Cornerstone PLUS

We're gonna have our bible reading now. And, so Steven Emma, are gonna come and read Psalm 1 3 9. You can find it on paid 6 to 8 of the bibles on your seats. Sam, a hundred and 39, and it's page 628 in the church bibles. You have searched me, lord, and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down. You are familiar with all my ways. But word is on my tongue, you lord know it completely.

You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. So knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there.

If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise in the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there, your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast. If I say surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, even the darkness will be dark it will be even the darkness will not be dark to you. The nights will shine like the day.

For darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonder be made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret when I was woven together in the depths of the Earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body, all the days ordained for me were written in your book before 1 of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts god? How vast is the sum of them? Where I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.

When I awake, I am still with you. If only you god would slay the wicked, away from me you who are bloodthirsty, They speak of you with evil intent. Your adversaries must use your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, lord? And abhor those who are rebelling against you, I have nothing but hatred for them.

I count them my enemies. Search my god and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts, see if there are any offensive ways in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Well, let me add my welcome. My name's Pete Woodcock.

I'm the pastor of the church. Dean, who was leading that first bid is is our family's worker, so it's really lovely. If you're a a guest and a visitor here. We've had a baby boom this year in this church. I think we've got 16 babies or there's still some to be born, and these are 5.

So it's a bit like a factory, actually. So if you think we're a cult, then I think we are actually. I think there's something sort of weird about what's going on and it was something in the water or I don't know what's going on anyway. I was going for 1 at the beginning when we sort of knew that there were several being born. I thought, oh, this is terrific.

Let's go for 1 a month, you know, but I think that you blew it, didn't you? You come early or late? I can't remember Yeah. Yeah. But it's no.

It's it's absolutely fantastic. So let me add my welcome. There's some there's something about the birth of a child and it it does change us. It is obviously a significant thing. There's something about the birth of a child that changes us or and there's something about if you if you seriously look at a newborn baby there is something that will change us just looking at a newborn baby.

We know we know that. It's a it's a beautiful thing. Now obviously if it's your child everything changes. Your daily and nightly routine cannot be called a routine anymore. You're interrupted in every In fact, you really lose your freedom.

And I guess at times, I think I can remember thinking this, at times you lose your freedom to this little dictator. And you're just like a servant of this thing that just, you know, consumes your all your time. So everything changes at the birth of a child and looking at a new child physically, obviously, hormonally, all that sort of stuff goes on. But emotionally, but what I've noticed is I think that's all sort of obvious. What I have noticed is at the birth of a child is people change spiritually.

Now what what I mean by that is that having a baby is is a sort of transcendent moment. What I mean by that is that it we start thinking of things bigger than we normally do. We we start to change our thinking, even about god actually, and where we come from. It's not hard when you look at a newborn baby. It's not hard to agree with that poem, that Psalm in the Bible that talks about being wonderfully or fearfully and wonderfully made.

Yeah. You've put that up at the wrong time, but it doesn't matter, fearfully and wonderfully made. That's fine. It isn't hard, is it to suddenly start agreeing with that old poem that was written thousands of years ago and is in the Bible. Now, I I want to be upfront with you.

I'm a I'm a Christian minister. I believe the Christian, thinking and explanation about the world that you find in the Bible. I've believed that for many years. And I have to say that, as I go on in time as I as I look at the world as I deal with people individually groups of people as I look at what's going on even in our country. And as I read other theories and philosophies about an explanation of the world, I am actually genuinely more and more convinced that the Christian explanation in the Bible is actually right.

It really fits. There are there's obviously difficulties There's hard questions as there are with anything, but it fits like a hand in a glove. It fits and explains what's going on and and what the world is like. So I wanna be upfront with you and tell you that's what I am. Obviously, I'm a Christian minister.

But I also want to to say to those that have had have been been through this service, the parents. I want to say that I want to remind you of the stuff that you've just been saying and, and just to really impress on you, this is really important. So there's a number of things I think you get when you look at a newborn baby. Here's the first 1. That's my first point, fearfully and wonderfully made.

That's what that in the Bible says, a child is fearfully and wonderfully made. So according to the Christian thinking and explanation of the world, A child is fearfully and wonderfully stitched together made. They are not just an accident, which is a philosophy that's really pushed on us. In our country. The Bible says they're not just an accident.

Now, of course, there are loads of theories about life and death and the universe and who we are and where we come from and, you know, what is there a purpose? Those questions have been asked by humanity right the way through the history of of the human race. And you might, you know, have a way of answering them but when you look at the baby, when you feel that little is it gonna work? No. Brilliant.

When you feel, that little can you go on to the next slide? Thank you. Someone will do it. There, that 1. When you see that that hand, I mean, I was looking at EXecious little hand, By the way, I've worked out how to stop ezekiel crying.

I don't know why the parents haven't got it. Ezekiel is a prophet in the old testament ezekiel is a great lie. There's a great story about ezekiel coming before these valley of dry bones and telling them to live. This is amazing. And there's an old song.

It's 1 of my favorite songs. It's called them bones them bones them dry. If you sing that, I nearly got up because I wanted to prove it. But then I thought, oh, it might not work. But if you sing them bones, you just go like that to him.

Them bones them bones them. Dry bones. And he he smiles, see? There's his ezekiel come back. No, I don't believe that.

But you look at you look at a a newborn baby's hand and then they grip your finger, which they always do when you put your finger in. It's very very hard, isn't it? To just say to yourself, that's a bunch of atoms randomly thrown together by the same forces that rust iron and rot apples. It's hard to believe that when you see that. Even though that's a, a doctrine that is imprinted onto us you know, right the way through school years.

It's hard to believe that. It's much easier to believe that that is a designed amazing bit of design in the finger. It's fearfully and wonderfully made. And people have always believed that actually I mean, there are some very strange, descriptions of designs. So Plato, 400 years before Jesus Christ was born and to this earth.

He described man. He said man is a plume less genus of bipeds, which when you work you know, when you work out what that means, it means a featherless family of 2 legged animals. Now obviously that's a design but it's not very nice to say, you know, Amelia, you're just, you know, you're just like a plucked chicken. Or here's another philosopher. He said that all we are is a pair of pincers which is the mouth set over bellows set over a stew pan, that's the stomach, or the whole thing on stilts.

Now if I said that's all of Angeline is. I know Matt's fearful enough, awesome enough for me to have this great box between me and him. We don't believe. I mean, it's designed. Obviously, they believe in the service for she's much more than that.

Another philosopher said this, I like this 1. Said that humans are just an ingenious assembly of portable plumbing. I mean, that is right. As as sometimes it just doesn't go in the right direction, either. The the the tap doesn't aim aim correctly.

But But they're all about design even though they're very limited ideas. This is what this Psalm says. What do I press? You press it. Thank you.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your work so wonderful. I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Now it's poetry, but it's beautifully saying something that is real. That you're fearfully and wonderfully made. From birth to death, from conception, to the last heartbeat we live in a called frame called a body, which is more finely engineered than anything we could create. It is extraordinary just to look at that baby's hand. Therefore, this is what I wanna say.

We're of great value. There's not much value in an accident, but there's great value in something that is made. So these children that we've just seen are made, and they're made by god, therefore they have great value. That's the Christian explanation of these children. They have great value.

Let me let me try to illustrate it. Imagine if you move house and you think, well, I wonder what's up in the loft and you go and have a look in the loft, and you're rootling around with your torch and you find an old painting. And you think, oh, this is dirty. It's got mold on it. It's got to rip through it.

It's got a coffee stain on it. But then you lick your thumb and you go across the signature and you suddenly find oh, I can't press it. You press it. You suddenly find you've got 1 of these. A van gogh.

Now e even if it had coffee stains on it, and even if even if it was ripped, it will be worth millions. Why? Because of who the artist is, If the artist is Van Go, then then then that is worth millions, even if it was just a little sketch by him. If the designer and artist of this fearfully, wonderfully made thing is god, then these children are precious. You see that?

If they're an accident I have to be honest. If they're an accident, it doesn't matter what happens to them. So that's the first thing. I think when you look at a newborn child, you see they're fearfully and wonderfully made. And so ezekiel and Amelia and Ethan and theodore, they are fearfully, wonderfully met.

Have a look at them. Have a look at them. Here's the second thing I think you get when you look at a newborn child. They're made for a purpose. Now there's a philosophical term here it's called the telological view of nature.

Telological. It's a big word it's coming back in fashion. It's an old Greek word. It comes from the Greek word telos, which means purpose or goal. And what it's saying is that when you look at the world and when you look at children, then there is a purpose for them They're made for a purpose like these watch parts are not made to be individual separate parts.

They're made to be a purpose they're made to be a watch or a clock. Here's what 1 philosopher writes about this purpose, this goal, this telological position. She writes, in other words, it is evident that living things are structured for a purpose. Eyes for seeing is for hearing, fins for swimming, wings for flying, each part of an organ is exquisitely adapted to the others and all interact in a coordinated goal directed fashion to achieve the purpose of the whole. This kind of integrated structure is the hallmark of design, plan, will intention.

If we're made, we're made for a purpose. For a purpose. And actually, funny enough, more and more philosophers and more and more thinkers, and actually even more and more scientists are coming into this telological sort of explanation that actually there is a purpose for things. It's not just an accident. Victor Franco, now it's going back some time, but he wrote a very, very, important book on on on psychology and psychiatry.

And he he wrote this book called a man's search for meaning. He actually was in Auschwitz as a Jew, and he noticed, those that survived, what was the thing that helped people survive if you could in that in that terror in those terrible conditions. And then he went into psychiatry and psychology, and he he did a lot of thinking, and he wrote this this seminal book, man's search for meaning. And this is what he says. He says the striving to find a meaning in one's life is the primary motive motivational force in man.

The mass neurosis of the present time is this existential vacuum. In other words, there's no meaning. It is the loss of the sense that life is meaningful. It leads to boredom, alcoholism, juvenile delinquency, and suicide. Now he wrote that years ago, but his point is that if there is no overall arching meaning, overall arching purpose to us then we will lose control.

We will lose what life is about. We'll become bored and holics, whatever that may be, workaholic, alcoholic, you know, whatever. And that that virus is an amazing thing. Not to have meaning is an appalling thing for a human being. Meaningless actually has a meaning Meaningless means that you are a waste of space that these children and really nothing important.

It's interesting. I know a lot of people like Brian Cox on the telly. He's just got a song out with the old group called orbital, if any of you remember them, sort of techno group. I I recommend that you listen to that new song by orbital with, featuring Brooke, Brian Cox. It is staggering.

Now he's on the telly, telling us what he believes all the time. Preaching at us all the time on the radio tele or or can't constantly. He says this, life is meaningless. He says you will die. And in 4000000000 years time, the whole universe will be gone and you are a nothing.

Now can we say that to these children? Welcome to the world. You're nothing important. No. We rescued him, don't we?

I I I mean, I've always think Matt. I mean, Evangeline was created and designed. If you wanna believe in a design, Evangeline was created to sit in Matt's arm. I mean, it's just amazing. I mean, she's not not he was had he had her in the other arm, the other, very, very out of order.

In the right arm, like that. I mean, when she's 18, I think she'll still be there. Yeah. I I'm really looking forward to the young 18 year old that's going to ask her out. Because you have to get through Matt.

That will be it. But, you know, there's a there's a design that he will protect her. Why? If she's a meaningless random occurrence of atoms, why would you do that? There's no no no sense.

At the risk to his own life. Now we know that there's there's meaning in these children. There is some meaning that it's even bigger than us. See, I think it's 1 of the reasons why that statistic that came out last week of of 14 year olds in 1 year in our country 14 year olds that a hundred and 10000 of them. That's 1 quarter of all 14 year olds in our country are self harming Now they're blaming social media and they're blaming, exam pressure, which I do think there are blames in those 2 areas, but they're not going they need to go a bit deeper.

There's a meaningless What's the point of getting exams if if we just fade away into nothing? What is the point of this? So when you see a newborn baby, we do talk like of destiny and purpose. But, you know, Why do we only keep it to a child? Is there?

It's sad, isn't it at the end of life? That we can say that life is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. At the end of life of ezekiel or Amelia or Theo, or Ethan, Are we reverting back to that philosophy that life is a tale told by an idiot signifying nothing full of sound and fury? Is that it? No.

I think we need to come back to this fundamental Christian education, Christian teaching, and it will stop that. So in the Psalm, look at the some of these words. There's so much in this song. I can't show you everything. For you created my innermost being, you see you were I was created by this god.

You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made your works are wonderful. I know them full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the sikh place when I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body or the days ordained for me were written in your book before 1 of them came to be. See this purpose.

God has a purpose for us. We are made. We're made for a purpose. Something bigger. Something transcendent.

Something grander than even our own plans. So there's the first 2 things, fearfully, wonderfully made, made for a purpose. Here's my third thing. We're made for relationships. Do you remember this?

I I mean, I think toy stories were just magnificent films, but there was a fantastic thing wasn't it when buzz lightyear was all depressed because he just thought he was only a toy and then he was reminded that actually, no no he belongs to and he's got Andy written on his foot that he's not just a toy. He's not just a play thing. Actually, he belongs He was made for a relationship. It was a lot. If you haven't seen toy story, then and if you've got kids, then they're the 3, some of the 3 great films of have been done for for whole families.

But we're made for relationships. That's what the Bible says. Sarah and Sarah Burruins which were were among us. They've just gone, Dean prayed for them. They've just gone up to chesterfield to minister up there.

Sarah Breins was a doctor. She was a local GP. She writes this. Actually in the little book that I'd I'd love you to take home which is our sort of church magazine that may be on your seat. She writes this.

She says, when a baby is born, we aren't really thinking about the amazing changes occurring in the body. She talks about that. But listen to what she says. When a baby is born, we're looking into its eyes and realizing there is a whole human being in that tiny bundle. Someone to love, to teach, to sacrifice for, to watch grow.

This also reminds us she writes that god is a god of relationship who loves and teaches. We are reminded that as we know, as we would do anything to protect and help this helpless baby, so god sacrificed all he had for us. So she's saying that when you see this miracle, this fearfully and wonderfully made thing. It is amazing but not only that when you look into the child's eyes, you see that it's all about relationship. And relationship is the most important thing.

There really isn't anything more important in the world than relationship. I mean, isn't it true? You can go on the the top of the mountain and see a man amazing view, but if you're on your own, it's nowhere near as good. As if you can share it with someone, is it? I mean, if you're at school, do you remember some of us better when you're at school, If you're in friendship, even a maths lesson is okay, isn't it?

But if you're not in any friendship, even playtime is a horror, isn't it? Relationships are so important. They are more important than job and money and education. We sort of know it but we fall for the sort of lie that we've got to be all about money and job and and exams. No relationships are important.

And god has made us 4 relationships because god of the Bible is altogether different from Other theories of god. God in the Bible is 1 god in 3 persons, father, son, and holy spirit. They've always been in relationship. Relationship is at the heart of the universe, and he created and designed and made us so that we would relate. But not only relate to each other, which is really important, but to him, We were made for the purpose of relationship with god.

We'll always be half a human being if if we don't know him. Because that's what our purpose is. So in the Psalm, I don't know whether I've got it up, you know, to do to the next slide. No, okay. Back again.

In the Psalm, it says this. Have a listen. You have searched me lord and you know me, you know me when I sit and when I stand. There's an intimacy here with god. There's a there's not just an that isn't just a knowledge word, an academic knowledge.

That is a intimate relational word God knows me, I know god. That is why Jesus taught us to to talk about god, not just a god or a concept or a force, but as father. That's why church is not just coming to a building and doing religious stuff. It's a family, it's relational. Is relational.

So we're fearfully and wonderfully made for a purpose to be in relationship with many people but with god. And that leads me to my fourth thing. You had a flash of it. Let's go up to the next slide. Is there actually we're broken.

We're broken in our relationship with God, and that's why we need to be remade in the Psalm again, well, you sorry. You're you're realized, weren't you? That, in in in life, it's not long until you find out that relationships get broken very easily. We all know they're brilliant, but they're so hard to keep good, aren't they? And as parents, you suddenly know that this little darling is made for relationships, but blimey they're testing me.

Yeah. And and that's what happens. And then when it comes to god, you think, well hold it. If I was made for a purpose, Is it possible to misuse something that's made for a purpose? Yes, it is.

It's it's possible to take something that was made for 1 purpose and use it for another, and actually it just misuses and abuses it. So if my watch is made to tell the time, and I start using it as a rubber duck to replace my bath rubber duck, then I'm gonna have problems with my my watch. It wasn't made for that. And when you read this song, there's something scary about it. Because we're fearfully wonderfully made, we're made for a purpose, we're made for relationship, but you suddenly read these words, where can I go from your spirit where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens you are there, if I go make my bed in the depths you are there, I if I rise on the wings of the door and if I settle on the far side of the sea. Even there, your hand will guide me and your right hand will uphold me. If I say, surely, the darkness will hide me. And so there's this idea of sort of hiding from god. And and this writer, this poem is saying, it's a it's a bit like that old police song, you know, every step I take, every move I make, you know, I'll be watching you and you think, yeah.

Wow. If god is watching me to the depths of my being and he knows me to it's not always pretty what's going on inside. And if I was made for the purpose of relationship, I've broken so many. Haven't you? And if I was made for a relationship with god, well, I don't think I have 1.

And this is where the Christian hope is in. Oh, this is where the Christian hope is in. This is what the Christian message is so wonderful. It's so realistic. It shows us we're fearfully wonderfully made.

It shows us we're fearfully wonderfully made for a purpose. It shows us that we're fearfully made a wonderfully made for the purpose of relationship we got, but it shows us that we haven't got that relationship that something's gone wrong, but then it shows us that we can be remade. That's the Christian message. It's so good because it's all about Jesus seeking and saving, that which was lost lost to its purpose. It's not about you trying to raise your game or be moral or be religious.

It's about god seeking and saving to bring us into this relationship so that we could know god as father. It's extraordinary. And that's why the best stories in the by are in the Bible. And that's why I want to say to you couples, make sure your children, that's why we've given you a bible, early bible for children. Read the stories because it puts these things in place.

It's telling Evangeline, it's telling Theodore, it's telling Ethan, it's telling Ethan, It's telling ezekiel. What's the other 1? Amelia. It's it's telling them. I've got them now.

I'll get them all muddled up later. It's telling them that that that you were made, fearfully, wonderfully, that you are so valued. You're not an accident. You've got a purpose to know god, but there's this wonderful forgiveness, this new life, this new star that Jesus has come to save you. He told the story of the lost son who'd gone away, but would came back of the lost sheep that had gone astray but the shepherd went out to reach him of the lost coin that was completely lost but the owner searched until she found it.

He told the stories in order to say that god is coming to save us to rescue us, to find us, to make us whole. The word is shalom, to make us complete. Peace, not divided. Not separated from what we were meant to be, but real human beings. These are the best stories.

These are the best things you could ever get. That's what I want to say to people. Why on? Do you know, maybe if we sent a hundred and 10014 year old girls to Sunday school, where they heard about these stories, maybe they wouldn't self harm. I actually believe that would be true to some degree.

But when you've lost purpose, When you're told you're an accident, when you're told there's no real meaning, except for the the tiny now of getting exams. Making a bit of money. When you see that's all there is, then there's a hopelessness. So I want to encourage you I want to say, look, I mean, as a church, if you if you don't know about this church, then I would want to encourage it. We have all kinds of things we do to treat teach children's storage.

You have a thing called breakfast church. You get a free breakfast. 9 to 10. That's on your seats. We have Hub club on a Wednesday evening.

So you can't make a Sunday. It's, Wednesday. What time is it? 5 o'clock? Fantastic hub club packed full of children.

And they hear the stories of Jesus. We have a fantastic Sunday school team here. All of them have been, you know, DBS you know, police checked and all of that sort of stuff. There's a terrific dedicated team that tell people the stories of the lord Jesus. But if you really want to convince your children about that, you need to be convinced by that.

And perhaps you need to look into that. Perhaps the birth of the child has changed your thinking enough for you to say, okay, I'm gonna have a relook at the Christian explanation. We'd love you to do that. We're here for that. We're not here to indoctrinate you.

We're here to help you. And if you would like help on that, or would like to know other things we've got on, then please please find out and ask us. Dillegally, thank you for that amazing song that says that we're fearfully and wonderfully made. Help us to see that in these wonderful little children. In Jesus' name.

Ma'am,