Central Church Cambridge

by Aubrey Botha

11 So David and his men got up early in the morning to go back to the land of the Philistines, and the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

30 David and his men reached Ziklag on the third day. Now the Amalekites had raided the Negev and Ziklag. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it, 2 and had taken captive the women and everyone else in it, both young and old. They killed none of them, but carried them off as they went on their way.

3 When David and his men reached Ziklag, they found it destroyed by fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. 4 So David and his men wept aloud until they had no strength left to weep. 5 David’s two wives had been captured—Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. 6 David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God.

7 Then David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelek, “Bring me the ephod.” Abiathar brought it to him, 8 and David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I pursue this raiding party? Will I overtake them?”

“Pursue them,” he answered. “You will certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue.”

9 David and the six hundred men with him came to the Besor Valley, where some stayed behind. 10 Two hundred of them were too exhausted to cross the valley, but David and the other four hundred continued the pursuit.

21 Then David returned to the brook Besor and met up with the 200 men who had been left behind because they were too exhausted to go with him. They went out to meet David and his men, and David greeted them joyfully. 22 But some evil troublemakers among David’s men said, “They didn’t go with us, so they can’t have any of the plunder we recovered. Give them their wives and children, and tell them to be gone.”

23 But David said, “No, my brothers! Don’t be selfish with what the Lord has given us. He has kept us safe and helped us defeat the band of raiders that attacked us. 24 Who will listen when you talk like this? We share and share alike—those who go to battle and those who guard the equipment.”

(Transcribed by TurboScribe)

by Aubrey Botha

27 But David thought to himself, “One of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel, and I will slip out of his hand.”

2 So David and the six hundred men with him left and went over to Achish son of Maok king of Gath. 3 David and his men settled in Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him, and David had his two wives: Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal. 4 When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him.

5 Then David said to Achish, “If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be assigned to me in one of the country towns, that I may live there. Why should your servant live in the royal city with you?”

6 So on that day Achish gave him Ziklag, and it has belonged to the kings of Judah ever since. 7 David lived in Philistine territory a year and four months.

8 Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites. (From ancient times these peoples had lived in the land extending to Shur and Egypt.) 9 Whenever David attacked an area, he did not leave a man or woman alive, but took sheep and cattle, donkeys and camels, and clothes. Then he returned to Achish.

10 When Achish asked, “Where did you go raiding today?” David would say, “Against the Negev of Judah” or “Against the Negev of Jerahmeel” or “Against the Negev of the Kenites.” 11 He did not leave a man or woman alive to be brought to Gath, for he thought, “They might inform on us and say, ‘This is what David did.’” And such was his practice as long as he lived in Philistine territory. 12 Achish trusted David and said to himself, “He has become so obnoxious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant for life.”

6 David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God.

(Transcribed by TurboScribe)

You do this on purpose, I know. Thanks, Alexander. Thank you for your Word, Lord.

The Word that became flesh, but also this Word that you gave us. This Word that was inspired by the Holy Spirit. May we, Lord, as we quiet our hearts in the Word today, may we ask as always, may we see Jesus, and only Jesus.

Amen. Ted, I think we have a slide. There we go.

Number four in our series on giant busters. Where do you go if they have a slump, God? You know what that is? Anyone ever been in a slump? Maybe I don't even have to ask that because we've all been there, done that, because here's the thing. All of our giants, like Goliath, have a slump, God.

Doesn't fire bullets, but it does sadness. Doesn't take a life, but it does take our smiles. It doesn't inflict flesh wounds, but it does faith wounds.

Just one blob, a slump. And relationships are hard and difficult. And life sometimes feels like it's all uphill.

I'm like Sisyphus. I'm going up and then I come down. I go up and then I come down.

And it's sometimes dark and it's just struggling. Slump just goes all over the place. That's where David was.

He's been running away from Saul for a while now, hiding in caves, hiding behind trees, hiding in the hills. And to make matters even worse and to complicate it even more, he has 600 men plus their families with him that he has to take care of. This is when David looks around and he hits that button and the slump just hits him.

Listen to David. 1 Samuel 27. Maybe I need my eyes.

Starts with a butt. Boy, that butt thing. But David thought to himself, remember that word, one of these days I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul.

The message says sooner or later Saul is going to get the best of me. The best thing I can do is to escape to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up searching for me anywhere in Israel and I will slip out of his hands.

So David and the 600 men with him left and went over to Achish, the son of Moab, Maok, the king of Gath. David and his men settled in Gath with Achish. Each man had his family with him.

David had his two wives, the Nimrim of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal. When Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, he no longer searched for him. Let's stop there for a second.

To you, David, so sad. No hope. But the saddest of all, no God.

Because right now the only thing that David sees is this giant. You remember I told you about the giants, they give us tunnel vision, right? All he sees is Saul. He's got a poster of him on every wall in his bedroom and everywhere he looks, all he sees is this Saul thing coming at him.

All of those voice notes, he plays them over and over and listens to them over and over. And David focusses on his fear and his fear takes over and the slump hits him. The sad part about this is that David actually knew the remedy.

David knew way better than this. He knew what to do to prevent this because he's been there. He knows exactly what heaven asks us to do.

When the Philistines, when he was facing the Philistines, 1 Samuel 23 verse 2, it says, David enquired of the Lord. When he felt that his enemy was way bigger than him and he was so small before him, 1 Samuel 23 verse 4, David enquired of the Lord. When the Malachites came and attacked him, 1 Samuel 30 verse 8, it says, and David enquired of the Lord.

Over and over and over. David had God on speed dial. When he was concerned, he talked to God.

When he was afraid, he talked to God. When he was struggling, he talked to God. David talked to God most of the time.

But this time, this time David talked and I said to you, remember that word, verse 1, David talked to himself. One of these days, I will be destroyed by the hand of Saul. One of these days, Saul is going to get the best.

David's focused. At the moment, that becomes his focus and David talks to David himself. David doesn't talk to God.

That's where that slump comes in. He hits the button, boom, all over him. What does he do? He runs away.

Saul stops. Where does he go? He defects right into the hands of his enemy, the Philistines. Worst of all, he takes the soldiers and their families with him into a land filled with idols and false gods, pitches his tent in the backyard of Goliath.

For a moment, David experiences relief. The soldiers can sleep with both eyes closed. The families start unpacking their stuff.

The kids go to the kindergarten, but here's the problem. Sleeping with the enemy only brings temporary relief. It doesn't last.

Loneliness, guilt, heartbreak will soon rush in. Oh, did you hear that amen? That was David saying that amen, because David knows all about that. But the song of the slump has three verses.

You can't stop yet. It goes like, woe go so. Not do re me.

David wore out, verse one. David got out, verse two. In the third verse that we'll look at, David sold out.

This is how it goes. Verse five. David said to Achish, if I have found favour in your eyes, let a place be assigned to me in one of the country towns that I may live there.

Now remember who Achish is. It's his enemy's king, the Philistines, the boss of Goliath. Assigned to me in one of the country towns that I may live there.

Why should your, and look at that word, servant. Servant. Why should your servant live in the royal city with you? So on that day, Achish gave him Ziggurat, and it belonged to the kings of Judah ever since.

David lived in the Philistine territory a year and four months, 16 months. So David strikes a deal with his enemy. Part of the deal is this condition that David had to fight against his own people.

David accepts the deal. Well, you know David by now. I hate these glasses.

Now, David and his men, listen carefully. David and his men went up and raised the Jeshurites, the Jerusalites, the Amalekites, all the other kites, and then our text has it in brackets. Hebrew doesn't have brackets, but it's something really important that it's telling us.

From ancient times, these people had lived in the land extending to Shur and Egypt. Then, put up that slide that I sent you. So, if you look at the slide, Gath is way up north.

Ziklag is down. You'll see the land of the Philistines is that little darker green on that side. Yeah, your left side too, against the Mediterranean Sea.

You know many of those places. Gaza, Ashdod, still there today. Ashkelon.

Gath is where Achish lived. David asked, give me down here. This is close to the border with the Amalekites because the Amalekites, all the iths lived down south because as we go further down, you'll know the picture.

It goes down to Egypt. This is where he went down. If you look to the east or your right of that where you see Jerusalem, Hebron, Beersheba, Shiloh, you know those places.

That's Israel. What did he promise the king to do? He would go east. Where does David go? He goes south.

He lies. Now, look what David does. He goes, he attacks these people, which he shouldn't have.

Verse 9, whenever David attacked an area, there we go. Whenever David attacked an area, he did not leave a man or woman alive, but he took sheep and cattle, donkeys, camels, and clothes. And then he returned to Achish.

And when Achish asked, where did you go raiding today? David would, and we've got some words that should be added in there. David would lie and say, oh, against the negate of Judah, or against the negate of Jeremiah, or against the negate of the Canaanites. The word negate in Hebrew means wilderness or desolate land.

It's not the desert. The desert is Midbar in Hebrew. It's the east side that I showed you.

It's called the negate. Those of you who were to Israel with me, can you remember how dry it was down in Judah, that dry area that we went there? It's barren. So when he talks about the negate of Judah, he's saying, I went to that part of Israel where Judah's tribe would be.

When he says, I went to against the negate of Jeremiah. Now, Jeremiah is interesting. He was the great grandson of Judah.

So it sounds like someone's his own family. When he says, I went against the negate of the Canaanites, the land of the Canaanites, Moses' father-in-law was a Canaan. And they were incorporated into the tribe of Judah.

So he would lie and say, oh, I fought against all of my own people. I killed all of those people. Never did.

Now look how the story goes on. Because of the lie, verse 11, he did not leave a man or a woman alive to be brought to death. Of course, he thought they might inform on him.

They might tell the truth. He'd say, this is what David did. And such was his practise as long as he lived in the Philistine territory.

David trusted David. He said to himself, oh, he's become so obnoxious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant for life. Not David's finest moment, right? He lies to the Philistine king.

And to cover his deceit, he covers that with bloodshed. He would continue doing this. Why? And before this would get better, it would get worse.

Islam would get worse. Let me explain that. You're not going to read that.

What happens in chapter 29? It became the time of year to go to war with each other. So the Philistine king says, we're going up to Jezreel, where we're going to fight against Saul. Remember, Jezreel was the plain on which they fought all of the wars where Armageddon will happen.

I told you there's no such thing as Armageddon. Armageddon in Hebrew means the mountain of Megiddo, which is on the plain of Jezreel. So they went to Jezreel to go fight.

David and his troops go with. As they get there, King Achish gets very wise counsel from his generals. They say, send David and his troops back, because we know this guy.

Remember what the women sang. Saul killed his thousands, but David killed his ten thousands. When this guy starts fighting with us, he's going to turn against us and fight us.

And Saul will see that, and he'll be in Saul's good graces again. Don't let that happen, because we're going to lose. Send him back to Ziklac.

Wise king, he listens, sends David and his troops back. When David and his troops get to Ziklac, they find something that they never thought they would. The Amalekites, when they were away, came and they completely destroyed the city of Ziklac.

Nothing left. And they took the women and children as hostages. So here they come and they sit.

All this deceit and all the stuff that went, the slump that ended in there, there they sit in the ruins of Ziklac. And the moment he sits there, his soldiers pick up the stones and they say, it's all you. And they get ready to stone David.

And the slump hits rock bottom, no pun intended. And I wonder, as David sits amongst the ruins of Ziklac, with his soldiers ready to stone him, I wonder whether he regretted that prayerless decision to get out and to sell out. Because you have to think, the slump is the petri dish of all our bad decisions.

And the thing is, all those tough decisions that we made in the, or the hard decisions that we made in the tough times, will stay with us for a long time. So my question to you today, each one of us ask ourselves, how do you handle your hard times? When you've lost your faith, when you've lost your hope and your happiness, when you're tired of crying, tired of forgiving, and you feel like you want to go up that hill, but you can't do it because you just come down. How do you handle your hard times and slump years? Do you run to death, sell out to the Philistine King, and end up in the ruins? Because that's not the solution.

But what is the solution? The solution is to do the opposite of what David did. David didn't pray. Pray.

Pray always. Pray all the time. Can you remember what Paul says? Don't be worried about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition, take it to God.

Pray. When the slump hits, pray. When the slump overwhelms you, pray.

Never stop praying. What did Jesus do when times got tough? Did he sell out? He went and he prayed that he was at his knees before the Lord. Ask the Lord.

He gave this gift to pray, to ask. David, stop talking to the Lord. Talk to God.

Do you remember what Jesus said? Are you tired? Are you weary? Are you burned out? Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Do you know what the message says? Come walk with me, work with me, learn from me, and I will teach you the unenforced rhythms of grace, and I will teach you to live lightly and freely. You can't run to the Philistines.

You'll end up in Ziklag, in the ruins, with the men standing around you with their rocks. Talk. Come.

Find wise counsel. David didn't do that. He just got good counsel.

David, find someone that you can trust. Just this past week, I had this privilege again to sit with my friend Dennis. Dennis was an elder in this church.

They moved to London. Dennis and I would meet weekly to hold each other accountable, talk about our lives, our children, our everything, our work, and pray together. I miss that so much.

Now we see each other monthly. We meet halfway, go to Woodstock. This past week, we went and had breakfast.

And then we sat in a park out there in the sun, and we just spoke. And I could talk to him about my retirement, how I feel about that, about my health, my life, and Dennis talked about it. And we lifted each other, and then we prayed.

And a lot of people thought, I don't care what they thought, walking through the park. These two guys sitting there holding hands, and we're praying, praying. What an amazing holiday it was, because I had someone who could talk with me, someone who could pray with me, someone who could stand before the Lord with me.

You might not want it. Can I tell you something? You might need it. But the slump, it hits really hard.

Look where David ended. Let's not end the story like that. As David sits there in the ruins of Zikla, with his men around him, all filled with the gunk of the slump, David finds grace.

David finds his strength. David knows what to do. Put this slide on there, or that text on there.

1 Samuel chapter 30, verse 6, just the last one, that David found strength in the Lord his God. It's good to have you back, David. We missed you.

Amen. Take a few moments of silent prayer. Lord, we might not like it, but those giants, they're all around, and they come at us.

Sometimes we want to sing that slump song, woe, woe, so. We feel worn out. We want to get out.

Then sometimes we sell out. Then we remind ourselves, but David found the strength in the Lord his God. Thank you that you are there.

Thank you that you hear when we lift up our prayers. Thank you that you are always available to let us walk with you, be with you, speak to you. Thank you that you wash the old slump and all the stuff of the slump off of us and make us brand new.

Thank you that as we face our giants, we're not alone, because you are always there. We love you, Lord. In Jesus' name.

by Carel Grundlingh

36 When one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”

40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”

“Tell me, teacher,” he said.

41 “Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,c]">[c] and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”

“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”

48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”

50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

(Transcribed by TurboScribe)

Well, good morning to you on this beautiful fall day. It just doesn't get better than this. Beautiful colours, beautiful weather, and we've had it for a week, and I think you've had the same.

Normally, you get about two glorious days, then the wind starts getting blowing. Like, it has been an awesome week. And I am just 10 days shy of saying that it was exactly 10 years to the day since I first set foot here in Central.

It was on November 6, 2016. You were just finishing up building this stage. You still had the danger tape around it, and it was your Remembrance Day service.

You see, I came to meet the folks of the Committee on Education and Reception to do the transfer between the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa to the PCC. So, I was meeting them up at Winford Drive in Toronto, and through the process, I reached out to Aubrey. So, I phoned somebody, my old youth minister.

He was a minister in Vancouver, and he said, speak to Aubrey. He came more recently than what he did. He can tell you what the change was like, moving from the Dutch Reformed to the Presbyterian Church.

So, I phoned Aubrey just to find out a few things, and he was on the Committee on Education and Reception before. So, Gerard said, phone him. So, I phoned him, and he said, Aubrey said, when you are here, drop in for a visit.

So, I met with the folks on the Friday, and I came down on the Saturday, and both Aubrey and Elsie were so hospitable. I stayed with them on the Saturday evening. Aubrey brought me down to show me his church on the Saturday afternoon, and he was pretty proud about the stage and almost being done.

Like, we spent most of the time, I think it was around there somewhere, just telling me about the stage. And then Elsie and Ellery took me for breakfast on the Sunday morning, because Aubrey had to be here a little bit earlier, and they were just tremendous hosts to somebody that they've never met face-to-face before. Well, I thought the great hospitality was just a bother thing, but after the way that you have received us yesterday with the meet and greet and this morning, it seems like it's actually a central thing.

So, thank you for your kindness, and thank you for the invitation to worship together this morning. It's truly an honour to be here with you this morning. Now, on that particular Sunday, it was my first time in a congregation of the PCC, my first time in a Presbyterian church anywhere in the world, actually.

And after that service, I told Aubrey something along the lines of, well, I actually like the Presbyterian church. It's nice. And I can't remember exactly what I said, but I can remember his reply vividly, well, we are not your regular Presbyterian church.

And then he gave the Aubrey chuckle. Have you ever heard the Aubrey chuckle? Yeah. But here's the thing, for the life of me, I cannot remember exactly what I told him to get the reply.

I forgot. I also cannot remember if I stayed for lunch on the Sunday. I was actually trying to remember, but I can't remember.

I forgot what I did the Sunday afternoon after being here. But sometimes we just forget. It happens.

And it's okay if we forget minor details, but it becomes a problem when you forget important things that happened. In our Scripture reading today, we will see how someone forgot something really important about Jesus. And for that, we will take our Scripture reading from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 7. We're going to do 15 verses, 36 to 50.

And I'm sure that you've probably noticed that even though all four of the Gospels, or all four of them, shares the same good news about the same Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, each one of the four has got this unique flavour, this angle, if you wish. Each one presents the same Gospel of the same Jesus with a specific focus. So when it comes to the Gospel of Luke, Luke has got this passion for people, which is probably the reason why he became a medical doctor himself.

And he portrays Jesus as someone who spends a lot of time with sinners, with prostitutes, with tax collectors, with people who are lepers, the unclean, people who have been shunned by their community, that became outsiders. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus spends a lot of time with outsiders. And John frequently gives us these accounts of Jesus then helping these people.

Another thing about the Gospel of Luke is that the people are always shocked at the company Jesus finds himself in. But Luke wants us to see Jesus' passion to restore people. And this is where we're going to read from today, from Luke, with Jesus doing these kinds of things.

Before we read, let's just quickly pray. Lord Jesus, thank you so much that we do have a Bible, your living Word, that we've got it in a language that we can understand, that we can read at our own time wherever we want. Thank you that it contains life-giving words, that it's essentially your love letter to us.

But sometimes when we do take your Scripture in our hands, we find it oftentimes difficult to understand, and that is because it's meant to be read with the illumination of your Holy Spirit, with your Holy Spirit translating those words into our hearts. So, when we read the Scripture today, we pray that through your Spirit you will speak to our hearts. In Jesus' name.

Amen. So, when one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. Now, I need a cushion.

Reclined at a table. They ate dinner in a bit of a weird way in those days. And to understand this story and what happened and how it transpired, it helps to understand the setting.

So, they had this peculiar way of eating dinner. They adopted it from the Roman banquets. So, they would lie on their left side, like pretty much suspended on the left side with their head raised with a cushion at the back.

So, they'll be at the table. The table would be there, and this is how they eat dinner. The table would be there.

The table would either be a mat that has been rolled out, or a little bench with some kind of draping over it. And everything would be there, and they would be leaning that way. The next guest would be on this side, sitting like this, or reclining like this.

And so, they would be around the table. So, you'd almost like sardines, but then you've got the cushion at the back, and that is how they ate these dinners. Reclined at the table.

And the head of the second guest was then close to your chest, and if you were the host, that second guest opposite your chest would be the guest of honour. So, if he wanted to speak to the host in secret, he would lean back upon his chest. So, get that picture in mind.

You want to speak to the host, or the person just to this side of you. You just lean back. You lean your head on their chest, and you could speak to them in secret.

Get something said not for everybody. And that actually sheds light on quite a few passages, other passages in the New Testament. If you remember at the Last Supper in the Gospel of John, Peter was opposite Jesus, reclined on the other side, and Jesus said something.

He said, one of you are going to betray me. And then Peter, being a crush from John, and John was close to Jesus, the disciple whom he loved, he asked John, ask him, who is it? So, then in John 13 verse 25, leaning back against Jesus, leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, who is it, Lord? And there are quite a few of these little things happening in the New Testament, where they would ask him in secret. It's because they ate this way, adopted from the Roman banquets.

Now, another thing about eating this way, the dining area for these affluent people was set up in the courtyard. So, people from the community were actually allowed to gather around and look at these influential people eating and listening to their discussions. So, they could stand around them, like behind their legs, and listen and see what's going on there.

And normally, with dinners like these, important discussions were at the order of the day. Political discussions, business amalgamations, and religious discourse. Naturally, when such a dinner was hosted by a Pharisee, there would most probably be worthwhile religious conversations going on.

And another thing, the homeowner, the host, gets an opportunity to show off a little bit when these people can come in and listen and see how the other half lives. With this setting in mind, let's continue the Scripture reading, as they were reclining at the table. A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume.

As she stood behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, if this man were a prophet, he would know who's touching him and what kind of woman she is.

But she's a sinner. Jesus answered him, Simon, I have something to tell you. Tell me, teacher, he said.

Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Now, one denarius was the one day's worth of wages for a manual labourer at the time.

Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now, which of them will love him more? Simon replied, I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven. You have judged correctly, Jesus said.

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, do you see this woman? I came into your house, you didn't give me any word of my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You didn't give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You didn't put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet.

Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven, as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little, loves little. Then Jesus said to her, your sins are forgiven.

The other guests began to say among themselves, who is this who even forgives sins? Jesus said to the woman, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Now, let's quickly explore the three people in this passage.

Let's start off with the Pharisee. We are used to the Bible portraying the Pharisees as enemies of Jesus. They are always in confrontation with him, always looking for opportunities to attack him and to humiliate him.

This is the people who later on had him tortured and killed. And this passage starts off with one of them inviting Jesus for dinner. I mean, what's going on here? And while we are still trying to make sense of this invite from the Pharisee, he goes on and calls Jesus teacher, didaskalos, which is a very respectful title.

So, we've got a Pharisee who is warming up to Jesus. So, somewhere, something must have happened to this Pharisee. This Pharisee named Simon is different from the rest.

This one is a friend of Jesus. Simon is showing interest in this idea of Jesus being the Messiah, the Son of God. Maybe, just maybe, he is even starting to put his trust in Jesus.

The Bible doesn't explicitly tell us whether he's there yet or not. But there's some sort of relationship between the two of them already, as all of this happens at his home. So, there's a close relation between the two of them.

Simon, essentially, is a converting enemy, a Pharisee busy turning into a follower of Jesus. Somewhere, sometime not too long ago, something strange happened to him. The Bible doesn't tell us how or when.

Maybe it was something like Nicodemus, who had some hard questions about being born again. Remember Nicodemus in John 3? The Pharisee that came secretly at night time, he came to Jesus, and then Jesus tells him in 3.16 about how much he loves us. But Nicodemus said in that meeting, he said something, he said there were others like him.

John 3 verse 2, Nicodemus, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform the signs you are doing if God is not with him. We know. Nicodemus spilled the beans.

There are more of us. Now, if I had to guess, Simon also approached Jesus very cautiously, hesitantly, in secret. But he was so driven to be a friend of Jesus, that he actually didn't care if he would be expelled by the other Pharisees.

He just wanted to know Jesus. And it seemed like it actually paid off, because now Jesus is having dinner with him at his own home. That Simon brings us to the woman.

She was a very infamous woman about town, a morally bankrupt woman, most probably a prostitute. And in Jewish terms, she was considered to be unholy. That would mean that every Jew that she touches will also be unholy for a week.

They were not allowed to go to the temple for a week. They cannot bring a sacrifice for a week. And that is why Simon flipped his lid when she touched Jesus.

Unholy woman touching Jesus, that's a week. Because he's hosting Jesus. His honour is at stake.

And here's this unholy woman. But this woman decided that she cannot carry on like this. She most probably heard all the stories about Jesus spending time with people like her.

Outcasts, lepers, tax collectors, sinners, prostitutes. And then forgiving them, restoring them, changing their lives. And she also wanted that.

Now firstly, a woman of her reputation had no business being anywhere near the house of a Pharisee. But she goes in anyway. To the conversations at the table.

So she goes. And then she did the unthinkable. She touched Jesus.

It happened like this. She was overwhelmed with grief about her past. And that she couldn't help herself.

Maybe the conversation that Jesus had at the table helped this along. So she started sobbing. And standing at his feet.

Remember this thing actually helps us understand this. Shedding her tears. It landed on Jesus' feet.

And she felt all embarrassed about this. And she was trying to find something to wipe it off with. And the only thing she had was her hair.

So she wiped it off with her hair. And now she's touched him. Now she's already touched him.

So she might as well anoint his feet with her expensive perfume. Which is something we carried with him for the trade. Now she can might as well just carry on.

She's extremely brave. Extremely brave. What is bound to happen to her is that she will be dragged out into the street and beaten by the guards.

That's just how it worked. But she does this anyway. She wants Jesus to change her life.

And of course we have as the Pharisee, as Simon called him, the master storyteller, Jesus himself. Jesus honours both of people. He honours the Pharisee, the Jewish law teacher turned friend, by accepting the invitation to come to his house for dinner.

Which is a great honour indeed. And he also lets this woman do what she came to do. Without reprimanding her.

And he forgives all her sins. It sounds great. Like if the story stopped there, Jesus honouring both these two people.

Beautiful. Worthy of a place in the Bible. But then Jesus honouring both these two people gets rudely interrupted with this nasty remark from the host.

Well, if he's going to let this one slide, he's probably not the Messiah. I want to follow. And Jesus heard this comment.

Now the way they were reclining, him being the guest of honour, he probably heard that remark. His head was quite close. Jesus heard the comment.

And I wonder if Jesus at some stage during all of this, didn't just want to shout it out. Did you forget where you came from? Simon, did you forget? You were a Pharisee. You actually still are a Pharisee.

You were once my enemy. You were part of those guys always looking for opportunity to attack me, to humiliate me, plotting and scheming to get rid of me, even if that means killing me. Did you forget that you also had to be forgiven before we could be friends? Your sins may not have been the same as this woman's, but all sin creates this barrier, this distance between God and people.

Sin is sin. But now you are jealous and judgemental when I extend the same courtesy, the same grace I afforded you, when I extend that to somebody else without taking any of it away from you. Jesus called out somebody that forgot.

I see what's going on here, Simon. You forgot, didn't you? The problem is you forgot that I extended you the same grace not too long ago. Oh, Simon.

But instead of shouting all of this to Simon, Jesus stays calm and rather tells him a story that will hopefully make him see just this in his own time. And then fortunately, he catches on. And then after the story, Jesus unpacks it a little bit for Simon and says, do you see what's going on here, Simon? You forgot, didn't you? You forgot that you also had to be forgiven.

You forgot that you were once her. You approached Me cautiously, hesitantly, maybe somewhere in secret, but you were so driven to be My friend. You were so in need of a Saviour that you actually didn't care at the time if you would be expelled by the other Pharisees.

You just wanted to know Me. But now, after some time has gone by, you are not giving Me the honour I deserve anymore, the honour she now extends Me. You didn't welcome Me as the important guest in your home that I am, because Simon, you forgot.

So, at the dinner party, Jesus called out somebody that forgot you were once her. You were once the same. So, here's my question to you, to myself this morning.

Have we also been caught out? Did we also forget that we were once far from God, that we needed to be rescued from our old life by Jesus, that we were once her? Have we become so used to doing the right thing, to such an extent that we catch ourselves thinking that we've always done the right things? We might even default into arguing that we deserve to be in a relationship with Jesus. We deserve our time with Jesus. We deserve the grace, the mercy, the blessing.

Have we been caught out that we've gotten used to Jesus, that we become Him, Simon the Pharisee? Are we in that stage of our relationship with Jesus that many married couples find themselves in after a number of years, when we've gotten used to each other, that stage where we complain, you don't open the car door for me anymore like you used to when you just got married. You don't kiss me when you leave the house anymore like you used to. You don't tell me that I look beautiful anymore like you used to when you just got married.

You never tell me that you love me anymore like you always did. Could it be that we are at that stage of our relationship with Jesus? It seems like Simon definitely was. Could it be that God feels like we aren't as thankful that He saved us and restored us and freed us as we were at the time we first realised it, when we just decided to put our trust in Him, to put our lives in His hands? Could it be that Jesus feels like He's not our first priority anymore, or at least not in the same way He was when we started out in our relationship with Him, as if God want to say, you don't make your choices anymore with me in mind.

by Aubrey Botha

7 All creatures look to you
    to give them their food at the proper time.
28 When you give it to them,
    they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
    they are satisfied with good things.
29 When you hide your face,
    they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
    they die and return to the dust.
30 When you send your Spirit,
    they are created,
    and you renew the face of the ground.

31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
    may the Lord rejoice in his works—
32 he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
    who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

33 I will sing to the Lord all my life;
    I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
    as I rejoice in the Lord.

(Transcribed by TurboScribe)

Congratulations, George and Gwen, 40 years. Congratulations. And then the guy who married off his daughter.

Congratulations, Kevin and Sue. The daughter got married on October the 3rd, on my wife's birthday.

So I can always remember that. I can remind the young man of his anniversaries. Congratulations.

You look very dapper walking her down the aisle I'm telling you. You should see the tie he's wearing today. You should ask him.

When he flips it up, his daughter gave that to him on the wedding. There's a picture of the two of them on there. That's pretty cool.

That is pretty cool. Happy Thanksgiving. Father, thank you for the gift of your word.

Holy Spirit, thank you for your holy presence. Jesus, all we want to see is you, Lord Jesus. Did you find that slide, Ted? No? Oh, Oleana, I made you a slide for today, but that is perfectly fine.

I will keep my day job. I'm better at that, but I want to start with a little story. So this man throughout his life was greedy and selfish and horrid and didn't care about others.

It was just all about himself. He died. His twin brother came to the minister.

He said, I will make a substantial donation to the church. If at my brother's funeral, you say that he was a really good man. Minister said, fine, make the donation.

Guy makes the donation. At the funeral, minister gets up. He says, folks, I have to be honest.

This man who died was selfish and greedy. He was a terrible person, but compared to his brother, he was a saint. So I'll keep my day job.

The reason I start like this is because on this day of Thanksgiving, I want to talk about how we live our lives. Do we live them with open hands that give, that love, that serve, that are open to others? Or do we live with clenched fists that hold and are selfish and don't care? How do we live our lives? That's the question for this whole morning. Because the good news on this is the God that we serve is a God with open hands.

God who created this beautiful place in which we live. The God who in his grace and with his open hands looked at us and said, you need more than you can do right now. And he gave the most precious gift when he gave his son Jesus into this world.

The God who knows that we can't do this. Our hands are like this. They need to be unclenched.

And the one who does that is called his Holy Spirit. And he poured out that gift into our lives so that we may learn all about open hands and hands that love and hands that give and hands that can bless. We see that right from the beginning, right in that first story.

God creates this beautiful earth. And when God looks at this beautiful earth, he says, well, I got these little earth people. And with his grace, those hands open, and he says to earth people, it's yours.

It's all yours. Go and enjoy that. I made it for you.

But as I made it for you, will you please open your hands and bless this place? And will you open your hands and will you bless one another? Listen to how the psalmist says this. It's such a beautiful psalm. Psalm 104.

I'm going to read from verse 27 to verse 34. All creatures look to you to give them their food at the proper time. And when you give it to them, they gather it up.

And underline this one. When you open your hands, they are satisfied with good things. However, when you hide your face, they are terrified.

When you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. But when you send your spirit, they are created and you renew the face of the ground. Oh, may the glory of the Lord endure forever.

May the Lord rejoice in his works. He who looks at the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke. I will sing to the Lord all my life.

I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. May my meditation be pleasing to him as I rejoice in the Lord. And then the last verse, and I want to say that to you in the Hebrew because it is so beautiful.

Can you say it in Hebrew? Hallelujah. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Hallelujah.

Praise the God of open hands. Thanks, Ted. Remember the Hebrew you read from the right to the left, right? I hope you didn't try and read it the other way.

You can read Hebrew, all of you. After 24 years, I've taught you that. Come on.

Your Greek is a little better, but bless the Lord, oh my soul. Praise him for he's a God with open hands. And in that open hand moment, God sends his son Jesus into this world.

And can we walk with Jesus for a moment and in his life for a moment through the gospels? Think about how Jesus lived. Did his hands look like this? Or did his hands look like this? There's one day, even the disciples are walking. Mothers come, they bring their little kids and they ask him, you bless them.

The disciples do this immediately. Leave him alone. He's busy.

He doesn't have time for these little kids. He's got other work to do. What does Jesus do? Bring those little ones.

Come on, bring them. I would love to bless them. May we be like those little ones because he said in that moment, you should be like them because little ones don't live like this.

Our little ones always live like this. Hey mom, hey dad, you've got a little something to give me. I need a little something because open hands are not just hands that give.

Sometimes they're also hands that need to go out like this, like Oliver Twist. Please, sir, I need a little more to stand before the God that gives with open hands the good things. And when they stand, those hands just open wider and wider.

They sit on a mountain and they listen and they're tired and it's been a long day and Jesus says to the disciples, give them something to eat. They say, we don't have money. We don't have food.

Send them away so they can do it themselves. A little boy says, I have a few loaves and a couple of fish. And those open hands feed thousands and thousands because as he placed those little gifts in the hands of the God with open hands, those gifts multiply and bless and give more than he could ever.

A blind man sits next to the road and he shouts, Son of David, can you just kind of think of me? And the Son of David stops. He has a moment to touch eyes that are closed and they open. This is the God of open hands.

The sick and the needy and the hopeless and the helpless. And when they stand, all he does, he opens his hands. When he ascends into heaven, he doesn't stop.

It's in that moment that he blesses us and he pours out his spirit as the greatest gift that we could ever have. Because that spirit is the one that takes my hands from this and changes it from me to one who lives for him. From creation, sending his Son.

And in that moment, when Jesus lies on that cross being those hands are open, and those open hands there on that cross have a moment to bless again when he says, Father, forgive me. He doesn't say, Father, let's put them up because look what they've done to me. But he doesn't just give.

Open hands are also hands that need to receive. You cannot receive like this. They just fall out.

They go nowhere. To be able to receive the gifts that God gives and that other people give in my life, they have to open up. This is the only way in which I can receive the gifts that come to me.

And I know and I pray for you, for each one of us that our hands can open. And when I speak of open hands, can I just speak of our lives too? Because sometimes it's so hard for so many of us to do this because of hurt, because of pain, because of people, because of things that have happened in our lives. And we kind of want to protect and keep.

May I pray with you. May I beg with you this morning. Will you allow the God of open hands to open your hands so you may receive, the psalm says it so beautifully, all of the good things that God gives graciously and freely.

The moment I learn to receive, my life changes. Because when I receive that Spirit, my life is never the same again. When I receive Him as my Saviour, my life is never the same again.

But if I close it up, there is no way to come in. That door needs to... Will you receive? Open your hands with confidence. Here I am.

Let it go. Let it go. Let go of every burden.

Let go of the things that scare you. Let go of the loss or even the victory, the brokenness, the hurt. Will you let them go? Because as we let them go, God can fill our lives and our hands with all of His goodness.

When we hoard those other things, we can't. There's no place for them. Give it to God.

And then we wait in expectation. He gives freely. Let me end.

Open hands are also hands that learn how to love others freely. Let me try and explain this. And this is the worst, best example that I have.

Let me take my own life. When Elsie and I got married 44 years ago. So I give you four years, George.

I know her 48 and she still married me. How does that happen? 44 years ago when Elsie and I got married, the first couple of years were really, really difficult. Not because of Elsie, because of me.

I'm an only child. Kind of a different world. You kind of live a little bit like this.

Because it's always you. There's no one else. And this is how I lived.

And I tried to make Elsie into what I wanted Elsie to be. I tried to create her in the little image of Aubrey so that she could be a little Aubrey and do a little Aubrey thing. And that just didn't work.

And it was hard. And it was difficult. Thank God that she resisted me.

And listen to the Lord. The Lord had to teach me how to let go. How to open my hands and allow this amazing woman to be who God wanted her.

To let God make her into the image that God wanted her in this world. Wow. And in the moment that happened, I changed and she changed and everything changed.

To live with open hands means to love freely and to give freely so that that love may grow in its own way. Because isn't that how God loves? With open hands. Maybe we live like that toward each other.

Because sometimes this is what we do, right? So I've learned to pray differently. Every day when I pray, I pray for all of you. But when I pray for my loved ones, I go sit there and Elsie's always first on my list.

Thank you, Lord, for Elsie. May I place her in your hands. For what you will do for her today.

Here's that crazy boy Jacques that I love so much. Can I put him in your hands? Here's my Stephen Jones. Take care of him, Lord.

He's all yours. And Elrie. Thank you for her.

There she is. Thank you for your open hands. Can I give her those three little grandkids that you blessed me? Thank you for Grayson and Duke and for Aiden.

Help us to live with open hands for them, Lord. Can we place them in your open hands? Because they are safe. They will be taken care of.

So let's go back to the beginning. How do you live? With hands that bless and worship. I looked at you, Dave, this morning.

We can't worship like this. Dave was standing in the back there and we were singing and his hand was all way up like that. And he was worshipping because that's how we worship, with open hands.

Can I place you in God's hand today? May I pray to the God of open hands that he will open your hands to bless and to love. Thank you. God of open hands, thank you that we may place ourselves in your hand and receive all of those amazing gifts that run after us every day.

God of open hands, thank you that we could open our hands and start praying for the new minister that you are going to bring into this church. And you, the Lord of open hands, have provided because that is what you do, Lord. Again, we pray for Carl and for the congregation that he will leave if this is where you are bringing him.

We pray that as he stands and brings your message on the 25th, that your hands will be the hands that we will see as he brings you. Thank you for this place where we may open our hands for others and give freely. Not just of the gifts that we have, but of our lives and of our love and of our care and of our compassion.

Thank you, Lord, that you give good things to your children even when they sleep, says the psalmist. We give thanks with a grateful heart. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

by Aubrey Botha

21 a]">[a]David went to Nob, to Ahimelek the priest. Ahimelek trembled when he met him, and asked, “Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?”

2 David answered Ahimelek the priest, “The king sent me on a mission and said to me, ‘No one is to know anything about the mission I am sending you on.’ As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.”

4 But the priest answered David, “I don’t have any ordinary bread on hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here—provided the men have kept themselves from women.”

5 David replied, “Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual wheneverb]">[b] I set out. The men’s bodies are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!” 6 So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the Lord and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.

7 Now one of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before the Lord; he was Doeg the Edomite, Saul’s chief shepherd.

8 David asked Ahimelek, “Don’t you have a spear or a sword here? I haven’t brought my sword or any other weapon, because the king’s mission was urgent.”

9 The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it; there is no sword here but that one.”

David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”

12 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? 

(Transcribed by TurboScribe)

So number three in the series on giant busters is about desperate days the stories of runaways now now Here's the thing last sunday You sang that second song That we did this morning and I sat up there with gerald and he said boy What a beautiful song and I came down and I said to carrie. Can we sing that next week? She said it's a little difficult. I said it's fine But if you listen to the words and you see that word runaways I haven't seen that sermon yet before that day That's the first part of today's story So already god planned a little song that was going to connect see what we're doing It's another piece that comes a little later And you're thinking why do we call crazy south africans and then you do it again? Something wrong with you Lord Lord Oh lord It's so exciting to be in your presence.

It's so exciting to be in your words And to know lord that you speak into the lives of your people And when you speak lord, it's not just empty words the words that you give As your servant sits in an office and waits For the spirit to speak of your words May that be true today That these are your words may we see Maybe hear Jesus And only jesus The desperate man sits In the last few in the back row of the church His mouth is dry Palms are sweaty He wonders if he even fits In a place filled with disciples believing But where else could he go He violated every belief that he valued He hurt the people that he loved the most There he sits guilty alone struggling Who is this person? well Is any of a number of people He or she could be any of a number of people that come to god's people Struggling with the same thing Hopeless helpless hapless Question is what is the church's reaction? What will these people find? Rejection Or acceptance Criticism Or compassion Same thing david wondered Because david was a man on the run He was not welcome in soul's court anymore. He was a wanted man In soul's court after the sixth attempt On his life david at last got the message Soul really doesn't like you So he kissed his wife mijo Goodbye And got out of dodge a desperate running man Where could he go Where did he go He did a sinead o'connor thing Take me to church He went to church 1st samuel chapter 21 verse 1 David went to the town of nob to see a himalek the priest interesting name for a man running away from the king A himalek in hebrew is actually achi melech Achi means my brother And melech means king My brother is the king I'm scaring you run from the king and this priest has the name of my brother as the king David went to the town of nob to see a himalek the priest himalek trembled when he saw him Why are you alone? He asked Why is no one with you? You stop there for one second you're thinking why is the priest scared remember who david was David didn't take many prisoners and david usually travelled with his private armies Of mercenaries in in the bible. They're called the crete and the plebeian his private army For david to show up at the sanctuary alone It's kind of strange So no wonder himalek is kind of a little hesitant.

What are you doing here, dude david Gives him a little assurance by telling him a lie Let's see The king has sent me on a private matter david said He told me not to tell anyone why why i'm here he's lying through his teeth The king didn't send him on a private matter. He's running for his life So i've told my men where to meet me later Now see how he changes the subject. What is there to eat? Give me five loaves of bread or anything else you have david David's a desperate man And what desperate people sometimes do is exactly what david does He lies to stone mission, but he needs help Now Now the the assurance Kind of seems to be okay with the priest And he kind of accepts it so he says We don't have any regular bread At least in quiet You see david is fine, but he's in a little conundrum when david asks for the bread Because here's the thing.

The only bread he has in that place is the shoe bread not s-h-o-e s-h-e-w Shoe bread or the holy bread or the bread of the presence or the bread that is in the presence of the lord Uh in in the hebrew, it's lehem le panayim lehem is bread like in bet lehem house of bread Lehem is bread and panayim is face the bread that is in the face of the lord It stood in the holy place the room just before the holy of holies in the tabernacle It was put there for a whole week There were 12 pieces of bread for each of the tribes of israel Stood in the presence of the lord to remind the lord of his Provision for them and to take care of them six on the one six on the other side They stood for a week Only after a week when the new bread has been baked and ready and placed on the table were they allowed to take the old bread Off and then the priests were allowed to eat that bread only the priests in a holy ceremony They would eat that priests in a little bit of a conundrum All he has is the holy bread David's not a priest. So what does he do? Does he follow the letter of the law and send david away hungry Does he break the law? And give david to go So he does a little bit of a theological two-step We don't have any regular bread the priest replied and there's your but But there is the holy bread which you can have if If your young men have not slept with any women recently David responds with another lie Don't worry david replied. I never allow my men to be with women when we're on a campaign.

He's not on a campaign He's on a runaway trail Oh boy And since they stay clean even on ordinary trips how much more on this one? Which one david? The lie works the lie works Priest says well since there was no other food available. The priest gave him the holy bread The bread of the presence that was placed before the lord in the tabernacle It had just been replaced that day with fresh bread What a what a moment instead of dotting the i's And crossing the t's of god's code The priest decides that there is a higher calling And decides to take care of the need of god's child I hope the church remembers me Now higher calling is not dotting i's and crossing t's Her calling Is to take care of the desperate And the broken even if they lie Even if they're messy David's response Again a little bit of a lie david asked him like do you have a spear or a sword the king's business was so urgent That That I didn't even have time to grab a weapon David david david I only have the sword of goliath the philistine whom you killed in the valley of elah the priest replied It's wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod ephod was the the ceremonial gown that the priests would wear on ceremonial days It's wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod take that if you want it, but there's nothing else here Oh, there's nothing like it david replied Do you see what's happening David's faith is wavering Just a while ago There was this young man who stood before his giant with only a sling in his hand And he said the battle belongs to the lord And now all of a sudden when this new giant saul stands before david david needs a sword or a spear or something That david could do the david thing Because you see what happened to david is what I taught you last week What happens when the giants come and overwhelm us and we allow them we get tunnel vision And david loses his god Okay And all of a sudden david's giant takes up the big screen in david's imagination And all that leads to is desperation life spawning fear stirring Truth stripping Desperation so here's the question Where do the desperate go to find sanctuary Where would they find people with a heart That would not judge but that would care and that would love Shouldn't they find that? God's people In the church Because that's where I You we Like david find bread And a sword Strength for the day and weapons for the struggle bread and blades Both of these are part of the task and the work of the church To provide both Because working with people is never a tidy trade Because hurting people And desperate people don't always have tidy lives They're fugitives That run to the church sometimes running away from angry souls sometimes running away from desperate broken messy lives Jesus asks the church to leave him to the side of compassion Listen to the son of david Nearly a millennium later As he reminds us Of this himalayan priest He did not dot i's and cross keys matthew 12 At about that time jesus was walking through some grain fields on the sabbath Note that word These disciples were hungry. So they began breaking off some heads of grain and eating them But some pharisees church saw them do it and protested look The disciples are breaking the law by harvesting grain on the sabbath jesus said to them Haven't you read in the scriptures what david did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of god and he and his companions broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread That only the priests are allowed to eat And haven't you read in the law of moses that the priests on duty in the temple may work on the sabbath See at the end of the sanctuary day The question isn't how many laws have been broken It's rather how many davids Desperate davids Were nourished And protected And provided Yes Yes David stumbles Messes up But at least he stumbles in the right direction He stumbles into the church Where god's people Where god says? Break your hearts Break your hearts For those who are needy And lost And sick Let me take you back To the beginning of my sermon To the man sitting In the back pew The desperate man Like david and the others were runaways I forgot to mention a few important pieces of information The size of the congregation where he sat They were only about a dozen or so the location Was a room somewhere in jerusalem But the door was locked The day was a sunday But a very special sunday It was the sunday after the friday that jesus had been crucified It was the sunday after the thursday of the betrayal and that's where peter sit In the back pew The desperate man And even if he puts his hands on his ears He doesn't stop the voice luke 22 Oh simon simon I have prayed for you He hears that voice his own voice that says even if all of them will leave you I will never do that And he hears that voice saying oh before the roosting three times And he hears that voice.

I don't know who you're talking about I don't know that man. I don't know who you're talking about and that rooster and peter Peter and those other disciples wonder what god's place would be for him for them For a desperate runaway And jesus answers the question when he walks right through that door And he gives them bread For desperate souls john 2019 when he says Peace with you He gives them swords for the struggle John 2022 when he says You see the holy spirit He gives bread And swords To desperate runaways Still today Amen take a few moments Thank you lord for the sanctuary Place where we are received even when we run away Even when we are death, especially when we are desperate Even if we try to hide Thank you that that's the place where we don't have to Where you provide Blades and bread Today we'll see that When you provide it all Oh lord, how blessed we are In a moment, we're going to sit at this table You will see the bread and the wine Your gifts lord of forgiveness your gifts of running to a runaway And holding us in your arms Thank you for reminding us of that Thank you for your amazing life-giving grace How blessed We're going to listen to this beautiful song lord called the sound of the saints As we sing with our hearts Thank you that we may raise that hallelujah Praise the lord For he is good In jesus name Amen

by Aubrey Botha

17 Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Sokoh in Judah. They pitched camp at Ephes Dammim, between Sokoh and Azekah. 2 Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of Elah and drew up their battle line to meet the Philistines. 3 The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another, with the valley between them.

4 A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span.a]">[a] 5 He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekelsb]">[b]; 6 on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. 7 His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels.c]">[c] His shield bearer went ahead of him.

8 Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. 9 If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” 10 Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” 11 On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

16 For forty days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening and took his stand.

17 Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephaha]">[a] of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. 18 Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assuranceb]">[b] from them. 19 They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines.”

25 Now the Israelites had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out? He comes out to defy Israel. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.”

26 David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?”

27 They repeated to him what they had been saying and told him, “This is what will be done for the man who kills him.”

32 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”

33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”

34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”

40 Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine.

41 Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. 42 He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him. 43 He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. 44 “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals!”

45 David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”

48 As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. 49 Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.

50 So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him.

(Transcribed by TurboScribe)

You thought I was leaving the building? Not that lucky. You still have to deal with me for a little while before Elvis leaves the building. Thank you for the flowers.

I don't know who put them in. They're just beautiful. I will pull my car up to the door and take them home after the service.

They really are beautiful. Thank you for whoever put them in. They just look fun, especially this time of the year when everything starts falling.

You see little beautiful flowers. It's just beautiful. Lord, what a beautiful word you have given us this morning.

We know it so well. Help us in this moment to focus on you so that all we will see and all that we will know is you. In the precious name of Jesus, Amen.

So number two in our series on ghost, no, no, no, giant busters, the forgiveness to ghost busters, busting the giant, slaying them and taking them down in our lives. Steve and Marie, darling, my goodness, what a wonderful sight to see you visiting all the way from where you live now. Good to see you.

You know, Steve's last name is darling, so I would always walk up to him and say, good morning, Steve. So as we bust these giants, we really are going to look at one of the giants today. We call him Goliath and you know the story really well, but can I ask you, keep an open mind when we walk through the story.

Don't say, well, I know the story. I know exactly what he's going to say. Just keep an open mind for a moment.

So we're going to first Samuel chapter 17. You're going to read verse one to 11 and then verse 16. You'll have to try and keep up today because I'm going to jump all over the place.

So forgive me for that. Now the Philistines gathered their forces for war and assembled at Soko in Judah. They pitched a camp at Ephes Damim between Soko and Azekah.

I'm saying them the Hebrew way. I can't do the English way. Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the valley of Elah and draw up their battle line to meet the Philistines.

The Philistines occupied one hill and the Israelites another with a valley between them. A champion or a giant named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits in a span.

He was really big. That's all I'd say. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armour of bronze weighing 5,000 shekels.

On his legs he wore bronze greaves and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver's rod and its iron point weighed 600 shekels. The shield bearer went ahead of him.

Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel. Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he's able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects.

But if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us. Then the Philistine said, This day I defy the armies of Israel. Give me a man and let us fight each other.

On hearing the Philistines' words, Saul and the Israelites were dismayed. Terrified. Then verse 16.

For 40 days the Philistine came forward every morning and evening until he stayed. Let's stop there for a second. For 40 days he did this twice a day.

When they woke up in the morning, he was in their face taunting them. When they went to bed in the evening, he was in their face taunting them over and over and over. So it's not hard to imagine that at some stage all these poor Israelites could see and think about was Goliath.

Though I don't know if anyone like me has ever struggled with a problem or a challenge. And it became so big that it kind of just took over everything and that's all that you could see. I'm kind of good for that.

Problem with that is usually it causes anxiety and it causes fear. And when this anxiety and fear comes into your life, it becomes all-consuming. Not necessarily because the problem is so big, but because this thing gives you tunnel vision.

Let me give you an example. If I look at my hand, I can see my hand, but I can also see all of you. I can see the whole world.

If I make a little tunnel like this and I put my hand there, I see half of my finger and I have to move it to see the others and all of a sudden this hand looks like a giant hand. Because I do not have the whole picture. I only see this little picture and it overwhelms and it becomes this huge thing and I don't know what to do with it.

Anyone else in here? Just me. No wonder we read in verse 11, it says, Saul and the Israelites were dismayed and terrified. The Hebrew word for dismayed is the word chatat.

And Amir was not here this morning to check my Hebrew on this one. Chatat means to be taken away all of your courage, to be confused, to completely be paralysed. They didn't move.

Saul didn't move. Jonathan didn't move. David's big brothers didn't move because that's what Goliath does.

Paralyses you. And it puts you in this place of being discontent and scared and you just can't do a thing. That's what David walks in.

We're going see that in a second. David's dad's going to send him to just do the skip the dishes thing. Just drop off food, get a note and scoot back home.

That's all. He's not getting ready to go into battle. He's taking care of sheep.

So we read. Let's go to verse 17. Now Jesse said to his son David, take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp.

Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit and see how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them. They are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of Elah fighting against the Philistines. So when David sets out with the bread and the cheese, all David's got in his mind, I'll get there, drop it off, get the note from my brothers, check that they're okay.

I'm going back and I'm going to hang out with the sheep and I'm going to play my harp and we'll have fun sitting around there, catch new little lambs going out. Little did David know that in that day David would face one of the biggest giants of his life. This one even had flesh and blood and was armed to the teeth.

See, here's the thing about that and don't miss this. Sometimes God will use simple, ordinary, everyday things to put us in a position to slay the giants in our lives. We're going to get back to that.

Sometimes God will put us in a position where we never expected it, where the giant will be there, but this is the moment in which God says, I'm going to show you, you can slay the giant. Back to David. So David sees this Philistine.

He hears all the stuff that he's saying. He hears them taunting. Then verse 26, David asked the men standing near him, what will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? And they repeated to him what they had been saying and told him this is what will be done for the man who kills him.

And I'm taking you back to verse 25 because this is what was said. The king will give great wealth to the man who kills him. He will also give him his daughter in marriage and he will exempt his family from taxes in Israel.

I love this question. It's a little audacious, isn't it? Even a little greedy in a sense. What will this man get that kills this giant? But what I want you to notice is two things in there.

I kind of made two little arrows going like this. When David looks at the giant, he does not only see arrow number one, the risk. David also sees the reward.

See, sometimes that's where we get stuck. The giant shows up and it's like, oh my goodness, I am dismayed. I am terrified.

I am so scared. And it overwhelms me. There's the risk.

What is this going to do? Where is this going? But if we step out against that giant in faith, there is a reward. It might be really risky and difficult to confront that person with that difficult conversation that you have to have because it might just backfire. Or you might sit down and have that conversation and be reconciled and there is that peace and the reward.

It's hard to admit that you struggle and you have failed. But in the moment that I can take that and own that, that risk, the reward is that I become free and I can move on. It might be risky to stand before God and ask for what I want because he might not answer the way I want, but he might answer the way I need.

I don't know what the giants in your life are. I don't know which giant right now you are facing that stands there and taunts you every moment. But can I ask you something? Can you step up to that giant in faith and look it in the eyes and say, here we go.

Let's see what you can do because I know it's a risk and I know in who I stand. David verse 32 said to Saul, let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine. Your servant will go and fight him.

Now remember this guy, anything between 18 and 20, 22 years old, he's a young pup. Sorry for those who are that young. Your servant will go fight him.

Saul replied, you're not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him. You're only a young man. And he's been a warrior from his youth.

David said to Saul, your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.

Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them because he has defied the armies and underlined this of the living God. Underline the next one.

The Lord, the Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine. Can I say this in other words, translate this a little differently? David says, Saul, Saul, be near. Circumstances might differ a little bit.

It might have been a lion and a bear before and now it's a Goliath, but here's the thing. The Lord who delivered me, rescued me then is the Lord who will deliver me and rescue me now. Whether it's a bear or a lion or Goliath or whatever it might be, the Lord of then is the Lord of now.

We sang it this morning. Terry had a different song for the first one. I wrote and said, no, I want firm foundation, please.

And she said, no problem. Because isn't that what we sang? Christ is my firm foundation. The rock on which I stand has been faithful through generations then.

So why would he fail now? The Lord who delivered me then and was faithful is the Lord who will deliver me now. But the big word, the Lord. In my own strength, I can't face that child.

But with the Lord, you can face the child. Because he's going to be there again, again, again. Can we stop there? You got all you need.

End of verse 37, Saul said to David, go and the Lord be with you. Then verse 40. He took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd's bag and with his slinging hand approached the Philistine.

Meanwhile, the Philistine with the shield bearing in front of him kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome and he was, and he despised him. Oh, you giants, that's exactly what you do.

Said to David, am I a dog that you come with me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. He said to David, am I a dog that you come at me with sticks? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. Come here, he said, and I'll give you your flesh to the birds and the wild animals.

David said to the Philistine, you come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, who you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.

All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord's and he will get all of you into our hands. Can we stop there for a second? That's confidence, right? It's not self-confidence. It's not worldly confidence.

It's confidence in what David says in the Lord of the armies of heaven. So bring it on, beloved. Bring it on.

You're not gonna make it because I'm not standing before you giant in my own strength. I stand on that firm foundation, the one who will not. You bring it on.

My friends, when that moment comes, will you remember that? When those giants come, you look them in the eye and say, I'm not afraid of you because I stand in the name, as David called it, the Lord Almighty. In the Hebrew, it is one of the difficult ones to translate. When we translated the Bible, when I did Malachi, I translated these two words in every different verse differently.

We always usually translate it as the Lord Almighty, but it's way more than that. It's the Lord who has all the armies of heaven in his hands. It's the Lord who says, I will be there for you in every moment.

It's the Lord who says, I will provide. It's the Lord who says, there's no one who can stand against me. It's the Lord who says, I'm the one who will sit and hold you and comfort you.

It's the Lord. And when you face these giants, you do not face them in your own name. You face them in the name of Yahweh, the civil one.

That's why, that's why when David walks out to meet this Philistine, David, David knew the most important thing. David knew that he was not the underdog in this fight because the real giant that day was not Goliath. The real giant is God.

When you face the giants, you will not be underdog because the real giant, Yahweh, the civil one, is right here with you and next to you. Do small things before we end. Verse 48.

As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. What is our first thing that we do when we see the giant? We kind of get out of dodge, going to get away. Have you ever been able to run out on them? Do what David did because David knew who was with him.

And in the name of the Lord, when this giant came at him, David said, I've got you. And David ran right at him. Not because this young boy was so strong, because this young boy knew who the one was, because who is the battle? Who does it belong to? The battle belongs to the Lord.

The battle belongs to the Lord. Don't run away from them. Don't let them try and overwhelm you because that's all they can do.

They can try and scare you, but they can't for the battle. There on Calvary, Satan thought, I am the giant and I will slay the Son of God. And he danced on the grave of the Lord Jesus.

And on that third day, that grave opened up and Satan had to run like nobody's business because the real giant walked out of that grave. And when I faced the battles against my giants, and they are real, and I'm not saying they are not real. I know because I faced them myself, but I can't do it on my own.

But I know who the one is who says, the battle belongs to me. Trust me, that maybe sometimes is the difficulty. Now I need my glasses because I got tears in my eyes.

49, reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead and he fell face down on the ground. And so David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone.

Without a sword in his hand, he struck down the Philistine and killed him. It took 50 verses. Talk about the giant.

It took one verse to slay him. Do I need to say more? Because the battle belongs to me. Whatever you face, he's there to represent you.

Whatever you need to face, he's fighting for you. Whatever you need to thank him, he's standing right there. So get your little pouch, pick up your stones, and let's go slay some giants.

Amen. Take a few moments of silent prayer. Oh Lord, who is the firm foundation of my life, the rock Lord Jesus on which we may stand.

I come and lay my giants before you. Am I in my own strength, Lord? I can't do it. I fail, but you have never failed, and you won't fail now.

I hope every day as we walk in this world filled with many of those giants, you know that we are giant busters. Not because of who we are and how strong we are, but because of who you are and how amazing you are. Lord God, thank you for reminding us so early in this series that the battle belongs to me.

And as we walk past these giants for the next four weeks, one by one, thank you that you've already taken care of me. I pray for each one of us as we sit here today, because I saw many heads nod with mine. As I said, I struggled with my giants and I saw them and I know, because of some of them I know, Lord, because they are my people.

Thank you for encouraging each one today. We love you. The battle belongs to the Lord.

Lord God Almighty. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

by Aubrey Botha

16 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”

2 But Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears about it, he will kill me.”

The Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.”

4 Samuel did what the Lord said. When he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him. They asked, “Do you come in peace?”

5 Samuel replied, “Yes, in peace; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the Lord.”

7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

8 Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. But Samuel said, “The Lord has not chosen this one either.” 9 Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, “Nor has the Lord chosen this one.” 10 Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, “The Lord has not chosen these.” 11 So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”

“There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.”

Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.”

12 So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features.

Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.”

13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon David. Samuel then went to Ramah.

36 “Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed.

(Transcribed by TurboScribe)

Thank you Kevin for all the work and the team for all the work you've done for today. Really appreciate that. Thank you again Catherine and Dave for taking worship this morning.

I've never sang this song, but what a beautiful... the 90s, I wasn't born yet. It's a beautiful, beautiful song. My goodness, thank you for introducing it for those of us who didn't know it.

I really, really loved singing. I could just sit there and sing that the whole morning. It's just such a beautiful song.

Gerda, we have to say goodbye to you today. She's moving to Godrej, a little closer to her family. It's been wonderful to get to know you and Harry when you came over to Central, and we have loved you and you have loved us and blessed us with so many of your gifts and your love.

May the Lord continue to bless you in your journey with him as you go to Godrej. We really are going to miss you. We don't like losing these Duchess.

They're wonderful people. May God bless you and may you be loved. I'm so glad that you can be a little closer to the family as well and that all things worked out, the place sold like nobody's business and just like that.

So we're so grateful for that. Bless you. I'm a little nasal and I'm a little deaf, so if I yell at you, I'm sorry.

It's not because I want to, it's because I can't hear myself properly. I don't know where this bug came from. I went home after church last week and I said to Kelsey, man, I must have yelled a lot because my throat is hurting.

And then the nose started running and then the coughing started. Boy, these days. One day, and I'm looking forward to that day when we all get to heaven, there's a song that says what a day of rejoicing that will be when we all see Jesus and his majesty.

But in that day, I'm going to get a new body. Man, I can't wait for that one. I can't wait.

That's the first thing I'm going to say. Jesus, we'll do the introductions later. Just do the body right now.

Then we'll do the introduction so I can enjoy that. We will get those. Father, thank you for your grace.

Thank you for this amazing word again this morning, an uplifting word that reminds us of who we are. Thank you that we may see Jesus. And only Jesus.

Amen. Starting a six-part series with you today where we're going to walk through a few chapters in the books of Samuel, 1 and 2 Samuel. Walk through a few of those chapters, especially talking about a young man called David.

But in walking through those chapters, we're going to explore God's purpose for our lives, especially in this messy and giant-filled world in which we live. And I'll explain the giants come next week. But just for a moment, just let the word go in.

So the series title is Giant Busters. Forgive me, those busters. I'm going to do a little bit of slaying a few giants that come at us in life and sometimes can put a veil over what God's purpose is for my life.

And I get so focused on the giants that I don't see God and what God is doing in my life. So we'll talk about those in the weeks to come. But today, what I'd like us to do is to focus on working on that purpose needs faith and trust.

That faith that says, Hebrew says, is to see the things that I don't see, to trust the things that I hope in, and to know that all of these things are true in my life. Sometimes I think we lose a little bit of sight of that, of how God is working, and how amazing God is in our lives. So today we're going to go to 1 Samuel 16, but I'm not going to read yet.

Let me give you a little background before we get there. So God brings these people out of Egypt, puts them into the promised land, and they settle in the land. Initially it goes well because Joshua's still hanging around, but after that we go read the last chapter of Joshua, and then the beginning of Judges.

It said they served God during the time of Joshua, and then some of the elders. And then after that, they kind of just didn't serve the Lord anymore. It kind of got a little messy.

So every now and then, God would send a leader, tribal leader. We call them the Judges. The book of Judges is a book, and I always joke about that.

I said it's like a motorcycle. We know the motorcycles around here. We call them Harley-Davidson's.

The book of Judges is a motorcycle called seven cycles. So that's seven cycles that are all the same. People mess up.

God sends a nation to go put them in their place. They repent of their sins. God sends a judge, and they live in peace again.

Cycle. Then they mess up again. God sends a people.

They say they're sorry. God sends a judge, and they live well again. Seven cycles.

So it's the Judges help them, but it kind of doesn't work that well. They start looking around, and they think, but the other people have kings. So they go to Samuel, who is their judge and their prophet as well.

When we use the word judge, it's not the one with the gavel. It's the one who guides them. He's their judge and their prophet, and they say, Samuel, we want a king, and Samuel goes to God.

He says, they don't like me anymore. They now want the king. God says, no, no, no, you got that wrong.

It's me that they're not trusting anymore, because I've always been their king. But to tell them they can have a king, but he's going to put taxes on them. He's going to make them work for him.

He's going to take their land. Their children have to go to work for him. Samuel goes back.

He says, you don't want a king. This is what he's going to do. They say, we want a king.

God says, fine. Go and anoint this man called Saul. Saul, this amazing, strong, attractive young man, and initially starts off well, and he does well.

But slowly but surely, Saul starts falling into all kinds of things. He starts wars that he shouldn't. Then he starts the taxes.

Then he starts using their kids. Then he takes their land. But the worst is, slowly but surely, he drifts away from the Lord, and he does not follow the ways of the Lord.

And God decides to reject Saul's kinship. And he says to Samuel, you're going to go and anoint another king. That's where we pick up the story.

First Samuel 16, and we start verse 1. The Lord said to Samuel, how long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I've chosen one of his sons to be king.

But Samuel said, how can I go? If Saul hears about it, he'll kill me. The Lord said, take a heifer with you and say, I've come to sacrifice to the Lord. Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do.

You are to anoint for me the one I indicate. Can we just pause there for a second? I want you to note something really important in what we just read. When Samuel goes and he anoints this new king, remember Saul is still on the throne.

Saul is still the king. So this man, and by now it's not a secret anymore, it's David. This David that is going to be anointed to be the new king is going to have to wait a long time before that anointing is going to be realised in his life.

Why is that important? Because here's the thing, in our faith walk every day, God's calling in our life, God's purpose in our life, God has placed it there. But often God will ask of us, why are we not good at that? We want it done like this. Because we've got a phone, we pull it out and we say, Siri, tell me about this.

And we just want it to every moment be like that. In God's world, with God's purposes for our lives, often we need a time of growing to become what God wants us to be before it happens. And that's a time of waiting.

We've been there. When is God going to answer? When's God going to show up? When's God going to act about this? I know myself, I've done that, I do that. But in this faith walk, one of the most important moments is learning to wait on God's hand.

Verse four, Samuel did what the Lord said and when he arrived at Bethlehem, the elders of the town trembled when they met him because they knew Samuel was ticked off at them for wanting a king. They knew that. They asked, do you come in peace? Samuel replied, no, I'm bringing fire and brimstones.

Samuel replied, yes, in peace. I've come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me.

Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. When they arrived, Samuel saw Elijah and thought, oh, surely the Lord's anointed stands here before the Lord. But, do I have to say, but the Lord said to Samuel, do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.

The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance that the Lord looks. Can we stop there again? Isn't that what we do when we evaluate? We evaluate on resume, background, all these things we're going to do when we look at secretaries and all of these other, we evaluate on all of these external things.

But when God evaluates and God chooses and looks at us, that's the last thing he cares about. God goes right to a different, he calls it the heart. Now, remember in the Bible, the heart is not this blood pumping vessel.

The heart is that place where everything that my life turns around, that's where everything evolves from. Proverbs 4.23, he usually knows them all. I should have done the coffee thing here.

Proverbs 4.23, be careful with what goes on in your heart, for it determines your whole life. You should memorise that, my friend. I often say that to myself, be careful with what goes on in your heart, for it will determine your whole.

That's how God looks at us. He knows that inside. The one song, and it's interesting, my friend Mark Richardson, into a moderator, wrote me over the summer when I was not doing all that great.

He said, take the psalm and ponder it, and I wrote back and I said, you're going to have to tell me that because I do it every day. Psalm 139 is for me the most beautiful song. Lord, Lord, you know me.

You see me. You see right through me. Whether I sit or whether I stand, you know that.

There's not even a word on my mouth, for you know, Lord, that word is coming. You hem me in from before and define me. And even when I've messed up and I want to run from you, where can I run away, Lord? If I go to the heavens, you're there.

When I go to the depths of the earth, you're there. When I go east, when I go west, you are there, Lord. You knew me when you lit me together in my mother's womb.

You are fully and wonderful. So search me, search my heart. See if there is a waywardness in that.

The Lord does not look at the outside. He knows our heart and he cares for those hearts and he loves to heal them. He loves to care for them and make them strong.

Let's go on before I get distracted. Then Jesse called Abinadab and had him pass in front of Samuel. Samuel said, Lord's not chosen this one either.

Jesse then had Shammah pass by, but Samuel said, nor has the Lord chosen this one. Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, but Samuel said to him, the Lord has not chosen these. So he asked Jesse, are these all the sons you have? Well, they're still the youngest.

Notice, he doesn't call his name. Zebra word actually for youngest is the one of the least important. Yeah, there's some kind of little runt out there.

He's tending the sheep. Tending the sheep is also the least favourable task of all of those to do because you were never home. You're always in the field.

You're sleeping with the sheep. You have to protect the sheep. You have to take care of yourself.

Now we got this guy out there who's kind of doing the job that we don't want to do. Samuel said, send for him, but we will not sit down until he arrives. So he sent for him and had him brought in.

He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features. And then the Lord said, rise and anoint him. This is the one.

So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers. And from that day on, the spirit of the Lord, the the wind, the power of the Lord came powerfully upon. And there's his name, not the youngest, not the least, not the one taking care of the sheep, came powerfully upon.

Samuel went back to where he came from, place called from. I want you to notice two things in this moment that we want to take with us as we as we ask for God's purpose in our lives. Number one, God, like David, God has chosen not because of what you are or are not, but because of who God is and because of the plans that God has for your life.

May I repeat myself? You're chosen because God has a plan for your life and he is excited about that plan. Do you remember what he said in Jeremiah? I know the plans that I have for you and they are plans to prosper you. But his plan is also a plan to use you in his kingdom.

David had to wait a decade before God would put him on that plane. God chose him. And even in that time, despite the fact that David in those 10 years messed up quite often, faced quite a few giants, not just the Goliath in his life, God chose him and God took care of him and was growing him to become who God wanted him.

The time of waiting is also the time of growing. It does not take away the fact that God said, I have a plan for you, Peter, and I'm going to use you because you are mine. I uphold you.

That's the interesting thing. God, God so often, if you look at David, often uses those that look like the least experienced to do the most significant work. Think of Jacob.

Would you have chosen Jacob to be on your team? I don't think so. Not that deceiver. What about old foot-in-mouth Rocky, a guy called Peter? God chose him.

What about the guy who persecuted the Christians, killed them, wrote most of the New Testament? Sometimes the least that you would expect are the ones that are chosen. So when you go home today and you look at yourself in that mirror, you go remind yourself of that. God has a purpose for my life and he has chosen me to fulfil that.

And I will do that because I walk in him. Number two, not only has God chosen you, but God loves you. Isaiah 43, you are precious to me.

You are honoured and I am. You're not a nobody. You're somebody.

Somebody who was chosen on the cross on Calvary. Somebody who was washed in the blood of the lamb and someone who is loved by Jesus Christ our Lord. So much so that he would do that.

No one in this world is allowed to take that. David, David was the no name, don't care much about him, doing the least little job. The boy that was never chosen or the girl that was never chosen on the playground to play.

And yet the Lord said, I love you. You don't have to be the greatest. You don't have to have the best resume in the world.

What you have to know is here I am Lord. And he says, I love you. Then he calls you, as he called David, a man, a woman, to God's own heart.

And I often struggled with that. I thought, Lord, that doesn't make sense. This guy, this guy who did the Bathsheba thing, killed her husband, all kinds of others, a man to God's own heart.

Because I thought it had to do with his competencies and how great he was and all. No, no, no. To be a man or a woman after God's own heart only means death.

It means it's someone who God's heart has been running after and sought to do. That's what it means. It's not about me and what I can do.

It's about God looking at you and saying, I've fallen in love with you. And because of that, I will give you my everything. Please go live that every day.

Go live like someone who God has a purpose for, who was chosen and who is loved because he wants to do that for you. So, you're chosen, you're loved, you have a purpose. So get on the train because we're going to go slow with you as we journey through our lives.

Take a few moments of silence. We sing a song, Lord, take my hand, worship you. So as we look for your purpose in our lives, may that be true every day.

May you hold our hand and walk with us and remind us of who we are in Jesus. Because this world, Lord, will often come at us with all kinds of ugly giants that will say things to us, that will try and put us down, that will try and lead us away from you. May we not hear their voices and may we not see them.

May we remember who we are and may we walk in faith, even if sometimes it takes a decade before that moment that we have been anointed for will happen. May we walk in trust, even when it takes us through deep darkness. Or it was in that moment, Lord, when this young man who wasn't seen as something became the king and he could write and say, I was a shepherd for sheep, I was a shepherd for people, but the Lord, because he loved me, was my shepherd.

Because of the Lord's love for me, I never needed a thing. When I needed a pasture, it was green. When I needed water, it was safe.

When I ended up in deep dark valleys, where I shouldn't have been, he guided me with a rod and a staff. Surely, we know that, Lord, that the goodness and the love of the Lord follows us all the days of our life. Thank you that your love never stops following me.

Because of that, we can smile and say like David. Because of that, I will dwell in the house of the Lord, not just in this world. Thank you for your love.

We love you.

by Aubrey Botha

5 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,a]">[a] the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. 2 He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”

5 Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

(Transcribed by TurboScribe)

Good morning, No no. Thank you, I appreciate that, but you make me blush. I don't like that.

It's good to see you. It's good to be back. Thank you, Alexander.

One day you'll get it right. I think we reached the goal. I think we got a few donations during the week, so I think we hit the thousandth, and I am so, so grateful for that.

Thank you for your grace, the way in which you can care for other people as well. What a wonderful, wonderful place this is. It's always caring and giving and looking out for others.

Let me, let me pray with you. Father, you are so good, and we live from the goodness of God. David got it right when he said, your goodness and your mercy follow me all the days of my life.

We can't get away from it long, even if we try. It keeps on following us. Thank you that we may live in that goodness.

And then this morning again, as we break your word together, our prayer is that we will see Jesus, and only Jesus. Amen. I'm going to talk a little bit about following Jesus today.

Now, now here's the thing. Sometimes I think many of us, and many folks, and even many churches get this wrong, because when we speak about following, all of a sudden it becomes this obligation. I kind of have this chart on the fridge, and it's got these little blocks, and I have to tick these little blocks.

I did this, I did this, I did this, I did this, I'm okay. But if we look at the disciples, the first followers of Jesus, the picture is completely the opposite of that. For them, following Jesus was no obligation, despite the fact that they had to make many sacrifices to do that.

They wanted to follow Jesus, but not out of obligation, but because they wanted an intimate relationship with him, being in his presence, learning from him, not doing something for God, but doing life with God, growing closer, and closer, and closer, and closer to Jesus, and looking more and more like Jesus. How do we do that? How do we get so close in this when we follow Jesus? Well, I'm going to look at a passage, and Alexander just showed me this morning. He has a new programme that every sermon I preach, he's got the text there, and when he hits the button, it shows him exactly how many times I've preached on that same passage.

It's the truth. You can go look there, and I said, well, Alexander, today if you go look for this chapter, you might find it about six, seven, or eight times, only twice. I've preached it way more than that.

This is one of my favourite passages. Have you written this one up as the one for my funeral as well? Luke chapter five. It's one of my favourite, favourite passages.

I just love it. It's such a beautiful moment. One day, as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.

Now, I think I told you this before, too. Lake of Gennesaret is the Sea of Galilee. It's called Lake of Gennesaret in Hebrew, Yam Kineret.

In Hebrew, Kineret means a harp, and when you look at the Sea of Galilee from above, it looks like a harp, so they call it the Lake of the Harp. That's what Lake Gennesaret means, but it's the Sea of Galilee. One day, as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the Word of God.

He saw at the water's edge two boats left there by the fishermen who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore, and then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When it finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.

Simon answered, Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything, but, and there's your biblical but, but because you say so, I will let down the nets. And when they'd done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signalled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, go away from me, Lord. I'm a cynical man. For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they'd taken, and so were James and John, or actually Jacob, remember I told you, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners.

And then Jesus said to Simon, don't be afraid. From now on you will fish for people. And so they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything, and followed them.

Talking about following Jesus, I want us to notice a few things from this passage about following, getting closer to Jesus. First thing, growing closer to Jesus requires us to listen carefully. When I say that, it's not something new, but we also know that from our own relationship.

If we do not listen to each other in our relationship, it will break down. There's no question about that. Maybe one of the best examples of that is what's going on right now between us and our neighbour down south.

When you don't listen, relationships just fall apart, and they can't work, and we grow further and further apart from each other. Same thing with our relationship with Jesus. If we want to follow Jesus and grow closer to him, it starts by listening to him.

But here's the cool thing about listening to Jesus. In that situation of sitting with him, listening to him, it creates this safe space in which I can also ask my questions. Those difficult ones like, Lord, I'm trying so hard to walk with you.

Why I struggle and I stumble? Can I make it? Questions like, I just don't know if I can be with you. I just don't feel safe. Or maybe saying, will you give me time? I just need to listen.

You know what? Going close needs that moment to listen, because here's the cool thing and the amazing thing. That's what prayer is all about. We think often that prayer is me doing a lot of this.

Actually, it's doing a lot of this. And listen. Because we'll talk, and we'll say, and we'll ask, but how many times do we stop, and we're just quiet, and we just sit, and we just listen so that God can answer, so that God can speak back? Because only when I listen and I allow him to speak back into my life can I hear what he's trying to say to me, where he's trying to guide me, where he's trying to take me, so that I can grow in that relationship with him.

Please, take time to listen. Sometimes you don't want to listen, because the things he says are really difficult. Right now, I'm going through a really difficult time thinking of my mother in South Africa alone, because she's really struggling, and she has no one anymore.

I struggle because I had to listen. Lord said, pack it up and go. It's a place called Central, but I need you.

We had to pack up and go. Sometimes we don't want to listen, but in listening, this is how we grow in him, and in your faith, walk with him, and in following. There's a second thing.

So, Jesus preaching, looks around, sees the boats, gets into one of the boats, and he says to Peter, push it out from shore. I'm going to preach. He sits down, and he preaches.

Now, usually, when we look at this, we look at this moment from Jesus' perspective. He's standing there on the shore. The crowd's getting bigger, bigger.

They're pushing him further and further, right up into the water, and then he needs a place to kind of get into. He gets in the boat, so he gets a little bit away, and of course, the water will amplify the voice as it goes out to the people. I don't want to go to that perspective this morning.

I want to go to the different perspective of one of these disciple guys, which by then was not disciples. It was just a bunch of fishermen. Just think for a moment from their perspective.

They were out on those boats the whole night trying to catch fish because that's how they feed their family. That's how they make a living. That's how they feed other people.

They come back disappointed. They didn't catch a single fish, so they get the nets ready because they have to go out again tonight, and hopefully, there will be a catch. I'm sure in their minds, it's like, let's clean these nets.

Let's get them in the boats. Let's just get home, have something to eat, go to bed, and get ready for tonight. That's when Jesus says, get me in the boat, please.

What a talk. Here's the second thing. Number one, growing closer to Jesus requires listening.

Number two, growing closer to Jesus will ask of me to be inconvenienced and uncomfortable often. I know we don't like that because we don't like to be uncomfortable. Our world is set up to be.

Everything needs to be comfortable, except the church. It's always hard. We don't like to be uncomfortable.

We like to be comfortable. Just think about all the inconvenient things Jesus said. Deny yourself.

Take up your cross. Walk with me. Pray for your enemies.

Love your enemies. Think of all the uncomfortable things he asked the disciples to do. Lord, these people are hungry.

Well, you feed them. You want to be a disciple? Sure, leave everything. Follow me.

And when he sends them out for the first time to go speak the gospel on their own, he says, leave everything behind. Don't take anything else. Just go.

See, here's the thing. Following Jesus means that in this world, we will often feel uncomfortable and inconvenienced because of who we are in Christ Jesus as we grow closer and closer to him and look more and more like him. Tell me, did the world like him? Was it convenient? Was it comfortable? As we grow closer, that is what will be part of our life as well.

And even Jesus will confront us, each one of us, with hard things about ourselves, hard truths that we will have to confront in this walk with him. He will often allow us to go into difficult situations that we would choose not to go exactly as he did. He will allow us to meet up with some folks that are difficult and hard and make life hard for them.

But when he calls us to follow him, he never says, come do this easy thing with me. He says, you're going to walk. You're going to carry.

You're going to put me number one in your life. That might not always be comfortable. Are you prepared to do that? See, here's the thing.

Lots of folks jumped in the boat and said, oh yeah, we'll listen. That's pretty cool. But the moment it's inconvenient and it's uncomfortable, they jump ship and they go.

This is the third thing. So he preaches. When he's done, he looks at Peter and he says, let's go fish, buddy.

Go out to the deep part of the lake and let's go catch some fish. Now, remember, I told you this before. When they fish, they fish at night because that's when the fish come closer to the shore where it's nice and warm.

Their nets were shallow water nets. You just think about this when you go to John 21, which is kind of the other part of this, where they go back to fishing, which they shouldn't, and Jesus comes and calls them. When they're fishing there and Peter sees Jesus, he says he jumped out of the boat and he ran to Jesus because they caught fish close to the shore.

That's why Jesus could call to them. They weren't right out there. And he says, go to the deep water.

The nets wouldn't work there because they were just short nets. They should go right under them. They didn't catch in the day.

The fish were way down there. So no wonder Peter was a little apprehensive about this idea of going to catch fish. It was counterintuitive to what he has known all of his life.

This is how it works. This is how we do it. This is not the right thing to go do right now.

I get it. You would have said the same things like Matt. But there was the but moment.

Thinks about it and he thinks okay. But because you say so, we let the nets down. And there's number three.

Growing closer to Jesus means listening. Growing closer to Jesus will ask of me to be inconvenienced or uncomfortable. And number three is growing closer to Jesus and following him means that I will try it Jesus way.

Peter caught fish a gazillion times this way. Never try it this way. Jesus says, go try this.

What happens? Those nets just overflow. Try it. But we've always done it this way.

Try it. But Lord it looks. Try it.

Try it. And when they did, boy we needed more boats than they ever could imagine. See here's the thing.

Jesus doesn't ask of you to leave everything behind. All he asks you is that you will trust him with one thing. Try it this way.

See if he is faithful in what he is called to try. Can I invite you to go fishing with Jesus and try it this way? I can stand here today and I can say I guarantee you when you do that, your life will be filled with such of this abundance that you will not know what to do with that abundance you call it. Even if like this moment it looks completely impossible.

Oh the things that wait to do it with. When you walk into the boardroom and it's heated and people are angry and they're going at each other, why don't you be the kind and the gracious? Why do you need Jesus? When you get into that argument with your husband, with your wife, stop and think for a moment. Why don't you try it? When you feel overwhelmed and you kind of feel like giving up, why don't you try it? Jesus.

One little step at a time. Sometimes it will overwhelm us like it did with Peter. In the moment when Peter realises what has happened in this moment, he says, Lord this is scary.

I don't know if I can handle this. And that's often what we do when he says try it my way. It's like I don't think I can do this.

And we do it and it's like holy, but I don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I can stay so close to you. And that's the moment where Jesus says, Peter, to think this was something you ain't seen nothing yet.

You thought you were just going to catch fish. You will be stunned at what I'm going to let you do because you are going to be the biggest fish that you could ever be because you are going to change lives. You try and push away and all he says is come a little closer.

Come a little closer. Come a little closer. The closer I get, the more and more I look like him.

More and more I do like him. More and more I want to be close because that's God. That's just who he is.

Just think about it. God came so close to us in this world through Jesus. He came.

He came close to messy people, broken people. The thing is we're the ones who kind of run away. Here's my invitation.

What do you think? Should we go fishing? Amen. Take a few moments of quiet prayer. As we walk this world, Lord, thank you that we can do the words of this song that we sang.

May we speak Jesus in our thoughts, in our actions, in our words, in all of our lives. May we come so close to you, Lord, that we become your hands and feet and your lives in this world. Help us every day to listen, to do what you want us to do, and above all, Lord, to do it your way.

Thank you for the grace of this morning. Thank you for the gift of your amazing name. We love you, Lord, with all that is in us as we pray in the name of Jesus.

by Jim Hetherington

18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”

19 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”

20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”

21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 26 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

(Transcribed by TurboScribe)

Just while we're getting ready to worship this morning, again, we're going to be joined by Jim Hetherington, a kale and quinoa salad loving speaker, who is also a Guinness World Record holder. So, we are truly blessed this morning. Jim.

Oh my goodness, the things that people say and talk about. So, I do have to highlight the Guinness World Records attempt. That was so much fun.

I haven't had a chance to share with many of you, so I had this great idea about a year and a half ago to attempt a Guinness World Records attempt. So, what it was, was the most authors in the same book gathered in the same room and signed that book at the same time. So, the current record, or the previous record, was 126, and it was set in Toronto about six years ago, and for some reason, I couldn't be there.

I wasn't able to be a part of it. I always thought it would be a great thing to do, so I started to reach out to Guinness, and there's a lot you got to go through. There's a lot of gatekeepers that you got to go in before you finally get an interview and get to talk with someone, and I think in the email threads, I think in the one email thread, I think I have about almost 80, about 78 emails back and forth.

That's how much dialogue went back and forth, and that's not to mention the adjudicator and the follow-up people and everything, so it was just a lot of work. So, we had 183 people became part of this book. Now, I don't know if you've ever tried to round up 183 people before.

It was a challenge in itself, just to get the content from everybody to put into the book, and so on the day of the event, 142 of them actually showed up and were part of it, and so we had the adjudicator come in, we sat around tables, and we put a copy of the book that everybody was in on the table, and then he went around, verified who they were to make sure they were in the book, so we couldn't just have, you know, Betty come in off the street. She had to be in the book. She had to be part of the book.

We had to make the book available to the public, so 30 days before the event, we had to have it on Amazon, available to the public, so that we could sell copies of it. We had to sell a minimum of 100 copies of the book before the event. I mean, there was just a lot of fun stuff that we had to do, so when he went through and verified everybody, he said, okay, sign, and so everybody signed the book and passed it to the next person around the table, so we ended up with all these books, and so he came out a little bit later after he calculated everything, went with the witnesses that verified it all, and came out and said yes, that we had indeed set a new Guinness World Record of 142 authors signing the same book simultaneously, which was a lot of fun.

It was just a lot of fun, so that's something else I get to add to my resume, which is just so much fun, so anyways, that's not why I'm here. I was looking for the stool of repentance. I know it's hiding here someplace.

I'm going to steal it from, I don't know who was sitting on it, but they're not sitting on it any longer, so I thought I'd start with, this isn't the normal stool, but this will work. This one's padded. This is even better, so I thought I'd start with the stool of repentance because I got a confession to make.

There's three things that I dislike. Wasting energy, wasting time, and wasting money. Anybody in any of those categories with me? I see some hands.

Yes, I see hands going. I bet you it's the money thing, right? Most people are like, oh, I wish I didn't spend it on that. I could have got it five cents cheaper if I wouldn't gone down the street, right? How many here drive, you know, 10 miles to go save two cents on a litre of gas? Anybody want to? Oh, we got a couple.

We got a couple to do this. I think that's hilarious, but you know, just one of those things that I've just noticed over time as I've matured, that's code for old, getting older, as I've matured that, you know, those three things are really valuable and important to me, and I don't know if it's because, you know, we all know we have an expiration date, right? We don't know what that expiration date is, but we know we got one, and I think as we get more mature and a little wiser with our years, we start to look at those things and we say, wow, I gotta stop wasting time. I gotta stop wasting so much money.

I gotta stop wasting so much energy. I mean, how many people here have walked into the kitchen and forgotten what you went in there for, right? Then you have to walk back out again, go back into the room, come back in again, and try it all over again. That's just a waste of energy, isn't it? And say, you know, and with time, you know, with time, I audit my time every once in a while.

Anybody else audit their time occasionally? Oh, I got no, I got no hands. Good, then you're going to enjoy this lesson today. So, I audit my time every once in a while.

I look down, and I started to teach this with my community because I calculated, you know, we got seven days a week, right? Everybody's got seven days. We agree on that. We got 24 hours in a day, right? That equals 168.

So, we got 168 hours every week. So, every once in a while, I'll sit down with my timer. Okay, Jimmy, you got 160 hours.

What did you do with it? And then I'll start to backtrack what I've done, you know, with sleeping and spending time, and, you know, devotions, and reading, and studying, spending time with Mary, doing all those different things, and I begin to calculate it. Well, the first time I did it a number of years ago, I was missing seven hours. Anybody ever lose seven hours of time? I mean, I hunted all over the place trying to figure out where that seven hours went, and I could not figure out where it went.

And I calculated, or recalculated, and went back. I started at the beginning, and came backwards. I started the backwards, and started going forwards, and I could not find it.

Finally, I realised that I was watching a little bit of Netflix, right? How many here love Netflix, or, you know, any of those? I mean, there's some great series on there. There's some great movies. There's some great entertainment, and I love getting into, you know, another story.

I just love stories. I love getting into other stories, and when they come to life in movies, or in dramas, in sitcoms, whatever it is, I just love getting into those things. Well, I discovered I was watching a few extra than I thought I was, right? I was writing down one.

Well, apparently, I was two or three that I was watching, so then I thought, okay, I need to adjust that, so I took that, and I found what that seven hours was, and I adjusted it, and I got going. Earlier this year, I did the same thing. I did another audit, and this isn't, you know, commissioned by CRA or anything.

It was just an audit that I just do on my own, and so I started going through it, and I discovered again. Good old Netflix had snuck back in there, and now, instead of one or two, I was watching two or three, and they go, oh, well, what would happen if I took one of those hours and invested it someplace else? So, I began to do that. I took one hour away from Netflix.

Bad Netflix. I took it away from Netflix, and I started to invest it in doing something different with it, and I began to do this daily. I would just invest this hour into something different, and so in two weeks, I'm going to launch another book.

I was able to write a book going through just stealing an hour back from Netflix and investing it into researching and reading and rewriting and doing all that fun stuff. I've now got my book in. It's getting formatted and ready to come out in a couple weeks, so then I thought, well, I should share this with others, and so in my community, I'm starting a 100 hour sprint, and it's taking one hour and focussing it on something that we want to change, a goal or something we want to achieve, something we want to change, and doing it for 100 days, and so I'm saying that because if you ever thought about something that you want to do or something you want to accomplish, a goal that you're not really achieving, you're welcome to The only cost is the commitment to the time, committing to that one hour and doing that, so if you want to, come up and see me afterwards.

I'll get you the Zoom link. We're just going to meet on Zoom and take people through because I divide my years in quarters. Every three months is a quarter of the year, so September is coming up.

We're going to start this thing, and then October, November, December, that's the last quarter, and that's when businesses want to turn everything around and finish strong, and people look at their goals that they set on January 1st. How many set goals and intentions in January? No confessors on that one. I'm sure there are some that I see a couple hands waving around there.

Yes, okay, and how are those goals working out for you? Oh, you're on track. Good for you. That's amazing.

Good for you because many people, you know, by February or, you know, by the beginning of February, they've lost and they've forgotten about them, but we want to encourage people to finish strong in that last quarter because there's so much that can be accomplished, and I was thinking of some of the mentors that I've had, one in particular. His name is Brian Tracy, and he said that to do a presentation, you need to spend 40 hours, four zero hours, in doing a presentation. That's a lot of commitment, right? I mean, we could all commit right now to becoming vegetarians, and that might last until lunchtime, right, when that juicy hamburger is calling us, right? We can all start things.

We can have good intentions to start things, but the follow-through, to finish it off strong, is a tough thing to do, and I don't think we're meant to do these things on our own. We're meant to have community, have people around us to support and encourage us with that because it's easy to have good intentions, right? You can think back of your own life and your own journey. I'm sure you can think of many times that you've started things and, you know, said, I'm going on that diet.

Yep, supper time's coming. That's the end of the diet, right? You know, I'm going to go healthy. I'm going to start exercising weekly.

It got as far as putting on your running shoes, and that was it. Like, that's as far as you got with it, but to finish strong, I think, is an important thing to do. So, if you want to join us, you can join us because it's one of those things that I really believe is that having the accountability, having people in our lives to encourage and support us, is an important thing to do.

So, that's my confession. You know, those are the three things that I don't like wasting, is time, energy, and finances. This morning, we're going to shift a little bit.

We're going to tie it all together. It'll tie all together as we go, but I wanted to shift and talk about faith because, again, it's something that is free, right? None of us paid for the faith that we have. None of us paid for the relationship we have with God.

None of us have paid for the hours we get every day. None of us have paid any of those things. All that stuff is free, but what we do with it is valuable and important, and I think we need to look at that with our faith journey, with our walk in our relationship, and just say, how are we spending that time? How are we spending the energy in that? In Ephesians 2, it says this, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is a gift from God.

We recognise that it's a gift that God gives us, right? Each day is a new day, and it's a gift that God gives us, right? None of us at 11.58 at the evening before are running around going, oh, I gotta pay for the next 24 hours, right? I better get my, what's the word I'm looking for? Credit for the day, right? I better get it in now so that I got my 24 hours. None of us have to do that, right? We go to bed at nighttime. We just believe that when our eyes open up, we've got another 24 hours.

We got another day to use, and we recognise that it is a gift that comes from God. I want to read our main text from Luke chapter 9, verses 18 to 26. Prior to this, just leading up to this, Jesus has been doing a lot of miracles and healing the sick and setting people free from demons and from unhealthy, unclean spirits.

He's been sending out his disciples and doing it, and he met with them, and he was having this conversation with them. Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, who do the crowds say I am? They replied, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago have come back to life. But what about you, he asked.

Who do you say I am? And just Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. And he said, the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Then he said to them, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit their very self? Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the son of man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the father and of the holy angels. It's interesting, you know, that oftentimes we read in Scripture how Jesus went alone on his own to pray, but this time he was praying, but he had the disciples with him.

He was hanging out with them in private, and it's in those private meetings that things really gathered. As Stacey asked me earlier in the morning, if you got locked in an elevator, who would you want to get locked up with, right? Because it's in those quiet moments, in those moments where we're locked in a room or having a lunch with somebody or having a private meeting or an encounter, that we really get to know that person, and we get some real wisdom, we get some real understanding, we get a real depth of things when we get alone with them. And this is what it was like with the disciples.

They're hanging out with Jesus, and in those quiet moments he was leaning in and pouring out even more to them. And so he was challenging them and saying, you know what, who do you say I am? Or who did the crowd say I am? You know, and so he was getting the consensus of what was being spoken, you know, what are the reports coming in on CNN? What are the reports coming in on CTV news? What are the reports that, what are other people saying? But then he made it more personal, right? Don't just look at their opinions, don't just look at what other people are saying. What do you say? Because that's where the rubber hits the road, as they say, right? That's where true faith comes in, is what do you say? We can come to church and we can believe what the church doctrine is, we can believe what the church teaches and preaches, what the mandates are, and all that stuff, but what does it really mean to you? And that's what Jesus was pushing in and pressing in on them, was what do you, who do you say that I am? And then he warned them strictly not to share it with anybody.

It was almost like they leaned in and he pulled back the veil and said, guys, it really is true. It is me. I'm the one that was, you know, that your forefathers talked about.

I'm the one that the prophets talked about. It really is me, but don't tell anybody, right? You can go out in authority in my name, which he did. He commissioned them and he gave them authority to heal the sick and to set people free.

It's interesting that anywhere he went, whenever he went, sent the disciples up or any healing that he did, it was always mentioned that it was the healing of the sick and unclean spirits. Interesting how there was that combination, no matter where he went, no matter what was happening, there were these two things. It was the influence of unclean spirits in people's lives and setting people free of sickness and illness.

And it was fascinating how he did this and how he set them on the track to give him authority to speak in his name. Then he goes on to talk about whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up the cross. It's so easy today, isn't it, with all the doom scrolling.

Anybody, you understand the doom scrolling, right? It's taking that phone or getting on the computer and just endlessly searching and looking things up and scrolling through things to get our time, right? To take our time, to keep us activated. You realise that people are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to figure out ways to keep you engaged online, right? That's their sole job, is just to create stuff and algorithms and stuff in a way just to keep you engaged, right? Have you ever talked about something, you know, in the presence of a computer or a television or a smartphone, and then all of a sudden that thing comes up on the smartphone, another thing. You know, there was a joke one time, a couple were talking and they were discussing how people saying that, you know, AI is always listening.

Computers are listening to all our conversations. We can't say anything in private because there's ears everywhere. And they looked at each other and they started to laugh and they said, that's impossible.

And then Siri started to laugh, right? And then every, you know, all these other algorithms started laughing at them with them. But it's true that, you know, those things are always listening, but they're designed to keep us engaged. Why? To suck up our time, to keep us engaged in stuff that isn't actively moving the kingdom of God forward.

And that's what we need to look at as Christians, is how are we using our time? Is there a better way to use our time? Are there more, you know, are there different relationships or better relationships that we can invest in that would actually encourage and support another person? Are there things that we can do actively with our time and our energy? Thinking about the hour, now an hour is a long time to commit to praying, isn't it? But what about 10 minutes? Imagine what 10 minutes a day praying for 100 days would do. Imagine the effectiveness of committing to something like that on a regular basis. Imagine what God's Spirit would begin to release to us or reveal to us as we begin to engage in that kind of activity.

And that's something that each one of us could do. Who here could not find 10 minutes to do something different with, right? We could all take 10 minutes from something and engage it in a different way. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit their own their selves? It's interesting how Jesus challenges them at a deeper level. They thought they were just signing up because he was a great teacher, right? Because he was the current one, right? But he chose them for a reason, just the same as he speaks and challenges and calls each one of us to go deeper in a relationship with him. Our faith is free, but it isn't cheap.

And cheap has a terrible, you know, tone to it, right? But what I mean by that is that it did cost, didn't cost us anything, but it will cost us if we really want to commit and walk in it. And I really believe that there's a time where the church is going to begin to have to stand up for what they really believe. That it's similar to what Jesus said to the disciples leaning forward.

He said, that's great. You're hearing what everybody else is saying. You're hearing the reports of what other people are saying, but what do you say? So let me ask you in your personal life, you hear what other people say in conversations, you hear different reports, you may read little blogs or emails, you may hear different things on YouTube and on Netflix, but what do you really say? Who do you say that God is? And what does God really mean to you? What does your relationship with him really mean? Is it something worth investing in, or is it something that we just pretend to do? You know, it's one thing to show up on a Sunday morning, it's another thing to live it out Monday to Saturday.

That's where it really becomes a challenge, doesn't it? When we get into the grind of work or get into conflicting arguments or conversations with people, when we have struggles in families or with friends and neighbours, that's when it can really become challenging. Faith will cost us. It will cost us time.

If we're really serious about our faith, we need to commit regular time to studying, to reading, to praying, to encouraging others. It may mean standing up for something or standing up and being accounted for. You know, it was interesting when you read that last part of that text that we read here, whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of those holy angels.

How he's calling us and challenging us. Are we willing to confess? Are we really willing to say and stand up for what we believe in? As we move forward, we can look at it, and there's five things that I want to encourage us that we need to look at. One, we talked about earlier, is the time, right? Our faith grows as we spend more time with God.

It's going to take an investment of time. You invest a Sunday morning to come and gather corporately, to worship, to sing, to encourage each other, to listen to someone teach. What about the rest of the week? What are we doing with that time? Is there more time that we could allocate into spending time with God and praying and so on? The energy.

Serving God takes energy and commitment. I mean, many of you come here, the worship leaders and those leading in the band, they come early to get set up. Our sound guys and our audio guys, everybody comes in early.

Our greeters are here to prepare. Our Sunday school department is ready to go, right? There's a commitment of energy to come in and get things prepared. So, it takes energy for us to really commit.

And then, the commitment. Deciding to commit to something, deciding that we're going to step out and do something, right? Rather than saying, okay, I'm going to go on that diet. It's committing to doing what needs to happen.

It's committing to creating an environment that's going to set you up for success, right? We know that we can't have a good healthy diet if our kitchen pantries are full of chocolate chip cookies and potato chips and all those other wonderful food groups. So, we know that we need to set up our environment to really be committed to something. Faith calls us to be obedient.

There's some things that we may need to turn away from. There may be relationships or friendships that we need to step away from because some of those may be influencing us in a negative way. So, to be obedient to what God is calling us to is part of that faith journey.

And just listening to what the Holy Spirit is saying, listening to those promptings. Oh, maybe Jim, you shouldn't watch that third episode of Netflix today, right? It's listening to those small things and say, okay, what can I do with that? But that takes energy to step away from it and to step into something different, isn't it? It's easy for us to get into the routine of just scrolling on our phones, just sitting back, flipping out another Netflix series, going to the kitchen, eating whatever we want. It doesn't take any energy or commitment to do those things.

But to live lives that Jesus is calling his disciples to, for example, took energy and commitment and obedience to listen to what God is calling them to, to step out in the truth. Because imagine that, you know, in those times when Jesus is ministering to his disciples, they didn't have books that they go to the library. I mean, we've got amazing books out back there that, you know, we could read and learn about, right? They were living the stuff.

They had to decide whether they were going to follow Jesus. They had to decide whether they're going to be obedient to him. They had to decide whether it's really worth picking up the cross, right? The cross had a whole different meaning for them.

Cross meant pain, suffering, and death to them. Cross wasn't something nice that we put in a church. Cross wasn't something nice that you just hang around your neck and wear on a chain.

The cross to them made something completely different. So when Jesus was saying, pick up your cross, he was just like, pick up that which may cause suffering and pain and death and separation, but pick it up and follow me. And it's interesting how he challenged them and encouraged them to pick it up before he went to the cross.

He said, this is where this journey is going to land, is where it's going to cost us to pick up the cross. We have great freedom in this country, don't we? Freedom to come to church. There's no obstacles.

There's no militia, you know, trying to force us from not going or attending. There's no government agencies or anything trying to force us underground. We have complete freedom.

But sometimes in that freedom, we lose sight of what it really means. And I think it's important that we go back to looking at these scriptures and what it really cost those disciples at the very beginning. What it cost them to step out in obedience.

What it cost them to leave their livelihood and to follow Jesus was a completely different thing. And they had to decide in that moment if this guy is a lunatic or is he the real deal. And as they got to know him, as they got to spend time with him, he began to reveal more and more to them.

And they began to discern that he really was the real deal. And you and I need to come to that same place of saying, who is he really to us? Is he a lunatic? Do I believe the stories in the Bible? Do I really believe the healings? Do I believe the stuff that I've read? Or is it just nice stuff that somebody put together? And it's something that each of us have to individually decide. We can't decide as a church.

We can't decide as a congregation. We have to decide individually. Because God meets us all where we're at.

And depending on the level of time and energy and commitment and obedience is the level to which God can use us in advancing his kingdom. The disciples were willing to put everything aside to follow him. The challenge is for us to look at it and say, am I willing to really follow it? I wanted to end with this question.

What's keeping us, what's keeping you, what's keeping me from following him at a deeper level? Is there something in our lives that's keeping us from believing more, going to that next level, as they say? Is there something keeping me? For many of us, we attend church.

(This file is longer than 30 minutes.

by Beth Anne Fisher

10 Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11 What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”

12 Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?”

13 He replied, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides.a]">[a] If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”

15 Peter said, “Explain the parable to us.”

16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. 17 “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18 But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.”

21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”

23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

25 The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

27 “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

28 Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

(Transcribed by TurboScribe)

I always get nervous when people clap before they've ever heard me speak. I feel like it means you're ready, but also the expectations. I'm just kidding.

It's an honour to be here this morning. Yeah, it's an honour to be here this morning. I've been in Central before for a couple of special events, but I haven't been here on a Sunday morning, and so it's a real honour and a privilege to worship with you.

When I'm invited to preach somewhere new, and especially at short notice or when there's sort of an emergency situation, I turn to the lectionary for two reasons. The first is that as a guest and a stranger to the community, I don't think it's fully my own, it's not fully my right, I would say, to choose what it is that you as a community need to hear. And if I just pull a text or decide, well, I like talking about this topic because I wrote my fancy thesis on it, so maybe I'll tell them about my thesis, that feels to me like I'm making a decision that I think is in part the Spirit's decision to make and needs to be connected to the community.

And so part of my role as a preacher, when I have the privilege of preaching, is to grapple with Scripture. When we think about, at least for me, people being set aside in ministry roles, part of that is that I am expected, and I think it's my responsibility, to spend the time really grappling with Scripture and to build on the years I've spent studying Scripture in a way that I recognise not everyone has the ability to do because we are living in a culture where we have to spend 40 hours working and then another 20 hours doing things that we can't do during those 40 hours, and then the only thing that's left is sleep, right? So part of my job is to be faced by the Scriptures, if that makes sense, that I don't get to also pick and choose and just decide, well, I only want to preach about these three things, or I like these verses, so I'm going to preach on these all the time. The lectionary, one of the things I appreciate about it is it says, here are some texts for today, go and preach on them.

And sometimes there's texts that I'm like, well, I'd really rather not preach on those. And thankfully for me, most churches don't use all of the lectionary texts, so I still have a bit of picking and choosing in that sense. Anyways, that's the first reason that I turn to the lectionary.

The second reason is, as I've said often when I'm a visiting preacher, it's because there's either a transition happening or there's been some sort of disruption to the regular routine. And when we have that kind of disruption, when you have an unfamiliar face and you have no idea if I'm preaching for 15 minutes or 35, I'm here now and there's nothing you can do. Just kidding.

It's helpful to have that familiarity. It's helpful to have an anchor and a thing that reminds us that you are connected to a greater body of faith. You as central Presbyterian may be experiencing something unexpected, some changes, some shifts, and yet you are still a part of a community that is beyond just who is here today.

And I am a part of that same community. We're a part of a community. We're a part of the Presbyterian church.

We're a part of the Protestant church. We're a part of the Christian church. And many of those churches use the lectionary.

There are many other churches in Canada and around the world today that will be hearing the scripture that I'm going to read from the Gospel of Matthew. And the Gospel of Matthew in this passage has been preached many times over the years and centuries of the practise of using the lectionary. And so even when things are unfamiliar, I want to, in using the lectionary, remind us all that we are rooted together through the scripture, through the Spirit of God, to other communities, to each other here, and to the history of the Christian faith.

So that's my intro to why I'm using the lectionary and how we ended up with the passage that I'm going to speak on today. With that in mind, let's pray and then I'm going to read the text from Matthew. God, we thank you that your word is true and it is powerful and it is a gift to us.

We thank you that the word we are hearing this morning is a word that other communities will also be hearing. That there will be different sermons preached about what this means for us. That through the years and centuries and around the globe, communities have heard this story and sought to live it out in their lives.

And so I ask that my words this morning would draw us closer to your word, the words of scripture, and your living word, Jesus Christ. Amen. So our reading this morning is from Matthew 15, and I think it's going to be on the screen, hopefully, verses 10 to 28.

So Jesus called the crowd to him and said, listen and understand, what goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them. Then the disciples came to him and said, do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this? And he replied, every plant that my heavenly father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them, they are blind guides.

If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit. Peter said, explain the parable to us. Are you still so dull? Jesus asked them.

Don't you see that whoever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. Those are what defile a person, but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him crying out, Lord, son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is demon possessed and suffering terribly.

Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, send her away, for she keeps crying out after us. He answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.

The woman came and knelt before him. Lord, help me, she said. He replied, it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs.

Yes, it is, Lord, she said. Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. Then Jesus said to her, woman, you have great faith.

Your request is granted. And her daughter was healed at that moment. So this story, this reading, takes place in the context of a conversation with the Pharisees.

Just before these verses, a group of Pharisees had come to Jesus and asked him, why don't your disciples observe the traditions of our fathers and wash their hands before eating? Now, this is not a question of physical cleanliness the way that we understand it today. It was another, I think about another 1,500 years before the science of hand washing and germ prevention was understood by us. This is a question of ceremonial cleanliness and of avoiding spiritual contamination.

The Pharisees wanted to make sure that any spiritual contaminants were removed from their bodies before they ate so that those spiritual contaminants would not enter their body. There are many rules about not touching certain things, not touching certain people, and the Pharisees were so concerned about observing these rules that they had made rules about the rules. This is something that perhaps you've heard before.

This was one of the things the Pharisees did. They said, well, we don't want to break the law, so we'll make these like buffer laws, and then if we don't break those, then we know we won't be breaking these, right? And so they'd made this rule about washing their hands to ceremonially cleanse themselves of any accidental contact with something that they thought was morally impure. And Jesus doesn't answer their question when they come and ask him this question.

When they say, why don't your disciples do this thing that are for, we've, you know, it's cultural. We've been doing this for hundreds of years. And Jesus doesn't answer their question.

Instead, he calls them hypocrites, first of all. He accuses them of preferring their own traditions over God's commands. He basically says, these rules that you've made, you prioritise them even when they mean breaking the rules that you think they're helping you keep.

And then he moves his attention from the group of Pharisees who had come up to him to the whole crowds that were gathered. And he turns to them, just the regular people. They're not specialists in the law.

They're not morally, they're not the purity police, if you will. They're the regular people. And he talks to them about the harm that the Pharisees are causing.

So when he does this, then he says the words that we heard at the start of the reading, this listen and understand. What goes into someone's mouth doesn't make them clean or unclean. It's what comes out of their mouth.

He shifts the attention from this idea of contamination to character. The idea that our moral development, if you will, is not about avoiding things. It's actually about what we are building within us.

So he says this, listen and understand. What goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them. And his disciples freak out a little bit.

They come to him and they're like, do you know that you offended the Pharisees? These are powerful people. Are you aware that you said some things they didn't like? And Jesus is like, I don't care. And he goes, and he says, every plant that my father didn't plant is going to be torn up by the roots.

They're blind guides. They're going to fall into a pit. He speaks very harshly about people with power who are using their power to avoid contamination and cast judgement on the people who have less power.

We see that in many places in the way that Jesus interacts with the Pharisees and others who had power. And then he says this metaphor about blind leading the blind. Peter, Peter, we love Peter.

He always wants to say, hey, Jesus got a question. Hey, Jesus, what about this? And he says, can you explain what you mean? I really want to be clear if you're saying what I think you're saying. And Jesus says, are you still so dull? You can hear Jesus' frustration.

How do you not understand yet? I've been saying this for so long. And then Jesus lists. He says, that's not what you eat.

Again, it's not this idea of following rules that are going to help you to avoid any possible wrongdoing. It's not fear-based. He says, it's what comes out of your heart that makes you unclean or defiled.

And then he lists several things. And I'm going to just mention them briefly. When I see lists like this, I often go to a Greek concordance, and I was just saying to Alexander before the service, I like to look up the words and get some of the nuance that we sometimes miss, or we don't know because different translations will have slightly different words for things.

So in this list, evil thoughts, very straightforward. Evil thoughts. Murder, also very straightforward.

Adultery, adultery. Sexual immorality specifically refers to prostitution, which in the context of Jesus' time would be sexual slavery, whether it was sexual slavery in a religious context outside of the Israelites' faith, or whether it was sexual slavery in a non-religious context, but that was the context of prostitution. And incest.

Those are the two things specifically that are included in that category of sexual immorality. And then theft. This word used for theft is not like a violent robbery theft.

It's a sneaky theft. It's fraud. It's the subtle theft.

False testimony. If theft is a sneaky, subtle thing, false testimony is knowingly, intentionally lying about what is true, often looked at in a judicial context. And this is the one other place this phrase is used in the Gospels, as in later on when they're talking about the Pharisees and the Sadducees looking for people who will give false testimony about Jesus when they're trying to get him arrested.

They went out looking for people who are willing to say things they knew were not true. And then slander. Slander is falsehoods that detract from someone else's good character, good reputation, and also includes blasphemy.

Blasphemy being failing to recognise the goodness usually of God or speaking against God's goodness. So these are the things that Jesus lists as this is what makes us defiled. This is what pulls down or challenges our moral goodness.

Now this in and of itself is a powerful story. It is so easy, I think, for those of us who want to please God to live our lives trying to please God by avoiding contamination, by avoiding anything that might make us catch some sort of wrong. There are people I'm sure we think, oh, I don't associate with those people because of their moral choices.

There are things that we do not do and there are things that we think, not only do I not want to do that, but I'm going to step back three levels and I'm not going to do that thing because I don't want to accidentally get to this thing. In and of itself, not a bad plan to have a knowledge of our own selves and our weaknesses, and yet when we find our sense of moral superiority perhaps in our ability to avoid those things, that's what Jesus is challenging. Jesus is saying that's actually not what it's about at all.

And then the very next story, the very next story, there's intentionality to how the authors of the Gospels arrange the stories. Sometimes they're chronological and sometimes they're put together to show something in the contrast or in the building. If you think about the story of the lost coin and there's this building towards the story of the lost sheep, right, there's a repetition of three stories in a row of those parables that are all very similar.

They're trying, they're building towards something. Here we see the contrast. So we have this exchange where Jesus says, you've got it wrong, you've got it wrong.

And then he goes to another place and a Canaanite woman comes and cries out, Lord son of David, have mercy on me. Now the Canaanites, the Samaritans, and the Israelites kind of all lived in the same region. If you remember the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, the Samaritan woman asked Jesus a question about what's the right way to worship.

We worship the same God. Your people say we worship in Jerusalem, my people say we worship here on the mountain. There was a shared element of faith and culture there.

And even the Samaritan or the story of the good Samaritan, we hear and we see that the Levites and the Pharisees crossed to avoid the Samaritan, right? Again, they didn't want to be contaminated. Well, the Canaanites didn't share any faith elements in the same way. The Samaritans were also monotheistic.

They had a sense of their heritage coming from the Abrahamic line. The Canaanites, on the other hand, were the people who lived here before Moses and the Israelites came. They were polytheistic.

They didn't share a faith system. So they were another level of contaminated, another degree of outside of what is appropriate, who you are allowed to interact with as an Israelite who is seeking to follow God's rules. And so this Canaanite woman comes and she says, and I love that she says, Lord son of David.

She names him as Lord, this title of respect, and son of David tells me that she knew something of the Israelite religion. She knew something about the messianic prophecies, that it was out of the lineage of David that this ruler would come. So she had some knowledge and she knew something about Jesus.

She knew that Jesus could help her. And Jesus ignores her. Jesus ignores her.

And the disciples come and say, send her away. She keeps crying out after us. There are other times that the disciples say, send this person away.

Send away those children. Don't bother Jesus with the children. Send away this sick person.

Send away all of these people who, again, were either contaminated or unimportant. And then Jesus says to the disciples, I came only to the lost sheep of Israel. Now this is very interesting.

There's a couple different ways of understanding this because we know most of us are not descended from the Israelites and core to the Christian faith is the belief that you don't have to follow ancient Judaic law in order to be a follower of Jesus. So why would Jesus say this? And I wonder if Jesus is saying what's expected or reaffirming this idea that we've just heard him challenge, which is this idea of separation and segregation in order to avoid contamination. And then the woman comes even closer.

She probably heard this. She heard this. She comes even closer and she says, Lord, help me.

And once again, Jesus turns to a parable or a metaphor and says, it isn't right to take the children's bread and toss it to dogs. This shocks me every time I hear it because it is so harsh. Because this is not what Jesus believes, I would say.

We don't hear Jesus saying anything like this anywhere else. I think, again, what's happening is Jesus is probably echoing a common saying. I would guess that this is probably something Pharisees would say, to say, no, thank you.

This is for Jewish people only, for the Israelites only. One of the things that Jesus said in his critique just before this passage, his critique of the Pharisees is, God says, honour your father and mother, and anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death. So Jesus is saying, remember, this is a rule with literal life or death consequences.

But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, whatever help you might otherwise have received for me is a gift devoted to God. He is not to honour his father with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

You have this practise that you say, well, I'm going to get out of doing this simply by saying, well, actually, that's for God. And so there's this connection that I hear here between the ideas of the Pharisees saying, we can twist the words to get out of doing the things that we don't want to do, where we have these sayings, these things that are serving our desires. And Jesus says something that is out of character for him.

And the woman replies. He says, it is not right. And she says, yes, Lord, but, but, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.

I get shivers when I read that, when I stop and hear her say, I'm willing to be a dog, just let me have some crumbs. I know you hate me, but please be kind to me. Then Jesus answered, woman, you have great faith.

Your request is granted. This story reminds me of two other stories. One is, as I mentioned, the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, where Jesus engages with a woman who's outside of the culture and challenges the norms and expectations, shows compassion, shows curiosity.

It also reminds me of the story of the wedding in Cana, where Jesus's mother comes and they're run out of wine. And she says to the servants, do whatever Jesus tells you. And Jesus says, no, it's not my time yet.

And then she says, don't listen, do whatever he tells you. And then he turns the water into wine. That's the only other place that I can think of where we see Jesus change his mind in a moment, or it seems that he's changing his mind, that there's this presentation of one sort of choice, and then the end result is something different.

I think it's very interesting and very important that these are all stories with women, and that there's the story of Jesus with his mother, then there's a story of Jesus with a Samaritan who's one step removed from the system, and then Jesus and the Canaanite woman who's two steps removed, fully other. So what does this mean for us today? Why do these two vignettes from Jesus's life matter? Well, the first is a question that I would ask us all is, do we seek to follow God by avoiding contamination, or are we seeking to follow God by building our inner character? Those might look the same in some of the choices that we make sometimes, and sometimes they're going to be very different results. But which is our heart? What is inside of us? Are we avoiding contamination, or are we building character? And then how does that connect to compassion and kindness, and how we engage with the people that we consider morally other, the people who we would say could contaminate us? And I'll be honest.

There are people that I know that I think, I don't want to be around those people because their morals repulse me, or their morals make me so angry that I don't actually want to be kind to them. And I say that because, again, these are the things that Scripture challenges each of us to. There's no one exempt.

We all have that pull, compassion and character. And are we willing to have our minds changed? If Jesus is willing to change His mind, if Jesus is willing to go from calling someone a dog to healing their daughter, are we willing to do the same? And perhaps some of you feel more like the Canaanite woman than a Pharisee. Perhaps people have fed you religious platitudes, telling you your suffering is because of your sin, or you aren't allowed to do this until you do that because this is the marker of moral rightness.

If Jesus is willing to listen to a Canaanite woman, someone He refers to as a dog. Again, I don't think He actually thought that. I think that He was quoting a phrase that was culturally the belief.

But if Jesus is willing to engage with someone that the community considered not even really human, who are we willing to engage with? And who has the right to persist in asking God for help? Everyone. This woman was persistent. She was crying out enough that the disciples said, send her away.

She's a nuisance. She's being loud. Tell her to get lost.

Then she comes even closer. Lord help me. Then Jesus speaks harsh words to her and she's still not deterred.

The Canaanite woman is a woman of great faith. You have great faith, Jesus says to her. He called His disciples