A BROADER, FURTHER, BRIGHTER, HIGHER VISION FOR A MATURE CHURCH AND MINISTRY

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Legana Christian Church, 2018, November 23rd Pastor’s Desk Article -  0:01:04 / 0:14:36

So David set out, and the six hundred men who were with him, and they came to the brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed. But David pursued, he and four hundred men. Two hundred stayed behind, who were too exhausted to cross the brook Besor.
First Samuel 30:9-10

How do you see the role of our church? For many, church is a place where worship, reflection, teaching, and prayers happen each Sunday morning. For some, church is a community of people who share common beliefs and values. For others, church is a mission from which resources are collected and stewarded to evangelise. Sadly, for a great many people, church is seen as an outdated irrelevant institution made up largely of elderly people who have not been scientifically enlightened – or worse still – an institution of hypocrites who abuse their positions to hurt others. Whatever your view of the role of our church, I want to present to you a compelling vision of a church that is broader, further, brighter, and higher.

A YOUTHFUL VISION OF A CHURCH

I was in my early teens when I sensed a call to be a preacher. I was 18, in my final year of High School, when I approached my pastor, Joe Bowes, and shared with him that I sensed the call to full-time ministry. His sage advice to me was to get a job, experience what working with others was like, and begin studying for ministry at the same time. This I did. After Kim and I were married, I was credentialed by the Assemblies of God as a Youth Pastor while continuing to work a day job. I was then appointed as an assistant pastor. I then had the opportunity to go and pioneer a church not far from the CBD of Melbourne.

At the time, I was one of hundreds of church planters within the Assemblies of God. Our mission was relatively simple. Gather a community of disciples who could make disciples largely by conducting Sunday meetings which would be attractive. In this context, ministry and serving was what happened on a Sunday in the church meeting. It any pioneer pastor’s hope that as many of their fledgling congregation as possible will get involved in helping make the Sunday services work. If you ever ask a pioneer pastor what their ‘vision’ is, they will tell you (and I should know) it is about what their church will do and become. This is what I consider to be a youthful vision for a church. It’s youthful because it reflects the focus and enthusiasm of the pastor, and ‘youthful’ is a good description of a fledgling church.

HOW DOES A CHURCH GROW UP?

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Ephesians 4:15-16

It is every parent’s hope that their children will not just age, but grow up. Often it’s the very thing needed for this to happen that many parents today want to prevent their children from experiencing. I’d heard of ‘helicopter parenting’ where a parent will ‘hover’ close by their children to rescue them from any trouble or problems they might encounter, but I hadn’t until recently heard of ‘lawnmower parenting’ where the parent tries to remove any trouble or problem from their child’s life before they encounter it. But guess what helps a child to grow up? It’s the same thing that helped you to grow up. Yes, that’s right. It’s having to deal with troubles and problems!

Last Sunday night during our testimonies time, Ross shared about a season of pain that he and his wife had experienced. If I could paraphrase what he said as I heard him testify that this pain deepened their relationship and obviously gave them great empathy for others, I might put it this way- Pain can be a gift from God. 

Over the years I’ve been surprised by who has also said something similar. I’ve heard it from people who have experienced loss, cancer, betrayal, divorce, and trauma. Each of these people have experienced something redemptive (“God brings good out of something bad”) from their pain.

“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
C.S. Lewis

As a child learns that pain is an inevitable part of life, and they learn to deal with it – and even eventually see it as a gift from God, they grow and mature. I suspect that it is much the same for a church to grow and mature. It too has to experience pain. It too has to learn how to deal with pain. Only then can a church truly have the kind of compassion for those who are hurting and are in pain. Or, to put it the way the Apostle Paul put it, if we want to comfort the hurting we must have experienced God’s comfort in the midst of our affliction.

¶ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.
Second Corinthians 1:3-6

The church that goes into denial about its pain, loss, betrayal, will be hard pressed to comfort the hurting, help the distressed, heal the broken or save the lost. The church that avoids the pain of conflict and necessary confrontation is the church that will be hard pressed to help those it is ministering to whose relationships have broken down.

There’s something else that every parent also wants for their children so that they can grow up. When children are little, they need discipline from their parents. This discipline forms within them their guiding principles for how they treat others, how they carry responsibility, and how life’s choices have consequences. As the child accepts this discipline as good and right they begin to adopt it as part of their self-discipline. This means that even when no-one is telling them to bear their responsibilities, they tell themselves! It also means that when given the choice to do wrong, they tell themselves to avoid the wrong and do the right thing – even when no-one is watching.

Similarly, the church that seeks to grow up is going to be the church that is disciplined and self-disciplined.

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A BROADER, FURTHER, BRIGHTER, HIGHER VISION

My opening text of Scripture beautifully illustrates the difference between childish and mature. David, a young man in his twenties, has just returned from an arduous battle to find that the Amalekites have kidnapped the women and children of his men who have just fought along side him. They are already exhausted. Some of these warriors are so exhausted they cannot ride into the night to fight another battle – even to rescue their own wives and children. The men are tired and now vying for David’s head because they hold him responsible! 

In an episode that could have gone horribly wrong, David shows great maturity and exhibits the very traits that we have just been discussing that transition a child into an adult. David appeals to his men to come with him into the night on this rescue mission to get their wives and children (and bounty) returned. Some of his warriors ride on with him. Some stay with the baggage they leave behind. David’s mission was eventually successful. But some of the men who returned with him scorned the men who stayed behind with the baggage.

David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives. Nothing was missing, whether small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything that had been taken. David brought back all. David also captured all the flocks and herds, and the people drove the livestock before him, and said, “This is David’s spoil.”

¶ Then David came to the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow David, and who had been left at the brook Besor. And they went out to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And when David came near to the people he greeted them. Then all the wicked and worthless fellows among the men who had gone with David said, “Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the spoil that we have recovered, except that each man may lead away his wife and children, and depart.” But David said, “You shall not do so, my brothers, with what the LORD has given us. He has preserved us and given into our hand the band that came against us. Who would listen to you in this matter? For as his share is who goes down into the battle, so shall his share be who stays by the baggage. They shall share alike.” And he made it a statute and a rule for Israel from that day forward to this day.
First Samuel 30:18-25

What the men who returned from rescuing their families may not have appreciated is that these two hundred men who remained behind with their baggage were the very men who had fought alongside them in their last battle – and quite possibly helped to preserve their lives. Secondly, by leaving their additional baggage behind to go off after the Amalekites their lighter load meant they were quicker and more agile – which would have contributed to their decisive victory.

There is a principle here for a mature church. God calls some people into the front-lines where the battle is fiercest, and some He calls to ‘mind their baggage’. 

WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN A CHURCH BEHAVES LIKE A GROWN UP

A grown-up church has a broader, bigger, brighter, further, higher vision of life and ministry. In this kind of church there will be those whose ministry has demanded that they ‘battle’ from Monday to Friday. They come into church on Sunday battle-weary. They are tired. Their responsibilities through the week are a heavy burden. Their self-disciplines require of them great concentration. The kinds of challenges they face are challenges that very few share. They are leaders of industry, commerce, education, media, justice, government, the arts, and health-care. They come to a grown-up church not to be a ‘pew-warmer’ but to be refreshed, renewed, revitalised for the continuing of the battle Monday morning. For these ministers (and this is how a grown-up church views them) this is their time and space to be restored.

¶ The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness or his name’s sake.
¶ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
¶ You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.
Psalm 23:1-6

A grown-up church is better equipped to minister to the hurting, lost, lonely, confused, and broken. It does this each Sunday directly by ministering to such people – but it also does it indirectly by ministering strength, inspiration, encouragement, is far wider than ours on a Sunday. Therefore, each Sunday we want to welcome the hurting, lost, lonely, confused, ill, and broken into our church family – but we also want to make welcome the healers, the leaders, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the innovators, the teachers, the mothers and the fathers – whom Christ has called to minister – who are each a part of the solution our city desperately needs!

Pastor Andrew Corbett

BECKONING TO BE REDEEMED

F.W. Boreham once famously wrote about the grand statue of the beckoning Christ towering over the landscape of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Boreham’s deep appreciation for art allowed him to see things that weren’t always obvious to most others. After he moved from Hobart to Melbourne, he would visit the National Art Gallery of Victoria and admire paintings and sculptures for hours. Many of these prolonged moments of admiration resulted in profound essays about things most of us never notice. The recently constructed towering statue of the Christ over Rio moved FWB deeply. For Dr. Boreham, its significance lay primarily in its placement. It is set atop Mount Cocovada. For those in Rio to observe it, they have to look up. For Boreham this was a reminder that we all too often get caught up in our here and now and fail to see that there is a greater world beyond our little worlds.

F.W. Boreham also reflected on how this statue beckons people to come to him – but not just to the top of Cocovada – but to follow Christ beyond the Mountain! 

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20

Down through the ages, many people have done just that. Christ’s beckoning has led them to go where the language was unfamiliar, the food was strange, the customs were foreign, and the fashion was uncomfortable. Consequently, they have had to learn a new language, acquire new tastes, adopt a new wardrobe, and try to learn the unwritten rules of being polite that every culture takes for granted and considers normal. 

The statue overlooking Rio, which measures thirty metres in height, and spans twenty-eight metres across its outstretched arms, is called ‘Christ The Redeemer‘. While the hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit Mount Cocovada to behold this artistic marvel read the large sign at the entrance detailing that the enormous statue was begun in 1922 and completed in 1931 and was the collaborative effort of three Brazilian artists, I wonder how many consider the enormity of its name? I guess for many the name sounds like a familiar church or just another one of those meaningless religious phrases? If this is the case, it is a tragic loss for these spectating visitors!

The LORD redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
Psalm 34:22

THE REDEEMER

A redeemer rescues. A redeemer set captives free. A redeemer helps those who cannot help themselves. A redeemer pays back the debts of another. A redeemer defeats the adversaries who oppress others. A redeemer pays a price to redeem and asks nothing in return. And Christ is the Redeemer! 

¶ “You have taken up my cause, O Lord;
You have redeemed my life.
Lamentations 3:58

In a world where so many people are lost, hurting, trapped in lifestyles they hate, suffering abuses, being unfairly treated and taken advantage of, couldn’t this world do with some redeeming?

¶ You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me.
Second Timothy 3:10-11

YOU DON’T HAVE TO GO TO RIO

Of course, you don’t have to go to Rio to get a sense for the beckoning heart of Christ to people beyond our comfort zone. All you have to do now is go out your front door! It seems that the people missionaries who once had to spend years preparing to go to in learning their languages, cultures and histories are being brought right to our front doors – or at least next door. Even in our church on any given Sunday, we are seeming people to Christ’s outstretched arms have beckoned us to embrace. These are not just the people from far-flung lands who look and speak so different to us, it is also the people who look and sound just like us and yet their lives are broken and hurting and betrayed. These are the people who all too often have found momentary glimpses of relief and escape from a tablet, a needle, a bottle or a bed.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Matthew 9:36

THIS SUNDAY

This Sunday, don’t be fooled by how many people come through our doors who look like they don’t need a Redeemer. And while we enter into worship, we might like to take a moment to lift our eyes up beyond the distractions of our own worlds and catch a glimpse of the actual Christ The Redeemer beckoning us to look beyond where we usually devote most of our attention, and to realise that those outstretched arms of His –  which so warmly embrace us and fill us with deep love, security, and acceptance – are the same arms that also beckon us to come up and look beyond where we’re at.

Pastor Andrew

WARS DON'T JUST END

“Wars don’t just end” 
Reflecting on the centenary of Armistice

My wife and I have just done a bicycle tour of Berlin, Germany. We were shown the destruction of the city that occurred during World War 2 and is still evident today. It might be thought that this war ended in May 1945, but in reality though, with the dividing of Germany into East and West (tragically symbolised by the division of its capital , Berlin, located in the East) this war simply morphed into an idealogical “Cold War”. 

Asa Butterfield, who played Second Lieutenant Raleigh

Twenty-five years earlier, the seeds of this war were sown in the first World War, which was dramatically portrayed in the movie, Journey’s End (the recreation of a 90 year old theatrical play of the same name). The movie graphically ends with few, if any, survivors, and  then the chilling statistics of how many soldiers died in the few months of their pointless battle. This war was also arguably the continuation of the Franco-Prussian  War just a few decades before. Wars don’t just end!

A German soldier in the trenches of the Western Front of Saint Quentin, Aisne, France

In contrast to needless wars, there are those who have courageously fought for peace by promoting and demonstrating the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. I present  two examples of how wars have their best chance of being avoided or brought to an end: Desmond T. Doss, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. From these two stellar examples, I draw on their principles to propose how a more permanent peace can be achieved, and thus brings wars to a true end.

DESMOND DOSS 

Desmond Doss (Feb. 7 1919 - Mar. 23 2006), pictured left, was a private in the United States Army who served as a combat medic. He refused to bear arms and yet was twice awarded the Bronze Star Medal for bravery during action in Guam and Philippines, and, he received the highest military honour, the Medal of Honor (The Purple Heart), for his efforts in saving the lives of (at least)  75 men. He is the only conscientious objector to have received this honour. His life was portrayed by Andrew Garfield in Mel Gibson’s film, Hacksaw Ridge. Apart from refusing kill another human being, Doss was renowned for saving the lives of both American and Japanese combatants. His motivation for doing so was his commitment to Christ, and obedience to love his neighbour - not kill him!

  

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Feb. 4 1906 - Apr. 9 1945) was a German theologian and pastor who saw the connection between ideas and consequences. From April 1933 he first publicly raised concerns about Adolf Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor of Germany, calling him not the Führer (leader), but the Verführer (seducer) on a live national radio broadcast which was abruptly taken off air. In 1938, the Gestapo banned Bonhoeffer from Berlin, and in 1943 they imprisoned him in a military prison where he spent some 18 months. During this time, he wrote two very significant books, The Cost of Discipleship, and, Life Together. 

For Bonhoeffer, the kind of peace that ended - and especially prevented - wars was only possible by having a living  faith in Christ demonstrated by how we treat the vulnerable and oppressed. At a time when the German church was being led by men essentially appointed by Hitler, who claimed to be ‘Christian’, yet who had no relationship with, or living faith in, Jesus Christ, Bonhoeffer’s accusation that these men were wolves not shepherds went largely unheeded. 

¶ But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

Second Timothy 2:1-5

TRUTH, THE ANTIDOTE

No man in the whole world can change the truth. One can only look for the truth, find it and serve it. The truth is in all places. 

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It is said, “Ideas have consequences and bad ideas have victims!” Wars are nearly always founded on some bad idea. While all people are equal, not all ideas are. Bad ideas include the belief in: the superiority of one particular ethnic group; one particular economic status; one particular skin colour; one particular distortion of a religion; the satisfaction of greed brings happiness and fulfilment; and, that one particular would-be leader has a right to use to impose his leadership on others. 

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

James 4:1

The antidote to these bad ideas is not tolerance, but truth. The means of this antidote is not avoidance, but rather, thoughtful engagement. 

Wars are still being waged today around the world. But perhaps the reasons why there are not even more wars is that there is already much thoughtful engagement happening. This includes, inter-government level diplomacy; the freeing up of international borders (contributing to greater international tourism); exchange student programs; academic exchange programs; commercial globalisation; the visual arts; and, the internet. 

Robert Cedric Sherriff, Irish playwright

Ten years after World War 1 ended, a returned British soldier, Robert Sherriff wrote the stage play, Journey’s End. It launched the acting career of a young Laurence Olivier, and played at the Apollo Theatre, London, for two years. It told the story of what it was like as a soldier in the trenches of the Western Front of Saint Quentin, Aisne, France, in 1918, where every soldier was doomed to die. Two hundred and fifty-four thousand, eight hundred and sixteen soldiers died during this campaign. When Journey’s End opening on December 9th 1928, audiences were left in stunned silence at the end of the play. It revealed the truth about what font-line warfare was really like rather than the romantic idealism generally held by the British at that time. It had a dramatic effect on the collective British psyche and may explain the reluctance of British political leadership to get embroiled in yet another war in 1939. One wonders what effect it might have had if it had been shown in Germany at the same time?

The sign outside of the Berlin Cathedral, "Hate harms the soul"

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Wars don’t just end - and neither do they just start. They grow from a bad idea - which is why so-called “peace talks” often fail (because they fail to address and correct the underlying bad idea). For peace to prevail, truth must prevail before bad ideas are allowed to run their course.

¶ So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:31-32

This Sunday, November 11th, at 11AM, we will observe a minute's silence during our worship service - not to celebrate or glorify war - but to remember and long for the Prince of Peace to come into every heart.

He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.
Isaiah 2:4

Dr. Andrew Corbett,

@DrAndrewC

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey%27s_End

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer

TEAM, FAMILY, CHURCH

TEAM, FAMILY, CHURCH

What do ‘team’, ‘family’, and ‘church’, have in common? Their connection may not be immediately obvious. A team, such as a football team, is comprised of members who perform a task to achieve a common goal. Each of the players’ roles complements the other players and when coordinated together enables them to achieve far more than they could on their own. A family seems to be completely different. For starters, a team may only last for a season. A family lasts for a lifetime of decades. A team is connected by talent. A family is connected by biological bonds and the unconditional love that flows from that bond. Team composition necessarily has to change based on individual performances. Family composition isn’t based on performance – and may even be in spite of performance abilities. But what of a church? In many respects it is different altogether to a team and a family. Or is it?

¶ For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
First Corinthians 12:12

MORE ALIKE THAN IT APPEARS

The things that make for a strong team, also can make for a strong family – and a strong church. All three diverse involvements unite people. All three involve people fulfilling certain roles. All three require leadership. All three must have rules. All three need coaching and discipline. Even churches. Having these things in common makes teams, families, and churches more alike than we might initially appreciate. Each of us have something to learn about becoming a stronger team, family, or church, from each other.

THE COMMON INGREDIENT

But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
First Corinthians 11:3

I once heard the CEO of major international hotel chain describe how his faith in Christ and his understanding of Biblical leadership had helped to shape him, his company, and his senior staff. While many of his competitors had a view of leadership that was very hierarchical and authoritarian, this CEO saw that the Scriptures described leadership primarily as service. In this view, the leader, and those in their leadership structure, performed a function rather than merely holding an impressive job title. Seeing leadership in this light changes the way teams work. Coaches and captains become servants who work with their team rather than having their team for them. It also changes the way families work. Husbands and fathers become a servant to their wife and children. Their leadership seeks to ensure their family’s safety, provision, welfare, and nurture. (Some men see being a husband and a father as a position of power to make others do what they want. This is not Christ-like leadership.) And it changes the way a church views leadership. Rather than a church leader relishing in their position or title in order to garner the respect of those in their congregation, they strive to fulfil their position or title by using their appointment and gifts to help others. 

The common ingredient of all successful teams, families, and churches, is servant-hearted leadership. The team leader wants to see their team members succeed. The husband and father in a family wants to see his wife wife and children flourish and succeed. A pastor and his leadership team wants to see those in their church thriving and achieving successes that they never did

If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
First Corinthians 12:26

YOUR PLACE

You may be one of those people who has experience in all three involvements – a team, a family, and a church. If you are, then you’ll know what I’ve been talking about. If you’re even more fortunate to be a part of a successful team, a successful family and a successful church, then you’re doubly blessed. You will already know that your team needs your to do your part well. You will have also found that in your family, each member shares a part of the load for the household. And in church you will have come to know that when everyone does what they can, just as in a sporting team or family, you also have a better chance of achieving success. 

from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
Ephesians 4:16

Much to our Board’s frustration, taking leave is very difficult for me. Perhaps in a way that only a pastor can begin to understand, taking leave can actually be quite stressful for me. But, for the good of our church, so that we learn together what Christ meant by the pronouns ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘as one’, when referring to His followers, Kim and I are taking some leave. I writing this to you now, from just outside Stuttgart Germany in the beautiful town of Nürtingen. You won’t hear from me again until November. In the meantime, each Sunday service, you will see, hear and appreciate, just how deep our preaching ‘bench’ has now developed. In addition to this, each week, you’ll hear from one of our pastors who will be filling in for me to write these weekly pastoral epistles. I look forward to returning in November and meeting all the new people who have joined our church and found Christ. And hopefully along the way, they too will come to find the acceptance and love that all good teams, families and churches offer.

Your pastor,   

Andrew Corbett

PRACTICALLY SPIRITUAL

In the gruesome movie series, The Godfather, there is a remarkable moment of redemption that I find deeply moving. Michael Corleone, the Godfather of the Mafia, has journeyed to the Vatican to settle a financial dispute with them. He is a man who is suppressing a lot of guilt and his tired, worn-out, failing body, betrays this fact. He tells the Cardinal Lamberto that a corrupt Archbishop has defrauded him. The Cardinal picks up a pebble from a fountain and says, “Look at this stone. It has been lying in the water for a very long time. But the water has not penetrated the stone.” The Cardinal then cracks the pebble. “Look!” he invites Michael Corleone, “Perfectly dry! The same thing has happened to men in Europe! For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity. But,” continues the Cardinal looking up to the sky, “Christ has not penetrated – Christ doesn’t live within them.” And for Michael Corleone, who has been carrying the guilt of a life of murdering innocent men, including his own brother, it’s all too much. But Cardinal Lamberto points out to the Mafia boss that there is no sin which Christ has not borne to lift the burden of guilt and shame from off the shoulders of weary sinners. I am particularly reminded of this scene as I prepare to preach in Europe next week. 

“See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft.”
Exodus 31:2-5

If hardened criminals who spend most of their lifetimes suppressing their consciences can turn to Christ and find forgiveness, there is hope for us all. There will be some, though, who cling to the false notion that they cannot be “spiritual” because they are more concerned with practical matters. I think this confuses two important aspects of life. Firstly, even under the Old Covenant’s division of laity and priestly class, there were those whom God anointed with the Spirit of God to carry very practical things, such as art and metal-work (Exo. 31:2-5). We think of the great Apostle Paul who took pride in his leather-working and tent-making trade (Acts 18:3). I hardly think anyone would accuse the Apostle Paul of not being spiritual!

¶ And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “Holy to the LORD.” And the pots in the house of the LORD shall be as the bowls before the altar. And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.
Zechariah 14:20-21

The prophet Zechariah, in looking forward to the day when the New Covenant would become a reality, described as a day when even the common bells on horses would have “Holy to the LORD” inscribed on them, and every pot and pan in the city would similarly be regarded as an cause for worship of Lord. It’s a beautiful picture of how Christ has made a way for everyone who has surrendered their lives to Him can have immediate access into the holiness of God’s presence. This means that if you are a carpenter, your hammer and nail-gun are instruments of worship to God. If you a school teacher, your students are an occasion for your worship of God. If you are a retailer, your store displays, products, and cash registers, are all an occasion for you to worship and to enjoy God’s presence as you work. Being heavenly-minded does not have to mean that we are of no earthly good!

¶ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
Colossians 3:1-2

There may be some who scoff at the possibility of anyone who has spent their entire life resisting Christ, finally surrendering to Him and experiencing the transforming joy that can only come from having sin, guilt and shame, washed away by the eternal sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. But, as I close, consider one of Australia’s most outspoken atheists who rose to the very top of political power in Australia. He attributes his atheism to being raised in home filled with domestic violence. But what he never told anyone, until a few weeks ago, was that he was having terrible doubts about his atheism. His biggest problem, as he tells it, was that met so many sincere believers in God whose lives demonstrated their conviction that the God of the Bible was present in their lives by the way they sacrificially cared for others. Eventually, it led Australia’s former Governor General, Mr Bill Hayden, to surrender to Christ, and was baptised in an Ipswich (Queensland) church the other week.

According to Mr Hayden, his conversion was largely provoked by how he saw the intersection of practical service and authentically deep spirituality. Let’s pray that more people will be similarly provoked.

Pastor Andrew Corbett