1 00:00:02,360 --> 00:00:05,560 Great, well, let's I'll pray and let's begin. 2 00:00:05,600 --> 00:00:11,080 So Alice is going to going to speak and and she's been taking 3 00:00:11,080 --> 00:00:14,040 us on this journey in her talks for the last right the way 4 00:00:14,120 --> 00:00:15,680 through the year really. And what is the good news? 5 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:17,320 What's the good news of Jesus? What's the gospel? 6 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:19,440 How does it speak to us in today's time? 7 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:27,120 So it's it's crucial now, isn't it, as ever that the world needs 8 00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:31,040 the world needs Jesus. Same Lord, I pray that as Alice 9 00:00:31,040 --> 00:00:36,520 speaks to us this morning, you feed us as it says in the Lord's 10 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:39,400 Prayer, give us the day Our Daily Bread. 11 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:44,240 I so often pray that now thinking I need to hear fresh 12 00:00:44,760 --> 00:00:48,400 word from God to sustain me and carry me in the day. 13 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:53,960 So just as we need physical food and bread, Lord, we also need 14 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:57,720 your life giving word. So we pray you, you give us a 15 00:00:57,720 --> 00:00:59,440 day, Our Daily Bread. Amen. 16 00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:06,080 I was thinking about this, this idea of what is the good news? 17 00:01:06,120 --> 00:01:11,400 Often when we, when we have something to share that we 18 00:01:11,400 --> 00:01:16,400 literally can't keep in because it's explosive good news, it's 19 00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:19,080 often because there's an overcoming of bad news. 20 00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:23,040 I've, I don't think Becca will mind me saying this. 21 00:01:23,040 --> 00:01:24,640 She's not here. I've done this before. 22 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:29,720 She ran a marathon and she was just literally like, the only 23 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:33,280 reason I'm doing this, it's because I never, ever, ever have 24 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:37,680 to do this again. So she's like mile 20, mile 21, 25 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:40,720 She's like, if I don't do this now, I have to do it again. 26 00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:42,560 So I'm just going to overcome and overcome. 27 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:44,080 And of course, and it's really good news. 28 00:01:44,080 --> 00:01:46,440 She's, she's overcome and she's done the marathon. 29 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:49,320 She never has to do 1 again. Obviously, that's quite a 30 00:01:49,320 --> 00:01:52,080 trivial example. Actual bad news in our life is 31 00:01:52,080 --> 00:01:54,440 devastating. It's the thing we think about 32 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:56,800 all the time. It's the thing that we orientate 33 00:01:56,800 --> 00:01:58,680 our lives around. It's the pain, it's the 34 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:01,200 wounding. It becomes a focal point. 35 00:02:01,760 --> 00:02:06,080 And I want this morning for good news to be penetrative to that 36 00:02:06,080 --> 00:02:10,199 bad news. It it was it, it when Jesus came 37 00:02:10,199 --> 00:02:13,880 into the world and was explosively healing people from 38 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:17,080 their sicknesses and delivering people from their demons, He was 39 00:02:17,080 --> 00:02:20,840 actually turning bad news into good news. 40 00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:24,720 He wasn't an idea or a philosophy or a way of life 41 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:28,640 that's loving and peaceful. He explosively entered the bad 42 00:02:28,640 --> 00:02:33,200 news and it became such good news that we have testimony 43 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:36,600 after testimony after testimony of life changing encounters with 44 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:39,600 Jesus that people in the ancient world did something they never 45 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:41,560 do. They collect the testimony of 46 00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:46,320 ordinary people and put them into four ancient biographies 47 00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:50,560 because they couldn't stop talking about this person called 48 00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:54,400 Jesus who brought in and broke in to the bad news of their 49 00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:56,920 actual life with incredible good news. 50 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:00,520 I'm, I sit in the New Testament, I sit in the Gospels, and you 51 00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:02,760 cannot get round that. You cannot say you're a 52 00:03:02,760 --> 00:03:06,920 Christian and actually come into alignment with the fact that 53 00:03:06,920 --> 00:03:10,040 he's explosively turning our bad news into good news. 54 00:03:11,160 --> 00:03:15,760 So the one thing I'm learning, I've been mentored a bit by 55 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:17,680 Bill. So all the mistakes are still 56 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:19,400 mine, but I'm hopefully growing in it. 57 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:22,920 Just I'm just trying to make one point in every talk, the talk, 58 00:03:22,960 --> 00:03:27,120 the point today so we can go away and hopefully remember it 59 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:32,200 is heaven is not a person. Heaven is a place. 60 00:03:34,680 --> 00:03:36,040 Heaven. I'm just testing you all, 61 00:03:36,040 --> 00:03:42,320 listening. Heaven is not a place. 62 00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:46,680 Heaven is a person. Shall we all just say that 63 00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:50,160 together? Heaven is not a place. 64 00:03:50,560 --> 00:03:53,840 It's it's not the good place we go to when we die. 65 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:56,840 Jesus is the ticket over here to get us somewhere else. 66 00:03:57,080 --> 00:04:00,520 He is the destination, the tellos, the end game, the 67 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:04,400 formation, the life, the boldness, the courage, the 68 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:06,640 healing, the peace, the joy, the holiness. 69 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:09,080 It's him. It's in the person of Jesus 70 00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:11,960 Christ we go. So no, I should have got a 71 00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:17,720 slide. So I actually went on quite a 72 00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:22,160 personal journey with this because I was developing this 73 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:25,040 product called Biblios. And actually Zac's here. 74 00:04:25,040 --> 00:04:27,000 Should we say hi to Zac and Serena? 75 00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:31,600 Hi, Zac and Serena. Every month we get out Biblios 76 00:04:31,600 --> 00:04:36,520 in youth and Zac's there because I said there are like 70. 77 00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:40,040 And this is very incredibly poignant, and I don't want to be 78 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:42,920 trite or glib about it, but there are 70 Israeli and 79 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:47,720 Palestinian photos in Biblios of actual people who live in Israel 80 00:04:47,720 --> 00:04:50,440 Palestine, who lived at that time in Israel Palestine. 81 00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:52,600 And Zac was one of our photographers. 82 00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:55,000 And so I said, Zac, you can put your own face in it. 83 00:04:55,080 --> 00:04:57,840 And so you're in it, aren't you? Do you remember who you are? 84 00:04:58,280 --> 00:05:00,520 I think you're obscure. I think you're like Jude or 85 00:05:00,520 --> 00:05:04,640 something, like someone who's a bit like, yeah, borderline. 86 00:05:04,640 --> 00:05:06,760 Whereas John Tyrrell put himself as John. 87 00:05:07,160 --> 00:05:09,080 He was like, he's John the other photographer. 88 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:11,200 Anyway, there you go. If you have a look at it, you 89 00:05:11,200 --> 00:05:14,320 can you can spot the faces. But I anyway, I was coming to 90 00:05:14,320 --> 00:05:16,720 the end of putting this product together, which is no view of 91 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:18,800 the Bible for all kinds of learners and community. 92 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:22,280 And I was coming to Revelation and I was like, gosh, if people 93 00:05:22,280 --> 00:05:25,040 are actually going to buy this, I'd better be a bit more 94 00:05:25,040 --> 00:05:28,480 convinced about what I actually believe about heaven and hell. 95 00:05:29,280 --> 00:05:31,960 Because like, I'm really convinced by the reality of God. 96 00:05:32,120 --> 00:05:34,240 I'm really convinced by the power of the Holy Spirit. 97 00:05:34,240 --> 00:05:36,480 I'm really convinced by the gifts in the church. 98 00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:39,480 I'm really convinced by the death and resurrection of Jesus, 99 00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:41,520 the divinity in humanity. There are a lot of things I'm 100 00:05:41,520 --> 00:05:45,160 really convinced by. But what happens after what what 101 00:05:45,160 --> 00:05:49,480 this phrase heaven and hell is? I'm not sure I have enough 102 00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:53,320 conviction to be able to deliver something that someone's then 103 00:05:53,320 --> 00:05:56,960 going to pay for. So anyway, I did what all good 104 00:05:56,960 --> 00:06:00,000 people in the 21st century do slightly before AI where they 105 00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:01,440 asked chat. GBTI didn't do that. 106 00:06:01,440 --> 00:06:03,560 I actually asked Google. I googled it. 107 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:06,600 Heaven and hell. Don't recommend that really 108 00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:08,680 honestly. But what was absolutely 109 00:06:08,680 --> 00:06:15,640 incredible, God was so gracious, was at the very top of my search 110 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:20,880 came this four part teaching series by a pastor I'd never 111 00:06:20,880 --> 00:06:24,080 heard of called Tim Mackie in a church I'd never heard of called 112 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:28,600 Door of Hope, Portland, OR basically in the basement. 113 00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:30,760 So it's slightly crunchy. It was really authentic. 114 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:33,160 It was like really slightly bad audio and everything. 115 00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:35,880 And you could tell it was a church community, probably like 116 00:06:35,880 --> 00:06:39,920 ours, having a weekend, just literally in this basement kind 117 00:06:39,920 --> 00:06:42,880 of trying to go through the biblical trajectory on, on 118 00:06:42,880 --> 00:06:46,520 heaven and hell. And the very first thing he said 119 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:53,000 was, by the way, just to make the point that the phrase heaven 120 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:55,080 and hell is never once used in the Bible. 121 00:06:55,840 --> 00:06:59,000 The repeated phrase is heaven and earth. 122 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:02,040 And in fact, the trajectory of the whole Bible is the reunion 123 00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:04,960 of heaven and earth. And that was his opening phrase. 124 00:07:04,960 --> 00:07:08,000 And I knew he'd opened a a rabbit hole, which is called 125 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:12,040 biblical studies, which I'm still curiously following today. 126 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:19,400 And it helped me think through a bit more how we read the Bible 127 00:07:19,400 --> 00:07:22,720 and how we interpret it. Not going to go into that now. 128 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:25,720 We absolutely will. We love addressing any elephant 129 00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:27,960 in the room and have no problem with that at all. 130 00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:38,760 But today I want to kind of play this video because I think a few 131 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:41,800 years later he Co founded the Bible project with John Collins 132 00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:46,000 and put this for like long teaching sessions in a basement 133 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:48,920 into like a 6 minute really good animated video that explains it 134 00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:51,000 all. So we're going to watch that now 135 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:55,360 and we're going to try and have a a kind of a transformation of 136 00:07:55,360 --> 00:08:00,120 our mind on what this idea of heaven is that's more in 137 00:08:00,120 --> 00:08:03,200 alignment with a kind of a biblical world view. 138 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:12,480 So in the Bible, the ideas of heaven and earth are ways of 139 00:08:12,480 --> 00:08:14,760 talking about God's space and our space. 140 00:08:14,760 --> 00:08:16,720 So I understand our space really well. 141 00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:18,960 We live here, there's trees, rivers, mountains. 142 00:08:19,320 --> 00:08:22,520 But my understanding of God's space gets a little fuzzy. 143 00:08:22,800 --> 00:08:26,240 And what we do get in the Bible are images trying to help us 144 00:08:26,240 --> 00:08:29,880 grasp God's space, which is basically inconceivable to us. 145 00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:32,400 So these are. Two very different types of 146 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:34,400 spaces. Yes, they're they're different 147 00:08:34,400 --> 00:08:36,960 in their nature. But here's what's really 148 00:08:36,960 --> 00:08:39,240 interesting is that in the Bible, these are not always 149 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:42,520 separate spaces. So think of heaven and earth as 150 00:08:42,520 --> 00:08:46,320 like different dimensions that can overlap in the same exact 151 00:08:46,320 --> 00:08:48,840 space. So we talk a lot about going to 152 00:08:48,840 --> 00:08:52,720 heaven after we die, but this idea of heaven and earth 153 00:08:52,720 --> 00:08:55,560 overlapping, we don't talk a lot about that. 154 00:08:55,600 --> 00:08:58,960 Which is kind of crazy because the union of heaven and earth is 155 00:08:58,960 --> 00:09:02,680 what the story of the Bible is all about, how they were once 156 00:09:02,680 --> 00:09:06,480 fully united and then driven apart, and about how God is 157 00:09:06,480 --> 00:09:08,280 bringing them back together once again. 158 00:09:08,280 --> 00:09:09,720 So. Let's go back to the beginning, 159 00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:12,360 where heaven and earth, they're completely overlapping. 160 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:15,760 Yeah, this is what the Bible's description of the Garden of 161 00:09:15,760 --> 00:09:18,840 Eden is all about. It's a place where God and 162 00:09:18,840 --> 00:09:23,000 humanity dwelt together perfectly, no separation and and 163 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:26,800 humans then partner with God and building a flourishing, 164 00:09:26,800 --> 00:09:30,400 beautiful world and so on. But as humans, we wanted to do 165 00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:34,320 things a different way. We wanted got out and we wanted 166 00:09:34,320 --> 00:09:36,000 to create a world apart from. Him. 167 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:38,280 Yeah. So we have these two spaces now, 168 00:09:38,280 --> 00:09:42,160 and the Bible actually uses lots of different kinds of words and 169 00:09:42,160 --> 00:09:45,760 phrases to refer to these two spaces to make a clear 170 00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:47,800 distinction, so. You said that these spaces can 171 00:09:47,800 --> 00:09:51,480 overlap though, so explain how that works. 172 00:09:51,720 --> 00:09:55,680 Yeah, this is where we have to start talking about temples, 173 00:09:55,960 --> 00:09:59,560 because in the biblical world, you experience God's presence by 174 00:09:59,560 --> 00:10:02,920 going to a temple. That's where heaven and earth 175 00:10:03,320 --> 00:10:05,000 overlap. Now there are two types of 176 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:08,880 temples described in the Bible. 1 is a Tabernacle, basically a 177 00:10:08,880 --> 00:10:12,840 tent that was built by Moses and the other was this massive 178 00:10:12,840 --> 00:10:16,240 building made by Solomon. And these temples were decorated 179 00:10:16,240 --> 00:10:19,720 with fruit trees and flowers and images of angels and all kinds 180 00:10:19,720 --> 00:10:23,160 of gold and jewels and so on. And these are designed to make 181 00:10:23,160 --> 00:10:25,480 you feel like you're going back to the garden. 182 00:10:25,760 --> 00:10:28,920 And at the centre of the temple was a place called the Holy of 183 00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:32,760 Holies, which was like the hot spot of God's presence. 184 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:35,200 Now we can go and be with God again. 185 00:10:35,520 --> 00:10:38,480 But not so fast, because the temple also creates a problem. 186 00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:42,760 So God's space is full of his presence and goodness and 187 00:10:42,760 --> 00:10:47,000 justice and beauty. But human space is full of sin 188 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:49,800 and injustice and the ugliness that resolves. 189 00:10:49,800 --> 00:10:52,920 So how do these spaces overlap if they're so different and 190 00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:56,160 they're in conflict with each? Other This was resolved through 191 00:10:56,160 --> 00:10:59,480 animal sacrifice. Yeah, that's kind of weird. 192 00:10:59,720 --> 00:11:02,000 What do animal sacrifices have to do with this? 193 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:06,560 Yeah, the the idea is this animal sacrifices, somehow they 194 00:11:06,840 --> 00:11:12,000 absorb the sin when the animal dies in your place and it 195 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:15,480 creates a clean space, so to speak, where you are now free to 196 00:11:15,480 --> 00:11:18,040 enter into the temple and be in God's present. 197 00:11:18,280 --> 00:11:22,280 OK, so if I'm an Israelite and I live in Jerusalem, I might be 198 00:11:22,280 --> 00:11:25,680 able to be in God's presence. But you said the story of the 199 00:11:25,680 --> 00:11:28,360 Bible is all of heaven and earth reuniting. 200 00:11:28,680 --> 00:11:31,640 Right, so we have to keep going in the story where we come to 201 00:11:31,680 --> 00:11:35,800 Jesus in the New Testament and in the Gospel of John, we hear 202 00:11:35,800 --> 00:11:41,480 this claim that God became human in Jesus and made his dwelling 203 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:44,400 among us. Now this word dwelling is really 204 00:11:44,400 --> 00:11:46,920 curious. It literally it means he set up 205 00:11:46,920 --> 00:11:50,600 a Tabernacle among us. And So what John is claiming 206 00:11:50,600 --> 00:11:53,080 right here is that Jesus is a temple. 207 00:11:53,080 --> 00:11:56,080 He is now the place where heaven and earth overlap. 208 00:11:56,720 --> 00:11:59,480 What's interesting about Jesus is that he isn't staying in this 209 00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:02,400 safe, clean space. He's running around, hanging out 210 00:12:02,400 --> 00:12:04,680 with sinners. He's healing people of their 211 00:12:04,680 --> 00:12:07,200 sicknesses and forgiving people of their sins. 212 00:12:07,320 --> 00:12:11,080 He's basically creating little pockets of heaven where people 213 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:14,320 can be in God's presence, but he's doing it out there in the 214 00:12:14,320 --> 00:12:16,440 middle of the world of sin and death. 215 00:12:16,560 --> 00:12:19,200 And he keeps telling everyone that the Kingdom of heaven. 216 00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:23,240 Is at hand and he even told his followers to pray regularly that 217 00:12:23,240 --> 00:12:26,280 God's Kingdom come and that His will be done. 218 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:29,320 He here on earth just as it is in heaven. 219 00:12:29,840 --> 00:12:33,320 But a lot of people are threatened by Jesus and they 220 00:12:33,320 --> 00:12:37,160 kill him, which seems to spoil this whole plan to reunite 221 00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:39,640 heaven and earth. But we we have to go back to a 222 00:12:39,640 --> 00:12:43,560 scene earlier on in Jesus's story where John the Baptist saw 223 00:12:43,600 --> 00:12:49,040 Jesus and said, behold, this is the Lamb of God who takes away 224 00:12:49,040 --> 00:12:51,920 the sin of the world. So Jesus isn't just talked about 225 00:12:51,920 --> 00:12:55,360 as being a temple, he's also talked about as being the temple 226 00:12:55,360 --> 00:12:58,920 sacrifice. Yeah, so so the cross is now the 227 00:12:58,920 --> 00:13:04,240 place where Jesus absorbs sin to create a clean space that is not 228 00:13:04,240 --> 00:13:06,120 limited. Like animal sacrifices. 229 00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:10,880 Jesus's sacrifice has the power to keep spreading and spreading 230 00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:13,240 and reuniting more and more of heaven and earth. 231 00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:16,400 And this is all really great, but it leaves one big question 232 00:13:16,400 --> 00:13:20,280 in my mind, which is what happens when I die? 233 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:23,600 Don't I just fly over to God's space to be with Jesus? 234 00:13:23,600 --> 00:13:26,120 Yeah, so a few times in the New Testament we learn that 235 00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:29,520 Christians will be with Jesus in heaven after they die. 236 00:13:29,520 --> 00:13:32,200 But that is not the focus of the Bible story. 237 00:13:32,600 --> 00:13:36,840 The focus is on how heaven and earth are being reunited through 238 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:40,720 Jesus and will be completely brought together one day when he 239 00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:43,000 returns. So in the Book of Revelation, we 240 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:46,880 get this beautiful image of the Garden of Eden, now in the form 241 00:13:46,880 --> 00:13:52,160 of city, coming to end the age of sin and death by redeeming 242 00:13:52,160 --> 00:13:55,480 all of human history in a renewed creation. 243 00:13:55,480 --> 00:13:59,880 And God's space and human space completely overlap once again. 244 00:14:00,840 --> 00:14:03,040 We believe the best way to understand the Bible is to look 245 00:14:03,040 --> 00:14:18,120 at it. So why does this matter? 246 00:14:19,480 --> 00:14:24,000 Well, according to Steve Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective 247 00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:29,840 People, so funny when people quote that is it, we live with 248 00:14:29,840 --> 00:14:32,960 the end in mind. And I think that's probably 249 00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:37,720 true. We live with what we really be. 250 00:14:37,840 --> 00:14:43,880 Leave is reality about how it's all going to end, how our lives 251 00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:46,360 are going to end and how the the whole thing's going to end. 252 00:14:49,280 --> 00:14:52,040 So if we all think we're going to hell and a handbasket, 253 00:14:52,480 --> 00:14:54,840 whether we're secular people and we think through climate 254 00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:57,840 collapse, World War three, or being taken over by an AO super 255 00:14:57,840 --> 00:15:01,440 intelligence or as Christians through some sort of incredibly 256 00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:05,400 warped and hopeless theology, we will bunker down. 257 00:15:05,400 --> 00:15:08,400 We'll get in supplies and go into self protect mode. 258 00:15:09,640 --> 00:15:14,400 That's what we do. But if we believe something 259 00:15:14,400 --> 00:15:18,920 radically different, something radically good and something 260 00:15:18,920 --> 00:15:24,080 radically hopeful, like actual resurrection from the dead, the 261 00:15:24,080 --> 00:15:28,320 actual reconstitution of a dead body coming back to life, or 262 00:15:28,480 --> 00:15:30,960 actually maybe death couldn't hold him in the 1st place 263 00:15:30,960 --> 00:15:33,960 because he is life. If we actually believe that, 264 00:15:35,160 --> 00:15:38,600 then we will live an incredibly different way because that 265 00:15:38,800 --> 00:15:43,280 prototype of the resurrection of Jesus is the resurrection of all 266 00:15:43,280 --> 00:15:47,240 of creation, the renewed heaven and earth or the new heaven and 267 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:57,530 earth. So I really want us to think as 268 00:15:57,530 --> 00:16:01,530 a community, what do we actually believe about how it's all going 269 00:16:01,530 --> 00:16:05,090 to end? Not what we say we believe, not 270 00:16:05,090 --> 00:16:07,890 what we think our creed is, not what we think we should believe, 271 00:16:08,400 --> 00:16:10,880 but do we actually believe in resurrection? 272 00:16:21,420 --> 00:16:24,380 So as I said, we've if we've created this kind of false 273 00:16:24,380 --> 00:16:28,140 dichotomy that Jesus is over here and he kind of gets us a 274 00:16:28,140 --> 00:16:31,900 ticket to the good place over here, when we die, we miss the 275 00:16:31,900 --> 00:16:35,500 entire point of the invitation, which is him. 276 00:16:36,660 --> 00:16:41,620 He is life. And we actually have a very 277 00:16:41,620 --> 00:16:44,740 disturbing message. I'm going to use marriage as an 278 00:16:44,740 --> 00:16:48,280 illustration. There are three reasons we could 279 00:16:48,280 --> 00:16:51,000 get married. I'm going to do this from the 280 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:53,120 female perspective. I think you might understand 281 00:16:53,120 --> 00:16:57,400 that why I'm doing that. We could get married to a person 282 00:16:57,400 --> 00:17:00,800 we don't know very well and don't particularly want to know 283 00:17:00,800 --> 00:17:04,520 very well to get out of an abusive home situation. 284 00:17:05,599 --> 00:17:07,640 Jesus is the ticket to get us out of hell. 285 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:14,920 That's disturbing. Or we could get married because 286 00:17:14,920 --> 00:17:18,079 that person's pretty rich. We don't know them very well. 287 00:17:18,079 --> 00:17:20,680 We don't really want to know them very well, but they will 288 00:17:20,680 --> 00:17:23,720 offer us a nice, comfortable life if we say the right words, 289 00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:28,359 pray the prayer sign on the dotted line, Jesus will get us 290 00:17:28,359 --> 00:17:31,840 into the good place. He might even give us a good 291 00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:35,880 life now. Or what's a brilliant reason to 292 00:17:35,880 --> 00:17:36,920 get married? Everyone. 293 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:42,320 Because we love the person we want to be with the person. 294 00:17:42,320 --> 00:17:45,000 Everything's about the person. It's not an institution, it's 295 00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:49,520 not an idea, it's not a ticket out of hell or a ticket into 296 00:17:49,520 --> 00:17:54,560 prosperity. It is the person we are in union 297 00:17:54,560 --> 00:17:57,160 with. Christ, that is the good news. 298 00:17:57,400 --> 00:17:59,520 That is the life. That is the hope. 299 00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:01,080 It's Him. It's in Him. 300 00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:04,520 Not what He can do for us or not what He gets us out of, but in 301 00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:12,600 Him He is the life. So we see in in the gospels, 302 00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:14,480 essentially they're all saying the same thing. 303 00:18:14,480 --> 00:18:18,200 The first three called synoptic same view similar view Matthew, 304 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:20,800 Mark, Luke talk about either the Kingdom of heaven because 305 00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:25,280 Matthew's very respectful of of the the name of the word God. 306 00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:27,200 And so he calls it the Kingdom of heaven. 307 00:18:27,200 --> 00:18:32,240 And then Luke, Mark and Luke, the Kingdom of God and, and then 308 00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:36,360 John uses the word life, which we actually celebrated this 309 00:18:36,360 --> 00:18:40,760 morning with Rebecca and Andrew Standry's daughter Zoe means 310 00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:44,840 life in Greek and actually 33 times in John, exponentially 311 00:18:44,840 --> 00:18:46,280 more in John than the other gospels. 312 00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:49,080 But essentially you can see from that video as well, they're kind 313 00:18:49,080 --> 00:18:52,960 of saying the same thing that where there's a rule of Jesus 314 00:18:52,960 --> 00:18:58,600 the King, there is explosive everlasting resurrection life. 315 00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:04,320 There are two kinds of life and, and Bill's talked about this and 316 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:06,880 another talk, there's BIOS life, which is biological life. 317 00:19:06,880 --> 00:19:09,960 We all have it. Our hearts beats our, our lungs 318 00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:13,400 breathe, our brains work sometimes and so on. 319 00:19:13,400 --> 00:19:16,280 And then there's Zoe life, which is spiritual life, which is the 320 00:19:16,280 --> 00:19:20,720 life we need to live that full resurrection union life forever. 321 00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:23,520 And the life we lost, that's when death came in. 322 00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:25,840 We lost Zoe, we lost spiritual life. 323 00:19:26,200 --> 00:19:29,080 And that's what Jesus came to bring. 324 00:19:29,920 --> 00:19:34,120 So the the absolute momentum, the movement, the trajectory, 325 00:19:34,120 --> 00:19:38,000 the climax of the Gospels is that he's absorbed all death 326 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:41,440 into himself and and death couldn't hold him. 327 00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:45,840 And he rose again and inaugurated a new creation of 328 00:19:45,840 --> 00:19:50,960 that Zoe life for all of us too. And you see right at the end of 329 00:19:50,960 --> 00:19:54,480 the vision of Revelation, they touch on that in the video, this 330 00:19:54,480 --> 00:19:59,560 marriage between Christ and the church, the reunion of heaven 331 00:19:59,560 --> 00:20:02,320 and earth is made possible by Jesus. 332 00:20:02,320 --> 00:20:08,240 But if you notice the bride doesn't go up to heaven in 333 00:20:08,240 --> 00:20:11,360 Revelation 21, it says very specifically the bride. 334 00:20:11,360 --> 00:20:15,200 It is almost revealed. The humanity, the new humanity 335 00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:18,560 is revealed from the heaven space because heaven isn't up 336 00:20:18,560 --> 00:20:21,440 there. It's an unseen realm space right 337 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:23,720 here. And heaven is revealed, the 338 00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:27,680 bride is revealed, and heaven and earth come back together. 339 00:20:28,120 --> 00:20:32,880 So we are already in Christ in the heavenly realms, and we will 340 00:20:32,880 --> 00:20:37,160 be fully reunited in the new creation with the renewed earth. 341 00:20:37,960 --> 00:20:42,880 But the union is with Christ, not with an idea or a concept or 342 00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:44,920 a ticket or a get out of gaol free card. 343 00:20:45,200 --> 00:20:49,400 It's with a person who we love, we worship, we're consumed by, 344 00:20:49,400 --> 00:20:52,800 we're devoted to who deals with all our addictions, who is the 345 00:20:52,800 --> 00:20:55,520 reason behind because of our absence of him. 346 00:20:55,520 --> 00:20:58,720 We have our addictions and he heals us and he delivers us and 347 00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:01,800 gives us the thing we're all craving, which is Zoe life, 348 00:21:01,800 --> 00:21:05,920 which is him. And so we see this again and 349 00:21:05,920 --> 00:21:11,200 again and again in the yeah, yeah, go back to that one in 350 00:21:11,200 --> 00:21:14,680 that if you look at the original Garden of Eden and then you look 351 00:21:14,680 --> 00:21:18,920 at the the new Eden at the end in Revelation, so the bookends 352 00:21:18,920 --> 00:21:22,960 of the Bible, you see this tree called the Tree of Life, and 353 00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:25,960 that is the one you ingest and you live forever. 354 00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:29,400 And it turns out in the Bible, often trees are a way of showing 355 00:21:29,400 --> 00:21:34,240 us what humans are like humans and trees are are are kind of 356 00:21:34,400 --> 00:21:36,080 sorry. Trees are helpful ways to 357 00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:39,760 understand the human condition. They're often used a lot in in 358 00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:43,240 analogies or metaphors. And here we see that Jesus is 359 00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:45,680 the tree of life. And what's stunning about the 360 00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:49,440 new creation right at the end in Revelation, they try and 361 00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:52,960 illustrate it. Here is it's one tree of life on 362 00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:55,800 each side of the river. So the two Christ and the church 363 00:21:55,800 --> 00:22:00,200 have become one in the new creation, fulfilling what Adam 364 00:22:00,200 --> 00:22:03,080 and Eve were pointing to in the 1st creation. 365 00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:09,480 But Jesus is the tree of life. And we see this again and again 366 00:22:09,480 --> 00:22:11,320 and again. I'm just going to actually focus 367 00:22:11,320 --> 00:22:13,960 on the word Zoe in life and John, but you can see it. 368 00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:16,280 He is, you know, he is the Kingdom of God. 369 00:22:16,280 --> 00:22:19,720 He is the presence of God. He is all that we are looking 370 00:22:19,720 --> 00:22:23,280 for and need and, and are craving. 371 00:22:24,040 --> 00:22:26,440 And so I'm just going to read some verses from the Gospel of 372 00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:32,320 John about Jesus being life. And that means that heaven is 373 00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:38,640 not a heaven is a thank you in him in Jesus was life. 374 00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:41,640 This is in John 14. We will end up on that verse. 375 00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:44,200 So meditate on that. And I'm just going to read over 376 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:46,880 a few of the verses in John to get you there. 377 00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:50,680 In him was life and that life was the light of all humanity. 378 00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:54,560 Everyone who believes which is actually trust. 379 00:22:56,200 --> 00:22:59,200 It isn't like a creed. I believe in the in in the 380 00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:03,520 gospel or the nice in creed. It's like I actually trust in 381 00:23:03,520 --> 00:23:05,360 God. It's a better understanding. 382 00:23:05,360 --> 00:23:08,880 I think of the life of faith. I trust him with my heart. 383 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:10,320 I trust him with my relationships. 384 00:23:10,320 --> 00:23:14,320 I trust in my future. Everyone who trusts him has life 385 00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:17,960 in him. For God so loved the world that 386 00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:22,360 he gave his one and only Son, that whoever puts trust in him 387 00:23:23,360 --> 00:23:28,120 will not perish, but have so eternal, everlasting life. 388 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:33,680 Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. 389 00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:37,120 Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of 390 00:23:37,120 --> 00:23:39,320 water welling up to eternal life. 391 00:23:39,560 --> 00:23:42,360 This is an image that we are, we feel, God's given us. 392 00:23:42,360 --> 00:23:46,280 Specifically, I hope that we are a place that that water flows up 393 00:23:46,360 --> 00:23:49,280 the life of of Jesus himself flows out of. 394 00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:55,400 Very truly, I tell you, whoever hears my word and trusts me, who 395 00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:58,960 trusts the one who sent Me, has its very eternal life and will 396 00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:03,280 not be judged, but has crossed over from death to life. 397 00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:07,920 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the 398 00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:10,840 Son also to have life in himself. 399 00:24:12,520 --> 00:24:15,040 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think 400 00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:18,360 that in them you have life. These are the very scriptures 401 00:24:18,360 --> 00:24:21,360 that testify about me. And Jesus says, yet you refuse 402 00:24:21,360 --> 00:24:27,640 to come to me to have life. And then he's, he gets very 403 00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:30,480 specific. I am the bread of life. 404 00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:34,480 Whoever comes to me will never go hungry and whoever believes 405 00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:39,320 in me will never be thirsty. I am the bread of life. 406 00:24:39,320 --> 00:24:44,160 He says again, I am the living bread unless you eat the flesh 407 00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:46,760 of the Son of man and drink his blood. 408 00:24:46,760 --> 00:24:50,160 That's entering into the very brokenness of, of, of God who 409 00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:53,480 broke for the human condition. Unless that's the way you live 410 00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:57,080 and feed and eat and consume, you have no Zoey life in you 411 00:24:57,480 --> 00:24:59,360 because that's the root to the resurrection. 412 00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:03,840 The spirit gives life. The flesh counts for nothing. 413 00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:06,720 The words I've spoken to, they are full of spirit and life. 414 00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:09,800 Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? 415 00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:21,890 You have the words of life. He raises Lazarus from the dead 416 00:25:22,490 --> 00:25:25,690 and declares I am the resurrection and the life, the 417 00:25:25,690 --> 00:25:29,280 one who trusts in me or live even though they die. 418 00:25:34,900 --> 00:25:36,620 I am the way, the truth and the life. 419 00:25:36,620 --> 00:25:38,860 No one comes to the Father except through me. 420 00:25:38,860 --> 00:25:45,500 So in that text he's basically saying I am life, I am Zoe life 421 00:25:47,940 --> 00:25:54,680 and then finally now this is life that they know. 422 00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:57,480 And whenever you read the word no, it means experience. 423 00:25:57,480 --> 00:26:00,080 It doesn't mean just a factual understanding of something, but 424 00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:03,640 an experience of someone in a way that is intimate. 425 00:26:04,200 --> 00:26:07,560 They know they experience you, the only true God and Jesus 426 00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:10,040 Christ whom you have sent. That is life. 427 00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:12,440 That's that's what the good news is. 428 00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:13,960 That's the aim. The tell us. 429 00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:18,160 That's the the trajectory. Everything is about being in 430 00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:22,200 God, in the Father, in the Son, in the Spirit, in union with the 431 00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:25,920 Son, in intimacy with a Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit. 432 00:26:25,920 --> 00:26:28,360 That is life. There isn't a life outside that. 433 00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:32,120 And that's the thing we have to wrestle through to breakthrough. 434 00:26:32,120 --> 00:26:34,960 Because if that isn't life for us, we haven't really tasted it. 435 00:26:35,800 --> 00:26:37,120 Because that's where the life is. 436 00:26:37,120 --> 00:26:40,840 It isn't anywhere else. It isn't Jesus is over there to 437 00:26:40,840 --> 00:26:44,840 get me to the good place over there, or Jesus is over there to 438 00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:48,640 get me to a good life over here. He is the good life over here. 439 00:26:54,920 --> 00:27:00,200 So we we know this, I know, but what I what we're kind of going 440 00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:05,000 to land on is so we can experience life from today, 441 00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:09,320 resurrection, eternal Zoe life. Do you remember those pockets of 442 00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:12,640 counter revolutionary Kingdom that have invaded this earth? 443 00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:17,280 That is the role of the church today, to host places of heaven 444 00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:20,280 on earth today because we are in union with Christ who is in the 445 00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:24,600 Father. So we are already able to host, 446 00:27:24,640 --> 00:27:28,120 experience ourself and host for other people life, true 447 00:27:28,120 --> 00:27:31,880 spiritual life marked by love and joy and peace. 448 00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:34,400 That's why the corruption in the church is the worst form of 449 00:27:34,400 --> 00:27:37,920 corruption you will ever come across, because everywhere else 450 00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:41,080 should be deaf, but we, we should be hosting life. 451 00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:47,640 That's why judgement begins with the House of God, because we not 452 00:27:47,640 --> 00:27:51,560 just should know better, but we've tasted Him and it's a holy 453 00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:53,800 thing to taste him and represent him well. 454 00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:58,360 This is where life is in our communities, in the way we treat 455 00:27:58,360 --> 00:28:01,600 each other, in our love and our joy and our forgiveness, in our 456 00:28:01,600 --> 00:28:05,440 kindness and in in the welcome we then give to people wherever 457 00:28:05,440 --> 00:28:08,920 they are on their spiritual journey or self identification. 458 00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:14,040 This is that we are now the wells of life of of everlasting 459 00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:18,520 life for people. But that is nothing if we 460 00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:21,080 haven't tasted it ourselves. And that's partly why we're 461 00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:23,520 going again and again and again. What is the good news? 462 00:28:23,520 --> 00:28:27,120 Do we actually know it? Has it penetrated us enough for 463 00:28:27,120 --> 00:28:29,800 us to go? This is the most extraordinary 464 00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:32,360 thing or truth or reality I could ever come across. 465 00:28:32,360 --> 00:28:36,440 And I'm bursting to tell people because that seems to be what 466 00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:40,760 happens in the 1st century. And it seems to be what happens 467 00:28:40,760 --> 00:28:43,600 when the Spirit comes in power on communities ever since. 468 00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:45,840 There isn't. Oh gosh, you got to tell someone 469 00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:48,800 about Jesus. There is this explosive. 470 00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:52,560 This was bad news and now I'm telling you good news. 471 00:28:52,560 --> 00:28:54,480 It was a beautiful moment last night. 472 00:28:54,480 --> 00:29:01,080 We were celebrating Christie's 20 years clean and sober and 473 00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:05,960 there were two people he he was sharing and then also someone 474 00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:09,960 else who is now 7 years clean was also sharing. 475 00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:13,600 And they knew each other before. And Christie wanted people to 476 00:29:13,600 --> 00:29:15,720 know the hell he used to live in, didn't he, Jane? 477 00:29:15,760 --> 00:29:20,280 He particularly said that that he was 6 stone, I think just 478 00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:24,080 just, and just in a hell house. And he met this other guy and 479 00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:26,040 there was just, it was just absolute. 480 00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:32,480 It was just death, guns, drugs. It was just horrific and he he 481 00:29:32,480 --> 00:29:36,720 said it's no use celebrating who I am now if you do not 482 00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:40,040 understand the hell I came from. That's the good news. 483 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:49,000 And so that's what I want us as AI want us to authentically 484 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:52,000 including myself. We all want to authentically 485 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:57,280 have such an incredible fresh taste encounter, touching of the 486 00:29:57,280 --> 00:30:03,280 reality of the Son of God in the Trinity that we cannot but keep 487 00:30:03,280 --> 00:30:05,240 it in. We we want to express it. 488 00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:09,920 We want to share it because that to me feels the most authentic 489 00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:13,720 kind of witness, the kind of witness that says, I don't care 490 00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:15,640 who hears, I don't care who's offended. 491 00:30:15,640 --> 00:30:17,160 I don't care who wants to kill me. 492 00:30:17,800 --> 00:30:22,000 I, I cannot keep this in. And so it starts with us. 493 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:25,800 It starts with us saying is, is he really the life? 494 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:27,520 Is it him? That's the life. 495 00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:30,680 Or is he ticking the box for some other good things that I 496 00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:39,270 might see life in? I don't want us to waste another 497 00:30:39,270 --> 00:30:42,790 second waiting for circumstances to change before we can start 498 00:30:42,790 --> 00:30:44,830 living. Waiting for something in our job 499 00:30:44,830 --> 00:30:47,790 to change, our relationship to change, our money to change, our 500 00:30:47,790 --> 00:30:49,950 health to change. Because none of them are Zoey 501 00:30:49,950 --> 00:30:52,000 Life. They not, they aren't. 502 00:30:52,160 --> 00:30:53,960 They don't deliver. There's just something else to 503 00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:56,440 worry about. There's something else to get up 504 00:30:56,440 --> 00:30:59,480 and stay awake all night over. There's something else to be 505 00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:01,960 stressed over. There's one thing that's worth 506 00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:04,400 pursuing one life, and it's Jesus. 507 00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:07,040 His name is Jesus. He is the life that will 508 00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:09,520 literally deliver. All these other things are 509 00:31:09,520 --> 00:31:13,720 saying they'll deliver to us. He is the healer, He is the 510 00:31:13,720 --> 00:31:17,480 peace, He is the joy, He is the grace, He is the forgiveness and 511 00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:20,680 and it's a media and it's today. That's why Paul can say in 512 00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:25,000 Corinthians in the time of my favour, I heard you and in the 513 00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:27,560 day of my salvation, Yeshua, Yeshua. 514 00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:30,760 It's the same Hebrew root word. I tell you. 515 00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:34,760 Now is the time of God's favour. Now today is the day of 516 00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:38,200 salvation, of restoration, of intimacy, because Jesus is right 517 00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:40,880 here and we can access Him whenever we like. 518 00:31:41,840 --> 00:31:45,760 He is not far off, He is close, and we can approach the throne 519 00:31:45,760 --> 00:31:48,920 of grace to access that grace and mercy whenever we like. 520 00:31:49,360 --> 00:31:54,040 Day or night, He's the life. All these other things may or 521 00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:57,600 may not be part of His blessings in the world, but none of them 522 00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:00,240 is Zoey life. They're all subject to death and 523 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:01,600 will not be raised from the dead. 524 00:32:02,120 --> 00:32:04,680 There is one thing that is raised from the dead and that's 525 00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:07,160 Jesus. And in Him is the one life that 526 00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:16,960 we're actually all craving. So our response is to repent, to 527 00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:21,480 have a change of mindset about how we actually value Jesus, who 528 00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:28,280 we actually think he is, What how how how we love him, how we 529 00:32:28,280 --> 00:32:31,200 devote ourselves, how we orientate ourselves around him. 530 00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:35,800 Because it's either all true or it's not true. 531 00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:41,680 It's either really is there's a fundamental devote, a kind of 532 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:46,160 devotion, a centrality of the Christ who holds the cosmos 533 00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:52,360 together, or none of it's true. There is no space for any kind 534 00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:59,440 of nuance on that either that we are literally BIOS life and 535 00:32:59,440 --> 00:33:03,800 we're just a bunch of accidental chemicals that try and get try 536 00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:06,760 and just manage our hormones so they're as buzzy as they can be 537 00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:10,320 until we die, which is basically Western secularism. 538 00:33:10,320 --> 00:33:13,880 How to have the good life, Just manage the hormones until you 539 00:33:13,880 --> 00:33:16,200 die. Or there is Zoe life, there's 540 00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:18,520 resurrection life. Christ holds the cosmos together 541 00:33:18,520 --> 00:33:21,320 and he's worth orientating everything around because He is 542 00:33:21,320 --> 00:33:23,240 life and there is no life outside him. 543 00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:27,280 He is the good life. He's the good place. 544 00:33:27,280 --> 00:33:28,800 He's the reunion of heaven and earth. 545 00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:33,600 And So what I want us to do is have a change is we can't get 546 00:33:33,600 --> 00:33:36,320 that revelation. Jesus says the Father gives the 547 00:33:36,320 --> 00:33:40,080 revelation of the Son to PT. He said you didn't get that from 548 00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:42,160 human thinking. You got that because the Father 549 00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:45,480 revealed to you the Messiah. But what we can do is say we 550 00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:48,560 want that revelation. We're postured to that 551 00:33:48,560 --> 00:33:50,600 revelation. We know it will blow us apart. 552 00:33:50,680 --> 00:33:53,160 We know we'll have to, everything will have to go to be 553 00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:56,280 surrendered. We know that you cannot touch 554 00:33:56,280 --> 00:34:00,040 life without being completely discombobulated and disrupted 555 00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:03,360 and disturbed. We know that we can see that. 556 00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:07,200 But at some point we have to be ready and desperate enough to 557 00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:10,440 say we're willing for that because the world is going to 558 00:34:10,440 --> 00:34:12,880 hell in a handbasket because the solution's with us. 559 00:34:12,880 --> 00:34:15,760 And if we're not stepping up and bringing a solution, we are 560 00:34:15,760 --> 00:34:19,560 going down with it. The Titanic, it's hit, it's hit 561 00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:24,199 the it's hit the iceberg. And we are available if we to be 562 00:34:24,199 --> 00:34:28,639 hosts of life, to be those lifeboats. 563 00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:31,760 We are available in the irony with the Titanic, as they could 564 00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:35,000 have saved everyone if they'd managed it properly and known 565 00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:37,600 properly. We are those lifeboats. 566 00:34:38,440 --> 00:34:41,280 We are able to host the presence and the life of God. 567 00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:46,000 We have more than we need, but we need to, we need to believe, 568 00:34:46,800 --> 00:34:53,600 we actually need to believe in him ourselves, not just be nice 569 00:34:53,600 --> 00:34:56,400 people. That isn't, that doesn't cut it. 570 00:34:56,760 --> 00:34:58,760 It doesn't cut it with the rise of the far right. 571 00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:00,520 It doesn't cut it with climate change. 572 00:35:00,720 --> 00:35:03,040 It doesn't cut it with the volatility in the world at the 573 00:35:03,040 --> 00:35:04,680 moment. It doesn't cut it being nice 574 00:35:04,680 --> 00:35:06,560 people. We have to have people who 575 00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:10,840 actually believe that Jesus is life and literally orientate 576 00:35:10,840 --> 00:35:14,640 ourselves around that around him and living in that Zoe life. 577 00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:18,880 So it's a repentance is literally it's kindness leads it 578 00:35:18,880 --> 00:35:21,160 to it's just a change of mindset about reality. 579 00:35:22,080 --> 00:35:23,760 What we actually think reality is. 580 00:35:30,820 --> 00:35:35,700 If we want to tell people about Jesus, we're really not that 581 00:35:35,700 --> 00:35:39,260 convinced ourselves is that a compelling witness. 582 00:35:41,460 --> 00:35:44,220 And this is no disrespect. It's no disrespect, but the 583 00:35:44,220 --> 00:35:49,320 Jehovah's Witnesses have to get a certain amount of people to 584 00:35:49,320 --> 00:35:53,360 become Jehovah's Witnesses, to be one of the chosen 144,000 585 00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:55,840 that will actually be elected in their theology. 586 00:35:56,920 --> 00:36:01,120 That is not loving. I want to tell someone about 587 00:36:01,120 --> 00:36:03,520 Jesus because I'm so obsessed with him myself. 588 00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:06,800 I cannot imagine them having to live another day without him. 589 00:36:07,440 --> 00:36:11,280 That is alignment. Now of course, Paul says where 590 00:36:11,280 --> 00:36:15,000 Christ is preached out of selfish ambition, we celebrate 591 00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:18,920 it like great God. God will work through anyone, 592 00:36:18,920 --> 00:36:22,040 any, anywhere, anytime. But I want us to be in the 593 00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:26,040 people who authentically have so encountered Jesus that we cannot 594 00:36:26,040 --> 00:36:29,520 but tell other people about him and want other people to taste 595 00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:34,320 him and his goodness. And the way that happens, and 596 00:36:34,320 --> 00:36:39,120 this is where we want to end, is we except ourself experience a 597 00:36:39,120 --> 00:36:43,520 healing or a deliverance in our body or in our in a friend, 598 00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:46,560 because that's the testimony of the Gospels. 599 00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:49,960 It's story after story after story of eyewitnesses who 600 00:36:50,080 --> 00:36:52,120 personally experienced God healing. 601 00:36:52,120 --> 00:36:56,520 They had blind eyes and and they saw they were tormented by the 602 00:36:56,520 --> 00:36:58,680 demonic and they were given peace. 603 00:36:59,200 --> 00:37:02,640 That's what the good news is according to the Gospels, that 604 00:37:02,640 --> 00:37:05,920 there was such a personal encounter and experience of Zoe 605 00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:10,440 life that they couldn't pass it down in oral tradition until it 606 00:37:10,440 --> 00:37:13,040 was organised into four biographies, which we call 607 00:37:13,040 --> 00:37:18,440 Matthew, Martley and John. So I would love this morning to 608 00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:20,680 start, you know, to start to steward. 609 00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:23,760 We already are through living free like these pockets of 610 00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:26,880 resistance where Zoe life penetrates into our death and 611 00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:30,640 our sadness and our pain and brings through to resurrection. 612 00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:35,240 We absolutely believe in the discipline of lament, in 613 00:37:35,240 --> 00:37:38,640 bringing our bitterness to God. I love the beginning of Ruth 614 00:37:38,640 --> 00:37:43,000 where Naomi just says don't call me, don't call me Naomi, call me 615 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:47,480 Mara because I'm bitter. Chapter 1 of Ruth, what's 616 00:37:47,520 --> 00:37:51,280 beautiful about it, though, it's by the end of chapter 1, it says 617 00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:56,280 the barley harvest had had begun and she started to go home. 618 00:37:56,520 --> 00:37:59,280 It's actually the moment when we declare our lament and our 619 00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:02,920 bitterness before God, that God's already setting up the 620 00:38:02,920 --> 00:38:05,640 fruit of our restoration and our resurrection. 621 00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:09,640 But he wants us to become that intimate, that authentic, that 622 00:38:09,640 --> 00:38:12,560 vulnerable with him, that we can bring our lament of bitterness 623 00:38:12,560 --> 00:38:16,880 to him because he's already turning the famine into a feast 624 00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:21,120 for us. So I we are all about honouring 625 00:38:21,120 --> 00:38:23,040 lament. We think it's a discipline in 626 00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:25,000 Scripture, it's a discipline in the Psalms. 627 00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:28,520 And Paul says very clearly, we mourn with those who mourn and 628 00:38:28,520 --> 00:38:30,160 we rejoice with those who rejoice. 629 00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:33,240 To be a healthy body, we have to be aware of our pain. 630 00:38:33,960 --> 00:38:38,120 And at the same time we believe in the Jesus of the Gospels who 631 00:38:38,120 --> 00:38:40,800 healed everyone and delivered everyone. 632 00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:44,520 He, he just did. And we have to wrestle and 633 00:38:44,520 --> 00:38:49,280 reckon with that universality of life overcoming death. 634 00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:54,720 So what I want us to do now is if there's something in our life 635 00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:58,480 that we would like God to breakthrough on, that would 636 00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:02,560 produce the kind of testimony that says I've encountered Zoe 637 00:39:02,560 --> 00:39:08,880 life, Then we can either gather with people we know and trust 638 00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:13,640 and stand and pray for that, or we can come to the front. 639 00:39:14,280 --> 00:39:16,520 Any of us could be available here to pray for it. 640 00:39:17,920 --> 00:39:21,120 Or if you prefer to find a stranger because it's easier 641 00:39:21,120 --> 00:39:24,320 sometimes to talk to someone you don't know, find someone. 642 00:39:25,160 --> 00:39:28,760 Or it may be that stay at this moment, now isn't the time to do 643 00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:31,960 it, but you know, you need to find certain people to pray with 644 00:39:32,280 --> 00:39:34,120 something to see that breakthrough. 645 00:39:36,640 --> 00:39:42,680 I would encourage us to do this because why else are we here if 646 00:39:42,680 --> 00:39:44,600 we're not seeing good news, penetrate. 647 00:39:44,600 --> 00:39:48,760 If we're not seeing life overcome death, if if we're not 648 00:39:48,760 --> 00:39:54,240 seeing and tasting the thing that we think is good news, we 649 00:39:54,240 --> 00:39:56,320 might as well do what everyone else is doing. 650 00:39:56,640 --> 00:40:02,160 They're either gaming, Netflix in mouths somewhere else in a 651 00:40:02,160 --> 00:40:05,560 yoga studio. We believe in penetrative 652 00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:09,080 resurrection life here. And so that's what I want us to 653 00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:12,200 encounter. So I'm going to pray now and I'm 654 00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:16,280 going to ask the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is so gentle and 655 00:40:16,280 --> 00:40:21,600 respectful and kind, just so loving and joyful, the Holy 656 00:40:21,600 --> 00:40:23,680 Spirit. Only goes where the Holy 657 00:40:23,680 --> 00:40:25,960 Spirit's invited. There is no coercion in the 658 00:40:25,960 --> 00:40:29,880 Kingdom of God. There is full love and love is 659 00:40:29,880 --> 00:40:32,440 always about full consent and permission. 660 00:40:33,080 --> 00:40:37,440 So I'm going to invite the Holy Spirit now to ask us to show us 661 00:40:38,080 --> 00:40:42,080 what does God want for us now from this? 662 00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:45,000 What's the Zoe life he wants us to encounter? 663 00:40:46,240 --> 00:40:51,080 And then I would ask us to have the courage to act on that 664 00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:55,600 prompting of the Holy Spirit. Thank you, God, that you, you 665 00:40:55,840 --> 00:41:01,200 have, you have inaugurated the Kingdom of light. 666 00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:06,160 If the Kingdom of light is always overcoming darkness 667 00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:08,960 because you just turn the light on and the darkness has to go 668 00:41:11,640 --> 00:41:14,200 and all, we know that you've come, you've come, you said 669 00:41:14,200 --> 00:41:16,640 you've come and you're anointed to do a lot of things. 670 00:41:16,640 --> 00:41:18,800 You're anointed to bind up broken hearts. 671 00:41:18,800 --> 00:41:22,040 So we just say if there's any broken heartedness here today on 672 00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:25,600 any subject, that's specific because the surgeon, the great 673 00:41:25,600 --> 00:41:29,200 surgeon, is incredibly precise in how he wants to minister to 674 00:41:29,240 --> 00:41:31,920 us. If there is any specific area of 675 00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:34,720 broken heartedness today that you want to heal, I pray you 676 00:41:34,720 --> 00:41:43,200 speak to us about that. You, you command us to heal the 677 00:41:43,200 --> 00:41:45,720 sick and you command us to deliver people from their 678 00:41:45,720 --> 00:41:47,560 demons. So I pray if there's anyone 679 00:41:47,560 --> 00:41:51,400 who's who just there's actually something physiological or 680 00:41:51,400 --> 00:41:54,640 something neurological or something that you just know. 681 00:41:54,640 --> 00:41:56,680 Do you know what I want, Zoe life in that area. 682 00:41:56,680 --> 00:42:04,800 And again, it's very specific. And if, if there's any area of 683 00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:08,640 captivity to addiction, you say you come, you set captives and 684 00:42:08,640 --> 00:42:11,640 prisoners free. That isn't a nice saying or a 685 00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:14,320 trite saying or oh gosh, isn't, isn't this good? 686 00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:17,160 You actually do want us to walk out of our cages to addiction 687 00:42:17,160 --> 00:42:19,680 and be free. And so I bless if the, if the 688 00:42:19,680 --> 00:42:25,720 Holy Spirit wants to put his finger on that, we're just going 689 00:42:25,720 --> 00:42:29,120 to wait. We're just going to wait for a 690 00:42:29,120 --> 00:42:32,480 minute in silence and just see where the Holy Spirit wants to 691 00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:34,880 minister. And then we can pray for each 692 00:42:34,880 --> 00:43:03,240 other. OK, so I think if you find 693 00:43:03,240 --> 00:43:07,400 someone near you to pray with or come to the front, but if you 694 00:43:07,400 --> 00:43:10,720 feel like this is God wants to just bring that penetrative, 695 00:43:10,720 --> 00:43:16,200 that resurrection, that Zoe life into an area, there's faith in 696 00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:18,960 the room. There's faith in the room for 697 00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:25,120 for that to happen. We get the tempos. 698 00:43:25,120 --> 00:43:27,520 Anyone who needs to collect their children, they'll be 699 00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:31,000 coming back now, but we're going to be here and available for 700 00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:33,600 prayer and ministry for as long as we need to be.