Christianityworks Official Podcast

Berni Dymet
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There is such incredible power in God's Word! Power to change. Power to make an impact in this world. That's what Christianityworks is all about – in depth teaching straight out of God's Word. Join Berni Dymet as he opens God's Word to discover what God has to say into your life, today.

  1. 5d ago

    How to Eliminate Anger, Sexual Immorality and Low Self Esteem // Eliminating Stubborn Sin Once and For All, Part 3

    Anger, sexual immorality and low self-esteem are three of the most stubborn sins known to humanity. We know we should eliminate them from our lives, but the question is - HOW?   LIVING IN THE GOOD THINGS OF GOD Well, welcome to this third week in this series called "Eliminating Stubborn Sin – Once and For All". Over the last few weeks on the programme we have seen that God truly does want us to overcome stubborn sin in our lives – that God gives us the power to deal with every sin and whatever temptation comes our way. He gives us the way out – a way of dealing with it. Actually there are very few things that God says "Don't do!" and the only things to which He says "Don't do!" are the things, if we are honest with ourselves, the things that are going to hurt us. And today we are going to look at anger, sexual immorality and low self esteem because they are way out there. But when it comes to dealing with these stubborn sins, the issue is not so much that we should get rid of them – we kind of know that – the question is how? So let's kick off today with anger because anger is actually a big issue in this world today – it seems we're all so busy doing all the things we have to do – racing around, taking the kids to school, getting off to work and at work these days the pressure is really on. Make more, achieve more, deliver more – it used to be in the 'good old days' the pace was much slower. You had to wait for the mail to arrive and when you sent a letter out, it took a couple of days to get it all correct through the typing pool. But these days, even when people are on holidays with their families, they're answering emails on their mobile phones. We're so connected, so in demand, so busy – it's almost like we're like battery hens – the slightest thing makes us snap. Some people have more of a problem with anger than others. The more achievement oriented and outcome focused a personality we have, the more we are going to be prone to anger. And that was my 'biggie' when I became a Christian – anger. Nothing was ever good enough or fast enough for me and as I look at that, the whole "anger" thing was based on a self-centeredness and a sense of self importance. The world was there to serve ME and to fit in with MY plans and if you didn't play the game by MY rules and deliver what I wanted – well, watch out! It's a way of living and thinking and behaving that robs us of relationships and tenderness and joy. It's actually awful! But how can we change that? Well, here's how! Psalm 145, verse 8, says this: The Lord is gracious and merciful and show to anger and abounding in steadfast love. What that's saying is that God's grace and His mercy and His steadfast love make Him slow to get angry. God does get angry sometimes and that's a fearsome thing but not at the drop of a hat. He doesn't have a temper that's on a hair trigger. Why? "Because He's abounding in steadfast love." In other words, He's more focused on loving us for who we are than what we do or don't do. Imagine if this awesome and mighty God became angry with you and I every time we didn't fit in with His plans – we wouldn't last very long, would we? For me, learning to break the pattern of angry behaviour began with loving the people I was dealing with; valuing them for who they were; understanding their hurts and their inadequacies. The things that had happened to them in their lives that made them behave the way they did. And the more I did that, the less angry I started to feel. In fact, what I began to do was prepare myself for people. As I said, I am one of these outcome focused people who moves quickly, sets goals, achieves them. And it's easy when you're like that just to roll over the top of people. And then ... then I have to work with someone who just wants to have fun! You know the sort of people? They just want to enjoy the moment and I just want to get things done. But without them to help me enjoy the moment, well, I'd miss out. So I started to prepare myself – "I have to work with him today! Right! Okay! I understand him. He's not going to be like me today and that's okay", almost forgiving them, if you like, before they walked into the room. It took me a while to figure it out but that's what God is like. That's what that verse from that Psalm is all about. Psalm 145, verse 8: The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. And actually that "slow to anger" thing has a lot to be said for it. Here are a couple of verses from Proverbs that really helped me. Proverbs chapter 12, verse 16: Fools show their anger at once but the prudent ignore an insult. In other words, the moment that someone says something that triggers anger in me, well, I've learned to let it pass me by, more often than not, these days. No, I don't have to win every time anymore. I don't have to have the last say; I don't have to be right all the time. "Only fools show their anger at once, the prudent ignore an insult." And this verse – Proverbs chapter 15, verse 1: A soft answer turns away wrath but a harsh word stirs up anger. This was like being a shock absorber. When someone does something to stir up anger and dissent, how wonderful it is to respond with gentleness and wisdom, calming the situation instead of throwing fuel on the fire with a harsh word. Ignore the insult and respond with a gentle, soft answer. Can I tell you, once I decided to start loving the people around me, these two things took a bit of practice but after a while they became a habit, because they're a much, much better way of living? These days I have much more peace in my heart; much more joy in my life. Instead of always having MY day ruined by other people's failure to fit in with my plans, I've discovered the joy of fitting in with their plans sometimes too. And the biggest thing ... the biggest thing with letting the anger go is that it set me free to enjoy the beauty and the creativity and the incredible specialness of each person I come in contact with. It's like a whole new world has opened up. Do I still get angry sometimes? Course I do, so do you! It's what I do with that anger when it happens that makes all the difference. This anger thing was a stubborn sin in my life. It was one that looked like it would never go away but when I took those few simple Scriptures we just talked about and started applying them to my life, God did the rest. He set me free from a sin that would have ruined the rest of my life. Next we are going to look at another one of those stubborn sins – sexual immorality.   STARTING EVERY DAY WITH JESUS Earlier we looked at overcoming anger and right now we are going to move on to sexual immorality because it's one of the most stubborn sins of all. It seems these days that it doesn't matter how hard we try, sexuality is constantly thrust before our eyes and under our noses. Now, don't get me wrong, I have a very simple view about sex. God invented it: it's good, it's great. But the role of our sexuality - apart from the obvious thing of keeping the human race going by bringing babies into the world – is to bring a husband and a wife into a level of intimacy so wonderful that there aren't enough words to describe how good that is. But because sex sells, it's used in the media to such an extent, you can't walk down the street without the image of a scantily clad woman advertising some product on a billboard shoved in your face. Now, God's Word is pretty clear on sex and here it is in a nut shell. Human sexuality is a part of His design for humanity and as such, physical intimacy is a beautiful gift from Him but the only proper expression of that gift is exclusively between one man and one woman who have been joined together as husband and wife in the life-long bond of marriage. And people who continue in sexual immorality outside that – whatever form that takes – will NOT inherit the Kingdom of God. They are not my ideas. That is clearly, clearly what God says through what I believe to be His Word – the Bible. Now, I think that one of the biggest issues today is pornography. So many men are caught up in sexual immorality – they're married, they want to be faithful to their wives but with the internet being available 24/7, the temptation is simply too great. And so they are caught up in the cycle of addiction and shame that spirals ever downward. It actually robs them of the intimacy that God had planned for them. It substitutes a poor impostor for the real thing. And because they are carrying the burden of hidden shame around in their hearts, it robs them of the power that God has for their lives – the power to make a difference for God in this world. That's why this particular stubborn sin is so insidious. Here are some sobering statistics: over 50% of all men are addicted to pornography; over 82% percent of males between fifteen and twenty-eight have intentionally or deliberately sought out pornography in the last three months. A man whose campaign to help men addicted to pornography, Pastor Steve Davies, puts it this way – he says: "We're at war and pornography is Satan's number one weapon against men to destroy their walk with Christ." So how do we overcome this most stubborn of sins? If you are a man addicted to this cycle of pornography, how can you overcome it? If you are a woman who's living through the pain of her husband's addiction to pornography, how can you be part of overcoming it? They're tough issues and perhaps the odd person is squirming right now and maybe you're tempted to turn the radio off but God's Word speaks into every situation ... every situation and this sin is no different. For the man who is caught up in this most stubborn of sins, the first thing he needs to know and understand is this: that Jesus came to set you free from every sin ... every sin, and this sin is no different. Colossians chapter 1, verses 13 to 14, says t

    24 min

  2. Jun 21

    How to Stop Sin Dead in its Tracks // Eliminating Stubborn Sin Once and For All, Part 2

    Most of us have heard sermon after sermon, message after message, telling us that we shouldn't sin. That instead, we should repent and live a godly, holy life. That's great – but the real question is HOW?   STIFF-NECKED GENERATION I was never much of an accountant but I do remember learning about double-entry book keeping systems. They were really important back in manual accounting systems because they provided a double check to make sure that the accounts balanced. Basically, here's how it worked. Every financial transaction in the accounts had two entries – hence the name double entry. A credit entry and a debit entry. And the whole point of that was the double entry provided a double check. And it's not just in accounting that you find this approach. You find it in physics too. Newton's third law says that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. In other words – whenever a body exerts a force on a second body, that second body exerts an equal and opposite force on the first body. Maybe that's something we should have learned at school. And it's not just in accounting and physics that we see this two sided approach to life, we also find it in the spiritual dimension. Absolutely we do. Every spiritual transaction has two sides to it. Every spiritual action in one direction creates an equal and opposite action in the other direction. So what's the point? Well in this double-sided mystery lies our rubber-hits-the-road solution to overcoming stubborn sin – which is the thing that we're talking about in this series, "Eliminating Stubborn Sin Once and For All". And it's a powerful solution indeed. Last week on the program we saw that each one of us finds ourselves with at least one stubborn sin in life that we can't seem to overcome. Now it's different for each one of us – anger, temper, sexuality, greed, self esteem, pride … the list goes on. And somehow that one particular sine comes back again and again to defeat us. But whilst sin is all too common, it's not normal – and God's intention is to set us free from that sin. Not only His intention – it's His plan, it's His will and it's something that He has the power, the divine power to do. Last week on the program we looked at this particular passage, 2 Corinthians 10:4-5: For the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ. Every proud obstacle in our hearts that sets itself up against the knowledge of God – and that's what the strongholds are that the Apostle Paul's talking about here – can be destroyed by the weapons of warfare which are not human, they're divine. God's divine power. And it's a power that God delights in exerting right in the moment our of our weakness – so that it's His power and not our strength that overcomes sin. Here's Paul again. We looked at this last week too, 2 Corinthians 12:7-9: To keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Don't you just love this. Instead of just taking the messenger of Satan that was tormenting Paul away – God instead gives Paul the opportunity to discover God's perfect power – the power of Jesus Himself – in His own experience in overcoming Satan. But it's one thing to know that whilst we all have a stubborn sin and even though it's God's plan to wield His divine power to overcome that sin in our lives – well, all that's one thing. But what you and I really need to know, beyond that wonderful liberating truth – is how! HOW to lay hold of God's power and how to overcome the stubborn sin that's been wracking our bodies for a lifetime. Well today, right now, I want to take you deep into God's Word and show you God's how. Not my how. Not the world's how. But God's HOW! Now I've heard this Scripture we're about to go to have a look at quoted often – but only half of it, only one side of the transaction, and not the other side. And a half truth is as good as an untruth because a half truth can easily be made into a lie. It's something the devil does all the time. The half truth – the part of this Scripture that's most often quoted – goes like this, James Chapter 4 verse 7: Resist the devil and he will flee from you. And so a whole bunch of people set about resisting the devil. Problem is that the old enemy's been around much longer than you and I have, and he's seen it all. He's wily, crafty and deceptive and he'll go to any length to catch us in his snare. He'll wait to till the most opportune moment, until we're tired or weak or distracted or frustrated or all of the above – and then he'll pounce. 1 Peter Chapter 5:8: Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Lions wait in the long grass until they see a weak animal or a young animal or a slow animal separated from the pack – and then they pounce on their prey. The devil's the exactly the same. And what we discover when we set about resisting the devil – is that working hard just doesn't work. We don't need human weapons in this spiritual battle, we need weapons full of divine power. And it turns out that the way to access and wield those weapons involves a double-sided transaction. The half truth from the Scriptures that I gave you before – let me give the whole thing to you now – and you'll see what I mean. James Chapter 4:7-8 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Do you see the two sides of the transaction involved in defeating the devil – in overcoming stubborn sin? The first is, submit yourself to God and then resist the devil – two sides – and the result of that is that he will flee from you. When we submit ourselves to God, we rebel against the devil. When we submit to the devil – we rebel against God. It's a double sided entry, it's a double sided transaction. But some people have a foot in both camps – they want to honour God but they want to go with the devil and they're the ones who are double-minded, the ones who have to cleanse their hands and purify their hearts. We're going to look at some intensely practical examples of this after the break – but just for now think back to Adam and Eve in the garden. When they were living that perfect life prior to the fall – they were submitting to God (and getting all the benefits) – but on the other side of the ledger, they were resisting the devil. The tree in the middle of the garden, the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, it was there all the time, they just didn't eat of it – and so they lived in the benefit of God's blessing. BUT – the moment they submitted to the devil – on the other side of the ledger, they were resisting God, they were rebelling against God – in that very first, terrible, double-sided act of rebellion. Submission to God = rejecting the devil. Submission to the devil = rejection God. And in this double-sided transaction lies the practical truth of overcoming stubborn sin. If we try to do it by resisting the devil, as we've already seen – that's a half truth and it doesn't work. The answer is first to submit to God, to draw near to Him, because in so doing, He will draw near to us. And since He's the one with the power – He's the one with the weapons of warfare that have the divine power, the first thing that we need to do, is to submit our selves to Him. Resisting the devil is what flows out of that.   RULES DON'T WORK Stubborn sin – that sin that we just can't shift, sin that keeps on keeping on long after we'd hoped that we would have defeated it – is a fact in many, many people's lives. And over the last couple of weeks on the program, we've seen that not only does God understand that, but He wants to give us His weapons full of His divine power, right in the middle of our weaknesses defeat the sin. Jesus died and rose again to give us victory, to give us a new life – and so whilst stubborn sin is commonplace, it's not normal and it's not what God means for our lives. In fact, this is something that God takes so seriously – that He sends not only His Son just to die to pay for all our sin on the cross, but to rise again to give us a new life. 2 Corinthians 5:17: that if anyone believes in this Jesus, then that person is a new creation – old things have passed away and look all things are new. So, whilst many a Christ-follower is convinced that their particular brand of stubborn sin is just a fact of life, just something that they have to live with for the rest of their lives here on Earth, that's a luxury that the Gospel of Jesus Christ doesn't afford us. Jesus came to set us free from every sin. And right now we're going to continue our look at this practical "how to" – how do we lay hold of God's divine power to allow ourselves to be set free, by God – of this sin and, and it's painful consequences. Now this is something that frankly puzzled me for a long time. First, I thought I had to do it all. And so I fought against the devil and I tried and I tried and I tried to resits him and overcome these temptations … but as strong willed an individual as I am, that just didn't work. I ended up lying bloodied and beaten and discouraged and dejected and defeated on the battlefield. OK ... OK ... OK that didn't work. So, what I'll do is I'll leave it all up to God. I'll sit back and let God do it all. But let me tell you – the old "spiritual couch potato" model didn't work ei

    24 min

  3. Jun 14

    Where There's a Will There's a Way // Eliminating Stubborn Sin Once and For All, Part 1

    Stubborn sin – the sort that just keeps coming back again and again, no matter how hard we try –is a fact of life for so many. And we have a choice – we can just accept it and its devastating consequences, or we can believe God's Word that where there's a will, there's a way.   THE BIG CON Today we are kicking off a new series of programmes for the next four weeks. It's called "Overcoming Stubborn Sin – Once and For All." And God triggered in my heart, just the other day, when I was sitting talking to a man – but more about him later. Now let me ask you, have you ever had a pen in your pocket and it's leaked? More common for men, I guess – we'll put a pen in our shirt pocket or maybe on the inside pocket of our jacket and then, for one reason or another, the pen leaks and you end up with an ink stain all over your shirt or your jacket. Now that stain, it's called a stubborn stain, isn't it? At least that's how we refer to it where I come from. And the reason we call it a stubborn stain is that, no matter what you wash it with or scrub it with – it doesn't matter what you do to it – it just won't come out. I remember when that happened to one of my favourite jackets, years ago now. I mean, I really liked this jacket; it was soft and comfortable and it looked great. I spent a fortune at the dry cleaners, but it doesn't matter what they tried, the stain didn't come out. And so I simply couldn't wear it out any more. I mean, it would have looked ridiculous. But isn't it funny, these days, when we have a stain like that on our characters, it seems we almost wear it out with pride, or at the very least, we just put up with it. After all, it's a stubborn stain – nothing we can do about it. And that's the attitude of that man that I was telling you about at the beginning of the programme. Here's the thing: he rang the other day and wanted to catch up for a coffee. I agreed and as we sat down in the cafe, we had a bit of small chit-chat and then the crunch issue – the thing he wanted to talk to me about. Well, it was his sin. It was a sin he'd been struggling with all his life. It turned out that his particular Achilles heel was his temper. A lovely man but he has a hot temper and just flies of the handle at the drop of a hat. He was sharing with me what had happened just a few days before. A situation where he'd hurt some people that really mattered to him and the more I listened, the more I got this impression that as far as he was concerned, this was something he was stuck with and the best he could do was to manage the symptoms. There wasn't a single thought in his head of treating the disease. And the reason this shocked me was this man is a Christian with a powerful heart after God and a commitment to God's Word. So I listened without saying too much but the more I turned this conversation over and over in my head, the more disturbing it became. It was like he had a stubborn ink stain on his jacket but he was intent on wearing that same jacket out, day after day, with that stain on it. There was no thought of changing the jacket. Do you see the point? We wouldn't think of wearing an ink stained jacket out to work and yet we'll take who we are - with this great big stubborn stain, smack bang in the middle of our character and our personality, so prominent; so obvious that nobody could ever miss it - and wear it out day after day after day, for a whole life time, resigned to what we think is the fact that there's just nothing we can do about it. Changing the jacket never crosses our mind. Have a listen to this. In the context of what we have just been talking about – stubborn sin – Galatians chapter 3, verse 27: "As many of you as were baptised into Christ, have clothed yourselves with Christ." And again this: Ephesians chapter 4, verses 22 to 27: "You were taught to put away your former way of life; your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to clothe yourselves with a new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil." Both of these Scriptures from the Word of God are very, very clear. They're about putting on a new jacket; they're about clothing ourselves in Christ; clothing ourselves in the new creation that we become when we put our trust and our faith in Him. There's nothing ... nothing, so far as I can find in God's Word which says that sin is normal. Sure, it's common; all too common but normal it ain't! Have you put your trust in Jesus Christ? Have you? Then you are a new creation. The old things have passed away and all things ... ALL THINGS are new. That comes from Second Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17. We all have one or two stubborn sins in our lives. For some people it's temper and anger, for others it lust, for others it's always seeking glory and recognition, for others again it's low self esteem or un-forgiveness or gossiping or slander. Other people are addicted to gambling or perhaps it's worshipping other gods. Some people don't seem to be able to help themselves – some are involved in the occult. My friend, the list goes on and we sometimes behave as if the only person who has this stubborn sin stain on us is us! Listen to me – it's everyone! I've never met a person who hasn't had to grapple with at least one stubborn, persistent, ongoing form of sin in their lives. So many men are addicted to pornography, which now with the internet, has over half ... over half of all men addicted to this – something we are going to talk about in the coming weeks – and they live in secret shame, imagining that there's nothing they can do about it. And over half of all women, in Western society as least, suffer clinically from low self esteem. And each one of these stubborn sins is the devil's way of robbing us of life. Sure, so many of them are dressed up to look respectable – so seductive; so normal. Now the person who puts their faith in Jesus, kind of knows they're not right, but like that man that I was talking about at the beginning of the programme, they've kind of resigned themselves into believing that there's nothing they can do about their particular brand of stubborn sin. Whether it's a red stain or a blue stain or a black stain, "Well, that's just my coloured stain and there's just nothing I can do about it." Let me give you this very direct and very blunt response to that kind of thinking: rubbish; its absolute rubbish! That's a deception of the devil and you won't find it in the Bible. Jesus said, quoting Isaiah chapter 61, verse 1. He said: "God had sent him to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners." Now, there's no fine print in there that provides you or me with a personal exclusion for our particular colour of stubborn sin. Now, I'm a man who has had more than his share of stubborn sins to work through – anger, temper – all sorts of stuff and because I am one of those strong willed people, those things have had even a stronger hold on me than most. And here's what I've discovered along the way and I'm still discovering it – Jesus came to set me free from every sin that robs me of life. He came to set you free from every sin that robs you of life – to clothe us in Christ, to make us a new creation that shines His glory and His image into this lost and hurting world. That is the truth!   WAKE UP One of the worst feelings that we can have in life is that sense of being trapped ... trapped in a place, trapped in our circumstances, trapped in our own destructive patterns of behaviour. And try as we might, we just can't get out. Now, God has a name for those destructive behaviours; a much shorter name – He calls them 'sin' and that's exactly what sin is – behaviour that's destructive; behaviour that misses the whole point of life. And it seems to be the case that pretty much each one of us has one particular pattern of destructive behaviour; one sin that seems to be stubborn in our lives. Like a stubborn stain that just won't wash out – as much as we wish we could get rid of it. We've tried and tried and tried and tried over the years – we just can't. For many people it feels like they're trapped; like there's no way out. It's a pattern of behaviour that we seem to be locked into – repeating over and over and over again. And so many people have just resigned themselves to the fact that that's the way it is and that nothing's ever going to change – they're trapped; hopelessly trapped in sin and there's no way out and so they just have to live life with the painful consequences of that sin. Well, if that kind of resonates a bit with you, I have some good news for you – in fact, it's some great news. Stubborn sin comes in so many different forms. Have a quick listen to this list written by Paul the Apostle, a couple of thousand years ago. It comes from Galatians chapter 5, verses 19 to 21: "Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." Some people are just naturally prone to being critical or argumentative. Some are locked into patterns of jealousy or sexually immorality. And in this world of 'anything goes', where cheating on your wife or your husband has been reduced to a lifestyle choice, it's easy for us to rationalise our particular form of stubborn sin away, as being just that. "Well, the world's moved on, you know – we think differ

    24 min

  4. Jun 7

    Choose Your King // On Solid Ground, Part 4

    When the storms of life hit, as they do, right, what we do is that instinctively we grab a life vest, we look for a lifeline here on earth, a worldly solution if you will … instead of turning to the One who can calm the storm. So, you have to ask yourself then, who exactly is the Lord of our lives?   Just Like the Rest Over these last few weeks we have been looking at what it means to get our feet back on solid ground in life. You know, when we are going through storms we are bobbing around like a tiny little boat floundering on an angry sea and sometimes we don't know which way to head – which way is up, which way is down. All we want to do is put our feet back on solid ground. And it turns out that you don't always find that solid ground exactly where you expect to find it. And we have been exploring this whole idea of getting our feet on solid ground through the story of a humble woman called Hannah who honoured God and turned to Him in the midst of her storm - and at completely the other end of the scale, a priest called Eli and his sons Hophni and Phinehas. They were evil guys and they got their just rewards and the nation of Israel who struggled with their God. If you've got a Bible, grab it and open it up. Over these last three weeks we have been looking at the first seven chapters of the Book of First Samuel. Now First Samuel appears about a third of the way through the Old Testament. We are going to finish off that series today with the crux of what this is all about. We are going to have a look at the decision that ultimately determines whether our feet are on solid ground or not. It's a decision between the obvious and the not so obvious. What is it that you and I can decide to do that will absolutely ensure that no matter what comes our way, our feet are on solid ground? Now the pivot of this whole story – the contrast of Hannah on the one hand and Hophni and Phinehas and their dad, Eli, on the other – happens, if you remember the verse – if you have been with us over these last few weeks – in First Samuel chapter 2, verse 30, where God says: Those who honour Me, I will honour but those who despise Me will be treated with contempt. We are going to pick up that story today. The priests are dead, they've got their just rewards, Hannah's son – she couldn't have a son remember, but she now has a son, he is grown up – Samuel is the judge and the prophet and the leader over all Israel. Now that's a really important concept – they didn't have a King. All the other nations had a King but Israel did not because Israel's system of government was a theocracy – that meant that God was their King. And God appointed judges and prophets to declare His Word over the people of Israel. So He administered justice – this was Samuel – he was a prophet who declared the will of God and God was the King to the people. Now that was unique among the nations and as we saw over the last few weeks, when they honoured God; when they obeyed Him, that nations' feet were on solid ground. Now the story takes an interesting twist. We are going to pick it up in chapter 8 of the Book of First Samuel. Here's how it goes: When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his first born son was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah and they were judges in Beer-sheba. Yet his sons didn't follow in his ways but turned aside after gain – they took bribes and perverted justice. Then all the elders of Israel came together and they came to Samuel at Ramah and they said to Samuel "You are old and your sons don't follow in your ways, appoint for us then, a King to govern over us like the other nations." But this displeased Samuel when they said "Give us a King to govern us. So Samuel prayed to the Lord and the Lord said to Samuel "Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being King over them. Just as they have done to Me from the day I brought them up out of Egypt to this day, forsaking Me, serving other gods so also they are doing to you. Now then, listen to their voice – only you shall solemnly warn them and show the ways of the King who shall reign over them." So Samuel reported all the words of God to the people who were asking him for a King. He said these will be the ways of the King who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horse men and to run before his chariots and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties and some will plough his ground and reap his harvest and to make his implements of war and to make his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and your vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. He will take one tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give them to his officers and his courtiers. He will take your male and female slaves and the best of your cattle and donkeys and put them to his work. He will take one tenth of your flocks and you shall be his slaves and in that day you will cry out because of your King whom you have chosen for yourselves but the Lord will not answer you in that day. But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel. They said "No, we are determined to have a King over us so that we may also be like the other nations and that our King may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles." Isn't that interesting? All this time you go right back to the slavery, when Israel was in slavery in Egypt and God released them through some major miracles and through the parting of the Red Sea and then into the Promised Land and they captured the Land, battle after battle. All this time it was a simple, simple principle that God honours those who honour Him. And God did and God won the battles for them and God delivered them. And now they reject their King, their God who is able and willing to bless them and to protect them. Why? Well, actually, first they blame Samuel's sons and no doubt there is something in that, but actually you find out the reason towards the end of that verse. Look again at the passage we have just read: verses 19 and 20 of chapter 8: But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel. They said "No, we are determined to have a King over us so that we also may be like other nations and that our King may govern us and go to battle and fight our battles for us." They wanted to be like all the other nations. Now, let's think about that. Israel is unique – God is their King, He promised them the Promised Land, He has the power to make it happen. Whenever they honour Him He does make it happen and yet they want to reject Him – why? So that they can be like all the other nations! Is that stupid or what? None of the other nations have an invincible god as their king so why do they want to be like the other nations? Because in the heat of the battle they want a king they can see – a king of flesh and blood! Their enemies have a king at the head of their army so they want one too and they are prepared to give up the perfect power of the King of Kings for a poor substitute so that they can have a king that they can see! How often do we do that? How often do we put our faith in things that we can see – in our investment portfolio to provide wealth is fine until the economy goes belly up, in our career, which is fine until our health fails, in other people, which is fine until they desert us or fail us? See when we hit a storm you know what we want to do? We want to reach out and put a life preserver on instead of go to the One who can stop the storm. We want something we can see and touch and feel, instead of putting our faith in the One whom we can't see. A favourite Scripture you hear people quote is Second Corinthians chapter 5, verse 7 that says "We walk by faith and not by sight" and that's great until the storm hits, when we will definitely go for something that we can see and touch and feel, ahead of someone we can only see by faith – we'll pick that anytime. And that's the point – when we step off solid ground onto a stormy ocean.   What's the Problem? Yea, just like Israel, we want to be just like everyone else some days; just normal, everyday people who put our faith in things that we can touch and feel. It is something the Apostle Paul rejected – have a listen – Second Corinthians chapter 5, beginning at verse 1. He says: We know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, if indeed, when we have taken it off, we will not be found naked. For while we are still in this tent, we groan under our burden because we wish not to be unclothed but to be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing, is God, who has given us His Spirit as a guarantee so we are always confident, even though we know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. See, here Paul is talking about the struggle between the temporal and the eternal – between what we can see and what we can't see. And Paul is saying "Look, I have got a body; I've got a tent but one day that is going to pass away and my faith isn't in the "here and now" – my faith is in God – I walk by faith not by sight." It's about where he puts his confidence. Now, let me tell you how easy it is to appoint an earthly King, like what Israel was trying to do and to reject the King of Kings – even when we are out and about doing God's work. This ministry that I am involved in, Christianityworks, i

    24 min

  5. May 31

    Pushing God Away // On Solid Ground, Part 3

    It's so easy to look at God and come to the conclusion, well I want that part of Him – but not that part. And definitely not that bit. It seems that all too often, we want Him on our terms rather than His. But God just doesn't work that way.   Take it Back Have you ever wanted something in life – I mean really, really, really wanted it and then when you finally get it, you just want to give it back? I think we have all experienced that at some point and you know, I think that for some people, it can be the case with God. I know people, lots of people, who hunger to be close to God. I know there are people listening today – maybe you are one of them – and all their lives they have wanted God – whatever that means. But can I tell you something? Even something really good – I mean really, really good like God, well, it can be a shock to the system and the reason is that we have these idealised, unrealistic notions of what that good thing will be like. Take the young woman who wants more than anything else, to be married and she meets her knight in shining armour, she marries him and a year later she is wondering, "What happened to all my ideas of romance 24/7?" Today on the programme we are going to take a look at some people who got God and couldn't wait to give Him back. Now over these last few weeks we have been working our way through the story of Hannah and Eli and his sons in the Book of First Samuel. And the crux of it is that Hannah honours God but Eli and his sons don't and the turning point of the whole story comes in the verse First Samuel – if you have a Bible, grab it, open it up here in First Samuel chapter 2, verse 30. God says: I will honour those who honour Me but those who despise Me, will be treated with contempt. And we have seen how the central reality of that verse has played itself out in the lives of Hannah, who was blessed when she couldn't have a son and she honoured God and God gave her a son Samuel and the opposite is Eli and his sons Hophni and Phinehas who didn't honour God and were greatly punished, in fact they lost their lives because of that. This story plays its self out in the storms of life. I mean Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, they were the priests; they should have been bringing God's people close to God yet they were living life of Riley, as we saw last week on the programme. And God had them killed. They're job was to bring people close to God and yet they were not honouring Him. Instead they had led Israel to a place of defeat. We saw last week in First Samuel chapter 4 where the Philistines attacked, Israel thinks "Oh well, God is always on our side – we will go to battle" and they had a huge defeat – thirty thousand of their soldiers were killed. The Ark of the Covenant, the presence of God itself, was captured by the Philistines. See the Ark of the Covenant was where God actually sat in the midst of His people. You see that in the journey through the Exodus – forty years in the Tent of the Meeting and later on in the temple. The Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies; it is the very presence of God. And strangely, you know, when the Philistines are close to capturing the Ark they kind of realise, with a sense of foreboding, what this is about. It says in First Samuel that: When they learned that the Ark of the Lord had entered the camp of the Israelites, the Philistines were afraid. "A god has come into their camp" they said "we are in trouble. Nothing like that has ever happened before. Woe to us. Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods?" And so it goes on … Well, it turns out that they should have followed their instincts. Today we are going to look and see what happens to the Philistines and to the Israelites when the presence of God comes close to them. Let's have a look at it. If you've got a Bible, open it up at First Samuel chapter 5, we are going to begin the story at verse 1. After the Philistines had captured the Ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the Ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, their god, who had fallen flat on his face on the ground before the Ark of the Lord. They took Dagon and put him back in his place. The following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the Ark of the Lord. His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold – only his body remained. That is why to this very day, neither the priests of Dagon or any of the others who enter Dagon's temple in Ashdod, step on the threshold. The Lord's hand was heavy upon the people of Ashdod and its vicinity. He brought devastation upon them and afflicted them with tumours. When the men of Ashdod saw what was happening they said "The Ark of the God of Israel mustn't stay here with us because His hand is heavy upon us and upon Dagon our god." So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and ask them "What are we going to do with this Ark of the God of Israel?" And they answered "Have the Ark of the God of Israel moved to Gath." So they moved the Ark of the God of Israel but after they had moved it, the Lord's hand was against that city, throwing it into great panic. He afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumours so they sent the Ark of God on to Ekron. As the Ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out "They have brought that Ark of the God of Israel around to kill us and our people." So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said "Send that Ark of the God of Israel away. Let it go back to its own place or it will kill us and our people," for death had filled the city with panic and God's hand was very heavy upon it. Those who did not die were afflicted with tumours and the outcry of the city went up to heaven. Do you see? The Philistines looked like they had won and yet they take the presence of God; the Ark of the Covenant, they put it in their temple next to their god and Dagon falls down, face down in front of the God of Israel. And the second time his head and his hands are cut off and then wherever they took the Ark of the Covenant, the impact of God, as a captive in their midst, was devastating – they got tumours, we will see later, there were plagues of mice. They had captured God – in human terms, they had won but you know what they had forgotten, in fact they had never realised it in the first place? God is not subject to people – God is not someone you can capture and stick in your temple. He is not someone you can tame and subdue. Why are we talking about this stuff today? Because you and I, deep down, we try and tame and subdue God – we try and swing Him around to our way of thinking; to meet our needs. We put Him in the temple of our choice; we put Him in the town and the city of our choice. You know what happens when we try to do that? We discover exactly what the Philistines discovered – we discover that God is not someone you can push around. "Well, I'll just take this God and He'll bless me whenever I want Him to." Ok, we can't see Him! Our present circumstances perhaps, appear much more powerful than Him but if we want to have our feet on solid ground, amidst the storms of life, (that's what we have been talking about over these last few weeks) we look at this maelstrom of the storm; the battle between the Philistines and the Israelites – thirty thousand Israelites killed because they didn't honour their God. Who appeared to win? Who should have been, according to our simple human expectations, on solid ground? The Philistines – they won the war. They captured Israel's God but who they captured was the God who created the entire universe – not some idol; not some tin pot little god. They captured God and He wrought destruction upon them because they tried to subdue God. So much so they couldn't wait to get rid of Him. Do you get it? When we try to take God by force – force of argument, force of opinion, force of anything – anything that doesn't recognise Him for who He is – watch out! There are so many people playing "church". There are so many people playing at being Christians; playing at religion, putting God here, putting God there. That's not what it is about. As Dagon found out, the only way you honour God is when you bow down before Him because of who He is – the sovereign God, above every name and every power and every authority in heaven and earth. That's what Hannah discovered; that's what Eli discovered; that's what Israel discovered and that's what the Philistines discovered, the hard way. You can't have God on your own terms. You can only have Him on His terms.   We Don't Want Him Well, the Philistines finally came to their senses. They realised they couldn't have God on their terms. They had a choice – you either accept God on His terms or you get rid of Him. So they decided to send Him back from whence He came. Now, let's have a look at how they did that. We are going to pick this up in First Samuel – grab your Bible – First Samuel chapter 6, beginning at verse 1 – it's a great story. When the Ark of the Lord had been with the Philistines for seven months, they called for the priests and the diviners and they said "What are we going to do with this Ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place." They answered "If you return the Ark of the God of Israel, don't send it away empty, but by all means, send a guilt offering to Him then you will be healed and you will know why His hand has not been lifted from you." The Philistines ask "What guilt offering should we send Him?" and they replied "Five gold tumours and five gold rats, according to the number of Philistine rulers because the same plague has struck both you and your rulers. Make models of the tumours and of the rats that are destr

    24 min

  6. May 24

    If You Can't Change the People // On Solid Ground, Part 2

    We tend to see the world from where we are. It's only natural. We want everyone and everything else to fit in with us. But God, well, He doesn't quite see it that way.   A Boy Called Sam Last week on the programme we spent some time talking about the fact that when the storms of life hit and they inevitably do, what we need is some solid ground beneath our feet. It's a scary place to be, out on that stormy ocean – we are not made for that. We are made for solid ground. And we began looking at the story of some people: a woman called Hannah and her son Samuel and some priests – Eli and his sons Hophni and Phinehas. Hannah, now here was a woman who honoured God and He honoured her – the priests, on the other hand, although they should have known better, they didn't honour God. And as we will see on the programme this week, they reaped their just reward. And the reason we are looking at this story of these people, is that when we are in the midst of the storm, as we so often are, we lose our bearings. We so often lose sight of those things that really matter and for me, as I have spent time in that story, it has clarified some things for me – it's brought them into sharp focus and my hunch is that as you and I spend some time together today, well, maybe you will find that too. So let's just recap briefly on this story of Hannah. Hannah married a man called Elkanah and he had two wives: Peninnah and Hannah. And Hannah didn't have children and Peninnah did, so Peninnah would taunt Hannah and there was a lot of pain around that, so Hannah goes to God – she pours out her heart to Him in the temple and she gets God's peace. It is what always happens when we do that. Eli, on the other hand, is the priest that is at the temple at the time when Hannah comes to pour her heart out and he mistakes what Hannah is doing – he thinks she is drunk. And the priest Eli and his sons Hophni and Phinehas, they are bad dudes – they are plundering the sacrifices, they are not honouring God and there is a real contrast between these two – between Hannah and her family and Eli and his - this nobody Hannah and this priest Eli. See that's what we so often miss in life – God is hidden; He is invisible – we forget about Him – we go on living our lives, wondering why things are going from bad to worse. And in the middle of this story (last week we stumbled across this verse) when God was pronouncing His judgement on Eli and his family – you can read this if you have a Bible, grab it, open it up at First Samuel chapter 2 and verse 30. God said: Those who honour Me, I will honour but those who despise Me shall be treated with contempt. And that's kind of the pivot on which this whole story turns and this week on the programme we are going to look at how things turned out for Hannah and for Eli. There was a sharp contrast to their approach to God and there is a sharp contrast in how things turn out for them. It tells us a lot about God; it clarifies the confusion in the midst of our storm when we can't see God, necessarily. When that happens we know how to put our feet on solid ground. Well let's start today with Hannah – this pain of being childless and the taunts of the other wife. Childless couples the world over, know how painful this is. So she goes to God – let's have a look at it again in First Samuel chapter 1, beginning at verse 9 and she pours her heart out. Once they had finished eating and drinking at Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the Lord's temple. In the bitterness of her soul, Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord as she made a vow saying "O Lord Almighty, if You will only look upon Your servant's misery and remember me and not forget Your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life and no razor will ever be used on his head." Then she went on her way, ate something and her face was no longer downcast. Let's take a look to see what happened next. First Samuel chapter 1, verse 19: Straight after this, early the next morning they rise, they worship before the Lord and then they go back their home in Ramah. Elkanah lay with his wife Hannah and the Lord remembered her so in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named his Samuel, saying "Because I asked the Lord for him." When the man Elkanah went up with his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfil his vow, Hannah didn't go – she said to her husband "After the boy is weaned I will take him up and present him before the Lord and he will live there always." "Do what seems best to you," Elkanah, her husband told her, "Stay here until you have weaned him, only may the Lord make good His Word." So the woman stayed at home, nursed her son until she had weaned him. After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three year old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. When they had slaughtered the bull, they brought the boy to Eli and she said to him "As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you, praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child and the Lord has granted me what I ask of Him so now I give him to the Lord for his whole life – he will be given over to the Lord and she worshipped the Lord there." See, Hannah had this terrible pain – she came to God with this impossible prayer – it was a humble and heartfelt prayer and God honours that. See we so underestimate the power of humble prayer; prayer from the heart; prayer that just lays it out before God the way we see it and feel it. God honours that! When He honours her with the impossible, she honours God back and gives her son over to God to serve at the temple for the rest of his life. Now that's easy to gloss over that, but can you imagine? I mean, she wanted her son more than anything and now she gives him up to honour God. God honours that – her incredible heart was to honour God, so she does. She honours Him by giving up the one thing that she desired most – her son. And what's more, she gives over her most precious to be under the wicked Eli and his sons. Now figure that out! It's not exactly a great strategic choice – this young, impressionable child, but see, God honours those who honour Him. And God honours her and protects young Samuel, and we will see, raises young Samuel up and makes him strong. See, the more we honour God, the more He honours us. Look at this - First Samuel chapter 3, verse 7: Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord. The Word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. And verse 19: The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up and He let none of His Words fall to the ground and all of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba recognised that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh and there He revealed Himself to Samuel through His Word. And the word of Samuel came to all of Israel." You see, God honoured her in her storm! Young Samuel went on to become the chief priest, the prophet, the judge of all of Israel. Why? Because this nobody; this woman Hannah, honoured her God, so simply by pouring her heart out to Him, by trusting Him. I want you to notice how insignificant that may have appeared to her at the time. She had this big hairy giant; this huge storm; the pain of being childless, the taunts of Peninnah, it was impossible but for God nothing is impossible. God honours those who honour Him! She honoured God in her naivety – giving young Sam over to Eli. And even there in that impossible situation, God honoured her and He honoured young Sam. So simple – it's so powerful.   The Contrast Continues I guess intuitively, we understand that the things we say and do, the way we think and behave – well, they have consequences. There is a link between cause and effect. We kind of know that but how easy is it to delude ourselves in this area; to make excuse for ourselves? To live out our own selfish desires and pretend that, well, really, that cause and effect stuff applies to other people but not to me! You know what I am talking about. We deny it, we deny it, we deny it and all along the warning signs grow – the storm clouds start to gather over the horizon. But sometimes it's not till that first clap of thunder that we take any notice and then, so often, it's too late. The storm has gathered momentum and all we can do is brace ourselves for when it hits. We are going to spend some time in that space today with a man called Eli because he was in exactly that situation and he left it too late. Let's make no mistake, there is a definite link in God's economy between cause and effect, especially as it turns out, in our relationship with God. We have been working our way, in this series, through the story of Hannah, this woman who honoured God and Eli, the priest, a man with his sons who did the exact opposite – even though he should have known better. And right now I want to look at how things turn out for Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas. These were men who were priests – their job was to be shepherding Israel, bringing them close to their God. Instead Hophni and Phinehas were plundering the sacrifices of God's people, they were sleeping with prostitutes – they were doing anything but honouring God. Look at how God reacts to that. If you have got a Bible, open it at First Samuel chapter 3, verse 1. The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the Word of the Lord was rare. There were not many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord. Remember Samuel is Hannah's son. He was in the temple where the Ark of God was. Then the Lord called "Samuel" a

    24 min

  7. May 17

    It Starts in a Storm // On Solid Ground, Part 1

    When the storms in life strike, as they inevitably do, it feels as though we're caught in a small boat out on a stormy ocean. At that point, what we really need is some solid ground beneath our feet. And fortunately, God knows that only too well.   Dealt a Cruel Blow You know you can always tell when we are starting a new series – I am excited. I love to get onto a new series in God's Word and that's what we are doing today. We are starting a series called "On Solid Ground" to listen to what God has to say into one of the central dilemmas of our lives and that dilemma is this: dealing with the storms of life. I remember when I was a young boy – I was about four or five years old. My mother and my sister and I sailed in a ship from Australia to Europe. Now that was a four week sail through the Suez Canal and back again. It's a long way and I remember, even to this day, there were some huge storms along the way. I remember they had ropes in the corridors on the ship to hang onto. I have never forgotten those storms and remember, this was a large cruise ship and yet it seemed to get tossed around in those storms. I was sea sick; I was very afraid as a young kid, even though I was on this big cruise liner. I remember going out onto the deck and seeing the huge waves and the winds and the ship was pitching around in this fearsome ocean and for me, there is nothing as frightening as an angry sea and a violent storm – the ground as it were, moving under your feet. For some people life seems to be a constant storm. The ground under their feet is never solid – there is always some fear and some uncertainty and they can never quite figure out why. What is going on – why is my life always like this? Now many of these people believe in God and yet life seems to be one endless storm. What we really want to have is solid ground under our feet. When you are in a storm the question is – how? That's what we are going to be exploring in this series called "On Solid Ground" starting right here and right now. Now if you have a Bible, I'd like you to grab it because we are going to be spending most of our time in the first eight chapters in a Book called First Samuel, in the Old Testament. We are going to discover the truth that we kind of know or we should know and yet it gets lost in the world that we live in. See this is a 'me' centred world where so often we find ourselves going to God asking Him for things for me, for me, for me and little by little, instead of God being God we expect Him to start being like a performing dog – to do tricks on our command. It may seem harsh but you get God the wrong way around and it spells dog. Am I expecting God to start dancing to my tune or am I dancing to His? It's a good question. That's what we are going to be exploring in this story and it begins in the storm. It's a story about a woman called Hannah and it turns out that she is going through some incredibly tough times in her life but she has the Creator/creature relationship the right was up. Open you Bible – let's go to First Samuel – it's the ninth book of the Old Testament. It's kind of just over a third; between a third and a half way in. We are going to start at the first verse of the first chapter of First Samuel. There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah, son of Jeroham the son of Elihu the son of Tohu the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives; one was called Hannah, the other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children but Hannah had none. Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh where Hophni and Phinehas the two sons of Eli, were the priests of the Lord. Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters but to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her and the Lord had closed her womb. And because the Lord had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year – whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord her rival provoked her until she wept and wouldn't eat. Elkanah, her husband would say "Hannah why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you down hearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?" Pretty tough! Anybody who has ever gone childless or had someone in their family who has gone childless will know the incredible pain of a couple who would like to have a child and yet they can't conceive. Can you imagine this going on year after year after year and in between these annual trips, as well? And of course, there were two wives – now the Bible doesn't talk about the fact that there were two wives – obviously the author doesn't feel a need to comment – praise God that has gone away. But never the less, poor old Hannah had a pretty tough time – a real storm, year after year, the pain of being childless and she had lots of choices in that space. She could have been angry; she could have lashed out; she could have withdrawn. And her husband is pretty useless; typical male – "What's the matter, why are you crying? You've got me!" So what does Hannah do? Let's look at First Samuel chapter 1, beginning at verse 9: Once they had finished eating and drinking at Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the door post of the Lord's temple. In the bitterness of her soul, Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord and she made a vow saying "O Lord Almighty, if You will only look upon Your servants misery and remember me and don't forget Your servant but give her a son then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life and no razor will ever be used on his head." As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her "How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine." "Not so my lord" Hannah replied, "I'm a woman whose deeply troubled. I haven't been drinking wine or beer. I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Don't take your servant for a weak woman – I have been praying here about the great anguish and grief that I have." And Eli answered "Go in peace. May God of Israel grant you what you have asked Him." She said, "May your servant find favour in your eyes." Then she went her way and ate something and her face was no longer downcast. Turns out she does have a son, calls him Samuel, gives him over to God as soon as he is weaned and he comes and serves as a priest in this temple under Eli, whom we discover later is one bad dude. He is the priest; he is supposed to be the go between, between God and His people and yet he and his sons have no respect for God. We will look at them later and also we will see Samuel's fate. At the start of the programme I talked about this "me, me, me" thing – always asking God for stuff; kind of turning things the wrong way round, instead of us being made in God's image, we try to remake Him in ours. And yet here is this story – this story that begins in a storm – this story that begins with Hannah in a storm and she is asking God for something. Did you notice she doesn't lash out or whine or complain? She humbles herself before God and asks her sovereign God; pours her heart out to Him. Eli, this scoundrel, with as much spiritual insight as my pet cat, thinks she is drunk and feeds her with platitudes – "May the Lord give you what you ask for." Yet here is a simple woman at the bottom of the heap, pouring her heart out to her God. And notice what it says after she does that, in verse 18 of chapter 1: "Then she went her way and ate something and her face was no longer downcast." See Hannah's feet were on solid ground – even before her prayer is answered – a seemingly impossible prayer. You know what that tells me? She trusted her God – no matter what His answer would be – she trusted Him; she let it go; she stopped worrying and God answered her prayer. I'm not saying "Let's all be like Hannah" – we are clearly not, our storms are different to hers but what we discover in this story is that when we put God in His rightful place – God – He honours that. We are going to have a look at her understanding of her God again next.   Chalk and Cheese What comes next in this story is Hannah's prayer of thanksgiving. She is in this storm; she asks God for the impossible; she has got the taunts of the other wife and she comes to God in a prayer of humility; pouring out her soul and God answers her with a son and she gives that son back to God for the rest of his life. Now listen to what she prays and how she rejoices. We are now at chapter 2 of First Samuel, beginning at verse 1: Then Hannah prayed and said 'My heart rejoices in the Lord, in the Lord my horn is lifted high, my mouth boasts over my enemies for I delight in Your deliverance. There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides You. There is no rock like our God. Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance for the Lord is a God who knows and by Him deeds are weighed. The bows of warriors are broken but those who stumble are armed with strength.' And this prayer goes on and on ... read it for yourself in First Samuel chapter 2. And you know what it's all about? The power and the sovereignty of God! It's about a Hannah who went to God with this in her heart – God is above all things. Not this attitude of "Let's reform God in my image. Let's turn Him into a performing poodle." You know how I know that? Because when she poured out her heart to God she offered her son back to Him and she honoured that promise when God delivered her son. There is a challenge there for each one of us about how we go to God – how we see Him – as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords or som

    24 min

  8. May 10

    The Top 3 Obstacles to Destiny // Discover Your Destiny, Part 4

    We each have a God–given destiny. A plan that God has for our lives, which fits perfectly with who He made us to be. The problem is that many people aren't living out that destiny – because there are some obstacles in their way. So let's find out what they are, and how to get around them – so that you can live out your destiny.   Putting First Things First Most people these days live hectic lives, just scraping through each day. Personally, my list of things to do is as long as my arm and then some. There are some personal things I have to do; things to do with writing and recording and producing this radio-programme; there's an organisation to run; people to meet with; this project; that project; a new idea over here, another one over there; hundreds of e-mails each day ... Welcome to my world. Now don't get me wrong; I'm not complaining and none of those things are terribly bad at all, but the point is that with so many more things to do than I can possibly fit into my day, or my week or even my year, my process for deciding what I do is absolutely critical. Chances are, the same is true for you. One of the big mistakes I used to make is that I'd sit down in the morning, which (given that I'm a morning person) is my most lucid and productive time, and just start answering e-mails. After a while, I realised I wasn't getting anything else done because by putting my E-mails first, I was putting other people's priorities first. I was in fact dancing to their tune instead of sorting out for myself what the most important things were on my agenda, and doing those things first. There's a well-known principle or framework that you read in a lot of management books, that sets out the difference between what's urgent and what's important, and what you discover is that almost nothing that's urgent is important, and almost nothing that's important is urgent. And yet most of us react to urgent things, or at least the things that other people say are urgent, and so we spend most of our time doing urgent things, instead of the important things – day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. And before you know it, your life is kind of slipping away, doing a whole bunch of things, which, in the scheme of things, sure, they make you busy, but how important are they? Do you see my point here? How are you spending your life, and are the things you're spending your time on important and worthwhile? I guess I'm asking those questions for you to ask them of yourself, and answer them. Come on! Be brutally honest. For instance, making sure I have some time with my beautiful wife Jacqui is important. Making sure I encourage her and give her a hug and a kiss, and spend some unhurried time with her in the morning over breakfast is really important, but it's not urgent. It's not as urgent say as the e-mail that comes in from a radio-station somewhere around the world that says they weren't able to download tonight's radio-programme from our FTP server. And yet what I used to do (because remember, mornings are my most productive time) is get up early and spend no time at all with Jacqui over breakfast, and just work furiously through that time, and by the time she comes home from work and I come home from work, we're both tired and there you go. We haven't spent any time together. Do you see how easily this stuff happens in people's lives? The urgent trumps the important in so many people's lives, and before you know it, your life is falling apart. Things are in a mess. Marriages are falling apart, all because we allow the urgent to crowd out the important. It's scary, isn't it? So what about you? What about your life? Are you letting the myriad of urgent things crowd out the important things like spending time with people, managing your finances properly, nurturing your children, developing relationships with your co-workers? See, all those things are incredibly important, and in many-a person's life, they're being cast aside simply because we're too busy doing the urgent stuff. 'I don't have time to exercise!' Well, if you don't make time for exercise (which is important), let me tell you you'll certainly be making time for sickness (which will be urgent), and actually, that's how it works. Doing the important things generally over time reduces the number of urgent things that you need to do because if the important things go undone, that leads to crises and those crises increase the number of urgent things requiring an immediate response. I don't know what your destiny is, but this is what I do know: It doesn't lie in a myriad of things that other people tell you are urgent; it lies in the things that, in your heart of hearts, you know are important. If you or I went to God, this God who handcrafted us, who designed us in His heart – blueprinted our DNA, if we went to Him and said: 'Lord, what's the most important thing that I have to do with my life', what do you think He'd answer? What would He put at the very top of our to-do list? Well, actually, we already know. A clever young lawyer once asked Him a very similar question. The lawyer sort of said (and this is my paraphrase): Well, Jesus, you and I both know that in the Law of Moses handed down over all those years, there are 613 commandments and prohibitions. That's kind of a lot. I mean that's a lot day-to-day to remember to do, so how would you sum up the Law? I mean, if I'm trying to prioritise these things in my life, which one of all those commandments is the most important one? You can read the exact words in Matthew 22 and Mark 12, and if I had to paraphrase Jesus' reply in kind of here-and-now speak, it'd run something like this: Look, I know you have a lot of things to do. There are lots of rules: Do this, do that ... They're all good things, but you can sum up the whole Law in just two commandments – to love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. That's the most important one, and the second one is just like it: Love the people around you as much as you love yourself. That's the whole Law in a nutshell. Do you know something? The most important thing that I do almost every day, the thing that I do before anything else, is that I spend an hour or so alone with Jesus praying; reading the Bible; asking Him questions, and that's what sets the course for my whole day – day after day, month after month, year after year. Actually, it sets the course for my whole life. It is quite simply the single-most important thing that I do, and it's through that time with Him that I've discovered my destiny.   A Lifelong Journey If I were to ask you, "What's your destiny? What were you put on this earth to achieve – to do? What impact are you meant to have on this planet of over seven billion people? What's the point of your life, and is it heading in the right direction", I wonder how you'd answer those questions. I ask those questions of people rather a lot, and I can tell you the number of people who have a clear sense of destiny and purpose and direction – well you know, it's less than five per cent – maybe one in twenty; maybe. Now I'm not saying that we should each have our lives completely mapped out because things happen along the way. There are twists and turns in life that are totally unexpected. Little things can change the whole course of a life. We can't map out our whole lives in the minutest detail and say. "Yep. That's what I'm going to do, that's where it's going", and yet deep-down, we need to have some sense of a destiny. Another way of putting it would be to have a sense of direction for our lives. Where's your life headed? And that destiny is invariably tied up with two things: Our dreams, and our skills and abilities. If you're one of the majority – one of those people who hasn't quite yet cottoned on to the direction for your life, where it's meant to be headed – then this is for you. Can you remember the dreams that you had for your life when you were young? Can you? There were some back there that were never going to fly. I mean, if you're short and slightly dumpy, and you were dreaming of becoming a famous basketball-player, well, that was obviously never going to happen. But so often, there's a dream in people's hearts that's been there for a very long time. Here's a conversation that I've had so many times with people about this whole question of destiny. We get to talking about the direction in which their life is heading, and the person says to me something like: 'But you know, I'm sure there's meant to be something else, something more, something that I don't know, something I'm meant to be doing, but I don't know what it is'. Does that sound vaguely familiar? So I ask them then, "If you had no constraints, if money wasn't an issue, if you could be anything or do anything that you wanted, what would that be?' And the answer invariably comes back along these lines: 'Oh, well! Anything I want? Well you know, I've always dreamed of" ... and then, they tell me the answer. They tell me about their destiny. It's already there; it's already been woven somehow by God into their DNA. Now of course, there's a risk that this is a short dumpy basketball-player kind of dream, and so then I follow up with my second question: 'What are the things you're really good at?' Most people can tell you that, and what I've found is that there is almost always, in 90% of cases, a wonderful fit between their dream and their natural skills and gifting. You know something? We've just discovered their destiny. We've just discovered what they're meant to be doing with their lives, and the tragedy (I mean, the absolute tragedy) is that deep down they probably already knew that. So what's held them back? The constraints we put on our lives. Remember my first question? 'If you had no constraints, if money wasn't an issue, if you could be anything or do anythi

    24 min
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There is such incredible power in God's Word! Power to change. Power to make an impact in this world. That's what Christianityworks is all about – in depth teaching straight out of God's Word. Join Berni Dymet as he opens God's Word to discover what God has to say into your life, today.

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