Let's pray.
God, as you led me in my preparation,
would you take the reins now and speak through me?
Would your Holy Spirit have its way in this service?
And would your will be done?
And at the end of it, would you be glorified?
Amen.
Longer than I can remember,
people have said to me,
don't judge a book by its cover.
Yet when you walk through a bookstore like Borders
or if there's a bookstore left in your neighbourhood,
how frequently you don't get past the cover
when you're trying to decide which book you're going to buy.
Every book is literally covered in things
designed to entice us to purchase.
There's reviews, there's decoration and art,
a short blurb, even a sticker
indicating that it's one of Oprah's favourite things.
All of these parts of the cover
very much drew us to judge the book,
yet still we preach the proverb,
don't judge a book by its cover.
Similarly, when we choose a piece of fruit
or vegetables at the supermarket
or at the farmer's market if you're cool,
we are naturally drawn to better looking pieces of fruit, yeah?
The ones that have symmetry,
the ones that don't have any blemishes
and there's lots and lots of colour.
Even though the funny looking one
that you probably grew yourself
has just as much nutritional content
and just as much flavour.
Still we say, don't judge a book by its cover.
Let me posture this idea.
What we see compels us to choose.
I'm going to say that again
because I'm trying to make a point.
What we see compels us to choose.
I was recently standing,
enjoying the last of the summer fruit,
picking myself out a couple of peaches.
I had this grand scheme of taking the wife
to the beach for a peach.
It's a cheap, simple date.
Boys, I don't have a patent on it.
You can use that.
Go for it.
A peach at the beach.
It's good value.
As I was trying to choose the best peach
from the selection,
a lady who was a little older than myself
decided she wanted to stand between me and the peaches.
She wanted to sidle in sideways.
Problem was,
there's about six inches between me
and the peach display, yeah?
I had to get out of her way
and I was quite excited to go
and tell Tanya the story of this lady
just having to squeeze in
to get to the peaches first.
I couldn't stop her.
The peaches were very compelling.
They were very good looking.
And as I said earlier,
what we see compels us to choose.
Sadly, I was not compelled to befriend this lady.
Yeah?
Instead, I just quickly went and told Tanya,
you won't believe what just happened at the peaches
and pointed the lady out.
Good or bad,
what we see compels us to choose.
I grew up on a small farm
about 30 minutes south of Dubbo.
Everybody say Dubbo.
Good.
Just checking.
I had an amazing childhood.
I have two older brothers
who are very musical
and a little sister
who was different
for all sorts of non-tonka truck
girly playing reasons.
Right?
I sold my cows
and I moved to Sydney
the day after my final HSC exam,
taking on the apprenticeship
as a cabin maker in Bankstown.
I wanted to live in this mystical land
my brothers had told me about
called Castle Hill.
Even though I understand now,
geographically,
they're very far apart,
from a country boy,
I thought I'd just live in Castle Hill
and commute to Bankstown every day.
And I did for four years.
This magical place,
Castle Hill,
was a mystical land
my brothers had told me about,
filled with big adventures
and pretty girls
and big houses
and all those sorts of things
a 17-year-old boy
leaving home
wants to experience.
I was there,
I wish I was there
for a more spiritual explanation,
although in hindsight,
I see God's hand
weaving a path
through my life,
which included leading me
to my wife in the hills.
Just saying that now,
though,
actually is quite funny.
It makes me laugh out loud.
Being a country boy,
you don't have the faintest idea
beyond school
or beyond my barbed-wired imagination
that I was very quickly
out of my league
once I arrived in Sydney
and I quickly started to miss home.
I even drove home for weekends
with boots full of fireworks,
things you can buy in Bankstown,
whenever I could afford.
As much as I enjoyed
the adventure of living in Sydney,
I felt as if it was living
in somewhere very unfamiliar
and for the first time ever
in my life,
I felt like I was in exile.
And maybe you felt
something similar.
Maybe you've worked abroad.
Maybe you've studied abroad.
Maybe you've taken a contract
away from loved ones.
The whole time,
you just can't wait
to come home, yeah?
In the first of today's scriptures,
the author speaks
to a people in foreign lands
longing for home,
longing for their promised land.
Except instead of mentoring
through the steps
to urgently return home,
they do something else.
Gordon Fee puts it,
the book of Jeremiah
is a collection of oracles,
mostly poetry,
mostly against Judah and Jerusalem.
This is a crazy time
for Judah and Jerusalem.
And there isn't a time
for a full history lesson
or a mansplaining.
But Jeremiah and,
but Jerusalem and Judah
found themselves
a soccer ball
between Egypt and Babylon.
As the both of them
were jockeying
for the possession
of all the lands
along the Mediterranean there.
Jeremiah 29
is written shortly after
as the scripture gave us
the context
in the first section.
Nebuchadnezzar just brought
an end to the three-month reign
of Jehoiakim
and carried off
the people to exile.
Jehoiakim was one
we didn't spend much time on
in Sunday school, right?
I think he was in
the flannel board collection
of characters.
Jehoiakim was only there
for three months
as the ruler.
What's really interesting
is that the exiles
long for home.
And Jeremiah speaks
in this instance
of God's pro-exile stance.
Spoiler alert,
the pro-exile bit
is contrary
to a couple of prophets
from the earlier chapter
who died.
Double spoiler alert.
Jeremiah comes out
very strong in verse 4.
Let me read for you.
This is what the Lord Almighty,
the God of Israel,
says to all those
I carried into exile
from Jerusalem to Babylon.
Build houses
and settle down.
Plant gardens
and eat what they produce.
Marry and have
sons and daughters.
Find wives for your sons.
Give your daughters
in marriage
so that they too
may have sons and daughters.
Increase in number there.
Do not decrease.
Also,
seek the peace
and prosperity
of the city
to which I have carried
you into exile.
Pray to the Lord
for it
because if it prospers,
you too
will prosper.
God carries them
into exile.
I love that.
God carries them.
On the eve of a federal election
here in Australia,
Facebook news feeds
are being filled
with many Christian friends
of mine
crying at the death
of our Christian governance
and laws.
Does it scare you
that God could carry us
as a nation
into exile?
Into a country
that could be different
to what you grew up in?
I actually get excited
and draw hope
from the practical application
of verse 7.
Seek peace
and prosperity
for where God
has carried you.
Pray to the Lord
for it
because if your city
prospers,
you too
will prosper.
As Streetwork,
we work
to help young people
turn their life around.
We do whatever
it takes.
Whatever it takes,
we'll do it.
A recent review
of the work
we do at Streetwork
by PwC,
if you're cool,
but Price Waterhouse
and Coopers,
if you don't know
who PwC is,
show that the work
we did in that one year
here in the North Shore
of Sydney,
mostly Chatswood,
saved the local community
just over $8 million.
And we did that
on a shoestring budget.
Youth Week
is cheap.
I'm regularly reminded
when I open
my bank balance.
We see young people
starting on the
trajectory of life
of crime
transform into
contributing members
of the community.
It's a really
rewarding job,
but it's also
a living testimony
of how
seeking for peace
and prosperity
in your local area
brings prosperity
for all the community.
I've moved
by the ongoing support
of so many
in the community,
many of whom
aren't even church people.
They're just motivated
to see this community
prosper.
Also,
I think the idea
of exile
can be strangely
foreign to us
as many of you
will have grown up
here in the North Shore,
lived your entire life
here in the local area.
Maybe you were even
here at St. Paul's
in 1980
when Peter Hobbs,
a member of this church,
birthed Street Work
with the help of
many members
of this church,
I believe.
See,
when I moved to
Castle Hill
back in 1999,
the Young Adults Ministry
was called Embassy.
I loved this so much.
I shared earlier
how much I liked,
I felt like I was
in exile moving to Sydney
from my homeland
of Dubbo,
which sounds funny
to say.
Here was a community
that acknowledged
as citizens of heaven,
we were all exiles
in a strange land.
And the Hills District
definitely qualifies
as strange lands.
But here on earth,
here in Chatswood,
was where God
had carried us.
And while our citizenship
was secured
by what Christ had done
on the cross,
our job was not yet done.
We were in exile
and it was a good thing.
Being a part of Embassy
was what got me involved
in volunteering
with young people
17 years ago now.
and it's led me
to being involved
with youth ministry
and youth work
ever since.
My experience
as a young adult
in that ministry
was one of two
defining experiences
God carried me into
in that season.
The other was
as an apprentice.
As an apprentice
cabinet maker,
I also became friends
with a guy named James.
And James was
from Lakemba.
And James,
which is a much more
sensible place
to commute from,
yeah,
to Bankstown.
James was from Lakemba
and James had
daily normal habits
the likes of which
most of us in this room
would rarely encounter.
From substance abuse,
he collected weapons,
he had an inappropriate
expertise
in hydroponics
and what I can only
describe as a genuine
sex addiction.
James was the polar
opposite of my upbringing
and my church world
and we strangely ended up
the best of friends.
James used to steal my phone
on lunch breaks
and he would call
the girls from my church
that I liked.
He would ask them
why we hadn't had sex
and if I was gay.
Stuff that probably
shocked them
and if I'd been able
to stop him,
I would have.
But they were genuine
questions he couldn't
make sense of
because of how different
our lives were.
I think my world
was as confusing to James
as James was to me.
I even brought him
to church once
and he genuinely
was too afraid
to come in.
He sat in the car,
both of us sat in the car
while he smoked
some cigarettes
and we listened
to the singing inside.
Later that night,
James rang me
and said,
Tim,
can you go back
to church
and light a candle
for me?
I said,
James,
you should have
come in,
mate.
It's really not
that kind of church.
I still haven't
had the privilege
of introducing
James to Jesus.
We talk regularly
over Facebook
when we don't
see each other.
I know he's
going to meet Jesus.
He's been looking
for him
but he's still
not ready to let go
of some of those
things that hold
him back
even though
he knows
they heard him.
It was great
being carried
into exile
into a place
like that
and meeting
someone like
James.
For a good
little church
boy like me,
James was
unique but
the reality
is,
our city
is full
of Jameses.
I pastored
with Tanya
here in Chatswood
for many years.
I was a youth
pastor.
Tanya was the
worship pastor
at a church
the other side
closer to Willoughby
and we worked
on the same
streets I now
work on as a
youth worker
except now
the cafes
that I always
used to have
my pastoral
meetings in,
I know the
kids that deal
drugs in them.
Sometimes they're
armed.
Apparently they'd
always been there.
They'd been there
for years and years
and years but I
just didn't
recognize them
before when I
was busy with
my flock and
my songs and
my sermons.
They were
invisible to me.
Please don't
think that's a
cheap shot at
clergy either.
Each has our
crucial role in
this God-ordained
exile, yeah?
Clergy and you.
My point is that
on the North Shore
we don't think we
have a problem.
We don't talk
about it.
Our leading
politicians are
from here and
we don't know
why our issues
are invisible.
I keep dragging
out crazy
conspiracy theories
about house
prices and
things and why
we don't talk
about our
problems.
Here in
Chatswood we
have some of
the highest
incidents of
shoplifting,
drug use and
sexually transmitted
diseases among
young people per
capita in the
entire country.
We think those
problems are out
west or in
Dubbo, right?
Not only are we
seemingly unaware
but when preparing
this sermon I
spent ages praying
about whether it
was even
appropriate to
share this with
you from the
pulpit.
Would it be a
cool thing to
tweet and go
back to normal
or is it
something that
might touch a
nerve and call
you to action?
Some of you
might be
interested to know
that within 500
metres of the
train station in
Chatswood there
are 16 illegal
brothels.
Does that
terrify you?
That's a stone's
throw from here
literally.
Thankfully Jesus
calls us not
just share the
BuzzFeed article
about him but
into action and
doing something.
In today's second
scripture from
Matthew 5, you
are the salt of
the earth but if
that salt loses
its saltiness how
can it be made
salty again?
It is no longer
good for anything
except to be
thrown out and
trampled underfoot.
How good is salt?
Tanya and I
lived nearly
three years in
exile in
Southern California.
The whole time
we took Australian
salt with us.
You can laugh at
that because it's
funny that we did.
They have every
kind of salt you
can imagine there.
In fact the
supermarket had a
whole aisle of
salt and
variations of salt
but we liked
this pink
Australian salt
which I can't
even remember
the name of.
Yeah, the Murray
River salt and
it's complicated but
it was our little
bit of home and
dinner every night
while we were in
exile.
Good salt,
there's nothing
better than it.
Salt comes in
different shapes,
sizes, different
colours, different
origins, textures,
you name it, it
exists, you can
find it.
The important
character of salt
that defines it as
good salt though is
its saltiness,
yeah?
Salt's ability to
taste salty.
Added to a soup,
it goes from bland
to I need more of
that, you know.
Tanya likes to
sprinkle it on top
of her cheese on
toast which turns a
lazy dinner into oh
my gosh can I
have more of
that, it's
delicious.
Good salt has
that effect.
Jesus continues in
514,
you are the light
of the world,
a town built on
a hill cannot be
hidden, neither do
people light a lamp
and put it under a
bowl, instead they
put it on its stand
and it gives light to
everyone in the
house.
In the same way
let your light shine
before others that
they may see your
good deeds and
glorify your
father in heaven.
I'm going to be
really honest with
you here, when I
read this I don't
see a call for me
Tim to go and
enroll in apologetics
class.
You might and
that's good if you
hear that, go do
that.
I see a call to go
do something salty,
something seen,
something that
glorifies our
father in heaven.
I think in 17
years of youth
ministry I'm now
full of stories of
young people I've
been blessed to
introduce to Jesus.
Ironically, I was
recently going over
my transcript from
my Bachelor of
Theology and I
failed apologetics
the first time
around.
I'm terrible at
it, the theory,
but I'm sorting
that out at the
moment, second
time around.
Right back at the
start of this
sermon I talked
about books and
fruit and veggies
and I postured this
point, what we see
compels us to
choose, yeah?
But let me add,
what they see out
there will compel
them to choose.
I think if you're
prepared to embrace
that we're living in a
post-Christian society,
you can then also
embrace that this is an
exciting time for the
church in this
country.
We shouldn't be
crying that it's
harder to get a
table at a cafe on a
Sunday morning than a
pew in a church.
We should be excited to
actually face that
challenge and do
something about it,
yeah?
See, I believe
loving God and
loving others is
things we have to
do.
They're verbs,
doing words.
That's how I was
brought up in
Dubbo in primary
school, right?
A verb is a
doing word.
We need to be
salty.
We need to go and
do salty, yeah?
Like salt is salty,
we need to be
loving, we need to
be seen.
that what we do
may glorify he who
is worthy of all
glory.
And what they see
will compel them to
choose.
You can have an
impact on what they
see.
You don't need to
wait for church to
present you with an
opportunity to do
something.
You just have to do
something.
One thing you could
do is to come and be
a part of what we're
doing at Street
Work, particularly if
you failed apologetics
class like me.
And we need people
to sit in prison
cells with young
people that have
just been arrested.
We need mentors for
young people that are
doing it tough.
I really need people
who are happy just to
turn sausages on a
barbecue.
You don't have to do
everything.
In fact, if the
recent movie is any
indication, Superman
really are unhelpful.
We just have to do
something.
Something salty.
If you want to talk
more about it, let's
come back this
afternoon at 3.30 and
Hugh and I are going
to talk to you about
that.
I also ask that you
would pray for us at
Street Work, as we
did this morning.
Hold us on your
prayers.
We regularly
encounter dangerous
situations.
Yeah?
My staff, I'm the
manager.
My staff are really
skilled, but we
frequently have weapons
and things involved in
what we're doing.
And please hold them
up in your prayers.
As I come to a
conclusion with this
short message, I
actually want to sing
a song.
And then I want to
give the microphone
back to Steve.
this is a song that we
sung in my youth
ministry in Southern
California while I was
in exile there, while
Tanya was doing her
PhD.
And this song is about
this very topic.
And it's a song we used
to sing in worship.
And God used to do
something in the youth
ministry when we sang
this together.
Now, you don't know it,
so I'm sorry.
If you do know it,
please sing with us.
My prayer for you today
is that this song will
have a similar impact
in you.
That on Pentecost
Sunday, the Holy
Spirit will touch you
in a way that inspires
you to do something
salty.
Do something.
And what they see will
compel them to choose.
after serious
the time
is
that
the
who
heard
them
ano
myths
the
clip
fall
or
nad
Heute
little
month
cado
�