WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.120 It's good to be with you tonight. 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:12.759 And this is the first time that for a baptism, they haven't actually put any water in the 00:00:12.759 --> 00:00:13.759 bowl. 00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:20.120 They thought I'd be greeting so much that there'd be enough water from my tears, which 00:00:20.120 --> 00:00:23.120 may or may not be the case that remains to be seen. 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:29.800 So it would be special, I guess, if someone was baptized in the tears of a preacher. 00:00:29.800 --> 00:00:36.880 But they would be tears of unbridled joy. 00:00:36.880 --> 00:00:40.159 So I'm not going to preach from that passage. 00:00:40.159 --> 00:00:44.400 I'm going to refer to it briefly at various points. 00:00:44.400 --> 00:00:51.560 But I want to take a, do an old-fashioned thing, and I'm going to take a verse, a text, from 00:00:51.560 --> 00:00:59.120 the Old Testament, which I hope is relevant for this evening, but generally relevant because 00:00:59.120 --> 00:01:00.120 it's in the Bible. 00:01:00.120 --> 00:01:05.400 And it's Proverbs chapter 22 and verse 11. 00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:09.159 I don't know if that's coming up in the screens or not. 00:01:09.159 --> 00:01:10.599 It may or may not do. 00:01:10.599 --> 00:01:12.159 Okay, that's fine. 00:01:12.159 --> 00:01:15.640 No problem. 00:01:15.640 --> 00:01:22.200 Proverbs chapter 22, verse 11, which says, He who loves purity of heart and whose speech 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:27.680 is gracious will have the King as his friend. 00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:32.319 Or it could be translated, one who loves a pure heart and who speaks with grace will 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:35.040 have the King for a friend. 00:01:35.040 --> 00:01:38.960 And that's what I wanted to speak about this evening for a little while, because I think 00:01:38.960 --> 00:01:43.439 it encapsulates the gospel and what the gospel is all about. 00:01:43.439 --> 00:01:51.079 King Solomon, who wrote Proverbs, was gifted wisdom, an amazing quantity. 00:01:51.079 --> 00:01:54.200 He was the wisest man who ever lived. 00:01:54.200 --> 00:01:58.400 There's been no one like him before or after. 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:05.879 And under this, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he breathed out God's divine wisdom 00:02:05.879 --> 00:02:09.360 in this book, in this book of Proverbs. 00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:13.880 I think he spoke, as is often the case with the Old Testament writers, he spoke more than 00:02:13.880 --> 00:02:15.920 he understood. 00:02:15.920 --> 00:02:19.120 But it's a great book. 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:20.600 If you have time, you should read. 00:02:20.600 --> 00:02:22.120 Yeah, I would advise you. 00:02:22.120 --> 00:02:24.520 I would encourage you to read a Proverb every day. 00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:25.520 It's great. 00:02:25.520 --> 00:02:27.680 Great to read a Proverb every day. 00:02:27.680 --> 00:02:30.880 If you've never read the book of Proverbs, go to it. 00:02:30.880 --> 00:02:32.520 They're marvelous. 00:02:32.520 --> 00:02:37.960 The wisdom books of the Old Testament are incredible sections of the Bible. 00:02:37.960 --> 00:02:41.080 They speak about life and about suffering. 00:02:41.080 --> 00:02:42.080 They deal with complexities. 00:02:42.080 --> 00:02:44.320 They're not simplistic in any way. 00:02:44.320 --> 00:02:48.000 But it's not law and it's not prophecy. 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:53.560 It's just this amazing peeling back of God's mind. 00:02:53.560 --> 00:02:56.480 Kind of God's common sense for us. 00:02:56.480 --> 00:02:59.640 It's God's wisdom poured out to us. 00:02:59.640 --> 00:03:06.439 In this section, or in the section, chapters 10 to 29, you've got all these little individual 00:03:06.439 --> 00:03:11.719 Proverbs that you can really just take on their own. 00:03:11.719 --> 00:03:13.319 That's the best way to take them. 00:03:13.319 --> 00:03:18.199 It's the outworking of God's mind to us. 00:03:18.199 --> 00:03:21.800 And they really are great to consider. 00:03:21.800 --> 00:03:27.560 And these Proverbs speak about life either with God, often or without God, wisdom and 00:03:27.560 --> 00:03:32.520 foolishness living in the light of God's grace or ignoring God's grace. 00:03:32.520 --> 00:03:40.600 And they speak so much about the person whose foundation rather is a humble trust in the 00:03:40.600 --> 00:03:43.960 justice and in the love of God. 00:03:43.960 --> 00:03:47.680 They speak about life, about leaning on God. 00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:55.320 They speak about knowing the paradox of peace in a broken world and even in suffering, finding 00:03:55.319 --> 00:04:02.439 that all our hopes and all our dreams and all our longings and our searchings are satisfied 00:04:02.439 --> 00:04:10.239 in a friendship with God through a longed for Savior who we recognize as the Bible has 00:04:10.239 --> 00:04:13.519 unfolded its revelation as in the person of Jesus Christ. 00:04:13.519 --> 00:04:19.159 So we're looking back in Proverbs with the perspective of knowing history and knowing 00:04:19.159 --> 00:04:25.300 the revelation of God in sending his own Son Jesus, which as Corrie mentioned, we consider 00:04:25.300 --> 00:04:30.199 and think about especially at this Advent season. 00:04:30.199 --> 00:04:34.720 But I think verse 11 here encapsulates life to the full. 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:37.920 You know, we talk about life a lot. 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:39.240 This is life to the full. 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:42.319 You may not think so, maybe, as you read it. 00:04:42.319 --> 00:04:46.720 He who loves purity of heart and whose speech is gracious will have the King as a friend. 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:51.000 But it's living along the grain of God's universe. 00:04:51.000 --> 00:04:59.360 Living the kind of life that God wants us to know and to enjoy, the incredible love 00:04:59.360 --> 00:05:05.759 and the incredible joy of finding ourselves back home. 00:05:05.759 --> 00:05:13.959 The only place that is truly real, the only place where we can absolutely be ourselves, 00:05:13.959 --> 00:05:20.120 whoever we are, where we're more alive than we could ever be without Him. 00:05:20.120 --> 00:05:26.680 And this verse does absolutely transcend its time of writing as God's revelation because 00:05:26.680 --> 00:05:32.240 we see and we experience that when we come to put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:39.879 the fullness of coming to know the sent Savior Jesus. 00:05:39.879 --> 00:05:48.840 And it's the truest wisdom of all is knowing what Corrie mentioned this morning as God 00:05:48.839 --> 00:05:50.379 en fleshed. 00:05:50.379 --> 00:05:54.179 God the Son who became flesh, who became a person. 00:05:54.179 --> 00:06:03.199 So wisdom in the Bible always grows towards revelation of a person rather than a philosophy 00:06:03.199 --> 00:06:05.959 or a set of ideas. 00:06:05.959 --> 00:06:07.639 It is in the person of Jesus Christ. 00:06:07.639 --> 00:06:14.399 And we read that in Corinthians that Jesus Christ is a wisdom of God. 00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:20.719 His God's mind revealed, it's God's salvation revealed, it's God Himself revealed to us 00:06:20.719 --> 00:06:23.959 where He reveals Himself in His grace and in His love. 00:06:23.959 --> 00:06:24.959 That great word. 00:06:24.959 --> 00:06:25.959 I'm going to speak a little bit. 00:06:25.959 --> 00:06:30.519 The title of the sermon, Amazing Grace, that's because Colin chose the song Amazing Grace 00:06:30.519 --> 00:06:32.199 to sing later on. 00:06:32.199 --> 00:06:38.279 And that seems a great song to remind ourselves of the wonder of salvation, which is God's 00:06:38.279 --> 00:06:45.839 unmerited love gifted, never earned, that we receive through Jesus Christ. 00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:50.119 We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but those 00:06:50.119 --> 00:06:54.199 who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ, the power of God, the wisdom of God. 00:06:54.199 --> 00:06:58.919 It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus who has become for us the wisdom of 00:06:58.919 --> 00:07:03.079 God, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 00:07:03.079 --> 00:07:08.639 So just want to say a few things about this passage or maybe more, say a few things about 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:09.639 grace. 00:07:09.639 --> 00:07:14.039 The great thing about the Proverbs is the verse that you can kind of broaden out and 00:07:14.039 --> 00:07:19.120 you can move to wider and more significant areas of the Bible that help explain what's 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:20.120 being said. 00:07:20.120 --> 00:07:25.079 But it speaks here very much about grace, the power of grace. 00:07:25.079 --> 00:07:30.360 He who speaks with grace and I've used that word grace as the foundation for what we're 00:07:30.360 --> 00:07:36.639 saying, because grace is very much about, as we see here, it's about a changed heart, 00:07:36.639 --> 00:07:41.680 one who loves a pure heart and who speaks with grace, well, the King is a friend. 00:07:41.680 --> 00:07:45.199 A pure heart, a clean heart. 00:07:45.199 --> 00:07:49.160 In the Bible that simply means someone who has been made clean. 00:07:49.160 --> 00:07:53.600 So much has said in the Old Testament and highlighted in the Bible about God's righteousness. 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:59.759 It's just another word for His rightness or His purity or His perfection. 00:07:59.759 --> 00:08:06.279 And it's reminding us that we need all of us to be made clean in order to know Him, because 00:08:06.279 --> 00:08:11.759 He has a perfect love and He has a perfect heart and He's holy. 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:14.120 That is that He's set apart, He's different. 00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:17.279 He's undiseased. 00:08:17.279 --> 00:08:24.879 In His whole being, He's perfectly tuned to a relationship of love sustained in an infinite, 00:08:24.879 --> 00:08:28.240 trinitarian, societal life within Himself. 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:33.879 There's nothing within Himself that corrupts to spoil, to damage, to lose love and to lose 00:08:33.879 --> 00:08:34.879 life. 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:38.320 He is life and He is love and He is purity and He is grace. 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:45.600 He's everything, actually, that we are not, either individually or as a society, because 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:53.519 we in Adam chose to do life with us at the centre, not with God in His righteousness 00:08:53.519 --> 00:08:55.480 and His holiness at the centre. 00:08:55.480 --> 00:08:59.200 By nature, our hearts don't love Him. 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:01.639 Our hearts don't love others as they should. 00:09:01.639 --> 00:09:06.639 We fall short in terms of love of our own standards, let alone God's, because we have 00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:13.120 a deep-seated selfishness, pride and internal rage sometimes and anxiety, as we mentioned 00:09:13.120 --> 00:09:15.840 this morning, and unhappiness, a fear. 00:09:15.840 --> 00:09:17.920 And self-help just doesn't cut it. 00:09:17.920 --> 00:09:20.240 It's impossible to do so. 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:25.720 We have a recognition that our hearts can't change. 00:09:25.720 --> 00:09:26.720 What's our hearts? 00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:33.480 The totality of our inner being, our control centre, our thoughts, our character, our mindset. 00:09:33.480 --> 00:09:35.440 And none of that we can change ourselves. 00:09:35.440 --> 00:09:41.000 We can tinker, we can fine-tune, but we can't change our hearts at the very deepest level, 00:09:41.000 --> 00:09:44.919 and that leads us to despair. 00:09:44.919 --> 00:09:49.720 And I would challenge us all this evening to recognise and consider that, again, that 00:09:49.720 --> 00:09:55.160 our fundamental issue is not on the surface, it's not fine-tuning. 00:09:55.160 --> 00:09:58.600 It is a deep-seated heart issue. 00:09:58.600 --> 00:10:04.519 And many people live their lives with a paralysis because they feel unable to change their heart, 00:10:04.519 --> 00:10:07.840 unable, like leopards, to change their spots. 00:10:07.840 --> 00:10:10.240 They can't do that. 00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:16.639 And we'll maybe even despair at the idea of being right with God or trying to be right 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:25.159 with God, because the recognition of Scripture is that we need a changed heart, a heart that 00:10:25.159 --> 00:10:28.519 is renewed, a heart that is refreshed. 00:10:28.519 --> 00:10:35.559 And that comes through understanding grace, understanding and coming to accept the beauty 00:10:35.559 --> 00:10:42.080 and the amazement and the wonder of grace. 00:10:42.080 --> 00:10:47.800 And who loves a pure heart and who speaks with grace will have a King as a friend. 00:10:47.800 --> 00:10:50.879 And grace is at the heart of all we are, isn't it? 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:54.960 It's at the heart of what we talk about. 00:10:54.960 --> 00:10:57.000 It's at the heart of the gospel. 00:10:57.000 --> 00:10:58.720 It's at the heart of St. Columbus. 00:10:58.720 --> 00:11:00.480 It's at the heart of Hope Church. 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:04.800 It's at the heart of every gospel-believing church and of every Christian. 00:11:04.800 --> 00:11:07.120 And it's not religion. 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:13.759 It's not trying to attend to some moral standard that God will one day or another accept. 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:20.480 It's not just kind of trying to live a decent life, be as good as anyone else. 00:11:20.480 --> 00:11:23.279 And then God will not reject us when it comes to that great day. 00:11:23.279 --> 00:11:25.399 It's not even about baptism. 00:11:25.399 --> 00:11:31.560 Significant and important and wonderful though baptism is this evening. 00:11:31.559 --> 00:11:37.159 It's much, much more incredible and I can't put it into words. 00:11:37.159 --> 00:11:42.759 I think the older you get as a Christian, the more you realize how little you know and 00:11:42.759 --> 00:11:47.839 how little you understand and how much there is to grasp and how awesome is the reality 00:11:47.839 --> 00:11:50.359 of grace. 00:11:50.359 --> 00:11:54.799 But grace at least at some levels is coming to recognize certain things. 00:11:54.799 --> 00:12:01.319 It's coming to recognize that even at its very best, life and love without God at its 00:12:01.320 --> 00:12:10.320 heart is temporary, is fleeting, is paradoxically incomplete and is shadowed by the ugliness 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:12.720 of death. 00:12:12.720 --> 00:12:17.240 However we want to dress that up and we're great at dressing up death I think in our 00:12:17.240 --> 00:12:24.400 sophisticated 21st century society where as God reveals it is something very ugly and 00:12:24.400 --> 00:12:28.720 very frightening and very spiritual. 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:33.960 As a spiritual dimension to it, it's not just something that happens at the end of 00:12:33.960 --> 00:12:34.960 life. 00:12:34.960 --> 00:12:41.639 It is the outworking of being separated from the God of life who has gifted life to us 00:12:41.639 --> 00:12:48.800 and it leaves us in that terrifying place of being separated from Him eternally in 00:12:48.800 --> 00:12:54.800 His just and holy and pure and righteous judgment. 00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:59.759 But it's coming to recognize that the world also in which we live and our hearts are broken, 00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:02.759 deep tensions we do need forgiveness. 00:13:02.759 --> 00:13:09.559 There is that deep seated selfishness and ultimately a resentment against God. 00:13:09.559 --> 00:13:14.919 Proud, respectable sometimes but nonetheless rebellious. 00:13:14.919 --> 00:13:22.120 And ultimately the rebellion isn't against the machine, it's actually against our maker. 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:27.440 That's where the deep seated and the most deep seated rebellion reveals itself even if 00:13:27.440 --> 00:13:30.200 sometimes we don't recognize that. 00:13:30.200 --> 00:13:36.840 But if we are challenged by the reality of God very often we will feel and sense our 00:13:36.840 --> 00:13:42.279 rebellion against the lordship of God and the rightness of God and the character of 00:13:42.279 --> 00:13:45.279 God. 00:13:45.279 --> 00:13:52.879 But it's by God's grace that is His unmerited favor and kindness that we are all here this 00:13:52.879 --> 00:13:53.879 evening. 00:13:53.879 --> 00:14:01.639 It's by grace that every living soul that's walking down the royal mile tonight is breathing. 00:14:01.639 --> 00:14:07.439 Every person in this universe enjoys anything that's good, it's by His grace. 00:14:07.439 --> 00:14:13.159 And it's that grace that should point us towards Him as the giver. 00:14:13.159 --> 00:14:18.439 Even in our rejection and the rejection of humanity He is the giver and He is the one 00:14:18.439 --> 00:14:26.079 even in a broken and sad and a world of betrayal He is the one that brings grace into that world 00:14:26.079 --> 00:14:32.959 by His kindness with the seasons, with His Son in our backs, with laughter, with friendship, 00:14:32.959 --> 00:14:36.159 with all the various things that we can take for granted. 00:14:36.159 --> 00:14:42.720 It is His everyday grace that allows us to enjoy and know that. 00:14:42.720 --> 00:14:48.279 But more than that, it is in grace that He has given us Christ. 00:14:48.279 --> 00:14:52.720 He has given us the Lord Jesus Christ that we remember at this advent season, God the 00:14:52.720 --> 00:15:01.480 Son who reaches into the darkness of this world in His grace and His compassion. 00:15:01.480 --> 00:15:09.160 That's the good news of His love that He comes and He shows us God's righteousness. 00:15:09.159 --> 00:15:13.079 You know, I wonder what you think of God's righteousness, you kind of think of something 00:15:13.079 --> 00:15:21.039 definitely unattainable but otherworldly kind of. 00:15:21.039 --> 00:15:27.000 Holiness and purity have another worldly kind of imagery about it. 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:36.000 Whereas the absolute righteousness of God is revealed in Jesus who is a carpenter who 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:44.080 talked, who talked, who laughed, who cried, who loved, who cared, who spoke. 00:15:44.080 --> 00:15:47.759 It's a righteousness that He lived perfectly in this world. 00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:51.399 He was wisdom person if I would, when we're looking for and thinking about how to live 00:15:51.399 --> 00:15:54.799 a wise life we see in the person of Jesus Christ. 00:15:54.799 --> 00:15:59.039 A wisdom that we can't begin to come near. 00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:04.720 And it was a righteousness and it was a wisdom that should have meant He just kept on living. 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:07.320 There was no place in His life for death. 00:16:07.320 --> 00:16:10.080 There was no calling for Him to die. 00:16:10.080 --> 00:16:12.800 There was no separation from His Father. 00:16:12.800 --> 00:16:14.720 There was no judgment on Him. 00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:17.759 He could have lived forever. 00:16:17.759 --> 00:16:25.279 But instead He chose to take that place of death in our place. 00:16:25.279 --> 00:16:29.879 He chose to go to that place of judgment so that we wouldn't need to face that judgment. 00:16:29.879 --> 00:16:35.279 So that death has its sting removed when we put our trust in Him and He offers us that 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:41.159 great substitution, life for death, covered in His righteousness. 00:16:41.159 --> 00:16:47.639 So every believer this evening, calling this evening, covered in the righteousness of Jesus 00:16:47.639 --> 00:16:53.720 Christ because He gives it as a gift to everyone who accepts. 00:16:53.720 --> 00:17:00.759 And we're called, you're called this evening to accept Jesus Christ into your heart if 00:17:00.759 --> 00:17:01.759 you haven't. 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:08.360 And if you have, you need to live in that grace and know that that grace changes you 00:17:08.360 --> 00:17:09.360 forever. 00:17:09.360 --> 00:17:12.519 So I never, I never graduate beyond grace. 00:17:12.519 --> 00:17:16.360 We never move from the ABC of grace to something different. 00:17:16.360 --> 00:17:18.339 Grace becomes our motivation. 00:17:18.339 --> 00:17:20.079 It becomes our empowerment. 00:17:20.079 --> 00:17:21.839 It becomes our life. 00:17:21.839 --> 00:17:26.919 It changes us forever and we continue to be changed by His grace. 00:17:26.919 --> 00:17:31.240 And Collins' baptism tonight is a reminder of that journey. 00:17:31.240 --> 00:17:38.679 It's a reminder of who God is and what God does and His great power and His great patience 00:17:38.679 --> 00:17:44.119 and His great love towards anyone who will come. 00:17:44.119 --> 00:17:51.279 And the washing of baptism, the pouring of water symbolically, speaks of life and speaks 00:17:51.279 --> 00:17:59.160 of cleansing and speaks of a testimony of a changed heart. 00:17:59.160 --> 00:18:03.359 If you're not a Christian this evening, I would really, it's really great that you're 00:18:03.359 --> 00:18:04.359 here. 00:18:04.359 --> 00:18:06.399 It's really amazing to see you. 00:18:06.399 --> 00:18:11.920 But I would ask you at least to ask yourself the big questions. 00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:19.399 Ask yourself some of these big, ugly, uncomfortable questions about who you are, why you're here, 00:18:19.400 --> 00:18:22.720 what it's all about, who God is, if there is a God. 00:18:22.720 --> 00:18:26.759 If there is a God and He's revealed Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, what are His 00:18:26.759 --> 00:18:29.280 claims, do they make sense? 00:18:29.280 --> 00:18:33.320 What about the lives of people that you know who have been changed by grace? 00:18:33.320 --> 00:18:36.320 Do take that journey. 00:18:36.320 --> 00:18:46.160 Take it and do so openly and do so seeking with humility the answers. 00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:50.960 And I would even challenge you to pray to the God you might not even believe in and 00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:55.960 ask Him to reveal Himself in the person of Jesus. 00:18:55.960 --> 00:19:02.080 Because what I have found and what I'm sure Colin increasingly will find, that every longing 00:19:02.080 --> 00:19:12.640 of our heart is met in a relationship with Christ, our Creator, our Savior and our Judge. 00:19:12.640 --> 00:19:17.200 So I just want to finish with two practical points this evening before we move on to the 00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:25.360 baptism and Corey will come and do a little bit there as well. 00:19:25.360 --> 00:19:32.880 When we have come to be touched by grace and it makes me sad when I think how little I 00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:39.080 understand grace and how little it transformed my own heart. 00:19:39.080 --> 00:19:42.240 What does it mean to live with this changed heart? 00:19:42.240 --> 00:19:44.680 A heart that's been transformed by grace? 00:19:44.680 --> 00:19:47.799 Well, it means a whole lot of things. 00:19:47.799 --> 00:19:55.000 But I'm not going to say two and then give you another five and then another seven and 00:19:55.000 --> 00:19:56.000 then eight finales. 00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:58.519 I'll not do that, I've just got two. 00:19:58.519 --> 00:20:00.279 I've only got two tonight. 00:20:00.279 --> 00:20:07.559 The first is, and this is for us all as believers and the challenge for you if you're not a 00:20:07.559 --> 00:20:15.159 Christian as well to think about the great gift that enables us to make these changes. 00:20:15.159 --> 00:20:20.480 Firstly, that you speak differently. 00:20:20.480 --> 00:20:26.000 The proverbial verse that we read said, one who loves with a pure heart and who speaks 00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:29.079 with grace will love the King as a friend. 00:20:29.079 --> 00:20:35.960 So grace changes the way we speak and that may seem a very kind of not a particularly 00:20:35.960 --> 00:20:40.079 deep thing to come out with, but I think it's very important. 00:20:40.079 --> 00:20:47.319 There's so much in the Bible about how we speak, reflecting what's in our heart. 00:20:47.319 --> 00:20:49.200 And you know that, don't you? 00:20:49.200 --> 00:20:54.240 We know that what's in our heart very often comes out in the way we speak. 00:20:54.240 --> 00:21:01.519 Bitterness, jealousy, anger, joy, grace. 00:21:01.519 --> 00:21:03.759 It comes out in the way that we speak. 00:21:03.759 --> 00:21:09.879 Jesus says in Matthew 12, 24, for the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 00:21:09.879 --> 00:21:11.400 It's great, isn't it? 00:21:11.400 --> 00:21:12.599 It's a great picture. 00:21:12.599 --> 00:21:14.960 The mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:20.839 And what we long for is our heart to be so full of grace that it comes out in the way 00:21:20.839 --> 00:21:22.879 that we speak. 00:21:22.879 --> 00:21:26.200 When we're touched by grace, then we speak it. 00:21:26.200 --> 00:21:28.400 The proverbs are actually full of that. 00:21:28.400 --> 00:21:36.519 They're full of God's wisdom about how the power of God in our hearts changes how we 00:21:36.519 --> 00:21:37.519 speak. 00:21:37.519 --> 00:21:42.360 One of the famous ones is a gentle word turns away wrath. 00:21:42.360 --> 00:21:44.200 And that is an outworking of grace. 00:21:44.200 --> 00:21:45.320 Look them up. 00:21:45.320 --> 00:21:49.440 You can go tuck in accordance and you look up the word mouth or word or speak. 00:21:49.440 --> 00:21:52.840 And it'll give you all the different proverbs that relate to it. 00:21:52.840 --> 00:21:55.840 But wisdom, kindness, kindness. 00:21:55.840 --> 00:21:56.840 Today, kindness. 00:21:56.839 --> 00:22:00.959 What an important outworking of grace. 00:22:00.959 --> 00:22:07.000 Humility, forgiveness, gentle but strong words. 00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:12.599 All of these things are a reflection of what's in our heart and a testimony of what Jesus 00:22:12.599 --> 00:22:22.279 has done for us in the office, in the workplace, behind the wheel, in our neighborhood, in 00:22:22.279 --> 00:22:24.519 our minds, how we speak. 00:22:24.519 --> 00:22:31.639 All reflects what has been transforming us in our hearts. 00:22:31.639 --> 00:22:40.119 So in this gospel community, St. Columbus here, how you speak matters, how you speak 00:22:40.119 --> 00:22:47.599 to one another, how you speak about one another, how you speak about Jesus, how often or lot 00:22:47.599 --> 00:22:49.759 you speak about Jesus Christ. 00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:55.000 All reveals our heart and all reveals what our motivation is. 00:22:55.000 --> 00:23:00.960 And so we will speak differently when we've been touched by God's free gift of grace 00:23:00.960 --> 00:23:04.119 that He offers to us in salvation. 00:23:04.119 --> 00:23:09.000 And I think it also involves developing in terms of speaking differently. 00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:17.319 It encourages us to develop the strength of character and courage to tell our own story. 00:23:17.319 --> 00:23:19.559 To tell our own story of grace. 00:23:19.559 --> 00:23:28.599 To share the good news wisely in real personal terms, thoughtfully, that is meaningful, not 00:23:28.599 --> 00:23:35.960 just a kind of parrot fashion repetition of the gospel story, but how Christ has changed 00:23:35.960 --> 00:23:38.240 you, what it has meant in your life. 00:23:38.240 --> 00:23:48.920 And now that truth is transformative and give that prayerful, gentle, respectful, prompted 00:23:48.920 --> 00:23:56.200 explanation of why Jesus by His love and by His patience has changed your heart. 00:23:56.200 --> 00:24:00.599 And it's not anything you've earned and it's not that you're better than anyone else. 00:24:00.599 --> 00:24:04.440 In fact, you may feel much worse than anyone else as you know your own heart, but that 00:24:04.440 --> 00:24:08.799 He has transformed and renewed you and given you hope. 00:24:08.799 --> 00:24:11.360 So the first thing is you speak differently. 00:24:11.360 --> 00:24:18.000 And the second and last thing is you have a friendship like no other. 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:24.080 When you know grace in your heart, one who loves a pure heart and who speaks with grace 00:24:24.080 --> 00:24:25.880 will have the King for a friend. 00:24:25.880 --> 00:24:28.279 That's a great proverb. 00:24:28.279 --> 00:24:34.680 And it goes way beyond what I think even King Solomon knew when he was speaking. 00:24:34.680 --> 00:24:41.319 None of us, I don't suspect, although I was a concert, well, I came to a concert last 00:24:41.319 --> 00:24:44.799 night, Alec McDonald, a previous minister in the free church. 00:24:44.799 --> 00:24:47.480 He does a lot of singing and things like that. 00:24:47.480 --> 00:24:52.720 He's got a band and he was playing last night at Cornerstone. 00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:59.480 But he spoke at one point about having lunch with the Queen in Balmoral because he was 00:24:59.480 --> 00:25:02.720 asked to go and preach there. 00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:08.799 But not many of us will have that opportunity to be friends of a Queen or a King or indeed 00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:12.160 have influence in high places. 00:25:12.160 --> 00:25:18.519 But with grace, we do come to know the King of Kings. 00:25:18.519 --> 00:25:23.759 And that is the greatest friendship that we can ever have. 00:25:23.759 --> 00:25:28.200 Proverbs 18, one of the earlier proverbs says, one who has unreliable friends soon comes 00:25:28.200 --> 00:25:33.079 to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. 00:25:33.079 --> 00:25:39.799 And then in John 15, Jesus speaks and he says, great, our love is no one than this, to lay 00:25:39.799 --> 00:25:42.160 one's life down for one's friends. 00:25:42.160 --> 00:25:44.119 You are my friends, if you do what I command. 00:25:44.119 --> 00:25:47.879 I no longer call you servants because a servant doesn't know his master's business. 00:25:47.880 --> 00:25:51.560 Instead, I've called you friends for everything I've learned from my father I've made known 00:25:51.560 --> 00:25:53.120 to you. 00:25:53.120 --> 00:25:57.880 You didn't choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so they might go and bear fruit, 00:25:57.880 --> 00:25:59.720 fruit that will last. 00:25:59.720 --> 00:26:02.360 This is my command, love one another. 00:26:02.360 --> 00:26:07.640 So there's this great reality that King Jesus is the one who comes and who offers this for 00:26:07.640 --> 00:26:13.760 a better friendship even than friendship with King Solomon, the author of life, the Holy 00:26:13.759 --> 00:26:21.559 One, infinite in power and glory, promises to stick closer to us than any family member. 00:26:21.559 --> 00:26:23.559 He's all out for you. 00:26:23.559 --> 00:26:29.000 He's all out for every believer, even in all the mysteries and all the sufferings and all 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:34.440 the paradoxes of life, things we don't know and don't understand and wish were different. 00:26:34.440 --> 00:26:38.000 He says to us, look, I can't love you more than I have. 00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:42.720 I've gone all the way to hell and to the darkness of hell and the cross and I've gifted you 00:26:42.720 --> 00:26:46.600 life and I'm saying to you, I will not let you go. 00:26:46.600 --> 00:26:48.920 I will not let you go. 00:26:48.920 --> 00:26:54.279 And this is coming to the time of year when we get gifts at Christmas time, Christmas day, 00:26:54.279 --> 00:26:55.279 it's great. 00:26:55.279 --> 00:26:58.799 And we open the wrappers, it's exciting. 00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:04.440 And we're delighted with the present we've got or not. 00:27:04.440 --> 00:27:12.120 And we revel in it and we enjoy it and we wear the woolly jumper and we put on the new 00:27:12.119 --> 00:27:20.239 slippers and the woolly socks and all the kind of things we get. 00:27:20.239 --> 00:27:24.399 But soon they become pretty normal again. 00:27:24.399 --> 00:27:34.519 And we enjoy the gift for a while, but soon it sometimes breaks or becomes worn and ordinary 00:27:34.519 --> 00:27:37.439 and needs to be replaced again. 00:27:37.440 --> 00:27:44.320 But here is the King, the King of Kings who gifts himself to us, always with us, always 00:27:44.320 --> 00:27:51.360 our friend, always transforming, always changing, always teaching, always guiding, challenging, 00:27:51.360 --> 00:27:56.920 correcting, listening, speaking through His Word and through His people and through the 00:27:56.920 --> 00:28:02.200 preaching of His Word, pouring out His divine love into us. 00:28:02.200 --> 00:28:10.000 And the best thing about it all is the best is still to come. 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:19.319 As we know the King for a friend, we will be with him in his kingdom forever and we will 00:28:19.319 --> 00:28:24.759 be home, home forever in his presence. 00:28:24.759 --> 00:28:29.960 And the Bible says that's beyond our wildest imaginations, we can't put it into words. 00:28:29.960 --> 00:28:38.279 Because it will be so remarkable that this life will seem just like a passing dream that 00:28:38.279 --> 00:28:44.720 will have passed in an instant and we will be home with our friend and with the King 00:28:44.720 --> 00:28:47.880 of the universe forever. 00:28:47.880 --> 00:28:57.120 So Colin's baptism is a visible sign of God's grace at work in his life, of the cleansing 00:28:57.119 --> 00:29:05.559 and of the love and of the grace that has gifted him this friendship with the King as 00:29:05.559 --> 00:29:11.359 he confesses Christ as his Lord and Savior. 00:29:11.359 --> 00:29:14.159 And that is immense. 00:29:14.159 --> 00:29:17.439 Let's pray. 00:29:17.440 --> 00:29:27.320 Father God, we ask and pray that You would help us to know and understand who You are. 00:29:27.320 --> 00:29:31.720 Help us to strip back our misconceptions. 00:29:31.720 --> 00:29:41.920 And I was touched by what Cody said this morning about the theme for next week in the morning, 00:29:41.920 --> 00:29:47.039 which is about being bored. 00:29:47.039 --> 00:29:51.720 And we ask that You would forgive us if we are ever bored by Your grace. 00:29:51.720 --> 00:30:00.159 If we think we have understood it or that it's an unwanted gift or it's a gift that 00:30:00.159 --> 00:30:05.559 has become ordinary and plain and unexciting. 00:30:05.559 --> 00:30:13.879 Forgive us for thinking it has boundaries, it has limitations, it can be known fully. 00:30:13.880 --> 00:30:26.720 Lord, just help us to dive into that infinite pool of grace that can never be exhausted. 00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:39.400 Help us to experience it more, to find Your patience and love and provision and answers 00:30:39.400 --> 00:30:43.600 to our needs more and more remarkable each day. 00:30:43.599 --> 00:30:52.399 Even in the darkness of circumstances that would humanly speaking seem to contradict 00:30:52.399 --> 00:30:55.039 the reality of Your grace. 00:30:55.039 --> 00:31:06.759 But may we see in and through suffering often God working gently and powerfully and significantly 00:31:06.759 --> 00:31:08.759 in our hearts and lives. 00:31:08.759 --> 00:31:18.879 So we ask that You would bless us this evening, bless the visible signs and symbols in baptism 00:31:18.879 --> 00:31:26.359 and in the bread and the wine that speak about Your death and resurrection and speak about 00:31:26.359 --> 00:31:30.720 Your life and about Your promises and about Your hope. 00:31:30.720 --> 00:31:38.519 And we thank You, Lord God, for the privilege of being involved tonight. 00:31:38.519 --> 00:31:44.680 The privilege of taking part in such a great evening together. 00:31:44.680 --> 00:31:50.879 So we pray that You would bless us and that You would bless Colin and Annie and all of 00:31:50.879 --> 00:31:52.879 us this evening. 00:31:52.880 --> 00:32:09.920 Amen.