So I want to ask for your permission this morning, to not waste the next 10 minutes of your time.

Here’s what I mean.

I’ve spoken to you guys twice before, and I hope that’s been enough to convince you I’m not a Psycho.

[Click to read more]

The first time I spoke about how the Bible says we should be thinkers.

I’m not asking you to turn your brains off and get some religion instead.

I think if you honestly use your brains, you’ll end up at Jesus.

And then last time I was here I spoke about how this world proves God is real.

He’s the creator. I love the stuff he’s made. And because he made it, he’s got every right to rule over it.

So you’ve seen me twice and so I hope you’ve worked out I’m not a psycho.

That’s important for you to keep in mind because the next 10 minutes are going to be intense and confronting.

And the reason is because I care about you guys.

Do you believe that?

I could be anywhere else in the world right now except for here.

But I chose to be here because I care about you guys.

And this could be my last chance to speak to you guys.

So I want to make the most of it.

And my guess is that since you have to listen to me for the next 10 minutes, you’d rather me be a bit intense for 10 minutes than waste 10 minutes of your life.

So here’s my promise.

In the next 10 minutes I will tell you the most important stuff you will ever hear.

It will be intense, but not many life-changing things are light and comfortable.

My hope is to change your life.

A friend of mine called Connor once asked me, “If God is real, why doesn’t he do something about all the crap in our world”

Doesn’t God care? Why doesn’t he do something?

The Bible says God has done something and He will do something.

How do we make sense of suffering in this world?

You know things aren’t right, don’t you?

You look at the world, your friends or family, or you watch the news, and you think… this isn’t right. This isn’t the way it was supposed to be.

Because this isn’t the way it was supposed to be.

Genesis chapter 1, the first book of the Bible says,
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”… “and it was very good”

Here’s the first thing to get clear in our heads.

God isn’t the one who caused the problem.

He made the world and it was very good.

So what went wrong?

We did.

If you think about your life, how much pain in it was caused by another person?

Fights, gossip, bullying, divorce, abuse, lies, backstabbing, selfishness…
There is enough food in the world to feed everyone.

It’s our GREED that stops us doing it.

Here’s what the Bible says went wrong: Romans 3
There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away.

The Bible says that there is no such thing as a good person.

If you compare yourself to other people, you might be good compared to them.

But if you compare yourself to God’s standard, eg to the 10 commandments, you realise that this verse is right.

Because God made the world, he has every right to rule it.

He made us to live in the world with him as our king.

But I know for me, I didn’t want a king.

I wanted to be king.

So I ignore what God tells me to do.

I know I shouldn’t steal, but I steal.
I know I shouldn’t lie, but I lie.

I know I’m supposed to love other people, but I’m chronically selfish.

And the most serious thing of all is the reason under all of those: I have turned my back on God as my king.

That’s what I’m doing every time I sin, every time I do the wrong thing.

That has 2 pretty big implications.

Did you know that it is an Australian law right now, that if you hit the Queen of England, you can go to jail for the rest of your life?

It’s a pretty serious thing to hit a king or a queen.

And it’s a very serious thing to turn your back on and reject the King who is God, who rules the entire universe.

We deserve more than life in prison.

The bible says that it’s so serious we deserve hell.

And that is all of us.

Every one of us deserves that.

I do.

Your teachers do.

You do.

Here’s the second implication.

It explains why our world is so messed up.

Because God tells us how to treat each other, but we ignore him and so treat each other badly.

That’s the cause of lots of the pain in the world.

You might be thinking, yes but what about sickness and natural disasters.
How is that caused by people?

Imagine you are part of an orchestra, and you’ve all been given sheet music that tells you what to play.

You just have to follow the conductor.

But right before you start playing, you decide you don’t want to obey the conductor.

So you get out some other music and start playing that.

How is it going to sound?

Pretty bad.

Especially if you are on drums or trumpet.

Because the thing with an orchestra is, it works like a harmony.

Every bit flowing together makes a beautiful whole.

If you break that, you break the whole lot.

There is a word in the Jewish language called “Shalom”.
It means, peace, harmony.
Everything is ‘in sync’.

That’s what the whole of creation was like when God created it.

It was in beautiful harmony.

Shalom.

But we stopped following the conductor, and it broke the harmony.

Not just for us, but everything was thrown out of sync.

The whole of creation is now broken.

It’s chaotic, disordered, broken.

So we get sick, and natural disasters happen, because the whole of creation is cut off from the conductor and out of sync.

That’s the natural consequence of ignoring the conductor.

But also, God is letting it happen so that we will see it and realise, there is something wrong here.

So here’s the situation. We have broken relationships in 3 different directions.

Our relationship with God is broken, because we’ve turned away from him and actually done stuff that makes him angry with us.

Our relationship with each other is broken, because we don’t treat each other well, because we don’t follow the way God says to.

And our relationship with the world is broken, because we broke the shalom, the harmony.

Every religion in the world agrees there is a problem with humanity.

That’s what the Bible says it is.

But what is God going to do about it?

Well, he could wipe out all evil.

But what would that mean?

He’d have to wipe out all of us.

He has another plan.

He’s going to fix it.

Revelation 21

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.
Then I heard a loud voice from the throne.

Look, God’s dwelling is with men and he will live with them.

They will be his people and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Death will exist no longer. Grief, crying and pain will exist no longer,
because the previous things have passed away.

God has a plan to fix it.

He’s going to re-create everything, the way it was supposed to be. Everything will be fixed. It will be good again.

What is God doing about it?
He’s going to fix it.

But there’s a problem for you and me. Verse 27 – Nothing bad will ever enter it. No one who does what is vile or false.

The problem is, we don’t deserve to be there.

We’re rebels against the King of the universe, we deserve to be punished.

The solution – the amazing solution – comes right at the centre of Christianity.
Why doesn’t God do something about the crap in our world?
Let me show you what he did.

He left the perfection of heaven, and became part of this world.
He experienced it.

And then he died to save us from it.

Luke 23:32-43

Jesus turns to the criminal – the last person on earth who deserves to go to heaven.

And says to him, today you will be with me in paradise.

Did the criminal do anything to earn it?

No.

Every religion in the world says, there is a problem with you. Here is how to fix it.

Except Christianity. Christianity is must more real than that. It says, there is a problem with you. You can’t fix it.
Jesus died to fix it.

How can Jesus say to the criminal, today you will be with me in paradise?

Because of what Jesus is doing on the cross in this moment.

That’s why this is such a breathtaking moment.

Jesus didn’t deserve to die.

We do deserve to die, we’ve insulted the king.

Jesus is taking your place.

You rejected God and deserve to be punished.

God loves you so much that Jesus, God himself, came down to earth to take that punishment.

He pays the punishment for you.

So now it is possible for you to go to heaven, to be part of that fixed kingdom.

1)      But be careful. Only 1 of the 2 criminals was saved. Not everyone will enter heaven.

2)      Don’t try to earn it.

Here is the good news of Christianity.

God understands the crap in this world.

He experienced it.

But he is doing something about it. He is going to fix it. And he died to make it possible for you to be part of that new creation.

I’m just going to tell you how to be part of it, and then I’ll be done.

1)      Look at what the criminal did. He realised Jesus was the king. You’ve been living your life for yourself, not for God as your king. Come back to God and make Jesus your king.

2)      Ask Jesus to save you.

1. Don’t try to earn it. You can’t. The criminal didn’t.
2. The Bible says, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. All you have to do is ask for it.

Then your life belongs to God, and you start living with Jesus as king. You start to love Him, because he died for you.  You start to do crazy stuff like go to church because you want to know more about him.

You start to read your bible because you want to hear him speaking to you.

And you start to want everyone around you to know this truth:

Yes, this world is stuffed up, but I’ve found hope.

I want you to find it too.

Make Jesus your king and ask him to save you.

There are lots of reasons we care about productivity — we might want to have less stress, we might want to get more done in less time, or we might simply find the subject interesting in itself. And those are all good reasons.
But there are deeper, better reasons to care about productivity. There are, in fact, some amazing and incredible reasons to care about productivity that I am seeing almost no one ever talk about.

Chief among these reasons to care about productivity is this: Productivity is really about good works.

That’s worth saying again: Productivity is really about good works — which we were created in Christ to do (Ephesians 2:10) and which are to do eagerly and enthusiastically (Titus 2:14). That’s why productivity matters, and that’s why I write about productivity. My aim is to help Christians be effective in good works.

That’s a quote from Matt Perman. I would only change his thinking slightly: productivity is about glorifying God through good works.

But it has revolutionised the way I think about life.

It has really united 2 things I care heaps about: Don’t Waste Your Life and being productive. Originally, being productive came from not wanting to waste my life. But it has a tendency to take a life of its own and like everything in my sick, twisted mind, to become an idol.

This has united the 2 again.

When I look at my to-do list, it is not a bunch of things I need to get through so I can say, I was productive. It is a bunch of reminders of good works that I want to do, and I have the opportunity today to do them.

This has coincided with me finding a fantastic verse:

“we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Thess 1:11-12

Here is a theology of productivity:
1) Productivity is about good works.
2) Productivity is all “by his power”
3) Productivity is all “so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified.

Does it get better than that?

I’ve read page after page from a Hedonist perspective, arguing happiness is having lots of pleasure and not much pain. Those readings were tightly reasoned, and hard to poke a hole in, but I felt like there was something missing.

And now I’m reading one by a guy called Robert Nozick. As far as I can tell, he’s not religious. His paper is not as tightly reasoned, but oh, what a breath of fresh air! It rings true. He points out that happiness is not the only thing we care about in life (we also care about the ‘shape’ or ‘story’ of our life, we also care about what we are like as people, we care that we’re actually connected to reality, and we care that we are sharing actual reality with actual people)

But listen to this.

“Recall those particular moments when you thought and felt, blissfully, that there was nothing else you wanted, your life was good then.. What marks these times is their completeness. There is something you have that you want, and no other wants come crowding in; there is nothing else that you think of wanting right then. I do not mean that if someone came up to you right then with a magic lamp, you would be at a loss to come up with a wish. But in the moments I am describing, these other desires-for more money or another job or another chocolate bar-simply are not operating. They are not felt, they are not lurking at the margins to enter. There is no additional thing you want right then, nothing feels lacking, your satisfaction is complete. The feeling that accompanies this is intense joy.
These moments are wonderful, and they are rare. Usually, additional wants are all too ready to introduce themselves. Some have suggested we reach this desirable state of not wanting anything else by the drastic route of eliminating all wants. But we don’t find it helpful to be told to first get rid of our existing wants as a way of reaching the state of not wanting anything else. (And this is not simply because we doubt that this route leads to an accompanying joy.) Rather, what we want is to be told of something so good, whose nature is so complete and satisfying, that reaching it will exclude any further wants from crowding in, and we want to be told how to reach this.”

Nozick is right: we do long for something, or Someone, totally soul-satisfying.

“You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
(Psalm 16:11)

What pleasures are found in God? Of course, we say ‘joy’. Rejoice in the Lord!

But the verse above says pleasures, plural. So there must be more than one, or at least more than one form. What forms does it take? Here are my thoughts…

1. Gratitude – One pleasure is gratitude to God for what he has done, is doing, and will do. Anyone who has been grateful to someone knows that this is certainly a pleasure!

2. Awe – marvelling at how amazing God is in His glory, also at God’s glory as expressed in relationship to us (His grace to us, His strength in us, His love for us). The pleasure of seeing a breathtaking sunset is similar, but a tiny reflection of the real thing.

3. Gladness – I think this is usually what is meant when the Bible tells us to rejoice. Whenever we enjoy thinking about something, when we feel good about an experience, a fond memory, a piece of news, we are glad. Our hearts are filled with gladness, a sense of “this is good, this is right, I am happy”, as we reflect on what God has done, is doing, and will do for us; and on our relationship with him.

4. Love – Nat King Cole sang, “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn, is just to love, and be loved in return.” We are filled with love for God.

There may be other pleasures. For example, being comforted is surely a great pleasure for someone in distress. But I think these 4 are the most powerful, most significant pleasures of knowing God.

And these pleasures lead to:

1. Satisfaction – a deep contentment, because you have God you need nothing else. (Is this a pleasure in its own right, or a result of the other pleasures?)

2. Praise – the ultimate expression and consummation of pleasure:

“ I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise… The world rings with praise – lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game – praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians of scholars. …
I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.” (C.S. Lewis)

I love to read David’s rejoicing in the Lord!  But often I find it troubling.

Here, David rejoices because he knows God will protect him. But where does he get that confidence? Can I share that confidence? Surely not! Romans 8:36 says “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

So how come David is so sure of God’s protection? And how can I share in his rejoicing? I feel kind of fake…

I was thinking about this, and came up with this answer:

How can David be sure of God’s protection?
Because he is the King of God’s people, living in the land God promised that they would forever possess and prosper in.

One of the promises God made to Abraham was land, forever: “And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” (Gen 17:8) As the Israelites drive out the inhabitants of that land, and settle in, there is a sense of arriving home, fulfilment. Here, they will be established as God’s people in peaceful prosperity forever.

David, then, understands that God has promised to be their protector – otherwise there cannot be lasting peace and prosperity. So David is rejoicing in the promised salvation of the Lord!

The people broke their covenant with God, and brought on themselves the curse instead of the blessing. But through Jesus’ death, God has made a new covenant with us, promising that we will live and prosper with Him forever in His land (the real promised land, the new heavens and new earth).

The promised salvation now is deliverance of a different kind. Not the physical protection needed for peace in a physical land, but spiritual deliverance from His anger, and protection from any spiritual threat that would prevent us entering that spiritual promised land.

David did see corruption, eventually, in the sense that he eventually died. Thus the Psalm points to another Holy One, one who will not be abandoned to the grave.

Jesus was not abandoned to Sheol nor did he see corruption. He was raised from the grave, and with Him will come David and all believers.

Let us rejoice in the promised salvation of the Lord!

“Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.” (Psalm 16:9-10)

Confused, Ima says, “But I think that if it’s true, its true for *everyone*.”

Al shakes his head, ready to enlighten her. “That’s true for you…”
“Then its true for everybody” Ima interrupts. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I think that “true statements are true for everybody”. You just said that was a true statement, for me. If its a true statement, then its TRUE that its true for everybody. And if you don’t think it’s true for everybody, then what you’re saying is that I’m wrong. Which means that it’s NOT true for me. You can’t have it both ways. Do you see what I mean?”

“Another way you could put it:
1. Say person A believes “true statements are true for you”
Person B believes “true statements are true for everyone.” (all TS are true for all People)

2. According to Person A, person B’s belief is a true statement. Since “all TS are true for all people”, and since it is a true statement and A is a person, it is true for A. So it is true for A that “TS are true for all people”.

3. But Person A doesn’t like this. They say, person B is wrong. But this means that Person B’s belief is NOT true for them, so Person A doesn’t really believe that ‘if its true for you its true for you’. It just doesn’t work.

 
L, a guy who came to a Bible Study for the first time in week 1 this year, who got saved that week and has been regular at church ever since,
 
we got a box of Essential Jesus books from Barney’s church
this week we’ve door knocked nearly every door in college
anyway
i asked him this morning if he wanted to help
he said, sure
 which is cool
so we’ve handed out these books
hundreds of them
very positive responses
its such good evangelism
God’s word (powerful) in a gift (friendly)

additionally, next week we’re starting Simply Christianity course
on Tuesday nights
1 girl who came to college this year and who, in her words, ‘wants to become a born again Christian’
looked me up on facebook to tell me she was keen
another girl, who says she is christian, and might be, but doesn’t have much knowledge at all; she is coming
another girl, who isn’t Christian but has a desire to understand and who, once after coming to a Bible Study on John, went back to her room and read the whole book
she’s coming

just had inter-college prayer with
people from
my college
a boys college
a girls college
the uni village
arundel house
glebe
moore college residence
and the newtown terraces
about 40 people praying, sharing what God’s doing at each college, singing

I don’t know that there has been an intercollegiate fellowship like it in a very, very long time
but i’m stoked for what it means for mutual encouragement

but
craziest thing just happened
door knocking to give an essential jesus
door opens
i do my spiel

he says
“oh, I’m already reading the gospel of luke”
me: “really? sweet, how come?”
him: “well I actually became a Christian 2 weeks ago”
(this is a guy who has only just moved in this semester)
apparently he was reading about one of his favourite guitarists (he’s a muso), who is a christian, and it just hit him
how cool is that
 

earlier this week i was a bit bummed out
felt like as a group the Christians were wearing out
there was a bit of tension
i think general discouragement
but right now I’m so encouraged
one of my friends, a Christian at college
was really down on Tuesday
we spent a few hours chatting, just unloading
then on Wednesday she and D did ‘Essential Jesus’ handing out together

i asked her today how it was
face lit up
GREAT!
apparently she got into a 45 minute chat with someone
I feel like all this is such a case of Galatians 6:9: Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Loved it. Definitely going to lead to some interesting conversations next week.

But, one of the brochures used proved God with this sort of argument:

All we perceive depends for its existence on something else, which in turn depends on still another thing, ad infinitum, or else derives its existence from something that exists uncaused. The first alternative is false because it implies what is referred to as an infinite regression, which is impossible.

Which renewed my interest again in this question:
“Could the state of the world as we know it have arisen by an infinite chain of causes?”

Discuss.

Phillip Jensen and Kel Richards – Reformed charismatics? from Audio Advice on Vimeo.

Reformed Charismatics: Is it possible?

• Part I: Introduction
  
• Part II: Definitions and Emphasis
• Part III: Incompatibilities
• Part IV: We Believe the Bible
• Part V: We Want It All

Confused Redefinitions

Jensen’s basic thesis is that you can put any two words together, that’s easy, but the two words reformed charismatic can’t be combined without confusion – the two systems are incompatible – much like Catholic Evangelical.

The only way to combine them, says Jensen, is to redefine them. But is that correct? Well, what is meant by Charismatic? Let’s take Phillip’s own definition – it takes him more than 3 minutes to explain it (start at 10:50), during which time he covers 3 separate ‘waves’, so diverse as to cause the interviewer, Kel Richards, to search for ‘something common to put under that label of Charismatic’:

“It’s to do with gifts of the Holy Spirit, signs and wonders… by and large the people who see that as the work that the Holy Spirit does”

Phillip agrees, its the emphasis on the gifts. And that’s their definition.

Already we learn two things. Firstly, we see that the definition of charismatic is broad and difficult to pin down. So, far from having two clearly defined and demarcated nouns, we actually have two, slightly blurry adjectives. Very little, if any, redefining is needed when definitions are so slippery in the first place.

But the second lesson is more important: even as given, the definition is not incompatible with reformed theology.

Emphasis on gifts

Well, it is if such an emphasis is exclusive, taking the Holy Spirit’s role to be exclusively signs and wonders, then of course it is impossible to be both reformed and charismatic. The Bible’s clear and indisputable teaching is that the Holy Spirit’s crucial work is inspiration, illumination, regeneration, and sanctification (to list a few).

Yet is the emphasis exclusive? Not at all! No charismatic denies any one of the above works. I think this is where Phillip goes wrong – he incorrectly assumes that Charismatics limit their understanding of the Spirit’s work to His extraordinary work. It may be that some charismatics err in practice and limit their focus to these, but that is a fault of fact rather than a fault of principle – one can be Charismatic without committing any such error.

Everything reformed theology teaches to be the work of the Spirit, a Charismatic can affirm without becoming one whit less Charismatic, for the emphasis is not exclusive of these teachings.

Moreover, the emphasis need not even steal the limelight from any important doctrine or practice. The emphasis does not challenge a single one of the five solas, nor any of the TULIP.

Christ is supreme, the cross is central, you must be born again by the Spirit, salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone as revealed in the Scriptures alone, to the glory of God alone. Humans are totally depraved and elected unconditionally, the atonement is limited, grace is irresistible, the saints perservere. And God gives gifts to His church.

No emphasis on gifts need detract from any of these doctrines. Charismatics restore the gifts from the position of neglect they were given by our functionally-atheist tradtions and rationalisations of the Bible’s harder teachings. They are returned to where they should be, and no higher. That is the emphasis.

Reformed Charismatics: Is it possible?

• Part I: Introduction
• Part II: Definitions and Emphasis
• Part III: Incompatibilities
• Part IV: We Believe the Bible
• Part V: We Want It All