Talk @ Radley Chapel Mid week :: Gayle Williams

Imagine if helping someone out, let’s say explaining to them what’s for prep, or helping them to understand something they missed, involved a 10% chance of losing a pound on your shop account. Would you still do it?
Or how about, Imagine if community service on Wednesday actually cost you extra. Let’s you had a 50% chance that you’d get kicked out of your rugby team as a result. Would you bother doing community service?
How about if you wanted to help out children with disabilities to learn to live with their disabilities, but it involved living with no protection in a war zone, in a culture where people like you are murdered every week. Would any of us do that?
Perhaps you’ve guessed today’s famous Christian already. Gayle Williams said yes to that last question. Only two weeks ago the British aid worker was alive, working with the poorest and most unfortunate of the children in Afghanistan, young boys and girls who had lost limbs to landmines and bombs, teaching them the basic skills needed to survive in a harsh and violent land.
10 days ago she was murdered by the Taleban while walking along a quiet, tree-lined street in Kabul on her way to work.
Gayle Williams dedication was remarkable. She lived to serve the people of Afghanistan. Her mother said, "Gayle was serving a people that she loved, and felt God called her to be there for such a time as this,"
Unlike many aid workers, she believed in living among the people she served, staying in a modest private house, shunning an armed escort in favour of using her own two feet. She made an easy target for the two gunmen who had been lying in wait for her.
Gayle Williams was committed to serve a country not her own and prepared to pay the price. Committed to such an extent she had already made clear her wish to be buried there. In the 19 th century missionaries would head off from England to Africa with their possessions packed in a coffin. There was no doubt they would not be coming back. and I suppose Gayle Williams was the modern equivalent.
But why? What would drive a person to such immense sacrifice. Many of us, I suppose would find it hard to live our whole lives abroad in France, let alone a 3rd world muslim culture, let alone one where life is far more precarious commodity. Why did she do it?
The Chairman of her Charity, Mike Lyth said: "We are Christian - that is what gives us the motivation to go into a dangerous and difficult country to try to help”
The words we have just read in our reading, I imagine were quite familiar to Ms Williams. “
5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
………
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

Why did she do it? I can see at least three reasons in those verses. A role model and reason and a resource for her sacrifice.
A role model in Jesus Christ. Gayle Williams’ Lord had relinquished the glory of heaven to come down to earth for mankind. Couldn’t she relinquish the comforts of her materially wealthy and secure existence for the people of Afghanistan. I wonder couldn’t we?
A reason. Another famous missionary once said, “If Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him”. I wonder can we identify with that?
A resource. Surely very few men or women could pluck up the courage to do this alone. Her mother again. Gayle “died doing what she felt the Lord had called her [to] and she is definitely with him”. God had called her and equipped her to do the job. She found it not in herself but in Christ to do this thing.

Talk @ Saygo :: Jesus is King :: 2 Samuel 7

The Promises of God

This term we’re looking at God’s promises through the bible. You could say the bible is a record of God’s faithfulness. It’s all about how God makes promises and keeps them.

In the first week we saw how powerful God’s words alone were. He spoke the universe into being. Then we saw his promise that after Adam and eve rebelled against him in the garden, they’d have to work the ground hard to get food out of it to survive, there’d be pain in child bearing, and they would eventually die. Since then we’ve heard about how God promised to Abraham to bless all people through his offspring beginning to reverse the effects of what happened in the Garden, how God later promised to save the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and then he did. We’ve learnt how God promised to be with his people in the desert. Every time God makes a promise he keeps it.

Today we’re jumping forward a few hundred years forward and  we’re going to look at a promise, God’s promise to David, king of Israel.

I want to focus just on verses 12-13 today.

This is what God said to king David.

When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

So there’s going to be a son of David whose kingdom will last forever. There’s going to be a son of David whose kingdom will last forever.

Great news for God’s people. 

But hang on. God said there’s going to be a son of David whose throne will last forever. Forever, as in starting from when he said it to now – and then on until forever in the future.

Can any one see an obvious problem there? 

What kind of a man was ever going to fulfil that? How was God ever going to fulfil his promise of a King if he had to chose from among men? 

Well that promise has not remained unfulfilled. The kingdom of David will remain forever, because Jesus has taken up that throne never to relinquish it. Jesus is the promised King. [SLIDE][SLIDE]

That’s my main point this evening, and if you take nothing else home with you this evening, remember that. JESUS is KING. [SLIDE]

How do we know it was Jesus God was speaking about? Well Jesus is the fulfilment of the Old Testament. He said that about himself, and the apostles believed that about him too. [SLIDE] Look at what Paul says. “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ” 2 Cor 1:20. The OT is full of promises waiting to be fulfilled. Questions waiting to be answered. Jesus is where the promises come true, he is the answer to every one.  

Take this for example. What did God say to David about the promised King in verse 14? “I will be his father, and he will be my son”. Hmm. How about when Jesus rocked up. As he came out of the water after his baptism, a voice rang out in from the heavens “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

Still not convinced this verse in 2 Samuel is fulfilled in Jesus? Well look at verse 12 ‘I will raise up your offspring to succeed you’.  And Jesus is indeed a son of David. Have you ever wondered why there are long lists of who was whose father and so on in the bible? [SLIDE] It’s because the writers want us to know that Jesus is in David’s line. Jesus’ great great ….grandad was David. It all fits into the promise. But there’s more. God had said “I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” No man could fulfil that. But[SLIDE] Jesus burst through the grave and out the other side to live for ever. There will be no end to Jesus.  Jesus is the one who rules on God’s throne, for ever. 

So [SLIDE] Jesus is King. [SLIDE]And that has some big consequences.

Let’s get back to our far away island, Archibaldina and Enry the extra terrestrial.

There’s no doubt in your mind. You Archibaldina know the Arrival of a Monarch requires action. [SLIDE]Her position, [SLIDE]her presence and [SLIDE] her power demand you do something.  Because of where she is in hierarchy, because of who she is as a person  and because of what she can do, the Queen requires a particular response. When the queen comes, you can’t just [SLIDE] whack on your swimmers and go and do beach yoga like nothing’s any different.. [SLIDE] Oh no

[SLIDE] It’s the same with Jesus. If Jesus is King because of  his position, his presence and his power, because of where he stands in the order of creation, because of who he is and because of what he can do [SLIDE] we can’t just ignore him and carry on life as if he didn’t exist. [SLIDE] Jesus is King and requires a response. We’re going to look in turn at these three

So firstly, Jesus the King’s position.

The Queen arrives at the hotel, and the first thing you notice is that before you see anything of the queen loads of other people start flooding the building. The PAs and administrators making sure that all the right people are lined up for when she comes. The peculiar lady who comes and checks the loos are decent for when the queen gets in a spot of gastronomic bother. Each one of them carrying out the Queen’s wishes.

You see the Queen has a privileged position. Because of where she is in hierarchy, it is her place to give orders. The whole Island belongs to her. You just do what she says.

And so with Jesus. [SLIDE]Jesus has the highest, most privileged position. (you and me for comparison) He’s the King over all the earth. On that basis alone, because of his position, because he is so much higher than us, because he is so the top of the pile and we so aren’t, because every person, indeed every molecule owes its existence to him. [SLIDE] We should obey him.

Let me ask, do we believe Jesus is King? So are we prepared to obey him? For example, though of course this isn’t all there is to say, Not to join in the gossip about others at school, not to laugh at those who are weak, not to have sex until we marry, not to get drunk with our mates? Or actively, to sit next the person everyone else has written off in class, to honour our parents decisions, to take care of the new kids this year.  Put it this way. If Jesus says do one thing, and I want to do another. Which one do I end up doing? Because of Jesus position we should obey him.

[SLIDE] Second, Jesus the King’s presence.

This was something you, Archibaldina really struggled to explain to enry the extraterrestrial before the queen showed. ‘You’ll just feel it’, you said, ‘she’ll have an aura, a sort of force field around her. Wherever she goes there’ll be like an invisible cloud of significance all around her. People tend to stare, they go wobbly at the knees and make ridiculous sentences with words in the wrong order. They know they’re in the presence of greatness, and that makes everything different. You feel you owe her something somehow. You catch yourself automatically bowing your head in honour…”

Well if that’s a fair description of what it’s like in the presence of an earthly monarch, how much more being the presence of God’s King. And actually that’s where we are now, and at any time in fact. Perhaps you’ve had a glimpse of what it’s like to be in the royal presence of King Jesus. 

I wonder, do we [slide] honour Jesus in his presence? Or do we talk of him lightly even dismissively.  For Christ’s sake, Jesus Christ. That’s the name of our ruler and judge were dialling up there.  

Now don’t get me wrong it’s good not to take ourselves too seriously, we don’t want to prim and proper hypocrites, but do we ever make a joke of Jesus? Perhaps we’re tempted to laugh about his words in the bible, perhaps we joke about prayer, far more likely we’re just indifferent, unimpressed unmoved when he speaks. Does that honour Jesus? Have we ever sat there listening to his word, but our thoughts are somewhere else completely. Have we ever been challenged by him but instead of responding ignored him.

Jesus presence means we should honour him.

[SLIDE] Finally Jesus the King’s power.

Jesus is powerful.

Modern monarchs may be fairly powerless when it comes down to it. These days they command respect but not armies.

Not Jesus. Jesus is truly powerful. The bible says that he will come back not in humble form of an infant, but on the clouds of heaven with authority, glory and sovereign power to judge all peoples. [SLIDE] We may not see that now, but there’ll be a day [SLIDE] when there will be no doubt[SLIDE][SLIDE] Those who have recognised his rule, he will spare but those who don’t he will say I do not know you and throw them where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. [SLIDE] Jesus is truly powerful and we are right to fear Him. We don’t need to scared, not frightened because his awesome power works for those who fear him, not against them, but we should fear him.

I couldn’t put it better than C.S. Lewis when he describes how Eustace met the Lion Aslan. Aslan is the Christ figure in the book.

Eustace, who has been cursed and made into a dragon says,  ``Well, anyway, I looked up and saw the very last thing I expected: a huge lion coming slowly towards me. And one queer thing was that there was no moon last night, but there was moonlight where the lion was. So it came nearer and nearer. I was terribly afraid of it. You may think that, being a dragon, I could have knocked any lion out easily enough. But it wasn't that kind of fear. I wasn't afraid of it eating me, I was just afraid of it - if you can understand. Well, it came closer up to me and looked straight into my eyes. And I shut my eyes tight. But that wasn't any good because it told me to follow it.''

``You mean it spoke?''

``I don't know. Now that you mention it, I don't think it did. But it told me all the same. And I knew I'd have to do what it told me, so I got up and followed it.

[LAST SLIDE]

God promised a King whose kingdom would never fall. Jesus is that King. Let’s obey him, honour him and fear him.

PRAY

Talk @ Radley. Tempus Fugit - Do what counts Matthew 6:19-21

Imagine you were going to be dead in two years from now. Each minute of your existence eating into the 730 remaining days of your life on this earth. If you knew your life were going to end at that point, do you think you would have behaved differently today.

Would you still have had a lie in? Would you have gone to shop and bought a chicken roll for your mate as well? Would you still have worked on your coursework? Would you still not have worked on your coursework? Would you have played more or less cod? Would you have rung up the girl you’ve never rung up but always wanted to? Would you have prayed more or less? What would you have done differently if you knew time was short?

My cousin-in-law Johnny was a strapping lad just like you lot. Tall, strong, good looking, a great sense of humour and I guess many would have said, with the world at his feet. Not three weeks before his funeral he had been on a beach holiday celebrating his A level

results, looking forward to a fun-packed gap year in South America .

On coming home he fell ill and tragically died a few days later in late August  this year. He was 18.

Johnny’s death hit us hard as a family, but it left its mark even beyond the heart wrenching grief of losing a loved one. It gave a profound sense of “Tempus fugit”. “Time flies” or better translated “Time flees”.

2 years is about the average distance in age between you boys and Johnny. It’s  possible that one of us here has only 2 years left.  And when an end is insight boy does time fly.  Think of those dying minutes for Australia v Wales on Saturday. After that last minute try the wallabies must have felt every last slippery second of that match run away as they looked for just three more points before the whistle.

The fact is whether we have 90 minutes, 2, 20 or 80 years left, it makes no difference. At some point in life we will be counting the days, and asking ourselves what we’ve done with what we had.

“Tempus fugit” and That begs the question. What is it that really counts? What are we to do with all these minutes that we have? What constitutes a moment well spent and what’s a moment wasted?

 On the rugby field it’s pretty clear what counts. There a few rules that say stuff like if you chuck the inflatable oval thing on the floor and then boot it and it goes through the middle of the great big poles you get three points on your score board, Bottom line - what counts is the score at the end. A good minute is one that adds to the scoreboard.

How about in the game of life? What if anything, is the stuff that really counts? When the final whistle blows what are we left with? What will be forgotten and what will remains?

Is it possible to get it wrong? Like the skills show off in a game of football. You know how annoying it is, you’re out for an intersocial game of footy down the stro, and it turns out you’ve got the guy who’s obsessed with his own skills. Every time he gets the ball, he’s got plenty of options, he could lay it down the left wing, cross it over to the gap on the far side, but it’s head down and off he dribbles. I mean he’s not bad, he manages to shimmy past a couple of defenders but in the end he always holds onto it for too long and you lose possession. It’s just frustrating isn’t it? The point of the game is to score. When you go back to social no one’s going to ask you how were your skills. You don’t get points in football for leg work, it’s balls in the net that count.

How about in the game of life? Is it possible that in some way we live life like the skills show off, missing what counts. It looks good, we’re skilful, the centre of attention, in fact better than many people at a whole load of stuff, hockey, partying, lying,  going to church, schmoozing, bantering, philosophising, sacrificing, what ever it is, but we don’t ever get what really counts. So we get to the end of life and the scoreboard is empty.

What is it that counts in life?

Jesus said,

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

So there are things that last. There is a final scoreboard, so to speak, and it’s different from what we see and get now.

There are “treasures on earth” stuff that we want that looks good, but doesn’t last.  Fortune, Fame, Fashion. Fortune -We can’t take our cash, our car, or our castle with us when we die – even if we give them to our kids, they can’t either. Fame - even the coolest, most popular, most well known amongst us, even if they manage to escape besmirching by the sun will eventually be forgotten, and Fashion? well just like shell bedtime when you get to heaven you have to leave your ipod and your phone in a box at the door and no one really minds whether you have a David Beckham Mohican or not.

On the other hand, said Jesus, there are “treasures in heaven”. Stuff that you or I can do now which lasts for eternity, stuff that ends up on the final scoreboard of our lives, and from which we will benefit eternally. Treasure in heaven is what really counts.

How do I get it? I’m out of time, so perhaps you could take that one on yourself. May I humbly suggest you start your search with this book.

Gentlemen, let me wish you a happy, meaningful, Christmas, where we all learn to fill the elusive time of your lives with things that count.

 Finish with Prayer

“Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the wolrd, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You turn men back to dust, for a thousand years in our sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.

Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom”