Ps Darin Browne @ Ignite Christian Church

Spiritual Success 2- Steps to Spiritual Success

 "There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." 

-- Colin Powell

 

Spiritual success is something we all want, but strangely it seems to elude most of us. I have discovered some massive secrets to attaining spiritual success, and over the next few weeks I want to share them with you.

 

Last week we agreed that the world’s measure of success is different to God’s. Spiritual success is independent of money, fame or prestige.

 

Why is it that some people come to Christ and grow like crazy, while others have been Christians for years or even decades and seem to have barely grown at all? Why do some seem to do lots of incredible things for the Lord while others spend years sitting in a pew doing and being involved in very little?

 

CHOOSE NOW!

 

Why does it seem Christianity works for some people but not others? I’ve had many people say to me, “Tried Christianity, and it didn’t work for me.” Listen, Christianity is not a product, and we are not just consumers.  Christianity is a person, and every, and I mean every, single person who truly invests in Christ will find He will work for them. The thing is, we concentrate more of what we can get from church than what we can give. We tend not to invest, we tend to consume!

 

To achieve spiritual success, the first requirement is that you choose to invest in it!

 

Deuteronomy 30:19

(ESV) I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,

 

You may be visiting Church today, or you may be a regular attender, but if you know me at all as a pastor, I want to see you grow strong and powerful in the Lord. I’ve asked God for a church of leaders. My passion is to see you became all you could possibly be in the Lord. But to do this, we have to start somewhere.

 

Some of you may be content to just float along and never achieve any spiritual success, but I believe most of you want to achieve something great for God, right? Wouldn’t you love to know that you’ve brought people to Jesus, spoken into people’s lives and seen amazing change, prayed and seen God move mountains?

 

Age doesn’t hold you back, education isn’t stopping you. Where you live, how you speak, none of that is holding you back from spiritual greatness. All that is required for your breakthrough to become a spiritual giant is your making the choice to pursue God, and following through to actually do it!

 

EMBRACE  DISCIPLINE

 

We live in an instant society. More than ever before, we want everything right away, no delays, no waiting. Open up the internet and you will read about how you can make $10,461 in7 days or less doing basically nothing! On TV you see how you can stand on a vibrating board and lose 10kg while you watch TV. I heard they just invented a microwave TV, so you can watch 60 Minutes in just 2 Minutes! In 21^st century Australia, we want a pill or magic bullet to solve every problem.

 

Remember once upon a time we used to write a letter, fold it up, put it in an envelope, put a stamp on it , go to the post office and mail it, and some days later your friend would get the letter, open it and finally read it? Today we call that “snail mail”.

 

Then came the fax, which could send said letter down a phone line in maybe 2 Minutes. But that wasn’t fast enough, so we got email, which send said letter in seconds. But even now that’s not fast enough (and a fax seems like a dinosaur), now we have instant messaging, where we can send said letter in real time and get an instant reply!

 

No success in life is achieved without discipline. In sport, business, ministry and even family, if we are to be truly successful, it takes effort and discipline. And so it is spiritually.

 

We always want the fast, easy, no nonsense way to achieve success. But to know spiritual success as a follower of Jesus Christ, there are some things that need to be part of your life on a regular, and yes even daily, basis. These are nonnegotiable. They are not optional, not for some and not for others. They are for everyone. They are the disciplines of the Christian life, and yes, they take, time and effort. Yet within the spiritual realm, they are the fast track to spiritual success.

 

 

SOW WHAT?

 

Mark 4:5-8

And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

 

Jesus goes on to explain the metaphors later in the chapter. The first seed is people who hear about Jesus and the devil snatches it away, and they never make a commitment to Christ. The second accept Christ, but it is a shallow, possibly emotional response. As soon as things get tough, they turn away, often saying things like, “Tried Christianity, but it doesn’t t work.”

 

The third is where so many believers are today… The Word grows in them, but gets choked out by life, pressures, the drive to succeed in a worldly way. How does this happen? It starts when Christians ignore the basics of the faith. They let their discipline go, and stop praying, stop reading the Word and stop attending church, or simply attend but never commit to anything.

 

The forth seed is shown into good ground, and it is fruitful, yielding far in excess of what was shown, 30, 60 and 100 fold. Does it magically produce this? Nope, the Lord bestows the growth. And what is the main difference between the third and forth seed? Effort, discipline, the pulling of weeds!

 

I’m not much of a gardener. I don’t invest enough time into my garden. I’ve grown some plants and some trees, but if I neglect my garden, I grow a whole stack of weeds without even trying!

 

And that’s the thing… if you do not get serious about your walk with the Lord, you will grow fruit by default, but it will mostly be weeds. Do you want to be fruitful or weedy in your life?

 

READ THE DIRECTIONS!

 

If you want to become a big fat zero for Christ, if you are happy and content with all of your life, if you can’t really be bothered stepping out in faith, just stay where you are. You’re welcome to fellowship here, come and sit and get what you want to get you through the next week.  Next year, more of the same. Year after that, same old same old.

 

But I believe most of you have higher aspirations than that. You want to grow and achieve spiritual success in your life, and you want God to use you in an amazing way to impact and change the world, right? If that is you, then it all starts here… it all starts with personal discipline, and God’s Word…

 

2 Timothy 3:16 (ESV Strong's)

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

 

The Bible is God’s directions for life. Like any man, I have trouble reading directions. I usually try and fix something or assemble something, and if I run into difficulties, I finally read directions. But honestly, some directions these days are ridiculous… take these for example…

 

On packaging for an iron: Do not iron clothes while on body.

On Children's Cough Medicine: Do not drive a car or operate machinery after taking this medication.

On a child's Superman costume: Wearing of this garment does not enable you to fly.

On a bottle of laundry detergent: Remove clothing before distributing in washing machine.

On a muffin packet: Remove wrapper, open mouth, insert muffin, eat.

On a can of air freshener: For use by trained personnel only.

On a toilet cleaning brush: Do not use orally.

On a can of Spray paint: Do not spray in your face.

On a blowtorch: Not used for drying hair.

On a box of fireworks: Do not put in mouth.

On a Swedish chain saw: Do not attempt to stop chain with your hands or genitals.

In a microwave oven manual: Do not use for drying pets.

On a Japanese food processor: Not to be used for the other use.

 

The directions given by God are to be obeyed for maximum results. So how do you do this?

 

1.      GOD’S WORD IS TO BE STUDIED

 

Reading the Bible is fine, but God’s Word is not like some novel. It is God’s instruction manual for life, and if we are wise we will not just read but study it. You can do this anywhere, any time. You could join a connect group and study with others.

 

Ezra 7:10 (ESV Strong's)

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

 

The thing is, the Bible is not just a book, it’s life in the Spirit. This book is not passive, it is active. There are thousands of testimonies of people who opened a bible in their hour of need and God spoke to the, through it. And this same Scripture can speak to you if you listen…

 

Hebrews 4:12 (ESV Strong's)

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

 

2.      GOD’S WORD IS TO BE CONSUMED DAILY

 

We all want the fast, easy track to spiritual greatness and success, so here it is… read the Bible every day! Wait a minute, that’s not so easy! Well, it’s a lot easier that spending years wasting your life, isn’t it?

 

Matthew 4:4 (ESV Strong's)

But he answered, “It is written,

“‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

 

Let me ask you, how often do you eat? Do you eat once a week? Once a month maybe? No, you eat every day, often several times a day. In the same way, nothing substitutes reading the Word of God every day. Nothing. If you want to be spiritually successful, this is the fast track! As you eat every day to live, so you need to eat of God’s Word daily to live and be successful spirituality.

 

That’s why God sent manna in Exodus 16 and it was to be consumed daily. Ever wonder why He did that? So that the people learned to live daily on the provision of the Lord. It wasn’t enough to save up old experiences, He wanted them to experience Him and His love every day.

 

Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV Strong's)

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

 

I was talking to someone in our church last week who told me that God is speaking every day to her from her daily readings. This really works folks, so if you’re not reading the Word every day, you are missing out!

 

 

3.      GOD’S WORD IS TO BE MEDITATED ON

 

Joshua 1:8 (ESV Strong's)

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

 

Successful? God says you need to meditate, or think about His Word day and night to be successful. So we do not just read it and put it down, we think back on it every day. Our team that went to the Philippines often discussed what the daily bible passage was all day, and that’s meditating. Like a cow with multiple stomachs we regurgitate and chew over what we have eaten again and again.

 

Then what happens is that in many situations of life you face, the Word of God hidden in your heart pops out and is exactly what you need at the time.

 

Psalms 119:9-11 (ESV Strong's)

 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.

With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!

I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

 

As you think about and even memorise the Word of God, you will be amazed at how often these verses spring to mind, just when you need it. Try it, I challenge you to try it. It really is true!

 

4.      GOD’S WORD IS TO BE OBEYED

 

We do not read just to tick off a box on the Bible reading plan. We do not read out of interest or curiosity or to gain knowledge. We read to live, and to live God’s Word means obedience!

 

James 1:21-25 (ESV Strong's)

Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

 

If you want to be a spiritual success, obedience is mandatory. As I said last week, why should God roll out His perfect plan for your life if you want even obey step 1?  So many Christians cry out for God to lead and guide them, yet when He reveals what they need to do, they don’t even obey!

 

If you’re not being obedient, don’t expect God to lead you, it’s that simple!  And if you’re not reading God Word, how can you expect Him to lead you anyway! When the Psalmist writes,

 

Psalms 119:105 (ESV Strong's)

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

 

He is working on the assumption that you read the word and let it shine.

 

THREE WORDS FOR SPIRITUAL SUCCESS

 

Let me give you 3 words that will give you the spiritual success I hope you are craving… READ YOUR BIBLE

 

Psalms 19:7-8 (ESV Strong's)

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving (Gk: transforming) the soul;

the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;

the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;

the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;

 

If you are someone who is not really interested in changing or being transformed, then you probably aren’t interested in the Bible or in spiritual success. The Word of God is for people who have some sense of desperation about where they are in life. It is for people who don’t have the purpose in their lives they wish they had. It is for those who aren’t content to be controlled by their passions, who don’t want to be victims of circumstance, and who want their relationships with those they love to become even better.

 

The Bible is for people who want direction in life, who want to know how to live, and who want to go to heaven. It is for people who want to know God. The Bible is for people who don’t have all the answers and want something better. It’s for those who want to change the world around them for God.

 

SPIRITUAL SUCCESS REVOLVES AROUND READING GOD’S WORD

 

Honestly, if you say you’re serious about your relationship with God, if you say you’re serious about changing and about impact the world for Jesus, then daily Bible reading isn’t just desirable, it is mandatory! 

 

That’s why I wrote the Bible Reading program. If you’re not reading the Bible daily, come and join us in this reading plan. It covers the whole Bible only reading 2 chapters a day, usually less than 7 Minutes. The plan has all of the highlights of the Bible without the less exciting bits, and if you follow it it will transform your life!

 

People complain that they have no time to read the Bible. Well, turn off TV, there’s a couple of hours, get off Facebook, there’s another hour or two, or ten! You make time for what is important, and if you show God that His Word is important, you will see results.

 

And if you’re really desperate… put the Bible on your phone and when you go to the toilet, sit and read. The Lord will not be turned off by the smell, trust me!

 

If you don’t read much, download the Gideon’s Bible app. It’s free, and you can do the entire ESV Bible as audio.

 

I use to have a computer with very limited hard drive space. When I tried to add a program, a little message would pop up saying, “No more memory available,” and before I could load the program I would have to remove some other program.

 

Wouldn’t it be great if, when the devil comes with his temptations to attack your life, a little sign appeared saying “Memory full. Heart and mind are filled to capacity with the things of God.”

That’s why I am so pumped about you reading God’s Word daily! Not because I’m sadistic, not because I want to clutter or control your life. I tell you this because I want to protect and empower you, and fill your hard drive with God things. As Philippians says,

 

Philippians 4:8 (ESV Strong's)

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

“Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely,

 

After all, the best defense is a good offense. So instead of being open and vulnerable to the attacks of the devil through our minds, let’s fill our minds with thoughts of God, thoughts of heaven, and meditation on His life-changing Word.

 

We need to commit ourselves to reading His Word, then patiently wait for the harvest that it surely will bring…

 

James 5:7-8 (ESV Strong's)

7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

 

Christian, I’m sorry but there is no excuse for us.  Either we get serious about reading God’s Word, or explain to Him why we cannot be bothered. I love You, Lord, I desire You with all my heart, but don’t ask me to put any effort into the relationship.

 

Actually, try this excuse with your wife or husband and see what type of response you get.

 

Today’s challenge is this… will you commit to reading God’s Word every day for the next month?

Unity in the Home

Unity in the Home is something we all want, yet even among Christian couples, it is rare! 

VALENTINES DAY

 

This week we celebrated Valentines Day, and so I did some research into what this day is all about. The original Valentine was a Roman priest who defied an edict from Emperor Claudius II. The Emperor felt marriage was stopping his recruitment drive for his army, so he banned marriage, and Valentine continued to marry couples in secret.

 

When exposed he was captured, beaten and imprisoned, and while awaiting execution, he fell in love with the jailer’s daughter, to whom he wrote many love notes. On February 14, 270AD He was executed, having signed off his last note, Your Valentine.  He gave his life for love and his belief in Christ, but he never wrote, “Roses are red, violets are blue.”

 

So today I had something else lined up to speak on, but I have felt the Lord strongly working on me to change the topic and speak not about Romantic love but about unity in the family, especially between husband and wife.

 

Please understand, I’m not trying to make you feel uncomfortable, but I sense I need to address the elephant in the room. We don’t talk about this often, and no one really knows what is happening behind closed doors at your house, but this is something we must not ignore.  Probably the easiest way for the devil to destroy Ignite Christian Church and negate any effect we can have on the world for Christ is to destroy our families. And you know what it’s like… you might have had a fight last night, you might have thrown plates, said things you didn’t mean or screamed at the kids, but on Sunday we all paint on happy faces and turn up to Church.  Don’t look so pious, we have all done it sometime, right?

 

ATTACK ON FAMILIES

 

I believe that today, more than ever before we are seeing an attack on the home and families. Values long held across all of society by all peoples in all cultures have been sacrificed to appease a tiny minority.

 

Maybe the same sex marriage laws don’t affect you directly, maybe the so called safer schools directives don’t concern you directly, but these and many other forces from parliament to divorce courts to songs to movies to Mardi Gras have chipped away at the family. Even in church our people are affected, our families are under threat like never before, and the divorce rate among Christians is as high as that among the world!

 

The Lord has been showing me how unbelievably disruptive disunity is, within the church and within your family…

 

Psalms 133:1,3 (ESV Strong's)

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!

For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

 

I believe that God doesn’t just suggest unity because it’s a good idea, or so you can get some peace and quiet. God crowns unity among people with the command of His blessing, life forevermore. If you want blessing in our church, be in unity. If you want blessing in your home and marriage, be in unity! Unity breeds blessing, just as disunity destroys it!

 

Many of you have lived through relationship disunity in the past. Many have experienced divorce or separation, all of us have had a broken heart or two. Many are living this disunity right now, sometimes openly and sometimes behind closed doors. Unity will command God’s blessing, but disunity will kill a church, a business, a football team, a band, a club and especially a family.

 

Satan loves attacking families because the results are high for him. He can take a small issue in your home, like putting out the garbage, what to buy or not buy, squeezing the toothpaste in the wrong spot or controlling the TV remote, and turn it into a mountain of misery for all concerned.

 

At Ignite we have tremendous unity, from the leadership right down. But this week the Lord spoke to me and said, hidden away below the surface there is disunity, not just between church members but within many families on a scale that would shock us if we actually knew. 

 

Behind the Valentine Day façade, the flowers and chocolates, behind the happy family approach to Church I know that some of us here are hurting like crazy, and there is conflict bubbling away in our marriages and homes. Husband against wife, wife against husband, mother against daughter, father against son, brother against sister.

 

I know you come to church to feel better, not for the pastor to make you feel uncomfortable or horrible.  For some of us, myself included, this is going to hurt a little bit, but the end result will be greater unity and a blessings that is off the charts! I cannot  not begin to solve every individual marriage problem or relationship difficulty in one sermon. But if the Lord has challenged me to speak on this, something we usually hush up when we come to church, then I want to be obedient.

 

Let me confess to you that I am not a perfect husband. I don’t give Fiona nearly enough love, barely enough money and never enough time. I make decisions without her, I’m selfish, way too focussed and isolate myself at times. But I love her and believe that, as I yield to the Lord and let Him shape my life, we will see unity and great blessing in our home.

 

WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT

 

Let’s start by saying this…we are all different. Men are different to women, kids are different to parents. We think differently, we speak differently and we act differently.

 

When a man speaks he is direct… I speak, you listen, you speak, I listen. But a woman can be speaking and hear every other conversation in the room!

 

Men have this area of the brain called autopilot, and while they are looking at you speaking and appear to be listening, they are really thinking about the football score. Women can turn on the waterworks and cry, but men tend to stonewall, simmering in silence.

 

Men live in the now, often disregarding the consequences. Women live in multiple time zones, and everything you’ve every done in your relationship is carefully catalogued to be recalled when it is needed to win an argument.

 

What about kids?  I mean, what’s the difference between a 2 year old and a terrorist? You can reason with a terrorist.  I heard an eminent psychologist this week explain that there is actually very little difference between the behaviour of the average teenager and a psychopath. They sited lack of empathy for others,  wanting their own way and defiance, in fact pretty much all the character traits of psychopaths bar killing small animals.

 

STEPS TO DIVIDE A HOUSE

 

Jesus said this…

 

Mark 3:24-25 (ESV Strong's)

If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.

 

So how does a house, any house such as a church or your home, become divided?  Usually it starts with a difference of opinion, maybe on finances, maybe about disciplining kids, but it then escalates beyond proportion and beyond our control. Here are some of the steps to dividing your house, and Jesus says it will not stand…

 

1.      DIFFERENCE OF OPINION

 

Disunity starts with a difference of opinion.  And let’s face it, we all disagree at some time. My wife often disagrees with me, and it upsets me that she can be wrong so often!

 

One of the great plots of the evil one right now is to allow everybody to think that their opinion is actually important! Look at Facebook. Never before has so much ranting been done so excessively by so many with so little point. Years ago we felt like the little guys had no voice, but today it’s like every idiot with a smartphone can voice the most ridiculous ideas, anytime, anywhere. Opinions are like noses… everyone has one, and most of them smell!

 

So division, whether in church, business or your family, starts with a difference of opinion. It is not wrong to disagree or have an opposing opinion to your spouse, your child, friend or the pastor. It’s how we express this difference of opinion that makes all the difference!

 

Proverbs 18:2 (ESV Strong's)

A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion.

 

2.      WANTING TO BE RIGHT

 

Once during an argument my wife said, “When we argue, you always think you’re right…” I replied that that was true, because if I thought I was wrong I wouldn’t take up a contrary position.

 

We all want to be right, all the time. We all think we are right, most of the time.

 

3.      CHOOSING BEING RIGHT OVER LOVE

 

While we want to be right, it should be more important that we love one another.

 

John 13:34 (ESV Strong's)

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

 

Whenever there is any conflict in the home, and it is inevitable there will be some, unless you live by yourself, and even then you might fight with yourself. When there is conflict or a difference of opinion, you face a choice… do you fight for what you believe is right, or do you show love and grace towards the other party.

 

Now you can love someone and disagree with them, so I am not asking you to become a doormat for love. However, as I often say in the church, you can disagree as long as you agree to disagree agreeably.

 

Disunity occurs when we choose that we want to be right more than we want to be reconciled. When Paul writes about lawsuits between believers he says this…

 

1 Corinthians 6:7 (ESV Strong's)

To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?

 

In your home, in your marriage, in your relationships with kids and parents, why take offence? I’m not saying you should become a doormat, but many times we love being right more than we love the other party. I can believe I am right, but still treat you with respect and love if I choose to do so.

 

However, what often happens is that one party stands their ground and insists on being right while the other capitulates and gives in every time. If both of you love each other more than the argument unity is achievable.

 

 

4.      REACTING RATHER THAN RESPONDING

 

So many of us react rather than respond. When we don’t like things, when we have a disagreement, when we feel hurt or overlooked or persecuted, we often tend to have a knee jerk reaction (which could be shortened to a jerk reaction, as in being a jerk!)

 

The knee jerk response is a measurement by doctors of our traction time. It involves a nervous reflex which does not involve the brain, so you make this reaction without conscious thought.

 

As a general rule, when you feel offended, the first reaction is usually neither productive nor the one you want. If, every time you faced conflict, you came apart for half an hour before responding, you would find that both sides will tend to make a more rational, more controlled and more balanced approach.

 

If you respond rather react you will preserve unity far better than if you explode as soon as you’re offended or not happy. Works with the kids, the wife, the dog, the boss and the pastor!

 

Proverbs 19:11 (ESV Strong's)

Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offence.

 

 

5.      HOLDING ON TO THE OFFENCE

 

And here is the clincher for ruining unity in your home. If you want to ruin your family, ruin your church or anything else, never let go of offence. Jesus instructs us…

 

Luke 17:3-4 (ESV Strong's)

Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

 

Why should you forgive them so many times? Does Jesus care if you’re right? I mean, I some men say, married a woman I knew that for me was Miss right, I just didn’t realise her first name was always!

 

Jesus commands you to forgive the other’s offence because if you don’t do this, it hurts you far more than it hurts them! It’s like you drinking poison hoping the other guy dies.

 

I have branches of my extended family who haven’t spoken to each other for years. I know of Christians who have been to church every week with people that they haven’t spoken to for years. Holding onto offence never ends well. If you have long term issues with your spouse or kids, pray, swallow your need to be right no matter what and forgive them. Forgiveness creates unity.

 

Paul’s advice is this…

Ephesians 4:26-27 (ESV Strong's)

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.

 

You may not be able to settle every argument on the day, although it is a good things to aim at, but what Paul says is don’t hold onto it. The longer you remain angry, the more damage you will do, to your relationship and also to yourself. You are better off giving it to the Lord and letting Him sort it than hanging on, feeling self justified but miserable and alienated.

 

6.      GOING COLD

 

If you choose to hold onto offence long enough, something within you and your relationship can die.

 

Jesus said to the church at Ephesus

 

Revelation 2:4-5 (ESV Strong's)

But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.

 

The church at Ephesus were doing all the right things, looked pious and godly on the surface, but had lost that first love, that sense of wonder that we all have when we fall in love.

 

So, husbands and wives, do not forsake your first love. When you have conflict or disharmony, it is tempting to focus on the disharmony, but most often the current issue is never the real issue. We tend to sweep it up and shovel it under the bed, then gloss it over and come to church.  But I would urge you to look back and regain your first love. I am not talking about gooey feelings here, but the commitment you once had.

 

When you first stood before the altar and said your wedding vows, remember that. When you first held that little baby in your arms, the same one who has grown up and you’re now fighting with, remember that first love.

 

Going cold towards the other person, giving them the cold shoulder or the silent treatment does not solve the problem.  You need honest, open and frank discussion, without threats, screaming or cursing. If you have a conflict with your kids, sit them down and talk about it. If it’s between spouses, find a time to sit with a coffee and share openly and honestly.

 

YOU’RE NOT ALONE!

 

The fact is, if you are struggling in your marriage or family relationships you are not the only ones. This is happening right across society and I believe especially in the church. The enemy is attacking. The best way to destroy the ministry of a church is to destroy the families within it. You may not feel that your family is being destroyed, but many including myself are starting to feel the pressure.

 

Fiona and I are going away camping this week because, when we  are here, we are so busy we often get zero time together. Two workaholics need to be careful, and take steps to improve their relationship! So what practical steps can you take if you feel the enemy is attacking your family?

 

1.      PRAY PROTECTION

 

Psalms 57:1 (ESV Strong's)

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge;

in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.

 

Your Heavenly Father longs to protect you. As we sang, He longs to hide you in the shadow of His wings. The first thing you should do is pray for the blood of Jesus to cover your family, and then the enemy will have no choice but to Passover your family, just as the Israelites experienced in the 10^th plague.

 

Praying together as a family also can help, although if kids or spouses are not Christians, this is obviously not always an option. Remember, the family that prays together stays together!

 

2.      DRAW NEAR TO GOD

 

James 4:7-8 (ESV Strong's)

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

 

Get into your daily quiet times, listen to podcasts and sermons, read Christian books. If you do everything you can to draw close to God He promises to draw near to you, and many times you will draw closer to each other as a result.

 

3.      GUARD YOUR MOUTH

 

If you have issues with your family members, pray don’t say!

 

James 3:5 (ESV Strong's)

So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!

 

How many of us have created havoc by the rash words we have spoken in anger? How many times have we, in anger or frustration, said things we regret?

 

Bill Newman tells of a woman who had been saying horrible things about the pastor. She felt convicted and apologised to the pastor, but he had a strange request… go to the local mountain, cut open a pillow and throw all of the feathers to the wind. She did this, and then the pastor said one more thing… could you go and pick them all up please?

 

Proverbs 18:21 (ESV Strong's)

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

 

Watch what you say, speak life not death to your family, and also watch how you say it! Eg: I’m sorry I love you

 

 

4.      OPEN LINES OF COMMUNICATION

 

If the situation is explosive, it’s great to back off and take the time to respond appropriately. This doesn’t mean the silent treatment for days, weeks, months or years. To resolve anything, you will need to talk, and talk honestly and openly.  So guys in particular, don’t run and hide in the shed… make time, schedule time in my case, to talk.

 

A couple in counselling… the woman complains “He never tells me he loves me.” The man replies, “I told you when we got married, and if I ever change my mind I will let you know!”

 

Learn to speak, even if it is not your way, and learn to speak words that build up, not pull down.

 

Ephesians 4:29 (ESV Strong's)

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

 

CHOOSE NOW

 

Look, I know we all, myself included, have said a lot of rough things to those we love, our wives, husbands, kids, brothers and sister, especially when we are under pressure. You cannot take them back, but you can apologise.

 

And changes in your family and relationships start with a decision, a commitment if you will. You can fall in love again, you can have the relationships you want, but you have to decide to do it. Remember, the devil is out to bring you down, and the little foxes spoil the vines… those little irritations, neglected and glossed over, cause major breakups and destroy marriages time and time again.

 

So I’m going to ask you to be honest right now. Is there pressure on your marriage, on your relationships with kids, grandkids, siblings or even church family that aren’t ideal? Have you exploded, ignored or withdrawn in the most important relationships you have.

 

Valentine’s Day this week was all about love. But love is commitment, and commitment requires a choice. Ideally you both commit to each other, but if the other party is too angry or withdrawn, will you be the bigger one and make the choice?

 

Deuteronomy 30:19 (ESV Strong's)

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,

 

Satan is attacking our families, but we won’t stand for it! We don’t want to lose one marriage, one family, one child, we want to be fully committed to each other and to the Lord’s service.

 

If you have tension, undue pressure on your home, your marriage or your relationship with your kids stand up.

 

Ephesians 4:1-3 (ESV Strong's)

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

 

Unity begets blessing, so if you want your marriage and family blessed, come forward.

Success 1- How to Achieve Success in Life

Every single one of us wants to be successful in life. No one starts out life with the dream of becoming a failure. You ask a child what they want to become in their life, they says things like, “I want to be a fireman, a doctor, a pastor, a mother.” No child wants to become a drug addict, a wino, a homeless vagabond or a criminal.

 

So where do we go wrong as we grow, and how can we achieve lasting success. And by lasting, I mean eternal, not something that blossoms for a few years here in earth then fades to nothing in eternity?

 

WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE?

 

What does success look like to you? It looks different for many people, depending on what they themselves are into. Success for a footballer might be playing for their country or winning a premiership, while success for a musician is having a hit record. A painter wants to sell a painting for megabucks, while a businessman sees success as making money or climbing the corporate ladder.

 

So what constitutes success for you? Is it having a nice house it? Is it being famous or being praised by your peers? Is it finding the right wife or husband? What does success look like, and what do you actually pray for?

 

Genesis 24:12 (ESV Strong's)

And he said, “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham.

 

Now many people have prayed for success in finding a life partner… some may be doing that right now! But many of us have prayed for success in exams, sports, business or other things in life. We tend tell God what we want to have happen and pray for success, for Him to crown our efforts and bless us with success.

 

I’M SO CONFUSED!

 

As Christians we often have a confused view of what true success actually is. When surrounded by other people constantly pushing to succeed, people of faith often struggle with the place and pursuit of success. The world tells us what success should look like, but for believers we have a vague notion that this isn’t real success and that God has a better plan, right?

 

Some believe material success always represents a compromise of spiritual convictions. Others feel success signals that God is pleased with them. I believe that neither of these extremes are necessarily true.

 

Still other Christians say they are not interested in success, and many use their lack of striving for success as  an excuse for poor performance in key areas of life. If we cease to strive for success, we often satisfy ourselves with a second rate performance.

 

The issue is not whether we as believers should strive for success, because every one of us would agree that God deserves our best, but the real issue revolves around the question of what success really is.

 

The issue of success is complex and charged with emotion. But these observations may prove helpful:

 

 

1.      TRUE SUCCESS IS DEFINED BY GOD NOT MAN

 

True success is defined by God, not by man and what people tell us constitutes success.  We often pray for God to prosper us, and it is His desire to prosper us to success as defined by Him.

 

3 John 1:2 (ESV Strong's)

Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.

 

3 John 1:2 (KJV)

Beloved, I wish above all things that you may prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.

 

So God wants us to prosper, in health and every way, but above all He wants our souls to prosper, clearly a different measure of success than the world offers!

 

Worldly success, the success that we are constantly told to strive for, implies striving to meet a set of standards established by a person or group. Those standards may be false or true, but I would suggest that they do not constitute true success. For the Christian, only God can define true success! Consider these people…

 

Marilyn Monroe, Kurt Cobain, Sid Vicious, Janice Joplin, Heath Ledger, Robin Williams, Amy Winehouse, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ernest Hemingway … so many have achieved incredible success in their field of music, writing or acting, they were famous, they were rich, but found that when they achieved the success for which they strived for,  the result was an emptiness inside, and they took their own lives.

 

Mark 8:36 (ESV Strong's)

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

 

 

2.      SUCCESS EXACTS A COST

 

Obtaining success always involves a cost. It requires time, ability, and resources that may have been better invested in other areas. For example working long hours may bring a temporary promotion but you might lose the joy of working, lose your relationship with your spouse or weaken relationships with Christians who keep you joyful and accountable.

 

What good is it to work hard getting a business off the ground only to find that you lose your family because you are never home?

 

Then again, sometimes investing long hours in a job may be exactly God’s plan for this particular season and this job. We cannot sit back and hope that success will roll on down the line to us. Thomas Edison once said, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

 

So any success takes effort..

 Your job is to invest the effort where it achieves long lasting, eternal and true success.

 

Colossians 3:23-24 (ESV Strong's)

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

 

Everything worthwhile costs something. As Gordon Hinkley said, “Without hard work nothing grows but weeds.”

 

It costs you time and commitment to come to church, to do the Bible reading plan, to attend a connect group, but they are great steps towards success in your relationship with God. Don’t invest time, money and effort in a short term gain… play the long games for eternity!

 

3.      EACH PERSON CAN CHOOSE WHAT TO PURSUE

 

The pursuit of success is made or denied by each person. No one can make someone else pursue success. You might say you want success in a particular area, but I can’t make you pursue it, only you can.

 

I have seen Christians pursue all kinds of things, some good, some bad, some important, some just a complete waste of time. So which successes are wise to pursue, and which are foolish to pursue?

 

Joshua 24:15 (ESV Strong's)

And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

 

The pursuit of success is a choice… your way, or God’s way?

 

As we pursue success—and as we choose what success to pursue—we can ask three questions:

 

1. Who determines what success means for me? You, your parents, your family, your church… or God?
2. What am I choosing by pursing this particular success? Am I choosing the eternal or something temporary?
3. What should I, and should I not, invest to achieve this success?

 

A STORY OF FAILURE AND SUCCESS

 

Luke 5 tells the familiar story of a time where Peter and his fishing partners, James and John, went fishing and caught nothing. This is an interesting story of both failure and success in the life of Peter, a man we can all relate to with real triumphs and also real failures in his life. 

 

The thing that turned his failure into success is really quite simple. I mean, he had fished all night and caught zip! This is roughly the equivalent of my fishing prowess.  But when Jesus came on board his little boat, things took a dramatic turn.

 

Jesus gave specific instructions that a somewhat reluctant Peter followed. 

 

Luke 5:4-7 (ESV Strong's)

And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.

 

Now Peter and the boys had been fishing, they had been doing what was their calling, their skill. They had been striving for success as they understood it, for prosperity in fish. They had chosen what to pursue, you could argue it was their God given mandate as fishermen, and they had certainly toiled and worked hard.

 

 

Peter’s problem up to this point, which had caused him to have empty nets, was that he was engaged in undirected service. In other words, God had not told him to do what he was doing, he had just assumed that if he worked hard God would bless his efforts.

 

But there was no lasting fruit. There were no great results. There was no success, not because he was sinning or out of God’s will.  He was working and getting nowhere, spinning his wheels trying to get success, and the result was that he had toiled all night and caught nothing.

 

Like Peter, maybe you know what it’s like to try and do something for God, only to end up failing.  Hopefully, the principles we’ll be looking at over the next several weeks will help you discover where you went wrong, and help you to really attain success in the areas that matter.

 

NOT AS THICK AS SOME

 

I must confess, I am pretty dopey at times when it comes to situations like this.  Instead of pausing to reevaluate, I just knuckle down and keep plowing ahead, hoping against hope that things will get better, often finding I dig myself further into the mire rather than out of it! Is anyone else like that? Sometimes I think if brains were dynamite I would struggle to blow my nose!

 

How often we have begun a work for God that bears no fruit, because we have not really been directed by Him… but we’ve chosen what we think God wants and told Him to bless it? How often we have entered into a business deal or a relationship that is a disaster, because we failed to consult with the Lord. And even then, we don’t ask a Him or pull out, we ignore Him and keep plowing on!

 

If we are smart, we will learn to fail forward—which means that we will learn from the mistakes we have made and hopefully not make them again.

 

I’m sure that, looking back on the fishing expedition, Peter could quickly see that while the job he did was not bad or evil, he was outside of the will of God. He was not being directed by God. And when he finally obeyed, when he reluctantly did as God told and directed him, he saw the success he longed for.

 

And I believe many times in our lives, we miss what God wants to do, because we don’t take the first step. We don’t ask God, we tell God what we want to do and demand He bless us. And if we do ask, we often don’t listen and obey.

 

Proverbs 16:9 (ESV Strong's)

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

 

If you want God to tell you His agenda for your life for the next month or the next year, you’re not going to get it. God establishes our steps one at a time. He wants you to obey Him and take the first step He has already shown you. Why should He roll out His plans for your life when you won’t even obey the first step, or the next step?

 

Many times we don’t see what it is God wants to do in our lives.  We just say, “I don’t want to do that”, or “thanks God, I can take it from here!” So we end up missing out. God wants to do something great in your life. He wants to do a miracle, He wants to move you into unbelievable success, eternal success in your life, but you have to obey.

 

If we live our lives God’s way and in God’s timing, our nets will be breaking, just as Peter’s net was, because it is directed service. How often have we wasted days, months, years, or even a lifetime pursuing things that are not the will of God for us.

 

 

Success, you see, true, lasting, eternal success, depends on you simply yielding to God, giving your life totally to Him and asking Him onto your boat—or into your life. But it also depends on you being obedient and allowing Him to be in control. There are many choices in life, and many of the choices are good. But you don’t want good choices, you want God choices.  This makes all the difference in the world. Same for the church… we don’t want good choices, we want God choices!

 

ONLY ONE SHOT AT LIFE

 

This week I attended the funeral of a lovely young lady called Ruth. She has gone to be with the Lord, and I can tell you there is nothing so sobering as sitting in front of a coffin and contemplating your own mortality. Ruth’s short life of only 32 years was a life well led, and much loved. Likely you will get a lot longer than she had, so what will you do with the time you are given on earth. What will they say on your gravestone with all the years you’ve been given?

 

Hebrews 9:27 (ESV Strong's)

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

 

We all, you and I, have an appointment with death. God may call us home in 40 years time, or perhaps much sooner than that. You don’t get another life, you don’t get a rewind button, you cannot unscramble the egg that is your life, your choices, your successes and your failures.

 

Statisticians tell us that 3 people die every second, 180 every minute, and 11,000 every hour. That means that every day 250,000 people enter into eternity.

 

So what will they write on your gravestone? Will they write that you were a great businessman, or a great mum? What success will you be remembered by?

 

More importantly, how does God see your successes and failures? If this is the only life you get on earth, how can you make it a success for eternity, a success in God’s eyes? Someone one said, “Only one life, twill soon be passed, only what’s done for Christ will last.”

 

WHAT IS THE SUCCESS YOU STRIVE FOR?

 

So what is the success you strive for in your life? Many people simply don’t strive for any success at all, but are content to just float along, wasting the gifts God has given them. I don’t know about you, but I want more than that! I want to serve Jesus with all of my life, because that is fruit that lasts.

 

Many people are just treading water in their life. They are merely marking time, instead of enjoying real success in their lives. Their favourite day of the week is “someday.” Someday my ship will come in. Someday my prince (or princess) will come. Someday it’s all going to get better. Someday my life will change. Someday, when I’m financially set up, I will start serving the Lord. In a recent study ninety-four percent of the people surveyed said they were simply enduring the present, while “waiting for something better to happen.”

 

But here’s what people don’t plan on. They don’t plan on death. And they never envision it coming around the corner unexpectedly. When you’re young you tell yourself, “I don’t have to even think about that for another fifty or sixty years.” And that may true, or it may not be true. But death knocks at every door.

 

In this series on success, I want to shake us all out of our comfortable existences and open out eyes to the greatness of what God has called us to be, not just for ourselves, but for our families, our church, our community and our nation. I don’t care how successful you are in business, in your job, in the stock market or realestate or bitcoin. That stuff fades, falls, and I want to challenge you today to lift your eyes and focus on the Lord, and do what He calls you to do. I challenge you to take your eyes off worldly success and focus, even strain and strive towards eternal goals, the true success God has for you…

 

Philippians 3:13-14 (ESV Strong's)

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

 

Most of us are afraid of dying, but many of us are also afraid of living. Afraid of trusting God, afraid that His success may not equate with success that we want. Paul earlier said this…

 

Philippians 3:7-8 (ESV Strong's)

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

 

Paul laid all his earthly success aside, the fame, the fortune, the learning, the earning, the prestige… everything, and he saw that true success is what we do for the Lord.

 

You have one life. You can waste it, you can invest it in something that ultimately doesn’t matter, you can put the nets out and order God to bless your efforts, or you can ask God what He wants to do with your life.

 

Question: What is the success you are striving for in your life?  Is it what God wants for you? Does it really matter in eternity?

 

Now give it , whatever it is, to God right now.

Responding to Islam- Kevin Davis

Kevin Davis shares an exciting and topical presentation on how we as Christians should be responding to Islam.  He reveals some of the historical background of Islam, and how the Koran points to the person of Jesus Christ.  He encourages us to love and pray for our Muslim brothers and sisters all around the world so that we can make a difference, and he shares exciting and up to date information on how the Spirit is moving among Islamic populations across the world drawing them to Jesus.  Incredibly insightful and topical, and a must for every believer who loves the Lord and wants to see the world won fro Christ!

For Such a Time as This- Melva Kajewski

Melva shares her heart and challenges us to stand firm in these dark days.  We live in days that seem darker than ever before, especially with the types of moral decisions our country is making, but Melva suggests that we are here, placed in this nation, for such a time as this!

Traditions- Slaying the Holy Cow

A mother was preparing a pot roast for her family’s Easter meal while her young daughter helped. Knowing her daughter was very curious, the mother explained each step. As she was preparing to put the pot roast in the oven, the mother explained, “Now we cut the ends off of each side of the meat.” As young children often do, the daughter asked, “Why?” The mother thought for a moment and replied, “Because that’s the way it’s done. That’s how your grandma did it and that’s how I do it.”

Not satisfied with this answer, the young girl asked if she could call her grandma. The young girl called and asked, “Grandma, why do you cut the ends off the pot roast?” Her grandma thought for a moment and said, “Because that’s the way it’s done. That’s how my mom did it and that’s how I do it.”

Still not satisfied, the young girl called her great grandma, who was now living in a nursing home. “Great grandma,” she said, “Why do you cut the ends off the pot roast?” Her great grandma said, “When I was a young mother, we had a very small oven. The pot roast wouldn’t fit in the oven if I didn’t cut the ends off.”

Everyone loves tradition, including me, and including God. God set up many traditions in the Old Testament to remind people of what He had said and done, and Jesus instigated traditions like communion in His day. 

 

Tradition is all around us. I remember laying a wreath at the Canberra war memorial in honour of my grandfather. They played the last post, we had careful instructions on how to walk, how to place the wreath. It was all very vivid and special to me, and the tradition made it all the more powerful and memorable.

 

Go to the RSL, support a football club or watch cricket… tradition is all around us and loved by most of us.

 

In cricket for example, we have just defeated the English in the Ashes series. We compete for a tiny cup within which lie the ashes. This came about after Australia’s first win in a test match in England at the Oval 1882, when a newspaper jokingly lamented the death of English cricket. The mock obituary stated that English cricket had died, and "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia". They burned the bails, put them in a tiny container, and that is what Aussie and English cricketers have competed over for more than 130 years!

 

So much tradition in sport, in parliament, law courts, schools, in families and especially in the Church! People love tradition, it brings them together, it feeds nostalgia.  People talk about the good old days, do you remember them? I don’t think they were that good, but we always remember the good bits, not the bad.

 

Tradition is definitely a part of church life, but increasingly those who oppose God sometimes want the traditions, without the God.

 

Fiona’s brother and his wife just had something recently called a naming ceremony, which honestly is a baby dedication in every way without having God! Same sex marriage is the same. Gay couples had all the legal rights of union, but strangely they want to have an actual wedding and be called married. Why? Because people love traditions. Traditions bring stability, strength and honour.

 

 

HOLY COW!

 

Tradition is one of the holy cows of all religions, including Christianity. We gain strength and solidarity in traditions, but even in the Church today, much of what we do is not Biblical it is tradition.

 

Please do not misunderstand… I am not against tradition, I love it! Many of our traditions are good, and positive, but sometimes tradition grows in importance and actually eclipses what God says! We must make a clear distinction between what we do in the name of tradition and what we do in obedience to Christ.

 

Jesus met the issue of traditional religion head on in Mark 7, where a special delegation of legal experts came to challenge Jesus. They challenged Jesus because His disciples seemed to be breaking the time honoured rules of the Sabbath and ritual cleaning

 

Mark 7:5-9 (ESV Strong's)

And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written,

“‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;

in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”

And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!

 

ELDER TRADITIONS

 

The issue in question here was not Scripture, but what was known as the tradition of the elders. These were rules created by Jewish leaders and were human traditions which often superseded God’s revealed Word.

 

So what did these rules involve, and what effect did they have? Let me offer a few samples…

 

The Mishnah, a compilation of Jewish oral laws made at the end of the second century A.D., says, "Tradition is a fence around the law." Tradition, as the Jews saw it, protected God's Holy Word and assisted God’s people in keeping it.

 

This fencing of the Law probably began well enough, but as the years passed it produced some famous absurdities. For example, in an effort to protect the Sabbath from being broken through inadvertent labor, the devout were given an amazing list of prohibitions —fences. For example, looking in the mirror was forbidden, because if you looked into the mirror on the Sabbath day and saw a gray hair, you might be tempted to pull it out and thus perform work on the Sabbath.

 

You also could not wear your false teeth; if they fell out, you would have to pick them up and you would be working. In regard to carrying a burden, you could not carry a handkerchief on the Sabbath, but you could wear a handkerchief. That meant if you were upstairs and wanted to take the handkerchief downstairs, you would have to tie it around your neck, walk downstairs, and untie it. Then you could blow your nose downstairs!

 

The rabbis debated about a man with a wooden leg: if his home caught on fire, could he carry his wooden leg out of the house on the Sabbath? One could spit on the Sabbath, but you had to be careful where. If it landed on the dirt and you scuffed it with your sandal, you would be cultivating the soil and thus performing work.

 

For many in Jesus’ day, ritual replaced a relationship with God; reputation was more important than godliness. Jesus labeled these attitudes as hypocrisy. Our spiritual growth can succeed only if we are willing to have our hearts and outward actions changed according to God’s Word, not man’s bright ideas.

 

 

OUR TRADITIONS

 

Before we start feeling too pious, let’s pause to remember that we all have traditions in Church and worship. Yes, even in Ignite, we have traditions. We share communion every week, that’s a tradition. Some of us dressing nice for Church. We start with worship the same way every week… tradition again! These may be good, some perhaps not so good, and none of them seem as absurd as the Mishnah traditions.

 

I’ve often heard people in Pentecostal churches refer to another churches as “traditional”, but don’t be fooled, we Pentecostals are as traditional as they are, just in different ways. They have responsive readings, we pray in a certain way. We dunk, they sprinkle. We raise our hands, they do not… both are traditions.

 

 

Colossians 2:8 (ESV Strong's)

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

 

The Greek word for tradition is Paradosis, which is the same as used by Jesus with the Pharisees.

 

And while many traditions are comforting and can be helpful, some can also take us captive and steer us away from God! Traditions are fine, but they are hollow, devoid of any teal life. What sustains us in our hour of need is not traditions but the power of God, the Word of God and the Spirit of God! So we must be on guard!

 

 

TRADITION… THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY

 

Church traditions can point us to Christ, or steer us away from Jesus. Most of us enjoy communion every week, but do we let it grow stale and “same ol, same ol”? The problem many times is often not so much in the tradition itself, but in our attitude to it.

 

All around us, people are in churches where they feel obligated to stay but are slowly dying. Some have loads of ritual, but zero relationship. Some have lots liturgies but no life. Some provide entertainment but no encounter. Many older denominations are steeped in religious traditions that have nothing to do with God, and are impossible to find in His Word. And let’s face it, some of our modern churches have the same, just in a modern guise!

 

And this is the point… religious traditions can be good, bad or just plain ugly. How do we know the difference? How can we figure out and embrace good traditions and reject the bad? The only standard we can have is the Word of God.

 

But not everything is specifically addressed in the Bible. However, principles are in the Bible. The Bible does not say, “Thou must not take drugs,” but in many places it talks of self control in places like Galatians 5, which is clearly affected by drug taking. It doesn’t specifically mention smoking, cyberporn, cell phones or Facebook, rock music, styles of worship, etc. but clearly lays out behaviour that applies to these modern phenomenon.

 

It should be the same in Church. We can embrace traditions, sure, but only those that align with God’s Word.  And some church traditions are clearly human in origin. Nowhere does it say that priests must be celibate, that’s a human tradition. Nowhere does it say you cannot eat meat on Friday. Nowhere does it say you have to sing certain songs or do certain rituals.  Nowhere does it command us to make the sign of the cross, or use bells and smells when we worship. These human traditions were originally brought in by well meaning men for noble reasons, but let’s be clear, they are not God’s Word!

 

Titus 1:13-14 (ESV Strong's)

Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.

 

The thing is man made traditions in religions were designed to remind us of God, but ultimately man made traditions do not set us free, they binds us, fences us in and controls us. Many times people choose religion instead of God, and however noble the intent of the religious tradition. I recently saw a program on notorious drug dealer Pablo Escobar, who murdered, extorted, exploited and fornicated his way through life, but still worshipped at a Catholic Church, went to confession and made the sign of the cross.

 

2 Corinthians 3:6 (ESV Strong's)

For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

 

Religion and human tradition, as good as it might be, in the end kills rather than brings life if it is not based on the Word of God and directed by the Holy Spirit.

 

And Religious tradition often has a sinister spirit behind it, one of control and superiority. Let’s look at what Jesus said in Mark and pull back the curtain and see what is really behind not all but some man made traditions...

 

1.      TRADITION AND FEELING SUPERIOR

 

Religion makes you feel pious, superior and better than the next person.  We think we are the best, our denomination has it right and everybody else is wrong. God calls this pride!

 

The ritualistic washings the Jewish leaders talked about in Mark 7 gave them a sense of being  “special”, and that other people were “unclean”! If a Jew went to the marketplace to buy food, he might be “defiled” by a Gentile or (God forbid!) a Samaritan. This tradition had begun centuries before to remind the Jews that they were God’s elect people and therefore had to keep themselves morally clean and separated. However, this good reminder had gradually degenerated into an empty ritual, a set of holier than Thou rules and the result was pride and religious isolation.

 

And listen, we can be just as superior. I cannot tell you how many good Pentecostal people have smugly told me that others are “not Spirit filled” as if they are inferior. Being filled with the Spirit of God is a joy and a blessing, it can be a powerhouse for your spiritual life, but it is not a higher rank than another believer. At Ignite Christian Church, we value unity and love for one another above any specific gift.  That’s why when Paul talked about tongues and prophecy in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, he placed the great love chapter right in the middle. Why? He said he wants us all to exercise the gifts, but we need to love one another more than we love the making others do what we want.

 

That being said, do I want us all to be filled with the Spirit? Absolutely! I want us all on fire for Christ, I desire to see every person ignited with a passion for Jesus that consumes them. But as your pastor, I’m not here to be superior, and I refuse to force you to do something that you are not comfortable with.. I am here to serve!

 

Luke 18:10-14 (ESV Strong's)

“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

 

Religion makes us feel superior, but Jesus calls us to be servants.

 

2.      TRADITION AND MANIPULATION

 

The second thing tradition can do is be used to manipulate. In the passage we started with in Mark 7, Jesus Himself sites a specific example of how people can use religious traditions to control and manipulate for their own ends.

 

Mark 7:9-13 (ESV Strong's)

And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

 

The situation is that the fifth commandment of the law stating you should honour and care for your parents in their age. These religious leaders saw a loophole that trumped caring for your ailing parents.  If you “dedicated” your money to God, you could hang onto it and not give towards your parents care.

 

Tradition manipulates the situation, in much the same way as Jehovah’s Witnesses use religious tradition and control in teaching their people that they have to witness door to door to get to heaven… they have no assurance of salvation like we do, but the sect gets an endless stream of workers going door to door!

 

I have seen pastors in our churches using religious tradition to manipulate and control people, to force them to do what the leader wants. This is not leadership, this is abuse, and Jesus got real mad about this kind of religious abuse! Again, traditions are great but they must not be a tool for control or superiority.

 

WHEN TRADITION CROSSES THE LINE

 

People love traditions, and we in the Church do also. They remind us of great truths or great blessings. But Jesus addressed the Pharisees about this because they were substituting traditions of men for the Word of God. A tradition may actually be good and may be established for a very good reason. However, it crosses the line and becomes evil when it is a substitute for the Word of God in later generations. And that is what has happened to these people here.

 

Anything we establish that is not according to God’s Word is going to become destructive and controlling. And you can see this in many denominations today, some of which started great and have dropped away to become a shell.

 

Every move of God comes in 4 stages. A man, a movement, a machine and a monument.

 

It starts with a man, a dynamic man who has a dynamic, God given vision. Look at John Wesley and Methodism, William Booth and the Salvation Army. Look at Amy Semple McPherson and the Four Square movement. Great men and woman, great power, and great anointing.

 

This then gives rise to a movement, and the denomination gains influence and grows in numbers. But after some time, maybe a generation or two, people are just going through the motions. It becomes a machine, still big and influential, but it’s lost its edge, it’s lost its Holy Spirit power. It’s lost its specific calling and anointing.

 

It finishes up a monument to past glories. Man, movement, machine, monument. Where are we?

 

In our Bible reading this week in Mark 11, Jesus cursed the fig tree which was in bloom. Why? Is it because he doesn’t like figs? No, it was a comment in the Pharisees and the religious traditions of the day. He was saying, “you look the part, you look and act religious, but there is no fruit!” Let this be a warning to us. It is not our religion, not our tradition, not our gifts or Bible scholarship that impresses Christ. It is the fruit of the Spirit that He is looking for.

 

IGNITING TRADITIONS

 

Told you I would slay a few holy cows this morning!

 

Many of you here have come from different churches with different traditions, and I love that you’ve found a home here. Many have only ever know Pentecostalism, and I love that you have accepted and embraced those who think slightly differently to you.

 

We face a choice this morning, and interestingly this is the same choice that the people of Israel faced Millenia ago…

 

Exodus 20:18-21 (ESV Strong's)

Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.” The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.

 

The people had a unique opportunity, to establish an intimate and special relationship with God, one where He would talk directly to them. But they were afraid, they feared God and were fearful of what He might ask them to do. So they told Moses to go and talk to God for them, then relay the message to them, while they stood afar off, distant from God.

 

I think we can all agree that human tradition is no substitute for the Word of God, right?

 

RELIGION OR RELATIONSHIP… YOUR CHOICE

 

God wants relationship, not religion. He doesn’t want tradition, He wants to touch you. But some of us, because we are scared, because we are comfortable with certain traditions, we choose law over love, and religion over relationship.

 

But today, I believe that God is asking us to choose Him, and take a chance on a God who loves you. Let us never choose anything, any belief, any tradition over a close relationship with the Lord. I love most of our traditions, but I refuse to let whether you speak in tongues or not, whether you prophesy or not, whether you like hymns or like popular songs, whether you’ve been baptised in water or baptised in the Spirit, I refuse to let that stand between us!

 

Unity is where the Lord bestows blessing, and God has called Ignite to be a church of unity! We must be one in the Spirit, and while we may not see eye to eye, we can still walk hand in hand and arm in arm.

 

2 Timothy 2:23-24 (ESV Strong's)

Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil,

 

Church, we stand on the brink of something Mighty here at Ignite. God is unrolling, unfurling a vision before me that is the most exciting I have ever been a part of. And you are a part of it too! So let us agree to set aside the things that separate, even if you think you are right, and let us agree to love first and foremost. Let us agree that our standard is simply the Bible. If it’s in here, it’s in. If it’s not, it’s not!

 

But ultimately we face the same decision the people of Israel faced… rules or relationship. This is why I continue to remind you of the Bible reading plan. I’m not trying to control you, but if you read this every day, just 2 chapters a day, then you will grow your relationship. If not this plan, do another, but will you covenant with me to endeavour to read His Word and pray every day? Tun off Facebook, click the TV off and read or listen to 2 chapters a day. Then you will discover life abundantly, a greater life in God than you have ever experienced, and all the things you need will be added to you.

 

Matthew 6:33 (ESV Strong's)

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

 

 

 

Speaking Life- Ps Greg Biddell

Speaking life into your heart and your situation is the subject of this excellent and inspiring message from pastor Greg Biddell.

 

Greg and Sue have been in ministry since 1966 and have served as missionaries, pastors and teachers.  They now travel extensively throughout Australia as itinerant ministers. To read more information about Greg and Sue and their ministry, please go to the About Us tab on the tool bar above.

Our desire is to teach the Word of God in a practical way, to help you be victorious, live in health and receive the blessings of God for your family, church and business life.

Greg has written and published over thirty five Books, CD's and Charts, which can be viewed on our Products page or from the navigation bar on the left.  These are great resources which will inspire you to move deeper into God's Word.

So if you are keen to be speaking life into all the situations you face, rather than words of death, then listen to Greg's message now...

Total Surrender

As we face a New Year, we wonder what is in store for us. Is this going to be a good year, or a tough one? Am I going to go ahead with the potential in my life, or fall away? Is it going to be the same as last year and the year before?

 

I believe that this is a pivotal year for Ignite Christian Church, and for each of you personally. I was recently criticised by a visitor for preaching too hard on righteousness, but I make no apology for this. I’m not here to play games or tickle ears, I’m here to encourage but also to challenge you. My vision for you is not to see you cruise through life and just exist, rather it is to see you thrive in the things of God and to inspire you in 2018 to become all that God has destined you to be.

 

I have sought the Lord asking for a key verse for this year, and I believe He has given us

 

Matthew 5:16 (ESV Strong's)

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

 

In 2018, Ignite Church is the light on a hill, and we are called to shine boldly and brightly in this dark world. Another verse our leadership have received several times is this one…

 

Isaiah 43:18-19 (ESV Strong's)

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

 

So it is time to stop looking back, however good, however tough, and start looking ahead to what the Lord has destined for us!

 

As we face this New Year, what  can make a difference in Ignite and also in us as individuals?

 

GETTING INTIMATE WITH GOD

 

One of our greatest needs as human beings is to know that we are loved. Each one of us here has to feel certain, deep down in our hearts, that someone loves us, cares for us, and has our best interests at heart.

 

The need to be loved is at the centre of most human relationships.  Men and women getting married, having families, having affairs, giving presents at Christmas, bringing up children, playing sport, joining clubs, joining Church, signing up to RSVP… all of us want to be loved in some way. And all of us need to know that somebody loves us.

 

That is how God designed us. He wants us to know that He loves each and every one of us with a passionate intensity too deep for words.

 

Zephaniah 3:17 (ESV Strong's)

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

 

God created human beings with fellowship in mind—first with Himself and then with others. But we cannot fully love one another until we have ourselves experienced the love of God. We experience His love when we willingly surrender to His call to be our Saviour, Lord, and Friend.

 

2018 is the year to get intimate with God.  It is the year to totally surrender to Him!

 

ARE YOU AS SPIRITUALLY DEAF?

 

The fact is, many of us cannot hear God with any degree of accuracy or confidence. Lots of Christians say, “God told me this or that,” but how can they know? Very often Christians preface what is actually their opinion with the phrase, “God told me…” because they know that we can have no come back if it were true. That’s not often God, that’s often manipulation!

 

Of all the people who say, “God told me to tell you this” over the past year, barely a handful would genuinely be God.  Many good people tell me that they are never sure if the Lord is speaking to them, if at all.

 

So this year, how can you foster an attitude and a lifestyle that enables the Lord to speak to you intimately as He promised He will? Do you have to be a crazy nutcase to hear God, and is the only other alternative being as spiritually deaf as a post?

 

Of course not! Hearing God should be a natural part of every Christian’s relationship with the Lord. You shouldn’t be weird or over the top strange to have to hear God, and my experience is that most of the odd people are not really hearing God clearly anyway.

 

But neither should you be spiritually hard of hearing. Religious people in church, even back in Jesus’ day, never had a great track record of listening to God, that why Jesus quoted Isaiah in saying,

Matthew 13:14-15 (ESV Strong's)

Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “‘“You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.” For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’

Now, I want to give you one word that can transform your year. One word that will open your eyes to what God wants you to see, one word that will open your spiritual ears to hear Him. One word that, if you truly embraced it and acted upon it, will take the life that you live right now and morph it into the life you’ve dreamed of, the powerful, Spirit filled life your Father has destined you to live…

 

THE WORD IS SURRENDER

 

Charles Stanley writes, “Our intimacy with God determines the impact of our lives.”

 

Surrender is defined as, “To yield to the power, control or possession of another.” (Miriam Webster’s Dictionary)

Romans 12:1 (ESV Strong's)

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

The Greek word for present is paristemi which means to yield or surrender.

 

When I think of surrender, I always think of soldiers with their hands above their heads, yielding to the power of their conquerors. Now, when a soldier surrenders there is much fear. They have been fighting against the enemy, killing and destroying, and so to yield or surrender means they place their life into their enemy’s control, with no guarantees of survival or humane  treatment. They take a chance, and their life hangs in the balance.

 

But not so when we surrender to Christ. We yield to Christ with the knowledge that He will never leave nor forsake us.

Psalms 9:10 (ESV Strong's)

And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

There are at least three reasons God seeks our surrender:

 

1.      GOD DESIRES OUR FELLOWSHIP

 

God loves us and desires our fellowship and worship. If we hold something back from God, if we refuse to draw close to Him by surrendering our lives to Him, we cannot know Him completely or fully experience His love.

James 4:7-8 (ESV Strong's)

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

 

When we surrender to Him, when we yield our lives to Him, we get all of Him. When we decide to move close to the Lord, when we start to seek Him with all our hearts, He moves closer to us.

 

2.      GOD DESIRES OUR SERVICE

 

God wants our service for Him to be effective and fruitful.

 

The more we know and love Jesus, the more effective our service will be, and the more He will grow our ministry. The closer we draw to God, the more impact our lives will have. The more energetically we nurture our relationship with the Lord, the greater the positive mark we will leave behind.

Colossians 3:23-24 (ESV Strong's)

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.

 

 Surrendering to God means more effective service, and this is what I mean by surrendering to God grows your ministry.

 

3.      GOD DESIRES TO BLESS US

 

God waits for the freedom to bless us.

 

Jeremiah 29:11-13 (ESV Strong's)

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

 

Note verse 13, seeking God with all your heart. This is surrendering to Him.

 

God is omnipotent, He is all powerful and can do anything, but He will not violate His own principles. He draws us to Himself so we can experience His love and forgiveness. He asks for our willing surrender so that He can give us the best blessings He has to offer.

 

We are sometimes like a young child watching TV. Their parent comes and wants to take them to the zoo, but they resist because they are content just watching TV, not knowing the wonderful experience awaiting them!

 

DON’T JOIN THE RESISTANCE

 

It is in your interests to surrender to God today at the start of this year! But we resist, don’t we? Why do we want to join the resistance instead of surrendering to someone whose expressed desire is to bless us not to harm us?

 

With all the blessings God has clearly in mind for us, why does anyone resist surrendering to God?

 

1.      PRIDE

 

Pride is the key reason most people resist surrender.

 

I remember Kira learning to tie her shoelaces, saying, “I do it mine self” and making us all late!

 

People think they know better than God and that they can handle their lives better than He can, so they keep Him at a distance.  Which is ironic, given the mess most of our lives finish up in, isn’t it?

Proverbs 18:12 (ESV Strong's)

Before destruction a man's heart is haughty (prideful), but humility comes before honor.

God wants us to put our trust in him.

We insult God when we trust in our own resources, or anything else, to deliver us from our problems. When we surrender our lives to God, we become his own chosen ones. He promises to hear us when we call out to him.

 

2.      FEAR

 

Others do not surrender because they fear what God will do (or not do) for them. They think that if they give God control, He’ll make them do exactly what will make them most miserable.

 

Many apparently can trust God to give them heaven, but cannot trust Him enough to give them heaven on earth in a life of fulfilment and joy.

 

 

Fear of the Lord is a great thing. Fear of the future is not. Can your trust in God exceed your fear for the future?

Proverbs 29:25 (ESV Strong's)

The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.

 

We often treat God like a man, thinking He is out to punish us, or make us suffer, or make us do things we hate just to show us who is boss. God is not like that, so stop tarring Him with the same brush as you would a leader, pastor or politician.

John 14:27 (ESV Strong's)

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

 

3.      UNBELIEF

 

Still others refuse to surrender to Christ because they believe Satan’s lie, which tells them that God is judgmental and will punish them for their mistakes.

 

Jesus says this about Satan…

John 8:44 (ESV Strong's)

He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

 

Don’t let your pride, fear or unbelief stop you from fully surrendering to the Lord

 

IT’S TIME TO SURRENDER

 

God always has our best in mind. He will refuse us no good thing when we gladly submit to His will. He tells us, “‘I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope”’ (Jeremiah 29:11).

Romans 8:31-32 (ESV Strong's)

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

 

When we fully surrender to Him, He will withhold no good thing. Of course, we will still face trials of many kinds, but He will graciously help us triumph over them, and use the trials to build character and wisdom into our lives.

 

It only makes sense to surrender to God, because when we do, we grow close to Him—which is His highest priority for us—and we begin to have an impact on our world.

 

And right now, at the start of the New Year is the perfect time to fully surrender to Him and allow Him to fulfil our destiny!

 

I have to do this every day.  I constantly have to fully surrender my life to Christ. In my life I have trusted many things, from my own talents and abilities to my profession to financial advisors.

 

When I fully surrender to Christ, when I fully trust Him for my provision, my future, my reputation and my blessings, that is when He can truly work in my behalf. Whatever I have to face, if I can face them with Jesus, I will be content!

 

IT’S TIME TO REALIGN

 

Is this the cry of your heart? Do you want to know the Savior and live in the fullness of His blessing each day? You can. David wrote,

Psalms 34:10 (ESV Strong's)

The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

Young lions try their best, but they are young, strong and headstrong. This year, are you resolved to work harder, try harder, do your best more often, or are you ready to surrender and give it all to Jesus?

 

If you boarded a flight to Sydney from our local airport, and the pilot was just 1 degree to the east off, you would land 17 km out to sea! The only way the pilot can cause you to arrive at your destination is to constantly realign the direction of the plane.

 

At the start of this year, we need realignment. We constantly need realignment. We need to be totally surrendering daily to God, and we can start right now.

 

If you have drifted in your devotion to the Savior last year and feel as though you grow more distant each day in your relationship with Him, then pray that He will draw you near once more. He knows your weaknesses, and if you will tell Him that you want Him to take control of your life, He will come to you in a mighty way and bring hope and light to your situation, no matter how dark and hopeless it may feel…

Isaiah 55:6-7 (ESV Strong's)

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

 

IT’S TIME TO TAKE ACTION

 

Charles Blondin, the great French tightrope Walker, became famous in 1860 for walking across a quarter of a mile of tightrope stretched 160 feet above Niagara Falls. He performed the feat many times in a variety of death defying ways, including on stilts, on a bicycle and blindfolded. He even carried a small stove and eggs across, and stopped halfway to cook an omelet!

 

Then he took a wheelbarrow across the falls, and asked the huge crowd if they believed he could carry a man in the wheelbarrow across Niagara Falls. They enthusiastically replied, “Yes, you’re the greatest tightrope walker in the world.”

 

“Ok!” He replied, “Who wants to get into the wheelbarrow?”

James 2:17-18 (ESV Strong's)

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

You’ve heard me call for total surrender this morning, and you can sit and applaud my fully committed heart. But today, I’m asking you to get into the wheelbarrow, I’m asking you to respond by not just listening, not just agreeing, not just thinking or resolving, but by stepping out and doing…

 

William Booth said, “The greatness of a man’s power is the measure of his surrender.”

 

How great do you want to be in this coming year? How surrendered are you prepared to be?

New Year's Eve 2018... Rise and Shine

Glen Cook once said, “Morning is wonderful…it’s only drawback is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day.”

 

I don’t know about you, but I like sleep, and never seem to get enough of it.  And when you are asleep, waking up is often one of the hardest things to do.

 

My dad used to get up with the sparrows and start singing loudly, calling us to rise and shine. So Church, on the brink of a New Year, I believe 2018 is time for us to wake up, rise and shine.

 

 

SNOOZE YOU LOSE

 

Billy Graham once said, “We are to wait for the coming of Christ with patience. We are to watch with anticipation. We are to work with zeal. We are to prepare with urgency.” 

 

Paul put it this way…

 

Romans 13:11-14 (ESV Strong's)

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarrelling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

 

 

Warne Wiersbe summarised today’s passage in this way… “Wake up, clean up and grow up.” As we approach 2018, I believe we are in for one of the most challenging years yet, but it will also provide some of the greatest opportunities we have ever seen in this nation to shine for Jesus. For decades the church has been barely noticeable in our society, and now they notice us and they hate us and brand us bigots and prejudicial hypocrites. So let’s see how we can turn the lemons of the end of 2017 into the lemonade of joy and achievement in 2018.

 

WAKE UP

 

Romans 13:11 (ESV Strong's)

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

 

Like teenagers sleeping in, the church has been asleep in this nation for decades. We’ve looked like the world, tried to sound like the world and in most ways been indistinguishable from the rest of the world. But now suddenly in 2018, following the government legislating same sex marriage, we now have the chance to wake up and look different to the rest of the world.

 

Jesus is coming back soon, I am more convinced than ever. Jesus describes the end times in Matthew as times of war, times of famine and pestilence. Then He says this…

 

Matthew 24:9-13 (ESV Strong's)

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

 

Then Jesus equates the end times with two other period in history, both of which were followed by severe judgement…

 

Luke 17:26-29 (ESV Strong's)

Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—

 

Our society is facing imminent judgement for our wickedness and depravity. And while some Christians are content to float along and condone this wickedness, I believe 2018 is time to wake up and make a stand for what is true and noble and right!

 

GET THE MESSAGE RIGHT

A priest and pastor were standing by the side of the road holding up a sign that read, "The End is near! Turn around before it's too late!"

One speeding motorist yelled out his window, “Leave us alone, you religious nuts!” as he flew by. From around the curve they heard screeching tires and a big splash.

“Do you think," said one clergy to the other, "we should just put up a sign that says ‘Bridge Out’ instead?”

We as a church need to get the message right. The message is not that we hate homosexuals. The message is not that we want to ostracise ourselves from them. The message is not even that we don’t want homosexuals to have a fair go!

 

The message is that Jesus loves people, and He died for them.  Yet He is a holy God. We must stand for the righteousness the Bible peaches, but we must also love those who persecute us, and never before have we had the opportunity to do this like we face in 2018.

 

Matthew 5:43-45 (ESV Strong's)

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

 

In 2018 it is time to wake up and love people, even those we disagree with. And that is my stand with regards homosexuals and transgenders… I do not, cannot and will not agree with your behaviour, but I love you and accept you and will treat you with respect. We will never win them if we do not love them, but loving them does not mean compromising what the Bible clearly teaches is sin.

 

They tell us that if we love them we will agree with their behaviour. That’s not true. We can say, “I love you so much, that I cannot let ultimately destructive behaviour slip quietly by. I love you so much I’m going to share the truth with you, even if you hate me for it!”

 

CLEAN UP

 

Romans 13:12-13 (ESV Strong's)

The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armour of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarrelling and jealousy.

 

We need to wake up in 2018, but we also need to clean up. Not just wake up to the threats and challenges in our society, we must also clean ourselves up. If Ignite is to reach its full potential this year, it’s is up to us to be clean, Holy, pure, and to not harbour any sin in our lives.

 

While most of us will not be involved in orgies, drunkenness and sexual immorality, we will be sorely tempted in areas like quarrelling and jealousy.

 

1 Peter 4:17 (ESV Strong's)

For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

 

If God is going to use us in 2018, we need to be careful about how we behave.  I don’t expect you to agree with every decision our church leadership makes, but I do expect you to behave in a godly manner, and to maintain unity. Unity doesn’t mean that we see eye to eye on everything, but we can walk hand in hand and arm in arm. I believe that this year holds the greatest promise of any year in the history of this church, but only if we walk in obedience and stay clean before Him! In word, in deed and in conscience.

 

Without unity, we become just a shell of who we should be.  So as we face the New Year, let us leave behind anger, resentment and gossip. We need to commit ourselves wholeheartedly to serving the Lord and recognise our opinions are most just that… opinions.  Let’s keep our hearts and lives clean so we can move ahead together!

 

GROW UP

 

Romans 13:14 (ESV Strong's)

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

 

This year more than ever before we need to grow up. Remember, growing old is compulsory, but growing in maturity is optional. So how can we grow in maturity this year?

 

1.      GET SERIOUS WITH SIN

 

This year we need to cast off the old man and put on the new. I just talked about cleaning up our lives, but cleaning house is a sign of maturity. It’s time for you and I to stop trying to beat those old sins, and start trusting Jesus to beat them. And don’t look so smug, we all have them. It is time to get ruthless about tolerating sin in our lives. It’s time to get serious with sin!

 

And the truth is that many times we tolerate sin and treat it so casually.

 

Little boy fishing.

 

If doing something causes you to sin, stop doing it. If someone constantly causes you to sin, come away from them.

 

Romans 8:13 (ESV Strong's)

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

 

Charles Stanley observes, “We know we should avoid a certain place, but we go there anyway. We recognise a personal weakness for a particular activity, but we tempt ourselves anyway. How often do we fall into sin because we plan for it?”

 

This New Year is your opportunity to repent, seek forgiveness and take drastic action to stop persistent sin. Make a covenant with me now to do whatever it takes to stop persistent sin in your life, even if it means losing friends or giving up activities you enjoy. It’s time for drastic surgery!

 

Proverbs 22:3 (ESV Strong's)

The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.

 

A native American story speaks of two wolves: one representing your good and wholesome self, the part of you that seeks to treat others honourably, to encourage, to build up, to love. The second wolf represents your destructive, evil self, the part of you that bites out with sarcasm and resentment and gossip, that tears down others and satisfies your own needs alone.

 

A boy once asked his father, “Which wolf will get stronger and over power the other in the battle for my life?” And the father said, “Son, that’s simple: the one that you feed.” As you follow Christ, you feed the good wolf within.

 

This year, which wolf will you feed? It’s time for us to cast off the sin that so easily entangles us!

 

2.      GET SERIOUS WITH YOUR DESTINY

 

Some of you here look at your life and wonder if that’s as good as it gets. Job, family, house, car, surely there is more to life than that? Ask yourself now, is there more to life than the life I now lead?

 

Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV Strong's)

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

 

Listen, God has a plan and a destiny for your life, something significant you can do, something special you can be a part of in the Kingdom of God. And part of the reason Ignite exists is to make your dreams of ministry come true.

 

Someone once gave me a workout DVD, and I reckon it doesn’t work. I watched it 20 times and feel no fitter than I did before! What’s the problem? I need to get off my backside and actually do it, not just watch it. And so it is with your destiny. 2018 is the year you can stop watching and start doing, you can stop merely attending church and start getting involved, you can stop wishing and start serving!

 

2018 is the year that many of you will discover your God given purpose. Some of you will rediscover it, because you use to do things in the Kingdom and you thought that time had passed. Your gift is not dead, it is dormant, and this next year is the year for stirring it up again!

 

 

3.      GET SERIOUS WITH GOD

 

None of this will happen if we do not get serious with God!  We have a new Bible reading plan, and I want to encourage you all to do it. This thing has taken off all over the place, and those doing it are really blessed. You cannot achieve anything significant for God unless you know Him, and the more you know Him the greater you will become.

 

The way you get to know Him is by reading His Word. Do it every day and I guarantee you your life with Christ will take off. 7 days without prayer and Bible study makes one weak.

 

This is not some stodgy old book, the Bible is empowered by God’s Spirit,

 

Hebrews 4:12 (ESV Strong's)

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

 

You don’t have to do my Bible reading plan, but do some plan. If you fail to plan then you plan to fail, and I believe that 2018 is the year many of us take off into the stratosphere in our lives and ministries.

 

 

4.      GET SERIOUS WITH CHURCH

 

Two statisticians went hunting. They saw a deer, and one shot and missed by 1m to the right, while the other shot and missed by 1m to the left, so they jumped up excitedly and proclaimed, “We hit it!”

 

Statistics are like that, you can make them say anything. But recently I saw statistics that indicate that in the modern church someone who attends church once a month is now considered regular.

 

We live in an age where people find it easy to lash out on Facebook, but hard to commit to Church, marriage or jobs. If we are to get anywhere this year, you and I need to be committed to church, not casual attenders. Ok, some have jobs that require them to work or travel on a Sunday, and some have family obligations, but outside of these I believe we need to do our utmost to play our part in Ignite Christian Church.

 

Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV Strong's)

And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

 

The hour is getting late, society and morals are crumbling around us, persecution is upon us and we as a family of believers need to get serious about church. Come join us as often as you can, and don’t stand on the sidelines criticising or feeling left out. Join us, there are wonderful things you can do and wonderful people you can share the journey with.

 

The Bible says don’t neglect meeting together. Remember,

 

Leviticus 26:8 (ESV Strong's)

Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.

 

There is Holy Spirit power in us pulling together, and there is blessing in unity! And 2018 is the year when we shine our light, when we say to the forces of darkness,  “enough”, we will no longer cower in the corner, we will not fade away into the night, but we will stand together and fight for what is right, what is godly and what is honourable.

 

I was just reading Malachi 1 in the Bible reading plan, and was struck by how upset God was when we offer second rate sacrifices. The people were offering sacrifices as required by law, sure, but they were blemished, lame and sick.

 

It made me think, how often do we as Christians treat Church like a second rate sacrifice. I will turn up if I have nothing better on, if the surf is average, if the family lunch is cancelled. Brothers and sisters, this should not be!

 

If we get serious about showing up every week we can to church, and being involved in every way we can, then I believe it will bless God’s heart. If we are inconsistent, we are the ones who will miss out on the greatest opportunity we will ever get to be a part of something truly significant here at Ignite.

 

God knows our hearts, and He sees the level of our commitment. He promises this…

 

2 Chronicles 16:9 (NIV-WS)

For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” 

 

I aim to be that guy.  What about you?

 

More than ever before in the history of the church in this nation, we need to have Christians standing together. And in 2018, you and I have the chance to join the triumphant church and make a difference that will last eternity!

 

2018 IS YOUR TIME TO SHINE

 

Towards the end of this previous year we underwent some changes in this church, including changing our name. Ignite is not some random name I conjured up, it is a prophetic word over our church, and this is the year when we get to ignite, fire up and shine God’s Holy light in the darkness.

 

In Church, and in your Christian life, it is now time to stop looking back and start moving ahead. It’s hats off to the past, but coats off to the future, because God has place a mighty destiny before us!

 

Isaiah 43:18-19 (ESV Strong's)

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

 

In a dry, parched and weary land, we can be the streams our people need. In a dark, evil, godless society, we can be the shining light.

 

But to truly shine this year, it takes 2 decisions on your part…

 

1. Decide to shine
2. Decide to keep shining, no matter what!

 

Philippians 3:13-14 (ESV Strong's)

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

 

2018 is our year of destiny, it’s our year of moving forward, it’s our moment to shine! It’s our year to put aside things that ultimately don’t really matter, and concentrate in the one thing that does matter… serving Jesus with everything we have, everything we are, everything we say, everything we do and every desire we possess for the future.

 

Some of you will hear this and look away, saying he must be talking to someone else. But some of you know you have destiny within you, and you’re just waiting for the opportunity to shine. I stand before you pledging to give my all for the purposes of God in Ignite church this next year, and I’m asking you to stand with me, to shine with me!

Jesus- On a Mission from God

Christmas means different things to different people. For some it’s a time of joy, a time to spend with family and good friends. For others it is a time of loneliness. For some it’s a thing of wonder, lights and magic, while for others it’s just a chance to take a few days off work, eat a bit and drink a lot.

 

In the middle of all this, you might be forgiven for thinking that the central figure of Christmas is a old, fat jolly guy in a red suit. There’s a lot of fake in Christmas… fake elves, fake snow, fake stars, fake trees, fake smiles at family gatherings, to the point where as adults we are conditioned to believe nothing but play along with the façade.  But those of us who are Christians have something more than the fakeness, something that makes this season one of true joy and genuine thankfulness. 

 

His name is Jesus, and at this time we celebrate His coming to earth. You’ll see pictures of Him as a baby, but that’s not the end of the story… it’s not even the beginning of the story! But why did He, being God, become a man, a person born in a lowly stable, to a working class family who lived in a working class town?  This is one of the great mysteries of Christmas, that Christ...

 

Philippians 2:6-11 (ESV Strong's)

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 

He did not come randomly, He didn’t come to set up a religion. Jesus wasn’t just a good person, or a world class prophet. He was and still is God Himself, and He had the end game in mind.

 

Jesus came on a mission from God…

 

 

“WE’RE ON A MISSION FROM GOD”

 

 

I remember seeing the movie “The Blues Brothers”, where John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd played Jake and Elwood, who get the original band back together to raise money to save a Catholic orphanage… hence they told everyone there were on a mission from God.

 

While that mission is debatable, Jesus definitely was on a mission from God. His birth was no accident, it was a very specific moment when God’s Son stepped into time for a specific, God ordained purpose.

 

This purpose involved Him becoming a man, being conceived supernaturally but being born just like you or I, growing up as a man, living life as a man of that time and finally, choosing to lay down His life. This mission was planned for centuries, and meticulously fulfilled by Jesus Christ.

 

 

WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

 

 

According to Jewish teaching, the Messiah must fulfil specific descriptive words that were written about Him centuries before, (which we call prophecies) and fulfil them 100%... every single one of them!

 

Matthew 5:17 (ESV Strong's)

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

 

There are over 300 references to 61 specific prophecies about Jesus in the OT. Failure to fulfil any single one of these would discount Jesus as the promised Messiah.

 

These prophecies are very specific, such as the town He must be born into, Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), being born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14) even down to things like being betrayed by a friend for 30 pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12-13), where it even predicts that the 30 pieces of silver are given to buy the potter’s field. Not 29 pieces, and not 31. That’s how specific many of these predictions were.

 

So, 61 prophecies written 500-1000 years before Christ were all totally fulfilled in one man… Jesus Christ!

 

Mathematics Professor Peter Stoner calculated the odds that 8 of these prophecies could be fulfilled in one man, and discovered that the odds were 1 in 10 to the 21^st power. What does that mean? Well, imagine if you covered the entire earth land mass in 20c coins to a depth of 36 metres, marked one coin and asked someone to travel the world and select that one specific coin first go. That’s the odds.

 

Forensic scientists match a DNA profile and say the odds of having the wrong person is one in several billion… well that’s the same for having these prophecies fulfilled in one man, and that’s only 8 of the 61 needed.

 

Jesus came on a mission from God, a very specific mission. Before we examine that mission, let me explain to you what Jesus’ mission from God was not…

 

WHAT JESUS’ MISSION FROM GOD WAS NOT

 

People being people, read the Word of God and twist and turn it to suit themselves, but when we examine why Jesus came to earth, we have to take the entire Bible into context, not just the bits that suit us.  Contrary to popular belief, these things were not Jesus’ mission from God…

 

1.      HE DID NOT COME TO BRING WORLD PEACE

 

When the angels announced the arrival of Jesus, they didn’t say peace on earth to all men. They said,

 

Luke 2:14 (ESV Strong's)

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

 

Yes, Jesus came to bring peace on earth, but not for all men, only those with whom God is pleased, those who accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Until He returns again, we will always have war on earth because people are selfish and nations are militant.

 

In fact, Jesus said this…

 

Matthew 10:34 (ESV Strong's)

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

 

He said this because He realised that when he came to save men’s souls, that this would cause conflict between believers and those who refuse to believe. I’ve experienced that at times, and many times people we love are against our beliefs and what inspires us.

 

But in the midst of all the terrorism, war, family conflict, divorce and pain, in a sea of arguments over money, things, relationships, gender, children and prejudice, Jesus can make you an island of inner peace. He did not come to bring world peace, but to allow you and I to have the inner peace that passes all understanding, and live a life of joy and fulfilment.

 

 

2.      HE DID NOT COME TO MEET YOUR NEEDS

 

 

Almost every religion or belief system I have seen emphasises “what’s in it for me!” People turn to religion to get God to do what they want. People turn to atheism not because it makes sense, (it clearly doesn’t) but because it gives them the right to behave the way they want.

 

I’m so sick of hearing people ordering God around, thinking if they can only say the right prayer, or do the right things they will get what they want.  That, my friends, is paganism.

 

We are consumers, you and I, and we always make choices based on what is best for us. But Jesus’ mission was never to come and give us what we want. It was never to make us feel comfortable and happy. The symbol for Christianity is a cross, not a cushion, and yes, I will be the first to tell you that God has given me so many wonderful things in life, and unbelievable joy, but that’s a fringe benefit, it was never the main mission!

 

Philippians 4:19 (ESV Strong's)

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

 

Blessing comes to those who seek God first, but never lose sight of the fact that Jesus came with a greater mission that making your life joyful, happy and fun.

 

 

3.      HE DID NOT COME TO MESS UP YOUR SUPPOSEDLY PERFECT LIFE

 

Many people resist coming to Jesus not because they don’t believe He is real, but because they are worried that He will want to change the way they live, and they quite like how they live, sin and all!

 

Ephesians 4:22-23 (ESV Strong's)

put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,

 

Jesus did come to change your life, but He did not come to rain on your parade! People say to me, “If I become a Christian I will have to stop smoking, swearing, drinking, doing drugs, sleeping around, driving a nice car or partying, right?”

 

Ok, let’s have a look at that… Smoking? An expensive, dirty habit, and one that almost every smoker I know would give anything to stop. Drinking? It’s ok when you’re drunk, but how much fun are hangovers or alcoholism? Drugs? Expensive, ruins your life, ruins your career, ruins your relationships. Swearing? That’s an embarrassment. Sleeping around? How many diseases or disastrous relationships do you need before you figure out that sex with multiple partners is never as fulfilling as having God’s choice as a wonderful wife or husband? If sex brought fulfilment, the most fulfilled person in the world would be a prostitute! Partying? Well, you look cool when you are 18, sad when you are 28, embarrassing when you’re 38 and downright tragic when you’re 48 and still trying to party. What a waste of a life!

 

People tell me they don’t want to give up the things they like doing to become a Christian. Listen, coming to Christ doesn’t mean you stop having fun… in fact you have more fun, a fulfilled life, family, careers, and blessing others! And when you know Jesus, you recognise how shallow and destructive those old behaviours are.  When you come to Jesus, you don’t give up the lousy life you currently lead, you throw it away. I don’t give up my garbage, I throw it away.

 

John 10:10 (ESV Strong's)

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

 

Any so called restriction placed on your life when you come to Christ is for your own protection, and it allows you to live the best life ever! I’ve been married to the same girl for 33 years last week, and I know guys who pick up girls in bars regularly. The world thinks their life is more exciting than mine, more fulfilling than mine, but all of them envy me and the relationship I have with one woman.

 

Jesus’ mission from God is not to restrict or mess up your life, it’s to fulfil it and make it abundant!

 

So now we know what Jesus’ mission wasn’t, let look at what His mission from God was.  Why did Jesus come to earth as a baby that first Christmas Day?

 

First, we need to understand the situation we find ourselves in, the condition of mankind. God created us perfect and without sin, and He gave us a garden to enjoy, but the devil tempted Adam and Eve away from God and towards sin.

 

WE LIVE IN SIN CITY?

 

What is sin? Is to murdering, or stealing or getting angry at people.  Those are some of the many symptoms of sin, but what is the cause of sin.

 

Sin is defined by the Bible thus…

 

1 John 3:4 (ESV Strong's)

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

 

Sin is doing anything, saying anything, even thinking anything that is contrary or against God. I have people say to me, “I’m a good guy, I’m honest, I try and do the right thing, so I don’t think I sin.”

 

Really? Have you ever been selfish? Ever envied your friend? Ever hurt someone you love? Clearly, according to the Bible, we are all guilty as charged. We all live in sin city. We are all lawless, obeying our laws and desires, not God’s.

 

ALL HAVE SINNED, AND ALL MUST PAY

 

The Bible says,

 

Romans 3:23 (ESV Strong's)

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

 

And that is clearly true. The Bible says that God is holy, and that He, and indeed Jesus is without sin. Any sin. And God is so holy, He will not even look upon sin. The penalty for sin is separation from God, separation in this life from Him, and in eternity separated in hell.

 

Romans 6:23 (ESV Strong's)

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

We are all destined for eternal death in hell, every one of us, because clearly we are all sinners! You might cry to God that it’s not fair, but it is extremely fair and just.

 

And this is why we can do nothing to redeem ourselves. Every religion in the world says that, if you live a good life and your good outweighs the bad, you might just be saved. It’s salvation by works, by doing everything from being a good person, handing out watchtower magazines or murdering non believers!

 

Every religion is man’s attempt up to reach God, but only Christianity is God’s attempt to reach down to man in the person of His Son and draw man to Himself.

 

MISSION 1- JESUS CAME TO SAVE YOU

 

But because of Jesus’ mission from God, Christianity is completely different. The Bible teaches that you and I are destined for hell, and nothing you can do will stop that. Even if you’re a nice guy, you won’t get to heaven, you’ll just get to be the nicest guy in hell!

 

Jesus’ primary mission was this… God knew we couldn’t become good enough to be saved, and that we deserve to die, so God sent His only Son to die in our place.

 

John 3:16 (ESV Strong's)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

 

That’s the good news of the gospel… you don’t have to be good enough to be saved, because you can never be good enough, you just have to be willing to accept Jesus.

 

Romans 5:8 (ESV Strong's)

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

 

2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV Strong's)

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

 

This Christmas, look beyond the baby in the manger and see the Saviour hanging on nails dying in your place! Nails didn’t hold Him to the cross, love did! His love for you is the very reason He became that baby, lived as a man and died the death we should have died, to open the door for us to come back to God.

 

John 10:17-18 (ESV Strong's)

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

 

Accepting God’s gift of eternal life is available to you this Christmas, free of charge. Just repent and receive, it is that simple.

 

MISSION 2- JESUS CAME TO SHINE IN A DARK WORLD

 

You probably don’t need me to tell you that this world is a dark, dark place! There’s pain, sickness, selfishness, war and prejudice. It seems mankind can’t help themselves, they just hurt each other.

 

Pause right now and look around at life… there’s the threat of war in North Korea, there’s famines we can’t control, there’s sicknesses we cannot heal, let alone control, there’s evil regimes that operate unchecked. Today there’s more terrorism, more mental illness and more drug abuse than ever before.  Mankind doesn’t know where the next terror attack is coming from, we don’t know how to act kindly, how to care properly for the poor, how to eat properly ourselves, how to relate properly. We’ve no idea how to stop envy, greed, prejudice, exploitation, divorce, separation, and mankind is so smart we don’t know the difference between a male and a female any more!

 

This world is a mess. What sort of world are we leaving to our children? If we really love our kids, the best thing we can do is to come to Jesus and lead them out of this horrible darkness and into His light.

 

You see, into such a world God sent His Son to shine a light, His truth, His grace and compassion into our lives, a ray of hope that started at Christmas and grew to completeness hanging on a cross for you.

 

The second part of Jesus’ mission from God was to shine His holy light in the darkness of the world…

 

Jesus said,

John 8:12 (ESV Strong's)

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

 

John 12:46 (ESV Strong's)

I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

 

But here’s the thing… the Bible says mankind hates it when the light shines into their darkness, because they are ashamed of what they do. Men love darkness because it kind of covers up their faults and sin. Ever wondered why evil things like prostitution, drug taking, drinking, gambling, wife beating, pornography, murder and most other sins, mostly occur at night?

 

John 3:19-21 (ESV Strong's)

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

 

 

MISSION 3- JESUS CAME TO HEAL AND SET CAPTIVES FREE

 

Jesus’ mission from God was summarised in Isaiah, used by Jesus in Luke to describe Himself

Luke 4:18-19 (ESV Strong's)

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”

 

If you are feeling like someone or something holds you captive today, Jesus has come to set you free. If you’re a slave to destructive habits, Jesus has come to set you free. If you feel bound, overwhelmed, hurt, if you feel like you are struggling against insurmountable odds, Jesus has come to set you free.

 

Jesus mission includes healing the sick, binding up the hurt and broken hearted.

 

 

MISSION 4- PROVIDE POWER FOR LIVING

 

Jesus didn’t just come on a mission from God to save us, and to heal and restore us, but His coming opened the way for us to have real power for living. He died in our place on the cross, but death could not hold Him, and 3 days later He conquered death and sin and rose again, showing us that we too can have eternal life!

 

John 11:25 (ESV Strong's)

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,

 

Eternal life is not some pie in the sky when you die by and by, it starts right here. Jesus’ mission was to give us life for here and now, as well as eternity. The power to live a triumphant life, every day, no matter what circumstances throw at us. Life to the full, starting now.

 

Jesus died, rose to life again and then went back to be with the Father, but before He went He gave us this gift…

 

Acts 1:8 (ESV Strong's)

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

 

The Holy Spirit is the deposit of God, living within us. I can’t live a righteous life, and either can you, but God’s Spirit living in you can slowly transform the way you live to empower you to live a righteous, triumphant and blessed life. When Jesus came that first Christmas, His mission was to bring salvation to mankind, to shine in a dark world, to heal and set men free and to empower you to life life to the full. But He has one more mission objective…

 

 

MISSION 5- RAISE AN ARMY TO WIN THE WORLD

 

Jesus came that first Christmas as a meek and mild baby, born into poverty, raised in obscurity, but He has promised to return, and it will not be as a baby! He’s coming back again in triumph, as the rightful King, and to this end He is raising an army of believers to win the world!

 

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (ESV Strong's)

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

 

CHOOSE THIS DAY

 

This Christmas, we remember Jesus coming as a baby. He came on a mission from God, He came and died a horrible death because He loves you. You don’t deserve it, either do I, but God loves you so much He wants to save you for all eternity, and empower you to live for Him, starting right now.

 

This Christmas you face a choice… go your own way, or turn to Jesus. Stumble in this dark world or come into the light? Give Him the flick, or give Him your life? There are consequences to every decision. What will you do?

 

Deuteronomy 30:19 (ESV Strong's)

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live,

 

If you come to Jesus, you receive life, and your children are led into the light. Yes, you can save generations by making the right decision now.