One day while I was in prayer,  I saw a picture of the Lord sitting on the well.  When I got closer to it, I noticed it was dry, filled with rubble and rubbish.  That was not part of the familiar picture so when I asked Him I felt He said “The only time people throw rubbish into a well is when it’s empty.  When they come to a well expecting to find water and find that it never delivered, what it promised. No one rubbishes the church when it full of Living Water. People don’t come to find rules they don’t turn up hoping to get ten things to do before God will meet them; they come to find life giving, pure rivers of love, flowing into their heart. Every local church is a well of living water, where any sinner or Samaritan can come in their shame and rejection and meet the Lord.  He sits enthroned on the well.  The well was the throne of grace, were she came find mercy and help in her time of need.  We are to be a place where they can come thirsty and go away satisfied by Living Water.

Friend, all over the world I hear the sound of the wells filling up.  Are you ready for thirsty visitors?

It is an annual thing - Getting the tree out of the garage and trying to do something different with decorations we have collected over years. By the time we finished our small five foot tree sparkles with colours and lights. Underneath the tree lay brightly coloured packages and ahead of us lies a week that we love; a time to see people and food that I only see once a year. Whether sitting under a Pohutukawa tree in New Zealand or imagining how it was in the old country, with cheery fires and snowmen, Christmas seems bright and beautiful. But, surrounded by bright lights, red candles, and presents, it is easy to forget there is a sinister and ugly reason for Christmas…. Sin.

Behind every disrupted home; every shattered friendship, every broken heart, every selfish action and human misery, is the reason for Christmas... Sin. Many years ago Thomas Guthrie wrote of sin....

"Who is the painted temptress that steals our virtue? Who is the murderess that destroys our life? Who is this sorceress that first deceives and then damns our souls? Sin.

 Who with icy breath blights the fair blossoms of youth? Who breaks the hearts of parents? Who brings old men grey hairs with sorrow to the grave?

 Who by a more hideous metamorphosis than Ovid even fancied changes gentle children into snakes, tender mothers into monsters and their fathers into worse than Herods? Sin.

 Who cast the apple of discord on household hearts? Who lights the torch of war and bears it blazing over trembling lands? Who by division in the church rends Christ's seamless robe? Sin.

Who turns the soft and gentlest heart to stone? Who hurls reason from her lofty throne and impels sinners mad as a Gadarene swine down the precipice into a lake of fire? Sin."

Great writing and yes, though Jesus is the reason for the season, our sin is the reason for Jesus. Matthew 1.21 reads, "And she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sin. Sin may be the ugliness of Christmas but the real beauty of Christmas is to understand how the ugliness is cured.  We could not save ourselves but thank God, He sent a Saviour Jesus Christ, into the world to save sinners.  Sin is a disease cured by only one thing, and that is the blood of the divine physician Himself. He bore the punishment that we deserved so we could receive His eternal life which we never deserved.

So let’s enjoy the bright lights and colours and spend time with friends, family and those we love but most of all let us receive the Saviour sent from God, to bring His bright hope into our lives. Let our Christmas be filled with gratitude for Jesus and perhaps next year hang a black bauble on the tree just to remember.

David was small compared to Goliath but not to other men. The idea that David was some kind of small, puny guy is not true. David was a shepherd, he was a tough man, and he was a man’s man. He killed a lion and a bear with his bare hands!  Saul was a head & shoulders taller than anyone else in the land and Saul must have sized David up before he offered David his armor.  So it is likely that David was a big and strong man like his bother Eliab “So Saul clothed David with his armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head; he also clothed him with a coat of mail. David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, "I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them." So David took them off ”  (1Sam 17:38-39)  David couldn’t use the Armor, not because it didn’t fit but because he hadn’t tested it.  Because he wasn’t used to it – it wasn’t his tools.  David was anointed to be king, but it wasn’t his time, his calling was still a shepherd. So he goes down to the stream picks us five smooth stones and puts them in his shepherd’s bag. When Goliath who was over nine feet tall, looks down at David, he doesn’t see a smaller man he sees a shepherd. David still has his staff, and his shepherd’s bag, containing the sling, and the five rocks.   He wasn’t trying to be a soldier; he had no proof of any other calling.  The Bible says, “and Goliath was enraged, and he said am: I a dog that you are coming at me with a stick (which is a staff)?” Goliath dishonoured David’s calling but God honoured it. David knew that God will prosper you in your calling.  One of the most destructive things we can do is always wish we were somebody else. To be the best Bob that Ted can be.

Friends, honour the strengths and callings of other people and live within your own.  Go through a process to find your talents and calling.  Work out what God has gifted you to be and live in the centre of that.  That is your sweet spot. Don’t live your whole life and never become who you are meant to be.   

This week a house in our town had all the windows broken by thugs and when our pastor heard of it, he took the opportunity to send some of our young people around to clean up the mess. The woman was blessed and thankful.

The apostle Paul also could see great opportunities hidden in the midst of great opposition and difficulties. “For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries” (1Corintians 16:9) We are tempted to think that if something is a God opportunity it will be easy.  Great people see a great opportunity, not because it will be plain sailing but because they have a plain word from God.  Caleb who was old but not withered said “Yes, there are giants in the land but we are not grasshoppers and God is bigger than any giant-sized adversary.  Paul could see trouble on both sides of the door but what we saw even clearer were opportunities to serve people and to serve God.  Before Paul was a great apostle, he had become a great servant.  Jesus modelled for us serving our way to greatness.  Mark 10:43   All human beings are wired for greatness. Most of us know inside us that our life was never meant to be ordinary.  Greatness is found in serving God and people. Kingdom people think about how they can serve, where they can serve and when they can serve. The greatness of serving is that it is the best way to enter doors of opportunity.  It is not always easy to serve your neighbours but when we did, our neighbours got saved.   Years ago I worked for the city council, I shared my hope in Jesus with one of the people there with no effect. One day I took the door of opportunity that opened for me to help them with a practical problem at their house, the next Sunday they were at church.

Friend, if you wondering where your next great door of opportunity is, look for some people to serve and do it even if is difficult. Great people find great opportunities and by the way, you will be great!

Jesus told a story of the king who was travelling into a far-off country. He gathered his three servants and distributed to them talents of gold. To the first man he gave five talents, to the next two, and then one.   Just one talent was worth about twenty years of wages. Two of them went and traded with them and doubled their talents and the master was very pleased and gave them an even greater opportunity.

But one took his gift and buried it to keep it safe and when he gave an account to the master, he was in trouble. Perhaps he was lazy or offended that he was given the least amount. Perhaps he was a socialist and could not celebrate his masters increasing wealth but out of his own mouth, he gives us his excuse. “ And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours”( Mat 25:25)   He was too scared to have a go. He thought if I do something with the talent, it might not work. He played it too safe.  We get the idea that if the servant had of come to the boss and said “Sorry Master, I invested your talents but it didn’t work and I lost it," the king would still have been happy.  The bottom line of this parable is: one thing the King can't stand is someone doing nothing with what they’ve been given.  Even the master took a risk by giving his talents to others.

Friend, the worst thing you can do is nothing. The greatest danger in life is not a failure but faithlessness.  You cannot change the talent or gift you have been given but you can increase it by using it. What gift, talent, passion, idea or desire from God have you hidden in the ground?  It’s not too late to dig it up and take a risk.

 As David gained victory over his enemy’s time after time, he came to understand that God was his strength. He knew he couldn't be doing what he had been doing without God.  One man and a few guys in animal skins is no match for an army! 2 Sa 22:33. Some other power was at work way beyond him. He knew it was not my might or my power but there was a mighty spirit at work. David believed he had “exoskeleton” around about him and only because of this divine cloak could he run through a troop and leap over a wall.  He believed that the same power had rested on him as a red face youth when he faced the bear and the lion. God’s power clothed him every day in the field. Though he was someone mighty small, there was something mighty big around about his life. David was not strong, but he knew who his strength was.

As David ran around the mountains of Judah, chased by men who wanted to kill him, one of the creatures he noticed around the rocks was the little Coneys or rock badgers. In the book of Proverbs 30:26, it says they are not strong, but they are wise because they make their house in the rock. They are a feeble folk; another version says not strong yet they wisely made the rock their exoskeleton. They entered the rock and found strength beyond them.

A wise master builder also knows where the strength of his house is to be found; from building his house on a rock. This refers not just to the strength of the local church but the need for every believer to build their inner house or heavenly dwelling in Christ.

Friend, what God has called us to do cannot be done by human ability. The Holy Spirit can do more through a primitive man than he can with someone clever in their own eyes. Enter the Rock today; trust Him and let Him be your strength!

A number of years ago, I was preaching in a village in Vanuatu when a witch doctor came to announce curses upon those gathered. He came with words because beings in the spirit realm are released by words. Satan seems to need a person or people, to invoke the words of a curse upon people before evil spirits are able to work their evil. For this reason, the heathen king Balak invited Balaam the prophet to curse Israel. (Numbers 22. 15)  The principle holds true in Gods kingdom too, so when we agree with God words in prayer, Gods Spirit is able to move!  Words are an instrument of the spirit realm and both the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness are released through words. The words of the apostles or prophets reached into the unseen realm, binding evil or releasing the miracles of God.  Israel shouted the words of faith at Jericho and the Spirit was released to move.  The words we speak today can bring Gods “planned tomorrow” toward us. Words of unbelief can frustrate and even deny the good plans of God for our life.

Friend, How much of what God planned to bring into our lives, has been bound up in the heavens by the words we have said or not said.  Ezekiel had to speak to the bones before the Spirit could move.   So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone.   (Eze 37:7) Somebody has to declare what God wants to do in your life. It probably needs to be you! Start prophesying now.

Has anyone noticed how many rainbows there are around these days? We have rainbow footpaths, office windows, pedestrian crossings, buses and toys. So many that I thought people must be either reading their Bible or totally forgetting the meaning of the rainbow. I decided to print my own tee-shirt to explain.

This morning I climbed the steps to enter our city council gym and was greeted by an archway of balloons arranged in rainbow-order. I thought “I wonder who is telling them to promote pride week and whose rates are paying for it? That got me thinking. Why pride?

Pride is something we feel when a child or adult has achieved something notable or has demonstrated character in the face of difficulty.

The other use of the word pride is in the context of lack of humility and rebellion and the first instance of this type of pride was a long time ago. Lucifer was the most decorated created being in heaven. He wore beautiful garments, which glistened with jewels of every colour of the rainbow.

“You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The sardius, topaz, and diamond, Beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold... "You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you” (Eze 28:13-1)

Sadly, as Lucifer led the parade in worship to God, he began to think that the worship should belong to him. Iniquity and pride entered his heart, and he was cast from heaven to become Satan, the hater of mankind and God.

Pride in this context of arrogance and rebellion has never benefitted anyone. As Kevin Conner said "If pride can turn and archangel into a devil, what can it do to us"?

Has pride ever helped a couple resolve their issues? Has pride ever helped a broken relationship be restored? Has pride ever helped reconcile a son to his parents or enabled them to confess their faults? Never. God took pairs of males and females into the ark for the good of the planet. Homosexual pairs animal or human would be non-regenerating and an evolutionist might say, a threat to the survival of the species. Not much to celebrate there either.

Why would we be proud of pride? We don't celebrate “lust week” for adulterers, or “greed week” for thieves and gangsters, so why would we celebrate pride week for those caught in homosexuality? It makes no sense.

Why would the U.N. and government promote and celebrate a lifestyle that on their own admission and figures, has a far worse suicide and mental health outcomes than the general population? Canadian figures put suicide risk at fourteens time higher for LGBTQ people. That is not fair on our young people.

Of course, homosexual people look for acceptance and they should find acceptance from us all, for every human being is infected with the same disqualifying sin. Gay or straight, black and white. Whether we live in Remuera or Manurewa, are atheist or religious, sin affects us all differently but affect us all, it does.

Some of my friends have gay children. We love and accept them because they too are us. All of us must find our way back to God through the same narrow gate, Jesus Christ.

Israel Folau was given a hard time for saying that homosexuals will go to hell. But maybe he and everyone else missed the point. It is not just homosexuals that will be excluded from heaven (Hell) but every person that hasn't asked found forgiveness from God, though a personal faith in Jesus Christ. This includes rugby boards, politicians, presidents and preachers. In short, no one will live with God unless they are humble enough to acknowledge their imperfection and need for God's forgiveness. And humble enough to accept the only salvation that God has provided (at great cost to himself), the cleansing blood of his Son.

So, while doing my leg press, I thought “Why should we be celebrating pride week in a government run gym? Soon our primary schools will be full of rainbows. What to do? I know, I'll wear my rainbow bow tee-shirt to the gym next week.” Then I thought “This only happens because everyone is too afraid to speak up. I should say something today,” So I went to the gym instructor and asked “What is the meaning of these rainbow-coloured balloons? Who told you to display them?”

He said “I went overseas to bury my mother and got stuck over there with a lockdown. My staff put them up to celebrate my return to work”. :)

Oh well there is still way too many rainbows with the wrong meaning out there!