A Different Perspective Official Podcast

There are so many good things out there in life.  And it's great to get our fill.  But what's even better, is when we're so full of goodness – that we overflow – right into the lives of other people.
I love to see other people doing what God made them to do. Being who God made them to be. It's awesome when they excel at that. A brilliant musician or a sports person or someone who's great at caring for other people. Someone who can just lead an organisation, somehow make it sing.
It never ceases to amaze me how different we all are and how when someone discovers their unique gig, whatever that is, what a wondrous thing that is to behold. For me it leaves me in awe of God, His grace to let us have gifts like that. His imagination. His plan to bless each one of us through the gifts and the abilities of other people.
Sometimes we get all silly and we compare ourselves to other people and go, "Oh well, I can't do that." Of course we can't, it's not what God made us to do. He made us to be, well you and me. To be and to excel at whatever He's gifted us in our DNA. In fact it's a real passion of mine. To see people living out who God made them to be and the plan that He has for their lives.
And when we're right in that sweet spot there's just nothing better. That's why I enjoy doing what I'm doing right now. I'm custom made for this gig. A whole bunch of other things I can't do but I love, I love sharing the good news of Jesus with you.
This week we're looking at Jesus' ideal plan for our lives. A plan to use us as the entry point for His flood-tide of blessing into this world. Yesterday we looked at this passage, I want to look at it again today. It's John chapter 7, verse 37. And Jesus is talking at a time of a festival where they celebrate the enactment in a temple of the flowing of the Holy Spirit into the land. He says:
If anyone is thirsty (anyone, that means, you know that's for you and me right? This is an invitation) If anyone is thirsty (Are you thirsty?) then let them come to me (Says Jesus) and drink because whoever believes in me streams of living water will flow out from within them. By this He meant the Holy Spirit whom those who would believe in Him were later to receive.
This picture for the "anyone" and the "whoever", for you and for me, is for God to fill us to overflowing. When we're thirsty go to Jesus and we drink and we believe and then rivers of living water, His Spiritual blessing flows out of us. The Bible says literally:
From our bellies into the world around us rivers, a flood-tide of blessing.
You know near the delta of a river, when there's a flood all the wonderful silt goes out into the land and makes the land rich and fertile and things grow and they come to life. That's the picture. It's almost like we're a channel, an entry point for Gods blessing, a vessel used in His service.
When I look around at the people I know it never ceases to amaze me how different we all are. A friend of mine, Bob, who's a counsellor, he sits and listens to people and empathises and helps them think through and work through their problems. I couldn't do that. Another good friend of mine, Lawrie. He's a gentle man, he has a special ministry.
When Churches are going through hurts, sometimes when they go through splits or they sack their pastor or whatever went on, his ministry is to go and to be their pastor for the next few months or even the next few years and bring reconciliation and forgiveness and healing into that place. It's a really special ministry. I couldn't do that.
Another friend of mine, James, he's the baby boomer social director at our Church. He's always organising for us to get together or to go away for weekends and he ushers in a sense of community. He loves doing that, he's passionate about it. That's not me either.
The people I really admire, teachers. I spoke recently at a gathering of 300 high school teachers. Now those people, I reckon they deserve a medal. I mean I definitely couldn't do what they do. You know by now I could be tearing my hair out, I could be feeling really insecure. Wow, I can't do any of those things that those other people can do. What good am I?
Me, I just sit in a radio studio behind a microphone. How boring is that? But you know something, when I'm doing what God made me to do it's such an incredible joy.
It is your decision and my decision to draw close to Jesus and to get to know Him and to be filled by His Spirit. And when we're thirsty to go to Him for our spiritual nourishment, that's the inflow, it's an awesome thing. I was worshipping at Church recently and it was such a delight to sing praises and to bow down my life before God but if that's all I did with my faith it would get boring.
You fill up and you fill up and you fill up with God and you never spend any of that and you never let any of it flow out, I think we'd explode. You know where there's as much, in a sense, an even more delight for me? When I see those rivers of living water flow out from me from who He made me to be with my gifts and my limitations, from my belly and my heart, rivers of living water.
When I'm doing what He made me to do and that's exactly what I'm doing right now, I'm sharing Him with you, I love this. I get into a studio and I start doing this stuff and it's such an incredible joy. It doesn't mean I don't have challenges in my life. It doesn't mean that there aren't some days that are really, really hard or I'm tired or I'm sick. All of those things.
Those things happen in my life and they happen in your life. We all have pressures and tensions and there are conflicts some days. But I think we need both to be filled and to be fulfilled. The Holy Spirit in and rivers of living water out. On the one hand you see faith without works is dead. That's the in without the out.
If I were just to go and pray and to worship God and say, "God you're a wonderful God" but I never lived that out, that's dead. On the other hand works without faith, well they're dead works, they're hard work. We end up pedalling and pedalling and pedalling and doing this stuff and getting dry and burnt out.
But when we're receiving from God, the very Spirit of God, the very fullness of God. The joy, the knowledge, seeing His face, worshipping Him. When we're getting that from Him and then we step out of that quiet room and we just see how God uses our gifts and our abilities and our joy and He overflows through us into the lives of other people, that is such a sweet delight. It is such a joy. It is so fulfilling. And God uses you so differently to the way He uses me.
People often respond to these radio programs and they say what an impact they're having, what a difference they're making in their lives. And my response is it is such a joy, I love doing what I do and then the Holy Spirit just takes that and fills you with Himself through what I do so that a flood-tide of blessing, in turn, will go out from you to other people.
See that's God's economy and what you do and the things I couldn't possibly do, what you do is so special. It's so unique to you. So much part of God's plan for who He made you to be and what your life is going to be, the plan is simple. To fill us to overflowing so that we're full and satisfied and out of that abundance rivers of living water, the Spirit of God Himself, flows out day after day.
There are going to be stresses and strains along the way but as many hurts as there are He brings healing, He changes us and He moulds us to be even more perfect for His plan. And the hurts, well He knocks the rough edges off us and we just go back to Him, let His Spirit pour in and pour out through us.
And you know, when you're using His special gift, what He gave you, the ability He gave just to you that is such a sweet thing.

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 Australian 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 a war. Back in those days the army was heavily into water rationing. Two water bottles per man per day perhaps.
And that was for shaving, washing, cleaning your teeth, cooking and drinking. So those hot summer months with all the physically heavy work that the battle entails, it was never enough. Many a time we'd finish an attack up a steep hill in the middle of the noon days sun or be digging a trench and all I wanted to do was to guzzle down a whole bottle of water.
Of course you couldn't do that and I'd close my eyes and I'd imagine that I was 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 three quarters full, not just full to the brim but filled so that we overflow all His goodness and all His blessings and his Spirit. When we're really thirsty we have a deep longing to drink. It is such a satisfying thing when we drink.
I mean our need for water is one of the most basic of all needs. 70% of the human 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 your condition you can be dead in just 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 can really 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 them will become in them a spring of water gushing up into eternal life.
See life gets thirsty and this week on the program we've been looking at what it means to be filled to overflowing 'cause that's Jesus plan. No ifs, no buts. "Oh well, that's not my experience'". Maybe not but its 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 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 says. I hear what God has to say to me 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 on around me scream at me, "God's a liar, God's a liar, God's a liar". I'm just going to pick up that Book and go to that passage again and read what Jesus had to say again. I'm just going to believe in Him and not all these other things.
Now you might say to me, 'But Berni that's unrealistic. I've been trying to have a life of peace and joy and abundance. It seems like forever and it's just not happening for me'. Look at His promise again friend. Let's read it. John chapter 7, verse 37:
If anyone (not some special people). If anyone is thirsty let them come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me (not just the special spiritual people). 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 three 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. You know what anyone means? 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.
The second thing He says is, "and 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 in the distance 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 in the chair and I say, "you see, the chair can hold me". I've put my faith into the chair. My trust into the chair and so Jesus says, "whoever believes what I say, whoever reads what I said and says you know something, like a little child I'm going to believe and accept that from Jesus".
Whoever believes into me from their belly rivers of living water, not just a trickle, not just a steam, not just one river, rivers plural, get it? An abundance, a flood-tide of blessing of the Holy Spirit. Whoever believes into me from their belly rivers of living water will flow out.
The last few days of the program we've looked at some of the things that can stop that from happening, the blockage, 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 difficulties and trials and exempt us from suffering. To the contrary, He promised the absolute opposite. He said:
In this world you will have tribulation.
But in the middle of all that He also promised that He would fill us to overflowing in this thirsty, parched, dry place. 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'll give you the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. I'll fill you with Him to overflowing."
And 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 things but the consistent message of Gods word is this.
When we draw close to Him, He draws close to us and that's a special thing and there is an incredible satisfaction of being, not just fulfilled full of Him but being filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit. He fills us in ways that nobody else, that nothing else can. The problem is so many people have been living so dry for so long they've accepted that as being normal. I mean so many spiritually dry people.
We think everyone 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 bubble out so that other people can come and meet Jesus and drink from that fountain 'cause that, my friend, is the normal Christian life.
Can I encourage you? Don't accept second best, don't accept a dry, parched land, don't accept anything else, 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 take anything less.

Sometimes, it's the things that we can't see, that can have the biggest impact on our wellbeing.  Our blood pressure.  Our cholesterol levels.  The supernatural realm.  All things we ignore – at our peril.
It's true that the things we can't see are often the things that end up ruining our lives. There are no symptoms for high blood pressure or high cholesterol levels but if we have either of them, well they dramatically increase our chances of heart attack and stroke. We can't see them, we can't feel them but when they hit the impact is devastating, often fatal.
There are no symptoms for glaucoma before people notice they've lost a fair chunk of their eyesight. There are no symptoms for bowel cancer or cervical cancer until it's too late. The hidden things, the things we can't see, the things we ignore, they're often the ones that take people's lives.
We know that's true physically, but it's also true spiritually as much as we might try to ignore it and deny there's a spiritual dimension to life. Makes sense, God is spirit and it's what happens in the spiritual dimension that impacts what's going on here in the physical.
I spent a greater part of my life trying to ignore the spiritual dimension. But if God is God, well there must be spiritual dimension. The Apostle Paul, and to me he's really interesting this guy, he has a real insight about this. Now remember Paul is as practical as practical can be. He's not some kind of airy fairy spiritual fruitcake. He's down to earth, he wrote almost half the books of the New Testament and by and large he dealt with really practical issues of life.
But have a listen to what he says about the spiritual dimension in Ephesians chapter 6, beginning at verse 10:
Finally let the mighty strength of the Lord make you strong. Put on all the armour that God gives you so that you can defend yourself against the devils tricks because we're not fighting against human beings, we're fighting against forces and authorities and against rulers of darkness and powers in the spiritual world.
So put on all the armour that God gives you then when that evil day comes you'll be able to defend yourself and when the battle is over you'll still be standing firm.
You see my friend, we can see people. The weather, we can see the weather. The stock market, we can see the stock market go up and down but Paul's saying here that that's all well and good but there's a spiritual dimension that you can't see. The devil is alive and well, he's full of tricks, there is a battle going on in the heavenly places for my soul and for yours.
And he says, when that battle is over you're meant to still be standing. And the things that rob us, and not so much the things we can see, the flesh and blood, tangible, physical things here in this world. It's what's happening in the spiritual world, the unseen world.
We are fighting against forces and authorities and against rulers of darkness and powers in the spiritual world
Writes Paul.
Now that's hard to come to grips with. I mean in the west almost 75% of us believe in God yet less than a third believe in the devil. Whereas you go to parts of Africa or Asia and the demonic is alive and well. Idolatry and witchcraft and devil worship are all happening there. In the west though, let me tell you, you don't have to look too far to see the devils fingerprints on all sorts of things. Albeit it's a little more subtle.
It's the hidden things in that super natural dimension that can end up killing us. Jesus said, we looked at it the last couple of days, John chapter 10, verse 10:
The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy but I have come (said Jesus) that you may have life in all its fullness and all its abundance.
You see, what Jesus is saying is the things that happen in the super natural dimension, the thief, the devil, that's what robs us of the life that Jesus has planned. A life in all its fullness and all its abundance. So, what do we do about it?
You know when I pray I pray into the super natural. Sometimes I see spiritual attacks happening to me or the people around me and I pray to God about the battles happening in the spiritual dimension. When I claim that territory, that spiritual territory in Jesus name, the devil and his demons have to flee. At the name of Jesus every knee must bow, every tongue must confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
My experience is that every time I wake up in the morning and I put my feet on the deck and I step out in Jesus name to live a good life or to tell other people about Him, the forces of spiritual darkness will come against me and it's all sorts of different ways that that happens.
The first time I lectured at a Bible college, in just 200 metres that I drove from my house to the traffic lights I almost had three cars run into me. People just came out of nowhere to try and crash into me.
Sometimes when we're close to a break through here in our ministry, maybe we're talking to a new radio station to take our radio programs and if we get onto that station lots of people are going to hear about Jesus Christ. I've almost come to expect at those times that I'm going to be attacked or a board member or my family through sickness and something snaps in one of the board members businesses.
You name it, however the devil can disrupt Gods goodness, he's going to try. Sometimes Gods up to something good and Jacqui and I will start getting a bit scratchy with one another and what we need to do is name it for what it is, the devil trying to drive a wedge between Gods plan, Jesus plan for an abundant life, and us.
Sometimes amazing things are happening through one particular radio station and all of a sudden that relationship is under threat, maybe they might take us off air for a few weeks. The devil will try to rob our peace and our joy and our abundant outlook on life and the mighty things that God wants to do through us because he knows that when we're flowing in Gods plan we're full of Gods joy and the joy of the Lord is our strength.
You know when I was in the army and we were training in war games, we would probe and attack and surprise the enemy and create fear and doubt and the devil does exactly the same thing. He sends his demons to disrupt and to rob us.
Now people sometimes look at me and say, "Why is he talking like this? What's the matter with him? Is he whacko or something?" The devil, friend, is alive and well. You look right through Gods word, you look at Jesus, you look at Paul, this is the reality. There is a spiritual dimension and the battle in the heavenly places is as real as high blood pressure or high cholesterol even though we can't see it all.
Now I'm a simple guy. I just believe Jesus and take Him at His word. His plan, very clearly, is to fill you and me to overflowing with His Spirit and when that plan is interrupted by the devil through a heaviness or a hatred or a temptation or a fear or doubt or attacks on the ministry or attacks on our family. I don't know, I'm just a simple guy. I sit down and I pray and say:
Father God,
I don't know what's happening in the spiritual realm. What I do know is there's a battle going on. What I do know Jesus is you died and you rose again to give me victory so that I can have victory in that battle. I claim victory in that spiritual battle in the heavenly places, in the spiritual dimension.
And time and time and time again I have seen the devil come to try and attack me with a meat cleaver and he has to flee when I pray in Jesus name 'cause Jesus gave us victory on the cross. Jesus gave us a victory over death, over the devil in the empty tomb.
Father,
I ask you to give me this victory in Jesus name.
Now does that sound whacko to you? I tell you what, it works. It's simple. We don't have to have long complicated incantations and prayers. We don't have to be complex about it. I just have this simple little faith that says, you know something, when I ask God for something in Jesus name He may not do it right away or now or the next day and He may not do it quite the way I'd like Him to but when I ask for good things in Jesus name my Father in heaven answers and there's one thing He doesn't want.
He doesn't want me to fall to the temptations of the devil and He has already defeated the devil for me and for you through Jesus Christ. It's that simple.

Fathers are funny animals.  They want the best for their kids.  But when their kids rebel, when they don't play the game, that blessing dries up quicker than you can say Jack Robinson.
I was listening the other day to a well known actor, Alan Alda, being interviewed by an equally well known interviewer called Michael Parkinson in the UK. Now Alan Alda, of course, became famous as the character Hawkeye Pearce in the long running TV series MASH. Alda's now over 70 years old and he was telling us how a couple of years ago he was travelling in South America and he had the most incredible pain in his stomach.
They rushed him to a Doctor who detected a blockage in his intestine. Now unless the Doctor operated immediately and cut that part of his intestine out he was going to die. When it comes to life and living blockages in any part of our body are almost always deadly. In our airways, in our bowels, in our eyes, something that can send us blind. And it turns out that spiritual blockages are just the same, they're deadly.
Our lives can sometimes be full of tiredness and worry and we're running out of steam and we're running out of puff and our batteries are flat. Okay, sure we have our ups and downs but sometimes our lives seem to be on this downward spiral. Day after day after day we've got this sub-optimal thing happening and that reality in life can sometimes dominate our vision.
We think that that's all there is, we think that it can't get any better but that reality stands in such stark contrast, let me say, to the promises Jesus made to us, if only we'd believe in Him.
Have a listen to some of those promises again today. John chapter 10, verse 10:
The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy but I have come that you may have life in all its fullness, in all its abundance.
In fact, literally in it's super abundance. Matthew chapter 11:
Come to me if you're weary and burdened because I will give you rest (said Jesus). Take my yoke upon you and learn from me because I'm gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
John chapter 7:
If any of you is thirsty come to me and drink because whoever believes in me as the scriptures have said, rivers of living water will flow from within them. By this He meant the Holy Spirit whom those who believed in Jesus were later to receive.
And then just before He was handed over to be crucified, John chapter 14, verse 27 He says to His disciples:
Friends, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I'm not giving the way the world does. Don't let your hearts be troubled, don't let them be afraid.
Jesus promised us super abundant life. Rest for the weary, drink fullness to overflowing for the thirsty, peace for the troubled. The problem is that it doesn't always work out that way in our lives and so either Jesus is a liar or there's something else.
S D Gordon, around the late 19th or early 20th century wrote a fabulous book called Quiet Talks On Power. He's one of my favourite authors and he kind works on a similar premise to what I'm working on with Jesus' promises except he looks at it from a perspective of God's power and he says, "Look, the natural life as a Jesus believer is to have God's power to accomplish the things that God calls us to do."
And he tells this great story at the beginning of the book about a blockage. He talks about a mid western American town in the late 1800's. It was a dry area and it relied heavily on water from a dam up in the hills. Water after all equals life – no water, no town, no life.
Now the town grew and prospered and filled with people until one day the water pipes ran dry. People went up to the reservoir up in the hills and it was full but there was just no water flowing down into the valley to the town. No water – no life. So people began to leave the town and the tumble weed was blowing through the main street and it became a veritable ghost town.
Then one day they received an anonymous note, somebody had sabotaged the pipes right up near the reservoir. Someone had put a small plug into the pipe and the authorities went up there and checked it and sure enough they found it. They removed that one small blockage and the water started to flow again. Life came back, the people returned to the town because that little blockage stopping the water from flowing had been removed.
A small blockage can have such a huge impact. Can I tell you? There are so many people missing out on Gods abundance because of blockages in their lives. They may only be small, they may only be tiny compromises, "Well I believe in God but not in this area of my life. Well you know, I believe in God but I don't think He'll ever fill me to overflowing", some people say.
There is a simple name for that, it's called sin. I know it's not a popular word. I know these days people say, 'Oh come on Berni, sin, that is such an old fashioned concept'. Maybe it is but it only takes the smallest blockage to stop the water from flowing. Listen again to Jesus, John chapter 7, verse 37:
If anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, rivers of living water will flow from within them.
What's Jesus' plan? Jesus planned the normal Christian life is a flood tide of blessing, full to overflowing. And you see, that's His plan, not just for Mr and Mrs Super Christian, not just for some hot shot preacher or worship leader, if anyone is thirsty let them come to me and drink and whoever believes in me from their belly will flow rivers of living water.
This is all for us and when we do it our own way, when I decide I'm just going to grumble and go my own way, I'm going to cheat or lie, I'm not going to believe in Jesus blessing, you know what it does? It blocks the flow. It's deadly. Sin is like that plug in the pipe.
God is a fantastic God. God is a holy God. And when we rebel against Him, even in those hidden places, in those little things. In fact, especially those little hidden things, that sin becomes like a blockage, it stops the natural flow that Jesus has planned.
The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. Even though the reservoir is full of fresh, clean, life giving water. Even though Gods plan for us is for His Spirit to pour down into us in abundance. To fill us not just to the top but to overflowing. To have a flood tide of blessing that enters into this world through us, our sin blocks that plan.
His plan is to have us full to overflowing with abundant life. With joy, with peace, with rest. Sin blocks His plans and there is only one way to fix it. It is to unblock the pipe. Jesus said "Repent".
Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Do you know what repenting means? Repenting is turning away from the sin and back to God. It's saying, "I am going to look at that little blockage, that little compromise, that little hidden thing that no one except God and I know about. I'm going to look at it and I'm going to call it what it is. It is sin. It is anti God. It is blocking Gods plan for my life and I'm going to turn away from that and hand that part of my life over to Jesus. I know I've been holding it back. I know I've been kind of denying it. I'm going to hand it right now over to Jesus in humility and obedience."
I guarantee you, when we take that step, when we hand that blockage over to Him and say, "Lord, you know something, I don't even know how to get rid of that blockage but You do. Take it away." I guarantee you that the Spirit of God will start flowing and fill us absolutely to overflowing.

Let's face it – life can be a bit dry.  A bit on the parched side.  Maybe we have an inkling that it shouldn't always be like that, but somehow that can be so hard to believe.
I don't know if this has ever happened to you but sometimes we feel like we're running out of steam. You know what I mean, whatever it is we do in life, at home or at work or maybe at some community group, we give and we give and we give and little by little it saps our energy. All that giving drains us.
And even if we have a bit of a holiday to recharge the old batteries somehow emotionally, even spiritually, there's still this tiredness, an emptiness, a sense that, well I'm not sure if I have a whole bunch more to give.
You're a mum with a difficult teenager or a sick child and maybe juggling a job. Or you're a dad, the bread winner if you like and you've been grinding away at this job for what seems like an eternity and one day you wake up and the river has just run dry. There is just nothing left to give.
It doesn't have to be a full blown burn out you know, even though that happens sometimes, there are so many people out there living, let me call it a sub-optimal life. A life that is not everything it could be or should be. People who are tired and listless. People with a sense that life is drifting or just slipping by. People who are stressed and carrying around these heavy burdens worrying about this and that.
Fears a big problem you know amongst men and women and it all starts to affect your health and your sense of well being and we don't sleep well. And it seems that all we can do when we open our mouths is to whinge and complain about this or that. You'd be amazed how many people on paper have everything you could hope for. You know, a good family, a loving husband or wife, great kids, a career, a job, financial security. Yet they're living lives of stress and worry and fear.
I called it sub-optimal living or you can just call it unfulfilled or you can call it stressed and tired and irritable. Call it whatever you like but it's a life where it doesn't seem to be what it's meant to be. Now I'm not talking about the different seasons we go through in life, we all know we go through seasons, we all go through ups and downs and summers and winters and bright sunny days and cold howling brutal days.
I'm not so much talking about that up and down. I'm talking about this ongoing sub optimal inner life, whether or not the circumstances on the outside are good or lousy. I'm talking about having a life inside that's worth living.
I was challenged the other day by a good friend of mine, Max. Now let me tell you about Max. Max works with me here in the studio. He's a silent partner in all these radio programs. He produces hundreds of programs each year with me. Max would have to be one of the most preached out guys on the planet earth. I mean he's involved in other ministries, one called Ellel Ministries, a healing ministry that does great stuff.
And Max gets preached at day after day after day after day after day, bless him. Over a cup of tea and toast with honey the other day he says to me, "Berni, you know you talk as though having peace and joy in your life, 24 x 7 is a normal thing, like everybody should have that? Well ... maybe God's done some amazing things in you and fast tracked stuff so that you can be some high flying preacher but maybe it's not like that for the rest of us."
That really challenged me. It really got me thinking. Is that what I believe? You see I see myself as just an average Joe Blow who gets behind a microphone and shares Jesus with people. Am I talking about something that's realistic or is it a pipe dream? Am I talking about reality?
You see I spent the first 36 years of my life without God. At least I hadn't turned my life over to God. I did it all on my own or so I thought. I was competent, I was surgically ruthless as a businessman yet I had no real joy in my life. Now I met Jesus along the way when I was about 36 years old and I decided to take to heart what He said.
I didn't want a religion, I was after a relationship. Not a bunch of rules, it had to be something real, something that worked. And that's why today I'm working in this ministry called Christianityworks producing these radio programs. The bottom line is, if Gods real and Jesus is who He said He is, He has to make a difference in my life and so I read about Jesus and what He said and just accept Him with simple child like faith.
I think that's the key. Some of the things He had to say really struck home for me. John chapter 10, verse 10:
The thief (talking about the devil) comes only to steal, kill and destroy but I have come, says Jesus, (get this) that you may have life in all it's fullness and abundance.
In fact the word that John uses there for abundance literally means "super abundance". We just don't have a word that's an equivalent in the English language. And then again in Matthew chapter 11, verse 8. Jesus said:
You who are tired, you who are weary, are you burdened? Come to me and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, learn from me. I'm gentle and humble of heart and you'll find rest for your souls.
And again, John chapter 7, He said:
If anyone's thirsty (I love this because this is for me because I was really dry). If anyone is thirsty let them come to me and drink because whoever believes in me, from them rivers of living water will flow deep from within.
By this He meant the Holy Spirit whom those who believed in Jesus were later to receive. And then, when the disciples were going through this turmoil, Jesus said:
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I don't want to give to you as the world does, don't let your hearts be troubled. Do not be afraid.
You see, Jesus never promised that bad things wouldn't happen to us. He never said, "no one's going to persecute you, no one's going to hurt you, no one's going to be rude to you. You'll have this wonderful life, you'll have 2.4 well adjusted children, you'll live happily ever after into old age."
He never promised that kind of sugar candy coated life. In fact the opposite was true. He said to His disciples, "They persecuted me, they're definitely going to persecute you. They killed me, they're definitely going to kill you. Take up your cross and follow me."
Jesus would not have got a job as an executive in a PR or marketing agency I have to tell you. He told it the way it was. No spin, straight up and down and you know, that reality of life that you and I experience, the ups and downs stands in such stark contrast to these wonderful promises I just read out. Life super abundantly. Rest. Peace. You're thirsty, come to me, fill up, drink and it will overflow out of you.
Now I believe we all have a choice. We can look at our circumstances and say, 'I'm going to believe that these things that Jesus promised never could happen to me 'cause you know something, my life's so bad, the people around me are so bad, it's so tough, I've got this hangover from the past. No, those promises from Jesus aren't for me.'
We can put our faith in bad things, in our circumstances, or like a child in the midst of all those difficulties we can say, "You know something, Jesus promised this stuff to His disciples and those guys were going through some really tough times. And I've given my life to Him, I'm one of His disciples and those promises, those promises are for me. I'm going to believe it like a child."
I believe that faith is a gift from God and maybe God wants to give you the gift of faith today, simply to believe like a child in the promises that Jesus made.
I have come here (He said) that you may have life and have it super abundantly.
Does that mean the sun's going to shine every day? No it doesn't. Does that mean we're not going to be afraid some days? No it doesn't. But I believe Jesus Christ wants to make a difference in my life and He wants to make a difference in your life.