A Different Perspective Official Podcast

It turns out that the more we try to fill ourselves up with all the fun stuff this world has to offer, the emptier we feel.  When are we finally going to wake up to the fact that life's not just about "me"?
Life is full of paradoxes and contradictions and complexities. It's funny how we can see something one way, believe with all our heart that that's how it is and then in an instant you discover we had it all wrong. Like lemmings sometimes, we all rush in one direction and just in time someone says, "you realise that's a cliff".
People and societies chase after this idea or that belief; they believe it with all their hearts only to discover it doesn't work. Take just one thing, consumerism. The advertising industry has a single, very simple mantra that rings out through almost every advertisement and it's this, "if you buy me you'll be happy".
And to convince us of that each ad has glossy images of success plastered all over it, images of the things we aspire to: beauty, luxury, quality, comfort, happiness, a great marriage; a beautiful, happy, successful woman; a handsome, strong, driven man; delighted, well adjusted teenagers without acne.
In effect the ads tell us what to aspire to because they're defining success. Fine dining, business class travel, crystal clear wide screen televisions, big houses. Who doesn't want those things? But when we finally get there it's a case of, well so what? Great but now what's next?
Who doesn't want a good espresso coffee or sit in those wide comfortable seats at the front of the plane or to drive a nice car or to have a happy family? You know the ads that really, really get me, you see father's day and mothers day ads on television sometimes and they have images of happy well adjusted children, you know come in on mother's day or father's day morning and jump on mum and dads bed and they're all smiling, they're all happy.
What mother or father doesn't want that to be the story of their family? Or even the margarine advertisement, you know in the mornings and all these happy people, all well dressed and their hair groomed, having breakfast, drinking freshly squeezed orange juice, scraping margarine on perfectly cooked toast, just to sell margarine.
Or those watches that cost, you know up market, thousands of dollars type watches and you have images of multi million dollar racing yachts that appeal to the man inside the man. Or the four wheel drives. You notice they're always on beautiful wide country roads which lead towards freedom, never in the maddening peak hour traffic where most people drive them. Or the washing powder that will make your clothes whiter than white and brighter than bright. Or the showers that never need cleaning or the germ free sparkling toilets.
This incredible list, on and on and on, all with the same message, buy me and you'll be happy but the plain simple fact is, it's just not true. I mean most of the things they're good, there's nothing wrong with any of those things but they don't fulfil us, they don't fill us up. Our career, self actualising through our work and power and big salaries, whatever people want out of their careers. You see it doesn't matter what it is or how exciting or glamorous it appears ultimately all work becomes mundane and ho-hum.
You might be thinking, 'Berni what's the matter with you today? I mean why are you all down and pessimistic?' Well actually I'm not but I know a lot of people who are. They're living on this treadmill all their lives, round and round and round just to discover that it's hollow and it's empty. You know something, even the most wonderful marriage on the planet, if there's something not quite right inside one of those people there, it can end up being hollow.
The problem is we've been conned, this buy-me-and-you'll-be-happy thing we know it doesn't work but what's the alternative? I mean so often we don't know anything else so we just keep on going round and round on the same track again and again. You see people swilling around those glossy, ritzy shopping malls, what for? Are they looking for happiness there?
These last few weeks on the program and again this week we're looking at what it means to discover your destiny, to be the person you were made to be, to live the life you were made to live. And we've been unpacking this sort of emptiness that so many people feel, this nagging sense of dissatisfaction.
Can I ask you something? As you look forward to the rest of your life is how you're living it now the way you want to live it for the rest of your days on this earth? Are the things that you're aspiring to, the things you've been working so hard for, the things that you've been sacrificing your life for, are they really worth it? Is the story, the mantra, the perspective on life that society has somehow infused into you the story that you want for the rest of your life?
They might be unsettling questions, I hope actually that they are because this week I want to unpack this paradox, why is it that things don't seem to be working out in life sometimes? Why is it that somehow we try and live our lives kind of the way we're supposed to, the way that's supposed to make sense but it doesn't make sense? I don't feel fulfilled, I don't feel like I'm being the me I was meant to be, why is that?
To me this is the biggest paradox of all and it's one I had to discover and unlearn the hard way. The great British columnist Bernard Lennon once wrote this:
Countries like ours' he said, 'are full of people who have all they desire and yet they lead lives of quiet desperation, understanding nothing of the fact that there is a hole inside and no matter how much food and drink we pour into it, how many motor cars and TV's we stuff it with, how ever many well balanced children and loyal friends we parade around the edges of it, it aches.
See so many people relate to that, sad but true. Can I ask you today, do you relate to that? As we've been spending this short time together today are you one of those many people who, if you're really honest with yourself, would say, "you know, truly there is something missing in my life. The way I've been living my life, the way I'm living my life today is not the way I want to spend the rest of my life?" Because if you are the next question is, so what are you going to do about it, huh?
You may think that I'm railing against having money or having possessions, I'm actually not. There's nothing wrong with money, there's nothing wrong with having possessions, have a listen to what wise old King Solomon wrote in the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse 19:
Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them and to accept his lot and to rejoice in his toil, this is the gift of God.
Maybe you have wealth, maybe you have possessions but do you have the power to enjoy them because that power is a gift from God. Accepting your lot, enjoying who you are, rejoicing in the work you do, all those things are a gift from God.
I like so many people of my generation made the mistake of believing the mantra of the advertising industry, "buy me and you'll be happy". It's not true, it never was true and it never will be true. Happiness and contentment are a gift from God.
Joy is something that comes only ever from an intimate close relationship with God, knowing that through Jesus Christ we've been forgiven, knowing that through Jesus we have a fresh start, a new life, the opportunity to fulfil our individual, custom made, handcrafted destiny that was written down in Gods book of life before any of our days ever existed.
The Apostle Paul hits the nail right on the head in the first chapter of the Book of Ephesians when he writes that God has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places and it's only when we lay hold of Gods blessing, real blessing, eternal blessing, blessing that lights up our hearts here and now, the very blessing of God Himself that all this stuff that we have, all the things that we do are enjoyable and make sense.
Does that sound like the sort of story you want to live out for the rest of your life? Yeah me too.

Some people look at themselves in the mirror and think – Ahhh, what a wreck!  What could God ever do with me?  But what if He doesn't see you the way you do?  What if, actually, He has this amazing plan?
Yesterday on the program we were talking about the fact that it can be a lot easier to believe in something like the resurrection of Jesus or eternal life than to believe that God could or would step into a particular situation or problem and help us right here and now let alone that he'd step into who we are and deal with some of the rubbish that's going on inside us. How could God take a beaten-up old wreck like me, me for goodness sake, and do anything with me?
I want to be the "me" I was meant to be but it all just seems impossible. And you know, so many people have that problem, I had that problem. It's only now that as I look back on almost twelve years of walking every day with Him I can see how patiently he's restored me back to what I was meant to be. He means to make us into a new creation, to throw out the rubbish, to keep the good stuff and restore us back to his original plan.
There's a beautiful poem by Myra Brooks-Welsh I'd like to share with you today. It's called The Touch of the Master's Hand, maybe you've heard it before maybe you haven't but it's really worth listening to. Here it is:
much time on the old violin
but he held it up with a smile.
"What am I bidding good folks?" He cried.
"Who'll start the bidding for me?
A dollar, a dollar then two, only two?
Two dollars and who'll make it three?
Three dollars once, three dollars twice,
going for three." But no,
from the room far back a grey haired man
came forward and picked up the bow.
Then wiping the dust from the old violin
and tightening the loosened strings
he played a melody pure and sweet
as carolling angels sing.
The music ceased and the auctioneer,
with a voice that was quiet and low
said, "What am I bid for the old violin?"
And he held it up with a bow.
"A thousand dollars? Who'll make it two?
Two thousand and who'll make it three?
Three thousand once, three thousand twice
and going and gone." Said he.
The people cheered but some of them cried,
"We don't quite understand,
what changed its worth?" And swift came the reply,
"The touch of the masters hand."
And many a man with life out of tune
and battered and scarred with sin
is auctioned cheap to a thoughtless crowd
much like the old violin.
A mess of pottage, a glass of wine,
a game and he travels on. He's going once, going twice,
he's going and almost gone.
But the master comes and the foolish crowd
never can quite understand.
The worth of a soul and the change
that is rort by the touch of the Master's hand.
It's just incredible to me how easily we put ourselves on the scrap heap. How easily other people put us on the scrap heap.
Life throws some horrid things at us, I'm 48 years old now, I've been through a marriage breakdown and a divorce as I said yesterday. Twelve years ago, that's where I came to faith in Christ in the middle of all of that. And when you're experiencing deep rejection you have this sense of worthlessness. It was like I lost everything, all my hopes, all my dreams, all my future, I was just like that dusty old violin. Truly.
People don't expect the guy on the radio to talk about himself like that but that's how it was. I just couldn't see beyond tomorrow. I couldn't see how I could ever be useful again. Or achieve anything again. Or become the me I was meant to be. Who the heck was that anyway? But there's something you have to realise about a dusty old violin, it's still a violin. Maybe it's neglected, maybe it's disused, maybe it's a bit out of tune, maybe it doesn't look much anymore. But it's still a violin.
You and I are made in the image of God; you want to read about that? Go to the very first chapter of the Bible, the book of Genesis, the first page and it will tell you.
God looked at everything He had created and he said, "Let us make man in our image. Male and female He made us.
Our mistakes and all the stuff that life throws at us can definitely make us look and feel and even sound like that old violin but you know, you know something all it needs is for the master to come along to tune the strings and to strike up a tune and all of a sudden everybody else remembers what they'd forgotten, it's still a violin.
Within a few months of going through all the things I was going through, before my emotions had had time to heal, before I'd been able to struggle through things God called me to do what I'm doing now. I began producing radio programs and it was hard and it seemed like four or five or six or seven years went by and then all of a sudden you know, God did some amazing things. I'm now so happily and wonderfully married to my wife Jacqui and we have such a great relationship and we're so blessed and I'm doing what it is God made me to do and people looked at how quickly all that seemed to happen.
Didn't happen quickly from where I sat, it took forever from where I sat but other people would look at me and go, "my goodness, what's happened to you? How is it that you're on the radio and you're speaking with all these people and, how is that?" Nothing to do with me, I was just a battered old violin in the corner somewhere, washed up but then there was the touch of the master's hand and he came along and He struck up a tune and He knew exactly who I was and what He'd made me to be and what He'd made me to do and He put me in that place and that's what I'm doing today.
There's a message for you today, the master wants to come along and breathe a new breath into you, a new song. Maybe other people can't see it, maybe you can't even see it but He can. He yearns for you to grow into a realisation that you are who He created you and He has a plan. And He wants you and me to be the person He made us to be.
And that only happens when the violin is re-united with it's maker, the one who knows it inside out; the one who can restore it to its former glory. The one who when he touches it is able to make it sing. And you know that old violin, most times it's deeper and richer and more beautiful in song and tone than when it was first made, when it was new. It could never have played with such a mellow warmth and beauty and maturity back then but now, now because of what it's been through it has a wonderful, wonderful warmth.
Today, just twelve years on, every week I get to share the good news of Jesus Christ with millions of people through the radio and internet around the globe, literally millions of people. That's not the tune that God wants to play with you perhaps but He knows what the tune is and I can only do what I do because I was an old violin. No-one would have given tuppence for me twelve years ago and then the master came along. That's how He works in my life and in yours.

Believing in Jesus is a step of faith.  Plain and simple.  Believing that He can and will make a difference to our lives – well that's a step of faith too.  And sometimes – it can be a huge step.
Over these last few weeks we've been talking about being the "me" we were each meant to be, and do you know, we all want that. We all want to somehow grow into who we are meant to be and to realise our destiny. And maybe over these last few weeks you've been tuning in and out and something inside you is just shouting, "YES! YES! That's what I want."
But … There's always a but. "But surely God would never do this for me. Nothing's ever going to change in my life. Okay He raised Lazarus from the dead. Okay He raised Jesus from the dead. That was a couple of thousand years ago. Okay God can do anything He wants but you know something, I just don't think He'd do it for me." That's the crutch, isn't it?
It's amazing. People can believe in a whole bunch of things. We can believe that God could forgive us. We can believe that Jesus rose from the dead. We can believe that we have eternal life. In a sense they're all easy because they can seem a long way off. But when we look at the very real issues and problems of life sometimes they're really big and ugly.
Believing that God can intervene and make things better well, because these problems and issues are so close and sometimes when they're so close they look so big and God feels so far away, believing that God can make a difference. That can be a lot harder. Believing that he can deal with those yucky bits inside us, that can be even harder.
I was an incredibly tough, self-centred businessman. I used to eat wimps for breakfast, you know. So when it came to believing all those other things about God and Jesus and stuff I knew straight away there was some tough things for me to deal with. And on top of it all I was going through a marriage breakdown and divorce. You think, 'surely not Berni'. Absolutely, that's when I came to faith in Jesus twelve years ago. That's life, That's my reality.
I was listening the other day just to a high-profile businessman who I know really well and he was talking about his life. He took a company from nine million to over half a billion in turn over a few years ago. Everyone looked at him and thought, 'what a super star, what a corporate hero this man is'. But in secret he had his head down over a toilet bowl and he was coughing up blood because that's what the pressure was doing to him on the inside and he almost lost his marriage.
The crazy thing you and I do, we all are prone to it. We look at outward signs of success. God, God looks at our hearts. He looks at the stuff that's going on on the inside and I love that about Him. You know something, if he isn't in the business of fixing those things, whatever they are (and yours and mine are bound to be different mind you,) then what's the point? I mean if God isn't going to make a difference, if it doesn't work, what's the point? You know something, when we're in the middle of those things it's so hard, it's so incredibly hard to believe that he could ever come along and make a difference. You know what I mean or is it just me?
The apostle Paul was writing to the Ephesian Church and he was busting to help them with exactly that, this is what he wrote almost two thousand years ago. He writes:
I pray also that the eyes of your heart might be enlightened so that you would know the hope to which God's called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength which he exerted in Jesus when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms far above any rule on earth.
You see, Paul's saying here as you get to know God better, my prayer for you is that you would know that the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, that very same power is the power that's at work in you and that's a promise of God. Paul said, "I want you to know the hope, the riches and the power that you have, the incomparably great power, that power that raised Jesus from the dead is the power that's at work in you and me".
A few years back I went to Toronto, Canada and I visited the CN tower which is the tallest, man-made, free standing structure in the world and part way up at 342 metres there's an observation deck. Now the trick with this observation deck, it's enclosed but it has a glass floor. Now they tell you that the glass floor is five times stronger than a concrete floor. Ha ha! Well that's great but it still doesn't help. I mean I looked down at this glass floor and I was petrified and it took me such a long time to go out there.
It's an awful feeling when you look down between your feet and you see the ground way below and these little specks flying around, they're birds but they feel like they're miles away. And I wasn't the only one. There were a lot of people who were really scared to walk out on that glass floor even though the engineers will tell you the glass floor was five times stronger than the concrete floor.
But here it is. If you or I want to be the "me" we were meant to be we have to walk out onto God's promises and put our faith in Him. Just like that glass floor. And okay, it's unknown and it maybe an uncomfortable feeling, it maybe unnatural to trust God with our lives.
You see, people want to believe in Jesus from a distance and that's not what He wants us to do. He wants us to put our faith in Him. To put our trust in Him. To trust Him with our lives because His plan is to give us life in all it's abundance, hope and riches and power. The apostle Paul again in Galatians, chapter 2, verse 20 writes this, he says:
I have been crucified with Christ and it's no longer I that live but Christ who lives in me.
Now then, a lot of Christians know that passage particularly well but this next bit is the one that I want to point to.
The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Let me say that again, "The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me."
Pretty safe to believe in Jesus from a distance and then we grumble and say, "How come I'm not living the life he meant me to have? How come I'm not being the "me" I was meant to be? How come I have a sense that I'm missing out on my destiny?" The answer is because you don't become the "me" you were meant to be until you have that relationship with Jesus and you trust him with your life and when you live the life in the body by faith in the Son of God.
When we take a hold of that life, the life that He promises us, we discover what it is to be the 'me' we were meant to be. And it's a step of faith. We have to step out and believe it before we can see it. That's His plan and, I know, sometimes it's hard to do and sometimes we're afraid and sometimes we feel like we don't have enough faith but just take the step, just take the step and say, "Jesus, I'm going to trust you with my life, with every little bit. With that difficult teenage kid, with the relationship I'm having with my wife or my husband, with the problem I'm having at work. I want you in that space because I want to trust that part of my life with you."
He wants you and me to be the person He made us to be; to live life with an active faith in Jesus Christ. When we take that step out, He steps in and He does things we could never do. He deals with things we can never deal with and the reason He does it that way is so that you and I can never boast, "It was me. Haw, haw look what I did, I did it." I didn't. He did.

When we make a change – a real change for the better in our lives, it involves in effect dying to the old things and living in the new things.  But try as we will, sometimes we can still be wrapped up in the old.
I don't know if you've ever watched one of those old black and white westerns on TV, I grew up with them. There were the baddies and the goodies and then there was that ubiquitous wanted poster, you know the one that said "Wanted. Dead or Alive."
Now if we really want to live life to the full, to live out our destiny, to be the me we were meant to be then we have to figure out what we're alive to and what we're dead to because so often, things that look like they'll bring us life end up poisoning us and the things that we think are too much trouble, too hard, they're the ones that bring us life. It's true in sport, it's true in work, it's true in life itself.
When I was age 36, about 12 years ago now, I knew I wasn't being the 'me' I was meant to be. I had a lot of potential but somehow never seemed to fulfil it, always it seemed to allude my grasp. I was running an Information Technology Consulting business and we had some really clever people, we were really good at what we did. But the business never quite seemed to blossom the way it should have. It did eventually after I gave my life to Jesus.
In that process of change, letting go of my old ways and taking hold of the new ones, I had to figure out that I was going to be dead to some old things and alive to some new ones. I had to believe what God had to say about me and take hold of his new life that he'd given me. I had to die to some things. To sin. In Romans chapter 6, verse 2 it says:
What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace might increase? By no means! We are dead to sin, how can we live in it any longer. The past. If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation, old things have passed away and look, everything is new.
I had to die to myself and my selfishness. For we know that our old self was crucified with Jesus so that our sin might be done away with so that we're no longer slaves to sin because anyone who has died is freed from sin, to the law, the whole rule based attitude to religion. For sin shall not be a master because you aren't bound by the law anymore but you're walking in God's grace. So my brothers you are dead to the law through the body of Christ and dead to be dead to the devil. Now I don't know whether you believe the devil exists, I do because Jesus did but I'm dead to him because God has rescued me from the dominion of darkness and brought me to the kingdom of light.
We have to start believing what God has to say about all this stuff, about sin, about dying to the past, about dying to ourselves, about doing away with rule based religion, about dying to the devil. I had so much sin in my life, there was so much stuff there I didn't know where to begin. Self, I was so full of myself, an ego the size of a small planet and my past was full of so many hurts and mistakes. And I was so prone to sort of a dreary, legalistic, rule bound approach to religion. You know we have been transferred. Jesus paid a huge price.
A great story told by Nicky Gumble who does the Alpha course. (If you've ever been involved, it's a great course to do.) And Nicky Gumble talks about the European footballers. You know when they get transferred from one team to another team a huge amount of money changes hands in transfer fees, millions of pounds are paid to transfer a footballer from one team to another team. But once the footballers gone to the new team, he plays for them. He wears their colours. He goes to their training sessions. If the old coach from the old team rang him up and said, "Where are you for training?" He would say, "Well, I've transferred to a new team. I go to the new team's training now."
When we make a change – a real change for the better in our lives, it involves in effect dying to the old things and living in the new things.  But try as we will, sometimes we can still be wrapped up in the old.
And it's the same thing what Jesus did for you and me on the cross. We've been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. We don't play with the old team anymore. We don't train with the old team anymore. We don't wear it's colours anymore. We're on His team and He paid for all. He laid his life down so that you and I would be forgiven and have a clean start in the kingdom of light.
Wondering why I can't be the me I'm meant to be? Wondering why it's not working for me? How come my life is not going where I want it to go? Well, are we dead to this old stuff? Have we said, "I'm on a new team; I'm playing for a new team. I'm not going to this old stuff anymore. I'm alive to some new things, I'm alive to Christ"?
I've been crucified with Christ and it's no longer 'I live' but Christ who lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
I'm alive to the Holy Spirit because through Christ Jesus, the spirit of life, has set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8)
I'm alive to God the Father. Jesus said:
If anyone loves me they'll obey my commandments and my Dad and I will love them and we will come and make our home with them. (John 14)
I'm alive to grace and truth. Jesus became a man and dwelt among us and we've seen his glory, the glory as of the only one of the Father full of grace and truth.
We're alive to righteousness, peace and joy. The word isn't about food or drink or physical things, it's about righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
It's like this, you know, if you have two dogs, a big black one, a Doberman and a small little white one, the question is, which one is going to grow up stronger? And the answer is, the one you end up feeding. You know it doesn't matter what area of life, if we want to achieve something we have to give some things up. It's normally about giving up short term gratification for longer term gain.
When I was a kid growing up, my parents made me learn the piano. To tell you the truth a lot of the time when I was young I just hated having to go to practice, it drove me nuts. Today? Today I can sit down at the piano and make it sing and it brings me such enormous delight to sit down at the grand piano my Mum gave me and to play it and to worship God and to enjoy it.
Whether it's dieting or exercise or saving or learning all of those things, good things cost us something. You want to lose weight you have to die to the chocolate bar and come alive to some healthy foods and exercise. You want to save up for a deposit for a house; you have to go without some things today that you'd like in order to have the money to pay the deposit on the house. You'd like to study and get a degree; you have to give up some money and some leisure time now to get there.
You want to live an amazing life, an abundant life? You want to be the me you were meant to be? It's time to die to some things. There are some things in our lives that stop us from being the "me" we were meant to be. Maybe it's anger, maybe it's a sense of unforgiveness, maybe, maybe it's a nasty attitude, maybe it's a selfish attitude. I mean, there are so many things they're like, they're like grave clothes that we're wrapped in. Jesus came to give us this new life but we're not living it because we've still got one foot in the grave.
Maybe this isn't the message you wanted to hear today but deep in your heart you're going, "You know something, I think God might be talking to me today. I think God might be putting His finger on exactly what it is that's stopping me from being the me I was meant to be."
God has a plan, He designed you, He dreamt you up, He hand crafted you, you are His workmanship. He has a plan. He has a whole bunch of good things for you to walk into but it's not going to happen while we've got one foot in the grave.

It's one thing to believe in Jesus and to believe in eternal life – but there are people walking around who believe that stuff, yet somehow they're not quite living the life that He promised us for here and now.
You know, I reckon if there is a God, I mean if God is God then he is going to want us to live life to the full. I mean outrageously, abundantly to the full. Not a two out of ten, not a seven out of ten, a minimum of ten out of ten and then some. That doesn't mean there won't be ups and downs, there always will be. But I don't know, my hunch is he'd want us to live a life of outrageous joy right here through the ups and the downs.
But I know so many people, people who believe in Jesus and people who don't, who seem to be living a two or a five or a seven out of ten kind of life always with this nagging sense of destiny that there's something more for them but never really get in close to that. Me? I want to be the 'me' I was meant to be, how about you?
And yet there's an amazing portrait of that kind of half-life, not really complete life, in the Bible. Yesterday we looked at the story of Lazarus, that he was dying, he was a good mate of Jesus, they came to tell Jesus "Lazarus is about to kick to bucket." And Jesus waits a few days before he goes to Lazarus. And do you know what everyone says when he gets there? "Jesus, how come you didn't get here sooner? You could have healed him." I mean they'd seen Jesus do healing stuff.
It's a bit like us, we look at Jesus sometimes and God and we look at the mess we have in life and we say, "God, how can you dish this up to me? Why didn't you come earlier? You could have made it better".
Jesus said to the people, "You know something, I'm glad I didn't get there because God is about to make a point and to do something you don't expect". Everyone wanted Jesus to have fixed the problem before Lazarus died but Jesus said to his disciples, "Lazarus is dead and for your sake I'm glad I wasn't there so that you might believe. Come on, let's go to him." So no-one could see it.
Jesus was saying it to Martha, his sister. He said, "Your brother will rise again." And Martha said, "I know he'll rise in the resurrection on the last day." So she doesn't get it, she's happy to believe in "pie in the sky when you die" not "steak on the plate while you wait". Let's pick up the story and just read the story, if you have a Bible you can go to it, it's John chapter 11 and it begins at verse 38:
Jesus was deeply moved when he came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. "Take away the stone" he said. "But Lord," said Martha the sister of Lazarus, "By this time there's a bad odour, I mean he's been dead for four days." And Jesus said, "Didn't I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God."
I love that, "If you believed you would see the glory of God."
So they took away the stone and then Jesus looked up and said, "Father I thank You that you heard me, I always knew that You would but I'm saying this for the benefit of the people around me, they might believe that You sent me." And when he said this Jesus said in a loud voice, "Lazarus come on out!" The dead man came out. His hands and feet were wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth was around his face and Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."
Jesus was deeply moved. I mean, he loved Lazarus, He cared for him. He was a good mate. He wept for him. So it's not some publicity stunt but it's a tender encounter and people were thinking, 'well, what's Jesus doing? He can't do this I mean Lazarus is dead, Lazarus is on the nose'. I reckon we have to be careful about telling God what He can't do, about putting God in this little box. Imagining somehow that he could never bring Lazarus back to life, imagining somehow he could never really bring life back into us.
You see all these people, Martha, Mary, the disciples, all the others, they'd seen Jesus do amazing miracles, they knew him. Yet they didn't believe that he could bring a man to life. But he did.
But look at the picture of Lazarus when he walks out of the tomb. "Lazarus, come out" said Jesus. "The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen and a cloth around his face." You see, Lazarus was bound up in his grave clothes and this is a picture that looks like a lot of people that I know, living this half-life. On the one hand, Jesus has spoken a word of life into them, on the other they're still bound up in their grave clothes, bound up in the things of the past.
When Lazarus walked out of that tomb, beneath those grave clothes he was living and breathing, there was colour in his cheeks but he couldn't go living the rest of his life in those grave clothes and the same is true for us. Some people have life from Jesus and yet they have one foot in the past, in that dead half-life that didn't work, one foot in Jesus' new life kind of hoping things will work out and they never quite do it.
You know something, there's a reason for that, you can't live your life wrapped in grave clothes. Let me say that again, you can't live your life wrapped in grave clothes. If we believe in Jesus we're like Lazarus, we have colour in our cheeks, he's breathed life into our souls yet people want to hang on to the things of the past, it just doesn't work.
What sort of life do you think it would have been for Lazarus if he had continued on in those grave clothes? And anyway that wasn't Jesus' plan for him, look at what Jesus says. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go." You like that last bit? "Let him go. Set him free; set him free to be the Lazarus I meant him to be."
Being the "me" I was meant to be is a "boots and all thing". "Oh, you know Berni but I want to hang on to this compromise or that attitude, I still want to cheat or lie or be tight with my money or not serve other people and I want to be selfish because you know, all this Jesus stuff is not particularly convenient". Great! Great, stay in your grave clothes but don't expect to be the me you were meant to be because you can't be.
The alternative is to set our hearts like flint on being the "me" we were meant to be no matter the cost. You know there is a cost? There is a cost for a heroin addict to give up heroin, there is a cost for an alcoholic to give up alcohol, there is a cost for a smoker to give up smoking.
The first step is admitting where we are and the second step is deciding, here and now, "you know something, that joker on the radio has a point, I have to do something. I can't live my life in these grave clothes anymore and you know our grave clothes are all different."
For some people, it might be lying and cheating, for other people it might be gossiping, for other people it might just be an attitude of selfishness. You look in the mirror and you know what it is.
If you want to be the "me" you were meant to be, you've gotta do what Jesus said. Take off the grave clothes 'cause that's what sets you free. And Jesus is the one who does that. We can come to him and say, "Lord, I just heard this message and you know something? I've got some grave clothes happening in my life, I've got one foot back in that half-life and I recognise that and I don't know what to do about it and I want you to help me".
That's the starting point. That invitation for Jesus is when he steps in and He starts taking control and He deals with the things we can't deal with. Sometimes we have to make tough decisions and sometimes we have to ditch some things to get on with life. The choice belongs to each one of us.