20 January 08 

Romans 4: 1-3, 17 – 25 

Phillip Brook once said that; ‘A problem we have with God is that while we are often in a hurray He isn’t!’ One of the most difficult things we must cope with is to sit in ‘God’s waiting room’, where we wait for God to do something which only He can do for us; usually providing an answer to a prayer about something totally outside of our control. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says,  “God does everything just right and on time but people can never completely understand what he is doing.”   This is so true. While hindsight often reveals God’s perfect timing in the meantime we find ourselves wondering what God is doing. So many of the important things in life, it seems, are spent waiting on God’s timetable. Today we are going to finish our series on faith by looking at how to continue trusting while we are waiting on God. We are going to look specifically at the life of Abraham because if ever there was a man who was kept waiting it was Abraham. Now Abraham and Sarah were childless and one day God gave them the promise of a child in their old age. Abraham would become the founder of a great nation – the nation of Israel only he had to wait until he was 100 years old for his Son and heir to be born. That’s a long wait. What do you do while you are waiting for God? The Bible gives us five insights.

1. Understand the Six Phases of Faith. 

Phase I – When God gives you a dream. – (A promise or an idea) At age 75 God gave Abram a dream, “I’m going to make you in a great nation and I will bless you and through will all the nations of the world be blessed.” Gen 12

Phase 2 – A Decision.  (When we decide to act on the dream).  Without a decision to act, the dream becomes worthless. Every God given dream has a cost and a risk attached to it. There is a point in which we have to step out in faith as Abraham did when he left his homeland in Mesopotamia, to go to a place quite foreign to him.Abraham was willing to take the risk and when God gives us a dream we have to do what Abraham did and say “Yes” to God, “I’m willing to give up my own ambitions to follow your plans”. (Testimony, this has happened to me several times in my life) The third phase is inevitably one of;

Phase 3 - Delay – A dream is hardly ever fulfilled instantly – there is always a waiting time. (Between the planting and the harvest there is always a growing time). God waits and works to grow our faith and character to the point where we can carry through on the dream. Eleven years after God had given Abraham the dream, he was still waiting – Sarah was still childless. What happened in those eleven years of waiting? As far as Abraham was concerned ‘Nothing happened’, except for the usual temptations to doubt and despair. Abraham also got lost in a detour of his own with Hagar. 

Phase 4 – Difficulty God not only keeps us waiting but while we wait He leaves us to handle all the resulting struggles. Isn’t that fun?This fourth stage is where things often go from bad to worse and worse to impossible. So at the age of 99 Abram still doesn’t have a son and so he understandably questions God. “How can a son be born to me in my old age”?After all by this time Abram has been given the name Abraham which means; ‘Father of the nation.’  Rather an embarrassing name for a 99 year old man who doesn’t have any legitimate children. It’s a real test of his faith. But eventually God’s promise is fulfilled and at the age of 100 Abraham and Sarah have a miracle child.  The happy parents call him Isaac which means ‘laughter’ because Sarah and then Abraham had laughed at the thought of his birth and I’m sure God also laughed and there is great joy but then comes the most difficult phase of all.

Phase 5 – Dead End    Sometimes God allows our dreams to seemingly die. Abraham was asked to give up his miracle child when God said, “I want you to give him back to me. Take him to Mt Moriah and sacrifice him to me.” I imagine that Abraham was severely tempted to question God at least in his heart, ‘What kind of god is this’? Is this a cruel joke, Yahweh is asking me to sacrifice the very dream child who was promised to me?” Whatever his response Abraham, despite his feelings of helplessness, obeys God. 

Q. How do you know when you are at the dead end in yourself?  You feel helpless. Some of you may be feeling this way now about a personal situation in your life. When we get to that stage we start to doubt the wisdom and love of God and we may say something like, “Why is this happening to me”?  Don’t despair this is how God gets us ready for the phase which we shall call deliverance.

Phase 6 – Deliverance  The greater the dream, the more hopeless the situation but also the greater the miracle of deliverance is going to be. Then you will find yourself saying “Only God could have done that”. Now we are all going to pass through these phases of faith many times in our life because this is the way faith grows.If you are on a faith journey you will probably find that you are at one of these stages right now. Check it out. We must understand how God works, if we are going to learn patience and trust while we wait for our dream to happen.Point # 1 ‘Understanding how faith works’.

2. Remember What God Can Do A situation may be out of our control but it’s never out of God’s control. So don’t focus on what you can’t do (Your helplessness), focus on what God can do. Even when Abraham was on Mt Moriah, about to sacrifice his son we read that; “Abraham believed in God who gives life to the dead and creates something out of nothing.” Rom. 4:17 Do you want the Biblical definition of a miracle? Here it is, either God creates something out of nothing or gives life to something that is dead.We have a miracle working God who can bring life to dead marriages, dead careers and dead dreams. Jesus said “Anything is possible if you have faith.” Notice something very important here, ‘Who was the subject of Abraham’s faith’? Who or what did he believe in? Did he believe in himself? ‘No’! Did he practice positive thinking? ‘No’ Did he put his faith in faith? ‘No’ He believed in God.  Now I believe in positive thinking – it’s much better than the alternative but it’s worthless in regard to things that are out of our control. You could say, “I hope my Father is going to survive his cancer.” That’s not going to change anything.  I could ‘hope to grow a full head of hair.’  That’s not going to change anything either.The only one who can work this kind of miracle is God and what we need to remember when things are out of control is ‘what God can do’.  Jesus. ‘What is impossible with man is possible with God”. Lk 18: 27 NIV God loves us all and when we face delays and dead ends be assured that God allows them for a reason that is ultimately for our best. In the mean time by all means pour out your heart to God and He will comfort and strengthen you.

3. Rely on God’s Promises “When hope was dead within him, Abraham went on hoping in faith. He relied on the word of God.” Rom. 4:18

Q. Have you ever felt that hope was dieing inside you?  

We can know that this is happening to us when we start using words like ‘never’. ‘I’m never going to get married’. ‘We are never going to have a baby’. ‘I’m never going to be happy again’. ‘My situation is never going to change’. What do you do when hope starts to die within you? Do what Abraham did? Look at the next clause in verse 18, “Abraham went on hoping in faith”.What does that mean? It means that he kept on believing in God.

Q. How do you keep on believing when you struggle with doubts?

Paul said that Abraham ‘relied on the word of God’.  There is nothing more dependable on which to base out faith than God’s Word. In fact throughout this series on faith we have always come back to the promises in the Bible because ‘God’s Word will not fail to accomplish what God sends it to do.  If we are to be people of faith we must somehow get God’s promises into our minds.Now since this is our last week in this series I have given you two memory verses;  #7 “With God everything is possible.” Matt 19:26 #8 “The only thing that counts is faith expressing its self through love.” Gal 5:6 When God told Abraham to give back Isaac by way of sacrifice he didn’t panic (I’m sure I would have panicked) but the Bible tells us he didn’t panic because; ‘He believed that God would somehow raise Isaac from the dead’ Heb. 11:19 and verse 17 says;  ‘While God was testing him Abraham still trusted in God and his promises, so he offered his son Isaac.” 11:17 

Q. What are you going to say when God asks you to sacrifice your greatest dream?  

The ultimate test of faith is when God says to us, “Will you give to me the most valuable thing in your life – your most precious possession, tangible or intangible? Will you do what Abraham did? Will you ‘hope in faith” and will you trust in the promises of God? Romans 4:18 “Though it seemed Abraham’s hope could not be fulfilled.. he did become the father of many nations, exactly as God had promised.”    Notice the word ‘seemed’. Things are never as bleak as they seem. We must learn to look at them from God’s point of view.  The other highlighted words are ‘exactly as God had promised’ Abraham became the father of many nations. The Bible says that, “God is not a man that he should lie.” The fourth thing to do when we are waiting on God is to;

4. Recognise the Facts.  “Without weakening in his faith; he faced the facts that his body was as good as dead…and Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he didn’t waver with unbelief…” Romans 4:19 – 20 Abraham recognised that both he and Sarah where well beyond childbearing years, that having a child was a biological impossibility. It’s very important to face the facts.  Faith does not ignore reality and pretend there isn’t a problem, it’s not denial. Sadly there are people who live in denial. Faith is facing the facts without being discouraged by them because we trust God more than we trust our circumstances. We have people in our congregation fighting cancer and other serious diseases; some of you have loved ones. The fact is we can’t deny the diagnoses but we can defy the verdict and resolve to fight it with faith through prayer.  God doesn’t ask us to deny reality but to face the harsh implications, of life in this world, without getting discouraged by it. Faith is certainly not stubborn foolishness. It accepts that that there are some things we hope for that we just have to let go of. We may need to do some legitimate grieving for the things that haven’t turned out the way we planned. What we have dreamed of is not going to happen but this is where faith holds and supports us.We can believe that God knows best and trust Him for a better plan – that’s faith.“Yes things have not turned out the way we hoped but I know that God is working in my life and He has good things in store for me still!” There is an old cavalry rule that applies to us here; “When your horse is dead dismount.” You can’t flog a dead horse.When a dream dies let it go and ask God “what’s next” because He is never finished with us. Some of you perhaps have a dream of finding the love of your life and raising a family but your dream has never been realised.  Corrie Ten Boon as a young woman was engaged to be married and quite unexpectedly her fiancé broke off the engagement and married her friend. She was devastated and she never did marry but what she did was redirect her love. She didn’t withdraw into herself. She became one of the loveliest Christian leaders of the 20^th century influencing millions of people. She didn’t say “I’m never going to let anyone get close to me again”, instead she directed her love in a whole new direction.  Finally in step # 5 we are to;

5. Rejoice in Anticipation  Expect God to act in your life and do good things in your life, even if it is not what you planned. “Abraham never doubted. He believed God, for his faith and trust grew even stronger and he praised God for this blessing even before it happened. He was completely sure that God was able to do anything He promised.” Rom. 4:20 -21LB When we thank God for something after it’s has happened that called gratitude but when we thank God for something before it happens, that’s called faith. “God I don’t know how you are going to work things out in my life, I’m at a dead end but I thank you in advance because you know you’re your way is always good.” (Not always safe but good)

In conclusion let say that God delivers us in one or more of three ways;

i. Circumstantial Deliverance  This is when God miraculously changes our circumstances and God will do this many times in your life but not always.

ii. Personal Deliverance If God doesn’t change our circumstances He will work to change us if we trust Him. He will give us a bigger perspective, a deeper faith a larger character a better attitude. God may leave our situations unchanged but in the process He will change us.

iii. Ultimate Deliverance There is some pain in life that is only going to be relieved through ultimate deliverance which is of course Heaven. A perfect place where there is no sorrow, no tears, no suffering and no sadness.God’s ultimate deliverance is offered to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said; “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” Jn. 16:33b NLT God has not promised that we will not have difficulties, that there won’t be dead ends or delays. He has not promised to take away all our pain but he has promised to be with us providing the strength to cope until we experience ultimate deliverance in heaven.  Paul wrote; “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” Romans 5:2 NIV“What is the glory of God”? – It is heaven. “How do we get there”? – Through Jesus Christ. Deliverance comes through Jesus Christ; deliverance is another word for salvation. Jesus is your Saviour, he is your Deliverer, and he is the Hope of the world the best hope of all. Prayer Are you feeling like you are at a dead end this morning? Jesus Christ can turn your hopeless dead end into and endless hope. Why not hand it all over to Jesus?

Lord for any people here today who are struggling with unrealised dreams. We pray for the gift of faith to enable them to completely hand over to you all their disappointments. Help them not to focus on what they can not do but on what you can do. Help them to store up your words in their hearts, words that give life. Help them to face the facts with faith but defy the verdict and if necessary Lord to redirect their love and life in a whole new direction and never to lose their peace, joy and hope.If you have never trusted God with your struggles why not do it now? “Lord Jesus I give you my problem and I give you my life”.

In your precious name I pray.

13 Jan. 08 

Psalm 119: 31 – 40 

Before Christmas our subject was ‘growing in faith’, which I’m sure you agree is very relevant to a sincere follower of Jesus and I want to continue this theme for two more weeks. One day a Roman army officer came to Jesus and said “I have a servant who is paralysed and suffering we can’t do anything for him.” Jesus immediate response was to say, “I’ll come to your house and heal him.” But the centurion’s reply was remarkable. “Lord you don’t need to do that, I’m not worthy of you coming to my house. I’m a leader of men, I give commands to my soldiers and they obey immediately. Jesus you don’t need to come to my house I recognise your authority, just say the word and I know my servant will be healed”. (This man knew the relationship between authority and obedience.)  Jesus looked at the man, astonished by what he had heard and he answered, “This is the greatest faith I have ever seen in Israel”. The greatest faith! (Has that got your attention?) Why? Because faith and obedience go together (‘Trust and obey there is no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey’) God always links faith with obedience. Every promises of God has a premise – a condition that’s linked in someway to obedience.  “Follow all the directions the Lord has given you. Then life will go well for you.” Deut 5:33 God has made some incredible promises to us in His Word all of them are conditional upon obedience. This is a recurring theme in the Bible. “God blesses those who obey him.” Prov. 16:20 LB“God saves those who obey him.”  Ps 7:10 GN“God watches over those who obey him.” Ps 33:18 GN “The Lord takes care of those who obey him.” Ps 37: 18 GN“God helps those who obey him. Ps 7: 9 NLT“He gives us what we ask for because we obey his commands.”         1 Jn. 3:22 (NCV) And I have given you a much, much bigger list in the study sheet which tells us that if we follow the Lord we will be much happier, live longer, lack no good thing, live in freedom, have greater wisdom, security and peace and will be rewarded now and for eternity.Now in view of what you know about God, can you trust Him for all of these amazing promises?  

God says I will do these things in your life if you follow all My directions – in the Manual for life? In other words ‘do you think that obeying God in everything, whether it makes sense to you or not is always a good thing or a bad thing?I’m persuaded it’s always a good thing. Even when I don’t understand something that God says in His word, I have learned that it is always beneficial for me to do it anyway. God’s word always proves to be true even if you can’t see why at the time.When God gives rules and commands in His Word they are not suggestions they are Commands – for which He doesn’t have to give any explanation – The Roman Centurion understood that. Sometimes they sound unfair and not nearly as much fun as the alternative and it seems like God wants to limit our fun or opportunities e.g. the Bible says; ‘When someone wrongs us we are to forgive them’, ‘When people do evil to us we are to return it with good’, ‘We are to be generous in giving away what we have’, ‘We are not to be unequally yoked’. ‘There should be no sexual intercourse outside of marriage’, Many of these commandments go against our human nature. But God says; “Do it anyway. Trust me in this. My way is higher that your way and it will work out perfectly in the end.” And so the big question is ‘Will I obey God even when I don’t understand and when it doesn’t fit in with my plans or will I trust my own understanding’? Obedience is a demonstration of faith. Obedience is the key that unlocks all of God’s blessings in life.  One of the most important things that I can do for you as a Pastor is to teach you how to do God’s will and receive God’s promises. I want to share four things this morning about obedience.

1. Obey God Immediately Don’t delay, don’t procrastinate, and don’t make excuses. Do it – now! Psalm 119:32 “I will quickly obey your commands….Without delay I will hurry to obey your commands.” If there is any time in life when we really ought to hurry it’s when God tells us to do something, whether we understand it or not. I don’t understand many things e.g. how a Jumbo Jet aircraft is able to fly – but I have done a lot of flying. I don’t understand how computers work but I have send and received many Emails.I don’t understand how internal combustion works but I have been driving motor cars for many years. You don’t have to understand something to benefit from it and you don’t have to understand God’s Commands to benefit from them. But unfortunately for us obedience does not come naturally we have to learn it. Every parent knows that when you ask your child to do something they will question it; “Why” or “Why should I”? Sometimes you have to say “Because I say so.” Which means trust me I know better than you and I’m the boss – I have the authority here. When God asks us to do something and we ask ‘why’. The answer is the same God simply answers ‘Because I say so’ and I’m the boss. One day we will understand why, in fact it becomes clearer as we get older. In the meantime even when we don’t understand ‘do it anyway! To continually question God is a very audacious thing to do – He is our Creator and the Creator of the whole universe. Even if we don’t have the right attitude we should obey because of who God is. It’s far better than disobedience.  Remember Jesus parable about a man with two sons whom he asked to work in his vineyard; one said ‘yes’ but he didn’t turn up, the other said “no” but he also changed his mind and he went reluctantly.  You may not feel like forgiving someone (Which is a command of God), you may not feel like being reconciled to them. You may not feel like breaking off an in appropriate relationship that you know is wrong. It has nothing to do with our feelings. We are to do the right thing anyway.  Only immature people allow themselves to be led by their feelings. Mature people do the right thing in spite of how they feeling. When we do the right thing the right feelings will follow. Here is the rule. When God gives us a Command without a deadline He means us to ‘do it now’. Just like at home when Mum calls the family to eat together she means now!Children are born knowing how to play the game of delayed obedience and they usually have two strategies: i. The first is to play deaf; Mum says “Come to dinner.” When they finally arrive their excuse is usually “But I didn’t hear you.”   We do that with God all the time. “I can’t hear you God” or sometimes even “God doesn’t talk to me.” Listen God has spoken to all of us; through Creation, in Christ and most specifically through His Word. If we care to listen God speaks very clearly to us.  ii. The second game children play is to pretend that Mum is actually calling someone else. “Oh you meant me.” And we do the same to God. “I love the Bible but I don’t think God means me. I’m waiting for something much more specific and then I will obey”. And yet the Bible tell us that God has already spoken clearly enough – and we need to remember that delayed obedience is really disobedience. If we want the blessing of God in our life – in our relationships, careers, peace of mind, quality of life we have to obey God now because obedience is the key that opens the door to God’s greater participation in our lives. Many of God’s delays may simply be our delays. So # 1 obey immediately and # 2, if I want God’s blessing in my life, I must;

2. Obey God Completely We can’t say; “Will I like this commandment I do it anyway but I don’t like that one.” Psalm 119:4 “Lord, you give your orders to be obeyed completely.” There are two good reasons to obey God completely.

i. God’s standards of right and wrong have never changed. Something that was right or wrong 6000 years ago is still right or wrong today. Cultures change and popular opinion changes but truth is eternal, we certainly can’t entrust truth to popular opinion. Post modernity doesn’t even recognise ‘absolute truth’ as a value.

ii. God has a much bigger point of view than we do. We aren’t capable of seeing what God sees. James wrote; “Your job is not to decide whether God’s law is right or wrong, but to obey.” James 4:11c Now I hasten to add that the OT Law must always be interpreted in the light of Jesus NT teachings.

Q. What was the first temptation in the Bible? It’s not jealousy or lust or lying or greed it was the temptation to doubt God’s word. When Satan came to Eve in the Garden his first question was to ask Eve; “Did God really say you should not eat of any tree in the garden?” And every time we are tempted Satan is still urging us to challenge the authority of God’s Word in the same way. “Did God really say that?” “Is this what the Bible really means”? “Does it really still apply today”?And sadly often too many people fall into to this deception which invariably leads to disobedience and ultimately to an unfulfilled life. 

Q. Do we have any perfectionists here? Perfectionists are detail people who like everything to be in order – very had to live with, if you married to one and the converse is also true. What about God, do you think that He is a perfectionist a detail person? He certainly is – have you ever looked at God’s creation closely; the intricacies of a single flower?  The Bible says that every hair on our heads is numbered by God. He cares about detail and He is very interested in the details of your life like when or where or how we obey Him, or conversely fail to obey Him.My wife Frances is a detail person. I’m a bit sloppy at times but when I do something for her it’s important that I do it just right – no short cuts e.g. when I serve her breakfast on bed.Let me tell you that love is when we say “I will do what you want in the way that you like it done”. When we love and trust God our actions and word say;  “God I will not only obey you but I will obey you in the way that you want me to obey you and when you want me to obey you and for the right reasons because I love you and I trust you”. Faith is trusting God in the details. Prov. 3:5 says; “Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own.” Prov. 3:5 Mes There was once a man called Naaman who had leprosy. He went to Elijah the great Hebrew prophet and said ‘I’m a very famous and powerful man but I have leprosy what can I do? Elijah told him that in order to demonstrate his faith God required him to go to the Jordan River and dunk himself under the water seven times. Naaman’s reply, in his own language, was something to the effect, “You’ve got to be kidding there are much more impressive rivers where I come from.” Elijah answered him; that’s all very well but humbling yourself before God is what is required. We know the rest of the story; and only when Naaman obeyed and only when he came out of the water for the last time was he healed of leprosy.  Now for us as Christians obedience affects not only this life but eternity. Jesus said ‘if you trust me in the things of this life I will reward you with bigger things in the life to come’.  On the other hand incomplete obedience is not only disobedience it implies a lack of trust. So obey God immediately and completely.

3. We must Obey God Joyfully  Psalm 100 “Obey God gladly” Psalm 119:16 “I enjoy obeying your commands.” And vs. 47 “I find pleasure in obeying your commands.”Now why is obeying God enjoyable. Three reasons: i. We will have fewer problems – it always pays the follow the     maker’s instructions.ii. I know I’m going to be rewarded in heaven.Eternity is a long time to enjoy the fact that we made the right choices in this life.iii. Love always likes to please    To know God is to love Him; “Loving God means doing what He tells us to do.” 1 Jn. 5:3 LB It’s like marriage the longer we are married the better we know our spouse and the more we enjoy them and love them. (Wives call that training their husbands but its mutual thing) There is pleasure in doing the right thing and we gain enjoyment from thinking and acting more like Jesus. This is the only test of our love. God doesn’t measure our love by what we say but by what we do. Jesus said, “If you love me you will obey my commandments.”So we obey Him immediately, completely and joyfully. 

4. Obey Him Continually Life is not a 50 meter dash it’s a marathon. We can’t run a marathon in fits and starts and ever hope to finish in the allotted time.The Psalmist wrote, “I’m determined to obey you until I die.”119: 112 

Q. Have you made the choice to always obey God?  It’s non negotiable. I am determined to obey God until I die. It’s not actually that difficult – God has blessed me way beyond what I could have imagined and slowly my faith has been growing and many of you have discovered the same thing. That through obedience in the small things we learn obedience in the bigger things. The Psalmist wrote; “Just tell me what to do and I will do it, Lord. As I long as I live I’ll whole heartedly obey.” This is a good life prayer, why not make it your prayer too? “Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it”. We can’t expect God to answer our prayers for help if we have a selective obedience – if we haven’t acted on the truth He has already given us. Paul “We must be sure to obey the truth we have learned already”. Phil 3:16 NLT We deceive ourselves if we think we are going anywhere with God, just because we go to church and hear the weekly message and sing the songs and pray the prayers. The Bible says we must also be ‘doers’ of the Word not just hearers only.  James wrote, “Faith without action is dead.” James 2:26b. It’s acting in faith that makes us grow not just listening and taking notes. What we are talking about this morning is basic Christianity.  Jesus said, not everyone Jesus said who says “Lord, Lord” is my brother or sister. Not everyone who claims to know Jesus will enter the Kingdom of God and share eternity with him. It’s an issue of obedience. (Jesus) “Not all people who sound religious are really godly.  They may refer to me as Lord, but they still won’t enter heaven.  The decisive issue is whether they obey My Father.”  Matt 7:21 (NLT) 

Prayer 

As we close today ask yourself, ‘what does my obedience to God reveal about my love for God and my faith in God. Is your obedience to God immediate or delayed? Is it complete or partial e.g. God won’t mind about this one small thing. Is it joyful or reluctant? Is it continuous or spasmodic? 

Q. What have you been putting off, where is your obedience incomplete? Perhaps now you would like to pray with me. “Father there are many incomplete things in my life that I know You want me to do. Please forgive my disobedience? I now realize that it is a lack of trust and I ask Jesus to give me the strength to follow your commands, immediately, completely, joyfully and continually for the rest of my life from this point on. I am going to trust you to fulfil all your promises in my life and take responsibility for all you require me to do. In your name I pray.

Amen.

06 Jan 08

                               Preparing for the New Year

Isaiah 43:14-21  If we could somehow relive last year I’m sure that we would all do some things differently – hindsight is a wonderful thing. We seldom get everything right the first time, despite our best intensions. And when we do make mistakes we tend to focus on our failure more than our success. But God’s not like that. The Bible says that God celebrates our success, forgets our past and focuses on our future.  Isn’t that wonderful!  This is what inspires me to want to be more and more like God. To celebrate success and focus on the future, leaving the past behind me. This is a very good New Years resolution.  “The Lord says, `Forget about what has happened before.  Do not think about the past.  Instead, look at the new things I’m going to do.’” Isaiah 43:18-19 (NCV) The chapter is closed on last year and the years before that. Get ready to write a new chapter of your life and make it the best one yet.  God wants a relationship with us and relationships can’t be lived in the past. They must be kept up to date. The only question that remains for us to answer is, “Do I want a relationship with God?” And if the answers yes, ‘how do I keep on building it’? Today I want to share a way of thinking that’s in line with God’s thinking and it answers the question, ‘how do I keep my relationship with God fresh?It’s based on the word START.   

Regardless of our failures, there is always a way of starting again.    

S – STOP making excuses. If I want my relationship with God to be strong I have to stop making excuses for my failures.  I’ve got to stop blaming other people; I’ve got to stop rationalizing my mistakes away.  I’ve got to stop seeing myself as the victim of my circumstances.   It’s true that other people actions and words can hurt us.  But no-one can ruin our lives unless we allow them to and we do that by holding on to the memory of the wrongs done to us. Similarly our past failures can’t haunt us unless we hold onto the memory of them. Solomon wrote, “A man who refuses to admit his mistakes can never be successful.  But if he confesses and forsakes them he gets another chance.”  Proverbs 28:13  Now we tend to find this very difficult to do because we like to pass the buck if we can.  It’s human nature to want to shift the blame.  Ever since the Garden of Eden it’s been someone else’s fault.   But God says, “As far as your relationship is concerned I’m only interested hearing you take responsibility for what is your fault.” And there is always plenty for us to admit to, isn’t there? Let me suggest three common failures of life that we can try to avoid this year.        

#1.  We fail in life because we don’t plan ahead.  We make decisions and don’t consider the consequences.  The Bible says  “A sensible man watches for problems and prepares to meet them but the fool never looks ahead and suffers the consequences.” (Proverbs 20:7) Jesus often talked about the importance of planning.  He said, there was a man who started to build a tower but he couldn’t finish it because he didn’t have enough money, he forgot to plan.  He told a story about the king who went out to battle but he lost because he didn’t count the size of his army; he didn’t plan ahead.   “If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail.”          

# 2) We fail because we don’t listen to others.  We don’t listen to good advice when it’s offered.   “Plans fail without good advice.”  Proverbs 15:22  Why don’t we listen to the advice of other people?  Essentially it’s because of pride or Ego.  Ego stands for “Edging God Out.”     The Bible says, “Pride always leads to destruction.” An arrogant attitude leads to a fall.  We’re never going to go anywhere if we think we’ve already arrived.   ‘The man, who gets too big for his britches, will eventually be exposed in the end’.  That’s the problem with pride.  The third greatest cause of failure is;        

3) We give up too soon.   “If you give up when troubles come, it just shows that you are weak.” Proverbs 24:10  Failure is the path of least persistence.  Often, we give up just when success is around the corner.   If at first you don’t succeed, welcome to the human race, you’re normal.  Very few people achieve their goal at their first attempt.   World class failures:        

The young navel graduate who finished 42nd out of a class of 43  then he went out and conquered Europe;  Napoleon.        

The political candidate who lost almost every election he contested 10 or 12 – until finally he was elected President of the United States; Abraham Lincoln.          

Thomas Edison tried over 200 different elements before he discovered the right filament to use in the light bulb.  Over 200 failures before he had a success. It’s always too soon to give in if you are doing something that God has given you a passion for. People who are very good at making excuses are rarely good at making anything else.  They spend all their energy thinking up reasons why they can’t do what they’re supposed to do.   So “S” in START stands for ‘Stop making excuses’. Transparency is essential in any relationship, especially our relationship with God. 

T – TAKE stock

I need to take stock of my life.  Instead of focusing on what we may have lost look at what is left.What is God doing in my life?  What are my talents?  What are my assets?  What are my relationships?   Paul, “You have experienced many things.  Were all those experiences wasted?  I hope not.”  Galatians 3:4 ICB As we take stock of our life, we need to ask ourselves three questions.          

1.  What have I learned?   What have I learned from my experience? God uses every experience of life; the family we grew up in, significant people we have know along the way, our own immediate families, successes and failures. God uses all of these to help shape us. Nothing is wasted. As I look back on my life I see all of these things working together to shape my life.          It’s possible to live your whole life and only have 10 years experience i.e. the same experience over and over again, never learning anything new. 

Q. What did you learn from last year?          

2.  What are my assets?  What have I got going for me:  My health?  My freedom?  My mind?  My friendships?  My church family?  The Lord Jesus Christ?  What have I got that I can count on?          

3.  Who can help me?  We all need others by our side coming from a range of perspectives. Other people to walk the journey of life with us, people we trust and admire. A very significant part of taking stock has to do with the way we evaluate life.  Where do your values come from? Do they come from God’s Word or from somewhere else?  Perhaps we’ve brought into cultural values of our day, with their insatiable appetite for materialism and pleasure? What does my lifestyle say about my values?  Just because you experience something doesn’t make it true.  We need to evaluate, to take stock of all of our experiences. 

A – ACT in faith

 This is the third step in gaining a fresh start.  The Bible says that the way to change anything in your life is through faith.  If we want to change our circumstance or personality, it takes faith. “According to your faith it will be done to you.”  Matthew 9:29 NIV  This is a very simple but powerful statement, which means that we tend to get out of life what we expect from life.   What are you expecting of this year?  “The same old, stuff.  Nothing’s going to change in my life.”  Guess what?  Nothing will change for you with an attitude like that. The person who says, “I can!” and the person who says, “I can’t!” are both right.  We get out of life what we expect because of this simple truth.  So we need to start expecting more, more of ourselves and more of God. Start expecting more out of life.  That’s the faith principle. The person, who complains to God that life is unfair, misses the point. Of course life is unfair!  Whoever said it was fair?  God never said that.  This is a world filled with evil and sin and because of that, life is unfair.   But Jesus has also given us the key to living our lives fully and abundantly in this sinful world.  Solomon, “We should make our plans, counting on God to direct us.”   God doesn’t want us to drift through life.  He wants us to live by design, not by default. Have you ever realized that when you set goals you’re actually doing a faith exercise?  Goals are statements of faith.  A goal is simply a dream with a deadline placed on it.  It says, “I believe God wants me to do such in such, by a certain point in time.”   

Q. What are your goals for 2008;

personal goals, family goals, every significant area of your life needs a faith goal?   You may not reach all of them this year but at least your life will have some direction and momentum. It’s amazing that we spend more time planning a holiday or a meal than we do the rest of our life. 

Where do you need to act in faith today?  There’s one thing that will keep you from acting in faith in 2008.It’s worrying about what other people think.   The Bible says that’s a trap.  “The fear of man is a snare.”    When you worry about what other people think, you’re not going to do what God wants you to do.  You’re going to do what’s convenient, what every one else is doing.   

“Being afraid of people can get you into trouble.”  Proverbs 29:25  

R – REFOCUS

 Solomon wrote,

“Be careful how you think.  Your life is shaped by your thoughts.”  Proverbs 4:23         

The way we think, ultimately determines the way we feel.  And the way we feel determines the way we act.  None of us can change the way we feel without changing the way we think.  If you’re fearful and worried it’s because you are defeated by a lie, Jesus said, “don’t be afraid”. FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real.   Don’t ever try to just change your feelings, because you can’t force a feeling to change.  It’s like saying, “I’m going to force myself to feel more loving toward someone!”   The way to overcome fear or any other emotion is to refocus.  The Bible says, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Our past can’t hurt us unless we allow it to, by holding onto the memory of it. We change our lives by changing our thinking.  How do you do that?   We have to replace painful memories with something better.  Every painful memory has it’s antidote in God’s Word e.g. The antidote for guilt is confession.“Happy are those who are always meditating on God’s word.  They’re like trees along a river that do not dry up.  They succeed in everything they do.”  Psalm 1  It’s interesting that these are the two things everybody looks for in a new year’s resolution.  Happiness and Success – Psalm one tells us that the way to receive happiness and success is by “meditating on God’s word.”   What does it mean to meditate?  It means “to think about something over and over in your mind.”  We do it all the time only not always appropriately.   If you know how to worry, you are already an expert at meditating.  It’s just that you are meditating on the wrong thing. When you take fear or a negative idea and think on it over and over in your mind, we call that worry.  When we take a promise of God from the Bible and think on it over and over, we call that redemptive meditation.   It’s interesting that the Bible does not say, “If you read this book, you’ll be happy and successful.” It does not say, “If you listen to this book read or explained to you through a sermon, you’ll be happy and successful.”            

It says, “If you meditate on it you’ll be happy and successful.”   Wrestle with it and consider the implications of the Bible for your life, and if you do God says, it will produce happiness and success.   That’s where change takes place and the strength to start again comes from. So we come to the fifth step. 

T – TRUST

 We need to trust God to help us succeed. Don’t depend on yourself or anyone else.  You’ve already proven that doesn’t work.  Yet some people just don’t get it.  They stumble and fall and then they get up and say, “I’ll just try harder!”  They end up going down the same street and falling in the same hole because we can’t change ourselves we simply don’t know how. We only know one way and this leads to death. And all the time God is saying, “I am the way, follow me.”  If you are on the wrong road it really doesn’t matter how hard you try to get to the right destination the way you are headed won’t take you there. “Jesus answered them, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jn. 14:6 NIV Ultimately the secret of success is not to trying harder but to trust the only One who can save us by leading us to God. 

Q. Would you like to wipe the slate clean? 

Have you ever thought, “I’d like to completely redesign my life”?   
“When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside.  He is not the same anymore.  A new life has begun!”   A new beginning implies a different road with Jesus walking beside you.  God specializes in new beginnings.  God says, “I don’t want you to turn over a new leaf this year.  I’m going to give you a whole new life.”    “I will give you beauty for ashes.”   Let’s together ask Jesus to help us make a fresh start in 2008. 

Prayer: 

“Dear Loving Heavenly Father, only you can fully know the secrets of my heart.  You’ve seen me stumble.  You’ve watched me fall.  You’ve seen me fail.  You know the areas of my life that I’m ashamed of.  You know where I’ve hurt others even when I didn’t know I was doing it.  Father, you also know how I’ve been hurt by other people.   Today, on the first Sunday of the New Year I ask you to give me a fresh start.   I accept responsibility for my part of the problems in my life.  I’m going to stop making excuses.  Forgive me for not listening to you. Forgive me for thinking that I knew better.  Help me to take stock of the good that you’ve brought into my life.  Help me to learn from my experiences.  Today I want to act in faith.  In this simple prayer, I open up my life to you. I ask you, Jesus Christ, to be my Saviour and my Lord.  I ask you to forgive me and to guide me from this point on.  Help me to focus on you and your Word.  I want to trust you to give me the power to start again and to do the right thing.  Lord I invite you to be in charge.  In your name, I pray. 

Amen.”

John 3:16 – 21

Have you ever turned on the TV in the middle of a story and tried to work out what was happening?  Or have you ever been listening to someone, for a few minutes when they ask you what you think and you realize you haven’t really been paying attention?

In both of those situations you needed to know the rest of the story.

Today I want us to look at the rest of the story of Christmas.  To fully appreciate Christmas we have to know the whole story.

We have to go back to the very beginning.  History is God’s love story it is His-story. Like most good stories there is a plot, which develops as the story unfolds with its many chapters or Acts, like the Acts of a play.

Q. What is the rest of the Christmas story?

Act 1. Takes us back to the Book of Genesis (book of beginnings), which explains why God created the world and placed us in it.

Act 1- ‘God Created Us To Love Us’.

The Bible tells us that everything in the universe was created as the object of God’s love and enjoyment.  God wants a family and so He has carefully planned and created us to live in this fantastic planet for our enjoyment.

“Long before he laid down the earth’s foundations, God had us in mind, and settled on us as the focus on his love.”  Ephesians 1:4.  Mes.

In the Psalms we read, “The Lord is good to everyone.  He showers compassion on all his creation.  All living things will thank you, Lord.”  Psalm 145:9-10 (NLT)

Now God has shown His love to us in many more ways than we often remember.

For example God shows how much He loves us by giving us the capacity to enjoy pleasure.  Life is not to be endured but enjoyed.

For instance, what would our lives be like without our five senses, which we could live without?

God has filled the world with colour and given us Technicolor eyes to take it all in. There is no purpose for colour except pleasure.  We don’t need colour to survive. 

God also gave us ears.  Ears are amazing things!  Just two or three tiny bones inside our heads wonderfully knit together and then God filled the world with sound.  You don’t have to have sound to exist.  But God created sound for our pleasure.

That’s one of the problems evolutionists have.  What’s the purpose of music?  There is no purpose for music other than pleasure.  You can find musical expression in every culture throughout the world.  We have music because God wants us to enjoy life. 

Then the Malaysian favorite – He created taste buds!  I bet you are really glad about taste buds.

Think of your favorite foods, God filled the world with wonderful flavors.  There’s no purpose for flavor except for pleasure.  God could have made us to operate on one kind of fuel.  Like rice or oatmeal; can you imagine if the only thing we have to eat was oatmeal, how boring the world would be?

God made our taste buds simply for our pleasure and then He created all of these amazing flavors and combinations of flavor to make the things we love.

Pleasure is a gift of God that says I love you.

The Bible says, “God richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” 

When God sees us enjoying life, we give Him pleasure.

Remember Eric Liddell’s words ‘When I run I feel God’s pleasure.’ 

Yet we take so much of what God has given us in life for granted. 

Q. Have you ever thanked God for your own existence?

The Bible says this;

“I’ll never quit telling the story of your love—how you built the cosmos and everything in it.  Your love has always been our lives’ foundation; your faithfulness has been the roof over our world.”  Psalm 89:2 (Mes)  

The amazing thing about God’s creation is that we are the only part of creation that doesn’t automatically respond to God’s love. Why?

Because God has given us the gift of choice, ‘God loves us unconditionally and love does not demand its own way’.

Every other creature does exactly what it was made to do, doesn’t have any other choice. Yet we have abused the choice that God gave us by largely ignoring God.

That leads us to Act 2 in the story of human history.  Act 1, God made everything, especially us, as an expression of His love.

Acts 2.  We walk away, from God’s love.

This is the tragic part of the story. We are all guilty of ignoring God’s love on a daily basis.   

Of course, Adam and Eve did it first. They had the best of everything. God created them and gave then a stunningly beautiful garden in which to live, with everything they needed. God even provided Adam with the girl of his dreams. Do you know what Adam said when he saw Eve?  

“You’re the only woman in the world for me!” 

Everything was perfect; no stress, no interruptions, no painful memories, no dysfunctional family, no in law problems, and no clothes.  How can you mess that up?  But they did.

God’s wish was only that they would love Him and respect the single boundary that He placed upon their lives. God said “You can do whatever you want in this garden it’s all yours to enjoy. I made it for you”.

But because life involves choices, God gave them the opportunity to decline His love.

“I’m giving you the choice to not love me.”  

“Don’t eat the fruit of that tree in the middle of the garden. That’s all I ask of you.”

“Trust me in this, only evil will come from eating of that tree and its forbidden fruit.”

Now we know the rest of the story they couldn’t resist this one tree and we know why, ‘forbidden fruit always looks sweeter’.

It’s in our nature that when somebody says to us “you can’t do that, what do we do”?  We head straight for it.  We are all inherently sinful.

This story, of how people walked away from God, is so important to our understanding of Christmas.  You’ve got to know the rest of the story.

Let’s call it the Path Out Of Paradise. (Milton ‘Paradise Lost’)                   This is the tragic part of the play when Adam and Eve and all of us in turn follow this same path away from perfect trust and obedience.

There are four things in the human story that cause us to walk away from God. Things we all do practically every day.  We need to know this.                

If you’ve ever wondered, how the world has come to be in such a mess?  This is why, it’s because we have taken The Path Out of Paradise.

To help us remember I’ve written the reason in the form of an acrostic using the word PATH.  The first step in walking away from God is…

P – Presumption

It is presumptuous to question God, to doubt that God knows what He’s doing.  There is one thing that we can always be sure of and it is that we will never know better than God. But when we doubt that we put ourselves in a very dangerous position.

The devil comes to us as he came to Eve and says, “Did God really say, don’t eat the fruit of this tree?  He’s questioning God.  He’s causing Eve to doubt God.  That presumption!

How does that happen?  How do we get to the point where we question God? There are two situations that I can think of?

1. When circumstances go against us and our plans don’t turn out the way we want and we question; “Why did God allow that? If He really loves me why does He let that happen?”  And we take our first steps out of paradise.

2. We stumble over God’s commands.

Why does God have so many rules?  Everything God does is for the one reason, because He loves us. As parents we have rules and guidelines for our children not because we hate them but because we love them.

God knows what will make us happy and every time we doubt, that God knows better than we do, we get into trouble.

A – Arrogance

Arrogance means we don’t just doubt God.  We start wanting to be god. God of our own lives and then in the lives of others; making up our own rules, which we then try to force onto others.  Doing only what we want to do.

When Satan first tempted Eve he challenges God’s Word, “If you eat this fruit you’re not going to die.  You’re going to become like God.”  Notice the devils method here.

If I were to say to you, when you go from church today that ‘I want you all to do something blatantly evil’.  I know that you wouldn’t do it and so does the devil he knows not to tempt you this way. We are tempted to act in much more subtle ways in presumptuous ways, as Jesus was tempted in the wilderness.

‘To be our own god’ and today we have an entire industry, dedicated to building our egos and telling us that we can do everything for ourselves without any help from God!”

And very soon we find that we are assuming responsibility for decisions God never intended us to have.  As if life all depends on us, which in turn produces and stress and all the other symptoms which are endemic in our society.  When God tells me to do something and I ignore it, I’m acting like I’m god.

First P- for presumption then A for arrogance, then;

T – Temptation.

Temptation is when I start to trust my feelings more than what I know I should. More than I know is right to do.

The Bible says ‘Eve looked at the fruit and said, “That looks delicious”.

It appeared to offer the promise of pleasure.  We begin to follow feelings rather than what we know is right.  Like the old song, “If loving you is wrong, then I don’t know what’s right.”

Q. Have you ever known anybody who chose pleasure over God?  Sure you have.  We do it all the time.

Finally, if you stay on that path long enough – Presumption, Arrogance and Temptation, leads us to;

H – Hostility

We begin to get angry with God.  Q. How do you know when somebody’s at that stage?

Just mention God’s name and you will receive back a disproportionately hostile reaction.  What that hostility is saying is, “I’m out to please myself and do what I want to do and God’s not going to stop me.”

When we take this ‘Path Out of Paradise’ eventually we develop angry feelings and thoughts towards God.

Which always leads to darkness in our lives; Why?

The Bible says God is light.  He’s not just love.  “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”  God didn’t create the darkness – darkness is the absence of light.

Since God is light, every time I walk away from God and His light the darker it becomes for me.  And the more I move toward the light, the more insight I receive.

And if enough people in a town or country choose to walk away from God?  The whole culture of that Society becomes desperate and bleak.

“Because you are in darkness, all the foundations of society are shaken to the core.”  Ps 82:5 LB

So that’s the bad news.

Act I. God made us to love us,

Act II. We walked away from God.  But it gets better.

Act III.  God sent Jesus to win us back to Himself.

This is the message of Christmas. 

God is not going to force us to love Him. That wouldn’t love. However He has done everything he can to win us back. 

The Bible says,

“This is how God showed his love for us.  He sent his one and only Son into the world” so that we could have life through Him.”         

1 John 4

John 3:16 is probably the most important single verse in the Bible.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” 

Jn 3:16 explains the ‘Path back to paradise’.  (Paradise Rediscovered)

There are four steps out of paradise.  But there are only two steps necessary to get back in.

They’re contained in this verse.

Step 1 Receive God’s gift of love.

“God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.”

This is where our tradition of giving gifts at Christmas began. God gave the first Christmas gift, the gift of Himself.

Notice Jn 3:16, doesn’t say God sent and angel or prophet or a good teacher.  It says God so loved the world that He sent His Son. 

Paul wrote, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself”

In the Old Testament Jesus is called Emmanuel - God with us.                     God said, my people have so lost their way I’ll go myself and bring them back home.

Q. Why was that necessary?  Because somebody has to pay for all the things we’ve done wrong. God says I love you.  I will pay the price.

If there had been any other way for us to be reconciled to God other than through Jesus dying on the cross, God would have taken it.

But there wasn’t another way.  Even if you were the only person who ever lived, if you took the path out of paradise Jesus would still have come to earth and died on the cross for you, so great is God’s love for us.

Step 2  ‘Believe His promise’.

The way back to God is to receive and I believe.  I receive His gift of love and I believe His promise.

What’s the promise?  It’s the greatest offer you’re ever receive in life.  “That whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” 

It’s an offer made to everyone who wants a relationship with God.

The only way to please God is through faith. If you want to please God do what you can to grow your faith, – faith is what made Abraham righteous and faith is still the only thing that pleases God.

Act IV.   We Choose To Accept God’s Love and Forgiveness.

God gives us a choice.  He’s not going to force Himself on us.  The Bible says this

“Today I’m giving you the choice between blessing and curse.” 

The blessing of God is becoming part of God’s family and spending eternity with God now and in the future.  The curse is missing out all that God has promised.

“God’s unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 1:5  

If I could give you any gift this Christmas – it would be to give you a greater experience of God’s love than you have known.

“May you be able to feel and understand how long and how wide and how deep and how high God’s love really is.  Then experience this love for yourselves.”        

Long enough to last forever!  God will never stop loving you.  Human love comes to an end.

Wide enough to be everywhere, there will never be a place that you go where God’s love is not.          

Deep enough, to handle any of our problems.

Act V.  Is Eternity.  It’s the final Act of human history. 

Most of us will have seventy to eighty years of life here in this world but this is not the end of us.  We have an immortal soul. The question is where are we going to spend eternity?

Every one who has believed and received God’s love through the Holy Spirit will live with God forever.

The Bible says

“No man has ever seen, or heard, or even imagined what wonderful things God has ready for those who love the Lord”

1 Cor 2:9 LB

Everyone who has rejected God’s love in this life will live without God forever. And to spend an eternity without God would be hell!  (A loveless existence.)

“It makes no difference who you are or where you’re from if you want God and you’re ready to do what he says, the door is open.”

Jesus is an equal opportunity Savior.  It doesn’t matter what you’ve done with your life God says to all of us,

“With deep love I will take you back.”

Will you come home to God this Christmas; Jesus Christ has made a way for us?

Prayer:Are you on the path to paradise? Remember its four steps out but only two steps back.  All we have to do is believe God’s promise and you receive God’s Son.

Many years ago I prayed a simple prayer which marked the beginning of a journey of faith which I’m still on.             

I’m going to pray that prayer again now and I invite you to follow me in it.  You don’t have to pray it aloud.  God knows your heart, your thoughts.  In fact you don’t even have to say these exact words. You only need to agree with them,

“Dear God, today I’ve realized/remember how much you really love me.  I believe that I was made to be loved by You.

Thank You for Christmas.  Thank You for coming to into our world 2000 years ago so I could know about your amazing love and so that I could receive your forgiveness.  Jesus, I don’t understand everything, I don’t have it all figured out, but as much as I know how I want to say yes to you.  I believe that I can’t earn my way to heaven but trust in what you’ve already done for me.  I want to commit myself to you, I want to know you and to trust you and to follow you and your purpose for my life.  I want to be what you created me to be.  And I want to know what it means to love you as you have always loved me. 

In your name we pray. Amen.”

11 Dec 07 

Luke 1: 26 – 38 

Why did God choose Mary to be the mother of Jesus? It obviously wasn’t an arbitrary choice, God doesn’t do anything in am arbitrary way.

The Bible says that God is ‘looking for people He can use’ and if you are usable He will wear you out in a most satisfying way and Mary had all the necessary qualifications to be used by God.

We haven’t really lived until we know the joy of being used by God to bless others. We have been, ‘blessed by God to be a blessing’. This is what God told Abraham and it should be the mission statement of all believers.

Some of you may think, ‘I could never be used by God in a special way’, but you are quite wrong. God wants to use you in ways you have never imagined and this morning we are going to look at why God chose Mary ahead of every one else.

Do you know the most exceptional thing about Mary apart from her faith, was her ordinariness? Nowhere does the Bible say that she was perfect or sinless, it doesn’t say we should venerate her. The special thing about Mary is that God took an ordinary young woman and used her in an extraordinary way. God didn’t choose her because or her education, because she didn’t have any and it wasn’t because of her wealth because she was poor or because she was an experienced mother because she was only a teenager.

God choose Mary because she trusted Him. Let’s read again what happened when the angel came to Mary.

“God sent an angel, Gabriel, to Nazareth, a town of
Galilee to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph. The virgins name was Mary.” Gabriel explains what was going to happen and Mary’s initial response was one of shock as we would expect.

“Confused and disturbed Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be frightened, Mary, the angel told her for God has decided to wonderfully bless you!” (It’s always a blessing to be used by God)The Greek word for ‘confused and disturbed’ is a strong word which means petrified, and Mary had several reasons to be afraid. She would no doubt experience;

i. The fear of ‘people’s criticism’ – what was every one going to think? (An unmarried mother – certainly no one would believe that God was the Father)ii. The fear of the supernatural ‘What would happen to her’?iii. The fear of inadequacy – “How can I handle this’? vi. Fear of change – ‘How will this change my life and my engagement   to Joseph’?

Maybe you can recognise these fears in yourself. They have the potential for keeping us from being used by God.If we are to be like Mary ‘a person God can use’ we need to deal with our fears.

Let me suggest the way to control fear. – Three principles to live by.

1. God Uses People Who Desire To Do His Will. We have to want to do God’s will, more than anything else. We can’t be half hearted about this. We must be able to say ‘I want only what God wants for me. I want His plan for my life.”        

God made us for a purpose but we can easily miss or avoid what God’s has planned for us. We must choose in advance to cooperate with God’s purpose and tell Him that this is what we want above all else. (We can waste and squander and our live and arrive at the end with very little to show for it. Now is the time to plan to avoid that happening to us.

God found in Mary someone who has a genuine desire to do His will and so God sent His angel messenger to explain His plan and Mary’s part in it.It was an extraordinary pronouncement; God would enter the world as a vulnerable little baby and Mary was to be his mother. Every Jew expected the Messiah but none of them imagined it happening this way.

Q. Why did God choose to come among us as a baby and be born to a peasant girl? Two reasons;

i. God didn’t want to frighten anyone and no-one is afraid of a baby. Christ could have come with a huge entourage of angles and ‘chariots of fire’ in the sky and scared the people but this wasn’t His intention and so He came as a baby largely unnoticed by the world. Next time He comes it will be in quite a different way, the first time He came it was as the Savour of the world the next time He will come as the worlds Judge.

ii. He wanted to identify with every one and so he came into the world in the same way that everyone else begins their life, through natural birth only with out the extras. No sanitised delivery room, no epidurals for Mum but in the way that most of us began life.

God told Mary ‘you will be the mother of a special child you are to call him the Son of God and this will be the way that I will enter this ungrateful little world that I have made.’

“I am the Lord’s servant” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said”? vs38  Mary didn’t show any reluctance at all; she didn’t bring up the subject of her plans and dreams to marry Joseph. She could have said “this isn’t a good time for me can you ask someone else. I’ve got to do what is best for me.”Not only did Mary not hesitate but she rejoiced in God’s plan for her life.

And she launches into a wonderful song of faith and praise which we call Mary’s Magnificat;

“My soul praises the Lord my heart rejoices in God my Saviour, because he has shown his concern for his humble servant girl.” Vs.1:46 – 48

This is why God chose Mary and it’s why God will choose us. God uses people who want to be used.

Mary had two essential attitudes;

Enthusiasm – Listen to her words! “My soul praises the Lord and my heart rejoices.”There is no expression of grim duty in her response. She delights in the news.

Nothing great is ever done without enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is made up of two Greek words ‘en’ and ‘theos’ which means ‘in God.’When we have God in our lives we will go about our tasks of life enthusiastically.

Mary’s other quality was humility – Thank you God you for choosing me!Mary understood the meaning of grace – none of us deserves to be used by God. Grace means that God gives us what we need not what we deserve. We will never deserve any honour that God bestows on us when He asks us to do something for Him.

The constant prayer of a believer should be “Thank you for using me as a pastor in your Church or as a member in the music team.” or whatever it is we do for God. So the first step is our desire to be used by God.

The Bible calls David “A man after God’s own heart.” Why? Because David often declared his love for God; “I desire to do your will, O my God.”Paul was another who said “My only goal is to please God.” Does this mean they were perfect? Not at all but they had the right attitude and God could use them. People who want to do God’s will regularly tune into God, you see ‘our heart will always be where our treasure is.. Where was Mary’s treasure? Luke 2:19 tells us;

“Mary quietly treasured these things in her heart and often thought about them.”

Q. What do you think about most of all, maybe it’s getting married, or being better off financially or retiring perhaps?

There is nothing wrong with desiring these things but they are not what God put us here for. Jesus said ‘Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things will be added to you.” It starts with a desire, ‘God uses people who desire to do His will’.

2. God Uses People Who Decide To Pay the Cost. There is always a cost in following God’s plan for our life. Economists call it an ‘opportunity cost’ for example when you decided to come to church today you gave up the opportunity to do something else.

Q. What did it cost Mary to be obedient? 

i. Her reputation – she would be unmarried mother. Imagine having to   explain her pregnancy to her betrothed Joseph who when he heard, he “Resolved to divorce her quietly.”  

Later Joseph changed his mind when he learned the truth and then Joseph was asked to pay the same prise as the perceived father of Mary’s child.    There would be a lot of disgrace for them both and it would be another thirty plus years before every one else learned Jesus true identity they certainly couldn’t tell people the truth at the time.   

No wonder there is no other family mentioned at the time of Jesus birth Mary and Joseph were all alone at this most joyful time in an extended families life.      

The point is that if we are serious about God’s plan for our life there will be people who will be unhappy with us and who will misunderstand us and criticise of us. Mary sacrificed her reputation and she also sacrificed;

   ii. Her Comfort – Jesus birth coincided with a census ordered by Caesar Augustus and everyone had to return to their ancestral home.

For Joseph and Mary this was Bethlehem, as the Prophets predicted ‘the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem’ but Mary didn’t know much about prophecy.   

The more immediate problem for Mary was that she was nine months pregnant and living three days journey away from Bethlehem in Nazareth and she would have to make the long journey on the back of a donkey.

How do you feel about that ladies, those of you have been through pregnancy?   

Q. Would you relish being this young peasant girl, having your first child in a foreign land in the middle of winter without your family around you, except for your husband of just a few months?      

What is more soon after you learn that the King wants to kill your baby so that you have to flee to Egypt?

Sometimes God asks us to do difficult things – it’s part of the plan and part of the cost. There is a cost in serving anyone and Christians are called to be servants.   Jesus was very up front about the cost of discipleship;

“No one can be my disciple who does not carry his own cross and follow me. But don’t begin until you count the cost.” Lk. 14:27 28 LB

Christianity is not a soft option and Jesus taught people to weigh up the cost.

The Apostle Paul often wrote about the cost of following Jesus but he also knew that the benefits were worth it.

“All these things that I once thought worthwhile …now I have thrown all away so that I can put my trust in Christ alone.” Phil 3:7 LB

‘What I used to cherish doesn’t matter to me any more. I’ve traded them all just so I can be at the centre of God’s plan for my life’.

Q. What are you willing to give up in order to be used by God?

There will be a cost; perhaps a relationship that is holding you back, your ambitions and dreams about prosperity and success, it could be several things. Are you willing to exchange them for God’s best?

Ask yourself do I desire to do God’s will and am I willing to pay the cost. But there is one more qualification;

3. God Uses People Who Dare To Trust His Promises,

It takes courage to be used by God but courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is believing in something much bigger than our fear.Mary was a young woman of faith, she trusted God and she wasn’t afraid of the miraculous.

“Mary asked the angel, ‘But how can I have a baby? I am a virgin?’ The angel replied, ‘The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you…For nothing is impossible with God.” Lk. 1:34, 35, 37 NLT

Q. Do you believe in a ‘nothing is impossible God’?  Tragically many people have made God in their own image no bigger than their understanding.

Q. Is it possible that the reason that God has never done a miracle in your life it is because you are afraid of the supernatural?

You don’t want to lose control of your life like Mary was asked to. If we only ever play it safe we make it impossible for God to do anything miraculous.

Mary had every reason to worry. She was about to be given the greatest responsibility of all but instead of worrying Mary burst into worship. Instead of panicking she prays and praises God, what wonderful example of faith she is to us.

When you find yourself in a situation where you think you are in over your head – you are trying to do what is right but it’s very scary. Take a lesson from Mary; don’t worry worship. Don’t panic but pray and praise God.

Fear is the result of getting our focus off God and onto the problem worship will always reverse the situation.

Jesus said “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” Lk 18:27 NIVMary’s cousin Elizabeth appreciated this special quality about Mary when she said to Mary;

“You believed that God would do what he said. That is why he has given you this wonderful blessing.” Lk. 1:45 LB

Now if God can take a teenager with no education and choose her to be the mother of the Messiah, don’t you think he can do something pretty remarkable with our lives too?

There is huge spiritual potential in this congregation. I’m not wishing to minimise what you have already achieved but the greatest needs of the people we interactive with every day are spiritual needs – to know the love of God. Imagine what we could do if we were more courageous about sharing our faith.

One day we will all stand before our Creator and Redeemer and He will ask us what we did with the gift of life that He gave us? And who is going to enjoy eternality in heaven, at least in part because of us?

Now is the time to anticipate God’s question and one of the ways to do this is by saying ‘yes’ to God now.             

To say to God; ‘Any time any place and in any way use me. I want to fulfil your purpose in my life whatever that means’.

‘I don’t want to go through life and gain the whole world yet loose my own soul. I want the joy of hearing you say when I stand before you “Well done good and faithful servant enter into my rest.”  Christmas is just over one week away, if you have never said ‘yes to God why not celebrate the anniversary of God’s most wonderful gift to us by giving Him the only thing that is yours to give – the gift of life.

“Lord here I am, the good the bad and the ugly parts of me, use me and make me all you want me to be’.

Now ask your self ‘Do I truly desire to do God’s will, am I willing to pay the cost and am I willing to trust God’.

Mary was willing and this is why God used her in such a miraculous way. Prayer

Are you ready to give God that unique place in your life that belongs exclusively to Him? Tell God that you want to be what He made you to be. Pray this prayer. “Dear Lord Jesus Christ, more than anything else I want to do your will in my life.I am willing to pay the cost whatever you ask me to give up I will do it because I am not satisfied with second best.Lord I want to learn how to trust your promises to become a person of faith in all things. What seems impossible to me is not too difficult for you. I am willing to trust you because of what Jesus has already done in my life.Amen

2 December 07

(The third message in our series on Holy Communion) 

Luke 15: 11- 32

Q. What was your first thought when you woke-up this morning, were you excited by the prospect of going to a celebration? Or did someone have to hassle you to get out of bed?  

(Story of the African bishop who slept in late one Sunday morning and the house boy was sent to wake him, he was to knock on the bishops door and to say “it’s the boy my lord I have come to wake you” But he was so nervous when he knocked and the bishop called out he said “It’s the Lord my boy I’ve come to wake you up.” It certainly got him out of bed in a hurry. 

Q. So what was your first thought when you woke-up this morning? It is a serious question. 

Jesus said that knowing God and having a living relationship with Him was like going to a banquet. Jesus loved metaphors and he used them a lot in his teaching e.g. ‘The kingdom of Heaven is like a man who finds a beautiful pearl or a buried treasure.’             

The most wonderful example of Jesus’ use of metaphor I think is found in this great parable of the lost or prodigal son.  It’s a beautiful story and Jesus conclusion is that the only appropriate response to being reconciled to God is one of celebration.

You know we don’t have nearly enough celebrations in the church – we sometimes take ourselves too seriously and we forget what life was like without Jesus. When we lived in India we saw how the Hindu’s celebrated all of time and yet we have so much more reason to celebrate. 

Jesus said that the only appropriate feeling for being loved by God as one of great joy. Look at the Father’s response to being restored to his lost son and remember that the father in Jesus parable is our Heavenly Father.  

“..we had to celebrate and be glad (literally joyful), because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found”’. Luke 15:32 

So joy is the inward feeling associated with the experience of being loved by God, Joy is always going to be our feeling when we experience God’s amazing grace in the gift of His one and only Son. But some times we forget and if you don’t feel the joy of the Lord just spend more time with God – hangout with God- because the more time you spend with Him the more aware you will become of what God has done and is doing in your life. As Snoopy the dog used to say “To know me is to love me”. That’s absolutely true of out loving Heavenly Father 

What we discover in the language of the Bible is that joy ‘chara’ is the result of grace ‘charis’, which is why again and again we read words like, “The joy of the Lord is my strength?”  Paul word to the Philippians was “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice” (He wrote that while he was in prison.) To know and live with the living God is like being part of a great celebration. It feels like being invited to a great banquet where all we are asked to do is enjoy God and enjoy each other.  

This is what we anticipate most when we celebrate Holy Communion. 

But let’s go back to our story?  

I think there is no lovelier story in the Bible than this one often called the parable of the prodigal son. 

But I don’t think that we should let the lost son capture the whole message of the story. If we go to the dictionary we will find that the word prodigal means lavishly extravagant which accurately describes, in different ways, the behavior of all the characters in this parable. There are different kinds of prodigality (lavish extravagance) in this story.

I. Three Different Examples of Prodigality. 

1. The younger son was certainly a prodigal. He took his inheritance and lavishly squandered it all. He wasted everything he had and not just his inheritance; also his youth, and innocence. What a waste!  

    His was the prodigality of misuse.    And you and I are also guilty of wastefulness at times and it will rob us of the joy of our Heavenly Father’s love. 

2.  But the older brother’s behavior also fits the definition of prodigal.There is the prodigally of use (that is squandering what we have) and also the prodigality of disuse (that is hoarding what we have been given) of burying our talents and treasure in the ground.There is a way of leaving God and going into a far country but there is also a way of never leaving at all and yet still being far away. At home but not at home, just like the elder brother and there is no joy in that either. 

3.   The third kind of prodigality is present in the Father, who lavishly loved both of his sons.  When Jesus wanted to describe what God is like he pictured him as a father running down the hill to meet his long lost son. This is the picture that God wants us to have as we celebrate our belonging to him. And note this isn’t the picture of a stiff and starchy God aloof and at a distance. Before Jesus came into the world, religion was dominated by the need to please or placate God with sacrifices and by the observance of all kinds of disciplines and religious practices.

If you were a Jew only a priest could go into the holy of holies and only once a year. God was considered high and lifted up beyond the reach of very-one. 

What an amazing revolution Jesus began? God was no longer out of reach, cloistered away in the Holy of holies but a God who is willing to run toward those who take a first step towards Him. 

On the other hand and there is always the need to seek balance in the way we think about God.He is still a Holy God and He deserves our utter respect, our very best and our complete reverence and devotion. (Rabbi Story– two stones) 

     Because the greatness of God does not keep Him remote from us. He is here in search of every one of us – His desire is to seek and save that which is lost.                             

Q. Who are the lost?

– They include anyone who doesn’t know and experience the love and grace of God.     

Q. Do you want to know how God feels about you?

Look at the Father in this parable. If you are in any way lost (whether it’s lost for direction in your life or in some other way) take just one step towards God and He will run to welcome you home. He puts the family ring on your finger, the robe that is reserved for special guests around your shoulders and shoes on your feet. God has always had this in mind for you – He has always wanted you as His child – even if you hadn’t realized it before.  What are the lessons of this parable for us? II. Lessons about love.What do we learn about love from this wonderful story? Jesus once said that, “The one who is forgiven much loves much”  

1. Q. Do you think that the younger son would love his father more dearly than he had ever done before after the way he was welcomed home. Certainly! 

 2.  Now if the younger brother “loves much” what about the older brother? Sadly he had never learned to receive and return the love of his father. He was also lost and there are many people like him today.People who receive God’s goodness and grace but just hoard it – assuming in some presumptuous way that it’s their birthright or that they have done something to earn it. Some of us don’t even realize what it is that God has given us to share. There is no need greater that the need of knowing our need. To be so out of touch with the Father that you can’t come in and dance at a feast prepared to celebrate your own brother’s return home, is a terrible thing. And what would have happened if the elder brother had met the younger on his way back to his father?     

To somehow imagine that we have earned the right to be here but he has not, is to miss the point of life. Although we may not say it we think it, “I’m worthy God ought to be able to love me but not this waster.” 

This is the attitude of the elder brother- who else took care of the fattened calf? We fed it! We cleaned up after it. We watched over the whole farm. And in our minds we think, we haven’t been ‘forgiven much’ – haven’t needed to be. And church isn’t so much a matter of joy to us it has become our duty. But you know to miss the joy of the Lord is to miss everything. A strange thing happens to us as elder brothers.  

We think that we can come to the Lord’s Table and receive all that God has to give and not be concerned at all by the suffering of the lost people all around us.And we probably find it quite difficult to understand why others in the church greet returning prodigals with such enthusiasm. 

You see this is what can happen to God’s people when the rigors of religion and duty take hold of them. But if all we do is think about our own spirituality, putting in an appearance now and then, then we have not been changed by the Gospel because the Gospel always brings us to God’s way of thinking. And as Jesus said, God is most concerned for the lost which is why He sent Jesus to us. 

There was a time in King David’s life when he so loved the Lord that he danced before the Ark of the Covenant.  Joy so over took him that he could not contain himself but David’s wife Michal scorned his enthusiasm and God rightly punished her for it. 

Jesus said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls”. Matt.12:28-29.  

All who are burdened by life, everyone whose faith has grown lukewarm, to you he says come eat with me, at my table, even if you feel unworthy. 

He breaks down all of our defenses and unites us in a oneness that only members of the Body of Christ can know.  

A fantastic love grows out of that and helps break down the defenses of others who are yet to know God. It’s the love inspired by the Holy Spirit the same Spirit that was in Jesus. 

So come, it’s time to celebrate God’s amazing love once again –  

‘For God so loved the world that he sent His only begotten son that who so ever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.’ Prayer. Dear Lord Jesus thank you for teaching us about our Heavenly Fathers love for us. Heavenly Father you gave us a new birth into a living hope when you sent you Son Jesus to live among us and when our sin killed him You brought Him back from death; so that we could have a new start in life free from the guilt and shame of the past, confident that nothing in death or life can separate us from you love. To think that you love us like that makes us want to shout for joy and sing your praise. 

And so as we prepare ourselves to once again eat and drink at the table which down through the ages has been a place of strength and comfort and encouragement for countless numbers of your followers. 

We ask you give us clean ‘hands and a pure heart washed by the life blood of Jesus’, that you may accept the offering we bring of our love and devotion and through the Holy Spirit strengthen us to live for you.Through Jesus Christ:Amen

2 Cor. 9: 6-13

We have been talking about ‘Growing in Faith’ and throughout the series I have been emphasising the promises of God.

Faith means taking someone at their word.

People who walk by faith (not their own understanding) are people who know and claim the promises of God.

One of the best known promises in the Bible is Phil 4:19 our memory verse this week.

‘My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus’.

This is a very bold statement but what does this mean? Its meaning is often misunderstood.

You may think to yourself “I have needs in my life that are not being met. I have physical needs. Spiritual needs. Social needs. Personal needs.  Many needs that are not being met, so why doesn’t this verse work for me”?

The first thing I want to say is that the problem does not lie with God.

Behind every promise in the Bible is a premise.

A condition; God says “If you will do this then I will do this.  And today we are going to look at those conditions that lie within the promises of God. If we follow the premise behind the promise – we can rely on God to meet all our needs. He doesn’t say I’ll meet all our greed’s!  In 2 Cor. 9 God spells it all out more clearly for us by offering us a life-changing formula which has a principle, a procedure and a promise.

These are some of the most important words I will speak on the subject of faith.

Here is the Principle:

I. When you have a special need – plant a seed.  “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously”. 2 Cor.9:6

This is the principle of ‘sowing and reaping’. (All of us understand this principle at least in part).When a farmer looks at a barren field and he wants to grow a crop of wheat or maize, what does he do? Does he pray about it? No – prayer is worthless at this point. Does he complain about it? No. Complaining is pointless. What he needs to do is to go out and sow whatever seed he has. Until he sows some seed nothing is going to happen in that field.

The first thing he has to do is ‘give’ – to exercise faith.

Imagine that there are two farmers both in debt but they both have a sack of seed. One farmer says “This is all I have left – I’m hanging on to it. I’m not going to give it away and I’m not putting it in the ground – once it’s gone, its gone.”That man will never get out of debt.

The other farmer says “My last sack of seed. I’m going to sow it in the ground where of itself it will die. The only way I will get out of debt is to give away what I have (let it go).

This is the Principle.

Now it’s not so hard for a farmer to invest his seed in the ground because he has had some experience of how the grain harvest works.

But God says that the principle of the grain harvest extends to all of life.To our finances; our time; our relationships they are all subject to the level of our faith.

It may seem illogical. You may say “Well, I don’t have enough. Why should I give away what I have?” The answer is ‘because it’s God’s way’ and ‘God’s ways are infinitely better than our ways’. God wants to teach us faith.

Example.

Q. What are our ways of getting out of a financial bind?

1.   Borrowing – put it on the credit card.

2.   Work harder – second job – overtime

3.   Some people beg or steal but most of us borrow or work harder.

God says “That’s not my way”. My way is spelt G.I.V.E.

‘When you have a need, sow some seed’. This is a faith response and the more seed you sow the bigger your harvest. If you only want God to bless you a little, just sow a little.

I talk to people all the time who say “I’m too busy to give my time” or “I’ll give more money when I get out of debt. God says “You don’t understand. I’ll help you find more time”. (Busy people always have the most time)“You start giving and I’ll get you out of debt”.

It’s a matter of faith.If we want to make it through life on our own, God will let us do that. But if we want to walk by faith instead of by sight, start planting some seed.

The law of planting and reaping is a principle that applies to every area of our lives.Whatever you give out in life we are going to receive back. If you give out criticism you are going to receive back criticism.

If you show kindness, people are going to be kind to you. Similarly you’ll get anger for anger, love for love.

And what’s more, whatever you receive back will be in a greater measure than you have given.

Notice that if you get angry with someone, they well become more angry with you. If you are critical of someone, they will be more critical of you. (Dynamics of vendetta it just accelerates)

So whatever you need your first need is to give what you have away.          If you need more time, give away time; more money, start sharing what you have; more energy, give it away. How do we become more energetic? By sitting around? No, by using what energy you have to exercise.

So this is the Principle and the next verse (Vs 7) gives us the Procedure.

II.              Give with the right attitude.

There is a right way and a wrong way to plant seed and a right and a wrong way to give. It doesn’t work unless we do it with the right attitude.

“You must each make up your own mind (in other words nobody can tell you what to give) as to how much you should give. Don’t give reluctantly nor in response to pressure for God loves a person who gives cheerfully”. 2 Cor.9:7

Let’s be very clear – God doesn’t need our time, our talents or our money. Let’s not forget ‘the earth is the Lord’s and everything in it’.

We only hold what we have in trust. We use it when we are alive, and when we die it goes to someone else. So we don’t really own anything and God doesn’t need any material thing from us.What He seeks from us is our heart.

He wants what our money represents – Money is at the centre of a great deal of our life’s efforts, plans, worries and thinking.

And God says money is such a major part of your life, I want that too.

The Bible says “Where your treasure is your heart is also.” 

Q.  What do you spend your time thinking about? We don’t have to have a lot of money to be preoccupied with it – it’s not the amount that matters to God but the attitude. And this extends to our giving. God is not interested in how much we give, but in why we give what we give. Why? Because we give according to what’s in our heart.

Let me give you 5 good attitudes to develop from this verse:

1.   I am to give thoughtfully. Paul says “make up your own mind”.

Don’t let anyone tell you what to give. Don’t give impulsively (some people think that impulsive giving is more spiritual) – But God wants us to think about it – pray about it and make a thoughtful decision.

2.   Be enthusiastic. – Paul says ‘not reluctantly’ out of guilt – never give out of guilt – ‘not grudgingly’ (“I guess I have to”).

3.   I am to give voluntarily. It says “not in response to pressure”. You won’t ever hear me tell you what you must give. Some of you may feel pressured when the subject of giving comes up. But that’s your problem – it’s an internal problem that you may need to deal with. So do it voluntarily – if you feel pressured – don’t give. Because God says it’s the attitude that counts – remember the widow’s mite?4.   I am to do it cheerfully if I want God to meet my needs.

Like the farmer, I sow my seed glad of the opportunity to reap a good harvest in due time. “God loves the person who gives cheerfully”. The word is ‘hilarus’ – our word ‘hilarious’. The Bible doesn’t say ‘give until it hurts’ but ‘give until it feels good’.

If it never feels good to give, you have not given enough. You will always have a good feeling when you know your giving is making a difference.

Q. Why does God love a cheerful giver?

Because He is one.          

He cheerfully gave to us every moment we have. We rejoice in the life He has given us. It’s His nature – He loves to give and when we give cheerfully He knows that the real essence of Christ lives in us.  (“That’s my son or daughter?) If you don’t believe that read the opening chapters of Job)

5.   I’m to give weekly.

“On every Lord’s Day (when is the Lord’s Day?) – Sunday – the first day of the week. 1Cor.16:2                    

The day Christ was resurrected. Christians have always celebrated the resurrection “put aside some from what you have earned during the week and use it for the offering”.

Giving is an act of worship and it forms part of our worship. Worship isn’t just singing, praying, listening to a message.

It also includes our response, our commitment and our giving. God says ‘I want you to give me the first part of your earnings, the first day of your week because I want to be first in your life”.

If you are not by nature a cheerful giver, remember these three things:

1.  Remember that – everything we have comes from God in the first place.

We wouldn’t have it if God didn’t give it.

(Verse 10) “God gives seed to the farmer and food to those who need to eat and God will also give you seed and multiply it”.

God provides the seed and He is entitled to a royalty.

2.  Remember God’s guarantee.

God guarantees that whatever I give to Him cheerfully – He will give back to me. Luke 6: 38: “Give to others and God will give to you. The measure you use for others is the one God will use for you.”

God says, ‘You can choose how much I bless your life’. You choose by the extent of your giving.

Verse.11 “You will be enriched so that you can give even more generously”. (Story of the generous farmer)

Q. Do you know how God grows your heart?

You give him what you have and He will give back a bigger heart. Give it back to Him and He will return it bigger and stronger every time.

Remember God’s guarantee – we can’t out-give God 3. Remember your eternal reward.

Jesus said that the way to store up treasure in heaven is through our generosity.

Jesus. “Use your worldly resources to benefit others. In this way your generosity stores up a reward for you in heaven”. Lk 16:9 Anything I hold onto in this life, I will lose the moment I die.

But anything I place in God’s hands, I will enjoy forever.

As someone said “You’ve got to do your giv’n while you’re liv’n so you’ll be know’n where its go’in.”

You can’t take it with you but you can send it ahead.

i. So God’s Principle – when you have a need, plant a seed.

ii. And His Procedure – give with the right attitude.

iii. And His Promise

III.          I Can Expect God To Meet All My Needs. There are more promises about giving in the Bible, than anything else and over and over God promises to meet our needs.

Vs.8: “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work”.  Look at the number of times Paul uses the word all: 

(i)  All grace – God says I’ll give you ‘all grace’.

(ii) So that in ‘all things’ – not in some things but in all things.    

(iii) ‘At all times’ - Not some of the time, but always

(iv) You’ll have all that you need – not just some but all. 

Q. Is there anything in life that this verse doesn’t cover?

Mortgage payments, school fees, doctor’s bills – absolutely?

So here is the real issue – Can God be trusted?

Can you trust God to do what He says? Giving is really about ‘faith’. Do you believe God will keep His promises?

This is a most fundamental question about our faith – not a test of feeling but it’s a test of faith.

Q. Why is giving so important to God? When you obey the Gospel you say you believe in people will praise God because you have freely shared with them out of your abundance”.

When I give, it’s an encouragement to others – it says I really believe that God will take care of me.

Learning to give sacrificially was one of the most important faith lessons in my life. (I learned to tithe while I was a student). I have never lacked for anything and I have had the most wonderful life.

I think it’s a tragedy if you never learn to give in faith; to trust God with your finances.

God urged the Hebrews to, “Bring your whole tithe into the storehouse. Test me in this, says the Lord. And see if I will not throw open the flood gates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it.” Malachi 3: 8 – 10

God is issueing a challenge here. This is the only verse in the Bible where you can test God.

God says “Go on, test me and. I’ll prove it to you. You give to me and I’ll give back to you and we will see who will out-gives the other.” It’s amazing that the God, who created the whole universe, puts Himself on trial. He did not have to make this promise. He could have just said “I want you to tithe because I am God and your not.”

He didn’t demand it because He wants us to learn generosity.

Do you know that the most sensitive nerve in your body goes from your heart to your wallet?  We get nervous even talking about this!

‘Anything but not money’ – suffering, persecution, tribulation even death but not giving.God could have just said ‘Give it up’ but instead He makes a promise and He puts His character on the line and says ‘Test Me’.

Q: Is God real? Is God loving? Will God keep His promise? 

You will never know until you become a sacrificial giver.

If you would like to follow what God laid down in the Law that represents 10%.  (And I don’t know why God nominated 10% He could have said 50%). I only know that as far as I’m concerned it belongs to God.  The truth, of course, is that it all belongs to God and there will be times when He asks us to give sacrificially to support Missions or a building project over and above our regular giving. The Church was built on sacrifice.

But let’s get it all in perspective. Whatever we give is nothing compared with the sacrifice that Jesus Christ gave for us.

Paul writes “For you know the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you, through his poverty, we may become rich”. 2 Cor.8:9

Today we have talked about giving back to God and I make no apology for that. If we are going to grow in our faith, we have got to learn to give back to God. But what God really wants is you – your love and your life.

“Offer yourself as a living sacrifice to Him’.

When you think of what He’s done for you, is this too much to ask?

We all know the answer to this Question – don’t we?Amen!

Prayer

If we can trust Jesus with our forgiveness and our future, we can certainly trust him with our finances, our time and all of the other things that are important to us. Do you need to ask God to forgive you for not trusting Him with your daily needs? If so, do it now and ask Him for the faith to sow more good seed.

“Lord Jesus, we will never be able to repay what you have given us. In fact everything we have is a gift from you. We can only give back what we have first been given. Help us to learn the miracle of generosity.

Stretch our faith, increase our commitment. Deepen our love for you. Break the grip of materialism in our lives. There are people here today with real financial difficulties and we pray for them now as a church family. We ask you to help them. Work a miracle in their lives as they trust you. And work a miracle in all our hearts this coming week we pray.

In Jesus name. Amen

18 November 07

Hebrews 12: 1-13

One of the essential qualities we need to be able to ‘grow in faith’ is persistence – finishing what we start.

Hebrews 12 says, “We have around so many people whose lives tell us what faith means so let us run the race that is before us and never give up.” Vs1 NCV

The Bible describes life as a race – (a marathon). Unfortunately very few people finish the race of life strongly. We get discouraged and distracted and hurt and as a result we get sidelined and eventually we give up. We finish our earthly lives with unrealized dreams and unfulfilled potential.

Now while the Bible says that God brings to completion every thing that He starts, tragically we are not good finishers and the highway of our lives is strewn with the rubbish of unfinished projects and un-kept promises. (Adrian Plass talks about the time he cleaned up his garage and he found a number of things that he had started with the best pf intentions but never finished and we are usually the same.)And it takes a great toll on us, causes great discouragement and diminishes our creativity.

Now the Bible gives us four things that we can do if we want to be better finishers and so finish the race of life well.

I. Remove Any Distractions.

Anything that keeps us from running the race is a distraction. The rest of Hebrews 12:1 says:

“Let us run the race that is before us and never give up. We should remove from our lives anything that would get in the way and the sin that so easily holds us back.”

God created you for a unique purpose – only you can run the race God has set before you.

The problem is that often other people want you to run their race and as we go through life we face the expectations of others all the time. Family pressure, peer pressure and pressure from society at large; all who have their agenda for our lives – i.e. how we should live. And it becomes a huge distraction, because we won’t finish our race unless we deal with these issues.Paul wrote that the key to running a good race is to simplify our life.What are some of the distractions that will keep us from fulfilling our purpose?

1. People pleasing – trying to conform to what others want.

2. Materialism – making the accumulation of wealth the primary goal of our life.

3. Bad habits can certainly distract us.

4. The wrong kind of friends will also distract us.

Our distractions may not be bad in themselves e.g. watching too much TV or playing too many computer games or playing too much sport but they won’t help us achieve our goals.

5. The biggest distraction in life may well be our past regrets. Many people are loaded down with guilt over the things wrong things they have or resentment over the wrongs that have been done to them.

When we carry guilt or shame, bitterness or resentment it’s like trying to run a race with two heavy rubbish bags on our shoulders. It’s going to slow us down.

The Apostle Paul had a lot to regret in his life. Before Paul met Jesus he was a religious terrorist – he went around killing and imprisoning Christians. But notice what he says in Phil;

“Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead I strain to reach the end of the race..” 3:13-14 LB

I’m not going to let my past hold me back, I have a race to run. I’m going to focus on the finish line not past failures and hurts.

(You know some times I get upset when I feel I’m been treated unfairly in some way and I rehearse in my mind what I might say to the person who wronged me. But after a while I realise that this is a huge waist of emotional energy. It’s certainly not going to change anything; I’ve just got to drop it because becomes a distraction.) God only gives us enough energy to live one day at a time. When we carry forward regrets, guilt and worry from the past what happens? Our God given strength for the day is already spent on our distractions.

II. Remember the Rewards

There are rewards for finishing the race God has given us to run and if we are going to finish it’s vital that we remember why we are running in the first place. The Christian life is not about immediate gratification and most of the time it is jolly hard work being a Christian. The right thing to do is not usually the easiest thing.

This is why Christianity isn’t generally popular with people today – we live in an age of instant gratification which is really just escapism with no thought about the future.

It’s actually a C21^st version of the age old philosophy, “eat, drink and be merry because tomorrow we die.”

But it’s not true, don’t believe it! Tomorrow there is a judgement because God makes everything that He has made to be accountable.

So when you feel like giving up because it’s too difficult following Jesus, just remind yourself that your faith and faithfulness will be rewarded.

“To win the contest you must deny yourself many things that would keep you from doing your best…we do it for a heavenly reward that never disappears. So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step.” 1Cor 9:25-26 LB

Now it is quite okay to be motivated by rewards this is how God has made us. I’m sure we’ve all learned how to survive a tough day by thinking about how we are going to reward ourselves all end of the day – Selwyn Hughes used to say the reward he looked forward to a long soak in a hot bath.

Or if we’ve had a tough week we look forward to having some times to ourselves at the weekend. The rewards of a tough year may be a long holiday to look forward to.But what do we do if we are having a tough life? We need something more to motivate us and the most inspiring motivation, is knowing that God sees everything we do and rewards everything we have done in heaven.

The same grace that was in Jesus Christ which covers all our sin so that all our wrongs have been blotted out, also notes and remembers every good thing we have done. That means everything. Every word, every thought or deed that we have said or done in faith will be remembered and rewarded by God. They may go unnoticed by others but everything is seen by God. This is a powerful motivation to keep us faithful.

Hebrews 6:12 “Don’t drag your feet. Be like those who stay the course with committed faith and then eventually get everything promised to them.”

One of the ways that we can focus on God’s rewards in eternity is to keep focusing on God’s promises now. This is one of the reasons for memorising a different promise of God each week. These verses help us to have faith and hope during the hard times.

This weeks verse comes from Gal. 6:9.

“Let us not get tired of doing what is right for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t get discouraged and give up.”

Q. Is this verse encouraging do you think? It leads us to our third point.

III. Resist All Discouragement.

There are so many things in life that have the potential to discourage us: the failure of our health, finances, relationships etc but only if we choose to give into them. It’s important to remember that we have a choice. Discouragement like any attitude is a choice and it come from thinking discouraging thoughts.The Bible teaches us to fight/resist discouragement just like we resist fear. Discouragement and procrastination are two of the devil’s most effective weapons to make us ineffective.

D L Moody said, “’I’ve never known God to use a discouraged person.’ Why?

Because discouragement is the opposite of faith; we choose to look at our problems through our own eyes rather than at God through the eyes of faith.

Let’s look at our memory verse Gal 6:9: i. “Don’t get tired of doing what is right.”

It needs to be said because we do become weary; it’s much easier to take the easy or wrong option. It takes effort to do God’s will.

ii. Notice that Paul also says something else;“Don’t get tired of doing what’s right for after a while we will reap a reward of blessing.”

Between the planting and the harvest is always a waiting time. God doesn’t offer us instant gratification – He is not a vending machine.

Q. Why does God delay His answer to our prayers?

In order to help our faith grow; one of the great tests of faith is how well we handle delay and set backs. (Cheese Maker Story) Anything worth while in life takes effort energy and endurance we just have to keep on going. (I’m sure we have all had our pity parties when we feel very sorry for ourselves but we don’t give up.)

Learn the lesson of the oak tree. Do you know how and acorn becomes a great oak tree?

An oak tree is just a little nut that refused to give its ground. Hang on in there.

When a sculptor begins to create a sculpture he chips away little bits of stone but it’s a long time before the masterpiece become recognisable.If you are committed to a life of faith you can be certain that God will test your commitment and faith not once but for the rest of your life because He wants to make your faith like the oak tree; strong and deeply rooted. He is more interested in our holiness than our happiness. Life is complex and difficult, it will test us and God will use the bad things that happen in life in order to help us grow. Very few people make it through life with experiencing adversity in some form.

Q. What do you do when your mind is filled with discouragement?

David wrote. “Lord when doubts fill my mind, when my head is in turmoil, quiet me and give me renewed hope and cheer.” Ps 94:19 LB

David asked God for two things.

i. ‘Quiet me’ – When we are filled with discouragement the first thing to do is to sit down and be quiet. Most of us are not very good at being quiet we tend to fill our lives full of noise.

Q. When was the last time you sat down in a chair in total silence and said to God “Lord is there anything you want to say to me right now?”Don’t pray or read just sit completely still. Maybe some of you have never done that.

Someone has said that ‘The more silence you have in your life the less stress you will have.’Just five minutes silence a day will work wonders; just sit quietly before God and invite Him to speak to you.

ii. The second thing David asks God for is ‘renew me’ give me a renewed hope and encouragement. Remember;The goodness of God in your past,The presence of God with you now,The promises of God for your future.

“God who began a good work within you will keep right on helping you grow in grace until his truth within you is finally finished.” Phil 1:6 LB

What God starts in our life He will finish which means that God is not finished with us yet!

In today’s sermon outline I have included another self evaluation survey, just tick the boxes where you have made a commitment to do something but not followed it through.

Maybe you are in a situation now where you feel like giving up; “I’m ready to quit I can’t take any more.” Yes you can but only as a result of taking these steps; ‘Remove any distractions.’ ‘Remember the rewards’ and ‘Resist discouragement.’ And # 4

IV Renew Myself Daily

If we are going to last the distance we have to learn how to recharge our batteries physically and spiritually. We have to learn the art of mid flight refuelling. Two kind of renewal

i. Daily physical renewal includes proper rest;

Ps 127:2 “God wants his loved ones to get their proper rest.

The Living Bible says; “It’s stupid for you to get up so early and stay up so late for God wants his loved ones to get their proper rest.”

We will experience discouragement if we are tired all the time.

ii. We need daily spiritual renewal, Paul wrote “This is why we never give up our spirits are being renewed every day.” 2 Cor 4:16 NCV

The secret of finishing well is to keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.

“Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. He did not give up because of the cross.” Heb 12:2 GN

Jesus had to face something much more daunting than we have to face, yet he didn’t give up. Why? Because he understood the reason and he understood the reward (Therefore God gave him a name etc)

When we focus on Jesus we will receive the power of the Holy Spirit which gives us strength to persist until the end.

Remember that there are no rewards for starting a race strongly; we are remembered for how we finish. Don’t give up. You are never a failure until you quit.

My greatest desire and hope in life is that one day I will be able to stand before God in heaven and say to Him what the Apostle Paul was able to say at the end of his life.

“I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.” 2 Tim 4:7 NIV

And this is my prayer and hope for you too. (But it isn’t easy remember the parable of the soil)

As we close today I want to read to you a paragraph from Hebrews 12 from the Message Paraphrase.

“Do you see what this means? All these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on. It means we had better get on with it. Strip down, start running and never quit. No extra spiritual fat. No parasitic sin. Keep your eyes on Jesus who both began and finished this race that we are in. Study how he did it because he never lost sight of where he was headed. That exhilarating finish in and with God. Jesus could put up with anything along the way – the cross, shame whatever. And now he is there right in the place of honour alongside God. When you find yourselves lagging in your faith go over that story again item by item, that long litany of hostility that Jesus ploughed through. That’ll shoot adrenaline into your souls. In this all out match against sin others have suffered far worse than you have, to say nothing of what Jesus went through. So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. God is educating you. That is why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children”.

Prayer.

As we close I invite you to think about these three questions;i. What have you felt like giving up on?ll. What do you need to finish?iii. What’s holding you back?

“Father you understand how difficult life can be. You know all the people here today who are close to giving up on something important. I pray that you will strengthen their faith and help them complete what they have started.”

Now you pray your prayer with me. “Dear Heavenly Father, I want to finish the race that you put me on earth to run. Forgive me for the times I get distracted and forget what’s most important. Help me to resist discouragement. Fill me with hope as I rely on your promises. Help me to renew myself daily by spending time with you. When I feel like giving up, help me to focus on the finish line and the reward that you have promised. Thank you, that you will give me the strength to complete the race and whatever you want to accomplish in my life. Thank you that you’ll always be with me so that I will never walk alone, that you will run the race with me”.

11 November 07

Mk10:46-5

Malcolm Muggeridge, the English writer and commentator who lived through most of the last century, spent many of those years as a sceptic of Christianity until the age of 70 when he was converted.

When he wrote his autobiography, he described his life as a ‘Chronicle of wasted time’ but at the age of 70 he was able to make a new start and over the next 15 years he was greatly used by God.

In this series we are talking about cultivating and growing our faith, which is surely the most important priority of life. ‘Without faith it is impossible…….’.

Malcolm Muggeridge was one of those people who said that he wished he could live his life again – learning from his experiences and mistakes? Maybe you do to but while we can’t relive the years of our life, we CAN make a new start.          

God is a God of fresh beginnings. This is what we are going to talk about today. Ps 145:14 says, “God gives a fresh start to those who are ready to quit”.

Now I want to give you five action points for making a fresh start.

Using the word S.T.A.R.T. as a pneumonic:

One day Jesus was walking through the streets of Jericho, he had a large crowd with him when he came to the place where a blind beggar was seated by the side of the road; his name was Bartimaeus.

A blind man in Jesus day couldn’t work and couldn’t look after himself so he was reduced to being a beggar. Every day some one would carry him to the side of the road where he would beg for a living and then at the end of the day he would be taken home.

It was a miserable existence for Bartimaeus but for all that there was something special about him. His name meant ‘Son of the honourable.’ When Jesus of Nazareth came near to the place where Bartimaus was sitting on the side of the road, without any hesitation he began shouting out, “Jesus son of David have mercy on me.”

Which brings us to our first action point – if we want a new start we must:

I. Seize the Day

We don’t know how much Bartimaus knew about Jesus but he certainly knew enough to take his opportunity. He didn’t say ‘will I won’t I’ he didn’t procrastinate. He must have thought to himself this is my chance for a new start in life. The first lesson from Bartimaeus is this.

Whatever you are going to do, do it now, don’t say ‘one of these days’ because usually it becomes ‘none of these days’, seize the moment.

When Bartimaeus got up that morning he had no idea that Jesus was going to be passing by. As far as he knew this was just another desperately ordinary day. He had no time to prepare or plan for Jesus and there was no time to think about it. He had to seize the moment or lose it – probably forever.

Q. How does this apply to us?

Like Bartimaeus we too are given opportunities for a fresh start in life. God comes near offering us the prospect of a better life a new experience. So why don’t we take advantage of it why do we procrastinate?

The Bible says that neither you nor I are guaranteed a tomorrow. We need to become ‘do it now people’ not procrastinators.

Ps 27:1 “Don’t boast about tomorrow you don’t know what a day will bring forth.” Ps 90 “Teach us to number our days and recognise how few they are. Help us to spend them as we should”

Ehp.5:16 says ‘make the most of every opportunity’.

Q. What are you procrastinating about? What do you need to get on and do? Maybe God brought some of you here this morning just so He could say to you stop making excuses. Start living for me now.

Jesus said, “No procrastinating, no backward looks. You can not put off God’s Kingdom until tomorrow. Seize the day.” Lk 9:62

II. Tame Your Fear

If we are to make a fresh start with faith we must face our fear. Fear has the potential to destroy our potential. When we face a choice between faith or fear if we let fear win it can have some very destructive consequences for us.

We begin to adopt defence mechanisms to justify our fear, we:

i. Allow ourselves to become very sceptical and say things like “faith isn’t rational its excessive emotionalism”

ii. We become shortsighted and focus on the past not on the future, where it is safe;

iii. We become selfish and think about what faith in God will cost us rather than what we will gain.

Remember that there is no reason to fear. Fear is only;

‘False Evidence Appearing Real’.

There are always fears to overcome in any matter of faith, ‘What will people think of me?” Bartimaeus had to face that fear. He knew that shouting out to Jesus as he did would bring disapproval and rejection even the prospect of disappointment – but he was desperate. Mark tells us that “Many of the people rebuked him and told him to be quiet. But he shouted even more loudly. Have mercy on me.”

And of course the old devil was pretty had at work as well, he didn’t want Bartimaeus healed and he was no doubt telling Bartimaeus “Jesus surely wouldn’t be interested in you. It doesn’t make sense. What would people think of you, shouting out like that?”

These are often the same thoughts that keep us from having faith when we have an opportunity to change – when faith rises within us fear rushes in and tells us not to be silly, don’t rock the boat.

Q. Let me ask you; “Whose disapproval do you fear the most? Whoever that is, they are your god. Peer pressure isn’t just for kids we all face it at times.

Prov. 29:15 says “The fear of human opinion disables you: trusting God protects you from all that.”

I used to worry what other people thought of me now I only need to be concerned about what God thinks.

Actually I think we wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of us if we just realised that they don’t think about us much at all they are too busy thinking about themselves just like we are.

Today God is asking you to do something greater than you’ve done before. Wouldn’t you expect to find this a little bit scary? It’s a scary thing and when God asks the question of us, we have to make the choice, ‘Am I going to fall back into fear and stay the way I am, or step forward in faith?

Seize the moment and push through your fear.

III. Announce Your Faith

Go public with it, tell people what you are asking God to do. A secret faith is a shallow faith.Mark 10:51 says “Jesus asked him, Bartimaus, “What do you want me to do for you?” the blind man answered, “Teacher, I want to see.”

Q. Why did Jesus feel the need to ask what he could do for this man, who was obviously a blind beggar?

He was doing it for Bartimaeus’ benefit. By asking the question he gave him the opportunity to declare his faith.

“What do you want me to do for you? I want you to heal me Jesus”. Three confessions of faith:

i. I believe you are the Son of God,

ii. I believe you have the power to heal me.

iii. I believe its okay to ask.

The wonderful thing is that Jesus is asks the very same question of us.“What do you want me to do for you?”

This is his constant question so how will we answer him?

God wants to use and bless us, to make changes in our lives and to help us fulfil all of our potential.

But we have to ask Him to use us and we have to ask in faith.

Do you know that every time we set a goal it is actually a statement of faith? We make faith statements all the time although it’s always a good idea to add the words, ‘If it is the Lord’s will.’

James 4:15 “You ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”

Q. What is the first public announcement of faith that we make as a believer?

It’s baptism or confirmation which is symbolic of two things;

i. Says “I’m not ashamed to be a disciple of Jesus,

ii. It’s also a symbol of a new start.

IV. Receive God’s Grace

Mark 10:54 says that, “Jesus said to him, Go on your way. Your faith has made you well, “Immediately he regained his sight.”

Bartimaeus accepted the grace of God.

The longer I live the more aware I am of just how much pain there is in the world – our world. The biggest kept secret in life is that everyone suffers.

There is a lot of pain in the hearts of people here today. Some of you are carrying major conflict, disappointment grief and loneliness. Some of you feel that happiness has passed you by. Maybe you feel like blind Bartimaeus stranded on the side of the road looking for small mercies. Yes you can put on a happy face but inside you are still hurting.

To those of us in pain Jesus says, “What can I do for you?”He wants to give you a fresh start something you can never earn or deserve.

John wrote Chap 1:16 “From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.”

Q, How do we receive God’s blessing in our life? We do it through faith.

“That’s why faith is the key. God’s promise is given to us as a free gift.” Rom 4:16 Faith enables us to access the promises of God, which brings us to this weeks memory verse from,

Phil 4:13, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

For those of you who say, I’d like to change but I can’t, I’d like a fresh start I’d like to be different but I can’t this verse tells you why, we can’t change in our own strength we need a power greater than our own. We need the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

Does this verse mean God can give us the discipline to overcome our weaknesses and learn our memory verses? Yes as long as we remember where faith comes from.

I heard a story about a young boy who tried to clean up his back yard because he wanted to make a cricket pitch. But there was a old tree stump that he just couldn’t move. He tried everything he could think of. He used levers, tied a rope around the dog but nothing worked. Finally he went in to his father and expressed his frustration, “Dad I can’t do it it’s impossible.” His father asked “Have you tried everything?” “Yes everything said the boy.”

The father replied “You didn’t try asking me to help you.”

Perhaps you are a like that boy you have tried everything to bring about change except asking God for His help.

Bartimaeus was blind but he had enough vision to see that Jesus could help him, enough vision to see that he needed grace. 

Do you? Do you realise that the grace you need to get through each day is only a prayer away and it’s new every morning?

Spiritual blindness is much worse than physical blindness because it robs us of God’s strength and power.

Grace isn’t just for salvation to get us into heaven. We need grace every day.

If we don’t have grace, then we will have regrets and if we have regrets we will get stuck in the past and if we are stuck in the past we will never be able to make a fresh start in life.

This brings us to the fifth and final step.

V. Take the Next step

Q. What is the next step for you?

It will be different for all of us. For some of you it may be accepting Jesus as your saviour and Lord but whatever it is we all have a next step and if we don’t know what ours is it probably means that we are stuck in a rut and the difference between a rut and a grave is its length.

John wrote, ‘If we are not walking in the light as he is in the light we can’t have fellowship with one another.’ 1 Jn 1:1

Our heart is going to become hard and cold and we are going to feel more distant from God. God waits for us to take the first steps before helping us with the next steps.It’s no good saying “God get me out of this when He is saying “Why haven’t you done what I’ve already told you to do. Stop procrastinating do it now!

One last observation;

Where do we find Bartimaeus at the beginning of the story? Mark 10:46 tells us that “Bartimaus was sitting beside the road as Jesus was going by.” Where do we find him at the end “Immediately he regained his sight and followed Jesus along the road.” vs 52

Which of these two lifestyles do you want to represent your life, sitting beside the road or following Jesus along the road?

There is only one way to follow Jesus and this is on the road.Take the next step!

Faith is more than believing in Jesus, it’s more than thinking about Jesus, it’s more than talking about Jesus, more than having strong opinions and convictions about him, faith is action, it’s movement it’s activity. Faith is a lifestyle.

James wrote, “If people say they have faith and do nothing, their faith is worth nothing.” 2:4

Jesus requires a response from his followers and he always said that today is the only acceptable to God for any of those responses which are eternally important.

Story (First published in a news paper some years ago)

“My brother-in-law opened the bottom drawer of my sisters bureau and he lifted out a tissue wrapped package. ‘This, he said, is not a slip. This is lingerie.’ He discarded the tissue and handed me the slip. It was exquisite.

Silk, handmade and tipped with cobweb lace. The price tag with its astronomical figure was still attached.

He said, ‘Jan bought this the first time we went to New York eight or nine years ago. She never wore it. She was saving it for a special occasion.’

He took the slip from me and put it on the bed with the other cloths that we were taking to the mortician. His hand lingered on the soft material for a moment then he slammed the drawer shut and turned to me, ‘Don’t ever save anything for a special occasion! Every day you are alive is a special occasion.

I remember those words and thought about them through the funeral and the days that followed an unexpected death. I thought about all the things that my sister hadn’t seen or done. I also thought about all the things that she had done without realising that they were special.

I’m still thinking about those words and they have changed my life.

I’m not saving anything anymore. We use our good China and crystal for every special event such as losing some weight, getting the sink unstopped or the first camellia blossom. ‘Someday’ and one of these days are losing their grip on my vocabulary. If it’s worth seeing or hearing or doing I want to see it hear it or do it now.

I’m trying very hard not to put off, hold back, procrastinate or save anything that would add faith or laughter or substance to our lives. And every day, every morning when I open my eyes I tell myself “This is a special day.”  

Where can you get a fresh start in life and faith? Only with God! There is only one source and this is through Jesus Christ.Everything we have of worth comes from God by way of Jesus Christ

Bartimaeus had no idea that Jesus was going to pass by him that day, God gave him an unexpected opportunity that would change his life and give him a fresh start.

God is giving you an opportunity for a fresh. Start this morning don’t let it pass you by!

Prayer

As I pray if you would like this to be your prayer just tell God in the quietness of your heart.“Dear God forgive me for the fear that has caused me to hold back and not trust you completely. Today I want to receive your free gift of grace and forgiveness. I want to stop sitting on the side of the road waiting for something good to happen and I want to start following you down the road. I don’t ever want to be ashamed of being your disciple please strengthen my faith. I’m ready now to take the next step.Your next step might be committing your life to God, being baptised, joining the Church, sharing with a friend or going on a missions trip – or something else (you fill it in).

Don’t forget to tell someone about what you decided to do today.Father please give us faith to follow through on what we have committed to do today.

In Jesus name. Amen.

4 November 07

Luke 22:14-20. 

Q. Do you ever wonder why knowing God seems easy for some people but much more difficult for others? Why some people find it very easy to find Faith in God and they always seem to be hearing from God but for others it’s not so easy? 

Q. Does God have favourites do you think – Does He love some people more than others? Well sometime we might be tempted to think like this but God only knows how to love and so He loves everyone equally. 

Q. What about our celebration of Holy Communion? In a moment we will celebrate the sacrament, which remembers Jesus death and resurrection and promises the ‘real presence’ of Christ.  

Q. Why is it that some people will find their participation in the Lord’s Supper quite inspiring but others will leave the service unmoved and unchanged? Q. What makes the difference? 

Q. Is it just that some people have had a better nights sleep or aren’t so distracted by all the worries of life? Well maybe but I don’t think that our feelings are the main problem.  

Look at the Psalms; many were written by David in his most desperate times when he had lots to worry about. His desperation only brought him closer to God. 

The first thing to understand is that Holy Communion is that it is essentially a Spiritual celebration which we experience together – a feast of God’s Kingdom.  

Jesus said this after he instituted the Lord’s Supper at the last Passover that he shared with his disciples. Listen to what he said to them. 

“I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom”Matt. 26:29. 

Now these words contain three key thoughts about Holy Communion.  

1. Jesus promises to return and eat with them.  

“I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until.” Obviously the implication is that Jesus will drink with them again although it didn’t seem like that when Jesus was crucified dead and buried the following morning. His words must have seemed like a very hollow or forgotten promise. 

2. There was also a condition his promise – that the next time Jesus broke Bread with them it would be in another context. It wouldn’t be another Passover:  

“Until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom” 

Q. When was the promise fulfilled? -  On Easter Sunday evening, following the resurrection; 

“When he was at table with them (these are the men he met on the

), he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognised him..” Luke 24:30 – 31.

The new context was the Kingdom of God. The Passover celebrated the time when God saved the Israelites from physical death. But what Jesus went on to do through his crucifixion and resurrection was save us from a spiritual death.Christ opened the way for us to live spiritually with God in His Kingdom.  

And the first vital thing for us to realise is that this sacrament (HC) won’t have meaning for us unless it is celebrated in a whole new context, which is to quote Jesus ‘in my Father’s kingdom”.  

Now God’s Kingdom isn’t just something we look forward to in the future (heaven) – Jesus said that, the Kingdom of God “is at hand” and on another occasion “in our midst”.     Now our entry into the Kingdom isn’t all in the future i.e. something that happens when we die, it’s through the cross of Christ now when we believe the Gospel and receive the Holy Spirit we become citizens of God’s Kingdom. We have two addresses now, we live in KL but we also ‘in Christ’ in ‘Christ’s kingdom’. 

So there is a promise (Christ is with us whenever we celebrate Holy Communion) and a new context (It’s not a physical feast it’s a Spiritual one) and the third key thought in this verse is that there is also a:  

3. Cause for rejoicing. 

We can now be citizens of God’s Kingdom as long as we allow Christ to rule in our lives i.e. as long as he is the Lord of our lives.  

Although we only experience Kingdom living in part now – we are too Earth bound to enter it completely – it is still a most happy or blessed state in which to live. 

So Holy Communion is the token feast of the Kingdom of God – that looks forward to the real feast – which is the great celebration of the Church when it is physically united with Christ which we call the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. But there are some conditions that we have to meet if we are going to fully participate in it.  

What we do now will be meaningless unless we fully understand life in God’s Kingdom. To help our understanding I want to share with you a traditional invitation to Holy Communion which comes from the 1662 Anglican Prayer Book.  

‘You who do truly and earnestly repent of your sins and are in love and charity with your neighbours and intent to lead a new life, following the commandments of God and walking from henceforth in his Holy way. Draw near with faith and take this Holy Sacrament to your comfort and make your humble confession to Almighty God.’ 

Now there are three aspects to this challenging invitation, which take into account what we need to do to prepare ourselves so that we can really meet with the Lord in our celebration of Communion. Let’s consider them. 

1.  Repent. (‘You who do truly and earnestly repent of your sins’) 

No surprises here because repentance is the key which unlocks the door of God’s Kingdom. Remember the opening words of Jesus very first sermon. 

“The time has come” he said the kingdom of God is at near. Repent and believe the good news!” Mark 1:15. 

Repentance and faith go together as the only acceptable response to the Gospel.Some one has said that the Gospel is ‘God’s expected revelation through Jesus Christ that He is the ruler of creation and that He wants to rule through us.’ 

But before we can be involved in God’s plan we have to repent of ‘self rule’ and surrender to ‘God’s rule’ (Only one king per kingdom) i.e. repentance is putting Christ on the throne of our lives. 

Every sin in our life is the consequence of ‘self rule’ i.e. taking charge rather than putting God in charge. 

Do you know that some of the deepest spiritual acts in the OT are not acts of righteousness (faith) but acts of contrition e.g. David’s repentance in Psalm 51  

“For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” (vs. 3&4) “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (vs. 10) 

And this is why repentance is always linked to faith because it moves us from self-belief to a complete trust in God. 

Repentance isn’t just being sorry for our sins, it means turning right away from ‘self rule’ all of those things that we like to have control of, to ‘God rule’. 

It’s not until we have an encounter with God that we see our very great need of Him and the foolishness of wanting to control everything ourselves.The second ingredient of Communion in the Kingdom has to do with: 

2.  Loving Relationships (We move from the vertical and horizontal) 

The Prayer Book invitation asks us the question; ‘are we in love and charity with our neighbour’?  

Jesus said that our neighbour was everyone we live with – our fellow citizens including our enemies. In fact Jesus taught that we can never have communion with God if we have not allowed the kingdom of God to touch the relationships of our life. 

(Jesus) “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” Matt. 5:23 – 25. 

We can’t claim to be faithful to God if we have broken a relationship with our neighbour.  

The words love and charity are often used interchangeably. Basically I think we demonstrate love through acts of charity which are given unconditionally in the same way that God’s love is unconditional.The third aspect in this invitation to Communion asks the question about; 

3.  Righteous Living. 

Do you “intent to lead a new life following the Commandments of God, walking henceforth in His holy ways.”  

It’s a question that deals with our future intentions.Praise God we have a faith that promises a new beginning. 

We can start new every morning with a clean slate – the failures of yesterday are left in the past not because we conveniently forget them but because God’s love covers our sin. (Cory Ten Boon) 

Now notice something very important here – it has to do with our intention. (I’m very glad that God doesn’t judge our performance but He looks at the intentions of our heart).  

The reason why we often fail is because we do not intend to do what God requires deep within us.  

It is always the deep intentions of the will that motivate us, in fact we have a name for it we call it ‘will power’. The only problem is that ‘human will power’ isn’t strong enough which is why we need the power of the Holy Spirit. 

PQ. Are you intending to live a new life as you come to Holy Communion today?  

The word new is a very powerful word. Advertisers say the word new is the most powerful word in the English language, but a new life is that possible? Will only if we allow God to empower our will. 

Q. What does a ‘new life’ look like? 

It’s a life of feeling good about ourselves, a life which enables us to have a new love for our family and a new level of affection and honesty with friends and a new feeling of excitement about our work. 

Q. What would you give in exchange for that? 

This is the promise of the Kingdom of God. We are called into a new life under God’s rule and every time we allow our lives to come under God’s control we remember and celebrate the ‘new thing’ that God has done.  

Remember what God said to Israel: 

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” Isaiah 43 :18-19.  

Something new and greater than anything that the Israelites had ever realised would come to pass through Jesus Christ. 

God promised the same thing through Ezekiel: 

 “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (vs26)Jesus promises that He would return and be with His disciples, and all who came after them, in a special way each time they broke the bread and drank the wine of the New Covenant together.  

So here is the question

Q. Do you long to live in the fullness of God’s new of life? 

Our longing is a qualification a condition of communion with God. 

Jesus words “I will not drink …until the day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom”  

were a promise of very great comfort to the disciples through out the very hard days ahead of them and for all who have come after them. Christ would be with them in and through the Holy Spirit. 

What we expect from Holy Communion is the presence of Christ through the HS to strengthen our faith and hope.  Q. So why are some people inspired and refreshed by this act of worship and other not; 

We have to ask ourselves; have I responded to these essential qualifications and accept in faith that we will be strengthened spiritually although this doesn’t always translate into a feeling. 

The kingdom of God has both come and is coming, it is on its way and nothing will stop it and we are invited to live in it.  

And the Holy Spirit is here with us today to eat and drink in anticipation of what is to come. 

Hallelujah!