1 00:00:00,000 –> 00:00:04,880 Now, I invite you to turn again to the book of Jude, this morning, as we come to the fifth of 2 00:00:04,880 –> 00:00:11,920 our workouts for maintaining a healthy Christian life. We all know what it is for your body to 3 00:00:11,920 –> 00:00:18,000 feel out of shape, and we’re recognizing that the same thing can also happen with regards to your 4 00:00:18,000 –> 00:00:23,280 soul. So, whatever stage you’re at in the Christian life, we’re recognizing the need 5 00:00:23,280 –> 00:00:29,920 to be intentional about keeping yourself in spiritual shape, and Jude has identified 6 00:00:30,160 –> 00:00:36,400 seven ways in which we will all be helped to do that. You find them listed at the end of the 7 00:00:36,400 –> 00:00:40,880 book of Jude, I hope you’ve found it now just before the book of Revelation, beginning at verse 8 00:00:40,880 –> 00:00:48,080 20. And we’ve covered these so far from verse 20. Build yourselves up in your most holy faith. 9 00:00:48,080 –> 00:00:55,040 That was the first workout. Second, pray in the Holy Spirit. Third, keep yourselves in the love 10 00:00:55,279 –> 00:00:58,080 of God. And then last time we looked at the fourth workout, 11 00:00:58,639 –> 00:01:04,400 wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. We saw, remember, 12 00:01:04,400 –> 00:01:10,480 that this is not paradise here, that we cannot make it into paradise, but rather we are waiting 13 00:01:10,480 –> 00:01:15,279 for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will create the new heaven and the new earth 14 00:01:15,279 –> 00:01:20,800 that will be the home of righteousness. He will make everything new. And so, 15 00:01:20,800 –> 00:01:26,559 if we are to live healthy Christian lives, we need, Jude tells us, to learn to wait. And we 16 00:01:26,559 –> 00:01:33,760 saw that that waiting can be one of the most constructive experiences and disciplines within 17 00:01:33,760 –> 00:01:39,279 the spiritual life. Well, now coming to that point, the obvious question that follows is, 18 00:01:40,239 –> 00:01:46,320 well, what are we to do while we’re waiting? What are we to do between now and the day when 19 00:01:46,320 –> 00:01:52,720 Jesus Christ returns in glory and takes us into His nearer presence? And the answer to that 20 00:01:52,720 –> 00:01:59,680 question that Jude gives us is very simply, you are to give yourselves until that day to ministry. 21 00:01:59,680 –> 00:02:07,599 And that’s the focus of our fifth workout. Verse 22 and verse 23. Be merciful to those who doubt. 22 00:02:07,599 –> 00:02:14,639 This is what you have to do while you’re waiting. Snatch others from the fire and save them. 23 00:02:14,800 –> 00:02:22,880 But remember, God calls every one of us to ministry. There are people in need all around 24 00:02:22,880 –> 00:02:29,679 about us. And so from now until the time when Jesus comes or calls for you give yourself to 25 00:02:29,679 –> 00:02:34,000 the work of ministry. This is what it will look like, Jude says. It will involve being 26 00:02:34,000 –> 00:02:40,080 merciful to those who doubt and snatching others from the fire to save them. So our fifth workout, 27 00:02:40,080 –> 00:02:44,880 which is our focus today, is very simply that God calls us to reach out to others. 28 00:02:44,880 –> 00:02:52,559 And that for you will be part of spiritual health. Now, I want to remind you that although 29 00:02:52,559 –> 00:03:01,119 ministry is in many ways draining, it is also wonderfully nourishing. Jesus said, 30 00:03:01,119 –> 00:03:08,399 my food is to do the will of the Father who sent me and you will find that God sustains you 31 00:03:09,199 –> 00:03:15,360 in your walk with him as you are intentional about reaching out to others in ministry. 32 00:03:16,080 –> 00:03:20,240 In fact, to be a healthy Christian, we’re learning this morning, 33 00:03:20,240 –> 00:03:26,559 you need to be intentional about reaching out to others. Now, many of us know this 34 00:03:26,559 –> 00:03:35,919 from our experience because you’re already doing it. For others, our greatest need if we are to 35 00:03:35,919 –> 00:03:44,160 get into spiritual shape is to get into some kind of ministry and serving, to reach outside of 36 00:03:44,160 –> 00:03:50,080 ourselves, to become aware and sensitive, and responsive to the needs of others because the 37 00:03:50,080 –> 00:03:56,160 whole of our lives has simply become about ourselves. I love the balance of Scripture. 38 00:03:56,880 –> 00:04:00,880 You see, as Judas is telling us what it means to live a healthy Christian life, 39 00:04:00,880 –> 00:04:05,839 he’s talked about your faith, he’s talked about your prayer life, he’s talked about the love of 40 00:04:05,839 –> 00:04:10,080 Christ, keeping yourself in the love of God, he’s talked about the hope that’s ahead of us, 41 00:04:10,080 –> 00:04:14,080 anticipating paradise, these are all things that are between you and Jesus, 42 00:04:15,759 –> 00:04:19,200 but the Christian life is much more than Jesus and me. 43 00:04:20,399 –> 00:04:25,839 And if all you have is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, in which, you know, 44 00:04:25,839 –> 00:04:31,839 sweet times of prayer and of Bible study, then your Christian life is out of balance. If that’s 45 00:04:31,839 –> 00:04:38,079 all you have, it is simply not healthy. You need some exercise. You need, as it were, some fresh 46 00:04:38,079 –> 00:04:47,519 air to come into your soul. I’ve found this, I have to tell you, to be of enormous practical 47 00:04:47,519 –> 00:04:55,600 benefit, sometimes at the simplest level. For example, when I was still a teenager, 48 00:04:55,600 –> 00:04:59,279 I knew at that time and sense that God was calling me to the ministry. And I remember 49 00:04:59,279 –> 00:05:05,600 hearing one of my own former pastors, a former pastor of my home church, his name was Jay 50 00:05:05,600 –> 00:05:11,600 Sidlow-Baxter. Some of you may have heard of him, giving a talk on how he sustained 51 00:05:11,600 –> 00:05:19,279 a life of ministry. And he began to describe, it’s vivid in my memory, how he coped with 52 00:05:19,279 –> 00:05:27,440 a gray Tuesday afternoon. I think he just chose Tuesday as a representative day, but, 53 00:05:27,440 –> 00:05:31,200 and I know that it’s very difficult to imagine a gray day, on a beautiful day like this, 54 00:05:31,200 –> 00:05:35,480 but just live in Britain for a little while, and you’ll understand what a gray day is 55 00:05:35,480 –> 00:05:41,220 all about. You know that sort of day when the rain just never seems to stop, and everything 56 00:05:41,220 –> 00:05:47,880 seems terribly gloomy. Now, you know what it’s like to have a gray day in your soul. 57 00:05:47,880 –> 00:05:52,179 To have one of these days where you say, I’ve no energy, I’ve lost my motivation, I feel 58 00:05:52,399 –> 00:05:59,399 so low. Now, I remember as a youngster listening to Dr. Baxter saying, What do you do on a 59 00:06:00,359 –> 00:06:07,359 gray Tuesday afternoon? And this is what he said. I get out of my study, and I go visit 60 00:06:11,079 –> 00:06:18,079 someone in need, and I don’t know if it does them any good, but it always replenishes my 61 00:06:19,000 –> 00:06:26,000 own soul. I have found that again and again to be a blessing in my life. I was recently 62 00:06:27,040 –> 00:06:32,559 at another meeting for pastors, where our own pastor Ted Olson was speaking briefly 63 00:06:32,559 –> 00:06:38,040 on the same subject and give some wonderful advice. He used a phrase that I will never 64 00:06:38,040 –> 00:06:45,040 forget and pass on to you because of its great value. He spoke about irrigating your soul 65 00:06:45,119 –> 00:06:52,119 and the joys and sorrows of your people. That’s beautiful. Your soul will be watered as you 66 00:06:57,640 –> 00:07:04,640 enter into the joys and the sorrows of other people. Your soul will be watered as you get 67 00:07:06,559 –> 00:07:12,660 outside of your own little world and reach out to touch somebody else in love and in 68 00:07:12,660 –> 00:07:19,200 compassion and ministry. Now, that’s the focus of this fifth workout for a healthy 69 00:07:19,200 –> 00:07:26,200 Christian life. Be intentional about building this into your life. Look for some way to 70 00:07:26,679 –> 00:07:32,480 bring the blessing of God, however simply, into the life of one other person. Look for 71 00:07:32,480 –> 00:07:39,480 some way to lighten somebody else’s load and you will lighten your own load. Let there 72 00:07:40,019 –> 00:07:47,179 be somebody, even at the end of today, who thanks God for you. 73 00:07:50,260 –> 00:07:56,239 Now, before we get into the heart of what Jude is saying to us here in this exhortation 74 00:07:56,239 –> 00:08:02,119 to give ourselves to ministry, it seems to me that there are a number of important principles 75 00:08:02,119 –> 00:08:09,119 that we can derive from the way that he states this and I want to commend them for your consideration. 76 00:08:09,359 –> 00:08:13,799 Notice that Jude identifies, in fact, three groups of people. Some people say there are 77 00:08:13,799 –> 00:08:18,700 only two here—that may be the case, but two or three, whatever. First, there are those 78 00:08:18,700 –> 00:08:26,440 who doubt. Second, there are those who are in the fire. Third, there are those who have 79 00:08:26,440 –> 00:08:31,959 been stained by corrupted flesh—that’s the phrase that he uses. Don’t worry about 80 00:08:31,959 –> 00:08:37,380 what these mean. At the moment, all I want you to notice is that he identifies three 81 00:08:37,380 –> 00:08:45,559 groups of people. And it seems to me to be very significant that he commends to us a 82 00:08:45,559 –> 00:08:53,719 distinct and even different approach to ministry to each of these groups. Now, from that I 83 00:08:53,719 –> 00:09:01,900 learned this principle, that ministry can never be reduced to a formula. You see, as 84 00:09:01,900 –> 00:09:06,559 soon as you get the idea that you can learn one approach that’s going to work for everybody, 85 00:09:06,799 –> 00:09:14,140 you eliminate dependence upon the Holy Spirit. Now, I want to be careful and measure it here, 86 00:09:14,140 –> 00:09:18,979 because I am not questioning the value of learning a framework of presenting the Gospel, 87 00:09:18,979 –> 00:09:24,400 nor am I questioning the value of learning some principles of counseling and so forth. These 88 00:09:24,400 –> 00:09:30,960 things are very useful. They’re very valuable. But they do have to be applied with sensitivity 89 00:09:31,159 –> 00:09:39,780 and skill. You see, some folks have learned that the root issue with every problem goes 90 00:09:39,780 –> 00:09:47,640 back to sin—a sinful response to God. You’ve read that. You’ve imbibed that. That’s your 91 00:09:47,640 –> 00:09:53,539 position. And so, what happens is that whenever you try and reach out to somebody else, you’re 92 00:09:53,539 –> 00:09:58,159 looking for the sin that’s behind their problem. It’s the only thing you can see. 93 00:09:58,260 –> 00:10:03,559 So, this person’s got a fear of flying. Oh, there must be some unbelieving response to 94 00:10:03,559 –> 00:10:09,799 God behind that, so you whack it to them. There are others who have been brought up 95 00:10:09,799 –> 00:10:14,299 in a different tradition and are equally strongly convinced that every person’s 96 00:10:14,299 –> 00:10:20,760 problem has its root in a lack of love or affirmation. So, your colleague at work 97 00:10:20,760 –> 00:10:24,919 is cheating on his wife. What’s your first instinct? To say, my goodness, 98 00:10:24,940 –> 00:10:28,200 what made him do it? Poor fellow, oh his wife is cold, oh it’s perfectly 99 00:10:28,200 –> 00:10:35,820 understandable. He needs to be loved. Now, I could multiply examples. I simply want 100 00:10:35,820 –> 00:10:42,979 to make this point that ministry cannot be reduced to a formula. Suppose you have 101 00:10:42,979 –> 00:10:47,179 a pain in your chest and you decide that you’re going to go and see the doctor. 102 00:10:47,179 –> 00:10:53,559 You expect a proper examination, and you want a good diagnosis before a 103 00:10:53,700 –> 00:10:58,419 prescription is made about your condition. Now suppose that you go into the doctors 104 00:10:58,419 –> 00:11:03,580 and you say, oh, doctor, I’ve got this pain in my chest. And he says to you, pain 105 00:11:03,599 –> 00:11:11,500 in the chest? Oh, I’ve got just the thing for you. Miracle cure. Oh, you say, miracle 106 00:11:11,500 –> 00:11:16,940 cure? It’s good for pains in the chest, is it? Oh, miracle cure is good for 107 00:11:16,940 –> 00:11:23,140 everything, he says? It does for pains in the chest? It restores hair that you’ve 108 00:11:23,179 –> 00:11:28,739 lost? It works for arthritis? It does overactive thyroid, underactive thyroid, 109 00:11:28,739 –> 00:11:33,979 piles? I mean, whatever you’ve got, miracle cure does it. By the way, I’ve 110 00:11:33,979 –> 00:11:39,799 seen some averse that look suspiciously like that, haven’t you? But we all know 111 00:11:39,799 –> 00:11:45,000 the difference between a doctor and a quack. I hope you know the difference. 112 00:11:45,059 –> 00:11:53,719 Now, the diseases of the soul are as varied and as complex as the diseases of 113 00:11:53,719 –> 00:12:00,200 the body. So be very careful about an approach to ministry that reduces 114 00:12:00,200 –> 00:12:05,359 everything to one formula. Jude warns us against that—different 115 00:12:05,359 –> 00:12:12,000 approaches to different conditions. You see that there? Secondly, and reinforcing 116 00:12:12,359 –> 00:12:17,840 this, Jesus Christ is our model of ministry. You never have a better model 117 00:12:17,840 –> 00:12:23,239 of ministry than our Lord Jesus Christ, and it’s worth studying how his approach 118 00:12:23,239 –> 00:12:28,919 to the predicament of different people is quite distinct. Nicodemus was 119 00:12:28,919 –> 00:12:36,080 a proud man who thought he knew it all. He needed to be humbled. Zacchaeus was 120 00:12:36,159 –> 00:12:43,219 a social outsider with a long story of flagrant sin. He needed the embrace of 121 00:12:43,219 –> 00:12:49,039 Jesus in his home. The rich young ruler had lived a good life and thrown himself 122 00:12:49,039 –> 00:12:55,359 into the pursuit of excellence. He had to discover what he needed to let go. The 123 00:12:55,359 –> 00:12:59,539 woman at the well, whose life had been desperately unstable, and yet within her 124 00:12:59,539 –> 00:13:02,640 soul there was a deep longing and hunger for God, 125 00:13:02,820 –> 00:13:09,320 she needed to know that God was also seeking after her. Now Jesus himself was 126 00:13:09,320 –> 00:13:15,299 and is the answer to these and everyone else’s is problem. But the way in which 127 00:13:15,299 –> 00:13:21,299 Jesus ministered to these people was self-evidently tailored to the 128 00:13:21,299 –> 00:13:27,200 particularities of their situation. And that leads to this third observation 129 00:13:27,200 –> 00:13:32,460 that we are completely dependent in all ministry on the work of the Holy Spirit. 130 00:13:32,719 –> 00:13:37,219 If ministry was simply applying a formula, I could learn the formula at college 131 00:13:37,219 –> 00:13:43,559 and then go and apply it for the rest of my life. But whatever the level of your 132 00:13:43,559 –> 00:13:48,940 skill, your knowledge, and your training, you are utterly dependent on the Spirit 133 00:13:48,940 –> 00:13:54,099 of God if you are to bring help to another person. If you’re to be a 134 00:13:54,099 –> 00:14:00,760 channel of God’s grace, you need to walk with God in order to be used in that 135 00:14:00,799 –> 00:14:07,179 kind of way. No two children are alike. What works with one may not be so 136 00:14:07,179 –> 00:14:13,700 helpful with another. Parenting is not about applying a formula. You need the 137 00:14:13,700 –> 00:14:21,679 wisdom and the discernment of the Holy Spirit to do this job well. I was so 138 00:14:21,679 –> 00:14:24,780 thankful to talk with someone in our congregation just a few weeks ago who 139 00:14:24,780 –> 00:14:33,179 said to me, it was the sense of the responsibility of being a father that 140 00:14:33,179 –> 00:14:41,179 showed me first my need of Jesus Christ. And maybe that’s where someone is right 141 00:14:41,179 –> 00:14:46,260 here this morning. You realize that God has given you this incredible 142 00:14:46,260 –> 00:14:51,700 responsibility. You can’t do it by applying a formula. You need wisdom from 143 00:14:51,700 –> 00:15:00,080 above. You need Jesus Christ and you need the help and the wisdom of the Spirit of 144 00:15:00,080 –> 00:15:07,260 God. We are completely dependent upon the work of the Spirit. Now, having 145 00:15:07,260 –> 00:15:11,299 established these principles, Jude now comes to give us some advice about the 146 00:15:11,299 –> 00:15:18,340 how of ministry. Now, the Bible is a wonderfully practical book. People talk 147 00:15:18,380 –> 00:15:22,419 about being practical. If you read the Bible with open eyes, you will see how 148 00:15:22,419 –> 00:15:32,280 practical it is. How are we to go about this work of ministry? What are we to 149 00:15:32,280 –> 00:15:40,260 seek in reaching out to others? Let me give you four areas of exercise for this 150 00:15:40,260 –> 00:15:48,119 fifth workout. Number one, we’re to reach out to others in compassion. Notice how 151 00:15:48,119 –> 00:15:57,960 Jude puts it, be merciful—be merciful to those who doubt. Now, those who doubt, of 152 00:15:57,960 –> 00:16:02,799 course, would include those whose faith has been undermined and those whose 153 00:16:02,799 –> 00:16:07,520 faith has not yet been fully formed— people who have a general sort of faith 154 00:16:07,520 –> 00:16:12,159 in God, but have not really grasped the uniqueness and glory and saving work of 155 00:16:12,159 –> 00:16:17,159 our Lord Jesus Christ. And there would have been many people in the churches in 156 00:16:17,159 –> 00:16:21,320 Jude’s day who were rather like this. Remember that earlier in the letter, he 157 00:16:21,320 –> 00:16:26,239 has told us about false teachers— verse 4, who denied the deity of our Lord Jesus 158 00:16:26,239 –> 00:16:32,479 Christ—caused all kinds of confusion in the church. Now, Jude says there are many 159 00:16:32,479 –> 00:16:39,640 folks within the sweep of a gathered congregation who are very unsure, even 160 00:16:39,640 –> 00:16:44,799 when we sing a statement like, I believe in God the Father, I believe in the Holy 161 00:16:45,059 –> 00:16:49,940 Bible. And there are many within the gathered congregation who may have 162 00:16:49,940 –> 00:16:54,479 struggles with some of these affirmations of Faith. Now, how are you to 163 00:16:54,479 –> 00:17:00,859 reach out and help such a person? Now, Jude stating it very clearly, you’d be 164 00:17:00,859 –> 00:17:08,000 merciful. You’d be merciful, you’d be patient, you stand with to help and to 165 00:17:08,040 –> 00:17:14,880 encourage and to support to show and to demonstrate? You see, there’s a big 166 00:17:14,880 –> 00:17:20,160 difference between the person who struggles to believe and the person who 167 00:17:20,160 –> 00:17:24,680 refuses to believe. If you can’t see the difference between these two things, 168 00:17:24,680 –> 00:17:29,719 you’ll never be effective in ministry. There’s a big difference between the 169 00:17:29,719 –> 00:17:36,359 child to go to that family analogy who struggles to do what is right and the 170 00:17:36,439 –> 00:17:41,479 child who refuses to do what is right. It’s a wonderful thing, by the way, that 171 00:17:41,479 –> 00:17:49,359 God can tell the difference. Now, some of us are just natural confronters, and we 172 00:17:49,359 –> 00:17:53,839 need to hear this. Your ministry will be more effective, your parenting will be 173 00:17:53,839 –> 00:18:03,199 more effective if you can learn to be merciful to those who doubt. I would tell 174 00:18:03,239 –> 00:18:08,540 you to speak a private word, as much as you can do that in public. But I’m talking 175 00:18:08,540 –> 00:18:15,520 about an in-house word here. I do sometimes wince when I hear reported 176 00:18:15,520 –> 00:18:20,400 things that have been said from one to another member of this congregation. A 177 00:18:20,400 –> 00:18:27,819 lady is bereaved, and six months into it she says to her friend that she’s still 178 00:18:27,819 –> 00:18:36,739 struggling, and she gets told, you should be over it by now. Ooh. The person comes 179 00:18:36,739 –> 00:18:40,300 from another background, another kind of church, where the Bible was very, very 180 00:18:40,300 –> 00:18:43,900 little taught, and they come with almost no knowledge about this, yet they regard 181 00:18:43,900 –> 00:18:48,099 themselves as a Christian, and they have a hunger to seek more. At which church 182 00:18:48,339 –> 00:18:59,780 you come from? We won’t learn much there. Ooh. See, sometimes our flippant social 183 00:18:59,780 –> 00:19:07,400 remarks reveal who we are. I say this especially to those of us who are 184 00:19:07,400 –> 00:19:12,579 younger, because this is an area in which we need to grow. Learn that 185 00:19:12,619 –> 00:19:22,900 compassion is at the heart of ministry—that mercy will take your words far further 186 00:19:22,900 –> 00:19:31,739 than judgment. We have wonderful opportunities to help those who doubt, 187 00:19:31,739 –> 00:19:36,040 but the only way to do it is to do it mercifully. To remember that some 188 00:19:36,040 –> 00:19:41,660 struggle with particular frailties and will do so all their lives. And please, 189 00:19:42,000 –> 00:19:48,119 please, please, don’t expect other people to learn in one week what God took twenty years to 190 00:19:48,119 –> 00:19:56,000 teach you. I need to remind myself of that all the time. It’s compassion. You see how 191 00:19:56,000 –> 00:20:01,119 that’s gonna help ministry? Here’s the second thing. Humility. Notice what Jude says. 192 00:20:01,839 –> 00:20:10,420 Snatch others from the fire and save them. Snatch others from the fire and save them. 193 00:20:10,439 –> 00:20:17,300 Now, Jude is using here one of the most powerful pictures in the whole of the Bible, and he’s 194 00:20:17,300 –> 00:20:22,579 taking it from two statements in the Old Testament that you just need briefly to know about. 195 00:20:22,579 –> 00:20:29,359 The first is in Zechariah, chapter 3, verses 1 and 2. In that book, the prophecy of Zechariah, 196 00:20:29,760 –> 00:20:35,579 Zechariah was given a vision of Joshua, the high priest at the time, and in his vision, 197 00:20:35,579 –> 00:20:42,359 Joshua was standing before God, and Satan was accusing him because he was wearing filthy 198 00:20:42,359 –> 00:20:47,839 garments. That was the picture that was seen in the vision. And in Zechariah, chapter 3, 199 00:20:47,839 –> 00:20:49,520 verses 1 and 2, we read these words, 200 00:20:49,560 –> 00:21:04,160 Now, you see how that’s the background to what Jude says here? That God says about Joshua, 201 00:21:04,160 –> 00:21:10,420 the high priest, that he’s a burning stick snatched from the fire. You have the same 202 00:21:10,420 –> 00:21:15,520 statement in Amos chapter 4 and verse 11, but again this is very significant, God is 203 00:21:15,579 –> 00:21:21,520 speaking to his own people. And he says to his own people, just as he said through Zechariah 204 00:21:21,520 –> 00:21:28,520 to the high priest, the leader of his people, you were like a burning stick snatched from 205 00:21:30,339 –> 00:21:36,359 the fire. Now, once you can understand this picture 206 00:21:36,359 –> 00:21:43,359 that underlies Jude’s statement in the New Testament, you will be greatly helped in this 207 00:21:43,819 –> 00:21:49,400 whole area of humility. You’re like a burning stick. 208 00:21:49,400 –> 00:21:54,420 Now, I want you to see that God’s not saying that about the outsiders. He’s saying that 209 00:21:54,420 –> 00:22:00,319 about the high priest. He’s saying that about every believer. He’s saying that about you. 210 00:22:00,319 –> 00:22:04,119 It’s one of those powerful pictures in the Bible. We need to get hold of it. It will 211 00:22:04,119 –> 00:22:11,119 help us in this whole area of humility. You see, sin has damaged us all, and when 212 00:22:12,000 –> 00:22:18,959 God uses the picture of a burning stick, a stick that has been pulled out of a fire, 213 00:22:18,959 –> 00:22:24,939 he by that picture teaches us that sin has done deeper damage than simply staining our 214 00:22:24,939 –> 00:22:29,739 lives. You see, most of us, I think, have grasped 215 00:22:29,739 –> 00:22:34,020 pretty well that sin is like a stain, and we’re used to going to the dry cleaners, 216 00:22:34,020 –> 00:22:40,180 and we get the stain out, I had a bad stain in a shirt and it’s just about gone. That’s 217 00:22:40,180 –> 00:22:44,780 easy. But you need to understand that sin has done 218 00:22:44,780 –> 00:22:51,359 some deeper damage than stain you so that you need to be forgiven. It has corrupted 219 00:22:51,359 –> 00:22:59,079 the Bible, teaches, the very nature of a man and a woman. It has done damage to the very 220 00:22:59,099 –> 00:23:07,040 nature of who we are, it’s like a fire that burns. It consumes. 221 00:23:07,040 –> 00:23:14,260 The Bible makes it clear that we are sinners because we sin. Why am I a sinner? Well, I’ve 222 00:23:14,260 –> 00:23:24,160 committed sins. But the Bible also makes it clear that we sin because we are sinners. 223 00:23:24,160 –> 00:23:30,660 Why did I sin? Because there’s a nature that gives rise to that kind of behavior, and that’s 224 00:23:30,660 –> 00:23:35,880 the fundamental problem. Behind your wrong actions, behind your wrong thoughts, is a 225 00:23:35,880 –> 00:23:42,579 nature that has been damaged, has been burned, as it were, in a fire, the fire of sin. So 226 00:23:42,579 –> 00:23:48,479 the greatest problem is not, in fact, your behavior, or your bad habit, it is the nature 227 00:23:48,579 –> 00:23:54,619 gives rise to that. Sin goes deeper than a stain on your clothes, it goes deeper than 228 00:23:54,619 –> 00:24:01,619 graffiti on the wall that you just have to paint over or cover. Sin is like burning in 229 00:24:02,719 –> 00:24:09,520 the wood. Now God describes His own people as being like a burning stick snatched from 230 00:24:09,520 –> 00:24:14,619 the fire. Think of it. That’s how He describes the greatest spiritual leader in the land, 231 00:24:14,619 –> 00:24:21,619 Joshua, in the time of Zechariah. This is an appropriate way to describe a born-again, 232 00:24:27,780 –> 00:24:34,780 Spirit-filled, I-read-my-Bible-everyday kind of Christian. You see what I’m saying? God 233 00:24:35,520 –> 00:24:42,520 says, you’re a burning stick. You’re a burning stick, I priests are burning stick, my people 234 00:24:42,819 –> 00:24:49,819 Israel are burning stick, and you’ve been pulled from the fire. So I’ve had this great 235 00:24:51,319 –> 00:24:55,800 idea for a t-shirt. We had a sign last week, but I’ve gone one better this week. I think 236 00:24:55,800 –> 00:25:02,800 it’s a t-shirt. I want to produce a t-shirt that says, I-am-a-burning-stick. I-am-a-burned-stick. 237 00:25:03,540 –> 00:25:10,540 Now, you could wear that t-shirt. It’s what the Bible says about you. That’s not the most 238 00:25:17,920 –> 00:25:21,040 flattering thing that the Bible says about you. It’s not the only thing that the Bible 239 00:25:21,040 –> 00:25:28,040 says about you. But the Bible does say this about you. You are a burned stick. You are 240 00:25:28,040 –> 00:25:35,040 a charred piece of wood. You have been snatched from the fire, so that you are not burning 241 00:25:38,959 –> 00:25:45,959 now, but there will always be in this life a charred side to you. 242 00:25:47,619 –> 00:25:54,619 I actually find that very helpful. There will always be in this life a charred side to you. 243 00:25:55,140 –> 00:26:02,140 One day you will be completely free from all the effects of sin in this world, but that 244 00:26:04,520 –> 00:26:10,579 will only happen when Jesus Christ comes again and, until that day, what we will be has not 245 00:26:10,579 –> 00:26:16,819 yet been made known. That’s what John says. Until then, there will always be a charred 246 00:26:16,819 –> 00:26:23,819 side to you. So, how did you get burned? A thousand ways. 247 00:26:24,859 –> 00:26:31,859 You got burned by your own sins. You got burned by the sins of others. The Bible talks about 248 00:26:34,760 –> 00:26:40,479 the tongue being like a fire. A lot of people have been burned by the tongue of another 249 00:26:40,479 –> 00:26:47,479 person. A lot of us have done some burning with our own tongues. There’s a charred side 250 00:26:48,040 –> 00:26:55,040 to every one of us. And if you can start believing what the Bible says, you’ll have more compassion 251 00:26:55,920 –> 00:27:02,920 towards other people, and you’ll have more humility with regards to yourself. Compassion—humility. 252 00:27:07,339 –> 00:27:14,339 If I walk around through life thinking I’m some kind of super saint, I’ll have a very 253 00:27:15,339 –> 00:27:21,099 different kind of ministry from if I understand I’m a piece of burned wood that God snatched 254 00:27:21,099 –> 00:27:28,099 out the fire. You see the difference? There’s always a charged sight to me and to you until 255 00:27:30,599 –> 00:27:37,599 that day when we are brought into glory and His work is made perfect in us. Compassion. 256 00:27:38,560 –> 00:27:45,560 Humility. Number three, gratitude. Gratitude. You see, ministry flows out of a sense of 257 00:27:48,300 –> 00:27:55,300 what God has done for you. God’s mercy has saved you from complete destruction. You would 258 00:27:55,839 –> 00:28:02,839 have burned, except that He pulled you out. You’re only charred. You were like a burning 259 00:28:03,359 –> 00:28:08,739 stick, but God has snatched you from the fire. And if He had not done this, sin would have 260 00:28:08,739 –> 00:28:13,479 destroyed you completely. If it were not for the mercy of God in your life, you would have 261 00:28:13,479 –> 00:28:19,479 smoldered away in your anger and your lust and in your lies until eventually these things 262 00:28:19,479 –> 00:28:26,479 would completely destroy you. By the way, that gives us an insight into the nature of 263 00:28:27,040 –> 00:28:34,040 hell. What is hell? Hell is to be abandoned by God in your sin and experience the full 264 00:28:39,439 –> 00:28:46,439 power of its destruction. You see, you put a piece of wood in the fire, 265 00:28:47,339 –> 00:28:52,140 you see the fire’s in the wood, you leave it there long enough, the fire is in the wood 266 00:28:52,140 –> 00:28:59,140 as well as the wood in the fire. What is hell? It is to be abandoned by God to experience 267 00:29:04,760 –> 00:29:11,760 the full power of the destructiveness of your own sin. And God saved me from that sinthing 268 00:29:12,079 –> 00:29:19,079 that has corrupted the nature of every person born into the world. He’s delivered me. He’s 269 00:29:24,920 –> 00:29:31,920 taken me out. Where would your anger have taken you if it was not for the mercy of God 270 00:29:34,380 –> 00:29:40,160 in your life? Where would your lies, your deceptions take you if it was not for the 271 00:29:40,160 –> 00:29:46,239 grace of God in your life? So, if the front of our t-shirt says, 272 00:29:46,239 –> 00:29:54,719 I am a burned stick, and I need to know that to keep me humble, the backside of my t-shirt is 273 00:29:54,719 –> 00:30:00,680 gonna say, But I have been snatched from the fire. Don’t you think that’s the most marvelous thing 274 00:30:00,680 –> 00:30:12,280 in all the world? Gratitude for God’s mercy that saved me from the destruction I would bring upon 275 00:30:12,280 –> 00:30:22,319 myself. And here’s something else that fires, I think our gratitude. God can use a burned stick. 276 00:30:22,439 –> 00:30:31,560 It’s fantastic. That was a description of Joshua the high priest. He’s a stick pulled from 277 00:30:31,560 –> 00:30:41,739 the fire and he’s the high priest. God can use a burned stick. You talk sometimes about the damage 278 00:30:41,739 –> 00:30:47,420 that has been done in your life, about things that seem unrecoverable, now God can use a burned stick. 279 00:30:47,420 –> 00:30:55,959 And we have the most glorious illustration of this all around us, because as most of you know 280 00:30:55,959 –> 00:31:05,579 this sanctuary was devastated by fire in 1982, December of 1982. Some of you who were here at 281 00:31:05,579 –> 00:31:10,819 the time have vivid memories of coming into the sanctuary that preceded this one and you took out 282 00:31:10,819 –> 00:31:16,599 pieces of furniture charred, you took out music that was charred around the edges. I remember 283 00:31:16,599 –> 00:31:23,619 someone describing so vividly to me. And if you look at the beams that support this building in 284 00:31:23,619 –> 00:31:32,760 which we’re sitting, these ones at the center and these at the side, on both sides, are charred 285 00:31:32,760 –> 00:31:43,579 beams that survived the fire. They had to be sandblasted, but they support this beautiful, 286 00:31:43,859 –> 00:31:48,420 beautiful sanctuary. The ones down the side, the ones at the back – you can feel them afterwards. 287 00:31:48,420 –> 00:32:00,339 They’re smooth because they’re new. God can use a charred piece of wood. He can use you. 288 00:32:00,339 –> 00:32:08,619 Despite whatever the damage that has come into your life, when His grace comes to you God can 289 00:32:08,839 –> 00:32:15,160 use you. And it may be that if the charring has been deep within your life over many years, 290 00:32:15,380 –> 00:32:21,020 you are probably just the kind of person who God can use supremely. Because you will have 291 00:32:21,020 –> 00:32:29,739 compassion and you will have humility and you will have gratitude, because you will know the 292 00:32:29,739 –> 00:32:41,180 mercy of God that has taken you like a stick out of the fire. And so, Jude says, your ministry 293 00:32:41,180 –> 00:32:48,739 can be this. You can snatch others from the fire and save them. 294 00:32:48,739 –> 00:32:55,040 That takes me to the last thing, just very briefly here. Ministry takes courage. It’s 295 00:32:55,160 –> 00:33:00,560 important to state this and to be honest about it. Those who have been burned know what the 296 00:33:00,560 –> 00:33:08,180 fire can do, and they have a passion to teach others to reach out to others in the flames. 297 00:33:08,180 –> 00:33:15,040 But it does take courage to do that. Snatch others from the fire and save them. If you’re 298 00:33:15,040 –> 00:33:20,479 going to try and snatch someone from the fire, you’re going to experience some burning at 299 00:33:20,520 –> 00:33:27,400 some point yourself. You can’t do ministry without being burned. If you want to reach 300 00:33:27,400 –> 00:33:31,959 out to people in great need, there will be a cost. And We’ll talk next week about some 301 00:33:31,959 –> 00:33:36,920 things you need to do to protect yourself, and that’s important. But I want to stay with 302 00:33:36,920 –> 00:33:43,400 this point just now. There is no such thing as a pain-free ministry. No victory without 303 00:33:43,400 –> 00:33:53,219 a struggle, no crown without a cross. Think what it cost for Jesus Christ to save us. 304 00:33:53,219 –> 00:34:02,640 He went into the fire. He bore our sin, He bore its consequences, He was abandoned by 305 00:34:02,979 –> 00:34:11,040 God and experienced the full, destructive force of your sin. That is what happened 306 00:34:11,040 –> 00:34:23,739 on the cross. And this Jesus has scars in his hands. That’s what it took to rescue 307 00:34:23,739 –> 00:34:31,679 you. But He comes and He says to you, now I’ve rescued you, taken you like a stick 308 00:34:31,679 –> 00:34:40,780 out of the fire. I want you to take up your cross now and follow Me. Take up whatever 309 00:34:40,780 –> 00:34:46,100 will be the pain and the cost of ministry for you in this fallen world and bear that 310 00:34:46,100 –> 00:34:58,239 pain as part of service. Be merciful to those who doubt, snatch others from the fire, and 311 00:34:58,239 –> 00:35:07,459 receive them. Reach out to others and do it with compassion, do it with humility, do it 312 00:35:07,459 –> 00:35:16,139 with gratitude, and do it with courage. Let’s pray together. 313 00:35:16,139 –> 00:35:23,379 Father, something within every believing heart stirs at the thought of being genuinely useful 314 00:35:24,239 –> 00:35:29,699 to you. So often we feel that the charring in our lives is such that we are not much 315 00:35:29,699 –> 00:35:37,260 use to our glorious Savior Jesus Christ. And yet, we bow in your presence and thank you 316 00:35:37,260 –> 00:35:43,280 from the depth of our hearts today. First, that you have snatched us from the fire by 317 00:35:43,280 –> 00:35:51,159 the strong hand of Jesus. And second, that you can use a charred piece of wood. And third, 318 00:35:51,360 –> 00:35:57,719 that one day what we will be, will be made fully known, and every one of the effects 319 00:35:57,719 –> 00:36:07,120 of sin will be fully undone, and the reflected glory of Jesus will be seen in each one of 320 00:36:07,239 –> 00:36:14,320 your children. We bow in awe and in adoration as we think of these things and ask that from 321 00:36:14,340 –> 00:36:21,340 this place today you will send out a congregation renewed in passion to serve Christ and to 322 00:36:21,399 –> 00:36:28,899 reach out into a world of need. For these things we ask, in Jesus’ name. Amen.