Grapevine Ministries
Messages from the bible to uplift and encourage those that need a word from the Lord, to strengthen their faith. Ps Phillip Barker is an itinerant pastor in Perth, Western Australia.
Grapevine Ministries
Living a Purpose-Driven Life in Christ
The foundation for living in 2025 is built on three crucial principles derived from 2 Corinthians 5:11-13: living urgently, transparently, and unapologetically for Christ, especially in hard times. As we move forward, the podcast encourages listeners to embrace a renewed focus on their faith, learn from their past, and inspire others in their faith journeys.
• Emphasising urgency in living for Christ
• Recognising the importance of transparency in faith
• Encouragement to live unapologetically despite challenges
• The call to reflect on past struggles to inform future actions
• Motivation to build a community rooted in love and hope
Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world - Welcome to Grapevine Ministries.
Welcome back everybody. It is now 2025. You give yourselves all a really good pat on the back and you can praise the Lord and say thank you that we got through 2020 and 2024 and now we're into a new year. I'm starting this year differently and I thought about this for quite a while and when I was preparing for this message, I said so what is it that I really want to get across this year? I mean, I'm not prophetic and so I don't prophesize into the future and try and tell you what's going to happen in the years ahead or whatever, but I just wanted to lay a foundation for this because we know that we are in Christ and for those that aren't, there's the opportunity to have that relationship with him.
Speaker 1:Right now, everybody does their New Year resolution. They go on about different things that they're going to do and things that they're going to achieve, but I find that too many people set the benchmark too high. I just thought that, going through what we've been going through over the many years and a lot of people like me have survived the 2020 outbreak of COVID-19. I mean, someone really could make a fortune selling T-shirts with the slogan you know, I survive COVID, and maybe they already have, and it's a bit like that. In the timeframe Over the last 36 months, we could hardly imagine what it would be like just last year. So I want to look at this from another angle. Entitled message today three ways to live for Christ in hard times. Three ways to live for Christ in hard times because, realistically, the last three or four years has not been the best on the calendar for a lot of people, and so I'm probably focusing a little bit too much on the pandemic. But the thing is that we've always got to be prepared for things that are going to come into our lives that we never expected to actually happen, and so it continuously talks about how we'll go through challenging times. But my focal point today is 2 Corinthians 5, 11 through to 13.
Speaker 1:Something called sheltering in place. We know that. There came the economic unrest, trouble in our cities, crisis of confidence, a rising death toll and a search for a vaccine. That was all too challenging at the time. Add to that, we had an outbreak of wildfires, floods and so many other global events taking place, and finally, we had the most contentious election in West Australia. Because I'm from West Australia, those enlisting from other countries may be aware of things that took place in their government over this challenging period of time, but the thing I noticed more than anything else the outcome of the election was not based on political promises or things that they were going to do for the country or anything else. It was who kept everybody safe during COVID-19. And the list goes on.
Speaker 1:The timeframe and even the more trying things that have happened just in the last 12 months have felt like we're crawling across a minefield, blindfolded. It has been a very hard year for a lot of people, been very, very challenging, but the thing is, if we look back at what happened in 2020, 2021, so to speak, we would think that this is an ongoing saga that is befalling us at the moment. Now, like I said, I'm not a prophet, so it's not for me to be prophetic, and I need to say that because so many leaders speak out prophetically at the start of the year. I'm not going to do that. It's just that I feel that many people thinking things are back to normal. They are not. We have got what you'd call a new normal now. Things are always changing. No one knows what the future will bring. Earlier today, I saw one of those 10 predictions for 2025. So many articles that start coming out at this time of the year. The writers wisely begin by admitting that no one foresaw what was going to happen back in 2020 or 2019, because that's what it was all about the COVID.
Speaker 1:Rather than add my own speculation about the future, I want to address a fundamental question that always applies how should we live in times like these? And that brings me to the word of God, which should always be our first port of call. 2 Corinthians 5, 11-13. Corinthians 5, 11 to 13. These three verses give us a clear guidance for living in hard times. They show us the right way to respond, no matter what happens in the next 12 months. We should live in times like these. There are three clear answers in these passages. We need to live urgently now.
Speaker 1:I know that may sound a little bit, you know, uh, like I'm actually saying we've. We've got to be aware that things are going to happen. That's not what I'm saying. It says, therefore, since we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade men. Corinthians 5.11,. Do you fear the Lord? And it's not just fear, as in being scared of what he may or may not do, it's that reverential fear of knowing who he is.
Speaker 1:Most of us aren't sure how to answer that question. We would rather talk about loving the Lord, and there is always a place for that. And there is always a place for that. 1 John 4.9 says we love him because he first loved us. If he had not loved us first, we would never have loved him at all. There is a high place in the Christian life living and loving for Lord Jesus Christ. How could we not love him after what he'd done for us?
Speaker 1:But Paul puts his emphasis in the different places because he is thinking of that solemn day when we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ in verse 10. No one can escape it. There we must answer for the things we've done in the body, whether they are useful or useless. Whether they are useful or useless, those worthless things, which in themselves may have been wrong, will be burned up before our very eyes. Truth always comes out. If that doesn't bother you, then you need to be better at understanding your consciousness. It's easy to justify ourselves and to cover up mistakes. We're good at making excuses and passing the buck. We know how to cover our tracks and make others look bad, while we end up smelling like a rose, so to speak. None of that will work. When we stand before the Lord, his fiery glaze will strip away all of our excuses. The truth will come out. No wonder Paul says we know the fear of the Lord. It's a combination of honour and respect. If you know, you must answer to the Lord. It will impact the way that you live to the Lord. It will impact the way that you live Now.
Speaker 1:I'm not saying this so that we're constantly going around, you know, pondering what will happen when our day finally comes, and to be absent from the body, to be present from the Lord. What I'm trying to say is that if we approach 2025 the same way we approached 2024, okay, then we're not going to be any better off now than what we were there. It says old things are passed away. Behold, everything has become new. So what we need to do is we need to realize that right now, we can wipe the slate clean. So everything we did or didn't do, or anything that we were trying to actually be more Christ-like, but we failed to get where we wanted to be and we are all much more judgmental of ourselves than what the Lord is. But what you need to do is the easiest thing, I think is that we need to take these three points into effect and we need to make sure that it is a new year wholly and solely 100%. We have wiped everything clean. The slate is clean. Everything that we did new year wholly and solely 100%. We have wiped everything clean. The slate is clean. Everything that we did last year good, bad or indifferent is gone. I'll give you an example.
Speaker 1:When I was growing up, my brother and I would occasionally get into trouble. Well, maybe occasionally probably isn't the right word. Most of the time Now, mum would handle it herself. But if we'd done something really bad and I'm looking from a child's perspective, I'm not talking about, you know, being 10 and robbing a bank or something like that, no, I'm just talking about, like when we were kids, right, we used to mess up mum would deal with it and that would be the end of it. But if we sort of like went over the line, then she would say right, I'm calling your father, so you wait until your father gets home. Now. Those words struck fear into the three Barker boys, me and my two older brothers. Because he was a military man, he spent his days at the base. He had plenty to do without being bothered about the shenanigans that we were getting up to. But if mum called him, that meant a day of reckoning was coming. You see where I'm going here.
Speaker 1:When dad got home, I recall on a few times mum was so upset that she told him to leave work and come home immediately to deal with us. Nothing good can happen from that, and that's only part of the story. We knew our father loved us and was proud of the three sons that he had. However rambunctious we were, his smile meant the world to us. That made it worse when he had to discipline us In some small way.
Speaker 1:That helped me understand the Apostle Paul's point of view. If you know the Lord loves you and if you know you will stand before him someday, that ought to motivate you to do the right thing. You to do the right thing In this case. Paul says we persuade men. That phrase speaks to his desire to see people come to know Christ. He suffered beatings and imprisonment and endured harsh conditions as he travelled sharing the gospel, but it was worth it to spread the gospel. He was prepared to allow these sacrifices to happen with him.
Speaker 1:There is no way to explain Elizabeth Elliot going back to the jungle to share Christ with the people who had killed her husband. That's why a young couple leaves the US to do medical work in Nigeria. That's why missionaries scatter to the ends of the earth to share Christ. Now, if you don't know who Elizabeth Elliot is, that's your homework for you to look that up. All right, now note the verb that Paul uses. He says we persuade men. Persuade men. We don't browbeat them or threaten them or intimidate them, because that doesn't work. We don't use bribery, because you can't buy a soul with money. We pray for opportunities and then we share Christ openly and honestly. So you may not also know the name Madison Crawthorne, now Madison. He was a United States Christian back in 2021, Madison. He was a United States Christian back in 2021, newly elected as a congressman for the 11th District of North Carolina, and his election was reported around the world because he was only 25 years of age.
Speaker 1:And he also made headlines when it was discovered that he attempted to win Jews and Muslims to faith in Christ. It was this big deal because he was purposely targeting, okay, jews and Muslims to become followers of Jesus Christ, because if you don't know. Most Jews, okay, are still living in the Old Testament. Okay, if you're Jewish, right, like God's chosen people, okay, and you realize that Jesus is the Messiah, then you're a Messianic Jew, but Jews still have a strong faith in the Lord, but not in Jesus. That's why he was doing this. This was so shocking that he openly stated, as a Christian, that he believed in the Great Commission and would use his influence to pursue and get people changing their beliefs to that of Christianity, and many journalists were worried that this would become the next Billy Graham. This guy, mr Crawford, responded this way this is a statement that he made are his friends with other Christians, then how are you ever going to lead someone to Christ? If you're not wanting to lead someone to Christ, then you're probably not really a Christian. Paul would heartily agree.
Speaker 1:We do everything we can to persuade others to join us in following of christ. Now, I'm probably not making any sense at the moment, but I will. Okay, and this is what I was talking about earlier. Right, we've got to live urgently. This is our number one priority for 2025. Therefore, since we know the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade men. That is what we should be doing. This is what our focus should be.
Speaker 1:If we are going through challenging times, if we actually seek to bring others into the sheepfold, so to speak, to become followers of Christ, then we know that every day we are trying to be more and more Christ-like, and this is what we need to focus on more and more Christ-like, and this is what we need to focus on. We also need to make sure just like Crawford Crawthorne is his name, sorry if you want to look him up we need to live a life of transparency. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to you that your consciences, we are commending ourselves to be again those that are always looking for the opportunity to bring people to Christ. We need to create opportunities. So God's going to be proud of us that you may have taken pride in your outward appearance rather than in your heart. Is your life an open book? Most of us would hesitate to answer in the affirmative. To answer in the affirmative Live long enough and you'll have plenty of things you prefer not to talk about in public.
Speaker 1:Paul evidently wasn't worried about that. For one thing, he was open about his past. Before he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. He hated Christians and he tried to wipe them out. That was his job and that's why he was going to Damascus in the first place. He was a missionary doing the opposite to what we are doing as missionaries. He was a missionary sent to wipe out the growing Christian movement. Since Paul didn't try to hide his past, no one could spring it on him. Paul says God knows him through and through and he hopes the Corinthians knew him. The same way, he wants them to boast about him, which sounds strange until you think about it. We talk about not putting people on a pedestal, but Paul didn't seem bothered about that. His attitude was follow me as a follower of Christ. See, paul knew who he was, he knew his background, he knew his past and he was quite open about that. So it's basically it's like being a politician right and you're trying to get elected right and the opposition is looking for something in your past life to ambush you with life to ambush you with, to discredit you, to make anything that you're saying when you're on your soapbox as being not true or perhaps just saying well, this is not me, but it is you, you know you and you know your background.
Speaker 1:It says don't be ashamed of the gospel, but you should also not be ashamed of who you are and where you've come from. Our transparency, because someone told me once I don't know whether I'm going to get this quote right or not, but just bear with me Someone actually told me once that there's two types of people in the world. Okay, you've got Christians and you've got non-Christians. Right, people that are non-Christians are normally not a Christian because they've either met a Christian or they haven't met a Christian. Now let me explain that. You are a representation of Jesus Christ. You alone should not be ashamed of the gospel alone should not be ashamed of the gospel.
Speaker 1:2025 is your time to step up to the plate and to get ready to receive what is coming your way, because if you try to speak to someone about our Lord and Saviour and they say, oh, so you're a Christian, I go. So this is how Christians act. See, that's it. We have got to practice our own faith in the way that we live our life. So, if we're totally transparent, yes, we've all got a past and I've got a really bad one and I sometimes get there and I say, look, if there was 10 people in the line and I would actually get there, and I say I would probably be the worst out of all of them and therefore I wouldn't qualify for grace in my life. But I know that, irrespective of what I've done, what my background is, it says old things have passed away. Behold, everything has become new. But if someone mentions your past, you say well, that was yes, that was post. You know JC, so to speak. You understand what I'm trying to get at here.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we define ourselves by our role in life. We're a husband, we're a wife, we're a brother, we're a sister, we're a doctor, we're a lawyer or even a teacher. Those roles are true enough, but they don't go to the core of who you are. Paul found his identity in Jesus Christ. That's why he comes back again and again to that phrase in Christ. At the root of it all, he was a man in Christ, and that changes everything. He put it in modern terms this is the best way to do it. Paul didn't struggle with his self-image because he was grounded in Christ. It didn't matter whether he had a roof over his head or he's sleeping under the stars, because it didn't look to others to determine his worth. He was content with where he was. Listen, we all need heroes. In many ways, we need them now more than ever. That's why Paul could say I want you to be proud of me. He wanted to be their hero, which meant offering himself up as a man worthy of their trust. I've read many warnings lately about not idolizing our pastors and other spiritual leaders, but the fact is that some have fallen doesn't mean we should trust them no more, because, when all gets said and done, we are only human. Find a man or a woman you can trust and then follow them. Don't give this person your heart carelessly and don't treat him or her as if they could do no wrong. He said there was another woman by the name of Ruth.
Speaker 1:Graham defined a saint as someone who makes it easy to believe in Jesus. That's a worthy goal for all of us. We have the opportunity, you know, to live. Have the opportunity to live. So me personally, my wife, my children, my grandchildren, my friends and those who follow my ministry find it easy to believe in Jesus because they see that I believe in him strongly and I always try and be more Christ-like each and every day. Now don't get me wrong. Many times I fail, I fall short of that mark because that's the human nature of us and that's the frailty of us. We live in an ungodly world. We're surrounded by ungodly people. In an ungodly world, we're surrounded by ungodly people, but that doesn't mean that we stop trying to be more Christ-like each day. All I'm saying is allow yourself to be transparent. Let people see who you really are.
Speaker 1:Paul spoke about this in 1 Timothy 3.2 when he said 1 Timothy 3.2, when he said An overseer must be above reproach. The Greek word describes a garment without folds. When applied to a personal character, it means the leader must be free of any secret pockets of sin. Leaders are often attacked because their motives are questioned and their actions are criticized. A leader is someone who is above reproach, whether the storm comes, because there is nothing about them that a person can't say, ah, I gotcha, because they are transparent. And thirdly, we need to live unapologetically, for if we are out of our mind, it is for God. If we are out of our right mind, it may say more about us than about the Apostle Paul. And evidently there was a zeal about his life that made others think he was out of his mind. Acts 25 records this the reactions of them that may.
Speaker 1:There was a man called Festus. He was a Roman governor of Judea when Paul was on trial for his life. When Festus heard Paul's story, he was perplexed because it involved matters of the Jewish law and Paul's testimony about a dead man named Jesus, who Paul claimed was alive Acts 25, 19. Jesus, who Paul claimed was alive Acts 25, 19. The very next day, paul gave his public testimony before King Agrippa. He asked a question that hangs in the air. Over 2,000 years ago, the very next day Paul gave that testimony, why should any of you consider it incredible that God raised the dead? Acts 26.8.
Speaker 1:After listening to Paul giving his testimony, festus interrupted him by saying your great learning is driving you insane. Insane means crazy nuts, certifiable mad as a hatter touched in the head. Call it what you like. There are other ways of saying it. He's lost it. He's gone over the edge. He's a half a bubble short of the centre. He's plum loco. I mean, I'm trying all sorts of things. He's touched the head. I mean I'm trying all sorts of things. You know he's touching the head. We say things like that because it's easier to dismiss a man as crazy when we don't want to take him seriously. Suppose Festus can write Paul off as highly educated lunatic. In that case, it doesn't have to consider the evidence that Jesus rose from the dead.
Speaker 1:I'll sum this up this way. I've got lots more in my notes, but I'll sum it up this way who do you want to represent in 2025? Do you want to represent yourself or do you want to be a representative of Jesus Christ? Who are you trying to please, or what is your purpose behind you living a Christian lifestyle? If you want to be a follower of Jesus Christ, you need to be totally transparent, okay. You need to be uncorruptible okay, and you need to make him your focus.
Speaker 1:Make 2025 a time of focusing on the Lord, what he has done in your life, what he's doing in your life and what he is going to be doing in the future. Old things are passed away. Behold, everything has become new. Forget about the global pandemic. Forget about the things that you went through in 2021, 22, 23, and 24. That's all behind us.
Speaker 1:This is one reason that, if you're in a car, your rear vision mirror is the smallest mirror in the car and your windscreen is where you can look. You are looking towards your future, you're not looking at your past. Yes, your past is there. It defines you In many ways. It makes you who you are, but the reality of the fact is that it's prevalent. In the same way, the Old Testament is prevalent. It's a type of the shadow of the New Testament, but the New Testament is where we focus on, because this is all about the Great Commission, what we are meant to be.
Speaker 1:Maybe you're not one of those type that is, an evangelist of any kind or whatever, but and you don't want to go out there and lead people to christ. I understand that, because each and every one of us has a different call on our life. But do not be ashamed of who you are and don't let people squash your faith. You're allowed to have it there. You just don't have to ram it down people's throats. Be who you are in Christ, be more like Paul, be more like Jesus. All we can do is try our best to achieve that, and I will go into more of this in the following weeks, but right now, just remember that. Okay, 2025 should be all about you having ways to live for Christ in times of hardship. Read 2 Corinthians 5.11 through to 13 and have a look at the key words that are in there and find out where it is that you want your navigational needle to be pointing you. Alright, that's enough for now. It's a big one for 2025, and we look forward to great things ahead. In Jesus' name, amen.
