My daughter and son in law recently tramped over the Tongariro crossing. It took them 6 and half hours to cross between the mountains. They said it was difficult to do but rewarding to have achieved it. The first hour was easy, and they enjoyed the ever-changing vistas along the way. It soon got harder, and exertion and effort replaced the easy stroll.

It was great that they could have a break from the children and do something together. It is also a great metaphor for the marriage journey.

Have you ever noticed that falling in love is easy but walking in love is more challenging? Well the science is in. Apparently falling in love or feeling in love, is because a chemical called dopamine is released in our brain when we first attracted to someone. But after 24 months this chemical is produced way less and when the feeling of love subsides somewhat, we have to choose to love or begin to actually love. This is the reason for the old saying “Love is blind, but marriage is an eye opener.” This refers to the fact that in the falling in love stage, the character flaws or imperfections of the other party are not able to be seen for the brightness of the sun shining out of them. The rest of the saying “Marriage is an eye opener” is not true for it is time that is the eye opener. After every couple has lived together for 2 or 3 years, and the dopamine has dwindled, peoples eyes are opened to see all the things they never saw when they were “in love”.

This explains why so many couples who were head over heels in love 2 years ago, when breaking up today say, "It’s amazing, they just changed" or "They didn't turn out to be as captivating or charming as I thought” or " I found out things about him which annoy me and I don't like" Well, welcome to reality. Your chemical drug has worn off and now you're seeing them without your rose-tinted glasses. They’re not unusually bad, they are just ordinary people.

We can't say we truly love someone; until the dopamine has waned and we are choosing to walk in love for 15 years maybe 50; until we have fallen out of love and choose to keep on loving.

The true lover is not someone who can feel in love with 15 different people for 2 years but someone who can love just one person for 30 years.

Of course, chemicals don't completely leave our brain after a few years, and other chemicals like oxytocin flood our bodies for a few days after physical intimacy. This is a blessing which remains throughout the rest of our lives together. It helps us to feel bonded and helps us get past the idiosyncrasies, habits, personality quirks and annoyances we and they, have to live with every day.

Falling in love is like falling from a high mountain. Because of gravity it's inevitable, effortless, exhilarating, heart pounding stuff but learning to love and choosing to love is like climbing up a mountain. It's hard work that also gets the heart rate up but when a couple climb the mountain of love everyday over decades, they prove their love for their mate and create a refuge of the stability for their family. They actually produce in their lives, the very character qualities they should have been looking for at the start, if they weren’t so "blinded by love". Qualities like commitment, patience, putting the other first, being considerate, etc, and these qualities can produce a feeling similar to being "in love" but for the total length of relationship. Their love begins to reflect the love of Jesus who continues to love us even when we are unloving or unlovable.

As it turns out, He is the divine provider of short-term chemicals and the producer of lifelong character.

Friends, we don't need to fall off the mountain with someone new we need to climb the mountain of love today, with the one we can truly love.

The Easter event had many players in various scenes as they unfolded over three days, and all of the roles but One, can be played by us.

 First scene was Judas who loved a deal. He had already followed his heart, a kiss of betrayal a small price to pay for a bigger bank account.

Caiaphas appeared but had religious considerations and didn’t want to lose the respect of his community.

 Next was Pilate who knew that Jesus was innocent but was too afraid to stand with Him. How many years did we do that? He asked the question that all the other actors were to answer. “Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” Mat 27:22 

Peter is there too. Peter who had spent so much time with Jesus the perfect man, but who denied he even knew Him, as he stood by the evening fire. Fortunately, Jesus new Peter and us better than we know ourselves. The rooster crowed over Peter’s feelings of failure but all of us need to feel like that, before we feel the need for a Saviour.

The crowd gathering in Pilate’s courtyard, started shouting their decision. “Crucify Him”!

 Next came Barabbas. He was offstage in a jail waiting for his execution. His name means “Son of an earthly father” and he was a murderer.  In the jail he heard cheering out on the streets and heard footsteps coming his way. The door was opened, and the jailer said “The crowd has decided to kill Jesus Christ instead of you!  You are free to go. He also represents us - sons and daughter of earthy fathers, set free by the only Son of the Heavenly Father.

 Next the soldiers at the cross. They took Jesus robes off Him, now covered with blood and hung him naked on the cross. As Jesus hung in shame, they divided His righteous robes among themselves. The crucifiers like ourselves, can walk away wearing the holy garments of Jesus.

 Of course, Jesus was on the cross. He began His lonely journey in the garden where He went with His twelve disciples. There in Gethsemane, He went a little further with just three men. But only two disciples followed him to Gabbatha and only John is standing at Golgotha near the cross. Finally, Jesus is on the cross alone for no one else could share His pain.  He was very alone, then absolutely alone, as He realised that even God had forsaken him. “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME? “Mark 15:34 

He was alienated and abandoned by His Father as He became sin.  The One who is holy and “of purer eyes than to behold evil,” turned away from Sin of the world, including yours and mine.

 In the penultimate scene there is the penitent thief about to receive the punishment he is due for sin in this life.  Through simple faith in Jesus’ kingship, he is offered eternal life in the next.  Before he had a chance to attend church, give an offering, learn some verses, or do one kind thing, he was offered glory and splendour that Caiaphas and Pilate for all their trying, would never know. Jesus’ offers forgiveness and eternal life is not based on performance or knowledge but faith in Him.  The thief’s story is one that ends well, and we can choose whether we will be him in the play.

 At the end of three days “the play” moves to the final scene. The tomb is opened, Jesus is alive and none of the old actors are there.  Instead, three women come to find the tomb filled with angels instead of the body of their Friend. This is our great hope and what sets Jesus apart from every special person in world history. Mohammed, Buddha, Swamis and Lamas have come and gone but Jesus is still alive.

Do you believe on Jesus this morning? Believing is not hard, for God planned something that would make it easy to believe - the resurrection. The resurrection is the greatest proof that Jesus is the sinless Son of God. Death could not hold Him, and He rose a victor, over death, hell and the grave.  This hope for all men, is what transformed the first disciples into a band of champions. They risked it all to tell the world the message of His love. Strangely they faced rejection and even the stake but continued to love their persecutors. As the centuries past, they exchanged horses for cars and worship styles changed and got louder. Today believers will tell the Easter story a thousand different ways, but it will always have the same message of hope, which is, Jesus Christ died for sinners and that every person gets to choose which person in “the play” they want to be.  Jesus has chosen the part of Saviour, but thief is still available. Be humble and choose that part.

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!