4th September 2022 - Communion Service - Dave Food - Washed Free

And I'm not talking about washing as in ablutions, but being washed free.

So let me pray as we gather around the word Father, as we've as

we want to study your word this morning. Father, would you show us

something more of your great nature, of your great character. Father. Would

you give us a glimpse of a part of you that we don't yet know?

Father, would you help us to see, to know and to trust

you more and more? For Father, you've been the good God. But

you're going to continue to be a good God. I said that because we

know it. We know that you've been a good God. But Father,

we're looking ahead to the days ahead, and we're going to ask Lord for

you to help us, help us to as we gather around this word this

morning, help me to share what you've placed in my heart. Father,

would you open our hearts to see more of you? We pray it all

in your mighty name. Amen. For those who have children, maybe before

they had their dinner you send them off to wash their hands, or before

they go after school. Have you washed before you go after school this morning?

And you hear this little boy say yes Mum, yes Dad. And

then sometimes there's a bit of an audit that goes on, a bit of

checking that goes on. You notice that the towels still dry in the bathroom,

and you didn't hear the tap turn on, So you ask them,

how did you manage to wash without turning the tap on? How did you

actually manage to clean your hands without using the soap? How did you manage

to wash your hands without needing to use a towel? And then they,

you know, sometimes they go, oh, sorry, Mummy, sorry daddy,

I didn't you. Washing's a powerful thing. It cleanses us. It's

a good thing to do. And there's a scripture that talks about being washed

in the water of the word that I want to unpack a little bit,

because I don't know what kind of washer you are, or I don't know

what kind of eblutions you prefer, whether you like a bath, whether you

like a shower, whether you like a quick bath or a long soak or

just a quick splash. You know, some people say, you know,

when you have guests things, you realize that other people take longer in the

bathroom than you do, or shorter than the bathroom you're in. And sometimes

there's a que standing outside the bathroom waiting to get in as somebody's taking forty

minutes to have a shower, you think, wow. But we wash in

different ways, and I want to explore this as we think about washing in

the water of the word. For some people that you might just literally wash

your hands, run your fingers on the tap, and just get wet.

For others, you might actually get the soap out and rub it in and

get you know, get all the dirt off and allow it to be freed

so that it can be washed away, washed down the plug, and that

others would get under the shower. And some of those showers are really powerful.

They almost hurt sometimes when you stand under turn them on full blast.

And then there's other times when you literally fill the bath and linger in there

and you come out like a brune because you've been in the water for so

long. And I liken this to God's words sometimes in that sometimes we'll just

flick through the Bible just looking for a good phrase, a good chapter,

something to encourage, you know, one you want to be encouraged to kind

of start flicking through. I don't know, I found that very unfruitful,

if I'm honest with you, because it's me kind of just allowing randomness and

much rather say God, where should I turn, and then turn to wherever

I essentially mask me to turn. And it seems like randomness, but it's

God directing us, and it brings fruit, and it brings cleansing as we

expose ourselves to the Word. But there are other times when maybe you're in

your daily Bible reading, you read a little, and then you decide to

read a particular scripture and it speaks to you, but you know it refreshes

as a shower might do. But there's other times when I literally read the

Word, and I'll read one verse and then I'll see in in the links

in my Bible it tell me to go somewhere else, and I'll follow that.

And sometimes all I will study in twenty thirty minutes would be one verse.

Because I'm lingering in the goodness of the Word. I want to encourage

you lingering God's word. In One Corinthians, chapter six, verse eleven,

it says this, some of you were like that, but you would have

been purified from sin. You have been dedicated to God. You have been

put right with God by the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of

our God. This is the promise that Christ came and he died, and

he paid the price for you and me and took away the impacts of sin,

the consequence of sin, and so that sense of purification, that sense

of being free from the stain. Has anybody done something wrong and you just

can't get it out of your head, It just keeps on coming back into

your mind. That's the place to go to God and say, Father,

I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done this. I turn from that choice that

I made. I repent, and repent means not just to turn, but

to walk a new way. And as we do that, we receive the

cleansing purification of what Christ did for us. In one Corinthians Sorry. In

Ephesians chapter six, verses five to nine, it says this, and it

talks about that freedom. Bond servants be obedient to those who are your masters,

according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart,

as to Christ, not with I service as men pleasers, but as

bond servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with

good will, doing good service as to the Lord, and not to men,

knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the

Lord, whether he is a slave or free. And it's just this little

phrase in verse six is not with eye service I had, I hadn't,

I hadn't seen in different translations becomes slightly different, but that ice is it

pleasing to the eye. And suddenly we realize that we were being trying to

be men pleasers and women pleasers rather than God pleases. I don't know whether

you've done. Let me make this real. You know, sometimes when you're

setting something up for a group of people, whether it's church or whether it's

a small group or something, and you're there and maybe you're doing it on

your own, you know, And sometimes I'll be honest with you, I've

been there, and I've been why is there nobody else to help me?

And then I realized, Okay, who am I doing this for? Okay,

it doesn't matter whether it's two or ten people, because I'm not doing

it for them, although I am, I'm doing it for him. And

actually, even if no one turned up, my heart ought to be right.

Let's do it for God, not for eye service, not how we

see ourselves in other people's eyes, how, you know, because otherwise we

start to kind of start to think about how we look. Yeah, I

had somebody at work who was meant to be on a call this week with

me, and he said, sorry, Dave, I'm not going to switch

my camera. And I walked into a I walked into a wall or a

covered door, turned and it's caught my eye. I've got a great,

big black eye. And I really don't I said, doesn't matter, Really

doesn't matter, I said, And if you want, you know, maybe

I could pray for you. She immediately turned the camera on and I said,

like, can I pray for you? She said, oh, yes,

please. And now I'm looking at this lady on this on the team's

cour and she's got a bad black eye, and so I prayed. But

do you know what, sometimes we're so worried about how we look, and

actually the enemy loves to kind of convince you that the way you look is

not the way you should be, and therefore we start to doubt whether we're

good enough you. We're not made good enough by the way we look.

We're made good enough by him. And so please don't worry about eye service.

There's another one that goes with that, which is lip service, just

using the words not just, you know, meaning what you say. It's

one of the things why I'm so passionate about all the people I teach,

and I say, please cameras on microphones on when we're doing stuff online.

Why because sixty percent what you communicate happens with your hands, with your body

language, you know. Another thirty percent happens with the tone and the speed

of what you say. Ten to fifteen percent is the actual words that we

use. And so if we turn the camera off, suddenly we've lost a

great chunk of communication. And you could tell that with me. I waved

my hands around a lot, you know. And I'll tell you I've done

this before. Now I've done it as an experiment. I've sat on my

hands in front of a lecture just to illustrate this. And in sitting on

my hands, I start to slow down, and I start to stop speaking

quite so much, and then I start accentuating with my head instead of my

hands, because we speak with our hands, we all do. And so

lip service, you know. Let's let's make sure that what we say we

believe in our hearts, and what we leave in our hearts we show forth

in our lives. In Ephesians, chapter six versus Uh, sorry, what

one one Corinthians six versus eleven. Let's go back there again, but now

in a different translation. In the New King James and such were some of

you. But you were washed, you were sanctified. You were justified in

the name of the Lord Jesus, by the spirit of our God. So

by being washed, we were sanctified. Set apart. You know, holiness

is something different. If you feel you don't fit in in certain places,

it might just be because you're sanctified. You know, if you mix oil

and water, you can, You know you could. If you leave it

to stand for long enough, it separates. It doesn't doesn't go together.

If you shake it up, it starts to try and try and mix,

but it doesn't mix well. But as holy people, as being sanctified,

we will not fit in. There will be places where we will feel like

strangers. But that's part of what God. What he goes to be and

to do, is to be an agent at change, to be different,

and in being sanctified, we're justified. With Christ. He gives us the

power and the authority to do what we've been called to do. David was

a great king, and he wrote some wonderful songs, one hundred and fifty

of them that we've got recorded in the Bible. And in Psalm fifty one

he wrote this, And now remember he's a great king, and he got

it badly wrong at times. You can read in Psalms how he was angry

with God, frustrated with God, didn't want to know. And in Psalm

fifty one, verses one to five, he says, this, have mercy

upon me, Oh God, according to your loving kindness, according to the

multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, Wash me thoroughly from

my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions,

and my sin is always before me against you. Only have I sinned

and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when

you speak, and blameless when you judge. Let me leave it there,

But it's these phrases in the middle, in the end of verse one and

beginning of verse two, where he says, according to the multitude of your

tender mercies, trusting in God's love towards us, blot out my transgressions,

not just cover them, blot them out. There's a bit of a difference

between covering and blotting. You know, if you cover it, then you

can take the cover away again, and it's still there. When you blot

it out, you've suddenly got an ink splodge on top. You can't see

it anymore. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my

sin. There it is washing and cleansing what God wants to do us,

for us, what God wants to do in us. And in James chapter

four, verse eight, it says this, move your heart closer and closer

to God, and He will come even closer to you. But make sure

you cleanse your life, you sin us, and keep your heart pure and

stop doubting. Ah, draw close to God and he will draw near to

you. Why should we do this or because in those moments we are washed,

and in being washed we are cleansed. And being cleansed we are refreshed,

and being refreshed we are restored. H So let me ask you,

this morning is a moment of prayer, is a moment of consideration other areas

of your life and my life that need to be washed again. How deep

is the stain? How far does it go? Because I'm going to ask

whether we want to be washed again, whether we want to be cleansed,

refreshed and restored. Let's pray m Father today as we are going to be

taking communion in a few moments. Well, we remember what you did for

us on the cross of cowver you went, and you paid the price.

You paid the price for our sin, the impact of that sin, and

we thank you, and we give thanks to you and say thank you Father,

Thank you God for sending your one and only son, Jesus Christ.

Why did you send him into the world. You sent him to pay the

price for you and me, And that price, having been paid, is

now a free gift to all mankind to accept Jesus as our savior, to

turn from those wicked ways, those wicked to be washed and cleansed and made

new again. And I'm pausing in silence because they just want to allow the

stillness of God's presence to speak to our hearts. Maybe He's highlighting something to

you, something you need to do, something you need to consider, something

you need to bring back to him. Remember listening to a friend of mine

share something about how God had called them to spend some moments in forgiveness,

and they got out a pad of paper and they started to write down some

of the people they were brought to mind in those moments. And they thought,

okay, let's just go through this exercise, thinking it would just be

one or two lines, and then pages later, pages later, they realized

just how much stuff they were carrying. Unforgiveness, bitterness, frustration. Let's

wash ourselves in the water of his word. Let's receive that deep cleansing flow

that comes from the Father's throne and know what it means to live a life

more like Jesus. Thank you for your word, Thank you for speaking to

us to dayoga. Help us know more and more of your presence in our

lives, help us to share it with others. We pray in your mighty

name. Amen. I'm going to come around communion now, so I'd like

you to have at home.