1 00:00:03,440 --> 00:00:06,840 Good morning. Grab your Bible if you have it 2 00:00:06,840 --> 00:00:07,920 with you. We're going to be in Matthew 3 00:00:07,920 --> 00:00:10,040 chapter one. There you go. 4 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:13,920 You can use that. I don't for those who have 5 00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:17,040 joined us or those who have, you know, been doing church like 6 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:19,960 usual once every month we're in a new series called God with Us 7 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:21,880 and we get it out of Matthew chapter 1. 8 00:00:21,880 --> 00:00:23,920 If you don't have your Bible here because you're new to 9 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:26,760 church and you're, you know, exploring Christianity, then 10 00:00:26,760 --> 00:00:28,040 we'll have it up on the screen for you. 11 00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:32,040 Verse 18 says this is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came 12 00:00:32,040 --> 00:00:34,520 about. His mother Mary was pledged to 13 00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:37,080 be married to Joseph. But before they came together, 14 00:00:37,080 --> 00:00:40,720 she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit because 15 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:43,280 Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did 16 00:00:43,280 --> 00:00:45,320 not want to expose her to public disgrace. 17 00:00:45,520 --> 00:00:48,120 He hadn't mind, excuse me, he hadn't mind to divorce her 18 00:00:48,120 --> 00:00:50,080 quietly. But after he had considered 19 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:52,360 this, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and 20 00:00:52,360 --> 00:00:56,240 said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home 21 00:00:56,240 --> 00:00:59,000 as your wife, because what is conceived in hers from the Holy 22 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:01,880 Spirit, she'll give birth to a son, and you ought to give him 23 00:01:01,880 --> 00:01:05,239 the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. 24 00:01:05,680 --> 00:01:08,440 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through 25 00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:11,240 the prophet. The virgin will conceive and 26 00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:13,320 give birth to a son. We've been singing it all 27 00:01:13,320 --> 00:01:18,400 morning and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with 28 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:23,080 us. Emmanuel, God with us. 29 00:01:23,080 --> 00:01:25,960 There's power in the name. I don't know if you realize that 30 00:01:26,320 --> 00:01:30,240 not just for the Israelites and the Jews, but for you and I My, 31 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:33,480 my family speaks French. Well, actually on cats side. 32 00:01:33,480 --> 00:01:35,800 And so I don't know if you know this, but you know, you don't 33 00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:38,560 call French grandparents Oman OPA. 34 00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:43,200 You call the grandfather Bon Papa and the grandmother is 35 00:01:43,200 --> 00:01:45,480 Bobon. Now, this was a little tricky 36 00:01:45,480 --> 00:01:48,520 for our kids when they were young because they instead of 37 00:01:48,520 --> 00:01:55,840 calling my grandmother Baban, they called her Bilton, which is 38 00:01:55,840 --> 00:02:00,240 not far wrong since she turns 101 soon alive and kicking. 39 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:04,040 But we had to change that because there's power in her 40 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:08,120 name, even the wrong name. I mean, you look at the street 41 00:02:08,120 --> 00:02:11,280 signs, hey, that they've taken down and the name changes. 42 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:14,880 Now you're going like, oh, what a waste of money. 43 00:02:15,480 --> 00:02:18,840 Clearly, you haven't been to the Apartheid Museum because if you 44 00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:22,960 had, you would realize there's power in the name, both the good 45 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:25,600 and the bad. But how much more the name 46 00:02:25,640 --> 00:02:30,600 Emmanuel, God with us. I mean, there's so much wrapped 47 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:33,360 up in this one name that I realized what I have to do today 48 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:36,480 because, you know, I read that and I'm not in the Isles dancing 49 00:02:36,480 --> 00:02:38,440 and singing like you and I should be. 50 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:41,480 So what I want to do today is I want to do what the optometrist 51 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:43,760 did to me a few weeks ago when I had my eyes tested. 52 00:02:44,320 --> 00:02:46,920 You know, he's going through that little thing on the wall 53 00:02:46,920 --> 00:02:52,000 there and it's like, OK, read from the top and it's EFPTOZ. 54 00:02:52,040 --> 00:02:54,880 You can memorize it actually L And then he said no, no, to go 55 00:02:54,880 --> 00:03:00,680 down to line number six. And it's like, is that an E or 56 00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:04,440 is it 3? And then what he does is he 57 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:08,280 takes that little lens, it's an E. 58 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:12,440 So I want to do that over this verse, this name Emmanuel. 59 00:03:12,920 --> 00:03:17,000 I want to take a couple lenses from Scripture so that you and I 60 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:20,320 can see something of the depth and the immensity and the 61 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:24,120 weightiness and the power of the name Emmanuel, God with us. 62 00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:26,200 So here's the first lens. If you have your Bible, you can 63 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:28,440 page across to Philippians chapter 2. 64 00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:30,160 Or if you're just taking notes, you can jot that down. 65 00:03:30,160 --> 00:03:33,360 I'm going to read from verse 5 so that the context is a little 66 00:03:33,360 --> 00:03:36,000 outer whack. Paul's writing to the church in 67 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:38,920 Philippi telling them about how they need to relate with one 68 00:03:38,920 --> 00:03:41,760 another, but he's mentioned something about Jesus, this 69 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:44,840 Emmanuel, this God with us that I want you to see the lens I 70 00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:46,680 want to use. So verse five in Philippians 2 71 00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:49,720 says in your relationships with one another have the same 72 00:03:49,720 --> 00:03:52,760 mindset as Christ Jesus, who being in the very nature of God 73 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:56,760 did not consider equality with God something to be used to his 74 00:03:56,760 --> 00:04:00,000 own advantage. Rather, his lens. 75 00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:04,080 He made himself nothing, He emptied himself. 76 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:07,160 Some translation say, but taking the very nature of a servant 77 00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:10,200 being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a 78 00:04:10,200 --> 00:04:13,000 man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death. 79 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,079 Even death on the cross says there that he emptied himself, 80 00:04:16,079 --> 00:04:19,079 He made himself nothing. This is the first lens that I 81 00:04:19,079 --> 00:04:23,040 want to put over this verse. Emmanuel, in order to be God 82 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:25,480 with us, he had to empty himself. 83 00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:30,760 He had to become vulnerable. He had to have nappies changed 84 00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:33,520 and they didn't have Huggies back in those days. 85 00:04:33,520 --> 00:04:35,760 And then maybe they wrapped them in leaves, who knows? 86 00:04:35,960 --> 00:04:40,280 An honor. Leaves had to be burped, had to 87 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:42,880 be protected, incredibly vulnerable. 88 00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:45,440 But also he went through absolutely everything that you 89 00:04:45,440 --> 00:04:49,360 and our face from birth all the way to death, not just death, 90 00:04:49,400 --> 00:04:51,480 execution. He went through humiliation, 91 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:56,720 rejection, persecution. He went through it all as he 92 00:04:56,720 --> 00:05:00,960 emptied himself so that he could be Emmanuel, not just God for 93 00:05:00,960 --> 00:05:04,320 us, but God with us. Now we miss that. 94 00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:08,840 But I want to extrapolate just a little bit on a comment that I 95 00:05:08,840 --> 00:05:12,280 heard recently, someone said, oh, I just love the Christmas 96 00:05:12,280 --> 00:05:18,200 spirit because I was involved in getting a radio station 97 00:05:18,200 --> 00:05:21,520 established many years ago. And we got the license in April. 98 00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:24,200 We decided we're going to start broadcasting on the 1st of 99 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:26,000 September. So we had some time, We did DJ 100 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:28,120 training, built the studio in booths and everything like that. 101 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:30,920 As the music manager had the privilege of loading all the 102 00:05:30,920 --> 00:05:33,000 music. And then we went live and there 103 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:35,120 was a few hiccups, but we sort of made it through the first 104 00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:36,240 week. And right at the very end of the 105 00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:40,440 first week, it suddenly dawned on me first week of September 106 00:05:40,440 --> 00:05:43,720 that Christmas is coming. And as the music manager, I 107 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:47,880 calculated that I had to load between 4 and 500 Christmas 108 00:05:47,880 --> 00:05:50,480 songs to populate a playlist through December and all the 109 00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:53,720 competitions and all the amounts of Silent Nights and Jingle 110 00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:56,680 Bells. And this was back in the 1900s, 111 00:05:57,320 --> 00:05:59,760 you know, just after Colour was invented. 112 00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:04,480 MP3's weren't a thing yet. We had two massive non gig hard 113 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:06,760 drives. And I had to sit and listen to 114 00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:09,440 every one of these songs as I recorded it onto the hard drive 115 00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:11,840 and edited top and tail. So when they said, you know, the 116 00:06:11,840 --> 00:06:13,920 whole the spirit of Christmas, I was just like, whoa, yeah. 117 00:06:14,040 --> 00:06:17,040 It's like, at least that's what I used to think until I read 118 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:19,680 this quote by Jr. Packer, which fits in so 119 00:06:19,680 --> 00:06:23,040 beautifully with Philippians 2. It says the true spirit of 120 00:06:23,040 --> 00:06:27,080 Christmas is not rampant, gaudy commercialism. 121 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:30,920 Rather, it is the spirit of those who, like their master 122 00:06:30,920 --> 00:06:34,280 Philippians 2, live their whole lives on the principle of making 123 00:06:34,280 --> 00:06:37,960 themselves nothing, spending and being spent for the benefit of 124 00:06:37,960 --> 00:06:39,680 others. And then he says this Christmas 125 00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:42,240 introduces us to a God like this. 126 00:06:42,400 --> 00:06:48,840 What a statement Spending and being spent for others, because 127 00:06:48,840 --> 00:06:50,840 here's the thing. I don't know if you've noticed 128 00:06:50,840 --> 00:06:54,880 how amazingly generous poor people are to other poor people. 129 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:58,360 I don't know if you've ever had this out of the while back we 130 00:06:58,360 --> 00:07:00,880 had a knock on the door and the guy wanted to paint, you know 131 00:07:00,880 --> 00:07:03,840 that they paint your numbers on the on the side of the street. 132 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:07,600 And I could see he was living in the car looked like maybe a 133 00:07:07,600 --> 00:07:11,800 girlfriend and or a friend and another oak allness skedunk and 134 00:07:11,800 --> 00:07:15,080 he wasn't dressed too well. And we're like, OK, how much? 135 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:16,640 And I was like 200 grain to do this. 136 00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:19,440 I said, OK, cool. You do mine, do my tenants and 137 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:21,760 you do my neighbors. I went in to get money and I 138 00:07:21,760 --> 00:07:23,640 paid him like three times as much. 139 00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:26,880 Then I walked inside. He's standing, he goes walking 140 00:07:26,880 --> 00:07:30,080 up to the car and we got to the CCTV camera on the driver and 141 00:07:30,080 --> 00:07:32,160 you just see him. He's darling at the money to 142 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:35,680 everybody because there's something about experiencing 143 00:07:35,680 --> 00:07:39,080 hunger or poverty to have compassion on someone else who's 144 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:44,960 hungry and destitute. There's something about going 145 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:49,120 through divorce and aching for someone else who's going through 146 00:07:49,120 --> 00:07:51,280 the same thing. There's compassion. 147 00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:54,480 There's something about emptying yourself and going through 148 00:07:54,480 --> 00:07:57,720 everything that you and I have gone through so that God is not 149 00:07:57,720 --> 00:07:59,440 just for you. He's with you. 150 00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:03,640 He's with you in that valley. He knows what it's like to be 151 00:08:03,640 --> 00:08:07,800 rejected, to suffer, to be persecuted, to be an outcast, to 152 00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:09,560 be abandoned. He knows what it is. 153 00:08:09,840 --> 00:08:13,720 And the Bible shows us through Philippians 2, the Christmas 154 00:08:13,720 --> 00:08:17,640 introduces us to a God like this, Emmanuel, God with us. 155 00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:21,320 So maybe it's an E, maybe it's a three. 156 00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:22,640 But let's put another lens on there. 157 00:08:23,400 --> 00:08:27,480 This is what I call the most quoted verse in the Bible by the 158 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:29,920 Bible. This is from Exodus 34. 159 00:08:29,920 --> 00:08:32,120 We're going to go right back to the very beginning here. 160 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:36,799 So in Exodus 34, what's happened here is Moses has asked God to 161 00:08:36,799 --> 00:08:39,120 show him his glory. And God says, OK, I'm going to 162 00:08:39,159 --> 00:08:42,080 put my hand over you, and then I'm going to proclaim my name to 163 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:43,600 you. So this is a moment. 164 00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:46,480 This is what I call like a Ground Zero of God's character. 165 00:08:46,480 --> 00:08:49,240 If you want to know what God is truly like, if you want to get 166 00:08:49,240 --> 00:08:52,440 that lens to bring everything into focus, and this is a great 167 00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:55,160 place to start. And so it says here, then the 168 00:08:55,160 --> 00:08:57,040 Lord. This is verse 5 of Exodus 34. 169 00:08:57,240 --> 00:08:59,360 Then the Lord came down in the cloud and stood there with him 170 00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:01,600 and proclaimed his name, and he passed in front of Moses 171 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:06,200 proclaiming the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious 172 00:09:06,200 --> 00:09:09,960 God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 173 00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:13,840 maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, 174 00:09:13,840 --> 00:09:17,520 rebellion and sin. We could put like 15 lenses on 175 00:09:17,520 --> 00:09:20,360 your eyes to give you 2020 vision there, but there's this 176 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:22,400 one that I want to pick up and that's the very first one. 177 00:09:22,400 --> 00:09:25,200 Leave it up there. It says the Lord, the Lord, the 178 00:09:25,760 --> 00:09:30,680 compassionate and gracious God. That's one lens I want to pop 179 00:09:30,680 --> 00:09:32,120 up. Why compassionate? 180 00:09:32,120 --> 00:09:33,400 What's, what's the big deal here? 181 00:09:33,880 --> 00:09:36,880 Well, a couple things to know. Firstly, according to rabbinic 182 00:09:36,880 --> 00:09:40,320 tradition, the words of Scripture are important, but so 183 00:09:40,320 --> 00:09:42,920 are the order of the words in Scripture. 184 00:09:43,840 --> 00:09:46,800 So that when you look at that, the fact that compassion is 185 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:49,760 first means it is first in importance. 186 00:09:49,920 --> 00:09:53,600 It is the first thing God wants you to know about him, that he's 187 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:55,880 compassionate. OK. 188 00:09:56,200 --> 00:09:59,520 He's not putting together a Tinder profile saying I'm kind 189 00:09:59,520 --> 00:10:02,760 of compassionate, like to travel, have money enough to buy 190 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:04,320 planets. You know, he's not doing that. 191 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:09,280 He's intentionally putting it there because this is first and 192 00:10:09,280 --> 00:10:12,040 foremost. I wonder if you know this God, 193 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:17,320 Maybe you know a God who's judgmental or or angry or 194 00:10:17,320 --> 00:10:21,840 condescending or condemning, but that's not the God of Scripture. 195 00:10:22,520 --> 00:10:25,520 The God of Scripture says to you, and I want you to know 196 00:10:25,520 --> 00:10:29,360 first and foremost that I'm a God who's compassionate. 197 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:32,560 Now, the crazy thing about compassion is it's a feeling 198 00:10:32,560 --> 00:10:35,400 word. And actually it comes from the 199 00:10:35,400 --> 00:10:38,760 root word that it refers to a lady's womb. 200 00:10:40,280 --> 00:10:42,360 So this is the picture of compassion. 201 00:10:42,360 --> 00:10:47,200 This is a mother and all her feels for a newborn baby. 202 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:50,280 I don't know if you saw in the news recently, there was a lady 203 00:10:50,280 --> 00:10:53,840 in Canada who rugby tackled the polar bear. 204 00:10:56,680 --> 00:10:59,560 Talk about compassion. She hears this thing bearing 205 00:10:59,560 --> 00:11:02,400 down on his children. That's what happens in Iceland, 206 00:11:02,400 --> 00:11:04,000 I suppose. You know, come out the igloo and 207 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:07,600 no, Don, there's a polar bear going down the street at her 208 00:11:07,600 --> 00:11:10,280 children playing with their bicycles and she rugby tackles 209 00:11:10,280 --> 00:11:14,640 this polar bear nearly lost her life because then the polar bear 210 00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:17,360 turned on her, but the children were saved and that's all she 211 00:11:17,360 --> 00:11:19,200 cared about. That's compassion. 212 00:11:20,560 --> 00:11:24,200 That is what God feels when he looks at you, when he sees your 213 00:11:24,200 --> 00:11:27,240 sin and your decisions and your guilt and your shame when he 214 00:11:27,240 --> 00:11:29,760 sees how you were abandoned by your father at four years old. 215 00:11:29,880 --> 00:11:33,400 He rugby tackles the daylights out of that thing, nails it to 216 00:11:33,400 --> 00:11:36,360 the cross and delivers you compassion. 217 00:11:37,680 --> 00:11:39,520 You know, there's something to the guys here. 218 00:11:39,520 --> 00:11:42,800 If you're married and you got children, you probably noticed 219 00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:45,600 what I noticed. You know, it's one thing for 220 00:11:45,680 --> 00:11:48,320 your girlfriend to change into your fiance. 221 00:11:48,320 --> 00:11:50,720 That's nice. It's amazing when she goes from 222 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:53,520 a fiance to a wife. But there's something 223 00:11:53,520 --> 00:11:56,360 unprecedented when she goes from a wife to a mother. 224 00:11:57,080 --> 00:12:01,000 It's a change that blows you away, takes your breath away. 225 00:12:01,560 --> 00:12:04,640 I remember when my first born was crying in the middle of the 226 00:12:04,640 --> 00:12:07,120 night. My wife is down the passage. 227 00:12:07,120 --> 00:12:09,760 She has changed the nappy and is already starting to feed on. 228 00:12:09,760 --> 00:12:13,360 So like it's OK babe, I got this looking across the beds empty. 229 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:17,480 And I remember when my daughter this time last year ended up in 230 00:12:17,480 --> 00:12:19,840 the ICU. I messaged my wife. 231 00:12:19,840 --> 00:12:23,360 I said how how many days were you with Jim in ICU? 232 00:12:24,280 --> 00:12:26,880 And essentially she was there until we were kicked out. 233 00:12:27,880 --> 00:12:31,160 So we were having what was it? There was a Carol's evening here 234 00:12:31,560 --> 00:12:34,040 and Kath had taken Jim to the see the doctor because there was 235 00:12:34,040 --> 00:12:36,840 something terribly wrong. And I get this message. 236 00:12:36,880 --> 00:12:38,160 It's serious. Come now. 237 00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:42,480 So I rush my wife, wheels her into ICU and there she stays. 238 00:12:42,480 --> 00:12:45,400 I had to take change of clothes, I had to take food, I had to 239 00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:47,800 take shampoo. And she was there every minute 240 00:12:47,800 --> 00:12:51,080 of the day, feeding her, changing her, helping her 241 00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:53,040 shower. I remember, I think she's had 242 00:12:53,040 --> 00:12:58,240 157 blood tests. Every time they drew a vial of 243 00:12:58,240 --> 00:13:01,680 blood, my wife would take this. So sorry, just hold on a second. 244 00:13:01,680 --> 00:13:04,520 She would pray over that blood before it went for tests, every 245 00:13:04,520 --> 00:13:07,960 single one of them, because that's compassion. 246 00:13:09,280 --> 00:13:11,200 They literally kicked us out. We were transferred. 247 00:13:11,200 --> 00:13:13,880 She went in the ambulance. Of course, I had to go ahead and 248 00:13:13,880 --> 00:13:16,480 swap my credit card, but she was in the ambulance. 249 00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:18,200 And then she walked into the ICU again. 250 00:13:18,200 --> 00:13:21,000 And eventually we got to when she was in in the isolation 251 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:23,120 ward, they said, listen, you cannot stay here later than I 252 00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:25,680 think it was 10:00 at night. So he stepped out. 253 00:13:25,800 --> 00:13:28,480 She stepped out into the corridor for the first time and 254 00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:31,520 just broke down weeping. I want to be there for my 255 00:13:31,520 --> 00:13:34,560 girlie. God wants to be there for his 256 00:13:34,560 --> 00:13:36,600 girlie. He wants to be there in your 257 00:13:36,600 --> 00:13:40,320 trenches. And this moves his heart so much 258 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:42,360 that he says, I will be Emmanuel to you. 259 00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:47,080 God with you, not God. Now, I bet Midler got it 260 00:13:47,080 --> 00:13:49,880 properly wrong. It's not that God is watching 261 00:13:49,880 --> 00:13:55,640 us. God is with us, Emmanuel, God 262 00:13:55,880 --> 00:13:58,600 with us. The third lens, and this is the 263 00:13:58,600 --> 00:14:02,120 most important one, Best for last, but the hardest for last. 264 00:14:02,440 --> 00:14:05,760 Because in order for this lens to turn that E or a three into 265 00:14:05,760 --> 00:14:10,560 an F, you need to take a lens off, see? 266 00:14:10,560 --> 00:14:15,360 Because you and I have the lens of Jonah in the place where we 267 00:14:15,360 --> 00:14:18,200 need the lens of Jesus. And this is something I 268 00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:21,040 discovered about myself when we went through the Jonah series 269 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:25,440 this year, because in the book of Jonah, there's these guys 270 00:14:25,560 --> 00:14:27,960 known as the Ninevites. Nineveh was the capital of 271 00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:31,480 Assyria, and the Ninevites were the arch enemies of the people 272 00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:35,320 of God. They invented terrorism and 273 00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:38,240 guerrilla warfare. They were wicked beyond measure. 274 00:14:38,240 --> 00:14:40,880 And what happened was the Bible says in the book of Jonah that 275 00:14:40,880 --> 00:14:42,480 their wickedness had come up to God. 276 00:14:43,520 --> 00:14:47,960 And God says to Jonah, I want you to go not to destroy them, 277 00:14:48,560 --> 00:14:50,280 but to deliver them from their sin. 278 00:14:51,720 --> 00:14:55,400 See the Jonah lenses destroy the Jesus lenses deliver. 279 00:14:56,640 --> 00:15:01,560 So here's they've discovered recently, actually prior to just 280 00:15:01,560 --> 00:15:03,840 after we did the Jonah series, there was this archaeological 281 00:15:03,840 --> 00:15:07,480 dig that uncovered a whole bunch of of books and part of a 282 00:15:07,480 --> 00:15:11,120 library of one of the kings. And here are some of the things 283 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:13,360 that the king spoke of. Now I know we've got young ears 284 00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:16,880 here. So I've done this down to PG13. 285 00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:18,680 So if you look going like, Oh my gosh, that's terrible. 286 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:22,280 Just, you know, take off some of those lenses because one king 287 00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:26,800 said, having defeated his enemy, he said, a pyramid of heads I 288 00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:30,360 built in front of the city. The youths and their maidens are 289 00:15:30,360 --> 00:15:33,880 burnt up in the flames. Another king said, I crushed 290 00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:36,960 them like lambs. I cut off their precious lives 291 00:15:36,960 --> 00:15:40,280 like 1 cut string, like the many waters of a storm. 292 00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:43,360 I cut them open and made their lives pour out on the thirsty 293 00:15:43,360 --> 00:15:47,040 ground. I flayed him. 294 00:15:47,640 --> 00:15:49,440 I pierced his chin with my dagger. 295 00:15:49,440 --> 00:15:51,880 This is the king. Through his jaw. 296 00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:54,600 I passed a rope. I put a dog chain on him and 297 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:59,880 made him occupy a kennel. Now read those just to make it 298 00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:02,280 clear that this is not the kind of place where you want to plant 299 00:16:02,280 --> 00:16:08,880 a church. Most definitely not the place 300 00:16:08,880 --> 00:16:09,920 where you want to be sent. Yeah. 301 00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:13,640 You want to be a missionary journal. 302 00:16:13,640 --> 00:16:15,200 There's a great place. Stop there. 303 00:16:16,240 --> 00:16:18,320 You know in planet church that you have no heart for these 304 00:16:18,320 --> 00:16:21,640 people. Actually what you want is they 305 00:16:21,640 --> 00:16:27,640 need to get what they deserve. Jonah, you know the person that 306 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:34,360 had a heart for Nineveh was God. He says to Jonah, you go to 307 00:16:34,360 --> 00:16:36,400 them. I want to rescue them. 308 00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:39,240 I want to deliver them. Their sinners come up to me and 309 00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:43,080 that requires judgment, and I want to rescue them and deliver 310 00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:45,240 them and redeem them from the coming judgment. 311 00:16:45,520 --> 00:16:47,760 And Jonah's going. Have you lost your morphals? 312 00:16:48,400 --> 00:16:50,960 Go and destroy them. Because if you don't destroy 313 00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:52,760 them, they're going to destroy Israel. 314 00:16:53,160 --> 00:16:56,600 And God says God. And so he goes, and lo and 315 00:16:56,600 --> 00:17:01,760 behold, they repent. And just as Jonah expected, God 316 00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:05,839 relents. And this made Jonah angry. 317 00:17:06,160 --> 00:17:08,440 I read to you from Jonah chapter 4 it says. 318 00:17:08,440 --> 00:17:11,680 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong and he became angry. 319 00:17:13,040 --> 00:17:15,240 He prayed to the Lord. Isn't this what I said, Lord, 320 00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:18,119 when I said, when I tried to stay at home, that is what I 321 00:17:18,119 --> 00:17:19,920 tried to forestall. I tried. 322 00:17:19,960 --> 00:17:22,240 I thought if I hang back a little bit you can destroy them 323 00:17:22,240 --> 00:17:23,640 and go. Oh well, I was going to go, but 324 00:17:23,640 --> 00:17:24,880 now they're all burnt to cinders. 325 00:17:25,599 --> 00:17:27,960 That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarsus. 326 00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:29,400 Why? Because I knew that you are a 327 00:17:29,400 --> 00:17:36,200 gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in 328 00:17:36,200 --> 00:17:40,560 love, A God who relents from sending calamity. 329 00:17:42,440 --> 00:17:45,640 I wonder what lens you have. I wonder what lens has been used 330 00:17:45,640 --> 00:17:48,160 against you, The lens of Jonah or the lens of Jesus? 331 00:17:49,920 --> 00:17:52,560 Yeah, maybe the lens of Jonah was used against you by a family 332 00:17:52,560 --> 00:17:56,560 member or a spouse or work colleague. 333 00:17:58,800 --> 00:18:01,360 You know, you came into work and they just, oh, you're just 334 00:18:01,360 --> 00:18:04,600 reeking of sin. And they jammed themselves in 335 00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:08,000 between your issues and the compassionate, gracious, 336 00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:11,400 merciful God. And they looked at you through 337 00:18:11,400 --> 00:18:14,840 their Jonah lens and I said, no mercy for you. 338 00:18:16,040 --> 00:18:20,320 Fire and brimstone on that. Maybe it was a pastor. 339 00:18:20,360 --> 00:18:28,040 Oh, please forgive us, pastors. Maybe your life was falling 340 00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:32,600 apart and some Jonah pastor stepped in between the 341 00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:37,200 forgiveness of God and your issue and made the Jonah 342 00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:39,760 announcements. That won't be forgiven. 343 00:18:40,960 --> 00:18:42,760 You have to sort your entire life out. 344 00:18:42,760 --> 00:18:53,600 And that lens worst of all is over our eyes and our life and 345 00:18:53,600 --> 00:18:55,800 we forget that. He is firstly compassionate. 346 00:18:56,520 --> 00:18:59,440 He has emptied himself. He goes through that thing to 347 00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:03,120 deliver you, to be with you. I was walking a road with a 348 00:19:03,120 --> 00:19:07,000 young girl a few years back and he was having a complete 349 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:09,360 meltdown. So the back story was there. 350 00:19:09,360 --> 00:19:11,760 They lost their him and his sister lost their parents many 351 00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:13,680 years back. And so they sort of grew up 352 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:16,760 depending on one another. And he got radically saved. 353 00:19:16,760 --> 00:19:20,880 She got like nominally saved and he just was giving her stick. 354 00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:24,760 And so he wanted to sit with me because he just discovered that 355 00:19:24,760 --> 00:19:28,320 she was sleeping with her boyfriend and he needed the 356 00:19:28,320 --> 00:19:32,640 pastor to tell her what for. And I hate Bud. 357 00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:36,320 All I'm hearing is Jonah. I don't hear much Jesus here. 358 00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:38,720 And I'm thinking, this is what I'm thinking. 359 00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:44,440 Imagine if with her sleeping with her boyfriend ends up in 360 00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:50,240 her falling pregnant. Who's she going to run to with 361 00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:56,040 that shame and this brother, this Jonah looking down like 362 00:19:56,680 --> 00:20:01,640 burn her to the ground. And I said to him, listen, 363 00:20:02,160 --> 00:20:05,760 something like that happens. It's more likely that she runs 364 00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:08,880 to an abortion clinic than she runs to her brother because she 365 00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:12,040 will get more mercy there than her brother. 366 00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:17,000 And I said to him, you've got to realize something and you've got 367 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:18,960 to realize something. I've got to realize something. 368 00:20:19,480 --> 00:20:23,480 The people, the only people that felt uncomfortable around Jesus 369 00:20:23,800 --> 00:20:27,200 were the jonotypes, the Pharisees, the religious, the 370 00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:29,400 I've got it all together. You're failing, you're a 371 00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:30,440 disappointment. People. 372 00:20:30,640 --> 00:20:33,640 They were the only ones who felt uncomfortable around Jesus. 373 00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:38,040 Those who felt most comfortable around Jesus were prostitutes, 374 00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:47,040 tax collectors, criminals, Land Rover owners, Lewis Hamilton 375 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:48,240 fans. You know they do. 376 00:20:53,950 --> 00:20:58,080 You see, because we're, if we don't have this lens, if we have 377 00:20:58,080 --> 00:21:02,280 the Jonah lens, not the Jesus lens, we'll fail to see one of 378 00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:06,760 the biggest things that stands above this eye test that asks 379 00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:10,240 this question, what does God want of you? 380 00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:15,400 See, if it's the Jonah lens, God wants of you performance and 381 00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:17,560 perfection and try harder and do better. 382 00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:23,160 But if it's the Jesus lens, what God wants of you is he wants 383 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:27,720 you. He wants to be Immanuel and it 384 00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:31,760 moves Him so deeply that He was willing to pay whatever it cost 385 00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:37,040 to have you, and it cost him His Son who died on the cross, so He 386 00:21:37,040 --> 00:21:40,400 could take all your sin, everything that separates you 387 00:21:40,400 --> 00:21:42,600 from him. Yes, even with sleeping with 388 00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:45,480 your girlfriend, Yes, even getting pregnant out of wedlock. 389 00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:48,840 Yes, He paid for all of that sin so He could take it on himself 390 00:21:49,040 --> 00:21:52,440 so that He could forgive you and deliver you from that, but most 391 00:21:52,440 --> 00:21:57,640 importantly deliver you to Himself because He is God who 392 00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:02,600 longs to be with you. And you know this is the 393 00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:07,360 narrative of the entire gospel from the very first page of 394 00:22:07,360 --> 00:22:11,520 Scripture to the very last. Every epoch we find God 395 00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:15,600 reminding us don't forget I want to be with you Genesis right at 396 00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:19,080 the very beginning. Adam and Eve was it say says he 397 00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:23,000 was with them in the garden in the cool of the day ended every 398 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:25,360 day walking with them in the cool of the day through the 399 00:22:25,360 --> 00:22:29,960 garden with and when Adam sinned for those of you who still have 400 00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:32,720 a Jonah lens when Adam sinned, you know the first thing God 401 00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:38,000 said to them wasn't what have you done said where are you. 402 00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:41,640 You were with me, but now you're not with me. 403 00:22:41,640 --> 00:22:44,480 Something needs to be changed because you're not with me 404 00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:48,880 anymore. Every epoch from page one we 405 00:22:48,880 --> 00:22:52,600 find God wants to be with you. When the patriarchs Abraham, 406 00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:55,960 Isaac and Jacob are established, he says I will be with you and I 407 00:22:55,960 --> 00:22:59,000 will protect you. And when David becomes king, it 408 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:01,440 says while Saul is trying to slaughter him and all the 409 00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:04,720 enemies of surrounding, he said God gave David favor because he 410 00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:07,280 was with him. And when the nation of Israel 411 00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:09,920 decided they wanted nothing to do with this God and turned 412 00:23:09,920 --> 00:23:12,680 their back on him and faced all the consequences that they were 413 00:23:12,680 --> 00:23:15,640 facing, he said to the prophet Isaiah, I'll be with you even 414 00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:17,640 when you go through those deep waters. 415 00:23:17,800 --> 00:23:20,840 And when Ezra was finally released to go back to Jerusalem 416 00:23:20,920 --> 00:23:23,760 and rebuild the city, and the king was showing him favor and 417 00:23:23,840 --> 00:23:26,160 giving him supplies, the king said, do you also want 418 00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:28,800 protection while you take these supplies back to Jerusalem? 419 00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:30,600 He said, no, no, no, I don't need your protection. 420 00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:33,440 My God is with me and his hand is upon me. 421 00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:36,160 And then we changed to the new epoch of the New Testament to 422 00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:38,840 Matthew chapter 1. And it says he will be called 423 00:23:38,840 --> 00:23:42,000 the Son of God, will be called the Emmanuel, God with you. 424 00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:45,440 And when he chooses his disciples, it says this, it says 425 00:23:45,640 --> 00:23:49,960 he chose 12 disciples because he wanted to be with them. 426 00:23:50,120 --> 00:23:52,720 And when he had to do apart after being crucified and 427 00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:55,120 resurrected, he says, don't you worry, I'm going to leave you 428 00:23:55,120 --> 00:23:58,560 the Holy Spirit who will be your comforter and who will be with 429 00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:01,480 you forever. And when they fast forwarded all 430 00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:04,160 the way to the very last page of the Bible just before you 431 00:24:04,160 --> 00:24:08,640 reached the maps, it says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. 432 00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:12,800 And this heaven came down to be among the people because God 433 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:19,000 would be with us. It is the meta narrative of 434 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:22,160 scripture, this God who wants to be with you. 435 00:24:25,680 --> 00:24:28,240 And so to the students here who might still be here, maybe you 436 00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:32,480 came up to Pretoria beginning of 2024. 437 00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:35,120 And when you were packing your suitcase, you slipped your Bible 438 00:24:35,120 --> 00:24:38,240 in first thing and and you were dreaming of something of what it 439 00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:42,080 would be like to be in in the capital city and campus ministry 440 00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:45,840 and life group. And you've heard about 3 CR, but 441 00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:48,440 you arrived in the city and you realized, oh, OK, varsity is a 442 00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:50,920 whole different kettle of fish. You know, I'm going to have to 443 00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:54,600 push pause on, on going to laugh group and, and campus ministry 444 00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:56,360 and everything. Just sort of find my feet here. 445 00:24:56,880 --> 00:24:58,400 And then one thing led to another. 446 00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:00,520 And you started dating a guy who wasn't a Christian. 447 00:25:00,520 --> 00:25:02,960 And I mean, you know, you respected your faith, but he 448 00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:04,440 didn't believe what you believed. 449 00:25:05,640 --> 00:25:08,240 And then you started skipping Sundays because you were 450 00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:12,640 sleeping off Saturday nights. And then you started with you 451 00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:17,160 muting those Bible reminder apps to eventually deleting them 452 00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:19,720 because they were making feel awkward. 453 00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:23,800 And you look back at 2024 and you're going, I don't know when 454 00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:27,640 last I was with God. What does God want of you? 455 00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:33,840 He wants to be with you. Or maybe that couple everyone 456 00:25:33,840 --> 00:25:37,160 spoke about because you had so much potential and, you know, 457 00:25:37,160 --> 00:25:40,200 you got involved in Life Group and you're eventually leading 458 00:25:40,200 --> 00:25:43,520 life group and you're just doing well in the workplace and just 459 00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:45,120 the demands and everything. And you phoned Eugene. 460 00:25:45,120 --> 00:25:46,920 You said, hey, listen, we're just going to take a bit of a 461 00:25:46,920 --> 00:25:48,040 break. We're going to step back from 462 00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:49,440 leadership. We're still going to be in Life 463 00:25:49,440 --> 00:25:50,920 Group. But actually, that didn't really 464 00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:52,480 work because the rhythms weren't there. 465 00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:54,720 And then, you know, all those late nights on your cell phone 466 00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:57,440 in bed, the intimacy between the two of you disappeared, let 467 00:25:57,440 --> 00:26:00,320 alone the intimacy and those last minutes of a cooling day 468 00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:02,360 between you and your heavenly Father. 469 00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:06,840 And then you sent that text and she found out about it. 470 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:09,280 Or he found out about now your marriage is on the rocks. 471 00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:13,120 What does God want of you? He just wants to be with you. 472 00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:18,160 Or maybe you're that big hitter, the corner office guy lady 473 00:26:18,640 --> 00:26:22,520 that's seasoned professional who's thrown yourself into work 474 00:26:22,520 --> 00:26:25,600 for years and with every promotion they've increased your 475 00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:28,240 portfolio and that has meant that you spend more time at the 476 00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:30,360 office and let's less time at the dinner table. 477 00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:35,480 And maybe your marriage has now gotten to that place where it's 478 00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:38,040 running on fumes and your faith is fizzled out. 479 00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:42,400 Your Bible lies untouched on the side of your bed while you're 480 00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:46,280 checking those investment apps every hour religiously. 481 00:26:47,360 --> 00:26:49,800 And your corner office has become a coffin for your 482 00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:52,160 relationship with God. What does he want to view? 483 00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:57,840 He wants to be with you. From the very first pages of 484 00:26:57,840 --> 00:27:00,320 Scripture to the very last, He wants to be with you. 485 00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:05,320 From the very first page of your life when He knit you together 486 00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:09,080 in your mother's womb, till the day you and I breathe our last, 487 00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:14,960 He wants to be with you. So much so that He said to Mary, 488 00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:16,960 this is one thing you'll notice about me. 489 00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:19,440 I will be Emmanuel, God with you. 490 00:27:21,680 --> 00:27:24,480 That is the statement. This is the invitation. 491 00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:28,960 What are you going to do with the God who wants to be with 492 00:27:28,960 --> 00:27:31,200 you? What are you going to do? 493 00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:33,200 The God who wants to be with you?