Missions Paul

Become great this year!

Lose weight. Get organised. Spend less, save more. Enjoy life to the fullest. Stay fit and healthy. Learn something new and exciting. Quit smoking. Fall in love. Spend more time with family.
It must be a new year!
Happy 2014!
Most resolutions like the above are simply packaging. They won’t make us a better person, they may help us to look better, more likeable, but they won’t change who we are.

Isaiah 53
v6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;

If we were to lose our church, our Christian friends, our worship, our ministry, our musical ability, our leadership gifting, our prophetic gifting, our dreams and visions, if we were to lose our Christian books, tapes, cds, conferences, hero-preachers. If all of the packaging was taken away, would we still be a sheep following the Shepherd?
So much of that packaging that we have and are involved in, only deceive us to say we are a good sheep and yet we drift from the closeness of God. We praise Him but we don’t talk to Him. We hear about Him but we don’t hear from Him. We get men to pray for us but we don’t pray ourselves.

Did Christ come with worldly packaging? The story of Christmas shows us He didn’t.
Was salvation bought with worldly packaging? Isaiah 53:3, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

To become great this year it’s not the packaging that you need…v12
1. Pour out your life for the sinner: “he poured out his life unto death”
2. Live and die with the sinners: “and was numbered with the transgressors”
3. Be compassionate to the sinner: “For he bore the sin of many”
4. Pray for the sinner: “and made intercession for the transgressors”
That’s how we become great.

The voice of 2014?

I have to admit I am excited about 2014 because U2 should have a new album out maybe even in March! You may not be blessed with the gift of music to appreciate that information so let me also tell you that Coldplay, Take That and Adele are all lining up new albums! Still not thrilled? How about Kylie?!!

In 2014 the voices that truly matter may not be those from the large stages of our world but from people like a young boy named Elliott Prior. As we look back on 2013 we remember the brutal murders from Al-Shabab gunmen in a Nairobi shopping centre. After seeing his mother shot in the thigh, young Elliott Prior is said to have confronted the gunman shouting ‘you’re a bad man. Let us leave.’ Incredibly, the gunman is understood to have taken pity on Elliott and his six-year-old sister, giving the pair a Mars bar each, and allowing them to leave in the middle of the terror attack. Sometimes, even the wicked recognize the power of conviction.

This year we need the Church to be the voice of 2014.

Isaiah 52

The voice of Proclamation: How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news … v7
The voice of Prayer: Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices … v8
The voice of Praise: Burst into songs of joy together … v9
The voice of Power: The LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations … v10
The voice of Purity: Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing … v11

The winner of the UKs ‘The Voice’ for 2013 was Andrea Begley who began losing her sight at the age of 6 and has only 10% vision now. In 2014 there may be things that try impair you. But find a way so that your voice is heard not on a stage but in the important places like shopping centres, on days when evil strikes you, when the world needs the voice of courage.

5 TRUTHS NEEDING YOUR ATTENTION!
Isaiah 51

God is trying to get our attention.
Listen to me …
Listen to me, my people …
Hear me …
Awake, awake …
Awake, awake, hear this …

1. GOD’S PAST IS A BLESSING
V1-3 They are discouraged and begin to doubt things will ever change. God is telling them to look to how he dealt with His people in the past. As yesterday so today. He can bless you and make you great. LISTEN TO ME!

2. YOUR FUTURE IS CERTAIN
V4-6 Justice will be done on your behalf. His righteousness in your life will never die. He will never change His mind regarding your salvation. You are eternally secure. LISTEN TO ME, MY PEOPLE!

3. THE PRESENT IS TEMPORARY
V6-8 For those who suffer because they belong to Him, it is only temporary. Keep holding on for His righteousness and salvation will never let go of you. HEAR ME!

4. GOD IS PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
V9-16 From within our hearts comes a rising call to awaken in faith, to call upon God and to believe on His promises of returning in victory and joy. He has sheltered us from the storms of life so who do we fear? Nothing happens without His permission. AWAKE, AWAKE!

5. THE HISTORY MARKER FOR PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE IS CHRIST’S CUP OF WRATH.
V17-23 This is not the time to sleep. Christ has drunk even the dregs of the cup of suffering for you at the cross, so that we no longer have to drink such judgment. There will come a season of recompense for those who walked over you. AWAKE, AWAKE, HEAR THIS!

It’s all about Jesus!

Isaiah 50

Learn to meditate, slow the words down.

• His name is Jesus …
Though we are sinners, He never rejects us by divorcing us, v1
Yet when He came no one welcomed Him, v2
The answer to the rhetorical question of ‘can I save?’ is YES, v2
He hung on the cross in sheer darkness for you, v3

• His name is Jesus …
In His humanity He trained himself to hear the words of God, v4

• His name is Jesus
He suffered voluntarily, v6
In the middle of it all his confidence was in God, v7
Through it all He was determined, steadfast and courageous, v7
He reveals the truth: if God is for us who can be against us? v8-9

• His name is Jesus
Therefore, will you fear Him? Will you obey Him? Will you trust Him? v10
Therefore, do not light your own fires to guide your own paths, follow Him. v11

• His name is Jesus
Look at the cross of Christ again, you are not rejected.
Look at the training of Christ again, you can know the word of God.
Look at the suffering of Christ again, you can keep going.
Look at the challenge of Christ again, you can be His disciple.

It’s all about Jesus!

Isaiah 49
Learn to meditate, slow the words down.

• His name is Jesus …
Listen to Him, v1
He is eternal, v1
He speaks with power and authority, v2

• His name is Jesus …
A Servant, v3
Who knew discouragement but He overcame, v4

• His name is Jesus …
He has come for the Jews in order to restore them to God, v5
He has come for the Gentiles in order to be their Saviour, v6
He was despised and rejected and still is, v7
But He will also be worshipped from those with honour, v7

• His name is Jesus
His Father helped Him especially on the day of salvation, the time of the cross and the resurrection, v8
He Himself is the new covenant from God, v8
He sets the captives free, He opens the way for those contained and trapped, v9
Throughout the world many make the journey towards Him, v10
As a follower of Jesus your mountains will no longer be impassable, v11
The followers of Jesus will come from every conceivable place in the world, v12

• His name is Jesus
Whatever Jesus has done for you PRAISE HIM! V13
Stop saying He has forgotten you. It is not true, v14
His concern for you is stronger than a nursing mother, v15
He died for you with nail-pierced hands, how could He forget you? v16

• His name is Jesus
The history of the forming of the nation of Israel is testimony to the person of Jesus, v19-26
Now which line has spoken to you the most?
Think on this.
Pray this.

His name is Jesus.
It’s all about Him.

If Only

Isaiah 48

I’ve just seen an ad on You-tube that is titled ‘reply all’.
Two men are working at their computers in an office cubicle. One sends an email to the other that triggers a smile—followed suddenly by alarm. “Rod, you sent this email ‘Reply all.’ You hit ‘Reply all’!”

Rod panics and sprints down the hallway. Screaming at the top of his lungs, he runs through a meeting room grabbing laptop computers away from those seated at the table. He dashes between offices carrying away desktop computers, still screaming. He reaches through a window into a home office and takes the laptop from a woman typing at a desk, still screaming. He leaps up the stairs leading to an office building knocking cell phones from people’s hands.

On he goes, screaming like a man who has lost everything, attacking the computers and hand-held devices of a man walking in a parking garage, another man eating in a restaurant, a man hiking in a forest, a man sitting on a park bench. Finally, climactically, Rod rips a bundle of wires out of the wall of a computer electronics room, sending out a shower of sparks.

Like Rod with his email, have you ever communicated anything that you later regretted? Have you said anything you wished you could take back?

If only … v18

I am sure we can all look back on lives with unfinished business, if only.

Michaelangelo worked on 44 statues in his life. Thirty were never finished. These unfinished works, the unfulfilled potential of a great genius will never be completed.
There are works of God in your life still to be finished. There is potential that is not being realised. Are you ready to be set free to become all that you can become before your opportunity is over.

As we approach the end of the year and the start of a new one, let us all be determined to have as few ‘if only’ comments over our lives. Let us fulfil our potential. Let us trust the Lord and obey Him.

There is only one Saviour

Isaiah 47

Babylon (our world system) has fallen under the hands of Cyrus. Isaiah speaks to them says your gods, your astrology and all your wisdom cannot save you.
You are stripped naked, v1-3
Your success is not lasting, v7
You think you are a god but you are not, v8, 10
Your wisdom will take you in the wrong direction, v10
No one can deliver you, v14
In stark contrast there is a Redeemer, the Lord Almighty, the Holy One, v4.
On this day in 1606, William Shakespeare’s play King Lear was performed at the court of King James I of England. Lear was one of the later works penned by the playwright and after the restoration period many thought the ending wasn’t happy enough so they changed it to make the audience have the feel-good factor.
Many have tried to do that with the gospel.
The truth is there is only one Christmas Day, there is only one Saviour. Outside of Him, there is no one who can save, there is no happy ending.
Now is the day of salvation, there is a Redeemer.

The Christmas Message

This is the Christmas Message: He has come. The long-awaited Messiah arrives. God said it and he did it.

Isaiah 46
V10-11 I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, “My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.” From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfil my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.
Today, maybe the healing didn’t arrive in your Christmas stocking, maybe there was no salvation under the tree, don’t despair:
My purpose will stand.
What I have said, that will I bring about.
What I have planned, that will I do.
These are the words of God over your life. This is your Christmas Message.

The Christmas Dream

Isaiah 45

“He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited,” v18
In 1969, when observing the Earth from the moon, Apollo astronaut James Irwin said, “When you lean far back and look up, you can see the earth like a beautiful, fragile Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space”.
This Christmas tree ornament was God’s dream. His dream shows us 10 important aspects if we too are going to pursue our dreams:
1. To dream is to do.
At some point we need to stop thinking of the dream and start acting on it.
2. He created the space for His dream
The environment for the dream to sit in is everything.
3. It may have looked empty, but it wasn’t, it was expectant.
Don’t knock what you’ve got.
4. He was content to wait for the right time for His dream to begin to take shape
This dream wasn’t created in a day. It is okay to take time.
5. His dream was formed from what He had created
The last move is crucial for today’s move, don’t ignore the past, use it for today.
6. His dream carried the ability to reproduce itself
Think momentum for it will take the dream further than you dreamt.
7. His dream contained huge risk for it carried the capacity to self-destruct.
Is your dream risky enough?
8. His dream would need constant attention and a thought-through rescue plan.
Thank God for the rescue of Christmas!
9. His dream had a limited shelf-life.
Knowing the end is as important as the beginning.
10. His dream is so huge that it is not restricted or damaged by man’s goals.
Never settle. Never arrive. The world is not yet reached. The dream continues.
Just one of these 10 aspects will keep you on track in the fulfilling of the dream God has given you.

Christmas Redemption

Isaiah 44

In December 1853 Charles Dickens book ‘A Christmas Carol’ was published. Depicting the appalling conditions of the working people in London it preached a message of the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Dickens priced the book so that all could afford and on opening day 6,000 books were sold.
We know the story so well. The central character, Scrooge, is portrayed as a cold, bitter, selfish and greedy man. Through the ghost appearances the reader sees that this man is on the path to destruction. Christmas past shows Scrooge what he is losing; Christmas present what he has lost and Christmas future what he will lose as he dies alone and in poverty. It speaks to the heart of every man. The transformation of Scrooge to the nice man is the message that no man is beyond redemption, everyone can change and (because of Dickens Christian symbolism throughout the book) redemptive change comes by the work of Christ.
V6 This is what the LORD says – Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.
V22 I have swept away your offences like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.’
V24 ‘This is what the LORD says – your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb:
Overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro is the world’s largest statue constructed between 1922 and 1932, Christ the Redeemer. It is an amazing picture for the whole of Brazil’s Christian faith.
Christ the Redeemer has His arms stretched out to the whole world today and especially to the Scrooges of life. No man is beyond His reach.
Is there someone you know who needs to hear the message, “Return to me, for I have redeemed you”?
Is that someone you?
Many are in danger of losing everything and yet Christ is still holding out His hands to give everything, Himself. Let us pray that Scrooge finds redemption this Christmas.