Prayer: The Parable of the Persistent Widow (Deut 10:12-22; Luke 18:1-8)

Heavenly Father,

We cry out to you for justice. It hurts to see weak people oppressed by the strong and careless. It hurts to see the poor downtrodden and taken advantage of because they are struggling to make ends meet. It hurts to see children abused because they have no voice. It hurts to see people marginalised and discriminated against because of political opinions, lifestyle choices, sexual preferences and even their gender. It hurts to see people locked up and mistreated because of their race, and because they are fleeing war and persecution. It hurts, and we feel powerless to do anything against it. We cry to you, God of heaven and earth, for justice.

And we thank you that you are the God of gods, the Lord of lords, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. You are just. You hear the cries of the oppressed, the weak and the vulnerable. You put yourself in their corner - you are their champion. You love foreigners, and you welcome all people to come to you and share in your love and salvation through Jesus Christ. We believe your promise to hear our prayers for the sick, the suffering and those crushed by other people's wickedness.

So we pray. We pray for the millions of refugees displaced around the world. Please give the people of the world your love, grace and mercy for them, and let them be welcomed with open arms into places of safety. We pray for the women, ethnicities and minorities who feel a real fear of persecution after the victory of Donald Trump in the United States. Assure them you will show no partiality and take no bribes. We pray for the people living on unemployment benefits, disability benefits and pensions here in Australia, who feel unfairly targetted by a cost-cutting government. Defend their cause, O God. We pray for those whose suffering is marginalised and silenced by our society: women suffering domestic violence, the disabled and the mentally ill.

We pray especially tonight for our sister Stacey and her family, suffering at this time due to a systemic failure in justice. Please heal Stacey's mother Heather, take away her pain, and provide her with housing. Please give the whole family comfort and strength in this great time of uncertainty and heartbreak. And please let this be an opportunity for her brother Craig to receive the treatment and care be had needed for so long.

Hear the cries for justice of all these peoples, and let them be assured that they will get justice, and quickly.

We pray with the psalmist, "Declare your enemies guilty, O God! Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins, for they have rebelled against you."

"But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you." We take heart knowing that you will avenge the suffering of the weak and the oppressed. Help us to show your love to them; to seek to offer them your great refuge. Give us patience as we wait for your swift and terrible justice on the wicked; and give us strength to show you love while we wait.

Amen

Prayer: Abram and Lot (Genesis 13-14)

Heavenly Father,

You come first in everything. Before there was a mote of dust or a sliver of light, before anything was created, you were there. You have always been, always are and will always be. You are the first in power: you have the first say in what happens when, how, by who and why. You provide meaning to all things. And you have the last say: when everything is wrapped up and finished, you will judge and you will be right; and no-one will be able to question it. You are the first in righteousness: you are always right and good and true. There is no shadows in you, no lies, no scheming or deviance. You can always be trusted to have everyone's absolute best interests in your hand; you can make the simple wise, you can turn evil to good, you can turn stubborn hearts towards you, you can make the sick well, the humble exalted and the weak strong. And you are the first in love: before we loved you, before we were even born, you have loved us so powerfully, so intentionally, so perfectly and so fully that you would come to earth as one of us, join us in the trials and troubles of life, to stand with us, to teach us, to reveal yourself to us and to die for us and save us from the wrath we deservedly face. You are first in the resurrected life too: you did not stay dead, but rose again, and in doing so lift up our hearts with hope and assurance that you are victorious. You come first at the very end; your enemies are not your equal. You rise far above them, and you will cast them away so that there will be no more crying, no more pain, no more suffering and no more death.

We stand in awe of you, God. You are amazing from first to last, perfect in every way, and loving without fault. And we thank you that you pour your strength into us through your Spirit so that we can be a part of your amazing work in this world. We pray that through us you might heal the sick, lift up the weak, stand up for the oppressed and rescue the lost. We thank you for every person who comes through our church doors; those who have known you for decades, and those who still aren't quite sure about Jesus. Work in each of our lives so that we might know you more, and be Jesus to others. We pray for every child that comes in contact with our church - in C4K, in scripture, in junior jivers, in Oasis and in WAY - we ask that you will make yourself known to them again and again, and keep knocking on the doors of their hearts so that they might open up and receive Jesus. We pray for those who come to us for comfort, for strength and for help - by your power let us give them what they need in Jesus.

And we pray for all those who might never set foot in our doors; let our own lives be open doors to Jesus for all the people we meet. We pray for the people in our community of Waitara, our city of Sydney, and our country Australia; let them mix and mingle with Jesus through mixing and mingling with us. Let them meet Jesus at the shops, in schools, in the workplace, over shared fences, on public transport and in the street. May we be your ambassadors to many throughout our lives, and may Jesus walk among the people we meet.

And we pray for those who we may never meet; let our lives still speak the name of Jesus to them in every way they can. We pray for those thousands of people whose lives are touched by the Scotts in Taiwan, the Ongs in Malawi, the Compassion kids we support, and every person who receives a bible throuhg the Bible Society. We ask that through our prayers and through the gifts we provide, Jesus will be revealed to people we may never meet in this life. Just as you are first in everything, we ask that you would be first in everything we do and think and say.

Amen

Prayer: The wisdom of hard work (Proverbs)

Heavenly Father,

We are really thankful for work. You are a god who works: who has created all things; who sustains everything; who works hard at relating to people and reaching out to them; who sent Jesus to do the work of closing the gap between people and God by defeating our sin, nailing it to the cross.

You provide all good things for people, and you also have given us a say in how we go about getting those things. You provide us with so many good things to do, and there is so much good that comes from it! We can give people things they need. We can bring joy into people's lives. We can be creative and inventive. We can make a difference in this world. We work in jobs that pay us wages that we use to meet our physical needs, or in our families where children or the sick need care and sustenance and shelter, or in study in order to learn and grow and create future opportunities, or we simply work on cultivating godliness and joy in ourselves and others. You have given us a part to play in our own lives, and the lives of others, so that we can make a difference, and we are thankful.

But we live in a broken world, where it doesn't always work out the way we'd like. You have told us that you have a plan for people and for the world, but we so often see things going against your plan. We want to pray for and commit to you, Lord, people who are unemployed because they cannot get work, or who are too sick to work. We pray for people who don't want to work. We pray for families where the young or the old are neglected and not looked after. We pray for people whose jobs are sometimes boring, or unnecessary, or whose work does not help meet people's good needs, or who are trapped in a job and cannot leave. We pray for those whose work is valuable, but who are underappreciated or forgotten; or who are exploited by their employers or by society. And we pray for those who don't have anything worth doing, or who waste their time and money on things that are pointless, that don't bring joy, or that bring trouble and harm. We pray for those who work for work's sake, and who miss out on the rest that you provide.

None of these things are in your plan, and yet we live in a world where they are so common. We ask you, please Lord, to help us to follow your guidance for work. Help us to help others who are trapped in these problems and troubles of work. And help us not to turn work into an idol, or to trust in our work to solve our problems, but instead to trust you to have everything in hand.  And help us to rest in you; to place things into your hands, look to you for our provision; and to spent quality time with you. Give us the values of your own heart: let us work for your glory, your righteousness, for truth, and for love.

We pray all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen

Sermon: Psalm 1 - Live Righteously

Once again, I include here not only the sermon itself but also the scribbles of thoughts that I had as I was working it up (you'll find that a little further down) . I hope that is of help!

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"Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, who meditates on his law day and night." Over two and a half thousand years ago, well before Jesus walked the earth, these words greeted the person who opened the Book of Psalms. Psalm 1 stands at the front of the Book of Psalms as an introduction to the whole book; a message to anyone who would open this book of prayers and songs belonging to the people of God. It encourages the hearer of this psalm, and then of every psalm following, to treat these psalms as God's law, his instruction to his people.

Psalm 1's message is simple: live righteously. This psalm expresses in a few short ideas what it means to live righteously in a world with a righteous God.

Psalm 1 is all about how great it is to live righteously, and what it looks like to live righteously. But interestingly, it has nothing to say about why we should live righteously.

Now you've just heard the psalm read, and you might think, well, hang on, it sounds like the psalm does answer this question - it says the righteous will be blessed. It says everything they do prospers. It says that God watches over their way. Aren't they good reasons to be righteous?

Well, not really. See, living righteously for the sake of personal benefit and gain is like boasting about how humble you are: it's a contradiction. The moment you boast about your humility, you're no longer humble. The moment you start living righteously for personal gain, you're no longer righteous.

So why live righteously? Psalm 1 doesn't really seek to answer this question at all, because in the mind of its author, and in the mind of its readers, the answer is absolutely obvious: you should live righteously because it is the right way to live! That's why it's called being righteous - because its right.

Think about this anti-smoking commercial. Smoking kills. Ads like this have been around for decades. In fact, they have been around for so long that people sometimes ask, Why do we still need these ads? Surely everyone knows by now that smoking kills.

And yet even this ad, stating the obvious, still assumes something - that killing people is bad. This ad doesn't need to explain why something killing you is bad. Everyone knows killing is bad. Psalm 1's message is the same: live righteously, it says. It doesn't need to explain why righteousness is good. Everyone knows that doing the right thing is right - that's why it's called the right thing.

And so maybe we might ask instead the same question that people ask about anti-smoking ads - if the message is so obvious, why say it at all?

And the answer is simple: people still smoke. People still live wickedly - that is, the opposite of righteously. It turns out that knowing something is right is not enough to make someone do it. Pretty much every smoker these days knows that smoking kills, yet they keep smoking. It's human nature that knowing something by itself is often not enough to change our behaviour.

There are other anti-smoking ads that come at it from a different angle. We're told, Every cigarette you don't smoke is doing you good.  Give up smoking for a week, and your sense of taste and smell improves. Now that alone isn't the reason to give up smoking - the reason to give up is because smoking kills. But the other health benefits are an encouragement to quit, and a testament that quitting is truthfully good for you. Again, the ad doesn't need to explain why getting better is a good thing. Being healthier is just good, everyone knows that.

Psalm 1 is like one of these commercials. But instead of being anti-killing and pro-healthy, it is anti-wickedness and pro-righteousness. It is an important and powerful message to us, and so that's what we're going to be looking at today.  That message is, "Live righteously because it is right; and be encouraged that living righteously is good for you, which is helps us know that it is right."

What, then does it mean to live righteously? Psalm 1 says three things: Living Righteously means not living wickedly; Living Righteously means savouring God's instruction; and Living Righteously means living a life that lasts.

Let's start at the beginning, verse 1: "Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers." You might notice that the new NIV that I just quoted is a bit different from the old one, "Blessed is he who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers." I like the new translation, because it makes it a bit clearer - this verse is not about someone becoming an obstacle for sinners by blocking their way from sitting in their chair. It's about a person who does not follow the ways of wicked people.

Now, it might seem obvious to say, but it's an important place to start: living righteously means not living wickedly! But the emphasis is on the "living". Look at this verse again: "Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked, or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers." The simple fact is that everyone lives a life that is made up of both right things and wrong things. You can be faithful to your spouse whilst cheating on taxes. You can work hard to provide for your family, but also be greedy. You can selflessly work to cure blindness in rural Australia and the third world whilst publicly stating that there is no God. Righteousness and wickedness are two parts of every human being's life. We all do things that are against what God's will is.

The question is not "Have you ever done anything wicked?" Perfection is God's standard for salvation - which is precisely why we need Jesus, because we aren't perfect and can't meet that standard. We need to remember that we can't do anything to earn our salvation. God and Jesus have that under control, and thank God for that. Psalm 1 is not calling people to put their faith in God to save them. It is calling people who have already put their trust in God as mighty, majestic and merciful to now change the direction of their life to one that is righteous. Living righteously isn't about living perfectly. Living righteously is about responding to God by striving meet his standard, shaping our lives around doing the right thing for God, for other people, and for ourselves.

Take a moment to reflect on that. Think about your life's compass. A proper compass always points north, no matter what you do. Sometimes there's a mountain in the way though, and you need to go around it, and you might get lost or take a wrong turn, but your compass continues to point north. What determines which way your life points? What determines how you make your decisions? Do you plan your life based on what God wants, on what is right? Or do you just do what everyone else does, or what feels good, or what draws less attention, or what makes you secure?  Well, a proper life's compass points your life towards righteousness. You might take some twists and turns, but if you are living righteously, it means that compass keeps pointing towards righteousness, towards God. If your life's compass is pointing towards anything other than righteousness, then your compass is broken, and you shouldn't follow it.

Verse 2 says this: "But whose delight is in the law of the Lord, who meditates on his law day and night."  Living righteously means savouring God's instruction.  The word translated 'law' in this verse is 'Torah'. When we think of 'Torah', we usually think of the first five books of the Bible - that is, the Old Testament Laws. But the word more correctly means 'instruction' - not so much like instructions for putting something together, but more like the teaching a student receives from a teacher. And God's teaching to us is more than just following laws. As I said, one of the reasons this psalm is first in the book of psalms is because it encourages people to treat these psalms as God's instruction. Of course, nowadays we are blessed to have not just the first five books, not just the psalms, not just the Old Testament, but the whole New Testament as well. And from this collection of books we can discover God's instruction to us.

And it stands to reason that living righteously requires a relationship with God's instruction. After all, where else does righteousness come from, if not God, the righteous one? This is of huge importance: the message of what is righteous and what isn't is contained in God's instruction to us.

So what then do we do with God's instruction? We must savour it. Listen to the words that the psalm uses: "whose delight in the law", "meditates on it day and night." This does not describe simply reading the Bible. There are scholars out there who have read the Bible many times, who know its contents back to front, and who treat it simply as a historical document that has no impact on their lives.

We must savour God's instruction like a tree savours water. Verse 3 says "Such a person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do prospers. 4 Not so the wicked; they are like chaff that the wind blows away." Savouring God's instruction includes producing good fruit that comes from his instruction. It includes thriving on his instruction. And it means that what we do will prosper - our actions, based on God's instruction, will achieve God's purposes.

Think about the tastiest thing you've ever had to eat or drink. Not necessarily the most expensive thing, but the most delicious thing.  I love chocolate ice cream. And my favourite chocolate ice cream was Cape Byron Supreme Chocolate Mud Cake ice cream. It was superb. Creamy. Chocolatey. Swirls of mud cake. full of rich flavour, and with a thick body. You don't just eat that kind of ice cream. You savour it. When you're eating it, you dwell on it; it's the most important thing you're doing at that moment; you enjoy the taste, and the texture, and the whole experience. It brings you bliss. And when you aren't eating it, you still think about it. You remember it. You wonder when you'll get to have it again. And when you have something else, you are still thinking about it! You're comparing the quality, the flavour, the creaminess, the price.

And it's not even about how often you have it. I haven't had Cape Byron ice cream in years - they don't make it any more - but I still think about it even now. That's what it means to savour something. And that's what our relationship with God's instruction should be like.

It's about seeking God's instruction from the Bible, but also from books that discuss the Bible, from sermons that explain the Bible, from songs that rephrase the Bible, from seeing people's lives that are shaped by the Bible. God's message, his instruction, exists in all those things. It's about enjoying the fact that when you read it, or hear it, or sing it, or remember it, it is God's very own teaching for your life. It's about recognising its value. It's about thinking about it all the time - not necessarily in a scholarly way, but in a real world practical way, thinking, "How does what God's told me fit into this bit of my life right now?" And it means when you hear other people say different things about how you should live, holding up God's instruction against it and comparing the message, the meaning, the rightness and the impact on how you live righteously.

It's not about how much Bible you read, or how often. Reading it more will help, certainly. But there are very, very few people who get to spend all day every day reading the Bible. Most of us have to work, or go to school, or look after our families. It's about savouring God's teaching when you can - from the Bible, from sermons, from songs, from a book, from talking with other Christians and seeing their life - and valuing that instruction, letting it sink in, mulling it over, deliberating on it, and holding it up as the truth against which other teachings get compared.

Think about a school classroom. Imagine if the teacher simply stood up the front and read out the textbook in a monotone regardless of whether the children were paying attention, misbehaving, asleep, bored, out at lunch - would you send your kids to that school? What about a teacher who used poetry, and music, and games, and stories and activities, who worked as much at keeping the children's attention and enjoyment as providing their instruction - would they be the better teacher?

Think about your relationship to God's instruction.  Does the thought of seeking out God's teaching fill you with joy? Do you delight in reading it, or hearing it? Do you meditate on it and say to yourself, "What does that mean in this situation?" Do you hold it up during your day and say, "How does this compare with what the government is telling me, what my boss is telling me, what the television is telling me?" Because if you're not savouring God's instruction like a tree savours water, then everything you do will eventually dry up and blow away like dry husks left behind after a harvest.

Now we move on to the last two verses: verse 5, "Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For God watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will be destroyed." This psalm transitions beautifully from looking at what it means to live righteously, (blessed are those who don't live wickedly but who savour God's instruction) to what it looks like to live righteously (they savour God's instruction like a tree savours water so they prosper, but those who don't dry up) and now, finally, to what the results of living righteously are (those who don't dry up and blow away, they are not God's people, the follow a path that disappears).

The last big point of psalm 1 is that Living Righteously means living a life that lasts. And that's something we need to hear, because so often we see situations and hear stories where people who are not living righteously seem to be doing really well, while those who are living righteously suffer for doing it! Big companies profit at the expense of child labour while paying no tax, and their shareholders cheer; governments lock up innocent people for months and years in offshore prisons, and their votes increase; people campaign for God to be removed from schools and public discourse, and their voices spread across the airwaves. Meanwhile those who release evidence of corruption and blow the whistle on wrongdoing get forced into exile; those who pray for the release of prisoners are arrested; those who spend their lives healing the poor are kidnapped by terrorists. Where is the blessing? Where is the prosperity?

Psalm 1 lets us look further forward, to see the end result of a righteous life and a wicked life. We're told that the life of the person who lives righteously, the life we should be living, is a life that God watches over. The word for "watches over" has a very personal connotation to it. God knows this way of life, he is familiar with it. He keeps it close to himself, because this is God's way of life - the life we see lived by God on earth as Jesus Christ. It is a life that lasts forever - not because by being righteous we earn our place in eternity with God, but because a righteous life is the life we will be living in that eternity. A righteous life is the life of the eternal God.

But the wicked way of life? It will be destroyed. There is no room in God's eternal kingdom for wickedness. And thank God for that! Greed, lust, murder, theft, corruption, violence, rebellion against God - all of these things are temporary! They don't last! God doesn't just punish those who live that way; he destroys that way of life entirely! And as for those who choose to live wickedly and reject God, they will not stand when judgment comes! They will not fit in with the assembly of the righteous. God has no place for them in his kingdom. And we are reminded of these truths every time we see the wicked get brought down, every time their schemes blow up in their faces, every time they are exposed; we're reminded every time we do the right thing and we see God's plans furthered in people's lives. That's the way it's meant to be, and that's the way it's going to stay.

We started off this morning with the question "why be righteous?" and I said that psalm 1 assumes we know why - because it's right. But the book of psalms actually words the question a different way, which we see following directly after psalm 1. It's no accident that the first words of psalm 2 are this: "Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? Etc" 

We want to ask the question," Why should we be righteous?" But God puts the question to us, "In the face of a righteous and loving God, why would you be wicked?"

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Big idea: Righteousness is great
Big question: what does it mean to live righteously?

Main points:
1) Living Righteously means not living wickedly
2) Living Righteously means being steeped in God's word
3) Living Righteously brings lasting prosperity
4) Living Righteously is the way of God

Not about why to live righteously - that's kind of meant to be obvious. You can't live righteously because it pays off - that's not righteous! You're meant to live righteously because it is RIGHT. Hence the name.

Psalms are part of the lord's instruction for us. God doesn't just demand rational thought worship, nor just pragmatic hands worship. He expects emotional heart worship.

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We are bombarded by advertising. Everyone wants to tell us why we should do something or not do it, buy something and not something else, what you should eat, what you should wear. They make all kinds of promises. Some of them seem reasonable: come to our dentist and we'll fix your teeth. Others are outlandish: drink Coke, and you will have fun. Some are outright comically ridiculous: wear Lynx body spray, and crowds of women will chase after you.

But you don't often see advertisements like this: Eat food. Stay hydrated. Breathe air. For the vast, vast, vast majority of people, these things don't need to be said. There are some basic things in life that we do because they are a self-evident good. You could make an advert for eating food just like any other ad - eating food will keep you alive. Eating food leads to fun and excitement. One of the key habits of successful people is to eat food. But the truth is we don't really need to tell people to eat food. We eat because it is part of being alive. If someone isn't eating at all, we know something is wrong.

Instead, we might have public service announcements about things that people need to know but otherwise don't - eat healthy food, don't just eat bad food all the time. Drink water, but because there is currently an e coli crisis, make sure you boil it before you drink it from the tap. Don't inhale glue fumes, because they are dangerous.  Or we might use advertising to encourage people to do something they already know but find difficult - smoking is bad, you should quit.

Psalm 1 is a psalm like this. It's talking about a self-evident good - being righteous, or living righteously. It's a short psalm, only six verses, and it stands at the front of the Book of Psalms as an introduction, a message to anyone who would open this book: live righteously. It doesn't say why, because asking why you should live righteously is like asking why you should eat food - the answer is obvious! You eat food because it is food. You live righteously because righteousness is right. A poster that says "Smoking kills" doesn't need to explain why dying is bad. And the first psalm doesn't have to explain why righteousness is right.

Instead, it describes what it means to live righteously.

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Prayer: Unwrapping people (Revelation 6 and 7)

Heavenly Father,

We are amazed at your majesty. You are the God of Eternity, the God of Existence, the God of Power and Greatness and Salvation. You are so much bigger than we can understand or comprehend. And yet you talk to us.  You are so strong that sin and suffering and death are things that you can bat away with the back of your hand. You are so amazing that you can use the prayers of little children to defeat your enemies.

In the face of your greatness, we can only ask why? Why would you even deign to pay any attention to human beings at all? We are just one part of your grand creation. We only live a short time. We cause lots of pain and suffering. We ignore you, and seek to oust you from our lives. We rail against your rightful rule, and rebel against your good and perfect plans.

And yet not only do you listen to us; you love us. You glorify us and honour us with your attention. You make us in your image, and you give us freedom. You choose us, you set us apart. You lift us up over the rest of the earth, giving us power to shape it and change it and improve it; to be creative and innovative, just like you. You deputise us to look after what you have created. You treat us with dignity and respect.

We're sorry that we don't always treat you the same way. We apologise for all that we have done this week that has disrespected you, that has gone against your plans for us, that has caused us to push ourselves away from you. We also pray on behalf of our families, our communities and our leaders, all of whom may have turned against you in some way this week, may have caused harm and injury to others, may have plundered the weak or frustrated the poor, been unjust to the innocent or oppressed the powerless. We come to you pleading for those who are suffering, that you might be with them, comfort them, and bring an end to their sorrow. Tonight in particular we pray for the Chapman family, and for Bruce's recent diagnosis of cancer. We pray for your comfort of their family, your healing of Bruce, and that the hope you give us might bring them joy.

And we thank you that despite all this, you sent your Son to walk as one of us - to be human as we are human; but to be perfect as you are perfect. We thank you that in Jesus we can see the relationship that you so desire from us. And we thank you that you work your perfect plans through his life, his death, and his resurrection. You have redeemed us from the curses of death and judgment by Christ becoming a curse for us. And then you have destroyed these enemies once and for all through his great resurrection. We thank you for your promise to us that there will no longer be crying, there will no longer be mourning, no more hunger, pain or death. What a great God you are to clue us in to your plans, to give us that hope, and to let us start living for you now.

And so we praise you together, Lord Most High. We praise you not as slaves to sin and death, but as children and heirs in your eternal family. Help us, in all that we do, to proclaim your wonderful deeds. May our lives mirror those amazing actions of Christ, so that the earth might be filled with your glory.

In all these things we pray by the authority of Jesus Christ,
Amen

Prayer: Eternity Unwrapped - Revelation 21 and 22

Heavenly Father,

We praise and adore you as the one who is before all things, who always was, always is, and always will be. You have the whole of history at your fingertips, and every day of the future is an open book to you. For you there are no mysteries. And not only do you know all that has happened, all that is happening, and all that will happen, but you hold it all in the palm of your hand. You are the architect of the future, building and furthering your plans through every decision we make, right or wrong. You are so great that you can turn our worst mistakes into your biggest blessings. You even turned our rebellion against you and our denial and murder of your son Jesus Christ into our eternal salvation. You are just that amazing.

But even though you can see the beginning, and the end, and you know what came before, and what will come after, you still dwell here with us in the now. You care about every one of us, and our momentary concerns. You want us to call on you when things get tough. You tell us to ask you when we are sick, to complain to you when life is hard, to question you when things just continually go wrong, and in all that to continue to have faith in you that you've got everything under control. And you do, Lord God. Because you don't hide your plans from us. We hate sickness, we abhore injustice, we avoid pain and we are upset by death. And you have shown us that these things will not last. You will last forever. We know that. But you call us to live with you forever, to live a life with you where there is no sickness, there is no injustice, there is no pain and there is no death. That's your plan, and you have shared it with us. And you have told us that these words are trustworthy and true. Our pain and our shame and our grieving will all be done away with. And we can trust you to do it, because you are our God.

And so we pray to you about all these things, as you have told us to. We pray for the sick in our midst, and those in our lives who are plagued with illness. We pray for those who face injustice, unfairness and oppression, both in our community and across the world. We pray for those who are wracked by pains, whether from physical hurt or from guilt, shame and betrayal. And we pray for those who grieve because of the loss of loved ones. We pray for all these things because we know you care about them. Give comfort and strength, encouragement and support to your people, so that we might see for ourselves these glimpses of your eternal kingdom. And then let us take those lights out into the world, where others might too see your glory through the comfort and strength and encouragement and support we offer others, as we pass on this testimony of your Son that you have given us - the time is coming, and it is coming soon. We praise you because you promise to accept anyone who wishes to take your free offer to live with you forever.  These words are trustworthy and true.

We rejoice in the thought, and we pray together, "Come, Lord Jesus." And we ask that the grace of the Lord Jesus be with your people. Amen.

Sermon: The reality of God's glory (Rev 4-5)

[Once again, I include some notes below to show some other directions I was going to take in the sermon at some point. In this case, however, you'll see that I started with an idea about God's glory, and then actually came to a different conclusion. Hooray for sermons teaching you things!]

We are continuing to look at the book of Revelation to see how it reveals the true nature of things. Today, we will learn about the reality of God's glory, or his greatness. I'll use those terms interchangeably. Keep your bibles open to chapters 4 and 5, and there's a sermon outline in the handout where you can make notes and follow along.

This is a Chinese imperial bridal carriage. It's pretty spectacular. This one was made to celebrate close relations between Australia and China, and given as a gift to Sydney in the bicentennial year of 1988. It used to be on display in the Queen Victoria Building, then was moved to the Chinese Garden of Friendship, and is now in the Golden Dragon Museum in Bendigo. 300 tonnes of raw stone (serpentine, a green stone like jade) was carved down into this 2 tonne carriage. Altogether there are 188 dragons, 18 Phoenixes, 36 bats and 155 strands of beads. It is made to represent the greatness of a Chinese royal bride. It is made out of precious stone to be particularly extravagant. When you look at it, you can't help but be impressed.

A person's greatness is not something we can see, so we often use something else, like extravagant objects, to represent the greatness of a person. When we look at chapter 4 of Revelation, John is given a vision. There's a massive throne in heaven. It's surrounded by a rainbow. It has lightning and thunder coming out of it. It's surrounded by 24 other thrones, with 24 kings all with gold crowns. The person sitting on that throne can only be described as looking like precious jewels; like jasper and ruby. What John is seeing, what his vision is depicting for us, is God's greatness. This is how Revelation works: it's not depicting how God really looks; it's using pictures to reveal to us the truth about God. The truth is that God is not just great and powerful, like a human king. God IS greatness and power.

What's the difference? Think of it like this. This is Elvis Presley. He is often referred to as The King of Rock n Roll, or sometimes just "The King". We might ask the question, "How great a rock n roll star was Elvis?" And people might compare him to John Lennon, or Bruce Springsteen or some other rock n roll singer. Elvis was pretty great rock star. He might even be the greatest rock star. But he's still one rock star among many others.

Now this is an Elvis impersonator. His name's Shawn Klush. The BBC named him the World's Greatest Elvis. He talks the most like Elvis. He sings the most like Elvis. He moves the most like Elvis. He wears the same clothes, the same boots, plays the same guitars. He's the best attempt at Elvis there has ever been.

Now think about this: How is it that Elvis Presley is not the world's greatest Elvis? It's because he's not an impersonator! He's the Elvis! He's not just the standard against which all other Elvises are measured. He's the source of what it means to be Elvis. He didn't have to try to be Elvis - he was naturally Elvis.  He's not the best Elvis among many. He is the real Elvis. All the other Elvises are all just imitating.

In this vision in Revelation 4, God is not just the most powerful ruler among a list of other really powerful rulers who jockey for position. God is power itself - he is its source. God is not just the greatest among many. He is greatness itself - he is its source. God doesn't have to try to be powerful or great. All power, all greatness, doesn't just get measured against him - it comes from him.

When we talk about God's glory, that's what we mean. The picture John gives us has the four living creatures, which represent all created beings, saying to God, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." God is not just holy; he is holy holy holy - he is Holiness. God is not just mighty; he is almighty - he is mightiness. God doesn't just exist; he always was, he always is now, and he always will be - he is existence. This is why when the four living creatures have said what they say, the 24 kings fall down before God, and they lay down their crowns before him, and they say in chapter 4 verse 11, "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." ALL OTHER THINGS rely on God for their very being. There is no little whizzing atom in the universe which does not owe its existence to God.  There is no blip of energy to cause any kind of change without God.  There is no concept or idea which exists for any other reason than God. No feeling or emotion outside God. Even nothing, so far as nothing is something, cannot be without God. This is what it means for God to be Greatness.  This is God's glory.

Now that, to me, is amazing. It truly blows my mind. And yet that's not the end of it. Revelation has still more to tell us about God and his glory. In the next chapter, chapter 5, John sees another heavenly vision; another picture to reveal the truth about God and his glory to us. In chapter 5 we see a scroll, sealed with seven wax seals, like on old documents, used to keep them shut until someone with authority can come and open them and act on the contents. The scroll, we will discover, is God's plan. It's what God has in store for his creation. But it can't be acted on until it's opened, and it can't be opened because no-one can open it! No-one is worthy to bring about the fulfillment of God's plans. No wonder John cries at this: God's plans are always the best, but they cannot be acted on because no-one can be found, not in heaven or in earth or under the earth, who can open this scroll or even look inside.

Let that sink in a moment. No-one can be found to open this scroll. Not under the earth - neither Satan nor any of his demons can crack it open. No-one on earth - no king or president or scientist or magician can even take a peek. Not even in heaven will you find someone to carry out God's plan. No angel, not even God himself will open it. The God we just saw on his throne, source of all power and greatness, of existence itself, will not open this scroll.  Something is missing.

Then someone is pointed out to John. They are called God's King - the Lion of Judah, the tribe of kings; and the Root of David, the line of kings. More than that, they are standing on the very centre of God's throne. Not in front of the throne, not around the throne, not beside the throne - this person is in God's very own place. And they are depicted as a lamb - and not just any lamb, but a lamb that has been slaughtered. And this lamb reaches out and takes the scroll of God's plan.

This is the picture given to John to show us the reality. This Lamb is Jesus: God the Son, who was slaughtered - and yet who lives. And it is because of Jesus' death and resurrection that God's plans can come to pass. God's glory - all power, all greatness, all holiness, all creation - hinges on the death and resurrection of Jesus.  The saving act that brings an end to sin and death for us, and opens up a way for humanity to relate to God as Father, and to Jesus as Brother, and to the Holy Spirit as friend, is as central to the very essence of God as his being the creator of all things. God's plans from the beginning, before creation, and into eternity, forever and ever, all hang on what Jesus did on that cross. If the idea that God is Glory - that he is Holiness and Power and Existence - was not mind-blowing enough, then to realise that capital S Salvation is as much a part of God's Glory as these other things just knocks me right out of the park. Our salvation, our relationship with God, is not an afterthought. It's not even just a piece of the puzzle. It is key to God's character and his plans. It is as much his greatness as anything else. He has made us, and a relationship with us, as fundamental as existence itself. What an amazing God. What an amazing, wonderful God.

According to the book of Revelation, according to God, this is reality. But how does our attitude towards God line up with the reality of God's greatness pictured for us in Revelation? I want to ask you to think about two questions.

Firstly, how do you think about God's greatness? It's quite easy to think of God's greatness as a big pile of stones - as though it is somehow possible to remove stones one at a time, and lessen his greatness, or add stones to increase his greatness.  You mightn't say it like that out loud. But if you've ever thought that you can somehow bargain with God and say, "I'll do this to glorify you, and in return I expect a roof over my head, a family, a good job doing something I enjoy," then you've thought that way. Likewise, if you've ever thought, "I am such a shameful sinner and a hypocrite. I must turn people away from God," then you have thought that way. When he blesses us with wealth, he doesn't get less rich. When he gives us strength, he doesn't get less strong. God's greatness is not a pile of stones.

God's greatness is actually more like a story.  If I write a story, I am the source of that story. If I tell you the story, I don't lose it - you simply gain it. We share it together. God is the source of all greatness. His greatness is written on our lives through our creation, through our salvation. We tell his story by being created, by being saved. Doesn't that put a different spin on evangelism - the story of God's glory is told to the world simply by being him saving us! We don't add to God's story of glory, nor do we take away from it, any more than a character in a book adds to the story in which they exist. Rather, he includes us in his glory. All glorify God, we are told: Christian and non-Christian; angel and demon; living and dead - chapter 5 verse 13 says "every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth" gives praise and honor and glory and power to God and to Jesus. We don't need to worry on that score: God's glory is guaranteed. 

Secondly, how do you think about your relationship with God as a Christian? It's quite easy to think of our salvation as just a part of our lives, and just a part of God's plans.  And so we compartmentalise our life with God into the time we spend at church, or the time we spend praying, or the time we spend volunteering for things. But it's so much more than that. A relationship with God through Jesus Christ is as vital as existing. It's central to God's glory. It is therefore central to our entire being. There's no part of our life where God should be absent.

In Revelation chapter 4, we see a picture of the 24 kings with 24 golden crowns. A crown represents sovereignty - supreme and independent authority. But Revelation shows us the reality of God's glory - that there is no such thing as authority independent from God. All power and glory and greatness and salvation comes from God. We have to accept that reality. And that means taking off our golden crowns, and laying them down at the foot of God's throne where they belong; giving up our pretend authority and accepting God's actual authority.

Are you still holding on to your authority over your life, your golden crown, hoping you can use it to bargain with God? Are you living as though Christ's death and resurrection is only important on Sundays? Is God's voice just one of a bunch of competing voices demanding your attention? Don't ignore reality! Give your pretend authority over to God. Not because you think it will get you something. Not because you think it will glorify God - everyone does that eventually. Do it because he loves you enough to die for you, and because you love him back. That relationship of love with God, possible because of Jesus, is the most important thing there is. That's reality. Let's live like it.

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And again, that is reflected in the songs that are sung. The four living creatures and the 24 kings sing a new song to the Lamb, "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." And then the angels, all the angels, all the angels ever, cry out in praise to the Lamb, "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" And then every creature ever made calls out the praise of God and the Lamb, together, "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!" Their songs epitomise the truth of the picture we have seen: Jesus and God, the very essence of existence, creation, power, and salvation, glorified together as one.

But their songs tell us something else too. "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" But I just said that God is the source of all these things. Don't ever think that you can bargain with God, or that he demands anything from you that he hasn't already given you in the first place. This is not a transaction; it is not a business dealing.

That's what it is like for God and his glory. Whatever small power or wealth or wisdom or strength or honour or glory or praise we have, we have it only on deposit from God. Anything we do with it ultimately comes from him, and belongs to him. If we aren't giving it back to him, who are we giving it to?

Now if you're like me, you read these amazing songs, and you think, "Yeah, Jesus and God are worthy of all that stuff. How can I make that happen?" Or maybe you were simply thinking, "Okay, so God is great. I knew that. What now?" Or perhaps you have picked up something interesting in those songs of praise that the creatures and the kings and the angels are all singing to God and to Jesus.  They say things like, "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory;" and, "Worthy is  the Lamb, who was slain to receive <among other things> glory;" and, "To him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be <a list of things including> glory." And you might be thinking, "But if God IS glory, and Jesus IS glory, then how can they receive glory? How can we give God and Jesus glory if they are already the source of glory?"

Let me ask you this: why do we applaud people? Sometimes it's because of what they do - so you might receive applause when you graduate from school, or win an award, for a good catch, or scoring a point, or their good form in their swing. Sometimes we do it to congratulate people - like at a wedding when we celebrate the happy couple. We might applaud when we find a joke both funny and clever. We might applaud when someone is giving a speech because we want to show that we agree with what they said.

And then sometimes we applaud people simply because of who they are. When a powerful personality is being presented - a leader, a stand out person, a hero - we applaud them before we have even heard what they have to say. In those cases, we are applauding not just because it's polite (you can tell the difference in a polite clap). We applaud because of who they are in relation to us. They are not just a leader, they're our leader: we respect them, we love them, and we applaud simply because it is them who stand before us.

Now that raises an interesting question: do we clap because someone is great, or are they only great because we applaud them? A person has greatness, or glory, because of who they are and what they do; and we give them glory by acknowledging the greatness of who they are and what they do. We don't add to someone's greatness by applauding them; really, we rob them of their rightful glory if we don't give it to them.

Giving glory, then, is like money in the bank: you earn the money by your work or because you inherit it (what you've done or who you are), and the bank pays it to you not because you earn it from the bank, but because the bank owes you that money. If the bank didn't pay when you had a positive balance in your account, and they said, "Oh, you just need to put in a few hours work first," how upset would you be!? That's your money that you deserve. They need to hand it over.

Giving glory is like that, but it's more than that, because we don't just give glory because it's due. We give it because we respect and love the great person who deserves it. Let me show you what I mean. If you love God, join with me and let's give him a big round of applause. Really show him how much you respect his greatness. How does that feel? It's not enough, is it? It doesn't even begin to express the greatness God has. It's good enough to congratulate a married couple or welcome a new baby into church, but it doesn't do justice to God's greatness, to the awesomeness that is existence and salvation.

We need to give people the glory they deserve. And God and Jesus deserve so much glory that applause alone will not cover it. power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

There are two reasons we should hand over our whole lives to God.

Prayer: God at Work in Spite of Fear (Judges 6)

Heavenly Father,

We know you are a god of Good.  We know that you don't delight in evil or wickedness, that it doesn't please you when people do wrong. And yet we look around our world, and we see so many acts of evil and wrong, human against human, or the world seemingly against us, and it shakes us up. We hear of oppression and bullying and mistreatment of people based on their sexuality or gender identity, and we fear that they might suffer harm. We watch people fleeing from danger being put into detention centres by our government, and we fear for their safety and health. Stories of terrorism abound - bombings in Belgium and Pakistan that kill and wound hundreds; kidnappings, beheadings, shootings, knifings, all of which are designed to strike fear into our hearts. We hear statistics of domestic violence and child abuse, and they scare us - they make us look at our own churches, even our own families, and see possible dangers for ourselves and our children. All around us people get sick, and although we have good medical facilities and hard-working doctors and nurses, people still suffer with health problems, they grow frail and they die.

We know you're a good God, but when we see and hear all these terrible things, we become afraid. And so we call out to you, our mighty God, and we ask you to hear us in our fear. We don't understand why all these terrible things happen, but we thank you that we can trust in you, Lord, knowing that you are in control. We thank you that no matter how big and scary and unstoppable the forces of evil might seem to us, you are bigger and more powerful, and you can stop them, and you will stop them. We take your promises to heart, and we rely on them, knowing that you have set a time when evil will fall, pain will end, and you will call all of your people to come to you forever. Thank you for having that wonderful endgame, and sharing it with us so that we can have that hope.

And with that end in mind, we ask that you will give us faith to stand firm in amongst the many things that we might fear in this world. Give us strength in your spirit to carry your name into dark places, so that all of your children might hear your voice, hear your call, and come back to you.  Make us your hands and your feet, so that we can offer refuge to all who call on you and ask for your help. Fill our hearts with your love for the lost, the marginalised, the mistreated, the oppressed and the weak. Fill us with joy that we can share with them in their distress. Bless us as we give whatever we have, Lord, so that they might see your light and receive your gifts.

We pray for your protection and relief for those who are suffering in the grip of physical and mental health issues. We pray for new mothers and expecting mothers and fathers, that you will be with them and watch over them, and fill them with joy and keep their children safe. We pray for those who have lost loved ones through sickness or violence, that you will be with them in their grief. We pray for those who are struggling financially, that you will ease their burdens. And we pray for those struggling with sin and spiritual darkness, that you will show them your amazing grace, and welcome them into your wonderful light.

All these things we pray, trusting in your son, Jesus Christ, amen.

Prayer - God at work despite our disobedience (Judges 14-15)

Heavenly Father,

We know that you are a holy God, perfect in love, justice and truth. We know that you are set apart from anything or anyone else. You're certainly set apart from us. We're definitely not perfect in love, justice or truth - not as individuals, not as a church, not as a society, and not as the human race. We fall short of your perfect holiness, and yet you tell us, "Be holy, because I am holy," and Jesus tells us, "Be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect."

We are not perfect, and you know that. We are tired, exhausted, sick, troubled and weak. We despair at our condition, and you know that too. So we ask you to have mercy on us, Lord, because we are faint; heal us, Lord, because we are in agony; save and deliver us, Lord, because our souls are in deep anguish. 

And we thank you, our glorious and awesome father, because when we look around this world, full of troubles and sins and suffering, we see you at work through the weakness and inability of your people. We hear about you healing people through medicines and doctors and nurses and people who go out of their way to bring relief to the sick; and we pray that you will continue to heal the sick through your people. We watch videos of you bringing comfort and relief to those who are losing homes, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, children and fields because of persecution they face or because of disasters that strike; and we especially pray for those in Japan who are helping with the earthquake relief efforts there, and for those in Chibok, Nigeria, whose kidnapped daughters have now been missing for two years. We read about those who are taking your message into places it's never been, or to people who've never heard, or who have heard a hundred times before, who are guiding and discipling people into brand new relationships with you; and we pray that you will continue to work in the hearts of all those who hear in prisons, in scripture, in church and everywhere else. And we can look around and see your hand stretching over the adults and children and families in this church, and thank you for the provision you give, the instruction you give, the support you give, the love you give amongst us and between us; and we pray that you might help us as we continue to love and support one another through times of difficulty and stress and even joy - for all the new and expecting mothers and fathers of our church, we pray you will work through your people to provide love, comfort and support.

We know that we can turn our backs on you, and yet we thank you that you never turn your back on us. We are amazed at how you can turn even our weakest moments, even our greatest failures or temptations or sins, into your most glorious successes, into times that will make the heavens fill with songs of gladness. Only you can turn evil into good, O Mighty God - only you can create perfection with such imperfect tools - and we are humbled as you choose to work through our weakness to further show your strength and glory. Help us to embrace our weakness and accept your strength as we rejoice in your glory, and praise your amazing name.

By the grace of Jesus Christ we pray,

Amen

Prayer: Understanding Miracles (John 20:24-31)

Heavenly Father,

All your works are amazing and astounding to us. From the beginning, you created the world and everything in it, suspended in a universe so finely tuned for our survival that the very existence of everything speaks to us of your love and care for us. You made humanity in your own image, and revealed yourself to us, wanting your creation to know its creator and to relate to you in love. Again and again you have chosen to work through the weak, the troubled, the sinful and the scorned, so that when you are victorious - which you always are - your victory is that much more impressive for the path that it came. You chose a man and woman, old and unable to have kids, and turned them into a nation. You took that nation, when it was overpowered and enslaved, and made them your people, giving them freedom and riches and blessings.

When you came into our world as Jesus, you didn't do it as a mighty king backed by legions of angels, or born to the emperor of the most powerful nation. You chose shepherds and foreigners for your ancestors, a carpenter and a vulnerable young woman for your parents. You came without fame or fortune, and yet you healed the sick, drove out demons, and taught us your will with power and authority. You modelled a life of love and holiness, caring for the needs of your creation. And then you did the most amazing thing we can imagine: you defeated our greatest enemies - sin and death - through dying yourself. You made yourself the lowest of the low, a criminal on a cross, cursed for us.

And then you raised Jesus from the dead... and he left again.  Rather than storming the earth and conquering it at the hands of your glorified and risen Son, you sent your spirit to dwell in your people, in ordinary people, in people like us, and you sent them to conquer the world in your name - not with violence, but with love. You have worked through us - ordinary, normal, weak and stuttering and sinful and stumbling people - to bring your loving message to billions. 

And so we come together today, Father, to ask you to continue doing what have done from the beginning. We ask you, Lord, to glorify yourself. Make your name great among all the people that we meet - Waitara locals, family and friends, workmates, acquaintances and strangers. Show your love to us and through us to others, so that more and more people might know you and love you in return. Reveal yourself and your love in every way possible, and give us the faith to know your love and accept it even when it doesn't look like the love we might want.

We pray for those among us who are sick, who are struggling, who are in pain, who are suffering trials of many and various kinds. We ask, in love for them and for you, that you will act in love to them. And we know in faith that you already do. If it is your will to heal them and to make their situations easier, do that and be glorified, Lord. If it is your will that they continue on these difficult paths and you give them the strength to overcome through faith in you, do that and be glorified, Lord.  And if it is your will that they be helped through their pain and suffering by the loving actions of your people, give us the strength to do that, so that you will be glorified, Lord.

And in all these things we pray that you will be revealed to us in greater measure, so that we might know you better, love you more, and live for your glory. And we ask these things in the authority of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen