We can become complacent.
If I’m going to heaven anyway, why bother changing now?
Jesus invites us into the Kingdom NOW. He wants us to enter into what has already been won for us 2000 years ago.
We’ve all picked up habits. We all have hurts & hang ups.
We are powerless without his power. He has to save us
His power has to change us
I believe in victory. We mustn’t shy away from overcoming. That’s for us!
To live extraordinary lives!
We believe in miracles
But sometimes they come as process not climactic events.
I must earnestly believe that God exists, that I matter to him, & that he has the power to help me recover.
Heb 11:6
1. Acknowledge God’s Existence
Psalm 14:1- The fool says in his heart there is no God
Rom 1:20 – God’s power & nature – clearly seen.
All the universe speaks of him.
The stars are a sermon!!
We need to know the historical nature & apologetics of our faith. Don’t be lazy.
2. Understand Gods Nature
Our parents might not have really modelled him too well, what is God really like- because I can only trust him if I know him.
Col 1:15
So… Get into the gospels! Because Jesus is God.
He… Knows all about my situation.
(I might have no idea what you are going through – he is intimately aware- keeps your tears in a bottle).
He…Cares about my situation.
(Ps 103). He knows what we are made of – dust! He is tender, gentle toward us, even when correcting us.
He… Can change me – and my situation.
We can buy into the lie that it’s just who I am. Not true! You are being transformed! Get in a small group with others. That will help – community. Resurrection power is in you!
Don’t just postpone the change. We are meant to have zoe eternal life now. Don’t keep looking in the rear view mirror, that does not have to shape what’s ahead of you.
There are seasons where he will bring you to your knees.
How do I accept Gods power to help me?
God even gives you the WILL to change what needs to change. He has power, love & self control to enable it.
These notes I took during the talk form discussion for Ivy Grow Groups if you’re still meeting through summer….
What happened in Acts is not just about what happened, but what can happen today!
When we read Acts it is all about journeys – remember that we are on a journey too. Every day – sometimes we get stuck!
Discuss: Where are you on your journey right now? anyone stuck? Pray for one another.
Our journey at Ivy as a community is marked by Knowing, Growing & Going in God. That’s our missionary journey as a community.
We are all full time! Full time workers for the church & kingdom, some of us get paid for that. Some don’t.
Discuss: Do you agree? Should ANYONE get paid for Christian ministry?
The resource we cannot do without? The Holy Spirit! Lynn says it’s great to open the day by saying, ‘Good morning, Holy Spirit,’ every day. Invite his leading. Don’t just ask him to be with me, let him lead!
There is still a voyage of discovery – however long we’ve been following.
Keep steady in God – by knowing him, Christ in me.
Uproars still happen. Idols don’t like being cast down.
Nb. this word – Encouraging! Parakaleo = come alongside and call out…
Do you love to encourage others? Come alongside & Call the greatness out of those around you?
We need people around us who will instil confidence in each other- because it is tough- but God is for us! We either believe that fully or not at all. ‘If God is for us who can be against us?’
Encouraging means ‘strengthen in purpose.’ believing that this person can make a difference.
Are we looking out for one another, lifting each other up? Not competing or even comparing. – without expectation of reward or recognition.
We need encouragement from God.
“The enemy wants to take you out at the ankles. God wants to take you out at the knees.” Do you let that happen first?
We need to speak encouragement to ourselves. Build altars of remembrance. Where I say, ‘Thus far the Lord has helped me…’
Tell stories of encouragement to one another. Prophesy over one another, naturally. Pray for one another. Take the opportunity to speak goodness and purpose into one another, rather than being quick to voice problems. I already know what my weaknesses & problems are! I need someone to say, ‘I see this in you..God’s doing this..’
? Take some time in the group doing this? Tell stories of encouragement!
Then there’s the Eutychus incident. He fell out of the window & dies. Vs 7-11. Paul speaks life – to the community! ‘don’t be alarmed’ by what you see with the natural eye.
Jesus is still the resurrection!
Community is so important. We cant do this journey alone. We need community. Ages mixed together.
Prophetic word via Dennis Wakefield was read out out by Lynn. This is on the church website.
I had an amazing response and many emails following this Sunday’s talk about the importance of knowing the love of God the Father. I finished by saying that any good glimpses of fathering we’ve ever had are like icons to help us see Abba Father better. It seemed to stir up lots of feelings for many people, whatever our experience of an earthly Dad might be.
Funnily enough a friend’s just posted on Facebook this fantastic video reminder and I wanted to share because it reinforces much of that.
The 1992 Olympics semifinal 400m heat in front of 65000 spectators. Derek Redmond had smashed the British record at 19 and was destined to join the greats, but had been forced to withdraw at the ’88 Games only 10 minutes before the race, because of an Achilles tendon injury. In the next year he underwent five surgeries . This was his big moment.
You’ll see how he breaks from the pack and is flying, a cert to make the placings, when the injury fells him again. His Dad Jim was watching from the top row of stands.He had pass to be on the track, but nobody is going to stop him getting to his despondent, seemingly defeated son, who then rose – to finish the race. The only thing you can’t hear too well but what anyone who was there recalled – was the roar of the crowd’s applause and cheers.
Jim told his son, “I’m here, son…. we’ll finish together.”
Interviewed immediately after he said, “I’m the proudest father alive… I was with him at the start and it’s right that I was there at the end… I’m prouder of him than I would have been if he had won the gold medal. It took a lot of guts for him to do what he did.”
It all reminds of a poem ‘The Race’ which my friend Andy Economides put in one of his books – which I reproduce below the video. there are various versions around but the song fits well I think.
If you’ve been tempted to give up recently or it’s just too hard – remember FAILURE ISN’T FINAL – let the Father who loves you help you along today as you read the poem.
Whenever I start to hang my head in front of failure’s face,
my downward fall is broken by the memory of a race.
A children’s race, young boys, young men; how I remember well,
excitement sure, but also fear, it wasn’t hard to tell.
They all lined up so full of hope, each thought to win that race
or tie for first, or if not that, at least take second place.
Their parents watched from off the side, each cheering for their son,
and each boy hoped to show his folks that he would be the one.
The whistle blew and off they flew, like chariots of fire,
to win, to be the hero there, was each young boy’s desire.
One boy in particular, whose dad was in the crowd,
was running in the lead and thought “My dad will be so proud.”
But as he speeded down the field and crossed a shallow dip,
the little boy who thought he’d win, lost his step and slipped.
Trying hard to catch himself, his arms flew everyplace,
and midst the laughter of the crowd he fell flat on his face.
As he fell, his hope fell too; he couldn’t win it now.
Humiliated, he just wished to disappear somehow.
But as he fell his dad stood up and showed his anxious face,
which to the boy so clearly said, “Get up and win that race!”
He quickly rose, no damage done, behind a bit that’s all,
and ran with all his mind and might to make up for his fall.
So anxious to restore himself, to catch up and to win,
his mind went faster than his legs. He slipped and fell again.
He wished that he had quit before with only one disgrace.
“I’m hopeless as a runner now, I shouldn’t try to race.”
But through the laughing crowd he searched and found his father’s face
with a steady look that said again, “Get up and win that race!”
So he jumped up to try again, ten yards behind the last.
“If I’m to gain those yards,” he thought, “I’ve got to run real fast!”
Exceeding everything he had, he regained eight, then ten…
but trying hard to catch the lead, he slipped and fell again.
Defeat! He lay there silently. A tear dropped from his eye.
“There’s no sense running anymore! Three strikes I’m out! Why try?
I’ve lost, so what’s the use?” he thought. “I’ll live with my disgrace.”
But then he thought about his dad, who soon he’d have to face.
“Get up,” an echo sounded low, “you haven’t lost at all,
for all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
Get up!” the echo urged him on, “Get up and take your place!
You were not meant for failure here! Get up and win that race!”
So, up he rose to run once more, refusing to forfeit,
and he resolved that win or lose, at least he wouldn’t quit.
So far behind the others now, the most he’d ever been,
still he gave it all he had and ran like he could win.
Three times he’d fallen stumbling, three times he rose again.
Too far behind to hope to win, he still ran to the end.
They cheered another boy who crossed the line and won first place,
head high and proud and happy — no falling, no disgrace.
But, when the fallen youngster crossed the line, in last place,
the crowd gave him a greater cheer for finishing the race.
And even though he came in last with head bowed low, unproud,
you would have thought he’d won the race, to listen to the crowd.
And to his dad he sadly said, “I didn’t do so well.”
“To me, you won,” his father said. “You rose each time you fell.”
And now when things seem dark and bleak and difficult to face,
the memory of that little boy helps me in my own race.
For all of life is like that race, with ups and downs and all.
And all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
And when depression and despair shout loudly in my face,
another voice within me says, “Get up and win that race!”
I don’t know if you’ve got any enemies? I have a lot of friends but there have been people who oppose me – and one in particular has been a pain for a number of years.
I forgive, time and time again. Things seem to get better and it goes quieter, then another salvo.
Behind this person, I see that I’m not wrestling against flesh and blood. Here is someone being used by the devil to try to distract me from God’s good purpose. They themselves are desperately miserable as a result – because even while they try to curse me, as a chosen child of God, he turns it into a blessing every time!
You may know that happened in the bible? Numbers 22 & 23. A guy called Balaam was more interested in money than following God. He was paid, as a Jew, to curse God’s people. The king of Moab (Moab is a type of the flesh) who’s name is Balak (he’s like the devil) fears God’s people but God makes it clear to Balaam that he is not to curse those whom God has blessed.
He goes anyway – but on his way to curse Israel, Balaam’s donkey stops and refuses to move. The donkey can see an angel blocking the way which the man can’t see. A conversation results between man and donkey! (This is good news for us preachers- if God can use a donkey to speak…)
Finally, Balaam reaches his destination – and Balak shows him God’s people encamped. He perfoms sorcery and sacrifices then opens his mouth to curse Israel -but he blesses them instead! “How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the LORD has not denounced?”
King Balak is furious! “I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!” He takes Balaam to a place where only part of the people can be seen (divide and rule! An age old strategy). The enemy always wants to point out any weak spots or division in us doesn’ he? Now surely there’ll be a curse? He tries again:
God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it.
Finally Balak takes him to a place where he can only see the rubbish of the camp. (Anyone eager to point that out in your life? Guess who sent them!). It must be easy to curse when all you can see is the negative.
“How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel”
Uh-oh thinks Balak! ‘ This isn’t going well….’
Like valleys stretching out in the distance, like gardens planted by rivers, Like sweet herbs planted by the gardener God, like red cedars by pools and springs, Their buckets will brim with water, their seed will spread life everywhere.
“May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed!”
Parts of Balaam’s blessing (Ma Tovu) now form part of the daily Jewish morning service. They turned it around! Isn’t God great? May those who bless you be blessed today. And may all who would curse you have Balak’s frustration - as God blesses you anyway!
Still shaking my head over yesterday’s phenomenal outpouring of love here for my last Sunday! The church family and local community came together for an amazing time of gratitude to God, quite overwhelming at times.
Apart from making me eat unmentionable things in ‘I’m a Northerner get me out of here!’, having to sing ‘Angels’ by Robbie Williams, and being presented with a beautiful album of our time here and far too many hugs and kisses – we were also really privileged to baptise 25 people! What a day – I will never forget it. Thanks to everyone – and thanks be to God!
There are too many photos to upload an it takes ages – but here’s a little sample – Thanks be to God!
Isn’t it great that the Bible is not just about getting us ready for heaven, but living better now? Just had our Friday morning men’s meeting here and waved the guys off. One of them,is off on holiday for a month in Bermuda (nice!) so this will be his last one.
We carried on our study from Carl Beech’s Spadework – what a fantastic book for this kind of thing!
At the end we reflected and prayed with gratitude for seven and a half years of 6am meetings – lots of laughs and tears. Nobody teaching – but everyone learning. Some of us are going to keep on going a few more weeks yet, but as they left I read verse 17As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
You could of course modernise that and talk about ‘one person sharpening another…’ In fact, yesterday the news was full of legislation presented by the lady one paper called ‘Harriet Harperson,’ – the new Equality Bill. However wrongheaded some feel parts of this may be in my opinion, nobody should argue that men and women should be treated equally. But that doesn’t mean they have to be treated the same. And I think that’s the case in church. We can accept, value and celebrate our distinctiveness as males and females – the differentiation is part of the glory of God’s creation.
It’s really important to have men’s ministries in church:
Cholesterol heavy breakfasts
Curry and chips
4 x4 driving
Golf days and so on
But such things are just gateways – not the end product. Sometimes I get to speak at such events and realise that many men go to them just to get their (Christian) wives off their backs for a while about God. They’ll have a meal and a pint occasionally and even put up with a ‘God-slot’ – as long as they don’t have to get too involved with Jesus! And they see churches as clubs for the ladies.
May God bless women in every church who are serving the Lord. We’d be in big trouble without them, but that has meant men can end up as passive spectators. Men now make up only 30 to 40% of churchgoers, and descending. In Why Men Hate Going to church David Murrow states – ‘…you cannot have a thriving church without a core of men who are true followers of Christ. If the men are dead, the church is dead.’
The 2007 Church Attitudes Survey revealed that 54% of Christian women thought that UK church services appeal more to women – and 67% of Christian men agreed.
Let the iron sharpen the iron! We need to be able to repent of abuses of patriarchy and masculine excesses, without vilifying or condemning masculinity itself, and men need to hear God’s challenge to be a man of God – in the home, in the church and in the community.
Knife wounds and fingers missing are pretty graphic, and meant to show kids the reality you never get from watching Rambo films or playing your X box 360 “I’m an assassin” games.
I’d have to question though whether a generation raised on violence – 200,000 violent images viewed by age 18 – are likely to be much put off by more images of it. They pay to see stuff like that!
Anyway, the reality can’t be portrayed by a photo.
The smell of blood and fear, the powerlessness of the victim, the shock and horror after a moment of madness. I’ve seen a lot of people stabbed and cut. I was first through the door when a 15 year old girl had just killed her mother with a knife. Unforgettable. It’s given me an aversion to sharp objects in general! I don’t even like watching Casualty and I know they’re doing the operations on footballs and tomato sauce, not real people. Too many kids have exactly the opposite exposure – they see so much of the unreal they’re amazed when their knife actually slices skin or severs an artery.
On one hand we’re told that family can be ‘whatever you want it to be,’ and that we can feed kids minds with all kinds of violent junk – because what they see on TV etc. doesn’t effect them (try telling that to advertisers!), at the same time we wring our hands over a generation growing up fatherless and angry, fearful and frightened – wielding a weapon of mutual destruction.
I was put off organised footie after so many fights and scrapes as a policeman, especially for the short time on the Tactical Aid Group, when all we did was dash from match to match where the fighting was thickest. After a while it kind of loses its fun when associated with beer, blood and spit.
After last night’s match, however, I think when we move back to Manchester I’ll be tempted back to the ‘Theatre of Dreams’ again. A great bonding moment with Joel as we jumped around the lounge when United won, as often, it’s a shame it went to penalties and you just expect a bad result when that happens (well it will be for one side!).
My first ever visit was when I was a police cadet at 16. I’d been in all of about three weeks when someone went sick and I got the chance to work the match. My uniform was miles too big for me and though I considered myself a man of the world by then, I probably didn’t even look 14! The job before and after the match was crowd control, which consisted for me and my mate Dean of standing with arms outstretched saying, “Wait at the kerb please,” or “Cross now please.”
At kick off the streets emptied we asked a passing Sergeant what we should do now. “I don’t know – go in the executive box if you want.”
He reckoned without us being daft enough to take him at his word. We went through every security checkpoint, and when asked, “Where are you going?” we just replied, “The executive box.” Doors opened, and we found ourselves watching the match with Martin Edwards, then chairman. After a fantastic time, we walked back to our posts at the end of the match. The Sergeant asked “Where the hell were you?” and when we told him, he went white as a sheet, then red as a United shirt.
I suppose there’s a sermon illustration there for me, about just believing the word, or walking in authority. Or maybe it was just a great first trip to Old Trafford I’ll never forget!
The old joke is that nobody who actually comes from Manchester supports United, though my Granddad Jack was a fanatic of the first order and always wore something red. My older brother rebelled against that and became a City fan, to the disgust of the rest of us. Last night I rang him at half time and he was telling me that in his opinion 70% of city fans would rather Chelsea won the European cup than United (‘ because they have a bit of blue…’). Bizarre in my opinion, there’s more that unites us than divides us.
Anyway despite my rubbing his nose in the result this morning, he has taken the loss in good spirits it seems, as he sent me the attached…
I sometimes get asked to write for a men’s magazine called Sorted. The editor, Steve Legg, contacted me a couple of weeks ago to ask if I’d write an article on the subject of Family, but the deadline was just a couple of days away. We were getting ready to go up North, for what was had been booked as a holiday yet ended up as a very busy time, which I’ll write about again.
Anyway, I initially figured I could squeeze the time in to write the article, along with all the other things I had to do for work. All it would take was : less helping at home, spending less time with Zoe and the kids, creating more stress for myself and everyone, putting in more time in the study – doing ‘the work of the Lord.’ I could probably even do it so they’d all feel guilty if they tried interrupting such important work, I’m a past master at it.
Then again, I nearly lost my family doing just that years ago – ended up in marriage counselling as a result – so finally I thought it better just to say to reply to Steve’s e-mail; ‘sorry mate, can’t do it.’
Now it was very hard for me, as a man, to press send on an e-mail admitting to not actually being able to do everything. It was hard to say no. It was hard to say no to a friend. It was hard to say no to more ‘work’ ( you might not class it as work, but it’s what I do!) in order to say yes to family time.
The fact is, I can quantify how many hours I put in, but I can’t quantify how well I’m doing as a Dad, or as a husband. Perhaps that’s why many blokes end up putting their all into their work, laying everything on that altar, because it all ‘counts’ somehow, whereas we never really know how well we’re doing in the area of family.
Despite the e-mail refusal, the subject of family still ticked away in the back of my mind. As we sat down together for an meal that day, I asked my son and daughter, “What do you think the most important thing about family is?”
Joel (14) said, “You should all trust each other enough to tell each other what you are thinking, whatever that is.” The fact that he said it, proved to me he does. Fantastic!
Hannah has just turned 18, and what she said was, in my opinion, really quite profound – showing what a high E.Q. she has. After a few moments thought, she volunteered, “I think the most important thing about families is that we need to remember that the other people in the family are, themselves, people – not just roles.”
I asked her to explain that a little. “Well,” she said, “it’s only been in the last couple of years that I’ve come to realise – you’re not just ‘my Dad,’ and Mum’s not just ‘my Mum,’ but you are separate people – with your own ideas, and lives, and everything.” Wow. How often have I thought of her as ‘my daughter,’ rather than ‘Hannah Delaney.’
I was reading about the time when Jesus healed a blind man and he took him away from the crowd so he could pay him individual attention, then prayed – and asked if the man could see.
He said, “I see people like trees, walking around.”
Well listen, if that was the Anthony Delaney travelling ministry healing crusade I’d have called that a result and passed the collection plate! But Jesus wasn’t satisfied. My wife sometimes calls me ‘Half a Job Joe’ because of all the part-completed projects I am surrounded by, especially DIY (which when I make things stands for – ‘Drat! Idiot! Yelling!’).
Jesus, carpenter of Nazareth, is NOT a half a job kind of guy. He wasn’t happy that the blind man only saw others as trees. Jesus wanted him to see other people – as PEOPLE! So he prayed for him again. We need that second touch from Jesus, so we can see people as people – however our family is constituted. Because sometimes, especially when I’m in a busy rush, people – even those I love most – end up being, well, camouflaged.
I’m glad I made time to sit at the table for a meal with the family that day, instead of working away on a piece about family, so I could learn from two people I love and admire greatly, my brother and sister in Christ – Joel and Hannah Delaney.
My friend actor Russ Boulter sent this to my Facebook page. He said it was worth hanging on in with – and it certainly is. Longer than most videos for blogging, I urge you to cut out 7 minutes (or at least 5) to watch this. The verse above kept coming to mind as I looked at it.
It’s so important that we stick together, remembering our fight is never against flesh and blood. It’s vital that we go out at all costs for the lost and wounded, and never give up!
I get that feeling that someone reading this today (caught between the crocs and the lions?) needs to know – We’re on the winning side!
I love reading Pilgrim’s Progress – Bunyan assures us that though the lions roar, they’re chained!
“Fear not the lions, for they are chained, and are placed there for trial of faith where it is, and for discovery of those that had none. Keep in the midst of the path, no hurt shall come unto thee…”
