5th January 2025 - Communion Service

Father, I thank you for Yasmin, as she's labored in

your word, Lord God Father, I pray that Lord you'd

anoint her to bring freshness and zeal and enthusiasm and

passion and your Holy Spirit into our lives today as

we hear from you, Oh God, in Jesus' name, Amen, Jasmine.

Thank you, and good morning and happy New Year. Still

feels a bit strange saying that that, okay, and I

hope that this last year has had some good things

for you, and I'm sure it will have had some

challenges because that's life. But this year, this month, our

theme and the title of this morning's message is a

fresh start. Isaiah forty three eighteen. As Orash reminded us

earlier this week on WhatsApp, Isaiah forty three eighteen says,

do not dwell on the past. Whatever has happened in

the past. That which is good, bad, or indifferent is past.

Sometimes there are things we can learn from the past

experiences which can help us and or others as we

move forward. And sometimes we need to take time to

process what has happened, especially if it's been emotionally difficult.

If that's what you need to do, do it but

the Lord says in his word the Bible, don't dwell

on the past. In other words, don't get stuck there.

I believe the Lord's given me this word for someone.

If you cut an apple in half, you'll find seeds

to sew and parts you throw, parts you throw out.

You're seeing the fruit of a season's work, and fruitful

as it's been, you're wondering what's next. If you cut

the fruit of the season in half, so to speak,

bit like an apple, you'll see the different elements of it.

Think about these and identify with the Lord what you

can take from it and use again in the future.

In other words, the seeds and which parts you won't

be using like the rest of the apple core. This

is not necessarily because there's anything wrong with them, but

because they've served their purpose and won't be useful in

the next season. You've got a lot to offer, a

lot to give, and God won't waste your potential and

leave you on the shelf, so to speak. He has

plans and purposes for you. So moving on, there are

three main points for today as we consider a fresh start,

an element of which relates to gardening. So I've relied

somewhat on the Internet for help with this. So the

first one is prune. So let's read fifteen verses one

to five, and I'm reading from the NIV. That's John

fifteen versus one to five. And this is Jesus speaking.

I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener.

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit,

while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so

that it will be even more fruitful. You are already

clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

Remain in me, and as I also remain in you.

No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain

in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you

remain in me. I am the vine. You are the branches.

If you remain in me and I in you, you

will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing.

So John fifteen versus one to two. I am the

true vine, and my father is the gardener. He cuts

off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while

every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that

it will be even more fruitful. If you're a gardener,

you'll know just how important pruning is to promoting healthy

plant growth. If you prune shrubs at the right time

of year, it will really improve their performance. And what

constitutes the right time of year depends on the tree

or plant. I know that much similarly with us, there

are times and seasons for pruning, and God will raise

different issues with us at different times that need to

be addressed. But when we're thinking about a fresh start,

it's a good time to consider with the Lord what

needs to be pruned in our lives. God is a

good gardener, so to speak, and really cares about us

being fruitful. The Lord may be speaking to us about

stopping something. Maybe it's an activity that's fine in itself,

even good, but it's time to lay it down, be

it for a season, or stop it altogether. The Lord

might be prompting us to stop doing something that isn't good,

for example, an activity that's wrong, a bad habit, or

changing an attitude or behavior. The Lord may want to

talk to us about doing different certain things differently. Whatever

it is, there'll be a reason and it will always

be with our best interests at heart. It might be

helpful for others too if we change. The Royal Horticultural

Society says in winter. Deciduous plants, in other words, those

that shed their leaves every year shared leaves and send

food reserves to their roots. If you prune in winter

or spring, they then have ample resources to regrow and

balance their roots with their top growth. If you prune

in summer, then you are removing food reserves in the

green leaves. The timing of pruning can really make a

difference to us too, to how ready we are to

receive the message and the effect that it has on us.

The Lord knows, he knows us, and he loves us completely,

so we can trust his pruning. For example, when I

first went to university, I was a very new believer

and when I went out partying, I drank too much.

I was never actually ill, but it wasn't sensible drinking.

But God didn't pick me up on it straight away

in my case, it was about a year or so later.

Like the Royal Horticulture Society said, if you prune shrubs

at the right time, it will really improve their performance

over time. The Lord has dealt with me about different

issues in my life, things that weren't right and needed

to change, for example, bad habits, wrong attitudes or behaviors,

but he hasn't dealt with everything at once, and obviously

there's still more pruning to do. I'm sure I'm not

the only one either. But sometimes God brings us back

to a message we've already heard, a truth that we

already know, to a prompt us to apply it to

something else. It's one thing to know a message a

truth in our heads, but another to apply it in

practice to our lives. Fifteen three says you are already

clean because of the word I have spoken to you.

It's the word of God that cleanses or prunes us.

The Greek word used here can be translated either way.

It means that the word of God changes us, cleanses

or prunes us from the inside out, as we hold

on to it in our hearts and apply it. When

I was at university, it was something someone else said

to me that hit home and made me realize how

my behavior had impacted others and I hadn't been aware

of it. God may speak to us directly, and you

might speak to us through someone else, But what if

we're the pruning shears that the Lord wants to use

on someone else Again. Timing is something to bear in mind.

If we believe we need to challenge someone about something

they're doing that's not right, that needs pruning. Only the

Lord can give us the wisdom that we need regarding

when and how. Depending on what it is, you may

need to bring someone else with you too, Regardless, it

needs to be handled with absolute truth, but also with

grace and love. It's really important that we submit to

the pruning, that we listen and learn. Otherwise, God may

let it go for a while, whatever it may be,

but then raise it again. And we don't want to

keep going around the same mountain, so to speak, going

back to the same issues and never moving on. What

happens to grapevines if they're not pruned, According to one

wine producer, without intervention, a grape fine will quickly become

a dense tangle of mostly older wood with relative if

you few branches that can produce grapes. What's more, the

denser are more unruly your vines become, the worse the

air circulation will be, increasing the chances of a fungus

attacking the good grapes. If we don't submit to the

cleansing the pruning word of God in our lives, if

we don't seek to apply the truths we learn, we

will become less and less fruitful and more vulnerable to

spiritual attack. Spiritual attack can obviously really affect those who

are really fruitful and productive in God's Kingdom too, and

I'm not suggesting otherwise, but it's very hard to deal

with it if you don't have the sword of the

spirit ready with which to counter it, which is the

word of God. As it says in Ephesian six. The

point is pruning is clearly vital to productivity, to fruitfulness,

and to health, to spiritual health. So what does this

mean for us for a fresh start? This is a

good time to consider with him. Is there anything that

the Lord wants us to cut back on so that

our time and energy is focused on the new season

ahead as he sees it. My second point is to prepare.

When we're thinking about a fresh start, we may readily

think about planting a new growth, but as any gardener

will know, as it says when talking about Israel as

God's vineyard in Isaiah, there's preparation work to do before

you plant. So Asaiah five versus one to two says,

my well beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill,

he dug it up and cleared out its stones, and

then planted it with the choicest vine. Are there any

stones that need removing from our lives before a new

work has begun? Long before I met Simon, I'd often

ask the Lord to do in me whatever he needed

to do so that I was ready for marriage when

the time came. God alone knows what Simon's been spared

as a result. But this is the principle I'm talking about.

Maybe you don't yet know what this new season holds,

what a fresh start really looks like, but you can

prepare with the Lord and ask him if there are

any stones in your life, so to speak, that would

hinder the new thing that he has for you. The

Lord may tell you ahead of time. You may even

already know something of what the new season ahead holds

for you, so you can pray about it as the

Holy Spirit leads you. Isiah forty three nineteen, as Dave

mentioned earlier, seems to be our key verse this year.

As I are forty three nineteen and I'm reading from

the NIV, says, see, I am doing a new thing.

Now it springs up? Do you not perceive it? I

am making away in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

I believe there are at least five people that this

verse is for right now. God's word is for all

of us for all time. But there are times when

God speaks to us through a specific verse or verses

about something. See I am doing a new thing. Now

it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I am

making away in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

See Look, The message says, be alert, be present. Now

it springs up. Do you not perceive it. We can

engage with what the Lord is doing even before we

see it by thanking him by faith for it. If

the Lord is speaking to you right now through this,

then thank him by faith in your heart for this

new thing that he's doing. You don't have to see

it to believe it. Faith works the opposite way around.

As Jesus said in Mark eleven twenty four, I tell you,

whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have

received it, and it will be yours. In other words,

believe you receive when you pray, in otherwords, before you

see it, and you shall have whatsoever you ask. So

we can thank our heavenly Father by faith for the

new thing that he's doing before we see it, even

before we have any idea of what he's doing, because

he's our loving, heavenly father, and we can trust him.

I am making a way in the wilderness and streams

in the wasteland. God is doing the impossible, like Dave

said earlier, making a way, a road, a path in

the wilderness where there is no way, and streams in

the wasteland where there is no water source. He can

do the impossible because he's the creator of all things,

and he invites us to participate by thanking him for

what he's doing even before we see it. By faith,

I believe that the Lord is saying, there are two

people for whom their first landmark on the way in

the wilderness will be a rock. It will look quite

different for both of you, but it'll be easy to

remember and to remember my words today because Jesus is

our rock. The rock the landmark when you see it,

is to encourage you that you're going the right way

through the wilderness. Let's look at how the Israelites prepared

for the fresh start in the promised Land that the

Lord had told them about. I know it's a well

known story, but I believe the Lord wants us to

look at it with a view to learning from it

and reminding ourselves of the dos and don'ts of preparing

for a fresh start. So numbers thirteen verses one to two.

That's numbers thirteen verses one to two. In the NIV

says the Lord said to Moses, send some men to

explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to

the Israelites. And the Lord said to send a leader

from each tribe. So Moses did, instructing them to see

what the land was like, how productive from an agricultural perspective,

what the people were like, strong, weak, few, many, and

what the cities were like, whether they were fortified or not.

All sensible stuff to prepare them to take hold of

what the Lord wanted to give them. Like the Israelites,

we too may know what the Lord wants to do

in and for us in this next season, but we

also need to consider how we prepare to take hold

of what the Lord wants to give us. There's a

part that he plays and a part that we play,

and through prayer and sometimes trial and error, that we

find out sometimes we need to step out to find out.

God isn't angry with us if we get it wrong,

if we start down a wrong path, he knows exactly

what where we are and can guide us back to

where we should be. So the twelve spies returned after

forty days, having done what they'd been asked to do,

including bringing back some of the fruit that was there,

and ten of them gave the following report on the facts.

So numbers thirteen twenty seven to twenty eight. That's numbers

thirteen twenty seven to twenty eight. We went to the

land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk

and honey, in other words, as an abundance of food,

and this is its fruit. Nevertheless, the people who dwell

in the land are strong, the cities of forty five

and very large. Moreover, we saw the descendants of Annak there,

the implication being a people of great stature and courage.

So notice all twelve spies were faithful to do as

they'd been instructed, but ten of them reported the facts

filtered through their own perspective. We can be obedient in

terms of our actions, but a wrong attitude can still

send us off course. It's something we need to be

aware of. In preparing for their fresh start, these spies

lost sight of what the Lord had said, of his

promise that he would give them the land they let

go of the truth. Fear is a horrible enemy that

will cause us to do that if we allow it.

But it is an enemy that can only take land

in our hearts and minds that we give it. We

can fight it with the word of God, which is

the sword of the Spirit. As I mentioned earlier, there

are a number of verses I could have quoted here,

but I believe the Lord wanted me to share this one.

This is John fourteen twenty seven, and I'm reading from

the amplified version. That's John fourteen twenty seven. Do not

let your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid.

Let my perfect peace calm you in every circumstance and

give you courage and strength for every challenge. I'm going

to read that again. Do not let your heart be troubled,

nor let it be afraid. Let my perfect Peace calm

you in every circumstance, and give you courage and strength

for every challenge. We don't have to feel the truth

in our hearts to choose to believe in Sometimes in

the most difficult places, we feel absolutely nothing and need

to choose to think on the world word of God

and take hold of it in our minds. Numbers thirteen,

verse thirty, Number thirteen, verse thirty. In The New King James,

then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, let

us go up at once and take possession, for we

are well able to overcome it. Caleb and Joshua had

the same experiences as the Ten Spies, but anchored themselves

in God's promise to give them the land. It takes

courage to swim against the tide to say what the

Lord is saying when most people are not. It takes

courage for us to keep hold of what the Lord

is saying, especially if it involves going against the majority.

There's something in the office at work that says what

is right is not always popular, and what is popular

is not always right. When we make that decision to

make a fresh start following the lawdd's lead, there's no

shame if we feel fear, especially if it involves going

against what the majority are saying. But let's just do

it afraid. What matters is that we don't allow fear

to make the decision for us it's a lousy dictator

numbers thirteen, verse thirty one. But the men who had

gone up with him with Caleb said, we are not

able to go up against the people, for they are

stronger than we. That's fear masquerading as wisdom. There had

been a clear word from the Lord, but they allowed

fear masquerading as wisdom to put them off. It's not

about denying the facts, but obeying the Lord regardless, like

Caleb and Joshua were willing to do. Verse thirty three.

Number thirteen thirty three tells us clearly what when wrong.

The ten Spies said, we were like grasshoppers in our

own sight, and so we were in their sight. The

ten Spies took their eyes off God by letting go

of his promise, his word, and focused instead on themselves

and their own limitations. Naturally speaking, I realize it's easy

for me to say, but it doesn't matter what other

people think. Goliath thought David was a little squirt, but

he didn't know that the One true God was backing

him up. Joyce Meyer, the Christian American author and speaker,

says this Sadly, we often stare at our giant sized

problems instead of at our God, we lose our focus.

We become entangled with the problem and lose sight of

what God has called us to do. I believe that

more times spent worshiping and praising God would help us

to keep a clear focus and enable us to go

forward with a strong positive attitude, believing we can do

anything God tells us to do. That's it, isn't it.

If God says we can do something, then we can.

So the question is, how does the Lord want you

and I to prepare for a fresh start, regardless of

whether you know what this fresh start looks like. So

prune ready for a fresh start, prepare, and lastly, persevere.

Do what you know to do. Be diligent, be conscientious

about it, serving the Lord to the best of your ability. Sometime,

sometimes a fresh start comes from the Lord interrupting, breaking

in on our routine, our regular daily life. We see

this a number of times in the Bible with different people.

I'll just give a couple of examples. In Genesis twenty four, Rebecca,

Isaac's daughter was being a dutiful daughter, going to draw

water from a well. It's a pretty mundane task, But

then a stranger asked her for a drink. I suspect

it was her character her manners that prompted her to

go the extra mile and offered to draw water for

his camel's too. I say that because it probably wasn't

just standard courtesy, as the man Isaac's servant, Eliezer, had

just specifically prayed that the girl who did this would

be God's choice of wife for his master's son. If

it was likely to be a standard response, I don't

think he would have prayed as he did. And Rebecca's

response led to her marriage and inclusion in God's plan

for his people and in his eternal word the Bible.

In Exous thirty three, verse seven in the NIV, it

says Moses used to take a tent and pitch it

outside the camp some distance away, calling it the tent

of Meeting. Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to

the tent of meeting outside the camp, and in verse nine,

it says in the Amplified whenever Moses entered the tent,

the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the

doorway of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses.

Verse eleven. So the Lord used to speak to Moses

face to face, just as a man speaks with his friend.

And this is the point I was coming to. When

Moses returned to the camp, his attendant, Joshua, the son

of None, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

I can only imagine how this would have helped prepare

Joshua for his life as the leader of God's people

after Moses died. He would have witnessed at close hand

Moses' relationship with the Lord that intimacy, and he would

have known therefore that that was possible with the living God.

And Joshua stayed in that place, away from other people,

on his own, for periods of time. It doesn't say

how long, but this is about Joshua's faithfulness. On a

regular basis, our time alone with God can be crucial

for setting us up for a fresh start. It may

be that others are doing stuff that we would enjoy,

be it social or something good, or just leading a

normal life like the Israelites in the camp. But you

know that God has called you to set that time

apart with him. It's easy to find reasons not to

busyness other things, even good things that we could be doing.

But let's be ready to spend that time alone with

the Lord when we know we need to do it.

So how can we best honor the Lord on a

day to day basis? Are there any changes that we

need to make? I say that because I strongly believe

that the Lord is interested in our character, and character

is forged over time, and it's our character that will

help us to deal with whatever we need to deal

with when we make a fresh start. As James one

fourth says, let perseverance finish its work so that you

may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. So to

close to set up for a fresh star. What needs

to be pruned? How do we prepare? And in the meantime,

let's persevere in doing what's right because it's right. Let's pray, Loving,

Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that you're doing a

new thing, that you're making away in the wilderness and

streams in the wasteland because nothing is impossible for you.

Help us to prepare in all the ways necessary so

that we're ready to do all that you have for us.

Show us our part. We trust you to do yours

in Jesus' name. Amen.