Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] There's three kind of core aspects to our church's DNA. It's to live courageously, to love extravagantly, and to thrive authentically. And today we're going to be looking at what it looks like to live courageously. And in order to understand what that kind of means, I think it's important to understand what it really means to live and our whole lives in. Hang on, this age old question of what is the meaning of life? What is the purpose of all of this? And it's a question that I'm sure we've all sat with and asked at really crucial and important moments.
[00:00:38] And we don't have to wait a long time for the answer because Jesus has already given it to us. He says this in John 14 six. He says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. And this seems like quite a countercultural message in our world today. James Emory White, he's an incredible kind of christian author. He describes this idea of autonomous individualism, which is the idea that each person is independent in terms of their destiny, their accountability. It's this idea that we answer only to ourselves and that the way we live our lives is determined by our own personal pleasures and agendas rather than a higher authority. And we see these self centered messages everywhere. It's this idea that we know ourselves best and therefore we should determine how we live our lives. This is a lie of the world because this is what the scripture says. Jeremiah one five says, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. Psalm 130 913 for you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. Before a word is on my tongue, you, Lord, know it completely.
[00:01:54] And we know that Jesus calls us to this different way of living, this leaving behind of our self, to embrace the life that he has, this life to the full that he promises us. In John 1010, he says this. It's my favorite verse in the whole of scripture, the comes to steal, to kill and to destroy. But I have come that you may have life and life to the full.
[00:02:17] So how can we live a life that is countercultural, that is courageous and purposeful in a world that promotes an each of their own mentality?
[00:02:26] Firstly, we should be spirit filled.
[00:02:30] We should rely on the active empowerment, wisdom and provision of God. Ephesians 515 18 says this. It says, be very careful then how you live, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Therefore, don't be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery, which is excessive indulgence in sex, alcohol, drugs. Instead, be filled with the spirit. There's a clear caution here about the way that we should live our lives, that we should have wisdom in our decision making and should make good decisions about where we invest our time, all of which the passage is saying, it comes from being filled with the spirit. And if we imagine in our heads a scenario of the wine and our lives are like a glass, when we fill our lives with things that aren't holy, we don't leave room for the spirit to be in our lives.
[00:03:30] I never want to be in a place where I've become so confused by the noise and appeals of the world that there isn't room for the spirit to speak in my life. I don't want to be filled with something else that I can't be filled with him.
[00:03:44] It's a daily conversation to be had with God, where we lay down the things in our life that are taking up space, anxieties, fears, dilemmas, addictions, distractions, and asking for God to come and reclaim the space in our lives.
[00:04:00] Jesus said this in mark 620 to 23, for what comes out of a person is what defiles them from what is within, out of a person's heart that evil thoughts come. So if from the very fall of creation we have this inherent tendency for evil within us, what can cancel this out in our lives?
[00:04:24] The answer is the gift that was Jesus and the gift that is the spirit that came from the father.
[00:04:31] Jesus saw you and he saw me, and he took the cost for us.
[00:04:38] Romans 623 says this, that the wages of sin are death. And so because of our sin, the price had to be paid by someone. There was a cost that had to be paid. And the verse goes on and it says, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. Jesus paid that price for us. He decided that because of the great love the Father has for us, that he choose to go to the cross so that we didn't have to. He would pay those wages of death so that we could experience the gift of eternal life and so that we could experience the life to the full that we were promised earlier in John 1010. So when we acknowledge that gift and accept Christ as the Lord and decider of our lives, he gives us a further gift because he's so generous, and that gift is his spirit that he left to his followers for those that love him and the spirit that is within us. It says in John, it's there to guide us, to teach us, and to bring peace to our souls. And one of the questions that Mark Pugh from Exeter asks, he says, what is it that comes out of your life when you're frustrated and when you're tired?
[00:05:40] And he says, if out of your life are some of those sinful things that Jesus talked about earlier that we saw on the screen, then this may reflect that these other things have allowed to take root and to fill up our lives rather than the spirit filling us up. But if your life reflects the fruits of the spirit, then these are a really good indicator that your living spirit filled. Galatians five lists these fruits as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
[00:06:10] When our natural responses and attributes that we see in our reactions and thoughts, when we see those manifestations in our outward being, then we can see that the Holy Spirit is working within us as well.
[00:06:24] As we spend time with God, feeding our spirit with dialogue, worshipping in his presence, being in the word, these fruits of the spirit begin to show to those around us. They enable us to live life that is full. We're able to have real joy in the Lord, even in the moments of chaos and hardship. To live spirit filled is for the daily acknowledgement of Jesus death and resurrection and how that redirects and shapes the way that we live.
[00:06:52] God, I just pray that as we're kind of talking about these points just very quickly, Lord, would you just reclaim some of that space in our lives where there's destruction, distractions, busyness, where there's things that are there that are not of you? Would you just come and clear us out and fill us up again in the name of Jesus? Amen.
[00:07:10] Cool. So the next thing, so we've got spirit filled. The next one is that we need to be word aligned. And how do we make sure that we are word aligned so that we can live courageously?
[00:07:21] And I think there's a part when in the Old Testament where Joshua is about to take over from Moses, which are pretty big shoes to fill. Moses was pretty cool. Like, I'd be nervous to fill those shoes. But the Lord says this to Joshua. He says, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law. All the law my servant Moses gave you. Do not turn to it from the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this book of the law always on your lips. Meditate on it day and night. Night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
[00:08:09] God doesn't just give Joshua the command to be strong and courageous, you know, he actually puts in this little sandwich bit. So you've got be strong and very courageous, and then you've got, again, beautiful, strong and very courageous. But right in the middle, you've got this really key command to keep the book of the law on your lips and to meditate on it day and night and to be able to live confidently in our faith, in our truth of Christ. We need to be spending time in scripture both in the morning and in the evenings. We looked at this during one of our young adults evenings recently, and one of the conversations that came up was about the barriers that we might have to doing this. And I think we kind of established that the biggest barrier we found was this word, busyness.
[00:08:53] There are so many things in our day to day, eat, sleep, work, family, friends, events, sustaining a home. And none of these things are bad. They're really important. They add to our lives. But these things alone are not going to give us the life to the full that we are promised. In John 1010, Mark Zigarelli, he's from Charleston Southern University School of Business. He's in America somewhere. He did a study of over 20,000 christians across the globe, and he kind of presented this hypothesis, which I've put into a bit of a fancy diagram for you, but I'm just going to read this out, and it says, it may be the case that christians are assimilating to a culture of busyness, hurry and overload, which leads to God becoming more marginalized in christians lives, which leads to. To a deteriorating relationship with God, which leads to christians becoming even more vulnerable to adopting secular assumptions about how to live, which then leads to more conformity, to a culture of busyness, hurry and overload, and then the cycle begins again.
[00:09:58] The answer isn't more time to do all of these things. If we had extra day of the week, a free day weekend, or extra hours in the day, I am sure that each of us, us would find things to fill in those hours. But really what it's saying is that it's about prioritizing God above all the things that are on this earth. It's about dying to our earthly desires, to our flesh, which is often full of this self narrative that we kind of talked about earlier and choosing to pursue God, to pursue Jesus, and to pursue that spirit filled life.
[00:10:29] Matthew 1624 26 and it's then repeated in mark eight, so it's pretty important if it's repeated multiple times in the gospel. It says, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me. But whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world yet forfeit their soul?
[00:10:55] Are we willing to lay down our personal wants and desires, those hours consuming online content, in exchange for the words that give life? For the one that says that he is the way, the truth and the life? For the one who has promised us life to the full, for the one who is promised that he will give us springs of living water that we will never have to thirst for again. God wants to restore us from the fatigue and anxiety that we are carrying from being busy people and exchange it for real rest and courageous living.
[00:11:25] By spending time in his word day and night, we take in more of his promises and goodness, so that the anxieties and agendas of the world do not have room to take root in us one more time. By spending time in his word day and night, we take in more of his promises and goodness, so that the anxieties and agendas of the world do not have room to take root in us.
[00:11:49] Thirdly, to be living courageously, we should be stewards and not owners. Everything we have and every opportunity is entrusted to us for serving his purposes and not ours.
[00:12:02] James 116 17 says this. It says, do not be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters, every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the father of the heavenly lights.
[00:12:14] In our sinful narratives of self, sometimes I think we can get these internal thought patterns of entitlement and pride when we look at the things that we have. We can think that we have the things we do because we've worked really hard at a job and we've earned that money that we trained really hard to get the job in the first place. And that's why we have all these things that we've been given. Or we can think that the relationships and friendships that we have are because of the hours that we invested into those people, or that the rest we take is a break that we deserve for working long hours. And they're all really positive things. I'm not dissing those kind of things. We do work hard. We should rest. We should have really good, thriving relationships and friendships. But we have to remember that each of them has been given to us through grace by our father in heaven, that there is nothing that we have done on this earth that has made us worthy or that we are owed these things. We would not have the job that we do to pay for the things if it had not been for God paving the way for us to be in the jobs that we are. We would not have the relationships and friendships that we do if our friends and family had not been born at a specific time and place in history and then brought into our lives at pivotal moments when God knew that we would need them and we wouldn't be able to truly rest if God had not given us a day of rest right at the beginning of creation and then made such a point of it in the book of the law that it's been passed down to us now.
[00:13:34] We are to be stewards of the things that God has given us, including our time, which we looked at a minute ago. When we remember that nothing is truly our own, it becomes easier to hold, to be generous with what we have.
[00:13:48] Jesus knew that our possessions and finances were likely to be a barrier for his people to access the life to the full that he's promising. So much so that in the parables, there's 38 parables that he tells, and 16 of those. So, you know, nearly half of those are about money, about possession.
[00:14:06] Part of living courageously is being able to hold loosely the things that we have been given and hold tightly to the one who gives. We can trust that God will provide for our every need. He is, if we are willing to live this life that is surrendered to his plans and purposes. It can feel quite frightening. I'm a bit of a control freak. People that know me and James well will know that James is probably the one that's more likely to support, and I'm probably more the one that will get annoyed at the spending of the money.
[00:14:35] But we also know that God always comes through for us when there are times when things feel a bit tight or uncomfortable. I've seen it time and time again. Growing up. We've had cereal dropped off at our door as kids randomly because somebody felt like God had told them to go and buy, like, ten boxes of cereal and just drop it off at our door because we didn't have breakfast for that week.
[00:14:57] God cares so much about us again. It's repeated twice in the gospels. He talks about if he dresses the lilies, if he looks after the ravens, how much more will he clothe us? How much more will he meet our needs?
[00:15:10] Are we prepared to live courageously and be willing to trust God to provide for our needs? There's wisdom in managing the things that God has given us well, but we should be able to hold loosely to our possessions and tightly to the one who gives good gifts.
[00:15:26] Fourthly, we should lead with humility.
[00:15:30] As followers of Jesus, we use our daily influence to make his name famous.
[00:15:36] Colossians 312 13 says, therefore, as God's chosen people, holy, dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and. And patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another. If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you. When we are spirit filled, word aligned, we naturally begin to take on these attributes of holiness, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. James was chatting to me about work, and a conversation came up with a colleague of his who's kind of done a lot of mentoring, a lot of training for him, and he's got a lot of respect for James. Has got a lot of respect for him. He's got a lot of respect for James. And the guy sat there on a Zoom call with him, and he goes, I had this Christian on site the other day come up to me, and he said he didn't like me saying, oh, Christ. When I was frustrated. And I remember that you're a Christian, I've not really asked if you're okay with it.
[00:16:38] Firstly, big hats off to a big boss man to say, to kind of have that humility, to have that conversation around.
[00:16:46] Is this disrespectful? Is this okay or not? But what I really love was James answer in this conversation.
[00:16:54] He says this. He goes, you know that I'm a Christian. So when people throw his name around when they're frustrated, you know, I'm not a big fan of it. I just think that he deserves a bit more honor than he gets it in those moments.
[00:17:09] And the guy took it really well, and he just went, oh, okay, well, what about all of us? Effin and Jeffin and blinding and, you know, James works in construction, and if you know that kind of industry, there's quite a lot of profanity in the language that's used anyway. And James says this, and you can just tell that the spirit is working in him in his answer, because I was like, wow, that's just. Yeah, just a really beautiful response. He says this, he goes, I try my best not to swear, but I do slip up sometimes when I get frustrated. But really, I try not to, as I think it shows a really good level of self control. Don't you? Do, too.
[00:17:44] And it's just from that conversation, there's been a culture set in that business, in that workplace of it's really good self control. Not to let our frustrations come out in foul language. It seems like a really small incident. But what James has done is he's led with humility, and he's been able to influence his place of work.
[00:18:07] There we go. He's been able to influence his place of work to reflect the heart of God. And it probably felt quite uncomfortable to kind of say how he really felt about it all.
[00:18:19] But in that moment of humble, courageous living, God's name has been glorified in his place of work.
[00:18:28] The love of Christ is planted where there is humility as the soil.
[00:18:33] I love this just based on that kind of coming off the back of that story. One Peter 315 16 says this, in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks, to give the reason for the hope that you have.
[00:18:49] But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed in their slander.
[00:19:02] Finally, we should be faith filled.
[00:19:06] We are innovative. We take kingdom minded risks. Refuse to settle, knowing there are many more God inspired adventures ahead.
[00:19:17] When James and I got married, I was working kind of in a pub. I'd been there for about three years, and to be honest, I was really comfortable there. I knew the team well. I knew the menu well. It didn't feel like particularly hard work. You kind of turned up, did the job, got paid, went home.
[00:19:33] But I also knew that I couldn't stay there forever. We'd moved further away from where I was, so it was a long way to get into work. The money wasn't brilliant. And with all the other life changes, it felt almost natural that my job should change, too.
[00:19:46] I kind of applied to lots of different jobs. I think I put about, like, 30 applications out, and I think I heard back from, like, two of them. It was a bit disheartening, but the one that. One of the ones that came back was to work at this fire safety company as their admin. And I did the christian thing. I prayed about it. I talked to really good friends that I trusted. I talked to my family, and they all were kind of saying that based on my admin skills, based on the money, based on the location, the time, that it would really fit where I was at in life, and I wasn't really sure, but I said yes to it. And I was allowed to start the following Monday.
[00:20:21] About a week later that Friday, I'd handed in my notice. The work culture wasn't for me. The role didn't feel like it was for me. And I remember I'd gone in every single day, and I just felt uninspired, low, and like I'd settled for something that hadn't been put aside for me. And so I spent about a month being unemployed and again applying for lots of different jobs and things. And about a month later, one of the applications I put in in the summer came back, and it was another admin role, but at this time, it was working in a similar field to what I'm doing now.
[00:20:54] And it turned out that that was what I was meant to be doing for that period of time, rather than this fire safety stuff, which really wasn't for me. If you're a fire safety person, God might have called you to that area. It just. It just wasn't for me.
[00:21:06] But I'd settled for something that seemed really good on paper. But I knew in my heart of hearts that it wasn't what God was asking for me. And I was disobedient when I went for that other job and didn't wait because I was anxious and nervous about how was I going to pay bills, what was I going to be doing with my days. What if I never found something? And they're all kind of big questions that, particularly as young adults, we kind of ask ourselves. There's all this pressure to have your career and whole life kind of planned out. And I just want to say, you don't. I'm sure that people that have kind of lived a bit of life ahead of us have done different careers throughout their lifetime. You don't have to make a decision now. You've just got to be really obedient and open to what God might be asking you to do in this moment. Don't settle for something when there are God inspired adventures ahead of you.
[00:21:57] God is really, really kind. He doesn't force his plans or his agendas onto us. But if we believe in the truth that we've spoken about today, then it is only through him that we can experience true life to the full.
[00:22:11] And so to finish up, to live courageously is to live our lives to the fullness of what God has called us to. This requires us to be spirit filled and word aligned to ensure that our righteousness is. Is being renewed. Each day, we need to lead with humility and be stewards of what God has given to us, to reflect on those around us, the kindness of the gospel and Christ who died for them.
[00:22:36] Finally, to live courageously is to live a life that is filled with faith, that is willing to set aside our own agendas and comfortabilities to pursue the plans and purposes of God, to be a part of the kingdom of God.
[00:22:52] If everyone just wants to either bow their heads or close their eyes, I just want to read this passage of scripture over us, and then we'll pray and finish.
[00:23:00] Galatians 513 25 says this, you, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. Rather serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command. Love your neighbor as yourself. If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, live by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh.
[00:23:40] They are in conflict with each other so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of the flesh are obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.
[00:24:21] Against such things, there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit.
[00:24:36] Lord, we just pray now that would anything that you want us to hear today stick to us. If there's anything that isn't of you, would it just fall away from our hearts and from our ears? God, we ask that we would be people that would live courageously for you, that we would be spirit filled, that we would lead with humility, that we would be in your word day and night. Lord, help us to set aside our own agendas, our own desires. Would we exchange the things of this world for the things of your glory?
[00:25:08] Lord, you are so kind in everything that you have given to us. Would we steward it well? And would we have the faith to believe that you are not finished with us yet, that you are still doing a new thing. You have still got incredible plans, purposes for us, that you are with us in our ordinary day today. Lord Spirit, would you just come and would you fill us afresh? In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
