Garry spoke last night from Matthew 5:1-12, looking at the subject of what it takes to be a hero for God.

We generally think of heroes as someone brave, fearless, with exceptional strength and courage. Soldiers often have to perform heroic tasks, saving the lives of other people, earning medals for their bravery and heroism. In films, heroes used to be portrayed as virtuous, honest, steadfast and perfect in every way. More recently, the concept of the ‘flawed hero’ has been promoted: heroes who are perhaps easier for us to relate to because they are not perfect but still do good, heroes such as Batman, Spiderman or Superman:

More recently, Hollywood has created the ‘antihero’, where someone perhaps performs good deeds almost against their will, since they stand for values which may not be seen as good! Then, of course, there are the ‘unsung heroes’ of everyday life, people who do good on a regular basis and yet whose good deeds may never receive recognition or fame.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus shows us what God is looking for in people and what, therefore, He classes as heroic. Garry looked at the first Beatitude: ‘blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’

The spiritually poor recognise that they have nothing of worth to offer God. All of us are in this position of being wholly dependent on the grace and mercy of God, but many of us fail to realise it. Eph 2:1-3 clearly shows us the state of all mankind without God. The spiritually poor are those from whose eyes the scales have fallen, so that we can see this present reality as it really is. We recognise the beauty and value of the now, but we understand that there is so much more to be revealed. We understand that what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. The spiritually poor actually see life the way God sees it.

The reward for a hero in the world’s eyes may be medals, honours, recognition. God also rewards His heroes. The reward promised to the poor in spirit is the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is everything that the earthly kingdom is not. It is eternal, will not pass away or fade; it is a place of no more suffering or pain or tears. Rev 22:1-5 paints a vivid picture of this kingdom, showing us that the poor in spirit will reign forever and ever. God is in the middle of this kingdom and will be with us forever. He has given us this inheritance freely because of His grace and His Spirit is the guarantee of this inheritance.

God’s heroes maybe look very different to the world’s heroes, but we need eyes to see eternal values and to look at life the way He sees it so that we can be His heroes.

Dave spoke from Psalm 51 this morning, the psalm written by David after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and connived in the death of her husband, Uriah. Unlike people (who tend to want to emphasise the good parts about themselves without mentioning anything bad!), God’s word is honest in showing us people as they really were. Nonetheless, despite all our shortcomings, God is able to use us if we have a heart set on Him (see Acts 13:22).

The background to the psalm is David’s realisation, through the word of God in the mouth of Nathan the prophet, of his sin. He has managed to ‘get away’ with his sin for months, but now he prays with heartfelt sincerity ‘Be merciful to me, a sinner.’ He realises that he needs God’s forgiveness and that he can do nothing to earn this. The cleansing and washing he requires to renew and restore his relationship with God cannot be earned by his own efforts. Sin makes us unfit to be in God’s presence. Nonetheless, even after Nathan proclaims God’s forgiveness to him, David finds it hard to forgive himself (a common problem to many of us) and he has to live with the consequences of his sin (the child conceived in adultery dies.)

David reaches the place where he acknowledges God’s sovereignty and understands that God is not so much interested in the outward trappings of sacrifice as with a broken and contrite heart. He wants us to be humble and willing to serve.

The psalm teaches us:
(1) the importance of a close and current relationship with God
Clearly, things have gone awry in David’s walk with God. The problem for all of us is that deterioration in our daily walk with God generally comes so slowly that it is imperceptible to us. It’s a ‘slow fade’, as Casting Crowns sing:

“It’s a slow fade when you give yourself away
It’s a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
It’s a slow fade, it’s a slow fade.” (‘Slow Fade’, Casting Crowns)

(2) the importance of self-image
If we forget who we are in God, we get a distorted picture of ourselves. David had been made king by God’s grace and needed God’s grace for his daily living. We owe everything we have and are to God. Once we lose sight of that, we are in a dangerous place.

(3) that nothing we do can earn God’s forgiveness.
God is the one who will ‘blot out my transgressions’. The reason Christ came was to redeem those under the law (Gal 4:4). Christ lived on earth, experienced temptation, knew what it is like to walk in human flesh, yet did not sin. He is the one who will make everything beautiful in its time.

When we receive and understand God’s forgiveness, our mouths are filled with praise; we want to tell others of God’s ways and we become lights to Him rather than relying on or needing self-importance. We are who we are, after all, only because of who God is.

‘Create in Me a Clean Heart’, Keith Green

James 2:1-13 looks at the double standards we can often live by. As he has previously said in chapter 1, we need an eternal perspective if we are to cope with the trials and temptations of everyday life. It’s so easy to be swayed by public opinion, having our values and mindsets determined by the world around us.

These verses warn us against judging by appearances and against favouring the rich over the poor. It’s easier to judge by appearances than to ‘search much deeper within’, in Matt Redman’s words. Such favouritism, partiality or segregation is discrimination and sin (see Lev 19:15. The reason that appearances are deceptive and we shouldn’t live by the world’s standards is that God doesn’t work this way (see Is 55:8-9, 1 Sam 16:7). We are His children and need to reflect His character.

How, though, do we learn to avoid being driven by public opinion? How do we avoid conforming to the world? As Eugene Peterson says in the Message version of 2 COr 10:3-6, it’s a ‘dog-eat-dog’ world out there, with unprincipled living, where it’s easier to look down on people than value them and it’s easiest to judge by appearances (fashion and riches being the easiest way to do that.) We are not of the world, however, and have different weapons. Our minds need to be transformed and renewed (Rom 12:2) so that we can see things the way God sees them.

God favours the poor (see Luke 1:52-53, Matt 5:3, Ps 140:12). They are ‘rich in faith’, precisely perhaps because they have no other riches and therefore put their whole trust in God. That is how He wants each of us to be: wholly trusting, wholly dependent. James summarises his teaching by talking of the ‘royal law’: ‘love your neighbour as yourself’. In many ways, this chapter is like an echo of Matthew 7. In both portions of the Bible, we are warned against judging and showing partiality; we are urged to examine our own hearts so that we can help others; we are warned not to despise the sacred things in favour of the things which may have shiny allure in the now and we are reminded that in its most basic form, loving others starts with doing to them what we would have them do to us. Mercy and judgment are contrasted in James 2:12-13. R.V.G. Tasker, in his commentary on these verses, says “Mercy shown on earth by the justified sinner, who has himself been the object of God’s mercy, is a sure ground for confidence that for him the sting of the final judgment will be found to have been already drawn.” We need mercy, for we are all lawbreakers. We cannot pick and choose which commandments to follow; as Calvin said, “God will not be honoured by exceptions.” Rather, recognising our own sinfulness and need for mercy, we are commanded to show mercy to others and to let words and action combine to produce congruent living.

Last night we looked at Hosea 10:12
“Sow for yourselves righteousness;
Reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unploughed ground;
For it is time to seek the LORD, until He comes and showers righteousness on you.”

Hosea, one of the 12 minor prophets, is probably best known for his life which God used as a parable to reflect His unconditional love for Israel. Hosea was ordered to take Gomer the prostitute as his wife and much of the book details the difficulties he faced but shows how his unfailing love reflects God’s relationship with His people who have proved to be just as fickle and unfaithful as Gomer ever did. Hosea’s words often challenged Israel to realise their sins and to do something about them.

Israel’s self-sufficiency and pride led to problems. They turned away from God to idols: we too can do the same thing, even if our idols look different to the wooden images carved in the Old Testament. The principles of the way back to God are laid out for us in this verse:

Break up your unploughed land
The Parable of the Sower (Mark 4, Luke 8, Matthew 13) talks about different kinds of soils. We have to make the hard soil of our hearts soft through the washing of the Word (Eph 5:26) and we need open ears that hear what the Spirit has to say to us. More than just hearing, however, we need to obey (see James 1:22-25).If we fail to act on the conviction the Holy Spirit brings, we are, in effect, hardening our hearts and we only have to look at what happened to the Israelites in the wilderness to see where this will lead us.

Sow for yourselves righteousness
Christ’s righetousness is imparted to us (see 2 Cor 5:21, 1 Cor 1:30). Our own righteousness is as filthy rags (Is 64:6), but we participate in a divine exchange – “a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord, for the display of His splendour.” (Is 61:3)We sow for ourselves righteousness when we live in right ways which reflect who God is (see Matt 5:16) and accept God’s estimation of us rather than our own views on who we are and what righteousness is.

Reap the fruit of unfailing love
Galatians 6 reminds us that we reap what we sow and that to reap spiritual fruit, we must sow to the Spirit. Jesus reminded us that there is a correlation between the tree and the fruit it produces (Matt 7:16-17). The fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5 is the result of our ongoing relationship with Christ. We can reap the fruit of unfailing love ultimately because God’s character reflects this (see Ps 130:7, Is 54:10). Human love may fail, but God’s love never fails.

Conclusion
The conditions of our heart soil matter.We have to break up the unploughed ground in our lives, letting God’s Word water our hearts, responding to God with eagerness and willingness, not grudging reluctance.

We need to live righteously, accepting God’s evaluation of who we are and seeking to abide in Him so that we hunger and thirst for righteousness.

The rewards of living this way will be to reap the fruit of unfailing love.

We also had a birthday to celebrate!

Mark spoke on 2 Timothy 1:6 this morning: “This is why I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”

(1) Stir up/ fan into flame…
Sometimes we expect God to do all the work! The gifts given to us come from God, but He expects us to do our part too and that part is to ‘stir up’ what is within, to be active in stirring up what He has given. 1 Timothy 4:14 tells us not to neglect the gift we have been given. We can neglect our gifts and can neglect people too; we can neglect the spiritual work of the church, leaving it to other people to do this vital job and therefore robbing ourselves and others of the blessings God wants to give through us. If we neglect anything, it remains there, but is not in pristine condition. We have to seek to use the gifts God has given us and combat the fear that we will look stupid if we step out in faith.

(2)… the gift of God…
Spiritual gifts (charismata) are given by God to us through the Spirit. These could be the gifts listed by Paul in 1 Cor 12:4-11, but could be much wider than this list. God gives natural talents which He wants us to use for His glory. He gives us gifts that will enhance the life of the church. Sometimes, the gifts He gives are the ones we don’t expect (or even want!), but the gifts are His to give, however He wants and to whomever He wants. The purpose of all God’s gifts is to benefit us all. If we refuse to use our gifts, we suffer and the others suffer too.

(3)… which is in you
Mark urged us to remind ourselves that we are all vital to God’s plans in this place, in this location. We have to use the gifts God has given us and not neglect them. Don’t be in doubt: you each have a purpose in God. Sometimes we need prayer to discover our giftings or to reawaken these giftings. Hebrews 10:19-25 reminds us to spur each other on (stirring again!) to good deeds. We need to encourage each other and encourage ourselves so that the church can benefit overall.

After prayer, Mark gave out laminated cards with this verse on to remind us of the truths we had heard. On the card were other thoughts which I think also bear repeating:
*”We need to be reminded about what we have. Revival is stirring up what we have rather than thinking ‘I need something new.'”
* “Jesus, Paul, Peter all reminded their people of the things they already knew and had.”
* “We stir up our gifts by using them. Go and do your gift, everybody!”
* “Gifts can be imparted into our lives from others and we can impart what we have to others.”
* “Whose hand is on us? Who is discipling us? Who are we discipling? Who are we imparting to? This is our call – to make disciples!”

Tim Hughes, ‘Consuming Fire’

Every day we wake up to a world that celebrates victory and applauds success. Very shortly we will be applauding medal winners in the Olympics, forgetting those who don’t quite make the cut. We like the happy endings of triumph and success.

Every day we serve a King whose ideas of victory and success conflict wih the world’s views.

It’s easy for us to forget the radical nature of the kingdom of God, where at the present time God’s ultimate victory over sin and death is not visible to all, but only to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. It’s very easy for us to be brainwashed into believing that the ‘dog-eat-dog’ mentality of the world is the only one that counts.

The death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ changed our perspective on life for ever. There on that hill, Jesus gave His life as a ransom for sin, showing us an alternative path to victory: one that looked, to all intents and purposes, remarkably like defeat.

Today, if you are tempted to despair and give up, feeling that victory will never be yours and that all life brings is failure, remember that the story does not end at Calvary. ‘Death has been beaten/ The grave has been conquered/ Jesus is risen/ Life ever after.’ (Phil Wickham, ‘The Victory) That is enough to hold on to.
‘The Victory’, Phil Wickham