Cornerstone PLUS

Well, let me oh, well. Let me add my, my welcome. I'm the pastor of the church. It's lovely to have you with us if you're friends and family and, it was fantastic to have you. We we've had a baby boom in this church.

It's gone crazy. And I think we had 17 births last year. 1 1 below 2018. So but now we've got a whole load of, others that are ready to pop So these these things are gonna happen quite often. So it's it's it's lovely to see and it's so lovely to have so many children and babies.

There's something about the birth of a child, if we're honest, that absolutely changes us. It can't help but change us there's something about looking at a newborn baby that really does change us. So you even get sort of hardened blokes that don't show emotion. Suddenly, you know, when you're when you're at the corner of your eye, if you see them with a child, they they start going gooey and saying things like things like this. It's very strange, isn't it?

Or even a cynical person, you know, a hard cynical person. You see them on the bus. And then a baby comes on the bus and there's a smile comes over a a rather hard cynical face. It's quite it it does change us a baby. And and obviously if you're if you're the parents of a child, your whole life has been completely obliterated really.

It becomes chaos. You can't sleep anymore properly time. What is time? Is there time? You know, and your freedom seems to have gone and this beautiful little baby that everybody goes over is like a little dictator, you know, shouting out in the middle of the night.

I want, whatever it is. So life changes. Children changes. They change us physically They change us emotionally. They change us spiritually if I can use that word.

I've noticed this. Suddenly people start to think in sort of bigger categories than they normally think. There are what is called in sort of big terms, a transcendent sort of moment. In other words, there's something bigger. When you look at this small thing that's smaller than you, there's something about it that not only changes us physically emotionally and all kinds of other ways, but Actually, there's this transcendence.

There's this this big it's very easy to agree with the Bible. Suddenly, the Bible makes sense. When we see a little child. So that Psalm that we read, which is a song in the Bible. That's what a Psalm is.

The Psalm writer says, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together, fearfully and wonderfully made. It's very easy, isn't it?

To look at a child and say they're fearfully and wonderfully made. Isn't it? They're not just a an accident. Now I wanna be upfront with you here. I I want to encourage those that have made commitments.

To families and to these children. I wanna be upfront. I'm obviously a Christian minister. I wholeheartedly believe the ex exclamation or the explanation of the world that is found in the Bible, I really do. And as I look around and as I grow older and as I, am more involved in people's lives, difficult times, and joyful times, and as I read the world and as I read other ideas about the world.

To be honest, I'm more and more convinced about the Christian faith and how it explains our world. It fits it fits like a hand in a glove. And it answers some of those questions that we have. Now there are difficult questions to ask the Christian belief Of course, there are any belief can have some difficult questions to ask. And sometimes we're not sure how to answer, but nevertheless, I am convinced that I wanna be upfront with you that the Christian explanation of you and me and children and the world fits fits like a hand in a glove by what you see.

Fearfully and wonderfully made. That's the first picture I want you to see. These children, Noah, and Rona and Caleb, they're they're fearfully and wonderfully made. That's the first thing I want us to sort of understand here. These these children are fearfully and it's the Christian message that explains that.

There are all kinds of theories about life. You know, where we've come from, what is the point, what is the purpose? People have asked those questions all the way down the history of of humanity. And perhaps you've asked those questions, but when you see a child, it is very, very hard to say that they're just an accident. It's very hard to keep that belief system going, isn't it?

It's very hard to say that all these children are are a bunch of atoms randomly thrown together by the same forces that rust iron and ripen apples. It's very hard to say that. When you look at this baby, Look at let me look at the hands when you look at a little hand. That is an extraordinary bit of engineering. A beautiful bit of engineering with masses of engineering so that e eve even can feel pain, and heat, and cold, and touch, and love.

It's remarkable There are all kinds of ideas about, children that have been over the years, Plato, the great philosopher 400 years before Jesus Christ. He said that that people are a plume less genus of bipeds, which basically means there are there are there are featherless family of 2 legged animals. And 1 of his critics came with a plucked chicken and held it up and said, behold Plato's man. Now, listen, I think you would be offended if I said that all Rona is is just a naked ape or a plucked chicken. That's all she is.

She's no more important than a plucked chicken. I think we'd say, gosh, That's harsh. She's just a fortuitous occurrence of atoms, random, meaningless. Someone else said this, describing a human that there are a pair of pincers, set over bellows, set over a stewpan, and the whole thing on stilts. Now, okay.

That's a very interesting way of describing someone, but it's not very sort of Do you know if you boiled down and I'm not suggesting you do, 1 of these children, they're only they're only worth their chemicals are only worth a few pounds. Only a few pounds. You'd only get a few pounds for Caleb, you know. You only get a few pounds for Cleo. If you boil her down, if you're thinking of selling her, best to sell her as a whole thing.

But to people just say we're just random chemicals. It's very hard to say that. When you see these pictures. Listen to this old writer in the Psalms in the Bible. It should come up.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Someone described the baby as an ingenious assembly of portable plumbing, But that's but that's fearfully and wonderfully made, isn't it? It's extraordinary plumbing. I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful.

I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you, hidden from you. When I was made in the secret place when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. From birth to death, from conception to the last heartbeat. We live in a frame that is more finely engineered than anything we could create.

Therefore, these children are of great value. Because of that, they're of great value. Because god has fearfully and wonderfully made them, They're of great value. That's why you would protect them because they're of great value, fearfully, wonderfully made. Look, have a look at this picture here.

You'll know who that's from. It's a that's a a van gogh and that's worth millions and millions of pounds. And, you may like it, you may not. I I think it's fantastic. But, you know, that's worth millions and it's worth millions because of who signed it, who painted it, who made it, who created it.

Because It's not a random collection of paint. It was created by 1 of the world's greatest artists. It had an artist behind it. It is worth something, fearfully, wonderfully made, Noah, is worth a lot more than the chemicals that make him up because he was made by god. Touch Noah, you're touching the creation of god.

Sean, he's made perfectly by god, Cleo, Rona, Caleb. These aren't random accidents. These aren't who cares about them. They're not just things that are born and then they die, and that's it. They're fearfully, wonderfully made by god.

The second thing I want you to see, though, next picture, please. Is that they're made for a purpose. They're made for a purpose. Now if you want the sort of big word, it's telological. Teological.

Now, the reason I use that is because lots of people are beginning to use that now. They're coming round back to this old Greek word. Teleological simply means it's a Greek word that simply means it has a purpose. It has a reason. It has a goal.

There is a reason for it. So if you see these collections of things on this picture here, you know that actually even though they're deconstructed there, there is a reason for each 1 of those things to come together collectively and make a watch. There's a reason. There's a telos. There's a reason for it.

1 modern philosopher, wrote this last year In other words, it is evident that living things are structured for purpose. Eyes For seeing is for hearing, fins are for swimming and wings are for flying. Each part of an organ is exquisitely adapted to the others and all interact in coordinate in coordinated goal directed fashion to achieve the purpose of the whole. Listen to what this writer says. This kind of integrated structure is the hallmark of design, plan.

Will, intention. And what is interesting is that more and more thinkers are coming round to this old conclusion that actually there is purpose, there is telos, there is reason. If you go back to just after the second world war. No. No.

Not there. Just say that, I think. To the second world war, there's a bloke called Victor Frankl. Victor Frankl was a very interesting bloke. He was He he wrote a a very, very, very significant book that has affected much of thinking called man's search for meaning.

He was a victim of Hitler's outfits, in the concentration camp, but a survivor of that. And he came out and started writing. And 1 of the big things he said was that the people that survived something like an out switch, obviously without them being forced into the gas chamber, but the people that survived were the people that knew they had a meaning. They knew that there was a reason to live. And the people that died were largely people that gave up on meaning they didn't have a a desire to get out and to do something.

And he wrote this this thing, and this is what he writes. He says, the mass neurosis of the present time is the, forget these big words, existential vacuum. It is the loss of a sense that life is meaningful. It leads to boredom, alcoholism, juvenile delinquency, and suicide. Meaninglessness has a meaning.

Meaningless means There is no point to you. There is no point to you. You are you are here for no reason You're a waste of space, that these children are just here for a moment There's no meaning behind them. There's no purpose. But you see, the Bible says there's a Telos.

There's meaning. Last year, we were told that 1 in 4 14 year old girls in our country physically harm themselves per per purposely. That's a hundred and 10000 teenage girls last year cut themselves in some way. Now there are lots of reasons given for why that's happening. But there's 1 underlying 1, and that is there's just no sense of purpose.

There is no meaning There is no meaning. Now when you see a newborn baby, it gives us a sense. That's why it cheers us up. A sense of destiny and a sense of purpose and something new and life and potential. But remember, everyone in this room was a newborn baby once.

Everyone. We all had that potential, and it's so easy to lose purpose and meaning. Tell us. Shakespeare put in the words of McBeth, sort of haunting words. Life, he says.

But a walking shadow a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then he's heard of no more. It is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury and signifying nothing. But bring god into the picture, bring the fact that this person is fearfully and wonderfully made. And you have purpose. You have reason.

Look at the psalm. Look at this psalm again. For you created my innermost being. You knit me together in my in my mother's room. I praise you because I'm 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 secret place 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. In other words, there's something bigger to live for bigger than this world God, and he gives us meaning.

So there's the first thing. We're fearfully and wonderfully made, says the Christian explanation of the world These children are fearfully and wonderfully made. Second thing is they're made for a purpose. They're made for a purpose. The third thing though, what is that purpose?

They're made for relationships. They're made for relationships. I don't know whether you know this film is fantastic, isn't it? But it's I love and I love this character. But, he suddenly thinks he's just a toy and nothing but a toy and in in, I think it's the second film, is it?

I'm not quite sure now. And and then woody has to start to say no that you're you're you're made for a purpose and you're made for a relationship and he gets him to see what's written on your foot and it's Andy, the 1 who owns all the toys. You're made to know Andy. You're you're not just a toy. You're made to know Andy.

Sarah Breins, doctor Sarah Breins, who was a member of this church and has just moved up north with her husband. She says when a baby is born, we really aren't thinking about the amazing changes occurring in the baby's body. Then she goes on and says, we're looking into its eyes and realizing that there is a whole human being in that tiny bundle. Someone to love To teach, to sacrifice for, to watch grow. Then she goes on.

This also reminds us that god is a god of relationship who loves and teaches us. We are reminded that we that as we would do anything to protect and help this helpless little baby, so god sacrificed all he has for us. We're made for relationships and if we're gonna help these children grow up in this world we have to show them that the most important thing in the world is relationships. It's more important than career and money and more important than the plans that we sometimes have for our children. It's more important than education More important than any of those things, however important they may be, they're nothing compared to knowing relationships.

The greatest experiences are always lesser without a relationship. You know, when when I was at school, I even enjoyed maths if I was in with my mates. But if I was out with my mates, they didn't like me anymore, then even playtime was a disaster. When you're in a relationship, everything changes. It's the most important thing.

And part of teaching this Christian ethos and this Christian world view is that relationships are absolutely important. Have a look at uh-uh I'm not sure if it's up there, but let me read the Psalm again. It's not. Let me read You have searched me lord. You know me.

This isn't just a god that is clearly, obviously, there is a god. But this is a god that can be known, then he says, you know when I sit and when I rise. You know me, intimately. So we're fearfully wonderfully made. We're made for a purpose and that purpose is relationships but ultimately a relationship with none other than your maker god.

We're made for god. But the problem is we've broken that relationship and that's why the people are so scared of god so often. They're so scared to talk about god. Lots of people are scared to talk you talk about god and it's it's almost like you've been sick or something or, you know, you've trung in something. It's amazing.

Isn't it? Why we would be so scared of that? Well, 1 of the reasons is because we were made for relationship and we've broken that relationship and so we're scared to talk about it. And that's my fourth point. We're made for relationships, but those relationships need mending.

We need to be remade because we've broken it. Look, listen to the Psalm. I'm not sure if I've got it up there, but listen to the Psalm. Because you see when we know we're made for a relationship with god then and we've broken that relationship. We often wanna run away instead of man up and face god.

So the the the Psalm says this, where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence I can go up to the heavens and you are there? How annoying? I can make my bed in the depths and you are there. How annoying?

I can rise on the wings of the dawn if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand is is there. We can try and run away from god. But actually you can't because god made us, and we live in his world, and we were designed to know him. But this is the Christian explanation that even though the good news that we're fearfully and wonderfully made. We're made for a purpose.

We're made to know god in relationship and that we've broken that. That is what Jesus is all about. That's the next slide. You've seen this picture many times. Is that god came to mend that relationship to remake us.

We're remade That's the Christian story and that's what we love to tell children that god so loved the world that he gave his 1 and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish into a lonely existence, not knowing god, in a universe where there's nothing bigger than yourself, in a world where there's nothing more than your dreams, in a world where there's only in the end death? No. We can know this life giver that Jesus has come into the world. Jesus told the best stories in the world absolutely the best stories and that's what we do in in this church. We tell those stories to our children and I want to encourage you to do that.

Make sure your children are hearing the stories of Jesus. There is nothing like them. They are phenomenal, the best stories. And 1 of the stories he tells is a story of a a lost coin and then another 1 is a lost sheep and another 1 is a lost son. 3 lost things They've got lost, but god comes and finds them.

They're beautiful stories, and you're brought back to be what you were created for. The tell us. The purpose. To know god, and that is a rock to live on. Because when you know that god loves you, To be quite honest, you can face up to a world that may not love you.

When you know that god is always with you, Where can I go from your presence? Where can I flee from your presence? I can go up to the heavens. You're there. I can go to the depths.

You're there. I can go to the far side of the sea and you're there. You suddenly in dark times, in light times, in difficult times, you know that god is there, the good shepherd, the rescuer, the 1 who saves the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son. There are wonderful stories about this. In the Bible.

And I I want to commend them to you, and that actually part of bringing children up is that they know that they are made by none other than god, and therefore their precious that they're made for a purpose, not just to randomly try and find out some kind of meaning for a few years, but for a big overall purpose of relationship with god, and that is what Jesus is all about. It's a beautiful thing, and that is how we show the Christian hope to our children. I want to to challenge you. Perhaps you're here. Perhaps you're older.

Perhaps you haven't got many breaths left. Perhaps you are a bit cynical. Perhaps you are a bit of an old grump. And, I don't know. You know, if the hat fits, put it on, but wouldn't you like to know wouldn't you like to know that god loves you?

And that's why we're doing that course, called, tales of the unexpected. If you live in this area, then we'd love you to come to that try and find out. Have a find out. You're allowed to argue. You're allowed to discuss.

You're allowed to disagree. None of us are worried about that. We're not some weird cult. We love to hear people's arguments. We love to to to get into discussions about these things, but why not do that?

So that you may know your telos. Father god, you know everyone in this room, You know us intimately, you know our next breath, you know our thoughts right now, you know where we sit, where we rise. Help us by your spirit. To not be deaf to these truths, but live in the light of them. Ah, ma'am.