God’s measure of success is not worldly achievement but humble obedience and openness to His working. From Moses’ mixed record of faith and failure, through Ananias and Sapphira’s tragic deceit, to Paul’s call to walk by the Spirit, the message urges believers to live under the New Covenant with sincerity and surrender. Where hearts are quick to repent and yield to the Spirit, divine grace brings renewal both personally and corporately, what Scripture calls revival.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] Thank you. In the morning service, we were looking at some of the Old Testament characters and whether or not they were successful in ministry or did they get into trouble with God and come under his punishment. And one such person is Moses we were looking at. And my assessment looking at the Old Testament evidence that Moses was both a success but also had his failures. And in his success, he led the people of God, the children of God or actually the Israelites to become the people of God and out of bondage of Egypt and to start the journey toward the Promised Land. In those early stages, he was used of God to bring the Ten Commandments and to set up how the Jewish religion worked based on the Old Covenant, the Ten Commandments. And so in that sense, Moses was a success because, especially at

[00:01:07] the beginning stages, the people of Israel did walk with God. And I was giving a definition of success of someone like Moses as if the people really walk with God that made Moses lead a success. It’s what God does amongst the people and their connection that is the most important thing. Same with us. As we as a church seek to belong to God and we seek to serve and honour him, our success is really measured by how much the people do do that and find God working amongst them, which is happening first. It doesn’t matter. It’s God’s working that helps us to be what we need to be. But it’s also our being obedient to him and following his leads that help him to have a time of cooperation with us and for there to be his hand very visible.

[00:02:09] Right across church history, there have come some special times, known more overseas than here in Australia because we haven’t really had the same special history moments that has occurred in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in Great Britain and in Europe and in other isolated places where the gospel has come and suddenly flourished and there have been what was called a revival. It’s a funny word revival because it’s talking about a bringing back to rife something that had died away a bit. And it’s talking about Christianity where there have been special times, sometimes quite unpredicted, sometimes not due to the Church necessarily doing all the right things, but due to God choosing any sovereignty to come and to bring about a movement of the Spirit. And in those times

[00:03:02] you discover that all the history descriptors are about people turning to God and worshipping him and people turning from their sins and there being a real time of renewal of the Christian faith. It’s called a revival, a revival of religion. There are books you can get if you go to Kurong and other places where Christian books are sold and you can get a book that says how to be revived. It won’t necessarily be talking about the revival I’ve been mentioning just then. It’ll be talking about your personal revival and they’re good books and they do tell you that there are certain factors the Bible present that if you want to get a closer walk with God then they outline certain things that will make that possible. But a revival that I’m talking about is those times when God has stepped in

[00:03:51] and he’s done it by his grace out of the blue. Sometimes revivals have come when the scene has been its worst. So it wasn’t that the people necessarily in Britain were all being so lovely and holy that God sent a revival, but the revivals would come just when they needed them, in God’s sovereignty. And so it was that there’s a bit of a difference between a personal revival, which the scriptures do tell us certain things will lead to you getting a greater work of the Holy Spirit in your life, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about God stepping in when he saw the community needing it. One of the real differences to know if you’re in one of those types of revivals I’m speaking of now

[00:04:37] is that there are people who come under that influence by just riding a horse into that district or driving a car, depending on when it’s going on. But when people come into a district where God’s spirit is at move, anybody coming so comes under an influence where God is at work. And that’s a revival that is a bit broader than just God’s personal response to our moves to get closer to him. Certainly the Bible does teach that other type I’ve been explaining, which is that God is always wanting us to come closer to him. And if you make any moves, get closer to God and he’ll draw close to God and he’ll draw close to you, the scriptures say. And along with this, I was really curious to bring out in the morning service, about the contrast between the Old Testament times and the New Testament times.

[00:05:31] And in the Old Testament times, there were occasions where people were blessed of God, like Moses, and the thing about Moses, he made a few very bad mistakes, and God disciplined him. And though he was successful at getting the children of Israel out of Egypt and have them go for a whole generation’s worth toward the Promised Land, he never actually got them to go into the Promised Land. He died before that. God used Joshua to lead them into the Promised Land. Now, and he was punished and God told him he wasn’t allowed to go there because he had not done all things obediently and all the things that God wanted of him. He’d had a temper tantrum at one stage, and he’d been complaining to God about how bad the children of Israel were rather than simply trusting God.

[00:06:24] If you analyse the history of that time, you’d have different people suggesting as to exactly why poor old Moses didn’t make it to the Promised Land. I think the biggest reason is he started trusting himself and got rather critical of the people and of God when he really just needed to go on trusting God. It was the falter of faith that cost him to be allowed into the Promised Land. In that sense, there was a degree of unsuccess in the storyline of Moses in the Old Testament. He’s still, I think, one of my heroes to see the task that was given to him to do. But there’s other people you can look about in the Old Testament. Another one is the king, a king who was one of the first of a line of kings. The people asked God if they could have a king and they wanted to be like the other nations and God gave in.

[00:07:22] And the first of them was Saul, King Saul. And he had a number of human characteristics that certainly commended him to be followed by the people. And the role of a king back in those days was to be the chief person leading you into battle when there were enemies attacking. So he wasn’t just someone who was good at thinking or good at sitting on committees or being a parliamentarian. But actually, to be the king, you had to be someone who could fight well and lead the others to have confidence running into battle. And Saul was very big and tall and strong and a good appearance and he had all the characteristics to get people to follow. But he made some bad mistakes of choosing to disobey what the prophet had told him God said to do. And as a consequence, he had the kingdom taken away from him.

[00:08:13] He ended up in the numbers of his family dying in a battle. And so I would say in terms of whether Saul was someone who was a success in his leadership or a failure, he was a pretty big example of a total failure. He had a good start and a terrible finish. So when we looked to the New Testament, I was curious to see because there is a difference in the times. There’s a change from being under the Old Covenant which involved the worship at the temple and the sacrifices and all the rest. And as Ken quoted in from the book of Hebrews, that there’s a time of the Old Testament but there’s a time when God did something new. And it’s based on the death of Jesus. And Jesus’ success of ministry opened up what’s called the New Covenant. And under that, there was a new arrangement.

[00:09:07] And so my curiosity to know about people who were successful or failures in leadership now moves from the Old Testament to the New. And what I was expecting when I started a little bit of a research of my own to look and see, you know, was God so much more gracious in the New Testament that people didn’t get disciplined badly. That’s what I sort of was half expecting. The only trouble is that’s not what I’ve found. And so I’ve been trying to think through, and I’m bringing to you tonight, one of the stories that we’re going to have up on the screen, or you already have up there, thank you, on the screen about Ananias and Sapphira. And I’m bringing this to you, and the reason is, is God disciplining people when they have failures in the New Testament,

[00:09:55] or is it all tremendous and everybody’s a bit of a success? I don’t know who you think. But let’s read the story through, and then we’ll begin to comment on it. But a man named Ananias, this is chapter 5 in the book of Acts, and with his wife, Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with this wife’s knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. Now this was because something had happened in these times. They were actually quite revivalistic times, this period of the Christian church. Sometimes when you read books about revivals, they say, no, the first period of time is not a revival because it had never gotten bad. Christianity was in its purest form, and so it’s just original, raw, beautiful Christianity,

[00:10:42] rather than calling it a revival. I don’t know whether that reasoning is necessary because if you read the little story bit that is at the bottom there on my screen, I don’t know whether they’ve got it, it says, but right at the end, a bit more if you can go down. Okay, it finishes in verse 11 of the episode of Ananias and Sapphira, the great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard these things. Summing up without even reading it, Ananias and Sapphira both dropped dead when called into account by Peter. Ananias, the man first, and he asked, did you, there’d been a bit of a movement, you know, where people were selling things and bringing money and laying it at the apostles’ feet because they were moved in this special time just to share their money to help the poor and to help those who are needy.

[00:11:42] It wasn’t decreed by anybody to do, but they were just moved by the Spirit. I think it was a revival time by how all of the people who were Christians got moved by the Spirit and were doing these things. And Ananias and Sapphira had sold some property but decided to keep some of the money. They could have done that quite normally but because they pretended that they were giving a lot to God through the apostles to distribute, they got called into question. And what happened is they both die. Perhaps I should read that. Let’s go back to that passage if you can and we’ll just read through it. It’s a bit gory. So, all right. So, Peter’s asking the question where it begins a little earlier on but that’ll do for now. How much did you sell the land for? Did you do it for so much? And he said, yes.

[00:12:37] I’ve given the lot, basically. He kept on lying. But Peter, verse 9, said, this is repeated the second time with his wife Sapphira. And the same thing happened with Ananias. And when he lied, Peter says, well, you’ve lied against the Holy Spirit. And he dropped down dead. And then the young men came and carried him out to be buried. A little later on, not knowing what had occurred, Ananias’ wife Sapphira came in and Peter repeated the question just to give her a chance to see whether she would admit that she was in on it or whether she would repent and probably he would, you know, forgive her or give God’s forgiveness if that were the case. But she said, yes, for so much. But Peter said to her, how is it that you’ve agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord?

[00:13:32] Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, meaning they’re coming for you, and they will carry you out. But, and immediately, verse 10, she fell down at his feet and breathed her last, which means she died. When the young men came in, they found her dead and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. And again, it’s repeated. And great fear came upon the whole church and upon all who heard that storyline. And then it goes on to say, many signs and wonders were regularly done amongst the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together, all the people, in Solomon’s portico. I guess the grammar could take you to think that it’s just the apostles are all together, but one of the two is the case. None of the rest dared join them.

[00:14:18] I take that to be all the Christians were together and the outsider people were scared to join in because they just saw such wonderful things happening. But the people held them in high esteem. So the outside world were greatly moved by these Christian crowd who were having the work of God happening amongst them. And more than ever before, believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. And that’s very characteristic of those special times when God’s Spirit comes and there is a revival, that people get converted, not so much because the church has got wonderful meetings on or because they’ve got a beautiful Christmas presentation. We should do our Christmas presentations. But nonetheless, these conversions are happening for nothing special that the people are doing

[00:15:14] except that they’re a demonstration of a oneness that they all have together. And none of the rest of the people dared to join them. But what they started to do was to carry their sick people out and have them in the street just in case the Apostle Peter or one of the other apostles came walking by. And what actually happened, look at the next bit, that as Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall upon some of them. By the way, I’ve heard some people say this is the first illustration of shadow ministry. I think it’s meant to be a joke, but it’s a true thing that Peter went around everywhere. His shadow came across a person who’d been laid out there because they were sick. The shadow healed them. Now tell me, is that not an extraordinary circumstance?

[00:16:04] Is there not something that’s not the regular happening? I mean, it hasn’t happened in our church yet. If some of you feel like dying soon, we’ll test out with you. Sorry, it might be me. But no, no, this is something very extraordinary. And particularly honouring the Apostles, who are the ones who are highlighting on what is the Gospel. And this shadow ministry was something God did in an extraordinary way. And if we were to pray to God and ask for revival to come, he may not necessarily answer, but if he chooses to, there would be an extraordinary amount of extra sorts of things like this happening. You can’t make them happen and you can’t be the people who try and cause them to occur. There’s no good lying, all your sick people out there, and say, Lord, send us, you know, sends someone who’s godly to walk by

[00:16:58] and let them be healed. God doesn’t get bullied. That’s the wrong word. God doesn’t get manipulated. That’s not quite my best word, but God doesn’t get dictated to by what we want it to be. But when he decides to work in revival, he does things of his choice. And all the history of revivals are like this that they have, things that are not necessarily the same every time. But you just go and do a study of the history of revivals, largely in the northern hemisphere. Australia’s never really had much of a thing, the nearest that people have said. One historian is an expert in revivals and came up to Queensland to ask questions to find, you know, what had happened up here. But he reported to me that the best, nearest to a revival we had was the 1959 Billy Graham crusade

[00:17:53] where an enormous amount of people came to Christ. That was an evangelism that God used to bring about a really deep movement of the Spirit. But we have not had in Australia a revival. That doesn’t mean that we couldn’t. And I believe that it’s something we Christians should do. I got woken up to the fact I thought revivals were always so much of the sovereignty of God and it’s never happened in recent history that I thought that you didn’t bother praying for them because it wasn’t likely. When I went overseas and studied at Wheaton College they had a chapel set up because they regularly had special times where God came and worked on their students. Revivalistically. And they had a chapel for the purpose of people always ducking in there and praying Lord would you work in our college

[00:18:41] and bring about a revival. And because I was someone with a background in prayer they asked me to be in charge of the chapel. It was a very humbling thing. I did not admit to them I didn’t actually believe that revivals really came in our times. I’ve told the church this before. Forgive me if I repeat my nice stories. But, you know, I left there and came home to Australia but several years later I read their newsletter and something happened in a movement of the Spirit at one of their assemblies. You picture, say, 2,000 students at one of their big assemblies but they wouldn’t leave and go back to their classes but they’re weeping and they’re crying and they’re praying to God because the movement of the Spirit came They wrote it up. It was like a revival for them. If God can do that in the Northern Hemisphere,

[00:19:37] can’t he in our country, which is a bit like a tinderbox to burn up physically, I think we’re a tinderbox to burn up spiritually because of the need of this nation in a lot of its lack of spirituality and a lack of sensitivity to deeper things. We need God to move amongst us and if we keep praying and Christians join together, who knows whether God won’t answer. It won’t be because we’ve done a lot of wonderful praying and done all the right things. The only right things the Bible talks about is repentance. There’s that famous verse in 2 Chronicles 7.14, I think it is, If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. In the Old Testament time,

[00:20:37] the healing of the land was meant literally. And a part of how God blessed the children of Israel was when they walked with him, he stepped in and often made them have a solution to the droughts or the lack of crops or the other problems of invaders. God answered by healing the land and sometimes if you read through the Old Testament prophets, you’ll find that what they’re speaking toward and against is the people having backslidden away. And if they’d only come back to God, he would restore them as a people, chase out the Philistines, resolve the issue of no rain and there being a drought and starvation occurring. And 2 Chronicles 7.14 means, I think in the first instance quite literally, of healing the land as well as restoring the people to the religion of the Old Covenant.

[00:21:31] But that caused me in going back to the New Testament, going toward the New Testament to investigate there about whether there were such times of revival coming in the New Testament, that the New Testament begins with the church at a peak experience you couldn’t get better than what was here and the people were having all sorts of things happening including Peter having his shadow ministry just walking around Jerusalem and when his shadow went over a person that had come and laid out they got better, they got healed. Tell me that’s not extraordinary. Well that happened there because God right at the beginning Christianity was at its high point. And what we have in revivals is a restoral back to where it started. That’s a good way to understand it.

[00:22:22] The people also gathered from the towns and around Jerusalem bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits and they were, catch this, all healed. I don’t know any healing ministry. There are people who have capacities to heal. I don’t deny it’s one of the listed gifts of the spirit about healing. So I don’t want to go against the Bible and deny the possibility. But I don’t know of any of these travelling healers who get them all healed. And we’ve had a few travel through. We used to have someone in the church here who came and sat up in the corner in a wheelchair and he asked me because he heard one of these speakers came to town to go with him to see what was said and done. And he went along and we took him in in a wheelchair and we had to sit in a corridor somewhere.

[00:23:13] They gave us a special spot by the way because of him. I should have thought of that earlier, take along a wheelchair person. Anyway, you get a special spot. And the meeting went ahead and they had some… The man gave a good message about getting saved. I didn’t criticise him for that. But then he had some time of hyping him up to give money to his ministry and I did criticise that. But then he also had a healing time. And there were people going. But we were watching the fellow in the wheelchair and me and when we saw what they were doing, we didn’t get convinced it was terribly authentic and he said to me from the wheelchair, come on, let’s go home because it looked phony with some people falling over backwards but it looked like they got pushed. So there are lots of people who have healing ministries.

[00:24:01] I’m not trying to speak too negatively on them because I do believe in healing but I think a revival is where the healing happens not just because we get some antics to do to get people hyped up and to believe it could be possible for them or something. I believe that in true revivals, when God heals, he heals and you just can’t doubt it. It’s right there in front of you and so if we had a revival, there would be the work of God whereby grace some people who had problems that might be threatening to kill them get healed or people who’ve had difficulties of life that God steps in and graciously removes what was the problem. God does that in revival times. And that’s what’s happening here in what I’ve called, that’s just an idea of shadow ministry. It’s not really often done called that,

[00:24:55] but when Peter went around and his shadow fell on someone, God did a special thing. God can do anything. He can do the miraculous. He can do things in a way that there’s an answer but we can’t trace exactly how the physical healing happens. Don’t limit God in your expectation, nor insist he has to do it your way. Bring to him the issue. Let him resolve it his way. Often, you know, when people have got Christians, there’s many a book you can read where the person’s testimony who wrote the book was they had this real difficult thing. It’s varied according to the book you’re reading, what is the issue. But when they get desperate and they cry out to God and they say to God, Oh God, I just need you too, but Lord, I’m prepared for you to do as you will. When that broken heart of yieldedness is shown,

[00:25:54] God sometimes, not always he doesn’t have to, but sometimes he steps in because he is that God of grace and he’s able to heal if it is his purpose, his will. I always put in all my prayers if this is your will and if it’s not, you might need to correct me because I’m not asking exactly right, but let the Lord be sovereign. Don’t see prayer as you bending his arm to have to do it. Let your prayer to be that you’re telling him you’re willing to be what he wants you to do. That 2 Chronicles 7.14, I quoted to you before, that’s at the heart of it, if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves. Take yourself off from being the one who’s telling God what to do. Humble yourselves. Let there be repentance for whatever may be necessary. Let there be a humbling of yourself.

[00:26:51] Let there then be prayers for God to exercise his sovereign grace. And you may be surprised at all that the Lord can do in such circumstances. And so where you have a need, bring it to God. Much of the prayers that Jesus taught people to give are prayers just like that. Prayers of humility. Prayers of asking for forgiveness where necessary. Prayers to pray for his will be done. You might know the Lord’s Prayer. And in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer, not my will, but yours be done. Do you know a very famous person who actually prayed the Lord’s Prayer like that? You do. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. As he prayed about going to the cross and how awful it was going to be to bear sin, this holy man who had never sinned, this holy Son of God who’d always been in fellowship with Father God

[00:27:58] and was heading into where he’d be made to be our sin, he who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Heading into a time when he’d have to cry out to a Father who had punished him for our sin. And all of that meant for the wrench in the Trinity of his bearing the wrath of the Father for our sins. And he didn’t want to be separated from the Father, never had ever once in all of eternity passed. And he prayed, if it’s possible, let this pass from me. And then he prayed, but not my will, but yours be done. You want a clue? You want a secret about prayer? Not my will, but yours be done is one of the most important things. When you read books, other people’s testimonies, I actually read with a look to see if there’s any testimony in some biography I get, Christian ones.

[00:29:03] And there’s a lot of beautiful ones. I think it’s good to read those. You’re not 100% sure that you can trust all the details because it’s just a human writing, it’s not equivalent to the Bible. But when you read these testimonies, very often you’ll keep on hearing of someone who’s desperate and God seems like he’s not listening. A mother that’s got a child that’s really sick and somehow or other there comes a moment and one of them that I was reading, she says, Lord, just, and she modified the prayer, not my will but thys be done. And she had a different way to word it. And the moment she gave in to God, then came the news from the medical people that the child was recovering. And I’ve heard that story enough times to know that God is one that sometimes allows the very need to arise in the first place

[00:30:02] in order that we might learn to yield over to him at a deeper level. And so that’s one of the keys about the New Testament. Now, I’ve gotten off the top of my topic a little bit. I meant to be talking about Ananias and Sapphira, but what we learned from them in my going from the Old Covenant days and seeing Moses and he, God blessed him in some ways anyway in the end because his people got into the Promised Land under Joshua. And God did bless that first part of his ministry. So, I think, I believe Joshua was a success at least in part even though he didn’t get into the Promised Land. But looking to the New Testament, I was expecting that because it is a time of the Spirit that there would be people whose prayers are getting answered everywhere and it was, God wouldn’t be punishing them like Moses. What a terrible thing

[00:30:58] that he led them that far and then he himself was not allowed to go into the Promised Land. He died before they had to get led by Joshua to go in. I thought, boy, is it just the Old Testament where people get to drop dead so much? And then, reading again the Ananias and Sapphira story, I suddenly realised that’s not the case. Both Ananias and Sapphira just by keeping some money but because they pretended to be giving it, they pretended they were being moved and because it was a revival time where God was on the Spirit with just about all the Christians, they, according to Peter, were lying to the Holy Ghost. One of the dangers of revival times, one of the dangers of when the Spirit is on the move and I think God will punish you because of that context. If you have that wonderful opportunity to be in a special time where the Spirit

[00:31:59] is on the move and you say no, the punishment actually comes more drastic. that’s my observation that’s at least my running hypothesis at the moment reading the Bible that we get called accountable to the grace that God has given to move us and why it is dangerous in revival times to just spit in the face of God one way or another as a matter of fact in some of my reading about revivals where there’s been someone in so special times and many people have been converted as preaching but you always get people who curse and swear at the preacher but some of those people drop dead on the spot they have in some occasions I don’t know whether it’s a rule or a law I don’t think so but I want to say that why there is still harsh penalties for New Testament times it is because a greater opportunity has been given

[00:32:58] to be under the New Covenant to be in the time of the Holy Spirit such that revivals can come. In fact, all of us as Christians experience the joy of being under the new covenant. The old covenant was, you know, the Jewish way with the temple and the sacrifices, etc., and the prophets and priests. But in the New Testament, it is begun at the day of Pentecost when the Apostle Peter preached about Jesus’ death, resurrection, ascension and the fact that now the Father has passed over to Jesus to be the one to send out the Spirit to represent him in the church. And Peter finished his sermon because people came and asked him, you better apply it, Peter, they were basically saying. They said, men and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter says, repent, turn back from your attitudes,

[00:33:45] change your diagnosis of Jesus. By the way, the word repent means to change your verdict, literally in the Greek, to be of a different decision. Whereas before you might have set your life according to certain decisions that went this way or made you the person in charge to do what you wanted, to have your choices that you said that you’d give to God to try and bless, he doesn’t want you to give to him your choices to bless. He wants you to give you to him and listen for him to tell you what he wants you to do. And full surrender to Jesus. That’s the book of Romans, which is one of the best New Testament books, Testament books which shows all about how you can go on as a Christian once you come to Christ as well, how to get converted by coming to Jesus. The book of Romans basically is a follow-up book.

[00:34:35] But how does it finish? It finishes up by saying, now unto him who’s able by my gospel to make you like you’re wanting to be, what he wants you to be. And the finish of the book of Romans is about how the Holy Spirit is the one who makes you find what God wants you to be. In the morning service I finished, and I finished with a promise that I’d continue tonight about the New Testament times and what’s a success in New Testament times. And I quoted a place from Galatians. We’ll put it up again, the book of Galatians in chapter 5. And where he’s just been talking about the age of the Jews and keeping the laws as the way to keep God happy has been replaced by a new covenant, which is a new covenant to do with the availability of the Holy Spirit. Not just coming and going as he did in the old,

[00:35:32] but coming permanently never to leave. Ananias and Sapphira, even though they were trying to cheat God and deceive the Christians, do you know that the way Peter spoke to them showed that they still had the Holy Spirit because Peter says that they had lied to the Holy Spirit in their hearts. for you were called to freedom brothers and Galatians it says only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh but through love serve one another for the whole law is fulfilled in one word you shall love your neighbour as yourself but if you bite and devour one another watch out that you are not consumed by one another but I say verse 16 walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh where the flesh is I want to drag you back to sinfulness

[00:36:22] and the spirit wants to lead you on to leaving sinfulness. Walk by the spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh so these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the thing you want to choose to do. But if you’re led by the spirit, you’re not under the law. Now that means Jesus has paid for all sin which is the breaking of the law You’re not under it anymore, it’s a new regime What counts is you let the spirit lead And you’re not under the law Now the works of the flesh are these Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger That’s one, you know, I have to watch fits of anger Not very often, but rivalries.

[00:37:23] I’m not much for rivalries, but dissensions, divisions, envy. Envy is worse than jealousy. Jealousy is where you’re feeling it. Envy is when you wish the other person didn’t have it or you’re wanting to get something that’s not rightfully yours anyway. Envy is a wretched sin. Envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like that. Things like these. I warn you, as I’ve warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. The way he’s talking there is not the fact that if you’re a Christian you won’t make heaven, because all Christians do go to heaven. You might get God reprimand you on your arrival, but nonetheless you’ll still be in heaven. The inheritance of the kingdom of God is participating in God’s Spirit, moving and doing things. It’s one of the

[00:38:17] most fantastic things when you’re a Christian and you come home at night and something’s happened and you can’t let Michelle or whoever it is go to sleep without telling what happened today. Sometimes she tells me about the teachers with which she mixes and say how God arranged for some circumstance that she had a chance to speak to someone or to help someone and just the joy of sharing what the Spirit has done. That is the kingdom of God experienced. Nothing more fantastic than when you’ve been down to something like a beach mission or two. What’s this name we give to getting to the young people in the ocean or the school leavers, what do you call that again? Schoolies. Schoolies. All right. Schoolies. Or you go and you’re on a team. I listen to Bryn Liam and she

[00:39:17] comes back and she tells me all the people she’s talked to and she lives from one joy to the next of something where God has been on the move. And that’s the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit doing things. That’s your inheritance in the kingdom of God. You don’t have to wait to go to heaven to get to be somehow in the middle of what things God is doing and that’s the kingdom of God on earth. Yeah, it’s the kingdom of God in heaven as well, but I want to say that just to be a part of God’s action now is what makes life the most invigorating thing to live. You won’t inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. You won’t break any laws when these things take control of you.

[00:40:10] And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh. You stop listening to it. You’re not going to let it win with its passions and desires. For if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Get your matching up with what the Spirit’s doing. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. And there’s one little statement that says, for all such. Anyway, that’s Galatians 5. Look it up when you get home. It’s a fantastic passage. And what I think is success is when you could say the Spirit has had his way with me. The Spirit has done something. Well, God did that. Look what God did. That makes life absolutely a wonderful thing to rehearse. And that’s the New Testament Christianity, and that’s what I think is success,

[00:41:08] is to learn how to walk after the Spirit. It’s not easy. It’s actually a practiced art that Christians have to do, having been converted to Christ, to then to learn to walk after the Spirit. It can involve your having a special gift, because we all differ as to what the Holy Spirit may want to use us for. And those giftednesses spiritually sometimes match your natural personalities. Natural gifts and spiritual gifts both come by grace. The word for charismatic really means things come by grace. And there are some people who just have personalities which has got something about them that allows them to be blessing to others, and it’s in the natural. But there’s also some things that the Holy Spirit does as a spiritual gift. Every now and then someone has natural gifts

[00:42:01] and spiritual gifts that somehow go together. And every now and then again, you meet someone who in the natural is very ordinary, but they’ve got some spiritual gift. and God uses them. I’m thinking of some of right now, I better not say who, of who I know, not in this room, but someone who is, I would say, average in a lot of ways but has some strange knack. When he came out to this church, once he caught a train but he got off at the Salisbury Station having led a lady to Christ. And everywhere he goes, he’s not very, I would never have said that he’s someone that does good talking or, you know, he just has a gift. He is a very amiable person but so in the natural it suits as well but there are some people who have some gifts and you may not have the same one as other. Ask God to show you your gifts.

[00:43:04] How do you identify it? Something that’s a real spiritual gift, one of the best ways to know is it keeps on turning up. If once you did a wonderful thing by the Holy Spirit, it might be a one-off special but if something keeps happening or you find you get repeated opportunities to happen in a certain line that is a help to other people, one way or another, that might well be because you have a spiritual gift and don’t always think of it there has to be a shadow ministry like Peter had or have to be something very spectacular. It could be an ordinary thing but if something keeps turning up it’s an indicator as to where to look for where your gifts lie. Anyway, how to be a success in the New Testament era is to recognise that you’re living in a time of grace and don’t be like Ananias and Sapphira

[00:43:55] who absolutely ignored that they were in a revival time and the judgement’s greater if you just don’t care two hoots what God is doing. If God’s spirit moves with you treat it with respect. If he gives you special opportunity to join in a certain work and you know it’s of him don’t get lazy on it. If God calls you to be in Gideon’s and you’ve found yourself being blessed in it then give yourself to really make it work. Find what is your place to serve and do everything you can to do it with all that you’ve got. serve him with all the vigour of your personality and that’s what he loves to see. But if you do the reverse of that then I think God’s punishment can be very severe. That’s my message for tonight. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father thank you for the word of God and I thank you for that Galatians passage

[00:44:57] warning about the kingdom of God not to be trampled with not to be despised not to be just ignored and not grateful. Please help us not to be like Ananias and Sapphira who they lied to the Holy Ghost about what they were doing. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.