The Centre Dural Podcast

Be Ready - Mitch Levingston

Luke 12:35-48
“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?”
The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the other servants, both men and women, and to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.
“The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
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TRANSCRIPT
That passage seems familiar. We looked at its cousin. You could say that's how theme verse of the year came from. Matthew 2445. There's one thing that I have learned in teaching is that repetition is important, and repetition is also important for our Lord, Mark said. It's a scary passages, quite confronting and challenging, and I'm going to teach us a very, very big word.
I'm sorry about that. There shouldn't be a word used outside of Bible college, but we'll say it together. Eschatology. Let's say it together. Eschatology is anyone reckon they know what eschatology is that end times? Yes, eschatology. So eschatology is end time stuff. And we're going to use this word eschatology because it includes our Lord's return heaven hell judgment.
Why? The reason I'm teaching you this word, eschatology, is because your eschatology will shape how you serve our Lord. Your eschatology will shape how we serve our Lord. If you a bit like that foolish chevron thing, master is not coming, don't have to worry too much. You don't really believe heaven or hell judgment, all that stuff. If you don't really believe in eschatology, it's going to shape how you live your life.
He. And now. That's why that big fancy word eschatology is so important. Because to be a prepared, faithful servant, you need to have very, very good eschatology. Now, what I love about this parable, Jesus is he begins off at verse 35 that says, be dressed and ready for service and keep your lamps burning. Now when I first started at the center, let me get here.
We we have two uniforms here. Okay? One of them is our very fancy office shirt that, you know, the office staff meant to wear. One of them is our sports shorts. Shirts. Now, when I first started. And in flight of the world would close on Mondays, I for a long time would often be wearing this office shirt on a Monday.
And guess who often got a knock at his office door on Monday about 1230. Say, hey Mitch, can you come help with pick up? Yeah. And so for a while there I would be packing up inflatables, dressed in this shirt wasn't the most conducive to packing up in flight of world wasn't really dressed and ready for service. So you know what happened after that happened?
A few times. Start wearing this one more and more. And in fact, sometimes you might even see me just in the sports shirt and the shorts to be ready and dressed for service, because I know that probably inevitably, at some point on a Monday, there's going to be a knock him off to say, hey, Mitch, leaving enough people for pack up, can you help us being dressed and prepared?
It's very, very important. Now, in today's passage, we use the NIV, which says be dressed and ready for service. Now in some Old English translations, it has. Here, let your loins be girded about and your lights burning. What do you think? Have your loins girded? Means I don't want to have a guess what that means? Pardon? So I was a now I.
I was a joke. Oh, so I had an answer. They went. Actually, no. It's pretty weird expression. Hey, let your loins be girded. Or if you have the new King James, let your waist be good and your lamps burning well, to gird their loins is an old expression of how you manage your robe. And then the next slide we have here.
So you going to imagine that most Middle-Eastern people wool robes like this. And so when you were getting ready to either act in war or do some sort of action, having a long robe around you, it's not very conducive for getting activities done. So how are you going to your loins? You can just fall out there on the screen.
You tuck it up tight, round you, and there you're ready. You have girded your loins. You are dressed and ready for service. Now, what is really cool, and I like to teach you guys cool little facts that, you know, off the church things I would say. You can say, well, I learned about the word eschatology. Now here's another cool little fact that we can learn this morning is that when Luke uses be dressed or ready for service or good, your loins, this isn't just some random little throwing that Jesus has used.
It's like Jesus is referring to one of the most significant moments in Israelite history where the people, too, were called to gird their loins, and it was the Passover. And since the Exodus 1211. So I've got the older English translation just to kind of keep the same girding loins, and thus shall ye eat it. That's the Passover with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and ye shall eat it in haste.
It is the Lord's Passover. And there's a more modern translation just to help out. This is how you eat it, with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. Girding your loins is a common expression used in the Old Testament to be ready for service.
But Luke here, in structuring his gospel, you can just throw it in randomly. He's actually designed the sentence structure to be identical to how the Greek version of Exodus 1211 was translated. So for the original readers, their minds immediately pick up on that. Jesus here is referring to Passover. He's alluding to that event where Israelites had to be ready, had to be ready with the.
The last one had to be ready for this moment, this moment of crisis. Another crisis was that if you hadn't prepared the Passover, you had that blood poured over the doorposts. That angel of death was going to come and take your first born son. This was a significant moment of preparation. So Jesus here deliberately alluding to the key moment in Israel's history.
Here he's pointing to a future key moment that's going to impact all of us. Like I said before, who eschatology is going to shape how you live your life. So being dressed and ready for service is so important because who knows, it could be the middle of the night when the master comes home. Jewish wedding face. They went on for days.
Who knows when the master might return. This is why you needed to be ready. Because he did not know the day or hour of return. Not just chatting about being prepared for the master's, rather in return. That's all pretty standard stuff. But here this is really interesting. So when I talk about this, I'm going to pause and we'll come back to it later.
Now if we could just pull up verse 37. Thanks, man. So you read along and Jesus says he from verse 37 says, it will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Okay, that's pretty standard. This is the amazing part. Truly, I tell you, he will dress himself to serve. He will have them recline at the table and he will come and wait on them.
Do you understand the significance of those words we're talking here? Master and slave relationships, who not only serves, who, servants serve masters, not masters, serving servants or slaves. This is remarkable. It's a remarkable passage of Scripture which is kind of just chucked in there in the middle. Now read it again, because truly, until he will dress himself to serve, they will have them recline at the table.
He will come and wait on them. No master ever, ever does this except one master, our Lord Jesus Christ. And perhaps we can think of a time, a time where Jesus does good, his loins and serves others. Can you think of that time? When he washes the disciples feet? So in a sense, yeah, we are serving a master who is our Lord, who expects a lot of us, but he also wants to give us a generous, abundant reward.
For the fact is that it's not just any old feast. We get to recline. That means this is a banquet. You only recliner banquets, and he gets your client the very best of the best of banquets. While Jesus serves us. That's amazing. It's amazing passage of Scripture. And then by coming here in Luke 12, it's point two when Jesus actually tells he's disciples directly in Luke chapter 22, verse 27, for it says, who is greater, the one who is at the table, or the one who serves is not the one at the table, but I am among you as one who serves.
Now I feel like I've been talking for a while. I actually want to give a moment for you to pause and reflect and speak to God, a particularly to as we come to the image of the faith in the night. This is, artwork here by artist. I called James B Jenkins, and he does modern retellings of parables.
So I invite you now as I just read the words of Jesus here, just to pause for a moment and see how God is speaking to you in this image, as Jesus said. But understand this if the owner of the house had known what hour the faith was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into.
So, friends, I invite you. Look at this image. Notice the shapes, the colors, the lighting, perhaps some of the details, both the foreground and the background. Is there a part that you're drawn towards?
As you sense that drawing, why do you think God drew your attention to this particular part?
Is there a part of it that conveys to your life today?
And as you reflect upon this image. There's something here that God, he feel God calling you to do. There's something in your life that needs to change. I give you a moment to reflect and pause on that.
I look at this image. It speaks so much into our modern world, doesn't it love how the artist is drawn? The moment that he he's robbed as a storm, a storm, a stormy night. We just get comfortable watching TV, and it's easy to grow complacent, Caesar. Grow complacent when it feels like our Lord isn't returning. And Peter, as in typical Peter fashion, he asked this question Lord, are you telling this parable to us or to everyone?
Jesus gives not a to us or to everyone answer. It's kind of a cryptic answer. It is to us. It's to disciples. Jesus answers answer to Peter's. Who then is the faithful and wise manager whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? How? We will spend a bit more time in banter, unpacking.
That's sort of the four different servants. There's a lot of interpretation in, I guess, church history around this. So that's a little plug there. If you haven't signed up to Mansa, if you want to listen in to kind of hear about what people think about these four different servants. But just to summarize, there's four types of servants and perhaps you can see yourself within one of them.
The first one is easy, the faithful and why servant. This servant is rewarded with authority over his master's possessions, not the second. So this is the wicked one. The one who eats and drinks and gets drunk and then thinks that actually I'm like the master and does what only a master is allowed to do is beat the fellow servants.
This one's scary. This guy's cut in tune and signed a place with the unbelievers. Now I got a couple other servants. Servant three I guess he called a neglectful servant. He's the one who, I know I should be doing this, and he gets beaten. Maybe not as badly beaten as the wicked servant servant number two. They have the final servant, the one who he so indeed neglects his responsibilities, but wasn't aware of what's expected of him, and so doesn't get as harsh of, beating stuff is.
It's scary, it's confronting. But in many ways, Jesus is using language that was very familiar to his audience. And this week I spent a lot of time studying some ancient documents, and I came across one. Okay, go on the next slide. Thanks. Which is called the Law of Light beneath from And she's not here. I'm going to I'm going to butcher this Italian.
Vitale in Italy and the law of Lavinia or the leks. Lim Liping Itani. I should say, it it we details how in the city of Liberia, how, undertakers were meant to act and how, a master could actually employ someone to dish out punishment to a unfaithful servant. And so it says, if someone privately wants to inflict punishment on a male or female servant, and the punishment must be inflicted or hollow must be inflicted in some way, what a time to come out when I'm talking about how slaves are getting beaten.
Must have inflicted in a way that has been asked for. So if he asks for the yoke and the cross, the contractor must provide the beams, the fetters, the whips for the flogging and the floggings, and each person asking for a inflicting punishment must pay for sister Sally's, which a brief Google touched, but a brief Google search told me is a one sister sister release is $0.50, so for $2 you could pay for your servant to be beaten by a professional beater.
Yeah. Why don't you go down to Mama? This was the world that Jesus lived in. This is the reality is that slaves were just a property of masters at the whim of the whips or whoever their master was. Good or evil. So Jesus, tapping into this language that his audience was very familiar with a wicked servant would be cut up, would be punished.
That was part and parcel of what happened. And the idea was at that time that if you inflict public punishment upon a servant, what do you think it's going to do? The other servants? It's going to be an example. The example I was, hey, don't misbehave. Make sure you do what the master says or something terrible is going to happen.
That's what Jesus is tapping into. He's tapping into his language. But remember two before you feel frightened and terrified and afraid and kind, I can feel this. So the duty to just be prepared for Jesus because you don't want to get whipped. Remember verse 37, friends, verse 37 changes everything. I read it there. It will be good for those servants whose master finds him there watching when he comes.
Truly I tell you, he would dress himself to serve well, have them recline at the table, and will come and wait on them. Yes, we serve Jesus, the most powerful Lord in the universe. He did not come to serve you, not come to peace of, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. As we finish today, I came across a quote from a New Testament scholar lady called Jennifer Lacy in an article called Slaves and Slavery in the Mercy and Parables.
So well, this is passage from Luke, but you get the idea here. I think it's just such a wonderful quote that we're just going to finish with this to reflect upon it says, the readers of Matthew recognize the disciplined flesh of parabolic slaves as an antique type, a model to avoid. Curiously, however, Matthew features another tortured body as a body, as a model to emulate the battered and crucified body of Jesus.
Jesus himself calls his followers to be willing to endure the sufferings of the cross in a peculiar way. The corporal punishment of disobedient slaves and the missing parables foreshadows the broken body of Jesus, ridiculed, beaten, and executed.
Let's pray now. Lord, keep us alert. We pray as we await the return of your son. So when he comes and knocks, he might find. Find us watchful in prayer and joyful in his praise. We pray now that Lord, that we address this service. We pray, Lord, that we are ready for your return. We pray that our eschatology is shaped by the reality of your return, and we don't grow complacent.
We don't think that you never coming back and just do what we want. I pray, Lord, that we addressed and ready, ready for your arrival and a joyful arrival when you come. There's that promises that you would dress yourself and serve us just as he served us. By giving up your body upon the cross for us. So I pray Jesus, you help us in this season of the life where there's so much distractions, distractions, so many seeing so many things that can keep us from being prepared.
So many people, Lord, that just seek to honor you. I pray this in the name of Jesus, Amen.

BANTER - The Rich Fool

Welcome to BANTER; the weekly podcast where we unpack Sunday's sermon. 
The boys talk about the history of charity in the Old and New Testament, how Christianity was responsible for the first international aid project in recorded history, and the dangers of our faith relying too heavily of experience.
To find out more about The Centre visit; www.thecentredural.org.au/church/ We meet at 10am every Sunday in person and online at; www.youtube.com/@centredural 

The Rich Fool - Murray Lambert

Luke 12: 13-21
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”
 
To find out more about The Centre visit; www.thecentredural.org.au/church/
We meet at 10am every Sunday in person and online at; www.youtube.com/@centredural 
 
TRANSCRIPT
 
Morning, church. How are we doing this morning? So, have you ever read a Bible passage and just kind of sat there and been honest with yourself?
And so I kind of disagree. I kind of disagree because I'm going to say something be crazy here, but I'm kind of on the rich, full side. Just putting it out there. I mean, like, what did the rich Phil actually do? He, like, was just an honest wheat farmer. Right? Just working his, you know, day in, day out, year in, year out.
He was blessed with an abundant crop. And then he saved as like. Isn't saving a good thing? I mean, this guy works year in, year out through years of drought is a flood. Years of plague. You know, he didn't it say at any point come across this bumper crop unfairly or or unethically? It doesn't say that he mistreated his workers.
I mean, I mean, I'm kind of on this guy's side. I mean, he's just a hard working farmer. He's had a hard life. You know, he finally is blessed with this thing, and he's just shows some business ingenuity. Really. He's not what he does. He just invests in the future. I mean, you know, just puts a bit aside for his kids, for maybe his wife.
Maybe he finally takes her on that cruise that's been looking at us all these years. Now you really got to critique a farmer. The person who puts wheat bakes and bread on your table every morning. Like, shame on you. It's. I'm struggling to shame this poor, hard working farmer. I'm on the rich side personally. Doesn't this sound sort of justifiable to us?
Doesn't this sound pretty normal? Just a hardworking farmer who worked really hard was blessed with a bumper crop and said, I know what I'll do. I'll knock down the old barns a bit to new ones. Pop it in, you beauty. And then God says, tonight, you going to die. Tonight you're going to die. And all of your money is going to go to your wife and kids.
I mean, isn't that sort of the Australian dream? Like nose down, work hard, get a little nest egg, put a little in super, save a bit for your kids when you die. What do you do wrong? Well, a bit confused, but somehow I don't think the the original listeners of this would have been confused because see, what's really interesting is they were operating from a very different culture around what it meant to be rich amount, what it meant to be generous around what it meant to give charity to those who were poor and in need.
I think of Proverbs, for instance, Proverbs 1125 to 26. One person gives freely, yet gains even more. Another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper. Whoever refreshes others will be refreshed. And here's the kicker. People curse the one who holds grain, but they pray God's blessing on the one who is willing. So why is Joseph all the way back in Genesis, if you remember, lauded as righteous for hoarding a bunch of grain in Egypt and yet this poor fella is dragged over hot coals for just filling up two barns.
I mean, I'm pretty sure that the grain that Joseph was hoarding in Egypt was a bit more than two barns. How is one righteous and another is foolish? Maybe it has something to do about the intention behind why Joseph was stockpiling grain. He was stockpiling it so that he could help out others who are in need. He was being discerning with God.
He was seeking God's voice very clearly through dreams that Pharaoh was being given. And then he was carefully administering grain to those in need. But you might be saying, well, hold on, doesn't the rich fool quote Ecclesiastes in Luke 1217 to 19 he says, you have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life, eat, drink, and be merry.
Isn't that Ecclesiastes 815 I hear you all saying, eat, drink, and be merry. You know what I'm realizing? I'm realizing that some of the enemy's greatest lies are misquoted. Scripture. Some of the enemy's greatest lies. A misquoted scripture, completely misquoted or completed, slightly out of context because ultimately this rich fool uses my and I ten times in three verses in Luke 1217 to 19, which to us in a sort of very individualistic, self centric culture you like.
Yeah, fair. But for Jesus's first listeners, they would have been going, you selfish fool, you are so self-absorbed. My my my I, I because their natural thought was for the other. It's a very different worldview. I won't call a sermon prepared to be generous. Prepared to be generous. Why, when God had been so generous to the rich full, had he decided to stockpile his weight?
And as we're continuing this series, I think it's really important to recognize that the obvious and simplistic answer to this passage is don't be greedy. Be more generous. Right. Thanks, guys. I'll see you next week. So that is an oversimplification of this, and I think it's really unhelpful. And it's not actually the point that Jesus is making completely because you say, I think in our modern culture, we focus a lot on individual sin, which is a real thing and something that we need to be mindful of and considerate of.
But we don't think much about corporate sin, about the sin of the society in which we are, in a society which is inherently capitalistic and greedy and excess in their consumption. And so it's really hard to come to this parable and understand it in our modern terms, because we're sort of caught on this wheel of excessive consumption. It's something that, two scholars, Brickman and Campbell, noted all the way back in the 70s.
They called it the demonic treadmill. And on this next slide, you'll say it was this phenomenon that they experience all the way back in the 70s. It's not brand new that the more people attained, the more material wealth that people accumulated. Happy at. No, not the happy life became. The more they decide, more wealth and the more wealth accumulate, the more they desire, and the more they accumulate, the more they desire, and the faster the wheels spun, the faster they run and the faster they run, the faster the wheel spins.
All the while, increased happiness is forever unattainable. That they saw no increase in happiness. In these people who continue to accumulate more and more things. The hydronic treadmill. This idea that the more you accumulate, the fallacy that people are running on this treadmill for is that they'll be happier, that they'll have increased happiness. When Brickman Campbell just felt it really plateaued from their studies.
The hedonic treadmill asks the question how much is enough? And depressingly, answers when it comes to the human heart. It's never enough. It's never enough. Ecclesiastes five 1011 actually addresses this issue, although it tells us to eat, drink and be merry. Enjoy our time on this lot, on this world, while we've got it. It also says whoever loves money never has enough.
Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless. I love this as goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owners except to feast their eyes on them? The more that we eat, the more our stomach stretches and the more our stomach stretches, the more food we need.
So how do we get off this treadmill? How do we get off the hedonic treadmill? Because I think that it's too simple to just say, just stop being greedy and be more generous. If you went to a doctor and said, doc, I am insatiable, I am starving. No matter how much I eat, I cannot eat enough food. I eat and I eat and I eat and I'm still hungry.
Be a pretty rubbish doctor. If you said I've seen this before. I know what you need to do. Stop being hungry. That'd be pretty unhelpful, right? Because just like chicken pox. Although we say the symptom on the surface of little red spots and itchy skin, the virus is deep underneath in the skin. And this is actually what Jesus is doing in this passage that comes after in the parable, he presents the symptom grade in the passage.
Afterwards, he actually starts to explain the underlying illness. So he says the symptom is great, but it's not the illness itself. And we know that these two passages are connected because the first word in the next passage is a really important one, that if you ever say it in Scripture, especially in the New Testament, that even in the old, you should really pay attention.
Therefore, Jesus set up the situation of the rich fool and then he says therefore, oh, okay, Jesus. So you've presented a problem, and now maybe you're going to present some kind of solution. What's the solution? I hear he'll ask. Let's read it. Luke 12 2226 he says, therefore, straight after the parable of the rich fool, he says, do not worry about your life, what you eat or about your body, what you will wear for life is more than food and the body more than clothes.
Consider the ravens. They do not so or reap. They have no storeroom or barn. Interesting choice to include storing Melbourne at that point. Maybe referring to the parable he's just told, yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds who have you by worrying. Can add a single hour to your life. Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
Who, by worrying about their lives, could add a single hour? In fact, probably not that radical of a statement. I would say that filling your life with stress and anxiety is probably going to save hours of your life, not add hours to your life. It's probably an unhelpful thing if you want to live a long life, to be constantly stressed and anxious.
So he says, therefore, do not worry, do not worry. He explores the underlying illness of greed as anxiety, anxiety, specifically financial anxiety. So all we need to do, guys, is overcome financial anxiety. Great. I'll see you next week. No worries. That's easier said than done, isn't it? That's easier said than done. Just overcome any anxiety you feel about your financial needs, about your material possessions.
Just don't worry about it. It'll be fine. Because the reality is, when we are swimming in a sea of anxiety, we are going to desperately cling on to anything, whether it's a mortgage being paid off or a shopping trolley full of toilet paper. That's what we saw during Covid. That's what it taught us, right? That amidst the panic and justified anxiety of Covid, a real situation in which our lives were actually in an increased danger, people grabbed on to toilet paper like it was a lifeboat in the middle of a water.
Like, what were they doing? I mean, I personally remember getting down to the last few toilet rolls and being, oh, starting to get the sweats. I'm worrying, what are we going to do? How are we going to get through Covid without toilet paper? We might have to buy a bidet. I mean, it takes a whole new expression to take a trip to the throne.
If we go back to sitting on a big throne of toilet paper in your house. And then what happened was, ultimately, people started to realize that all of this treasure that they'd been hoarding throughout Covid was suddenly worthless because as the anxiety of Covid started to dissipate, people realized this treasure that they'd been stockpiling. They couldn't even sell back to the shops.
This rich fool who hoarded $10,000 worth of toilet paper and sanitizer during Covid. I mean, I can't even get my head around how much toilet paper and hand sanitizer that might be. Even at increased Covid rates. Literally, the shopping center wouldn't buy it back from him, and he was stuck with a treasure trove of toilet paper and hand sanitizer and really post anxiety that it was all worthless.
This is our human condition and Jesus knows this full well and that's what he's speaking into. So he gives us an answer. He says, do not worry. And I love this verse. Luke 1232 he continues, do not be afraid, little flock, for your father has been pleased to give you his kingdom. He's saying, guys, God has already given you the kingdom of heaven.
What more do you need? You are already princes and princesses in the kingdom of heaven. You have inherited an eternal kingdom, an eternal treasure. He says, don't be afraid, little flock. He calls us his little flock, which makes him our big shepherd. He's going to provide for us. Who's going to care for us? He's going to generously is above and beyond what we need.
This is what King David writes in Psalm 23. I'm sure most of you know it. The Lord is my shepherd. I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil for you.
With me, your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely your goodness and your love will follow me all the days of my life. And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. C once we truly understand that we worship a God of abundance who anoints our head with oil and fills our cup up so much that it overflows.
It's not until we really tap into the truth of that, that we can be radically generous in the way that Jesus is calling us to be. What do I mean by that love that he calls us his little flock and tells us to not worry, and tells us how he's given us the kingdom of heaven? He says, sell your possessions and give to the poor.
Provide purses for yourself that will not wear out a treasure in heaven that will never fail. When no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also sell your possessions and give to the poor. Not a Bible verse I see a lot of people getting tattooed on their back. Sell your possessions and give to the poor.
Not most people's favorite memory. Verse. I don't know if any of you have is your password on your online banking? It's usually not one that we talk about a lot. But this is what Jesus is calling us into as the God who came down from heaven onto earth and gave up his very life for us. He's calling us to enter a posture where we're willing to sacrifice pleasure and comfort, and maybe even sometimes a sense of security so that we can support those who are in need, support those who are in greater need than us.
And this is radical, like, it's pretty radical. I mean, who's ever considered selling their TV so they could give more money to charity? Who's ever considered selling the extra cash so they like it's pretty radical to sell your possessions. The things I already have and give to the poor. But you know what's really interesting? It probably would have been less radical for the people who originally heard it, because first century Jews who would have been part of Jesus's listeners, the, you know, entire culture that Jesus came out of being a Jew himself every year that gave 10% to the Levitical priests in the temple, they'd give another 10% towards the festival feasts.
So the the poor and the widows and the orphans could enjoy and partake in this festival together. All of these big seven Jewish festivals throughout the year, and then every third year, another 10% towards the poor and the widows and the orphans. If you include the sort of year of jubilee every seventh year where they wouldn't tithe, it evens out to about 20% a year, 20%.
Now, the New Testament doesn't specify any percentage for us to give, and I think that's for good reason. I think that's wise. But what I'm saying is, does this knowledge change your perception about the generosity of God? Does this information change your perception about maybe how generous God wants us to be? Because as I said in two Corinthians nine seven, Paul is talking about giving money to charity doesn't give a percentage.
He says, each of you should give what you've decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. Church generosity was one of the first signs of the early church. Once the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost, the church sold their possessions and shared what they had with one another. Now, this is radical, this is countercultural, and this is very difficult.
And what I don't want us to do today is to walk away and go, well, I'm never going to be able to do that. I mean, have you seen how tight my friend on this is? All I can barely afford to give what I'm already giving. I can't get any more. Like, how am I supposed to be more generous?
How am I supposed to give 20? I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is maybe take an opportunity this week to just look at your finances again, to look at your assets again, and not like the rich fool making a decision by your own wisdom. But like Joseph, seeking God's wisdom, say, how do I want to manage my finances this year so I can prepare to be more generous?
Because God loves a cheerful giver? Let us pray. God, I just want to thank you that you have given us everything we need, that you've given us the Kingdom of heaven and that Jesus you call us your little flock. So, Lord, I just want to pray first and foremost for the people in this room who are experiencing genuine anxiety over their finances right now.
God, I pray that in the same way that you bless that rich fool with a bumper crop for no striving or earning of his own, that you would bless people in this congregation who are genuinely financially struggling with a bumper God. I pray that that would be through the provision of your Holy Spirit, through the generosity of those around them, and through the generosity of our church.
When people are in need. Because God, that's what you call us to be. You call us to be generous to those who are in need. In Jesus. We recognize that you gave up the ultimate offering of your entire life for us on a cross. And God, I just pray that we can continue to tap into that. As Holy Spirit.
You work in our hearts to continue to challenge us in how we can not just be more generous, but more cheerful. When we do give God, we give this time to you. We are clay in your hands. Form us into your likeness. And I pray that as we continue to move into this year, that we would even more so be known as a church who are generous, who are radically generous above and beyond.
Because, Jesus, you were radically generous to us first Jesus name, Amen.
 

BANTER - The Pharisee & The Tax Collector

Welcome to BANTER; the weekly podcast where we unpack Sunday's sermon. 
Mitch & Murray chat about the theology 1st century Jews held around the temple, the importance of empathy when reading about the Pharisees, and the role self-reflection and humiliation have in humility.
To find out more about The Centre visit; www.thecentredural.org.au/church/ We meet at 10am every Sunday in person and online at; www.youtube.com/@centredural 

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector - Mitch Levingston

Luke 18:9-14
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
 
To find out more about The Centre visit; www.thecentredural.org.au/church/
We meet at 10am every Sunday in person and online at; www.youtube.com/@centredural 
 
TRANSCRIPT
 
Hey, welcome to the Center podcast. We're a church based in Dural, Sydney, who loves Jesus. And so want to make him the center of our lives, community and world. We pray that you, blessed by this word and that it reveals God's love for you in a new way.
oh, Christians are hypocrites. I'm not making that up. It's actually a statistic. Mccrindle research. They did some they interviewed about 1000 people back in 2017. We just have that up there on the screen and you might not be able to see it there. But see this at the bottom right there. It says top five blockers.
At number two, a 47% of people surveyed was hypocrisy. There's a perception out there that Christians are hypocrites, whether that's right or wrong. So actually, something that our Lord speaks a lot into Scripture speaks a lot about the value of humility, about not being a proud person. And part of, I guess, our vision for this year about being prepared, being prepared to serve our Lord and Savior.
Last week we we looked at the preparation for having unanswered prayer that that's a reality we're going to face today and look at preparation for becoming humble. Some Benedict in his teaching. He had this. He had had it 12 steps, which we'll look at later in the services. Some practical application. But he had 12 steps on how to be humble.
And he used this image from Psalm 131, verse two of just as a child, like a baby infant, needs nourishment from its mother in order to have life. So it's like us. In order to have life, we need to humbly sit under the Lord. That is first step is this idea of fearing God. Fear God first and foremost, and that will keep you humble.
Mentioned before Jesus spoke a lot about humility and humbleness about those who exalt themselves will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be exalted. And so we come into this very famous parable, the Pharisee and the tax collector. And just to help kind of orientate ourselves into how Luke has put this little parable in his overall gospel message in, in the surrounding chapters around it, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and his way to Jerusalem.
He encounters ten lepers and he heals them. Only one of those lepers comes back and thanks him. Can anyone guess who that was? They might know who it was a Samaritan. Yeah, okay. Oh, okay. That's meant to be a bit of, like, I guess, a trigger for someone that's unusual. Samaritan Samaritans. Something people they don't do. Righteous acts.
Jesus explains to that on the signs of his arrival, which we looked at in our first week, about the signs about preparation, about, you know, signs in the stars and the moon turning black and all those kind of horrible things. Jesus actually says, if you want to save your life, you need to lose it. It's a strange kind of reversal there.
In fact, immediately after this parable, Jesus goes and blesses children and tells us they listening. So, hey, if you want to enter the kingdom of heaven, you need to be like this little child. And so Luke's putting this parable here deliberately, intentionally so that we are getting it just kind of shoved in our faces. Hey, if you want to enter into the kingdom of God, you need to be very, very different.
You cannot be a Pharisee now. So you and I as Christians, and we know the Pharisees are the bad guys. We don't have issues with this. When we read this parable, we mean like, the Pharisee. That's the bad one. And the tax collectors, the good one. But before we jump ahead, I have just some just want to heed.
Take this morning from commentator Kenneth Bailey, has this quote here on the screen for us. And it says here, oh, maybe I didn't put in, but this is the quote that he says, but then it says, here is thank God we are not like that Pharisee. That definitely didn't put that quote. And that's okay. But you can remember that Kenneth Bailey's warning for us is not for us to say thank God we are not like that Pharisee.
Isn't that kind of what we do? We probably read this parable, and that's probably our natural inclination is to think, well, I'm not like that. I'm not self righteous like that. I don't do these religious duties like that at all. And Bailey's warning for us, so I think is really helpful, is that if we think that if we think, oh, thank God I'm not like that Pharisee, then ironically, we're exactly like that Pharisee.
And illustrating the point that Jesus is making in this parable. Pride comes in all forms, can be through religious actions, or perhaps it's through religious in action. Pride with everything that we can gain our own righteousness, our own justification through our own efforts. Now, I mentioned before that for Jesus original audience, the the clear hero is the Pharisee and the clear villain is the tax collector.
Now, let me read that text that that that Pharisees prayer. We think this is quite what it seems very proud, like it seems horrible to us. He says, God, I thank you. I'm not like other people robbers, evil doers, adulterous, or even this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a 10th of all I get. And when we read that, I think, oh, that's terrible.
So I have a prayer to pray. So the problem for us is that's how often Jews would pray. Now, I definitely have this quote on the screen. This is a quote here from Rabbi Judah. Now, this was written sort of a little bit after Jesus was around. But the idea is the same is that this is what Rabbi Judah would write.
He wrote this in a book called the Talmud, which is a group, a set of Jewish writings. And he says, one must utter three praises every day. Praise be the Lord. He did not make me a heathen. That's like a Gentile. For all heathens are nothing before him. Praise be he the did. Don't make me a woman.
For woman is not under the obligation to fulfill the law. Praise be he, he did not make me an uneducated man. So let's now I sang like a sinner. For for the uneducated man is not cautious to avoid sins. This is coming from rabbis. This was sort of the standard operating practice in Israel for us to say. You'd say, Thank God I'm not like this.
The Pharisees prayer would seem totally normal. This is what you did. You thank God. I thank God I'm not a Gentile. Thank God I'm not a woman. Thank God I'm not an uneducated person who doesn't know Torah.
This is what Jesus is coming to do, is destroy this, destroy this attitude, this attitude of proud self righteousness and to be humble. It's interesting, the Pharisee that mentioned that he fasts twice a week. God only prescribed one fasts per year, and that was on Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement. Only one time a year I like.
Yeah, sure, fasting is a great spiritual discipline to be involved in. There came this practice in the Jews to fast every Monday and every Thursday. So in our story, we have to just kind of pretend that we're Cheese's original audience. This guy here is praying the prayers that were normal. He's doing the actions that was seen as normal.
I think for us, we just can't understand the horror and the disgust that Jews had towards tax collectors. Like, I was just trying to find the equivalent in our time. I just don't think we haven't, like, just think of, like, the enemy of the state. Someone who betrayed you. Someone who gave every scrap of Jewish identity to take taxes for the Romans.
Tax collectors were just seen as the scum of the earth. And Jesus done this deliberately to be provocative. That's why Luke has it sort of put in there in between these stories of a Samaritan coming to say thank you, Jesus of Jesus blessing little children and reminding his followers, hey, if you want to save your life, you actually need to lose it.
This is part of the upside down values of the Kingdom and the tax collectors. Just his posture and what he does is quite remarkable. So what would happen is, is when you came in to pray, this was sort of the posture of prayer. And we and we'll say, people do this in worship. You, you raise your arms up to heaven and your idea is you look up, you look up towards God because the idea is that God is in heaven.
Okay, so how's that? You have an arms race up, lift your eyes up towards heaven, towards God's domain. Now let's just say this tax collector does says he would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Now this beating of breast, can you guess which gender normally did that?
Was it a man or was it a woman? 5050? What do you think, man? I think it's a an action that a man would do. A woman would do him. Men. Not women. Women, only women at funerals. This is what females do. When I was reading through Kenneth Bailey's book, he said, I've only seen he lived in Middle East for 40 years.
He said, only have seen men beat their breasts once in the entire time he lived in the Middle East. And he said it was, we Shiite Muslims were now reenacting the death of Prophet Ali. So that's the only time he's seen it. This reenactment of the death of Ali, who is meant to be the son in law of Muhammad.
This is not something that men do. Men do not beat their breast, is what women do at funerals. And Jesus point here is, like I said, it's meant to be provocative. Is the villain. The tax collector is here. Kevin is standing by himself, which I forgot to mention is people prayed. Like any community communal. He's here by himself.
I doubt I even look up to God and beating his breast just like females would do at funerals. It's meant to be this vast contrast between the pious Pharisee praying, thank you God, I'm not like this. It's the man that's looking down and beating himself. I'm like, he's humiliating himself in some ways. And the assumption would be, yeah, well, of course the Pharisee is the one who is justified.
But Jesus response is, I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Here's a scandal. That's kind of the nature of the gospel. I think, too, like going back to Kenneth Bailey. But his warning for us is that we automatically see the Pharisee go, oh, thank God, I like that's heresy.
I thank God I'm not like that type of person. Do a lot of a character. We are. If we hold in pride, those chains tell us, hey, if you proud, you're going to be humbled. Therefore humble yourself. You will be exalted. The other cool thing and mine. I probably talk about this a bit, Umberto, if you know what the answer is.
It's our weekly podcast. We talk about the passage a little bit more in depth. We'll talk about this a bit more, but I'll give you a little teaser. Is that what's what's kind of interesting from I guess, a forgiveness point of view is that the, the, the, the, text, by bearing his breath, saying, Lord, have mercy on me.
There's no indication of a sacrifice being offered, because the time of day that they've gone to is the afternoon, the time of prayer, where there would be a sacrifice being offered. People don't say, hey, like there's no actual like under. Like there's no description of a sacrifice being offered to justify this man, which is pointing to something deeper.
That Jesus is the one to bring justification, that the kingdom of God is changing. How people encounter God, how people find forgiveness. So I'll just leave that there. And if you want to learn more, tune into better about that. But as I said at the beginning of this little talk, a lot of people think Christians are hypocrites.
47% of those surveyed said that this was number two of the top five blockers. So while I would not be interested in faith, that's all not doom and gloom. Friends. These people who were surveyed, 16% said seeing people live out of genuine faith is an attractor to spirituality. And so while we've just talking a lot about the need to be humble and not to have pride in us, well, how can we do that?
And hopefully today I can give you just some tools, some tools that you can take or leave to help in your journey to live out Jesus words of living as humble people who don't exalt themselves. So if we can just have the screen. Thanks, Jeremy. Pitch of a lot of there it is. So I mentioned earlier, Saint Benedict in here, the role of Saint Benedict.
He had 12 steps for how to be humble and all for peace, because there I took those 12 steps and made it into an eight step ladder. Hopefully you can kind of see that on the screen. And actually he's part of small groups this week. If you have the small group study, you have an opportunity to kind of work through this as a group.
If you're not part of the small group, you can work through this by yourself. But I'll just go through this briefly each step and how this is, it's just a tool. It's not the be all and end all, but it's a way to help orientate yourself. And so step one is for God and be mindful of him. It's a great first start.
Hey, if I'm actually fearing God and aware of his presence in my life, that's actually gonna help me in some of the decisions that I make, what I will do or won't do. And so that's the first step. Step to doing God's will. Not our own will or not. Others will, but God's will. Following what he says. Step three willing to subject ourselves to the directions of others.
Oh, that's a big one. And are we free to give up our arrogance and all power ness, open to accepting God's will as it comes through others? That's that's a that's a huge step. It's like to wrestle from maybe in a modern world, a manager, a boss, maybe even a police officer telling how fast or not fast we should be going.
That's that's just an example of that step for patient to accept the difficulties of others. Oh, man, I hate that one. I hate that completely. That's three small children. I'll just leave it there. I sometimes very, very difficult and I work with lots of I don't work with that many difficulties. But we're surrounded by difficult people in life, aren't we?
No. Hey, that's good, that's good. You know, thing on us. There you go. Step five. Radical honesty to all of us about our weaknesses and faults. If you can find it in your life, I'd highly recommend this. And, hey, I'm willing, even if you want to use me, willing to do it. That. Find someone that you can just share.
Have a friend, an anchor in your life. Someone you can just speak to about how you're just tracking with the Lord, or not tracking me radically honest to others about your weaknesses. Step six is deeply aware of being chief of all sinners. It's Apostle Paul's language, dude. I wouldn't think of the Apostle Paul as a chief of all sinners.
But yeah, there's this recognition that actually I'm more sinful than those around me. And you can see what Paul's doing here, because we're not taking on the attitude of like, look at that text letter. Look at that Pharisee. I'm so much better. I'm worse than then. That keeps you humble. Step seven. This is a big one for the monks, which I never really understood.
I read Bendix, it talks so much about not speaking well. But get this. But actually, the more I speak, the more I recognize. Actually, it's good not to speak. So step seven purposeful to speak less based off Chase. Hey, everyone should be what I to speak quick to listen. Control your tongue. You have wisdom. That's what step seven is so important.
And step eight transformed into the love of God and not being haughty, not being sarcastic, not putting people down. So that's just there's some steps there. And that's a tool at all. You can choose or not choose to use this to help us walk on that step of obedience. And the second tool that I have, it comes from, I've mentioned X men before, but if you if you weren't here for that or forgotten the X-Men, this is the you can type this into the the App Store or the Play Store X I mean, and that's the, the logo, the little the little clouds.
And the X is an exercise made by Ignatius of Loyola just to help reflect upon your day and how you seen God moving in your life, and how you have responded to different situations. And the excellent app has a whole bunch of different exercises. And this is exercise number 13, and I won't go through it all in depth because you can find them yet.
But this is actually probably one of my favorites because deeply confronting and sometimes I don't like to confront things in my life. And you go through your thoughts, your words and your deeds. It's that ten minute, 15 minute little exercise. And so you just ask God to reveal your thoughts of the day, and you ask some of those questions, and then usually you can think of a thought.
You had it like, oh man, yeah, that's the first thought that comes to my mind. Does it bring us closer to God or doesn't it? Angel that was a word you dealt with. It did. That's a way to just become more aware of. Oh yeah. Great. Yes. I'm a throw this thing about someone no one else is going to know about that I really may and God.
But when you start to become aware of that, it's very, very humbling. And what I love about the exercising just jump on to next slide. Thanks, Jeremy. It says now I look to tomorrow what thoughts and attitude do I desire to hold tomorrow? And it's really, really good to do this Christmas before you know you have a difficult meeting or you're going to see someone that rubs in the wrong way because you can something about that and ask the Lord, you know what deeds of love and reform to cold or make some sort of resolution.
Hi friends. These are not silver bullets. Hey sir, just tools, but there tools to help us not all of us, myself included, here to walk in humility, to not be like that Pharisee and to be proud and think, well, thank God I'm not like this and go, I'm not like her or him, but to humble ourselves, to walk in the footsteps of our master who came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Now, as I finish, I found a lovely prayer, from the Christian tradition. It's called a Christian prayer for the virtue of humility. And the author here is not known. So as I pray this song invite, right? And the band back up, let's pray these words. May the Lord help us to walk. Walk in this way, Lord Jesus, when he walked the earth, your humility skewered your kingship.
He'll make this confused. The arrogant, hindering them from grasping your purpose, your nobleness, attending to the destitute. Teach me to model after your example, to subject my human nature to humility. Grant with me a natural inclination to never, ever view myself greater than anyone. Banish all the sparks of self-importance that you that could elevate me. To think I'm greater than you.
Let my heart always imitate your humility. Amen.
Thanks so much for joining us. Don't forget to write and subscribe to help others discover this channel. Check out the description if you want to find out more or get in touch with us at the center. Gerald. But in the meantime, praying for God's hand over you as you continue to step into everything Jesus has in store for your life.
Be blessed.

BANTER - The Persistent Widow

Welcome to BANTER; the weekly podcast where we unpack Sunday's sermon. 
What does it look like to pray persistently? What does it look like to pray faithfully? How do historical insights into widows and judges in 1st century Middle East enrich this parable? All these answers and more will are answered in the latest episode of BANTER
To find out more about The Centre visit; www.thecentredural.org.au/church/ We meet at 10am every Sunday in person and online at; www.youtube.com/@centredural 

The Persistent Widow - Mitch Levingston

"And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly."(Luke 18:7-8)
To find out more about The Centre visit; www.thecentredural.org.au/church/ We meet at 10am every Sunday in person and online at; www.youtube.com/@centredural 

BANTER - Vision Sunday - Prepared

Welcome to BANTER; the weekly podcast where we unpack Sunday's sermon. 
Mitch and Murray share around where The Centre is heading in 2025 as they reflect on this year's vision word of "Prepared".
Free e-book for Ancient Disciple Makinghttps://www.emotionallyhealthy.org/ancient/ 
To watch back our 2025 Vision Sunday Service visithttps://www.youtube.com/live/eC6USFu-AQA 
To find out more about The Centre visit; www.thecentredural.org.au/church/ We meet at 10am every Sunday in person and online at; www.youtube.com/@centredural 

What is God's Purpose for Music? - Drew Taylor

Drew is currently completing his final year of study at The Conservatorium of Music in Sydney and has been involved in worship bands for many years. 
He looks to biblical precedents, music history, and his personal experience to help answer the question "What is God's purpose for music?"
To find out more about The Centre visit; www.thecentredural.org.au/church/ We meet at 10am every Sunday in person and online at; www.youtube.com/@centredural 

BANTER - The Origin of Satan pt. 3

This week's episode delves into the Nephilim mentioned in Genesis 6 and examines three main perspectives on their identity. Exploring passages from the New Testament and Jewish writings to unpack how our understanding of the Nephilim relates to the message of Jesus and his mission to rescue us from our sin. 

How is Christianity NOT a Cult? - Murray Lambert

How is Christianity NOT a Cult? It's a question many have asked and yet many Christians don't have a good answer.
Murray presents 3 ways that Christianity isn't a cult. He also opens it up to the congregation to share their own thoughts, because after all, allowing independent thought in a strong basis for Christianity NOT being a Cult.
To find out more about The Centre visit; www.thecentredural.org.au/church/ We meet at 10am every Sunday in person and online at; www.youtube.com/@centredural 

Just Show Up - Colin Jaques

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. (Ephesians 2:8-10)
To find out more about The Centre visit; www.thecentredural.org.au/church/ We meet at 10am every Sunday in person and online at; www.youtube.com/@centredural