It is a privilege to be among God’s
people. Many people prefer to live in
their own corners believing that being in their own corner is easier but our Lord
God gives us an assignment to learn how to live in a family of God. He wants us to learn how to live with our
enemies, to love them and to pray for them.
He wants us to learn how also to live in peace with everybody. What a tough assignment.
It’s easier to say, “you are my enemy so
be on your side and I’ll be on my side” but God our Father says we are not
allowed to put our enemies aside but to go back to the enemy and pray for
them.
My prayer for my enemy might be asking God
for revenge and punishment. We might
even want them to pass away because they are a pain in our backs. But God says, “no, change your prayer” and we
say, “please God take them away from me because that would make things easier
for me”. But when we think things are
easier, that is when things are harder.
When we meet with two or three, God is
among us. Is God among us even when we
meet with our enemies.
Today we are going to talk about the
waterfall. There are 249 waterfalls in New
Zealand (I googled it). This means New
Zealand is very rich and beautiful. When
we see waterfalls, we are impressed and we think it looks good. We can take
beautiful photos of the waterfall and present them to friends to show how
beautiful it is. However, if you talk to
a blind person about the waterfall, you have to describe it because they don’t
have sight. Sometimes what you see as
beautiful in your eyes is just darkness in the eyes of others. Even God will sometimes find what we think as
beautiful as darkness because God says, he can’t open his eyes to look at what
you look at.
The water on the river is smooth and
calm but when it gets closer to the waterfall the speed of the river starts to
increase and the water becomes turbulent.
When you come close to waterfall, the water becomes louder and louder
and it becomes hard to hear because of the noise. Someone can be close to you and you are
shouting and they don’t hear you because the loudness of waterfall can drown
out our voices.
When I saw a waterfall once around
Waikato I realised that the waterfall is dangerous. I was going closer so I could get a photo but
I started to get wet while I wasn’t in water.
The sound was loud and I couldn’t see below the water clearly. The waterfall was powerful. That was a lesson
for me.
Surrounding the waterfall are rocks that
look beautiful but they are very often slippery. When the water comes to reach the cliff’s
edge, the water goes down with power.
You can’t swim up the waterfall.
Many minimise that danger. Many
people think they can swim have an adventure with the waterfall believing they
will be able to save themselves.
Mark 6:23, Herod organised a birthday
party for himself. He invited the army commanders, kings, friends etc. When we hold a birthday party, we are
expecting gifts. We put around chairs,
tables, drinks and everything is organised including where people will put the
presents. The party will start slowly
and quietly and then it will get bigger and bigger and become more powerful, it
becomes louder and louder with more people talking and the music increases in
volume (like the waterfall where the river starts quietly and turns into a
waterfall).
When was the last time your neighbour’s
had a party? Some parties can go up to
late at night. Some kind people will
give you a notice to let you know there will be a party and when it will
finish. When the time starts for the
party, someone will walk in with a small gift and they are given a seat, drink
and food. After eating and drinking, the
shape of the party will change.
Everything was well organised at the beginning but later there will be
mess with food all over the floor.
In Mark 6, the king organised a big
party and after drinking alcohol, he became drunk and didn’t think
properly. Although the guests had drunk
and had eaten plenty of food, the king was not satisfied and he needed someone
to dance for him and his guests. The dancers stood and danced to please the
king and his guests. After dancing like
a competition, everyone was happy with one girl so the king said her, “whatever
you want I will give it you, up to half of my kingdom because you danced so
good”.
Micheal Jackson was a very good dancer
and to dance is a gift. Some can
practice but will never be like Michael.
When this girl danced, everyone was impressed. The king asked her what she would like. She said she will ask her mother who was the
wife of the brother of the king Herod.
Imagine the queen of England asking you
today what you would like? Some might
say money, houses, land, whatever is important to them. The mother of the girl told her to ask for
the head of John the Baptist. Imagine you
are given half of the kingdom if you want it.
This girl could have had anything but her mother wanted the head of John
because he was against her relationship with the king. John used to tell the king that he did wrong
to take his brother’s wife for himself.
So this woman thought if she got rid of John, then she would be free of
her enemy.
In our Christian life we have
challenges. Some of us are given a
territory to control like Herod who was given an empire to control for
years. Your territory can be your
thoughts, nieghbours, friends, children, those God has given you to look after
and protect. I don’t have the duty or
right to go into the houses of my neighbours to control what is going on
there. I can’t ask them if they washed
their dishes today. I have to control my
own house first and to take care of what God has given me properly and carefully.
When you ask my son to do something
small, he will be annoyed but when he goes outside of the house, he will do
things for others. He can make the beds
of another family but not his own bed.
Some Christians are like that, they can go to others and tell them how
to live as Christians and tell them to change their behaviour but themselves
are not living according to the WORD OF GOD.
Instead their role in life is to organise parties – to celebrate with
others. Many Christians celebrate things
they should not.
Yesterday I was at warehouse and people
were coming to buy gifts for Valentine’s Day.
I was saying to them praise the Lord you are alive and they would say
happy Valentine’s Day. I would ask them,
between me and the Lord or between me and you?
When you say happy valentines, the world thinks it’s a way to say you
love that person. Have you stopped and
thought about how much you love God and how much he loves you? When you love someone, you can hug and kiss
and you feel without that person, your life is different and you go everywhere
together. How is your relationship with God?
Herod made a party to please human
beings. In the same way as Christians we
prepare our messages to please people. E.g. We talk about God’s love and people
enjoy it because they want to hear about God being their servant but God is
your commander and chief and He wants you to take orders from Him. He is not there to take orders from you.
Herod made people drunk and finally, poor
John was beheaded and his head was put on a platter for the girl. Imagine, Nora if you ask for the head of
Robbie, what will you do with that head? Nothing. Sometimes we go to collect advice from the
wrong source. If this girl could think for
herself and answer the king from what she wanted then she could have had up to
half the kingdom. Instead she preferred
to seek advice from her mother and then pretended the decision came from
her.
God gave you intelligence. Seek God’s advice first because when you seek
advice from others, you will regret later.
Some can give inspired advice which is good to follow but you should be
able to know when the advice is bad. The
young girl should have known to behead John was bad advice. She should have
known the head of John was not a good gift.
She should have told her mother that she had no interest in killing
another human being. But instead she
blindly took the advice of her mother.
We do the same, we blindly take wrong advice and follow our feelings. We say, yes, you are right, he should die. A decision that is simple to us can turn into
a nightmare for others.
When satan comes to you, where will you
get good advice? You can’t trust anyone
but God, not the police, not the lawyer but only God because He is the only one
that can be trusted and He is the only one that can take your burden.
My daughter wanted to go to a party at a
friend’s house so I asked what kind of party it was. She said others will drink and smoke but I
won’t do it. I asked her, “So when
others become drunk, will you be able to stop someone from hitting you?” I
explained to her that when something goes wrong it will be too late to stop
it. She agreed not to go. Later at the party, things went wrong and
people got hurt.
Sometimes ideas start to present to us
slowly (like the quiet river) but if your ideas do not involve God, those ideas
will turn bitter later (like the waterfall).
You will be led by satan if you are not led by God. It is easy to allow your child to play with other
children but if you don’t teach them how to play correctly, it will be impossible
to teach them later.
I’ve heard of fathers taking a shower with
their children while they are young.
When the child turns 10, he will wonder if this is normal. The father thinks that we are created naked,
it is natural. I listened one time to
the testimony of a man who used to shower with his father. Later the child become gay and the father asked
the church to pray for the child. One
day the child explained to the church that it was because of the father, “because
he taught me to be naked in front of other men”. What you are training your children is what
you harvest one day. What you are training
your body, your body will give it back to you later. If you are lazy, if you are sinning, if you
don’t go to church, you will see the result one day.
Will you accept to die like John the
Baptist who continued to tell the truth to others. Herod recognised John was clean and
pure. Are you clean and pure in front of
God? Are you like the girl and want to
make people happy and when asked what you would like to get, you ask for
something stupid? Will you be like Herod
who was given a territory who could not control what he was given?
When you come close to the waterfall
that looks beautiful from a distance, you will see the danger. How many people look at you and you look like
a good Christian from a distance but when they come closer, they start to see
the slippery rocks, it’s a danger. For
example, anger. How many times have
people wondered if you are Christian? How many times have you rebuked yourself
for a wrong action? How many times do
you say you are a nice person while you have pushed others to sin?
Yesterday, I was working on security at
the warehouse and I could see many people stealing. I saw a man in his 60’s put a pair of shoes down
his pants and when he walked in front of me, the tag fell out. I pulled the man aside. He was so embarrassed and threw back the
shoes. He explained that Work and Income
(social welfare) doesn’t help him and his son needs a pair of shoes for school
and the only way to get the shoes was to steal them. I shook his hand and said I’m not calling
police but please don’t do it again. Next
time ask the manager for help or go back to Work and Income.
I saw another woman, so beautiful and
looking at her you couldn’t believe she was a thief. She came with a man and two children. She was taking dvds and putting them in her
bag. I told her that what she did was
not good but when I looked in her bag, she had removed the covers and there was
only discs. I told her, Jesus loves
you. She became angry. I told her Jesus says happy valentines. She came back and told me that she bought one
dvd.
Sometimes we can be tempted but we have
to know how to stop ourselves. How many
have died just by stepping near the waterfall.
Many people come into your life and they want to be like you and they
want to be close to you but don’t be the source of their death by your way of
living (e.g. the mother of young girl was the source of John the Baptist’s when
the young girl came close to her to ask for advice). We should encourage and help others so those
who are weak can say they are strong tomorrow.
But if you are strong and you try to step on the weak, they will perish.
God loves you so much that he came down
to this earth to save you so that you in return can help others. Salvation is like a plant that can crawl and
be seen in another corner even though the roots are in one place. Are your actions productive? When people see you, or your friends or
family see you, what do they say about you?
Smoking starts slowly. Drinkning alcohol is the same (like the slow
quiet part of the river). You can tell
your child they can have a sip but later it might be a danger (like the
waterfall). What we offer can be a
danger to others. The waterfall stays in
the same place forever – don’t be such a Christian to be a stumbling block for
others so they leave the church and the faith because of your behaviour. Live in Christ and let our lives produce
fruit. Don’t let any influence that can
damage your soul take control of you. If
you don’t stop and think, no one will do it for you.
God will ask you what you did on the
earth. If you know how to dance, dance
for the glory of God. If you know how to
invite, make parties, ask questions, do it all for the glory of God and make
sure what you do doesn’t destroy souls.
