Al's Inspiration

Christ in the Fire

2012-01-31T07:53:00.000+02:00

Text: 2 Corinthians chapter 1

As an eldership, we are acutely aware of many who are experiencing great trials – and that many of you have been through great trials. I believe that this passage of Scripture will help us all to deal with these situations – so let’s read:

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

To the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia:

2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

Quick survey:

- How many of you have asked God to put you through some really tough times?

- How many of you went through some really tough times anyway?

Few, if any, of us, would volunteer for significant hardship – yet this is part of life on earth. Most of us would gladly avoid it, and some of us will do everything we can to avoid it!

Some of us may think – consciously or unconsciously – that as Christians, we should not experience suffering. We think that it is Jesus’ job to keep us out of trouble. Yet Jesus clearly said (and I quote John 16:33):

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

A solid theology of suffering is very helpful when we endure trials. This message won’t complete your theology by any means, but I do believe that it will strengthen it.

So let me highlight some verses from our text and let’s get stronger:

v5: For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

The first lesson is that suffering and comfort are BOTH part of the Christian life. Peter wrote this in his first letter (I’m quoting 1 Peter 4v12):

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.

So don’t have a crisis of faith when trials come your way – they do not mean you are not a proper Christian or that you have lost your faith!

Paul was very much a Christian and a man of great faith – yet he endured tremendous trials. Listen to verses 8 & 9:

Paul experienced a level of stress that was beyond his coping skills – a pressure so heavy that he despaired and felt doomed to die at any moment. Now, please Lord, I am not saying that we should expect to go through such extreme suffering – all I am saying is that when we go through suffering, this does not invalidate our faith.

You haven’t lost the faith”. And God hasn’t lost you either! The next lesson is that trials also don’t mean that God has left you. In verse 4 we read that God

“…comforts us in all our troubles…”

When life gets tough we can feel like God has left us. But in the midst of our darkest days, we can find God’s comfort. He has not “left the building”. He is with you!

In fact, in the midst of trials we can experience God in two truly magnificent roles:

- As Father of compassion

- And as God of all comfort

In verse 3, Paul describes God in these two ways. As we struggle, we can know the Father of compassion with us. As we hurt, we can know the touch of the God of all comfort.

As we cry out to God with our little faith, we find that he is not some aloof being monitoring our suffering from afar… he is standing with us, full of compassion for us, wanting to pour his comfort into our hearts!

In verse 4 we learn a little about the dynamics of this comfort:

[God] comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

Comfort comes to us in two ways: (1) from God directly, and (2) also from the family of God. Many times we can simply draw aside in prayer and find his comfort. But at other times, we can struggle to connect with God – and in those times, we really need the family of God. We need others around us, praying for us, encouraging us, and sometimes simply “being there” with us.

When we experience trials, and the comfort of God in them, we find ourselves equipped to help others. I’m sure many of us have taken comfort in the encouragement of a fellow-believer who has “been there” where we are, and God has brought them through.

So, in the midst of trials, we can FIND COMMUNITY, as we ENDURE TRIALS TOGETHER. This is such a reality in some of our small groups – some of you guys are amazing as you walk together through the challenges you face. As Paul put it in v7,

…just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.

Part of this community experience is PRAYER SUPPORT – praying for one another. Paul wrote (verses 10-11):

On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers.

This is a wonderful truth, folks – we can all help those who are suffering as we pray for them. YOU CAN HELP THEM!

Lastly, trials build our faith. We don’t need faith when things are going well! When things get rough, then our faith is exercised, and it grows stronger. When God brings us through that trial, we find that we have more faith for the next challenge – and we can say like Paul:

On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us…

Let me summarise quickly:

From 2 Corinthians 1 we have learned that:

- Suffering and comfort are BOTH part of the Christian experience

- Suffering for the Christian can be severe at times

BUT, in all of our trials:

- God is with us – as Father of compassion; and as God of all comfort

- God comforts us directly and through people around us who have experienced his comfort

- We can experience community with fellow believers as we walk through the trials together

- We can help one another by praying for them

- And our faith grows stronger into an ENDURING FAITH that says he will continue to lead me through.

So what do we do with this?

1. Don’t lose faith when trials some – you haven’t left God and God hasn’t left you!

2. Reach out to God for his comfort and strength – he is the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort!

3. Reach out to others who will pray with you and for you. Don’t withdraw; rather draw closer to the community of believers.

4. Lastly, look forward to a testimony of how God brought you through – as Paul wrote in verse11 :

Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

So be it!

The Lead Story (or ‘What’s Your Headline?’)

2011-12-13T08:52:00.000+02:00

Today I’d like us to look at three major events in the New Testament – but from a different slant. Please work with me on this; I need you to put your imagination to work!

Imagine this: you are a newspaper editor in Jerusalem and Luke is your top reporter. On three occasions, he submits what are clearly front page news articles. Your decision each time is to decide: what will the headline be?

I am told that a golden rule of journalism is “don’t bury the lead statement”. When you have a story, work out what is the most important part of the story and start there. But Luke was a doctor, not a journalist! His mission was to report the facts in an orderly way – so the “lead” is not written up-front. We’ll need to find it!

Let’s look at Luke’s first major story: Luke 5 from verse 1:

1 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 2 he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."

5 Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."

6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signalled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners.

Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

This was a truly remarkable day! What headline would you use for this report?

- “Miraculous Catch of Fish!”?

- “Two Boatloads from One Net!”?

- “Jesus fishes like he preaches!”?

- ?

We can easily conclude that “this is the account of the miraculous catch of fish”. We can analyse the event: Jesus spoke, Peter obeyed, stepping out in faith, and a miracle resulted. It is definitely a fantastic case-study of hearing and obeying in faith!

This is a profoundly significant miracle... but there is an even greater event in this text (and the NIV editors have added a heading to help us spot it) – it’s in verses 10 and 11:

Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

The catch of fish was amazing – but the CALL OF JESUS was AWESOME! Jesus engaged Peter fully through this miracle and then called him to change careers – to become a “fisher of men”.

And Peter, James and John pulled their boats up on shore, left them behind and followed Jesus.

The greatest catch of this day was three fishermen – who made a life-changing decision to follow Christ and began a new career of reaching people for Christ.

Let’s fast-forward Peter’s story – to Acts chapter 2:

1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs--we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"

13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine."

14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say…

This is DEFINTELY another front page story!! Another AMAZING piece of history!

The disciples were meeting together during the feast of Pentecost, and suddenly the Holy Spirit took over their meeting! It looked like fire was on them, but they didn’t burn up! Then they began to speak new languages! Foreigners heard the noise – and heard the wonders of God being declared in their home languages by these Jews! They were amazed – and confused! What was going on?

Then Peter stepped up – he stood up, raised his voice over the crowd, and preached his first sermon – without any preparation!

The sermon was powerful – so powerful that 3 000 people put their faith in Christ!

So what is your headline?

Some possible headlines:

- Strange Fire, Strange Meeting!

- Spontaneous International Translation!

- Is this what the Prophets Foretold?

- ?

As we read this amazing account, we can easily become engrossed in what is now known as “Pentecostal” activity – supernatural signs and supernatural speech. What an amazing meeting!! Imagine if OUR meetings could be like this!!

Jesus had told the disciples that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came (recorded in Acts 1:7) – this was the big moment! What an event!!

But again, the story ends with something even more spectacular – verse 41:

Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

So the headline could be something like:

- “3 000 converts to Christ in one day!”

It is truly amazing! 3 000 people made the life-changing decision to follow Christ – and without hesitation, they were all baptised!

Think about it: We are (rightfully) thrilled when one person puts their faith in Christ… We want to build a 1 000-seater church… In one day, Peter saw 3 000 new converts!

Last one: let’s read on a little further – not about Peter, but about the 3 000 converts – in Acts 2 from verse 42:

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

YET ANOTHER amazing account!! The Church has exploded into existence and it quickly develops into the most MAGNIFICENT community! The members are devoted… there is great teaching and great fellowship… many miracles are happening in their meetings… they have big public meetings in the temple courts and small intimate meetings in their homes… God is honoured and the believers are admired by the community…

I certainly read this in wonder – what a magnificent picture of the church! I can spend tons of time examining this description of a vibrant church and thinking about how we can be like this – who wouldn’t want this as a description of their church?

So maybe you’d write a heading like this:

- “Devotion Redefined!”

- “Believers redefine Community!”

- “From Capitalism to Community!”

- “Transformation!”

- ?

But yet again, I am stopped by the last sentence of this account:

And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Every day, people were being saved – finding faith in Christ. Every day, people were being rescued from darkness and brought into the light of Jesus!

The Church life is magnificent – but people being saved every day is ABSOLUTELY AWESOME!!

So a better headline could be “Church Grows Daily!”

Now you may have guessed that I am not particularly interested in developing your journalism skills! There is “method in my madness” – I have a point in all this! J

And here it is – my conclusion as I gaze over these events in history:

· Hearing God is really important.

· Faithful obedience to what HE says is really important.

· Miraculous provision by God is really important.

· The work of the Holy Spirit is really important.

· The ingredients of church life are really important.

These things are all really important – in fact, this is an understatement!

And this is why they are important:

Are you paying attention? J

All of these things are really important – but they are not the end in themselves – they are really important because they result in DECISIONS TO FOLLOW CHRIST.

They are really important because:

· The “lost” need to be “found”!

· Those who are still living – and dying – in the dark need to see the light!

· Those who are still being ruled by the devil and his evil forces need to be rescued and brought under the authority – and the eternal protection – of Jesus!

Peter’s catch brought him to a place where he could make his decision to follow Jesus.

Pentecost took place so that people from all over the world could make their decision to follow Jesus.

The church was born and blessed so that, on a daily basis, people could make their decision to follow Jesus.

Many of us know John 3:16&17

16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Jesus came to save the world – and we are a part of his one, massive rescue plan!

All he is doing in our lives… all he is wanting to do in our lives… it all has a significance that reaches far beyond our personal blessings – as glorious as these blessings are.

Jesus’ work in our lives brings us to the place where we can make key decisions to follow him. And his work will put OTHERS in a position to make THEIR decision to follow Jesus.

The work of God in our lives is glorious – let’s enjoy it! But let’s know that it all has a greater purpose – to rescue those around us! God’s plan is so much bigger than me… than you… than COGS… than church groupings and movements…

IT IS TO REDEEM THE WORLD. This is why you and I are not yet in heaven – we have lives to touch!

Let’s go out and touch them.

Prayer and His Presence

2011-11-15T09:07:00.000+02:00

Text: Matthew 6:5-13. Let’s see what God will teach us today!

5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9 "This, then, is how you should pray: " `Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'

Now let’s look again at verses 5-6:

5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Jesus distinguishes here between prayer that has a “public profile” and prayer that does not. This could be misunderstood – is he saying we must only pray in private?

That does not make sense, for Scripture is full of corporate worship and prayer! So let’s look again at the text and see what Jesus is saying to us.

Notice these key words: “hypocrites” and “to be seen by men”. Jesus is showing us a picture of hypocritical prayer, of prayer that seeks the praises of those around us. He is not saying that we must not pray IN public, but that we must not pray FOR the public!

WHY?

One reason is that when we pray FOR the public, those around us become our audience; they become our focus instead of God. When we pray with “the public” in mind, we begin thinking about what people think about us (e.g. do we look or sound silly to them?) We can fall into the trap of seeking the praise – or at least the acceptance – of those around us. This kind of praying is misdirected and hypocritical!

The only reward we will receive for this kind of praying is the recognition from those around us – recognition that we are “religious” (or that we think we are! J)

But when we pray alone, and when we pray in secret, there is no-one to distract us or influence our prayers – only God. There is no-one to impress – only God. There is no need for hypocrisy: the people-pressures are gone and the people-focus is gone. We find ourselves OUT of the presence of man – and IN the presence of GOD!

Folks, this is an awesome place! It is the presence of God Almighty! This is the place where Jesus urges us to go! This is a place where God rewards!

Let’s read on to verses 7-8:

7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

As we find ourselves alone with God, this can be an awkward moment – how do we behave in the presence of God Almighty? Do we have to assume a “religious” manner like priests we have seen and heard? It is hard enough to impress people, but how on earth do we impress GOD?!

Jesus tells us – my paraphrase – don’t try to impress him!

He says ‘do not keep on babbling’ – this is for pagans, for those who have no real relationship with God! We are not strangers to God; we are his children! God does not want us to “go religious on him” with long, formal prayers – he knows what we mean!

When we pray: “Father, I’m worried about my work”, we don’t have to explain all the details as if he were some stranger – he actually understands the situation better than we do!

So here’s a thought – if he knows what we need even without us asking, why does he want us to go to our rooms, close the door and ‘let our words be few’?

It is because HE WANTS US IN HIS PRESENCE!

- It is not because he can’t hear us when we’re all praying together!

- It is not that God is busy and wants us to ‘keep it short’!

It is that God desires our company – much more than our words! He is our FATHER in heaven – he is a RELATIONAL God!

So let me give you a title for this message: it is “The Reward of His Presence.” When we draw aside to pray alone, God rewards us almost immediately – and this reward is his presence.

For me, this is the greatest reward of prayer. In one sense its sounds so simple – even obvious; yet in another, it is so profound – that we can choose to draw aside from the crowd and be alone – and be welcomed into the presence of GOD ALMIGHTY!

When the awe of this sinks in, it is abominable to think that people have “dumbed-down” the greatest connection we can ever make – and the greatest relationship we can ever build – into some kind of religious ritual or exercise!!

Think about it: Prayer is presented by some as a cold, hard discipline, a religious ritual. The longer you pray, the more often you pray, the more eloquently you pray, the more spiritual you are considered!

IF WE THINK LIKE THIS, WE HAVE LOST THE PLOT!!

The Pharisees proved this theory to be totally incorrect. They were “prayers of note” – yet, these men who prayed long, often and impressively, could not recognize who Jesus was – nor could they understand his message!

This view of prayer as a religious ritual is a lie that keeps many people from entering into God’s presence – for two reasons:

1. We can think we are “not spiritual enough” to enjoy the presence of God.

2. We can think that prayer is only a ritual/discipline, and not expect to enjoy God’s presence.

So Jesus tells us: Don’t be misled by the “religious gurus”! Don’t think prayer is about looking religious - or about impressing other religious people - or about impressing God - or about eloquent prayers - or about how long and how often you pray!

PRAYER IS ABOUT YOU CONNECTING WITH GOD!

Let me “bring this home” for a moment. Ever listened to an “informational prayer”? They go on at great length to explain the situation to God – as if they know more about it than he does (or perhaps they are using their prayer to communicate their significant knowledge and insight with those around them?)

Or perhaps you’ve heard a “theological prayer”? Their prayers are “teaching moments”! They quote lots of Scriptures and clarify the theological basis for their prayer – as if God needs to see that they are praying correctly (or perhaps they do it for us so that we may gain from their knowledge?) J

These folks can intimidate us, leaving us feeling inadequate to enter into God presence in private. LET’S GET SET FREE FROM THIS!!!

Now please hear me: Please don’t be afraid to pray detailed prayers, and please don’t be afraid to pray Scripture; but please do be aware that we can “lose the plot” about what prayer is really all about and become modern-day Pharisees, religious prayers who connect more with the crowd than with God!

I think I need to say this too though: it does take some discipline to stop and pray! I think this is largely because our lives are too crowded and too noisy!

- Some of us are too busy – we try to do more things than there is actually time to do.

- Some of us are hardly ever alone.

- Some of us are hardly ever quiet.

Looking at Jesus words and at our lives, I conclude that the disciplines of prayer are:

- to make time

- to get alone

- to get quiet

In other words:

- postpone your plans for half an hour or start your day earlier. Make some time.

- Go into your room or find a private place. Get alone.

- Switch off the TV. Switch off the music. Switch off your phone. Get things quiet!

Now pray! No need to be clever, theological or religious – just pray!

OK, so you do these things. Here you are, in God’s presence. Now what? Not sure where to start? Well, Jesus gives you a GREAT prayer in our text! “Father in heaven…”

But why not just be silent? Remember, this is not a religious ritual; this is you “visiting” your heavenly Father! You don’t have to fill the air with nervous chatter – just “visit”!

When we get this right, we enter into the greatest space ever – it’s “you and God”, no-one else.

· You and GOD ALMIGHTY, creator of heaven and earth!

· You and FATHER GOD – YOUR heavenly Father!

· And – get this – HE WANTS TO SPEND TIME WITH YOU!

WHAT AN AMAZING PRIVILEGE!!! THIS HAS TO BE THE MOST SIGNIFICANT THING WE CAN EVER DO!!!

And we dumb it down to a religious ritual – SHAME ON US!!!

Three quick testimonies to encourage you: two from Scripture and one personal:

Moses knew the presence of God – and came to value it supremely. In Exodus 33:15, we read that Moses said this to God: “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here”!

King David knew and loved the presence of God. In Psalm 16:11 he wrote: “you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”

I am SO with these guys! My first experience of doing what Jesus tells us to do was amazing! (I didn’t actually know the Scripture at that stage, I did it right by “accident”!) I went to my room and closed the door. I lay flat on my back on my bed, put my faith in Jesus and surrendered my life to God. God met me in my simple faith and made his presence powerfully known to me – my whole body felt different: I KNEW I was in his presence!! The next time I prayed, I did the same thing again – it was all I knew – and God touched me again!

Those times really grew my faith – times of simply being in my Father’s presence. I KNEW God was real, and I KNEW God was interested in me! His presence was AMAZING! I joined a youth group and met some other “presence junkies” – and we used to have the most amazing times in prayer, just knowing the presence of God!

Just so you know, I don’t often pray flat on my back anymore – at my age, I tend to fall asleep! J And I don’t always feel God’s presence tangibly… I tell you this story simply because it’s a picture of “getting alone with God in simple faith” – and of his delight to bless us as we do so!

I hope these words have helped “demystify” and “de-religiousify” the presence of God for you! I trust that you can see, from Scripture, that God wants YOU to draw aside in prayer – and enjoy HIS PRESENCE – the most awesome experience!

So I urge you – take time this week to take some time out… to draw aside into a private place… to pray a simple, authentic prayer… and to enjoy the presence of God.

You will be SO glad you did!

Getting over the (of)Fence

2011-09-27T07:38:00.000+02:00

Please turn to Luke chapter 17.

Today’s message is entitled: “Getting over the fence (offence)”. It is a play on words that will make more sense as we go on!

Have you ever felt “fenced in”? Like you want to move on and you can’t? Like you want to get over something, but “it just won’t go away”?

As we mature and as we move on in life, there are figurative “fences” that we have to get past. Some are quite easy to get over – they are like picket fences: we learn a lesson… we make a decision… we make a change… we step over the fence and we move on.

Other fences seem impenetrable! They seem way too high to step over, way too wide to get around, and we see no holes to climb through! When we face these fences, the temptation is to give up – and we get stuck behind a proverbial “fence”. But we don’t have to get stuck there! God always makes a way! We need to ask God to show us the gate – the way through it.

This message will teach you how to get over fences – big and small.

Let’s go to Luke 17

1 Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. 2 It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. 3 So watch yourselves.

"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4 If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, `I repent,' forgive him."

5 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"

I’m a great fan of the NIV, but recently heard this text read from an older translation – and it really caused me to sit up and take notice!

In verse 1, the NIV uses the somewhat technical expression: “things that cause people to sin”. The King James version uses the word “offences”!

This grabbed my attention, because one prophetic word over the fast was that there were offences that were holding some of our people back.

So I checked out the Greek. The Greek word is “skan'-dal-on”. The closest English word is “scandal”. It literally means a trap stick, referring to a bent-back sapling that was used to make a snare. Figuratively, it speaks of a cause of sin, a thing that offends, a stumbling block..

Jesus is warning us about “skandalons”: baited traps or offences that will cause us to sin if we take the bait. It is a serious danger, so we need to take note!

Then he says this about them: they “are bound to come”.

The KJV renders this “It is impossible but that offenses will come”. In other words, they WILL come; it is impossible to avoid them.

Jesus is warning us – offences WILL come. Regardless of how nice we are, things will happen that offend us, that scandalize us, that lure us into sin. The nicest, strongest, holiest people (like you J) will face these things.

Friends, this means we HAVE TO pay attention to this – it is going to happen to us! Baited traps WILL be set for us! Things will happen that will scandalize us and draw us towards sin!

So take heed to Jesus’ warning in verse 3: “So watch yourselves”!!

What is your reflex when you are scandalized – offended – by a person… When someone “gets in your face” and “baits you”, how do you respond?

Often for me, my blood pressure rises and I want to fight! How DARE they say that!! How DARE they do that!! I remember seeing an advert for the “SEXPO” and getting really mad! I was so offended! How DARE they!!!! I wanted to “take them down”!!

Listen carefully to what Jesus said next – verses 1 & 2:

“…woe to that person through whom they come. 2 It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.”

“woe to that person through whom they come” – they are going to face wrath from God! God will deal with them – so severely that they will wish that we had thrown them in the bay with a weight around their neck before they had brought the offense!

PLEASE HEAR ME CLEARLY – IT IS NOT OUR JOB TO TAKE DOWN THOSE WHO OFFEND US! (I’ll show you clearly from Scripture just now.)

OUR JOB IS TO STAY CLEAR OF THE TRAP – TO NOT TAKE THE BAIT AND SIN!

Our reflex is to deal with the offender – which is to take the bait, to walk into the trap. We have the proverbial rush of blood to the head. We start a fight. We burn a bridge. We bear grudges and become bitter. We make things worse rather than better! We forget that our battle is not against flesh and blood and attack the wrong enemy. Remember what we learned over the armour of God series – our battle is NOT against flesh and blood!

As hard as it is at times, we need to let God deal with the one who brings the offense. Instead we need to focus on our task at hand – to resist the temptation, to refuse to take the bait!

“But how?” you may ask… Reading on (verses 3&4), Jesus tells us what our part is:

"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4 If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, `I repent,' forgive him."

Here Jesus tells us how to escape the snare, the offense, the skandallon. There are three things we need to learn to do:

1: “If your brother sins, rebuke him…”

We all have the capacity to offend one another – so we have to help one another to learn the better way. It starts by recognizing and identifying the offense, and confronting it. If I made a remark that I thought was funny and you found hurtful, you need to come to me and rebuke me – “I know you thought you were being funny, but that remark really hurt me.”

When you confront the offense, it can be dealt with. When you don’t, it can’t. And the unfortunate reality is, we don’t always do it – and a fence goes up between us!

It is a tragedy that people leave churches where they have grown up in Christ, where they have both received and given great ministry – because they were not prepared to deal with offenses. The offense was not dealt with, and it grew into a massive fence, eventually walling them out of fellowship!

Offenses will come – let’s deal with them immediately!

2: “…and if he repents, forgive him.”

This is our next challenge! We pluck up the courage and rebuke the person, they are surprised and apologetic… and now we have to forgive them! We have to let it go, we have to step over the fence and move on!

And – please hear me clearly – Jesus does not suggest that we forgive, he commands us to forgive! It is not an option! Matthew 6:14-15 records these words of Jesus: “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

Beware of trying to wield unforgiveness as a weapon –withholding forgiveness to punish the other party and to give yourself some kind of satisfaction. This is SIN! And this is self-defeating!

Unforgiveness is a lethal poison! Don’t drink it! Forgiveness is life-giving – drink that!!

3: “If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, `I repent,' forgive him.”

What Jesus is telling us to do here is not to count to three, but to make forgiveness our way of life. He is calling us to stop “keeping score”, and “calling back the past” of a person’s sins, but to instead repeatedly offer forgiveness to those who offend us – just as God repeatedly offers us forgiveness for our offenses!

So let’s stop keeping score, and let’s stop keeping records of past sins; let’s instead, learn the divine way of forgiveness!

Proverbs 19v11 tells us:

A man's wisdom gives him patience; it is to his glory to overlook an offense.

God’s job is to deal out discipline, punishment, even vengeance. Ours is to avoid the snare, the ‘skandallon’… to forgive, to overlook the offence:

– to look over the offence and see the real enemy behind it – the devil

and

– to rebuke and forgive the person who the devil conned into carrying the offense to you!

Skandallon will come our way – every one of us will have to deal with it. Let’s take Jesus’ words to heart and learn to live in such a way that we won’t take the bait, we won’t take offence – but rather that we will get over the fences!!

So confront and rebuke! Forgive! And keep on forgiving!

In conclusion, listen to Romans 12v17-21. For me, Paul describes this way of life that Jesus wants us to live magnificently!

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," [Deut 32:35] says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:

"If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." [Prov 25:21-22]

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Let’s be wise to the devil’s schemes! He WILL send offences/scandals/traps our way and he will use PEOPLE to do this. As nice and spiritual as we are, we WILL face these traps!

Let’s NOT take the bait! Let’s not build fences or attack the person!

Let’s instead deal with the offense and extend forgiveness to the person.

Let’s overcome evil with good!

The Armour of Righteousness and Faith

2011-08-23T12:30:00.000+02:00

We’ve been preaching a series on the armour of God - let’s recap by reading our main text again: Ephesians 6:10-18:

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our STRUGGLE is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 THEREFORE PUT ON THE FULL ARMOUR OF GOD, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Today we’ll look at two more pieces of the armour we need to wear: RIGHTEOUSNESS and FAITH. Please remember that we need to wear ALL of the armour, not just our favourite pieces!

At first glance, righteousness and faith may not seem closely related, but consider these Scriptures:

Genesis 15v6: Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Romans 1v17: …in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."

And Philippians 3v7-9:

7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

The righteousness that is part of our armour is not “human righteousness”. It is not a “righteousness of my own”; it is not us trying to be righteous. It is, rather, a “righteousness from God”; it is God giving us righteousness. It does not come from our effort, but our faith: as we put our faith in Jesus Christ, God gives us righteousness.

This “righteousness that comes from God and is by faith” that has two aspects to it:

1. There is a passive aspect – in that we are declared to be right with God. I say passive, because it is all about what Jesus did on the cross; our only part is to believe in him.

2. There is also an active aspect – in that we begin to make right choices, and our words and deeds begin to visibly demonstrate this righteousness that God has given us. We begin to make right choices and, as a result, live righteous lives.

Before we put our faith in Jesus, we did not have this righteousness from God. The best we could do was try to be good and try to be nice. This may work when everything is going our way, but it falls apart when things don’t go our way! Listen to Paul’s description of the human condition found in Romans chapter 7:

19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing… 21…I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Paul was a devout man – yet he found that his own righteousness failed. He needed to be rescued from the grip of sin – and Jesus rescued him, giving him righteousness from God!

When we put our faith in Jesus, we receive righteousness from God – AND THIS WORKS! Through Jesus Christ our Lord, we are set free from the grip of sin! Paul says we were enslaved to sin – but now we have been set free!

It’s wonderful news! But unfortunately, our minds and bodies have to catch-up with our new status. Let me try to illustrate this:

Imagine you have been in prison all your life – and then the authorities declare you and your fellow inmates free. You have been set free – but all you know is prison life. Freedom is yours, but you have to walk through the gates into your freedom and learn to live as a free person.

Some people are so used to the “prison life” of sin that they don’t walk out into the freedom Christ has given them! The gates are open, but they stay inside the prison.

Or consider the armour analogy of Ephesians 6. When we put our faith in Christ, God gave us righteousness – as a gift. Imagine this gift as a suit of armour: when we put our lives in Jesus’ hands, we were given this suit of armour.

We can do two things with this suit:

1. We can put it in the cupboard – like that expensive suit that is there for that special occasion that rarely or never happens. We may admire it, we may tell people about it – but it stays in the cupboard and nothing really changes in our lives.

2. Or we can put it ON! Friends, the armour of God is not for the cupboard, it is not for special occasions – it is for everyday life!

I urge you today: PUT IT ON!

But you may say: “I’ve tried to put it on, but it didn’t fit – it don’t work out!”

One of the reasons we don’t wear this righteousness from God is because it cannot be worn over our old clothes! We can’t put on our old clothes and then put the armour on; we have to first take off the old clothes and then put on the new.

Paul put it like this in Ephesians 4:20-24:

20 You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

So we have to be active in this righteousness from God. We have to leave our sin-prisons behind. We have to take off our old clothes and put on the armour of righteousness.

Now let’s get practical and see how this principle works in daily life:

Our Ephesians text tells us that our armour protects us against the devil’s schemes. He devises evil schemes to try to keep us living in sin-prison instead of living in the freedom of our God-given righteousness.

One scheme is temptation: advertisements tempt us to buy what we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like! Movies portray immorality as glamorous and tempt us to follow their example.

Our defence is righteousness. We remember that we are now free to choose not to sin – and we choose to use our freedom and do the right thing.

This can be a battle if we are used to giving in, used to living in “sin prison”. We have to break the old habits and establish the new ones. We have to learn to wear the armour!

One way to do this is to set boundaries. If you know that the park down the road is full of violent thieves, you won’t take a stroll through it – you’ll keep away. Similarly, if you know a night-club is full of temptations, you should stay away! Or if the movie is rated 18SNLP, pick another one to watch! Some of us live without boundaries because:

- We think we’re “above it” (Scripture warns us in 1 Corinthians 10:12: if you think you’re standing strong, be careful you don’t fall – let’s not be so arrogant and naïve!)

- Or we think we’re “exercising our freedom under God’s grace” (what a con, we’re actually throwing our freedom away!)

- Or we just aren’t thinking!

So set boundaries – it’s a great way to wear righteousness.

The passive aspect of our righteousness from God kicks in when we stumble. We were caught off-guard, we had a moment of weakness, and we sinned. At that stage the devil may lay into us with a barrage of guilt and condemnation. He wants us to feel unable to come to God because of our sin.

1 John 1:8-9 makes it very clear that, even with this gift of righteousness, we are not yet perfect, not yet without sin. But the good news is that when we acknowledge our sin, he forgives us and cleanses us of all unrighteousness. We still have access to the Father, even when we sin! We still have this righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus – we still have a position of favour because of Christ! So we can come to God, get cleaned up, and continue living in righteousness!

I’ve said little specifically about faith so far… apart from the righteousness it brings to us. Let’s take a specific look at our shield – the shield of FAITH!

Hebrews 11v1 gives us a great definition of faith:

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

By definition, faith is hard; we prefer “seeing is believing” – but there is no faith in that! So the devil schemes against our faith… by presenting visible situations that seem to contradict God’s words and his nature.

He’ll present a terrible situation and ask: “Where is God now?” Our sight cannot see God in the situation; it seems as if he is absent…

Or he’ll ask: “How can God be just and allow THAT?” Our sight cannot see God’s justice in the situation; it seems as if he is unjust…

If the devil can lock us into depending on our limited senses, he is setting us up to question God and his nature, even to be offended and walk away from him.

Now here is the truth behind these schemes:

Our senses are inadequate to know exactly what is happening – and our understanding is inadequate to understand what is happening. This scheme of the devil cons us into trusting a faulty instrument!

So when situations make no sense to us, when they seem to contradict what Scripture has taught us, we need to LIFT UP THE SHIELD OF FAITH! We need to look beyond WHAT WE SEE to WHO WE CANNOT SEE – and TRUST GOD! We need to recognise that we cannot see or understand all that is happening – so we doubt our doubts and trust our God!

For me, Job is a faith hero. He lost virtually everything, all he could sense was terrible, yet he clung to God. The long, painful debates with his friends are all based on mere men trying to understand God and his “big picture” – and failing dismally. God’s stern rebuke was to recognise that some things are too big for us to understand. He is God and we are not! Job and his friends did not know what was happening “behind the scenes” in the heavenlies, and their attempts to make sense of things only caused more pain.

An old song put it like this: “Blessed are you when you trust… when you just can’t understand.”

This is FAITH. We don’t trust our senses and our intellect… we trust GOD. When we do this, we lift up a massive shield: the shield of FAITH.

Ephesians 6v16 tells us: “take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”

Let’s do that!!!

Here’s my conclusion:

There is a heavenly battle going on – between darkness and light, between the kingdom of the devil and the Kingdom of God.

Jesus Christ has rescued us from the dominion of the devil and from slavery to sin. The devil would love to keep us living as if we were still his prisoners, as if we were still slaves to sin. Jesus wants us to live in the freedom that he bought for us with his own blood!

We need to put on the breastplate of righteousness. Not the puny, faulty righteousness that we can come up with, but the righteousness that God gives to everyone who trusts in Jesus. We need to take off our old, faulty armour and put on the righteousness of God.

We wear this armour by making choices based on God’s righteousness – by choosing to do the right thing. We also wear it by setting boundaries that keep us out of the devil’s minefields.

From time-to-time, we will stumble – but God is on our side, and as we confess our sin, he will forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness – our armour will be beautifully shiny again!

The devil would have us doubt God – by trusting our senses and intellect; yet our senses and intellect are inadequate to judge situations accurately! When we stop trusting in our own senses and start trusting God who knows exactly what is happening, we lift up the shield of faith and block the devil’s arrows!

Church, let’s wear our armour!

THERE IS A BATTLE GOING ON

2011-08-02T07:42:00.001+02:00

Release the Peace

2011-07-26T10:49:00.000+02:00

“Peace!”

If I greeted you like that, you may think I’m trying to be a hippy/still being a hippy (“like peace, man”), or trying to be cool (“yo, yo, peace”), or maybe trying to sound spiritual (“may your soul be at peace with the Lord”)… but it’s actually the most common word of greeting in the New Testament letters (usually ‘grace and peace to you’).

It was an appropriate greeting then, because people really needed peace. And it is still a great need, because there is still generally a lack of peace. Watch or read the news: does it give you peace? Chances are, the more you know of what is going on around us, the less peace you will find!

The comic series “Stressed Eric” epitomized the stressed-out British worker. Every part of his life causes him stress and he doesn’t know how to deal with them. Now we’re not all as stressed-out as he is, but who lives in peace all the time? And who wouldn’t like more peace?

Today I want to offer you THREE DECISIONS that will increase your peace. They come from the Prince of Peace himself, Jesus, who said:

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)

So please turn with me to Matthew chapter 6:

Matthew 6:19à

19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his lifen?

28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

31 So do not worry, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

The translators of the New International Version inserted a heading above verse 25 – “Do Not Worry” – when Jesus says: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear…” It’s a helpful heading, because Jesus is teaching us how to deal with the worries of life on earth.

Interestingly though, the translators of the New Living Translation did not insert a heading here (remember, the headings are not part of the original texts, they were inserted to break it into helpful sections). Maybe they did this because verse 25 begins with ‘Therefore’ – which points us to preceding verses. Reading the preceding verses in the context of the “Do not worry” section, I found THREE KEY DECISIONS that we need to make – THREE DECISIONS THAT WILL HELP US NOT TO WORRY – AND RELEASE PEACE.

So… let’s find the keys! Back to verse 19:

19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

This text is often preached as a challenge – to invest in the Kingdom of God rather than to store up earthly wealth… and, with that, to consider the state of your heart. But it also points to a decision that will release peace into our lives.

If we store up “treasures on earth”, what happens?

- They deteriorate – they rot, they rust, bugs eat them… so they devalue.

- They get stolen – so we lose them and we feel violated.

We invest in things that we hope will give us peace and security. And, to a degree, they do… but then they decay, devalue, and get stolen. We have to spend more money maintain & protect them. As we get more, we have to spend more – on things like insurance, maintenance and security. We end up with more things to worry about… and what was supposed to be a source of peace can instead rob us of peace!

So “treasure on earth” can actually become a “peace thief”. Jesus says our heart follows our treasure – so as our treasure devalues, decays and is threatened by thieves, our hearts get stressed. We lose peace.

But when our treasure is in heaven, there is no decay, no devaluation, no theft, no need for insurance, maintenance and security… there is complete peace of mind!

Treasure is a source of provision and protection in tough times. For example, if we have some savings, it’s not a crisis when the car needs repairs. Please listen carefully now: I am not saying don’t have some savings! Please do save!! But as you save, as you store, keep Jesus’ perspective on “treasure”. Earthly treasure must not be our ultimate source of provision and protection. They cannot be trusted to give peace; GOD CAN.

SO DECISION 1 IS:

I WILL TRUST GOD TO PROTECT AND PROVIDE

Next one: verse 22:

Here Jesus uses an analogy we know well – sight. Good vision makes such a difference in life. Chat to a person who is blind or partially sighted (for example, you could chat to our Brenda at the back here) and they will tell you that loss of vision restricts them in many ways. They learn to overcome in many ways, but there are some things they simply cannot do – like see what is on our video screen.

Poor spiritual vision can also rob us – because we can’t see what is actually happening. The book of Job is a powerful example: Job was a really good man who was afflicted in virtually every way, and his suffering did not make sense to him or to those around him. They did not know about the conversations that had taken place in the heavenlies – if they had known, the way ahead would have been quite clear. And the uninformed conclusions and advice of his friends caused a great deal of hurt and stress for Job.

Advisors in business and in life will tell you how important it is to “see the ‘big picture’”. When we can’t see the ‘big picture’, we can make poor decisions. When we can’t see what’s going on, life is confusing and we can get really stressed.

We need to see things correctly – what is really going on. And the only one who knows exactly what is really going on, is God.

So the second key is to seek God’s viewpoint – on life in general and on our life in specific. The most reliable source of God’s views is the Bible. 2 Timothy 3v16-17 tells us:

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

When life takes us by surprise (in negative ways), we can get really stressed. What’s going on? Where is God in this? What do I do? At that stage, we need to go to God – and go to Scripture – and seek God’s view.

Let me give you an example. Many stresses come from things we cannot control or understand – and we are not going to be able to control or understand them! Going to Scripture, we find this counsel in Philippians 4v6-7:

“6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

So we pray… we entrust the situation into God’s care… and peace comes.

When we see from GOD’s viewpoint, our vision is good. And our peace increases.

SO DECISION 2 IS:

I WILL SEEK GOD’S VIEW ON MY SITUATIONS

Last one: verse 24:

24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

A divided loyalty is no loyalty at all – we cannot be 100% loyal to two masters. If we try to serve two masters, we will actually end up being disloyal to both masters.

In my industry days, I was taught about project management and “matrix management” – where “project managers” lead project teams (say to develop a new product) and “line managers” lead departments (such as design, production and quality). One of my greatest frustrations was that of divided loyalty. Project team members had two “bosses” – with different priorities – and this caused a great deal of conflict and stress!

This all makes logical sense in theory – but in practice, we all hear the cries of different masters! We say “Jesus is my Lord” – meaning he is our supreme master – but there are other masters who want us to serve them! It may be our boss at work. It may be a parent or our spouse. It may be the school. It may be a more subtle master such as greed, lust or ambition – one of the infamous trio of money, sex and power!

When we listen to other competing voices, we will feel conflicted. We will lose our peace.

But when we make a decision to regularly check who we are actually serving as our master – to ensure that it is still Jesus – the inner conflict stops. The external conflict may remain, but the inner one – that was stealing your peace of mind – will be dealt with.

For example, say your boss wants you to do something unethical. You will be conflicted: if you obey your boss, you will displease God. If you obey God, you will displease your boss – this could affect your career. You can’t please both of them; you have to make a choice. The inner conflict stops when you decide to obey God. But there may be an external conflict now – you have to resolve this with your boss!

[I think I must also say this: if you decide to obey your boss, this may eliminate the external conflict between you and your boss, but you will find a conflict in your heart – which will affect your conscience and your relationship with God. Not that God will love you less, but you will love God less. You will still be God’s beloved child, but you won’t be the most loving child towards him – or the happiest one. So beware of taking what seems to be the ‘easy way out’ when man competes for your loyalty towards God.]

This third decision won’t always bring “peace and happiness” from an external point-of view, but it will resolve the terrible internal conflict that robs you of your peace. And it will strengthen your faith and your relationship with God.

SO DECISION THREE IS:

I WILL OBEY GOD AS MY ULTIMATE AUTHORITY

So there we have it: Three decisions… three big decisions… that will release the peace of God into your life:

I WILL TRUST GOD TO PROTECT AND PROVIDE

I WILL SEEK GOD’S VIEW ON MY SITUATIONS

I WILL OBEY GOD AS MY ULTIMATE AUTHORITY

I urge you:

Make these decisions today!

And regularly take stock of these decisions, to make sure that you are sticking to them!

As they become part of your way of thinking and living, you will enjoy more of the peace of God.

Praying Like Jesus

2011-07-19T07:43:00.000+02:00

· Do you believe that prayer is really important?

· Would you like to be a better prayer?

· If you could take prayer lessons from one person, who would you ask?

If you ever need divine intervention and a divine connection, you need prayer! Prayer connects us with God, so it is surely one of the most important and powerful things we can do! Yet it can be difficult for many of us – we could do with some help!

Jesus taught a profound lesson in prayer one day – it is recorded in Mathew and Luke. If we could learn about prayer from anyone, Jesus is surely our best choice!

Matthew chapter 6 from verse 5:

5 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9 "This, then, is how you should pray:

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

10 your kingdom come,

your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

11 Give us today our daily bread.

12 Forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.

Before the “how to” part of the lesson, Jesus “demystifies” prayer and deals with religiosity in prayer.

First, he rebukes those who say “impressive” public prayers for human recognition – that is all we will get from that kind of praying! Instead, Jesus urges us to develop a private, personal prayer life; to “get alone with God”.

Jesus also urges us to “keep it real” – not to go on and on in lengthy prayers, but to simply “tell it like it is” to God. He reminds us that we don’t have to point out our needs to God or explain the gravity of our situation – he sees and understands all - perfectly!

So let’s allow Jesus to deal with any religious and mystical attitudes we have about prayer:

· Prayer is not for “religious Brownie Points” – it’s not a religious achievement or status symbol. It’s a conversation between you and God. So don’t worry about impressing others with “beautiful prayers”, just seek God!

· Prayer is not a test of endurance to see how long we can go on for – as if that would impress God into listening or earn his attention!

· And prayer is not complicated – as if we need to explain anything to God or say it the “proper way”. God understands all!

These are liberating truths! Prayer is not reserved for “spiritual masters” or “experts” – it’s for ordinary people like you and I who simply want to connect with God!

Jesus then says: “this, then, is how you should pray” – and gives us the “how to” part of the lesson. This text has become known as “The Lord’s Prayer”, and is probably the most known and recited prayer.

But it is much, much more than a magnificent prayer that we can simply recite! It is a MASSIVE lesson on HOW TO PRAY!

There is no way we can tap into all of the lessons now – we could spend weeks learning from this – but let’s see what we can learn in the time we have today…

OUR FATHER

Jesus teaches us to start by calling God Father. It’s a profound beginning! It starts with the most awesome relationship known to man – that we can be children of God!! If God is our Father, we come to him as beloved children. We are not strangers… we are not undesirable… we don’t creep into his presence hoping to be tolerated; we run into his presence as his children!

So, as Christians, as children of God, we approach God with the confidence borne out of the relationship that Christ has given us.

IN HEAVEN

When we come to God in prayer, we come with confidence, but we also come with humility, awe and reverence – because our Father is in heaven! He is not on our level; he is not our ‘mate’! He is GOD! He is GREAT – far greater that we can imagine! Isaiah put it like this in chapter 55 verse 9:

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Our Father in heaven… the most amazing relationship ever!!! FATHER… and GOD! This is where great prayer times begin! Coming confidently to our awesome, holy, glorious Father! Confident in his love, as the Father who has adopted us and calls us his own. Confident in his power as God who is over all. Yet with a profound sense of awe and reverence as we realize that we are speaking with GOD ALMIGHTY!

I don’t know about you, but when I reflect on these things, I find myself worshipping! So it’s not that surprising that the next line is…

HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME

“Hallow” is not a common word in the 21^st century. It literally means “to make holy” or “to regard with utmost respect, reverence and awe”. Other translations are “let your name be kept holy”, “let your name be treated with reverence”, or “help us to honour your name”. These are words of reverent worship as we realise that we are in the company of God.

There is an ALLIGNMENT that takes place as we pray this. We are recognising our relative positions: HE is God, we are not; honour and glory are due to HIM, not us. We are putting him above and us below. It is a good place to be!

YOUR KINGDOM COME

As we pray this, we are embracing the RULE OF GOD. He is KING over his kingdom. He is the RULER. He has AUTHORITY over his subjects – US. So we put ourselves in SUBMISSION to his rule.

We are also praying ADVANCE of God’s rule. We are asking for it to come to where it is not yet being exercised. Partly we are praying for ourselves – that more and more of our lives will come under his authority. Partly we are praying for others – that more and more people will come under submission to the King.

YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

Now our submission gets practical! This prayer means that when our will is not the same as God’s will, we choose God’s will. When heaven and earth differ, we side with heaven.

This prayer means nothing when we are in agreement; there is nothing to be asked for! It means everything when we are in disagreement; when our desires are contrary to those of God. Its means that we surrender our personal desires and preferences to the will of God. We choose to SURRENDER… TO OBEY … even TO SACRIFICE.

Jesus prayed like this in the Garden of Gethsemane. Facing the cross and all that it meant, we cried out “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42) At that moment of anguish, heaven and earth were in disagreement… and Jesus sided with heaven. He surrendered his will… and his life.

Jesus teaches us to pray like this because he knows we will face times when our will is in conflict with God’s. And we will need his help at those times to make the right choice: YOUR will be done.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven… we need to learn to pray like this.

At this stage you may be feeling somewhat challenged! Because, so far, this is all about GOD and nothing about ME!

And this is SO counter-culture!! Our 21^st century society says that I am the centre! It is MY space! MY way! MY choice!

And this ME FIRST culture has even invaded the church. When this happens, the church gets treated like a kind of “service-provider” – and dare I say it, even GOD is treated like that! People join a church because they like it – it’s “our kind of church”. They come to meetings when it suits them and don’t come when it doesn’t. They come to Jesus because they want him to keep them out of hell and to make their lives better. It’s more about ME than GOD.

This message is preached so strongly through the media that even the strongest of us can be affected. So we NEED to pray like Jesus has taught us – to get our minds back to where they are supposed to be! John Piper makes the point that Jesus is teaching us to PRAY FOR THESE THINGS – because we need God’s help with them! He is not beating us over the head as he rebukes us for our “me-focus”; he is teaching us to ASK GOD TO HELP US RE-ALLIGN OUR LIVES AROUND GOD.

So please don’t shut down in self-defence! God understands our situation – the challenges we face with this – even better than we do! And he says “Ask me to help you to get your world the right-way-up! Trust me; it’s actually for our own good!”

Not much time left… but the rest is easier! Once we have our world the right-way-up, we can pray effectively for ourselves!

GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY BREAD

Jesus is not asking us to ignore our needs; rather, he tells us that God knows exactly what they are! (Read the rest of Matthew 6 for more on this.) So he points us to the TRUE SOURCE… and teaches us to ASK GOD for what we need. Remember where we started: we are asking our FATHER – he loves us and wants what is best for us… And we are asking GOD – who is fully able to provide.

James chides his readers in James 4:2-3: “You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives…” The first part of the Lord’s Prayer sorts out the messy issue of skew motives… with that done, Jesus says, “ASK!”

FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS, AS WE ALSO HAVE FORGIVEN OUR DEBTORS

Forgiveness is like air – we have to breathe it in and breathe it out in order to live. We need to be forgiven – and we need to forgive. We cannot afford not to be forgiven and we cannot afford not to forgive! Yet it can be difficult when we have hurt and been hurt. So Jesus says, PRAY! Because FORGIVENESS IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL!

Jesus follows his prayer with this very scary “wake up call”:

14 For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

So we ask forgiveness – and extend it. We breathe… we live!

Finally: LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, BUT DELIVER US FROM THE EVIL ONE

Jesus reminds us that sin and the devil are absolutely real and absolutely dangerous! So he teaches us to pray through our battles: our temptations to sin and our exposure to the schemes of the devil. It’s a supernatural attack and it requires supernatural defence. So we call on God to deliver us from evil.

What a lesson on prayer! This message is simply too short to do it full justice! I urge you to read this prayer at home this week… read it again… a few times… and lets let Jesus teach us to pray more and more like him!.

The Main Thing

2011-07-13T08:31:00.000+02:00

What is the most important thing in life?

Being happy? Being popular? Being rich? Being powerful? Leaving a legacy?

There are many things we CAN pursue in this life – but what is the “BIG THING” that we simply MUST pursue?

King Solomon set out to find the answer to this question – and he was the right man for the job, because God had given him “wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore.” (1 Kings 4:29)

The book called Ecclesiastes reviews his journey, his search for the “Main Thing”. If you read it in a hurry, it can seem like a rather depressing series of observations punctuated with the word “meaningless”! But it is actually jam-packed with wisdom. A lot of it does read like “bad news”, but this is because he considers all the things that you and I may desire and chase after – and concludes that chasing them is as meaningless as chasing the wind! Maybe you’ve avoided reading this book (too “ecclesiastical”?J) – why not read it this week?

In chapter 1 verses 12-13 he states the purpose of his study:

I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I devoted myself to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under heaven…

Let’s take a quick look at some of the things he examined. As we look at them, please understand that he is looking for the “BIG THING”, the thing that will make like profoundly meaningful. The things he examined were generally GOOD things, attractive things… but when they are made the “BIG THING”, the main pursuit in life, they disappoint deeply – because they are not the most important thing!

Chapter 1 v 17:

I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

Solomon explored WISDOM – after all, this was his “number one request” of God. As wonderful as it was, it let him down. So he considered its opposite – FOLLY – free-for-all abandonment of wisdom – and that let him down too.

Chapter 2 v 1:

I thought in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good." But that also proved to be meaningless.

Solomon enjoyed a great many PLEASURES with all of his wealth, position and privilege. But they too let him down.

Chapter 2 v 4-11:

4 I undertook great projects… 11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.

Solomon was a man of great accomplishments. He undertook many great PROJECTS – but, in the end (like Bono) he still hadn’t found what he was looking for!

Chapter 4 v 4

And I saw that all labour and all achievement spring from man's envy of his neighbour. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Solomon was an ACHIEVER of note – a man of great STATUS. In our day he would have been on many magazine covers! But he perceived that this was all about trying to be the “top dog”, better than all those around him. He won the competition hands down – and found it to be an empty and meaningless victory!

Chapter 5 v 10

Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless.

Solomon was the richest man in the world – he had more WEALTH than he knew what to do with. It left him rich and empty – it was all “meaningless”!

After his exhaustive – and exhausting – study, we find Solomon’s conclusion in chapter 12 verses 13-14. This is the final conclusion of a lengthy study by the wisest man in the world, so we should sit up straight, listen carefully and make notes!!

Are you ready for this?

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:

Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

Solomon’s conclusion is that GOD is the “main thing”. Fearing and obeying GOD is the main thing. Everything else will let you down; you’ll find yourself chasing the wind and end up exhausted and empty. Fearing and obeying God brings ultimate meaning and satisfaction.

What exactly is Solomon saying? What does he mean by fear and obey? It’s the most important thing, so we need to understand! Here’s what I’m seeing:

Solomon’s conclusion is that our INTERNAL and EXTERNAL lives need to be directed to pleasing God.

The fear of God is our internal state: our hearts must be in reverent submission to God.

Obedience is our external state: our actions must bear witness to this reverent submission to God.

We find the same answer in the New Testament. In Matthew 22:34-38 we read of an expert in the Jewish law asking Jesus the big question:

34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"

37 Jesus replied: " `Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. "

The first and the greatest – the “MAIN THING” – is to love God with all we are – heart, soul and mind.

Jesus concurred with Solomon: the main thing is that God is the main thing – that God is the most important person in our lives.

Now… let’s do a “reality check”: this is easy enough to read and understand… it is relatively easy to embrace as truth… but TO DO IT IS ANOTHER MATTER!!

So ask yourself: What is your “main thing”? What is your number one priority in life? Honestly now!! J

If you’ve done some soul-searching on this, you may have concluded with me that this is easier said than done – because our secular culture teaches us that WE are the main thing. Everywhere, we hear the message – I am the big thing! Everything revolves around pleasing ME… My space, MY way, MY banking, MY rights…

What Jesus and Solomon are teaching us is counter-culture and often counter-intuitive – it feels wrong. Even when we come to Christ, we often come to him for what HE can do for US. We want a “Get out of Hell free card”! We want healing. We want miraculous provision. We don’t come looking to serve him; we come looking for him to serve us. We are the main thing!

Some of us have heard a “Consumer Gospel” that says something like this: Jesus is waiting out there for us, knocking on our doors, just wanting to come into our lives and make everything nice for us, saving us, healing us, providing for us, protecting us… It’s a message that makes US the main thing instead of God!! And when we allow this to infect the church, we become a self-seeking “I’ll do what suits ME” people. The church becomes a sort of club. Things must suit us or we won’t come, so meetings get tailored to our needs. Our prayers are focused on our own needs. Our giving becomes an “investment” from which we expect a good return.

I believe that this is one reason why our personal and our church experiences are lacking much of the glory we read of in Acts. Certainly, the church we read of in Acts was not a club of consumers! It was a family of totally committed, “sold-out” followers of Christ!

We all need to ask and honestly answer the big question for ourselves: “What – or who – is the main thing in my life?” We now know the right answer, so the question changes:

“God must be the main thing in my life – so how do I get there?”

I am convinced that the starting point is to PRAY.

And the starting point of our prayers needs to be the prayer that Jesus taught – what many of us know as “The Lord’s Prayer”.

For many of us, The Lord’s Prayer has been reduced to a ritualistic recital – we can recite it almost unconsciously – and it has little impact on us. For others of us, we have discarded it as a piece of outdated liturgy in outdated English – or even never learned it.

So listen afresh to the prayer Jesus taught as recorded in Matthew 6:9-13:

This, then, is how you should pray:

Our Father in heaven, (God who is far, far greater than me)

hallowed be your name, (let your name be treated with utmost reverence)

your kingdom come, (be king in my life and in your world; rule over me and over your world)

your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (May my life be exactly how you would have it).

(Up to this point, our prayer is all about God. Only now do we get to “me”:)

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

Our first cry to God must be something like this:

God, you are God and I am not. You are in heaven and I am not. You are far, far greater than me, greater than I can imagine, and I am in awe of you. It is an awesome privilege to be able to call you, God in heaven, my father! I WORSHIP YOU FOR YOUR GREATNESS AND YOUR GOODNESS!

All honour must surely go to you; may you receive my utmost honour and reverence. May you be first in my heart and in my life, that those around me will also revere you.

You are the God Almighty, the Great King; I submit my life to your rule and ask you to rule in me and around me. May your rule spread over all the world!

You are perfect, so your will is perfect – may your perfect will be done in my life. I submit my will to yours, and ask that when you and I differ, when heaven and earth differ, may your will prevail!

Amen! Now, about some of my needs…

The Lord’s Prayer starts with “making the main thing the main thing”. Its all about putting God first.

John Piper makes an important observation here: Jesus is teaching us to PRAY FOR THESE THINGS – because THEY DON’T COME NATURALLY; we need divine intervention to make God our main thing!! We are asking God to enable us to get this right – to stop living with ourselves as the main thing and to start living with him as the main thing.

Solomon assures us – this is the ONLY way to a meaningful life. Jesus confirms this – and he gives us the prayer that will get us there.

Let’s pray it!

Let’s pray it some more!!

Let’s keep on praying it so that God WILL be – and stay – our main thing!!!

And “watch this space”… see what God does!! No more “meaningless” pursuits! Instead, we will discover the GLORIOUS things he has in store for us – as we learn to live his Kingdom life!!

Our Superior Weapon

2011-06-24T07:54:00.000+02:00

I’m sure most will agree with me that life can be a battlefield at times. Sooner or later, we will all have to fight some battles.

Paul, the New Testament apostle, had to fight many battles – you could say he was a seasoned “soldier for Christ”. In his letter to the church in Ephesus, he gives them a profound lesson in warfare – let’s read from verse 10:

Ephesians 6:10à

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Paul faced opposition from many people – but they were not his actual enemies. His real enemy was the devil. His visible opponents were not the real enemy – the real enemy was the invisible one behind it all – the devil. And the same truth applies to us today. We may face opposition and persecution from people – but our “actual beef”, our real battle, is not against them – it is against the devil, who has conned them into doing what they are doing.

In verse 11 Paul tells us that the devil works through SCHEMES. He is a plotter and planner of note! He devises cunning schemes of deception that trick people into doing things that he wants to do.

The Roman authorities caused trouble for Paul – but it was because of a scheme of the devil – to portray Jesus, and therefore Paul, as an enemy of Roman rule.

The Jewish authorities caused trouble for Paul – but it was because of a scheme of the devil – to portray Jesus, and therefore Paul, as an enemy of the Jewish nation.

So Paul begins with a word of PESPECTIVE: the people that cause us pain are not the real enemy; they have been conned by one of the devil’s schemes into doing his dirty work for him. The devil is the real enemy and we need to take our stand against his schemes.

This perspective can be scary. We are up against the devil’s team, not the people on the ground. He says our struggle is against an evil spiritual realm. He says these forces can attack us – so we need to put on a “spiritual suit of armour”.

I’m not going to speak about the ARMOUR now, but I urge you to study this passage in your personal devotional times. All I’ll say for now is that these things that Paul describes as God’s armour will protect us from the schemes of the devil: truth, righteousness, readiness, faith, assurance of salvation, and prayer. We need to make these things an integral part of our lives if we are to withstand the devil’s schemes.

What I want to look at today is an incredible WEAPON that God has given us. Verse 17 tells us that in additional to defensive ARMOUR, we also have a God-given WEAPON. He tells us to TAKE UP THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT – WHICH IS THE WORD OF GOD.

Our battle is not a physical one, but a spiritual one. So a physical sword won’t win the battle. A physical sword can kill a physical enemy, but this will not defeat the devil’s schemes. To defeat a scheme of the devil, we need a spiritual weapon. We need to take up the sword of the Spirit. And this spiritual sword, says Paul, is the word of God.

In Hebrews 4:12, we read just how powerful this weapon is:

12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

A double-edged sword was the ultimate weapon of the day when these letters were written. It was the best sword a soldier could have, because it cut both ways and because it penetrated the best. It was the sharpest, deadliest sword.

The word of God is described as sharper than a double-edged sword. In other words, it is better than the best weapon available. Paul didn’t have a better weapon to describe, but we can think of many. The point is, the word of God is better than any other weapon available.

WHAT GOD HAS SAID IS THE ULTIMATE WEAPON!

I remember a scene in the movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark" where Indiana Jones faces a scary swordsman. After an impressive display of sword handling, Indy simply shoots the swordsman. You may not like the illustration, but it does work! The devil can be really intimidating, but we have the superior weapon!

Paul drives this home in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5:

4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

This is proper war talk!! J We wield heavenly weapons – with divine power – and demolish strongholds… we demolish arguments and pretensions – the devils schemes!

On Sunday night, I saw in my mind’s eye a table full of gleaming swords. People were running up to the table, each taking a sword and then running to the battle-line.

They ran with confidence – because the swords they were taking up were superior weapons. They knew that they could fight with confidence, because their weapons were better than those of their enemy.

I BELIEVE GOD IS CALLING US TO TAKE UP OUR SWORDS.

So we step up… we take up our swords… our superior weapons…

Now we have to learn to USE this amazing weapon!

So here we go… “Sword-craft 101”!

Let’s learn from the master! We’ll learn from the ultimate duel… as recorded in Matthew 4.

Matthew 4:1à

1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."

4 Jesus answered, "It is written: `Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:

" `He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"

7 Jesus answered him, "It is also written: `Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."

10 Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: `Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'"

11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

This is a sword-fight of eternal consequence! As Jesus battled against the devil, he defeated him every time – with the sword of the Spirit – “IT IS WRITTEN”. The devil was defeated in three short rounds. Three challenges. Three swift answers. No debate, just the word of God: “IT IS WRITTEN”!

We would do well to follow his example. We don’t need to be great debaters; we just need to know what God has said. And the most reliable source is the Bible.

Paul pointed Timothy to his source in 2 Timothy 3:16-17

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Here Paul tells us where to find out what God has said – in Scripture. In that day, this was what we call the Old Testament – so please don’t devalue the Old Testament! Rather read it!! Now of course, we have even more words from God in the New Testament – especially the words of Jesus himself!

Paul also says that Scripture is not just the ultimate weapon; it’s also the ultimate multi-purpose tool! When we know it, we are “thoroughly equipped for every good work”! Its a “spiritual Swiss army knife” with a gadget for every situation!

As we prepare to step up with the word of God, I must give a caution. We need to know more that a “handful” of promises from Scripture. It is tempting to take one verse of Scripture that we really like and go out to battle with it – but be careful to find out WHAT ELSE God has said about your situation!

We have a great example in our Jesus vs. the devil duel. The devil had a go at Jesus with Scripture – with one verse on a topic – but Jesus defeated him with another Scripture – because he knew WHAT ELSE God had said about the topic – “IT IS ALSO WRITTEN”!

So friends, we have a weapon of unparalleled power – the word of God. With it, we can defeat the attacks of the devil and his dark forces.

So let’s get training! Let’s get reading! Let’s get studying! Let’s start responding to all of the situations we face with these immortal words:

IT IS WRITTEN!

When you face your next battle of life, avoid the “fight or flight” reflex! Go to God in prayer. Open your Bible and start seeking God’s word for your situation. If you are unsure, get help from someone who knows the Scriptures better than you. But get GOD’S WORD on your situation. And then wield the weapon:

IT IS WRITTEN!

Say it! Believe it! Do it!

Let’s take up our swords…

Let’s hone our sword-craft…

Let’s win those battles!!!

GOD Maths - or "We don’t have enough!"

2011-05-24T13:33:00.000+02:00

Have you ever been asked to do something that seemed WAY too big for you?

How do YOU respond to “big asks”? Say I asked YOU to do something that would cost the best part of your annual earnings? What would YOU think?

- Eish… that’s a bit cheeky?

- There’s no ways I can do that!

- You’re crazy!

Today we have an unusual lesson in maths: I call it “GOD MATHS”. You may call it “WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH!” You’ll see what I mean as we go on…

Please turn to John 6…

Reading from verse 5:

5 When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" 6 He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

7 Philip answered him, "Eight months' wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!"

8 Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up, 9 "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish… but how far will they go among so many?"

10 Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. 11 Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. 12 When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." 13 So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

Here we have a classic test of faith from Jesus. He casts a vision for his disciples: “let’s buy these people lunch!”

Good idea? Absolutely! It was a fantastic idea! How noble to feed all of these people at the end of a great time of ministry!

Just one snag – it was not a practical idea. They did not have that kind of money!

The “facts man” steps up to the plate… Philip.

Now Philip is a bright guy. He has an aptitude for arithmetic. He’s already done some mental calculations… it doesn’t look good. So he steps up to sound the “wake-up call”… “I’m all for this, Lord… but I did the sums. It would take eight months’ wages just for a nibble – much more for a decent lunch. It’s a great idea, but it’s simply not practical.”

Then the “action man” steps up – Andrew. He hasn’t done the sums – maths isn’t his thing – but the idea has gripped him. He’s come to love Jesus’ way of doing ministry – plus, Jesus has a track record of making everything work. So if Jesus wants us to do something, we must get going!

So he asks around… who has brought a lot of cash or food with them?

A kid steps up. “Do people need food? My mom packed me the best lunch ever… said you never know who will forget to bring lunch… here it is – five loaves and two fish!”

Andrew is floored by the kid’s faith and his generosity – but it’s nowhere near what they need. He looks around to see who else has something to contribute. Everyone looks away, not wanting to make eye-contact in case Andrew asks what they have in their bags!

Andrew is stuck… what we have is way too little… but we have to do something…

So he comes to Jesus… “Lord, this is all we have – this boy is offering us five small loaves and two small fish… what a great kid! You have to applaud his heart! …But what good is it when there are thousands of people?”

Jesus sighed… “Pity… it would have been really great to feed them… oh well, I guess they’ll have to fend for themselves…”

NOT!

Jesus graciously accepted the boy’s gift.

Then he gave thanks for what had been given.

And then he took what wasn’t enough and made it enough – he fed the people – and generously too, there were leftovers!

This is GOD-maths! 1 kid (who doesn’t know it can’t be done J) + 5 loaves + 3 fish… PLUS JESUS… = lunch for more than 5000 people!

It was an amazing miracle… so amazing that he did it again on another occasion! J Not to show off, but to make sure that we learn the lessons he taught through this!

The most obvious application of this lesson right now is probably the building project – so let me deal with this first.

15 million more… it’s still a lot of money! I suspect that most of us here don’t have a few million spare! For most of us, this is a HUGE amount of money.

I do hope you’ve already given this project some prayerful and careful consideration as to what your part is in this… if you haven’t yet, I earnestly ask you to do so. We, the COGS of 2011, have the privilege of doing something truly great – let’s not miss the opportunity!

So we look at what we can give… and, chances are, a number of us will think, like the disciple Andrew, “But how far will this go? This seems too small to make a difference.”

Andrew thought that about the loaves and fish – “but how far will they go among so many?”

And Andrew’s mindset could have caused him to say to the boy, “don’t be silly, kid, what you have there is insignificant… its way too little – rather keep your food.” If he had written off the boy’s small offering, this spectacular miracle would not have happened – there would have been no gift to multiply.

The loaves and fish were unquestionably inadequate in the physical – but they were more than enough in the spiritual – because he put his “too little” in the hands of the one who is more than enough!

Thousands of people were blessed that day because of the faith-full giving of a boy who didn’t seem to have enough to make a difference.

Thousands of people have been blessed over the last 40 years by the faith-full giving of those who financed our current facilities.

Thousands more will be blessed because of our faith-full giving. Who knows what God will do through us? One thing is for sure, he can do TRULY GREAT things!

So I urge you… don’t think your gift or pledge is too small to make a difference. Bring it to the one who is able to do something magnificent with it!

Last week someone said his to me about the contribution they want to make: “I know it’s not much compared to what is needed, but I do hope it helps.” The lesson from Scripture is crystal clear!! IT DOES!!

Let’s not be like Philip, say “it’s too big a need and too small a gift”, and miss out on a miracle! Let’s rather be like Andrew who would say “Thank you so much! Let’s bring it to Jesus!”

But this incredible miracle speaks into much more than our building project. It speaks into every one of our personal lives. It says that every one of us can play a significant part in the Kingdom of God.

That boy was little. His gift was little. Everything about him seemed insignificant. But that boy impacted thousands of lives in one day as he stepped up to make himself and his resources available to Jesus. And he has probably impacted hundreds of thousands of lives since as his story has been re-told for over two thousand years!

He could have kept his lunch bag to himself.

He could have just shared it with one or two people around him.

But he didn’t. He stepped up in faith and brought his little to Jesus.

The rest is history!

You may think of yourself as a small person in a big world. You may think of your gifts, your abilities, your resources, as insignificant. You see yourself as a small person with small resources – and you conclude that you have small potential.

Folks, some of us ARE “small”! Some of us DO have very limited resources! But this does NOT mean that you have small potential!!

I wonder how many of us would like to make a difference – in our families… amongst our friends… in the places we learn or work… in our small groups… in our congregation… maybe even in our city and nation?

We would like to… but we see ourselves as too small… so we only do “little” things.

Friends, I hope that this boy’s example inspires you, challenges you and stirs up faith in you!

You can keep yourself, your gifts and your resources, to yourself, believing that it is all too small to make a difference. And you can live a life of relative insignificance and low impact.

Or you could just share yourself, your gifts and your resources with the few people close to you, believing that you are too small to do more.

Or you could bring yourself, your gifts and your resources to Jesus, saying “Here I am, please use me for your glory and the advancing of your Kingdom.” If you do this, the rest, as they say, could be history!!!

Here is God’s maths for you: you + yourself, your gifts & resources + JESUS = a high-impact life!!!

I urge you – decide today – bring all of you to Jesus – little as it may look to you – AND WATCH WHAT HE DOES!!!

Forgiveness is not an “Option”

2011-05-03T09:33:00.000+02:00

Text: Matthew 18 from v21

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"

22 Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

23 "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents [340 metric tons of silver!] was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

"The servant fell on his knees before him. `Be patient with me,' he begged, `and I will pay back everything.' 27 The servant's master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.

28 "But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii [100 days’ wages for a labourer]. He grabbed him and began to choke him. `Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.

29 "His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, `Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'

30 "But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.

32 "Then the master called the servant in. `You wicked servant,' he said, `I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' 34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

35 "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

To fully appreciate this parable, we need to enter into the drama of the situation.

Let’s put ourselves in the place of the first servant. At the current silver price, your debt is roughly R3,5 billion! You are brought before your master and your debt is confirmed: R3 473 million. You are asked how you intend repaying this debt. You have no idea. The master’s advisors confirm – it is an impossible debt for you to pay.

You cringe in the master’s presence as he ponders for a moment. The silence is overwhelming. Finally he speaks: you and all of your family will be sold at the slave market to whoever offers the best price. The implications spin round in your mind… You wonder what kind of person will offer the highest price – not just for you, but for your spouse and children – and terror grips your heart… You break out into the sweat of a major fever… your body shakes uncontrollably…In desperation, you fall at your master’s feet and beg for mercy. Please! Anything but be sold at the slave market! You will work double-shifts. You will do the toughest, most dangerous jobs. You will call every relative and friend you know to help with the debt. You pledge the rest of your life to serve him faithfully.

The master says nothing – another terrible silence… Eventually you dare to look up – and you see tears in his eyes!

“Your debt is cancelled.” You are stunned. Did you hear right? You dare not believe your ears.

“Your debt is cancelled.” You heard right. You gaze at your master’s tear-filled eyes – you never knew this side of him. What graciousness! What kindness! You try to thank him, but all you can do is sob uncontrollably as relief overwhelms you. Eventually you manage to get up onto your feet and speak the words… “Thank you. I will never forget this kindness.”

Exhausted, you go home and tell your family what has happened. The massive debt that had accumulated… The sentence that was pronounced… And then the incredible mercy! You weep together as you realise that you have just been extended the most remarkable, almost unthinkable mercy.

Two blocks down, another man lies on his bed trying to sleep. He too owes a massive debt. More than three month’s wages now. But he is a daily-paid labourer – he lives on the breadline. At the end of each day, he receives his pay and goes straight to the store. He has enough to buy a cup of mielie-meal for bread, two cups of rice and a cup of beans. He carefully checks his change – at the end of the week he will buy bones for soup and hopefully pay back a little of his debt.

He hears his youngest son breathing heavily… still sick after two trips to the doctor and four to the chemist. He has done his best to repair the leaks in the roof that made the house damp and prone to mould – but the materials cost a fortune in his economy. And each person would say the same thing to him: “Sorry, cash only.” Tomorrow he will have to plead for another loan… and ask for another extension on his debt. He silently thanks God for the mercy he has been shown by the colleague who has lent him money so many times.

Tired from a sleepless night, he goes to work the next day. Lunch-time he’ll go and ask his colleague for yet another loan. He has prayed for mercy… he knows this could be the last straw for the man who has already gone the extra mile and more for him.

Lunchtime he sees his colleague. “I don’t know how to say this, but… I need to take my son to the doctor again. Is there any way you can loan me another R200?”

“Another R200? You MUST be joking! When last did you pay me anything back? You’re a bottomless pit! No!! In fact, its time to pay ME – I’ve had enough of your stories!”

“But… I can’t! Every week I put money aside to pay you back, but then the medical bills come… my son is still sick!”

The colleague loses it. He grabs him by the scruff of the neck. “That’s it! No more excuses! I want my money back this week! I don’t care what you do, but do it – this is the end of the ride!! I’m handing you over to the courts.”

“But they’ll lock me up! Then how will my family eat? How will my son get treatment?”

“That’s YOUR problem now… I’m done with you.”

This parable is a masterful picture of forgiveness – what it costs to give and what it means to receive. I hope my paraphrase helps us hear it afresh.

We have just celebrated Easter. We have just remembered the price Jesus paid for our forgiveness. Like the first servant in the parable, our debt was an impossible one to repay – like a multi-billion rand debt. Sooner or later, we would have had to stand before God and pay the price for our sin – a terrifying thought! But in the greatest act of mercy ever known, Jesus paid our debt – and offered us freedom!

I hope you took time this Easter to appreciate the incredible kindness of God to send Jesus to redeem us… to appreciate this incredible, greatest love of all and to take hold of it for yourself. The cross tells us how precious we are to God; how passionately he loves us.

And we can say with Paul, “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Cor 9:15)

Now… on to the “real world”! We have the incredible privilege of sitting in the presence of God and knowing this forgiveness! But then the service ends… and we have to interact with one another… and then we have to interact with other drivers… and other shoppers… and tele-sales people… and call centres… and all manner of people who seem to have the gift of annoying and offending us!

Within hours of leaving church, many of us will experience the fallen nature of man… we will be mistreated, lied to, offended, hurt…

Someone will sin against us.

And as they sin against us, they will bear the weight of their sin – their debt to us and to God.

When they realise their sin and go to God, 1 John 1 tells us how God deals with them:

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

How wonderful it is to experience this ongoing forgiveness by God! Not that he ignores it, not that we may ignore it, but that as we admit our sin to him, he forgives us and he purifies us!

Often, this is the easy part – because God is truly a Master of forgiveness!

But then comes the messy part – the human part! We have to deal with the debts we owe to one another!

Who has enjoyed a wonderful time of worship, known the grace of God towards you, and then you drive out and someone brutally cuts you off. Your blood pressure shoots up as anger rises within you… You hoot, you describe the person’s intelligence deficiency (and possibly their ancestry)… They respond with an insulting hand-sign…

As you drive on, you see a person who you paid a big chunk of hard-earned money to do some work… they did a terrible job but took the money and no longer take your calls… and you note the luxury car they are driving.

You get home and you see the bill which is clearly incorrect and the subject of at least an hour of waiting for call centre operators who cannot help you…

You check your phone and there is a message that seems to have been painstakingly crafted to make you angry as possible…

And like the servant in the parable, you want to grab them, choke them… and make them PAY!

What does Jesus tell us to do?

He tells us to remember the mercy we have been shown – and to extend the same mercy towards those who have sinned against us.

You may say:

“But you don’t understand how BIG that person’s sin against me is!!!”

“The damage done is HUGE – how can I pretend its OK?”

Let me try to help…

The debt of the second servant was far less than that of the first, but it was still a significant debt – more that three months’ wages at the standard labourer rate. Jesus is not saying these sins or debts are insignificant – in fact, he is acknowledging their significance – so he is not calling us to pretend they don’t matter and ignore them.

But he IS comparing them to the MASSIVE debt that WE have owed HIM and that HE has forgiven. And based on this incredible mercy extended to us, he commands us to do likewise to others.

Friends, we have been forgiven far, far more than we will ever be called to forgive. When we feel that a sin committed against us is too great for us to forgive, Jesus says to us: “remember your sins that I have forgiven!”

And please hear this: Jesus is not making a suggestion here, but a command. In the parable, Jesus tells of how the master punishes the unmerciful servant for his lack of mercy – after being forgiven so much himself. And he gives this sobering warning:

35 "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

Friends, extending forgiveness is not an “option” for the Christian – we are commanded to forgive.

Jesus taught us to pray (in “The Lord’s Prayer”):

“Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12)

Then he said:

“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (verses 14 & 15)

These are sobering words. You may not like them. But they are the words of Jesus! We must hear them! We must obey them!

We MUST forgive!!

Forgiveness can be difficult. Sometimes terrible sins are committed against us. And our reflex is to shout out for justice, and justice alone.

Jesus understands. His parable shows that. Our sins against one another are significant and serious.

But he does not offer us the luxury of indulging in unforgiveness. He reminds us that our sins against him were far greater – he has extended massive forgiveness to us! And he requires us to extend some of the grace that he has extended to us towards those who sin against us. Friends, how dare we refuse? Who do we think we are to behave like the unmerciful servant??

This message is not a “how to” – perhaps we can help one another with the practical challenges in our small groups. This is a “DO” message – let’s hear Jesus’ command and commit to DO it!

Looking Again at Love

2011-04-19T07:31:00.000+02:00

When someone says “God loves you”, what does that mean to you? What do you think it means to LOVE someone?

Some dictionary definitions I found for “love” are:

· To have a great affection or liking for (“She loves her boss and works hard for him”; “I love French food”)

· Get pleasure from (“I love cooking”)

· Be enamoured (infatuated) with (“I love Angelina”)

· Be devoted to (“he loves his work”)

Easter is a time we remember that Jesus was crucified for us. John’ gospel records how Jesus agonized over his impending crucifixion, sweating blood, even asking if there was not another way. But he went. So a good question to ask is:

“What drove Jesus to the cross?”

What drove him to endure the most shocking injustice and abuse, the most agonizing physical, emotional and spiritual pain imaginable?

John 3:16 and 17 give us insight:

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

What drove Jesus to the cross?

Love. “God so loved the world that…”

Clearly this love is greater than my “dictionary love”! Clearly it is greater than our “human love”… our puny, fickle, selfish love…

GOD’s love is clearly much bigger!

So what is God’s love like? What is it about his love that makes it so amazing?

Here are a few things:

1. GOD’s love is not based on our PERFORMANCE

Listen to Matthew 23:23-37

33 "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.

37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,

but you were not willing.

Our human love can be so fickle! We can “fall in and out of love” with one another so easily! When someone makes us happy, we think we love them. Then they offend us and we no longer love them!

Friends, this is NOT like God’s love! His love is NOT fickle! This text is a dramatic picture of his love. The Jews are evidently at their lowest place ever; they cannot even recognize their Messiah… they are like vicious snakes… they are headed for hell… they are prophet-killers… they are rightfully receiving the most scathing, brutal rebuke ever given to Israel!

After a rebuke like this, one would have expected Jesus to call down fire from heaven to consume them… or at least, storm off in disgust, shaking the dust off his feet!

But as Jesus looks at these depraved people, LOVE wells up in his heart! He wants to gather them to himself! He wants to embrace them! He wants to protect them!

This is GOD-love! This love looks fully in the face of our ugliest sins… it recognizes the depravity of our hearts… and it LOVES!

Some people feel unable to come to God because they have done so many bad things. They cannot imagine God loving them after all they have done… or after all they are doing. If you struggle with such doubts, read and re-read this piece of Scripture… put yourself in this picture.

Maybe you are a snake! Maybe you are headed for hell! Maybe you are opposed to God! Maybe you are a candidate for a scathing rebuke from God!

Maybe you are all those things – like the Jews Jesus was speaking to…

Then know this: Jesus longs to gather you to himself, to rescue you from the mess you’re in, to embrace you, to make you a child of God!!!

God’s love does not depend on your performance. It is far greater than your ugliest sin.

Consider Romans 5:6-8

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God’s love is definitely NOT performance-based! It loves IN SPITE OF us.

2. God’s love reaches EVERYWHERE

Listen to Romans 8:38-39

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Have you ever felt that you are just too far away from God for his love to reach you? Have you ever felt disqualified from God’s love by your past? Or by your present? By your religious background? Or by some evil influence?

Paul makes it clear to us: NOTHING can separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ! NOTHING!!!

God’s love reaches everywhere! It reaches YOU!

3. God’s love TRANSFORMS us

Ephesians 3:14-19

14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

God’s love is so much greater that ours that Paul says it “surpasses knowledge” – it is too big to comprehend. Yet we can know it experientially! And when we “know this love that surpasses knowledge” we are filled up with “fullness of God”! This speaks of something of the life of God being poured into us – and this is what transforms us!

Maybe you have become frustrated, even disillusioned, with your attempts to “be good”, or to “be better”, to “grow in godliness”.

Maybe it’s because you have been running on the wrong fuel!!! Human effort does not have the transforming power that the love of God does!! The fuel of human effort burns out quickly – like cheap charcoal J – and we “run out of fuel” in our attempts to be what God has made us to be.

But when we run on the fuel of the love of God, we are running on an inexhaustible fuel!!

When we are gripped by the love of God – when we have grasped something of the enormity of God’s love for us – something changes inside of us.

We realize that we are “God’s beloved”. We realize that God is 100% for us. So we begin to “love him back”. We want to please our incredible Father! We want to hear his directions, we want to learn his ways and live his way – because we know it is all from our Heavenly Father who loves us with a love that is greater than our highest thought on love!!

Paul prayed passionately that the church would come to know this awesome, magnificent, indescribable love – because it transforms us, making us more and more like our Heavenly Father! I too pray that we will “get it”! And be transformed by it!!

Lastly,

4. God’s love is sacrificial

John 15:13 records these words of Jesus:

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

There is no greater picture of sacrificial love than the cross of Christ. Some children spread their arms out wide and say “I love you this much”… Jesus stretched his hands out on the cross – and he says to you and I “I love you this much!” It is an “I love you with everything I am” love. It is not a taking love, or a withholding love, but a completely giving love.

Our obvious response to this sacrificial love is awe – that God who made the universe loves us so much that he made a personal sacrifice for us – the greatest sacrifice ever made – for us! Wow! He loves us that much!!

Another response is trust – if God is prepared to sacrifice personally for us like that, he is definitely FOR us! He’s not “out to take from us” – as if we, his creation, could have something he needs! So we can trust him with our lives. And we can trust him with our obedience, knowing that he is absolutely FOR us!

A similar response is confidence – if God is for us, who can be against us! Remember Romans 8:31-32:

31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

This Easter, let’s appreciate God’s love anew. There is more to discover of his love – it is so MASSIVE! Let’s take time out to consider the cross of Christ… and the love of God that got him there.

Let’s run to him, knowing that his love is not earned or deserved – it is simply given. His love is a “while we were yet sinners Christ died for us” love!

Let’s reach out to him, knowing that his love transcends all barriers. Hs love is a “nothing can separate us” love!

Let’s trust fully in his love – it is the greatest love ever – a “laid down his life for us” love!

Let’s pray for a greater revelation of his love – that we can experience this “fullness” that Scripture speaks of.

What a love! There is no greater!!!