Sermon 23rd January 2011

Today our Curate, Gill Tayleur, continues the series the Purpose Driven Life

PLANNED FOR GOD’S PLEASURE
Let’s pray: Heavenly Father, take the words I’ve prepared and speak to us this morning. Give us open minds, open hearts and open wills, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Last week Cameron asked us what is our life metaphor, as in, “life is like a ...” Well this week I read this quote, “Life is like a mirror, we get the best results when we smile at it.” I like that, and this quote about smiling: “A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.” And the famous one, “Start every day with a smile and get it over with.” Back to smiles in a minute.

If you weren’t in church last Sunday, you missed the start of our new series based on this book, the Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren. It’s a book we’re hoping lots of you will want to read during Lent this year, as it’s split into 40 short chapters, one for each day. We’re also hoping it’ll be the subject of chat after church and of some of the small groups that meet around the parish during the week. Anyway if you missed Cameron’s introduction to this series last week, do read it on the parish blogsite or call the parish office and we can send you it in the post.

If you were here, you’ll remember Cameron explained that the book sets out 5 key purposes for our lives. Today we’re looking at the first, which is that we were PLANNED FOR GOD’S PLEASURE. For God’s PLEASURE! For his enjoyment, to make him happy, to make him smile!

Does that sound right to you? Or do you think God is more likely to be scowling at you, looking disapproving or disappointed?

The idea that God can be happy may be a strange one to you. And the idea that YOU can MAKE him happy even stranger. But there are many occasions in the Bible when God is described as having a whole range of emotions. He gets sad, jealous, angry, has compassion, is satisfied, glad, rejoices and even smiles and laughs! Certainly God can be made happy, made to smile. And the Bible teaches that what makes him happy is loving us, and us loving him back.

What makes God happy, is loving us, and us loving him back.

We can perhaps grasp that idea, if we picture a really good relationship between parent and child, where parent and child adore one another and might be blissfully happy in a loving hug. That’s why God has made us! He has made us to love us, to give him pleasure! So that we would love him back, to give him more pleasure!

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” We’ve just heard Jesus say that’s the most important commandment of all, that it’s crucial.

So HOW do we do it, how do we love God? What does it look like? We may have a pretty good idea how to love our child, or parent, or someone else, and we know how to make them smile, but how do we love God? and make him smile?

I’d like to suggest there are 5 ways we love God and make him smile.

The first is, we love God by trusting him completely. Again, think of a parent and child. A young child, at the edge of a swimming pool, and the parent, in the water holding out their arms, saying, come on, jump! I’ll catch you! And the child may be scared, too scared to jump, and walks away from the edge. Or they may look their mum or dad in the eye, and jump in, splash! They love it! A very happy experience for both parent and child.

God wants us to trust him. Even when life is scary and seemingly all going wrong. He has his arms out to catch us, to stay with us, whatever we go through. We love God and make him smile by trusting him completely.

Second, we love God and make him smile by obeying him whole heartedly. Jesus said in John ch 14, “if you love me, you will obey my teaching, and my Father will love you.” We love God by obeying, not out of duty or fear, but out of joy and gratitude for God’s love for us. There’s a little acronym you may have heard us use, ICJO: Instant Complete Joyful Obedience! We are to do what God wants – instantly, straight away, no arguing! Completely, not just a little bit of it, a feeble effort - but all of it! And joyfully, without complaining! ICJO, Instant Complete Joyful Obedience, is not easy, but it’s part of how we love God, and how we make him smile. Again, think of a parent. When a child does what the parent asks, first time, no nagging, it’s so happy!

So we love God and make him smile by trusting him completely and by obeying him whole heartedly. Next is by praising and thanking him continually. Everyone loves some thanks and appreciation and God is no exception! If a friend does me a favour and I say “oooh thank you, you’re a great friend”, that makes them happy! And we can thank and praise God in word and song, in church together, at home alone, at the bus stop, doing the washing up, going for a run, in the queue in Tesco’s, whatever we’re doing. If we can’t thank or praise him out loud, we can have an attitude of thanks even if we’re concentrating on something else. And we’ll often find that focussing on all the many things we have to thank God for, and to praise him for, not only makes him smile but makes us smile too.

Fourthly then, we love God and make him smile by using our abilities, the way he has designed us. It’s not only when we’re doing so called spiritual things that we make God happy. He loves watching over every detail of our lives, working, playing, resting, eating, the lot. You being you – and using the particular gifts and abilities that you have, makes God smile. One of my favourite films is an old one, Chariots of Fire, about runners in the 1924 Olympics. One of them is a Christian, Eric Liddell, and he says, “I believe God made me for a purpose, and he made me fast. When I run, I feel God’s pleasure!” God made Eric a fast runner, and God smiled when Eric ran fast! If he has made you a good cook, he smiles when you cook well!

So we love God, and make him smile, when we trust him completely, obey him whole heartedly, thank and praise him continually, use our abilities as he has designed us, and lastly, when we enjoy what he has given us. When we enjoy blossom in springtime, or music, or dancing or a good book. Again, think about parents and children. Parents love to see their child take pleasure in something they’ve given them! And God has given us eyes to enjoy beauty, ears to enjoy sounds, noses and taste buds to enjoy smells and tastes, and nerves in our skin to enjoy touch. How wonderful, for us and for God, as he takes pleasure in our enjoyment!

Well a list of five things like that, can sound straightforward and even easy. The picture I’ve painted is of a lovely circle of love, God loving us and us loving him back, and that brings pleasure to him and to us. But the reality is, that it’s lovely alright, but it’s anything but easy. Complete trust in God? Instant Complete Joyful Obedience? Constant thanks and praise? No, this is not a way of life that comes naturally, for one simple reason. Naturally, we don’t want to live for God’s pleasure, we want to live for our own. We want to be at the centre of our lives, not God at the centre. We want our lives to be “all about me”, not “all about God”. And the key to living in a way that is all about God, all about loving God and bringing him pleasure, is an unpopular idea, SURRENDER. We need to surrender to God.

Surrender is a disliked word. It implies losing, and no one wants to be a loser! Surrender makes us think of admitting defeat in battle, or yielding to a stronger opponent in a game. In today’s competitive culture we are taught to never give up and never give in – so we don’t hear much about surrendering. If winning is everything, surrendering is unthinkable. We would rather talk about winning, succeeding, overcoming and conquering than yielding, submitting, obeying and surrendering.
BUT – BUT! Surrendering to God is surrendering to his love and mercy. Just think about that a second, surrendering to God’s LOVE!

Again picture a parent and child. The toddler is hurt, scared, yelling, screaming, and when the adult tries to help them, pick them up and tend their hurt, the child kicks, punches and flails about. But when the child gives in, surrenders, to the parent and lets them, they relax and can be cuddled and their wound seen to. They can be loved, and that’s what they needed.
Refusing to be loved by God, refusing to surrender to God’s love, is really foolish. But we all do it. We all do it, for all sorts of reasons.

One reason we won’t surrender to God, and so won’t receive his love and love him in return, is fear. We are scared of what might happen if we really surrendered and trusted God. What might he do? What might he say? What might he ask of us?
In order to surrender to God, to trust him, we need to know him. In particular we need to know just how much he loves us. The more we realise how much God loves us, the easier surrender becomes.

Do you know how much God loves you? In the Bible God says he loves you, he cares about the details of your life, he gave you the capacity to enjoy all kinds of pleasure, he has good plans for your life, he forgives you, he is endlessly patient with you. God loves you infinitely more than you can imagine. But the greatest evidence of God’s love for you is the sacrifice of his son for you. If you want to know how much you matter to God, look at Jesus with his arms outstretched on the cross, saying, “I love you this much! I would rather die than live without you.” God loves you that much!

Another reason we won’t surrender to God, is our desire to be in control. So much stress in our lives, in my life, is because of our desire to be in complete control. That’s really a desire to be god ourselves. But God is god and we are human beings and when we accept that, we can better become the human beings God has designed us to be. And surrendering brings peace, freedom and power, to get caught up in that wonderful circle of love with God.

That’s why God made us! To love us and be loved by us. And that’s what makes God smile. We were planned for God’s pleasure.

To love him with all our heart and mind and soul and strength, by trusting him completely, obeying him whole heartedly, thanking and praising him continually, using our abilities as he has designed us, and enjoying what he has given us.

I want to end with a question from the book:

Rather than ask, how much pleasure am I getting out of my life?
dare we ask, how much pleasure am I giving God in my life?
How much pleasure am I giving God in my life?

I’m going to try to ask that question at the end of each day this week, to see the ways in which I might have loved God well, and loved him better. Might you too, and even discuss it with someone?
How much pleasure am I giving God in my life?

Now let’s pray...
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your wonderful love for each one of us. We are sorry that we resist your love, and ask that you’d help us to surrender in all the ways we need to. So that we can grow to love you better. In Jesus name, amen.

Sermon 16th January 2011

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches based on the reading from Colossians 1:9-14
Well there's a question! Is it a circus? Or an onion? Maybe
a minefield? Or a roller-coaster? Perhaps a puzzle? How
does a carousel grab you? Some may prefer a 10-speed
bike? Others a game of cards? Still others, a symphony?
Or a dance? For the more serious-minded, it's a journey,
perhaps? By nature of the question itself, there is no one
universal, or definitive answer, of course. Each of us has
to say for ourselves – and most of us probably could do
too, with just a few minutes to put it into words ...

So, what is the question, then? Has anyone worked it
out yet? ... How do you see life? How do you fill in the
dots: “Life is a ... or like ... ?” To put it more grandly, What
is your life-metaphor? Whether consciously or not, most
of us do have one of them. The list that I began with are
all life-metaphors that I, or others, have heard people
claim for themselves. And they do matter, because how
we see our life almost always shapes our life, even if we
don't realise it. Our life-metaphor usually determines our
values, our expectations, our relationships, and our goals.
So, if we think life is a party, our primary aim will be to
have fun. If we think life's a game, or a battle, we want to
win; and so on ...

How we see our lives shapes our lives: so says the author
of the book that we begin studying today. And no, it's not
a line that you'll find in Paul's letter to Christians in ancient
Colosse! That's because we're temporarily departing
from study of specific book and passages from the Bible.

Instead, from now until the end of Lent, adults will focus
on a book written by a contemporary Christian leader. And
we're in good company: more than 30 million copies of
this book had been sold by 2007. A Google search on the
title, “The Purpose Driven Life”, produces over 3.5 million
links; and it even has its own entry in Wikipedia!

None of that is in itself any reason for us to study this
book, of course. Nor even is the fact that in its pages are
quotes from, or references to, no less than 1 200 Bible
verses – though that will hopefully reassure some. It's
not even that I fundamentally agree with the author, Rick
Warren, about how we see our life shaping our life. What
matters most is that we truly believe that this is the right
time for this church to ask, and answer, some of these
sorts of fundamental questions. As the sub-title of the
book asks, “What on earth am I here for?” And, as the
introductions adds, “How then do all pieces of my life fit
together?”

For reasons I'll explain shortly, those questions don't best
summarise the core of this book. But I'd best first confess
that this series was largely my own idea. I read this book
on sabbatical last year, and found it both very exciting,
and challenging. Given my enthusiasm for it the preaching
team needed little convincing that we should offer this
chance, for all of us to go on this same spiritual journey.
We then thought it best to make it a guided venture, so
together on Sundays. And our original 'excuse' for doing it
(inasmuch as we needed one) was Lent.

When we get there, in mid-March, we'll explore the biblical
significance of setting aside a potentially life-changing 40

days. But we quickly identified a problem with this plan.
To do this journey full justice is going to take more than
6 Sundays together. It is indeed designed to be a 40-
day journey. The book is deliberately written in 40 short
chapters, for reading and absorbing at the rate of one per
day. Of course we hope that's how many of us will want
to do it. We're offering to bulk-buy as many copies of the
book as people want – at about £5 each, for those who
can afford it. But we're encouraging you to wait until Lent,
and read it then, a chapter a day – except on Sundays!

On Lent's Sundays the preaching team will then offer our
considered thoughts on the book's 6 headings. But: most
of those headings occupy 7 days of reading, thinking, and
praying. There's far too much material to try and cram
into one summary. And so we decided to have 2 bites
at it. Between now and Lent comes the first round. The
plan is for these next six Sundays to inform, enthuse, and
challenge you – and to make you want to dig deeper for
yourselves. Then in Lent we'll have a second, more in-
depth go at it all. Again, the Sundays can only provide
summaries. But the hope is that in Lent many will of us
be reading the book, talking about it with others, in small
groups, after church – and buzzing!

Above all, the aim is that in Lent we'll help each other
to find ways to live out its truths. That's what we should
want to do, as we discover our life-purpose. It is a very
practical book, that aims to help us live new, changed
lives once we've answered that foundational question:
What am I here for? That's what the first section is about:
asking that precise question. The rest of it then is about

the 5 key purposes that Rick Warren says are our reason
for being. Those purposes aren't secret in any way: you'll
even find them on our programme card. Note how they
cleverly each begin with the same letter too. So, you
were: Planned for God's Pleasure; Formed for God's
Family; Created to become like Christ; Shaped for Serving
God; and Made for a Mission.

Hopefully at least some of you have spotted what's
missing from that list of purposes? It's the word 'I'. As
I said, those questions, “What on earth am I here for?”
and “How do all the pieces of my life fit together?” don't
summarise this book fairly. Well, here's the reason why
they don't: it's not about you. No, it's all for Him. At the
end of each chapter there's a short summary of what
ground it has covered. And there are two of those short
summaries from this first section: “It's not about you”,
and “It's all for Him”. And we can't ever forget that.

As I say, in this series our main focus isn't on the Bible
in our usual way. But each week there will be a relevant
passage to keep us on a straight path. Several are from
this particular letter, Colossians. It's specially useful one,
because this was Paul's advice to young Christians who
were needing to stand firm in challenging times. What
they believed, and were trying to live out was being
questioned in very subtle unGodly ways, and they needed
help. So Paul opened with this magnificent prayer for
them – in which the Colossians' role was pretty minor.

Of course, as ever it's a prayer that deserves full study in
its own right. But for now 'just' take the points from it that
we need to keep us on track. Simply put, they come down

to that these believers will stay fixed and focused on God.
Paul's prayer was that God would fill them with the Spirit's
wisdom and understanding. He prayed for that so that the
Colossians would be able to live as Jesus wanted them to
– and please him by doing so. They would then produce
every good fruit that God expects from His people, and do
it all in His strength. That way they would also be able to
endure everything with patience, and be joyful too. Their
joy, Paul prayed would fill them with thanks for what God
had done for them. He alone could, and had, rescued
them from the eternal death of sin, and brought them into
His kingdom.

I hope you see the common denominator in there again?
It's not about you. No, it's all for Him. Rick Warren is quite
right to stress that his isn't a self-help book. It's not at all
about how we can live a more fulfilled, happier, or better
life – except as an added bonus. It is about discovering
God's purpose, and then living for, and in, that. As he
says, we wouldn't expect invention to explain itself. We'd
ask the inventor to do that. So God as the inventor, or
Creator is the only place to start any search for meaning
in life. And that's just as well too.

There's an account in here of how a philosophy professor
wrote to 250 of the world's leading philosophers and
intellectuals in the late 1980's. The question he invited
them to answer was “What's the meaning of life?” He then
published their responses – including from those honest
enough to say they didn't have a clue! Others admitted
they had guessed, or had made it up. And some asked
him to write back and tell them if he found life's purpose!

There is alternative to human speculation about it, though.
We can turn to God's revelation of himself through His
Word in the Bible, and made human in Jesus. What He
made life, and us, for isn't any mystery, or secret. All we
need are eyes that are open to see it, ears that are open
to hear it, and then hearts that are open to receive – and
to live – it.

This is the life-changing adventure that's in store for all
of us through to the end of this Lent. It will be all new to
some people. Yes, of course others have already come
to the point of knowing that we are made to “live and
move, and have our being in Christ”. If that's where you
already are, seeing your purpose set out as clearly, and
as challengingly as it will be will be refreshing at the very
least. You'll have the chance to recommit yourself to living
on purpose, for God's purpose. And the repercussions of
doing that, both personally and corporately, promise to be
amazing. In closing I do want to inform, to enthuse, and to
challenge you, then – and make you want to dig deeper
for yourself. So, go on, dare to: this week write down how
you do see life. Write down too how your life-metaphor
shapes your life, and you. Then get ready for how next
time on this section I'll speak on the three key biblical life-
metaphors: how life is a test; how life is a trust; and how
life is a temporary assignment. But now let's pray ...

Ministry Fair 9th January 2011

Today, our Curate, Gill Tayleur's talk is based on 1 Corinthians 12:4-7
Next Sunday we’re going to start a new series, and it’s one I’m rather excited about! For 7 Sundays, we’re going to think about the ideas presented in a book called the Purpose Driven Life. It’s by Rick Warren, you may know it. We’re rather hoping that lots of us will read it as a Lent book this year. But regardless of that, we’ll all have the opportunity to hear what it says in those 7 Sunday morning sermons.

The book is sub titled, “What on earth am I here for?” Good question! - and it looks at 5 key purposes for our lives. One of those is Serving God. One of the key reasons we are alive, is to serve God and we serve God by serving other people.
I’m going to say that again. One of the reasons we are alive, is to serve God!
And we do that by serving one another.

We weren’t created just to consume resources – to eat, to breathe, and use things up. God designed us to make a difference with our life. There’s lots of advice out there about how to get the most out of life, but that’s not the reason God made us. We were created to add to life on earth, not just take from it. God wants us to give something back. So when we serve others in any way, we are actually fulfilling one of our purposes.

Service isn’t a popular idea in our me-first culture! The world out there defines greatness in terms of power, possessions, prestige and position. If you can demand service from others, you’ve arrived. But Jesus measured greatness in terms of service, not status. And God determines our greatness by how well we serve others, not how others serve us. This completely contrary to our culture’s view of greatness. It may be hard for us to get our heads around it. But it’s true. That we were made to serve God and others.

And because service is one of our key purposes in life, not surprisingly, to fulfil it, often brings a sense of fulfilment! And joy! Yes service can be a joy, when we do it out of thankfulness to God. We have so much to thank God for! He has lavished his love upon us, in more ways than I can count: with life and friends and family and love and most especially in Jesus his son. Jesus gave up everything to be born and die for us, the ultimate sacrifice of service, saying he came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life for us. And so we must respond in thankfulness and service, following his example.

So service isn’t an optional extra, it’s for all of us. Each of us has a role to play, and every role is important. There is no small service to God, it all matters.

In our Bible reading we heard,

“There are different ways of serving, but the same Lord is served. There are different abilities to perform service, but the same God gives ability to everyone for their particular service. The Spirit’s presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all.”
So there are different ways of serving, but they’re all for the good of all.

And in the church, it’s not hard to see how all service counts, up front or behind the scenes. Where would we be without musicians who have practised? Without the chairs having been put out, or last week’s dirty cups cleaned? If there was no one to care for our children, or no sermon had been prepared? Or no-one willing to watch over the children in the playground after church?
We all have a part to play. So that the church community functions as it should. For the good of all.

We all have a part to play, whatever our abilities. We may be good with words, or with children, or with money, or be physically strong, or musical, or really friendly or a great cook.

That’s how we’re made. With our own abilities, passions, experiences and gifts. And they add up to the unique way each of us can serve. God has a place in his church where our abilities can be used to make a difference. It’s up to us to find that place, to find what parts we can play.

Well there’s much more to learn about serving God, and we’ll hear more about it in a few weeks’ time, when we get to that part of the Purpose Driven Life series. But today we get the chance to begin to put some of it into practice, ahead of the course, as it were.
We’ll hear how in a few minutes, but for now I’d like to close by challenging you with this quote from the book:

The mature follower of Jesus stops asking, “Who’s going to meet my need?” and starts asking, “Whose need can I meet?”
Not, “who’s going to help me?” but “Who can I help?”
... How often do you and I ask that question?
Dare we ask it this through the rest of this service this morning, as we hear about the ways our service is needed? As we’ve heard, God needs all of us to play our part...

And now let’s pray
Heavenly Father we thank you that you have made us to serve you, and for the privilege and joy it can be to do so. Help each of us here this morning to be willing to play our part in serving you and one another, here at St Saviour’s. Amen.

The Booklet, Opportunities for Service is available on the Parish website:
www.hernehillparish.org.uk