Three Words

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Well when you look at that title you hoping my sermon is only three words and we're going from morning tea but uh there's three words I want to remember want you to remember today I want to say thank you so much for this is that um wrting in saying that I didn't want any fuss I was more than happy just to uh just to walk out and uh come back as as a regular Church person but uh understand that sometimes these sorts of things are necessary uh want to say thank you on behalf of an AM me for all your wishes and um thoughts and prayers for us um also received some during the week of folk who had hoped to be here today and unable will be here and um sent apologies and their greetings as well so we have noted that as well um you know the time is going to come I guess and stand before God and I'll be there you'll say come up here and I'll get up you say no not you and because um the the thing is is that uh you know what the wife does to support and to enable Ministry um just can't be overstated um also the L have Julia here today representing our family the other two daughters would have loved to been here today too but we actually have a a big family gathering next Saturday and um so to come in from chinula two weekends in a row was a bit much and so with some encouragement from me I said uh next week is uh when we'll all be together family well all but one granddaughter who's uh committed to to work but um also want to say thanks to Julia and to our girls too you know being a pastor's kid is not not easy and certainly when you move into the denominational role where you get known in a community while the community a bit but around the state and um I guess they're all glad that they married and take on another name other than loader uh because they able to hide that for a little bit I were a couple of occasions where that didn't work either but um our our daughters have had to put up with a lot to and supported so good on you pass that on to the others um what else um thank you for the cake it's disappeared already that's got me worried it's in the fridge okay thought you might have taken out to my car uh ready it's Delight to um have the church Council here and um also have Linda here I see over there because I came back Dave and Linda were the associates it was such a we we're a good team and um it was a good time and it's uh now Linda's moved on and uh Dylan stepped in it's just been a delight but we also have the church Council and I see Daryl down there is a previous Church council person as well and um and so it's just been always felt really supported um by the team and then in more recent times uh serving under Adrien as our senior pastor and of course I can't not mention my Sunday school teacher who's sitting back there Bruce in absolute amazement that this Sunday school scholar could end up like this um so um everything I am today I ow to Bruce and uh [Applause] maybe not everything but a lot of things as as somebody said that this is the third or fourth date that's been set for my retirement so I suspect uh Julia is here on behalf of the family to make sure this is it because it's been a constant conversation in the family dad dad when are you retiring and we got to the stage of even announcing a date to the family that this is when I'm going to return higher um back earlier and then I had to go back to fa say no it's not going to be that going to continue on and this is the sort of response I got you sucker oh Dad we knew it we knew it your daughter wife and I talk we knew that this wouldn't be it so I'm sure that they're here today just to make sure that that's it I have here the notes that um that I used when I first started ministry back here and um back here on the 6th of May 2018 and said it's a deep sense of God's call on our life that we come here in this capacity in examining call we look for scripture circumstances inner conviction conviction and skills and affirmation by others and we can testify to the Fulfillment in all areas and went on from there so there is a this sense of God's leading in all of this of which we are pleased about too well if you've got your Bibles there um try not to keep you too long saying there's a morning tea and a cake out there for us but if you've uh got your Bibles out I hope you do so like to read just four verses and out of this there are three words that I want to leave you with and I hope that you'll remember you might be able to identify the the ver the words as we go this is the um this is the how it goes when the time Drew near for David to die that's King David not Pastor David to die he gave charge to Solomon his son I'm about to go the way of all the Earth he said say be strong show yourself a man and observe what the Lord your God requires walk in his ways and keep his decrees and commands his laws and requirements is written in the law of Moses so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go that the Lord may keep his promise to me if your descendants watch how they live and if they walk Faithfully before me with all their heart and soul you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel we know that God always blesses the reading of his word two weeks ago um an and me and Dylan and Z were were in Singapore we were there for a conference um all four of us went to one conference and then while Dylan and Z went off doing the tourist thing for a while uh and and I went to another series of meetings a leadership round table but that's for another time that story if you want to know more about that but when we were in Singapore we um we did all of our traveling around by the MIT which is their train system which by the way makes our train system look rather amateurish and rather archaic but that also is a story for another time as well um they say that a couple of years ago there were 3.4 five million people use their train system every day that in Peak our um trains come every 1 to three minutes and in off peak though every 5 to seven minutes so it's a bit different from here that it's a lot cheaper as well but the thing I wanted to point out is is this is that at the by the way there's no drivers in the trains either um sitting somewhere there's somebody with a model train sit guiding these trains everywhere so you can stand at the front of the train and look out the window and see where going um you hope it's working and it did all the time we were there but when you get onto the Train the seats by the um by the doors are called they're special seats and they have this um sign by them where it's um it's uh standup Stacy it's not working we need um something is not working there yeah there it is so that's ass sign by the door which you probably can't read but standup stacy says that um these seats right next to the door the doors are reserved and so if you're sitting in one of those which anybody can sit in them and you see somebody in any of these capacities stand up Stacy Says to stand up so they have these four pictures here and from the top going across it says uh if you've got a broken leg U see some with the broken leg stand up for stand up Stacy second one if you see somebody with little kids carrying little kids um stand up for them the next one along is if you're pregnant if see somebody pregnant stand up for them and the bottom one there is if you see somebody who's old stand up for them as well well we were traveling on the train as we said we did it often and often the trains are such where you have to stand for at least part of the journey and I'm standing up and um there's this woman who it's hard to tell women's ages isn't it but um my guess is probably about 30 caught my eye and offered to stand up for me and so I went through the standup Stacy checklist do I have a broken leg no do I have a toddler no am I pregnant no which really only left one option as to why should why she should stand up and that one option was obviously she wanted to stretch her legs and um and wanted to give me a seat I went through that checklist and I thought what do I do she thinks I look old do I gave her to it say you should have gone to spec Savers uh should I go smack her in the mouth for being insolent but no I didn't do any of those things but politely just acknowledged and thanked her for that and and remained standing the thing is is that what we have read today is um written by King David who's about to die so he's old he's actually about my age um or I'm about his age whichever way you'd like to look at it but I want to say a couple of things by the way number one is this I'm not about to die as far as I know secondly I'm not a king but I am a servant of Jesus and I haven't reigned for 40 years but I have ministered I think for about 2,340 weeks you know I did that calculation about three or four times and came up with a different answer every time so don't hold me to that but if you really want to work it out and correct me or whatever I started ministry on the first Sunday in December of 1979 which means that there's a lot of sermons have been preached in that time which is so we don't preach too often now but remember this is that back in the old days and this is not about reminiscing back in the old days for probably about the first 12 years of ministry the pastor did all the preaching we had a morning and an evening service and a midweek Bible study which also it's like a seron so it's a fair few there so I thought I'd do a recap on all of those this morning not really but uh but they're by the ways um but wait there's more because there's just a couple of things and this is not a part of the sermon e you're getting this for free fake U what I'm about to say is this is that a couple of things that talked about here is that it's not part of the seron but I think it's important to point out one is mortality is that as I said David King David's about to die and when people think about dying today today I notice two extremes which my sense is is that we probably all visit each extreme but it's a problem if we stay in each in either extreme one extreme of course is that is that we know we're going to die there one statistic that hasn't changed that 100% of people who lived and died until Jesus comes again but at one extreme there are people who who want to ignore that and deny that and think they're going to live forever and ever and ever um if you live in that extreme then fol you got to tighten up a bit and stop and think about it but there's the Other Extreme where people can only focus on death and think they're going to die all the time get a pain or an ACH at cancers at heart attack um too afraid to do anything to get on a train or a bus or whatever because you never know it's going to crash by the way that's fear and um I read this definition of fear uh this last week reading doing some reading where fear stands for false expectations appearing real false expectations appearing real fear if and so the thing is is that if we tend to live in either extreme if you live in this extreme we got to loosen up a bit folk you know and um as I said we live in we've got to live in the tension in the reality of both but enjoy life and to realize in the words of Paul so whether we live or die we are the Lords if we are truly Disciples of his the other qu other thing want to deal with just in passing is this whole area of morality as I said King David's my age he's about 70 years old when he dies he's 70 years old when he dies he's handing over to his son King Solomon now who is King Solomon's mom baath Sheba how did Mom and Dad get together remember King David saw baath Sheba nak had liked what he saw and uh and took her for his wife as a murder committed as a part of that that baby died and Solomon was an next son we don't know how old how old Solomon was but people who far more expert than me estimate that he could have been as young as 15 when at this stage when um when King David is about to die and handing over to Solomon so 15 I've read 17 I've read 20 so he's very young so I just want you to think about that that here is King David 70 at age 55 having to get up in the middle of the night and change nappies or whatever probably had servants to do that whatever but to realize this is that probably he's well into his 50s or he's into his 50s when he is having an affair with Beth Sheba um and to realize that uh that he's not really a young man but a mature person at this stage and to to understand this is that when you're 20 you think 30's old over the hill and whatever but even in your 50s and I can't say even in 70s is that Temptations are still there of all sorts and my mind tells me that as we go further with God you'd think our logic says that Temptations ought to become less and less it actually seems to me that Satan has got to know you a whole more because he doesn't know everything but he's got to know you over a period of time has worked out your weaknesses and so as you get older The Temptations become narrow in Focus but deeper in intensity and so to understand that and to realize that whether that's a true I've never read that anywhere else that's just my observation my experience is that that's how it seems to work and so I use the word lust we can lust after everything from chocolates to women to motor cars to family to a whole range of things and lust is what's going to satisfy my own s own longings and whatever love is what I'm prepared to give away and so In this passage other things that we could be talking about is this whole area of mortality about life and death and living in the balance of that but it's also about morality as well and about Temptation about realizing that no long no matter how old we are we're always going to face Temptations from Satan okay so that's now we can get on to the message that's all by way of introduction I've got a clock up there there's no need for you to turn around I can see it and I I ignore it just like Adrian used to do it's uh that's not true I've always done it too so what what I want to look at is this and in these four verses here King David is his final words because he dies soon after is his final words to his successor Young Solomon age 15 to 17 is his final words to him and I think you realize this is that often final words are words of significance and that's why I've chosen these because here are some words of significance that King David is passing on to his successor to his son who's going to to be the next king of Israel now this is when we stop and think about this um and and realize these words I want us just to understand exactly or to explore what exactly is going on here because David is now in palive care he knows he's about to die so he's in palive care calls in his successor Young Solomon and says Solomon here are some words I want to say to you now if I had been King David I would have said to him you're about to become king be a good King be a king that you've lived all your life in training for so the kingdom is going to be yours this is what it's like to be a good King but he doesn't say that instead he seems to take go off on this tangent and talk about three other things that don't seem directly related to how I do my reign as a king he says Be Strong why would he be strong when he had subjects to do everything he just click his fingers and say do this do that um too tired to lift my coffee up to my lips hey servant come and lift the coffee cup up for me so he but he says to him be strong to the king uh to the to to Solomon but then he also says be a man he doesn't say be a king be a good King but he knows he's going to be king but he says also remember that you're going to be a man why would he say be a man when he's going to be the king and then he says in the uh the last verse that we read verse four or whatever that uh that to to be subject to God so when he had the whole of the nation of Israel subject to him David is saying to him make sure you are subject to God I guess implicity in that of course is that the measure of success of a kingdom is not in how much wealth you've gathered how big your army is but whether you're walking with God is the measure and that's one lesson that we need to learn so it's these three things that uh that I want to talk about so it's not as if I'm about to die as far as I know say but there last words from one king passing on the Baton and here are three things that I want to talk about today rather briefly the first one is this is to be strong um what I think King David is saying here is Solomon you might be king but you still got to keep working keep working be a good worker in everything and a warning to us today is that we you need to be careful of religious busyness you know there are some people get so busy in the church so busy in doing stuff so busy in the community even that they have never stopped to think is what I'm doing really what God wants me to do and we need to stop and pause if we are busy if we are busy to stop and to ask God is what's keeping me busy the things that you want me to be busy about of course there's the Other Extreme that if we're not doing anything that we need to do something to be busy and if we had to turn to Ephesians 28-10 the passage of scripture which we often refer to when we're talking about we can't earn our Salvation where Paul writing to the Church of Ephesus says that we are saved by grace not by works and so we can't earn our way into God's favor but often we we emphasize that part that it's by the grace of God that we become Christians not by what we do but we often stop uh stop there rather than to complete the verse that the passage where it says we've been saved for to do good works and often we have stopped shy of saying that is that God has saved us by his grace for what reason to do good works to do what he wants us to do and so God has a job for you God job for me and has uh pointed out by Dylan I think said retirement doesn't mean putting your feet up means a change of pace is still Ministry still discipling still being discipled all of these things and so when Paul when uh King David says to Solomon keep working don't just sit on your throne and click your fingers to get everybody else you do the something I think also the word comes to you and to me today that we're got to work do God's work if you're a Christian you've received a spiritual gift of course um I list it out in a few places in in uh in the Bible and uh God's given you at least one and more than likely two or three spiritual gifts and it's really important that we understand that and we understand and learn what our spiritual gift is and that we start using it and it's not given for our benefit but given for the benefit of the church exercise your spiritual gift and what we've been emphasizing in the church for the last number of years is this have one Ministry in the church to do something now the next one I would to spend a bit more time on where uh where King David says to Solomon um be a man um sort of intrigued by that that uh he says to be a man not to be a king and so what's he talking about there um I want to do this illustration um for you only take a little bit you remember how at school we used to do um compare and contrast where we used to uh teach us it's their favorite question I think compar and contrast two two things are put out there compar and contrast in what ways are these these two things the same in what ways that's comparing in what ways are they different I've got two candles here had to go out by handles by the way we didn't have them like this at home and uh so if you want a candle let me know um because we probably W use it again I've got these two candles here and just for one minute it's all I'm going to give you is one minute just turn to somebody next to you compare and contrast these two candles okay that's it compare and contrast what's what's one thing it's the same about these what's one thing that's different time to talk with each other you'll have to talk with yourself okay there's no right and wrong answers here there probably are right and wrong answers but I just want to tell you mine what I want to do is tell you mine my comparing contrast is this my comparison is they're both giving off light the contrast is this one's cold this one's warm hope that doesn't set off any smoke alarms and the example that I want to say what I want to illustrate is this is that as Christians it's important that we're giving out light the light of the love of God but we have a choice some people do it in a cold shouldered coldhearted way but other people do it can do it in a warm friendly way and so when Sol like David is talking to Solomon he doesn't say primarily be a king but he says Be A Man remember may be a king but also remember may be just a man and it seems to me that what he's emphasizing remember you're a man like every other person man woman remember you've got to relate this is about relationships and it's about being warm in your relationships with each other and I want to want to impress this upon us the importance about relationships um I was talking with somebody and uh he'd been in the military this is not Australia nothing to do with Australia I understand that and uh when I tell you the story you'll understand why I'm emphas izing that so he' been in the military he'd been an officer but he'd been an engineer when someone says they're an engineer there's so many different sorts of Engineers and so I said what sort of engineer were you and it turned out in discussion with him that he was an explosives engineer so he was working for the military um designing all sorts of U ammunition bombs and all sorts of things I'm not exactly sure but that was his job but he said well wasn't all negative he said there's also some positive aspects about it as well he said because in some places there are old landmines left over from Wars which have never been cleared and he said we designed this Mass explosion sort of blanket thing over these fields where we could explode everything destroy all the landmines in a field and he said um what used to happen is that when we would do that all this area which had been landmines nobody had been able to go on but he said once we had cleared that everybody was standing there waiting and as soon as it was clear everybody would rush out onto the field to see what they could find and what they could discover he said there was one time where he was responsible for pressing the the trigger whatever they did all the protocols have been taken care of and press the button but one man had run out into the field and was killed and Not only was one man killed but there's also a cow out there that was killed as well and so the organization that he worked for had to pay compensation the compensation that they paid for the car was $4,000 and he said you know what the compensation was for the person well if it's $44,000 for a cow it's got to be at least 40,000 400,000 $4 million $1,000 $4,000 for a cow $11,000 for a person and we talked about how out of kilter that was that cows are more important there cows were more important for compensation than a person and I want to challenge us to be thinking about that today what's more important in our lives is it CS or we can put a whole range of things in there or is it people we can put a whole range of things might be cars it can be positions it could be family it could be our job it could be even well I really don't get on with that person so that they're not like me that's my care and uh it's more important than seeing him as the person and it's so important that we see people as people whoever they are people who created in the image of God now I'm aware for me that sometimes I can be so focused and it's happened a couple of times in my life where I can be so focused going along and uh somebody can say good day and I don't even see them and they say come back later have I upset you no why oh just because I said good out to you you just walked straight by and i' had to learn F people are important and it's important that we stop and we talk to people and it's important that we regard people as God's creation creating the image of God as being far more important than anything else anything else becomes a cow and we need to re recognize people are more important than cows one more illustration about family I think this event happened so many years ago um that I can think I can tell it now uh because it's so far in the past and um and um and so not not locally as well I was just a young general superintendent and we had a church that was in prob going through some difficulties um I'm not sure whether you realize but we had a number of our churches which were settled by German immigrants the Germans made a big contribution to um to Queensland or to Australia actually in the early settlement so we have a number of our churches number of Baptist Churches which were settled by Germans and were German Baptist Churches there was actually a German Baptist Association story for another occasion but but we had this group of churches which you known as German churches one of these churches was in serious difficulty in fighting and so I was called in to to um to chair a meeting at U at this church which is so was a German church and in this meeting there was one guy who had a nickname I won't tell you what his nickname was but because that might identify somebody else is listening nobody here would know who I'm talking about but uh but his nickname which he was so proud of his nickname um reflected his character and he was a he was just a bully he was just a bully in the church and everyone knew that he was a bully and he was at the center of this conflict and um anyway um we I was there in the meeting cheering and he um part of the meeting he stood up and he said we can't help it we are Germans despite the fact he's probably third or fourth generation Australian by the way they say we're Germans and this is how we function this is how we live our lives and so you just got to like it or lump it or words to that effect with all the strength that I could Master being young and inexperienced I stood up and I said this to this gentleman looked him in the eye and I said this I said I want you to know that half my blood is German blood my M's bloodline is pure German I said in fact my great great grand are buried not too far from this church not in a Baptist Cemetery but in a Lutheran Cemetery so half of my blood is German but I want you to know this is that the moment I accepted the Lord Jesus Is My Savior that God came and indwelt me that any excuse for the way that I live was done away with that now I have to live according to God's principles because I have the indwelling spirit in me I have the fruit of the spirit being birthed in me he didn't like what I said and just glared at me but I feel okay about that because what I was saying is the truth folk we can when it comes to relationships people are so important what's the greatest commandment love God what's the second most important to love others and this is what God is telling us how will you know that you're my disciples you'll know my disciples by your love for one another is how important relationships are so in our relationships we need to be warm we need to realize that people are more important than Cs and we realize that we have no excuse for not being a good relational person because the spirit of God indwells us and is doing a change in our life third thing is this and I won't take too long on this either is that we need to walk with god um walk in his ways um David said to Solomon walk in his ways and keep his decrees and commands his laws and requirements it's written in the law of Moses so you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go and as I said earlier you know the most important thing that judge think to judge how good a nation is is not how rich it is how big the Army is but how close they're walking to God number of things have put in there statutes have been explained to be the positive ordinance of the law Commandments of moral precept steps not to steal and so on the Judgment the laws belonging to civil governments and the testimonies the laws directing the commemoration of certain events but this is what what David is saying to Solomon walk with God in all your life amamos says she two walk together at all if they do not know one another you can only walk with God if you're in a personal relationship with him and and if you're in a personal relationship with him then walk with him Ephesians 4:11 says urge you I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling we've all had it said to us if ever we've worn a uniform whether we've worn a school uniform a Boy Scout uniform a brigade uniform a military uniform or whatever we always said when you're wearing that uniform walk in a manner worthy of the uniform you're wearing and what Paul is saying to the church at Ephesus walk in a manner worthy of the uniform of being a disciple of Jesus in the way that you live the um Amplified version says that is to live a life that exhibits Godly character moral courage personal integrity and mature Behavior a life that expresses gratitude to God for your salvation how do we do that well a number of things but regular reading of the Bible and regular praying is important adopting the values of our church about inform transform inreach and Outreach it's important that we walk with Jesus that we walk with God as being such an important thing don't worry about failing worry that you will succeed at the wrong thing see that's what David is saying to Solomon don't succeed at the wrong thing don't become a great nation military power wealth of wisdom which he was known for be known that you walk with with God so here are my three words work make sure we're doing God's work warm in relationships Walk we're talking about spiritual maturity what are my three words walk uh work warm and walk let's say it together three words one two three work warm walk fasion next week what the three words are I want you to know them okay let me conclude by a prayer that I came across recently or I may not it's disappeared now here it is came across this recently and it really has not a lot to do with the seron but I say it by way of confession to you and is a prayer and it's a thing of accountability it's a 17th century nuns prayer this is what she prayed Lord thou knowest better than I know myself that I'm growing older and will someday be old keep me from the Fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject on and on every occasion Release Me From craving to straighten out everybody's Affairs make me thoughtful but not moody helpful but not bossy with my vast store of wisdom it seems a Pity not to use it at all but thou knowest Lord that I want a few friends at the end keep my mind free from the recital of endless details Give Me Wings to get to the point seal my lips on my aches and pains they are increasing and love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by I did not ask for Grace enough to enjoy the tales of others pains but help me to endure them with patience I did not ask for improved memory but for growing humility and a listening listening [ __ ] shess when my memory seems to CL with the memories of others teach me the Glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken keep me reasonably sweet I do not want to be a saint some of them are so hard to live with but a s old person is one of the crowning works of the devil give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places and talents in unexpected people and give me oh Lord the grace to tell them so amen let's pray three words father we know are far more important than remembering the words it's far more important than putting them into practice so father God today we pray that we may each one be found in your work that we'll be warm in our relationships with others and we'll be walking in step with you. Amen.