Northside Church - Sydney
Journeying into 2013 Week 1: A Place of Freedom
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Well friends this morning we're going to go into a series that will take us right through January. It's called 'Journey Into 2013' because of course that's exactly what we're doing. We have started a journey into a brand new year and that's always pretty exciting and as with any journey where we're heading is important, the destinations we want to reach that's very important. The places we may want to visit on the way are very important. In the modern era of course the motorist friend is the GPS and how many here can testify like I can to the marbles of one of those little babies. Come on. Oh look at those hands yes, you know I mean they can save you time, they can save you stress, under certain circumstances they can actually save a marriage, not that I would know anything about that but that's what they tell me. One of the things that gave Bev and I such a great pleasure at driving last year and we took that trip to France to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary was the little GPS built into our little Citroen. Has that yellow and Citroen? Is that okay? French pronunciation of Citroen. Is that just like it was, we did four and a half, 4,600 Ks around that country and like we would have been, well we would have made it but without that little GPS, fantastic little invention showing us not only where to go but the speed signs and all that sort of thing other traffic conditions. Well look friends there's a sense in which without pushing the analogy too far, there's a sense in which Jesus Christ, for those who follow him he's a living GPS, I mean everything we need to know about the journey of life is built into who he is and his teachings through his word and through the teachings of the church, there's a sense in which he is our built-in GPS for the journey into 2013. And so his desire is to take us to a place of freedom, a place of free from guilt, free from fear, he wants to take us to a place of confidence, ready to face whatever this year may hold with assurance and with poise, he wants to take us to a place of influence where we feel as though we're going to be able to make a difference in the world in which we are moving, he wants to take us to a place of power, a place of emotional and spiritual strength where we can say with Paul I can face all conditions, all conditions by the power that Christ gives me, there's our little overview for the next month, there are the four topics we're looking at this morning, it's a place of freedom, what does that mean for us as Christians, let's join in prayer, shall we? Father God we recognize this morning that the journey has begun, we are already on the road toward a brand new year, some of us will want to repeat some of the things that happened last year, some of us will want to avoid at all costs, some of the things that have happened in these last 12 months. Father above all we pray that we may not just drift aimlessly into this year, but that we'll get a sense of direction, a sense of purpose, we'll see you as a GPS unit from which we can draw guidance and all the help we need for the journey, may that be so we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. Speaking of France, one of the things that occurred to Bev and myself and this is not a great revelation but it's obvious that over there there's a huge industry in the field of voice dubbing, as with all non-English speaking countries you see they get swamped like we all do with the hundreds of movies that come mainly from Hollywood, all the big blockbuster movies are released in a country like France, but they have to put voices over the English voices to so that the French people can understand them and it's something that occurred to me, wow that must be a huge industry, getting the right voices to the right characters. I mean you wouldn't want to voice like the comedian Dave Hughes like for James Bond would you, you know, like a very bad choice wouldn't it, yeah when it's Bond what's it to you, you know, I mean it wouldn't be a right fit you know, and so we had a kind of humorous incident with this, we were scanning the channels late one night and we came across of all movies Braveheart so here you had an Aussie Mel Gibson with a Scottish accent and that being translated somehow into some, into French and like we didn't understand it but it just, I thought I wonder how that works, you know, English to Scottish, Scottish to French, it was it was crazy, here's the point, the scene we dropped onto, the scene we dropped onto in that movie, that 1995 movie, was the part where William Wallace's motley crew, William Wallace of course played by Mel Gibson, his motley crew are about to, they're being tempted to escape from the British or the English rather, English army that's that's assembled on the other side of the valley and they are a frightening looking group, they are just all there with their shields and their banners and their flags and and William Wallace is motley crowd, they want to, they want to escape and of course that's the point where, where Mel Gibson on his horse and his face all painted up like a bulldog supporter, he, he goes up and down and he, he says, if you go, if you go now you'll be on your death bed one day desperate for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell enemies they may take our lives but they'll never take our freedom, exactly, I'm hoping to get a better response tonight but our freedom that's right, it's one of, look that's one of many emotion charged speeches both on film and in history dealing with the time honored subject of freedom, you see there are very few words in any language that are aroused more passion and more emotion than the word freedom, people desperately crave freedom, people strive for freedom, people will die for freedom as we're finding every week in our own country, people will take perilous journeys across the ocean with their families under horrific conditions to gain some sort of freedom and so many countries around the world have their monuments and their sacred sites and their special days to commemorate the journey toward freedom here in Australia the ANZAC tradition, sacred it's as strong and it's as significant as it has ever been more so in my lifetime and just recently I watched a documentary on SBS, thank you Sandra for SBS being such a great, Sandra works first BS, such a great channel, it was a documentary about the civil rights movement in America in the 50s and 60s and once again I was reminded of the use of that word freedom by Dr Martin Luther King as the whole movement gained momentum and swept across the United States, freedom you know is a dominant theme of this book, really is, going way back to Moses and his leadership of the children of Israel from the from the captivity of Egypt, right through to the book of Revelation where we have the promise of freedom from death and the certainty of eternal life for the people of God but friends it's Jesus himself who has the honour of making the most startling, the most profound, the most powerful comment about freedom and we've just read it, riches just brought it to us, John chapter 8 verse 36, if the sun sets you free, you will be really free, older versions say you will be free indeed and this statement, this single statement from Jesus serves as a reminder, a stark unequivocal reminder that the Christian life is all about freedom, it's all about liberation, it's all about release, it's all about fulfillment and in the minds of some people that's a real contradiction in terms because they have the distinct idea that Christianity is about restrictions, it's about repression, it's about regulations, all those rules and requirements, I'm prepared to say sadly the Christian church has over the years some branches of it has given that that impression, that view, that that's the way it is in a Christian life and that's sad but we still have this word of Jesus, this single beautiful statement, if the sun sets you free you will be really free, what does this statement mean, really, I mean we know it, some of you have been around the church for years but what does it really mean in practical down to earth everyday experience, what does it mean to be a free person in Jesus Christ, I believe really free means a number of things because the emphasis is on really, really free, really free means first of all freedom to live and I just don't mean freedom to exist until death takes us, we've all got the freedom to exist but freedom to experience life without the debilitating and restrictive effects of guilt and remorse, that's the first thing, freedom to discover a clear purpose in living, a real death that objective for life, freedom to experience first hand the truth of Jesus teachings that it really is in losing that we find, it really is in giving that we receive, it really is in dying to self that we are born to life, that's real life, I mean so much of what passes for freedom today is really a form of captivity, a concealed form of captivity and in some cases not so concealed, if people pursue materialism as a way of expressing real life they easily become ensnared in a relentless quest to acquire things none of which really provide them with satisfaction to their inner longing for peace and contentment, same with pleasure, if that becomes the all-consuming reason for existence it's not long before people discover the fragility and the futility of that scene, we see that in the celebrity set all that time, ad nauseam, talk about really living, we introduced Alicia London here a couple of weeks ago, Alicia form a member of Northside now living in London and I had the opportunity to chat with her last weekend in a longer session now look I could draw people from out of this congregation, stacks of them who would have a similar story but Alicia is just one classic example of a young woman still on the sunny side of 30 with extraordinary academic gifts both here in Australia and she's a graduate of the London School of Economics and yet she chose of her own initiative as part of her discipleship with Jesus Christ she chose to spearhead that organization in England called Global Poverty and she is just relentless in her pursuit working with politicians and civic leaders just relentless in her pursuit to try to get the incidence of global poverty down and she was so excited when she said to me over lunch she went for it and she said it is coming down, it's coming down, she said I'm visiting places in the world and it's coming down the statistics are going the right way and look I said what motivates you, how do you get through the disappointments she said this is what God called me to do, now I'm sure all of her contemporaries must look at her, a lot of her London School of Economic Graduate to look at her and go whoa what's that about, sure as a hobby, sure gives some money, sure maybe attend a volunteer day but to give you a whole life to that, not much money there, not much reward there, just inspiring to talk to her, she's discovered real life as so many others here and all over the Church of Jesus Christ have, really free means freedom to live, it also means freedom to forgive, these are the basics of our faith, let's be honest, quite a part many spiritual principle involved here, basic psychology tells us that our sense of freedom and happiness in life will be directly affected by our capacity and our willingness to forgive, that's basic psychology, if you ever have been in a situation where you have allowed bitterness and resentment toward another person to really build, to really take hold, you know how debilitating that can be, you know how all consuming that can be robbing us of joy and of peace, it's like I've often said before, you've heard me say it some of you been around for a while, you know resentment, bitterness is like drinking the poison and expecting the other person to die, whereas like you're the one who's dying, in what ways does Jesus give us freedom to forgive, primarily because of the forgiveness and the grace he has given to us, that's it, primarily because of the grace and forgiveness we have received through him, and grace and forgiveness of course represent the very epicenter of the Christian message, Paul puts it this way in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 7, he says, "For by the blood of Christ we are set free," that is, "our sins are forgiven," how great is the grace of God which he has given to us in such large measure, it's not a stingy grace, it's not a skimpy grace, it's a generous lavish grace, that's what we're celebrating this morning, in 1 John chapter 1 verse 9 there's the promise that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just will forgive and will cleanse, that's a promise we can cling to, and so here we are only days since the celebrations of Christmas, and probably the decorations are yet to be put back in the box, and that is my neighbor, still had their lights on, I thought that was New Year's Day finished, but he's going still, great, looks good at night, beautiful, but we've still got the memory of the word of the angel to Joseph, you will call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins, and people may say, "Look, what's the big deal, what's the big deal about this, why is it necessary, why is it so important that we have our sins forgiven, what's the big deal about that?" And I would simply answer, only those who've been forgiven can truly forgive, only those who are forgiven can truly forgive, only when my emotional and spiritual well-being has been blessed and enriched by grace and forgiveness, only then am I able to extend to somebody else, the love and the grace and the forgiveness that they need. You see, a guilt-ridden person, or someone who believes they're deserving of forgiveness, but not getting it, they are less inclined to forgive others because they're likely to be thinking, "Well, why should I? I'm not receiving it. They haven't given it to me, why should I?" You see, in one of his parables, Matthew 18, verses 21 to 35, Jesus is scathing in his condemnation of a guy who was forgiven millions by a king, the debt just wiped clean in an incredible act of grace, and the guy goes out and bows up a friend who owes him a few dollars and grabs him by those rodents and says, "Pay up now!" And Jesus is aghast to think that that would happen in his story, and so he says, "That's not how forgiveness is meant to work." You know, it's like in the car park at Westfield, if you are showing, and it happens very rarely, if you are showing a bit of grace and somebody says, "Oh, look, we're both here together," you take it, you take the car park. It has happened. You're more inclined to do that next time around yourself. Something lets you in, sorry, I'm just a lane change, you're more inclined to, that's how this stuff is supposed to work. Friends don't go into 2013 with bitterness and an unforgiving spirit. That's not where God wants you to travel to. That's not the place he wants for you, either now or in this year. That's not the place. He's called you to a place called freedom. Freedom to live, freedom to forgive, and the third one is freedom to learn. Like, it's very liberating. It's a very liberating thing to be sure and comfortable in your own beliefs. You know, they have it all pretty much together, but at the same time being open to new insights and new learnings, which may lead to your greater enlightenment. It's a very liberating thing, isn't it, to be in that situation? I think it comes better with age, as for me, a little bit narrow, a bit, you know, one way, but as you get older and you sort of get a bit more perspective on life, it's one of the joys of getting older for your young people. You lighten up a little bit. You start to believe more and more about less and less. You think about that. It's a very liberating thing. You see, closed-mindedness, bigotry, inflexibility, these are among the main reasons behind conflict and prejudice and all the things that rip lives apart. And these were realities for Jesus, of course. He was facing this sort of thing all the time. The religious leaders believed that they knew it all. They had nothing more to learn. They were very set in their religious ways, in their ways of worship, and they had a very definite idea as to who the Messiah would be and what He would look like, and Jesus didn't fit that mold at all. And so they had their fixed ideas about all these things, and they totally missed the Christ event and were responsible for His premature demise. There's under this heading, there's a verse I love to read and think about and when necessary, referring in sermons. And it's this one from Ephesians chapter 3 and verses 18 and 19. Check this one at home. It's a great, great two verses. Paul says, "May you, together with all God's people, may you have the power to understand how broad and long, how high and deep is Christ's love. May you come to know His love," and this is the part we often skip over, "although it can never be fully known. May you come to know His love, although it can never be fully known. Don't tell me you've got your faith all sown up. Don't tell me you've read all the books you need to read. Listen to all the CDs you need to listen to, all the MP3s, watched all the DVDs you. Don't tell me you're done with connection group. You don't need that. It can never be fully known. The love of Christ can never be fully known. There's always something to learn. And I get some of my greatest moments of inspiration in this church from some of our senior people who've been around the church for years, who've heard all this stuff for years and years and years, and yet they tell me about moments of fresh insights that they receive in life and through the ministry of this church. It's fantastic. So many of our senior citizens here still on a growth edge, still learning, still feeling free to learn. I would say about a whole congregation. I would pay tribute to our whole congregation here and the changes that you've endured over the years. It says to me, "You've been given the freedom to learn and to grow," because things aren't like they were five years ago. They're certain they were 14 years ago when I started here. And that's been a journey. A journey of progression and a journey of understanding and tolerance and acceptance, and we as a church have the beneficiaries of that freedom to learn. Finally, to be really free in Christ means freedom to love. No, I'm not referring to that free love made famous by the hippies of the '60s. If you grew up through that here and you know what that term means, I'm referring to our capacity to build strong relationships with others based on mutual trust, mutual respect, relationships motivated by what we can give, not by what we can get, relationships characterized by genuine care and compassion and empathy. I'm referring, of course, to the need to build strong community within the body of Christ. And as we saw with the notion of forgiveness, so with love for each other, the modeling, the standard has been set by God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 John 4 verse 19 to 21. And I'm reading from the message, which really as it does with many of these passages, it really kind of brings it to life. 1 John 4, 19 to 21. First we were loved. Now we love. God loved us first. If anyone boasts, I love God, but goes on hating someone, they are lying. If we won't love the person we can see, how can we love the God we can't see? The command we have from Christ is blunt. Loving God includes loving people. We've got to love both. That's the message. It's a fantastic rendition of that very familiar passage. You see, friends, when it comes down to the wire, the resilience and the health of community life in a church is so vital. We're proving that every week here at Northside. You can think you've got your theology altogether, and you may have. You may have the doctrine all lined up beautifully. But if people aren't being genuinely cared for, if you're not there for them when they need it, not just the pastor, but others as well as part of community life, then we've missed the mark. We've sadly missed the mark, and that's the sort of community we're seeking to build here at Northside. We have people have valued where if you've got a need and less for some reason, we don't know anything about it, and you've got to maybe get on the phone and let us know, we want to be there for you. We want to build community at that level. Really free? What does that mean? What in practical terms does it mean to be free in Christ? It means freedom to live, really live, freedom to forgive, no resentment, freedom to learn and grow, freedom to love and show genuine care. Friends, that's the destination called freedom, and that's the place, one of the many places God wants us to be in 2013. Actually, it's an ongoing place. You can be there right now, today. The destination in 2013 is simply going on to greater levels of freedom. You can be in a place of freedom under these points right here, right now. It's a state of mind, it's a state of the heart for the person who's following Jesus. If the Son sets you free, you will be really free. Do you know that freedom today? He wants you to. It doesn't want you to go into this new year with any kind of impediments or hang ups that are going to excessively hold you back. It might take prayer, might take disclosure to somebody, might take getting really serious with God and his word, but that's one of the places he wants for you and for me in 2013. He's out building GPS unit, but like any GPS, it only works if you turn it on and start to have a look at it and start to get into Let's be on prayer.