I will not neglect the Word (Psalm 116)

Preached on: Sunday 7th June 2020
The sermon text is given below or can be download by clicking on the “PDF” button above. Additionally, you can download the PowerPoint PDF by clicking here 20-06-07-Message-PowerPoint.
Bible references: Psalm 116:1-16; Psalm 1
Location: Brightons Parish Church

Text: Psalm 119:1-16 (International Children’s Bible)
Sunday 7th June 2020
Brightons Parish Church

Let us pray. May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of all our hearts, be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

SCENE 1 – In the kitchen
(MUSIC IS LOUD AND MIXER IS ON IN BACKGROUND)
(GILL ENTERS FILMING)
(SCOTT CAN’T HEAR INSTRUCTIONS FROM HOPE/GILL)
(GILL TURNS MUSIC AND MIXER OFF)

Gill – What are you two doing?
Scott & Hope – We can’t hear you!
G – What are you two doing?
S&H – We can’t hear you!
S – Let me turn down the music. Then we can hear Mumma.
G – What are you two doing?

S – Oh, what are we doing?

H – We’re just making some bread.

S – We’re making some bread. So, what do we have? We have some…

H – cake mix!

S – we have some bread mix, that’s right, and some water to put in. So, we’re making some bread, aren’t we? Have you made bread with Mumma before?

H – Yes!
S – Yeah. You like baking, don’t you?

H – I like making chocolate cake, it’s my favourite.

S – that’s your favourite! Why don’t you pour that in just now and I’ll talk to the boys and girls at church.

Hi everyone, welcome to our kitchen – and yup, Hope and I are making some bread and we couldn’t hear Gill because the music was too loud. I’m going to turn it down just a little bit more so that you can hear me.

So, that reminds me a lot of what it’s like in life. Every day there are lots of noises all around us trying to get our attention. It might be our friends, what’s on TV, it might be our favourite celebrity or social media influencer,…
it might be TV programmes or announcements from government or science or health professionals – lots of voices shouting for our attention and it can be hard to hear God’s voice.

Just like we had to turn down the so that we could hear Gill, sometimes we need to turn down those other voices so that we can hear God’s voice through His Word, the Bible.

In our Psalm today, the man who wrote it was also surrounded by many voices – the voices of the arrogant and the rulers, the wicked and the oppressors. But the psalmist didn’t choose to listen to those voices, instead he chose to listen to God’s voice; he dials down the other noises and tunes in to God.
So, here’s a question to think about at home for 1 minute: what are some of the voices that we need to dial down, and how can we better tune in to God, listen to God’s voice? Over to you for one minute!
(PAUSE)

Welcome back everyone – I’ve started to make my sandwich, but I’m not really sure I’ve got it right, what do you think I’ve done wrong? I’ve got here my turkey and salad to put in the middle, and I really like brown sauce, so I’ve got HP here, no messing around with anything less. And I’ve got the two parts of the recipe, one for the top and one for the bottom!

Do you think this will taste any good? Give me a thumbs up for yes and a thumbs down for no! (WIGGLE THUMB)
I reckon, actually, that it’s going to have to be a thumbs down – I cannot imagine eating some paper is going to taste any good, can you? No! What do I need in here? Shout it out! That’s right – I need bread! The recipe is of course important, but the goal is to make bread and have a great sandwich! The goal is not only to have the recipe.

And that reminds me about another lesson from our psalm today. Again and again the psalmist talks about ‘your orders’, ‘your commands’, ‘your word’, to ‘obey you’, ‘not sin against you’, ‘you have spoken’. Now, who is this ‘you’ that the psalmist is talking about? Who is it? It’s God! God has given us His Word, the Bible, which is full of information about how to live and what God is like; it is full of God’s commands and also revelation of Him.

But God didn’t give us this just so we could have a list of instructions and become really knowledgeable about the
Bible, nor is the Bible to be the thing we love the most. What did Jesus say was the greatest commandment? It was: ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment.’ (Matthew 22:37-38) We are to love God, love Him above everything – even above His Word – and that’s because the goal is not simply to read and know God’s Word, the goal is to know God Himself. Not just to know about Him in our heads, but to know Him as a person, to know Him in our hearts.

The Psalmist says in verse 2: ‘Blessed are those who…seek him [God] with all their heart.’ The goal is not just to have the recipe, the goal is to have the bread, the bread of life, as Jesus was called.
So, here’s another question for you to think about: as you read the Bible, are you seeking God, or are you seeking to know and follow His rules? I’ll give you thirty seconds to think or talk about that just now.
(PAUSE)

Well, here I am, at the dining table with my sandwich. We’ve baked the bread; we’ve put it all together as it should be, I’ve even remembered to replace the recipe with slices of bread. But is it enough to leave the sandwich sitting on the table? Am I going to be fed by it sitting there? No! Of course not! If I want to be fed, I have to eat the bread, the sandwich has to become part of me. Because the sandwich goes into my mouth, down my throat, into my tummy and there my tummy does things with the food that give my body strength and energy… But to get that strength and energy, I need to eat the bread.

And that’s our final lesson today, from this psalm: it’s not enough just to have God’s Word, it’s not enough to know God’s Word and even to know God through His Word. Quite clearly this psalm tells us that we need to put God’s Word into practice in our lives. Verse 9 says: ‘How can a young person [any person] stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word.’

It verse 11 it also says: ‘I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.’ What we learn about God and His ways is meant to become part of our lives, it is meant to change our hearts, the place of our will, and so that we will the things of God.

Many of us will have seen this picture online or in the paper or news this past week: of Donald Trump holding up a Bible in front of a church. The Bible Society wrote a very powerful article about this event and they quoted the bishop, whose church was used for this event, she said: ‘Let me be clear, the President just used a Bible, the most sacred text of [Christians], and one of the churches of my diocese without permission, as a backdrop for a message [opposite] to the teachings of Jesus.’

And she said that because the Bible was used as a prop, that church was used as a PR location, and violence was used to make it possible.

It’s not enough to have a Bible, it’s not enough to know some things from it, to even know something of…
God based upon the writings in the Bible, and that’s because God counts as His children, the Lord Jesus counts as His disciples, those who seek for His Word to become part of who they are, to shape their hearts and lives.

There is a place for Christians to call out the President for his behaviour, that day and so many more besides. But let’s remember, that when we point a finger, three point back at us. A man called C.K. Chesterton, once replied to a newspaper which ran the question: ‘What is wrong with our world?’ He replied: ‘Dear Sir, I am. Yours sincerely, C.K. Chesterton.’

These past weeks, as we have rightly championed Black Lives Matter, and responded to the injustice faced by
George Floyd and many others, I have had to take…
a hard look in the mirror, on my own life and ask the tough questions, because this psalm excludes a faith which idolises the Bible, for we are to worship God alone, but equally, it also reminds us, that God says a faith which takes little heed of God’s Word, a faith where our heart and will do not seek His ways, is a faith which in the words of the book of James, is worthless.

So, friends, let’s stand with Black Lives Matter, let’s be actively anti-racist, but let us also eat the sandwich, let us heed God’s Word and allow it to shape us. For as I read in an email this week: ‘World change usually starts with my change.’

Let us tune in to God’s voice, seeking Him as our first love, and allow Him to change us from the inside out.
May it be so. Amen.

I will declare Your name (Psalm 22)

Preached on Sunday 5th May 2020
The sermon text is given below or can be download by clicking on the “PDF” button above. Additionally, you can download the PowerPoint PDF by clicking here 20-05-03-Morning-Message-PowerPoint.
Bible references: Psalm 22
Location: Brightons Parish Church

Text: Psalm 22 (Easy English Version)
Sunday 3rd May 2020
Brightons Parish ChurchLet us pray. May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of all our hearts, be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Boys and girls, what do you think this noise is? Listen up! (PLAY SOUND OF ROARING LION)
Can you guess what that noise was? Shout out your answer! The right answer is…“a lion”. Well done if that’s what you said!

The sound you heard was a lion roaring. Do you think you can hear a lion roar from very far away (stretch hands) or only very close (put hands close)? Where will you put your hands? What you going to pick?…the answer is very far away, sometimes even miles away.
Now, why are we talking about lions?! Well, in the psalm we read today, we heard another prayer of David, and he begins with these words: ‘My God! My God, why have you left me alone? Why is my help far away? I am crying out in great pain!’ (v1)

How do you think David is feeling at the start of this prayer? Thumbs up if you think he’s feeling good…thumbs down for not feeling good…I think David is…not feeling good. I think he is feeling sad, hurt, scared by things that are happening around him and to him.

And so, David cries out to God in prayer, he roars to God, as loud as a lion because God seems distant; God seems absent. I don’t think David is looking for an answer to his questions; I think he just wants God to act!
Because what makes this even more difficult for David is that God has acted before, both for David and for his ancestors. David says: ‘Our ancestors trusted in you…[and] you saved them. They called to you and…you did not disappoint them.’ (v4-5) David cannot make sense of God’s absence, God’s distance, because that has not been the case for others.

Also, David remembers that God was like a midwife to him when he was young: ‘Lord, you brought me safely to birth….From the day that I was born, I was already in your care. You have been my God since my mother gave birth to me.’ (v9-10)
God brought David safely into the world and laid him upon his mother – so again, why is God absent, so distant, that the roar of David’s soul is not heard?
Now, I wonder if we resonate with David’s words here? Does God seem absent and distant to us? Do you feel in the depths of anguish and doubt just now? Is your plea also for God not be far from you and to help? And if you are in that place, or if you’ve been in that place, I wonder if you think your faith is failing or imperfect?

Last week I mentioned a few times when I had experienced difficulties, and in one of those periods of life I remember being on a weekend away in Pitlochry with friends from church. We invited a speaker to come that weekend, a minister, and in some of my free time I spoke with him about how I was feeling, that what I had experienced had rocked my faith and I felt at my lowest, I felt far from God. I thought my faith was diminished.
But then he said, “what if this is the moment when your faith is actually at its strongest? Because it would be really easy to give up on God, to walk away, and yet you are holding on and seeking God even in these hard times. That speaks of faith to me, a strong faith.”

David says, ‘My God! My God…’ (v1), even when all the evidence suggests that God is absent, maybe non-
existent. David still holds on to his relationship with God because he sees what God has done in the past and so he continues to put his hope in God now. This is maybe the moment when his faith is strongest.

Boys and girls, there’s also something else very important about this psalm – do you know who else prayed these words? If I used some sign language, could you guess?
(sign the cross – palm to palm)
Who do you think prayed these words?…Did you guess? It’s “Jesus”! Many years after David, Jesus used the words of this prayer when He was facing the most difficult moment in His life: dying on the cross for our sin, dying there because He loved us. And when He was on the cross, and our sin was like a weight upon His shoulders, Jesus said, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Matt. 27:46)

As Jesus prays the words of David, upon the cross, it shows us that Jesus understands our hard times, He understands those moments when Father God seems distant, absent. Jesus encourages us to come to God with raw honesty and to see that as a sign of faith, maybe even the darkest moments of life.

This psalm of David is a prayer of lament, anguishing over the apparent absence of God, and yet it can be a model of prayer for us in these times as well.

But boys and girls, towards the end of the psalm, what David is feeling changes, he uses different words. Is David feeling upbeat (raise hands) or very low (lower hands) at the end of the psalm?…He’s feeling really upbeat, David is full of praise for God. So, why the sudden change?

Well in the middle of the psalm, we read these words: ‘Lord, please do not stay far away from me!…Keep me safe!…Save my life…I know that you have answered my prayer…God did not forget to help…He did not turn away…’ (v19-21, 24)

At some point God acted, at some point God broke the silence, He came close again and helped. And so now David is able to gather with his people and praise God, in fact he says: ‘I will tell my people how great you are…’ (v22) and then he calls others to join in praising God, to see that God is worthy of praise.

Now, this may feel similar to the “I will…” statement of last week’s psalm, but it is different. David is not simply talking to God about what God has done, David is talking to others about what God has done, first to his fellow Israelites, but then he envisages this good news of God rolling out to the nations and to future generations. This good news is that God is still Lord, God is still King, He is still on His throne despite the experiences we have which cause us to cry out, “my God, my God”.
What great action of God might we look to? What great action of God shows that He cares for us and for the nations? Well, of course, it’s the death and resurrection of Jesus, the ultimate sign of God’s love for this world, the way He broke the silence, speaking to us in the person of Jesus, drawing close to our brokenness, because Jesus is
Immanuel, ‘God with us.’ (Matthew 1:23)

Psalm 22 is used 24 times in the New Testament because again and again there are words and ideas here which point to Jesus and only Jesus. Never in the life of David does verse 16 actually happen: ‘a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet.’

So, here is another prophetic word from God through
David, written hundreds of years before Jesus…

so as to help us see that Jesus is the promised one, the one who would be afflicted, broken, for the sake our world, to give us hope, a world-changing hope, the hope of Psalm 22.

Jesus, on the cross, roared out, “my God, my God…”, but He also said, “It is finished…” (John 19:30) Not a cry of defeat, but of victory – that His death was ushering in a glorious hope, even more glorious than what is painted in the psalm. Because our hope through Jesus is that one day a time will come when we see Him face to face, and ‘He will wipe every tear from [our] eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things [will have] passed away.’ (Rev. 21:4) Friends, this psalm, and the very life of Jesus, acknowledge the hard realities of our world; that we experience brokenness and the depths of anguish. Yet at the same time, both the psalm and the life of Jesus, remind us that God has acted, God has heard and delivered; ‘He has done it’, ‘it is finished’.

And so now, there is a call to take up those later words of David as well: ‘I will tell…how great you are…’ (v22 EEV), ‘I will declare your name…’ (v22 NIV) Brothers and sisters, in these difficult days, yes, this psalm invites us to be honest, but it also invites us to share the hope we have, because of Jesus, with others: that ‘He has done it’ (v31 NIV), ‘it is finished’ – God has broken the silence, He is not absent, but has acted and came close in Jesus. To Him be all glory, now and forever. Amen.
We’re going to take a moment to pray now, and in our prayer, we’re going to use the sign language for “Jesus”, which is this…we are going to do that four times, and each time remember or pray for something. So, let us pray.

Let us make the sign of Jesus and remember how He felt left alone, just as you might feel alone today.
Let us make the sign of Jesus again and remember that He died for us.
Let us make the sign of Jesus again and remember that Jesus rose from the dead, giving us hope.
Let us make the sign of Jesus one more time and ask to God to remind us of someone who needs to hear the good news of Jesus this week.
Lord, hear our prayer. Amen.

Life-giving Words (James 3:1-12)

Preached on: Sunday 9th February 2020
The sermon text is given below or can be download by clicking on the “PDF” button above. Additionally, you can download the PowerPoint PDF by clicking here 20-02-09-Brightons-Powerpoint-Scott-sermon-morning.

Bible references: James 3:1-12

Location: Brightons Parish Church

Text: James 3:1-12
Sunday 9th February 2020 Brightons Parish ChurchLet us pray. May the words of my mouth, and the
meditation of all our hearts, be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

I read this past week that if we include scientific words, there are over one million words in the English language. Of all those words, the average person knows about 20,000, uses roughly 2,000 different words each week and speaks about 16,000 words a day, on average – though I guess the number goes up for ministers on a Sunday! The book of Proverbs reminds us that: ‘The tongue has the power of life and death’ (Pro. 18:21). So, our words matter, not so much the number of words we speak but the kind of words and the purpose for them.

Fourteen years into married life I can well affirm this
because I am still very much learning to speak in life- giving ways. One year into ministry here at Brightons, having spoken more words than in any other year in my life, and I am aware that my words have likely touched on both parts of that proverb.

So, we can likely resonate with the writing of James today because we know his assessment in verses 2 to be true: we all say wrong things, because (after all) who amongst us is perfect, who lives a perfect life? No one. So, if we stumble in our deeds, then we sure stumble in our words, we all say wrong things, and for this reason what James is about to detail is relevant for us all, even though he begins with teachers. For they must be especially careful, since the weight and quantity of their words will be greater.

In verses 3 to 5, James is seeking to quickly help us grasp
that our tongue is powerful by giving us three pictures. Firstly, of the bit in the horse’s mouth, able to turn such a powerful animal. Secondly, the lowly rudder, which the pilot can use to steer the largest of ships even amidst powerful winds. Thirdly, the small spark, which can set the greatest of forests aflame, laying low even the most powerful of trees. Across all three pictures, James highlights the disproportionate power of the tongue.

As a result, the tongue can boast. James says in verse 5: ‘the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts.’ Boasting here is not in a negative sense, simply a neutral sense, that the tongue does have considerable influence for it does have great power.

Now in our digital age, it’s worth bearing in mind that if
James was writing today he’d probably include all forms of communication, both electronic or printed, because we utilise these to say things. So, let’s keep in mind every social media post, every electronic message, or the notes we send one another; they are all powerful means of speaking; it’s just that in James’ day the average person could only utilise the spoken word and so with a focus on the tongue James wants to help us see the destructive power of our words.

In verses 6 to 8, James speaks of the tongue being a fire, of it corrupting the whole body, setting the course of one’s life on fire, that it has at its disposal deadly poison. Again, this echoes the earlier Proverb ‘…of life and [of] death’ (Pro. 18:21).

God’s Word is full of examples where the tongue can lead
to death:
• Gossip and Slander – Proverbs 16:28
• Flattery – Proverbs 26:28
• Bragging – Proverbs 27:2
• Breaking Confidence – Proverbs 11:13
• Complaining – Philippians 2:14
• Lying – Proverbs 12:22
• Crude Humour and Language – Ephesians 5:3-4, Colossians 3:8
• Deceit, Cursing and Bitterness – Romans 3:13-14

So, our words are powerful, and all too often that power leads to death – because none of us are perfect, none of us, as James reminds us in verse 8, none of us can tame the tongue, it is a runaway fire, it is a viper waiting to strike with its poison.

But not only does it affect others’ lives, it affects our lives;
the words we use can have a powerful impact upon the course of our own lives, upon the actions we choose to take. That rash word, that flippant comment, which lead to that argument, which then shaped the months and years to follow. Truly the tongue, truly our ability to communicate has have power and too often that power etches wounds, scars, and unhealthy patterns of thought and behaviour into our lives and the lives of others’.

I’ve spoken at The Guild about my call into ministry, which came upon me at the age of 20, at that time into youth work, and so I left the study of chemical engineering. Fast forward six years, I’m was working as a youth pastor in a church and things seemed to be going well, though there were the usual challenges…

And one morning I’m called in to find out that my contract
is not going to be renewed at the end of the year. I’m being encouraged and “freed up” to explore a broader call, rather than singularly to young people. It’s meant to be supportive and done in a timely manner such that I can explore options, but sadly, for a variety of factors, those words, at that time, lead me to have a touch of depression, and I avoided youth ministry after that job for three years – I just couldn’t it, it was too painful.

Words have power and they can set the course of our lives and the lives of others, for our words, our tongues, have the power of life and death. I think we all know this to be true, I think we can all resonate with what James writes. So, I want to talk about two responses to this issue.

The first response, is: how should we use our tongues? Yes, it can lead to death, but it also has the potential to be life-giving, so how can we lean-in to that? What wisdom does God have for us that we and others might know life through our words as well?

We’ve seen in James in previous weeks, that he has some wisdom to pass on, wisdom that is quite easy to gloss over. He said earlier: ‘My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry…’ (James 1:19)

We know this sentiment, we’ve probably heard it many times. At present, I’m working through some pre- marriage material with two couples…

who will be married in the coming months. What’s
striking so far in the material is that it really does try to put this verse into practice. It gives tools to the couples so that they can slow down their responding, whether it be anger, or defensiveness, so that their response does not lead to rash words nor block effective listening, listening that is full and deep. But it is easy to gloss over James’ encouragement here to be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry; yet if we put them into practice they can be life-giving.

I said at the start of today’s message that I’m one year into ministry here at Brightons, in fact one year into full- time ministry at all. That means I’ve got a lot to learn, it means I’m going to make mistakes. It likely means that I will communicate things, which in principle I stand by,

but which I also don’t communicate clearly enough or in
the best way. Personally, I appreciate that you have been slow to speak and slow to react, especially if you feel loss as things have changed in the past year. I hope you’ll continue to be like that and not jump to conclusions about my motives, about what I might be saying or might not be saying. Can I also encourage you, if you are struggling, to come talk with me – I’m not looking for you to lambast me, or pin me against a wall, but come asking, “I wonder…?” Questions. I promise to be quick to listen and slow to speak. I’ve had a number of such conversations with folks already and I believe those times have been of benefit to us both.

But, whether we feel that way or not, let’s heed this piece
of wisdom, that our words might be life-giving.

We could also turn to Ephesians chapter 4 and explore
the wisdom Paul shares there on the issue, for he says: ‘each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbour…‘In your anger do not sin’: do not let the sun go down while you are still angry…Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs …Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other…’ (Eph. 4:25-32)

This passage is chock full of wisdom: to speak truth; to be careful of anger; to only speak what is wholesome, to speak what gives life, which builds others up, and meets their needs. As such, there should be no talk…

which is bitter, or disparaging, but only that which is kind
and compassionate, with a readiness to forgive, because none of us is perfect, we all stumble in many ways.

I suspect we’ve heard this many times, indeed the Church has apparently been teaching it for two thousand years, and yet folks like Henri Amiel, Swiss philosopher, poet, and critic of the 19th century said: ‘In order to see Christianity, one must forget almost all the Christians.’

How terribly sad, and all because of the power of the tongue which can cause such harm, rather than foster life. But what if we took God’s words more seriously? Might we see in our day a community where faith is vibrant and true, where there is an active love for neighbour, and where all experience the Kingdom of God

in our midst, such that the sceptics and the critics are
encouraged to wonder afresh about Jesus, to wonder that maybe His claim was true, that He came to give life and life in all its fullness? Our words have the power of life and death, so will we heed the wisdom of God that we might be a community who is life-giving in our words?

But here’s the rub my friends: even with all that wisdom, we cannot be that community in our own strength, and this is the second response we need to explore. Jesus said, ‘A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.’ (Luke 6:45)

The tongue has the power of life and death, and the extent to which we foster life or make way for death,

depends on our hearts. The mouth speaks what the heart
is full of. The heart in this verse is the real you, the core of who you are, your nature, your identity.

James said similarly in our passage today. He said that our tongue is ‘…a world of evil…set on fire by hell…It is a restless evil…’ (James 3:6, 8) Is that true?

Well, we’ve already seen in the words of Jesus, that the mouth speaks what the heart is full of – evil words, evil heart. The internal world of our soul, of our hearts, will flow into our words. So, James is 1 for 1 so far. What about James saying that the tongue is set on fire by hell?

Earlier I quoted from John chapter 10, where Jesus said that He came to give life in all its fullness. But earlier in that same verse, Jesus also said that ‘the thief comes only

to steal and kill and destroy’. He is speaking about the
powers of hell and any deed, any word which leans away from life, may in fact be a partnership with the dominion of darkness. Paul said: ‘‘In your anger do not sin’: do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.’ (Eph. 4:26-27) It is possible in our anger, as Christians, to give space, influence in our lives to the devil, and he has used such footholds and open doors to wreak havoc, like a fire, upon the Church. So, yes, the tongue can often be set on fire by hell, and indeed to call it a restless evil, as James does, ties in with this, because restlessness is a readiness to break out and cause harm, and that is characteristic of the demonic whereas peace is characteristic of God and His good kingdom.

It is under such influence that the tongue can be led into
duplicity as James outlined in his final verses today: of praising God yet cursing the one made in God’s image, thus maligning the Creator Himself. As James says, this should not be, for we are meant to be like a fresh spring, life-giving, and by our fruit we will be known. Where there are bitter words, there is a bitter heart. Where there are defamatory or unloving words, then there is a heart where the love of Jesus is absent.

The heart is the real you, the core of who you are. So, if we want our power-laden words to speak life rather than death, then the heart cannot be in league with evil and hell, instead it must have a different ruler – not ourselves, but Jesus, King Jesus. Because when Jesus comes into our lives,…

when He becomes our Lord and Saviour, then the heart
changes. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians: ‘if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here.’ (2 Cor. 5:17)

It was such an understanding that lead Paul to say to the Ephesians, in the very same passage we looked at earlier, he said: ‘…we are all members of one body…do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption…[forgive] each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love…’ (Eph. 4: 25, 30, 32; 5:1-2)

When we become that new creation through Jesus, when we realise that we are members of His body,…

when we realise that God lives in us and can be grieved,
when we realise how greatly God loves us and such that it took Him to the Cross – well then, we truly are a new creation, we have a new identity within us which begins to change us from the inside out, for it begins to change our heart and from that changed heart comes a changed life both in word and deed.

Friends, our words have the power of life and death, and if we want to be a community who is life-giving in our words, if we want to be life-giving in our marriages and families and friendships, if we want to be life-giving in our places of work or leisure, then it begins with the heart, but you can’t change your heart on your own, you need Jesus. So, it’s good news that He’s ready to help.

He’s ready to step into your life, if you will but call upon
Him and let Him rule in Your heart. He promised long ago through the prophet Ezekiel: ‘I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.’ (Ezek. 36:26)

The Lord has been faithful to His promise, for in these last days He has sent His Holy Spirit, not just to be around us but to be in us, as Paul said, to take up residence and make our hearts, our bodies, a temple of His presence. By that Spirit we are made new creations. By that Spirit we grow in the likeness of Jesus, bearing the fruit of love and joy and peace. Friends, if we want our words to have the power of life rather than death, then it’s time to humble ourselves, it’s time to call upon the Lord for mercy and grace, it’s time to be filled with His Spirit.

For Paul also exhorts the Ephesians: ‘…be filled with the
Spirit.’ (Ephesians 5:18) The idea behind this phrase is that we are to experience the receiving of the Holy Spirit so that (in time) every part of our lives is permeated and controlled by the Spirit. This is not a ‘once for all’ experience, of which the early chapters of the books of Acts make clear. This filling of the Spirit is repeated a number of times with the early disciples, for we reed: ‘All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.’
(Acts 2:4)
And then a little later on with the same people: ‘After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.’ (Acts 4:31)

The implication of Paul’s words in Ephesians is that Christians are to keep their lives open to the repeated filling by the Holy Spirit. Notice too here in Acts, that this filling of the Spirit then lead to speech that was holy.

So, how do we do this? Well, it’s just simple prayer. We don’t have to make it overly complex; we pray simply that ancient prayer, ‘Come, Holy Spirit.’ And then we wait upon Him. We might sense something, we might sense nothing, but we pray it in faith as the Church has done for centuries, and then leave the rest to God.

Friends, if we want to be a community of life-giving words, then we must let Jesus change our hearts, and He does that by His Spirit, filling us afresh day by day, as we pray, ‘Come, Holy Spirit, come.’ So, why don’t we do that just now. Let us
pray.