Jon spoke about letting go of the past and dealing with our disappointment with God when things don't turn out in the way we expected.
X. Ice breaker
• Turn to the person next to you
• make sure everyone has a partner
• no one gets left out
• and say to each other “God is especially fond of you!”
A. Introduction
• During the week of prayer...
• ...Didn't do much praying btw...
• ...some i felt like God reminded
• I want to start by summarising this church's prophetic journey over last couple of years
• It will give context
B. Context - What has/is God saying to us?
• A prophecy given to the elders recently talked about dreaming again for the Peak District.
• Andy Davis “I see a picture of an empty warehouse it’s in bits and it’s being filled. It’s for a season, fill it for the big picture.”
• Don't think Andy knew our new building had been a warehouse
• Paul Basson in Nov 17: He had a dream (?) and he felt God give a warning to us: “Be careful not to get so busy that you miss the presence of God”. It’s the presence of God that will actually be the main attraction for people.
• A couple of years ago: Paul Basson said God was telling us
• Talked a lot about enlargement - encompassing a greater area
• Time to be faithful in some bigger things - cf new building
• He wants us to be like new wine skins that can stretch but that we can be tempted to resist that because:
• stretching can be painful,
• We are comfortable and want to stay that way
• bad experiences in the past
• We think too little of ourselves
• There will be weapons fashioned against us but they will not prosper.
• Will not be ashamed. GREAT NEWS! I love that verse that says 'no one who trusts in the Lord will ever be put to shame'
C. Context Summary
If I can summarise:
• its time to dream about what God wants to do in the Peak District
• Enlargement - work to grow His influence through us
• The new building is part of this but it’s a tool for a time NOT the focus
• Our focus is:
• The people of the Peaks who don’t know him
• Jon adds - as well as continuing to be a church family that looks out for each other
• Staying in his presence AND following him when he moves
• It will take effort, might well be painful for us at times and there will be weapons that come against us BUT THEY WILL NOT BEAT US.
D. This preach
• It's hard to start a new adventure when we have not recovered from the last one!
• Either because you're still in it
• Or because it left a mark on you eg blisters
What I want to tackle today is a couple of those weapons fashioned against us that I believe want to hold us back.
E. Previous Experience - letting go of the past
Experiences can get us down:
Example 1: Pupfish Limited - publishing inspired books for kids. Got confused / disillusioned
• To get disillusioned you have to have an illusion
• My experience in this and other situations has been that I feel like God has spoken about where we are going.
• I then take that info and plot a course in my head that is the quickest and easiest route
• The trouble is God didn't say what route we are going by and I then get disappointed, when things don't go the way I planned.
Example 2: Prayed for colleague - he got better, then worse. Over stepped my authority? Wasn't listening to God? Got too excited? Doesn't really matter for the purposes of this story but I got knocked back and "once bitten, twice shy"
prayer for healing didn’t go the way i expected. Got disappointed - had a go and failed,
Example 3: promises as yet unfulfilled
We have some promises God has made and confirmed but we haven’t seen them fulfilled yet - that can make you tired or weary
What can we do about the disappointment we feel:
1. well, One answer is just to not set out on the journey; "keep your head below the parapet"...
...trouble is eternity is set in our hearts and God loves it when we mix faith and action; in my experience, that is when I come alive.
2. We can let God deal with our disappointme
