A Different Perspective Official Podcast

• God Values the Heart // The Best of the Best, Part 10

  We people are very much into surface things – things we can touch and feel. Someone dresses well or performs well or looks good – and we judge them to be successful. But God's interested in something else. Something quite different. God's interested in our hearts. I don't know if you've ever watched the Oscar's on TV. You know, the movie awards they give in Hollywood, in "Tinsel Town" each year. Look I think it's great that they award the best movies and actors and directors. But sometimes, as I see people prancing down that red carpet and accepting their glory when they get their awards. Well I can't but help have this sense that it feels just a tad superficial. It's about being beautiful. It's about being the best. It's about winning. And that my friend is pretty much what our world's like. If you're rich or beautiful or entertaining, we value you. But if you're not, we don't. We tend very much to judge the book by its cover. Now, it's not always true. Sometimes we form closer deeper relationships but in a world where there are so many options to consume and to be entertained, hey, you have to choose somehow. And we tend to choose a book by its cover. We tend to value outward symbols of beauty and success. And that's good because that's what makes the economy grow. That's what gets us to buy things. That's what gives people jobs. So it's a good thing, isn't it? Well, we know it's not but it's just the way the world is. This, of course, is nothing new. It's been around for a long time. The apostle Paul, a couple of thousand years ago, wrote about people who boast in outward appearance but not in the heart. You can read that if you like in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 12 in the New Testament. And another thousand or so years before that, God had this to say through the prophet Samuel when he was looking for a new king for Israel. God said: Man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks on the heart. (1 Samuel, chapter 16, verse 7) I was watching a show on TV the other day, it was out of the UK. About a woman who goes in to show shops how to turn their business around. So she goes into this struggling little boutique and she's helping this little boutique in Doncaster in the UK and she decided that their target market was, listen for this, the disciples of Beckham. People who wanted to be like and look like Victoria and David Beckham. Now sure, they're celebrities and there's nothing wrong with that. But this whole idea in turning this boutique around was to stock and promote clothes and the look that celebrities were sporting. To be seen to mimic the celebs. Do you see what's going on here? I don't knock the business. They're doing stuff to get money. But what they're chasing after is our desire to be all about appearances. But outer appearances aren't actually that important to God. See He's much more concerned with our hearts and to tell you the truth, when I started doing a bit of research in the Bible I was actually quite shocked with how much God has to say about our hearts. And how concerned He is for our hearts. Have a listen to 1 Chronicles chapter 28, verse 9. Listen to this: The Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. Listen to that again. He searches every heart. See we race around doing things. Thinking things. Imagining no-one notices. Imagining that people can only see us on the outside and they don't know the rotten things going on on the inside. We can be angry, revengeful, deceitful, dishonest in our hearts. But we stick a smile on our face and have soft word on our lips and we think we're kidding everyone. We may well be. But we're not kidding God because He searches every heart and understands every motive behind our thoughts. And God tests our hearts too. Have a listen to these few verses. The first one comes from Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 2. It says: Remember how the Lord your God lead you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what is in your heart. Whether or not you would keep His Commandments. And this one, it's a little bit longer. 2 Chronicles, chapter 32, verses 27 to 31. Have a listen, it's about a king called Hezekiah: Hezekiah had very great riches and honour and he made treasuries for his silver and gold and for his precious stones and spices and shields, all kinds of valuables. He also made buildings to store the harvest of the grain, new wine, oil and he made stalls for various kinds of cattle and pens for the flocks. He built villages and acquired great numbers of flocks and herds for God had given him very great riches. It was Hezekiah who blocked the upper outlet of the Gihon spring and channelled the water down the west side of the City of David. He succeeded in everything that he undertook. But when the envoys were sent by the rulers of Babylon to ask him about the miraculous signs that had occurred in the land, God left him to test him to know everything that was in his heart. See this king, he's rich, he's powerful, he's successful and it's all happened through Gods blessing, under Gods hand. Because the king turned away from his pride and so God blessed him. Everything he touched turned to gold. But then, with the ominous threatening envoy's were sent by the rulers of Babylon and they showed up to check out all his successes, what did God do? Did God perform more miracles and wonders? Did God show up with some flashy display of power? No. God left him to test him and to know everything that was in his heart. God searches, tests and probes our hearts. Now probe is a very strong word. It's an invasive word. I had to go to the doctor recently and he put a telescope in through my right nostril and it went down the back of my throat to look at my voice box. That's probing. It was very uncomfortable, very unpleasant, very invasive and I couldn't wait for him to stop doing it. Psalm 17, verse 3 says that God probes our hearts and examines us. Jeremiah chapter 20, verse 12 says that God examines the righteous and probes the heart and mind. Now this is pretty 'in your face' kind of stuff and there's a reason for that. Because God is so concerned about our hearts. The heart is the well spring of life. If we have a diseased heart, our life is going to be diseased. And God aches for us to have a healthy heart. God looks at the inner person. The inner man. The inner woman. 'Cause He wants to heal us. He wants to set things right in our hearts. Listen to me my friend. We go through life setting our hearts on all sorts of things. We go through life with our hearts torn and divided. We want to serve God. We want to love Him. But there's attractive, beautiful, external things that everyone else can see. They beckon us and that means our hearts are torn. Did you know that when our hearts desire wealth or fame or recognition, they become diseased with envy and pride? Have a listen to what Solomon writes, a great piece of wisdom from God, in Proverbs chapter 14, verse 30: A heart of peace gives life to the body but envy rots the bones. See God wants you and me to have peace. That's why He's concerned about our hearts because God has a plan to heal our hearts. Yours and mine. When we seek after God with all our heart. When our heart if full of His peace and His joy. Then we don't lose heart. Then we see Him just as He is. God wants the very, very best for you and me and He reserves the very best for those with a pure heart. That's why Jesus said: Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God.

  --------  

  9:33

  --------

  9:33
• The Power of the Prophetic // The Best of the Best, Part 9

  A prophet is someone who speaks the will of God.  So let me ask you something – are there still prophets in this world today, or not?  Does God still speak prophetically through some of His people today … or not?  Well there's only one way to find out – what does His Word have to say on the subject? It's just fantastic to be with you at the beginning of another week and yes, we're continuing again this week in our look at how it is that God speaks to us today, right here and now in the 21st Century. It's interesting, way back in the Old Testament God spoke to His people through prophets – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and all those Old Testament prophets – men who God called to speak His message to His people. Then in the New Testament He speaks to us, first and foremost through His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, and through the Apostles and the other writers of the New Testament books. And He's still using those to speak to us today by His Spirit. He speaks to us today through the Word of God. But it's interesting, the New Testament in particular tells how His Spirit speaks to us today. Sometimes it's easy to ignore that. It's easy to get all dull and boring about the way God communicates with us. But God is a stunningly creative communicator. There's nothing, absolutely nothing dull and boring about how God communicates with you and me. And one of the ways He does that is through the power of the prophetic. So today, that's what we're going to take a look at on the program. Now in embarking on this today I acknowledge that there are some amongst God's people who simply believe that there are no more prophets today; that this is something that belongs to the past and not the present. What's a prophet? Well, quite simply a prophet is someone who speaks on behalf of God; someone who speaks the will of God into the lives of God's people. Some people believe there are no prophets today, and yet other traditions and denominations really emphasise the prophetic dimension of God's communication and sadly some do so to the point of abusing the prophetic. What do I mean by that? Well, I don't carry any particular denomination baggage or tradition around this whole thing, my heart is simply to open up God's Word the Bible and figure out what is God saying and go with what God says. So that's precisely what we're going to do today. Let's take a look. This is the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth, after Jesus has died and risen again and ascended into heaven. This is the fledging New Testament church that the Apostle Paul is writing to. I'm going to read to you from 1 Corinthians chapter 12 beginning at verse 4. Have a listen: Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. So here Paul's talking about supernatural gifts that are given to people in the family of God, and not just the special super-Christian leader people. Have a listen again to verse 7. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To each person, to each believer is given one or more of these supernatural gifts. Now I've heard people say, "Wow, wow, that was for back then not for now." This passage, 1 Corinthians 12, rolls straight on into 1 Corinthians 13, that famous passage about love that kind of says, you know you can have all the gifts under the sun, but unless you use them in love those gifts are useless. Now these same people love to quote 1 Corinthians chapter 13 but somehow, perhaps because, particularly in the west with our western mindset, we're uncomfortable with the idea that there might be supernatural gifts, things we can't explain rationally, we sometimes want to deny that this bit of the New Testament actually applies to us but accept other bits that make rational sense to us. I don't know what it is, but I find nothing – when we say nothing in the New Testament – that tells me that this theme of spiritual gifts, supernatural gifts was meant for then and not for now. Nothing. And the gifts? Words of wisdom, words of knowledge, extraordinary faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of the Spirit, speaking in different kinds of tongues, interpreting different tongues. One of the arguments against words of wisdom and words of knowledge and prophecy is that these so called modern day prophets set themselves up above the Word of God. They can say things that don't agree with the scripture, God's Word. So what do we do with that? Well, I have to tell you. Like anything else good that God gives us, you can take it and you can abuse it. Absolutely. I've seen it happen in this area, where people go for emotionalism and they go for manipulation where they claim to be speaking on behalf of God but in fact they aren't. They are just operating out of their own flesh and their own desires. Is that a reason to believe that God doesn't use prophets? Just because something good from God can be abused doesn't mean that it's not a good thing from God. I mean, back in the Old Testament there were false prophets. Back in the New Testament we see that there were some false prophets. Just because men and women abuse a gift from doesn't mean that gift doesn't exist. There are several times in my life when someone has given a specific prophecy just for me, and all of those barring one, and that exception simply didn't ring true as being from God to me and to the other people that were there at the time, but the rest of those prophecies in fact, had a huge impact on my life. I look back on them now and they were major turning points. And you know, they weren't proud people coming to me with a "thus-sayeth-the-Lord" proclamation. One of the most powerful was from a man called Denis Adams. He works for a large Christian radio network called HCJB. It was at a conference. I had just taken over the reigns at Christianityworks here in this ministry and my predecessor had taken all our radio programs off air. There was almost no financial support and the ministry was almost dead and I didn't know what to do. I met Denis for the first time at a Christian Media Conference. He looked at my name tag, we didn't know each other, but he'd heard some of the short radio messages I'd put together in the past. And almost immediately tears welled up in his eyes, and with such passion and such conviction he said to me. "You have to start doing those radio programs again, you just have to." Well I tell you, Dennis' words pierced my heart that day and because of that we spent the last few thousand dollars the ministry had on producing the first series of these programs. At the time we had no idea how we were going to get onto any radio station anywhere. That was only six years ago, and today these programs are heard by millions of people each around the world. I know with all that I am that those words that Dennis Adams spoke to me that day were from God. That they were a prophecy, that without them I wouldn't be here today. Should we discern prophecies? Absolutely! Should we think them through and pray them through? Absolutely! Should we reject any that don't ring true? Absolutely! But, my friend, God's Word says that He's still speaking to us today through prophets. Why, oh why would we want to deny that? Why would we not want to hear when God has something specific to say to you and to me from His heart into our lives?

  --------  

  9:39

  --------

  9:39
• The Satisfaction of Being Full // The Best of the Best, Part 8

  Ever been so thirsty you think you're going to die. And then – then you have a deep drink of fresh, cool, clear, living water. Awesome. In fact Jesus talked a lot about water. I remember when I was training to be an officer in the Army we used to go out on exercises for weeks at a time, war games and we'd be fighting this imaginary army and learning, I guess, how to fight battles. Back in those days the Army was heavily into water rationing, two water bottles per man, per day, perhaps. That was for shaving, washing, cleaning your teeth, cooking and drinking. In those hot summers with all the heavy physical work that a battle entails it was never enough, many a time we'd finish an attack up a steep hill in the middle of the noon day sun or be digging a trench and all I wanted was to guzzle down a whole bottle full of water. Of course you couldn't do that, then I'd close my eyes and imagine that I'd be swimming in a nice cool river with stacks and stacks of water. When you're that thirsty, what you really want is water in abundance, you want to be filled to overflowing. This week on the program we're looking at what it means to be filled by God to overflowing. Not just half full, not just full to the brim, filled so that we overflow all His goodness and His blessing. When we're really thirsty and we have a deep long drink, it is such a satisfying thing isn't it? I mean our need for water is one of the most basic of all needs. 70% of our body is water and after oxygen, water is our most important physical need. You can't go for very long without water. The body starts closing down some of it's functions and depending on the conditions, we can be dead within a couple of days. Or if you're stuck in a hot car without water, you can be dead in a few minutes in extreme heat. It's interesting that when Jesus was talking about His plan for our lives, He uses 'thirst' and "water" to explain what He means. I think it's because it's something we really can relate to. He meets a woman, a Samaritan woman, at a well and He says to her: Everyone who drinks out of this water will be thirsty again but those who drink the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them, a spring of water gushing up into eternal life. Life gets thirsty and this week on the program we've been looking at what it means to be filled to overflowing because that's Jesus' plan, no ifs, not buts, "oh well, that's not my experience." Maybe not but it's Jesus' promise: Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give them will become in them, a spring of water gushing up into eternal life. I wonder sometimes whether in life we don't make things just a bit too complicated. For me, faith is a simple thing, I read what Jesus said, I hear what God has to say and then you say, "well okay, if that's from God, that's what I'm going to believe even if my circumstances are screaming at me saying, that's never going to be possible, you're never going to have a fountain of spring water gushing up in you." And every time my feelings or the things that are going around me scream at me, "God's a liar," I'm just going to pick that book up again and read what Jesus said again. I'm just going to believe Him and not them. Now you might say to me, "but Berni, that is unrealistic, I've been trying to have a life of peace and of joy and abundance, it seems like forever and it's just not happening for me." Look at His promise again, John chapter 7, verse 37, "If anyone is thirsty let them come to me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, rivers of living water will flow from them. By this He meant the Spirit whom those who believed in Jesus were later to receive." There are 3 parts to that promise. The first one is "if you're thirsty - get a drink". When life is dry and parched and empty, if ANYONE is thirsty (anyone means anyone) come to Jesus and He will fill us full of His water, a water that when we drink it, a living water, we'll never be thirsty again. And the second thing is He says, "whoever believes in Me", you see, it's a faith thing. When He says "whoever believes IN Me", that word "in" means literally 'into', so it says, 'whoever believes into Me'. You may have heard me say this before, I can look at a chair at a distant and believe that it will hold me and I'm believing in 'it' but if I want to believe "into" the chair, I walk over and I sit down and I say, "you see, the chair can hold me. I put my faith "into", my trust "into" the chair." And so Jesus says, "whoever believes in Me, whoever believes what I say, whoever reads what I said and says, 'you know something, like a little child I'm going to accept that from Jesus.' Whoever believes in Me, from their belly rivers of living water, not a trickle, not a stream, not a river, river's plural. Get the picture, an abundance, a flood tide of blessing of the Holy Spirit, "whoever believes in me, from their belly rivers of living water will flow out from them."' The last couple of days we've looked at some of the things that can stop that from happening, the blockages, our own rejection of God, the compromises, the sin, the devil in the spiritual realm robbing us of what God wants us to have and you might say, "Berni, I think you're being unrealistic. Well, I have problems and stresses and strains in my life." Absolutely, Jesus promises those too. Look at how He trained His disciples. He promised them all those things and He never promised them that He would somehow lift us out of those and exempt us from suffering. He promised the opposite, He said, "In this world you will have tribulation" but in the middle of all of that He promised that He would fill us to overflowing in this thirsty, parched, dry land. He would let us experience the incredible satisfaction of a deep drink of His spiritual water, of Him himself. Now we might be spiritually or emotionally thirsty or parched or dry and Jesus says, "Come to me and I will give you the Holy Spirit, I will fill you to overflowing." We're all different; we're all close to God in different ways. Some people do it by singing, other people like me get up early in the morning and pray, other people love to read, other people find Jesus just most in the middle of life and there are combinations and permutations of those. But the consistent message of Gods word is, when we draw close to Him; He draws close to us and that's a special thing and there is an incredible satisfaction in being filled full of Him and being filled full to overflowing with the Holy Spirit. He fills us in ways that nobody else can. The problem is so many people have been living so dry for so long they've accepted that as being normal. I meet so many spiritually dry people. We think everybody else is like that, we can't imagine how God could ever fill us with His spirit, how He could ever make a fountain of living water bubbling up but that's what He wants to do, that's the normative of Christian life. Don't accept anything less; don't settle for anything less than the fullness of God in your life, the very presence of Jesus through His spirit in us. Thirst, then wait to be filled by Him and just don't accept anything less

  --------  

  9:34

  --------

  9:34
• Christ on the Outside // The Best of the Best, Part 7

  There's nothing worse than a hypocrite. One of the things we're called to be, if we believe in Jesus, is Ambassadors of Christ. But if how we live our lives – what we say, what we do – if our lives don't measure up – then what sort of Ambassadors are you and I going to make? When people look at us – what do they see?  An Ambassador, or a hypocrite? Let me ask you a question, if you're someone who believes in Jesus and who drives a car, do you have some sort of Jesus bumper sticker? One of those fish stickers on your bumper bar. Maybe, maybe not. It's okay even if you don't, that's okay, I don't either. But if you had to put one on your car, let me ask you, does your behaviour on the road as a driver match up to the message of the sticker? I mean, are you a courteous driver who obeys all the road rules or do you break the speed limit, honk your horn at people and yell at them from the inside of your car? I guess if you're a courteous driver it will be okay to have a fish sticker or a Jesus sticker on your car because your behaviour is a good advertisement for God. In effect because what you advertise on the sticker and how you behave, they match up and so the message works. On the other hand, can you imagine a rude impatient driver who's constantly breaking the road rules, identifying themselves as a Christian by some sticker they put on their car. Not a very good ad for God is it? And it turns out that who we say we are, who we hold ourselves out to be and who we actually are, in what we say and what we do, if those two don't match up, well there's a name for that. We call those people hypocrites. Over this past week on the program we've talked about living our lives as ambassadors of Christ. The key Bible verse that I've been quoting and forgive me if you've been with us each day and you've heard it before but I'm assuming some people haven't. The key Bible verse I've been sharing this week is 2 Corinthians chapter 5; verse 20 where the Apostle Paul writes: We are ambassadors for Christ since God is making His appeal through us. In other words, God, just as He used the Apostle Paul, wants to involve you and me in the business of making His appeal to the rest of the world. Now, what we've seen over the course of the week is that we don't all have to be Paul's to do that. Diplomacy, which is the role of an ambassador, mostly happens in one on one relationships where trust is built, so governments have relationships and a place and a forum to resolve difficult issues. That's the point of diplomacy and it's the role of an ambassador. I think sometimes we're mislead into thinking, "Oh wow, an ambassador of Christ, well that would have to be the Pastor's role, not me 'cause it sounds like flashy up front kind of title'. And yesterday we saw that in order to be an ambassador for say India, we have to be Indian. If we're Swedish no one's going to believe we're the Indian ambassador, right? Who we are on the inside really counts, that's why God promised us something new. Ezekiel chapter 36:26: A new heart, God said, I will give you. A new spirit I will put within you. I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Now we can't change who we are on the outside until we've had a change of heart on the inside. I've tried it, you've tried it, it doesn't work. If something first happens in our hearts to change us on the inside, then changing on the outside is kind of a natural progression of that, it's much easier. That's what we talked about yesterday. Today we're going to follow on with a natural continuation of that. Today we're going to look at how important it is, who we are on the outside is consistent with whom we say we are on the inside. And that's why I kicked off with that story of the bumper sticker. It's kind of obvious isn't it? Now I'm not suggesting that you or I are ever going to live a perfect life. I pretty much make mistakes every day, you probably do too and no one expects us to be perfect. But either how we live declares that our heart and our life has been changed by God or it doesn't. And if it doesn't then without putting too fine a point on it, we're being hypocrites. That's something that Jesus identified in the religious leaders of His day. They pretended to be O so holy on the outside but on the inside, well have a listen to what Jesus said to them. Matthew chapter 23, verses 25 and 26: Woe to you Scribes and Pharisee's, you hypocrites. For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate but inside they're full of greed and self indulgence. You blind Pharisee's, first clean the inside of the cup so that the outside may also become clean. Pretty in your face isn't it? But you know, I'm comforted by that. I like it that Jesus is concerned about both our hearts, who we are on the inside, and our hands, who we are on the outside. If someone came to me and said to me, "You know Berni, I've heard what you've been saying, I've decided I want to be an ambassador of Christ, what do you think is the most important thing?" Well, this is how I would answer. "The first thing is your heart and your relationship with God, being completely sold out to Him. If you don't have that then you can't pretend." "And the second thing is how we behave because if you say that you're one thing and you do completely the opposite, people will pick you as a phoney (Berni clicks his fingers) like that. And then, instead of shining Gods light into the world, you've just turned people off." Let me give you an example. My country, Australia, has a strong relationship with the United States, has had for a good many years. Now imagine that the US government appoints a new ambassador to Australia and sends him across the pond to our country and within a few months we discover he's a lecherous drunk who can't keep his hands off women, whether or not he happens to be any good at his trade of diplomacy. And scandal after scandal involving this new ambassador hits the news and the press. How do you imagine such a person would influence the view that we Australians have, not only of the US government but of the American people? It wouldn't be good for the relationship, it would be devastating wouldn't it? Not only would this so called ambassador hurt the people around him but he'd bring his nation and his people into disrepute. And that's why the lives we lead as Christians are so important. Come on, let's get real. Does hypocrisy display the glory of God? No, it brings God and Gods people as a whole into disrepute. 'Oh those Christians, they're just a bunch of hypocrites.' And God, God doesn't like hypocrites. Listen again to Jesus, Matthew chapter 23, verse 25: Woe to you Scribes and Pharisee's. You hypocrites for you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate but inside you're full of greed and self indulgence. People talk about missional living, living out our lives as missionaries in this world. You know, I think the biggest thing that we can do to live missionally is to live a holy life. What's a holy life? It's a life where the cup and the plate are clean on the inside first as well as the outside. Peter the Apostle sums it up like this. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 14-16: Like obedient children do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. Instead as He who called you is holy be holy yourselves in all your conduct. For it is written, 'You shall be holy for I am holy'. My friend, there is something wonderful and utterly sublime when we roll up our sleeves with God and we get to clean the inside as well as the outside and here's the thing, people notice. People sit up and take note and think to themselves, "You know, there's something different about that person. Something good. Something I trust. Something I want." And there, right there in that place, clean on the inside, clean on the outside we have an ambassador of Christ.

  --------  

  9:36

  --------

  9:36
• Christ on the Inside // The Best of the Best, Part 6

  Imagine having a job where you had to try to convince people of something you yourself didn't really believe. That'd be a tough gig, don't you think? And yet that's how many a Christian feels when it comes to telling others about Jesus.  Because if they themselves haven't experienced the powerful difference that He can make in their lives – on the inside – how can they possibly tell others about Him? One of the things that we know is, that you and I we are what we eat. So if what we do is pig out on chocolates, man I love chocolate, but we know that too much is bad for us. And fatty foods and sweet and sugary drinks and lots of cakes and sweets, all that stuff, if we pig out on that stuff then who we are on the inside is going to change. We're going to put on weight. Our emotions will take a down swing, that's what too much sugar does. We become lethargic and tired and won't be able to cope. Our heart will have to work harder to get the blood around the larger body and our coronary arteries are going to get clogged up and the sugar will go up in our blood. On and on and on the list goes. The impact is that we have less of life to live now because we're always tired and not feeling well and our life expectancy is going to be reduced. On the other hand, if we get a great mix of healthy cereals and grains and brightly coloured vegetables and lean meat, all that stuff which actually tastes fantastic, the complete opposite is going to happen. What happens on the inside has a huge impact on what happens on the outside. Who we are on the inside, whether it's physically, emotionally or spiritually, has a huge impact on who we are on the outside. And the up shot of it all is we simply can't be one thing on the inside and try to be something else on the outside. You know what? It just doesn't work. This week and next week on the program we're having a bit of a chat about living our lives out here on earth as ambassadors of Christ. Because that's what anyone who believes in Jesus is called to be. We are citizens of heaven, not of this earth and as Paul the Apostle writes, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 20: We are ambassadors for Christ since God is making His appeal through us. But as I said, you can't be one thing on the inside and pretend to be another thing on the outside. You can't be Swedish on the inside and pretend to be the Indian ambassador on the outside. We can't be the devil on the inside and pretend to be an angel of light on the outside. Well maybe we can for a while but I suspect it's incredibly hard work carrying on that sort of a deception and it doesn't take long for who we really are to make it's way to the outside. As Jesus Himself said: It's out of the heart that evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness and slander actually come. (Matthew chapter 15, verse 19) So if we're going to be ambassadors of Christ then first we have to be citizens of heaven on the inside. Just as the Indian ambassador has to be Indian and not Swedish on the inside. Interesting how God talked about this through His Prophet Ezekiel to His people. He talked to them about what was going on in their hearts. Have a listen, Ezekiel chapter 18, verse 31: Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die O house of Israel? A new heart. I think we know what God means but that's not so much an expression that we use these days. The expression we might use is a change of heart. You and I know what that means. Unless something happens deep inside our hearts on the inside we can't change on the outside. But you know there have been issues, transgressions, sins in my life that try as I may I couldn't change my heart myself. I'm guessing you've had that experience too, we all have. And that's why God made this promise too to His people through Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 26. He says: A new heart I will give you and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. In fact, perhaps you want to be an ambassador of Christ but there's something, right now, going on in your heart. Something that you can't change for yourself that you need God to do for you. If you have that why don't you pray this prayer with me right now. Our Father God This word of yours well you're putting your finger right on one of the deepest needs in my life. You and I both know what that is and you know how I've struggled to change my heart. I've tried my hardest but I can't and so I come to you in faith and I pray for your will as Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 26 for a new heart, a change of heart. Take out the heart of stone O God and replace it with a heart of flesh. Take out of me the spirit that is causing me to sin and fill me with your Holy Spirit. I come to you in faith; I believe that what I've asked you, you will give me because I'm asking you in the name of Jesus. Amen. I encourage you, if you prayed that prayer with me to believe, just simply to believe that God will give you the good thing that you have asked for. And He will, that's what He says He will do and He never, ever, ever fails on His word, ever. When the Apostle Paul was sharing the good news about Jesus with the folk in Athens he quoted a poem about a Greek god and applied it to Jesus. This is what he said in Acts chapter 17, verse 28. He said: For in Him we live and move and have our being. You know, for me that says it all. It's about being totally, totally immersed in Christ, about being drenched in Him. That's actually the literal meaning of the word 'baptised' or 'baptism'. The original word is baptidso. When a boat was lost in a storm and it went under and sank it was said to have been baptidso'd. When a fabric was dyed in new colour it was plunged into the dye and completely drenched and completely changed to a new colour when it came out. It was said to have been baptidso'd. That's exactly what the Apostle Paul writes to his friends in Rome. Romans chapter 6, beginning at verse 3: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ were baptised into His death? Therefore we've been buried with Him in baptism into death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. It means death to the old life and living a new life, literally to be born again. A whole new heart filled with a new spirit, the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. It means that goodness replaces evil. Not so much because we work hard at it but because we've had a change of heart and now we want to honour God and that's a gift from God. We want to live a life that brings glory to Him and it's that new life that we're going to talk about a bit more tomorrow. It's that new life that wins people over to Christ. It's that new life that shines a light and brings flavour into people's lives like salt. But just as a well is dry it can't bring forth water, so a life that is empty of Christ, His very Spirit, His very presence within us, so that life simply can't be an ambassador of Christ. If there are things that you've been struggling with in on the inside, things that are holding you back from taking up your commission as Christ's ambassador in your little petunia patch then here's what I encourage you to do? Get with God. Get in prayer. Open His Word. Ask Him to fill you to overflowing with His Holy Spirit. Ask Him again and again to give you a new heart. And just as we prayed before, just as I said before, He surely will. Because He wants to. Because as you bear much fruit in your life, it will bring glory to God. A new heart, a change of heart filled with a new spirit, His spirit. That is God's will for my life and that my friend is God's will for your life.

  --------  

  9:37

  --------

  9:37

More Religion & Spirituality podcasts

Trending Religion & Spirituality podcasts

About A Different Perspective Official Podcast

A Different Perspective Official Podcast: Podcasts in Family