5th March 2023 - Communion Service - Dave Food - Leave the ashes behind

Him to prepare this word that we're about to hear and will look forward for

you are attached through Dave in Jesus' name. Amen Isiah chapter sixty one,

and I'll read the first three verses for the moment. We'll read more later,

but let's start with Isaiah sixty one, Verses one to three. The

spirit of the Lord of God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed

me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal

the broken hearted, to proclaim the liberty to the captives, and the opening

of the prison to those who abound, To proclaim the acceptable year of the

Lord, and the day of the vengeance of our God. To comfort all

who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty

for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for

the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of bright, the

planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. Now you might have

thought that's very presumptuous of you to read that about yourself. So I'm going

to read it again with a bit of poetic license, because you could have

read it as well, and because I believe this is true. The spirit

of the Lord God is upon you, because the Lord has anointed you to

preach good tidings to the poor. He has sent you to heal the broken

hearted, to proclaim the liberty to the captives, and the opening of the

prison for those who abound, To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,

and the day of the vengeance of our God. To comfort all whom all,

to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes,

the oil of joy for mourning, the government of praise, for the

spirit of heaviness, that you may be called trees of righteousness, the planting

of the Lord, that he may be glorified. So the spirit of the

Lord to be upon us. I promise and anticipation. I noticed somebody typed

in the chat box, I'm coming with expectancy this morning. I don't know

what you how you came to church this morning. You know, sometimes I

think if church was full, is that a problem? It would be nice

if it was full, but then there'd be no room to invite anybody.

And so we have a bit of a mindset. Well, I won't invite

anybody because they may not have a seat. I remember talking to a Chinese

Christian friend of mine who said, when they met in church, well,

when they met as church, they met in a house, he said.

And they met in a house, and they sat in all the chairs,

and they sat on the floor, and then they squatted in the hall.

And then when the whole of the downstairs was full, they put a little

microphone downstairs, and they put some speakers upstairs, and people went and sat

in the bedroom. He said, sometimes there'd be one hundred people in the

house, just having imagined having one hundred people in your house to gather around

the word. You know, it's very, very very interesting how different cultures

move in different ways. Dear friend of mine, is the being to be

with the Lord. He went to preach in Romania, and he said the

church they preached in the windows were broken and it was cold, so there

was cold air blowing through, and so people came with coats. No one

complained about whether it was hot or cold. They came ready, and there

wasn't a toilet in the building. The toilet was at the other end of

the street. And here's the interesting thing. People went to the toilet before

they came, so they didn't have to go, you know, So there

was an expectation. I want to be in the room. I want to

be there because God is going to move, because the spirit the Sovereign Lord

is upon you. What purpose does God have to anoint us. He anoints

us to preach good tidings. We should have something good to say every day.

It doesn't always have to be are you a Christian? And are you

saved? But just a good story, a good story of how I feel

good this morning. Some of us will leap out of bed in the morning.

Proverbs talks about this. People will leap out of the bed in the

morning. And sometimes it'll be a bit of a pain to the people who

aren't mourning people. But you'll have good news. Why are you feeling good

this morning? Because the spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me. And

if you don't feel good in the morning, ask for the spirit to fall

upon you. Why has He anointed us to heal the broken hearted? We

live in a broken world. There are plenty of people around it. Plenty

of times I hear people talking about how difficult, how challenging the day has

been, how something has been lost. To proclaim liberty to the captives.

And please do not just think this is about prison bars. There are many

people who are captive to habits, to mindsets, to relational You know that

there are people who are relationally stuck. Proclaim liberty to the captives. What

does proclaiming it says? Speak it out, declare it. If if somebody

starts sharing with you about how they feel stuck, why not start declaring freedom

over that stuck place? Why not speak it forth? And the opening for

the prisoner to those who are bound. So those who are bound, maybe

spiritually the opening of the prison, speak forth life, proclaim it's the Lord's

here. And then for those who are struggling. And this is where I

I this particular the beginning of verse three, to console those who mourn in

Zion, to give them beauty. For ashes, ashes the end of something.

When the fire has gone. I mean, if the fire is still

alight, there are still embers, there are still the form of wood and

coal in the fire. But once the fire has died completely. And here's

the crazy thing. Most of us would not remember this, but there would

be people, possibly in the room, possibly who are listening, who would

remember coming down in the morning and blowing on the embers of the night before

to start the fire again for the day. So it wasn't like you were

starting a new fire. The fire was continuous. It just to die down

and was going. And then you take the ash tray out and get rid

of the ash, and then you put more wood on the fire and you

blow on the embers from last night they were in the middle of that ash,

and then the flame would burst again. But you know, if you

cannot get any flame, if it's just ash remaining, there's nothing left.

You've got to start again. So ash speaks of an end of something.

It speaks of something that's finished. And actually people use ashes for morning.

I'll show you some pictures in a moment of some people I knew who used

ash for mourning. But to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of

joy for mourning, the garment of praise instead of the spirit of heaviness,

that they shall be trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. In

Genesis chapter three, verse nineteen, it says this, by the sweat of

your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, For

out of this you were taken from the dust, and to dust you shall

return God's a creative God. The Old Testament talks about how creative God can

be, and we read in Genesis how He took the dust and created man.

And yea God's to creative God. So even in the times when we

can't do it ourselves, God is able to do immeasurably more than we ask

or imagine. In Job two eight, he took for himself a potsird from

which to scrape from himself. Whilst in the midst of the ashes, Job

was mourning. Dobe was sad, wanted to get rid of the ash and

the impact of the ash itself. Daniel in Daniel ninety three. Then I

set my face towards the Lord God to make my request by prayer and with

supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, sackcloth and ashes, mourning a time of

saying, oh, yeah, Jeremiah's good at this lamentations. He is a

great place to go when you want to have a winge at God, I

say, God, why is it like this? Sometimes when we're mourning a

loss, and I lost does not necessarily only need to be people. Sometimes

our dreams are stolen, Sometimes our roles are stolen, Sometimes our jobs are

stolen. I sense the enemy at the moment really wants to attack Christians in

our identity, who we are, what's to come? And whisper in our

own and say, see, you're not really that good? What's to come?

And challenge who we are? And the enemy just wants to come at

the very cusp for who we are. And first things we don't need to

know is God created us in his image. So please, when you look

in the mirror and you don't like the water or the spot or the whatever

it is, the wrinkle, Yeah, did you know there are algorithms now

you can press a button and you can be on zoom and you can lose

all your wrinkles. Did you know that's an option available. If anybody wants

to know how to do it, I'll happily share with you afterwards. So

if anybody just feels they don't quite look right, so we've got algorithms that

can change us. But you know, actually the most beautiful thing about you

and me is our insides, not our outsides. So what we think is

what we feel. It's who we are. God created us to have fellowship

with us. The Sunday School are looking at was God lonely God? God.

Well, God wanted fellowship with us. He wants fellowship with us,

He wants time with you and me. Let's go back to Isaiah sixty one.

Oops, so let's go back to Isaiah sixty one. From the amplified,

it says this, to grant consolation and joy to those who mourn in

Zion, To give them an ornament, a garland, a diadem of beauty

instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment express

of praise instead of heavy, burdened and foot failing spirit. That they shall

be called oaths of righteousness, lofty, strong, and magnificent, distinguished for

uprightness, justice, and right standing with God, the planting of the Lord,

that he may be glorified. Here's an example of mourning. His lady

is a lady from Papua Guinea, and her husband was a chief. And

the way they decided how long they mourned for was they put necklaces on,

and they put mud made from ashes. Afterwards, they would make mud from

ashes, they put it on their face, and they would mourn for as

long as they were wearing necklaces and as long as there was still ash on

their face. But they did not wash. So it wasn't like you could.

You know, sometimes you have a you have a stamp on your hand

when you go in the prep place, so they put a stamp on your

hand and then the following day you can wash it off. They didn't.

They just literally allowed the ash to fall off their bodies and when that time

was over. Sometimes, sometimes for fairly senior people, they would be wearing

necklaces for one hundred days. Here's an example of a gentleman who's in the

midst of the morning. He's already mourned for a number of days, but

you can see the ashes started to go. And I want to speak to

this particular issue. I want to speak not putting ash on your face,

but I want to speak to this particular issue of loss. I don't want

to focus on people. I want to focus on the losses that we've had,

the mornings that we've had, the trouble that we've had. You may

have been made redundant point in your life. You had a job and suddenly

the job is no more. That's what redundancy means. That literally, what

it means that the job is no more, it's stopped. And some people

find identity and work. When you meet someone at a party and you shake

hands and you're just talking to them. Typically the kind of questions people ask,

are I'm Davey or John? You know? What do you do?

Where are you from? Those are the typical questions we always ask one another.

Isn't it Have you ever tried going a different way and saying so,

tell me what makes you tick? What gets you up in the morning.

I've tried it a few times, and I get silence to start with,

because people are surprised by the question because we're so used to going hi,

my name's who you know? And then we describe who we are by what

we do. And I know it's a large part of our week if we're

working, but do you know what the moment if that's if that's who you

are, then when you lose it, suddenly it's like we feel like we're

in an empty shell. I think I've been maybe done it three times in

my life, so I can speak from a place of place of experience.

But you know, when it happens, you start by thinking what did I

do wrong? Could I have done better? Did I upset somebody? Did

I overstep the mark? And we start by mourning the loss of who we

are. It's one kind of thing that we can lose. Sometimes we break

up in relationships, We fall out with people. Sometimes covenant relationship can be

broken. Do you know what if, even if the other party had all

the wrongdoing, we kind of start to blame. What did I do wrong?

Could I have done any better? And we start to mourn. We

mourn the not just the loss of that person, but the loss of that

relationship and shit and our part to play in that. And you can see

it on people's faces. Sometimes they've had a difficult week or difficult day and

you can see their faces low there, their their lips are down the morning.

Sometimes our dreams can be stolen. Sometimes we sense our prophetic words a

challenge. We had a prophetic gathering last weekend. We had claim with us.

Prophetic words were released. One of the first things that will happen is

there will come a time of testing when the enemy wants to dissuade us that

God didn't speak to us, and suddenly we're kind of in the place of

doubt, going, I wonder if he did say that. I wonder if

I'm really saved. Have you ever asked that question? Yeah, it happens

from time to time when we need to get our eyes focused back on the

source. We need to throw off the elements of more, and we need

to press into who we are in Christ. So let me dive back into

one Corinthian Zi eleven. But to sorry Isiah sixty one. Reading on now,

I want to read the whole of Isiah sixty one, starting at verse

one. The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord. Now, I really would love

you to receive this now because I want to go on from what we leave

behind to what God is for us as he promises to be upon us by

his spirit. The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon you, because the

Lord has anointed you to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent

you to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives,

and to release from darkness for the prisoners. To proclaim the year of the

Lord's favor and the day of the vengeance of our God to come for all

who mourn, and to provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow

on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead

of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair,

they will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the

display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places

long devastated. They will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.

Strangers will shepherd your flocks. Foreigners will work your fields and your vignyards.

And you will be called priests of the Lord, and you will be

named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations,

and in their riches you will boast. Instead of your shame, you will

receive a double portion. And instead of disgrace, you will rejoice in your

inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land. And

everlasting joy will be yours for the Lord. For either Lord love justice,

I hate robbery and wrongdoing. In my faithfulness, I will reward my people

and make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants will be known amongst the

nations, and their offspring amongst the peoples. All who will see them will

acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed. I delight greatly in

the Lord, my soul rejoices in my God, for he has closed me

with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness. As a

bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with

her jewels. For as the soil that makes the sprout come up, and

the garden causes sea to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and

praise spring up before all nations. Such a promise. The spirit of the

Sovereign Lord is upon us too, and we've understood that. And the purpose

is that God would be manifest through you and me. And so what I'd

like to do is to pray. We're going to come around communion after the

Word this morning, but I want to pray. I want to linger in

some words here and I am going to ask you to respond, at least

in your heart, those online, those in the room, those listening later.

But I want to start with self image. I want to start with

that place. And I want to start with that place because I just sense

there are some I had a picture as I was preparing for this, and

I had a picture of somebody looking at themselves in a mirror. But the

mirror had been shattered, and so the picture wasn't perfect. There were two

noses and you know, three ears. Just because of the way the mirror

now works, I just sense that for one or two people this was true

for you, and I want to pray for you right now, because I

said, we've got to focus on Okay, the problem is not us.

The problem is the mirror. What are we looking at and we see ourselves

reflected in others? We see ourselves reflected and what people say about us say

to us. And I want to encourage If that's you, I want to

encourage you to go back to the Father and what the Father sees in you.

Not what others say about you, not what you see in yourself,

but what does the Father say about you. Allow his words to wash over

you, Allow his words to speak to your inner being, Allow his words

to fill you. And so, Father, God, when we get an

imperfect view of ourselves, Father, we lift our eyes up to you.

We look to you and we say, Oh God, refresh me, renew

me, help me to get a right mind over my relationship with you and

how you see me. For you and I have been created for a purpose.

You and I have a calling upon our lives. You and I have

something that we need to do, and we need to do it for His

glory. And the phoenix that rises out of the ashes, the embers that

glow again, as there seemed like the fire had died. And yet the

breath of the Holy Spirit breathe on those embers again, and the fire comes

again, and this time it comes more strongly, and this time it comes

more brightly. Warmth a rises, relationship is restored. People are drawn in

by the story. Father, help us, help me, help those who

are praying this prayer with me, to get our eyes off words that have

been spoken about us in the past, words that we keep speaking to ourselves

and even repeating to ourselves so much so that we believe them. Further on

a break that repetitive, that repetitive speaking of phrases, particularly hearing as I'm

praying somebody who's just says you're you're not any good at that, don't bother

try and again. If that's you, I just believe that God's breaking that

that that that phrase upon your life to speak freshly into your situation and circumstance.

You were created for a purpose, You were created with meaning, you

are not a mistake. Even sense as I'm saying this that that was a

phrase that run in your head because your parents hadn't planned you. It's very,

very interesting when you listen to couples who have maybe an unexpected child later

in life. Some people talk about the joyous surprise. Other people say the

unexpected problem. Do you know what, We're not a mistake in God's plan,

in God's purpose. He created us in his image for his purposes.

And so Father, I speak your life, your truth into hearts and lives

right now, let me move on. Let me move on, and now

want to pray for those who have had a dream stolen. You've been building

towards a dream. There's something that you've been building towards for years, maybe

even decades. You always wanted to be this kind of things. Sometimes children

are asked, what do you want to be when you grow up? They

say fire and a policeman, a doctor for some of them. For some

of us, this has been true. You're building all the way through to

that, and you feel like you come to a crossroads and you need to

turn right to continue in your career, and the road is taking you left.

The path is taking you left. Everything that's happening is taking you left.

I would just ask whether it's the Lord leading, Just ask the Father,

is this you, Lord, because he has ways and means of reconnecting

pathways and journeys that are way beyond our understanding. And maybe he's avoid he's

leading you a different way to avoid you going down a cold he sack and

then he gets stuck somewhere. And so Father, I want to pray for

those whose dreams have been stolen, for those whose dreams are on the knife

edge, for those whose dreams seem to be fair into the distance. Father,

I pray, if it's you, rekindle the moguard, and Lord,

if leading a different way, Lord, show and speak and release your purpose

of guard into those lives and situations, that the morning might be passed,

that a new day might dawn, that new energy, purpose and direction would

come. We pray in your mighty name, Oh Man. And my final

area of prayer is broken relationships. I had a phrase ringing in my head

as I was praying in the middle of the week about what I was going

to share this Sunday. Oh, there's no point, I had this,

this phrase, There's no point in me even trying, there's no point in

me even picking up the phone sending an email. When Jesus came to the

disciples as they were fishing by the sea, they fished all night, and

you know, these are expert guys, they know what they're doing, and

he said to them, cast your that's one more time over the side.

Now. To be honest, I'm not a fisherman. But sometimes I think

about that story and I think I'd have probably turned to Jesus and said,

really, you're not a fisherman. Why would you know we've been fishing all

night. Did you not realize? And so I just sense it's really good

to open our ears to what God's saying to us, and through us,

I'm saying, Lord, speak Lord. We've been laboring, we've been toiling,

we've been connecting, speaking, building relationship, and it's all gone pair

shaped. Father. If there's a place where I played the part in that,

forgive me. Father helped me to find a place where I can say

sorry to those that I might have hurt with the words that I said.

But where there's nothing that you feel you can do, lay it before the

Lord. You will be surprised by what happens. Lay out the relationship,

lay out the thing that you morning, lay out the fact that you are

still wearing ashes. Lay it out before the Lord and say, Lord,

I've had enough. Lord, I want to connect again. Lord, this

matters to me. Help me to find a way. And please just be

aware as I'm praying, this is I'm talking us through this prayer. Sometimes

when you pray with the answer to our own prayers, God asks us to

do something. God changes our hearts, God changes our minds. That's what

repentance is. Is are turning from so as we repent of wrongdoing and repent

of saying something. Sometimes God challenges us and actually we're part of building the

bridge again. I don't know how it's going to work out for you,

but I want to pray. Lord, would you build new bridges? Would

you open new conversations? Father? Would you renew relationship both with you?

Father? God, even sense to somebody who might be listening later, who's

turned their back on God and said I've had enough, And God to whispering

in your ear today. Some come home, some come back, Come and

sit at my feet. Let's have a conversation. Let's talk daughter, your

specialty you're precious. Come and sit. I want to listen. I want

to hear what's on your heart. Tell me about it and so far the

God I want to declare over all those who are listening to this in the

room, later online, The spirit of the Lord is upon you. Throw

off the ashes of morning, have joy again in Jesus name. Amen,