There Was an Elevator the Whole Time
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When you think of the word irresistible, I don't know about you, but I think about something that's so appealing and so attractive that you just can't help yourself, can you? You can't help yourself.
You can't ev- I mean, it feels too easy at times, doesn't it? Just to step into that thing that's irresistible. You're drawn towards it. I mean, it could be food, dare I say chocolates. Could be certain people that you like to, to be with or hang around. It can be certain activities that you like to do To be honest, for me What is your song?
For me, for me it is hot cinnamon donuts. Yes. I... It's, it's terrible. I, I cannot help myself. I can't. I've seen it. I had to go... You can. I had to go to the dentist the other day, and I got root canal surgery done. Okay? And he jabbed a whole bunch of needles into my face, and so my whole side of my face was just numb.
It was numb, it was all, like, drooping down, like, blah, blah, blah. Couldn't talk properly and it was terrible. And he said, "Look, it's gonna be sore for a couple of days. Go get yourself some Panadols and painkillers." So, I walked around the corner to the chemist to get some painkillers. Right outside the chemist is a donut shop.
And I'm standing there, and I'm, "Pa- Panadol, please." Trying to talk. And this waft. The smell. I was like, "This is beautiful." I just walked straight over there, like, this was like this... Like... And I got some donuts. I couldn't even talk properly, let alone chew, and I found myself in the car stuffing these things into my gob.
And it's all like, man, dripping down everywhere. I could not help myself. Couldn't help myself. Irresistible. Some people, and I've met people, some people think that they are irresistible. Do you, do you know people like... It's true. Guys especially, they... Sometimes they can think they're irresistible to women.
I had, I had a tradesman that worked for me in my business many years ago, and he... I, I was convinced actually that he was irresistible to women. I mean, to his credit, he was a good-looking rooster. All right? He had, he had the surfy blond hair, the olive skin, the blue eyes, the musclies. He was all muscly. He was, he was a good-looking guy.
And I was convinced. I mean, we would be working in the hot sun and he'd say, "Oh, I'm so hot," and he'd take his shirt off. And I'd be like, "Oh, are we all doing this now?" He's like, "No, no, no. You can, you can keep..." "Oh, all right, eh." And I'd look at his muscles. "Oh, mate, how much... How many times do you go to the gym?"
And he goes, "No, I never go to the gym." I'm like, "Yo, get, get lost." But I was conv- Yeah. I was convinced he was irresistible, 'cause everywhere we went, the women would swoon. I know. It's, it's hard to believe, but it's true. I... It's a true story. Age bracket didn't matter, demographic didn't matter. We were working in this older lady's house, all right?
And he was up on the ladder in the kitchen doing these lights, and she was, like, at the kitchen bench. Ah. Just like this. Ah, she's looking, just looking at him, not me, I was over there. She's looking at him, and she's like, "Ah, I could just watch tradesmen work all day." I'm like... And he was cheeky, and he goes, he goes, "Well, you know, looking's for free, but touching's gonna cost you something."
And I'm like, "Mate, you can't say, you can't say that, mate." But I did, I experienced, I experienced my own win, all right? We were working once again at a job, and there was this, in a cafe, and there was these two young pretty ladies working in the kitchen. And we're working away, and this one came out with a note.
And she goes, "Oh, my friend in the kitchen wants you to have this." I was like, "Oh." So I opened it up, and it had a name and a phone number on it. And I was like, "Oh, how the turns have tabled, my friend." And as I was gloating, I saw out of the corner of my eye, the other girl in the kitchen was leaning out through the servery window saying, "No, not that, not that one."
"The other, the other guy." And I was like, "Here you are, mate. This is for you." He opens it, he goes, "Ah, thanks, gorgeous." And then he pops it in his pocket, you know, with his other 13 phone numbers he probably had. I was convinced he was irresistible. Something so attractive, something so appealing, that you just can't help yourself.
So what makes a church, what we're talking about here in this series, what makes a church irresistible? What makes us irresistible? Is it good music? Is it a cool band? I know we had, uh, the guys up here with the acoustic number. They did a s- awesome job. Well done, mate. That was great. Thank you guys for serving us there.
But is it, is it that? Is it the building? Is it our facility that we have? We've got some great facilities here. We've got an awesome cafe out there. Is that what it is? Is it the friendliness of the people, the people who are willing to have a heart to serve? Is it our programs, our activities, the events that we put on?
Is that what it is? Now, don't get me wrong, those things are all great, and they all, uh, create a welcoming environment, which what we need to have. But none of those things makes a church truly irresistible. An irresistible church, here it is, is a church where people encounter the reality, the reality of Jesus Christ.
Amen. Of Jesus Christ. There's no other. Flat out, that's it. It's, it's Jesus Christ, and that sounds too easy. And what Pastor Kev was sharing about with the old, the old days, and the old covenant and the, and the way the church was right, when Jesus came and said, "Hey, I'm it," it sounded too easy It's a church where grace is experienced, where truth is proclaimed, where love is demonstrated, and where burdens, this is the key one, where burdens are lifted.
We're gonna talk about that in a moment. Broken people find hope, and the presence of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, can actually transform a life in real, in real time. We've seen it happen. The power of God can transform a life. That is the irresistible church, a church that points people that way.
You know what? It's Jesus. Jesus is the one. Don't look at us
It's a place where people are changed. You know, the early church that we read about and that we've been talking about, uh, in the book of Acts, the way, the people of the way, the new movement, Jesus. We read about it, and they understood. They knew that the gospel was not merely a message to be preached.
They knew that it was a way of life to be experienced. But they faced their challenges. They definitely faced their challenges. As Pastor Kev was talking about and sharing about, they faced the challenge 'cause they had the Jewish people of the day, and the Jewish people of the day, s- with their ancestors and their family heritages, they had been through thousands of years of culture and of history and of experience and of religion, living, uh, with God, uh, with- in, in a covenant that he had set with them, a- an agreement that God had made with them.
And it wasn't a bad agreement. There was nothing wrong with it. It was what God needed for his people at that time.
And they lived in that agreement for thousands of years. So that's all they knew. And it included all sorts of things that we read about. You can read about it in, in, in the Old Testament. They read... It included all sorts of, like, rules and rituals. Meg shared about it last week, 600 and something, 612, 13 rules.
There was rituals, there was animal sacrifices at the altar to atone for your sins, for your wrongdoings. And that went on for years. And that is all they knew, and they did it to the best of their ability. Yes, they dropped the ball many times, as do we But they, that's all they knew and that's what they did, and they tried.
But as we've learnt, it wasn't God's ultimate plan, was it? It wasn't God's ultimate plan. It was what they needed for that time. But God's ultimate plan came to fruition 'cause he knew that it was, it would... Man, it would be so hard. So could you imagine having to follow those rules today? No, thank you. So he knew that it wasn't gonna be maintained by the people, so his ultimate plan was that just over 2,000 years ago, God sent his only son, Jesus.
And Jesus came to be the final sacrifice. No more. No more rules, no more rituals. It was just Jesus. Jesus and nothing else. Just Jesus. And then we have that famous scripture in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but will have eternal life."
Notice that it doesn't say that whoever follows the rules and does all the rituals. Mm. It just says, no, whoever believes. So just believe Once again, sounds too easy, doesn't it? Just believe. But the early church had its challenges. They had the battles against the history of what they had known. Now, I've gotta say, when we do a series in our church, the teaching team are often given, like, a, a scripture s- a scriptures reference, like, for, for, to sort of to reference to the, to the message, to say, "Look, this is where we're sort of going."
And it sort of... What that does is it helps a series flow nicely and connect the dots. And so when I read the scripture reference I had for today, I thought it was a bit of a stitch-up. I thought, "Really? That's what we're talking about? All right." But then I read it further, I said, "Well, that's... No, that's it.
That's what we're talking about." That's it. It's... When we're looking at the unburdening and unconnecting of the old way, this scripture is what it's about. So I thought we're gonna go with it. We're gonna run with it, and let's go all in. And the scripture is from the Book of Acts, talking about the early church, people of the way.
And chapter 15 verse one. It says, "Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers, 'Unless you are circumcised according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.'" That's what they were saying, "Unless you're circumcised, you can't be saved." So this brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp, sharp, there's that word, sharp dis- dispute.
Sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and the elders about this question: Do we really have to do this? Does this have to be done? So we've got some guys who had obviously come from the old way, the old tradition.
They were still holding, flying the flag for the old tradition. They'd grown up in that old system, and they came down and they were trying to force the old rules onto the new believers. I mean, in their defense, that's probably all they knew, all right? So that's what they were doing. They just remembered those thousands of years of rules and religion, and they were trying to force that onto people.
They were saying, "Unless you get circumcised, you can't be a believer. You can't be in the club unless you're circumcised." Circumcised. Say it again. Say it again. I've got a bet saying how many times I can say it. That's the real deal, man. That is, like, a major commitment. Every man in the room has got... is squirming in his seat right now.
I don't know. I mean, they had... They were, they were businessmen, some of these religious leaders back in the day. They probably saw business opportunities. There were circumcision clinics popping up everywhere around town, you know. The business names alone, you know, Snip and Tuck. Circumcisions Are Us. Jim's Circumcision.
But they were trying to force the new believers into the old system. They were trying to put a square peg into a round hole, and it wasn't God's plan. That was not God's plan. God's plan was Jesus and nothing else. They were adding something to the salvation foundation. They were saying, "If you wanna be saved, you gotta do these things," 'cause that's what we've always done.
But Jesus came and said, "No, no, no. We're done. I was the final sacrifice." So the issue was not whether God's people should live holy lives. The issue was whether people had to satisfy an additional requirement in order to be accepted by God, and that was the question. That was the question. Paul and Barnabas, they understood the danger.
They, they were right onto this. They said, "Whoa, hang on." If salvation depends on becoming Jewish and observing the ceremonial s- procedures, then the good news of Jesus would actually become a burden. And that's what we're talking about today. We're talking about unburdening. But they said, "Look, that'll become a, a burden, and no one's gonna take up that invitation."
No one would wanna do this. And so they went down. They all went up, down, wherever it was, to Jerusalem, and they met with the elders and the apostles, and they, they hashed this out. And then they just... They... In the end, they, they made the decision. They said, "No. It's all right, guys. You can take a sigh of relief.
We don't have to do this." You don't have to do it. We must remember that grace is the foundation. Grace is the foundation of our salvation. Grace. Grace is undeserved favor. Amen. Undeserved. We don't deserve it. We don't deserve God's grace. If we stacked up all the things that we've done wrong, bad thoughts that we've had, the white lies we've told, things we've done, we don't deserve, but God bestows it upon us.
Ephesians 2:8-9 declares that we are saved by grace through faith. Just believe. Not our own works, so that no one can boast. We must never forget how we came to Christ. I'm gonna encourage you or challenge you this morning to go back in your memory banks. Remember the moment that you became a born-again Christian.
Remember the moment that you received Jesus for the first time. Just remember that. Think about that We didn't earn it. We didn't earn our salvation. We didn't purchase God's forgiveness. We didn't qualify ourselves for His love. We came as sinners. We were all sinners, and we needed a savior. And Jesus Christ did for us what none of us could ever do for ourselves.
He died for our sins, and then through the power of the Holy Spirit, He rose again from the dead and He defeated death
He offers forgiveness and new life to all who put their faith in Him. All who believe. You know, the best way I've ever had that described to me, or the best way I've ever had this transition described, was on the night that I became a Christian. I became a born-again Christian. I was 12 years old, and I went to a youth rally at the Miami Great Hall, attached to Miami High School.
I went to this youth rally, and there was a young guy that got up and shared his testimony. Just a young fella. And he talked about how he had found Jesus, and he talked about how Jesus was living in him, and how Jesus was with him always, and he talked to him every single day, and how He gives him joy and peace and strength.
He said, "I still struggle through things, but I know that Jesus is with me to help me." And he shared this, and I was, I was a young 12-year-old boy. I grew up in the Catholic Church, right? So my eyes were like saucers. I'm just like, "What? What is this?" And then they said, "Look, if anyone, anyone wants to become a Christian tonight, if you wanna invite Jesus into your heart-
just come down the front right now." Man, I ran. I ran down the front. And there was nothing, nothing, nothing magical about the front of the building, just like there's nothing magical about the front of this building. But what that did was it gave me an opportunity to step out of my comfort zone, to take action on what I was feeling.
And I know now that it was God that was stirring me. And so I had the opportunity to take action. They said, "Come down the front." And I, I remember it to this day, my heart was racing 100 miles an hour. I was so excited. The excitement was, was incredible. And we went down the front and they led us in a simple prayer, and I invited Jesus into my heart.
And then afterwards, they took us out to the side of the building and they had some chairs set up, and they had a mentor for each of us. They had someone who was a Christian or a, a mentor. They came and they just spoke with us, just for a little, just for a few moments, and I had this older gentleman come and speak with me.
And he said, "Hey, congratulations. That's the, that's the great decision you've made. You know, this is the first day of the rest of your life." I remember almost word for word the stuff he said to me. And he said, "So what's your story? You know, have you, have you been to church before?" And I said, "Oh, well, I, I grew up in the Catholic Church.
I go to, uh, well I go to Catholic church." And he's like, "Oh, that's, that's interesting." He goes, "Can I just share one thing with you from the decision you've made now and what you probably know about?" He said, "From now on, it's not about rules. It's about relationship." Yeah. "It's not about rules. It's about relationship."
And it was almost like a switch went off in my brain. I was like, "Whoa, that's it." It's not about rules. This was a whole new way of thinking for me. I mean, 'cause I told you, I grew up in the Catholic Church. We went to Sunday mass every week. I was an altar boy. I know. I wore the dress. I, I, I rang the bells.
I swung the incense. I did the whole thing. Like, I was right in there. And it's... You, it's, you can't get any more religious than what goes on there in the Catholic Church. I mean, we had the priest. The priest, he was the man. He was the guy that you went and actually confessed your sins to. You might have seen it in the movies.
You have the confessional box. You know, you've got the one room. The priest goes in there, and then you've got the other room that you go in. There's a little meshed window between, the little sliding thing. Yeah. And you share your, your sins or your, your things you've done wrong. I remember the very first time I went to confession.
I was 11 years old. 11 years old. Mum and Dad like, "In you go." And I was going there, and it was all musty and dark and, and then whoosh, the window opens. "Hello, my son. What can I do?" And I was like, "Oh, um. Oh, Father." Well you say, "Father. Forgive me, Father." You know, "I've been a bit naughty." "I said some bad things about Tommy at school, and I disobeyed my mum and dad a few times."
And then it was silence. Then he, "Yes, go on." So I sort of, I was looking with one eye around the room. Like, how, how much information do I give this guy? So I'm like, "Uh, oh, something I really feel bad about. I, I went to the movies and I, I went to the bathroom. I put water on my hands, and I came back out and I pretended to sneeze, and I flicked it on the person in front of me."
"And then they screamed, and I screamed. Everyone was screaming. And I, I'm just, I'm really sorry. Please forgive me." That was the d- the dramatic badness that I was doing.
And then there was silence and he goes, "Okay, my son. I want you to go home, say two Hail Marys and three Our Fathers, and your sins are forgiven." That was my experience of confessing my sins. That was it. And so that's, for me, that's all I knew. That's how your sins got forgiven. So if you missed the appointment on the particular day of the particular month that you were meant to go to the confession box, then you had to wait another whole month, and you're carrying these sins around with you, waiting to s- tell someone.
Like
But I kn- and that, but that was, that's all I knew. That's all I knew
So when someone got up and shared their testimony at this youth rally and said, "You know what? I found Jesus. He lives in my heart always. I talk to him every single day. He forgives me my sins. He gives me joy and peace, gives me strength. You know, He helps me when I'm struggling." My eyes were like saucers.
I'm like, "What is this? This is unbelievable." And it was irresistible. I could not help myself. I ran to the front
And then when, afterwards, when that, that older gentleman was talking to me and he said, "You know what? From now on it's about relationship. It's not about rules, it's about relationship." And it was like, even as a 12-year-old kid, it was like this weight just, just got lifted off my shoulders. I was unburdened.
Yeah. I was unburdened. As a kid. I realized, I felt it straight away. This whole weight was lifted. I'd no longer had to be scared of God, 'cause that's what I was. I was scared of God and the dude and the other... It was just lifted and I was like, "Man, this is unbelievable." And that was irresistible to me. It was irresistible.
It's right up there with hot donuts. It was irresistible.
An irresistible church never loses sight of the cross. Church, we've gotta remember that. Never lose sight of the cross. Never becomes preoccupied with its traditions or with its reputation or its programs or what's going on around
It never forgets the one who started it all, Jesus Christ. Jesus. Jesus and nothing else. You know, that youth rally was in 1984. That's 42 years ago, and I have been in this church ever since. Yeah. 42 years I've been here And I gotta say, I've gotta be honest with you. Through all those years I've been part of this church and walking together with various people that have been here.
Phil Rourke, he was probably one of the main men here when I first started coming
This is something that I, I, I feel we do okay at. We actually do okay at pointing people to Jesus. Right through those 42 years I've been here, I can always remember that's just what we're about. We're about bringing people to Jesus, showing them that this is the way. I mean, we've had ups and downs and rocky roads along the way, as has every church, I believe.
But we, we've done okay at this. And, you know, I believe it's a good thing to remind ourselves that. Be encouraged. Church, be encouraged. Be encouraged We keep our eye on the prize and we just keep putting one foot in front of the other. And be encouraged to don't stop moving. Keep going. Church, keep going.
I could probably get you to think about one person maybe in your life that needs to hear about this. One person that needs to hear about this irresistible Jesus
You see, when Jes-- when the church, when the church makes Jesus the center, then grace becomes the invitation. Grace, get that weight lifted off you. It's not deserved, it's just here for you. Just believe. You see, people are already carrying the weights of their failures and their disappointments and their guilts, their shame.
I mean, they don't need us to convince them that they're not perfect, because they already know that, that they're not. They need to hear that there is forgiveness. They need to hear that the cross brings restoration through Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and there is hope. They need to know that they can come to Jesus just as they are, but Jesus loves them too much so that they don't stay as they are Grace welcomes people, but grace also transforms people.
Now, we've gotta be careful that grace does not mean, grace doesn't mean that we, that sin no longer matters, because it does. All right? Grace doesn't mean that holiness is not important. Grace doesn't mean that we can live however we like. Titus, the Book of Titus 2:11, it teaches us that the grace of God brings salvation and trains us, trains us to reject ungodliness and worldly passions.
The grace of God, we ask, we can actually ask God to help you in this. You can say, "God, I need help. I need help in focusing on you and not getting caught up in stuff that I might have gotten caught up to years ago." We come to Jesus with our brokenness, but we don't stay broken. We come with our failures, but then we get to walk in His forgiveness.
Start again We come with our old ways, but the Holy Spirit begins to form the character of Jesus in us if we let Him. You gotta let Him. 2 Corinthians 5:17, it's another well-known scripture. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come." The musos would like to make their way up.
I told them I'd give them a little bit of a notice If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come. You don't need to carry the old anymore. You don't need to carry your baggage. Right. You can be renewed. When Katie and I went on our honeymoon, we went to New Zealand and we went to...
We went for a three-week holiday. We went for... It was quite a long time. We went for three weeks. It was, it was awesome. But we had... Because we were going for three weeks, so we had a suitcase each, right. We had this massive big suitcase each. And I'll never forget, we stayed at this one place, and the r-lady at the reception was very excited.
She's like, "Ooh, I've got you two lovebirds on the, on the top floor. You know, you get a great view of the, of the lake. And, uh, and, you know, that's, that'd be so good." And we're like, "Oh, great." And so then she leads us over to the stairwell- ... and then walks away. So we're like, "Oh." Now this is, this is about six stories high, this building, all right?
So I'm, I'm the new husband, so I'm like, "Oh, no, honey, you go ahead. I've got the bags." Ah. So I'm like, "Ah, gunk. Ah, gunk. Ah, gunk." One flight of stairs, two flights of stairs, three flights of stairs. I got halfway, I'm gassed. I'm just like, "Ah." I'm sweating, my heart's racing. But I've gotta keep going. I've gotta keep going.
I've gotta prove to my love- ... that I am worthy. So I go. I struggle all the way back up, all the way to the top floor. I make it. Yes. Yes. We made it. Catch my breath. Get the bags, wheel around the corner to our room, and there's an elevator. There's an elevator there. No. No. There was an elevator. I didn't need to do all that.
Could have proved myself in other ways.
Come on.
I didn't need to carry my bags. I didn't need to carry the bags. I didn't need to carry that weight
You know, every one of us, I believe, I believe this, if you stop and think, every one of us have people in our lives that are carrying burdens. It might be past relationships. It might be business failures. It might be, uh, mental health issues. Might be physical health issues. Relationships, friendships, family.
There's someone. There is someone. We've all got someone in our lives that are carrying burdens. It might be the burden of rejection. It might be the burden of, of feeling unforgiven. Like, "No, no one could ever forgive me for this, what I've done, especially God. He could never forgive me." We've all got someone They're carrying these burdens that they don't need to carry.
There's an elevator. They don't need to carry it. You know, and I believe as Christians, it's our responsibility, it's our call even, to point them towards Jesus. Hey, he's the one. He's the one. Point them towards Jesus, the one that can lift their burden, and that could look like anything. The pointing process can look like anything.
It can be a simple conversation. It could be a sim- it could be just walking across the room and going to talk to that, that person at work that you've seen in the staff room every day, but you've never actually met them You could be talking to that family member that's always a little bit awkward when you start talking about church.
Talking to that friend at school, that colleague at, at university There's always someone. The world's full of people that are carrying things they don't need to carry, and it's our responsibility. We've got the answer
We've got the answer. We have something that is so appealing. We have something so desirable that it's irresistible. It's irresistible And they need it. Let's pray together. Father, we do thank You. Thank You, Lord, first and foremost. Lord, we just thank You for Your love. Thank You for Your love for- That saves us and that changes us, Lord.
Lord, I just thank you. I pray, Lord, as we, uh, have our eyes closed, Lord, as we're just sitting here, I pray, Lord, that each and every one of us can reflect on the moment, Lord, that we opened our heart to you. Bring back that memory to us, Lord. Bring back that joy, that, that highlight in our life. Lord, that we can remember the moment we put our hand up to you and say, "Yes, I want you living in my life."
Father, I just pray that. Give that one moment, Lord, just for us to remember that
And Lord, we just do pray. And Lord, we pray that you give us now the courage and the strength to take up the challenge. Lord, to meet people in our lives where they are at Lord, to show them who you are, to point them to you, the one who is irresistible, the one who can change their life. Give us wisdom.
Give us the words to say And Lord, we ask and pray that in Your mighty name.