Who Deserves Praise? | 1st of February 2026 | Ross Wilson

We are going to spend some time in a moment praying and reading the Bible, but we're going to be praying I think this morning for what's going on with Chris here. Hello, Chris. Last week we heard about Uni Connect and we got you here because you're the one we talked about last week. So hello. Just about me. Just about you. Well, you and Kate, of course. And all the students and everything that you do. That's right. So that's a bit of an injection. Tell us a little bit Chris, who are you and what do you do? Yeah, yeah. So my wife and I, Kate, we work with Uni students with an organization called the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students, the AFES, not ages or anything else, AFES. And think of us basically like Missionary University. I'm going to train Uni students to take the Gospel to their friends and learn those skills for your whole life. Yeah. It's basically it. That's awesome. Now, you guys, we have Gospel Partners here at Southside, we're in partnership with you guys. And last week, we talked about an event happening Uni Connect. So can you tell us a little bit about what this event is and why we do it? Yeah, sure. So Uni Connect, it's basically if you're going to Uni or if you know someone going to Uni next year, this is the event where you can meet your AFES group before you start Uni. Why would you connect before you start Uni? I'll give you two reasons that aren't my main reason first. So you can kind of listen to these but you know, first, it's not because just because you'll make friends before you start. One of the hardest things when you start Uni is going, everyone looks calm on the surface. They're actually panicking underneath when they wear their best shirt and things to Uni. Having friends is kind of one of those things that helps settle you when you start Uni knowing where stuff is, where to study. Do I need to buy my books or not that kind of stuff? Having friends when you start huge, it's not that. It's not because joining an AFES group will help you grow as a Christian. It can make some of your days at Uni the best, some of the best days in your life for Jesus. And I tell you to come. The main reason I want to tell you to come, if you're going to Uni for your first year next year, or you know someone going to Uni, it's because you're at Uni for more than a degree. God's put you at Uni for more than a degree. The degree is not the main reason you're there. It's Jesus. Jesus is the main reason that you're there. So I'd say, if you're going to Uni this next year, I'd be asking you, is there a better way you can think about making your time at Uni, your short time at Uni more use for Jesus than connecting with other Christians to try and make Jesus known. That's the reason I've been encouraging you to come. It's at Anne Street, Prezi, let me see if I can get this right. On the 9th of February, and it starts at 2pm, it's free for first years. Yeah, awesome. And you've got, do we have some information about that? I've got a slide. If you, Uni Connect basically is a room full of people on the surface. You'll play some games. You'll hear a bit from students that have gone before you. There's a link to register if you want. But essentially, if you go to any of the Queensland Unis, come along, taste and see, hear from students of what it's like to be in a group like ours on campus. There's one at UQQT, the Sunny Coast, Griffith, wherever you're going, we'll plug you in. Yeah. Awesome. We love the work that you guys are doing. We love, yeah, I think that's such a good encouragement that if our life is centered on Jesus, we want to make all things about him. That's great. Chris will be around after the service. We'll chuck that maybe after the service as well if you need that QR code. Chris, you guys are also a part of our congregation, part of that church as well, and so we thought we'd ask you if you could pray for us and then read the Bible. I'm going to do that. Awesome. Thanks, brother. Thanks, Ben. We'll pray first and then we're going to read from Acts 12, so let's pray together. Our Father in Heaven, we praise you as the sovereign Lord, the one whose will reigns over everything. You made all things to speak your praises and to reflect your glory, and it often, we know that we don't do this. Your glory often isn't our goal. Our ambition can be for other things to show our glory and our greatness instead of yours. And so Father in this, we know that we rebel against you. And so we come asking for your forgiveness, and yet we know that your power is not diminished by our rebellion. And so we thank you, Father, that you are sovereign, even over hearts like ours, to change and to cleanse us from loving ourselves to loving you, from serving ourselves to serving you, from speaking of our greatness to speaking of yours. And so Father, we pray as a church day, but especially for our young people, our youth, our kids that are starting today, especially for all of them today, as they begin a new year. We pray it would be one where we're living for you. Preserve them from ambition for self, but we pray instead you would fill them with a desire to know you and to make you known. Guard them Father like you do us from fears, but instead we pray that you would help this year to be powerfully used for the most formative years in their life for Jesus. And we thank you Father, that we don't do this alone, but you've made us to do this together. So we ask Father, "Spurus on, spirit hearts on in that wonderful desire to speak, instead of our greatness of your true greatness, now and tomorrow as you will in all of eternity." Amen. If you open your Bibles, it might be up on the screen, Acts 12, we're going to read from Acts 12. I'm just going to flick there, we're starting at verse 1, Acts 12, verse 1, "It was about this time that King Herod arrested some of those who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the festival unleavened bread. After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover, and so Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains, and the sentries stood guard at the entrance. And suddenly an angel of a Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up quick, "Get up," he said, and the chains fell off Peter's wrists. And the angel said to him, "Put on your clothes and your sandals," and Peter did so. "Rap your cloak around you and follow me," the angel told him. So Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea what the angel was doing, was really happening. He thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading into the city. He'd opened for them by itself, and they went through it. And they had walked the length of one street suddenly, the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, "Now I know without a doubt that the Lord had sent this angel to rescue me from Herod's clutches, and from everything that Jewish people were hoping would happen." When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark, when many people had gathered and were praying. Good morning, everyone. It's a great passage, a great story, whether you're familiar with it or not, we're going to be looking at a little bit earlier in the story, that story, and a little bit what happens afterwards, what happens next. Because we are in a series in Acts. We've kicked it off during January, but now we are starting, our growth groups are going to be meeting this week, and talking about the passages that we talk about on Sundays. So if you're a part of a growth group, or even if you're not, and you want to follow on, do some reading through the questions, there's growth group books in the foyer. Make sure you grab one of those. If you're a growth group leader, grab a few extras for those in your group as well. That would be helpful. I'm going to pray now that God will help us to not only understand this passage better, but what does it mean for us today? But God speak to us. Let's pray. Dear Father God, thank you for what you reveal, the way you reveal yourself to us, particularly through your word. And through these stories, Lord, they're more than stories, that's how you work in the world. It's a lot of pray that you would be showing us, show our hearts, Lord, the true Lord and King who's in control of everything. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. The last year I was able to speak at a youth camp called Funnard Adventure Camp, and at the start of a camp, 160 kids, the MC gave me the heads up, he was going to ask me a few, get to know you type questions so they can get to know who's this guy giving the Bible talks. But he says, "I'm not going to tell you what they are. I don't want you to rehearse them. I want you to say first thing that comes to your mind." Sure. So up the front, and I'm also aware, this was first impressions for everybody that, you know, what you say is really important, that you want a good impression. But he says, "Okay. If there was a book written about you, what would it be called?" "Oh, that's a deep question." So first thing that comes to my mind, Ross, the great disappointment, killed all the energy in the room, I think. He was shocked. He said, "Why?" "Why would you say that?" I said, "Well, you know, I'm thinking about the story of my life." I said, "When I was a kid, I was 8 or 10 years old. My grandma said, "I, Ross, that little weed, he'll never amount to anything." Just like now. He killed all the energy in the room, I just said, "What?" But then I thought, "That's a really good question, isn't it?" If there was a book written about you, what would it be called? What would it be called? I actually googled the great disappointment, and there's a whole stack of books, titled that, so I'm not the first one to come up with it. But what would it be called for you? If people would have write a book about you, what are you known for? Or what stands out to others? When they see you, we're going to write this book. We've got the chapters already worked out. This is what it's going to be like. Will it be a good story or a bad story? What would it be like if somebody could summarize your life? When we get into the book of Acts, we see God actually speaks a lot into this space, into our lives, and the difference between it being a good story and a bad story. And as we look at the stories, we go, "We can actually learn from the people who've gone before us how God works in their lives, that what's the difference between a good story and a bad story?" So when people write the story about you, what would it be called? What would be in those chapters? Just before we hit chapter 12, if you hear last week, we finished half way through chapter 11, and here we get a good story at the end of chapter 11. We could call it, I'm going to call it, the story about the first Christians life with King Jesus. That's why I think this story would be about, if they were right about them. Because it's at this point, we see, I'm just going to give you a summarize a whole bunch of verses there, but it's at this point that disciples were called Christians, first, at Antioch, before then they're called believers, followers, disciples, but now they're known as these guys are the Christians. This is like, if we want to know what a Christian is like, what were the first Christians like? What are we building that on? And then we get the description, just summarizing a whole bunch of verses. We see some of them just telling the story, people went to Antioch to speak to the Greeks, the Gentiles, the unbelieving Jews, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus, the Lord, He is the only one true Lord Jesus. The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. Now, this is a guy called Luke, who's writing that, if you know the Gospel, Matthew, Luke, he's writing this, and I find it interesting, the words Luke chooses to describe what's going on here, that the number of people believed, which is kind of a head thing, I'm believing, and they literally turn to the Lord, which is kind of this idea of turning, this idea of repentance, like you're living your life, I'm headed this way because I want my life to focus on this, this is my, what I'm pursuing in life, but to actually like, they've turned to the Lord, like Jesus here, they've repented, they've turned physically. So it's more of a, it's not just a head believing thing, but they've actually turned their bodies to face Jesus. Now, we're headed towards Jesus, it's a very physical, tight language that he's using, but he goes on, talks about Barnabas, so what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. That's interesting, I find that interesting, you could have said, he encouraged them to remain true to the Lord, full stop, no, with all their hearts, so it's a head thing, believing thing, it's a turn thing, I turn to Jesus, and it's a hard, a heart thing to remain true to the Lord with all my heart, because sometimes our hearts take it a little bit of convincing from our head to do what we really want it to do, this is no, remain true to the Lord with all your heart, your heart needs to own this as well. Everything language, describing what the first Christians will like. But then we get to the end of that chapter and we're told a bit of a story about God sending a message to a prophet that tells God's plan and a great number of, oh, sorry, a great number of people brought to the Lord, that's just, you know, all these people, this head, heart, turning to God, and this idea of being brought to the Lord, it's actually, yeah, this physical thing, actually, it's not literally we're going to take him to this place, but to the Lord that they've been taken there. But then we finish the chapter, a severe famine, God sends a message through a prophet, see a famine, it's going to spread over the Thai Roman world, just sort of wraps it up with his little detail that what is, what does this mean, what's going on in this severe famine? That's going to come up later in chapter 12, but that's why I think Luke's given us heads up, God's in control, God's letting his people know what's going on and God's people, if you read the verses, prepare for this great famine in helping each other. This is life with King Jesus, it's very clear, Jesus is in control, building his church, growing his churches, hands upon them, his grace is being poured out on them, but he's changing people's lives, this is life with King Jesus, this is a good story, it's a very good story. And then we hit chapter 12 and we get another story, that's quite different. This is what I'm going to title, life with King Me, King Me, because here we meet chapter 12, it was about this time, a King Herod, we make this King Herod, this is, I figure, I'm familiar with it, if you've been reading through the Bible, I know King Herod, he's popped up a few times, there's actually four King Herod's, there was King Herod around the time when King Jesus was born, this guy, this is King Herod a gripper, that was his grandad, there was a King Herod that beheaded John the Baptist, that was this guy's uncle. At the end of Acts there's another King Herod who's going to put Paul on trial, that's this guy's son, that's Paul, so don't get confused, not mixing them all up, but this one's just the story about King Herod a gripper, his name is, he arrested some who belonged to the church intending to persecute them, you already get the feeling like, oh, this is like very different story to what we just heard about the Christians, life with King Jesus, no, no, this is life with King Me, now it's interesting for Herod though, we're not given any reason why he hates the Christians, but he's just out to get them, and we find out a little bit more about them as we read on, we might have picked this up, as we read, he had James, that was one of Jesus' disciples, the brother of John, put to death with the sword to phrase used for a public execution, wanted to end him publicly, take him out. But why did Herod want to do this, if he didn't have a grudge against Christians, why would he do it? So he tells us, he saw that this met with approval amongst the Jews, so he proceeded to see Peter also, we like approval, don't we, he likes approval, you know, we'll put this guy to the sword, get rid of one of the disciples, and then in the corner over here, all the Jews who reject Jesus, those ones who killed Jesus ultimately, they're applauding, you're awesome Herod, King Herod, you're awesome, they're cheering for you, and it feels like that Herod's gone, oh man, they love me, they want me, and we make a lot of our decisions about what other people think of us, if we get their approval, it's like, well, I arrested one disciple, put him to the sword, and they love me for it, what am I going to do? I find another disciple, I heard Peter's in town, so what does he go to do, finds Peter, then he arrests him, goes to put him on trial, and I can, I can feel the thought process, I can just execute Peter, and it'll be done, and they'll love, the Jews will love me for it, but there's a festival coming up, all the Jews are coming into Jerusalem, the big festival, some say hundreds of thousands of Jews coming together, some say millions coming together, lots of Jews coming together, if they all love me, I need to leverage this point, let's wait till after the festival's finished, there's still at least hundreds of thousands of Jews still in town, and I'm going to have input on trial, a public trial, can you imagine Herod's like, I'm going to be in the Judges seat, Peter's going to be there, and all the Jews are going to be looking at me, come on Herod, you can do it, put him to the sword too, I'm going to be their hero, this is all about Herod, it's not really about other things going on, it's all about Herod looking good, he likes the affirmation, he likes to be someone, but while this is all going on in Herod's world, we get taken to what's going on in the background, she was kept in prison, church, what was the church doing, the church wasn't writing letters to Herod, they weren't, let's do a petition, he should release Peter, Peter's done nothing, they're not worried about King Herod, they're going straight to the top, they're King Jesus, they're praying earnestly to God for their friend Peter, but then, the night before Herod was going to bring him on trial, Peter's locked up, here are the guards that are around him, he's in chains, he's in, but he's basically on death row, and what do you do for people who are bad criminals, you put him in the high security area, in chains, lots of guards around him, like there's no way this guy is escaping, then we hear this amazing story where an angel comes in, has to wake up Peter, because Peter doesn't really know what's going on, it's like he's in a days, he's still half asleep, the chains fall off, the angel guides him out past the guards, through the gate, past more guards, the story goes on where this, Peter's like, I don't understand what's going on, that God is rescuing the emphasis on God's, Peter's not doing a break out, it's the angel breaking him out, because the Lord has sent the angel to save Peter, they pass through all the guards, they went through, walked through the length of the street, and suddenly the angel left him, and like many ways we God works in our lives, we don't actually know at the time, because Peter's kind of still in a days, it was until after the angel left, we see, then Peter came to himself and said, man now I know, without a doubt that the Lord has sent this angel, and rescued me from Herod's clutches, and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen, it's very clear, this is God, Herod's in total, looked like, he was in total control, I'm just popping off the disciples, one by one, and the crowd loves it, they're cheering for me, they're affirming me that I am great, and all of a sudden Jesus comes along, I'll show you great, I'm just going to send an angel, and just rescue my boy Peter, and you guys don't even know about it, so in the morning there's a story, we're not going to go through every verse in this chapter, but Peter then goes on to the house where the Christians are meeting and praying, even they can't believe it, they think Peter is an angel, it's like short, but there's nobody escapes from Herod, not from death row, and then they have to sort it out themselves, Peter comes in, he's all quiet, no, no, it's the Lord who saved me, he says, it's calm down, the Lord saved me, he's keeping it on the quiet, and then he goes off, so he's not captured again, now how do you think Herod's going to handle this? Herod's got his big day planned, this is his big moment, sitting at the judge's seat, to have the crowd, the judge is watching on, this public trial of Peter, it'll probably lead to an execution, it's Herod's big moment, but then we're told in the morning there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had come of Peter, not one or two soldiers, lots of soldiers, a chain to him, the gates, like how could he escape, they can't work it out, how does Herod handle it, after Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross examine the guards, what's happened to you guys, and he ordered they be executed, because Jesus has embarrassed Herod, his embarrassment, Herod was in total control, this is my big day, not only his lost out his big day, he's been embarrassed, because the prisoner has escaped, somebody's got to pay, whose fault is this, guards, what went on here, you know what, I don't know, you've got to pay for this, and he executes them, he kills the guards, there's a weird kind of irony that goes on in this story when we compare the two kings, because when Herod wanted execute Peter, so he looked good, what's he end up doing, he's executed his own soldiers, so he doesn't look bad, this is gone, really good for Herod to really bad, really fast, he's a bad story, but this is what happens when the story is about the king, me, Jesus, I'll show you who's king, who's in control, but for Herod there's always another opportunity, because the story goes on, when Herod went from Judea to Cesarea, they stayed there, they had been, there's some people quarreling with Herod from Tyos, all around the place, people who haven't really got on with Herod, but now they're coming to him, they're now joining together and sort an audience with him, sort of echoes, I don't want to get into politics here, but echoes when people run to Donald Trump, that's what I think of, I want an audience with Donald Trump, what can I do, they even pull some strings, they secure the support of this guy called Blastus, he must be an impressive guy, they get him, we have a meeting, he's a trusted personal servant of the king, they ask for peace, you know, hey buddy, you know, we're all about peace, let that quarreling stuff, nah that's all in the past, because they depended on the king's country for their food supply, because what's going on, the great famine is hit, they need food, where they're going to get their food from, we need to grovel to King Harry, we need to go, he's our king, he's the one that's going to help us all out, because he's got in control of all the food, do you think Herod loves this moment, people have wanted to meet him, they've teed up their meat, they want to meet with me, they want to come to me, they see me as the one that's going to fix their problems, do you think he's loving this, I reckon he's loving this, so how's he going to capitalize on this, how's he going to make the most of this event, where people want him, they need him, they're showing they love him, how's he going to handle it, a big public event, of course, he wants a public display, so at the point of day Herod, this public display, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people, he's got his smart gear on, he wants to look the part, you know, if they think on this great, they'll look great, or in front of all the people, when they saw him they shouted, this is a voice of a God, not a man, wow, did they meet with them, they're just sucking up to him, or they're like, what, this is, he's impressive, right? Do you think Herod's loving this moment, it's all about him, they even think I'm a God, this is fantastic, but immediately, immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died. The King, who was going to feed everyone, is now taken out, who is the King, I mean, this is the story of life with King Me, fighting against King Jesus, I love this, I've always loved this story, I remember hearing this story when I was a kid in kids church, I was like, oh yeah, the King gets eaten by worms, how cool is that? And it's easy for us to think, oh yeah, this is one of those Bible stories that are good for kids to hear, they're creative, just to get the message across, maybe it's not really real and all that sort of stuff, but what Luke does, Luke writing the book of Acts, he is a historian, he does strive for accuracy, and what we've got, I talked last week about a guy called Josephus, who was a first century Jewish historian, writing down what was going on in that first century time, he's working for the Romans as well, he's not a Christian, he had no reason to write something that's supporting Christianity, because he doesn't believe Jesus or Savior, but he's keeping true and correct records, he writes about this event, and I want to show it to you, just so you know, hey, what was going on here in these few short verses? So I read, there's a bit of a chunk because there's a fair bit, so this is Josephus, his account of what just happened, so Herod, it's Herod a gripper, after Herod had ruled Judea for three years, he went to Caesaria, which was formerly called Astasos Tower, while there he held a public games in honor of the Emperor, because the festival had been proclaimed to offer prayers for his safety, many of the leading people officials from across the province gathered for the occasion, big crowds, big event, I'm thinking MCG type stuff because they're here for the games, and he's turning this games into something about him. So on the second day of the games, a gripper put on a robe, made entirely of silver, beautifully crafted, and enter into the theatre early in the morning, you can imagine the sun's shining bright in, and he says, as the sun struck his robes, it reflected brilliantly, dazzling those who looked at him and filling them with awe, get the scene, he's coming and everyone's like, whoa, what is this? Immediately, his flatterers began calling out from different parts of the crowd, saying that he was a god, they cried, be gracious to us, after now we have respected you as a man, but from now this moment we acknowledge you as more than a human, a gripper did not correct him, or reject their blasphemous claims, so even, don't believe in Jesus, this is a bit of a stretch, blasphemous, but soon afterwards he looked up and saw an owl perched above him, that's one of their superstitious signs, it's like a god has come to him, he saw the owl above him, he understood this was a sign of coming disaster, since the owl had appeared to him as a sign of good fortune, he became deeply troubled, at that moment he was seized with severe pain within his abdomen, turning to his friends he says, I, whom you call god, am now being ordered to leave this life, providence has exposed the lies spoken about me, though you call me immortal, I am now being taken away by death, pain grew worse, worse, he was carried back to the palace, news spread about him that he would not leave much longer, and after suffering intensely for five days he died, at the age of 54, seventh year of his reign, this is the historical account of what Luke was talking about in Acts, in some ways it's even more impressive, more glamorous than what Luke was saying, how hard it was, make it all about me, I want to give the impression that I am a god, and now they're calling me out as a god, he's not going to deflect that, I'm just going to take that in, this is my moment to shine, literally, but what Luke's saying, he had his twist, and even Joseph was saying he didn't deny his god, but Luke's saying, people are saying this voice of God, not a man that immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, this is a defining part of his story, why this is kind of a bad story, why his story is about following, living with the king me, it's all about Herod, he doesn't want to hand over any of the glory to Jesus as Lord, can you imagine at that moment in front of all the crowd, if Herod come up and says, you know what, it's not about me, if he took a leaf out of the Christian's book, life with King Jesus, if Herod had said, I want to tell you about the good news about the true Lord Jesus, that if we believe and turn to Him, that if we remain true to the Lord, with all our hearts, that we need to be brought to the Lord Jesus, not to me, can you imagine how the story would have ended differently, but no, Herod, I love it when people turn to me, I love it when people put their hearts to me, they love me, and when people come to me, loves it, when people call Herod a God, he just said, I know, I know, and just lats it up, when deep down he knows, and even Josephus touched on this, he knows that at any time he could be called out as a fraud, that he could crumble and be exposed, and God sends a worm to expose him, I think that's funny, it's like, wouldn't it be more credit to Herod if maybe in the Roman Empire there's a lot of assassination, maybe his enemies assassinated him, that would be impressive, die with dignity and honour, what about if a lightning bolt come down from heaven and zap him, it's like whoa, but talking a lightning bolt to get rid of Herod, but no God sends a worm. Now the difference between Josephus account, Josephus ain't abdominal pain, it was generally accepted in that first century time that if people did die of abdominal pains, it was because of the bacteria stuff of worms basically was a common thing, that's why Luke, he was a doctor, puts it down to worms as a very plausible thing, but he's taken down the stomach pain, a worm from God, but that's the end of Herod, that's the end of his story, forever remembered, maybe not as a book title, leaving with the king me, but maybe as a title, is the worm guy, forever known as the worm guy in the Bible, you know, Herod, and then this chapter ends, Herod dies, eaten by worms, one last verse, but the word of God continued to spread and flourish, who is the real king, who is really in control of everything, Herod thought he was in control, it was all about him, but God's gone, no, no, no, I got this, I got this, one of the reasons I love this story and I really get into Herod is because that could easily be my story, I'm a lot like Herod, we've done some personality things, up around our office and personal interests, if any of your Grams come and talk to me about, I'm any of Gram 3, and what that means about my personality type is I'm driven to change the world, I want to do that, but the second part of that summary of what my personality type, I want to change the world and be seen doing it, I like the attention, I like to be known as the one changing the world, what that means is I can have an idol to be seen as successful, and I see that in Herod, that's an idol, I want it all about me, I want to be successful, but there's a second part to it, and that's the greatest fear, the greatest fear is failure and being rejected, that's scary, super scary for me, so how this plays out is a couple of things happened last year, phone call, hey Ross, do you want to come and speak at fun and adventure camp? Yeah, I'd love to speak, 160 kids, this is going to be awesome, yeah I want to change the world, and I want to be seen doing it, yeah, camp, awesome, Ben and I get contacted, hey do you want to MC the registrar conference, 1200 people over four days? Do you want to MC it? Yeah, we'll be there, this is awesome, I want to change the world, I want to be seen doing it, I'll be there, hang up the phone, but then the other part of me kicks in with my greatest fear and go, I better not stuff this up, because I'm going to look bad, and if I look bad, if I'm a failure, people won't love me, and that's a terrible place to live, in that tension of wanting to make it all about you, but then fear in failure, so it's not about me, it only took a worm to take her down, I could be taken down with much less, but that's the space, if you're that personality type, and I think a lot of people have that about us, we like it when it's about us, we hate being a failure at the same time, it's a bad place to be in, even if you're not a Christian, it's very unsafe, but if you're a Christian, there's a better story, I mean if you're a Christian or not a Christian, there's a better story having Jesus at the centre, better security, how this works out, and we've used this illustration a few times here at Southside, is if Jesus is Lord and King, we're believing him, we're turned to him, our hearts are trusting him, and we're facing him, he's like the centre of the universe, the sun, and the sun works because all the planets are smaller than the sun, and they orbit around the sun, the sun is so big and so much gravitational pull, it keeps all the other planets just work, because of the power of the sun. Now what I do when I go actually, I don't want it to be all about Jesus, I want life to be all about me, that's like the earth telling all the other planets and the sun, hey I'm the centre now, you need to revolve around me, you can imagine what Jupiter's going to say, hey I'm much bigger than you, why is it you? What's the sun going to do? That's just not going to work, like it's just not going to work if the earth tried to make everything revolve around him, that's how it works for us, if we think it's all about us, it's just not going to work, the order is not going to be there, Jesus is so much bigger, so much stronger, his love is so much greater that he can accept me even through my failures, he's going to keep me re-orbiting in order as long as he is in the centre, that's how it works, that's how we were created, but it's more than just how we do that, having Jesus at the centre, because we can say that in here, yeah Jesus is truly Lord, we sing about it, we pray about it, Jesus is Lord, we do that here, but we spend the rest of our days living in a world that doesn't all but their lives around Jesus, that's pulling us off kilter, some like 168 hours in the week, might be here a couple of hours, 166 hours a week where in a world that's telling us something different, how that works is the rest of the world, it's a bit like Herod, like the rest of us, trying to think that it's all about us, that story, follow the king or living with the king, king me, well everybody's singing that story, his house worked out in the last few years, what's just putting our thoughts together, what are the big issues in our society the last five or six years, the world should work around me, the world should work around my gender, whatever I want my gender to be, the world should work around my sexuality and accept it, the world should work around the colour of my skin, they've got to take me for that, and we're allowed to be rude to people who don't align with my values, so that me at the centre, I'm the one that makes the rules and it hasn't always been like that in society, but it's getting more and more like it, and I think what's happening, the society is trying to navigate the world and the order and how it should all work because they've removed the centre Jesus, if you take away Jesus as Lord that keeps everything in order, how's this going to work? Oh we'll replace it with each of us, if we put ourselves at the centre, everything will work right, and it's a mess, it's a real mess, these are the stories of our lives where we spend so much time engaging with this world, but we have an opportunity to change the story, to make the story a good story, a better story, a story that's around Jesus. I want to ask you two questions this morning, do you think your life gives praise to Jesus in every way, if I write a book about you, would it? Does the decisions you make? Is that going to be picking up the language that we saw of the first Christians? Does the decisions you make help me to remain true to the Lord with all my heart? In every decision we make, how we spend our money, is that going to help me remain true to the Lord with all my heart? Boyfriends and girlfriends and hopefully marriage paths, are they going to help me remain true to the Lord with all my heart? The choices we make in our families, for our kids, how they spend their time, what their interests will be in sport and things, how much time they going to spend at church? The decisions we make, is that going to help us remain true to the Lord with all our hearts, our jobs, our friends, the list you go on, are they going to help me remain true to the Lord with all my heart? If people were to write a book about you, what would the title be? Would it be something like they were all in for Jesus? And we can tell that because chapter after chapter after chapter, we can tell stories of your life, how you remain true to the Lord with all your heart? That would be a good story, a very good story. Even if it was like James, did you notice the guy called James? The disciple of Jesus gets one verse, put to the sword by Herod, but why? Because he remained true to the Lord with all his heart. That's a good story. I'd be happy with that story, even if it was only one line, to remain true to the Lord with all your heart. Do you think your life gives praise to Jesus? Or are you more like Herod? Second question, how do you make the most of your Sundays? Because we do spend 168 hours in our life. We spend hour and a quarter-ish in here together, a couple hours here together. How do we make the most of our Sunday mornings? Because we spend so much time in the rest of the world. Are we just here killing time? Or are we actually going to make the most of our time to prepare us for the rest of the world? Here's a few tips because I think if the rest of the world for 166 hours it's telling us you don't have to follow Jesus. It can be like we deal with Herod's everywhere that are trying to put us to the sword or they're trying to convince us to be more like them, to put themselves in the center, put us in the center. Where this is a moment where we can refocus, sometimes use the language here, we re-orbit our lives. Remember, when we walk through those doors we're leaving the world behind and we come into here and we focus all our attention onto Jesus' Lord because we need to remind our brains to believe. We need to return to Him. We need to tell our hearts. Remember we're going to remain true to the Lord, right? We need to use this time to refocus, to re-orbit because we spend so much time. Now it's good to do this every day through our Bible reading, through our praying. There's something special happens when people come together called the church. What we do here is very intentional. So when you come, the first we open the service. We're not only welcome you but we often read the Bible. We want to get that and remember what we're doing here, praising the Lord, we're left the world behind. That's what the intro does as we go into song. I point that out because on a typical Sunday morning half of you guys aren't here yet. So I just thought I'd point that out. That's not a rebuke. That's an encouragement. You guys are missing out. That reminder, when I walk in here, I'm going to spend time with God. This is different to the world. And we sing some songs, praise to God. Some of them are prayers. Some of them are about God's faithfulness but it's praying. It's praising Jesus. We do that in singing together. Everything we do from the way we do our announcements, our Bible reading and prayer is to God. It's engaging our hearts with God all through it. We have a Bible talk reminding our hearts. Remember this is why we follow Jesus as Lord and this is what it looks like. So we're re-albiting our lives around Jesus. So when we go out of here, we're like, "Yep, I'm focused. I'm going to live for Jesus." But are we making the most of our time here when we're together? How many times do we maybe check our messages or engage with messages on our phones when we're our one or quarter hours a week that we've got this opportunity to do it? How do we engage with God when we're singing the songs? Now, I'm a born and bred Presbyterian. So this is mainly to you, born and bred Presbyterians. But for us, sometimes when we look across, we're singing to Jesus. Now, the reasons why we're saying we sing praise to him. The words are written to him. And we're going to sing the words to him. But that's not the only reason we sing. We sing to each other. So Lord, brothers and sisters, I believe this. Do you believe it too? We're going to sing it together. We believe this. There's a third reason we sing songs that you might not have realized. Sometimes we need to sing those songs to tell our hearts. Remember what we're here for. We're here because of King Jesus, Lord Jesus. We're here to worship him, praise him. Remember that heart. But, but often for us, and I acknowledge this as a cultural thing, I'll have a go at the preysies, hands in the pockets and stuff. It's like we're bored at a funeral, just waiting for things to wrap up. It's like we're not really engaging with, certainly not singing to Jesus. It's not showing anything to each other. But what are we showing our hearts? Yeah, I'm not saying it's everybody put our hands in the air. I'm happy to ask question. Why wouldn't we? Why wouldn't we show some expression to Jesus? Hey, I mean these words that I'm singing to, to each other. I mean, I'm in for this. I believe this. I'm turning to Jesus, but also to our hearts. Did you see this heart? Do I believe in Jesus? Yes, I do. See this heart. Remember what I'm praising Jesus now. You need to do that when we leave these doors. Remember we're praising Jesus. We need to engage with this, because our hearts will just go, you know what? I can't wait to get out there and be with the other herds. It's very important this time. I want to encourage you to make the most of the hour and a quarter we have. Be prepared for it. As you can't take notes. Whatever is helpful for you to read all but your life ranges, because he is true little. You have an opportunity to write a better story, and it's only going to work when Jesus is at the centre, because he's truly Lord. Let me pray. Dear Father God, I thank you for your great love for us. Lord, if we're feeling like me, when we think it's all about us, our glory, our performance, we get loved because of how good we are, Lord, we're sorry for that, and we want to repent. But Lord, thank you that you are bigger than us. Thank you that we can trust in you, have you as Lord and all but our lives around you, because your love is unconditional, regardless of our performance. And Lord, that's amazing. Lord, help us to live a life that worships you, to all but our lives around you. Have our hearts turn towards you. Now, and even when we leave this building, in our workplaces, our schools with our friends, Lord, help us to live a life of praise to you. In Jesus' name, Amen.