Northside Church - Sydney
New Series: Life's Too Short – Week 1: To Play It Safe
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Now friends, if I was delivering this series at the beginning of the 20th century, and I wasn't around at that time, but let's say I was, then this title, Life's Too Short, would probably take on an extra meaning, because as you would expect, people lived for a lot less time in those days in Australia. We all know that, but you might be shocked to know the number of years fewer they lived. For instance, in the case of men, at the turn of the 20th century, they lived 24 years less on average than they do today. It's in Australia. For women, it was a staggering figure of 27 years less than women do on average today. It's amazing. In the Western world, longevity, life expectancy has been steadily increasing over the past 100-plus years. In a recent survey by the UN a couple of years ago, only two countries can offer greater longevity than Australia. One is Iceland, who want to live there, even if it meant another year or two. The other one is Japan. That wouldn't be a bad option, but for ladies in Australia today, it's about 80 and four men. It is 79, ladies still pitting us by one year at least, fellas. We've probably all sorts of reasons for that. Now, of course, sadly, tragically, in developing nations, the longevity, the life expectancy has actually been going down, largely because of the ravages of the AIDS virus. So you get a country like Swaziland, which has the lowest life expectancy in the world at the moment, where, for men, it is 40 years of age, and for women, it is 39. They're tragic figures to think about, but when we talk about life's too short, we're more referring, of course, to the fragility of life. The frailty of life, it's not so much in terms of longevity in life. It's more in terms of that fragility. And because of that unpredictability of life, thinking people recognize the need to maximize every opportunity that's given in every day, as someone has said, live and love every day, every day, as though you believe it could be your last. Just one day, you'll be spot on. I mean, that's how it works. So the Bible picks up on this theme in passages like Psalm 90, verse 12, "Teach us how short life is, so we may become wise," and Paul addressed the Christians in Ephesus with these words. Be careful how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity. And friends, the assertion we're making this morning is, life's too short to play it safe, too short to merely drift along without taking any risks, too short to be entirely predictable and conformist in the way we live. Now some of you are thinking, hey, wait a minute, Graham, listen, hang on, I'm no thrill seeker. You know, I mean, I pry myself in the way that I take precautions, I follow safe practices when it comes to recreation, when it comes to lifestyle, when it comes to matters of health and well-being, I don't want to be reckless, I don't want to take unnecessary risks, I don't want to jeopardize any of these things, and look, let's say that's understandable. I mean, not many are called, not many are inclined, not many are even gifted to really push the limits of human endurance. Not many people jump out of planes, Elaine Fitzpatrick will be here in the next service, he did at 80 years of age, not many people shrimmer the sharks, not many people do a bungee jump, not many people scale a treacherous mountain, or do what they guided this wig, a base jump from Mount Everest. I mean, not many do that, not many run marathons and triatholons, not many do that, and we've got people at Northside who've done all of those things, well, not the base jump, but everything else, Michael Thomas who jumped out of a plane, for example. Carly is a runner, Sam played rugby union, I mean, there are some heroes among us, but you know, they're more the exception than the rule, but they are our heroes here, but look, you know, when we talk as disciples, when we talk about the need to avoid playing it safe, we're really bringing into view, something that's very different to these sorts of things, we're bringing into view an aspect of Christian theology and biblical teaching that is just so vital, namely the difference between our physical body and our spiritual being, that's what we're really highlighting, and there is a huge difference, a very important distinction between the two, you see, the humanist believes that we are a mass of tissues and bone that would be put together somehow, and that we sort of move around with a very conscious awareness of who we are unlike other forms of the creation, but we're kind of out there, protecting ourselves, preserving ourselves, doing all we can to try to give ourselves a secure and happy life. Oh, yes, the humanist may acknowledge that we have a kind of a spiritual nature, maybe, that's why we get a little bit gooey sometimes, a little bit emotional, that's why we can get inspired about certain things, but that's about where it ends. Now friends, that is so different to how we as Christians see us, right? I mean, we don't think we're merely a physical body that happens to have a spiritual nature, I don't know, we assert on the authority of the Word of God that we are spiritual beings created in the likeness of God with the capacity to think and to feel and to love, and above all with the capacity to respond to our maker, to our heavenly Father, and we happen to reside in a physical body. Many years ago, I saw at the Royal Adelaide Hospital an autopsy, it was the most grueling half hour of my life, but the whole point of it with a bunch of other ministers was to highlight this very thing, where spiritual beings residing in a physical body, which one day is no more, it's a very powerful moment, well, unlike some religions of the world over the centuries, which have tended to denigrate the physical body with its desires and its limitations, and they tended to elevate the spiritual being, say like Buddhism, for instance. Unlike that, Christianity has been able to really come up with the heart of our teaching, there's a beautiful balance between the two, a balance that gives perspective on the relationship between the body and the spirit. You see, we have a little celebration called Christmas, that's where we've got an edge over other religious movements, we have a thing called Christmas, where God, the creator of everything, came in a human body, came in the person of Jesus Christ, we call it the incarnation, and in doing so Jesus glorified the human body, he showed that it can be consecrated, it can be devoted wholly to God, it can be used for noble and holy purposes. In the incarnation, Jesus showed that the desires of our physical being can be submitted, can be brought into line with the desires and the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and we can be seen to be who we really are, that is spiritual beings. The Bible talks about our bodies being the temple of the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 3, surely you know that you are God's temple and God's spirit lives in you. We are spiritual beings inhabiting a physical body. Now it's easy to make that assertion, you can say that, like I've just said it, it's very challenging to actually live it out, I mean Paul himself, Paul had struggles, real struggles in this area, and he talks on more than one occasion about the tension between the physical and the spiritual, take Romans 7, for instance, from verse 18 he says, "I know that good does not live in me, that is in my human nature. For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it. I don't do the good I want to, instead I do the evil I don't want to do. If I do what I don't want to do, this means that I'm no longer the one who does it, instead it is the sin that lives in me, I mean you get the feeling, this is a real struggle for Paul, he needs to talk to somebody about it, he's really in some strife here. Now at this point you can be forgiven for thinking, now what is the parable of the talents, why was that reading chosen, was that a mistake, why was that reading chosen as the backdrop of the message today? Well, can I direct you to one of the central themes of the parable of the talents, and the central theme is how are we to care for the things that are entrusted to us? How are we to use the gifts and the blessings God gives to each one of us? How are we to use those? And here's the thing, the parable of the talents appears to illustrate how we should live as responsible and respectful Christians, particularly in relation to the third servant. I mean, it would appear at the human level, yeah, like, you know, you think, well yeah, you got it right, I mean, here's a rich man, okay, and he goes on a long trip and he gives all of his wealth to his three servants and he says, look, you know, take care of it, look after it, I'm entrusting it to you, it'd be like us being asked by a friend or, say a boss, you know, think of the richest person you know, and they go away and they say, look, when I put you in charge of our house, when you're living our house, here's the keys of the car, here's even some, you know, passwords and that for our finances, if the thing's going to be, you can manage some of the things, if circumstances change, I mean, what are you going to do, you're going to trash the place, are you going to throw wild parties every Saturday night, you're going to do burnouts in the car, you're going to get your hands on that money, whoa, like, if you're a basic kind of person, you are, but no, no, I mean, as responsible and respectful people, we're going to look after the things entrusted to us, of course, we're going to be careful, we're going to be prudent, we're going to be conservative, we're going to play it safe, as if these things were our very own. That's essentially what the servant in our story did, the third servant, he buried his talent to keep it safe and to ensure that it was intact when the master returned, but Jesus said, bam, wrong answer, got it wrong, sorry, that's not the right thing to do. And you know, for many years, I've found myself wondering, why is that? Why was Jesus so hard on this guy? He didn't lose it, it's all there, here you go, master, why was he so hard? And over time, I've come to realise that what's going on here, you see, the servant was essentially losing sight of the fact we are spiritual beings in a physical body and not the other way around. In playing it safe, in refusing to take a risk, in treating the talent as though it were his or his alone, the man missed the chance to utilise the most important component to our spiritual make-up. You know what that is? Faith, that's it. That's the most important component in your spiritual being and mine. Faith, our natural physical wiring is security, protection, self-preservation, and that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. That's valid when it's applied to our physical body. We ought to look after ourselves in that way, but that's not what we need for growth and development as spiritual beings. There's the difference. You see, as spiritual beings, as children of God, as followers of Jesus Christ, we need a degree of reckless abandon. We need to be able to just kind of very cut loose in unexpected ways to aspire to our full potential in Him. Let me put it this way. There's inherent danger in listening to the self-preservation instincts of our physical natures, at the expense of listening to the voice of the Spirit. You might want to think about that for a while. You see, our spirits have different priorities, different needs. Our spirit craves passion, purpose, thrive, transformational outcomes. That's what really spins the wheels of our spiritual being. Whereas our bodies for the most part, unless you're one of those rule-thruel seekers, our bodies for the most part crave comfort, that which feels good, that which is convenient, that which comes easily. Why make waves? The friends herein lies the tension between our physical side and our spiritual being. Yes, we are spiritual beings in a human body. I'm sure all of us have had moments in life when we've dreamed of what could be possible. Have you had those moments? You might have even been given a little glimpse of what might be possible for you, through you. Things you'd like to see happen through you in your church, in your family, in your life, in ways you can make a difference and contribute. Look, these moments might have come during a conference where some speaker really stirred you up, or a seminar, or in a connection group. When you learn of the story of somebody else in the group that really got you, I could do that. It might have been in just a moment of quiet meditation somewhere. We've all had those kind of moments where you've been given a glimpse of what might be possible if you're really laid it on the line for God. Have you noticed how in those moments, if you've had them, I'm sure you have, we really come alive. We really come alive in those moments. They can be among the most invigorating moments of our lives where God reveals all kinds of dreams and possibilities. These moments are a powerful expression of our spirituality, our identity in Christ. But you know what often happens? You know what often happens. The physical, fleshly side of our nature looks in the shadows and says, "You know what? That's a bad idea. That is not a good idea." You have no way of knowing how this might turn out. You could fail. People might laugh. You might not achieve what you're setting out to achieve. You have responsibilities, you know. It's about time you started acting like an adult. It's about time you started playing it safe because there's so much at stake. Well, under these conditions, of course, many churches, many Christians, many ministers, misamazing opportunities for God's kingdom to accelerate and make an impact. The paraphrase John Orteberg, who's a famous American writer, he says, "We let the yes of faith be thumped by the no of fear." Fear has a victory. One of the things I love about my work as a minister, one of the many things I love, is that we're in the box seat here in the ministry team. We're in the box seat. I've seen people have a victory in this very area where faith is victorious over fear. And I love that aspect of my work. Who other people you see having victory? Faith over fear? Well, it's every leader for a start. Every person who's ever said, "You know what? I'll give of my time and energy. I'll become a leader." It's everyone who serves in any ministry in any way who said, "Yeah, I'll get here early. Yeah, I'll stay late. Yeah, I'll do my bit." It's everyone who's ever spoken to a first-time guest at a service who saw it on somebody else said, "No, blow it. I'll do it. You know? Hey, hi." Those people who have a victory, faith over fear. It's everyone who's consciously done what Graham and Helen Reed do, sit down, have a conversation about giving and about what their response should be to the Lord's work. They've had a victory, a faith over fear. It's everyone who's looked at and grasped the opportunity to talk to somebody in whatever form about their faith or just to make a little difference where they could have done something else and just kept going. And we could just keep listing. I mean, this is my work. I get to see this all the time and it's exciting. The servant in this parable who took that which the master had given and played it safe is on the receiving end of unbelievable criticism and condemnation from Jesus. It's just over the top. It's like so. It's the ultimate sin. Maybe it is. So the message is clear. Life's too short to play it safe, to quench those spiritual aspirations. It's way too short to do that. And so it raises the question and I ask the question of myself first and foremost, what could it mean for you, for me, to start taking a few risks or if you're taking risks already, a few more risks to the spirits in response to the spirit's promptings? What could it mean for you? What could it mean for me? For me, it's been a progressive journey of spiritual growth, of trusting God and taking steps. The first big one was receiving Jesus Christ at 15 years of age. That was a big step. And then, in trusting my life into his service and his ministry, when I had other plans that were so clearly defined, so I thought, the history of this church, going back 30 years, almost, is a series of victories of faith over fear where the natural incarnation would have been that, oh, $2 million of debt. I don't think so. We're not that big. Could have played it safe. Could be back in the old warehouse. The history of our church is of people like you, just ordinary people like you breaking through and having victories of faith over fear. What could that mean for you today, this week? Pray about it. Grasp every opportunity to have one of those victories. You are a spiritual being. It just happens to me living in a physical body. Let's bow