Northside Church - Sydney
Success or Significance? Week 2: Conquering Consistency
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Well, guys, there is a movement that is sweeping the world. I mean, a movement that is being taken up so quickly that it's almost reminiscent of the early church. You could almost call it a religion because people are getting swept up into it, the followers are emulating its teachers to the tea, they're popping up in community centers around the place. Even in people's homes on DVD, these teachings have been proliferated and all sorts of people have been dragged into it. Christians include it. I think even members of this church, its name is Zumba. And Zumba is everywhere at the moment. And part of the genius of this religion is what initially looks impossible, these crazy Latino steps somehow get broken down into these basic steps that allow even the most beginner of dancers to be emulating their teachers and leads themselves into some form of self-mastery. It's an incredible phenomenon. And what the heck has this got to do with success and significance? Last week, as when we started this whole new series on success, significance, and I asked a question, what are you seeking this year, more specifically asked a question, are you stealing your significance from your success or are you living successfully from a position of significance? And so that was a big question. The next four weeks of this series now is, well, what is it, we're going to look at what does it mean to live a life of significance? What does it mean to live a life of Christian holiness and difference and purpose and significance, primarily from the book of 1 John? What does that look like? Verse 6 of the passage we'll read from tonight says, that those that know God walk as Jesus walked. And yet when we see his life, the miracles and the teachings and the sinlessness, we think we're often two reactions. Seeing his life is like seeing a Zumba instructor. We go, look, I can't do that. It's too hard and we are to walk away from it, or we try and rig the system and we emulate and we copy their externalities in ways that could end up leading to an injury if you haven't been through the process and the various steps. So a question is, how do we walk as Jesus walked? How do we get to that point? And the answer and the theme of this passage is obedience. Through obedience, like Zumba, the only way it'll work in changing your life is not by simply buying DVDs from rebel sport, but if you practice an obedience to an instructor that knows how to transform your life into how it's meant to be. And so that's what we see in the person of Jesus Christ. The aim is not to learn how to play the game of the system, but to learn to become the sort of person where his deeds and his actions naturally flow from who we are. So we're going to have a look at that in the passage tonight. I have to warn you, this message tonight may contain our traces of alliteration. And tonight we're going to look in this passage, how we apply, how we know why, and how we go try when it comes to obedience. So bear with me, particularly if you're allergic to alliteration. This is John chapter 2 verses 3 through to 6, short passage, short and sweet. Verse 3 says, we know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The person who says I know him but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in them. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in them. This is how we know that we're in him. Whoever claims to live in here must walk as Jesus did. In the 1990s movie, kindergarten cop Arnold Schwarzenegger seeks to gain control of a crazy kindergarten class and in doing so goes to a young girl called Emma and tells her to put her toy back on the carpet. And she like most people these days when it comes to figures of authority, looks up at him and says, I'm not a policeman, I'm a princess. I'm not a policeman, I'm a princess. And this little girl that kindergarten cop her to find somehow I think represents the modern thinking when it comes to obedience, right? The very notion that somehow we would submit our lives to some greater authority is crazy. There's a whole range of different worldviews that we come from, whether it's the science-based worldviews that people have that says there is no God, there's no miracles, there's no supernatural or on the other side, the sort of new age, views that think that all of the world is God and all the plants and the earth and the air is all God. And they look like they're at either ends of the spectrum but these two worldviews have something incredibly in common and that is that whichever way you look at it, I am my own. I'm not a policeman, I'm a princess. And it's very difficult to approach this topic of obedience if you're coming from that line of thinking that somehow I'm my own person, Christianity is radically different from that. Obedience in the Christian realm, as one commentator puts it, is defined as being willing to have something or someone traverse your will, to cut across your will, cut across the things that you want and you desire that you feel like, it's like in the mornings, the alarm goes off 6.05 a.m. And it feels right, doesn't it? It feels right just to stay in bed. You want to stay in bed, the dunas up around your neck, it's cold outside, it's rainy, it's a classic Sydney summer this year, and that just feels right. But if you're a person of obedience and of discipline, they're one and the same thing. You would see out of your peripheral vision on the dresser that there is a pair of ASIC sneakers and your favorite shorts and a shirt. And so what feels absolutely right to you, you cut across it. You say, "No, I will rise, no I will wake, no I will run." And now what do you, what do you do, why would you do that? Why get up in the first place when you feel like that? Look, as much as it feels right and you want to do it, there are things that you know that are not the best for you, staying in bed all day. And yet you allow greater things, ASIC shoes, shorts, track pants, you allow them to cut across your wheel because you realize, as John Stott puts it, that freedom is not an absence of restrictions in your life. True freedom is to find and apply the right restrictions in your life. I mean, I'm free to eat as much ice cream as I want, I'm a Christian, freedom of Christ to set me free. I mean, I can eat as much ice cream, but if I do, I think I'd get the point when I'd realize that I'm sort of contravening that notion that my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and things would begin to happen to me that are not the way that God intended me to live. It's not the absence of restrictions, we're applying the right restrictions. And so look, we believe so much in this principle, right of obedience and applying discipline to our lives, that some people, there may be some of you here, some people, maybe even in this room, even pay someone to cross their will, to traverse their will. We call them personal trainers, right? Of a fitness first, personal trainer, their job is when you feel like and when you want to and it feels right not to do anything more and to quit, they traverse your will and they say one more rep, one, come on, feel the burn. Come on, you guys have seen Biggest Loser, look, if we have witnessed people applying the principle of obedience and discipline to their life, and we've seen the results in Biggest Loser, we see that in the physical realm, why is it? So many people in this world don't apply that to their moral and their spiritual life. We don't think it applies, we don't think it works across in that way. And yet those that claim to live in Him must walk as Jesus walked. You think Shannon and Michelle from the Biggest Loser can do a good job at transforming people's lives. Wait until you get underneath the ultimate instructor, the ultimate personal trainer. The God of this universe, here's the great kicker tonight, this is my offer to you. The God of the universe is offering you personal training for free, for free. And yet often even as Christians, I know in my own life, we struggle to come under his instructions. And so obedience is allowing God to traverse your will. And so therefore I'm going to ask you tonight, first question, are you willing to apply these principles of physical obedience across in your moral and your spiritual areas of your life? Are you willing to come underneath a person who is going to challenge you and oppose you in areas that you swear feels right and that you want to do in order to be shaped into all that you're designed to be? Are you willing to apply the principles of obedience? It's one thing to apply, but then it's also important to know why we are obedient, particularly as Christians. You see, obedience is not just the end of all that we do here in church, it's the means to an end. And that is that obedience is a means to relationship with God. And part of what this whole verse is saying, verses four to five says that those who say I know him but do not do what he commands, the lies and the truth is not in them. But if anyone obeys his word, the love for God is truly made complete in them. Now I should have, I need to install right here a big caution sign, if you've got your Bible with you tonight, you need to just draw a little yellow triangle in your Bible next to that verse. If anyone obeys his word, the love for God has made truly complete in them. You need to draw a little symbol, if you've got it on your iPad, you need to download a sketch, do a little swirly thing, whatever you do, we've got to approach this with caution because there is dangerous, there's a dangerous way to read this verse here tonight. You see, you can read this and you can see it saying, hang on, if I obey God, then I will be loved. But the gospel is always saying to you that it's the love that leads to obedience. You know, look, you need to go to the rest of the Bible to interpret what we're talking about tonight when you go all the way back to Exodus in the Old Testament. You're seeing around Exodus 19 and 20 pop quiz, here we go, pop quiz, which comes first, the Ten Commandments or the Exodus? The Exodus, good work Rob, bonus points for you, I've got my little cardboard cut out in my office, you get a gold star for 2012. I switched it round, I did the switch of Rooney on you see, just to trick it up a bit. But God's saving work comes before he delivers the laws on these stone tablets. So in other words, there is an order to the way that all this happens. Here's a clue, Exodus 19 verse 4, he says, God says, "You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt and how I carried you on Eagle's wings and bought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all the nations you will be my treasured possession." You see, it's crucial to see the correct order here. Let God say, the people of Israel, so that they might obey in order to be in a relationship with him. Not here are my ten laws, here are the stone tablets and then I might save you. Then I might pull you through the waves and the water and the armies. And so therefore, if as Christians you're not obeying in order to be saved, then why obey? Why obey? Because Christian obedience is not the end, it's not what we're aiming for here, it's the means to the end which is a relationship with God. What does that look like? Verse 5, "If anyone obeys his word, the love for God is made truly complete in them." What does that mean? A couple of weeks ago I was up at Aarona Fair listening to some ladies talking, we're a gourmet pizza kitchen and a lot of them were sort of expectant mums or just had kids. And they were talking about this concept I've never heard of before, excuse me if it's a crash, but it's called a push presence. And I'm talking about their push presence and really what a push present is is a gift that the husband or the partner gives the mother in recognition for the incredible effort that she went through in labor. And so they were talking about that, I didn't know, I had to ask Kristin what all this sort of stuff was about and this one mum was talking about her push presence, she got a $200 nappy bag. And you know how girls are when they get together, it's like you totally deserve that girlfriend, that's so you, whatever, you are worth it, you are worth it. And you didn't know you were going to get a sermon on value tonight. And so I'm thinking this is crazy, a $200 nappy bag and so I'm thinking this is crazy, she must be thrilled but she was not thrilled. She was not thrilled at all, no girls. Here's the thing, she had to tell him to get the nappy bag. She had to prompt him to get the nappy bag. Now guys, here is the tip, been a guy that's in a relationship, I can see Haymy shaking your head, you girls know what it's like, right? If the guy has to be prompted to get the present, it doesn't matter whether it's a $200 nappy bag, it's the concept, right? That he should have thought about her needs and her desires and should have ascertained all this in his mind and spontaneously one day while she wasn't thinking about it presented a nappy bag. Then you get relationship advice tonight. So when we read in verse four, those who say I know him but do not, those who say I know him but do not do what he commands the lies and the truth is not in them. It's not saying, look, get out of list and write down exactly what you think the Lord needs and write yourself a reminder and say I am going to give the Lord this because that is just like the Lord having to prompt you to buy the nappy bag. You should be seeking to identify what are his needs, what are his desires. A Christian obedience is surprising him in that way. If it's like that for the girls, then how much more is it like that for God that his love is made complete, not because we've ticked off all the right actions, but because it's all on our list and we worked it all out and we got a bit of a push here on a Sunday night, but because our actions are motivated by love in the context of a relationship, right? We should always be proactively thinking and seeking what God wants for us. And here's the other thing, actions can often be poor, disguises or camouflages for motivation. You can have the one action, looks exactly the same, but there's two totally different motivations behind it. Why are you going to church? Why do you pray? Why do you read the Bible? You see, there'll be one of two approaches and the distinction or the difference between those two approaches is the difference between every other religion in the world and Christianity, right? You can be doing all this sort of stuff and one approach is saying obey and maybe you will be saved, obey and maybe God will love you. And the other approach Christianity says, you have been saved, that you are loved and therefore now you obey. And the difference, guys, not only do we have to apply the principles of obedience in the life, but we've got to be really clear on why we're obedient in the first place. And so my question to you tonight is, is the why you are seeking God? Are you seeking God because you have to or because you want to? Because you have to, you are saved in order to obey and not obey and maybe you'll be saved. Look, how do I put it? How will you approach your push present to God? I mean, one Peter, one verse says that in his great mercy, he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resurrection didn't happen without the death before it. It's saying that God endured a labor and a pain that was far greater than what any mother would experience in this world in order that we might be born into his new world. And so our obedience to God is our push present, our response in which we we're not prompted to go and do this and give back to him and serve him and love him and obey him because we have to or because we're prompted, but in seeing the incredible cost and price that he paid and the pains that he endured, we didn't do it just to just to give back. You need to know why you're being obedient to God because the difference is it's either going to crush you and turn you into a person broken and bitter or it's going to liberate you and turn you into a person of joy and of freedom and of love and of grace and of peace. So guys, we apply the principles, but also do you know why you're obedient to God if you're seeking to obey God? Do you know why? Finally we see, not only do we apply, no why, but we go and try. Now when I was a younger kid, there was a guy called Mitch at school, I used to go and hang out with him and be con hill there, we'd go and play in his front yard, always used to love cricket because he had his prized cricket set and I don't know if you ever had other friends like this when you were growing up, but Mitch, Mitch would play cricket with you so much as everything was going his way. The minute things didn't go his way or he didn't get to bowl, then he would walk straight over to the cricket set and he would pull up the stumps and he would put them under his arm and he would walk off into his house, he says it's my cricket set so I'm stopping. Now agreement is not obedience, agreement's not obedience, Mitch only complied to the extent that what you wanted was what he wanted. And so in that sense, we can treat the Bible the same way, we can come up against the Bible, the word of God, look I've heard some people say, you know what, when it comes to the Bible I don't want to hear anything from the Old Testament and I don't want to hear anything from the Apostle Paul and I maybe would deal with the Psalm so if we could just sort of stick here I think that gives us the gospels, there's a lot to play with there. And agreement is not obedience, see how can you ever be obedient unless you come up against something that you initially don't want to do and then choose to do it. Anything up until that point, you're just in agreement, but when you come up against something that you doesn't feel right for you, that you don't want to do and it cuts, it reverses across your will and you choose to do it otherwise that's obedience. And so this passage when it's talking about the way that we come up against the Bible like this, you see if you come to the Bible and treat it like this and say I agree with this and I don't like this and I'll follow this piece of the Bible, you know what you're doing, you're denying the opportunity for God to cross your will, you're denying the opportunity for God to get in there, to butt up against him and see most of the major issues in the Bible, I know this is a nuanced subject, we could have a whole nother sermon on this but let me put it this way, my experience thus far in ministry is that most of the issues in the Bible that we come up against is not interpretation issues, but nine out of ten times for people it's got to do with the lack of investigation and application to their own lives. People have interpretation issues with the Bible often it's because it butts up against them, how can we be obedient if we don't have something to butt up against and so in summary either here it is, either your understanding is shaped by the Bible, your understanding is guided by the Bible or your understanding guides the Bible, it's one, either way either your understanding shaped by the Bible or the Bible is shaped by your understanding, look what I'm trying to say is where can you give God the same sort of power that you would give your personal trainer, where else can you give God this unconditional trust and say over your life then when it comes to the Word of God, look what else I'm getting at here is when it says that Jesus walked as Jesus walked I thought what does that look like, what it looks like is that it means to obey God even from when a human perspective it doesn't make sense, that's what happened to Jesus as soon as he was baptized, Jesus got baptized and he didn't go off into the Great Temples of Jerusalem and theological debate, where did Jesus go? It says the Spirit let him off into the desert, leads him off into a walk around the desert for forty days and from a human perspective I think if I was Jesus I'd be saying that doesn't make any sense but Jesus was obedient and it led to his pre ministry training, very hard and foundation of his training in the early parts of his ministry as he was tempted by the devil. Now you know who else felt exactly like Jesus in that situation, the karate kid. You see karate kid wants to be a great expert, wants to Mr Miyagi, the grandmaster and he says I want to learn how to be a great karate master and so Mr Miyagi says oh you'll come tomorrow, and the karate kid says when are we going to learn how to do karate and Mr Miyagi says first we paint the house, so backwards and forwards the karate kid paints the house, the end of it karate kid says great can we learn karate we're going to learn karate tomorrow, Mr Miyagi says no, now we wash car, works on, works off, works on, works off, karate kid says okay okay I've got that, when are we going to learn karate we're going to do this now, no Mr Miyagi says now we sweep the floor, backwards, forwards, backwards, forwards, all this time the karate kid you can sort of see it anyways getting to the point, I know I would feel if I got to that point that I thought if Mr Miyagi gives me one more house would hold chore I'm going to try some of my own karate on the guy, or I'm going to give it up I'm going to quit you see he got to a point where he felt like that and then and then the great master Mr Miyagi weaves in all of these somewhat mundane and ridiculous and obligatory rules into the great wonder of his style of karate and it all makes sense, see what I'm trying to say like the karate kid unless we're willing to obey God in areas of our lives that make no sense at all, sometimes we'll never discover the wondrous plans that he is unfolding in us, that he's training for us for even when it doesn't make sense, when the Bible says do it and it feels wrong to us what's happening God, God the ultimate Mr Miyagi is simply building you into the reflex of obedience just like when Jesus walked in the desert man can't live on bread a line don't put the Lord your God to the test, worship the Lord your God and serve him only, Jesus had the reflex of obedience and so for us the product of obedience is to become the sort of people that naturally want what God wants, God wants the best for your life, God wants to shape you into the best spiritual person that you could possibly be, God wants the best for your life and so in that sense he just the product of obedience is to be shaped into that and that way that that that is to walk as Jesus walked is not a requirement but we seek that it becomes a reflex for us, we just naturally we become the people we're naturally the character and the deeds of Jesus flow from who we are, right, are you holding a doctrine of the word of God that if God were Mr Miyagi you'd say that's it, I want to quit by now, prayer, Bible study that's just God's way of saying wax on, wax off, wax off, guys agreement is not obedience and I know there are lots of places in here that don't make sense to us that we don't agree with, in fact why do we have connection groups, so we can come into a place in a context of community in which we don't necessarily of course we'll have all the positive things about connection groups, friendship and fellowship and food and fun and all the things we gather together but our connection groups are the one place in this world where groups of people actually gather together with the possibility of disagreement for the sake of growing each other and building up, otherwise they're just common interest groups and whenever you don't agree with a common interest group you leave the group because it's no longer a common interest, guys you need to come up against something in your life if you're going to be conquering consistency in 2012, agreement is not obedient and agreement is not obedience and so in that way some people they can't rely on their own will or perspective to get fit and that's why they pay personal trainers to do the job, they put their trust in the trainer to cut across their own will and this week God calls us not only to apply or to know why we should be obedient but to try to be obedient, otherwise you're just going to, if you don't come up and get something that you don't agree with then you're just going to keep pulling up the stumps like Mitch and you're willing to let God's will cross across yours tonight through his word, that's what it means to try to be obedient, guys do you, I asked it at the beginning it's going to be the catch cry this whole series, are you trying to steal your significance from success or are you seeking to live successfully out of your significance, the first step that you move to a life of significance is a zumba principle, you just take basic steps underneath the master instructor and progressively learn to walk as Jesus walked, the beginners DVD tonight was pretty simple, do you know how to apply it to your spiritual life, have you taken the laws and the principles of obedience in the physical realm and applied it to your spirituality and your morality, do you know why you're obedient, are you obeying because you want to be loved or do you understand that you're loved and therefore you obey, and ultimately you're going to try and be obedient this week, look what areas of your life you're just packing up the cricket set on, pulling up stumps, agreement is not obedience, are you willing to let God cut across your life this week with his will, it hurts, sometimes it can even feel repetitious, but he is weaving your life if you choose to follow him like Mr Miyagi into the greatest grand master of what life is really meant to be, that is the great truth that is the Christian life and so I ask you this week if you're a follower of him, are you walking as Jesus walked, are you trying to be obedient, if you're not a follower of Jesus Christ, would you like a personal trainer for free, 30 day money back guarantee for sure, you can by placing a trust in not a personal trainer but in the ultimate personal trainer Jesus Christ, there's an opportunity to do that tonight after the message if you just want to come and talk to us, but guys apply, know why, go try, let's pray. 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