Northside Church - Sydney
DNA of the Christian Life. Week 6: Mapping our experiences.
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Look, there was a craze that went through the world in the mid-90s, came out of Japan. It was called Tamagotchis. I don't know if you've ever seen a Tamagotchi, but it's a funny little digital creature. It's like a digital egg, and the deal with the Tamagotchi is that it was almost like a kid. You had to feed it somehow. I didn't want to have that Tamagotchi when I got younger. Look, we got some big Tamagotchi fans in the house tonight, which is really good to see. You had to feed this time so it would survive, which I thought was hilarious, because it's digital. I'm sure there are some Tamagotchis that have still survived, and you had to feed it in that sense. Look, I hope you guys have been getting the sense from this series, is that it's one thing to feed a digital Tamagotchi to do its job. It's one thing to be God's Tamagotchi in that sense, and to feed yourself, and to grow, and to be fed by just those small inputs from the Word of God. We heard from Kirsty there that we had a really interesting experience at Exchange on Tuesday night, where we're talking through this series, and I'm the one who's preached it for six weeks, and even I forgot what we're talking about in week one. In that sense, what we've been working through is that Paul has said some pretty remarkable statements, the sort of stuff that your Nan would crochet for you, so you could stick it up at the back of the bathroom door. You could be going to the bathroom, and I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It's the sort of place that you would see this sort of stuff. I thought, look, in that sense, let's quickly, in the last minute to this service, just revisit some of those little gems that are worthy of the back of the toilet door. Chapter 1 verse 27, "Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ." Remember, Paul, here, this guy's writing from prison. This guy's in prison. He's in one of those prisons in Rome. It wasn't the Mamatine one, but that we're seeing in the forum, if you've walked it through there. Paul was a real character in a real place, in real time, writing a real letter, and he says live a life that's worthy of the gospel, it's because he'd seen this slave girl and a rich CEO fashionista that was like someone from Bondi. I had the Bondi pad, had the Palm Beach pad, hanging out with a slave girl who was like a 12-year-old being pimped out in the cross, and then they also meet a Philippian jailer who's like an everyday Joe Blow living in the burbs, and somehow the message that of Jesus brings that together. And so a life worthy is a life that is lived with diversity and unity. So I know we're a 140 character generation. If all you survive on is Twitter, I'm going to try and keep these. Tweet level, tweet level tonight for you, diversity and unity was the worthy life. Then we go through, we see in chapter two, he goes through, he says, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, another way that he, that you could translate that is don't do anything out of vain glory. Don't do anything out of self-glory. We go chasing glory. You know, why else do we have the Facebook posts and the Instagram snaps and boasting that you're in Philippi? You know, the Bible stories where we're chasing, we're chasing a glory in all of these things. It's like fairy floss guys, it's sweet, and it's sweet for a little bit, but it vanishes just as quickly as just as sugary. And so the question is there, you know, are you trying to build your own glory in that sense? And he goes on chapter three, he says, I've lost all things, remember it was the LinkedIn principle? He lifts off his resume and he gives us his LinkedIn profile and then he says literal Bible translation, this is the only time you get the swear in church, he says, I consider it all crap, literally that's what it meant in the Greek, it meant crap, crap, I just want to say it once more, well I could, but, and he says verse nine, I consider all of this crap, all of the things that I've done, the LinkedIn, the resume, the whole lot, and I'm now founding God, not having a righteousness that I build up in my own, but a righteousness that is from God. And the way I said it was like, you know what it's like when you lose the invitation to a wedding, you're petrified, and look, you know, what's the first question you ask? You go, what's the dress code? And if you don't know the dress code, you know, how do you know that you're going to get into the wedding, and not only that, if you don't know the dress code, the second problem that you have when you're trying to build a righteousness of your own is do I even have the resources to get in, you know, my problem is I don't own a tux. And so if, if, if, if that's the standard, if that's the dress code, and I don't even own a tux, not only do I not know the code to get into the wedding, but I don't, I like the resources to do it. And so in, in, in that way we're saying that the righteousness of God is so wonderful and so perfect that we've got no idea how perfect and how high that standard is that he requires of us, but most importantly, we'd lack the resources to do anything about it. You and I don't own a tux. And so Paul says, I rest on the righteousness of God, you know, what's he saying? He's saying that the great bride groom himself, the groom in all the clinks and the glasses comes out and sees that you're lonely and you're standing outside of the great plan of, of God, and he strips himself bare and he grabs his jacket and he puts it over your shoulder and he ushes you in and says, you enjoy the party. Righteousness is not being a goody two shoes, it's being acceptable. That's what we went through when we talked about the simplicity of Christianity. And then we, we, we went through and, and, and Graham preached on this one. He says, here's the next line for Twitter or the back of your bathroom door. He says, not that I've already obtained all this or already being perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus has taken hold of me. This is Paul, he's 50 saying, I'm still not perfect. This is Paul the great Paul saying that I'm still not perfect in that sense. Here's a question. How many 50 year olds do you know that live with such a fervor and a passion to just develop themselves better and to be humbled and be demolded and to be shaped in that sense? Now the question from that passage there is, is there a holy discontent in you that is always saying, I will never be perfect this side of heaven, but I press on to be more and more like Jesus Christ. And then here's the next tweet, he says, rejoice in the Lord always. I say it again, rejoice, you know, that's what I said there with, we, we read things like that and think that he's trying to punk us, you know, we think he's the first century Ashton Kuchta, you know, that this is just a joke that someone could rejoice in all circumstances like that. But like we heard tonight, really he was saying that you take the big thing God and you bring that into your circumstances through the discipline of prayer and you take your circumstances and you bring it into the big heavenly things through the discipline of thinking about the heavenly things. And in that I'm not trying to cliche rejoicing in the middle of suffering, but that's at least the beginning. Are you praying? Are you thinking upon the heavenly things in that regard? And then finally last week he says, I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to have plenty. I've learned the secret of being content in every situation, whether wellhead, wellfed or hungry. And so he saw true contentment as being at peace with who you are, where you are. I said being, you know, so many of us struggle with the inner murmur of self-criticism, don't we? We've always got a high jump bar deep down inside of us that we're never good enough. We're trying to prove ourselves to everyone else. We're trying to prove ourselves to our bosses. We're trying to prove ourselves to ourselves and we're trying to prove ourselves to God if we're religious friend, you know, are you able to silence the inner murmur of self-criticism? That's where you'll begin to find true contentment that he says. And so in that way, all of this sort of stuff Paul here is a 50-year-old beaten-brake and I always say, you know, you know who he would have looked like a beat up Denny DeVito by this stage. Now herefallen our crooked nose, crooked legs and this guy in prison saying I can still rejoice. I can still grow. I can still be better in that sense. And so, friend, tonight what I want to encourage you with as we head out of this series is that your God's great Tamagotchi, except you're so much more precious and special and miraculous in that sense. Tamagotchi's no matter how much import and how much growing and how much the way that you sort of grow it and have it live according to its little digital plan, no matter how much you import into that, it's still a funny bit of dead plastic and someone's top drawn out. But the great truth of this book and Philippians, and I hope and pray that you discover it again, that through each input that you have, through one of these statements, whether it be living the worthy life or whether it be at humility or whether it be discovering the beautiful simplicity of Christianity or whether it be discontent with who you are in Jesus Christ or whether it be contented in who you are in Jesus Christ, I hope that in each input, that in this place, in a wonderful pattern, almost like the drips on those funny little paper, Japanese flower type things that grow out of nowhere, that at each drip of God's life into us as a church will begin to emerge a pattern that's more beautiful and more wonderful than we could possibly imagine in this place. Which one, which one of just the six that we've touched on in the great statement supplies to you this week? Which one could you redeem in that hour on the way to work as Kirsty said, to begin to live and grow and express the wonderful DNA of the Christian life? In all of this, and here's where I finished with all of this, this was not some book of cliches, this was not some little book of proverbs, this was not some sort of sticky tape little thing that he put together, this was not those fridge magnets that you have on your fridge and you just rearranged the words to give you a nice statement for the week. This was a great truth of a guy, 50 years old who lived and learned and saw something more wonderful and something greater and he said to live his Christ and to die his game. That either way he was going to win, that he saw in believing in Jesus Christ, that to die in that very moment was the best possible thing that could happen to him and yet he says it's more important that I stay here on earth with you, so that I could grow with you and in the same sense we could all have the joy of seeing Jesus do his work in and amongst us as a community. He thought go, he thought went the wonderful thing in order to be amongst God's people and to see them grow and they were the recipients of that today, so what one thing guys, what one thing can you redeem this week in just one hour of the six that we've seen throughout this time or all of it friends is modeled not in Tamagotchis, not in little catchphrases but it's modeled on the person and the life of Jesus Christ. Do you have that resolve, do you have that joy, do you have that commitment? If you don't it's found in Jesus Christ, you can accept him tonight. If you're a follower of Jesus we should be expressing that, we should be living that as God's Tamagotchis. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we know that there are plans and there are purposes for each and every person in this room tonight. We thank you for the example of Paul, we thank you for the incredible and miraculous work that you've done in this community over the past six weeks, we thank you for everything from conversations in group with one another, to witnessing an incredible baptism and a testimony and that of someone who's discovered you this year, a father to the great examples of the way that this community has been living and breathing the examples of this wonderful book. Father, we just pray one thing and that is that you will help us exhibit the wonderful DNA of the Christian life and that through that, a world around us at Father, we believe wholeheartedly is searching for these things that could truly satisfy the Lord. We may be witnesses in the lives of friends and of family and of co-workers in that sense to show that we're not trying to push some religious agenda onto them, but instead we've found the most wonderful thing in all the universe, the one thing that can truly satisfy Jesus Christ. And so on that way, be with us, grow us, give us the resolve to take these things and input them into our lives a little more than we would with the digital pet. We pray this now in Jesus' name. Amen. My friends, we've come now to a time of communion. For those who follow Jesus Christ, it's a great reminder of the model and the example that He is to each and every one of us. So I encourage you to reflect in this moment as we've been through this series over the past six weeks. You might have been with us for one, you might have been for six. I asked tonight, what's the one thing, what's the one bit of DNA that you can own and express in this place? And I pray that as you come to the table tonight, you might sit and think and reflect on what that might be. So come eat, drink, let's take communion. And while people are up and moving around, if you've got questions about this Jesus Christ, if you've got questions about plans and purposes for your life, if you've got that deep inner yearning inside of you that you want something more and you just know it and you can sense it, at least just come and chat to one of the team. People are going to be moving and you're not going to be out of place. We'd love to talk to you about Jesus Christ. But now come eat, drink, let's take communion. (upbeat music)