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God made each one of us not only to be blessed by Him, but to be a blessing – the entry point of His blessing into the lives of people around us. And one of the ways we can do that, is by being a safety net for people, when they really need it.   Compensating for Error People's mistakes can be so annoying. Especially, let me say, when they make the same mistakes over and over and over again – which we all do. Now you might protest and say – I don't make the same mistakes over and over and over again! And my response to you would be, "Sure you do. We all do." Here's why. There are something things that you're naturally good at and some that you aren't. There are some things that the next guy is naturally good and some that he isn't. So – there you are, the two of you – good at different things, bad at different things. You see the mistakes he makes at the things you're good at and you say to yourself, "How can that guy keep making the same mistake? It's so obvious." And right while you're thinking that, he's thinking exactly the same about you. My friend Keith is a great encourager. The sort of person you really enjoy spending an hour or two with over lunch; you come away feeling much better about yourself. He recently sent me a document that we'd both been working on. It was an 18-page contract that I had developed meticulously with some lawyers. He'd made a few changes, but did he turn on the word processor's change control feature so I could see what changes he'd made? Nooooo! I was about to get annoyed – and then I remembered … hang on a minute this is Keith we're talking about here. He's a great encourager, but when it comes to technology and admin and all that stuff, he's a dead loss. It's the way that he is. And he's never going to change. I can't do what he does, he can't do what I do – and that's the way it was always meant to be. And so I am at that point confronted with exactly the same question that I hit you with at the top of the program. Am I going to criticise him, or am I going to help him? Which one will it be? It's a question that confronts us at least a few times every day. Think of all the people you've been annoyed with over the last 24 hours. What was the source of the annoyance? How did you respond? Did you criticise them … or help them? The series of messages we're in right at the moment is called "Are You a Blessing or a Burden?" inspired by a great quote from Dr Tayo Adeyemi in the UK. He said: You are either a blessing or a burden; an asset or a liability; a problem solver or a problem. Your choice! And so we're on a bit of a journey to discover some practical, rubber hits the road kind of things that you and I can do to be more of a blessing than a burden, to be more a part of the solution than the problem, to be a contributor rather than someone who keeps on taking. And this is a really practical thing that we can do. When someone makes a mistake, we can stuff our pride back in our pockets and choose to help them instead of criticising them. And when you think about it – as much as it may be counterintuitive to start with – it actually makes an enormous amount of sense, both for them and for us. Going to read a short passage to you from the Old Testament – a book written around three thousand years ago called the Book of Ecclesiastes. It's purported to have been written by one of the wisest men who has ever lived, King Solomon of Israel. We're looking at Ecclesiastes 4:9-12: Two people are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone? And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken. I was sharing this with people once and I did it visually. I had 2 people hold a single rope tight and then I cut it in the middle. Of course, at that point that one rope failed. Then we took two ropes, we wound them around each other and around and around and around – and then I cut one rope on the right, the other rope in the middle and the first rope on the left. The ropes pretty much hung together, although the whole structure was weakened, because what had happened was that as the second rope had wrapped around the first, they compensated for the one another in the places where the other one was cut. Then we took three ropes and platted them together as a woman would plat her hair. I cut each of the 3 ropes in 2 different places. And you know what.  Pull as hard as you like – the ropes didn't fail. I could actually sit on them without them coming apart. That's the picture here – you and I have the capacity to compensate for the failures and weaknesses of others. And because we're all different, we're all strong in different places and weak in different places. When we're bound together in a relationship, as a team, we compensate for one another just as those ropes did. I cleaned up the mess with the contract that Keith couldn't do and you know what, he encourages other members of our team in a way that I can't do. And that's how it's meant to work. That's exactly how it's meant to work. And the beauty of that – the reason that it makes so much sense, is that together, in a mutually supportive relationship, in a team, 2, 3, 4 …. 10 people can achieve so much more. Some teams don't achieve anything, because they're always fighting with each other and criticising each other, and pointing the finger at each other. If we want to be a blessing rather than a burden, an asset rather than a liability, part of the solution rather than part of the problem – there are two parts of that. The first, is bringing our particular skills and abilities to the table – with energy and gusto, and vigour, with hard work and dedication. That's the first part.  But the second part is where we often fall down. The second part is having the wisdom and humility to use our skills and abilities to compensate for the weaknesses of others.  If we each have that level of wisdom and maturity, then our team, our relationship – is completely unstoppable. We'll achieve amazing things together if only we can learn to compensate instead of criticising. See, serving someone takes humility. A much-underrated attribute these days is humility. Humility is about laying aside what we think we're entitled to and pitching in and serving anyway. Humility is serving people even when in our superior judgement they don't deserve it. Humility is rising about the petty bickering, the point scoring, and the recognition and reward seeking, and just getting on with things to achieve the aim. Humility is shutting your mouth when you feel like complaining, when others around you are behaving like two-year olds, and by the goodness of your example, by your faithfulness, by your quiet assurance showing people the way forward. That's humility. And it takes a strong, and mature, and wise person to live out that sort of humility. The best leaders are the humble ones, aren't they?! 1 Pet 5:5: And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. That's powerful stuff. We often think when we read things like that in God's Word – that it's meant for someone else.  You know who this is meant for today? It's meant for me today. It's meant for you today. It's meant for us to take it to heart – listen to it again: And all of you must clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Take that to heart: "God opposes the proud". Is it really the way we want to live, to live in a way that God, with all His power and all His might, is going to oppose us? But on the other hand, He gives grace to the humble. Humble yourself therefore under the mighty hand of God – that's how we become more of a burden than a blessing, more of an asset than a liability … And more of a solution than part of the problem. This is exactly how we do that stuff. Do you see how practical God's Word is here? God is about making us a blessing so that His blessing flows through us out into the world, out into the lives of the people around us.   What You Say Behind Their Back One of my favourite television shows of all time, is "Yes Prime Minister". It's a very, very funny show about the behind the scenes wheeling and dealing that goes on in politics. One of the key characters is the very smart and conniving senior civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby. In one episode called "A Conflict of Interest", the Prime Minister wants to appoint a new Governor of the Bank of England to clean up the financial scandals happening in the banking sector. He settles on a man with a great reputation for honesty and integrity. Someone who is fearless in tackling corruption. The junior and inexperienced civil servant, Bernard Wooley, arrives at the Cabinet Office and relays the PM's message. He tells Sir Humphrey that the PM is keen to appoint this man, Jameson, to the governorship. Sir Humphrey indicates that his appointment would be "appalling" and it is his firm intention to change the PM's mind. He gives young Bernard a quick lesson on how to achieve this: express full support for the candidate (i.e. Jameson), pointing out all his qualities, but over-praising him to the point that the P.M. will be concerned since it could undermine his own perceived qualities. As Sir Humphrey points out, "It is necessary, Bernard, to get behind someone before you can stab them in the back." It's a great line isn't it? You have to get behind someone before you can stab them in the back. And as things turn out, it's something that Sir Humphrey does extremely successfully. It's great to laugh at the idea in a sitc

We all want to be blessed. Sure we do – problem is, sometimes we have a bad sense of direction. We expect all the blessings to flow in one direction – inwards, to us. Hmm. That's not how it works.   Asset or Liability The other day on twitter, I picked up this quote from Dr Tayo Adeyemi in the UK (not sure if I've pronounced his surname correctly there) anyhow this quote really caught my eye. This is what he said: You are either a blessing or a burden; an asset or a liability; a problem solver or a problem. Your choice! I started going through all the people I know, people I've worked with, friends, colleagues and you know something, it was really easy to categorise them either on one side of that ledger or the other. Let's stick with the accounting metaphor. They're either an Asset or Liability? Hmm … I'm imagining that if you went through the same exercise, you'd find exactly the same thing. Of course, nobody is a complete liability, nor is anyone perfect. I mean, none of us are. We all contribute to some extent, and we all drain to some extent as well. That's because firstly, none of us is perfect and secondly, we're all good at different things. But even taking all those things into consideration, on balance, weighing all their pros and cons – some people overall are an asset, others are liability. Some are a blessing, others are a burden. Some are problem solvers, and some are, plain and simple, part of the problem! So then … then I began to imagine a world in which more of us become assets than liabilities. In which more of us become more of a blessing than a burden. Just imagine how different this world would be if that started to happen. You and I aren't necessarily in a position to change the world. We can't change every one of the 7-point-something billion people on the planet. Hey, we can't even change our wives or our husbands or our children. But there is one person we can change. Ourselves. You can change you. I can change me. I wonder if you consider yourself for a moment, on balance – are you a blessing or a burden? An asset or a liability? A problem solver … or a problem? We have to be kind of careful in answering that question. Because if the truth be known, we're a lot more generous in judging ourselves, than we are in judging other people. We're pretty good at rationalising our weaknesses, our failures and our blind spots. We trivialise them. We sweep the under the carpet. So if I asked those close to you – your family members, your work colleagues – whether you are on this side of the ledger or that, how would they answer? The Apostle Paul was sitting on death row in a Roman dungeon when he wrote a letter to his friends in a place called Philippi. This is one of the things he said to them. Philippians Chapter 2 verses 3 and 4: Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. This is an encouragement, to be a blessing instead of a burden. If we're expecting everybody to do things for us, to look out for our interests, to meet our needs, and yet we don't do the same for them – because all we care about is our interests and not them … well, you know what you call that, that's being a hypocrite. This thing – call it what you will, selfishness, self–centeredness, whatever – there's some of that in each one of us. See how Paul starts out, he says to his friends, and to you and me – do nothing, nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. Imagine a sea, a land locked sea like the Dead Sea for instance, where all the rivers flow in, but none of them flow out. That's exactly what happens with the Dead Sea. The only way the water gets out is through evaporation by the heat of the sun. And the reason it's called the Dead Sea is because there's so much salt in it because all the water flows in and never out, that nothing, not a single organism pretty much – can live in its water. It's a Dead Sea. Our selfishness is like the Dead Sea. We want everything to flow inward towards us, we want others to be a blessing to us, we want circumstances to favour us, we want, we want, we want … It's all about the direction of the flow of the blessing. Many a man's life, many a woman's life, writes a man S.D Gordon a few hundred years ago, is like the circumference of that Dead Sea. When everything flows inwards … it becomes dead. And by experience you and I know that that's true. Hey, I'm someone who spent the first half of his life trying to live that way and I wondered why nothing could ever satisfy me and why I was never truly happy and contented. The Apostle Paul addresses both sides of this equation in that short passage we just read. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but instead … look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. In other words, stop living your life trying to be blessed all the time, and start blessing others. Turn the direction of the flow from inwards, to outwards. Just think about the mentality we have about blessing. Everything flows into me and then I spend the blessing, a bit like the water evaporating out of the Dead Sea. And then what's left is this muck and this salt in which nothing can live. It's the same when we want blessing to flow inwards to us and we spend that blessing, we do whatever we think we should do with it and what's left is this empty dead feeling because that thing that we spent money on, that holiday, whatever it was, just didn't satisfy us. That's why S.D. Gordon said, "Many a man's life and many a women's life is like the circumference of that Dead Sea." Now, as evidence of the fact that what Paul is saying here of looking not to your own interest but to the interest of others actually works, he goes on with the prime example, the most obvious example of all. He goes on in the very next breath to site what Jesus did. I'm reading from the message translation here (Philippians 2:5–11): Think of yourselves the way Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion. Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honoured him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honour of God the Father. In other words, the answer is in being a blessing instead of a burden, an asset instead of being a liability, a problem solver, instead of being a problem. It's about a complete, fundamental, 180-degree change in direction from having blessing flowing inward, to, like Jesus, letting the blessing flow outward through us no matter what it may cost us. There's a lot in that, so we're going to spend some more time after the break chatting about that very thing. In the meantime, I'll leave you with that quote again, for you to ponder: You are either a blessing or a burden; an asset or a liability; a problem solver or a problem. Your choice!   A Change of Direction It turns out that the direction that we're travelling in really matters. The first time I used a satellite navigation system in a car was one dark, wet and stormy night when I had to drive from London up into the midlands in the UK. It's about a 3-hour drive, give or take. I had absolutely no idea how to get there. But the friendly woman at the hire car place at Heathrow Airport punched my destination address into the Satnav unit in the car. She told me how to use it and off I went. Now the British are pretty clever in this regard. They have rather long postcodes, which define not only the town, but also the street and street number. So all she had to do was to punch the number into the satnav and hey, presto, I was on my way. Great stuff! But about an hour and a half into the trip I started to get really worried. What if she'd punched in just one wrong number? It's the first time I'd driven in England – it was dark, it was wet – I had really no sense of direction, I really didn't know where I was headed. I was relying completely on this satellite navigation. This clever, efficient little unit could well be taking me to a completely different part of the country if the women had punched in the wrong number. I remember when that thought hit me – I had a bit of a panic attack thinking, "what if I end up in completely the opposite side of the country?" So I pulled over, stopped, checked and yep, fortunately that woman at the car hire place had indeed punched the right numbers into the Satnav. When you think about it, we make the choices we make in life, we head in the direction that we head in life, based rather a lot on the way in which we're programmed to function. Our parents, our teachers, our experiences, our own selfishness, capitalism, desires … all those things somehow, little by little, imperceptibly end up putting us on a certain road heading in a certain direction. And when we come to an intersection in life, a roundabout, a fork in the road – we choose, based on … what? Turns out we're a bit like that clever little satnav unit in my car, we choose based on how we've been programmed over the course of our lives thus far. So … what if we've been programmed incorrectly and what if we're heading in the wrong direction? Have you ever thought about that? Well – there's a very obvious consequence if you are headi

Doesn't matter what our gig is in life, when you choose to use that God–given gift specifically to honour God, to bless other people, one thing's for certain – the going's going to get tough. We're going to hit opposition. And if that goes on for any length of time, the one thing that we really want to do, is just to give up.   Keep Shining Over these last few weeks, we have been chatting about rekindling the gift that God has put within each one of us. And you know the exciting thing about that? When we use our gifts – I mean, when we take the things that we have been given in our makeup and put them to work, it is so incredibly satisfying. I know myself, one of the things I really enjoy doing is playing the piano. In my younger years I practised hard all the scales and the arpeggios and sat the exams – practical and theory – but when I moved away from my parents' home I went years – probably twenty years – without playing the piano much at all. Eventually my mother gave me the grand piano we had out in the music room and when it arrived in my home I started playing it again. These days it sits in my study where I pray, where I write my books, where I prepare these radio messages and a few times each day I will go and play for ten minutes or so. It's just such a delight and a joy to be able to do that. Now, that's just one small example, almost trivial. But as we have been chatting about these last few weeks, I know I've been emphasising the fact that our God-given gift is meant to be a blessing to other people. I'm blessed through your gifting; the things that you can do that I can't, and hopefully, you are blessed through mine. That's how it's supposed to work and it does. But there is something so incredibly special about the enjoyment and the fulfilment that we get when we use our gift and we see it impact in other peoples' lives. All my life I was looking for fulfilment in the things that I could get but I didn't realise that fulfilment only really comes when we take what we already have and we give it away when we use it to bless other people. About eighteen months ago a young teenager from a broken home contacted me in response to one of these radio messages that she had heard. She was only thirteen at the time and going through a really terrible time at home. But she also had a hunger for God and so she asked me some questions and I was able to share a few things with her. Within weeks she gave her life to Jesus and she was filled with His Holy Spirit and in the middle of all the bad stuff that happened, she had a joy and an excitement in her that she had never experienced before in her life. While I was praying for her the other day so I sent her a quick email to find out how she was going. She came straight back to me to tell me she was powering on with God; that her whole life had been changed. Now I had just some small part to play in that but the joy and the sense of satisfaction that I gained from knowing that God had used me – me, of all people!! This fifty two year old man who has never met this young teenager, who isn't what you would call, made to be involved in youth ministry. It makes me smile. Does that make sense? It's so easy to forget that we have to use it and when we do, even though it can be really hard work, it is so fulfilling to use the God-given gift that we have. And to emphasise this, the Apostle Paul, who is writing to his young protégé, Timothy, back in the first century, encouraging him to rekindle the gift that God has put in him, has this to say. I'm reading – if you have a Bible – from Second Timothy chapter 4, beginning at verse 1: In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you to proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable; convince, rebuke and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but they will have itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and they will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully. As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing. And right here, Paul is getting Timothy – and us – focused on the big picture: one day soon Jesus is coming back to judge the living and the dead. Time is short and because of that, I solemnly urge you to keep telling people about Jesus; irrespective of whether the time appears to be favourable or not. Be persistent; keep telling people; convince them; rebuke; encourage with the utmost patience – whatever it takes. Now, Timothy's gift; the one that he was being called to rekindle was the gift of teaching and preaching as an evangelist. Praise God, not everyone in God's family is a preacher and a teacher. But do you see how this applies equally to each one of us, irrespective of what our particular gifting happens to be? If you are an encourager, it applies equally to you. If you are a giver, it applies to you. If you are a compassionate, pastoral person, this applies to you. There's great joy and satisfaction in exercising our gifts. I mean, look at the satisfaction with which Paul looks back on his life. But what we want to do is to pull up and take a breather when the time appears to be unfavourable. What we want to do is we want to stop using our gift when the going gets tough. And Paul is saying, "No, the time is short. People are dying and they are going to a Christ-less eternity. Jesus is planning on coming back sometime soon to judge the living and the dead. God has put each one of us where He has put us with whatever gift He has given us in order to make a difference in this world for Him; in order to bring people to Jesus; in order to see them growing; for them to realise their giftings and to start using those." And we need to be doing that because, "... the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but they will have itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires and they will turn away from listening to the truth and they will wander away to myths." Ain't that the truth? It's something we see all the time – people chasing after this and that; people trying to pull alongside so called 'gurus' who tell them what they want to hear. Jesus never told people just what they wanted to hear. Yes, He was often very sensitive to where someone was at and where they were coming from but He didn't dress it up; He didn't put any spin on His message because the truth is the truth. There is a heaven, there is a hell and many, many are heading the wrong direction, however enticing that direction might appear to them right at this moment. Have you ever watched the news and heard some so called "Christian leader" tickling people's ears with the sort of stuff that people want to hear? Just the other evening, I saw a Christian denominational leader standing side by side with a Buddhist Monk, a Jewish leader and leaders of other religions, proclaiming that there was more that binds them together than pulls them apart. Well, maybe that's what the world wants to hear but that's not what Jesus said – that's not the truth. The thing that puts Christianity out there on its own is that it's based on the truth that Jesus is the only way – that no one … NO one will come to the Father except through Him. And this is the reason that we need to continue living out our giftings, each one of us, for the glory of God – to share the truth of Jesus into the lives of people. I know that there are those listening who have turned back; I know that there are those listening who have lost sight of their gifting – their one particular God-given gift – altogether. And today I believe that God is speaking especially to you through His Word. I believe that today God is calling you back to the plans and the purposes that He has for your life. And before you tell me it's all too hard; there is too much weighing in against you, let me tell you this: inevitably, when we have seen amazing breakthroughs in the lives of people, here at Christianityworks – young Ami recently pulled back from the brink of suicide – the time for proclaiming Christ has never been favourable at all. We just went and did it in the face of the opposition and do you know what we discovered? Duh! That God's grace was more than sufficient for us! For some reason, more often than not, that's a surprise to us. More often than not we are so focused on the adversity that we are facing, we lose sight of the fact that God is at work; that "all things are working together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." That's God's grace and it really is sufficient for us! I mean, it really is!   Despite God's People You know, there are parts of the Bible that I am prone to skimming over. For instance, the genealogies, they are so long and boring and dry – particularly the one that goes on for pages and pages at the beginning of First Chronicles in the Old Testament. I mean, who has time to read that? But one man did – a guy by the name of Bruce Wilkinson – and he stumbled across the prayer of Jabez; one of the most powerful prayers in the Bible and he wrote what is now one of the most read Christian books on the planet, "The Prayer of Jabez." And that's how it often is with those bits that we would rather just kind of skim over. The in

It's one thing to have a God–given gift or ability – we all do. It's another thing entirely to use that gift for His glory when we're facing stiff opposition in life. When everybody and everything seems to be against us.  Right there in that place is where we want to give up.   Rediscovering the Gift Over the past couple of weeks we've been chatting about "Rekindling the Flame"; the passion in our hearts for being about the business that God has left us here on earth for – His business, God's business. Many, many Christians love Jesus, they want to follow Him but they've lost their way. Not so much because they don't love the Lord but because the way they spend their life and their resources and their time isn't what God had intended. What we believe and what we do are meant to be linked. That's why faith without works is dead. What does that mean? It means that if we believe something with all our hearts and yet we fail to live it out with our lives eventually what we believe will start to die. And that's what's happening for many people who set out on this journey of loving God and following Jesus. Their faith has started to die because they've lost focus on what they're meant to be doing. Interesting how that strikes home. Interesting how we sometimes focus on our faith and forget about living it out. And then we wonder why our faith is dwindling, why we feel like a rudderless ship on an ocean being tossed this way and that way. Now can I say that's something that many people go through so this week we're continuing on our journey of "Rekindling the Flame" by opening up the second letter that the wise old Apostle Paul wrote back in the first century to his young protégé Timothy. It seems that young Tim was having the same problem. Timothy was pastoring a Church and as anyone who's ever tried to do that will tell you, that quite simply is not an easy job. And there are two verses in particular that really leapt out for me in what Paul was saying to Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 6. He says: For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that's within you through the laying on of my hands. And then down to verse 14: Guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us. Coming back to this concept that each one of us has been given a special gift or ability by God, it's been handcrafted into our DNA by God Himself and He's done that with a purpose. In Timothy's case that gift was preaching and teaching so I guess I relate really well to what Paul is saying to young Timothy in this letter and clearly Timothy was finding things tough. He was facing quite a bit of opposition from all sorts of people. And when things are tough it's so easy for us to lose focus; it's so easy to forget that God has given us a special gift, that God means for us to exercise and to use that gift, that God's plans and purposes for this world and for the people around us and indeed for you and for me are intricately linked to the exercising of that special gift or ability that He's given each one of us. Is that really true, you might ask? Do I really have a gift and is it really important in the scheme of things? My answer to that is, "Absolutely you do!" and "Absolutely it is!" Today we're going to journey off to somewhere else to another letter of Paul's, indeed his letter to the Roman Church. And I want to share with you this passage that you might find familiar because while I was reading it the other day something leapt off the page for me and into my heart, something that I'd never seen before despite the fact that I've written a whole book that revolves around this particular passage. Have a listen. It begins in Romans chapter 12, verse 4. Paul writes: For as in one body we have many members and not all the members have the same functions so we who are many are one in the body of Christ and individually we're members of one another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Prophecy in proportion to faith, ministry in ministering, the teacher in teaching, the exalter in exaltation, the giver in generosity, the leader in diligence, the compassionate in cheerfulness. Let love be genuine, hate what's evil, hold fast to what's good, love one another with mutual affection, outdo one another in showing honour. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit and serve the Lord. Now what this is all about here is explaining how we, as men and women and children who love Jesus, should live together in a fellowship, in a community of faith. That's how God changes us, that's how God transforms us – in community. But how does that community function? Well quite simply Paul's saying, "Guys we're all different, one of you has been put there by God to speak His will into the community of faith, that's what prophecy is. Another has been put there to minister or to serve, another to teach, another to exalt or encourage, another to give, another to lead, another to show compassion." You look at that list of seven gifts and it's pretty comprehensive, it's the way things are meant to be. But that's not so much the angle that I want to come at this particular passage from today. As I said, I've written a whole book about this to help people locate their particular motivational gifting or as we might call it today their personality type. But will you please notice with me what Paul says that each of the people with each of these different gifts should be doing and we all have at least one of these gifts in our make up. The prophet should do what? Prophecy according to his or her faith. The minister or the server should do what? Minister and serve. The teacher should do what? Teach. The leader should lead diligently, the giver should give generously. The one with compassion should show compassion with cheerfulness. In other words live out your particular gift, do what God made you to do. Do you see that in the text? It's right here in front of us. God is commanding us to live out who He made us to be. Why are so many people unhappy? Well simple, they're trying to be someone else. They're trying to do things they were never made to do. And it's by living out this one particular gift that we've been given that we show genuine love and notice with me how Paul finishes this particular passage off, verse 11: Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit and serve the Lord. Be zealous; be ardent in using your particular gift to serve God. Why are so many of us finding it hard to live out our faith? Why have so many lost the passion? Why has the flame gone out in so many a Christ followers' heart? Because we've stopped living out the gift that God has given us to live out. It's something we all struggle with. Timothy was struggling with it which is why Paul writes to him to remind him, 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 6: Rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands. And friend today God is reminding you, it's time to get back in focus, it's time to get back on purpose because God's plan to bring this lost and hurting world back to Him includes you, it includes me and it includes our gifts, our abilities, Gods plan is to work through the person He's made you to be, to work through the person He's made me to be to share His mighty love with the people in our lives. That my friend is God's plan.   In the Face of Opposition I don't know if you've picked this up in life but life ain't always easy! Have you noticed that? We kind of figure to ourselves it should be, at least it should be easier than what it is. And yes there are some great things that happen in life, there really are but there's always something there, some adversity that seemingly takes the shine off things. And I'll tell you what that does to us. It discourages us, it starts to tear away at the hopes and the dreams that we had for our lives. I have a dear friend Keith (and in fact Keith and I have written a book together) and his particular gifting is to be a teacher. Now he's not the sort of teacher that stands up in front of a classroom and lectures, that's not Keith. He's more your life coach. Not a self-appointed franchise-owning life coach like those you find on the internet, but a naturally gifted life coach. People come to him naturally for advice and encouragement and he helps them to understand their own giftings and their abilities to get their lives back on the right track. This is a God-given gift that Keith has and his hopes and his dreams for the rest of his life rests on this foundation of his gifting. It's part of who he is. He understands that, he knows the stuff he's not good at and loves, absolutely loves doing the things that he's good at. Back in the 1980's he had a surfing accident, broke his neck and he was almost killed firstly by the surfing accident and secondly when the rescue helicopter crashed and some days Keith today still suffers terrible migraine headaches, totally debilitating. I phoned him the other day and he sounded like death warmed up. He told me later that he really thought he was going to die that day that the pain was so bad. Here's the thing about Keith, the adversity doesn't distract him from living out that special gift of teaching and encouragement that God has given him. The adversity doesn't rob him of the dreams he has for blessing other people through his God given gift. Do you remember last week we chatted about this whole gifting thing through the Apostle Paul's second letter to his young protégé Timothy who is struggling amidst the adversity of pastoring a growing Church and who was at risk of losing sight of his God-given gift. Why? Well adversity has a way of tearing away at you so let's take a look at the adversity by listening to what Paul writes to Timothy. If you have a Bible grab it. I'm reading here from 2 Timothy chapter 3 beginning at verse 1: You must understand this (writes Paul) that in the last day distr

Most of us have a sense that there's some plan for our lives, some purpose … or at least there's supposed to be. But the easiest thing in the world for us to do is to be drawn off purpose; to find ourselves living a life that deep down, we know wasn't the one that we were meant to be living.   A Soldier for Christ I don't know if you have been able to join me last week on the programme but we have been chatting about getting back on purpose. You can always tell a Christ-follower who is struggling because that would be the Christ-follower who has been drawn off purpose. They have become overly reactive to their circumstances, chasing after what the world says is the right thing, rather than persevering through the tough times and doing what God has called them to do. I spent ten years as an officer in the Australian Army and at all levels of leadership, from junior to senior ranks, one of the key principles of war is the selection and maintenance of the aim, in other words – staying on purpose. In other words, knowing which hill it is we are about to capture. And when the bullets start flying and the shells start exploding around you, staying focussed on taking that one hill, which is the reason that we are out here getting shot at in the first place. It turns out that being a Christ-follower – which is what a disciple is – is exactly about the same thing. And there are far too many who have been drawn off purpose and so have ceased following Jesus. Now, that may seem a little harsh and direct, so humour me and let me unpack that with you. We are taking another look this week at the Apostle Paul's second letter to his young protégé, Timothy, because it's a letter all about maintaining our sense of purpose and focus, remembering what we are here for – despite the bullets that are flying around and the shells that are going off around us, despite our circumstances – be they a mundane grind, be they a challenge or be they wonderful. Whatever our circumstances are, the easiest thing to do, especially when the going gets tough, is to lose our sense of the purpose for which God made us – what our gift is. And so Paul who himself is chained up in prison, counsels Timothy through that. The two verses that stick out for me are these. Second Timothy chapter 1, verse 6: For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God which is within you through the laying on of my hands. And verse 14: Guard the good treasure entrusted to you with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us. As I said, it's the easiest thing in the world to forget the gift that God has placed within us – that one thing that you love doing; that one thing that you are better at than just about anyone else that you know – and to have the treasure stolen from us. God didn't give us that gift just to bless us. He entrusted this treasure into our care to be good stewards of it – to use it. But it can be hard to hang onto that gift, that purpose, that treasure when stuff is flying around through the air. So let's pick up what Paul has to say to Timothy about this very thing. Second Timothy chapter 2, beginning at verse 1: You then, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; and what you have heard from me through many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be able to teach others as well. Share in suffering like a good soldier of Christ. No one serving in the army gets entangled in everyday affairs; the soldier's aim is to please the enlisting officer. And in the case of an athlete, no one is crowned without competing according to the rules. It is the farmer who does the work who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in all things. Remember Jesus Christ raised from the dead, a descendant of David – that is my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the the word of God is not chained. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself. See, whenever suffering comes, our first instinct is to compare that against what the world says equals success and figure, "Well, I must be failing God somehow." When we are hurting, we forget that over and over and over again, God's Word promises that we will suffer, that we will face trials, that He will discipline us. So Paul, on the very premise of that suffering uses three powerful, simple analogies about staying focused on our gifting and our purpose through the suffering. The first is the soldier who doesn't get entangled in the day to day affairs of this world but who instead stays focused on what the enlisting officer wants him to do. The second is the athlete who can't win the prize unless he actually competes according to the rules. And the third is the farmer who does the word who is then entitled to his first share of the reward. In each case it's the same thing: it's about staying focussed on the end game – through the suffering and the battle and the hard work and the training and the ploughing and the planting, in order to be who we were meant to be; to do what we were meant to do and ultimately, to reap the reward of having stayed the distance. Do you see the heavenly perspective – the eternal dimension? Paul is helping Timothy to take a step back and to see the bigger picture because when we are suffering our eyes are cast down to focus on the immediate. And then Paul goes on to speak of the power of that endurance – the powerful outcome in bringing people to God and ultimately, being accepted into the Kingdom of God with eternal life through Jesus Christ. Time and time again I see people giving up because it's tough. I see people pulled off purpose because it's all gotten just too hard. And the picture that the Lord has given me is when I am following Jesus down that dusty road, sometimes it's a lonely road – when it gets hard and I see other people pulling off to the left or to the right, parking on the side of the road, even turning around and turning back, I should keep going, following Jesus, even if I am completely alone, save for His presence. The saying is sure: if we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure with him, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful – for he cannot deny himself. Let me encourage you to take God's Word into your heart today. If it's all too hard; if every fibre of your being is screaming at you, saying, "Stop, turn back, give up, don't keep following Jesus. It's too hard; it's hurts too much …" You know what I am talking about! Take heart here from Paul's counsel: Share in suffering like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving in the army gets entangled in everyday affairs; the soldier's aim is to please the enlisting officer. And in the case of an athlete, no one is crowned without competing according to the rules. It is the farmer who does the work who ought to have the first share of the crops. Remember, when Paul wrote this to Timothy, he was sitting in a prison, he was chained up; he was in the worst of all circumstances, he was waiting to be executed and still he says, "Look, forget about your circumstances – don't focus on them – remember what God made you to do."' Rekindle the gift that is within in you through the laying on of my hands. Guard the treasure that has been given to you through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. With everything he is, Paul is saying to Timothy and I believe God is saying to you and me – don't stop, don't give up, keep going and do the things that you know God has called you to do.   A Firm Foundation You and I, we manage to find all kinds of ways to … to wander away from that plan and then to miss out on the joy and the fulfilment that lies in God's plans and God's purposes for our lives. And one of the ways that that gift grows cold and the treasure wastes away is that we allow the little foxes into our lives – and it's those little foxes that spoil the vine. Most of us have this idea that there are these really big sins and then there are small sins. The big sins are like sexual immorality, adultery, murder, theft – they are up there on our hierarchy as being amongst the real "biggies". But a bit of anger, or some arguing, or maybe this idea or that idea we get into our heads that doesn't quite fit with God's Word – hey, we all have that. They are the little sins. And as long as we keep away from the big ones, hey, who cares about the little ones? We may not ever have quite put it in those terms, but that's how most of us think and operate. But let me say this: the Bible knows nothing of this human hierarchy of sin. To God, sin is sin – it's missing the mark, it's missing the point for our lives. Now we can miss by a little way, or we can miss by a long way – but missing is missing, right? And so as Paul counsels Timothy about rekindling his gift and staying focussed on the purposes that God has set before him, he actually takes some time to deal with sins, many of which appear to be the little ones. Let's have a listen. Second Timothy chapter 2, beginning at verse 14: "Remind them of this," he says to Timothy, "and warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but ruins those who are listening. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth. Avoid profane chatter, for it will lead people into more and more impiety, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are

God has a plan for our lives – he made us in a certain way, He gave us the gifts to do certain things, and He has already prepared those things for us to do.  Problem is, amidst the day-to-day grind of life … it's so easy to lose sight of all that.  And when we lose sight of it … we inevitably lose our way.   A Different Perspective It's such a blessing for me to be able to join you again today at the beginning of a new series and I have called this series, "Rekindling the Flame." Because, I don't know about you, but sometimes I get tired. I mean, I love doing what I do – I absolutely love it; wouldn't be caught dead doing anything else rather than what I am doing right now. But even when we love doing what we are doing; even when we are serving God with all out heart, sometimes we get tired; sometimes we get rundown; sometimes so many things around us seem to be going wrong, that – well, we can lose our drive, or our determination or our direction or our sense of purpose in life. Have you ever found that? Just this morning I was sitting praying, feeling as though I was getting close to running on empty and asking the Lord to fill me afresh, which He did. But this reality of being drained by life, by service, by all the things that we go through, is the reality that pops up again and again for most of us. Have you noticed that? So that's why we are going to spend the next few weeks together in God's Word, letting Him speak to us; letting Him into the deepest and darkest places in our hearts, to rekindle the flame. And there is no better place to be doing that than the Apostle Paul's second letter to his young protégé, Timothy. So let's have a look at how Paul opens up his letter to young Tim. Tim has served with Paul all over the place – in Ephesus as a courier. They wrote a few letters in the New Testament together. So Paul was obviously Timothy's mentor and as any mentor has for his protégé, Paul had a special place in his heart for Tim. Why is this significant? Well, as you and I spend the next few weeks in this letter, my prayer is that in this fatherly warmth that we discover from Paul to Timothy, we too will experience the fatherly warmth from our Father God, who is speaking to us through Paul's powerful words. So, how does Paul kick off the letter? Second Timothy chapter 1, beginning at verse 1: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my beloved child: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I am grateful to God – whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did – when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. For this reason I want to remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. What a fabulous start! Remember Paul has been through so much in his life so far. He has been beaten, reviled, he has lost his position and status, he has had murder plots against him, riots, been run out of town, had to flee for his life! Unbelievable stuff!! And he starts with a statement, a feisty statement if you will, that his central purpose in life, to be "... an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus." Why does he do what he does? To bring the life that comes only through faith in Jesus out into the lost and hurting world in which he lives. The easiest thing for us to do when we are travelling through difficult times is to lose our focus. But nowhere … not once in any of his letters do we see Paul do that. He is called by God to be an Apostle; one sent out to do the will and the work of God. As we are going to come to see, this whole tension between the trials and temptations and tribulations that we go through on the one hand, and the call of God in our lives on the other can throw us completely off course. That as it turns out, is what this letter to Timothy is all about. Because Paul wants something special for Timothy; his young protégé – there's a special place in Paul's heart for young Timothy. He wants a special blessing for this young man: To Timothy, my beloved child, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. You see that? Paul wants Timothy to experience grace and mercy and peace from God and this letter is all about showing him how. Paul has been praying for him, even though he himself has been going through some really, really difficult times. Paul recalls the tough times they have been through in Christ's service together … the tears. And now he takes the opportunity to get Timothy focused on his purpose; focused on his mission. Rick Warren of Saddleback church in the U.S. is perhaps best known for his book and teaching series "The Purpose Driven Life". But this isn't something Rick somehow invented in the twenty first century. He discovered it right back here in the first century through Paul and others who wouldn't be shaken from the purpose that God had for their lives. And God has such a purpose, not just for Paul but for Timothy. So Paul reminds him of three things. First: the trouble that God has gone to, to hand a deep and powerful faith down to Timothy: I am reminded of your sincere faith; a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now I am sure, lives in you. When we are going through tough times, we do well to remember what God has already done in our lives. The faith He has placed in our hearts. And secondly, in light of this faith, Paul calls Timothy to do something amazing, verse 6: For this reason, I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands. Friend, we each have a gift – something that God has given us, which we can do better than just about anyone else that we know. And how easy is it for that gift, that ability, that dream to become obscured by the cares of this world … the sheer grind of living life? You have such a gift; you have such a dream! And when you think about it, back in the first century, rekindling something wasn't that easy. When there were just smouldering embers there, it would require the careful gathering of dry kindling, placing it carefully over the few remaining embers; fanning the flame, seeing it catch to the kindling, placing larger pieces of wood on to it and then even larger, before it again became a raging fire. That's what Paul is talking about; that's what Paul is telling Timothy to do. This is what I believe God is calling us to do. Is it scary? Yes, sure it is. Is it difficult? Well, probably. We can only gather here, because of what Paul is saying, that Timothy was at risk of losing his way; at risk of losing the purpose that God had placed on his life. And Paul knows that what he is asking young Tim to do is a big ask. So the very next thing he says to Timothy. First Timothy chapter 1, verse 7: For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self discipline. Friend, over the coming weeks we are going to be chatting about rekindling the flame in your heart. Because I believe that many, many people have been drawn away from the purposes of God for their lives, by this imposter called "success". And I believe with all that I am, that God doesn't want us to waste our lives. He wants us to fulfil the destiny that He set out for us before any of our days as yet existed.   Don't be Ashamed It never ceases to amaze me how different God's plan for success is, from the world's plan for success. I mean, you and I, we know the world's plan all too well. We have it shoved into our faces and dangled under our noses at least a hundred times each day. You are successful if you're beautiful, if you are wealthy, if you have power and position, if you have a big house or a new shiny car – that's when you are successful. Just recently I visited Perth, the capital city of Western Australia, for only the second time in my life. And a good friend of mine, Ben, drove me around to show me the sights. One of the places he took me to was billionaire's row – a few streets with some of the most expensive houses in the country. Now they were lovely houses but they were absolutely massive. They were built to make a statement. "Look at me; look at what I can afford." And this image, this model of success is what we have dangled under our noses so many times each day that, well, it's very easy to start believing it. And that's where we can get our wires crossed; that's where we can start equating the blessing and favour of God with what the world says makes you successful. So then, when things aren't going so well in our lives; when we are travelling through trials and temptations and sometimes even torment, we can so easily come to the conclusion that, obviously, we must have failed God – obviously He is not pleased with us. Obviously I'm on the wrong path or in the wrong place. Obviously, right? So instead of pursuing that one gift that God has placed within us; that one call on our lives to go and to be what God made us to be and what God made us to do, it's so easy to be ashamed of that failure. I remember when I decided to toss in my rather lucrative career as an International IT and Management Consultant, to go into this full time ministry, one of my colleagues joked with me that I was pursuing a career of genteel poverty. It's so easy to be ashamed when we are trying to live out our lives for God and things don't seem to be conforming to the world's ideas of success, to be pulled off c

Jesus talked rather a lot about slavery on the one hand, and freedom on the other. If you're a slave, freedom is a big deal. Now He was talking to you and me – still is.  Because this whole freedom thing isn't a theory lesson, He wants us to live it. Freedom!   Free At Last Now, I want to share something with you today. Yours truly, I have to tell you, I am not stupid. I might be short and slightly dumpy; I may have more grey hair than that of the original colour; it may be that I can't draw a picture for nuts; there are lots of things I can't do; lots of things I'm not great at and lots of things I'm just not. But God has blessed me with a pretty nimble mind, so I'm not stupid. Now the point of me telling you that is not to boast. The point is: even though I am a bit of a bright spark, I spent the first thirty six years of my life in slavery. And here's the thing: I never realised it! That's the point. We can be as smart as smart can be; we can be as clever as clever can be on the one hand, but completely miss the whole point of life, on the other. Do you get it? I mean, I kind of realised that something wasn't quite right. I kind of realised that I didn't have the joy and contentment in life that I was so looking for in everything I tried. But I simply had no idea that the reason for that was because I was a slave … a slave to self; a slave to sin. Now, this idea of slavery may seem a little harsh or extreme. It may seem that I am somewhat overstating the case when I say that I was a slave to sin. After all, slavery is a brutal thing. Let's just stop and think for a moment what it means to be a slave. A slave is someone who has no rights. His or her master can abuse them; they have to do what their masters tell them to do; they have no freedoms; they can't come and go as they please. And if we look at slavery down through the ages, slaves are the most oppressed of all people. Somehow, innately, we know that men and women and children have been born to be free. It doesn't mean we can do anything we like. Obviously, we need laws but good laws, not oppressive laws. So, human spirit is meant to be free, albeit in the right and proper constraints of the society. So, when someone becomes a slave, it's just wrong. Interesting that the Bible, which was written over a period of a couple of thousand years – the last Books being completed in the First Century AD. The Bible doesn't take issue with slavery – neither does it endorse slavery. It just kind of accepts it as a fact of life. Now, I have some ideas as to why that might be but that's for another time. But God's Word does link sin with the concept of slavery, over and over and over again, in the New Testament especially. Let's have a listen to what Jesus said on this. John chapter 8, beginning a verse 28: So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him." As he was saying these things, many believed. Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." They answered him, "We are descendants of Abraham and we have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, 'You will be made free'?" Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place for ever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." Now this is a really interesting exchange and I can really, really put myself in the shoes of the people who took umbrage with Jesus about this whole slavery thing. Jesus is explaining that in order for people to be saved and have a relationship with God, they had to believe in Him. That's radical! All the other messiahs out there and there were lots of people claiming to be the promised Messiah around Jesus time. They all pointed at this or that or someone else. Jesus pointed at Himself. "Believe in me!" He was directly claiming to be God in the flesh – outrageously radical – which is one of the reasons the religious leaders had Him crucified. But it says here in verse 30 that: "… many believed". But then the bit that people took umbrage with: Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word you truly are my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. Now, when someone talks to you and me about freedom these days, the first thing we think about, probably, is not slavery, because most of us aren't slaves. Although I have no doubt that of the millions of people listening to this message around the globe, right now, some in fact, are slaves. Most of us aren't and so if someone comes and talks to us about freedom, slavery is not front of mind. But it was back in the first century because there were lots of slaves. The words about being made free, intentionally pointed to freedom from slavery. People knew what He was talking about and that how it was taken. And this is where the Jews who believed in Him had a problem. They answered Him, "We are descendants of Abraham, we have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, "You will be made free"? And that's where Jesus hits them between the eyes. Jesus answered them, "Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household. The son has a place there forever. So if the son makes you free, you will be free indeed." Friend, sin is slavery. Let me say that again: sin is slavery. It is a yoke of oppression. It robs us of freedom and of life. When we are wrapped up in our own selves and in our own selfish desires; when we are trying to get the world to bow down to us, rather than us loving and serving those around us, friend, we lose our lives. And Jesus came to set the captives free – that's why righteousness is so important. Righteousness is the opposite of sin. As we saw last week on the programme, righteousness is not just an attribute of God; it's something that God gives to us as a free gift, when we believe in Jesus. We become the righteousness of God. Now we are going to live life either in sin or in righteousness. We are! It's one or the other and once we have a right standing with God (that's what "righteousness" means); once we have become righteous because we believe in Jesus, we are meant to live that out. It's like the criminal who has served his time in prison and he is released and he steps out of that gate and he either continues in his criminal ways – which many do, and they end up back behind bars which, frankly, has always struck me as sheer lunacy but it shows you how powerful sin is in people's lives – OR following his release, he mends his ways; and he lives out his new life of freedom and gets the benefits of all that. He is not in prison anymore; he can live out his new life. The new man, set free. Well, you and I have been set free if we believe in Jesus, through faith. Question is: how are we going to live that out?   The Power of Change Now, blind Freddy can see that being forgiven and having a right standing with God is only part of the equation – it's only the beginning. It's like a prisoner being set free at the end of his sentence. He steps out of the prison gate. It's a huge step, but it's only the first one of the rest of his life of freedom. Freedom is something to be lived out and so it is for anyone who has taken the first step of believing in Jesus: believing what He did for us on that cross; believing that He rose from the dead to give us a new life; believing that He has placed His Holy Spirit inside us so that we can live that new life of freedom. Jesus said this, listen very carefully. John chapter 8, verses 34 to 36: Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." And the Apostle Paul, some decades on, restates it so that we won't miss it. Galatians chapter 5, verse 1: For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. In other words: the reason that we have been set free is in order to be free, to live out our new lives of freedom. For freedom Christ has set us free. God hasn't set us free through this great and mighty act of love – the sacrifice of His Son – in order for us to submit again to the yoke of slavery which sin places on us. He set us free so that we can be free from sin, free indeed! You and I both know – we chatted about this earlier – that a prisoner who has served his sentence, steps out of that prison gate a free man but he can return to his life of crime and many of them do and eventually he finds himself back behind bars. Or we can live out this new life as a free man, a free woman, without breaking the law; without turning against God for the rest of our days. I have never been incarcerated but I'd have thought it would be a horrible thing. I'd have thought that one night, let alone a year or two or twenty would be more than enough to convince anyone not to reoffend. But many, many do and the majority of people in prison today are in fact, re-offenders. Incredible. Mad, you might say. But think about it: it's exactly what many a believer in Christ does. We believe – we take the first step of freedom – we believe in Jesus, but then we go on living just like before, only to discover that this new found freedom in Christ, isn't what it was cracked up to be because we are submitting back to that cruel yoke of slavery which is sin. Now, in part, that is becau

You know, for years before I met Jesus, I'd hear Christians rabbiting on about the Good news of Jesus. Give me a break. But it wasn't until I heard the bad news that I realised how fantastic the Good News really is!   The Bad News Now depending on whether you enjoy your job or not, Monday is either good news or bad news. And the statistics tells us that around two thirds of people don't enjoy their jobs. That's a tragedy! So for them, for these two thirds – there is every chance that you are one of them – this work thing is a bunch of bad news. Now you and I, we would rather have good news than bad news. I would and I'm sure you would too. And so when it comes to thinking about God, well, that has to be good news, doesn't it? I mean, that's what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about. That word "Gospel" literally means, not "truth" as many people think it does, although it is the truth. No, word "Gospel" means "Good News and glad tidings". That's why the angel who spoke to the shepherds on the night of Jesus birth said to them: Don't be afraid; for see, I am bringing you good news of great joy for all people: to you is born this day in the city of David, a saviour who is the Messiah, the Lord. Ahaa! There it was! Good News! Hallelujah! But sad to say, before we talk about the good news, which we are going to do later in the programme, first … first we have to talk about the bad news. How many times have we heard that line, "There's good news and there's bad news, which one do you want to hear first – right?" And inevitably, there are two sides to each coin. And if all I ever talked about on this programme was the good news side of God, then yours truly simply would not be doing his job. But as much as sometimes I would rather ignore it, there is a side to God which, quite frankly, is bad news for the likes of thee and me. At least, as first glance that's how it seems and yet, the reality is that without the bad news, the good news wouldn't seem that good at all. It's when we understand the bad news about God that the good news becomes, well, absolutely fantastic news. That's why today we are kicking off with the bad news. So what's Berni rabbiting on about – good news, bad news? Well, we are in the middle of a series called "Reaping the Harvest of Righteousness". It's about the righteousness of God and it's about the blessing that flows in our lives when you and I live out God's righteousness. And we kind of touched on this a little bit, fleetingly, last week. But we are going to pick up on it and really understand it because understanding the bad news about the righteousness of God is absolutely critical in a) making a decision whether we want to accept Jesus as our Saviour or not and, b) living out His righteousness and experiencing the blessing of that. So what's the bad news? Well, the bad news is that God is righteous. What's this righteousness all about? Well, God is completely, absolutely and utterly free from the scourge of humanity which is sin. There is nothing "wrong" in God. There is nothing impure or unholy or deficient or horrible about God. He is one thousand percent; one million percent righteous, from beginning to end; from eternity to eternity. And the only reason that this is bad news is that you and I aren't! You know that about you and I know that about me – we are nothing like that. We are often selfish and proud and angry and rude. The list goes on. And whilst perhaps, you have been walking with God for a while now and perhaps a lot has changed in your life, some of that muck is still around, right? It's like that classic little prayer that goes something like this: Dear Lord, So far today, I've done all right. I haven't gossiped, haven't lost my temper, haven't been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or over indulgent. I'm very thankful for that. But in just a few minutes, God, I'm going to be getting out of bed. And from then on, I'm probably going to need a lot more help. So, as the Apostle Paul writes: We all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Romans chapter 3, verse 23. And the consequences of this sin – this is Romans chapter 6, verse 23: The wages of sin is death. Now, that seems a little harsh, until we get back to the bad news – God is righteous and we aren't. There is nothing in God that is wrong and so His standard, quite simply, is perfection. Now as I was coming to grips with that, early on in my walk with Jesus, the question that I had to resolve in my mind was: well, isn't this just a tad unreasonable? I mean, when I was a child, I made mistakes; I wronged my parents. In fact, I did that over and over and over again, but they didn't take me out the back and shoot me. They might have felt like it and sometimes I was punished but they didn't kick me out of the house or do anything drastic like that. They suffered through my immaturities as parents are meant to do for their children so that the kids can grow up and mature and become responsible adults. That's what parents do so, if God is God the Father, what's with this "the wages of sin is death" thing? I mean, isn't it unreasonable? The original Greek word used in the New Testament for this word "righteousness" had its roots in the concept and the notion of "justice". God is a just God; there are no favourites; there is no partiality. And pretty much none of us would want to argue with that. That's as it should be because injustice is wrong. Often times when a criminal is handed a light sentence by the courts for something that we consider should have attracted a much harsher penalty, well, you and I are incensed. Why, because we are mean? No! It's because one of the things that God has handed on to us is His sense of justice. It's part of our DNA. And so God is a just God. It would be something of a disaster if He wasn't – right? And that's the bad news: break the law, get caught. You have to pay the penalty. And in the case of God, because He is pure and He is just and holy and completely righteous, that standard is way, way beyond anything that any human being can attain. I haven't lived a perfect life and nor have you. The only One who has is Jesus, God's own Son. And so the bad news is that you and I fall short of the glory of God and there is an eternal penalty for our rebellion. There is a price to be paid. Hebrews chapter 10: For if we wilfully persist in sin, having received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but a fearful prospect of judgement and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So there it is: that's the bad news and it's very, very bad news. Eternity is, after all, a very long time. "The wages of sin is death" – Romans chapter 6, verse 23 – but that's only half the verse and it's only half of the story. The second half of the verse goes like this: But the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. And that is the good news that we are going to be talking about soon. Friend, we don't want to think too much about the fact that sin has a penalty but if we stop and think about it now, we know that our sin has penalties and consequences in our lives today. I know that if I am angry all the time, it is going to ruin my relationships and rob me of peace and joy – it will rob me of a great life. I know that! And as much as our sin has its out-workings and consequences, here in this life – short term, medium term – it also has consequences long term. It definitely has consequences on that day that you and I stand before God and have to give an account of our lives. In a parable that Jesus told, this is what happened to a man who approached God in an unworthy state – Matthew chapter 22, verse 13: The king said to his attendants, "Bind him hand and foot and throw him into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." And it's the terror of this bad news that makes the good news so fantastically good. For the wages of sin are death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.   The Good News Let me ask you a question: how are you doing this fine day? The one thing I know, with frankly millions of people listening to this same message this week, in one hundred and sixty countries around the globe, is that there is going to be a myriad of answers and responses to that question – how are you doing this fine day? Some people are on top of the world, others are in the absolute depths of despair. And between those two extremes there is every shade of grey, right? And wherever we are, some good news would sure go down well: some good news to shine some light into a dark place; some good news to just brighten a mundane day; and even when we are in the middle of a fantastic patch in life, some good news to put it all into perspective. Well, right now we are going to take a look at the good news. As we spend this time together, we are not just going share in some good news, we are going to roll in it; we are going to revel in it; we are going to delight in it because the good news that I am talking about isn't some cliché; it's not some transient spin. This good news is meant to make a difference in our lives, a real difference, in fact a world of difference, an eternal difference. As I said earlier, when it comes to God, there's good news and there's bad news. We are in the middle of a series right now of messages that I have called "Reaping the Harvest of Righteousness", because when we live out the goodness and the holiness and the wonderfulness; the righteousness of God, there's a huge harvest of blessing in that. Not only the sort of blessing always that the world tells us we should have, you know – healthy, wealthy and wise, but a depth of reward, a joy, a peace as we live out the righteousness of God in our own lives. Bad news though, is that we all have sin

God's Word talks about the harvest of righteousness – and if you've ever lived in a farming community you'll know that harvest time is a time of huge celebration. So this harvest of righteousness – it's not just empty words, it's a big deal.   The Fruit of Righteousness One of the things that we do in this world – particularly, let me say, in the West – is that we get hooked on junk food. Pretty much, most people need three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Some don't get that of course, and others skip meals because they're too busy to eat. And in between meals we like to have little snacks and often the snacks we consume can be our undoing. Instead of healthy snack of a banana or an apple or an orange, we go for the chocolate bar or the doughnut or the packet of chips or something equally unhealthy. Of course, one of those every now and then, no problem but if those are the things that we snack on most of the time, they are going to make us sick and tired, literally. I've done that a few times in my life and each time I have eventually come to my senses and replaced those unhealthy snacks with healthy ones, well, at first it seemed like a real burden to give up the junk food snacks, but within a day or two, here's what happens: 1. What I found is that I rediscover how wonderful fruit tastes: a sweet mandarin, a juicy orange, a crisp apple, a ripe banana. They are fantastic. What a surprise! 2. Within just a few days, I am feeling much healthier: more energy, more alert, a spring in my step. The fruit, as it turns out, is good for us in so many different ways. Last week on the programme we were chatting about reaping the harvest of righteousness and we saw that God's righteousness is two things: it's both bad news and good news. Bad news because He is righteousness and we are not and eventually that brings His wrath crashing down on our heads and good news because He knows that, which is why He sent us Jesus Christ His Son to save us. Now we are going to talk about the bad news and the good news a bit more next week on the programme but right now we are going to look at the fruit, good, healthy, life-giving fruit. As I mentioned just earlier, making the transition from bad eating habits to good eating habits, at the time always seems … well, it feels like we are making a sacrifice, giving up the sweet chocolate bars and the fatty chips. It's never fun making that choice and starting on the journey towards healthy eating. But not only is the fruit really, really nice, it yields fruit in our life. We feel better; we have more energy, right? We know that and it's the same with sin and righteousness. When we are addicted to some sin – we all have one or two sins that we are predisposed to – it seems like such a sacrifice giving them up, it really does, even though they are not good for us; even though they are hurting us. And often times God helps us by sending us through a rough patch; by disappointing us, so that we can learn for ourselves the impact that our sin is having so that we can feel the pain and have the opportunity to let go of the sin and turn back to Him. Have a listen to what the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament has to say about this. Hebrews chapter 12, beginning at verse 5. If you have a Bible come there with me. He writes: And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children— 'My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, or lose heart when you are punished by him; for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and he chastises every child whom he accepts.' Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? If you do not have that discipline, in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children. Moreover, when we had human parents to discipline us, we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share his holiness. Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed." You know what he is saying? No pain, no gain, right? And in a sense, that's what is going on here. So often, we're travelling through tough times and we don't take the time to read the signs. We squeal in pain, "Oh God, why is this happening to me?" and we don't stop to hear His answer. Often times the reason it's happening because God is at work in our lives and leaving the sin behind is hard, our flesh is addicted to it. It's like a heroin addict leaving the drug behind. It's hard, it hurts. And God lets it happen to us because He loves us; because He knows that the peaceful fruit of righteousness is so worth the effort and the pain. Can we just talk about that fruit for a moment? Can we talk about the harvest; the gain that comes out of the pain? Because it's like the real fruit that I was talking about before – it is fantastic. When we are wallowing around in our sin, well, you know, that affects our lives. Someone who is living constantly in sin of anger is going to have a rotten life, right? Someone who is labouring under the yoke of unforgiveness is going to have a rotten life. Someone who hasn't learned to sacrifice and to love is having unhealthy, tragic relationships. The list of cause and effect goes on! And most times we don't even notice them. We don't stop to think about the sin – the cause – and the effect that it's having on our lives. I use this word "sin" deliberately, as much as it jars with many people because it's what God calls our rebellion. It means literally to "miss the mark; to miss the whole point; to miss out on our share". And that's what we are doing when we are rebelling against God. We are missing out on the goodness, just like when we are stuffing our faces full of unhealthy food, we are missing out on energy and well-being that should be going on in our lives. But when we allow God's discipline – through the difficult and often painful circumstances we are travelling through – be the tool that helps us let go of the sin; the tool that shows us the pain and helps us to the heart decision of letting go and turning back to Him, then here's what's going to happen: just like giving up junk food snacks, it's not going to be a pleasant start. It always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time but the peaceful fruit of righteousness, well, it's kind of like that sense of well-being and vibrancy and energy that we get when we ditch the junk food in favour of the good stuff – the fruit. I just want to encourage you that sometimes the tough patches are God's polishing cloth in our lives. And the sin He's putting His finger on right now is actually ruining our lives. It's robbing you and me of the peaceful fruit of righteousness that He wants us to live in day by day. So we can struggle and squirm and fight God. The problem is, the longer we do that, the longer He will keep us in that uncomfortable place. Or we can go to Him, ask Him to show us what He is doing and let go of that sin quickly. Yes, even though it never seems pleasant at the time, more likely painful and the sooner we get with His plan; the sooner we will be living in the peaceful fruit of righteousness. What do you think?   The Harvest of Righteousness I remember when I was in my last year of High School – quite a few years ago now – I travelled to a country town to teach the clarinet at a music camp during the school holidays. And I had the opportunity to stay for a week on a farm. Now, this was a large property and they farmed many thousands of sheep – thousands of them. It was quite an experience for a young guy because I'm a city boy. I had spent all my time growing up in an industrial city so I had never really thought too much about, well, where things come from – milk, after all, came in bottles, eggs come in cartons, meat comes from the butchers and so on. You don't really think too much about it when you live in the city, so spending this week on the sheep farm was the most amazing experience. We had the opportunity to help dip the sheep, so you had to pick them up and throw them down the shoot so they ended up in a trough full of sheep dip – it was back breaking work. And for a lad who had never really thought too much about where lamb chops came from, other than from the butchers, it was a real eye opener. Farming is hard work. Ever since then I have had the greatest respect for farmers. And not only is it hard work but pretty much they only get their income once or twice a year. And that happens when they take what they have grown - whether that be a crop like wheat or sheep or cattle for slaughter or wool for clothing – when they take what they have grown to market. It happens at harvest time. But of course there are many things that can interrupt the harvest: drought, flood, fire, a plague of locusts, diseases in animals. And even when there is a bumper crop, often as a result of the abundance, the prices the farmer gets at market are going to plummet. So it's a tough life and that week on the sheep farm has given me a deep, abiding respect for farmers and their families. But there is something else, another lasting legacy that this week on the farm, as a young lad, has left with me and that's an appreciation of the tough reality of farming on one hand and the sense of jubilation of a successful harvest on the other. See we city slickers hear this word "harvest" and it really doesn't mean too much to us. It kind of washes by. But

God is an amazing God. A loving God. But there's a side to Him that we don't like to think too much about.  It's the angry God.  The God of judgement and wrath.  But if we don't get our mind around that side of Him, then the good news of Jesus – well there's nothing good about the news.   Why Sin is a Four Letter Word Now, something that strikes me as I look around the world in which we live, is that we live in a world where just about anything goes. Even in my short life time – just on half a century, which, in the overall scheme of history, is like a drop in the ocean – things have changed radically. Let me give you just one example. When I was a young man, a woman falling pregnant outside marriage was a great matter of shame. Today it's a life style choice that many women make. Many, many couples choose to live together without making the commitment of marriage. And just in case you think I am plucking that out of the air, the statistics tells us that, in Australia at least, co-habitation before marriage has increased – wait for this – from eighteen percent of couples in 1975 to almost sixty percent today. It's gone from being the exception, to being more the norm. Just the way things are these days. You know, sometimes you hear people thumping the table, telling us how bad things are these days, "Now like the good old days when I was young." The implication is that this younger generation is, well, you know, they have no discipline or standards and if only things were like they were back in the "good old days". The problem is, the "good old days" weren't really that good. Husbands still beat their wives back in the "good old days". Children were still abused back in the "good old days". Bad things still happened back in the "good old days" too – let's be honest. So the last thing under the sun that I want to be doing is suggesting that we somehow turn the clock back, so that things will be fine again – just like they were in the "good old days" - because we can't turn the clock back and even if we could, things weren't necessarily so grand back in the "good old days". And there is a reason for that because from the moment that Adam and Eve took their first bite of that "apple" from that one tree … the "one" tree in that beautiful, abundant, peaceful garden, of which God said, "Don't eat the fruit of that tree," from that moment there has been this thing in the world called "sin". Let's go to the story – Genesis chapter 3, beginning at verse 1 – if you have a Bible: Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, 'You shall not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.' But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" He said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself." God said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate." Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent tricked me, and I ate." Now, you see things have changed in this world. We live in a world where anything goes, right? Well, just about anything! Many a moral standard of yesteryear seems old fashioned and irrelevant and, to many, downright offensive. We are a whole bunch more relaxed about things these days, compared with the rigid old rules of the past century. So this notion of sin; this rebelling against God; this Adam and Eve thing, well, it seems like an outdated throwback from the 1950s. It feels, well, completely irrelevant in the enlightened age in which we live, doesn't it? And there are some things from the past, the way women were treated like chattels almost, for instance, that were terrible. Still happens in places around the world today. Or treating people differently because of their skin colour or their nationality. So many flaws and faults in these rigid rules from the past, to be sure and that … that's why the short, three letter word, "sin" is something of a four letter word these days – a dirty word, a nasty word, a word that implies moral judgement against the standards of the rigid and flawed rules of our childhood. But I'm not so much talking about that; about man-made rules. The thing … the thing that ushered pain and suffering into this world was our rebellion against God, starting with Adam and Eve in the garden. Read on to chapter 3 of that Book of Genesis and we find that there were some serious consequences to their actions, beyond what we just read. So whilst "sin" is a word that seems to carry, well, a lot of baggage around with it, it speaks of our rebellion against God and that word 'sin' as it's used in the Bible, means literally "to miss the mark; to miss the whole point; to miss out on your share". And that's the consequence of our rebellion against God. It's not this thing that there are a whole bunch of rigid religious rules that you and I have to follow in order to make it into heaven. That's not it at all. The point is that God is a God who loves us. He loves you, He loves me beyond anything we can imagine love to be. Writes the Apostle Paul to his friends, in Ephesians chapter 3, beginning at verse 18: I pray that you may have the power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. He loves you so much, more than words can ever say – beyond understanding – and when we turn our backs on Him; when you and I decide to live our lives our way; when we adopt this "anything goes" attitude; when we decide we can eat the fruit off any tree, there are consequences. I mean these: eat too much of the wrong thing and it will ruin your health; work too hard for too long, without rest and it will ruin your life; play too hard; drink too hard, it will ruin your health and your relationships. Cause and effect! Come on! It's not rocket science – it's as plain as the nose on your face and mine. And with Adam and Eve, there was cause and effect – there are consequences. As much as we try and kid ourselves; as much as we try to tell ourselves that we can have anything and be anything and do anything – "It'll be okay" – we know it's a lie and we know there are always consequences. You and I, we've been duped into thinking that "sin" is some old fashioned, irrelevant, religious word from the past, when all along it's the greatest malady of our lives. When all along that rebellion is robbing us of the fruit of a good and healthy relationship with God; a God who loves us so much that He sent us His only Son that whoever believes in Him wouldn't perish but instead, would have eternal life.   Sowing and Reaping Now, this word "righteousness", well, it's not a word that we use so much these days, in common, day to day language. Self-righteousness maybe, is the only time that we really hear the word. So what is it, why does it matter and why does it produce a harvest? Well, it turns out that this whole "righteousness" thing is a matter of cause and effect. I guess we pretty much understand the word "right", telling right from wrong. At least, we think we do. If it's right, it's right; if it's wrong, it's wrong. Not so much black and white these days; lots of shades of grey there between what people consider to be right and wrong, particularly the wealthier nations and their peoples become, the more focused we become on ourselves rather than on other people around us, that line between right and wrong, well, it's a bit like the shifting sands. Nevertheless, I guess we all have a sense of right and wrong. But the word "righteousness" is something of a legal term – it has to do with the law and in the sense of God's righteousness, it has to do with God's law, which we find in the Old Testament. Best way I have found to understand it is in terms of our law today. Let's say someone does something wrong, whether it's a minor traffic infringement or a murder. Once we have done that and it's proven, we stand condemned by the law. By and large, so long as justice is done, we don't have a problem with that – we understand that we have to stop people from speeding their cars, right through to murdering other people. So, we do something wrong and as the saying goes, we find ourselves on "the wrong side of the law". And then there is a debt to be paid – whether it's a hundred dollar speeding fine or twenty five years in prison for murdering. The law demands justice. That justice acts both as a penalty and, hopefully, as a deterrent but it also gives society justice. If a loved one of ours is killed by a drunk driver, let's say, and that drunk driver is tried and convicted and given a fifty dollar fine, then w

The Bible talks about the land of blessing. Where is that? How do we get there? Is it really for us? Does God want to bless me? Good questions.   Blessing In, Blessing Out It is great to be with you again this week and this is the last programme in a four part series that I've called, "Blessed to be a Blessing". We've been talking about God's blessing over the last few weeks and it's easy when you talk about the blessing of God to get it out of balance. My generation, the baby boomers, were called the "me" generation. And it's easy for my generation and I guess, just about every generation, to think about God's blessing and then we think "Ah, that's about filling me up so that I'm happy and I'm fulfilled and I'm full and … ". Over the last few weeks we have been looking throughout the Bible, from the beginning to the end. That's what we have to do when we look at God's blessing. We need to look at the whole council of God because if we just take one verse and we create a doctrine of blessing out of that, it's so easy, in our context, to get that out of whack. Do you know what I mean – to take it to an extreme? Do I think that God is a God of abundant blessing? Absolutely! Jesus said, "The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come that you may have life and have it in abundance." Now we can take that because we're brought up in the "me" generation and we're brought up in materialism and we can immediately reduce that down to a material blessing. After all that's what the advertising industry tells us we should do. I've said it over the last few weeks on the programme, and I'll say it again today: I spent the greater part of my life trying to feel satisfied with stuff – things and experiences and cars and houses – and it doesn't work. When I look at the whole council of God (which is what we have been doing over these last few weeks on Christianity works) what I discover is that we are blessed in order to be a blessing. The pictures throughout the Scripture make it clear over and over again. Jesus said, "Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure that you use in your giving, it will be measured to you." In other words blessing comes in from God and goes out again to others – in and out, in and out, in and out – over and over again. It's like breathing. God's blessing is in and out, in and out. A blessing isn't a blessing unless it flows, you know, unless it flows in from God and then out through us to other people. When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well, this is what happened: The Samaritan woman said to Him, "You're a Jew and I'm a Samaritan woman, how can you possibly ask me for a drink?" Because Jews didn't associate with Samaritans. And Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is who asks you for a drink, you would have asked me and I would have given you living water." Those words "living water" literally mean "water that is flowing". You see, when water stops flowing, it becomes stagnant. It becomes dead. We talked last week about the Dead Sea. And the Dead Sea is a huge body of water where all the rivers flow in and none of the rivers flow out. And it's dead because it's so salty because nothing can live in it. I have a disease called Glaucoma in my eyes and what happens is the fluid flows in but the outlet is clogged and so the pressure builds and ultimately, if it's not treated, you end up going blind. The Bible says that "faith without works in dead". In other words, if we expect everything to flow in and for us to be filled and that's it, it's not going to work. Romans chapter 12, verse 2, says this: Don't let the world squeeze you into it's mould, but instead be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may discern what is the good and pleasing and perfect will of God for you. The world's mould is what the advertising industry tells us it is. The world's mould says, "Consume and you will be happy." It's a mantra that you see over and over again so we just end up taking it for granted. We just end up believing that stuff. And in stark contrast, Jesus says: Take up you cross and follow me. If any man would save his life he will lose it, but if you lose your life for my sake you will find it. You see Jesus is saying the exact opposite. Get it? Let's open our hearts and our minds to that. It's a beautiful paradox but it's a paradox that we all know to be true. "If any man would save his life, he will lose it." In other words if we think it's all about us – saving our lives, filling our lives, getting gratification and pleasure – it won't work. We'll lose it. But if we lose our lives for His sake, we'll find them. And that means giving away God's blessing. Being prepared to lay it all down. Everything we have. Everything we are. All our hopes. All our dreams. Saying, "God, they're in your hands, I'm just a steward – even my gifts and abilities – I am just a steward. Now you use them, Lord, for your glory." And when we give away God's blessings, then and only then do we discover what blessing is all about – in and out, in and out. We want the 'in' bit but we often don't want the "out" bit. Today, my prayer is that we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds as we look at what the Bible says about God's blessing. Over and over again the truth is this – a blessing isn't a blessing unless it flows out to someone else. God has blessed you and me with His Son Jesus Christ. With His presence in us. With His love and mercy and His forgiveness. So that we can shine that light into a hurting world. So that we can be salt. So that we can be a blessing. So that we can bear fruit. We are blessed to be a blessing. And the paradox is, the more we try to hold onto it, the more we try and keep it to ourselves, the more we say "I'm right Jack", it ends up not being a blessing at all. In a moment we are going to look at a passage from Hebrews, chapter 6, so if you have a Bible, grab it and open it up there. It talks about the land of God's blessing. I don't know about you, but I want to live in that land. Well, if we want to live out God's blessing, we have to do it His way – in and out. We will look at that next.   The Land of Blessing The writer of the Book of Hebrews paints a beautiful picture of God's blessing, when he talks about how rain falls on the ground. Let's have a look. It's in Hebrews chapter 6, verses 7 and 8: Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those from whom it is farmed, receives the blessing but land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed – in the end, it will be burned. I love this: "land that drinks in the rain that often falls on it." Where I live, we have been going through one of the worst droughts on record – parched, dry, red soil – crops are down by sixty percent. And our lives are like that, until we receive Jesus. And when His Spirit rains down on us and over us, over and over again, with living water, then we have life. "The land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed, receives the blessing of God." Isn't that wonderful? Rain that often falls on us – we drink in God; His Word and His Spirit and we spend time in His presence – it's a beautiful thing; it's a blessing; it's life itself. But anything to do with life has a natural flow, a cycle, a consequence. And what does this Scripture say that that consequence is? 'Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that – here it is – produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed, receives the blessing of God.' Get it? We are supposed to produce a crop – fruit, a harvest. For whom? For us? No, that's not what it says, "a crop that is useful to those for whom it is farmed." See the picture. The rain falls down, the presence of God, the Word of God, the Spirit of God falls down into our lives and the natural consequence of that is that we produce a crop, a harvest. Something that is useful for other people, for whom God has farmed it, in us and through us. You spend time drinking in God's Word and He fills us with His blessing. You spend time drinking in God's Spirit and He fills us with His blessing. That's how it starts – God always blesses us first. We don't produce fruit and then earn God's favour. No, no. God blesses us first and then somehow, His presence and His Spirit and His Word enliven the gifts that He has put into us and they grow into a harvest. I was sitting last year with a man, a wealthy business man who had made a lot of money and sold his business. Now, I guess he is in his late fifties or early sixties. He has a substantial fortune. You know what he does now, full time? He works with ministries to help them and fund them for God's glory. That's his gift, what's yours? Maybe not some great fortune! Another friend of mine spent a lifetime as a minister in the Anglican Church, he's now semi-retired. He's moved to an area where there's lots of dysfunctional people and families. His gift is to be a counsellor and so he does that. He counsels families and husbands and wives and all sorts of people. Now the things that he goes through, the cases that he deals with, would make your toes curl but it's his gift. What's yours? The natural cycle of blessing is in and out – blessing in, blessing out. "The land that drinks in the rain, often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed, receives the blessing of God." See, when it's produced the crop, then it receives the blessing of God. The land of God's blessing – when you and I exercise our gifts; when we allow God to enliven them, to produce a crop useful to those for whom it has been farmed – we receive the blessing of God. Do you get it?

God has an amazing plan. He blesses us so that we can be a blessing in the world. The question is – how? How do we take what God's given us and share it around.   Let's Get it Straight It is great to be with you today. This is the third message in a series that I've called "Blessed to be a Blessing". I think it's important for us to take a really deep look at God's way of blessing us because when we understand that; when we know how God's working and operating in our lives, it's such a wonderful thing to see His blessing flow. Over the last couple of weeks we have seen that we often get things the wrong way around when it comes to God's blessing. I mean, sure, God is a God of blessing; we want to be blessed but what we often don't come to grips with in our hearts, is how God wants to multiply His blessing through us. To have a flood tide of blessing go out to a parched and dry and hurting world. For His blessing to flow into our lives from God and out through us to other people. Last week we particularly looked at two verses that made that abundantly clear. The first is John chapter 7, verse 37: On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty let them come to me and drink, and whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow out from within them." By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. You see, it's in and out. If anyone is thirsty, come to Jesus and drink. If you're looking for something and you're parched and needy, come to Jesus to drink. Put your faith in Him and rivers of living water will flow out. It's in and out. It's one of the greatest passages in all of the Bible. It's powerful. It's the crux of being a disciple. We are blessed to be a blessing – rivers of living water. Remember, we looked at it – Nile, Ganges, Murray and Mississippi and Thames and Rhine and Yangtze and Amazon and again – rivers of living water. The other thing He said was: Give and it will be given to you, of good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure that you use, it will be measured to you. We are going to expand on that theme today and get really practical. If God's blessing is something that flows through us, if that's a part of how He works, how should that happen? Because if all those rivers head in and none of them head out, we're going to end up being like the Dead Sea – dead. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to a man called S.D. Gordon. Sometime in the late eighteen hundreds or nineteen hundreds, he wrote that book called, "The Quiet Talks on Power". And in that book he uses the simple and powerful example to describe the consequences of expecting all of God's blessing to flow into our lives but not letting any of them flow out. He uses this picture of the Dead Sea. Now the Dead Sea is exactly that; a body of water where all the rivers flow in and none flow out and as a result, it is dead. Nothing lives in it. Not a thing. No fish, no plants, no birds and the water is incredibly hard and brackish. He makes this point in his book; that if we expect all of God's blessing to flow in and none of them to flow out then our lives become like the circumference of the Dead Sea. Now it's a big turn-around for us because we are programmed to think that blessing is all about me. It should all flow into me, right? But that's not it in God's economy. Blessing is really only a blessing when it flows out through us again. Think about it, a material blessing like a home … isn't the joy, the real joy of a home, sharing it with your family? It's a natural thing! In Acts chapter 20 and verse 38, it says this: The Lord Jesus Himself said, "It is more blessed to give that receive. That is so profound – "It is more blessed to give that to receive." See Jesus is throwing our whole idea of blessing on its head. And He's saying when the blessing flows out through you, you'll be more blessed than when it flows into you. Do you get it? God's way of blessing is the blessing flows down from Him and out through us and in that process, standing in the middle of His great river of blessing, we to are blessed. That's it! The world's dropped this notion into our heads that it's all about us – me, me, me – and we end up twisting and perverting God's plan. We end up thinking God's blessing is about the next "this thing" for me or "that thing" for me. Now He loves to do those things, but principally, God's blessing is the thing that flows out of us to the rest of the world. What if Jesus, the Son of God, had come to earth and said to Himself, "You know something, it's all about me." No, the Son of Man didn't come to be served but to serve. See, in and out. Now, Berni Dymet, the business man: I tried so hard to get everything to flow into me, with a huge house and gold plated taps and a car worth so much, just thinking about it now makes my toes curl. You know, the blessing of 'me' became an art form. That's what my whole life was about and it never, never, never satisfied me. And when God got a hold of me a dozen or so years ago, over several years He changed me to the point where He trusted me to do what I'm doing now. And I walk with Him in the quiet, cool hours of the morning and experience Him and delight in Him and hear Him and spend time in His Word, and then prepare these programmes and sit here and spend time with you and the blessing flows in and out again. Today, I'm one of the most deeply satisfied people you will ever come across, even though the way God has chosen to bless me is different from what I would have planned. I had to re-learn what it meant to be blessed by God. And it's in this serving and using our gifts and skills, abilities and resources as channels of God's blessing, that we discover blessing. A close connection with God – it's a two sided transaction – intimacy with Jesus and then letting Him use us … us whom He's made what we are meant to be, to let Him flow out through us into the parched, dry land around us. You and I are blessed to be a blessing. "It is more of a blessing to give than to receive", is what Jesus said. Now, maybe you're listening to this and you are thinking, "Ok, I get the theory; I believe that; I understand it, but what about the practice? How can I be a blessing?" Well, that's what we are going to look at through the rest of this programme.   What Gifts do I have? It's so easy for us to think, "Well, I don't have anything to bless other people with. How can I be a blessing?" The "how" is so important. It's about making the rubber hit the road and about getting our lives aligned to God's way, so that we are working with Him and not against Him. We talked before about the fact that God's blessing is a two-sided transaction – in and out. You can't do the "out" without the "in". Jesus said in John, chapter 15, verses 4 and 5: Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me - I am the vine and you are the branches. If anyone remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing. See, this talks about the "in" and the "out" again. We need to be close to Jesus, we need to be grafted into Him; He is our life blood. And when we set our hearts on Him; when we spend that time with Him, His Spirit flows into our lives and we can't help it, we just end up bearing fruit – He bears fruit. And who's the fruit for? It's not for the vine, no, it's for other people … in and out. Isn't it amazing how this theme recurs over and over again through the Scripture? How easy it is for us, though, to miss it, to pervert it to the "me, me, me" thing. We'll look at that a bit more next week; how we are prone to twist and pervert God's plan for blessing. If we think for one minute that we can peddle and peddle and peddle hard on the outside to make things happen, whilst our relationship with Jesus on the inside is in tatters, we are kidding ourselves. The only way I know of having that relationship with Him is to lay down my life and to spend time with Him. I was speaking a while ago at a Christian leaders conference about our priorities, about God being first and a lot of the people there were very well known leaders of Christian ministries. And one by one they came up to me afterwards and said. "You know, this is an area I struggle in. I'm busy doing ministry and somehow I don't have time to spend with God." So a lot of people struggle with the "in" side of the equation but others struggle with the other end. They have a relationship with Jesus; they have time with Him but they become what I call a Spiritual couch-potato – they don't do anything with that. And the Bible says that faith without works is dead. Now you might say, "Berni, that's unfair; I just can't do any of that 'out' stuff." Have a listen to what Paul wrote. Romans chapter 12: Therefore, I urge you, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is you Spiritual act of worship. Don't conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good and pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given to me, I say to every one of you, don't think of yourselves more highly that you should. But rather think of yourselves with sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith that God's given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members and these members don't all have the same functions, so in Christ, we who are many from one body and each member belongs to all the others – we have different gifts according to the grace given to us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy according to your faith; if it'

You often hear people talking about how God's blessing flows on their lives. But sometimes, we can take a narrow view of what God's really up to.   A Deep Truth of the Bible It's great to be with you again today and this is the second message in a series that I have called "Blessed to be a Blessing". The society in which we live tells us it's all about "you"; it's all about "me". I buy the newspaper reasonably frequently and the one that I buy on Friday, once a month, has a glossy magazine inside it called, "Wish". It's full of expensive watches and expensive holidays and expensive dining experiences and coffee and real estate and it's so glossy; it's so seductive. Sociologists talk of the phenomenon of "cocooning"; of wrapping ourselves in comfort. For so many people in the West, that's what they are trying to do. To somehow ignore everything else that's going on; to hide from all the problems in the world and imagine somehow, that we can be satisfied in the cocoon of luxury. There's an airline that for a long time, had an advertising campaign for it's business class and the by-line of the advertising campaign was, "It's all about you". And that's it isn't it? To cocoon ourselves in these luxury things and experiences and ignore the pain and the starvation and the sickness that's going on in the rest of the world. There are billions of people in poverty today. There are billions of people who don't have enough food and some of those people are listening today. I had feed-back recently from a listener in a Liberian refugee camp, in Sierra Leone and there, life is purely about survival – food, water, avoiding disease, keeping away from war. And when I am talking about God's blessing, the one thing that I'm conscience of is the need to speak into both ends of that spectrum. A man who I really admire, who taught me a lot, a man called Barry Chant, was a great influence on me. He's a lecturer at the Bible College I attended, and I have a great respect for this man. One of the ministry classes we were in, there were a small number of students and we were having a discussion and we were talking about the tendency in some parts of the church to preach what some people call a "prosperity doctrine" – to believe God for a bigger car and a bigger house. Now Barry has been ministering around the world for over fifty years and when we came to this, his face became very serious and he said this: If you are going to preach on God's blessing and God's prosperity, then what you say has to apply to the poor and to the rich. It has to work in the West and in the developing world and if it doesn't, it's not God's truth. You see, God doesn't have favourites. Sure, God plants us in different places, in different circumstances but if we are going to talk about God's blessing in this series "Blessed to be a Blessing", I am really conscience of the fact that what we say, what we uncover in God's Word, has to apply to everybody. Now, that's always really stuck with me and what I want is never to open my mouth and speak unless I'm speaking God's truth. Today we are going to look at two deep truths of the Bible – God's Word, God's very heart. We are going to talk about God's blessing and particularly look at the story of Abraham. One of the things that strikes me about the Bible is that when God blesses people He expects them to take that blessing and bless other people. And that's the first deep truth. It's this: a blessing is only really a blessing if it flows in and out. Let me say that again: a blessing is only really a blessing when it not only flows into us from God, but it also flows out again. That's the first truth. And the second is this: the birth of a blessing in our lives can often be very uncomfortable and painful, and so we often miss exactly what God is up to and what's going on. I wanted to put those two truths right up front because that's what we are going to be talking about today. I believe that God is a God of outrageous blessing but so often we don't understand how He blesses and what He expects. We need good teaching on God's blessing – Biblical, profound, truth. God's blessing is God's favour. It's when He intervenes in our lives for the good – it can be Spiritual, it can be emotional, it can be physical healing, it can be in relationships and even material. I weep when people reduce the blessing of God just down to the next big, expensive car that they want to buy. I know some people will get upset with me saying that but it's a matter of priority. God is a God of blessing but we are blessed in order to be a blessing. A blessing has to flow into us from God and out from us to others, otherwise it's not a blessing at all. Let's have a look at the story of Abraham and we clearly see how God works. We are going to Genesis, chapter 12, beginning at verse 1. If you have a Bible, grab it: "The Lord said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation," – listen to this – "and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse and in you all the peoples on the earth will be blessed." So Abram left as the Lord had told him and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy five years old when he set out from Haran. He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot and all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran and set out for the land of Canaan and they arrived there. Abram travelled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh, at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land and the Lord appeared there to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So Abram built an alter there, to the Lord who appeared to him. From there he went toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an alter to the Lord and he called on the name of the Lord. Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev. See, there are a few aspects to this story. Firstly, God said, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household. Leave everything you're comfortable with and step out. And if you do that, I will bless you. I promise, I will make you a great nation. All the peoples on the earth will be blessed." The point of the blessing was not just that Abram would be blessed but that all the peoples on the earth would be blessed, through him. That's huge! Ultimately Israel was blessed in that they received the Promised Land and you and I were blessed in that Jesus Christ was physically a descendant of Abram. Now this required a lot of obedience. This man was seventy five years old. Most of us are heavily into retirement aged seventy five – not that I know, I'm not quite there yet – but it was no obstacle to him. Abram was quite wealthy yet he set out into the unknown; he set out into God's blessing and to be a blessing. I always admire this man because he had no Bible; it wasn't written then. I don't know how God talked to him, but somehow God did and Abram believed Him and he set out. He left his father's house, his comfort, his people, recognition, his own country, his home on a promise from God. "Step out of your comfort zone, Abram, follow me to this land that I will show you." He didn't even know where he was going, there were no planes, trains or automobiles or air conditioned business class. This was God's promise: "I will bless you so that you will become a blessing to all the nations." Aged seventy five, he went on an uncertain journey on God's promise. So what happens next?   Stepping out into the Blessing Okay, today we are talking about God's blessing and the two deep truths: firstly that a blessing has to flow. A blessing isn't a blessing unless it flows into us from God and out from us to other people. And secondly, when God starts to birth a blessing in our lives, it's not always comfortable and it's not always convenient and it doesn't always feel like a blessing. God's promise to Abram was a huge blessing. Remember, Abram was seventy five years old; the greatest sadness of this man's life was that he had no children. To the Hebrews, the two great signs of God's blessing were lots of kids and lots of land. If you had those you were blessed, if you didn't you weren't. God not only called Abram out of his comfort zone but He promised him those two blessings. Firstly in Genesis, chapter 13 verse 14, it says this: The Lord said to Abram after Lot had departed from him, "Lift up you eyes from where you are and look north and south and east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth so that if anyone could count the dust then your offspring could be counted. Go; walk through the length and the breadth of the land for I am giving it to you." And again in Genesis, chapter 15, verse 4: Then the word of the Lord came to him. "This man will not be your heir but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars, if indeed you can count them," then God said to Abram, "so shall your offspring be." The guy is seventy five; his wife Sarai is about the same age. These are huge, impossible promises: the land that God is promising him is inhabited by the Canaanites; they've been childless for all these years, and yet God calls Abram and Sarai out of their comfort zone into the absolutely impossible – He sends them on a long journey. When you read the story out of the next few chapters of Genesis (and I encourage you to do that) the two things that leap out are these: firstly it was an interminable journey – twenty five years! It went on and on and on and on. We are talking "God" and "blessing" and we think an hour, a day

If God is a God of blessing – then what about all the suffering we go through? And anyway, if God does bless, does that just mean a new car and a bigger house?   Does God want to Bless Me? It is just great to be with you again this week and we are starting a new series that I've called "Blessed to be a Blessing". There's some really important teaching going to happen over these next four weeks on the subject of God's blessing. Why is that important? Because I see so much misunderstanding about God and His heart and where He stands on blessing us. There seems to be a couple of extreme positions on this whole subject of God's blessing – two opposite ends of the spectrum, if you like. On the one end, it goes something like this. God wants to bless me, therefore, I should believe Him for the new Mercedes convertible, more money and a bigger house and a big diamond ring. In effect it kind of reduces God down to some sort of sugar daddy: it's all about me, I am at centre stage – I name it and I claim it. And you know something, lots of Christians believe that. Now the problem that I have with that end of the spectrum is that when I take that and I hold it in one hand and I hold the cross of Christ in the other – when I look at Jesus, this Jesus that gave up everything for me; this Jesus who was nailed to a cross, beaten and bruised and brutalised, not even with the clothes on His back – and I compare those two things, you know something, this end of the spectrum over here, jars with that, don't you think? And it leads to some of the worst excesses – the tele-evangelists pressuring people for money and flying around in their private jets. Is that where that should end up? I mean is that what God's blessing is all about? The other end of the spectrum is you have to be poor to serve God. Money is evil. In fact, we just had a phone call, just the other evening, in the middle of the night, someone responding to a program, saying, "money is evil". Well, no that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says, "The love of money is the root of all evil", but money itself isn't evil. "People who are rich are evil." I was talking to a man in India recently. India by and large, is a country of extremes – there is the very rich and there's a large, large number of very, very poor people. And this man was being very critical of a Christian leader who just happened to have a nice house in a nice area. He believed that it was wrong for him to have money. Then I looked at this end of the spectrum – you have to be a pauper to serve God. And then I go to the Bible and I read about Abraham, who was God's chosen man; he was very wealthy. I read about King Solomon, he was very wealthy. Yet King Solomon was still God's anointed leader over Israel. He was full of God's wisdom. Do you see the problem? You go to either end of the spectrum and you take teaching about God's blessing to the extreme and you know, I think you end up with the wrong answer. God is a God of balance and when we look at our lives, what we see is that we go through times of blessing, where there's joy and everything seems to be going well and we all go through difficult times. You see the problem. At one end you can have people getting the extreme prosperity thing in their heads and we can end up thinking it's all about us. It plays right into the hands of the world; it's the me, me, me – the next plasma TV, the next car, the next big thing. If you don't have that, obviously you don't have enough faith. On the other hand, if you have this perception that you have to be poor to be a Christian, well if that were the case, who would ever fund the work of the Lord on this planet? God has always chosen to fund His work through His people. And then on top of the pure monitory thing, there's the reality of tragedy and pain and suffering. I mean some of these things are indiscriminate – earthquakes, tsunamis, a young person who loves God dies of cancer, in a car crash or there's divorce or there's retrenchment or there's all that stuff of life that we all experience some times. Are you with me? So what's God's plan? Does God want to bless me or not? Is it okay for me to ask for His blessing? Is it okay for me to expect His blessing, or is that presumptuous? This is an important question. It is in a sense where the 'rubber' of faith hits the 'road' of life. It's when it comes to faith in God being active, right in the midst of life's realities today, the things we all have to face. We get up in the morning, we pray, we look forward to the day … How do I pray, what do I give thanks for? That difficult situation that's going be confronting me at work today, can I ask God to help me with that? Is God in all of that? That's why we are doing this series "Blessed to be a Blessing". I'm a simple man. I open the Bible, I see what God's Word says on a subject and you know God is largely a God of balance. I love to be empowered with God's Word and hopefully as we share these next twenty, twenty five minutes together we will both be empowered by God's Word. The problem with teaching on blessing is that you just can't take one verse and say, "That's it! See, God is a God who blesses; therefore I can ask Him for the next big car". You end up with an extreme position. Just as if you say, "You can't have any money to serve Jesus. You have to sell everything you have, give it all away", because Jesus did say that to one young ruler. I'd like to look at God's perspective; the whole thing. Is God a God who blesses? Well, let's just start with what we mean by the word "bless"? It has a number of different meanings but the main connotation is God's divine favour – God intervening to make something better or to give us something that will bring us joy or happiness, financial blessing, spiritual blessing, physical blessing, healing, anything and everything. God's divine favour – His blessing becoming active in our lives. The question is, is God in the blessing business? The word "bless" or "blesses" or "blessed" or "blessing", appears three hundred and fifty eight times in the Bible. The first time you see it is in the first chapter of the Bible, Genesis chapter 1, verse 22. Let's go there and have a bit of a look at what God's up to. Genesis chapter 1 is the account of God's creation. He creates the light out of darkness and the heavens and the earth and the oceans and the dry land and the plants. And the first time He creates a living creature, this is what He says: So God created the creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems. According to all their kinds and every winged bird according to its kind and God saw that is was good and God ... Listen to this: ... and God blessed them and said, 'Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas and let the birds increase on the earth'. The second time that the concept of 'blessing' happens in the Bible is in that same chapter, a few verses on, verse 26: Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image and in our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, over the livestock over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground.' So God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him, male and female, He created them. God blessed them and said to them" – see, there it is again – "God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over every living creature that moves on the ground.' And then God said, 'I give you every seed bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it, they will be yours for food and all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground; everything that has breath of life in it, I give every green plant for food.' And it was so. That's creation! Let me ask you something – do you think God's in the business of blessing us?   If God Blesses why do we Suffer? So we've looked at God's own account of His creation, Genesis chapter 1. The very first living creatures He creates, He blesses them. He says, "Go and multiply, increase in number and fill the earth." And He creates humanity, man and woman, and He hands the whole of that creation over to them. What an enormous blessing! You and I are joint owners in creation! Why? Because God created us in His own image and then He handed the whole thing over to us. Just stop and think about that for a minute. What a huge blessing! Right at the point of creation, God was in the blessing business. That's profound! And His plan for us was to live in relationship with Him – Adam and Eve. Genesis, chapter 2, verse 15: The Lord God took the man and put him is the Garden of Eden to till it and to keep it. A perfect plan of blessing and as you probably know, Adam and Eve rebelled. They did the one thing that God said, 'don't do' and there were consequences. Rebellion against God always has consequences. To the woman He said, "I will greatly increase your pains in child bearing, with pain you will give birth. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you." To Adam He said, "Because you listened to your wife and you ate from the tree about which I commanded you 'you must not eat', cursed is the ground because of you. Through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you'll eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken – for dust you are and to dust you will return." Enter pain and suffering because humanity rebelled against God. And for the rest of the history of humanity, there are consequences. Now you might say to me, "Berni that is so insensitive. I

It may come as a surprise, but in this world of stress and anxiety God doesn't want us to be afraid. But how is that supposed to work?   Do Not Worry About Anything Well, here we are – this is the last message in a series of four programmes that I have called "Do Not Be Afraid." So many people spend so much time being afraid in their lives. Either it's a crisis or just an ongoing nagging, ongoing sense that something bad is going to happen – a negativity; a pessimism, always thinking the worst. Always imaging the worst outcome – always expecting the worst. So often through the Bible, God says to His people "Do not be afraid." He doesn't want us living in fear; He doesn't want us worrying, and so many of us do. Okay, we might have a brave face; we might have a cool, calm exterior but inside, a lot of people are torn apart; shaken to the core by fear and worry. Well, today we are going to finish up this series by looking at three very practical things that we can do to overcome that. I'm talking about living a life that, by and large, is free from fear and worry. Scary things will still come along at us in life – it's about living through those things with a calm delight and a resolve, with a deep knowledge that God is in this place with us. The first thing I want to share with you is this: our mind matters! What we do with our thoughts really matters. Back in 1953 a man by the name of Norman Vincent Peale wrote a classic book – it's called "The Power of Positive Thinking" and for a long time I pooh-hooed that idea. "It's not about 'positive thinking'"; I said to myself, "it's about trusting in God." And even when I started reading his book fairly recently, I was sceptical but what he expounds in that book is exactly what God talks about in the Bible. Basically what he says is that: our mind matters. Let me take you to a passage that I often go to myself – it's written by the Apostle Paul in prison, on death row in a Roman prison, writing to his friends, the Philippians. Listen to what this man Paul writes from his dank prison cell. If you have a Bible, grab it – we are going to Philippians chapter 4 today – beginning at verse 6: Do not worry about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me and the God of peace will be with you. I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed you were concerned for me but had no opportunity to show it. Not that I'm referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need for I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Let me start with just the first couple of verses – let's look at them again. Do not worry about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. How do we not worry? You see, in my experience, worry is just something that happens. I have wanted to turn the worry tap off many a time but this stream of worrying thoughts keeps flooding into my mind. Now, I am as strong willed and disciplined a person as you'll find anywhere. When I set my mind to achieving something, I invariably do – I have all my life. But you know something? What I have discovered is that I am powerless to turn off the worry tap. It's horrifying because when you worry it grips your whole life – you're waking and you're sleeping. Have you ever noticed that – you toss and turn at night and you can't sleep? It is believing in these two verses that have enabled me to end the worry in my life! Can I say that again? It is believing in these two verses in the Bible that has enabled me to end the worry in my life. And you know something? When you stop worrying, you have peace! That's exactly what Paul tells us; that's exactly what God wants to tell you and me today: Do not worry about anything but in everything …  How do I stop worrying – not by turning the tap off by myself but by replacing it with something else – with the "but in everything … " "Do not worry about anything but in everything … " So what's the "but"; what's the thing that we should replace the worrying with? All that time and energy we spend worrying, what do I do with it? I transfer it to something else – to what else? "Do not worry about anything but in everything ..." - that means "everything" – "in everything" that is causing me to worry, "by prayer and supplication" – what does that mean? Praying and entreating God – asking Him, seeking Him – so instead of wasting all that time and energy on worrying, spend it on praying and asking God. Imagine how different life would be if every time a worrying thought came to haunt the deepest recesses of our mind, we said "Hang on a minute – stop. I am not going to think on that. I am not going to dwell and brood and worry, but instead, in everything I am going to pray." How….how do we pray? – with thanksgiving – "God I thank You that I am in this place. I thank You that I have the opportunity to trust in You. I thank You that unless You show up, I'm in trouble. Now Lord, here's my problem, will You help me? Thank You!" If every time we go to worry we did that, here's what the Bible promises us – now listen to it very carefully – to this promise … a promise that is going to change your life: "Do not worry about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your request be known to God" – here comes the promise, "and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your minds in Christ Jesus." There it is! And you know something? That is exactly what happens! Try it, just for a few days, every time you start to worry about something, go to God, do the 'but' thing and here's what happens – He turns the worry tap off. No amount of strength or resolve or anything else is going to turn that worrying tap off, only God and it's an amazing peace; it's an incredible peace. The storm can still be raging, in fact, circumstances can be getting worse, but you have been praying and entreating and thanking God instead of worrying. And you think to yourself, "I can't explain this but I have a peace – how, why, how can this be?" That's why Paul calls it "a peace that surpasses all understanding" – God turned the worry tap off. He did what you and I can't do: and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  The worry can't get in – there is where the rubber hits the road.   My Mind Matters Okay, let's look at another practical thing that we can do to eradicate that fear and worry from our lives. See, it's more than just having faith – I mean faith is great but there are some practical things that we need to do to participate in God's plan for us not to worry and not to be afraid. Back with the Apostle Paul, in that dungeon again, on death row – if anyone had a reason it was the old Paul. We are going to have a look at what he wrote to his friends in Philippi about this whole subject of not being afraid. Pick it up in Philippians chapter 4, beginning at verse 8. He said: Finally beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you. Now I want to start with the second bit of this first. And here is the reason for that: because what Paul is telling us is that he has discovered how to have God's peace; how not to be afraid; how not to spend worrying. See, this is not some theory lesson. This is a guy on death row explaining how to have peace. "Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me and the God of peace will be with you." So Paul is saying, "You know my life; you know how often it's been threatened; you know how often people have rioted when I got up to speak and they wanted to harm me and kill me. You know that, you have seen me in action and you have seen how I have coped with the pressures and the threats. You want to have peace? You want to live a life free from fear and worry? Then do the things that you have seen in me and the things that I am telling you now and you will have peace too - God's peace." I think that is fantastic because what we are about to have a look at is a proven thing – it works in the direst of circumstances. Doesn't that excite you? You know, there is not one of us who doesn't have some reason to worry – not one of us, who isn't going through some storm right now. And just in case there is the odd person who isn't, just recognise that it is because you are between storms – the last one has blown out and the next one hasn't swept in yet. So what is the practical guidance that Paul gives us in this passage about how to dispense with fear and worry? Let's take a look: Philippians chapter 4, verse 8: Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure and pleasing