All right, so I’ve got three scriptures and I’ve got a story. You will be familiar at least with the scriptures I have, but please don’t let familiarity stand in the way of receiving something new. Allow yourself to approach it with fresh ears, fresh eyes and an open heart. I really pray that you will be unlocked on another level to receive all of the goodness that God has already made available to us. Amen.
Isaiah 55:8-9 NIV
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways My ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways
and My thoughts than your thoughts.
All right, let’s start Isaiah 55 verse 8 to 9. Isaiah 55. 1 John 5 verse 8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not your ways. And I really want to underline and emphasize what’s being said here because it’s being said for a reason. God doesn’t think how we think. He does not operate how we operate.
My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. Don’t expect God to think how we think. And he’s made it very clear here that he doesn’t think the way we think. He doesn’t handle himself or operate the way we would expect him to based on a human understanding, based on a carnal or earthly level understanding, he does not operate how we have been accustomed to believe he operates, especially from a religious perspective, and I’ll dig into that shortly.
Let’s give an example of his thoughts and his ways.
Exodus 33:18-19 ESV
Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 19 And He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you My name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
Exodus 33 verse 18, Moses says to God, please show me your glory. God’s response, I will make all my goodness pass before you. Let’s pause there. Glory as a concept religiously has been made out to be some big spooky idea. Fact, God’s glory is his goodness. So let’s just get that right. When we’re talking about the glory of God, we’re talking about the goodness of God. I remember being involved in a conference, a religious one, going back many many years, sitting in a row of seats just like you are today. And they’re talking about the glory of God and how you should feel absolutely wrecked, in a negative sense, in the presence of God. Making out that the reaction we would have to God’s glory would be shock and horror. He corrects that picture right here. God’s glory is His goodness. When we’re talking about the glory of God, we’re talking about the goodness of God. Isn’t that awesome?
So Moses says, show me your glory.
Isn’t it interesting? He has to ask. We obviously require clarification on that level. And God says, I will make all my goodness pass before you and I will proclaim before you my name, the Lord, and here it is. God’s ways, God’s thoughts. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. And I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.
When we’re talking about the goodness of God, our experience of God’s goodness at our end in our humanity, in our fallenness, in our sin, in our unrighteousness, in our failure, in our, you know, all our insecurities and inadequacies, is experienced in the form of what the Bible calls grace and mercy.
What is grace? Unearned, undeserved and unmerited favour. Grace is giving us what we don’t deserve. Mercy is not giving us what we do deserve. We deserve judgment and punishment, for the wages of sin is death. We don’t get death. Why? On what righteous foundation and judicial basis can we not get the death we deserve? Jesus! died a sinner’s death, as an innocent man, as the sinless one, as God born into humanity, sinless, perfect, righteous, three times holy, Jesus took our place.
He died the sinner’s death, why? So we could have his life. Amazing.
So God says, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful. And so what he’s essentially saying here is, I’m going to be good to bad people. I’m going to bless the person you would least expect me to bless. I’m going to save the person you think is unsavable. I’m going to forgive the person you think is unforgivable. I’m going to accept the person you think should be rejected. And that’s the way he thinks.
My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are higher than your ways. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts.
See what I’m talking about right now fundamentally clashes with our logical human condition. It makes no sense to us that God can bless a mess. Its a religious mantra that God can’t bless a mess. So sort yourself out. Get yourself right with God. What does it mean to get right with God? And if it is on me to get right with God, how right do I have to get? And at what point can that right become wrong if the burden of the rightness is on me? That’s called a recipe for burnout and depression, no peace and most definitely no joy.
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.
Matthew 3:1-3 NIV
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for Him.’”
Final foundation text, Matthew 3 verse 1 to 3. In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, verse 2, and saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, or has come near. This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah. We were just there, we were just there, alright. A voice of one calling in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for him.
Repent, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Now I don’t know about you, my previous understanding of that word repent is more in keeping with the Latin definition of repent, which means penitentiary, pay penance, payback, punishment. Feel real bad about yourself and do everything within your power to make it right. Penance, penitentiary. Repent, that’s the Latin word, that is not the Greek word.
The Greek word for repentance is metanoia. Metanoia has absolutely nothing to do with that definition I just gave you. Metanoia is the combination of two words, meta and noia. There it is, meta together with noia, knowledge, nous, mind, thinking as he thinks. The pronouncement to repent was that he was essentially saying you are going to need to radically change the way you think in order to get on God’s page with regards to how he thinks and how he handles himself. And that repent is a constant theme through the gospel. Paul’s approaching the cross because the cross would provide a righteous foundation for a God to bless bad people, to save sinners, to forgive the unforgivable, to accept the rejected, to bless the cursed. The cross provided the foundation, right? And so what this declaration or this pronouncement of repentance is, get ready to be confronted with regards to how you think God would handle himself in this world.
Exhibit A, JESUS! Where do you think Jesus should have been born? The Lord of glory, three times holy, King of kings, Lord of lords, Prince of peace. I don’t think he would be born in a shed in Otara. What do you think? What about you? Is that where you think he would be born? No. So right from the get-go, God brings himself into the world in such a way that it would confront the way we think. My thoughts are not your thoughts. I would think he would be born in the Vatican in Rome. This amazing, brilliant, architecturally impeccable structure, that’s where he should be. Or maybe some of these gazillion multi-million dollar megachurch structures, that’s where he should be born, right there. That makes sense to me. No, that’s not where he’s born at all. I mean, most of us are born at least in a hospital. You know what I mean? At least have him born there, physician under the supervision of a holy man. Not under the supervision of a donkey and a goat and a sheep. That’s where Jesus is. That’s where God is born into humanity. Isn’t that amazing?
Alright then Richie, alright, we’ll accept that. But okay then, let’s talk about what sort of upbringing should he have and where should he emerge in terms of his career? I mean, off he goes to Bible college as a start and then off to university for a doctorate in theological, education and everything. No, no. He’s a chippy. A.K.A carpenter. The first 15 years, let’s just take it say from 15 through to 30, he’s on a work site! Yeah, is that, like have you ever thought about that? He’s having smoko with the boys. Turning up, doing the work, on the tools, probably smacked his thumb with the hammer from time to time. You know, rain, hail, shine, providing, you know, a livelihood. Sorry, that doesn’t make sense to me. Lord of glory, three times holy, king of kings, lord of lords, tool belt! Makes sense?
All right then, okay, we’ll give you that Richie, all right, well, okay, but then when he went into his ministry life, that’s when he really started handling himself how we would expect God to handle himself, yep. Where does he go? Does he go straight to hang out with the religious elite? Rabbi Gamaliel, the Sadducees and Pharisees, all of those who were obviously, from a worldly point of view, doing the religious work?
No, not at all. He goes and starts looking for random rascals like you and me. He actually gravitates towards sinners. Sorry, that does not make sense, that does not sound right. No, no, surely God, Lord of glory, three times holy, isn’t hanging out with them and is most certainly not coming to their defense. That’s exactly what he does. From the outset, he starts, engaging with people just like us. He accepts the rejected, the outcast, the repeat offender, comes to the defense of the prostitute, goes and has a feed with the fraudster. And you know the only ones who are getting really upset about that? Religious people. Yeah, with the most unlikely people is where Jesus is having an impact.
And all of those who were able to receive from him, were those who weren’t under the religious demands, interestingly. The only place Jesus encountered faith was those who were not under the law. Isn’t that interesting? Where he himself commended great faith. So his example completely contradicts what we would have thought, Lord of Glory, three times holy, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, would handle himself in the earth.
And all of religion so couldn’t cope with it, they took him to the cross.
Then he does the most unbelievable, radical, mind-blowing, life-changing, transformational act of all time. The innocent one, the perfect one, the righteous one, goes to the cross and suffers death, not just any death, death by way of crucifixion. He takes the place of the guilty man Barabbas. He goes free and Jesus takes his place, willingly, lovingly.
And at the point that all of us would have cursed out our false accusers, for putting us in their place, He does the opposite, Father forgive them! I will be gracious, to whom I will be gracious, and I will be merciful, my ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts, my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.
And in that moment on the cross, where Jesus, absorbed within Himself, the absolute worst, of humanity and died in our place, died the criminal’s death, died the sinner’s death, willingly. In that moment He opened up by way of the cross, the righteous foundation for you and I right now, to be able to receive all of God’s goodness with nothing held back, with not one demand or requirement except to freely receive it. The Bible says the grace of God has appeared to all mankind. And right there we saw in its fullness the perfect definition of what God looks like. How God thinks. How God handles himself. For God so loved the world that he sent his own son to do for us what we could not do, for ourselves.
And that’s the good news. That’s the message. That’s why Paul said 1 Corinthians 2.2 I have determined not to know anything among you, knowledge, nous, noia, metanoia, except Christ and him crucified. That now is his frame of reference. That’s why now we can say with complete confidence there is therefore now no condemnation for the one in Christ Jesus because Jesus has paid all sin debts in full. It is finished. How do you feel about that? Isn’t that amazing? I think that’s the most beautiful thing ever. I think that’s awesome.
So when John said repent for the kingdom of God is at hand, when Jesus himself said repent, what they were saying is you’ve got to understand that I’m not going to handle you and approach you the way you thought I would. In your failure, in your sin, in your lostness, in your helplessness, in your dysfunction, I’m not going to be how you think I would be or how you think I should be. And I’m able to be that way because the cross has provided a righteous foundation, for God to bless us with every blessing in the heavenly places in and on account of Christ Jesus. Isn’t that awesome?
I heard a statement this week that was just so in line with what I was thinking of bringing today and the statement was this, our God is not a transactional God. Our God is not a transactional God.
What do I mean by that? We live in a transactional world. We work to be rewarded. We perform to be accepted. Do good, get good. Do bad, get bad. Reward and punishment. Yeah, is that fair? That’s the world we’re accustomed to. I’m not sure about you but if I didn’t keep performing the way I’m performing in my workplace I wouldn’t have a workplace in about three weeks. How about you? And you know what? We, if we’re really honest, tend to handle other people transactionally. Am I right? We think God would handle us that way, but he doesn’t. We look at our life and we think, you know, look, I haven’t exactly been the picture of perfection with regards to what we think God would expect from us and therefore why on earth would I expect God to bless me, not realizing that’s not His way and that’s not His thoughts.
He sent His Son to prove that.
So we have this exchange for services, very transactional. The Law of Moses was a transactional document. Yeah? 613 rules, these are the things to do to get blessed, these are the things not to do to make sure you don’t get punished. Blessing, cursing, punishment, reward. It’s the law. It made sense to the carnal condition in the absence of spiritual knowledge. So we can connect with that idea, right? I mean it makes sense to me that if you steal something you’re going to jail. What about you? And so on many levels we’ve shaped this mindset to approach life on a transactional basis. We do it all the time. We even do it with ourselves.
But the problem is we do it with God. We think for me to be blessed by God I’ve got to do something worthy of being blessable. We think if something goes wrong it’s because I messed up, knowingly or unknowingly. It’s the way we think. It’s hardwired into the human condition. That’s why he said, repent, you have to change the way you think.
And you know who plays most strongly towards this condition in our humanity? Religion. Religion is the worst, and it manipulates people to believe that God is a transactional God. So they introduced the law for starters. The reason Paul described the law as the ministry of condemnation is because the law was never given to make us righteous. The law was given to show us there’s none righteous, no not one, all are sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and the sooner you come to accept that, now you’re ready to receive the grace of God. And everyone needs to know this, from our kids all the way through. Don’t expect God to handle you how you think He would handle you or handle me. And the cross constantly speaks to that reality. Oh, so Richie, you’re giving a license to go and do a whole lot of bad stuff? You know what? People said that to the Apostle Paul as well. They could not handle that God would be good to bad people. So man ends up in religion, particularly starts making a God in your own image, a God that’s mad today, happy tomorrow. He loves me. He loves me not. He loves me. He loves me not. And they set up a whole lot of transactional frameworks to make you perform your socks off. If you do this, you’ll get that. If you don’t do this, you won’t get that. You better turn up to get blessed. There’s a special open window from heaven right now. You better take advantage of it because it’s about to close. Garbage, absolute rubbish. And most conferences out there no different to the world. They leverage off emotion, and trying to get you worked up to perform towards something, only to realize, well flip, that was all good, but why do I feel burnout, empty, and far from God a week later? We’re wrong, we’re thinking wrong. People are captive for lack of knowledge. God’s grace overrides all that. Have a look at this. Let me just dig in a little bit more to this thinking.
Matthew 5:45-46 NIV
45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
This is Jesus. Matthew 5 45, He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good. He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Yeah, if you, You love those who love you, big deal, whipty, dipty, doo! Even the world does that. Even the tax collectors, so the tax collectors were the ones deemed by the religious elite as the worst of the worst, unsavable, well even they do good to people who do good to them. So what’s being said here, you think God’s moved by your good deeds? No.
I had a mind-blowing experience coming out of a religious setting into a very secular setting, where the people in the unchristian environment were as generous if not more so, were as honest if not more so, were more giving, were more accepting, demonstrated more of the characteristics of what we call the fruit of the spirit than what I’ve experienced in a religious environment. Which really got me thinking, hang on a minute. And I actually find, and I’ve had the benefit of being able to have a decade in two different worlds now, that they’re actually as generous, as giving, if that’s the hallmark, of what it takes to be blessed by God, then a lot of Christian folks. And all this time I thought the whole deal here was just to keep God happy with us by just doing all the mahi to stay in His good books and to prove that I am as I am meant to be. And that was really quite a blessing. a moment of truth for me, that then surely there must be something else, this must be about something else. And that, thankfully, by the grace of God, coincided with a revelation, albeit an entry level of the grace of God, that this is how God handles himself, that he’s not transactional, he’s relational, and importantly, he’s transformational. What is it that transforms the human heart? I’ll tell you. It’s when he blesses someone who’s expecting to be cursed. It’s when he accepts someone who expects to be rejected. It’s when he forgives the unforgivable. It’s the cross. That’s what changes the human heart.
It is the goodness of God that leads to, what, what’s the word, where did we start, repent, for the kingdom of God is here. What produces repentance? The goodness of God. That He has done for me what I can’t do for myself. He’s given me all of himself and held nothing back and I haven’t done a thing to earn it. All I can do is freely receive it.
That’s why Jesus said, come to me and I will give you rest. That’s awesome, man. That’s amazing. Now I understand why Paul was just, he was like on a record that just keeps saying the same thing and saying the same thing and saying the same thing. Thanks be to God and our Lord Jesus Christ who’s blessed us with every blessing. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. He imparts to us a righteousness not based on our works, but on the basis of faith – purely on the basis of our trusting His finished work.
Paul was facilitating a culture of true repentance, which is starting to understand God does not think how we think, doesn’t handle Himself how we handle ourselves. And you know what true repentance is? It’s coming into agreement with God about who He is and how He handles Himself. And the transformational aspect of that reality is what starts to produce the fruit of God Himself in our lives. Not through effort. This is it. This is what it is all about.
Yeah, but what about Richie? You know, you’ve got to sow a seed to get a harvest. Yeah, you do. 100%. Genesis 8, 22, for as long as the earth remains. seed time and harvest, heat and cold, day and night, winter and summer, will not cease. That’s what’s been set in motion in the earth.
Genesis 8:22 NIV
22 “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”
My ways are heavenly ways, your ways are earthly ways, 100%.
The principle of sowing and reaping is true, and guess what? Not only Christians practice it. I know, in my workplace it is practised by unbelievers, you know what they call it? The abundance mindset, versus the scarcity mindset. They practice it, 100%. You look at any, I would say a lot of successful people, from a wealth point of view around the world, are very generous, and it’s no different than, you know, generous Christians. That is what’s set in motion in the earth. But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about God’s ways. Higher ways. Heavenly ways. How He handles Himself towards us. Are you with me? As long as the earth remains, those principles are in play, take advantage of them. Use them. That’s what they’re there for. But in the same way God makes the sun to shine and the rain to come down on righteous and unrighteous people, the principle of sowing and reaping is available to, and practised by both. It’s not just night and day for Christians, it’s night and day for them too. It’s not just hot and cold for Christians, it’s hot and cold for them too. It’s not just sowing and reaping for Christians, it’s sowing and reaping for them too. Don’t think there’s anything special about that. The church will drive performance from that perspective though, you better sow a seed brother. Really? Okay, so where does the cross come into it then?
Because I don’t see Paul saying you’re blessed with every blessing in the heavenly places when you bring your tithe on Sunday. He says you’re blessed in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, because He paid the price that you and I could not pay. And when you discover that, when you discover that level of love, when you discover that level of goodness, it produces something in you that wants to move how God moves, wants to handle yourself how God handles himself. And we don’t see the principle of giving as loss, and can give with no strings attached and expectation of return. We see it as a part of the divine nature that shows love, that shows grace, that shows mercy. Yeah? You with me? Let me finish here.
God’s favour, and I’m going to underline this, is not earned. It is not earned. It is freely given and received.
Grace and mercy. The wages of sin is death. Jesus died our death. So we could enter into his life. He says because I live you live also, Right. So all that is true of Jesus now is true of us on the basis of its availability, Supplied to us on the grounds of the cross of Calvary the righteous foundation. Amen, You cannot buy or perform your way, into God’s blessings.
Acts 8:14-20 NIV
14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money 19 and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
20 Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!”
Story to finish, Acts chapter 8 verse 14, When the Apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted or received the Word of God, They sent Peter and John to Samaria, When they arrived they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit Also known as the Spirit of Grace, Because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit when Simon, and Simon formerly a sorcerer, from the world of manipulation, saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the Apostles’ hands, he offered them money, transactional mindset, and said, give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive what I pay you for. Yeah? See the transactional mindset? Whereas we know God’s ways are not that way, freely received, right? May receive the Holy Spirit. Now look at this rebuke here from Peter. Peter turns his attention towards Simon, may your money perish with you. Because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money.
Now, do you know religion? One thing it majors in is selling gifts of God for money. Or gifts of God for effort. Or gifts of God for work or performance or labour. It’s not God’s way. And so Peter absolutely takes that concept and crushes it. Your money. The idea that you could buy the gift of God, is such an affront to the price Jesus paid. The idea that we think we can move God by what we do, is such an affront to the price Jesus paid – to get what He’s already given us as a gift of grace by way of the cross as an expression of His love. That’s crazy. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways.
And so you see this rebuke here. Peter is shutting down the idea that God is transactional. He’s not. He’s all about transformation. He’s all about inviting us into this world of His goodness that’s so mind-blowing that word good news in the Bible actually isn’t really doing justice to what it means because of the human perception of what goodness is. God’s goodness is not human goodness man. He’s not transactional and I know this and I think if you’re honest and I’m probably talking to some fella watching online right now, if you’re honest you have to accept this. You’ve been performing for God for years. You’ve been doing what you’re told and guess what? No discernable blessing over and above your hard-working working unsaved colleagues. I get it. We only know what we know right? People are captive for lack of knowledge and you’ve done a whole lot of stuff and guess what? You haven’t been blessed at biblical proportions, as you were led to believe you would be. Let’s be honest. You’re not doing any better really than you were before. You’re hoping, you’re believing, oh here’s a good one, don’t grow weary, and then you know you’re captured in the cycle of defeat because I’m not getting what I deserve.
But that’s not grace. That’s transactional. Right?
And I know this because in South Auckland, where I operate, it’s the most churched community in New Zealand, it’s also got the most poverty, it’s got a lot of dysfunction, I’m just stating the facts, I’m part of this. It’s got all of the negative socio-economic markers, but that doesn’t make sense because I can tell you what, there’s beautiful, well-intentioned, well-meaning people doing the mahi for God, nothing to show for it, oh, except in a few places, but I won’t go there, it’s not with the people though, I can tell you that, facts, facts. What’s the problem, metanoia, mind renewal, people are captive for lack of knowledge.
Let me finish here. Jesus said in Matthew 10.8, freely you have received, freely give, that’s it. Freely you have received, that’s the flow. Paul, for that which I receive from the Lord, I give. John, out of his fullness as a source, we have all received, grace on top of grace already given. John 1.15, for the law came through Moses, transactional religion came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Transformational. Relational. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither your ways my ways, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways. My way is higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts, amen.
Can we distribute the emblems please? The challenge though, and let me say this in finishing, because I feel like this needs to be said, and if anyone, you know, you’re watching this online and you think, actually I think you might have a point there Richie, yeah, I know, for sure. The problem is there are so many people who have been involved in organised religion and here’s what they’re thinking. They’ve served hard, they’ve done, you know, full-on seasons of serving, and deep on the inside they think several things. Number one, they’re disillusioned, they think, man, maybe God’s just indifferent with me and this is the best I can expect. Number two, God is actually mad at me because none of the blessings turned up. That’s another thing. And some just stop believing altogether, you know, struggle along with this deep-seated sense of anxiety towards God.
Because they’ve never known. That’s not God’s way, man. That is not God’s way. Transactional means you go, get lost, don’t come back. God’s way is higher – I will never leave you, nor forsake you. You know you’re in a transactional environment when, as soon as you stop doing what’s demanded, silent treatment, isolation, marginalised, you know, all that sort of stuff.
The challenge is though, is that everyone needs a metanoia moment. The realisation, the deep-seated discovery of God’s goodness, not in our best, but in our worst. When we have that, it changes. The lights come on, we come into full-definition colour, and we find this peace enters our heart that, man, God is so good. He loved me to that extent. He loved me in my worst. Why would he not now, together with Jesus, freely give me all things? That’s the word. That’s why Paul determined to know the cross, man, because he knew right there in that space. Beautiful. I know the thoughts I think towards you, says the Lord. Thoughts of what? Peace. Not of evil. To give you a future and a hope.