Christianityworks Official Podcast Berni Dymet

So I wonder – who’s the most difficult person in your life right now? Chances are you can picture their face. Well I’d like to spend some time with you chatting about the number one most difficult person in your life.
 
When People Look at Us Let me ask you a question: when the world looks at the church, what does it see? When people look at the church of Jesus Christ, what is it they see in the media image? Sexual abuse on the news, division amongst denominations, people who mean well demonstrating against this, that and the other! It sees a bunch of people who say one thing and do another. On the one thing we profess God‘s love, on the other, well, the church seems to be saying, in it’s media image, “do this, don’t do that, but by the way, don’t mind the fact that we have systematically covered up sexual abuse of children for decades."
There’s a name for that and it’s called ‘hypocrisy’ and the world hates hypocrisy. You and I hate hypocrisy. What do people expect to see when they look at God’s people? What do people expect to see? Tony Campolo is a wonderful man out of the U.S., you may have heard of him. He just a wonderful minister of God’s Word and he often asks young people, when he meets them in universities: “What’s the one thing that you know that Jesus said?” and mostly people say this - mostly people remember that Jesus said: “Love your enemy!” And too often it seems that we as God’s people; as Christians, are kind of telling people how far they have strayed from God. You know, we talk about this social issue, or that social issue, instead of reaching out to people and telling them how close God really is in Jesus Christ.
Well that’s the big picture; that’s the macro. What about the micro? What about you and me? When they look at us, what do they see? Do they see, ‘love your enemy’? First John chapter 4 verse 7 says this:
Let us love one another for love comes from God ...
And when you look at Jesus, when you look at how He dealt with people and what He taught and what He spoke about, the biggest thing for Him was that love-walk; the biggest thing for Him was valuing people and loving them into the Kingdom of God. We got a new revelation of who God is when Jesus arrived and then when you look at the rest of the New Testament, the Epistles that come after the Gospels, the letters that were written amongst the New Testament church when Jesus had risen again, more and more you see that revelation expounded as ‘walk in love’. Love God and love other people.
John Grey, the author of that famous book, 'Men Are From Mars and Women are From Venus', makes a very interesting point in that book. He says that very few people ever grow in love. Why is that? Because loving is difficult. The people we love can be difficult sometimes. Forty five percent of marriages - almost half - fail. I wonder of those that are left, how many of them are lousy marriages? We want to love; it’s not enough to want to love, we actually need to know how to love, I really believe that. Let me just say that again. It’s not enough for us to know that we ought to walk in love; we actually need to know how to do that. And so on Christianityworks this week we are starting a series of four messages called Dealing With Difficult People. Because difficult people are all around us, difficult relationships are all around us and our ability to look like Jesus and be like Jesus and love like Jesus, depends on our ability to deal with the difficult people in our lives - those that Jesus referred to as our enemies.
Let me ask you, who’s the most difficult person you’ll ever meet? Just close your eyes for a minute and visualise the most difficult person you ever met. I’m sure you can see their face and it stirs up emotions in you. Now open your eyes. If I had a mirror I’d be standing in front of you holding up the mirror and saying, “Here, look at the most difficult person that you will e

With Easter done and dusted for another year, it’s kind of easy to forget about the Cross, Christ’s suffering, the resurrection and the empty tomb … and just get on with life. What do all those things have to do with what I have going on in my life now? But that sort of attitude can get us into a lot of trouble.
THE RIGHTEOUS MAN DESTROYED It’s funny how we build rituals into our lives that we repeat year after year. There’s Christmas, then New Year’s. For those in the southern hemisphere, that normally means some sort of summer break. Then all too quickly, Easter rolls around, but that happens so quickly that if you blink, you miss it. Although for those in the northern hemisphere, Easter is a sure sign that their summer break is just weeks away. That’ll always give you a bit of a sense of anticipation.
Yeah, Easter is a bit of a marker in the calendar, but for many, that’s all it is. It happens and just as quickly as it came. It disappears again. And I think if that’s how we treat Easter, then we do so at our own peril because there are some lessons in Easter, there are some vitally important truths in the Easter story that can sustain us and bless us all year round, particularly if that year is not looking like it’s going to be a particularly good one.
I was having coffee with a young man the other day. He’s kind of in his mid-thirties, which may seem young from where I sit somewhere on the other side of fifty, and this young man has it all. He has a successful career as a speaker and an author and a business coach. He earns lots and lots of money, a lot more than me, certainly; and he’s a good-looking guy. Emotionally he has it together; he has everything to live for: A beautiful wife, a happy marriage, the ability to travel all round the world to all sorts of fantastic places, and his wife gets to come with him sometimes. We’re also friends on Facebook, and forever I’m seeing photos of him white-water rafting in Thailand, and popping up in London and New York, and he doesn’t fly at the back of a plane either, I have to tell you.
My point is this: If ever there was a guy that you and I would point to and say, ‘Wow! God’s blessed that person’, it would have to be this guy, without a shadow of a doubt. And yet there’s one hurt in his life. He and his wife haven’t been able to have a child yet. They’ve thrown money at the problem; in vitro fertilisation; they’ve prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and still, nothing.
You see, it doesn’t matter who we are; where we live; what our circumstances are. It doesn’t matter how incredibly blessed someone is; there is always something in our lives that isn’t to our liking. There is always something in our lives that we want to be able to change. There is always something in our lives that causes us pain.
You and I, we would look at this guy’s life, then look up at God and say, ‘Yes, please, Lord. I’ll have one like that, thanks.’ We keep thinking that if only I could earn a bit more money; if only my husband, or my wife as the case may be, would love me just that little bit more; if only I could find the right job; if only my children would grow out of this difficult stage that they’re in at the moment; if only I could lose a few extra pounds; if only I could afford that little bit of cosmetic surgery; if only, if only, if only … then I would finally be happy. That’s a lie that most people tell themselves most of the time.
Of course, if you had a quick look back at the cross for a moment, and saw this Jesus who’d never done a single thing wrong in His life hanging there, nailed to His cross, hands and feet, gasping for air, slowly dying that excruciating death, we’d realise that bad things happen to good people all the time. Suffering happens. God didn’t even spare His own Son from that.
And while sometimes we suffer as a result of our own mistakes and stupidity, more often than not, the suffering that

I guess when we think of Easter we think of it way, way, way in the past and I guess of its consequences way, way, way in the future. The past act of Jesus dying for you and me and the future blessing of a resurrection for us to live eternity with Him. In the past and in the future but what if I told you that Jesus wants to give you a ‘here and now‘ kind of resurrection today, would you believe me?
HERE AND NOW RESURRECTION As we chatted last week on the program – Easter is a time for hope. Not a wishy–washy, uncertain hope like: I hope I lose some weight on this diet or I hope the weather fines up tomorrow. No, not that. When the Bible talks about hope, it means a certain hope.
The sort of hope that throws a ray of sunshine into your day, because you realise that you have something amazing to look forward to. The hope of the resurrection of the dead. That when you and I die, we will go to be with Jesus in paradise, based only on our faith in Him, not on what we do or don’t do.
That’s exactly what Jesus said to the criminal that was strung up on that Cross next to Him on that very first Easter, although of course, it wasn’t called Easter back then. It was the Passover celebration. Have a listen:
Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with Jesus. When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!’ The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, then save yourself!’ There was also an inscription over him that read, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’
One of the criminals who was hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ But the other one rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said to Jesus, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And Jesus replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’ (Luke 23:32-43)
Now although that was obviously a terrible, terrible circumstance in which to receive the promise of eternal life with Jesus, I think you’ll agree, there was a sense of immediacy to that promise. That criminal knew that he was about to die – he could feel it, the agonising, the excruciating, long–suffering death by suffocation, which is how you die when you’re nailed to a cross.
By the way this was the very first man recorded in Scripture to receive the gift of eternal life based on faith in Jesus. And it happened on the same day within just a few hours of the promise that Jesus made to him.
Most of us don’t know how long we have left on this earth. Some who’ve had maybe a bad medical prognosis might have some idea, but most of us don’t. I could live another fifty years, or I could be gone tomorrow. I don’t know and I don’t want to know. But what we do know, what we do see, is the long path ahead. The trials that we’re going through and the trials, which are so much a part of life, that lie ahead.
But this resurrection, this new life, doesn’t just begin when we die and go to heaven. It’s meant to begin the very moment we believe in Jesus. In fact, it has begun the very moment you believed in Jesus. It’s as though we’ve died and risen again here and now.
Have a listen to this amazing scripture that says exactly that. Romans chapter 6, verses 1 to 4:
What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in ord

By about this time of year any little bit of a break we might have had over Christmas and New Year is but a dim distant memory. We’re back in the grind and we’re looking forward to our next break – awesome! But surely there’s more to life than that.
HOPE MATTERS Hope is a beautiful word, four letters, just one syllable, there’s a clear, pure ring to it, isn’t there? HOPE. I don’t know how your year is going so far, what just three months in but for most of us there have been some ups, there have been some downs and underneath it all that constant incessant grind that we all call life, the daily ritual.
I know there are some people on the London Tube with their headphones on listening in to this message today. I know that there is a farmer on his harvester listening in on his local radio station in Australia, in the US and in other places. I know that there is a man in Chicago down at the local gym probably tuned in to the podcast as he is most days and I know that there are refugees in camps wondering what the next day will bring, gathered around their radio’s listening to today’s message all over the world, all different circumstances.
Some good, some not so good, some downright awful, I know that so here as we head into this Easter time, Berni drops the word ‘hope’, pure, clean, crystal clear hope, what does it mean to you right now given where you’re at, what’s going on in your life? Hope.
My year so far has been a bit of a mixed bag, isn’t that always the way? Some great things, a short holiday with my lovely wife in January, awesome and some tough issues to grapple with here too in the ministry called Christianityworks that I’m privileged to lead. But the most constant thing, it’s like a drum beat that never stops, is the daily rhythm of the grind.
Up early each morning working on radio programs, dealing with staffing issues and all that comes with running an organisation that produces radio and television programs around the world. And for me, as I participate in this daily grind, punctuated from time to time with some delightful days and some dreadful days.
Here’s what this beautiful clear word hope means to me. It means that just around the next corner, just over the next rise there’s something more, something better, something that is really worth looking forward to, much more than my next holiday or next trinket or bauble that this world may have to offer. A solid hope, a certain hope that one day the trials and tribulations of this world will be over and that I’ll get to spend eternity in the presence of Jesus.
It doesn’t matter who we are, what sort of life we’re leading, how rich or poor, north or south, east or west, our lives maybe, I believe that we’ve been hand crafted to hope for something in the future, I believe that there’s something innate inside each one of us that no matter how much we may delight in or despise this particular day, there is that something that reaches out to the future looking forward for, well what exactly?
Something better, something more, something beyond, something utterly delightful, you know it, don’t you? You often dream of the future, you hope for this and that. The young woman hoping for her prince charming to ride into her life. The middle-aged man hoping for release from the yoke of the mortgage that drives him to work these long hours under so much pressure. The hope of a frail, elderly, lonely woman whose joints are racked with arthritis hoping for deliverance from this world.
No matter what stage of life we’re in we’re always hoping for something. The sad thing is that we sometimes, often times, place our hope in things that simply can’t deliver what we’re looking for. I happen to enjoy technology, I like the way smartphones have revolutionised my life, sure. But I look at the hysteria, the overnight queues, the cheering and the waving that accompanies the release of certain brands of smartphones, it seem

Suffering is not a lot of fun is it. Nobody looks forward to it, and yet, it’s pretty certain that storms will hit our lives. So, when they do, there’s a confidence that God wants you to have in your heart. A confidence, in Him.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THAT Suffering is bad enough, but if while you’re suffering, your so-called friends can’t even stand by you and encourage you and comfort you, well that is just the pits.
Worse still when loved ones – a wife or a husband, instead of encouraging you, they take the opportunity to say, ‘I told you so or You’ve only got yourself to blame … well, at that point, you just want to pack it in.
This isn’t a game hypotheticals, this is real life. This happens all the time. In fact it seems to be a favourite game that some people love to play. When he’s down, when she’s down, instead of giving them a hand up, let’s kick ‘em where it hurts.
I don’t know about you, but I have a pretty good handle on my faults. It turns out that every strength we have, is a double-edged sword. It’s both a strength, and, if we’re not careful, it’s a weakness as well.
Say you’re a strong leader type of personality, then you’re great to have around because you can help the rest of us crash through obstacles that we, without you, simply wouldn’t have been able to get through. But at the same time, as a leader, you can be a quite domineering and controlling person.
Or lets say you’re one of those great encouragers, who will hang in there with someone for as long as they need, then you’re a fantastic friend to have in a storm. But there’s every chance that you’re not very organised, not an on-time sort of a person – simply through the fact that you’ve been made to hang in there with people for as long as they need you.
Yep, every strength is a double-edged sword. It’s both a strength, and a potential weakness. So few people understand that. And as a result, when things aren’t going well for us, they’re quite adept, it would seem, at seeing our faults and pointing them out to us. ‘Well, maybe the reason you’re having this problem in your marriage is because you’re such a strong personality. It must be your fault’. Or … ‘Well, the reason you’re having this problem at work is that you’re just not good at time management. You have to get better at sorting out your priorities and hitting the deadlines you need to hit’.
You see how easy it is, to find the fault side of our strength, when people are looking for answers. They think they’re helping us, but they’re only making it worse. I have a friend like that who constantly needs to point out my faults to me, as though somehow he’s an impartial, expert psychotherapist. And when he gets into that mode, I sit there and I think of all his faults – faults that I don’t point out to him – because he’s my friend and he has a whole bunch of strengths as well.
I know what you’re thinking – been there, done that, got the t–shirt, you know exactly what I’m talking about. There is a time and a place for friends to point out each other’s faults and weaknesses and limitations in a constructive way. But that time and place is not when they’re suffering, it’s not when the devil is chasing them around the kitchen table with a pick-axe, it’s not when God is leading them through a wilderness experience. Right?
Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been spending some time with Job, a righteous man, a good man, whom God chose to test, by letting the devil go after everything he had. His family, his possessions, his health, his reputation – one by one, God allows the devil to strip them away from Job, to see what lies beneath. To see whether Job truly is this great man of faith, or whether he only trusts God while his faith is propped up by all the blessings that God has heaped on his life.
And Job, as it turns out, had three friends, just like the ones we’ve been talkin

Way too many Christians are way too timid in their prayer lives. Now, I’m not saying be belligerent and demanding, but let me tell you, if your faith is in Jesus … you have a lot more power in your prayer than you realised.
 
OUR FAITH IN CHRIST Well, welcome to this last program in the four part series that I’ve called, “The Power of Prayer”. Over the last few weeks we’ve been looking at this whole prayer thing – “Bridging the Communication Gap”. You know sometimes we’re so busy, we’re running around we’re running around doing things. We just don’t take the time to spend with God. Then we saw how Jesus taught us to pray, just a humble, simple communication. Not trying to impress God or trying to impress anyone else, just spending time humbly before Him.
And then last week we saw what it meant to pray with power. This is so important. Last week on the program we saw time and time again God’s Word teaches us to pray with boldness, not with arrogance, but with a confidence in who God is and who we are in Christ Jesus.
When we talk about prayer one of the questions that comes up is, “Well, what can I ask God for? I mean, can I go to God and ask Him for anything? What if I want a flash new car, can I ask Him for that? Or a pay rise, or healing? How come sometimes He answers some peoples prayers for things like that and not others?” We’re going to take a look at that on the program today, because you know something, it’s an important question.
On the one hand, absolutely, we should pray with boldness because that’s what God’s word tells us to do. But on the other, in our me-centric world, and we’re all a product of that somehow aren’t we, it’s easy to get things the wrong way around.
We put ‘me’ at the centre and then we expect God to dance around to our tune. On the other hand, didn’t Jesus say, “Ask for whatever you wish and it will be given to you. And you haven’t received yet because you haven’t asked. See the dilemma.
On the one hand God is God. He’s Sovereign, He’s almighty. His thoughts aren’t our thoughts, His ways aren’t our ways. And yet He teaches over and over again to pray with a faith and a boldness and a perseverance and belief, as Paul puts it in Ephesians Chapter 1, “In the Power that we have”, with a capital ‘P’. Now how do we resolve this dilemma? How do we get it right? What are we missing here in our understanding about this apparent conflict? For me it starts and ends with a deep faith in Jesus.
I was just reading this morning in my own devotion time the Gospel of Luke Chapter 6. Grab a Bible if you have one and open it up with me. Chapter 6 verse 17:
Jesus went down with the people and stood on a level place. There was a large crowd of His disciples and a great number of people from Judea, from Jerusalem and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon and they had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured and the people all tried to touch Him because power was coming from Him and healing them.”
See, power was coming from Him. The Greek word for power is ‘dunamis’ we get the word dynamite. We are talking serious power was coming from Jesus and people were getting healed. 

We have to look at what it says before then. You see it says that they had come to hear him and be healed from all their diseases. That’s verse 18 of chapter 6 of Luke’s gospel. And there’s the key. We need to be open to who Jesus is and what He has to say. Jesus said some outrageous things. Love your enemy for starters. Forgive people. Call God “Dad” which is very radical. He ushered in a power, radical love.
He hung around sinners and lepers and prostitutes and healed the lame, the blind on the Sabbath when he shouldn’t have. And criticised the religious establishment for its hypocrisy. This Jesus, this unconventional saviour, that you just can’t easily put it in a box somewhere.