BlogSermons

Lessons from James

This is the third of five talks given at Lee Abbey in the summer, do take a listen or download it below. The previous two in the series were:

  1. Persevering Through Trials
  2. Walking the Talk

An old legend tells how a man was once lost for days in a dark forest and stumbled across an imposing barn. He sought shelter inside it because of the howling winds. His eyes grew quickly accustomed to the dark, and he was amazed to discover that this barn was where the devil kept his storehouse of seeds. These were the seeds that were sown in the hearts of humans. He lit a match and looked at all the different types of seeds. Most of them, surprisingly, were labelled ‘Seeds of Discouragement’. Just then one of the devil’s helpers arrived to pick up a new load of seeds. The man asked him, “Why so many discouragement seeds?” The helper laughed and replied, “Because they’re so effective and they take root so quickly.” “Do they grow everywhere?” the man asked, to which the helper suddenly grimaced back at him and said in disgust, “No. They never seem to grow in the heart of a grateful person.”

Father’s Love Letter

…or watch at fathersloveletter.com

My Child, 
You may not know me, but I know everything about you.  Psalm 139:1 
I know when you sit down and when you rise up. Psalm 139:2
I am familiar with all your ways. Psalm 139:3
Even the very hairs on your head are numbered. Matthew 10:29-31
For you were made in my image. Genesis 1:27
In me, you live and move and have your being. Acts 17:28 
For you are my offspring. Acts 17:28 
I knew you even before you were conceived. Jeremiah 1:4-5 
I chose you when I planned creation. Ephesians 1:11-12 
You were not a mistake, for all your days are written in my book. Psalm 139:15-16
I determined the exact time of your birth and where you would live. Acts 17:26 
You are fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14 
I knit you together in your mother’s womb. Psalm 139:13 
And brought you forth on the day you were born. Psalm 71:6
I have been misrepresented by those who don’t know me. John 8:41-44
I am not distant and angry but am the complete expression of love. 1 John 4:16 
And it is my desire to lavish my love on you. 1 John 3:1 
Simply because you are my child and I am your Father. 1 John 3:1
I offer you more than your earthly father ever could. Matthew 7:11 
For I am the perfect father. Matthew 5:48 
Every good gift that you receive comes from my hand. James 1:17
For I am your provider and I meet all your needs. Matthew 6:31-33 
My plan for your future has always been filled with hope. Jeremiah 29:11 
Because I love you with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31:3 
My thoughts toward you are countless as the sand on the seashore. Psalm 139:17-18
And I rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3:17 
I will never stop doing good to you. Jeremiah 32:40 
For you are my treasured possession. Exodus 19:5 
I desire to establish you with all my heart and all my soul. Jeremiah 32:41 
And I want to show you great and marvelous things. Jeremiah 33:3 
If you seek me with all your heart, you will find me. Deuteronomy 4:29 
Delight in me and I will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4 
For it is I who gave you those desires. Philippians 2:13 
I am able to do more for you than you could possibly imagine. Ephesians 3:20 
For I am your greatest encourager. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
I am also the Father who comforts you in all your troubles. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 
When you are brokenhearted, I am close to you. Psalm 34:18 
As a shepherd carries a lamb, I have carried you close to my heart. Isaiah 40:11 
One day I will wipe away every tear from your eyes. Revelation 21:3-4 
And I’ll take away all the pain you have suffered on this earth. Revelation 21:3-4 
I am your Father, and I love you even as I love my son, Jesus. John 17:23 
For in Jesus, my love for you is revealed. John 17:26
He is the exact representation of my being. Hebrews 1:3 
He came to demonstrate that I am for you, not against you. Romans 8:31 
And to tell you that I am not counting your sins. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19
Jesus died so that you and I could be reconciled. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 
His death was the ultimate expression of my love for you. 1 John 4:10
I gave up everything I loved that I might gain your love. Romans 8:31-32 
If you receive the gift of my son Jesus, you receive me. 1 John 2:23
And nothing will ever separate you from my love again. Romans 8:38-39
Come home and I’ll throw the biggest party heaven has ever seen. Luke 15:7 
I have always been Father, and will always be Father. Ephesians 3:14-15 
My question is…Will you be my child? John 1:12-13 
I am waiting for you. Luke 15:11-32
Love, Your Dad. Almighty God

Well-known pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski’s concert in New York had been sold out for six months. On the night of the concert, those who came were dressed in tuxedos and fancy dresses. A mother brought her nine-year-old son because he was beginning to complain about his piano lessons, and she thought hearing a great pianist might motivate him to keep practicing.

You can dress a nine-year-old in a tuxedo, but he’s still nine. Restless and impatient, he continually had to go to the bathroom and, much to the irritation of those sitting by them, kept walking back and forth. Finally, the mother became exasperated, grabbed her son by the shoulders and sat him down hard in his seat. “Now stay there and don’t move!” she said sternly. But a few minutes later, while the mother was distracted by the person on the other side of her, the boy slipped out to the aisle. The mother turned to see her son walking toward the stage, where a huge Steinway piano was standing. Panicky, she yelled at him to come back. Startled the little boy panicked, ran toward the stage, ran up the stairs straight to the piano, sat down, and began to play “Chopsticks.” People in the audience were furious.

“Get that kid off the stage!”

“This is an outrage!”

“What is this boy doing here!”

As the startled ushers began moving toward the young boy, Paderewski heard the commotion and looked out of his dressing room. He saw the boy playing “Chopsticks”. He quickly grabbed his tuxedo jacket, walked to the edge of the backstage area, and then stepped into full view of the audience. There was a collective hush. Everyone wondered what the great pianist would do. The boy, oblivious to what was happening, continued to play. Paderewski came up behind him, went down on his knee, and whispered in the little boy’s ear, “Don’t stop. Keep on playing. You’re doing great.” While the boy continued to play, the great pianist put his arms around the boy and began to play a concerto based on the tune of “Chopsticks.” While the two played, Paderewski kept saying to the boy, “Don’t stop. Keep on playing.”

As you look at your life, as you contemplate embracing the faith of a little child, as you wonder what difference your bumbling, flawed life will make, I hope you have heard God’s whispering voice, “Don’t stop. Keep on playing. You’re doing great.”

One day we shall all be gathered in that great concert hall of God, and we will hear the glorious beauty of the concerto God was playing while you and I plunked out our childlike version of “Chopsticks.”

BlogSermons

Lessons from James

This is the second of five talks given at Lee Abbey in the summer (first talk here). Do take a listen or download it here:

Below are some notes from my talk:

A vicar was too busy to help a homeless lady who was needing help, so he fobbed her off with a promise to pray for her, and then continued on his way. She wrote the following poem and gave it to a local Shelter officer:

I was hungry, and you formed a humanities group to discuss my hunger.
I was imprisoned, and you crept off quietly to your chapel and prayed for my release.
I was naked, and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance.
I was sick, and you knelt and thanked God for your health.
I was homeless, and you preached a sermon on the spiritual shelter of the love of God.
I was lonely, and you left me alone to pray for me.

You seem so holy, so close to God
But I am still very hungry – and lonely – and cold. 

Brennan Manning wrote: “The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world, simply finds unbelievable.”

Problem is, we can all relate to that situation with the vicar. We’ve all been caught in such a scenario. In fact, I got death threats from a guy to whom I said I was too busy, and he subsequently came to my house with a grenade to blow me up, that’s another story! So the challenge in this talk is to being encouraged to act and not be guilt-tripped or feel shame and a sense of failure. Let’s listen to James:

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

20 You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? 21 Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 23 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. 24 You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? 26 As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

James 2

This true incident happened to Tony Campolo a number of years ago. Tony is a professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University:

A few years ago Tony flew to Hawaii to speak at a conference. The way he tells it, he checks into his hotel and tries to get some sleep. Unfortunately, his internal clock wakes him at 3:00 a.m. The night is dark, the streets are silent, the world is asleep, but Tony is wide awake and his stomach is growling. He gets up and prowls the streets looking for a place to get some bacon and eggs for an early breakfast. Everything is closed except for a grungy dive in an alley. He goes in and sits down at the counter. The fat guy behind the counter comes over and asks, “What d’ya want?” Well, Tony isn’t so hungry anymore so eying some donuts under a plastic cover he says, “I’ll have a donut and black coffee.”

As he sits there munching on his donut and sipping his coffee at 3:30, in walk eight or nine provocative, loud prostitutes just finished with their night’s work. They plop down at the counter and Tony finds himself uncomfortably surrounded by this group of smoking, swearing ladies of the night. He gulps his coffee, planning to make a quick getaway. Then the woman next to him says to her friend, “You know what? Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m gonna be 39.” To which her friend nastily replies, “So what d’ya want from me? A birthday party? Huh? You want me to get a cake, and sing happy birthday to you?” The first woman says, “Aw, come on, why do you have to be so mean? Why do you have to put me down? I’m just sayin’ it’s my birthday. I don’t want anything from you. I mean, why should I have a birthday party? I’ve never had a birthday party in my whole life. Why should I have one now?”

Well, when Tony Campolo heard that, he said he made a decision. He sat and waited until the women left, and then he asked the fat guy at the counter, “Do they come in here every night?” “Yeah,” he answered.
“The one right next to me,” he asked, “she comes in every night?”

“Yeah,” he said, “that’s Agnes. Yeah, she’s here every night. She’s been comin’ here for years. Why do you want to know?”

“Because she just said that tomorrow is her birthday. What do you think? Do you think we could maybe throw a little birthday party for her right here in the diner?”

A cute kind of smile crept over the fat man’s chubby cheeks. “That’s great,” he says, “yeah, that’s great. I like it.” He turns to the kitchen and shouts to his wife, “Hey, come on out here. This guy’s got a great idea. Tomorrow is Agnes’ birthday and he wants to throw a party for her right here.” His wife comes out. “That’s terrific,” she says. “You know, Agnes is really nice. She’s always trying to help other people and nobody does anything nice for her.”

So they make their plans. Tony says he’ll be back at 2:30 the next morning with some decorations and the man, whose name turns out to be Harry, says he’ll make a cake.

At 2:30 the next morning, Tony is back. He has crepe paper and other decorations and a sign made of big pieces of cardboard that says, “Happy Birthday, Agnes!” They decorate the place from one end to the other and get it looking great. Harry had gotten the word out on the streets about the party and by 3:15 it seemed that every prostitute in Honolulu was in the place. There were hookers wall to wall. At 3:30 on the dot, the door swings open and in walks Agnes and her friend. Tony has everybody ready. They all shout and scream “Happy Birthday, Agnes!” Agnes is absolutely flabbergasted. She’s stunned, her mouth falls open, her knees started to buckle, and she almost falls over.

And when the birthday cake with all the candles is carried out, that’s when she totally loses it. Now she’s sobbing and crying. Harry, who’s not used to seeing a prostitute cry, gruffly mumbles, “Blow out the candles, Agnes. Cut the cake.”

So she pulls herself together and blows them out. Everyone cheers and yells, “Cut the cake, Agnes, cut the cake!” But Agnes looks down at the cake and, without taking her eyes off it, slowly and softly says, “Look, Harry, is it all right with you if…I mean, if I don’t…I mean, what I want to ask, is it OK if I keep the cake a little while? Is it all right if we don’t eat it right away?” Harry doesn’t know what to say so he shrugs and says, “Sure, if that’s what you want to do. Keep the cake. Take it home if you want.” “Oh, could I?” she asks. Looking at Tony she says, “I live just down the street a couple of doors; I want to take the cake home, is that okay? I’ll be right back, honest.”

She gets off her stool, picks up the cake, and carries it high in front of her like it was the Holy Grail. Everybody watches in stunned silence and when the door closes behind her, nobody seems to know what to do. They look at each other. They look at Tony.

So Tony gets up on a chair and says, “What do you say that we pray together?” And there they are in a hole-in-the-wall greasy spoon, half the prostitutes in Honolulu, at 3:30 a.m. listening to Tony Campolo as he prays for Agnes, for her life, her health, and her salvation. Tony recalls, “I prayed that her life would be changed, and that God would be good to her.”

When he’s finished, Harry leans over, and with a trace of hostility in his voice, he says, “Hey, you never told me you was a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to anyway?”

In one of those moments when just the right words came, Tony answers him quietly, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning.”

Harry thinks for a moment, and in a mocking way says, “No you don’t. There ain’t no church like that. If there was, I’d join it. Yep, I’d join a church like that.”

Mahatma Gandhi’s comment on the Bible to a group of missionaries rings as equally challenging today as it did back then: “You Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilisation to pieces, turn the world upside down and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat it as though it is nothing more than a piece of literature.”

The Rev. Pattison, a respected friend of Gandhi, recounted how one Sunday morning Gandhi decided to visit one of the Christian churches in Calcutta. As he tried to enter the church sanctuary, the ushers blocked his path. They told him he wasn’t welcome, nor would he ever be allowed to attend this particular church because it was only for high-caste Indians and whites. He was neither high caste, nor white. As a result of that single event, Gandhi rejected the Christian faith, and never again considered the claims of Christ. He was turned off by the sin of segregation that was practiced by the church, and that experience of rejection prompted his declaration: “I’d be a Christian if it were not for the Christians.”

Mother Teresa was 85-years-old when she was invited to address the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. This frail old lady, dressed as ever in her simple cheap clothing, passionately and eloquently called on the powerful luminaries gathered around her to enshrine the protection of unborn babies in law. She pleaded for compassion on behalf of the ‘little ones’: “How can we speak out against violence, when we are the most brutal with the most defenceless?”

It was obviously a controversial and sensitive subject, and many of the media elite spoke of that awkward moment for the President Clinton, Vice-President Gore, and their wives as this humble diminutive lady spoke with such conviction. As she stood down, the audience gave a roaring standing ovation. However, a number of people, who were seated on the stage, very ostentatiously chose not to stand up, in obvious disagreement with what she’d said.

Afterwards, President Clinton was asked in an interview what he thought of Mother Teresa’s pointed message. He paused and said only this: “It is very difficult to argue against a life so beautifully lived.” He was wise to keep his words to a minimum, because he recognized that all the arguments supporting his opinion about her words were irrelevant at that time. Anything he said would only reflect his attitude toward Mother Teresa the person; and in the presence of a life well lived, he was no longer responding to an issue at hand, but to a person in front of him.

BlogSermons

stages of a chrysalis

James 1

This is the first of five talks given at Lee Abbey in the summer, do take a listen here:


Have you had a bad day recently? Rebecca Dudley, editor of News Tribune, wrote:

“Paul Johnson, 37, a mechanic from Maitland, had a day to forget last Tuesday. During the morning, he pushed his motorcycle from the patio into his living room, where he began to clean the engine with some rags and a bowl of petrol. When he finished, he sat on the motorcycle and decided to start it to make sure everything was still OK. Unfortunately, the bike started in gear, and crashed through the glass patio door with him still clinging to the handlebars. His wife had been working in the kitchen. She came running at the noise, and found him crumpled on the patio, badly cut from the shards of broken glass. She called the emergency services, and the paramedics transported Paul to the emergency room.

Later that afternoon, after many stitches had pulled her husband back together, the wife brought him home and put him to bed. She cleaned up the mess in the living room, and dumped the bowl of petrol in the toilet. Shortly thereafter, her husband woke up, lit a cigarette, and went into the bathroom. He sat down and tossed the cigarette into the toilet, which promptly exploded because the wife had not flushed the petrol away. The explosion blew Mr. Johnson through the bathroom door. The wife heard the explosion and her husband’s screams. She ran into the hall and found him lying on the floor with his trousers blown away and burns on his buttocks.

She again ran to the phone and called for an ambulance. The same two paramedics were dispatched to the scene. They loaded Paul on the stretcher and began carrying him to the street. One of them asked the wife how the injury had occurred. When she told them, they began laughing so hard that they dropped the stretcher, and broke the Mr. Johnson’s collarbone.”

Has it been a tough year? When going through difficult or challenging seasons of life, I take comfort from Oswald Chambers words: “Trials are God’s vote of confidence in us!” He’s rooting for us, and believes we can get through them, so we need to believe it too. In any case, would life really be better if everything always went according to plan and we never faced any battles?

One day, a man sat observing a cocoon slowly opening as the butterfly inside struggled to force its body through the little hole. After several hours, progress came to a halt. Apparently, it would get no further. So the man decided to intervene and help the butterfly by making a shortcut – literally – as he snipped the end of the cocoon with a pair of scissors. The butterfly emerged without any further struggle, but its body was swollen and its wings were shrivelled. The man expected the butterfly to expand and fly away, little realizing that his “kindness” had signed the butterfly’s death warrant. The restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were nature’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. In the verses above, James makes clear that life’s trials develop perseverance in us, which leads ultimately to maturity. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles or trials, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been. We could never fly. 

Eldredge’s ‘Wild at Heart’: “Until we are broken, our life will be self-centred, self-reliant; our strength will be our own. So long as you think you are really something in and of yourself, what will you need God for? I don’t trust a man who hasn’t suffered.” Chinese underground church pastor to my friend: “Be careful, don’t be too wowed by this promising young man. Yes, he has potential, but he hasn’t been to prison for his faith yet. All the rest of us in this room have had at least a 3-year jail sentence. That was our Bible school.”

“God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume–it is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.” Vance Havner

William Carey is often attributed the title “father of modern missions”. He was born into a desperately poor family and consequently obtained a poor education. He was apprenticed as a shoemaker but simply didn’t make the grade. He tried his hand at running a school, but it was a flop. His marriage was an unhappy one, during which his daughter died early – an event which left him bald for life. He was a deeply committed believer, but his subsequent attempt at pastoring a small church lessened his chances of ordination, because by common consent his sermons were too boring for words!

Despite such an apparently flawed track record, Carey formed a missionary society, with himself as the first candidate setting sail to India. This feeble individual translated the Bible into Bengali, Oriya, Marathi, Hindi, Assamese, and Sanskrit, as well as portions into twenty-nine other languages. At one stage, he lost ten years’ translation work in a fire. What did he do? He just started again. Then there were his contributions to literature, education, literacy, agriculture, getting infanticide outlawed, and more. This man’s obedience and perseverance were used to impact the lives of literally millions of people.

Before dying, knowing that one of his supporters wanted to write about his life, Carey conveyed his wishes: “If one should think it worth his while to write my life, I will give you a criterion by which you may judge of its correctness. If he gives me credit for being a plodder, he will describe me justly. Anything beyond this will be too much. I can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.”

Adoniram Judson of Burma. When proposed to his wife, “Give me your hand to go with me to the jungles of Asian, and there die with me in the cause of Christ.” Reached Rangoon in 1813, 6 years language learning before preached first sermon, 7 years before first convert. 20 years to translate whole Bible. Twice widowed, lost 6 kids in lifetime. Illness, 2 years in prison camps during the Anglo-Burmese war. One return to USA in 37 years there. Then 7000 baptised Karen people in 63 churches, now 3 million.

“The reason for the growth of the church in China and for the outbreak of genuine spiritual revival in many areas is inextricably linked to the whole theology of the cross… the stark message of the Chinese church is that God used suffering and the preaching of a crucified Christ to pour out revival and build his church. Are we in the West still willing to hear? The Chinese church has walked the way of the cross. The lives and death of the martyrs of the 1950s and 1960s have borne rich fruit.” Tony Lambert

BlogSermons

A Selfish Heart – 1 Samuel 2:11-36 

If you want to listen to last Sunday’s sermon, it was in my local church. The second in the series on Spiritual Heart Surgery, my given title was- ‘A Selfish Heart’, and the text was 1 Samuel 2:11-36. It’s not a passage I would have chosen to speak from, which makes it all the fun to dig into an unfamiliar text and find some real gold. I hope you enjoy it!

Sermons

Matthew 7:24-29

Watch, listen to or download this sermon I gave last Sunday.

Some notes and cool quotes from the sermon:

Most of us have been educated way beyond the level of our obedience. It’s not about being biblically literate but biblically obedient…

Is your life built on rock? Not feelings… “Believe God’s Word and power more than you believe your own feelings and experiences. Your Rock is Christ, and it is not the Rock which ebbs and flows, but your sea.” (Samuel Rutherford)

“The waters are raging and the winds are blowing but I have no fear for I stand firmly upon a rock. What am I to fear? Is it death? Life to me means Christ and death is gain. Is it exile? The earth and everything it holds belongs to the Lord. Is it loss of property? I brought nothing into this world and I will bring nothing out of it. I have only contempt for the world and its ways and I scorn its honours.” Chrysostom’s last sermon which led to his exile.

The thing is, you can’t fake good foundations long-term – there’s a mixture of anger and sadness at high-profile leaders whose lives come crashing down – whether you’ve built your life on metaphorical rock or sand will sooner or later come to light. The foundation’s fragility or solidity is a reality whatever the outward appearance… a sandcastle is easy to build, but washes away with the next incoming tide.

Have we cheated or are we cheating in taking shortcuts with our integrity, our viewing habits, our ill-discipline in affairs of the heart, our spiritual apathy and disengagement, our lack of self-scrutiny in terms of spending patterns, use of time, loose-talking, viewing habits, wandering eyes, jealousy, greed, laziness, vulgarity, pride, judgmentalism?

As Dallas Willard so astutely pointed out, the cost of discipleship is high, but the cost of non-discipleship is even higher. Discipleship in that sense is a bargain: “Non-discipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God’s overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, non-discipleship costs you exactly the abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring.”

One day an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will never forget.

As this man stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers he said, “Okay, time for a quiz.” Then he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed mason jar and set it on a table in front of him.  Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, “Is this jar full?”

Everyone in the class said, “Yes.”

Then he said, “Really?” He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing piece of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks.  Then he asked the group once more, “Is the jar full?” By this time the class was onto him.

“Probably not,” one of them answered.  “Good!” he replied.

He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, “Is this jar full?”

“No!” the class shouted. Once again he said, “Good!”

Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim.  Then he looked up at the class and asked, “What is the point of this illustration?”

One eager beaver raised his hand and said, “The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it!”

“No,” the speaker replied, “that’s not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.”

What are the ‘big rocks’ in your life? Time with your loved ones? Your faith, your education, your dreams? A worthy cause? Teaching or mentoring others?

Remember to put these big rocks in first or you’ll never get them in the jar at all. And of course, over and above that, Jesus is the ultimate Big Rock, around which everything else will fit appropriately. 

“We are at war, and the bloody battle is over our hearts. I am astounded how few Christians see this, how little they protect their hearts. We act as though we live in a sleepy little town during peacetime. We don’t. We live in the spiritual equivalent of Bosnia or Beirut. Act like it. Watch over your heart. Don’t let just anything in; don’t let it go just anywhere. What’s this going to do to my heart? is a question that I ask in every situation.” (John Eldredge)

Mike Mason in The Mystery of Marriage on himself in courtship: “A 30-year-old man is like a densely populated city. Nothing can be built… without something else being torn down. To grow effectively, we must realize that we cannot build before we have properly excavated, like a massive skyscraper at the base going deep.”

Smith Wigglesworth gave this challenge to Christians: “Live ready. If you have to get ready when the opportunity comes your way, you’ll be too late. Opportunity doesn’t wait, not even while you pray. You must not have to get ready, you must live ready at all times.

Be filled with the Spirit; that is, be soaked with the Spirit. Be so soaked that every thread in the fabric of your life will have received the requisite rule of the Spirit – then when you are misused and squeezed to the wall, all that will ooze out of you will be the nature of Christ.”

Sermons

So I’ve been in the USA preaching this week, and felt led to this passage, which is not what a visiting speaker would usually choose if he wanted to get invited back! 

What a passage! Just 9 verses, which include one of the worst and one of the best five verses in the whole Bible (which has 31,102 in total). I started with a few questions to reflect on, but you’ll need to listen to it to get the full impact:

Listen to the audio or download here:

“So I want to start with a question, a crucial question: What do you think about God? Because that’s the most important thing about you.

How much do you want of God? Because nobody has less of God than they want…

How close to God do you want to be? Because you will be as close to God as you want…

You see, if you draw near to God, He will draw near to you (James 4:8). You can have as much of God as you want, and can be as close to Him as you want, but many of us have the wrong conception of God. So we don’t want that much of Him and don’t want Him too close, rather holding Him at arms’ length, having a relationship with Him on our terms, keeping Him in the passenger seat whilst we drive where we want to go. And there’s shocking imagery in this passage that, if you have the wrong conception of God, will only make things worse…”

Sermons

Here is a talk I gave yesterday on being made in the image of God. Below is some of the material I shared:

Some guests were visiting an orphanage and shared the Christmas story with the children for their first time ever. They sat, enthralled, and were then given materials to re-create the manger scene. All was going to plan until one of the visitors spotted six-year-old Abu’s efforts – he had put two babies in the manger. He was asked to repeat the story, and he did so perfectly until the end when he made up his own version. 

He went on: “And when Mary laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had anywhere to stay. I told him both my mamma and my papa are dead, so I didn’t have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him that wasn’t possible, because I didn’t have a present to give him like everybody else did… But I so wanted to stay with Jesus that I wondered if there was anything at all of mine I could offer him as a gift. I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift. So I asked Jesus: ‘If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift?’ And Jesus told me: ‘If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me.’ So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him – for always.” 

As little Abu finished his story, his eyes filled up with tears. He then slumped down on the table and began sobbing deeply. This precious little orphan had found someone at last who would never abandon him or let him down, someone who would stay with him – as he put it – for always.

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.

It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people.

You have never talked to a mere mortal.

Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.

But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.

Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses.

C.S. Lewis: —The Weight of Glory (HarperOne, 2001), pp. 45-46

Wow! That’ll change how you treat yourself, and your neighbour. Respect, dignity, honour…

Michael Parkinson once asked Dawn French during an interview what had given her her self-esteem and confidence in herself. She replied:

“I’ve tried to wonder what it was that gave me confidence from early on, and I can only put it down to my Dad. I remember that there was a night when I was going to go out to a disco, and I was really ready to have sex with anybody who wanted to ask me. I had some purple suede hot pants that I thought I looked great in. And my father called me into his office and sat me down, and I thought, “I’m going to get the lecture, blah blah.” And instead of giving me a lecture about what time to be home or any of that he just said to me, “you are the most precious thing in our lives and you are beautiful, and you are worthy of anybody who shows you any attention. You shouldn’t feel grateful for the scraps that any other girls leave behind: you should have the best.” And I went out, and in fact no boy came within ten yards of me! I wouldn’t allow them because they were beneath me. He just gave me a bit of self-esteem.”

Now this talk is about much more than self-esteem, although the lack of self-esteem is a feature of our broken society and culture. Hear this powerful story from a very different society and culture:

Johnny Lingo lived on the island of Nurabi, and he was one of the richest men in all the islands.  He got that way because he was a smart trader.  And Johnny Lingo was in love with Surita, who lived on the neighbouring Island of Kiriwadi.

If you were kind, you would call Surita “plain.”

Now on the island of Kiriwadi, they had a tradition, that when a man wanted to marry a woman, he would go to the woman’s father and bargain for the woman by offering a number of cows.  The average woman on Kiriwadi went for 4 cows; the most beautiful woman on Kiriwadi had gone for 6 cows.

Sam Korad, the father of Surita, had decided he was going to ask for 2 cows for Surita, but that he would accept one.

On the day of the trading, all the people of both islands gathered to watch.  This was the social event of the year.  And imagine their surprise when Johnny Lingo offered Sam Korad EIGHT COWS for Surita!  Everyone said, “He’s mad!  He’s blind!  Why would a man – a smart trader – offer eight cows for a woman he could have married for one?”

Well, here’s the reason.  They got married, and in 6 months Surita had become the most beautiful woman in all the islands.

She had been given value.  And she blossomed.

We all have the same value in the eyes of Jesus Christ.  He paid exactly the same price for you and for me as he paid for Billy Graham or Mother Theresa or Simon Peter..

We are all eight cow saints.  And so is everyone around you. The value of something or someone is determined by the cost someone is willing to pay, and God was willing to pay with the blood of his only Son, so that shows how much we are worth.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Psalm 139:13,14

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his (Eliab) appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

1 Samuel 16:7
BlogSermonsSimon Blog

Today’s talk is the fifth in a series given recently at Lee Abbey.

  1. Come to me Weary!
  2. Come to me Dirty!
  3. Come to me Hungry!
  4. Come to me Thirsty!
  5. Come and See, then Go and Be!

Here are a few juicy bits if you haven’t the time to listen:

You won’t have heard of Edward Kimball. This man was becoming increasingly active in church and wanted to make an impact with the youth. His constant refrain was ‘come and see’. There was one lad he saw great potential in but just wasn’t able get through to. In the end, Kimball just decided to go the shoe store where the young man worked. Kimball found him in the back of the store wrapping shoes. Nervously he put his hand on his shoulder and started sharing a brief gospel message. It was short and to the point: Christ loves you and all He asks is for you to accept that, and for you to love Him in return. With that Kimball was gone. As things turned out that young lad did accept Christ. He was D.L. Moody, who became an amazing evangelist.

Years later at one of Moody’s revivals, a man by the name of Wilbur Chapman was invited along by friends to come and see what all the fuss was about, and he accepted God’s direction for his life. Chapman also became an evangelist, preaching to thousands.

One dynamic sportsman chose to come and see Chapman preaching – none other than the professional baseball player Billy Sunday, who not only desired to follow Christ, but quit his career and joined Chapman in his travels. As time went on Chapman led some big outreaches with the help of Mordecai Ham, another man whose life was transformed by Christ. Soon afterwards, Mordecai found himself in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Meantime, Albert McMakin was a 24-year-old farmer who had come to faith in Christ. He was so full of enthusiasm that he filled a truck with people and took them to a meeting where Mordecai Ham was preaching. He wanted them all to come and see what was going on, and to hear about Jesus. There was a farmer friend’s son whom he especially wanted to get to the meetings, but this young man was hard to persuade. He was busy falling in and out of love with different girls and didn’t seem to be interested at all. Eventually, McMakin managed to persuade him to come by asking him to drive the truck. When they arrived, Albert’s guest decided to go in. He was spellbound and began to have thoughts he had never known before. He went back again and again until one night he went forward and gave his life to Jesus Christ. That young man, the driver of the truck, was Billy Graham. The year was 1934. The rest is history.

We can all be like McMakin and bring people to Jesus.

“…and Andrew brought him to Jesus.” (John 1:42) We don’t hear much more about Andrew except that he was always bringing people to Jesus. “Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?” (John 6:8,9) “Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the festival. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. “Sir,” they said, “we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.” (John 12:20-22)

Indeed we don’t hear much more about Andrew in the Bible – he was the first disciple, a fisherman from Bethsaida, and privileged to be in on the action with Jesus; and apparently, he was crucified on 30 November 60AD, by order of the Roman governor Aegeas. He was tied to an X-shaped cross in Greece, and this has been represented by the white cross on the Scottish flag, the Saltire, since at least 1385. He’s the patron Saint of Scotland, but also Greece, Russia and Barbados!

So we don’t have much information on him really, but Simon Peter, his brother, went on to be one of the greatest influences in the history of Christianity. We cannot all be Simon Peters, but we can all do what Andrew did – we can bring people to Jesus.

BlogSermonsSimon Blog

Today’s talk is the fourth in a series given recently at Lee Abbey.

  1. Come to me Weary!
  2. Come to me Dirty!
  3. Come to me Hungry!
  4. Come to me Thirsty!

Here are a few juicy bits if you haven’t the time to listen:

“Lord, please put salt on my lips that I might thirst more after you.”

Augustine


The revival on Lewis (1949-1952) was steeped in prayer. Seven men and two old ladies had decided to pray and not stop until God visited them in a powerful way. One night, at a prayer meeting held in a barn, one of them said, “It seems to me just so much sentimental humbug to be praying as we are praying, to be waiting as we are waiting here, if we ourselves are not rightly related to God.” He asked God to reveal if his own hands were clean and his own heart was pure. Suddenly God’s awesome presence swept the barn. They came to see that there was a direct correlation between revival and holiness. A power was let loose that night that shook the island. A man arrived and felt compelled to go to church and get right with God. People had visions in their own homes.  

Duncan Campbell had been preaching at a conference in Bangor, Northern Ireland. He was due to stand up and preach when the Lord told him to leave immediately and go to Lewis. He told the man who had invited him that he simply had to go. Arriving as soon as he could in Lewis, he found that they were all waiting for him!  The stories are truly extraordinary.

Campbell shares: “Over 100 young people were at the dance in the parish hall and they weren’t thinking of God or eternity. They were there to have a good night when suddenly the power of God fell upon the dance. The music ceased and in a matter of minutes, the hall was empty. They fled from the hall as a man fleeing from a plague. And they made for the church. They are now standing outside. Oh, yes – they saw lights in the church. That was a house of God and they were going to it and they went. Men and women who had gone to bed rose, dressed, and made for the church. 

At another meeting, “suddenly, the power of God fell upon the congregation. Of course in Lewis and in other islands of the Hebrides, they stand to pray, they sit to sing. And now, one side of the church threw their hands up like this. Threw their heads back and you would almost declare that they were in an epileptic fit, but they were not. Oh, I can’t explain it. And the other side they slumped on top of each other. But God, the Holy Ghost moved. Those who had their hands like this stayed that way for two hours. Now you try to remain like that with your hands up for a few minutes and you will find it hard – but you would break their hands before you could take them down. Now, I can’t explain it – this is what happened. But the most remarkable thing that night was what took place in a village seven miles away from the church. There wasn’t a single person from that village in the church. Not one single person. Seven miles away, the power of God swept through the village. Swept through the village and I know it to be a fact that there wasn’t a single house in the village that hadn’t a soul saved in it.” 

The stories go on: “A schoolmaster that night looking over his papers 15 miles away from this island on the mainland suddenly was gripped by the fear of God. And he said to his wife, “Wife, I don’t know what’s drawing me to Barvas, but I must go.” His wife said, “But it’s nearly 10 o’clock and you’re thinking of going to Barvas. I know what’s on your mind, I know that you are going out to drink and you are not leaving this house tonight!” That was what she said to him – he was a hard drinker. And he said to his wife, “I may be mistaken, oh, I maybe mistaken, but if I know anything at all about my own heart and mind, I say to you now that drink will never touch my lips again.” And she said to him, “Well, John, if that’s your mind, then go to Barvas.” And he got someone to take him to the ferry, someone to ferry him across, and I was conducting a meeting in a farmhouse at midnight and this schoolmaster came to the door and they made room for him and in a matter of minutes he was praising God for salvation. Now that’s miracle. I mean you cannot explain it in any other way.” 

Campbell came for ten days but stayed for two years.

In 1940, Professor Edwin Orr of Wheaton University led a group of theology students to England, where they visited sites of great revivals. One location was the Epworth rectory, the part-time home of John Wesley, a famous reformer who led a spiritual renewal movement in the 1700s. As a man of prayer, Wesley interceded for revival to sweep through England, and to spread to America as well. Dr. Orr pointed out two worn places on the carpet next to Wesley’s bed, where the great reformer knelt for hours in prayer each day, crying out for revival.

As the tour concluded, the students loaded the bus. After counting them, Orr noticed one was missing. He returned to the house, and eventually located the lost student in John Wesley’s bedroom— kneeling on the worn impressions where Wesley had fervently prayed for revival. The student was repeatedly pleading, “Do it again, Lord! Do it again… And would you do it again with me.”

Placing his hand on the young man’s shoulder Orr said, “Son, it’s time to leave. Everyone’s on the bus.” The student slowly rose, and then that young man… Billy Graham… joined the rest of his class… and through him, God did it again! Why? Because Billy Graham was thirsty for God and passionate to see God bring revival, as in days past.

In Habakkuk 3:2, the prophet expressed that same longing. “Lord, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord. Repeat them in our day.” Like Billy Graham, his cry was: “Do it again, Lord!”

Deep inside, doesn’t your heart resonate with the same longing, that same thirst? Aren’t you tired of just reading about revival? I want to see God move powerfully— supernaturally, in our day as He did in the past. Our world is upside down. Besides COVID, racial tensions, climate disasters, we all face a plethora of personal problems. Only a move of God can save us. When we cry out, God hears us.

What would happen if we were bold enough to ask God to “Do it again?”

Let’s make a deal. How about every day we kneel in prayer as Billy Graham did; as John Wesley did; as Habakkuk did? Let’s cry out from our hearts those same words, “Do it again, Lord!” Then watch God move.  

(Sources from the Devotional by Dave DeSelm)

BlogSermonsSimon Blog

Today’s talk is the third in a series given recently at Lee Abbey.

  1. Come to me Weary!
  2. Come to me Dirty!
  3. Come to me Hungry!

Here are a few juicy bits if you haven’t the time to listen:

George Orwell described a wasp that “was sucking jam on my plate and I cut him in half.  He paid no attention, merely went on with his meal, while a tiny stream of jam trickled out of his severed oesophagus. Only when he tried to fly away did he grasp the dreadful thing that had happened to him.” The wasp and people without Christ have much in common.  Severed from their souls, but greedy and unaware, many people continue to consume life’s sweetness. Only when it’s time to fly away will they grasp their dreadful condition.

‘Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry.”’

John 6:35


There is a hunger deep within the human heart. The leading psychologists of recent times have all recognised this. Freud said, “People are hungry for love.” Jung said, “People are hungry for security.” Adler said, “People are hungry for significance.” Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life.” In other words, if you want your hunger satisfied come to me, I am the source of true love, security and significance.

Professor Joad, who was converted from atheism to Christ said, “Trying to find happiness from this world is like trying to light up a dark room by lighting a succession of matches. You strike one, it flickers for a moment, and then it goes out. But when you find Jesus Christ, it’s as though the whole room is suddenly flooded with light.”

So let’s be honest, some questions to reflect on:

Am I hungry? If yes, how hungry? Maybe even before that – Hungry for what?

Power, peace, recognition, vindication, acceptance, validation, escape, anonymity, breakthrough, hope, success? Some of those are better than others; whatever the case, they are our reality. Jesus deals with our reality. And he says come to Me, you will be filled, I will satisfy your hunger, I am the bread of life.

John Piper wrote: “If you don’t feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because you have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because you have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Your soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great.”

How much do you want of God?…

…because no one has less of God than they want.

D.L.Moody was perhaps the greatest evangelist of the 19th century. The encounter he had with the Holy Spirit in New York transformed his ministry. After one service, two old ladies called Mrs Cooke and Mrs Hawkhurst approached him and told him, “You are good, but you haven’t got it… we have been praying for you… you need power!” Moody, an already well-respected minister, was unimpressed. “I need power?” asked Moody. “Why, I thought I had power!”

The ladies poured out their hearts that he might receive the anointing of the Holy Ghost and soon there grew a great hunger in his soul. “I felt I did not want to live any longer if I had not this power for service.”

There began a period of deep spiritual hunger and desperation, of six months’ pleading with God for more. “I began to cry as never before for a greater blessing from God. The hunger increased; I really felt that I did not want to live any longer. I kept on crying all the time that God would fill me with His Spirit. Well, one day in the City of New York – oh! What a day, I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it. It is almost too sacred an experience to name. Paul had an experience of which he never spoke for fourteen years. I can only say, God revealed Himself to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I had to ask Him to stay His hand.”

He was never the same again. Although his sermons and doctrine had not changed, his effectiveness in winning thousands to Christ was evidence of this new power.

Walter Lewis Wilson was an American doctor born towards the end of the nineteenth century. He was a faithful Christian who often hosted visiting missionaries to his church. One visitor from France didn’t mince words, asking him, “Who is the Holy Spirit to you?” Wilson’s answer was doctrinally correct, “One of the Persons of the Godhead… Teacher, Guide, Third Person of the Trinity.” But it was an empty and rehearsed response. His friend pushed him harder, challenging him, “You haven’t answered my question.” Wilson opened up with real candour, “He’s nothing to me. I have no contact with him and could get along without him.” There was no spiritual hunger, rather resigned acceptance of going through the motions.

The following year, Wilson listened to a sermon at church from Romans 12 on the challenge to offer his body as a living sacrifice. The preacher called out from the pulpit, “Have you noticed that this verse doesn’t tell us to Whom we should give our bodies? It’s not the Lord Jesus. He has his own body. It’s not the Father. He remains on his throne. Another has come to earth without a body. God gives you the indescribable honour of presenting your bodies to the Holy Spirit, to be his dwelling place on earth.”

Wilson was struck to the core and rushed home to seek the Lord. So hungry for an encounter with the Lord. He fell on his face and pleaded with the Lord, “My Lord, I’ve treated you like a servant. When I wanted you, I called for you. Now I give you this body from my head to my feet. I give you my hands, my limbs, my eyes and lips, my brain. You may send this body to Africa, or lay it on a bed with cancer. It’s your body from this moment on.”

The next morning, Wilson was working in his office when two ladies arrived, trying to sell him advertising. He immediately led them to Christ. The previous night’s surrender had enabled him to access new power from on high. From that day onwards, his life entered a new dimension of evangelistic fruitfulness. He went on to pioneer a church plant, a mission organisation, and a Bible College, as well as becoming a best-selling author.

Do you want to be entrusted with that same power from the Holy Spirit? Well, who is the Holy Spirit to you? And how hungry are you? Like the early Wilson, can you get along perfectly well without him? Or are you truly willing to offer him your body as a living sacrifice, without conditions or caveats? There’s so much more power that I want to plug into for God’s glory. But will I trust him for every aspect of my life? Will I “consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3v8)? These are big, big questions. Here’s inviting you to total surrender, to deep hunger.

The members of the Punjab Prayer Union (John ‘Praying’ Hyde amongst them), who experienced revival in their midst, signed the following declaration to become members. It was in the form of questions:

  1. Are you praying for quickening in your own life, in the life of your fellow-workers, and in the Church?
  2. Are you longing for greater power of the Holy Spirit in your own life and work, and are you convinced that you cannot go on without this power?
  3. Will you pray that you may not be ashamed of Jesus?
  4. Do you believe that prayer is the great means for securing this spiritual awakening?
  5. Will you set apart one half-hour each day as soon after noon as possible to pray for this awakening, and are you willing to pray till the awakening comes?