22nd January 2023 - Teaching Service Dave Food - A New Way, a new day

In the name of Jesus, we bless him and pray for the word that

he's going to share. Amen, thank you, Letty, good morning,

everybody. Has anybody ever thought, as they've journeyed through twenty twenty two,

let me roll it back to twenty twenty two, there's probably not been enough

days in twenty twenty three to mate hopefully for this to be true or possible.

Has anybody ever thought, I'd like to reset, I'd like to do

that day again. Anybody watched the film Groundhog Day. The character wakes up

every morning and the same things, the same thing's happening, and it takes

him a few repeats to realize that the same things are happening, and then

he realizes that actually, if he changes the way he does something, then

the new day comes differently, and he keeps on trying to change things that

make things better, and it all ends up a pretty big mess start with,

because he's He then realizes, well, I could do what I want,

so who cares? But we do care. That's part of the problem.

And so as we journey on this series of throughout January of a new

start, I want to say there is a new way and because there is

a new way. There's a new day. And what new way am I

talking about? I'm talking about Jesus. Jesus made a way that means that

we can come before God because He looks at us through Christ. He looks

at us through the purity of his son. In two Corinthians five, verse

seventeen, it says this, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he

is a new creation. Not maybe he is a new creation. All things

have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. You know,

there are many times in our lives, I think when we say, I

wish I could do that again and do it differently, if you know what

we can't. If you like cartoons like The Bino and the Dandy, there

are pictures of and other cartoon books as well, there are pictures of characters

and they have a bubble, and in that bubble is what they said.

And sometimes I feel, maybe you feel the same. I want to,

as it were, take hold of the bubble that I've just said and kind

of push it back inside. Could I say that again? Sometimes once it's

out, it's out. But behold, old things have passed away and new

things have come. And what does this lead us to well. If I

read this from the amplified in one John, one verse ninety says, if

we freely admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, he is faithful

and just, true to his own nature and his promises, and will forgive

us our sins, dismiss our lawless, and continuously cleanse us from all unrighteousness,

everything not in conformity to his to his will, in purpose, thought,

and action, he will forgive us our sins. So I can confidently

say here in twenty twenty three, on January the twenty second, he will

forgive you, He will forgive me. What does he say if we freely

admit, repent, turn away from those things, change our minds, make

a difference. David knew about these things, as he wrote many Psalms one

hundred and fifty Psalms one hundred and fifty songs, and he wrote this.

He doesn't punish us for our sins as much as he should be, as

much as we should be punished. He doesn't pay us back in keeping with

the evil things we've done. His love for those who have respect for him

is as high as the heavens are above the earth. He has removed our

lawless acts from us, as far as the east is from the west.

Do you know what if we get our heads around that simple scripture. You

know, if you keep on going east, you keep on going east.

It's a never ending thing, because the globe is our east, and west

is a reference on our globe. And if we keep on going west,

we'll come back to where we started eventually. And so as the far as

the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from

us. And a father is tender and kind to his children, to us

in the same way, the Lord is tender and kind to those who have

respect for him. He knows that we are made of He knows what we

are made of. He remembers that we are dust, and be kind.

Sorry. He knows that we are dust, and we press into all that

we are. And God encourages us to reflect that in our own lives,

to becase aimed to one another, to be tender hearted. That means to

care to notice that. I don't know how, I don't know what kind

of films cause you to well up. You know that there are certain moments

in certain films where my lip starts to quiver as I hear you know a

particular poignant story, or a child doing something incredible, or some kind of

breakthrough coming, some completed story being completed. But he encouraged us to be

kind to one another, tender hearted, for giving one another, even as

God in Christ forgave you and me. So you say, how can this

be true? Well, Isaiah tells us, do not remember the former things,

nor consider the things of olds. He goes on to say in verse

nineteen, this behold, I will do a new thing. Behold, I

will do a new thing. Now it shall spring forth, shall you not

know it. I will make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the

desert. I just want to pause there before I continue in this. But

I have it home. I wish I've brought it now, but it's very

fragile. I have a desert rows at home. It sits on our windowsill.

It's a crystal that grows underneath the sand, and it grows under the

seas, and saying, I believe it's made from It's called gypsum as what

it's made of. But it grows underneath the sand. With the little water

that's there, it causes the crystals to grow, and they only grow in

the desert. You'll only find them where the vast amounts of sand and where

there is that process going on of continual heating and crystallization. And yet it's

a beautiful thing. And when it rains in the desert, you might think,

well, it's just sand, there's nothing else to see here. You

can watch many videos online. When it rains over the next three or four

days, suddenly what was just sand becomes a sea of greenery, and things

flower very very quickly, and they flower quickly, and they produce seeds very

quickly because there's just such a short period, because eventually the sun will bake

them dry again, and those seeds then go back into the sand ready for

the next time it's going to rain. And so when we look at barrenness,

when we look at emptiness, when we look at where there is nothing,

I want us to believe that behold, I do a new thing.

Even as I make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert,

the beasts of the field will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches,

because I will give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give

drink to my people, my chosen ones, this people I have formed for

myself, that they may declare my praise. God waters us with good things,

not that we might just stand there and look beautiful, but that we

might declare His praise. And I want to ask a question. I want

to ask one or two ouch questions this morning, and I want to say,

when was the last time you declared just how good God was? Or

is was it? Did you do it this morning as you were praying?

Did you do it yesterday in a conversation? Did you do it as part

of our worship this morning? Because we've got to keep on reminding ourselves that

he is good and He's for us. It's I am. I am fascinated

by how many times people you can know someone and know someone knows someone.

Let me give you an example. I had a friend of mine who who

I heard, had said something about me and they know me really well,

and I thought, where did they get that from? And so I took

a moment. I didn't just say why did you? I just know what's

going on? What made you say this? I said, Well, this

had happened, and that had happened. I said, but you know me,

surely if you really expected me to behave differently, maybe you to come

and ask and found a way to ask me. Do you know I think

we do the same with God. Yeah, we know God. We know

him to be good. We've seen him do miracles in our lives. We've

seen him speak truth. And then something comes along and suddenly bit or is

he really there? Is he? Here? Is He there for me?

God is for us, not against us. Interesting that Letty started the service

with this without knowing that I was also going to kind of bring this scripture

as well, and we just put a little bit of context from Lamentations because

Lamentations is not a book we'd readily turned to. It's the tricks in the

title. You know, who wants to lament? Who wants to have a

pity party. But it's such a good book to kind of just let it

all out, if kind of if you want, if you want to kind

of have a have a chat with God, go to Lamentations and just see

where it takes you. I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lossness,

the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed. I remember it all,

Oh how well. I remember the feelings of hitting the bottom. But there's

one thing I remember, and remembering I keep a grip on hope. God's

love couldn't have run out. His merciful love couldn't have dried up. They're

created new every morning. How great is your faithfulness? You want to say,

I don't recognize that. Well, that's probably because it's from the message.

So let me read it again in maybe more familiar territory. Though the

Lord's mercies are not consumed because his passion fails not. They are new every

morning. Great is your faithfulness every morning? Every day is a new day.

Every day is unique. I was sitting having lunch with some longtime friends

yesterday and I just made a comment and said, this group of people has

never sat around this table, has never been together before. I could make

that statement to be true because I was at Julia and I were at the

wedding of a couple who were sitting at the table, and their daughter was

sitting at the table. We never met her before, so I knew that

to be true. I mean, there were other people around the table.

You will often find even if you go to the same place every week,

there'll be somebody new or somebody not there, And so you can actually say

this is a unique group of people. It changed it Sunday, although we've

got familiar faces and we nod and we smile and misay good morning to people.

I'm pretty confident to be able to say, I guess the statistics are

that this is a unique combination. Yeah, I don't know how I'd work

out whether it was true or not. But you know, there are people

who are here, there are people who are not here. It only takes

one person new to turn up, and it's definitely different. Only takes one

person not to be able to make it. It's different. And so every

day, every opportunity comes fresh to us. There's nothing better than the smell

of fresh bread. I remember the days when I was a child and you

didn't get good bread from supermarkets. You had to go to a baker's.

And our bakers was the other side of Cookhams. So I used to have

to walk or cycle to our bakers and often I would go and get the

bread and then walk back. And I remember one distinct particular time I had

to go to the baker's I had I was meant to play two French sticks,

and one of them was a bit broken as it went into the bags

and I could smell this bread coming out of the bag, and I just

tried a little bit so I didn't break a bit off. I just kind

of dug the middle out, this is really good. As I was walking

back, I just tried a bit more, and then I was kind of

trying to get my fingers right down inside to get any more bits of bread.

And then I was going the other way and I got home and I

stuck the two bits together again and put it on the side. And then

we came to lunchtime and my mum got the bread out and you know,

it's broken. Oh what's happened to this? And I had to confess.

I had to say, oh, I really enjoyed the bread. On the

way, I'd probably eaten about a third of the loaf of the baggett.

But it was so good. It smelled so good you couldn't resist it.

And I just want to encourage us if that was our attitude to every day,

that every day we think, oh, this is going to be so

good, I am going to win enjoy it. I'm going to take part

in it, and I'm going to be I'm going to rip some benefits from

it new every morning. Every morning is full of possibility. Every morning there

are new things. Now, you might say, but Dave, what about

all the stuff that happens? Well, in John ten ten, a scripture

you all know very well, it says, the thief does not come except

to kill, steal, and destroy. The thief does not come. The

enemy does not come except to steal, kill, and destroy. And I

want to call that out because do you know what, when you start to

see patterns in life, if you start to see confusion going on, you

know, you have a week and you think there's been miscommunication going on all

day to day, just recognize it as a strategy. Just recognize it as

the enemy and say, okay, I need to pray now. If you

start to see, you know, maybe what's an example, I don't know.

You come to put your hands in your pocket. I think I'm sure

I had a ten pound note in my pocket, and then you kind of

dig your hands in your pocket and then you think, oh, it must

have fallen out. It's been stolen, maybe not by person, but it's

been stolen by the end. And then somebody comes along and steals your joy.

You're really happy, you're really pleased, and suddenly moved. Huber's walked

into the room. And suddenly you recognize there's a pattern going on today.

The enemy's having to go trying to steal my joy, steal my piece,

steal something of mine. Recognize it, call it out, and pray because

that's what he loves to do. He loves to upset our day. And

so we've got this new every morning day. And then halfway through the morning,

oh, it's another one of those days. Let me encourage you.

Just pause for a few moments and pray. Because Jesus went on to say

this, He said, the thief does not come except to steal killer roy.

But I have come that they may have life, and they have it

more abundantly, have it to the full. In other translations, I love

the word abundantly. Abundantly means excessively more there not not not just fall,

but flowing over in other descriptions, pressed down and running over in another part

of scripture. You know what, we don't tend to do those kind of

things. We don't tend to fill up a mug until it's overflowing, because

we don't want to make a mess on the floor. You know, if

you've ever seen somebody walking across the restaurant with it. You know, they

fill the pint of beer up or the glass and it's really full, and

they're kind of walking across trying to make sure they don't spill a drop.

You know, God is so much more. Life is messy. There is

overflow, for there is. It's more abundantly. And I want to go

back to this scripture because this is right, this is where I started,

but this is how I want to kind of pull it all back together again.

I want to go back to two Corinthians five, verse seventeen and say

this, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he or she is a

new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become

new. So now a time for a little bit of a workshop. I'm

not going to ask you to share anything with you, but we're going to

explore and unpack this scripture in our own world. So I'd just like you

all to close your eyes and listen to my voice. And as you listen

to my voice, I want you to think about if you are going to

do a spring clean of your daily life. I just like you said,

so, I'm not thinking about the week yet. Let's just think about what

you do on a daily basis. There are things we do every day.

We clean our teeth every day, you know, we go to bed every

day. Many of us will go to work five days a week. Anything

that we do almost every day. I'd just like you to think about your

day, reflect upon your day, and if you're going to change one thing,

one thing, what would that be. I'm not gonna ask you to

tell me. I'm asking you to reflect upon it. We're just going to

do a little bit of a kind of spring cling. But before God,

if there was one thing that you might add one thing in. But do

you know what, I would encourage you. If you're going to add something

in, maybe make something else shorter. Don't just pile more on and more

on. That just brings pressure and stress. But as we've got our eyes

closed, I just want to encourage you just reflect upon your daily life and

think about maybe one thing you want to stop doing or one thing you want

to start doing. I'm just going to ask you to reflect upon that here

at the beginning of the year, near the beginning of the year, just

reflect upon that. Say, Okay, do you know what I'm gonna Here's

one thing that I thought about. I thought about I'm gonna I'm going to

try and find a minute of peace where I just sit and I breathe,

and I just focus on something peaceful, something something beautiful. And notice I

said a minute. I didn't say ten minutes or half an hour, just

said a minute. I just want to start a new habit, start a

new way, and I find I ain't. I'll probably diarize that because the

best way to make it happen is to consciously choose to do it. And

then I'd like you to enlarge your focus a bit now and not look at

a day, but look at a week. Look at the form of your

week. What are there There are things that we do every week, maybe

go to the shops, maybe have a coffee with a particular friend, maybe

go for a walk at the weekend. But there are things that we do

on a weekly basis. And again I'm going to ask you just to reflect

upon that week. What one thing would you stop? Behold I do a

new thing. New things sometimes would be stopping bad habits, not so hell

the ways of doing things, but it might also be picking new things up.

Let's reflect again upon your week. Maybe it might be to ring a

particular person. It doesn't have to all be about us. Sometimes it might

just be about our relationship with one another. Might choose to send a postcard

or a card. There's an unusual thing to do these days, to encourage

somebody, just a few words. Just want to enlarge it one more time

and think about the year. You could do the month as well, but

we won't do that this morning. But just like you to think about your

year, think about you and there'll be times you'll take a holiday, There'll

be festivals and birthdays, There'll be people you see at certain times of the

year. I just want to encourage you. Think about what one new thing

could I got? When you think, could I start doing one thing?

Could I stop doing? Behold I do a new thing? And why have

I asked you to reflect upon these things? Because I hope in the midst

of those ideas there was a reflection on God, spending time with people,

talking more positively, choosing to invest in yourself, read a new book,

read the Bible maybe, or read the book of Psalms. There was a

season when I read a psalm every day for nearly a year. When I

got to the end that's one hundred and fifty days worth. Some of them

are really short. In fact, I did break some one hundred and nineteen

down. Some one hundred and seventeen you can read in thirty seconds. Some

one hundred and nineteen takes a little longer. But each day I would read

a psalm. When I got to the end, I went back to the

beginning again and started again. You know, if you go through psalms twice,

you're nearly there three hundred, three hundred and sixty five days. But

I want to take this one step further now with her eyes closed, and

I just want you to think about if God was speaking to us and that

exercise that we've just been through, that one thing in a new day,

for a week, for the year, If God was our coach and was

just advising us and just saying, is one thing I'd suggest you do.

What might it be this morning, either in your week or in your week,

your day, or in your year. I sense that God might say

to some people, take a sabbatical, take a break, take a week

off from everything. For others it might be spend a little more time with

me, But others it might be very specifically saying sorry to somebody where something's

gone awry. For others, it might be a simple just ask me,

son or daughter just asked me about this thing. I'm waiting to respond to

you, but please just ask me. Pray talk to God. In Isaiah

forty three, as I read earlier, in verse eighteen, it says this,

do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.

Behold, I will do a new thing. And as we've just considered what

God might say to us, I'm going to pray now. So I sense

the Father in those moments may have just dropped an idea into your heart,

into your mind. You might have just reflected on his word and said I

need to make a change here. I'm going to encourage you to take that

step of faith and do it. So let me pray. Father. We

do want every day to be a day of fruitfulness. We do want every

day to be a day of blessing. Father, help us to be blessings

to others. Help us to be encouragees. Lord God, help us to

go and to give the great gifts that you've given us. Father, thank

you for the fruit that you've provided to us. Help us to use it

wisely and bless others we pray and help us to take steps of faith.

Father, I pray that twenty twenty three will be better than we expected.

Father, I pray that twenty twenty three will be better than the year before.

Father, I pray that twenty twenty three will be a year of fulfillment

and purpose in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen, do you want me to

do the notice his let's say yeah, Okay,