A Different Perspective Official Podcast

As we contemplate the year ahead, we can't think for too long without thinking about our relationships. The good ones.  The mediocre ones.  And, the downright destructive and hurtful ones too. It's just so good to be with you again today, looking forward together at the year that lies ahead. And as we think about that year, all the good things and the difficult things that are going to come our way, it is hard to think for more than a few minutes without turning our attention to relationships. Have you ever though about how many relationships you have? Relationships ranging from absolutely crucial to distant; fantastic to fiasco; blessing to bust. And those relationships it turns out have a huge impact in the quality and the effectiveness of the lives that we lead. So what if we looked across all those relationships and looked at the ones that are causing us grief and did something about them. What impact would that have on our lives this year? This week on A Different Perspective we're looking at spring cleaning our lives. Over the week so far we have look at spring cleaning our homes, our finances, our priorities. If you have missed any of those you can listen to them again online at our website www.Christianityworks.com . There are different sorts of people in our lives and one of the groups of people that we have in our lives are what I have called "Poisonous" people. People who drag us down. People who criticise and abuse and compromise. Recently my wife Jacqui and I met a couple. Here was this married woman behaving improperly without setting appropriate boundaries. It was so easy for us to have friendships and relationships with people who are "Poisonous" people. There is a great picture of the apostle Paul on the island of Malta. You can read about it in the 28th chapter in the book of Acts in the New Testament. He is picking up some wood and a viper, a snake, bites him on the hand and starts pumping poison into him. And he shakes it off and throws it into the fire. We all know people like that. People who when we are around them they pump poison into our spirits. I would contend that part of having a healthy life is looking at some of those relationships that in fact we shouldn't even be in. Some of the sorts of people that are so bad for us we need to just say, "I am not just going have a relationship with this person." You might be listening and say, "But that's not a very Christian attitude to have." I would like to point to you what Jesus said to the disciples when he sent them out. You can read about it in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 10 verse 14. He said "Look, go into these towns and tell them about the good news. Tell them about Me. If they don't listen shake the dust of your feet and go into the next town." Sometimes there are people in our lives (and in our hearts we know who they are) we are having friendships and relationships with that are just dragging us down. Is it time to spring clean those. Maybe those people are really close, maybe they are husband or wife. Maybe someone is being hard on us and it is hurting us. Well this is my husband or this is my wife, I just can't leave them. I would agree. It's not time to trash a marriage or our children. That is not what I am talking about. But in that case I just wonder whether it is time to deal with the issues. To try and figure out what I am doing wrong in this relationship. Honestly. Half the time bad relationships come back to what I am doing not what the other person is doing to us. And also dealing with issues. If someone is always angry with us, if someone is always criticising us, or if someone is always whinging, sure let's love them. Let's encourage them, let's be there for them, but let's speak the truth in love. But if you are having a tough day and if you just feel like grumbling, and you're with me, I will empathise with you, I will counsel you, I will listen to you. I will love you. But I tell you what there is one thing I will not do. I will not sit down and grumble with you. And I won't let you ruin my life. Sometimes we need to confront issues. Because if we let poisonous people continue to pump poison into us, eventually it is going to hurt us. The second group of people I would like to talk about is distant people. There are sometimes people we should be close to, our family, maybe and older parent, maybe an older brother and sister that have grown up. Maybe our kids. You know, kids go from being a kid to being a teenager and somewhere along the line there as most teenagers do, they close their lives off. And we end up feeding them, clothing them, driving them, disciplining them but sometimes we don't have a relationship with them. It's not an easy time having teenagers in our family. And parents have a kind of different set of standards and kids want to do… you know what it's like. You've been there. What do you do about people that are distant to us that we should be close to? What can we do to spring clean that relationship? I truly believe that we need to be creative in serving them. In talking to them. In building bridges for them. It's so easy, it's so much fun and we reap such great rewards. Who is it in your life? Who is it in my life, that we should be close to but somehow we have drifted apart? You know you are an incredibly creative person. What things can you dream up? How can you use your imagination, your abilities, who God has made you to be, to be creative about building a bridge back into that person's life; building a relationship into that difficult teenagers space. It is an exciting thing to contemplate. Dealing with poisonous people, that can be hard; building bridges across gaps that's is exciting stuff. The third group of people I think we need to talk about are people who ooze God. You know who I am talking about. Those people that you know that have a special sort of wisdom, this grace. They are just a joy and a blessing the be around. They have a deep influence on us. You know what I think, I think we need to hang around those people more; to watch, to listen to learn, to ask, to really understand them. The apostle Paul wrote this in one of the letters in the New Testament. It is the letter to the Philippians chapter 4 verse 8, "Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just and pure and whatever is a blessing, whatever is commendable if anything is excellence or anything worthy of praise—think about those things." I'd like to turn that around. If anyone one is good and honourable and just and pure, and if you know anyone who is a blessing and is commendable and does excellent things, hang around them! We live in a world that hungers after role models. We have footballers, we look at actors, we look at musicians. What about some of the good and Godly people around us.If we are going to spring clean our relationships, shouldn't we hang around with some people who just ooze God out of their pores. Poisonous people, distant peoples, people who ooze God. The last part of spring cleaning relationships - I wanted to leave the best till last - Jesus. Because I believe that we can't do the first three without Him. One of the things I love to do, is I have a grand piano in my study. And I love sing and to play that piano and there is one particular song that I particularly love. And the opening lyrics go like this, "Oh Lord you're beautiful, Your face is all I see, And when you eyes are on this child, Your grace abounds to me." The bible says, "If we take a person size step towards Him, He takes a God size step towards us." Some people look at Jesus and it never occurs to them that He is a person, that He is someone to have a relationship with. That He is someone to listen to and to pray to and to let Him speak into our spirits. And yet that is exactly what He wants for us. And James said, "Look, if you are struggling with wisdom", and I believe that as we look at dealing with poisonous people and distant people and people who ooze God, "if you are struggling for wisdom, go and ask Him and He ungrudgingly gives to those who ask." If I were going to spring clean my relationships I would start with the best. Jesus.

Balance – if only we could get some balance back into our lives.  It can be tough can't it?  But the way we spend our time – well it comes from the priorities we set – deliberately, or unknowingly. It's just great that you can join me again today. I was driving along in my car just the other day. And I drove past a newsagent. You know how they have the newspaper headlines on the signs outside the store? One of the headlines said this ... "Money or family". Ouch! That really hits a raw nerve with a lot of people. Balancing work and family. Just after that I ended up having breakfast with a man visiting from another city and during the breakfast he received a phone call from his son's teacher. There was a problem with his young teenager. You could see it on his face, as he talked. The tension, the feeling of being torn between being away from work and spending time with his family. He travels a lot you see. The balance can be so hard to get right. Maybe we need to spring clean our priorities? This week on ADP we are looking at spring cleaning our lives. I know it's now spring, but it is kinda the beginning of the year and we are looking forward to all the good things that could be happening this year. And I just wonder if it's not a good time to look at some of the rubbish, some of the baggage that we carry around and say, "Why don't I have a spring clean. Why don't I get ride of some of this stuff, so that I'm not carrying its weight around all during next year." Today I would like to talk about spring cleaning our priorities. So many people are looking for a miracle from God. I wish God would do this, I wish God would do that. If there is a God why does he let this happen in my life. And yet they are not dong their bit in managing the basics, the mundane things that God leaves up to us. They want to feel good about themselves yet their house is a pig sty. They wonder why when they walk in they feel depressed. They want to be a real giver and help the poor, but their finances are a disaster. Today I would like to look at getting some balance into our lives. "But Berni you don't understand, I don't set my priorities, I have all these other things going on". Don't give me that. We can claim to be a victim of our circumstances. Or instead we can come to grips with this basic reality. My priorities in life are mine. And your priorities in life are yours. When our life gets out of balance, it's because of the way that we are prioritising what we do. It's the setting of our priorities that dictates how we spend our time. After all, my diary is mine, I am the one that puts meetings and work and things into my diary. And you diary is yours. And we can claim to be victims, but the answer is it is up to us. "But Berni you don't understand, my boss expects me to work long hours and to do this and to do that". Well maybe you need to educate your boss. Maybe it's time to draw some boundaries and some lines and say, "Well you know, I have to have sustainable life. I have to spend time with my teenagers. I have to spend time with my wife or my husband". And if your boss can't be educated maybe it's time to find a different job. "No, no you don't understand, I have a huge mortgage; I have this house that I am paying off. I need the money… I have to … " Do you need the big house? Do you need the big mortgage? You know we look at all these things in our lives and this is a given, the house is a given, the mortgage is a given, the job is a given. Maybe it is time to change jobs. Maybe it is time to take control and set priorities and say, "My family is important to me. My kids are important to me, and maybe if I take a different job and earn a little bit less money, and maybe live in a house that is a bit smaller or closer to work, maybe I will have more time." Maybe it is time to re jig the priorities. "Ah but there is so many people that need my help you know". Maybe it is time to learn to say, "No". Maybe it's time to ask God, "What do you want me to do? What have you got me doing, what are you doing?" it is interesting how Jesus said, and you can read this in John's gospel chapter 4 verse 19, Jesus said: Truly I tell you, the Son only does what He see's the Father doing. There were so many things that Jesus could have done when He was walking on the Earth, there was so many people He could have helped but He just listened to God. He listened to his Father talking to Him in His spirit. And He went and did the things that God was already doing. I see so many people, running around doing dead works. Things in their lives that God never planned for them. God never anointed them to do, and yet they're racing around doing them. And wondering why they're getting burned out. Now there are times when we have to work long and hard and it can be tough. When I took over the helm of this ministry, Christianityworks here in Australia, the ministry needed some serious work. There were some issues and they needed a lot of work and we were launching new radio programs. And so I made a conscious decision over the next twelve or eighteen months I was up at 4:30am. And they were long days, twelve, thirteen sometimes fourteen hour days, day after day, week after week. Even in the middle of all of that, and still today, every morning when I get up, I spend somewhere between three-quarters-of-an-hour and an hour with God. And when I have worked 12 or 13 hours, I say at four or five in the afternoon, "That's it, its time to stop. I am having my evening off and spending it with my wife Jacqui and my daughter Melissa." And even when I was working those long hours, mostly I had my weekends off. And there were people who consistently tried to intrude into those times. When I set those boundaries and said, "After 5pm that's it. I have been working for twelve or thirteen hours, I now need to spend time with my family, I need to rest." People would try and ring. So this is what I did, I turned my mobile phone off, I turned my computer off, I didn't go to my email and I created a space where my family and I could spend time together. God doesn't need me to burned out. You don't need me burned out. I have a dear friend a wonderful, wonderful man, been a Christian for many years. He is one of natures gentlemen, just a delightful human being. Was recently diagnosed with depression and I thought, "How can this happen to him." It turned out he hadn't taken a holiday for 4 years. We were sitting having a coffee the other day and he said, "Duh, I brought this on myself." He is absolutely right. Now God is helping him and dealing with him. And he is rearranging his priorities and his work life so that he has more rest. One of the things I always do in life is take a holiday, every year, a few weeks off, to rest the soul. Time and time again you look at Jesus and He had sort of "rock star status" when he was wandering around Jerusalem and Judea. He was healing people, crowds, thousands of people, crowds of four and five thousand. When you recognise that the population of Jerusalem at the time was fifteen thousand it was like a third of the city coming out to hear him speak. So he had this huge rally going on. A gruelling schedule. He came here to serve not to be served. But time and time again you read about him drawing away from the crowds, getting in a boat and going away and resting, spending time with God, spending time with just his closest friends. Someone said to me recently, a dear friend of mine, Barry Chant, "You know Berni you can't live your life on the front line. Sometimes you have to pull back and rest". Now if Jesus did this as the Son of God, if it is good enough for Him, I figure it is good enough for me. The problem is that when our life is out of whack we become weak. When our life is out of whack we become weak. What are you priorities? God, family. Doing things for other people. What about you? What about rest? We neglect that and our life falls apart. As you and I look forward to this year, I believe God wants to bless your socks off. And I believe God wants you to bless other people's socks off. If we are going to do that we need to have a cold hard look at our priorities. What are yours? What's some of the rubbish in your schedule and your time? That you need to throw out. Is it time to spring clean your priorities? It's worth a thought, isn't it.

Sometimes, our heart can be aching – if only I had enough to give more money to the poor and the needy.  And so the next thing we do is go and buy something useless on the credit card. Hmm. In recent years there's a new word that's appeared in the vocabulary of sociologists. That word is Affluenza. It's about the high social, personal and environmental cost of over-consumption. The bloated sluggish and unfulfilled feeling that people get from over consumption. Work more, shop more, live less. The research tells us that actually in the west it is becoming a serious social disease. And yet 24/7 is seems people are going down to the local shopping centres running the plastic through the machines spending it on stuff that in a years time will probably be lying disused at the bottom of the wardrobe. And then you get the credit card bill. It turns out that there is a lot of people that live in a constant state of debt and for what? Spring Cleaning our lives. I know it's not spring but you know as we look forward to the year its kind of nice to review our lives, to look at different parts of our lives, and think where's some of the rubbish in my life that I can leave behind. Yesterday we talked about spring cleaning our homes. Now some people want to live a good life and feel good about themselves, and yet there house is a pig sty. And they wonder why when they walk into their home they feel depressed. Sometimes we have to deal with the mundane issues to give God some space, to bring miracles into our lives. Today I would like to talk about our finances. What does it means to spring clean our finances? Jesus actually talked quite a bit about money. He said: Where you treasure is there your heart will also be. Sometimes people read that and they kind of miss the sequence that He is using. Sometimes they read it the other way round, they read where your heart is that's where you'll spend your treasure. But actually he puts the money first. He says where you spend your money, where you invest the cash, that's where you will invest your emotional energy. If we invest in conspicuous consumption, what ever that means in each of our lives and our social context, if we buy, buy, if all we want to do is get the new car, get this, get that… that's where we end up investing emotionally as well. Maybe that explains why people end up feeling so empty when all they do is try and spend money. That used to be me. It used to be so important to me that I had the latest up market car. It used to be so important to me that I had the latest this and the latest that, the best this and the most expensive gadget there. You ended up being bloated but you are never satisfied. Yesterday on A Different Perspective we looked at the story that we find in the book of Acts in the New Testament, of the apostle Peter being in jail. He's locked up, he's being guarded by Roman soldiers. And in the middle of the night an angel of the Lord comes to him, taps him on the shoulder and says come Peter lets go. Put on your clothes put on your shoes put on your belt and follow me. Miraculously the chains fall off his hands, he walks past the guards and they are asleep. They get to the outer gate and the gate swings open of its own accord. There are two dimensions to this story. There's the mundane, there's the angel saying to Peter, "Get up, put your coat on, put your belt on, put your sandals on, follow me." Do the mundane things that you can do for yourself. And the other dimension is the miracle. The fact that God showed up at all. The fact the chain fell off, the gate flew open. Sometimes we hunger after miracles in our lives and we ignore the basics the mundane. If only we would spend some time getting the basics right. Maybe that would give God some space to bless us with his miracles. We spend, spend, spend. We just spend money. We end with sky high debt on our credit cards, we cant' pray for a miracle to get us out of that. We can't pray for a miracle, say, "God when I wake up tomorrow morning I pray that there would be a zero balance on my credit card." We live in the days of credit cards. Back in the good old days when I was a little boy we lived in a cash society. My father used to bring cash home. He was paid in cash. He used to give Mum the housekeeping. When housekeeping ran out, well, that was it. And so there was a control on the way in which we spent our money. Now today, you can just keep running it up and running it up on the credit card. And when that one is full you can just go to the next credit card provider and get another one, and run it up and run it up. And so many people live under this power of debt. This is what Jacqui my wife and I have done in our lives in our little part of the globe to deal with the whole money issue, to spring clean our finances. Jesus is heavily into the realities of life. Remember when he teaches the disciples to pray which we commonly refer to as the Lord's Prayer. One of the lines in that is "give us our daily bread." God knows we need food to eat we need a roof over our heads we need pay for this and that and the other. So one of the things that Jacqui and I have done is we have a separate little bank account which is our housekeeping account. And that's where the money, each week the same amount, goes into that account and that's what we use for our groceries and the little things that we spend. And when that is finished and run out, you know something, it is run out. And that means that we can't get take ways until next week until the money comes back in again. Maybe it sounds old fashioned maybe it sounds a bit silly but it makes a lot of sense. It's so basic it's so simple. The other thing that we do is we have automated debits every month out of our bank account. The first thing that comes out is our tithe, giving to God's work. Now I am going to talk about that in a little minute. The mortgage payment comes straight out. Don't have to worry about it never gets behind. The monthly insurance for the house comes straight out. So we've streamlined those payments that need to come out every month. We know when major bills are coming. We plan for the car registration and insurance. We know what the income is, we know what outgoings are, we know what the surplus is, and we know how much we want to save, and therefore what our discretionary spending is. This is not rocket science, right? But none of this is really high tech. If we would just do some of these basics and not spend more than what we earn, then by little step by little step, we would dig ourselves out of this hole that we call debt. The miracle is in truly believing in that God want to bless us in all areas of our lives including finances. Now let me talk about this question of giving to God's work. giving to the poor, giving to the work of ministries. A tenth seems an awful lot but you know, but it's a number that comes up time and time again. And lots of people who believe in Jesus actually tithe. It's a step of faith. You know when you're down in that hole of debt and we go to God and we say "Lord I actually want to give to you, I want to give a tenth to you." That is a huge step of faith. It is a huge stretch. But I believe in giving in a way that is a stretch. And as we do that, as we believe that God blesses us in our giving, it is just amazing to see how He comes along. It doesn't mean that He makes us all trillionaires. You know that is not what this is about. God is not a slot machine, where you put a coin in one thing and pull a handle and the money pours out. That's not what we are talking about. I was listening to a story the other day of a family who decided they really wanted to stretch and give a certain amount to some of God's work. And that meant that they didn't have enough money to go and do they entertainment things, you know, the movies, skating, all the stuff they use to do. And so they gave the money and they cut back there entertainment. And they were so blessed because they ended up spending so much more time together as a family. As you and I look forward to this year there are some decisions we need to make if debt is a problem. The first one is doing the mundane. Getting the basics right. Doing the cash flow, managing the bills and the second one is believing for a miracle. Having the faith that says, when I put God first, when I give to God's work first, when I give to the poor first, God will come, God will bless. God will love me and help me through this. I really believe that we are to give in a way that cost us something, that makes is a stretch. Manage with the mundane, move with miracles, believing this year, this year, is your year to deal with your finances. What does it look like for you? You start … with a spring clean of your finances.

So often – we can be looking for a miracle – and yet we forget to manage the mundane.  We want God to bless our lives – yet the house is a pig sty and we wonder why we're depressed. It's just great to catch up with you again, this year. There is something intensely satisfying about being clean. You know, you come home you're hot and you're and you're sweaty and you get in the shower, clean. Fantastic. Or your hair is growing so long. It's just driving you nuts. And when you get it cut you feel a million dollars. You with me? And I guess the same is true of your homes. When they are a mess it's kind of depressing. But when you put in the effort, clean the place up. Well, it makes a difference to how we feel about ourselves. So what about your place right now. How messy, or tidy or clean or dirty is it? Hmm … My wife Jacqui, my daughter Melissa and I, live in a small semi detached terrace house, right in one of the inner city suburbs of Sydney. Now it's a lovely suburb. But the house is very small, the block of land is very small, there is no off street car parking so we have to park our car on the street. When we bought it, it was a nasty little place. It was built in 1876 and had a very small, very plain layout, and the kitchen was just the most disgusting place. But since then we have renovated the house, and now we live in a well designed, nicely finished home. It's not big, but it is very comfortable and it's lovely. It's a pleasure to live in. And when the renovation was done, there was fresh paint, and clean surfaces and new floorboards, and it was really nice. But even after the renovation as time goes by, as we live life in a house, it gets messy and dirty. Have you ever notice that? I call it the pollution principle. Life causes waste and mess. It's true in a whole bunch of different parts of our lives. It's true with our bodies, we breathe in oxygen and we breathe out the waste product carbon dioxide. We perspire, we urinate. We, you know, produce waste products. It's true in our home…that bottom draw in the fridge, under the fridge, the washing machine, the dust on the side of the side board. The garbage bins, the toilets, if we don't get rid of the waste and clean up, it just builds up. And ruin our lives. Imagine if we never threw the rubbish out. It's true with cities and the pollution, and the smog and the congestion. It's true in our relationships, even in good relationships. There is static sometimes, there is a by-product of something that really is rubbish, in a lot of relationships. So there is this type of pollution principle that applies throughout our lives. That normal, everyday lives, even good living creates rubbish, it creates waste it creates by products that we have to get rid of. So why are we talking about rubbish. Well this week on A Different Perspective we are looking at "Spring cleaning our lives. "I know, I know it's not spring. But here we are the beginning of the year, and I just wonder if it isn't time to look at our lives, at different parts of our lives. And think about leaving the rubbish behind. So this week on a different perspective we are going to be looking at spring cleaning our home, our finances, our priorities, our relationships and on Friday our souls. This whole pollution principle, how do we get rid of the pollution, how do we get rid of the rubbish. And I think a good place to start is the home because it makes a difference to the quality of our lives. Having a nice home, is something that we all really aspire to. Whether we live in a really big expensive suburb or whether we live in a more modest place. We still like to make our surroundings as nice as we can. But the reality is that so many people live in a mess. I don't know if you remember that comedy, that sit com in the 1970's called "The odd couple". But it was about two men who were living together. Felix Unger played by Tony Randall, and Oscar Madison played by Jack Klugman. And Felix was obsessively tidy; he was so clean and so tidy. And Oscar, well he was the slob. And the whole comedy was how these two men shared an apartment. Now look, Felix lived at one extreme of cleanliness, a Oscar lived right at the other extreme of being a slob. And when I talk about spring cleaning our homes, I am not talking about being a Felix Unger. I am not talking about being obsessive. I love one of the things that Joyce Meyer, a wonderful preacher from the US once said, "Some people, well they want to take authority over the devil in their lives, but frankly they don't even have the authority over a sink full of dirty dishes." It can be true can't it. The environment we live in has an impact on the way we feel. My wife Jacqui and I, as I have said, live in this terrace house, and even after we renovated we left a cellar under the lounge room pretty much unrenovated. It is the only place we have to store all those large suite cases, you now the stuff you have to find somewhere that often people put in their garage. We don't have one of those, so we have the cellar under the house. You open the door of the kitchen and you walk into this sort of cellar. Well since the renovation, we have been using the cellar as sort of a dumping ground. But you know little bit after little bit this goes in the cellar, that goes in the cellar, this goes in the cellar. And we turned around one day and said "You can't even move down there. You just cant use the place." It was really driving us nuts. And so there we went into this basement and into this cellar and we spent a whole Saturday cleaning up. Getting rid of all the rubbish and tidying it up and storing things efficiently. You know something, afterwards we were tired and we were dirty and I had to move big boxes of heavy tiles, but it felt so good to have that mess cleaned up. Life often looks and feels like a prison like a trap, as though we are in a rut at home and work and marriage. And we look forward to another year and.. there is nothing much to look forward to. I think some of us need to get out of the rut and a big part of getting out of a rut is ditching the rubbish. There is an intriguing story in the Bible in Acts 12 about Peter when he was in prison, let me read it to you: The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. Quick, get up! he said, and the chains fell off Peter's wrists. Then the angel said to him, Put on your clothes and sandals. And Peter did so. Wrap your cloak around you and follow me, the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street." It's a great story. But there are two parts to that story. There is the miracle and there is the mundane. The miracle is that the Angel arrived. The miracle is that the chains fell off Peter. The miracle is that the guards fell asleep and they just walked out. But did you notice what the angel said to Peter. He said, "Get up, put on your belt. Put on your sandals, put on your cloak. Follow me. There was some mundane things, some very ordinary everyday things that Peter could do for himself. And that the angel told him to do for himself. Some people want to live life completely in the mundane. And deny that God does wonderful, wonderful miracles in our lives. Other people live in the mundane and think I will not do anything in the mundane, "I am just going to believe in God for a miracle. I am going to believe I am going to wake up one day, and that cellar under the house will be clean." But the reality here, the little story about Peter in prison, is that God works through both. God works through miracles and God works through the mundane. I wonder as we look forward to the year ahead, whether if we don't just deal with the mundane, to deal with the mess around our house that is driving us insane and believe in God for a miracle or three. I wonder if it wouldn't be a different year. I am believing for you. I am believing for you to have an amazing year. That the chains that are holding you back, are going to fall off. That the things that are pulling you back, well, got is going to take them and set you free. I am going to believe that, and I am going to be praying that for you. But at the same time, I think you and I, need to start with the mundane. To clean up, to feel better and to do the things we can do to work ourselves out of a hole. To bring us to a place where we can accept miracles. What do you think? So, how is your place looking?

A lot of people spend a lot of their time imagining how good life would be, if only this…or if only that.  In fact, you can spend your whole life living that way. Until finally, you wake up and realise, you were supposed to bloom where you've been planted. This week, as we've been standing on the threshold of yet another New Year, we've been taking a look at the newness that God brings when we decide to have a real relationship with Him. We're made up of body, soul and spirit, you and I. Not in three nice little separate boxes but instead, each one's so tightly coupled with the others to make up who we are. And where religion fails time and time again to meet the needs of the whole person, a real relationship with God, the God who created us in the very first place, created us in His image to have a deep and wondrous relationship with Him, that deep relationship brings real refreshing. And this time of year, I think that's important. In fact, I think its important 365 days a year but especially as we look forward to this New Year. Do you know, there's one thing that I think that we get wrong sometimes. We imagine somehow that "refreshing" – that a new start – comes when our circumstances change. "I know, things would get better if only I could get rid of this person out of my life. If only I could change jobs or find a decent wife or husband, or get that pay increase that I really need, then things will be better." But sometimes, in fact, often times that's not the case at all. We've seen that on the programs over this week. Sometimes what God really means is for us to bloom right where we've been planted. I want to share a story with you today because this whole idea of running away from the things we don't like in our lives isn't something I'm up on my little pulpit preaching to you about. It's something that we all go through, me included, and learning this lesson of blooming right where we're planted, for me at least, it's never been an easy one to learn … probably because I grew up in the very first disposable generation – the first generation whose parents could take a pill not to have us; the first generation where packaging and cups and plates and knives and forks and spoons and all sorts of stuff became disposable. I grew up in the generation where people stopped darning their socks. Instead we just throw them out now and buy new ones. I grew up in the generation where people started, on mass, disposing of their marriages, the one relationship that's meant to last a lifetime. I grew up in the generation where, instead of holding down the same job for a lifetime, people began to move jobs every two or three years. I grew up in the generation where, in fact, not just jobs were changed but it's quite common now for people to change their careers. And I'm also a product of this society in which I've grown up, a society that's moved away from the permanent to the transient; from commitment to variety; from valuing loyalty to valuing adaptability. We value different things, we can do different things. Technologies that cost a fortune a few years ago have become commodities today. I remember my first transistor radio – all my Christmases had come at once! Wow! Today, we're taught to change our mobile phones about as often as we change our clothes. Technologies have become adaptable; when we change our moods we can have different coloured covers for our mobile phones. Even one card that's out there on the market that comes with different coloured panels so you can change them when your mood changes. Can you believe that? 'What I want, when I want it'. That's what we're taught and the more we swallow that stuff, the more it becomes a part of us. So back to the story I wanted to tell you before I started rabbiting on. Before I became a Christian I used to go through relationships like changing socks. See, here was the deal. I was at the centre of the universe; it was my way or the highway, if you didn't suit me I'd get rid of you. As a friend, as someone I worked with or if something that I was involved with didn't suit me I'd just walk away. I don't like this, don't like that, no problem, just ditch the people or the organisation or the activity or whatever it was. Then, then I became a Christian and, not some religious nut, not into religion much at all actually. I just started getting involved with Jesus, started attending a Church and what I discovered was, that God wasn't so keen for me to ditch people when they didn't suit me. In fact, more and more, He led me to hang in there with people when they were dead set pains in the neck. Of course, you understand, I'm never a pain in the neck. Fortunately I'm perfect and the world revolves around me. Yeah right! More and more, God grew me in this sense that instead of changing people like socks, instead of changing my circumstances or my situation or my job or whatever, God's plan was actually for me to bloom right where He'd planted me. Can I tell you something? That was a real revelation and it's always a difficult lesson for me to learn and you know why? Because it requires sacrifice, it requires me not just to tolerate other people begrudgingly but it requires me to love them with a good heart. Because, unless I do, I don't bloom, I wither. Have a listen to Psalm 92, beginning at verse 12: The righteous will flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in the Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord, they flourish in the courts of our God. They're planted and then they flourish, the palm tree, the cedar tree. See, they don't go racing around from one place to another, they plant, they get planted, they stay in one spot. Then they flourish, where? In the house of the Lord. What is the house of the Lord? God's people, Gods family and you know what, like any family, they're not always going to get on. No doubt there are times when we do change jobs or careers or Churches or whatever. It's happened a handful of times in my life but you know most of the time, my hunch is God wants to plant us where He wants to plant us and He wants us to flourish, to bloom right where He has planted us. I love that word "flourish". It's such a rich word; it's such an abundant word. So many people spend so much time dreaming about tomorrow and what life would be like if only this or if only that. Isn't that right? But all you and I have today is today and God wants us to flourish in it. "Flourish" means to bud, to sprout, to shoot, to bloom; new growth, flowers, seeds, fruit. Do you get it? "Flourish" is a fabulous word and the way you flourish isn't by racing around here and there. The way you flourish is by putting your roots down. Now you and I are going to flourish differently, we have different gifts. You and I produce different fruits but flourish is exactly what God wants for you and for me. And that means sometimes, He's going to prune us, pruning hurts. Jesus said: I am the true vine, my Father is the vine grower and he removes every branch that bears no fruit but every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes to make it bear more fruit. I just felt to share this with you today. Maybe instead of running away from the things we're struggling with, maybe this year is the year that we trust God and stay just where we are and we flourish. See, running away never works, 99% of the time the real problem's in us, that's why God prunes us and that hurts but when we let Him prune us, all of a sudden we flourish. And that's so rich, so abundant, so satisfying to have love for people who mistreated us. Maybe it's time to stop dreaming, just, just get about the business of flourishing … flourishing right where God has planted us.