Anthony Delaney at Ivy Manchester » Theology

Mark Driscoll: FEAR NOT! (Catalyst 2011) #cat11

Anthony Delaney — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 21:11:30 +0000

So what are you afraid of?
Mice? Snakes, spiders? Clowns?

Everybody is scared of something.
Leaders – criticism, embarassment, conflict?

Fear in the mind causes stress in the body.
Your body will manifest the stress. You’ll need more coffee and energy drinks.
You need 8 – 10 hours sleep.

You’ll stress – ‘What if these people go?’
Or ‘What if these people STAY!’

Do you go to fight or flight?

Luke 12
Which of you by being anxious will add anything to your life.

Fear is not a sin – it’s an opportnity to either sin or trust God.

Who are you afraid of?
Does someone other than God hold that place?
We need them to bless and rule us and be a source of life to us. They become our functional God.
And when you fear someone you can’t love them.
The key of all idolatry is
the fear of man – that brings a trap.
You fear someone; it’s a trap.
Fear includes being afraid of someone but extends to giving them too much influence. Worshipping other people. Needing them. You can’t criticise them or say no.
When we’re in our teens it’s called peer pressure, when older – it’s called

Who’s opinion matters most?
Way too much.

Is your appetite for praise way to high?
You want to know what everyone thinks of you.

Are you overly devastated by criticism?
Rock Warren: ‘The problem with criticism now is that it’s instant, constant, global and permanent.’

Are you commited to things God didn’t call you to?
God never called you to it- so you get very busy, but not very holy.

Fear = VISION without hope. It’s seeing the worst case scenario.
Fear = not rational, but POWERFUL. You have your own fears that others don’t feel.
Fear = not getting what I want, or losing it.
Fear – preaches a false gospel. There is an alternative heaven here on earth, so find someone else and worship them (wife, boss) and they become a false saviour. To save you from the hell you through fear have created in your imagination.

Who has become for you, a functional saviour?

Fear causes us to be False Prophets. We predict a false future, and end up fear ridden over it – and it never happens.

Solution?
Bible’s answer?
FEAR NOT! The most frequently mentioned command in the whole Bible. If God says anything a lot, it must be important.
This should tell us, it’s a real problem.

It’s not just a command, it’s usually an INVITATION. ‘Fear not, I am present with you.’ It’s not just about facing your fear, but ‘I’m with you.’

Adam sins and hides, Gen3. God comes to him, and he says, ‘I was afraid.’ God comes alongside him.
Since sin entered the world, it’s the same.
Abraham Gen 21; ‘Fear not, I am your sheild
Gen 26:24 ‘Isaac – fear not, I’m with you!’
Jacob Gen 28:15 ‘I am with you..’

Why does God say it so much? Because when fear comes, we forget God is with us. And we feel alone, and that’s a lie. The lie is that you’re alone, you only have your own resources.

Moses asks, ‘How can I lead these people? I don’t know where we’re going, and they are following!’ God doesn’t say, ‘Here’s a map’ – but ‘Here I am.’

At the brink of war, with Joshua, ‘Fear not.’

King David, ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will FEAR NOT because you are with me.’

Isaiah 41:14 ‘Fear not, you worm Jacob… ‘ (Can you think of anything more weedy than a worm?)
For I MYSELF will help you!
You feel powerless, the criticisms are real, ‘I can’t do this!’
God says, ‘Fear not! I am with you.’

Jeremiah is a sad man, the weeping prophet. He has a lot to be scared of. Depressed.
God comes to him,

Dan 12 – fear not daniel, I have come.

Haggai, ‘Be strong, be strong, be strong… why? I am with you.

Luke 1 – the angel comes to Mary, ‘Fear not…’
she’s pregnant, at 13. How will that look? No husband.
vs 35 – the Holy Spirit will come. God will be with you. In you.

Matthew 28. After Jesus lives, and dies and conquers death (that’s what we HAD to fear, but no longer. ‘I’m gonna die!’ – and that’s the WORST? we get to be with Jesus. We have to reset the worst case scenario – WCS? – You go to Jesus sooner rather than later – that’s not so bad).

Matthew 28 ‘ I WILL BE WITH YOU’ How long? Always – to the end.

We are all going to fear. So, God keeps reminding us.
‘Fear not, I am WITH YOU.’

Don’t just listen to that word. Do it. Always remember that. When it’s darkest. Everything may not be okay. But if God is with you, you’re going to be okay.

Fear not – your Daddy’s with you.

Debra Green – Mountains or Fountains

Anthony Delaney — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 14:45:07 +0000

My notes from this, the first talk in our 40 Days of Ivy DNA Series: RELEVANT.

People are surprised when we as a church are normal rather than ‘religious’

Text – John 4- the samaritan woman at the well.

1) Jesus asked – ‘Will you give me a drink?’ This is a very controversial conversation for him to have at all. He’s showing us the type of Saviour he is. He’s speaking to her in her language, about her every day life and needs. Connects with the familiar.

If we want to be relevant we need to offer and speak into what people need.

Cf Breathe City Church in Stoke- their ‘When‘ ministry: giving clothes to the poor in the city. Thousands of clothing packages given.

When we meet the felt needs of people, we’ll be relevant. We’re not relevant because the worship is great or the preaching is good: people outside of church are not even asking about that anyway!

But if we help people and connect in people in prison, in debt, when we are marked by hospitality, or playing football like our new team IVY COSMOS – it’s great fun AND an opportunity for a conversation. We don’t have to fall into the sacred/secular divide mentality.

Is there someone you can have a chat with over the water?

2) Mountain or Fountain?

The Samaritans and Jews had a lot of theological, intellectual, religious debate about worship places.

The subject isn’t a bad one. There’s a lot in the Bible about mountains – but this is a religious debate that’s really a red herring / smokescreen to get away from the real issue of life: it’s not WHERE you worship, but WHO.

She’s thinking to impress him with her religious knowledge and grasp on current affairs and debate -

But Jesus says, ‘let’s not debate Mountains – I want to talk about Fountains!’

Jesus will change the question.

It’s not about the mountain of religion

It’s about the fountain of relationship.

Her heart was getting filled in all the wrong ways.

It’s not about discussing imponderables till 3am – after that question, along comes another…

come to the fountain!

The churches that are growing are those that are not stuck in religion, and my clever arguments are not going to win people over to Christ. It’s more about making Jesus accessible.

The harvest is plentiful!

Where?

Where people are. Go where people are.

Because people are dissatisfied and needing a fountain – of living water.

Why I Believe – Part 2 (Does Jesus qualify as God?)

Anthony Delaney — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 14:53:16 +0000

Maybe Jesus didn’t think of himself as God at all?

I went back to those eye witnesses. Christians believed it to be the sourcebook for what they believe about Jesus. And the gospel of John opens with the startling claim that Jesus, this guy John the writer knew as a best friend – he was ALSO God! ‘The Word.’ (Read Jn 1:1-3, 14).

But would Jesus agree that he really was all that – and more?

What kind of God would you want God to be, to be called God? Theologians talk about various ATTRIBUTES of God, for God to really be called God, he’d have to fit the bill.

God would have to be immutable (unchanging). The Bible says, Jesus is – the same, yesterday, today and forever.

You would think God – to be worthy of worship – would be eternal: he’d have no beginning and no end. Jesus fits the bill.

You’d want him omniscient – all knowing; and I read how Jesus met with people and knew all about them, the good, the bad and the ugly – he gave wisdom and teaching that cannot be surpassed. He knew what other people were thinking. He knew and predicted in advance time and again that he’d go to Jerusalem and be rejected, condemned, tortured, die on a cross –and rise again on the third day. He knew the past of people with a story to be ashamed of. He knew the future of the Jewish people and described it down to incredible detail. Those closest to him said, “You know all things…”

That knowledge can be a great comfort or a great problem for you.

Nobody else knows… but Jesus knows.

We’d expect God to be omnipresent. Jesus now says, “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” He also said, “Wherever two or three gather in my name, I’m there with them.” So, Jesus is here.

We’d want God to be omnipotent: Jesus walked on water – and enabled others to at least have a go, he healed every kind of disease, set people free from dark spiritual powers that bound them, and said, “all authority on heaven and earth have been given to me.”

They say, power corrupts – and absolute power corrupts absolutely, but those who knew him best knew Jesus was HUMBLY omnipotent. Jesus can do anything!

I looked closer and found Jesus was a carpenter’s son, who grew up in a small impoverished dusty village, much more like those I saw in Haiti than here.

Fully human, He experienced the range of human emotions, sweated, ate because he was hungry and got tired and thirsty. He was tempted in every way as we are, yet didn’t give in like we do.

Fully man, but worshipped -and accepting it- as being fully God too! Fully God. God – in a body! Col 2;9 For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form.’

As much man as if he were not God, as much God as if he were not man. The second person of the Trinity. Sent by the Father, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to be Saviour of the world.

From his birth – he shared and received the glory and honour due to God and never tried to stop anyone who gave that to him. Throughout his life he expected not just to be respected as a rabbi, a prophet, a holy man, but to be worshipped and adored by all creations, all people and even the angels as the Lord, the only God. For all eternity He said that all should honour him, the Son, as they honoured the Father! (John 5:23)

That would be an OUTRAGEOUS claim for a human being. He said that he always did what God the Father wanted him to do. He said people’s eternal destinies hung on how they responded to him – because he had the power of life and death.

He said, ‘I am the door, I am the bread of life, I am the resurrection and the life…’

Who?!

Who do you think you are Jesus?!

‘I am the way, the truth and the life!’

The New Testament doesn’t just describe him as a spokesman of God, like Isaiah or Moses was. No. He was the person of God – revealing himself as a person, so we wouldn’t have to guess what God’s like any more. Because we could never guess accurately his indescribable beauty, holiness, justice, power and love – God sent his Son.

Christ, the very best the Father had, who pre-existed as God, who was actually ‘here’ before here was here – steps into the world he created it to rescue it, to write himself into the story, be born of a woman that first Christmas, and die on a cross for our sins that first Easter. He expected that people would pray to him as to God, and as you look in the book of Acts, you see the very first Christians did! They called him Lord. They refused to call Caesar Lord, and died for that.

They sang praises to, and about his name. He said they should obey him as they’d obey God. They expected him to answer prayers – and he did!

I haven’t time to go into the evidence of the resurrection now, and you can look around on that yourself, though I’m so look forward to our big party at Gorton Monastery on Easter Sunday – because Jesus said he’d die and three days later be raised to life, and then he left the tomb and appeared that first Easter.

And again. And again and again – over 40 days, to friends, to family, to doubters – up to 500 of them at once – and gave them ‘many convincing proofs’ that he was the same man, the same God, the same Lord.

Oh, and he has met with me and multiple millions since to change our lives, destinies and eternities.

Thomas, doubting Thomas, said. “I won’t believe- unless I put my fingers in the nail holes.” Jesus appeared to him and said, “Go on then!” (I paraphrase).

Then Thomas knelt down right there and then and said of Jesus, “My Lord…and my God!” When you see who Jesus is, and you see how wrong you have been – that’s the only appropriate response.

Why I believe – Part 1.

Anthony Delaney — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 12:57:01 +0000

What brought me to become a Christ follower was a truth encounter.

I didn’t find Jesus’ face in my toast one morning or anything like that -

My lovely Christian friends Mr and Mrs Kitcatt may like this picture

I was a police officer – used to examining evidence and coming to conclusions as a result of that investigation. I knew how to look at evidence. And I also knew how to face facts. If the implication of the evidence was that Jesus is who he claimed to be – the one and only Son of God, then that changes EVERYTHING.

If that really were true, then I would have to make a choice – to follow him; or try to forget him.

I’d been on the trail of happiness, meaning and purpose – searching in various areas and come up empty. I’d tried my best to live a good life (by my standards anyway), but had a trail of broken promises and resolutions to show for it. In my life I’d swung at times from believing in Jesus like I had done Santa as child, to ditching him along with church. Eventually after a wander through some new age and comparative religions I heard the Marxist phrase about religion being ‘the opiate of the people,’ which made me sound clever in the pub and came to regard Jesus as a mythical figure, or if he did ever exist he was either a irrelevant prophet or a religious nutcase out to stop people from having fun.

Then, in pursuit of a particular girl, I ended up at a church event that was fun, with a speaker who was interesting and passionate, met a group of people who had a peace I couldn’t understand and a joy – despite living in the same world I did – I knew I hadn’t found elsewhere; and they said it was all wrapped up in knowing this Jesus.

I figured I’d been wrong about church, wrong about (some) Christian ministers, wrong about Christian music and drama – maybe I’d been wrong about Christ? That was enough to get me looking. .

Over a period of time, most importantly, I started to look at what the witnesses had to say. That’s the policeman’s first job.

I interrogated 4 guys, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They wrote four accounts that have survived pretty much as written all these centuries. These guys claimed to have known this Jesus. I checked out their credentials and saw that what we call the gospels rank as some of the best attested historical documents in existence. Written within thirty of forty years of Jesus’ death and the resurrection which they all reported. Like all good witness statements they’re told from different perspectives of the eye witnesses, but the events and central figure they describe are clearly the same. They haven’t been embroidered or materially changed since they were first written down. I went to the John Rylands library in Manchester city centre to actually see one of the most ancient part manuscripts, from the gospel of John, dated around 125AD!

I found that it wasn’t just the gospel writers who focused on Jesus. Aristocratic Romans wrote about this peasant in backwater Jerusalem. Pliny wrote letters to the Emperor Trajan saying how much trouble he was having getting these people to worship the Emperor. He had tried various means to force them and he asked about their religion. ‘They meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath…not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust…I judged it all the more necessary to find out what the truth was by torturing two female slaves who were called deaconesses. But I discovered nothing else but depraved, excessive superstition.’ He went on to say that those who renounced faith in Christ would be set free, but those who did, he felt, were not really Christians anyway.

The Governor of Turkey at the time, Tacitus, wrote about this new religion: “the name Christian comes to them from Christus, who was executed in the reign of Tiberius by the procurator Pontius Pilate…”

He was against this new cult, remember!

How fast did this religion grow and spread across the Empire? Jesus was crucified in AD 33, the city of Pompeii near Naples was destroyed by volcano 46 years later, Christian wall paintings, mosaics and inscriptions are there….together with a chapel!

Jewish writers didn’t want to give much mention of Jesus because they saw it of course as a threat to their religion. But the Mishna do mention Yesuah of Nazareth as a trouble causer, an illegitimate man whose birth was in doubt, who did magic to lead people astray, before he was hanged on the eve of the Passover.

Flavius Josephus, the greatest Jewish historian, who was certainly not interested in promoting Christianity, writing in AD90, said in one of his twenty books of Jewish history; Now there arose at this time (Pilate’s governorship) a source of further trouble in one Jesus, a wise man who performed surprising works, a teacher of men who gladly welcome strange things. He led away many Jews, and also many of the Gentiles. He was the so-called Christ. When Pilate, acting on information supplied by the chief men around us, condemned him to the cross, those who had attached themselves to him at first did not cease to cause trouble, and the tribe of Christians, which has taken this name from him is not extinct even today.” (FF Bruce’s version).

So Jesus existed. Search for Jesus on Amazon and you’ll find 270,000 books and counting! Google him and you get 300 million references. But what’s so special about him? Wasn’t he just a travelling teacher or a religious rabble-rouser like those people in history and those who put him on a cross believed? Or wasn’t he just a nice, good man who went around in a nightie carrying lambs and was misunderstood? Wouldn’t he be turning in his grave at the thought that people were still following him – as God!? Maybe he didn’t think of himself as God at all?

My next post will continue the story…

Alan Taylor at Ivy MCR on Ecclesiastes 2

Anthony Delaney — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 10:18:31 +0000

Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

Haagan Daas ice cream advert – says it gives you the desires of your heart in a way that lasts and lasts.
Yeah, right.

Advertisers know we are wired for pleasure

What’s that got to do with God?
It has everything to do with him because you were made to be a worshipper

Where are your desires? Do you enjoy God? If you do, you can have everything else!

Solomon’s wealth has been estimated at $126 Billion!

We live in a hedonistic world. Check out the student lifestyle- sex and drugs and party to truly be ALIVE.

It promises life.
The bible warns of the evil desires of youth. Some never grow up!

Pleasure in anything else but God will not satisfy, neither will performance. How do we know? Solomon tested it. Other are testing it now and being broken in the tests.

Wine and folly:
33,000 deaths in UK every year through alcohol. Look at any casualty dept to see this incredible brokenness.
40% in casualty there through alcohol.
Do not be drunk with wine, be filled with the Spirit! Why? So I can be myself, not get drunk & pretend to be someone else.

Sex?
He had 700 wives and 300 concubines! Go to freshers week and you’ll see how crazy this casual sex goes and how many abortions (106 a day) and the escalating number of STDs there are.

We are aiming natural desires at the wrong target.

Could be football, work, eating: promises Life; but deceives you- because only God can satisfy.

What do we abstain from – to gain Him? Choose something 40 days, no coffee: no football: because it may have a hook in my heart and I want God to have it all.

Are we interceding for our nation? Be a watchman on the Walls.

Performance can be an idol. Status.
We could love our to do list. This doesn’t mean we are passive! But Solomon built great buildings etc. Nothing satisfied him.

What are we going after? Is our first desire the Kingdom?

That’s not to say we get caught up in religious activity all the time if that’s for approval of others, or even God.

Antidote? Sabbath means stop, cease, be fully OFF. Get some worship music on, get into enjoying Gods presence!

Solomon outperformed & outachieved us all- there’s always going to be someone better!

Bs 11 & 12.
It’s vain!
Pleasure is not found in selfishness but in serving! Did you learn to love? Everything else is vanity!

Jesus said there will come a day when the ‘love of most will grow cold.’ We have to live as if Jesus could come back very soon. Are our hearts hot toward him? We are in a selfish & individualistic culture. Will we be different?
Love most. Sacrifice most.

The only real pleasure is in God , who is’ most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him’ (Piper)

God is glorified by people who get satisfied in Him. Seek first the Kingdom. He can add the rest!

Satisfied doesn’t mean you have settled on a level. What’s your vision for your relationship with God?

Real life isn’t found on a pleasure ride, or religious performance – but receiving. Finding our true home. Entering into the divine life.
How to pray?
Please and thank you

Please Holy Spirit, fill me.
Thank-you that you do..!

Alan Taylor at Ivy MCR – how God can change me

Anthony Delaney — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 21:03:52 +0000

We can become complacent.
If I’m going to heaven anyway, why bother changing now?
Jesus invites us into the Kingdom NOW. He wants us to enter into what has already been won for us 2000 years ago.
We’ve all picked up habits. We all have hurts & hang ups.
We are powerless without his power. He has to save us
His power has to change us
I believe in victory. We mustn’t shy away from overcoming. That’s for us!
To live extraordinary lives!
We believe in miracles
But sometimes they come as process not climactic events.

I must earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to him, & that he has the power to help me recover.

Heb 11:6

1. Acknowledge God’s Existence
Psalm 14:1- The fool says in his heart there is no God
Rom 1:20 – God’s power & nature – clearly seen.
All the universe speaks of him.
The stars are a sermon!!
We need to know the historical nature & apologetics of our faith. Don’t be lazy.

2. Understand Gods Nature
Our parents might not have really modelled him too well, what is God really like- because I can only trust him if I know him.
Col 1:15
So… Get into the gospels! Because Jesus is God.

He… Knows all about my situation.
(I might have no idea what you are going through – he is intimately aware- keeps your tears in a bottle).

He…Cares about my situation.
(Ps 103). He knows what we are made of – dust! He is tender, gentle toward us, even when correcting us.

He… Can change me – and my situation.
We can buy into the lie that it’s just who I am. Not true! You are being transformed! Get in a small group with others. That will help – community. Resurrection power is in you!

Don’t just postpone the change. We are meant to have zoe eternal life now. Don’t keep looking in the rear view mirror, that does not have to shape what’s ahead of you.

There are seasons where he will bring you to your knees.

How do I accept Gods power to help me?
God even gives you the WILL to change what needs to change. He has power, love & self control to enable it.

Believe
And
Receive

It’s simple- just say to God..

‘Help.’

The power of goal setting

Anthony Delaney — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 16:43:56 +0000

In the first chapter of my previous book, ‘The Don’t Have To Do List’ I write about the power of setting goals which drive us forward into our destiny.

Just sitting here on Boxing Day with my lovely family, Zoe just passed around our ‘Christmas Book.’ Each year, everyone writes in what’s been their best things about that Christmas, together with prayers and hopes for the future.

My daughter Emma just read a line from mine before I got to look at it – ‘I will write a book for men this year.’

DONE!

I’m so pleased that I have completed my new book, ‘Diamond Geezers,’ which lots of blokes have already been giving positive feedback from since I released the first chapter free online at my sister site http://diamondgeezers.org/ yesterday.

As 2011 approaches, will you drift into it aimlessly (if you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time), or will you proactively seize not just the day, but the year?

How Wise Are You?

Anthony Delaney — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 20:41:46 +0000

Great talk for Christmas by Debra Green at Ivy MCR this evening- my notes…

The Wise men. We don’t know how many came, but they had three gifts. The most Jewish of the synoptic gospel writers wants to tell us about these people & the universality of the good news.
The shepherds are in.
These magi – are included.
Unlikely guest list!
Only those with eyes to see. Those who are seeking, find.
It’s hard these days to get Christmas cards – only 1% of cards have a ‘religious’ sense.
£16.7 Billion will be spent this Christmas by Britons. Many will go into more and more debt?
How wise are we?!
Could it have been a supernova?
Or just the manifestation of the glory of God? Because it was moving.
It seems only the magi saw the star. By that, Christ was revealed. Jesus then becomes the star. The star of the show.
There’s a move to remove Christ from Christmas.
Our job is to reveal him to the world.
How?
By speaking of him.
This is great news for all people!
When you follow a star, & find a stable.
Disappointed?
They went to the palace to look for him.
But he went where least expected.
You could be looking for a star & find a stable. After a long journey.
Not what we were expecting?
But something amazing is there.
The Magi’s job was to be interpreting signs for life, the signs of the times. Some take this as a word that astrology is okay. Today so many are into horoscopes etc – it’s a dangerous guide!
Lev 20:6 & many other passages warns against such.

It needs the church, to reveal Jesus.
God is bringing light to great darkness – Is 9.
The North Star is the only one to be guided by. If you lose it, you will get lost.
Jesus is our North Star!
If you seek him
Get on the journey
Search
He’s looking for you
Revealing himself
You will find the one you are looking for. He is your direction.

The Wise men made the wise choice. They worshipped him.
Lay face down before him.

John Ortberg on Spiritual Formation at Catalyst 2010

Anthony Delaney — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 13:43:35 +0000

John Ortberg Catalyst Pre-Labs 2010

What Kind of people are we producing? There are a lot of churches that are doing evangelism/ worship/ serving really well. But where are the churches that are producing humble, loving, transparent people – like Jesus.

How do people get formed spiritually?

There is a God. It is not you.

So, your life is not your project – it’s God’s. Eph 4:10.

So only God knows what he best version of you is, and he’s concerned to help people do that. He has many tools to use, he is patient, it’s way larger than we think it is. Now, we live in a gap between our destiny(what God wants for us) and the reality.

Most people have a great idea about the person/parent etc they want to be – and then there’s the reality. Everybody has these dreams about the person we want to be and find ourselves crushed and bruised because of the gap caused by sin.

Can I bridge that gap myself? No. It takes grace, not effort. And when I respond to grace it changes everything.

But there’s still a gap – between me and the me God wants me to be. And lots of people who understand how to be saved by grace go on to try to live by effort.

Transformation requires at least as much grace as salvation does.

People think if they listen to another talk, work harder, try to be nicer, get up at 4am to pray (even though you’re not a morning person & even Jesus doesn’t want to be round you at that time).

We try harder, doing things that some writer or expert says to do but eventually fatigue sets in. After you get tired enough you quit. Then feel guilty. So try again and it kills people!

Living in grace is learned behaviour

A very bad thing has happened to the word grace, where it’s been reduced to ‘the forgiveness of sins.’ But in the NT it’s so much more expansive. Paul says he wants people to grow in grace.

Grace = God doing in me, what I could not do myself – and have not earned.

You were intended to live by grace, from the first moment to the last.

Dallas Willard “Saints burn more grace than sinners ever could.” You can burn grace like rocket fuel to propel you into God’s purposes. We need to learn to live by grace.

John 7:38-39
On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Thirsty = to be driven by unsatisfied desires. Our world knows what that looks like.

Who is more content, the person with a million dollars or the perosn with 12 kids?

- the person with no kids doesn’t want any more!

From your belly – (Greek word is what we get colitis from). Having a strong core is salvation in our day! The core is the deepest place; out of that can flow rivers of living water. In those days – a desert place, wherever water was there was LIFE.

Gen 2:10 – a river flowed in Eden. That’s God’s intention in our lives – that we live not with unfulfilled desires, but with grace.

Psalm 42.

Rev 22 is your destiny;
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

Could the nations use a little healing?
The world is waiting for agents of transformation. God’s plan for healing the nations is that people with rivers flowing form their bellies go to schools and cities and need.

So…
What if Jesus was right?
What if the Spirit is like a river, constantly available and flowing.

People don’t understand what spiritual formation is. It’s not a program for reading Henri Nouwen or Lectio divinia.

Spiritual formation is happening in you and everyone, all the time, for better or worse, every day. There is an inner me, a flow of thoughts, feelings, intentions, character – that os being shaped every day like it or not.

By TV, at work, in conversation. Spiritual Formation is not just for introverts.

What if your job is just to jump in the river, and look what opens the flow, and what blocks it? What quenches the work of the Spirit? It’s not rocket science – just figuring out “How do I connect and live in the flow of this Spirit as THIS moment?” SIN keeps me from living in the flow of grace.

Growth is hand crafted, not mass-produced
This is true about growth in every dimension. What would feed a mouse would starve an elephant – the key is not to treat all alike but discover – how does this flourish? Parents soon discover that they can’t actually treat all your kids he same. we have to ask, ‘How will they grow?”

God deals with all his people differently throughout the scriptures.
Jesus deals with people differently in the gospels.

God has existed before – but he has never had a relationship with YOU before- and he wants to do a new thing.

Growth is hand-crafted not Mass Produced.

But people hear from a talk how he deals with the Pastor and think it should be the same for them; but it requires freedom & there’s no ‘one size fits all.’

Not everyone should journal! (It’s become a verb, and a badge of honour). Not everyone likes to!

Jesus never journalled!

CS Lewis STOPPED journalling when he became a Christian, cos he’d done it for years before and it made him too self centred. So don’t feel guilty if you don’t. There are bigger things for you to feel guilty about!

People can be apathetic about racism and starving kids,and feel guilty cos they didn’t journal today.

You do not measure people’s devotion to God by their devotional life. Your ‘walk’ is not a list of spiritual activities. (How many people can we get to journal?). The Pharisees win that kind of system, if you gauge spirituality by activities the Pharisees will win again.

If someone asked you ‘Hows your spiritual life going’ – what’s the right matrix?

Dallas Willard said….
Am I growing more or less irritable these days?
Am I more or less easily discouraged these days?

These are indicators to help me know if I’m living close to God. That’s where grace gets experience. Disciples ae hand crafted – nt mass produced. He didn’t pray “May they all have identical devotional practices – but that ‘they be ONE- with you.’

cf MONVEE – this ministry showed a video at the end of the talk…
A group asking, how do people grow best, spiritually?

Eg., Introverts get it easier on spiritual formation. Solitude? Okay for an extrovert if you can take three or four people with you.

What’s your learning style?
Not everyone’s the same. Some people don’t like to read. If I love to read and I say, ‘You have to read this and that’ I can make people feel they don’t love Jesus very much if they’re not like me.

What blocks the rivers?
You have a signature sin.
You do not sin at random.
You will be tempted in areas which are linked to your passions and gifts.

A peacemaker will be tempted to never confront
A leader to manipulate
An artist to give way to ungodly passions
Tell me your gifts and I’ll tell you your sins…

YOU are God’s handiwork, and you will always be you.

I do not have to grow spiritually to be like anyone else. You will never be anyone else. Redemption is always the redemption of Creation. What he redeems is what he created. Redemption is the reclamation of creation. Embrace that.

The world is not likely to respond to a gospel of transformation proclaimed by untransformed people. So, are the rivers of living water flowing through your body – right now?

When Jesus says, ‘Seek first the Kingdom’ he’s not putting something heavy on you.

Job number 1? Dallas Willard says – ‘Live with deep contentment & joy in your everyday experience with God.’

How to get men to love Church (part 1)

Anthony Delaney — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 09:00:59 +0000

This post – originally a talk at the New Wine National Leader’s event, has recently been published in Sorted magazine.

I stopped going to church as soon as I had a choice. In my early teens my parents decided they’d only ever gone out of occasional religious duty and were going to stop. They said I had a choice as to whether I went. Starsky and Hutch were on, no-brainer.

Years of fun, sin and regret in pretty much equal measure prevailed until at twenty-one I came to know Jesus after an undeniable experience of meeting him; a story for another day.

Even though I now saw myself as a Christian I probably still wouldn’t have bothered with church if not for a couple of clergymen who bust the stereotype for me early on; Neil was the first. He accepted me where I was at- a copper who grew up on a council estate now working a rough Manchester central beat. When I came to the little Bible study group I’d been invited to he laughed at my (colourful to say the least) jokes and inappropriate remarks rather than making me feel terrible or expecting me to feel bad for just being me. I wanted to be like Neil.
Alan was amazing. What I liked about Alan was that he was a man – and a man of God. United fan. Generous, funny, too humble – and you knew he loved you. I wanted to be like Alan. It’s men like that who got me not just to go to church, but to stay there, stick at it, and not just moan or leave but do my best to make it better.

The church has a problem, Houston. Over the last twenty years 38% of believing men left the church. Believing men – deciding they still believe but don’t want to go to church anymore! So we are facing a crisis before we even think about connecting more effectively with men like many who read Sorted but are still not at all sure about this Jesus stuff. It’s like running the taps without the plug in.

The person most likely to regularly go to church in this country according to the Tear Fund research report is a black, professional middle class woman, over 60. We all love Moira Stewart so that’s great. But where are the blokes?

Gender Gap Widening
In the UK the ratio of women to men in church is 65% to 35%, but far too few churches have anything like 35% of men regularly attending. Worse news than the Coalition budget? The gender gap is widening – and the less men you get, especially young men, the less people generally you get. In the last 20 years 49% of men under 30 left the UK church!
Now does that mean British men are not that interested in spiritual things? Maybe we just point to the parable of the sower and decide that men are generally hard soil, while black, middle class, middle aged women are good soil? (It’s their fault, not the church’s fault in other words). We can’t get away with that, because there is no gender gap in Islam, Buddhism, Judaism or Hinduism. In fact in all those other religions there are MORE men than women! Men are interested in spiritual things, and I maintain that there’s no message to compete with gospel truth, so why is it not reaching the average British bloke?

Peter Williamson - Mr Average?

Mr Average
Peter Williamson’s wife put him forward for the title for a Channel 4 Documentary, and I know not all of this will apply to him (or you) as I’ve cobbled it together from various sources the average British man…

Had 8 sexual partners before he got married in his early thirties,
Has two children
Drives a Ford Fiesta
Is 5ft 9in
Owes £9k of unsecured debt
Has size 10 feet, a 40 inch chest and a 35 inch waist
Weighs 13 stone
Owns 16 pairs of underpants – this being the only item of clothing he buys with confidence.
Spends one month of his life looking for lost socks
Says ‘Sorry’ 1.9 million times in his lifetime
Considers himself working class
Reads the Sun
Has sex eight times a month, but thinks about it thirteen times a day…
(which explains a lot)
Can cook at least four meals, including spaghetti Bolognese
Has at least one Harry Potter novel in his house
Watches three hours of TV a day,
Uses the bathroom six times a day,
Is one inch taller than the average Frenchman
Will die of a heart attack at 76
His most popular conversational subject is sport, then work, after that politics and economics, or disputes about abstract ideas such as How The World Began.
He believes in God…

But most men completely by-pass church! Even in a crisis, few of them think Church might be the place to go anymore, they’ll go to the fridge and TV, or feel better at the pub or the match or sitting on their own fishing. They see Church as a place that according to a BBC Radio survey is for wimps, women and irrelevant. Church as we are generally doing it, is generally repulsive which means the opposite of attractive to men.

The Repulsive Church
You might not like the word repulsive? The Dictionary states the word means – “Causing aversion, having the ability to repel.’ I was disturbed but not surprised by the recent survey conducted by Sorted and CVM that found men would feel more at home in a ladies lingerie dept than to go to church.

So how did a faith founded by a Man and His twelve male (mostly working class) disciples, who were told to be ‘Fishers of men’ become fairly popular with older women, but repulsive to the average man? If you go to church, or especially if you lead one – are you part of the problem or part of the solution? Are you a fisher of men or is your church repulsive to men?

Nineteenth century Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon said, “There has got abroad a notion, somehow, that if you become a Christian you must sink your manliness and turn milksop.” When I was at theological college I saw a strange thing happen, as those who came to train as church leaders started out fairly normal, but learned how to do the concerned face and by the end of training have a particular voice –you know what that sounds like unless you do it – you learn a particular tonality that nobody else but clergy talk like. The good news? You can UNLEARN that too, if you want to connect to the average man you’d better! While we’re at it, unlearn using words and having arguments about things nobody in the real world gives a toss about.

I’m not going to go into detail about what some writers have listed as being what puts men off church, the feminisation argument – because they are often very sweeping and generalising, and I know there are exceptions. No doubt someone will tell me that your church is led by an all woman team, and that in the pastel coloured room a flower arranging, hymn singing crèche group at your church is packed full of hairy legged blokes in their twenties.
But listen if you will to David Murrow who gives one big reason why men hate going to church – it’s not ‘because of all the women,’ but because the men there aren’t really men. That’s the perception at least.

He says most men have a religion: MASCULINITY – they are serious students of what it is to be a man, disciples of other men on TV or sports or whatever, wanting to work out what it is to be a man, whatever that is, and they don’t see the church has having any answers to that.

“Tough, earthy, working guys rarely come to church. High achievers, alpha males, risk takers, and visionaries are in short supply. Fun-lovers and adventurers are also underrepresented in church. These rough-and-tumble men don’t fit in with the quiet, introspective gentlemen who populate the church today. The truth is, most men in the pews grew up in church. They enjoy participating in comforting rituals that have changed little since their childhood. There are also millions of men who attend services under duress, dragged by a mother, wife, or girlfriend. Today’s churchgoing man is humble, tidy, dutiful, and above all, nice.”

That’s what Murrow says the unconscious message the church is giving to church, come and be nice. Oh and if you really want to be really nice it would be awfully nice if you could help cut the grass in the graveyard. The nice message is repulsive.

Jesus said, “If any man would come after me, let him take up his cross and die.” That’s not nice. It’s the verse that brought me to faith.