A Different Perspective Official Podcast

When we're afraid, it seems as though nothing anyone else says or does can make a difference.  But – well, what if God has something to say?  And what if it does actually make a difference? Would it be worth listening to? You know what I've noticed about those times when I am truly, truly afraid. It seems that nothing anybody says or does can make a difference. When you're going through some really tough times. And you just don't know what the future holds. And everything looks bleak and grim. Every eventuality we imagine has a bad outcome. Because when we're afraid, it seems to me that we lose hope. And hope is being able to see into the future and believe that something good is going to happen. A place without hope is a dark and dangerous place indeed. And yet that's where we so often find ourselves in life. Yesterday on the program we saw how one of Israel's kings, Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, was faced with overwhelming odds. A massive army. Three nations coming against him at the same time. There was no way that his small army could ever win that battle against this mighty enemy. No way. Or was there? Now old Josh, he didn't panic. Nor was he frozen with fear. He went to God and told God just the way it was. 2 Chronicles, chapter 20, verse 12: O God we are powerless against this great multitude that is coming against us. We do not know what to do but our eyes are on you. There you have it. Well, right now, we're going to take a look at what happened next. Did God respond? Did He? And if He did, did it make any difference? Because, as I said right at the beginning, so often when we're afraid, it seems that nothing anybody else says or does ever makes a difference. Well let's have a look. We're going to read the next part of the story. It begins in 2 Chronicles, chapter 20, verse 13: Meanwhile all of Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones, their wives and their children. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel, the son of Zechariah, the son of..." (a whole bunch of lineage). Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel, the son of Zechariah, one of the Levites in the middle of the assembly. He said, 'Listen all of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat. Thus says the Lord to you. Do not fear or be dismayed at the geat multitude. For the battle is not yours but God's. Tomorrow, go down against them'  'They will come up the ascent of Ziz and you will find them at the end of the valley before the wilderness of Jeruel. This battle is not for you to fight. Take your positions, stand still and see the victory of the Lord on your behalf O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them and the Lord will be with you.' Then Jehoshaphat bowed down with his face to the ground and all of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshipping Him. And the Levites stood up to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice. They rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, 'Listen to me O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God and you will be established. Believe in His prophets.' When he had taken council with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and to praise Him in holy splendor. As they went out before the army saying, 'Give thanks to the Lord for His steadfast love endures forever.' If you didn't know better you would say they're nuts. I mean, right in the middle of this frightening time, God ups and speaks through this man. The Spirit of God falls on this man, Jahaziel. It wasn't such a funny name to them back then. And what does God say? Do not be afraid. Do not be dismayed at this great multitude. For the battle is not yours, but God's. Again, in verse 17: This battle is not for you to fight. Take your positions, stand still and see the victory of the Lord on your behalf. Do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them and the Lord will be with you. Now I want to just think through that for a bit. Because this is so important. This is the crux of the whole story. You see, we think in our human thinking. We've always been taught to be self-reliant. God helps those who help themselves, right? But here, God is saying exactly 180 degrees the opposite. This nation of Judah. God's chosen people. The remnant of Israel. The rump if you like. These people who've put their faith in their God against overwhelming odds. In fact they had nowhere else to go. They are facing certain, absolute annihilation. Remember, we're not talking about some football match here. This is not like your team annihilating my team on the weekend and on Monday morning we talk about it. This is complete death and destruction. So they turn to God with fear in their hearts. That's what it said right at the beginning. It said: Jehoshaphat was afraid. And just like you and I would be. But he set himself to seek the Lord and he proclaimed a fast through all Judah and they waited on God. They could have panicked. They could have been immobilised with fear. But instead, he waited on God and God spoke. And God said, "This is my battle and not yours." We don't expect that do we? Oh sure, we expect God to do it for other people but not for us. Let me give you an example. You're married. Your wife or your husband seems to have drifted away from you. You long for them. You yearn to be close. But it doesn't matter how much you try or what you say or do, it just doesn't happen. You can see your soul mate drifting away from you and from God and you start thinking the unthinkable in your heart. This is going to end in divorce. How do you respond? Panic. Frozen in fear. Start behaving badly yourself. Or do you set yourself to seek God, to enquire of Him, to discover that what God really wants to say to you is: This battle is not for you to fight. Take your position. Stand still and see the victory of the Lord on your behalf. Do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow go out and the Lord will be with you. Come on! This is where the rubber hits the road. And look, look at how Judah and the King Jehoshaphat responded to this incredible message from God. Did they scoff in disbelief? Did they have a Church council meeting to debate the matter? How did they respond? Jehoshaphat bowed down with his face to the ground and all of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the Lord, worshipping the Lord. And they all sang. They went out to meet this massive army, singing God's praises. Come on! This is where it's at. God is a mighty God and He's a loving God. And when we go and enquire of Him deep within our fear, He'll take charge. He fights the battles we can't fight. And sometimes it's not about defeating some enemy out there. No, sometimes He has to do a work of grace in our hearts to change us and heal us. So often we think we know what the answer should be but actually we haven't a clue. So often we plan this victory or that. But when we put it in His hands, His victory and His outcome are so perfect. We don't have time right now but if you read on in this chapter, 2 Chronicles chapter 20, you will discover that God won a mighty victory against the impossible enemy that day. And God's chosen people just stood there and watched. They didn't have to lift a finger. It was God's battle and God's victory. He wants to do that sometimes in our lives. And when we're racing around panicking or when we've closed our ears, frozen in fear, we miss out on that. On that day, God's chosen people discovered that the battle truly belonged to their God.

We've all heard someone scream out "Don't Panic" – it's normally when they're panicking. But panic, as natural a reaction as it may be to fear – panic is pretty useless. And it burns up a whole bunch of energy! In this day and age, one of the things that they teach us is to be self-reliant. To have confidence in our own abilities. Well, it's okay to a point I guess. But what happens when the situation we're in or the circumstances we face are so far beyond our own abilities to deal with them?  That any notion of self-reliance is completely ridiculous. I mean, what happens when the tsunami hits our lives? What do we do when the enemy that gathers around us, completely outnumbers and outguns us? What do we do? And this isn't some theoretical exercise. It's life. It's my life and it's your life. Because this happens. It's real. There are many times, in our lives, when the enemy, whoever or whatever that is. When the enemy is so much bigger than our ability to survive. It happens in families. It happens in work places. And it happens in our hearts. When depression hits for no good reason. When a loved one is taken in their prime and the grief overwhelms us. It happens when retrenchment hits us. When the economy takes a nose dive. When there isn't enough food to feed the family. When sickness strikes. This is life. It's real life. Let me ask you something. When the enemy is so much bigger and so much stronger than anything you could ever handle, what do you do? Well, some people panic and run around in ever decreasing circles. And that is a waste of their precious energy. I mean, panicking takes a lot of energy. You've seen it. I've seen it. We've both been there. Some people, they pull over and stop. They're immobilised by fear. That's what happens you know. But neither of those things cut the mustard. Neither of them help. Running around like a headless chook is exhausting. And wallowing in self-pity is destructive. What do you do? I want to introduce you today to one of the kings in Israel's history. Actually he was the king of a couple of the tribes of Israel, Judah and Benjamin. His name was Jehoshaphat. That's a long name but he was one of the good guys. And there was a time when he was confronted with an enemy that was way, way beyond his ability to fight. Have a listen. This story comes from the book of 2nd Chronicles beginning at chapter 20: After this the Moabites and the Ammonites and with them, some of the Meunites, came against Jehoshaphat for a battle. Messengers came and told Jehoshaphat, 'A great multitude is coming against you from Edom, far from beyond the sea. Already they are at En Gedi.' Jehoshaphat was afraid. I just want to establish here that Josh was human just like you and me. Not some super human king. Armies were coming against him. He was completely out numbered. This was a life and death situation and he was afraid. He's just one of us but it was what he did in his fear that made all the difference. He didn't let fear immobilise him. He didn't get into a flap and a panic. Have a listen. We'll read on in 2 Chronicles, chapter 20: Jehoshaphat was afraid. He set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord. From all the towns of Judah they came to seek the Lord. Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem. In the house of the Lord before the new court and said, 'God of our ancestors, are you not God in heaven? Do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? In your hand a power and might so that no-one is able to withstand you. Do you not, O God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people of Israel and give it forever to the descendants of your friend Abraham? They have lived in it and in it they have built your sanctuary. If disaster comes upon us, the sword of judgement or pestilence or famine, we will stand before this house O God and before you. For your name is in this house and cry to you in our distress and you will hear and save.' 'See now, the people of Amon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt and whom they avoided and did not destroy. They reward us now by coming to drive us out of your possession that you have given us to inherit. God, will you not execute judgement against them? For we are powerless against this great multitude that is coming against us. We do not know what to do but our eyes are on you.' In the face of overwhelming odds, Jehoshaphat turned to God. Sometimes that's the only way. By the way that God can get our attention. I'd like to tell you that I first turned to God because I was wise and loving and prudent and understood that Jesus was the Son of God. But that would be lying. I turned to God because I was facing overwhelming odds. That's what did it for me. Now a king is supposed to have all the answers. A king like Josh should have a powerful army and contingency plans based on a detailed threat assessment. He should have been self-reliant. But listen again to what Josh says when he's praying to God: O our God. Will you not execute judgement upon them? For we are powerless against this great multitude that is coming against us. We do not know what to do but our eyes are upon you. I really relate to this story. When I stepped out of a secure, well paid job as a consultant into full-time ministry. It was leaving security behind to serve God. And I cannot begin to tell you how many times, since then, I've been in that place that Jehoshaphat and his people were in. I started out with this naive notion that if I was going to go about God's work it would have to be easy. And yet, so many times people and circumstances have conspired to be against God's work. Every couple of years our board gets together to do some strategic planning. That's good. It's important. It always looks good on paper. And then, it seems that all hell breaks loose. That's what's going on here against Jehoshaphat and Judah. Remember they're God's chosen people. They're in God's Promised Land. Now Jehoshaphat is a king who honoured God. By all accounts, he is wise and prudent and competent. But in the face of overwhelming odds, he admits to God, 'I don't know what to do. All my plans. All my strategies. All my contingency plans. I don't know what to do.' So what was his solution? How did he cope with this? In the same breath he said, ... but our eyes are on you God. I wonder sometimes, when I see people who profess to believe in God, running around in panic. Wasting so much of their energy. Complaining and worrying and being afraid. It takes a lot of energy to be afraid, do you realise? I wonder if they spend even half that amount of energy having their eyes set on God, how much better off they'd be. You and I, we can't help but be afraid. Jehoshaphat was afraid. It's a natural human reaction. I'm not here to tell you somehow to pretend that you're not afraid when fear is rocking you to the core. But it's what we do when fear strikes that makes all the difference. You can panic and burn energy. You can freeze and be immobilised. And that's probably the end of you. Or we can just look at God and say, "You know something Lord, this is so huge. I don't know what to do but my eyes are on you. I'm just going to wait on you. I don't know what you're going to do. I don't even know if you're going to show up. But my eyes are on you." Tomorrow we're going to come back to see what happened. Did God do anything? Did God say anything? Or was Jehoshaphat's faith just a fantasy? See, that's the question that we each have to face when we dare to look to God from the midst of our fear.

It's great for people to tell you that when you're afraid God says, "Do Not Be Afraid." That's great. But, well, when I am afraid, what do I do with that feeling? How do I make it go away? How do I get back on an even keel? Fear is a subject that frankly, we don't much like talking about. But that's exactly what we're talking about on the program this week. Because fear, fear is something that we all go through. You know when there's that 800 pound gorilla in the room. It's hard, it's incredibly hard to believe that God is bigger than the gorilla. Of course He is but it just doesn't feel like that when that gorilla is so up close. And the hardest thing, I think, in overcoming fear in life is actually getting to that point where we have a high level of confidence in God. Where we put our confidence and our trust in this God who says, "Do not be afraid." Instead of in the gorilla, who's so here and now. Where we put our confidence in who God is. What He's done. His might and His power and His sovereignty. They all sound great in theory. God created the universe. He's all-powerful, great. That's the theory but what about in practice? What about when the rubber hits the road? Then what? See, I used to think that it was up to me and I guess, in part, it is but not completely. Just as well. You and I, we're human. I can't conjure up confidence. I can't take this theory about who God is and let the theory wipe away the fear. Because fear is real. I need something more than just theory. I need more than promises on a piece of paper. Yesterday on the program, we looked at what God had to say to His chosen people, Israel, when they were afraid. They'd lost their Promised Land, they were slaves in Babylon, in exile. Yeah, God's chosen people. It sort of seemed that God had deserted them. When it feels like the Babylonians, who after all were the dominant world power, well it felt like they were more powerful than the God of Israel. So God, as we saw yesterday, points out creation to them. The heavens, the trillions of stars. The stars that the Babylonians, by the way, worshipped. He said, "I made them. I made the heavens and the earth. Don't you think I can save you from the Babylonians?" You see, for the Israelites, the Babylonians were the 800 pound gorilla in the room. It was seemingly impossible. And if it were left up to the Israelites to work up the courage to believe that God would save them from the Babylonians, it was never going to happen. They didn't have that much faith. They were slaves, they were in exile for 70 years. No, God had to do something. God had to help them. God had to change their hearts and touch them deep inside. And fortunately, that's exactly what God had planned to do. He didn't want to leave it up to them and here and now, He doesn't want to leave it up to us either. He wants us to actually experience His peace. Not our strength. Not some confidence or peace that we wave up with a magic wand. But a peace and a strength that come, only, from God. Let's pick up the rest of the story. We began in chapter 40 of Isaiah yesterday and we'll begin at verse 28: Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He doesn't faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. Great, there it is again - the theory but now, watch what comes next. In Isaiah chapter 40, verse 29: God gives power to the faint. He strengthens the powers. Even youths will faint and be weary and the young will fall exhausted. But those who wait for the Lord will renew their strength. They'll mount up with wings like eagles. They'll run and not be weary. They'll walk and not be faint. Do you see the point? The power and the strength, where do they come from? Do I conjure them up? Do I somehow magically work hard enough to be confident? No. God gives power to the faint. God strengthens the powerless. See, even young people will faint and be weary. Even the strong will fall exhausted. But, and here's the but, here's the glorious, wondrous, powerful "but": But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not grow faint. You know what it means to wait? When we wait, you know when we're in a tough place. When we're afraid and scared and uncomfortable. You know what we want to do? We want to grumble. We, I got to tell you, we want to grumble. 'God, what are you doing? Why are you letting me go through this? Can't you deal with this? Look at that person over there, they're doing all the wrong things and you're blessing him.' We can find so many things to grumble about can't we? That's not the sort of waiting that God is talking about here, you know: But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. You know what that word "wait" means? It doesn't mean to wait with a bad attitude. It doesn't mean to wait with grumbling in our hearts and on our lips. It means to wait expectantly. To wait on God with the expectation that He is who He says He is. That He will do what He says He's going to do. To wait there right in the middle of our fear with the 800 pound gorilla in the room and say, "You know something, I can't do anything about my slavery in Babylon. I can't over throw the Babylonians. I can't do anything and God seems like a million miles away. But I'm just going to wait here expecting God to do something. Expecting God to show up. I know other people will tell me I'm a fool for doing that. I know it's not rational. I know it's not logical. But God's word says that": Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not grow faint Right with our emotions on that roller coaster ride. With our enemies around us. With our hearts cast down. To wait with an expectation somewhere deep inside that God's going to act. That God's going to show up. And you know, I've been in those places so many times and it invariably doesn't feel good. It's easy to listen to some guy with a smooth voice on the radio and think, "Well it's okay for him. You know, he's in a nice safe radio studio. And it's nice and clean and clinical. And, what does he know?" No, I've been in those tough places. I've wept over this scripture and waited and it never feels wonderful and spiritual. It always feels hard. But God means to do what He says He's going to do. Who knows? Will God give us victory over our enemies or not? I don't know. More Christians have been martyred in the 20th century than in the 2000 years before that combined. We all die sometime. Is He going to deal with this cancer or let it take its course? I don't know.But there's one thing I know. God is saying, Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid. God gives us His peace and His strength when we wait expectantly on Him. It doesn't matter how big or ugly or bad the enemy is. It doesn't matter how fearful we are. Why? Because He gives us His peace. That's the promise. My friend, do not be afraid. Let your confidence rest on God Himself. And then, let Him do the rest.

You know I've heard all the theory – you don't have to be afraid – because God is in that place with you. Hmm. That's the theory. But how do I know – how do I know that I can rely on Him to be there and to be on my side and to act? Well? Fear is something that, quite frankly, we don't much want to talk about. And yet it's something that's so very real for so many people in this world. We don't want to admit, to the rest of the world, that we're afraid. And so we kind of put on this brave face as though everything's fine. But on the inside, fear can be eating away like a cancer. So often it's the case that the things we used to place our confidence in, they're not working anymore. People place their faith in all sorts of things. Their stock portfolio, until the stock market takes a dive. People place their faith in relationships until those relationships fail. And so we lose confidence and when we lose confidence, the deep rot of fear sets into our hearts. Well truly I tell you, God wants to deal with that so decisively in our lives. Now that doesn't mean that we're not going to go through things and situations and challenges that aren't scary. Of course we are. That's life. But God's plan is that, when we do, that we'll be ready. That our confidence will be in Him. Imagine a life where these times of fear are replaced with a quiet confidence in God Himself. That's His plan. That's why He keeps saying to us: Do not be afraid. Us being afraid falls so far short of His plan to fill us with His peace. That's why I really encourage you to stick with me over these next few minutes as we discover how to live out God's ideal of not being afraid. I was talking with a friend recently. Great guy, one of "nature's gentlemen" as the saying goes. He's kind and considerate and competent. He's just a delight. I've worked with him about 15 years but over the last few years our paths have headed off into different directions. Now I had cause to call him about something. Expecting to hear his cheerful, bouncy voice on the other end of the phone. But what I discovered was a shell of the man I once knew. His world had fallen apart. His family was gone, his career seemed over. It was an incredibly difficult and painful time for him. He said, "I'm sitting on a beach at the moment, wondering what, if anything, the rest of my life holds." Now none of us want to have the stuffing ripped out of us. But you know something, it happens to all of us at some point. It doesn't matter who we are, where we live, what we believe. And you know, I've heard some preachers preach as though, "Well if you believe in God, bad things won't happen to you." That's a load of rubbish. Bad things happen to God's people too. In fact, sometimes especially they happen to God's people, they just do. Take Israel, God's chosen people. They found themselves in this scary, fearful place. They'd been in slavery, exiled in Babylon for the best part of 3 generations. It's a long time. Only a handful of their elders can ever remember living in God's Promised Land – Jerusalem. So what does God have to say to these people who are cowering in fear under the yoke of slavery? Have a listen. It comes from the Old Testament, the Book of Isaiah, chapter 41, beginning at verse 8: But you Israel, my servant Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham my friend. You whom I took from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, 'You are my servant. I have chosen you and not cast you off. Do not fear for I am with you. Do not be afraid for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you up with my victorious right hand.' See the first thing that God does is He reminds them of His promises to Abraham. When Abraham stood in that Promised Land, centuries before, this is what God promised him. Genesis chapter 15, beginning at verse 18: On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, 'To your descendants I give this land. From the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates – the land of the Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites and the Hittites.' And all the other little vegemites. God gave that land to Abraham and his descendants. It was God's promise. God had chosen them and had promised them the land. So God had gathered them from the ends of the earth and he said: I will not cast you off, I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my victorious right hand. The whole thing that God relies on here, in talking with His people and their fear and their despair. Is not in who they are or how strong they are or how clever they are. No, He's saying to them, "look at who I am. Look at my promise. I know it's tough. I know you're confused. I know it's scary but I am your God. I am with you. You are my servant. I have chosen you. I took you from the ends of the earth. Don't be afraid." But how does that help them? See isn't He the God who failed them 70 years earlier? Okay, so He sends them some prophet and he says, "don't be afraid' but He's got more. He's got so much more. See He said, 'it's not just my promises, have a look at who I am." And just in that chapter before, we were looking at Isaiah chapter 41, just in the chapter before, He tells them who He is. He says: To whom will you compare me? To an idol? A bit of mulberry wood made by an artisan? Don't you realise?  Haven't you heard? Hasn't it been told to you from the beginning? Haven't you understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth and it's inhabitants are like grasshoppers. Who stretches out the heavens like curtain and spreads them like a tent to live in. Who brings princes to nothing and makes rulers of the earth as nothing. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely are they sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them and they wither and the tempest carries them off like stubble.' 'To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?' says God the Holy One. 'Lift up your eyes. Look and see who created these stars. Who brings them out by their hosts and numbers them and calls them by name because He is great in strength? Mighty and power, not one is missing.' 'Why do you say O Israel, My way is hidden from the Lord and my right is discarded from my God? Haven't you known? Haven't you heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He doesn't grow faint or weary.' This is powerful stuff: Don't you get it? He's saying, 'I'm the God who created the whole 'shoot and match'. See those trillions of stars up there? I created them, I make them come out each night. I am so much bigger than your circumstances. It makes absolute sense for you to put your confidence in me. I have been in those fearful places in my life. And you know what happens? All you can see it the dirty great big 800 pound gorilla in the room. All you can see are the people or the circumstances that cause us to fear and that's human. We don't know what the future holds. We imagine all the bad things are going to happen at the same time. And then, I don't want to get preachy but I've discovered in my life, that when God steps into my situation, no matter how scary it is. When He steps in and whispers in my heart: Do not be afraid. He means it. Do not fear for I am with you. Do not be afraid for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my victorious right hand. My hunch is that today, today He means to whisper those words into your heart and mind. Do not be afraid.

You know something – the world can be a scary place. We all travel through times when fear eats away inside and it's right in the middle of those times, that we need to know what to do. I don't know about you but as I look around, it seems to me that the world can be a scary place. Take spiders and snakes for instance. Depending on where you live in the world, they're dangerous or they're not. Here in Australia we are seriously over-represented in the top ten list of the worlds most venomous creatures. So growing up as a child I had a good reason to be afraid of them. And still today, the idea of a spider crawling into my bed. Well it's one of the scariest thoughts that I can come up with. Let me tell you a funny story. One of the most venomous snakes on the planet is called the Death Adder. Good name huh? When I was training to be an officer in the army, we had not only Australian students but New Zealand students. And if you know anything about New Zealand, you will know they don't have venomous snakes at all. And we were training and we were doing a grenade practice. So we were down in the bunker. And one of the New Zealanders went up, out of the bunker, to throw his grenade. And while he did, we found a dead Death Adder. So we put it down right where he had to sit down. So when he sat down, when he came back, he saw it and I tell you, it was so funny. His legs were going before his backside was up off the seat, running out of the bunker. Terrible stuff isn't it? But there you go. We can laugh but the world can be a scary place. Especially with friends like me. That was a long time ago, I have to say. I was young and stupid then. So this week we're starting a new series on the program that's called, "Do Not Be Afraid". There's a reason for that. There are lots of people in this world who spend much of their lives living in fear. Sometimes it's because they're living in a war zone. I mean there are plenty of people today, listening, who know that only too well. There are people in the Democratic Republic of Congo for instance. And there are parts there where there's war raging right now. There are some people, sitting in their homes, listening to this program today, wondering whether or not they're going to see tomorrow or next week or next year. Other times, life threatening things happen. You have a health scare. The morning I sat down to prepare this message was the morning of the funeral of a good friend of mine. He was just a few years older than me and he died suddenly of a heart attack. It's easy to be afraid of things. And when we're afraid it rocks our confidence. And yet other people, they just kind of live life with a real sense of dread. Always something there for us to dread. Always something lurking out there that we can be afraid of. For me, honestly, if I allowed it, I could be afraid of quite a few things. There are a few things in my life right now that could cause me fear. I mean this ministry that I'm involved in at Christianityworks. It's a global media ministry. We're just a small team of people and we don't know where the funding's going to come from to do all we have to do over this next year. We just don't. So you either live in fear or you live in faith. If God doesn't provide that funding, we'll fall flat on our faces. That's the stark reality. And that's the thing, it doesn't matter who we are or where we live, we can live in fear. And that fear can rob us of life itself. And yet, time and time and time again, you read God's word and these are the words from God, that He speaks to His people. He says: Do not be afraid. And He utters them, invariably, right at the time when the people He's talking with have every reason to be afraid. The people and the circumstances that are confronting them, conspiring against them. We experience fear too and yet God wades in and says: "Do not be afraid." Now if God doesn't want me to be afraid, when I have every reason to be afraid. You know something, I want to have a piece of His brand of confidence, don't you think? I mean, think about it. What's the point of God saying, "Do not be afraid" when we have no reason to fear. It's right in the middle of fear that we need His brand of confidence. I definitely want that, how about you? Well, how can we have that confidence? That's a good question. That's what today's program is about. That's what this whole week is about. It's about discovering, right in the middle of where we live. Right in the middle of all the stuff that goes on in our lives, how not to be afraid. So I invite you to come on a journey with me this week. And we're going to start that journey with an account of a time when God's chosen people, Israel, were very afraid. They had every reason to be afraid. They'd been living in the Promised Land for several hundred years and then, all of a sudden. Because they were struggling with God. They were worshipping idols and other God's. Eventually God lost His patience. And in 586 BC, the Babylonians, the world power at the time, the dominant power, invaded Jerusalem. They destroyed the place. They destroyed the temple, the place where God's presence dwelt. And they took God's people back into slavery, to Babylon. Now talk about a crisis of confidence. Think about it. God makes all these promises. To Abraham and to Isaac and to Jacob. And then, when Israel are in slavery in Egypt, He sends them Moses and He does amazing miracles. The whole Red Sea thing, the exodus through the desert for 40 years. Everything, and got them finally to the land that God had promised to Abraham centuries before. And once they got into the Promised Land, under the leadership of Joshua. They fought battle after battle against nation after nation that was bigger and stronger than Israel. And yet, God was with His chosen people and they took the land that God had promised to them. And now, now all of a sudden, Babylon wins. God's own temple's destroyed. Where's God? What happened? Is the king of Babylon stronger than our God? Are the Babylonian God's stronger than our God? The Israelites had a loss of confidence. And when we lose confidence, we get afraid. It's a big deal. I mean, you look at share holder confidence, consumer confidence. That feeling when you go to sleep at night, having that falling sensation. You know, you wake up in a panic and you're grabbing onto the bed. Confidence is being able to, to trust the earth beneath our feet. And people trust the stock market, they trust the plane they're flying in, they trust their governments, they trust whatever. And then it's like things get pulled out from under your feet and you lose confidence and panic and fear set in. Because we're no longer safe, we're no longer able to trust what we've always trusted. That's where Israel was. They had a complete loss of confidence in their God. He was punishing them but they didn't see it that way. It's like they were flying along, in a plane, at 32,000 feet above the ground and all of a sudden, all of the engines got switched off. Panic and fear and fair enough too. So what does God say to them in the middle of their fear and panic? In Isaiah chapter 41, verse 10: Do not fear for I am with you. Do not be afraid for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand. I often wonder, how can He say that? How can God bowl up to us in the middle of our fear and circumstances where it's logical and reasonable and human for us to be afraid and say: Do not be afraid. How can He do that? Well, that's what we're going to be looking at over the rest of this week on the program. We're going to take a look at fear, well ... from a different perspective.

The seven deadly sins – lust, gluttony, greed, laziness, wrath, envy and pride – are tearing this world apart.  Each one of us deals with at least one in our makeup.  But God has graciously given us the power to break free from their clutches. Berni: I'm joined again today by my good friend, Keith Henry. Keith, you've been great over these last couple of weeks. Time has flown; we're in our last day. Keith: Yep, it's been very good Berni, enjoyed it very much. Berni: You know, what's struck me as I've listened to you speaking about our different personality types and our weaknesses, is how complex we are as people. You know, we see people and we interact with them during the day but we never really stop to think how incredibly complex we each are. You know, there are so many layers and as we've looked at each personality type. I'm going to ask you to go through those personality types again and look at the strengths and weaknesses of those personality types, just to kind of tie it all together today. But, you look at all that and you stand back and you think, 'man, these people couldn't possibly have evolved from some primeval slime. You know, if God didn't create us, it just, you know it takes more faith, from me, to believe in evolving from the primeval slime than it does to believe in the Creator who created these incredibly complex people. Berni: We talked about seven different deadly sins. I'd just like to go through each of them again today, and you said, look, each personality type has a virtue, something that they're really good at. Keith: Yes. Berni: And, sort of like a flip side of a coin, which is the down side of that personality type and from what I gather from what you were saying was, that the way that, say a leader deals with his or her lust is by exercising their virtue which is Godly. Is that what you were saying? Keith: That's right. Gods given us a way out for each personality and each sin, out of the seven deadly sins and in terms of a leader, because they have a lust for life, they have an adventurous spirit and it can undo them because they get into all the sins which is quite easy to open to because they are so active and so out there, that they have to react to those things in a Godly way but what do we mean by that? The one, the Godly way that suits the leader is justice and truth. You think of God, He's a loving God so they have to have that love but they really want justice. Berni: Is that a natural inclination for the leader? Keith: It is. Berni: And so, if the leader replaces the down side with the up side, that's how he or she wins. Keith: Exactly. So, they have to look at justice and truth in terms of "what is Gods justice" not revenge in the world. Berni: Okay, so the leader, the down side for that personality type is lust but if we can summarise the virtue corresponding, is Godliness. Keith: Yes. Berni: Okay, that's great. Okay, tell me about the encourager. The encourager's sin is gluttony which was kind of weird. Keith: Yes, they want more of everything and they want to do everything. They just don't settle down, they're forever on the move, life's exciting for them but they have to focus more. They actually have to get one thing that they're passionate about and focus on it. So they become more in moderation, not so many things that they're doing at one time. Berni: Okay, so for the encourager, the sin is gluttony but the strength, the virtue is moderation. Keith: Yes, that's right. Berni: Okay. What about the server, the server is someone who serves. Love being around servers, all you servers can come over to my place. Keith: Well, the server, in this case, we're talking about a server who's got greed and the greed we're referring there is hoarding things. So it's not gluttony as we said, of wanting more and more, it's hoarding things because they don't think they have enough. The hoarding is based upon fear so that what they have to do, the way out is really, they're a knowledge person, so get more word, get more knowledge and then go out and use it. They actually have to put it into action, go out in faith in other words. Berni: Okay, so if they're hoarding their money because they're afraid they won't have enough for tomorrow, the way to deal with that is to, for instance, exercise faith by giving some of that away. Keith: Exactly or entering a new project if they wanted to. Berni: Okay. Keith: Actually going and doing it instead of just gaining more knowledge and being too scared. Berni: The teacher, what's the teacher's deadly sin? Keith: The deadly sin is sloth there or what we call laziness. Berni: I love that "sloth". Keith: Yes but as I said, even the busy can be lazy, right. It's really putting off what should be done today and putting off until tomorrow and the tomorrow and the tomorrow. It's not having priority, it's to do things and sticking to them. So the virtue of that is perseverance. Berni: Okay, so sticking with things and seeing them through to completion. Keith: Yes. Berni: Right. Keith: And having a priority to do the first things first, not to put them to the last. Berni: Alright, the prophet. The prophet's someone who speaks out right and wrong. In fact, the prophet's in the Bible were the people who spoke out Gods right and wrong. What's the deadly sin that the prophet has a problem with? Keith: The deadly sin is anger but it's not an anger that a leader might use in shouting at somebody. It's an internal anger, that they resent things not being perfect, they resent people not doing the right thing. So what they have to do, they have to have integrity of Gods integrity there. They actually look at His standard, God has a standard, these are "standard" people. They like a standard set, a very high standard, so they have to look at Gods standard, not their standard and work to Gods standard. Berni: So the prophet's the person who finds it hard to soar like an eagle when they're surrounded by turkeys. Keith: Exactly, so they have to really, Gods standard is to be patient and understanding with everyone. Berni: Yep, yep, it is. Alright, the carer. Keith: The carer has envy as the deadly sin that they have most of. They love what other people have. The carer's a loving person and they go up and down, their emotions and they want to experience the ride but the way out of it for them and the only way out is to show love to others. They're sensitive, not to their own feelings, become sensitive to other people's feelings and show love to them. Berni: And the neat thing about that is that that's the carer's natural inclination anyway, isn't it? Keith: It is. Berni: Is to show love. So really they're replacing their sin with their virtue. Keith: Exactly. Berni: If they live out their virtue, the sin actually has no room. Keith: That's right, yes, that's right. Berni: That's God's way, isn't it? Keith: Focus on others, not themselves. Berni: Yeah. Alright, the giver. Keith: The giver, it's pride here which sounds very very funny but say I'm supporting your ministry and I'm the biggest supporter, I then start want to expect things from you, I want you to do it my way. I don't want you to do this; I want you to do that. So they, they think, pride can think, "I'm the power behind the throne, I'm the one that has done everything". The way over that is brotherly kindness; they actually have to give, with kindness, without any expectation of return. Just give through a loving heart. Berni: In each case, there's a natural virtue that these personality types have and the natural virtue, if they exercise that, God starts driving out the sin. Keith: He does, we can't do it, there is no way. You can become like a monk, a Buddhist monk and you can become the highest level you want and the peaceful person but you cannot break through the divine nature. Berni: No, that's the thing that God does through His Spirit. Hey listen Keith, it's been fascinating spending these couple of weeks with you and time has just gone out the window but it's been really fascinating and I've learned so much about myself and about other people. Keith: That's good Berni; I've enjoyed being here, thank you very much. Berni: Good on ya, hopefully we'll be able to have Keith Henry back another time and it's been a real blessing. God bless you. Keith: Thank you.

You've probably heard of the Seven Deadly Sins.  Sounds old fashioned, but actually those same seven are tearing people's lives apart. Which one are you most prone to, and how can you break free from its clutches? Over this last week and a half on the program, we've been spending some time looking at what are called the "seven deadly sins". Not because we want to do a guilt trip, not because we want to bandy round some seemingly old fashioned word like "sin" but because sin ruins our lives and the seven deadly sins that we've been talking about over these last couple of weeks certainly do that. Lust, gluttony, greed, laziness, anger, envy and pride; seven of the deadliest. That's the problem with sin, it robs us of life itself. Spend your time being angry all the time, what joy are you going to have? Do the gluttony thing and the weight will ruin your health and quality of life. Lust ruins marriages. On it goes; sin ruins lives, it's plain and it's simple. I just want to spend some time today with Keith Henry again, our special guest, being honest about the consequences. Tomorrow, we're going to look at the wondrous, beautiful solution but today, let's get real about the consequences. What do you think Keith, do you think that we try and sweep them under the carpet, these sins sometimes? Keith: I think we can but also think that we don't know what to do about them and secondly we don't feel we have any power to do something about them. Berni: You see, what strikes me is, let's assume for a moment, God made us, right. Let's assume for a moment God knew what He was doing, didn't make a mistake. Keith: Yes. Berni: Right, what all the experts, including yourself, tell us is that each personality type is prone to a particular one of these downfalls. It's almost like each personality type has a good side but there's an underside. Keith: Yes. Berni: So the sin of lust is one that the leader is prone to. Gluttony, what personality type, remind me, is prone to gluttony? Keith: Encourager. Berni: The encourager. Greed. Keith: Is the server, it's a fear. Berni: Yeah. Laziness. Keith: Is the teacher. Berni: Anger. Keith: Is the prophet. Berni: Envy. Keith: Is the carer. Berni: And pride. Keith: Is the giver. Berni: See, each one of those is prone to one of those sins. What was God thinking, I wonder sometimes, giving us each one of those sins? See, God doesn't have any sin in Him and yet He creates personality types and we all end up with a particular Achilles heel, if you like. Keith: We do but I don't think God made us to actually have these things, it's actually in the form of our culture and our nature that is not divine, we have these sins which manifest in our personality, more so in 1 personality than in another and God provides the way out. Berni: Yeah, we're going to talk about that. I was interested though, one of the passages that's always drawn me to it is in 2 Corinthians, chapter 12 and I want to share this with you. This is the apostle Paul, 2 Corinthians 12, beginning in verse 7: Therefore to keep me from being too elated, (writes Paul) a thorn was given me in my flesh, a messenger of satan to torment me and keep me from being too elated.  Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me but He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in your weakness." So I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities for the sake of Christ. For whenever I am weak then I am strong. The fist few hundred times I read this passage I thought this thorn in the flesh must be, maybe he's got a limp or maybe there's something wrong with his hip or maybe he's sick or whatever but the more I read it, this thorn in the flesh and the word he uses there, for flesh, is the same word that Paul uses elsewhere for the sinful nature. Keith: Yes. Berni: Right. "As a messenger of satan to torment me". The more I read that, the more I'm thinking Paul's actually talking about some sin that he's dealing with and we read elsewhere where Paul writes he struggles to do the right thing, same struggles as you and I have and everybody else has and 3 times Paul goes and says, "God, take it away", and God says, "Well no actually, you know what the answer is, the answer is not me taking this away, the answer is that my grace is sufficient for you and my power becomes perfect in your weakness." Isn't that awesome? Keith: It is, isn't it? Berni: And I look at my sins and my weaknesses and the flaws in my character and I think, "You know, God wants to use me anyway even though I have these weaknesses." How do you respond to this passage? Keith: I agree with you, I think "flesh", the word there is referring to his nature and if we think, from reading about Paul, that he really has a prophet personality, he's very black and white, there's one right way, one wrong way. So his real sin there that God could be talking about is anger, where he resents things not being perfect. Berni: And you see him getting angry, in the Scriptures, when he's writing to some of these Churches, don't you? Keith: Yes ... he pulls them up, doesn't he? Berni: I was going to ask you what personality type you thought Paul was, the prophet. He is a pretty "in your face" kind of guy. Keith: He is and I know myself, when I've suffered a weakness, a physical weakness or something like that, you do become strong. You become humble, I often say to my wife, "I'm a better person when I'm suffering." Berni: Yeah. Keith: 'Cause it's not about me anymore. Berni: Yeah. Although you don't want to be there all your life. Keith: No, you don't do you? Berni: No, you don't say, "God, I want to suffer." (Both laugh) Keith: No, you want to be free from it but you want to also have the personality that participates in the nature of God, not in our own selfishness or in Paul's case, that resentment, that anger. Berni: Yeah, I come back to what God said to Paul and I think God's saying it to each one of us. You know, we each have different personality types and we each have an Achilles heel don't we? We each have something, whether it's anger or envy or lust or gluttony or, whatever it is, each one of us, kind of, relates to one of those. We go, "you know something, I really don't want to admit this to anyone but that's me." Keith: That's right. Berni: And God's saying to us here, "I know, I made you, you are no surprise to me", and Paul goes and says, "God, you know the best thing would be if you took this away" and God says, "well no, actually the best thing would be Paul, is if you experience my grace instead and if you start to become like Me because the power that I have for you, that power becomes perfect when you're weak." And Paul says, "zippidy-doo-da", and it's almost, we need to accept who we are, good and bad. Keith: Yes. Berni: I don't want to revel, I don't want to live in my sin, I don't want to, I want God to deal with that but Gods saying, "I'll deal with it, in my way, in my time. In the mean time, my grace is sufficient for you." What an awesome God. Keith: He is, He's the one that provides the way out for everything. Berni: Yeah, and that grace, that grace is hanging there on the cross, that grace is Jesus Christ nailed, His flesh nailed to a cross suffering a painful death to pay for my sin, to pay for your sin, to pay for everybody's sin. That grace is sufficient for Paul, it's sufficient for Keith Henry, it's sufficient for Berni Dymet, it's sufficient for all of us and Gods power is what ultimately changes us. Keith: I think the whole point of the Bible is that we are to become more like Christ every day. That's our nature; our personality has to change to be more like God. We can't do it but God can do it. Berni: We cannot and that's what we're going to look at, tomorrow, on the program. Keith, it's been great to talk to you. Keith: Thank you Berni.

Pride is an ugly thing – but these days, it's almost a virtue. I mean on the one hand should we be delighted when we succeed at something? Sure, but pride takes that delight to a different level.  That's why it's one of the seven deadly sins. And let me tell you, it's still deadly. Interestingly, the other week I was being interviewed by an editor of a magazine, sharing what God was doing through this ministry, Christianityworks, that I'm involved in. And the interviewer said to me, "You must be incredibly proud of what you've achieved!" I was horrified, mortified. I said, "No, no, you haven't been listening to me. It's what God's been doing. I've had the privilege of being involved but most days you know, I feel much more like a bystander than a participant. All the really big things that have happened have been so far beyond anything we could ever have achieved as people." What I experience in my heart, when I look at that, is a quiet contentment and a joy of looking back to see what I have been allowed to have some part in. But not proud. After the interview I had a good think. You see, before I met Jesus in my life 13 years ago, I was proud of everything I'd had achieved. And I had achieved a lot in my business career. Problem is, it all fell down like a house of cards. It seems it's something of a virtue these days, to be proud. It's good for our self esteem and yet, the truth be known, pride is a sin and it's still deadly. Berni: Joined on the program today, again by Keith Henry. Keith thanks for joining us. Keith: Pleasure Berni. Berni: Now listen, you're a bit of a guru. Tell me about this "pride" thing. What's that about? I mean what sort of person is prone to pride? Why do we get proud? Keith: Well, as you said, it's very rife in our communities at the moment. And when you look at pride and you think of, for instance, the Olympics or some sporting event. People who get a gold medal would rightly, you'd think, be very proud of what they've achieved. Berni: Sure. Keith: But it can be a false sense of ability because we all know what you're good at today can be robbed from you tomorrow. We have to give credit to, you know, a lot of other people who got us there as well as what we've done in ourselves. And in Christianity, if you're a big name preacher, well it's not pride in what you're doing, it's "proud", as you said, in what God has done through you and you've been able to be a part of it. And so pride, really is a very worldly sort of terminology. And with pride comes entitlement, right. If I've achieved something therefore I'm entitled to something. Berni: Yeah, it's like all about me. Keith: Exactly. Berni: As though, as though it ever is all about you. It's really quite bizarre. One of the things I really dislike intensely is the tennis players and the swimmers who win and they kind of, you know how they lift their hand up and they point at themselves like, "It's all about me". And I think, "Mate, that is just so not, not the case". Keith: It isn't, they can lose the next point can't they, very easily? Berni: Exactly. Keith: Reality's round the next point. But in the, in the giftings of what type of gift you are, you know. Berni: Yeah, what sort of personality type suffers from this? Keith: Okay, the one that you wouldn't think about is the giver. Berni: The giver suffers from pride? Keith: Yes, that's right. Berni: That's weird. Keith: It is because when you think about it, a giver is a person who is very, very good at sensing your needs and what they do. It's not just giving of money, it's giving their time and their ability. They are the great "behind the scenes" people. Berni: Yep. Keith: You know you might happen to be the Managing Director of a big company, your personal assistant is the giver. Berni: Yep, yep. Keith: And people say you can't get through to the Managing Director unless you go through the gateway. Berni: Yes. Keith: They control everything. They are the power behind the scene. Berni: Yeah. Keith: They are the ones that, they think, can think, that really runs the company. Berni: Yeah, okay, and I guess if you had someone who give financially to support some philanthropic work or ministry, they can ending up saying, "Well actually, if it wasn't for me they wouldn't be in business." Keith: That's right and then they start wanting entitlement, "I want you now to do it my way." Berni: Yeah, okay, they want to control the way in which the giving is used. Keith: That's right. So they actually try and become a "behind the scenes leader" where they want to use power and control but not be out the front. Berni: Now we're not saying all givers are bad. Keith: No. Berni: We're just saying this is, 'cause givers, we need givers in this world, we need people who give of their time and their money and their abilities because it would be a sad old world without the giver but this is the downside of their personality type I guess. Keith: That's the downside. Berni: It's the Achilles heel. Keith: Yeah but here, another really good giver was Mother Theresa. Berni: Right. Keith: You might think she was a carer. Well she was actually a giver because they both come from emotions, the emotional side, so they both have sensitivity, a very high sensitivity. Then Mother Theresa could sense the needs of the people and she went out and physically did something to help them overcome their problems. Berni: Okay. Well if pride is, is one of the 7 deadly sins, how is it deadly? What's the impact of pride? Keith: The impact is one, mainly of payment, "I do this for you, I expect you to do this for me." Berni: Quid pro quo Keith: Yeah. Berni: Rather than giving freely. Keith: Yes. Berni: Giving with strings attached. Keith: Very much so. The more a person starts to give and somebody else becomes dependant on them, then they want. Berni: Okay and I guess that's destructive because that's not what giving should be about, is it? Keith: No, in the Bible in 2 Peter 1, where the virtues are, it actually says that the giver should have kindness, brotherly kindness. Berni: Okay. Keith: So they should be kind without expecting anything in return for their giving. And that's when they're fulfilled. They participate in the divine nature once they use their ability to give. And you and I and lots of people know if you're married to a giver, as we both are, or if you have a giver in your life somewhere, they are the most wonderful people. They can spoil you and make life easy for you. And they love spending time with you, love helping you, they're called the helpers, the real helpers. And so they're so valuable but they're not to look at what they can get out of it. They do it because that's their gift, as we all do, to use our gift. Berni: And I know some givers you know, invariably when you give to Gods work, somehow God just makes it that the timing is so amazing, that it just came at the right time or was just the right amount or whatever it is. And the person who gives, who gives in faith, that must be such a buzz for them when they find that out. Keith: Yes. Well it's the ultimate in non-selfishness isn't it to actually give? Especially money. We're a money society, especially give your money, you know that really is hard and so they find it easier. They can give to so many causes and if they have a sensitivity to sense that this person really needs something at this moment, they can sense it, they can do it. Berni: You know, it just amazes me how, I guess, each of these different 7 deadly sins seems to pop up in the lives of the sorts of people you and I wouldn't expect. Keith: That's right, that's exactly right. It's not always the way it's interpreted if you think of envy and all those other things. It's not really the way it's normally interpreted. Berni: Tomorrow we're going to sort of recap and go through each one of these 7 deadly sins, just quickly to summarise because there's been a lot there for me. And if you've been with us over these last week and a half or so, the insights that Keith's shared with us have been really, truly amazing. So, it's been a blessing, we'll catch you again tomorrow Keith. Keith: Thanks Berni.

Envy is probably one of the most destructive of all emotions.  We see something someone else has and we want it.  Wars have been fought over envy. That's why it numbers amongst the seven deadly sins.  And it's still deadly. I imagine that envy, envy is one of those emotions, no, lets not call it an emotion, lets call it what it really is. Envy is one of those sins that we experience from our earliest childhood. Little Johnny next door has a new toy car and I want it or little Sarah next door has a brand new doll and you want it. So we envy what they have, we want to get our hands on what they have and then we grow up and it's so easy to envy the things that other people have or how they look or who they're married to or what other people think of them, so easy. You may have heard me say this before but I really used to suffer from this, I couldn't stand it, I hated it when someone else had something that I couldn't have. You stand back and you think about it and you realise two things about envy. Firstly, it doesn't have a single redeeming feature, it's just plain ugly and secondly, it's an incredibly destructive sin. While I envy what you have and you envy what I have, we can't have any trust between us. There can't be any closeness or friendship, it robs us of the most important thing of all; relationship. Envy has always been a deadly sin and you know something; today, right here and now, it's still deadly. Berni: I'm joined today again by Keith Henry. Keith thanks for joining us. Keith: Pleasure Berni. Berni: It's been such a blessing. You know, Keith has some real insights about these 7 deadly sins. It's not because he specialises in each one of them or anything like that. Keith's spent the last 10 years of his life, really understanding our different personality types we have and what it turns out is that each different personality type has one particular sin that it specialises in. Now Keith, tell us about envy, what's this envy thing all about, where does it come from, where does it start from? Keith: Envy, I believe, is one of the most misunderstood of the 7 deadly sins and as you said, one of the most destructive. Only because people don't know a way out of it and the secret is, envy is really love of what other people have. It comes back to that 'love' point of view, God is love and in envy, we love what somebody else has. But when you get it, often you don't want it. It's one of those things, 'I want it when I can't get it, when I do have it, I don't want it anymore'. Berni: It's really interesting, envy, I was reading something the apostle Paul wrote in Galatians chapter 5, have a listen. He says: The works of the flesh are obvious; sexual immorality, impurity, licentiousness , idolatry, sorcerery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger. Quite a list: Quarrels, dissention, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing and things like that. I'm warning you against them. Interesting that envy numbers amongst those sorts of sins; idolatry, sorcerery, strife, jealousy, anger, envy. It's right up there. Keith: It is. Envy's in the mind, this is what makes it so strong. Envy is a sensitivity to something and people who have envy are very, very much live in their mind, they're thinking and often in the past. Berni: Okay. Keith: They actually re-do or re-think things that have happened in the past and put a different slant on it so that they are envious of, they should have had that, why didn't they have it? What was wrong with me? And it brings about shame and guilt and all the destructive forces. Envy is terrible, all the deadly sins are terrible but this one is the hardest one to overcome. Berni: So what sort of person is more prone to envy than another? Keith: It's funny, when you ask that question, 'cause you don't really expect the answer. In the Bible, in Romans 12 where it talks about the 7 personality types, it's actually the carer and who do we think the carer is? The carer is that lovely, sweet... Berni: That is bizarre! Keith: ... kind. It is isn't it? Because in their personality, the carer wants to be unique, they want to be special, they want to be different and they can see things that are special, that are different that we can't, that sensitivity level is the highest of all personalities and so they actually, Berni: Makes sense. Keith: Yeah and what happens is they can see it, like if you were hurting right now, in your feelings, you have a problem, I wouldn't see it, they would and they'd start asking you questions. They want to help people, they have a natural inclination to help people but when they're not doing that they can get depressed easily, they have bi-polar, they can, they could commit suicide if it got really bad. It's so, so destructive because they're thinking all the time and regurgitating things. Berni: They're emotionally sensitive. Keith: They're very emotionally sensitive. Berni: And there's an upside to that and there's a downside to that. Keith: Well the upside to it is the carer is one of the nicest, happiest, fulfilled people out. The way out of this is, see, as I said at the start is, envy is a love of what other people have and what I don't have. Berni: Before we talk about the way out I want to understand why it is that someone whom we all love, the carer, the one who pulls alongside and spends the time with us and all sorts of stuff, why is it particularly the carer who is prone to envy, why? Keith: Because of their sensitivity. They see things in it, they have a real appreciation for creativity for instance and for music and things like that, that we don't have and they see things in the world that we don't have sensitivity for. Berni: Okay and so I guess, because they see things so deeply they latch onto them and they want them. Keith: That's right, they do and they want to be special. Berni: Okay, so what's the way out, I mean if someone's, it almost must be a Jeckel and Hyde thing, on the outside they're so loving and so warm and on the inside, this envy thing must eat away like a cancer. Keith: It is, it's a bit like the leader is an adrenaline junkie, you know just wants to do things that challenge them and gets adrenaline going. This is the closest, in a way, you wouldn't think it but this is the closest in the way to the leader in terms of that. They want the highs and lows because they have the feeling sensitivity, they want to go up and then come down and realise what it's like again and go up again. They're going, they're sensitivity... Berni: A sort of cyclotronic type of. Keith: Yeah. Berni: Okay. Keith: Yeah and the way out of it is the way that you enter it. Envy is love of other things, the actual way out of it is, being a carer, is love of God but love of others, to care for them. They have the sensitivity to see where you're hurting, they have the sensitivity to help you and so they have to, if they take it away from themselves, this is the only way out for them. They actually have to focus on using that sensitivity to help people and to not take things as "somebody's had a go at me" all the time. Berni: Yeah. Keith: Because they're sensitive, you could say something and not mean it, they take it and they run away. Berni: They're over sensitive sometimes. Keith: Over sensitive. Berni: See, interesting, before I became a Christian I was always very envious. Now I'm not a carer by any stretch of the imagination but I did experience envy. I hated it when other people succeeded and I didn't think about it much but when I became a Christian, God turned my life around and I began to serve other people. Keith: Yes. Berni: It's just what I do now and I get so much fulfilment, envy's just gone, it doesn't exist anymore for me. I love it when other people succeed now and I never thought about it. Keith: That's the divine nature. See the Bible says we should participate in the divine nature. Divine nature is centered on focusing on other people. You've stopped focusing on yourself Berni and now you're fulfilled. You were never fulfilled ... Berni: No. Keith: ... when you focused on yourself. Berni: Never, ever. Alright, we're going to talk tomorrow about another of the 7 deadly sins, in fact, the last one and this one is pride and I've got to tell you Keith, I keep running into these and think, "I remember that one too!" So I'm really interested to see what you have to say about pride tomorrow. Keith: Look forward to it Berni.

You don't have to look very far to figure out that anger is something that's hitting society in plague proportions. Everybody seems to be angry. Anger is one of the seven deadly sins. And it's still deadly. Every now and then we all get angry, we just do. It's a natural human emotion, in fact, you read a bit about God in His word, the Bible, and you discover God gets angry. Jesus became so angry he made a whip and drove the money changers and the traders out of His Father's house, the Temple of God in Jerusalem. So anger is natural, it happens when one person wrongs another person and yet, if we let anger get the better of us, if we live constantly in anger, it's pretty ugly. I have a dear friend and his particular weakness is anger. In fact, I have to say, I used to be a very angry person and you know something, if we're angry all the time we just can't enjoy life. In fact, angry people can't easily have relationships with other people. Angry people, well they tend to be very lonely people because no-one trusts them. People don't know when they're going to be on the end of that next angry outburst. Anger may well be justified, although often it's not, but if that's where we live all the time, it's really very ugly. Today, as always, anger is a particularly deadly sin. Berni: What do you reckon Keith? Keith: It is Berni; nobody wants to be around an angry person. They're very threatening and we try and avoid being around them and you would think the leader personality would be the one that would have the anger, the most anger. Berni: Yeah, you would, I mean because the leader is a sort of personality that's driving towards a conclusion and would get frustrated with people who don't come along. Keith: That's right but it's outside anger right, so they voice it to anybody or anything that gets in their way because they want to get rid of them. But the anger we're talking about today, in terms of the 7 deadly sins, is an internal anger, right. It's given to the, for instance, the prophet. The prophet is likely to be angry because they can see justice or they can see what's fair or what's right, have integrity and things aren't correct. They're very black and white people, the prophet. Berni: Now explain a prophet to me. By the way Keith Henry's joining me this week; I forgot to tell people that you were joining me Keith. Keith's a bit of a guru, he's done a bit of, quite a bit of study haven't you, about personality types and particular strengths and weaknesses, that's your gig isn't it? Keith: It is, for about 10 years, studied that and talk on that but getting back to the prophet here Berni, the prophet is a particular personality type, next door to the leader I call them because they are managers, they can manage. Berni: Right. Keith: Not the leader who breaks down the wall and leads the team out, they're actually the manager who can manage with integrity, right and that's the important thing; a prophet has integrity. Berni: A sort of gyroscope of right and wrong. Keith: Exactly, there's only one right way, there's only one wrong way therefore there's no shades of grey. Berni: I relate to that a little bit. Keith: Well it's next door to you. Berni: Okay. Keith: Right, in personality but when we talk about anger here, both the prophet and the leader come from will, they're strong willed people. But the will and the anger for the leader goes outward, against anything, the anger we're talking about here, the deadly sin, is internal in the prophet. Berni: It's a seething anger. Keith: It is and can build resentment. Berni: Yeah that would be very destructive, wouldn't it? Keith: It can be very destructive. Not only for them but also, if they start letting it out to ... you know "you're not doing it right, you must do it this way" type of attitude; well it puts people down very much. Berni: We all kind of know people who seethe away and seethe way and bubble away and all of a sudden explodes, is that what happens here with that sort of anger? Keith: Yes it is, it is a bubbling away anger, it's an internal anger and because they only, as I said, they only see one right, one wrong therefore you must do it that way. I've got a good example here actually, there's 1 person I know who covers books right. Berni: Right. Keith: At a school and they cover them very diligently, they're a prophet personality and there's only one way to cover a book. Berni: The right way isn't it? Keith: It's the right way and it is perfect, it's the best book cover you ever see. We actually happened to import and sell a book covering machine that can do 80 books an hour, would never even look at it because it's not perfect they way that they can do it. So, would never consider it, that they could actually free the school up, to get all the books covered. Berni: Yep. Keith: They would rather take them home at night and keep doing it because there's only one way to do it. Berni: Yeah, yeah, the right way and of course the hard thing with that is, the rest of the world doesn't function that way. The rest of the world does what the rest of the world wants to do and so this must eat away at the prophet type personality because the prophet type personality is the person that wants to speak out the right way. And if you look at the prophets of old in the Old Testament, the prophets were the people who called Gods people back to God again. Who pointed out the things that they were doing wrong. So that's the prophet's natural inclination. So you've got this bubbling away and you can see how it would hurt them inside. What does the prophet do with this? Keith: How do they overcome it? Berni: Yeah. Keith: They have to stop working in their own integrity or virtue right, they're saying it must be done this way, that's the way it should be done. They have to look at the integrity of Gods word. In other words, not be selfish about 'I want this way because that's the only right way', they actually have to open themselves up to see it as God sees it. So they have to have the integrity, they're integrity people, but they have to have the integrity of God, not of themselves. Berni: Anger itself is not a sin is it? I mean, Paul writes in Ephesians 4, verse 26: Be angry but do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. So it seems what he's saying is, we're all going to get angry, God gets angry but what's wrong about it is letting it bubble away and bubble away and bubble away. Keith: Yes and there's a righteous anger but the righteous is according to God not according to your own selfishness. Berni: Yeah. Keith: The prophet has a very righteous anger but who's righteousness is it? Berni: Okay so let's imagine that, that I've got the problem, I'm the prophet, I can see things very black and white and I see the right way and I'm burning with anger, inside at these people who aren't doing it my way, who aren't doing it the right way and after all my ways the only right way. Keith: Yes. Berni: Right, so exactly what can I do with a person that's driving me nuts today? Keith: The only way is to have some empathy with them and to take time to be a teacher. They have to have patience which is the teacher right, the teacher has to have patience and they, even though they're on the other side, they actually have to take time to be patient with that person and to teach them and to show them there's a right way of doing it. Berni: Okay because it's almost like sharing the right way. Keith: It is. Berni: And in that, learning a little bit from the other person as well. Keith: Yes. Berni: 'Cause I guess the process of sharing and all of a sudden we discover that there are some other ways of doing things and some better ways of doing things maybe than the ones we thought were the only way. Keith: They have a closed mind. I've got a son who's a prophet and when he was studying at school, for the High School Certificate, he would put, do 2-hour blocks and maybe half a dozen in a day, 2 hour blocks. They're so disciplined right, they are and they have such high integrity that they actually have to realise there is another life. Berni: There is another life and the way of stepping outside this is to take the time to work with people and to share with people. Keith, that's really good. Listen, tomorrow we're going to look at the last of these 7 deadly sins which is envy.

It seems in this fast changing world, that laziness couldn't possibly be a problem anymore. But certain people are truly prone to this sin. But they are and that's why it is one of the seven deadly sins.  And it's still deadly today. We all have patches in life where we need to take our foot off the pedal, just a bit. That's natural, we can't keep running at a million miles an hour, otherwise we'd burn out. Then we're no good to ourselves or anyone else for that matter. So yes, we all need to take a breather and make sure that we have plenty of rest and recreation. But sometimes, sometimes that kind of slips over the line and too much R and R, well we have a name for that. It's called laziness. Sloth in the old fashioned language. I like the sound of that word, 'sloth'. It's pretty confronting. And as we're going to see on the program today, some people are more prone to laziness than others. And laziness, well it's like a disease or a cancer. Laziness turns us into couch potatoes. Instead of cooking, we watch TV shows about cooking. Instead of travelling, we watch shows about travelling. Instead of gardening, we watch other people doing gardening. Instead of having a life, we watch other people having a life and kind of kid ourselves that we have a life too. But here's the paradox; laziness doesn't revive us like rest should. Laziness robs us. It drains us. It drains the life out of us. Whether in yesteryear when we called it sloth or today we call it laziness, doesn't matter what we call it, it robs us of life and it's deadly. Berni: Well Keith, welcome to the program again today. Tell us about this "sloth" thing, didn't you love that word? Keith: Yes. Berni: They used to call it sloth, laziness. Keith: That's right. Well we're all lazy up to a point. As you said, we have to rest. But laziness, in this term doesn't just mean lying on the couch watching the TV, eating chocolates, right. You can be very busy but you can be lazy. Berni: Explain that. Keith: Well, laziness in this term is more talking about putting off what you should do. You could be something else right, I should go and mow the lawn but I won't, I'll actually do something else. You know, there's priorities in life, there's big things that we should do and laziness is more talking about putting those things off 'til tomorrow. Berni: So you never get around to it? Keith: Yeah and tomorrow comes and you might put it off until the next day. Berni: Okay. So why, why are some people more prone to that than others? Keith: In personality, the one that Romans 12 calls "a teacher" is the one most prone to laziness because their priority is really to relate to people. They're the real relationship people. That's why they're called teachers. It doesn't mean they have to teach or they're the best teachers. But they really relate to spending time with people. Therefore, if they have a priority of having to go to work or having to wash the car or do something and somebody calls up and says, "Lets go for a drink or a cup of tea", they're more likely to take the cup of tea option rather than what they should do. Berni: So it's kind of like they're lazy about the mundane things in life that aren't the relationship orientated things which they enjoy. Keith: Exactly. They're called the "procrastinators" and that's a really good description of them. Berni: Oh, procrastinators drive me nuts (Both laugh) Keith: You're the action person, the leader. Berni: All you procrastinators out there watch out. (Said with humour) Keith: But the funny part about it, you come from will Berni, the leader but they also come from will. Well ... they're wills first. But their will is to get along with people. Berni: Yep. Keith: So they will put off other things and not do what they should do. Now there's, we for instance, have at work, we have a girl who is a teacher personality and she can put things off. Now I told her about her personality the other day and I said, "How do you overcome procrastinating?" She said, "Oh, I make a list every day of what I should do and I put them in priority." Simple thing, we've all heard of and that's what teachers must do. They must have a list and they must do them, one by one, in the right order. Because what they'll try to do is to do the less important things first because they're easier. So it's mere laziness. Let's not take on the hard issues, let's take the soft issues first and we'll work our way up to the hard issues. Berni: But we never do. Keith: Never do, keep putting them off. Berni: I thought you were going to say, when you asked her how she handles procrastination, she answered, "Ah, I'll think about it". (Both laugh) Keith: Well hopefully she doesn't. Berni: That's a hard one because I think we all put off the things we don't enjoy doing so much, don't you think? I mean, we all have things we don't much like doing. Keith: Yes. Berni: If you have a job that really fits your personality type well, 80% of it might but there's that 20% of stuff that you have to do. I mean someone said to me once when I was in business that I'm administratively recalcitrant, I don't enjoy the nuts and bolts of administration right, I just don't. Keith: Too slow for you. Berni: Well, yeah, it just doesn't flick my switch and so I will put those things off because I don't enjoy them so much. Is that what you're saying here with the procrastinator? Keith: That's right. Berni: Keith, I seem to have all of these things. Is there something wrong with me? (Both Laugh) Keith: No, you major in one as we all do, we all major in one. Berni: Right. Keith: And so, the other thing with the teacher, what they can do is, they want to be peaceful and easy going because they like relating to everybody. So if there's some conflictive issue here, they will put that off and put it off, they don't want to face conflict because it robs them of their peace and their relationships, so they won't say anything to anyone. Berni: The laziness thing is a bit cancerous isn't it because; in a sense it doesn't appear like a sin? You're just putting things off but you think about it, you put off your tax return and eventually the government comes knocking on your door. Keith: Yes. Berni: You put off paying the bills and eventually they turn the electricity off. You put off the things that you don't want to do and you don't enjoy eventually it all slips away. There's an interesting passage in Proverbs, chapter 24, have a listen to this: I passed by the field of someone who's lazy, by the vineyard of a stupid person and see it was all overgrown with thorns ... See, that doesn't happen overnight, does it? The thorns don't come overnight, the come in time. ... and the ground was covered with nettles and its stone walls were broken. Then I saw it and considered it, I looked and I received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed warrior. Keith: Yes. Berni: It creeps up on you very slowly, this particular sin, doesn't it? But eventually it bites. Keith: It does and it bites because, one real reason, is they don't want to make decisions. You make a decision that I'm going to pull the weeds out today and you go and do it. They put off decision making. Berni: I can't remember which Charlie Brown character it was but one of them said, "Nothing is so important that it can't be put off until tomorrow." (Both laugh) Keith: That's right. That's a good definition of what laziness is. Berni: So the solution is, that this woman gave you was, she actually does a list and tries to stick by her list. Keith: She does and that's actually in 2 Peter 1, the virtue to overcome the laziness is to have that list and to persevere. It says actually patience but its perseverance, long suffering. And these are, that's why they're very good teachers. They will persevere in showing you what you should do. Great people to show you what to do because they don't get annoyed with you. They'll persevere. And that's in all their life. They have to take on the perseverance and the patience to actually do them until they're finished. Berni: Now Keith, this stuff is really making me think. I'm looking forward to next week. We're going to continue on the program next week, looking at some of the 7 deadly sins. But it seems like we're going under the covers here. And I hope, if you've been with us this week, that you've really been thinking, "Ah, that one's me" or "Wow, I never realised that about myself or about my wife or about my husband or about my friend." And you're seeing how we're differently wired and each one of us has a different one of these 7 deadly sins that we have to struggle with. And yet, each one God gives us a way out. Keith, thanks for joining us, you'll catch up with us again next week? Keith: Love to.

Greed these days, at least in some circles, is almost a virtue, not a sin.  And yet greed is such a destructive force in this world.  That's why greed is one of the seven deadly sins.  And it's still deadly. One of the most fascinating creatures alive on this earth is the stock market because it's a place where people trade shares in companies and it behaves so irrationally. During the so called "dot com" boom, a few years back, people were paying exorbitant amounts of money for shares in companies that were losing money, hand over fist. It was all about getting a stake in the new economy, it was all about greed. And then, during the huge boom that followed, people behaved as though there's no tomorrow. Eat, drink, be merry, they couldn't imagine another recession. But as surely as God made little green apples, it came. And billions, no trillions of dollars were wiped off the stock markets of the world in a matter of days. Now, don't get me wrong, I believe very much in hard work and free enterprise. But if there were ever a beast that was like a massive neon sign advertising humanity's greed, it would have to be the stock market. Fortunes made and lost. It seems that in the good times, greed isn't a sin or a vice, it's almost, well we applaud it. But when the bad times come, as surely they do, what we discover is this; greed is a sin and it's still deadly today. Berni: Keith Henry, what do you think about greed? Keith: Greed is one of those things that is very little understood because what you just described there could also be gluttony, where you want more money at the stock market. Greed, in this context, in terms of our personality, is not so much about wanting more; it's more about hoarding what you have. It's being greedy and not sharing it because you don't think you'll have enough, right. So greed actually, is not gluttony, it's the opposite, it's actually hoarding. The problem here is, greed brings about fear or it's related to fear and with this greed, you hoard it so that you don't give it away, that you'll be able to survive. Berni: Okay, not sharing nicely with the other children. Keith: That's right. Berni: Interesting, some proverbs, Proverb 15:27 says: A greedy man brings trouble to his family but he who hates bribes will live. And Proverbs 28:25: A greedy man stirs up dissention but he who trusts in the Lord will prosper. So it's interesting, it's what you're saying, it's this hoarding mentality that "I won't share and I won't give away" because God does call us to give a lot of what we get away. Keith: That's right and that's where we hold onto it, I know I'll only give ten dollars in the plate today instead of a hundred because I might need the rest, I'll go for lunch, right, I need it for that. So it's not gluttony, greed is something, is based on fear, it's a fear that I won't have enough. It's a fear that actually, in the Bible, says, "if you doubt and have fear, you just won't prosper." Berni: Fear's a destructive thing. Keith: Totally destructive, one of the most destructive things and this is what greed's referring to, the destruction of fear and doubt. Berni: So who, what sort of personality type, because over the last few days, what you've been telling us is, each of these particular 7 deadly sins is kind of hooked to one of the particular personality types. Some people are more prone to this than others. Who's the person who's most prone to greed? Keith: The server. Berni: Now that surprises me. (Keith laughs) Why the server? Keith: Well the server is, comes from thinking, right. First of all they think a lot, more than any other type of personality and when you think, it's very easy to have fear because you think of what could go wrong. It's also, the server's not always the most extraverted people and they're a bit quieter. And some servers need to actually, might be at a party but they need to get away from that, they need to have time alone, in other words, greed to get alone, so they can recharge the batteries. They're just not extraverts; they need to hoard themselves away from everybody for a time. Berni: It's kind of weird because again, I mean yesterday we were talking about the encourager and I made the point, we love having encouragers around and I tell you, I love having servers around too because people who want to serve you, they're a delight to be with are they not? Keith: Oh they are, they make our life easy don't they? Berni: Yeah. Keith: They do have a fear, they come from anxiety and worry. A server is looking at what can go wrong. Berni: That makes sense. Keith: Right, they can see things that we don't see, the potholes and things like that and so, they are looking from a fear perspective all the time. Berni: Okay. And so that's what spills over, when you let that fear grip you too much, that's what spills over into the greed thing? Keith: It does and then you start hoarding yourself, "I can't give anymore of myself. I can't give anything else away because I might need it. The stock market might crash tomorrow. I'll put my money in a bank." Or the parable of the talents, the person who buried the money in the soil. Berni: Because they wouldn't put it at risk. Keith: No, they don't want to risk anything. These are anti-risk people. Berni: So the sort of person you want as an accountant maybe. Keith: A lot of the people are accountants. Berni: Oh really? Keith: They're very analytical type people, they use their mind and analyse. Berni: Okay. So okay, lets say I'm a server, I'm not but lets say I'm a server and let's say this fear is gripping me and let's say I've been listening to Keith Henry today and I'm thinking, "You know something, that thing that he's talking about is exactly what I go through". So now what Keith? What can the person who suffers from this do about it? Keith: There is an answer in the Bible. In 2 Peter 1, which we mentioned before, the virtue is there, that you'll actually gain knowledge because, if you gain knowledge of the word of God, it's got to be the right knowledge, the knowledge can set you free. Berni: Okay. Keith: Right. So they have to actually see what Gods word says. Then the other part, of course, is (we're talking about faith now), how do you get faith? You get it through the word of God, right, knowing more about the word of God. Berni: I seem to get faith dangling off a cliff every time, you know (Both laugh) that's where I get my faith from brother and the word of God. Sorry to interrupt you. Keith: That's all right but once you get the faith, you then set, the Bible says you must put into action; faith without action is dead. Berni: But that's good for a server because a server is an action person, right? Keith: Well they only action to serve you but in their own world, they're fearful or anxiety people, they hoard, the Bible says, 'now have faith and go out and do it'. So buy those shares or go out and see that person or go to that party or go to whatever. So, it has to be faith with action based on knowledge. Berni: Okay, give me a really practical example. I'm struggling to grasp this one. Keith: Take for instance a person who wants to invest in a company or want to start their own company. So what they have to do, they have to have a lot of faith to do that. So often they will analyse and gain more and more knowledge, become more fearful, see all the problems that they can fall into. They actually have to take the step, they have to have faith and take the step. It's not until they take the step that they can overcome their fear. Berni: That's good. That's good, so fear kind of paralyses doesn't it? Keith: Very good way of putting it, yeah. Berni: Fear stops you like (Berni suddenly inhales) and you freeze. We all experience that sometimes and yet, what you're saying for the person who is the server, they just step out, use their gift; take the risk because the risk is not a risk if it's done in faith. Keith: That's right. They analyse enough, they think about it enough but they think about it too much. Berni: This is the "just do it". Keith: Yeah, just do it and so greed is actually, comes from a basis of fear. Berni: That's good. That was really good. Thank you for that Keith. Well tomorrow we're going to look at the next one in the list of the 7 deadly sins and that next one is laziness.

We rarely think of overeating – gluttony – as being one of the seven deadly sins. But it is. People are eating themselves to death.  I know – I used to be one of them.  Gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins.  And it's still deadly. There's a certain brand of chocolate biscuits that you can buy in Australia, where I live. They're called Tim Tams. Now it's two biscuit wafers with a chocolate layer in between and the whole things wrapped in a casing of chocolate. And if I were to point to any food that I have an addiction to, Tim Tams would be it. Just as I talk about them I can picture them, smell them and feel the taste as they crunch around in my mouth. Now of course, there's nothing wrong with the odd Tim Tam or any other food for that matter. In fact, without food we'd die of starvation and one of the amazing things that God's done, is that He's given us such an amazing variety of food. Cereals, meats, vegetables, herbs, spices in an endless array, I mean incredible. One of the things I love to do is to try and cook a nice meal for my family, on weekends and to be creative. I love Thai food and Hungarian Goulash, fabulous. But, and there is a "but", in western society today, we're eating ourselves to death. Obesity is rocketing and whilst people are living longer, on the whole, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, they're all on the increase. Gluttony is not word we like to use, so old fashioned it seems, so judgemental. But gluttony is one of the 7 deadly sins and whether we like it today or not, even in modern society, it's still deadly. Berni: Well Keith, welcome to the program. Keith: Thanks Berni. Berni: We're talking about gluttony today. Tell us about gluttony, what's gluttony all about? Why, why do we over eat? What's motivating us to do that? Keith: We want more and more and more basically and gluttony is basically about seeking what's pleasurable for you. Berni: Okay, Keith: You become a pleasure seeker so that you want more pleasure and less responsibility. Berni: Well that fits pretty well with the sort of thinking of our times, doesn't it? You watch the ads on TV and it's all about 'you' isn't it? Keith: It is, that's right; what you can get, what you can have. These are the consumers that use gluttony, they want to consume and use everything that they can. Berni: Okay, so are you saying it's more than just food? Keith: Yes it is. If we look at the 'encourager', their 7 deadly sin, the one that they major in, is gluttony because they want to consume as much as they can, they want to have as many ideas as they can. They want to keep moving, they don't want to stop moving because they have to think about what they're doing. Berni: Hang on, let me just stop and think about that for a moment. The "encourager", tell me a bit about the "encourager", 'cause encouragers sound good. Keith: Well they are, though they're happy people, the entertainers, the people at school when you went to school, they were always the stars. They could do anything, they never had to try, they're just good at school, good at sport, friends with everyone. The trouble is, because they don't have to work hard at things, they're usually quite talented people; they want to now enjoy life. They're the "Peter Pans" of this world, never grow up. Berni: Ah, okay, so it's kind of, isn't it funny how the personality type has this particular virtue and when you say to someone, "do you like encouragers?" Our answer is, "absolutely, we do!" I mean who doesn't like to be around an encourager? Keith: That's right. Berni: If I was going to be shipwrecked on a desert island, I think I'd pick an encourager instead of a leader to be around because they're nice to be around and yet, somehow, I just want you to help me make this linkage here between the encourager and this, this sin of gluttony. Why is again, that there's this particular linkage? Why is the encourager so prone to this over consumption, if we can call it that? Keith: They're seeking pleasure all the time, they want to taste life, they want to taste everything that's pleasurable. Unlike a leader, who wants to challenge life, they don't want the challenge. They want the excitement, the taste and they want it to keep moving. Berni: Alright, so the encourager wants all the pleasure, what's the down side of gluttony? What are the consequences of gluttony? I mean, I guess if we over eat, that's obvious. Keith: Yes. The problem is that they never commit to doing anything or to finish everything. They want to, you know, eat as you said, they consume things. Or they come up with a million ideas and they keep running from one idea to the other. They never finish one and, because there's no responsibility there, they can just keep moving all the time and leave somebody else to clean up the mess. In marriages, if you have an encourager, they can commit by the way, they're not always like this. but this is the sin of gluttony. In some marriages you'll have an encourager, they never have a regular job. They don't want to commit to something because it ties them down. Berni: Okay, that's the down side, how do they get out of that 'cause there's a good side to being an encourager and I think this would be a horrible world without encouragers, wouldn't it? Keith: Oh, it would. Everybody, as you said, wants to be around an encourager, they're positive people. They're excitement, as soon as they walk in the room, they're the ones that will make it fun. They're the fun people. Berni: So, how do they, is there some virtue, is there some way that they can channel their energies and their passions and their desires, which kind of works against this sin, which minimises its affect and impact? Keith: The virtue for them, as mentioned in 2 Peter 1, is temperance. Temperance is moderation, so they have to focus more. They're problem is they're not focusing, that instead of running to the next thing, they actually have to stop where they are and finish it. Berni: Okay. Keith: So moderation or temperance. Berni: That must be hard for them to do though. That wouldn't be a natural thing for them to do, the encourager. If the encourager is the entertainer who runs onto the next idea, stopping and finishing would have to be something they learn? Keith: Yes, they would have to learn it. In the Bible, it does say that we can overcome the lusts in the world by actually walking in the Spirit. So we can't do it naturally very well at all. We know what the answer is, we have to go moderation, we have to focus more but it's very hard for us to do and to overcome any of these 7 deadly sins. The only way to do it is to walk in the Spirit. Berni: What does that mean in practical, give me a practical example? I'm an encourager, I work in a job, I have to finish off things before I can move onto the next. It's driving everyone crazy that I'm not doing that. I kind of know that I've got to do it but I just can't bring myself to get stuck in the detail. Is that what you're saying and finish it off? What do I do now? That's my problem, what do I do now? Keith: Well, it's hard to do it, you have to train yourself and it's discipline. They don't have discipline in their lives; they have to start putting discipline in their lives. Berni: Okay. It's not my particular gifting and so it's not my particular area of weakness. I'm someone who really likes to finish something off well. In fact, my school motto, which I've taken on as my life motto, is "age quod agis", "Whatever you do, do well", and so I can't relate to this one. Keith: Well there is one way here, what they have to do. They're passionate people, instead of having 100 things they could do, find 1 thing that they can be really passionate about. Berni: Okay. Keith: Focus on that 1 thing and then, they will be fulfilled, they will complete it. Berni: That is good advice isn't it? That is really good advice. So if you happen to be an encourager out there and this is something you're struggling with, I think that was a fantastic bit of advice. Well Keith, thank you for that, join me again tomorrow and we're going to look at the next deadly sin on the list and that sin is greed.

Some people are particularly prone to the sin of lust. Not just sexual lust – but also a lust after life. And that lust can ruin relationships, marriages and our lives.  That's why lust is one of the seven deadly sins. And it's still deadly. It seems that the more affluent we become and the more powerful we become, the more we think that really what matters is fulfilling our every desire. I was watching a program on TV the other night which was like a panel of advertising guru's analysing different TV ads. And what became evident, over and over again, is how those ads play on this insatiable craving we have to be successful and to have and to consume. Whether it's a 4 wheel drive or a pair of shoes, these experts tap into a rich vein of desire in our hearts. And that's what makes the world go round. When it comes to advertising all the guru's tell you sex sells, right? And pandering to these desires, well not only don't we see that there's anything wrong with it. Well there's an old fashioned word, that word is 'lust', which kind of describes this whole rampant desire thing. I'm joined again today by my special guest, Keith Henry. Now Keith, what exactly does this word "lust" mean? Keith: Well as you said Berni, lust can be sexual but it's a lot more than that. It's really a drive that you have that you want to tackle everything in life Berni. It also includes arrogance. It includes power 'cause you want to control things, you want to try to take on the world, to challenge the world. You want your way. And it's this excess where you're trying to get everything that you want and denying everybody else. Berni: Okay, so there's sexual lust. Keith: Yes. Berni: Now what sort of person is prone to this, this "lust" thing? Keith: In Romans 12, it gives you the different personality types and one of them mentioned there is "leader". So a leader has to be strong, they have to take control. They have to have all these good points that, in sin in the world, we'd also take on the bad points and this is where lust comes in. That they want what they want not what somebody else wants. Berni: It almost sounds, you're right, a leader does have to be strong, has to be very focused. People follow the leader and it's almost as though, if you take those gifts too far, then all of a sudden the virtue turns into a sin. Is that what you're saying? Keith: Yeah. I think, in the world, we do start from the 'sin' point first and we want to participate in the divine nature, which is the proper leadership style in this case but we get corrupted by the sin. And the sin, it's very enticing, you know. You can have power over people, you can control people. You're a leader, people look up to you. Berni: Yeah. Keith: You know it's very enticing. Berni: Interesting. I just want to share a story with you from the book of 2 Samuel in the Bible. One that a lot of people might be familiar with: One late afternoon, King David got up from taking a nap. He was strolling on the roof of the palace. From his vantage point on the roof he saw a woman bathing. That woman was stunningly beautiful. David sent and asked about her and was told, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah, the Hittite? And David sent his agents to get her. After she arrived he went to bed with her and then she returned home. See David was probably the greatest leader Israel ever had. Keith: Yes. Berni: Right, he was the leader, absolutely. Everybody naturally followed David. What was his sin? (Berni clicks fingers) Lust. Keith: Lust. He had the power, he had the control. People looked up to him and he wanted everything. Berni: It sort of explains to me why some of these really high profile, both Church leaders and secular leaders, fall in this area. I mean Bill Clinton is a very obvious example... Keith: Yes. Berni: ... of a fabulous leader who clearly, this sin got the better of him. Keith: It does. And all sorts of evangelists and people prominent. If you're prominent you have to be very careful, especially if you're a leader. These are the people that can tackle anything. They're the people that climb the mountains and you think,"'Why would you want to climb a mountain?" A lot of personality types think, "why would I want to do that?" No, they want to conquer things. See it's in their personality to go out and challenge and take control of things in people. Berni: And you do, you actually want a leader to do that, don't you? Keith: You do. Berni: If you're following someone who is a leader, you want them to be in control. If a leader is weak, I mean you see it in political parties. If the leader is weak the party gets rid of that leader and puts in a new one because they actually want a strong leader. Keith: They do. Berni: So, there's nothing wrong with that is there? Keith: No. We don't have enough good leaders. We need leaders and whatever it is, in the parliament or Church or whatever area, we need leaders. There's not enough good ones and we do need good leaders. There's an interesting verse in Proverbs 6:27 that says: Can a person take fire to the bosom and his garments and not be burnt? These people that play with fire and it can destroy them. Berni: Yep. So what do they do about that? I mean, if you're a leader and you know you have a weakness in this area. Either its sexual and a lot of men do, a lot of men are caught up in pornography, right? It's a massive, in fact pornography, someone said, accounts for 80% of internet traffic. Pretty scary! So, if someone's caught up in that or just the lust of power or the lust for life or for the lust for, 'just go out there and get it', what can they do about that? Keith: Well, the way out is to participate in the divine nature. In this we have to set our hearts on. Now, ours sins are passions. So what's our passion, is our passion worldly or is our passion Godly? And the way out of it for the leader is to focus on becoming Godly and in 2 Peter 1, it does actually have the virtues there and it says we can participate in divine nature and escape the lust in the world caused by evil desire, the corruption of the world. But the way for the leader is to become very magnanimous. In other words, very giving and working for others not for what they want because they'd get anything almost, these are the leaders. Berni: That's the temptation isn't it? Keith: Yeah. Berni: You can get anything because you're a leader. Keith: Yeah, so are you going to work for others or are you going to work for yourself? Become Godly, God works for other people. Berni: Mmm, I was just thinking about that because, I think in the work force where I've worked and there are some leaders and you know they have your interests at heart and actually, they're the ones that you have a real heart to follow. Keith: Yes. Berni: That's what you're saying isn't it? Keith: Yes. Berni: It's the leader who almost sees himself, or herself, as the servant of the people who are following him or her. Keith: Yes, and that's the way, to become a servant or actually, to become more of a giver, you know because you've got lots to give. You know a leader has a lot to give, they have so much more energy, so much more everything than anybody else and they have to give it to others. Berni: That's fascinating! So as a leader, you can decide to go off and manipulate and control and run over the top of people and 9 times out of 10 you'll get your way, yeah? Keith: Yep. Who wants to fight a leader? Most personalities don't. Berni: Another leader. Keith: Only another leader because, you know what? They enjoy it because they like to test things out and challenge things. Berni: Yeah. Keith: And if you, as a leader, walk into a party, you know a room and first of all, you'll sense where the power is in that room. Berni: Isn't that fascinating? Keith: Or in a board meeting, you'll know where the power is and you'll watch and you'll try and conquer that power so that you're in charge. Berni: Isn't that fascinating and the way to change that, the way to deal with this particular deadly sin of lust for power and lust for everything else is to say, "I'm going to take the gifts that I have and become a servant with them." Keith: Not selfish, yeah that's right. Become a server, give it away and give it to others and don't be self focused. Berni: That is just amazing. You know, God does, isn't it amazing, God does things and changes you. When you go after Him and you start focusing on Him and serving others, He fixes a whole bunch of things behind you that you don't even have to think about. He is amazing!

Funny thing, but each one of us knows we have a particular weak spot.  Maybe it's envy or anger or pride.  Whatever.  And it turns out, that each particular personality type is particularly prone to one of the seven deadly sins.  Which one is yours? Over the last couple of thousand years a whole bunch of things has changed in society. The way we look at people, women for instance, in most parts of the world are treated much, much better today than they were way back when. Slavery, it's no longer an accepted norm in most parts of the world. Many things have changed for the better but that's not always the case. In this so called, "modern society" we've shifted the morality line, the line between good and bad, quite a way. Even over the last 50 years. Today we're happy to say, "this goes" when back then, it didn't. Is that good or bad? I guess from where I sit, it doesn't matter when or where or who we are, some things will always be wrong. If I picked up a venomous snake 2 thousand years ago and it bit me, well the poison was deadly. And if I picked up that same breed of snake today and it bit me, guess what; it's still deadly. Over the last few weeks on the program we've been looking at breaking free from the power of sin. Not some old fashioned concept of an irrelevant Church, it's the stuff that we know is wrong, the stuff that ruins our lives, the stuff that's like a poisonous venom that pumps through our veins. And so this week and next week, on the program, we're going to take a look at what are known as the 7 deadly sins. Because you know something, it doesn't matter who we are, where we are or whatever; they're still deadly. And I'm joined on the program today by a special guest, Keith Henry. Berni: Keith, welcome! Keith: Thanks Berni. Berni: Now listen; you've spent a bit of time in your life kind of figuring out how people tick and the different personality types. Why is that? Why have you done that? Keith: About 10 years ago I was asked to talk, at a Church camp, on what our gifts are and I didn't want to do it but you know when it's a calling of God, you can't get out of it. So I studied it and gave a talk on it. Then I was captured, I wanted to know more myself, I realised I only knew so much. But when I started teaching people about what their gift was, the whole personality issue came out. It's not just what your gift is but who are we? You know, what do we think about? What grabs our attention? In this case, what's our deadly sin? Because there's one sin, more than the others, even though we have all of them right but there's one sin more than others, for each personality, that really is your main sin that you have to combat. Berni: Interesting! The Bible actually talks about personality types in Romans chapter 12, verses 6-8, doesn't it? The person who wants to prophecy, the person who serves, the teacher, the encourager, the giver, the leader, the administrator. So even, even way back then God was telling us that we have different personality types. So is your observation, as you've studied, that we certainly are hard wired, each differently? Keith: Yes, in our nature. There's nature and nurture. In our nature we're actually made and hard wired with a real motivation, a real gift and a temperament which is our style. Berni: Hang on, you rushed over those. A motivation, Keith: Yeah. Berni: A gift and a temperament, just explain those. Keith: Well, motivation is what drives us. We all have a drive and in those, each of those personality areas in Romans 12, there's actually 7 drives. Berni: Okay, let's say I'm an encourager, what's my drive? Keith: Your drive there is to find fulfilment in what you're doing. Doesn't have to be money, doesn't have to be, it could be saving the whales, right? It could be anything. Berni: Okay, so if I'm a leader, what's my motivation? Keith: Your motivation there is to have power and control. Berni: Okay. Keith: You want to control your environment. Berni: Okay, so there's the personality type, there's the motivation, now what was the other thing you said? Keith: There's temperament. Berni: Okay. Keith: Because we all have a style. If you look at the temperaments such as sanguine, choleric etc., we all fit into one of those areas. And that's a style that we have. Are we really out there or are we quiet and sit behind the scenes? Berni: Oh, I'm quiet and shy myself. Keith: No. (Berni laughs) No you're not. (Keith laughs) Berni: Well I try and tell people I am. Berni: Okay, so we all have a different personality type, do you think that people really, by and large, understand that about themselves? Do you think the average person says, "Well actually, I know that I'm a leader or I know that I'm a caregiver?" You know, do people understand that about themselves or not? Keith: Unfortunately, because we have cultural influences, that sort of wipes a bit of our hard wiring away and it could be you know, your family, your school, your Church, your friends. Whatever you grow up in it tends to take the attention away from who you are. I would say, if I could just pick a figure out of the air, 99% of people have no idea who they are. Berni: Isn't that scary? Keith: It's terrible. Berni: I mean, everyone's striving for fulfilment in some way, shape or form. Keith: Yeah. Berni: If we don't, I know for a lot of my life, you know I didn't really know what my 'shtick' was, what my 'gig' was, what I would be good at. Tried a whole bunch of things, some of them I wanted but they weren't particularly satisfying. And you get to the age, 36, 40, 50 even and people still don't know. Keith: Well that's one of the reasons too that people have mid life crisis. Berni: Ahh. Keith: Because they, they work it and get somewhere but they then realise, "this isn't me, I don't want this and where do I go now? What do I do?" and they try and change. Maybe a divorce, maybe going out into the country and get away from it all, whatever, but you can't run away from who you are. Berni: No. Keith: You've got to find out who you are. Berni: But who we are also has some down sides doesn't it? There's a flip side to the coin for each personality type. Keith: There is. We've got our hard wired or Gods standard that we're supposed to meet that in the culture that we live, it doesn't come anywhere near close to the "God standard". But there is a pathway through that sin, that loss of things, that we can find who we are. We can find out how God has made us because God's made us, as you say, to be the person that He's made us to be. How do we find that? Berni: Okay, we're going to be talking about the 7 deadly sins and Keith's going to be joining me over these next couple of weeks to talk about those things because, what I've found is, he meets you and within about 10 minutes he's got you sized up so accurately, its frightening. In fact, my wife is afraid of meeting him (both laugh). Okay, let's look at the 7 deadly sins, let's say, give me an example, let's say I'm an encourager, which I'm not. But let's say I'm an encourager. What's my particular down fall? Keith: The deadly sin that mostly affects an encourager is gluttony. Berni: All right, okay. Well we're going to look at that specifically but quickly, why gluttony? Keith: Okay, it's not just gluttony of food, it's gluttony of wanting too much of everything. In this case it could be too many ideas. Berni: Okay, well what about a leader, what's the sort of deadly sin the leader struggles with? Keith: The leader struggles with lust because, as we said, what drives them is to have power and control. They are the adrenaline junkies. Berni: Oh okay, I relate to that. Keith: (laughing) I know you do. Berni: I'm your "run through the brick wall" sort of person. Keith: Yes. Berni: So I relate to that. Keith: Yeah. Berni: Yeah. Okay and what about someone who's a server, someone who wants to serve people, what's the downside of their particular personality type? Keith: The server is from greed. But it's not greed that they, like gluttony, that they want more and more. It's actually a greed of hoarding which means fear. Berni: Okay, you see, it seems to me so important because we try, people believe in Jesus right? A lot of them do and you try and you live your life for Him and then you fail and you keep failing in one particular area. Keith: Yes. Berni: And you feel like you're all alone but actually, what you're saying to us is, that the different personality types, well you can almost predict, fairly accurately, what the particular sin is going to be that that person falls into. Keith: You can. And it's interesting. If I'm in a, say a dinner with some people and you start talking about things like that, about who they are, they either react "I want to know more" or they withdraw from you, "This fellow knows to much about me". If they want to know more it's a lot of fun. Berni: Yeah. Keith: You know, finding out who they are. Berni: Well we're going to have that fun over the next couple of weeks because we're going to go through each of these 7 deadly sins, one by one and I'm really looking forward to it. Keith: So am I Berni.

Every now and then we go head first – splat on our faces.  Two options.  Just lie there and give up.  Or get up, wipe the tears from your eyes and the dirt from your wound and keep going. One of the sports that always amazes me is the hurdles in the athletics. I remember trying to run and clear those hurdles in high school but I'm afraid these little short legs of mine, well I could never quite make the grade. And one of the most difficult things I've ever seen is a hurdler in the Olympics missing one of the hurdles and going flying head first into the track. Think about it. What an incredible public humiliation. Not to mention the pain and all those years of training wasted in a split second. The truth be known, none of us likes to fall splat on our faces. And it happens in life. And when we do, it's so hard to get up again. The easiest thing in the world would be to give up. But the truly great sportsmen and women are the ones that don't do that. They get up. They wipe the tears from their eyes and the dirt from their wounds and they keep going. Come what may, they just keep going. Today is the last of the series of 10 programs that I've called "Breaking Free from the Power of Sin". And I just thought I couldn't finish up without spending a few moments talking with you about what happens when we go splat and fall over flat on our faces. Because that's the point where so many people give up. Here's what we've been talking about over the last couple of weeks in a nutshell. We've been talking about sin. And sin isn't some outdated concept of an irrelevant church. Sin simply means missing the mark. Ruining our lives. Anger robs us of relationships, pride and greed and dishonesty and unforgiveness. All those things are sin because they miss the whole point of life. And you know it seems that some days that we're powerless to change them. They just keep coming back to haunt us. So many people believe in Jesus. So many people look at the cross and the price that Jesus paid and know they have forgiveness, they know that the empty tomb means the resurrection and new life. But somehow the power of sin isn't broken in their lives. But actually it is. We're told that by God Himself. In Colossians Chapter 1 Paul writes this: He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1: 13-14) And again in Romans Chapter 6: For sin will have no power over you since you are not under the law but under grace" (Romans 6:14) It's not about a bunch of rules and failing and therefore it's hopeless. No. The slate is completely wiped clean. And yesterday we talked about the need for us to have a change of heart. It's like the judicial system looks were the criminal has remorse or not in sentencing. Remorse says that, "I know I was wrong. I see the impact, I see the pain of what I've done". And that together with God's forgiveness leads us to turn away from all that rubbish, that stuff that ruins our lives, sin, and back to God. Again the Apostle Paul in Romans Chapter 2: Or do you despise the riches of God's kindness and forbearance and patience. Don't you realise that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4) And repentance is a change of heart. It's a change of direction. All that we do comes from our hearts. So many people hear that message, they accept Jesus, they have a change of heart and then they set on their journey with Jesus and they discover they're not perfect. In fact, like that athlete I was talking about before, we fall splat on our faces over and over and over again. And before you know it, the change of heart, well, it just evaporates into thin air. We lose heart. We pack up our bat and ball and we go home. Sound like anyone you know? I want to take you to a passage of God's word that I come back to again and again and again. It's one of a small handful of my absolute favourites. Again it's written by Paul the apostle. This guy had the job of writing almost half the books of the New Testament. And you know something, he has exactly the same problem that you and I have. I'm going to read it from the Message translation because it's really contemporary. It begins in Romans Chapter 7 verse 15: What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what's best for myself and then do it, it's obvious that God's command is necessary. But I need something more. You see, the rules weren't working for Paul. He needed something more. He says, "For I know the law, but I still can't keep it. And if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions I obviously need help. I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, I just can't do it". Sound like anyone you know? Paul says: I decide to do good but I don't really do it. I decide not to do bad but then I do it anyway. My decisions such as they are, just don't result in actions. Something's gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. It happens so regularly it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me rebel. And just when I least expect it they take charge. I've tried everything. Nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question? The answer, (writes Paul) Thank God, Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. (Romans 7:15-25) See, the fact of this happens to Paul the apostle who wrote almost half the New Testament. It means that it happens to all of us. It's a dilemma. I can't, I can't, I can't. No, you can't. Nor can I. That's the point. That's why we need God's grace. The criminal, you and me, we're released from death row because Jesus paid the price. So we're standing outside the prison and the gates slam shut for the last time behind us. Now, now we have to learn to live not as a criminal but as a child of God. As someone who's free. And as any criminal will tell you, you need help. Rehabilitation is a process. It takes time. That's how it is. And the answer is, "Thank God that Jesus Christ is that help". Because through what He did on the cross we have forgiveness. And through what His Spirit does in our lives we have the power to change. That's what God does. Step by step you just follow Jesus and life changes. I'm not the person I once was. I stumble some days. But I get up. I say God I'm sorry. I get up, I know I've got your forgiveness. I turn to God. I keep going. You know why? Because the power of sin over my life is broken. I believe in Jesus and it just is.

Giving up smoking is a tough choice – really tough.  But it's worth it.  And in the same way – giving up some of the other rubbish wreaking havoc in our lives –well that can involve tough choices too.  But then – what's the alternative? I wonder if you've ever heard a news story about someone convicted of a crime and in sentencing the judge makes comment as to whether or not the criminal has expressed genuine remorse. What tends to happen at least in legal systems that I'm familiar with is that the person who shows genuine remorse receives a lighter sentence than the one who doesn't show any remorse. Why is that? Why does the legal system behave that way? Because the role of the legal system is two-fold. Firstly, obviously to protect society by putting dangerous people away and acting as a deterrent and secondly to reform the criminal back into an effective member of society. It doesn't matter what legal system we live under, it's never perfect, but that's the idea. And so remorse, remorse is an important step. When the criminal experiences remorse what he or she is saying is, "I understand what I did was wrong. I understand the hurt and the pain it caused and I'm sorry". So why is that so important? Well, that's what we're going to be taking a look at on the program today. Why is remorse so important? Last week and this week on the program we've been looking at what it takes to break free from the power of sin. Sin is the stuff that we think and say and do and feel, the rotten stuff, that robs us of life. Anger, unforgiveness, resentment, envy, pride, fear. All those things begin in our hearts and have terrible consequences on our lives and the lives of others. I've observed on more than one occasion as we've been looking at this notion of sin and breaking free from it's power that God's opened the way for that to happen. Jesus died on the cross. The just requirements of God, God's system of justice, had been met. Jesus paid the price for your sin and for my sin. Through Him we're forgiven. Instead of us living out the sentence of sin He did it. And then He rose from the dead. And that empty tomb gave us a new life that starts here. We have both of those things, a clean slate and a new start, when we believe in Jesus. The problem is, so many people do but they never seem to be able to break free from the power of sin. Today we're going to talk about taking the tough decision to do just that. Now I'd like to illustrate it using that legal example because it is something that most of us understand. Sin in God's court of justice, no matter how big or small, is punishable by one thing, death – eternal. Eternity without God and there's a name for that. It's called hell. It's something we're all guilty of so we should have to serve the sentence. Instead because of God's love and His grace God sends His son Jesus to die, once and for all, for you and me. And here's what the transaction of faith looks like. We stand before God. We know the sentence we deserve and He asks us, "Are you sorry?" And we say, "God, I'm so sorry. I know I've done wrong". And He gives us this option. "Will you, instead of accepting your punishment, accept that Jesus has died for you?" You have a choice. You can stay on death row and wait for inevitable or you can put your faith in Jesus and accept what He has done for you in taking your punishment for you. Put it that way, it's a bit of a no-brainer if you ask me. So let's assume for a minute you say, "Yes God, Yes Your Honor, I accept Jesus". God's response is this, "You are free to go". You have life again, abundant life, eternal life because you've accepted what Jesus did for you. The gate of the gaol swings open and you and I walk free and it clangs closed behind us for the last time. And in fact Jesus died for every sin past and present and future. Now the question is as you or I, the prisoner, walk out of that gaol house, what are we going to do with that? Have we truly experienced a change of heart? Has the remorse that we expressed in front of God, the deep heart knowledge of the wrongness and the guilt and the devastating impact of our sin, has that remorse done something in our heart and is it going lead us to change our behaviour? Is God's grace going to lead us to change our behaviour to reform or are we simply going to repeat the crimes that put us in gaol in the first place? That's the question. And it's at this point that we have to make some tough decisions. Maybe you've heard people use this word "repent". Christians and theologians use it a lot and for me it felt like such an old-fashioned word. Maybe it is. But what it means, what it refers to is the decision of how are we going to live the rest of our lives once we're outside that prison gate. See, if we experience remorse, does that lead to a change of heart? Because who we are and what we say and how we live all begins in the heart. Jesus said that. He said, (Matthew Chapter 12 verse 34) "Out of the abundance of your heart your mouth speaks"… (Matthew Chapter 15 verse 19) "Out of the heart come evil intentions. Murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander". Having a change of heart is a tough decision, but anybody who would break free from the power of sin, from the power of condemnation, the power of repeating the same mistakes over and over and over and over again has to make that decision. See, sin has the power to sap the life out of us and turn us into the walking dead. And anybody who wants to break free has to have a change of heart. A change of heart that's born out of remorse. A change of heart that's born out of the joy of the grace that God's given us. Knowing that this anger and unforgiveness is wrong. Knowing that it's ruining my life and the lives of others is shocking. It's horrible. I'm sorry. It's wrong. I have to change that but I can't. That's repentance. That's the tough decision. And that's the point at which God steps and grabs us by the hand and says, "Yes, this is what I wanted to hear. And, no, you can't do it on your own. That's why I'm going to fill you with My Holy Spirit. My power will change you. I was just waiting for you to turn around, away from your life of sin and back to me'. The reason so many people believe in Jesus and yet they aren't free from the power of sin over their lives is because they haven't repented. They haven't turned. They haven't felt the pain of remorse and the joy of grace and had a change of heart. It is this turning that opens the door to the power of God to change our lives. It is this repenting that opens the floodgates of God's power to change. Jesus said, you can read in Luke Chapter 13, He said to people: It doesn't matter who you are, what you believe, unless you repent you will perish. He's talking about a change of heart and when our heart changes God works in us and through us and then when we're tempted, you know what, in our heart we want to do it God's way and not our own way. Acts Chapter 26 Verse 20 says: Repent and turn to God and do deeds consistent with repentance. It's the change of heart that gives us the change of direction away from sin and towards God which results in the deeds that flow from the heart of repentance. The problem is there are people that are trying to change their deeds without having a change of heart. But it's the change of heart that lays hold of God's power to change what we do and how we behave. Because what we do on the outside comes from our hearts. I'm talking tough decisions. We want to hang on to sin. God's calling us to let go through the remorse and the joy that grace brings. Without it we can't break free from the power of sin. We cannot be free from its tyranny. We just can't.

For so many people – they have stuff in their hearts that's ruining their lives. And yet, somehow, we don't think about it too much.  Except when the consequence of that stuff – hurts like hell. How do we get on the front foot? Many people, in fact, let me be so bold as to say most people live life, day by day, without thinking too much about where it's headed. We might be focused on finishing a course of study or gaining a qualification or finding a wife or a husband. We maybe focused on some particular thing but how many of us really think, day by day, about how we, as people, are developing? How many of us critically evaluate the stuff we see and hear and read in the media? How many of consider our ways? How many of us ever choose decisively to deal with the rubbish in our lives, the stuff that God calls "sin", the stuff that's ruining our lives? Come on, how many of us? Who amongst us has identified that anger, lets say anger is our particular Achilles heel, that anger is robbing us of relationships and that it's time to do something about it? Not just live with it but powerfully to deal with our addiction to it and remove it from our lives. Pretty sobering, the answer is very few. We kind of let things come along, people, perspectives, situations, belief systems and we consume them without really thinking. We react to them without really considering, "Is that right, can I come up higher?" And all the time, this thing that God calls "sin" is robbing us of the fullness of life that God always intended for us to have. Pretty scary isn't it? Time today to talk about being decisive in guarding against sin. Sin, if you've been with me over the last couple of weeks on the program, well you would have heard me talk a few times about the fact that sin is not some out dated, moralistic concept that's clung to by an irrelevant Church. Sin means literally to "miss the mark" both in Hebrew and Greek, in the Old Testament and the New Testament. It means to "miss the point of life". Jesus tells us what the point of life is, it's recorded in John chapter 10, verse 10. He says: The thief, the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy but I have come that you may have life in all it's abundance." (In fact in super abundance). And we know that when we live a life of goodness, where we serve others, where we're honest and decent and giving and forgiving. That's where the joy and fulfilment comes from. And all that good stuff comes from God. And in the same way that God created the heavens and the earth and all that's in them, you and me, He also created the devil, the tempter, the deceiver, the accuser. Because the existence and the influence of the devil gives us a clear choice between God and the devil, between good and evil. Without the devil there's no real choice, God loves us and He wants us to love Him out of our own free wills. Now the devil is alive and well and the reason I believe in his existence is because, as I read the gospel accounts of Jesus' life, Jesus clearly believes in the existence of the devil and there's a powerful passage written by the apostle Peter. You can read it in 1 Peter chapter 5 in verse 8. He says: Be sober, be alert. Your enemy, the devil, like a roaring lion is on the prowl looking for someone to devour. In other words, be on your guard and it's something that Jesus said over and over and over again to His disciples. Luke chapter 12: And He said to them, "Take care; be on your guard against all kinds of greed because your life doesn't consist of the abundance of possessions." Luke chapter 17: Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, rebuke the offender and if they repent, forgive them. Luke chapter 21: Be on your guard so that your hearts aren't weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life. See, we trump along living life without thinking too much and then, when sin racks our bodies, all sorts of sin. Have a listen to the list: The acts of a sinful nature are obvious; sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, drunkenness. (Galatians 5:19) The list in Galatians chapter 5. When that sort of sin racks our bodies and we feel the consequences, we kind of behave like there's no devil. We behave as though we don't have a sinful nature. But there is and we do. You don't have to look very far to realise that's true. The devil is alive and well and he plays on our selfish desires and we live them out and they blossom like a cancer that robs us of life. The apostle Paul, giving the reason why he forgives other people says: In order that satan will not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. (2 Corinthians 2:11) Jesus was tempted in the desert by the devil and when He withstood all the temptations the devil could throw at Him. Right at the end of that when the devil leaves Him, you know what it says right there? In Luke chapter 4, verse 13. When the devil had finished every test, he departed from Jesus until another more opportune time. The devil was planning on coming back to tempt Jesus again. And if that happens to Jesus, I've got to tell ya, it's going to happen to you and me. I guess what I'm saying is this. You and I know that sin robs us of life, it ruins our lives. But mostly we only focus on it when the pain of its consequences are so acute we can't miss it. When an argument's raging or a relationships falling apart. But actually the devil is roaming around 24 X 7, like a roaring lion waiting to devour someone. You and me, he is and he does and our part is to say, "you know something, it's time for me to get serious about this. It's time for me to decide that I am going to deal decisively with sin. It's time for me to be on my guard." The other day on the program I was talking about how, in my life, I spend daily time alone praying, with the Lord and reading God's word and spending that time with Jesus. It is critical in me living out the victory over sin that Jesus purchased for me on that cross. And you know what that times about? It's about getting my heart and my mind focused on God and just being alert, getting myself "on guard". It's about being vigilant. I am not going to experience the power of God that gives me victory over sin, unless I'm deliberate about it. Can I tell you something? Neither are you because the devil is not going to hand this to us on a plate, we have to take it. Israel had to take the Promised Land, battle after battle. It's the same with us. We have to take it. It's how God involves us in the partnership of living out our new life, our eternal life. It's a marvellous thing! We need to get deliberate and get decisive and identify, "what's my particular Achilles heel, my weakness?" We're going to be looking at those, next week on the program, with a special guest. What's my weakness? I need to identify it, I need to pray about it and I need to be ready because I know that the devil is going to come after me in that area. We need to have responses in place. Paul puts it this way in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 11, Put on the whole armour of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Can I tell you something? If you and I are going to break free from the power of sin, we have to do our part. To join hands with God, to be alert, to guard our hearts and our ways and our thoughts and get into the battle because a battle it will be. Come on!

Sometimes the most obvious and simple truths are the most powerful – like this one.  When I spend time alone with Jesus in the morning, sin has far less power over me on those days.  So why do we miss that? Sometimes, when I'm thinking about what to share with you each day on this program, well, I get a bit embarrassed. The things I come up with, sometimes, they seem too simple, too straight forward and I think to myself, "I can't spend 10 minutes talking to them about that, it's too obvious". But then I remember that I am the master of missing the obvious in my life. Do you find that too? And I just need someone to share the obvious with me in a fresh new way and somehow God uses that to flick a switch in my heart and to solve something that's been troubling me for ages. Ever been through that? Well, I've been doing quite a bit of thinking and talking over the last couple of weeks about breaking free from the power of sin and today, I want to share the blindingly, glimpsingly obvious with you. The reason we're going to do that is because it's something in my life that has been crucial to breaking free from the power of sin and it's quite simply this – spending time each day with Jesus. Quiet time, time on my own, praying, listening, thinking, reading God's word and the thing that I've discovered, looking back on this, is that on those days when I spend that time, sin is much weaker in me. And on those days when sometimes I haven't spent that time with Jesus, sin seems to have so much more power over me. Told you it was obvious and yet, it never ceases to amaze me, how easily I can make excuses. "Well, you know, I'm too busy today to get time alone with Jesus. Yet I spent 20 minutes sitting on the bus with my mind wandering around and I had time to watch the 2 millionth re-run of MASH on TV last night". Now let me share with you what happens when I spend time with Jesus. It's not always some great mountain top experience where you know, the room lights up. Some days I feel burdened with pressures and I'm tired and there's stuff happening in my life. Other days, times with Him are real mountain top experiences. We all have these ups and downs but what I've discovered is, when I've established a faithful pattern, most mornings of spending, I don't know, 20, 30, 40, 50 minutes with Him. It's the most certain way I have of breaking free from the power of sin in my life. You know, you pray. You worship God. You thank Him. You bring your needs before Him to meet this need or give me a breakthrough in this area or there's something over here I just can't do on my own or "God I need wisdom to do this or that. I don't know how to handle this situation." You open the Good Book. You read the next chapter. I've just finished the book of 1 Samuel this morning and going on to the book of 2 Samuel in the Old Testament. You know, that's what my prayer life looks like. And what happens is this. Those times I spend, whether they're great mountain top experiences or whether today, because I'm a bit tired it feels a bit mundane, they give me a quiet confidence in my heart that my King reigns. God stills my heart amidst all the busyness and the pressures. The things that were worrying me, I leave them with Him. I don't know how they're going to turn out but God does. Just this morning, there's something new that He's called me to and I don't know the "how" or the "what" or where the resources are going to come from. It's new, I've never done this before. And I lay that down at His feet and I just felt the warmth of His smile and that quiet still voice whispering to me, "Berni, you don't need to know it all, just step out, now's the time. I am with you." And that situation with that person over there; that pressure, I don't know how to handle that. I know that God will give me the wisdom because I asked Him for it this morning and His word says in James chapter 1, verse 5: If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly and it will be given to you. So all these things that could have been worries, that could have eaten away at me today, God has stilled my heart. And so you set off into this busy day. For me it's writing scripts, recording, helping our team here at the ministry with this and that, answering this call from that supporter and planning this new initiative and there's joy in my heart. Joy that flows directly out of the time that I spent with Jesus this morning. The quiet assurance and confidence in my heart that I know that He is with me and that the things that I don't understand and the ones that I can't do, He's got them all under control. That this joy and this quiet assurance that God gives me, those things I don't have so readily to hand on those days when I don't spend time with Him. So someone throws a curve ball at my solar plexus, something I don't expect, a shock or attack or, whatever it is, I can handle those things with grace because, because the spirit of God is flowing through me. It's not like that on the days that I don't spend time with Him in the morning. I feel the pressure so much more, the anxiety is so much more likely to, kind of, eat away at me. I'm more prone to worry about this or that or wonder how that thing over there is going to turn out. Do you hear what I'm saying? So then when the devil comes after me with a pick axe, as he so often does, what days am I more likely to be filled to overflowing with His spirit? Paul in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18 commands us, "Go on being filled with the spirit". It's not rocket science! I know that the time I spend with Jesus, I am going to be stronger in Him than when I don't. I sin a whole bunch less on the days when I've spent time in the morning with Jesus than on the days that I didn't. It's an empirical fact, I am much more able to withstand the deceptions and the attacks of the devil on the days when I've spent time in the morning with Jesus than on the days that I didn't. Empirical fact; I have much more peace and joy and quiet confidence in the sovereignty of God on the days when I've spent time in the morning with Jesus than on the days where I didn't. And when the devil comes and tries to drag up some old failure of mine, I have far greater capacity to speak back to him of the grace of God who died for me. Do you see what I'm saying? People, people who want to follow Jesus, I know so many of them who are all guilty when they hear someone like me talk about the fact that I spend time with God in the morning 'cause I'm too busy. I want you to understand something. I don't spend time with God because it's my duty, because I have too to get a tick in the box. I spend time with Him because I enjoy it and it works. Day by day, I am seeing the power of sin, over my life, being broken. Day by day, I am changing like that little grub in the cocoon into the butterfly that God intended me to be. Hidden away in the dark when everyone else is asleep, in my prayer chamber, it's a wonderful time and I look back and see that these hidden times are the times when God has brought changes, in this sinful heart of mine that I could never have achieved on my own. Do you see? God is calling you into a tender, intimate relationship with Him. He's the one that changes us. He's the one that brings the power of the cross and the resurrection to life in us and people. If we want to have power over the sin, we just have to spend some time with Him each day. Not as a duty – as a joy!

Sometimes we get so caught up in our own "self-improvement program" that we forget completely that following Jesus isn't about self-improvement.  It's about…well, following Jesus. The chameleon is a pretty amazing animal that changes its skin colour to suit its surroundings. Pretty clever little fellow when you think about it. And in a sense, it's something that we all have a tendency of doing as well. We change according to our surroundings. It's one of the reasons that every parent worries about their teenage son or daughter, getting in with the wrong crowd because that wrong crowd can drag them down. On the other hand, if they make friends with good, loyal, honest, decent people then that's going to influence them as well. We know that. And if it applies to our teenagers, it applies to us too. It turns out that what we do and say and think and the places and the people we hang around, impact greatly on the things that we do and say and think. Let me give you an example. It may be that you're a naturally very positive person but you hang around a bunch of people who only ever grumble and complain and before you know it, you're grumbling and complaining too. And then you start thinking that way and seeing the world through their eyes. And one day, you kind of wake up and think, "Whatever happened to this incredibly positive and optimistic person I used to be?" The more you think about it, the more we're just like that little chameleon. Last week we spent some time looking at what it meant to break free from the power of sin. For many people, sin is a four-letter word but actually, sin means "to miss the mark – to miss the whole point of life". Sin is the thing that robs us of the fantastic life that God always had planned for us. It's like an addiction. It's powerful. You do the wrong stuff, you feel guilty and condemned and it just gets worse and you end up on this downward spiral. This is not some religious guilt trip. You don't even have to be religious to figure it out. I'm not. I mean, wives, if you constantly hen-pecked your husband, what you'll find is that he will withdraw emotionally from you and he won't want to spend time with you. Doesn't matter how right you are. And husbands, if all you do is work, work, work, work, work and you never spend time just cherishing your wife, you know she's not going to want to get intimate with you. If we're lazy that has consequences. If we're angry that has consequences. If we're envious or proud, all those things have consequences. So last week, we had a look at the power that God gives us to change. It's the most amazing power. If you missed it you can listen to those programs again at our website: adifferentperspective.org. This week we're going to get really practical, we're going to look at where the rubber hits the road. How exactly do I live out Gods grace and Gods power so that they remove the power of sin over my life? Now I want to start today with this very simple reality; you have to change where you live. The best way I've ever heard it explained is this; you own two dogs, a big black one and a small white one. Which one is going to be the stronger of the two? The one that you feed of course! So many people are living under the burden of sin and yet they have the power to take some simple steps to step out of it. Paul the apostle explains this in Romans chapter 8. He talks about the flesh, our human sinful nature and the Spirit – God himself. He says: If you walk according to the spirit, you're going to live in the spirit and have life but you walk according to the flesh, you're going to die. (Romans 8:5 See, this is the "two dog" analogy, which one are you going to feed, which one are you going to live in? The spirit or the flesh? God or our selfishness? Have a listen to how that wise old apostle puts it. he starts out by saying, Romans 8, verse 1: There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. See, if you believe in Jesus, Gods grace means that you're forgiven. No matter where you are in life, no matter how far you feel you've fallen short of Gods goodness. Believe in Jesus, this stuff is for you and for me. Romans Chapter 8 Verses 5 & 6: And those who live according to the flesh (the sinful nature) set their minds on the things of that sinful nature but those who are living according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. Paul's asking us here; so which dog are you going to feed, the big black one or the small white one? It's just a picture you understand but it's a good one. And here's what I've noticed about myself. You know, even though Gods been on my case now for a good many years. And even though I'm a much different person today to the one I used to be, I still have the ability to get angry, to be selfish, to argue, all that stuff is still there. Those desires are much weaker in me now than they were 5 years ago or even 10 years ago. And the reason for that is, when you give your life to Jesus and you accept Him as King, He puts His spirit in you. God's spirit is so close and that's how we have a relationship with Him and it's a beautiful relationship, truly it is. I find such great joy in my relationship with Jesus. But sometimes, someone in the car in front of me drives just slowly enough so that I miss the green light and I have to wait at the red light and you know something; that makes me ANGRY. How could they do that? Couldn't they see me in their rear view mirror? Don't they know I'm in a hurry? I mean really, what I want to do is to honk my horn at them. Now, just as my blood's boiling and my hand's heading towards the horn of the car, I've got a decision to make, what am I going to do, pander to my selfish desires or bow down to my God? Walk in my old sinful nature or walk in the spirit? It's where the rubber hits the road if you pardon the pun and you know something; the longer I walk with God the more clearly I hear that still small voice of His spirit in my heart, so what ya going to do? Going to walk with Me? Right at that point where I want to blast my horn at this person I have a decision to make. I can feed the old black dog or I can turn away from it and feed the white one? Which one? And the more I choose to walk in the spirit over walking in my own sinful desires, is just another step of walking with Jesus. Sometimes we get so caught up in our own self-improvement program that we forget completely that following Jesus isn't about self-improvement, it's about following Jesus. That's what it means. Each of those little decisions is a little step. And here's what happens. I want you to hang on to your hat here, this is the really, really important bit. When I take a step to follow Jesus, God blesses me! You want to hear that again? God blesses me! In all sorts of different and special ways. I enjoy living for Him, I enjoy the fellowship I have with Him and the peace that He gives me and the miracles that He does in my life and He just blesses me in these little ways. It's a great blessing, for God to just drop something on me, to give me joy. I've seen God provide so miraculously, you know what that joy does? It has me wanting more, I want more of God's blessing. I don't mean that in a selfish way, I mean that, in a sense, I just want to take every breath and every step in the joy that God gives me. There was a time when Israel wept before God because they realised they'd sinned against Him and the prophet Nehemiah said to them: Do not be grieved for the joy of the Lord is your strength. (Nehemiah 8:10) You know something. Every little step I take brings me more joy and He has me wanting more of that and that gives me the power to choose the right way next time and next time. God breaks the power of sin over me because He changes my heart to choose His way, over and over again because it's a joy to live that way. Pretty cool!

When we finally wake up to ourselves and admit that the way we're living our lives just isn't working, the next thing we need is something that does work. Because like it or not, what we discover is that by and large, we ourselves our powerless to change.  We need power to change. I don't know, you turn on the evening news on the radio or the TV and there never seems to be much good news, it's all bad. And then, when there is good news, on the odd occasion, I don't know, the good news stories, they're very, very rarely, you know, really good news. Well today on the program it's a 'good news' story, not just a good news story, a great news story. In fact, not just a great news story, an absolutely fantastic news story. If you've been joining me on the program this week, what you'll know is that we've been talking about breaking free from the power of sin. Okay, there are people who think sin is some old-fashioned concept from an out of date Church but scratch below the surface, what you'll always find is that each one of us has things in our lives that we do or we say or we think, that have lousy consequences. Things that drag us down and rob us of life. And the worse they become, the more powerless we feel to change them. And in fact, powerless we are because they are addictions. So today's absolutely fantastic news is this; that there is power available, the power to change and it comes to us from a source that, perhaps, we may not expect. It's the power to have a fresh new life irrespective of what it is that the world's throwing at us. Power is something that people in this world seek after and abuse. You don't have to look very far to find that. There are the powerful and the powerless. So many people are oppressed by power but that's not the kind of power I'm talking about today. I'm talking about the power to change. The power to deal with things in our lives that rob us of life and that ruin the lives of those around us. Sin is shorthand for those things. Sin literally means to 'miss the mark' to 'miss the whole point of life'. The point of life is that God is the most amazing God. He wants to fill us with His joy and His peace and He wants us to live a life that glorifies Him. See, for me, when people talk to me about sin, for much of my life, I was so touchy about that. I cared so much what other people thought about me. I'd do anything to enhance my reputation. I'd lie, I'd cheat to get people to think better of me. I couldn't stand it when I didn't have the limelight. I couldn't stand it when other people succeeded and they got the limelight and they got the credit. Now maybe it's entirely different for you, we all have something different that we're addicted to. For me it was recognition and success and we need setting free from that stuff. Now I'm a tough-minded, hard-nosed businessman kind of guy but as much as I tried, I couldn't get away from that and I know it was ruining my life. I just didn't have it in me. I needed some power. Well today, I want to share with you where that power came from, I want to share with you actually through the words of the apostle Paul, yesterday we looked at what he wrote in Colossians chapter 2. I want to have a look at a different part of that today, this is truly powerful stuff. We're talking about breaking free from all that rubbish that robs us of life, God calls it sin, breaking free from the power of sin. How, if we don't have it in us, can we break free? Have a listen to what Paul writes; this comes from a really contemporary translation called The Message Translation 'cause I find it really easy to understand. I'm beginning at Colossians chapter 2, verse 2. I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know about God. Then you'll have minds confident and at rest, focused on Jesus, Gods great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else and we've been shown that mystery. I'm telling you this because I don't want anyone leading you off on some wild goose chase after some other so-called secrets. My counsel for you is simple and straight forward, just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Jesus Christ, now live in Him. You are deeply rooted in Him, you're well constructed upon Him, you know your way around the faith, now do what you've been taught. School's out, quit studying the subject and start living it and let your living spill over into thanksgiving. Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double talk, they want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that's not the way of Jesus. Everything of God gets expressed in Him so you can see and hear Him clearly. You don't need a telescope, a microscope, a horoscope to realise the fullness of Christ and the emptiness of the universe without Him." When you come to Him, that fullness comes together for you too, His power extends over everything. Entering into His fullness isn't something you figure out or achieve, it's not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you're already in, you're the insiders. Not through some secretive initiation rite but through what Jesus has already gone through destroying the power of sin. If it's an initiation ritual you're after, you've already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life, coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as He did Jesus. When you were stuck in your old dead life you were incapable of responding to God but now, God brought you a life, all your sins are forgiven, the slate is wiped clean. That old arrest warrant is cancelled and nailed to Christ's cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the cross and marched them naked through the streets. (Colossians 2: 2-15) You see what Paul is saying here? The power of sin has been defeated; the guilt, the condemnation, the power of addiction is completely disarmed because Jesus triumphed over them. Through His death we have forgiveness 'cause He paid the price. Through His resurrection we have new life. And that very same power that brought Jesus back to life is available to you and me. Do you believe? Do you believe in Jesus? Have you received Him? Well, now live in Him. See, we wander around feeling powerless and believing that we are powerless and that is a deception from the devil. It's like the devil is pointing a pistol to our heads but if you have a look inside, he's got no bullets in it. It's a lie. God gives us the same power that raised Jesus from the dead to change our lives. Paul writes that in Ephesians chapter 1, he says: I just pray for you that you would know, as you get to know God, the hope and the riches and the immeasurably great power He has for us who believe, the very same power that raised Christ from the dead. We don't have to rely on ourselves to change. I can't change me, I can't change you. You can't change you and you can't change me. The only one that can change us is God. And God has already given us everything we need. If we place our faith in Jesus we have forgiveness, the old arrest warrant has been torn up and nailed to the cross. And the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is given to us. There will be no breaking free from the power of sin until we believe that in our hearts. Next week we're going to look at really practical, day-to-day, ways of breaking free. But today, I want you to stand firm, I want you to claim this promise for yourself. Decide YES! The power of God is in me because I believe in Jesus and I have a new life.

It's funny but when we finally come to the realisation that the way we're living our lives – well, it's not working that well – the first thing we do, is we invent a bunch of rules to make our lives better.  And then we discover – they don't work either. By large the law is a good thing. I mean, sometimes it's an ass, sometimes you read of a judgement handed down by a judge and you think, "Wow, that's not fair!" But mostly, the law acts as a deterrent. Not always of course but when it comes down to our personal lives, our relationships – how we treat people, what we say – you know more and more, it seems like there are no rules. I was talking the other day with a young worker, a junior in the workplace where he works and the way that the boss treats people can be really appalling. And you know, it doesn't matter what industrial laws the government puts into place, the law can't stop that from happening. At the day-to-day relationship level, the law is pretty much useless in enforcing anything much except perhaps stopping violence and fraud, even then, it struggles. Rules and regulations aren't going to change our behaviour, that's the point. What they do is they tell us what's wrong. But somehow, there's no power in those rules and regulations to change who we are or how we behave. If we treat people badly, it seems like we're powerless to change it. Well, you know something; this is not some new revelation that I've just had, this has been around for a long, long time. See, it seems to me that we're powerless to change the dumb things we do so what we do is we invent religions and we add even more rules and regulations to our world as though that, somehow, is going to make a difference. You see how dumb that is! This bloke Paul, an apostle, (he wrote almost half of the New Testament) he looked around at the people and what they were doing as a new Church, as that Church was forming in the 1st century, and it struck him right between the eyes. Now Paul, Paul was an expert in the law, he was a Pharisee. He was a religious separatist. He followed the law of God to the 'nth' degree. He went to extremes. Now have a listen to what Paul wrote when he finally came to his senses. It's so important, if we're going to break the power that sin has over our lives, it comes from a book called Colossians in the New Testament, chapter 2. He says: And when you were dead in trespasses, God made you alive together with Him when He forgave us all our sins. Erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set it aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and the authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it. Therefore, don't let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or observing festivals or new moons or Sabbaths. They're only shadows over what is to come. The substance belongs to Jesus.  Don't let anyone disqualify you in insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels or dwelling on visions or being puffed up without cause by human way of thinking and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body is nourished. If with Christ you died to these basic spirits of the world, why do you live as though you still belong to the world? Why do you submit to these silly regulations? Don't handle! Don't taste! Don't touch! All these regulations refer to things that perish with use, they're simply human commands and teachings. They have the appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety and humility and severe treatment of the body but they're of no value in checking self-indulgence. (Colossians 2: 13-23) See how we invent rules. Paul's saying, "Look, you know you think you believe in God and all of a sudden people are saying do this, don't do that, eat this, don't eat that, go to this new moon festival" and he's saying, "this is stupid, these rules are not going to make it any better, they'll never do it." In fact elsewhere, Paul writes that, in a sense, the law only makes things worse because it serves to tell us where we're going wrong but provides no solution as to what to do about it. So many people are trapped in the consequences of their sin. So many people are struggling with things that are going wrong in their lives. And then they think, "Well, you know, umm, I've got to invent some rules and what will happen is, the rules will make it better." And you see this. You go to Churches sometimes and it's about rules. And Paul's saying, "Look, it's not about rules. When God nailed Jesus to the cross, He disarmed the rulers and the authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them." The answer in changing the sin in our lives is the victory that we have through Jesus Christ when He died on that cross, to pay for our sin and when He rose again to give us a new life. That's where it is. It doesn't come from inventing and living by a bunch of rules 'cause the rules only make things worse. Oh sure, they appear to be the answer, this is what he writes: These indeed have an appearance of wisdom but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence." So, what's the answer? Where do we start to discover that the power of sin is broken over our lives? Well in the first few verses of this passage we read, And when you were dead in your trespasses, God made you a life together with Him when He forgave us all our trespasses. Erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set it aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and the authorities and made a public example of them all. The answer is not in the law. The answer is grace. The answer is not in a bunch of rules. The thing that sets you and me free, the thing that unlocks the key that opens the door to a free life from the consequences of sin, is the fact that Jesus died on the cross. We're going to look at that in a whole bunch more detail in the next few days but for today, I just want to leave you with one word, the word is "grace". See, the record is erased. So many people are still carrying around the guilt of all the things they have done wrong. But while we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive again because He's forgiven us. Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe that Jesus died for you on the cross and rose again? If you do, you are forgiven! God has removed your sin from you, in fact, in the Old Testament it says: As far as the east is from the west, so far God has removed your transgressions from you. (Psalm 103:12) So many people are living at the bottom of a downward spiral and God has removed the one thing that pushes us further down that spiral, he has removed the guilt. Jesus paid for my sin and so I am forgiven. Jesus paid for your sin and so you are forgiven. There is no more guilt. There is no more condemnation. See the guilt and the condemnation is what holds us in bondage. We're free, that is profound and it's deep! Where the rules failed, grace triumphs. Paul writes in Romans chapter 6: For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under the rules anymore but you are under grace. (Romans 6:14) That's all we have time for today, we're going to pick up again on this tomorrow but can I just leave this with you? The key to the freedom from sin, the key to seeing the power of sin broken in my life and your life is grace; Gods grace, the grace we have in Jesus Christ.

So many people on this planet are living so deeply in the debt of their – well, their sin – that they've forgotten that all along, God has a plan 'A' for their lives.  A glorious, wonderful, Plan 'A.' Most of us would be familiar with the term "downward spiral". The sense that things are heading inexorably downwards. And whilst we have quite a few "up" times in our lives, one of the things you get a sense of when you talk to people is that many, many are experiencing this downward spiral. A sense almost that their quality of life, whatever that may mean for each of them, is slipping away. That whilst things maybe going fine on the outside, inside life seems to be draining down the plug hole. This week on the program we're talking about "Breaking Free from the Power of Sin" and for many that will be a phrase that doesn't seem to relate to what they're experiencing on the inside. But, in fact, it has everything, everything to do with it. Because, as we've seen over the last few days, the way that we live our lives has consequences. And so many people are heading so far down that spiral. It's hard for them to imagine there's another way. It's hard to imagine that there was, in fact, some time in the dim distant past, a time when they were on top of that spiral. It's hard to begin to imagine as we're living out this terrible plan B, that God had a plan A all along. And as we head down that spiral, the longer we spend further down the spiral the more we want to hang on to that rubbish that we're living down there, for dear life. I want to introduce you to a passage of Scripture today, Colossians chapter 3, that we're going to have a bit of a look at today but a more detailed look over the next few days. It's about how to break the power of sin. "Okay, okay, I've sinned in my life and yes I'm addicted. Yes I admit it, yes it has power over me. Yes there are consequences that are robbing me of life itself but what do I do about it? How do I get out of this mess? If I accept my life is a mess and a lot of that mess is my own doing, what can I do about it now?" Have a listen to this fabulous wisdom. It comes from Gods word, it's written by the apostle Paul a couple of thousand years ago, if you have your own copy, Colossians chapter 3 in the New Testament, beginning at verse 1. He says this: If you've been raised with Christ (in other words, if you believe in Jesus) then start looking for the things that are above. Seek those where Jesus is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on this earth. You're dead to those and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Jesus, who is your life, is revealed then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed. On account of those, God's wrath is coming on those who are disobedient. (Colossians 3: 1-6)  See, it's not enough for us to know what the problem is; we have to know how to deal with it. What we're going to see, over the next few weeks, is that Gods plan is that we don't have to do it on our own. In fact, we can't. It's His power that sets things right. But where do we step off? How do you and I take our step into a partnership with God that changes things? See, we're so locked in the here and now, we're so locked in our current patterns of thinking and behaviour and addictions. Now Jesus died to set us free from that. Jesus died so that you and I could be forgiven. And we can believe that and yet, still not know where to begin in seeing the power of sin broken over our lives. Here in this passage, Paul tells us where to begin: If you believe in Jesus, seek the things that are above! Set your mind on those things, not on the things that are here on this earth 'cause you're dead to those and your life is hidden with Christ in God. See, we hang onto the things we can see. We grip onto them. You know, maybe it's selfishness, maybe it's anger that's your particular sin, maybe it's gluttony, maybe it's sexual immorality. We kind of hang on to them so tight that they end up reaching their dark tentacles in our heart. And they grip us and they have a power over us and we're addicted to them. We can't get rid of them, they're too strong. But what we can do is we can make a decision of the heart today, to listen to what Paul says here. 'If I actually believe in God, I am going to start seeking the things that are above where Jesus is. I'm going to lift my gaze from all this stuff that I thought was important here in the world and begin to look at my Jesus. This Jesus who hung on that cross, nailed to the cross, suffering, brutalised, crucified, dying for me. That's where my focus is going to be. I can't deal with the stuff that's going on in my life. I can't change that. I'm addicted to this stuff but what I can do is I can lift my gaze to Jesus. I can shift my focus from the stuff down here that I thought was important, to Jesus who really is'. That's a huge thing. Today I can decide, I can do that instead of focusing on my stuff, to focus on Him. 'I want you God, not me. I want your reign and your power, I want your will in my life not my own despotic little life. I want so much more God, I just don't know how'. Imagine if you just took these three short verses and 20 minutes every day for a week, just spend some time reading and praying just about them. Let me tell you something, your God will show up, absolutely He will. I was talking with someone the other day, he was a great bloke, ordinary, everyday kind of person but struggling with a relationship. The problem he was having was forgiveness. This other person was doing things to hurt him and this guy would struggle and complain and blame. You know the cycle, we've all been there. So we talked for a while. And we all have difficult people in our lives and what ruins our lives is not so much them, it's how we react to them. Peter said to Jesus: How often to I have to forgive this person, 7 times? And Jesus said, "No, no, no, 77 times. Over and over again until forgiveness works, we know it does. Unforgiveness robs us of Gods forgiveness. Jesus taught that over and over and over again. Unforgiveness is like, well, it's like a cancer. And so this man and I were talking about this and yet you could see he was struggling. We get in that place and we want to hang on to unforgiveness. This man, I was talking to, saw the sense of what I was saying but you could see it in his eyes, the struggle of having to let go. The struggle of finally forgiving the other person. We're addicted to sin, sin has a power over us. And you know what we do? We hear a message like this and we think, 'that applies to everyone else except us'. We do. And yet it does apply to us. Sin robs us of life, it's powerful stuff, we need God's power to deal with it. So right now, right now, you and I can make a decision to take the first step. If you believe in Jesus, start seeking things that are above where Christ is seated. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on this earth. And before you know it, before you know it, God begins to step in. God is in that place with us; His power breaks the power of sin.

We live in a world of cause and effect. You spend more than you earn, you end up in debt. Cause and effect. So how come, well why is it that you and I are such masters of self-deception when it comes to the consequences of our…sin. We live in a world of cause and effect. We know that; you work, you earn, your bank balance goes up. You buy, you spend, your bank balance goes down. Cause and effect. You spend more than you earn, you go broke. You earn more than you spend, you have savings. Simple. Cause and effect. You break the law, you go to jail, at least that's the theory. You obey the law, you stay free. Cause and effect. But when it comes to how we live our lives, how we behave and think and speak and act, we're pretty good at denying the effect from the cause, at least I am. "Oh look, I know I was rude to him but, but he deserved it!" Never mind it ruined a relationship. Never mind it injured the person. Never mind that it undermined his self-esteem and that had an impact on the way he brought up his kids. Cause and effect; oh never mind. It's true, isn't it? Cause and effect is alive and well but when it comes to us violating the laws of cause and effect, we are only too ready to make excuses for ourselves. Well no matter how many excuses we make, cause and effect rolls inexorably on. You can't avoid it, it just does. None of us likes to talk too much about consequences but it's the consequences of the dumb things we get up to that gives sin it's power. I'm going to come back to the title of this series that we're going through this week and next week, it's called "Breaking Free from the Power of Sin". See sin is not some old-fashioned concept of moralising, it simple means this; to miss the mark, to miss the point of life. And see, when we talk about breaking free from the power of sin, I'm assuming that sin has some power, that this whole kind of lemming-type desire we have to miss the whole point of life is powerful and addictive. You know I believe that each one of us is addicted to something. There's some form of sin that's just our sin, our weakness that robs us of life. The heroin addict knows that it's bad for them, knows that it's ruining their lives but the addiction is so powerful. They want to do something about it but they can't because they're addicted. You may have heard of the seven deadly sins; lust, gluttony, greed, laziness, anger, envy and pride. And my hunch is, each one of us relates to at least one of those in our lives. And like the heroin addict, we kind of know they have consequences. We know they're ruining our lives, we just can't do anything about them. If your particular weakness is laziness, you know you never achieve anything. You know that you don't invest in relationships. You know you don't get a sense of fulfilment out of life. If it's anger you know anger ruins relationships. If its pride you realise that you can't work closely with other people. If it's gluttony, well that's obvious. There are consequences. We can't deny them. Have a listen to the consequences of sin the apostle Paul writes about. Romans chapter 6, beginning at verse 13, he says: Don't present your members, your body, to sin as instruments of wickedness but instead, present yourselves to God as those who've been brought from death to life and present your body to God as an instrument of goodness and righteousness. Sin will have no dominion over you since you are no longer under the law but under grace. What then? Should we sin because we're not under the law but under grace? Absolutely not! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as an obedient slave, you are slaves of the one whom you obey? Either of sin, which leads to death or of obedience which leads to Gods goodness and righteousness. But thanks be to God that you, once having been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you have been entrusted. And that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. So what advantage did you get from those things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now, now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is God's holiness and sanctification. The end of that is eternal life. You see the wages of sin are death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6: 13-23) Paul uses the analogy of slavery. Well maybe we wouldn't use that in the same way today. Maybe the analogy we might use is addiction. There's this concept with sin, that we're in bondage to it and if we go the way of sin and rebellion and all that stuff we know is rubbish and wrong. You end up being a slave to it. You end up being addicted to it, the way a heroine addict is addicted to that needle and that heroin pumping in their veins. The wages of that, the outcome, the consequences of that is death. See, there are so many people who are trapped in a downward spiral of consequences. Trapped, they can't get out, it doesn't matter how hard they try. And mostly we all try at some point and then we give up because it's too hard. We roll over and we accept the reality and we say, "Well you know, I'm just an angry person. That's it, nothing I can do about it. I know it's ruining my marriage but there you go!" The wage of sin is death. There are consequences today and eternally. Today, so many people are like the living dead. They're robbed of the fulfilment that God's goodness brings. It's what righteousness means; integrity, purity, goodness. The power of sin is the addiction that traps us in the consequences and at some point, at some point we have to decide: enough is enough. At some point we have to wake up and say, "I can't do this anymore." A former prisoner and drug addict wrote to me recently, this is what she said, "I'm 36, I'm a sole parent of 4 lovely kids. I lived a life of drugs and crime and wait for it, all sorts of sin for 20 years. Finally, in 2005 I ended up in jail, been there 3 times now. A year ago in my cell I finally threw my arms in the air and called out to God, "I give up, I've tried to do what I thought was right, I can't do this life anymore, I'm yours." See, if you were expecting me to talk about being a better person in this series, you'd be wrong. We've all tried that, it don't work. It just doesn't, right? Because sin is more powerful than you and me. We're drawn inexorably to it like a moth to a flame and the consequences destroy our lives. So what are we going to do about it? You, me, come on let's get real here. What sin are you hanging onto so hard that you can't let go of and it's robbing you of life? Over the next few weeks on the program, we're going to show you how you can get your life back. Not in our own strength, can't do that, but in God's. First we have to decide to let go, you know we hang onto something real strong and the problem is its like hanging onto lead weights. We either have to paddle real hard and that's exhausting and ultimately we end up drowning. That's why Paul writes, "The wage of sin is death." All those little compromises are a foot-hold for the devil, like a bull into a china shop. He wreaks havoc in our lives and those compromises are like opening the door and inviting him in. Now the mistake we make is we think that applies to everyone else except us.

There's a great swindle, a great con going on in our society – and in part, we're all being conned.  It goes like this – if you look after numero uno – everything else will be fine.  We know it doesn't work, but somehow we still want to believe it. Today … today we're starting a new series that, I have to warn you, the devil does not want you to hear. In fact he'll do anything he can to keep you away from what we're going to be talking about over these coming few days and in fact next week as well. Why? Because if we let loose in our hearts and our lives, the thing that we're going to be talking about, it is going to mess up his game plan for your life and for mine, big time. Well, what are we going to talk about? The subject is this, Breaking Free from the Power of Sin. That's the name of the series: Breaking Free from the Power of Sin. See, I have this crazy notion that God means, for you and me, to live not just a good life, not just a great life but an utterly sensational life. What I don't mean is that each one of us should live in a mansion with 2 Merc's in the garage. What I don't mean is that everything in life will go well, always healthy, live to a ripe old age. It doesn't work. Life's not like that. But what I do mean is that, come what may, God means for us to live a life of joy and peace and fulfilment and contentment. The question is; how do you get that life? Problem is there's a big con being perpetrated in this world today. The big con of this world is that what you do is you earn, you spend, you buy. That'll give you all those things. The big con is that you look after number 1 and everything else will be fine. You and I know it doesn't work. We know that it's a big con but it's a big con that we really, really, really want to swallow, hook, line and sinker And then some joker comes along and talks about sin and you think, "Well you have got to be kidding me. We're not in medieval times, we're not in the 1950's. This is the 21st century. Sin? Oh please, what planet are you living on?" What does sin conjure up in your mind? Some old-fashioned, moralising, finger-pointing, self-righteousness. That might have worked in the dim dark ages but don't try that religion stuff on me today buddy! Sin, how gullible do you think I am? Crimson clad clergy pointing their bony fingers at me. Get out of here! Hmm, you might wonder, how is it that Berni can articulate this position so passionately? And well, the answer is this: it's one that I held for most of my life. Religion's a bunch of rules; I don't need a bunch of rules. Sin is an old-fashioned concept, that's it, buzz off! And yet, if we were completely honest with ourselves, each one of us would admit we do things and we think things and we say things that hurt us, that ruin our lives. What we don't often realise is how much they ruin our lives. Ever asked yourself exactly what sin is? Is it an out dated concept or is it real. And does it have consequences. And is it the thing that's robbing me of a full and satisfying life? Sin is one of the most frequently used words in the Bible, 486 times – 486. There is kind of various concepts but at the heart of it is this notion that God is perfect and that we've rebelled against God and we've broken His law and that will bring punishment. That's the kind of "sin" thing in a nutshell and I guess that's it for many people. You mention sin and that's what it conjures up; rules, religion, moralising and who needs that? Rebellion against God, well it is that, it's all of those things. But I don't know, my hunch is, giving where we are today maybe that's not the best place to start to really understand what sin means because we've been conned. See, I used to go scuba diving when I was younger and what you discover when you want to go scuba diving is we were made to float, we weren't made to sink. You jump in the ocean or any body of water and you'll float. And when you put on diving gear you float all the more because your wetsuit is very buoyant. So what the diver does is he or she straps weights to their body. It helps them to sink, that's what they want to do, it works for a diver and these weights are these ugly old lumps of lead that you strap on. I look back on my life, a life of sin for the most part and it was like I was bobbing around in the ocean. All these boats would sail by. All these different shapes and sizes and people would bend over the side and offer me this and that. This ball, that trinket. "Oh yes please, I'll have that one and that one and that one and that attitude and that selfishness and this ambition and this desire. Oh yes please!" But actually, what they were was lead weights only they'd been dressed up to look attractive. And you don't have to be Einstein to figure it out. The more I took on, then the more I started to sink. That's the big con and then, because we're not made to sink, we frantically thrash around with our arms and legs to get back to the surface because we're drowning. We're not made to drown. Interesting, God's word talks about that. Over and over again He talks about sin as this concept of missing the mark. It's the image of an archer shooting at a target and missing. Literally, what the word means is "to miss the point". That's how we'd say it today. People are drowning on mass because they're missing the point. Have a listen to this. It's what the apostle Paul writes about sin, he says: Don't deceive yourselves! If you think that you're wise in this age, well you're going to have to become fools in order to become wise because the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. It's written, 'He catches the wise in their craftiness' and again the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile. (1 Corinthians 3:18-31) See, we think we're clever. We think that with our sophisticated economic systems and share portfolios and cable television and electronic gadgets. We think we're so clever. In this context, Paul was talking about quarrels and factions – earthly wisdom as opposed to God's wisdom. See the earthly wisdom is "win", get on top, be number 1, that's the wisdom of this world. And okay, we dress it up to make is look respectable but at its core, it's rotten. Contrast that with God's wisdom, James chapter 3, verse 17: But the wisdom from above (God's wisdom) is first pure then peaceable, gentle; willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits without a trace of hypocrisy. Do you see the difference, the contrast? Here's the con. We trade in the good and wondrous things of God, the diamonds if you will, for the stones or the lead weights of this world. Our attitude of selfishness, anger disputes, horrible things that people do to one another. We justify those through this whole "number 1" mentality because we've been sold that con. We've swallowed it hook, line and sinker and yet, those are the things that are like lead weights, those are the things that make us sink to the bottom. And it's exhausting because we're not made to sink to the bottom. Finally, one day I got it. Sin wasn't some old-fashioned, moralising from an irrelevant Church. Not that. It's here, it's now. It's important, it's vital. It was something that was ruining my life. And at some point we have to do something about it otherwise we spend the rest of our lives missing the point and eventually we drown.

The vow people make when they get married is to be with their soul mate until the end. And yet almost half of all marriages fail. So, given those human frailties, sometimes we expect God to desert us too – but it just doesn't work that way. I'm someone who, by and large, enjoys their own company; I don't need a lot of people around me. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy being with people but I don't need a lot of company, if that makes sense. Even so, you and I are made to be with people and the worst thing in the world is when we find ourselves completely alone. Oh we can be surrounded by a crowd; sure, we can be in the middle of a huge crowd and yet, still be completely alone. I've been there a few times in my life and it is the most awful feeling, to feel cut off from everyone; having nobody that you can share with or connect with or be with. But the reality is that, every now and then in life, we can find ourselves in that place and it's chillingly cold and lonely. That's because we're social creatures, we're just made to be with other people, to connect with people. That's why most people end up married, to fulfil the desire for a soul mate. When I set out on a journey with God, when I first accepted Him, Jesus as my saviour, I was always afraid that I'd lose Him. It was a feeling that, for a long time, didn't go away, sometimes I'd experience the joy of His presence and other times, it felt like He'd left me and those times were times of panic. The reality is, I didn't understand who He is; His nature and His promises. Over these last couple of weeks we've been looking at the promises we can depend on, promises from God. It's so important to know that no matter what we're going through or what the world's throwing at us or how we're feeling, the promises that God makes in His word are rock solid. You know don't you that our feelings, our emotions, they go up and down depending on our hormones or how tired we are or our circumstances or just the natural ebb and flow of our emotions. On top of that there's a spiritual dimension. Make no mistake about it, the devil is alive and well, he knows that the joy of the Lord is my strength and he'll do everything he can to rob me of that joy. He thinks if he can rob me of my joy, he'll rob me of my strength. Last week on the program we looked at God's promises, that He does have a plan for our lives, that He'll provide for us, that He'll comfort us and protect us and forgive us and this week we've been looking at some of the promises about His character. Who He is, that He's slow to anger, that He's abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, that He's able and willing to help us. Today, we're going to finish off this series of ten programs called, "Promises I Can Depend On" with a final promise that He will always be with us. There was a time in Israel's history, they'd been led out of slavery in Egypt through the Red Sea, they'd spent 40 years in the Exodus, led by Moses in the desert and Moses had died and they're about to cross over into the Promised Land. You can read about it at the end of the book of Deuteronomy and at the beginning of the book of Joshua in the Old Testament. It was a trying time because Moses, their leader of 40+ years was dead, they're about to cross over the Jordan River into this Promised Land and they know they're going to have to fight battle after battle after battle, war after war, to take the Promised Land. It was a scary time and three times God makes this one particular promise to them. Let me read them to you, Deuteronomy chapter 31, verse 6. He says: Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified because of them (these people in the land) for the Lord your God goes with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Two verses later, Deuteronomy 31:8: The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged. And then, over the page in Joshua chapter 1, verse 5: "No-one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you." He says Joshua, "I will never leave you nor forsake you". See, when we know we're headed for stormy waters as Israel was at that point, the most important thing we need to know, at least I do, is that God is with me and this is how God treats His people, He says: I will never leave you nor forsake you. Do you know what never means? Never means never. Jesus, just before He ascends to heaven, remember all they'd been through, the tumultuous days of the betrayal and the crucifixion and the resurrection and now He's going to return who knows when. What does He say to His disciples, Matthew chapter 28? Surely I am with you always even until the very end of this age. These are promises that God makes to Gods people, these are promises that God makes to people, ordinary everyday people like you and me who have said, "you know something God; you're my God. I'm sorry, please forgive me, I've stuffed up so many things in my life, I want to turn away from those, I accept you as my God". These are promises God made to His people, not to someone who's kind of drifted off, not to someone who's intent on doing their own thing, living the life of Riley, pleasing themselves, thumbing their nose at God. They're not promises for those people, these are promises that God makes to His people, imperfect as they all are, to Israel, to the disciples, to you and me if we believe in Jesus. People with a heart to follow after God, to be about His business, to honour Him. I, over my life, have lived through quite a lot of turmoil, lots and before Jesus in my life; I lived through that turmoil completely alone. Today, today I still travel through the odd turmoil and tempest, hand in hand though with my God. I know that I am never left alone, ever, because this is an unbreakable promise, it's "God has said He will be with me even until the end of the age". It seems that every week brings a new challenge in this ministry. Do you know, here at Christianityworks we produce hundreds of programs a year, all written and voiced by yours truly. We have to raise finances to support that, there are generous donors, there are often financial challenges, often resource challenges, often people or organisations who inexplicably want to come against us in what we're doing. And initially I thought, "no, it will be easy", it's not like that. Yet, what I get to do amidst a storm and a tempest is to quietly walk through it in faith. You know why? I know I don't always get it right, what I do know is that my God is always with me. To correct me when I get it wrong, to soften my heart if it grows hard. To give me strength and courage when I have to stand against something that's wrong. To give me compassion and understanding to deal with those who need my help, to give me wisdom when I just don't know what to do next. To provide when I don't know where it's coming from. The more we reach out and touch people with the love of Christ, the more the devil wants to stop us, to attack us, to divide us. And every day I get up and say, "Lord, I don't know what today will bring but Lord, bless those people who'll listen to the program today. Bless them, touch them, hold them and thank You for being with me to guide me and hold me and protect me as I get about your work". In fact, I would encourage you to read the first 9 or 10 verses of the 1st chapter of Joshua and to take them and lay them on your heart, where God says: No-one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I'll be with you. I will never leave you or forsake you. God is a God who is for His people and with His people and He holds us and protects us and above all, above all He is always there, always someone we can turn to in any and every situation. To pray is to ask; to pray is to thank Him. I am with you, I will never leave or forsake you. It's a promise from God, it's a promise that you and I can depend on.

It's great that God is God. But is He willing to step in and help? Is He able to step in and help?  I mean – when it really counts.  Well, let's meet some people who can answer those questions firsthand. Do you recognise these words? Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, look up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman! Yes, it's Superman, strange visitor from another planet who came to earth with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Superman, who can change the course of mighty rivers, bend steel with his bare hands and who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild mannered reporter for the Great Metropolitan newspaper, fights the never ending battle for truth, justice and the American way. I don't know about you but I grew up watching superman every afternoon after school on our old black and white television. There was something, something awesome about this Superman who was able to do all these super human things, things that I couldn't do. As I look back on it now, it was kind of a comfort, something that I wanted to be part of, in this "superman" thing, this man of steel. He was so strong, so invincible, awesome to a young boy growing up. Superman, in that series, was played by a man called George Reeves. They recorded 104 episodes in the series between 1952 and 1957. It went from black and white to colour in 1954 but between 1.30am and 2.00am on the 16th of June 1959, Superman, George Reeves was dead. Just 3 months and 1 day after I was born. Little did I know, as a young boy watching these re-runs, that this hero of mine, superman was already dead. What happened? Well they found George Reeves dead, lying across his bed, naked and face up with his feet on the floor. The position was attributed to Reeves sitting on the edge of the bed when he shot himself after which time his body fell back on the bed and the 9m Lugar pistol fell between his feet on the ground. The front page headline of the New York Post that day read: TV SUPERMAN KILLS HIMSELF. What's my point? Well, I think that we all want to believe in some power for good that's bigger and stronger than us, some overall power for good that we can absolutely depend upon like, well like superman. But ultimately, most of us come to the conclusion that there's no such thing. Superman was a sham; superman shot himself. There can't ever be such a power. Even God, look at all the dumb and horrible and criminal things that have been done in the name of God over the centuries. People claim this and that about God but well, what does God claim about God? What does the evidence say? Is He just another sham like superman or is there something there? Over these last couple of weeks on the program we've been doing a series that I've called 'Promises I Can Depend On' and the question is, is God just like superman, when we grow up you discover it was a kids fantasy at best, a sham at worst? Or is there something more? Even in the days when I was running away from God, which has been most of my life, the one thing that always spoke in my heart about Him was when I managed to get away from the lights and the smog of the city in which I lived and at night I'd wander out and look up at the stars, the milky way, millions of stars – awesome! Actually they're just a handful of the stars, there's a trillion in the milky way but so far we know of a trillion, trillion. I could never look on that awesome sight without somehow knowing, in my heart, that God was God and He was the most mighty and powerful force for good, beyond anything that I could ever have imagined. Maybe that's what prompted the apostle Paul to write this to his friends in Rome: Ever since the creation of the world, Gods eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things that He has made. But it's one thing to think of a God so great He can create the universe but what about me? Is this God willing and able to help me? We're going to look at the stories of some men today who can tell us first hand. A leper and then some blind men, people who, because of their diseases, were outcast, poor and destitute. First the leper: A man with leprosy came to Jesus and begged Him on his knees, "If you're willing you can make me clean" and filled with compassion, Jesus reached out His hand and touched the leper, He said, "I am willing, be clean." Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. In effect, the leper asked Jesus, "are you willing?" And Jesus replied, "I am, I am willing". He says it, He does it. Now, the blind men: When Jesus entered the house some blind men came to Him and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe I am able to do this?" And they said to Him, "Yes Lord" and then He touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith, let it be done to you" and their eyes were opened. To the leper He is willing and as it turns out, able. To the blind men He is able and as it turns out, willing. I think it's fantastic, wonderful, stupendous that God created the universe, this vastness beyond any imagination, any comprehension and yet a complexity and an intricacy and a beauty that's way beyond our understanding. See, what that tells me, the universe, is that God is able but it's when He reaches out and He touches the leper and the blind men, that's when we discover that He's willing as well as able. That's when the power of God comes to you and to me. That's when we hear Him whisper into our hearts, "I am willing, I am able". When I look back on my walk, from a kind of a vague distant belief in perhaps this mighty God, who made the universe and moving from that to a deep belief in the God who is willing and able to work His miracles in me, the thing that changed me was reading about how He works, God's word and like the blind men, believing and then seeing those miracles rort in me. The changes, from this man who only ever wanted to be rich or only ever wanted stuff for himself, to becoming someone who now, all I want is to share Gods love with you. That's like a complete 180 degree turn and it's not because I'm some wonderful guy, it's because of the miracles God has rort in me. The passion that you hear in my voice, that's beating in my heart, that only comes from Him. Listen to His promises: I am willing, I am able. No matter what confronts us, those promises stand. God is saying to you and to me today, "I am willing, I am able". Not some hollow fantasy, not some superman who shoots himself dead but the God who created the whole universe, a powerful reality, a willing God, an able God. A God who comes to you and me with promises that we can depend on.

Trustworthy people – people who stick by you through thick and thin can be few and far between. God on the other hand – He has an abundance – an abundance of steadfast love and faithfulness. Yesterday on the program we started talking about trust, people we can trust. And God, can we actually trust Him? It's a big question, let's say God's all powerful, let's say He can actually do anything He wants to do. Well that could be bad news instead of good news if what He wants to do is punish us every time we take a step out of line, if He's just a nasty old piano teacher that wraps you over your knuckles with a ruler every time you play a wrong note, that is definitely not good news and what we looked at yesterday is this promise from God about himself, this is what He says. It comes from the book of Exodus chapter 34: The Lord your God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Keeping His steadfast love for the 1,000th generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. That's interesting, this promise of being slow to anger appears quite a few times and it's always accompanied by these words; not only is He slow to anger but He is "...abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." And it's that steadfast love that we're going to take a look at today, it's that steadfast love that's the flip side of the coin that has the "slow to anger" on the front of it. I was talking to a young person recently and he's gone to take up an apprenticeship as a motor mechanic. A young boy, who had struggled at school, wasn't academic but he was great with his hands. Anyhow he takes up this apprenticeship and what he discovered was that his employers were great trainers, they really invested in him and he learned a lot but every now and then the boss would explode, lash out at his staff, get angry at the smallest thing. Do you see the conflict? On the one hand the boss invests a lot in these apprentices, He's in it for the long haul. He takes them through thick and thin. And yet, on the other hand, the guy's got a short fuse and he's not slow to anger. And that places immediate conflict in the minds of these apprentices. In his anger he would lash out and say stupid things like, 'I'm going to sack you and get rid of you' and rob them of their sense of security even though he never intended to get rid of them, even though his history was actually going the distance with his apprentices. The conflict arises in the apprentices mind and heart because being slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love are two sides of the one coin. One is a part of the other, you can't really be abounding in steadfast love and yet have a short fuse. "Steadfast" is not a word that we use that much these days but it's a great word. It means, "rock solid", it means "unfailing", it means "something that will stand fast through the storms", something you can absolutely rely on, on the bad days as well as the good days. Now I want to go back and look at the circumstances that this promise was given. It was given to Moses who was heading up Israel at the time and they'd just come out of Egypt. He'd brought them through the Red Sea, they'd seen amazing miracles done to the Pharaoh and to the Egyptians and the parting of the Red Sea and then it came crashing down on the Egyptians and destroyed the Egyptian army. Amazing stuff and yet, the moment they get to the other side, the moment they find themselves in the desert, what do they do? They start to grumble. Anyway Moses goes up to Mt Sinai and he received from God two tablets – not pills, tablets – stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments. But while he's up there the people down in the valley, are making an idol, a golden calf. That's an offence to God 'cause they go and worship this other thing instead of worshipping God. Moses comes down, sees that, smashes the tablets with the Ten Commandments on them, Gods not happy with them, Moses is not happy with them. And so eventually he goes back up a second time to get the Law from God again and just as he gets up there, this is the promise that's given to him. The Lord passes before him and proclaims, "The Lord, your God is a merciful and gracious God. Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the 1,000th generation, FORGIVING the people their iniquity and transgression and sin. Yet by no means clearing the guilty but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children's children, to the third and fourth generations. See, what this says is, God is slow to anger. He's abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness and He will keep that love to the 1,000th generation. You know that's an awfully long time, if a generation is roughly 25 years, He's talking 25,000 years. Where as iniquity and sin is only visited to the third or fourth generation. This God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin but if we keep on and on and on in it, by no means clearing the guilty. You know what this promise means; that God will hang in there for us, He is "abounding in steadfast love", that's an over the top statement. I love this 'abounding' thing. I walk past a florist shop and there's all these flowers and smells and beauty and life, that's abundance. I sit down to a really warm hearty meal on a cold winter's night, that's abundance. There's an overflowing, there's a "more than enoughness" of His steadfast, rock solid love that goes on to 1,000 generations. See, this promise comes in the face of a people who, the moment Moses turns his back, start making idols for themselves, turning their backs on God. See this is about mercy, this is about grace, this is about God being slow to anger. That is definitely an abundance of steadfast love. God knows we're going to make mistakes, the name Israel means literally, "to struggle with God" and the whole of the Old Testament is the story of how this nation, Gods chosen people, Israel, struggled with God. He knows that, He knows that you and I are going to stumble; He knows that you and I are going to make mistakes and some days we'll even fall flat on our faces. He knows that. And at those times, here is the promise of God, it's the same promise He made to Israel in the face of their sin, "I am slow to anger, I am full of mercy and grace and I am abounding in steadfast love towards you". That … that is a promise that you and I can depend on, it's rock solid. And let me tell you why it's so important, because when we fail, which we do, God doesn't fail. When we desert Him, God doesn't desert us. That is so amazing, that is so hard to get our minds around. You see, sin is a two sided transaction, it separates us on God's side because He is a good and holy and perfect God and it separates us on our side through our sin. God is righteous. He made you and me in our image and so when we reject Him, He can't accept us until we're forgiven and that's what Jesus Christ did on the cross. He paid the price and grace is a double sided transaction because it opens the door to God and removes our sense of guilt. God is full of grace and mercy and slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. He is ready to forgive, that's who God is, that's why in Hebrews we read: For we will not have a high priest who's unable to sympathise with our weaknesses but one who, in every respect, has been tested as we are but was without sin. Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. God is abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. That my friend is a promise you and I can depend on.

All too often these days, people fly off the handle. We're under pressure, all this stuff happening – so we just react.  But there's a promise of God that runs in completely the opposite direction to that. It's amazing these days how quick people are to fly off the handle. Just recently on the evening news I was listening to reports of a man in his fifties who murdered his wife and his two grandchildren with an axe. What drives people to do that? And it's not just axe murderers, you look around there's road rage, there's supermarket rage, people are under so much pressure they just snap. And there seems to be precious little grace and tolerance in this world. You know maybe, maybe I sound a bit pessimistic but so much of our interactions with other people is moving away from the gentle pace of close relationships to the frenetic pace of a transaction orientated world; from the quiet chat with the owner of the corner store just down the end of the street to the "beep, beep, beep" of the bar code scanner at the supermarket. And as we're squeezed into this battery hen cage, our expectation is that, that other people become just like us, that the anger and the tension and the pressure, well that's just the norm, it's the way things are. People are angry and the more we live our lives in that reality the more our image of God changes – well surely He must be angry too. Over the years I have sadly been a person who possesses a short fuse. It's something that finds its roots in my personality. I'm a "goal" orientated "outcome" orientated person who always wants to do my very best. In fact you could say that I've had to be delivered of being a perfectionist. Nothing wrong with that until the arrogance of perfectionism creeps in. Something that Gods really had to deal with me in is this whole issue of rolling over the top of people and it's not been easy for me to let that go. See the upside of having a personality like that is you get things done. The down side is you do roll over people, bang, bang, bang, quick decisions, quick actions, get it done, leave a trail of destruction of broken relationships in my path. That was the pattern of my life before coming to faith in Jesus Christ 13 years ago and as I said, it's the main thing that God's had to deal with me, to take me from the arrogance to humility, from hatred to love, from perfectionism to compassion. Been a big journey, it's a journey that continues. So given that, it's really easy for me to think of God as well, being like me, as being a grumpy old man with a big stick. The more we get to know Him the more we realise how far we fall short of who He is and the more we depend of His grace. I think that's the way it's meant to be but you know something, it's not meant to be a guilt trip. I know I fall short of the glory of God and if He's some grumpy old man with a stick, there's no good news in that. It's bad news. And yes, God is a God of judgement; yes, one day there will be a day of reckoning and yet, every day I fall short in some way, every day I stuff something up and if I think of God as being this old grumpy man with a big stick, well holy good night! What sort of life is that going to be. It's kind of weird; Proverbs chapter 1 beginning at verse 7 says this: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. But that doesn't mean we spend the rest of our lives running scared under some sort of campaign of fear and tyranny from God. In fact it's meant to be the exact opposite. God is a God of grace, I am forgiven freely, you are forgiven freely because Jesus paid that price for you and me on the cross. All we have to do is to believe that. It's the same for you as it is for me but believing is tough if we still harbour this secret "grumpy old man with a big stick" image of God. This week and last on the program we've been working our way through a 10 part series that I've called, "Promises I Can Depend On' and one of the most important ones, one we're going to look at today, speaks directly into this 'grumpy old man' image, this reality. Here it is, it's repeated over and over again in His word. The first time it appears is when God passes before Moses and this is what He says to Moses: The Lord your God is a merciful and gracious God. Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Keeping steadfast love to the 1,000th generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. Yet by no means clearing the guilty but visiting their iniquity upon their children and their children's children to the third and fourth generation and Moses quickly bowed down his head towards the earth and worshipped God. Isn't it really interesting? Tells us a lot about God, God is saying about Himself, "I am merciful and gracious and slow to anger". Let's just think about this "slow to anger" thing for a minute. How contrary it is to what we experience in our world today, a world that lives on a short fuse, everybody's racing around, everybody's under pressure and stress. Slow to anger people are actually quite hard to find and when we do, aren't they wonderful? We do something wrong or fall short in that relationship, they don't jump down our throats, they don't cut us off, they don't belittle us and humiliate us and they don't punish us. Well, God is slow to anger, that's what He's like. As He told Moses, ultimately He will act, ultimately, if we continue rebelling against Him. He will act but He is slow to anger and that gives us space and time to change. That's safety, that's security, that's a promise of God, Gods saying, "I am merciful and gracious, I am slow to anger". Instead of exacting His punishment straight away, instead of that He comes to us in mercy and in grace, in steadfast love and faithfulness that abounds through to the 1,000th generation. We don't deserve any of that, I know I fall short of the glory of God and you do too. But it's not about what we deserve, it's about who He is and He has made an unbreakable promise: I am merciful and gracious, I am slow to anger. That's a promise that you and I can depend on; when we're living through the consequences of our own stupidity, while we're in that place, when those consequences are lashing at us with a fearsome storm, that's okay 'cause it doesn't change who God is. He is still merciful and gracious and slow to anger and as we'll see, over the next few days, ready to forgive. That changes a whole bunch of things for me. God, my God, is not some grumpy old man with a big stick that's just sitting there waiting to whack me over the knuckles the first time I step out of line. In fact it's the complete opposite. At the end of the day God is a just God. That's why He gives us His Son, to pay the price for you and me on that cross and through the cross. Because His just anger towards you and me was poured out on Jesus Christ on that cross, we're forgiven. God is slow to anger! Just let it sink in, just sit there and think it through. God, who could snuff you and me out in a second, in an instant, that God is full of grace and mercy, He is slow to anger. Now that, that's a promise that you and I can depend on.

When we hit the odd bump in the road, it's great to know that there's someone that we can call on. Someone that we can depend on. And that's why it's so important to understand exactly who God is. There are times in life when we need to know that we're safe; times of turmoil, times of uncertainty, times when we're down or alone, times when we need help and advice. That's not to say that you or I are a bunch of losers, that we can't look after ourselves, not that but it's a simple acknowledgement that we can't do it all on our own. And no matter how strong we might be, some days we need some assurance. That's why last week and again this week on the program, we're taking a look at some promises. Promises that we can depend on, promises from God. Last week, we looked at five awesome promises from God about what He would do for us. And this week, we're going to take a look at some more promises from a bit of a different angle, promises about who He is and they're important because at the end of the day. If you and I are going to trust anyone, that trust is rooted in who they are isn't it? And the more we know who they are, the more we know whether or not we can trust them. Now you may have heard me, in the past, talk about a man called Graham. This man had a huge influence in my life. When I was serving as a captain in the Australian Army, he was a colonel, a set over me, he was my boss. I got to know him and eventually we both left the army and together with another man, a guy called Mark, we formed a consulting business in the Information Technology industry. Now Graham is 20 years my senior and he mentored me for the best part of 2 decades. The man was perfect by no means but then again, you're not and I'm not but he was probably one of the smartest and wisest men I have ever known. And Graham had the patience to invest in me. Now, I used to talk over the top of people, he had to teach me to be ahead of the game, he had to teach me to think ahead as a leader, to anticipate, to collaborate, to deal with difficult people. And much of the practical stuff I share on this program from day to day has it's genesis in the mentorship and the guidance that Graham gave me and invested in me over almost two decades. Now 5 or 6 years ago we sold that business, he's retired now and I'm in full time ministry doing what I'm doing right now and where, back then, he was the head of our organisation, I was his pupil, today I'm the head of an organisation, this ministry that I'm involved in, Christianityworks. Now, over that time I got to know him really, really well. We each have our different approaches, we each have our different styles but I would trust this man with my life and I still call him for advice and input and to talk. If he came to me and made a promise, you know I would trust that promise implicitly because I know, through experience, who he is, I have experienced him. There are other people though, people I know who would be at the complete opposite end of the scale. Why? Because I've seen them in action, I know what's in their heart. I know one man who cheated on his wife while she was dying of cancer. I know a woman who says one thing in public but behind people's backs says something quite different. If either of those people came to me with a promise, how much value do you think I would place on it? I can think of another man, the pastor of my Church. I have just started attending a new Church in the last few months. Now I think this guy, Warwick, is an awesome man. He has this wonderful mix of strength and compassion, he's humble yet he's clearly an anointed leader. He's a great teacher and he's a man I have enormous respect for but I hardly know him. I don't know him through 20 years experience as I did Graham. I haven't served with him in the trenches yet and so, as much as I respect and admire him, his promises yet wouldn't carry quite the same way as Grahams, makes sense doesn't it? It's obvious. I want to look today at the story of Moses. Moses is one of the "A" list in the Old Testament; he's an Israelite who grows up in Pharaoh's house in Egypt. He kills a man, he flees to the desert, he's an old wreck in the desert, he's tending some sheep, he's 80 years old and God comes to Moses and says, "go tell Pharaoh to let My people go". That's daunting, so Moses comes up with five excuses. He has a defence like, "leave me alone to tend my sheep, I'm a burnt out old wreck" and the first one, the first defence is, "well the Israelites would never listen to me, who am I? Who will I say sent me?" That's not an unreasonable thing to say, lets have a look at it, Exodus, chapter 3 beginning at verse 11: Moses says to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" He said, "I will be with you and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you. When you have brought the people out of Egypt you shall worship God on this mountain." But Moses said to God, "If I come to the Israelites and I say to them, 'the God of your ancestors has sent me to you' and they ask me, 'what is His name?' What am I going to say to them?" And God says to Moses, "Tell them I am who I am." He said, "Further thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you'. Interesting response from God. Where does your certainty come from? Where does your protection come from? How will Israel know? Well tell them, "I am who I am sent you". Why would that make a difference? What benefit is that odd response? God is relying on His very character; God is relying on who He is. And see, sometimes the problem is, we don't know who He is. Of course we know the story; probably God did use Moses to bring His people out of slavery through the Red Sea, through the 40 years in the desert into the Promised Land. Over and over after that, you read in the Old Testament, God saying to His people: I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be slaves there no more. I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect. "This is who I am, this is why you can trust me, this is why when I make promises to you, they are promises you can depend on, I am who I am." And that is why getting to know God and who He is and the promises that He makes about who He is, that's why getting to know that is so important. That's why my life has been transformed and continues to be transformed because I've taken the time to get to know the God who reveals Himself to us in His word, the Bible. Now that may seem to you perhaps like an incredibly old fashioned thing to do, read the Bible, but in those pages I discovered the God whom I can depend on. You discover what He's like, you discover what grace means, you discover what judgement means. It takes time, I told you about my friend and mentor, Graham. Now that relationship goes back now almost a quarter of a century with that man and I have a deep trust in who he is because I know who he is and it's the same with God; it takes time. Now you see people bobbing around like small boats being tossed on a stormy ocean, grabbing for this and grabbing for that when the anchor that they need in their lives is God Himself. But if you don't know about the anchor you can't use it and if you don't know God, you can't rely on Him and this is not something you can lay hold of by not knowing Him.

One day – your time on this earth will be over. Then what? If God is God – how are you going to fare when you stand before Him? I mean how can you be certain that He will forgive you? For such a long time you know, I poo hooed any notion that I needed God's forgiveness. I mean, give me a break! If you'd asked me, back in those days, about what I thought on that whole subject, I would have given you quite a mouthful. But deep down, underneath that confident bravado I was running away from God. Now you stand back and you think that through and you realise how stupid it is to kind of run and hide from God, if God is who He says He is. I was running away because frankly, I just knew that the stuff I was into was plain wrong. I was greedy, I was selfish, I wasn't frankly a particularly nice person and then when I came face to face with this Jesus, who claimed to be the Son of God, my biggest concern was, well that I wasn't good enough. And even after I accepted Him for who He is, I still, for a long time, would try and run away from Him because of the deep sense that I had, that I simple wasn't deserving of His forgiveness. Now I don't know where you are in your life, maybe you're where I used to be and if you are I completely understand. But, but let me encourage you just to join me over these next few minutes and let me share something with you about this forgiveness thing. My hunch is that the sense that God wouldn't or couldn't possibly forgive me for what I've done is more widespread and prevalent than we might think or admit. Many people like me push it away and you try not to think about it but when I talk to people, who believe that there's a God, and I ask them, "so what's stopping you from living your life for Him? What's stopping you from drawing close to Him?" The answer that comes back, time and time again, is this sense that, "God wouldn't forgive me. I'm not good enough!" Now it comes in all sorts of different shapes and sizes and forms in which people reply but you boil it down, what they believe is that they are simply not good enough for God. And you know, it goes for people who've believed in Him for years as well as for people who have been avoiding Him for years. Lets just assume for a minute God is God, there is a heaven, there is a hell, sorry John Lennon but there is. And one day, you and I are going to stand before Him and have to give an account for our lives. How can we be certain that it will go well? If I asked you right now, as you live out your life day by day, how certain are you of that day, that eternal future? How would you answer? You know, most people are actually pretty uncertain. They might be able to verbalise the right response but deep down they're not sure at all. I want to take you to another of Gods unbreakable promises today. That's what we've been looking at over this week and we'll be looking at them again next week on the program. Promises that you and I can depend on because when we have those promises written on our hearts, it changes our lives. God is a dependable God and His promises are so important, particularly in the storms of life because Gods promises give us peace. Now this particular promise we're going to look at today begins at a really strange dinner. Some people refer to it as the Last Supper, you maybe familiar with it. It's the night that Jesus was betrayed to be crucified and they celebrated, if you can use that word, the Passover meal with His 12 disciples. Jesus washed their feet and, have a listen. This comes from Matthews's gospel, chapter 26, it begins at verse 26: While they were eating Jesus took bread. He gave thanks and He broke it and He gave it to His disciples saying, "Take it and eat it. This is my body." Then He took the cup, He gave thanks, He offered it to them saying, "Drink from it all of you. This is my blood, the blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not eat or drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father's kingdom. Of course that's the first communion service, Christians the world over celebrate that regularly but pay particular attention to one thing He said: This is my blood, the blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. What's a covenant? It's an unbreakable promise of God. When God makes a covenant with people He never, never breaks it. The wine, Jesus was saying, symbolised His blood being poured out which it was soon to be when He died on that cross not 24 hours later,"…for many for the forgiveness of sins." And then, you want an explanation of that? You go an have a look at the book of Acts, chapter 10, verse 43 which says that: ... everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name. You put those two together and there you have the unbreakable promise of God that, whoever believes that Jesus died for them, to pay for their sins, will be forgiven. EVERYONE who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name. Now that would be hard to believe if not for the blood which was poured out. Jesus also said: No greater love has anyone than to lay down his life for his friend. This unbreakable promise is born out of a love of God. The one thing, the barrier that separated us from God is removed, not just from Gods side but from ours. From Gods side, because He's holy and perfect, because His perfection, His goodness, His love is, it's so far beyond anything that we can attain and our sin keeps us from Him. And from our side, because our sense of guilt, our conscience keeps us from going to Him as it did me many years. See God invented double sided book keeping, this is a double sided transaction, this "forgiveness" thing; God's side and our side. You and I are forgiven, that means God lets us into His presence, that means that we can start living our lives as though we are, because we are. What does that mean? It means absolute certainty, freedom, no more condemnation, no more guilt, an incredible joy. I have been forgiven by God not because of what I did, what I did led to me needing to be forgiven. I've been forgiven because I could never meet His standard of complete perfection but because I believe that His perfect Son, Jesus Christ, died and rose again to pay for my sin and give me life, I have been forgiven. I am free, I have no guilt and you know, every time I stumble and fall, every time I fall short and I do, every time my pride or my ego or my selfishness gets the better of me, hopefully less now than they used to, I don't have to live under condemnation. I go to God, I say, "God, I believe in Jesus. I ask for your forgiveness. I believe with all my heart Jesus died for me." The whole point of this double sided transaction of grace is that I'm not good enough, that's the point, and this forgiveness is a promise that I can stand on, every moment of every day of my life. Do you see how liberating that is? Do you see how freeing that is? Man, it's amazing, complete certainty. On that day that I stand before God, on that day when I look Him in the eye, in my heart I will know that I am forgiven. I will stand before Him as though I had never sinned in the first place, as though I had never rejected Him or rebelled against Him in the first place because I believe in Jesus. Why? Because Jesus gave me this unbreakable promise: Whoever believes in Me (He said) will be saved. That's it - unbreakable!

There are times in our lives when we need protection – from other people or from ourselves or from circumstances we can't control. But where do you get that sort of protection? Now there are times in our lives when we need protection. Sometimes its from our enemies, sometimes its from situations we find ourselves that we can't control and sometimes it's from ourselves, our own short sightedness or selfishness or the consequences of our mistakes. Now kings and presidents and prime ministers, they all have body guards around them to protect them but you and I, we don't have those sorts of body guards in that way. But that doesn't mean that we still don't need them sometimes. But in those times, when we need protection, often there's not a body guard to be found. In fact, in those difficult times, so often the people, who should be there for us, just aren't. Now let me ask you, where do you turn to? Who do you turn to? Some would say God but the problem for many is well, you can't see God. You can see your enemies, you can feel the fear, you can look at the calamities around you but, but how do you know that God is in that place and how do you know that He'll protect you? See, if God is going to protect us in those times, we need to know it, but how? It's really hard you know when people plot against us. They talk behind our backs, they plan and they scheme. It is really hard when we're in danger, when someone is looking to do us harm either physically or emotionally or to harm our reputation, whatever it might be, it's really hard. Over these last few days we've been looking at some promises that we can depend on, you and I. God's promises and today, today I want to look at His promise of protection and I tell you, there are so many instances of this promise throughout His word but I want to look at them today through the eyes of a man called King David. We'll see it as he experienced it, on the run for his life from his predecessor, King Saul. You know, David was anointed king while Saul was still king and Saul figured out that everyone was looking to David to be king so Saul tried to kill him and so David spent a long time on the run. Now have a listen to what David writes about those dangerous years, you can read it actually in Psalm 18: I love you Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer. My God is my rock in whom I take refuge. He's my shield, He's the horn in my salvation, He's my stronghold. I call to the Lord who is worthy of praise and I am safe from my enemies. The cords of death entangle me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me, the snares of death confronted me but in my distress I called to the Lord, I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice, my cry came before Him into His ears. The earth trembled and quaked and the foundations of the mountains shook and they trembled because He was angry. Smoke rose from His nostrils, consuming fire came from His mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. He parted the heavens and came down, dark clouds were under His feet, He mounted the cherubim and He flew and He soared on the wings of the wind. He made darkness His covering, His canopy around Him, the dark rain clouds of the sky. At the brightness of His presence, clouds advanced with hail stones and bolts of lightening. The Lord thundered from heaven, the voice of the most high resounded. He shot arrows, He scattered the enemies, great bolts of lightening routed them. The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth lay bare at Your rebuke O Lord at the blast of the breathe from Your nostrils. He reached down from on high and He took a hold of me, He drew me out of the deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me. Beautiful isn't it? Typical sort of Hebrew picture language; the Jews loved to speak in pictures. What's David saying here? See, all the time he was on the run for his life and it strikes me where he talks about his enemies who were too powerful for him. And he says, "all the time I was on the run for my life God, You protected me." Now that's something we don't expect, Gods protection. See, He didn't wrap David in cotton wool, He didn't take David out of that situation, He didn't smite Saul and kill him on day one. God did none of those things; what He did was He kept David safe and it's the same thing with us. What we expect is for God to instantaneously end the threat; for God, instantaneously to beam us out of that place; for God, instantaneously to save us from that situation but so often it's not what He does. David was on the run for years, living in caves, always looking over his shoulder. God was teaching David through those times to rely on Him. They were important lessons for David because when David ultimately became king of Israel and had to fight large and powerful enemies who were much larger and much stronger than Him; David knew that his God would protect him. God taught him this in his own experience, He taught him to believe in this promise. Have a listen to the promise of God. It comes from Deuteronomy chapter 33, verse 27: The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you saying, "Destroy him! So when people are looking to stab you and me in the back or to defame us or to get rid of us, can we trust God? Absolutely! That doesn't mean that sometimes we're don't have to live through some pain, it doesn't mean that sometimes we don't have to get the sack or to take a step backwards or to go through terrible things. What it does mean is that it will turn out just fine even if Gods definition of "just fine" isn't quite your definition or my definition. Have a listen again to this from Psalm 31, verse 20: In the shelter of Your presence You hide us from human plots. You hold us safe under Your shelter from contentious tongues. See there are promises like this all the way through Gods word: In the shelter of Your presence You hide us from human plots. People plot behind our backs sometimes; people have contentious tongues and speak about us behind our backs. All through Gods word you see God being the protector of the people who love Him and honour Him and sometimes really bad things happen, Jesus remember was nailed to a cross. Not particularly His first preference as we learn from His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. And so far as we know, each of the 12 disciples was martyred, the apostle Paul was martyred. The point is that no matter what the outcome we can rely on Gods protection. Those men, those men are now with God; no if's, no but's, no maybe's. You know what I've noticed; there is no shortage of people on this planet who want to do me harm. To criticize me, to pull me down, to tell me I'm wasting my time. Sometimes I get things right and sometimes I get things wrong but my God protects me, even if it hurts sometimes because of what other people are doing and saying. God is our protector, His heart is to hold us close and to keep us safe and you know and I know that unless Jesus returns first, we're going to die one day. We're going to breath our last breathe, through sickness or disease or accident or murder, they're all possibilities. In the mean time God is our protector, He will protect us if we put our faith in Him. The eternal God is your refuge, He is your strength, He is the place where you and I can take refuge and be safe according to His mighty plan for our lives. This is a promise we can depend on!

There are times in life when we go through pain. When we mourn a loss. When we're lonely and afraid. What we need is someone to comfort us – but it seems that nothing anybody does or says can make it better. I want to spend some time talking about comfort today. Not about the sort of comfort you get from sitting in a comfortable armchair but comfort in times of distress. It's an interesting concept. comfort. You know when we're children we fall over and we hurt ourselves and our Mum or our Dad picks us up, brushes off the dirt, holds us close while we sob and we wail. What they're doing is they're comforting us and when we grow up, we still need comforting. I think it's about, well when you're going through pain or suffering, it's about knowing there's someone who cares, who empathises. Someone who feels our pain with us, someone who's not there to judge us or lecture us, just to hold us. I think we've all felt that sense in our hearts when we see someone we love suffering, of wanting to hug them so hard that we can take their pain away even if it meant bearing their pain for them. That's comfort, my hunch is it comes from God, all good things inevitably do but sometimes, when we're hurting, it seems like there's no-one there to comfort us or we're hurting so deeply that nothing anyone says or does seems to make any difference. I remember a time like that in my life, about 13 years ago. It was a time of deep distress and my whole being wept and I was completely alone on this earth. It was black, dark, fearful, lonely and the thing about the inky blackness is that it's like an impenetrable emotional barrier, a brick wall 3 foot deep. And no matter what friends and loved ones tried to say or do, nothing seems to be able to take the hurt away. Now the question is; what do we do in a place where we're desperately need to be comforted but it hurts so bad that nobody's able to comfort us? Over the last few days and over the remainder of this week and next, on the program, we're taking a look at some of the promises that we can depend on. Promises direct from God, to you and me, ten of them in fact and today, I'm hoping to spend a few minutes with you looking at Gods promise to comfort us. Now this word 'comfort' appears an awful lot of times through Gods word and more often than not its about God comforting us. In fact there's a promise Jesus made it during the Sermon on the Mount. He lists all the people to be blessed, 9 different groups of people and the second of those He says: Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. And He also said, I'm here to bind up the broken hearted. He said that about Himself. Now when we're in pain and hurt, it's so hard for anyone else to break through but what I've discovered is that God breaks through, God, God has this amazing way of doing that. I remember when I was alone night after night after night and I just sat in my favourite armchair and prayed on and off, as best as I could and you know, somehow the Spirit of God got into my heart and I discovered how blessed we really can be when we mourn and God comforts us. The apostle Paul got it too, he had a tough life this guy, he was in and out of prison, he was shipwrecked, he was beaten, he was starving. People rioted, people plotted to kill him, he was on death row. I mean you and I wouldn't want Paul's life for anything, ultimately he was martyred. This is what he writes to his friends in Corinth, you can read it in his second letter to the Corinthian Church, chapter 1 beginning at verse 3, he says: Praise to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Father of compassion and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with a comfort that we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives so also, through Christ, our comfort overflows. If we are distressed it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer and our hope for you is firm because we know just as you share in our sufferings, so you also share in our comfort. Now, in that short passage Paul uses the word comfort 8 times. See this promise of God is something that we learn in our experience. Paul's been through a lot and yet he is able to talk amazingly about Gods comfort because Gods comfort is something that we can rely on in those times when we need comforting. Paul discovered it in dungeons on death row and when he was on the run for his life and when he was bobbing around in a stormy ocean when his ship had been wrecked. He discovered the comfort of God in those places. Let me try and explain what this comfort is like, well at least how I experienced it back then and how I've experienced it since then. Pain is like a dark storm, a tempest, a storm that rages in our souls. It's so deep that there simply aren't words to describe it, it consumes us and I know when I was consumed by it, it closes us off from everyone else. For me, I didn't have it in me even raise the eyes of my soul to look towards God. Over and over again I just whispered and sobbed, "God, God help me". You know that story of when Jesus walked out on the water and the disciples were in their boat and the storm was raging and they were afraid of drowning and Jesus calmed the storm. No-one else could have helped them at that moment, no-one else on this planet could have calmed that storm, or in the universe for that matter. Only God Himself. And it was God, the Son of God, who walked into that storm and stilled it and that's what it was like for me. Now if you were to ask me, "what was it like"? I'd say it was like a warm fire on a cold night, it was like a soft light in a fearsome darkness. Do you remember when Jesus did that, walking out on the water thing and calming the storm, Peter the apostle got out of the boat and put his trust in Jesus. But as he walked towards Jesus on the water, he got that sinking feeling because he took his eyes off Jesus and he saw the water and he realised what he was doing and he started to sink. And Jesus grabbed his hand and pulled him up. I tell you, I had plenty of those sinking feelings but in that storm I met the God of all comfort, as Paul calls Him. You know something, as much as in those times He comes walking out on the water, right into the eye of our storm; we need to respond to that. See this is a promise, a promise to comfort those who mourn, a promise that calls us to walk out towards Jesus in faith. I'll tell you why; if we don't we just wallow in our sorrow. I've seen it over again, yes we all have sorrow and we all mourn and some people just want to stay there and be victims for the rest of their lives. When we go through some bad stuff, for a time there will be grief and you don't have the strength but there comes a time, like Peter, where we have to step out of the boat into the middle of that ocean and walk out in faith and accept Jesus' comfort. It's not until we step out of the boat and put our trust in Him that He can reach out and grab our hand to stop us from sinking. Here is the promise again: Blessed are all those who mourn for they will be comforted. It's a promise to tuck away in our hearts until one day when we need it and I'm sure, then God will bring it back to us. I want to encourage you, when He does, to step out of the boat and go and live in that promise. See, this promise is a promise that you and I can depend on.

Sometimes – money can be a real problem in our lives. So many people spend so much time worrying about their financial future. We need to know that it's going to be okay. Have you ever been in a place where you don't know where the next dollar is coming from? I certainly have and so many people in this world are in that place right now. I mean, where I live, mortgage foreclosures by banks are at record levels, people are stressed out over money and there's real poverty in this world too. The sort of poverty that afflicts countless of millions across the globe and some of those people are listening today. And then there are those in wealthy countries who are feeling stress of financial pressures but the reality is that a very few of us really know what poverty's all about. Nevertheless, financial stress is a big issue; it's a huge issue around the world. We human beings, we can't cope with that sort of stress particularly well because, not surprisingly, we like to know that we're financially secure into the future. That's why suicide rates among business people increase sharply when there's a stock market crash. So in those times of financial stress, who or what can we rely on? That's a good question. You know what I'm talking about when I'm talking about financial stress. We've all been there, even the wealthy, you know! Even those who have it all, they're highly geared in debt sometimes, they're leaking money all over the place sometimes and all that creates stress and worry. That's why I want to take a look at a particular promise from God today that speaks right into that reality. Here's where I'm coming from, not from religion as a crutch thing, no not that but just the reality that you and I need to experience peace in our hearts. We need rest and we can't live in stress all the time and some people are living in constant financial stress and it's exactly when we're under that financial pressure, we need to experience Gods peace. Instead of that, so many people, they just worry all the time. Well there's a promise from God that I've discovered in my life. It's a promise that I've lived out for many years now and a promise that He's never ever failed to deliver on and I, today; I have confidence in that promise. Yes, I have to be wise with the money I have, I have to be a good steward of the money that Gods given me but I have a confidence that God will deliver on this promise when I'm in difficult financial situations. This one comes directly from the mouth of Jesus but first, first He deals with the whole problem, when it comes to money and it's a problem of faith. Have a listen, this comes from Matthews gospel chapter 6, beginning at verse 19: Jesus says, "Don't store up for yourselves treasures here on this earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal. Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust can't destroy, where thieves can't break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. No-one can serve two masters, either he will hate the one and love the other or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You can't serve both God and money." What Jesus is saying here is, the problem is what you put your faith in. Money is so transient; I mean you might invest in a blue chip stock today. It's worth $20.00 per share today and you think, "wow, it's returning dividends, it's doing great" then all of a sudden tomorrow, there's a corporate scandal and it plummets down to $1.00. "Hang on, what happened? "See, you can't put your faith in money. Moths and rust and thieves, money is temporary, in any case we can't take it with us. Come on, we all do this, we serve money the way we serve a god and because we take it so, so seriously it cause us so much stress. We have these expectations that grow higher and higher and higher and even chasing after things that we can't afford and things that we don't need. And even when we're in truly desperate straits, when we don't know where our next dollar is coming from, because I've been there too in my life, we behave as though, 'well the world would end if we don't get money' and that leads to worry, worry leads to stress and none of that makes any sense. Now have a listen to the solution, a promise to you and to me from God. Jesus goes on to say, Matthew chapter 6, beginning at verse 25: Therefore I tell you this; don't worry about your life, what you'll eat or what you'll drink or about your body or what you'll wear. Isn't life more important than food, the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air, they don't sow, they don't reap, they don't store away in barns and yet, your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you much more valuable than them? Who of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to your life and why do you worry about your clothes? Look at the lilies of the field, they don't labour, they don't spin and yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of those. If that's how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow it's thrown into the fire, won't He much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So don't worry saying, 'what shall I eat, what shall we drink, what shall we wear?' The pagans run after all those things and your heavenly Father knows you need them but first, first seek His kingdom and His righteousness and all these other things will be given to you as well. Therefore don't worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will worry about itself, each day has enough trouble of it's own. Doesn't Jesus nail it here, He gets back to the reality. I mean look at the birds, look at the flowers, who put them there? Who looks after them? 'Come on, stand back', He's saying ' and look at the big picture with Me. And you, you worry as though worrying's going to change anything'. See, that's the crunch bit for me, the bit that worrying doesn't work: Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? I know people, all they do is worry; worry, worry, worry, worry! I used to be one of them, I have to tell you. But all that worry and that stress DOES NO GOOD! It's useless, it doesn't make the problem better, it makes it worse. Look, God knows what you and I need, He knows we need food, He knows we need shelter. Notice Jesus actually talks about needs not wants. "Get our priorities right!" He says. Your welfare doesn't come from this world, it comes from where? It comes from God, every good thing that you and I have comes from God, He owns it all. First, get out there and seek out God, His reign, His kingship in your lives. "Come on, change your focus!" Jesus is saying, get off your "needs" and your "wants" and set it fully on God. Well, what kind of answer is that Berni? What are you thinking right now? Well simple, there's a promise attached to that step of faith, a promise that is unbreakable because God made it and He never breaks His promises. First seek His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. What will be given to you as well? All these things - all, and that, that takes the worry away. I can't tell you how many tight financial spots I've been in, in my life. Some, in the early days, were my own doing and these days because I left a secure, high paying job, to get about Gods work by faith. Before I trusted in Jesus I had huge stress, I always had worry about money and these days, I guess I'm still prone to stress a little bit, my first instinct is to worry. That's why I need to come back to Gods promise, time and time again, I know that my focus is on Him, on His kingdom, on His righteousness, I seek Him out in my life day by day and that's why I can stand on this promise: ... and all these things will be given to you as well. And each time I face that need, which you do when you're walking by faith; I come back to this promise. It's a promise from God! First seek His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. PROMISE!

When things aren't going particularly well in our lives – the things that happens, is that we lose sight of our hopes and dreams for the future. And that's devastating. We need to know that there's a plan. These days' people are saying that one of the biggest issues in their lives is stress. We stress about this, we stress about that and you know, sometimes the things we are stressing about they're very real. There are people listening today whose very lives are in danger, there are people listening today who are facing bankruptcy or perhaps the banks foreclosed on their mortgage. There are people listening today who don't know where their next morsel of food is coming from, who's children are facing death because of a lack of clean water and medical services. And yet other times, we just kind of stress over the future because we live in an inheritantly uncertain world. We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow; "Am I going to have enough money? Will I get that promotion? Will I find a marriage partner? Will my kids grow up okay?" On and on and on, I often make the observation that if one small part of our lives has some uncertainty in it, even though every other part of our life can be chugging along just fine, then we have a problem and we're going to experience stress. What we need in this uncertain world is, well some certainty, don't you think? We need something or someone to depend on. I often get this thing, "Well, you know, religion is just a crux, it's for losers" and that's fine by me because I'm not a great fan of religion, I'm not into religious stuff. For me, most of my life, I was far from being a loser. I always used to pride myself that whatever I turned my hand to I'd try to be the very best at doing it that there was. And that was often the case. But I have to tell you, as successful as I purported to be I always had a feeling of, well this sense of uncertainty eating away in me. Even if things were going really well in my life, stress gnawed away inside me. So many people are like that, the problem with that is that you can't, well you can't have peace when that's going on, you can never rest on the inside, you're always worrying and stressing over something. Imagine if, in life, despite all the things that are going on because so often you know, we can't change those things, they just happen but if, despite everything that was going on, we could have peace, real peace, you and I. Just stop and think about that proposition for a moment, isn't it awesome? When the storm clouds are gathering on the horizon and you know a storm is about to hit but inside we have a quiet confidence that we're going to ride out that storm. Okay, that's why today and over this week and next week we're going to take a look at ten promises that we can depend on. Ten promises, promises made by God that, come what may, you and I can depend on. I don't where you're at in life but I ask you to approach this with an open mind, my prayer is that over these coming days, something amazing is going to happen in our hearts. That God would put a solid foundation in our hearts, a solid ground beneath our feet as we take a hold of these ten promises of God. Promises that I can depend on, promises that you can depend on. And the first one is this, here is a promise from God; I have a plan for you. See, when we're stressed, so often what happens is we can't see our way ahead to a safe and a peaceful future. All we can see is the here and now, all we can imagine is all the bad things that are going to happen to us. If you're in a marriage relationship that's heading towards the rocks, if you've got a teenager who's going through some bad stuff, if you're under stress at work, whatever it is, "oh, will it ever get any better?" Well, will it? Here's a promise that God made to Israel. Israel had mucked up in their lives, you know they'd turned their backs on God and so God let the Babylonians come and take them away into slavery. So Israel is in slavery in Babylon, completely hopeless you know and here's the promises they lived through these impossible times of slavery. It comes from the Old Testament, Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 10: This is what the Lord said to them, "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I'll come to you and fulfil my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to Me and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile." Here's what happens; you and I, we have plans for our lives, it's a natural human thing to do. We have hopes and dreams for our lives, to retire early, to have a nice home to live in, to see our kids grow up. We're always looking forward to something good in our lives for ourselves. We have needs, we have hopes, we have dreams, we want to have a good life and then, things happen that interrupt those dreams and you know, the things that interrupt can be so small. One small thing between husband and wife can grow from a mole hill into mountain and you look at this couple and they seem to have everything going for them, there's no reason for their marriage to fall apart. Or the family sitting in a refugee camp with no hope for the future, just watched one of their children die, or the dear friend of mine whose father died in a refugee camp in Africa because there wasn't adequate medical attention. You see, there are things that come in life that interrupt our hopes and our dreams. When we're in that place, when our plan is interrupted, our plan for a good future, it's tough and into that place God whispers into our hearts: I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future and then you'll call upon Me, you'll come and pray to Me and I'll listen to you. You'll seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you", declares the Lord, "and I'll bring you back from captivity. I'll gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you and I will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile. Now that doesn't mean that every time we're sick we'll get better. No, we're all going to die sometime and it doesn't mean that if I had a plan to have a 6 bedroom house with gold plated taps and an en suite, that Gods going to do it. No, no it doesn't mean that. But sometimes our plans and our hopes and our dreams are so selfish and 'me' centred and they involve the things that will never satisfy us and sometimes our plans and our hopes and our dreams don't involve any pain or suffering and yet, life always involves pain and suffering. Come on, what if God has plans for us, plans that are good plans, good plans born in His great and mighty heart. Much richer, must more realistic and vibrant and full of life than anything you and I could ever imagine. Listen to what God is saying to us here, "I have a plan for you, a plan I made just for you, it's a good plan, I will bring it to pass no matter how bad things get." If we let that promise sink into our hearts today then, you know what we know, we know that the storms and the tempest of life can come and go but nothing can interrupt Gods plan for you and me. This is a promise that we can trust in, this is a promise that we can depend on. God doesn't make them lightly, He's faithful and He always delivers on His plans and His promises. He sees the big picture. Plans are so wondrous and so amazing were as we only see our little bit and then we're pretty myopic. I have a plan for you, a good plan.

What you and I want, is life on our terms. We do…and yet, we can't for the most part have that. And it's the same with God.  Before we can take a hold of all His blessings, we have to let go of a whole bunch of other stuff … Over these last two weeks we've spent some time, each day, exploring different aspects of a story that kind of talks about having solid ground under our feet; the story of a simple woman with a simple heart who, in the midst of the greatest storm of her life, honoured God. Her name is Hannah. And a story of a man, a priest over all of Israel, who should have honoured God. He was a priest after all and yet allowed his sons to get away with wickedness that ultimately, God wouldn't tolerate and both Hannah and Eli reaped what they'd sown. The priest should have been on solid ground but he was cut off, he and all his descendants. The woman, she was a nobody, she had no right to expect solid ground beneath her feet in her storm and yet she honoured God and He honoured her. That's the crux of it, because as we read this story and you can read it in the first few chapters of the book of 1 Samuel in the Old Testament, the pivot on which it turns is this statement from God in chapter 2 of 1 Samuel. God says: I will honour those who honour me but those who despise me will be treated with contempt. So what does that mean for you and me, here and now? What does it mean? You and I, deep down, come on lets face it, we're basically selfish creatures. Now perhaps you're a whole bunch further down the track than me in dealing with that but come on, deep down we want our way, we want our needs to be met, we want our comfort, we were born that way. And every now and then you meet someone who seems like a saint and you think, "boy, that could never apply to them" but deep down, deep down it does. And God comes along and says, "I'm God, I am who I am, that's it!" and God is to be honoured, to be respected to be feared, to be revered. It's so counter to our popular culture, it's so completely opposite. You can't dress this up; you can't somehow make it instantly palatable to the popular psyche because it's totally the opposite of what we're told by the advertising industry. It's totally opposite to the mantra of this age, that it's all about me and I'm worth it. Worship's a funny word, it means "to bow down and to honour" and so we have a clash between popular thought, "its all about me" and honouring God. I can never make those two the same because they're totally different and most of my life, I lived by the former, "it's all about me". Honour! Honour! Get out of here. Bow down! Worship! See this is not something people do on Sunday morning at Church. It's something that God calls us to do with our lives in all the circumstances of life, on the good days and the bad days and the sunny days and the rainy days and the calm days and the storm days. It's something that we've seen over and over and over again, this woman Hannah did and honouring God is completely the opposite of pride, it's the complete opposite and you and I, no matter what we happen to believe or not believe, are infected by the mantra of this age. And so honouring God is foreign to our natural inclination, completely in every department because we live and breathe the "me" mantra. Let me give you a couple of pictures of how different it is. The first one comes from a story that happened quite a few years after Hannah and Eli. You can read about it in 2 Samuel chapter 24, it's about King David. He's done something stupid and he's been trusting in his power instead of Gods power and he comes to make an offering to God and he goes to a place, a threshing floor. He wants to make an offering and the owner of this threshing floor says, "here, take whatever you want. The wood, the place, the animals, I'll give it all to you so you can make this offering". I mean why wouldn't he, this was the King David after all, the king had power of life and death over him. And yet in 2 Samuel chapter 24, verse 24 David says this, he says: I will not make a burnt offering to my Lord which costs me nothing. See, honouring God always costs us something. Sometimes God calls me to give money here or there for His work and it's almost always at an inconvenient time. It's almost always something I really can't afford. I had plans for that money you know and yet I give anyway because He's my God. I give anyway because honouring God always involves sacrifice, it always costs us something. See we want God on our terms, we want Him so He'll bless us and keep us and make us comfortable but that it doesn't cost us anything along the way, you know. I mean after all grace is Gods free favour, always, and it is. I'm His child, not because of what I've given to Him or because of what I've done but because I believe in what His Son, Jesus Christ did for me on that cross. But now that I am His child, honouring Him with everything I am, with everything I think, with everything I do and I have, with my time, my finances, my life, completely being sold out to Him, you know something; it costs me and every now and then the flesh winces. But I will not make a sacrifice to my God that costs me nothing. You know Hannah, the one thing she longed for was her son and when God finally gave her a son, she gave him back to God to serve God for the rest of his life. She honoured God in a huge way, Hannah was on solid ground. No matter what came at her she was on solid ground because her trust was in the Lord and she honoured Him and she knew that God would honour her. The second picture is a picture that Jesus gave us, it's His own story. It's a picture of a grain of wheat; perhaps you're familiar with it. I tell you the truth (He said) unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains only a single seed but if it dies, it produces many seeds. If you love your life you'll lose it, if you hate your life in the world you'll keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me and where I am my servant also will be and my Father will honour the one who serves me. I want you to notice the sequence, "fall to the ground and die and you end up baring much fruit" then "my Father will honour the one who serves me". See people hold back, you know why? We're afraid of dying, we're afraid of losing our life in this world, we're afraid of being sold out. We think that somehow we have to hang on to what we have and Jesus said, "no, let it all go. Transfer your faith from the things that you can see and grasp, to the great unseen reality, to me and my Father will honour you". We have to let go before we can receive, if we hang on we won't get anything. What are you hanging on to? What are you holding back from your God? What's He calling you to let go of today? To tell you the truth, until you answer that call decisively, you will never have solid ground beneath your feet. It's different for each one of us, for some it's money. You know, we feel God saying to us, "give money here" and you think, "oh no, I really want to go on a holiday. I've got that couple of thousand set aside to go on a holiday here and there". I have to tell you; sometimes God will lay it on your heart to sacrifice something. Look at Hannah, she had to give up the one thing she wanted the most; her son. If we want solid ground beneath our feet, I've got to tell you, it's about not having God on our terms, it's about accepting Him on His terms and His terms are very simple. He is the sovereign King of Kings, He is the Lord of Lords, He is the God who created all the universe. He's not a performing poodle to do tricks for you and me. He is God! And God wants us to be sold out, He wants us to fall to the ground and die so that we can produce many seeds and then, as Jesus said: My Father in heaven will honour the one who serves me. God said: I honour those who honour me but those who despise me I will treat with contempt.

If only we could have God on our terms.  You know, He blesses you when you need blessing and the rest of the time, He's just kind of there when you need Him.  Wouldn't that be nice?  But – well, it's not like that. Have you ever wanted something in life, I mean really, really, really wanted it and then, you finally get it and you just want to give it back. I think we've all experienced that at some point and you know, I think that for some people, it can be the case with God. I know people, lots of people who hunger to be close to God. I know there are people listening today, perhaps you're one of them and all their lives they've wanted "God", whatever that means. But can I tell you something, even something really good, I mean really, really good like God, well it can be a shock to the system. And the reason is that we sometimes have this idealised unrealistic notion of what that good thing would be like. Take the young woman who wants, more than anything else, to be married and she finally meets her knight in shining armour and marries him and a year later she's wondering what happened to her ideas of romance 24x7. Today on the program we're going to take a look at some people who got God and couldn't wait to give Him back. We've been looking over this last week and a half, at the stories of a woman called Hannah who honoured God, she poured her heart out to Him when she was in pain and God honoured her. And on the other side there was a guy called Eli and his sons who were around Hannah at the time and they didn't honour God and they reaped their just rewards. And the whole story of Hannah and Eli kind of pivots on this one passage. It's in 1 Samuel, in the Bible, chapter 2, verse 30 and God says: I will honour those who honour me but those who despise me will be treated with contempt. And we've seen over this last week and a half how that central reality has played itself out in the lives of Hannah and Samuel, who were blessed by God and Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who weren't. And you know, in particular, this plays itself out in the storms of life. Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were living the life of Riley. They were the priests over Israel, they should have been bringing Israel to God and yet they plundered the sacrifices and they slept with prostitutes and those three, they died, we saw that yesterday on the program. Their job was to be shepherd of the nation of Israel, shepherding them towards God. Instead they led them to a place of defeat and again, we saw on the program in 1 Samuel chapter 4, that the Philistines attacked and Israel thinks, "ah well, God's always on our side and so we'll go to battle" and all of a sudden, 30,000 of their soldiers are killed. The Ark of the Covenant is captured by the Philistines, the place of the presence of God and strangely, when that happens, the Philistines kind of realise, with a sense of foreboding, when the Philistines learned that the Ark of the Lord had come into the Israelites camp, they were afraid. "A God has come into the camp", they said. "We're in trouble! Nothing like that has ever happened before. Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty Gods?" See, those instincts were right but anyway, the Ark of the Covenant comes into the Israelite camp and then the Israelites and the Philistines went into battle and the Philistines won. A huge defeat, 30,000 soldiers of the Israelites are dead and the Covenant, the Ark of the Covenant is captured by the Philistines. Hmm, it turns out they should have gone with their initial instincts lets have a read of what happens in 1 Samuel chapter 5: After the Philistines had captured the Ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the Ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside their God, Dagon and when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the Ark of the Lord. They took Dagon and put him back up on his place. But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen back on his face, on the ground, before the Ark of the Covenant. And his head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold, only his body remained and that's why, to this day, neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who entered Dagon's temple at Ashdod, will step on the threshold. The Lords hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and it's vicinity. He brought devastation upon them and afflicted them with tumours and when the men of Ashdod saw what was happening they said, "The Ark of the God of Israel must not stay here with us because His hand is heavy upon us and upon Dagon, our god." So they called together the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, "What are we going to do with the Ark of the God of Israel?" And they answered, "Have the Ark of the God of Israel moved to Gath." So they moved the Ark of the God of Israel but after they moved it the Lords hand was against that city. Thrown into great panic, he afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumours and so they sent the Ark of God to Ekron and as the Ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, "They've brought the Ark of the God of Israel around to kill us and our people!" So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, "Send the Ark of the God of Israel away. Let it go back to it's own place or it will kill us and our people." For death had filled the city with panic. Gods hand was heavy on everything. Those who did not die were afflicted with tumours and the outcry of the city went up to heaven." Really interesting story this because this Ark of the Covenant of the God of Israel, this is the place of the presence of God and they put it in the temple next to their God and their God falls down twice. First time they prop him up, the second time his head and hands are cut off and then they discover the impact of having God as a captive in their midst. See in human terms that's what had happened, the Philistines captured God, in human terms they won. You know what they forgot; in fact they probable never realised it in the first place, God is not subject to people. God is not someone you can capture and stick in a temple. He's not someone you can tame and subdue. Why are we talking about this stuff today? Because you and I deep down, we sometimes try and tame and subdue God. We swing Him round to our way of thinking. We put Him in a temple of our choice; we put Him in the town or city of our choice. We think that God is there to serve us instead of us to serve God. You know what happens when we try to do that? We discover exactly what the Philistines discovered, we discover that God is not someone we can push around. Okay, we can't see Him. Okay, perhaps present circumstance do appear more powerful than Him but if we want to be on solid ground in the middle of our storms, that's what we've been talking about these past couple of weeks, we need to get our minds around this. You look at this maelstrom of a storm that was going on at the time, the battle between the Philistines and the Israelites, 30,000 Israelites killed, who appeared to win? Who should have been on solid ground according to our simple human expectations? The Philistines; they won the war, they captured Israel's God. But who they captured was the God who created all the universe, not some idol, not some tin pot little god, they captured God and He brought destruction on them. So much so they couldn't wait to get rid of Him. Do you get it? When we try to take God by force; force of argument, force of opinion, force of anything, anything that doesn't recognise Him for who He is, watch out! There's so many people playing "Church", playing at being Christians, playing at religion, putting God here and there – THAT'S NOT WHAT IT'S ABOUT! As Dagon discovered, the only way you honour God is when you bow down to Him for who He is – the sovereign God above every power and name and authority in heaven and on earth. And you know something, Eli didn't understand it, Hophni and Phinehas didn't understand it, they died. The person who understood it was the woman Hannah that we've been looking at, this woman who, in the middle of her storm, humbly bowed down before God and prayed and honoured God. You can't have God on your own terms; we can only have Him on His terms!

I've done some dumb things in my life. Really, and I'm pretty sure that you have too – and later, we wear the consequences of those mistakes.  The question is, though – how can you avoid making those same mistakes again? I've said a few times over the last week and a half that I am a confirmed land lover. You give me solid ground beneath my feet any day over a luxury cruise. I love good old terra firma and it turns out we all do because we were made to have solid ground beneath our feet. And that's what we've been talking about recently on this program; solid ground. Now there are things that we do from time to time that are just well, plain dumb. Now they never seem like it at the time but when you look at the consequences, when you look back through the consequences of those decisions with a benefit of 20/20 hindsight, there's only one word for them sometimes and that's dumb. I've been there, you've been there, lets not kid ourselves. Okay, now that we've established the facts your honour, lets get back to those decisions and making sure we don't go there again, isn't that the point? Not repeating our mistakes and one of those mistakes is this; deluding ourselves that we are on solid ground, deluding ourselves into thinking that we can head off in our own direction, on our own and expect God to somehow tag along behind and provide solid ground along the way. Like I said; just plain dumb! If you've been with us over this last week and a half, you'll know that we've been looking at the stories of some people, Hannah and Eli and their family's. Hannah was a woman with a lot of pain but who honoured God and Eli was a priest with position and prestige and not only did he do the exact opposite but as chief priest, in his role, he actually ended up misleading the whole of the nation of Israel. And today, we're going to take a look at how, not only did that have consequences for Eli and his sons but for the whole of Israel. Remember Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, they were bad dudes. These two sons plundered the sacrifices of Gods people, they slept with prostitutes, like these were bad dudes and Eli allowed this to go on and didn't deal with it. And the executive summary of what God thought about them is in 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 17. It says: The sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord for they treated the offerings for the Lord with contempt. And the central theme that pivot on which this whole story turns is in 1 Samuel, chapter 2, verse 30. It says: God says, "I honour those who honour me and those who despise me I will treat with contempt. That word "contempt" comes up again. And so this bad stuff is happening, the priests are doing the wrong thing and just as it always happens, one of life's storms blows in on Israel. The Philistines come in to attack them. We'll pick it up in chapter 4 of 1 Samuel: Now the Israelites wet out to fight against the Philistines. The Israelites were camped at Ebenezer and the Philistines were camped at Aphek. And the Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel. And as the battle spread, Israel soldiers returned to camp the elders of Israel said, "How come the Lord brought defeat on us today before the Philistines? Let's bring the Ark of the Lords Covenant from Shiloh so that it may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies." (That's a good idea) So the people sent men down to Shiloh, they brought back the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord Almighty who was enthroned between the cherubim. Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were with the Ark of the Covenant of God. And when the Ark of the Lords Covenant came into the camp all of Israel raised up such a shout that the ground shook and hearing the uproar, the Philistines asked, "What's all that was defeated by the Philistines who killed about 4,000 of their men on the battlefield. When the shouting that the Hebrews are doing?" When they learned that the Ark of the Lord had come into the camp, the Philistines were afraid. "A God has come into the camp," they said, "we're in trouble. Nothing like this has ever happened before. Woe to us, who will deliver us from the hand of that mighty God? The God who struck the Egyptians and all kinds of plagues in the desert. Be strong you Philistines, be men or you'll be subject to the Hebrews as they have been to you. Be men and fight!" So the Philistines fought and the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent, the slaughter was very great. Israel lost 30,000 foot soldiers. The Ark of the Covenant was captured and Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died. See, Israel was so used to having God on their side; they just headed off assuming that He was there despite the fact all this bad stuff was happening amongst the priests. They deluded themselves, they said, "there's no cause and affect for us, no she'll be right, Gods always on my side". See we take this Mighty God, who created the whole universe and expect Him to become our performing poodle, don't we? He does tricks on our command but Gods not like that, He's awesome, He's mighty, He's powerful and He's good and when we start dishonouring Him, lets not expect Him to keep honouring us. He'll always love us, He'll always forgive us, He'll always bring us close but on His terms and not on ours. We can't sow dishonour in Gods direction and expect to receive honour from Him in return. And the great humiliation of the story is that the Ark of the Covenant itself is captured. This was the place of the very presence of God. Over the next couple of days we'll discover that the people who captured it, once they realised what they had actually realised the power and didn't want God around but that's for another day. Today, there's a simple message in this story; we can't be living out a life of stiff necked rebellion and expect God to toddle along on a leash behind us and bless us on cue and that's exactly what Israel did. They failed the first time and so they send for the Ark of the Covenant, they went and got God as though somehow, they can push God around. When you put it that way it's a bit obvious, isn't it? And to tell you the truth, that's my agenda today, to make this plainly obvious. Lets all take a big wake up call here. See when the storm hits, do you want solid ground beneath your feet? Do you want to know that God is with you? Do you want the certain knowledge that, well He's going to bless you no matter what this world throws at you? Huh, have to tell you, I sure do. Let me go back to this central point, 1 Samuel, chapter 2, verse 30: God says, "I will honour those who honour me..." It's a great promise, "I will honour those who honour me but those who despise me will be treated with contempt." And there's a reason for that, God wants a close, tender relationship with us. In order to have that, there has to be a cause and affect. See God can't bless our rebellion because if He does that, we'll think, "Oh great, I can do anything I want. He'll bless that, all I have to do is call God, bring Him over here on a leash and I'll get blessed". But "anything I want" is not the place of intimacy between God and me, anymore than the place of intimacy between a man and his wife, is in adultery. Come on, it's blindingly, glimpsingly obvious and just to underscore that point in this story, this wasn't some small defeat by the Philistines, this was the mother of all defeats, 4,000 and then 30,000 Israelites were killed. 34,000 men were slain because Israel presumed that God would just show up like He always had even though they had rebelled against and rejected God. And the irony of it all is that Gods people didn't get it but the Philistines did. The moment the Philistines heard the Ark of the Covenant had arrived, they were afraid and so they should have been because God is a mighty God. Let me ram this point home today, right in your face; when we head off in our own direction, in our own strength, in our own selfish ways, on our own and we expect God to just toddle along and bless us - forget it! When we're not in the blessing and the covering and the power of God, obedient to him, when we do that we will reap what we sow, there is no solid ground in that place, none, NONE! Only trouble.

Sometimes we're so busy looking after good old number one, that we forget something. We forget that in fact, God is number one and one day, sooner or later, that reality will be the only reality. I guess intuitively we understand that the things we say and do, the way we think and behave, well they have consequences. There's a link between cause and affect, we know that but oh how easy it is to delude ourselves in this area, to make excuses for ourselves, to live out our own selfish desires and pretend that, "well really, that, that cause and affect stuff applies to other people but not to me". You know what I'm talking about, we deny it, we deny it, we deny it and all along the warning signs are growing. The storm clouds start to gather over the horizon, but sometimes it's not until that first clap of thunder, that we take any notice and then, so often, its too late. The storms gathered momentum and all we can do is brace ourselves for when it hits. We're going to spend some time today in that space, with a man called Eli because he was in exactly that situation and he just left it too late. Let's make no mistake, there is a definite link between cause and affect, especially as it turns out, in our relationship with God. Last week we met a woman called Hannah, a woman that honoured God and a priest called Eli, a man with his two sons, who did the exact opposite even though he should have known better and, what I want to do today is have a look at them again. Hannah was a woman who was childless, she had the pain of the taunts of another wife and she pours out her heart to God and God gives her a son called Samuel. She honours God and she gives up Samuel into His service and God honours her by raising Samuel to replace Eli and become the priest to the nation of Israel. Now what I want to do right now though is go and look at how God treats Eli and his sons because it's such a sharp contrast. Hannah honoured God and God honoured her, Eli didn't. Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were men who should have been shepherding Israel, they should have been bringing Israel close to their God. Instead, Hophni and Phinehas were plundering the sacrifices, sleeping with prostitutes, doing anything but honouring God. Now let's take a look at how God reacts to that, 1 Samuel chapter 3: The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare and there weren't many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord where the Ark of the Covenant was. Then the Lord called Samuel, Samuel answered "Here I am" and he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am, you called me" but Eli said, "I didn't call you, go back, lie down". So Samuel went and lay down again. Again the Lord called, "Samuel" and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am, you called me." "My son," said Eli, "I didn't call you, go back and lie down." Now Samuel didn't know the Lord yet, the word of the Lord hadn't been revealed to him. The Lord called Samuel a third time and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am, you called me" and then Eli realised the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, "Go and lie down and if God calls you again say, 'speak O Lord for your servant is listening." So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The Lord came and stood there and calling as He had the other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" And then Samuel said, "Speak for your servant is listening." And the Lord said to Samuel, "See, I'm about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears, tingle. At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family from the beginning to end for I told him I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about. His sons made themselves contemptible and he failed to restrain them. Therefore, I swore to the house of Eli, the guilt of Eli's house will never be atoned for by sacrificial offering." Samuel lay down until the morning and when he opened the doors of the house of the Lord he was afraid to tell Eli of the vision but Eli called to him saying, "Samuel my son," And Samuel said, "Here I am!" "What is it that He said to you?" Eli asked, "Don't hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide anything from what He told you." So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him and Eli said, "He is the Lord, let Him do what is good in His eyes." Here's the paradox; Samuel, young boy, didn't recognise Gods voice and Eli did, yet Samuel was the one that listened to God and Eli didn't. Remember the pivot of this whole story is the fact that God says in 1 Samuel, chapter 2, verse 30: I will honour those who honour me but those who despise me I will treat with contempt. Here is that powerful truth working its way out in Eli's life. See we can be beetling away in our own selfish ways, ignoring our conscience, treating people with contempt, treating God with contempt, ignoring God, God never stops speaking. You want to know what He has to say, just have a listen. He spoke to Eli over and over again; He talks to us over and over again, how? Maybe you were just flicking around, channel surfing today and you stumbled across this program, kind of by chance or accident it seemed, there you go! God is always trying to communicate with us, to reach out to us but eventually enough is enough. See, eventually we kindle His anger, eventually the time comes when we reap what we have sown and that's exactly what happens to Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. You can read about it actually, in 1 Samuel chapter 4, verses 12-22. What God tells Samuel actually happens. There's a huge disaster happens when the Israelites fight the Philistines and they get defeated and the Ark of the Covenant gets captured and Hophni and Phinehas are killed and Eli dies. God's judgement falls on that family because of what they have done and today is a wake up call. Yes! Storms happen in life. Sometimes they're of our own doing as it was for Eli and his sons and yet, we keep going, we keep going, we keep going, we keep deluding ourselves, we keep pretending like there's no cause and affect but there is. See God is a good God, God is a righteous God, God is a God who wants to bless us and love us and hold us and pour His love out on us but He honours those who honour Him and those who despise Him, ultimately judgement falls, ultimately they will be treated with contempt. There is a day of judgement coming. Stuff happens in this life, we live out our consequences and one day, one day you and I will stand before God and He will judge us, He will! We may not like the idea but it doesn't change anything. One day God will judge us and today's a wake up call. Perhaps we're in one of those storms of life at the moment and you know, when things are going badly, have you ever noticed, we are tempted all the more to behave badly. Let this truth ring in your ears; let this truth drop into your heart. When God says to you today: I honour those who honour me but those who despise me will be treated with contempt. See, if we head off in our own direction, if we do an "Eli" and a "Hophni" and a "Phinehas" right, and just go and do what suits us, one day we will reap our just rewards. And in that place, when God is against us there is no solid ground beneath our feet. There is no solid ground beneath the feet of those who turn their backs on God. It might feel like it for a while, it might feel good for a while but ultimately a day of judgement will come. And the answer is to turn, the answer is to turn back to God, right here, right now, don't leave it any longer!

It never ceases to amaze me at how good we are at deluding ourselves into thinking that our actions don't have consequences.  We're really quite good at this you know.  Truly. Last week on the program we spent some time talking about the fact that when the storms of life hit, as they inevitably do, what we need is some solid ground beneath our feet. It's a scary place to be at, on a stormy ocean, we're not made for that, we're made to be on solid ground and we began looking at a story of some people, a woman called Hannah and her son Samuel and some priests, Eli, his sons Hophni and Phinehas. Now Hannah, here was a woman who honoured God and God honoured her in return. These priests on the other hand, though they should have known better, they didn't honour God and as we'll see on the program today and the rest of this week, those guys reaped their just reward. And the reason we're looking at this story of these people is that when we're in the midst of a storm we so often lose our bearings, we so often lose sight of those things that really matter. And for me, as I've spent some time in that story, it's well, its helped clarify some things, brought them into sharp focus and my hunch is, as we spend some time, during the course of this week, you might find the same too. Now let's just briefly recap on this story. Hannah is a woman, she's married to Elkanah. Elkanah has two wives; Peninnah who has children and Hannah who doesn't and Peninnah constantly taunts Hannah about not having children, an incredibly painful thing. So Hannah goes and pours her heart out to God and you can read all about this in the first few chapters of 1 Samuel in the Old Testament. Hannah goes and pours her heart out to God in the temple and she discovers peace It's what always happens when we do that, and ultimately God blesses her and gives her a son. But Eli is the priest at the temple, he's the chief priest at the time and he mistakes what Hannah's doing, he thinks she's drunk and Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, well they're bad dudes. They'd been plundering sacrifices, they've been not honouring God, there's a real contrast between the two, between Hannah and her family on the one hand and Eli and his family on the other. Hannah the "nobody": Eli the chief priest. See, that's the thing we so often miss in life. God is hidden, Gods invisible, we forget about Him, we go on living our lives and wondering why things are going from bad to worse and in the middle of this story, last week we stumbled across this verse, the verse when God was pronouncing His judgement on Eli and his sons. 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 30, God said: Those who honour me I will honour and those who despise me will be treated with contempt. See this is the kind of pivot on which this whole story turns and this week on the program we're going to look at how things turn out for Hannah and for Eli and there's a sharp contrast in their approach to God and I've got to tell you, there is a sharp contrast in how things turn out for both of them. It tells us a lot about God, it clarifies the confusion that we might have in the midst of our storm and you see when you get that clarity, when we finally see it from Gods perspective, we get our feet back on solid ground. Well lets start today with Hannah, this woman with the pain of not having children and the taunts from the other wife and childless couples all over the world know how painful this is. So she goes to God, she pours out her heart, lets have a look at it again, 1 Samuel chapter 1, beginning at verse 9: Once they'd finished eating and drinking at Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the Lords temple. In the bitterness of her soul, Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord and she made a vow saying, 'O Lord Almighty, if you would only look upon your servants misery and remember me and don't forget your servant but give her a son. Then I will give him back to the Lord for all the days of his life and no razor will ever be used on his head. Then she went away and ate something and her face was no longer downcast. So she pours out her heart and have a look at the thing that happens straight after that, beginning at verse 19: Early the next morning they arose and they worshipped before the Lord and then they went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah lay with his wife Hannah and the Lord remembered her so in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel saying, 'because I asked the Lord for him'. When the man Elkanah went up with his family to offer the annual sacrifices to the Lord to fulfil his vow, Hannah didn't go, she said to her husband, "After the boy is weaned I'll take him up and I'll present him before the Lord and he'll live there always." "Well do what seems best to you" Elkanah, her husband told her, "Stay here until you've weaned him. Only may the Lord make good his word." So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she weaned him. After he was weaned she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a 3 year old bull and a ephah of flour and a skin of wine and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. When they'd slaughtered the bull they brought the boy to Eli and she said to him, "As surely as you live my Lord, I'm the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him. So now I give him to the Lord for the whole of his life, he will be given over to the Lord." And she worshipped the Lord there. See Hannah had this impossible problem, this impossible prayer, it was a humble, heartfelt prayer and God honours that, we so under-estimate the power of humble prayer, a prayer from the heart. A prayer that just lays it out before God, the way we see it and the way we feel it, God honours that. And when he honours her with the impossible, she honours God back and gives her son over to God for the rest of his life. Easy to gloss over that story but can you imagine, what motivates her? Her incredible heart to honour God. So she does. She honours Him by giving up the one thing she desired most, her son. And what's more, she gives her most precious to be under the wicked Eli and his sons, figure that out! Not exactly a great strategic choice, this young impressionable kid but God honours those who honour Him and the more we honour God the more He honours us. Look at this, 1 Samuel chapter 3, verse 19: The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up and let none of his words fall to the ground and all of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba recognised that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh and there He revealed Himself to Samuel through His word and the word of Samuel came to all of Israel. See God honoured her in her storm because she honoured Him. Young Samuel went on to become the chief priest, the prophet, the judge over all of Israel, why? Because this nobody, this woman Hannah honoured God, so simply, just by going to Him in her grief. Not by acting badly, not by shaking her fists, not by throwing a tantrum but by pouring her heart out to God and by trusting Him. It must have seemed such an insignificant thing to do, such a powerless thing to do; "I can't fall pregnant, I can't have a child, all I can do is weep before God", so she does that. In the face of this big, ugly, impossible storm, the pain of being childless, the taunts of Peninnah, the impossibility but for God, nothing is impossible. God honours those who honour Him. She honoured God in her naivety; she gave young Sam over to Eli and even there, in that impossible situation, God honoured her and He honoured the young boy called Samuel. God honours those who honour Him and those who despise Him will be treated with contempt. It's so simple, it's so powerful. You know, we ignore this at our peril, God is a good God, He honours those who honour Him.

Storms are going to hit our lives from time to time. They just are. And when they do, so often we're afraid. And that fear, it turns out, can completely immobilise us. So then what? When we look at what it means to travel with a quiet confidence through the storms of life, as we have been doing this week on the program, well I think we need to stop and take a look at this thing that we call "fear". Now being afraid is natural, it's a natural response to danger. Fear is an actual inbuilt, protective mechanism, it stops us from putting ourselves in danger, it protects us as we recoil from danger when it strikes unexpectedly. Now fear has a very important function in our lives but fear also has some pretty big downsides too. Fear is something that can absolutely immobilise us or it can make us do some silly things and take wrong decisions. And actually, fear is something that whilst we're equipped to cope with, we're not designed to live with it 24 X 7. So, if we're to deal with fear, then we have to learn to travel through the storms of life in a way that actually deals with it. Not just sweeps fear under the carpet, not just ignores it but actually deals with it. Now that can be something of a challenge; you know it and I know it. So how do we deal with this 'fear' thing amidst the storms of life. If you were with us earlier this week, on Monday I think it was, we had a look at the bunch of seasoned fishermen caught out in a boat, on the water, in the middle of a storm that just came up out of nowhere. Lets take another look at that account, it comes from Luke chapter 8, beginning at verse 22: One day Jesus says to His disciples, "Let's go to the other side of the lake." So they got in a boat and set out. As they sailed He fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake so that the boat was being swamped and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke Him and said, "Master, Master, we're going to drown." Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters and the storm subsided and all was calm. "Where is your faith?" He asked His disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water and they obey Him. Now, at the time, when we looked at this earlier in the week, I said that there were a few things that these disciples learned about God that day. Firstly they learned that God was in the boat with them. Secondly, that He had both the will and the means of doing the impossible, of calming the storm and saving them from it. And thirdly, the most incongruous thing of all, that safely riding out that storm was a matter of faith. Now it's easy to rattle those off, even memorise them and think, "well, here's my three point plan for dealing with fear the next time I hit a stormy patch. 1. God is with me. 2. He can still the storm. 3. All I have to do is believe. Hmm, but you know something; it's not that easy, at least not in my experience. Because this is not something we learn by memorising things on a nice sunny day while we're sitting by the pool drinking Pina Colada's. This is something we only really learn in our experience while we're out there on the ocean. Here's what happens to me; I can see the storm clouds brewing off in the distance, they start coming closer, the wind picks up, then the storm front hits and most times I just freeze. A fear stops me from moving forward to do the things that I need to do to save myself, it immobilises me. Let's say you're having financial problems, I was listening to an experienced business consultant who helps small and medium sized businesses in the retail sector and he was talking about managing the business' finances. Now most business owners, they know they're having cash flow problems, it worries them sick. So what they do is they just ignore it, they go into denial and their business goes down the drain. Or the sales person who, who's afraid of making the cold calls or the call to follow up on a call. Fear immobilises them and so that stops them from selling. Fear either makes you want to pull over and stop or streak off completely in the wrong direction. In fact the words "fear" and "afraid" appear 445 times in the Bible, that's a lot. Do a search, have a look and you'll find that's exactly what happens to people. These seasoned fishermen, what were they doing out in the storm? They were cowering in the boat, they were screaming out to God, "God, wake up!" See how stupid that is, "God, God wake up! Jesus, Jesus wake up! We're going to perish!" Jesus is in that boat with them, all His glories laid aside He's a man just like them, just like you and me and what does Jesus do, does He get panicked, does He get immobilised? Have a look: He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters. The storm subsided and all was calm. "Where is your faith?" He asked the disciples. You see what is says first up, it says, "He got up". God is a God of action, He doesn't just sit there, He does stuff and then, then He rebukes them for their lack of faith. Now that might seem a bit harsh but look at it from His perspective, He's the Son of God, He knew the right thing to do, it was blindingly, glimpsingly obvious to Him but it was foreign to them. In fear and amazement they asked one another, "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water and they obey Him. See the bottom line is that trusting God in the storm is so utterly unnatural to us. It's a bit like the gymnast; he has to learn manoeuvres that are completely unnatural, almost supernatural when you watch them sometimes. I particularly like the guys who get on those rings, you know they get up and they do all those things on those rings, I think 'my goodness, how do they do that?' 'Cause I have to tell you, I can't do that. They don't learn those things sitting on the couch memorising three dot points, they learn them in the gym, the hard way, they fall off, they hurt themselves, they get up, they do it again, they fall over, they hurt themselves, they get up, they do it again until eventually, they can do things that are impossible to you and to me and that's how we learn to cope with fear in the middle of those storms. Each time I go through one and I do, I go through them just like you do, I experience fear each time and I'm not some "scaredy cat" but that's just life. And what I've learnt is to go to God early, to pour my heart out to Him like Hannah whom we looked at during the course of this week on the program, if you were with us earlier this week, and what He does when I do that, is He gives me peace. And I've had to learn that over and over and over again and I'm still learning it and sometimes that peace comes sooner and sometimes that peace comes later but it always comes. I would never have learned that sitting by the pool, only out in the sea amidst the storm and then, when I have that peace, the fear that once immobilised me, the fear that stopped me, is gone. I can get on, I can do my bit, I can do the practical things, I can deal with the finances, I can make the calls, I can manage the problems and wait expectantly for God to show up and do His bit, for God to show up and calm the storm, for God to show up and do the things that I simply can't do.

You know, when the storms of life are raging around us, humility is the last thing that comes to mind. But humility, it turns out, is the key to dealing with the storm, in a most unexpected way. The things that go on deep in our hearts, well sometimes we think, only we know. "No-one really knows what I'm thinking, no-one knows that I hate this person or I envy that person or I lied about this or hid that. No, the things deep in my heart, they're completely hidden from the rest of the world." And yet nothing could be further from the truth because those things in our hearts, well they're written all over our faces and the rest of the world sees them through what we say and what we do. Our behaviour betrays our hearts because who we are on the outside comes from who we are on the inside. The two are linked, cause and effect, it's that simple and even if they weren't, even if the rest of the world couldn't read our hearts by watching us and listening to us, there's at least one other person who knows what's going on inside. "God only knows". How often have you heard that? Well He does, He knows what's going on in our hearts and it turns out, what's happening inside, deep inside in our heart means everything to Him. This week on the program we're looking at the storms of life. You know when you're out on an angry ocean, it's a scary place and a storm hits and your life and my life, you know we can both think of recent storms. Don't have to think back very far, big ones, little ones and over this week we've been taking a look at how two different people, or groups of people, handled their perfect storm. Hannah was a woman, the wife of Elkanah, one of two wives, the other wife Peninnah had children and Hannah had none and there's incredible pain in her heart. She goes and takes it to God, have a listen, if you weren't able to join us earlier in the week. She prays, this is from 1 Samuel chapter 1: Once they'd finished eating and drinking at Shiloh, Hannah stood up. The priest Eli was sitting on his chair at the doorpost of the Lords temple and in the bitterness of her soul, Hannah wept much and prayed to God and she made a vow saying, "O Lord Almighty, if you would only look upon your servants misery and remember me and don't forget your servant but give her a son then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life." Then she went away and ate something and her face was no longer downcast. You know what I see looking at Hannah, you can probably see it too, I see a humble heart. I see a heart humble enough not to lash out at other people or whinge or complain or act badly. Amidst the bitterness of her soul, the extreme pain, she pours her heart out to God. Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, priests, turns out they're bad dudes. I mean the priests are meant to be the religious leaders, they're meant to be Gods men, the go betweens between God and His people, if anyone should have honoured God in their hearts, it shouldn't have been Hannah, it should have been them. But instead they slept with prostitutes and they plundered the peoples sacrifices to God and this is what God does. We looked at it briefly yesterday on the program: A man of God comes to Eli the priest and says to him, "This is what the Lord says, 'Didn't I bless you? Didn't I reveal myself to your father's house? Didn't I appoint your family as priests? Haven't I given you everything? Why is it that you scorn my sacrifices and offerings that I've prescribed for my temple? Why do you honour your sons more than you honour me by stealing, by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people of Israel'? Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel declares: 'I promise you that your house and your father's house, I promised that you would minister before me forever but now', the Lord declares, 'far be it from me because those who honour Me, I will honour but those who despise me I will disdain. The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your father's house so that there will be not one old man in your family and you will see distress in My dwelling. Let me ask you something; who do you think was on solid ground here, Hannah or Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas who pleased themselves? Hannah who was struggling in the midst of her storm and who honoured God or these priests, Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, who just plundered and took what they want and turned their backs on God? See, Hannah with her humble heart or the priests, with all their positions and titles and all that stuff but who wouldn't know God if they fell over Him. You know what I reckon; it's easy to be like Eli, Hophni and Phinehas but it's hard to be like Hannah. You know why? Because we can't really see God, not like we can see the physical reality we're in, not like we can see our circumstances, not like we can see the storm and feel the fear. All those things seem so much more real than this notion of a God that we can't see; a God that we have to talk to by faith instead of touch and hear physically. And so this present reality takes over and God has to kind of, I don't know, fit in with our present reality, if at all. Absolutely, it is so easy to be like Eli, Hophni and Phinehas and just stuff ourselves full and turn our backs on God and forget about honouring God. It's easy to relegate God to one of the things that just has to fit into our days agenda but let me tell you something; God is no less real for the fact we can't physically see Him. He's no less powerful for the fact that we interact with Him by faith. God is God and solid ground is the place that Hannah knew. I heard someone say once that peace is trusting in the sovereignty of God, Hannah knew that peace. For that very reason, in the eye of her perfect storm, in that place of taunts and disappointments and pains where she couldn't even utter the words when she poured her heart out to God, Hannah discovered Gods peace. Just a simple act of faith. So many times, over these recent years for me, when the storms have blown in, so many times and you know, in a sense you're so inadequate to deal with those storms. People who come against you and circumstances and the finances and the things that really hurt and the things of real fear and we feel so inadequate. Just kind of say, "well, I'll go and pray" but you know what that prayer of faith is, that prayer of anguish and pouring our hearts out before God, it's honouring Him as the sovereign God above all things, above all powers and dominions and circumstances and storms and listen again to Gods word, 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 30 says: God says, 'I will honour those who honour me and those who despise me will be treated with contempt. Next week we're going to see how Gods contempt was poured out on Eli, Hophni and Phinehas and how Gods honour was carried out for Hannah through Samuel, her son. Haven't talked a lot about him this week but we will. We'll see that next week on the program. See God blesses Samuel and sets him up as the priest and the prophet and the judge over the whole of Israel, Gods blessing flows through him to Hannah, through the generations. The question we need to ask ourselves is this; when I look at my life, do I look like Hannah or Eli? Cause that's how we figure out whether I someone who honours God, whether I see Him as the Kings of Kings and the Lord of Lords and sovereign above all things. Whether I go to Him and pour out my heart or whether I steal from Him. Make no mistake; God takes His honour and His glory very seriously – very seriously!

Different people handle the rough times differently. Some seem to find peace in the middle of it all. For others, it's a complete disaster.  Let's meet some people at different ends of that spectrum. Over the last couple of days on the program we've been taking a look at how different people weather the storms of life. And in particular yesterday, we met Hannah, a woman who had been childless for years, taunted by others and in her pain, poured out her heart to God and discovered, when she did that, God gave her peace. And not only that but God answered her with a son and she gives that son back to God but what comes next is a prayer of thanksgiving and rejoicing. We'll take a look at that in a moment And then we're going to look at some men, men who were around Hannah at the same time, priests in fact, Gods men but when Hannah knew how to approach God to get her feet on solid ground, these so called priests hadn't a clue. In fact, Hannah on the one hand and the priests, Eli and his sons on the other were like chalk and cheese. Opposite ends of the scale and the outcomes for each of them, in their storms, well they were at opposite ends of the scale too. My hunch is there's something in that for us so let's check it out. Now listen to what Hannah prayed when God gave her a son: Hannah prayed and said, "My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted up. My mouth boasts over my enemies for I delight in your deliverance. There is no-one holy like the Lord; no-one beside you, there's no rock like our God. Don't keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance for the Lord is a God who knows and by Him deeds are weighed. The bows of warriors are broken but those who stumbled are armed with strength. The prayer goes on and on, you can read it in the book of 1 Samuel chapter 2 and you know what it's all about; it's about the power and the sovereignty of God, it's about a Hannah who went to God with this in her heart, that God is above all things, not to reform God in her own image. Do you know how I know that? Because when she poured out her heart to God, she offered her son back and she honoured that promise. That's a challenge for each one of us, about how we go to God. How we see Him, as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords or as some performing puppy that jumps when we say jump. How can we tell the difference? See it's very hard to discern our hearts sometimes, how can we tell the difference between a right and a wrong attitude towards God? Well lets go back to this 1 Samuel book in chapter 2. We're going to meet Eli and his sons, the priests: Eli's sons were wicked men; they had no regard for God. Now it was the practice of the priests with the people that whenever anyone offered a sacrifice to God and while the meat was being boiled, the servant of the priest would come with a 3 pronged fork in his hand. He'd plunge it into the pan or the kettle or the cauldron or the pot and the priest would take for himself whatever the fork brought up. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh. But even before the fat was burned, the servant of the priest would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, "Give the priests some meat to roast. He won't accept boiled meat from you, only the raw stuff." If the man said to him, "Well let the fat be burned up first and then take whatever you want", the servant would answer, "No, hand it over now, if you don't I'll take it by force." The sin of the young men was very great in the Lords sight for they were treating the Lords offering with contempt. See, the way we tell the difference is through how we behave. Hannah could have complained and fought back and acted up badly when she didn't have a child. She could have lashed out at her husband and grumbled to God yet, in her pain, she went to God humbly and asked Him to bless her and He honoured that. See, it's an amazing truth, its one of those pivotal passages in the Bible that tells us a huge amount about why, when we have a wrong heart towards God, things go badly. It's in 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 30: For those who honour me, (says God) I will honour and those who despise me, I shall treat with contempt. And what you read in the remainder of chapter 2, starting at verse 27, is that God deals with Eli and his two sons. He sends a prophet to Eli and this is what happens, the prophet says: This is what God says, "Didn't I clearly reveal myself to your father's house when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh? I chose your father, out of all the tribes of Israel, to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod in my presence. I gave your father's house all the offerings made with fire by the Israelites. Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I've prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honour your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering?" Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel declares: 'I promise that your house and your fathers house would minister before me forever but now the Lord declares, far be it for me for those who honour me I will honour but those who despise me I will despise. The time is coming when I will cut short the strength and the strength of your father's house so that there will not be a single old man in your family and you will see the stress in my dwelling. And then he goes on, this prophet, to say all the horrible things that are going to happen to Eli and his two sons. Even to the point where he says: This will be a sign to you. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, they will die on the same day and I'll find myself another priest, I will establish him and his house and he will minister before me and this boy Samuel, ministered the Lord under Eli. See, there it is; the priests were in a position of power and authority and responsibility and they didn't honour God. In their words or their deeds they rejected Him and God dealt with them. We'll have a look at what happens to them next week. Hannah, on the other hand, well she's like chalk and cheese when you compare her to Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. Hannah's this lowly of lowly, the priests are up there on the social religious register and yet that makes no difference to God because He says: I will honour those who honour me and those who despise me shall be treated with contempt. What Gods saying here is, "well, if I can't change the people, I'm going to change the people", and He did and Eli, Hophni and Phinehas end up dying and young Samuel, Hannah's boy, this Hannah who honoured God, young Samuel is the one who's blessed. You know it's easy to ignore the invisible God, to just go our own way and then to blame our storms on everyone else but deep down in our hearts we know don't we? We know that when we front up to God, in humility, the way Hannah did, He honours that; He just does. And when we live our lives like Eli and his sons, well God's about to show up in our storms and not the way we wanted Him to. We can ignore Him and deny Him and remonstrate all we like but deep in our hearts we just know that God honours those who honour Him and He despises those who despise Him. Come on people, there is a direct link between how we behave towards God and what happens in our storms. This picture of Hannah in deep distress, going to God, asking for a son in humility is such a beautiful picture. You see, we feel so weak in those storms don't we? We feel as though there's nothing we can do. And God shows us through these stories, it's not about the position we have or the power we have or how much we get to eat or how well we get rewarded in this world, it's not about any of those things. It's about whether or not we bow down and we honour God.

Okay – so the going gets tough. The storm hits. Now What.  Let's meet a woman who's been there, done that – and see what we can learn from her.  This woman's name? Hannah. We're going to meet someone today who was dealt a cruel blow in her life. She was a beautiful young woman called Hannah who, to the taunts of those around her, remained childless for many years. And yet in the midst of this most painful storm of her life she discovered a peace, a peace that surpassed all understanding. It doesn't matter who we are or where we're at in life, storms are going to come along and hit us when we least expect them. We can't change that but what we do in the middle of that storm, well it makes such a huge difference. And that's why I'd love to have the opportunity to spend just the next few minutes sharing in Hannah's journey 'cause I have this hunch that there are just a few of us that need that encouragement today. Is that a reasonable thing to do? Maybe there's no storm in your life at the moment, maybe there's clear blue sky, well that's fabulous but what we discover together in these next few moments might just be something that you can tuck away in your heart and pull out the next time those storm clouds start brewing. If you've got a Bible grab it because we're going to have a bit of a look at the book of 1 Samuel, the first few chapters, over these coming days and weeks. We're going to discover a truth that we kind of know, that we should know and yet it kind of gets lost in the world that we live in. It's a 'me' centred world, we keep on going to God and asking for these things for me, me, me. You know, I sometimes think that we're trying to turn Him into a performing poodle. "You know, God do tricks on my command, when I say 'now, jump', when I say 'now', deliver this". You think there's a risk to that? I think there is, in a very "me" centred world. It may seem harsh but you turn God the wrong way round and you get 'dog', right? Am I expecting God to dance to my tune or am I dancing to His tune? Good question, it's what we're going to explore in this story and it begins with a storm. A woman called Hannah, it turns out she's going through some really rough times but she, she has the Creator/creature relationship the right way up. This is what the story says in the book of 1 Samuel: There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph who's an Ephramite. He had two wives; one was called Hannah, the other one Peninnah and Peninnah had children but Hannah didn't. Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were the priests of the Lord. Whenever the day came for Elkannah to go and sacrifice he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters but to Hannah, he gave a double portion because he loved her and the Lord had closed her womb and because the Lord had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her to irritate her. This went on year after year, whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her until she wept and would not eat. Elkanah her husband would say to her, "Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?" Pretty rough wasn't it? It's a real storm, anybody who's been through that pain of not being able to have children. Imagine somebody else who has kids, your husbands other wife, taunting you like that, absolutely brutal and Hannah has lots of choices. She could have lashed out, she could have been angry, she could have withdrawn, she could have given up and her husbands pretty useless, typical bloke. He says: Hannah, why are you crying? Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons? Like, well you've got me, everything is okay. Hannah is going through the incredible pain of not being able to have children. She's one of two wives, something you saw in early civilisation even in the Bible. Really pleased that's something that's gone away. Can you imagine the rivalry and this ongoing white hot skewer in that relationship? So what does Hannah do? As I said, she had a whole bunch of choices; to retaliate, to act up badly, to give up, to curl up in the corner and give up on life and die. To spend a life complaining, let the bitterness consume her, what does she do in her perfect storm? Here's the story: Once they'd finished eating and drinking at Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the Lords temple. In the bitterness of her soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord." (Look at it, a sad picture) "And she made a vow saying, "O Lord Almighty, if you would only look upon your servants misery and remember me and do not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life and no razor will ever be used on his head." And as she kept praying to the Lord, Eli the priest observed her mouth, Hannah was praying in her heart but her lips were moving but her voice wasn't heard and Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, "How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine." "Not so my lord" Hannah replied, "I'm a woman who is deeply troubled. I've not been drinking wine or beer. I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Don't take your servant for a wicked woman, I've been praying here out of my great anguish and grief." And Eli answers, "Well go in peace and may God of Israel grant you what you've asked of Him." She said, "May your servant find favour in your eyes." Then she went away, she ate something and her face was no longer downcast. See it turns out, she does have a son, calls him Samuel, gives him over to God as soon as he was weaned and Samuel comes and serves as a priest, in this temple, under Eli, whom we discover later is a really bad dude. He's the priest, he's supposed to be the "go between" between God and His people and yet, he and his sons have no respect whatsoever for God. We'll look at them another time. Now, notice she doesn't lash out or whine or complain, she humbles herself before God and asks her Sovereign God, pours her heart out to Him in her grief and Eli, this scoundrel, with about as much spiritual insight as my pet cat, thinks she's drunk and gives her platitudes and yet here's this simple woman, at the bottom of the heap, pouring her heart out to God and notice what it says after she does that, verse 18 chapter 1: Then she went her way and ate something and her face was no longer downcast. See, Hannah's feet were on solid ground. Even before her prayer is answered, this seemingly impossible prayer. You know what this tells me, she trusted God. No matter what His answer would be, she trusted her God. She let it go, she stopped worrying and God answered her prayer. Some things sound too simple. It sounds too easy to go to God and pour your heart out and hand it over to Him. It seems that it could never possibly make a difference but pouring our hearts out to God is like a first step of putting our feet on solid ground. In fact, sometimes it's the only step we have. Now you might say to me, "Berni no, it's too simple. In any case what difference could it make? God already knows my problem". And I'd say this to you; this is something that, over the years, I've known and so often forgotten to do. Not 'til I hit rock bottom sometimes do I remember and every time I do it you know what happens? He puts my feet on solid ground – He just does!

When you're caught in a small boat on a stormy ocean – what you discover is how much you love good old terra firma. The more firma, the les terra, right? So how do you get some solid ground beneath your feet? I am really excited to be starting a new series this week on the program that I've called, "On Solid Ground". Now I have to tell you I am definitely a land lover, I like to have terra firma under my feet. In particular, I don't like being out on the water on the ocean, in fact, the more firmer the less terror if you get my drift. I have this basic theory that, if God had meant us to be out on the ocean he would have given us gills or at the very least, steering wheels and rudders right? And for me, there's nothing more terrifying than being out on a stormy ocean. I'd much rather be standing on solid ground looking out at the stormy ocean than being out there on it and yet, it seems that in life we do travel through stormy oceans and we do have to live through those storms. That's one of the central dilemmas of life, surviving those storms. In fact not just surviving them but learning to ride through them with a peace and a confidence because, well they happen; it's just the way things are. What we really want is we want solid ground under our feet but it's not always possible, or is it? That's the dilemma, dealing with the storms of life. I remember when I was a young boy; I sailed in a ship from Australia to Europe. It was a four week trip each way through the Suez Canal and it was such a long way. I was only four or five years old and along the way, I remember to this day, we had some HUGE storms and this great ocean liner rolled around like you can't believe, there were ropes in the corridors to hand on to. I've never forgotten those storms, I was so sea sick and I was very, very afraid. Even though we were such a big ship and you'd go up on the deck and you'd look out the port hole or if you dared, go out onto the deck and these massive waves, they were like, they were like buildings, would come towards the ship and just toss it around, it was pitching around in this fearsome ocean and for me there's nothing as frightening as that angry sea and the violent storm and the ground, as it were, is moving under your feet. Now for some people, life seems to be a constant storm, the ground underneath their feet is never solid. There's always some fear and uncertainty and they never quite figure it out and many of these people even believe in God and yet life seems to be this endless storm. Question is, how do I get some solid ground under my feet? Well that's what we're going to be exploring in this series that I've called On Solid Ground, starting right here and now. Now today, we're just going to head out on the ocean with some fishermen and take a look at what it was like for them. These fishermen were disciples, they were followers of Jesus. Remember, they're seasoned fishermen, they'd been doing this all their lives, let's have a look at how they handled the storm. Luke chapter 8, beginning at verse 22: One day Jesus says to His disciples, "Let's go over to the other side of the lake." So they get in the boat and set out. As they sailed Jesus falls asleep and this squall comes down on the lake so that the boat was being swamped and they were in great danger and the disciples went to Him and woke Him and said, "Master, Master, we're going to drown." He got up, He rebuked the wind and the raging waters and the storm subsided and all was calm. "Where's your faith?" He asked the disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water and they obey Him. Now these fishermen, they were afraid because they knew the terrible consequences of the storm swamping their boat. Now it may sound a bit silly but, well they wouldn't have had to worry about they consequences if they were fish, if they'd had gills and fins because it's not dangerous for a fish to fall into the ocean or in this case, the lake. The people, they're fishermen, well it's a whole different story, we fall into a stormy sea and we end up drowning and that's what their fear was all about, that's why they panicked. And when we're in the middle of a storm, that's what our fear is all about. It's the fear of being swamped, it's the fear of losing our grip, it's the fear of drowning. I never cease to be amazed in life, the different circumstances this world, this life on this planet seems to be able to conjure up and hurl at me in the form of a storm. The tensions, the oppositions, the challenges and sometimes they come so rapidly, one after the other that no matter how strong or resilient we are, it feels like we're being swamped. And here's the bottom line for you and me, just as with those fishermen, we're made to live on solid ground, not in the ocean. We're not made to live out on that stormy ocean in fear of drowning 24x7, even though that's sometimes where we find ourselves at in life. We're not made to be swamped by the ocean, we're made for terra firma, we're made to be on solid ground, would you agree? Whether you're a fisherman or a land lover like me, whether you're a thrill seeker or someone who prefers a quieter life, none of us is made for the constant battering by storms out there on angry oceans and yet sometimes we can't avoid them. Sometimes, like those fishermen, we just have to be out there on that sea and the storm hits and there ain't a thing that we can do about it. At the end of the day we're land lovers, the lot of us but we need to know how to ride that storm. I've seen people where storms seem to go on half a lifetime, others have precious few but as resilient as a character I am, I have had to learn how to ride a storm with confidence, are you with me, otherwise you end up drowning? Read that passage again: One day Jesus says to His disciples, "Let's go over to the other side of the lake." So they get in the boat, they sail, He falls asleep, a squall comes down and hits them so that the boat is being swamped and they're in danger and the disciples went and woke Him and said, "Master, Master, we're going to drown." He gets up, He rebukes the wind, the raging waters, the storm subsides, all is calm and He goes, "Well, where's your faith?" In fear and amazement they ask one another, "Who is this? How can He command even the winds and the water and they obey Him?" See, to them it was startling and surprising. It's not a myth, this is historical fact. It's easy to write this off as some fable but it's never meant to be that. With all my heart I believe it's an historical record and these fishermen go, "This is amazing". It's something completely new; they'd never seen it before. Now they learned some things about God that day, in fact they learned 3 things. They discovered that God was in the boat with them. That He had both the will and the means of doing the impossible, of calming the storm and saving them from it. And thirdly almost the most incongruous thing of all, they discovered that safely riding out the storm was a matter of faith. This week and next week on the program, we're going to meet some people who learned that in their lives. See, you just can't memorise those three dot points and go, "I'm ready, bring on the storms, I can do this" because you don't learn this sipping pina colada's by the pool. You don't learn this by memorising three dot points. You have to learn this only one way; the hard way. By getting in the boat and being hit by the storm and exercising your faith. So that's why, over these next couple of weeks on the program, we're going to learn what this means in our lives. It's riveting stuff so make sure you join me each and every day.

Each of us has a destiny out there somewhere. But some people are too afraid to follow it because they compare themselves with other beautiful, talented people and come to the conclusion that they could never be as successful as them. Those people have, what I call, Ugly Duckling Syndrome. Well here we are at the end of the week again and in fact at the end of a series of twenty programs over the last four weeks that together have made up the series that I've called Discover Your Destiny. I hope you've been able to join me on that journey over these last few weeks but if you missed any of the programs you can listen to them again online at our website www.christianityworks.com. Now one of the reasons, one of the many reasons that people don't step out into their destiny, that yearning, that dream, that thing deep down that they know that they were made to be and to do, is that they compare themselves to other people. Well we all do that, we all look at these talented and gifted people around us and somehow we convince ourselves that we could never be as good as them, we can never do what they can do, we can never live out our dream, our destiny. You know what I call that, I call it ugly duckling syndrome. Hans Christian Anderson's powerful story 'The Ugly Duckling' is a literary classic. Not so much because of the way it was written, my hunch is that the piece loses some of its poetry and its lilt at having been translated into English. No the power of 'The Ugly Duckling', the thing that made it a classic is in the way that it resonates deeply with our souls. A swan's egg by some strange set of circumstances finds itself in a ducks nest in the farmyard and so a swan is born into a family of ducks. No one really cares why or even realises that it's happened, everyone just assumed that he's meant to be a duck and all of his little life people reject him because for a duckling he is one ugly bird. Everyone misunderstands him, everyone rejects him and it hurts, he's all alone but amidst the bleakness and the hopelessness of this world there is one thing, just one thing that makes his little spirit soar. Have a listen. One evening just as the sun set amid radiant clouds there came a large flock of beautiful birds out of the bushes. The duckling had never seen any like them before. They were swans and they curved their graceful necks while their soft plumage shone with dazzling whiteness. They uttered a singular cry as they spread their glorious wings and flew away from those cold regions to warmer countries across the sea. As they mounted higher and higher into the air the ugly duckling felt quite a strange sensation as he watched them. He whirled himself in the water like a wheel, he stretched out his neck towards them and uttered a cry so strange that it frightened him. Could he ever forget those beautiful happy birds? And when at last they were out of his sight he dived under the water and rose again almost beside himself with excitement. He knew not the names of these birds nor where they had flown but he felt towards them as he never felt for any other bird in the world. He wasn't envious of these beautiful creatures but wished to be as lovely as they were. Poor ugly creature, how gladly he would have lived even with the ducks had they only given him some encouragement. At the moment he didn't yet know who he was, he just knew who he wanted to be but because he didn't know who he was, who God had made him to be he simply didn't have a license to go and be who he'd been made to be. And even when he finally encounters those birds again he thinks he's going to die, surely that can be the only outcome." I will fly with those royal birds', he exclaimed, 'and they will kill me because I am so ugly and dare to approach them. But it does not matter, better to be killed by them than pecked by the ducks, beaten by the hens, pushed around by the maid who feeds the poultry or starved with hunger in the winter. Then he flew to the water and swam towards the beautiful swans. The moment they espied the stranger they rushed to meet him with outstretched wings. 'Kill me' said the poor bird and he bent his head down to the surface of the water and awaited death. But then something happened that changed everything in an instant. What did he see in the clear stream below? His own image. No longer a dark grey bird, ugly and disagreeable to look at but a graceful and beautiful swan. To be born in a duck's nest in a farmyard is of no consequence to a bird if it is hatched from a swan's egg. It's not until we really know who we are that we discover how inconsequential the distorted image that the worlds misunderstanding reflects back at us, in fact is. My friend as I meet people around the world and I've met so many, more and more as the years go by I'm so deeply impressed by the amazing abilities and talents, ideas, creativity, perspectives, motivations that are buried inside each person, each and every person who I meet. As I have the opportunity these days to listen to what they say, read their blogs and tweets, I'm constantly amazed at the brilliance and creativity that people are capable of. That's not just other people, it's each one of us, it's you, it's me, each in our own uniquely different ways we have this capacity, this capability, this potential to do the most amazing things and to be the most amazing people. I don't mean that we're all going to be super stars. I don't mean that we're all going to be on the world's stage or in the lime light. No, no. True greatness often lives in people whose names we'll never know, whose deeds most of us will never see but whose lives touched the hearts of others and leave a legacy of love and of service that will change another person's life forever. Please don't fall for The Ugly Duckling thing. You are such a person, you have a future, you have a destiny, it's waiting to be lived and if you only look at yourself you'll discover abilities and talents and creativities and beauties that you never imagined possible. Just think of that little ugly duckling, he thought he was so ugly and finally when he looked in the mirror what he saw was a graceful beautiful swan. And it's precisely this thing that God wants you to know when you set out on your journey of destiny. For as the Apostle Paul writes in the Book of Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10. You are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do the good works which he prepared beforehand for you to walk into. See He's already prepared the way. The good works already waiting for you on the road up ahead and He's created you as His piece of workmanship perfectly suited to the destiny to which you're called. It's about discovering that we are indeed Gods workmanship you and I. It's about discovering who we are and what our purpose is so that we can go and walk into the good works that God prepared beforehand for us to walk into with a certainty and a quiet confidence in the knowledge that we're a perfect fit, that we're the right one for the job no matter how daunting that job may appear. Father God We've heard your Good News; we know we've made many mistakes. We stepped out of your plan, we went our own way, each one of us in our own way knows it didn't quite work and so we want to come back and we want to discover the me You always meant us to be. FatherThank you for Jesus. We just want to accept Him. I believe that He died for me and that He rose again. I believe that I'm forgiven because of Him and that I have eternal life because of Jesus and Father right this day, lock, stock and barrel, with everything that I am, with every hope and every dream, everything I have I step back into your plan. I give everything that I am and everything that I have to you for you to do with as you please. Father God Thank you that you have a plan, thank you that I can come back because of Jesus and thank you Father that in that plan I'll get to know you and as I get to know you more and more and more I'll discover the person you always meant me to be. Father We just pray all of this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Becoming the "me" we were meant to be is – well – a life long journey. And sometimes, it's not until we stop to look back, that we can really see God's hand in all of that. If I want to ask you, what's your destiny, what were you put on this earth to achieve to do, what impact are you meant to make on this planet of over seven billion people, what's the point of your life and is it heading in the right direction? I wonder how you'd answer those questions. I ask those questions of people rather a lot and can I tell you the number of people who have a clear sense of their destiny and purpose and direction, well it's less than 5%, maybe one in twenty maybe. Now I'm not saying that we should each have our lives completely mapped out. Things happen along the way, there are twists and turns in life that are totally unexpected. The little things can change the whole course of a life. I remember a long time ago now I was really sick one day with a high temperature. I was scheduled to speak at a function the following day but I was so sick. I should have rung up and cancelled. The next day came and I was still so sick and yet deep inside me I felt I should go. I did and that was the day I met my wife Jacqui. It turns out that that was the only day I would have ever have met her in the place. Going and speaking on that day despite my sickness completely changed my life. I wouldn't be married to her today had I stayed at home. Just the other weekend a good friend of mine Paul, a magistrate, was swimming in the surf. It was a normal day, I'd chatted with him by sms an hour or two before to invite him over for dinner that night. A wave picked him up crashed him on his head in the sand, paralysed him and they found him floating face down in the water. They only just got him in the nick of time. He survived, all's well, he can walk and everything but I'm sure that one experience has changed his perspective on a few things in life. So we know things like that can happen. We can't map out our whole lives in the minutest detail and say, "yep that's what it's going to be", and yet deep down we need to have a sense of destiny. Another way of putting it would be a sense of the direction our life is meant to be headed and that destiny is invariably tied up with two things, our dreams and our abilities and skills. If you're one of the majority – one of those people who hasn't yet cottoned on to the direction in which your life was always meant to be headed – then this is for you. Can you remember the dreams you used to have for your life when you were young? Can you? There are going to be some dreams that, well they were never going to fly. If you're short and slightly dumpy and you were dreaming of becoming a famous basketball player, well that one was obviously never going to happen but so often there's a dream in people's hearts that's been there all along. Here's a conversation that I've had so many times with people about this question of destiny. We get to talking about the direction which their life is heading and the person says to me something like this, "but you know I'm sure there's meant to be, I don't know, something else. Something that, I don't know, I'm meant to be doing but I don't know what it is." Does that sound vaguely familiar? So I then ask them, 'well if you had no constraints, if money wasn't an issue, if you could be anything or do anything that you wanted what would that be?' And the answer invariably comes back along these lines. "Oh, oh, anything I want? Well you know, I've always dreamed of ... " And then they tell me the answer, they tell me about their destiny, it's already there, it's woven somehow into the fabric of their DNA. Now of course there's a risk that this is a short dumpy basket-baller kind of dream and so then I follow up with my second question. What are the things you really enjoy doing? What are the things you're really good at?' Most people can tell you that and what I've found is that in more than 90% of cases their dream and their natural skills and giftings are an almost perfect fit. You know something we've just discovered their destiny, we've just discovered what they're meant to be doing with their lives and the tragedy, I mean the absolute tragedy is that deep down they probably already knew that. So what held them back? The constraints we all put on our lives. Do you remember my first question? If you had no constraints, if money wasn't an issue, if you could be anything or do anything that you wanted what would that be? See that question removes the constraints. Then all of a sudden people can look at things the way they're meant to look at them, through the eyes of freedom. For almost twenty years I was a high priced IT consultant but there came a time of dissatisfaction, time where I really came to the conclusion that I wasn't fulfilling my destiny through making lots of money. Over a few years the opportunity emerged to do what I'm doing now, produce these radio programs and use one of the few natural talents and gifts that I've been given, to be a communicator, to bring hope and change and transformation to people's lives through these radio messages. But that meant taking a risk. It meant confounding people's expectations of me. It meant leaving a big salary behind and going and working in a small, at the time, ailing not for profit organisation. It's a decision that both Jacqui, my wife, and I took together and those constraints and expectations and the money thing and the risk thing, all of those, I have to tell you, were difficult issues to navigate, it wasn't an easy decision to make. It was at the time, for me, a huge leap of faith. You know I look back on it now and this is what I know, it's always like that when we have to make a decision as to whether or not we're going to go out there and fulfil our destiny because destiny requires courage, the two seem inextricably linked when we step on the destiny journey. There's always a risk of failure and yet there's nothing as fulfilling and energising as living out your destiny. These last years doing what I'm doing now there have been some real challenges and real tough times but I tell you I wouldn't swap them for anything and in pursuing this destiny here's what I know. The only person who can make it happen in our lives is Jesus. Now some may scoff at that, come on Berni, people have achieved great things without Jesus. Yeah okay, there's plenty of evidence of genius and achievement out there in the world, people are capable of some amazing things but here's what I'm absolutely certain of, here's what I know beyond any shadow of doubt. Jesus, the Son of God, when He laid His glory aside, when He became one of us, He came into this world with a destiny. His destiny was two fold, it was to reveal God to us, to speak of God in a personal language of a man in a way that we could understand and secondly it was to die on that cross and rise again to give you and me the free gift of eternal life. And without that Jesus who fulfilled His destiny for you and me, you and I well may well be able to achieve some amazing things but we will never achieve anything of eternal value or significance. Because of my gift of communication I can hold people's attention. I can make them think, laugh and even cry but without Jesus, without His story, without His grace I have nothing of eternal value to impart because He's the one that saves, He's the one that transforms, He's the one that brings new life and my destiny lies in Him to be who He made me to be, to do the things He made me to do so that His purposes will be achieved. And my friend your destiny, your true destiny lies in Jesus too. He has plans and purposes for your life that He came up with even before you were born and when we give our lives to Him, completely, wholly, fully, without constraint, without limit, without reservation, then we discover our destiny. Let me tell you, it's a perfect fit your destiny with who He made you to be. How do I know that? Psalm 139. Go and read it – His Word, His truth, your destiny.

It turns out that our priorities have an enormous impact on how we feel about our lives.  So if we want to live an abundant, satisfying life we need to get our priorities sorted out; we need to put first things first. So – what should come first? Most people these days live hectic lives, just making it through. I mean, for some people listening to this program it's a touch and go thing everyday just to find enough food. Others they're drowning in emails and more things on their list of things to do than they can possibly get done. Others are sinking in a sea of loneliness. Whatever it is, whoever we are, wherever you're at in your life we can find so many things, really important things to clutter up our daily to do list. Personally my list of things to do is as long as my arm and then some. There are the personal things I have to do, things to do with writing and recording and producing this radio program, there's an organisation to run, people to meet, this project, that project, a new idea over here and a new idea over there. And then I receive a few hundred emails pretty much every day, some of them are junk but many of them are people asking me to do this or get involved in that or can you answer this question for me please or can you help me with my new project, can you please write an endorsement for the book that I'm writing? Welcome to my world. Now don't get me wrong I'm not complaining and none of those things are terribly bad at all but the point is that with so many more things to do than I can possibly fit into my day, my week or even my year, my process for deciding what I do is absolutely critical. One of the big mistakes I used to make was to answer my emails first thing each morning. I receive emails 24x7 from around the world so I used to sit down in the morning which given I'm a morning person is my most lucid and productive time and start answering emails. After a while I realised I wasn't getting anything else done because by putting emails first I was putting other people's priorities first, I was in fact dancing to their tune instead of sorting out for myself what was most important from my agenda, the things I needed to do first. There's a well know principle of framework you read in a lot of management books that sets out the difference between what's urgent and what's important and what you discover is almost nothing that's urgent is important and almost nothing that's important is urgent. And yet most of us are reactive, we react to the urgent things or at least to the things that other people say are urgent and so we spend most of our time doing urgent things instead of important things. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year and before you know it your life is slipping away doing a whole bunch of things which in the scheme of things may well be making you extremely busy but how important are they really? What of lasting value do they produce? What of lasting value does your life produce? You see my point here, how are you spending your life and are the things you're spending your time on important and worthwhile? I guess I'm asking those questions for you to ask them of yourself and to answer them, come on be brutally honest. For instance making sure I have some time for my beautiful wife Jacqui is important. Making sure I encourage her, give her a hug and a kiss, spend some unhurried time with her in the morning over breakfast is really important but it's not urgent. It's not as urgent as say an email that comes in from a radio station from somewhere around the world that says, "we weren't able to download tonight's radio program from your ftp server". And yet what I used to do because remember mornings are my most productive time, is get up really early and spend no time with Jacqui over breakfast and just work furiously through that time and by the time she comes home from work and I come home from work in the evening we're both tired and there you go, we haven't spent any time together. Do you see how easily this can happen in people's lives? The urgent trumps the important almost every time and before you know it your life's falling apart, things are in a mess, marriages are failing all because we allow the urgent to crowd out the important. Scary, isn't it? So these days I make sure that almost every morning during the week I'm around to share a time with my wife for breakfast. Sometimes I'm away and sometimes I have to be on a call to Africa or somewhere else but most mornings I have breakfast with my wife. Why? Because it's important and as a result sometimes urgent things don't get done. Let me let you in on a secret, the sky has yet to fall in. So what about you? What about your life? Are you letting the myriad of urgent things crowd out the important things, spending time with people, managing your personal finances, nurturing your children, developing relationships with your co workers. All of those things are incredibly important and in many a persons life they're being cast aside simply because people are too busy. I don't have time to exercise. Well if you don't have time for exercise, which is important let me tell you, you'll certainly be making time for sickness which is going to become urgent and actually that's how it works. Doing the important things generally over time reduces the number of urgent things that you need to do because if the important things go undone they lead to crises and those crises increase the urgent things requiring an immediate response. We've been talking these last few weeks about discovering your destiny. I don't know what your destiny is, I mean really I don't but this is what I do know, your destiny does not lie in the myriad of the things that other people tell you are urgent. Your destiny doesn't lie in answering hundreds of emails. Your destiny doesn't lie in reacting to other people's priorities. Your destiny is somewhere; it's doing the really important things in your life. Building the relationships, having a great marriage, doing the important things to take a career forward that's going to impact other people's lives. My friend please don't make the mistake of letting the urgent crowd out the important because, I'll say it again, I'm absolutely certain of this, your destiny does not lie in the hundreds and thousands of urgent little tasks that other people think that you should do. I mean if you or I went to God, this God who handcrafted us, who designed us in His heart, blue printed our DNA, if we went to Him and said, 'Lord what's the most important thing I have to do with my life?' What do you think He'd answer? What would He put at the very top of our to do list? Well actually we already know. A clever young lawyer asked Him a very similar question. The lawyer sort of said and this is my paraphrase: 'Well Jesus you and I both know that the law that Moses handed down to us there are six hundred and thirteen commandments and prohibitions, it's kind of a lot, I mean day to day that's a lot of things to remember to do so how would you sum up this law, I mean if I'm trying to prioritise these things in my life which ones of all of those commandments are the most important ones?' You can read his exact words in Matthews Gospel chapter 22 and in Mark chapter 12. And if I had to paraphrase Jesus reply in kind of here and now speak it would run something like this. 'Look I know you have a lot of things to do, there are lots of rules, do this, don't do that, they're all good things but you can sum up the whole law in just two commandments. To love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength. That's the most important one and the second one is just like it. To love the people around you as much as you love yourself. That's the whole law in a nutshell, that's it. And you know something the most important thing I do almost every day, the thing I do before anything else is I spend an hour or so alone with Jesus praying, reading the Bible, asking Him questions and that's what sets the course for my whole day and day after day, month after month, year after year it actually sets the course for my whole life. It is quite simply the single most important thing that I do and it's through that time with Him that I've discovered my destiny.

Winning is everything.  At least that's what everyone seems to think.  But sometimes, the more we win, the emptier it all feels.  Somehow, winning isn't all it's cracked up to be.   One of the things we're all pretty much conditioned to do in life is to come first. Now we all can't come first at everything right but it's pretty natural to want to be first, to be the best looking, to be the brightest, to be the most articulate, the fastest runner, the best football player. Even when we think we have things under control in our lives that competitive spirit thing inside each one of us just wants to win, an argument, a situation, a minor conflict at work or at home, we want to have the final say. We want to assert our view, our way, our need, our whatever it happens to be. To be blunt we just want to win. But sometimes winning comes at a very high price, let's face it, if I'm going to live out my destiny, if I'm going to be the me I was meant to be and if I'm going to live the life I was meant to live then surely I have to win at things right? I mean it stands to reason doesn't it? But there are just a few problems with this 'I have to be first' thing. I mean for starters you can't always be first. If everyone was always first by definition none of us would ever be first because winning, coming first means that others have to come second, third, fourth and last and it sets up this thing where we become our own little demi gods and the moment things don't work out, the moment we don't come first we throw a little tantrum or a big tantrum for that matter. To tell you the truth that's how I used to live. I expected everybody else to bow down and scrape to me and if they didn't I'd get upset, I'd roll over the top of them, I'd get offended and annoyed and disappointed because from as early as I can remember I've been programmed to win, to get the recognition, to win the prize. And it turned out that all that stuff was robbing me of my destiny, it was robbing me of being the me I was meant to be and living the life I was made to live. I was this little tin pot god on my own little tin pot throne and I discovered it wasn't much fun up there or down there, wherever it was, especially when you're surrounded by other people with exactly the same world view. The paradox is that being first doesn't work. We need to let that sink in for a moment, the view that you or I are always meant to come first simply doesn't work. Jesus and His disciples were travelling and the disciples were having this argument behind His back about which one of them was the greatest, you know that Mohammad Ali syndrome 'I am the greatest'. And when they came to Capernaum they went inside the house and Jesus said to them, 'So what were you guys arguing about out there on the road?' But they kept quiet because on the way they'd been arguing about who was the greatest, in effect who would come first. See there's nothing new here under the sun, this nonsense of wanting to win is as old as the hills. And sitting down Jesus called the twelve of them over and said, 'Look if any of you wants to be first you actually have to be the very last and the servant of all.' And He took a little child and He had him stand among them and taking this kid in His arms He said to the disciples, 'it's all about welcoming one of these little children'. Don't you love that? They have this argument about who's the greatest, now I don't think for one minute that Peter was saying, "you know I think John's the greatest". No, no, Peter was probably thinking, 'I'm the greatest' and John was probably thinking, "no, no, I'm the greatest". And these guys were playing a power game. Which one of us is on the top of the heap? And when Jesus said, "what were you guys arguing about?" They kept quiet, they didn't want Him to know. Why? Because they knew it was such a stupid argument. They knew it and we know it but it still doesn't seem to stop us playing the power game. At work, in our neighbourhood or a community group, in our families, amongst our so called friends. This idea that 'if anyone wants to be first he must be the very last and the servant of all', it's a really profound notion. Just seventeen little words and everything we've learned and believed about winning gets turned completely on it's head. In that one statement Jesus puts His finger on one of the deepest maladies on this planet, it was way back two thousand years ago and it still is today. Think about it, who are the people who come first in your estimation? Who are the people whom you treasure in your heart? I know who they are, they're the very ones who have sacrificed the most for you aren't they? Those people are the ones you and I hold dearest in our hearts, the ones who loved us when we were tough to love, the ones who put up with us when we were difficult to put up with, the ones who were there for us when we didn't deserve them. And those people instead of wanting to be first, instead of insisting on their rights, instead of all that stuff, we think we're owed and we deserve, instead of all of that they humble themselves to serve us. Instead of putting themselves first they were in fact last for us. If anyone wants to be first he must be the very last and the servant of all. Being first ultimately is about sowing a seed in someone else's life, a seed of gentleness and compassion and to be first we have to be last. If you want to be first you have to be the very last, the servant of all and leave a legacy of respect and gratitude and profound appreciation in other people's hearts. Being first is the thing that happens in their hearts when we serve them instead of what happens in our hearts when they serve us, that's the paradox. It's pretty simple, it's not rocket science but it's one of those things we forget in our business to make sure we get everything we deserve and then some, the me, me, me, thing, we miss it. I didn't start discovering my true destiny in life until I resigned from my own little tin pot despotic role as my own pathetic little god and started serving others. It's something I'm still learning and the amazing thing is, counter intuitive as it was when I started to serve other people instead of myself I actually started enjoying my life again. Not having to win each argument, not having to come out on top, not having to be smarter or faster or better or brighter than the next person is a whole better way of living than always having to come first. Because all of a sudden I wasn't trying to live this impossible life anymore, life became a whole bunch simpler when I started to live the Jesus way. This peace and this joy and this rest started showing up in my life, I don't have to get angry every time someone doesn't meet my expectations. You know something, if anyone wants to be first he must be the very last and the servant of all but more than that I discovered my destiny. I discovered that when I stopped trying to be first and having everyone serve me, when I in fact started to say 'no I'll start serving them' I discovered I had gifts and abilities that God wanted to use in other people's lives. We talked about this the other week and it's so incredibly satisfying, this double sided transaction of giving and serving. First resigning from being first, from me at the centre of the universe and to discover what it means to serve, the pleasure and fulfilment and then you know what happens, all of a sudden in a whole bunch of people's hearts we have a warm significance, we have a firstness if I can call it that, that only comes when we become their servant. Jesus said it in a whole bunch of different ways and it's a profound truth. I mean He said it again in Luke chapter 9, verses 24 and 25 if you want to have a read. Whoever wants to save their life will lose it but whoever loses their life for me will save it. Because what good is it for anyone to gain the whole world and yet to forfeit their very self. You see what we're forfeiting when we try and win, when we try and gain our life, when we try and be first, we're forfeiting our very self. In other words this is such an important part of being the person we were meant to be and living out our destiny. We weren't made by God to be some little tin pot despotic god on our own. We were made to be His children and to lose our lives and in losing our lives to discover who we actually are.  

It turns out that the more we try to fill ourselves up with all the fun stuff this world has to offer, the emptier we feel.  When are we finally going to wake up to the fact that life's not just about "me"? Life is full of paradoxes and contradictions and complexities. It's funny how we can see something one way, believe with all our heart that that's how it is and then in an instant you discover we had it all wrong. Like lemmings sometimes, we all rush in one direction and just in time someone says, "you realise that's a cliff". People and societies chase after this idea or that belief; they believe it with all their hearts only to discover it doesn't work. Take just one thing, consumerism. The advertising industry has a single, very simple mantra that rings out through almost every advertisement and it's this, "if you buy me you'll be happy". And to convince us of that each ad has glossy images of success plastered all over it, images of the things we aspire to: beauty, luxury, quality, comfort, happiness, a great marriage; a beautiful, happy, successful woman; a handsome, strong, driven man; delighted, well adjusted teenagers without acne. In effect the ads tell us what to aspire to because they're defining success. Fine dining, business class travel, crystal clear wide screen televisions, big houses. Who doesn't want those things? But when we finally get there it's a case of, well so what? Great but now what's next? Who doesn't want a good espresso coffee or sit in those wide comfortable seats at the front of the plane or to drive a nice car or to have a happy family? You know the ads that really, really get me, you see father's day and mothers day ads on television sometimes and they have images of happy well adjusted children, you know come in on mother's day or father's day morning and jump on mum and dads bed and they're all smiling, they're all happy. What mother or father doesn't want that to be the story of their family? Or even the margarine advertisement, you know in the mornings and all these happy people, all well dressed and their hair groomed, having breakfast, drinking freshly squeezed orange juice, scraping margarine on perfectly cooked toast, just to sell margarine. Or those watches that cost, you know up market, thousands of dollars type watches and you have images of multi million dollar racing yachts that appeal to the man inside the man. Or the four wheel drives. You notice they're always on beautiful wide country roads which lead towards freedom, never in the maddening peak hour traffic where most people drive them. Or the washing powder that will make your clothes whiter than white and brighter than bright. Or the showers that never need cleaning or the germ free sparkling toilets. This incredible list, on and on and on, all with the same message, buy me and you'll be happy but the plain simple fact is, it's just not true. I mean most of the things they're good, there's nothing wrong with any of those things but they don't fulfil us, they don't fill us up. Our career, self actualising through our work and power and big salaries, whatever people want out of their careers. You see it doesn't matter what it is or how exciting or glamorous it appears ultimately all work becomes mundane and ho-hum. You might be thinking, 'Berni what's the matter with you today? I mean why are you all down and pessimistic?' Well actually I'm not but I know a lot of people who are. They're living on this treadmill all their lives, round and round and round just to discover that it's hollow and it's empty. You know something, even the most wonderful marriage on the planet, if there's something not quite right inside one of those people there, it can end up being hollow. The problem is we've been conned, this buy-me-and-you'll-be-happy thing we know it doesn't work but what's the alternative? I mean so often we don't know anything else so we just keep on going round and round on the same track again and again. You see people swilling around those glossy, ritzy shopping malls, what for? Are they looking for happiness there? These last few weeks on the program and again this week we're looking at what it means to discover your destiny, to be the person you were made to be, to live the life you were made to live. And we've been unpacking this sort of emptiness that so many people feel, this nagging sense of dissatisfaction. Can I ask you something? As you look forward to the rest of your life is how you're living it now the way you want to live it for the rest of your days on this earth? Are the things that you're aspiring to, the things you've been working so hard for, the things that you've been sacrificing your life for, are they really worth it? Is the story, the mantra, the perspective on life that society has somehow infused into you the story that you want for the rest of your life? They might be unsettling questions, I hope actually that they are because this week I want to unpack this paradox, why is it that things don't seem to be working out in life sometimes? Why is it that somehow we try and live our lives kind of the way we're supposed to, the way that's supposed to make sense but it doesn't make sense? I don't feel fulfilled, I don't feel like I'm being the me I was meant to be, why is that? To me this is the biggest paradox of all and it's one I had to discover and unlearn the hard way. The great British columnist Bernard Lennon once wrote this: Countries like ours' he said, 'are full of people who have all they desire and yet they lead lives of quiet desperation, understanding nothing of the fact that there is a hole inside and no matter how much food and drink we pour into it, how many motor cars and TV's we stuff it with, how ever many well balanced children and loyal friends we parade around the edges of it, it aches. See so many people relate to that, sad but true. Can I ask you today, do you relate to that? As we've been spending this short time together today are you one of those many people who, if you're really honest with yourself, would say, "you know, truly there is something missing in my life. The way I've been living my life, the way I'm living my life today is not the way I want to spend the rest of my life?" Because if you are the next question is, so what are you going to do about it, huh? You may think that I'm railing against having money or having possessions, I'm actually not. There's nothing wrong with money, there's nothing wrong with having possessions, have a listen to what wise old King Solomon wrote in the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse 19: Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them and to accept his lot and to rejoice in his toil, this is the gift of God. Maybe you have wealth, maybe you have possessions but do you have the power to enjoy them because that power is a gift from God. Accepting your lot, enjoying who you are, rejoicing in the work you do, all those things are a gift from God. I like so many people of my generation made the mistake of believing the mantra of the advertising industry, "buy me and you'll be happy". It's not true, it never was true and it never will be true. Happiness and contentment are a gift from God. Joy is something that comes only ever from an intimate close relationship with God, knowing that through Jesus Christ we've been forgiven, knowing that through Jesus we have a fresh start, a new life, the opportunity to fulfil our individual, custom made, handcrafted destiny that was written down in Gods book of life before any of our days ever existed. The Apostle Paul hits the nail right on the head in the first chapter of the Book of Ephesians when he writes that God has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places and it's only when we lay hold of Gods blessing, real blessing, eternal blessing, blessing that lights up our hearts here and now, the very blessing of God Himself that all this stuff that we have, all the things that we do are enjoyable and make sense. Does that sound like the sort of story you want to live out for the rest of your life? Yeah me too.