15th January 2023 Infill Service - Yasmin Chaffer - A New Start

It is a new start. I'm got to start with Ecclesiastes three and verse

one, and I'm reading from the King James version, which says to everything

there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. This is

our starting point today, although we're not going to spend a lot of time

on this, but whether it's good, bad, or indifferent, to everything,

there is a season. Time is finite here on earth. We have

different seasons or stages in life in so many different ways. In terms of

age for example baby toddler, teenager right through to old age, and to

each season or stage there is purpose. We can look at seasons in terms

of our working life and retirement, etc. We do, however, need

to learn to live with eternity in mind. We serve a God who is

beyond time, whose love and whose word is eternal, and who invites us

to spend eternity with him. God's love for us is eternal, as it's

said so repeatedly throughout the Bible, including in Psalms one hundred and thirty six.

If you read that in the holemand Christian Sandard Bible, he loved us

before time began. He chose us before the creation of the world. As

it says in Ephesians one, verses four to five, I'm going to read

this from the message version. Long before he laid down Earth's foundations, he

had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love,

to be made whole and holy by his love. Long long ago he

decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ, his son. Jesus

saith on the c was our punishment for our sin that he took upon himself,

as it says, for example in Romans three, verse twenty five,

sin is simply choices that we make that break the law of love, love

God, love others, love yourself. When Jesus rose again in victory over

death which sin brought into this world and the devil, this victory was eternal

to we get to share in this victory when we ask Jesus to be Lord

of our lives. In John three point sixteen in the NIV, we have

a justifiably very well known verse. For God so loved the world that he

gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish,

be destroyed for eternity, but have eternal life. If you've never invited

the Lord into your heart and ask Jesus to be Lord of your life.

Now is a good time. You don't have to wait until you feel good

enough. You never will. You don't have to wait for anything. Come

as you are, and ask Jesus quite simply to forgive you for all the

wrong things you've ever done, and thank him that he has already paid the

price for them. If you say out loud Jesus is Lord, and believe

in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you'll be saved

from eternal death and go to Heaven forever when your life on earth is over.

It's that simple life won't suddenly be perfect now. But you have your

maker, the God who created the whole universe, including mankind, to guide

you through life by prayer, which is talking and listening to Him as state

said earlier, and through his words the Bible, which like him, is

eternal, and by His Holy Spirit, who now lives in sig The only

thing that is constant in this life is change. But our God, who

is love, never changes, as it says for example in Malachai three,

verse six, the biggest, the most important news start will ever make is

inviting Jesus into our hearts. The Lord led me to the story of Abram

in the Old Testament, which was the start of his relationship with the One

True God. This took place approximately two thousand years BC. His father Tera

meant to go to Canaan. Broadly speaking, as I understand it in terms

of modern geography, Canaan was the land which included Israel as well as parts

of Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. Sarah took his son Abram and his

wife Sarah and Lot, his grandson by his late son, Haran, and

as its there's in Genesis eleven thirty one. Together they set out from all

of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran,

they settled there. I wondered whether Haran was named after Terra's son. According

to one source I found on the Internet, in Hebrew, the spelling of

the place name does vary slightly from the personal name. Apparently, the place

name can be parched, but is more likely to mean road or crossroad,

and the personal name means mountaineer. It might be helpful one night for a

quiz night. TERA's plan was to go to Canaan but there's no indication as

to why or why they stopped where they did. This brings us to the

primary passage for today, Genesis twelve versus one to four, and I'm going

to read it from the new King James version. That's Genesis twelve verses one

to four. Now, the Lord had said to Abram, get out of

your country, from your family and from your father's house, to a land

that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I

will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who

curses you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went

with him. And Abram was seventy five years old when he departed from harm.

So my first point is it was God's idea for Abram to make this

new start Abram. Abram didn't make such a radical change to his life and

that of his family on a whim, or because he was bored. In

Genesis twelve versoe, it says, now the Lord had said to Abram,

get out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house

to a land that I will show you. I believe that the Lord is

saying. Sometimes I speak to people in different ways about change. It might

be a sense of dissatisfaction with the status quo, with life carrying on as

normal, and a need for a new beginning. You can check whether it's

me or not in many ways, for example, through prayer, both both

talking and listening to me. As they've said earlier, generally people are better

at talking than listening to me because they don't expect me to reply. I

always will. Sometimes I reply immediately, sometimes you'll hear me later, and

sometimes, for example, the reply will come in a change of circumstances that

occurs sometime later. There's always a reason for my timing. You don't always

need to know it. Sometimes I speak to people through reading my word.

John one One in the amplified version says, in the beginning before all time

was the word Christ, and the word was with God, and the word

was God himself. When people take the time to read my word, they're

taking time with me. I take that personally. It gives me real pleasure.

Naturally, I will speak to them through it. I cannot be separated

from my word. You may not feel like you've heard me particularly all the

time, like something leapt off the page at you every time you read my

word, But it doesn't always need to to feed you and guide your thinking.

There are many different ways that I speak to people. I am the

creator of all things, and I know each of you intimately and completely,

and I understand you. That's why I speak to you the way that I

do. Genesis twelve one. Now the Lord had said to Abram, get

out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house,

to a land that I will show you. It was a huge move,

a new start away from the family home, purely because God had told him.

The nib Cultural Background Study Bible makes some really interesting points about this.

One reason God may have asked Abram to leave behind his city, his country,

his people, and his father's household is because gods that were worshiped tended

to be national or city gods in other words, country the clan god people

or ancestral gods in other words, ancestors who were believed to have taken a

p in the divine world. In severing these ties, Abram would have had

Abram would have had with other deities. The One True God could then fill

the resulting void, as the only God Abram would need. I believe that

the Lord is saying a new start can be big and permanent. It can

be a minor change and temporary and everything in between. I love to be

involved in all of it. Sometimes I will more obviously initiate things than others,

but I will never initiate anything that contradicts my word. Some of you

are thinking that's really basic, but keeping my word first place at all times

in your heart is a work in progress for all of you who have committed

yourselves to me. Knowing my word is the starting point. Living it out

is what The Holy Spirit is there to help you with a new start can

be as simple as Lord Jesus, I've messed up again. I'm so sorry.

Please wipe the slate clean with your blood that you shed for me on

the cross when you took the punishment for my sins and died. Please help

me to live for you. And we all need to do that pretty regularly,

don't we. There is someone listening who is facing a very big change

that is not of their making. It's not their choice and isn't something that

they want to do. I believe that the Lord is saying to you,

be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. That's Psalm twenty seven,

verse fourteen in the NIV. The whole verse in the amplified translation reads,

wait for and confidently expect the Lord. Be strong and let your heart

take courage. Yes, wait for and confidently expect the Lord. When you're

weak, you're strong because my grace, my favor, and loving kindness and

mercy. My grace is sufficient for you. For my power is made perfect

in weakness. That's two Corinthians twelve and verse nine in the NIV. In

the Passion translation, what the apostle Paul said, who wrote the letter to

the Corinthians, is written this way, My grace is always more than enough

for you, and my power finds its full expression through your weakness. So

I will celebrate my weaknesses, for when I'm weak, I sense more deeply

the mighty power of Christ living in me. The Lord is saying, you

will find my everlasting arms underneath you, and that's in Deuteronomy thirty three twenty

seven. You will always feel Me there, but I will carry you through

this. This will not break you, you will come through to the other

side of this. So back to our passage. God initiated this new start

for Abram, but sometimes we have to deal with new starts because of decisions

made by others. We can trust God to see us through. Genesis twelve

us is one to three. Now the Lord had said to Abram, get

out of your country, from your family, and from your father's house,

to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great

nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall

be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will

curse him who curses you, and in you all the families of the earth

shall be blessed. The Lord gave Abram direction in verse one, and in

verses two to three. He made Abram some promises which would result from Abram's

obedience. The nature of those promises were not Abram's idea. They were the

Lord's idea, and they all looked impossible from a natural human perspective. But

of course nothing is impossible with God. As the Angel said to Mary in

Luke one thirty seven, after announcing to this young virgin that she would give

birth to God's child, his son Jesus. I believe that the Lord is

saying, obedience to me will always bring blessing. It's a consequence of your

obedience that sometimes looks great in the hearing. Now, sometimes the blessing will

come after a period of time, and there would be more in terms of

the eternal rewards that you will reap, and maybe it will be a mixture

too, but it will always be worth it that, I can promise you.

Think about this for a minute. In terms of Abram, I will

make you a great nation. That promise is ongoing. We have Israel and

the Jews, but Abram didn't see it in his lifetime. What he did

see was just the start of that. In terms of Isaac, the child

of promise born to Abraham and his wife Sarah, whose names the Lord changed

to reflect their destinies before Isaac was born, whose God is a prophetic god,

Abraham meaning father of a multitude, and Sarah meaning princess. I'm not

going into the whole story of Abraham right now, but the fulfillment of God's

promise a great nation started with just one child. Abraham's obedience brought forth an

amazing inheritance, which he didn't get to see while still on earth, but

was and still is such an important part in God's plan for mankind. We

won't always see the results of our obedience, but it's still precious to God.

It still matters. Neither Abraham nor Sarah met this amazing and impossible looking

promise of God with great faith at the beginning, it has to be said.

In Genesis seventeen seventeen, it says that Abraham fell on his face and

laughed and said in his heart shall a child be born to a man who

is one hundred years old, and to Sarah, who is ninety. And

when Sarah heard it for herself later in Genesis eighteen, she also laughed to

herself. But God didn't break his promise to these people because of their doubt

and unbelief. I have to say. Abraham did subsequently get himself and the

men of his household circumcised in obedience to what God then said, which was

obviously no small thing. Despite Abraham's initial reaction, he followed up with radical

obedience. But my point is God didn't give up on Abraham and Sarah because

of their initial reactions to his promise. What I will say is that Abraham

went from that to what it says in Romans four verses twenty to twenty one.

I'm going to read it from the Christian Standard Bible. That's Roman's four

twenty to twenty one. He Abraham did not waver in unbelief at God's promise,

but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God because he was

fully convinced that what God had promised he was also able to do. When

we are fully convinced that what God has promised in our lives he is also

able to do, our faith will also be strengthened. And it's important that

we also give glory to God both before and after we see his promises come

to pass. In the Classic Amplified translation, it says he grew strong and

was empowered by faith as he gave praise and glory to God. To me,

this is really helpful because praise in God before the fulfillment of his promises

in our lives is a sure way of strengthening our faith. It's also a

sacrifice that we won't be able to make when we get to heaven, because

there'll be no tears, no pain, no lack. Yesterday morning, despite

the very limited time I'd had by that point to start preparing for today,

I thought that the Lord wanted me to attend our monthly women's group that met

online. Just to be clear, don't need to come to this church to

attend, you just need to be female. By the time the meeting was

finished, I knew why. I'm going to share something of what came up.

So thank you, ladies for your contributions to days message. I'm going

to start with something that I shared. I was in our little local post

office yesterday morning and there was a queue, so I had to wait in

a narrow aisle and around me with the shelves stocked with all kinds of different

goods. Turning my heart towards the Lord, I said to him in my

heart, Lord, this is quite distracting having so many different goods all around

me. And the Lord said, look up, So I did to a

very plain, ordinary ceiling. But what I immediately noticed was the light.

And the sense I got was to focus on where his light is shining,

on what he's highlighting in front of you, to understand what is yours to

do. We can have so many distractions around us remember his word is a

light to our path and a lamp to our feet, as it says in

Psalms one hundred and nineteen first one o Fife and Jesus, our ale model

in life, said I only do what I see my father doing in John

five, verse nineteen. And these will help us to understand what the Lord

is highlighting on our path for us to do when we keep an eternal perspective

on our lives easier said than done. Granted, we all have to deal

with distractions, but thankfully we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us to

help us with that. But when we keep an internal perspective on our lives,

it will help us to value what is really important and pay less attention

to what won't mask eternally. That which we do for love is what we'll

stand the test of time. And of course that includes when we obey God

out of love for him in the big things and the small and everything in

between, whether others are watching or not, because that's when we represent God.

In Genesis twelve, verses one to three, the Lord gave Abram direction

and made him some promises. The question that was asked of us at the

Women's meeting, that I'm now raising with you is what is God asking of

you? What direction is he giving you? And I'll add to that what

promises is He giving you. We were thinking in terms of plans for this

year, with it being the start of a new year, but obviously it's

not limited to that. How are you going to respond? As someone said,

the Lord is not a gentleman and won't force anything on you. As

we seek God, we find out what we need to do. Sometimes He

calls us to do what we want to do, to do things that we're

naturally gifted at and enjoy and sometimes not, but He will always give us

the grace to do it. I knew some one years ago who was a

primary school teacher, and the Lord clearly directed her to go into teaching infants.

She so badly didn't want to do it. She cried out of obedience.

She did it, and she loved it. It's not the only example

I know of this nature. But God knows us better than we know ourselves.

No surprise there he made us. I can't guarantee that you'll love everything

that Lord calls you to do, but he will give you the grace to

do it. He will enable you and he might just surprise you. Yeah.

In Proverbs sixteen, verse three, This was a verse that was given

yesterday, and someone shared the classic amplified version that was really helpful. It

says, roll your works upon the Lord, commit and trust them wholly to

him. He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to his will, and

so shall your plans be established and succeed. Back to Genesis twelve, verses

one to three. Now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of

your country, from your family, and from your father's house, to a

land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation.

I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a

blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him

who curses you, and in you, all the families of the earth shall

be blessed. In the NIV Cultural Background Study Bible, it says this God's

promises his covenant with Abram. Oh it wasn't a covenent at this point,

but it targets the most essential elements of identity in the value system of the

ancient Near East Land was connected to our survival and livelihood. Family linked the

past present and the future, giving the most basic sense of identity inheritance fixed

one's place in the family. When Abram gave up his place in his father's

household, he forfeited his security. He was putting his survival, his identity,

his future, and his security into the hands of the Lord. And

I say that is the safest place for us to put ours. What does

it mean for you to put your identity into the hands of the Lord?

What does it mean for you to put your future and security into his hands?

Maybe that's a point for discussion in table talk, which of points which

are put on our church what's happed for discussion midweek? But I would just

say that what does God say about it? When we put these very real

life issues into God's hands, we need to know what God is saying.

And the most fundamental ways to know that are to pray and to read God's

word. As I've said on a number of occasions, trust is the greatest

gift that we can give to anyone. If you want to give God a

great gift, trust him, especially in the dark times when you can't see

how things are going to turn out. Rabbi Kurt Schneider says something that I

think is really helpful about trust. Rabbi Schneider is a Messianic Jew who believes

like we do, that Jesus is the Messiah, the savior of the world,

long promised by God in the Old Testament. His testimony about how he

became a Christian and the different seasons in his life and ministry is a great

In his book called to Breakthrough, this is what he says, the Lord

clearly said to him one day by the Holy Spirit, in answer to a

question that he had put to the Lord a couple of days previously. The

reason you see my people falling and failing is because they're not trusting me.

The Rabbi says, when he said the word trust, beloved one, it

was filled with revelation. I understood exactly what he meant. Within the concept

of trust is the idea of clinging to God. The Hebrew word for this

is never could. It means attachment, to cleave, to cling to hold.

In fact, in modern Hebrew we get the word gloom from this word.

To me, that's such a clear illustration of what trusting God is about.

He goes on, in essence, God was saying people are falling,

they're not seeing success and getting breakthrough because they're not clinging to me. They're

not practicing a constant awareness of me, they're not fully sharing their lives with

me, talking with me all the time. They're not inviting me in continually.

And so Beloved, if we want breakthrough, we need to cling to

God all day long, every day, looking to Him for guidance, for

wisdom, and for the leading of the Holy Spirit. As we do this,

we're going to get breakthrough. Jesus said, he who abides in Me

and I in him, he bears much fruit. That's John fifteen, verse

five. I think it's really important to state that this is not a note

of condemnation, but rather encouragement that there's so much more to this life in

Christ whilst we're here on earth than certainly I've currently been experiencing. And I'm

sure I'm not the only one. It's a bad each one of us taking

that time aside with the Lord and asking what changes do I need to make?

What just trusting you, Father, God more look like? For me?

Trust is fundamental to any news start with the Lord, whatever form that

new start takes. As the Rabbi goes on to say, going forward,

my intention is to continue growing in my ability to live by the spirit of

God who is in me. I want to live from the inside out.

So briefly, for my last point, going back to our main passage for

today, without looking, how old was Abram when he left Haran with Lot

after the Lord had spoken to him? Thank you? He was seventy five

Genesis twelve, verse four. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoke to

him, and Lot went with him, and Abram was seventy five years old,

and he departed from her An. Abram was seventy five years old when

he made this new start. What does that tell us about how God feels

about age and new starts? There is no limit with God. Age is

not a limiting factor with whom whether people are bold or young, it's faith

and obedience that counts. Let's pray, Father God, thank you that in

you we always have an opportunity for a fresh start because of what Jesus has

done for us. Thank you that you have plans and purposes for each one

of us. Please help us to understand what new start you have in mind

for each one of us, and what our part is so we don't so

that we don't miss any of your plans for us. We asked this in

Jesus' name and thank you all, my man, thank you. I see