Let's bow our heads in prayer.
Father, we are now going to look at your word written.
And Lord, as always, in some ways, your word comforts us.
In some ways, your word convicts us and confronts us.
And Father, we ask that, we just ask that we would trust Jesus more
and that we would trust the Holy Spirit to do his work
and that your word would come deeply in our lives to speak into us and to form us
so that we might, Father, grow in knowing you and the Son and the Holy Spirit
and that we might walk in the fear of God.
We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Please be seated.
So, I was in Calgary this week for some meetings, three days of meetings.
One day to spend with my son Jacob and his wife and kids in Calgary.
And then due to airplane turmoil, Air Canada let me stay an extra day in Hal, Calgary.
I guess that's how you could look at it positively.
But on the day that I spent with my son, his wife went to work.
He took the day off.
And his three boys and I went and did some exploring around Calgary.
And one of the things he wanted me to see, and if you've never been to Calgary and you go,
you should go see their main branch of their library.
It's really, it's a beautiful building inside and sort of interesting place.
And Jacob's boys, my grandsons, they love going there.
They love going to the library for all the things that kids can do.
Anyway, I have a coffee addiction, as some of you know.
And so we get to the library about one o'clock and I need a coffee.
So I cut across the street to the city hall where there's a cafe, get my coffee and I'm walking back across the street.
And you sort of, from that place where you're getting into the main door,
there's probably about 25, 30 steps up to the plaza that allows you to get into the library.
And I'm up about, I guess I'm about 20 steps from the top.
And there's a guy beside me, about, he's like, you know, a few feet beside me.
On the other side of the rail, about 15 stairs from the top.
So he's five stairs ahead of me.
And all of a sudden, out of the blue, I see this, I'm thinking it's a young guy, all dressed in black, with a hoodie on.
And the hood's coming up to about here.
And he has a mask on his face up to here.
And he comes running this way to a group of two guys.
And he sprays them with bear spray.
Like he has a big container like this.
It's a huge cloud of bear spray.
It covers these two guys who start screaming.
People start running.
And then he comes running down the stairs.
And, I mean, this is a terrible thing.
I'm glad it wasn't me.
But he bear sprays the guy five stairs ahead of me on my right-hand side.
Because he comes down about five stairs.
Gives him a full blast.
A huge cloud of bear spray.
I get sort of caught in the side of it because the wind's blowing.
You know, my eyes start to sting.
My nose hurts.
My mouth hurts.
I wish I could tell you that I was so courageous that I went to try to tackle him.
But I didn't.
I run down the stairs.
I'm worried that he's going to come after me.
And I'm running down the stairs.
I turn and see that he's gone back up the stairs and has gone somewhere that way.
And I go to the bottom of the stairs and sort of the other side.
And I'm standing there.
My eyes are watering, you know, my tongue, everything.
And I decide that the safest place, the sanctuary, so to speak, is in the library.
So I hold my breath, run up the stairs.
And by this point in time, there's about three security guards, four security guards barring the door on their radios, I guess, to the police.
And I run up the stairs holding my breath, trying to keep my eyes, like, to slits.
And they let me in and ask me if I'm all right.
And I say, well, I mean, I was fine.
I mean, it takes a while to get that out of your system.
But I see the library as a sanctuary.
There's security guards there.
They're manning the door.
They have, you know, their walkie-talkies or their radio systems to the police.
And there's this random bear spray attack.
It's, like, really weird.
But I run in to the library, and the library is a place of sanctuary.
Now, I mention this because it dawned on me that this is actually a very helpful way for you to understand what's going on in the book of Nehemiah.
That in the book of Nehemiah, the Jewish people have been cast, brought in.
They've been defeated by the Babylonians.
Babylon's now been defeated when Nehemiah's been written by Persia.
But they're a distant empire controlling everything.
When Babylonia came, they depopulated the whole region.
They took most of the Jewish people away.
So lots of the countryside, they brought in some other people as well,
but lots of the countryside just became wild and unkempt.
Think of an abandoned house and what happens to the nice gardens if you abandon them for a long period of time.
It's not that the place becomes more fruitful.
It becomes less fruitful.
And the city is in rubble, and the other towns are in rubble,
and a group of Jewish exiles come back.
And first they establish the altar so they can worship God, then the temple.
But what they want is a sanctuary.
Sanctuary.
That's what he's trying to do by building the wall.
That's what the book of Nehemiah is about,
is that Nehemiah and the people understand they need a sanctuary,
a place where they can worship God,
where they can start to develop economics and other types of things,
rebuild houses, have some type of prosperity,
and something that helps them to be safe from their enemies
that have encircled them and hate them and want to kill them.
They don't just want to bear spray them.
They want to kill them, and they need a sanctuary.
So in many ways, what's going on in the book of Nehemiah speaks very deeply
to the longings and desires of lots of people in Canada today.
Many people in Canada, what they want is a sanctuary.
But we're caught in Canada because often,
well, first of all, certain places we just think aren't going to be sanctuaries whatsoever,
but there's also, in a sense, almost like this utopian idealism
that a certain place will be a sanctuary,
yet a skepticism and a cynicism as to whether you can ever find a sanctuary.
Because, as we know, families let you down, friends let you down,
institutions let you down, people who support you let you down.
I don't know how many of you have watched any of the testimonies
testimonies of people who've detransitioned,
but they have a very common theme, how their heart is broken,
that the psychologists, the psychiatrists, and the doctors
that have been so affirming and giving them lots of time,
the second they say they want to detransition
or they want to stop the procedures and they want to detransition,
they're abandoned.
They're just abandoned.
No more favorable time and counsel.
They just abandoned them.
They're just dropped.
Nowhere to go.
And so it's important to see that the book of Nehemiah,
in some ways, it's not just about a wall.
It's like me and the bear spray attack.
I want to go to a place of sanctuary where I'm not going to be sprayed.
That's what I want.
That's what's happening in the book of Nehemiah.
But now we see here, in a sense, the fears of our culture
that sometimes the place that we think of as a sanctuary
isn't a sanctuary because evil is there.
And that's what we see being addressed in Nehemiah 5.
It's a very, very contemporary story.
In some ways, it touches our deepest fears.
The place of sanctuary isn't a sanctuary.
So let's look at what happens.
If you have your Bibles, it's Nehemiah 5,
and it's good if you do have your Bible so you can follow along.
And once again, I'm going to use some of the imagery of scenes
as if it's a Netflix production to help us go through it.
So scene 1 is verses 1 to 4,
and the title of the scene is a good, positive title,
Poverty, Oppression, and Slavery.
And that's what this first scene is.
Look at this.
Now, chapter 5, verse 1,
Now there arose a great outcry of the people
and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.
Now, just sort of pause here for a second.
Brothers is the literal accurate word.
But there's two things here we need to understand.
First of all, it doesn't mean, like, I have one brother.
His name is Stephen.
It's not talking about that, you know, sense of biological connection.
It's really we see the entrance into human consciousness.
That's literally what's happening.
It's the entry into human consciousness
of the idea of human beings being brothers and sisters to each other.
Many people in Canada think this is a secular idea,
but it's not a secular idea.
It's a Christian idea.
It's not something that just comes from mere human reasoning.
It's a Christian idea.
And in this particular case,
they haven't quite understood that all human beings are brothers,
but they're talking now of their fellow Jews in the community.
And all the way through this story,
that's what's being referred to almost always.
Okay?
So read it again.
Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives
against their Jewish brothers, the Jewish community.
For there were those who said,
here's part of the outcry,
with our sons and our daughters we are many.
So let us get grain that we may eat and keep alive.
There were also those who said,
we are mortgaging our fields and our vineyards and our houses
to get grain because of the famine.
And there were those who said,
we have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards.
Now just sort of pause there.
We're going to see in a moment that what's this causing is slavery and oppression.
And there's a combination of famine and some type of crop failures.
And maybe because of the encircling armies,
there's not been able to get,
you know,
the food.
But what happens is the people,
we're going to see it now in the next couple of verses as it makes it very clear.
There's this combination of illegal and illegal things that the well-off are doing.
And what they're suffering under is the price of things is going up and up and up.
Food is scarce and taxes are going higher.
Nothing any of us can relate to with a cycle of things costing more and more,
less economic opportunity and taxes going higher.
We can't relate to that at all.
It's just,
this doesn't happen in Canada,
obviously.
Just as an aside,
never mind,
I won't do it.
Years ago,
we had a person who was the admin person,
and her name was Amy Van Hemmen.
And I would say things in staff meetings,
and she'd always look me right in the eye and say,
that's why we're not going to ever allow you to have a Twitter account.
So,
anyway,
let's see what happens.
So,
what we're going to see next is,
just as I said,
this idea of brothers is the entry into human consciousness of this idea of human beings being brothers.
It's definitely not a pagan idea.
For the pagans,
human beings aren't all equal.
They're not the same.
The emperor is a god.
The king is a god,
or a semi-god,
and human beings are slaves.
This is a radical new idea.
If you talk to our friends here who are from India,
they will tell you that they might believe that all human beings are equal.
But because of the strong belief in karma,
if you're poor,
if you're starving to death,
well,
that's just bad karma.
Like,
sucks to be you.
I've had good karma,
you had bad karma.
You have to all just work it out.
And this next cry is part of this entry,
how the Bible has changed the world.
Listen to what it says.
The next chapter is just one verse.
It's scene number two,
and it's called equally human.
Listen to verse five.
Now,
our flesh,
this is what they're complaining.
Our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers,
the other Jewish people.
Our children are as their children.
Yet,
we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves.
And some of our daughters have already been enslaved.
But it is not in our power to help it.
For other men have our fields and our vineyards.
Now,
I mean,
the fact of the matter is,
is that at a purely scientific level,
human beings aren't equal.
Some of us are smarter than others.
Some of us are stronger than others.
Some of us are old and close to death.
And some of us are young and hope we have decades left.
And at a completely objective scientific level,
human beings aren't equal.
But this is a Christian idea that has changed the world.
Listen,
we're all human.
We're all human.
And why is it that in this situation,
that there's these terrible things that are going on,
that are forcing some of us into poverty,
and some of us into slavery,
and some into death,
because of a lack of food?
Now,
it's very,
very interesting
that one of the common things of people outside of Christianity
would say that Christianity is oppressive,
without realizing that actually,
even their understanding,
even your understanding of what oppressive means,
is actually something you learn from the Bible.
And the Bible,
rather than just having an idealistic view of sanctuary,
it understands our need for sanctuary.
But it also understands that humans being humans,
if it's going to be a sanctuary,
steps have to be taken
to make it a true place of sanctuary,
because things keep going wrong.
And that's what we see next,
in the next scene.
Scene number three,
verses six to eleven,
and I've called it,
Good Anger.
Look at what it says.
I was very angry
when I heard their outcry,
and these words.
I took counsel with myself,
and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials.
I said to them,
You are exacting interest,
each from his brother.
I'm going to explain what that means in a moment.
And I held a great assembly against them,
and said to them,
We, as far as we are able,
have bought back our Jewish brothers,
who have been sold to the nations.
But you even sell your brothers,
that they may be sold to us.
They, that is,
the people who are guilty of this,
were silent,
and could not find a word to say.
Because it's true.
They got confronted with the truth.
So I said,
The thing that you are doing is not good.
Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God,
to prevent the taunts of the nations,
our enemies?
And I'm going to come back at the end to look at this.
This is a very odd thing.
He explains his concern
to deal with the hungry,
and oppressors,
and economic injustice,
that what, in a sense,
motivates and grounds that
is the fear of God.
Verse 10.
Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants
are lending them money and grain.
Let us abandon this exacting of interest.
Return to them this very day
their fields,
their vineyards,
their olive orchards,
and their houses,
and the percentage of money,
grain, wine,
and oil that you have been exacting from them.
Now, what's going on is this.
The Old Testament has two different types of categories
of low-income people,
and two different ways of dealing with them.
And I can't remember the politician
who said that the best welfare program
in the world is a job.
Well, that's actually a Jewish and Christian idea.
So the first group that are dealt with
in the Old Testament law
is that it's told that when,
let's say,
I owned a grain field
and I owned,
I owned,
you know,
an olive orchard.
And when I and my workers go and harvest,
we're not allowed to keep going over the field
and over the field
until we get every last speck of grain
and every last olive.
You do a,
you know,
you do a,
you go through it,
but you intentionally leave
some of the grain
and some of the olives that are there.
And if you have a vineyard,
some of the grapes.
And if you have a fig tree,
some of the figs.
And you intentionally leave some of it there
so that those who don't have land,
those who are displaced,
those who are poor,
they can go and harvest it.
They have to work,
but it's left there intentionally
for them to take.
And the Old Testament doesn't forbid interest.
The medieval church was wrong about this.
They were wrong.
The Old Testament doesn't forbid interest.
What it does say is that for low-income people,
you don't charge them interest.
That's what it says.
It's part of the two-pronged attempt
to help low-income people.
So in other words,
you know,
one of you folks,
you have a chance to maybe get a field.
If I was to lend you the $50,000,
and, you know,
later on,
if you look in all the notes,
they're probably charging about 12% interest a year,
which in those days was very,
very, very high.
But if they have to pay me 12% a year,
it's going to be unaffordable for you.
Once again,
young people want to buy houses.
Nothing here we can relate to.
Nothing here we can relate to at all.
But the interest is going to kill you.
And so that was part of how they helped the low-income.
The other aspect of the low-income
were those who,
because of age or infirmity,
couldn't work.
And there it was required
that your heart would be moved
to have compassion
and give alms,
give them money.
But two different classes.
And so what's going on here
is that there's something both elite or improper,
and, but, you know,
two things are going on.
First of all,
they're not helping their low-income people
because they're charging them interest.
And the other thing what they're doing
is they're seizing,
when they miss a payment,
they seize the collateral
or they seize part of the property
so that they get their interest,
so to speak.
And so what that's doing to them
is we now have a cycle of poverty going on.
They're trying to work the land,
but they can't work the land
because they have less land.
And because they have less land,
they can't make the payments.
And when they can't make the payments,
the people take more land.
You see the thing?
And so there's this downward cycle
that's going on for the people,
and Nehemiah hasn't been aware of it.
And so he's fighting about it,
and he just confronts them.
And the other thing he's saying is,
listen, it sounds as if
they've been pulling their resources
to buy people out of slavery.
And he said, listen,
you've been pulling money
to buy people out of slavery
only so you can make them a slave?
Like, how does that make any sense?
How does that make any sense?
Like, how can that possibly be good?
And so he confronts them.
He has good anger.
You see, the fact of the matter is
you should be angry at injustice.
You should be angry at oppression.
You should be angry at the poor being,
you know, having things taken from.
We should be angry about that.
That's good anger.
But it's not, he's not driven by anger.
He's driven by justice.
And, you know, in many cases,
the best thing is to have a person's heart pierced
so they desire repentance and amendment of life.
And that's what Nehemiah's goal is.
He wants to see the suffering relieved,
a change of heart of the oppressors,
and something costly happen.
And that's what we see.
Look at what happens in the next scene,
verses 12 and 13,
which I'm calling true repentance.
And it goes like this.
Find verse 12.
Then they said,
this is the people who are the rich,
we will restore these
and require nothing from them.
We will do as you say.
And I called the priests
and made them swear to do as they had promised.
I also shook out the fold of my garments and said,
so may God shake out every man from his house
and from his labor who does not keep this promise.
So may he be shaken out and emptied.
And all the enemies,
all the assembly said,
amen and praise the Lord.
And the people did as they had promised.
This is a very, very important text.
What he's doing here is,
when he's shaking out his garment,
is he's saying,
this is a symbolic prophetic act
to show that this is what God thinks of them.
You see this,
you know,
once again,
in the world of their time,
God is the God of the powerful,
the king,
and the higher you get towards,
in a sense,
the hierarchy of the culture,
the more God-like or semi-divine you are,
and the people are slaves.
And so in a sense,
oppression is built right into the system.
Just as in a sense,
all Marxist system of thought
builds within it,
tragically,
a type of oppression.
Because in all types of Marxist thought,
it's completely and utterly valid
to do whatever you want
to the people who happen to have power.
You can be as evil as you want towards them,
and the end justifies the means,
and that creates profound hardship.
And it doesn't matter
whether it's full-on Marxism
or whether it's other types of soft Marxism.
I'll say it,
like you see in critical theory.
It always ends up
furthering the cycle of oppression.
And what Nehemiah wants,
he obviously wants things to be just,
but what he's getting out of these people
is even better.
They see that it's wrong.
They see that God,
in fact,
hates oppression.
And they give everything back.
And they promise
that they will start going back
to not doing right to the edge
and lending loans to money,
giving people loans
and not exacting interest
so people can work their way
out of the cycle of poverty
and work themselves back into a place
so that within the walls,
when the walls are finally finished,
because this is going on
while the walls are still being built,
that this can be a sanctuary.
sanctuary.
This can be a sanctuary.
But you know,
that by itself is still not going to create
a true sanctuary.
And what you see in this next bit
are two beautiful illustrations
of the beautiful life.
The next section is
A Beautiful Ambition.
Scene 4,
verses 14 to 16.
Now, this is just Nehemiah talking.
It's part of his memoirs.
Moreover,
from the time that I was appointed
to be their governor
in the land of Judah,
this is now where we discover
that he's actually the governor
of the area.
He hadn't revealed it earlier.
Sorry,
be their governor of Judah
from the 20th year
to the 32nd year
of Artaxerxes the king,
12 years.
Neither I nor my brothers
ate the food allowance
of the governor.
The former governors
who were before me
laid heavy burdens
on the people
and took from them
for their daily ration
40 shekels of silver.
Even their servants,
that's the governor's servants,
lorded over the people.
But I did not do so,
and note here again
the second reason.
Why is he going to do
something like this?
It's because of the fear of God.
I also persevered
in the work on this wall
and we acquired no land
and all my servants
were gathered there
for the work.
Now, just sort of pause there.
This is a beautiful ambition.
It's not anti-money.
As we're going to be able
to see in a moment,
Nehemiah obviously
had some means,
some financial means,
and he did own some fields.
And as we're going to see
in a moment,
he obviously
was quite well off.
And so this isn't
an anti-money text.
But what it's doing
is showing something
which is very,
very significant.
So the Bible doesn't want
to dishearten you.
If you're younger
and you'd like to have
a steady job
and you'd like to have
some promotions
and you'd like to be able
to have some day
where you own a house
of your own,
you'd like to complete
your degree,
the Bible doesn't say
shame on you.
You shouldn't have
those ambitions.
But it wants to warn you
and it warns you
in a very, very subtle way
that once you go down
that path,
it can end up leading you
to oppress people.
That in fact,
the goal shouldn't just be
that I come to that point
in time when I have,
let's say,
10 fields,
but I always want
one more field.
I always want
one more field.
I always want
one more field.
That there comes
a point in time
when you should,
in a sense,
just also be content.
And it's not that
owning fields are bad.
if nobody owned fields
and nobody were farmers,
we wouldn't be able
to eat.
Like,
we should pray
that lots of people
want to become farmers.
We should pray
for full employment
in our economy.
These are good things
for us to pray for.
We should pray
that our government
doesn't do
monetary policy
and taxation things
and other types
of things
that hampers
productivity.
We should want
productivity.
There's nothing wrong
with productivity.
It's a good thing.
But it's not
the end all.
There's a point
in time
when you can just say,
you know,
I'm not going
to lord it over people
and I see,
you know what,
I don't have to look
at the world
and say,
you know,
I have this
$100,000 car
but if I just
worked a little bit
harder,
I could have
a $150,000 car
because I know
people have
$150,000 cars.
And then once
you have that
$150,000 car,
you're not satisfied
with it
because you see
people with
$200,000 cars
and you see,
I'd like to have
that $200,000 car.
And you know what,
then you're not
satisfied with that
because you see
somebody who has
a $300,000 car
and a $250,000 car
and you see,
I've got to work
harder and harder
to get that.
Well,
that's just,
that's just a trap.
And so he does
with less.
He forgoes,
in a sense,
a raise.
What?
He forgoes
a raise.
Why?
Because he could
have that raise,
that tax,
but it would just
add to the burden
of all the other
people.
And he chooses
not to do it.
He chooses
to have less.
Let me tell you,
I think the Bible
calls people
who are followers
of Jesus,
if you're not
a follower of Jesus,
you can just listen
to this and file it away,
probably not going
to surprise you,
that we don't want
to have money
rule our lives
and we don't want
to have power
rule our lives.
We want to be
characterized
by generosity
and we want to be
characterized
by compassion.
And you can't
be characterized
by generosity
of your compassion
if sometimes
you don't give up
some of your power
and if you don't
give up some
of your money.
To think that
you're generous
and you only want
more money,
you never give
money away,
I hate to tell you
this,
but you're actually
not generous.
You're generous
in your mind,
you're a legendary
generous person
in your mind,
but you're actually
miserly
and consumed
with a love
for money.
I hate to say that,
but I'm going
to say it
because that's true.
And if you're
generous
to the cause
of the gospel
and if you're
generous to the poor,
you're going
to have less money.
It might mean
that you can't
drive the latest
Lexus,
you have to drive
a Lexus
which is five years
old
because you're
going to have
less money.
But you know
what?
It's a lot better
to have Jesus
as Lord of your life
than money and power
as Lord of your life
because money and power
doesn't care
a hoot about you
and will only
leave you
discontented
and unhappy,
always looking
for more.
And it's not just
that Nehemiah
forgoes
some money
and some financial
opportunities.
He's also
actively generous.
Look at the final scene.
A beautiful life,
scene six,
verses 17 to 19.
Here's what it says.
Moreover,
there were at my table
150 men,
Jews and officials,
besides those
who came to us
from the nations
who are around us.
He practiced
costly hospitality.
Every day
he'd feed over
150 people
at his own expense.
Now what was prepared
at my expense
for each day
was one ox,
six choice sheep.
You vegetarians
have to block
your ears
for this little bit,
by the way.
Six choice sheep,
a variety of birds,
and every day
and every 10 days
all kinds of wine
in abundance.
Yet for all this
I did not demand
the food allowance
of the governor
because the service
was too heavy
on this people.
In other words,
the taxation
was too heavy.
Remember for my good,
oh my God,
all that I have done
for this people.
Just one last thing
before we try to,
I tie it up
with the fear
of the Lord.
One of the problems
we have in this country
is that we want,
see what Nehemiah does
is he confronts people,
but he himself
personally
cuts back
to help other people live.
We want the government
to fix things
with other people's money.
That's what we want.
The average,
not the average,
almost all Canadians
think the government
should do something
about that
and I think,
the government
should do something
about that
and I think
you should take
the money
from all these people
to do that.
Me,
I want all my money.
That's how Canadians think
and the gospel
is a very,
the Bible
is confronting us.
If we want a sanctuary,
if we want to have
a place,
not just where there are walls
where enemies
can't attack us,
we need to deal
with oppression,
we need to see
that we put in place
things that allow
people to be prosperous
and we need
to hate oppression
and we need to have
a heart for those
who are weak
and those who are poor
and most of all
we need to be generous.
It's not going
to be a sanctuary
if we're not generous.
It's just not going
to happen.
Now what's all this stuff
about the fear of God?
Like that just seems
like the weirdest idea
in the world
and you'll see
that what motivates him
in both parts
is his fear of God.
What motivates him
to confront oppression
and deal with
the cycle of poverty
and what confronts him
to be content
with less
and not only
to be content
with less
but within his wealth
and he's a wealthy man,
only a wealthy person
can feed 150 people
every day.
So he's wealthy.
It's not an anti-wealth text
but it's a pro-generosity text
and it's a pro-cycle
of prosperity
rather than a cycle
of poverty text
but it's the fear
of God
that motivates this.
So it's very counterintuitive.
It sounds terrible.
I'm going to do this briefly
but here's the prayer.
I'm going to say this
at the beginning
and the end
and it's a prayer
that I hope you will want
to pray by the end
of the sermon.
Father,
first point,
Father,
please make the person
of Jesus,
his completed work
and his words
ever more precious
to my heart
so that in the power
of the Holy Spirit
I will walk free
in the fear of God.
Notice it's Trinitarian.
By the way,
it's Trinity Sunday.
I made it as a Trinitarian prayer.
All real good prayers
should be Trinitarian.
Father,
please make the person
of Jesus,
his completed work
and his words
ever more precious
to my heart
so that in the power
of the Holy Spirit
I will walk free
in the fear of God.
Now,
so what's going on here
with the fear of God?
Well,
to understand the fear of God
we have to understand
something about
the human condition
and that is that
as human beings
we are sinners.
We sin
and the Bible
doesn't use sin
just to talk about sex
as if all sex is bad.
It's talking about
something more objective
that we see in the world
and it's a unique doctrine
of Christianity.
It's the only,
it's an empirically
proven doctrine
that all human beings
do things which are evil
and here,
if you could put up
the second point,
it's this.
Sin is an ever deeper descent,
descent,
going lower,
into the vain
and ruinous belief
that you are God.
Sin is an ever deeper descent
into the vain
and ruinous belief
that you are God.
Now,
one of the things
that we understand
as Christians
is that God
in his common grace
doesn't allow sin
to consume us.
That it's part
of his common grace
that we sin in areas
but we still have
some human freedom.
we don't come completely
and utterly consumed
by sin
and in fact,
in both the Old
and the New Testament,
there is a whole other sermon
but sometimes
what God does
to try to wake us up
is he,
in a sense,
he removes part
of his restraints
from us
so that we experience
the full tug
of our desires,
our evil desires.
but what happens
when this takes place
in a human being,
this type of pride
that we are God,
it's a vain belief,
it's self-flattering
and it's something
which is never going
to come true
and it's ruinous to us,
is this becomes
more real to us
than a human being
becomes an equivalent
of a black hole.
A black hole
is a star
where the matter
has become so dense
that the gravity
is so strong
that life can't
escape from it
and it sucks
in a sense
the life
and everything else
back into its mass
making its mass
even more dense
and that's in a sense
what can happen
to human beings
and as we,
in a sense,
become just more consumed
with being,
you know,
seeing ourselves
almost like God
then what that does
is it makes
the whole universe
out of order for us
because we become
so important,
people have to become
less important,
the more important
we feel
we need to be,
we deserve to be,
we have to be,
you know,
the more concerned
we are about manifesting
and about the secret
and all of this stuff,
that's all just stuff
that furthers our pride
and then when that happens,
people become,
seem like they're farther away,
they become,
they seem like they're smaller,
it becomes easier
to hurt them,
it becomes easier
to say a hard word
to them,
it becomes easier
to oppress them,
we can get away
with saying whatever
we bloody well want
about other people
and it's because
we just,
the world becomes weird,
when I was in Calgary
I went and spent a day
with my son in Airdrie,
we went into Calgary
and then went back to Airdrie
and if you've ever been
to Calgary or to Airdrie,
when you're coming
along the road
there comes a time
when you can see
the big skyscrapers
in Calgary
off in the distance
and if you were the passenger
don't do this
while you're driving,
keep your eyes on the road
and both hands on the wheel
but you know
you could put your fingers
like this
and you could put
your fingers like this
and they're bigger
than the buildings.
Of course that's not really,
the buildings are 30,
40 stories tall,
they're not this big,
you're not so big
that you can put
your fingers around them
but the buildings
seem far away,
you seem so big
and it's just a matter
of perspective
and that's what pride
does to you,
makes things,
other people,
makes the real world
seem small,
other people
and their needs
real small,
it becomes effortless
to slide
into oppressing them.
So what is the fear of God?
Well the fear of God
is this,
the fear of God
is an ever deepening
existential knowing
of the difference
between the triune God
and you
so that there is
no confusion
or imagined
commingling
on your part.
I'll say it again,
the fear of God
is an ever deepening
existential,
like a knowledge
at the level
of your existence,
that's what I mean by it,
knowing of the difference
between the triune God
and you
so that there is
no confusion
or imagined
commingling
on your part.
How does this work out?
Well,
it's very easy
for a parent
to think that
what's good for them
is going to be good
for their kids.
Well that's not always true.
It's very easy
for a parent
to think that
what makes me happy
is going to make
the kids happy.
Well that's not always true.
And it's not only
just true with our kids,
it's true with the spouse,
it's true with our neighbors,
it's true with our society.
We consistently confuse
what I desire
for what others desire.
And in particular
that what I desire
obviously is what God desires.
What's going to make me happy,
well obviously
that's going to make God happy.
What I think is good
is obviously God
is going to think that's good.
What I think is just,
obviously God
is going to think that's just.
What's,
you know,
and that's what happens
is we lose sense
of our boundary with others
and our boundary with God.
We just lose those things.
We don't have a sense
of those boundaries.
Sin constantly is confusing us
about these things.
And so the fear of God,
and here we see
Christians understand
that God in his common grace
gives all human beings
a certain degree of this.
And maybe even some people
an exemplary degree of this,
but it's this growing knowledge
that this is George
and these are my boundaries.
And this is Louise
and those are her boundaries.
But more than that,
this is God.
And God is,
God begins and ends here
and George begins and ends here
and George is not God.
He's never God.
He's always different than God
and God is always different than him.
And that is good
and that is necessary
and that is important.
And I have a,
the fear of God
is a growing horror
that I would ever transgress
and start to think
that somehow my happiness
is God's happiness,
that that would be
a horrible thing to me.
It would be repulsive.
And it's why in the Bible
you get all these weird texts
about how the fear of God
is connected with
an intense longing
and yearning for God
and a love for God.
And that can only happen
if you understand
that God is different from you.
And when he's different from you,
then you can long for him.
You can yearn for him.
You can delight in him
because he's different than you.
And it also starts to mean
that it's without the fear of God,
without understanding
the difference between God and you,
you can never know yourself
and you can never know other people.
And so that as you grow
in the fear of God,
people become right-sized.
You see people in the world
and you realize God's heart
that he's different from you.
You realize his standards of justice,
his concern for the weak,
his concern for the powerless,
his concern for people
to come to know his son.
And that heart becomes your heart
as part of the fear of God.
That's why it's the fear of God
that motivates Nehemiah
to fight oppression.
It's the fear of God
that motivates him
to be content with less.
It's the fear of God
that motivates him
to be generous.
I want to fear God.
I want to grow in that.
I want our church to grow in it.
I don't know.
It would be the world's
most repulsive mission statement,
but maybe our mission statement is
we want a people
who walk in the fear of God.
You can't do things like that.
You have to be
a little bit more winsome.
And here's the thing.
The life-giving grace of God,
the fourth point,
in Christ Jesus changes everything.
It's all part of God's grace
that human beings have,
whether they're conscious of it or not,
some sense of that.
But it's the life-changing grace of God
in Christ that changes everything.
It's, you know,
when you hear Jesus say,
I came not to be served,
but to serve
and give my life
as a ransom for many.
That's why he came.
Not so that he would be served.
Not so that people
would see themselves as slaves.
He came to free people.
That's what ransom means.
Free them from oppression
and slavery.
When we hear 2 Corinthians 8,
verse 9,
and it says,
though he was rich,
he became poor,
so that you,
through his poverty,
might become rich.
And we think of 1 John 4,
verse 10,
where it says,
this is love,
not that we love God,
but that he loved us
and sent his son
to be a propitiation
for our sins,
to put away God's proper wrath
at the things that we've done
that are wrong.
And when we understand
that in Christ,
we're poor,
but he makes us rich.
When we understand
that in Christ,
he came to serve
and lead me into freedom,
and he's the one who paid
so that I could be free.
When we understand
that he's the one
who turned aside God's wrath,
and it's all about
so I can dwell
and know his love,
this becomes a firm
and solid place
where I can say,
God,
forgive me for the ways
that I mistake my happiness
for other people's happiness.
Forgive, Father,
the ways that I impose
my senses of justice,
which is really a type
of injustice on others.
Thank you, Father,
that you are different from me.
Help me, Father,
to grow in the fear of God,
that I might know
that you are God
and that I am not,
and that this difference is good,
and that I might delight in you,
and I never want
to transgress on that.
The grace of Christ,
him crucified,
provides this basis,
and when we walk
in this fear of God
because of the grace of Christ,
it will make us hate oppression.
It will form us to care
for the weak
and the disadvantaged.
It will form us
to be content,
still have ambition,
but not have money
and power rule us,
and to be content
and be willing
to have less
so that others
can be blessed,
and actually consciously
give of our resources
to bless others.
Friends,
I hope you want
the fear of God.
I hope you want
to know Christ.
The love of Christ
in the cross
changes everything.
Please stand.
If you could put
the final point up,
Claire,
that would be good.
The final point
was the first point.
Father,
please make the person
of Jesus'
completed work
and his words
ever more precious
to my heart
so that in the power
of the Holy Spirit
I will walk free
in the fear of God.
I invite you to pray
this prayer with me now,
and then I'll just pray
a short blessing.
And by the way,
if you're watching this online,
if you have not given
yourself to Christ,
this is your conversion prayer.
This would be how
you give your life
to Christ.
Pray this prayer
as your prayer
of conversion.
And for all of us
who are in Christ,
this is a prayer
of sanctification.
Please join me
in praying together.
All,
Father,
please make
the person
of Jesus,
his completed work,
and his words
ever more precious
to my heart
so that in the power
of the Holy Spirit
I will walk free
in the fear of God.
Father,
seal these words
and this prayer
into our hearts
that we might live them.
And we ask this
in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Please take a posture
of prayer
as we enter
into a time
of...
Oh,
I guess,
no,
there isn't intercession
right now.
There's announcements.
Actually,
you know what?
Let's just bow our heads
for a couple of moments
of prayer,
just extemporaneous.
prayer.
Let's pray.
Father,
we commend
into your hands
for our tribe,
our denomination,
the Anglican Network
in Canada.
Father,
we commend
into your hands
the discernment process
underway
as to who should be
our next assistant bishop.
And Lord,
we ask that you
would have mercy on us
and that you would
raise up a man
who's a godly,
wise,
courageous,
servant leader
who walks
in the fear of God.
That that's the man
that you would raise
for us
and help us
to recognize
who you would
have us be
as our assistant bishop.
And we ask this
in the name of Jesus.
We also remember,
Father,
those that are struggling
with mental illness,
those who are struggling
with unemployment
or underemployment,
those who are struggling
with food security
in many parts
of the world.
Father,
we commend them
into your hands
and we ask that you
help us to know
how you would have
us as individuals
or as a church
make a godly difference.
We especially commend
into your hands
the missionaries
that we support
in Angola,
directly involved
with medical care
of the poor.
We commend
into your hands
the missionaries
we support
in Colombia,
directly dealing
with the social
and other needs
of the refugees
from Venezuela.
we commend
into your hands
our churches
here in Ottawa
that partner
with churches
in Guatemala
to make a difference
in the lives
of children
and families
for their good
and for the glory
of Jesus.
And Father,
we commend these
endeavors
into your hands.
We ask this
in Jesus' name.
We lift before you
those who are sick
in particular,
Father,
we think of Bishop Charlie
and his journey
with cancer.
We ask that you
heal him body
and soul,
comfort and strength
in him,
and we lift before you
others that we know
are struggling
with sickness.
And we commend
into your hands,
Lord,
our other congregation
in Messiah West,
the church plant
that we're encouraging
in Charlottetown.
We encourage before you
Dave Dauber
and Brockville
and his hope
and belief
that there's a church
to be planted there
for Matthew
in Thunder Bay,
for Aaron in Seoul,
South Korea,
Father,
we commend them
into your hands.
We ask,
Father,
that them with us,
that you would
reform us by the Bible,
you would revive us
by the Holy Spirit,
that you would use us
in evangelism
and in making a difference
for the name of Jesus.
And we ask this
in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Just a couple
of announcements.
Shannon's going to come up
right now
to make a main announcement.
just as she's making
her way here.
When it comes time
for communion,
the red is wine,
the light-colored
is grape juice.
Please remember
the financial needs
of the church
and please pray for us
that we will be
a congregation
after God's heart.
And actually,
one other thing.
This is our brother
Shashir's last Sunday
with us.
Chris,
God wasn't listening
to your prayer
that he'd get a job
here in Ottawa.
He was listening
to somebody else's prayer.
We know that you're going,
Halifax is a rich mission field.
We need people
who will make a difference
for the gospel there.
It's been such a great delight
to have you
as part of our congregation.
It's been a delight
just to slightly get
to meet your wife
and your two sons.
They would have been
wonderful here,
but they'll be wonderful
in Halifax.
And maybe just before
Shannon gets up
to make her announcement,
let's just pray
God's blessing
on Shashir and Sonia,
right?
I have that right?
And the boys.
So let's just,
in fact,
why don't we,
could you just stand,
the four of you
or one of you,
whoever wants to stand,
we're just going to pray
God's blessing on them.
Let's pray.
Father,
it is so good
that we have brothers
and sisters in Christ
around the world,
including India.
And Father,
we give you thanks
and praise
that you led Shashir
to come to Canada
to have a new life,
hopefully a better life
for his wife,
Sonia,
and the two boys.
More opportunities.
And Father,
we thank you
for bringing him here
to get a master's,
for providing with him
this good job in Halifax.
Father,
we are sad
that we are losing him,
but we are happy
that you have provided
a good job for him,
for his gifts
and his skills.
I ask,
Father,
that your Holy Spirit
would bless him
and his wife
and his two sons,
help them to thrive
in Jesus,
thrive physically
and spiritually
in Jesus,
that you would
just be with them
as they sort out
accommodation
and adjust to a new job.
May you bless them thoroughly
and may you lead them
to a good church
in Halifax.
And Father,
we ask all these things
in Jesus' name.
Amen.