A Different Perspective Official Podcast
God has a habit of wanting to speak right into the circumstances that we’re travelling through here and now; the very issues that we each face in our everyday lives. Everything from dealing with difficult people … to discovering how God speaks to us; from overcoming stress … to discovering your God-given gifts and walking in the calling that God has placed on your life And that’s what these daily 10 minute A Different Perspective messages are all about.
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Distractions // Building a Godly Family, Part 11
08/25/2025
Distractions // Building a Godly Family, Part 11
With all the entertainment options and gizmos available to us these days, there are so many distractions. Things that stop us from interacting and doing the things that we need to do to build a godly family. I remember with great delight the days that I used to come home from school in my younger years. I was allowed to watch an hour, maybe an hour-and-a-half of TV. It was a great big hulking black and white model that sat in the corner of our lounge room. I used to watch Gilligan's Island and Mighty Mouse, and later on Batman. Our time in front of this tube was strictly limited by our parents. They didn't want us getting square eyes. And then it was out to play with the other kids in the neighbourhood, and then in to do our homework. Help with setting the table, cooking the dinner and certainly helping with clearing up and washing the dishes. It was those times, washing the dishes and drying them up, that my sister and I used to sing songs. When it came to being a family it seemed that there were fewer distractions back then. Oh sure, my parents had to work hard and they had busy lives but there wasn't any internet. There weren't dozens of cable TV channels. We only had one TV set not three or four as many homes do today. There were just fewer distractions … distractions from, well, I guess from being a family. Things were never perfect but there seemed to be much more time to interact. More time to do things. I hope you won't mind indulging in my little bit of nostalgia. Maybe looking at it through rose coloured glasses you think. Maybe each time and each age and each generation has it's challenges in being a family. But today's entertainment options are so prolific. I mean, cable TV with more shows and programs than you could ever watch and a lot of it, I have to tell you, is rubbish. The internet … and so many people spend hours and hours in front of the internet; mobile phones with their SMS and texting and now there's the unlimited talk plan so you can fry your brain even longer; and so many movies. Lot's of them. I remember when I was a kid there were two or three movies on at any one time. Now there's dozens of movies on at any one time down at the picture theatre. And of course we all have cars. We can go anywhere, do anything anytime. Run the kids here, run the kids there. The world is kind of a whole bunch different. And I'm not suggesting we wind back the clock. You can never do that. I'm simply making the point that we live in a different world these days. A world where there's so many distractions; so many seemingly very good things, entertaining things; razza matazy things; glitzy, attractive things. After a hard day at work or at school all we want to do is we each want to retreat into our virtual cocoons to be entertained. To have 'stuff' dished up to us. And then of course there's take away food, there's the microwave oven, the dishwasher; a lot of the menial things that people used to do together as a family; times to talk and to laugh and to share and to get to know each other. They're disappearing. There are more bedrooms, bigger houses, more living areas. We're more isolated than we ever used to be. Not everywhere but in much of the world, this is what people aspire to. And you stand back from that and you have to come to the conclusion that families are under incredible pressure. We're talking this week, on the program, again about building a godly family. Well this whole pressure of distractions is something we need to think about because, by definition a family is a unit, a team. A group that functions and grows and develops by virtue of the fact that the younger and the older members of the family communicate and interact in their lives. Ever thought about that? A family is the closest interaction in life because we share the basics of living. Eating, sleeping, cooking, cleaning. This kind of place where people should be loved should be nurtured and should be protected. And along comes all these distractions, pretty things. They start to drive wedges between the members of the family because they rob us of time – time together, time to be a family, time to talk and to listen. I'm someone who really needs to hear this too. I don't know about you but as I said last week on the program I'm very happy with my own company. It's the easiest thing in the world for me to retreat into the bedroom and watch a re-run of one of my favourite TV series. Or skip meals and work through. So many families don't even have a meal together anymore. Not even once a week. Why? Because there are so many options. Meals have ceased to be times of table fellowship and they're all about shoving food down the hole and getting going with the next thing. God though places a high premium on our families. And again, as we saw last week and we'll be looking again in more detail next week, the Ten Commandments. Of those the first four are about God and us and the very next one, the fifth one, is: Honour your father and your mother so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. (Exodus chapter 20, verse 12) And wives and husbands, in Ephesians chapter 5 God says: Wives be subject to your husbands. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her. God places a massive premium on the family because family was His idea in the first place. I mean Adam/Eve. From there came the beautiful gift of oneness and intimacy. And then out of that beautiful, intimate embrace came the gift of children. Ever figured out this plan, how beautiful it is for bringing children into the world. And there you have it, you see, there you have the plan, the plan for family; God’s plan for those who are made in His image to live in community and family. So many people hear that and they listen to that and they feel so ashamed. They feel so inadequate. "Well maybe that is God’s plan but look at the mess my family's in.' Well you're not the only one. I mean Adam and Eve had two children, Cain and Abel, and they had the same problem. One son murders the other one. I mean talk about a dysfunctional family. Here is the first family and they were so dysfunctional because dysfunction happens when we turn our backs on God. And that's exactly what Adam and Eve did. And yes, we do have a whole bunch of distractions these days. And distractions bring dysfunction. Let me say that again. They drive little wedges into the family. So distractions bring dysfunction. And the whole point of a wedge, if you pardon the pun, is you start with the pointy end and you drive it in deeper and deeper and it pulls two people apart more and more. That's what happens. Just think about it. I don't know what your family looks like but we do have more than one television in the house. And it's very easy for everybody to go into a different room and watch a different television and just have a quick meal and barely say a word to one another. The temptation is there. Now, there's a simple solution. There's something we can do right now, today, this very minute. We can start figuring out some clever creative ways of spending time together despite the distractions. We can talk with our kids in the car when we're running them somewhere. We can actually turn the TV off over dinner. We can start an interesting conversation over food. We can share something that happened in our day. We can plan some family things that involve the kids and their friends too so their friends go home and say ‘wow that was cool'. Something that's fun; an alternative to TV. There are so many creative things that we can do. You know something, we can make them fun. We can bake biscuits with the kids on a wet, cold, rainy Sunday afternoon. We can involve them in cooking the soup in chopping up and peeling the veggies. We can inject, we CAN inject some old fashioned fun into the mix. Okay, they might complain to start with but as we develop these new habits, as we get to know something new, you know what, these kids are going to look back on those simple pleasures in years to come. And that's what’s going to stick in their memory when we just spend the time.
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Children and Honour // Building a Godly Family, Part 10
08/22/2025
Children and Honour // Building a Godly Family, Part 10
Honour is not something that gets talked about a lot these days. But Commandment number 5 out of the top ten is to honour your father and mother. And it turns out that there’s a very good reason why it’s right up there at number 5. It's funny how the way we think; the things that we think are important. They change over time. If you got a 15 year old down with a 45 year old and a 60 year old and a 90 year old and got them together and asked them what things are really important my hunch is we'd get quite different responses from each of them – the values of my parents generation, people who've been through World War 2 and their parents who'd been through the Great Depression. Well those generation’s values are quite different to those of my own, the baby boomers, for whom the term the ‘me' generation was invented. I mean my grandfather on my father’s side (who's now long gone) he was born in the 1800's and he lived in a house in Romania (a place where it gets bitterly cold in winter) with animal skins instead of glass for windows. And there's one core value though. One that we don't hear people talk much about anymore, that's so important when it comes to building a godly family. That value is honour. It's something that today’s generations don't talk too much about. Oh we know that we want other people to honour us. But honour, as it turns out, is a two way street and without it we simply can't have a godly family. And in fact, God thinks it's so important that in the Ten Commandments, the first four are about God and us and the very next one, the fifth Commandment is about honour in the family. It’s pretty amazing that whole Ten Commandments thing when you think about it. Let's have a quick look. The first commandment, Exodus chapter 20, verse 2: I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other Gods before me. That's the first Commandment. Put God first. The second Commandment: You shall not make for yourself an idol whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that's in the earth beneath or that's in the water or under the earth. You will not bow down to them or worship them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God punishing children for the inequity of their parents to the third and fourth generation of those who reject Me but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. So there it is, the second one. The first one was honour God. The second one is you don't get to worship anything other than God. The third Commandment: You will not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God. For the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses His name. So, it's again about honouring God and the fourth Commandment, Exodus chapter 20, verse 8: Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work but on the seventh day is a Sabbath day to the Lord your God, you will not do any work. So again it's about our relationship with God and setting time aside for Him, to rest in Him. There are the first four Commandments. What are they all about in a nutshell, the executive summary? Well Jesus summarised it pretty well when some young lawyer asked Him, 'What's the greatest Commandment of all?' Remember what He said. Luke chapter 10, verse 27. He answered: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first and the greatest Commandment. You see, this whole "first four Commandments" thing is about honouring God, first and foremost, above all other things. That's the executive summary, nothing more important than that. Now, I'm wondering if you or I were God, what would we have put down as the next commandment? Well, if it were me, I think 'don't murder' would be number 5. I mean what can be more important than that. Don't steal. Don't commit adultery. Mmm, I think those should have come next but number 5 probably "don't murder". So, what does God choose as Commandment number 5? Here it is: Honour your father and your mother so that your days maybe long in the land of the Lord your God is giving to you. See, this 'honour your father and mother' comes ahead of murder, ahead of adultery, ahead of stealing, lying and jealousy. Honour your mum and your dad. I don't think I would have even had that one in the top 10 – maybe in the top 20 but probably not in the top 10. Yet where does God put it? Number 5, the very next Commandment after He's given four commandments about us honouring Him first and foremost. Not only that, it's the very first commandment to which there is a blessing attached. You honour your father and mother, and here's the blessing, so that you may live a long time in the land that God has given you. You know what that's about? Israel was, one day, going to go and possess the Promised Land. They were going to have to take it by force and all the nations they took it off would try and get it back. And all the other nations around them would try to defeat them. But the blessing attached to honouring your father and mother is this – that there would be peace. Ain't there a message in that for a few families? I mean, how many families are a mess because the children have never been taught to honour their parents? I know young adult children in their 20's who live with their parents who don't pay board, who drain on parents finances in their old age. Who leave a mess behind and they cause pain. Why? Because these children needed to be taught to honour their father and their mother. That's why. Have a listen to how the psalmist puts it. Psalm 37 beginning at verse 25. He says: I have been young and now I'm old. Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. They are ever giving liberally and lending and their children become a blessing. Do you see the link between what happens to children when we are righteous? They become a blessing. Now, let me warn you here. Teaching our children to honour their parents is plain hard work. It's ongoing. It's incessant. Why? Because we're all born to sin, all of us. Think about it. What's the first or the second word that each young child learns to say? No. We are all naturally rebellious. And that's why God calls us, first and foremost, to honour Him, and secondly, for us to honour our parents. Honour, respect, revere, listen to, obey, speak well of – that's what honour means. Parents, listen to me. In this day of consumerism we've been conned into thinking that unless we pander to our children’s every whim and desire and race here to do this for them and make their lunches and clean up after them, unless we do that we're not being good parents. We rationalise it. We think we're so busy at work, "I need to do things for them in other ways." Listen, the very worst thing that we can do to our children is to fail to teach them to honour their mother and father. The very worst thing, because if we fail in that, we fail to give them one of the most important elements of maturity that they will need in their adult life: the ability not to be first’; the ability to be subject to authority; the ability to serve others, to put others before themselves. Do you get it? In our home there are some bottom lines. I mean our kids are basically grown up now but there were some basic rules. You do not go out unless your bedroom is tidy. No exceptions. You speak with respect to your mother. No, she is not your personal slave. You say thank you when your mother or your father play taxi driver for you and pick you up on Friday night late at night. You say thank you directly, straight away as you're getting out of the car and loud enough for us to hear. See, this isn't about ego. It's not about being mean. It's about one simple thing. The best thing I can do is to teach my boys to honour their mother because if they don't learn to honour her, they will never honour a wife. And the same is true of my daughter with a husband. Unless children are taught to honour their father and their mother, there will be, listen to me, there will be no godliness in the household. There will be no peace. There can't be. And the time to start is here and now.
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When Two Becomes One // Building a Godly Family, Part 9
08/21/2025
When Two Becomes One // Building a Godly Family, Part 9
They say that what marriage is all about is two becoming one. It’s a great theory but, well, as I heard someone say once, it’s the “becoming” that’s the problem. That’s where the hard work really is. Well, over this last week-and-a-half, on the program, we've been talking about building a Godly family and this week in particular, about realising the enormous blessing that comes from having a peaceful home. Its great stuff isn't it? And yet, for many, it seems so impossible, this notion that our family, our dysfunctional family, with all its bumps and wrinkles and imperfect family members, could ever possibly be godly and peaceful. But it's not impossible. It’s God’s plan for our families and the peace comes from the fact that we start living our lives the way God always intended. A scripture that we've looked at over the last few days is the one from the book Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 32, beginning at verse 17: The affect of righteousness will be peace and the result of righteousness, quiet and trust forever. My people, says God, will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places. Righteousness, living our lives right, has consequences. There's blessing attached to living our lives that way. And that blessing is quietness, trust forever, peaceful habitation, secure dwellings and quiet resting places. We sow what we reap. And I have to tell you, nowhere is that more important than in a relationship between a husband and a wife because it's that relationship that sets the course for family life. I once heard someone say something about marriage that made me smile. There's a passage in the book of Genesis that Jesus quotes many years later that goes like this. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh. This person said that that's all well and good but it's the 'becoming' that's the hard bit. Anyone who's been married for any length of time will know that that's the truth. The 'becoming' is the hard bit. We all go into marriage somehow imagining that it's going to be sweetness and light, the proverbial bed of roses. Just to discover that the 'becoming one flesh' can be so hard. Because while we know that marriage is a partnership, honestly, in our hearts, our vision of partnership is that "she'll do everything my way. She'll want to watch the sport on TV with me. But, oh goodness, she better never make me spend interminable hours in women’s clothes shops and shoe shops." Or the other way round if you happen to be a woman. But it's not like that. It requires both husband and wife to lay down their lives for one another because if they want to hang on to their own lives they're going to lose their married life. But if they let go of their own lives, they'll discover this amazing new life together. Does that sound vaguely familiar to you? And this is where God’s wisdom comes in. If we want to build a godly family then the foundations have to be rock solid. Husband and wife, each individually, have to have a great relationship with Jesus. They individually have to be walking close with Him and living a godly life. That's the strong foundation in the ground. And on that foundation they can then build a godly marriage together. And on that foundation, of a rock solid godly marriage, they can build a godly family. I mean the kids and the family as a whole, what chance at godliness and peace do they have at learning those things in family, if mum and dad aren't godly and living out a godly marriage? The answer is zippitydoda. None. Absolutely zilch. And here it comes, here's the godly approach to marriage. We looked at part of it yesterday on the program. Maybe it feels a bit old fashioned. Maybe it's not quite the sort of language that we'd use today but let me tell you something from experience, it works. Have a listen, a careful listen. 1 Peter chapter 3, beginning at verse 1: Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that if any of them do not believe in the Word they may be won over without words by the behaviour of their wives when they see the purity and the reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornments such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewellery and fine clothes. Instead it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way that holy women of the past, who put their hope in God, used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands. Like Sarah who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear. Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs, with you, of gracious gift of life so that nothing may hinder your prayers. Finally, all of you live in harmony with one another. Be sympathetic. Love each other as brothers. Be compassionate and humble. Don't repay evil with evil or insult with insult but with blessing because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. Whoever would love life and seek good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn away from evil and do good. He must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their prayer but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. There is some brilliant advice in here and, as I said, we may not use the same language today. The first one is: Wives, submit to your husbands. But later on, Peter writes in chapter 3, verse 7, he writes: Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives. Do you see the thing? This is two sides of the one coin. This is actually talking about mutual submission in different ways. I just can't run off as a husband and do all the things I want to do anymore. I have to submit to my wife. I have to be considerate of her and nurture her and value her and cherish her. But also the wives have to acknowledge the leadership role that the husband has. So there's mutual submission. Wives submit to your husbands. Husbands honour, value and respect your wives. And then next it says watch what you say. Look if you were to have ... ... long life and seek good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceitful speech. Be careful what you say in your marriage because words hurt. And then seek peace and pursue it. This is not rocket science. But we're so selfish. So hell bent on getting our own ways, we ignore God. Instead of fearing Him by living according to what He says and reaping the blessing. We somehow think we know better. Well get a revelation – we don't! Husbands and wives be mutually submissive to one another. Figure out what that looks like, what it means in your marriage. Wifey dear, hen pecking your husband ain't going to work. Hubby, you ignore her much longer and you're going to lose her. Zip up your lip and don't spit out angry words. And as hard as it is, as much as it may hurt, "Seek peace and pursue it." Deliberately turn away from the things you know are wrong. From the things you know are robbing your marriage of peace. And here's the consequences stated plain and simple for all to see and hear. 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 12: For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their prayer but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Righteousness, living our lives sensibly according to God’s Word, bringing that into our marriages. People, that's where the peace is in our marriage. I'm a simple guy. I don't remember long lists but this one, even I can remember. And you know something, the more I think about it the more it's a no-brainer. It's so easy to carry on about all small stupid things that ruin our marriages and don't matter and in doing that we rob our home of peace. You want peace? You have to seek it and pursue it.
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Wife and Mother // Building a Godly Family, Part 8
08/20/2025
Wife and Mother // Building a Godly Family, Part 8
We think of men being the stronger sex and the Bible even talks about women as being the weaker sex. But some of the strongest people I know are women – and you women, your particular brand of strength can be such an amazing blessing to your families. You know, so often we look at men and there's something about their physical size and brute strength, their ability to go out and crash through problems. It's easy to make the mistake and think that it's the man who's the strongest force in marriage and in a family. Well maybe that's true. But you know something, there's another 'tour de force' in the home. It may not be quite as obvious but it's there. And it's to be found in the wife and the mother. So many of the women I know, and I'm sure you're the same, they work so tirelessly to bring up children and to nurture them, to keep the family together. And it's their strength that's so easily missed. The fact that it is missed, that women so often, are undervalued in the family I think is one of the reasons that so many women decide to call it quits and pull up stakes from their marriages in their middle years. The reality is that most divorces are initiated these days by women rather than men because there's a sense that they lose their own identities in their families. They feel under-valued and misunderstood and eventually something has to give. It's sad but true. I want to have a chat today about turning this negative into a positive; about valuing the role of the wife and the mother in a way that brings great blessing to our families because wives/mothers, you have an amazing role to play in building a Godly family. Yesterday we talked about the man – he husband, the father. What an incredible asset his strength is in building a godly family and bringing about peace in the home. Today it's time to talk about the wife, the mother and the incredible asset she can be to being the glue that binds the family into a working unit; the one who makes the home a nurturing environment. In a sense the natural call of a man is to go out and bring money and food into the home. And the natural call of the woman is to use that to provide the home; to make the home a home. Now it's not quite as neatly polarised as that anymore these days. Wives and mothers also go out to work in many cultures. But in terms of the call on our hearts, it is very true that the man’s focus is on the hunting and gathering thing, if you like, and the woman’s focus is on building the home. The problem is and this is what I was alluding to at the beginning of the program that so often the woman feels used and abused. And on top of that, these days in many places and cultures, as I said, she's expected to go out and earn an income as well. Little wonder she feels used and abused. I mean, in Australia many women work but they also do the lion’s share of the housework rather than their men. As though that's any surprise to us. So often the Christian or the Biblical view of male/female relationships can seem kind of old fashioned. We are, after all, living in the 21st century, are we not? How can we be talking about wives obeying their husbands and women being the weaker sex? What an outdated view of things! And yet, you know, the more I delve into what the Bible has to say about men and women – male/female relationships; husbands and wives – the more I realise that, whilst maybe we wouldn't use quite the same language if we were writing it today, what God has to say about families and husbands and wives – when you dig beneath the language that offends our 21st century sensibilities and go to the heart of what's being said – it's as true today as it was way back when it was written. Have a listen to this. It comes from the New Testament, 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 7: Husbands, in the same way show consideration for your wives in your life together. Paying honour to the woman as the weaker sex since they too are also heirs to the gracious gift of life, so that nothing may hinder your prayers. The "weaker sex" thing makes me smile. Women after all are the ones who have the babies. And the very thought of having a baby is enough to send me into a cold sweat. I mean I go weak at the knees at the thought of what it must be like for a woman to give birth. And then the Bible calls them the weaker sex. Isn't it a bit chauvinistic do you think? Hmm, well actually what the original Greek language that sits behind our English translation says is that they are the "weaker vessel". This is how I picture it. You know those great big metal aluminium cans that they have when they milk cows. Have you ever seen them on television? Or maybe you live in a rural setting. That's what the man’s like, this big, strong, knockabout strength, kind of robustness about him. And on the other side, you have a beautiful, exquisite vase, infinitely more beautiful, small and delicate and valuable, sitting on the mantelpiece. See men, they play football and all those sorts of games that crunch their bones together. It's not really a girl thing is it? Women, on the other hand, are delicate. They're much more emotional creatures, for the most part, than we men are. And what Peter's writing here, to the blokes, is this, "Just because you appear stronger on the outside; just because you've got it in your heads that you're bigger, better, stronger; (and this was particularly relevant in the male dominated, patriarchal society that he was writing in) just because you've got this macho picture in your head, don't you, for one minute, even begin to think that you are somehow better or more valuable in God’s sight. In fact, you had better honour her." You know what that means? Firstly and foremostly, to value her and then to pay deference and reverence to her. This is very strong language and there's a sting in the end of this sage bit of advice to us men. Have another listen. 1 Peter Chapter 3 verse 7: Husbands, in the same way show consideration for your wives in your life together. Paying honour to the woman as the weaker sex since they too are also heirs of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing may hinder your prayers. Look at that last bit, the sting in the tail. Look at how seriously God takes this. "You'd better do this", says God, "so that nothing may hinder your prayers." People, women play such an amazing role in building a Godly family and bringing about peace in the home. But to those of you who are women, I want you to hear how seriously God takes you. How much He cares for you. How much He doesn't mince His words when He is standing up for you. It is time for some women in this world, the sort that when they're asked what they do they say, "Oh, I'm only a housewife". It is time for you to stand up and to realise how precious you are in God’s sight. It is time for you to know how seriously He takes you and it is time for you to realise how incredibly, incredibly important your gentleness and your commitment to your children and your commitment to your husband and your home really is in building a godly home. See, in my heart, I think of my wife, Jacqui, as the pillar of our family. She's the one that binds us all together. While I'm out there being the hunter and gatherer, she is binding the family together so that when I come home, there is in fact a family to provide for and to protect and to be with. The wife and the mother, you are so much a part of God’s plan for building godly homes. Please. Please, please, please do us all a favour. Don't ever forget that even when the rest of us maybe don't say thank you quite often enough.
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Husband and Father // Building a Godly Family, Part 7
08/19/2025
Husband and Father // Building a Godly Family, Part 7
We men are a funny breed – we have the whole provider and protector thing going on inside us. And you know something, if we know how to live that out in a godly way, we can be such a blessing to our families. We men are a funny breed. There's something deep inside us that makes us the protectors and providers for our families. Most men, not all but most men are programmed, hard wired, to provide and protect. Yet these days, women so often work and bring an income into the house and that's great but it tends to be the man, the husband, the father who carries the burden of protection and provision for his family around in his heart. That's why, when things are financially tough, so many men take it personally. I was talking to a good friend of mine recently who had been counselling many of his friends in the financial services industry; men who had lost so much of their wealth through the financial crisis. Many of them were contemplating suicide. Why is that I asked him? And he said, "Well, here's the strange thing. By any global standard you'd have to say these men are still very wealthy. But through the loss they feel like such failures." It's kind of how we are as men. And even though we men can so often get things wrong and become all dominating and reclusive and uncommunicative and even down right abusive, you know there's something special about the way that God’s made us. There's something inside us that wants to lead and that … that thing is a real asset to our families. It's such a blessing to have a godly family. You know what comes from a godly family? A peaceful home and that is such a blessing, an incredible blessing – to walk in the front door, shut the door and know that we have, on this side of that door, peace. I love this passage from the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament. The effect of righteousness will be peace and the result of righteousness - quietness and trust forever. My people (says God) will abide in peaceful habitation in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places. (Isaiah chapter 32, verses 17 & 18) Now, I don't know about you but I want that: peaceful habitation, secure dwelling, quiet resting place. And funnily enough that fits so well with the thing that we men have hard wired inside us somewhere, to be the protector and the provider. Because if we really thought about it that's the sort of home we'd like to provide for our families. I certainly would. And that snug fit, that kind of 'hand in glove' thing that's happening here between God’s promise of the peaceful home and the man’s desire to provide and protect, you know what that tells me? It tells me that we men, husbands and fathers, we have a big role to play in bringing that blessing of peace to pass. That's something I'd like to unpack today on the program because if the truth be known, there is more than one man listening today, for whom it's time to step up to the plate and be a man. To be the man God made him to be in his family: to protect, to provide, to bring peace and blessing to our homes. There's this notion these days of the man being the head of the household is not particularly popular. It's not politically correct. But the reality is that the man’s protector/provider kind of strength fits him well for that role. Not to dominate people, not to abuse his power but to be a godly leader of the home. And here's the key, it's in that adjective "godly". An ungodly husband and father can be such a destructive force in the home because he's so strong. His anger is so fierce. It's part of who he is as a man. A father can be destructive. Have a listen to this bit of Godly advice from the apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 4. He says: Fathers, do not (do not) provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. You see the two sides of the coin there? The strength that he has can let dad bring his kids up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord. It's a great strength but it can be misused to provoke his children to anger. Godly strength wrongly applied becomes a harsh reality. And where there is harsh judgement and treatment from an ungodly man in the home, there can be no peace. The other mistake we make, in the 21st century context, is the mistake of abdication. Many a father and husband walks away from his role as the leader of the home. And that's sad. Because as a godly leader he can bring such an incredible peace and stability and safety and order in the chaotic thing we sometimes call family. The three most common reasons why we men sometimes abdicate are these. Firstly – we're just plain exhausted. We're working long hours to pay the mortgage and we just can't be bothered. We've got nothing left. Secondly – it's not politically correct anymore for him to exercise leadership. We mistake equality between men and women. We get it all wrong. We think, somehow, it means that our roles in the home are the same. Well they're not because we're different and God planned it that way. And the template that men have in their heads of the relationship between their fathers and mothers doesn't seem to work so well anymore. So it's not politically correct so they don't exercise leadership. And thirdly – kids have been taught to disrespect their parents. I don't know if you live in a place in the world where you can watch the TV program The Simpsons, but the father, Homer, is a stupid old slob who never gets things right. Society is teaching our children to defy their parents and so many a man will abdicate. And on top of all that, he's so busy, he's too busy to have a close walk with God. He himself isn't godly. You know, if I don't spend time with God I am not going to be godly. So if you're a man, listen up. And if you're a woman, listen up too because this is important about your man. Men, God has made us in a certain way, strong with that protector/provider instinct for a purpose. And the greatest thing that we can do for our families, the greatest thing, is to get close to God. To start praying and reading the Bible and getting so close to God that we can hear His heart beat. It's a strong, beautiful beat, a constant rhythm of a Father's heart. And the closer we get to God, the more we rediscover who God made us to be. Actually, being a leader and loving and cherishing our wives and nurturing our children, it comes kind of naturally. It comes naturally to cherish our wives. It comes naturally to instruct our children, to nurture them, to discipline them and to protect our families from things that will upset their peace. The problem is so many men have slipped into bad habits because they're tired, because society has told them that godly ways aren't trendy anymore. Maybe they're not trendy but if we surveyed woman and asked them if they wanted their husbands to step up to the plate and take on the mantle of leadership, godly leadership in the home. You know what answer we'd get, a resounding, "oh yes please!" It's great for us men to be passionate about our work but something my wife's been teaching me is that I have to have something left for my family too. Not the leftovers, not the dregs but something of my best. So, if you're a man, if some of this rings true for you, if it's striking a bit closer to home today than you wished it was, here is my encouragement to you today. You my friend are God’s gift to your wife and your children. He expects you to lead. He expects you to protect and to provide. And when we've figured out what that means in our particular families, what we discover is that who we are brings peace to our homes and that … that is such a great blessing.
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The Blessing of a Peaceful Home // Building a Godly Family, Part 6
08/18/2025
The Blessing of a Peaceful Home // Building a Godly Family, Part 6
Peace is one of those things – well, who doesn’t want peace in their lives. Freedom from conflict. But imagine, imagine what a blessing it must be, to have peace at home. A family that thrives on peace instead of being lost in conflict. If God offered you anything you wanted in this world, anything at all, what would you ask for? Tough question. It takes a bit of thinking about: a new car, a bigger house, health, a long life. There are so many things to choose from. What would you choose? Can I tell you something? After the basic provisions of enough air to breath and water to drink and food to eat and a roof over my head, you know what's right up there for me. Peace, just being able to live my life in peace. Back in the Old Testament in 1 Kings Chapter 22, verse 17, it says this: Then Micah said, "I saw all of Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep that have no shepherd." And the Lord said, "These have no master. Let each one go home in peace." There's something about, about being able to go home in peace. And you see that's God’s heart for His people. He looks at Israel, they’re scattered everywhere, they have no leadership. And God says, "You know what I want, I want for each one of them to go home in peace. To kind of walk in the front door, close it behind you. Be in this sanctuary called "home" and to be able to withdraw from the world with our families and have peace." In fact, my hunch is if you and I did a survey and a peaceful home was one of the things on that list, many people would choose that as what they want, because there is such a blessing in a peaceful home. Many a home is torn by strife, discord, disrespect, dissention; and many a family is disintegrating. What if, what if we could have a peaceful home? What a blessing that would be. When I look around this world, you know, many homes are far from being peaceful. They're a long way from that. Depending on where you live either the divorce rate is running at almost one in two marriages. Or, if divorce isn't quite the cultural norm, many a so-called families are little more than two waring adults and a bunch of angry, ill disciplined children. There's no peace in those places. You can't have peace when people aren't living a peaceful life. There's an interesting statement in the beginning of the Old Testament book of Proverbs. Now this is a wisdom book. It's wisdom literature. Have a listen to what it says. Proverbs Chapter 1, verse 7: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and only fools despise wisdom and instruction. When it comes to peace I had an interesting email from a rebel fighter in a war torn part of Africa last year. He listened to a program of ours on the radio about the fear of God. Have a listen to what he said: Recently I was attending a peace conference. While I was in my hotel room I turned on the radio. As I was listening to your program I realised that without the fear of God in our hearts, there will be no peace. No peace at all. These 8 minutes were enough to take me to a turning point in my life as well as in my peace effort in this region. I left that room as a changed man. I've been on the battlefield for 13 years now. I don't know how many people have died because of my gun but what I know is that I decided to lay down my arms. What an amazing testimony! But do you get it? Peace comes when we fear God. That's what the Bible says and that's what this man discovered. This man who killed goodness knows how many other people. Peace comes when we decide to do it Gods way. Peace comes when we lay down our guns, stop shooting because deep in our hearts we've experienced the fear of God: a right fear, a good fear when we decide to start living our lives His way, the right way. There's a name for that, it's called righteousness. And that righteousness has a real impact on our home lives. Have a listen to how the prophet Isaiah puts it. Again in the Old Testament, Isaiah Chapter 32, verses 17 and 18: The effect of righteousness will be peace and the result of righteousness – quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places. Wow, what an incredible blessing – peaceful habitation; secure dwelling places; quiet resting places. Where does it come from? It is the affect of righteousness. What an incredible blessing! Let me ask you something. Is that something you want for your life? When you walk through the front door, close it, shut out the rest of the world out there, is that the sort of home, the sort of family that you want to have? I believe that it is time for us to start building a Godly home, to take seriously our responsibility to play our part in making our homes Godly. Now, it's not going to be perfect because imperfect people have an imperfect home. Sure. But you know something, as we start to get the fear of God happening in our hearts. As we start to honour God and to live our lives His way, something happens. It's a bit like that rebel fighter. In just 8 minutes peace broke out in his heart. Now in our families it may not happen over night. It may take months, even years to sort through some of the messes we've created. Now, we can't change the past. We can't undo those mistakes. But we can change from this moment forward. What a blessing a peaceful home is. And I've lived in both, house of conflict and a house of peace. Let me tell you, peace is so much better. There is a price to pay. I can't always have my own way. But you know something, it's good. That's something I had to learn and I'm still learning. I'm absolutely determined to do the best I can to make the home that I live in peaceful. Not just for me but for my beautiful wife Jacqui and my daughter, Melissa. They're entitled to peace too you know. Now, there are going to be times where the three of us rub each other the wrong way. But over the coming few weeks on the program, we're going to be taking a look at some really practical things that we can do to have a godly family. I was talking recently to a real estate agent who was selling a house for a couple that had been separated. Every week they had the sales meeting to do an update on how the sale of the house was going. And he was telling me how difficult those meetings were. He said you could cut through the air with a knife with the tension. These two detested each other. They couldn't see eye to eye on anything. Why is that? How did that happen? How did things get so low? I'll tell you how. It's the inevitable outcome if we live in our families for ourselves, selfishly. What I can get out of it. It starts not long after a couple is married. Tiny cracks appear. Battles start. They turn into raging wars. And it tears our families apart. Life wasn't meant to be lived that way. We were not meant to live in a war zone. And part of what needs to happen in our homes is that each one of us needs to bring ourselves under the authority of God Himself. Godly people have the opportunity to build a godly home. It's not a slam dunk by the way. It's no certainty but at least we have the opportunity. Ungodly people have no show. Let me ask you again. What do you want? Do you want what the prophet Isaiah was talking about? The effect of righteousness will be peace and the result of righteousness – quietness and trust forever. My people (says God) will abide in a peaceful habitation in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places. Is that what you want? Or do you want a home of discord and dissention? My hunch is we need to deliberately choose peace. And then, then when we've decided on peace, we need to set about building a peaceful home, a godly family. Okay, there is going to be a cost. It can be, it will be hard work. But the blessing is so worth it. What do you think?
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Setting the Course // Building a Godly Family, Part 5
08/15/2025
Setting the Course // Building a Godly Family, Part 5
This week on A Different Perspective, we’ve been chatting about building a godly family. Well, at some point – the talk has to turn into action, otherwise nothing’s ever going to happen. The question is – are you ready? Well, are you? This week we've been talking about building a godly family on the program. The whole gist of it has been this – it doesn't matter how dysfunctional a family ours is at the moment, all it takes is one member of that family to turn back to God. To honour God and God can and will make some awesome and mighty changes. It will probably take time. Maybe longer than you or I would prefer. But God’s timing is perfect. He's a God of grace. His heart is to bless our family to a thousand generations. All He's looking for is one Godly man, one Godly woman, one Godly child to take a stand and say, "enough of this! It is time for me to build a Godly family." 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 20, in the message translation says this: God’s way is not a matter of mere talk, it's an empowered life. That's why the ministry I'm involved in is called Christianityworks, because actually, it does. Christianity does work. So today, today we're going to chat about making that happen, an empowered life that sets about building a godly family. You know what I've noticed, we can talk about a lot of stuff but most times nothing changes unless we actually do something. It's true at work. It's true at home. I mean how often have I been in a meeting at work and people talk about this and that and a whole bunch of stuff – We'll do this; we'll do that – but then, after the meeting everyone goes back to their work and their office. No-one does anything and guess what, nothing happens. I mean, nothing changes. We're talking this week and again over the next few weeks, about building a godly family and it's important because our families, truly, our families really matter to us. These are people we love. These are the people who, most often, we live with. And yet, because we come home tired and we need a rest and we ignore things like, like the badly behaved child for example. We actually don't invest anything in building up the family. There's a great proverb, Proverbs chapter 29, verse 17, says this: Discipline your children and they will give you rest. They will give delight to your heart. Now you and I have seen this down at the local supermarket. There's a mother with a young child, a seven year old kid, and this kid is just grinding her down with bad behaviour. But, well, she's tired. She's too tired and exhausted to do anything about it. So she lets this kid run riot. He causes her grief. He causes everybody else grief too. Why does that happen? I'll tell you why, probably because dad is too tired when he comes home at night to discipline the child. So this kid walks all over his mother. She's exhausted and he's only seven. I mean, wait 'til the little terror becomes a teenager. I mean, just wait. There is fruit in building a godly family, tremendous fruit. "Discipline your children" says the proverb. What do you get? Peace and a delighted heart. You sow what you reap. The problem is the sowing is such hard work sometimes. And reaping seems such a long way off doesn't it? Let me tell you something. We've been talking about building this godly family but it ain't going to happen unless we step out in faith and start making it happen. Sure, it's about God blessing our efforts but if He's got nothing to bless then He's got nothing to bless. I mean, imagine I'm 20 kilos overweight (40 pounds) and I decide I want to be trim and taught and terrific. Now I pray and pray and pray and pray and believe and believe and believe and believe that God will give me a breakthrough. But I keep eating and drinking the same old rubbish. I don't exercise. Let me ask you, is God going to zap me out of the sky while I'm lazing on the sofa and miraculously remove my excess weight? Well, He could and with God I'd never rule anything out but I've never quite seen it happen that way, have you? Why would we think it's any different in building a godly family? We behave our families into a bad place by what we say, what we do, what we fail to do, what we fail to say. We behave ourselves into that bad place. And yes, we should pray but God expects us to start behaving ourselves out of that place. He's going to bless that but we have to do our part. So, do you want a godly family; a family where each family member is living out a dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ; where each one is actually living that out into their lives; where the husband and the wife have a warm, intimate relationship; where the kids are honouring their parents; where each family member respects and honours and understands one another; where there's real blessing, Gods blessing, flowing out of our families into the lives of others? Is that the sort of family that we really, really want? Well if it is, we're going to have to decide that it is what we want and plan it and start doing it and start living it. We're going to have to decide that some changes have to be made, and you know, changes are never easy. This easy, comfortable, lollipop type of existence has to change. Discipline is painful. Kids don't like discipline much. They don't like being told, "No, you can't watch television because you have to study. No, you have to clean up after yourself. No, you have to dry the dishes." They don't like that. It takes strength, it takes perseverance but it pays dividends. So let me ask you, how much do you want to have a Godly family? And if the answer is, "YES, YES, I do!" then some tough decisions have to be made. If you're family is one with a husband and wife, then it's up to both of you. If it's a single parent family, it's just up to you to think and talk and dream and decide what's important; to set priorities; to figure out how to do this; what steps to take first and so on. Mum, Dad, you are the leaders and I happen to believe that, ultimately dad, you're responsible for the spiritual growth and nourishment and development of your family. The buck stops with you Dad. This isn't a sexist thing. So many women would give their eye teeth to see their husbands step up to the plate and take on that leadership role. So many kids would love to have parents who are interested in them, who spend time and effort setting boundaries, enforcing those boundaries, nurturing them within those boundaries. I have to tell you, as a person I'm naturally an isolationist. I prefer my own company, oft times to the company of others. I really enjoy retreating to my own space after a hard day at the office. So for me, given who I am, getting involved with the family and the kids and listening to what happened to them at school and at work, it's not a natural gig but, we have to start somewhere. You can't build a godly family if there's no relationship and there's no interaction. We're going to talk about how some of that happens later on in the next few weeks. In fact, one of the godliest family's I know, there are some friends of mine who live in Lincoln, Nebraska. Just between Lincoln and Omaha. Mum, Dad and 9 children. They've given me some of their pointers, both the parents and the kids. So we're going to have some fun and look at that. But right now we have to decide, each one of us, do we actually want to have a godly family? Well, do we? And if we do, what are we going to do about it? Maybe that's something that you can pray about and think about and talk about over the weekend. We're going to talk about it some more next week on the program – this whole thing of building a godly family.
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Breaking with the Past // Building a Godly Family, Part 4
08/14/2025
Breaking with the Past // Building a Godly Family, Part 4
The first thing a doctor tends to ask us when we visit is about our family history. And just the way that physical things get handed down to us genetically, so do emotional, behavioural and spiritual things. Question is, what can we do about them? One of the things that brings so much dysfunction into families is, well … things from the past; things that have been handed down genetically, emotionally and spiritually. It seems such an incredible paradox to me that the people who are most likely to sexually abuse a child are those who were themselves, abused when they were young. Doesn't that seem totally against the way it should be? Wouldn't you think that someone who was abused as a child, well the last thing they'd want to do would be inflict that on their own children? And yet, what happens is this powerful kind of template or imprinting. Our parents hand so many things down to us: their genes, their strengths, their weaknesses. People say that I look like my Dad, I even walk like him. But it wasn't until I saw myself on a TV interview, I was shocked to realise that even my mannerisms were so much like my father's. Pretty scary! And so alcohol addiction, bad temper, a tendency to whinge and complain, all sorts of things end up being handed down from generation to generation. Dysfunctional families are much more likely to produce children that grow up to have their own dysfunctional families. Where does it end? Well, I have a simple answer for that. It ends today. Here and now, this very minute. That's when it ends. Let me explain. See it's so easy to blame our parents for things, for the bad things happening; if abuse happened when you were a child. You had a father with a bad temper or your parents smoked, whatever, and then they handed those things down to you. I don't know about your parents but mine, I had good parents. Neither of them would ever have claimed to have been perfect. I mean, who is? But they worked hard to provide for myself and my sister. I'm sure they'd look back on their lives and see the mistakes and their weaknesses but I think we need to get this all into perspective. It's so easy to blame the past, to blame our upbringing, to blame our parents. Things get handed down from generation to generation. Some of them are good. Others aren't. When you go see your Doctor, one of the very first things he tends to ask you is about your family history. Do you have a family history of high blood pressure or diabetes or heart disease or mental health issues or breast cancer? Family history has a lot to do with our physical well being. My father had Type 2 diabetes. It took his life in the end. My mother has high blood pressure, and so I can just sit here and not exercise and eat whatever I want and then complain about the fact that they gave me diabetes or high blood pressure. Or, or I can do something about it. I can get off my backside and go and exercise and eat properly. There are clear alternatives. I mean most sicknesses – diabetes, cancer, there are things we can do in our lifestyle to mitigate them happening in our lives. And it's the same with emotional and spiritual things that get handed down to us. Maybe, I don't know, maybe you had parents who were into the occult. Maybe you had parents who fought like cat and dog. Maybe you had parents who got divorced. Maybe you had parents who knew about God but simply never honoured God with their lives. And some of that stuff gets dumped down into who you are. Well, we have two choices. We can sit here and complain about it or we can go and do something about it. Have a listen to what happens when we put other things before God; when we accept that as the way of living that's been handed down from our parents and from their parents. Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 8: You shall not make for yourself an idol (That's something that you worship other than God) whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that's on the earth beneath or that's in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing children for the inequity of their parents to the third and fourth generation of those who reject Me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. That's pretty straight forward. When parents turn away from God and chase after other things and put those things first, it's going to have an impact to the third and the fourth generation. That's obvious, we've seen it. A child brought up by an alcoholic father is going to suffer from the consequences of that, in all likelihood, into their adulthood. And there's every chance that the impact will passed down to their children as well. Not rocket science. We've seen that but look at the alternative that God talks about. He talks about, "Showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments." Now, what's a thousand generations? Well, a new generation roughly every 25 years. That's 25 thousand years. I mean only a fraction of that has passed away since this passage in Deuteronomy is written a few thousand years before Christ. Do you get it? God’s blessing to us and our families when we honour Him is massive. The flow on affect in our families is massive. And I've seen that in so many godly families, this dynasty of blessing that flows down from generation to generation. Maybe, maybe there are things in your past, emotional, spiritual, behavioural, that are still impacting your life. Today is the day that we can choose to break the chain; today is the day that we can choose to break free from the power of the past. The prophet Nehemiah saw God’s people suffering. Listen to the prayer he prayed: O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments: let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel confessing the sins of the people of Israel which we have sinned against you. Both I and my family have sinned. We have offended you deeply failing to keep the commandments, the statutes and the ordinances that you commanded your servant Moses. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses? "If you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the peoples but if you return to me and you keep my commandments and do them, though you are outcast or under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them back to a place in which I have chosen to establish my name. (Nehemiah chapter 1, verses 5 to 9) It is such a simple prayer. It's a prayer saying, "God, I have sinned. My family has sinned. We've sinned down through the generations. Right now, here and now, we take a stand and we turn away from that. Because we know that you are a God who forgives. We've all sinned but you will forgive and you will bring back". And he says, "This is what breaks the power of the past." God’s people, at this point, were living out in exile because of their sin and Nehemiah prays a prayer that gets forgiveness happening that brings Gods people back. The apostle Paul puts it this way, in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17: If anyone is in Christ Jesus he is a new creation. Old things have passed away and behold, all things are new. It may take you back to some of the things that maybe have been handed down to you – addictions, anger, bad behaviour, whatever it is – we can receive freedom from those things simply by praying and believing. God will work out His answer to our prayers, in our lives, in His good time. Meanwhile, we can take stock of those things and decide to start doing something about them, not in our own fancy strength but through a relationship with Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God who transforms us from the inside out. It is time … it is time to end the cycle of sin that's been handed down from generation to generation. The buck stops here with you and me. How about it?
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The Ideal Family // Building a Godly Family, Part 3
08/13/2025
The Ideal Family // Building a Godly Family, Part 3
Let me ask you something – if you could set about building a Godly Family – what would that look like? I mean how would you know when you’d arrived? A Godly family. Man – wouldn’t that be amazing. I'm excited because this week we're kicking off a few weeks looking at what it means to build a Godly family. That's why I'm so excited. Because I've been praying, praying that of the millions of people that will listen to these programs this week, God will transform countless families. Think about it, the family is God’s smallest, fighting formation. In the battle of life, He uses the family to protect and to nurture, to teach and to mature one another. Over the last couple of days we've been chatting about the realities of family life. Today, so often, we can be so dysfunctional in our family relationships. But that's nothing new. Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, they had exactly the same problem. It's what happens when we turn our backs on God. Husband blames wife, brother turns on brother. Look back over the history of our families, past and present and we can probably point to quite a number of dysfunctions; the rifts, the strife; the relationship breakdowns; the tensions. But truly I believe that when we get back into a relationship with the Lord our God one of the things that He wants to do is to restore those family relationships; to make our families the blessing He always intended them to be. The problem I have is convincing people that this is, in fact, the case. "Look at the mess I'm in", is so often the attitude I encounter. "God couldn't possibly, possibly set things right in my family." Well, maybe some of the things we're reaping, from the mistakes in the past, are here to stay. Divorce is divorce – that's it. But I'm an optimist and I'll tell you why. Because God is all about hope and that hope is meant to shine a light in every nook and cranny, every dark crevasse, every hurt and loss and pain that we try not to think about. God’s light of hope shines there. Have a listen to what Paul writes in Romans chapter 5: Since we are justified by our faith, we have peace with God through Jesus. Through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we now stand and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. Not only that but we also boast in our suffering because we know that suffering produces endurance. Endurance produces character. Character produces hope and that hope doesn't disappoint us because Gods love has been poured into our hearts through His Holy Spirit that has been given to us. For a while we were still weak but at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans chapter 5, verses 1 to 8). There are a few things in that. Let me just pull three of them out. The first thing is he talks about the fact that, when we believe in Jesus, we have peace with God through Jesus. And that's why we can stand in the grace in which we now stand. That's the effect of putting our faith in Jesus. Peace and Gods grace. But then he goes on and says, "well, it's great, we've got peace and grace but you know something, we're also going to suffer. And that's okay because suffering gives us endurance. Endurance builds our characters. And once our character's been built, we can look beyond all suffering and all whinging and complaining and we can see that God has given us hope. Hope because He's written His love on our hearts by His very Spirit." And all of that, all of that is based on sacrifice. God proves His love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us. How often do we want to grumble about family? "Agh, they're so difficult, it's also tense, grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble, suffering." Paul says, "No, no, no. Boast in your suffering because something good is going on here; because through it God is refining us and building us and leading us into a place of real hope." Let me tell you something. God loves to refine us through suffering. He deals with some of the worst things in us through suffering – selfishness, deceit, pride – but only when we co-operate with Him. That's why Paul says that he boasts instead of grumbles, because God's up to something good. God put us in family for reasons and look at the end of this passage, it's all based on sacrifice. We're going to talk a lot more on this 'sacrifice' thing over coming weeks in family, because it's important. But right now, I just want to paint a picture in our hearts. If you were going to build a godly family, get over all this suffering, all this pain, all this whinging. Let's just get our eyes focused on the end game. If you were going to build a godly family, I mean a family that, I don't know, is a blessing; a family that sticks together; a family that learns; a family that knows how to give and to take and to bless. What would it look like? I don't know. It's hard sometimes because we look at our families and think, 'augh, it could never happen.' I'm going to tell you. God wants us to build a godly family. Well here's my picture of what a godly family looks like for me. I'm going to ask you to invest some time over this next day or so to figure out what does a godly family look like for you? The first thing in my godly family is that each person, in that family, is living out a dynamic relationship with Jesus Christ; growing in their knowledge and their love for Jesus. That's the first and foremost thing. If you want a godly family the people have to be godly and the first and greatest commandment is to: Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. So if you want a godly family, people have to be close to Jesus. The second thing is that each person, in my godly family, is actually living out that relationship. Okay, we're all different but each one is living out the love that they have for Jesus in how they treat others. It's the second commandment. It's similar to the first. Love your neighbour as yourself. The third thing is very family specific. That mum and dad, husband and wife have a close and intimate relationship; a strong, loving, leadership team; the wife honours her husband; the husband cherishes his wife. The fourth thing is that the parents are honoured. Have you noticed, in the Ten Commandments, the first four commandments are about us and God? The very next commandment, the fifth commandment is: Honour your father and your mother so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord, your God, has given to you. (Exodus chapter 20, verse 12) Now, if I had been God, my hunch is I wouldn't have even put in a commandment about loving your parents. God does, and it's important that children learn to love and to honour their parents. So that's the fourth thing in my godly family. This family is one where the children know what it is to honour their parents. The fifth thing is that each person develops an understanding of the differences between one another – the different roles, the different personality types – and learns to cherish those differences. And finally, the sixth thing is that this Godly family is a family from which blessing flows outwards. whether it's hospitality or providing a safe port in a storm for one of our teenage daughter’s friends going through a tough time. Whatever it is, that blessing flows out through the family. That's what a Godly family looks like for me. And I guess, in a sense, those are things we're going to be looking at over the next few weeks. Here's my question though – if you were to build a Godly family, what would it look like for you? Because unless we know what we're shooting for how do we know which direction to set off in? How do we know when we've arrived?
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The Dysfunctional Family // Building a Godly Family, Part 2
08/12/2025
The Dysfunctional Family // Building a Godly Family, Part 2
It’s easy to look around at other people’s families and think “Boy – how come I didn’t get a normal family like them.” Truth is though, that no family’s perfect. And no matter how dysfunctional your family might be, God has a plan. We don't have to look very far to see that, in society today, families are becoming more and more dysfunctional. It doesn't matter where we live, how wealthy, how poor. In the wealthy west, you know, teenagers have less and less contact with their parents. They use the internet and cable TV and their friends to tell them who they are and how they should dress. In poorer nations, well actually I think that people in poorer nations do much better than in the west. Families are a matter of survival for many. But even there, I mean kids get AIDS. They're sold into slavery. They're orphans. All sorts of bad things happen there too. But here's the thing. We know that there are a lot of dysfunctional families out there but somehow we imagine that, well, there's this perfect family out there. In fact, the perfect family is the norm and the dysfunction we see in our own families, well we must be the only ones. It's our fault. We've botched it. You know, we're just stuck with this. The teenager who doesn't respect his parents; the adults in our extended families, they've been feuding and haven't talked for ages because eight years ago they argued over the distribution of assets from their parents will. No, no, it's just my family that's a mess. And that's the thing, it's the hand I've been dealt and there's nothing, nothing I can do about it. That's it! What's the point? Well if that's sort of thoughts been rattling around in your head, then today, today I have some great news for you. It's true, isn't it? Family is sometimes like living out a guerrilla war. It's so 'in your face'. Every time you come home, every time you walk to the door the whole 'family' thing greets you. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that every family is a basket case. Hopefully yours isn't. But sometimes we're so close to it. Sometimes the pressure is so constant, it can feel like it is a basket case because we get things all out of perspective. You know, the young mother with a baby that's teething and she's up half the night. And the parents, you know, they're so different, they feel their lives are heading in different directions. And the teenage son who's being the rebel, talks down to his parents and treats his mother like a servant. The grandparents, the grandparents who visit and all they ever seem to do is to judge and to criticize and to tell you what you're doing wrong with your kids. And in the middle of this, this constant family relationship tension, you get the feeling like, "Oh God, what is going on here? I mean, I love You, I honour you but why is it like this? Why can't I have a normal family like the people next door?" And you know, for me, one of the things that make it worse. There's this minister I knew once. He seemed to have the perfect family. His young adult children, they were so well adjusted. He'd been brought up by Godly parents and he spoke about family from a position, well it seemed to me, a position of almost having that perfect family we all desire. And then you compare your own family to that and you think, "boy, I've made a mess. What's the matter with me? There's no hope for my family." Well let me tell you this. I'm not talking about the whole family thing from that place I can tell you. I haven't been a perfect husband or a perfect father. In fact, before I gave my life over to Jesus a decade and a half ago, I made some huge blunders that changed the very course of my life. And since then God's been teaching me a new way. I'm still learning. So I'm at a certain place in my journey; you're at a certain place in your journey so let's just get over this comparing and judging nonsense. There's only one issue – where do we take our families from here? And I, for one, what I'm about is building a Godly family because there is such a reward in that; such a harvest, and not just one day in the future but along the way, now – the joy of investing and sacrificing to make a difference in the lives of those whom we love. We're going to talk more about that whole 'sacrifice' thing over these coming weeks but today, today I just want to give us some comfort that God knows all about dysfunctional families. Let me take you to the very first human family, Adam, Eve, their two sons Cain and Abel. Now maybe you know the story of Adam and Eve pretty well. You know, they were in the Garden of Eden, it was all wonderful. They ate that apple off the tree, they sinned, God kicked them out and they had a couple of sons. I want to show you something about this family. The interactions between the people that might really make you sit up and take a look. We often hear people talking about the "Adam and Eve" story and the snake and all that stuff from a theological perspective. That's great but what about from a family perspective? Okay. Adam and Eve, they've sinned. They ate from that one tree God told them not to. God comes looking for them. They're hiding in the garden, that's clever isn't it? And God brings Adam to account. He says: Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" And the man said, "The woman who you gave me, she gave me the fruit and I ate it." Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" And the woman said, "The serpent, the serpent tricked me and then I ate." And the Lord said to the serpent, "Because you have done this cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures. Upon your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers. He will strike your head and you will strike his heel. (Genesis chapter 3, verses 11 to 15) There it is. See Adam rebels against God and Eve rebels against God. Okay, they can blame the serpent and maybe the serpent didn't have a leg to stand on, but they were the ones that rebelled against God. And the very first thing that Adam does is he blames Eve. And the very first thing she does is to blame the serpent. See, they've gone from perfect harmony to dysfunction. God tells them that that is going to be the norm from now on and amongst their children to. Have a listen to the rest of it: The two sons, Cain and Abel: Abel kept sheep and Cain tilled the ground. In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel, for his part, brought the firstborn of his flock. They were fat portions and the Lord had regard for Abel and his offspring but for Cain and his offspring, he had no regard. And so Cain was very angry and his countenance fell. But the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well sin is lurking at the door, its desire is for you but you must master it." Cain said to his brother, "Let’s go out into the field." And when they were out there in the field Cain rose up against his brother, Abel, and killed him. (Genesis chapter 4) Here we have it, the very first family. They rebel against God; husband turns on wife; brother kills brother. It’s the absolute natural state of a family that turns against God. But listen to the good news because God is one who forgives. Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 8. He said: You won't put anything ahead of me. No idols don't make any idols, don't worship them because I am a jealous God and I will punish children for the sin of their parents to the third and fourth generations of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. In other words, when we put God at the head of our families, He will show us His steadfast, unwavering love. Not just to us but to a thousand generations. You know what that means? It doesn't matter how bad things have become in our families, when we honour God, He in turn will honour us.
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Family Matters // Building a Godly Family, Part 1
08/11/2025
Family Matters // Building a Godly Family, Part 1
You know something – that old saying that blood is thicker than water, it’s true. There’s a special bond between members of a family. Our family really does matter. And that – that’s why it’s time to start looking at what it means to build a godly family. It's great. Here we are; a new week. And today we're going to start a discussion, you and I, about something completely different. Something that, well if you're a regular with us here on A Different Perspective, something we haven't talked about in quite a while. And yet it's something that impacts almost all of us. In fact, I think it impacts all of us, because one way or another we're all part of a family. And so this week and in fact, over the next few weeks on the program, we're going to be taking a look at what it means to build a Godly family. Tell you why! Recently here, at the ministry of Christianityworks, we asked our friends and supporters to write into us and share their prayer requests. I for one love praying with people. And here's what struck me. At least 80% of the prayer requests we received. And I have to tell you, there were a lot of them. At least 80% were people asking for us to pray for their families: for my son, my wife, my daughter, my husband, my aunty, my cousins. You know something we actually care about our families. As difficult and as strife-torn as many families are, blood is thicker than water. And our families really matter. So it kind of makes sense to me to spend some time talking about what it means to build a godly family. What do you think? Each of us, you know, we can look at our families, the good, the bad and the ugly. Kind of strange thing, families. We all imagine that out there somewhere is a perfect family. You know, mum, dad, 2.4 well adjusted children. And that perfect family is living out a perfect life, in fact, not just one of them but lots of them; thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of them. All these perfect families out there, I mean look at them, they all look so, well, perfect. But not me, no not my family. Mine's a blended family; mine's a dysfunctional family. There're arguments and there's strife and people are pulling in different directions; people who haven't talked to each other for years. There're parents who drive their children nuts. There're children who just don't get it. They go off and they do their own thing and they leave their parents shaking their heads. You get what I'm saying, right? It feels like sometimes it's just our family that's in a mess. And everyone else has got it together. You know why? It's those happy ads on television. When they're selling the four wheel drive there's always 2 or 3 happy, smiling, well adjusted children sitting in the back seat. When they're selling the breakfast cereal, the ad where the sun's shining in through the kitchen window and mum's pouring fresh orange juice while the kids are sitting there smiling, eating their healthy cereal. Oh, give me a break! Now we're going to talk about dysfunctional families later in this week. But right now, let me make this point. It's not just you. It's not just me that has families that have tensions and issues. 99.9% of people have those sorts of families to one degree or another. And those who don't, I've got to tell you, are just kidding themselves. It varies of course. Not everyone’s kid is doing drugs. Not every husband is beating his wife. But there is no such thing as the perfect family out there, there just isn't. So let's stop carrying around this burden that we've plonked on our heads that somehow "my family doesn't measure up". It's not about measuring up. In my book it's about what can I do from this moment onwards to build a Godly family? What seeds can I sow? What plants can I water so that the fruit of a Godly family will grow for all to enjoy? I think that's what it's about because our families matter. Let me ask you this – how much does your family matter to you? Just stop and sit and think for a moment. Chew it over. How much does my family mean to me? I don't know what your family looks like. Maybe some of them aren't with us anymore. Maybe, maybe some of them you haven't seen for a while. Maybe you live alone and the whole "family" thing is distant. Maybe you never knew your mother or your father or both. But it doesn't matter who we are or where we're at. What our family looks like. How we were brought up. Somehow we're all part of a family. And my hunch is that it was God’s plan for it to be that way. It's more than a hunch. God is three persons in one: God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit living in perfect community. Not sure if you've ever quite thought of it this way but there we have it. The very first family – God Himself. And He says, this God who creates man, He says to Adam. Have a listen to what God says: It is not good that a man shall be alone so I will make him a helper as a partner. Comes from Genesis chapter 2, verse 18. And right throughout the Old Testament, what you see is that Gods blessing for the Israelites is about having two things, their own land and lots of children. It's about this sense of place and sense of family. We know that family's are meant to be a blessing. It's a God thing. Right from the beginning, God isn't just one person, He's "three". He doesn't create one man alone; He creates a man and a woman so that they can have a family. In fact the very first four words of the first chapter of the first book of the Bible – Genesis, starts this way. In the beginning God ... And the word for God is 'Elohim' which literally means "Gods", plural. Family really matters to God. And I know that, for some people, just hearing that is going to hurt. It's going to hurt an awful lot. Almost half of all marriages, in the wealthy west, end in divorce. I have friends who have lost loved ones in the ravages of war. Every day 25-30,000 children die of poverty and starvation, disease and AIDs. So thinking about family for some, depending on your particular situation and circumstances, well it can really hurt. But the reason it hurts so much. The reason divorce is such a scourge. And losing someone we love causes such tears and tears our insides out. The reason that is, is because family matters. We want our family's to stay intact. We want our kids to grow up strong and healthy. And have a listen to what the Psalmist writes in Psalm 37, beginning at verse 25: I've been young and now I'm old yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging for bread. They are giving liberally and lending and their children are becoming a blessing. See, that's God's perfect plan for our families. The righteous are those who honour God and God wants to bless us. God wants to bless us by making our children a blessing. He wants for us to live a good life and for us to be a blessing to our children and for them to go on and be a blessing to others. It's a story that's written in our very DNA. It's a story that plays itself out in our hopes and dreams. But it's a plot that's, so easily, we lose in the business of a consumer-orientated, entertainment-orientated, credit-card orientated world in which we live. Let me ask you again, out of everything in your life – everything you have, every hope, every dream, every possession, every desire, out of everything – how much does your family matter? My hunch is that, for most of us, the answer is an awful lot. Family matters an awful lot, doesn't it? And if it does, if it really does then surely, surely we need to invest in this thing, these relationships, these people who matter more to us than any other people on this earth. That's what we're going to be talking about in these coming days and weeks, making that investment – How to build a Godly family because there is so much blessing in that, so much.
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Make Music in Your Heart // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 10
08/08/2025
Make Music in Your Heart // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 10
Music has this ability to – well, to lift our spirits. To move us on the inside. In a way that nothing else can. And so when we make music in our hearts – music for God – there’s a healing that comes out of that overflow. There’s something special about music. We each like different things. For me it’s Beethoven, Chopin, The Little River Band. Funny thing music. I mean I listen to one of my favourite songs and, well without the music the lyrics would still probably make a pretty good poem but it wouldn’t be the same, would it? There’s something about music that moves us. Music is something that touches the soul. Music is something that touches us so deep in our hearts. When you stand back and think about it, well it’s kind of weird. It doesn’t make sense but there you go. Music affects us in ways that we can’t explain. And that’s why I love this particular verse written by the apostle Paul almost 2,000 years ago. Have a listen: Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord. (Ephesians 5:19). It’s one thing for someone else’s music to move us, to rock us to the core. But that’s not what Paul’s talking about here. He’s not talking about receiving music. He’s talking about giving music. Singing and making music in your heart to the Lord. Now that’s something quite different. Over these last couple of weeks we’ve been talking about the fact that God wants to heal our hearts. The heart is that place deep inside where we live and laugh and cry and experience things. People can have hard hearts or soft hearts. Divided hearts or committed hearts. Our hearts can be proud and arrogant or humble and contrite. And the point, I guess, of what we’ve been talking about over these last few weeks is the fact that our hearts need healing. Because when they’re sick, it robs us of life. It stunts our growth and that’s why God wants to heal our hearts. Even when we’ve turned our backs on Him, especially then. When we’re hurting. When we’re living through the consequences of our rebellion. Jesus, quoting Isaiah, said this: For this people’s heart has become calloused. They hardly hear with their ears and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them. And what happens when our hearts are healed is this. Instead of being needy all the time. Instead of always needing people to help us and support us. Instead of being mostly a taker, we become mostly a giver. There’s an overflow. There’s an abundance. There’s more than enough to share with others whose hearts, in turn, need healing. And nowhere is this more evident than when we’re making music in our hearts to God. I wonder if that isn’t what worship is all about. See, these Christians, they go to church, mostly on Sundays and sing songs and worship God. But I know from my own experience and maybe you’ve been in this place too, that it’s entirely possible to stand there, to sing the song and have your mind wandering. “Oh I wonder who’s going to win the football match this afternoon.” You know what I’m talking about. There’s no worship happening there. The mind’s not even engaged yet alone the heart. But when our hearts have been healed by God we just want to make music. We just have to. Because when the Spirit of God gets a hold of our hearts and heals them and brings forgiveness and repentance, that turning back to God that we were talking about the other day. When we love God and we seek Him and serve Him with all our hearts. When that’s what’s happening on the inside, let me tell you, we just want to make music to God in our hearts. Can I ask you something today? Can I implore you? Don’t settle for a life of anything less. This is God’s plan for you and for me so that even when we’re going through the most severe trial, we can close our eyes and just know that we are full of the Spirit of God Himself. That we are loved. That we are safe and that my friend is where the joy of the Lord comes from. That’s what makes us want to make music to the Lord, our God, in our hearts. There was a time when David, before he became king of Israel, was being hunted down like an animal by the current king, Saul. Saul wanted to kill David and so David, this day, was hiding in a cave. Later he writes a psalm about that experience. Listen carefully, it’s so beautiful. Psalm 57: Be merciful to me O God, be merciful to me. For in You my soul takes refuge. In the shadow of Your wings I will take refuge until the destroying storms pass by. I cry to God most high, to God who fulfils His purposes for me. He will send from heaven and save me. He will put to shame those who trample on me. God will send forth His steadfast love and His faithfulness. I lie down among the lions that greedily devour human prey. Their teeth are spears and arrows, their tongues are sharp swords, be exalted O God above the heavens. Let Your glory be over all the earth. They set a net for my steps, my soul was bowed down. They dug a pit in my path but they have fallen into it themselves. My heart is steadfast O God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and make melody. Awake my soul. Awake O harp and lyre. I will awake the dawn. I will give thanks to you O Lord among the peoples. I will sing praises to You among the nations. For Your steadfast love is as high as the heavens. Your faithfulness extends to the clouds. I love this! Here is David, he is hiding and cowering in a cave. People are after him, he is in fear for his life. This is the darkest hour, his life is threatened. He’s lying amongst the lions and yet listen to what he’s saying. Psalm 57:7: My heart is steadfast O God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and make melody. How can he want to sing? How can he want to make melody? Because his heart is steadfast. It is healed. It is resting in God. He is safe amidst the danger and the threat. And he just can’t help himself. He wants to sing. Does that mean we should expect to be on cloud nine? No. Some days are going to be tough. Some days are going to be like hiding in the cave fearing for our lives. But on those days I want to deliberately encourage you today to make music in your heart to God. God wants to have us healed. He wants a heart in us that is steadfast and abundantly overflowing with the joy of the Lord. And you know what I’ve discovered? On those bad days when sometimes the very last thing that I feel like doing is worshipping God, I worship Him anyway. Because in this strange kind of way, in a way that I can’t quite explain, worshipping God, making music to Him in my heart brings healing and peace and joy. My friend, listen to me. God wants to heal your heart. Lay it out before Him. Seek Him with all your heart. Love Him with all your heart. Serve Him with all your heart. And He will, I promise you, He will come and heal it. It may take time, it often does. But little by little, that sickness inside us He calls sin goes away and it’s replaced by health, a vitality, a passion, a desire to sacrifice and serve the Lord our God. And it’s like He gives us a new heart or it’s like He revives our heart. And when He does that, no matter what comes, we end up in our own way saying what David said: My heart is steadfast O God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and make melody. You just can’t help it.
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An Undivided Heart // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 9
08/07/2025
An Undivided Heart // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 9
Have you ever been half hearted about something? We all have – and the thing is, when we’re half hearted, there’s one thing for certain, we’re never going to succeed. Part of us puling this way, part of us pulling the other way. Tears us apart. But God, God is into healing our hearts. You know one of the things that I give thanks to God for is that I’m not indecisive. Well, at least I don’t think I am but maybe, I don’t know. What do you think? You get the point. It’s okay for us not to be sure about some things in life. I was speaking with a man just the other day. Faithful man of God. Put in charge of a ministry. And once he took over he discovered that the organisation was massively in debt. And as I listened to him share his story with me. Would they have to close the doors in the next couple of weeks? Or would God perform miracles they needed? I really felt for him. Sometimes in the circumstances of life we’re not quite sure how things are going to turn out. Is this going to go this way or that? Is God going to show up with a miracle or not? They are normal issues with life that we deal with. But there’s something else that can go on in our hearts, an indecisiveness of a much deeper sort. An indecisiveness so deep that it tears us apart. And that condition is known as a “divided heart”. A heart torn between God and all the other things in life that we can chase down. A heart torn between a deep desire to give our all to Him and the intensely human desire to chase after the gratification this world peddles. Imagine for a moment a football team where the players can’t agree which end of the field they’re defending and which end they’re attacking. Half the team thinks it’s one way and the other half thinks it’s the other way. You don’t have to be Einstein to figure out that they’re probably not going to be the most affective and cohesive team on the field that day. And they’re probably not going to win the game. It’s blindingly obvious, isn’t it? Yet how many people live their lives like that? Let me get right in your face with this today. I’m not going to “mamby pamby” around because while Gods passionate desire is to heal our hearts, there’s often little He can do when our hearts are divided. Now there’s a principle that Jesus spoke of on this very subject. It was in a different context but the principle nevertheless stands. They all saw the amazing miracles that Jesus was doing and so some of the religious leaders accused Him of being the devil. They were saying that He was demonised and all these amazing displays of power were being, well, powered not by heaven but by hell. Jesus answered His critics this way: Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If satan drives out satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? It makes perfect sense doesn’t it? It’s the football team analogy. If a kingdom is divided against itself that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. It’s blindingly, obvious. And if our heart is divided, if our desires are pulling in two different directions, let me ask you something. How much peace are we going to have in our lives? How much power are we going to have in our lives? How affective are we going to be in pouring the love and the grace of God out into this lost and hurting world? Well again you don’t have to be Einstein to figure that out. One of the things that really shocked me when I started scratching around in the Bible was how often this phrase appeared: With all your heart. Have a listen to just a few. Deuteronomy 4:29: But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you look for Him with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 6:5: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 10:12: And now O Israel what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart? Deuteronomy 11:13: So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you, to love the Lord your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul. Over and over again, it’s in the same context. Being committed to God, loving Him and seeking Him with all our hearts. There are so many people who want the benefits of believing in Jesus but haven’t thrown their hearts into it. There are so many people who want the peace and the joy of knowing Jesus. Who want the power for things to change in their lives for the glory of God. But their house is divided. Their kingdom is divided. Their heart is divided. God is not looking for part of us. God is not looking for some half-hearted commitment. Last time I checked there were no Biblical dispensations for honouring and serving and obeying him like, “Well Berni, if it suits you. If it doesn’t cost you anything. If it’s not too inconvenient. If it’s safe and you won’t lose anything.” And yet sometimes we behave as though those dispensations are there. So many Christians, people who love Jesus. Who believe in Jesus. They do it half-heartedly. Have a listen to what James writes about the getting of wisdom: If any of you lacks wisdom he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to him but when he asks he must believe and not doubt because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed with the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord, he is a double minded man unstable in all he does. (James 1:5-8). God doesn’t want part of us. He wants all of us. God doesn’t want us to be half-hearted or double minded, tossed around. He wants ALL of us. He’s calling us today to love Him, to serve Him, to seek Him out with all our hearts. Every last little bit. Every last ounce of what we have left. That’s how much He wants us. Let me ask you something, are you in or are you out? Because there are no half measures for God. There is no lukewarm. There are no comfort qualifiers on this commitment. How do I know if I’m committed? Well, here are a few questions that I use from time to time in my own life as a litmus test: Am I prepared to stand completely alone for Jesus in this world? Am I prepared to lose everything to follow Him? Is there anything that I would not give up in order to serve Him? They’re telling questions my friend. They are important questions because the one who is double minded, half-hearted, lukewarm, shouldn’t expect to live in a place where he or she receives the joy of the Lord and the power of salvation. Yes God wants to heal our hearts but in order for Him to do that we have to hand the whole heart over to Him so that He can heal the whole thing. Have you ever done that? Have you ever asked God to help you with that? Here is a prayer that King David prayed along those very lines: Teach me Your way oh Lord and I will walk in Your truth. Give me an undivided heart that I may fear Your name. I will praise You oh Lord my God with all my heart. I will glorify Your name forever. For great is Your love towards me. You have delivered me from the depths of the grave. (Psalm 86, verses 11 to 13). What a mighty prayer. And Gods promise is to give us an undivided heart. Ezekiel 11:19: I will give them an undivided heart and a new spirit in them. I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.
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The Heart of God // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 8
08/06/2025
The Heart of God // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 8
You know something – if I were God, and you should be sincerely thankful that I’m not, but if I were, there are a few people on this earth who would discover what wrath was all about. But fortunately for you, I’m not. And in fact, what really shocked me was to discover that God has this amazing heart – this amazing desire to heal those who once hated Him. I don’t know if you remember that old Frank Sinatra song, “I Did It My Way”. But that could well be the bi-line for the way that I decided to live my life. I grew up in a home where we went to church. I had plenty of opportunity in my teenage years to give my life over to God. I kind of did. But as I grew up and realised there was money to be made in the world out there. I decided there was only one way to live my life – my way. And in part it was good. I got a great education. School. University. Post Graduate. I had a great series of jobs. I was earning a lot of money. I had my own company. All the “me” things that we’re supposed to have. All the symbols of luxury and comfort and success. But the greatest contradiction in life, for me, is that those things didn’t make me happy. And the more they didn’t, the harder I tried and the less they did. In fact it felt like bitter poison, all the success. At least that’s the label I wanted to use – success. But it didn’t fit and there’s a reason it didn’t fit. I discovered that reason in the words of Moses. Written thousands of years ago but they are as true today as they were then. Have a listen. It comes from Deuteronomy 29:18: Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God, to go and worship the God’s of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that produces such a bitter poison. Bitter poison indeed. Today we’re going to start looking at how God changes our hearts. Let me share with you again that wonderful prayer that Jesus prayed just before they crucified Him. He was in the Garden of Gethsemane and He prayed this for you and me. Father, I desire that those also whom You have given me may be with me wherever I am. To see my glory which You have given me because You loved me before the foundation of the world. See, He went to the cross so that we could be with Him where He is to receive His glory. That’s how much He wants to have a heart connection with us. And for that to happen, our heart has to change. And when our hearts turned away and how often it strays, we need to turn back to Him. Problem is it’s so hard to do that in our own strength. Our hearts become hard and obstinate. And we think to ourselves, “how can I change my life so that I’m not like that anymore?” But here’s the good news. We don’t have to do the changing. God’s going to do that. All we have to do is to take the first step. The turning around. The step of turning back to God. And when we do that God hears us, God sees us, God acts for us. Have a listen, 2 Kings 22:19: Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I have spoken against this place and this people. That they would become accursed and laid waste and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence I have heard you declares the Lord. See God honours that first step. God will take that first step that we make towards Him and He will rejoice in it. He will forgive us when we humble ourselves before Him. When we say, “Lord, I’ve just heard you calling me. Everything I was doing, I was wrong. I turned my heart against You. I tried to do it my way and I’m sorry.” You know what they call that? Theologians call that “repentance”. It’s turning back to God. And you know why I’m sharing this with you today? Because I believe that God is calling some people to turn back to Him today. To repent. Do you hear Him calling? Why don’t you pray this prayer with me right now in your heart? Father God, I’ve just heard you today. Your word is so clear in my heart, clear as a bell. I know it’s You. I know it’s true and I can’t heal my heart on my own but I can let You move me by Your word and right here and right now I want to fess up and say I was wrong. I’m sorry. My heart aches with pain. That’s what I mean. And this day, this moment I turn back to You. I know I’m forgiven through the sacrifice Jesus made for me on the cross. Come oh God and heal my heart. In Jesus name I pray. That prayer my friend, if you’ve just prayed it with me, is a powerful prayer. It’s a prayer which God heard. It’s a prayer that God will honour in the mightiest ways in the days and weeks and months and years ahead. You will look back to the moment when you prayed this prayer and see how the mighty hand of God began to work in your life. Because from this moment on God is going to move in your heart. See this is one of the things that I didn’t expect. I expected this mighty, wonderful God would require me to become mighty and wonderful. But that’s not the case. Time and time again we see how God moves people’s hearts. King David understood that when he prayed in Psalm 51, verse 10: Create in me a pure heart oh God and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Did David go to God and say, “God, I stuffed up. God, I committed adultery, I murdered a man and I just know that I have to clean up my act. I just know that I have to work hard to improve the way I live and I promise you God, I’m going to do better from now on, I’m going to try harder?” No. If you read the first bit of Psalm 51, the first thing he does is he goes to God, he confesses that sin. He committed adultery, he murders a man and he prays a prayer of repentance much like the one that you and I just prayed. But David knows that’s not enough. David knows he has to change. So instead of promising God that he’d change, he asks God for the one thing that is going to change him. A change of heart: God create in me a pure heart. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. David asks God to do it by His spirit because David knows he’s not strong enough to do it on his own. He needs the power of God to change his heart. And so that’s exactly what he asks God for. Listen to what another psalmist writes. Psalm 73, verse 26: My flesh and my heart fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. My friend, God wants to change our hearts. He has the power to do it. His spirit in us is the power to change. There are so many people trying to turn their lives around. There are so many people working hard, trying harder to please God. Listen to me. It doesn’t work. The “work harder” strategy is going to fail because only God has the power to change. And for those who feel weak and powerless, let me share with you these words from the apostle Paul. A man, who through the struggles and trials of his life, had discovered an amazing truth about God’s power. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 18: I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know the hope to which you’ve been called. The riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints and His incomparably great power for us who believe. In other words, Paul is saying, “I pray you would come to know the incomparably great power that you already have because you believe.” The same power that rose Jesus from the dead. That power, you already have it and that’s the power to change. That power is the power for you for your new life. Cast yourself on that power, let God change your heart.
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Religion or Relationship // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 7
08/05/2025
Religion or Relationship // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 7
So often – religion is about the things we do. It’s about being seen in the right places, showing up, doing things for God. And I can easily fall into that sort of thing. But I remember the shock I had when I realised that God isn’t so much into religion, as He is into a relationship. I remember a decade and a half ago when I became a Christian. I remember the first time I took myself off to Church. Man, it was a scary thing to do. My frame hadn’t darkened the doorstep of a Church for many years. Other than the odd wedding or funeral. It was a sunny day. I spotted out this little Church building not far from where I lived. So I rocked up, pretty much just on time so I wouldn’t have to talk to anyone. Didn’t realise back then that they always started 10 minutes late. And this man greeted me at the door. He was wearing a red tie and a white shirt with short sleeves. “Hi, my name is Phil”, he said and he shook my hand enthusiastically and smiled. So I went inside and I looked around and I thought to myself, “I wonder where the minister is?” I was looking for a guy in robes or at the very least, with a dog collar that ministers used to wear in those days. Couldn’t find one. And truly, I had no idea who “the minister” was until it came time for the sermon and Phil got up and preached it. “This is pretty odd” I thought. ”Could it be that he’s the minister? Where’s the collar? Where are the robes?" I learned so much from Phil. And one of the most important things he ever taught me was that it’s not about religion and ritual. That’s not what God is looking for. It’s about something else entirely. Phil Littlejohn is his name. He became a giant in my life. A man who encouraged me and taught me and through whom God brought a lot of healing to my life. But the old Phil refused to be called, “Reverend Littlejohn”. I never saw him in a dog collar or in robes. And he talked so much about the fact that living our lives for God had nothing whatsoever to do with the outward trappings of a religion. Now that was a shock to me. It’s just not what I expected. I expected those outward trappings. But you know something, the more I read what God has to say, the more I read about what Jesus actually did and said, the more I had to come to the conclusion Phil was absolutely right. Is there anything wrong with robes or collars or choirs, all that stuff? No, not at all. But those things, well they’re not the main game. God’s not interested so much in the rituals we perform as He is in the relationship we have with Him. Have a listen to this exchange between some of the religious leaders of the day and Jesus. It’s so powerful. Have a listen. It comes from Matthew chapter 15, verses 1 to 9: Then the Pharisees and the scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of our elders for they do not wash their hands before they eat?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God says, ”Honour your father and your mother and whoever speaks evil of the father or mother must surely die? But you say that ‘Whoever tells a father or mother whatever support you might have had from me is given to God’, then that person need not honour the father. ‘So for the sake of your tradition you make void the word of God. You hypocrites. Isaiah prophesied rightly about you when he said, ‘This people honours me with their lips but with their hearts they are far from Me. In vain do they worship Me teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ I find that sobering because I’m a baby boomer, a post war generation. We like order and organisation. That’s why I had the expectations that I did of what a Church should be like. And I constantly thank God for giving me Phil that first day I walked into a Church. Because He used Phil to set me free from religion. If you’re younger than me you won’t find that exchange between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees so much sobering. But probably you’ll find it liberating because you’re just not into structures and hierarchies and all that stuff. But it’s this one sentence that Jesus spoke that I really want to hone in on ’cause it’s the word of God that has the power to breathe life into you and me today. Have a listen. He said: This people honours me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. In vain do they worship me teaching human precepts as doctrines. Because you know something, the world over there are millions, hundreds of millions, even billions of people who think that by going to Church and going through the religious motions and rituals and ticking the religious boxes that somehow this would put them in favour with God. That that’s what it’s all about. That by doing what the religious leaders say they will have eternal life. But so much of what we do when we play “church” are human things we invented. In some churches they kneel and stand and sit at different times in the service. Now there’s nothing wrong with that but it’s a human invention. Some churches burn incense. Others say certain set prayers. Some sing, some don’t. Some use guitars and drums. Others use an organ. It’s all good but none of those things are where it’s at. We can sing songs and honour God with our lips but if our hearts are far from Him, then we are worshipping Him in vain. You see it in marriages. Some marriages, sadly, are little more than a facade and a ritual, they’re a sham. There’s no real heart connection there between husband and wife. You think that just labouring through each day and pretending everything’s okay is what a marriage should be about? Well of course not. So how can we imagine that living our lives for God can be about ticking religious boxes? My friend, God wants our hearts. God wants a heart connection with us. He’s so passionate about that, that He sent His only Son to die for you and for me so that we could have that sort of a relationship with Him. These religious leaders Jesus was talking to didn’t have a clue about the love of God and the heart connection He wants with us. Not a clue. The world is full of Churches that are full of leaders and people where they don’t have a clue of the passion that God has for them. The passion to connect. The passion to set us free. The passion God has for us to experience His glory and His grace and His love where He is. Are all Churches like that? No, of course not. Let me tell you, a lot are. I know people who’ve gone to Church most of their lives. I look in their eyes and I’m looking for the spark of passion, the spark of desire for God and there just isn’t one. Listen to me. Loving Jesus isn’t about singing songs and going to Church and doing religious things. Loving Jesus is about opening our heart to Him and letting Him have sway in us and laying our lives down for Him and loving the people around us and serving the people around us. Listen to what the Psalmist writes. Psalm 84, verse 2: My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God. That’s what God’s looking for and that’s the sort of heart and desire that He’ll give us if only we’ll ask Him. God is in the business of changing our hearts my friend. God is in the business of utterly transforming our hearts. I long for the living God. I long to see Him, to hear Him, to know Him in every part of my life. That’s why I spend time praying each day. That’s why I take quiet times to rest in Him. And the more I discover Him, the more I realise I will never run into the boundaries of His love. I’ll never come to the end of it because there is no end. There is no end to His love. What a joy! What a life! Religion can’t give me that.
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Spotting the Fake // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 6
08/04/2025
Spotting the Fake // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 6
If there’s one thing that most of us can’t stand it’s a fake, a hypocrite. Someone who’s one thing on the outside and something different on the inside. And when that fake, that hypocrite is us – it can end up tearing us apart. I don’t know about you but if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s a fake. A product that doesn’t do what the advertisers claim that it will do. A person who says one thing but does another. It’s not just dishonest but well, it’s annoying. Because there’s no excuse for it. Fake is the word we use to describe a thing that falls into that category. But when it comes to a person we have another word. We call them a hypocrite. A hypocrite is someone who lives life by the maxim, ‘Do what I say and not what I do’. A hypocrite is someone who holds themselves out to be one thing but on the inside they’re something entirely different. Hypocrisy violates trust. And let’s be honest, it’s something we’ve all done. When we go for a job interview we can be so intent on putting our best foot forward that we hold ourselves out to be something that we just aren’t. We so want to impress so that we can win the job, we embellish our abilities and our experience. You know what I’m talking about. Two faced is another expression we have to describe this disconnect between the person who we are on the inside and who we really are on the outside. Because eventually who we are on the inside shows through. And that’s why it appears that we have two faces. The question is, when we look in the mirror can we spot the fake? Last week on the program and again this week we’re looking at our hearts. That deep place inside where we live. Where our dreams and motivations and desires and intentions are. The place where we experience joy and pain. Because the heart is so incredibly important. It’s something I realised when I gave up smoking. I used to smoke 3 packets a day. I was a chain smoker. I was really addicted. I tried to give up, I tried and tried and tried but I never could. I tried and tried and tried again. But one day I was in a room and I watched someone die of cancer. I watched this woman breathe her last breath on this earth. She’d been a smoker. It’s almost 30 years ago now but I remember as if it was yesterday. I walked out of that room. I took the packet of cigarettes out of my pocket, a gold pack at about half full. I threw them in a grey metal bin and I haven’t had a single cigarette since. Why? Because I had a change of heart in that room. Watching that woman die moved me so deeply, it changed my heart. And the moment my heart was changed the rest was easy. But for ages before I used to lie to myself and others. I’d pretend I’d given up. I’d kid myself. I’d pretend to others. But you can tell when someone’s had a cigarette. I was trying to be one thing on the outside but I was something else in secret until I had that change of heart. The heart is so incredibly important because it’s what happens in our hearts that determines how we live our lives. If the stuff going on in our hearts is good then we’ll live a good life. But if it’s rotten, we’ll live a rotten life. You can’t help it. It’s just the way it is. Psalm 55. It’s a psalm of king David. Have a listen to what he says about a so-called friend: My companion laid hands on a friend and violated a covenant with me. With speech smoother than butter but with a heart set on war. With words that were softer than oil but in fact were drawn swords. I love that contrast. “A speech smoother than butter but with a heart set on war”. Do you see the disconnect between what the person was saying, this so-called friend, and what he did. That’s the temptation for all of us. To have deceit and anger and war in our hearts and to pretend to be something else on the outside. In fact many, many years later the apostle Paul wrote this. You can read it in the New Testament book 2 Timothy chapter 3, beginning at verse 1: You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable slanderous, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Holding to the outward form of Godliness but denying its power. Avoid them. See, there it is again. This disconnect between the real person on the inside and what they pretend to be on the outside. They hold to an outward form of Godliness but inside there’s all this rottenness. They pretend to be Godly but they deny the power of God to change their lives. That’s the problem with being religious. People ask me, “Are you religious?” And I answer, “Absolutely not!” It has absolutely nothing to do with religion for me. It’s about a relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus said the same thing. The hypocritical religious leaders, the Pharisees, appeared to be so Godly, so “goody two shoes” on the outside but listen to what Jesus said to them. Matthew chapter 23, verses 25 and 26: Woe to you scribes and Pharisees. You hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisees, first clean the inside of the cup so that the outside may also be clean. And this is the reason that we’ve been talking about the importance of a clean heart over this past week and again this week on the program. Listen to me. Unless God changes our hearts and that’s the power the apostle Paul talks about, nothing’s going to change in our lives. I tried to give up smoking but it’s not until God changed my heart that it actually became possible. Can I tell you? I tried so hard. I have a strong will okay, I’m not some weak-willed person. I simply couldn’t give up the cigarettes. But here’s the amazing news. God wants to transform our hearts. He wants to change our hearts. He wants to do things in us that we simply can’t do for ourselves. So even if you or I were heart surgeons, we couldn’t operate on ourselves to clear a blocked artery. You have to get someone else to operate on your heart. That’s what’s going on here and the heart is who we are deep inside. It’s so important. Because who we are deep down inside is either going to give us a fantastic life. A life that’s a blessing to ourselves and to others. A life where we have the power to love and to sacrifice and to serve. Or it’s going to give us a rotten life. A life of selfishness. A stunted life. Last week we looked at this verse from the book of Proverbs. Let me ask you to let it become part of who you are and how you live and what you want God to do in you. Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23: Above all else, guard your heart for it is the well spring of life. Let’s stop pussy-footing around. Let’s stop tinkering at the edges trying to change this or that. Real change, powerful change, decisive change that once and for all sets us free from the rubbish that’s holding us back, comes from the power of God, the Holy Spirit. God Himself at work in our hearts. Because when He sets us free we will be free indeed. I believe that God wants to give us a pure heart, a strong heart, a soft heart, a steadfast heart. I believe God wants to hide His word in our hearts. Yours and mine. To do mighty, mighty things that we simply can’t even imagine.
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A Revival of the Heart // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 5
08/01/2025
A Revival of the Heart // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 5
When we’re exhausted – so tired we can’t go on, turns out that what we need to do is to stop and revive, in order to survive. We need revival deep in our hearts. And as things turn out – well, that’s God’s plan too. To revive an aching heart, and a failing spirit. One of the things that happens just about everywhere on the planet I suspect is on those special holidays, those long weekends, school holidays, whatever, many people hop in their cars and head off for a break. Sometimes they drive long distances. I mean, here in Australia it’s a big country and it’s nothing for people to drive 11 or 12 or 13 hours straight to arrive at a holiday destination. And of course, the longer you drive the more you become tired and the more your mind wanders and you lose concentration. And so tiredness combined with the fact there are many more people on the roads, leads to a spike in road accidents and fatalities. In the state where I live, a few years ago, the police or the road authority or whoever it was, came up with a catchy slogan and it goes like this. “Stop. Revive. Survive.” It’s not bad and it’s true. Sometimes we have to stop and revive in order to survive. And you know, it’s like that in life sometimes too. Have you ever been exhausted to the core? You know, so dog tired that you feel as though that you can’t possibly go on. There are a lot of reasons that can happen but happen it does and when it does we need something or someone to revive us. Fortunately, God has a plan. We’ve been talking this week on the program about our hearts. You know that place deep down inside where we live. That place where we experience joy and pain. Peace and turmoil. Deep down in our hearts. And in this world, time and time again, you see people who are so exhausted, so wrung out. Interesting, I was listening to a social commentator being interviewed on the radio just the other day. And he was making the point that we’re in a phase, in western society at least, where it’s all about perfection. The perfect latte. The perfect holiday. The perfect meal. The perfect education for our children. This striving for perfection all the time is making people tired. It’s exhausting. Because when you go to the coffee shop and the coffee isn’t quite perfect and the service isn’t quite perfect people are starting to get all stressed as though somehow their lives were meant to be perfect. And they were never meant to be perfect. That started me thinking and I thought about it for a while and I came to the conclusion that actually sin is exhausting. You know, selfishness and pride and anger. Whatever it is in our lives, all those things take so much energy. I mean rebelling against God is just plain hard work. Because when we do that we’re living in a manner that we weren’t designed to live in. We’re pulling in the opposite direction to God and we know that it just doesn’t work. It’s exhausting. You start feeling like you’re carrying around these incredible loads and burdens. As I look back on my life, I used to be so concerned about my image. What people thought about me. I was always trying to impress people. Like you’re living life for show. Always in the limelight. I was addicted to that stuff. It was just plain exhausting. It was like living in a display home all the time. You know when you’re selling the house, you always keep it perfectly neat and tidy just in case the agent brings some prospective buyer around at a moments notice. You never relax. You never enjoy. You’re always on edge. Listen to me! Millions of people are living their lives like that and it’s not the way it’s meant to be. Some people out there, well you need to stop and revive in order to survive. Have a listen to this. It comes from God. It comes from the Old Testament book of Isaiah. Have a listen, it’s great stuff. Isaiah chapter 57, verses 15 to 21: For thus says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy. He says, “I dwell in the high and holy place and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite. For I will not continuously accuse nor will I always be angry for then the spirits would grow faint before me, even the souls that I have made. Because of their wicked covetness I was angry. I struck them, I hid, I was angry but they kept turning back to their own ways. I have seen their ways but I will heal them. I will lead them and repay them with comfort, creating for their mourners the fruit of the lips. ‘Peace, peace to the far and near’, says the Lord, ‘I will heal them. But the wicked, they are like the tossing sea. They cannot keep still. It’s waters toss up mire and mud. There is no peace,’ Says my God, for the wicked.’ See the story playing itself out here? God wants to revive our spirit. He wants to revive our hearts. Now I’m sure you know this but this was written originally in the Hebrew language. So this word “revive”, well I went back to see what it originally meant before it was translated into the English. Here’s what the dictionary definition for the original word is. “To live. Have life. Remain alive. Sustain life. Live prosperously. Live forever. Be quickened. Be alive. Be restored to life or health.” “Wow, give me some of that”, says the one who’s exhausted. But we have to read the rest of what God’s saying here through the prophet Isaiah. See it talks about God’s anger towards the wicked and then it talks about His mercy and grace. Let’s have a look at it again, Isaiah 57, verses 18 and 19: I have seen their ways but I will heal them. I will lead them and repay them with comfort, creating for their mourners the fruit of the lips. Peace, peace to the far and the near, says the Lord, and I will heal them. See this promised revival of the heart and the spirit is not for everyone. God says: I dwell in the high and holy place. And also: With those who are contrite and humble in spirit. In order to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite. This peace, this revival, this rest is for the humble and the contrite. But those who continue rebelling against God, this is what they should expect: The wicked are like the tossing sea. They cannot keep still. It’s waters toss up the mire and mud. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked. God is saying something here. He wants to heal our hearts. He wants to revive the heart. Revive the spirit. But He’s giving us the choice and the choice is ours. It’s yours and it’s mine. If we set our hearts on living the life that God always intended. If we bow our lives down before Him. If we humble ourselves. If we come to Him with contrition. If we decide to live a life that’s close to Him and in Him, a life that honours Him as our God. If we turn from the sin. Let me call it exactly what it is, sin, that’s like a heavy weight on our shoulders, here’s what to expect from God. Revival of the spirit and revival of the heart. But if we don’t humble ourselves before God. If we don’t turn back to Him, then expect this. There is no peace or no rest for the wicked. They are God’s words and not mine. Let me come back to it. If you are someone whose heart is to honour God and to serve Him, I want to encourage you to take God at His word today. Expect Him to revive your heart. Expect Him to give you peace and rest on every side including on the inside. Because actually, that’s exactly what God wants to do for you and for me and anyone else who is humble and contrite, bowing their lives down to God. It’s that simple, really.
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A New Heart // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 4
07/31/2025
A New Heart // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 4
Sixty years ago, heart transplants were an impossible dream. Today, thousands of people have heart transplants every year. They’re a reality. And it turns out that God – well, God’s in the heart transplant business too. In fact, He’s been in that business for a very long time. I don’t know about you but I am old enough to remember the very first heart transplant. It was performed by Dr Christiaan Barnard on the 3rd of December, 1967. The patient was Mr Louis Washkansky. Sadly he lived for only 18 days and died, in the end, of pneumonia but his heart beat strongly until the end. Since then, of course, there’s been many thousands of heart transplants and these days they are much more successful. The doctors have things pretty well figured out. They know how to stop the body rejecting the heart. I mean, for me, it’s impossible to imagine, how do they do that? Forty something years ago heart transplants were a pipe dream. Today, thousands are conducted each year around the world. But here’s the thing, when the old heart is so diseased sometimes the only option, to bring life, is to implant a new heart. A heart that’s strong and healthy. A heart that will pump life to each of the hundred trillion or so cells in the human body for a good many years to come. But this heart transplant idea, it’s not something new. Actually, it’s been around for thousands of years. Really! This week on the program we’re looking at our hearts. No, not the fist sized muscle that beats between 2 and 3 billion times during the average lifetime. But our heart. Your heart. My heart. That deep place inside where we live. That place where we take things to heart. Where we lose heart. Where we long for something with all our heart. When God talks about the heart, He’s talking about the inner being. The inner most part. The seat of our appetites, our emotions, our passions, our courage, our fear. The middle. The centre. The inner most part of the person. And I remember when I first became aware of God. I mean really. A decade and a half ago when I decided to give my life to Jesus Christ. You know the amazing thing is, for all my life before then I thought I was fine. Yeah okay, I wasn’t perfect but I was pretty full of myself. You know, I thought I was pretty crash hot. But then one day the Spirit of God came and touched me in a way that opened my heart. And one of the first things I realised was how rotten I was to the core. It wasn’t something I had to think a lot about. It wasn’t some guilt trip. I just knew when I gazed upon God for the first time I so deeply, so powerfully, for the first time really understood what He meant by that little word sin. I was full of it and you know something, when we get a powerful revelation of God like that. When His Spirit reaches out and touches us with His truth like that, it’s a really common reaction. We’re gripped by our own inadequacy. And I think that’s important. Finally to realise that the clothes in which we once boasted were nothing but insubstantial rags. It happened to the prophet Isaiah. Have a listen to what happens when he sees God down in the Temple in Jerusalem in the 8th century BC. Have a listen. Isaiah chapter 6 beginning at verse 1: In the year that King Ussiah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty, and the hem of His robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above Him, each had six wings. With two they covered their faces and with two they covered their feet and with two they flew. And one called to another saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory.” The pivots on the threshold shook at the voices of those who called and the house was filled with smoke and I said, “Woe is me. I am lost for I am a man of unclean lips and I live amongst people of unclean lips. Yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Do you see the reaction? This reaction of a sinner who encounters the holy, pure, perfect, glorious God: Woe is me. I am lost. He recognises his own sinfulness in the presence of God. Now if this kind of God experience has never happened in your life. You might think, well, I’m getting a bit weird here. But for me, when I experienced the warmth and the love and the forgiveness and the glory and the power of God. It was in that place that I came to realise how diseased my heart truly was. How desperate my need truly was. I realised the poverty of my own spirit and my own situation and yet it was for me and for you that Jesus said: Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And I thought, “Well, now what? What do I do? How do I deal with this mess that I’m in?” That’s my natural reaction all the time. I’m a “doer” so I say, “Well what do I have to do?” Then one day I stumbled across these words in the Old Testament and they changed everything. Have a listen. This is God’s promise through the prophet Ezekiel and you can read it for yourself in Ezekiel chapter 36, verses 26 to 29. God says this: A new heart I will give to you and a new Spirit I will put within you and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and make you follow My statutes and be careful to observe My ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors and you shall be My people and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness and I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. What an amazing promise. God promises them a heart transplant. That’s what God promises us. A new heart. Have a listen again: I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you. God’s Spirit within us and that’s what changes the way we live. See, there’s a flow on effect of this new Spirit and if you read that passage again it talks about God’s blessing: Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors. You will be My people. I will be your God. I will save you from your uncleanness. I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. See God offers us a new heart and a new spirit and from those things we change and the blessing flows. Sometimes when a heart is so diseased we can operate on it as much as we like but nothing makes a difference. We need a new heart. Have you ever felt like Isaiah? Have you ever felt that sense that no matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you’ll never be good enough for God? Well, me too and I want to share a prayer with you. The prayer of King David after he had committed adultery and murder and he came to his senses before God. He felt so rotten. So dirty. So unclean. And so he cast himself on the mercy of God and this is what he prayed. You can read it in Psalm 51, verses 10 to 12. He prays: Create in me a clean heart, oh God and put a new and right spirit in me. Do not cast me away from your presence. Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain in me a willing spirit. Just when we think we have to do it all ourselves, what we discover is that actually God has a different plan. God plans to give us a new heart and a new spirit. Nothing that we do, something that God does. And you know something, that’s what I’ve discovered. In one sense God changing me is still so much a work in progress but the closer I drew to God the more I discovered changed attitudes. A compassion I never had before. A desire to serve and not to be seen. A heart for people and a passion to serve God. I never had those things and somehow they just happened without me thinking too much about them. God gave me a new heart, just like that!
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Health Check // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 3
07/30/2025
Health Check // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 3
Sin is like heart disease – it robs us of life. Anger, resentment, pride, dishonesty, lust – all those things rob us of life. But we, well, we want to sweep them under the carpet. Problem is, when you do that – all you get, is a lump under the carpet. They say men are the worst at going to the doctors. So many men drop dead in the prime of life from bowel cancer and heart disease. Because we just didn’t want to go to the doctors. There’s this foolish male pride thing going on. “Well, I’m a man. I’m strong. I’m okay.” And that’s the very same man who can wake up dead tomorrow because he didn’t go for a regular check up to the doctor. In part it’s pride but in part it’s that we don’t want to hear the bad news. I mean how many men know that they’re overweight but they don’t want to hear it. They just ignore it and suppress it and behave like there’s nothing wrong. Until one day they have a stroke or a heart attack that could have been avoided with a bit of exercise, losing just a few pounds, getting the blood pressure under control. Hello! We don’t want to hear the bad news and so, at best, we end up living a sub optimal unhealthy life where we’re tired and short of breath. And at worst we keel over dead before our time. Now, none of us likes bad news. Problem is that our aversion to bad news can end up robbing us of life. We want to sweep it under the carpet but all you get when you sweep it under the carpet is a lump under the carpet. You actually don’t solve anything. And so what we’re looking at this week and next week on the program is getting a grip and dealing with some issues. The things in our hearts that are robbing us of life. And today, today if you’ll join me I’d like to have a bit of a health check with you. Just a bit of time where we look through the things going on in our hearts. A little probe, a little prod around in there. Because it’s not until we acknowledge those things that we can join hands with God and start doing something about them. Now, we only have a few minutes so we’re going to talk about just a few diseases in our hearts today. The main ones. The ones that are ruining the lives of probably 80% of the people listening today, including you and me. Come on, let’s get real here. Let’s take some responsibility for the things that we’re hiding in our hearts. Proverbs chapter 27, verse 19 says this: As water reflects a face, so a mans heart reflects the man. What’s going on on the inside is going to have an impact on the outside. You can’t help it. And so today we just want to look at a handful of these different diseases of the heart that are hurting our lives. And that’s why I’m asking you to spend these few minutes with me and have the courage, when you hear one or two that you know are alive in your heart, to look God directly in the eye and say, “God, you know something, that’s me! I have to take responsibility for that and even though I don’t have the strength or the ability to do something about it, I know that You have and You can and that You want to.” This is about opening up our hearts to God and His Spirit and His Word to let Him to make some changes to heal our hearts. So that we can have the life that He always planned for us. Amen. Okay, here’s the first one. Psalm 10, verse 3 says: He boasts of the cravings of his heart. He blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord. The first one. The first disease of the heart is greed. So many people in this world want more and more and more and more and more and we’re taught that that’s okay. Even our governments encourage us to spend more to help the economy. But when the cravings of our heart take over. When greed drives us. Let me tell you something, you and I will turn our hearts away from God. We will revile Him because we can’t serve Him and greed. We can’t serve Him and money and wealth and position and status. And that one, this greed, leads to another disease. The disease of deception and dishonesty. Psalm 62, verse 10 says: Do not trust in extortion or take pride in stolen goods. Though your riches increase do not set your heart on them. Many, many people are caught up in deceit and dishonesty. In theft and lying. In fact there are certain personality types for whom this is their main weakness. And the problem with this is that you can’t lie straight in bed. You can’t be dishonest and deceitful and lie and cheat and then have a good nights sleep. Now you might be deceiving the rest of the world but none of us is stupid enough to think that we can deceive God. And so, this particular disease of the heart robs us of our relationship and fellowship and intimacy with God. It’s a rotten disease and I know that there is someone who needs to look God in the eye and confess this sin right now and ask for forgiveness and ask for God to help heal their heart right now. The third one, the third one’s a biggy. Many of us get caught up in this one and this is probably the main disease that God’s had to heal me of. Have a listen. Psalm 101, verse 5: Whoever slanders his neighbour in secret, him will I put to silence. Whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him I will not endure. Interesting how slander and pride go together here. See the root’s in his pride. When I’m proud it’s all about me. I’m important. I’m more important than you and I’m more important than God and I’m right and it’s my way or the highway. Now you see I can rattle those things off the tongue so quickly because I have more than a passing familiarity with those. And the thing that pride breeds in us is that we can’t stand it when someone else succeeds. We can’t stand it when someone else gets the limelight. And so the proud person will slander other people. They’ll stab them in the back. Undermine them. And with pride and slander comes envy. Have a listen to this one. Proverbs chapter 14 and verse 30: A heart of peace gives life to the body but envy rots the bones. We looked at that one yesterday. You can’t have peace when you’re proud because life is about having one big competition. So pride, envy and slander are all part of the same disease and these next two follow close along. Have a listen to these from Daniel chapter 5, verse 20: But when his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride, he was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory. This is written about King Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar’s son. He became arrogant and hard of heart. And that’s what happens through pride. And let me tell you something, God always opposes the proud. You can read that in James chapter 4 in verse 6. And so this piece of wisdom from Solomon holds true. Proverbs 16, verse 18: Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Now this last one we have time for, it’s a disease in the heart for many, both men and women. We’re reading about it in Proverbs chapter 6, verses 25 and 26. It says this: Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes. For the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread and the adulteress preys upon your very life. Lust, sexual lust brings many a man down. Tears many a marriage apart. It’s a real disease of the heart and this one, more than any other perhaps, is one that so many men and women quietly live with not realising the destruction that it brings upon them. Now we’ve only spoken about a handful of most common diseases of the heart. Things that rob us. Greed. Dishonesty. Slander. Pride. Arrogance. Lust. These things harden our hearts to God. They rob us of life and that’s what we’re going to be looking at over these next few days and weeks. About the fact that God wants to come and heal us of these diseases.
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God Values the Heart // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 2
07/29/2025
God Values the Heart // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 2
We people are very much into surface things – things we can touch and feel. Someone dresses well or performs well or looks good – and we judge them to be successful. But God’s interested in something else. Something quite different. God’s interested in our hearts. I don’t know if you’ve ever watched the Oscars on TV. You know, the movie awards they give in Hollywood, in “Tinsel Town” each year. Look I think it’s great that they award the best movies and actors and directors. But sometimes, as I see people prancing down that red carpet and accepting their glory when they get their awards. Well, I can’t but help have this sense that it feels just a tad superficial. It’s about being beautiful. It’s about being the best. It’s about winning. And that my friend is pretty much what our world’s like. If you’re rich or beautiful or entertaining, we value you. But if you’re not, we don’t. We tend very much to judge the book by its cover. Now, it’s not always true. Sometimes we form closer deeper relationships but in a world where there are so many options to consume and to be entertained, hey, you have to choose somehow. And we tend to choose a book by its cover. We tend to value outward symbols of beauty and success. And that’s good because that’s what makes the economy grow. That’s what gets us to buy things. That’s what gives people jobs. So it’s a good thing, isn’t it? Well, we know it’s not but it’s just the way the world is. This, of course, is nothing new. It’s been around for a long time. The apostle Paul, a couple of thousand years ago, wrote about people who boast in outward appearance but not in the heart. You can read that if you like in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 12 in the New Testament. And another thousand or so years before that, God had this to say through the prophet Samuel when he was looking for a new king for Israel. God said: Man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7). I was watching a show on TV the other day; it was out of the UK. About a woman who goes in to show shops how to turn their business around. So she goes into this struggling little boutique and she’s helping this little boutique in Doncaster in the UK and she decided that their target market was, listen for this, the disciples of Beckham. People who wanted to be like and look like Victoria and David Beckham. Now sure, they’re celebrities and there’s nothing wrong with that. But this whole idea in turning this boutique around was to stock and promote clothes and the look that celebrities were sporting. To be seen to mimic the celebs. Do you see what’s going on here? I don’t knock the business. They’re doing stuff to get money. But what they’re chasing after is our desire to be all about appearances. But outer appearances aren’t actually that important to God. See He’s much more concerned with our hearts and to tell you the truth, when I started doing a bit of research in the Bible I was actually quite shocked with how much God has to say about our hearts. And how concerned He is for our hearts. Have a listen to 1 Chronicles chapter 28, verse 9. Listen to this: The Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. Listen to that again. He searches every heart. See we race around doing things. Thinking things. Imagining no one notices. Imagining that people can only see us on the outside and they don’t know the rotten things going on, on the inside. We can be angry, revengeful, deceitful, dishonest in our hearts. But we stick a smile on our face and have soft word on our lips and we think we’re kidding everyone. We may well be. But we’re not kidding God because He searches every heart and understands every motive behind our thoughts. And God tests our hearts too. Have a listen to these few verses. The first one comes from Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 2. It says: Remember how the Lord your God lead you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what is in your heart. Whether or not you would keep His Commandments. And this one, it’s a little bit longer. 2 Chronicles, chapter 32, verses 27 to 31. Have a listen, it’s about a king called Hezekiah: Hezekiah had very great riches and honour and he made treasuries for his silver and gold and for his precious stones and spices and shields, all kinds of valuables. He also made buildings to store the harvest of the grain, new wine, oil and he made stalls for various kinds of cattle and pens for the flocks. He built villages and acquired great numbers of flocks and herds for God had given him very great riches. It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Gihon spring and channelled the water down the west side of the City of David. He succeeded in everything that he undertook. But when the envoys were sent by the rulers of Babylon to ask him about the miraculous signs that had occurred in the land, God left him to test him to know everything that was in his heart. See this king, he’s rich, he’s powerful, he’s successful and it’s all happened through God’s blessing, under God’s hand. Because the king turned away from his pride and so God blessed him. Everything he touched turned to gold. But then, with the ominous threatening envoy’s were sent by the rulers of Babylon and they showed up to check out all his successes, what did God do? Did God perform more miracles and wonders? Did God show up with some flashy display of power? No. God left him to test him and to know everything that was in his heart. God searches, tests and probes our hearts. Now probe is a very strong word. It’s an invasive word. I had to go to the doctor recently and he put a telescope in through my right nostril and it went down the back of my throat to look at my voice box. That’s probing. It was very uncomfortable, very unpleasant, very invasive and I couldn’t wait for him to stop doing it. Psalm 17, verse 3 says that God probes our hearts and examines us. Jeremiah chapter 20, verse 12 says that God examines the righteous and probes the heart and mind. Now this is pretty ‘in your face’ kind of stuff and there’s a reason for that. Because God is so concerned about our hearts. The heart is the wellspring of life. If we have a diseased heart, our life is going to be diseased. And God aches for us to have a healthy heart. God looks at the inner person. The inner man. The inner woman. Because He wants to heal us. He wants to set things right in our hearts. Listen to me my friend. We go through life setting our hearts on all sorts of things. We go through life with our hearts torn and divided. We want to serve God. We want to love Him. But there’s attractive, beautiful, external things that everyone else can see. They beckon us and that means our hearts are torn. Did you know that when our hearts desire wealth or fame or recognition, they become diseased with envy and pride? Have a listen to what Solomon writes, a great piece of wisdom from God, in Proverbs chapter 14, verse 30: A heart of peace gives life to the body but envy rots the bones. See God wants you and me to have peace. That’s why He’s concerned about our hearts because God has a plan to heal our hearts. Yours and mine. When we seek after God with all our heart. When our heart if full of His peace and His joy. Then we don’t lose heart. Then we see Him just as He is. God wants the very, very best for you and me and He reserves the very best for those with a pure heart. That’s why Jesus said: Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God.
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An Amazing Machine // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 1
07/28/2025
An Amazing Machine // God Wants to Heal Your Heart, Part 1
The average human heart will beat between 2 and 3 billion times in a lifetime. Amazing little thing. But when it’s sick, when it’s diseased, that can be life threatening. And it’s the same with our other heart too – that deep place where we live – you know, our heart. Your heart and my heart, well I don’t know if you’ve ever thought much about this but our hearts are amazing little machines. Let me give you just a few vital statistics. This ball of muscle in your chest, it’s about the size of your clenched fist but it’s much, much stronger. It’s built like a Sherman tank. In fact, when it comes to staying power, pulling power, reliability, durability, a Sherman tank has nothing on your heart. In a lifetime your heart will pack much more punch than any Sherman tank will in its lifetime. In an average life time a human heart will beat somewhere between 2 and 3 billion times. About 70 to 80 beats each minute. Minute after minute. Hour after hour. Day after day. Year in, year out. Without skipping so much as a beat. Every day your heart will pump around 7,000 litres, that’s about 1,500 gallons. In a life time your heart will pump enough blood to fill between 80 and 100 Olympic swimming pools, or about 500 average backyard pools. Here’s the amazing thing, we don’t even notice it. Yet let it stop beating and you and I would die within just a few minutes. Because it’s our lifeblood. It pumps the blood which delivers oxygen and removes waste. Just a few short minutes without that blood being pumped, every one of our hundred trillion or so cells in our body, and life ceases. Pretty amazing little device the old heart. And yet, in the developed world about half the people over the age of 55 have Coronary Heart Disease. In fact, Coronary Heart Disease is the number one killer in the western world. So whilst in the developing world HIV AIDS and lower respiratory infections are the big killers followed by heart disease and diarrhoea, in the developed world heart disease and stroke are by far the greatest killers. But here’s the crazy thing, we know how to prevent heart disease. What are the top causes? Well, being over weight, high cholesterol, smoking, high blood pressure, lack of exercise. I don’t think there’s one person listening today who couldn’t have listed those. And what’s more, most of them are relatively easy to deal with. People can dramatically reduce their risk of heart disease by losing some weight, eating healthier foods, quitting smoking, exercising. By and large, we can save lives by taking some very simple steps. Yet we don’t. Here are some stats. Back in 2002, just over 57 million people died in the world. 42% of those were through heart disease. Now if we take that to just the developed world, the percentage killed by heart disease is much, much higher. This isn’t some statistical apparition. It’s not some odd blip. Millions and millions of people each year are dying before their time because of something that, for the vast majority, is entirely preventable. Those morbidity statistics don’t begin to count the cost to health care systems, to economies. They don’t begin to tell the story of misery and suffering and years of chronic disease and isolation and fear and… Are you getting the picture here? This is nuts. The heart is such a powerful, precious, life-giving thing. And we abuse it to the point of death. The human race is so smart, so creative, so amazing. How can we be so stupid? It defies understanding. We’re like a bunch of lemmings all heading in the same direction, over the edge of a cliff to fall to our deaths. Now why are we talking about this? Well interesting but the heart is something that God talks a lot about too. Although He’s not so much meaning our human heart. But the heart is a picture of, well, who we are. It’s a symbol both in the Old Testament and in the New, of the essence of the person. We acknowledge that a lot in our every day language. We talk about losing heart. Throwing our heart into something. Doing something with all our heart. We use phrases like taking things to heart. The heart of the matter. Setting our hearts on something. The heart is, it’s a symbol of the essence of life. And given what the heart actually is, that’s not surprising. When God talks about the heart He’s talking about the inner being. The inner most part. The seat of our appetite, our emotion, our passion, our courage, our fear. The middle, the central, the inner most part of the person. Over these next few weeks we’re going to spend some time looking at our hearts. I’ve called this series on the program, “Oh God, Come Heal My Heart”. Because in the same way that wrong eating and wrong living and lack of exercise is killing millions of people each year needlessly. So a different heart disease is robbing people of life, here and now. And not just here and now but of eternal life. The worlds full of a disease of the heart that’s stunting people’s lives. Stopping them from living their lives to the full. Stopping them from living the life that God always planned for them to live ’cause that’s what heart disease does. And just like the physical heart we behave as though nothing’s wrong. We behave as though there’s not a problem. We know the facts but we ignore them. Solomon was talking to some young men. He was writing to them this amazing wisdom from God. And this is what he says in Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23. He says: Above all else guard your heart … What a great piece of advice. Guard your heart. Value it. Treasure it. Keep it safe. … for it is the well spring of life. Problem is, we just live life. We shove food into our mouths. We don’t exercise. And then we wonder why we’re having heart attacks in epidemic proportions. And why should the inner heart be any different? If we have an angry heart or a fearful heart or a hard heart or a sorrowful heart. If we lose heart or set our heart on the wrong things. Why is it that we would imagine that those things would somehow help us to lead a full life? Why is it that we would imagine that we wouldn’t lead a diseased life? Let me read it to you again. Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23: Above all else guard your heart for it is the well spring of life. Literally what it says here in the original Hebrew language in which it was written in the Old Testament is: Diligently guard, watch over and preserve the heart in the way that the watchmen of old would stand on the rampart of the fortified city to keep watch for the enemy that was coming to attack. Keep watch. Be watchful. Watch over, guard and protect your heart. Cities, in those days, had walls and fortifications built around them to protect them from attack. That’s what this piece of God’s wisdom is all about. And look at the priority it gives. Is it the 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th order of business in our lives? Above all else guard your heart… No, it’s not down there at the bottom of the list. It’s up there at the top and there’s a very good reason for that. Because: … it is the well spring of life. If we have a diseased heart you’ll have a diseased life. Let that disease rule your life and you lose your life. There are so many people in this world with a diseased heart and a diseased heart robs us of life. Fear, anger, pride, arrogance, deceit, envy. They all live in the heart. They’re diseases and diseases that we need to deal with decisively. Question is, how? I mean chronic disease is the sort of disease that’s been there for ages. It’s the hardest sort of disease to deal with. Almost impossible in fact. How do we deal with it?
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Ducks in a Row // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 10
07/25/2025
Ducks in a Row // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 10
As we’ve seen on “A Different Perspective” these last couple of weeks, God speaks to us in all sorts of different ways. But – well, how do we really know when He’s truly leading us in a particular direction. I mean sometimes, we have big decisions to make. How do we know that we’re truly hearing God correctly? Well, here we are, another Friday and another end of the week and another end of the series of messages. Time flies when you’re having fun. Over these last couple of weeks we’ve been chatting about how you and I can hear God speaking into our lives, and that’s so important. One of the most common questions that people ask me is, “How can I hear God speak to me?”. And so that’s exactly what I’ve called this series of 10 messages of which today is the last. How can I hear God speak to me. And over the course of this series we’ve looked at eight different ways that God speaks to us today. Firstly the Bible, God’s Word, the authority for God to revealing Himself to us. Secondly, prayer: He speaks to us during our times of prayer and devotion. We can hear that still small voice of His Spirit. Thirdly, preaching: God speaks to us through anointed preaching when someone opens the Word of God for us. Fourthly, signs and wonders: God still uses signs and wonders from time to time to get His message across. Next, prophets: The New Testament makes it clear that God appoints certain people in the body of Christ to be His prophets, to speak His will into our lives. Next, He speaks sometimes out of the blue: sometimes God just pipes up completely out of the blue right in the middle of the cut and thrust of life. Next, through the counsel of others: God so often speaks to us through other godly men and women whom He puts around us. And finally, as we saw yesterday, through dreams and visions: that makes some people a little bit uncomfortable. But again the New Testament is clear, Acts Chapter 2: God’s plan in these last days was to speak to His people through the dreams and the visions that He gives to some. And you add all of that up and what you discover that God is speaking rather a lot. Principally, primarily through the authority of His Word, the Bible – the living Word of God. That’s why I put it right up there at Number One. If numbers two to eight purport to be God speaking, then they’d better be consistent with Number One – the Word of God. If they aren’t then they’re not from God. If someone claims to have had a dream or a vision or a prophecy but it contradicts the Word of God, make no mistake, that dream or vision or prophecy simply cannot be from God. God is not in the business of contradicting Himself. God is not in the business of changing His mind. But He is interested in our lives: in the nitty gritty of our lives and He knows that sometimes we need His specific guidance because He loves us. It stands to reason therefore that He’s going to speak specifically into our lives as any other father would. My Dad didn’t speak vague generalities into my life. My Dad spoke specifically into my life because He loved me. I heard a pastor, a man that I respect a great deal, stand up and preach a sermon not too long ago in which basically He said, that God only speaks these days through His Word the Bible and through no other means. Well, the first thing is that’s simply not what the Bible says. Each of the other ways that God speaks to us that we’ve looked at numbers two through eight have come straight out of God’s Word. I haven’t made them up. They’re in the Bible. So afterwards I went and asked this pastor a couple of questions. The first one was, “Why did you become an ordained minister in this church and this denomination?” His answer was, “Because I felt called.” And that is exactly the right answer. In fact, “it’s God calling” that’s the only right answer for a pastor of a church. So my second question was, “How did you discern that calling? How did you come to the conclusion that God was calling you specifically to this ministry?” And then he proceeded to tell me about this and that, all things that we’ve talked about in numbers 2-8: prophets, out of the blue, through the counsel of others, the different ways that God speaks. It stands to reason that if we feel led by God to do this or to do that then we somehow must have heard Him speak that into our lives. And that’s what this series of messages have been all about. Going into God’s Word and learning from Him how it is that He chooses to communicate with us. But learning to discern His calling, learning to put the pieces together, sometimes it’s not easy. Along the way I’ve made mistakes, or at least it appears that I’ve made mistakes. I thought God was calling me to this or to that so I headed down that path and it didn’t quite work out the way that I thought it should have worked out. And when it comes to the big decisions of life, that’s a pretty scary prospect. What if we think we are hearing from God but we’re not, in choosing a wife or a husband, or in choosing a particular career or a ministry, or in heading overseas to some distant foreign land to become a missionary? You get the point. I mean, I do believe that sometimes, oftentimes God’s leading leads us right into a wilderness experience when we’re expecting instant success. And that’s okay. I’m not bothered by that as surprised as we sometimes are, it doesn’t bother me. The issue simply uppermost for me is that if I’m going to head off in this direction or in that direction, then I want the direction that I head off in to be the one that God has chosen and ordained and prepared for me no matter what that direction holds. That’s all. Whatever way it is I just want to make sure I’m heading God’s way. How do you discern God’s will amongst all the noise and distractions of life? A prophecy, a dream, a passage in the Bible that leaps out at you: are they from God? Before the days of global terrorism, as a frequent flyer I was often invited up into the cockpit of commercial jets to sit in the jump seat and watch a take off or a landing. They were the good old days. One time, we were returning during the night to Sydney on a flight from New Zealand. I was in the cockpit of a Boeing 767 which actually gives you a great view out of the front windscreen, better than just about any other plane. And flying into Sydney, well it’s a pretty big city. There were so many lights. I was sitting in the jump seat wondering how are the pilots going to pick the runway? All of a sudden we turned and the runway came into view, this bright straight row of lights. I mean you simply couldn’t miss it. All those lights in a row were clear and unmistakable and they showed the pilot in which direction to fly and how to land once they went off their instruments into visual mode. And for me it’s the same in discerning God’s will. He speaks to us in different ways at different times: signs and wonders and this and that, and learning to understand Him is a process as it is in any relationship. But when I’m feeling Him leading me down a particular path, inevitably what happens he lines a few things up, just like those lights on the runway. A Scripture verse that He sets on my heart and just won’t go away; a word, a prophecy from someone who has no idea what I’m thinking or dreaming; some other event – that door over there that closed unexpectedly but over here this other door opened to my surprise and all of a sudden, it’s like those lights lining up on the runway. They end up in a bit of a straight line, likes ducks in a row that point in a certain direction. And sometimes you can’t see them until you start heading down the path, in fact mostly in my experience that’s the case. First we have to step out in faith, often letting go of the past first before God reveals what comes next. That’s why it’s called stepping out in faith. But time and time again I’ve seen God line up the little ducks in a row and when I see that I start heading down the path prayerfully, eyes open, asking God to open doors if it’s His will and closing doors if it’s not. Sometimes there’s opposition and that’s where the faith comes in. But above all I always remember this, my God is faithful, he knows my heart; He will not lead me down a path that He doesn’t want me to follow. It’s just how He is. And whilst I’ve groaned at the occasional dead end along the way, as I look back over the last decade and half walking with Jesus I can see how He’s guided me to where He wants me to be.
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Dreams and Visions // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 9
07/24/2025
Dreams and Visions // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 9
The Bible – Old Testament and New – talks about God speaking to His people through dreams and visions. Well, for some of us – particularly those with a rational western mindset – that’s a bit freaky. Does God really speak to people that way? Well – what does His Word really say on the subject and what does it mean for you and me, here and now? We’ve been chatting these last couple of weeks about the different ways in which God speaks with each one of us. The principal way, the absolutely authority on God’s truth is the Word of God, His Bible, His chosen way of communicating the truth, most important of which is the truth of His Son, Jesus Christ also called, "The Word of God". The Bible is God speaking. Jesus is God speaking. But as we’ve seen God uses many other ways to communicate with us as well. Yes, we have to discern those it's incumbent upon us to make sure that any person or any experience that purports to be God speaking is in fact God speaking. And the most reliable test of that is whether what the person is saying or what we think the experience is telling us, is in fact consistent with God’s truth, His Word, the Bible. Now if you’ve been with me these last couple of weeks you will have heard me say the same thing over and over again. And you might be thinking, “Why is Berni labouring this point?” Well, today there’s a specific reason, because today we’re going to be talking about dreams and visions. Are they real? Does God still speak through them or use them today? Or are they phoney? I think these are reasonable questions to ask when we’re enquiring as to how it is that God speaks with each one of us. Now perhaps your thinking, “Dreams and visions? For goodness sake, where is this joker going with this? Is he for real?” My response to you is simply this: my heart, my passion is to dive into God’s Word the Bible, to read it, to understand it, and to live it. I’m a simple kind of guy and that’s how I approach life. And one of the things that happen is that God often does things in ways that I, with my rational western mindset, perhaps wouldn’t have chosen to do if I had been God. Fortunately for you I’m not God. That’s the up side. But perhaps the downside is that we have to go with some of the things that God is doing God’s way even if we don’t quite like them, even if they don’t quite make sense to us. So what does God’s Word say about dreams and visions? Let me share with you a passage from chapter 2 of the Book of Acts. God’s Spirit has just been poured out on the Christians and they’re all talking in different languages and they’re behaving like they are drunk, literally. You can read it for yourself, the fifth book in the New Testament, the Book of Acts Chapter 2. Not surprising, the other Jews in Jerusalem at the time are pretty critical at this odd sort of behaviour. They are accusing these Christians of being drunk, so Peter the Apostle gets up to explain. Acts Chapter 2 beginning at verse 12: All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.” But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. And I will show portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and smoky mist. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day. Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ See, what’s going on here is the unexpected is happening. They’re falling over as though they’re drunk, they’re speaking in different tongues. And to silent the sceptics Peter the Apostle gets up and says, “You think this is amazing? This is nothing. Wait till you see what’s coming next.” And then He goes on to quote the Old Testament prophet Joel. Remember this is Jerusalem in the first century. Everyone listening knows the Scripture he’s quoting. And in it God promises that the Holy Spirit will cause people to have dreams and visions and prophecies. All ways that God is going to speak with us. It’s in the Bible. Peter’s saying, “Don’t shoot the messenger.” And if I could personally echo that same sentiment here and now, if you feel uncomfortable with talking about prophecies and dreams and visions, my friend, it’s in the Bible. Please don’t shoot the messenger. Do you know that many, many Muslims who ultimately put their faith in Jesus Christ report that they saw Jesus coming to them in a dream? In fact this is a really, really common occurrence. Has God ever spoken to me that way? No, He hasn’t. I hear God in different ways and that’s fine. We’re all different. God knows that and He speaks to us in different ways. But have I been impact by this? Absolutely. When my wife visited our church, before she was my wife, before I even knew her. She came on the Sunday morning, the service where I was preaching. And she came back again on the Sunday evening. Now our pastor, Phil, was preaching that night. You may have heard me speak about Phil before. He’s a great guy, practical, very down to earth kind of guy. He gets up and is about to preach and he looks at Jacqui. Didn’t know her name, none of us knew who she was. And he said, “God’s given me a vision for your life.” And he went ahead and described this picture, this vision, in a huge amount of detail. Pretty gutsy thing to do, I thought. Well Jacqui’s pretty quiet and shy so she didn’t react at all. Months later we discovered that this was an incredibly difficult time in her life and she’d been wanting God to speak to her and that the vision that Pastor Phil described to her that night was a huge, huge turning point in her life’s journey. In fact, had Phil not communicated that to her she probably wouldn’t be my wife today. In many parts of the world people have no problem at all with this idea that God speaks through dreams and visions and prophecies. But somehow we Westerners with our rational, materialistic mindset struggle with this idea. Let me come back to where I started. We should test everything like this against God’s Word. Sometimes people will come to us with stuff that isn’t from God, but often it is from God. And if God tells us in His Word, the Bible, that all along it’s been His plan to speak to us in this way through dreams and visions, well, I don’t know about you, but I think we should listen. Just because I’m not comfortable with what God’s doing doesn’t mean that God’s not doing something that isn’t wonderful. Yes, this is open to abuse. In Colossians chapter 12 verse 18 Paul talks about this. About people who dwell on visions being puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking. Of course it’s open to abuse. That’s why we test everything against God’s Word. And that’s why when people say they see things through dreams and visions, I come to God’s Word and what I discover here in the Book of Acts Chapter 2 is that it was always God’s plan that as He poured His Spirit out on all His people, He would speak to us through the dreams and visions He gave to some. Friend, God does things in ways that you or I wouldn’t have done, and I hunger to hear Him speak. I delight in hearing Him speak when, how, that’s His choice. Our job is simply to listen.
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The Counsel of Others // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 8
07/23/2025
The Counsel of Others // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 8
So often we want to head off in one direction, but other people have different opinions. Different folks, different strokes, I guess. But when we feel God leading us in one direction, and then we receive the counsel of others that perhaps points us in another direction – which one is right? Which one is God speaking? Just the other night I was asked to spend some time facilitating of the elders of the church council of a particular church not far from me. It seems that what had been going on is that there was conflict amongst some of the members of the church council. Leaders of God’s people shouldn’t be in conflict, they should act in unity. The Apostle Paul writing to his friends at the church in Philippi said this, Philippians chapter 2 verse 2: … make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. We were chatting about the fact that night, that God’s made each one of us differently. Romans Chapter 12: Some of us are prophets, others servers, others teachers, others encouragers, others givers or leaders or carers. And I can tell you a leader is going to have a totally different view of the world compared to say, an encourager or a carer. That’s because leaders are wired one way and encouragers are wired a different way. And the carer is wired yet another way on the inside. That’s the way it is because we’re different, we see things differently and often that ends being the source of conflict. Now, in this meeting one of the elders of the church, an older man with wisdom, asked the $64 question. He said, “Okay so we’re all different with different points of view, so how are meant to discern the will of God out of all those different views?” And that my friend is a very, very good question. One of the things I’m prone to do is to race out and just do things without listening to the advice of other people. It’s because my personality type is that of Leader. I’m an action person. I work on the theory that if I make ten decisions today and get seven of the right then I’m much better off that if I’d made three decisions and managed to get them all right. My good friend, Keith Henry, with whom I co-authored the book, “My Personality GPS”, he makes this point about leaders: one of their natural weaknesses is that they often fail because they don’t listen to advice. So there is something I have to take on board. See those detail people, you know the sort. They analyse everything. Those detail people naturally drive me nuts because they slow me down. I want to get on with things and they want to analyse things first. But you know what I’ve learnt? I’ve learnt that without those detail people I’m prone to fail at things because God is in the detail. The detail actually matters. Part of my growing, my process of maturing as a Christian has been to value and to listen to the detail people. They are really, really, really important to me. And I’ve come to realize that often God will often speak to me through the gifts and the abilities and the perspectives of other people. Even let me say, people who in the natural would drive me nuts. I love that. God has such a great sense of humour in dealing with our immaturity. Okay, what does God’s Word have to say on this issue . There are some fantastic bits of Wisdom on this very thing in the book of Proverbs. Let me give you just a few: Proverbs 15:22 Without counsel, plans go wrong, but with many advisers they succeed. Proverbs 18:2 A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing personal opinion. Proverbs 20:18 Plans are established by taking advice; wage war by following wise guidance. Isn’t that great stuff? What God is saying to us here is that, if we just rush off in a fit of pride because we think we know what’s right, well there’s every chance that our plans will go off the rails. But if we humble ourselves instead of being more interested in our own opinions and listen to the good advice of others that’s how our plans are going to succeed. Have to tell you. This is something I have had to learn and I’ve learnt it the hard way. And the more I’ve leant it the better my life has become. We were recently planning something really new in the ministry of Christianityworks; quite different and quite new. We the board and the management really felt God leading us in a certain direction to start this new thing. So after learning this lesson the hard way, I worked with our team to put the ideas and the plans together. So many good ideas came out of different people because God made each one of the differently. And when our plans were together I then took it to some business people who were experienced both in ministry and business, people who’d been around, people who I knew were sharp. I said to them, “Look, what I really want is your frank, direct and honest feedback and advice. If you think we’re off with the pixies, please tell me now.” And these men gave me their frank advice. That helped to sharpen our thinking. It helped to find the holes in the plan and to start working out how to deal with those weaknesses. And through this process of consultation with godly men and women, here’s what I believe. I believe we’ve discerned the will of God. God has spoken through His people. Each one different, each one created to see a certain thing and by submitting the plans to consultation we have a much better basis for moving forward. We have the bases covered in a way that we wouldn’t have if I’d done it on my own or just with one or two people. With all that I am, I believe we’ve heard God speak through this process. And with all that I am that’s exactly what I think God meant for us to do. Without counsel plans go wrong but with many advisors plans succeed. It’s awesome stuff. It’s so easy to fall into conflict when teams of people are working together though or at least trying to, and yet they are all seeing things differently. And the key to seeking God’s will in a team environment is through mutual submission. That requires wisdom. Have a listen to what God says about wisdom, His wisdom, the sort of wisdom that comes from above. James 3 verse 17: Wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy, good fruits without trace of partiality or hypocrisy. The bit that really strikes a key with me there is that wisdom from God is willing to yield, willing to get off its high horse and to listen to the skills and gifts and abilities of others as godly men and women that God’s put around us. It’s when we all yield, when we are all in mutual submission to one another, that we hear God’s voice. There’s a reason for that. James Chapter 4 Verse 6: God opposes the proud but He gives grace to the humble. So often we want to hear God speak, we want to discern the will of God. “God what are you doing? God what’s next? God, this is a tight spot, how do I deal with this?” and yet we ignore the good advice of the godly people that God has given to us. Hello!! Why? Because we’re proud. Let me say this lovingly but directly, so immature, so foolish, because “like a fool we take no pleasure in understanding but only in expressing our own personal opinions”. That’s Proverbs Chapter 18 Verse 2. Wake up! God speaks through His people. We can discern the will of God as we submit ourselves lovingly to one another and go after God’s will rather than our own personal agendas. Sometimes, as we saw yesterday on the program, God speaks supernaturally, other times He speaks through the ordinary and the every day. Both are equally valid. And one of the great delights of my heart, something that I’ve truly come to love, is to hear God speak through the lives and the mouths of other people, because by His grace He’s taught me to get off my high horse, shut up and listen.
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Out of the Blue // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 7
07/22/2025
Out of the Blue // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 7
Have you ever heard a little voice out of the blue? Unexpectedly – this strong impression or this strong guidance just leaps out at you. Sometimes it’s just about something small. Other times, it’s huge. Many, many people have experienced that. Question is – is it from God? Is that God speaking to us … or not? Have you kind of heard a voice out of the blue and wondered, "Where did that come from?" We’re chatting this week on the program about hearing from God. How does God speak these days and how do we hear Him? That’s what we’re exploring because God is still speaking and He means for us to hear Him. Now one of the ways I notice that He talks to people throughout the Bible is a voice out of the blue. I had coffee with a dear friend of mine, James, just the other day. He was telling me how the day before he was racing out for a meeting and he had this distinct impression he should go back to his study and grab his diary. He ignored it. On the way something happened and he needed to contact the person he was supposed to be having the meeting with to adjust the arrangements. Problem was he didn’t have the man’s phone number on him. It was, you guessed it, in the diary sitting back on his desk in the study. Now sometimes God has big things to say and sometimes He has little things to say and in my experience, if we love Him, if we’re in the business of drawing close to Him, sometimes in the thick of things while we’re on the run, He speaks to us out of the blue. Some people are uncomfortable with that. There’s a school of thought that God only ever communicates to us through His Word the Bible. Well, I agree. The Bible is the primary way that God communicates with us and if anyone claims any other communication, a prophecy, a word of knowledge, something from God out of the blue, if anyone claims to have heard from God like that but they say they heard is not consistent with what the Bible says, well my friend it ain’t coming from God. God never contradicts Himself. Let me say that again, God never contradicts Himself. So I agree on that front. But the number of times He speaks to people in the Bible and they answer Him, “Here I am Lord”, well there’s lots of those. Let’s have a look at just one of those today. Moses is a burnt out old wreck of a man. He’s 80 years old. He murdered an Egyptian as a young man. So even though he grew up in Pharaoh’s house, he fled out to the back of the desert to tend sheep for 40 or 50 years. But suddenly, when God’s ready to speak to Him, God speaks out of the blue or at least, out of a bush. Have a listen, Exodus Chapter 3: Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up. When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the LORD said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt. Was it an audible voice, or was it a voice Moses heard in His heart. We’re not told. We don’t know. But God didn’t have a Bible to speak through back then. It wasn’t written yet. So He spoke to Moses out of the blue as it were, out of the bush. If you have access to an electronic version of the Bible I suggest you do a search on the words, “Hear I Am." They come up over and over again. God speaks to His people out of the blue and they answer, “Here I am Lord." Has it ever happened to me? Well I’ve never been quite called to lead Israel out of Egypt to be quite honest with you. But at the same time God has spoken to me out of the blue about things that are big and about things that are small. I remember not long after I became a Christian I was alone in my house and it was a Saturday afternoon and I was ironing downstairs. And as I finished each shirt, I’d take it upstairs and hang it up in the wardrobe. As I was heading back downstairs I was just overwhelmed by the presence of God. So I sat down at the top of the stairs and what I experienced in the next fifteen or twenty minutes was God calling me to preach the Good News of Jesus. I thought, hang on, I’d been a Christian like five minutes and your calling me to do this? Then He showed me how over the previous twenty years as I’d been invited all over the world to speak at conferences and events in the IT industry, which is what I did back then, I was an IT consultant. He showed me how he’d been getting me ready for this even before I’d given my life over to Him. Now these weren’t my thoughts or ideas. This wasn’t a vivid imagine at works. It was ‘Someone outside of me speaking into me and showing me this stuff’ kind of experience. Did I hear an audible voice? No! Never have. But I knew it was God. Jesus said in John 10:16: I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. John 10:27: My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. See this is exactly how it was for me that day. I just knew it was God who spoke to me and God who called to do what I’m doing on that day in the stairwell in the middle of ironing shirts. I didn’t know it was going to happen. I had absolutely no idea at that point how it would unfold that I would be involved in the medium of radio. It didn’t come until years later, in fact another eight years after that time. Sometimes I’ve thought I heard His voice and I don’t think I’ve got it quite right. So I always test things. I think, I pray, I see if they make sense and little by little, what I’ve discovered is that I’m getting better and better at discerning God’s voice; recognising that it’s Him that I’m hearing. In my day to day to life God sometimes nudges me this way and sometimes that way. In the middle of pressure and conflict sometimes the Holy Spirit speaks strongly and directly, often with a Scripture to me that leads me to behave in a Godly way rather than follow my natural human inclinations. And you know, that’s exactly what Jesus promised would happen. John Chapter 14, Jesus promises to send us His Spirit to dwell in us and He goes on to say in John Chapter 15 verse 26: When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. Then John 16:14: He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. Friend, God is in the business of communication with us. When He does, when we hear Him out of the blue, let’s test everything against His Word the Bible. If it’s not consistent with His Word then it’s absolutely certain that this thing we thought was from God definitely isn’t from Him. But He does communicate with us in all sorts of different ways and sometimes it comes completely out of the blue so let’s be ready for it.
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The Power of the Prophetic // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 6
07/21/2025
The Power of the Prophetic // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 6
A prophet – a prophet is someone who speaks the will of God. So let me ask you something – are there still prophets in this world today, or not? Does God still speak prophetically through some of His people today … or not? Well there’s only one way to find out – what does His Word have to say on the subject? It’s just fantastic to be with you at the beginning of another week and yes, we’re continuing again this week in our look at how it is that God speaks to us today, right here and now in the 21st Century. It’s interesting, way back in the Old Testament God spoke to His people through prophets – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and all those Old Testament prophets – men who God called to speak His message to His people. Then in the New Testament He speaks to us, first and foremost through His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, and through the Apostles and the other writers of the New Testament books. And He’s still using those to speak to us today by His Spirit. He speaks to us today through the Word of God. But it’s interesting, the New Testament in particular tells how His Spirit speaks to us today. Sometimes it’s easy to ignore that. It’s easy to get all dull and boring about the way God communicates with us. But God is a stunningly creative communicator. There’s nothing, absolutely nothing dull and boring about how God communicates with you and me. And one of the ways He does that is through the power of the prophetic. So today, that’s what we’re going to take a look at on the program. Now in embarking on this today I acknowledge that there are some amongst God’s people who simply believe that there are no more prophets today; that this is something that belongs to the past and not the present. What’s a prophet? Well, quite simply a prophet is someone who speaks on behalf of God; someone who speaks the will of God into the lives of God’s people. Some people believe there are no prophets today, and yet other traditions and denominations really emphasise the prophetic dimension of God’s communication and sadly some do so to the point of abusing the prophetic. What do I mean by that? Well, I don’t carry any particular denomination baggage or tradition around this whole thing, my heart is simply to open up God’s Word the Bible and figure out what is God saying and go with what God says. So that’s precisely what we’re going to do today. Let’s take a look. This is the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth, after Jesus has died and risen again and ascended into heaven. This is the fledging New Testament church that the Apostle Paul is writing to. I’m going to read to you from 1 Corinthians chapter 12 beginning at verse 4. Have a listen: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. So here Paul’s talking about supernatural gifts that are given to people in the family of God, and not just the special super-Christian leader people. Have a listen again to verse 7. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To each person, to each believer is given one or more of these supernatural gifts. Now I’ve heard people say, "Wow, wow, that was for back then not for now." This passage, 1 Corinthians 12, rolls straight on into 1 Corinthians 13, that famous passage about love that kind of says, you know you can have all the gifts under the sun, but unless you use them in love those gifts are useless. Now these same people love to quote 1 Corinthians chapter 13 but somehow, perhaps because, particularly in the west with our western mindset, we’re uncomfortable with the idea that there might be supernatural gifts, things we can’t explain rationally, we sometimes want to deny that this bit of the New Testament actually applies to us but accept other bits that make rational sense to us. I don’t know what it is, but I find nothing – when we say nothing in the New Testament – that tells me that this theme of spiritual gifts, supernatural gifts was meant for then and not for now. Nothing. And the gifts? Words of wisdom, words of knowledge, extraordinary faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of the Spirit, speaking in different kinds of tongues, interpreting different tongues. One of the arguments against words of wisdom and words of knowledge and prophecy is that these so called modern day prophets set themselves up above the Word of God. They can say things that don’t agree with the scripture, God’s Word. So what do we do with that? Well, I have to tell you. Like anything else good that God gives us, you can take it and you can abuse it. Absolutely. I’ve seen it happen in this area, where people go for emotionalism and they go for manipulation where they claim to be speaking on behalf of God but in fact they aren’t. They are just operating out of their own flesh and their own desires. Is that a reason to believe that God doesn’t use prophets? Just because something good from God can be abused doesn’t mean that it’s not a good thing from God. I mean, back in the Old Testament there were false prophets. Back in the New Testament we see that there were some false prophets. Just because men and women abuse a gift from doesn’t mean that gift doesn’t exist. There are several times in my life when someone has given a specific prophecy just for me, and all of those barring one, and that exception simply didn’t ring true as being from God to me and to the other people that were there at the time, but the rest of those prophecies in fact, had a huge impact on my life. I look back on them now and they were major turning points. And you know, they weren’t proud people coming to me with a "thus-sayeth-the-Lord" proclamation. One of the most powerful was from a man called Denis Adams. He works for a large Christian radio network called HCJB. It was at a conference. I had just taken over the reigns at Christianityworks here in this ministry and my predecessor had taken all our radio programs off air. There was almost no financial support and the ministry was almost dead and I didn’t know what to do. I met Denis for the first time at a Christian Media Conference. He looked at my name tag, we didn’t know each other, but he’d heard some of the short radio messages I’d put together in the past. And almost immediately tears welled up in his eyes, and with such passion and such conviction he said to me. “You have to start doing those radio programs again, you just have to." Well I tell you, Dennis’ words pierced my heart that day and because of that we spent the last few thousand dollars the ministry had on producing the first series of these programs. At the time we had no idea how we were going to get onto any radio station anywhere. That was only six years ago, and today these programs are heard by millions of people each around the world. I know with all that I am that those words that Dennis Adams spoke to me that day were from God. That they were a prophecy, that without them I wouldn’t be here today. Should we discern prophecies? Absolutely! Should we think them through and pray them through? Absolutely! Should we reject any that don’t ring true? Absolutely! But, my friend, God’s Word says that He’s still speaking to us today through prophets. Why, oh why would we want to deny that? Why would we not want to hear when God has something specific to say to you and to me from His heart into our lives?
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Reading the Signs // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 5
07/18/2025
Reading the Signs // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 5
Often in life there are a lot of things going on around us. A thunderbolt over here, a ray of sunshine over there. And we’re so busy reacting – we don’t have time to step back, survey the landscape and ask ourselves – what is God up to here? What’s He trying to say to me? Back in February 2007 a German woman, Ewa Wisnierska was competing in the paragliding competition in NSW in Australia. The winds were from the south and so she and most of the other competitors therefore headed north. Now there was a thunderstorm brewing towards the north but if they could only get through that before it formed well, they’d be well on their way. She could see the band of clouds hadn’t fully formed yet, so there she was, hanging off a paraglider, trying to skirt around a small cloud when all of a sudden the clouds merged and she found herself smack bang in the middle of a powerful thunderstorm. Rain, hail, lightening, winds and she’s on a paraglider. She had misread the signs. Now the problem with clouds for a paraglider is that clouds mean lift. The storm rocketed her upwards at 20 metres a second. Up and up. Nothing she could do to slow it down, the updraft was just too powerful. 3,000 metres, 4,000 metres, 5,000, 6,000. Now at 7,000 metres we run out of oxygen. No one survives. 7,000 metres, 8,000 metres, 9.000 metres almost 10,000 metres – 10 kilometres above the earths surface. Frozen, unconscious, in the minus 55 degree Celsius, oxygen depleted stratosphere dangling from her paraglider. She glided there in a slow turn until suddenly the weight of the ice on her paraglider caused her to plummet several thousand metres. Then, miraculously the paraglider snapped open again with a jolt, waking her up. This was the most extraordinary experience, really a miracle. No one has ever survived something like that. Can you imagine how she felt when she came to? She’s been sucked up into that thunderstorm, she was covered in ice, barely able to move, aware that she was in a precarious life and death situation. Still in the storm that could snuff her out as, by the way, did another competitor that day, from China who had been only a few hundred metres away from her. Even in this barely conscious state, knowing the mistakes that had put her there in the first place, knowing that she only had one chance of survival now that the storm was weakening, and she was more on the edge than the middle, she did the one thing she knew how to do she put herself into a downward spiral. With everything she could muster she created that downward spiral and she survived to tell the most extraordinary tale. In fact a week later she was back in the air again with the very same paraglider. I watched her being interviewed. The one thing that she said was this, along these lines. She said, it was a race we were all trying to win. We saw the storm coming but everyone headed towards it. I followed them. The thing I’ve learned since then, she said, was that next time I will read the signs for myself and make my own decisions about going or pulling out. Now that, that is a piece of wisdom that really struck me between the eyes. We’re talking this week and next week too, about hearing God speak. If God is God how can we hear Him speak? So far this week, we’ve seen that He speaks through His Word the Bible. And we can rely on that because that’s our bedrock, our foundation. God never contradicts Himself whatever else we may hear or see or feel. What He says in His Word is the truth and anything that contradicts that isn’t the truth. It’s as simple as that. We’ve seen that He speaks to us as we spend time in prayer and in thought, quietly with Him. And we’ve seen that He speaks to us through anointed, inspired preaching and teaching. What we’re looking at today is signs. God speaks to us through signs as well. And one of the things that we’re taught in His Word is to read the signs. Luke Chapter 12 Verses 54 to 56 Jesus also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain’; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? Now, here let’s get right into the context. Jesus was talking about the fact that they’ve got the Son of God right there in front of them under their noses and they just don’t get it. But the word "signs" or "signs" appears 180 times throughout the Bible. Sometimes we’re talking miraculous signs, but other times they’re not miraculous and almost exclusively these signs are pointing to God and what He’s doing and who He is. That’s the whole point of the signs. They point to something. Jesus, the miracles did. John in his gospel refers to them as "signs". Jesus was and is the Word of God, God speaking to us about who He is and what He’s up to in the world. Now so often there are signs in our lives but either we miss them altogether or we misinterpret them. I wonder how often people look at all that’s going on in their lives, the storm clouds rolling in, and ask themselves, "I wonder what God’s up to?" Have you ever been travelling through a situation, something difficult and complex, and you don’t quite know the whole picture or how it’s going to turn out. And all of a sudden there’s a flash of lightening over there and the thunderclap that follows. But over in a different direction is a ray of sunshine, of hope. See most of us, we can look up at the sky and see that the weather’s changing but we ignore what God’s saying to us about what He’s up to in the things that are happening around us. So here is what I do. When sometimes feel a little bit fuzzy and they’re not quite clear, I take time to get quietly before God. I pray for a bit of wisdom and insight. And then I just look at the different things that are going on and I think about them prayerfully. "God, that event, what does that mean? What should I do with that? Is there anything you are saying to me through that? Or this person, what he said or she said, do you mean me to take notice of that?" Once we were having problems selling our house when we’d already bought another one. Not something we’d done out of hubris we had felt God leading us to downsize and downscale and we really felt this was God’s will and stepped into this in faith. So we bought the new house before we sold the new house. And way before things became difficult a wise, experienced real estate agent quipped to me, "I always tell people, don’t panic, it’ll sell eventually." I thought nothing of it at the time, but when things got tight and difficult and settlement on the new place was coming and the old place wasn’t selling, time and time again God brought passing comment back to my remembrance and spoke to me through it and gave me peace. It might be something you saw in a movie or TV or a thunderbolt or a ray of sunshine, you know, sometimes God will give us insight through those things. He expects us to read the signs. He says so over and over again in His Word. Is that like reading tea leaves? No, no! It’s about looking at all the stuff that’s going on around us through God’s eyes, getting still with God and listening to what He’s trying to say to us. So often God’s speaking and we’re not even listening. I really encourage you to get still before God, think about the different things going on and ask Him what He’s trying to say to you. Ask Him for His wisdom and his insight and His guidance. He never holds it back. It’s a process of learning. Learning to discern what God is saying and when it’s Him talking versus when it’s our flesh. One thing I always come back to is this, that God never contradicts Himself. That’s why we can be absolutely certain that anything that contradicts God’s Word hasn’t come from Him.
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The Providence of Preaching // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 4
07/17/2025
The Providence of Preaching // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 4
Let me be blunt. Out there in church–land there are two types of preaching. Good preaching and bad preaching. Preaching that brings life, and preaching that sadly, heads off in the other direction. Preaching that’s clearly coming from God and preaching that ain’t. And it’s the preaching that God anoints, that He uses to speak His will into our lives. One enduring memory of being dragged to church when I was a child was the droning of the preacher. I can honestly say he never said one thing, not a single thing back in my childhood that impacted my life for good. Perhaps there was one thing. I was so bored one particular Sunday sitting on these hard wooden pews as a young lad that I took the time to learn to wiggle my ears. That was it. An incredible waste of time when you think about it and really sad. Because there’s something really powerful about hearing the Word of God preached and receiving God’s wisdom that way. Over the course of this week we’ve been talking about how we can hear God speaking, you and I. I mean, if God is God and we’re meant to have a relationship with Him then shouldn’t we be able to communicate with Him? Of course we can pray. That’s communication in one direction. But what about communication back in the other direction? And in fact, as we’ve already seen God is still speaking today. We’ve chatted so far about hearing speak through His Word and during times when we get still before Him and pray. Well we’re going to chat today about hearing God speak in another way – through His providence of preaching. Now the idea of preaching – some guy getting up and speaking about God’s Word, teaching what’s in the Bible – to some people, it seems like a pretty old fashioned concept. Pretty dull. And the other problem with it is, let’s be honest, there’s quite a lot of bad preaching going around as well. I’ve sat and listened to a lot of people talk about the message they get from their pastor on a Sunday morning, and I have to tell you in many, many cases the news is not good. There’s a lot of dead preaching out there, people droning on with irrelevant boring messages. Not everywhere of course, not every pastor, not every church, but a lot. And if someone’s getting offended, I’m sorry; I’m just stating the obvious. A.W. Tozer in his classic book, “The Pursuit of God” put it this way. He said: It is a solemn thing, and no small scandal in the Kingdom, to see God's children starving while actually seated at the Father's table. Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the living God. Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of that term. But exposition may be carried on in such way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience, they are not the better for having heard the truth. It’s sad but it’s true. And it’s nothing new. This is how Luke records the reaction of people listening to Jesus preaching. Luke Chapter 4 Verse 31: He went down to Capernaum, a city in Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbath. They were astounded at his teaching, because he spoke with authority.” And Matthew. Listen to what he records. Matthew Chapter 7 verse 28: Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes. In other words, this stuff Jesus was teaching and talking about is not the sort of preaching that they’d been hearing down at their local synagogue or down at the Temple on the Sabbath from the scribes and the synagogue leaders and the priest and the rest of the religious establishment. In fact quite to the contrary. Again, listen to what Jesus had to say about the teaching of the scribes and the Pharisees. Matthew Chapter 23 beginning at Verse 2: The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. So I guess what I’m saying is, that there’s good preaching and there’s bad preaching. It’s in the Bible and you see it around today. Let’s just call a spade a spade here. Preaching that brings life and sadly, preaching that brings death. And people who sit under dead teaching, well their faith and their passion for Jesus is going to ebb away. And little by little they grow in their faith, little by little, their faith dies and they wither. Does that mean good preaching is all hype and motivation about success and earning a lot of money? No! That’s not what makes good preaching. Good preaching speaks the things of God into our lives. There’s an authority, a gravitas, a weight, a power that reaches into our hearts. The people who listened to Jesus were amazed because He spoke with authority. They could just pick it. They knew that this was the truth. Remember what Jesus said to His disciples when He was telling them how He was the good shepherd? The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers. (John 10:2-5) I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. (John 10-14) See you just know. My friend, seek out the sort of preaching and teaching that you know comes from God, the sort with authority, the sort through which the power and the grace and the truth and the love of Christ just rings out. Clear, pure, and unmistakable. It’s this sort of teaching that God uses to change lives. It’s astounding and amazing because you can feel God reaching out through the speaker into the realities of your own life. And that’s the Holy Spirit doing that, not the preacher – the Holy Spirit. Listen to those sorts of teachers. Don’t sit under dead teaching. Scribes and Pharisees, my friend, are alive and well in God’s church today. How sad it is to sit there and just learn to wiggle your ears as I did as a lad and miss out on the bread of Life. Tozer was right. This is no small scandal. Let me leave you with this story today. There was a time just before my wife, Jacqui and I were married. We were engaged to be married. And it seemed as if just everything was going against us. I mean, we were really, really, really low. We had a great church and a great pastor and a great teacher but we were just low. So we decided to go down the hill on Sunday evening and visit a different church. Just on a whim. The preacher wasn’t a regular pastor whom we knew, but a visiting guy from some surfing ministry. He preached on Matthew Chapter 14 Verses 22 to 33. This is quite a long time ago and I still remember it. The bit where Jesus walks on the water and Peter steps out of the boat in the middle of the storm. As we listened to his message we looked at one another because we realised that God had put this message and this preacher there for us to strengthen us and encourage us. Over the coming weeks we persevered through the challenges we faced with a new courage and it all worked out. And to this day I remember that message even though it was decades ago. To this day when I’m facing challenges and my faith is being challenged and I need courage, I go back to that passage. God still uses that message in my life today. Friend, God is still speaking today. Inspired, anointed preaching and teaching is one of the ways we hear from God. It’s mighty, it’s powerful and God can target needs and issues in our lives with pin point accuracy. Let me encourage you to find and receive that sort of teaching and preaching in your life. Not the stuff that necessarily entertains you or tickles your ears and tells you what you want to hear, but the sort that tells God’s truth with power and authority.
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The Time of Prayer // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 3
07/16/2025
The Time of Prayer // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 3
If only I could hear God for myself. If only I knew what He was thinking. Ever thought that to yourself? I think we all have. And yet let me ask you – how much of your day is set aside to quietly get away – to be alone with Him? How much of your day, do you spend quietly with God? It’s just fantastic to be with you again today. We’re chatting about how we can hear God speak to us. So many people want to hear God for themselves and if you’re going to have deep intimate relationship with Him, well, that makes a lot of sense. And yet how we do that? Is it just some dry cerebral thing or is there more? Well yesterday that one of the main ways that God speaks to us, in fact the main way is through His Word, the Bible. It is an awesome thing and as I said back then, the simple habit of reading God’s Word, even if it’s just a few verses every day, has utterly changed by life. And it’s my passion, not only that I should have close intimate relationship with Jesus, but to share God’s Word, God’s truth, with you in a way that leads you into a dynamic relationship with Him too. A relationship that transforms us, changes us. So the very first book I ever wrote was called, “How to Get Close to God” but it’s the second book that followed on from that really amazes me. That book was called “Unlocking the Power of Prayer”. And for me to write a book like that, second cab off the rank, was completely and utterly bazaar. Why? Because I’m just not a natural pray-er. That’s why. There’s an amazing contradiction that so many people are living out in their lives. people who believe in Jesus. Here’s how it goes. On the one hand these people really would love to hear God’s voice. They’d really like to know that He’s there with them and that He has some practical words of wisdom for them and some guidance on decisions they need to take. That’s on the one hand. And yet these same people so often are the very same people who are too busy to sit down for twenty minutes or half-an-hour or even three quarters of an hour most days and spend some time in prayer with Jesus. Too busy! Too busy! Too busy! Well, fair enough. I know all about that. See, I’m one of those type A action oriented people too. We’re more focussed on doing things and getting outcomes than on spending time in relationships. So anyone who says to me, “I’m just too busy to pray” truly, I really do understand, I really relate to that. But the problem that comes out of that is that we hare off into our day and we confront all these issues and tensions and decisions and all the stuff of life, and we are so immersed in it all. And then right in the middle of that we think, “Where’s God? Why isn’t He talking to me and guiding me and comforting me?” Well, I’ll tell you. God was waiting for you this morning. He was waiting for you to get still before Him and spend some time with Him, reading His Word the Bible, listening to what He has to say and then chatting with Him in prayer. Have a listen to this psalm. It’s one of my absolute favourites. Psalm 46 starting at verse 1: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we won’t fear though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea, though it’s waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with it’s tumult. There’s a river who’s streams make glad the city of God, the Holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of the city. It won’t be moved. God will help it when the morning dawns. The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter. He utters His voice. The earth melts. The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. Come; behold the works of the Lord. See what desolations He has brought on the earth. He makes wars to cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear, He burns the shields with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I am exalted amongst the nations. I’m exalted in the earth. The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge. It’s a powerful truth. Verse 1. God is our refuge and our strength in the middle of this mess. We don’t have to be afraid of the mountains shaking and falling into the sea and roaring waters and calamity and upheaval and uproar. The sort of things we go through in the rough and tumble of life, we don’t have to be afraid. Why? Because there’s a stream flowing right through the heart of our city that makes us glad. The nations may well be in an uproar, but God is the God above all and when He speaks the melts before Him. Well that’s a great theory, but when we’re in the middle of this calamitous uproar, when tensions are running high at work, when we’re hard pressed on every side in life, when we’re running through life at a million miles an hour, how are we meant to experience this joy of the Lord? Come on! How are we meant to hear Him and know Him and not be afraid because He’s there with us in the middle of the roar, when all this stuff is flying through the air. What’s the practice? Well the answer comes to us in verse 10 of the Psalm. The Psalmist writes, “Be still and know that I am God." See I don’t care who the relationship is with. If we don’t make time away from the hustle and bustle just to connect, just to spend time together to talk. Whether its husband and wife or work colleagues or friends, if we don’t do that, if we don’t get still and focus one on one on each other, then the hustle and bustle is going distract us from the reality of the relationship with that other person. Isn’t that right? We forget in our experience how wonderful the love of our wives or our husbands is. We forget the joy of a friendship because our dominant reality, the thing we’re focused on, is the busyness and the battle of life right at the moment. And friend if you and I want to know this God we have to get still with Him. It’s as simple as that. And that’s what prayer is – getting still before God. I talked yesterday about the habit of spending time every day reading the Bible. Well, the flip side of that coin is praying. Here’s how it so often works for me. I pray a bit. I ask God to speak to me and then I open the Bible and read the next bit that I was going to read – the next chapter in Luke’s Gospel or whatever it is for that day. And in reading that, the Spirit of God actually speaks with me. And I get this sense that God’s up to something here. But I need to chew it over. So I put the book down and I pray about. I ask God, “God what are you saying to me today?” And I think about and I get still and I listen and I just wait expectantly on God. And that is the place where God so often speaks with words of reassurance, with words of correction, with words of guidance with some specific direction. I had that happen again this morning in fact. I had a difficult situation and some difficult decisions to take today and after spending some time in God’s Word and thinking and praying and listening, well, the answer was as plain as the nose on my face. So often I’m confronted with a “to-do” longer than my arm, I can’t possibly get it all done today. And so I go to God and say, “God what’s your priority? What do you want me to get done today? What has to be done today? And that’s where the important things drop out into my lap. So I go and do those ones and it’s a gift from God. Friend, if we want to hear God speak right into the realities of our lives we need to get still before Him. There’s no other way. And little He starts to speak. And day by day we’ll learn better how to recognise His voice. That’s the way it’s meant to be. Be still and know that I am God.
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The Word of God // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 2
07/15/2025
The Word of God // How Can I Hear God Speak to Me?, Part 2
So many people wish that they could hear from God. What’s He thinking? What’s He up to? What’s His will for my life? How can I hear from Him? And yet so often, these are the same people whose Bibles are gathering dust up on a shelf somewhere. Yesterday on the program we saw in fact, yes, God is still speaking today. Now some people deny that. They say the only place you can hear God speaking is in the Bible. Others are kind of out there, maybe hanging off chandeliers maybe seeing apparitions of Jesus all over the place. And then there’s the ordinary folk like you and me who are hungry to hear God’s voice, to hear Him speak, to know His heart, to receive His guidance and His strength and His peace, to know God not just in our heads and not even just in our hearts but in our actual experience. I remember when I first gave my life to Jesus it was the 15th October 1995. In the weeks and months following that time I had such an incredibly strong sense of God’s presence. He wrapped His arms around me during a particularly difficult, painful time in my life and I was full of the Joy of the Lord even though I was travelling through a lot of pain. A good friend of mine, the pastor of the first church I attended, sat down with me over a cup of coffee he said, "You know Berni, you know it won’t always be like this", but there was something inside me that made me angry. I said to myself and I said this to God, "If I can’t have this intimate relationship with my God each and every day, if I can’t experience His joy and His peace each day, then you know something? I don’t think I want Him." Fairly radical stuff. And to be sure, life does have its ups and downs. Sometimes circumstances are against us – sometimes everything’s rosy. Sometimes our emotions are up – sometimes they’re down. We’re all different people in different places and so the details of all that are different. But the patterns are the same. There’s ups and there’s downs and that my friend is just the way it’s going to be. In those early days of becoming a Christian, Phil told me, that I should read my Bible every day. Can I tell you what a huge turnoff that was, tell you what a burden that was, having to open this book, it’s a huge book – 775,000 odd words in 31,173 verses, in 1189 chapters in 66 books – and all of it written in times and place and cultures that are unfamiliar by and large to you and to me. Who or what for instance was Ephraim? And why was sacrificing bulls and doves, why did they do that? And did the walls of Jericho really come tumbling down when they marched around and blew those trumpets? You get the drift don’t you? But Phil, my pastor, was a persuasive guy. Real salt of the earth kind of man, and when I listened preaching on Sunday’s he really made sense. So I did. I did something back then. I established this pattern of getting up early in the morning, something I’ve been doing since I was a small child anyway, while everyone else is still asleep and doing something different with that time – spending some time in prayer and in reading the Bible. You know, I was surprised. A lot of it made sense. A lot of it was confronting. It was like shining a really bright light on my immaturities and things that I was doing that weren’t pleasing to God. And day after day, month after month, year after year, here’s what’s happened. It’s changed me. I open the Bible these days and its God speaking to me. There aren’t always fireworks and flashes of thunder and great revelations each and every day. It’s not like that. Little by little God’s Word has become a part of who I am. I’m not good at memorising verses. Some people are. I’m not. But what I find amazing now is that when someone asks me to get up and speak about something or we’re having a discussion amongst friends about this issue or whatever it is, the recall that God has given me is amazing. I can remember things that God says, not word for word but pretty close, and where He says it, and that makes all the difference. See when someone’s really bugging me and I want to tear them apart, all of a sudden a small voice whispers ‘Turn the other cheek’; a voice whispers ‘Wisdom from above is pure and peaceable and gentle and yielding’. All of a sudden God’s Word starts to guide my responses and my behaviour. God’s Word is giving me what I need to live my life. The Holy Spirit speaks His words right into my life exactly when I need it. And the other thing, it sounds really mundane reading the Bible every day and in some respects it is. I tend to read an Old Testament book followed by a New Testament: one of the letters from Romans to Revelation followed by one of the four Gospels or Acts. That’s how I cycle through the Bible. I’ve pretty much ready it now several times. The reason I cycle that way is that the different books feed me differently. Some of those Old Testament narrative stories – Judges, Kings, Chronicles – they feed me with the power and the majesty of God. And then the letters in the New Testament, they teach me about real life and understanding my life in the light of what Jesus has done. And then the Gospels and Act – they take me back to the heart of my faith in Jesus. And then some of the Wisdom books in the Old Testament – Proverbs, Psalms, Lamentations – I sprinkle them throughout and it’s like adding flavour to everything else. Now it sounds mundane to pick up the Bible, to read the next chapter or even a few verses in the book of Luke which is what I’m reading right at the moment – it doesn’t appear systematic or anything like that, but I cannot begin to tell you how many times I’ve found exactly what I needed for today. The things I’m going through, the things unbeknown to me that are going to confront me today, by reading the next chapter. It's amazing how many times God has given me what I need for today from those very next verses in the next chapter that I was due to read in my mundane schedule. Reading the Bible sounds like a chore, it sounds mundane but after years of doing this here’s what I want to share with you. From time to time I’ve received a prophecy from someone or a word of knowledge, we’ll talk about them another day – and those times have been powerful markers, turning points. But the strength and the maturity and the growth and the transformation, the things that have made my life better – can’t begin to tell you – they have come from this wondrous habit that Pastor Phil taught me all those years ago of reading my Bible every day. The ability to discern whether someone else is speaking from God or not, the wisdom to know how to handle tough situations, the maturity some days to lay my life down (boy that’s hard), all those things have happened as the Word of God has become part of who I am. Genesis Chapter 21 verse 26 says that we’ve been made in the image of God. The problem is that our rebellion and our sin have marred that image. Reading God’s Word most days, listening to what He has to say most days, is like being restored back into His original image. A repair job here, clean-up job there, a new bit here and all of a sudden we’re a different person. It’s knowing the truth that sets us free, and the Bible is God’s way of sharing His truth with us. If there is one thing, just one thing that I can point to that was the smartest thing I ever did after I gave my life to Jesus, is opening up that Bible, a daily habit, and letting Him speak His Word into my heart through His Spirit. The tragedy is that so many people, the people who don’t do that, are the very ones whose lives are all over the place – all over the place – because there’s no foundation, there’s no anchor into God’s truth.
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