WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.200 Okay, so we're not looking at Romans today. 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:10.500 So I very quickly adapted something that I was going to initially be speaking at this 00:00:10.500 --> 00:00:15.839 weekend down in Chelmsford, which was a church conference. 00:00:15.839 --> 00:00:20.600 And they asked me, one of the things I asked me to do was to speak on the subject of keeping 00:00:20.600 --> 00:00:23.719 fresh and faithful in the ministry. 00:00:23.719 --> 00:00:27.000 I was just saying that he's been a minister for a long time. 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:28.000 He's an old guy. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:29.600 He's a punt of lots of wisdom. 00:00:29.600 --> 00:00:34.200 So it was going to be a very short talk. 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:38.480 So I just looked at this morning and slightly adapted it. 00:00:38.480 --> 00:00:46.520 So you'll bear in mind that it was originally to be presented to a group of elders and ministers. 00:00:46.520 --> 00:00:50.000 And it's not really a sermon as such, okay? 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:52.000 But you're forgiving. 00:00:52.000 --> 00:00:55.920 And you will forgive me today because it was a very short notice. 00:00:55.920 --> 00:01:00.719 And I believe the principles that are involved are really applicable, absolutely to us all. 00:01:00.719 --> 00:01:02.600 We all need to keep fresh, don't we? 00:01:02.600 --> 00:01:03.600 We all need to keep faithful. 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:08.560 I just want to read a few words again from Hebrews, this time from Hebrews chapter 10 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:09.560 and verse 19. 00:01:09.560 --> 00:01:15.359 I'm not going to preach on this, but it's just applicable, I think, for us. 00:01:15.359 --> 00:01:20.879 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:24.719 by the new and living way that is open to us through the curtain, that is through his 00:01:24.719 --> 00:01:25.879 flesh. 00:01:25.879 --> 00:01:29.599 And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a 00:01:29.599 --> 00:01:35.039 true heart and full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience 00:01:35.039 --> 00:01:37.079 and our bodies washed with pure water. 00:01:37.079 --> 00:01:42.759 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised 00:01:42.759 --> 00:01:43.759 is faithful. 00:01:43.759 --> 00:01:49.120 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to 00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:53.919 meet together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all the more, as 00:01:53.919 --> 00:01:55.599 you see the day drawing near. 00:01:55.599 --> 00:02:01.079 So it's kind of relevant to that passage and what I say is some of it, at least, will 00:02:01.079 --> 00:02:03.719 be included in that. 00:02:03.719 --> 00:02:07.759 So what I have to say is based on retrospective learning, mainly. 00:02:07.759 --> 00:02:12.519 So you look back at your life, you look back at your life just under 30 years of ministry 00:02:12.519 --> 00:02:16.240 or Christian life or more in terms of Christian life. 00:02:16.240 --> 00:02:21.000 And we kind of learn a lot of the time, don't we, retrospectively. 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:22.599 We look back at all the mistakes we've made. 00:02:22.599 --> 00:02:26.319 And we say, well, if I'd done that differently, or if I'd thought differently here, and if 00:02:26.319 --> 00:02:31.479 I'd acted differently, and God in His grace enables us to learn retrospectively. 00:02:31.479 --> 00:02:33.439 And so it's great, but it is great. 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:35.159 We don't need to learn retrospectively. 00:02:35.159 --> 00:02:40.799 We can learn front end, and that's good, obviously, and more important. 00:02:40.799 --> 00:02:45.159 We all need to be kept fresh, don't we, and we all need to be faithful. 00:02:45.159 --> 00:02:50.519 And maybe in the light of new elders that we're making shortly, it's important to remember 00:02:50.520 --> 00:02:55.320 that as leaders and also for all of us. 00:02:55.320 --> 00:02:56.320 We're always fighting. 00:02:56.320 --> 00:02:58.520 We're always fighting to remain stale. 00:02:58.520 --> 00:03:00.520 To remain stale. 00:03:00.520 --> 00:03:02.200 Okay, okay, keep forgiving. 00:03:02.200 --> 00:03:07.760 To remain faithful and not become stale in our Christian lives. 00:03:07.760 --> 00:03:10.400 Now I want very briefly to define what I mean by faithfulness. 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:14.560 You need to be, and I need to be very careful in defining faithfulness. 00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:19.520 Because when I'm speaking about faithfulness, I'm not speaking about our faithfulness in 00:03:19.520 --> 00:03:21.760 comparison with other people. 00:03:21.760 --> 00:03:24.520 You know, oh, I'm faithful. 00:03:24.520 --> 00:03:26.240 There may be not. 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:30.120 But it's in relation to our own heart, and our relationship with God. 00:03:30.120 --> 00:03:35.520 I'm talking about us being faithful towards God, because very often what we compare ourselves 00:03:35.520 --> 00:03:37.120 to others and say, oh, I'm doing pretty well. 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:40.360 I'm pretty faithful compared with other people. 00:03:40.360 --> 00:03:46.760 But I'm not interested in that, and we need to be very careful in making that definition 00:03:46.760 --> 00:03:47.920 of faithfulness. 00:03:47.919 --> 00:03:51.879 I'm not going to focus on some of the very obvious things. 00:03:51.879 --> 00:03:56.599 I'll maybe mention some of the more obvious things in the ones that may be less obvious. 00:03:56.599 --> 00:03:58.000 So here we are. 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:02.479 Some of the things that I think we need to work at in order to remain fresh and faithful. 00:04:02.479 --> 00:04:06.199 The first thing is, it's really important, and it's the first text that I have, is to 00:04:06.199 --> 00:04:08.399 work on humility. 00:04:08.399 --> 00:04:14.279 Proverbs 11, chapter 2, when pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom. 00:04:14.280 --> 00:04:19.560 Now, this is my main point, okay, is the importance of working at humility. 00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:24.360 Much of what I'm going to say is subsumed under this title of working at humility. 00:04:24.360 --> 00:04:29.879 Now, interestingly, you can't manufacture it. 00:04:29.879 --> 00:04:32.759 You can't say, well, I'm going to be humble today. 00:04:32.759 --> 00:04:38.600 You just can't manufacture humility, and that's where the spiritual disciplines come in. 00:04:38.600 --> 00:04:42.399 That's where our connection with God in a daily basis comes in. 00:04:42.399 --> 00:04:46.599 And I only want to focus on one thing on the spiritual disciplines, that is Bible reading 00:04:46.599 --> 00:04:51.639 and prayer and church and Bible studying, all these things. 00:04:51.639 --> 00:05:00.639 I'm going to say, let the light of His grace shine into the darkness of your own heart. 00:05:00.639 --> 00:05:01.919 That's the main thing. 00:05:01.919 --> 00:05:08.919 If you can allow the light of His grace into the places of your heart that are very dark, 00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:14.640 then you will understand grace for what it is, and you will be grateful to breathe every 00:05:14.640 --> 00:05:20.840 day, and you will recognize how much you owe, and you'll see how undeserving you are. 00:05:20.840 --> 00:05:26.680 It's a great thing to take the discipline, spiritual disciplines, and not say, I'm going 00:05:26.680 --> 00:05:33.639 to be good to have read today and prayed, and God must be very happy with me, but rather 00:05:33.639 --> 00:05:39.719 allow these disciplines, the light of His grace to shine in the horrible, ugly, dark 00:05:39.719 --> 00:05:47.000 places that you're afraid even to go yourself, because it will help you understand how much 00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:53.680 you've been forgiven and how great His grace is to you that He still loves you and cares 00:05:53.680 --> 00:05:54.680 for you. 00:05:54.680 --> 00:05:59.439 And I recognize that it's the only place that the preacher can be as we rely on the Holy 00:05:59.439 --> 00:06:05.839 Spirit, and in our lives also that we rely constantly on His grace to enable us to live 00:06:05.839 --> 00:06:11.000 the kind of life we need to live, and not on our own ability, not on our comparisons 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:16.040 with other people, righteous comparisons, comparisons of righteousness with other people, 00:06:16.040 --> 00:06:20.439 or how well and faithful we may be doing. 00:06:20.439 --> 00:06:21.959 So work at humility. 00:06:21.959 --> 00:06:23.839 Something we can't manufacture. 00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:28.759 It comes as we allow God to deal with us. 00:06:28.759 --> 00:06:31.719 It's a byproduct in many ways. 00:06:31.719 --> 00:06:33.959 Enables us to be not that important. 00:06:33.959 --> 00:06:42.039 Remember, I'm speaking to preachers and elders, and that's one of our tendencies to think we're 00:06:42.039 --> 00:06:44.560 very important. 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:50.279 And we're not that important, because true grace enables us to see that we have great 00:06:50.279 --> 00:06:57.680 power at our disposal and great significance in our lives and our calling, but paradoxically 00:06:57.680 --> 00:07:00.680 it enables us to be self-forgetful. 00:07:00.680 --> 00:07:02.280 And that's true for all of us in our lives. 00:07:02.280 --> 00:07:05.079 We're servants of Christ and of other people. 00:07:05.079 --> 00:07:06.840 We're not big shots. 00:07:06.840 --> 00:07:08.680 We're not big shots as Christians. 00:07:08.680 --> 00:07:13.240 We might be big shots in the business that we live, that we work in, or the academy, 00:07:13.240 --> 00:07:19.040 or in anything else, but under Christ we're all one, we're together, and we can be servants 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:25.399 of one another, and we can do the menial things because we do them to God's glory, and because 00:07:25.399 --> 00:07:30.839 it doesn't really matter that we're given important tasks in our Christian lives. 00:07:30.839 --> 00:07:37.919 We recognize and we see, and we know that giving the cup of cold water is what Jesus recognizes. 00:07:37.919 --> 00:07:40.479 That's what He sees, and He loves that. 00:07:40.479 --> 00:07:44.199 That's a great release for us, and it's a great release in our lives. 00:07:44.199 --> 00:07:46.879 We're really not that important. 00:07:46.879 --> 00:07:52.199 So you will go tomorrow, do your best as a Christian with God's help and God's wisdom 00:07:52.199 --> 00:07:55.639 and the dependence on Him, with a good motive. 00:07:55.639 --> 00:07:58.120 You don't need to be the best at everything. 00:07:58.120 --> 00:08:08.360 We don't need to be magnificent and the best in every field of our lives, but simply do 00:08:08.360 --> 00:08:11.680 what we do. 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:16.199 One of my lecturers a long time ago in the Free Church College said to me, if it's worth 00:08:16.199 --> 00:08:20.159 doing, it's worth doing badly. 00:08:20.159 --> 00:08:21.159 Think about that. 00:08:21.160 --> 00:08:23.320 I think I know what He meant. 00:08:23.320 --> 00:08:30.320 I don't think He meant that do things badly, but I think He meant just do things, serve. 00:08:30.320 --> 00:08:31.320 God will give you the grace. 00:08:31.320 --> 00:08:34.879 Well, I think that's what He meant anyway. 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:38.600 But it's so easy to have a Messiah complex, isn't it, as a Christian, and particularly 00:08:38.600 --> 00:08:39.600 as leaders. 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:43.240 Oh, everyone needs me so much. 00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:48.960 We rethrone ourselves, whether it be in terms of leadership or in any other area of our 00:08:48.960 --> 00:08:55.000 lives, and we regard ourselves, even in a church context, as so important that we believe 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:59.800 the lie that it's all up to me and my gifts and my abilities. 00:08:59.800 --> 00:09:01.080 God becomes a sideshow. 00:09:01.080 --> 00:09:07.519 He can't possibly do things without my help, but it's enslaving, and we make very bad 00:09:07.519 --> 00:09:08.519 gods. 00:09:08.519 --> 00:09:10.200 We're poor gods. 00:09:10.200 --> 00:09:12.600 God is a good God, and He makes a good God. 00:09:12.600 --> 00:09:13.600 We're not good gods. 00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:18.360 So humility is very important because it reminds us we're not that important. 00:09:18.360 --> 00:09:24.120 And also, and kind of parallel to this, keeps us from taking ourselves too seriously. 00:09:24.120 --> 00:09:25.120 And that's important. 00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:28.840 And God has given us a sense of humor. 00:09:28.840 --> 00:09:31.200 It's a great thing. 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:37.120 Just look in the mirror sometimes and have a bit of a laugh at yourself, and stop being 00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:41.800 so hypersensitive that everyone is out to get us. 00:09:41.800 --> 00:09:43.639 We are being treated badly. 00:09:43.639 --> 00:09:49.080 Just have a laugh sometimes at ourselves and about our lives, recognize that life will 00:09:49.080 --> 00:09:52.919 go on without us as soon, maybe sooner than later. 00:09:52.919 --> 00:09:54.439 And God can cope. 00:09:54.439 --> 00:09:59.360 And when we receive criticism, and leaders receive a lot of criticism, and so maybe do 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:04.679 congregations and people in their lives, whether it be in the workplace or in the church, don't 00:10:04.679 --> 00:10:05.679 be broken by it. 00:10:05.679 --> 00:10:11.159 It's not an excuse to be critical from others to be critical, but recognize that that will 00:10:11.159 --> 00:10:16.600 be life for us, and if we don't take ourselves so seriously, we can cope with that. 00:10:16.600 --> 00:10:22.000 There's usually, even in the most severe criticism, a grain of truth somewhere. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:23.000 Look for it. 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:27.399 Find out what might be there that we might to deal with in our own heart that others 00:10:27.399 --> 00:10:28.399 might find critical. 00:10:28.399 --> 00:10:33.480 But don't be precious as we are humbly under. 00:10:33.480 --> 00:10:39.799 Grace is a great humbling reality and enables us to keep repenting and turning to God and 00:10:39.799 --> 00:10:42.719 finding our identity in Him. 00:10:42.719 --> 00:10:44.319 And it also keeps us learning. 00:10:44.319 --> 00:10:46.120 We're disciples. 00:10:46.120 --> 00:10:48.319 We're always disciples. 00:10:48.319 --> 00:10:56.120 You know, and I think of when I came to Edinburgh 17 years ago, I knew nothing about city center 00:10:56.120 --> 00:11:00.479 ministry, and you may be looking at me saying, well, you still don't know very much about 00:11:00.479 --> 00:11:07.319 city center ministry, but I felt I've learned so much, things I never dreamed that I could 00:11:07.320 --> 00:11:15.320 learn, and we've seen changes I could never have imagined in terms of the church and growth 00:11:15.320 --> 00:11:22.280 and church planting, and it's good sometimes to admit our ignorance and to just cry out 00:11:22.280 --> 00:11:27.320 for help and guidance and for God to lead us in the way He leads us. 00:11:27.320 --> 00:11:32.920 So that's my main, most important thing, working at humility, and we all need to do that. 00:11:32.920 --> 00:11:33.920 It's the absolute care. 00:11:33.920 --> 00:11:35.640 It's the core of grace. 00:11:35.639 --> 00:11:41.960 It's the core of understanding our Christian life and walk, and if we are proud, it will 00:11:41.960 --> 00:11:46.519 just cause us no end of trouble in our Christian lives. 00:11:46.519 --> 00:11:52.199 So humility, also work, and I guess they're all kind of related, work at honesty. 00:11:52.199 --> 00:11:56.199 One Corinthians 2 verse 3, Paul says, I was with you. 00:11:56.199 --> 00:12:03.159 This is the great apostle Paul, in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. 00:12:03.159 --> 00:12:09.679 I think our leadership and our Christian lives should involve vulnerability. 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:13.199 Paul was willing to confess that he comes to them in fear and in much trembling. 00:12:13.199 --> 00:12:14.679 Can you imagine that? 00:12:14.679 --> 00:12:23.919 Can you imagine a leadership seminar today giving that kind of advice or that encouragement, 00:12:23.919 --> 00:12:29.879 but there is a great sense in which we become vulnerable before our fellow Christians and 00:12:29.879 --> 00:12:37.720 in leadership, not in a kind of vulnerable way, if you know what I mean, because it's 00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:42.519 a vulnerability that's based on the strength of our relationship with God. 00:12:42.519 --> 00:12:50.720 People need to see in our daily Christian lives and among the leadership that we struggle, 00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:52.000 that there's a battle going on. 00:12:52.000 --> 00:12:53.120 Now, that's a balance. 00:12:53.120 --> 00:12:57.759 You can't always be saying either in leadership or in your life that everything's a battle 00:12:57.759 --> 00:13:01.840 and a struggle and failing and feeling vulnerable all the time, but there's that balance where 00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:09.240 we recognize, you know, how many people have you heard saying maybe to you, oh, I didn't 00:13:09.240 --> 00:13:15.080 know you had any struggles in your Christian life, or I could give you hundreds of examples 00:13:15.080 --> 00:13:17.960 of people who have said to me, yeah, but that doesn't apply to you. 00:13:17.960 --> 00:13:19.799 You're a minister. 00:13:19.799 --> 00:13:20.799 You understand. 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:25.039 All these, you don't have any battles or struggles, if only people knew, because we 00:13:25.039 --> 00:13:29.759 so often just want to give the impression that everything's well, everything's good. 00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:31.159 I've got it all sussed. 00:13:31.159 --> 00:13:32.480 I have no problems. 00:13:32.480 --> 00:13:38.839 And yet there must be that vulnerability as there was with Paul, because it's honest. 00:13:38.839 --> 00:13:40.399 It's hugely honest. 00:13:40.399 --> 00:13:47.279 And your life will be the most powerful sermon that people will ever hear, and that will 00:13:47.279 --> 00:13:52.480 include your ability to say you're vulnerable and you're failed and you're fallen, but 00:13:52.480 --> 00:13:59.279 you've gone back to the living God to be forgiven and renewed and refreshed and redeemed. 00:13:59.279 --> 00:14:03.800 And that's tremendously significant. 00:14:03.800 --> 00:14:05.279 Work it honesty. 00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:09.879 Work it honesty in that vulnerable sense, but also in knowing what you're good at and 00:14:09.879 --> 00:14:14.840 knowing what you're bad at and not trying to do everything, so that as Christians in 00:14:14.840 --> 00:14:19.680 our lives, we accept that we delegate stuff to others who will do it better than us. 00:14:19.679 --> 00:14:23.079 Others are very bad at that. 00:14:23.079 --> 00:14:27.879 We've grown up in a model of one-man ministry, and it's difficult to break that. 00:14:27.879 --> 00:14:33.639 And yet it's hugely significant and important that God has made us all to work together 00:14:33.639 --> 00:14:39.399 as the body of Christ, and it means us knowing what we're not good at, delegating and also 00:14:39.399 --> 00:14:44.240 others willing to serve and take on board. 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:51.039 So we have strength and courage and service, but also vulnerability and honesty. 00:14:51.039 --> 00:14:57.399 If you're living your life based on living up to the expectations of others or wearing 00:14:57.399 --> 00:15:04.560 a mask of decency, it will break you. 00:15:04.560 --> 00:15:09.560 It will break you, because the Christian life is a matter of the heart. 00:15:09.560 --> 00:15:11.879 So work it honesty. 00:15:11.879 --> 00:15:15.759 And again, this is kind of similar, I'm going to cut out some bits here. 00:15:15.759 --> 00:15:19.360 Work it being yourself in your Christian life. 00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:25.240 Psalm 139, 13 and 14, it's just great, Sam, of praise about the created individual. 00:15:25.240 --> 00:15:28.559 You formed my inward parts, you knitted me together, my mother's womb. 00:15:28.559 --> 00:15:32.000 I praise you for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made, wonderfully all your works. 00:15:32.000 --> 00:15:34.000 My soul knows it full well. 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:35.000 That's you. 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:42.559 That's the individual that God has made you, and it's important to know who you are as 00:15:42.559 --> 00:15:43.799 an individual. 00:15:43.799 --> 00:15:49.279 You're not just a lump, a part of a lump of a Christian body, that all kind of are the 00:15:49.279 --> 00:15:50.320 same. 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:52.080 You are your own individual. 00:15:52.080 --> 00:15:54.480 You're not somebody else, and somebody else isn't you. 00:15:54.480 --> 00:15:59.240 Stop trying to be somebody else, and stop trying to make other people you. 00:15:59.240 --> 00:16:02.000 We've got a great habit of thinking everyone must be the same. 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:07.480 And everyone must be the same as me, usually, and yet he's made us different. 00:16:07.480 --> 00:16:11.159 Praise God for some of the different gifts he's given to other people that may not be 00:16:11.159 --> 00:16:24.399 your gifts, and don't seek to fuse everyone into one bland mass of evangelical ordinariness, 00:16:24.399 --> 00:16:26.320 because we're all different. 00:16:26.320 --> 00:16:31.759 And it's important that we're not to try and pretend to be someone else. 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:35.840 I said, I was going to say to these guys, don't be a groupie on the Reformed preacher 00:16:35.840 --> 00:16:37.840 circuit, celebrity circuit. 00:16:37.840 --> 00:16:42.039 You know, there's this great thing about, you know, preacher, and I want to be like 00:16:42.039 --> 00:16:43.039 the best. 00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:46.519 I want to be at conferences, and I want to be like Tim Keller. 00:16:46.519 --> 00:16:51.840 I was vowed I wasn't going to say Tim Keller, because it's not me that says it. 00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:52.840 It's not me. 00:16:52.840 --> 00:16:53.840 It's Corey. 00:16:53.840 --> 00:16:56.240 He's the one that's brought that American guy into the congregation. 00:16:56.240 --> 00:16:57.240 It's not me. 00:16:57.240 --> 00:16:58.240 It's Spurgeon. 00:16:58.240 --> 00:17:04.480 I said, I, whoever it happens, you know, we can't be, and as preachers we can't be other 00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:05.480 people. 00:17:05.480 --> 00:17:06.480 We have to be ourselves. 00:17:06.480 --> 00:17:09.480 I have to look at the gifts of Corey and say, he's a great theologian. 00:17:09.480 --> 00:17:10.480 He's a great preacher. 00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:13.880 He's a better preacher than me, but he's different. 00:17:13.880 --> 00:17:19.279 And he looks at the same way, and we fuse our gifts together, and there's not a clone 00:17:19.279 --> 00:17:21.720 of Christianity. 00:17:21.720 --> 00:17:24.720 And there's not a clone of being a Christian in the congregation. 00:17:24.720 --> 00:17:26.559 There's not a clone in your workplace. 00:17:26.559 --> 00:17:34.960 You know, you're an hour to be Christ-like, but in your own unique character, and that 00:17:34.960 --> 00:17:37.720 will make you the best you. 00:17:37.720 --> 00:17:45.240 When you're Christ-like and you are thankful for being you and being uniquely you, work 00:17:45.240 --> 00:17:46.240 at being yourself. 00:17:46.240 --> 00:17:49.599 Now, I was going to say something, well, at the conference, I was going to say, because 00:17:49.599 --> 00:17:51.839 it's kind of, for me, it was important, so I'll mention it. 00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:53.279 I'll just mention it. 00:17:53.279 --> 00:17:56.599 God-tribalism at all costs, you know? 00:17:56.599 --> 00:17:58.559 I think we're bad for it. 00:17:58.559 --> 00:18:02.039 We're bad for it in our Reformed and Presbyterian tradition. 00:18:02.039 --> 00:18:04.160 I belong to this group. 00:18:04.160 --> 00:18:06.039 This is my identity. 00:18:06.039 --> 00:18:07.839 Everyone else is rubbish. 00:18:07.839 --> 00:18:10.879 Now, that can happen in churches. 00:18:10.879 --> 00:18:17.839 We can be narrow and judgmental, and it's often accompanied by mean-spiritedness. 00:18:17.839 --> 00:18:19.920 They just don't understand the Bible properly. 00:18:19.920 --> 00:18:24.880 They just don't really have the teaching that we have. 00:18:24.880 --> 00:18:31.680 It's important to see the blessings and the benefits and God working in other traditions 00:18:31.680 --> 00:18:34.840 the way He clearly does, and learn from them. 00:18:34.840 --> 00:18:38.360 And maybe they will learn from us, and we will learn together. 00:18:38.360 --> 00:18:45.320 It's not about giving up our principles or all being blandly the same, and we aren't 00:18:45.320 --> 00:18:46.320 going to agree with everyone. 00:18:46.319 --> 00:18:50.240 We're not going to be Christianized, we're not going to agree with everyone either. 00:18:50.240 --> 00:18:55.000 But please remember the constituency of heaven is going to be far more diverse and varied 00:18:55.000 --> 00:18:58.799 than we would ever understand and recognize in our own. 00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:01.960 There's not going to be labels there. 00:19:01.960 --> 00:19:04.799 We will just be glad to be there, won't we? 00:19:04.799 --> 00:19:09.519 We'll be glad even if we're the furthest, as some famous preacher said. 00:19:09.519 --> 00:19:13.879 If we're just right at the back, we'll be glad that we're there, and there'll be a diversity 00:19:13.880 --> 00:19:16.480 beyond our understanding. 00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:21.120 It's great to know how much we don't know, and what I think we will find out how much 00:19:21.120 --> 00:19:24.720 we got wrong. 00:19:24.720 --> 00:19:28.240 Last couple of things. 00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:35.040 In terms of faithfulness, it's probably not related to faithfulness and freshness directly, 00:19:35.040 --> 00:19:36.040 is it? 00:19:36.040 --> 00:19:37.040 Maybe it is. 00:19:37.040 --> 00:19:41.000 But these are just some thoughts going forward. 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:45.400 They've certainly helped, and sometimes in my failure to apply them, I've recognized 00:19:45.400 --> 00:19:47.839 stillness and a lack of faithfulness. 00:19:47.839 --> 00:19:50.440 So last two things, be human. 00:19:50.440 --> 00:19:53.559 And I guess they're kind of related previously. 00:19:53.559 --> 00:19:56.599 As Christians, we're body and soul, aren't we? 00:19:56.599 --> 00:20:04.559 We're not just kind of souls not inhabiting a body. 00:20:04.559 --> 00:20:06.039 Remember who we are. 00:20:06.039 --> 00:20:08.200 God is made as body and soul. 00:20:08.200 --> 00:20:14.519 So I say to all of you, work hard for Christ. 00:20:14.519 --> 00:20:16.759 Consider your motive, certainly. 00:20:16.759 --> 00:20:19.039 It's good to work hard to be exhausted for Jesus. 00:20:19.039 --> 00:20:22.440 That's fine as a Christian, to work hard in your workplace. 00:20:22.440 --> 00:20:24.039 Do your very best. 00:20:24.039 --> 00:20:28.720 Give of your best, physically, in whatever way you can. 00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:36.799 Be the best you can be as a teacher, as a lawyer, as a joiner, an electrician. 00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:41.159 It doesn't mean you will be the best, but make every effort to be the best person in 00:20:41.159 --> 00:20:42.159 that environment. 00:20:42.159 --> 00:20:47.079 And also then, when you work hard, play hard. 00:20:47.079 --> 00:20:48.919 Play hard. 00:20:48.919 --> 00:20:54.519 Enjoy life because God has given us that balance that we need to take. 00:20:54.519 --> 00:21:00.159 Stop thinking that the world will not go round if you stop working. 00:21:00.159 --> 00:21:03.119 It's not good for us to have that complex. 00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:04.639 Take time off. 00:21:04.639 --> 00:21:05.960 Take days off. 00:21:05.960 --> 00:21:08.200 Take proper holidays. 00:21:08.200 --> 00:21:13.360 Play hard, but play righteous. 00:21:13.360 --> 00:21:20.319 But do something with... You can see I'm speaking to preachers at this point, can't 00:21:20.319 --> 00:21:21.319 you? 00:21:21.319 --> 00:21:23.160 Do something mindless. 00:21:23.160 --> 00:21:29.319 On your day off, don't read Spurgeon Sermons. 00:21:29.319 --> 00:21:30.519 Do something practical. 00:21:30.519 --> 00:21:32.880 Do something fun. 00:21:32.880 --> 00:21:34.840 Laugh again. 00:21:34.839 --> 00:21:37.000 Please keep laughing. 00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:38.000 It's terrible, isn't it? 00:21:38.000 --> 00:21:39.799 The older you get, this is a rule of life. 00:21:39.799 --> 00:21:42.079 The older you get, the less you laugh. 00:21:42.079 --> 00:21:43.399 That's true. 00:21:43.399 --> 00:21:45.679 The older you get, the less you laugh. 00:21:45.679 --> 00:21:50.519 My children, when they were wee, they'd just laughed all the time, and we laughed with 00:21:50.519 --> 00:21:51.519 them. 00:21:51.519 --> 00:21:57.199 But when you get older, the way of the world, your kids growing up, Royal Bank of Mother 00:21:57.199 --> 00:22:01.119 and Father, all these things, and he stopped laughing. 00:22:01.119 --> 00:22:02.119 We don't laugh as much. 00:22:02.119 --> 00:22:06.639 We think it's childish, it's not childish, God made laughter, and it's one of the great 00:22:06.639 --> 00:22:09.519 releases for us. 00:22:09.519 --> 00:22:10.519 So work. 00:22:10.519 --> 00:22:11.519 Be human. 00:22:11.519 --> 00:22:13.399 Be human. 00:22:13.399 --> 00:22:19.319 And work, having non-Christian friends. 00:22:19.319 --> 00:22:23.679 And again, maybe this specifically for people in... or geared towards people working in 00:22:23.679 --> 00:22:25.159 a Christian environment. 00:22:25.159 --> 00:22:29.479 But it's important that we keep non-people that aren't Christians as our friends. 00:22:29.480 --> 00:22:33.360 Remember, our calling is to reach out to people who don't know Jesus. 00:22:33.360 --> 00:22:35.240 How will we? 00:22:35.240 --> 00:22:36.720 How will we do that? 00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:41.960 Are we just expecting like a magnet to come towards us and just be willing to hear everything 00:22:41.960 --> 00:22:44.360 we have to say as we splurge out to them? 00:22:44.360 --> 00:22:46.160 Generally not. 00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:52.160 We need to be committed in friendship and in faithfulness and in grace and in humility 00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:53.880 towards them. 00:22:53.880 --> 00:23:02.080 And it sharpens who we are and also keep great Christian friends inside and outside of the 00:23:02.080 --> 00:23:06.560 church, of your local church. 00:23:06.560 --> 00:23:09.120 So last thing, be human. 00:23:09.120 --> 00:23:14.320 The last thing is, I think it's important to work constantly at being realistic in our 00:23:14.320 --> 00:23:15.320 Christian life. 00:23:15.320 --> 00:23:19.480 If we're going to be fresh and if we're going to be faithful, we need to work at being realistic. 00:23:19.480 --> 00:23:21.320 Ephesians 6, 12. 00:23:21.319 --> 00:23:26.519 We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, cosmic 00:23:26.519 --> 00:23:31.279 powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. 00:23:31.279 --> 00:23:34.639 Now, we've said this a lot, haven't we? 00:23:34.639 --> 00:23:40.639 That probably is, if humility is the most significant thing, this is the most important 00:23:40.639 --> 00:23:46.000 thing to finish with, to recognize that our Christian life is a battle. 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:53.960 And that's where we will get to the place of renewed freshness and faithfulness. 00:23:53.960 --> 00:23:59.720 Most of us will be plowing a battle in our Christian lives. 00:23:59.720 --> 00:24:02.720 We will be envious and think that everyone else has it much better. 00:24:02.720 --> 00:24:08.640 It'd be great to be in a Christian church in China or in different parts of Asia or 00:24:08.640 --> 00:24:12.599 in South America or in Africa where hundreds of people are coming to faith and churches 00:24:12.599 --> 00:24:13.920 are bursting at the seams. 00:24:13.920 --> 00:24:15.920 Wouldn't that be great? 00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:18.120 It's naive, isn't it? 00:24:18.120 --> 00:24:21.880 And it's idealistic. 00:24:21.880 --> 00:24:23.600 That is the life that we have. 00:24:23.600 --> 00:24:31.440 It's a life where we need to realize that we have an enemy, far stronger, far more knowledgeable 00:24:31.440 --> 00:24:36.680 than we will ever be, who often comes as an angel of light, who knows that Bible better 00:24:36.680 --> 00:24:43.200 than you will ever know it, who probably knows your own heart better than you know it, knows 00:24:43.200 --> 00:24:54.840 your sensitivities, knows your idols, knows our particular genetic makeup, and he will 00:24:54.840 --> 00:24:58.600 attack on all of these fronts in our lives. 00:24:58.600 --> 00:25:06.039 He knows the weak point in our lives, and he will go at that again and again and again, 00:25:06.039 --> 00:25:10.400 whether maybe it's popularity. 00:25:10.400 --> 00:25:15.120 Maybe it's a feeling of being isolated and rejected. 00:25:15.120 --> 00:25:16.200 Maybe it's social media. 00:25:16.200 --> 00:25:17.200 Maybe it's pornography. 00:25:17.200 --> 00:25:18.880 Maybe it's the imagination. 00:25:18.880 --> 00:25:19.880 Maybe it's your marriage. 00:25:19.880 --> 00:25:21.759 Maybe it's your family. 00:25:21.759 --> 00:25:30.840 But most often, I think, most often he will attack through our fellow Christian. 00:25:30.840 --> 00:25:32.519 That will often be the case. 00:25:32.519 --> 00:25:40.160 He will attack in all these areas, but in the place where we should be safest, the Christian 00:25:40.160 --> 00:25:43.279 community, that's off. 00:25:43.279 --> 00:25:46.640 This should be the place of grace and kindness, shouldn't it? 00:25:46.640 --> 00:25:49.519 Am I right? 00:25:49.519 --> 00:25:51.840 Shouldn't this be the place of grace and kindness? 00:25:51.840 --> 00:25:56.759 Place where there's a community reflection of Jesus Christ that we're all corporately 00:25:56.759 --> 00:25:57.759 responsible for? 00:25:57.759 --> 00:26:00.960 Don't point the finger at others if it's not happening. 00:26:00.960 --> 00:26:02.960 We all are responsible for that. 00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:10.880 But isn't it so often that the church is the place where it's like Siberia for the Christian? 00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:11.880 It's cold. 00:26:11.880 --> 00:26:14.319 It's distant. 00:26:14.319 --> 00:26:15.759 We're isolated. 00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:16.759 We're misunderstood. 00:26:16.759 --> 00:26:21.840 Where have I been hurt most in my Christian life? 00:26:21.840 --> 00:26:23.920 Has it been down the pub? 00:26:23.920 --> 00:26:27.720 Has it been watching football matches? 00:26:27.720 --> 00:26:30.600 Has it been with my non-Christian friends from school? 00:26:30.600 --> 00:26:31.600 No. 00:26:31.599 --> 00:26:34.879 It's been from my fellow Christians, from my fellow ministers. 00:26:34.879 --> 00:26:42.759 And I've probably hurt them as much as they have hurt me at different levels. 00:26:42.759 --> 00:26:44.719 It's the judgmentalness. 00:26:44.719 --> 00:26:46.639 It's the dismissal. 00:26:46.639 --> 00:26:52.799 It's the religious mafia that pull us apart and that destroy us. 00:26:52.799 --> 00:26:55.399 And that can be true for all of us in the church. 00:26:55.399 --> 00:26:56.719 It can be a bleak place. 00:26:56.719 --> 00:26:58.639 Isn't that tragic? 00:26:58.640 --> 00:27:03.960 Isn't it sad that the legacy of the Presbyterian church in Scotland is that we split every 00:27:03.960 --> 00:27:10.520 few years and become smaller and smaller and smaller and more insignificant and more narrow-minded 00:27:10.520 --> 00:27:13.240 and more judgmental and more bigoted and more sectarian? 00:27:13.240 --> 00:27:18.000 Isn't that bad? 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:23.680 And yet that's for some bizarre reason the experience that most of us have had at one 00:27:23.680 --> 00:27:26.600 level or another. 00:27:26.599 --> 00:27:31.439 So it's important for us to be prepared in being realistic, not being prepared for splits 00:27:31.439 --> 00:27:36.879 or battles, but working with all our heart and soul to avoid them. 00:27:36.879 --> 00:27:42.639 Remembering the unity of the people of God that we celebrate the Lord's Supper tonight. 00:27:42.639 --> 00:27:47.799 Remembering the significance and importance of that there is one body. 00:27:47.799 --> 00:27:52.679 But we do, in our Christian lives, because of being realistic, I think, need to develop 00:27:52.680 --> 00:27:57.400 a gracious, if this is not paradoxical, a gracious thick skin. 00:27:57.400 --> 00:28:05.720 It's a good thing to do, is to have a gracious thick skin so we can cope with the battles 00:28:05.720 --> 00:28:13.160 and cope with the attacks and not take them so personally that we can say sorry and we 00:28:13.160 --> 00:28:21.200 can also accept that there's something behind the opposition, very often a spiritual battle, 00:28:21.200 --> 00:28:27.920 an enemy of our souls. 00:28:27.920 --> 00:28:32.519 So we want to be fresh and we want to be faithful. 00:28:32.519 --> 00:28:39.039 Really the only place that we can do that is at the foot of the cross and continuing 00:28:39.039 --> 00:28:40.039 to learn. 00:28:40.039 --> 00:28:47.120 The only way, I think, that I've survived in ministry is by, I think, beginning to understand 00:28:47.119 --> 00:28:54.239 what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12 verse 9 where he says, My grace is sufficient for 00:28:54.239 --> 00:29:00.039 you, My power is made perfect in weakness, therefore I will boast all the more gladly 00:29:00.039 --> 00:29:04.559 of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest on me. 00:29:04.559 --> 00:29:09.279 That's a great key that we recognize His grace is sufficient for us. 00:29:09.279 --> 00:29:16.879 When you battle today at staleness and at being faithless, which we all battle to greater 00:29:16.880 --> 00:29:22.480 or lesser degrees, maybe that you see His grace is sufficient for you and His grace 00:29:22.480 --> 00:29:28.440 as it's worked out in community together that we support one another and help one another 00:29:28.440 --> 00:29:35.880 and build one another up and refresh one another and seek to encourage each other to be faithful. 00:29:35.880 --> 00:29:39.280 That would be a great thing. 00:29:39.280 --> 00:29:42.640 Let's bow our heads in prayer. 00:29:42.640 --> 00:29:49.720 Another God, we recognize our own staleness so often, the very routine of church, the 00:29:49.720 --> 00:29:56.280 very routine of the service, maybe sometimes we think it's easy to go through the motions 00:29:56.280 --> 00:30:06.040 and forgive us when we make the routine more important than the truth that we share. 00:30:06.039 --> 00:30:13.159 Help us to recognize the good things in routine and recognize the disciplines that you encourage 00:30:13.159 --> 00:30:20.680 us to have, that you say to us, Don't give up meeting together, as is the habit of some. 00:30:20.680 --> 00:30:25.159 We know sometimes we drag ourselves out to fellowship and to friendship. 00:30:25.159 --> 00:30:30.200 We drag ourselves to the place of opening our Bible where we would far rather watch 00:30:30.200 --> 00:30:32.279 something on Netflix. 00:30:32.279 --> 00:30:40.639 Give us when we just find it so difficult, but give us honesty and reality and that great 00:30:40.639 --> 00:30:48.319 dependence on your grace to know and to see and to understand that our hope and our humility 00:30:48.319 --> 00:30:56.799 and our lives of freshness and faithfulness, our gifts from you as we seek to live our 00:30:56.799 --> 00:31:04.720 lives in your shadow, which is light indeed and freedom and life to the full. 00:31:04.720 --> 00:31:05.720 So help us we pray. 00:31:05.720 --> 00:31:12.319 And if there are any here today who don't know you and who are content with simply 00:31:12.319 --> 00:31:19.960 knowing about you, may they reach out to you in faith today and cry for forgiveness and 00:31:19.960 --> 00:31:28.400 for that knowledge of you, which is eternal life and which alone can supply the freshness 00:31:28.400 --> 00:31:31.200 of true life for us. 00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:33.279 So help us we pray in Jesus' name. 00:31:33.279 --> 00:31:50.319 Amen.