Last week, before our holiday, we had a music practice at church where we were learning the Phil Wickham song ‘The Secret Place.’ Coming back from holiday and reading Dave’s sermon notes reminded me of the absolute need for there to be no difference between how we are in private compared to how we are in public and the importance of the need for us to run to God and develop our relationship with Him in that secret place (see Matt 6:6). Our faith has to be lived out in the home, in church and in public; there must be consonance (‘agreement or compatibility between opinions or actions‘) and congruence (‘agreement in harmony’) in our lives if our witness is to be effective. We can’t afford to be hypocrites; we can’t afford to wear masks and be different people in different settings.

I believe God wants there to be no dissonance (lack of harmony or agreement) in our lives. He wants us to be genuine, authentic people who do not live fragmented lives. Much heartache is caused when we say one thing and do another, when we model something other than reality to ourselves, let alone to others. Our mental and emotional health is damaged when we pretend to be something we’re not; our witness is damaged if we don’t practise what we preach.

We cannot start at the end, however. What we are in public is the end result of what we are in private; it doesn’t work the other way round! That’s why the ‘secret place’ with God is so important. We have to carve time out of our busy schedules to be with Jesus; we have to learn to communicate with Him privately before ever we can come before Him in public. When the wells run dry, when the winds start to blow, we have to know where to run and hide; we have to know where to find shelter. (Ps 91:1-2)

Then, when we have been with Jesus, we have the boldness, love, humility and forgiveness Dave preached about. We have the character of Christ formed within us. We are changed from the inside out. Life in the company of Jesus, Eugene Peterson says, ‘is not a discussion group but an act of becoming.’ (‘Tell It Slant’, P 65) We become like those whose values and company we share. Let’s become like Jesus.

Dave spoke from Acts 4:8-14 on Sunday evening, and as we read of Peter’s amazing witness and testimony which caused the Sanhedrin to be astonished (and ‘took note that they had been with Jesus‘), we see quite clearly how the power of the Holy Spirit and the influence of Jesus changed this ordinary fisherman who had denied even knowing Jesus before the crucifixion. The same should be true of us today, for we too have access to the presence of Jesus and the power of His Spirit. The best picture of Christ that we have is His living picture, shown in the words and actions of His people.

We will not be sinless like Christ, but we should reflect Him in different ways, through:

1. our boldness (the Sanhedrin commented on the boldness and courage of John and Peter, and we see the boldness of Jesus when He returned to Nazareth to preach from Isaiah, even though in His home town, He was known only as the carpenter’s son. He was not afraid to stand for the truth, even against those in authority, and we too should be willing to take our stand for Christ)
2. our love (for Jesus also loved all people tenderly, welcoming even little children; showing love and kindness is one way we reflect Christ’s character)
3. our humility (for Jesus was willing to serve the poor and those scorned by society; there is no place for pride or arrogance in God’s church)
4. our forgiveness (just as Jesus forgave those who crucified Him, we should be willing to forgive all who wrong us, trusting in God’s justice and allowing His nature to live through us.)

Being a Christian is not just for a Sunday; our life in and with Christ needs to be lived out every day of the week. There is never a time when we can strip off our uniforms, unbuckle our armour and blend in with the crowd. We must be imitators of Christ at all times. (Eph 5:1)

We must imitate Him in public. We all live in the world outside the church, and the world observes everything we do, and are quick to criticise. We must live the life of Christ in public and take care that we show our Saviour, and not ourselves; so that we can say, “It is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me.”

We must take care that we carry this into the church too.  We need to ensure that we carry the spirit of Christ, even in church, so that all who see us will say, “He has been with Jesus.”

We must, though, carry Christ with us especially in our private lives. Our home needs to reflect our imitation of Christ; as Rowland Hill once commented, he would not believe a man to be a true Christian if his wife, his children, and even the dog and cat, were not the better for it! Our imitation of Christ begins ultimately in secret. Remember how, after preaching the whole day, Jesus would steal away in the dead of night to seek help from His God. Remember how His entire life was constantly sustained by fresh inspirations of the Holy Spirit, obtained by prayer.

Take care of your secret life; so that you will not be ashamed for it to be revealed at the last great day of Judgement. Your inner life is written in the book of God, and one day it will be opened before you. We cannot hope to imitate Christ in public if we have not learned to imitate Him in private.

There is a saying ‘great minds think alike’ (with the ending ‘while fools seldom differ’...), and a recent visit to Chester Cathedral made me smile:

This is another ‘alphabet of faith’, with Jesus Christ firmly at the centre (it says ‘The Cross of Christ’ and ‘Jesus Lives’ in the centre), with the other letters used to describe different roles people have within God’s church (eg ushers, vergers, welcomers, deans and so on.)

I love cathedrals, for they are places of history which connect our present-day worship with the worship which has gone on through the ages. At Chester, there was a permanent reminder of the Nativity:

… as well as a pictorial reminder of the Last Supper (heavily allegorical, since all the disciples except Judas are framed by haloes):

… plus my all-time favourite stained glass window, created for the Millennium, showing the six days of Creation:

More unusually, there was a Lego exhibition also on view in the cathedral!

Garry liked the Lego bikes:

The 220,000 piece Titanic was impressive:

I’m still not quite sure why the Lego exhibition was in the Cathedral, but each visitor was invited to contribute to the model of the cathedral which is being built over the next three months, so if you fancy a day trip to Chester, you could join in with this too!

A role model is a person who leads by example, ideally someone whose lifestyle inspires us to follow in ways that will be helpful and beneficial to others. Celebrities are often perceived as role models because of the influence they have on impressionable young people. As Garry discussed on Sunday, however, celebrities are not, simply by virtue of their fame, necessarily good role models, for to be a good role model we need values as well as behaviour that are worthy of emulation. There’s far more to life than how we look, what clothes we wear or how much money we have!

Children learn behaviour by watching others and copying what they see. They learn to speak by listening to others and imitating what they say. It is therefore crucial that our speech and behaviour are worth copying!

Paul’s letters to TImothy, a young pastor left in charge of the church at Ephesus, urge him to ‘set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.’ (1 Tim 4:12) He often speaks of himself as a father to believers whose example should be followed (see 1 Cor 11:1, 1 Thess 1:6). This is a sobering thought for each one of us. What example are we setting others? Is there consistency in how we live? (values are rarely taught as such, but are definitely ‘caught’ by our children!)

Paul gives us areas to examine:

• how we speak and what we say (our words and tone of voice should encourage and build others up, not denigrate them and discourage them; our speech needs to build faith in people, not sow seeds of doubt and ideas of failure.)
• how we live (showing consistency of behaviour, not moodiness or manipulation; we should be people whose lives are upright, honest, without guile or deceit.)
• how we love (always the bottom line when it comes to motive; love urges us to think of others and not just our own selfish needs.)
• how we demonstrate faith (moving forward in God, not settling in a land of comfort, but always pressing on – Phil 3:12)
• how we live obediently in purity (learning to crucify the old nature and live without addictions, self-indulgence and sloppiness, paying attention to what we think, eat and do, refusing to let appetites rule us, living not as animals – who live by instincts – but as people made in the image of God.)

People need role models and God calls us to ‘shine like stars in the universe, as you hold out the word of life.’ (Phil 2:15-16) The Message version says ‘provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night.’ That is our calling and destiny: to be those light-emitting disciples whose lives are far more worthy of emulation than celebrities whose values are only temporal and selfish. When people look at us, they need to see love, light, joy, forgiveness, good temper, humour, integrity, consistency, perseverance and faith. God’s Spirit within us grows His fruit and shines forth.

The last night of the Proms (an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts held mainly at the Royal Albert Hall in London) traditionally ends with Edward Elgar’s ‘Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1’, with ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ being sung by the large audience, followed by Thomas Arne’s ‘Rule Britannia’, the hymn ‘Jerusalem‘ (which Flanders and Swann once ironically called England’s unofficial national anthem!) and the national anthem. It is often thought to be a celebration of English greatness.

To be honest, I am uncomfortable with the nationalistic fervour such songs evoke (and definitely don’t believe Jesus’ feet trod on England’s ‘green and pleasant land.’) We live in a multi-cultural society and are witnessing a great shaking of all nations at present which can cause us to become apprehensive and even fearful. Yet at the same time, God’s Word reassures us that He is still in control, reigning and ruling in majesty, even though nations may plot against him (see Psalm 2). I prefer Tim Hughes’ ‘Hope and Glory‘:

‘Hear our cry, Oh King of heaven,
Jesus, hope to every heart.
We are lost without Your glory.                                                                                                                                                                                                                 We are lost without you, God.

We had two more birthdays to celebrate tonight, one retrospectively and one in advance: