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?