thebluefish.org

Sermon Script. Ecclesiastes ch2. Preached at Arborfield, 28-May-06
ENTERTAINMENT was EMPTY? (v1-11)
Once it was said - Cogito Ergo Sum... I think therefore, I am... Today? Perhaps “Tesco, ergo sum”. I shop, therefore... I am... or even, iPod Ergo Sum... I am entertained, therefore I am.... The entertainment industry offering the keys to happiness wherever we turn.

And we shop, not because we need things but because we think it might satisfy. The Teacher sets up a grand experiment. Richer than Roman Abrahamovich or Bill Gates. He had a flair for pleasure greater than Elton John. It's said of certain things, “that if you have to ask, you can't afford it”. For The Teacher money was no object.

Look at verses 1-11. v1, he turns his heart to consider pleasure. Why? v1, to find out what is good. A noble plan?
v1, but it was meaningless. Why?
v2, what does it accomplish?
He tries wine, v3, and folly. You can imagine him, stumbling out of a pub on Friar Street in Reading on a Friday night... …

I'm convinced one of the convictions all Christians must have is that life matters. Not just the big things, but the little things. Dave Simpson has been illustrating this for some time with his photo-blog... now Becci has started something that records the details... one post per day for a year, to see something beautiful. I love this idea. I love it because it is a great way of encouraging the good whereever you find it, and of learning to look hard for good thing. There's no way I have the time to do it en blog. I already risk missing life because I blog too much. These guys help me open my eyes and see all the stuff that God has his eyes on... he who counts every hair on my head... who knows everyone and every situation.

Dave Simpson - Funky Pancake
Becci Brown - Yeah, that was cool
Kath Arnold - Delighting in the Details
Pod Bhogal - Maybe Life Doesn't Suck
Ceryn Oakes - Amazaaaazin
Issy - madfoodscientist
SteffyB - Itsnotsobadafterall

Maybe in a week or so I'll aggregat…

What is happening when Christians gather to sing together? Firstly, they may be singing to themselves. Addressing their own soul, calling it to worship the Lord. This isn't the highest priority in corporate worship, more reserved for private worship. Regardless of form or style, what is essential is that we believe the truth about our God and worship him appropriately. It is quite appropriate that our times of worship should not only prepare us to hear God's word, but also begin with it. God's people gather together from their various circumstances, we need to be reminded of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The leader may be prepared, but the congregation may not be.

When we come together - we are to be together, not alone. Solo-Christianity is no-Christianity. We are called to be God's people together, and true fellowship is a magnificient statement of God's gospel. But it only occurs when we serve one another in love, which requires some interaction. Corpo…

Al Mohler quotes The Christian Century Editorial: [The Da Vinci Code and Left Behind....] trade on a fundamentally gnostic premise: that most of the church has been duped and that the real Christian belief is a secret that will now be divulged to the privileged reader.... The early church rejected gnosticism and its purveyors (as in the case of the recently rereleased Gospel of Judas) because the gnostics were telling a fundamentally different story from that narrated by the texts that became the New Testament..... When the junk food of the gnostic stories fails to satisfy, churches should be there with the soul food of the gospel.
Meanwhile, John Schroeder notes:
...the church is not here to produce my salvation. The church is here solely to praise God and to reflect His glory and grace. Make no mistake, many will find salvation in that, but bringing that salvation is not the church's purpose... (HT: Milton Stanley)
Nothing like a bit of God-centredness to put the flavour back into …

This evening I met Adrian Reynolds from Yateley and had the pleasure of hearing Ant Adams preach Romans 6 at Reading University Christian Union. I'll let others comment more on what was said (several RUCU-bloggers were present e.g. Ed "Into the blinding light").

I was struck by two quotes... one from John Murray observing that union with Christ is at the centre of salvation, and the other by John Owen, commenting on our constant struggle to have the redeemed believe that they are redeemed(and the unredeemed believe that they are unredeemed). In Christ we are free from sin... it's a master we do not have to obey, a phone we need not answer...

SCRIPT: Posted by Ant on his blog: Homeward Bound

"Postmoderns live on the surface,
not in the depths, and theirs
is a despair to be tossed off lightly
and which might even be alleviated
by nothing more serious than a sitcom"
-- David Wells, Christ in a meaningless world, in Above all pow'rs p177 Preparing Ecclesiastes 2, on the emptiness of life I read David Wells reflection on how Sartre and Camus were terrified of meaninglessness, and how today it's kind of accepted and shrugged off... life becomes trivial. And Big Brother begins another series...

Meanwhile, try these old links again to put a bit of depth in your life:The Cup - CJ Mahaney - Mark 14
The Cry - CJ Mahaney - Mark 15
Doing Missions When Dying is Gain - John Piper

Adrian is plugging the Newfrontiers Leadership conference which I was at last year courtesy of RFC. It was brilliant particularly hearing CJ Mahaney speak on the cross. Considering a day visit this year... except, no space for day visitors at the moment, I'll keep an eye out for that.

Yesterday I got my booking confirmation through for a couple of days at the Evangelical Ministry Assemby in London at the end of June.



with Peter Adam, Christopher Ash, David Jackman, Simon Manchester and John Piper.

More information on the Evangelical Ministry Assembly

This was launched at Forum in September 2005... Today reported in the Daily Telegraph: Students are given lessons on how to keep their virginity. The article is ok though its not all that accurate and makes it seem like our ultimate goal is to spread a "gospel of sexual abstinence".. whereas its pretty clear that the course is actually about forgiveness and life knowing Jesus.

The actual course information is here: The Pure Course(NB: requires Norn Irish pronouciation to be authentic). Written by Linda Marshall, UCCF Midlands Team Leader.

We ran it at Reading University in the autumn with upto 40 students turning out at 7.30am on a Monday morning for the course. The same happened at Surrey University on Wednesday mornings with a smaller number.

Mo has written:
1. Homogenous Church
2. Ephesians & Homogenous Church

Whilst preparing for a talk on the church for Reading Family Church, in June, I found this by Ian Stackhouse:"As [Gordon] Fee asserts, unity 'requires heterogeneous people to submit their diversity to the unifying work of the Spirit. Homogenous churches lie totally outside Paul's frame of reference. After all, such churches cannot maintain the unity of the Spirit that either Ephesians 2 and 4 or 1 Corinthians 12 call for'. Arising out of this tension is the challenge to live true to the way of the Spirit in whom we have been immersed, rather tan the way of the flesh. The success of the church community in living this way, and not any other way, is precisely what constitutes the witness of God's grace in the world. Unspectacular though it may be, and unpopular hough it may be, it is the maintenance of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, reinforced in the fellowship that surrounds the w…

If the greatest aroma of all is that of Christ, from believers (2 Cor 2)... and the second is the prayers of the saints (Rev 20)... the third must be freshly ground coffee beans.

In the end, I realized that we labor with the exalted Christ, which gives us authority to proclaim the gospel of freedom. And we labor like the incarnated Christ, which gives us humility and grace to creatively demonstrate and proclaim the love of Christ to fellow sinners in our culture. And though I needed to be like Jesus and lead our people in kind, I also needed to remember that there is one way in which a Christian should not be like Jesus. Jesus never sinned and, therefore, never repented, but because we sin, we must continually repent if we are to be faithful missionaries. This simple point is important because, while the many emerging pastors I speak with have rightly focused on following the example of Jesus, if they fail to recognize this vital difference between us and Jesus, they will diminish the acknowledgment of sin and the urgency of repentance." - Mark Driscoll
People want practical ministry tips and life advice, but what we really need is doctrine. In Romans Paul…

The serious problem I see with “law two” in most booklets is the diagram showing men trying to reach God through ethics, good works, philosophy, other religions, etc. This is completely false. The purpose of ethics, etc., according to Romans 1 is to help man escape God and suppress all knowledge of Him. Rebel-lious man never tries to reach God.
(James Jordan, HT:Mark Horne. This is an endnote in the context of positive reflection on "gospel summary" tools...)

This year we've seen very few films at the cinema. (Match Point, Syriana, Inside Man, M:I:III). This one was long awaited, and actually we had to wait an extra hour cos we decided not to book in advance and the previous screening was sold out. We got our first glimpse of the new James Bond in action and the news that Captain Jack is back (soon). And then came the film we'd been waiting for.

The story is no surprise and Ron Howard sticks close to the book. Its a classic hollywood film with big sweeping views and great settings - particularly when it comes to the Louvre. The action of course moves on fast from there to several lesser locations, before landing in some classic London spots... and along the way it feels like he's joining up lots of different films without much cohesion.

Hanks and Tautou work well in the lead roles, though it is McKellan who steals the show. Meanwhile, Bettany is pained in his flagillations as Silas, accompanied with a slightly odd accent. Reno a…

Ian Stackhouse spoke at the last Surrey CU meeting of this year, last night. I think it was the first time I'd heard him preach in person (rather than mp3), though we'd met a number of times and I loved his book on being gospel-driven as a church.

Anyways, during his talk he quoted PT Forsyth, something he does a lot in his book:..."We have churches of the nicest kindest people but who have never known the soul's despair nor its breathless gratitude..." Which is to say that as we consider the gospel we must know the misery, curse and blame we have been under due to sin - and also the unmeasured, amazing, abounding and unending grace that is ours in Jesus Christ.

Earlier I'd met with John Ross in Farnham and he'd shown me a session from Dominic Steele's Introducing God course - in it he describes sin, from Genesis 3, as a our declaration of autonomy. A very helpful term, which leads to the corruption of all our relationships with each other, this world a…

Kept for another year by the grace of God.

Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior -
Habakkuk 3v17-18
Whatever the circumstance,
Hallelujah, what a saviour.

Humbled. Amazed. Silenced. Rejoicing.

Why is life empty? Why so monotonous?
What is the point? What is success?
Why are comedians depressed? Why are the rich unhappy?
Why is the search for meaning so fruitless?
Is there any hope? Why are even Christians miserable?
Why are we dissatisfied? Why...

1. ENJOYMENT was EMPTY? (v1-11)
God tells us that our pursuit of pleasure wont ultimately satisfy... however much we gain. The Teacher ate, drank, built and shopped... and still saw his pleasure as unsatisfactory and empty.
...what hope for our materialistic culture?
...are the adverts that we're constantly exposed to just wrong?

I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself." But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, "It is mad," and of pleasure, "What use is it?" I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine--my heart still guiding me with wisdom--and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven dur…