Another famous oak tree is Bartek Oak in Poland. Bartek Oak is only 625 years old but it out-heights and widths Major Oak in that it’s approximately 30 metres tall and has a 13.5 metre waistline – a little wide for tree-hugging. Bartek Oak’s crown spans 40 metres and it’s under this tree that King Casimir III was pictured holding his court.

The next oak (see ppt), The King Oak in Denmark, is estimated to be between 1,500 and 2,000 years old. It lives on an island I don’t know how to pronounce  (Sjaelland) and is thought to be the oldest living organism in northern Europe.

The oldest living oak in Lithuania is Stelmuze Oak which is believed to be 1,500 years old. Stelmuze Oak is approximately 23 metres tall, as much as 3.5 metres wide and spans 13 metres at its crown. (1)

Is it any wonder that the oak tree is considered to be one of the most magnificent and significant of all trees? Oak trees were rated higher than any other tree by the Romans, Greeks, Celts, Slavs and Germanic speaking people. They are written about in poetry, sung about in songs and are even spiritual symbols for longevity, wisdom and strength. Oak trees it is said, stand the test of time. (2)

During the Day Visible from Afar,
At Night Flirting with the Stars,
O’You Grand Oak Tree.

Your Mighty Stature Sought by All,
For Matters, Thousands, Big or Small.
O’You Magnificent Oak Tree.

Don’t Mind the Lightening, Don’t Mind the Thunder,
You Will Still be Standing as a Daunting Wonder.
O’You Royal Oak Tree.

You Have Been Here Long Before,
As You Will be Here, for Many More,
O’You Mighty Oak Tree. (3)

As I’ve learnt more about oak trees this week, I have to say I’ve come to a new appreciation for Isaiah 61:1-3 and I’d like you to just listen as I read this passage to you this morning. If you’ve been with us at least once in the last six weeks you’ll know we’ve been exploring this passage along with Luke 4 which is where Jesus says He came to fulfill it. This morning I’m reading from the Amplified Bible.

“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed and qualified me to preach the Gospel of good tidings to the meek, the poor, and afflicted; He has sent me to bind up and heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the [physical and spiritual] captives and the opening of the prison and of the eyes to those who are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord [the year of His favour] and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant [consolation and joy] to those who mourn in Zion – to give them an ornament (a garland or diadem) of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment [expressive] of praise instead of a heavy, burdened, and failing spirit—that they may be called oaks of righteousness [lofty, strong, and magnificent, distinguished for uprightness, justice, and right standing with God], the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

Oaks of righteousness. Lofty, strong and magnificent, distinguished for uprightness, justice and right standing with God, that He may be glorified. As I think about this image I can’t help but contrast it with the images that go before it – the ones we’ve explored in detail over the last six weeks.

In our first sermon, Peta spoke about Jesus the I AM and how He came to give us, the I am nots abundant life. Before sin, the magnificence of God as revealed in Creation was a perfect revelation of God’s love. Since sin however our ability to see God for who He is and ourselves for who we are in Him has been destroyed and we’ve come to believe that we’re insignificant. Nobodies. We mean nothing. We are nothing. Contrast that with “lofty, strong and magnificent” oaks of righteousness!

When James spoke, he spoke about Jesus the I AM Good News and reminded us of what happens when we think we’re insignificant. When we think we’re insignificant we naturally start clamoring for significance and in Jesus’ day that meant trying to keep the law perfectly and in our day it means trying to keep up with the Jones’. When we’re not aware or we’ve forgotten that we’re “saved” by faith not works, at best we ignore, at worst we oppress the poorer, the weaker, the “anyone” who doesn’t cut the mustard. Contrast that with oaks of righteousness “distinguished for uprightness, justice and right standing with God.” (Matthew 7:21-23)

In my sermon about Jesus the I AM Healing, I shared the story of Bartimaeus, a blind beggar who was healed by Jesus on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem. When Bartimaeus realised it was Jesus walking past him he started shouting and I mean shouting with the kind of desperation that you and I might shout if we too had been born blind or had a chronic or terminal illness. The kind of desperation we sometimes feel when we’re confronted by someone we love’s mortality or their lesser quality of life. (Mark 10:46-52)

This image could be compared with an image Scott spoke about when he spoke about Jesus the I AM Delivering and shared the story of the demon-possessed man who lived in a tomb. This man spent his all day every day screaming and cutting himself to pieces. He could not be subdued, Mark 5:1-18 tells us. Even when he was bound he would tear the chains that were meant to bind him apart. He would break the bonds on his feet. And that’s because the power within him was a power to destroy, not deliver.

Just last week, Peta spoke again and this time about Jesus the I AM Comforting and the story of the widow at Nain who’s only son had died. When Jesus and His disciples happened upon this woman they were walking in through the town’s gates as the funeral procession was walking out. In my mind it is far too easy to picture this image. I can hear the woman’s loss. Her loneliness. Her fear. It is no wonder Jesus was moved with compassion. (Luke 7:11-16)

These images, these people represent you and me church. They represent you and me before Jesus, without Jesus. Without “Jesus the I want to plant you as a mighty oak of righteousness!” These images of insignificance, desperation, craziness and grief, they are all images that “Jesus the I love you” came to restore. Could it be that you need to be restored - maybe again? Listen to what Shawn McDonald has to say about this . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3CZIoJZ56Y

Have you ever? (4)

Have you ever wanted to be someone else
Have you ever wanted just to be someone
Have you ever wanted to reach your dreams
Have you ever wanted life to be more than it seems

I have tasted of a love so wide
That it stops all my time
I have tasted of a love so deep
That it blows my mind

Have you ever wanted to reach up and touch the sky
Have you ever wanted to pack it up and say good-bye
Have you ever wanted someone to care
Have you ever wanted someone to be there

I have tasted of a love so wide
That it stops all my time
I have tasted of a love so deep
That it blows my mind

He is sweet, He is sweet
What you’re looking for
Is my sweet, sweet Jesus
What you’re looking for
Is my sweet Lord

Is he right? Might it be Jesus who you are looking for? Could He somehow be the answer to your current depression, sickness, oppression or grief? In what way do you need Him to encourage, heal, deliver or comfort you? Do you believe He could plant you as a Major Oak? A mighty oak of righteousness?!

If your answer is yes, I need to warn you that post-Creation, Major Oaks don’t just appear. Just like any tree starts with a seed, when Jesus plants us as an oak of righteousness, He plants us as a seed and if we want to grow, we will need what all seeds need to grow - light, water and food. I guess it comes as no surprise then that it was Jesus who said, “I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in darkness.” (John 12:46) “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.” (7:37-38) “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry.” (John 6:35) Come. Come. Can you Him say, “Come?” That’s every day. Not just today. Every day coming to the source of light and water and food. Every day walking and talking with Him. Every day spending time in His Word. That’s how we become mighty oaks of righteousness.

A second warning. This still won’t prevent disease. Even with light and water and food, trees are still vulnerable to disease and unless we’re living according to the Word we’re reading, we too will be vulnerable. “Guard your heart more than anything else,” Proverbs 4:23 says, “because the source of your life flows from it.” “Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, that yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do they prosper.” (Psalm 1:1-3) If we want to guard against disease, we’re going to have to guard against sin.

A final warning. There will still be storms. Even though we’re planted by the One who stills storms, there will still be storms for the One who stills storms to still. Did you get that? What I’m saying is that as oaks of righteousness we’re still going to have to weather storms. But how well we weather these storms will be determined by where we put our trust. “Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places in the wilderness, and in uninhabited salt land. Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:5-8) (5)

Do you believe it? I can promise you it’s true! No I definitely haven’t arrived but I can testify that I’m a significantly different person today than I was ten years ago. And that’s only because Jesus has been my Good News, my Healer, my Deliverer and my Comforter. It is Jesus who is enabling me how to be an evergreen, to not get anxious, to bear fruit.

I don’t know if this has also been your experience or where you’re at today. Maybe you’re a seed and you’ve realised you need to give your life to Jesus in order to become a Major Oak? Maybe you’re a sapling and you’ve realised you need to spend time with the source of light and water and food every day? Maybe there’s something coming between you and God,and you’ve realised you need to repent, to ask for forgiveness? Or maybe there’s something you simply need to trust God with?

No matter where you are on this journey, I want to encourage you to commit to the next step by showing you what’s possible with the great I AM. Take a look at these pics and see how God is enabling these people to live out the words to this song . . . (see ppt)

And now my lifesong sings (6)

I once was lost, but now I’m found
I once was lost, but now I’m found
So far away, but I’m home now
I once was lost, but now I’m found
And now my lifesong sings

I once was blind, but now I see
I once was blind, but now I see
I don’t know how, but when He touched me
I once was blind, but now I see

And now my lifesong sings
And now my lifesong sings
And now my lifesong sings

I once was dead, but now I live
I once was dead, but now I live
Now my life to You I give
Now my life to You I give
Now my life to You I give

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Let my lifesong sing to You

_ _ _ _ _

(1) http://purpleslinky.com/trivia/history/famous-oak-trees-in-the-world/

(2) http://ezinearticles.com/?Key-Facts-about-the-Oak-Tree&id=313537 

(3) An Oak Tree by Zalmai Roashan (verses 1, 2, 9 and 11)

(4) Have you ever? Shawn McDonald: Live in Seattle

(5) http://www.youversion.com/contributions/46378/trees-of-righteousness

(6) And now my lifesong sings Mark Hall, Casting Crowns: Lifesong 

Sue Redman – October 17, 2009

It was February, 1986 and it was my older sister’s birthday. For some reason we were only allowed to have birthday parties with more than one friend every seven years as a kid, so being my sister’s 14th birthday, this meant a grand occasion. Grand occasions on wheat and cattle properties usually meant things like Dad teaching our friends how to ride the horses. Or building bonfires and cooking damper on sticks. Or making cakes together and leaving half the mixture in the bowl so everyone could eat the leftovers while the other half cooked.

In all honesty I can’t remember a lot about this particular party and that’s probably because there’s a bit of a gap in my memory. I can still remember being on my brother’s BMX and wanting to race him and the boy next door home. But I also remember there being a slight problem in that they were riding a motorbike and I a push bike. The next thing I remember is lying on the front patio and looking up and seeing people all around me.

The long story short is that I fell off Neil’s bike that day. I hit my head on the handlebars and fractured my skull, and unbeknownst to us for almost a week, my brain haemorrhaged. Of course this was the butt of many jokes for years to come. My head injury was blamed for every dumb or ditsy thing I did or said,  but for many years, this injury was also blamed for my subsequent poor health.

By the time the next year was out my parents had taken me to every kind of doctor, specialist, naturopath, osteopath, chiropractor that they could think of. I was no longer excelling at school. I was tired all the time. My anxiety levels were through the roof. No-one seemed to have the answer however, and the best advice I got was to simply remove sugar and dairy products from my diet which I did for the next five years as if my life depended on it.

When I got to dorm life at Avondale College however, every form of discipline I’d ever practiced went out the window. Diet. Sleeping habits. You name it! By the time I got to 3rd year I was living a crazy life, attempting 20 hours of work each week to pay for my fees, overloading subjects, and committed to something like 6 or 8 extracurricular activities. In this context I guess it’s no wonder my body crashed. At that point I had to withdraw from my studies and for the next 18 months I did little to nothing except work an hour/day at a private retirement village in exchange for food and accommodation. You heard me right. I’ve lived at a retirement village!

At the end of that 18 months I fully believe God opened the door for me to go back to Avondale but for now as an Office Administration student because I still wasn’t ready for Theology. When I did return to Theology the next year, I lasted one semester before I had to take another off. And it was at the beginning of the following year, when I was at Yarrahapinni Summer Camps where my parents were the caretakers, that I asked to be anointed. I was so frustrated by my lack of energy and so moved by a call to mission one Sabbath that I thought surely God would want to heal me for such a purpose.

Pr Wayne French and Wes Tolhurst were the Youth Directors at that time and we had a special anointing service during closing Sabbath. For days, weeks afterwards, I did not want to doubt that I had been healed. I knew it only took the faith of a mustard seed to move a mountain and I would do anything to have that mountain moved.

I managed to finish my Theology degree that year but as most of you know my health has never fully recovered. I guess this is why I was somewhat confronted a couple of months ago when I heard that someone else who had been diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome was actually healed. I knew this person had asked for anointing before she was anointed but I was sceptical about the results. After all, why would God heal her and not me? Months later however, I’m still hearing stories from her mother and cousins and friends about how she went for a jog the next day and as I understand it, hasn’t looked back.

I guess this is a John the Baptist kind of story. Some of you may remember that it was while John the Baptist was in prison that he sent his disciples to ask Jesus if He was the One or if they should wait for another? Would Jesus really leave His forerunner to suffer at the hands of Herod if He was the Messiah? Listen to Jesus’ response. It’s in Matthew 11:4-6,

“Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

In The Ministry of Healing, Ellen White says that when John’s disciples came to Jesus, Jesus didn’t actually answer them right away. While John’s disciples stood there, waiting for an answer to the question, the blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf, they all came to Jesus for healing.

“The voice of the Mighty Healer penetrated the deaf ear,” Ellen White says, “A word, a touch of His hand, opened the blind eyes to behold the light of day, the scenes of nature, the faces of friends, and the face of the Deliverer. His voice reached the ears of the dying, and they arose in health and vigor. Paralyzed demoniacs obeyed His word, their madness left them, and they worshiped Him. The poor peasants and laborers, who were shunned by the rabbis as unclean, gathered about Him, and He spoke to them the words of eternal life.

Thus the day wore away, the disciples of John seeing and hearing all. At last Jesus called them to Him, and bade them go and tell John what they had seen and heard, adding, ‘Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me.’” (1)

John’s disciples took this message back to John and apparently it was enough. He remembered the prophecy of Isaiah 61 (verses 1-2),

“The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour . . . to comfort all who mourn.”

“Jesus of Nazareth was the Promised One.” He was recognised as the I AM by His healing. (2) Jesus the “I AM Healing” had come to take infirmities and bear sicknesses (Matthew 8:17). Jesus the “I AM Healing” had come to restore what sin had destroyed.

“During His ministry, Jesus devoted more time to healing the sick than to preaching,” it says elsewhere in The Ministry of Healing. “His miracles testified to the truth of His words, that He came not to destroy, but to save. Wherever He went, the tidings of His mercy preceded Him. Where He had passed, the objects of His compassion were rejoicing in health and making trial of their new-found powers. Crowds were collecting around them to hear from their lips the works that the Lord had wrought. His voice was the first sound that many had ever heard, His name the first word they had ever spoken, His face the first they had ever looked upon. Why should they not love Jesus and sound His praise? As He passed through the towns and cities He was like a vital current, diffusing life and joy.” (3)

“Land of Zebulun,” Matthew 4:15-16 says, “land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles – the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”

Some may wonder how John the Baptist was able to reconcile his own suffering with the healings that were taking place elsewhere but I think I’m starting to get it. Just a couple of months ago I was meeting with our Conference President, Secretary, Ministerial Secretary and Union Ministerial Secretary (yes it was a big meeting ), and they asked me about my health. I have to say I usually hate talking about my health, especially with my employers or you, my church, and I guess that’s because I’ve thought of it as a weakness.

But that day I was finally able to tell these men that I’ve come to believe my weakness truly is God’s strength. For so long I thought God would surely want me to have more energy, to be able to work more hours, to help save more people. But what I’ve realised is that if I did have more energy, if I could work more hours, I would be too busy. Too busy to pray. Too busy to spend time with God. Too busy to eat of the Bread of Life and drink of the Living Water. And without these things, I would have nothing of the passion and conviction and zeal I have. And without the passion and conviction and zeal, would I even want to be in ministry?!

“Human effort will be efficient in the work of God . . . according to the consecrated devotion of the worker,” I recently read. “God can use every person . . . in proportion as He can put His Spirit into the soul temple.” (4) The big deal for God, I am learning  (and not just in theory but in practice), is not that I am physically well but that I am spiritually well. The big deal I am learning is that I am spiritually well and therefore able to help others become spiritually well.

A closer look at the Gospels actually reveals that Jesus often discouraged, even forbade people from making a big deal about His healings. To the leper, Jesus said, “See that you say nothing to anyone.” (Matthew 8:4) To the two blind men, “Jesus sternly ordered them, ‘See that no-one knows of this!’” (Matthew 9:30) After healing a multitude, Jesus “ordered them not to make Him known.” (Matthew 12:16) After raising Jarius’ daughter, Jesus ordered her parents “to tell no-one what had happened.” (Luke 8:56) When Jesus healed the deaf man with the speech impediment, He “ordered them to tell no-one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.” (Mark 7:36) (5)

What Jesus knew, Ron Dunn says, is that people would get overly excited by His miracles and assume, incorrectly, that He was setting up an earthly kingdom. In Mark 1:45 we read that the cleansed leper ignoring the warnings of Jesus, “went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country,” and still the people came to him from every quarter. On the contrary, we find in Mark 5:19 that Jesus told a man who had been demon-possessed to “Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you,” because this man was from Decapolis and there was no danger of a popular uprising there. In fact, the people from that region had a negative perception of Jesus and He wanted to correct it. (6)

These stories tell us about the “I AM Healing’s” compassion and power but they also tell us about His primary mission. Philip Yancey puts it this way,

“Jesus never met a disease he could not cure, a birth defect he could not reverse, a demon he could not exorcise. But he did meet skeptics he could not convince and sinners he could not convert . . . Jesus knew that spiritual dis-ease has a more devastating effect than any mere physical ailment. Every healed person ultimately dies – then what? He had not come primarily to heal the world’s cells, but to heal its souls.” (7)

Please don’t get me wrong. I am a believer in the continued gift of physical healing. But I no longer presume God wants me physically well whilever I’m on this earth. I no longer presume God wants anyone physically well whilever they’re on this earth. The only thing I presume is that God wants us spiritually well – that He will always answer our prayers for spiritual healing – so my simple prayer these days is that God will do whatever it takes to bring us to our knees. Whatever it takes to enable spiritual healing in our lives. And this is my prayer for each of us this morning.

I don’t what area of your life needs healing today. I don’t know if something has happened to break your trust in God and you need Him to restore it. I don’t know if a relationship with someone else has been broken and you need God to heal it. Maybe you need to confess something to God, to repent and seek forgiveness. Or maybe you need to forgive someone else? Maybe you do need physical healing? Or emotional healing? Maybe you’re afraid of something and you need God to remind you that He is in control?

Whatever you need, what I want to encourage you to do right now is to close your eyes while I tell you a story. (8) I want you to imagine that you are living in Jesus’ time and that you are a friend of blind Bartimaeus. My hope is that you too will be healed . . .

It is early morning. There is a golden glow in the sky and already you can feel the warmth of the morning sun. Today will be like most every other day you imagine: hot, dry and dusty. Another day when you will need to leave Bartimaeus in the shade of an olive tree.

For a number of years now, you have been guiding Bartimaeus to the same place on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem where you leave him to sit and beg his days away. It’s the least you can do and you know it.

As you reach the usual grove of olive trees, about 500 m from the city gates, you hear the voices of a group of people behind you and you turn to see who it is. Immediately you recognise that the group includes Jesus of Nazareth and beside him walks his keenest followers. You begin to wonder what it would be like to meet this man. “Who is He?” you think to yourself. ”What could He possibly do for me?”

Bartimaues interrupts your thoughts. “Who is that?” he asks. “Who is that making such a commotion at this time of the morning?” “It’s Jesus,” you reply, “Jesus of Nazareth.” “Jesus . . . Jesus of Nazareth, have mercy on me!” You shrink. “Quiet Bartimaeus. Quiet.” But he ignores you. “Jesus of Nazareth, have mercy on me!”

Jesus obviously heard Bartimaeus because He stops in his tracks. “Call him here,” He says to some of His followers and you watch as two of the group come toward you and gently say to Bartimaeus, “Take heart, He is calling you.”

Bartimaues throws of his cloak and springs to his feet. Running towards the direction of the voices, he stands before Jesus. “What do you want Me to do for you?,” Jesus asks. “My teacher, let me see again!” Bartimaeus sobs. Jesus replies, “Go, your faith has made you well.”

“What?!” you wonder, but before you can wonder any longer it becomes obvious that Bartimaeus can see. He is dancing all over the place, shrieking with delight. He is hugging Jesus, the disciples are hugging each other. But you are still bewildered. It’s hard to believe what Jesus has just done. You’ve got nothing to say.

And so you sit, back up against the trunk of the olive tree, and you watch as Bartimaeus pulls himself away from Jesus and runs back towards Jericho. You sit and you watch as the group recommences their journey towards Jerusalem. But then you catch the eye of Jesus. He is looking at you. He is alone. You are alone. As you look into Jesus eyes He says to you,

“What do you want Me to do for you?”

- – - – -

(1) Ellen G White, The Ministry of Healing, pp 34-35.

(2) Ibid, p 35.

(3) Ibid, pp 19-20.

(4) Ibid, p 37.

(5) Ron Dunn, Will God Heal Me, pp 134-135.

(6) Ibid, p 135.

(7) Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, pp 100-101.

(8) See Mark 10:46-52.

Brad’s Sermon from Chatswood Church on Vimeo.

If you’re someone who finds yourself too busy or anxiously rushing about. If you already feel like you need a holiday and you’ve only just returned to work! Might I encourage you to Read More (as below) or watch the sermon on video when it’s uploaded, and discover the difference between a vacation and much needed holy days/a Jesus Christlike sense of time and timeliness and timelessness!

Sue Redman – January 10, 2009

Well I have to say it is very nice to be back with Chatswood Church. Are you all doing okay? How about our visitors? I’m not sure where you were the last three Sabbaths but I was with Macksville Church for the first two which was lovely; and then I was with Manly Beach last Sabbath which was also lovely; but nothing compares to coming home to Chatswood Church and in case you’ve forgotten church, I think you’re awesome and I praise God that we have yet another year together!

As for my being back at work, how many of you, like me, returned to work this week? And how many of you already feel like you need another holiday? I have to say I fit into that category – but not because of work. I came back to Sydney Thursday week back to help Kristie J with her wedding plans, and when she left for home on Wednesday morning, she was legitimately concerned I might collapse in a heap. That girl has so much energy and as much as my spirit was willing, I have to admit I had five seriously exhausting days going between bridal registries and bridal shops and fabric stores and dressmakers and in between times surfing the net so we were ready to shop once the stores reopened every morning. Sabbath was my only reprieve.

All this busyness reminded me of my vow at the end of last year to make 2009 different. At the end of last year I was reflecting on 2008 and I decided I wanted to spend my time and energy differently this year. I wanted even more room for God and others and my guess is that some of you would want the same. Life in Sydney, in Australia, it can be so busy, and just to make sure we’re all on the same page, I want to share a description of this kind of life that I found this week. It’s from Mark Buchanan’s book, Your God Is Too Safe, and although it’s written in an American context, see if you can relate . . .

Typical day: awaken after a rough sleep. Siren wails and cat yowls, hot entangling sheets, a dull ache in the bones, a sharp pain in the back, tumult in the belly, angst in the heart – all were a riptide keeping you, exhausted, from reaching the solid ground of sleep. It’s earlier than you want to get up. It’s later than you should have. The kids need to be roused, fed, dressed, sent off to school. Everyone is tired. Everyone is irritable. There’s not enough hot water for showers. Someone forgot to turn on the dishwasher last night. Lipstick-stained cups, smudged glasses, food-encrusted bowls – all need to be swished out beneath the tap, set on the table where they leave rings and puddles of wetness. Arguments erupt. Angry words are shouted. Things are hastily patched over and everyone scatters – the daily diaspora.

Driving to work, you notice your husband didn’t put gas in the car yesterday like you asked him to. You have to do it. At the gas station, you remember that you forgot to turn on the dishwasher again. You make a mental note to phone home after school and get one of the kids to do it. There’s a road crew slowing traffic on the route you drive, and you miss a light because you have to halt for a fire truck. You are running late, and your nerves, like string caught on the hub of a spinning wheel, wind to a choking tightness. Your muscles, like wet cloth wrung by strong hands, twist into heavy knots. And it’s not yet nine o’clock.

At work, you have three phone calls to return (two of them urgent), five emails requiring a response, a stack of paper you’ve been intending to get to all week, and a woman outside your office waiting to see you. You don’t recognise her but think you should, and you’re unsure if she made an appointment and you forgot it, or if she just arrived unannounced. Both possibilities annoy you. You get most of that sorted away, plus handle several other phone calls and emails and interruptions, and it’s almost lunch, and you still haven’t touched that stack of paper.

At lunch, mustard comes out the wrong seam of the little plastic packet and spatters over the front of your shirt. You rush into a clothing store and buy a new one. You put it on your VISA card because you’re low on cash and doubt a debit card will clear. You return to the office. The afternoon is like the morning, except you have even less strength and enthusiasm for it.

You arrive home weary. The only mail is a pizza flyer and a VISA bill. Opening the bill, you are deflated: You had forgotten about the $350 brake job you charged last month. You order a pizza from the flyer because you’re too tired to cook. You put it on VISA. Only when you go to set the table for dinner do you realise that you forgot to make your phone call: The dishwasher has still not been run. More swishing of plates, glasses, forks.

You eat quickly because your son has soccer practice and your older daughter has youth group and you have to drive them both. You have a meeting at seven. You hope, against reason, that it will end by eight-thirty so that you can pick up your daughter at church without making her wait and the youth pastor wait with her. At the meeting, you are so obsessed with watching the clock that you can’t focus on the business at hand. You get more and more irritated at Sally’s shambling, mawkish stories and George’s bulldog fierceness and Harry’s slippery persuasion and Betty’s “I think we shoulds” and Larry’s pretentious otherworldliness and his monomaniacal question, “Have we prayed enough about this?” Inside you feel the fruits of the Spirit, one by one, shrivel and drop off the branch, pushed out by their oppositeness: loathing, sourness, worry, impatience, rudeness, rottenness, faithlessness, gruffness, wildness.

The meeting goes to nearly nine. You rush out, gravel flying scattershot beneath your spinning wheels (did you just hear the ping of rocks hitting Larry’s car?) and arrive at 9.08 to pick up your daughter. Neither she nor the youth pastor are pleased. You drive home in silence because your daughter refuses to speak to you, and you are too angry and prideful and weary to apologise. You had planned to read a bit before bed, but you’re too spent for that. You get into bed, and though your body has a corpselike stiffness and heaviness to it, some angst in you, along with the cup of coffee you had at the meeting, keeps plucking you from sleep. Twice you have to get up, once to check for a file you need to take to work tomorrow, once to let the cat out. When morning comes, you can’t remember ever getting sleep, though the alarm wakes you with an abruptness like a coronary. You begin all over again. (1)

Typical day. Did anyone relate? If you didn’t feel like a holiday before, do you feel like one now?!

What I find most interesting about where Buchanan goes with his description of a typical day, is he says that holidays or holy days, not vacations are the answer. The answer to our busyness is not in evacuating, vacating, a vacancy, a vacuity, an interval to flee, escape, avoid real life for a while. “Mere vacations are just that,” he says, “an emptying that often leaves us empty, a reprieve that brings short-term relief but no lasting refreshment.” Our need is much deeper. We need more holidays or holy days; “a Christlike sense of time and timeliness and timelessness.” (2)

When we stop to think about all that Jesus set out to achieve in His three short years of ministry, it is seriously overwhelming. Announce the arrival of the new Kingdom. Restore and redefine the hope of Israel. Enact salvation for the whole world. Cast out demons. Heal the sick. Raise the dead. Gather and train people to carry on His work once He had returned to heaven. (3) If ever there was urgency, it was in the work of Jesus Christ, and yet Jesus carried out His work with calm. You might like to open your Bibles with me to see what I’m talking about. We are going to start with Matthew 9:18-26. Matthew 9:18-26,

“While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, ‘My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.’ And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, ‘If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.’ Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, ‘Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.’ And instantly the woman was made well. When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, ‘Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.”

Are you seeing calm? Jesus responded to the needs of others but He didn’t get caught up in their anxiety. (4) He even stopped to heal the bleeding woman on the way to raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead. Let’s turn now to Mark 1:35-39. Mark 1:35-39,

“In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go on to the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came to do.’ And He went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting our demons.”

Again, are you seeing calm? The disciples thought Jesus would want to respond to the crowds but because Jesus knew He needed to be somewhere else, He literally walked away from their demands and expectations guilt free. (5) What about Matthew 8:23-27? Let’s read Matthew 8:23-27,

“And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, ‘Lord, save us! We are perishing!’ And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you of little faith?’ Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?’”

The sort of man this is is the Saviour of the world. Sure He could get tired but He could also sleep anywhere. (6) Jesus Christ, the man of ultimate destiny, the One who came to this earth pursuing a cosmic goal, had anything but the anxious rushing about kind of life that we often have. Jesus Christ, the One in whose likeness we are born and in whose likeness we have been restored, lived life as if it was completely His own; as if He was free to give to whomever He pleased, however He pleased, whenever He pleased. Or not to. Can you imagine your boss asking you to do something by lunch time and you saying, “The right time for me has not yet come.”? (John 7:6) What about if someone asked me to take a funeral and I said, “Let the dead bury the dead.”? (Matthew 8:22) (7)

That was Jesus, Buchanan says, “vigorous yet relaxed, clear-eyed yet dream-filled, purposeful but not driven. He was active, productive, and diligent, but never busy. A blind man hollering at the roadside could receive His compassion and provision. But John the Baptist – the “greatest in the kingdom of heaven” – could languish in prison, listening to the scrape of the axe being sharpened in the next room, and receive barely a greeting card from Him. Jesus’ life was His own to take up and lay down as He chose . . . And He accomplished a work that forever changed heaven, hell and earth. And you.” (8)

“At the heart of Jesus ministry,” Buchanan says, “was a holy must. He must go through Samaria. He must go to Jerusalem. He must suffer. Everything [Jesus Christ] did or refused to do centred around that,” and this is the thought that I bring to you today. Knowing what we must do is what will save us from mindless busyness. Knowing what we must do is what will free us from anxiously rushing about. People are not too busy today because they know what they must do; they are too busy because they don’t know what they must do. (9)

The irony is that it’s easier to stay that way. It’s actually easier to continue with mindless busyness and anxious rushing about than it is to ask the big questions; to surrender to Jesus Christ Himself and allow Him to tell us what we must do. But if we do continue as is; if we continue to fill our lives with things we don’t know we must do, then sooner or later a gnawing emptiness is going to raise its ugly head. Sooner or later we will be forced to acknowledge that we have nothing at our core. Our life has no centre. There is no pleasure or depth of meaning in our busyness. (10)

I don’t know if any of you have already experienced this. I don’t know if you, like me, got to the end of last year and decided that even seemingly selfless busyness can prevent you from living the life to which you have been called, but I want to challenge everyone with the apostle Paul’s holy must this morning, a single sentence recorded in Philippians 1:21. “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain,” Paul says. And he goes on to say, “. . . forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13b-14) “I take hold of that for which I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12b). (11)

I take hold of that for which I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus. What is that for which you were taken hold of by Christ Jesus? Why did Jesus take hold of you? If you can answer that question you will be able to discern what it is that you must and must not do in 2009. (12) If you can answer that question you will be freed from the mindless busyness and anxious rushing about that so many people are slaves to and you will live as Christ lived; with the freedom to give to whomever He pleases, however He pleases, whenever He pleases.

Need a holiday? Make every day a holy day I say! Surrender to Jesus Christ every day this year and you will come to live out His sense of time and timeliness and timelessness, and you will achieve everything that He has called you to achieve.

Endnotes

(1) Mark Buchanan, Your God Is Too Safe (Multnomah Publishers, 2001): pp 98-100

(2) Ibid, pp 100-101

(3) Ibid, p 101

(4) Ibid

(5) Ibid

(6) Ibid

(7) Ibid, pp 102-103

(8) Ibid, p 103

(9) Ibid, p 104

(10) Ibid, p 105

(11) Ibid, p 106

(12) Ibid, p 106

Please note there are two breaks in this presentation: the first is for an additional video (not currently in slide) and the second is for the slide show.

The Teachings of Uzzah
Sue Redman – September 13, 2008

It is approximately 1010 BC and we’re on set with King David at Kirjath-jearim in Israel. It isn’t all that long since the Elders of Israel met with David at Hebron and anointed him king, so now David is king of both Judah and Israel. Since this time David and his men have conquered the Jebusites and made Jerusalem their capital city, and today David has gathered another 30,000 men, this time to move the ark of God from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem where he intends to build a temple.

30,000 men to move the ark? Why would David need 30,000 men? David intends to make this “a scene of great rejoicing and imposing display,” and the people have responded gladly to the call. The ark of God has long been the token of God’s presence amongst this nation and it is only fitting that their capital should be honored with such a token. 1.

The ark of God was built at God’s command and it was from the cover of the ark that God spoke to Moses, their previous leader. So sacred was this ark that even Moses’ brother Aaron had been forbidden to enter it, except for once a year when he was called to perform ceremonial duties. Even the family of Kohath, of the tribe of Levi, who had been given the responsibility of carrying the ark, was not permitted to look upon it, let alone touch it. When transporting the ark, it was always covered and it was carried on poles. This ark had gone before the Israelites and before their army on many occasions. When borne by the priests into the Jordan River, the waters had parted so the people could cross over. When borne by seven priests sounding seven trumpets in a seven-day procession around the wall of Jericho, the city had been taken with a shout.

As the High Priest and the priests, the princes and the leading men of the tribes of Israel start to assemble at Kirjath-jearim, David is aglow with holy zeal. He watches as the Levites carry the covered ark out of the house of Abinadab . . . on an ox cart? Where are the poles? I guess a cart makes more sense. It would definitely make it easier to carry and much quicker. As Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drive the cart forward, David and his men follow, dancing before the Lord with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. It has been a long time since Israel has witnessed such a triumphant scene. With great shouts and songs of rejoicing the vast procession wind their way along the
hills and valleys toward the holy city. 2.

It is not until they reach Nachon’s threshing floor that something goes horribly wrong. Here on the hardest and most level of ground the oxen “shake” and Uzzah who reaches out to steady the ark is struck dead. Terror falls over the throng and David becomes first angry, then afraid. Wasn’t he trying to honor God by honoring the ark, the symbol of God’s presence? Why then had such a fearful judgment fallen upon them? Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to have the ark so close. He’d leave it with Obed-edom the Gittite who lived nearby.

David is not the only one who has been confused by what happened that day. This story has not only confused many Christians but it has been reason enough for some to leave Christianity and others to outrightly reject it. Why would God strike someone down for the smallest infringement against an obscure law? Someone who looked like they were just trying to help? If someone had to die, why wasn’t it David, or the oxen?

I’m sure many a wanna-be-theologian and even the dinky-dis have tried to reconcile the seeming discrepancies with 2 Samuel 6. Romans 15:4 and 1 Corinthians 10:11 tell us stories like this are recorded in the Bible for our instruction, so we can learn from them, and I’m sure many a pastor has wrestled with what his or her church needs to learn from this story; what do they need to know so they don’t make the same mistake?

For want of time this morning I’m not going to examine the specific laws with you on how the ark was supposed to be carried, or explore the nuances in the Hebrew, or share arguments that maintain Uzzah’s innocence. All these things are worthy of examination yes, but for our purposes, all I want to demonstrate is that God is who He says He is and He does what He says He will do, and if we take Him at His word, the irony is that we need not be afraid of judgment. If we take God at His word, we can be confident of His grace.

In Numbers 4:15 God explicitly told Moses that if anyone carrying the ark touched the ark or “the holy things” they would die. It was apparently that simple. Right from the start God had been very clear about what was important to Him:

“For in the day that I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt,” God said, “I did not speak to them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them, ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.’” (Jeremiah 7:22-23)

So it may be what? So it may be well with you. That was God’s concern. That was always God’s concern. The reason God wanted His people to obey Him was so they could experience His love and goodness. If they disobeyed the laws of His universe, He knew they would experience unnecessary pain, badness, and to try to prevent this from happening God sometimes went so far as to give fearful warnings, like any parent would I guess (Exodus 20:20).

In this context we needn’t be surprised that Uzzah was struck down. God had said that anyone who touched the ark would die, so if we were to take God at His word we might expect this to happen. But let me tell you something else we might expect to happen. Lamentations 3:31 tells us God does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone, and 2 Peter 3:9 says God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. If we take God at His word, yes Uzzah had to die, but if we take God at His word we can be sure God would have wanted it any other way.

A couple of months ago, and I think it was a Tuesday afternoon, I wanted to do something my conscience was telling me not to do, but for the life of me I couldn’t see why God would have a problem with it. It was something I’d started thinking might not be okay some time before but I’d resisted accepting it because when I looked at it through my everyday glasses, or through most every other Christian I know’s everyday glasses, it seemed miniscular, something legalists might be concerned with, and I’m a grace based pastor through and through.

After deliberating for some time that afternoon I finally decided I must have got my wires crossed, that in my zealousness to be everything God could ever want me to be, I must have subconsciously imposed a perfectionistic ideal on my life and I needed to put an end to it. And so I did. Or at least I tried.

It was later that night when I was talking to God and had totally forgotten about the events of the day that I asked God if there was anything He needed to tell me or anything I needed to do, and that was when the words “1 John 1:9” came into my head. Having no idea what “1 John 1:9” said, I opened my Bible and discovered it to be the verse that says, “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and wipe the slate clean.

I have to say this verse hit me on a number of levels that night. First of all I am ever amazed that it is possible to encounter the living God. That just rocks my socks. Second, the fact that I was convicted while reading this verse that it directly applied to the events of that afternoon confirmed that it had been God speaking to me through my conscience, and I find that just as amazing. Third, and most importantly for today’s sermon, I cannot tell you how overwhelmed I was by the way God confronted my sin. I already knew God was merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, that’s what He had told Moses on Mt Sinai (Exodus 34:6). I already knew I could approach His throne of grace with boldness in Jesus’ name (Hebrews 4:16), but to have the Holy Spirit, God’s own Spirit, personally apply His word to my life and tell me God is faithful and just, that if I confessed my sin He would forgive me, this totally blew me away. Fear? Condemnation? Hardly. Joy! Love! I seriously cannot tell you how loved I felt that night.

There is no denying that obedience is more important to God than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22) and as God is writing His law on my heart I am only beginning to understand what this means. There is no denying that there are consequences for sin and I am only sorry Uzzah and so many others have died and we can learn from their mistakes. God is who He says He is and He does what He says He will do, and that’s why we can believe without a doubt that,

“. . . God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.” (John 3:16-17)

God’s number one aim in life is to do everything He can for us to be able to live forever with Him and each other. “If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”