31st December 2023 Watch Night Service - Dave Food - A New Year, A New Way

We're almost useless. I mean, how good is his mobile phone to you?

When it doesn't you can't switch it on. It might be useful as

a doorstop, but a very small door yeah maybe yeah, Maybe a mirror,

yeah, maybe a backscratcher. I don't know. But it's funny how

God gives you an illustration just to kick off this evening. I was standing

and thinking, oh my goodness, I haven't charged it up. I've only

got eighteen percent. Do you know I don't have to rely on the phone.

I can rely on being not connected through the phone to my words.

But God gave me I can be connected to him directly. And when I'm

connected to him directly, then I don't need this phone. I mean,

I could put it away. I trust him enough and it's for me.

The end of twenty twenty, twenty twenty three and the beginning of twenty twenty

four is a journey of faith. Unless we're journeying by faith, then we're

lost. If we're doing it all here our own stream, we're doing it

all with our mobile phones. If we're doing it we all with technology.

I know we as a church will love technology. You know I love technology,

But if that's the only thing we're doing. Then we're just broadcasting silence.

We're just broadcasting a fruitless message. We're broadcasting a message that has no

seed, that has no power, that will not go any further. It'll

go out there and it will land, just like seed lands, and then

the birds will come along and take it, like the story of the sewer

comes. The thorns will come and overwhelm it, as we read in the

story of the Sewer. But if that seed that has the DNA that's designed

with goes out with the power that God intended, then when it lands,

it lands in good soil, it bears through thirty sixty one hundredfold. And

those kind of things are the kind of things that I want to press into

You want to bring up the first scripture, Jonathan, let me just share,

sorry, just just go back on the title, if that's possible.

I just had I had a few thoughts as I've pressed into twenty twenty three,

a new year, a new way, you know, for me,

as we press into twenty twenty four, most of us can look back at

twenty twenty three and say, there's been some good times, but there's also

been some less good times, and I just want to encourage you as I

share today, there's a place where there's things that we need to leave behind

because they've belonged in twenty twenty three, and they've belong in our past.

And we might have some scars from them, We might have some we might

walk with a bit of a limp from them. We might have some memories

that are associated with those kinds of things. But do you know what I

want to press into twenty twenty four? And I want to press into twenty

twenty four with purpose, with faith, and building upon what God wants me

to build upon. You know, you know there are plenty of plenty of

foundations we can build a but if we don't build on the right foundations,

our building will fall down. So let's bring up our first quick scripture near

Jonathan, and it says in a Colossians chapter three, verses one to four,

if then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above,

where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind

on things above, not on the things on the earth. For you dive

and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is

our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

The things that need to remain on Earth, need to stay in the earthly

realm. But you know what, when we lift our eyes up, when

we lift our eyes up to Heaven, we get a different perspective. God

gives us a different perspective. God has a different perspective. And that different

perspective is a heavenly Earth perspective. It's from Heaven. It's from his throne

room, And from his throne room, God speaks to us today. God

shares with us today. God moves in our world today. And if we

will only ask him to lift us up, lift us up so that we

can get just a glimpse of his perspective. Do you know, I've read

about this, and I've read about a number of astronauts who've gone into space,

and they said their world has changed, their worldview has changed, their

perspective on life has changed because suddenly they realize that they were one person on

a great big planet in a great big universe. And then they suddenly realized

how insignificant. But then when you look at it from the perspective of earth

view by space, and so God could very special, very special things.

But he wants us to have a fresh perspective, a fresh perspective, or

so okay, leave sometust behind. If there's some memories that you don't like

that belong in twenty twenty three, bury them, bury them and leave them

in the grave where they belong. Doesn't mean the memories won't be That doesn't

mean that the learnt experience won't be useful. But we don't need to live

in Can you imagine somebody passing and them sitting in your living their bodies sitting

in your living room. I've been a bit gross here, but I want

to give you an illustration. Just imagine having a body sitting in your living

room. That would be weird, wouldn't it. But you know, that's

what we do when we live with dead vision, when we did when we

lived with the past. When we live with the things that have died,

we have to lay them to rest, put that. There may be nothing

wrong with them, but they're for the past, and that's where we build

first. So we build from there. Do you want to bring up the

next scripture? Nathan, I've got no control on my phone, so as

we press into that perspective, yes, please? Yeah. In Romans chapter

fifteen, verse thirteen, May the God of your hope. Now i'm gonna

make this really personal. Twenty twenty three and into twenty twenty four, May

the God of your hope, not my hope. You know, we can

leave, We can we can lean on other people's capacity. You know,

some of the people in the room are brilliant cooks. For those of us

who are not brilliant cooks, we lean on your capacity. You don't lean

on ours, because you'll have cheese on toast if you lean on my capacity,

or cheese on toast with mushrooms or something like that. Yeah, that's

what that's what you'd live with. So we lean into your gift and your

skill, and so we can also do the same in terms of gifts and