psalm 119, verse 114: You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in your word. When the chips are down, we can hope in God's Word. In what God says. We can believe in His Word above the world's words. We can believe in His faithfulness above the world's seductive promises. The problem is that so many of the people who say that they're Christians, who say that they believe in Jesus, who say that they trust God simply can't live out what they say, because they don't have the Word of God in them. Psalm 91, verses 1 and 2: He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Great, but let me tell you, you simply can't cry out to God, “God you are my refuge and my fortress, in you I trust”, with any real conviction from the middle of your storm unless first, the Holy Spirit has written that Word on your heart. And He won't have written it on your heart, unless you were in God's Word beforehand. Hey, we all have storms. We all go through dark times. I do and you do. But the man who is a man of God's Word, and the woman who is a woman of God's Word, they sail through those storms in victory. Even though their emotions are all over the place, even though they're struggling and in pain, they know in their heart of hearts that their King reigns. That's the confidence that you get from being in God's Word every day. I have a friend who calls himself a Christian and I know him well enough to know that he is. He believes in Jesus with all his heart. But he refuses to get into God's Word. He doesn't like to read, so hey, the Bible is just an optional extra. No thank you sir. That's just not true, because when the storms of life hit, I want to be grounded in the Word of God. I want the confidence of God alive and well in my heart. I have a Word for you today from the Lord. Listen carefully to what He says, and my prayer is that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you will receive it into your heart. John chapter 8, verse 31: Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, then you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Sometimes it's hard to remember that God is good, when life simply isn't. In fact, sometimes it's downright impossible. That's why God is revealing His goodness every moment of every day, through His Word. God is Good So life is going along ok I guess, with its ups and downs, but something doesn't quite feel right. You're not completely happy with the way things are going, and that has a way of grinding away at you. The burdens become heavier, the longer you carry them. The spark you once had deep inside seems to have disappeared, and when you're in the middle of all that, your perception of who God is, how He acts, is incredibly important because it'll shape your expectation of His involvement in your life at that moment. Is God someone who's going to graciously step in to comfort you or is He distant, uninvolved? What are you expecting of God? Sadly too many people don't have a right expectation, a good expectation, because instead of spending some precious time in God's Word every day, they're too busy, it would seem. What we need in those difficult times is a way back into the comforting arms of God. Would you agree? So, what is that way back? How do we experience the comfort of God? I don't know quite where you're at in life at the moment, but we all need God's comfort (God's presence) from time to time, so let's take a look at what God has to say about the way back. Psalm 119:49-52: Remember Your Word to Your servant, in which You have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your promise gives me life. The insolent utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from Your Law. When I think of Your rules from old, I take comfort, o LORD. Now all that seems a bit strange. I take comfort when I think of Your rules from old. Really? Do you? Rules. What's the Psalmist actually saying to God, and more importantly, what's God saying to you and me here today? Well, back then, they didn't have the whole Bible. They only had the first five books – the books of the Law, as they were known; the rules, if you will: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, although they're much more than just rules. They're the story of what God's done in creation, in leading His people out of slavery, and taking them to the promised land. They're the story of God's love, and His faithfulness to those whom He loves. This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your promise gives me life, writes the Psalmist. Where does he get his comfort from? From meditating on God's Word; from reading God's promises; from remembering the mighty things that God's already done; from seeing who God is through what He says and more importantly, what He does for His people when they're afflicted. You see, that's the way back to God's comfort. When we're caught up in the doom and gloom that sometimes envelops our lives, the last thing we expect of God is that He'd be gracious, full of grace that He is ready to pour out onto us. Oh, maybe you know the theory, "My grace is sufficient for you." Right? but knowing that in your heart, expecting that of God, experiencing that, that's a whole another thing. But today I believe with all my heart (in fact, I know with all my heart) that God wants you to become someone who experiences His grace every moment of every day, for the rest of your life. Is that something that you'd like to receive? Well, I can't give it to you, but God can, through His Spirit and His Word. Psalm 119:55-58: I remember Your name in the night, o LORD, and keep Your Law. This blessing has fallen to me, that I have kept Your precepts. The LORD is my portion; I promise to keep Your Word. I entreat Your favour with all my heart; be gracious to me, according to Your promise. You see, the question is, what is it that would give you confidence (the complete and absolute confidence) in the graciousness of God towards you? How can the light of His grace shine in your heart when there's darkness all around? And make no mistake about it; the Psalmist is writing those words there, going through some terribly dark times: I remember Your name in the night, o LORD. Isn't night-time always the worst time? Things churn around in your mind, and the fear sets in; the cold sweats ... I've been there and I'm sure you have too. It's in those dark hours that we need to remember the name of the LORD; to experience His blessings falling on us; to know that no matter what we may lose in this world, the LORD is our portion. From where does the Psalmist draw his confidence? From knowing God's precepts and keeping them. You have to know God's Word to live God's Word, and you know what it's like. When you've been through a difficult situation but you've handled it in a Godly way – a loving way, a humble way, a way that honours God, it may have been hard. It may have hurt a lot, but doing good in the midst of bad puts a quiet confidence in your heart. Not an arrogant self-righteousness; that's not what the Psalmist is talking about: This blessing has fallen to me, that I have kept Your precepts. In the darkest of a night, knowing that you've lived through those difficulties and challenges in a way that honours God is a huge blessing, and that gives you the confidence to entreat God in those dark hours that He would be gracious to you, according to His promises. It's an incredibly powerful truth that our behaviour affects our thinking, and our thinking affects our behaviour. The two are inexorably linked. Without a shadow of a doubt, the biggest (I mean the single-biggest) change-agent for good in my life over the last twenty-one-and-a-half years, since I gave my life to Jesus, has been reading God's Word almost every day of my life: Not every day, but most days, and not just reading His Word, but reflecting on it; receiving it, and then responding to it. Think about it. We all want a better life. Right? Self-improvement is a multi-billion-dollar industry worldwide. There are business gurus; success gurus; life gurus; health gurus, all sprouting their stuff, all claiming to have the answers. If only we'll buy their book; attend their conference; sign up for their programme online. People are lapping this stuff up, and paying through the nose for it. Peter Drucker, the man who years ago invented the term the knowledge worker ... He once said the reason people use the word guru is that charlatan is often too long for the headlines. See, these are false prophets. It's not that some of them don't have some clever things to say, but they don't have the answers for life. They don't have the truth. They don't have the wisdom of God. God on the other hand is ready, willing and able to speak His truth and His wisdom in abundance into your life, but are we listening? Psalm 119:59-60: When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to Your testimonies; I hasten and I do not delay to keep Your commandments. The man writing this Psalm is praying to God, and what he's saying is, "You know, LORD, I've been thinking about this. I spend a lot of time in Your Word. I think about my ways: How I think; how I speak; how I behave, and when I bring those two things together, Your Word and my ways, I can't help it. I turn my feet to walk in Your testimonies; in Your Word; in Your ways. I hasten; I don't delay. As surely as night follows day, I end up keeping Your commandments." What's happening there is that this man is reading God's Word; reflecting on it; thinking about it; receiving it, and then responding to it with his life. That is how powerful Godly change happens in our lives: Read, reflect, receive, respond. Let me say that again. Read God's Word, reflect on it; think about what God's saying to you and compare it to how you're living life at the moment, receive that Spirit-breathed Word into your heart, and respond to it with your life. No one else can do that for you. No one else can bring that sort of powerful change to your life. God has a Plan for Your Life Let me be perfectly honest with you. I hate pain: Physical pain, emotional pain ... I mean, I just hate it. I'm sure you do too. It's simply our natural response to pain, because pain is an indication that something's wrong. If you start getting chest pains, you'd better call an ambulance quick. If you're out running and all of a sudden, a sharp pain shoots through your hamstring, you'd better stop, quick. We're programmed to avoid pain because pain says there's something wrong. Right? But sometimes, pain happens. Hey, there's a great bumper sticker for your car. Pain happens and sometimes that pain, that trial, that difficult relationship, that knife in your back, that rejection, is part of God's plan to bless you. ‘What? Are you crazy?' No, that's just what my Bible tells me. Have a listen. Psalm 119:69-71: The insolent smear me with lies, but with my whole heart, I keep Your precepts. Their heart is unfeeling like fat, but I delight in Your Law. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes. What's the matter with this guy? It is good for me that I was afflicted? Really? But how many times have you heard people say, "I only really grow as a person when I go through difficult times?" It's one of those truisms that gets tossed around by people who aren't at the moment travelling through difficult times, but what about when you're in the middle of something? Like, as in this case, the insolent smearing you with lies. It's not funny; it's so unfair, and what we want to do is whatever we can to stop the pain now! "I'll smear them with lies; that'll do it. I'll show him. I'll sort him out. I'll fix him." You know the sort of thing. Don't get angry; get even. Right? But that's not God's way. Jesus said crazy things like turn the other cheek; go the extra mile, and when it came to people trumping up charges against Him, He stood there quietly (not defending Himself) and ended up being crucified as a result. Sometimes God uses those terrible things to change our hearts; to teach us in the difficult times, so that we might learn His ways in our experience. Think of it as on-the-job training. It's the best sort. It's not a theory lesson that happens in a classroom, but a practical that happens out in the real world. Hebrews 5:8: Although he was a son, Jesus learned obedience through what He suffered. Hebrews 12:6, 11: God disciplines those whom He loves, and chastises every son whom He receives. For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. None of us like being told what to do. We all have that, ‘I did it my way' streak in us. I think the second word that most children learn after mum, mum, mum is no, no, no. Anyone who's had kids will remember the terrible twos, not to mention those challenging teenage years; that streak of rebellion; that desire to do it my way starts early-on. It's almost as though we're programmed that way. King David said it like this, when he was talking to God in repentance for having committed adultery and murder. Psalm 51:5: Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Theologians call it the doctrine of original sin, this idea that we're born with a stain of sin on our very DNA. And so, no matter what stage we're at in life, there's this rebellious streak that raises its ugly head from time to time, in all of us. How many times have you looked back on something that you did your way, only to realise the world of pain that it ended up dumping on your head? So often we do things out of a wrong heart; for the wrong reasons; with the wrong motivations, and there are always, always consequences to that. When we were teenagers, we used to do stupid things because we were teenagers, and we acted out of our immaturity. Well, fair enough, but at some point, we're meant to grow up. At some point, we're meant to enter that journey of maturity. That's the place the Psalmist was at when he wrote these words. Psalm 119:72, 127: The Law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces. Therefore, I love Your commandments above gold, above fine gold. So let me ask you: Are God's ways the right ways? Is God's wisdom the right wisdom? Well, obviously, so what do you desire more; God's way, or your way? The good fruit that God's ways bring, or the painful consequences that your own ways bring crashing down on your life? That's why God disciplines us when we go wandering off on our own way. That's why He lets us suffer the consequences of our sin when we turn our backs on Him; because He loves us. As a father, when my children were young, one of the things that I was always keen to do was to let them suffer the consequences of their own mistake. "Oh, Dad, I'm running late for school. Can you drive me?" "No." "But I'll get in trouble!" "Good." They've learnt responsibility pretty quickly that way. The point that the Psalmist is making here is that God's ways are so good because when we live them, they yield blessing rather than pain. His commandments are so much better than silver or gold; so much better. As you look back on your life, no doubt, you can see a string of missed opportunities. I certainly can. Times when we have the opportunity to do right; to honour God; to bless other people, and we just fail to grab those opportunities with both hands. Instead, sadly all too often, we're prone to insolence. That's a strong word, but when you realise who God is, when you have a right fear of God in your heart, you realise that it's the right word. Insolence. A flagrant disregard for God's will and God's ways; a disrespect so deep of a God who loves us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us. I shake my head at some of the bad decisions that I've made in the past, and you know something? With all my heart, I don't want to go there again. That insolence brings shame to our hearts. It brings regret to our hearts. It robs us of joy and peace, of the abundant life that Jesus came to give us. With all my heart, I want to make good decisions – the best decisions; decisions today, the next day, the day after that, that honour God and bring glory to Him. But I know (and I suspect you know this about yourself too) that left to my own devices, I'm more likely than not to botch it up again. Psalm 119:78-80: Let the insolent be put to shame, because they have wronged me with falsehood; as for me, I will meditate on Your precepts. Let those who fear You turn to me, that they may know Your testimonies. May my heart be blameless in Your statutes, that I may not be put to shame. I've watched my behaviour carefully over the years. On the days when I've spent unhurried, precious time with God in the morning, with the door closed and the book open, it's been so much easier to honour Him. Whilst on those days when I didn't make that time, I was far more prone to making bad decisions. How about you? Have you noticed that about yourself too? We have a choice, you and I: A choice between living a blameless life honouring God, or a life of shame as we live out the consequences of our sin. It's a simple, clear choice, but to choose the right way, we need wisdom and we need power. Am I right? And that wisdom, that power, come over and over again in bucket-loads, in abundance, from God's Word. God doesn't want you to be insolent and filled with shame. He wants you to know the joy and the peace that come from living the blameless life that He has planned for you. Praying Through the Clouds Sunshine is something that we naturally equate with blessing. When the sun's shining, it casts a different light on our circumstances. I happen to live in the beautiful harbour city of Sydney in Australia, and when the sun's shining, you'd have to say Sydney Harbour with the bridge and the opera house is absolutely stunning. Truly, one of the great sights anywhere in the world, but I always feel so sorry for tourists who travel halfway round the world to see it, only to arrive on a dull, wet, windy day. It's just not the same when it isn't bathed in that bright sunlight. The same holds true in our lives. We want blessing to shine on us all the time, but just as with sunny weather, it seems to come and go without any great rhyme or reason. One moment the blessing is shining down upon us; the next minute, the clouds blow in and on those dull, overcast, gloomy days, life simply isn't the same. So on those days, how do you lay hold of God's blessing? Psalm 119:132-135: Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is Your way with those who love Your name. Keep steady my steps according to Your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me. Redeem me from man's oppression, that I may keep Your precepts. Make Your face to shine upon Your servant, and teach me Your statutes. This man knows God. He doesn't just know about God; he knows God, because he's praying into the very nature of God, relying on who God is: Turn to me and be gracious to me, as is Your way with those who love Your name. He's praying through the clouds and into the sunshine; into the very nature of God. Don't you love that? Keep me steady, God. Keep me relying on Your promises. Don't let sin get the better of me. Redeem me; save me from human oppression. Why? So that I can lie on the beach and bathe in the sun? No! So that I may keep Your precepts; so that I can live life according to Your Word; so that I can get on and be about Your business for Your glory. Here is a man who is a man of God's Word. That much is plain the moment you start reading Psalm 119, and let me tell you, it's well worth a read in its entirety. And as he prays through the clouds, from the gloomy side to the bright side, he finishes by asking this of God: Make Your face to shine upon me, and teach me Your statutes. You see, the two are linked: God's blessing, and God's Word. In fact, they're inseparable. Listen to me. God wants to bless you, and that blessing is ready and waiting in His Word. Well, in the few moments that we have left together today, I just want to pray God's blessing into your life. Are you ready? Father God, You know all the things that we're struggling with right at the moment. Thank You so much that You're involved in our lives. Thank You so much that You care and thank You, thank You that You've given us Your Word, the Bible, breathed through Your Holy Spirit; preserved with incredible accuracy down through the ages, so that You can continue to speak to us here and now. LORD, some people today are just struggling to get into Your Word; to open their Bibles every day, and just receive what You have for them. Well, LORD, I pray right now that You would pour Your Holy Spirit on each one of us. LORD, light a fire in our hearts; a burning desire to be close to You, I pray; a ravenous appetite to hear from You. Stretch us; unsettle us; make us hungry; make us thirsty for Your Word, and then fill us, LORD, to overflowing with Your Spirit and Your Word. Father, teach us Your precepts; Your ways; Your wisdom; Your goodness, and LORD, make Your face to shine upon us. This we pray up through the clouds, LORD, believing in Your faithfulness. In Jesus' name. Amen. Friend, my prayer for you is that your life will be completely turned upside-down as you receive God's Word into your heart.
If only the going was always easy. But life's not like that. Sometimes we have to travel through difficult times. Times that test our patience, our endurance and our faith. And it's right in the middle of those times that God's Word holds the answers that we need to make it through. Life Wasn't Meant to be Easy These days, it's a bit unpopular for someone like me to be talking about obedience to God's Word. It's not something most of us want to hear. Aw, come on Berni, teach me about grace, tell me about God's blessings, I want to know more about God's love. That's the stuff people want to hear about and sure, they're all really good things. I mean, really good things. But what about these particular verses of Scripture, John chapter 14, verse 15: If you love me, you will obey my commandments. 1 John chapter 5, verse 3: For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. No, obedience to God's Word is not a particularly popular concept these days. But the whole point of obeying God, is that the only things He tells us not to do, are the things that are going to bring harm to us and the people around us. So paradoxically, obedience brings freedom. Obedience sets us free from the consequences of our sin ... and sin ... sin always has consequences, right? Okay that's great. But what about when the going gets tough? What about when other people are doing the wrong thing, and we're hurting? What about obedience to God's Word in that place when the degree of difficulty gets ratcheted up to about a 9.9? Psalm 119, verses 20 to 24: My soul is consumed with longing for your ordinances at all times. You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones, who wander from your commandments; take away from me their scorn and their contempt, for I have kept your decrees. Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes. Your decrees are my delight, they are my counsellors. That's amazing, because the man writing this Psalm, the man speaking to God here, is under a lot of pressure. But he's taken a stand. He's made a decision that he will long for God's will, God's Word, God's ways, when? Just in the good times? No! At all times! Even when evil people are heaping scorn and contempt on him, even when princes are plotting against him. That's a tough decision, but it's the right one. Many centuries later, the Apostle Paul put it this way. Galatians chapter 6, verse 9: So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. The time when God's Word is most important, when God's wisdom is most important, when God's ways are most important, is when the going gets tough. Right in that moment when we want to give up honouring God by living His way, right in that instant, that's when obedience to God's Word is most important. Because in that moment, the enemy wants to snatch your inheritance away from you. But don't give up, because there's a harvest coming. When? Well, at harvest time of course! The trick, I guess, the piece of wisdom, the powerful Word that God wants us to hear today though, is don't give up in doing what is right. Don't give up honouring and obeying God. But that's not always going to be easy is it? One of the things I love about the Hebrew culture in which the Psalms of the Old Testament were written, is the powerful use of picture language to express deep emotions. The Jewish tradition is full of rich, evocative picture language, like Psalm 119, verses 25 and 26: My soul clings to the dust; revive me according to your word. When I told of my ways, you answered me; teach me your statutes. Just drink that picture in for a moment: my soul clings to the dust. It speaks of complete and utter desolation. It speaks of burdens so heavy, a body so weary, that it's lying in the dust, barely able to move. Not even able to lift its head to look up at God. When you're in that place, it feels hopeless. It feels lonely. It feels as though you're the only one who's ever been there, and nobody else understands. My soul clings to the dust. It's a picture that we all get. It's a picture that speaks into the desolation that we've all felt. Perhaps you're in that place right now, where your soul is sucking in the dust, with nothing else to cling to. It's the place where we want to give up, because we don't have a single ounce of energy left in us. Yeah, we've all been there. So, what do you do? What does the Psalmist do? What does he have to say to God? God, revive me according to your word. When I told of my ways, you answered me; teach me your statutes. The first part of that makes a lot of sense – God revive me. The obvious thing to do, the obvious place to turn, the obvious cry for help … although how often do we miss the obvious? The question is, how does God bring that revival to an exhausted and completely depleted soul? Well, the psalmist knows! Revive me according to your word. When I told you of my ways, you answered me; teach me your statutes. You see, when we're in that desolate, dusty place, we need a way back. A real, tangible way back. And that way is through the Word of God. It's through God speaking to us. God's Word is food for the starving soul. God's Word is living water for a parched soul. But how often do we miss the obvious? I've seen Christians from time to time praying for revival. But revival begins at home. There will be no revival unless and until the living water, the Spirit of God, overflows from His people. You and I need revival in our hearts. You and I need to be filled to overflowing with the revelation of God through His Word, the joy of God, the healing of God, the Spirit of God. Revival begins at home! Lord revive me, according to your word. God's Word is a powerful thing, because not only does it bring revival to our hearts, not only does God breathe His Sprit into us through His Word, not only does God deliver His new life for us through His Word, but His Word also brings understanding. And understanding is wisdom. Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you don't understand what's going on – either around you, or in you, or both? Sure you have, so have I. I mean, sometimes we don't even understand ourselves, let alone our circumstances, or the way other people behave and think. And the absence of that understanding, that wisdom if you will, makes life a difficult thing to live. Understanding as it turns out, is the key to living life. Psalm 119, verses 27 to 32: Lord, make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word. Put false ways far from me; and graciously teach me your law. I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your ordinances before me. I cling to your decrees, O Lord; let me not be put to shame. I run the way of your commandments, for you enlarge my understanding. Understanding is mentioned twice in that passage, once at the beginning and once at the end. Again we see that the Psalmist is going through difficult times – my soul melts away for sorrow – and yet the thing that he asks for is understanding. That in itself is surprising enough. We spend our time asking God to take away the pain when our souls are melting away through sorrow, but the Psalmist is asking instead, for understanding. But understanding of what? Of the ways of God's precepts. In other words: Okay God, Your Word, Your precepts, they're all fine, that's a given. But now, God, I want to understand the ways of your precepts. I want to understand how the rubber hits the road. I want to understand how I can live them out, because I want your strength, I want to put false hope far from me, so teach me. I'll cling to your Word, because I know that as I live it out, You are going to enlarge my understanding. What a powerful prayer. It's a prayer for on-the-job training. You imagine asking God for that, over and over again … imagine the understanding, the wisdom, the power that God is going to unleash in your life. Just imagine! Here's the thing: God wants to do powerful things in you and through you, He just does. And He's put His Word there, the Bible, through which to give you, all the understanding you need. Make me understand the ways of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. Wow! A Heart for God's Word If I were to ask you today, what is the one thing that you're focussing on at the moment, what would that be? What's the biggest thing going on in your heart at the moment? The truth is, that from time to time the things of this earth grab our attention. Some of those things are good things. Some of those things are bad things. In a few months' time my daughter is going to be getting married. Well, you can imagine, that's pretty much the focus of things in our household at the moment. There's nothing wrong with any of that, unless and until the things of this world bubble to the top of our priority list, above God Himself. When that happens, our lives have a way of going pear-shaped. All of a sudden, when we get our priorities the wrong way around, we start to live out the consequences of that. So let me come back to that question: what is your heart focussed on at the moment? What's at the top of your list, hmm? Psalm 119 verses 35 and 36: Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. Turn my heart to your decrees, and not to selfish gain. This Psalm is written by a man who is speaking to God. So, when he says: lead me in the path of your commandments and turn my heart to your decrees, He's asking God to do those two things for Him. Psalm 119 blows me away. It's the longest chapter in the Bible – 176 verses all-in-all. And the majority of it is a prayer, asking God essentially to help this man who is writing it, to get his life straight, by getting God's Word into his heart. That's the bottom line of the whole Psalm. God I can't do it on my own, I need your help. That's a great admission, because it happens to be true. And here in verses 35 and 36, the Psalmist is asking God to turn his heart to God's decrees rather than to his own selfish gain. That's the pivot point in our hearts isn't it? Our whole lives swing on this hinge between honouring God and selfish gain. Between right and wrong. And that's why I keep asking you: what's the focus of your heart right at the moment? Where is your heart? Focussed on honouring God or on selfish gain? The answer matters. It matters a lot. There is such power in the Word of God to set you free from your selfishness. Why is it that people leave their Bibles on a shelf somewhere gathering dust? God has the power to set you free. Free from the consequences of sin. All you need to do is to ask Him for His help and He will step in. And here's the thing about God's help. It's intensely practical. Intensely real. In our lives on this earth, you and I, we're prone to trusting things that we can see. It's only natural. We live in a physical world, so we trust in physical things. We know, for instance, that tonight the sun will set, and in the morning it will rise again. We trust in relationships. We trust in our circumstances, good or bad. We trust in our pay packets and our bank balances. And to a point that's as it should be … to a point. Up until the point where we trust in those things above and beyond who God is and what He says He will do. At that point, you've started trusting your life into things that are not worthy of that level of trust. If you have a share-portfolio that's worth a certain amount of money, hey, the market could plummet tomorrow. The same is true of every other physical thing on this earth – they can give way ... in an instant. And so often, we're caught out, because we've place our trust in the wrong things. That's why we need God's help, His intensely practical help, to get our hearts focussed on the right things. Psalm 119, verses 37 to 40: Turn my eyes from looking at vanities; give me life in your ways. Confirm to your servant your promise, which is for those who fear you. Turn away the disgrace that I dread, for your ordinances are good. See, I have longed for your precepts; in your righteousness give me life. So here the Psalmist is asking God to turn his eyes away from all those vanities, all those false idols in which we place our trust. What idols as you trusting in at the moment? In what vanities have you placed your trust? Hmm? Father God turn my eyes from looking at those vanities and give me life in your ways, literally, give me living energy to pursue the way marked out by You O God. That's it! That's what I need, that's what you need. Living energy. Holy Spirit energy, to head God's way, to trust God to lead us forward, rather than placing our hope in false idols. Friend, God's promises are true. Those false idols, ultimately are going to lead you to disgrace. But God's promises will never fail. God I've seen that your ways are good. I long for your ways. Lead me in them. Give me life. What a great prayer. What a powerful way to change your heart. Try as we might, we cannot change our own hearts for ourselves. But God's living energy, the power of His Word, the power of His Spirit – that's where we get a change of heart. That's where we get a change of focus. God doesn't want you to continue trusting in idols, dreading the disgrace that they will ultimately bring. He wants to shift your focus, transform your heart, with His living energy. Because when we walk in God's ways, then all of a sudden we discover what freedom really is. It pains me to tell you this, but for the first thirty-six years of my life, I thought I was free. Free to live my life the way I wanted. But now, looking back on that time before I accepted Jesus into my heart, I realise that I was nothing but a captive. The best way to describe it, is that I looked successful and happy on the outside, but on the inside, I was plagued by fear and doubt. On the inside, I was a complete mess. That's because I was a captive rather than living as a free man. That's because the expectations of this world dominated my heart. Again, the Psalmist puts it like this, Psalm 119 verses 41 to 46: Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise. Then I shall have an answer for those who taunt me, for I trust in your word. Do not take the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in your ordinances. I will keep your law continually, forever and ever. I shall walk in liberty, for I have sought your precepts. I will also speak of your decrees before kings, and shall not be put to shame. I really get that bit about having an answer for those who taunt me. The criticism, the mockery of others, used to be like arrows into my heart. Let me ask you, to what extent are you marching to the beat of the world's drum? To what extent are you dancing to the tunes of the expectations of others? And when you can't meet those expectations, people criticise you, people reject you, they throw you out like a worthless piece of trash. We spend way too much time and energy striving, sacrificing, performing in order receive the approval of others, only to fail, only to miss the mark, only to discover that it's a pursuit that's hollow and empty and simply not worth the effort. But the more we get into God's Word, the more we discover the steadfast love that God has for us, the more we get to know God's Word and trust God's Word, the less those things matter. And the less those things matter, the more we discover the freedom that we have in Jesus Christ. I shall walk in liberty for I have sought your precepts! Yes! Hallelujah! Absolutely! Freedom. God's freedom. There is such freedom when we get it into our hearts that we're meant to live our lives for an audience of One. That's what God has ready and waiting for you. True freedom in His ways, in His precepts, in His Word. Jesus said: If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Jesus is the Way It's rather an odd thing, but one of the names that Jesus is given in the Bible, is that He is the "Word of God". Now we normally use that term ‘the Word of God' for the Bible itself, because, after all, it's through the Bible that God speaks His words into our lives. Fair enough. But have you ever thought how powerfully God speaks to us through Jesus Himself, the very Son of God ... God in the flesh? This is how the Apostle John puts it. John chapter 1, verses 1 to 5: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. We all travel through dark times, we just do. And in those dark times, what we need is light. Jesus came to be that light. This is what He said of Himself – John chapter 8, verse 12: I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life. Jesus is God speaking to us in a language that we can understand. And that's why in my own personal reading of the Bible, I always make sure that from time to time, I cycle through one of the Gospels. Right now I'm just about to finish the book of Psalms and head into Matthew's Gospel. Why? Because Jesus is God revealing Himself to us – to you, to me. And I don't know about you, but I need that Light in my life. I need Jesus speaking directly into my life. I need a deep, personal, intimate relationship with Jesus, as I walk with Him and for Him, day by day. Without Jesus, we don't know God, indeed, we cannot know God. Without Jesus we can't find the way to God, because Jesus is the Way. Might I ask you today, what darkness do you have going on in your life? What fears, what uncertainties, what worries are at the forefront of your thinking right at this moment? What situations are confusing you and confounding you and proving completely impossible for you to overcome? Jesus is the answer. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things that were created, were created through Him and by Him. He has knowledge and wisdom and power beyond anything we can imagine. And He is the light for all people. That includes you. And when that light, His light, the Light of the world shines in your life, the darkness simply cannot overcome it. Jesus is the answer.
Sometimes the blindingly, glimpsingly obvious isn't all that obvious, but here it is anyway: Men and women of God's Word, men and women who actually read their Bibles, end up living a much more powerful, much more victorious, much more fulfilling life than those who don't. It's obvious, you'd think. The Way to God's Blessing I know you've heard it all before. You should read your Bible more; we get that, but for many people, it's a chore. When you hear the word "Bible", come on ... In your heart of hearts, how do you respond? I know I used to cringe at the idea that anybody can be so narrow, so religiously geeky if that makes sense, as to actually read the Bible. But after I'd been a Christian for a while, you know what? It became a chore. It's like when I was a kid learning the piano and my parents insisted on me practising at least half an hour every day. Really? A whole half an hour? And that ... That's how so many Christians approach the idea of reading their Bibles. They're being told so many times, "Read your Bible", that every time they hear it, it conjures up a sense of duty; a sense of responsibility and labour, and (let's be honest here) guilt in their minds. How about you? How do you feel about the Bible that's gathering dust somewhere in your house? Oh and by the way, if you happen to be someone who does open their Bibles most days (and the research confirms this), you're one of the very few people in God's kingdom who does. So for many people, either the Bible has a bad rap as some dreary, boring, fundamentalist thing that narrows your mind and fuels your life with a list of dos and don'ts, or it's a source of guilt. That's the majority view – sensational! But what if I told you it's not meant to be either of those? Have a go at this. Psalm 119:1-3: Happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the Law of the LORD. Happy are those who keep His decrees, who seek Him with all their heart; who also do no wrong, but walk in His ways. Happy, eh? The original Hebrew word there means either to be happy or to be blessed. Who doesn't want to be happy? Who doesn't want to be blessed? So who is it who is happy and blessed? Well, those whose way is blameless; those who walk in the Law of the LORD; those who keep His decrees; those those who seek Him with all their hearts; those who do no wrong, but walk in God's ways. God's Law; His decrees; His ways, and that's what the Bible is all about. I know what you're thinking. "Who needs a whole bunch more rules in their lives?" I get that, but the happiness and the blessedness actually come to those who are blameless; those who do right; those who have a clear conscience. God's Law; God's decrees; God's ways ... That's how you get to that place. Perhaps that's why God takes His Word so seriously: Because there's so much good in there for you and me. It strikes me as incredibly sad that so many people who say that they believe in Jesus actually look at God's Word (the Bible) as an optional extra; as an add-on if you will. The number of times people Email me with this mess in their life or that challenge, this problem or that temptation, this and that, and sure; I can give them answers from God's Word that'll speak right into that situation to bring healing or power or wisdom; whatever's needed, and I do that because God's Word is packed full of more healing and more power and more wisdom than you or I will ever need in a lifetime, but I often ask these same people, "So, how often do you read your Bible?" On the rare occasion that I get a response, it goes something like this: "Oh, I don't have time." That's the most common one. "Oh, it's hard to understand." That's the second-most common one. "Oh, I don't think it's that relevant." Yeah, that's the third-most common response. Let me be blunt here. We behave as though listening to God speak isn't all that important but then, when people have a problem they can't solve, they turn to a preacher like me to help them solve the problem from God's Word. Doesn't that strike you as just a little crazy? A lot, maybe? So what does God have to say? Let's listen to Him. Psalm 119:4-6: You have commanded Your precepts to be kept diligently. O, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping Your statutes! Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all Your commandments. See, keeping God's precepts isn't an optional extra; it's God's command. There are eight different words used in Psalm 119 for the Word of God, the Bible. One of them is precepts, and the sense of this is that God made us. God knows us. He knows how we should live, so that we're not put to shame. Shame interrupts our intimacy – our fellowship with God. It takes away the blessings, the happiness, the joy, of living in a relationship with Him the way we were meant to. He doesn't want that for you. Shame was what drove the first wedge between God and humanity, when Adam and Eve ate of that one tree that they were told not to eat from. Shame is what's ruining our lives, and much better than asking someone for help in the middle of a problem that's confounding you is avoiding the problem in the first place. Wouldn't you agree? God wants the very best for you, because He loves you, and the place to find His very best (honestly) is the Bible. If shame is something that ruins our lives, then the opposite of that is a good heart; a sound heart; a clear conscience. You know what it's like. When you do something that you know is wrong, your conscience eats away at you; it just does. God put it there for a reason. It's that part of us, made as we are in the image of God, that helps us turn our ways back to Him. When our conscience is troubled, it robs us of peace; it robs us of joy, and more often than not, it robs us of sleep, and that's why living our lives God's way is the best way. Really. Most people think (and honestly, this is how I used to think too) that if you become a Christian, you have to live life by a set of rigid rules, and that's going to narrow your life somehow. It's going to rob you of being able to do all the things you want to do, but actually, the exact opposite is true. Psalm 119:7-8: I will praise You with an upright heart when I learn Your righteous ordinances. I will observe Your statutes; do not utterly forsake me. When we discover the right way to live – good, wholesome, pure, gentle, kind, loving, generous, sacrificial, loyal, honest – all the qualities we admire in other people, all of a sudden, we're living with a clear conscience and that clear conscience is where we discover the freedom that Jesus came to bring us. God describes Himself as our Father. In fact, Jesus used the word Abba, which means daddy, and He's a good Father – the best. All He wants is the best for you and me, and what I've discovered is that there are actually very few things about which He says to us, ‘Don't do them.' Go back to Adam and Eve. There were doubtless thousands of fruit-bearing trees n the garden. There was only one of which God said, ‘Don't eat from this one,' because He knew it would be bad for them. They would discover the difference between good and evil. Why? How? Because their conscience would convict them of their wrongdoing. You and I, we know when we've done something wrong, and that sense of guilt ruins everything. Every thing. What God wants for you is to be free to worship Him; to live in freedom with an upright heart; with a clear conscience. I will praise You with an upright heart. When? When I learn His right ordinances; when I learn to live in goodness and light, rather than in evil and darkness, and the place where we discover how to do that – the place where we get the knowledge and the wisdom and the power to live for Him – is in the Bible. The amazing love-letter that He's preserved right down through the ages. Make Your Heart a Healthy Heart If you're a parent, you'll know what it's like to experience conflict with your children. If I had a penny or a rupee or a cent for every time I've said to my kids, "All I want is the best for you", I'd be a very wealthy man. Here's how the conflict happens. They do something that you know is wrong, something that you know is going to hurt them, so you step in. As their parent, you have wisdom; you have insight; you have experience to guide them in the right direction, but they resent that because as the saying goes, you can't put an old head on young shoulders. Children tend to view the discipline of their parents as something negative. It's not until they grow up that they can look back and see how the wisdom and the discipline of their parents has made them who they are today. And you know, the same is true in our relationship with God. We so often resent the fact that there's a handful of things which He says to us, "Don't do them." Why? Because He has the wisdom that we don't, and just as we did when we were teenagers, we want to rebel against the wisdom of our Father. Am I right? So what's the answer to that? I think it's a change of heart on our part. It's coming to the mature position of recognising that God's ways are the best ways, and if I keep myself to His ways, then I'm going to have a better life. I'll be more of a blessing; I'll have fewer hassles, and even when I'm travelling through the odd wilderness experience here and there, as we all do, I'll be better able to deal with that. Take for instance the wisdom of a parent to a child who's moving from teenage into adult years: Wisdom about sexual propriety. These days, kids all want to sleep around, but any parent filled with just a bit of Godly wisdom knows how dangerous, how painful, and how harmful that can be to their child. Psalm 119:9: How can young people keep their way pure? By guarding it according to Your Word. Sexual desire is a very strong desire. We all have very strong desires, young or old, but not all of those desires are good ones. Not all of our apparently natural desires are beneficial. Some of them can be downright harmful and destructive: Selfishness; envy; immorality ... There's quite a list of things that we know are bad for us, but how do we keep our ways pure? By guarding them according to God's Word; by being in the Bible day after day and gleaning the wisdom and frankly, also the incredible Holy Spirit's power to steer clear of those destructive ways. The problem with our apparently natural desires and the destructive ways to which they lead is ... well ... frankly, they're so seductive. Have you noticed that? Temptation is always seductive, and of course that's by design. Satan knows that if he can make a terrible thing like (let's say) adultery appear attractive, then he is going to destroy many-a marriage. It seems to me that each one of us has some Achilles heel, some sin that's our weak point – the chink in our armour if you will, that the devil consistently exploits in order to make us stumble over and over again, until finally we fall. Have you noticed that too? So what we find is that our heart is torn in this direction to fall into temptation, and in that direction to honour God, and with a divided heart, we find ourselves flip-flopping all over the place: Some days honouring God, and other days ... well ... not so much. Right? How do we get over that? How do we powerfully deal with the sin in our lives, so that we can live a life that truly honours God – a life that truly reflects God's glory which, after all, is probably the desire of your heart anyway? Well, as always, God has the answer. Psalm 119:10-11: With my whole heart I seek You; do not let me stray from Your commandments. I treasure Your Word in my heart, so that I may not sin against You. I love this, because it's the Psalmist talking to God, and what he's saying is that he's taken a heart-decision: A decision of the heart to seek God and based on that decision, he's asking God to stop him from straying from His commandments. Don't you love that? The man, aware of his own inability to honour God, is inviting God Himself into the equation: The all-powerful God who ultimately sent Jesus to this earth to defeat Satan in our lives. Heart-decisions are always the most powerful decisions. We can decide things in our minds; sure, but when we make a deep decision of the heart and ask God to step into that decision, wow! You're in for some serious power to change, and notice too how the Psalmist writes: I treasure Your Word in my heart, so that I may not sin. Something happens when we treasure the Word of God in our hearts. God's ways become more important to us than our ways. God's words become more important to us than what other people say. Listen up. God wants to bring some powerful change to your life: Today, tomorrow, the next day ... For the rest of your days here on this earth. Serious, powerful change, but what He's looking for is a deep decision of the heart to seek Him and to treasure His Word. Get a Revelation You know, it never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to ignore the things that we're taught. I remember during my tertiary studies plenty of times sitting in class, hearing the lecturer speaking and yet allowing my mind to wander. I still have notes from lectures where my handwriting falls off the page, where I fell asleep during the lecture. A good friend of mine tells of a teacher who said to him once, "Son, you sit and think, but mostly you just sit." Often our undoing isn't as a result of a lack of knowledge, but our failure to learn and apply what we're being taught. I've watched people at church as the preacher preaches a really good sermon. Their minds have kind of wandered off somewhere else, or they're more interested in that woman over there who just walked in late or whatever's going on. Now imagine that morning, when you were sitting in that church, hearing the preacher but not really listening, imagine that God was wanting to speak to you, through His Word. God had a special message, something powerful to say to you that would change your life, but you weren't paying attention. Sad to say, that happens a lot more often than we'd like to think. So let's take a look at the complete opposite of that: A heart that's open; that's ready; that's listening and hanging on God's every word. Psalm 119:12-16: Blessed are You, o LORD; teach me Your statutes! With my lips, I declare all the ordinances of Your mouth. I delight in the way of Your decrees as much as in all riches. I will meditate on Your precepts and fix my eyes on Your ways. I will delight in Your statutes; I will not forget Your Word. That right there is a man speaking to God about his heart to learn from what God has to say. There is a man with a teachable heart: Not only ready to listen to what God has to say, but to live by what God has to say. So I'm thinking, what if everyone who believes in Jesus, what if everyone who calls themselves a Christian, had a heart like that? What would the church look like then? What would this world look like then? How much more love, more peace, more sacrifice, more service, more healing, more reconciliation would be happening in this world if we all, you and I, lived with that sort of a heart towards God? Teach me Your statutes, o God. I will declare Your Word with my lips. I will delight in Your ways as much as in all riches! I will meditate on Your Word and fix my eyes on Your ways. I'll delight in Your Word, and I won't forget it. Wow! But there's something else that we need to get that sort of insight, that sort of impact in our lives from God's Word. The essential ingredient of having a teachable heart, the essential prerequisite if you will, is having a humble heart: A heart that is aware of the deep spiritual poverty that lies within. Often the reason we don't take God's instruction (God's wisdom) to heart is because there's this translucent veil of self, as A. W. Tozer calls it, draped over our hearts. ‘I know everything! If only my wife or my husband or that person over there would listen to what the preacher's preaching today! Well, this world would be a better place! If only they would get it!' That's often how we think. Right? It never crosses our minds that what God is saying today through His Word is meant for us; that He's trying to deal with that poverty within us, that's robbing us of the abundant life that Jesus came to give us. Come on, we all have blind spots. We all have things about ourselves that we can't see. Well, that's the whole point of it being a blind spot, right? We just can't see it. Jesus said (Matthew 5:3): Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. In other words, those who recognise their deep poverty, those who admit it, they're the ones who'll be blessed because the kingdom of heaven is for them. What blind spots do you have? The answer is, you don't know because they're blind spots. The same's true of me. I have my blind spots too. The question is, what do you do about them? So try this on for size. Psalm 119:17-19: Deal bountifully with Your servant, so that I may live and observe Your Word. Open my eyes, so that I may behold the wondrous things of Your Law. I live as an alien in the land; do not hide Your commandments from me. What do we do about our blind spots? We ask God to open our eyes, so that we can see the point of what He's trying to say to us; so that when we open the Bible and read His Word, the Holy Spirit will lift that one particular verse or that one particular story that He has for us today right off the page and plonk it into our hearts; so that in an instant, we'll get what He's trying to say to us, in a way that completely and utterly and radically changes us; in a way that deals with some of the deep spiritual poverty in our hearts. When was the last time that you went to God and asked Him to deal bountifully with you, to open your eyes so that you could behold the wonders of His Word? When was the last time you said to God, "LORD, I'm an alien in this world. This life down here is tough today. I need Your Word, so don't hide Your commandments from me?" In James 1:5, God says that: If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given to you. Sometimes we wrestle with problems and we just can't find the solution. The solution, though, is in asking God to help; asking God to open our eyes; asking God to give us the wisdom that we don't have.
The thing I love about God is that He doesn't just send Jesus to save us and then leave us dangling to deal with all the things we have to deal with. He gives us His Spirit and his Word, to pour His wisdom, godly wisdom, powerful wisdom, wisdom that works – into our hearts. WISDOM AMIDST CONFLICT One of the reasons that we have conflict in our lives – not the only reason by any means – but one of the main ones, is because we brought it on ourselves. Let's do a quick stocktake of your relationships – the ones that aren't going so well at the moment. The one's where the harmony of the relationship has been disrupted by conflict, by a misunderstanding, by a harsh word. And the longer it goes on, the more entrenched our positions become, right? Okay, so thinking about those relationships, honestly, how much of it is your fault? And even if up front, it didn't start out as your fault, what opportunities have you allowed to slip buy without stepping out and resolving the conflict? Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. (Psalm 34:14) Short and sweet but actually, it's a verse that is jam–packed with wisdom. The first bit, actually, is pretty obvious. Depart from evil, but all too often, we use it as a bit of an excuse when it comes to conflict. Well, it wasn't my fault. I didn't start it. It's up to THEM to say sorry! But God doesn't give us that luxury. Depart from evil AND do good. Doing good is a proactive step. Doing good is grabbing a hold of a situation and resolving it, even if in your mind, you weren't the one who started it. Doing good is about seeking peace and seeking involves getting up off your behind, figuring out a way through and making it happen. Peace, I mean real peace, only happens when both parties are happy with the outcome. But whilst seeking peace is about being proactive, God takes it even one step further. He doesn't just want us to seek it out, He wants us to pursue it. The original Hebrew word there for 'pursue' carries this sense of chasing it down, to harass in a sense to get it, to aim to secure it, to be ardent and persistent about it. I wonder when you consider just this one short verse and what it really means, the different light that it casts on your relationships and their conflicts. I love this. Just eleven words in that verse and yet powerful wisdom that can last you for a lifetime. Jesus said: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matthew 5:9) So being the one who brings peace into a relationship, even though it requires humility and sacrifice and not getting your own way all the time, is a powerful witness of the love and the reconciliation that is available in Jesus Christ. Peacemakers, through their peacemaking, speak the love of Christ into the hearts of their enemies. And that, after all, is exactly what you and I are on this earth to do. But beyond being the proactive peacemaker, there's another way in which you and I can apply God's wisdom to our relationships. Sometimes the things that we do – albeit that they're innocent, albeit that they're not wrong, per se, bring conflict and strife to a situation. Have you been there? And when the other person gets upset with you, you're left wondering, “Hang on, what did I do wrong?” Yah! We've all had that experience. And believe it or not that very situation is something that God's Word has some wisdom on. I love this. I love it how God has thought all these things through and poured out His wisdom through His Word. Back when Christianity was being birthed out of Judaism in the first century, there was some conjecture and dispute over what people could eat and not eat. Was pork in or out. Were shellfish in our out. We take that for granted today, but back then, it was a big deal. Those who understood the grace and freedom they now had in Christ, understood that they were free to eat anything, but were prone to criticise those who still thought the old way. But the Apostle Paul turns around and says to them: Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another. (Romans 14:13) So, don't use your freedom, to be a stumbling block to others. He goes on to say that if what we do is going to be a stumbling block to others in their faith, we should curb our freedoms for their sake. In a world that's so focussed these days on individual freedoms, what a powerful message that is! When you think of it, much of the conflict in our lives arises out of our assertion of our individual rights. But I'm entitled … is what we so often think. And yet, according to God's wisdom, there is something more important to the things that we think that we're entitled to. And that thing, is preserving peace in our relationships. Because, after all, when you boil it all down: … the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Romans 14:17) How many times have you and I disrupted the peace, when, all along, we could not only have kept the peace, but built up and encouraged those around us. Let us therefore pursue what makes for peace and for mutual building up. (Romans 14:19) So beyond just peace, you and I have the opportunity, through the things we choose to day and do, and, importantly through the things we choose not to say and do, to build others up. To encourage them. To strengthen them. To serve them by helping them to grow. What a privilege to be put in a position where we can sacrifice our entitlements, to serve others like that. Wisdom for Today I don't know how it is for you, but for me, wherever I happen to be, every morning starts of pretty much the same way. I wake up, shave, clean my teeth, shower, get dressed, have breakfast … and then it's off to work or if it's a weekend, mostly, it's time for a rest. As at today, I have lived 21,163 days on this earth and, other than the fact that I didn't have to shave when I was young, and I went to school rather than to work, each day has started, pretty much the same way. It's a bit scary when you think of it like that isn't it? But for each and every day that you and I have left on this earth God has some powerful wisdom ready and waiting. The first piece of that, that I'd like to share with you is this: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23) That was written at a time of complete devastation. Jerusalem and the temple had been destroyed, and God's people had either been killed or taken into captivity to Babylon. Sometimes our lives feel like that too. Complete devastation. Either because something bad has happened to us, or because we, through our own stupidity, through our own sin, have brought it on ourselves. But each and every morning, no matter how bad things were yesterday, no matter how dark it was during the night for you, the sun comes up, right? Nothing stops the sun from coming up. And it's exactly the same with God's steadfast love for you. It never ceases. When you open your eyes each morning you can be certain of two things. Either the sun has or soon will come up, and the steadfast love of the Lord for you hasn't failed. In fact just as the sun does its thing each and every day for you, so the mercies of the Lord are new for you, each and every morning. But … but … I don't deserve it. Nope. Neither do I. But that's the whole point. Mercy is only mercy when it's undeserved. And the completely undeserved favour of God, the mercy of God, the forgiveness of God, the steadfast love of God is new for you, each and every morning. That means that you can roll out of bed, put your feet on the ground, open your eyes and rejoice. You can live each moment of today … the good, the bad and the ugly … filled with the joy of the Lord. Because the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. And that's why, before the day begins, I want to tap into those mercies. After my morning ritual of shave, teeth, shower and make a cup of coffee … the very next thing that happens for me, is that I wander into my study, I close the door and I spend a half an hour or so with God. But the big temptation is to get distracted. What's come in on the email overnight? How many likes did I get on Facebook? What's in the news? These days, technology being what it is, the whole world is ready and waiting for you in the palm of your hand. And I think it's because of that, that we've forgotten how to settle down, quietly, and spend some time with God. To, in essence, wait on God. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. (Lamentations 3:25-26) The concept of waiting for anything these days is almost, like … Hang on, wait? Why do I want to wait for something? We live in an instant world. Hey, most of get touchy when the internet's running a bit too slow, or if there are two people ahead of us in the ATM queue. Wait? Wait? But … just let these words sink into your heart. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, the soul that seeks him. How do you kick your mornings off? Is there any time there for waiting on the Lord? Just yesterday, I was having a conversation with a man about exercise. And he said, “Well, I don't really have time.” So, I asked him, “Do you have time to get sick? Do you have time to be tired and drowsy? Because they're some of the consequences of not getting enough exercise. So if perhaps you find yourself “too busy” to wait on God, let me ask you, “Do you have time to miss out on the goodness of God?” Because that's the full effect of this Scripture here. God is good to those who wait for Him. And that word “wait” means to look for eagerly, to hope, expect, anticipate … to linger in that place. I think in this world of 24/7 connectivity and instant gratification, so many people are missing out on the goodness of God in their day, because we've forgotten how to wait on Him. So here's the challenge that I believe God is setting before you today. Build in just a bit of time, ten, fifteen, twenty minutes of quiet time alone with Him … and spend some of it just waiting on God. Reading His Word, yes. Praying, yes. But also waiting, quietly. Hoping, expecting, anticipating the goodness of God. Because He is good to those who wait for Him. And that goodness is something that never, ever leaves you, the whole day long. Sometimes you read a story in the Bible and you kind of gloss over it without realising how powerful and profound it is. Here's a great example. The Israelites have just escaped from slavery in Egypt and Pharaoh and his army – the greatest army on the earth at the time – are about to chase them and destroy them. Scary times. But here's something interesting that we're told about how God behaved in this situation: The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people. (Exodus 13:21-22) Well, that's not quite true, because in the next chapter, we read that God positioned this pillar behind the Israelites, between them and the pursuing Egyptian army to protect them. That being said, for the next 40 years, that pillar of cloud and fire never left them in the wilderness. Well, okay, I guess most of us have heard that story a hundred times. Yeah sure … pillar of cloud by day, pillar of fire by night. I get it. But do you? Really? You see what's so powerful about this is that back in that day – and in fact, still today – all the other gods that other nations worshipped, lived in temples that had been built on hilltops. The gods didn't come to the people, indeed they couldn't, so the people had to go to their temples to worship them. But the God of Israel went on the journey with His people. Back then, that was a mind-blowingly radical concept. In fact if you travel to countries where there is a lot of idol worship, it's still a mind-blowingly radical concept. This idea that God is on the journey with you, to protect you from your enemies, to give you shelter from the harsh sun by day, to give you warmth and light by night. But that's exactly what's going on in your life right now. If you believe in Jesus, the Presence of God never leaves you. God is on your journey with you to guide, protect, shelter and love you every step of the way just as He was with Israel. Only now, now He's put His Spirit in you … and He will never leave you or forsake you. So … the upshot of all that is that every step you take, you can take in the confidence that your God, your mighty, loving, powerful, wonderful God, is on your journey with you. You can actually live your life as though it's true. Because it is. Wisdom for the future If the truth be known, our past is completely out of our control. Of all the things in our lives that are out of our control, the past is the biggest one. Because no matter what you do, you can't change the past. And so what many people do, is they turn their attention to the future. What's going to happen? What's next? Will it be something good or something bad? I mean, we're always hoping for good things. Our default position is that life should be a bed of roses 100% of the time. But, you know, there are little things that niggle away at us. A dark cloud emerging over there. An ill wind blowing here. And before you know it, you're worrying about your future. In fact if you took stocktake of your thoughts over just the next twenty–four hours, you might well be surprised just how much of your time, you spend worrying about your future. So if you perhaps have those negative thoughts swilling around in your head and in your heart, here's a Word from God, to set you free – because that's what God's Word does. It sets us free in a way that nothing else, in a way that no one else can do. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life? (Matthew 6:25-26) Good question there Jesus. Who by worrying can add a single hour to their life? In other words – worrying doesn't produce a single positive outcome. Not a one. In fact, these days, doctors will tell you that worry causes stress and stress can actually cut your life short. Do you believe that God loves you or not? Well if you do, then you can get on and live your life as though that's true, because it is. He does love you. According to Jesus – not me you understand – according to Jesus, He will provide your every need. And that means that you no longer need to worry about anything. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's trouble is enough for today. (Matthew 6:34) There's absolutely no point in worrying about tomorrow. There are no surprises there for God. There's nothing there that He can't handle. Keep your eyes on today … and be the best you that you can be, today. Because your ultimate tomorrow, your ultimate destiny is a heavenly prize that is beyond anything that you or I could imagine. When we think about the future, mostly we just think about our future here on this earth. That's what appears so important at the moment. What's going to happen to my health? My finances? My marriage? My children? Where am I going to live if things don't go the way I'd planned? We have plans you see and anything that looks like it's going to disrupt those plans – even if, actually, God has something much better for us than we'd planned – we get all touchy and we worry about it. But let's lift our eyes for a moment, and look at the eternal destiny that God has for you and me. Because eternity, compared to our days here on this earth, is an incredibly long time. Right? Yes, we suffer on this earth. Yes, there are tears, there's pain, there are things in your life right now that you wouldn't have wished upon yourself. But they're there and that's it. And in the middle of that reality, in the middle of your reality, God has this to say to you today: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. (Romans 8:18) There's just no comparison between then and now. Because one day, one day in the not too distant future, … the home of God will be among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things [will] have passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4) That's where your life is headed if you believe in Jesus. That's the ultimate destiny. That's the certain hope, the rock-solid, certain hope that God is giving you today and I believe that He wants you and me to accept that certain hope into our hearts right now. Whatever suffering you are travelling through right now, you have a future that is beyond anything that you can ever imagine, ready and waiting for you. And Jesus has gone ahead to get things ready: In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. (John 14:2-3) So, my friend, take courage today. Your life is headed towards an eternity in the Presence of God. An eternity where you will worship Him, enjoy Him, be with Him … without end. And the sufferings o this time are not worth comparing with that glory that will be revealed to you. Soon.
Life doesn't always go the way we want it to. We wish it did, but it just doesn't. Things happen that aren't fair. Stresses and strains come along that we wouldn't have chosen for ourselves and so what we need in those times is powerful godly wisdom. Wisdom that works. Wisdom for Your Life We know, you and I, that our days on this earth are numbered. We know that one day, we're going to breathe our last breath. We know that one day, our heart will stop beating and that will be it, for our time here. We know that, but mostly, we behave as though we're going to live for ever. Somehow we put the idea that we're going to die, out of our mind and we live mostly, for today. The things of today, tomorrow and perhaps next week are what occupy our minds. As a former soldier, I like the expression “down in the weeds” – it's this sense that you can't see the big picture, because you're, well, down in the weeds. Having navigated through many a swamp in my days in the military, it's something I really relate to. Because when you're down there, you can't easily stick your head up and look around. So, the cares and the pressures of this world take over, and it feels as though all that matters is what's going on right now. The problems, the hurts, the conflicts, the joys, the pleasures that we have going on, right now. But I believe God wants us to stick our heads up and get a sense of the big picture. Because when you take a look at the big picture of your life, it puts today into context. Maybe the things that we have going on right now aren't all there is. Maybe, they're a lot smaller, a lot less significant, in the bigger scheme of things. Psalm 90:9,10: The days of our life are seventy years, or perhaps eighty, if we are strong; even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. That's the truth of the matter. That's what's going to happen. SO what God wants you to do today is to stand back and look at the things that are happening in your life today, in context: Psalm 90:12: So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. Hmm, what's He trying to say here? Quite simply this: count your days, they're limited. If I live to the average age for a male which is 82, I have just 25 birthdays left. That's around 9,125 days – under 10,000. In one way, that's not all that many. From another perspective, it's rather a lot. What I am I going to do with the days that I have left? What are you going to do with the days you have left? Will they count? Will the lives of the people around you be better for having known you? You start asking those sorts of questions, and you're lifting your head out of the weeds. You start asking those sort of questions, you'll develop some serious wisdom of the heart. A funny thing happens when you lift up your eyes from the day to day. I have a beautiful park near my place, where I often go walking. I realised one day, that I constantly had my eyes looking down at the path ahead. Day after day. So I decided instead, that I would look around. And you know, it opened up a whole new world of beauty and joy. We tend to walk through life like that, looking down at our circumstances. Looking down and seeing the problems. Focussing on the here and now, don't we. At a time when Israel had spent seventy years as slaves, in captivity in Babylon, at a time when all God's people could see was a lifetime of toil, God said this to them: Isaiah 40:26: Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing. God wanted them to lift there eyes up out of their misery, out of their sense of lostness and of slavery, to focus on Him, on His power, on what He can do for them. He goes on … Isaiah 40:27–13: Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. I wonder if perhaps today, you feel faint and weary and powerless. I wonder if perhaps today you feel exhausted. If you do, then lift up your eyes and see this God who put all the stars, the trillions upon trillions of stars in their place. The God who created the whole universe. The God who wants to renew your strength so that you too will mount up with wings like eagles, so that you to can run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint. Lift up your eyes today and wait expectantly on God – that's what the original Hebrew word there means – to wait expectantly, hoping in Him, trusting in Him … then you will be laying hold of the might and the power, the love and the compassion of God for you, in your circumstances. In your life. Isn't it amazing the wisdom that God has ready and waiting for us, if only we'll look, if only we'll listen, hmm?! But wait, there's more! The reality for all of us, is that we lose sight of God amidst the busyness of life, just the day–to–day living life – who He is, His love for us, His incredible power for. Yep, we all lose sight of heavenly things, the spiritual dimension. A dear friend and former business partner of mine, used to say that in understanding any difficult issue, any problem in life, context is everything – almost. He was right. If you take a scripture verse out of context, you can turn it into a lie – that's exactly what the devil did in tempting Jesus (Luke Chapter 4). And he's still doing it today. If you don't take the time to understand the reasons behind a person's actions, chances are, you'll completely misunderstand them. And, you know, if we don't get a grip on the heavenly context, the eternal context, the spiritual context of our lives, we're going to make so many mistakes. Wisdom is about exercising good judgement. Wisdom is about taking our knowledge and experience, and making good decisions. But when you leave something out, if you miss part of the picture, you can't be wise. You can't make good decisions. And that's what happens when we forget the heavenly context of our lives. Colossians 3:1–4: So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. How much time do you spend seeking the things that are above, the heavenly things? Setting your mind on the things that are above, not always on the things that are on this earth. Here's the big picture. Jesus died for you and if you believe in Him then your very life is tucked away in God with Christ. And one day, that life will be revealed in glory with Him. Imagine just for a moment, if that became the overriding reality of your life. The context for all that you see and do, for everything that happens to you. Imagine how different the world would look. Imagine the strength and the power that you would lay hold of in dealing with your trials and temptations. Imagine, just imagine, the joy and the peace that would guard your heart, as each day, you set your heart and mind on the things that are above. Well, stop imagining and start doing. Because the Lord your God has a whole new dimension of wisdom for your life, as you set your focus, on the things that are above. Wisdom Amidst Turmoil How much of each day do you spend, investing in tomorrow. Just as with money, there are two things that we can do with our time. We can spend it or we can invest it. There's good spending, and then there's wasting. It's the same with our time. We can spend our time on good things – on relationships, on work, on rest – or we can fritter it away on this and that, answer emails that don't need answering, endlessly scrolling through Facebook or whatever form of social media you happen to be addicted to at the moment. So, how much time to you invest in your future? Because there are things that you can do today, that will protect you tomorrow. Proverbs 1:20–22: Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice. At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?” In other words, God's wisdom is crying out to you, here and now. His Word is choc–a–block full of His wisdom that He wants to give freely and generously to each of us. But all too often, we're too busy to receive it – frittering our time away as we so often do. There was a huge research project done by the Center of Bible Engagement in the US, asking Christians why they didn't read their Bibles. The number one reason, it won't surprise you, is that they didn't have the time. Really? Too busy … but time to watch the fifth rerun of their favourite sitcom on TV! Come on! There's a reason that God wants to give you His wisdom: Proverbs 1:24–28: Because I have called and you refused, have stretched out my hand and no one heeded, and because you have ignored all my counsel … I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when panic strikes you, when panic strikes you like a storm, and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. Then they will call upon me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but will not find me. You see when disaster strikes, it's too late. The time to get God's wisdom into your heart is now while the going is good, before the turmoil strikes. It's about investing in the future. Or … are you too busy? God loves you more than words can say. And like any good father, He wants to impart His powerful wisdom into your life. He knows what's coming. He knows what you need. And He has given you His Word, and His Holy Spirit to pour out His wisdom in abundance. And here is one of the pieces of wisdom that I believe that God wants to tuck away in your heart, for when calamity strikes. Often when we're going through difficult times, God intervenes in ways that we simply don't expect. We expect a conventional intervention. He on the other hand, steps in, in an unconventional way. We expect a natural intervention, but He has something supernatural in mind. And that can be so unsettling, so fearful. God wants you to be ready for the unexpected. Israel had been in captivity in Babylon for seventy years and it was time for God to set them free and return them to the promised land. Sure, that's what they all wanted, but when God stepped in, it wasn't what they expected. Instead of just changing the King of Babylon's heart – which would have been so much more convenient – He raised up Cyrus, the King of Persia to take on the Babylonians in war and ultimately it was Cyrus as the victor in that war, who allowed God's people to return to the promised land. Now, we can sit back in the comfort of our armchairs and think to ourselves “Well, that's fine. At least they made it home again.” But put yourself in their shoes. They were slaves. Completely powerless. And a war is raging around them. That's pretty scary. But before the battle begins, God speaks to His people through the prophet Isaiah. You see, God always wants to give us His wisdom before the battle begins. Before the calamity strikes. Isaiah 41:2 Who has roused a victor from the east, summoned him to his service? He delivers up nations to him, and tramples kings under foot; he makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow. In other words, I'm behind this calamity. I have the power to raise up kings and cast them down. Isaiah 41:8–13: But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”; do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand. So don't be afraid, God is saying, because I am on your side? Do you see how important it is to get this sort of wisdom into your heart before calamity strikes, before God intervenes in a situation in a way that you don't expect? Often, when God is up to something really good, things get worse before they get better. And without the Word of God, without the wisdom of God in your heart, you'll have no idea. God is on your side so don't be surprised, don't be alarmed, when He acts in a way that you didn't expect. Now, whilst sometimes God intervenes in our turmoil to bring peace, other times, He has something different in mind. Have you ever found yourself in a situation of uncertainty, of turmoil or conflict or fear … and no matter how much you prayer, God hasn't stepped in to change your situation? It's unsettling isn't it, because we're left wondering “Well, is God ever going to show up? Does God even care?” But you see whilst sometimes God calms the storm, other times He allows it to rage on so that He can calm your heart instead. Because having victory in the midst of turmoil is a beautiful gift that He wants you to have. Philippians 4:4–7: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Now that's a nice theory I guess, but it becomes so much more than a theory, when you realise that the Apostle Paul wrote those words, chained to a Roman guard, in a dungeon awaiting execution. Now all of a sudden it becomes a shining light, a beacon if you will, in your dungeon and mine, when we're going through tumultuous times. Joy in the face of suffering is victory. Peace which surpasses all understanding, in the face of a death sentence, is victory. It's the same peace that Jesus had in the Garden of Gethsemane after He prayed. And it's the very same peace that God wants you to have, in the midst of your turmoil and trials. In many cases, we will never know or understand, at least not in this life, why God allows us to suffer and another person to be delivered. Or why last time He delivered us quickly whilst this time it seems to be going on and on. When Job asked God those questions from the midst of his suffering, God replied pretty firmly by saying “Well, actually Job, it's none of your business.” God is, after all, God. But I can tell you this: that God wants you to have victory in the midst of your turmoil. That's a piece of wisdom that the Holy Spirit will tuck away in your heart, and pull out the next time you need it. So that instead of worrying and fretting, you go to Him with thanksgiving in your heart, right in the middle of the turmoil, pour out your heart to Him and receive the promise of a peace beyond all understanding, a peace that in natural terms doesn't make sense, a supernatural peace that will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. What a gift. And by the Spirit, it's a gift that has been written on your heart today. The Big Picture It's so easy when we're going through turmoil to lose sight of the big picture. To lose sight of the eternal picture. And that eternal picture if we can just grasp it in our hearts, can change the way we feel about today, the way we handle turmoil and stress, and indeed the whole way that we live our lives. Because God has such an amazing future planned for you and for me. It's a future that Jesus died to purchase for us on that cross. It's a future that He rose again to give us, so that we could have the gift of eternal life. 1 Corinthians 15:54–58: When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain. You see, the eternal future that's coming your way is meant to make a powerful difference to the way that you live your life. Therefore, be steadfast and immovable. Therefore, because of the eternity that's coming your way, excel in the work of the Lord because you know that it's not in vain. Death will be swallowed up. The sting of death will be gone because of the victory that you have through your faith in Jesus Christ. It's free. It's available here and now and it's a victory that will impact your life from this day forward. It's so incredibly sad that so many people worry about their futures, when in fact, in Christ, their future is absolutely secure. So many people believe in Jesus, they believe that they're saved, yet they don't let that faith impact the certainty with which they live their life. The hope with which they live. The power with which they live. The joy with which they live. Friend if you believe in Jesus, you have such a future … a future ready wand waiting for you, today. Live your life with that future in mind. Live your life with the certainty of that future filling your heart. Because when you shed this earthly body of sickness and sin, you will put on eternal, imperishability and spend that eternity in the Presence of the Living God for ever and ever and ever Amen! Hallelujah! And God, through that future wants to radically transform your life today. So that you can life your life in victory. That's the big picture.
Sure, everybody wants wisdom. Do you want to be wise? Yep, me too. But receiving wisdom and living it out – well it's not always that easy. Sometimes it hurts. Sometimes it costs. Hmm. Do you still want to be wise? Dealing with Hardness of Heart Heart disease is rather a big deal these days. A diet high in refined carbohydrates, combined with a lack of exercise is taking its toll. The problem seems to be hardening of the arteries. But it's not a condition that affects many young people, because it takes time for arteries to harden. Decades in fact, of dietary abuse. And the reason that arteries harden is as a defence against the effects of the stuff that we're putting in our mouths. Eventually, they rupture and there you have it – a heart attack or a stroke. The Bible talks about the hardening of our hearts, heart disease if you will, too. Several times. The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse – who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings. (Jeremiah 17:9) I mean when that's what's going on in your heart, when that's the way you're abusing yourself, your heart is going to get diseased. It's going to harden. Here's how it goes. Here's the vicious circle. Pride and hardness of heart go hand in hand. Pride is the enemy of humility. And pride … pride stops us from laying hold of God's wisdom, which causes us pain and in turn, hardens our hearts, like scar tissue. It's a vicious, vicious circle. And when that's what's going on inside us, we're not prepared to take advice from anyone. We're hunkered down, defending ourselves, just trying to survive … and the wisdom of God is something that we just don't want to accept. Have you ever found yourself in that sort of a situation? That place where you're so damaged, that you can't receive the good advice of others or the wisdom of God that's actually going to make things better? It's often the way things go. In protection mode, our heart hardens and we become unteachable. Unaccepting of the wisdom that will set us free. Is your heart desperately sick? Be honest. How teachable is your spirit? How open are you, right at this moment, to accept the powerful wisdom of God that will set you free from the maladies that are plaguing your life? Has sin so wracked you with pain and suffering that your heart feels as hard as stone? If you're in that desperate situation, then I have a Word from the Lord for you today. It's a prayer that can set you free from this dark and difficult place. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:10) I remember a time in my life when I was completely unteachable. A time when I was so proud, and yet so damaged, that my heart was as hard as stone. There's nothing worse than a hard, unteachable heart. It stops you from receiving the healing wisdom that God has for you. That's why God wants to give us a clean heart. That's why God wants to put His Holy Spirit in us. To heal us from the inside out. To do some radical heart surgery, to remove the diseased tissue, and replace it with healthy tissue. I remember the very first heart transplant, by a surgeon Dr Christian Barnard on the 3rd of December, 1967. The heart recipient only survived for 18 days, such was the state of the technology and medical knowledge back then. These days, whilst not quite a routine operation, heart transplants almost always succeed, adding years of healthy life. And that's the key. It's not just life, but healthy life, vibrant life, abundant life that we're looking for here. And that's the sort of life that God wants you to lead. But you can't have it with a diseased heart. And just as King David, after committing murder and adultery, prayed for a clean heart, a right spirit, an infilling of the Holy Spirit – what we discover elsewhere in God's Word is that that's exactly what God wants to do for us. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. (Ezekiel 36:26-27) In other words God wants to give you a new heart – taking the heart of stone, the diseased heart out, and replacing it with a healthy heart of flesh. And not just a new heart. When we have a new heart, when our heart is soft and healthy again, it will be open to receive a new Spirit, the Holy Spirit – so that we can receive the wisdom of God. So that we can receive the wisdom of God. How's your heart? Hardened by years of abuse? Hardened by pain and unforgiveness? Scarred by the hurts that you've suffered in the past? Damaged to the point that it's difficult, almost impossible, to receive the healing wisdom of God? Well, today I have some good news for you. God wants to give you a new heart and a new Spirit. All you need to do is to believe His Word and ask Him for it. He is ready, willing and able to heal your life, to replace your heart, to fill you with His Spirit and to open you up to receive His wisdom into your heart. When you think about it, the heart is where we live. It's the seat, the centre, of our emotions. Of course, the heart is a physical organ vital to life. That's why we use it as a metaphor for the centre of who we are. Everything flows out of our metaphorical heart. If the heart is diseased, our lives are diseased. If the heart is healthy, our lives are healthy. If our heart is filled with evil intentions, then our lives will live out that evil. That's why Jesus said that murder begins in the heart. Out of the overflow the heart speaks. What happens in our hearts first, is later acted out in our lives. Our hearts, and our hands are connected. As I look back on my life there have been times when my heart has been completely closed to the things of God; the wisdom of God. And the only way that I've discovered to deal with that is to draw near to God. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4:8) You and I can work and work and work at improving ourselves, but have you noticed, it just doesn't work, no matter how hard you work at it. So, when you feel as though God is a million miles away (He isn't of course, it just feels that way) then it's time to tackle a step towards Him. It's time to set a bit of time aside each day to pray. It's time to open His Word and read it, reflect on it, receive it. It's not easy at first. It's like a young infant taking her first faltering steps towards her dad. But, just think of what that does in the Father's heart. When we take a few, faltering, unsteady steps towards Him, He takes some mighty, God-sized steps towards us. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. That's His promise to you today, in case you're feeling as though He's a million miles away. Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you. And in that place, He will purify your heart, He will cleanse your hands, He will remove the double-mindedness and doubt from you in a way that you could never do for yourself. What's the matter with us that we think we have to clean up our act before we go to God? Sure our hearts might be filthy dirty, diseased, hard as stone. Sure our hands might be covered in filth as well. It's for sinners like you and me that Jesus died. What you and I need is wisdom that penetrates the heart. And that's exactly what Jesus has ready and waiting for you. Wisdom from Above Most of my life, I've believed that wisdom comes with age. And to some extent that's true. Normally someone who's been around the block a few times, will have made enough mistakes, and seen enough things to be able to impart some real wisdom. But just because you're a bit older, doesn't mean that you're necessarily any wiser. Sometimes a person's blind spots, you know their weaknesses, their failures, stop them from, I guess laying hold of real wisdom. And sometimes, something that holds itself out to be real wisdom, is tainted by self-interest or other motives that may not be in your best interests. Let me ask you, is it wise for a woman to have an abortion or not? Well, that depends – at least out there in the marketplace of ideas – on where you're coming from; on your perspective; on your interests. So how do you know what real wisdom looks like? How can you tell real wisdom from false wisdom, when you see it? Being able to discern that, being able to tell the difference between these two types of wisdom, as things turn out, is incredibly important. Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. (James 3:13) So it seems that, according to God at least – probably not such a bad place to go for wisdom when you think about it – the first marque of wisdom is a good life full of works born out of gentleness. I don't know about you, but I'm not naturally a gentle person. I'm more your get things done kind of person. So a huge part of my journey has been to learn gentleness. Now, gentleness doesn't mean weakness. It doesn't mean being airy-fairy and indecisive. It doesn't mean being ill-disciplined. But what it does mean is getting things done in love. What it does mean is that as much as getting things done is important, people, these people who annoy us and who frustrate us … who, to be honest drive us crazy sometimes … these people who are made in God's image and loved by Him every bit as much as you are loved by Him … yes, those, people matter more than getting things done. So when someone holds themselves out to be wise, ask yourself What does their life tell me? Is it a life full of good works done with gentleness? Because that will tell you the nature of their wisdom – real, or fake. And, come on, let's look in the mirror too. Let's take a look at our own lives. What's the rest of the world seeing in how we live out our lives? Good works born out of gentleness … or, not. Because let me tell you, false wisdom is ugly. Really, really ugly. Some people pretend to be wise, but then, when you scratch below the surface, you find that they're anything but. What makes this so dangerous is that often those same people are … so confident; often they're incredibly successful and so we fall for that. Those sorts of people lead many astray into ways of thinking, into ways of behaving, into ways of living, that end up ruining your life. That's why you and I need to be so incredibly discerning when it comes to deciding who we are going to allow, to influence our lives. It won't come as a surprise that some people are wolves dressed in sheep's clothing. You'll find them at work, sadly sometimes at home and yes, you'll find them in your church too. And here's what their brand of wisdom looks like: But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. (James 3:14-16) Envy and selfish ambition – those two things go hand in hand. Some people are only in it for what they can get out of it for themselves. And sometimes, they're in the most unexpected of places. I remember having something to do with the head of a large, well-known, global ministry who was far more interested in his reputation and self-promotion than he was in seeing people's lives changed by the love of Jesus. When others in his organisation succeeded, instead of celebrating and praising God, he became envious. It poisoned his heart, it damaged the ministry and it ended his career. Sure there are people out there who are flashy, successful, articulate, capable of leading a crowd. But the questions to ask ourselves is: Why are they doing it? What is the motivation of their heart? Because let me tell you, their words, their actions, their facial expressions and body language, their decisions will ultimately betray what's going on in their hearts. They can't help it. So be wise yourself. Take the time to watch and listen, before being seduced by what is, ultimately, worldly, self-interest that holds itself out to be 'wisdom'. You will know a tree by its fruit, right? And while we're at it, what does your fruit say about your heart? What motivates you? If it's selfish ambition, if you find yourself becoming envious of other people who succeed, then it's time to look for a different sort of wisdom. In our world. We're taught that success is the most important thing. But envy and selfish ambition have nothing whatsoever to do with wisdom. So, let me ask you, what does real wisdom look like? If you ran into some powerful, godly wisdom, how would you recognise it. People who roll over the top of others, who succeed at the expense of those around them, well, no, that's not wisdom is it? People who are in it for themselves, full of selfish ambition, people who get jealous whenever anyone around them succeeds … no that's not wisdom either, no matter how successful those people might be. I want to share with you today, the best, the most powerful, the most reliable definition of wisdom that I have ever come across: … the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace. (James 3:17-18) Real wisdom comes from above; from God. It's pure, completely untainted by partiality, self-interest or envy. Purity is fantastic isn't it. It king of rings out – simple, beautiful, unmistakable. It's just the sort of wisdom you know is from God because it's peaceable. You and I are called to be peacemakers. To navigate in love through conflict and strife. The most powerful and influential leaders I know are peaceable and gentle. Gentleness is such an underrated quality these days. I wonder what opportunities lie ahead for you, today, to be gentle with people? Hmm? Great wisdom is willing to yield. When someone else has a better idea, when someone else is heading in a direction that you know in your heart of hearts to be right – real wisdom, godly wisdom, is willing to yield. Full of mercy for others – because all those annoying people out there are going to make mistakes. They're going to rub you the wrong way. And when they're behaving badly, mercy forgives. After all, mercy is only mercy, if it's undeserved. Godly wisdom is full of good fruit, without a single trace of partiality and hypocrisy. Real wisdom yields a harvest of peace. Wow! Just stop and take those two verses – James 3:17-18 – and imagine how your world would change, if you lived your life like that. Because that's the very sort of wisdom that God wants for you. That's the very sort of wisdom that He has ready and waiting for you. Why is it that we think that selfishness and partiality is the way to get ahead? Why is it that we imagine that we always have to put our best foot forward, so that everyone will think well of us? Let me ask you, do you think well of those sorts of people? There is a different sort of wisdom waiting for you. Live that wisdom and may your life yield a harvest of righteousness and peace. God's Wisdom Never Fails You know it never ceases to amaze me, how when I open the Bible, God has right there, in the next chapter, ready and waiting, exactly the wisdom I need for today. Just yesterday, I opened God's Word at Psalm 91. I've had a pretty rough travel schedule over the past few weeks. I've had a pinched nerve in my neck. I was tired and sore and you know it as well as I do, when you're physically down. You can be emotionally down too. You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” (Psalm 91:1-2) Just the wisdom, the encouragement, the comfort, the heavenly perspective that I needed. Do you yearn for the wisdom of God? There are so many things that He sets before us, that are way beyond our ability to figure out. Problems that come along, challenges, things that you wish you could figure but you just can't. So when you pray, when you read God's Word for yourself, day after day God will give you His wisdom. Because He knows you're seeking it. He can see you longing to see His kingdom come, His will be done on this earth as it is in heaven. The Bible says that we walk by faith, not by sight. You know, when we yearn for God's wisdom, when we long to hear Him speak, when we go to Him as Solomon did and ask for wisdom and discernment, it brings joy to His heart and He pours it out on us, just like we asked. It's who He is. It's how it works. God's Wisdom is ready and waiting for you. Are you sick to death of being tossed to and fro by the winds and the waves of my circumstances? It's a terrible thing when you're going through a tough time and you don't have something rock-solid to stand on. Well, let me tell you, God's Word, God's wisdom, God's promises – never fail. If God says that He's going to do something, He does it. Full stop. End of story. You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday. (Psalm 91:5-6) You need never be afraid of our circumstances. You never have to worry about how you're going to handle something complex, something difficult, something that you really don't want to deal with, something that's so complex that it's beyond your ability to cope with. Because His promise is that, if in a time of testing and trial, if in a time of suffering or persecution, you ask Him for His wisdom, He'll just give it to you. I really want to encourage you today to take the promises of God seriously. I know it's hard. And the more difficult life gets, the harder it is to believe. But the only solution I've ever discovered to fear, to pain, to that sense of lostness, to loneliness – and I've been in all of those places over the last 20 years – is to draw close to Jesus. To take Him at His Word. The Word of God, the Bible, isn't just another book. It's not just a bunch of words on a page or a screen. It's the living Word of the living God. And when you read something like You who live in the shelter of the Most High, who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust.” (Psalm 91:1-2) You are entitled to take God at His Word. To believe what He says, to trust in Him, to rest in Him and to receive from him what He promises. That my friend is why they call this the Good News. That's the Wisdom of God. The powerful wisdom of God for you today. May you receive it in your heart and experience it in your life.
Wisdom. There's real wisdom, godly wisdom. And then there's the false wisdom that many in this world hold out to be true wisdom. God yearns for you to be filled with real wisdom. Wisdom from above. A Different Kind of Wisdom Let's be honest. Sometimes we do the dumbest things. We don't mean to, we just do. And there comes a point where you think to yourself: “Why am I making this same mistake over and over again?” I'm guessing you've been there. For some people, it's constant worry. Sure you've heard the bit where Jesus says “Who, by worrying, can add a single hour to their lives?” (Matt 6:27). Maybe you've heard it a hundred times before, but you still can't stop worrying. Perhaps you're someone who carries anger and bitterness around in your heart. Sure, you know that the Bible says - “don't let the sun go down on your anger” (Eph 4:26) … but that anger keeps bubbling away. Or maybe your someone who is constantly trying to impress other people. You know it's a pride thing. You know that pride comes before the fall (Prov 16:18) but, well, you know … There are so many things that hold us back in this life. There are so many things that we hang on to for dear life, that are in fact ruining our lives. We all have our Achilles heel. We all have blind spots. We all have circumstances in our lives where “doing it my way” – as much as that may be the way we've always done it – just doesn't work. If I asked you, in those circumstances, “Do you want to be wise?” I'm sure your answer would be, “Absolutely!”. But then, if I asked you, “So, are you prepared to make the changes you need to make to get that wisdom; to live out that wisdom?” Well, most of us, at that point, would hesitate; equivocate. “Change? Really? Change? Well, I'm not so sure about that.” If we're going to talk about wisdom then, we have to start at the beginning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:7) Now maybe that's a verse that you've heard many times before. But let's just get a grip on it for a minute. The fear of the Lord means an awe, a respect; a realisation of the terrible outcomes of the judgements of God. My father loved be and I loved him. But let me tell you, when I was a lad, I knew that if I did something wrong, there was going to be a reckoning with my dad. And if it was bad enough, I knew that it would involve punishment. We just toddle along through life as though anything goes. If it feels good do it. I wonder though, if we thought a bit more about the terrible judgement of God, if we questioned our thoughts, our motives, our actions, if we asked ourselves “What would God think about this, really?” … I wonder if that wouldn't open our hearts to God's wisdom. A few years ago, I recorded a radio program about the fear of God. Now, I remember thinking to myself “No one wants to hear about the fear of God these days.” But I just felt God nudging me towards that message. So, I did it. I wrote it, I recorded it. And a few months later, I received an email from a man in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is what he wrote: I was at a peace conference in Goma and in my hotel room I turned on the radio. I heard a program about the fear of God. And I realised that with no fear of God in the hearts of people there will be no peace! No peace at all! I don't know if this was a revelation from God … but my heart was beating, coming far away, God was speaking to me. I have been on the battle field for 13 years now and I don't know how many people have died because of my gun, but what I know is that I decided to lay down my arms in that hotel room. I've never forgotten that email. He gave his life to Christ and ended up fleeing to another country in fear of his life. The bit of his email that keeps ringing out for me is where he says, “without the fear of God there can be no peace, no peace at all!” You know what, he's absolutely right. When we just carry on as if anything goes, when we live our lives for ourselves without any respect, without any awe, without a right sense of the fear of God in our hearts, we are going to make a hash of it. A complete mess of our lives and a complete mess of the lives of the people around us. The people we hurt through what we say and do. Through the expression of anger and disapproval on our face. Through our failure to love them, the way they need to be loved. And the crazy thing about this 'fear of God' thing, is that once we yield our lives to God, once we say “Lord I'm sick of making mistakes. My way doesn't work. I want your way. I want your wisdom. I want your help. Once we do that, all the fear in fact goes away. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. (1 John 4:18) Yes there is a terrible judgement that awaits those who rebel against God. A terrible But when we come to a turning point, as Safari Murinzi came to a turning point in that hotel room, the fear goes away. When we choose to live in God's love, that perfect love casts out all fear. God wants to impart to you, His wisdom. The wisdom of the ages. My dad had a lot of wisdom. He wasn't perfect of course, but he took the time and made the effort to impart much of that wisdom into my life. And to a great extent that wisdom has made me the man I am today. Imagine though, God who is perfect, God who knows all things for all time, God who loves you beyond measure, wanting to impart His wisdom into your life. Surely, we have to stand back from that, you and I, and think to ourselves, “WOW! That's amazing!!” And it is. Totally amazing. Just think for a moment of the things that you have going on in your life right at this moment that are causing you grief. The things that are complicated, that you just can't sort out and fix. Imagine now, that God is prepared to speak His word of wisdom into that one situation that's driving you to despair. Would you want to hear that wisdom? Would you want to receive that wisdom? Probably out of frustration, out of a desire just to get that thing sorted, the answer is a big, fat “Yes!” But then let's say you open your Bible and you read this verse: The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate. (Proverbs 8:13) And you realise that actually it's your pride and your arrogance, the way you've been talking to other people, that's the biggest factor in this dilemma in which you find yourself. Now let me ask you again. Do you want to receive that wisdom? It's not easy is it. There's this thing inside each one of us that wants to blame everyone and everything else for our problems, except our selves. And yet so often, the getting of wisdom involves owning up. It involves being honest with ourselves. It involves making the changes that we need to make in order to bring peace. And that's where the fear of the Lord comes in. It's this heart attitude that says, “You know God is right. The alternative here is continuing in this mess. The alternative here is facing God's judgement for this one day.” Receiving the wisdom of God into our lives isn't always easy. In fact a lot of the time, it's incredibly tough. It's something that we don't want to do, because we want to wallow in our immaturity, in our pride, in our … let me call it for what it is … sin. But your Father in Heaven has, sitting ready and waiting for you, the wisdom of the ages. A wisdom that will utterly transform your life. A wisdom that, day by day, will set you free to be all He made you to be. Yearning for Wisdom Wisdom is something that I think, we all desire. I mean, I don't know anyone on this planet, who, if asked, wouldn't want to be wise. But I wonder just how high it is up our priority list of wants and desires. We long after different things in our lives. Sometimes we yearn for love, acceptance and companionship. Other times it might by something more basic – like enough food to eat. There are plenty of people on this earth who simply don't have the basics – food, clean water, shelter. But in affluent places, we yearn, frankly, for silly things. A new pet dog – nice, but not essential. The latest hair style, the latest fashion accessory, a new dress in this season's colours, a new car – shiny and bright, just like the one on the TV add. Right now, given what's going on in your life, what do you yearn for? What's the object of longing that's dominating your heart and mind right at this moment. Does godly wisdom even feature in, say, your top three desires? If you're like most people, the answer is: probably not. When Solomon, the son of King David, was still a young man, he became the king of Israel. What a huge responsibility. Ruling a country, that young, that immature, with so little experience. He knew it was way beyond him, just like many of the things that you and I confront in life are beyond us. One night he had a dream. And in that dream, God said to him: Ask what I should give you. (1 Kings 3:5) I wonder … I wonder if God appeared to you and me in a dream one night and said that to us, what we would ask for. Well, here's what Solomon asked for: Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people? (1 Kings 3:9) And then, we're told in the very next verse that: It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches, or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind; no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honour all your life; no other king shall compare with you. (1 Kings 3:10-13) So asking for wisdom, it seems, asking unselfishly for the right thing, is an act that pleases God and releases great blessing into our lives. Just imagine what your life would look like if you yearned for the wisdom of God. Imagine what your life would look like if, like King Solomon, you petitioned God for the wisdom to do the things that He has set before you, the things that in your heart of hearts, you know are way before you. It would please the Lord no end. It would bring you rewards that go way beyond anything you could ever have imagined. When we ask God for wisdom, we're asking Him for something that's not so much about us, as it is about serving Him and other people. Think about the things that you need wisdom for in your life right at the moment. What are the things that are going on in your relationships that are beyond you? What decisions do you need to make that are going to have an impact on your life and perhaps the lives of others, that you're just not sure about? The young and inexperienced King Solomon wanted wisdom to govern God's people. So when he asked God for an understanding and discerning mind, instead of wealth and honour as king, the longing in his heart was for his people, not for himself. He could have asked for great riches and honour, but instead He asked for wisdom. You know what I think. I think that all too often we ask God for things that are about us. Our needs, our Now, just as Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” there's nothing wrong with asking God to meet our needs. But if that's all we ask of Him, then it's a pretty selfish little prayer life that we're having isn't it? It's a pretty narrow life that we end up leading. Imagine if you could see your problems through God's eyes. Imagine if you could see your circumstances, the decisions that you need to make, through God's eyes. Imagine if you could stand on heaven's balcony and see the view from there. I think that's what wisdom is. God's wisdom gives us a completely different perspective. God's wisdom helps us see the bigger picture, rather than our own little narrow circumstances. A thousand or so years after Solomon, the Apostle Paul found himself in a Roman dungeon, chained to a guard, on death row. Imagine how easy it would have been for him to have a narrow view of his circumstances. But instead, he was able to write: I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13) There's a man filled with the wisdom of God. There's a man who can see his dire circumstances from the vantage point of heaven's balcony. Back to you. Back to your life. Your dilemmas. Your decisions. The things that are before you that you know are way beyond you. The struggles, the hurts, the situation that's confusing you and confounding you at the moment. Your God wants to show you the big picture. Your God wants to put His arm around you and show you the view from heaven's balcony. Now sure, He may not show you the whole picture, but if you'll just ask Him for His wisdom, it will please His Father's heart and He will show you just enough to get you through. The Getting of Wisdom It's a humbling thing to come to the realisation that you don't have the wisdom, the where-with-all, the IQ, the emotional intelligence – call it whatever you want – to deal with a problem. Pride keeps a lot of people from asking for help. Pride whispers to us “If you ask for help, you'll be showing other people how dumb you are.” And so, many people make bad decisions because they don't seek help from others, when they need it. Without counsel, plans go wrong, but with many advisers they succeed. (Proverbs 15:13) The truth is that none of us has all the answers. When I was a young man, working as a pretty high priced IT consultant, I used to think that I had to show my clients that I had all the answers for everything. That there were no limits to my expertise. After all, look at what I was charging them. How stupid I must have looked, and, let me tell you, that attitude caused me a lot of grief in the end. No, we will need help. We all need the different perspectives that others can bring. We all need counsel from good advisers. And THE best adviser of all, without any shadow of a doubt, is God Himself. Especially, let me say, when we're in the middle of a crisis. Crises happen, often, without warning. They're like earthquakes. People are going about their ordinary, day to day business. Or perhaps they're asleep in bed and without any warning, the earthquake hits, shacking the very foundations of their lives. Reeking devastation. Throwing people into fear and panic. We tend not to make very good decisions under those circumstances. Suffering has a way of completely distorting our perspective. My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you is lacking in wisdom … (James 1:2-5) Now I want to stop it just there, because that last bit is the bit I want to focus on. If any of you is lacking in wisdom … how easy is it to pretend you have all the answers? How easy is it to go on and make decisions when you're facing trials, when your faith is being tested, when things are hurting – as though you know it all? With all that you have going on in your life at the moment, is there a place where you haven't admitted to yourself, that you don't have all the answers? Because, listen to me here, admitting to yourself that you actually need help, is the essential first step, into God's wisdom. And once we come to that point, once we admit that to ourselves, well the flood gates open. God steps in, in power. In a way that we could scarcely have imagined. I wonder whether, when you go through difficult trials, through times of testing, whether you've ever felt as though God has deserted you. You pray and you pray and you pray, but it feels as though your prayers are just bouncing off the ceiling. You ask God for guidance, for wisdom, for advice – but it seems as though He's left you hear, alone in the wilderness, to your own devices. You realise that you don't have the power or the wisdom to deal with whatever it is, but God is silent, mute it seems … and so know despondency sets in. Ever been there? Sure you have. Perhaps you're even there now. There's some huge problem in your life and you know you need help, but there doesn't appear to be any help on the horizon. Would you like to know what's going on? Here it is. God has taken a step back to test your faith. My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4) He does that, because your faith is precious. God knows that by testing your faith, He will grow it stronger. Is it fun, no. But perhaps He's brought us together today, just to remind you of what's going on here in your suffering, in your time of testing. And now … now I want to share a powerful promise with you into the middle of that despondency. Are you ready?! If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; , for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. (James 1:5-8) WOW! So you've come to the conclusion that you need help. You've realised that you don't have the wisdom that you need. That's a good thing. That's what He wants, the realisation that: “I am lacking in wisdom.” A great step of humility. A step that God will honour. And look again at his Word, His promise is that He will give you His wisdom – generously and ungrudgingly. So stop doubting, stop being tossed to and fro, ditch the doubt, the double-mindedness, and just believe in what God says. If you need His help, if you need His wisdom in the middle of your suffering and the testing of your faith, ask, believe and His wisdom WILL be given to you – generously, and ungrudgingly. Hallelujah!
It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that our freedom is dictated by our circumstances. But like the Apostle Paul, you can be locked up in a dungeon on death row, yet still experience the freedom that you have in Jesus Christ. That's the incredible power … of the freedom that God has ready and waiting for you. Your Freedom is Secure This probably isn't going to be any shock to you, but your enemy the devil does not want you to be experiencing the freedom that Jesus came to bring you. Now, let's not get confused about this. He's happy for you to know about that freedom, in a vague sort of way, he's even happy for you to see other people living in God's freedom. That's not a bad thing from his perspective. But he definitely ... definitely does not want you experiencing God's freedom. Because, you see, here's the thing: if freedom, God's freedom, is something out there, something that's a great theory, something that preachers preach about, something that a handful of super–Christians out there can maybe have, but something that is quite simply, completely and utterly unattainable for you, then he knows, he has you. And let me tell you, there are a lot of so–called Christians in that very boat. They know about freedom, they've seen others apparently living in freedom … but it just doesn't seem as though it's ever going to happen in their lives. 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 8: Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. It's a powerful picture isn't it – and deliberately so. In the book of Job we're told in Job chapter 1, verse 7: The Lord said to Satan, ‘Where have you come from?' Satan answered the Lord, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.' So there he is, prowling around, walking up and down, just waiting to attack someone who is weak in their faith. Someone who doubts the promises of God. Someone who has come to the conclusion that the freedom they've heard about, probably isn't for them. It's just never going to happen. Just like the lions in the wild, he'll pick on the weakest victim and take them down to devour them. But ... and this is a big but ... this is what God says about that, 1 John chapter 3, verse 8: The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. So when you feel powerless, when you feel weak, when you feel as though the devil is on your case … man have I got some good news for you today! This Jesus in whom you believe is right there, next to you, in fact in you, to destroy the works of the devil on your behalf. In your weakness, in your doubt, in your failings, all you need to do is to turn to Him, to ask Him, to look at Him and He will, He will send the devil packing. He will breathe His freedom into your heart by His Spirit. He will stand for you, He will protect you. It's just what Jesus does. I have some good news for you today. You need never, ever, ever be afraid of the devil. To be sure, there is a battle going on in the spiritual realm for your soul. Jesus came to save you, and the devil wants to snatch that gift of eternal life, that gift of grace, that gift of freedom right out of your hands. That is absolutely true. There is a battle going on! This is how Jesus puts it, John chapter 10, verse 10. He says: The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I have come that you may have life, and have it abundantly. Someone asked me once: What does it mean to have an abundant life? Well, let me first say, that the word Jesus used there, literally means ‘super-abundant', it's just that we don't have an English equivalent for that. Suffice to say, it's a really strong word, it's a word that's really over the top. So the question should be: What does it mean to have a super-abundant life? It's a life of freedom. If you read the rest of the parable in that chapter, Jesus talks about His sheep being able to come in and go out, in safety, in protection, in freedom. John chapter 10, verse 9: I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. That's a great picture, it's a picture of that abundant life. It's a picture of freedom and safety, to come in and to go out and to find pasture. But this battle Jesus is talking about here between the thief and the true shepherd, it isn't a battle of two equal and opposite forces – one of evil and one of good. Don't for one moment imagine that. Jesus goes on to make the point – He's not some hired hand who runs away at the first sign of trouble – no. John chapter 10, verse 11. He says: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. And so He did – He died and rose again to set you free. We go looking for freedom in all sorts of different places. Sometimes we let the devil lead us by the nose, being tempted into this or that. Sin always tarts itself up to look good. Otherwise it wouldn't be tempting. But Jesus … Jesus is the true shepherd and His sheep know His voice. I'm certain you can hear Him speak as I share His Words with you today. And because He is the good shepherd, because He laid down His life for you, because He was raised again to give you a new life … you need never, ever fear the devil. Your freedom is secure. That's the good news. Maybe that's still a bit difficult for you to believe. Well, let's think about it this way: Let's imagine that God loves you every bit as much as He tells you. After all, the evidence for that is pretty strong. John chapter 3, verse 16: For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. If that's true, do you think He'd allow the devil to rob you of the freedom that Jesus purchased for you on that cross? Do you imagine for one moment, that God would allow that incredible act of sacrificial love to go to waste? There are people who believe in Jesus with all their hearts and yet, they're afraid that something they've done or something they might do one day … will rob them of their freedom. Come on – you haven't found yourself wondering at some point, I wonder "… if, I'm in ... or not. You know, I wonder if God's really forgiven me. I wonder if, when I finally stand before Him, I'll pass the judgement." And can I tell you, the devil loves that. Because if he can get a toe-hold in your mind, he'll work a way to undermine your faith. And truly, that's why I believe God has brought us together today. Because He is not going to allow that to happen. Jesus said that if you continue in my word, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. So let's do a bit of continuing, a bit of knowing, to set you free from any doubt. Romans chapter 8, verses 31 to 39: What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not even withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is going to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor anything present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Hey, that is powerful stuff isn't it? Nothing whatsoever can separate you from the love of God in Christ. That means your freedom, your salvation, are absolutely secure. Freedom in Practice It's amazing, just over my lifetime, how many changes have taken place, as oppressive regimes have fallen. The Berlin wall came down in 1989. The Soviet Union came apart in 1991. Apartheid ended in South Africa in 1994. Of course there are still plenty of oppressive regimes around the world, there are still more than enough conflicts and wars, but there has been a lot of change, even in my short lifetime. And hopefully we'll see a lot more. The good change happens, when countries move from oppression towards freedom. When, instead of looking after a privileged few through oppressive power structures, governments and leaders start to look after their people. The bottom line is that you and I were created to be free. To be equal. To be able to live out who we've been made to be – of course, within the rule of law – but then without that, there can be no real freedom. And yet, as individuals, we all too often squander that freedom. We all too often throw it away, through our own tyranny, our own selfishness, our own tendency to want to look after ourselves, at the cost of everyone else. The Apostle Paul makes an interesting, almost blindingly, glimpsingly obvious point, about freedom. Galatians chapter 5, verse 1. He says: For freedom Christ has set you free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. In other words, wake up, get a revelation! This isn't just talk this thing about freedom, there's a point – God actually wants you to be free! Jesus put it slightly differently in John chapter 8, verse 36. He said: So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. I love that – free indeed. Really, truly, free from the slavery of sin. This is every bit as amazing as the Berlin Wall coming down, as the Soviet Union and communism coming to an end, as apartheid coming to an end – even more so because this freedom is available to every last human being on planet Earth. You can be a prisoner in a dungeon on death row, as in fact the Apostle Paul was when he wrote many of the books of the New Testament, and still be free indeed. You can be in the middle of the worst imaginable circumstances of your life and yet, in Christ, still ... be free indeed. This is not just a theory lesson. It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. He means for you to be free. Free indeed. Free from the sin that has ravaged your life. Free from the shackles of bondage. And given the price He was prepared to pay for your freedom, with all my heart, I believe that He doesn't want you to settle for anything less in your life than being … free indeed. But exactly what does that look like? The freedom that Jesus purchased for you and me on that Cross is something that we can never earn for ourselves. Now, many Christians know that in their heads, but only a few live out that truth out in their hearts. I want to come back for a moment to one of my favourite verses about freedom in the Bible. Galatians chapter 5, verse 6: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love. In other words, none of the rules in the old rule book (in this case the rule if circumcision) count for anything. The only thing that counts in the Kingdom of God, is your faith working through love. Now there's a powerful truth here about actually living out the freedom that we have in Jesus Christ. There is an incredibly powerful truth here about how to lay hold of this freedom, how to experience this freedom firsthand in our lives. The first part is faith. I'm a simple guy ... and you know what, God's Word says that Jesus died for me and because of that I am set free from my sin, and because of that I have the gift of eternal life. I am going to believe in Jesus for my salvation. I am going to believe in Jesus for my freedom. And I am going to believe, just as the Bible tells me to, that these are the free gifts from God, through the sacrifice of Jesus. Full stop, end of story. I believe. How about you? But then ... then God wants us to put that faith to work ... in love. And the sort of love He's talking about here, is sacrificial, unconditional love – the very sort of love that Jesus showed towards you and me on that Cross. Agape love. Look, without work and exercise, your muscles are going to waste away. If you sit there on the couch you'll just become weaker and weaker. And without works, faith is dead. Unless we take our faith out for a walk, unless we exercise our faith in sacrificial, unconditional love, it becomes empty, hollow … dead. I think you know what I'm talking about here. What does freedom look like? How do we lay hold of God's freedom? By having faith in what God says, and by living out that faith, day by day, by showing the same unconditional, sacrificial love that Jesus showed towards us on that cross. It's by living that sort of a life that you experience freedom. A sense of freedom that we're all so desperately looking for, comes when we surrender our lives to God, believing in Him, trusting in Him, and working out that faith by loving others in Him. Rules? Nah. The only thing that counts is faith working through love. And when we live like that, other people's failings and weaknesses will no longer rob us of our freedom. All too often we set out at the beginning of a day, with all good intentions of living in God's joy and God's peace. Living in the freedom that Jesus came to give us. After all, as the Apostle Paul writes, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. That's why God sent Jesus – to give us that freedom. But then, it's almost as though the devil deliberately wants to rob you of your sense of freedom. Someone comes along and argues with you, to fight with you, to be angry with you, to stab you in the back, to … right? And it's like, in an instant, your sense of freedom, your peace, your joy, they just disappear. In an instant you go from living in victory, to being a victim. Freedom – great! What happened to that? But God has an answer to that. He has a solution for that. Because He doesn't want anyone or anything robbing you of your freedom. Again, the Apostle Paul, Galatians chapter 6, verses 1 and 9: My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. … So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. Did you catch that? Instead of adopting a victim mentality, instead of going on the back-foot, get out there on the front-foot by exercising your faith through unconditional love. Look, when they came to arrest Jesus, when they tried Him, beat Him, spat on Him, when they nailed Him to a Cross, not at any point in that process did He adopt a victim mentality. He knew what He was about. He knew what He was called to – to save us through sacrificial, unconditional love. In fact, at one point He even said, in John chapter 10, verse 18: No one takes my life from me but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father. There is freedom of choice. There is faith working through sacrificial love. So, when people come against you, don't throw in the towel, don't become the victim. Don't grow weary in doing what is right, don't let them rob you of your victory, your peace, your joy and your freedom. Don't grow weary of doing what is right. Love them, correct them, admonish them, sure. But do it in love. Whenever you have the opportunity, show unconditional, sacrificial love. Will it hurt some days? Absolutely. Going to the cross always hurts. But you will reap that harvest … at harvest time. That's freedom. Freedom is Not an Excuse for Sin Whenever you hear some guy like me talking about the freedom that you have in Jesus Christ, it's very easy to get the wrong idea. Yes, through Jesus we have been set free from the obligation to follow a bunch of rules, the way God's people had to in Old Testament times. The check list of six hundred and thirteen do's and don'ts in the Old Testament law doesn't apply to you or me anymore. That's great news, because neither you nor I are all that good at keeping a bunch of rules anyway. But at the same time, the freedom that we have in Jesus, isn't our excuse to go and live the life of Reilly. It's not our excuse to say, well you know, I can do anything I want. You start using your newfound freedom in Christ that way, and any sense that you may have had of freedom evaporates just about as quickly as the steam coming off a hot cup of coffee. It's there one minute and gone the next. That's what happens to the joy we get from our sense of freedom, if we start using it for the wrong things. Galatians chapter 5, verses 13 to 15: For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by each other. It's a good point. Freedom doesn't really become freedom, until you and I use it to love others. Can I tell you, one of the greatest revelations that I had when I became a Christian twenty something years ago, is that serving other people, using your gifts and abilities to bless others in love – that's where the freedom is. That's where the contentment is. That's where the joy, that you've always been looking for, is. I always thought it came from getting the things I wanted … no wonder, in that old life, I never found what I was looking for. Do yourself a favour. Don't use your freedom as an excuse to do the wrong thing. That attitude: Oh, it's okay, God's going to forgive me anyway, that's is going to rob you of your freedom quicker than I can say Jack Robinson. So: As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil. (1 Peter 2:16) It's amazing how we allow the little foxes to come in and spoil the vine. We justify them to ourselves and to others … but one day you'll wake up, and not only has the vine stopped bearing fruit, it's dying. Don't squander your freedom. Instead, live in it with great joy, with a complete surrender of your life to Jesus, to go out and to serve others, with the incredible gifts, the abilities that God has given you. You are so special. You have abilities and insights that are completely unique. You're one of a kind. And the joy, the satisfaction that comes from spending your gifts and your abilities, your time and your resources, on other people, on pouring God's love and grace and mercy out on those other people is absolutely incredible! Maybe you already know that … but isn't it so easy to lose sight of what God put you on this earth for, when the mundane things of life, the basic busyness of making it through each day, takes over? It is, isn't it? I just feel that God wants to give you a nudge today, a reminder today. If the joy of living your freedom in Christ has kind of, well ... evaporated, it's time for a reality check. What little foxes have crept in and started spoiling your vine? Hmm? What sin do you need to deal with and repent of? And what opportunities has God set before you to use your gifts, your abilities, to pour His love out to a lost and hurting world? What people has God placed around you, who desperately need to experience His love … through you, hmm?
It's pretty obvious, but let me say it anyway. You and I were not made to be slaves. You and I were made to be free. So why is it then that so many people are intent on living their lives as slaves these days? Hmm? From Slaves to Heirs in Christ Official figures tell us that there are around twenty-one million slaves on the earth today. That's a shock, isn't it? "Isn't slavery a thing of the past? Surely!" Well, actually, no it's not, and unofficial figures put it much higher at more like one hundred million slaves on the earth today. It's shocking to think of it, but it's true. There are that many people in slavery. You might be thinking, "Surely not!" but the facts speak for themselves. But let me bring this even closer to home. I wonder whether you would consider yourself as someone who, to some extent at least, is a person in slavery: A Person in bondage. Have a listen to this interesting exchange between Jesus and some Jews, God's own people, men and women who considered themselves to be free. John 8:31-36: Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, ‘If you continue in My Word, you are truly My disciples. And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.' They answered Him, ‘We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do You mean by saying, you will be made free?' Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there for ever, so if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.' Perhaps you've heard part of that quoted before: That Jesus came to set you free, but it's interesting how the Jews of the day (in a sense) took offence at what Jesus said. "We're not slaves!" They responded indignantly. "Sure you are," said Jesus. "You are slaves to sin and that ... That's what I've come to set you free from." Jesus came to set us – you, me, everyone else who puts their trust in Him, free from the slavery to sin that robs us not just of our lives here on this earth, but of a permanent place in the household of God. I wonder what sin is robbing you, enslaving you, keeping you from being all that you can be: All that God made you to be. Come on, what sin has put you in the shackles of slavery? Because it's that very sin, that very slavery, that Jesus came to set you free from. Is it really worth it – the anger that's swirling around in your heart; the resentment; the dishonesty; the sexual sin; whatever it is in your life; whatever your Achilles heel happens to be? Whatever sin you're hanging onto, is it really, really worth it? Would you like to be set free? Because let me tell you, if Jesus sets you free, you'll be free indeed. A few years after that, Paul the apostle continued on with this whole metaphor, this whole discussion about slavery. So here's a question: Would you rather be a slave in your master's household or one of his children? I mean, come on. Wind the clock back to the first century when the apostle Paul posed that question to his friends in Galatia. Galatians 4:1-7: My point is this. Heirs, as long as they are minors, are no better than slaves, though they are the owners of all the property, but they remain under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So it is with us. While we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental spirits of the world, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law in order to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father.' So you are no longer a slave, but a child; and if a child, then also an heir through God. Ok. What's Paul's point? There was a time when we were acting as minors. You know how kids are. They don't want to listen to their parents; they think they know better. When they become teenagers, they roll their eyes in the back of their head when Mum or Dad tells them to do something. You've been there? Me too, and at that point, children are no better than slaves. They remain under guardianship, under a bunch of rules and regulations, almost like slaves in a sense. They're not free. When you're a child, whether at home or at school, you're told to do something and you have to do it, and that's what religion is all about. It's about following a bunch of rules that, quite simply, is not freedom, but then God sent Jesus to redeem us from those rules. The idea of redeeming a slave was to pay the price to his or her master to set them free: To buy them out of their slavery. In a very real sense, that's exactly what Jesus did. That's why He's able to say, "If I set you free, you will be free indeed." So many people today believe in Jesus, but they aren't living in the freedom that He purchased for them. I wonder: Are you one of those? Are you still trying to follow a bunch of rules, kicking and bucking against them, wondering why you constantly fall short. Or do you wake up each morning, open your eyes, and remember in your heart that you are a child of the living God because Jesus set you free? Because that's exactly what He did. He set you free from the rules and from your inability to keep those rules. Look, this isn't some theory lesson; this is real. It's about the sort of life that you're living. It's about how you feel each morning when you wake up. It's about whether you look forward to the next day with a sense of anticipation, or a sense of foreboding. You were made to live in freedom, and Jesus came to set you free. The Reality of Freedom A good friend will always tell you the truth. In fact, I love the saying that a friend always stabs you in the front. There are plenty of people out there who will tell you nice things to your face, and then go behind your back and whisper things about you. Right? You have those people in your life; I have those people in my life, but a true friend is someone who stabs you in the front – someone who tells you how things really are. We don't always like it. None of us likes criticism, but as you read in Proverbs 27:17: Just as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. I have just a handful of people who do that for me in my life. I trust them. I know they have a good heart. I know they have my interests at heart, and so when they come to me and they have something difficult to say, as much as I'm like the next person, as much as I don't really like criticism all that much either, I sit down, I listen, I evaluate, and I take to heart what they have to say to me. That's the sort of relationship that the apostle Paul had with the church in Galatia, back there in the first century AD. Friend, he loved those guys. He'd been there at the beginning. He'd been the one who told them about the amazing grace of God through Jesus Christ, but it wasn't long until some Jewish Christians came along (while Paul was away elsewhere) to convince the Galatians that this whole idea of grace was a nonsense. After all, all these freedoms that Paul had taught them about lead to loose living. No, no. Go back to the old Jewish Law; to circumcision; to tithing; to all the things you have to do to appease God. After all, in many respects, you look around at all the other religions in the world and they're all about appeasing one or more gods, so Paul writes this to them. Galatians 4:8-11: Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods. Now however that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid that my work for you may have been wasted. Let me hit you right between the eyes. Is that what you're doing? Having heard about the grace you have in Jesus Christ, have you returned back to the old ways of following a bunch of rules? Because if you have, the work of Jesus Christ on that cross for you is being wasted. Completely wasted. When you think about it, what the apostle Paul is trying to do is to get his friends in Galatia to wake up to the truth. There is such power in the truth, and today I want to share something incredibly important with you about the truth – the truth. You see, in this world, people don't often want to hear the truth. The truth often is incredibly inconvenient. It cuts across vested interests. We all struggle with the truth. We all want to sweep things under the carpet. The problem is that that doesn't solve anything. In fact, often, it just makes things worse. When you think about it, Jesus was in the business of telling the truth. He told the religious leaders about their hypocrisy in no uncertain terms, and to common, ordinary folk, he spoke about a truth that is all about setting us free. Sounds odd, doesn't it? Have a listen to the way Jesus puts it. John 8:31-32: Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, ‘If you continue in My Word, you are truly My disciples. And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.' A number of times, Jesus makes the point that He came to set us free, and the place where you find that freedom is in the truth; in hearing His Word, knowing His Word, and taking it into our hearts as the truth. Here's the thing. You and I, we're masters of self-delusion. We're all too ready to criticise others. Come on, we are, but we want to cut ourselves plenty of slack. We want to make excuses for ourselves when deep-down, we know that what we're thinking or saying or doing is wrong. And when we get into that guilt trap, then all of a sudden, we find ourselves caught up in that whole cycle again of feeling unworthy, so we pedal harder to do better, and there you have it. There you have it. You're living a life trying to appease God by following a bunch of rules. Jesus died a gruesome death on a cross so that you and I wouldn't have to do that. Jesus paid the price of all our sins and mistakes. Colossians 1:13-14: He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. I receive so many Emails from people around the world who watch or listen to the programmes that we produce here at ChristianityWorks and one of the most common things I hear, over and over again, is that people don't feel that they're forgiven. They're not experiencing God's forgiveness, and so they can't forgive themselves for the things that they've done wrong. What an incredible burden to carry around all your life, and it's that burden that Jesus came to set you free from. That's the truth. But the question is, how do we actually lay hold of that freedom? Well, as well as the Word of God, there's the Spirit of God. Freedom is such a precious thing. I talk about it a lot because so many people are caught up in the yoke of slavery: Slavery to their old ways; slavery to their sins; slavery to the things of this world; slavery to the expectations of success; slavery to that sense that, "I'm just not good enough, and what's more, I never will be"; slavery to ... Well, to just about anything, and yes, the truth is important. That's why Jesus said that if we continue in His Word (if we believe what He says) that we will know the truth, and that truth will set us free. There you have it. Freedom. Great, but have you ever read those words in the Bible and thought to yourself, "Well, I see the words on the page; I can read them; I can even repeat them over and over again, but somehow, they're not real for me. They're not penetrating my heart. I want to be free; I want to believe, but it's just not happening." Have you ever felt that? Well, you wouldn't be alone. The apostle Paul was writing to his friends in Corinth this one time about this very thing. People (he said) were getting caught up in the letter of the Law, but they weren't experiencing what God was doing for them. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, the Spirit. Where do you find freedom? In the Spirit of God. In the Holy Spirit, who is given to each person who believes in Jesus. Listen up. If you believe in Jesus, then the Holy Spirit dwells in you and where the Spirit of the Lord is there, right there in you, is freedom. Father God, I pray that Your Holy Spirit would bring that freedom to life in each one of us. Lord, we know the theory, but we long, we hunger, we yearn to experience Your freedom. Dear Holy Spirit, make that sense of freedom real in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I'm believing with all my heart that God is about to do a mighty work in you: A work of freedom; a work of revealing to you, deep in your heart of hearts, the freedom that you have in Christ. Freedom isn't a concept; it's not a theory; it's a reality. Jesus died to purchase that freedom for you. He rose again so that you can live out that freedom in your new life, in Him. Living the Life Ok, so Jesus came to set the captives free. That's what He said of Himself. Luke 4:18-19: The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of the LORD's favour. Hey, that sounds a lot like freedom to me. That's the promise that Jesus holds out to you and to me. That's great, but a lot of people who believe in Him don't experience that kind of freedom. So, either He was lying when He said that (I'd give that option a fairly low probability), or those people are doing something wrong (a much higher probability, you'd have to say). There's a battle going on inside each one of us between living for Jesus and living for ourselves. You and I are essentially pretty selfish individuals and, if you're anything like me, we have a propensity to go wandering off, living our lives for ourselves rather than for Jesus. It's almost as though we've been given freedom, but we decide to head straight back into a prison again. So compelling is this desire of ours to botch up our lives that we need some help. Fortunately, that's no surprise to God, and it's something that He's already given us in the form of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:16-17: Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh. For these are opposed to each other to prevent you from doing what you want. There's the battle: Between what the Holy Spirit would do in our lives, and what we would do of our own accord, and here's what I've discovered: The things that I want to do end up robbing me of the freedom that Jesus wants to give me – the freedom in fact that He's already given me, and let's face it. Those things, by and large, are not good things. Galatians 5:19-21: Now the works of the flesh are obvious: Fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I'm warning you, as I warned you before: Those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Not a very salubrious list, is it? I mean, really, come on. God only tells us not to do the things that are going to hurt us; the things that are going to rob us of the freedom that Christ came to bring us. Listen to the Holy Spirit, and He'll keep you away from those things. He just will. Do you know what I've noticed? The more I make a point of spending some quiet time with Jesus each and every day, the easier it is to avoid sin. Most days, first thing in the morning (I'm a morning person, you see; I always have been), I just spend a quiet half an hour or so with the door of my study closed and my Bible open; sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. Now often, there are things on my mind: Stresses, pressures, this isn't going quite the way I'd like, there's a struggle in a relationship over there ... Whatever. It can get you down, can't it? The burden; the load; the pressure, and when you're carrying that sort of stuff around, you start behaving badly. You do. You get cranky; agitated; resentful; there's bitterness in your heart perhaps, and man, on those days, the devil is going to have an absolute field day with you. But somehow, in that quiet time with Jesus, He stills my heart. Invariably, I end up walking away and starting my day with an incredible peace; with this joy in my heart, and it's much, much harder for the devil to attack me and to tempt me. Have you experienced that too? You see, I think that what's going on there is that the Holy Spirit is doing His work in us; lifting God's Word off the page; etching it into our hearts so that it becomes part of who we are, and that ... That bears fruit in your life, as opposed to the rubbish that you and I are prone to carry on with. Paul goes on in Galatians 5:22-25. He says: By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. That fruit of God's goodness just naturally grows out of those times with the Lord each day. I think ... I think that's what it is to walk in the Spirit. Look, I've tried doing it the other way; just racing off and doing it all by myself, but each and every time, the devil trips me up. Each and every time, he robs me of my peace and my joy. Each and every time, I end up bound up in my old sinful ways again, instead of living out the freedom that Jesus died and rose again to give me. Jesus didn't just do the whole cross and empty tomb thing for us two thousand years ago. He also sent His Spirit to live in us to make those things real; to make the freedom real. The question you have to ask yourself is, why do we imagine that we can go it alone? Why do we rush into our day and try to do things in our own strength when we know, I mean we know one hundred percent, that we're going to fall flat on our faces; that the devil is going to attack us from every direction, because he knows that our flesh is weak? Why do we do that? I don't know, but we do. People do it over and over again, and then they wonder why they're not experiencing the freedom that Jesus promised.
All too many people start off believing in the free favour of God through Jesus Christ, but ... you know, as time goes on, we end up falling back into our old ways. We end up right back in that old idea that you have to work your way into God's favour. And what a terrible mistake that is. A New Way to Freedom Have you ever tried to work yourself into God's favour? You try and you try to do the right thing, but still, you just mess it up. Well, if you've been there, you're not alone. There's a fine line between responding to God's grace, and falling into the trap of trying to work your way into His favour. Here's how it happens: At some point, you realise what an amazing thing God did for you, by sending Jesus to die for you on that cross. Amazing! And so you turn your life over to Him – lock, stock and barrel. There's a joy, a euphoria almost. But then life gets back to normal. You go back to your day-to-day business and you slip back into your old habits. The sin that's been robbing you of joy and peace for most of your life creeps back … and guilt sets in. So, you say to yourself, "Self, you have to do something about this. There are standards here. There are rules. I shouldn't be doing this … I shouldn't be doing that." You start to work at it, harder and harder and harder, and before you know it, you're pedalling so hard that it's just about killing you. Yet still that old sin just keeps on tripping you up. My hunch is, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Jesus promised you freedom, but this doesn't feel like freedom. That's because it's not. Have a listen to what the Apostle Paul writes about trying to follow a set of rules. Galatians chapter 2, verses 15 and 16: We know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. I am my father's son not because I followed a bunch of rules, and worked my way into that position. No, I am my father's son because he's my dad and I'm his son. And as I grew up in that relationship, my behaviour matured and improved as a response to his love. Not because I was good at following rules – which by the way, I wasn't. The moment that you and I put our faith in Jesus, God becomes our Father. And the more we grow in that relationship, the closer we get to Him, the more we experience His love, and the more our behaviour changes. It's not about following a bunch of rules. It's about trusting Jesus, and as we experience His love first-hand, allowing His love, His grace, His mercy to change us, to set us free in a way that following a bunch of rules never, ever will. It turns out that living in freedom has everything to do with Jesus. A Scripture that's really familiar to many people is this one: It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. But as familiar as that may be to many, I wonder whether we truly realise what it means. Freedom is such an elusive concept for us. We want it, we chase it, but very few ever really experience it. And I mean that especially for people who believe in Jesus. Because deep down inside, most of us have this nagging sense that we're simply not good enough. In fact, the more you grow in your relationship with Jesus, the more you see your own weaknesses and failings. That's just how it happens.n The closer you draw in a rich, dynamic relationship with Jesus, the more aware you become, the more sensitive your spirit becomes to the things that break that fellowship. And sin … sin always disrupts the closeness, the intimacy between you and God, right? I believe that God wants to deal with this in your life today. Galatians chapter 2, verses 19 to 21: I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing. So, what's God saying to us today through His Word? Quite simply this: The moment you accepted Jesus into your life, the old you has died. The old you was nailed to a cross – that's the effect of making Jesus your Saviour and the Lord of your life. The whole point of Jesus suffering there for you on that Cross was and is to set you free from the old you - and give you a new life. A radically, completely, abundantly new life. So in God's eyes, it's no longer the old you who lives but Christ who lives in you. If you believe in Jesus, you have a complete and perfect right standing with God not because of what you've done, but because of what Jesus has done for you, despite what you've done. In fact, because of what you've done – that's why Jesus died for you. That's the whole point. That's why they call this the good news. You and I, in and of ourselves, will never, ever be good enough to stand before God. If we were, who'd need Jesus? If we were, then Jesus died for nothing. But as it is, we're not. And what's more we never will be. But that's completely irrelevant. Because it's no longer you or I who live – that old person is dead and gone – but Christ who lives in us. So let me challenge you today about some of the old habits that may be robbing you of that freedom that Christ came to give you. The older I get, the more I realise what a creature of habit I am. We all have routines, little rituals that play themselves out day after day. In the morning when I get up, I always shave before I clean my teeth. It's never the other way around. I never clean my teeth first and then shave. I couldn't imagine doing it that way. Why? Its habit, it's routine.n I'm sure that you have silly little rituals as well. We all do. And one of the habits we want to fall back into, is believing that the only way we can be in God's favour is to work hard at it. Now if you've believed in Jesus for any length of time, you'll have heard sermon after sermon after sermon about God's grace. What's grace? The free, unmerited favour of God. I'm guessing you've heard that definition on more than one occasion. And grace is such a great concept. The theory of it is so … elegant, so simple. In fact, deep down, we suspect it's just too good to be true. I was staying with a man recently, a real man of God, who shared something with me of his past. Something he regretted. Something he was ashamed of and I could tell, in his heart of hearts, he still wasn't over it. He still hadn't really forgiven himself for it … and I'm guessing that in his heart of hearts, he believed that it was still an issue for God too.n You get that right? Well, check this out. This is the Apostle Paul's reaction, his response to that old habit. Galatians chapter 3, verses 1 to 5: You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified! The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Did you experience so much for nothing — if really it was for nothing? Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by doing the works of the law, or by believing what you've heard? See? They had the same problem as you and me. They were always wanting to fall back to the old ways of working their way into God's favour through what they did, rather than knowing for sure, deep in their hearts that they were already in God's favour because of what they believed. Knowing absolutely one hundred percent that God had completely forgiven them absolutely! Listen to me. If you believe in Jesus, then you are drenched in the grace of God. In the free, unmerited favour of God. Today ... and for all eternity. The Conflict Between Law and Grace If I were to ask you, "Are you living under a curse?" what would your answer be? I guess perhaps if you're going through some tough times you might be tempted to say ‘yes'. But just for a moment, set your circumstances aside, forget what's going on around you. In your relationship with God, are you living under a curse? Now that may seem like rather an odd question. But actually, a good many people who say they believe in Jesus, are doing exactly that. They're living under a curse. A curse that God wants to remove from your life, today. Galatians chapter 3, verses 10 and 13: For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law' … [but] Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us — for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree'. That word ... ‘curse' ... is a very strong word. If someone says to you, "I curse you" that's pretty offensive. You'd take that pretty seriously. There's a venom, a sense of evil, a sense of fear and foreboding in that word ‘curse'. Well, now listen to this very carefully: God is saying to you today, that if you're living your life under the lie that you can only be in His favour, if you perform, if you deliver the goods, if you follow the rules – if that's how you're living your life, God is saying to you today that you are living under a curse. That's very strong. And the reason I'm being so blunt, so direct with you on this, is that God is making a powerful point to you and me today. But with the bad news, comes the good news. They call it ‘the good news' but frankly, I think it's stunningly good news. It's fantastic news. It's sensational news. Jesus took that curse on His shoulders when He died for you. He became a curse for you as He hung on that cross, so that you could be set free. Listen to me. Stop living under the curse of trying to follow the rules and start enjoying the freedom that you have in Christ. Start enjoying the fact that God has put His Holy Spirit in you. Start enjoying the fact that you're forgiven, that God has a plan for your life, a good plan. Back in the Old Testament it says that ‘the joy of the Lord is your strength'. Have you heard the Good News today? Then enter into that joy. Experience that joy. Live in that joy. The curse has been removed. You are forgiven. You are free. That's fantastic news. And yet, we still struggle with this whole grace thing, don't we? Grace, God's grace, is such a difficult concept to wrap your heart around. Even if you can wrap your mind around it, wrapping your heart around it, believing in the grace of God is so hard, because we don't live in a world of grace. We live in a world that measures you on your performance. A world that says if you're wealthy, if you have a good job, if you live in a big house, if you drive a nice car – then you're successful. Then you have value. Then you have worth. And the flip side of that coin is true too. If you don't measure up, if you don't deliver, if you don't fit into the world's mould of success, if you're not good looking and well dressed, then you don't have much worth at all. In fact, all too often, if you can't do something for people, they just discard you, pass you by, throw you on the trash heap. So we have a performance mindset. We've been taught to equate performance, measured by the world's scale, with value. That's the basic lie we live with. And can I say, even as Christians, we kind of have this belief that what comes first in the Bible is the law of the Old Testament, the rule book if you will. And it was only later that this idea of God's grace, made active in our lives through faith, came about. Law first … then grace. But actually that's not true. That's putting the cart before the horse. Have a listen. The Apostle Paul – Galatians chapter 3, verses 6 to 8: Just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,' so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you.' For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed. Now, the point that Paul makes a few verses later in that chapter is that this whole ‘Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness' thing happened a full four hundred and thirty years before the Old Testament law was given to God's people through Moses. So let's get the horse before the cart. Grace through faith in what God says always came first. Always. Grace. The free, unmerited favour of God. It's just who God is. It's born out of the incredible love He has for you and me. The world wants you to perform, to deliver, to be measured by its ruler of ‘success'. And frankly, religion is about performing and delivering too. But what God has for you today is His grace. And grace always, always comes first. So, let me ask you: If God is the God of grace – and when you see what Jesus did for us on the cross, there can be no doubt about that – then why did He introduce the Old Testament law? Why did God even entertain a bunch of rules that, at the end of the day, His people would simply be incapable of keeping? It's an important question to know the answer to, because it's all too easy to slip back into that old way of thinking that following Jesus is all about adhering to a set of rules. So, here's God's answer, through the Apostle Paul. Galatians chapter 3, verses 19 and 23 to 26: Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring would come to whom the promise had been made … Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. So the Old Testament Law was only ever put there as a temporary measure, until God was ready to reveal His grace through faith, in the coming of Jesus Christ. It was put there to keep people in line, I guess, until God was ready to reveal Jesus. And when you look back at the history of Israel throughout the Old Testament, from beginning to end, the thing that stands out, is that God's people couldn't seem to keep the law for very long at all. In fact, the very name Israel, means ‘to struggle with God'. The whole story of the Old Testament is about Israel struggling to keep the law, struggling in their relationship with God. God sent them prophet after prophet to call them back to Himself. He punished them over and over again, to bring them to their senses. And, for a little while that would work, until they wandered off again. If you asked me, "What's the central theme, the central point of the Old Testament?" My answer would simply be this, "That try as they might, God's people couldn't stick to the rules." We can't follow the law. We will never be able to put ourselves into a right relationship with God, simply by following the rules. The whole of the Old Testament screams out at us, "This isn't working! There has to be another way!" And there is ... that's why God sent Jesus. That was always the plan. The whole point of that Old Testament struggle, for you and me today, is to teach us beyond any shadow of a doubt, that following the rules simply doesn't work. What's more, it never will. And that's why we need Jesus. A Word of Encouragement I just want to finish up today with a word of encouragement. Because the world … well, the world wants to cut you down to size all too often. But as we've seen on the program today, God is in the grace business. I remember when I entered the Army as a young man, those first six weeks of basic training were incredibly tough. I mean, they were brutal. Quite a few guys fell by the wayside in those first few weeks. Looking back on it, you could see what they were trying to do. These young men had come from all different walks of life. Some from wealthy and privileged families, born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Others from much poorer circumstances. Basic training was about cutting everyone down to the same size. Yep, those first six weeks were a great leveller. But where the military wanted to cut us down to size, God wants to do the complete opposite. When we come into the kingdom of God you and I, when we accept Jesus as our Saviour and make Him the Lord of our lives, what God wants to do is … well, to lift us up to size, if that makes sense. Here's what I'm talking about – Galatians chapter 3, verses 27 to 29: As many of you as were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. There are some sharp distinctions there. The Jews looked down on the Greeks – in fact, they were referred to as dogs. Of course, there was a huge gap between a free person and a slave. And in that patriarchal society, women were pretty much chattels. They couldn't earn an income or own property. Without a man, they were poor and destitute. But what God is saying here to you and me, is that our heritage, our circumstances, our past, our socio-economic standing, our ethnicity … none of those matter. They're completely irrelevant. Because when we put our trust in Christ, we all become one. We all become heirs – in fact elsewhere, he writes that we become co-heirs, joint heirs, with Christ. Maybe you look at who you are, where you've come from, what you have, what society thinks of you, what other people say about you … and you think to yourself, “What can I ever be in the kingdom of God? Who am I to imagine that God would ever think all that much of me?" Hmm. Well today, let me tell you who you really are. You are one of His beloved children. An heir of God's promises, a joint–heir with Christ, of the riches of His inheritance. That's who you really are and He wants you to live in that truth, today … and for the rest of your days on this earth. So be encouraged. Yeah, it's a tough, brutal world out there. It's a world of knocks and bruises. It's a world where people want to pull you down, and cut you down to size. And if perhaps you're not feeling the love so much at the moment, then … well, let me pray for you right now. Father God, I pray for anyone who needs to experience your grace today. That's pretty much all of us, but really Lord for anyone who needs a special touch of your grace and your love today. I pray that through your Word, that we've heard from you today, you will touch that person's heart deep inside with a revelation of the grace, the mercy, the extreme love that you have for them in Jesus Christ. I pray that through your Holy Spirit, you would fill them with a joy unspeakable at the knowledge of the love that you have for them – a love through which you will make them all that you created them to be. In Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen. Amen, amen. May the Lord truly bless you today.
What does the Word freedom mean to you? Well – think about it. Is it being able to do whatever you want … or is it more about being free from the things that are holding you back? Hmmm. A Revelation of Freedom Most of us, I guess, would define freedom as being able to do whatever we want whenever we want, and that definition right there is what brings a whole world of pain crashing down on our lives. I don't think there's a single person on this planet who doesn't want to be free. Do you want to be free? Well, of course you do; me too, but if freedom is that important to us, you have to ask yourself exactly what is it. Sure, there's political freedom; freedom of speech; freedom of association; the freedom to gather; to protest; to live where you want to live; to marry who you want to marry; to choose to have children or not. In this day and age, we live in a world that's more and more fixated on our individual freedoms, our rights as individuals. After all, I'm entitled to enjoy my life. Right? So it doesn't take too long to start imagining that freedom is being able to do whatever we want whenever we want. Anything that cuts across that is a restriction of our inalienable right to be free, and yet if you travel to any kind of place where that freedom is practised, what you discover is lawlessness and anarchy. There's no safety; there's no protection; there's no security because that anything, anytime kind of freedom is a terrible thing. That's what the rule of law is all about: To keep us safe and secure. So when you think about it, what we actually need is a different definition of freedom: One that really works. Try this one on for size. Galatians 1:3-4: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to set us free from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. It seems that God takes our freedom so seriously that He sent Jesus to suffer and die to set us free. From what? Well, from our sin, and from this evil age. So according to God real freedom, the sort of freedom that Jesus purchased for you on that cross, is about setting you free from the devastating consequences of your sin, and the evil that pervades every nook and cranny of this age, so that you can live in grace and peace. Not such a bad definition when you think about it. So here's a question for you: What sin, what evil, is robbing you of the freedom that Jesus came to give you? Because that sin, that evil, is what God is calling you to hand over to Him today. His will for you is to be free to live in the grace and the peace of Jesus Christ, but that's not always an easy thing to do. One of the things you discover when you set your heart on following Jesus is that the rest of the world is not going to be standing by and cheering you on. In fact, far from it. Not long after I became a Christian, a few decades ago now, the IT consulting firm at which I was a partner had the opportunity to bid for a rather large government project in the developing world, but the simple reality was that unless you paid the bribes to the various officials, you were completely wasting your time in bidding. As you can imagine, as a brand-new Christian, I was faced with a real dilemma. And can I tell you, I came under quite some pressure to compromise? It happens in every corner of our lives because when you decide to believe in Jesus, when you decide to follow Jesus, when you decide to live your life for Him, let me tell you, the world is not going to be all that happy with you. They'll criticise you; laugh at you; persecute you, whatever fits best at the time. You see, those people want you to believe that their way is the way of freedom; of success; of enjoyment. The world wants you to believe that following Jesus somehow is going to rob you of your freedom. What do you believe? Who are you trying to please; Jesus, or those naysayers around you? Paul the apostle made a very clear decision on that question in his life. Galatians 1:10: Am I now seeking human approval, or God's approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ. People are so fickle. Have you noticed? Jesus did. That's why we're told in John 2:23-25 that: When He was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in His name – because they saw the signs that He was doing, but Jesus on His part would not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all people and needed no one to testify about anyone, for He Himself knew what was in everyone. At some point, in every corner of our lives, every thought, every decision, every action, each one of us has to decide who we're trying to please; people, or God. And the way it tends to work is that it's not so much the big decisions that we make upfront that matter; it's the little decisions that we make a hundred times a day, that together tell us who we're really trying to please. Come on. Who are you trying to please with your life? Because if you're still seeking human approval, if you're still trying to please people, you wouldn't be a servant of Christ. Look. To experience freedom, real freedom, we need to stop focusing on the world. What we need is a spiritual revelation. The fact is that the freedom that only Jesus Christ can bring is a fantastic thing, but whilst the facts are incredibly important, you don't find freedom in facts. The apostle Paul was an interesting character. He was a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling religious body in Jerusalem, and there's a reason that he made it to the top of the pile. Philippians 3:4-6: If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews. As to the Law, a Pharisee. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church. As to righteousness under the Law, blameless. So Paul's heritage, his breeding, his upbringing, ticked all the right boxes. He studied the Old Testament Law; he knew it from back to front; he worked hard at it. You know the sort of person. He had all the head-knowledge that you could ask for, all the discipline that you could ever expect of anybody. On-top of that, he was a Pharisee. Now, this sect took the idea of following the Law to incredible lengths. The very word Pharisee means to be a religious separatist. He was absolutely full-on, and yet the one thing he didn't have was freedom, until one day on the road to Damascus, Jesus appeared to Him, and that encounter with Jesus was the turning-point of his life. This is what he writes years later, looking back on it. Galatians 1:11-12: For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin. For I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. So it wasn't something that he'd learned through years of study; it was a revelation. The original Greek word used there for revelation is the word 'apocalypsis'. In other words, it was an apocalyptic revelation. Dramatic! Powerful! Completely life-changing, and it wasn't a revelation about Jesus; it wasn't words from a book. Come on, Paul knew all those words in the Old Testament books; he'd studied them for years; he'd made it to the top of the religious pile that way, but that's not what changed his life. It wasn't a revelation about Jesus; it was a revelation of Jesus, through a personal encounter with Him. Have you had an apocalyptic revelation of the person of Jesus Christ? Have you had a dramatic, powerful, life-changing encounter with Jesus? No? Then get a revelation. Jesus is waiting for you, now. He wants to turn your life upside-down, now. All the head-knowledge in the world won't do that for you. Only Jesus. Freedom is a Tricky Thing Freedom is a tricky thing. So often, we're our own worst enemies: Our perspective; our thoughts; our behaviour ... They all rob us of this elusive thing called freedom. Try as we might, we just can't grasp it. You've had that experience. Right? You know what it's like. There's something in your makeup, an Achilles heel if you will, that's constantly your undoing. For each one of us, it's something different, but at the end of the day, it trips you up again and again and again. Mine is perfectionism, which has a tendency to fuel anger. Yours? Well, you probably know what it is. Maybe it's insecurity; gossiping; a lack of compassion; selfishness ... Hey, the list runs as long as my arm, and then some. God has a simple name for it: He calls it sin. The devil loves to rub your nose in it, and just when you're feeling weak or tired, emotionally spent, he pushes your button and there you go again. For the apostle Paul, it was an obsessive hatred of the church. He, of course, was a Pharisee in the Jewish religion. Then Jesus came along and turned everything he'd ever believed in, everything he'd ever worked so hard for, completely upside-down. No wonder he hated Christians, but then ... Then he met Jesus and something changed in him. People were talking about it. Galatians 1:23: They heard it said, ‘The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy', and they glorified God because of me. And he had been, too. He was a terrible persecutor of the church, until that day he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. You can read about it in the book of Acts, chapter 9. Ok. So he met Jesus, but what happened to turn him from a man breathing threats against the early church to the guy who ultimately wrote almost half the books of the New Testament? That's quite a turnaround, you'd have to admit. I'll tell you what happened: Jesus changed his heart. You know and I know that when we have a change of heart, our thoughts and our actions flow out of that, just as God promised in the days of old through Ezekiel. Ezekiel 11:19-20: I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh so that they may follow My statutes and keep My ordinances and obey them. When you encounter Jesus on your road, when you draw close to Him, when His Spirit fills you to overflowing, He does what you were powerless to do. He changes your heart which, as it turns out, changes everything. Sometimes though, it feels as though nothing's happening. Nothing! So what; has God forgotten me now? Has He left me on the shelf? We all want to feel as though God has some great plan for our lives. So in those months (even years) when nothing much seems to be happening, it can be terribly disheartening. Jesus: "I came to set the captives free". You: "Yeah, right. It feels like you've forgotten me!" Other people, they seem to be powering on. You, on the other hand, feel as though there's nothing really exciting ahead. Saul is on the road to Damascus, off to persecute some more Christians; he meets Jesus along the way. That's pretty exciting! But then, he loses his sight and for three days, he's completely blind. Now that doesn't sound like such a long time, unless you've been struck blind; in which case, it probably feels like an eternity. Adversity has a way of doing that, which is why when you feel as though you've been left on the shelf, it does seem like an eternity. Am I right? "Freedom – what's that?" you ask yourself, in this prison of inactivity. When we get to that point, there's something we need to be reminded of. It's what Paul says himself in his letter to the church in Galatia. Galatians 1:15-17: But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son to me so that I might proclaim Him among the Gentiles, I didn't confer with any human being, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were already apostles before me. But I went away at once to Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus. In other words, God already had a plan for Paul, even before he was born. Along the way, people tried to kill the guy; they rioted against him; he was imprisoned; beaten; shipwrecked; bitten by a viper of all things, and eventually, he rotted out the remainder of his days in a Roman dungeon on death row. But that powerful encounter with Jesus, that incredible revelation of Christ Himself when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, that changed everything. Because no matter how dire his circumstances became, he knew that God had a plan. So in the middle of those difficult circumstances, Paul had the freedom that Jesus promised. You know, God still has a plan: A plan for today; for tomorrow; next month; next year, and indeed, for the rest of your time on this earth. God hasn't forgotten you. He hasn't lost the plot. God has a plan and that fact gives you freedom, even if you've been locked away in a dungeon or forgotten on a shelf, and that's a promise that God wants you to take into your heart today. The only sort of hope the Bible talks about is certain hope, so may the Holy Spirit write that hope on your heart. Overcoming the Old Ways Ok, the subject for today is circumcision. I know it's not exactly something you want to be thinking about, but stick with me. There's an important point to be made, and what we're really chatting about is freedom: Your freedom here, now, today. But first, let's head back to first-century Jerusalem. You see, there's a rocky transition underway for those who believe in Jesus from Judaism (the religion of their forefathers) to Christianity; from the life lived under a complex set of religious rules to a life of freedom in Christ. A lot of the things that seem pretty obvious to us today had to be nutted out back then; it wasn't easy. One of them was male circumcision, which to this point had been part of God's Law for His people. Let's take a look at how the apostle Paul puts it in Galatians 2:3-5: But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. But because of false believers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy on the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might enslave us. We did not submit to them even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might always remain with you. You see, there's a tussle here between the old traditionalists who didn't believe in this whole nonsense about grace through Jesus, and Paul to whom the gospel of grace (the fantastic news of God's unmerited favour towards us) had been revealed by Jesus Himself. Circumcision was just the flashpoint. The real debate was between the slavery of living under the set of rules, and the freedom that we have through our faith in Christ, and it's a struggle that continues to this day in the heart of many-a believer because grace is so radical; so counter-intuitive. We live in a 'dog-eat-dog' world, and there seems to be plenty of dog to go around, yet along comes Jesus and says in effect, "Look, it's not about following a bunch of rules. It's about experiencing My love and so that you can, I'm going to pay the price on a cross for all the things that you've done wrong in your life." The reason Paul takes this so seriously is that it strikes at the very heart of the gospel of grace; the truth. Besides, have you noticed? It's pretty much impossible to follow the rules anyway. We all fall short. That's why we need Jesus, so if you've been struggling under a bunch of rules, do yourself a favour. Ditch them. Go to Jesus instead. Start having a rich, dynamic relationship with Him, and your unbounded freedom will flow out of that relationship. Don't let rules enslave you. And you and I, we aren't the only ones that suffer from this problem. Take Peter, the apostle. We think of Peter as one of the New Testament's 'A'-list, yet he made quite a few mistakes along the way, not the least of which was political correctness. This age of rampant political correctness isn't something new in the twenty-first century. It turns out that there's nothing new under the sun. Now look. It's absolutely a good idea that we shouldn't deliberately go out there to say or do things that'll hurt others, but it's a very bad idea to take that to the ridiculous Nth degree to the point where we curtail our freedoms in order to appease those with an agenda, and that's exactly what was going on in the first century as Christianity was being birthed out of Judaism. There was a tussle between the two. There were difficult issues to work through. For instance, most Jews believed that the God of the Old Testament was for them and them alone. Many of the apostles stayed in Jerusalem for that very reason, but Paul was called to be an apostle to the Gentiles, to take the good news of salvation in Jesus to people whom the Jews referred to as dogs, so Peter is happy to dine with the Gentiles until some other legalistic old-school Jews show up, at which point he does the politically correct thing – retreating, only to eat with Jews again. Well, at this point, Paul pretty much has a pink fit. Galatians 2:11-13: But when Cephas” (that's Peter's other name) “came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood self-condemned. For until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction, and the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy To the extent that you believe in Jesus, you are free in Christ to live out your faith. Sure; in this age of political correctness, in this age of pluralism, you will be derided for it; you'll be laughed at for it; you'll even be persecuted for it, but let Peter's mistake be a lesson to us all. Let's not be hypocrites. Let's not compromise our freedom in Christ to appease the sinners of this world. Sure; the issues today are different, but the principle remains the same. People will disagree with you because you believe in Jesus. They just will. There's nothing new in any of that ... Live out your faith in Jesus anyhow. Don't let the fear of what others will think or say or do rob you of the freedom that you have in Christ. Don't let your life compromise the truth of the gospel of grace. Isn't it funny how our old ways keep coming back to haunt us? Peter spent three-and-a-half years with Jesus! He saw the miracles; he heard the sermons; he experienced the radically different way that the Son of God approached things. Jesus wasn't afraid of upsetting religious leaders. Jesus wasn't afraid of offending people, yet still Peter falls back into his old ways. No wonder Paul took him on! It's a good thing and as I said, it's a sobering lesson to you and me about the power of the old ways to rob us of the freedoms that Jesus came to give us. Jesus said that if He sets us free, then we are free indeed. Don't throw that freedom away so easily.
There's a description of God's people that pops up several timed in the Bible. It's the adjective “stiff–necked”. An interesting way to describe the stubbornness of God's people. I'm guessing that it points to their unwillingness to bow down their lives in worship to God. I wonder … I wonder if you know anyone like that!! FULL ON SURRENDER We live in a world where we're taught to be proud of who we are. You can be who you want to be, you can do whatever you want to do, if you work hard you can achieve whatever you want to achieve – and when you do, be proud of what you've achieved. The problem is though that pride so often comes before the fall. I remember when I was a young lad, learning to ice skate. Now, physical coordination isn't one of my strengths. So my bottom spent a lot of time making contact with the ice. And every time I thought, here you go Berni, you've got it, you're doing well and I'd look over at my mum and dad to show them how clever I was – whoompa! Down on my backside on the ice. Pride is actually quite a terrible thing – it's something that God always, always, always opposes. James 4:6 God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. But pride takes all sorts of different forms. As we chatted yesterday on the program/ last week on the program, sometimes pride stops us from admitting that we're wrong. The more you invest in a course of action, or in a way of life, the harder it is to admit that it was the wrong way to go about things. I mean, you've invested a lot in your approach – people have watched you, some have even admired you. To turn back from that, to turn away from that, to admit that you were wrong – well, you lose face. Losing face is only a problem if you care what other people think about you. And I used to care a lot what other people thought about me. I wanted them to think well of me. I wanted to impress people. I wanted them to speak well of me behind my back. When you think about it, that's why some people by the most expensive car they can afford – to make a statement. That's why some people by grand houses in grand suburbs – with so much space and so many rooms that they don't need, and swimming pools that they don't swim in. To make a statement that says “Look at me. I AM someone. I've made it.” Not everyone, but a lot of people are like that. Never mind that they're desperately unhappy in their flashy cars and grand mansions. And even if you're not rich, you can find yourself clamouring after a successful career or a bigger pay cheque or a promotion … whatever it is … to build up the image that other people have of you. And when you do that, let me tell you from experience (because all the things I've just described … I've been there, done that you understand) … when you do that, you start believing your own propaganda. You get a puffed up image of who you are and what you're worth, as you look down your nose at the mere mortals who surround you. Moses is up on the mountain with God, receiving the ten commandments. Have a listen to this: Ex 32:1–9: When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, formed it in a mould, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord.” They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well- being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel. The Lord said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt! '” The Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff- necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation. Isn't that what we do? We say that we believe in God, but left to our own devices, we become stiff–necked. Prideful. We make idols of the things of this world and the more we chase after them, the less inclined we are to bow down our lives to God. And when that happens, God's anger burns against us. Let's get a revelation about that today. Yes God loves you … but when you're more inclined to chase after the things of this world, than to bow down your life to worship Him, in His eyes you've become stiff–necked and His anger burns. We're in the middle of a series of messages called “Overboard with Jesus” – about living our lives full on for Christ. But so often in our pride we delude ourselves into thinking that we can put God on a leash and have Him follow us around to do our beck and call. But if you want to live your life full on for Christ, that's not the way to live. Who or what is your golden calf? Who or what in your life, in your possessions, in your priorities are you putting before God? Hmm? You see the alternative is to have a heart like the psalmist who wrote: Psalm 95:6,7: O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. There's a man with his life bowed down to God. Can't call him stiff–necked. FULL ON SACRIFICE Come on, let's be honest, none of us likes to give up the things that we like. I remember, when our children were young, Saturdays were a day of racing around doing this, doing that. Taking them to sport and all the other things they had going on. I mean, I'm someone who works hard, so come the weekend, I would love to be able to put my feet up. But there was the running around of the kids, the lawn had to be mowed, the car had to be washed. All I wanted to do was rest, but … that's what it is right?! And you mothers, you know that being a mum is simply a life of sacrifice. Children demand so much attention and effort and time and emotional energy and sheer hard work. You pour yourself into them. It's a life of sacrifice. In fact pretty much anything worthwhile in life, requires sacrifice. Studying, getting a degree, learning a trade, bringing up children, saving money, building a career … they all involve sacrifice. So … what exactly is sacrifice? Have you ever thought about the? Well, my friendly online dictionary comes up with a variety of definitions, but the most appropriate one is to give up something you value for the sake of other considerations. You work hard to grow your business at the expense of your social life for instance. Sacrifice always involves giving something up, something that you want NOW, in order to have something better later. And it seems that you and I are prepared to make all sorts of sacrifices to get the things in this world that we want. The question though is, whether you and I are prepared to make the sacrifices that are required, to get God what He wants in this world. Well, are we? Yesterday on the program/ before the break, we had a look at that powerful, pivotal passage in Romans Chapter 12. Let's go back there, because it's quite illuminating – but this time we'll read a bit more of that Chapter: Romans 12:1–4: I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Now I remember one of my lecturers back in Bible college telling me that whenever you find a “therefore” in Scripture, you have to ask yourself, What's the therefore there for?! Could question, because here Paul who is writing this letter to the church in Rome, begins his appeal for us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice – a strong appeal when you think about it –with a therefore. What's the therefore there for? Well he's pointing back to the first 11 chapters of this letter, which are all about the amazing sacrifice that Jesus made for us so that we could be saved from the wrath of God because of our sin. For example: Romans 5:6–8: For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Do, in view of the mercies of God, therefore, present your bodies as a living sacrifice – which is your spiritual worship. Now at this point I need to point out that when people back in the first century AD heard the word sacrifice, they couldn't help but think of the other meaning of the word sacrifice that I find in my dictionary, which is this: … an act of slaughtering an animal or person or surrendering a possession as an offering to a deity. Specifically, they're thinking about the relatively recent sacrifice of Jesus on that Roman Cross back in Jerusalem – something that had happened around 50 to 60 years earlier by all accounts. They're thinking about the many stories that they've heard about Jesus, innocent of any sin or crime, being nailed to a cross to save them from the wrath of God. A pretty picture it ain't in their minds, as they read the words of the Apostle Paul – who was there at the time of the crucifixion – sitting, as they are in the relative comfort and wealth of imperial Rome. What they're hearing as Paul's letter is read out, is that God is calling them to a life of incredible sacrifice, something that is already becoming obvious to them, through the rising persecution and martyrdom of Christians in the Roman Empire. If you've ever been to Rome, you may have seen the catacombs the huge underground tunnels where the Christians hid. I hear people talk about living their lives for Jesus, but they want to do it from the comfort of their armchair. In many places today, in many societies, in many churches, there is so much comfort and wealth, that the notion of sacrifice is a foreign one. But what of the woman who wrote to me recently: My husband has been extremely cruel to me since Mother's Day. What does she do? Does she up and leave him? No, she goes to God and asks Him to protect her; asks Him to change her husband; asks Him to heal their marriage. In this world, in this day and age, the obvious solution is separation and divorce, but this woman has taken a different route, she's made a different choice. She takes seriously the scripture that says: Romans 5:1–5: Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. Conventional wisdom, the world's wisdom says … run away from suffering. You're entitled. You deserve it. You're worth it. And yet the Bible is filled with some hard truths about suffering. Back to this woman's lot: 1 Peter 3:1–6: Wives, in the same way, accept the authority of your husbands, so that, even if some of them do not obey the word, they may be won over without a word by their wives' conduct, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Do not adorn yourselves outwardly by braiding your hair, and by wearing gold ornaments or fine clothing; rather, let your adornment be the inner self with the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God's sight. It was in this way long ago that the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by accepting the authority of their husbands. Thus Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him lord. You have become her daughters as long as you do what is good and never let fears alarm you. We want to throw those bits of the Bible out. They're politically incorrect. They're unfair. They're irrelevant in this day and age. And yet God's truth remains God's truth. Even though the more comfortable and affluent our world becomes, we've had lies dropped on our heads that tell us it's all about us, Jesus … the same Jesus who suffered and died for you on that Cross, Jesus is calling you to a life that involves sacrifice … and that sacrifice, the sort that the Romans heard about in Paul's letter to them, involves suffering a lot of the time. And when you get that truth into your heart, you see your suffering in a different light. God is doing some great stuff there fore you in the middle of your suffering. Suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope – and it's a certain hope, a hope that never disappoints, as the love of God through the Holy Spirit is poured into our hearts. I've taken up a form of fitness training that I really enjoy. It's called High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT for short. It involves hopping on an exercise bike and doing 8 x 30 second sprints on high resistance over a period of about 14 minutes – pushing myself to the absolute limit in each burst. And speaking of bursts, by the end of 30 seconds, it feels like my lungs are going to burst, like my heart is going to pop out of my chest, and like my leg muscles are going to catch on fire. Point is, that the science tells us that it's really, really good for you. Really good. In other words, the sacrifice is worth it. It's made me so incredibly fit. I race up stairs now where I used to catch the lift. I'm never short of breath day to day. I sleep better. It's worth it. That's what God is calling us to – that sort of life. A life that involves sacrifice so that emulates Christ's sacrifice for us. 1 John 3:16: We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. You want to live your life for Jesus – expect it to involve sacrifice. Because when the decision comes to flee from sacrifice and suffering … or embrace it for Christ's sake – you'll be prepared to make the right choice. FULL ON WORSHIP Okay – so how do you worship God? More recently I guess as many, if not most, churches have moved to contemporary worship, the songs have become more upbeat, many churches use lighting and wall banners and logos and contemporary furnishings, not to mention extremely professional music teams to help their people to worship. It's easy to be critical of all that … but there's nothing new in any of that. Go and visit any old cathedral – and there are plenty of them scattered across Europe – and you realise that we've been going to huge lengths to express our awe and wonder of God. But to tell you the truth – and maybe it's just me – a lot of those external trappings leave me pretty cold. It's not that I don't appreciate great ecclesiastical architecture, or Handel's Messiah, or some of the great hymns and contemporary worship songs that have been written of recent years. But I've been in places that have all that and more, and yet, the best way to describe them is … dead. It's as though God isn't in that place. It's as though sometimes, we try to conjure up God's Presence, by designing, by building, by performing. I remember, just before I graduated from Bible College, we had a Graduands Retreat Day. About 40 of us who were graduating, together with a few or our lecturers, headed off to a church building in a leafy suburb, away from distractions, to spend a day fellowshipping, praying and … well, worshipping. The guy who led worship had a scratchy voice. His guitar was slightly out of tune and yet, it remains, to this day, the most awesome time of song worship that I have ever experienced. We're heading towards the end of a series of messages today – a series that I've called Overboard with Jesus. It sort of began around that great passage of Scripture where Peter gets out of the boat and walks towards Jesus on the stormy sea of Tiberius. Let's go back and have a quick read: Matt 14:22–33: Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” So there's good old Pete stuck in a boat with his mates on the Sea of Tiberius. They're a long way from land, the boat is battered by the waves and the wind is against them. Remembering that this was Jesus' decision for His Disciples. When Jesus finally comes to the rescue, the Disciples are petrified until He identifies Himself. And within a split second, Peter who, remember, is a fisherman. He knows these waters, he's sailed them many a time. He knows the danger of this storm. But despite that, within a split second, he says to Jesus – Lord if it's you command me to come to you on the water. Here's what I believe – what was going on in Peter's heart in that instant, is worship. Because in that moment, Peter is prepared to connect his faith in Jesus, with his actions, with his life, with what he's about to do. Peter is prepared to step out onto that stormy sea, to follow Jesus. There are two different words used for “worship” in the new testament. One is proskunio – from which we get the English word to prostrate oneself. It's the sort of worship we do when we sing songs on a Sunday morning in church. It's bowing down and declaring with our heart and with our mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. That's awesome stuff – although as I said, you can sing songs without worshipping God. I've seen people checking their watches, looking around to see who's coming in late, scrolling through social media on their smartphone during worship. In that case worship is a complete misnomer. It's just singing. But if your heart is engaged, then yes, what's going on there, is proskunio worship – bowing down before the throne of God. Awesome stuff – whether it's a guy with a scratchy voice and out of tune guitar leading, or whether it's a full on rock concert. The trappings are pretty much irrelevant. The other word, and we looked at this one yesterday on the program / before the break, is latreo – from which we get the word lateral. In other words, outward, lateral worship, through what we do, how we live, how we behave, how we spend our money. Many times, this word is translated as service rather than worship. There's one verse in the New Testament where both of these words are used. It's Jesus replying to the devil in the second temptation in the wilderness. He says, and I quote: Luke 4:8: It is written, “Worship the Lord your God and serve only him”. So here's the question for you today. As you live out your life, are you living it all for Jesus? Are you worshipping Him with everything you think and say and do? Because truthfully, stepping out of that boat on that stormy ocean is worship. It's living out the proskunio worship that's in our hearst, as latreo worship in our lives.
As politically incorrect, unpopular and old–fashioned things go, the subject of repentance would have to be right up there near the top of the list. Repentance – what the blazes does it mean anyhow? Who even talks that way anymore these days? Give me a break!! FULL ON REPENTANCE When I come across a subject like “repentance” – and I'll explain what I think that word means in a moment – I tend to think about how I viewed religious jargon before I became a Christian. I remember some nutter standing on a milk crate in the local mall waving a Bible in one hand, shouting Repent, Repent and thinking to myself … yeah, right, now there's a message the world wants to hear. Idiot!! I was driving a pretty expensive car back in those days, living in a luxury house, pursuing a business career and life was, on the surface at least, pretty darned good. So, who needs repentance?! Ever felt yourself thinking along those lines? The problem is, that left to our own devices, we have a tendency of making a hash out of our lives. Now, the average born again atheist would take issue with that. The average born again atheist out there is thinking to themselves – here they go again these religious nutters, telling us that we're no good. Telling us that we can't make it on our own. And to be completely honest with you – that's how I used to think. I thought of myself as smart and successful and I was driven to work hard and to achieve. So the message of “repent” … which I guess most people associate with turning away from sin (boy there's another incredibly unpopular concept these days) … that message was not something I was ready to hear. How about you? We're smack bang in the middle of a series of messages at the moment called “Overboard with Jesus”. It's kind of based around that pretty well known story of Peter getting out of the boat on the Sea of Tiberius in the middle of a storm: Matthew 14:22–33: Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but by this time the boat, battered by the waves, was far from the land, for the wind was against them. And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.” Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came toward Jesus. But when he noticed the strong wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him, saying to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” When they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” Pretty remarkable story – and I love Peter's heart. So intent was He on following Jesus that He was prepared to follow Him out of the boat, onto the water, in the middle of a deadly, raging storm. And with all my heart I believe that that's the sort of follower that Jesus is looking for today. Not a lukewarm, mamby–pamby, pew–warming, middle of the road, my life doesn't count for much type of Christian. But someone who's prepared to get out of the boat, in the storm, even though they may sink – to follow Jesus wherever He may lead. Someone who's prepared to be all in, full on for Jesus. And today and for the rest of this week / and this week and next on the program, I want to chat about a few practical, real ways that we can do that – be all in, be full on for Christ. The first way is in this area of repentance. Jesus had a way, He still does in fact, of cutting through all the nonsense and self–delusion, and getting right to the heart of an issue. In His famous Sermon on the Mount, He said this: Matthew 5:3: Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. In other words, blessed are those who recognise their spiritual poverty. Blessed are those who stop deluding themselves thinking that life is all good, that they're successful and comfortable and they don't need anything else. That's what pride does, it stops us from recognising what's really going on in our lives. It stops us from admitting to ourselves, let alone to others, the spiritual poverty that lies deep within. The spiritual poverty that leads us off in the wrong direction, until the emptiness of life, the burdens of life, the consequences of a life chasing after the mirage, the illusion of comfort and success and material things … so deeply afflicts us that words can't describe what it is that we feel. I see it all the time – can I say, I see it in people who don't have any faith at all, and, tragically, I see it in people who profess a faith in Jesus, who warm the pews of a church each Sunday, who sing the songs, pray the prayers, go through the motions. Listen to me: whether religious or not, whether professing a faith in Jesus or not, we can be beset and afflicted by a deep spiritual poverty that we just won't admit to ourselves, because we've invested so much time and energy chasing the things we've been chasing, getting to this desperate place in life – that we're just to proud to admit that we got it wrong. And that has consequences. So, how do you turn that around? Well, interestingly, that's exactly what the word “repentance” means – to turn things around. To admit that you got it wrong. But there's an important element that's required to taking that drastic measure. Have a listen to this: 2 Chron 7:13,14: When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. That element is humility. It's being prepared to get real with ourselves and go back to God and admit to Him, and ourselves, that our ways, our rebellion, our stupidity – because frankly that's what it's been – hasn't worked. And God's promise to us, and you read it over and over again in the Bible is that when we turn around, away from our wicked ways, when we seek His face – He'll listen and He'll forgive and He'll heal and He'll bless. Plain and simple … 1 John 1:19: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The alternative is the status quo. And over 20 years ago now, I came to the realisation that the status quo simply wasn't an option. How about you? How's your life going? Are you perhaps one of those people who kind of believes in Jesus, but, well … somehow, it's not going so well for you? Then there's every chance that the reason for that is that you're holding something back from Him. Some sin, some rebellion, some thing in your life that you haven't given over to Him. Remember, blessed are the poor in spirit, the ones who admit their sin and their poverty to God, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It's time to get overboard with Jesus in the storm, like Peter did. It's time to stop pussy–footing around with our faith and get real and live a life that's all out for Jesus. And that starts with being honest, with admitting, with turning away from that sin that's been plundering our lives, and turning back to Jesus. Acts 3:19,20: Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. So … how about it? FULL ON FORGIVENESS To be honest, forgiveness never used to be a thing for me. Why forgive? My motto in life, used to be: don't get angry, get even. If you did something to hurt me, or betray me, or undermine me, or ignore me … I would find a way of getting even. Vengeance is sweet they say … although from experience I can tell you, it does leave a bitter aftertaste in your mouth. It wasn't until age 36 – that forgiveness became a thing for me. This is how it happened. Jesus met me in a dark time in my life. My Saviour came for me, and reached down into the dark pit where I was, and lifted me out. Those aren't just words – that's what happened. And today, I look back and still find myself asking – why me? I am … I am speechless at the idea that Jesus came for me. There were so many people who were nicer than me – I was a shicker I have to tell you. I was tough, hardnosed, brutal in my pursuit of success. And then … then one day, I read this story that Jesus told. Matt 21:18–35: Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy- seven times. “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything. ' And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe. ' Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you. ' But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you? ' And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart. The end of that is just a bit brutal isn't it? I mean, really? Is forgiveness that big a deal? Well, apparently, it is to God. I was perplexed by this story, this parable that Jesus used to teach Peter and the other Disciples about Jesus. So it got me thinking. God makes us, humanity, kicking it off with Adam and Eve. He gives us a free will full knowing that we would rebel. Full knowing that we would fall short of His perfect standard. Full knowing that one day, the demands of justice – God's justice, after all we'd expect God to be just, right – would have to be met. I mean if I break the law and end up in front of a judge, as I did once as a young man, by crashing my car, you'd expect the judge to be just. He gave me a sentence, rather light sentence as it turned out at the time – a fine or, if I didn't pay the fine, a couple of nights at Her Majesty's pleasure in prison. That's what you'd expect. But imagine, just imagine, if that judge had been my father. My dad who brought me into this world and loves me beyond measure. Now in that instance the judge would have a fundamental conflict of interests. On the one hand, he's the judge and by the very nature of his role, his job is to meet out justice. On the other hand, he's my dad and he loves me and he doesn't want to have to do that. Well, that's precisely the dilemma that God finds himself in. Only for Him it's much, much worse, because as we read in Romans 6:23 – the wages of our sin is death. You and I through our sin, our rebellion against God, are under a death sentence, make no mistake about it. And eternal existence of judgement and suffering. John 5:28,29: Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. There it is, a resurrection of eternal condemnation. That's what's at stake here – so God sends Jesus … His one and only Son, the one through whom the whole of creation was created – He sends Jesus to suffer and die for you and for me. Do you get it? This is why forgiveness is such a big deal for God. This is why Jesus told this powerful parable about forgiveness. Matt 27:45–51: From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o'clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “This man is calling for Elijah.” At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. Do you get it? That's what Jesus did for me and for you, so that we could be completely set free from condemnation. For God so loved the world, so loved you, so loved me that He gave His only begotten Son so that when we believe in Him, we won't perish under that burden of eternal condemnation, but instead we'll have eternal life. So He looks at you and me, and He says – well, if that's what I did to forgive you, how is it possible that you wouldn't forgive those who have sinned against you? Well – how is that possible? That's the question that God is asking us today? How is that possible?! So … let me ask you, whom haven't you forgiven in your life. For whom do you still harbour the darkness of unforgiveness in your heart? Hmm? This series of messages is called Overboard with Jesus. It's about taking our lives out of the mediocre comfort zone where we've perhaps been living, and going all out, living our lives full on for Jesus. There are so many people who want to do that, but they just don't know how. Well, get a revelation today, you cannot, you simply cannot live your life full on for Jesus if you are carrying unforgiveness around in your heart. Ya just can't! Is it hard to forgive? Sure it is – I have a couple of people in my life who betrayed me so deeply – over 20 years ago now, it can still be a struggle to live out that forgiveness. That's why I pray for them so often, still now. Because as I pray for them – the way Jesus taught me to, He said pray for your enemies, right?! As I do that, He heals the unforgiveness. He takes it away. He does what I cannot do – He replaces my heart of stone with a heart of flesh. Man, Jesus came to set the captives free. That was His promise. That's the first thing He said at the beginning of His public ministry, there in the synagogue in Nazareth. I've come to set the captives free. Well, if you're captive to unforgiveness today, if you're struggling to let go of that darkness, that destructive force of unforgiveness in your heart today – hear this. Jesus came to set you free. Yes. You. Let it go. Put it into His hands. Pray for your enemy – get out there, go overboard with Jesus. Trust Him … and He will show up. He will grab your hand when you start sinking. Because that … that's just what Jesus does. MAKING IT HAPPEN I am a firm believer that we are, you am, I am, we each are, masters of self–delusion. Why? Because we all have blind spots in our makeup. You know what it's like, when you're driving a car, if your rear vision mirror and your two side mirrors aren't perfectly lined up there are blind spots in your rear vision. Often those blind spots are big enough to hide a motor cycle, or even a car. Change lanes without looking back over your shoulder, and you're likely to have an accident. A few years ago, I attended a defensive driving course. Now, I thought every car had blind spots like that, but it turns out that the mirrors are designed so that if you know how to line them up – and they taught us that on the course – you'll have seamless rear vision, from your right peripheral vision, right around behind you, through to your left peripheral vision. Quite amazing really. Now, whenever I hop into a car other than my own, like a hire car, I always line up the mirrors to that there are no blind spots. It's a bit like that with us in life – we have these blind spots and the definition of a blind spot is a place where you can't see. I didn't realise for instance, that my anger was an issue before I became a Christian. But actually it wasn't becoming a Christian that made the difference. It was hearing what God had to say. I began to read my Bible not out of a sense of duty, but because the pastor of the first little church that I attended – Pastor Phil – inspired me with God's Word. Proverbs 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. So, I went to the source of wisdom – God Himself. And as I started reading, time and time I was convicted that something in my life wasn't quite right. So God would work on that with me. Then it was the next thing and the next thing and … well, would you believe a few decades later, we're still going. The power of God's Word to bring me to repentance by showing me my blind spots has been truly miraculous, in fact, it still is. And the power of God's Word to help me to learn to forgive … the same thing. I discovered a while into the process that this is exactly what's meant to happen. Jesus said: John 16:8 And when the Holy Spirit comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment. That's what the Holy Spirit does as we open our hearts to God's Word – He helps us discern right from wrong, He convicts us as it were, in such an incredibly powerful way, a way that brings change. So, perhaps you're struggling with some sin in your life right at the moment, or some unforgiveness in your heart and you just can't seem to let go. Well, right now, I want to pray for you, because I believe that Holy Spirit power, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, is going to fill you today in the most amazing way. Father God, we come to you to confess that we are completely helpless to deal with our sin, with our unforgiveness. Lord we're even powerless to know much of the time the things inside us, the things going on in our hearts, the things that are manifesting in our lives, that are displeasing to you. So we ask today dear Holy Spirit that you would convict us of sin and righteousnesss, that you would shine your light into the darkest recesses of our soul … and that you would give us a passion, a real passion for your Word, to hear you speak your grace and mercy and power into our lives. Bring repentance dear God where there is sin, bring forgiveness dear God, where there is unforgiveness in Jesus' name we pray. Amen!! Amen, Amen – and I want to encourage you to become a man or a woman of God's Word, feeding daily on the Word of God, hearing daily God speak His wisdom into your life – receiving daily from Him the power to change … so that each day, you look more and more like Jesus. Because that's what He wants to do in your life – and it's the most wondrous thing to experience.
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