Transcription
e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e. Many people here today. That's very unusual, but let me give you a big welcome today. We're in the middle of summer, of course, and there's lots of people on holiday. There's people actually have gone on holiday, have come on holiday. I see we've got, uh, we've got Sandra, and it's good to see you all the way from Holland. Yes, I'm forever saying Belgium, and it's not Belgium, it's Holland. I know it's terrible. It's like Scotland and England, isn't it? Anyway, lovely to see you. Nice to see everybody here. H, and I hope you've all had the chance to say hello to those round about you, and that you feel more at home, and that you will feel more at home as we continue from here.
Welcome also to those who are online, uh, and trust that all will be blessed today. We've come together here to learn something about God's love, and specifically how that love was shown to us through his son, the Lord Jesus, when he walked this Earth some 2,000 years ago. And we're going to praise him in song, and we're going to praise him in prayer, and we're going to recognize and acknowledge what he means to so many people here today who are listening to this message. We're going to think about how he watches over us, how he cares for us, how he sees us through difficult times, as well as the good times. And when we feel like as if we're being battered by the storm still, we know if we love the Lord, and he is with us, seeing us through that. Psalm 18 says, "For who is God beside the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God?" Psalm 46 says, "God is our refuge and our strength, and ever-present help in times of trouble."
Let's pray. Our heavenly Father, we come, come to you today, and we come in our, our weakness, as we recognize that we're unable to, to fight the storms on our own. Father, help us to realize that you're there through your Holy Spirit, and you're willing that everyone should be saved, that everyone should repent of their sins, and be prepared to turn to you through the power of the Lord Jesus, and the work which he fulfilled at Calvary. Father, we do thank you that you mean so much to so many people. To those who love the Lord Jesus, we thank you that you watch over us. We thank you that you care for us. And we thank you indeed, as we've said, that you would see us through whatever storms in life there may be. You've not promised to take the storms away, but you've promised always to be with your own through the storms, and we thank you for that. We thank you that you are our refuge, our strength, and an ever-present help in times of trouble. So Father, as we go on from here, we pray that you would lift our spirits. You know where we are individually. The amazing thing is that despite the fact that you are the God who upholds this massive universe, that still you, you know each one of our needs and our thoughts. And we just pray that you would be all that we need at this moment today, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Should also say that we've got Gareth going to be speaking to us a little while later, so we look forward to that. Gareth, what you've got to say to us today. God is our massive and unshakable foundation, and that's a great thing. He is the ultimate and indeed the only protection that we can have from the power of sin. Jesus said in Matthew 11:28, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." It's wonderful that in this busy life that we're able to just come to the Lord and, uh, appreciate that he will give us the rest and the need, the peace that we need. We need it. It's amazing to think the God of all creation is also the one who loves you and who loves me, who knows you, who knows everything about you, who knows what you're going to do next, but at the same time is calling out to you to accept the Lord Jesus as the Savior. It's great to be able to praise God, and we're going to praise the name of the Lord our God now. So we ready to stand as we move on from here. Let's stand.
Cast my mind to Calvary for Jesus. And I, I see his words, his sacrifice. My Savior, cursed, his body broke and bled. Tears they laid him down in a tomb. To the entrance, sealed by heavy stone. Desire still, and all alone. Praise the name of the Lord our God. Oh, praise his name forevermore. For endless days we will sing your praise, oh Lord. Oh Lord, our God. And on the third, at break of the sun, of heaven rose again. Oh, trampled there, where is your sting? The angels roar for Christ the King. Oh, praise the name of the Lord our God. Oh, praise his name forevermore. For endless days we will sing your praise, oh Lord. Oh Lord, our God. Shall return in robes of white. The blazing sun shall pierce the night. And I will rise among the saints. My gaze transfixed on Jesus' face. Oh, praise the name of the Lord God. Oh, praise his name forever. For endless days we will sing your praise, oh Lord. Oh Lord, our God. Oh, praise, praise the name of the Lord God. Oh, praise his name forevermore. For endless days we will sing your praise, oh Lord. Oh Lord, our God. Oh Lord. Oh Lord, our God.
Thank you. Isn't it brilliant we're able to praise the name of the Lord our God? Excuse me. Going to give you some announcements. There's not very many. As I've already said, we've got Gareth who's going to be coming up to speak to us shortly. But as our summer season continues, honestly, it is summer. Um, we've only got one service on during the week, and that is on Thursday evening. It's a prayer and praise evening. It's fairly informal, actually, and we, we meet in the front room, although if all you guys were to turn up, then we could meet here as well. Be really good. Anyway, it's quite informal, and we, we sing some songs, just kind of favorite hymns, we pray, uh, we think of the things that are going on in the church and pray for each other, and we pray for the, the, the world at large, the country, and all the, the crazy things that seem to be happening in government and round about the place. So we think of all that. And there's also an opportunity for you to, if you've got a, a thought, if you've read something in your Bible through the week and you think, oh, that's really good, I'd like to be able to share that with somebody. Coming Thursday night, and you can share it with us. Doesn't have to be a big long sermon, two minutes or five minutes or whatever. But let me just encourage you to come on Thursday if you can. It's a good wee evening, it lasts an hour, it flies by, and you even get a cuppa at the end of it. So try to come if you can. Imagine next Sunday, our speaker is our very own Jim Griffin, and so we look forward to Jim coming next week as well. H, I would like to ask for an action team for this next song, but they're all so shy. For my lighthouse, can we do the action for my lighthouse? They were all so brave when they were at the summer club, and they won't do it now. You're going to come out, will you? Won't you? Yeah, you can stand here. You can follow what Heather's doing at the back. Come on. Basically, what we're seeing is, I'll end up doing the action in all one. No, let's not do that. Okay, well, if that's the case, then you're going to have to just stand up and, uh, just everybody look at actually Dar and Natasha. Just everybody turn into them, and you can follow their actions as doing it for. That's a shame. That's the most embarrassing. I remember when I was their age, and my dad used to do things like this from the stage, and I was absolutely affronted. So I'm sorry.
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It's not going to stop, but I'm sorry. We're going to sing about my lighthouse.
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In my wrestling and in my doubts, in my failures, you won't walk out. Your greater love will lead me. You are the peace in my troubled sea. Oh, you are the peace in my troubled sea. Silence. You won't let go. In the questions, your truth will hold. Your great love will lead me through. You are the peace in my troubled sea. Oh, you are the peace in my troubled sea. My lighthouse, my lighthouse, shining in the darkness. I will follow you. Oh, my lighthouse, my lighthouse, I will trust the promise. You will carry me safe to shore.
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Safe to shore. Safe to shore. Safe to shore.
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I won't be what tomorrow brings. With each morning, I'll rise and sing. My God's love will lead me through. You are the peace in my troubled sea. Oh, you are the peace in my troubled sea. My lighthouse, my lighthouse, shining in the darkness. I will follow you. Oh, my lighthouse, my lighthouse, I will trust the promise. You will carry me safe to shore. Safe to shore. Safe to shore. Safe to shore.
[Music]
Far before us, you're the brightest. You will lead us through the storm. Far before us, you're the brightest. You will lead us through the storm. My lighthouse, my lighthouse, shining in the darkness. I will follow you. Oh, my lighthouse, my lighthouse, I will trust the promise. You will carry me safe to shore. Safe to shore. Safe to shore. Safe to shore.
Thank you. If I just thought about it, I could have got Gareth up. Gareth, you are brilliant. We'll remember that for the next day. Anyway, I think it's kids' talk, so he come on up and do. Thank you, boys and girls. Come to the front. Get these seats. Good morning. I'm glad a few children turned up at the end. A while I thought I was going to be talking to the adults, but then the adults might only know what these are. Any know what these are? Tiny Bibles. No, anybody guess what these are? Maps. Well done, Noah. Maps. So these are maps. I'm scared to open them because this was the argument once you open it, how do you fold it back up again? All the adults are panicking. So these are maps. So I put a message out last night to see who had paper maps left in their houses, and thankfully Christine Gallow still has paper maps because I ended up putting a picture up because I thought, I don't know if I would be able to get any paper maps because people don't really have them anymore. Leave that. I it. So, and I don't know if any would have them anymore. So the reason I'm looking at maps today is when I was your guys' age, they were pretty normal to have in the car. They'd be in the boot or lying in the back seat or in the glove box at the front if people were tidy. So they were normally half, and they caused all sorts of arguments. Everybody would argue and say, no, this is where we are. I'll put nothing again like, no, we're here right now. We're at this part, and then we're trying to get here. So we follow the 82 or whatever it is, but that's on that map. Say, but that's what I'm saying. Well, I managed to look at that. Um, so it's holiday time just now. We're traveling across the country a little bit. You'll be going a bit further than just school and home every day. So you may be getting, if you're not away on holiday in a plane, and then obviously the following sky maps, which I know what they look like. Then you might have been on holiday in the car and went to a campsite or something. We've been, you went to campsite, caravan site, you go. So you had say, some had to loan when you're going. So whether it be somebody that looked at the map and then worked out they're going because their brain worked that way, or whether they would do something different. So this is me finding the picture so that I'm trying to find where they're going and how they're going to get there. And then while they're driving, but I think there's the other person that's holding it, not the one that's driving, but yeah, sorry Edward. It could a Tesla. Yeah, it give you an auto-drive. A Tesla, smart. But yeah, you, you still in order to get to do that, you have to use the navigation system that's in the car. In order. Anybody recognize anything on this map? It's a car map. Yeah. Can anybody see where they think they are? The H. That's V. That's it. They've done. So if I was to put a pin up, mark, because the chart is actually on that map, just you think it is at the PW other side that you mean round about there, if I can read the map, but I think I'm wrong. You're right. No, I think I'm right. I think that's where we are. So that's where we are today at church. So some people that are coming today may have came for the first time and need a map to get here, and they have tried to work that out this morning. But most of the time these days, we use different types, don't we? Use them on our phones. I, they can connect to sat navs, or we use the sat nav that's in the car. But all these things. So this one here, I'm trying to see if there's a date on them. Some of them used to have dates on them, and it'd tell you when they're made, and that way you're like, oh no, the roads changed after 1996, so we need to change it to something a bit more up-to-date. So at least the phone one, the Google one, especially, it can update very regularly, and if there's anything happening on the road, even that something's stuck, then you can get round it and go a different way. So it's a lot easier now to travel than it was when I was younger, and you had to use these things. Your mom and dad are going, no, we're not going that way, going straight ahead. Um, lots of family fun arguments. The family day now a little bit easier, just a bit of the where we, we there yet? At least now you need that. It says on it, 10 minutes. I don't have to hear the call of, I really, yeah. John used to say a lot. So we've been doing trips around, um, on different things. And one of the trips we did, we actually had to use, I think, a map because we're trying to use this map to see where we're going around the zoo. So we're trying to figure out. So we've been to, or, but again, we used the phone. We've been to Livingston again, we used the phone. We've been to Motherwell again, we used the phone. So this one is in Livingston, which is, and this is the Five Sisters Zoo, and it's shown us. So, but for a minute, we're standing on, where are we right now? Before we can figure out how we're going to get to the penguin talk at 1:00 or whatever it was. So we had to follow the map because we wanted to see all the talks on the day. So going from one end of the park to the other end of the park to see the different. We had a good time figuring out the map and seeing all the animals, and he managed to do it without too many arguments, which was good. And so imagine you had got lost somewhere, and all you had were these paper maps, and you had to stand and figure out, take forever, and it'd be a nightmare. So these maps now, uh, you stand and ask for directions. But who likes to ask for directions, and who doesn't like to ask for directions in this world? Oh. So Ed went camping on a trip, and the problem with that was, there's actually three different Kintyre beaches in Scotland, all right kind of in the one area. They're all called Kintyre Beach. So they put the wrong one in. So these electric maps put the wrong one in, it's going to take the wrong place. But they realized that they had to then turn back around rather than using private roads. So it was going to be an hour's journey took a three-hour journey. So they had to eventually, two men had to stop after day, which is unusual. One of them is saying, no, for the, you're going to have to, uh, yeah. So quite fun. But we went on trips. Um, so these ones are all these paper ones now are kind of these ones. Even the one in the map there, that's the 2024 map. If we had used the 2022 map, there's things on there that weren't on it because they didn't have those animals or those enclosures built yet. So maps become undated, become unusable. Um, so they come a bit obsolete. Because I bet a lot of these just been sitting in your bookcase, serving, not doing very much, getting a bit dusty. No, no, not much. No. So just become a bit obsolete. We can't use them anymore. And same if you go to like a library or a bookshop. If you go to a library bookshop, and you'll see all these self-help books, and some of them will be years old, and they're just out of date now as well. But it's things that can, can't get more money or trying to save better or things that just can help. But these things all change and aren't as easy to do. So these things all become obsolete and don't have a purpose either. But the Bible says the Bible is the Bible is valid then, and it's still valid now. It's not become obsolete. It's not become unusable. We can use it now. And God knows exactly where we are in our lives, and what path we are on. So in Psalm 143, verse 8, it says, "God, I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go." So if we put our trust in God and in Jesus, then he can show us a way to go in our life. And that means when you're older, especially, you'll be able to choose if you're going to go to university, if you get a job, or, um, if you're moving house, what, um, if, when you get married, you have a house, and what school you want your kids to go. All these different things. But we should be praying on that, and God will show us a way. And then also in the Bible, in Proverbs, sorry, 3:5 and 6, it says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take." So next time you're on a journey, and you're using the maps in the car, on the phone, or whatever, or something does happen to a real old map, I want you to think about, or you're at a zoo and you have a paper map to show you where to go. I want you to think about God's plan for your lives, and pray that God will keep you safe in the journey on at that moment, and the zoo, or whatever. But also that he'll keep you safe and let you follow the path that he wants you to follow as you grow up. All right, thank you. Fairly recently, we went to, um, the Lake District, and I used the computer, the Google Maps. H, and it was some, we're going to some way out in the middle of the country, which was all very exciting. So it took us through this wee town and stopped us at a garage, and this voice says, "You have now reached your destination." No, we're not. So you can't always rely on, on maps. So as, as Heather says, we've got God's word that we can rely on. A great thing to be able to do. Going to sing this one. Not done this for a while, but I'm sure you'll get the hang of it. Let's join in a happy song. It doesn't matter if you're old or young. So this is for everybody to join in with, you boys and girls as well. It goes about like this. Let's join in a happy song. It doesn't matter if you're old or young. God loves to hear his praises sung by those who follow him. What shall we use to praise a King? A trumpet, tambourine, or with six strings? The best of worship we can bring is give our lives to him. Whether we are quiet or shout, our praise should never end. It's Jesus that it's all about, Creator, Savior, friend. Let's join in a happy song. It doesn't matter if you're old or young. God loves to hear his praises sung by those who follow him. What shall we use to praise a King? A trumpet, tambourine, or with six strings? The best of worship we can bring is give our lives to him. Give our lives to him.
We don't know that one very well, do we? Oh, well, do you want to do it again? Is it? What do again? You want to do another one? Do you not want to do anymore? You've had enough singing for one day? Will we sing again? Yeah, go on. Let's do it again. Let's join in a happy song. It doesn't matter if you're old or young. God loves to hear his praises sung by those who follow him. What shall we use to praise a King? A trumpet, tambourine, or with six strings? The best of worship we can bring is give our lives to him. Whether we are quiet or shout, our praise should never end. It's Jesus that it's all about, Creator, Savior, friend. Let's join in a happy song. It doesn't matter if you're old or young. God loves to hear his praises sung by those who follow him. What shall we use to praise a King? A trumpet, tambourine, or with six strings? The best of worship we can bring is give our lives to him. Give our lives to him.
Well, there we go, boys and girls. You like to go to Sunday school? I know one that's desperate to go to Sunday school and crashes on. For those who want to be able to use that life group, stays in. But we're going to sing one more song just before I invite, uh, God to come up to speak to us. And we're going to sing this one. Yet not I, but Christ in me. We do. We're able to do lots of things, H, when we love the Lord, but, uh, it's always important to acknowledge that what we do is not of our own strength, but it's through Christ in us. And so I'm going to sing this one after the introduction.
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Let us stand. What grace is Jesus, my Redeemer? There is no more for heaven not to give. Is my joy, my righteousness, and freedom, my steadfast love, my deep and boundless peace. To this I, my hope is only Jesus, for my life is wholly about to this. Oh, how strange and divine. I can sing, all is mine. Yet not I, but through Christ in me.
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The night is dark, but I am not forsaken. For by my side, the Savior, he will stay. I labor in weakness and rejoicing, for my need is power is displayed. To this I, my hope, my shepherd will depend. Through the deepest valley, he will. For the night has begun, and I shall overcome. Yet not I, but through Christ in me.
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No fate I dread, I know I am forgiven. The future sure, the price it has been paid. For Jesus bled and suffered for my part, and he was raised to overthrow the grave. To this I, my city has been defeated. Jesus now and never is my. Oh, the chains are released, I can sing, I am free. Not I, but through Christ in me.
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With every breath, I long to follow Jesus, for he has said that he will bring me home. And day by day, I know he will, until with joy before the throne. To this I, my hope is only Jesus, all the glory ever to. When the race is complete, still my lip shall repeat, yet not I, but through Christ in me. To this I, my hope is only Jesus, all the glory evermore to him. When the race is complete, still my lip did, yet not I, but through Christ in me. When the race is complete, still my lip shall repeat, yet not I, but through Christ in me. Yet not I, but through Christ in me. Yet not I, but through Christ in me.
[Music]
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Me. Lovely words, and we know that we are secure in Christ, those who do know and love him. And all that we do is through his power and his works. Gareth, over to you. Thank you. Good morning. Morning. Yeah, it's good to be back. I haven't, uh, I haven't preached up here for a while. I've led a few services and done some, uh, breaking of bread, but they don't let me out very much, you know. But it is good to be back. We were in Capernium for a week, and that was very encouraging. I do encourage you to go and explore what that is. It's a great place to bring your family and have a, a spiritual fun-filled time, um, full of games and Jesus. Uh, so what kind of, what better holiday? And they give you three meals a day, so I'm not sure what's better than that. So that, so I've come back, uh, rejuvenated and, uh, very, very tired from from too much activity. So today, you know, I thought, what, what we talk about today? And I think, um, what I wanted to talk about is, it's, I'm going to talk about two encounters Jesus had with people. I mean, he met so many people. He's a people person, and he, he came here to save us. He's all about people. It's us he came to save. Um, and he had different interactions, and sometimes we take those interactions for granted. Sometimes, you know, he, you know, he does a miracle, he moves on. He does a miracle, he moves on. But there's so much in those miracles. It means something. And the interchanges he has, the encounters he has with these people, um, is important. And I think the two encounters that I want to pick up on today, um, uh, they, they give us a hint because Jesus is the best teacher. I always say this, Jesus is the best teacher in the world, and he knows exactly how to send a message to us. And I hope you'll see by the end of today's lesson that Jesus is very craftily used, used two of his encounters to teach us about faith, to teach us how to ask for things, how to ask in faith, and how to allow him to do big things for you and big things for the kingdom and for the world, um, to bring love and order and joy into this planet for his glory. You know, he really wants you to ask big, and he wants you to do it in faith. And these encounters tell us and help us to understand how to do that. It can also help us to understand, you know, what could be holding us back, what might be keeping our faith in a box, so we're not maybe asking for Jesus as much as often as and as big as we should be asking. So we'll be looking at that. It's quite, I've, I've tried. Everyone goes on about how long I speak, so I thought, okay, I'm going to try and do it on cards and see if I can talk a little bit less. There's now a clock in front of me, so I'll try to ignore that, and, uh, we'll see, we'll see what happens. Um, here's a question: What does, um, Walt Disney, Elvis, and Albert Einstein have in common? And maybe myself. Well, Walt Disney, um, he was sacked, um, from a job. I think he was writing in a newspaper, I think, and he was sacked because he lacked imagination and had no good ideas. Okay. Elvis, he, he went to Nashville and performed, and basically the manager said, "Go back to Memphis and take up and go back to your career, truck driving, because music is not for you." Yeah. And Einstein, well, he didn't speak until he was four, he didn't read until he was seven, and he didn't make it to college, but he kind of did well in the end. Um, you know, thanks to him, we understand the universe slightly better than we did before him. These are three people. Now, you could argue, you could use those stories to say that there are some, some slow starters in the world. But you could also use those stories to say there are some people that when they grow up, people kind of don't think much is going to happen for them. They don't really see the potential in them, and they kind of, uh, they're not really valued where they grew up. And that gives you a bit of a clue as to where I might be going next. H, we're going to talk, we're going to go into Mark, uh, Mark chapter six. But if we talk about, just before we get into six, Jesus in chapter four and five, um, he's calmed the storm on the sea. Um, he's restored a demon-possessed man when he landed. There was a demon-possessed man and living among the graves, I think. And he, he basically restores him. Um, he heals a bleeding woman, and he raises Jairus' daughter from from the dead. And, and he does amazing miracles. And these miracles are no secret. Everyone knows about them. So he then goes on to Nazareth, to his hometown. And that's, if you open your Bibles to, to Mark chapter six, um, we'll start there. So the Jesus is not a secret of Nazareth, yeah? But he goes home to his hometown, and this is what happens. So we're reading from verse one: "He went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished, saying, 'Where did this man get these things? What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? Are not his sisters here with us?' And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is not honored, except in his hometown and among his his relatives and in his own household.' I really get what he means, yeah. And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief." Now, I think it's quite amazing that on Jesus' toughest day, he could only heal a few sick people. Uh, just a little side note. I mean, all he could do was heal a few sick people. Uh, so there he is. He's gone back to his hometown, and, and he, people know about his miracles. This is not a secret. And but, you know, listen to what they're saying. They're saying, "Where did this man get his, get these things?" Right? So they're, they're looking past Jesus, right? They're saying, you know, it's like, H, someone's come with great wisdom, but where did the wisdom really come from? Is he, is he representing a, is he representing a great teacher back in Jerusalem? Because this guy in front of us cannot be the source of greatness. Where is this great teaching coming from? Where, where did he get these things? Who gave him the wisdom? Yeah. How are such mighty works being done from his, by his hands? You know, the even the comment about him being a carpenter. A carpenter, I mean, you know, in societal terms, a carpenter wasn't going to be very high up the, the social food chain, you know? I mean, he's not like a rabbi or a great merchant or leader or, you know, powerful person. You know, he was a local tradesman, or would have been a tradesman. And, uh, you know, from some of my reading, a carpenter could also mean like a fix-it man. So you go around fixing things. They're like, "You, this is Jesus the carpenter." Yeah. Isn't he? Son of Mary. Now, depending on when Joseph died, that wasn't necessarily a super positive comment, because actually, in in Jewish society, you were the son of your father, not the son of your mother. So to say that, you know, this, this Mary's boy is a bit, you know, condescending. Unless Joseph had died many years ago, then maybe, and everyone just sort of knows him as Mary's boy, then maybe it wasn't, you know, so bad. But basically, why did they take offense? Why did they take offense? Well, I think the first thing is that, you know, it's all about pride and jealousy, you know? Um, it's really hard to believe that something that you grew up in the same place, where something that something great has come from, and it wasn't you. You know, like they believed it should have been them, surely. You know, we all expect something great to come from somewhere else. I mean, when I worked, uh, as a global consultant, I would fly into Asia, into Indonesia, and the sad thing is that I could say whatever I want, you know, I'd come out, I'd travel all that way, and the CTO, the Chief Technology Officer, I wouldn't be going, you know, to see that person. I'd be going to see, you know, head of, head of engineering, head of network engineering, something like that. And, you know, the, the top executives of the company, these are huge telecom companies running, you know, with 100 million subscribers in their network, would just pop in and say, "Thanks for coming, Gareth. Thanks for coming. You know, we really appreciate you coming." And then he'd go away and run his multi-billion dollar empire. Um, and I would get on with my job. But the point is, they really, really appreciated some foreigner coming from thousands of miles away and telling them something that, you know, probably their own people were just as able to work out. But there's something about getting information from other places that makes it more valuable, because you can't believe that if it was coming from your own house, at your own town, that you wouldn't have worked it out yourself. Yeah. We all grew up in the same city, the same town, we all played the same games, went to the same school. So how come this guy suddenly has all the wisdom? How come this guy is suddenly able to change the world and do miracles? Where is he getting his wisdom? Where is he a, where is he getting his power? So they were, they were prideful because they weren't the ones with the knowledge. They were jealous. I mean, you know, I can remember when I found out, I don't know if you've ever heard of the brewery called BrewDog. I remember finding out that it's from Ellon. I was brought up in the northeast of Scotland. I was brought up in Ellon. BrewDog wasn't there. I just suddenly found out one day that this famous beer brand was from my hometown. But I was in denial because it wasn't there when I was there. And like, how come something amazing happened to Ellon and I wasn't part of it? That doesn't make sense. Yeah. It's pride. It's pride. These people couldn't believe that someone came from their own town and had something special and something powerful. So they wanted to know where it was coming from. And also, you know, a carpenter, Mary's boy, how could, how could something greater than them come from the local carpenter and Mary's boy? I mean, that's, that's pride, and that's arrogance. And, you know, what it meant is that they were now not looking at Jesus, they were looking past him. Yeah. Is it something, you know, who's he been talking to? Where's he been trained? Because that's what they really want. They don't want Jesus, because Jesus must just be the messenger. Yeah. Jesus, you know, what they really want to do is get beyond them to the real source. Yeah. We're used to teachers teaching us things. We go to school, teachers teach us things. Rabbis taught, you know, taught these guys in in synagogue, maybe. Um, you know, I'm teaching you now, but everything I've got has come from somewhere else. It's not from me. It's not unique thought. I haven't invented anything here. I've just collected lots of thoughts and processed things, and some are from other teachers, some of them are from ideas, and all of it's from the Bible, I would like to hope. But it's not me. But sometimes there is someone who has a unique idea, like Einstein had ideas that no one had had before. Um, I don't know, maybe Jesus was, you know, thinking about the translation, the relationship between energy and matter. Um, but, but Einstein, you know, he had sort of unique views and unique ideas, and he brought new ideas to the world. And there are real people who have real new ideas. And maybe in telecoms, I've had my own real new ideas. But they were trying to look past Jesus. But actually, Jesus is the real thing. Jesus was, you know, Jesus is the source. And we'll, we'll talk about that in a minute. Another problem they have had was familiarity, right? You know, they, familiarity was a stumbling block to them. They couldn't really believe in him because they knew him too well. And, and that's a challenge for us, isn't it? Because when you know, how often do we think things can't change? How often do we think, well, there's no way there's going to be a Christian government in this land. There's no way there's going to be peace in the Middle East, because we're so used to the problems. We can, we become an expert in the problems. You know, we become an expert in being able to tell people why things won't change. We become an expert and say, no, it won't work because this has been done before, or you can do that, but believe me, in a, in a, in a month, it'll be done. Do you know that? I, I used to do transformations, so big companies, they want to change from being one kind of company to another kind of company. And the reality is, 75% of those transformations fail. And probably the other 25% are being less than honest about their success. But honestly, it's a, but at the same time, if you go on a journey from A to B, and you don't make it to B, you probably get to somewhere. But a lot of companies waste a lot of money trying to become something that they want to be. But at the end of the day, when you have to change the mindset of the people, you have to change the processes of the people, the way they do things, and what they try and achieve, it's very hard to do. It takes a lot of effort, and you have to bring people, you have to bring people with you. You have to be on a mission, a movement. Everyone has to want to change. Yeah. And the, well, I'm not trying to talk about transformation here. I'm trying to talk about familiarity. I'm trying to say that if we're used to things not really working, we don't believe they can change. And the thing is, Jesus can change things. He does change things. And he asks people, "Do you want to be healed?" Then, "As you have believed, you have been healed." That's very important. Two things there: "Do you want to be healed?" And then, "As you have believed, you will be healed." We'll talk about those, those verses later, since I'm busting it a bit. We've got the actual verses in a minute. What does it mean for us? Well, the first thing is, you know, when we look at this example of him being back in his hometown and being rejected, and people not having faith, and nothing being, you know, him, him not being able to, to, to do so many miracles, it teaches us that, you know, we have to realize that Jesus is all we need. We don't need to look beyond Jesus. We don't need to look for the greater, deeper spiritual knowledge. There's not a bigger, older, deeper religion that we need. Now, I know in this room, probably nearly everyone here is a pretty committed Christian, but for those in the room who don't know it yet, Jesus is all you need. He's not one of the ways to God, he's the only way to God. He's not got part of the answer, he is the complete answer in terms of what you need. He is everything. Don't look past him. So when you want something, when you really want something, Jesus is the person to go to to get it. Want it and ask for it. Now, I'm not saying that everything you want to ask for, this is not a kind of money ministry talk. This is not, we want to be rich, ask Jesus for lots of money. That's not what I'm talking about. Because the things you want, you've got to want to have to be things that bring glory to God, that bring love, joy, and order into the planet. Being healed, Jesus wants you healed. It's only the corrupt, it's the, the corruptness of, of, um, the corrupt fallen creation that means you're not healed. Jesus wants to restore us. Do you want, does he want you to have good relations with your fellow people, with your brothers and sisters, with strangers, with enemies? Yes, he wants love and joy and understanding and peace on the planet. So if you think that whatever you're going to ask for, in some way, is going to make someone's life better, that's going to bring, put them in a position to give more to the kingdom and bring more peace and love and joy and order to the kingdom and to this planet, then Jesus wants to do it. Because he's a fixer, he's a carpenter, and he knows what this place should look like before it was destroyed. And the second thing on, on the familiarity side is, don't get too comfortable with the things that, that with what can never change. Northern Ireland. I mean, Northern Ireland, those of us who grew up in the 80s, Northern Ireland's a miracle. If you don't believe that, go off and think about it. It's an absolute miracle. The idea that Martin McGuinness and what was his name, Ian Paisley, could be sitting in the same office, working together. It's an impossibility. These are people who were brought up to hate each other. These are some of the people who would have brought up to kill each other. There they are, sitting in there. They were known as the chuckle brothers because they were laughing all the time. Peace, joy, and order. I don't know how many people prayed for Northern Ireland. A lot of people must have prayed for Northern Ireland. But I believe God was at work there and is at work there today. And it was really encouraging to see so many Christians from Northern Ireland in Capernium. It's so encouraging. I love that accent. I just love that accent. It's, I've got to be careful I don't start copying it, you know, because that's kind of embarrassing to suddenly become Northern Irish in the middle of a conversation. And those people are so sure about what they believe. My goodness, if you're short of faith, go and spend some time in Belfast. So, you know, trust, trust Jesus and the things that seem impossible, like peace in the Middle East. If we get peace in Northern Ireland, we can get peace in the Middle East. Think big, pray big, have faith. Want it and ask for it. And believe. You've got to want it, and you've got to believe. And it's not, it's not about all about your faith. There's a lot more to it than that. That's all Jesus is asking for. Do you want it? Because I don't, I'm not going to impose my will on you. And do you believe? Because I'm all about faith. Jesus says, yeah. And we'll see that in a minute. So trust big and break the boundaries. Okay. So finally, don't be an expert in the problems of life. Be an expert in faith. Right? Don't be, I'm, you know, as a consultant, you know, I'm paid to tell people how things can go wrong. But actually, what we need to be is an expert on how things can go right. And the answer is Jesus. And people in the Middle East won't have peace until Jesus is part of that, is part of the solution. Turn, please, to Luke 7. Luke 7. Luke chapter 7. This is a reading from verse one: "After he had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, 'He is worthy to have you.'"
Do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.
Jesus went with them, and he was not far from the house. The Centurion sent friends, saying to him, "Sorry, Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you, but say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes, and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him. And turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith."
And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well. Well, so what did he do? Right, you know what things were going all wrong back in Nazareth, but here, um, you know, it's very different, right? I mean, the first thing is he had faith in Jesus. Yeah, it was when the Centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him, um, you know, and he, well, I'll come back to me. But the point is, it was Jesus believed in. He says, you know, you, you know, he says, "I'm, I'm a man under," "I too am a man under authority." Yeah. So you're a man under authority, you're a man with authority. I believe that. I'm not asking you, Jesus, can you go and get your boss to fix this? Or can you go and get your tutor to to tell me how to fix this? Or can you come and say a spell or give me a potion? Can you please fix this for me? He has faith in Jesus being sufficient.
And you know, one of the lines that blows me away is when he says, "I too am a man set under authority." Now, that's a very powerful line that it's very easy to read over, because most of the rest of the verse is about people being under him. You know, he tells someone to do something, and they do it. He tells someone to come, and they come. Go, and they go. That's what most of the verse is about. But the first part of the verse is, "I have someone above me." So here we are, a Gentile, a a Roman Centurion has worked out that Jesus has a boss, and that Jesus is able to do great miracles because he's been given authority from that boss. That's a big thing. Yeah. I mean, the guys, all the the Jews in Nazareth were all thinking, "Well, the boss somewhere else has all the power." But here, the Centurion has has worked out that God the Father had given God the Son authority and permission to to do good things on the earth, to do these miracles, to save people, to heal people, to restore people back to how they should be. You know, Jesus says, "I'm the way, this the truth, and the life. I'm the bread of life. He's the source."
So what does it mean to us? Well, it means that we need to approach humbly. Look how humble the Centurion was. "I'm not worthy to come to you." And you certainly aren't worthy. I'm certainly not worthy to have you in my house. The humility is a lesson to us. So when we go to Jesus to ask for something, we need to want it. We need to have faith that he'll do it, and we have to be humble about it. And when we're humble about it, we ask for the right kind of things. We don't ask for the Ferrari. We ask for things that bring love, peace, order, and joy, and glory to God. I mean, all those things are just the whole point is to bring glory to God, to bring things back to the glorious way that he created this planet and this creation. And he thought big about Jesus. He didn't just see Jesus as someone transactional. Jesus was a people person. He touched people. You know, he was very hands-on. He did things with his hands. But that's very, you know, and that's quite transactional. You know, I touch you, or someone touches me, like the woman who had the discharge problem. She touched his cloak and was healed. Was his cloak special? No, but her faith was in Jesus. But she had faith in him, not his cloak. Cloak didn't fix her. Her faith in him fixed her. You know, um, we have to, we have to think big. We have to, we have to, you know, this Centurion was able to see Jesus in a bigger sense than the transactional sense of, "Oh, I do something, I touch something, I say something." He was bigger. You know, he saw Jesus as bigger than that. And we need to think of Jesus bigger than that.
So every day, let's face it, we get familiar. We get comfortable with how much we trust Jesus. Yeah. Oh, I trust. These are all the things I was saying to someone the other day, or maybe on Thursday night, about the the cheesecake. The stuff in the base is the stuff that I take care of. It's my business, my problem. Don't worry, I've got this under control. Yeah. Paying my bills, oh, my problem. Getting up and showering in the morning, my problem. What I'm having for breakfast, my problem. Where I'm going to work, my problem. Then the cheesecake stuff, that's Jesus's problem. Yeah. Well, whether or not my children will come home safely, I don't know. Lord, bring them home safely. All those things on the cheesecake level. You know, Lord, peace in the Middle East. Lord, I can't do anything about the Middle East. Please fix the Middle East. Lord, I want people in this room who are not Christians to become Christians. Lord, that's all you. This is all me. And the reality is, there's not a bit, there's not really a bit that's all me, because I'm capable of doing nothing, and I'm in charge and in control of very, very little. Little, only in responding and trying to make decisions and act in faith for the Lord. And every day I should be trying to get rid of that biscuit base and making it thinner and thinner and thinner, so there's more of letting Jesus and more less of Gareth trying to solve Gareth's problems, and Gareth letting Jesus lead Gareth, so that they're not really problems in the first place.
So then, big. The Centurion could have said, "Come to me and touch." Instead, he was like, "Just say the word. I believe you have authority and power. You have everything you need. You're the man. You have the authority. Just do it."
And finally, believe without seeing. You know, Jesus said in John 20:29, "Blessed are they who you know, believe who who believe without seeing." You know, like the Centurion didn't even see Jesus. I don't know if he saw him later on, but he certainly hadn't seen him at that point, and he didn't even seem worthy to go in front of him. You know, faith. You know, believe in what you you haven't seen. So don't be limited by science and nature. I believe in technology. I believe in science. I believe in nature, but I don't let it limit my faith. I try not to. I struggle that I don't let my knowledge of the universe or science limit God, because at the end of the day, our understanding of science and nature is just an understanding of the glory of what God has created. It's just a vision of it. It's just what we see. It's a perception of God's creation. You know, um, in thousands of years' time, if the planet still still exists, scientists still won't understand all of creation. That doesn't mean as an engineer and a scientist, I want us to keep fighting. I want us to keep understanding, but don't rest on that understanding. It's never going to tell us the whole story. Like, like, you know, you know, it's never going to tell us everything. And that's why God, you know, came and revealed himself. Because my goodness, if it was up to mankind to discover God and understand God and be able to believe and then ask on, you know, to ask God for things, it would take, I don't know, maybe never for humanity to get to the point that we discovered God and we're able to ask God for things. God knew that was not the way to do it. God said, "I'm going to come and reveal myself. I'm going to reveal myself through the prophets. I'm going to reveal myself in my person as Jesus, and you're going to understand my character, understand my nature, understand my love for you, and that I'm willing to do things for you. Just ask and believe, and I'm going to do it for you."
So that's pretty much all I want to say. You know, um, now you might say, "Why pick these two stories?" Well, I don't know if you noticed, but there's something that connects them together. They are the two times in the Bible that Jesus was amazed. He marveled at the unbelief in his hometown, and that people just didn't believe. They believed the miracles. They really, you know, if you read the text, they believed the miracles, but they didn't believe it was him. They believed it was some other power, some bigger, you know, some teacher or something behind him. They didn't believe in him. "How could some guy from our town, you know, be the Son of God, be the Messiah? Impossible." And then we've got Jesus was amazed. He says, he marveled. He was amazed at the greatest faith that he'd seen in all of Israel, and it didn't come from a Jew. It came from a Gentile. Someone had gone beyond, like, what they'd read and the kind of transactional understanding of the scriptures and had actually thought about it spiritually, conceptually, and had come to great conclusions about him.
Now, whether God had put that message into the Gentile's mind, into the Centurion's mind, just like when Peter said, "You are my Lord and my God," and Jesus said, "Only the Father could have told you that." Maybe the Father told the Centurion that, and it was an opportunity, a teaching opportunity for Jesus to say that to my Father's table up in heaven, many will come from all over the world. In other words, this message of salvation, the message of the kingdom, is not just for the Jews. It's for everyone. And that was the the launch speech, the launch opportunity. So, so Jesus, the best teacher that's ever existed, took a story about unbelief and a story about the greatest belief, linked them through amazement, and actually taught all the same lessons. There's lessons there if you actually study, you know, the learning points from both. They're really similar points. He's teaching the same thing from different ends.
Um, I'll just give you finally, before I step down, you know, uh, one second. Uh, yeah, Matthew chapter 8, verses 1 to 4. And when he came down from the mountains, great crowds followed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean." And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, "I will be clean." And he was immediately cleansed. And you know, and then Matthew 9:22. "If I will only touch His garment, I will be made well." Jesus turned and seeing her and said, "Take heart, daughter. Your faith has made you well." And instantly the woman was made well. And then Matthew 9:27 to 29. "Two blind men followed him crying aloud, 'Have mercy on us, Son of David.'" When he entered the house, the blind men came to him. And Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to him, "Yes, Lord." Then he touched their eyes and said, "According to your faith, be it done to you." And there's many more. There's about nine examples where Jesus said the same thing, "According to your faith, may it be done to you." And there's 18 examples of where other people have had faith for someone else. They've interceded, like the people lowering the the person on the bed through the roof, or, yeah, the Centurion asking and believing on behalf of their servant. So believe big for Jesus. Believe big. He wants you to thank.
[Music]
Thanks, Gareth. We'll just, uh, wind up with that. Thanks for your, uh, message. It's great to know the the power that the Lord Jesus had lives here in this earth. And, uh, while we have the, while we need to have that faith, we need to know that it's exactly what God wants before that, these things can be made for real. Let's just finish with a word of prayer. And after that, we can have, uh, some time together if you want to talk to anybody about what you've heard today, or if you've got anything else in your mind, and please feel free to speak to, uh, leaders who are dotted about the church. Let's pray.
Our heavenly Father, we thank you for, uh, the power that we have seen, that we have thought of today, the power of the Lord Jesus. And we thank you that he came about this earth, and he was showing the Father's will while he was, uh, performing these amazing miracles. And he was, through the faith of those with whom he was interacting, he was able to to, uh, do these amazing miracles, which we've been thinking of, and so many more that are listed in your word. Father, we pray that you would give us faith. Give us a faith to know what your, uh, your will is in our lives, and give us the faith to be able to, uh, ask in your will and to seek responses. You've promised that you will always answer our prayers. Sometimes we don't know exactly what those answers will be, but we thank you, Father. Father, that we know that you listen, you care, and, uh, that you are going to answer. And give us a real deep, um, understanding and peace that passes all that understanding. Father, we pray you would be with each one who has heard this message today. Challenge us and make us whole, for we ask it in Jesus' precious name. Amen.
Thank you.