16th April 2023 Infill Service - Dave Food - Broken but restored

We've got a new theme as we start after Easter, and it's entitled for

the next three or four weeks, Broken but Restored. Interesting some of the

songs we sang this morning. I didn't line this up with Salmon and Jonathan

and Juliet, although shec we hadn't talked about the details of everything that we

were going to talk about. Interesting that the ladies kind of sinked into that

from yesterday. But do you know I've had If I'm honest with you,

and I want to be honest with you, I've had a dreadful week.

Was stuffy stuff coming at you? Last week was a four day or the

week before last was a four day week, and then last week was a

four day week, and suddenly it seemed like there was about seven days of

work that needed to be done. And I just, I honestly didn't know.

I got up some mornings and just thought, I don't know how I'm

going to get through today. And I'm just being honest with you, Church,

I want to be honest with you. I want to be real because

for me, Broken, this is a place that we do not stay.

It's not a place that we've remained in. You probably know people, maybe

you've been there, maybe it's happened for you, maybe you're there right now

where actually you're stuck in brokenness. And you might recognize this as a bit

of a habit where we gather around and we hear the same story being played

again and again and again, and somebody's stuck. It's a bit like when

we had LPs. You remember those black things we used to put on record

players, and they've been scratched and they go as they kept on playing the

same track, and you know the record, you had to move it on.

And that's what I'm going to be talking about this morning. We have

to move on. And so sometimes we like to stay there. Sometimes we'd

like to stay there for various reasons. Maybe it feels good. But you've

heard of things like shopperholics, but people who go shopping to make themselves feel

better. And then it becomes a bit of a cycle where you haven't got

enough money, so you go out shopping to make yourself better. But now

you've got even less money or even greater debt. So that's one place where

we get stuck. But the other place we get stuck is we don't deal

with it and we press it down. And this is where I want to

share from today. I didn't want to press it down. I didn't just

want to kind of hide it. I want to be a little bit row

with you today because I want to talk about some of the things that I've

battled with this week, not that not that I want. I do not

want you to join me in the pity party. I do not want you

to feel sympathetic for me. I want to share victory. I want to

share broken yet restored or broken butt restored. And you know, many times

if we stay in brokenness, if we decide to stay there, we make

ourselves ill. You know, if you just keep on keeping it down,

keep it Imagine, imagine you put a pot on the stove, you fill

it with water, you put a lid on it, and you turn it

up as high as it will go. That's just like pressure. It's just

like the week that I feel I've had, you know, and the water

starts to boil, and then if you leave it going, then it starts

to boil over and the lid starts to come off. And what we try

and do is we try and keep the lid on. We try and keep

the lid on. And what that happens is that that's not good for the

sauceman. It's not good for the whatever's inside the sorceman. It's not good

for us. We end up with ulcers, we end up with blood pressure,

so you end up with heart issues. And so I'm coming from a

place of saying, Okay, if there is brokenness, let's see it restored,

let's see it sorted out, and then we can celebrate it. Now,

what happens when you get injured. If you cut yourself right, I've

got a number of small cuts. We've got one of my thumb, I've

got one in here. Where is it? Yeah, this hand. You

know there's a scar there. You probably can't see it from the back,

but you know those leads where you let the dog out and you let it

run, and it's got a thin, thin cable. And I was holding

onto this cable and my dog saw another dog and it ran and this cable

just went sh straight through my hand. And it's left a scar. But

the point is it hurt at the time, But the point is it's healed

now. So scars open wounds, we've got to deal with him. But

once they're healed, that they're a sign of resolution, a sign of completeness,

but they're a memory of a pain. I won't I won't grab that

cable again. I won't do that again. Now I've learned, and so

I want to talk about broken yet misstore. Now let's let's get into some

Bible. Show it this morning. Let's get into some Bible. Start with

the Feesians, Chapter one, verses seven to ten. In him we have

redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of

his grace, which he made to abound towards us in all wisdom and prudence,

having made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good

pleasure, which he purposed in himself. God promises. God promises, that's

that place where he can draw us in. And one of the things that

goes on in brokenness is we don't like Yes, sometimes stuff comes at you.

And I was thinking about it this morning. I had Tuesday. This

week, I ended up having thirteen meetings in my diary. I started at

eight o'clock in the morning and I was still doing meetings at seven o'clock at

night. Now, again, I do not want to sympathize that's bad diary

management, if I'm honest with you. But it happens. And I got

to the middle of the day and I needed to do some stuff and I

couldn't even see a space where I could walk the dog, you know,

let alone these things. And I hope that you're empathizing with me and thinking,

yeah, I've been there too in some way or other. I don't

know how I'm going to do this, do you know what? Just about

eleven o'clock in the morning, I thought, I need a break, Lord,

I need some space. I need to breathe. And I prayed just

a little prayer as I was making a coffee. I prayed, said,

Lord, can you help me right now? I need something right now?

And I've gone away from my computer, made myself a coffee, went back

to the computer, sipping my coffee, just looking at teams, and up

popped three things, somebody saying, Dave, I'm going to have to cancel

my meeting this afternoon because it's got to move so can we do it tomorrow?

And now wasn't convenient to move it to tomorrow. But I'd ask God

for space, So why would I? Why would I don't know, it's

not convenient, but I moved it. Second my somebody said, Dave,

I found this. I thought it might be useful. Suddenly realized it was

the thing that I was looking for that I needed to write. I just

used some of the content and that's what I talked about in a call later

on in the day. And the third thing was somebody said, Dave,

can we shorten our meeting? We've got an hour in the diary. I

just need fifteen minutes. I've got lots of stuff going on. I thought,

I feel like you. But suddenly, in less than ten minutes,

the time it takes to make a coffee, go back and sit and back

at the computer. Do you know what? I honestly sat there at my

computer with my hands up in the air as the next team's call started,

and somebody looked at me, do you know what? This is really really

interesting? My hands are up in the air. I went into the meeting

just a couple of minutes early. No one of my colleagues said, Dave,

I listened to your Easter service last Sunday, And as everybody you know,

if you've been on a team's meeting, people join. But whilst people

are joining, people are chatting, and so she was chatting to me about

our Easter service last Sunday, one of my colleagues. I don't know whether

she's a Christian or not. She was just talking about the service as the

whole of the rest of the team were joining. I think there was ten

to eleven people joined the calls. Wasn't me talking about church, It was

one of my colleagues. And so I'm just so excited. I'm so thankful

and so grateful. The God is amazing. God is incredible, it says

in Isaiah, and I kind of want to kind of start from some images

here, a bruised read he will not break, and a dimly burning wick

he will not quench. He will bring forth justice in truth. When I'm

weak, he makes me strong. You know, the first thing we need

to do with that statement of truth is to acknowledge we're in a place of

weakness. If we just brash it out and say, I'm okay, how

are you know? You know the kind of thing we do. How are

you doing? Oh, I'm doing fine, thanks to you very much.

And there's a great big smile on our faces, and inside me going,

oh, I remember many many years ago and Julia and I first got married.

We used to go to an Anglican church over in Cookham, and we

came to that moment where you share the peace and so you may have heard

me share this story before now, and we got to the momenthere we're sharing

the piece and going around hugging some people, shaking hands. And went up

to this young this lady who Joanna would have been about this talk quite a

short lady. And she came and she we shook hands and she mumbled,

piece of the Lord being with you, I said, and also with you,

but she didn't look at me, and I just felt a little uncomfortable,

so said, Johanna, can we do that again? Please? Can

we look at one another? And so she looked up at me and I

looked at her, and we shook hands and I shared the peace with her

and she just burst into tears and we got to talk and to pray.

Yeah, and that's a moment where she was just going through the motions,

and church we don't need to go through the motions. That's what church is

about, Jersey is about being real. The ladies yesterday, I'm sure,

were being real together, talking about life, talking about stuff praying about things.

BT says it's good to talk. Well, that might be true,

but actually if we just moved conversations around, how does that help us.

We need to have a vertical dimension to our conversation. You might talk to

me about a problem you have, or I might talk to you about something

I'm struggling with. I guess I'm doing that now, and you might go,

I don't want to sorry. I remember somebody at church many years ago

saying to me, Dave, I don't want to hear about your troubles,

and I said, please, don't put me on that pedestal. Now,

I'm just human like the rest of us, and actually when we struggle,

we share that reality. But if you don't have a vertical relationship as well,

I've just given you something to worry about. You're now worrying about day,

Well, don't worry about me, you know. Take it. Take

it to the source, take it to the solution, take it to our

guard. And so if it's true that a problem shared is a problem half

there used to be a math teacher many years ago. So if Yasmin shares

a problem with me, now I've got half of her problem and she's still

got half of a problem. Now if I tell Judio about it, now

she's got a quarter of Yasmin's problem. But do you see what goes on

here? We never ever lose any bits of the problem. They just get

moved around the economy of life. And actually, as soon as we start

taking it vertical, as soon as we start praying and asking God, suddenly

that which was my problem, I've now given to him. And so it's

great to acknowledge that we can be weak and we need help. And then

we can start to get some strength. Because bruised read will not break.

God will bring his strength to strengthen us. God will bring his vitality to

help us to step out of the wind, or step into the wind,

to take hold of the storm that he's coming, or just to stand.

Sometimes the greatest thing that can come is somebody just come alongside and just hold

our hand or stand there and be with us. I reached out to someone

I played with from time to time this week and just and all he did

was he said, Dave, let's talk. Got on to a zoom call.

We had thirty minutes together. I came off those thirty minut it's feeling

I wasn't alone. So yeah, let's not develop the economy of a problem.

Shared is a problem half unless we're going to take it vertical to God.

Sorry. In Matthew twelve, Verses seventeen to twenty one, this scripture's

so spoke to me this week, and this is the message version. Look

well at my hand picked servant. I love him so much, take such

delight in him. I've placed my spirit on him. He'll decree justice to

the nations. But I won't yell, won't raise his voice. There'll be

no commotion in the streets. He won't walk over anyone's feelings, won't push

you into a corner. Before you know it, his justice will triumph,

and the mere sound of his name will signal hope even amongst far off unbelievers.

Whose name am I talking about the name of Jesus, The name above

all names. We sung that today, the name above all names. If

there's one name you need on your doorpost, if there's one name you need

on your door frame, if there's one name you need on your screensaver on

your computer, it's Jesus. And I'd recommend, if you're someone who has

screensavers on your computer, have something popping up from time to time that encourages

you. There's lots of apps out there to drive those kind of things and

encourage those kind of things. Let's get our eyes off the challenge and heavenward

Pums talks about, I will lift mine eyes to the hills from whence cometh

my help. One of the things about getting our eyes on the problem is

we become very short sighted. We don't see the bigger picture. We don't

see that God could be involved. And what was a mold hill becomes a

mountain. Something so small suddenly takes a completely different perspective. And some of

you will have heard this story before now, but it's so well illustrates this.

I used to teach in Papua New Guinea, and Papua New Guinea is

a tropical country, and it's full of creepy cowlies and snakes and other very

creative things. Just seen one or two people go and you know, mosquitoes

and you sleep under a mosquito net in those kind of places. So I

was sleeping under this mosquito net. I've woken up. I guess it would

have been five o'clock in the morning, and there was a monster on my

pillow an enormous monster. I've just felt like I almost wondered whether I'd woken

up or not. It felt like there was a dragon or something that was

about to eat me. And I leapt out of bed, pulled down the

the mosquito net off the ceiling, literally ripped it from the ceiling, and

then stood looking at my bed and on my pillow case was a praying mantis.

Now, praying mantis would have been about this long, but when it's

right in your face, it looked enormous. It looked very scary. Close

up, praying mantises do look scared. But you know, when I then

looked at this praying matters that I could step on if I wanted to,

I didn't. I picked it up and handed it out, got it out

of the room. But in that moment, I felt, but you know,

we need to get a perspective. So lift our eyes up. Let's

look at the bigger picture. Let's allow God to show us what do he

wants to show. Let's allow God to show us what's going on. Because

sometimes because of our small perspective, we think there's no solution. We only

have to step back a little bit and go. Not a problem, not

a problem. When I was a little child, I used to love building

dams on beaches or sand castles. Julie would tell you, even since we

got married, with a niece and nephew, I'd build a big sand castle,

and I love the sea coming in. I wanted to see I build

a big sand castle and want to stay until they had gone. I've got

this great big sand castle with Jake and Lauren many many years ago, and

it was a great big sand cast and we had to wait for a long

time for the tide to come in and to wash it away. But they

wanted to stand and watch that sake Sanka. But sometimes I would build dams.

And there's a particular beach in Cornwall where there's two rocks and there's a

river that runs through it, and me and my family another family, we

used to go there from time to time and we'd take garden space and the

whole idea was you'd start building a dam between the two rocks, and then

you'd get to a point as the water started to catch behind it, where

it was all rushing through this narrow bit, and then you had to all

everybody had to get to space and you had to throw lots of sand there

just to finish off the dam, and then you created a little swimming pool.

But do you know what. What I didn't realize until I was much

older, was that we ended up flooding the beach because I didn't have the

bigger picture. Because there were these two rocks and there was his pool.

It just it just got bigger. There was a river flowing, a stream

flowing through there, and we were just interested in there. But actually we

were making the beach smaller and smaller because He's swimming pools getting bigger and bigger

and bigger. Un said, eventually you just made a gap in it,

and away it flowed again. But I didn't have the bigger picture. I

didn't have the bigger picture. So let me encourage you. Step back,

allow God to show you what he's doing. Lift your eyes up and look

to God. Jeremiah twenty nine says this. And we know this well,

for I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord,

thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a

hope. Do you know what? God does not deal with us in small

pieces. If you want to spoil a book, go to the back end

of the book and read the last few pages of the book, and then

you know where it's going to go. Some people do that. I don't

know why, but I like the surprise. But you know what, The

ending in God's book for us is good. God wants to give us a

hope, to give us hope, He wants to continue to give us hope.

And when we're in the midst of the battle, the storm, the

worry, we're kind of focused on the storm. How am I going to

stay in the boat? How am I going to do this? How am

I going to do that? And I just sense that God says, it's

okay, It's only a storm. Only a couple of weeks ago, was

it? The week before last? There was a hail storm? Didn't last

that long. You wouldn't want to be out in it. It would have

hurt. But once it's over, it's over. And sometimes we just need

to endure a storm. Sometimes we need someone to stay with us. And

here's the interesting thing. We learn things in the midst of the deserts storms.

We learn things in the midst of those moments. Sometimes we pray,

God get me out of here, and I just said to God, saying,

I'm with you. Why do you want me to get you out of

it? Let me walk with you through the trouble, through the worry.

Let me show you that I'm faithful and true. And psal I'm thirty four,

verse eighteen. It says this, if your heart is open, you'll

find God right there. If you're kicked in the gut, He'll help you

catch your breath again. The message version of Psalm thirty four, verse eighteen.

There are things that happen in life that break our hearts, sad things

we have to go through, moments of distress and worry and loss. But

God is with us in the midst of these times. Also in the book

of Psalms, David was great at writing these things. He knew what it

was like. In Psalm one hundred and forty seven, he says he heals

those who have broken hearts. He takes care of their wounds. Now,

why does God take care of our wounds? Because he wants us to have

scars that assigns a victory. Now that scar on my hand, it's a

memory. Yeah, I won't do it again, but it's a sign of

something that I've learned. It's something I've been through. And there's a tradition

in Japan called kinsugi. If you remember Philip Hahana, she came and she

spoke to us a couple of years ago. She actually mentioned this principle,

And kinsugi is a principle of taking something that is broken and repairing it with

lacquer and with gold inside the lacker. And so something which is broken,

that is you imagine this bowl with all those pieces, it's no longer good

as a bowl. You can't use it as a bowl at all. But

by repairing it with the gold, suddenly it becomes functional again, and it

becomes beautiful, and the scars become a sign of completeness, not a sign

of emptiness. And I don't believe God wants us to be broken. He

doesn't want us to stay broken, and he recognizes that we end up being

broken sometimes because of stuff that happens. If we come to say, Lord

help me, what can he do? Isiah sixty one, verse three.

Firstly, in the message version, we know Isaiah sixty one. Well,

but what this says, to care for the needs of all who mourn in

Zion, give them bouquets of roses instead. Of ashes, messages of joy

instead of news of doom, a praising heart instead of a language, spirit

renaming us oaks of righteousness planted by God to display his glory. We know

there are stories, as Jesus talked about it, where he looked at a

fig tree that had nothing on it, no blossom, no fruit, to

cut it down and check it on the fire. Do you know? God

wants us to be fruitful? God wants us to be healthy. And so

let me read it in maybe a more familiar version, to console those who

mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy

for morning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they

shall be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he may

be glorified. As I kind of bring this all together, I want to

start by saying, firstly, let me encourage you. Don't live in brokenness.

If you need someone to pray with you, we'll pray with you.

If you need to talk to someone, people can talk with you. Find

someone who you trust those at home, find someone you trust, and just

be real with how you are and be real with God in the same way

that in the stories that I've told you. Today we can turn to someone

and say I'm okay, thanks very much, and inside we're crying out.

We can do the same to God. God's saying, Dave, how are

you today? I'm okay, God, And God's going I, no,

you're not, and said, you wanting to talk to me about it?

We're not going to learn together. And when I got to a few moments

this week where I got to almost head in the hands prayers, I'm glad

my hands caught my head by the way, But yeah, just breathing,

just breathing and being still. Psalm forty six says be still and know that

I am God. In those moments, we can just go God, I'm

sorry about the man. Sometimes it's because of our sins. Sometimes it's because

of the things we haven't done right. Again, let's turn to God.

He's bigger than that. He's bigger than our problems. He's bigger than the

things we've done wrong. He made a way back. That's his son,

Jesus. That's what we celebrated last Sunday. We celebrated an empty cross.

We celebrated an empty tomb. Because Jesus is written, He's paid the price

for you and me. And consequently the Father looks at us and goes,

Okay, you got it wrong. But as I look at you through Christ,

I see him, I don't see your wrongdoing. So let me encourage

us. I just want to bow our heads and just have a few thoughts

as I kind of close, but I want to pray to I firstly want

to pray for those who are right in the midst of the storm. Right

now, you're coping, but you're not really the song we sang all through

the storm. Your love is the anchor. My hope is in you,

and so Father God, if that's where we're at, Lord, we come

to you, And the first thing Lord we do is we hold out our

hands and say, I'm sorry, Lord, if we got it wrong.

I'm sorry. Here's part of the mess that I created. But would you

help me to find a way out this? And through this? I turned

from the wrong thoughts, the wrong dude deeds, the wrong activities that I've

been involved in. Lord, I want to walk your ways. So I

want to walk your way today. Lord, would you walk with me?

Father God, would you walk with me? And in those moments, I

just sense the Father would encourage us to lift up our heads. And instead

of looking at the problem, looking at the mess, he says, look

at me, just look like like I did with Joanna. Look at me.

Let's have a real conversation right now. I can help you, I

can hold you, I can journey with you. You are not alone.

My hope is in you alone. And so God, we come to you

as the author and profector of our faith, and we say, Lord,

have your way in our midst repair some of these, some of these open

wounds. Lord, I pray that you'd repair them, you'd restore them,

you complete them, you'd heal Lord, and they become beautiful memories of a

victory that's been one, of a corner that's been turned, of a completed

chapter at the end to something, and a new chapter begins. Secondly,

I want to pray for those who I just feel like they're sitting on top

of a volcano starts bubbling, boiling. You just sense the pressure behind you

and there seems to be no answer. Well, when was the last time

you or I talked about it? To Father God? He already knows,

but he wants a conversation. And when I say a conversation, I don't

just mean him us telling him about it, because he knows already, but

us listening, maybe getting a bigger perspective, maybe seeing that bigger picture,

maybe seeing that actually this is a tiny pimple of a volcano's bigger stuff going

on. So Father, help us to share with you, Help us to

share with one another, Help us not to need to cope all the time.

Help us let go sometimes and let you have your way in our midst

Often you change us as the circumstances changed. Thank you that you get our

eyes off worries and troubles and on to you. And thirdly, and finally,

I want to pray for anybody who doesn't even feel that you can talk

to God. What you've done is too bad, or maybe you don't know

the God that I'm talking about. I want to encourage you. Have a

game, talk to the Father. Come before and find a quiet place,

sit down and have a chat, and just be still. As David wrote,

sums be still and know that he is God. A week after Easter.

I don't know what the disciples would have been feeling, but he was

with them two weeks ago. And now he's dead, but he's risen again.

And there are so many stories of him returning to be with the disciples

and break bread with them and gather with them on the beach. That Jesus

that I'm talking about right now is there for you too. Why didn't you

get to know him as your friend and savior? Amen? So what do

you want to give us a space for prayer later on in the service