Healthy Living – a growing heart
- helping every member grow

Video Clip:- Time lapse of Hosta Plant growing

So, are you growing?
(Not just physically…. and if your physical growth is growing broader rather than taller… do something about it…. growing broader will not help you develop a growing or healthy heart!)
Are you growing as a human being?
In your personality? In your character? In who you are?
Are you growing spiritually?

Growth is at the heart of the Christian faith.
God wants you to grow.
He put all these seeds in your life for you to grow to be the beautiful person created in his image that he made you to be.
Those seeds and that image get distorted by sin which damages and restricts healthy growth, but in Jesus, through his sacrifice on the cross, as we put our faith and trust in him and his sacrifice on our behalf, the power of that sin is broken, and we can be restored to be what was originally intended.

2 Corinthians 5:17
‘If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!’

We are transformed from the caterpillar to the butterfly.
But they have to grow and develop – and so do we as Christians.

When we give our lives to Jesus and receive and acknowledge him as our Lord and Saviour, we haven’t arrived, we’ve just begun our journey – a journey of being changed, of growing to be more like him, because that’s what the word ‘Christian’ means – ‘Christ like one’.

So today, we come to the fourth in our series on Healthy living – a growing heart
and we’re thinking about our fourth value – helping every member grow

(and can I just say – if you’re not yet a member of the church, you’re included! We want you to grow too – and we’d love to see you coming to the new life which Jesus offers, if you haven’t yet received it – and we’d love to see you if you have received that new life, as part of your growth coming to a place where you can say ‘this is the community I belong in, and so I want to be a member of it’)

Turn with me if you would to Ephesians 4:7,8,11-16

If sporting themes are reasonably common illustrations in scripture, then themes relating to the natural world are even more common.

Back on our church day away in September we thought about being ‘Grounded and rooted’ – not ‘grounded’ as in, ‘not allowed to go out’, but grounded as in when you plant a plant and you press the soil in around it to hold it firm and secure, and rooted, with the roots of our lives going down into God and his love.

Once a plant is grounded and rooted and ‘established’ as NIV puts it in Ephesians 3:17, it can begin to grow.

Our reading today lays the foundations for how that growth comes into being….
READ Ephesians 4:7,8,11-16

There’s a huge amount of stuff packed into these few short verses, and we’re not going to be able to unpack it all today. But there are themes which follow on from our teaching last week – gifts which God gives to his church to enable us to serve one another and his purposes.

And these gifts then lay the foundation for our growth.

So Paul writes about the gifts that God gives to build his people up, to equip them for service and he then goes on to explain how as a result of their operation, it leads to our growth in God.

I want to show you another video clip in a moment. First though, the previous clip I showed… any ideas how long that growth took??

12 days

The one I’m about to show is spanned out over a slightly longer period of time – growth takes place at different rates for each one of us – and yes, we can have sudden growth spurts spiritually, just as we can physically – on the upcoming clip, you’ll see the time schedule showing in one corner – and something else showing in the other – note what happens at those times in the growth of the plants.

Video clip:- Time lapse of tomato plants growing

What helped those tomato plants to grow?

Water

My father was a tomato grower when I grew up. I grew up with greenhouses behind our house with tomato plants growing in them for most of the year, with flowers some times as well at other times.

My Dad had a word which he used to describe the plants when they needed water – they were ‘flagging’ – perhaps in the video clip you saw the plants ‘flagging’… and then perking up again after they were watered… enabling them to continue growing?

I think maybe for us as human beings, sometimes we ‘flag’ – we get tired, drained, lose our enthusiasm – and growth isn’t on our agenda…. just ‘being’ is about as much as we can cope with.

But…… if you let a plant just ‘be’….. what happens to it?
My wife will tell you that we’re very good at letting plants just ‘be’ in our household… the result is that there aren’t really any plants in our household because they die if they are just left to ‘be’!
Deliver a plant to the Le Page household and you effectively pronounce its death sentence!

If growth isn’t on our agenda as a church, and personally as individuals, if we’re content to just ‘be’, then we set ourselves up to die – churches across our nation have died because they have been content with just ‘being’, rather than seeking to grow. There may be people you know whose spiritual life and spark you have seen die as they have become content to just be and survive – you may, like myself, be able to look to times in your own life when you know that you have flagged, you have lost your spiritual enthusiasm, you have felt drained, tired, not bothered… what’s the point anyway??

What changed the tomato plants when they were flagging? Water
Water is sometimes used as a metaphor for the Holy Spirit in the Bible.

In John 7 Jesus said:-
‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’ By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. John 7:37-39

Last week in our leading we sung a song with the repeated line ‘Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain on me’. I thought at the time… should have explained that, some of us may well have been thinking ‘why would I want it to rain on me??!!’

It’s talking of the rain of God’s Spirit, a metaphor for God’s coming and filling us with his Spirit.
Like those tomato plants which were refreshed and lifted from their flagging state as they were watered and enabled to continue growing, so we, as we are filled with the Holy Spirit are lifted from our flagging states and enable to continue to grow up into God.

I want to give opportunity for those of us who feel in need of a fresh watering to be filled again with the Spirit before the end of our service.

But, there’s much more to growth than being filled with the Spirit.

I want to suggest that there are 3 key things which are essential if we are to grow in God, and grow to our full potential as human beings:-

Spirit
Word
Body

In late October this year I have the privilege of leading a seminar at the second Living the Passion conference. It’s a conference put together by all the major agencies that work with, alongside and support our group of churches – Partnership, Counties, Church Planting Initiative, GLO, Church Growth Trust. I’d encourage as many as possible to come along – the last one was excellent!

I have been asked to lead a seminar on ‘being Word and Spirit people’.

I believe with all my heart that if we are to grow to be the people that God wants us to be, that he created us to be, then we need to be Word and Spirit people. We need to be people who grow in the knowledge and wisdom of God. That’s why God gives to his church apostles and teachers – apostles to lay strong foundations in the life of the church and God’s people, teachers to equip and enable God’s people with understanding and wisdom. That’s why he has given us his written Word. That’s why central to our cell group meetings is our Word time, when we help one another as Body to build each other up, to help one another grow.

Spirit, Word and Body belong together.
The Holy Spirit makes the Word live – he takes it and applies it to our hearts and lives.
He comes and he refreshes, renews, restores us, waters us so that we are able to feed on the Word.

Jesus when he was tempted by the devil to make stones into bread, after fasting for 40 days said, ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’
Matthew 4:4

We need to be watered by the Spirit, so we do not flag, and to lift us up when we do, but we need to feed too on the Word of God.

God gives gifts to his church to help us grow – the ministry gifts mentioned in our passage today – I’ve referred to apostles and teachers and how they ground us firmly in God’s Word, establish us so that we can grow strong and firm with good spiritual foundations – but he also gives to his church prophets who are able to speak God’s heart to his church by his Spirit – evangelists who have a special gifting for sharing the gospel and equipping others to do so – pastors who are gifted to lead and shepherd God’s flock – but all these ministries are not there just to serve God’s people, they’re there to equip God’s people to prepare them for service.

If we are to grow, we need to be watered by the Spirit, we need to feed on the Word of God and we need to work it out in the Body.

A plant doesn’t grow by just sitting there. It’s roots have to go down deep and absorb the water and nutrients that will feed it, water it and enable it to grow. As it does that, those nutrients then work through the body of the plant leading to growth.

For us to grow, personally and corporately, the nutrients we receive from the Spirit and from the Word have to work through the body – and the body is not just us personally, but us together – we are the Body of Christ and it’s him we grow up into as our head – the whole body is held together by every supporting ligament – that’s what you and I are – we’re all part of the body – knitted together to help one another grow up into Christ, to help us grow to be all we can be in Christ.

Changing metaphors slightly though – for muscles to grow and develop they need exercise.
Muscles will waste away if they’re not used. We will flag and waste away if we are not active – active muscles are able to grow and develop. Inactive ones don’t. In the same way, if we are active in living out our faith in Christ we will grow up further in him, if we are inactive our spiritual life is likely to waste away. It’s the same with the gifts God gives to us to use to seek to build one another up. If we use them they’re likely to grow and develop, if we don’t use them, they’re liable to fade away and fall out of use.

If God has given you a gift, you need to use it in humble dependence on his Holy Spirit and in obedience to his Word.
Why?
So that the whole body is built up and grows.

Paul prays in Ephesians 3:19 for the Ephesian Christians ‘to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.’

I don’t know about you, but I don’t reckon I’ve got there yet.

In the coming weeks, months, years even, we’re going to look at how we can continue to help one another grow in every aspect of our Christian life – that means providing opportunities for that infilling of the Holy Spirit, providing opportunities for earthing us in God’s Word, encouraging us all into active service in the Body, because it is as we act in service, as we use our gifts that we grow in them and we become a blessing to others.

Our cell groups are a key vehicle for this – they are not the only way in which we can grow and serve, but they are a key way. If you’re not part of a group, join one. If times are not possible then talk with me and we can look at seeing new groups formed. In our groups we have opportunity to root ourselves in God’s Word, we have opportunity to pray for one another to be filled with the Holy Spirit, we have opportunity to use our gifts and see our spiritual muscles grow.
We need to receive equipping and training from those who are gifts to the church as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. We need to make use of the resources which they provide.

We need to be a body that supports one another at every stage of our spiritual growth, and personal discipleship, one person helping another person grow in Christ, is key to this.
If you want to grow in your faith and you’ve never had someone work alongside you personally to disciple you and help you grow in your walk with God, then please speak with me and we can look at possibilities.

Key to helping one another grow is being grounded and rooted in the Word of God, working out our gifts and abilities in serving others, and being filled with the Spirit, that we might be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

If you know that you are ‘flagging’ a bit at present and recognise that you’re in need of a fresh watering then I’d love to lay hands on you and pray for the Holy Spirit to come and fill you afresh, to help you grow. If you’re feeling ‘okay’ but just want more of the fullness of God, I’d love to pray for you as well.

I’m going to invite Julie to come and lead us on in our worship and I’ll come down to the front here. As we worship, if you feel you want to receive prayer come up to the front as we sing and I’ll gladly pray for you.

Introduction
Okay, I’m going to say some things in setting the scene which you may or may not agree with – and that’s okay! Please fell free to tell me if you disagree with me. I’m not claiming some revelation from God over what I share in setting the scene, its just some of my observations and assessments, which may or may not be right in the big scheme of things.

This week has seen the media looking back in time, to a time when, in my reckoning, we saw the breakdown of a sense of community in our nation – even if it wasn’t fully recognised at that time.

This week the media was caught up with this man

Can anyone tell me who he is?

Stephen Lawrence – not the gentleman sitting at the back controlling the PA – but the young man, sadly murdered in a racist attack at 18 years old, 18 years ago – some of whose murderers are only just being brought to justice.

At the time of the murder there was much debate about ‘what is our society coming to?’

This week was also the week when the film ‘The Iron Lady’ was launched, with Meryl Streep playing the role of Margaret Thatcher.

Meryl Streep has been critically acclaimed for her role in portraying Margaret Thatcher. How she has switched her American accent for the distinctive tones of Margaret Thatcher’s voice is quite stunning. The film hasn’t in itself received the same acclaim that Meryl Streep has for her acting.

Margaret Thatcher governed (ruled??!!) as Prime Minister, throughout the 1980′s – a period which many would see as leading to a downfall in any sense of community in our nation – a period when there became a wholesale pursuit of personal financial blessing – which we now pay the price for – the sale of endowment mortgages with the expected blessing of a tidy nest egg at the end as the mortgage is paid off being just one of the products of that time.

A large part of the Christian church, caught in the culture of the time began preaching a gospel which was self-centred ‘Come to Jesus and he will meet all your needs.’ It was a building in truth on a Western, individualistic cultural mindset which already existed in much Christian thinking and expression – the need to receive Jesus as our ‘personal Saviour’ – it would be common for us here at a person’s baptism to ask ‘Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your own personal Saviour?’

I wonder where the term ‘personal Saviour’ comes from?
I’m not sure I can find it in my Bible – though I’m quite open to being corrected on this.

What I’ve discovered in scripture over the last few years has been the depth of corporateness which exists in scripture. How so much of scripture is about the body of God’s people, the church. About how much of the teaching in the New Testament (and indeed the Old testament) is about drawing others into the family of God’s people.

So we come today to the second in our Healthy living series and we’re thinking about A healthy community and our value of -building community – in a world where community has been lost in so many ways.

The Government recognises this need to rebuild community and so, in this last year we have seen the flagging up of Big Society
It’s stated aim is to be:-
“about helping people to come together to improve their own lives. It’s about putting more power in people’s hands – a massive transfer of power from Whitehall to local communities.”

Well, how you respond to the stated aim, and your analysis of the reasons for it may vary depending on your political perspective – but that stated aim of ‘helping people come together to improve their own lives’ has to be a good one at some levels?!

So, in our society, the stirrings of a move towards recognition of the value of community and in Scripture a wholehearted affirmation of the value of community, albeit not using that term…
does this mean there is something intrinsically valuable which we need to get a hold on if we are to be a healthy church? if we are to be a healthy community? and if we are to move from just a belief that community is valuable to it being a value which we put into practice – hence our value being labelled ‘building community’.

Let’s turn to some scripture.
I believe that there is a glorious model of what it means to be community, portrayed in the early pages of Acts as the church came into being. Acts 2:42-47

READ Acts 2:42-47

Now, it’s possible to read those words and think ‘That was nice.’ Or, ‘That was then, but this is now….times are different.’

But, if we do that we are in danger of somehow missing out on the level of community which operated amongst God’s people at that time.

I want us for a few minutes to just begin to unpack some of what this community was about.

It was devoted

v42 They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer

I wonder how many of us would use the word ‘devoted’ in any way to our Christian lives?
‘Profound dedication’ is how one dictionary defines the word ‘devoted’.

I wonder if it was that profound dedication of God’s people to him, to his people and to his purposes that was the reason the early church was so blessed?
Maybe it is that profound dedication in places around the world which is resulting in awesome moves of the Spirit sweeping many into the Kingdom of God….
What did they devote themselves to?

To the apostle’s teaching…. they were eager, they were hungry to grow in their faith, they wanted to know all they could know to put it into practice.

They devoted themselves to the fellowship – to being together, to sharing together – gathering together as God’s people was high on their agenda!

They devoted themselves to the breaking of bread – making sure they continually reminded themselves of what it was that Jesus had done for them through his sacrifice on the cross.

They devoted themselves to prayer – more literally ‘the prayers’ – a formal gathering to pray, not just personal devotion to God in prayer.

I wonder what sort of church we would be if we were devoted in that way?
Eager to be built up into all that we can be in God.
Eager to meet together to support, encourage and strengthen one another.
Eager to break bread, to come before him in worship, to come before him in prayer and seek him to see his will and purposes fulfilled amongst us.

Maybe, just maybe, if we were a community like that, we might be a community that like that community which was filled with awe

They were filled with awe because of the quite miraculous things which God was doing amongst them.

Has God ceased to be a miraculous God?
I don’t believe so.

Do I long to see God doing miraculous things in signs and wonders amongst us?
Yes I do.
Do I get frustrated when I hear God’s word, and hear stories from across the world and across our town of God working miraculously today?
Yes Lord, I do.
Do it here Lord.
Cause us to be a people who are filled with awe at our marvellous God.

The third thing about this community of believers was that they were:- together

v44 ‘All the people were together’
v46 ‘Every day they continued to meet together’

These people liked to be together!
It’s okay to enjoy hanging out with your brothers and sisters in Christ!
They were together, not just in a formal sense of meeting together, but they were together in their commitment to one another, in serving one another.
So much of the New testament is about that being worked out in practice – what it means to ‘love one another’.

There’s around 50 ‘one another’s in the New Testament.

Just a few of them, besides loving one another:-

be devoted to one another Romans 12:10
honour one another Romans 12:10
live in harmony with one another Romans 12:16
accept one another Romans 15:7
greet one another Romans 16:16
serve one another Galatians 5:13
be kind and compassionate to one another Ephesians 4:32
speak to one another with psalms, hymns … Ephesians 5:19
admonish one another Colossians 3:16
encourage one another 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Their commitment to one another, their community went beyond meeting together for formal gatherings of the church. They really did love each other, to the extent that they were prepared to sacrifice time and money for the benefit of those in need; to the extent that they opened their homes to one another – hospitality is one of the greatest demonstrations of community and love – welcoming others into your home.

Hospitality is something which is being rediscovered in our day.
Having largely abandoned cooking meals from scratch, now there’s loads of TV programmes being avidly watched by many, seeking to regain that ability again.
Watch programmes like ‘Come dine with me’ and you’ll soon discover that folk are judged not only on their culinary skills, but also on their hospitality.

Want to show love to people?
Invite them into your home.

The fourth thing about this community of God’s people was that they were:-
enjoying the favour of all the people

The result of this was that the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

I don’t know about you, but I want to see people saved and added in to the family of God’s people, the church. I want to see community built which is a reflection of the community that exists in God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. A loving commitment to one another, which is prepared to sacrifice to reach out in love to others to draw them in.

Jesus said, John 13:34,35
‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.’

So, if you want others to know about your faith in Jesus, one way is to let them see that being worked out in the love being demonstrated amongst his people.

The community of the church is not meant to be a selfish, self-centred, inward looking community. It’s meant to be an outward looking, growing community which seeks to demonstrate the values of the community.

Values which include, putting Jesus at the centre, and being a community of loving relationships, worked out in loving, practical, emotional and spiritual support of one another.

Do you want to be part of a community like that?

A community which is devoted to one another, devoted to God, devoted to his Word, and devoted to seeing others brought into God’s family so that they can share in the community.

I do.

If you want to dedicate yourself to building community this year, to being part of a community that wants to live those things out this year, then I’d invite you, if you are able, to stand with me and we’ll make a commitment to God to see this value being lived out and fulfilled amongst us in this year ahead.

Prayer of commitment

Step of faith and fulfilment

Introduction

So a new series to start a New Year – Healthy Living – a popular sort of theme at this time of the year!

If other years are anything to go by I can pretty much guarantee that the gym at Kempston Pool will get busier over the next few weeks, with a good number of new faces… I can also pretty much guarantee that in 6-8 weeks time the gym will go back to its normal level and a lot of the new faces will fade away….

Getting into ‘Healthy Living’ is a popular thing at this time of year, particularly with the whole cultural idea of ‘New Year’s Resolutions’, and much as I’d encourage you to get into healthy living on a day to day basis – eating well, taking regular exercise – because those things will be a blessing to you in body, mind and spirit – our focus through this series is to think what do we need to do to be healthy spiritually as a church, and personally as individuals.

It’s a few years since we’ve taken the time to reflect on our values as a church, and as we start this year, we’re going to take the time to reflect on our values and what it means to live them out.

A number of years ago Laurence Singlehurst and Trevor Withers from CellUK stimulated us with their thinking on values – if you value something, you do it! You might believe something to be true, but in reality, you don’t really value it if you don’t live it out.

Up at the gym at Kempston Pool there’s a bunch of folk of all ages, backgrounds and sizes who value working out…. even when they don’t feel like it… because they turn up and put their bodies through the paces…. I’m expecting that in the next few weeks others will come and join in who believe that doing a good workout is a valuable thing to do for your heath… but whether they really value healthy living will be seen in 6 weeks or so when they decide whether to continue or not!

The themes we are going to look at over the next few weeks are I am sure all things which, if we are Bible believing Christians, we would all say we would believe to be good and true…. but do we value them? Do we put them into practice?

As elders, we believe these themes are not just good things to believe, but are things that it is essential for us to value and put into practice if we are to be a healthy church….

In the same way that they are essential for a healthy church, the way we work these things out into practice in our lives personally will help to give us a healthy spiritual life personally – the personal and the corporate are inextricably linked – if we are not healthy spiritually personally it will be to the detriment of the church as a whole, and equally, if we don’t live out these values corporately it will be to the detriment of our spiritual health personally – personal and corporate go together, belong together in the church, in the same way that Father, Son and Spirit exist as three persons, making up the one godhead.

So, you may be saying, well it’s all very well talking about these values…. but what are they??!!

Essential to healthy living, is having a Healthy heart and at the heart of the Christian faith is the person of Jesus, so our first and central value is – putting Jesus at the centre.

What does this mean?
Singing songs which are focused on him?
Reading scripture about him?
Praying to him?

Well, yes, I believe it does mean those things, but I believe if we stop there we have fallen short of the fullness of what it means to have Jesus at the centre as a church and in our lives personally.

Putting Jesus at the centre means:-

a living relationship

The Christian faith isn’t just about head knowledge – it’s about heart experience.

Putting Jesus at the centre isn’t just about knowing about him – good though that is – and it’s always good to study, to explore, to increase our understanding and our knowledge – but, putting Jesus at the centre is about getting to know him, not just know about him!

Turn with me if you would to John 10:1-18

READ John 10:1-18

v14 is a key verse ‘I know my sheep and my sheep know me’

If you’re a Christian you are a sheep.
I don’t know whether you know that or not? or whether it’s a shock to you?
but that’s the truth – you are a sheep, and you have a great shepherd, who’s name is Jesus.
He has come, as he explains in v10 to give you life and to give it to you full on!
It’s not his intention for the Christian faith to be some nice little add-on to life, an extra app. to add to your phone – the Christian life is meant to bring to you ‘life to the full’.
And it does so by giving you a living relationship with Jesus – not just an understanding or knowledge of him.
Jesus says ‘I know my sheep and my sheep know me….’
He speaks about how he ‘calls his own sheep by name’ v3 and of how his sheep follow him ‘because they know his voice’.v4

You become familiar with a person’s voice by spending time with them, by talking with them.
If Julie calls me on the phone, I know who it is (not because it says ‘Julie’ on my mobile!) but because I know her voice! There can be others who call me and it can take me a few minutes to register who it is that’s calling.

Jesus wants us to be so familiar with his voice so that when he calls, we know and recognise his voice.
We can become familiar with his voice through reading scripture and hearing his voice there, so that when he calls in other ways – through prophetically speaking into our hearts and minds, through dreams and visions, words of knowledge and wisdom, that we then recognise his voice.
We can become familiar with his voice through spending time with him in prayer – not just us talking to him, but also listening to him, being still in his presence.

We need to do these things personally – if you’re not in the habit of reading the Bible regularly yourself, well how about starting to day? A New Year’s resolution for healthy spiritual living!
There’s loads of resources to help you do that.
Speak to JO or BL for paper Bible reading aids, or go into the Word bookshop in Castle Road.
If you have a smartphone or regular computer access, then there’s plenty of online reading plans available – YouVersion has over 100 different Bible reading plans to choose from, from just a few verses a day, to reading through the whole Bible in a year – why not join me in doing it and encourage me along!

Truly putting Jesus at the centre means expecting to hear from him as you would in any living relationship with another human being.

We need to value and expect this not only personally, but also corporately.
As we gather for worship on a Sunday, as we gather in our groups during the week, we should expect that if Jesus is at the centre that we would hear from him, so let us in our worship and in our praying and intercession keep our hearts and minds open to anything he wants to communicate to us – and then lets share anything he stirs within us, reveals to us.
Lets not just focus on the people on the platform leading us, or bringing the Bible teaching – important though both of those roles and responsibilities are – but let’s put Jesus at the centre and expect to hear from him and know him interacting with us – that’s what happens in a living relationship – we don’t want to be part of a dead marriage.

Putting Jesus at the centre means it’s about:-
- him, not us!

Can any one tell me what Jesus said the greatest commandment was and is?

That’s correct, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ Jesus said in response to a question in Matthew 22 about which was the greatest commandment.

Turn with me if you would to where the commandment was given:-
Deuteronomy 6:4-8

READ Deuteronomy 6:4-8

Here is a model for a God-centred life, not a self-centred life.

Sadly so much of the Christian world today is caught up with a self-centred approach to life.
On the one extreme is the Prosperity Gospel teaching which is all along the lines of personal health and wealth. That’s appealing on a human level isn’t it?
Who, humanly speaking, wouldn’t want to be healthy and wealthy.
But that’s not about putting Jesus at the centre, it’s about putting self there and God coming along to help us and bless us.

We don’t have to be right out on the wing of prosperity teaching though to be guilty of putting self in the centre rather than Jesus.

Who’s guilty of going away from church sometimes and saying
‘I didn’t get much out of that today.’
- have you noticed who’s at the centre of a statement like that?
Me! The person speaking. It’s all about me.
But it’s not supposed to be about us, it’s supposed to be about him!
‘It’s all about you Jesus, and all this is for you, for your glory and for your fame. It’s not about me, as if you should do things my way, you alone are God and I surrender, to your ways.’
There are sadly too many songs that are all about us – and there is a place for personal stuff in our worship – I will worship, I will bow down – but when it becomes it’s all about me and not much about him, somehow we’ve missed the point.

Praise God, in recent years a lot of hymn and song writing has become much more about him, rather than about us.

Let’s be Jesus centred people and come together to worship him – to love the LORD our God with all our hearts, with all our souls and with all our strength.

Let’s reflect on him and all he calls us to at all times.
Let’s talk about him in our families.
Let’s put reminders about him in different places at different times, whether in our physical worlds or our virtual worlds of Facebook, Twitter etc.

I want to suggest to you a third thing about putting Jesus at the centre:- It’s about:-
endurance, not exhaustion

Very often when folk get into exercise to try and pursue the idea of ‘Healthy Living’ they throw themselves into it with great gusto – they give their all…. and within a couple of minutes they’re shattered. I’ve been there myself! I remember years ago trying to run down to church because I was late for a Youth Club responsibility – think I just about got round the corner of the top of our street and I was done in… and staggered down to club late….

The result of this for many folk is that they give up…. when if they’d got their focus right and trained in the right way, they’d actually be able to achieve far more than they might have imagined.

Putting Jesus at the centre so we can have a healthy heart spiritually as a church, and personally in our individual lives is not about a quick dash for a spiritual buzz, so that we find ourselves shattered and burnt out. It’s about building a living relationship with Jesus; it’s about putting him first and not us.

Hebrews 12:1-3 gives us some wise advice on putting Jesus at the centre to enable us to have endurance in our spiritual lives, rather than exhaustion. Turn with me if you would to Hebrews 12:1-3

READ Hebrews 12:1-3

If people are going to pursue the Healthy Living agenda on a physical level, there may well be things they need to throw off… like that extra slice of cake… like yet another takeaway… that packet of cigarettes…. that extra pint of beer or glass of wine….

If we, as a church, and as individuals are going to pursue healthy living spiritually, then there’s maybe things that we need to throw off, sins that easily entangle us and hold us back from being all that we can be in Christ.

How do we throw them off?

We begin by fixing our eyes on Jesus – not on the problem!
If we focus on the problem it’s likely to pull us down.
Instead we need to focus on the solution to the problem, Jesus!
When we lift our eyes to him, he lifts our spirits to himself.
When we make him the centre, other things get pushed out.
When we consider him and what he went through for us it gives us strength to go on, to persevere in living out what he has called us to – even when life throws curl balls at us which are apt to knock us off track, if we focus our hearts and lives on him at the centre, he will enable us to carry on the race of life with perseverance, to keep going and not grow weary and lose heart when we might otherwise do so.

As a central part of our worship each week, as with the majority of Christian churches across the world, we celebrate communion each week. We take bread and wine, we break it, we eat it. We drink the fruit of the vine as a reminder of what Jesus went through for us, of what he endured for us, of the shame he bore for us, that we might have life to the full!

This is all part of putting Jesus at the centre; of having a healthy spiritual heart as a church and as individuals.

Lets make sure in this year 2012 that we make it a year of healthy living, in every sense.
That as a church, and personally we make sure we have a healthy spiritual heart by putting Jesus at the centre of all we do and are; that we live out of a living relationship with him, not just a distant knowledge of him; that our focus is on him and not us; then maybe we will run the race of life with endurance rather than exhaustion.

Prayer

Jesus, be the centre

Shared at Rutland Road Church on 3rd December. Unfortunately preach is not available online as we’ve had problems with our PA system!

Be blessed as you read and hear God’s voice speaking to you.

Mary’s Message from God
Luke 1:26-56

Introduction
21 days to go….
oo…err…. suppose I ought to start thinking about presents and cards and things….
but do you know what….
I’d much rather think about Jesus!

Last week we began our Christmas series reflecting on Zechariah’s message from God. This week we reflect on Mary’s message from God

We’re going to reflect on:- What Mary heard…. & How Mary responded along with what we need to hear & how we need to respond

What Mary heard…. and what we need to hear!

Mary heard a wealth of truth, some of which left her with questions, and to which she had to make a response. We’re going to look at some of those things and see not only what God said to Mary, but also what he says to us. Like Mary, we too then need to respond to that truth.

Ian, last week touched on how God can speak to us, and he can do so in many ways. Over the Christmas period we’ll see that God not only spoke through angels, but also through prophecy, through dreams, through his written word, through people… and he still does the same today.

Lets see what God spoke to Mary… and what he maybe wants to speak to us!

The first truth that is spoken to Mary by the angel Gabriel is that she is favoured by God.

You are favoured by God v28,30
NIV says ‘greetings, you who are highly favoured!’
But several translations say ‘Greetings, favoured one!’ lit. ‘Oh one who is favoured’

It’s no wonder that Mary was troubled by this greeting and wondered what kind of greeting it was!
Imagine an angel coming to you with this news.
You might end up thinking,
‘Hey up, why are you telling me this now? What’s coming next??!!’

ILLUSTRATE I was at a committee meeting this week and there was just the hugest box of chocolates I have ever seen on the table, presented to us by a company.
Someone said ‘I wonder what they want?’

As human beings we’re apt to question things… and that’s not necessarily a bad thing!

Mary was told that she was one who is favoured.
Do you know that you are a favoured one?

Most of the world is blind to God’s grace, but in God’s grace he has chosen to reveal himself to you, or to bring you, through whatever series of circumstances to be here this morning – therefore, you are a favoured one!

If you have been brought into God’s family as a child of God you are a favoured one because he has chosen to adopt you as his child. If you’ve not yet come to that place then I believe you are here this morning because God’s favour is on your life and he wants to draw you to himself.

Get a grip on that thought!
‘I am a favoured one.’
Say it to yourself!
You are a favoured one!

And then the angel communicates this truth to Mary:-
The Lord is with you v28

This was revolutionary stuff. It was the sort of thing which was said only to the few here and there as significant leaders of God’s people – Mary was just a normal, probably teen-aged, girl. Why would an angel say this to me she might well have thought??!!

It’s something each one of us here, who has trusted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, need to hear too. The Lord is with you! He is! Jesus’ promise to his disciples, to his followers is that he will never leave us or forsake us, his promise is that he will be with us always right to the very end of the age.
When we become a Christian we receive Jesus’ Spirit into our lives, and he is always there.

Know this this morning, just as the Lord was with Mary, if you’re a Christian, he is with you too. Don’t you just sense his presence here now!

For us as Christians, many of us have become used to having God’s presence with us… so much so, that sometimes we take little thought to it.. it has become a part of day to day life…. but for Mary…. and for many new to the Christian faith, this is a revolutionary thought… God with me??!!

And so the angel speaks the third truth to Mary:-
Don’t be afraid v30

It’s interesting that we don’t have the same level of response from Mary that we had from Zechariah – he was startled and gripped with fear by the appearance of the angel Gabriel, but Mary it seems wasn’t gripped by fear of the angel, but was troubled by the greeting she’d received and what it might imply.

‘Don’t be afraid’ is a common statement in Scripture – a statement given when people encounter angels, or God himself, or when they are commissioned to some task or responsibility before God.

It’s something we need to hear, ‘Don’t be afraid’.
Whatever you are facing right now, if you are a child of God, a Christian, a follower of Jesus, don’t be afraid, he is with you and will work out his plans and purposes in, through and with your life.

And then the angel goes on to give the bulk of the message from God, this incredible:-
Revelation v31-36
Mary is going to have a child – a son – and she is told incredible truth about this baby that she is to bear – he’s to be called the Son of the Most High – the Son of God – can you begin to imagine how freaky that is – to be told that a son you are yet to have is to be known as the Son of God – and to be told that he has an incredible future – that he will reign on a famous King’s throne…. for ever – that he will have a kingdom that will never end….

I’m not even pregnant yet, and you’re telling me these incredible truths about a baby I am yet to bear?? How on earth am I going to bring him up for this incredible future which you speak about?
And then there’s a practical difficulty…. in NIV it says:-
‘How will this be, since I am a virgin?’
More accurately it could be translated:-
‘How will this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?’
Lit. ‘I have not known a man’

No questioning of what is meant by a virgin, Mary is clear, she has never had any sexual relationship with a man, let alone with her husand to be Joseph.

Gabriel explains that it will happen that she will be pregnant not through normal sexual relations, but through a supernatural working of the power of the Holy Spirit in her life.

All of this is the most mind blowing revelation – a woman becoming pregnant without the aid of a man – even in the world of artificial insemination the man still has a role to play – and what this baby was to be, who he was, and what he was to do, how he was to reign are mind blowing truths to know about a child you are yet to bear….

Parents, could you imagine knowing truths of this magnitude about the future of your children??!

But, if these revelations that the angel brought to Mary are true, they are the most mind blowing truths for us too! A child being born miraculously, being known as the Son of God, not just a son of God, and having a kingdom which will never end.

If these revelations are true, then we desperately need to think about what they mean and how we should respond to these truths.

The angel continues to bring more revelation to Mary, telling her that her barren, elderly relative Elizabeth is pregnant and going to have a baby too, and then tells Mary another incredible truth:-

Nothing is impossible with God v3

As human beings it’s natural for us to question, to want to know and to understand the how’s and where’s of things. But the angel reminds Mary that nothing is impossible with God and illustrates it by talking of Elizabeth’s pregnancy.

As we see how Jesus came into the world, as we remember the incredible truths associated with the Christmas story, its a wonderful reminder that nothing is impossible with God.

Its a truth we all need to know and to keep coming back to.
What you are facing in your life right now, what we have ahead of us as a church, we need to get hold of this incredible truth and let it sink into our innermost being….
nothing is impossible with God.

So,

How Mary responded…. and how we need to respond!

Her first response was to submit herself to God, even if she didn’t understand everything, even if she couldn’t make sense of everything. In v38 in NIV, and in most modern English translations, we have the words:- ‘I am the Lord’s servant.’
But that doesn’t really do justice to the words….. more literally the word is ‘bond-servant’ – one who has sold themselves in slavery to another.
Mary says, ‘I am the Lord’s slave – I give my life to him to do with me as he wishes.’

in slavery to God v38

And she did. She went on to bear the one who was to be named Jesus, because he would save his people from their sins, and she stood by him, right to his death on the cross, some 30+ years later….

As a result of that all generations since have called her blessed.

She said ‘I am the Lord’s bond-servant.’
And added, v38 ‘May it be to me as you have said.’
In other words, I’m willing to submit to and to participate in all you have called me to.

I wonder whether we are willing to do the same?
To come to God and say,
‘Yes, I’m willing to submit myself to your rule in my life, and to do and be all that you call me to be.’

Lets pause for a moment and just reflect before God on whether we are willing to come to God and say, ‘I am the Lord’s bond-servant. May it be to me as you have said.’

After a moment of reflection, we will read the rest of our Bible reading for this morning and continue to reflect on Mary’s response to what she had heard, and maybe what our response should be too….

Bible reading:- Luke 1:39-56

After this incredible event Mary got on with:-

in living out life v39-45

She didn’t go into hiding. She didn’t go and shout it from the rooftops. She got on with living out life in a normal way. It brought surprising blessings as her relation Elizabeth responded to her visit, but it’s interesting that what she did was the normal family thing.

Her relative was pregnant – miraculously indeed – but now 6 months through her pregnancy, and she went to visit her. No doubt as an older lady in her final few months of pregnancy the help of a younger family member was much valued.

Sometimes the greatest way we can respond to God’s truth is to go out and live our lives in the normality of our daily living. To live out positive lives in our work places, in our schools and colleges, in our homes, amongst our families and friends.

Mary stayed with Elizabeth for around 3 months, it would seem almost to the point of John’s birth. I’m sure she would have been a great blessing to Elizabeth and Zechariah.

Sometimes the greatest thing we can do in response to a revelation of God’s truth in our lives is to be a practical blessing to others. And sometimes as we do that it brings further spiritual blessing for us – as it did for Mary, as Elizabeth blessed her.

Mary had one final response in our reading today, a response to all the truths which had been spoken over her life and over the life of the child that she was to bear. She brought praise to God.

In praising God v46-56

She declared where and to whom the praise was due:-
v46,47 ‘My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour…’
She rehearsed the wonderful ways in which she had known God’s blessing on her own life.
She proclaimed how his blessing was being extended to all who would give their lives to him.
She proclaimed the great things that she had known that God had done in history as well as in her own time, and she recognised how he was their source of strength.

Conclusion
Surely as we reflect on the wonderful truths of this Saviour, Jesus, as we come to remember his coming into the world this Advent time, we should come with our worship, as we reflect on the wonderful truths that we are favoured because we have been adopted as his children;
because he is with us we don’t need to be afraid;
because he is able to do all things, nothing is impossible for him
surely we should give ourselves to him in worship,
surely we should give ourselves to live for him in our everyday lives,
and surely we should come to a place where we are prepared to say with Mary,
‘I am the Lord’s bond-servant. May it be to me as you have said.’

Well because my legs are aching after a good 90min (almost!) MTB ride earlier today over some bone shaking ground at times… and that was a follow on from a good swim session with a lot of build and kickboard sets… maybe at last I’m improving on the kicking stuff, as quite often I was staying with the head up breast strokers in the middle lane.

For all that neither my knee, nor shoulder is aching. Was surprised at the weekend to reach up for something and find it was more uncomfortable for my left arm than my right! Nice surprise!

Don’t think everything is actually 100% – still get the odd occasional twinge from both knee and shoulder, but, praise God, they are so much better. Feel I can train/race now without having to worry about them – wonderful relief!

I’ll continue doing the physio stuff to keep everything in order for the time being though – all helps with core stuff anyway, so that’s got to be good!

Been doing a good variety of training since the ‘Grim Duathlon’ , largely courtesy of Triathlon Plus magazine training plans – my consistently preferred tri mag.

With no other events on the horizon I even ventured back into the gym. I’d stayed away, because running on the treadmill had tended to tweak my knee with the pull of it’s movement, something I hadn’t experienced running outside. I was also really nervous of doing anything with weights or weight machines which might cause further problems for my rotator cuff injury.

Adapting the Triathlon Plus training progs for gym use I’ve done typical 30min runs on the treadmill. One schedule I’ve used was 4mins @11kph – 4mins @12kph – 7mins @13kph – 5mins @14kph – 5mins @12kph – 5mins @11kph – equivalent to Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Zone 4 Zone 2 Zone 1. Another simple schedule was 10mins @12kph – 10mins @13kph – 10mins @12kph.

There was also a great little circuit session I’ve done a couple of times which leaves me with a bit of muscle ache!
Treadmill runs alternating with other exercises… followed by my physio stuff and a recover in the sauna!!
Run 5mins @12kph
Run 5mins @13kph
20 press ups
Run 3mins @12kph
20 crunches on Swiss ball
Run 3mins @12kph
20 tricep dips (killer!!)
Run 3mins @12kph
20 squats
Run 3mins @12kph
20 lunges
Run 5mins @12kph.

Have got in a few bike rides too – one short one in very wet conditions whilst out. Most recently, aside from the off road ride earlier I did a 30mile easy ride with 4 hard intervals of 6-10mins – route Home – Bromham/Oakley/Pavenhame/Felmersham (zone 2) – Felmersham – Carlton (zone 3) – Zone 1 through Carlton – Carlton – Turvey (zone 3/4) – Turvey – Newton Blossomville (zone 1) – Top of Newton Blossomville hill – Astwood (zone 3/4) – Astwood – Cranfield/Wootton/Kempston/Home (zone 2). Average speed 17.8mph Mx 36mph Time 1:41

When I started writing this up I was contemplating doing another off road duathlon in a few weeks time – that was my motivation for my off road bike – and would have been my motivation for an off road run as I complete this a day later – but I’ve realised that it’ll clash with several other things scheduled for that day (so glad I didn’t part with my money last night which I nearly did!!)…. wonder what else I can find! March is a long time to wait for an event and the added motivation it brings!!

A Righteous & Just God
Psalm 11

Introduction
Have you ever noticed how changeable we can be as human beings?
One minute we can be full of the joys of spring….
the next minute we can be feeling desperate and cranky.
Maybe its a product of British weather!!
This week, one day seeming cold, dull and miserable…..
The next day, getting up in the morning and it feels cold – wrap up well to go out, and then by lunchtime its a beautiful, warm summers day and you really wish you didn’t have that jumper or jacket with you.
Our emotions can be like that can’t they?
As changeable as the British weather!

The fascinating thing is how the psalms mirror that.
Psalms that lie side by side with quite different perspectives on life.

Last week, we looked at Psalm 10, which focused in on the awfulness of human nature… which was fitting as we responded to the circumstances of the rioting and looting on the streets of our cities.

Psalm 11 is a fascinating follow on, because its primary focus is not on us as human beings, its on our wonderful God.

If you haven’t got your Bible open at it, perhaps you might like to turn to Psalm 11. I’ve headed it this morning A Righteous & Just God, because it is primarily about God.

READ Psalm 11

I’ve got a 6 point sermon this morning.
Each point begins with the same 2 words…… The LORD

and then picks up on who he is to us, an aspect of his nature and of how he works and his relationship with us.

My prayer is that as we reflect on our God, he will give us fresh revelation and understanding about him and his nature and his relationship to us, as human beings.

So, King David, the writer of the psalm starts off by saying:-
The LORD is a refuge

He says, ‘In the LORD I take refuge.’

Do you know that The LORD is a refuge?
Do you flee to him for safety?
Do you cling to him in times of fear?

Many commentators believe this psalm was written before David became King of Israel, written whilst he served the previous king, King Saul, playing music for him to soothe his troubled spirit, and working in the armed forces for him. The trouble was David was a better warrior than Saul was
- don’t you just hate it when you pride yourself in something and then find someone else can do it much better than you??!! This so riled Saul that he set out to kill David – he threw a spear at him when he was in the courts of the palace. And so, they say, David’s friends, encouraged him to flee like a bird to the mountains. Maybe this is the origin, maybe it isn’t.

The truth is, whatever the situation, sometimes we face tough times in life and the call on our lives by others is to escape, to get out, by whatever means, to give up ‘what can the righteous do?’ There’s no point.

But David says, ‘No, in the LORD I take refuge.’

Many of the psalms abound to the testimony of different folk to the LORD being their rock, their place of security, their refuge.

What about you?
Is the LORD your refuge?
The One you run to, seek protection in, in times of trouble?
Or do you like some of David’s friends suggested, go and try and hide elsewhere?

Faithful One, so unchanging, Ageless One, you’re my rock of peace. Lord of all, I depend on you, I cry out to you, again and again. You are my Rock in times of trouble. My hope is in you alone.

Is that our experience?
Is that what we are doing?
Trusting in the LORD as our refuge?

David goes on to explain why the LORD he has taken refuge in is worth taking refuge in.
He points out that:-
The LORD rules from his throne

v4 The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD is on his heavenly throne.

As David wrote this, he might have thought of the LORD ruling from the heavens; he might have thought of how the LORD had come and presenced himself in the Tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, in the past. He might have looked forward to the day when a Temple might be built in which God would come and presence himself.

Today, we know that the LORD is seated on his throne in the heavens, ruling from there… and in the book of Revelation we have some wonderful imagery of the throne room scene in heaven.

But, where is heaven?
Where is the LORD’s throne?

Graham Kendrick has a lesser known song than some of his famous hymns and songs, which has the oft repeated line ‘O heaven is in my heart.’

Jesus himself said ‘the Kingdom of God is within you’ or ‘in the midst of you’ (Luke 17:21)
And both are true!
When you become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and he comes to live in your life, to make his throne in your life, to reign from within your life. But the Kingdom is also amongst us, in the midst of us, because Jesus chooses to come and meet with us as his people, and Jesus is here now, walking amongst us as we meet in his name today.

The LORD rules from his throne in heaven, but he also rules from his throne in our hearts if we are Christian believers. And he rules amongst us. Sometimes we sing (I seem to be quoting from a lot of hymns and songs this morning!!)
‘Jesus, we enthrone you, we proclaim you our King.
Standing here in the midst of us, we raise you up with our praise.
And as we worship, build a throne: Come Lord Jesus, and take your place.’

The LORD rules from the throne of heaven, from the throne of our hearts and from the throne of our worship.

From there:-
The LORD examines people

He observes the sons of men; his eyes examine them. The LORD examines the righteous.

I love the progression here. Its one thing to ‘observe’ something…it’s quite another to examine it!
You could observe a nice passing car and think ‘That’s nice.’ It’s quite another thing to come to the next service station and find it parked there and take the time to go and examine it.

The interesting thing is that the Lord examines all people – the righteous and the wicked.

He examines your life. He examines my life.
What do you think he feels, what do you think he finds, as he examines your life?

We’ll come back to what he finds in a few minutes.
But what about what he feels?

I think sometimes we struggle with the idea that God has emotions… but he does!
And we do, because we are made in his image, in his likeness.
The LORD examines the people and it provokes a strong emotion:-
The LORD hates the wicked
‘The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates.’

Did you know that God has a soul?
A central core to his being that goes beyond any physical or spiritual form.
At the centre of his being, at his soul, is this huge emotion – it’s an emotion which some of us can identify with – the emotion of hatred – he hates the wicked!

When you hear accounts of horrendous crimes committed against other human beings, crimes of rape, abuse, murder, war crimes where people’s lives are destroyed on a massive scale, don’t you just feel the same at times, hatred for people who would do stuff like that….

If you do, then know you’re not alone in that… God is the same.

How do you feel about God hating people?
Sometimes evangelical preachers have said ‘God hates sin but he loves the sinner.’
Actually, I’m not 100% sure that statement is entirely true.
I’m not sure its the sinner God loves.
Maybe what he loves is the person that he created in his image, which has now been destroyed by the effects of sin, so that when he finds those now as he examines them, that actually love their wicked ways, that love violence, he hates them, he hates them with an abhorrence, because of what they do to others who are made in his image.

In Genesis 6 we have an account of God examining people:-
Genesis 6:5-7
The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth – men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air – for I am grieved that I have made them.”’

Does God still hate people today?
Has God changed?
I guess if he hated people then who loved violence, he still hates people today who love violence.

And so:-
The LORD judges
v6 On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulphur; a scorching wind will be their lot

At the time of Noah, he sent a flood.
At the end of time as we know it, he will send a fire to destroy the wicked.
Revelation 20 paints a stark picture of the LORD the judge, seated on his throne.
Turn with me, if you would, to Revelation 20:11
READ Revelation 20:11-15

The LORD is seated on his throne, he examines all the people, and all the things recorded of them, his hatred against evil and the wicked comes to fullness and the wicked are thrown into the lake of fire – described as ‘the second death’. Some would say a place of eternal torment, some a place where evil people are burned up.

But, something has changed… because:-
The LORD is righteous
v7For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face.

The LORD does not bring his judgement just because he hates wicked people.
He brings judgement because he is a God who loves justice, because he is a God who is righteous and who desires for human beings to live in relationship with him.

At the time of Noah, Noah found favour in God’s eyes, and he and his family were preserved from God’s judgement. But they fell away from God again. And over centuries God kept trying to call his people into a right relationship with himself, but they kept failing him and rebelling against him. He allowed all that so that we could see that there is no hope for us to earn God’s favour. We can’t do enough in and of ourselves to truly be classed as righteous and upright.
We saw last week that we all fall short of God’s standards.

And so God, because he loves justice, and he desires friendship with the crown of his creation, us human beings, took it on himself to seek out justice and bring the judgement for our sin and wickedness on his Son, as we will remember as we share in communion later in the service.

The result of that is that if we have turned from our sin to God, we have repented of our sin and asked God’s forgiveness, we have put our faith and trust in Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross, we will not only have received the gift of a new life and his Holy Spirit, but we will also have been clothed with the righteousness of Christ – so when God examines our lives as Christian believers, what does he see? He sees the righteousness of Christ; he sees us as pure and holy in his sight; fit to be in his presence; he finds that our names are written in the Lamb’s book of life, and we do not come under judgement, but rather come into life in all its fullness.

Conclusion
The LORD is righteous, he does judge, he does hate the wicked, he does examine us, he does rule from his throne and so we should run to him as our refuge. He has done everything for us in Christ to make it possible for us to do that.
If you’re not sure that your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life and you want it to be, so that when the LORD examines your life, what he will see is the righteousness of Christ and not the wickedness which inhabits your life, then the LORD is calling you to himself.
If that applies to you, then please speak with me after the service and we can make sure your name is written in the book.
Let’s pray and then Maria & Margaret will lead us on in our worship.

The weather though was anything but grim – fantastic! Bright and sunny, temperature around 10-12 degrees – just about perfect in my reckoning.

Today was a day when everything went right (well aside from some poor off road bike riding which definitely needs some work!)

Got home from our Children’s Club, The Zone, at church around 9pm and was tucked up in bed by 9.30pm, having rushed around gathering the necessary for today. Remarkably, slept well! Not used to that! Usually before an event I find myself waking up every hour or two, but this time I slept right through till 5.30ish – almost 8 hours – pretty rare for me at the best of times – wonderful!!

Soon after 1/4 to 8 we were on the road, eventually arriving soon after 9.30am.Registration and bike racking was pretty straightforward. Everywhere looked pretty dry. After a visit to the loo, strip down and go for a little jog around to warm up, have a good drink and so on.

Everything set, ready to go. At race briefing advised in spite of appearances there is plenty of mud and water and it will be a ‘grim’ duathlon!! In setting up two landrovers had got stuck and had to be towed out… joys to look forwards to!

And we were off! Downhill on rough trails, then uphill – take it easy – was determined not to push hard but to run at a high comfortable pace which I could maintain – soon negotiating around mud patches and deep pools of water – got to 2k in 7:45 – realised inspite of myself I was running faster than intended – the buzz of the race! Sharp turn into a smaller trail into the woods – very pleasant! Then cargo net to go under. Lost my pace with that. Took me a few minutes to get it back again! Coming up to 4k a very steep drop down and then back up again, then run back through the woods and into T1 – glanced at watch in T1 and just turning 23mins gone – pleased – would have been happy with anything under 25 given I was trying to pace myself and running form still not really back yet. Grabbed a gel as I went through and then out on to the bike.

Me exiting T1 No 326 in background

Soon tearing off down these hard, stony surfaces, holding a reasonably high speed in high teens mph. Few mud patches, holes etc to avoid, but reasonably good going.

I’m not in the pic, but gives a reasonably good idea of first part of bike course.

Hard surface is fine… if a bit shaky on the old bones and arms! But then we came to a broad section of sand…. that was hard!! Across that and carry on. been gone about 20mins on the bike and I’m thinking ‘This is alright! Not sure it’s much of a ‘grim’ duathlon’… then there was a sudden sharp turn left in some really deep stoney surface, which then dropped down a steep slope – managed to stay on…. but another guy in front didn’t and I and others had to avoid him spreadeagled in the track. Down the steep slope to discover a 90 degree turn into mud…. and then we were into the grim duathlon! Really rough, muddy, steep inclines up and down with sharp turns – had to get off bike couple of times when others stopped in front of me – got to top of one climb – found it really hard getting off on a climb and then persuading legs to climb up – also need to learn to get off opposite side to what I always do! At the top of the climb there was a sharp right turn going down this very steep mudslide – going straight up the other side in same conditions. Took me a moment before I could go. What do I do??!! Brake??? No, that’ll make me skid over. Made it. Looking at bike computer at home had a max speed of 29.9mph at some point…. reckon it must have been here – even second time round I hesitated before plunging down the slope! Ride then took us down a tiny, twist turny trail through some woods – good bike skills needed here! At the bottom, sharp left turn as you come out – deep mud, or negotiate the side and bushes… bad operation first time around but better on the second! Then we got to the real mud and water sections. Love the narrow channel through the water and then the bash on the head from the tree when you come out the other side!!

Then we got to the deep water section – maybe 30-40 metres long – and in deeper points coming up to thighs. Guy in front of me attempted to cycle through. Did well for about 2/3rds of the way, then hit something underwater and took a dive completely under himself – wouldn’t have fancied that!

Coming out the other side it was hard to get going – calves felt so cold…. legs and feet felt so heavy… eventually started turning again and on to final section, avoiding mud and pools… then round again!

Wasn’t quite so fast the second time! But forewarned is forearmed for some parts. Sandy section was easier going as repeated crossing had compacted it in places. Didn’t like some of the grating/crunching sounds coming from the bike at times. Couple of times thought gears were going to jam, but they freed themselves so guess I was fortunate…. others weren’t so lucky.. several folks struggling with chain/gear problems, others with punctures… one guy was running into T2 with his bike.

Took another gel before coming into T2 and quickly out on to the second run. Legs felt cold, hard, heavy from second time through the long water/mud stretch. Take it easy. Steady pace. High rhythm, but don’t push it. First k took me 5:30 and second was over 5 but then legs warming up and loosening up, even though we’d been forced to go through some deep water this time around on the run! Started to pick the pace a little and took a couple of others. Another guy came up on me, breathing heavily. Matched his pace, till the cargo net. Dropped back a bit on him afterwards as tried to get my pace and rhythm back. Down and up the steep slopes before the 4k marker I was back with him. Once past the 4k marker lifted my pace a bit more. Left the guy I’d been following standing and caught and went past maybe 5/6 others.

Pleased to come in with a total time of 1:48:23 – had said if I got under 2hours I’d be happy – if I got to 1:45 I’d be over the moon. Delighted with my placing – 75th out of just over 400, 17th vet out of just over 90. Not bad for someone still recovering from the effects of my cycle accident, and for a first off road event.

Me trying to figure out my stopwatch at finish – in process managed to delete the time..

Me, once I’d recovered and stopped hacking away and thinking I was going to be sick, and after I’d got my results!

Full results:-
Run 1 0:22:17
T1 0:01:02
Bike 0:59.28
T2 0:01:07
Run 2 0:24:27
Total 1:48:23

No problems from knee or shoulder. Everywhere else aches though! Pleasing. Only struggle was driving home when the sciatic nerve problem from my accident almost 6 years ago kicked in – real agony at times. Stopped at Toddington services for a couple of minutes for a walk and that got me home okay.

Once home there was the small matter of washing my bike… don’t think I’ve ever had one of my bikes get this filthy!!!

Our majestic God!
Psalm 8

Introduction
Thought I’d share a few holiday snaps with you. Afraid they don’t do justice to the beauty which we saw, and which they give a glimpse of. Only going to show you 5 pictures, so don’t think ‘Oh no! We’re going to be here forever!’

The first one is something which was a big surprise for me.

It’s a natural beach in the mountains. In my mind sand was only produced on sea shores, but here it was… and in a number of other places we visited…. created by the force of mountain rivers on the rocks.. and forming pools in certain areas…. which were beautiful to swim in…. and with goggles on to see the fantastic fish swimming around in the water.

Never got a good photo of any of the magnificent waterfalls seen all over the place, but there was such beauty as we walked up the mountain through the woods –

water running down –

then gaps in the trees, giving a glimpse across to nearby mountains… and as you got higher

glimpses back to the lake and our friend’s town hundreds of metres below, and then when you reached the top….

a view that was breathtaking – in whichever direction you looked… and this is only one direction, looking back across Lake Maggiogore, down towards Italy.

What do you do, at those moments when you find yourself in awe, inspired by the things you see? Whether the magnificence of vast panoramas of scenery, or the intricate beauty of a flower, or tiny insect?

In our series in the Psalms, we come today to Psalm 8, which we have headed today,Our Majestic God!

And in the psalm we see how to respond to those moments.

Its on p546 of our church Bibles, but you might like to follow it on the screen as it comes up there.

READ from screen presentation

Amen??!!

This week, I took the time to listen online to the preaches that I missed over the past few weeks. Thank you to those who make that possible week in week out, to those who preached, to those who recorded and to Simon for putting them online.

Brian spoke of how as a Baptist in background he had come up with not 3, but 5 points all beginning with the same letter for his preach. I haven’t done as well as that… but I have managed 3!

How are we to react at those moments when we find ourselves awestruck by beauty, achievements we see around us?

The first thing we are to do is to REGARD them.

To regard something is to consider something or someone, to think about that person or thing deliberately. It means to give attention to, to have concern for. And all of these things echo through this brief psalm.
Our Majestic God has chosen to reveal something of his creative power and glory through his creation. When we look at creation we see something of the glory and majesty of God.

And yet, there is this incredible tension in scripture, because God’s glory, his majesty is so much greater than his creation. The creation reveals his glory and yet God’s glory is above the heavens – that’s not talking about God’s physical position, it’s saying God’s glory is so much greater than the heavens.

We can stop and look in awe at creation, be caught with the wonder of it, gaze at a beautiful flower, or butterfly, or bee, or even a spider for some of us! Look at the majestic mountains, vast open seas, the vastness of the skies and the heavens, the stars, solar systems that seem to go on forever. And yet, God’s glory is way beyond it all. But it gives us a glimpse of his glory through his creative power.

Matthew Henry in his commentary on this psalm says:-
‘It is our duty to consider the heavens.’

The psalm writer says v3, ‘When I consider your heavens…’

When did you last stop and wonder at the awesomeness of creation?
What effect did it have on you?

Romans 1:18-20 tells us that we are without excuse before God, because what may be known about God is made plain Romans 1v20
‘For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.’

If you look at creation you discover truth about God – and not just about his eternal power – but also about his divine nature.

David, the writer of the psalm is caused to reflect not only on the majesty and glory of God as he looks at the wonder of creation, but also to reflect on us puny human beings.

Is there life on other planets?
I don’t know!
But as far as our investigations have gone thus far, in the vastness of space we have not yet knowingly, generally come across sentient life.

Why would God create such vastness of space and perhaps only put sentient life that he can relate to on one small planet, in one small solar system, in one small galaxy, amongst the vastness and uncountable numbers that surround?

Perhaps it is so that we understand the awesomeness that God has chosen to value us as part of his creation, created us to glorify him and enjoy him forever, as the Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it.

David says, why are you mindful of us human beings, why do you take care of us?

Why did God put the earth where he put it?
With all the riches of flora and fauna?
Why did he put us as human beings within it?

Why did he make us only a little lower than the heavenly beings, than God himself, by making us in his image, with his emotions, with his creativity, with his desire to be in relationship with others?

And why did he see us human beings as being the crown of his creation, whom one day he will crown with glory and honour?

Why? Because he loves us!
He created us to be in relationship with him.
To be his friends.
To be his children.

Turn with me if you would to Hebrews chapter 2 in the New Testament. The person writing the letter to the Hebrew Christians quotes from Psalm 8.
Let’s read together from verse 5.

READ Hebrews 2:5-11

We, as human beings, have not yet seen the whole of creation subjected to us. We are not yet crowned with glory and honour. But Jesus, who became a human being just like us, has been crowned with glory and honour. He has suffered death in our place, so that by God’s grace we can be brought into his glory.

If you’re a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you’ve put your faith in Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross on your behalf, you have a glorious future, you are now a brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, a child of God, a friend of God whom you can get to know and have a growing relationship with.

Regard the wonder of creation, reflect on it, consider it and then, my second ‘R’ for this morning, RESPOND to it!

In v2 of Psalm 8 David says:-
‘From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise.’

Praise is a fitting response to the glory of God’s creation.
Certainly as I stood on the top of that mountain in Switzerland I was moved to praise!
I found a rock out on my own and sat there for a while gazing around, praising God for all the beauty I saw, and praising God for his creativity – the huge breadth of variety and magnificence, of colour and depth.

The verse we read in Romans says that what may be known about God is plain through creation, so that men (and women!) are without excuse!
So as we look at creation it should move us to RESPOND to God.

Matt Redman, in his song, ‘So fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Used this YouTube clip when I shared this at Russell Park Baptist Church Tuesday Fellowship) writes:-

SO FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE,
How could they say there is no God?
Reminded every breath that I take,
It’s by Your hand I have been formed.
So what am I going to do with this life You gave me?
What could I do but live for Your praise?

You gave me this breath
And You gave me this strength,
And every day I’ll live to obey You.
With all of my heart,
With all of my soul,
Let every breath I’m breathing display You, God.

There’s elegance in all You create,
Your grand designs leave me amazed.
The wonders of the way we’ve been made
Speak of Your power, tell of Your grace.

So what am I going to do with this life You gave me?
What am I going to do with this life?
What am I going to do in these days You’ve ordained?
What am I going to do with this life?

A fitting question.
We need to respond to the glory of God by giving our lives to him for his glory and praise.
Which leads us to my third ‘R’ for this morning, RESPONSIBILITY

In response to our Majestic God, who has revealed something of his glory through the wonders of his creation – and then gone on to reveal his love and his grace through the sacrifice of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we have two areas of responsibility from this psalm.

Matt Redman sums it up well with the line in his song:-
What could I do but live for your praise?

What else can we do, but live for the praise of a God who has done so much for us?

The Westminster Shorter Catechism sums it up so well:-
The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

God wants you to enjoy him and out of that enjoyment to find further enjoyment in giving him praise.

I hope that in a few minutes we will have joy in bringing our worship and our praise to our Majestic God.

Worship needs to be a part of every part of our lives, a giving of our lives to God in joyful abandonment.

Again, the words of Matt Redman’s song expresses this well:-

You gave me this breath
And You gave me this strength,
And every day I’ll live to obey You.
With all of my heart,
With all of my soul,
Let every breath I’m breathing display You, God.

Will you do that?
Yield your life to God and live for him, with every part of your being?

The psalm hints at an area in which that responsibility has to be worked out.
V6-8

READ v6-8

God has entrusted his creation to us.
We have a responsibility to care for it.
Maybe for some of us, it means actively engaging in environmental issues.
For others, perhaps its taking responsibility for our own small area or area of influence – working for the good of this community, or the community in which you live if you’re not local.
Perhaps it means thinking about how we dispose of rubbish, about the rubbish we produce, about recycling, about the foods we eat.
Perhaps it means caring for our own patch of creation in caring for gardens, plants, animals.
Perhaps it means thinking about our transportation – whether or not we really need to use the car with all its inherent polluting nature, or maybe, when we upgrade it looking at alternatives to straight petrol/diesel fuelling.

Conclusion
We need to regard creation and as we do so we need to respond to its creator and then we need to take on our responsibility to worship our creator and to care for the world that he has entrusted into our hands.

Have been trying to pick up the training, but hasn’t always happened courtesy of life pressures and a nasty cold a couple of weeks ago. Along with that, I was trying to persuade the parts of 2 old bikes to work together to be able to knock around town with – kept having problems with compatibility issues. Gave up in the end, salvaged some good parts for potential future back up use and set about getting a cheap second hand bike to knock around town with. Was blessed by a mate contacting me from Beds Road Cycling Club and offering me an old entry level MTB – have to say I’m loving it, though it’s going to need some work on the brakes and gearing.

Anyway the result of all this is that whilst strength is gradually coming back, endurance has some way to go!! Been amazed at how I can suddenly feel drained out after an hour or so on the bike or 30 mins or so running. Had been doing circa 1500m swim sets and upped them to just over 2k in the last week or so and amazed at how draining that was.

So what have I been up to…. and where am I going… and what am I working towards??

In my last post I mentioned entering a 10mile bike TT. Well training diary up till then.

Monday 29th August – easy bike with a mate round the Stevington loop – stats – Time 53:24 Dist 14.74miles Av speed 16.5mph Mx 26.3mph

Tuesday 30th August – first easy run since accident – along river and back with no undue problems – slight tension/discomfort at start, but eased as going along T. 29:31 D.5.7k Av.11.6kph

Wednesday 31st August – easy run to and from Kempston pool with a swim of circa 1500m mixing drills etc

Friday 2nd September – steady/easy bike round Classic course with 4x hard intervals of a minute or so. Shoulders and neck ached afterwards (and during) – had a fiddle with bar positioning a bit over a couple of weeks and gradually improved. Stats. T.1:28 D.26.47m Av.18mph Mx.29.8mph

Monday 5th September – swim/sauna session – have discovered that if I don’t swim every few days my shoulder seems to stiffen up and become more problematical

Tuesday 6th September – second recovery run along river and back – included 4 30sec hard intervals with recovery jogs, returning to easy running before next interval session. T.28:47 D.5.7k Av.11.9kph

Friday 9th September – aim – easy bike with 2 10min hard sessions – route – Bromham-Box End-Green End-Wootton (went for first hard session after Wootton – certainly was hard into the wind – gave up after 6mins! Struggled all the way into and through Cranfield – going past accident site for first time – survived okay, though a bit unsettling – especially discovering the site wasn’t exactly as I’d remembered it from the accident and described it in police and insurance statements…. oh dear…) On to Astwood-Newton Blossomville-Turvey-Carlton-Felmersham-Pavenham-Oakley-Bromham-Home. Did second hard session out of Newton Blossomville to Turvey, and then out of Turvey on road to Carlton – was struggling with shoulder/neck ache and a bit of knee ache too. Stats. T.2:01 D.34.26m Av.16.9mph Mx.33.4mph. Seemed hard work, but with hindsight I may well have been influenced by the effects of the previous day of prayer and fasting at church.

Saturday 10th September – short swim at Kempston pool including a pleasing timed 400m in 7:42

Tuesday 13th September – bike interval session with Beds Road guys on Willington to Great Barford road. Good session. Couldn’t hold pace on return intervals into the wind and kept dropping off the back. Forgot to set bike computer so no stats available.

Wednesday 14th September – 1.6k swim set at Kempston pool

Thursday 15th September – running hill repeats up Cemetery Hill – easy/steady run to Foster Hill Road then 5x repeats up hill to rubbish bin and easy jog recovery back down – recovery down circa 55secs – intervals up 35/36/36/34/37 – av. speed up the hill 14.5kph. Time overall 35:13 Distance overall 6.6k Av. speed overall 11.2kph

Friday 16th September – cycle commute to Rushden and back T.2:09:37 D.37.64m Av.17.2mph

Saturday 17th September – 10mile TT on the Brogborough/Wootton old A421 course – very windy!! Average speed to Wootton roundabout 29.5mph Mx 39.5mph going down Brogborough hill. Didn’t drop below 25 on outward leg (apart from having to brake hard and give way to a car at Marston roundabout)and was often holding just over 30mph. Turned at Wootton roundabout and hit the wind!! Speed dropped to 19-20mph, then to 15-18 variable – right down to 13 at Marston roundabout – finished at 17-18 into a very strong gusting wind. Time 26:15 Av. speed 22.9mph. Fastest 10 for the year – perhaps down to new bike and good course, rather than my levels of fitness!
Got soaked cycling from there into Bedford to watch end of Blues hanging on for a 22:18 win against London Welsh. So glad it didn’t rain during the race!!

The following week was when the cold attacked. At the start of the week I was just feeling down emotionally and spiritually – by the end of the week I knew the reason as the cold came in head on – was on my third packet of tissues by lunchtime on one morning! Think I managed one short swim that week… Next session was a swim/sauna session on Monday 26th September

Tuesday 27th September – bike around Classic course – still quite windy with strong SW breeze making use of tribars awkward in open areas and with passing traffic, but had a really good session going steady and not pushing up the hills. Av. speed to Caldecote 20.2mph, dropping to 20.1mph at Cardington Road, rush hour traffic brought it down to 19.5mph by the time I got home. From Shefford -Caldecote I was holding 23-25+ all the way – pleasing – that would have been just over 40kph at times – don’t remember doing that previously along there. Stats T. 1:21 D.26.42m Av.19.5mph Mx 31.7mph

Decided that night that I’d enter the Grim Duathlon on 22nd September as my little birthday treat to myself!! Starting to realise that is not long away and thinking it’s going to be hard work on the day!! May live to regret this… but it does look great fun!

We then headed off to Guernsey to visit my family. Fantastic weather. Took the bike and had a couple of easy rides, (though tired at end of first one!) a good swim in the sea for 20-30mins most days and an easy run round the airport on the final day (I say easy…. it seemed hard work… but I wasn’t pushing hard!!)

Friday 30th September – easy/steady bike – from Hougue Fouque to Pleinmont – along coast to The Bridge via L’Ancresse bay and back. D.34.73m T. 1:53 Av.18.4mph Mx 31.2mph

Sunday 2nd October – easy/steady bike (more easy than steady at times!!) round the island, apart from couple of diversions due to road works. D.25.64m T. 1:22 Av.18.6mph Mx.33mph

Monday 3rd October – easy/steady run around airport D.5.2k T.26:20 Av.11.9kph

Wednesday 5th October – back in Bedford – realised I need to get off road with Duathlon only a couple of weeks away! Went for an off road bike along river to Box End, round the 5k route and back home – loved it! (Apart from getting stung when near home – still bothering me tonight… though Anthisan and Pirotin seems to help!) Stats. T.49:17 D.10.61m Av.12.9mph Mx.20.9mph

Thursday 6th October – early swim of circa 2k.

Today, off road run round Kempston river loop – was trying to take it easy-steady, but seemed like hard work! T.33:58 D.6.8k Av 12.2kph

Think I need to put a few brick sessions in before 22nd… wonder how I’ll get on??!!

Living secure when under attack
Psalm 3

Introduction
What’s your family situation like?

Is it like the family situation of those who have dedicated their child to God in our worship today? – 2 loving parents surrounded by an extended family, seeking to love you and bring you up well?

Or is your situation more akin, as sadly so many family situations are, to a situation of all out war, with conflict between different parts of the family, perhaps ostracism of some members of the family to others?

We’re going to read for our Bible reading today from Psalm 3 p

It’s headed, ‘A psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom.’

To understand and enter into what David writes, and perhaps to help you identify with it in your own situations, whether good, bad or indifferent, it might be helpful to be aware of a bit of the situation David found himself in.

David was a king of the nation of Israel. He was the youngest of 8 brothers… and didn’t always get the best regard from his family… sometimes its like that for the youngest siblings in families…

David’s family as an adult was at best, a dysfunctional family.

Maybe it was a result of his own immoral behaviour…. he had had an affair with another man’s wife and got her pregnant…. he’d arranged for her husband’s murder. Not surprising that his sons developed some bad behaviour traits… which included rape and violence….

Now, I don’t know how much any of us relate to any of these things, but maybe some of us do… and this psalm… through David’s experience… speaks to us about how we can be secure in God, even when under attack…. from outside…. and from within…

David at this point in his life, as he wrote this psalm, this piece of poetry, set to music, was fleeing from one of his sons.

His son desired to take over the kingship of the nation. He’d set out to effectively set up a coup and announce to the nation that he Absalom had become King. He had over several years curried the favour of the people with nice sounding words and positive promises. And now as David hears news of what is happening he chooses to flee his palace, with his closest allies and go to an area of safety, rather than face a potential uprising against him.

In Libya, this week, it has been reported that the rebel popular uprising against Colonel Gaddaffi has now made contact with senior figures in government and the military so that if the tide turns in their favour, they will turn over and side with the populace.

This was the kind of situation David felt he faced…. except that his son was a leader who had been preparing for this time, currying the favour of the people for several years… it would be equivalent to the rebels in Libya making an agreement with Colonel Gaddaffi’s son….

As King David does this, he stores his thoughts in writing….
READ Psalm 3

When you understand the context, it helps to make sense of the psalm, but it also helps us relate what’s written to our own lives.

I suspect there are phrases in this psalm which all of us can relate to in some way or another.
Maybe not in a literal, physical way, but certainly in a metaphorical way!

So David starts off, v1
‘O LORD, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me!’

There are times in life when life sometimes feels overwhelming.
It may not be that we feel surrounded by physical enemies, but maybe we feel surrounded by pressures that we feel we can’t take any more…..

It can be physical pain and suffering and we cry out ‘Lord I can’t cope any more.’
It can be the pressures of employment, or lack of employment.
It can be the pressures of family life, when things go awry with our children, rebellious teenage years, with babies or young children leading to sleepless nights… or at the other end of the scale with aged parents.

There are times in life for most of us when we feel overwhelmed.

And its okay for us to come to God and tell him that’s how we feel.
The psalms are full of people doing that.
If God has seen fit to allow such cries to be included in his word – even when those cries are sometimes highly questionable – then it seems to me, that he’s saying to you – it’s okay for you to come and lay it all out before him.

David moves from his physical fears, ‘how many are my foes!’ to his psychological fears v2
Many are saying of me, ‘God will not deliver him.’

Our psychological fears, the negative things said about us or said to us are often the things which limit and control us most, holding us back from fully being all that God made us to be.

Do you ever have negative thoughts which run through your mind?
Negative thoughts which hold you back from doing things?
Negative thoughts which tell you you can’t do this or achieve this?
Negative thoughts that tell you, you will fail?
Negative thoughts which tell you that God will not deliver you?

And you reach the conclusion…. so what’s the point anyway.

We then have an interesting word in the psalm – a word which occurs 3 times in this psalm and lots of times in other psalms. The word ‘Selah’ or ‘Selah’ .(You probably really need to listen to this to get the different intonations I put on this!)

The footnote at the bottom of our Bible page tells us the word is ‘a word of uncertain meaning, occurring frequently in the psalms; possibly a musical term.’

Some commentators, based on other customs of the time period, believe that it was a call for a rousing musical interlude, perhaps concluding with a clash of cymbals that would lift the spirits – because it usually marks a transition in the text from a period of negative perspective or introspection to a period of positive statement, or a moving on in positive ways of thinking.
I don’t know whether we can have a quick drum roll and clash of cymbals to move on to the next part of the psalm??!!!
Thank you Brian!!

And so King David goes from this negative thinking ‘how many are my foes! How many rise up against me!’ ‘God will not deliver him.’ to these incredible words in v3,4

‘But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head. To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill.’

He lifts his eyes from his problems to the One who is able to be the answer to his problems.

What about you?
Have you done that?
Lifted your eyes from the tough things you are facing, to the One who is able to meet your need?

Or are you just staying lost in your fears?

King David says, ‘you are a shield around me, O LORD;’

It’s interesting, he doesn’t say ‘you put a shield around me’ – he says ‘you are a shield around me’

This is not about God putting protection around his people, it’s about him being our protection!
In the New Testament it says of Christians that we are ‘clothed with Christ’ – he doesn’t just put something in front of us to protect us, he clothes us with himself. The word ‘Christian’ means ‘Christ like ones’. And we are not called Christians, Christ like ones, because we have worked hard to become like Jesus, we are called Christians, Christ like ones, because we have been clothed with Christ! If you haven’t had that experience in your life, come to that place, where you’ve given your life to Christ and received his gift of new life I’d love to talk with you about it after the service.

How does it make you feel to know that you are clothed with Christ??!!
To know that your protection is that you are clothed with Jesus.
For anybody, or anything to get to you now they have to go through God himself.
That’s why we have our title for today ‘Living secure when under attack.’

In one of the letters in the New Testament it talks of putting on the full armour of God.
The fullest part of the armour of God is knowing that we are in Christ, that we are clothed with Christ.

Having reminded himself that God is there to protect him, he reminds himself that God is the Glorious One, who lifts up his head (see the footnote) – the latest translations of NIV have dropped the idea that it is God bestowing glory on the King and have focused on the glory of God.

God wants to lift our heads, he wants to lift your head to see his glory, to know that he is the all powerful one who is able to meet your need.

Where are you looking at the present?
Looking at your troubles?
Lift your head to God and gaze upon him.
Know that he is greater than your problems.

Doing that doesn’t mean that you ignore your problems, or suppress them, but it gives you a different perspective as you come to cry out to God over your situations.

Note that in v4 King David doesn’t offer a humble gentle prayer.

‘Oh Lord, please help me….’

He says ‘I cry aloud’

‘God, you know my situation. You know the fear I’m living in. You’ve got to come and do something. Sort this situation. Please Lord!!’

And then he writes v4
‘and he answers me from his holy hill…’

He doesn’t say how God answers him – and in the accounts in 2 Samuel of what happened at this time, it might be difficult to say – well that’s what God’s answer to prayer was.

Maybe it was a giving of peace in the midst of a situation of turmoil; maybe it was the bringing alongside of others to support and work with David; maybe it was through God’s working his purposes out. But you get the impression this psalm wasn’t written after everything was sorted, but in the midst of the problems – so maybe the answer was God’s assurance that he was in control and would work things out in accordance with his will and purpose.

In the midst of his fear and circumstances, he is, v5, able to ‘lie down and sleep’ and wake again, because the Lord sustains him.

Sometimes that is what we need – to rest in the knowledge that we are secure in the Lord, even when we are under attack, and then we can lie down and sleep. Sleep has a wonderful habit of restoring us.

Lord, give sleep to your people. To those who battle with sleep. Grant them your favour. Give them security in you and enable them to rest well and sleep, and be restored.

Then David is able to say he wakes again, because the Lord sustains him.

Sometimes we lose sight of the simple things.
The remarkable truth is that you are alive and are here this morning!
There’s no human reason why you should be.
Every day that we have is a remarkable gift from God!
For our incredibly complex bodies to keep functioning. For the atoms which make us up, which are continually in a place of movement and flux, to stay together, to stay grouped as they do to form us into who we are is incredible! For the whole of the created order to keep functioning is a mind blowing act of God’s sustaining power.

If God is able to preserve my life, provide the air I need to breathe, when it could all just go – phh – like that – then I don’t need to fear the thousands drawn up against me on every side. V6

So, with your fears, with your struggles, with whatever the child we have dedicated has to face in the years of her life ahead, she need not fear/you need not fear if as she gets older she chooses to follow Jesus Christ and be clothed with him/ if you have chosen to follow Jesus Christ and be clothed with him.

The Bible is incredibly honest.
It doesn’t do rosy picture painting, it doesn’t gloss over people’s failures and pretend they were perfect when they’re not…. and so it includes the reality of not only David’s fear, but also of his anger.

V7
‘Arise O LORD! Deliver me, O my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.’

Now, I’m not sure that that is a very Christian prayer!
But it’s certainly a very honest prayer!
Wipe them out Lord! Smash them up!

Why is it in scripture?
Not to say that those are just and righteous things to desire from God, but to let us know that its okay to come to God as we feel – to express our real emotions to God. That doesn’t mean that he’ll grant our wild cries of desperation or frustration or hatred at another – but sometimes its as we express those things to God, that he is able to then lift up our heads and help us gaze on him, and get our security from him, rather than being lost in our fears and the tough situations we face.

So, if there’s stuff going on in your life, can I encourage you to cry out to God about it?
Be honest with him about it!
Tell him your heartfelt desires and get those emotions out of your system so that they do not control and restrict your life any longer.

Sometimes its helpful to have others come and stand with us in prayer, and sometimes God will minister his grace to us through them.
So if you’re sitting with things, ask a member of the prayer team to come and stand with you in prayer after the service – and don’t be afraid of being honest as you come before God. If you need to cry out to God, rather than talk in ‘hushed prayer tones’, then that’s okay, you go for it!

In our worship, if God stirs you to cry out to him over something then you go for it.

David concludes his psalm with a great affirmation, v8
‘From the LORD comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people.’

Conclusion
Look to the Lord for deliverance in your situation.
Prayer of blessing.