Thank you, Rachel. Good morning, everybody. Good to see you.
As Craig has said, this is Passion for Life Month.
! Churches all around the city here in the East of Scotland Gospel Partnership,
! Churches up and down the entire country are wanting to share the good news that we can find life,
true life, in Jesus Christ.
Now, something that we all need in life is a sense that our lives are valuable,
that what we do matters, that we are worthy of respect and love from other people.
Nevertheless, many of us go through life with a sense that there is something missing,
that in some way we are lacking, that we are inadequate, that we are unworthy.
Sometimes we look in the mirror, we wake up, we look in the mirror, and we think to ourselves,
I'm not enough. I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough. I'm not fit enough. I'm not pretty enough.
If the list could go on.
So where can we find our worth, the worth that we need for a life that is full?
Well, let me suggest to you, don't go looking at what you're made of.
I've read that if you were to take a human being, boil them down to their chemical constituents,
and then sell it, that you would be lucky to make enough money to buy two lattes around the corner at Costa.
Your worth, when it comes to what you're made of, is not very much.
So if you want to find your worth in life, you need to look somewhere else.
And what we're going to see today is that in Christianity, you can discover that you are of infinite,
inestimable worth, and in the sight of God, and in the person of Jesus Christ.
But to get there, we're going to start off with a film, maybe one that you have seen.
But if not, it's called Chariots of Fire, and let me tell you about it.
Chariots of Fire tells the story of two British Olympic athletes.
They are competing in the 1924 Paris Olympic Games.
One of them is Harold Abrahams.
The other is Eric Little.
He healed from around the corner here in Edinburgh.
Now, Abrahams was a Jewish man,
and he had faced a lifetime of anti-Semitic discrimination and prejudice.
But that didn't hold him back.
Rather, it propelled him, motivated him, to try and prove everyone wrong about him.
He wanted to prove his personal worth by winning a gold medal.
But in the film, as Harold Abrahams is preparing for the 100-metre sprint final,
there's this scene where he's in the changing rooms, he's with a friend,
and he confines in his friend the stress and strain that he is feeling under.
He says, this is what he's thinking whenever he's going to go out in the track.
He says, I will raise my eyes and look down that corridor four feet wide
with ten lonely seconds to justify my whole existence.
Abraham there is confessing that he believed that his whole worth and significance in life
rested upon his performance, on his success,
in how he ran that race and what position he finished in that race.
But he finishes confessing his self-doubt.
He has ten lonely seconds to justify his whole existence.
But will I?
Will I achieve it?
Will I be enough?
Here's a man who is at the peak of his physical fitness.
Here's a man who has trained for years.
He's at the top of his game.
But he doesn't know if it's going to be enough.
Now, although a few of us here will be Olympic athletes,
I think a lot of us have something in common with Harold Abrams.
I think a lot of us are plagued with these kinds of self-doubts,
these questions.
Am I enough?
I think that's partly because we live in a secular society here in 21st century Scotland.
The scientists and the philosophers, they tell us that we have come from nothing
for no ultimate purpose.
That we are blobs of carbon floating from one meaningless existence to another.
No wonder we feel inherently, intrinsically worthless.
And that we have to instead invent and achieve our worth.
And it always feels like Harold Abrams that we have to justify our existence to prove to ourselves,
prove to other people that we are worthy.
Every day.
My value.
Let me confess to you that I know an awful lot about this way of thinking.
Tell you a little bit of my story.
John, thank you for your story this morning, your testimony.
I grew up in Northern Ireland during a time in our history that was known as the Troubles.
A time whenever we teetered on the edge of civil war, two communities locked in conflict with each other.
As a teenager, young teenager, I began to get drawn into trouble myself with the authorities.
In the end, my family, we had to leave Northern Ireland to get away from it all
and have a new start here in Scotland in the year 2001.
And given the chance of that fresh start to leave behind the shame and the embarrassment and the trouble that I was in,
I threw myself into achievement and performance, trying to atone for my sin and my shame.
I worked hard to get the best grades, to try to be top of the class, to become head boy of the school,
to go to a prestigious university, to get a good degree, to build my CV, to get a good job.
I was falling into the Harold Abraham's trap.
I was trying to justify my existence.
I was trying to outweigh my bad, my mess with my accomplishments and achievements.
Someone's called this treadmill life.
Having to do more, do better, do it faster, just to keep standing up,
just to have a modicum of sense for a fleeting second, I'm okay.
I'm good enough.
I measure up.
And let me tell you from my own personal experience, it's exhausting.
It's not satisfying.
It's not life-giving.
Some of you know that too.
I'm here this morning to tell you the good news that you can get off the treadmill,
that there is better life available in Jesus.
And to see that, I want to contrast two very different strategies for finding your worth in life.
They're going to be illustrated from the film, Chariots of Fire, that we've started with this morning.
The first strategy is the Harold Abraham's way of life, and it says that your worth must be achieved.
It's that equation we've already seen.
My performance equals my worth, my value.
This is the life of striving for success, to be the best or at least to be better than some other people,
and then you can feel okay about yourself.
I think many of us naturally, I think actually all of us come into this world thinking this way.
This is our default setting, if you like.
But the question is, does this strategy of achieving our worth, does it actually work?
Does it pay off?
And I think you'll find, if you look at the people who have tasted success, who have reached the top,
I think you'll find that they have discovered it doesn't work.
It doesn't satisfy.
Let me give you a few examples.
There's this man, Johnny Wilkinson, one of England's best rugby players.
He led England to victory in the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
He scored his winning kick with only 23 seconds left on the clock.
A few hours later, he should have been out with his teammates.
He should have been celebrating.
This was the greatest achievement of his career.
But he wasn't out with his friends celebrating.
He was alone in his hotel room drinking.
In the grip of performance anxiety, thinking to himself,
I'm only as good as my last kick.
Yes, his last kick had won the Rugby World Cup.
But what about next time?
What if it went wrong next time?
Who is he then?
Johnny Wilkinson.
Someone else, maybe you know him.
Jim Carrey.
Famous film star, comedian.
He's played many memorable roles on the big screen.
He's won many awards.
He's loved by many.
But he confesses that he is nagged by this sense of not being enough and not having enough.
He once said this,
I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of
so they can see that it's not the answer.
Someone else has reflected.
People may spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of success
only to find, once they reach the top,
that it's against the wrong wall.
I want to do any of these testimonies resonate with you
and with the way you think and the way you feel
and what you have experienced in life.
I think there will be quite a few of us will resonate something here.
But just as some people seek to justify their whole existence
through their academic performance,
their business success,
their creative brilliance,
their political activism,
many other people around the world approach religion in the same way.
They use their religious performance to seek the ultimate verdict,
to earn the approval and the blessing of God Almighty.
They think that they can do good things
and work their way up into God's good books.
You look around the global marketplace of ideas,
philosophies, religions,
there are an awful lot of them
and they're all very different.
But in this one respect,
most of them are the same.
It's about you.
And it hinges on your performance.
If you are going to receive God's salvation,
his wisdom,
his blessing,
then you better work hard
because it's on you.
In Islam, it's the five pillars.
You've got to do them.
In Buddhism, it's the five noble truths.
It's the eightfold path.
You need to walk it.
It's almost like there's this ladder
from earth to heaven.
And if you're going to get to heaven,
you've got to climb up the ladder.
It's on you.
And if you don't make it,
well, that's your fault.
Christian author Tim Keller's written this.
He says,
the atheists might say
they get their self-image from being a good person.
Performance leads to the verdict.
For the Buddhists too,
performance leads to the verdict.
If you are a Muslim,
performance leads to the verdict.
All this means that every day
you are in the courtroom.
Every day you are on trial.
That's the problem.
That's the problem of all man-made human religion.
It all hinges on you
and what you do
and how well you do it
and how consistently you do it
and for how long you do it.
But there is one religion
in the global marketplace
that is not that way at all.
And it is Christianity.
It does not hinge upon you
and what you do.
It hinges on what God,
who God is
and what he has done.
If there's a ladder,
well, he's come down the ladder
and he's done everything
to lift us up in his hands.
Kim Keller writes,
uniquely in Christianity,
the verdict leads to the performance.
Jesus Christ,
he releases us from the courtroom.
He announces God's verdict
on the last day,
this day,
that we are loved
and we are pardoned.
For the Christian,
because I am loved
and accepted by God
and being pardoned for my sins,
that's why I want to live for God
and do things for God.
I live from the verdict,
not for the verdict.
So that's the second strategy
I would like us to think about now.
The world tells us
that your worth
is something that has to be achieved.
But Christianity announces,
no, your worth
is something that can be received
as a gift
from the hands of Jesus Christ.
And Jesus taught
that all-important life lesson
in the passage
that Rachel just read to us
in Luke chapter 10.
To set the scene
a few chapters earlier,
Jesus began gathering
his first followers.
They were called his disciples.
It just means students.
In Jewish society,
there was a great deal
of prestige
associated with being
the student
or the disciple of a rabbi.
In fact,
the rabbis would have
the ability
to handpick their disciples,
usually from the best schools
or the most rich
and influential families.
But that's not the way
that Jesus went about
calling his followers.
He didn't choose
followers from the elites.
No, he chose
ordinary people,
perhaps people like you
and me.
And before these people
had done anything
to show themselves
as being useful
to Jesus,
to do anything worthy
of being recipients
of Jesus' attention,
Jesus approached them
and he invited them,
come and follow me.
Come and find what life's
all about.
Come and follow me.
Jesus invited them
to join his mission
to spread the good news
that the kingdom of heaven
was drawing near
in himself.
And after a period
of living with Jesus
and learning from Jesus,
the disciples were commissioned
to go and share
the good news
about Jesus
with others.
That's what happens
at the start
of Luke chapter 10.
And then we jump
to these verses
midway through the chapter
when Jesus' followers
return.
And they bring
all their stories,
all their reports
of all that they've seen,
all that they have done.
And that's when we read
in verse 17.
The 72 returned
with joy saying,
Lord,
even the demons
are subject to us
in your name.
And Jesus said to them,
I saw Satan
fall like lightning
from heaven.
Behold,
I have given you authority.
Nevertheless,
do not rejoice in this,
that the spirits
are subject to you.
but rejoice
that your names
are written in heaven.
Now naturally,
the disciples coming back
from their mission trip,
they're full of excitement.
They're filled
with stories
of what they've seen
God doing through them.
Their work
has been a great success.
They have preached
powerfully to crowds.
They have performed
in Jesus' name
signs and wonders.
In the name of Jesus,
people who have been
possessed,
tormented,
and abused
by the spiritual
forces of evil
have been set free.
If your words,
my words,
had that kind of power
to transform people's lives,
then we would be
pretty excited too.
We'd be writing about it
all over our
social media feeds.
The reason why
the disciples speaking
in Jesus' name
have so much power
is because in Jesus,
the God of heaven
has come into this world
to overthrow
the powers of evil.
That's why Jesus here
talks about seeing
Satan fall
like lightning.
He's being cast down
off his throne.
His kingdom
is crumbling.
His captives,
his prisoners,
are being set free
in the name of Jesus.
But what I want to
focus on here
is how Jesus
responds to his disciples
and how he reframes
their way of thinking
about life.
Notice that he
shifts their focus
away from what
they have done
and their performance,
what they have done,
to instead think about
who they belong to.
Jesus is changing
the equation.
Not my performance
equals my worth,
but no,
my worth comes
from whom
I belong to.
Notice Jesus says,
don't rejoice in this,
that the spirits
are subject to you.
Instead, rejoice
that your names
are written
in heaven.
Don't rejoice, guys,
on what you've done.
rejoice that you
belong to God.
That's the most
important thing.
Because even if it had
gone really badly wrong,
you would still
belong to God.
Jesus says to them,
don't rejoice in your
signs and wonders
you've performed.
Perhaps Jesus might say
to us,
don't rejoice in your
last essay mark.
Don't rejoice in your
job title.
don't rejoice in the
letters and qualifications
after your name.
Don't rejoice in how
many goals you've scored
in the last match or
your golf handicap when
you last played.
Don't rejoice in your
good looks.
Don't rejoice in how
big your house is or
how flashy your car is.
Don't rejoice in how
many people are friends
of yours on Facebook or
how many people follow
you on Instagram.
Abraham.
Jesus wants us to see
that all of these
performance indicators
on earth,
they're not the main
thing.
They're not the most
important thing.
Instead he says the
most important thing is
your name being written
in heaven.
I think that means and
signifies if your name
is written in heaven,
it means that you are a
member of the family of
God.
That you have a home
reserved for you in
heaven.
It's a little bit like
what happened whenever
you were born into this
world.
Your parents when you
were born they were
given by the hospital a
little slip of paper and
they had to make an
appointment to go down
into town to meet the
registrar and register
your birth.
And when they did that
your name went on the
central register of
births.
And then they got
usually I think maybe in
the olden days you got
to you got for free.
Now we've got to pay for
the privilege to get a
birth certificate.
So if you've got a
birth certificate well that
says well you've been
born in this country,
this is your family,
these are your people
and it opens up other
things.
You can get a passport and
you can do all these
other things.
If your name is on the
central register, well
you're in the family.
This is your home
country.
Well if your name is
written in heaven, well
that means that that is
your family too.
That you are a member of
God's family and you have
a home and a place
reserved for you in
heaven.
And Jesus wants us to
understand that that
fact is far more
important.
Whom we belong to is
far more important than
anything else that we can
do on this earth.
Our worth, our
significance, our value
in life comes through
knowing the God who made
us and taking up our
place in his great story,
the unique place in his
great story that he has
set out for each one of
us.
There's a Christian
psychiatrist called
Glenn Harrison who's
written all about this in
one of his books called
The Big Eagle Trip.
As a psychiatrist he
reviews all the
literature thinking about
this phenomenon throughout
the last 20, 30 years
that's been trying to
help people who feel bad
about themselves feel
better by boosting their
self-esteem, by thinking
more positively about
themselves, by reciting
more positive self-talk,
work.
But Harrison points out
that the studies and
literature shows that it
doesn't actually work or
at least it certainly
doesn't help the people
who most need the help.
And he says the reason
is this, it's really hard
to believe your own
propaganda.
It's really hard to
believe that things you're
saying to yourself, I am
great, I am big, I am
strong, I am.
It's really hard to believe
that for a long time.
He says we need a better
story.
Rather than a bigger,
better view of ourselves
that we tell ourselves,
instead we need a bigger,
better view of God and
understand that if he loves
us, if we are precious and
valuable in his sight, if he
has a place for us in his
great story, well that's the
thing that gives me worth.
That's the thing that makes
my life worth living.
That's the thing that will
really help.
Instead of telling us to love
ourselves more, Jesus comes
into this world and tells us
that in God's sight, you are
loved.
And God's love, it is not
based on our performance,
because based on our
performance, God has every
reason not to love us.
There is an awful lot that is
true about us which is
unlovely.
We might be able to hide it
from other people.
We might be able to put on
a good front.
We might be able to filter
our pictures when it goes up
on social media.
But God sees the real us,
warts and all, when nobody
else is there.
He sees what goes on in our
hearts and what goes on in
our, sorry, wrong place,
hearts and minds.
He sees it all.
He knows.
He knows the truth about
David Nixon.
It's not pretty.
It's not lovable.
But still, he chooses to
love us.
Not on the basis of our
performance, but on the
basis of his grace.
God sees us at our worst
and he still sends Jesus,
his son, to save us out of
that mess and to clean us
up.
The Bible tells us in Romans
chapter 5, verse 8, that
God has demonstrated his
love for us in this, that
while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
Someone has said that the
cross of Jesus Christ is the
pulpit of God's love.
Jesus proclaims to the
world, God loves you no
matter what you've done, no
matter what you've not done.
He made you.
He loves you.
He wants to save you.
And everyone who responds to
that, Jesus' invitation, come
and follow me.
They're the ones whose names
are written in heaven.
The good news about having
your name written in heaven
is that just as your name is
written in heaven, not on the
basis of your performance, not
on the basis of anything you've
done, but that also means that
it cannot be erased or removed
on the basis of anything that
you go on to do or fail to do.
Do you see that?
Your name has been written
there in the blood, the
indelible ink, the blood of
Jesus Christ, and it cannot be
erased.
You ever got blood on some
clothes?
You ever had it woken up and
your nose been bleeding and
it's leaked onto your pillow?
Do you know how hard that is to
get out?
Almost impossible.
Well, your name in heaven has
been written in the indelible
ink of the blood of Jesus
Christ, the Son of God.
It can't be removed.
It cannot be erased.
It is safe and secure forever.
Jesus has done everything that
is necessary.
He has come from heaven to
earth.
He has gone to the cross
bearing your sins.
He has died and risen again to
bring you back to God, to lift
you up to heaven.
Again, Tim Keller has written
for Christians, the verdict is
in.
And now I can perform on the
basis of the verdict.
Because God loves me and
accepts me, I do not have to do
things just to build up my
resume.
I do not have to do things to
make me look good.
I can do things for the joy of
doing them.
I can help people to help
people, not so I can feel better
about myself, not so I can fill up
the emptiness.
Jesus faced the trial that should
be ours so that we do not have to
face any more trials.
And so in Luke chapter 10, Jesus
wants to save and deliver the
disciples from the performance
trap mindset.
He wants to get their eyes off
what they've done and wants them to
focus and rejoice instead on whom
they belong to.
They don't have to prove themselves.
They don't have to justify their
existence.
They don't have to earn God's
blessings.
No, Jesus assures them and he
assures us.
The verdict is in.
We can be loved and accepted on the
basis of what Jesus has done.
That changes everything.
There's no ladder to climb.
There's no treadmill to have to run.
It's done.
Your worth can be received as a gift.
So we started off with the film
Chariots of Fire.
We thought a fair bit about
Harold Abrahams and that way of
thinking, that way of working, that
way of thinking that worth in life
it has to be achieved by the things
that we do.
But there is an alternative as we've
gone on to see.
That alternative way of life is what
we've called your worth being
received as a gift.
In the film, Eric Little is the
personification of this second way
of living.
Eric Little was not just a great
athlete but he was also a Christian.
He understood that his life did not
depend upon his performance.
Little himself went on to win the gold
medal in a race he shouldn't have run
that he hadn't trained for.
He went on to win gold.
But that wasn't the thing that
defined him in life.
In fact, he gave it all up and went
off to be a missionary in China and
ultimately would die in a Japanese
internment camp.
In the film, there's this scene between
Eric and his sister.
He's telling her of his plans to give
up his athletics career, which had
brought him so much fame, could give
him so much fortune.
But give it all up and go and be a
missionary to China.
And his sister is trying to talk him
out of it, saying, what are you
thinking?
What are you doing?
Eric explains, I believe that God
made me for a purpose.
That's China.
But he also made me fast.
And when I run, I feel his pleasure.
You see, Eric Little was able to just
enjoy life and the gifts that God gave
him in life because he knew that he was
running a greater race.
That his life was part of God's bigger
story.
That's where his meaning was.
That's where his worth came from.
From the God who made him, who loved
him, who saved him.
And that's the kind of life that you and
I can enjoy.
If we would hear his invitation, Jesus'
words to us are, come and follow me.
And all you have to do is say yes.
And then you can rejoice that your name
is written in heaven.
Didn't get there by anything you did.
And it can't be taken away by anything
that you go on to do or fail to do.
That's where your security and worth
and value can come from.
You're here this morning, you don't know
Jesus and you've never said yes to
Jesus.
This morning is a chance to be able to
say yes to him.
And maybe in a moment or two, Craig
is going to come and he's going to tell
us what you can do to find out more
about Jesus.
If you'd like to find out more about
him and his passion for your life.
Not just now, but for eternity.
But first let me pray.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you love us.
Thank you that you have come to deliver
us from our sin,
but also from just the exhausting
performance trap and all of the anxiety
that comes from a life lived where all
depends on us.
Thank you, Lord.
It's not true.
It doesn't have to be that way.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you've come
and you've done so much for us to show
us your love.
Thank you that you have prepared a place
for each one of us in your great story
so that we might live for you and make
a difference for you in this world.
But thank you, Lord, that our hope is
that our names can be written in heaven.
Thank you that it doesn't depend all on us.
Thank you that it depends on you.
Thank you for the freedom that represents.
And I pray that you would help each of us
to leave here this morning,
tasting the sweetness of that,
the lies that we often hear in our heads,
the things that we think when we look
in the mirror.
Pray, Lord, today your voice, your words
would speak louder than all that stuff,
that you would set us free.
We pray these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.