Northside Church - Sydney
Never Ending Story Week 4 PM: Overflow
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Did you ever participate in show and tell at school? It was great fun wasn't it? It was awesome. It was really cool and what I realised about show and tell normally it was in the first grade when you're in kindy. And the thing is five-year-olds, they don't come into class and pontificate about the physical and mechanical capabilities of their self-gratification devices. They simply say, "Let me show you my toy!" Because in some ways it's a lot easier just to demonstrate something tangible than to explain it. And really that's the heart of what we're going to see from God's word tonight. As we continue this never-ending story, this series on the never-ending story, we learned last week that God places you at the intersections of life and in people's lives for His purposes. You may not know what they are at the time but He puts them there, good things, bad things can happen in intersections, but you must do something when you're there. What we're going to learn tonight is God's word says that you should show and tell. You should show and tell. That's the main theological point of the book is this, if you've got a real faith, it will show itself and manifest itself in transformed life and practice. In other words, it's one thing simply, it's one thing to tell people about the love of God. It's another thing to show people the love of God. So James, as we read from James chapter 2, verses 14 through to 17, that's what he's saying, Chantel, verse 14, what good is it, my brothers and sisters, if a person claims to have faith but has no deeds, can such faith save them? I suppose the brother or sister is without clothes and daily food and if one of you says to them, go, I wish you well, keep warm and well fed, but then does nothing about their physical needs. And what good is it? My own way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. I was up at Grilled the new hot burger place on Willoughby Road the other Sunday night with a few of the crew and I was a bit late, I was in there and the guy at the counter, as I've ordered my meal, he says, oh, you're from a church, right? This is a youth group and I thought how immature have our young adults been acting to make him think that, but then he said to me, oh, if you're a youth group, you should see our little stand over there, we've got this community action stand happening now and apparently there's some way that if I don't know how it works, but they're giving back 100 bucks 200 bucks a week to a particular community organization, he said, if you're a church, you should know what we could give back to. And I thought, oh, that was pretty cool. But then I also thought, why would Grilled, Grilled do that? Why would they be doing it? I mean, because, look, if we think of it from a secular or a non-Christian point of view, if we look at that worldview, the lens that that type of thinking views the world through, then realistically, if we dare to be really honest and that worldview says that you and I are no more significant than the beef patty that we're flipping behind him. Seriously, like that worldview says, look, we're just a bunch of random atoms, right? We'll just come together, we're just the same as the blades of grass out there, you know, that we're just random and yet here's the thing, there are lots of non-Christians, I don't know where this guy was at, but lots of non-Christians that do good things, right? That was one of the questions that came up at Christianity Explained the other week. You might ask this question yourself, I've got a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a husband or I've got a family member who's a non-Christian, but they do lots of good stuff, that's all that matters, right? Now, here's the thing, they feed the hungry, they reach out to the poor, why would they if we're just a bunch of atoms? And look, I think it's what we've been getting at it, is that the world yearns for something more. I call it the Steve Winwood approach. Steve Winwood, a singer from the 80s, he said this, deep stuff, think about it, there must be higher love, down in the heart or hidden in the stars above and without it, life is wasted time. Look inside your heart and not look inside mine, worlds are turning and we're just hanging on, facing our fear and standing out there alone, are yearning and it's real to me, there must be someone who's feeling for me. Bring me a higher love, bring me a higher love, bring me a higher love. Where's that higher love? I'm not going to sing it tobes. Where's that higher love that I keep thinking of? And you see, listen Christians, if the secular world is kinder to and nicer to and more action towards people that are impoverished and are in need and they treat people with more dignity and they help the poor more than you and I, when their framework says technically there's no more reason to do it than Flippenburg is behind them. And our framework says that we're sinned and saved by grace and Ephesians 2.10 that we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do the works that He's prepared and advanced for us to do if that is their framework and that's our framework and we look no different that they've got every right to tell our religion to get stuffed. Sorry to be so brash about it, but that's the reality of what James is saying tonight that unless our faith is characterised by action and how we different from anyone else. You know what it means? It means we've got to show and tell. We've got to show and tell. What does that look like? Look, three things tonight, it goes like this. Good deeds create the good will to share the good news. That's where we're going to go tonight. I'm being upfront, honest with you. That's where we're headed. First of all, good deeds. Show and tell, it doesn't work with one particular thing and what is it? That's the item that you want to show. If you go to class and the teacher said you had to go to show and tell, you had to remember to bring your item but could have been a Voltron, could have been a care bear, could have been all sorts of cool things to take the class and see the truth of this passage is for the Steve Windwoods in your life and my life, they're either inexplicitly or inexplicitly saying, "Bring me a high love. Bring it to me." See, we show God's love through good deeds. That's why they're so important. Verse 14, "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if a person claims to have faith but doesn't have deeds, can such a faith save them?" Now, the cluey theologians here tonight, their brains are already ticking and they're saying, "Thanks, Malia." They're saying, "Now, look, isn't James contradicting Paul?" I mean, James seems to contradict pretty much the entire book of Romans here, but more specifically chapters three and four, where in chapter three of Romans, Paul says that you were justified by faith alone, you're made right with God by faith alone, not by what you do. And then James, in verse 24, of this chapter here in his book says, "You are justified by what you do and not by faith." I don't know. This is crazy. This is contradictory, right? The Bible's contradicting itself, it's all over. We can't trust it. It contradicts itself. Oh my, look, come on. Have you ever looked or tried to drive with one hand over your eye? You seem to, I know I have once or twice, I don't recommend it. But you lack a depth perception, you bump into walls, you can sort of can't judge the depth for that right. And you see, what happens is if you look at either the Ephesians passage from Paul, you know, persons saved by faith alone, or you look at the James passage, not a person saved by their works, you lose your depth perception in the Word of God here. You see, bit of church history, remember in Acts chapter 15 that James and Paul had met at the Jerusalem Council, and Paul went down with Peter after he smacked him around the head a bit and said, "You're not walking along with the gospel, they go down to Jerusalem Council." And all of the three boys finally agree after a big argument that everyone is saved by faith alone. So James already knew Paul's stance on all of this, and so really what's happening here is James is being cheeky. He's being cheeky. Look, he understands where Paul's coming from. He agrees with that. Look, he's the heart of it. What he's saying here is that good deeds are not the means to a saving faith in God or an authentic faith, rather they're the overflow. Okay? There's a difference. You don't do good stuff to be right with God. Look, Martin Luther put it this way, "We're saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone." So in that sense we go, "Look, how do I know that I've got this saving faith, this authentic faith?" Well, you need to be a poor boy or a poor girl on your life, right? Well, I had a swimming pool for a season of my life, and I had to be the poor boy. And Dad used to send me down the back to the swimming pool, and I'd have to take this little jar of these funny white strips, and it was really quite a magical process, because I would take a sample of the water out of the pool. And I would dip this stick into this clear, beautifully clear water, if I'd done my job right and put the chlorine in it, of course. And I would dip it in the water, and I'd leave it out, and I'd stand back for a while, and I'd wave this stick in the air, and then suddenly it would go red. And I'd hold it up against the jar, and there'd be a little label there, and it would tell me whether or not the pool had been chlorinated, whether it had been cleansed. So if you've got a pool, and you've never done this, at least you learned something tonight. But this is what I'm trying to say, guys, that what James is saying is that good deeds are the chlorine strip of your authentic faith, right? What he's saying is that your pool is either chlorinated or not. You either have the cleansing agent within you, or you don't have it. And what he's saying is it's evidenced by good deeds. And they're the chlorine stick, and when you dip that into your life, if you can see good deeds that are happening there, then he's saying that's evidence that you've got a cleansing saving faith. You're with me. It's the chlorine stick principle. And so that's how we know we've got it, and then James goes on when he's talking about the good deeds here, and he moves from arguing about the presence of a saving faith in this way, into the practice. Listen to what he says in verse 15 to 17, "Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food," and if one of you say to them, "Go, I wish you well. Keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about their physical needs. What good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it's not accompanied by action, is dead. See what I love about it is from James's perspective, faith is not an attitude. It's an action. Faith is not the pious or go in peace. Faith is not good intentions rather. Faith is physical interventions at the intersections. It's not an attitude. It's an action. And James expects that faith will practically lead into us meeting the physical needs of people in this world, and we'll talk about the significance of that and look at it more specifically next week. But the point is, here's the thing, guys, you can't show the class, the love of God, if you don't bring anything to show and tell. That's what James was saying. Good deeds are not a way to be right with God. He's just saying it's a way to show that you've been right with God. You've got to bring something to class, if we're going to show and tell. So I guess my first question you could write down is that if you dipped a chlorine stick into your life tonight, what would it go red? Are there deeds there of a faith that is authentic and real? So there's good deeds, but good deeds also create the goodwill. I wanted to wear my polo shirt today. You wouldn't know that because I'm not wearing my polo shirt. And I was dead set on doing that this morning, but I put it on and like all good wives, Kristen took one look at it and she said, "Oh, you're not wearing that to church, are you?" And of course, as you can see here, trying for the secrets of 40 years' worth of marriage, I changed my shirt. Now if a total stranger said that to me, hypothetically, no, they wouldn't be in my bedroom at 8 o'clock in the morning, but if a stranger said that to me, "Change your shirt." That looks ridiculous. I'd say talk to the hand. Why is that? That's because, look, clearly, for that stranger and I, we've not yet built the relationship that gives them permission to speak into my life in that way. Now guys, when you agree that in some ways this phenomenon has happened to the church, that we've lost the relationship strength to speak into the community and around us. Guys, there's more at stake than badged church choices. There's bad life choices in that sense and our desire to wish to reach people in that way is really what drives us. But the question is for us tonight, how do we re-engage? How is it that we re-engage and the answer here from James' passage is good deeds? Good deeds create the goodwill, the build, the new relationship, and strengthen the existing relationships in the people around us in our community. Simple good deeds that make a difference in the community, that's how you build relationship again. Now I hate to say this, but it's nothing new. I mean, how else did the church explode? How has the Christianity explode in the early days? You see, it's a historical fact that about 50, 100, 150 years after James wrote this book that Christians went running into the streets of Rome, and it was something totally different because plagues were sweeping Rome in this sense. And so as the Roman citizens were running for the hills, there were these crazy people running in the opposite direction. They were the Christians. And as people ran out of those cities in order to avoid the disease and the death the Christians were running in. According to the account of Dionysius, one of the early church fathers, this isn't what he says, he says, "The most of our brethren were unsparing in their exceeding love and brotherly kindness. They held fast to each other and they visited the sick fearlessly and ministered to them continually serving them in Christ. And they died with them most joyfully, taking the afflictions of others, drawing the sickness from their neighbors to themselves, and willingly receiving their pains. Only who cared for the sick and gave strength to others died themselves, having transferred to themselves their death, and the populace saying, "Which always seems a mere expression of courtesy, that they then made real inaction, taking their departure as the others off scouring." Guys, Christianity grew not because Christians were good communicators. It's because their actions backed up their message. That's how it exploded. Good deeds built good will in the community that allowed them in the midst of plagues and sickness and maybe 10, 15, 20 minutes, a couple of days before their own death to share the good news about the hope that they had, caring for the sick, housing orphans, reengage their community, and Christianity exploded. Now, big example, Sam, what does that mean for us today? Do I go running for the sick bay at school or in the office? No, not quite, but Eric Bryant of Mosaic Church in LA says that this way, if we're going to make an impact and reengage our community, we're going to need to have two attributes, likeability and accessibility. What he says in here, "Unless you're somewhat likeable, people won't want to be with you, and unless you are accessible, then you won't want to be with people." And so, guys, I think what he's getting at in that sense is that, today, we've got to be attractive to the world. The lives that we lead have got to be different and holy, that's what holiness is in the word of God. They've got to be attractive. People want to be with us. But in the same time, unless we're intentionally seeking to build relationships with people that don't know Christ, we're not accessible. Church is a great place in order to reduce your accessibility as we grow together in community. My question is for you and I tonight is how are we going to start running in the opposite direction? How are we going to start running into the places in which we can create good will via good deeds? So, look, more importantly, let me ask you this, how was it that those first century Christians had that kind of boldness and of courage and love and fearlessness in that regard? You know, why were they cables? Not because the gospel was working for them. They were dying. The gospel wasn't working for them in that sense. The gospel was transforming them, transforming their lives and their practice in the way that they lived. And it wasn't just working for them, it was transforming them. And here's the reason they had a why. They had a why. And that's the last point we've got tonight. You see, good deeds create the good will to share the good news. You know, studies have shown that the average person in an urban environment back in the 80s would have had about 1,000 different messages given to them each and every day. All the stuff, you know, Coca-Cola, it's the real thing, Graham was preaching on that this morning. All these incredible messages, our lives are bombarded with message. You know, the figure today, it says it's something like 5,000 a day that we receive. All these messages say in our lives and how they can be fulfilled. You know what I think is happening here? The church is getting filtered out. We can't break through the noises yet, we've got the most important message of all. The one for Steve Winwood, there is a high love. And look, here's why the good news of Jesus Christ is so important. You see, the good deeds, the good deeds of, you know, the body shop, land, some strong, live strong and make poverty history. Look, they're all grilled, they're all good, but here's the thing. There's one thing the good deeds alone can't accomplish. And that is they can't give someone a why for their life, can't give someone a reason why you would do the good deeds in the first place, it can't give someone why you would want to make poverty history, can't give someone why you would seek injustice, seek to put an end to injustice in the world, it can't give them why you would love others or should love others, it can't give you why you can endure a suffering, it can't give you a why you can have a power that can endure hardship and come out the other side more beautiful and more stronger than you were before you went in. It can't give you a why people were able in the first century to run into a plague for the sake of other people's lives. You see, guys, that's what makes the church's deeds different, the good deeds from the good deeds of the rest of the world, we have a why. It's what, what Peter says, right? In verse Peter 3, 15, it says, "But in your heart sit apart Christ as Lord, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have but do this with gentleness and respect, give you a clear conscious so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of this land." We just want to stir up a curiosity in the world that makes a mask, why? Good deeds alone can't give them that. We just want people to understand that. You see, one of the tragedies in church, there can be lots of outreaches that do incredibly good work in that sense but they've, they never make that translation to answer the question of why for people you're so different. People want to ask why they can take things to the next level. That was my dad's romantic advice to me. When I was first dating my lovely wife now, dad said, "Look son, you want to go out with someone? You know, your keen, their keen, you're picking up the signals, holding hands, all that sort of stuff. Trust me son, if that's happening, she wants you to ask the question. She wants you to ask. You know, don't go through all this effort and get to the point of a lovely night and you're she's keen and you're keen and you don't say, hey, do you want to go steady?" Guys, what I'm trying to say is if we've done authentic good deeds, we've created a level of goodwill with people in our lives that don't know the love of Christ and we've gotten to that point where I would have shared, they want to know why. They want to hear the story by that point in time. And see, you know, that's the thing, salvation, introducing people to God, saving grace. It's our ultimate motive, but it's not our ulterior motive. We're not trying to bait and switch people here, but it's the thing that drives us. We've got the news that can give people a wife for their life, you know, what is that why? Well, I'm glad you asked because simply it's the gospel according to Steve Winwood, right? At one point in our lives, we're all yearning for our high love, right? The world is constantly seeing Steve Winwood's line, bring me a high love and, you know, people say like Steve, you could be a Steve tonight, that worlds are turning and we're just hanging on and we're facing our fear and I'm standing out here alone and there's a yearning and it's real to me and there must be someone who's feeling for me. Friend, if you are a Steve Winwood tonight, you know, can I say that that yearning is real and that there is someone that is feeling for you. Here's the reason why anyone in this place nor sign or any Christian for that matter does anything good, you know, on a cross, just a short distance from a town, you can look up in Google Maps tonight, a real place in time and history, there was a place where that high love no longer became an abstraction but a demonstration. What high love is, you know, Steve's high love, here's what it is, Steve. If you're listening, it's at the God of this, it's the high love is the God of this universe giving up his life for yours and what it shows us is we're not talking about a God of abstraction or good intention but a God of action, a God of action, God himself moved out of his comfort zone to do good deeds and that's why Christians do it too because anyone who's a Christian realizes that Jesus had the glory and Jesus was from the right side of the tracks but when he came down to do good deeds to us in order to show us the high love that exists and that we've been searching for, look, don't you see, that's what differentiates a Christian and their good works from anyone else in the world, from the good deeds of Lance Armstrong and the body shop and even grilled, look, guys, our why is this, that a Christian is someone who brings the world a high love through good deeds because they've been bought that high love by the good deeds of love himself. Good deeds aren't the means to get right with this guy that's an overfly, he's already done the work and a good deed should be the overflow of an authentic faith, so good deeds, I guess the question tonight is if you're litmus tested in your life, will it turn red, that might be the first step. The second one is are you building good will with people in your life that don't know the love of Christ, are you likable, are you accessible, but most of all are you helping to share the why, are you giving people a why, maybe you want a why tonight, that can be available to you, just place your faith in Jesus tonight, after this service, we have a time of ministry, you can have that, but guys, whether it a local or an international level, there could be no better night tonight as we send a team out to Madagascar, you just go and do a bit of show and tell, that's all they're doing. There's a tremendous ways that you can get involved in your community tonight. It begins by recognising firstly that your lives are on loan, on Ephesians 2, 10, your God's workmanship, your His handiwork, created to do the good works that He's prepared in advance for you to do, that's the call upon your life, that can be the purpose of your life in that sense. But guys, how are you opening up your loves and your passions and the intersections and your gifts for God's kingdom purposes? All I'm trying to say in simple terms tonight, guys, is that living a part of God's never ending story is just simply a bit like show and tell. But these good deeds, they're not the way that we get right with this God, but what we understand as Christians, it's far easier and far more effective to show people the love of God than to tell them. The world cries, "Bring me a high love." And I want to tell you tonight, you've got the ability to bring it. So what thing, what one thing? What one thing can you do to show your classmates this week? Perhaps it'll allow security or city that leads them to ask, "What is that? Why is that?" Simply just go show and tell.