2017 Rubies

As I have done for prior years, here are extracts from my notes of 2017 sermons.

Why Pray?

Prayer is how we take hold of God’s promises (there are 3500 of them). Prayer is a way to be reminded, challenged, encouraged and spurred on by these promises as we engage our Father on them in prayer, and in so doing are enabled to increase our understanding of them.

Jesus and the Holy Spirit wait for us to join them in prayer. Jesus is in heaven praying on our behalf. The Holy Spirit is within us prompting and helping us to pray.

Prayer is evidence that we are not functional atheists, which entails doing life ‘my way’ instead of ‘His way’. Allow God to influence and direct your life. Prayer can decapitate the idol of selfishness.

Prayer for others is pure love. Intercession is a way of loving others.

Closeness to God. We get to experience Christ making His home in our hearts, His indwelling place for us to experience all the time.

Power. We have a source of energy that empowers us through the highs and lows of life.

Hope. Paul expresses enthusiasm for others through his confident hope. His confidence stems from the knowledge that God is in control.

Jesus models praying with absolute emotional vulnerability in front of God. The purpose of prayer is to bend your will towards God’s will. You should be saying “I want what God wants” as you align your heart to the Father’s. We can tend to have an overinflated view of our own sufficiency if we don’t pray enough, as this shows that we lack a proper sense of our need for God in our life.

Let delight empower your prayer, as delight empowers the discipline to remain in prayer.

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The key to change is to desire something else more.

When we experience God’s love, it changes our desire so that we want to know Him more rather than follow our old bad habits. It is a love that is growing more and more in knowledge and depth of insight that enables you to experience God’s wisdom and guidance, and to discern the correct things to do.

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There is a difference between a concept of God and the reality of God, i.e. His weight/glory. A concept of God does not shake your world, as everything in your life essentially remains the same and is not shaken nor displaced. Your agenda, plans and desires take priority, not God. You see God as being lighter (less significant) than you. You believe “I’ll be good and then the good God will come through for me.” The reality of God is that His glory displaces these ideas, concepts, priorities and agendas in your life. God’s glory is bigger and more beautiful than everything else in your life.

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Humility is present when you realise you have over-rated yourself and you need to address your shortcomings, flaws and sins. You say “I am not as strong or good as I thought I was.” It is not about having low self-esteem, but rather realising your correct posture before the Almighty, Holy God, i.e. feeling humble and secure. This is because “your guilt has been taken away and your sin atoned for.”

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Volunteer for the simple joy of fulfilling a need, not only when it is convenient for you. Allow Him to use you, not you trying to use Him.

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God did not create us for disease, angst, disillusionment, depression, betrayal, etc., therefore we have a sense of wrongness if we experience any of these, and we long for something that can fill the hunger in our soul where everything will be made right.

We lack the power to change our lives to become a complete person who is totally contented in life. We require a transformation from within by the power of the gospel. There is no heart too hard for it to penetrate and make a new creation.

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The Bible teaches us that everything that exists is designed to point to something beyond itself, i.e. the Creator. We tend to focus on the created thing instead of on the Creator. We get caught up in the ‘cul-de-sac of stupidity’, chasing things and putting them in positions they were never meant to be, thus never quite feeling satisfied, because the big lie is the devil saying that more of that same thing is going to solve our problem.

We become alienated from God. Instead of running to Him, we just want Him for His stuff. When alienated, we are never satisfied, and we feel we have to blame someone for this feeling and so we become hostile towards them and start doing evil deeds in acting out our frustrations. This can harm even our closest relationships.

Your spouse or children were never given to you to complete you, but rather to help you see your flaws and imperfections. Don’t try to justify your anger – your response is ‘on you’, i.e. your fault.

We have been reconciled to God through Jesus – this removes our alienation from God. You and I are impossibly broken, even on our best day, and Jesus brings His righteousness on us to make us ‘above reproach’ to God. Jesus has exchanged God’s wrath for His righteousness in your life.

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True maturity follows dealing with discomfort (and life’s challenges) until you truly have your heart aligned to and pleasing to God. Simply learning the correct behaviours in being obedient to God could result in you being insincere.

Where do your emotions get excited or triggered most? – that could be what is most important in your life. Don’t let anything eclipse Christ’s place in your life.

Consider where you are investing your emotions and energy. When that thing is threatened, you experience the negative emotions of fear, anxiety, anger, bitterness and despondency. These emotions come into our lives to highlight that we are placing our hope on the wrong things. Rather set your heart and mind on Christ, and make Him your meaning, identity and completeness.

When your idol is under threat, you will have a disproportionate level of anger in you about it. This is due to your misplaced loyalties. Religion without transformation is no different to irreligion, which is when your heart is given to things other than to God.

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Compassion is about getting into the shoes of someone else, and listening more than talking, so we can experience life from a different perspective. We should act and speak with kindness and gentleness, rather than with harshness.

Humility entails serving, and seeing others being lifted up before yourself.

Patience is the ability to go at the pace of someone else.

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You might have a false sense of peace if you seldom have been challenged – this could be because you haven’t engaged an issue enough.

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Don’t let work be the identity of your existence – set your identity in Christ and you will therein be fulfilled. Don’t try and fill something only God can fill.

God accepts us because of His mercy, not because of what we have done, and thus work and deeds do not give us the identity we need. Our identity in God enables us to not put work ahead of God and family/relationships. Our primary identity in Christ will always be intact, even after we retire from work one day, but then our work identity ceases.

We should hand our work back to God and ask Him to open our eyes to see it as an opportunity to serve both Him and others. I need to ask what Jesus really wants for me, not what is ‘in it’ for me.

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Just as the accusation against Jesus was nailed to the cross above His head (King of the Jews), God nailed to the cross the charge sheet we have written against ourselves by falsely claiming that we are in charge of our lives. Jesus died because we falsely claimed to be king and queen of our lives, doing whatever we felt like despite the eternal consequences. Everything that can separate you from God has been cancelled, taken away, and nailed to the cross.

Death has lost its sting as our worst-case scenario has been dealt with (fear of death and the unknown therein).

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Dive in and try the water, and stay in until you find that ‘sweet spot’ God has called you to– don’t climb out after only one attempt and sit on the lounger beside the pool. Try different things and discover your particular calling and gift(s).

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God empowers you from day one to be on mission for Him, i.e. you don’t need to first learn enough and move from beginner to advanced before you can start serving God effectively. We must avoid delaying and saying we need to wait until one day when we know enough or when we are in a better position in life. No, the time is now! Just do it!

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We are witnesses. A witness is generally the least qualified (expert) person in a court room, but he is also the most powerful because he has experienced something no one else has, and thus holds the most profound power of all. A witness is not a judge, prosecutor or defender either.

BLESS. Begin with prayer. Listen to people. Eat together. Serve. Share your story.

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You are casual until you get into a wrestling match with God, working and thinking through important questions in life.

You are not wrestling with the living god if only you are allowed to ask questions, or if it is only your way and no other, e.g. Why does a good god allow suffering? Why does God allow ‘good’ people to go to hell? It is about questioning what was your previous point of view, or the way you used to do things or approach certain aspects of life.

You aren’t really wrestling if you do not experience fight back and pain, i.e. it isn’t only you throwing punches. Wrestling is often a slow and deliberate process and you often have to go through difficulty and suffering in order to find God or turn to Him.

Until God reveals the power of sin over us, we remain ignorant and self-reliant.

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People who laugh at life are really acting like 13-year olds, who make light of everything and laugh at everything they cannot handle as they do not understand it and/or don’t want to think about it too deeply.

Rather, find sincerity of faith in serving God instead of investing too much in anything worldly.

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When God breaks into your life, He can make something beautiful out of even your most embarrassing and regretful moments or acts. God rescues us despite ourselves. He takes the impossible and does glorious things.

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Sin is about so much more than simply doing bad things, and not sinning is about so much more than simply doing good things.

Sin starts with not trusting God.

Sin blinds us to the reality of what’s going on around us.

Sin destroys our integrity and replaces it with the idol of always looking good (in our eyes).

Destruction results from longing for things other than God.

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We learn from Job that faith is dealing with all challenges and seeing the beauty of God through it all to give you the strength that comes from knowing that He overcame all.

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We learn from Hosea that Jesus enters our market place and finds us in a place sold over to the penalty of our sin and the consequences of our dubious actions, and He covers our shame and buys us away from all our enslavements to dwell with us and build a life with us and create something meaningful out of the mess of our lives.

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Something has to change in your heart before you can start living a satisfied life. Your soul will find satisfaction in being validated by God, living for His glory, with His love, forgiveness, grace and mercy over your weakness, so you are able to enjoy His gifts the way He intended you to. You will find that Jesus is enough for true satisfaction, through knowledge of your future secured in heaven for eternity by God’s grace.

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Culture advises that everything is relative, but Christ advises that His truth is absolute. When non-believers accuse us of being narrow-minded as believers, we must remember that each of us has our own view of reality, and hence each of us can be considered narrow-minded.

Culture says that freedom refuses all constraints. Culture says we should be free to do whatever we want, but the reality is that we thrive in certain environments and break down in others. A sailboat moves efficiently when the sails are trimmed correctly for the wind. Embrace the fundamental rules that make things work properly.

Culture says that I am my own master. No other master is as worthy or as liberating as He is. Don’t avoid commitment, because then your master is flexibility. Listen to Christ because He made us and He rescued us in what He did on the cross.

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We are not to live according to the desires we find inside ourselves or according to the world, otherwise we will die of discouragement, or of exhaustion. We are to live according to the desires that the Spirit of God gives us, by simply being sons and daughters, not stars.

Your identity placed upon you in the Gospel is not earned nor discovered; it is received when you come to Him in faith and in repentance.

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Just as pure darkness cannot survive even the hint of sunrise, Jesus’ sacrifice covers all of our sins.

Eternal life is not where or how long you live, but with whom you live. It is not simply knowing about God or doing no evil or being a better person. It’s about knowing the Father, Son and Holy Spirit with similar intimate knowledge you have of your spouse. When you know somebody intimately they rub off on you and change you.

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Sometimes the things of this world do win in the moment or on a day, but we need community to help us overcome and/or recover. We are called into unity not for ourselves alone, but primarily so that the world may know God. It is not actually about you: it’s about being unified in glorifying God. Togetherness is the means to the end, which is the mission to get the world to know God.

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Where have you cast your anchor? If it is in the wrong place, you can come adrift.

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Your life was never meant to be that of an isolated Christian living only with fellow believers, but rather living out this life among non-believers to impact on them. To remain is not a passive act, it is to dwell fully and live fully following Christ’s example, living fully for God. Fully inhabit the season and space God has you in, for His glory.

Don’t just ‘hang out’ and ‘do your time’, awaiting eternity. Be intentional about being on mission for God. There is God’s purpose in every place you find yourself.

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Seeking out or claiming something in faith is treating faith like a force that results in something happening if your faith is strong enough. But, it is in the object of our faith (Jesus), not the attitude or strength of our faith that we find salvation. The latter would make it reliant upon us. The saving power of faith relies upon the object of our faith.

Accept that it is all of Him and none of you, and follow Him, 100% secure in His love.

Renounce any trust in your own performance as the basis for your acceptance by God.

We have been made right with God, apart from our works, through faith alone.

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Ephesians 2:1-10. “…made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved…for by grace you have been saved…it is the gift of God…”

1. Bad news: We supply none of our own goodness when we stand before God. (V1-3). We have absolutely no righteousness in and of ourselves. We seek our ‘certificate’ of goodness achievement or righteousness based on what we have achieved or accomplished in life, e.g. charity, kindness, morality, success, church attendance record, serving, etc. We seek the answer to God’s question: ‘Why should I let you into heaven?’ Our heart and motives are generally self-serving, seeking God for something, for what we can get in return, like peace and fulfilment. We don’t realise that even our best attempts (to gain God’s favour/acceptance) are tainted by the motives of our heart, which include sinful pride at our achievements or judgment of others’ failures. Isaiah 64:6 advises us :...even your righteous acts are as filthy rags to me…’ The problem is that we are dead in our sin, and dead people are incapable of doing anything to help with the process of receiving salvation, or making themselves alive. The world has the belief that, as long as someone can participate in a process, they can make progress – this is based on works or deeds. Jesus has power over death.

2. Good news: We are made alive(v5). “But God…made us alive together with Christ.” This is not of your own doing in any way at all. Grace is this free gift. Human beings are spiritually dead, incapable of working their way towards God, so God graces us with salvation though Jesus (v8,9). All of Jesus’ motive is fuelled by His love for the Father. Trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ for all of your righteousness. Nothing can come from you. Your credentials for salvation are found in Jesus.

3. Bad News: We are so bad at grace. We have this need for ourselves to supply our own credentials. This is tainted by the motive to make ourselves great. This will leave you dismayed and distraught, wondering if you have done enough for God to accept you. We also abuse God’s kindness and grace, flirting with sin, trusting in God’s great forgiveness and believing we don’t have to repent and change. This is incorrect: we need to desire to return God’s love to Him. Come running into God’s grace. Grace is fuel for effective and holy living.

4. Good News: Even there, there’s grace (v10). Live by God’s grace and extend grace and kindness to others. The outcome of receiving grace is meant to be performing good works, as God displays/shines His light of grace through us. We are His workmanship, and hence good works can flow out of us despite our human flaws. Allow Him to show His kindness through your life, and so affect others. Take all of your weakness, failing and sin and put it on Jesus, and trust in His finished work on the cross – we get handed all of God’s goodness, kindness and righteousness through Jesus. This is the great exchange: throw down your good works as a means to salvation for Jesus’ finished work on the cross.

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The weight of God’s glory displaces everything in its path – it displaces all our concerns and replaces these with His strength, as God’s riches and resources are unlimited.

Realisation of being heirs and sons and daughters should increase our confidence and our perception extent of all our problems should reduce in light of the expanse of His capabilities.

Our inheritance of God’s glory is that we get a new life as we realise that we cannot cope with all of life without God’s help, and we realise how little we know, whereas He knows all, past, present and future, and He has a plan for my future, and He is in it. He is constantly at work and knows exactly what is going on.

Nothing we can do can make god owe us anything, or persuade Him to do something for us in return – this is the great equalizer, as we don’t have to worry that someone else has more influence over God than we do due to the extent of their deeds.

All things come from and are sustained by God, and so all glory (credit) is His.

God plus anything else diminishes the glory of God, so we should stop trying to take credit for what God has done through us.