The message room 25.06.06
Core values - The message room
If you remember we are neck deep into a series on our core values. Core values are those things that propel us to act in a certain way. And they stop us from doing other things. They define who we are. There are lots of examples of core values being worked out in the Bible. There was a stand out figure in the Old Testament by the name of Nehemiah who was asked by God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. It’s a long story but Jerusalem was in ruins without any walls or defences. Now it was a big enough job in itself to rebuild the walls. But Nehemiah’s other problem was that the surrounding cities did not want Jerusalem’s walls to be rebuilt and so they tried attempt after attempt to distract Nehemiah from his work. They were so keen on dragging him away from this task that they sent false emissaries from Nehemiah’s king (who Nehemiah didn’t realise were false) to tell him to stop and go immediately to see the king. And Nehemiah’s answer? “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down”. You see Nehemiah was clear about what he was about and what he was supposed to do. It helped him define what he should and should not do.
I am deliberately pushing core values into your face because I want us to really think about what we should and should not be doing. Who we are and what makes us tick and what sets us apart from clubs and groups that are in society.
Last week I introduced you to the house metaphor. The house is the place where we live as a community of faith. Its Gods house and living in that house defines us off from everything else that is going on around us.
Of course the house has rooms in it. Rooms that exist for different functions. Last week I talked about the family room where we relate to God and then to each other. I was encouraged to see so many people connecting with each other last Sunday night. I have wondered all through the week if anybody was brave enough to call someone else and to pray with them.
Tonight I want to talk about the next room in the house – the Message room. I know it’s a funny title but I am using that word ‘message’ deliberately. Hopefully by the time I am finished you will understand!
Like the fellowship room there are 2 core values in the message room. 2 things that we have to really wrestle with and think about and understand. Let me get on with it then!
1. We value the inspired written message from God. (the Bible)
Thirty years ago the language used might have been something like our core value is to recognise the authority of the Word of God. For many of our ancestors the written message from God – the Bible was very important. They were strong on reading it, memorising it and basing their life around it. Look back over time and see just how many people have names that come from the Bible. Whole cities and nations have been built on the teachings found in the bible. Cecily read out tonight just one story from among many of people who have given their lives because they believed this book held something important for everybody to have a chance at understanding. Many, many down through history have sacrificed their lives or their careers to translate and explain the bible.
Lately though, in the past 100 years or so, it has been somewhat put to the side, or marginalised in many ways. Even the church, if you can believe it, has raised questions of doubt over the Bible. But the thing is that the Bible keeps bouncing back. I know of no other book in the history of humanity that has undergone so much scrutiny and analysis. And yet despite all of that it still holds together, it still has its integrity.
Now the Bible is not just an amazing book because it has undergone all these tests but because of what it claims for itself. It dares to declares that its the very words of God. The inspired breath of God for us to understand who God is and in turn who we are. And it records the history of how God has been working in this world, right from the very beginning and then the prophets to Jesus and the early church. It maps out for us how God has been interacting with humanity in a saving role right down through the generations.
So let me get to the point what I want to say to you - this sacred book is significant for who we are. And its important for a whole stack of reasons. I could spend weeks working on this but let me just quickly pad them out;
It’s a core value because it tells us everything we know about Jesus. It doesn’t contain his whole life, in fact there are huge gaps in his early child hood and many things that are skipped over. But it informs us of the significant bits. Things like what he came to do and what affect that has on us. / Later on in the Bible, Jesus is called the author of life. In other words you want to live life well then copy him and the way he does things. And it also tells us that the way of salvation, now and in the time to come, is only through Jesus. So you see its important for us to grab hold of these things.
It’s a core value because it tells us how God has acted in the past. And so if God is unchanging then it’s a fair bet that’s the way he is going to act in the future. In other words how he related to the bible characters is how he relates to us. More importantly it means that God is not a complete mystery, and we are not left stumbling in the dark.
Many people understand the Bible to be a living book. That is, it has a knack of reapplying itself to its current environment. It tells us that God has not left us along nor does God forget our struggles and suffering. For years the Bible has been bringing comfort to many different people. In their times of joy or sadness or difficulty. Because of what they read between its pages.
But also it’s a core value for us because its the primary way in which God communicates with us. Over the years I have received specific guidance from simply reading the Bible. Words that I have read many times have suddenly jumped out from the page at me as if they were pop-ups. God by his Spirit continues to use this ancient book, that we treat with such casualness (nonchalance) to change the course of history today – our history. Chinese church do not put their Bibles on the floor…
But let me say this -its no good us just hearing that message. Its no good just reading the bible and marvelling at it and thinking what a great book it is.
The Jordan River runs down through Israel from the top of the country out of the sea of Galilee. It runs right down through the country and then into what is called the dead see. So this quite large river that gives so much life to hundreds of acres of fertile land runs into the dead see, right down at the bottom, and dies.
The Dead Sea has life going in but nothing going out. Over the years because there is nothing going out, the water is evaporated and what’s left behind is an incredibly salty mix. So the fresh water of the Jordan river comes into it but its quickly swamped with the highly salty waters of the Dead Sea. Because of its high salinity its actually possible to float on the waters with no problems at all. But the thing is its called the dead sea for a reason, because nothing can live in it. It gets life in only for it to die.
The point for us is that if all we do is take life in, that is we take the message of God in, the message of grace of hope of healing of good things in and don’t give it out. Then we are just like the Dead Sea.
That’s why the second of our core values from the message room is
2. An uncompromising commitment to living out the message.
I have deliberately used that word uncompromising in the sentence, although I was thinking about stubborn, or dogged, or gritty.
Let me tell you this is the hard end of the deal for tonight. If you want to have it easy then turn off your hearing aid now.
I say that because I am realising more and more just how easy we want to have life. And I am not just talking about labour saving devices. In all spectrums of life as a nation we don’t seem to want to work for anything any more. We expect it to be easy, in fact we are demanding it to be easy. We don’t want to be disciplined in what time we can shop – lets open the shops all the time! Food! I’ll eat what I want than you very much – you just go and make a slimming pill. Save energy!? What and not cool the whole house down all the time – you have got to be kidding!
You see my friends we are in the grip of something that is not easy to shake. Something that has got hold of this culture and is not going to let go without a struggle. Its called laziness and in some other circles, apathy.
The road of following the teachings of the Bible is not an easy one. Ask those among us who have been on the path for 40, 50, 60 years – they’ll tell you. It’s a constant struggle. So here-in lies the challenge – to live out the radical call of the Bible in the face of our prevailing culture. To hear the message and to not live as the message tells us is to put ourselves into the Dead Sea category.
There are several areas we should talk about in living out the message.
Living out the message is done in heaps of different ways. In one way its done by how we act. People can see who we belong to by the way we treat others, by the way we respond to circumstances and how we react in crisis moments. In Galatians 5:22 – 23 it tells us what a person who lives the message looks like. They have the fruit of the Spirit evident in their lives.
In another way it’s done by speaking. By actually share with another the message, the good news of what God has done in history and in our lives. No I know only too well that many people have been labelled bible bashers. I myself groan when the JW’s or the Mormons come to my door. But a few bad experiences must not dissuade us from speaking the truth in live. This church (us) need to discover ways of speaking about God that other people who yet don’t belong can connect with. There are many, many people who don’t understand, who have serious misconceptions, or who have not even heard about what God in Jesus has done for us. They haven’t heard about the freedom we have, about the release from guilt, about the healings that can take place by connecting with God. / Those of us who have heard, have a responsibility to share. There is a passage in the Bible, in Romans that says “How can they hear unless they have someone to tell them?”
A lot of people have a great deal of discomfort in talking about the faith and in sharing the stories of God with their friends and neighbours. They think its something of an imposition, you should not force that on people. I was talking to a dentist the other day who knowing I was a minister started ribbing me about the missionary movement (with my background he picked on the wrong little black duck, let me tell you). He was telling me how they come in and change the cultures of other places and destroy their practices and alter the way they have done things for many years. The thing was that this person was in the habit of travelling overseas to conduct dental clinics in third world nations. I wonder, did he change any practices, did he alter the way they had done things for many years. Did he destroy some of the ways that they had been operating in? of course he did!! That’s why he was going there to bring dental health into the 21st century // Why is it that we are happy to tell others where you can get a bargain, where you can get a good deal but when it comes to faith – something that has an impact on life now and in the age to come – we are silent?
My friends the lost matter to God, and if we have an unswerving commitment to his message then they matter to us.
But an uncompromising commitment to living out the message has other ramifications as well.
It means that all we do and all we have has to be examined in the light of the message. Even what we do with our time, even what we do with our careers. I will talk about this in-depth another night but some of us here tonight have gifts that are laying dormant and talents that are yet undiscovered. Each one of us here must be prepared to lay down everything in light of what God communicates through his message. And if that does not make you gulp, you’re not listening. Some of us here have practices and habits that directly go against this core value. Some of us need to carefully examine what we do in light of the message. You see the pull of these times is so strong that we do things without even knowing what we are up to.
But let me say something that has been on my heart lately - There are some people here tonight that need to set aside some time, even a couple of years, and formally study the Bible. There are some people here who God is calling to do more than attend. I suspect that God is setting apart some people. My prayer for you as it is for everyone here is that you will recognise that special call on your life.
Whoever we are and whatever stage we are at, to strive towards living out the message joins, us with the ranks of Christians who have lived through the generations. From the early apostles the William Tyndale’s to the modern church. For all of us it will take an uncompromising commitment for us to live out the message.
But you know what? If we centre ourselves on this message nothing will be able to drag us away from what we were made to do. From being the Church!
So even though I have much more to say I think maybe I should end and finish by reminding you of the core values from the message room.
1. We value the inspired written message from God.
2 An uncompromising commitment to living out the message
May God give us great wisdom in integrating these into our lives.
If you remember we are neck deep into a series on our core values. Core values are those things that propel us to act in a certain way. And they stop us from doing other things. They define who we are. There are lots of examples of core values being worked out in the Bible. There was a stand out figure in the Old Testament by the name of Nehemiah who was asked by God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. It’s a long story but Jerusalem was in ruins without any walls or defences. Now it was a big enough job in itself to rebuild the walls. But Nehemiah’s other problem was that the surrounding cities did not want Jerusalem’s walls to be rebuilt and so they tried attempt after attempt to distract Nehemiah from his work. They were so keen on dragging him away from this task that they sent false emissaries from Nehemiah’s king (who Nehemiah didn’t realise were false) to tell him to stop and go immediately to see the king. And Nehemiah’s answer? “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down”. You see Nehemiah was clear about what he was about and what he was supposed to do. It helped him define what he should and should not do.
I am deliberately pushing core values into your face because I want us to really think about what we should and should not be doing. Who we are and what makes us tick and what sets us apart from clubs and groups that are in society.
Last week I introduced you to the house metaphor. The house is the place where we live as a community of faith. Its Gods house and living in that house defines us off from everything else that is going on around us.
Of course the house has rooms in it. Rooms that exist for different functions. Last week I talked about the family room where we relate to God and then to each other. I was encouraged to see so many people connecting with each other last Sunday night. I have wondered all through the week if anybody was brave enough to call someone else and to pray with them.
Tonight I want to talk about the next room in the house – the Message room. I know it’s a funny title but I am using that word ‘message’ deliberately. Hopefully by the time I am finished you will understand!
Like the fellowship room there are 2 core values in the message room. 2 things that we have to really wrestle with and think about and understand. Let me get on with it then!
1. We value the inspired written message from God. (the Bible)
Thirty years ago the language used might have been something like our core value is to recognise the authority of the Word of God. For many of our ancestors the written message from God – the Bible was very important. They were strong on reading it, memorising it and basing their life around it. Look back over time and see just how many people have names that come from the Bible. Whole cities and nations have been built on the teachings found in the bible. Cecily read out tonight just one story from among many of people who have given their lives because they believed this book held something important for everybody to have a chance at understanding. Many, many down through history have sacrificed their lives or their careers to translate and explain the bible.
Lately though, in the past 100 years or so, it has been somewhat put to the side, or marginalised in many ways. Even the church, if you can believe it, has raised questions of doubt over the Bible. But the thing is that the Bible keeps bouncing back. I know of no other book in the history of humanity that has undergone so much scrutiny and analysis. And yet despite all of that it still holds together, it still has its integrity.
Now the Bible is not just an amazing book because it has undergone all these tests but because of what it claims for itself. It dares to declares that its the very words of God. The inspired breath of God for us to understand who God is and in turn who we are. And it records the history of how God has been working in this world, right from the very beginning and then the prophets to Jesus and the early church. It maps out for us how God has been interacting with humanity in a saving role right down through the generations.
So let me get to the point what I want to say to you - this sacred book is significant for who we are. And its important for a whole stack of reasons. I could spend weeks working on this but let me just quickly pad them out;
It’s a core value because it tells us everything we know about Jesus. It doesn’t contain his whole life, in fact there are huge gaps in his early child hood and many things that are skipped over. But it informs us of the significant bits. Things like what he came to do and what affect that has on us. / Later on in the Bible, Jesus is called the author of life. In other words you want to live life well then copy him and the way he does things. And it also tells us that the way of salvation, now and in the time to come, is only through Jesus. So you see its important for us to grab hold of these things.
It’s a core value because it tells us how God has acted in the past. And so if God is unchanging then it’s a fair bet that’s the way he is going to act in the future. In other words how he related to the bible characters is how he relates to us. More importantly it means that God is not a complete mystery, and we are not left stumbling in the dark.
Many people understand the Bible to be a living book. That is, it has a knack of reapplying itself to its current environment. It tells us that God has not left us along nor does God forget our struggles and suffering. For years the Bible has been bringing comfort to many different people. In their times of joy or sadness or difficulty. Because of what they read between its pages.
But also it’s a core value for us because its the primary way in which God communicates with us. Over the years I have received specific guidance from simply reading the Bible. Words that I have read many times have suddenly jumped out from the page at me as if they were pop-ups. God by his Spirit continues to use this ancient book, that we treat with such casualness (nonchalance) to change the course of history today – our history. Chinese church do not put their Bibles on the floor…
But let me say this -its no good us just hearing that message. Its no good just reading the bible and marvelling at it and thinking what a great book it is.
The Jordan River runs down through Israel from the top of the country out of the sea of Galilee. It runs right down through the country and then into what is called the dead see. So this quite large river that gives so much life to hundreds of acres of fertile land runs into the dead see, right down at the bottom, and dies.
The Dead Sea has life going in but nothing going out. Over the years because there is nothing going out, the water is evaporated and what’s left behind is an incredibly salty mix. So the fresh water of the Jordan river comes into it but its quickly swamped with the highly salty waters of the Dead Sea. Because of its high salinity its actually possible to float on the waters with no problems at all. But the thing is its called the dead sea for a reason, because nothing can live in it. It gets life in only for it to die.
The point for us is that if all we do is take life in, that is we take the message of God in, the message of grace of hope of healing of good things in and don’t give it out. Then we are just like the Dead Sea.
That’s why the second of our core values from the message room is
2. An uncompromising commitment to living out the message.
I have deliberately used that word uncompromising in the sentence, although I was thinking about stubborn, or dogged, or gritty.
Let me tell you this is the hard end of the deal for tonight. If you want to have it easy then turn off your hearing aid now.
I say that because I am realising more and more just how easy we want to have life. And I am not just talking about labour saving devices. In all spectrums of life as a nation we don’t seem to want to work for anything any more. We expect it to be easy, in fact we are demanding it to be easy. We don’t want to be disciplined in what time we can shop – lets open the shops all the time! Food! I’ll eat what I want than you very much – you just go and make a slimming pill. Save energy!? What and not cool the whole house down all the time – you have got to be kidding!
You see my friends we are in the grip of something that is not easy to shake. Something that has got hold of this culture and is not going to let go without a struggle. Its called laziness and in some other circles, apathy.
The road of following the teachings of the Bible is not an easy one. Ask those among us who have been on the path for 40, 50, 60 years – they’ll tell you. It’s a constant struggle. So here-in lies the challenge – to live out the radical call of the Bible in the face of our prevailing culture. To hear the message and to not live as the message tells us is to put ourselves into the Dead Sea category.
There are several areas we should talk about in living out the message.
Living out the message is done in heaps of different ways. In one way its done by how we act. People can see who we belong to by the way we treat others, by the way we respond to circumstances and how we react in crisis moments. In Galatians 5:22 – 23 it tells us what a person who lives the message looks like. They have the fruit of the Spirit evident in their lives.
In another way it’s done by speaking. By actually share with another the message, the good news of what God has done in history and in our lives. No I know only too well that many people have been labelled bible bashers. I myself groan when the JW’s or the Mormons come to my door. But a few bad experiences must not dissuade us from speaking the truth in live. This church (us) need to discover ways of speaking about God that other people who yet don’t belong can connect with. There are many, many people who don’t understand, who have serious misconceptions, or who have not even heard about what God in Jesus has done for us. They haven’t heard about the freedom we have, about the release from guilt, about the healings that can take place by connecting with God. / Those of us who have heard, have a responsibility to share. There is a passage in the Bible, in Romans that says “How can they hear unless they have someone to tell them?”
A lot of people have a great deal of discomfort in talking about the faith and in sharing the stories of God with their friends and neighbours. They think its something of an imposition, you should not force that on people. I was talking to a dentist the other day who knowing I was a minister started ribbing me about the missionary movement (with my background he picked on the wrong little black duck, let me tell you). He was telling me how they come in and change the cultures of other places and destroy their practices and alter the way they have done things for many years. The thing was that this person was in the habit of travelling overseas to conduct dental clinics in third world nations. I wonder, did he change any practices, did he alter the way they had done things for many years. Did he destroy some of the ways that they had been operating in? of course he did!! That’s why he was going there to bring dental health into the 21st century // Why is it that we are happy to tell others where you can get a bargain, where you can get a good deal but when it comes to faith – something that has an impact on life now and in the age to come – we are silent?
My friends the lost matter to God, and if we have an unswerving commitment to his message then they matter to us.
But an uncompromising commitment to living out the message has other ramifications as well.
It means that all we do and all we have has to be examined in the light of the message. Even what we do with our time, even what we do with our careers. I will talk about this in-depth another night but some of us here tonight have gifts that are laying dormant and talents that are yet undiscovered. Each one of us here must be prepared to lay down everything in light of what God communicates through his message. And if that does not make you gulp, you’re not listening. Some of us here have practices and habits that directly go against this core value. Some of us need to carefully examine what we do in light of the message. You see the pull of these times is so strong that we do things without even knowing what we are up to.
But let me say something that has been on my heart lately - There are some people here tonight that need to set aside some time, even a couple of years, and formally study the Bible. There are some people here who God is calling to do more than attend. I suspect that God is setting apart some people. My prayer for you as it is for everyone here is that you will recognise that special call on your life.
Whoever we are and whatever stage we are at, to strive towards living out the message joins, us with the ranks of Christians who have lived through the generations. From the early apostles the William Tyndale’s to the modern church. For all of us it will take an uncompromising commitment for us to live out the message.
But you know what? If we centre ourselves on this message nothing will be able to drag us away from what we were made to do. From being the Church!
So even though I have much more to say I think maybe I should end and finish by reminding you of the core values from the message room.
1. We value the inspired written message from God.
2 An uncompromising commitment to living out the message
May God give us great wisdom in integrating these into our lives.
posted by Jonathan at 1:40 PM
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