a leader who gives life

Series: Conversations with Jesus
John 10:1-10
“A Leader Who Brings Life”
Here we have Jesus’ conversation with the Jewish leaders who were not leading their people in the right way. Today I have two key roles for leaders to
have, each one of you are leaders. Leaders are called to be gates for
those around them. John 10:1-10 the challenge of this passage was two-fold:
• Be the gate that protects the lives of those around you from predators and attacks.
• Be the gate that opens to new opportunities for all those who pass through it, not limiting but expanding options and skills, hopes and dreams
INTRO
After last weekend at Mandate I thought it might be good to describe the State of the British Man—according to a survey conducted by Beta Research and reported in an edition of Esquire magazine
- the average male is BROKE-but then we already know this
- men over 25 carry an average credit card debt of nearly 3300 dollars
- those under 25—carry a debt closer to 33 million
- men worry more about gaining weight than losing their career (which means there must be huge anxieties out there)
- a high percentage believe in God (78%)—this is the good news!
- but most (64%) never go to church—or go only on holidays—and that’s the tragic news
- 85% would rather be a CEO than a winner of the x factor
- most would rather be short, boring, rich—than tall, charismatic, and poor
- and most men—if they could have any guest at a party, would invite the following
four— Jesus, Bono, Bill Clinton and Ghandi
- but let me share a story with you of Mr Merv Grazinski, Mr Grazinski purchased a large Winnebago motor home, on his first trip home, having driven onto the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver’s seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly, he vehicle left the road, crashed and overturned. Mr Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner’s manual that he couldn’t actually do this. The jury awarded him just under 2 million dollars, plus a new motor home, the company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were other complete morons buying their recreation vehicles, sometimes men are idiots.
In John 10—Jesus had His own conversation with men
- those who were the leaders of His day
- the religious leaders of Israel to be precise - (John 10:1-10)
The first thing we notice is that He began the conversation in the abstract
- there is something cryptic going on
- such that John tells us those He conversed with had no idea what all of this had to do with anything
- they did not know, realize what He was saying—who He was saying it to
But then these words may be even more foreign to us
- we have not grown up with shepherds and sheep and pens and pastures and gates
a. our images of leadership are CEO’s running big corporations, presidents running banks, coaches leading teams
b. our images of gates are firewalls keeping viruses out, gates serving as security check points for those getting on a plane
c. our images of caring for animals are dogs and cats and pet lizards-not goat herds or flocks of sheep
But there is some common ground
- everything I have read about sheep suggests they are singularly unintelligent
- dense, stupid, dim, brainless
- prone to wander, get lost
- unable to find a sheep pen, even when it is within sight
- which sounds a lot like the long list of animals I have lived with
- especially our most recent dog Ruff—who has the IQ well below that of a flea
- and would not find our house if he was in the front garden
- who gives his best intellectual efforts to eating his own tail, Skip is another quality altogether, he could escape from Colditz if there was a biscuit on the other side of the wall.
What these leaders in John 10 missed was this
- Jesus was talking about them
- using the cryptic language of gates and watchmen and shepherds—
- Jesus was making this singular point—
THEY FAILED THEIR CALL TO BE LEADERS
- they missed this—that in pastoral terms—
LEADERS ARE CALLED TO BE GATES (verses 7-10)
- and gates do two things
A. GATES MUST PROTECT
- for gates are placed at the most vulnerable part of an enclosure
- the break in the wall
- those who are leaders position themselves at the entrance
- where there are gaps-where things are exposed
- standing, laying across the entry way if necessary
- positioning himself as protector-stopping sheep from getting out and predators from getting in
1. Jesus as the consummate leader identified Himself this way—I AM THE GATE
(verse 7)
- the sentry who positions his life between the flock and danger
2. in contrast—Jesus indicted Israel’s leaders for this—they were not gates
- rather the metaphors that applied to them were thieves, robbers- verse 8
- instead of serving as protectors—they were predators
- rather than preservers—they were pretenders
But leadership involves something else
- the other purpose gates serve
B. GATES MUST PROVIDE ENTRY INTO OPPORTUNITY
- it’s one thing to be a gate of protection—providing a secure pen
- but pens do not enable sheep to grow
- gates must swing the other direction—opening the sheep to the wild open fields
This is other side of leadership—leaders enable people to enter into the world
- they set free people to find pasture, luxurious forage, refreshment, satisfaction, freedom of movement
- “Effective leaders allow great people to do the work they were born to”
1. this is how Jesus described His purpose for coming
- to be the gate through which followers find pasture (a.k.a) life itself-vs 10b
- this theme is found everywhere in John
- 1:4-in Him was life-and this life was the light of men
- 5:40-come to Me and have life
- 6:48-I am the bread of life
- 7:38-whoever follows Me-streams of living water will flow from within
- here-He expands on the idea-life “to the full”
- life in all its fatness—life at its scarcely imagined best
- life that transcends time—that is everlasting—that does not have an expiry
date
- life that has eternal significance
- life that transcends our personal purposes
- life that takes on God like proportions
- life that “presses all the way in and all the way up to the ultimate purpose of
God—and joins Him in it”
2. Unfortunately—the leaders of Israel did just the opposite
- they were thieves who came to steal and kill and destroy-10a
- steal away peoples’ resources
- kill the spirit—kill passion and desire
- destroy life—the kind God intended
- rather than serve as gates that opened into pastures
- they constricted Israel to a pen of obligations
- they confined them to a maze of rules and regulations from which they could not find their way out
- created a religious establishment that drained the very life out of souls
In all of this—we hear a conversation that echoes one God had with leaders in the OT
- who failed their calling to be Israel’s watchmen
- who too were nothing less than frauds
- Isa 56:9-12-Israel’s watchmen are blind—they love to sleep—have all turned to their own way
- -Jer 23:1-4-woe to the shepherds who destroy the sheep
- -Ezekiel 34-woe to Israel’s leaders-who take care of only themselves—and scatter the sheep, leaving them to be plundered by the wild
APPLICATION
Jesus’ words in John 10 certainly have application to us
- male, female—young, old—called to this task of leadership—called to be gates
- outside of advancing God’s kingdom-nowhere is leadership more important than providing leadership to the next generation
- called to create “SPIRITUAL CHAMPIONS”
Unfortunately—we are not doing so well
We are all leaders, but a key to leadership is sacrifice, as Christians we lead the way God wants, people look to us to be light and salt in the world, from the leader of a nation to the parents of a family, the tribe is not there for the benefit of the chief, the chief is there to serve the tribe. God has given us authority, to devote our lives to leading well, Jesus sacrificed his life for you, and you have to sacrifice for others. You also have to listen, and be faithful and serve, even when it hurts. We always have the example of Jesus before us, when we follow his example when we turn to him, when we experience the life he has for us, others will see it and want him too, that is the core of what we are about. To follow Jesus and to lead others to be followers too.
A. BE THE GATE THAT PROTECTS
- the firewall of sorts
- for what has not changed from first century to 21st century
- is that our world is still filled with predators
- only they are much more subtle—they get past locked doors and closed windows
- thieves that aim to destroy our spirit
- robbers that want to steal our purity
- websites that want to corrupt our virtues
- pop culture that wants to coarsen souls
- cynicism that wants to deprive hope
- it’s critical to position ourselves at the gate
- not that we should be insulators—over-protection has its price
- but neither should we treat the world as if there is no evil, no threats
- to lay our lives down for others so that they may live.
B. BE THE GATE THAT LEADS TO OPPORTUNITIES
- that points the way, leads to wide open spaces
- introduces life
- for at the deepest level—people want to live—we all do
- many are bored—but few are content to merely exist, drift, take up space, fell they are just using up oxygen
- deeper than our instinct to live is our longing to be alive
- and it seems Christians are called, to point this way to life
- to ask—what makes you come alive?
- and help them get there--what one is destined for, created for
- In other words like the words of a Boy’s brigade camp grace “dear Lord do not make us like porridge which is difficult to stir and slow to serve. But more like corn flakes, crisp and fresh and ready to serve” Be the watchmen and the shepherds that God has called you to be, protect and serve, love and enable, love as Jesus has loved you.

“The Effect God Calls Us To Have In This World”

Series: Conversations with Jesus
John 9:1-41
“The Effect God Calls Us To Have In This World”
Tells the tragedy of a climber who recently became a part of the world’s highest graveyard, Mt Everest
- David Sharp, a teacher from England was almost at the summit, but fatigue and lack of oxygen began to take their toll on his body, leading to his death
- The real tragedy however was this, that some 40 climbers, in their dash to get to the top and get their trophy, passed the ailing climber without stopping to help
- As one coldly remarked, “He was effectively dead, so we carried on.”
- But one put it more correctly: “Me, I think some climbers’ sense of morality is effectively dead.”
It’s one story, but it is all too illustrative of the age in which we live
- That has lost its lines, its compass, its bearings, its ethics: ITS VIRTUES!
But it is hard to expect much more when we refuse to hold to absolute truths
- Which leads to the inevitable embrace of individualism, every man for himself
Illustration - Daughter’s graduation: class resolved to reject those who say there are absolutes
How does God speak to this?
- How did God speak to the darkness of His age?
- John 8:12 tells us that Jesus stood up and declared with stunning force “I AM
THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.”
- And demonstrated it by entering into the world of a man who never saw light
- Who knew only darkness
- And gave this man sight
- And in the process confirmed the blindness of most everyone around him
- The neighbours who were not certain if they could really see, recognize who he was
- The parents, who were blind to what this formerly blind son needed them to be in the moment
- And worse of all, the Pharisees, the religious police
- Who supposedly had the light
- But were the blindest of all
- Who could see no further than the fact this happened on the
Sabbath (following on from what Bill spoke of last week)
- Could not see the hand of God in front of their faces
- And in the face of the blind man’s probing threw him out
- But Jesus is famous for tracking down rejected people (verse 35)
- You and I are testimonies of this (we have the good news stories, lives healed, restored forgiven)
- And He entered into a conversation
- “Do you believe?” (verse 35b)
- “Are you willing to put your trust in Me?”
- And the man who now could see, went on to see what most everyone else was blind to
- He saw God present and at work in his life
- He saw the Messiah face to face
- And so He received and worshiped Jesus (verse 38)
- Like lots of people today, he was done with traditional religion
- He was ready for something, someone authentic
- Ready to give his life to someone who sought and embraced him, and surely told him that He loved him
- People don’t bow down unless they know this
Illustration – novelist Donald Miller interviewed Toni Morrison
- Why she became a great writer
- Was it her method, structure, education?
- “I am a great writer because when I was a little girl and walked into a room, my father’s eyes would light up. That’s why. There is no other reason.”
- I think Jesus’ eyes lit up whenever He found the marginalized, when He found this man
- And then Jesus did a most amazing thing
- He ended the conversation with words that seem out of sync
- But then, it is the glory of Christ to be out of sync with the world
- “If He fit nicely, He would be of little use” - Piper (read verse 39)
- It is in these words we see the tough, blunt, fierce form of Jesus’ love
- In these, I hear Jesus telling the blind man why He has come
- He has come for him
- Because of his blindness, He exchanged eternity for time, heaven for a place
- But the softness of these words is matched by piercing words that declare “I have also come to blind”
- Which may offend our sensibilities
- They’re meant to!
- For these are words that correspond to the real world of full and disbelieving hearts
- These are words that reflect who Jesus is
- He is the Light, the Light of the whole world
- And it’s the nature of Light to divide, distinguish
- For when light enters the darkness, it can ATTRACT
- Opens our eyes, reveals what is really right side up and what is upside down
- But on the other hand, light can also REPEL
- Give offense
- For light penetrates and exposes, uncovers darkness, draws evil out of the shadows, exposes the foulness of all alternative kingdoms
- The result:
1) Either we will RUN TO HIM
- We will see our darkness, our desperate need, and cry out for
illumination
2) Or we will RUN AWAY FROM HIM
- We will see our darkness and will do everything to hide it
- In part because men by nature love darkness rather than light
(John 3:19)
- For light exposes what people refuse to see
- That only He can be the God of our lives, not us
- That there are absolute truths
- That there are ethics that transcend what we think they should be
- That God requires nothing less than a radical change
- That all of their righteous deeds amount to filthy rags
- This is why the Pharisees hated Jesus so much
- Like insects on a turned over rock, they were suddenly exposed
- He revealed their rotted goodness, the rags of their self-righteousness
- Their thinness, the religious veneer that covered their corrupted core
- Their hypocrisy, their orthodoxy vacant of orthopraxy
- Their blindness in contrast to their assumed illumination
- As McLaren puts it: “He violated their taboos (healing on the
Sabbath), honored their villains (the tax collectors and whores and sinners), and vilified their honorees (the scribes, the priests of the day).”
- He knew that for evil to do its worst, it must look its best
- So He exposed their treachery
- HE CAME TO MAKE ALL THE DISCTINCTIONS CLEAR
- And so their blood pressure rose, their fists were clenched
- And they rejected Him, like so many today
- Who are so certain they can see on their own
- Too arrogant to admit the depth of their blindness
- And in the process bring judgment upon themselves
- This is what Jesus was referring to in verse 39
- He came for the purpose of judgment
- He came to draw a line, shine the light
- And when men reject Him, they consign themselves to:
a. The judgment that comes from sin
- For when men refuse to let go of their sin,
God gives them over to themselves
- Over to the sins they will not let go of
- And the painful confusions and consequences sin serves up become somber prophecies of a greater judgment to come
b. The judgment that comes from a life of meaningless
- For when men disregard the Light, men settle for the darkness of emptiness and meaninglessness
- When they accept fate and chance rather than God, they settle for all the barrenness that comes with anything that assumes God’s place
- When we settle for a life void of God, and give it to things, to ourselves
- We can’t help but come to the point we ask ourselves whether anything really matters
c. The judgment that comes from an eternity apart from God
- An eternity of spiritual death rather than eternal life
- So what is Jesus saying in this conversation to us?
- To us who live in our own world of darkness?
- Perhaps it is something like this…
- If you are going to be a follower of Mine, faithful to truth, called to
be the light of the world YOU TOO WILL BE A DIVIDER
- You will attract or repel
- To some, they will see the light of our good works and praise God
- To others, the light that enlightens will blind
- As Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2:16, we are the aroma of Christ
- Meaning for one we will be the fragrance of life
- To another, we will be the smell of death
Point - This is the offensive nature of the gospel
- A genuine encounter with God will never leave a person neutral
- A genuine encounter with us who follow Jesus will force people to make a choice
- I’ve modified this a bit, but a prayer by Piper is so fitting
“Lord, thicken our skin. Not that we be less tender, but that we be less easily offended. Give us a passion for truth that is stronger than our desire to be liked.”
- Help us to be both tough and tender
- Guard us from words of condemnation, but don’t let us become so mushy we can’t speak a firm word in season
- Help us to be the Light of the world
John spoke about the man in this passage who knew all his life only darkness but then met the light of the world and He (Jesus) removes that darkness. He seeks out this marginalized person as He seeks us out and performs a miracle of grace upon him as He does with us.
What was Jesus’ purpose in leaving heaven? Verse 39 has a two-fold answer, to bring “sight” where needed and to bring “blindness” were wanted. The result is we either, run to Him with need and receive, or we run away from Him and reject the light.
A follower of Jesus will be a divider, too. We can’t live our life in shades of gray.

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free of charge!

1
Series: Conversations with Jesus
John 7:53-8:11
“Free of Charge”
Of Human Bondage is the story of Philip Carey
- A sensitive boy born with a clubfoot, a deformity where the foot is turned to the side - At nine years of age, Philip entered King’s School in Tercanbury, and soon discovered it was less a school of education and more a house of torment
- For his foot fascinated the other students - Turned them into mimics and voyeurs - On his second day, the kids played a game called ‘pig in the middle’ during recess - A game that called for one to roam the field, tagging the boys who dashed across, and Philip was the pig - Philip tried miserably to tag them, but they were too quick and he was too clumsy - Soon the other boys started clumping exaggeratingly across the playground, both mocking and eluding Philip
- Limping and hooting - While a sense of deep shame raged in Philip’s soul
Shame is something we all have some experience in
- Either as givers or receivers of shame.
- When I was in high school, shame set its sights on the one who smelled, who looked differently, who wasn’t as bright as the rest.
In the conversation in John 8:1-11, Jesus confronted shame Jesus has a conversation with “a woman caught in adultery.” In response to her sin, Jesus neither condones nor condemns her, but rather extends His grace and mercy which changes her life. His loving response to this woman provides us with lessons for our lives and for how we respond to those around us.
- This is a conversation our culture, and all too many churches, largely stripped of grace, needs to hear
- The first thing we notice is that it is a story looking for a context
- Many question whether it belongs here in John
- For it is absent in some of the earliest manuscripts
- But most believe it is a story that most likely happened
- And one could say its context is the whole of the gospels
- The whole of Scripture
- For Scripture is the story of the grace of God
- Verse 2 tells us it was dawn, and Jesus was in the temple and people kept coming to Him
- The tense is intentional; His message drew people such that they kept coming even at the break of day
- But suddenly this pastoral care was disrupted by those who hated Jesus
- A young woman, most likely a teenager was forcibly brought in
- Their motives were obvious, their intent was to shame her, EXPOSE HER
- Hence the terms “made to stand in their midst”
- Suddenly, what was done in the privacy of a bedroom was undraped before the community
- Like a tree stripped of its bark, she was there for all to see inside
- And she most likely felt shame
- All of us have felt the disgrace of shame
- Either because of sin or shortcomings
- Shame comes pretty naturally, even without the help of others
- Shame, after all, was the first expression of sin
- Adam and Eve were naked and NOT ASHAMED
- But with the advent of sin, a sense of disgrace took hold
- Adam and Eve wanted to hide
- And we have been hiding ever since, covering up for the shame we feel over moral failure
- Shame for not being clever enough, rich enough, accomplished enough
- For being too fat for being too thin
- Shame for not being attractive enough
Illustration – Robbie covered up the fact he had lost his hair with an expensive toupee
- Tragically, when he came down with cancer, he accepted no visitors in the hospital
- For he felt shame over his appearance
- Some feel shame for being smaller than others, for not having good social skills
- Shame that we have lost our job
- Shame that our children aren’t as able as others
- That our car isn’t as big and flash like others
- Shame for being adopted, divorced, used-up, hurt by another
- But in this story, it was less about the shame she put on herself
- More about the shame a graceless religious system heaped upon her
- Their intent was to see her pay for her sins
- After all, they were called to carry out the law (even though what they were doing was illegal, where was the man?)
- “If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife-both the man and woman must die” (Deuteronomy 22:22)
- Adultery is was, and always has been, viewed as a very serious act
- But verse 6 tells us it went deeper
- It wasn’t so much an act against her, as it was an act against Jesus
- A trap
- A determination to “speak against”, accuse, SHAME Jesus!
- Hoist Him upon the horns of a dilemma
A) If Jesus opposed stoning, He would be viewed as soft on the law, ignoring the law, opposing the law, OPPOSING MOSES, shame on you!
B) If Jesus favored judgment, He would have been accused of OPPOSING ROME
- Usurping Roman law which did not permit execution by subject peoples
- A thousand shames on you!!!!
- People love to shame
- We live in a culture stripped of grace
- Kerry Katona, drunk on this morning ashamed of themselves, rather than care for her
- Daily papers, celebrities should be ashamed of themselves
- Some would say all of us should be ashamed
- But the worst shamers are the religious
- There is something about religion that, like milk, can eventually turn sour
- Over time, these expositors of the laws of God, allowed their learning to curdle into pride
- Their passion for obedience turned into disdain towards those less devout
- Over time, their belief system mutated into a smug superiority
- Over time, they descended from the high calling as spiritual shepherds to become religious police
- Religion requires but grace enables (repeat)
- So Jesus had a conversation that began with words in the sand (verse 6b) EXPAND
- Writing their sins? Asking, “Where’s the man?”
- Doodling, treating their question with the contempt it deserved?
- While we are not certain what He wrote, it is clear what He said (verse 7)
- Words that unnerved them, caused them to drop their stones and leave
- But why?
- The law never made sinless perfection a condition for casting stones
- Something else had to be at work here, and maybe it was this…
- That while Jesus emptied Himself of the divine
- Stuffed His divine life into the cramped space of a human one
- There were moments when the divine burst out
- He walked on water
- He stilled the storms
- And here, maybe it was something just as powerful
- HE LOOKED INTO MAN
- With a piercing look that went all the way in, not a look that could kill, but look that pierced their hearts.
- A force of both mercy and righteousness
- Such that they suddenly saw their own nakedness
- Suddenly they recognized their own adultery
- They were the ones committing the greatest unfaithfulness of all
- They had left their first love of God and got in bed with religion
- Left the essence of what ministry is about, extending His love and mercy to others to enter the work of stone throwing
- In all of this, they forgot they were supposed to be in the life saving business
- With their departure, Jesus turned to the woman
- And lifted her shame, drew her out of the depths to the heights of forgiveness and called her to live as God had designed her to live
- Jesus told Peter how he would die, saying it would never happen again, I think this is what Jesus calls out to this woman, I think this is what God is calling to us, do not let your history be your future…………….(seek response)
In this conversation, I hear Jesus asking you and me some hard questions
1) ARE WE AWARE OF OUR OWN BROKENNESS?
- Our own tendency to be deceived
- To grow a Pharisaic layer that joins with an already inbred human tendency to be judgmental, condemning, disapproving
- We begin to believe we are better than we are
- Begin to have our own disdain towards those less than us for those who are different
- Use letters to editors/blogs to rant/judge others, condemn others, and discount others
- Use the phone to talk about the shortcomings of others, someone’s marriage which isn’t working
- The pew to exclude those different from us
- And over time, we forget that we too are broken people as well, we need grace, EXPAND but also need to be wells of grace (bill’s bucket/dead sea)
Here’s a second question
2) ARE THE BROKEN WELCOME HERE?
- Would they find grace here, or condemnation?
- I’m pretty sure most driving down Eskbank road would be pretty convinced they are not welcome, unless they got a lot of things right first
- This is the reputation of the church, every church
Illustration: In one episode of “The Simpsons”
- Homer sees his born again neighbour, Maude Flanders and says, “Hey, I haven’t seen you in a couple of weeks. Where have you been?”
- Maude replies, “I’ve been away at Bible camp, learning to be more judgmental.”
- The church is pretty good at creating stone throwers, can we not be grace givers?
- Jesus is asking: Are we holding any stones in our hands, or are we utilizing our greatest asset, GRACE? Gal 2:20
- For the world is full of hurting people
- Especially an emerging generation where:
- 1 of 3 have had an abortion
-1 of 6 have been sexually molested
- Most have been sexually active prior to marriage
- Most men struggle with pornography
- These are the people Christ came to seek and save
- And calls the church to do the same, to step out, invite people in, care for them in the name of Jesus
- To stand up and take a huge step of faith, not to build a museum for the saints, but a hospital for sinners
- And the only way that will happen is if in this world of hurting people
- They will come here and find:
- That this is a place where failure connects with grace
- That this is not a place for perfect people
- That it is place to “come as you are”
- That there is a rule here, where no one is allowed to have stones in their hands
- But it must start in our hearts
- In our homes
- Will you put this on your prayer list?
- “Lord, take any stones out of my hands?”

does your life matter?

Series: Conversations with Jesus
John 7:1-13
19th oct 2008
“Does Your Life Matter?”
John Piper, in his book Don’t Waste Your Life, tells of a time he came across an old
poem he had written in high school
- Next to it was drawn an old man in a rocking chair, and then these words
- “Long I sought for the earth’s hidden meaning
Long as a youth was my search in vain
Now as I approach my last years waning
My search I must begin again”
He wrote it, in his youth, as a description of the worst thing imaginable
- To come to the end of life and realize that everything you have given yourself to
was false
- To come to your last years and realize you have wasted them
- Devoted yourself to that which amounts to nothing more than a grain of sand in
the Sahara, a cup of water in the Pacific
- And must search again!
- To put it in other words, waited for all of life for your ship to come in and realize
you were standing at the wrong dock
- Every now and then, one can hear God whisper the same words: “Don’t waste
your life!”
- Only one life to offer
- Life is not a dress rehearsal
- “Do not run like a man running aimlessly” - Paul (I Corinthians 9)
- “Press on to lay hold of why God laid hold of you” (Philippians 3)
- “Redeem the time, the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5)
- It’s what I hear in the conversation in John 7
- Like every conversation that John records, it is set within a context
(verses 1-2)
- Jesus remains, where He has been rejected
- Steers clear of where others want to take His life
- Maybe His siblings began to think He needed direction
- So they speak to Him
- It’s hard to know what this relationship must have been like
- What happens when you live with a brother who has never done
anything wrong
- Never got home late and lied about it
- Never lost an argument
- Always brought home the correct change from the store
- Always kept his room neat, never talked back to mom and dad
- Living with Him, you never heard the words “Give it back to
her; Don’t talk to your brother that way; You will sit here until you
finish what is on your plate.”
- Always-outstanding parents evenings
- Never impulsive, selfish, lazy
- Family devotions: “Dad, that’s really not what that text is saying.”
- There was nothing but consistency, while for His brothers, their only
consistency was their inconsistency
- It had to work on them, they weren’t perfect they never could be, they had no time for him.
- And so it seemed natural to say what lots of brothers say to brothers:
“You ought to leave.” (Verses 3-4)
- They had their reasons, as is stated in the text
1) GO! Get your disciples back (verse 3b)
- Give them a fresh view of your works
- Use the holiday in Jerusalem to re-establish your reputation, get your street cred back
- Reverse your fortunes, retrieve your popularity, and reclaim your fed up followers
2) DEPART! Make a name (verse 4)
- If you hope to gain popularity, it’s important to not be so cryptic. Time to go public.
- Get out of Dalkeith. You gotta go to London if you hope to be noticed
- Galilee is nowhere; get to Jerusalem that is where you will get the fame!
- No one who seeks to be public, literally “seeks to be bold,” stays behind the scenes
- In other words, “Don’t be a wimp, BROTHER!”
- Time to get hold of yourself, sort yourself out
- And John tells us why (verse 5) they say these things
- They did not believe, well maybe a little, not a lot! But they were rejecting Him
- And so, maybe their motives were even darker
3) GO! And get out of our lives
- For Jesus had become too uncomfortable to live with
- Was viewed, in fact, as a mental case (Mark 3:21)
- What would Jesus say? How does He respond to their words?
- My first guess would be something like this…
- IT’S NOT YOUR PLACE
- To tell Me what my life should do
- A point Jesus made to another family member, his mother Mary, in His conversation with her (John 2)
- Jesus will not be dictated by anyone’s expectations, or timetable
-He does not need the advice and coaching of others
- He will not play the crowd to satisfy His brothers. If He goes to Jerusalem, it will be on His own terms, for His own purposes, in His own time
- And when He chooses to reveal Himself, it will not be in spectacular miracles, but in the disgrace and shame of the Cross
- But Jesus, instead, focused on something else
- It was a different kind of rebuke (verses 6-8)
- LIVE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
- Don’t waste your life
- Don’t let your years be inconsequential
- And here’s how
1) LIVE A LIFE THAT IS DELIBERATE
- Make your time matter
- When Jesus said, the right time, the suitable time, the kairos (God-appointed moment) HAD NOT ARRIVED he was declaring that He lived according to an intentional, purposeful plan
- A time frame determined by the will of the Father
- A theme running through John
- “No one laid a hand on Him. His hour was not yet.” (John 7:30)
- “His time had not yet come.” (John 8:20)
- “For this reason I came to this hour.” (John 12:27)
- All of which demanded careful steps—TIMING, careful timing, God’s timing
- In contrast, time for His brothers had no purpose
- For them, time was theirs to own
- The time was always there, always possible
- “Your time is always here because your lives have no reference to a divine plan.”
- “Your timetables are not regulated by any sense of God’s will.”
- They are determined merely by your own will, small as that is
- And so, your actions means nothing
- It has no consequence to anything until you realize you were made by
God, for God, to live for God
- Until then, “any time will do.” AND ALL OF LIFE WILL BE WASTED

- The second way to avoid wasting your time is to
2) LIVE A LIFE THAT CHANGES THE WORLD
A) For Jesus it meant entering this fallen world to shape its culture
- Expose the evil the kingdom of this world
- Draw it out of its shadows and into the light
- So that it can be named, rejected, and banished
- Sometimes, He directly confronted it, as when He disrupted temple protocols, went into the temple and called the religious leaders hypocrites to their faces, wolves disguised as sheep
- Told the religious leaders that little children understand more than they do
- Healed on the Sabbath to expose their heartless religion
- “In all of this, Jesus represented a counterforce, a countermovement, a counter-kingdom that will confront all corrupt human regimes, exposing them, naming them, and showing them for what they really are.”
- And because of this, He was a magnet for opposition
B) In contrast, for His brothers, who chose a path of unbelief, they consequently believed in nothing, did not take a stand on anything
- Accommodated rather than lived to shape the world
- And so the world did not hate them
- Could not hate them, for the world does not hate its own
- Jesus in effect said, “Do whatever you wish, your decisions have no significance.”
- They make no difference - they CHANGE
NOTHING!
- But if you want to follow Me, you will make a difference

- So what is He saying to us? Don’t waste your life.
1) BE DELIBERATE
- Treat time as part of God’s intentional plan
- Treat the moments as fulfilling God’s purpose
- That defines all of our parameters: when we go, when we stay
- If we’re committed to the important, we’ll avoid the trivial (which always takes up our time
- If we seize it, see the moments presented by God; it will not come under the influence of others
- Will not change that which is immediate, visible, popular, but what is vital
- You will build the kingdom
2) CHANGE YOUR WORLD
- Engage in our mission to reach the lost
- Be prophetic
- Protest the pollution of this world (I don’t just mean physically, spiritually as well)
- Be the light that exposes the darkness
- Such that your life will be neither marginal, nondescript, inconsequential, wasted
- And if we are hated for it, well so what? we will have joined great company
- As Jesus would later say, “If they hated Me, they will hate you.”
DON’T WASTE YOUR LIFE

bread of life

1
Series: Conversations with Jesus
Avoiding a life marked by indifference

Ever had one of those days, you need to make some phone calls and you get put through to the computer? ……………………………

- NOT THE WAY IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE.
In John 6, Jesus tells us how it is supposed to be
- Here we come to another conversation

CONTEXT (verses 1-24)
- Jesus was in Galilee (verse 1)
- With a growing crowd, impressed with the miracles
- Here, two more powerful miracles took place
- Feeding of 5000 (verses 10-13)
- And walking on water (verse 18)
- All served as road signs, pointing to something beyond themselves
- Beyond human explanation
- Something of God had invaded this world turning things upside down things were mathematically possible; heaven was coming to earth
- As Jesus warned Nathanael with His coming, “Behold you will see the heavens
open up” (chapter 1)
- Everyone was impressed, impressed enough to want to make Jesus king (verse 15)
- Once they grasped the potential power before them, they were ready to vote Him into office
- So Jesus fled, and in a near comic-chase scene, the crowd sailed in hot pursuit
(verse 24)
- It all set up one of the longest conversations in John, between Jesus and the crowd (John 6:25-60)

CONVERSATION
- Their question seemed innocent enough
- “When did you get here?” (verse 25) but what they meant was
- “How did you get here?”
- But behind it all was really this: “When will you feed us?”
- And Jesus knew this, for he knows the heart of man (verse 26)
- It wasn’t that they wanted Jesus
- Even wanted His miracles
- at the bottom of it all
- They simply wanted what Jesus could give
Illustration – ????????????
- Jesus could see this; that their pursuit had little to do with Him
- Much to do with what He could give
- Someone to satisfy their bellies, and keep it coming
- A Jesus on the telephone, where you push the buttons to get what you want
- Helpful but impersonal
- They all were preoccupied with appetite, oblivious to who they were talking to
- So Jesus gave them a challenge, He gives to us too! (verse 27)
- LIVE FOR SOMETHING, SOMEONE BIGGER THAN YOUR EARTHLY
APPETITES
- Live life on another level
- Literally, stop living for things that are dying
- For if the satisfaction of your earthly appetites is your main aim, then your epitaph will read like those in the wilderness
- “They ate and they died” (verse 58)
- Your life, in essence, will be a waste of time and wasted

- INSTEAD, desire the bread that endures
- And throughout the rest of this conversation, He repeated it over and over
- Devote your energies to that which is lasting
- To the bread which has no shelf life, that does not perish, spoil, rot
- Bread that will not leave you hungry
- Bread that will satisfy the soul (verse 35)
- Work for bread that gives life forever (verse 50)
- So what is this work he calls us all to? Jesus answered…
1) BELIEVE IN ME (verse 29)
- Words that went beyond mere assent, creeds, keeping certain laws, to relational trust
2) PURSUE ME
- I am this bread that comes down from heaven (verse 33)
- I am this bread of life (verse 35)
- Always fresh, never stale
- As the conversation continued, Jesus went deeper
3) EAT ME, CONSUME ME
- “Unless you eat this flesh, you will have no life” (verse 53)
- “The one who consumes Me will have life” (verse 54)
- “I am the real food” (verse 55)
- But what was he saying? What could this mean?
- Throughout this conversation, Jesus rearranged the words giving them a different angle
- Words that together are calling us to something, but what?
- Perhaps the same thing He is calling for when it comes to His word
- Where the same language is occasionally used
- Where its readers are called to eat this book
- Move from distancing eye to listening ear to passionate followers
- Ezekiel was called to this (2:8ff)
- Jeremiah the same (15:16)
- John, on the island of Patmos, was told to take the scroll and eat it
(Revelation 10:9)
- And Peter tells us to long for the Word as pure milk (I Peter 2:2)
- They ( and WE) were told to take the book and do more than read, do more than study, learn it
- More than tick the boxes when we have read a chapter
- They were (and by application, all of us) to masticate, chew, gnaw.
- Consume the words in such a way that these words “spread through your blood”
- Work their way into your gut, nerve endings, reflexes, imagination
- Read such that the text gets into our muscles and bones, our oxygen breathing lungs and blood pumping heart
- And for good reason
A) It is in this Word faith is awakened, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Rom 10:17)
B) It is what God uses to make us alive, the words I have spoken to you are life (John 6:63)
C) It is in these words we are set free
- “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32)
D) It is when we consume these words that prayer is unleashed
- “If my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish” (John 15:7)
- So take this book and consume so it:
- becomes a part of you
- into your heart into your head, into your soul into muscle, gristle, bone, so that it ultimately flows out intoacts of love and holiness
- Here in John 6, Jesus was challenging the crowd (challenging us) to do the samewith Him, the Living Word
- “Consume Me such I spread through your blood”
- “Work My way into your gut, into every fabric of your being such that you
feel My presence in every corner of your being”
- In all of the organs and juices
- “Come after Me. Consume Me like bread, that we might
abide, remain in one another”
- That we might live in radical connection (verse 56)
- But it all was too much, from questioning the conversation turned to grumbling, to sharp disagreement to mass defection (verse 60)
- These words were “hard”
- Not in the sense of intellectually tough, but harsh, offensive, intolerable
- They preferred the more impersonal
- The computer voiced Jesus
- Christianity apart from relationship
- They were unprepared for a call to relationship, and it maybe so for some of us
- Which should not surprise
- For it is the devil’s work to take what is endearing and perpetuate it
into DEVOUT INDIFFERENCE
- Take Jesus and shift the focus from relationship to object
- Take the gospel and reduce it to a set of steps, sanitized and correct, factual and precise
- Take faith in Jesus and make it a statement of beliefs to cling to
- Where we are more in love with words than Word
- More in love with truth than the One who is true
- CHRISTIANITY TRAGICALLY BEREFT OF RELATIONSHIP
- Is your faith a relationship?
The conversation this weekend is between Jesus and the crowd. This crowd followed him and wanted all they could get from Christ but only on a physical level. Jesus could see this but gave them the challenge of their life, one that is applicable to us, too.
Their Challenge was this
• Live for something, someone bigger than your earthly appetites
• Live your life at the God level, walk on the water of life, consume Him
Our Challenge:
• Do as the crowd was challenged to do, live for God, eat of God, let him become a part of you
• Make God personal, don’t live by rules, just factual, or sanitized, consume him, be hungry for him, feed upon him, forget the trappings of religion, discover the joy of relationship, nurture that relationship, so you miss meeting with him, receive his Spirit, devour his word, experience the joy of knowing Jesus, see your life grow purpose in ways you can never imagine, Lamp chop school.

Some years ago, Lee Strobel wrote a chapter entitled—
-What Would Jesus Say to Madonna?
-if Jesus met this Pop Mom after a London concert—
-would He ignore or condemn her?
If there is a text that tells us—it would have to be John 4
-the story of a woman with her own list of failed relationships
-her own list of outrageous behaviors (read 4-26)
What would Jesus say?
1-I’M INTERESTED IN YOU
-what Samaritan means today--listeners
-John seems to underscore this from the start-by using the word “had”-4:4
- obligation, direct route—a shorter way to Galilee, most Jews took the longer journey, for Samaria was the other side of the tracks-the part of town you avoided
racial half breeds-religious mixed breeds-it was the area where immigrants from pagan cultures of the past—Assyria, Babylon, Persia came, settled, mixed with the Jews that were there
-the place where religion got screwed up—Torah, paganism, and alternative
temples all mixed into a strange brew of beliefs
-the Jews occasionally sought to take care of the problem—like burning down
their temple in the second century BC
Hence-there was no love lost between these two groups
-these were the Sunnis living next to Shi’ites, Hamas next to Jewish settlers
-Samaria was the epitome of ritual impurity
Nonetheless, Jesus had to go through Samaria
-not because He was in a hurry
-Jesus never seemed to have a list of “Things to Do Today”
-He attended wedding feasts that lasted for days-allowed Himself to get
distracted by “nobodies”
-would accept almost anyone’s invitation to dinner
-He was always on divine standard time
“Had” can only mean one thing—He had to go through Samaria because Jesus
was interested in someone
-interested because He was in the business of reclamation—not condemnation
-and there was someone He had to reclaim
-something His compassion, His divine will, His eternal purpose required Him to
do-so He came-
And a conversation began with a woman on the fringe of the fringe-
-that it was noon and she was isolated suggests she was socially isolated, living
on the periphery-detached from the lifeblood of the community
What John is painting here is the ultimate picture of disconnect
-if John 3 was a story of the ultimate INSIDER -the learned, powerful respected, orthodox—a man, a Jew, a ruler named
Nicodemus
-John 4 is the story of the ultimate OUTSIDER -an unschooled, without influence, despised, unorthodox, Samaritan, woman, sinner—with no name
And both needed Jesus
-but unlike the insider—who sought after Jesus
-Jesus went to the woman at the well—because He had to
-because HE WAS INTERESTED-particularly in those marginalized by others
-making the first move—He always does—it’s never us who find God—He finds
us
Here’s the second thing Jesus would say—
2-I’M INTERESTED—NOT SO MUCH IN WHAT YOU CAN GIVE ME—BUT
WHAT I CAN GIVE YOU
-it doesn’t begin this way
-Jesus-it appears-was wanting something from her (read 7b)
-but then-she was used to someone wanting something from her-particularly if it
was a man
-but this conversation was still a surprise
-Jesus’ request brought suspicion, maybe even animosity to the surface-read vs
9
-these were people they did not associate—lit “use together with”
-touch one another’s dishes, touch one another’s lives
Common was the saying—to eat the bread of Samaritans was to eat the bread of
swine
And then—Jesus, as He is prone to do—turned the conversation on its head—
reversed all of the assumptions-read vs 10
-it turns out—He was less interested in what she could offer
-far more interested in what He could give her
-it wasn’t about what He wanted at all
Here’s a third thing Jesus might say—
3-I’M INTERESTED-NOT SO MUCH IN MEETING YOUR TEMPORAL
WANTS—BUT IN MEETING THE DEEPEST NEED OF YOUR SOUL
-living water is language that seems cryptic—not because Jesus is intentionally
unclear
-He is describing something that cannot be easily explained
-Jesus is speaking in metaphor—there are no literal words to describe what He
offers
-it is far too profound
-our language falls short
-like born again, bread of life
At best—all it can do is serve as a pointer to the thirst quenching life mediated by
the Spirit
But this woman remains on the earthly-read vss 11-12
-vss 13-14-she can’t get past H2O-vs 15
She has failed to grasp the true dimension of her need
-that even if Jesus brought physical water to her every day
-she would still be thirsty
In an interview in Vogue some years ago, Madonna acknowledged her own thirst
for something that satisfies—
“I’m always struggling with fear. I push past one spell of it, thinking I’m special,
then find myself thinking I am mediocre. That’s always been pushing me,
pushing me. Because even though I’ve become somebody, I still have to prove
I’m SOMEBODY”
-so she keeps reinventing herself, developing a more daring version—a treadmill
of doing something more outrageous to keep her fans
-a treadmill that leaves her more and more thirsty
In the story of John 4—this woman kept pursuing relationships
-a treadmill that left her in the desert of relational thirst
-Jesus pointed this out (read vss 16-18)
Jesus started rummaging around in her injured spaces
-and touched her pain
-her guilt, despair, need
-He understood the failing cycle she had experienced
-multiple relationships, serial failures
-year by year accumulating wounds and scars—the kind that come from being
the source of someone else’s gratification—leaving her dry
But it is much more preferable to switch the conversation-read vss 19-20
-talk about another subject—safe things—like religion-
-get Him off on some controversy
-pre-trib/post trib?
-once-saved-always saved?
-cessationist/non-cessationist?
-it was much safer to keep the walls up
-but it only opened a door for Jesus to talk about an even deeper thirst
-if relationships left her dry—religion left her dehydrated
-so He moved her past form to function
-past the place of worship to the nature of worship
-past law and confusion
-to spirit and truth
-from ritual to relationship with Him
APPLICATION
So what is Jesus saying to us in this conversation?
1-God is very interested in you--compelled
-His passion for our lives, His commitment to justice, demanded that He leave
His neighborhood and enter into ours
-we are that valuable-are you convinced?
2-God is not so interested in what we can give Him
-our tendency is to assume that a relationship with Jesus is largely about what
He wants, what He expects, what He needs from us
-lots of us live with this notion it’s largely about what Jesus needs from us
-our money, our service
-when if we really -it’s actually about what He wants to give us—are we asking?
3-God is interested in satisfying our lives at the deepest level
-will we settle for less?
-let sin and religion get in the way?

music I have been listening too....books I have been reading

sun kil moon- april
iron and wine- our endless numbered days
death cab for cutie- plans
Dave crowder band- remedy

heavenly man- brother yun
irresistible revolution- shane claiborne
the shack- William P Young
long way down- Ewan McGregor, Charley Boorman

conversations with Jesus

“The Jesus You Never Knew”
John is a book of conversations between Jesus and people, which if we are listening, is a conversation He ultimately has with us the unexpected, the unpredictable, and often THE UNCOMFORTABLE
- We think we know who He is, we realize we don’t know Him very well at all
Philip Yancey, in his book The Jesus I Never Knew writes, “Two words would never apply to Jesus—boring and predictable. And yet, we do all we can to tame Him, pare the claws of the Lion of Judah, certify Him as a fitting household pet for pale curates and pious old ladies.”
Not John, - This holy wonder has gone on a holy terror (chapter 2)
- Jesus has just cleaned house at the temple, alienated religious establishment
- And while most were ready to kill Jesus, there was one who remained curious (read verses 1-2a)
John wants us to know Nicodemus was important

But Nicodemus is curious, things are not adding up (read verse 2)

A) Maybe Jesus was a prophet, maybe the messiah
B) Maybe Nicodemus saw in Jesus something he wasn’t and wanted to be
- Someone willing to buck the establishment, “I wish I had the guts to do that.”
C) Maybe he wanted to keep up with the trends- Attracting crowds “What’s His angle? His secret? HOW DOES HE DO IT?”
D) Maybe he thought he could help Jesus, work on the rough edges, make
Jesus like him
But Jesus was not interested in courteous exchanges that go nowhere
- Religious talk - Nor was He impressed with position nor pedigree
- Nor conforming, only one thing: Nicodemus’ relationship with God (verse 3)
- Jesus did to religious people what He did with religious buildings
- He drove out things, and overturned things that get in the way,
Nicodemus had been brought up to measure everything by performance
- 613 rules, with 1521 emendations - 39 activities

- it all revealed a blindness - Like the rest of the religious establishment,
- And until he could see, he would not understand Jesus, nor the miracles, nor
anything else that had to do with the kingdom of God
- “Nicodemus, you must start over.”
- You must be REMADE, be born from above
- We’re not talking modification or alteration to the soul, but a radical
renewal
- Unfortunately, “born again” has lost its shock value
- But for Nicodemus, disoriented (verse 4) struck by the absurdity of it all
- “You’re telling me that to be in God’s kingdom, I have to turn the clock
back? I have to enter my mother’s uterus, climb up the birth canal?”
- So Jesus clarified (verses 5-8)
- The birth was spiritual, rather than physical birth that Jews placed their faith upon, but not simply birth, but growing from there. God starting a new family open to all………………
- It all served to further confound, unsettle Nicodemus (verse 9)
- HE WAS NOT GETTING IT!
- What about rituals, cleansings, commitment to the Torah? all of this was being challenged, maybe even dismissed - How? (verse 10)
- You are the teacher of Israel. and you do not get it?
- Jesus expected this religious official to know what he was talking about the prophets of a day God would bring a radical transformation, a circumcision, not of the flesh, but of the heart?
- “The day will come the law will be placed in their hearts”
(Jeremiah 31:33-34)
- “A day will come when I will put a new spirit in them, and I will be their
God.” (Ezekiel 11:19-20)
- “I will sprinkle water on you and cleanse you, and I will put My Spirit in you and I will be your God.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27)
- what matters are not these artificial boundary markers
- What matters is the CENTRE- The work of the Spirit, the interior, the heart
- not what restrains actions from the outside in, but on God’s intention to work from the inside out
- Verses 11-12 suggest the conversation came to a close (read)
Nicodemus didn’t get it, he did not buy it- Jesus couldn’t tell him anything more
- Truth goes nowhere when people want to stay in control, are unwilling to become as a child
So where is all of this going?
- What does this conversation have to do with most of us?
- After all, I know who Jesus is- I’ve been born again but God might be saying “LISTEN IN!”
- Those of us, anyway, who are religious,
A) Of all the people Jesus said “You must be born again” it was to Nicodemus?
- A church official, a LEADER, respected of community- Not to the woman caught in adultery, the woman at the well, the paralytic, the blind man, the crowd, or anyone else… only Nicodemus? - Why didn’t he use this language with them?
B) That of all the people He would talk about the unpredictable wind of the
Spirit, it was with Nicodemus, a religious leader
- Could it be that religious types are often in need of more radical change than harlots and traitors?
- Could it be that Jesus might be saying something like this?
- It is generally those who are most religious are those who most need the reminder that they are helpless
- We can become impressed with our holiness, with the things we do, and lose sight of our place- Lose sight of the wonder and fear of God and assume we know His ways, even become bored with what we assume!
- Even assume we can manipulate the movement of the Spirit
- That God is actually who we think He is, all figured out sitting on a shelf?
- When what we need to know more than anything else is that this daily work of God is not what we do, so much as it is what God does in us?
- If Nicodemus really got it, maybe the conversation would have turned and
he would have said something like this…
-“You mean there is nothing I can do?”
- “Then all I can do, MUST DO, is lay myself before God’s mercy
and hope His grace falls on me, the wind of His Spirit blows my
direction today?”
- “Exactly.”
how often do we, do I do that?
- How often do I wake up with the notion I have this terrifying wonder who could go any direction with my life
- The Spirit will blow where He wills
- Who might ask me to do things I never dreamed of?
- Such that I better get on my knees and plead for grace
- Or how often do I wake up with an assumed predictability of how life will go, what God will do?
- Use my prayers, even to keep Him from doing some wild thing he might want to
do with me?
BE OPEN TO THE SPIRIT AND WHERE HE LEADS, opportunity means, sailors wait for the time of the tide turning… will we seize the opportunities God sends us? Look to the cross, like the bronze snake, see the ultimate sign, believe and live, as God intends, him leading each one of us following!

jesus and his mother

Do our requests influence Jesus?
INTRODUCTION
First miracle (SIGN) performed by Jesus in his ministry. Now if you were here last week, we spoke about Nathanael and how he would see heaven open up on Jesus, as Jacob’s ladder foretold and now we see the transforming power of God’s love bursting upon the present world
Water…lots of water, 150 gallons possibly, are turned into a wine that is exclaimed to be the best ever. Around this miracle is weaved a conversation between Jesus and his mother Mary as he is making the shift from a son of a Jew to the savior of the world. What is the message to us from the text? God is saying to these people and through the centuries to us the following:
• “I am interested not so much in your requests as in your faith.” God is not with us to meet our needs and we he wants us to make the shift to believe whatever He says for us.
• “I am ready to do not so much what you expected but far more than you imagined.” This
is an assurance to us that He is interested but also will respond greater than expected.
• “I am committed to break into your world not so much for your happiness but far more for my glory.” He is not here to fulfill our agenda

Imagine and out of them Tap comes beer. That’s what happened to Haldis Gundersen Western Norway. She told reporters she thought it was a
"Water to beer miracle." mistake in the plumbing—someone downstairs at the Bar hooked the beer hoses to the water pipes to Gundersen’s apartment.
And while Haldis was getting beer from her tap those at the bar were not so thrilled, as they were getting water from their beer taps. Asked if the turning water-to-beer was a blessing, she responded—not much— the beer was flat.
IN JOHN 2, however, we find a water to wine incident that turned out to be a real miracle (read 2:1-11)
The story turns sideways in places--prompting a host of questions
-why did Mary feel responsible for the lack of wine—was she the caterer?
-why was Jesus so abrupt in His response? Was He being a party pooper?
-why did He reject His mother’s request—than proceed to do it? Did she give Him that look?
-why did Jesus use ceremonial cleansing jars rather than just fill up the wine containers?
The reader is left with a simple story that has a deeper meaning and significance -above all else--what is God saying to us in this story, in this conversation between Him and His mother, that just might change our lives?
Right away we notice this exchange took place in the context of a wedding
The wedding took place in Nathanael’s home town, Cana,
-and while weddings are nice
-weddings were like our weddings, baptisms, 21st, 5Oths, golden weddings all rolled into one in ANE culture, all the village would be invited, all the neighbouring villages too, which is why Mary and Jesus are there,
-Weddings brought celebration and joy to a rather mundane existence
-There would be a public procession and merriment that often stretched out a week or more lots of free food and wine—time off from work
In this case--the appearance of servants suggests it might have been a high-class ceremony
-Only the bridegroom might have been cheap--they were running out of wine
-Which—in a culture where hospitality is everything—would have been a huge embarrassment -a major social faux pas, the family would have to live with the shame of it for a long time, the bride and groom might regard it as being bad luck for their married life, even a possible lawsuit
-w/o wine—the wedding falls flat—the joy vaporizes—the party ends
It all prompted a conversation between Jesus and His mother-read John 2:3
When the wine had given out, Jesus' mother said to him, "They are out of wine."(GNT)
It’s not clear what she expected did this represent a mother waiting for her resourceful son to do something? Was it a woman who perceived in her son divinity—time to do your God thing Jesus?
APP-All of us find ourselves in this conversation—we’ve had it often with Jesus
-we are the worried Mary—things are not going right here—and Jesus needs to fix it –our world is like this dried up party—fill the emptiness
And Jesus’ response is not what we anticipate
-but then His response to our requests can be perplexing as well
-there is an obtuseness—yet a directness 2:4
"You must not tell me what to do," Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come."(GNT) -Jesus lit says-What is it to Me? What is it to you woman?
There is a seeming callousness and coldness in these terms
-“Woman, what does their problem have to do with me or you?”
But when we dig for clarity-we discover that Jesus is not speaking about their relationship to this wedding crisis—so much as their relationship with each other!!
“What is it to me, to you” was an idiom of the day that communicated this idea—
-What it is to you and what it is to me are two different things Let me illustrate with shopping what it is to me and what it is to my wife are two different things
-the other day- Donna and I were at tesco—we rarely go together—for the sake of our marriage -for me—it is a list, sales, speed (I actually time it) -for her-it is meander, talk, experience, try something new, time to enjoy
Here--Mary and Jesus saw the situation differently -she takes-“since we’re neighbours let’s be friends” seriously
For Mary—it was social crisis, a potential embarrassment, someone’s miscalculation- and Jesus needed to be informed -for Jesus-He understood the need
For Mary-it was about family responsibility, for Jesus-family definitions had changed
The language of “WOMAN” was intentional, things are changing Mary can no longer presume on the family tie
-for “family” has been redefined—His family is His disciples those who are His mother and brothers are now those who do His will- Mk 4:34
For Mary-it was doing her will—meeting her expectation—that her subordinate son—the oldest—will be resourceful -will find a way—and in the end—make her happy
for Jesus-the governing will of His life has changed from her to His Father in heaven -He is here to act on the authority of His Father-fulfill His purpose -He will not do ministry on other people’s terms
for Mary—it is time, for Jesus—it is not the time
-His ministry will have its moment in Jn 13:1-the hour has come—the Cross, the resurrection, the glory -the wedding in heaven-the consummation of the Bridegroom and His people, the church- the day will come when the symbol of blessing—wine--will drip from the mountains and flow from the hills-Amos 9:13 but not yet—not today
It was a critical moment in the conversation and you wonder where things will go from here how would Mary respond to these perplexing--even painful words?
-vs 5 tells us "Do whatever he tells you."(GNT)
On the surface—they could be understood as a mother who will nonetheless
have her way -but could it be these words declared just the opposite?
-this is Mary--pausing-reflecting—shifting -something had changed in their relationship
Illus-dad and me
Here-it was more than a shift in this parent-son relationship
-Mary was moving from an expectant petitioner to submissive believer -from seeing Jesus as subordinate to Jesus as Master No longer her will—but His will
-From “what I would like” to “whatever He says” -she will trust everything now to Him and Mary will now fade out of the story
But while the conversation ended—the story did not faith has been expressed—Mary has placed her trust now in His will -and Jesus always responds to these things
One can hear Him say--come on Nathanael—let’s see heaven open up
-let’s see something of the reality of GOD’S PRESENCE—something of the glory of God
-LET’S MAKE UP THERE COME DOWN HERE!
-for he is God who responds to faith
1-SO Jesus BLEW APART THEIR TRADITIONS-vss 6-7
-Jesus will not refill wine containers-John wants us to see this-vs 6
-He used the jars—those used for ceremonial washing -for the washing of utensils—the fulfilling of ritual washing regulations -symbols of Jewish law, custom, purification And Jesus did the unthinkable -He transformed these vessels of purity into containers of wine, God was doing a new thing in the old system, bringing purification, but in a new way, for Israel for the world
2-Jesus BLEW AWAY THEIR EXPECTATIONS
-150 gallons of wine—that should be enough—like about 900 bottles of wine -and not just any wine -not some cheap wine-but the best—wine served at the beginning-when palates are most discriminating and guests most impressionable—this wine that was anything but flat
No wonder-vs. 11 declares—it all amounted to a sign—all amounted to His glory
-Something of the kingdom of God was manifested-that broke all the categories
of possible and impossible - the kingdom of grace had begun
-The astonishing thing is that most were looking straight at the glory—and didn’t see it
-The servants missed it, the wedding party missed it -the master of the banquet was oblivious -and the bridegroom apparently was so distracted he could only but take the credit for whatever happened
So what is God saying to us in this conversation?
1-I AM INTERESTED—NOT SO MUCH IN YOUR REQUESTS—AS IN YOUR
FAITH
-it’s trust I respond to
-it wasn’t until Mary moved from her will to God’s will that something happened
-it’s the same with us
-like Mary-we usually tell God what is needed -but He will not conform to our will— or BE GOVERNED BY OUR DESIRES
-He is not here to meet our needs, fit our time frame -He is here to do the will of the Father—and respond to a faith that says—“whatever you say”
He is also saying 2-I AM READY TO DO—NOT SO MUCH WHAT YOU EXPECTED--BUT SO MUCH MORE THAN YOU IMAGINED
-when we have the faith to make the same shift Mary made -to lay our needs before Him and say—whatever you want -to avoid our attempts to tame Him (Aslan)
-we find not only that He is interested in the ordinary —the simple conundrums of life -interested in our dilemmas -He will do far and away more than we could have expected -blowing away our traditions, outstretching our imagination
And God is saying today to us 3-I AM COMMITTED TO BREAK INTO YOUR WORLD—NOT SO MUCH FOR YOUR HAPPINESS BUT GIVE YOU LIFE IN ALL IT’S FULLNESS—BUT EVEN MORE FOR HIS GLORY
-He is breaking in—do we notice? -His kingdom will not only come—it has come
-but when it breaks in—it is all about Him—not us-it is for His glory--this is why we exist—the universe exists -Christ does not exist to make much of us—we exist to make much of Him
CONCLUSION The transformation from water to wine shows the effect Jesus can still have today on people’s lives today, He came to give life and LIFE TO THE FULL, transformation only came when Mary said “do whatever he tells you” will you do whatever he tells you? Despite the failures and the disappointments of the past, will you do whatever he tells you?
REALISE HE WILL NOT DO WHAT YOU EXPECT BUT MORE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE
RECOGNISE THAT NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS HE IS IN CONTROL AND HE HAS A PURPOSE TO TRANSFORM YOU AND GIVE YOU LIFE TO THE FULL
REMEMBER WE EXIST FOR HIM, NOT HIM FOR US
RESPOND IN FAITH, DO WHATEVER HE TELLS YOU TO DO AND EXPERIENCE HIS TRANSFORMING POWER

sermon this week and holiday club!

Series: Conversations with Jesus
“How Wide are Your Horizons?”

Conversations, Sandy and Angus, identical flats 7 rolls of wallpaper, 2 and half left over, so did I!
This first conversation with Jesus takes place with Nathanael
- A man we know little about, Early tradition says he went on to minister in Armenia, Persia, India flayed and beheaded or tied up in a sack and cast into the sea But all we really know about him is what John tells us here in
John 1:43-51
- On the surface, lots of things turn on their head in this story
1) Nathanael’s skepticism turned to sudden affirmation of Jesus
2) Jesus’ strange response
- Which makes us feel He is speaking in code, seems to be
concealing something, That John chooses to not explain Which is typical John Who is unwilling to accommodate to those who want fast, painless, effortless passages Quick and easy blessings
There is a hidden-ness here that invites us to dig deeper That at the end might hopefully lead to a rush of insight like the kind that comes to you at the end of a really good movie; The Sixth Sense, A Beautiful Mind You’ve been confused about something since the first scene, but suddenly it all comes together
In this case, it won’t come together until we work through a couple of layers
1) One of them is THE CULTURAL LAYER
In order for parts of the story to make sense, one must grasp the setting
Israel during the time of Jesus was under an oppressive regime, a pagan empire called Rome
And people coped with one of three responses:
A) Some chose to withdraw, like the Essenes, who inhabited the Jordan valley towards Masada, separatists who formed communities, believing their proper response was to separate from the wicked world and hope their righteousness would encourage the advent of Messiah
B) Closer to Jerusalem, others chose to be compromisers, collaborators, get along with the powers, get what you can out of them, hope that all of this is okay with God
The Pharisees sort of rode the fence between these first two groups
C) Finally, there were the zealots, who sort of went by the philosophy of “say your prayers, sharpen your swords, fight a holy war, and God will give the victory, God over the monsters” (NT Wright).
It’s within this third setting Jesus came (verse 43) “Jesus came to galilee”
Galilee was the site of numerous fishing villages (Bethsaida, Cana)
But you would be wrong to assume these were sleepy, peaceful, cozy towns
They may have looked more like modern day Iraq, Gaza near Israel breeding grounds for insurgents Who wanted no outside interference, no occupation, no domination Especially by pagans but What they did want was a deliverer
And so, Galilee, in particular, produced pseudo-Messiahs who periodically led rebellions, only to be crushed in ruthless crackdowns by the Romans Luke 13 describes one of the encounters in which Pilate was nothing short of cruel and cold-blooded
So Jesus came preaching kingdom language that resonated “Blessed are the poor, they shall inherit the earth” “Blessed are the oppressed, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”
And men responded Like Andrew who invited Simon, like Philip who found Nathanael
Men who were inclined to follow anyone brave enough to go public, speak out, and offer hope
Men desperate for a Messiah, But Nathanael was not so inclined to sign on Nathanael was a skeptic, like lots of people today He had his reasons, as verse 46 makes clear, It was inconceivable the messiah would come from a tacky place like Nazareth. Nazareth was a no-name town of about 300; so obscure it was not mentioned in a list of 63 Galilean towns in the Talmud
Whose inhabitants were largely unrefined, and uneducated
Like saying… We’ve found Him, Jesus of Bonnyrigg, Jesus of Penicuik
We’ve found the One we have waited for, Jesus of Dalkeith
The messiah, from boring
Judeans hated Galileans but Galileans hated people from Nazareth
- Philip did not debate, rather he responded, as we must to those who are skeptical
- “Come and see. Look into my life.”
- “Look into my Church.”
- “Look into Jesus.”
- “Meet Him for yourself and tell me what you think.”
- So Nathanael did, and here’s what he discovered
- It’s what we find when we come and see…
1) THIS IS THE ONE WHO KNOWS WHO WE ARE
- Jesus spoke to Nathanael as if He had met him, knew his heart, his choices
- And of course, He did (verse 47)” here comes one with no deceit in him, a true son of Israel” The opposite of Jacob, heHe knew what Nathanael was like, what his heart’s desire was. For Jesus knows everyone, and as the words suggest here, Jesus knows us inside out
- More than this, He knew Nathanael’s ways His going and sitting, just as He knows our movements (verse 48) “under the fig tree” the fig tree was the place of meditation, was Nathanael reading the account of Jacob? Was it his daily reading? If so this passage makes sense to us, Jacob means “he deceives, Nathanael is referred to as true, Jesus is showing him how well he knew him already!
- Jesus Knows our day to day lives as well with all it’s business Knows our needs, knows our tears, hears us even before we call Here is Someone who never discovers, is never surprised, never amazed, never needs to be informed
- There was something in His manner, His ways, His words that unnerved, convinced Nathanael
- That there is more than clairvoyance at work that this Jesus could see into his heart Such that in the span of a moment he moved from skeptic to follower
- But as the conversation continued, Nathanael came and saw, and discovered something even scarier (verse 51) “he will see heaven open………..”
- At first, I am not ready for the words I am expecting Jesus to say something like
this:
- “Nathanael, I like your immediate response, but whoa, whoa. I haven’t even explained the gospel. God loves you and has a plan for your life, but sin has separated you from God. God has provided a Saviour; His name is Jesus, that’s me Nathanael.” “Would you like to receive me into your heart?”
But Jesus in effect declares, “Nathanael, there’s something else you have to see, something God intends for all who come and see. But it will require working through another layer.
- The second layer - THE OT LAYER these words will make no sense until
we go back to the OT, Where Jesus was pushing Nathanael
And maybe it went something like this for him…
- “Wait a minute… I recognize these words. These were the same words Jacob heard. He too was linked to Israel; only he was a man with guile who cheated his brother out of his blessing. Not to mention his dealings with his uncle Laban, who one night fell asleep only to have a rather weird dream of angels ascending and descending on a ladder, standing on earth, leaning against heaven.”
- This was God breaking into Jacob’s small world Informing him life is a lot more than daddy’s blessing, Heaven is breaking into your world Jacob
- The reality of My presence and power is entering into your world
- “I will go with you” (Gen 28:15) “My angels will enter this world and surround you and guard you.”
- No, this was more. This was God breaking Nathanael’s world. I think Jesus knew that Nathanael was thinking and reading about Jacob, and this is why Nathanael is so convinced that not only Jesus is a rabbi, king of Israel but the son of God
2) JESUS IS THE ONE WHO BRINGS THE REALITY OF GOD’S PRESENCE AND POWER INTO OUR LIVES
A) God is once again revealing Himself, Jesus is saying to Nathanael
- I am that revelation Nathanael
- I am the one, God has done this, I am the culmination of God’s plan
- The Son of Man predicted in the OT is here
B) I am the promised Messiah, but not the One you are probably looking to sign up For I am bringing a kingdom far different than you have in mind
- A kingdom of justice and mercy a revolution far more radical than you imagined
- A revolution that goes neither with violence nor bloodshed, hatred nor revenge a revolution that is driven by a love that is stronger than death
A messiah who is not only for the nation of Israel but the whole world as well, and Jesus is the one who brings God’s presence for us today, his presence and his power, when Jesus speaks to Nathanael he is speaking of how the presence of God met with Jacob, how the presence of God is meeting with Nathanael, but also how his presence can meet with us today
V 51 is the key to this conversation, Jesus seems to be saying that you will see more than an act of insight into your life, before I even met you, what you will see from now on is the reality of Jacob’s ladder, if you follow me, you will see what it is like when heaven and earth are open to each other, you will have your life changed in amazing ways, Jesus is still saying that to us today.
The promise that God’s presence and God’s power is beside us is as true today as it was for Nathanael, when we let go of our skepticism, our hang ups and let God in, he will complete us in the most amazing ways that we can never expect. Nathanael had an open honest heart, that is all Jesus asks of you, to believe the truth not what you have always thought, or what you feel but the thing is we have to be open to Jesus, he always stands at the door and knocks, he awaits invitation and when he comes in he will make our lives so much sweeter than we have ever have thought, and when the power, the peace, the purpose, the presence of Jesus gets into us, not only are our lives changed, but the lives of others are changed too. Let him in, let him reveal his truth for you in your life, let God work in you, and know wherever you are he is with you, going ahead of you, and even when we fail, fall down make a mess of things, he is there to speak words of hope to you, to give you purpose and joy in this world and great expectation for the world to come..

sermon for the week

Sermon notes
Where you going to be in 1 year? How would you like to grow in your faith? What goals do you have for the year to come? How will you judge you Christian walk between now and the?
What will need to happen to give you sense of satisfaction? What will need to happen to say “it’s been a good year?”
What we believe? Will it give a sense of satisfaction, will we deliver the goods, or are the goals we have misguided, or faulty in some way?
Our goals in life, spring from what we believe, if what you do no longer bears fruit, then you have to review your beliefs, if your behaviour is out of order, it is a result of what you have chosen to believe.
Walking by faith in the nitty gritty of daily life is a lot like golf, 10 – year old boy, 15 degrees off, but he doesn’t hit it far enough to end up in trouble, but as he grows he ends up in the rough all the time, accuracy is very important when he can drive 300 yards he ends up in the lake in every shot.
As a new Christian your accuracy will be off for a while, but it is not disastrous at that stage, but if you continue in that way, thinking that success is like a big house and a good job, rather than what God wants for you, if you carry on in your own way, slightly off centre, you may find yourself in a lake, crisis hits, when you discover that what you have believed isn’t quite true, the longer you walk in false beliefs the more pronounced your limp will become, and sometimes you can see it in the way people live.
To walk by faith means to live life on the basis of what you believe, we already walk by faith, even atheists do, the real question is whether you are putting your faith in the truth.
Feelings are God’s red flag of warning from the moment we are born, all of us try to work out what will make us happy, find fulfilment, achieve satisfaction, have fun, live in peace and so on. Whether we know it or nor, we continue to make and adjust plans to achieve these goals
Who knows best to how to make us fulfilled, happy and peaceful? God! Believe it or not, sometimes our best laid plans are not in harmony with God’s will for us. How can you know what is right or wrong? Well pretty obvious, if it is in line with God’s truth as revealed in the bible, God has shown us the way to go, but he has also blessed us with feeling, when an experience or relationship leaves us angry, depressed, anxious, this should ring bells within ourselves. When we feel depressed (not clinical) angry, anxious, it should prompt us to go back to God’s word and discover why we feel this way.
Teenager rock concert, not sure if allowed (anxious), told no angry, when she realises that she will not go, no matter the bargaining and pleading she tries she is depressed because her goal is impossible. You get angry when you don’t get what you want! How mad do you get when you are stuck in traffic and you know you are going to be late for that vital meeting? How mad do you get when you go to the checkout and you find you are in the shortest lane, but it takes the longest?
When you have a goal that is dependent upon others then your goal is misguided, your goal could be to have a loving harmonious Christian family, but anyone in that family will could and probably block that goal, a minister could have the goal of reaching the community for Christ, but it is dependent on others, anyone could block that goal, if your goal is dependent upon others then it will be blocked no doubt, which will lead to anger, depression anxiety, you can’t control others, all you can do is control yourself.
Anger highlights blocked goals, anxiety signals an uncertain goal, even when you find success you are still anxious, this probably means you don’t find peace even though you have achieved all you thought you needed, depression signals an impossible goal, hopelessness and helplessness come when the thing you desire most is never going to happen.
It is of course right to want your loved ones to come to Christ, for the community to be reached for Christ, and we are to pray and work to that end, but when your sense of worth is based upon someone else you set yourself up for problems, why? Because their responses are beyond your ability or right to control. Be a witness of Christ, share faith in the power of the Holy Spirit and leave the results to God, we can’t save anyone, if you are feeling low or desperate or helpless, it may be because you have not got your goals in line with what God has in mind. The thing to remember is this, with God all things are possible, he is the God of all hope, turn to him no matter how you feel and put your trust in him.
Wrong responses when our goals are frustrated. If our goals can be blocked what is our reaction to those people or things that threaten our plans? We can try to manipulate or control or we can bring our goals in line with God’s goals. Minister youth ministry, parent, perfect Christian family. People who try to control and manipulate are easily understood they want happiness, but when frustrated they get bitter, angry, resentful or they develop a martyr’s complex thinking they live in defeat for a reason, they struggle through thinking God has given this burden to live with, rather than seeking what God really wants in their life.
Turning bad goals into good goals ask yourself this question; if God wants it done can it be done? Or if God has a goal for your life, can it be blocked, unfulfilled or impossible? Course not!
Or to put it another way would God ever say to you, “I’ve called you into being, I have made you my child, I have a job for you to do, but I know you won’t be able to do it, but give it your best shot!” crazy, it is like saying to your child, “mow the lawn, but the mower has no petrol, the lawn is full of stones and the mower doesn’t work anyway, try your best though!”
No God given goal can ever be impossible, uncertain or blocked, God would not do that to you.
Look at Mary, young girl, virgin; having a kid, what is her response? Nothing is impossible for God, God doesn’t give you goals you can’t achieve, his goals are possible, certain and achievable, we need to understand what his goal for our life is and then say with Mary “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be to me as you have said”
The point is, no God-given goal can be dependent on people or circumstances that we have no right or ability to control.
Difference between goal and a desire semantics, but there is a difference between a god given goal and a godly desire, it is a difference that change failure to success and pain to peace.
A godly goal is this, that which reflects God’s purpose for your life and doesn’t depend on circumstances or people beyond your control, only you can block a godly goal.
A godly desire is a result that depends on the help of others, the success of events or favourable circumstances beyond your control
There is a crucial difference, you can’t base your sense of worth on your desires, because you cannot guarantee success, we all know that life doesn’t always go our way. When a desire is not met, we face only disappointment, not anger, anxiety or depression, dealing with disappointment is a lot easier, that that comes from getting your goals from God.
For the parent who wants her children to come to Christ, how about being the mother God wants her to be, for the minister whose success and sense of worth is based upon winning the community for Christ, or having the best youth group in the area, worthwhile desires, but as a goal he is doomed to failure, a good goal? To be the minister God has called him to be, no one can block that goal except himself!
The goal is to become the person God called you to be God wants us to become like Jesus “it is God’s will that we should be sanctified” 1 Thess 4:3, sanctification means becoming like Jesus, that is God’s Goal for our lives, nothing can keep you from becoming the person God wants you to be, but there are loads of distractions, disappointments, trials, temptations traumas that can disrupt this process, everyday you will struggle against the flesh, the devil the world which are opposed to you becoming like more like Jesus.
Nobody and nothing can stop you getting there present circumstances blocking the way? but Paul tells that difficulties actually are a stepping stone to become more like Jesus. Rom 5v 3-5 we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
James offers similar advice Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4
Perseverance results in proven character, which is God’s goal for us, who we are, rather than what we do
Difficulties help us towards God’s goal when people are in dire straits never offer false hope, if a husband leaves a wife, if a prodigal son never returns, we can encourage them to grow nearer to God, to leave situations out of our control to him, and to become more like Jesus, difficulties can show if our goals are off kilter, it can be the catalyst for sanctification, to be more like Jesus
Defeated spouses say “my marriage is hopeless” so they change partners, others feel their job or their church is just as hopeless so they change them too, in most cases they should hang in there and grow up. There are legitimate times to change jobs or churches, but if we are just running from our immaturity, it will follow us wherever we go
Christian car salesman, anger, be the one God called him to be, is there an easier way to become more like Jesus without difficulties and trials? We as believers have probably looked everywhere for one, but it is usually the times of testing that have brought about maturity that makes life meaningful. We need the joy of mountain top experiences, but the fertile soil for growth is always on the valley floor, not the mountain summit.
When our goal is love 1 tim 1:5 “The goal of our instruction is love” love (agape) is the character of God, because God is love. If you make godly character your goal, then the fruit of the Spirit that will be produced in your life will be love, joy (instead of depression0, peace (instead of anxiety) and patience (instead of anger).
So how would you answer the question I asked at the beginning, one year on how will you judge how your Christian walk has been? What will make you say it has been a good year? What will give you satisfaction? Are your goals in line with God’s goals? Have the fruit of the Spirit been seen in your life? So where are you heading in life? It is never too late to let God change you, I hope you can respond by becoming the person God wants you to be and no one and nothing can stop you!
Interestingly when you follow what God wants you may find your family coming to Jesus, you may find the community turning to Christ, you may discover the youth of Dalkeith finding Jesus, why? Because when you co-operate with God, you can expect your life to bear good fruit.
In finishing here is a story that illustrates how often we misunderstand God’s goals in our livesA man was sleeping one night in his cabin, when suddenly his room filled with light, and God appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. So, this the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sun up to sun down; his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all of his might. Each night, the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain. Since the man was showing discouragement, the Adversary (Satan) decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the weary mind: "You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn't moved." Thus, giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man. "Why kill myself over this?" he thought. "I'll just put in my time, giving just the minimum effort; and that will be good enough."And that is what he planned to do, until one day he decided to make it a matter of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord. "Lord", he said, "I have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, have not even budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?" The Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you to serve Me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all of your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewy and brown, your hands are calloused from constant pressure, your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much, and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the rock. Now I, my friend, will move the rock." But, your calling was to be obedient and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. This you have done.

from 1993, we could have been a contender!

Reviewed by Tony Cummings cross rhythms
An EP from an Aberdeen team who toured with Eden Burning on about half of their Vinegar And Brown Paper tour and despite the relative production crudity of this 4-song EP a band definitely to tip for the top. They possess in Kathy Gorden a distinctive lead vocalist while the band show a nice line in ringing some changes out of all those recycled indie riffs. Not sure if the band have truly settled on a distinctive style yet both "Home", a song about Kathy's homeland of Orkney, and "The Search", a song of righteous anger and conviction would be great with a big studio production. So the grassroots scene is still throwing up bags of talent. Encouraging, isn't it?