Northside Church - Sydney
Living Hope – Week 6: Product of Hope
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. I had the pleasure tonight and it is a pleasure to be able to kind of summarize what's happened in our night services these last five or six weeks. Sam Haddon, our associate pastor here, has led us on an amazing journey on the theme of Christian hope. Sam, on behalf of all of us, may I want to say thank you for that. The teaching has been outstanding, it's been inspirational. I have the opportunity to kind of pull it all together in a closing 20 minutes or so, maybe a little over. It's a great theme, the theme of Christian hope. The journey we've been on has been amazing over these last five or six weeks. We've covered things like the uniqueness of the Christian hope, the experience of Christian hope, the object of hope, the return of Christ suffering, resurrection. Tonight it's the church and hope, the product of hope. What does it all mean? You can have all this knowledge about hope in Christ. Where does it lead us? Let me question the overriding question tonight. Do you have hope in Christ? Is that part of your motivation for living right now? I'm a fifth of June 2011. Are you motivated by a strong sense of hope in Christ? I hope you can answer that with a strong yes before this night is out. Our reading tonight comes from Romans chapter five, the first five verses, and Paul writing, and he says this, "Now that we've been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He's brought us by faith into this experience of God's grace in which we now live, and so we boast of the hope we have of sharing God's glory. We also boast of our troubles because we know that trouble produces endurance. Endurance brings God's approval, and this approval creates hope. There it is again. This hope does not disappoint us. Wow, there's an understatement. For those who know Jesus, this hope does not disappoint us. Amen. A lot of people can say amen to that. For God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit who is God's gift to us. So what does it mean to have hope in Christ? A summation that's beyond prayer. Father God, we thank you so much for the opportunity to join like this, and the experiences we've had so far in this service, the praise, the baptism, the fellowship, the opportunity to pray. Lord, it's all been part of your plan for us in this service. And now in these remaining moments, please clear away the distracting thoughts and move right into our deep subconscious and bring a message that will bring us the certainty of hope in Christ because that's something we all need. So Jesus Christ our Lord be pray. Amen. We were coming out of the slums of Mumbai. This is August 1997. Myself, a couple of traveling companions from Australia, including the director of overseas missions for churches of Christ, at that time a guy called Jeff Weston. And I was breathing a sigh of relief because I'd been told it was the last time on the trip we'd have to go into the Mumbai slums. Now, I'm not ashamed to admit I was digging very, very deep. I loved India. I love India. We've got people here from India. But to go into the Mumbai slums, if you've seen Slum Dog Millionaire, that was not an exaggeration, to go deep into that community, as we did on a couple of occasions, to slosh through the modern human excrement that makes up the little lame ways that form this particular slum area. You found yourself having a deep, pretty deep. We have a little church there in this particular slum in Mumbai. And that was our reason for visiting. And as we were heading out, they'd said, this will be the last time we'll be, we're going to move up north in a day or two's time. I got to be honest, I was breathing a sigh of relief. Then the pastor said, "Hey, guys, when you do us one favor, there's a lady who has said, 'Please, can she meet the Australian party?' She came to Christ 19 years ago in the Mumbai Central Church. We've got a church in Mumbai, been there for decades. We built a new building there many years ago. She came to Christ there. She now lives in the slums. She desperately wants to see the Australians before they go. "Would you please make a visit?" And my heart sank a little bit. Okay, God, if you're in this, I'm sure you are. Then we'll do it. So we slosh back through into a new part of the slum area. We were then into this little room where this beautiful single mother had raised two teenage boys. I guess the area was probably about maybe about seven square metres, very tiny little place, humble little dwelling, but spotlessly clean, absolutely clean. Lady was dressed in a beautiful neatly pressed sari. She told her that she'd come to Christ out of Hinduism 19 years before because of the presence of the Church of Christ in Mumbai. And how were the first Australians you'd ever met? And she wanted to say thank you. She'd been brought out of Hinduism and had come into Christ and changed her life. And then as a moment that she'd always look forward to, she got her little stainless steel beakers ready. The Indians, no matter how poor, are very proud of their stainless steel. Little beakers and little jugs and all highly polys that she had the little beakers out and she reached us in water and she poured the water in the beakers. And I looked across at Geoff Weston and we'd stayed well in India up until that point because of our refusal to drink anything but bottled water. And then I saw a slum like me there and found out how they actually bottled water and put the little air thing on it. Well, thankfully, you know, I didn't die but they can do that. So we had gone three weeks in pretty good health because we'd refused to drink. We'd walked past a sheet of water outside this lady's house where the malaria-carrying mosquitoes were so intense it was like it was raining on a beautiful clear sky like it was raining, there's mosquitoes everywhere. So we were constantly spraying and wiping hands and only bottled water. Yeah, me particularly because, you know, I'm a bit OCD, you know. So it was India was a big challenge for me anyway, you know, compulsive hair moisture, nothing wrong with that. Healthy body, you know the rest. So we'll look across to Geoff Weston. Geoff Weston said, "No, just go a little." I'm thinking, "Oh my gosh, so what are we going to do?" You know, he's a lady who wants to give us the water. And then the pastor who was translating I can only hope communicated to her in a way that was as warm and as kind as possible to say that the visitors would not be drinking the water. So we felt very embarrassed but that's how it was. And then one of her boys disappeared and we kept talking and sharing and she was laughing. She was such a wonderful lady. And then the boy reappeared after a little while and he presented three brand new bottles of Pepsi and put them on the table. And she took great delight in opening those three bottles. And we found out that lady, her occupation was an, she was an ironing lady. The Indians are fastidious about ironing. Everything gets ironed. And so in the slums, a lot of the ladies are ironers. And she was an ironer. We worked out later on that based on the rupees that she would earn, those three bottles of Pepsi probably represented about pretty close to two days of work for her. Pepsi would not have been. So we had a little drink and we passed around, of course, but naturally we all shared in those three bottles of Pepsi. Now how many of us would give the equivalent of two days salary as a gift to total strangers unless those strangers were representative of something that had changed your life forever. Now guys, when I think of that lady in India, in the slums of Mumbai, I can still visualize her, that lady, that woman and the little church that she belongs to represent for me a lasting and indelible image of what hope in Christ really means. She had it all joy in the midst of very shocking circumstances. She had a spirit of generosity. She had a spirit of gratitude. She had joy. She to me left an indelible image of what joy in Christ is and what hope in Christ is all about. But what can we say? How can we identify with that woman in the Mumbai slums given that we live in a country of freedom? We live in a country of affluence. Just the opposite to where that lady lived. What can we say about our hope in Christ that transcends culture, the transcends nationality, the transcends situations, the transcends circumstances. I think we can say many things. We can say many things that will sort of bridge a gap between the two, the great divide. I've chosen four tonight. I've chosen four things. And the first one is this. Our hope in Christ is not just something we talk about as something we exude. Now, there's a way we don't use too often. Exude. Exude, it has its etymology, its origin in the idea of oozing sweat. You can trace it back. Exude is related to the idea of exuding, of oozing sweat. If you're involved in work, you will use sweat as a sign that you're involved in work. That's why at working bees over the years, I was known as perspiration. I appear after the work is over. You ooze sweat. I'm not a big practical kind of jobs man. Other gifts somehow. So the idea of oozing. So if you're involved in work, you ooze sweat. If you're involved in Christianity, you ooze hope in Christ. It's not something artificial. It's not contrived. It's just a natural result of your involvement. If you're involved in Christianity, if you have the hope of Christ in your life, it's reflected in how you speak. It's reflected in how you act and how you react. Some of you know I'm involved in a, I have another part of my life on a very part-time basis. I'm a Dell Carnegie instructor, which means that on a regular basis, like currently Tuesday nights, I go into the CBD and I conduct a class for young executives, about 20, who pay dollars to just improve their performance as leaders. And we cover a whole range of things over an eight-week period. And it's a workshop. And our aim at the end of eight weeks is to send these young men and women back into their work forces with an extra sense of springing their step with a sense of what it means to be a leader in their environment. We cover a whole range of topics. Now, at the end of every night, we congratulate those who've won the awards. We present awards to various speakers and different people who've done things. And as we all spill out of the room into the foyer, there's this incredibly high energy that fills the whole foyer. People coming out and they're congratulating each other and saying, "What a fantastic session!" Bobby did so great there. And that was a fantastic talk, Debbie Fanta. We invariably, and it happened last Tuesday night, we have people who are doing other courses come over and say, "What's this all about? What are you guys doing here? What's this all about?" We say, "Oh, this is the Delken Eagles." What's that? Can we know? How do we find out more? So we have to kind of get cards and pass it around. I'm done on the sales. I just simply instruct. But the business gets a little bit of, they get contacts, most Tuesday nights, purely on the basis of what people observe as the session is over. Now, admittedly, we've artificially contrived some of that. But the level of passion and energy and enthusiasm is palpable and people are drawn to it. Now, guys, here's the thing. There's such a thing as a tractional, emotional, Sam and Sarah and Michael tell you about what we do at this sort of thing all the time. I'd never sort of be able to see the clear distinction. But one of the reasons why I'm a believer in part in the attractional model of church life is because when it's happening well, when you get a group of passionate, vibrant, dynamic people, it's attractive. We found that tonight with Jesse. Jesse started in his journey among a community of people that were excited, that were passionate, that had hope. He didn't understand everything that was going on. First of course, but he saw enough and he experienced enough to want to know more. It's something else. Hope in Christ is not merely a feeling, but it's a profound, inner conviction. It's not just a feeling. Oh, I've got hope in Christ. I'm really praising God. The moment things are going so great. Well, it's got to be there when things aren't going so great. Hope in Christ is not merely a feeling. Hebrew 619, listen to this. We have this hope, says the writer, as an anchor for our lives. It is safe and secure. It's one of the few times in the scriptures where there's a reference to an anchor. Now, I'm not a nautical kind of person, but I didn't know the place of an anchor. My wife and I did a Mediterranean cruise last year, and in some of the ports where they can't go in and birth, they have to sort of stay out in the bay and they drop the anchor if the water's not too deep. And of course, the idea is obvious. Amid all the currents and shifting tidal patterns and so on, those big ships stay right where they are meant to stay while the passengers go off and do their thing and then come back later in the afternoon. You want that ship to be there. Amid all the shifting currents and all the things that were otherwise drifted right out to sea. And those anchors are huge. They are huge. That's what this writer is talking about. We have an anchor that is safe and secure. Guys, feelings are so thick, aren't they? They're so unreliable. But that's our point of greatest vulnerability. I speak to people most wicks who say, "Oh, I'll grab it." And feel as though I'm connected to God. I just don't feel that spiritual at the moment. I just don't feel as though I'm really traveling all that well. And I can sympathize and I can help. But I can also say, look, that's not the gauge of your spirituality, how you're feeling. It's one of the indicators. But we tend to give it a rating that's far higher than it deserves. Feelings are so fickle. If the anchor is deep, of course, there are going to be currents and pressures that would try to push us off course. But if the anchor is deep, that's where our conviction comes in. What do you believe about the faith? This last five, six weeks has been designed to deepen our knowledge of the faith and our awareness of the foundations of the faith. That's what I say earlier, Sam's such a fantastic job in that. We have this hope as an anchor. Don't trust your feelings. As Michael has said tonight, journaling, regular reading of the scriptures, looking at websites, reading widely, whatever it takes to deepen your knowledge, your convictions about the faith. That'll be your anchor. That'll stand you in good stead when those feelings and those shifting winds and currents come to batter the vessel that we will call for this analogy, your life. Here's something else, guys. Our hope in Christ is not so much about joy in an easy life as it is about strength for a tough journey. Now, look at those first, there's a three to five of that reading we had a moment ago, Romans 5. We also boast of our troubles because we know trouble produces endurance. Endurance brings God's approval. His approval creates hope. This hope does not disappoint us. For God has poured out his love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit who is God's gift to us. I mentioned before, I love this, this hope does not disappoint us. Now, let's cross-reference that to Philippians, which is a fantastic book written by Paul on the theme of hope and joy. The book of Philippians is this riddle with references to hope and joy. And you'll know this passage if you've been journeying with Jesus for a while, if you haven't been, let this passage hit you with all of its power and authority for the first time. Look at this, Philippians 4 verses 12 and 13, here's Paul, I've learned to be satisfied with what I have. I know what it is to be in need and what it is to have more than enough. I've learned this secret. You know, back in the 80s, it was a book released. It was at the early 90s called The Secret. You know, like nobody's discovered how to live life up until this point, The Secret. Wow, got a lot of air play, got on a 60 minutes, The Secret. Hello, first century. Paul, he could have written the book. I've learned this secret. I can still see the cover. People tell me, oh, Graham, you're this, the secret. This will shake your faith. Really? I don't see that. Well, didn't. A lot of people, you know, so will the secret. Paul says, I've learned this secret so that anywhere, at any time, I am content, whether I'm full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little, I have the strength to face all conditions by the power Christ gives me. Now, guys, look, he wasn't writing this, stretched out on a blanket, sipping a martini on Santorini, right? Like, he might have visited Santorini because it was around, but that's not where he was. He wasn't bobbing around in a friend's boat off the Malphie Coast, just south of Rome, when he wrote this. I'm just so content. I've just learned this secret. Lord, you're just so blessing me so much. He was near, he was near a Malphie. He was in Rome. He was writing in a Roman prison. It's one of the last letters, as far as we can tell, Paul wrote. He was chained, he was in prison. I've learned the secret in all conditions. My hope in Christ, nothing, my joy in Christ, nothing can take it from me. Guys, that's what we're talking about. It's not. When I read this verse from Paul, by the way, when I read this verse, I think of my friend in the Mumbai slums. I've learned this secret. I can't tell you how shocking the lifestyle would be in the Mumbai slums. This lady was trying to retain as much dignity and grace as she possibly could in a setting that most of us would not endure. I was struggling after an hour, really struggling. Some people put off Christianity by the apparent failure of God to deliver great blessings. I've always been attracted to Christianity by the incredible power of God to sustain and maintain people in extraordinarily difficult situations. It depends how you look at it. I get so much inspiration from some of you and your plight in life, your hardships, what you've had to endure, what you're enduring now. You're still praising God and you're still saying, "My hope is in Christ." I get tremendous inspiration from that. Never mind. Or, "Where was God when that happened?" He was there. He's always there. He sustains. Nothing can separate us from his love. That's what spins my wills. Well, because our hope in Christ is not so much about joy in an easy life, it's about strength for a tough journey. For most of us, life is or will be a tough journey. It's just a reality. Here's the final thing, guys. The Christian hope is not about me and my little agenda. It is about God's kingdom and his eternal plan for humankind. And some of us have got to readjust our focus a little bit in this area. Sadly, and it's understandable, I've done it myself. I do it myself. It's a constant point of vulnerability for me. Sadly, we tend to see our hope in Christ as fitting almighty God into our plans, into what we think is the way things should pan out, our preconceived ideas. I hope everything's going to be fine, God. Come on, you and me. Everything's going to be fine for me in all areas of my life. That's my prayer, please. That's my hope in you. I hope you're going to work out this, this, this, and bring it all together because I'm trying to be faithful. I'm trying to do the right thing and just want you to bless it all. We ought to take more notice of what we sing. You look at a number of times, hope is mentioned in what we sing. I'll give you an example. Jesus Messiah, name above all names. Blessed Redeemer, Emmanuel. And then you get to the verse and it says, "All our hope is in you." And in case you didn't get the first time, "All our hope is in you." I think it might be a third time there, isn't it? "All our hope is in you." When we started singing these songs, the older generation were incensed by the repetition. But I used to say, as a young pastor, "Hey, I'm a product of the beetle era. You want repetition? She loves you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She loves you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah." I mean, anybody familiar with that song from the Beatles? I got no problem with repetition. Some of this stuff is actually quite mild. "All our hope is in you." The light of the world, not the light of my world, the light of the world. Guys, we're talking about inclusiveness. We're talking big picture. We're talking Kingdom values. Let's take notice what we sing. We move deeper. I've said this so many times in this platform. We move deeper into spiritual maturity when we stop always praying, "Lord, give something to me." And start praying, "Lord, give me to something. Open my eyes to the needs all around me. Get me into service. Get me into into consistent labor for you." And I mentioned the other Sunday morning, just how exciting it is. I mean, in an extreme way, some of the north siders who just get this vision. I'm looking out at Sally, Eastern, Europe, orphanages devoted how many weeks over there, Sally? Seven weeks. We're going to talk later on to David Saxby, Indonesia, six weeks. Over there this week, Kate Wilson. Yeah, Denny's here tonight playing bass. Three weeks as a nurse. We didn't tell it to go. We didn't say, "Yo, your turn. What do you do? Give it a get ready. You're next." We just do it spontaneously. Because they know what it means when they sing that word, "Well, my hope is in you, the light of the world." And then we've got our world, our immediate world around us and all the things that happen in this area that we're trying to, the ways we're trying to minister, and then the guys in the Hope Street team and so on. It's phenomenal, exciting. Our hope in Christ is not just about our little world. It's about God's kingdom. It's about the world of eternity. Here's my prayer, and it just happens to be Paul's prayer as well, for us tonight, and it's found in Ephesians chapter one. Look at this. I ask that your minds may be opened to see his light so that you will know what is the hope he has called you to. How rich are the wonderful blessings he promises his people, and how very great is his power at work in us who believe. This power in us is the same as the mighty strength which God used when he raised Christ from death. We can spend the whole series on that. What does it mean to have resurrection power? It's all part of our hope in Christ. Guys, I want to close by saying this. Our hope in Christ, it's a road. It's a journey. It's the best way to describe it. Now, here's the thing. It's not a flashy freeway with lots of signs. I love driving on freeways. Why do I love going to America? I love their freeways. Beautiful. But listen, the road of hope is not a flashy freeway. Turn here. Danger ahead. That's not my experience. It's more like a... You go out in the country and you start walking and you might come to a field and there's a track. Why is it a track? Did somebody dig it out as a track? Did they make it a track? Generally, no. It's just that enough people have walked that pathway to make it a track. It's the best way to traverse that particular part of the country. You've been on those sort of tracks. And sometimes those tracks get a little blurry. You've got to pick it up. A little bit of doubt is exactly where you are. Sometimes the road is not all that clear. It might neander a little bit. And even if you think there's a better way, you go on the way the track has been formed. Guys, that's as Sam alluded to in the Baptist Street tonight. That's the journey of faith. It's not always clear. That's our hope in Christ. It's a track that many have trodden before. Every person who's ever decided to become a disciple has walked this pathway. We walk it. It's not easy. All the answers aren't there. But if you got to the top of the track, if you could pursue the track as far as it goes, you'd find Jesus. He's leading the way. He's done it all before. And the track ultimately leads to a place called eternity with Him. Has any of this resonated with any of us tonight? If you have hope in Christ, I hope you know what I'm talking about. These are just four of the things we can say that identify us with the plight of the churches of Christ people who today will be meeting in the Mumbai slums. What else have we got that identifies us with them? Nothing. I'd be ashamed to talk about this over there. That little place you wouldn't believe it. It's just that little makeshift place, but it's their church. And it's one of the greatest churches I've ever been to. And I've been to some of the largest churches in the world. That one stays in my mind, and will do so forever, the Mumbai slums church of Christ. So we have that in common with those people. We've got a hope in Christ. They would say, I don't, they'd say I'm into all those things. And say, they'd give an even louder amen to some of them because they have to live it. We just know it in theory. Our hope in Christ, are you walking the track that leads to hope tonight? You can during our ministry time. Why don't you come and we'll pray with you. If you want to receive Jesus Christ tonight, just say that to the person you're going to pray with and we'll pray with you to do just that. If you've wanted from the track, if you're looking for the flashy freeway, if you're wanting more big, big flashing signs, stop. Go here. Turn right. You might be disappointed. That's not the way it is in God's kingdom. It's more a track. But here's the thing. It's getting deeper and deeper all the time because more and more people are treating that track. Let's bow and pray, shall we? Well, Father God, we thank you for the track that leads to eternal life. We call it our hope in Christ. And Lord, it's not an easy pathway. And sometimes we wish there were more big signs, clear directions, warnings about the future, points where we know we're going to detour. But for most of us, Lord, that's not how life is. But we stay on that track because we know others have trodden the path before. And ultimately, that track leads to eternity. And the one at the very front of the line is Jesus Christ, who came and lived as we live and who was tempted at all points such as we, but without sin. What an example. What a model. We will need your Holy Spirit's power and presence to walk in His footsteps this week. We claim that right now in His strong name. Amen.