DEALING WITH GUILT

During a heated argument, a young Arab struck and killed another young man, and then fled for protection to the tent of their tribal chief! He confessed his crime to the chief who accepted him into safe refuge. The next day, others came searching for the fugitive, but the chief wouldn’t hand him over! “Do you know who he’s killed?” they asked. “He has killed your only son!” The chief at first was filled with confusion, but then he looked at the young man and said, “You have killed my son, and therefore I am going to make you my new son and you will inherit everything I have!  This story reached a nearby Christian hospital, where the patients recognised the parallel between what the chief had done for the young man, and what God has done for us through the sacrifice of Jesus!

There are 4 ways we can respond to our guilt: 1. Deny it; 2. Dump it on someone else; 3. Die with it; or 4. Deal with it!

1.       Deny it:  In Psalm 32:1, King David says, “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered!” David himself admits in this chapter that “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long! (Doctors report that lack of social interaction – caused by guilt? – can result in osteoporosis which involves a wasting of the bones!)

Many times we try to deny or justify our guilt but this only makes the problem worse! David adds that while he continued to deny his sin and guilt, the hand of God was heavy upon him and his strength was sapped “as in the heat of summer!” In Psalm 38:4 he says, “My guilt has overwhelmed me, like a burden to heavy to bear!”

Moses says in Numbers 32:23, “You may be sure your sin will find you out!” It may appear to be buried and forgotten, but sin has a habit of surfacing, as in the story of the Spanish ship Nancy. The Nancy was captured by a British ship called the Sparrow in the Caribbean in 1799. While no evidence of smuggling was found on board,  another ship captured a shark, which when opened was found to contain a bundle of papers of incriminating evidence which had been thrown overboard by the captain, and which convicted the captain and crew of the Nancy!

Denial of sin and is not a solution to it! Instead we need to find David’s solution! After his above experience in Psalm 32 he says, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord – and you forgave the guilt of my sin!”

2.       Dump it on someone else: Adam and Eve discovered this trick the moment God confronted them with their guilt! In Genesis 3, Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the serpent! (And some people add that the serpent didn’t have a leg to stand on!)  But blaming someone else won’t really make guilt disappear! It will just make the situation worse!

In primary school, I was regarded as a goodie goodie, but one day, I felt like causing trouble by showing my neighbour some ridiculous cartoons, while we were supposed to be reading! He began to giggle, and I giggled with him until the teacher finally said, “What are you doing Ken???” Horrified at being caught, I said, “Geoffrey is making me laugh, Miss!”  At this she ordered Geoffrey out the front of the room and proceeded to cane him until he cried! I was a coward and a liar and a false accuser. Fortunately, Geoffrey eventually forgave me, but he probably wondered whether he could ever trust me again! In Psalm 41:9, David says, “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, has lifted up his heel against me!”

On a more positive note, I once attended a church on Good Friday, where we were each asked to write our sin of greatest guilt on a piece of paper and then pin it to the cross which had been erected at the front of the church for the occasion. We were reminded that through His death on the Cross, Jesus had paid the penalty for each of these sins, and that He had taken the guilt on Himself! Jesus has allowed us to dump all our guilt on Him!

3.       Die with it: Judas Iscariot felt so much guilt that he hanged himself – but his sorrow was not so much that he had betrayed Jesus, but rather a feeling of being sorry for himself, now that he felt like a persona non grata (someone who would no longer be welcome to his friends!) How many suicides are caused by guilt or the non-acceptance which often accompanies it?

I once before shared a story told by the American preacher John Wimber, who  was travelling on a plane when he noticed the man sitting across the aisle. Wimber could see in his spirit the message of ‘adultery’ across this man’s forehead!  The man could see Wimber staring at him and demanded, “What do you want!” He replied, “Does the name Jane mean anything to you?” The man followed up with, “We’ve got to talk!” and he led John Wimber to the lounge section of the plane! Wimber felt God saying to him, “Tell him if he doesn’t turn from his adultery, I’m going to take him!” Reluctantly, he explained to the man that God had given him the name Jane, and that God would take his life unless he changed his ways!  He then explained the process of repentance and making a fresh start in Jesus! Then man then went through such a heart-rending repentance that everyone in the lounge section could hear him! Even the hostess was in tears!  He also pointed out that downstairs his wife was sitting next to him, and he admitted that she had to be told. They returned downstairs, the man told his wife and led her also to Jesus. John Wimber didn’t have a spare Bible to give them, so he gave them his, and they went on their way!

The man in this story ran the risk of dying with his guilt! While we are alive, we have the capacity to deal with it before it’s too late! 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness!”

4.       Deal with it: Ryan was twenty-nine and he once went on a Christian camp where the speaker gave a meaningful and powerful plea for purity! After the talk he met with a small group of campers and confided in them that he had extreme trouble dealing with his sexual desires, which expressed themselves through use of pornography and masturbation.  He asked the group to pray that God would take away his sexual hungers so that he would no longer be tempted! But one of the group interrupted his pleas and told him that the sexual drive is a gift from God, and that it was not to be taken away, but properly handled with God’s power!

There is a difference between temptation and guilt! Everyone is tempted in one way or another, but temptation is not sin! Only yielding to temptation is sin! To deal with the guilt of sin we need to confess to God and to trust others! We then need to seek prayer to overcome the wrongdoing and to have the guilt of the past removed forever!

Isaiah 53:5 says that “The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed!

PRAYER IS MORE THAN COINCIDENCE!

 John 17:24-26

Harry Ironside is a well known American Bible teacher. But as a child, he came from such a poor family, that one day they sat at their breakfast table and said grace, with literally no food and just water on the table! As soon as they finished giving thanks for the food they were about to receive, there was a knock at the door, and a woman told his mother that she couldn’t afford to pay for the dressmaking Harry’s mother had provided, and asked whether she would accept a sack of potatoes instead. The whole family was treated that morning to a huge helping of hot potato chips!

As an adult, Harry was on the board of a Bible College which was rapidly going broke. One day at their board meeting he prayed, “Lord, you tell us in Psalm 50 that you own the cattle on a thousand hills! Please sell some cattle and give this college some of the money so that we can keep serving you! Just then, a local farmer entered the college foyer told the secretary, “I’ve just sold some of my cattle at the markets, and I’d like to make a donation to this College!” Last week we heard 4 amazing facts about prayer which I’ll summarise. Today we’re going to consider another 4 amazing facts:

5. Prayer is not usually a fast food service! Sometimes we need to ask often and trust long! I prayed for one mate for over twenty years before He finally turned to Jesus! George Muller prayed for five people who were antagonistic to the gospel to become Christians. The first took five years of prayer, the second ten years, the third and fourth a further twenty-five years and the fifth took 52 years – converting a few months after Muller’s death! (1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, “Pray without ceasing!”)

6. Prayer involves surrender to God’s will – not to our own! It has been said that the most effective prayer is the one prayed from helplessness! This is where we can no longer solve our own problems and we have to hand them over to God completely! Not only does he solve the problem for us, but we usually feel a real sense of peace when we no longer have to carry the burden ourselves. I was once stuck in a job for three years and after one year I felt I just couldn’t go on! When I prayed, the Lord put the idea into my mind to take leave of absence for one school term and live in my own home and just get a job nearby! He even told me which school to apply for part-time, and when I enquired, I found  that the Principal of the school had been my pastor in Tamworth 17 years earlier! 

7.            Prayer sometimes involves wrestling with God:  not just to convince God of what we seek, but to demonstrate our faith and our willingness to persevere! Jesus says in Luke 18:7, “And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones who cry out to Him day and night?” A man named John Hyde was an American missionary who lived 100 years ago. He spent absolute days and nights in prayer! In 1908 he prayed for the salvation of one soul every day and by the end of that year, he recorded over 400 converts. In 1909 it was two souls every day, and in 1910, four souls every day. He once stopped at a cottage for water and prayed for ten souls in that household! When he presented the gospel to that family all nine people accepted Jesus!And what of the tenth?A nephew who had been playing outside ran into the room and was also converted! (1 Chronicles 16:11)

8.            Prayer has no expiry date: With most perishable goods, we are accustomed to a “use-by” date. Prayers can last for eternity! Many prayers are often answered after the person praying has died! Like George Muller, the evangelist Dwight Moody had a prayer list – with 100 people on it, for whom he prayed regularly! We’re told that 96 of them became Christians before he died, and the other 4 at his funeral! (James 5:16 says, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective!”)

Conclusion: Whoever rises from prayer a better man, has had his prayer answered!

AMAZING FACTS ABOUT PRAYER

                              2 Kings 20:1-11

A Christian farmer was once visited by a sophisticated relative who scoffed when the farmer said grace, thereby dedicating the meal to God! “Surely this sort of behaviour is a thing of the past!” said his relative. And the farmer said, “I admit that there are some on this farm who don’t thank the Lord for their food,” he replied.  “Well I’m certainly pleased to find others of own thinking,” said the visitor. “Who are they?” “Why, replied the farmer, I’m referring to my pigs!” (And Jesus told us not to cast our pearls before pigs –or their admirors!) Note that when Jesus took the bread and the wine at the Last Supper, he gave God thanks for it, and calls us to do likewise. Not just thanks for our food, but also for what the bread and wine represents – the body and blood of Jesus – given for our salvation and forgiveness.

1         Prayer gives us a say in our own destiny:   It is clear from the story of Hezekiah that the king himself through his prayer, was instrumental in God’s decision to grant him an extra fifteen years of life.  But don’t get the idea though that Hezekiah changed God’s mind! God had mapped out Hezekiah’s life long before he was born, but God also, by telling Hezekiah his destiny, gave him a chance to have a say in things!  In other words, we can do what my clients do in mediation – we can help to determine our own outcomes! For us this happens through prayer! Matthew 6:8 says that “God knows what you need before you ask Him!”

2         Prayer doesn’t change God, but it can change us! God is the same – yesterday, today and forever! (Hebrews 13:8) But when we come to Him in humble prayer, He can change our hearts and even turn us around completely! We can even go from, “God, I hate you for what you’ve done to me,” to “Lord I thank you for my circumstances, and I pray you use them to refine me!”  A group of people were once heading to a prayer shrine in Europe and one young bloke said,” Look at that man with only one leg! Does he really think God is going to give his leg back?” To this the amputee replied, “No, I’m not going to pray to get my leg back! I’m going to pray that God will enable me to live without it!” (In the Lord’s prayer, we pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!”)

3         Prayer is not giving orders to God; it is receiving orders from Him:  I have gone from “Lord please don’t send me to Newcastle, or Kandos, or even Vietnam, to “Lord here I am – send me wherever you want me to go!” (Isaiah prayed a similar prayer in Isaiah 6). When I once offered to go anywhere in the world for Him, he took me to Melbourne to buy the Melbourne Age paper where the job he had for me was advertised – for the Republic of Nauru! I’d barely even heard of the place but the job came along when I really needed something somewhere!

4         Prayer involves listening to God – not just talking to Him:  Sometimes when we are trying to make a decision, we need to just leave it to God, and listen to His response! Sometimes He will simply place the answer in our minds and hearts! To illustrate this, a young man was driving home from Bible study one night after studying the topic,“Listening to God’s Voice!” As he drove down the main street of town, praying that God would speak to him, he had a strange conviction to stop and buy a carton of milk, even though he knew he didn’t need any.  He was then led to turn into a particular street and stop outside a house already in darkness. His knock brought a man who looked as if he’d just got out of bed. But when the guest offered the milk, the man admitted that they’d completely run out of money and had been praying for milk for their baby! The wife said that she’d asked God to send an angel with milk! (Isaiah 30:21 says, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way! Walk in it!’”)

UPDATE

Sunday 8th August was the first anniversary of our Rock Salt home church at Kings Cross! During the past year, God has blessed us in many ways - not the least of which was bringing 89 different people through our door. Whereas we started in August last year with thirteen present - mainly friends and visitors, we now have a regular group who turn up each week for a really encouraging time of discussion and sharing, prayer and fellowship!

Although we can only seat a maximum of twenty, any more than this would cause us to lose our personal identity. As distinct from the nature of some churches, we all know one another, and when someone new comes in, we welcome them and encourage them to feel at home the very first week! But we offer an additional evening service once a month  in an effort to catch those who can't make it in the morning. We have about twenty-five regulars, but with five to seven absent each week for one reason or another, we usually have close to our optimum number. If we do grow, we'll eventually seek to start another group in Cronulla, where some of us live -depending not on any merits of ours, but on the Lord's will!

But numbers are not as important as spiritual growth! This morning we had a testimony from one who became a Christian the first week he attended! And next week, another will be sharing how, if he misses a week with us, he feels flat for the rest of the week! Unlike most other churches, we not only have a preponderance of males, the males outnumber females about five to one! Come on girls! You just won't find this kind of ratio at other churches! 

Another difference is that we don't pass around a collection plate because we value people far more than their money! Those who wish to do so still make donations, but the important thing is that we've managed to give some $5000 to missionaries and those in need during the past twelve months! And we don't offer any pastor's stipend because the church is a voluntary offering to our Lord! 

And I suspect that we're way ahead of our time! As older traditional churches are on the decline, and our secular society is making a definite effort to discourage people from becoming followers of Jesus, it is likely in fifty years or less, that Biblical churches could become underground meetings held in private homes! The day of the robed priest and elaborate ritual is likely to disappear in the next generation, and only evangelicals and charismatics will survive the pressures. 

Today we had the most beautiful birthday cake and there was a sense of celebration and victory in Jesus! 

We trust Him to bless our meetings as long as He wills, and I'd like to congratulate our members on their faithfulness to Him! Ken

DOES MY CREDIBILITY MATTER?

                                                                                                                                       Matthew 5:33-37

An American surgeon, named Dr Evan Kane, believed that many operations that were performed under general anaesthetic could be performed under local anaesthetic! He decided to test this theory by finding someone willing to have his appendix removed by local.  In the year 1921, the first patient was wheeled into the operating room. The operation was a success, and who was the  patient?  It was Dr Kane himself! He had performed the operation on himself! He proved that he was willing to do first, what he would ask others to do later! Likewise, Jesus was willing to go to the Cross first, before asking us to take up our cross and follow Him!

 What we’re talking about this morning is believability in ourselves as Christians! Unfortunately, we each suffer from a credibility gap – which is the difference between what we say and what we do! The question is, can others take us seriously, or more importantly, do we take ourselves seriously?  When we promise to do something, do we even believe ourselves that we’ll do it? If we don’t even take ourselves seriously, can we really expect others to take us seriously? Some years ago, I came up with the absurd idea that I’d love to see people wearing credibility T-shirts (with their percentage credibility printed on the front – so that when anyone told us something, we could decide how much to believe them by the level of their credibility!)

Jesus clearly told His followers this is Matthew 5:37, “Simply let your yes be yes and your no be no!” In other words, “Be prepared to do whatever you say – and stick to it!” Years ago, I promised to give one of my mates a TV antenna for his new house, as I had a spare one at home. But somehow, I forgot this promise, and I found from then on, I could never face him because I had let him down. Eventually he became an assistant director of education in where I lived, and as much as I needed to use his name as a referee for many job applications, I didn’t dare contact him or ask him because I had wrecked my credibility with him! I have lived with the consequences of that broken promise ever since!

Our topic  today appears under  the three C’s – Conduct, Consistency, and Commitment.

Conduct – How many times do we as Christians fail to uphold Jesus’ example in our own behaviour? The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 10: 31, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do, do it all for the glory of God! I once went out for a meal with a group of non-Christian friends in the city. I enjoyed the food so much that I gorged myself to the point where I have never felt so bloated in all my life! I spent the next couple of hours spewing it all up in the gutter as we walked along the streets of Sydney! Did I set an example that my friends would want to follow? What sort of example are you setting for your non-Christian friends? (Perhaps we would like to share around the group, just how we have let Jesus down in the example we have set for others!)

Consistency – How often can our friends rely on what we say? If you tell them that you’ll be there in ten minutes, do you take ten minutes or fifty minutes? A mate of mine would sometimes agree to call on me for lunch at midday – but I always knew when this happened that I could comfortably watch the midday movie for the next two hours – and yes, although he’s never been to this church, he does profess to be a Christian! Time means very little to the current generation in particular! But if we are consistently late, instead of consistently punctual, we send the message that we cannot be relied on! Remember again that Jesus said, “Let your yes be yes and your no be no!” He wants us to be reliable and believable! Am I a man of my word – or as with my TV antenna story, have I let others down? And we must each apply this to ourselves! When my wife and I went for marriage guidance counselling, I offered to start the ball rolling by admitting my faults – in the hope that my wife would do likewise! But the counsellor said, “Well it’s obvious why your marriage has failed! You have just explained it! She didn’t even invite my wife to do her bit! Would anyone here like to share how they have let others down? Can people say of us, “He/she  is a man/woman of his/her word?”

Commitment – The Bible contains thousands of God’s promises which have never been broken! Once He makes a commitment to us, He fulfils His word! But when we make a commitment to follow Jesus by handing over our whole lives to Him, do we follow this through, or do we waiver back and forth, as if we’re still trying to make up our mind? When we get married, we do so in public and we make life-long promises to the other person and to God! And if someone says to us afterwards, “Are you married?”we can’t very well say, “I haven’t decided yet!” Likewise, when we commit our lives to Jesus, we not only make a lifelong commitment, we make a commitment for eternity! (This is not so with marriage, because there is no marriage in heaven!) If someone asks us, “Are you a Christian?” we should be able to say, “Yes I am,” or “Not yet!” But we can’t really say, “I really don’t know!” When I was a kid, I attended Sunday school from the age of three until I turned 14. Then I was confirmed as a member of the Anglican church. I saw this as a type of graduation ceremony – meaning that I didn’t have to be a Christian any more! And many people see becoming a Christian as the graduation – now that I’ve done this, I’ve done my bit! But becoming a Christian is the beginning of our new life – not the end of it!

Jesus was willing to give His life for each of us on the Cross! Are we willing to offer Him our lives in return, or are we willing just to make token gestures once in a while? Remember my previous mate i who says he’s a Christian because he goes to church once a year?  The apostle Peter didn’t understand Jesus’ purpose originally, but after Jesus rose from the dead, Peter wrote, (in 1 Peter 2:21, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps!” The Message translation says, “He suffered everything that came His way so you would know it could be done, and also how to do it – step by step!” Let’s make sure that we take ourselves seriously in following Jesus – so that others can follow our example! The apostle Paul was able to say in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ!” Wouldn’t it be something if we could say the same thing?

WHY SHOULD WE INVITE OTHERS TO CHURCH?

                 Mark 16:9-15

As humans, we tend to divide people into those we like and those we don’t like. But God’s attitude is quite different! Psalm 145:9 says, “The Lord is good to everyone! He showers compassion on ALL his creation!

There is a common story about a beach which was covered with stranded starfish, and one solitary boy who would bend over every so often and pick up one of the fish and toss it into the water, to give it a chance to live! A man came along and said why are you wasting your time with that one fish when there are countless thousands stranded here? What does one fish matter? The boy looked down at the one fish in his hand and said, “It matters to this one!”

Likewise, Jesus says in Luke 15:7, “There is rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents!” He calls on us to be “fishers of men” – that is to seek out the lost on a one-to-one basis! We are not called to be daunted by the millions out there who are lost, but rather to do our bit in reaching out to them one at a time!

I once attended a meeting at the Sydney Town Hall, where Anglicans across Sydney were invited to meet their new archbishop!  I have to admit that I was rather cynical about the whole deal, especially when the MC for the evening said, “If you’d like to ask the new archbishop a question, just grab a pen and paper and put your special question in this box for him!” I thought to myself, “What makes this man such an expert. I’m going to ask him the most difficult question I can, and let’s see how he deals with it! I put my question down on paper, and surprisingly, it was drawn out of the box and the archbishop addressed it! I had asked, “How can we Christians, who are relatively few in number, hope to reach the millions of people in Sydney with the Good News of Jesus?” the archbishop replied:  “Every person living in Sydney probably knows at least one Christian – whether it be the local shopkeeper, the lady at the bus stop, the quiet bloke at work, or a student at our school or college.” If every one of these Christians sets a godly example, it’s possible that those around us may one day ask us a question, which gives us a chance to testify to our faith!”

The question we need to ask ourselves is, “Do I set a godly example to those around me, or do I just mimic the behaviour of the crowd?” We also need to ask, “Do I care about those around me, or do I just live for myself – doing what I want when I want?” The answers to these questions measure us against the most important command of Jesus:  “GO into all the world and preach the good news to all creation!” This is Jesus one law of love in action! The most loving thing we can do for others is to  share Jesus with them – both in words and in the way we live! What did Mary Magdalene and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus do, after they fully realised Jesus had risen from the dead?

The Apostle Paul took this command so seriously that in Acts 20:24 he said, “But life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned to me by the Lord Jesus – the work of telling others the Good News about God’s almighty kindness and love!”  If this is how a Christian must rate his/her life, how many of us would have to rate our lives as nothing? Can we truly say, “I brought such and such a person to Jesus,” or would we have to admit that we haven’t even tried! If we want to translate this opportunity into practice, we could ask, “How many people have I invited along to this church?” If your name is James, you have probably invited ten different people here since we started ten months ago! And many others here have brought people along! But if we are to remain a living church, we have to invite people all the time, because we’re already losing Annie to Queensland this week, we lost Ivan to Brazil recently and we shall lose Joseph and Christine back to Sweden later in the year! Every church loses people as they go to other states or countries, but every church that lives must grow! And every living church points people to Jesus! If I were to embarrass you by asking for a show of hands if you have invited someone along (and I won’t), could you raise your hand?

If we can’t bring ourselves to tell people about Jesus, we can SHOW them Jesus by the way we live!  Pastor Doug Nichols was in an Indian hospital, and no-one wanted to hear him talk about Jesus. But one day when he helped a very sick man who was fouling his bed, to get to the toilet, people started to take notice, and then they began to ask him questions about Jesus!

WHY REACH OUT?

1.       Each human soul is worth more than anything else in the world! Jesus actually says in Matthew 16:26, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his own soul?”

2.       Any soul who is lost is lost for eternity – separated from God forever! Do we wish this of our family and friends?

3.       Jesus died for every person ever born! Why should anyone miss out on what He offers?

4.       Heaven offers glories beyond our imagination. We would write, “Wish you were here!”

5.       Jesus promises that when the Gospel  reaches all nations and peoples, the end will come!

6.       As we reach out to others, we GROW in the faith – even if we don’t know the results.

(The story of the old man who reached out in George St Sydney)

If we KNOW the Gospel, we can GO, SHOW, GROW!

WHAT CAN WE DO?

We can bring others to learn about Jesus, and hopefully give their lives to Him! Are you willing to do your bit by inviting someone you know to join us for a future service? Are you willing to stop mimicking the world’s behaviour and start reflecting Jesus in your life? Are you willing to be part of an outreach team in Kings Cross? Can you do one, or two, or even all three of these things?

WHAT CAN JESUS OFFER OUR WORLD?

A very kind doctor used to keep an account book, and every so often would go through the accounts to check which bills hadn’t been paid.  Whenever he found an account where the patient could not pay the bill, the doctor would simply put a red line through it and write alongside, “Forgiven, umable to pay”. After his death, his wife went through the book and decided that she could benefit from all these outstanding debts. She therefore went to the local courthouse to sue the debtors for the money in the civil claims court – which is where I often work. But the magistrate looked at the doctor’s account book and said, “No court in the world will give you a verdict against those people, when your husband, with his own pen has written, “Forgiven, unable to pay”!

Likewise, Jesus, in His Book of Life, has acknowledged against each of our names, “Forgiven, unable to pay for our sins!” He knows that although we deserve to go to God’s prison (called Hell) to pay the debt for our sins, we can do nothing to offset the sins which stack up against us, except to claim His forgiveness which He paid for on the Cross! As we share communion today, we thank Him for His forgiveness, which frees us from the penalty we so richly deserve!

We live in a world which treats the symptoms rather than to seek a cure!

Examples:           1. Provide clean syringes for heroin users – but don’t offer the users a new lifestyle!

(The Principal of one of my former schools raided the ISCF meeting because we had a guest speaker talking about drugs – he was addressing how prayer meetings have provided rehabilitation! Some people see the Christian solution as more dangerous than the symptoms themselves!)

                                2. Youth centres and even schools provide condoms for teenagers – but don’t offer celibacy as an alternative lifestyle! It’s almost compulsory to experiment with sex these days! This is like offering a pyromaniac a fire-proof suit for protection – but not exposing the dangers of the practice!

                                3. Drunken riots at Bondi Beach are addressed by Waverley Council be roping off a special area for getting drunk – but no celebration of Jesus is offered at Christmas!

                                4. A careers adviser told a mother not to offer counselling to her daughter who is sexually active –just provide the pill – as “She’s going to do it anyway!” And another careers adviser offered a girl the chance to have an abortion instead of the chance to keep the baby!

                                5. If teenagers rebel – just give them more freedom! My elderly neighbour in Taree complained about the noise caused by my teenage tenant using a basketball hoop on his side of my house. He even offered to provide a hoop in the park on the other side, but the boy’s mother defended his actions by refusing to cooperate with the neighbour!

The world’s solution is to offer more fun, more pleasure, more freedom to disturb and destroy! But Jesus offers a new Way, new Truth and new Life!

A NEW WAY: (Hope)

The great evangelist John Wesley was once assailed by a robber who demanded “Your money or your life!” Wesley not only handed over the few coins he had in his possession, but he added, “Stop! I have something more to give you!” And he told the man, “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin! As the robber rode off, Wesley prayed that the words would sink into his heart! Many years later, as people came out of a church where Wesley was preaching, the former robber himself stepped forward to meet him. He was now a successful businessman and a follower of Jesus. He told Wesley, “I owe it all to you!”to which Wesley replied, “No my friend, not to me but to the precious blood of Christ, which cleanses us from all sin!” This is the way of Jesus! And the only way to receive eternal life!

A NEW TRUTH: (Purpose)

The real truth is very narrow! If your doctor was a very sincere man, and had lots of ideas but knew nothing about medicine, would you trust him to heal you? Jesus said in Matthew 9:12, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick! For I have not come to heal the righteous, but sinners!” Jesus, as our Creator, not only knows how to heal our bodies, but more importantly, He can heal our souls and spirits! If we are only willing to trust Jesus and no other religious leader, we are being narrow minded, because, Jesus said, “No-one comes to the Father except through ME!” When Jesus declared Himself to be truth, He wasn’t just claiming to speak the truth, or to  speak about the truth, because He proved Himself to be God, He actually is the truth, and everything we say and do is measured against Him!

A pastor was once asked to conduct the funeral of a gangster and the dead man’s brother gave the pastor a generous donation for the church if the pastor promised to say that the deceased was a saint! When the pastor got up to preach, he said, “This man is a liar, a cheat and a crook! When he saw the horrified look on the brother’s face, he added, “but compared with his brother, this man is a saint! Likewise, when we measure ourselves against Jesus, we see the truth of Romans 3:23, “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God!”

At another funeral, the pastor said, in front of the open casket, “Here lies Joe, who would probably  have loved to give his life to Jesus, but now it’s too late! But it’s not too late for you who are here! Now is the day of salvation. You don’t have to suffer the fate of poor Joe! You can receive eternal life today!” On his way home, one man said to his wife, “I thought that message was in very poor taste!” His wife agreed, but added, “Yes, but it’s true! It’s not too late for us!”

A NEW LIFE: (Direction)

Another writer I studied in my first year at university was John Donne – a poet who lived a very licentious life, and wrote poems about the sexual relationships he had with many women in his younger life! But in due course Jesus gave him a new life, and eventually he became the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London! He continued to write poetry, but changed his theme from sexual love to the love of God! (At uni we studied both sets of his poems!) And in one of his sermons he wrote this, “For I shall see the Son of God, the Sun of glory, and shine myself as that Sun shines! I shall rise from the grave, and never miss this city (London), for I shall see the city of God – the new Jerusalem!”

When i was going through one of the most difficult times in my life a number of years back, the pastor of my church gave me this verse from Psalm 27:13, “I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!” Jesus offers us new life – both in this world and the next! Will you take the opportunity to begin a new life with Jesus today?

THE END TIMES FACTS!

                                                                                               1 Timothy 3:1-5

Using the acronym THE END TIMES FACTS, we have the following prophecies from the BIBLE

TENSION– Matthew 24:6 says, “You will hear of wars and rumours of wars!”

Since World War 11 ended in 1945, there have been hundreds of wars throughout the world!

“But see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come!”

HOLY LAND RESTORED – “Ezekiel 36:24 says, “For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land!” (This began in 1948)

EVANGELISM WORLDWIDE – Matthew 24:14 says, “And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come!” (The Gospel reached Mongolia – the last country to receive it) in 1990 – only twenty years ago.  The Wycliffe Bible translators claim that they will have a portion of Scripture in every language by the year 2025!

EDUCATION EXPLOSION - Daniel 12:4 says, “But Daniel, keep this prophecy a secret until the end times, when travel and knowledge will be vastly increased!”  Knowledge is increasing at an incredible rate since the introduction of the Internet in about 1990. This incredible increase has vastly increased the opportunity for proclaiming the Gospel to all nations!

NATIONAL DISASTERS – Matthew 24:7 says that “There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains!” The world of nature has been going through amazing upheaval and climate change in recent decades!  I was teaching at TIGS in 1989 and when I told this to a class there, they scoffed. But three months later, Australia had its own dramatic earthquake in Newcastle!

DISEASE – Luke 21:11 adds that there will be pestilences along with famine. Since 1980 there has been AIDS and Ebola disease, mad cow disease and bird flu etc!

FALSE PROPHETS – Luke 21:8 says “For many will come in my name, claiming I am HE!” Billy Graham claims that at the Los Angeles Olympics alone in 1972 there were more than 300 claiming to be Him!

APATHY – 2 Timothy 3:4 says Many will be “Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God!” Apathy is the spiritual disease of our time, as people pursue pleasure in every possible way!

CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION – Matthew 24:9 says, “You will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death!  From 30AD to 1900, there have been 15 million martyrs. In the twentieth century, 30 m!

TRAVEL EXPLOSION - Referred to in Daniel 12:4. Before 1950, many people worldwide never left their own village! Plane travel has totally exploded to now include billions!

SPIRITUAL OUTPOURING – Joel 2:28 says, “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people!” (This has happened to all ages, and every kind of person worldwide since 1900!)

Revelation 16:15 says, “Behold I come as a thief!” No-one knows the day or the hour! Be ready! “Blessed is he who stays awake!”

LIVIING IN THE NEW AGE

                                                                                                        Deuteronomy 18:9-13

These days, some people will pray to anything and everything except God.  A classic example involves the TV star David Hasselhoff, star of Baywatch for many years. He has reported that in June 1998, the year after Princess Diana died, a memorial service was held for her in the grounds of her ancestral home in England. When the day came, it was pouring rain, and David Hasselhoff  prayed to her to stop the rain so that the service could go ahead! And he says that the skies cleared – making this her greatest miracle of that day! But only God can answer prayer! And Jesus added that no-one comes to the Father except through Him! And as we come to communion this morning, we remember that through His death on the cross, we have forgiveness through Him also!

Each year Sydney has a Festival of Mind, Body and Spirit! Now since the Bible tells us that we are made of these three components, it seems quite an appropriate kind of festival to have!  But the Bible also tells us to “test the spirits” and determine whether something is really of God, or whether we’re being led up the garden path!  Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says, “May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ!”

The Festival itself though, is not promoting the Christian faith! It is promoting a different kind of faith which its supporters call “The New Age” or “The Age of Aquarius!” Some of the secular radio stations are quite happy to advertise this festival with all its options, but would never promote the Christian faith as one of the options.

 In the 1960s, the Age of Aquarius was the ascendancy of human achievement, when any traditions seen as restrictive were abandoned by many, and this included the Christian faith! But since man is a spiritual being, the New Age has ushered in a whole range of beliefs and practices to fill this need! Most of them have been around for thousands of years, and therefore the New Age should really be called the Old Age! It involves people are searching outside the truth of God and into the spirit world! This was predicted in 1 Timothy 4:1 as a sign of the end times,  “The Spirit clearly says that in the later times, some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons!”

Satan told Adam and Eve in the garden, that they could taste the forbidden fruit and become like God! New Age exponents also accept this idea and have been tasting the forbidden fruit we have just read about so that they would each become like gods! They believe that they themselves are gods, because they believe that “everything there is can be found in the self”! For this reason, they promote the idea of “consciousness raising” activities so that they can discover new truths within themselves through expanding their minds! But what they are really doing is opening their minds to every kind of demonic force available!

This type of activity is called the Occult – which means ‘hidden’ because people seek what is hidden from general human knowledge! Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever!” Whereas Christianity is a revelation of God, the New Age is an attempt to explore what is hidden from us, especially our individual futures! Whereas the occult was previously taboo in our society because of the commands of Duteronomy, our secular society now accepts the whole gamut of these alternate practices as being “respectable”! I’m referring her to such things as wirchcraft, psychic readings, fortune telling and so on! But the new age is simply the occult with a sugar coating! But 1 John 2:24 says, “See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you!”

The Bible teaches that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19) We either allow Him control of our minds and spirits as well, or we surrender to the other spirits! Whereas the Holy Spirit’s main function is to convict us of our sin, and lead us away from it, the New Age philosophy doesn’t believe in sin or evil as such! But sadly, those who think there is no sin live in a fool’s paradise! Jesus said, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves! Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves!”

Proverbs 14:12 also gives us a warning: “There is a way that seems right to man, but in the end it leads to death!” We can’t afford to make the wrong choices! Only Jesus gives us life!  If you would like to seek Jesus more fully today, a number of us are willing to talk to you about this opportunity!

HOW SACRED IS HUMAN LIFE?

                                 Psalm 139: 12-15, Psalm 92: 12-15

The day Jesus was crucified could also be described as the first Mother’s Day! While Jesus hung on the Cross in excruciating pain, His first thought was for His mother. Speaking directly to her, he said to her, “Behold your son!” referring not to Himself, but to His best mate John, who was assigned to look after her for the rest of her life! Likewise, America’s greatest president, Abraham Lincoln once said, “God bless my mother! All I am or hope to be, I owe to her!”

As we honour our mothers today – whether they are with us or not – we remember that without them, we would not be here! When I taught Scripture at St George Girls’ High School some years ago, I had a discussion with my Year 10 class about Abortion and a number of the girls were all in favour of it! I pointed out to them that if their mothers held the same opinion, they probably wouldn’t have been born themselves! Although scientists now know that the tiny embryo inside the mother is a living human being, this was first revealed again through Jesus’ mother Mary! When she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist, the arrival of Mary caused the baby to jump with excitement in his mother’s womb! But let’s get Mary into perspective! She acknowledged herself as a sinner when she sang the words in Luke Chapter 1: “My soul magnifies the Lord and my Spirit rejoices in God my Saviour!” In referring to God as her Saviour, she admits that she needs to be saved from the penalty of her sin!

Our topic today is the sacredness of human life! A group of medical students was once challenged on the subject of abortion. They were given a test case and asked whether the baby should be aborted!  The case study said this: “The mother and fourth child already have tuberculosis! The father has syphilis! The first child is blind, and the second child has died. The third is a deaf mute. Would they abort the fifth child? Most of the students agree that this would be wise! But the lecturer tells them that they have just killed Beethoven! In other words, every child is a creation of God and deserves a chance to live and to love!

Our first Bible reading today tells us that “Every day of my life was recorded in your book! Every moment of my life was laid out before a single day had passed!”  This means that where a human life is artificially terminated, someone is interfering with God’s eternal plan – not only for that life, but also for the lives of those who would have been touched by that life! The sin which seemed to horrify God especially in the Old Testament times was the sacrifice of children! There are many instances where God wiped out whole tribes of people for that sin in particular! When God said “Be fruitful and multiply,” he did not want children to be used either as a contraceptive or a sacrifice!

God’s purpose is the opposite of the enemy, of whom Jesus says in John 10:10, The thief only comes to steal, kill and destroy!” Jesus says the opposite of Himself:  Ï have come that they may have life, and have it to the full!”

But what of the elderly people in nursing homes who aren’t living life to the full? Psalm 92:14 says, “The righteous will still bear fruit in old age!” My mother is 92 and is sadly a shrivelled version of her earlier self! (Some have even said the same of me!) But my mother continues to bear spiritual fruit in her life as she smiles at all who speak to her, and greets each one with a joyful response, as many of my friends can testify! Proverbs 16:31 says, “Grey hair is a crown of splendour: it is attained by a righteous life!”(which probably explains why I don’t have very much!) Genesis reminds us that each of us is made in the God’s likeness! All human life is therefore sacred! Even the most deformed or decayed person is a light of life and part of God’s plan – because each of us will one day be restored without pain or imperfections! Isaiah 35:5 says, “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy!

WHY DO GOOD PEOPLE SUFFER?

                                                                                                                                      1 Peter 4:12-19

A student once told me that he was giving up the Christian faith because he saw his grandmother, a faithful Christian, suffer before she died! His logic was, that if God allows good people to suffer, then he didn’t want to serve God! (Or was this just a cop-out to justify living without God?)

In the movie A Man Called Peter, Catherine Marshall his wife faced a similar dilemma! She was confined to bed with tuberculosis over a long period of time. No matter how much she and her husband prayed, she didn’t get any better! Let’s see what happened in the movie version of the story! This scene takes us from despair to triumph, when Catherine surrenders to God’s will! But we should not assume that when we surrender to God, life will be a bed of roses from then on! (This mistaken belief is called the Prosperity Gospel and is wrongly taught in a number of churches!

There are three reasons I’d like to consider for good people to suffer in God’s world:

1.       Suffering teaches us to rely on God! One of my friends had been very self-sufficient until his wife contracted cancer! He suddenly realised for the first time that we don’t control our own lives after all! But even the death of his wife did not draw him to Jesus! It was only when he landed in hospital himself that the penny finally dropped, and convinced him to surrender to Jesus at last! Peter Marshall himself said that while life is a series of highs and lows, God relies more on the lows to bring us to Himself! And some of His special favourites have gone through longer and deeper troughs than anyone else! As we heard from 2 Corinthians 12:9 last week, He told the Apostle Paul, “My strength is made perfect in your weakness!”

2.       Suffering Prepares us for Service! A girl in my youth group contracted a strange muscular disease which left her bedridden for twelve months – just as she was about to do the HSC! But instead of turning away from God, she dedicated the rest of her life to serving God as a hospital chaplain – ministering to the sick and dying and their families! A television movie tells the true story of Edna Gladney who lost her only son at age 5, and then her husband, who told her before she died, “God took your baby from you so that through you thousands of babies may have a chance! Edna spent the rest of her life caring for orphans and deserted children! (This should also remind us that God Himself lost His only Son so that millions could be saved from disaster!)

3.       We Suffer Because the Enemy Hates Us! Satan hated Jesus enough to prompt one of His own disciples to betray Him unto death! Satan also sets out to destroy each of our lives by turning us away from God, as he tried with Job, for example! I once surprised a group of Christian young people in Papua New Guinea by telling them how my Christian group in the boarding school were persecuted for following Jesus! One of them said to me afterwards, “But I thought Australia was a Christian country!” As Christians, we must dare to be different!  If we are doing God’s work, we can expect constant rejection! For example, I messaged some fifteen people during the week to invite them to our service this morning. Of those, only  - have come along!

We are told in 1 Peter 2:21, that we are called to suffer for doing good, “because Christ suffered for you, leaving an example, that you should follow in His steps!”

IS MANKIND MAKING PROGRESS?

                                                                                                                                 Genesis 11

If we define progress as material achievements, we can say “Yes, mankind is making progress!” Japan, for example, has a tower one kilometre high – much higher than the Tower of Babel mentioned in the Bible! But in the year 2000, the world celebrated 2000 years of Christian faith.  And to mark the occasion, the City of London built the world’s largest ferris wheel. Doesn’t it give you a feeling of security, knowing that London has this special landmark? I mean, yes, you do get quite a good view from up there (I’ve been there already) but to me it’s a sad commentary on human progress that we celebrate our faith in this way!

The truth is, that in the 5000 years since the Tower of Babel, the human race has learned very little of real significance! How can I say this? Because we are still making the same mistakes now that the Babylonians were making all those years ago:

1.       Pride – Making a name for ourselves!

 In other words, by glorifying ourselves rather than God, we are concentrating on Humanism – the idea that human beings can ultimately achieve anything! When Tony Blair became the Prime Minister of England for example, he declared in distinctly humanist tones, that the world was about to experience a generation of peace!  I said at the time that this was a ridiculous assertion, especially since Neville Chamberlain, a previous prime minister had declared, “Peace in our time” just before Britain and Germany declared war on each other!  And sure enough, during Tony Blair’s term of office, England became embroiled in two impossible wars – one in Afganistan, and one in Iraq! The Bible has a comment to make on this kind of pride, in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, “While people are saying ‘peace and safety’, destruction will come upon them suddenly!” I must admit that I’d much rather believe the Bible than the Tony Blairs of the world any day! “Whereas John the Baptist said of Jesus, “He must become more important and I must become less important (John 3:30), most people would prefer to believe the opposite!

We can fall into the same trap as the rich fool in Jesus’parable, who kept building bigger and better buildings for his own importance, until God took him unprepared! A quiz champion of the sixties named Frank Partidge had a new home, a new wife, became a father, etc, but was wiped out in a head on collision! I don’t know whether he was prepared for eternity, but he got it!

Adam and Eve developed such pride that they sought equality with God, but even today, most people make gods of themselves, leaving the true God out of the picture!

2.       Prominence  -  Trusting in ourselves, rather than in God! “Let us build ourselves a city!”

These days, humans feel a sense of self-achievement because they’ve put a man on the moon! Scientists are even claiming that computers which focus on data from outer space can reveal the origins of the universe! And members of SETI (search for extra-terrestrial intelligence, claim that by training their computers on outer space, that sooner or later they will pick up signals from other life forms in the universe! But God’s universe is far greater than man or his computers! It is convenient to leave God out of the picture – but not very realistic!

Medical science is now trying to play God by creating life from nothing as God has done! But they will never succeed! We must recognise, as Hebrews 2:10 tells us, that it is GOD “for whom and through whom everything exists!” Not only have scientists and others declared God redundant, but people try to use made-up religions to get into God’s Kingdom! They forget that ‘religion’ means to bind up, while Jesus declared, “The truth will set you free!” (John 8:32) We cannot get to heaven by our own efforts, no matter what we try to do to achieve it! Jesus even tells the story of one man who tried to crash His party by his own efforts, but instead was thrown into ‘outer darkness’!  Jesus also said that His strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor 12:9) It is only when we make a point of total surrender that God can really work in us! St Augustine said, “Man will never find rest until his soul finds rest in Thee!”

3.       Pressure from Peers – the idea of safety in numbers! 

One of the fallacies of modern (and ancient) society is that “the majority is always right!” But originally the majority thought that the earth was flat! These days, most people live for themselves rather than God, and in the process, they follow the easy path to destruction! (Matt 7:13) But Christians will always be in the minority! E.g. Lot in Sodom! While I was living in the Republic of Nauru, I noticed that the motto of this so-called Christian country was “God’s Will First!” But when I asked the pastor’s son how many of the people were ‘real’Christians, he estimated that 18% would be generous! People forget that when we die, we will face God alone! We won’t have family and friends there to back us up! Our only ally will be Jesus Himself, who will either welcome us into His presence, or say, “”Sorry, I never knew you!”

Babel was language confusion and no effort can unite our languages (e.g. UN) Only the Holy Spirit can unify languages as a Pentecost! Let us not continue making the mistakes of Bable, and instead surrender to our Maker! Our eternal life begins the moment we do!

Photos

FOUR REACTIONS TO JESUS

                      Mark 4:2-9

During World War 1, a group  of Turkish soldiers held a cliff top vantage point to protect the Turkish army near an location called Michmash. The British army was ordered to wipe out the Turkish opponents, which was easier said than done. But one of the British officers remembered an incident in the Bible at the exact location – where David’s friend Jonathan found a trail which led him and supporters to the top of the cliff where the enemy were defeated. The British searched and found the same trail used by Jonathan some three thousand years earlier – and history repeated itself – all because one British officer remembered an episode from the Bible. Remembrance is important, and our theme for communion, where we remember Jesus’ amazing sacrifice for us. Jesus left us this memorial ceremony so that we could remember the greatest of all truths – that He died for our salvation!

Today’s parable shows us not only the four types of response to Jesus and His Word, but it also shows four different reactions that we can make to Him at different times in our lives! The first group are the people who hear the Word of God, but it goes “in one ear and out the other!” In other words, these people are quite indifferent to God’s Word, and it makes no impact on their lives whatsoever! These are the people who turn up to church for an infant baptism or a funeral. They sit with their ears closed throughout the service – especially for what they see as the ‘religious bits’. In the book Hey God, the Italian momma, on the day before she dies, approaches a man walking past her home and she says, “Sir, you better accept Christ and accept Him quickly because you haven’t got long!” But the man keeps repeating, “I don’t want to hear it!” Momma’s son attended that man’s funeral four days later! Most people just don’t want to hear about Jesus, and most of them just prefer to commit the only unforgiveable sin – which is leaving Jesus out of their lives forever!

The second group we are told have shallow soil and the seed sprouts quickly but is soon scorched and withered! These are the people who at first respond positively to Jesus and His Word, but for them it’s just a brief novelty – “here today and gone tomorrow!” I once took a small group of students to a Pentecostal church, and by the end of the meeting, they were all speaking in tongues! They were so excited on the way home and of them wanted to be baptised the following week. But there was no depth to their decision, and by the following week, after getting the usual tormenting from their friends in the dormitories, they had put the whole experience behind them and were happy just to go to the usual service at the Anglican church!

The third group are those who take notice of the Word of Jesus, but the world quickly chokes out what they’ve heard! For them it’s a case of “easy come, easy go!”  They get easily sucked in by the temptations of the world, and their faith is easily swept away when their friends say, “Come with us and have some fun!”  The so-called fun though is usually self-indulgent and self-destructive, and doesn’t allow any room for Jesus! There is no shortage of worldly activities which lead us downhill if we’re ready to go looking for them!  People often fall for one of the three the three p’s:   pokies,  pubs and pot! One of my students once insisted on seeing a priest so that he could become a Christian! I said, you don’t need a priest, you just need to turn to Jesus! And I prayed the sinner’s prayer with him! But then he was so keen to ‘share’ faith with his mates,that he headed straight to the pub to tell them about it! And that’s where it ended. He quickly joined in the drinking and swearing and his new faith was swept away in no time!

But the fourth group hear the Word of Jesus, and are willing to accept Him in place of their empty lives once and for all! The book Hey God, which I’ve already mentioned, tells of several members of Momma’s family who resist Jesus for many years until finally they surrender their lives to Him and can’t wait to share Him with everyone they meet! A lady I know came from a non-Christian family, except that one of the four daughters attended Sunday School. Gradually however, the mother and the other three daughters turned to Jesus and finally the father surrendered  also. The father was so full of the joy of the Lord, that no-one could stop him talking about Jesus at every opportunity. The mother developed a similar zeal. Today it is only the first daughter who gave up the faith and married a non-Christian! She clearly fell into the second or third group which we’ve already described! What about you? Do you give up too easily, or are you willing to face the fact that only with Jesus do we have a real purpose for living and a real confidence in dying!

HOW SHOULD A CHRISTIAN LIVE?

High in the Italian Alps is a cross on one of the peaks, and each year at Easter, many people gather around this cross to celebrate Jesus’ death on our behalf. But one day, someone walked beyond the cross, to find another monument – an open cave, to celebrate the empty tomb which Jesus left behind when He arose from the dead. How often do people finish the story of Jesus with His death and forget what is even more important – that He conquered death by rising from it! Likewise, America’s third President, Thomas Jefferson admired the Bible – but only parts of it! He produced a special edition which removed all the supernatural sections and finished the story of Jesus with the sealing of His tomb! Today we remember Jesus’ sacrifice for us as we celebrate communion, but because today is Resurrection Sunday, we also celebrate the new life He offers us when we surrender to Him!

When I worked about 100metres along this road at Springfield Lodge as the caretaker, one night an American lady approached me and said, “My fridge isn’t working!” I know nothing about fridges, but I thought perhaps if Id looked at it, she may feel a little better, even if we had to get an expert in next day.  As we approached her room, she said, “There’s a mouse in my room!” and I thought to myself, “This lady really does have problems!”  When we arrived I saw the “mouse” immediately! Her room was a mess, but she pronounced “mess” as “mouse”. That one was easily solved. Likewise the fridge problem wasn’t too difficult even for me! I just had to turn it on at the power point! Fridges, like humans, can only function if they are turned on and tuned in! As Christians, we need to be plugged in to Jesus, our source of Power – turned on and tuned in to Him! Those who play electric guitars won’t get far without a source of power – unless they use acoustic guitars, which rely on their own power! But Jesus doesn’t have any acoustic Christians! If we rely only on our own power, we won’t get very far! Christians then, need to KNOW HIM, GROW IN HIM, and SHOW HIM to the world!

1.       KNOW HIM. The best way to do this is to read His Word and listen to His Word! But when a mate of mine told me once that God doesn’t guide us through our circumstances, I became upset and prayed for assurance that He really does guide us through the circumstances He provides for us! I woke at 5.30am next morning while it was still dark and a voice in my head said, “Look up Isaiah 48:17!” I waited until daylight, and read this: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is good for you, and leads you along the paths you should follow!” In other words, God used the Bible and my prayer to Him to show me that He does guide us by going ahead of us and preparing paths for us to walk in! His Word tells us in Psalm 119:105, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path!”

2.       GROW IN HIM. If we keep watering our plants (which I sometimes forget to do) we sometimes almost see them grow before our eyes! Water in Scripture represents the Spirit of God Himself! As we receive more of Him, we continue to grow! As you probably know the Ku Klux Klan in America are very hostile to black people! Yet when two of their members became Christians, the Holy Spirit urged them to send the sheets they had used as uniforms to the Red Cross, who used them to make bandages for black refugees in Africa! As we grow in the Holy Spirit, He transforms us to do things for Him that wouldn’t have been possible before we became part of His team!

 Having fellowship with other Christians is also a growing mechanism! Two friends of mine were members of our church youth group when I was a teenager, but when they married, they gave up going to church. As a result, they stopped growing as Christians, and eventually the husband ran off with a younger woman. Meanwhile his wife, recognising her need for acceptance, started going to church again and now, years later, her two grown-up daughters are also Christians and are married to Christians. But what happened to the husband? He died of cancer last year, and at his deathbed, one of his daughters read Scripture to him, and he groaned in acknowledgement. We don’t know whether his groans expressed repentance or whether his hostility to the things of God was expressing itself in this way! It is said that church members are like cars – they start missing before they stop altogether!

3.       SHOW HIM.  A former flatmate of mine in Wollongong claimed to be a Christian because he attended church about once a year. When smoking pot, he told his friends about Jesus, but no-one took him seriously! When he had sex with the women he met up with, he told them he was a Christian, but they didn’t take him seriously either! Someone once said, “If you don’t live it, you don’t believe it!”  Do people take you seriously if you tell them you’re a Christian? Do you even take yourself seriously?

Queen Elizabeth I was probably Britain’s greatest monarch of all time! She even inspired her tiny navy to defeat the great and powerful Spanish Armada! And she once made this comment about her Christian faith: “I would like to be alive when Jesus returns, so that I can be the first monarch to lay my crown at His feet!” He attitude was one of total surrender to Jesus! And if we are going to influence others for Him, we have to surrender each part of our lives to Him also.

I would say that when we surrender to Jesus, we are no longer the boss of our own lives! Instead, we could wear a familiar sign we often see on shops: “Under New Management!”But the advantage of this is summed up by the Apostle John in 1 John 5:12, “He who has the Son has life, and he who does not have the Son, does not have life!”

Colossians  2: 6,7 gives us a final thought for today: “Continue to live in Him, planted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you’ve been taught, and overflowing with thankfulness!”