In this sermon Peter Brooks shares how we can stand firm in the Lord in 2023, how we can anticipate His coming again and act with truth and grace in a world that is moving away from absolute truth.

Sermon preached by Peter Brooks on Sunday January 8, 2023.

In this sermon Tim talks about Christmas, how there’s so much more behind all the fun things that happen, that it is when the light of the world came to Earth! He reminds us this Christmas to put Jesus first, and reminds us how we can shine His light in our lives too!

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday December 18, 2022.

SERMON NOTES

So whether this is your last service with us for the year before you head off on holidays, or whether you will be joining us next weekend for our Christmas services…

Let me wish you a very happy Christmas!

How do you know it’s Christmas? 

• I got my first clue last weekend when I went and bought $69 a kilo prawns at Harris farm… I had to take out a 2^nd mortgage. 
• You also know its Christmas in Australia you get your first good sunburn of the year…
• And of course everywhere you start to see Christmas lights…
• I like those streets up in Davidson which is singularly responsible for the electricity shortages in the power grid…
• Why lights? Well it’s the season to celebrate the light of the world, coming into the darkness…

Our theme this year… the light has come!

• The Prophet Isaiah says, “Arise, shine, for your light has come.”
• Jesus says, “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”
• Jesus says to his disciples, “You are the light of the world.”

What if Christmas is about more than eating over priced prawns or decorating your house…

• What if Christmas was about God bringing light into the darkness by sending Jesus into the world.
• And what if Christmas is about the remarkable story of God filling his children with that light in order to bring hope to the world?

One of the things I am enjoying about being a Dad at this particular stage of my kids growing up is introducing them to all the movies I’ve enjoyed over the years.

And our current obsession, having done all of the Star Wars movies, series, stand alone films and TV shows… is… Lord of the Rings…

• Admittedly getting the kids through each 3 hour films was a little challenging at first, but now having done the first two, they are pumped for the last. 
• And of course it tells the story of the battle for Middle earth, the hobbits and their little band of friends, taking on the evil forces of Mordor and Sauron…
• So for the next 25 minutes I’d love to tell you the story of the Lord of the Rings… haha – no!
• But of course the books were written by the practicing Christian JR Tolkein. And there are heaps of scenes that echo the bible’s story of light versus darkness.
• Of course Jesus does not conquer with weapons, but with love… but the themes are still there. 

Anyhow, one of the great scenes at the end of the 2^nd movie is the battle for Helms Deep. Who is with me?

• And Gandalf the wizard has said to Aaragon the King in waiting, “Look to my coming on the first light of the fifth day. At dawn look to the east.”
• Well in true epic fashion, the evil troll army have almost defeated the good guys in the castle. All seems lost…

And then, right at the darkest moment, Gandalf the white appears with a huge army of reinforcements on the ridge at first light.

• As the sun rises at dawn, so does the promised help appear, and the battle is turned decisively in favour of the good guys… 
• Gandalf the white… with the light of the sun behind him, defeats the forces of darkness…
• It’s a cool moment… 
• And I think there is a reason that so many of our stories, echo the greatest story ever told! 
• We long for light to triumph over darkness, we long for good to overcome evil. 

Well all through the bible there is this amazing motif of light and darkness…

• If you want to understand the bible a great way is to follow a theme through the whole bible story…   
• Darkness representing all that is wrong and broken about the world and in us…
• And light representing God’s presence, his character and our mission….

So from the beginning God separates the light from the darkness and it says, he saw that the light was good. Light brings order to chaos…

As he then forms a people, and God leads them out of slavery in Egypt. And God’s presence is light… 

• It says; “By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light.” 
• As Psalm 27 says, The LORD is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? 
• So in the Old Testament God is associated with light…
• And it is his light that guides us, that protects us and saves us

And the promise in Isaiah is that, they aint seen nothing yet! A great light is to come into the world…

Isaiah 9:1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. 

That is really what Christmas is all about – the coming of light into the world.

• And I love that imagery of a light dawning upon our lives…
• Humans of New York – Guy whose quote was Jesus helped me get off crack cocaine and now I own a window washing business… that is what Jesus does. 
• The light comes into our lives, saves us, transforms us and gives us hope!

So a light is to come into the world that will end the gloom for those living in distress…

• And this light is linked to the actions of the people who bear God’s name…

Isaiah 42:5-7 “I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, 7 to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.

So a great light is to come into the world… but God’s children also have an incredible role to play in spreading that light… 

• And what does that involve? 
• Well it says, his light breaks forth through us, healing the blind, freeing the captives, releasing those in darkness.
• That is what God wants to encourage us to give our lives to, to be involved in, to care about, to speak on behalf of?
• After all, Christianity is not about just getting saved and waiting to go to heaven!
• Our faith is an invitation to follow the light of the world… and then to be the light of the world.

That was always God’s plan. 

• People may ask – Where is God this Christmas? So much darkness… war in Ukraine and floods and financial distress…
• Let me tell you… he is working through his Spirit filled disciples to spread light into the world…
• Nicolas Kristoff (NYT’s opinion piece writer) went looking for good news stories in dark places…
• Although not a Christian himself he kept finding it was Christians on the front lines doing good work in the most difficult of places… 
• One of those in his article was my friends dad who worked as a surgeon in Angola through their civil war.
• Following the light of the world, pretty quickly turns you into the light of the world. 

And of course we are living in an environment where Christians are not always perceived as the good guys anymore… and sadly much of this is for sad and understandable reasons…

• Article about the Salvation Army… 
• Angry comments – how dare the salvos believe things about human sexuality 
• But then there was one commenter who simply said: “Thank God for the salvos, they were the ones who picked me up out of the gutter when no one else would.”

You see that is the claim, that without God’s children at work in the world it plunges into darkness.

• Would Manly miss us? Could it survive without us? Are we essential?
• That seems to be the suggestion that the Prophet Isaiah makes…
• That God’s children are meant to be the light of the world… 
• And without us, the world is plunged into darkness, it loses it moral core, its sense of right and wrong, the value of every individual as special…

The Prophet Isaiah says, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.”

Now at the time of writing this, God’s people were struggling to believe they had a hope or a future.

• In Ch 59 they are asking where is God? Vs 9 we look for light but all is darkness…
• So in chapter 60 the Prophet Isaiah reassures the people that God has not forgotten them and that their mission as a light to the world has not changed. 
• At this point in Israel’s history it is fair to say that there is nothing going forward from this point that suggests that they were functioning as a great light…
• As one commentary puts it…  “We meet with nothing in the history… which can be deemed a fulfillment of the prophecy in this chapter; we must conclude it relates principally to future events.”

Any ideas who that may be… clue 700 years later someone is born in a manger.

• As that amazing song we sing at Christmas says…

Long lay the world in sin and error pining, 

Till He appeared And the soul felt its worth. 

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, 

for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. 

So in Matthew 4 we read that the waiting is over. This new glorious morn has begun…

• Now the author of this gospel is trying to make sense for us of the coming of Jesus, clearly there are miracles around his birth… something special is brewing…
• So Matthew quote Isaiah… “People living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”
• That is what we are celebrating that the fulfillment of this prophecy has occurred!
• Like Gandalf promising to come in the midst of the darkest moment of the battle to rescue, so Jesus is the promised one who comes into the world to defeat darkness. 
• It’s what makes Christmas such a wonderful time of the year…

Well let me finish by just reflecting on some of Isaiah 60:1-3

1. It says darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples

This is the reality of the world that we live in…. 

Westfield darkness and thieves… was there just one thief? Says something about the human condition…

• So the world is a dark place…
• The majority of the world do not know God, through Christ, in a saving, liberating way.
• And the justice and freedom that comes from God’s people reflecting light is not a reality for billions of people.
• Imagine living in the Ukraine right now or being a refugee fleeing the violence
• Imagine living under the caste system in India or as a woman in Iran 
• And it is not just globally…. What about on the beaches? 
• I know we were so inspired by the work of Josie and Lighthouse Northern Beaches a few weeks ago… but it is also deeply saddening that her work even needs to exist
• What a tragedy that so many in our community face domestic violence, homelessness and isolation.

• The light has come and what we do is in response…

Into this darkness, God speaks to his people… 

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.”

• The imagery is of the dawning of a new day 
• In Hebrew, shine and light are two forms of the same word. We could translate this “give light for your light has come.”
• As Jesus has come to bring light, we reflect this light…
• And to us he will then say, “You are the light of the world, let your light shine before others.”

Challenge us this year: where can you tilt the world around you towards light and away from darkness…

• My guess is you can be part of a great cause… you can give your money and time to positive causes…
• But my guess to is that you can tilt history towards the light by being present for someone, listening to someone, making time for someone…
• Your light shines brightest, when inspired by Jesus we stop for the one… we invite people into our homes… we extend hospitality and friendship… 
• My challenge to us this year, is shine bright right where you are!

• As we reflect light, the world is drawn into this great story!
• Vs 3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. 
• This is our mission – Jesus calls us a city on a hill that cannot be hidden, the light of the world… reflecting God’s presence to the world around us.
• And as we reflect the light of God’s presence and character living in us – the world is drawn to God.

Now I know that we as Christians need to let our actions do most of the talking…

• But sometimes I just get so proud of you guys that I can’t help brag about what you are doing…
• As it says in Ephesians 5, “everything that is illuminated becomes a light.”
• You are some of the most illuminated people I know… 
• Not in a brainy way… well I’m sure you are all very illuminated in that way… but I am talking about how you shine in a dark world. 
• How you give and get involved with Homes of Hope International and their care for victims of sex trafficking. 
• How you love one another when someone is hurting or struggling
• How you have given so generously to the Christmas appeal this year to help make Christmas a little better for those here on the Northern Beaches without. 

That is the invitation this Christmas – behold the light of the world, Jesus coming into the darkness to show us the love of God…

• And then as the children of God, reflect that light into a dark world… 
• Proclaim God’s saving love, advocate and work for justice and peace, being a light in your community!

In this sermon Tim recaps an amazing year at Manly Life and calls us to remember what we have been taught and put it into action, do we look any different as a church or as individuals since the beginning of the year – have we grown in our faith? Let’s end the year well and join with what God is doing!

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday November 27, 2022.

Welcome and introductions… 

• Well while the year comes into land… it feels a bit like things are taking off for Christmas at Manly Life… waterworks…
• Gingerbread, Christmas kids production on 18^th, Christmas Eve and day 
• It’s been a big year and a good year. Seen people come to faith, baptisms, weekend away for our 10^th anniversary, some farewells but also lots of new people… weddings… babies…
• It’s community… it is doing life together. 
• And doing life together also means the hard stuff… in the midst of community and friendship, we experience grief and struggles and pain… 
• Some of you will know we took Oli and Katie’s wedding on his family property in Eugowra a few weeks ago… floods…
• What I’ve learned is that we are called to faithfulness, no matter what is going on, because we follow a good and faithful saviour.

Cass Mathew’s suggested in 2019 that I do a sermon summarizing all that we had learnt that year… 

• Which I did in 2019… 
• That year we did the Book of Proverbs about wisdom and then the Book of Revelation… then in 2020 the world turned a bit Book of Revelation…
• Haha… but the following two years I can basically summarize as Covid sucks and online church is not the future… 
• So back to this year… and despite some limitations and a bit of mask wearing at the start of the year… has been somewhat back to normal. 

Q: What have we done this year? Can anyone remember our series or talks?

• In fairness, sometimes by Tuesday I have forgotten what I preached on the last Sunday…
• And its actually one of the reasons we are so keen for everyone to be in a Life Group, because the Sunday passage is studied and discussed… and that helps it go in a bit deeper…
• Well we did two major series this year… one called What Did Jesus Teach? on the Sermon on the Mount and one on the Holy Spirit as God’s empowering presence. 
• So how do you summarize that?
• Maybe something like… what life in the Kingdom of heaven looks like… and then how to be empowered to live that life in the kingdom. 

But the Sermon on the Mount as this amazing three chapters of Jesus teaching in Matthews gospel of what life looks like as children of God as citizens of the kingdom of heaven!

• Of course my favourite sermon in that series was when I just read the Sermon on the Mount, all 15 minutes of it, in full… that certainly cut down my preparation time.
• But we get this radical, upside down life that followers of Jesus are called to live
• And at the end of the sermon he says those who put my words into practice are like wise people who build their house on the rock.
• The idea being that there will be storms in life, so build your life wisely so that it wont come crashing down.
• And so much gold in the sermon on the mount…
• The blessed life described in the beatitudes, the call to love our enemies and forgive those who sin against us… to be people who seek first the kingdom of God…

And then the Holy Spirit series where we looked at different ways, God’s presence comes to empower the Christ in us life of you and me, and the church

• I thought that was just such a good series for our church… 
• Because not only did we learn about the Holy Spirit, but we got so many opportunities to receive and be filled with the Spirit
• And to give things a go… praying for someone… using our gifts…
• Being filled with the love of God… asking for the fruit of the Spirit to grow in us!
• Moment at a worship night… prophetic words, praying for healing, God touching people’s lives… happy Pastor…

You know one of the big things that us Baptists have always gone on about is the priesthood of all believers…

• The idea being, that in the church everyone has a role to play… not just some super anointed guy in a white suit.
• So as we get filled with the presence of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, we can minister to one another, and to the world around us!

So there you go… the Sermon on the Mount, the Holy Spirit…

• If its your first time at Manly Life today, then you’ve basically caught up on all we have done this year…
• Be good and be filled with God…

Today is also a baptism service!

Right after the service finishes we are going to head into the courtyard and baptise Cornelis…

• For Victoria and I, and us as a church community, there can be no greater joy than seeing people put their trust in Jesus and decide to follow him as their Lord and saviour. 
• And this year we also baptised Trish and Hope – so good!
• But one of the joys in leading a church is having people like Cornelis in our community. He and Maren have been such a blessing to us and their Life Group. 
• And to see this Dutch water engineer be so on fire for Jesus has just been wonderful.

Baptism is this amazing Christian proclamation about who you are following and new life you have in Christ.

• Jesus was of course baptized…
• And in the early church when someone heard the good news of the gospel and responded, they were then baptised.
• And what it symbolizes in going under the water is a participation in the death of Jesus
• And then rising out of the water, participating in Jesus resurrection and the promise of new life. 
• Dying to your sins, and rising to new life in Christ. So cool. It says I belong to Jesus. 

So for Cornelis today, he has put his trust in Jesus as Lord! 

• I love that word Lord… not one we use that term much these days… We don’t go around greeting people My Lord and my Lady…
• But as we learnt a bit last week – In the ancient world Caesar was Lord. That was the Roman emperor who ruled a huge swath of the known world. 
• It meant he was sovereign and in control. Indeed he was seen as a God on earth. You find coins saying Caesar is Lord. 
• So it means you are under his jurisdiction… his rules for living, his kingdom.
• If you wanted to live in Rome as a citizen of the Empire… you followed Caesar’s decree’s.
• So in our Sermon on the Mount series we saw what it looks like to live for a different King!

And that has always been the confession we make to become Christians…

It is the confession of Thomas after he meets Jesus, risen from the dead. He goes “My Lord and my God…”

• It is in the book of Acts – most basic confession signifying someone is a Christian.
• Peter in the cracking first sermon that leads to 3,000 people believing and getting baptized says “everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved!”
• He says, “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
• So what I will ask these Cornelis before being baptized is do you confess Jesus as your Lord and saviour? 
• Is he your king and do you want to live in his kingdom?

And this is a big call!

• Not like changing from coke to pepsi, or changing from being a goth to a hipster, or changing from riding short boards to long boards…
• You are making a call about who is your king! Whom you will serve.
• Who is the main hope, the main shaper, the main authority in your life.

In doing so much NT and Jesus this year, hopefully you’ve seen that it is a demanding message.

• Of course our tendency is to set the bar so low for following Jesus so as to make it palatable 
• Sometimes I think we get confused and think our mission is to make Jesus popular. 
• You know… its ok to be cool and Christian because Jesus is cool… 
• I mean if Justin Bieber is a Christian… then…
• And of course we are saved by grace, not what we achieve or our own moral uprightness…
• But sometimes in our desire to make faith accessible we set the bar pretty low for what trusting and following Jesus looks like.

And the result of course is that Christians become basically indistinguishable from the rest of the world… 

• In other words, who is Lord would be hard to tell…
• A good question is: have you begun to shape the world around you, or is the world around you still shaping you?
• Alive fish swim against the tide, dead ones float down stream with everything else…
• The technical terms for this is syncretism… its where you basically adopt and blend in with your Christianity, opposing views and values… 
• So your faith should make a difference… it should set you apart!

In the spirit of setting the bar nice and low, here are some things Jesus never said…  

John 8 to the woman caught in adultery; “Neither do I condemn you, now go lead a very sinful life…”

• Then there was the time Jesus didn’t teach us to pray in the Sermon on the Mount; “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name… now give me what I want… gimme, gimme, gimme…”
• Or my favourite; “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice (when it suits them), is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

Well, what we have learned from Jesus this year is how to live well in the kingdom of God, as God’s children…

• I guess these are my charges to Trish and Hope and Cornelis this year, but also for all of us today.
• Come to this Jesus as your Lord and then live well and empowered in his kingdom.
• You will be turned right side up, you will have your heart reoriented towards good, you will learn a solid foundation that will help you endure the storms of life!

So the establishing of the kingdom of God was Jesus main focus! Do a word search – it is amazing how often it comes up!

• Jesus said I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom
• He said; The kingdom is here
• The kingdom is within you
• Go and proclaim the kingdom
• Heal the sick and tell them the kingdom of God has come near
• Pray Our Father in heaven, your kingdom come, your will be done.
• The kingdom has come upon you
• Seek his Kingdom and these things will be given to you
• What’s the kingdom of God like? Its like a mustard seed, its like yeast
• Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast of the kingdom
• The good news of the kingdom is being preached
• Know that the kingdom of God is near
• I confer on you a kingdom
• Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom
• Get it yet? And this is all just from Luke’s gospel…

Someone at my swim group was asking me something about some obscure doctrine the other day.

• I must admit I kind of shrugged my shoulders and said “I don’t know?”
• But I can tell you about the kingdom of God. This is what Jesus came to establish. It is simply a reality where God is king and things are restored. 
• See you got to minor on the minors and major on the majors.
• And guys if you want to know what the main game is – it is… the kingdom!

Mark 1:14 NIV

“Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come”, he said, “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.”

Dallas Willard paraphrases that verse

“Jesus then came into Galilee announcing the good news from God. ‘All the preliminaries have been taken care of’ he said, ‘and the rule of God is now accessible to everyone. Review your plans for living and base your life on this remarkable new opportunity.”

So what is this remarkable opportunity?

Growing up, one of my favourite film series was Back to the future – you know Michael J Fox…

• But one of the protagonists Biff Tannen steals the time machine, goes to the future and when he comes back…
• He gives his younger self a book containing 50 years of sports statistics
• The young Biff uses this to amass an enormous gambling fortune and transform idyllic Hill Valley into a living hell.
• Biff brings back something from the future and that changes everything…

So in initiating the Kingdom of God, Jesus does this (but instead of using it to bring back a bad future… Jesus brings God’s good future into our world today)…

• The kingdom was this future hope Israel had where God would heal the sick, end suffering, bring forgiveness and grace. Basically it is heaven. 
• In sending Jesus into the world, God is sending his son to release the future now!
• That is why our main prayer is let your kingdom come!
• Our prayer is to be; God, release this future restoration in the here and now!
• Let this kingdom where your rule is perfect, come here in our broken world today!

So that is the remarkable new opportunity – to live under God’s future rule, right here and now!

Jesus spills the future out onto people… the restoration at the end, breaks into the now.

• So we watch it tip out on people. As the kingdom is announced and demonstrated… 
• On the woman caught in adultery…she receives grace and truth 
• To the lame: Get up and walk!
• To the blind: Open your eyes and see!
• To the lost and broken: Your sins are forgiven!
• And the ethics of the kingdom: Love your neighbor as yourself!
• Forgive those who sin against you!

But to get in on what God is doing (this remarkable new opportunity) we are told we must repent and believe… 

So repent: see it has all been good news, but what about now? You may ask – does that mean I have to repent, what do you mean I have to change things?

• I read a good definition of sin: It’s the difference between how our lives are, and what they should be.
• I think as we reflect on our lives… we know there is a gap!
• I remember when I came to follow Jesus this conviction that my life was not as it should be.
• I wasn’t treating people the right way, I was living for myself, I was easily swayed!
• My life was out of sync with God’s intention for it.
• Like a fish on a bicycle. Not what it was created for or to do.

And the clearest sign that we have repented is our lives are lining up with the kingdom… 

• That the gap between how are lives should be, and how they are, is closing. 
• Not just about saying sorry… 
• Sorry is easy, turning your life in a new direction is the challenge…

Many year ago in my other life as a corporate titan in London I used to do a lot of travel for work in Europe

• Getting lost in Switzerland… crossing the boarder into France…
• Saying sorry or feeling bad about going in the wrong direction isn’t going to help… 
• Need to turn around and drive in the right direction with the right map to follow…
• To follow Jesus is to turn around, and embrace the direction and God’s will for our lives.

When his Gospel gets hold of us we cannot help but change… the more we learn, the more God is at work in our lives, the more we will want to re-orient our lives towards Jesus.

• I wonder if you need to do that today? To believe and turn around.
• Heading in the wrong direction, out of sync
• Jesus wants to pour the future into your present. 
• To bring the love of God into our lives…
• To bring healing and restoration into your life. 
• Turn your life over to Jesus, and let him be Lord.

Finally, we spend the rest of our lives working out what our citizenship in heaven means…

• So we’ve come to believe he is Lord, we have turned from our sin… and then we become children of God who take on the family likeness… 
• Ephesians 2… says… “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers (no longer on the outside of all of this), but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.”
• And that citizenship is the best passport you will ever have. It is becoming a citizen of heaven, that is citizens in a new kingdom with a new King.
• Paul will encourage you simply in Philippians as citizen of heaven: Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel.

So to all of us, to Cornelis, when the Gospel gets a hold of your life remarkable things begin to happen.

• It doesn’t mean all of life becomes easy
• I mean in the sermon on the mount Jesus said you’re blessed when you are persecuted for his sake and for living righteously…
• It doesn’t mean we see the fullness of the kingdom – that will happen when we pass away into glory
• But it does mean God is now alive in you… Changing your character, forgiving your sins, and giving you a purpose
• Pouring this future hope into your lives now.
• And that friends, is the year in review! Bring on Christmas…

Amen. 

In this sermon Tim unpacks how Jesus perfectly balances grace and truth in his relationship with us and how we can rely on the Holy Spirit to guide as we relate to each other with grace and truth!

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday November 20, 2022.

SERMON NOTES:

Romans 2 All in the Same Boat

Introduce myself… 

I want to talk today about our posture towards the world, as Christians

And as I observe… often a bit from the side lines it is often a debate between grace and truth…

So as we approach difficult ethical and pastoral issues, particularly where our culture has moved so rapidly in one direction…

And we stumbling… but hopefully faithfully, do our best to be a church that is defined by grace and truth

I want to Read from Romans 3 in the Message version… 

Verse 9: So where does that put us? Do we Jews get a better break than the others? Not really. Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it:

There’s nobody living right, not even one, nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God. They’ve all taken the wrong turn; they’ve all wandered down blind alleys. No one’s living right; I can’t find a single one. Their throats are gaping graves, their tongues slick as mudslides. Every word they speak is tinged with poison. They open their mouths and pollute the air. They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year, litter the land with heartbreak and ruin. Don’t know the first thing about living with others. They never give God the time of day.

Verse 21; But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.

The Book of Romans is a remarkable letter that Paul writes to the first believers in Rome.

In the ancient world we don’t find the word Gospel very often. The main time it was used was when a new Emperor came to power. 

And he is Lord because although he was crucified, he is now risen from the dead!

And the reason was simple. Jesus Christ is Lord was not just something to learn about, but something to experience…

And the good news of Jesus being Lord was an invitation to become a child of God. 

Romans 2:4 says; (don’t you know that) God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? 

So in order to receive this radical life change of following Jesus as Lord… what are we called to turn from? What is it we are being rescued from?

So I would say there are broadly 3 things that Paul goes after in order to get to the good news…

Well Paul starts with idolatry.

So then Paul goes after two more. And he wants us to see that we are all in the same boat when it comes to needing rescue. So lets look at them…

The next is a judgemental mentality, whereby you think that because you know the truth about God you are better than everyone else.

A couple of  years ago you may have remembered hearing about a website called Ashley Madison where married people can organise to have an affair… 

OK, so after addressing the judgemental mentality Paul then goes after the third thing:  that really no one is without excuse because doing the right thing should be obvious but no one can really do it…

Romans 3:9-12 

“Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it: There’s nobody living right, not even one, nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God. They’ve all taken the wrong turn; they’ve all wandered down blind alleys.

Now this is not a popular thing to conclude, particularly in the market place of ideas…

So where does that lead us… I would suggest in the same situation… all needing rescue…

When I was in Africa I remember a friend telling a story about them as children swimming in the local river.  

Often we find ourselves in that same place, trying desperately to rescue ourselves only to eventually falling into the arms of God… 

And remember that it is God’s kindness that can then be revealed leading to our repentance…

• Those of us who have put our faith and hope for security in idols…
• The self righteous who think they are better than everyone else.
• The rest of us who really should know better… but still stuff up.

As I mentioned, I think the best example of truth and grace in Jesus is found in John 8 in the story of the woman caught in adultery… and she is dragged before Jesus… 

• Imagine the deep feeling of fear and shame that would have swept over her… probably felt similar to a number of users of Ashley Madison. Caught!
• But picture the scene, Jesus the wandering teacher and healer… the condemning crowds… the fearful woman… the baffled disciples… 
• For those who know the story, wouldn’t you give anything to know what Jesus wrote in the dust…
• And yet in calling those without sin to cast the first stone… and then saying to the woman, “neither do I condemn you, now go and leave you life of sin”…
• Not only did the lives of those there get changed, but I believe the world changed.
• Grace and truth took on flesh and dwelt amongst us.. 
• And all of us discovered that really we all live in the same boat… needing and ready to be rescued. 

Romans 3:22-24 Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.

Tim, why are you a Christian…

• The answer is Jesus.
• Why do you believe in grace… the answer is Jesus…
• Why do you cling to sound doctrine and truth… the answer is Jesus…
• Tim, why do you hang out with sinners… the answer is Jesus
• Tim, why don’t you just move with the times… the answer is Jesus. 
• Tim you are leaning too far into grace without truth… or Tim you are leaning too far into truth without grace… the answer is… well I’m not Jesus… I don’t always get it right…
• But I’m trying to listen to his Spirit that lives in me… the Spirit of truth and grace.

One final implication for all of us… Can I suggest that the people of God should look and smell and sound like something…

• We don’t hear in the gospels about the condemning men or the adulterous woman again.  
• But I have some guesses about their lives… at least the ones whom the gospel got a hold of their lives…
• The men: I imagine they became a little more humble… and slower to condemn others
• The woman: I imagine she was very grateful… that someone had rescued her at this greatest moment of shame… and I imagine she started a whole new life as a disciple of Jesus. 

And doesn’t all of this then change our posture towards the world?

• The idolaters, the judgemental, the serial sinners… actually just all in the same boat.
• And so shaped by the one who came in grace and truth…
• We too try and posture our hearts and lives, and attitudes and words to be like this!
• That is who we are as a church, as the people of God… 
• We don’t always get it right… but I hope we try… 
• Ultimately to be like Jesus, knowing… hoping that extravagant grace… and unchanging truth…
• That, that will lead to the radical life change that only the gospel can bring!

Amen?

In this sermon unpacks the Biblical principle and command, Sabbath! How do we obey God and fit into His rhythms by allowing ourselves top rest, and what does that look like? Victoria encourages us to make this a priority so we can serve God with endurance and full of the Spirit!

Sermon preached by Victoria Giovanelli on Sunday November 13, 2022.

SERMON NOTES

How good was the anniversary weekend? 

I was so overwhelmed looking back on what the Lord has done in our midst

• All the testimonies
• All the provision
• How true is psalm 16:11 You make known to (us) the path of life;
      you will fill (us) with joy in your presence (Lord)
• There was so much joy in that place!
• I think we need to celebrate more often 
• So shall we do it all again this weekend? Ask staff to stand and give them a hand. 

We are diving back into our series on the glorious riches found in Christ Jesus and today I want to teach on the glorious riches of rest found in Christ. 

• So get cosy, chill out and soak it in, because the rhythms and promises of God are good. 

Now what do you do when you get an invitation to an event that you long to attend?

• Well at first your heart leaps with excitement/or joy
• You check your calendar, make sure you are available and then dedicate that time to the event. 
• Get babysitting if you have kids 
• You work out what you’re going to wear, spend time getting yourself ready – unless your my husband and you seem to just throw anything on 5min before leaving for the event and somehow look awesome
• Then you show up, you’re present
• You enjoy the moment

What if God sent you an invitation… an invitation to rest? 

• Would we clear our calendars?
• Would we ready ourselves for it?
• Would we show up? Be present and enjoy the moment?

I believe in a world where we are so hurried and busy and constantly distracted by all the things, the to-do list, our social media accounts, the need for accomplishment and productivity, that we actually find it really hard to enter into this invitation even though it’s the very thing our souls so desperately need. 

Saint Augustine writing at the time of the fall of the Roman Empire said this about God: “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

Do you know a rhythm of rest was embedded into very universe by God at the very beginning?

So let’s begin by starting there…

Gen 2:1-2 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

God rested. God blessed that day and called it holy. 

This seventh day is called Sabbath and it appears with this title in the 10 Commandments in Exo 20:8

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. ¹¹ For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

This doesn’t mean that God was tired and needed a rest. We know that God is omnipotent, literally “all-powerful.” He has all the power in the universe, He never tires, and nothing he does diminishes His power one bit. 

This word Sabbath comes to us from the Hebrew word Shabbat. The word literally means “to stop.” The Sabbath is simply a day to stop: stop working, stop worrying, stop doing, stop buying, just stop. 

A.J.Swoboda wrote this: (The Sabbath) has largely been forgotten by the church which has uncritically mimicked the rhythms of the industrial and success obsessed West. The result? Our weary, exhausted churches have largely failed to integrate Sabbath into their lives as vital elements of Christian discipleship (ouch). It is not as though we do not love God – we love God deeply. We just do not know how to sit with God anymore. 

He continued (if you can handle some more): We have become perhaps the most emotionally exhausted, psychologically overworked, spiritually malnourished people in history. 

I think there’s some truth in what he’s saying. 

See if we are honest, most of us don’t know how to Sabbath anymore, or even if we should? But God says: Remember the Sabbath day remember to rest. It’s so important he puts it in the 10 commandments. 

Maybe you can relate to some of these reasons that Author and Pastor John Mark Comer in his book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry (which I think is one of the most important books of our age – and inspired this sermon) He echoes back to us these excuses…

“Yeah, I’m not really into the Sabbath. I’m an extrovert and I just like to stay busy…”

But God rested.

“Yeah, I get the Sabbath thing, but I work a demanding job that I love, and I just can’t make the time because there is too much to get done…”

God rested.

“Yeah, but I have two kids at home, and it’s just not really doable right now. Maybe later when…”

God rested.

If God rested then just maybe rest is beneficial for you to. You see he built a rhythm into the DNA of creation. A tempo, a beat. God worked for six, rested for one. 

• When we fight this, (pause) we go against the natural rhythms of a God ordained creation. 

The last time a society abandoned the 7-day week was during the revolution in France. 

• They switched to a 10-day work week to up productivity. 
• And? 
• Disaster. 
• The economy crashed, the suicide rate skyrocketed, and productivity? It went down. 

In fact, once you work a certain number of hours in a week your productivity plummets. Wanna know what that number is? 50 hours. Ironic: that’s about a six day work week. Could God be speaking to us even through our bodies?  

Some of you are probably thinking right about now – but I don’t work 6 days, I have a two day weekend – but what does that weekend look like? How much of it is spent rushing from here to there, catching up on chores, filled to the brim with events – when do you actually stop and cease and be?

Sabbath is a rhythm of rest ordained by God woven into the very fabric of the universe.

So Let’s now dive a little deeper into what Sabbath actually looks like…

There is a second main Hebrew word used for rest in the Bible. Which is nuakh. This means to “dwell” or “settle.” This is not the same as clocking out from an hourly job. This type of rest is like sitting in front of a fire with a loved one. 

God introduces the ideas of shabbat and nuakh right around the same time in Scripture. In the creation account, God works for six days and rests, shabbats, then only a few verses later, we read that God creates humans and then immediately “rests them” or “settles them” (nuakh) in the garden with him. 

• The structure communicates a link between the concepts of shabbat and nuakh—they are connected. God leads by example as he rests from work (shabbat), and then he dwells (nuakh) with his people. 

“God Blessed the 7^th day and made it holy.”

How could a day be holy? 

• Original audience – their Gods were found in space not time. 
• In a temple, on a mountain, in a shrine.
• But this God, our one true creator God could be found in a day
• If you want to go meet with him, you just have to set aside a day of the week to Shabbat, to stop long enough to experience him. 

Missy Takano is a missionary with Teach Beyond who puts it like this:

Sabbath rest is an invitation to practice for eternity in God’s presence. It is an act of regular and intentional trust of God’s rule on Earth. We shabbat in order to nuakh. When we practice this purposeful pause, we make room for God to take up residence in our individual lives and communities. And when we do this, we take part in the new creation story, setting the stage for God to make his dwelling place once again on Earth.

• Isn’t that beautiful!
• By ceasing to work we say God I trust you to provide! I trust in your rule and reign over my life and the coming promise of eternal communion with you. 

Next: Shabbat can also be translated as “to delight”. It is about stopping and enjoying God, enjoying creation and our lives in this world.

A spirit of restfulness comes from learning to abide, with God, with creation, with each other. It’s about connection.

You don’t need to lock yourself up in your house and not see anyone and just pray all day. Sabbath is much broader than that! Sabbath is life giving when we stop…

• To delight in the world…
• In our lives in it…
• And above all, in God himself.

Now if I haven’t convinced you enough already about the benefits of Sabbath rest let me tell you this…

• A survey was done by a doctor who cited the happiest people on earth. 
• Near the top of the list was a group of Christians called 7^th day Adventists, who are religious, literally about keeping the Sabbath. The doctor quoted that they lived 10 years longer than the average American. 
• If you do the math, and Sabbath every seven days, it adds up to… wait for it… 10 years over a lifetime. Almost exactly. 
• If this study is to believed, every day you Sabbath, you’re statistically lengthening your life! 
• The Sabbath truly is life giving! 

So the Sabbath is about ceasing, abiding and delighting.

Let’s dig a little deeper into this Exodus passage to understand it further:

Sabbath as a command Exo passage

• The sabbath is only one of the 10 commandments with a why behind it. God doesn’t say don’t murder and here’s why it’s bad…
• But for Sabbath, God goes back to the Genesis story, calling his people into the “rhythms of grace”.
• Comer: I find it fascinating that the Sabbath is the only spiritual discipline that makes it into the Ten Commandments. Not church or Bible reading, not even prayer. Sabbath is the anchor discipline of the people of God. So crucial that God lovingly commands us to remember to rest.
• I had a brief but interesting chat with Joey the other week where he said it wasn’t the big encounter moments that keep him strong in his faith as great as they are, it is actually the daily, weekly spiritual disciplines that are the things that enrich and awaken his soul the most. And actually the things he has learnt to treasure the most.
• Spiritual disciplines are a blessing to our lives not a burden. 
• A rhythm which brings life to our bodies, minds and souls. 

Now, in this passage this day is described as “A Sabbath to the Lord” 

• or set apart for the Lord.
• It’s not just a day for rest it’s also a day for worship, yes singing at church but so much more than that. 
• Comer asks some great questions when it comes to planning his Sabbath which I found really helpful. He runs the choices of the day’s activities through this question – Is it rest or is it worship? I found that really helpful. Or what could I do today that would fill my soul with joy?
• Sabbath will look very different for a single adult living a high paced life in manly, compared to a parent of 5 kids, or a retiree, or a young adult at uni… it will look different for all of us. 
• Can I encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to pastor you and guide you in finding the rhythms of rest and worship for you and your family

So, Sabbath is a rhythm of rest ordained by God woven into the very fabric of the universe. 

Sabbath is about ceasing, abiding and delighting. 

And, the Sabbath is a command, a day for rest and worship, it is holy and life giving. 

My experience as a teacher and I am sure many teachers can relate is that we often go hard all term long, we stretch our hours, we work weekends, we mark papers at night and we think I just got to make it to the holidays. And then the holidays arrive and we crash, our bodies go down – we get sick so we don’t actually fully enjoy the holidays or at least the start of them. Rest comes at us as discipline instead of delight. 

Most of us suck at getting these daily rhythms of rest, that God knows we need spiritually and physically into our lives – and I am totally a work in progress on this, but I’m getting better at it and it’s amazing! 

• And it’s not just Sabbath
• But even starting our days in quiet time, communing with God, working out of rest and spiritual fullness
• Did you know the Jewish day actually starts at sunset – so the first thing they probably do is feast and then sleep – work comes after rest and out of rest.  

Walter Brueggeman has this great line: “People who keep sabbath live all seven days differently.”

• Sabbath rest is how you prepare your body and mind for living the rest of the week. 

What did Jesus have to say about Sabbath and rest?

• Quite a lot actually. 
• But let me hone in on this…

In the Gospel of Matthew, we see a series of connected stories where Jesus is confronted by Israel’s religious leaders and teachers. On one Sabbath day, the leaders object to Jesus’ friends picking corn as they’re walking through a field. In a loving rebuke Jesus says: 

Mark 2:27 The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 

The Sabbath was made FOR MAN. Created and designed by God himself – “for” us. A gift to be enjoyed. 

• Jesus was having a go at the religious culture of the time that had put so many rules and burdens on people around the Sabbath practice
• Our culture is the opposite – we aren’t legalistic about Sabbath, our culture doesn’t even acknowledge or recognise it and sadly many Christians don’t either – and we therefore miss the blessings that come with it. 

Matthew records these Sabbath controversies immediately after quoting Jesus’ words about rest.

Matt 11:28-30 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 

All this talk of rest right before a passage that deals with Sabbath? This is no mistake. The people have become weary and burdened by the heavy weight of observing the Sabbath, following the letter of the law while missing God’s intent behind the command.

Jesus clarifies for them and for us. The people are in need of rest—to stop hard work (shabbat) and be present with God (nuakh). And Jesus is here to usher in the full promise. He is God’s rest, and the people can come to him and find the fullness of rest that God intended.

Matt 12:8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath – The Sabbath points to Jesus, the promised one who would come to mercifully restore the rhythm of all creation. 

When we observe the Sabbath, we live as if this restoration has already taken place. We take a break from the broken rhythms of hustle and hardship to set aside a time to honor God, enjoy his presence, and extend rest to the world around us. 

The wisdom of these laws remains, and the law of the Sabbath is rich with significance for us today. Sabbath is not just a commandment we are bound to; it’s a promise we’re invited to enjoy.

I want to end with some practical tips on how to maybe approach doing Sabbath. 

There is a discipline to the Sabbath that is really hard for a lot of us. It takes intentionality, it won’t just happen. 

You see Sabbath is also a day of resistance. 

• Against the exhausting rhythms of consumerism, of our need to achieve more, consume more, have more, do more. 
• Above all we need to slow down long enough to enjoy life with God, who offers everything that materialism promises but can never deliver on –especially contentment.

You will need capacity to say no to a list of good things so you can say yes to the best thing. 

• It is a statement to ourselves that there are other things in life besides producing and consuming. And that there is more to our identity than what we do or what we produce.

So, firstly recognise the battle for your attention:

• Can I suggest you turn off your phone?? For a full 24 hrs. Don’t freak out. 
• There is a battle for your attention and plans of the enemy to keep you so distracted that you never take the time to tune into the presence of the creator
• One of those greatest distractions is social media and our phones. 
• I’ve started putting my phone in downtime mode for 24 hours over the Sabbath – I can still receive calls and texts but every other app shuts down – some may think that is terrifying, but I find it liberating! It helps me enter rest… 

Then what…

• To begin just set aside a day, it can be Saturday or Sunday – we can debate that later, do what works.
• Ask the Holy Spirit to come and pastor you into his presence
• And then? Rest and worship –– don’t over complicate it or get too religious about it – remember it’s for you and meant to be enjoyed. 
• What will help you enjoy God’s presence? – maybe it’s a walk through nature, maybe its reading a book, maybe it’s feasting with the family and sharing what you are grateful for…
• The Sabbath is an invitation to enter delight – it should be the best day of the week, the one we look forward to the most. A day when we feast, play, sing, pray, laugh, tell stories, read, paint, walk and watch creation in its fullness. 
• What will stir up wonder, awe, gratitude and communion with God in your heart?

Jesus says: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Let’s play our part in responding to that invitation. 

Comer: I feel free. Free from the need to do more, get more, be more. Free from the spirit – the evil, demonic spirit – of restlessness that enslaves our society. I feel another spirit, the Holy Spirit, of restful calm settle over my whole person. And I find that my ordinary life is enough. 

Sabbath is a rhythm of rest ordained by God woven into the very fabric of the universe. 

Sabbath is about ceasing, abiding and delighting. 

The Sabbath is a command and an invitation, a day for rest and worship, it is holy and life giving.

In this sermon Tim kicks off us our recent tenth b’day celebrations at ICMS with a sermon full of vision and talking about the parable of the mustard seed! Unfortunately the last part of the sermon is missing, but you get the main message!

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Saturday November 5, 2022.

In this sermon Tim encourages us to have an answer ready for the question: why are you a Christian? He spurs us on to be bold and unashamed of the gospel and to share it in our families, workplace and community! How will you share the gospel this week?

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday October 30, 2022.

SERMON NOTES:

Read Romans 1:1-17

1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God, the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. 5 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. 6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

15 That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.  

Welcome and Introduce myself… 

Well Victoria and I are back from Georgia and Peter’s wedding in the Barossa Valley. The weekend before we were out near Orange for Katie and Oli’s wedding.

Well at Peter and Georgia’s wedding, I enjoyed sitting at the reception next to this burly, broad acre farmer in his early 70’s named Peter. 

So I thought for a second… a genuine question needed a genuine answer…

I wonder how would you answer that question… not why are you a Pastor, but why are you a Christian?

But why are you a Christian?

And we get some other clues at the start of Romans as to why Paul believed…

At the time of writing this letter to the church in Rome.

So the Apostle Paul sends the first Christians in Rome this amazing letter… it is his calling card before his hoped for visit. A place from which he desired to launch mission into Spain!

And I want us as a church to have the same confidence and clarity in proclaiming the good news of Jesus through our lives and our words…

And just as this message of Jesus transformed lives and communities and eventually affected the entire empire…

So what is the Gospel?

And of course we are living in a generation now where people don’t know the Christian message…

Someone asked John Stott, the famous British Evangelical Anglican: “if you had to reduce the Gospel to its most basic truth, what is it? 

So what is the Gospel? – well it is the good news! And it centres around the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

NT Wright puts it this way: This is the good news of how God did the thing he had promised to do…

And now the world is a different place… and you get invited into this story…

So this is the Gospel that Paul is unashamed to proclaim… this is the Gospel that has and does and will change lives and your life…

So just to finish today… where do we find ourselves as Christians today in a secular society?

Of course there are thriving churches and I constantly here great stories…

And our society will pay a price for this… with the decline in Christian faith… will come a decline in the value of life and Christian values. 

Jim Wallis from Sojourners states,

“The message of the Kingdom became more than an idea. A new human society had sprung up, and it looked a lot like the new order to which the evangelists pointed. Here love was given daily expression; reconciliation was actually occurring. People were no longer divided into Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female. In this community the weak were protected, the stranger welcomed. People were healed and the poor and dispossessed were cared for and found justice. Everything was shared and joy abounded, and ordinary lives were filled with praise. Something was happening among the Christians that no one could deny.”

Well my hope is that even now, and certainly in years to come, that Manly would be worse off place if our church did not exist…

Manly Life we have the opportunity to re-tell and live out this story…

I want to suggest today that we must renew our Gospel confidence… that we need to release the caged lion, we got to get the gospel out!

Up at the college we get about 200 or so new international students each term…

Well if one accepts that Jesus is Lord… the one who reconciles us to God, and who transforms our lives and sets us free…

I want to rededicate myself tonight to this Gospel and to this community. 

• Will you do the same?
• Just a bunch of ordinary people, following an extraordinary God. 
• But each with a story to tell, a role to play, and a church to come alive in
• Amen.

In this sermon Kirrily encourages us to dive right into Jesus’s wonderful creation: The Church! She calls us to use the gifts God has given and join in on what is God is doing in our community and the world by participating in this wonderful community called God’s church!

Sermon preached by Kirrily Smeallie on Sunday October 23, 2022.

In this sermon Peter goes off what we looked at last week, the unsearchable riches of Christ in Ephesians 3, to talk about Jesus in Matthew 27 and how Jesus has ultimate power, has amazing style and how He has infinite love! Peter then calls us to know and love Jesus even more deeply!

Sermon preached by Peter Brooks on Sunday October 16, 2022.

In this sermon Tim starts this new series on the gospel by unpacking Ephesians 3:1-13, where Paul talks about the boundless riches of Christ and the wonderful gospel we have the privilege to preach and live every day!

SERMON NOTES

Amazing to have Greg finish our series on the Holy Spirit… (image of Hippie Greg as a young preacher! Flares and sunflower glasses..)

• I think it has been one of the best series that we have done… and I am always trying to think… what have learned and what might have shifted in our faith as a result!
• Hopefully you have seen how thoroughly biblical the teaching on the Holy Spirit is. Our bibles are soaked in the language of the gift of the Holy Spirit!
• And then hopefully we have all seen that the Holy Spirit is for us now! We live in the age of the abundance of the Spirit!
• And this is not just about the more remarkable manifestation of God’s presence, but also the empowering for all of us to be a Christian… 
• Moving on… but that doesn’t mean our services wont still be about seeking the presence of God!

In the lead up to the 10^th birthday weekend, I just want to do a little series on the boundless riches of the Gospel

• For me, this is a season of thanksgiving! 10 years!
• How good is that weekend going to be? Please don’t miss out!
• And for us to be reminded that we must always keep the main thing, the main thing!
• That is Jesus – the Lord of all creation and the Lord of our lives. 
• And the remarkable things that following Jesus brings into our lives. 

You know, when we read Paul’s letters in the bible, that is what a lot of it is about.

• How he had come to know Jesus as Lord… and he often then brings clarity to exactly what the gospel is.. and then he expounds on the implications for our lives.
• And for Paul, it started with becoming a messenger for the gospel after his revelation of Jesus on the road to Damascus. 
• And Paul then saw his job as revealing the mysteries of God, now manifest through Jesus, that brings us all into the people of God. Into the family.
• Lets listen… 

Ephesians 3:2-9

2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. 8 Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, 9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.  

For Paul, this part of his letter to the Ephesians is deeply personal. He recounts how he found himself a servant (verse 7) in the great unravelling story of God’s mission in the world. 

• “I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace.”
• You guys know the story…
• God begins his involvement with a people in the Book of Genesis with a guy named Abraham.
• He promises in a covenant with Abraham that he will be blessed, and all families will be blessed through his family, and that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars…
• From that story God reveals his character and faithfulness to the people who become Israel through ups and downs of their nation.
• From slavery in Egypt to the exodus, to giving them the law, to the settlement of the Promised Land and the beginning of their Kings like David.
• It is all about God revealing himself to and through a people (say again slowly…)
  

But here is the thing. It is always a tension between being set apart from other nations (the gentiles) and their mission to be a blessing to all nations. 

• So as Paul says, it’s a mystery… that God has chosen to act through a people…
• But now the time has come when God’s mission of forming a new humanity is now through Jesus, to expand to all people. 
• And Paul gets chosen to explain this mystery to people like the Ephesians… that in Jesus, verse 6 they all become; “sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.”
• And that is the mystery that Paul is now revealing. 

Leslie Newbigin who was a missionary to India and then came back to a post-Christian UK has helped many of us understand the gospel in a pluralistic society.

• That is, a society with lots of views and religions and cultures and so on…
• Because it is a bit of a mystery right? 
• Why would God do things the way he does? Seriously…. Why?
• Why start with one people? Why bring it together at one particular moment in history in Jesus Christ. 
• What about other religions, other claims on truth?
• And what about this, and what about that… and to some of the big questions of what do you do with people who haven’t heard the gospel… 
• Verse 5 even references people in other generations… 
• It’s a bit of a mystery. And ultimately in these things I have to trust God, his character and that his ways are higher than my ways….

But Newbigin called the Gospel the “Open Secret”. 

• Because what we believe is that the mysteries of God are no longer a mystery. The secret is now open.
• John 1 says the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory.
• Right? We have seen it… 
• So Paul in verse 9 says his role in preaching is “to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery.”
• So while it still needs to be preached… in other words, the mystery needs to be explained…
• It is open! It is a free gift available to you and me! 

And I love that. It’s a secret, in that we live still in a country where the vast majority of people could not articulate what the Christian message is.

• In fact there was an article in the SMH saying exactly that yesterday. He vast majority of people do not know what Christianity is. 
• In fact many young people now only know Jesus as a swear word.
• But it is Open in the fact that it is to be preached freely to all…
• Newbigin “It is entrusted to those whom God has given the gift of faith by which the weakness and foolishness of the cross is known as the power and wisdom of God.” (Again).

One of the things I love about this building is it’s beauty is in it’s plain-ness. Although it has stained glass windows, they are not adorned with saints or images from the bible.

• Part of that is our Baptist history which during the reformation was a reaction against glorifying saints and trying to get people back to the bible. 
• Anyhow, as far as I can tell, we literally have one image in our stained glass windows here at Manly Life Church… 
• Turn around… look up… what you see in the highest place of the church is crown of thorns
• What we exalt as the power and wisdom of God is what seems to the world as weakness and foolishness
• That is a saviour who laid down his life amongst common criminals, as the suffering servant… 

1 Corinthians 1:18 says;

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Verse 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 

Just one more note… our weddings… the seating is usually turned around…

• We get married under that crown of thorns… 
• Again I love that this open secret of the gospel is about a loving saviour who comes to serve and not be served. 
• And so in marriage and so in the Christian life, the way of Jesus becomes the way of us his followers…. We lay down our lives so that others may have life!

So Paul in verse 2 calls “the administration of God’s grace” that is what he saw his role as… administering the grace of God, the message of Jesus… the good news of the gospel.

He says; “that was given to me for you.”

• So he saw himself as playing his part in this story of the unfolding revelation of God to the world.
• Right he saw himself in the story of being part of the family of God that was to be a blessing to all nations…
• Right? His story was about being uniquely called to the mission to the gentiles… which you can read about in the Book of Acts. 

 So verse 2 goes on… “that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation.”

• And that is kind of the open secret. That God has now revealed himself.
• We are the people of the revelation. And we need revelation!
• I could ask you what do you think my oldest brother looks like? You could guess… maybe a bit like me? Bit bald maybe? 
• How is this, my Doctor once said to me… I was a bit short for my weight.
• But actually he is here this morning… 
• Deeply annoying because he is 6 foot 3 and got a full head of hair!
• So now there is no more guessing, you can meet him this morning. He is a lovely guy! Bit like me…   

And that is what Paul did, that is what we are to do…

• We introduce people to who we believe God is because we have met him in Jesus. We know him personally.
• The word revelation in the Greek is the word Apocolypso. 
• And it means an opening of a door or the pulling back of a curtain. It means to see what is hidden. 

Challenge: you can play your part in the great revealing of the mysteries of God!

• Next weekend I will be out near Orange taking Katie and Oli’s wedding… it’s going to be such a great celebration.
• And one of the privileges to a largely non-Christian wedding guests is to talk about Jesus. 
• To preach about how wonderful Jesus is and what difference following his command to love makes in a marriage. 
• I’ll be doing some apocolypso! Revealing who Jesus is… 

Well you can play your part in the mission of God?

• You don’t have to know all the mysteries or finer details…
• You just need to help people have an apocolypso… a revealing of who Jesus is and what he can do in your life. 
• You might start by just sharing your story of meeting him, or something he has done or changed in your life. 
• The story of being a part of God’s family and blessing others continues through you!
• OK? You can do it. 
• The comedian Uncle Nath. “Say nothing… nothing will happen. Say something… something will happen!”

Ok, here is what I want to focus on and finish on today…. Is what is that message? What is the heart of what Paul preached?

• If you read the first 2 chapters of Ephesians, it includes lots of things… redemption from slavery to sin, and forgiveness and adoption into God’s family… 
• It is undeserved grace from God to us! A gift we cannot earn!
• But l love verse 8 of Ephesians 3… because I think Paul is summarising the whole thing
• And for Paul, who had poured his whole life into following Jesus since that encounter on the road to Damascus, the message could be described as “the boundless riches of Christ.”
• Amen?

Verse 8 Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ.

The Greek word for riches is Plutous. It means a plentiful supply, an abundance, a plenitude.

• So ploutos literally described in Greek material prosperity riches or wealth. It refers to an abundance of possessions exceeding the norm.
• And from it we get words in English like plutocrat which puts together the Greek words plutous and krat, wealth and power…  
• So Paul preached to the Gentiles in Ephesus, the boundless plutous of Christ, the riches of Christ.

And Paul, I guess is speaking from his own experience of his life…

• This is his story. That in Christ he had received the boundless riches of Christ. 
• Although he was writing from prison he felt he was the richest man in the world. 
• That he was literally in awe at what he had inherited from God. 
• He’d gone from a hate filled persecutor of Christians, to its main messenger of love to the Roman Empire. 

One NT commentator Kent Hughes puts it this way;

• “What are the implications of this? Primarily, that Christ always enriches life. Christ never subtracts from life; he always enriches it with untrackable riches.”
• Right? This is big…. 
• It is big in knowing Christ… right? We are proclaiming good news, that in Jesus, everything in life in enriched…
• And it is big in our own lives… from following Jesus, we too like Paul should be able to testify to the abundant things, the wealth of blessings that we have received.

Right? Can you think of an area of your life that knowing Jesus will not enrich?

• Your relationship with God – clearly enriched!
• Your relationships, your marriage – clearly enriched!
• Your sense of purpose – clearly enriched!
• Having community and friendship – clearly enriched!

What a joy it was this morning to help with the dedication of Jack and Sienna. 

• I don’t know about you, I want a lot of things for my children, but as I get older, the main thing I want is for my children to know Jesus!
• Obviously I care about their salvation…
• But in the here and now, I know that there is not an area of their life that wont be enriched by knowing Christ!
• Right?
• Now nothing is a guarantee, and no one knows what curve balls life will throw at them…
• But statistically if they follow Jesus we know they will have better marriages, better mental health outcomes, lower rates of addictions… 
• They will join a community where they will be loved and encouraged and finds friends…

I mean are you with me? In becoming a Christian, can you not testify, that following Jesus has helped! This is John 10:10 stuff…

• Jesus said; “I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.”
• This is 2 Corinthians 4; “we have this treasure in jars of clay”
• 1 Timothy 1 tells us “the grace of our Lord is poured out on me abundantly.”

So there is not an area of your life that knowing and following Christ will not enrich!

• And if I could just get personal for a minute, I am just so grateful.
• Knowing God has saved me. 
• In the negative from so many destructive tendencies and dispositions…
• But in the positive, into such a blessed life. Enriched in every way. I don’t know what life would look like without Jesus. 

I was reading an article a while back about Abraham Piper. He is the son of a well known Pastor in America and he has rejected his families faith.

• And he has amassed almost a million Tik Tok followers with these pithy videos mocking the Christian faith. 
• And I get that he is probably reacting against a certain strain of evangelical faith… and who knows what his upbringing was like.
• But here is the thing. His basic message to young people was… just get drunk and get laid. 
• Right, throw off your faith and just live how you want to live. 

And it makes me sad… because I feel the exact opposite. I feel that knowing Jesus will never subtract from life, it will only enrich every area it touches. 

In your relationships, it wont be about getting laid or getting your way…

• Right, following Jesus will teach you how to love unconditionally, to forgive when you are hurt, to serve when you feel like being served… 
• But everything Jesus will touch in your life, if you are obedient… if you put it into practice will help!

Right? Paul preached the boundless riches of Christ. 

• Think about the purpose you can have in being a child of the Kingdom of God
• As it says in Ephesians 2, we are created to do good works… we are God’s handiwork!
• When we follow Jesus, life is not meaningless, it becomes about being part of the light and overcoming the darkness. 
• We should get involved in great causes… we should care about the poor and the marginalised in life like he did. 

Right? Think of community and friendship and how it is enriched by knowing Christ!

• Think of the dinner we had here on Good Friday and the dividing wall of hostility that Jesus has broken down!
• We have peace with God and peace with each other.
• There is room at the table. We become part of God’s new humanity
• We beckon all people to be reconciled to God and join the family that is called to bless all families on earth!

And yes, controversially, even our finance. Now we know that Christianity is not a tool to make you rich.

• Indeed if anything it should make you generous and we are warned about the dangers of loving money.
• But I am always amazed at how when Jesus gets a hold of a life, it can create the conditions to succeed. 
• Now I need to be careful here… but the reality is that integrity and hard work and making wise investments are Christian values. 
• And you should be spared from the folly’s of get rich schemes, or cheating and getting found out. 
• There is a solid rock, that Jesus puts under our feet that allows us to get focussed and purposeful and wise. 

How good hey? Never an area that Jesus subtracts, only the promise of enriching our lives!

John Newton, a drunken slave trader who experienced the unfathomable riches of Christ and became a pastor and the author of the hymn Amazing Grace. 

• Late in life, a pastor friend noticed that Newton was showing signs of old age and urged him to stop preaching and take life easy.
• “What!” he replied, “shall the old African blasphemer stop while he can speak at all?”
• He wrote his own epitaph: “John Newton, clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was by the mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had so long laboured to destroy.”
• Late in life he said, My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Saviour!

Amen? Let’s pray!

In this sermon Greg concludes our God’s Empowering Presence, by preaching on how the Spirit points to Jesus, and calls us to seek the Spirit first in our lives and calls us to fan the flames of revival!

Sermon preached by Greg Beech on Sunday October 2, 2022.

In this sermon Tim continues to unpack 2 Timothy 1:6-7 after Lani preached on it last week, encouraging us to step into the Spirit’s love, power and self-control in our lives as we consider where and how God might use us to serve his Church!

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday September 18, 2022.

SERMON NOTES

Well we are about to come to the end of this series on the Holy Spirit…

• And today is a Next Steps Sunday… we do these once a year as an opportunity to think through our involvement here at church, how we might grow as disciples…
• And how we might play our part in the Manly Life family…
• So at the end of the service we are going to fill in our forms and bring them to the front… 
• And in one sense it is our way of saying yes to God, and yes to being a committed member of this church community!
• So what is your next step? Join a Life Group, get baptised? Use your gifts to serve in the church? Prophetic quilt making? Who knows… 

Lani preached so well last Sunday and it is such a gift to have her and Dan here at Manly Life…

• Already she is having a wonderful impact on many!
• And she spoke on 2 Timothy 1:6-7… which is what I want to speak on here today too…
• You just can’t get enough of a good thing… and this verse doesn’t get much better!
• And I loved particularly her story about blessing her friend in the surf with a prophetic word that Lani felt God had given her….
• It was the perfect illustration for this passage!
• And it turned out to be so powerful in that friends life.
• And of course it would have been so easy for Lani, indeed so easy for all of us, to lack courage when it comes to being all in for our faith in Jesus and obedience in ministering for him and like him.
• But she did this…

2 Timothy 1:6-7

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

Now there is a lot in those two verses… impartation, activation…

• Fan into flame the gift of God… because the Spirit God has given you doesn’t make us timid… or afraid… or fearful…
• But this Spirit, poured into you when you become a follower of Jesus, empowers you… it fills you with love… it gives you self discipline or self control.
• In other words, what you now got in you… is amazing! 
• You’ve all been given gifts from God… ways to serve and encourage others… ways to make a difference. 
• Don’t pull back… don’t waver… don’t be half committed or apathetic… hello?
• But with the Holy Spirit fully alive in you… go for this new life of power, love and self control… 
• Go for the new life made possible through the Spirit of Jesus, alive in you! 
• Amen?

Now Paul had brought this young man Timothy to the faith and commissioned him to do the work of an evangelist and church leader. 

• So Paul wrote to Timothy who was then in leadership in the church in Ephesus.
• I am actually hoping to visit Ephesus next year… can’t wait…
• And it is an exhortation to faithfulness and to stand firm in the truth in the face of opposition.
• But it also includes this wonderful promise of the gift, God has given to Timothy… and to you and to me… 
• His Holy Spirit.

Now, the Spirit of God is given as a gift to all those who trust in in his Son Jesus and confess him as Lord.

• And we live in the age of the abundance of the Spirit. 
• We’ve looked at that in this series a lot… 
• Poured out on believers in Acts chapter 2… and available to all of God’s children. 
• And because as DL Moody said, we are leaky vessels…
• We need to ongoingly be filled and refreshed by the presence of God…

So the bible makes it clear that;

• The Spirit of God, which is his presence, active and alive in the world today, does all kinds of things in God’s church and his people.
• We get the assurance of adoption into the family of God – you know you are loved. 
• The Spirit in us illuminates the word (the bible) and gives us revelation. 
• The Spirit produces Fruit in our lives – changing your character… making you more loving and joyful and peaceful… 
• And the Spirit gives us gifts for service in the church and mission – His presence alive in you, makes you useful for great purposes.

I don’t know if you have ever read Paul’s second letter to Timothy…

• But it is such an interesting letter, written at such an interesting time in Paul’s life and the growth of the early church.
• Paul writes to his young, loyal, faithful disciple Timothy to encourage him.
• And where does he write it from? On holidays on a Greek island? From a thriving church in Jerusalem? From the emperor’s side in Rome?
• No… he writes it from prison… and in the letter he mentions that he has been “chained like a common criminal” (2:9)
• False teachings are creeping in, and there have been defections from the faith and desertions from him.
• He is facing incredible anxiety about the state of the churches he has planted in Ephesus and around the world. 

So Paul charges Timothy to continued loyalty and faithfulness and purpose in his life and ministry.

• You haven’t received the promised Holy Spirit to turn you into a coward. 
• You’ve received the Holy Spirit to be empowered, to have the fruit of love and to be faithful through self control. 
• So it’s a super personal letter that we find in our bibles… 
• Now, proceeding what we are looking at, Paul says… Verses 2-5

“I write this to you, Timothy, the son I love so much. All the best from our God and Christ be yours!

Every time I say your name in prayer—which is practically all the time—I thank God for you, the God I worship with my whole life in the tradition of my ancestors. I miss you a lot, especially when I remember that last tearful good-bye, and I look forward to a joy-packed reunion.

That precious memory triggers another: your honest faith—and what a rich faith it is, handed down from your grandmother Lois to your mother Eunice, and now to you!”

Do you sense the love and care… that’s the church friends… an intergenerational family and love for one another. 

• You know last Sunday morning I was preaching up in Newcastle and I started talking about someone here at Manly Life…
• But I’m talking about one of you guys and I just burst into tears… 
• It was super dignified… 
• But see we are a family… and I love every single one of you… just like I know you love each other so well… 
• So to be honest its devastating when someone drifts off or disengages from faith. 
• So hear Paul’s heart… he just wants the absolute best for Timothy… he wants the absolute best for Christ’s church as it faces all kinds of challenges…

So what does he exhort Timothy to do?

• “Fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of hands.”
• Right? If Paul can say to the Thessalonians “do not quench the Spirit”, right, don’t put the Spirit out in your life…
• Then similarly he can encourage us to fan into flames, the work of the Spirit in you!
• So he reminds Timothy to stir up in his own heart the work of the Spirit, which every other exhortation comes from. 
• If the Spirit is stirred up in you, active, empowering, alive, real… then everything else will follow!

Now just something quick on the laying on of hands…

• If you are new to church you may be wondering what this language is all about…
• And no it doesn’t refer to the Bon Jovi song “lay your hands on me”
• I think that might be about something else? Haha…
• But what we find here and in Paul’s letter in 1 Timothy 4:14 is this reminder about how the gift of the Holy Spirit was received by Timothy.
• And it came by the laying on of hands… when he was set apart for his role in ministry, the elders and Paul laid hands on him and he had leadership imparted into him. 

And here is the thing… just like faith is often caught and not just taught…

• So the Holy Spirit is something that is often caught by the laying on of hands… rather than by simply being taught about…
• And we see this in the Book of Acts too…
• The Holy Spirit is often imparted from one believer to a new one by the laying on of hands. It’s almost like its contagious… 
• And this is called impartation. 
• On this I would simply say, it’s biblical… and if you see something of God in someone that you desire… then this kind of impartation through the laying on of hands is key!

So if I want to faithfulness in my life and my marriage and my relationships… find people who demonstrate this and get them to pray for you?

• Right? If you want to be bolder in sharing your faith or living a beautiful, holy life… find people who have this gift and get them to pray for you with the laying on of hands…
• Right?
• If you want more of the gift of the Holy Spirit, you can go to seminars… and seminary… 
• Or with a hunger in your heart, you can find a Spirit filled believer and get them to pray for you!
• That’s why I’d encourage you on a regular basis to come for prayer ministry at the end of our services.
• You never know what you will catch? Haha… hopefully not Covid…
• But seriously, there is power in receiving more of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands. 

Nicky Gumbel, the leader of the global Alpha Course recently retired in London. Wonderful ministry… 

• Alpha has been done by well over 30 million people, and many can trace coming to follow Jesus through Alpha and his ministry!
• And I knew him a little bit when I lived in London, and he is a very shy and introverted guy.
• Not who you would expect to be probably the most effective evangelist in the world in the last few decades…

Anyhow he was a Barrister working in London and attending an Anglican church called HTB when John Wimber and a team from California came and ministered at HTB in the 1980’s.

• Well they invited the Holy Spirit to come and laid hands on people who came forward…
• And Nicky powerfully received the Holy Spirit… 
• Well he must have been making quite a commotion, as John Wimber said, “get that guy out of here” 
• Asking him to be taken to a side room for more ministry… and as he was being carried out John Wimber said “evangelism…” that man will be a great evangelist” 
• So that is impartation… the gift of evangelism through the laying on of hands!

So what Paul had, imparted into him by Jesus, he has now imparted into Timothy by the laying on of hands…

• And so he says… this will have the opposite effect of making you a coward, or fearful or timid…
• Remember, the context is Paul is writing because others are departing the faith or being divisive or teaching false things… 
• But this gift of the Holy Spirit is what is going to make you powerful, loving and self controlled!
• It is the Holy Spirit that will keep you in the game and give you longevity in following Jesus Christ.
• Like Nicky who from that moment went on to decades of faithful and fruitful ministry!
• Amen?

So let’s just finish with these three things. Power. Love. Self control. 

So firstly, let us never forget that the Christian faith is a Holy Spirit empowered life. 

• The Greek word for power used is du-na-moss from which we get the word dynamite!
• There is power in the name of Jesus. And there is power available from the Holy Spirit alive in you!
• Paul will say in Romans 1 “I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation. 
• In 1 Corinthians 4 he will say the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but power.
• In Romans 15 he talks about overflowing with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
• In 1 Corinthians 2 he says “My preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,
• In Ephesians 1 Paul prays we may be enlightened to know “his incomparably great power for us who believe.”
• You have power, alive in you!

Secondly, the fruit of the Holy Spirit in you is love! 

• Now having power leads a lot of people to control others, to selfishly look after number 1
• But the Holy Spirit’s power leads us to love… to give ourselves away for others. 
• Love is the fruit of God’s Holy Spirit at work in you. 
• That is why Paul is in tears remembering the faith and life of Timothy… he cares deeply about the bloke!
• The impartation of the Spirit, is an impartation to love deeply!
• If your faith is not leading you to love others more deeply… you’re doing it wrong!

And then finally the Spirit imparted into us makes us self controlled!

• And we see that in the list of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:23 don’t we?
• So I’ve been thinking about this one all week… and wondering why when Paul explains the effects of the Spirit in your life, why does this get in his top 3 here?
• And I think it comes down to longevity…
• Self control, or sound mindedness as it is sometimes translated points us to what keeps us faithful
• Not just in big flashy moments… but in what Eugene Peterson calls “the long obedience in the same direction.”
• This is about character formation… 

The Spirit helps you not just through days and weeks to not shipwreck your life…

• But will give you the self control to walk faithfully for the decades of your Christian life. 
• I love the older guys at our church. I thought John Muys was brilliant when he shared at our Father’s Day service. 
• And I want the same Spirit imparted into them that they have activated through the decades of their lives to see them through with wisdom and faithfulness
• To have the self control to say yes to God and the Christian virtuous life… and no to that which would shipwreck their lives. 
• I want the well done good and faithful servant declared over my life. Amen?

Well what has all this got to do with it being our Next Steps Sunday?

• Well my hope and prayer is that you will “fan into flames, the gift of God which is in you.”
• I hope you have heard through this series that the church is not just one or two people doing all the stuff while everyone else watches on…
• It is about every single one of us getting to play our part in making this local church all that God wants it to be… 
• Empowered by the Spirit to serve and use the gifts that God has given you!

So in a minute I am going to give you an opportunity to fill in your forms and then when the band comes up and plays, we are all going to come forward and put our forms in the basket here at the front!

• Don’t do so much that you burn yourself out…
• But don’t do so little that you will never grow or really live in service of others…
• There are opportunities to say you want to get baptised, or do Alpha or join a Life Group…
• And then there are ways to serve and give and to get involved!
• Some things will be your passions and your purposes… while for all of us there are also ways just to help out and make this church hum!

So don’t pull back, don’t be afraid… the Holy Spirit given as a gift to you makes you powerful, loving and self controlled.

• It makes all of us useful in the kingdom of God, as his church is established…
• And his good gospel takes root in our hearts.
• Amen… lets do our forms…

In this sermon Lani unpacks how in Jesus we no longer have a spirit of fear but a Spirit of power, love and self-control and how this looks in our life as we fan the flame of the Spirit every day!

Sermon by Lani Daniel on September 11, 2022.

In this sermon Victoria preaches on the fire of the Holy Spirit, how it purifies us, sets our faith alight and how we can stoke the fire of the Spirit in our hearts to join in God’s mission to the world!

Sermon preached by Victoria Giovanelli on Sunday September 4, 2022.

In this sermon Kirrily shares on how we can surrender to the Spirit and follow the way of the Spirit in our lives, she refers to Ezekiel 47 where a prophetic river of life is mentioned, a river flowing with the Spirit, and she encourages us all to dive on in!

Sermon preached by Kirrily Smeallie on Sunday August 28, 2022

SERMON NOTES

Thinking about the 10 year anniversary coming up

Started hearing a few stories

Gios journey… grateful for their YES…

***ME

Personally, we feel grateful we’ve said YES to join this church, this team, this journey….

This morning I want to talk about our YES to the Lord. 

The title of this message is YES.

I’ve never regretted a time I’ve said YES to the Lord. 

My YES’s to the Lord have been my best YES’s. Those YES’s have taken me on the most fulfilling journey’s. Not journey’s void of challenge or pain, but journey’s that have meaning and purpose, that fulfil the yearning in my heart to express my love for God. Those kind of journey’s are the ones that free our hearts because we’re doing what we’re designed to do, worshipping God with our lives.

If I’m honest, I’m also aware of times I’ve said YES to myself, my own plans and have asked God along for the ride…

***WE

It’s a different posture isn’t it… we’re out front, going ahead and hoping God helps us with our plans… this can only get us so far… then we stop and look around and feel a void, feel a dissatisfaction, feel frustration, boredom maybe…

OR God’s ahead, leading, walking with us, he takes a step, we take a step, he takes a step, we take a step… and we find ourselves in places of in places where the only way forward is by faith so we have no choice but to stay in step with the Holy Spirit.

It’s one or the other…

Robert Ferguson says:

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IS IMPOSSIBLE. IF IT WERE SIMPLY DIFFICULT, WE WOULD ATTEMPT IT AND FAIL; BUT SINCE IT IS IMPOSSIBLE, WE CAN SAFELY GIVE UP AND THEREFORE SUCCEED.

The only way to live the Christian life in it’s fullness is to fully surrender to the Lord.

***SLIDE***

Jesus puts it this way in Mark 8:34-35:

³⁴ … “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever wants to save their life^[a] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.

It’s not very popular to be a YES person, but with the Lord it’s the only way it works. It’s our posture of SURRENDER that allows the Holy Spirit to move in and through our lives.

And there’s no time like the present to adjust our posture with the Lord – to say YES to the Lord – just YES – not YES to something or someone – just YES – YES in

our heart, YES in our spirit, YES to trusting God regardless… when we position ourselves to say YES to the Lord, it allows us to be LEAD by the Holy Spirit step by step in to His good, pleasing and perfect will. And there’s no posture more freeing,,,

For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

(2 Cor 3:17 NLT)

***GOD

A few chapters later in Mark, Jesus had an encounter with a young, wealthy man who had a fairly comfortable life, he upheld essentially good morals and values to the best of his ability but obviously felt some sort of void, like there was something he should be doing different in life to feel secure in his salvation with the Lord.

Mark 10…

¹⁷ As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

^…. ¹⁹ You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’^[d]”

^… he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

²¹ Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

What Jesus is really saying to this young man is:

– that’s great that you know how to live essentially right, but I can clearly see that you treasure what you have more than me

– that you use them as your security instead of me

– that your hope is in them and not in me

– that your faith is in your wealth and status and not in me

– you can either stay in that place of right-living, comfortable living – but the fact that

you have more than most and you’re coming to me needing assurance, security and

hope… that suggests that what you have isn’t fulfilling you, that you want for more,

that you have a void

– and I need your YES before I can lead you in to the fulfilling life, the purposeful life,

the life of freedom, the certainty in your heart of the eternal life I know you yearn for…

Jesus SEARCHED this man and could see that His faith was in what He had not who Jesus was 

Jesus knew he needed to BREAK the stumbling block to His salvation

And then, He could SEND him in to the real life of faith in Christ He was called to

In our surrender let’s be bold enough to allow Jesus to SEARCH us, BREAK our stumbling blocks and SEND us in to the life of faith we’re called to.

1/ SEARCH ME

David’s prayer in Psalm 139:23-24

²³ Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

This has got to be the gutsiest, most vulnerable, frightening prayer inviting this level of

scrutiny in to our most personal places.

Prayer is sacred communication. Interestingly, praying real and personal prayers leads us to discover that the Lord is real and personal, and so kind.

Asking God to search us and waiting to hear his response is real prayer.

God will respond to this kind of prayer – this kind of prayer will bring loving conviction, gentle

correction, maybe a life redirection, it might change the way we see ourselves and others.

*It might reveal sins we need to ask forgiveness for

*It might reveal our fears

– what we fear the most reveals where we trust God the least – might be fears around our marriage, finances, the safety of children, failing, missing out on something, not having enough, our health

It’s worth discovering what these fears are…

The pathway to our greatest potential is often straight through our greatest fear (in faith).

Faith propels us forward through our fear and in to God’s ways.

To please God, serve Him, honour Him, live for Him – you can’t be driven by fear, but lead

by faith to overcome those fears.

2 Tim 1:7 Paul encouraging protégé Timothy…

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-

discipline.

He knows Timothy’s pathway through fear and timidity is to surrender in faith to the power of the Holy Spirit in Him.

If we have fears lodged in our hearts, they will stop us from trusting God with our YES

Let’s allow God to expose them this morning and surrender to the power of God at work in us to begin to move us forward in faith.

2/ BREAK ME

Charles Spurgeon says “Whenever God means to make a man great, he always breaks him in pieces first”.

Such an encouraging quote 

It’s about being honest before God about things that aren’t right in us and allowing Him to do His redeeming work on our areas of brokenness.

Christianity is not a religion for the self confident. It’s about understanding we are all

Fractured… 

2 Cor 12:9 NLT “His grace is all we need. His power works best in our weakness.”

(paraphrased)

Breaking is something we may fear – we try and hold it together, push on, cover it over, but

there’s power in our fractures

Breaking can be as essential for our growth as it is to a baby bird cracking away the shell

around it? Or a butterfly coming out of it’s cocoon?

***PIC ON SCREEN – Many of you know the Centuries-Old Japanese Tradition of Mending Broken Ceramics with Gold 

It’s called Kintsugi, meaning golden seams. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold — built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections, you can create an even stronger, more beautiful piece of art. Every break is unique and instead of repairing an item like new, the 400-year-old technique actually highlights the flaws as a part of the design.

And really, this is what God does – in the process of repairing our fractures, He actually

creates something more unique, more beautiful and more resilient.

We don’t have to hold it together – we can invite the power of the Holy Spirit to work in and through our broken lives for others?

We don’t have to live controlled, over avoiding everything potential harm – we can pray for strength to walk through whatever we face.

It’s a courageous, audacious, faith-filled prayer “break me” which comes from a deep well of

trust.

Brokenness is basic Christianity – it’s the gospel message, dying to sin, our pride, our past,

our flesh, our fears

If we have pride lodged in our hearts, it will stop us from trusting God with our YES

3/ SEND ME

In the book of Isaiah we read that God was looking for someone through whom to carry out

a special mission.

Isaiah 6:8 NLT Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to the people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.”

When we become available to God, he might ask you to go to Africa as a missionary but it’s

more likely he’s going to ask you love those you work with at (Westpac) or…

He might ask you to sell everything and give it to the poor, but it’s more likely he’ll ask you to

manage wisely give generously from what he’s given you.

Full submission leads to simple and small God promptings which might may you think, why

don’t I get to do something big, but the simplest acts of love often lead to the biggest

changes in life.

Small spirit lead steps often don’t get much attention or support.

Sometimes radical spirit lead steps get misunderstood, they don’t make sense, they take

extraordinary faith – moving to a new city, starting a new ministry, launching a business,

fostering a child, giving extravangently…

You’ll say YES if you’ve built your faith muscle up with the small things – momentum comes

as your YES’s to God become more frequent.

Life becomes a daily thrill of being used by God – as a reflection of His grace – as a conduit

of His love and goodness.

If you’re willing.

The bible is literally full of stories of unqualified, inadequate, unprepared people called by God to do something extraordinary… 

He calls the willing. He calls the surrendered.

***YOU

Where are you at?

Ezekiel 47:1-12 NIV is an incredible, prophetic passage of scripture bearing many meanings, one which may be applied to our journey of surrender to Jesus.

It describes a river flowing from the temple (the place of God’s dwelling) to bring life and healing to the people, to the land. The vision reveals Gods heart for a broken world and the gift of the river of life that flows out to heal our broken hearts and our world.

The source of the river is God’s empowering presence, the Holy Spirit – flowing from us, through us.

I’ll pick it up from verse 3:

1-2 the water was trickling from the temple…

³ As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits^[a] and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. ⁴ He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. ⁵ He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross.

In our journey:

Ankle deep – when we’re ankle deep in a river, we feel the cool of the water but we are not pulled by it

– maybe we’ve received Christ but haven’t ventured beyond that place of salvation, there isn’t yet that personal walk with Jesus

Knee-deep – when you’re knee deep, you begin to feel the pull of the river, but you are in a position to stay where you are or yield to its power

–        Maybe here we walk with the Lord to the level that’s comfortable, we don’t have to (get changed) to walk with him at tis level

Waist deep – when you’re in waist deep, there’s a willingness to yield to the power of the river. When waist deep in water, half of our body is hidden in the water. Those looking on see as much of the water as they do of the you. 

– This is a special place in the Christian journey, the river is beginning to take us 

In over our head – Here, we have reached a place in the river that it is impossible to stand in. We have to surrender and swim in the current of the river and depend on the direction it is taking us. We are saturated. It has covered our entire being and caused us to change. 

– Complete surrender. We are swimming in the water of the Spirit who brings life and growth and colour and transformation… 

 ⁶ He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?” Then he led me back to the bank of the river. 

⁷ When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river.

 ⁸ He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah,^[b] where it enters the Dead Sea. When it empties into the sea, the salty water there becomes fresh. 

⁹ Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. 

¹⁰ Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Mediterranean Sea. 

¹¹ But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. 

¹² Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.”

The power of God’s life-giving presence heals and transforms.

When the Spirit flows the barren become fruitful, the empty become full to overflowing, the dry are quenched, the wounded are healed, the dead are raised to life. 

As this water can reach even the depth of the Dead Sea, the lowest depression on earth, it can also reach down to the deepest places of our despair and bitterness and bring hope, redemption, restoration.

As the Spirit flows, people start to see and believe in Jesus

11  But the marshes and swamps will not be purified; they will still be salty. 

Salt to heal and purify broken, messy lives. 

12  Fruit trees of all kinds will grow along both sides of the river. 

Where the Spirit flows there’s provision.

***WE

What if we all waded in a little further?

Let’s not stay lured in a false sense of comforts and security when the only security is with the one that wants us to wade out a little deeper. The one who created us in His image, who sent His son to die for us, who sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us… 

ALTAR CALL – Maybe you’re searching your heart right now, knowing you are not connected to Jesus and there’s no real relationship there…

It’s time to say YES to Him for the first time in your heart right now…

After the service – prayer team 

… At times the Lord needs to stir our nests to make our comforting things uncomfortable. To remind us that if we’re putting our security in anything but Him, we’re insecure.

A scripture in Deuteronomy reminds us of how a young eagle learns to fly…

Deut 32:11 Contemporary English Version

The LORD was like an eagle teaching its young to fly, always ready to swoop

down and catch them on its back.

This is how young eagles get their flight training – they are born in to a very comfortable and safe nest, padded and insulated with down from their Mother – meals are flown in fresh daily.

But the day comes when their very survival is threatened if they stay in this place of comfort.

So the Mother Eagle makes the welcoming and safe nest uncomfortable and unwelcome -she shakes the nest, blowing the comfortable padding out and tears up what she carefully provided to nurture the baby eagle then she carries the eagle outside of the nest and into the wind.

This is where the young eagles learn to fly – because you can’t try your wings if you’re sitting in the nest. We like sitting in the nest. She releases the Baby eagle in to the wind and lets it fall and then swoops down and catches it over and over until it learns it has wings to fly…   

And I believe there’s some people here who need to know that you might be feeling uncomfortable, you know you need to surrender. The Lord has got you. You can trust Him.

He’s calling you out of your nest and in to quite a different life. 

Luke 22:42b NLT “…not my will, but yours be done.

In this sermon Tim continues our series by looking at how we are temples of the Holy Spirit, how we can honour the Holy Spirit with our bodies and lives, and how we can represent the Holy Spirit wherever we go!

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday August 21, 2022./

SERMON NOTES

Well we are doing a series on God’s Empowering Presence, the Holy Spirit

• Thank you for all of the encouraging feedback. I’ve been loving it too…
• So we have looked at the promise of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and the fulfilment of his coming in the New Testament
• We have looked at the story of Pentecost and how the Spirit and Word work together to bring salvation
• We have contrasted the life lived according to the flesh versus life according to the Spirit. 
• We have looked at the marvellous gifts the God gives to his people so that the ministry of Jesus may continue in the church
• And we have looked at how the presence of God dwells in the church, like the glory that filled the temple.

And that was last week… 1 Corinthians 3:16. The Apostle Paul says;

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 

• Gordon Fee put it this way… “God himself by the Spirit has chosen to be present in our world in the gathered church.”
• And that is what makes our times together when we gather so important and so exciting.
• The implication is that God is here… 
• So last week was kind of talking about the Spirit dwelling amongst us… 
• And this week is about the Spirit dwelling within us…

So today I want us to think about what it might mean for us more individually to be hosts of the Spirit of God in our lives.

• And particularly what is the Spirit’s role in refining our lives so that we not only reflect Christ, but are able to host the presence of God within us. 
• Now if you remember, I got a bit over excited last week, particularly at evening service
• At the mind boggling claim that God has come to be present within us as living stones, hosts of his Holy Spirit.
• And surely that has a purifying effect on our lives. 

There is just a tension there… as you walk out your Christian life it becomes increasingly difficult to host in your life, both the Holy Spirit and unchecked sin. 

• To my mind, one of the sure ways that you know you are a Christian is not that you achieve perfection (I mean I know some of you are close…)
• But that you know the battle has been engaged against sin. Right? 
• I mean every human being has a conscience…
• But the reality is that the Holy Spirit living in you convicts us of our sin and encourages us on towards righteousness.
• And the Holy Spirit enables or empowers this to be made possible! In other words to have victory over what ails us…

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says this;

Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.

So let’s go through this verse today and its massive implications. 

The first proposition that I want to look at is that we have been bought at a price.

• So talking about the lives that we now live, the Apostle Paul says we were bought at a price, so we belong to Jesus, our redeemer. So it says, you are not your own.
• And this is the gospel. And you might remember our series in Ephesians last year…
• This bought at a price language refers to the work of Jesus on the cross
• Redeeming us from being slaves to sin
• And becoming children of the living God, experiencing the freedom of sonship.

Ephesians 1:7 says this…

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

So “You are not your own; you were bought at a price.”

• The word redemption is not just another synonym for salvation. 
• The word has a particular meaning. 
• Our redemption is a particular kind or element of our salvation

The Australian NT scholar Leon Morris notes that when we hear the word redemption, we think about it in religious terms.

• But in Paul’s day, the people thought about it in non-religious terms.
• The Greek word Redemption is apollo-tro-sis
• The verb form of the word simply means to loose. 
• Redeem means to loosen. To be bought at a price, means to be loosened from the ownership of one master and come into the ownership of another!

So they would use this word apollo-tro-sis to refer to the loosening of clothing, or loosening tied up animals…

• But it was particularly used to refer to the loosening of human beings who found themselves in some form of captivity to another.
• One of the great desires of the ancient world was to be redeemed… 
• To be loosened from slavery. Or a prisoner loosened from jail, or from oppressive debts
• And the word normally referred to the loosening happening through some kind of payment
• Someone paying the price of redemption. Loosening came with a cost. 

So “In him (in Jesus) you have been redeemed, you have redemption through his blood.”

• One of the glorious riches of the gospel is that you have been loosened. 
• What you are oppressed by, what you are captive to, what you are slave to… 
• You have been redeemed through his blood shed on the cross. You were bought at a price.
• And you now have a new glorious Master – Jesus Christ. 

The words in this verse in Ephesians 1:7 point us to the human condition, but for the grace of God. 

• We have redemption points us to the fact that aside from grace we are in bondage and kept captive by sin. 
• And unless we are loosened or released from this bondage 
• We will struggle to enter into an experience of our adoption into God’s family
• To fully live as a child of God we need to be freed.

In another letter, the Apostle Paul would say “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.”

• And so our redemption from sin, comes with the realisation that we need freeing!
• This is not something that Paul makes up… Jesus refers to his mission through this lens all the time.
• In Luke 4 Jesus says he has come to set the oppressed free.
• In John 8 Jesus says all who sin are slaves to sin, but whom the son sets free is free indeed.
• In John 1 John the Baptist, seeing Jesus declares “The lamb of God who comes to take away the sins of the world.”

So back to Ephesians 1:7 Through his blood – through his shed blood… that is what redeems us, it looses us from our captivity to sin. 

• It loosens us from all that holds us captive. 
• It loosens us from the compulsion of sin
• From the powers of spiritual forces at work in the world
• From lies that have ensnared our human hearts and minds
• And the footholds of sin that become strongholds of the enemy!

Jesus blood, shed on the cross, as the sacrificial lamb of God… pays the price so that we can be loosened!

• Are you with me?
• And now… (part of the meaning of the word redemption) is we now belong to him. That is what it means in 1 Corinthians 6:19
• You are not your own. You were bought at a price. We belong to the only Master whose desire is our freedom and that we live a whole life…

So it says; “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”

• So like any good purchase, the new owner wants to move in…
• Right? It would be weird for you to purchase a house and not take ownership.
• When we bought our house the expectation is that the older lady who sold it moves out. And that we move in.
• Right? It would be weird to be moved in and then come out to breakfast one morning and there she is her nightie having breakfast. 

And that is what this verse is saying… now that we no longer are owned by sin, but by Jesus…

• He wants to move into our lives by the presence of his Holy Spirit. 
• And thus our bodies become the temples of the Holy Spirit… and sin has to move out. 
• We host the presence of God.
• And so it is no great mystery that this new guest in our lives is going to impact the way that we live. 

As many of you know, we are fortunate to have a studio at the back of our house in Freshwater

• So it was a privilege to be able to have Calum come and stay with us the last couple of months.
• He is now in the Ukraine filming stories to share with the world about what is going on…
• But for about 2 months Calum, this cool, surfy dude moved in with us.
• And I’ve got to say, it was absolutely awesome. He was a very good guest in our home. 
• But what was particularly nice was how our kids loved it… he really did move in, become part of the family and had a big influence on the kids.
• And we knew this when Luca started talking like Calum… I’d walk into the kitchen and Luca would look up and say “Hey broski… what’s up?”
• And if something was going well, Luca would make this noise “yew!”

So if we have been bought with a price and our bodies have become temples of the Holy Spirit…

• What is the implication for our lives? Well we come under the influence of a new house guest.
• And all kinds of good things begin to change as the Holy Spirit becomes resident within us.
• His influence from moving in to us, purchased out of slavery and into the glorious freedom of the children of God…
• The power of sin begins to weaken… and the empowered life of holiness and righteousness begins.
• You see if you are going to host the presence of God, you cannot simultaneously be hosting sin. 

That is why Paul says, we honour God with our bodies…

• And the context of this is verse 18 where he says “flee from sexual immorality.”
• Because our bodies are hosts of the Holy Spirit, it then makes absolutely no sense that we would use our bodies in immoral ways.
• We adopt God’s glorious plan for faithfulness within marriage and restraint from sexual activity outside of marriage.
• Remember, we have been bought with a price so as verse 20 says “honour God with your bodies.”

Now let’s be honest, I don’t know many people for whom this isn’t a real struggle at some stage in their lives…

• We live in a sex saturated world and it must feel like everyone has the big thumbs up to do whatever they feel like doing…
• But let me say this, I really wholeheartedly believe this is a worthy, worthy, worthy pursuit for those who follow Jesus.
• For not just glorifying him with your bodies and choices, but also in saving yourself from the trainwreck that promiscuity and unchecked lusts can result in. 

The context of Paul writing to the church in Corinth

• Was that it existed in a grossly sinful atmosphere of sexual looseness which continued to make its mark on the church. 
• Many of the problems of the church found their basis in the life of the city.
• The most prominent site in Corinth was the temple of Aphrodite, a symbol of the lust which pervaded the city. 
• In ancient Corinth the temple maintained a thousand priestesses who amounted to no more than common prostitutes which men would visit.   
• The attitude of the city toward immorality involved no condemnation whatever; on the contrary, it was considered to be a normal part of life. 
• Sound familiar?
• Article: Failure of the sexual revolution: promised freedom… hook up culture… oppressive. 

I love Tim Keller’s quote 

He says; “The early church was strikingly different from the culture around it in this way – the pagan society was stingy with its money and promiscuous with its body. A pagan gave nobody their money and practically gave everybody their body. And the Christians came along and gave practically nobody their body and they gave practically everybody their money.”

That’s good huh?

• And one of the things amongst many that I am so grateful to God for is the way he steers our lives towards wholeness and purity!
• Your life as a temple of the Holy Spirit should look markedly different and better than those who are still slaves to sin!

I sometimes joke that as a Christian you end up saving money in this world to give away…

• The reason is that if you don’t see prostitutes or do cocaine, or go out binge drinking or have a gambling addiction or get caught up in get rich quick schemes…
• It is amazing how much money you can save!
• And don’t get me wrong, we’re not missing out on the fun. 
• I think the joy of the Christian life and community and the path we are on is infinitely better than anything the world can offer!

And that has always been the story of revival in the Christian church. 

• Whether in the early church, or with St Francis or the great awakening in the 1870’s in the US and the UK. 
• A realisation of the destruction of sin, and an embracing through repentance of the victorious, whole life, found in Christ.

This decade we will be celebrating 100 years since the East African Revival began that greatly impacted the East of Africa, flourishing the church and leading to the conversion of millions of people. 

• It is traced back to a conversation between a British missionary called Joe Church and a Ugandan man named Simeoni Nsibambi.
• They were lamenting the nominalism within the existing church. Nsibambi saying that “while the non Christians sin openly, the Christians are just better at hiding it.”
• They sought God, prayed and read their bibles for two days and then revival began to break out.
• And this great move of God lead to much public confession of sin and people emptying their homes of destructive vices and stolen goods being returned. 
• And it was contagious… as people received the Spirit of God, they emptied their lives of their old ways… and then spread the good news of what they had found in Christ. 

One report I read talked about one meeting around Christmas in 1933 lasting five days… let me read it…

This included teaching on sin, the holiness of God, the new birth, repentance-, faith, prayer, the Holy Spirit, sanctification, the Christian walk, and the second coming. By the fifth day no spiritual change had yet occurred. During the last prayer meeting scheduled at 3:00 p.m. one of the African Christians stood and confessed his sins. This broke the barrier and the Spirit came in full force… For over two hours men were confessing their sins, moved with extreme joy and happiness. 

We titled this series God’s Empowering Presence.

• And that is the story of the church, particularly when fresh moves of the Spirit leads to new life in believers and the church as a whole. 
• The idea being that when we repent of our sins, we get empowered by the Holy Spirit to live lives of remarkable goodness.
• And that there is an actual power that enables us. 
• Romans 8 says; “the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you”

Your bodies, it says, are temples of the Holy Spirit. That Holy Spirit. The one who raised Jesus from the dead!

• We have been bought at a price… and God himself now wants to come and reside within you!
• So I just wonder, if like in the East African revival which was marked by repentance and joy…
• What do we need to boot out of our lives so that we can host the presence of God, empowering us for this new life?
• Shall we stand?

In this sermon Tim unpacks how the Holy Spirit dwells amongst us, how we experience the presence of the Holy Spirit, and how we are being built together as temples of the Holy Spirit!

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday August 14, 2022.

SERMON NOTES:

Welcome and Introduction

• So nice to hear about the HOHI dinner… well done to the two Rachel’s and all the volunteers.
• That feels like an amazing thing for all of us to go on supporting!
• In the Book of James it says “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.”
• So this is a 101 course requirement for all of us if we are going go by the name Christians!
• So well done. 

One of the things I have loved in this series on the Holy Spirit has been tracing some of the ideas or themes of the bible through the scriptures

• And how they often find their fulfilment in Jesus in the most profound way…
• But then remain relevant and available to us as the church today.
• We have obviously mainly done this just with the idea of the Holy Spirit. 
• And we call that a biblical theology… the story of the bible through a theme!
• And you can do this with heaps of themes in the bible.

Example: So David is a shepherd who become a King and looks after his people.

• Obviously Psalm 23 “the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
• And in Ezekiel it talks about where have all the good shepherds who will look after God’s people gone… and this promise that God himself will come as a Good shepherd
• Jesus then declares himself what? The good Shepherd… my sheep hear my voice
• But then as the church gets established… leaders are encouraged to be shepherds of the flock…
• Right? So it’s a great way to understand the bible… and specifically who Jesus is.
• And you can do this with the theme of Priests, or Kings, or Family or even Vineyards and Light.
• Do it… or don’t… whatever… 

But the one I want to speak on today is presence… 

On the presence of God, and particularly as it relates to how God dwells on earth.

• So I just want to go through some bible today tracing this idea…
• And then think about the implications for how we live our lives and how we come together as a church in worship?
• Sound ok?
• I think these are my favourite types of sermons…

Of course the bible starts and ends with God himself being present amongst his people.

• In Genesis God walks with Adam in the garden. Now however you understand that story… it shows us God’s original intent for his creation. 
• To be present and known. The creator with his creation. 
• In the Book of Revelation at the very end in chapter 21:3 it says “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them.”
• OK? 
• So God dwells with his people at the beginning and at the end of the story…

But what we are really interested in, is what happens between those times, or the time we live in now.

• Because to know the presence of God, is to know God.
• And that is what I think we are after… to walk with God and to be his people who enjoy his presence. 
• And that is the kind of church that I long to be a part of. One where God by his Holy Spirit is present in our midst.
• That is an exciting place to be! Pete spoke on that last week.
• And he encouraged us to be a church of love, life and worship in order that God will come!
• That’s the kind of house the Lord loves to dwell in. 

So here is the verse I want to focus on today and then we will look at everything that leads up to this reality…

1 Corinthians 3:16 says; “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”

Ephesians 2:21-22 gives us some more insights into this when the Apostle Paul says, talking about the Jesus and the church;

21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit

1 Peter 2:5 says; “you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house”

So there is this image of the church – that is you and me who follow Jesus and have been filled with his Spirit

• That we are like a temple made up of living stones… human stones.
• That are constituted by the fact that we are all filled with the Holy Spirit.
• That is being built together in some sort of way that resembles the temple in which God dwelt in ancient times. 
• In other words… when we gather together, we are the temple in which God’s presence and glory manifests.

Gordon Fee puts it this way; “God himself by the Spirit has chosen to be present in our world in the gathered church.”

• He says, talking about the Ephesians verse (and this is big);
• “the church as the new temple, (is) the present place of God’s habitation on our planet”
• So as we gather and worship him, that is the place of God’s presence manifesting.
• Not the actual building… you know, this lovely brick and mortar building…
• Though that helps to have one… but its not the point… 
• But you and me. Living stones… a place to host the presence of God! 
• Amen?

And that is why I two weeks ago, and Peter last week talked about these manifestations of the Spirit’s power being evident when the church meets. 

• God is here, because he lives in you… and when we meet, we are being built into a spiritual house as it says in 1 Peter
• Or in 1 Corinthians 3 a temple where God’s Spirit dwells in your midst.
• So we should expect God like things to happen. 
• And as we will get to later on in this message, how do we most understand what God things we might expect?
• Well we look to Jesus who the most perfect example of God dwelling in human form.
• Are you with me?

So biblical theology time…

Now in the Old Testament (the time before Jesus) there was an actual temple that God’s glory was found in. 

• There had been glimpses of this before the building of the temple by Solomon
• For instance with Moses and the tent of meeting, where Moses could enquire of the Lord. 
• And this is during the Exodus when they are wandering to the promised land. 
• So in Exodus 33:14 The Lord replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
• It went with them in the tent of meeting… called the tabernacle. 

And again in Leviticus 26:11-12, God promises

11 I will put my dwelling place among you, and I will not abhor you. 12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. 

So in the story of God’s people, we then get to 1 Kings. The people of God have finally entered the promised land and defeated their foes…

• Then Solomon becomes King after his father, David…
• And a lot of his life is dedicated to building a temple in which the presence and glory of God can dwell amongst his people.
• If you are into the details… 1 Kings 6 is your place
• And there is this elaborate plan for the building of the temple
• And it is to be a place where the priests of God’s people will make sacrifices and meet with God. 
• So it finally gets built….

Then something amazing happens in 1 Kings 8:10-11. It says; 

When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.

• “the glory of the Lord filled his temple” (keep that in your minds)
• Can you imagine that…. They’ve spent years building this place for God’s presence to be in their midst…
• And then what they can only describe as a cloud of glory comes and it is the Lord filling his temple.
• Right? 2 Chronicles 7:2 “The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it.”
• So when this happens the priests are overwhelmed and fall back. 

But of course it doesn’t really work as a dwelling for God as it is just a building… and it is at the whims of being overtaken and desecrated by foreign armies…

• And tragically that is what happens… the people of God are not very faithful and they come under judgement.
• In Ezekiel 9 the prophet says to them “The sin of the people of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great; the land is full of bloodshed and the city is full of injustice.”
• And then tragically in the next chapter we read that the glory of the Lord leaves the temple.

To my mind it is one of the most heart breaking incident in the Old Testament. 

• Can you imagine… you are God’s people. He has rescued you from slavery in Egypt. 
• He has driven out your enemies and given you the promised land. 
• You have received his Word, the law that is designed to give you life…
• But then because of your unfaithfulness… the presence of God departs. 
• Just like that… his glory is gone!
• And that temple is actually destroyed by the conquering Babylonians a few decades on. 

But like so much of what happens in the Old Testament… there is always a promise looking forward to a saviour figure who will come and fulfil where they have gone so wrong…

So in the Prophet Ezekiel in chapter 37 God promises (verse 26);

“I will put my sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them.”

And then… and then what happens… well to be honest its hundreds of years of silence…

But then something remarkable occurs…. And this should get us up out of our seats singing!

• We read something remarkable in John’s gospel…
• It is the truth that we must behold… that has changed history 
• It is the single hinge point upon which all history depends. 

John 1:14 “the Word became flesh and made his (what?) his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

• Dwelling… glory… full of grace and truth.
• All that language is coming from this ancient story…
• If you want to understand Jesus. If you want to understand the Christian faith, it is all here.
• It is the story of God’s presence coming to dwell with mankind!
• We have seen his glory it says – in Jesus the same glory that filled the temple has filled a man!

The Greek word for dwelling we find here in John 1 is Esken-osen. 

• It is often translated not just as dwelling but as tabernacling. Sound familiar?
• And at its most basic it means “pitching ones tent”
• This is the story of Jesus… it is God’s glory coming to tabernacle amongst us… it is God pitching his tent in our camp here on earth, dwelling amongst us!
• Are you with me?

So if we want to understand Jesus, that is how we understand what he does.

• When he heals the sick… that is God’s glory dwelling amongst us.
• When he has mercy on the broken… that is God’s glory dwelling amongst us.
• When he teaches with grace and truth… that is God’s glory dwelling amongst us. 
• When Jesus dies on the cross to take away the sins of the world… hear this clearly – behold (as John would say) that is God’s glory dwelling amongst us!
• Like the glory of God that entered the temple… God is most perfectly at home in the person of Jesus Christ!
• To know Jesus is to know God’s glory… it is to know God!

So what has all of this got to do with a series on the Holy Spirit?  

Well what did Jesus say?

• In John 14 “I will ask the Father, and he will give you… the Spirit of truth… you know him for he lives with you and will be (what?) he will be in you.”
• Just as God’s glory dwelled in the temple
• Just as God’s glory, his Spirit dwelled in Jesus
• The promise is, God’s glory, His Spirit will now dwell in you!

2 Corinthians 3:18

“We… are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

• Now that is a mind boggling thought after all we have looked at today.
• We are being transformed into Jesus image… it says with ever increasing glory!
• We are beginning to reflect more and more of glory it says… as we are filled with his Spirit.
• Like the glory that entered the temple…
• Like the glory that was on display in Jesus…
• The goal of the Christian life is this kind of glory transformation…
• Are you with me. 

Just to repeat it one more time…

• If you wanted to meet with God in the Old Testament you would go to the temple, as fleeting and imperfect as this was.
• If you wanted to meet God 2000 years ago, you could have met him in and around Jerusalem in the person of Jesus Christ.
• And if you or people want to meet God today… then 1 Corinthians 3:16 reminds us… that it happens here in the gathered church!
• Temple, Jesus, church… the place of the dwelling of the glory of God!

So back to 1 Corinthians 3:16 which says; 

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”

• I told you we would get back there! It’s taken us a while…
• But I wanted to give you more of the story…
• But that friends then is who we are as a church. 
• Not a Jesus admiration club or just a charitable works society or a place to make friends…
• Listen to Gordon Fee again; “God himself by the Spirit has chosen to be present in our world in the gathered church.”

Now I think we will do more on this next week because 1 Corinthians 6 goes on to challenge us in living lives of purification in the knowledge of our bodies being temples of the Holy Spirit…

• So there are all kind of implications for this in our personal holiness 
• And all kinds of implications for how we do life together as living stones being built together
• And I think we need to do some more on the refining work of the Holy Spirit in our sanctification…

But I want to finish today on where all of this has really been pointing. 

• And that is that when we gather it should be an experience of the glory of God manifesting
• As each one of us, a Spirit filled follower of Jesus come together like living stones…
• Like a temple with God’s Spirit dwelling in our midst.
• That our church, that every church might be a place of the presence of God. 

Bill Johnson from Bethel Church in Redding California is famous for a line.

• He says “we owe the world an encounter with God.” 
• That is what changes our lives…
• That is what will change the lives of the people we love. 
• That they might meet God powerfully when they come to the gathered church… God’s place of habitation on earth!
• Shall we stand?
  

In this sermon Peter Brooks unpacks Isaiah 66:1, where God asks what his House, his Church would look like. Peter explains that Manly Life can be a House of love, a House of Godly Leadership and a House of the Life of the Spirit, especially the spiritual gifts! What will our Church look like? Will it be a place where the Spirit moves powerfully?

Sermon preached by Peter Brooks on Sunday August 7, 2022.

In this sermon Tim speaks on the gifts of the Spirit, how it’s better when we all get to play – have a go at using our gifts in the Church and how the gifts of the Spirit build us up as a Church, encourage each other and give God the glory! What gifts is the Holy Spirit calling you to use this week?

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday July 31, 2022.

SERMON NOTES:

Read the passage… 1 Corinthians 12:1-13

12 Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.  

Welcome and Intro myself…

• So great to see you all here today!
• We were meant to be dedicating baby Sienna with Rob and Gretta this morning… but the dreaded Covid hit! So we will re-organise a time for that.
• Hope’s baptism…

Well we started by reading a chunk of Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth.

• It is where we will be spending a little bit of time over the coming weeks as we explore the work of the Holy Spirit when we meet together as God’s family!
• And for some it will be a familiar section on the gifts that God gives to his people so that when we meet it will be amazing. 
• And isn’t God’s church just amazing… it’s global, and colourful and diverse
• And I tell you what… when the name of Jesus is preached and known… amazing things happen.
• And one of the great blessings of my life has been to fellowship and go to church in Sydney, in London, in New York, in the slums of Kenya and South Africa
• In massive theatres, glorious cathedrals and in tin shed buildings…
• But the same Jesus is being made known, worshiped and experienced. 

You know I think there was a bit of a collective slump in the shoulders when the census data came out last month in Australia showing a decline in people identifying as Christians…

• Did you see that? Less than 50% of Aussies now identifying as Christians… 
• And we have got lots of work to do!
• But let me assure you, there are so many good things happening in the church in Australia today!
• Church revitalization, church planting, huge things happening in ethic communities…
• But what we should be really amazed by is what is happening around the world!
• Gordon Conwell, a highly respected seminary in the US put out some key data on what is happening around the world earlier this year…

Firstly, and this may surprise you, but there are fewer atheist in the world today than in 1970. 

• While there is 2.56 billion people identifying as Christians, only 147 million identify as atheists compared to 170 million in the 1970’s. 
• So don’t worry too much about those angry people in the comments section of the SMH.
• They make up about 1.8% of the world population and declining. 

So Christianity is still growing… consider this. In 2000 there were 600 million Christians living in Asia and Africa. 

• By 2020 there were 1.1 billion Christians in Africa and Asia. 20 years… 500 million added! Holy Bejoly Batman… that some growth…
• And specifically to this sermon today… in 1900 less than 1 million people around the world identified as charismatic, Spirit filled Christians. 
• The projection by 2050 is that this number will top 1 billion… 1000 million Pentecostal and charismatic Christians.
• Quote “what we call Pentecostal in the West, the global church just calls Christianity.”
• So what is behind this stunning growth in alive, Spirit empowered Christianity?

Well I believe there has been a powerful reawakening to what the scriptures say and promise about the Holy Spirit… the presence of Jesus… alive, empowering and transforming the church today!

• But there is one more step that is important to all of this… and it has been activation. 
• Not only have we all had our eyes opened to the powerful work of the Spirit…
• But it is ordinary Christians like you and me…. Now doing the ministry of Jesus. 
• Meeting in groups praying prayers of faith for one another.
• Out sharing the gospel believing that the same ministry of Jesus is available to us today.
• So, we have collectively experienced the God, and he has moved in our lives and church communities
• Amen? What a time to be alive! 

That is why last week I spoke about how the gospel advances in the world through Word and Spirit….

• Through preaching and demonstrating the kingdom of God. 
• Through speaking the truth about Jesus and experiencing the power of Jesus. 
• I came across this verse I’d never noticed before this week.
• Mark 16:20 the very last verse in Mark’s gospel! It says;
• “Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.”
• My gosh, there it is, spelt out clearly if we were ever to doubt how the good news of Jesus goes into the world.
• Preached and accompanied by miraculous signs….
• And that is what we see in Acts and then church history!

So we then mentioned last week, that the rational and the transrational are not just for evangelism, but also powerfully at work when we gather as God’s people!

• So let’s have a look at this passage…. Afterall, Paul starts by saying, “now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.”
• So we probably should get informed! And not be what??? Uninformed…
• And this passage, the context is that the Corinthian church was elevating certain gifts of the Spirit when they met, making their times together a bit of a mess!
• Right? So when they gathered… things were kicking off in supernatural ways… but not always helpful for unity and clarity!

So the first thing we note is that no one can say (verse 3) “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. 

• And I think that is important to start with…
• There are no second class Christians… tongue speakers and non-tongue speakers… or prophetic and non prophetic…
• The truest mark of being filled with the Holy Spirit is the confession that Jesus is Lord.
• It says, you cant do this except by being marked with God’s presence!
• Amen?
• So don’t stress if when you read the next bits you think… well none of that ever happens through me or around me. 
• The most important mark of the Spirit is your confession of faith and as Paul will say in chapter 13… that you love others well!

Alright, verse 4 -6 

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 

So, if you have never heard anything about this mentioned before, and you’re wondering what on earth we are talking about today… let me try and explain…

• The basic idea is that God loves his church and wants to see it be filled with the life of Jesus
• So to have Jesus present in the church means that God empowers us all with gifts… 
• The Greek word being charismata… hence the charismatic church… known as a place where the charismata occurs.
• So it says verse 4 that the Spirit distributes gifts and verse 5, that they all come from the Lord. 
• It’s like Jesus is present and saying “you know how I healed someone while I walked the earth… well I want to give you that gift”
• And I give you that gift to give to someone else…

It is pretty cool – and here is the key… verse 7, “the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”

• All these gifts that Paul is about to mention that are at work when the church gathers together are given that we might be encouraged.
• That we might be amazed…
• That we might be built up.
• That we might see the mission and ministry of Jesus continue to occur in our churches today!
• Surely that is the common good…

And just a quick side note, I remember a few years ago that it occurred to me, that all the gifts God gives to his church are seen in Jesus life. Right?

• Words of knowledge? That is what Jesus is doing when he speaks to the woman at the well and know that she has had several husbands…
• Healing… well that has dozens of examples
• Miraculous powers… think Jesus feeding the 5,000 or walking on water
• Wisdom… have you read the sermon on the mount?
• OK? So this is Jesus continuing to work in his church through his Spirit empowered people. 
• And as we will see… not through a few holy hucksters… but through you and me!

So verse 8-11 then lists a whole bunch of gifts.

• Wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, speaking in tongues, interpretation and so on…
• And this is not a comprehensive list.
• In Romans 12 he mentions a lot of these gifts but then also serving, teaching, encouragement, generosity and mercy.
• And the key according to Paul is diversity… this great diversity of ways that God will empower you to play your part… and how that leads to unity!

I found Gordon Fee, the biblical scholar helpful on this. He notes in this list in Corinthians you could maybe group these gifts together…

• Firstly, you have gifts of instruction (wisdom and knowledge)
• Secondly, you have gifts of supernatural power (faith, healings and miracles)
• And finally you have gifts of inspired utterance (prophecy, tongues and interpretation)
• But the key is… whatever gift you might get given by the Holy Spirit… it is to be exercised in love, and for the common good… and for the building up of the church!

You know I loved being up here this last Wednesday night. I know Joey and others having been buzzing for days about what happened!

• Because beside some truly anointed worship and praise…
• These gifts of the Spirit were in operation.
• I saw people giving words of knowledge and encouragement to people that they believed they had received from God.
• I saw people praying in tongues and being filled with the Holy Spirit. 
• I saw lots of people having a go at ministering to others… praying for healing…
• And I got to tell you… happy Pastor!

Because you know, here is the thing… I love my job… but its super stoopid and to be honest super boring, if it is just me talking each week. 

• It’s so much more exciting when we all get to play!
• I used to have a sign in my office that said “Ministry Hunter” – be a ministry hunter… daily reminder… 
• Some people hunt deer, others rabbits… I want to be looking for and hunting down opportunities to minister to people like Jesus did!
• It might be a word of encouragement… or an opportunity to pray for someone, or to invite them to church…
• But we can all be doing that. Say something… something will happen, say nothing and nothing will happen. 

I don’t know about you but around summer I always find myself wanting to play cricket…

• Bit obsessed… love the Tests, love the 20/20. Victoria is noooooot interested!
• Mate Scotty called me up a few years ago inviting me to come and play in the nets with a mate of his… proper pads, gloves and cricket balls
• I don’t think Ive played in over 10 years… felt my shoulder going after bowling about 2 balls – but kept going… and my lower back go while batting
• By that night (do you remember this) we went to see that movie about Churchill…
• And I couldn’t walk…

Stretching the anaology…

• Fine to be a fan of Jesus, but what he is calling us to do is to come and play in the game with him…
• And a bit like the cricket… when you have a go yourself, if you’ve never done it or haven’t in a while… might bring a bit of pain, or fear…
• But that is where the life is? Right? Its in the game, not on the sidelines…
• Pilavachi: church is like a football match… 22,000 people desperately in need of some exercise watching 22 people desperately in need of a rest… flip this!

So that is my hope – as we learn about how Jesus ministered, we will take courage, get inspired and bring the same life that Jesus brought to people!  

Well finally how does this happen?

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.  

Let me finish with two suggestions…

1. Be a part of the body

John Wimber used to say; we’ve got all this teaching… but how do we get it into our chubby legs and get going?

• The Western church is not dying from a lack of information….
• It is dying from a lack of obedience to doing the stuff…
• And you have a role to play in Jesus’ glorious, grand mission of bringing salvation to the world. 
• It might be in business or education or health or a trade!

But you know as this is really a sermon on the church, let me just say this.

• We can do this on a Sunday… join a team! And come ready to use the gifts God has given you.
• But really what we do on a Sunday is a bit more limited because you know… there are lots of us, and kids church is happening… and we are trying to do lots of things…
• Share about Jesus, orient our hearts towards God through worship, pray for one another at the end of the service, welcome new people… Right?

So what I want to say, is the best place to really get going in using the gifts that God will empower you with is in your Life Group.

• And can I just say, I really want everyone attached to a life group. You may not get there every time its on, but it connects you to the rest of the body.
• And it is the best place to give this stuff a go!
• That’s where you can share your first teaching… that is where you can pray for someone who is sick
• That is where you can be asking God for encouragements and words of knowledge to build each other up. Right?
• So please do yourself a favour and get connected to a Life Group!

• Drink from the Spirit.

Do you want to get equipped to do this work? Verse 13 says we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

• I really saw God moving powerfully last Wednesday night. 
• But it came from the time of worship and as we talked a few weeks ago, being filled with the Spirit which is what worship helps us in.
• But I see Manly Life on nights like that and here on Sundays and in Life Groups… hungry for God.
• And what seems to happen is that when we drink of the Spirit… when we consume Jesus presence… ministry gets released amongst us! 
• Amen?
• You know, the kingdom is flitting… it comes and go… and you get discouraged… but then God does something incredible and you are hooked again. 
• We are just beginning… but we must drink deeply of God

Shall we stand?

In this sermon Tim preaches on the power and works of the Holy Spirit when combined with the preaching of the Word and the Gospel! The things Jesus promised are available to us today, to quote John Wimber: when I prayed for no-one, no-one got healed, when I prayed for everyone, some got healed! How will this impact you this week?

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday July 24, 2022.

SERMON NOTES

I want to start today by showing just a quick clip of Pastor John Wimber preaching on signs of power accompanying the preaching of the gospel.

• I know I often mention him here at Manly Life…
• He was the keyboard player for the Righteous Brothers… who got saved and ended up starting the Vineyard movement of churches…
• But he also had a profound impact on the Alpha Course, and modern worship music and so much of my understanding of Jesus and the kingdom of God. 

His basic testimony is he got saved, went to church, started reading his bible and then began to ask…

• “when do we start to get to do this stuff…” told, oh, we don’t do that anymore…
• Well that was not his reading of the bible and what Jesus promised… so he began to “do the stuff” of the bible and low and behold amazing things began to occur….
• Famously said, “when we prayed for no one, no one got healed, when we prayed for everyone, some got healed… so what would you prefer?”

Show video.

I want to speak today on the Word and Spirit…

• On the bible and the presence of God…
• On proclaiming and demonstrating the kingdom of God through word and deed
• I want to speak on truth and power
• I want to speak on how healing and miracles is often a result of telling people about Jesus.
• Or as Wimber would call it, the rational and the trans-rational working together…
• Because our faith is not just an intellectual consent to a truth about God… it is a relationship and experience of his power and glory…

Privilege as a young man of spending some time in Kenya with a marvellous mission organisation called African Enterprise…

• They are actually coming to Manly Life in two weeks time…
• And being there for 10 months as a 21 year old felt a bit like doing a practical work placement…
• You know, up until then I had learnt about Jesus and the kingdom…
• Got to have a go… did some preaching in schools and open air meetings… got to pray for people, got to visit amazing development projects…

Actually I was reminiscing up at the AE Sydney office last week. They were filming an interview with me for their 60^th anniversary celebration is Zambia later this year…

• White suit… and the storm… so that was the end of my pristine white suit!

One of the things that struck me as I went on this practical work placement for Jesus, ministry and all things his kingdom was the expectation that my Kenyan Christian friends had!

• When they shared the good news about Jesus they expected two things to happen.
• Firstly they expected people to respond to the message and that they would come forward in faith to receive Jesus as their Lord and King
• But it was the second thing that almost shocked me more.
• And that was they expected that God would move in power and do miracles of healing or restoration in people who responded. 
• And that was exactly what would happen time and time again… you would see people getting visibly impacted by the Holy Spirit. 

So what does it look like when God’s kingdom comes close? When heaven breaks in…

• The word salvation in the bible is the Greek word Sozo… has many many meanings…
• Definition: To be saved. To be healed. To be made whole and well. 
• Or as one scholar puts it; “Salvation, then, must mean more than simply being saved to go to heaven when you die. To be biblically saved means there are also earthly effects on our lives today. Not only are you free from the judgement of God, this salvation also includes the ability to resist temptations to sin, to be set free from oppression, and to receive healing in our physical bodies.”

And for that to happen you need not just a natural explanation of Jesus… but supernatural power to work in your life!

• 1 Corinthians 4:20 says; “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.”
• Right? 
• If God is in the business of sozo’ing people… getting them saved, healed up, made whole
• Then we should expect that the Spirit of God and his Word will be at work to accomplish these things!

And of course what I would go on to learn is that this is exactly what we see in the bible… in Jesus, in the early church, in Paul’s letters and through church history!

Paul says this in Romans 15:18-19…

18 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— 19 by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

• Gordon Fee on this verse says this: “Paul begins by indicating the two means through which Christ has effectively been at work through him: By ‘word’ and ‘deed’. Word surely refers to his proclamation of the gospel, but deed calls for some explanation, so he immediately adds, “by the power of signs and wonders.” 
• The expectation for Paul was that as the good news of the gospel went out through the world it would be preached and demonstrated with power…
• For Paul a full proclamation of the gospel of Christ, the good news of Jesus…
• It meant preaching and signs and wonders. And both of those were a demonstration of the power of God. 
• I wonder do you have a testimony of this? Hearing the truth, encountering power… (say again)

Well, if this is what we are to go after… in our lives, our ministry and our church gatherings, where do we see this or get encouraged into this. And I want to suggest 4 quick, good places…

1. In the life of Jesus
2. In the early church
3. In Paul’s letters to the churches he planted
4. And finally in church history.

So firstly, Word and Spirit in Jesus…

Come with me to Matthew 9:35-36. It says;

“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

So motivated by a deep compassion for the people that he encountered…

• Jesus who sees the people as harassed and helpless ministers to them in word and deed, with truth and power.
• He proclaims the good news of the Kingdom of God
• And he heals every disease and sickness…
• He tells them the good news of God’s grace and mercy and demonstrates this new reality with signs and wonders, with power!
• Can you imagine being there? People getting healed… wild!

So this is Jesus. In Luke 4 we are told about him that he was “full of the Holy Spirit”

• And we can read what this means for his life and ministry.
• One of my favourite Jesus stories is just a few chapters on in Matthew in Matthew 11
• John the Baptist sends a messenger to ask Jesus if he is the Messiah?
• It’s not exactly the biggest vote of confidence in Jesus… are you it?
• Anyhow Jesus replies “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”
• The rational… and the transrational… word and Spirit. Good news and signs and wonders. That’s the proof that the Messiah has arrived.
• Of course I could give you dozens more examples in the gospels of this…

Secondly this is in the Book of Acts and the early church

Come with me to Acts 3 and 4…

• So basically as you know after Pentecost, Peter full of the Holy Spirit gets up and preaches in Acts 2 and it says 3,000 people get saved.
• So then in the next chapter… Peter heals a lame beggar…
• So it’s always this combo or preaching and then miracles… or Word and then Spirit!
• Here is the Boom, mic drop moment… verse 6 “Then Peter said, ‘silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”
• And this poor bloke gets up, starts to walk and begins praising God.
• And it says the people were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Now, it’s a cool story right. The stuff Jesus was doing is now continuing to happen through his Spirit filled followers. 

• But remember what Wimber said in that video… it is the demonstration of the power of God that leads to the explanation of what has happened in Jesus.
• The order isn’t that important… sometimes its healing then preaching. Sometimes preaching then healing…
• But it’s the rational working in tandem with the trans-rational again!
• So now that Peter has got everyone’s attention… once again he preaches the good news.

You can read it yourself as he has lots to say…

• But again… here is the Boom, mic drop moment… we hear in Acts 4:2-3 that the religious leaders aren’t happy that Peter is proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection of the dead
• So they chuck them in jail… bummer right…
• But here is what Peter says, verse 8; ‘Peter filled with the Holy Spirit said to them’… verse 12 ‘Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
• There is that word again – salvation… in all of its meaning and glory!
• So the transrational healing is followed by the rational proclamation… all works of the Spirit. All works of salvation in a persons life.
• Of course I could give you dozens more examples in the Book of Acts of this…

Thirdly this is the life of the churches planted by Paul

Now I don’t want to do too much on this as this is where we are heading in the next few weeks in this series…

• But simply to say, these demonstration of power and the preaching of the truth are not then limited to evangelism and outreach
• The gatherings of the early churches in Corinth and Ephesus and Rome all experienced the continued work of the Holy Spirit in their meetings.
• So we are going to look at that next week in 1 Corinthians 12 where Paul compares the church to a body with different parts
• And each part has a role to play… 
• And he explains the gifts of the Holy Spirit at work when they gather as… well verse 7…

“the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. (then he lists the gifts given through the Spirit) including the message of wisdom, knowledge, faith (it says), to another gifts of healing, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy…” and so on…

So for Paul, as we become followers of Jesus and are filled with the Holy Spirit, the same inspired words (that is messages of wisdom and knowledge)

• Are accompanied by supernatural gifts of healing and miraculous powers, prophecy and so on….
• In other words in our meetings, as Jesus is powerfully proclaimed, people full of the Spirit will also do the wonderful deeds that Jesus did in his ministry!
• Is this building? Is this compelling?
• Do you want in on this?
• Because there is a bit of a randomness to all of this and when it happens…
• But in general I would say that when Jesus is preached there is a grace for healing… (Stop there… REPEAT – whole point of this sermon)

OK, and finally, this is all through church history.

Of course the story of Jesus being proclaimed and signs of healing has continued through the ages…

• If you go to the writings of the early church Father Irenaeus who was writing in the second century, he talks about the sick being healed. 
• Or Origen in the third century, wrote that “the name of Jesus can take away diseases”.
• I was very interested to read St. Augustine of Hippo – fourth Century theologian, perhaps the greatest theologian of the first four centuries of the church.  
• He wrote a book called The City of God and in that book there are page after page after page of stories of people being miraculously healed, set free by God. 
• He talks of a blind man’s sight being restored in Milan.  
• He talks about a lady called Inno-centius who was cured of incurable breast cancer.  
• He talks about a doctor healed of gout in the very act of baptism, an old comedian who was cured of paralysis 
• So the story continued and continues today…

I loved Kirrily’s story of her mum being filled with the Holy Spirit and laughing for a couple of days and being healed and transformed from a whole bunch of ailments…

So finally, how does this all work? How might this even occur right here today? That we might encounter not only the truth of Jesus, but the power of Jesus through his Holy Spirit. 3 suggestions…

1. Get yourself in an atmosphere of faith

It seems to me that there is a link between the presence of God, faith and power…

• Sometimes in a room of God’s people there is such an atmosphere of faith and presence… 
• Go with it!
• Church aint always going to be like that every meeting… sometime we just come and get a really encouraging message from the Word and that is awesome. …
• But we know this here at Manly Life right – there are services where the presence of God is thick. …
• I’ve known people who don’t know the Lord to come to our services and just start crying (not because they are terrible services…) but because of something they’ve never felt before. 
• It’s the presence of God… so press in!
• Throw the script… significant for Annie…

• The name of Jesus…

If we want to see the Kingdom of God manifest, remember it’s about the King. His name is Jesus!

• Techniques… even Wimber had his 5 step model of healing… 
• When we pray for healing it is simply in the name of Jesus
• That’s what Peter says in Acts 3, “in the name of Jesus, walk.”
• In Acts 4 they pray this to God; ‘Lord stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.’
• And just as Jesus had compassion on the helpless and harassed, start praying with mercy, and end with mercy… just pray and love.

When you start praying for someone for healing… you are loving on them – you’re obeying the highest commandment… so be gentle and loving, considerate…

• And just proclaim the powerful name of Jesus to heal.
• And when Jesus and Peter and others do miracles, they use simple prayers… 
• Things like… See! Come forth! Walk…
• Command… (only if you know the Holy Spirit is with you) 
• You know the anointing is coming upon you! Spirit of the Lord was on Jesus… when the Spirit is on you – go for it. You will know!

• Practice makes perfect 

Famous John Wimber quote is ‘when I prayed for no one, no one got healed, when I started praying for everyone, some got healed.”

• We live in an age of scepticism and doubt and unbelief… but people are strangely open to prayer!
• Just start… offer prayer and, do it then and there… not I’ll pray for you later…
• Wimber – after a season of praying for the sick and nothing happening, people leaving, complaints… felt God say; “do not preach your experience, preach my word” 
• That’s when things started to happen. That’s when God began to really show up!

Shall we stand…

In this sermon Chris continues our series by looking at Galatians 5:16-25 and how the Spirit helps us to grow and develop a family likeness in the Family of God. Chris encourages us to walk in the Spirit rather than indulging the life of the flesh, and that this produces good fruit in us that helps us look like Jesus! Are you walking in the flesh or the Spirit this week?

Sermon preached by Chris Roberts on Sunday July 17, 2022.

SERMON NOTES:

• Good morning everyone, if I haven’t met you yet my name is Chris and I am full time here at Manly Life coordinating all things Kids, Youth and Scripture. We have had such a wonderful term, I think some highlights for me included hosting our first ever combined youth night where other youth groups came to us for the first time, as well as launching our Kids Church Band and getting Kids back in here for once a month worship. I’m also so excited for this winter festival so get excited for that! So it is such a privilege to be here and to be speaking to you this morning, so 

• I have always wanted to be a parent! As you may know now I have been a dad for around 8 months, with my beautiful daughter Elsie growing up very fast! It is a special and beautiful time of life and Beth and I had 9 months of dreaming what our little baby might be like. Would she look like us? Would there be a family resemblance? Would she look more like Beth, or would she look like me? 

• Well of course we weren’;t just dreaming and wondering if she would have a family resemblance in terms of appearance, we were also wondering if her personality would be like ours, what about her interests, what she was good at? Would she inherit our skills, our hobbies, our love of food?

• But the work doesn;t stop there for Beth and I, over the years Elsie will be shaped by how we parent. We want to raise Elsie to be all that God made her to be, and we want her to resemble the family in that way too, her faith, her character, we want to be a family who is known for loving others and loving God! 

• Last week Tim preached on how the Spirit assures us that we are adopted into God’s family and pours his love into out hearts. We are in God’s family and are unconditionally loved, so what does it mena to start looking like God’s family and develop the fmsily likeness? What does it look like to be in the likeness of God’s family and how does the holy Spirit help us? What role does the Holy Spirit have in helping us grow? What we will discover today it is the Spirit that develops the likeness in us!

• Yes and as you may know, we are well into our series on the Holy Spirit called God’s Empowering presence, its been great hearing from the Word about the Holy Spirit but I’m sure you’re like me and have also been enjoying hearing each person’s personal stories about the Holy Spirit, they are so encouraging to me and I’d love to share a bit about my journey with the Holy Spirit today as well as we dive in. I’ve also loved the extended worship at the end of each service and the chance to encounter the Holy Spirit in a fresh way, there will also be a chance for that at the end of the service.

So why don’t you open your Bibles to Galatians 5:16-25

16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit!

• 1. Two Ways Spirit versus flesh – two ways of living no middle ground 

• So very quickly, Paul is writing this letter to the churches in the region of Galatia, many scholars believed it was to be passed along so all could read Paul’s message inside. The story of the churches in Galatia is that Jewish Christians were preaching a false gospel of following the Law, including physical circumcision to new Gentiles believers, ie. people who weren’t Jews. So Paul spends the whole letter of Galatians directly speaking against physical circumcision or following the law to find freedom in Christ, but instead to follow the way of the Spirit which brings true freedom.

• Paul was adamantly clear that because of everything Jesus Christ had done on the cross, his resurrection and his gift of the Holy Spirit of Pentecost, there was a completely new way we can live our lives and was for Jewish and Gentile Christians alike. And this way is still for all Christians today.

• So we arrive to our passage. 
• Let’s look at verse 16-18 – 16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

• You’ll notice two ways of living mentioned, the way of the flesh and the way of the Spirit. What does that exactly mean. Let’s very quickly unpack it because it’s vital to understand this message of liberation and freedom that Paul is trying to tell the churches in Galatia. 

• Firstly, the Flesh. Simply put, the flesh is our ‘sinful nature’ our human brokenness that is weak, lured by the world and by the temptations of the devil, that rebels against God. Tim spoke about this last week when he mentioned what Paul says in Roman 7:19, lets read: verse For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.

• This is our human struggle, we are incapable of defeating our flesh. We need help.Well the good news is that Paul tells us of the life of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a person in the trinity, God himself living inside of us who provides a new way of life to live where the Spirit produces good fruit in us.

• And I want to take the time to mention my journey with the Spirit. I gew up in a fantastic Church with many wonderful friends and it realy established my faith. But the life of the Spirit was rarey, if ever, mentioned. It was only went I wnet to a new church after high school wa sover that I first heard about the gifts of the Spirit! 

• Up until then I had been living a spiritual double life, I was trying to have the life of God and the life of the flesh but it was a disaster I kept hidden from everyone. On the outside I was achieving in my sport life, academic life and leadership in school and at church, but inside I was struggling with sin and lies I believed about myself that held me back from experiencing life in the Spirit. Particularly an onoging sin of lust, and a diagnosis of mild aspergers as a child where I believed  lies about my ability to have friends, feel belonging, be liked and even what I felt I couldn’t do in my future career and calling. 

• It was at this new church I heard about Bible College and where I discovered the work of the Holy Spirit in changing my life. I confessed my sins in a safe and nurturing place and found incredible freedom and forgiveness as I begun the journey of growth. The Holy Spirit healed those places where I believed lies about myself, revelaing his truth to me and giving me calling into ministry. It involved being vulnerable, confessing, repenting and doing that all paver again when weakness struck, but this past decade of knowing the Spirit has been profound in experiencing growth and breakthrough. Yes I have all kinds of seasons and setbacks, but writing this semron has reminded me HOW MUCH I NEED THE SPIRIT IN MY LIFE to keep the transforming work going! 

• So that’s the instruction of this passage:. WALK BY THE SPIRIT, We willt lak more pactcially about that later. Read verse 17, these two lifestyles are in direct contradiction to each other. There is no middle ground. You are either walking in the Spirit or indulging the flesh. We can’t follow the Spirit in half of your life and let the flesh run wild in the other. It just doesn’t work that way. Neither does trying to follow the rules on your own. but you’ll read in verse 18 there’s a solution to that too. If you are led by the Spirit, you fulfil the law. No need for a rulebook, or to memorise 600 rules, if you are living by the spirit. The job is done!

• So where does Paul go next, well he is  led by the Spirit is called to give us some examples. To get specific, to really get to the nitty gritty of the outcomes of living these ways. Because we can sit in church and loom around and not really know where everyone’s spiritual life is at. But Paul says we can see people’s lives in what they do. Firstly he gives us 19 terrible words to describe the acts of the flesh: we read in verse 19-21.

• 19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

• Oof. That is a hard-hitting list. Paul knows that we know what this stuff is. They are obvious. You don’t need me up the front telling you how you fall short and sin, because you know it already. But Paul is specific for a reason, he deliberately calls out these things to force us to have to cinfornt these things in our lives!

• I won’t go through all of these, because most of it is pretty self-explanatory. But there are in four categories of sins mentioned in this list sexual sins, religious sins, relationships and sins of excess. And Paul says “and the like” there are more he hasn;t mentioned! I encourage you this week to take a closer look and reflect on where you are at with these.

• I want to mention a few that I think are particularly relevant to us today. Firstly, sexual immorlaity and impurity. Our world is sex-saturated, there are websites where you can organise to have an affair, access to secual material is as easy as its ever been in the history of mankind. The world has perverted God’s gift of sex and when we live in the flesh, we pervert it to. The Holy Spirit has never led anyone to cheat on their wife, watch porn or have be sexually impure in our mind or actions. 

• Idolatry. On the Northern Beaches and in the western world we have an idolatry problem. It is so easy to worship and live for money, to worship and live for our careers, our lavish lifestyle, our property portfolio and investments, our children, our cars, our houses, or another person, or it could even be the things we watch, listen to, our hobbies. The enemy wants us to take God from his rightful place as lord of our life and replace Him with something that cannot be God. All these things are good but they will ultimately fail us one day, something God will never do. 

• What about factions? This is an act of the flesh we must be on guard in the Church. Are we people who form factions, cliches or ‘inside’ groups? Do we divide people with our words or opinions? Do we leave people out or are so inward focused in our friendship groups that no one can break in? We risk becoming a petty landscape of warring factions rather than a united Church if we allow ourselves to form factions. Of course there is nothing wrong with having a group of friends, and we won’t hang out with some people as much as others, and that is okay, but God’s Church is to be as welcoming and loving as Jesus himeself, who welcomed and ate with the sinners while the religious Pharisees sneered at him. 

• Maybe you’re all good with these three acts of the flesh. Maybe something else is on the list you struggle with more. So what does the result of the life of the Spirit? What maybe the most important thing is Paul’s words in:

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 

• Everybody wants these things right? As Paul says there is no law against these things. And they all revolve around characteristic – love. The other fruit of the Spirit all come from this, so if you forget everything today you can remember one thing: love.

• Also notice that it is not the ‘fruits’ of the SPirit. It is the fruit of the Spirit. We can’t say, oh I’m just an impateint person or I’m just not self controlled, this fruit is produced by the Spirit in all believers! So every believer will grow in all these areas by the work of the Spirit. 

• So in my previous examples,  To counteract sexual immorality, the Spirt produces Godly love so that we express our sexuality in healthy and Godly ways, we have self-control to manage temptation.

• For idolatry, when we love God and love others, have faithfulness, we aren’t tempted to put other things above God.

• The Holy Spirit’s kindness, patience, love and goodness in us will help us not to from divisive factions or cliches but instead show God’s love to everyone.
• So follow the Spirit, and God promises the fruit will start to grow in your life. 

• 2. Keeping in step with the Spirit (application) how do we crucify theflesh and live by the Spirit?

• So its all well and good to know this, but walking out the door today and moving into your week, how do you actually reject the life of the flesh and embrace the life of the Spirit?

24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit!

Crucify the flesh

• Paul says that those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. I think Paul uses the word crucified to remind us of Jesus’s crucifixion, death and resurrection. It reminds us of Jesus words to take up our cross daily. Part of our daily practice as a Christian is to put our sinful passions and desires on His cross. Where they belong. Where Jesus has paid the price. We can do this in prayer. Right from wake up to ehever we feel tempted, instead of indulging, nail it back to the cross instead. 

• We also have to be careful what we are feeding our hearts and minds as Christians. The reson it can be SO HARD ro resist temptation is that we have fed the life of the flesh and made it strong, whereas we allow no room for the Holy Spiirt, spend no time strengthening that relationship. 

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. PHILLIPIANS 4:8

• So what are you watching? Listening to? Thinking about? Feed your spiritual ife instead! Strenghten your relationship with the SPirit! He will help you until that sin is no longer tempting. Be careful not to feed the life of the flesh!
• Remember that the practice of these sins is condemned, we will sin out of weakness, so that begs the question, are there any sins that are a practice in your life? Clinging on to these sins is a sign that you might need the help of  a trusted friend, mentor or counsellor to help- and that is okay! 
• What is your daily pracxtice with the SPirit? Readinding, prayer, worship, life groups ect?

Keep in step with the Spirit 

• Going on a walk with my extended family is really fun, but we all have to accommodate each other’s walk, we have to keep in step. There’s the person walking Penny, the dog. Then there’s the person carrying or wheeling Elsie in the pram. Some walkers are faster than others. To enjoy a walk together we all have to stay in step. And you probably don’t even consciously have to think of that when you go on a walk, you just do it. 

• So the goal is to have our lives in step with the Spirit. Imagine if it became so natural we did it without thinking? 

• If we’re in doubt about where the Spirit is guiding us and what the Spirit is saying to us: remember these things:

• Everything the Spirit will lead us to is in line with the Bible – the Spirit will never lead anyone to those works of the flesh – check your Bible!

• Get our mind off ourselves – start serving and loving others! Ultimately the Spirit wants lead us into a Christ-like that is others focused. So if we’re in doubt, we can show love to someone. Make someone a meal, catch up with someone you know is struggling, welcome a new person, call someone with encouragement, write a thankyou note, volunteer at church or helping others. Love is the fulfillment of all things, so let’s start just doing it!

• Baby steps – no mother or father is upset at their son or daughter who is learning to take their first steps, wobbling about, falling over and only able to do a short distance. They know their child is heading in the right direction. The same thing applies here – its your walk with the Spirit. COMPARISON doesn’t matter here! Let’s not look at your neighbour and think how ahead they are or how behind we think we are. Focus on your own steps. You might be taking the very first baby steps in your walk with the Spirit, or crawling even. Because if you keep that up, the Spirit will make you stronger. You will grow the fruit. 

• The good news is that there is no waiting to be done! Don’t be stuck trying to keep the rules all by yourself, you will fail and it only leads to self-hatred and de[sair. Also don’t disrespect Jesus by using this freedom to do whatever you want. You also are NOT FREE if you do that, you remain a slave to sin! Tonight you can nail those habitual sins to the cross. Jesus has paid for them. The invitation is always there, He is waiting to receive you with open arms. Confess, repent and experience the joy and filling of the Holy Spirit as he forgives you, cleanses you and begins to produce His fruit in your life. 

Choose the life of the Spirit Many Life. 

In this sermon Tim continues our series on God’s Empowering Presence by looking at how the Spirit pours his love into our hearts, and assures us of our adoption into God’s family as sons and daughters!

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday July 10, 2022.

SERMON NOTES

I am speaking today on the role of the Holy Spirit in assuring us of the love of God.

• Now I am aware that we represent a lot of families here in this church community… and many of our families, mine included are far from perfect!
• And yet hopefully in some way, in glimpses or regularly… we experience something of unconditional love with our children or parents. 
• But of course the gift of God, is that we all get access to His unconditional and unfailing love. 
• So I want to start today by showing a video that is kind of a modern retelling of the Prodigal Son.
• And it poses the question: what does it mean to experience the unconditional love of a heavenly Father. 
• Show video…

So we are doing a series on the Holy Spirit…

• So far we have talked about the story of the Holy Spirit through the bible and how He is now available to all of God’s children.
• Kirrily spoke on Ezekiel and God’s promise of a new heart and a new Spirit.
• Last week I spoke on Pentecost and then mainly on Ephesians 5 and the exhortation to “be filled with the Holy Spirit”
• And I talked about how the similarities and differences between being drunk on wine and filled with the Holy Spirit… let’s just say you had to be here!
• But one of the lovely things that has been happening has been the ministry times and extended worship!
• God wants to meet with you!

I want to talk today on the love of God and our adoption into God’s family

• And specifically the role of the Holy Spirit in assuring us of this love and adoption into God’s family.
• Ephesians 1:5 say “in love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ”
• Romans 5:5 says “God’s love is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.”
• Romans 8:15 says “the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”

So it is the Holy Spirit’s role in helping us to know that we are God’s children and to encounter and be filled with the love of God…

• A love that is evident in our adoption into this amazing family of believers around the world. About two and half billion people at last count. 
• And a love that is made tangible… or felt… or assured by the role of the Holy Spirit in making this real to us. 
• As it says; “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”
• So God is not just a concept or an idea. God to us, is like a Father, one who can be an experienced reality of love.
• Are you with me?

Gordon Fee: “salvation… as effected through the death of Christ… is the outworking of God’s love. And this is appropriated experientially through the gift of the Spirit, whom God has given to us and through whom we actualize the love of God in Christ.”

Right? What he is saying is that the love of God is a historical fact. It has happened. 

• We are not left in the dark about who God is, or whether he is for us. 
• It’s most lavish and expansive expression is shown through his Son, Jesus Christ’s death for sinners like you and me. 
• Right? How do we know God is love as it says in 1 John… we know this because we look at the cross. 
• Jesus in love pays for your debt and my debt through giving his life. He takes our punishment and reconciles us to God. 
• The love of God is a historical fact!

But as Gordon Fee says; “neither is such love merely an object historical event. God’s love, played out to the full in Christ, is an experienced reality in the heart of the believer by the presence of the Spirit.”

• So we know God’s love because of the cross.
• But then we also know God’s love because of the gift of the Holy Spirit, the presence of Jesus poured into our hearts. 
• This is an experienced reality for the children of God!

And to be honest, that’s why it’s ok to cry, it’s ok to laugh in church. That can be such powerful moves of the Holy Spirit at work within us!

• In my church in London, I remember one particular Sunday where I came in having not walked particularly well or closely with God that week.
• Worship leader at the end of the service must have kept playing just for me, because when I came out of what felt like a trance, I realised everyone else had left the seats of the church.
• But as I worshipped I had waves of sadness and joy sweep over. And that manifested as uncontrollable laughter followed by tears… followed by laughter, followed by tears… 
• Over and over again.
• And I think what was happening was something like a deep reassuring of God’s love over my life. 

This is more than just a worked up emotionalism… I don’t think that is our chief threat in the Western church!

• This is a deep knowing and assurance and experience of God’s great mercy and love towards us!
• It’s the difference between being an outsider of a family, and that of belonging… of being brought in… of knowing a permanent place in the family of God. 
• And just like in our earthly families we feel things deeply… 
• So in God’s family, it is a heart felt reality!

Ephesians 1:5 “In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ”

• So what is all this adoption talk about?
• Just a quick note, the language in some of these texts is very male. 
• But don’t worry as, in other places, the same author Paul uses the phrase sons and daughters when referring to the family of God.

For instance 2 Corinthians 6:18 ““I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.”

• And of course at Pentecost and the fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy that “your sons and daughters will prophesy.”
• OK… so this is referring to all of us. Not just the blokes.
• But sometimes, even though the truth is for both males and females, the bible doesn’t always use the most gender inclusive language. 

In the Roman world when Ephesians was written, a wealthy man would want to pass on their fortune and their name…

• And if they had no son of their own, or if the relationship was broken
• They would select out of their trusty servants who was often a slave, and they would adopt for themselves as an heir.
• Can you imagine how a servant would feel about that? 
• From rags to riches overnight. From being a slave to being the chosen son!
• No longer a servant… but now an heir. 
• It would be like winning the lotto… from a place outside the family… to now destined to inherit all the blessings of being in the family.

In listing the riches of the gospel. In declaring the reasons to give praise to God in Ephesians.

• Paul wants us to know, that we, being chosen by God, have been adopted into his family. 
• A people that would be heirs to all the riches of God’s family. 
• A people that would take on the name “Christians”… which means little Christs. Or children of Christ. Right?
• A people who would take on the family likeness as we are transformed into becoming holy and blameless…
• That this happens through the gift of adoption!
• And what a family… where ever you go… you meet brothers and sisters! 
• Bangladesh… 
• What do we have in common – we met Jesus, we met with undeserved mercy. We came to believe that he is Lord of all! We became the children of God. 

And this happens out of sheer grace, God chooses broken humanity and brings them into his family.

• JI Packer in his book Knowing God says: Adoption is the highest privilege the gospel affords us.
• Adoption is a higher privilege than even justification in which God declares that we are not liable to the punishment that we deserve. 
• Packer: “to be right with God the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.”
• In adoption, God establishes us as heirs, as his beloved children!
• And in that, we find a closeness, affection and generosity that are at the heart of any good family.

Of course this idea of being a child of God versus being a slave with no permanent place in the family is found all through the Gospels.

• One of the places you find this is in John 8. Let’s have a look…
• In this discussion about who the children of God really are Jesus says;
• “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Now there is a lot going on here in this passage. And it is the contrast between slaves and sons that is most interesting to me.

• So Jesus says the default position of humanity is being a slave. Specifically a slave to sin. 
• And we know this right. We know this about our own hearts and the condition of our lives.
• I’ve never particularly had an issue with the doctrine of original sin…
• Paul reflects on this when he says in Romans 7…
• 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do… 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 
• Does that resonate with anybody?

Right, so we are not born Christians. We are not automatically in the family of God just because of a believing great aunt. Right?

• But as it says here in John 8… if the son sets you free you are free indeed.
• And again, the image here is of a slave being set free and adopted into the family.
• A slave has no permanent place in the family. But hear this! 
• A son belongs to it forever. Jesus sets you free into sonship. 

So go back to John 1… how does this happen? Verse 12…

• “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God.”
• It is a gift. It is the mission of Jesus to seek and save the lost. It is the great story of God…
• Sweeping up every tribe and tongue and gender and class and ethnicity in the big family of God!
• All adopted into a permanent, loving places as heirs to God’s blessings.

Sometimes when people speak about the story of the prodigal son, they use such terms as the scandal of grace. 

• The idea being that in human terms, the story is shocking that a Father would welcome back a wayward, disgrace, prodigal child. 
• Even that video we watched, you sense in the son, a real unease about what to expect when he returns…
• And yet in one sense, if we know John 1. Indeed if we know the nature of God from the Old Testament
• Think Psalm 86:15 “But You, Lord are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” 

If we know this…

• Then the prodigal son story is just the fulfilment of what God has always been like.
• Once you’re in the family… no matter how far you may then wander, if you come to your senses, you will never be kicked out or forced to work for God’s love!
• Are you with me?

I was thinking about unconditional love a bit this week… where I have experienced it, and what effect that has…

• My parents ticket home!
• Never did get in trouble, but having that unconditional backing and love frees you from fear. 
• And it says that in Romans 8 right… slaves live in fear. 
• At any moment if you don’t have that backing and support, you are at the whims of fate and paying the consequences of your mistakes
• But as it says in Romans 8… if you know we are adopted as the children of God, we need not live in fear.

So what has the Holy Spirit got to do with this…

• Well as Gordon Fee says; “God’s love, played out to the full in Christ, is an experienced reality in the heart of the believer by the presence of the Spirit.”

In ancient world… when you were adopted into a family you would often receive the family ring.

• It was a seal or proof that you were the heir to the parent’s name and riches. 
• For those with a keen ear, you will know that when the prodigal son returns the Father says this…
• “Quick bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Let’s feast and celebrate, for this son of mine was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found.”
• Did you notice the ring. It’s a sign of sonship. 

Well what is the sign of your and mine sonship in God’s family.

• Well according to Paul it is the experience of love poured into our hearts
• And in Romans 8 it is the Spirit of God testifying with our spirit that we are God’s children. 
• Or as it says; “the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
• In our adoption we don’t get a ring or a certificate… we get a far better gift and assurance.
• It is the gift of the Holy Spirit coming to reside within us!

Let’s finish with that idea. That God’s residence in our hearts is our assurance of adoption. 

• For us the children of God we receive 2 great gifts upon believing in Jesus and becoming a disciple of his.
• Upon the repentance of sins and calling him Lord we receive the gift of salvation. 
• And we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 
• And through these two gifts, God in love, is creating a people for his name!

I want to show one last video… Alpha Holy Spirit video – Romanian girl… 

In this sermon Tim continues our God’s empowering presence series by taking a look at the Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost and the believers being filled with the Spirit, and then looking at Ephesians 5 where Paul says not be to be drunk on wine but to be filled – Tim compares drunkenness and being filled with the Spirit and implores us to keep being filled with the Spirit in our daily lives!

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday July 3, 2022.

SERMON NOTES:

Well did you know that at Manly Life we have a beautiful values statement. You can find it on our website… 

• And there will be a pop quiz to make sure you all know them, sprung on you at any moment…
• Firstly, the gospel is good news… 
• Secondly we value relationship with the Father… 
• Thirdly, kingdom community…
• Our fourth is ‘We value Spirit Filled Community.’  

“We desire to be known as people of God’s presence continuing the works of Jesus. It is the Spirit of God who assures us of our adoption, who transforms our character and empowers us with gifts to serve. We seek God’s presence in our meetings and in our mission.”

Old joke about Sydney… Father, Son and HS all return to heaven from holidays on earth. 

• Asking where have they been…
• God the Father, says I’ve been to London… oh, says Jesus and the HS – we’ve been there, great city
• Then the Holy Spirit says I’ve just been to Cape Town… oh says God the Father and Jesus… we’ve been there – amazing place! 
• Jesus says I’ve just been to Sydney…. “oh” says the HS… I’ve never been there…
• Not true these days…  lots of amazing churches full of the presence of God!  

Sometimes the church has had these unhelpful dichotomies…

• We are a bible teaching church… all about the Word… the word, the word, the word…
• We are a social justice church…. all about transforming society… fairness, fairness, fairness…
• We are a charismatic, Holy Ghost explosion church… power, power, power…
• In Kenya, I knew of a church called the Maximum Miracle center…
• Never made sense to me… why not go for it all!
• John Wimber used to say “all Word we dry up, all Spirit we blow up, but Word and Spirit and we grow up!”

And of course that was Jesus! That was the Apostle Paul! That was the Apostle Peter!

• Jesus was an incredible teacher of the truth (think the sermon on the mount – greatest ethical teacher in history!)
• Jesus was an agitator for social justice showing incredible mercy on the poor and modelling compassion to his followers…
• And Jesus was full of the power and presence of God… healing the sick and defeating evil
• I want to be like that!

And I think that is why I was drawn in the UK to the amazing church I ended up at…  

• First time I walked in St Paul’s Hammersmith London as a 22 year old… in a service and they started talking about projects in the local community… then preaching from the Word… then beautiful worship… and prayer time where they invited the Holy Spirit to come and minister…
• I remember thinking… whacko… now we are away!
• This is what I have been looking for in an alive local church!

So what kind of church is Jesus wanting to build? I want to suggest he wants to build a church full of his presence… that is, the Holy Spirit. 

• Why? Because of the fruit that the HS brings in our lives and in the church…
• Interview with Nicky Gumbel… talking about the waves! 
• At HTB in the mid 90’s… secretary was hiding under her desk – come back… 
• My friend Ash was there – sovereign move of God!
• Well that birthed Alpha and the Marriage Courses and extensive church planting and Worship Central and training ministers…

And that is what is important with any move of the Holy Spirit: The fruit it produces!

• What matters is the long term results… Are lives changed, are ministries launched? Does Jesus become more real to people…
• Joey and I scratch our heads… most charismatic people we know are also some of the most difficult people we have ever met! Experience chasers… but its not changing them… 
• What the Holy Spirit is about is producing fruit in our lives. 
• Transformed character, boldness and power in ministry, hearts for the poor and downtrodden!
• Amen?

Well of course if you know your bibles you will know that God’s presence, his Holy Spirit is all through the scriptures… and we did a bit of this story 2 weeks ago… go back and listen. 

• In the Old Testament we see at times the Spirit of God fill people for extraordinary tasks at certain times – think Daniel who interprets dreams…
• But you then get these promises that the presence of God is going to be a more full, more available, more empowering presence for all of Gods people.
• And Kirrily spoke so well last week about the promise in Ezekiel of a new heart and a new Spirit poured out on God’s children. 

Or do you remember in our Isaiah series last year in chapter 44:3 it says; 

“For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.”

• Isn’t that a beautiful image… God pouring his spirit on his children… like pouring water on a thirsty land…
• Seen the wet season come to the desert in outback Australia… soaks the parched earth and what seems desolate comes to life with wild flowers and fauna!
• Well the Holy Spirit in a community will do this… bringing life to what looks dead!  
• Part of why we gather and invite the Spirit to come… we come having had tough weeks, carrying burdens… then God’s presence comes and touches us… and…
• So the promise is that God will pour his Spirit… called a blessing on your descendants… that is us!

So who is the Holy Spirit?

• One thing that I have been enjoying in preparing this series is reading the biblical scholar Gordon Fee’s book called God’s Empowering Presence.
• And we can get an idea for who the Holy Spirit is from the names given to him in the New Testament…
• In Acts 17 he is called the Spirit of Jesus. Same in Philippians. The Spirit of Jesus. 
• In Romans 1 he is called the Spirit of holiness
• In 1 Corinthians he is called the Spirit of our God
• In Ephesians 1 he is called the Spirit of wisdom and revelation
• In 1 Corinthians 5 he is simply called the power of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And so in Acts 2… after the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus… this is the Spirit that is poured out on God’s children!

• The Spirit of Jesus, of holiness and wisdom and revelation and power!
• In Acts 1 Jesus appears to them and says “wait for the gift my Father has promised…”
• Then he says, in a few days “you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit!”
• The word baptise was used to describe a ship sinking under the water… in other words you are going to get drenched in the presence and power of God!
• He will plunge you into holy power. That is the promise of the scriptures. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit. 

So Pentecost happens and in one sense the church is born… Acts 2 says,

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

• And what happens? Well they get accused of being drunk! The people mock them… I can only imagine it is quite a scene…
• A rushing wind fills the room and tongues of fire come to rest on them…
• And then they head out to get on with the mission of God… an afraid group huddling in an upper room get launched into the world with the same message and power of Jesus!
• Within a generation that message has brought salvation and new tribes and tongues into Jesus kingdom all across the Romans world and beyond…

Isn’t this just the best story ever!

• Honestly… I don’t understand why people don’t want in on this?
• The average punter doesn’t realise that we are not just talking about Jesus but also experiencing Jesus presence in our lives. 
• And honestly it is the main reason I know that Jesus is Lord…
• We are not just compelled to this story because of what we read in the bible..
• But because we have experienced the love and power of God poured into our lives. 
• So knowing God is not just an intellectual affair. There is an element of knowing God that is experiential.  

Census stuff… people need an encounter…

Well look what happens to the first disciples. Acts 2… They get plunged into the presence of God and they look like they are drunk. 

• So a huge crowd comes together in bewilderment at what is going on. And it says “they hear the wonders of God in their own languages…”
• So some people make fun of them saying ‘they have had too much wine!”
• Clearly to outsiders they look intoxicated. I find that so interesting. 
• And I find it interesting that the same drunk comparison is used in Ephesians. 

Ephesians 5:18-19 “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.”

What an interesting comparison… for Paul here being drunk on wine and being filled with the Spirit have similar and yet very different effects. Enough that to him this is an obvious comparison…

• Of course drunkenness is a classic alternative to filling the hollow. 
• Often when we realise that money wont fill the hole in our lives we turn to drink
• Often when we realise that sex wont fill the hole in our lives we turn to drink…
• Friend – real estate guy… owned his own very successful agency before he was 30… on the outside it looked like he had everything… but he revealed to me he was drinking a whole bottle of spirits just to get to sleep at night…
• It is about escapism. People drink because they can’t handle the pressure or maybe the boredom of life. Want to escape into a different world. 

Now of course in the scriptures, alcohol is not forbidden. Jesus first miracle in John’s gospel is turning water into wine. Paul recommends some wine to help illness in 1 Timothy.  

• In the Old Testament a sign of the messianic age dawning is an abundance of good wine!
• But drunkenness is warned against repeatedly!

So we get this comparison… don’t get drunk on wine… but get filled with the Spirit of God!

• And the tense of be filled is present, continuous. This isn’t meant to be a one off experience…
• It’s meant to be an ongoing experience…
• Leaky vessels… think a spounge…

So what do drunks look like that made them think the early Christians were drunk at Pentecost?

• Have you ever wondered that? 
• So to finish today I want to suggest that being filled with the Spirit is like being drunk… and nothing like being drunk… (this could go either way…)
• Being filled with the Spirit makes you bold!

You know when people are drunk they often act in a carefree, irresponsible kind of way…

• Call it Dutch Courage… I remember at university that I had these friends who wouldn’t dance until they had drunk about 6 beers… and then the dancing was not pretty… a lot of…
• People drink because they want to be bold to approach the opposite sex or say things they wouldn’t normally say… shy people become outgoing…

Well when you get filled with the Holy Spirit you get a different kind of courage or boldness!

• Think Peter… he goes from hiding in an upper room to preaching in the open air!
• I remember when I worked in London I gave all my colleagues a copy of the Message NT… 
• Victoria and I were out at dinner the other night and I started to share about Jesus with our waitress and then Victoria prophesied over her! 
• So being filled with the HS is a bit like being drunk… you get a holy boldness!
• We need to be a Spirit filled church, courageous for the Lord!

• Being filled with the Spirit takes God from your head to your heart!

You know sometimes people drink because they want to get out of their heads and start expressing their emotions…

• Have you ever had a mate at the pub come up to you and tell you “I looove you…”
• Drinking does that… quite rational people become quite touchy feely, and expressive!
• And you get sad drunks too… they have a drink and the tears flow and the emotions bubble up!

Well when you get filled with the Holy Spirit, often we go from head knowledge of God to an experience in our hearts of God

• Romans 5 says God’s love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit!
• So we have this encounter with God.
• First Alpha weekend away in London… Minister invited the Holy Spirit to fill us… had this encounter with the love of God… 
• I’m not usually very emotional guy… I cried at my wedding and… well I cry at every wedding…
• But we need these experiences of God’s love as they assure us of the realness and for-ness of God towards us. 
• We need to be a church that has remarkable, unexplainable experiences of God, where he just comes amongst us, his people, pouring his love into our hearts!

• Being filled with the Spirit changes your character!

You know drunk people often have a change in their character…

• Have you ever been the only sober person at a party where people are drinking lots…
• Often you realise that drinking brings out pretty obnoxious traits in people. 
• Quiet people become loud. Reserved people can get aggressive. 
• Silly people get… well… sillier!
• Maybe on the positive, it can bring out the fun and joy in a person…

Well when you get filled with the Holy Spirit it transforms your character from the inside out…

• Sometimes we judge other Christians because they are not very transformed… 
• But maybe you should have met them before they became a Christian 😉
• But seriously what God is wanting to do, is make a better version of you. Amen?
• It’s the fruit remember of God alive in you… love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and so on…
• When the Spirit of Jesus resides in you… you become more like… any guesses?
• Yes! Jesus! And who wouldn’t want that!

Finally, when we get filled with the Spirit we sing!

• Have you noticed that about drunk people… they often sing?
• In my slightly wilder years in London I remember a few nights out where Operatic Tim came out… and you don’t want to have to hear that!
• Well when we are filled with the Holy Spirit it leads us to sing!

So it says; “be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.”

• Do you know every time there have been revivals around the world it has always produced new music in the church?
• And one of the most wonderful things about being a Spirit filled Christian is our worship!
• Amen?
• I mean you should have been at our house on Wednesday night. YA’s could have been out getting drunk… but got filled with the Spirit and sung!
• Even last Sunday… particularly after the evening service… all in… 
• Spirit filled worship… and prayer ministry and people lost and intoxicated in the presence of God!

Well, Manly Life do we want to be a church full of the intoxicating love and power of God?

• I reckon that’s got to be better than a community full of the wine guzzlers…
• Bold for Jesus, experiencing his love and power and being changed from the inside out!
• Sing…
• Let’s invite the Holy Spirit to come and minister to our lives right now…

In this sermon Kirrily continues our series on the Holy Spirit and unpacks the promises found in Ezekiel 36:26-28 where God says to he will give us a new heart and new Spirit! We can today experience the fullness and filling of the Holy Spirit in our lives! Do you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit?

Sermon preached by Kirrily Smeallie on Sunday June 26, 2022.

In this sermon Tim introduces us to our new series on the Holy Spirit called God’s Empowering Presence! He shares a bit of his own story about the Holy Spirit’s work in his life plus the history of the Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testament right up to the time we live in now where the Holy Spirit I being poured out on all believers! This is going to be a great series so don’t miss this one!

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday June 19, 2022.

SERMON NOTES

New series on the Holy Spirit and how God’s presence empowers us for Christ like life and ministry.

• Today I am going to give a bit of an overview of the Holy Spirit, God’s empowering presence through the story of the bible…
• Then in future weeks we will look at particular elements of the Holy Spirit’s ministry 
• Things like how God’s presence transforms our character, how He gives good gifts to the church… how the Spirit is active in assuring us of the love of God.
• And the goal is that we will not just come to know about the Holy Spirit, but also experience the power of God in our lives.

Now undoubtedly the Holy Spirit is and always has been at work in the life of the church since Pentecost, this amazing moment in history when God pours his spirit out on believers…

• But there have always been seasons when God sovereignly seems to be moving in remarkable ways.
• And I just love, love, love talking to people who have been through such waves. 
• Greg was involved in such a wave here in Sydney in the 90’s…
• And one of my friends Jim who I was in Hawaii with grew up in John Wimber’s youth group… so in Hawaii I just asked him so many questions… 
• And he had these wonderful stories of these California kids who were just so hungry for the presence of God… and the remarkable things that happened!
• So what is it like when God meets with his people?

If you had told someone twenty years ago that I would be speaking on being filled with the Holy Spirit there would have been a bit of surprise…

• I actually remember telling some charismatic friends of mine that they might not be Christians…
• Gosh if I had a dollar for all of the dumb things I have said… I’d have $15 now… 
• No, I would be a rich man!

But I must admit, even back then I found charismatic Christians fascinating…

• They had a certain quality and life about them that intrigued me…
• I had grown up in quite a conservative Christian church and as is so often our theology is shaped by our experience…
• I never heard sermons on the Holy Spirit, I never encountered ministry times that encouraged being filled with the Holy Spirit… so I assumed my version of faith was right!
• So having never experienced what one might call the more physical or emotional manifestations of the presence of God, I was sceptical of their authenticity. 

I would love to share a little of my own journey in discovering the ministry and power of the HS….

• The first stirrings for me that there might be more to the Christian life than just knowledge about Jesus came when I was taken along to a Jackie Pulinger evening.
• Do people know Jackie Pulinger? Explain her ministry… Walled city amongst prostitutes and crack addicts…
• Speaking and she stopped… 21 year old guy here who needs to go to Africa…
• Made me think two things… 
  • Does God still move in more supernatural ways than I thought?
  • And is God interested in speaking to me on a personal level…

Not long after I moved to South Africa to work with Michael Cassidy and African Enterprise. 

• My host family took me along to St Nicholas Charismatic Anglican Church
• At the time, I thought, there are two words that don’t go together…
• Bit like pretty ugly or business ethics or rap music or deafening silence…

Well one morning I was out ministering in this tragically poor township church… 

An African evangelist had shared his story of being healed and then he invited people to come forward for prayer. He asked me to pray for people…

• All these desperately needy people started coming towards me for prayer
• What on earth do you pray? Run out of things…
• Started praying in tongues… amazing experience…
• I wondered is this what Romans 8 was talking about… vs 26 “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”
• Caused a few issues for me – just as my theology had been shaped by my lack of experience, now I was in a fuddle… something amazing had happened… 
• But it didn’t fit into my box of what God does and does not do

But I remember thinking, if this is New Testament I must go for this. This is what I’ve been waiting for!

• By this stage I had started reading the New Testament and realised that it was full of Holy Spirit talk… page after page drenched in the language of Spirit… 
• And the fear is often not – what if we ask God to move in our midst and nothing happens, the bigger risk is that we ask God to move by his Spirit and He does…
• What if all these promises and descriptions of the power and the presence of God in the bible are for today!

Well to finish a bit of my story 

• I then moved to London and had the pieces put together for me…
• I ended up at a church that had been planted by HTB (the Alpha Course) called St Paul’s Hammersmith
• Wonderful church that held together preaching the Word, the life of the Spirit and a deep commitment to local social transformation!
• Alpha weekend – ministry time… assurance of the love of God! Presence… overwhelmed…
• That Spirit/Word/Action has really been where my faith is at home until today!

Well what is this all about?

Why should we hunger for more of the Holy Spirit?

Gordon Fee writes, “For Paul the ‘power of the Spirit’ is not only for more visible and extraordinary manifestations of God’s presence, but also for the empowering necessary to be his people in the world”

• What is he saying here?
• Basically that yes, the power of the Spirit is amazing when we see God move in extraordinary ways… stories of healing… and addictions being broken!
• But fundamentally this is about being empowered to be God’s people in the world. 
• In other words bring on the miracles… but more deeply, we just need the Spirit to be at work in our lives to be Christians… 
• This is the presence of power of Christ within us!
• And so that is how we live the life and calling God intends for us as his people.

On one of Paul’s missionary journeys he encountered a group of new converts to which he asked; “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

• And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
• I don’t imagine if you are at Manly Life you would be in that group…
• But each of us need to constantly be receiving more of the presence of God in our lives!
• But you know too often we back away from pursuing the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
• In fact what we often do with our faith is get infected with the rationalism of the world around us!

I love that in the very first verses of the bible we are told that the Spirit of God was involved in creation… 

• It says the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
• And then at the creation of mankind… however you understand that in Genesis 2, it is the breath of God that creates humanity! 

As God then forms a family to bless the nations, we see that the gift of God’s Spirit was specifically given to certain people for special tasks.

•  It was not generally available nor was it necessarily permanent. 
• We see this in 1 Samuel 16:13 where the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David or in 2 Kings 2:9-10 where Elisha receives a double portion of the Spirit. 
• I love Moses in Numbers 11:29 when he states “I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!” 
• Why? Because amazing power comes when God’s Spirit is released in people
• And this is just what the prophets were led by God to foretell for the last days 

The Prophet Ezekiel pointing forward to a future time says in Ezekiel 36 that God would… verse 26

“give you [God’s people] a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” 

• So they are waiting for this move of God that is going to change everything!
• And as we saw in our series in Isaiah, it’s always being linked to this coming messiah where God will act decisively to begin to put things right!

So again, the prophet Joel spoke about a time when God would… 

“Pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams; your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”

• So all this is pointing forward to a coming new age! 
• And they are waiting, waiting, waiting…

And then we meet Jesus!

It begins with his baptism. In John 1 it says; “The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God”.

• Then, when Jesus announces his ministry in the temple he says: ““The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, to open the eyes of the blind, to set the oppressed free.” 
• So what they are waiting for, Jesus has in abundance… and it leads to this ministry of healing the sick, offering forgiveness and setting people free!
• That is what being Spirit filled does…

Jackie Pulinger – whenever we feel stuck/flat/disheartened we go to the poor and lay hands on people who need prayer… do some Jesus stuff…

• And she says, the Holy Spirit moves…
• The goal of our faith is not just a ticket to heaven… it is playing our part in the liberation from bondage that covers the world.
• Not about building a up a holy huddle…
• About being Spirit filled family moving out to transform the world… 

So Jesus then says, he’s got to go away but he will send the Spirit…

• In Luke 24:49 he promises his disciples “Behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” 
• I mean you can feel the expectancy rising… its been seen in Jesus… and he is going to give his presence to all God’s children just like the Prophet Joel said…

So those who have this Spirit will be empowered for the same mission that Jesus himself initiated. 

• In Mark 16:17 Jesus says, “these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

I like what John Wimber said… when we prayed for nobody, nobody got healed… when we pray for everybody, some get healed… 

• Our worship nights… prayer happens… and that is my encouragement… give it a go!
• You see God’s church is to carry on Jesus mission, but it needs his Spirit and it needs to get activated!
• All this takes power, and that is what was promised in Acts 1:8 in receiving the power of the Holy Spirit to be Christ’s witnesses. 

When I was 21 I lived in Africa for a year. Preaching in Kenya – nervousness… Thought it was me who had to make it happen!

• Wonderfully liberating to know that it is God who does the work… we are to co-operate, do our best…
• But through the Holy Spirit – ministry will be happening!
• Uncle Nath: Say nothing, nothing will happen… say something, something will happen.
• Same with praying and the ministry of the Holy Spirit… 
• My little practice at the moment is to just put out a bit of bait… mention church… see if people are interested… 
• But takes courage… and follow through… not trying to force my beliefs on people… 

So at Pentecost we finally reach the moment that changed the children of God forever! The Spirit gets poured out on all believers! 

• Peter who has gone from denying Jesus to preaching the first public sermon points the crowd to Joel 2:28-29. 
• The Spirit is evidence that the last days had dawned and the widespread gift of prophecy for old and young, male and female alike testified to the turning of the ages.
• We now live in the age of the Spirit. I should hear us all at this stage yell – YES!
• It is not just for particular people at particular times… it is for all Christians including you and me!
• The waiting is over, the promise is here! 

You know, I know you want this sermon to finish before dinner so we’ve got weeks to come….

• And we will look in more depth at Paul urging us to eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit…
• Or about how the love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. 
• Or about how in Acts healing accompanies the preaching of the gospel…
• Or in 1 Corinthians and the extensive lists of gifts available to you and me in the church!
• Or Galatians the fruit of the spirit alive in us being this character transformation…

But clearly this was the experience of the early church…

And whether it is Saint Augustine who four centuries later is still talking about healings happening in the church

• Or records of John Wesley and crowds being overcome by the presence of God and falling over in the 18th century
• Or what is happening today all around the world in God’s church!
• The waiting is over, the promise has come – God’s Spirit is now alive in his people!

So as I come to finish, here is my question for all of us – Have you received the Spirit of God? Have you become a part of this story?

• London: Telling kids years ago about Jonah and the whale… bored….
• Got them to act it out, to become part of the story… came alive!
• For us to come into this story… where God is freeing and restoring his world we are going to need to be Spirit people and then get ministering!

Would you like to stand, I would like to pray for you… if you have been waiting, know and believe God is about to come and move in your life…

• Going to ask the HS to come… Hasn’t he been here – yes he has…
• Bit like a balloon. There is always more room in us for more of the breath of God…
• But we are going to ask him to come and fill you with His presence… Let’s stand…
• Some Groups… 
  • Receive his love and peace… (London story – assurance of his love)
  • Others receiving gifts… (laying on of hands..) 
  • Invite all to come… so really this is just about getting the best spot…

For our last sermon in the What Jesus Taught Series Tim looks at Jesus’ last words of the Sermon on the Mount, a call to not just hear Jesus words but to put them into practice in our lives! When we do this it is like building our house on the rock, when we hear Jesus words and don’t do what He says, it’s like building our house on the sand – when troubles come it falls with a great crash! What are you building your life on?

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday June 12, 2022.

SERMON NOTES:

I must admit, I feel a little sad this morning as we are ending our sermon series on What Did Jesus Teach through the lens of the Sermon on the Mount.

–  I always remember doing a course on the Sermon on the Mount back in Vancouver 15 years ago at Regent College.

–  My professor Darrell Johnson used to remind us that Jesus was the most brilliant man to ever live.

–  I mean yes, he could do miracles and was compassionate and… well he is our saviour

–  But it is good to remember that he is also brilliant. The smartest man to ever live… the mostprofound ethical teacher to ever live.

–  I would challenge you to find a genius on the level of Jesus at any point through history. Hiswords have endured!

So as we close this series, it is no great surprise, having given the most brilliant and profound ethical teaching, that Jesus then finishes his sermon with a challenge to implementation!

–  Having talked about the ethics and values of the kingdom of God. (gym membership)

–  He is saying this is what it looks like when the gospel gets a hold of your life…-  So Jesus then challenges his listeners to action. This is not to be interesting thoughts to mull over…

–  Jesus words are to the be the rock upon which you build your life.

–  This is the life built on implementing his teachings that will help you endure the storms of life!

Matthew 7:24-29“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” 28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

One of the things I love about where we live are those big East Coast low storms…

–  I don’t know if they are happening more regularly, but when they hit, along comes ridiculously big waves (which Murray surfed at Deadman’s recently – pride by proximity)

–  But for a few days the waves and wind beats on the coast… it pours with rain, and you often also get flooding.

–  One of the big ones hit about 7 years ago, the week that Luca was due to be born.

–  I remember getting SMS’s from the SES about possible evacuations because we were livingmnear Queenscliff lagoon.

So Manly Dam was flooding and king tides were pushing into the lagoon… and so the waters rose…

–  I found the whole thing very exciting. Our friend Dr Becky the obstetrician was on call in case the flooding meant we couldn’t get out and Victoria went into labour.

–  Victoria wasn’t quite as relaxed about it all as I was… and let’s just say, I’m glad I am telling the story…

–  Anyhow, the Noah’s flood of Manly never quite eventuated and Luca was happily born up at North Shore Hospital.But of course, other than the birth of my son, the other big story at the time were the houses built on the edge of the beach at Collaroy that lost their front yards… pools and some even parts of their homes!

–  Photos of the foundations exposed…

–  At that stage, as the storm raged… and the waves beat against the shoreline… it is too late tostart doing any building work. Right?

–  Instead it is a time of revelation. What has your house been built upon? Say again…

–  Put simply, you can’t build foundations while the storm is raging…

–  And what Jesus is telling us today, is that when the storms come in life, it is often too late todo any building work…

–  Instead the storms of life reveal the foundations of how we have built our lives.Lets just unpack the passage…The house Jesus talks about is your life.

–  We are all in one sense building a house… building a life… and it’s a gift from God.

–  It really is! It is a miraculous, wonderful, complex but amazing gift!

–  It is made up of so many things… our education, our jobs, our relationships, our passions andpersonality… and importantly, our character.

–  So what kind of a person are you?

–  As you build your life, it isn’t just what you do, but how you do it.

–  How do you treat people? Are you honest? Do you have meaningful goals? Are you kind?

–  Does your life involve serving other people or just building your own house.So be under no illusions… you are a builder of a life. One that not just affects you, but those around you.

–  So we are all in the building game.

–  And we want a life well built.

–  I mean you would be a bit strange if you didn’t want to construct a meaningful andsuccessful life.So Jesus says, the wise person hears the words of Jesus, puts them into practice. And this is like building on rock.

–  As the letter of James says, this person is a doer of the Word. They are wise because they take heed of Jesus ethical teaching and build a life upon those instructions.

–  So this is not necessarily about being smart or knowing a short history of everything…

–  1 Corinthians tells us that knowledge puffs up but love builds up…

–  So this is about implementation! It just is… it just is…

So the wise man hears the words of Jesus and puts it into practice. The life built on the rock, is the life of discipleship that implements what is learned.

–  Now it would be a brave man who tried to sum up all of Jesus words or teachings in one sermon.

–  And obviously part of Jesus words or teaching was God’s gift of salvation. The gift of eternal life for all who believe.

–  But it also shouldn’t surprise us that Jesus basically has something to say on every aspect of life.

–  From our work lives, to our relationships, to our integrity, to our purpose.

–  Would you agree? This series has been eminently practical.

–  And broadly it was to love God, love our neighbours, forgiving those who hurt us, don’t behypocritical, don’t judge others!One of the most foundational and summary passages though is found in Matthew 7:12

–  Strangely enough we actually didn’t cover it during this series, so it makes sense to me to bring it in, in our last sermon in the series.

–  It is called the Golden Rule, and is often regarded as the most profound ethical guide to life ever given. Do you know it?

–  “So in everything, (Jesus says), do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

–  So in other words, treat people how you would like to be treated.

–  There is something to put into practice. Yeah? Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

–  Treat other people with the concern and kindness you would like them to show toward you.So Jesus teaches his followers “do to others what you would have them do to you”

–  Do you want compassion? Give compassion.

–  Do you want mercy? Show mercy.

–  Do you want to be respected? Show respect.

–  Right? Step outside ourselves and consider others point of view, situation, or circumstances.We are all pretty self-serving creatures, and no one wishes for a life of hardship or difficulty.

–  No one wishes to be disrespected at work, insulted on social media, or excluded at a dinner.

–  Therefore, Matthew 7:12 provides a way to interact with people in healthy and ethical ways.

–  So…in building your life, when it is time to act, when in doubt about how to respond to asituation or how to react to a person, simply consider how you would like to be treated—and then do that.You wouldn’t commit adultery because surely if you love yourself, no one here would want their partner to cheat on them…

–  So out of love… out of treating people how you would like to be treated, we come up with a way to live an ethical, moral life. Adultery gets put off the table…

–  Right – you wouldn’t want to be murdered… so don’t murder.

–  Right? We hate it when things are stolen from us… so don’t steal. It’s the loving, right way tolive.

–  So there is something to put into practice.

–  These words of Jesus, are the solid foundation for building a life!So if that is building your house, your life on the rock, then the sand is a life that hears Jesus words and does not put them into practice.

–  This is the warning…

–  So you can hear Jesus warn against building treasures on earth and then commit your entirelife to getting rich, no matter the cost to your family, your integrity or how you treat people.

–  Jesus would say, you are building on sand.

–  You can hear Jesus talk about oaths and letting your yes and no be enough… and then spenda life cheating people and making false promises and having no integrity.

–  Jesus would say you are building on sand.

–  You can hear Jesus warning about committing adultery and then go and cheat on yourspouse or be serially unfaithful or loose in the caboose!

–  Jesus would say you are building on sand. Right?All of this and so much more is what Jesus would call an unstable foundation for your life. And just let me be clear. According to Jesus, building on the sand does not end well.

–  And it is because of the one constant however you build.

–  And that is the storms that come to test the strength of the house and its foundations…

–  The storms are the challenges of life.

–  One house lasts, one house falls…And 2022… what a couple of year it has been… boy oh boy… can we just start again?

–  Remember when the biggest issues we were all facing was not being able to water our gardens?

–  Much has been washed away in the last 2 years, and many of us are feeling the strain on our health, our finances, our relationships and even our faith

–  The storms of this life hath cometh knocking!

–  And I think it is fair to say that Jesus had in mind these external tests that are often out of our hands that severely shake us…

–  The storms of life will come. We don’t go looking for them, but they always come…If I was to sum up the current scene, I’d say we are all currently in the post corona slumps, booms, slump… yeah?

–  During Covid we got through with blitz spirit… in this together, stay calm and carry on! But it was exhausting…

–  Then we came out… well we came out, then went in, then came back out… then got locked back in…

–  But eventually at the start of this year… we came out… and there was this post slump boom of life getting back to normal… we could go out again… we could send our kids to school.

–  But it feels now a bit like a post corona slumps, booms, slump.

–  So many people are sick with all the illnesses we haven’t had for 2 years… and there is a bitof trepidation about debt and inflation and war… and argh!Actually some one asked me the other day do we live in the End times? You know Book of Revelation stuff…

–  To which I always give the same answer… Yes… absolutely we are… this is the end times… and we have lived in the end times for the last 2000 years…

–  Haha…

–  I mean lets face it, we are not the first to live through a storm!

–  World War 1, Spanish Flu? The great depression, World War 2, The Cold War, the worshipwars…

–  Right? The last 100 years have been full of storms!

– But seriously, life is a wonderful gift, but comes with genuine, challenging storms!

Two things to finish…

Firstly, You are not called to be a solid rock… just to build your life upon one.

–  Right?

–  One of the lies that we tell ourselves, and I think particularly as Christians, that we shouldn’thave difficult times in our lives…

–  That because we have God we won’t suffer or face giants!

–  And one of the bravest things that we can ever do is put our hand up for help.

–  So remember that! Jesus and his word is the solid rock, not you!

–  So be kind to yourself…Finally, do the building now.

–  Put Jesus words into practice in your life… now!

–  This is the great encouragement from todays passage… that if we implement the Words ofJesus in building our house… our lives… we will stop things crashing down, when the stormscome!

–  As those people in Collaroy learnt… when the storms are raging… it is too late to build properfoundations!I love the story of Captain Casey Sullenberger and the miracle on the Hudson.

–  Do you know the story or have you seen the movie with Tom Hanks?

–  Sullenberger has taken off from JFK airport with a plane full of passengers, when a massiveflock of geese hits the plane killing both engines… and Sully needs to decide in a matter of moments what he is going to do!

–  And in a matter of moments, Sully, lands his airbus passenger plane on the Hudson river in New York

–  I remember reading that if it had been a new pilot it would have ended in catastrophe… 

–  But Captain Sullenberger was so experienced as a pilot that his instincts kicked in and it camenaturally to him, to bring the plane down on the river…. 

He didn’t have time to look things up in the Book of Instructions. Right?

–  And he certainly didn’t have time to run a calculation about what would do the most good for the most people… 

–  He had to act instinctively, and fortunately, those instincts had been trained by years of experience.

–  When the storm came… when the great test came, his thousands of hours of doing it… made him ready to respond!That’s the challenge for us…

–  Get the Words of Jesus so deep within you, that when faced with challenges or trials or temptations or big decisions, you instinctively know what to do, because his words have gone deep in your life!

–  How did Sully know what to do? Deep within his heart his instincts had been trained to know what to do.

–  And so it is with us… we put the words of Jesus into practice…

–  And when the rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.

In this sermon Victoria unpacks what Jesus says about true and false prophets: what true and false prophecy looks like, how we can produce fruit in our walks with Jesus and the state of our heart in hearing from God and sharing with others!

Sermon preached by Victoria Giovanelli on Sunday June 5, 2022.

SERMON NOTES

–  We are doing a series in the Sermon on the Mount and I have the honour to preach the 2nd last message in this series.

–  It has been about knowing what Jesus taught in order that we might fully be his disciples.

–  Last week we looked at Jesus’ warning that the life of following Jesus is described as a narrow path that few find, but one that leads to life.

–  So today will be looking at Mathew 7:15-23. And once again we find truth telling Jesus giving it to us straight!

Matthew 7:15-2315 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in
heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Well what I want to encourage us in today is 3 things… all related to bearing good fruit and doing the will of God in our lives, living as truth-filled authentic disciples of Jesus.

1. What is good prophecy and what is false prophecy
2. The true marker of prophecy and discipleship is love
3. We want to be the kind of Christians that produce good fruit

So firstly, what is good prophecy and what is false prophecy?

I am going to spend a few minutes unpacking what a false prophet is because I believe it’s integral to understanding this…
In ministry school… A time in my life I was coming into an understanding of the prophetic gifting and how God was using it in and through my own life…

–  Jeremiah 5:30: An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority; and my people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?

–  God was asking me this question, will I prophesy according to what men want to hear, will I bend prophetic words to please the hearts of men or stay true to what God speaks to me.

–  God despises when men claim to speak on His behalf when it is not so. And he is looking for hearts that carry this gift to be fully yielded to HIM not swayed by men’s desires but stay on course with the desires of God.

–  Or worse use this gifting to derail people away from the truths of God – in order to satisfy the desires of the flesh instead of the Spirit.

I can not preach this passage and not be honest and say I have been really saddened in the way that prophetic gifting within the body of Christ, these past few years, has been as a political tool.

–  Does God care about our politics? – yes.

–  Does he use men and women in that arena – yes – just like he uses them inall marketplace arenas. But we as Christians have a king who already sitsupon a throne and our allegiance is to him alone. That is what unifies us.

–  Rev 19:10 Worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit ofprophecy.

–  All good prophecy should draw us into an encounter with Jesus Christ – that is what it was designed for.

–  I actually don’t care what side of the political fence anyone sits on. So forgive me for talking about politics this morning – I usually avoid it but I guess this is an arena where we have seen prophecy misused, to stoke fleshy desires, bend to tell people what they want to hear, to bring endorsements and be used as a political instrument of division instead of the Jesus endorsing and kingdom of God trumpet it is designed for.

–  Prophecy can be used beautifully within any arena but we must be willing to constantly search the motivations of our hearts especially if we are the ones speaking on behalf of God.Jesus came not to establish an earthly government but rather a church in order to accomplish the plans and purposes of God.

–  That is why the sermon on the mount shows us what citizens of the kingdom of heaven look and live and love like…

–  It won’t be done through the institution of the church, but through disciples

–  Ordinary people like you and me, equipped by the Holy Spirit to established

his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

We need to stop looking to the leaders of this world to be our saviour – we have one.

–  We need the church all around the world to wake up to the reality that the kingdom of heaven resides in you and you are called to release it, right now, today in your sphere of influence.

–  And I tell you what – if every Christian did that we would see radical change in every sphere of our world.

–  It’s millions of little pieces of fruit that makes up a banquet big enough to nourish the entire world.

–  I want to encourage you church. that we already have everything we need, found and established in the person of Jesus Christ – the greatest love of all to save this world.False prophets tend to sow disunity among the sheep, and steer our gaze to idols instead of staying firmly set upon the Saviour.I needed to repent recently because I was so grieved and saddened by the ways in which I saw prophecy being misused these past few years that I shied away from the gifting and therefore probably didn’t speak up when I should have.

–  Jeremiah 5:30 – but what will you do at the end of it?

–  At the start of last year I felt the conviction of the Holy Spirit that I had hadso much poured into my life in this area and had been mentored by some incredible prophets (tried & tested) who had such sound, safe and biblical teaching on this gift – but who was I passing it on to? Who was I feeding with this?

–  Hanging fruit is of no use if it’s left hanging on the tree.

What was I doing with gifts that I had been given in order to disciple the church in this area? How could I judge others on how it was going wrong without doing something to help make it right?

–  After all, Paul clearly says in 1 Corinthians 14:1 eagerly desire the gift of prophecy.

–  So from this conviction we started the Prophetic Hub on Wednesday nights before Worship night to play our part in creating a safe environment where the prophetic gift can be nurtured and flourish within a sound biblical framework.

–  You might not know this but our church had a prophetic word over it some years ago that we would establish an eagles nest where there would be prophetic training and releasing of prophetic voices. So we are doing our part in being obedient to that part of our calling. So secondly, I want to encourage us to remember that love is the goal of prophecy and discipleship.My motivation is and I pray will always be the love of God – and love is the marker of true prophetic ministry – it’s a release of God’s love.

–  1 Cor 13: If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

–  His love longs to call us into our destinies in him

–  His love longs for Christian communities to be unified around the purposesof His kingdom called out by prophetic voices

– Even when he brings correction through the prophetic it is drenched in his love to redirect our course from destruction unto life – it is like that of a father trying to guide his children.

However, I can be used for His Glorious purposes and the advancement of His kingdom – I’m in.

–  But I have learnt from my many years… maybe 40… but we’ll just say many… that God moves most effectively through relationship. Our relationship with Him and each other – that is why church is a community full of connections and relationships.

–  And God is alive in the midst of us loving one another well.To understand this passage I think it’s vital to have a quick understanding of the difference between the gift of prophecy and the calling of a prophet…

– I just want to touch on quickly what prophecy is… I am not going to go into all the Greek and Hebrew on this for you bible nerds today but let me just say:

o It is to see or perceive with spiritual eyes
o It is to speak on behalf of another
o And comes from a bubbling up from within by the Spirit

Whenever we prophesy we are speaking on behalf of our Heavenly Father. We are speaking forth His heart and thoughts towards those around us and His truth into situations.

It will always align with the scriptures. And it is always based in love.

– If you want to move in this gifting then first and foremost cultivate your love relationship with God.

–  You can’t speak for someone you don’t know intimately. Intimacy with God is key, protecting it, cultivating it and allowing Him to first speak into your life on a personal and private level.

–  1 Cor 14 tells us prophecy is not just a gift that should be eagerly desired and that it is for edification, exhortation and consolation/comfort.Jeremiah 1: 9,10 The Lord stretched out his hand and touched Jeremiah’s mouth and said to him Behold I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.

–  True Prophetic ministry tears down the works of the enemy and builds up the bride of Christ.

–  It uproots the lies and plants the truth. It is the word of God to accomplish His purposes.

–  And all of that is about love.What is the difference between the gift of prophecy and the calling of a prophet?

–  1 Cor 14:5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy.

–  Anyone can learn to discern God’s voice and move in the gifting of the prophetic, but that doesn’t mean we are all prophets.

–  Paul clearly states in Eph 4:11-13 that certain people are called to be prophets by the Lord.

–  The main difference between a prophet and being able to prophesy is that prophets are called to equip the church with eyes to see and ears to hear.

– Being a prophet is a calling but to minister in prophecy is a gift – a gift we can all minister in.

It’s important to understand what prophecy is in order to be able to discern what it is not.

So back to the passage… beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

–  Tim said something really important last week that we should always where possible use scripture to interpret scripture.

–  There is a whole passage in 2 Peter that describes what a false prophet is like, so feel free to turn there but I am just going to summarise some of the red flags…2 Peter 2:1-3 Characteristics:

–  secretive, introduce destructive heresies (in other words, their prophecies are out of alignment with the Bible, the word of God) – it says they cause the way of truth to become maligned in verse 3

–  It also describes them as eventually denying Jesus as the Messiah, this word for ‘sensuality’ in the greek translates to a definition of unbridled lust or rude and disrespectful behaviour

–  they are greedy.

–  Verse 10 – they indulge the flesh and its corrupt desires and despiseauthority (they often don’t like being accountable to anyone)

–  Verse 18 – speak out arrogant words of vanity they entice fleshy desires.

–  Verse 19 – They promise freedom while they themselves are slaves ofcorruption, for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. What a list!!!

–  Jesus says in His sermon on the mount – You will know them by their fruits.

–  This list is so much more about character.

–  You can have a gift but not have the character to carry it.There is so much more to being a false prophet than simply making a mistake in getting a word from God wrong.

– It’s a condition of the heart, its wrongful motivations, it’s deliberate deception. Hidden in sheep’s clothing but inwardly ravenous wolves.

There have been a number of prophetic voices this past couple of years who owned their mistakes, repented and stayed accountable for the sake of God’s reputation and the reputation of the church and I wouldn’t say that they are false prophets – I’d say they sadly got it wrong but then they made it right – and to be honest that’s a display of character worth continuing to listen to.

– True prophetic ministry motivated by love will always be willing to repent when needed.

The bible instructs us to weigh prophetic words (1 Cor 14:29) why? because we are human and we liable to error – and what we do with those mistakes matters.

–  I’ve had a prophet give me a prophetic word in the past that was way off

–  It’s a long story but God convicted her when she went to the mountains fora retreat and she immediately called me and repented – that’s healthyprophetic ministry.

–  We need pruning at times so we can remain fruitful, and that can beuncomfortable, that can take measures of humbleness and we need people in our lives to keep us accountable.

So finally today, having looked at the differences between true and false prophecy and the motivation of love…

We want to be the kind of Christians that produce good fruit!

That’s the point of becoming a citizen of heaven.

– That’s why we study the sermon on the mount and long to not only know the will of God but to live out the will of God in life giving ways!

Verses 16-20 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Fruit grows naturally from the inward health of the plant.

–  Tim has been growing pumpkins in our back yard… and the plant is soooo healthy it has taken over half the back yard…

–  And as a result of being a healthy plant we have more pumpkins than we know what to do with.

–  Anyone for a pumpkin soup competition?

–  A sickly plant will bear no fruit, or fruit not worth eating

–  And whether it’s prophecy or any other gift of the Spirit of God these wordsof Christ can be applied.Jesus here in the sermon on the mount is shifting gears from the ethical teachings of the kingdom

–  by bringing his sermon into land and giving us a litmus test for authentic citizenship in the kingdom of heaven and doing ministry.

–  One established in love and one that is marked by bearing the good fruit of the kingdom of God –

–  But he is also challenging us to walk as true disciples and not false ones. Will we walk the broad road or the narrow one?

–  Will we keep our saviour, Jesus and his love at the centre of our motivations or become enticed by the idols of this world?

–  The fruit of our character will reveal the true inward condition of our souls.What is the fruit? Well Galatians 5:22 tells us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

–  Like good pumpkins growing from a good healthy plant…

–  The Spirit of God living in us will produce good fruits in our lives…

–  Notice they are all character attributes or virtues

–  That is the fruit we want to see in abundance in our lives.

–  True faith in Jesus Christ should change our lives in such a way that webegin producing fruit for God’s glory.Everything in nature reproduces after its kind and it is true in the spiritual realm.

–  Good fruit comes from a good tree and in Christ we are spiritually grafted into the tree of life. Bad fruit comes from a bad tree:

–  Are there any bad roots that you have intentionally or unintentionally grafted your life into that need to be uprooted today because you can see that the fruit is rotten?

Jesus goes in in verse 21: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

That verse at the end breaks my heart, just the thought of it.

–  Obedience to God’s will is not found in reciting the right words, not saying “Lord, lord” or reciting a religious vocabulary

–  it’s a posture of the heart in response to God’s love and his teaching.How do we know God’s will?

–  When a person is born again, they have the Spirit of God living within them (Rom 8:9), and the Spirit enables them to know and do the Father’s will.

–  Isn’t that amazing that you have the Holy Spirit to guide you and instruct you in this. And it is God’s love in our hearts (Rom 5:5) motivates us to obey God and serve others.

–  It is no big surprise to me that many Christians I admire, are also ones who live looking for ways to serve others!Words are not a substitute for obedience, and neither are religious works. We are to hear God’s words and do them.

– We are to listen to Jesus’ teaching on the sermon on the mount and apply it. Put it to work in our hearts and lives so that we might be transformed from the inside out to bear good fruit.

Let me leave you with this, above all things nurture your relationship with God, know what Jesus taught…

–  So that you might discern between good and false prophets

–  So that the true marker of your life and discipleship is not just a knowledgebut experience of the love of God.

–  And may we be the kind of Christians that produce good fruit in order toput on display a kingdom banquet that is truly fit to nourish a starving world.

In this sermon Tim continues our series by unpacking “Ask, Seek, Knock” reminding us of the power of persistent prayer, to never give up praying and to pray into the authority and access we have been given in Jesus Christ!

SERMON NOTES:

We are finishing off our series in What Did Jesus Teach, from the sermon on the mount for the next 3 weeks then we will launch into something new!

• Premise is if we are to be disciples of Jesus we need to know what he taught. What kind of a life he was calling us to enter into.
• One thing that we said at the beginning of this series is that we must never seperate the preacher on the mount from the sermon on the mount.
• So we have this incredibly high moral teaching “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect”
• But this is the same Jesus who is merciful and compassionate. 

So we come to another amazing passage which is really about prayer and knowing and receiving from our Heavenly Father.

• If you’re anything like me it will raise a whole bunch of questions
• Afterall, I have some unanswered prayers…
• Last Christmas I prayed for a slim stomach and a fat bank account… but instead I got a fat stomach and a slim bank account… so still waiting on that one. 
• And then there was the time I prayed for a full head of hair… and instead it started growing on my shoulders…

OK, jokes aside… the efficacy of prayer is a big thing right?

• Because often we pray for things that we don’t seem to get any movement on…
• And we wonder can we take Jesus at his word here…
• And then you may know some people…. Lets call them the “prayer fairy’s”… or the “direct liners”… everything they pray and hope for seems to come to fruition. 
• So what is this prayer thing all about? 
• Well hopefully we will get some answers about that today… and from thinking about the access we get to God, through Jesus!

Matthew 7:7-11 Jesus says; 

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 

OK, so here is what I want to do today…

• Talk about the access we now have to our Father in Heaven through Jesus
• I then want to talk about the meat of this passage – asking, seeking and knocking
• And then finally I want to talk about fostering/developing our relationship with God.
• Sound good?

So first, access to the Father through Jesus. 

Now for those who have known me for longer than 3 minutes, you know how difficult it is for me to preach on a passage about knocking on a door and it being opened 

• And to not tell my story of how I hung out with Bono from U2 in Dublin
• So don’t worry, I am not going to tell you the story about how we knocked on the studio door where they were recording…
• And I am not going to tell you about how Bono opened the door and invited us to come in and hang out….
• And don’t worry, I’ve been told not go on and on about how they played a song for us they had just recorded…
• Hahaha…

But actually the reason that is a good story… is because it is all about access…

• And the remarkable effect of knocking and actually having the door opened!

One of the remarkable claims of Christianity is that we can not only know God, but have access to our creator in a personal relationship.

• We don’t just get to know God from afar, looking in from a distance… observing what He may or may not be like…
• But instead we get access to a personal relationship.
• And one where we are encouraged by faith to pray to our Heavenly Father and expect a response.
• Ask and it will be given to you. 

Romans 5:2 puts it this way…

• “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith”
• So we have access and peace with God, by faith in Jesus. (say that again).

Hebrews 10:19 explains it this way…

• “we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain.”
• So this seems to suggest that the death of Jesus… his blood, his sacrifice on the cross has opened up access to the Most Holy Place… which is God’s presence. 

Now as I am prone to do, I got a bit obsessed with something in the bible this week… following all the rabbit holes with this concept of access…

• And particularly this access that is related to the idea of “the curtain”
• I don’t know what you do with your week…
• But I spent a lot of time researching and thinking about curtains… 
• Eventually the security guard at Spotlight threw me out of the store… no…

But as many of you will know, one of the seemingly stranger things that happens in the moments after Jesus dies, is the temple curtain in Jerusalem is torn in two. 

• Right? Matthew 27:50…
• “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”
• So what is this all about?
• Well again it is about access…
• So come with me to the Old Testament… I told you I got a bit obsessed with curtains…

So Exodus 26 is your main chapter in the bible if you want to hear a lot of talk about curtains… 24 times we read the word curtain in one chapter.

• But here is the gist… after the Exodus and the giving of the law, God calls his people and particularly his priests to build for him a tabernacle. 
• The idea being it is a place where God and his people can meet. 

But here is the thing… almost no one has access to God…

• Just the High Priest who would make a sacrifice once a year on the day of atonement and then be able to enter into the holy of holy’s. 
• So this amazing curtain is made to separate the presence of God from the people of God. 

And it makes sense right? If God is holy and we are not, an amends for our sins and guilt need to be made as an offering for what we have done wrong…

• So there is this elaborate sacrifice system (Exodus 29 is your chapter for that deep dive)… and blood must be shed. 
• And even then, if they were to meet with God, to seek his counsel or favour, it would only be the High Priest.
• So yes of course in the Old Testament God’s people prayed and knew God…
• But there is this sense of access being temporary, conditional and limited. 

All that said, this curtain is key to access to God.

• So in Exodus 30:6 it says…
• “Put the altar in front of the curtain… where I will meet with you.”
• So it is unfathomable that people would have talked about having a personal relationship with God. Or enjoying his presence…
• Or praying in a way where they expected to receive or enter in…

So back to Jesus and in the moment of his death on the cross, where the perfect Son of God has shed his blood for us…

• We read that the temple curtain is torn in two! The barrier between us and God is broken down…
• It is saying as clearly as possible, that we now have access to our Heavenly Father.
• Hebrews 9:26 puts it this way; “Jesus has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.”
• The result of that is (again) Hebrews 10:19 “we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus”
• Access is granted!

That is why our worship today has less to do with making sacrifices and atonement… and more to do with praising Jesus for what he has done!

• That may be the most important thing I have to say today… but lets move on…

So come back to this remarkable teaching from Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount about asking, seeking and knocking… 

So secondly, what is this all about? Asking, seeking, knocking…

What is the meat of what Jesus is teaching us here?

• Is he just saying now that we have access, the same thing 3 different ways?
• Well I don’t think so.

Firstly Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you”

• Asking seems to be about the kind of petition where you know the will of God
• And Jesus says, in these situations, ask your Heavenly Father for these things and he will give them to you.
• Maybe a good example is wisdom? There is so much wisdom in the Sermon on the Mount, there is so much wisdom in the Book of Proverbs..
• And it reveals the will of God… so we ask for these things and it says we will be given it. Right?
• James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”
• That’s a good prayer… then when you have received it, put it into practice.

Secondly Jesus says. “seek and you will find.”

• And this seeking seems to refer to a pursuing prayer, we are unsure of the will of God and so we seek an answer. 
• We pursue with God what we are wanting to find.
• And Jesus says in this kind of prayer, if we seek an answer from God you will find one. 
• You know the bible won’t tell you who exactly to marry, or where to move to, or what career you should pursue…
• But there is a sense that if we seek God’s will on these things, if we include him in the conversation, we will find a good way!

And then finally on the meat of this passage, Jesus says, “knock and the door will be opened to you.”

• And so if asking is petitioning prayer, seeking is pursuing prayer, then I think you called this persistent prayer.
• This is where you feel you know the will of God, but you haven’t seen it or received it yet, and so you are persistent in your prayer.
• And this is probably the hardest prayer to stick at, and believe in, and to keep at. 

I think of something like James 5:16… it says

• “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
• Or think of a story like Acts 14 where it says Paul saw a lame man that had faith to be healed…
• And we hear that he jumped up and began to walk. 
• What do you do with this? Because Jesus in this teaching seem to suggest that if we keep knocking, the door will be opened to us.
• And maybe if you haven’t seen something that you believe to be God’s will, happen in your life, the temptation is to give up. 

Well that leads me to my third and final thing about this passage… and that is, how does this kind of prayer foster our relationship with our Heavenly Father…

• PARTICULARLY as we wrestle with the unanswered prayers in our life?

So that brings us to the second part of this passage… 

In which Jesus talks about prayer relating it to how a good parent gives good gifts to their children.

Verse 9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 

So much of the ministry of Jesus is to be understood as of revealing the character of God and way to God the Father. 

• And in this passage, God is described as like a Father who is eager to help.
• And Jesus says, even though you guys are evil…. Right, pretty messed up, you give good gifts to your children.
• Well he says, in prayer, this is how God is too!
• His desire is to give good gifts to his children. That is you and me!

And this is so true right? My 6 year old son will ask me to read a book to him at night…

• And I’ll be like yeah! You better believe it… of course I will.
• Or my daughter will ask for ice cream and I’m like… coming up! And I’m having one too!
• Right the tendency of a parent… within limits is to say yes!

What makes this complex is maybe prayer doesn’t feel that way…

• Right? At times, reality kicks against these promises… maybe nothing happens… 
• Maybe you’ve been asking for someone to do life with, or you’ve been asking for healing, or you have been praying for a bad habit to be broken…
• So we struggle with it… 
• And for many of us we then just don’t pray… we stop knocking… we give up.

But for those with kids, think about your own parenting… you don’t say yes to everything 

• I mean if I did, our family would permanently be on holidays on the Gold Coast…
• Victoria and I need to be determining what is good for them…
• So the parent analogy with praying becomes really interesting… 
• Jesus is inviting us… to seek prayer as a relational key….
• But not as a magic genie… 

So it gets us thinking about the character of the Father… is God always listening but not always responding in the way we think best?

• How does this all work?
• And in Matthew 6 when Jesus is teaching about prayer he says “your Father in Heaven knows what you need before you ask him.”
• So why do we even need to ask? 

Now I know I am going a bit all over the place today… but a lot of this has to do with how we view God. 

One classic view of God is that he is the author and director of a play that is already written.

• Right? To those involved it may feel like they are going through the scenes of the drama with real choice, 
• But the script is already written. The ending is set in stone.
• So we can pray, or make choices, or think we are in control, but the reality is the outcome is determined, as is every step along the way. 
• So why bother praying right?

Then the other classic view of God is he is like a master chess player… and while the outcome is assured, the game is still all open for play.

• So God can obviously anticipate all the moves we will make, but he is still subject to our choices…
• In this view we pray because we can make the master chess player change direction.
• He is always making moves in the game of life, but we too have free choice as to how it all works out… 
• For theological nerds that is a bad description of Calvinism and Arminianism.

But actually I think rather than these theological frameworks or ideas around God as playwright or chess master

• Jesus gives us a different framework… and it is a relationship between a Father and his children. 
• One in which God the Father has given his children genuine freedom and choice…
• Hence the bumpy ride… hence the condition of the world, hence so many of our problems of our own making…

But God’s sovereign choice is to fulfil his purposes in relationship with his people… 

• Right? As Victoria and I shape our children we give them real dignity and choice… 
• It wouldn’t be a relationship if we do it all for our children… 
• That is the story of the bible… he is going to redeem this thing… outcome is certain… 
• But the world is an arena in which we get to choose to follow and obey or reject and disobey… 
• And prayer is crucial to this partnership… and God the Father will give you what is good for you.
• Even when that seems baffling beyond our comprehension… 
• Are you with me? Is anybody with me?

If you ask you receive… if you don’t ask you don’t receive… 

• If you seek, you will find, if you knock the door will be opened to you!
• The implication is there may be good things that God will do in and through you if you ask… 
• So your prayers matter… 
• And don’t forget that in the Lord’s Prayer in chapter 6… Jesus has shown us the kind of things we should be praying for!
• It’s on the previous page if you’re stuck wondering what we should be asking for!
• Rowan Williamson “when I pray co-incidences happen… when I do not…”

Well as I close, my mind wanders to the story of the persistent widow in Jesus parable in Luke 18…

• Verse 1 “Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”
• And so he tells the story of a widow who basically keeps coming to the town judge over and over asking for justice. 
• And basically because she keeps bothering the judge, he eventually grants her request.
• And Jesus says, that’s an unjust judge… so will not God respond if we persist?
• But the point being, it’s an analogy to persistence in prayer… she just keeps knocking!

One of the best sermons I have ever heard was by Rosemary Mbogo at Nairoibi Pentecostal Church. 

• And on this passage she basically said, even if I am knocking… even if I am praying and not seeing the break through I so desire…
• Right until the last breath of my life, give me the kind of faith that keeps believing, that keeps knocking, that keeps persisting…
• I want to be that kind of Christian. That kind of child of God with access to the Father. 
• “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”

In this sermon Tim jumps back into our What Jesus Taught Series by looking at Jesus’ words on judgement. Tim suggests we pray before we judge, develop empathy and leave space for God to be the real judge!

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday May 8, 2022.

SERMON NOTES

We are finishing off our series in What Did Jesus Teach, from the sermon on the mount for the next 4 weeks then we will launch into something new!

• Premise is if we are to be disciples of Jesus we need to know what he taught. What kind of a life he was calling us to enter into.
• And according to Matthew 4:23 Jesus teaching involved “proclaiming the good news of the kingdom” and it was accompanied by healing and deliverance. 
• So this is about coming to live under the reign of heaven on earth. 

So Jesus then describes the life of the blessed… pure in heart, peacemakers, hungering and thirsting for righteousness…

• He calls us to be the light of the world in darkness and salt that preserves and adds flavor to a decaying world. 
• He then fulfils the law and the prophets by speaking into the condition of our lives and the big things that diminish us… anger, lust, desiring revenge, truthfulness and so on. 
• Jesus wants to move us not just into law keeping, but into embracing the freedom that lies behind the law. 

Well there is then more teaching on hidden righteousness… if there are things Jesus wants us to put on display (our mercy and meekness for example)

• There are then things that we are to do to please our Father in heaven and not for public show. 
• He says don’t be like the hypocrites who give and pray and fast in public for the approval of others. Instead, do these things for your heavenly Father. 
• And then that amazing prayer where Jesus teaches us to pray with that key line, “on earth as it is in heaven”
• And you’ll be glad to know my chalk drawing on the wall rubbed off well…
• Well Joey then preached on not worrying but seeking first the kingdom of heaven and that brings us to today!

So we come to chapter 7 of Matthews Gospel, the final of 3 chapters dedicated to the main teaching block of Jesus ministry. 

• And it is a brilliant section of teaching on not judging others;
• It has the golden rule which all Christian ethics is based off…
• The bit about the narrow and wide gates
• True prophets and disciples to be known by the fruit they produce… which is just brilliant
• And then the big closer where Jesus challenges us to put into practice his teachings and the warning of building on sand or solid rock for the storms that come in life!

So today Jesus, the most brilliant teacher in history has some things to say on not judging others and planks of wood in our own eyes…

• Not really relevant to our lives right?
• None of us evvvvvvver sit in judgement of others…
• None of us evvvvvvver focus on other people’s flaws while ignoring the gaping issues in our own lives?
• OK? So shall we just skip this section. 
• No? Alright, well let’s hear Jesus, the one who comes to set us free…

Matthew 7:1-5

7 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

3 quick comments before we get into the meat of this…

1. Have you ever noticed how funny Jesus is?

This is good timing after having Uncle Nath last weekend doing his comedy…

• But I just want to note how funny Jesus is here…
• Obviously he is making a very important point about not judging others… but like most brilliant communicators, he uses humour to grab our attention and to burst our pride. 
• “Hey mate, what ya doing… your having a crack at Pete’s drinking problem and you have a vodka cruiser in your hand!” right? 
• “Hey mate, what ya doing… your having a crack at Susie and John’s marriage and you and your missus are frostier than the artic circle.”
• Right? Your focusing on the speck of sawdust in your brothers eye while your walking around with a Bunnings two by four hanging out of yours.

• Have you ever noticed how brilliant Jesus is?

He just has a way of cutting to the point and getting at the hypocrisy in our own lives. 

• And he does this through exaggeration and hyperbole.
• I think it’s the same in the lust passage. Jesus is being funny… got a lust problem? Cut off your hand… 
• It’s ridiculous to suggest this… but it is brilliant and it brings through the importance of what he is saying…
• He is grabbing our attention and using humour to get to the deep stuff that mars our lives…
• And this is serious right? How many of us spend our lives in useless judgement of others. We are consumed by this. 
• And it is awful. Being judgement is so toxic… to those aeround us… but to ourselves too… this is Jesus at his brilliant best going after what diminishes us. 

• Have you ever noticed how interested Jesus is in you and your heart?

Whenever I hear moral teaching, here is what I do… My temptation is to immediately think of someone else who this applies to…

• Oh greed… yes, that is definitely a problem for Craig…
• Oh lust… yes Johhny has naught wandering eyes doesn’t he…
• Anger you say? Oh yes, Sarah is a bit of a fireball… wouldn’t want to be in that marriage…
• Right? 

But let me tell you exactly who Jesus is interested in confronting and helping and transforming in this passage, in this teaching…

• Any guesses? Anyone?
• You… and more importantly… ME!
• Jesus is after your heart… and that is the brilliance of this passage… with its humour and its pointedness… 
• He is interested in the plank in my eyes and your eyes!

And this is at the heart of what Jesus wants to do with your life… he is interested in the renovation of your heart. 

• That the kingdom of heaven may so take hold of your life that you can stop being a constant victim or blaming others, or seeing what is wrong with the world as “out there”
• And starting to see that in dealing with our own failings, we unlock the potential for a transformed life. 
• Own your stuff… be committed to dealing with your own stuff and now we have someone the Holy Spirit can work with!

It reminds me of the famous correspondence that the Times of London had with significant members of society at the turn of the last century.

• They posed the question “what is wrong with the world” 
• Well all kinds of politicians and pundits pontificated about what was wrong with the world… ideologies, class division, peoples addictions and bad habits…
• But to the question what is wrong with the world, the Christian writer GK Chesterton eventually submitted his answer.
• He wrote… “I am”
• Haha – that to me seems a good place to start.

Deal with the sin and conditions of your own life before trying to solve the issues of the world…

• That is why Jesus says this is a hypocrisy issue. 
• Make your own bed before fixing the world… 
• I must admit, in a world of outrage and slacktivists (do you know that phrase)…
• I am drawn to the work of the Canadian Psychologist Jordan Peterson.
• In his book 12 rules for life… 
• Rule 6 “Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.”
• The gist is… Sweep in front of your own door before pointing out the street is dirty.
• Or make your own bed and tidy your own room before you think you can solve the worlds most complex and intractable issues. 
• Or as Michael Jackson said… “I’m starting with the man in the mirror” 

So what kind of judgements is Jesus talking about here?

• Well the sense of the Greek word judge that Jesus uses here is not so much about the judgements we all need to make in order to navigate the world…
• Right? I’m leaving my kids with someone, is this a safe person?
• Right? Jesus is talking about judging others in the condemning of someone and writing off their whole character.
• This is about judgements when we cease to have mercy on a person and discard them as not having worth because of who we characterize them to be. 
• We sit in bed at night and feel a sense of bitterness or disdain for someone, rather than seeing them as created in the image of God.

I remember when I was studying in Vancouver there was a Canadian guy called Rob who started a bit after me.

• Guitar, cool, good looking… 
• Obvioulsy I saw him as a threat… haha!
• And I immediately wrote him off as a bit too cool for school.
• Then we went away for a weekend to the professors farm on Galiano Island…
• And of course he turned out to be the nicest guy!
• Not only that he was from a missionary family in Angola, his Dad having been a famous surgeon who gave it all up to serve the poorest people in the world… 
• And it was such a wake up call for me, to stop writing people off, and judging people 

So how do we learn from Jesus in all of this?

• Well firstly, Jesus obviously calls us to drop the stones. Stope condemning others.
• And secondly Jesus models what a life that values mercy over judgement looks like?
• Right?

Now I don’t want to rehash these stories… 

• But clearly on the first point of dropping the stones, I am talking about the woman caught in adultery and brought before Jesus to be stoned.
• So how does not judging, how does dealing with the plank in your own eye look like in this story?
• Well Jesus says to the condemners… you without sin can cast the first stone…
• And as we read… first the older men leave and eventually all the mob have gone…
• And Jesus looks at the woman and says, does no one condemn you? Neither do I… now go, leave your life of sin.

And then Jesus chooses repeatedly mercy over judgement.

• Think of Zacchaeus the tax collector who is despised by his countrymen for collecting taxes for the imperial government from his own Jewish people.
• Jesus goes to his house for dinner and says I have comes to seek and saved the lost…
• Everyone else has written Zacchaeus off, but Jesus sees him as someone made in the image of God, redeemable and worthy of mercy. 

Now in both cases, Jesus chooses mercy over judgement… he sees these people not as sinners who deserve what they get…

• But as children of God who are created in the image of their maker. 
• Where others want to write them off… Jesus allows their stories to continue with a fresh start.
• Where we, in our brokenness want to write the final sentence of a persons life
• Jesus chooses to allow God to be their final judge, and give them space for redemption in the mess of their decisions. 

The Apostle Paul would reflect on this very idea in his letter to the Romans. In chapter 2 he writes…

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3 So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

And that is the point of choosing kindness over judgement… it leaves space for a change of heart.

• It leaves space for the true judge of the world to do his thing in the end… the one who judges based on truth. 
• But always the same idea comes through and through again… you who pass judgement, do the same thing.
• And in doing so, we bring condemnation upon ourselves…

Well, as we close, with Jesus desire to do a renovating work in our lives that frees us from constant judgements, what might help us?

• Because I figure if we actually put Jesus in practice here, we may end up with better marriages… 
• Better friendships… better relationships in general!
• And a cleaner heart and mind 

Well I wonder if we can all instigate a new rule in our lives, that before we judge others, we commit ourselves to praying for that person for 48 hours….

• Ohhh I like that… 
• In fact I have found myself having to do a bit of this recently…
• When I find my mind wandering towards judgmental thoughts towards someone… I have been stopping myself and praying for the person.
• It is certainly a lot harder to write someone off if you have just prayed for them!

But I think there is something in that right?

• An unchecked thought life that is given over to judging others leads to a pretty bad place. 
• Instead if we invite God into the situation then how much easier is it to be at peace with a person we would otherwise condemn.
• And I am sure this is part of why this passage leads on from the passage about worry.
• If we can pray instead of judging others, how much of the worries of life begin to disappear. 

The second final thing that may help us in this area is to be committed to developing empathy in our lives.

• Brene Brown says empathy is the antidote to shame. And shame is about judgement.
• Berene Brown says empathy fuels connection.
• She says “Empathy has no script. There is no right way or wrong way to do it. It’s simply listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of ‘You’re not alone.’”
• That’s good… withholding judgement and communicating you’re not alone. 
• And I imagine that can only come from being willing to deal with the plank in your own eye. 
• Its saying, “You’re not alone, because I am flawed too… I have hurt people too… I make mistakes too…”

And then final thing, let God be the final arbiter of a persons life. Leave it to him, and trust that he is a good and merciful judge. 

•  Of course there are unspeakable things that people do, and flaws in people that mean we need good and strong boundaries…
• But we believe in a God who does not write people off while they have breath in their lungs. 
• Jesus is sent to seek and save the lost… and we must believe in his ultimate plan for redemption and then also that there will be a judgement at the end of times. 
• But isn’t our God wonderfully merciful.
• He has been with me… he is with you. 

7 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 

This message we were blessed by Christian comedian Uncle Nath who shares some humour, as well as a powerful message of bringing praise into your life plus some of his powerful life story! Thanks Uncle Nath!

Sermon preached by Nath Ranclaud on Sunday May 1, 2022.;

In this sermon, guest Paul Zanardo passionately preaches about how we can know Jesus, throw off the spirit of religion and make Jesus known in our communities!

Sermon preached by Paul Zanardo on Sunday April 24, 2022.

Christ is Risen! Celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, as Tim unpacks the Easter story that gives us life, hope and love for eternity! Celebrate the good news!

Sermon by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday April 17, 2022.

SERMON NOTES

• It is wonderful to be celebrating Easter with you…

Well what a story!

• One that will be celebrated by over 2 billion people today…
• One that throughout history has changed the course of countless lives.
• That in this story contains the keys to our relationship with God and the gift of eternal life
• For Jesus in his death and resurrection, has defeated the power of sin and conquered the grave.
• Jesus had said “I am the resurrection and the life, all who believe in me will live, even though they die.”
• Easter says… it is happening! It has begun!

In his life Jesus had told his disciples that he would die and then rise to life again. 

• It says in Matthew 16:21 that “From that time Jesus began to show to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.”
• While his disciples thought this was a terrible idea, they try and change his mind, but this was the course Jesus set for himself.
• He headed for Jerusalem and accepted his fate of dying on a cross.

But this promise of rising again was well know enough that the religious leaders asked Pilate (the Roman Governor) to seal the tomb so that no one could steal the body of Jesus…

• They had clearly seen enough of Jesus to know he was leading a powerful movement
• And they clearly believed that killing him should be enough to stop it in its tracks…
• And there could be no claim of resurrection if the tomb was sealed and guarded. 
• Produce the body and this movement is over!

But we are told… Mark 16:5-6 that 3 days after Jesus was crucified his disciples approached the tomb. We read…

“As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here.”

A week later after Jesus had appeared in his flesh to his disciples, there was still one who had missed these resurrection appearances. John 20 picks up the story…

24 Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

This eventually leads the disciples to go into the world at great personal cost to testify about what has happened

• Acts 4:32 says – “with great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
• 20 years later the Apostle Paul is still talking about it; he says, “I want to know Christ, to know the power of his resurrection.”
• They believed that what had taken place was the most powerful, life changing, history splitting moment that all needed to hear about!

So today I want to look at the resurrection from 3 viewpoints… the historical, the theological and the personal.

• Or to put it another way…
• Could it have happened, what does it mean and how does it change lives…

Historic perspective – could it have happened?

One question we ask when we try and determine the truthfulness of a claim is what explanation best fits the evidence…

• I remember a few years ago coming home to find someone had drawn with texters on our apartment wall…
• Hope was quick to tell me that she had not done this, which was an amazing revelation because Luca was still a baby and Victoria prefers craft to art… 
• The next clue was Hope’s hands were covered in the same texter ink that was on the wall…
• And finally, under the duress of being tickled she admitted it had been her all along!
• The evidence pointed to Hope!

William Lane Craig is one who defends the resurrection in public. In trying to determine the  plausibility of the resurrection, he says, 

• “we begin with the evidence available to us and then infer what would, if true, provide the best explanation of that evidence.”
• In other words, we ought to accept an event as historical if that best explains the evidence surrounding it.” 
• He states, “When we look at the evidence, the truth of the resurrection emerges very clearly as the best explanation. There is no other theory that even come close to accounting for the evidence.” 

Well what evidence is there for the resurrection?

Firstly, We have good accounts of the empty tomb and resurrection from the Gospels. We’ve already read some of them today.

• It is not one person trying to make up a fictitious event, but multiple people who see Jesus and then testify to what they have seen.
• And of course they didn’t take this story to some obscure place and start talking about it there.
• No, they begun preaching about it in the same city where they claimed it to have taken place.
• As Paul Althaus writes, the resurrection “could not have been maintained in Jerusalem for a single day, for a single hour, if the emptiness of the tomb had not been established as a fact for all concerned.”

And then of course It launched something into the world – and with power!

• It was a message that could not be contained. And everywhere it went, miracles started occurring as it was proclaimed. 
• Of course the resurrection is the greatest miracle… but all of a sudden, verifiable miracles in front of large crowds like the lame walking and the blind seeing began to occur.
• And the same people who testified to having met with the risen Jesus never faltered in proclaiming what they had seen as true.

I find Charles Colson, one of Nixon’s special counsel who went to jail for his involvement in Watergate interesting on this…

• He became a Christian in jail and went on to be a defender of the Christian faith for 50 years.
• The lesson of Watergate he says, is that a lie cannot live for long…
• He says; “Take it from one who was involved in conspiracy, who saw the frailty of man firsthand,” he declared, 
• “there is no way the 11 apostles, who were with Jesus at the time of the resurrection, could ever have gone around for 40 years proclaiming Jesus’ resurrection unless it were true.”

If the apostles’ story about the resurrection had begun to unravel, as the Watergate cover-up did, Colson said: “The apostles would have sold out to save their skins.”

• He concludes, “I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. 
• They would not have endured that if it weren’t true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.”

So I think there is good historical evidence that suggests the resurrection of Jesus is true!

Theological perspective – what does it mean?

Beyond it being a remarkable story, Christians believe that the death and resurrection of Jesus were the decisive moments in human history.

• What gets dealt with in one weekend, is no less remarkable than the problems of sin and the finality of death. 
• And what Christians believe is that without sin dealt with, we face eternal separation from the God who created us. 
• In the cross and resurrection, sin gets dealt with and death gets defeated. 

The search for redemption and the search for immortality have often led people to Jesus.

• For on the cross we see God making a way for sin to be dealt with and grace and mercy to enter the world.
• And in the resurrection we see that death has now lost its power and eternal life is now possible with Jesus. 

One of my favourite authors, Leslie Newbigin puts it this way; (SLOW)

“The resurrection is the revelation… that Jesus who died on the cross is indeed king – conqueror of death and sin, Lord and Savior of all. The resurrection is not the reversal of a defeat but the proclamation of a victory.” 

What he is saying is that Easter is not the story of a defeated King who makes a great comeback.

• What he is saying, is that the conqueror of death and sin did it through laying down his life as an offering of peace
• And that in the resurrection that victory is assured.
• For all that is evil and broken and wrong in this world threw its weight at Jesus on Good Friday
• But it could not hold him down.
• The sting of death is removed for all who trust in Jesus 

I heard of one child who was being terrorised by a bee in the backyard. 

• His Father noting his child’s distress captured the bee and removed its stinger.
• When he let the bee go again, the bee was still there, but the fear of being stung was gone.
• God in his love takes away the sting of death. And it does sting, it is sad, it is universal… but now we have nothing to fear!

The Apostle Paul who had persecuted the early Christians had an encounter with the risen Jesus and became his most famous follower. 

• He would go on to say to the Corinthians; 
• “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Finally from a personal perspective – how does it change lives?

That to me is maybe the most pertinent question that we ask. If we can believe that it actually happened, if we can see that it deals with sin and death…

• What difference can believing in and following the risen Jesus make?
• I heard about a billboard that read “Jesus is the Answer”
• To which some smartarse had graffitied onto it. “What was the question?”

Well the Apostle Peter declared 30 years after encountering Jesus on Easter Sunday – that God has given us; 

• “new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
• Living Hope – what a remarkable expression! That is what we need most – living hope!

A couple of years ago I watched Angelina Jolie’s WW2 drama about Louis Zamperini called Unbroken. Has anyone else seen that film? I got interested in this remarkable man…

• After being a troubled youth, Zamperini took up running and competed in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin becoming a star athlete.
• When WW2 broke out he became a bomber, eventually crashing in the Pacific Ocean, almost dying and spending 47 days adrift on the ocean in a life raft
• Eventually rescued he ended up in a Japanese prisoner of war camp where he endured constant brutality at the hands of his guards. 
• If you have seen the film, his courage and determination are extraordinary.

But the story doesn’t end where the film does with his liberation from the prisoner of war camp.

• The Olympic athlete returned to America a hero, married and became a Father
• But despite outward appearances, Zamperini’s life was falling apart. 
• He struggled to cope with his horrific experiences during his two years as a prisoner of war.
• Filled with nightmares, anger, anxiety and hatred, Zamperini found solace in alcohol and concocting plans to return to Japan to kill his tormentors.
• Depressed and an alcoholic, Louis was on the verge of losing his family.

In 1949, Zamperini grudgingly attended a Billy Graham meeting in Los Angeles at the urging of his wife.

• He said; “I got under conviction and got mad because of the Scriptures he read, grabbed my wife and said, “Let’s get out of here. Don’t ever bring me back to a place like this again.” 
• Remarkably she persuaded him to go back the next night and then the next….
• After hearing about the death and resurrection of Jesus and the message of forgiveness, Zamperini finally gave his life to Jesus and was saved.

He recieved in the words of the Apostle Peter “new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

• You see for Zamperini his natural birth had given him a troubled youth, the horrors of the prisoner of war camp and now anger, depression and addiction.
• But his new birth as a Christian gave him living hope. The downward spiral was over. 
• Apparently the nightmares stopped, he poured his drinks down the drain the night he was saved. He was born again.

One of the most remarkable things about Zamperini was how he then lived out his new life.

• He started a camp for troubled youth where he helped boys not unlike himself in his younger years.
• And amazingly after his conversion, Zamperini’s desire for vengeance left him completely.
• He forgave his captors and later met with many of them, greeting them warmly and sharing the good news of Jesus. 
• In 1952 he was able to speak at the Sugamo prison which was filled with 850 Japanese war criminals.
• He said; “I looked out and saw them coming down the aisle and, of course, I recognized each one of them vividly. I didn’t even think of my reaction—I jumped off the stage, ran down and threw my arm around them, and they withdrew from me. They couldn’t understand the forgiveness. We went in the room and there, of course, I continued to “share about Jesus”, And all but one made a decision for Christ.”

This Jesus we celebrate today, risen from the dead is indeed remarkable!

And what you and I have always been called to do, is to recognize that he is the living hope, Lord of all, saviour of mankind

• To turn from our sins and brokenness and to put our trust in Jesus, believing in him unto everlasting life.
• Have you ever believed in Jesus and put your trust in him?

I am convinced that Jesus did rise from the dead. 

• I am convinced that it deals with my sin and defeats the sting and power of death.
• I am convinced that there is no other name that can change a person’s life.
• What about you?

Pray…

In this sermon Joey continues our What Jesus Taught Series by unpacking Jesus word’s on having two masters, God providing for us, and worry. He explains from the passage the reasons we worry, the cures for our worry and how we can find our full meaning and worth in Jesus, and ultimately find His Peace!

In this sermon Tim continues our series on What Jesus Taught by looking at the Lord’s Prayer and how we rediscover its power in our lives by incorporating it into our daily prayer and worship!

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday April 3rd, 2021.

SERMON NOTES:

Ok, well we have come in our series on what did Jesus Teach? Mainly in the Sermon on the Mount, to the Lord’s prayer. 

• It comes in this section on hidden righteousness… on generosity, on prayer and on fasting.
• Where Jesus says “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.”
• He warns us not to be like the religious hypocrits, who practice their spiritual disciplines publicly, to gain people’s approval.
• Jesus says, they will receive no reward from their heavenly Father because they have received their reward in the adultion from other. 
• So as we said last week, we are to hide what we are tempted to show… 

So Jesus says, Matthew 6:9-13

9 This, then, is how you should pray: 

‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Amen. 

I wonder if you ever find yourself singing a song on the radio, something familiar, where the words are second nature, but you don’t really mean it…

• Or your at a party and as a bloke you start belting out… “It’s raining men…” or “girls just wanna have fun…”
• I got in trouble once for posting a video of me dancing to “It’s your birthday, it’s your birthday…” by 50 cent…
• Apparently it has some questionable lyrics… which I was totally unaware of… having not been big into the East Coast rap scene of the early 2000’s
• All I knew was the bit “it’s your birthday… it’s your birthday.” Haha… 
• But what ends up happening, is familiarity means we don’t really consider what it is we are singing… we just like the tune…

Well I wonder if we have done the same with the Lord’s prayer?

• What should be something that is the anthem for the revolutionary coming of the Kingdom of Heaven
• Has been overly familiarized into meaninglessness…
• At my High School we had a weekly chapel where we said the Lord’s prayer…
• I can assure you, no one was praying it… or meaning it, or considering what it was Jesus was asking us to pray… 
• It was like we were singing “girls just wanna have fun…” at my all boys high school…
• This prayer with explosive petitions… had become dull and boring and routine…

So I’d love us today to reconsider the vitality and audacity of the Lord’s prayer that Jesus taught us to pray…

• And to get back in the habit of praying it through regularly…
• And in the process become co-conspirators in the coming Kingdom of heaven!
• Jesus is teaching his disciples… this is the anthem of the revolution. Keep this simple prayer at the heart of your faith… 
• And participate in the heavening of earth. 
• Are you with me?

So with the reminder from last week, that Jesus isn’t interested in public displays of prayer, done for the approval of others…

• BTW, Here’s the great line…
• Matthew 6:5 And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. 
• And Matthew 6:7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 
• Instead says Jesus, in your private space, and with simple but profound words…
• This then is how you should pray…

So firstly, the structure and content of the prayer

So Jesus teaches us to pray “Our Father in heaven.”

• This is the God that Jesus knows and trusts. 
• He is the God who is close at hand and involved in the lives of his children. 
• The Apostle John who came to know God as Father through the time he spent with Jesus would say this;
• 1 John 3:1 “behold how great the love the Father has for us, that we should be called the children of God.”

Paul, who met Jesus on the road to Damascus, experienced the love of God and would write in Romans 14:15-16; 

• “the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”

• Right? This is who we are praying to… due to God’s love, due to our adoption as the children of God. 
• If this is not the case, praying is a futile activity…
• But if true, it is the most important work we will do with our lives…

Jesus of Nazareth, the son of God, the son of Mary

• Fully human, human God…
• Fully human: knows all about life on this broken planet…
• So he knows what it means to pray, he know what it means to need God…
• In his humanity he needs this prayer.

And as fully God, he comes from the Father’s heart and knows the Father’s heart

• He is giving us his revelation of his Father…
• It is like he is saying “I know the Father” so pray this way… talk to him like this… 
• These are the things you need… 
• In this prayer he gathers up all of our concerns and lifting them to the Father…
• He shows us how to pray… and what to pray…

So there are 6 petitions… ands two halves to the prayer…

• Thr first 3 are addressing God. Hallowed be your name… your kingdom come… your will be done…
• Your, your, your…
• Then 3 petitions that concern our needs… give us our daily bread… forgive us our debts… lead us not into temptation
• Us, us, us… 

I wonder if you see echoes here of one of Jesus other teachings on the greatest commandment? Matthew 22:37

• ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
• And verse 39 ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
• The first half is about loving God and the second part is about us and our relatyonships… loving others… 
• So this prayer focusses on our relationship with God before shifting to focus on our needs…

And what do we need in order for the kingdom to come?

• Well we need to trust God for our daily needs, our daily bread…
• We need to keep forgiving others and being forgiven… in order that our relationship remain right.
• We need to avoid temptation and giving into the evil one. 
• So we pray this… at the forefront of our thoughts and actions… we pray this prayer…

Alright, well what is the center of this prayer?

I want to suggest that it is the phrase “on earth as it is in heaven”

• “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
• On earth as it is in heaven captures the mission of Jesus.
• Is this not the very thing that Jesus has come to do? Change earth into as it is in heaven?

And imagine all of us as a church, all those around the world who follow Jesus… going about our daily activities praying this, participating in this…

• “on earth as it is in heaven.”
• In fact I think this is the center of the entire sermon on the mount!

I once heard someone say “In Jesus, God is getting the hell out of earth.”

• Would you agree? God is getting the hell out of earth? Think about it?
• Jesus mission is to bring heaven to earth and to get hell out of earth…
• When Jesus heals the sick… is this not what is happening?
• When Jesus delivers someone from evil spirits… is this not what is happening?
• When Jesus forgives someones sins… is this not what is happeneing?
• So when Jesus invites us to pray, “Father, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” 
• Is he not inviting us to participate in this revolution?

So when we pray this prayer and forgive our enemies… is not heaven invading earth?

• When we give care to the lonely or hurting… is not heaven invading earth?
• When we are generous and hospitable opening our homes and giving to the needy… is not heaven invading earth?
• When you choose to act ethically, when you choose to speak truth rather than lies…
• When you stop lusting, when you deal with your anger… when you don’t choose revenge… is not it happening on earth as it is in heaven? 
• Are you with me?

You know, revolution is a loaded term… particularly with the last 100 years of bloody revolutions that have come and gone…

• But be under no illusions, Jesus is bringing about a massive revolution…
• A peaceful, humanity renewing, cosmic, reordering revolution. 
• Remember right before he starts the sermon on the mount in chapter 4 we read…
• “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.”
• He is going about declaring the radical intervention (that they thought would happen at the end of history) is underway in the middle of history…
• On earth as it is in heaven…

You know we need to be clear about what the good news about Jesus and the Kingdom of heaven is all about!

1. For too many Christians this is our view of heaven and earth
2. God space is heaven. Our space is earth
3. Jesus comes from heaven space to our space to rescue us back to God’s space?
4. Right? In this view, the goal of Christianity is to “get to heaven.”
5. The problem with this view… well… is the bible… 
6. It’s just not what it says… it would be half truths at best…

• So the bibles view of heaven and earth is a lot different. 
• Right, go to page 3… haha… go to Genesis 3… heaven and earth are overlapped. God’s space and our space is one…
• And the question Genesis poses is will humans in the garden of eden work in harmony with God or rebel against God. 
• So with the fall, hell or the absence of God is what happens when heaven and earth are ripped apart… 
• But God doesn’t leave our space altogether. But with the giving of free will… earth looks like hell a lot of time because we’ve abandoned God. 

• So the picture in the OT, but particularly with the coming of Jesus is heaven coming to invade earth… God is not finished with us… 
• That is what Jesus is claiming he is doing. The overlap is advancing… 
• The good news of the Kingdom of God arriving in his ministry. 
• So Jesus goes about getting the hell out of earth through his ministry of healing and deliverance and declaring the forgiveness of sins. 
• And so much, as we have been saying, of heaven invading earth is God bringing about a righteous people… 
• A people committed to right relationships and this advancing kingdom… 

• The final picture in the Book of Revelation is what? 
• Well the bible story ends in Revelation with the great overlapping…
• Once again… 
• It says God’s dwelling has come to be with man. And the picture is of the grand restoration of earth because heaven has come to fully renew all that is broken
• So that is what Jesus is praying for.

This is what Jesus teaches us to pray right now… “your kingdom come… your will be done… on earth as it is in heaven”

• So has the kingdom come?
• Yes. In Jesus and then spreading through the world… Yes!
• But every inch of this world – heavens no. Look at the world that we live in. 
• Has the Kingdom come in your life – yes. When the Holy Spirit comes into your life you are adopted into the children of God and transformation begins….
• But are you fully transformed in all of your life… heavens no! Look at the state of our lives… 

So how does Jesus teach us to pray?

• Jesus is saying, praying this prayer is the most effective way to join this revolution
• For heaven to invade earth. For God to get the hell out of earth.
• So what we are praying is more and more of the kingdom to come and take over this earth and my life… 
• So he says pray like this every day… in every decision… in ever scenario… 
• Faced with cheating on your spouse? Well that’s not how it would be in heaven…
• Faced with making an unethical decision… well that’s not how it would be in heaven…
• Faced with hoarding your money or taking on the world’s values.. 
• So we pray “God in my life… let your kingdom come, your will be done”

OK, final thing, how do we pray this?

Well clearly from this section in Matthew 6 it is not to be done for show or for the approval of others…

• But regularly in your life… in your private spaces and with simple words…
• This then (says Jesus) is how you should pray.

Now one final surprise for us today with this prayer… and it relates to the verbs in the prayer and the tense in which Jesus asks us to pray to our Father in heaven…

• Be hallowed, come your kingdom, be done your will.
• These are bold verbs… 
• And the way the Greek sentences are structured has the verbs (the doing words) at the start of the sentence. 
• It is; “Be hallowed, come your kingdom, be done your will.
• In the imperative mood of the verb. This is a command… 
• Jesus encourages us to pray “Be this. Come that. Be done.” 

Now in the ancient world, the imperative is never used to address a superiror. You wouldn’t go to the Roman Governor of the region and use the imperative….

• So surprise, surprise, surprise…
• We are addressing a superior… the ultimate one… our father in heaven…
• And we are told to use the imperative… not just asking, we are commanding…
• Be, come, be… do it, do it, do it…
• How does that make you feel?
• But remember who teaches us this prayer… Jesus, son of Mary, son of God… so this is ok… 
• The Father wants his children to pray boldly… 
• So the prayer is… Father you do it! You bring your kingdom… You make your will be done on earth. 

This should be liberating… 

• Yes we are to participate… yes we are to allow the prayer to shape what we believe and who we are… 
• But ultimately it is God who will bring his kingdom. It is God who will bring heaven to earth.
• And so boldly we pray… 
• Into the broken relationships… into the desire for war or revenge… into our daily needs for provision and forgiveness and deliverance…
• Father get the hell out of earth. And may it be done on earth as it is in heaven…
• Sound good? Are you ready to pray this way?

As I close, I want to make an invitation… Have you responded to this? You may want to do this right now.

• You are being called by Jesus into citizenship in heaven on earth… to be born again into the family of God. 
• Have you responded to this calling? 
• Do it right now. Sign up… join the revolution of the kingdom of heaven by asking Jesus to become a citizen of heaven?
• He has made the way possible on the cross by forgiving your sins… you can be in… but you have to respond.

In this sermon Tim continues our series on What Jesus Taught by looking at a confronting part of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus challenges his followers to give in secret so we can earn a reward in heaven, rather than seeking the approval and glory of those around us. How will you practice hidden righteousness and generosity this week?

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday March 27, 2022.

SERMON NOTES:

Talk on generosity… reminds me of the story of the $5 note and the $100 note…

• They hadn’t seen each other in ages and then by chance they bumped into each other in a wallet. 
• Time of my life… fancy resorts, amazing restaurants, the casino. I even went to Coco Republic new store in Balgowlah…
• Same old place… church, church, church…
• Oldie but a goodie…

Alright… well we are doing a series on what did Jesus teach?

• I’ve been loving preparing these sermons… though to be honest it’s pretty confronting and challenging stuff.
• And yet it is amazing too. Jesus is preaching to save us from our sins…
• Obvioulsy he does that on the cross…
• But he is also interested in saving us from our sins and the consequences of our sin in this life.
• Which is why today, he continues to go after the inner motives and desires of our lives, in order to set us free!

Matthew 6:1-4

 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Well this passage really offends my sensibilities…

• If I give… I want full credit… haha! Maybe a brick with my name on it… or a wing named in my honour…
• If I do a good deed, I really think it is in the public interest that I post about it on Facebook. Help an old lady… stop! Do you mind if I take a selfie with you!
• When I am generous, I like my left hand, right hand, feet, knees, torso and head to all know about it!
• So come on Jesus, what is this all about? 
• Stop putting the knife in to Tim Giovanelli and his self righteous displays…

Well, Jesus is takin us deeper and deeper into the inner condition of our lives…

• Deeper into the kingdom of heaven he is bringing into the earth.
• Jesus is explaining what it looks like to live in the subversive, counter cultural kingdom of God. 

Talk about 3 things today.

1. This is about our relationship with our Father
2. Generosity as a child of God is assumed
3. Jesus warns us against about our motives for giving and desires to be recognized.

So firstly, this is about our relationship with our Father in Heaven.

Have you noticed in the sermon on the mount how often Jesus refers to God as Father?

• Matt 5:16 We shine our light to glorify our Father in heaven
• Matt 5:45 we love our enemies that we may be children of our Father in heaven
• And then so much of chapter 6 which is on generosity, prayer and fasting is about our Father seeing what is done in secret and rewarding us. 
• And when we pray (Matt 6:9) it is to our Father who is in Heaven.

Put simply, as we come to know Jesus and what Jesus taught, there is no way to understand him except by his relationship to his Father.

• Sometimes Jesus uses the Greek word for Father which is Pater
• And other times he uses his native Aramaic tongue and the more intimate word for Father ‘Abba.”
• In Luke 2 Jesus wanders off to the temple and says to his mother “did you not know I had to be in my Father’s house.”
• We also regularly hear that Jesus slips away in the morning to pray and be with his Father.
• In John’s gospel he says “I only do what I see the Father doing.”
• On the cross he will utter the words “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Jesus lives for, and with and in his Father. He knows God to be Father.

• And for some who have had difficult experiences of their own Fathers or being a Dad, this can be tricky.
• But Jesus wants to (if we will allow) to reshape our ideas around God as Father and even in time may reshape what it means for us to be parents. 
• And if you need to understand how Jesus understood God as Father, of course we must go to the story of the prodigal son…
• The amazing story where Jesus describing God’s attitude to the lost, explains God as a Father who runs to his wayward son and celebrates his homecoming.
• This child of mine who was dead is alive, who was lost, is found. He kisses and embraces his Son.

Now why is this all important?

• Well firstly Jesus wants us to experience God as a loving Father
• And he wants our lives to be centered around pleasing our heavenly Father who knows and sees everything, and will reward our righteousness. 
• So much of the Christian faith and journey is about coming to be a child of God… 
• And the way that this transforms our desires and minds and hearts
• As we begin to take on the family likeness… and enjoy the same kind of intimacy with our heavenly Father as Jesus did. 

Secondly, generosity as a child of God is assumed.

Jesus does not say when you fast, or when you pray, or when you give…

• But instead “when you give to the needy”
• To be a Christian and not to give to the work of the church and the needy would be like a cricketer who doesn’t own a bat
• Or an accountant who doesn’t have a calculator
• Or a social media influencer who doesn’t have an Instagram account…

Right? It is assumed… that if you are a child of God, a defining mark of your life will be generosity. 

Why is it assumed by Jesus? Well remember that Jesus comes into a story of a family that are blessed by God in order that all nations on earth will be blessed.

• When he spent time in the temple being with his Father, I assume part of that was reading the wisdom of the Proverbs. 
• This was after all the child raising manual of the people of God. He would have assumed generosity because he would have been steeped in their story and wisdom.

Proverbs 3:9-10 “Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine.”

Proverbs 28:27 “Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to poverty will be cursed.”

Proverbs 11:24 “Give freely and become more wealthy; be stingy and lose everything.”

(let me read those three passages again… and there are many many more…)

Jesus assumes generosity, because Jesus knows what is required of the children of God!

One of the things that we must be so aware of living in a place like the Northern Beaches of Sydney is that we always compare ourselves to people who are better off… 

• Or we find ourselves with little spare money because we have stretched ourselves with debt to breaking point
• The result is that we become stingy and never get around to being generous!
• What a shame because God calls us to honour him and the poor with our wealth!
• And let me assure you – if you live anywhere near here, renting or owning… you are amongst the wealthiest in the world!

So we need to cultivate generosity… and this for many takes a move of God in our hearts and an obedience to the Word of God. 

• But it commands a blessing! A reward from our heavenly Father.
• And I am mindful in light of todays passage not to talk about our generosity publicly…
• But I know it took me too many years to really start giving generously to the local church and the poor.
• But for several years now, Victoria and I have been very intentional about giving and it is now something we love to do!

So if you play cricket, it assumed that you own a bat… if you are a child of God, it is assumed that your heart has been turned outwards in generosity!

• Stingy Christian is an oxymoron. 
• And one of the great signs that you are truly converted to Christ is you give, give and give…
• So much of the Christian life is aligning with Matthew 10:8 where Jesus says freely you have received, now freely give…
• Out of gratitude, out of the blessings of life and provision and our salvation… we just start to be a blessing!
• God you have forgiven me, so now I will learn to forgive others
• God you have saved me, so I will tell others of your salvation
• God you have provided for me, and so out of gratitude and thankfulness I will provide and give to others!

Have you met people like this?  People converted to generosity?

• There is a U2 song called Magnificent where Bono sings “only love can leave such a mark.”
• Well our generosity is an expression of our love for God and love for each other. And generosity leaves a mark.
• When I was at bible college we would go to the pub for drinks and dinner once a week… 
• One time, a Christian overheard that we were bible college students and paid the bill anonymously for the whole table…
• That left a mark on me…
• I want to be that kind of Jesus follower! What about you? Will you start? Not next year, or next month, but right now? 
• Honour the Lord and his work… and give generously to the poor…

Finally, Jesus warns us against our motives for giving and deisres to be recognized.

(Lets hear it again) Matthew 6:1-4

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Well, it should come as no great surprise that Jesus warns us against practicing our righteousness in front of others to be seen by them

• After all, he is deeply concerned with the inner condition of our lives. 
• We’ve already seen this the last few weeks. 
• It is not just about external conformity to the law when it comes to murder or marriage or our enemies…
• Jesus wants to heal the broken conditions of our inner lives… our anger, ourt lusts, our desire for revenge. 

And so beware he says in the next section… of practicing your righteousness in front of others…

• The hypocrits do this, and they have received their reward in full. 
• And so deeper and deeper into our hearts Jesus goes.
• Deeper into our motives and desires to be seen and known as good. 
• So what is Jesus doing here?

Well it appears that Jesus is saying that the coming Kingdom of heaven 

• That he is bringing to earth can be blocked in our lives by our desire to be approved of by others for being devout. 
• Hypocrits, he says, announce their giving to the needy with trumpets to be honoured by others. 
• Be on guard. 

On our righteousness, AB Bruce, the Scottish 19^th centure theologian said;

• “show when you are tempted to hide, and hide when you are tempted to show.”
• Isnt that good?
• So show when you are tempted to hide?

Jesus has of course in this same sermon called us to be the light of the world, a city on a hill that cannot be hidden.

• Clearly there are visible acts of righteousness that Jesus desires for us to exhibit before the world. 
• Matthew 5:16 says “let your light shone before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
• But this seems to relate more to our character, our acts of mercy and kindness, our treatment of enemies and our desire to be peacemakers.

But then we are told to hide what we are tempted to show…

• Parading our generosity with trumpets…
• Praying publicly with lots of flowery words and self impoiratnce
• Fasting where everyone will notice just how serious and self denying we have been.
• “show when you are tempted to hide, hide when we are tempted to show…”
• Hide when the motive is to display how good we are. 
• This seems to be, not so much the privitatsation of piety, but the purification of motive. 
• For whose eyes do we give, and pray and fast?

How liberating is this? Dying to the need for approval from others… we become so secure in our relationship with our Heavenly Father

• That we begin to live generously for an audience of one!
• Amen?
• We all have a desire to be noticed and affirmed and to receive positive attention. 
• Let your reward be from your heavenly Father… and your giving done in secret.

This phrase Jesus uses “received their reward in full” is a business term from ancient days.

• It means receiving full payment. 
• If I give to get applause and recognition from others, Jesus says, you’ve received full payment already. 
• What room is their for God to reward you? You’ve got what you wanted… 
• Now move along…

But oh to get the reward from your heavenly Father. And what is this reward?

• Well surely it is the relationship that Jesus enjoyed with God. 
• “This is my son, with whom I am well pleased.”
• The reward is to be drawn alongside your Father in heaven and to enjoy his presence, his delight, his blessing! 

Well let’s finish and let me ask you 3 questions.

• How much do you give away? 
• What is the edge of your life that is involved with the poor?
• How can you safeguard against hypocrisy and the need for approval from others?

How much do you give away? 

• The average household income on the Northern Beaches is $120,000
• Some of you will earn a lot less than that. Some of you will earn a lot, lot more. 
• Do you give 10% away? That would be $12,000 a year?
• Do you give 20% away? That would be $24,000 a year?
• Do you give 2% away? That sadly is the average of what people give. That would be just $2,400.  
• I’d just encourage you to think through what you actually give away and are you being generous?

Secondly, What is the edge of your life that is involved with the poor and giving to the needy?

• That is afterall what Jesus is talking about here in this passage. 
• And I’d simply say, every Christian should have an edge in their lives involved in serving and giving to the needy.

Finally, How can you safeguard against hypocrisy and the need for approval from others?

• I’d simply suggest, get to know your heavenly Father… the one who runs to the prodigal and embraces him.
• Be so secure in your relationship with your Heavenly Father that you too can die to needing the approval of others. 
• And start to give, give, give, for the audience of one!
• Amen?

In this sermon Tim continues our series on What Jesus Taught, looking at Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:38-44 and how it ushers in a new Kingdom Ethic where we love our enemies, pray for those who persecute us and take back the inactive from people who have wronged us; blessing them and going the extra mile! How will you put these words into practice this week?

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday March 20, 2022.

SERMON NOTES:

Read Matthew 5:38-44

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. 

Well occasionally a story makes the news that cuts through the usual depressing mix of wars, gang violence, natural disasters and political scandals… 

• News that reminds you that there is a God in heaven who is bringing a remarkably different, subversive and counter-cultural kingdom to earth
• News where citizens of this kingdom behave in such a way that it makes you sit up in awe of what can happen when the gospel gets hold of someone’s life. 

You might remember the tragic but inspiring story of the Abdallah family…

• Here in Sydney a few years ago, 3 of their children were killed when a drunk driver mounted the curb and hit Danny and Leila’s children. 
• As a parent I can’t think of anything that would more destroy the fabric of your soul.
• And yet at a press conference a few days later, the remarkable Christian parents Danny and Leila spoke of finding forgiveness in their hearts for the drunk driver.  
• I don’t know what you saw… but I saw… Jesus. I saw the ethics of the sermon on the mount worked out in the most tragic of circumstances. 

What do we do with the Sermon on Mount? Beautiful, impossible, challenging, subversive…

• Blessed are the peacemakers, the persecuted, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful… 
• We are doing this series on What did Jesus teach, and thinking through what it means to be a disciple. 
• After all, if we are to call Jesus Lord and try and live by his teachings, we need to let them impact us deeply. 
• So today, would it be fair to say this (Love your enemies) is Jesus most admired teaching but also the most difficult to live out? … 
• Bit like forgiveness… admirable until you have to do it…

Give you my conclusion at the start… and then you can see how I am going to get there…

• 3 levels of humanity… Darrell Johnson
• Uncivilised humanity: Like the war being fought in the Ukraine at the moment. Where people bring evil into the world. 
• Civilised humanity: Restrained justice. Eye for eye. We treat people with a polite respect. 
• Gospelised humanity: where the gospel has so gotten a hold of your life, that Christ forms within you, leading to acts of remarkable grace and mercy!

Some people really get on my nerves…

• But believe it or not, apparently I really annoy some people
• Fall outs happen – inside and outside the church…
• Fight or flight… rarely do we engage constructively…
• At best – Karma and an eye for an eye rules…
• The reality for most of our lives is that a huge amount of our mental energy is spent on our relationships, that with our family, friends, neighbours and colleagues
• Lie in bed at night having conversations in our minds…

Todays passage is fundamentally about how we treat one another.

• And in this area, we all need help… many of us well into our adult lives… 
• Because fundamentally how we treat others defines our lives, our relationships, our chance for peace and happiness
• Some have called this the high water mark of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount
• So what is this about, this turning the other cheek, going the extra mile, this loving our enemy and praying for those who persecute us?
• I want to suggest that Jesus is describing what it means to be a child of God 

Victoria and I are starting to wonder what our kid will end up being like as they grow a bit older? Basically hoping they get Victoria’s genes… we all have a family resemblance… 

• You may never look more like God… as his children, than when you act like this…
• You see this is the difference between civilized humanity and gospelised humanity… 
• Civilized humanity often does the bear minimum required of it to keep the peace and stay within the law…
• Gospelised humanity are those who have been enamoured by the King and become citizens of an entirely different kingdom. 
• Who have renounced their old lives and begun to trust and follow Jesus.

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. 

Jesus is working with one of the oldest laws of civilization… lex tali-onius

• This is the law of just retribution 
• Lex tali-onus is found in earliest know codes of law  
• Found all through the OT – Deuteronomy, Leviticus… but particularly…

 Exodus 21:22-25

“If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows. 23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. 

So just retribution – 3 facts you need to know about lex tali-onus

1. It took taking justice out of an individuals hands and put it into the courts… this was meant for the judges of Israel to decide.  
2. It limits revenge… so marks an important advance for humanity – punishments are to fit crimes
3. An accommodation to our fallen nature… saying if you must have compensation at least make it fair – it’s a foot for a foot not… you hurt my foot so I am going to take your life!

But important – it is Gods will from the beginning that no human being seeks revenge…

Leviticus 2:1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy. 18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD.

So Lex tali-onuis was given as permission for those who could not find in their hearts forgiveness…

• Can you now see what Jesus is doing… taking people back to Gods original will… to not seek revenge, to let love rule…
• Civilized humanity will limit revenge… this is what Australia is built on… eye for an eye, I wont wipe out your entire village for an eye… we have the rule of law… good thing!
• Gospelised humanity will go further…

You have heard it said… but I say to you, do not resist an evil person…

• So what do we do with all of the emotional energy generated by evil… 
• What are we to do in the face of wrong?

Jesus gives 4 examples interpreting what it means not to resist

Vs 39 If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 

• Jesus is talking about the slap with the back of a hand – deliberate insult…

40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 

• Talking about a miscarriage of justice…
• 2 garments… shirt close to the body, cloak wrapped around… only two items people owned…
• To take someone’s shirt is a terrible miscarriage of justice, mean thing to do…

41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 

• Talking about the Roman right to force a Jew to carry his bags 1 mile…
• Colonial act of cruelness…

42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

• Request that takes advantage of another person… no intention to return what is lent…

So you have been hit in the face, sued for your shirt, forced to carry an enemies bag and been taken advantage of…

• What does the one who came to establish the Kingdom of God say about how we are to respond?
• Clearly we are not to get even… but do we passively let the evil person have there way
• This is the big point…
• Passively stand by… no – nothing passive about any of Jesus examples…
• Crucial – nothing passive in 4 illustrations
• Jesus is saying don’t try to get even…
• But he is saying go on the offensive! Change the dynamics of the encounter!!!!!!!

Look at 4 illustrations – listen to his words…

Vs 42 – doesn’t say give what you will get back, says give to whom ever asks…

• This is not writing up a contract to ensure that you will get your goods back…
  • This is freely giving with no expectation of return…

Vs 41 – does Jesus say if someone forces you to go one mile, let him exploit you to go two…

• No – not passive… before the oppressor can exploit you, change the dynamic…
• You have done the mile you have to… but if you volunteer to carry his pack, you are not a slave…
• You are in control…
• Gets to the end of one mile, he takes his pack back… you grab it and keep walking for another mile…  See what is happening?

Vs 40 – does it say if you’ve been sued for your shirt, let him sue you for your coat…. No that is passive – the coat has not been requested, but you give it to him

• You have beat him to the punch
• Rested the offensive from the evil person
• This is brilliant – you become a game changer a world shaper…

Vs 39 – does it say if you are hit, let him slap you again?

• No – doest say let him slap you… he says turn to him the other cheek…
• Not passive… 
• Turn to him the other cheek… before he can hit you again, prepare your face for it… take charge of the situation.
• Yes more hurt and humiliation – but you have taken the initiative

Don’t surrender the initiative, but take the initiative and take on evil with good.

• Did you expect anything less? From Jesus…

E Stanley Jones – Indian missionary… he taught the sermon on the mount to Ghandi…. 

• In his book Christ of the Mount written in 1931… he says,
• In cases of deep wrong the temptation is to use the weapons of the wrongdoers… 
• To fight on their level. Do you ever do that?
• Don’t do it, says Jesus: Hate begets hate, violence begets violence… where does it stop…

As his disciple Ghandi famously said, an eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind.

• Jesus is urging us to use higher weapons… love and grace
• And surely this is the only way to turn an enemy into a friend….
• Not going to happen by retaliating… it happens by bringing something new into the equation
• Giving the cloak, turning the cheek, giving away… this is active resistance…
• Jesus says “I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”
• And why? Vs 44 that you may be called children of your Father in heaven.

Finish with 3 quick things – what this is about?

First: This is about developing the family likeness

Jesus is calling us to do what the Son of God will go on to do… Citizens of the King are to live lives that resemble the King they follow… this is his life (pause)

• They seized him, they tormented him, they whipped and tortured him
• They thrust a crown of thorns on his head and nailed him to a cross where he hung and died
• The one who quietened the storm, fed the thousands, healed the sick….
• But Jesus refused to respond in kind (don’t you know he says to his friend Peter that at my word thousands of angels could bring the fury of God)
• As he hangs on the cross he says “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”
• This is our King

And it changed the world

• It brought something new into the equation – circuit breaker for the endless cycle of violence.
• Grace… as Bono says in his song, the name of a girl, also a thought that changed the world.

And so we, his children carry on the family likeness when we to learn his ways

• When we are bullied or mocked and we bless instead of fighting back
• When we are cheated and robbed we are generous in return
• When we are pushed away we offer a hand back. 
• We are God’s children when we learn his ways…

Secondly: As we participate in the Kingdom of God, it changes the world. Really there are 3 levels of life

• Lowest level – does evil for good (dictators do this… bullies do this). It’s an evil way to live.
• 2^nd level: Does evil for evil and good for good – legal level – civilised level of life – the Aussie way… bare minimum to keep the peace… 
• 3^rd level: Does good for evil – grace level… 

When the other persons conduct determines yours… you are an echo… we live in a world of echoes…

• Applied to nations, it leads to war…
• Applied to us it leads to bitterness and revenge… regrettable behaviours…

But return good for evil, and you join the divine conspiracy… the subversive kingdom!

• Put down for put down… insult for insult and you are an echo…
• But when the kingdom grabs hold of an individual, a community, a nation we become more than just an echo…
• We go to a higher level… It is the only chance we have to redeem evil
• We have got to go higher. It’s what the children of God, citizens of the King are to do…

Finish with a challenge: Put into action

• Think of someone who has hurt you or taken advantage of you… 
• Maybe don’t start with the biggest enemy or inflictor of pain you know. You can work up to that… 
• But who is someone you have been hurt by. Who is someone you have been taken advantage of by? 
• What would seizing the initiative by doing good to them practically look like. 
• An olive branch of peace? A gift or meal sent over? 

In this sermon guest Steve Bartlett, the NSW Baptist Director of Ministries, continues our series on What Jesus Taught, moving forward to Matthew 23 where he examines the many woes Jesus speaks against the Pharisees and what it means for us in our inner and outer life! Steve suggests growing in Christ means that our inner and outer life come together to be as matching as possible! So how is your inner life? Do you practice what you preach? Ask Jesus for His help this week!

Sermon preached by Steve Bartlett on Sunday March 13, 2022.

In this sermon Tim tackles a challenging part of the Sermon on the Mount: tackling lust, adultery and pornography and how we can be set free! Tim reminds us of the grace and mercy we find in God when we bring these things into the light, repent and find accountability as Jesus transforms this area of our lives!

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday March 6, 2022.

SERMON NOTES

I want to start today’s sermon in our series on what did Jesus teach, on lust, by reminding you how for you Jesus is. He is so, so for you!

• Today’s passage is probably one that cuts pretty close to home for a lot of people. Either as something you struggle with or you are affected by. 
• So a reminder that Jesus is so for you. 
• He desires your life and heart in order to set you free and renew your humanity
• He is so for your relationships and their sanctity. 
• He wants to save you from your sin in order that you may flourish and be salt and light in this decaying and dark world.

So apparently all of you have copies of Playboy in your pockets right now! (hold up phone)

• Victoria went to a seminar on children, technology and porn. Someone asked at what age should you allow a kid to have a phone.
• The speaker answered was, “when you are ready for them to have access to pornography”
• We bizarrely live in a time when we all have unfettered access to the 1 billion plus pornography website pages that we can access with a simple swipe and search. 
• We live in a sex saturated world. 
• And like gambling, alcohol and drugs, it can become an addiction that changes our brains….
• Came across this image of what porn can do to our minds…

This is a real struggle for many. And the stats are scary…

• 79% of men, ages 18-30, actively seek out pornography weekly or more often. 
• Women now make up a third of visitors to porn sites. And first access to porn is now estimated to be at 12 years of age. 
• Porn sites receive more regular traffic than Netflix, Amazon, & Twitter combined each month. 
• A 2015 study found that the consumption of porn was significantly associated with increases in verbal and physical aggression, among males and females alike.
• So this is scary stuff. And a lot of men particularly have said to me, that their addiction to sexual images leaves them feeling shameful, hurts their relationship with their partner and damages their spiritual lives.
• I read 56% of divorces involved one party having “an obsessive interest in pornographic websites.” This is serious, serious stuff. 

So we want to get real today at church and tackle this complex and damaging area of modern life that affects all of us directly or indirectly!

• If the statistics are right, many people even in the church are walking around with this hidden shame. 
• And the consequences of not dealing with lust can be very damaging. 

A friend many years ago disclosed to me that a couple in his church suddenly separated.

• Neither came and spoke to him nor would they return his messages. 
• Through the grapevine came the usual finger pointing and accusations.
• And then eventually what came out was an addiction to porn that had been discovered.
• And what a mess… feelings of betrayal, shame followed by separation, fights over custody and finances…
• It has been said, porn titillates and then it assassinates…. 

So what does Jesus have to say about this sex saturated world? Matthew 5:27-30

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Before we launch into this… Some things from the past 3 weeks… it is a series after all… 

Firstly, a reminder that we must not separate the preacher on the mount from the sermon on the mount…

• If we do, we can end up with a merciful Jesus who demands nothing of his followers
• Or we can end up with a sermon that become oppressive legalism or frustrating idealism.
• But held together and we get the one in John’s gospel who we are told came in grace and truth. 
• Who loves the sinner but calls us to leave our sin behind
• Who hangs out with the prostitutes and tax collectors, but also calls us to be perfect like our heavenly Father is perfect. Grace and truth!

Next, a reminder that this sermon is about the coming of the kingdom of heaven.

• I don’t have time to give you a theology of the kingdom again…
• But needless to say Jesus calls disciples to follow him as he establishes the reign and rule of heaven on earth…. 
• A kingdom that involves healing and casting out of evil…
• But also crucially, this ethic of the kingdom in the sermon on the mount. This is what a renewed humanity looks like with Jesus as King. 

Next, we talked last week about what righteousness means… 

• This righteousness that Jesus says must “surpass the religious teachers” in order for us to enter the kingdom of heaven.
• This righteousness being a relational word meaning our right relatedness…
• So this section is about restored relationship and what can get in the way. 
• Hence last week on anger, this week on lust and next week on retaliation. 

And I really like what Greg Beech was saying to me this week, about this “not entering the kingdom of heaven.”

• He said to me, this is not about salvation but about enjoying the benefits of the life in the Kingdom. Right?
• The reason Jesus wants righteousness is because that right relatedness brings the life of the kingdom. 
• That is why Jesus last week went after anger. If your life is riddled with anger and unreconciled relationships…
• Then you are not entering into your inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. 
• Is that good? Thank you Greg!

So we said, how might our righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees?

• Well you might keep the law by never murdering anyone throughout your life…
• Or today, by never committing adultery…
• But Jesus is saying, what good is keeping the law if actually on the inside you are riddled with anger and lust and sin?
• God desires righteousness… not just external conformity to the law… he desires right relatedness in your relationships and inner being. 

Ok, and then finally as we set up today from what we have been learning so far…

• A reminder that this sermon is Jesus saving you from your sins. This is an act of love.
• Yes Jesus saves you from your sins on the cross. Yes. 
• But Jesus wants to save you from your sins this side of heaven too. 
• That is why when Jesus says some pretty hard things today… 
• We remember that he is saving us from the diminished life. From the counterfeit life. From the broken sinful life.
• Jesus is going to go after lust and adultery today because he doesn’t want to leave you in your broken state, breaking other people…

So… Matthew 5:27-28 (next slide)

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 

My lecturer Darrell Johnson who has been a big help to me in this series so far….

• Reminds us that Jesus does not say this to shame us, or to guilt us. Nor does he go after lust and adultery to rob from us the joy of living.
• Jesus says this to heal us and free us and to make us whole. 
• Jesus says this to protect our relationships and marriages. 

At another point in his teaching Jesus reminds us that marriage is a blessed and sacred union.

• It is to be between a man and woman, to the absolute exclusion of all others, for life, and within which we are to enjoy sexual intimacy.
• In the OT book Song of Songs we see God’s delight in our sexuality and the gift of pleasure that comes with intimacy with our spouses.
• So sex, although at times, a very primal urge and temptation, is to be protected and cherished and honored before God. 

Oh wouldn’t it be amazing, if we all had a clean sheet in this regard… 

• It’s tough isn’t it… and I know that before I got married… although I never had sex with anyone before Victoria, I certainly got loads and loads wrong in this regard.
• My guess is most of us identify somewhat with the woman caught in adultery, brought before Jesus, ready to be condemned. 
• But instead of stones, thank God Jesus says to her accusers; “you without sin may cast the first stone”
• And as they drop their stones and leave… Jesus says “neither do I condemn you, now go, leave your life of sin.”

So as we said last week, this section is called the fulfillers. 

• Jesus says, “You have heard it said, do not commit adultery… But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
• Jesus is working here with the full implication or meaning of the 7^th of the 10 commandments. “you shall not commit adultery.”
• The teachers of the law thought they were fulfilling that by not sleeping with a woman not their wife…
• Jesus says there is more to it than that… I’ve come to fulfil this… Once again I am going after your heart!
• Whoever looks lustfully, violates the inherent meaning of this command…

There is a lot at stake here right?

• Maybe you have committed adultery and know the shame and brokenness and hurt this brings to those around you.
• Maybe you have been cheated on and know the devastating consequences of betrayal. 
• But Jesus is saying, if we are going to get to the cause of adultery, we need to tackle lust. 
• Afterall, adultery starts with lust. We sow thoughts that become acts, and we reap the destiny. 

So what is Jesus saying here?

• Well this is not a casual glance at a beautiful woman or man walking past. 
• The Greek word for “lust after” is Epi-the-meoh… 
• It means the desire to possess… this is beyond appreciation to wanting to possess… to take hold of and have as you desire. To have your way…
• Maybe the expanded wording of this verse would be  “Whoever keeps on looking at a woman in order to lust after her… has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

The Protestant reformer Martin Luther taught that lustful thoughts come but you don’t need to invite those thoughts to stay… 

• He famously said, “I cant stop a bird from flying over my head… but I can stop a bird from  nesting in my hair.”

So Jesus challenges not just external conformity to the law not to commit adultery but to the inner condition of lust…

• What a protector of our lives he is!
• He is going after what truly diminishes us, our lives and our relationships.
• Lust shifts our attentions and desires off our spouses and onto another who we do not belong to. We epi-thee-meoh, we desire to possess another. 
• This could be watching porn or sex scenes in a movie… it could be imagining getting it on with a work colleague or neighbour. 
• That is why lust is so dehumanizing… in your appetite to titillate over the image or thought of a naked person, or people having sex, you are reducing them to an object for your pleasure. 

So Jesus says, take some drastic action… so important is winning this battle, that if your right eye causes you to stumble, if your hand causes you to stumble… gouge it out, cut it off. 

• Tough words… because what is at stake is the wholeness of our soul and the bonds of your relationships…
• Now is this literal? I don’t think so. I can fantasize with my eyes closed….
• But he is talking about the seriousness needed of our actions…
• So deadly is unchecked lust, that it would be like treating an amputated leg with a band aid. 

So if this is a struggle for you, how do we break the cycle and get whole? 3 things…

1. First drastic action: We guard our eyes!

Matt 6:22-23 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness.  

So Jesus says the eye is the lamp of your body… the eye is the gatekeeper into your life.

• So what we focus on and look at impacts the health of your life. 
• It is through our eyes that our body will either be filled with light or darkness..
• So, just as we can cultivate healthy eyes by focussing on pure wholesome things, we are warned against unhealthy eyes that lead to bodies full of darkness.
• So what are we to avoid?  What comes to mind for you? 
• What are the things that can captivate your attention that lead to darkness rather than light?
• If you were to do a stocktake of your last month… where have your eyes been that don’t fill your life with light and life?

You know, the enemies intention is to blind us to truth and corrupt our minds, and he uses our eyes to gain entrance to our hearts. 

• So in this life, he parades before us all manner of evil, from the deluge of pornography on the internet to the temptations at the beach from scantily clad bodies… 
• He deludes us into believing that these things will make us happy, fulfilled people, when all the while they are robbing us of the very joy we long for. 
• He wants us to allow more and more darkness into our minds through the books we read, the movies we watch, and the images we allow our eyes to linger upon. 

I think I have shared this before…. I am incredibly prudish with what I let my eyes see…

• I got to the place about 10 years ago, where I decided for my own spiritual health and the sake of my marriage that I’d cut out seeing any nudity in any form that wasn’t my wife!
• And I am not just talking about the horrendous scourge that pornography is. I don’t even watch movies or television shows with sex scenes… because my eyes are the window to my soul.
• So that may seem really over the top… but I’d say from my perspective… I am missing out on absolutely nothing… and gaining everything!
• Sow a thought, reap an action, form a habit… right?
• See I’d rather miss a few films and keep my mind clean… than possibly go down the slippery slope of unhealthy images and even addiction. 

So if this is something that you struggle with, let me encourage you to look into internet filters, and I want to recommend a site called netsanity.com that will help.

• I heard a Pastor this week say: “Why resist a temptation in the future when you have the power to eliminate it today.” (REPEAT)
• You can get filters and settings put on your phones and computers that will block adult material. 
• Jesus said “When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light.”
• Jesus says “if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away.”
• So don’t let your eyes be unhealthy… take drastic action. 

You’ve got to build some muscle around this area of your life. But it comes through training our minds, living according to the Spirit and getting strong in this area.

• It’s been over 20 years since I looked at porn. And I don’t say that triumphantly but to show that it is possible. 
• It’s been 10 years since I watched a sex scene in a movie. And to be honest, it’s not a temptation for me anymore. 
• In fact if something does come on, it is just second nature to leave the room or turn it off.. 
• But I have a great sex life with my wife and praise be to God, a mind cleaned of these images. 

• Second drastic action: Bring your sin into the light

Proverbs 28:13 says; “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.”

• That’s the promise of God… concealing any type of sin ultimately comes to bite us in the butt! We do not prosper. I told you the tragic story of that unravelled marriage… 
• But if we bring the hard bits of our lives into the light by confessing and renouncing… we find mercy!
• Can I simply encourage you to find accountability for this or any other type of sin in your life.
• Confess to God, confess to someone safe and encouraging in your life… and begin healing. What is brought into the light loses its power. 

• Third drastic action: Flee 

Now if you graduated out of Sunday school and into a youth group you will have been told the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. 

• It’s the story of Joseph being seduced and tempted by one of Pharoah’s official’s wife to sleep with him.
• And what does Joseph do? Does he sit down and say; “well maybe we could just be friends…” Haha. No.
• He flees. He runs away… and takes the consequences of then being falsely accused. 
• That’s why in 2 Timothy it says; “Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace.” 
• So flee. Run in the opposite direction to temptation. Do not linger and let the birds nest in your hair!

Well as I come into close… if you want to take drastic action… guarding your eyes, living in the light and fleeing temptation… what will happen?

• There is a good article on the net titled “what porn does to your brain and how to quit.” 
• It talks about a 90 day period… that’s how long it takes to retrain your brain. 
• First few weeks and months expect an incredible battle. Anxiety, heightened temptation to give in. Probably set backs. 
• Your brain craves the dopamine hit that porn and masturbating gives you! 
• And it says it takes 3 months before you will find emotional stability and peace and wholeness in this area of your life. 
• But then it gets a whole lot easier. And that is my story. 

Now obviously, no life this side of heaven will be completely full of light and life… that’s why we need Jesus. And we need each other to be gracious and loving!

• We are complex, complicated souls… we are all works in progress. 
• We are Christians because God first loved us! Not because we have it all worked out!
• And only Jesus is the true light of the world…
• And yet we are being brought into a kingdom of light!
• And we are to cooperate with this process by keeping our attention on healthy things in order to live light filled lives!

So are you hungering and thirsting for righteousness?

• As I said last week, there is too much at stake to just acknowledge this teaching on adultery and lust and just move on
• You may get to end of your life and have never committed adultery!
• But too many of us have settled, that lust and addictions are too powerful and given in to what diminishes our lives.
• Jesus is calling you higher…
• Jesus has come to move you into the fulfilment of the prophets and the law.

In this sermon Tim talks about righteousness, and Jesus’ call to us to have righteousness greater than the Pharisees, a righteousness that flows from the inside out, from our heart rather than external religion. He then goes onto to talk about what Jesus says about anger, and how we can be peacemakers and righteous in that area!

Sermon preached by Tim Giovanelli on Sunday February 22, 2021.

SERMON NOTES

Well today I want to read to you the entire Sermon on the Mount again

• Haha, just kidding. We have to stop making that joke.
• We are doing a series on what did Jesus teach… about discipleship… his life being formed within us. 
• Brilliant message from Greg… they are all going up on the church website and on spotify… so stay on track with us…
• And Greg exhorted us that in order to be salt and light in the world, we need to have Christ formed within us…. And that comes through engaging with Jesus 
• And allowing the values of the beatitudes amongst other things to displace our cultural allegiances. 
• I wonder how you have gone with that this last week?
• Do you sense mercy and meekness and peacemaking forming within you?

Let’s listen to the next section – Matthew 5:17-24

17 “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.18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you,24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

Well we come to the next section of what Jesus taught, in the sermon on the mount.

• And I think it is probably the most difficult section to wrestle with.
• It talks about our righteousness exceeding that of the religious leaders of Jesus day
• And we get these very challenging teachings on murder and anger, marriage and lust, broken down relationships…
• And the bar for righteousness seems to be set at an almost unreachable level. 
• Not murder… ok I can do that… but not be angry?

And I think what Jesus is doing in this section is getting to the reality of the human condition and what really diminishes a persons life, or allows it to thrive. 

• If the kingdom that he is bringing from heaven to earth is about wholeness and peace and life…
• Then what reduces our humanity? As image bearers of God, what stuffs up our lives?
• What are the big issues of life that will either mean you are a flourishing human being, or you are or become a counterfeit of your true humanity?
• What do I mean by that?

Victoria and her sister who is here from New York at the moment, were watching a show called Inventing Anna on Netflix the other night. 

• And somehow I got through a whole episode…
• But anyhow, there was this scene between a journalist and a fashion designer. And basically straight away he identifies that her clothes are cheap knock offs of expensive brands.
• Now to an untrained eye, it probably would have looked like the real thing, but to him who knew what the real deal was…
• He immediately noticed that the patterns didn’t line up at the seams, and the material was lower quality. 
• So her clothes looked like the real thing, but actually were a counterfeit version…

And much of modern life or even dare I say it, our lives… is counterfeit to the real thing God created us to be… 

• We become a cheap knock off of the real thing God created us to be. 
• And what Jesus is going to do, is go beyond the legal requirements or laws we may try to follow in order to be seen to be doing the right thing
• To the heart of the matter of that which really diminishes our lives. 
• Are you with me?

Jesus is so for you in this section. You got to believe that. It might seem tough teaching, but he is so, so for you!

• Because what I see, is he wants you to flourish and to avoid the pitfalls of the broken inner life. 
• He is forming a new humanity…
• And he wants us to avoid just having the appearance of righteousness… but to actually develop true inner righteousness. 

So Jesus addresses the big things in this next section which we will set up today and go into more detail in the next few weeks. 

• Right, not just don’t murder but watch out for a life riddled with anger.
• Right, not just don’t divorce and commit adultery, but watch out for a life saturated in lust
• Right not just swearing oaths, but let your speech be truthful.
• Right, don’t just limit your retaliation, but actually bless and go the extra mile for those who seek to harm you. 
• OK?

When we think of Jesus message, or what did he teach, we often think of love, or forgiveness, or mercy… but I wonder if we think of him as a preacher of righteousness?

• And yet, Jesus heart is for righteousness amongst his followers… would you agree?
• So what is this? 
• Maybe we think of righteousness as seriousness… I don’t know?
• Maybe a rule keeping life… a holier than thou type existence?
• Maybe even a party pooper life! Or being a do-gooder… is that righteousness?
• But Jesus exalts and demands righteousness for those who would follow him…

We’ve seen this already in the sermon on the mount in the beatitudes…

• Already he has said blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Right? Blessed are those whose appetites are transformed towards righteousness…
• And blessed are those persecuted for righteousness. Right? 
• Blessed are those who because of this righteousness begin to cop it from the rest of the world for how they live…
• And now today… “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

So what on earth is righteousness and why is this so important in understanding how we might flourish as opposed to living a diminished, broken life? 

Well, righteousness is a relational word….

• It’s meaning is right relationship – being in sync with someone… no outstanding issues or resentments or debts owed… if you have a righteous relationship with someone… 
• You are all good man! 
• This is having right relatedness…
• So if I hurt Victoria’s feelings, we are no longer righteous! But if she forgives me… we become righteous again… we restore our right relatedness… 

So yes righteousness is about morally right behaviour. A way of ethical living…

• But notice that when Jesus expands on what righteousness looks like, it all relates to our relationships… 
• Our anger, our lusts, our falling out with people. 
• So righteousness is not an ethical philospophy… it is grounded in the nitty gritty, earth reality of how we relate to one another…

So Jesus says, If you’re righteousness doesn’t exceed the pharisees, you wont inherit the kingdom of heaven.

Now of course the deeper theme in the New Testament is that we have imputed righteousness given to us through Jesus death on the cross.

• The thing that makes our relationship right with God is the gift of forgiveness that we have not earned. 
• That is why Paul will say in Romans “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes…”
• He goes on to say “in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed.”
• Are you still with me?
• So Paul is saying in the gospel the way that God brings righteousness… right relationship to us has been revealed. 
• You and God can be “all good” because of this good news about Jesus. He has dealt with the stuff that separated us. 
• Our sin. On the cross. 

So obviously Jesus in his ethical teaching is going to expound on what it looks like to have right relationships. As those given righteousness, what does God require in our relationships?

Now in this section, Jesus for the first time, makes himself the center of the message…

• “I have come… 4 times “I have come”, or “but I tell you…”
• So with no appeal to any higher authority… he begins to redefine the meaning of the law.
• I have come… not to abolish the OT, but to fulfil. Not to destroy but to complete…

Now this is cool, because clearly in what Jesus is about to teach, he is upsetting the old order of things…

• But he say, you must not ever think I have come to abolish… but I have come to fulfil God’s original intent for the law!
• Now that is clearer for us with what he says about fulfilling the prophets. 
• As we saw in Isaiah, the prophets announce God’s character and his great plans to move in history, through the coming one… especially on the side of the righteous and poor. 
• The longings of the prophets are going to be fulfilled.
• In Matthew, 13 times, the gospel writer sees something in Jesus and says this was to fulfil the prophets… text after text after text…

But he has come not just to fulfil the prophets, but also the law? 

• Now you most likely know bits of the law from the Old Testament like the 10 commandments.
• Thou shall not murder, thou shall not commit adultery, thou shall not covet your neighbours possessions 
• And the point of all of those is to govern how a society do life together…
• Right? 
• If we do these things and keep many of the other laws… it’s a good thing right…

But Jesus wants to go further… to the underlying conditions of the human heart… 

• You see you could keep the law and look like you are living an ethical life… but what about the inner condition of your life that really governs your reality. 
• That’s what the Pharisees were criticized by Jesus for. Outwardly they kept the commandments, but their hearts were not following the intent of the law. 
• Jesus is going to go after the true meaning of the law. 
• It wasn’t meant just for restraining chaos or evil… but for bringing right relatedness to human relationships and towards God. (repeat)

So let’s take one for example today and do the other fulfillers in the next few weeks…

21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. 

So how might our righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees?

• Well you might keep the law by never murdering anyone throughout your life…
• But Jesus is saying, what good is keeping the law if actually on the inside you are riddled with anger and resentment and bitterness?
• Right? That would be a counterfeit life… it may look good to the outsider, but the reality is that it is a cheap knock off of what God really wants to do with you. 
• God desires righteousness… he desires right relatedness in your relationships and inner being. 

So you have heard it said… but I say to you! Come on Jesus. Go after my heart! Get it. Fix it. Transform it!

• Go beyond mere words and codes and laws and go after what you have created me for!
• A clean heart and righteous relationships… 
• So that is why Jesus says this relates to inheriting the kingdom of heaven. 
• Jesus kingdom is not just about external conformity to the law… but to right relationships and the condition of our hearts!

Remember Christmas… Matthew 1 and the angel appears to Joseph and says Mary will give birth to a son named Jesus, which means “he will save his people from their sins.”

• On the cross – yes…
• But in his teaching in the sermon on the mount he is saving us from our sins! 
• Do you agree?
• On the cross we get imputed righteousness… a gift… right relationship with God through faith. 
• But in the sermon on the mount Jesus is saving us from our sins too!
• He is saving us from the stuff that diminishes our lives like anger, lust and revenge… 
• Amen?

In the Greek, there are two different words that are translated as anger. 

• The first is thumous… it has been described as like the flame that comes from dried straw… quickly combustible… but goes out… 
• The second word we translate as anger from the Greek is Org-ay: anger that has settled in our hearts and minds… anger that we nurse to keep warm…. (PAUSE) 
• Yeah…
• It is the second word Org-ay that Jesus uses in his sermon. 

In the gospels we see Jesus get thumous… turning over tables of money makers in the temple. 

• So there are probably good reasons to be angry… to feel anger at injustice or wrong doing…
• But the issue is what we do with the anger… do we let it stew…. Do we lie in bed at night having endless conversations… putting people in their places…
• Do we allow it to bubble out so that we hurt the other… through gossip and put downs and even violence…

Now Jesus does the application for us… he teaches us how to deal with it…

23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you,24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

This is the natural implication of Jesus dealing with our inner condition… stop your worship and go and be reconciled…

• This is righteousness… fixing your relationships matters to God. 
• Because our relationship with God is profoundly intertwined with our relationship with each other…
• Again what is righteousness? It is our right relatedness to each other. 
• That is why Dietrich Bonhoeffer says in the Cost of Discipleship that when I erect a barrier between me and you, I am erecting a barrier between me and God. 
• So leave holy pretenses behind until you are first willing to reconcile with a brother or sister!

Now I am aware of the many challenges that Jesus raises… and we’ve not even got to the section in the coming weeks on marriage and divorce and revenge and…

• But my guess is when it even comes to anger you have hundreds of “but what if’s” 
• But what if I should be angry…
• What if the other person wont respond… 
• What if I’ve been the victim of an unspeakable crime…
• What is the other person has already died…

And I’ll confess that I have broken and strained relationships… 

• Some I have tried to restore….
• But if I am honest some I have not… I’m quite good at nursing a bit of anger and resentment…
• But I need to believe that in this teaching Jesus is so, so for me… he wants this new life of the kingdom to form within me…
• And if we let all the “but what if” questions constantly get in the way… we will never get to the life of the kingdom. 

So as I come into land… are you hungering and thirsting for righteousness?

• There is too much at stake to just acknowledge this teaching on murder and anger and reconciliation… and just move on.
• Is it beginning to take shape in your mind what this might look like?
• We need to allow the Spirit of God to come in and begin renewing our humanity. 
• You may get to end of your life and have never majorly broken the law!
• Then again you may… but too many of us allow anger and resentment and bitterness to consume our humanity and diminish our lives…
• Jesus is calling you higher…
• Jesus has come to move you into the fulfilment of the prophets and the law. 

Amen. 

In this sermon Greg talks about the salt and light passage in the Sermon on the Mount, unpacking why we worship Jesus and how we can be salt and light in the world around us!

Sermon preached by Greg Beech on Sunday February 20, 2022.

In this sermon Tim unpacks the beginning of the sermon of the Mount, the Beatitudes giving us five things to remember when reading Jesus’ blessings: that It’s a description of Kingdom living, that blessing is about being in sync with God, that the Beatitudes relate to one another, that Jesus lives this out and that the Beatitudes form in us through proximity, proximity and proximity to Jesus.

SERMON NOTES:

Well today as we get into the Beatitudes… which is just the Latin word for Blessings…

• We are going to continue to center ourselves in the reality of Jesus Kingdom
• These words coming as light into the darkness…
• A guide, as to what life looks like as we come under the reign of the Kingdom of Heaven. 
• A description of the fruit produced from our proximity to Jesus and coming to live as a renewed humanity under his reign!

And a reminder, that we must never separate the Preacher on the Mount from the Sermon on the Mount. 

• The one who sets such a high bar for our righteousness, is also the one who stoops down in the dust and says to the woman caught in adultery… “neither do I condemn you”
• So as we start today in Jesus startling claims of who is blessed…
• Let’s read from the middle of chapter 4 to give context, and to ground these words in the ministry of King Jesus. 

Matthew 4:17-5:10

17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

18 As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”20 At once they left their nets and followed him.

21 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, 22 and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. 25 Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.

5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them. He said:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

A couple of years ago I was part of a small team that went to Nairobi in Kenya on a short term mission trip from this church. We had an amazing time.

• And after a week and a bit of visiting schools and projects and churches… we were able to go on a safari in the Masai Mara game reserve. 
• And we had a wonderful local tour guide who just seemed to know where to look for the animals we had come to see.

One of the most impressive moments was his spotting one of the great finds up a tree in the distance… 

• Now none of us could see anything but leaves from a distance. But as we approached, low and behold, lying up in the tree was the most beautiful leopard just hanging out.
• Our guide knew where to look and what the distinguishing marks were… where as all we saw from a distance was the tree. 

There is a nice moment in the clip from The Chosen, where Jesus says to Matthew that he has decided on his opening for the Sermon on the Mount

• And he describes the Beatitudes as; “A map, directions where people should look to find me”
• What we have in the Beatitudes is the distinguishing marks of those who belong to God.
• For those looking to find Jesus, there is a sense in the Beatitudes, that they will spot Jesus through his followers. 
• They will find Jesus through our way of living, marking us out from the rest of the world. 
• So wouldn’t it be wonderful to be recognized by the marks of the Beatitudes as belonging to God!
• There is Suzy, there is Peter, there is Liz… merciful, pure of heart, a peacemaker. Amen?

Suggest 5 things to us today from these remarkable blessings…

1. It’s a description of Kingdom living.
2. Blessing is about being in sync with God
3. The Beatitudes relate to one another
4. This is the life of Jesus
5. They form in us through proximity, proximity, proximity…

OK, Firstly, the Beatitudes describe Kingdom living. 

• What’s the Kingdom?
• Well we read from mid chapter 4 because before we get to the Beatitudes, we are told that Jesus preached that the Kingdom of Heaven had come near 
• And he called disciples to follow him. I guess you could call them the first citizens of Jesus kingdom. 
• Probably didn’t seem like much at the time? A few fisherman following a carpenter’s son.
• But because the Kingdom of Heaven had come near in Jesus, it’s no surprise that he begins to heal the sick and cast out evil.
• According to Matthew’s gospel, this is all good news!

So what is the Kingdom of Heaven?

• Well the prophets in the OT and the expectation at the time of Jesus was that God would establish his kingdom at the end of time…
• God’s people’s enemies would be wiped out, and a time of renewal and healing would be established. 
• But Jesus comes announcing it has come near… before the end of time…
• The Kingdom of Heaven has broken peacefully into time as we know it.
• The future has begun to spread into the present… heaven invades earth…

So in the Kingdom, God has come in his Son to establish the rule and reign of heaven on earth

• And the beatitudes describe the life that God blesses when heaven get holds of a person’s life. Right? The Gospel grabs us… consumes us… it turns us upside down…
• The Beatitudes are not so much a description of the law that citizens of the Kingdom of heaven are expected to follow
• It’s more a description of the life that emerges within them as they become followers of the new King. 
• Change varies… heard some people complaining about one Christian… jerk… yes but before he became a Christian he was a complete jerk… on a journey!

Secondly, the blessing Jesus proclaims is the fortunate state of those in sync with God. 

• Immediately before Jesus starts his sermon we are told that large crowds had begun to follow Jesus. 
• This was the result of his preaching that the Kingdom of heaven had come near
• It was the result of him healing the sick and paralyzed…
• It was the result of those with severe pain and demon possession being healed. 
• So you can imagine the type of crowd who were following him. Not exactly the Melbourne Cup crowd or those in line at Hugo’s on a Friday night…

Blessed are the poor in Spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted…

• Blessed… for yours is the Kingdom of Heaven!
• Jesus is bestowing this blessed state on the crowd, peasants, fisherman, the sick and downtrodden… 
• Blessed are you. In sync with the nature and heart of God. 
• Blessed are you!

Some translations have the Greek word Makarios translated as “happy” but I don’t think this really captures what Jesus is saying…

• Afterall “happy are those who mourn…” No… 
• And happiness is a feeling… often related to a temporary emotion or circumstance
• The life Jesus is describing is a deeper reality.
• It describes the state of your life and behaviors when you are in sync with the Kingdom that Jesus is establishing on earth. 

So this is very different to the fake world of Instagram #blessed!

• Right? Now you may have been very hard working and very fortunate and given great opportunities… and the result of that might be big homes and fast cars…
• But Jesus is not bestowing “blessed” on those trappings of a consumeristic Western lifestyle.
• And that should be uncomfortable for… well for all of us here!
• This is upside down… blessed… in sync are the meek… the pure in heart… the peacemakers…

OK, thirdly, the Beatitudes relate to one another…

• So this map for finding Jesus followers, these distinguishing marks of citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, seem to flow through a persons life.
• So following Jesus leads to a realization that we are poor in Spirit. 
• Put simply, it’s humbling when you take stock of your own life and all of it’s flaws… and it leads to a humility of Spirit…

We then begin to mourn over the condition of the world and our own lives. 

• That creates a desire to be meek… we no longer need to be in control all the time… and we begin to submit our strengths and gifts and resources to God’s will.
• Kingdom people then become very, very hungry and thirsty… not for sensual desires or fake projections of happiness…
• But for righteousness and justice. Our appetites get re-ordered.

Well it’s no surprise then that citizens of heaven become merciful. When you are poor in Spirit and mourning, meek and hungering for righteousness…

• We get shaped by the merciful King to show mercy towards other people. 
• That leads to a purity of heart. Merciful, humble people desire to love others and keep their motives and minds and hearts pure. 
• And of course that leads them to seek peace. Peace in their own lives and peace in the world around them.

And finally, sometimes they find themselves in trouble… persecuted even for following this way of life. How could it be otherwise?

• In a world that is hungry for prestige and power and is drenched in unhealthy lusts and lies and divisions…
• These merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers get in trouble… 

Remember Wilberforce? They marginalized and mocked him for trying to end slavery.

• Remember Bonhoeffer? They executed him for trying to live Christ like in Nazi Germany and standing up against Hitler.
• Remember Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. They assassinated him for trying to end segregation through non-violence and the civil rights movement.
• Remember Bishop Oscar Romero who pursued holiness and stood tirelessly on the side of the poor and mistreated in El Salavdor… he was murdered…

Does anyone here want to follow Jesus Christ? (pause)

But remarkable things begin to happen in us when our lives are taken over by King Jesus.

• Not a thing of our own strength… but a pattern of life through which people begin to see Jesus!
• Blessed… for yours is the kingdom of heaven, you will be comforted, you will inherit the earth, you will be filled, you will receive mercy, you will see God… 
• You will be called the children of Heaven! 
• Amen?

Now just quickly, in terms of those blessings… those rewards or the fruit of this kind of life that Jesus bestows as the blessing? 

• Maybe you’re asking when exactly Jesus do I get to experience the promised blessing?
• Well the answer is now (pause) and then.
• You will see God, receive mercy, be filled somewhat now.
• You will see God, receive mercy, be filled fully then!
• Right that clear? Moving on… haha no..

You see with the arrival of Jesus and the inherent blessing of these behaviors, the blessings are already and not. 

• They are already because the kingdom has come near, but not yet as the Kingdom is still fully to come. 
• They are now because Jesus has come… but they are not yet because he is not yet fully reigning. 
• The merciful don’t always receive mercy back… the mourner aren’t always comforted… the peacemakers are not always heralded as children of God…
• But they will be!

One of the hardest things that I am privileged to do is to take funerals and sit with people in the hardest moments of their lives.

• Are they comforted by God? Do they experience peace? 
• Well often they do in the midst of full on storms of life…
• But they also carry the loss for the rest of their lives… 
• But one day they will be swept up in glory… and see those loved ones again. 
• The blessings are now… but they are also not yet!

OK, fourthly and just very briefly on this point, the Beatitudes are a portrait of Jesus. This is his life.

• And I make this point simply because Jesus manifests these blessings so beautifully in his own life. 
• In his humanity we see his mercy and purity of heart. We see the peacemaker and poor in Spirit. 
• We can tangibly experience his meekness and righteousness
• So when we desire to have these distinguishing marks… like spotting that leopard…
• We can gaze upon Jesus, our Lord and Saviour. We can look to him for our model.

And then finally today… how does all of this take shape in our lives? And I want to suggest proximity, proximity, proximity!

In my 20’s I spent 6 years living overseas… first was in South Africa and Kenya and I started speaking with some South African phrases… now, now… cool bananas…

• The I moved to London and like most pretentious young Aussies I adopted a bit of a West London accent. Yes darling… fabulous!
• And I learnt that water was pronounced with a t… not warder…
• Then it was off to Canada… and I had to slow right down in order to be understood… and my abouts became aboots… 
• Good fun… but really it was speaking like what I was surrounded with… our proximity to others shapes who we are!

Well there is not shortcut to exhibiting the distinguishing marks of the Beatitudes other than proximity to Jesus. Proximity, proximity, proximity…

• That’s why Jesus calls those fisherman to follow him and they leave their nets and become disciples… 
• This is about discipleship. The slow, formative work of becoming like our master!
• They get lots wrong… as do we… but their lives began to be shaped by their time with Jesus. 
• And for us there is no easy way to become blessed, but by becoming a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven and spending time with King Jesus. 

Sometimes you come across real saints of the Christian faith….

• And I always notice that they spend a lot of time gazing upon Jesus and in prayer
• You always notice that they have gotten real low and spent time and resources on being amongst the poor and forgotten….
• They have a way of slowly dying to the old selfish self… and arising in new life to the service of others…
• Proximity, proximity, proximity… get close to the King and let his life shape yours!
• Amen?

Ministry Time… (SLOWLY)

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.