Northside Church - Sydney
I Heart This Place – Week 1: A Place of Stability
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. You know, when you go to resorts, you get all sorts of invitations to different activities. Particularly when it's your honeymoon, they try and give you bottles of champagne and all sorts of stuff. And for Kristen and I on our honeymoon, on our first Saturday night into it, we got an invitation that we didn't expect. We were there, candlelit dinner, the whole light, it was looking fantastic in the Fiji and girl that was serving us, fuzzy hair and all, extended an invitation to us. She says, "Tomorrow morning, you come to my church." And we thought, "Well, fair enough, except I thought honeymoon's just sleeping all day and you don't go anywhere, but you know, it's the Sabbath and it's our first Sunday off and all, so yeah, we'll go to church." So putting our Sunday best, got the thongs on, got the why and shirt, all that sort of stuff even though I was in Fiji and walking to this village in no sooner, like we hadn't even seen the place yet and we could hear the worship, the spirit of it, just pouring out the doors, get the city's little fuzzy head kid, he's literally hanging out the side of the door going, "You are my strength, strength like no other." And he says, "He's just ripping it." And we get in there, it's this great vibe, it's exciting. We sit down and we look around the service starts, music like what we've got here and minister gets up, black thing, it was the Bible gets there, begins to preach and suddenly we realize that none of the service was in English, the whole lot was in Fiji and yet we stayed there amongst it and as we looked around there were smiles and there were gestures to come and sit next to us and little kids coming and looking at us and touching our skin and these whiteies that were in their church and it was just a wonderful palatable atmosphere and for the first time, Kristen and I were, we were outsiders, we weren't the pastors anymore and we were outsiders and we realized that the quality of our community will be the secret to our mission. That it's not so much the words that you're going to hear on a Sunday night but the actions and the way that we interact with everyone and the way that maybe you tonight hopefully are feeling some of that same sort of warmth and you haven't seen our worship pastor hanging out the door singing "This is my strength" okay that's why this time of year often if you've been with us last year you see that we talk about Christian community, we start a new series tonight called "I Heart This Place" for anyone that's not Gen Y that means I love this place and the reason we're looking at that is because sadly I don't know you may have friends that are quite skeptical of the church, you might have friends that have sat on the outside of the church and seen some of the perceptions of society and don't see it too favorably maybe you've even been on the inside and sadly you have experienced the behavior of people around you that don't reflect the heart of the God that they worship and so it's always a challenge for us every year to come back guys we're not claimed to be the perfect church here but to come back I believe it's vitally important to come back to these first principles of why we do church and how we do church and there would be no greater book to do this from than the book of James the guy was Jesus' brother he writes his short book of the Bible which is one of my favorites because it's a short book of the Bible and it's practical, it's gritty, it shows us how we do church last year we did a series called "Churchy" the why behind church I couldn't call the series "Howie" the howl before church and so there's no better book than James to look at this in the next four weeks we're going to look at what there is to love about Christian community particularly if you're looking in from the outside and hopefully what you'll see in this book is that Christian community can be a place of stability under the word of God and we're going to look at that tonight that it can be a place of equals where favoritism floats out the door that it's a place of grace where arguments are subordinated to care for each other that it's a place of caring where there's love and mutual concern not just when the needs arise but before they even get there and you see the one thing in this church this church with different chairs and different instruments and different people in a different language is that this fuzzy head pastor got up there and he had a black book just like mine and what we saw in this church is what this passage will demonstrate to us tonight that there's one thing that remains constant in Christian community and that is the word of God why is the word so important because the word of God it's what gives church the sense of stability in organizations where they're all their policies and corporate values are changing all the time depending on whatever the trends are it's always changing but the church doesn't throughout the centuries the word of God has remained and so tonight this passage teaches us why it's so important because the word of God saves the word of God affects how we behave and the word of God is what we should crave I love to rhyme don't I I should have I should have wrapped it I should have wrapped it and what are you turn open your words to James chapter 1 verses 19 through to 25 my dear brothers it's just just take note of this that everyone should be quick to listen slow to speak and slow to become angry for a person's anger does not bring about the righteous life for God desires so therefore get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and and humbly humbly except the word planted in you which can save you do not merely listen to the word and so to save yourselves but do what it says and if anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says they're like a person who looks at their face in a mirror and after looking at themselves goes away immediately and forgets what they look like but the person who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this not forgetting what they've heard but doing it they will be blessed in what they do when I was up at air and I over the Christmas holidays I wanted into dimics they're a dying breed there is endangered as the Tasmanian devil is at the moment and bookstores that is and I went into went up to the guy I thought it was January so I went up to the guy and asked him for directions to the self-help section and he said if I told you that it would defeat the purpose think about it no but seriously I did I went went up to the self-help section and one of one of the interesting things was that that in and amongst the self-help section whoever the store clerk was up there had placed the Bible in amongst all the other sorts of things who moved my cheese and seven habits of highly effective people and there was the Bible and I thought clearly whoever the story tenant was wasn't a Christian because a Christian is someone who understands that the Bible is not a self-help book a Christian is someone who looks at the word of God and says I can no longer live as how I want to live I can't live anymore how I would wish I can't help myself in fact I can't even save myself you see to be a Christian is to say I don't need self-help but I need the Savior's help that's one aspect of I mean two like you mentioned going home cup of Milo got your slippers on the couch open this up new self-help book open gets right up in the first chapter of James consider it pure joy my brothers and sisters when you face trials of many kinds I'm thinking that's not too self-help you know what the heck you see the I love the Bible it's the most realistic book that you can buy in Demyx you buy it on to and see verse 21 James makes it perfectly clear that we're to humbly accept the word that is planted in you which can save you and what that means is to be a Christian is to allow God to cut across every area of your life with every aspect of his word and that is that that Christians know Christians know that there's a difference between just understanding the Bible or standing under the Bible there's a difference between both of those there's a willingness to submit to the word of God which is saying my will and my desires and no longer my ultimate reference point but I choose to stand under God's authority hang on alarm bells are going off here because we are on a head on collision with our culture I had when we say that we talked about that the other week it's a king to gut and cop principle that I'm not a policeman I'm a princess I'm my own person I get to do what I want to do don't you tell me what to do don't give me another set of authority outside of myself I'm my own person now something I'm seeking help with at the moment is my addiction to am radio because a young man of my age shouldn't be listening to so much of it but I am a to you addict and so much so that I actually ended up waiting on the phone the other week listening to to you eat a John Stanley because the guy was talking about a particular contentious issue in society at the moment and he said I just wish churches would would stop spending so much of their resources picking out passages of the Bible and beating people around the head with it I'm thinking that's that's probably the perception that a lot of people have of the church and the way that we use the word of God but see good old Johnny boy that's what I wanted to say to him except I got cut off for the eight o'clock news you see what we see what John's really saying here John's saying I wish the Bible would stop cutting across my opinion I'm my own I I've got the right now to believe whatever I want to believe and my question is tonight have you got a John Stanley view of the Bible now there's a lot of good stuff in it and yet it's good and if you're Christian you can believe everything in it but you know 50 years ago we believe this but now we're modern people and we can't possibly believe that because it's our cake we can't expect that anymore got the right to believe whatever we want to believe and see what he's doing and see what you've done if you think that way you're seeking to understand the word be you're not standing under the word you're not allowing it to cut across your opinion and so my question is what will you stand under I mean if the word of God is not the ultimate guiding authority over your life what is it going to be is it going to be science we can't only know what we know we can't know what we ought to know is it is it going to be culture where a hundred years ago things were universally acceptable that today we just go that's absolutely crazy is it is it going to be society and political correctness and the trends that are changing just about every week these days is it going to be yourself I look at myself three years ago and I think of things that are just so different today that I can't possibly trust myself back then what is it that you're going to stand under now when when you choose not to stand under the word of God anymore you know what you're doing you're making up your mind as to in terms of what is true and what's inspired and what is real and what is truth and what you're saying is it's you it's your mind in your perceptions and and your heart and you see whenever we step out from underneath the word what we're really saying is Lord at this moment in time I trust myself more than I trust your word I want to be my own guiding principle and if you Sam had and I keep asking I can't trust myself with that I'm still listening to am radio for crying out look see another thing to John is saying he's saying the problem with you Christians is you've always got pet at Pat answers you've always got Pat answers you're pulling out a bit of the Bible you always give me a pat answer and that is a pat answer because the Bible Christianity says the Bible's got lots of lots of different simple answers they're just hard to apply right a lot of the Bible is simple it's just hard to apply and because the Bible is always more nuanced and subtle and complicated than people that just don't want it to cut across their opinions and so what I'm trying to say here is that the Mark of a healthy church you must be willing to submit underneath stand under the authority of the word of God not just because the Bible says so I'm going to get to that in a sec now of course you know I'm not saying that self help is a bad thing and I mean this seriously if there's aspects of the self help section that have enriched and and built up your life that's a wonderful thing but here's the thing if who moved my cheese becomes your ultimate reference point for how you're living your life then that's where Houston we've got a problem James is saying there's a choice and that is to humble yourself under the words of others or to humble yourself under the word of God simple as that you need to come underneath the word the word can save you and it's a humbling process to do that but also the word changes how we behave it begins to to rewrite who you become in in the in the great movie the never-ending story of which you've all heard me quote from time to time the young warrior prince Atreyu comes up against some of his greatest challenges against the nothing which was sweeping Fantasia he had to forgo a series of grueling tests one one of which included coming up towards the mirror gate there the young good gnome or old looking gnome says this is the worst one that's coming up next is the magic mirror gate a tray you has to face his true self and Falcaw the magic dragon of course says well that won't be too hard for him will it and the scientist says oh that's what everyone thinks kind people find that they are cruel brave men discover that they are really cowards confronted with their true selves most men run away screaming what I'm getting out is that the Bible is like the gate of mirrors the Bible is a place where you come to face your true self and unlike in Atreyu's story and the many men that had gone before him it's not a scary place to be in fact it's one of the most uplifting and wonderful places that you can be because of Bible like the gate of mirrors the place where you see your true self is not something that we should fear it's a place if we stare long enough into its words and its chapters we begin to see you begin to see who you really are a kid of the king a spiritual stone being built up together the temple of the living God the light of the world God's treasured possession is to the kingdom the subject of a universal rescue this is all the hints that these chapters of this incredible book give you when you step into it and yet we go to Woolies and we've been more inclined to pick up a Cleomag and get the next five best tips on how you can be the best you can be my question is whose words are you going to come underneath the words of Cleo or the word of God look what does James mean when he says in verse 22 don't merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves do what it says because those who listen to the word but do not do what it says are like people who look at their faces in the mirror and after looking at themselves go away and immediately forget what they look like it's a Michael Jackson principle I am looking at the man in the mirror I'm asking him to change his ways no message could be any clearer if you want to make the world a better place take a look at yourself and make a change right amen you see what James is saying there is that we live at the mercy of our ideas when we look into the word of God we are forced up against this mirror that says if you want to make the world a better place you need to look yourself and make a change you need to begin to remember who you are and that is because we live at the mercy of our ideas we live you know pretty much what we think determines how we live and that is that our action always flows from our belief what we believe I mean if I believed I could fly I would be jumping off a heck of a lot more buildings okay our action flows from our belief and so when we dive into the word of God it strengthens our belief it strengthens our actions and at every turn of the page the wonders of the scriptures say in understanding your true self when you look into that mirror that friend you you think that you're a caterpillar but when you receive this word that has been planted in you you become a beautiful butterfly and if you're a butterfly what are you doing crawling around on the ground eating crops eat and leaves you've been irrevocably changed so act like it the word is a place where you discover who your true self is and the changes how we behave and so here's here's the question if we're asking you know what does that look like on a Sunday if the quality of our community is to be the secret of our mission then if we're to become an authentic community of genuine love we love not because our pastors tell us to love but because in those pages we see that we are unconditionally loved and for the first time we can move out into the wonderful freedom that means we no longer steal our significance we no longer are steal our own sense of self love from manipulating other people to get our own way and for the first time we can genuinely love others we love not because we have to but because we want to if we want to be a community of genuine acceptance of all we read the gospel and we see that the God of the universe makes no distinction to us no distinctions between races or ethnicities or socioeconomic status on the basis of relationship with him so then who are we to make those sorts of distinctions in the church guys therefore Christian community works not because we wrote learned patterns of behavior but because we're constantly reminding each other who we really are the word not only saves it changes how we behave are you looking to a clear mag or men's health for your identity or the word not only saves it changes how we behave but finally it's what we should crave Bible we come to the Bible one of the great questions and something you might have to deal with this week is well why should I even pick the thing up isn't it just an aspect of the Christian life that I have to do it's boring and it can be at times it takes work to sort of get into it but verse 25 shows the marks of an individual in a church that has been saved by the word and behaves by the word and craves the word you see in verse 25 of this passage it talks about the way that the person is to look intently into this perfect law it says but the man who looks intently or the woman for that matter into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this not forgetting what they've heard but doing it will be blessed in what they do looks intently into the perfect law intently into the law you see it's what it's saying there it's the mark of a Christian to delight in God telling them what to do isn't that what Kiram was saying at the part of her women's stuff that favorite verse in in in Psalm 1 where it says blessed is the person who doesn't walk in a council of the wicked but whose delight is in the law of the law Lord and on his law they meditate day and night they're like a tree planted with streams of water which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither and whatever they do they prosper the mark of God's cravers if you want to be a little craver tonight here's that you love having him tell you what to do you delight in his laws and there are two words here worth unpacking quickly the first one is the word intently the second one is his perfect law you see it says intently it's the same word that that is used when Peter goes to the tomb after Jesus has been resurrected and he goes in and Peter stares into this tomb and he looks intently now do you think Peter's reaction is sort of the way that some of us can read our Bible from time to time that's nice now what else have I got on my agenda no he wasn't doing like that his mind was going crazy all these faculties were all over the place he was analyzing and he was thinking he's like he's closed but there's no Jesus and well what does all this mean it's empty and I need to tell the boys and what is happening there was an intensity and he studied and he was just it was he looked intently I was um it's where God's convicting me tonight with his own word how often do we do that how often do we pick a verse apart how often do we we dive right into it well it's we often go for so many other things to get our sense of identity and that's why when I was a kid it's all about balance you see because I had this guy that used to come around in a van he wasn't a guy he was a giraffe he was called happy Harold and happy Harold used to come around in the life be in it van and the life be in it van was fantastic and happy Harold would come around and he would teach me all about the good food pyramid right the good food pyramid it looks a bit like this we got one up on the slide just in case you need to know what it was like and so they're all your various servings with your carbohydrates down the bottom and your fruits and your sugars and your oils and your sweets up the top and so the whole point was to consume these foods in a certain ratio I think one of the challenges I don't know about you guys when I come to the word of God is that I don't consume it according to the happy Harold food pyramid I made one up for you here we go bit hard to read but it starts with the word of God as your base level of your spiritual diet and then you could if you've done that move into your books in your devos that means devotionals and then even from that you can get a bit of sugar and sweet candy in the sermons that you could listen to every now and then you know see often I don't know about you but we invert it the other way we're always looking for the latest and funkiest blog and sermon and all sorts of stuff and the reason why we're not looking intently into the word is we're not eating the way that Harry happy Harold would want us to be eating the word of God intently intently and then we read that we look into the perfect law of God why would I until you begin to look into the perfect law of God you'll never be truly free it says in here the perfect law law which gives freedom freedom makes no sense makes no sense that law sense that law would give freedom I mean if you went to go and park your car on the street and one half of the street had all this free parking that was happening there and then you go to the other half of the street and there's all these massive signs that say no parking you'd feel that you're only half free right because the modern person thinks that I am only ever free when there's the absence of all restrictions modern thinking says I'm free unless there's no restrictions on me I've said this before guys John Stott says a biblical freedom true freedom is not the absence of restrictions but the presence of the right restrictions and when you look at the Bible what is what does that mean for you it's like my manual for the Mazda 3 I mean I have my manual for the Mazda 3 and if I pull it up to the back it says that I have to service the thing every 10,000 kilometers that's like half as that twice as much as a hold and cruise it's ridiculous I'm going to service this mine two times a year and see it's at that point that I say I have a choice I'm free I'm I'm refused to have the manual place it's it's restrictions upon me you know what I'm not going to put oil in that engine and I can keep doing that but there comes to a point in which if I don't keep putting the oil in the engine the thing's going to seize and come to a grinding halt or I can obey the manual I can put the oil in I can carry out all the instructions that are required by the creator guys the Bible is the operating manual for life many of its passengers talk about the way in which you need to service yourself every 10,000 k's when you travel through life and so when the Bible says you must forgive although everything within you says I don't feel like it and you know what in fact I'm free not to forgive and I'm going to harbor up this bitterness you know in fact in the long run you are denying the engine of your life the very oil that it needs to stop itself from seizing up what looked like an ultimate freedom actually leads to the restriction of your freedom why because you're creating in God's image and God is a forgiving God and that's not how they created designed you to be freedom is to discover what you're meant to be and operate according to the owner's instructions the creator's instructions are you doing that in your life it's more than just because we have to it's because we want to and it leads us into a greater freedom guys the world is operating outside the manual of God and they are dealing with all sorts of service issues from time to time and if we're you know I see the churches we should be the sort of dealership that comes out with cars that aren't necessarily perfect but at least they're half running right you know what I mean there's no sort of smoke rings coming out the back of our exhaust and and all that sort of stuff where we're a people that is looking intently at the right restrictions on our life and seeking to live in accordance with the operator's manual if you're saved by the word if you behave by the word it's because you crave the word do you crave the word or you're eating it and right balance tonight so that's it James says go be a doer of the word Mikey principal right just do it and somehow it's not that easy if you've been a Christian for a while you go out and you go you know what I don't do it that easy Paul even the great apostle Paul himself said the things I want to do I don't do the things I am doing I don't want to do it's difficult to just go and do it you see you need to see something else in the word and what is that you need to see that was there was only ever one person who ever kept this word this perfect law perfectly and his name was Jesus Christ he was the only person ever who never forgot the word he looked into the mirror never forgot who really was and still did it when you look into the word of God this way you shouldn't just see yourself but you need to see the one who kept that perfect law why it's because if if you don't you're going to feel condemned Romans 8 says that anyone who is in Christ doesn't feel this condemnation there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus that's because this man who kept this law and did it perfectly went to the cross and took the penalty for our law breaking you know there's either two ways to keep the law either you keep it or you pay the penalty for breaking it and Jesus Christ comes in and he lives his perfect life and he not only keeps the law but he dies our penalty for those that didn't keep it he kept it and he also paid the penalty Jesus Christ took our curse for our law breaking so we could take the blessing that his law keeping deserves and only guys when you look into the word and see the only one who ever kept it perfectly for you trust in him place your faith in him may you be able to look into this law and see perfect freedom not condemnation it's a little bit more than just do it and so my question is tonight are you looking for a place of stability in your life you're going to find it in the word of God this church has changed over the years it will continue to change over the years but there's one thing that won't and that is our commitment to standing underneath the word of God because God's word is the only authoritative presence in your life that won't oppress you it'll liberate you it'll send you into the freedom from which you are created what does that look like for you practically this week real simple have you joined a bible study have you joined a connection group are you in community under the word you can sign up tonight you can be a part of it tonight you can know you know you're going to discover something incredible here not just the power of the gospel to create community like we've got here at Northside but that our unity as a church is not a uniformity we are different we are so different but we're not a common interest club here we are we have a unity in commitment to stand underneath the owner's manual for our lives and progressively discover who we really are and that friends hopefully hopefully has it already has mate will make us in our community a place of stability let's pray Heavenly Father we come back to first principles tonight we humble ourselves under your word we thank you for your word we thank you that you have revealed yourself to us in that and Father for all its nuances and the questions that come out of that Father we thank you that in the midst of that they all arise so we might process that with one another to progressively know you more. Lord help us to continue to be a church that regardless who walks through these doors we ooze and exhibit the love and the authenticity that can only come from gospelized community. Father help us to be an obedient in all that we read this week by the power of your Holy Spirit move us into ever greater depths of relationship and greater understanding of who we really are as we flick through its pages and Father made this place through all its ups and downs I have the confidence and the boldness to know we will always be stable as long as we come back to the words on those pages not every week every day of our lives until we meet you face to face we pray this now in Jesus mighty name amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]