95 106 Communion Praise - Reflections

I conclude. I was, before I went for my run this morning, tuning into FM Classic Radio, one of the best things that has come about, in my opinion, as far as the media is concerned. Not only do they give you some good music on a Sunday morning, but also they give you a little bit of news.

The final news comment was really an indication in terms of the Sunday Express, which is enlightening all its readers by giving them a free astrological statement of 40 pages as to how things are going to happen during the next year. Bully for the Express. They also went on to tell us that nobody won the lottery this last week, and possibly it's going to be 40 million next week.

And the Express puts the two things together and says, this could be your lucky Sunday. And I think, God help us. You know, if as a nation the only thing that we've got to dangle in front of people is the astrological chart and the possibility of being one in how many million that might actually get the jackpot of the lottery, how poverty stricken, how threadbare is our hope.

But look, over against that is this precious promise from God's Word. In the future, for you today, the eternal God is your refuge underneath the everlasting arms. See that little dove? Noah has allowed the bird freedom.

The days of the flood are virtually complete. And the dove goes to and fro, but it still needs another 48 hours to expose the highest branches of one of the trees for the dove to be able to settle. So the dove returns, and there is Noah with his hand, and the little bird comes and dwindles or spirals downwards in his flight and eventually plop.

He's there in the hand of Noah, and Noah puts his fingers around that little bird and brings him back into the ark. The ark, my refuge, round about me, the warm, affectionate fingers of Noah. I'm safe.

Don't you see? That's what God is offering you and me as we move into this next year. The eternal God, the everlasting Father, is our refuge underneath us, the everlasting arms. Take it, and may God enable you to work it out in your experience.

Amen. Let's sing 51. Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart, naught be all else to me, save that thou art.

This historic hymn, which embraces all that we've been hearing and all we've been reminded of prior to my address this morning. O enchanting grace, Thou my inheritance, Thou and Your grace, Thou and Thou. Sing my heart, my King of heaven, my treasure Thou.

I return to Thine and still be Thine. Father again, we thank you for one another. We bless you for the tie which binds our hearts in Christian love.

We thank you for the experiential aspect of the word of God and the way that it can help people in circumstances which are difficult. Now take us all out, rejoicing in the promise that you're going to be with us, that your arms embrace us, that you understand us, that you are for us. And we ask that we may ever find your presence, our refuge.

We ask that this coming year, we may see you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly. Amen. Good morning.

God bless you. Thank you for coming. I'd like to give you all a very warm welcome to the tab this evening.

It's nice to see so many of you braving the elements on this very special day. I thought it would be good, really, if we could stand in the presence of the Lord and actually turn to a prayer of public confession, which is number five in the supplement. It'll be up on the—ah, it is up on the overhead.

And as we reflect on the past year, the disappointments, the bad things, but remember the good things. Remembering that our God is faithful, that we can turn to him at any time in our lives. At this special time that we put as the end of the year, the last Sunday in this year, if you believe and confess with all your heart, our Father will forgive you, will forgive you your sins.

So let's stand in his presence this evening and join together in the public confession. Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we have sinned against you and against our fellow men in thought and word and deed, through negligence, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault. We are truly sorry and repent of all our sins.

For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, who died for us, forgive us all that is past and grant that we may serve you in newness of life. To the glory of your name. Amen.

I'd like you to turn to 423 in Mission Praise. We'll use that in just a moment. And also if you've got your Bible before you, then lift it out from the recess and let's turn to words that we looked at this morning which were, and we hope will become increasingly special in our fellowship here at the TAB in the year that's to come.

The end of one year and the beginning of a new, at least it gives us an opportunity to draw a line, to reflect, to thank God for the blessings, for the advance of his kingdom, to apologize where we got things wrong, to realize that God is the God of a new beginning. And let's first of all look at Deuteronomy 33. And here is Moses, an old man.

You can learn a lot from old people. You really can. I remember visiting on one occasion the old mild-may convalescent home, which alas no longer exists here, and I was talking to a lady just alongside, it was, forgive the expression, a nondescript, elderly person.

She looked feeble and frail as though she'd had a dull, uneventful life. Turned out that she'd been part of the British Secret Service and had given incredible service to our country during the last world war. If she could only talk and have told me more about her experiences, what one could have learned.

I remember on one occasion Ron Wayland, when he was a pastoral elder here at the Tab, a pastoral group leader, they were reminiscing in their group about experiences, and he gave one or two of what he thought were his good ones from the last world war. And we had, some of you perhaps will remember, and not all of you, a little lady here, and her name was, strangely enough, ironically enough, in the context in which I'm just setting up this little cameo, her name was Lydia, Lydia Waugh. She had been dropped out of an aeroplane as a naffy lady on a parachute and done service for king and country on the continent.

I guess very few of you, if anybody, knew about that. And she told this story, and another lady who's now with the Lord, her name was Mabel, Mabel Brattett, she got out and said, well that's not very much. And they were sort of capping one another, these older friends looking down memory lane and they got so much experience of life, and some of you, I was going to say some of us, some of you who are younger, ought to appreciate that sometimes when you do come alongside an older person with three, four, five, six, seven, eight decades, five, six, seven, eight decades under their belt, they've got a lot to say, a lot to teach.

Well here's Moses, an old man, he's been a pastor for forty years and he's got his congregation, it's the last sermon he's ever going to preach, and so he has in front of him all his beloved Hebrews, and he says in the twenty-sixth verse, there's no one like the God of Jeshurun, like our God, who rides on the heavens to help you, and on the clouds in his majesty. Verse twenty-seven, the first two lines are our motto text as we move into ninety-six. Let's read them out together.

The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. I was pointing out this morning, our God is underneath us. The opening verse of that little passage indicates that God is above us, who rides on the heavens to help you.

God is at the side of us, he's round us, there's no way in which you can ever escape, nor if you can, the presence of God. Now there's a song which also enshrines that truth. We tried Cover Me and didn't quite get the covering that I wanted.

Let's go to four, two, three, which perhaps says it a little more clearly and you're more familiar with the melody. Living under the shadow of his wing, we find security. Just play it through once for you, Yvonne.

I was going to say we'd remain seated, but we won't, we'll stand. Living under the shadow of his wing, we find security. Standing in his presence we will dream.

Our worship, worship, worship to the King. Proud in adoration at his feet, we gather in harmony. Voices join together as we lead.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. Christ in arms embracing his love, reveals his purity. Soaring in my spirit like a dove.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. Do sit down. We've had an interesting year in many ways with the TAB and our involvement in work abroad as well as here down in the center of the town and out at Maybridge.

I've been glad to see the consolidation of that work on the suburbs. And Eric, as you know, is moving on or has already moved physically from Worthing to Muscombe. And he's just going to share a little as to the immediate plans that he has.

We want the opportunity to commit Edmund and Sarah, a little core group to the Lord. So Eric, just fill us in, will you please? Can you just squeeze in here? It's a good job, you're not too fat. Well, at midnight tonight I undergo a great change.

I don't become a pumpkin, but actually cease to be pastor of Maybridge and begin the church planting work in Muscombe. And probably some would think the pumpkin is the preferable option. But it's something we've been very much looking forward to.

We had our final service at Maybridge this morning and said goodbye to everyone there. And we're obviously sad to be leaving Worthing, to be leaving the fellowship there and all our contacts there and here. But we feel it's something the Lord is very much in and the way in which everything has come together.

I was thinking just this afternoon that this time last year the whole Muscombe church plant seemed just a dream, just a possibility. There was no clear way in how it was going to come together and there was no sign of any accommodation on the estate for us. And the whole idea of getting a core group together seemed like it was fizzling out.

People who had expressed an interest had moved away fairly rapidly or had seemed to change their minds, whatever. And everything seemed to be a bit on hold. And over the last year we've seen God at work bringing all the pieces together.

And so contrary actually to notes and news, our first service isn't next Sunday. I've got a Sunday off. But Sunday the 14th of January will be the first service of the church plant group.

And we're not going on our own. There's a small core group, the first service. We should have about 12 of us there if they all make it.

I thought 12 was rather good. It's fairly biblical, isn't it? I don't know who Judas is, but we've got 12 anyway. And we'll be looking out for him.

And we're going to then seek to reach out to the estate. Now one thing a lot of people have asked is, where on earth do you start? You've got an estate of 10,000 people, a catchment area of 25,000 people. How on earth do you begin evangelising them? Well obviously there's old favourites like door-to-door work, and it'll be marvellous to be able to do more of that.

I hope the weather warms up a little, but it'll be good to get back to that. But also we'll be looking to build links across the estate with all the various activities that are already on there. We won't be able to start our own in terms of youth work and things because we don't have any facilities to meet in.

But we hope to be involved with what's going on and building bridges to the people who are there. For your prayers, pray for Sarah and myself, Rebecca and Abigail as we adjust to life over there and life without Maybridge. Pray for Maybridge as they adjust to life without us.

I'm not sure whether they'll be happy or not, but they'll be adjusting to life without us. And pray also for the others of our call group. Perhaps if Dave and Ange could just come up the front here, just to embarrass them.

We're not actually going on our own. There's about 12 people going with us. And from the TAB, Dave and Ange are coming with us.

They've already sold their house in faith because they haven't found one in Molscombe yet. And so we really would appreciate prayer for them as well in the coming few weeks that they'll soon find something. Because they're not quite on the streets yet, but we really need to see the Lord show them where it's right for them to live.

They're even looking in a house next door to ours at the moment, so that would be cosy, wouldn't it? If they find themselves next door to us. What a blessing that would be. I won't say which way round, but it would be a blessing.

And we would really appreciate prayer over the coming year that we'll see the Lord establishing the work. I read a worrying statistic the other day. One third of all church plants in this country fail.

One third fail. So let's pray that ours isn't amongst the third that fail or else I'll be back at Maybridge. And pray that we'll really see the Lord build his church in that area where it seems at the moment the enemy really has the upper hand.

We know that's not true. And we want to see a visible, live church there that's testimony to that. We're going to pray for Eric and the core group.

Let's pray. Father God, we just thank you for Eric. We thank you for the way in which he has come into our hearts.

Thank you for his humor. Thank you for the gifts that you've given him. Thank you for the hard work that he's put in over at Maybridge and for the growth that you have blessed that fellowship with.

As he and Sarah and the girls move on, we pray that you'll be with them. We pray that you'll bless them. As we believe that they're taking on a tough assignment, we ask for your protection.

We ask for your strength day by day. We ask for a spirit of perseverance, that their hearts will not fail them, that they will stick to it until they see you working there as you have worked at Maybridge. Lord, we pray that Eric will rely upon you totally.

We pray that he won't look back to past successes, that he won't rely on his humor or his personality, but on the God who is sending him there as the one who can do the job. Lord, we pray too for our other brothers and sisters who are going to that place. We pray particularly for this couple here who are looking for a home.

Grant, Lord, that that home will be available to them very soon and that they will be able to move in and settle down very quickly. We pray for the others who are going, that you will go before them too. And we pray for that first joyful service in two weeks' time.

May it be filled with the knowledge of God. May it be filled with the joy that the Lord Jesus brings. May it be the first demonstration of the power of the Spirit in that community.

Build your church, Lord. Build it strong. And we pray, as Doug Wheeler often prays, in the strong name of Jesus.

Amen. The eternal God is your refuge The eternal God is your refuge And underneath all the everlasting arms You need not fear the raging of the storms The eternal God, your refuge Your refuge is your safe and secure from every harm The eternal God, your refuge Your refuge is your safe in the everlasting arms The eternal God, the eternal God Is your refuge The eternal God is your refuge The eternal God is your refuge And underneath all the everlasting arms You need not fear the raging of the storms The eternal God, your refuge Your refuge is your safe and secure from every harm The eternal God, your refuge Your refuge is your safe in the everlasting arms The eternal God, the eternal God Is your refuge One of our young families is moving, and now he's speaking seriously, to New Life Church at Durrington and joining the pastoral team there. And Martin and Heather have had a lot of input into the tab.

The tab's been behind Martin, especially as he took a Bible course at Moulins Christian College, and then we tracked him in his further development of studies at London Bible College, and we're going to be committing him to the Lord as next Sunday night's a special service for him, his induction at Durrington, but he's around here now. Can we just pinch a few more of our congregation, will you? I mean, they're quite up for grabs here. Well, where do we begin? Steve Tucker said this morning, hands up, who had a good year.

And at that time, my knee-jerk reaction would have been, hands down, that hasn't really been a good year. But on reflection, and this afternoon I thought about it, and what's the definition of a good year? What constitutes success, I wonder? On paper, it's been a struggle of a year, and Heather and I have wondered what we're going to do with our lives, what we're going to do with our future. Are we going overseas into Muslim work? Were we going to go to Hungary to Budapest to teach in a Bible institute there? We didn't know.

We didn't know what to do. And really, out of the blue, and I said this last time I stood up, for some of you who weren't here, I remember John McCarra coming around to pray with us, and a word that he said sort of stayed with us, that when the thing that was right was going to come, it would come, and it would come quickly. We kept this in mind.

And just before going out to Budapest, I heard about a job. I'd applied for a number of jobs, and a couple of churches had also approached us to be senior pastor, one in Wimbledon and a couple of others. We didn't feel that that was right.

I felt I was too young and too inexperienced, and I still hold that view. And Nick Turnbull, he's not here, so I can't embarrass him, but I do thank God for Nick and the excellent work that he does with the youth here at the TAB, and watching him and working with him, and him encouraging me to work with the youth here when I didn't want to. And he showed me that it was an excellent thing to do and a worthwhile work and something that I was gifted to do, I felt.

So I didn't want to be a youth pastor, and neither did I want to be a pastor. Darrington New Life offered me the job of assistant pastor to Graham with responsibility for youth, and it just seemed perfect. I had an excellent week in Budapest recently, and they offered me the job over there as well of director of studies.

And I wanted it. When I came home, Heather said, What do you think we should do? And I had a book of Budapest, and I opened it and just burst into tears. I said, I don't know.

And we were pulled either way, and Darrington was saying, Well, we'd kind of like an answer relatively soon. And I was trying to put Graham off and said, Just wait, just wait, we just don't know. And then we did know.

We really did feel as we prayed that Sebi, the place in Budapest, represented a very good job, but at the wrong time in our lives. It would be very presumptuous for me, so young and so inexperienced, to try and teach people how to go out and be pastors, almost a nonsense at one level. But Darrington instead represented the perfect job at the perfect time.

We could all do with a bit of new life, couldn't we? And I certainly needed that. And we needed, in our own personal pilgrimage, a change. We thank God, and we do thank God most sincerely for Worthing Tabernacle.

And I've had nearly eight years here now, and Heather's had nearly nine. And without this, I don't know where we would be. And it certainly got us through a difficult year.

But as Steve said again this morning, anyone who's moving house, and yes, we'll be moving house in a few weeks over to Salvington there. Anyone who's got a new job, well, I start the job on Wednesday at Darrington New Life. And the baby as well.

Any year where you make a baby, making babies is fun, isn't it? And I enjoy that. And that's happening this year, so the baby will be with us. The third and probably last baby for the time being will be with us in April.

So we have a lot to thank God for this year. And I'm thrilled to be able to go over and work under a man that I hold in such high esteem as Graham Jefferson, a good man of God and a very progressive church. And we're thrilled and privileged to be going over there.

Thank you, everybody. At the end of seven and a half years, what can you say? Thank you. Thank you for everyone who's prayed, for everyone who's given us opportunities to get to know them and to be known as well ourselves.

I hope that we won't be strangers. And I hope in some small way without, again, wanting to be presumptuous, but my going over there, I hope might forge certain links and certain bridges between the two churches that are very, very similar. These two churches are not very different, really, full of a lot of people who want to serve God.

And just they express it in slightly different ways. So follow us with your prayers, please, especially in the first couple of weeks, as I just don't know what will be going on. And I'm going to be thrown in at the deep end.

And Graham may be going to Brazil quite soon, which will leave me in charge over there for a month. And I'd really appreciate your prayers at that time. I'll fax you about that one if that comes up.

But do – I've got to fax over there. I just can't wait to send one over here to Nick Turnbull. Don't tell him, though.

But anyway. Hi, Nick. Anyways, God bless you and thank you so much for your support during seven and a half years.

Martin, we'd just like to pray for you. Is that okay? I'd love for you to. Great.

Okay. Father, we thank you for the magnificent work that you've done in Martin's life. Thank you, Lord, for being – having the privilege of just being in right in the early days, just out on the streets and meeting with Martin.

And now thank you, Lord, for where you've brought him and Heather and the family to and where you're sending them to. We ask you in Jesus' name that you will put the seal of your approval on this appointment. Yes.

The seal of your spirit. Yeah. I ask you, Lord, that Martin and Heather's life there at Durrington might be really fruitful.

Yes. I'm looking forward to hearing, Lord, of all the magnificent works that you will do through them. I'm looking forward to hearing of the people, the young people that will be saved, lives changed, revolutionized, even as you have done in this young man.

Thank you. Lord, we ask you to help us to pursue him and Heather with our prayers. And we ask you to answer them, not according to the way that we give them, but according to your perfect goodwill.

Lord, we ask you to glorify your name over there in Durrington. I ask you to prosper that church. I ask you, Lord, to cause it to grow.

I ask you, Lord, that there might be a moving against the works of the enemy and a gathering in of this sheep and that sheep. Lord, bless the shepherds. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. It's not a new book, but it's a very valuable book.

It's one which was first published, oh, hundreds and hundreds of years ago. And I've got you hardly an original copy, but nonetheless a very old copy of a man called Thomas Akempis, who wrote a book called The Imitation of Christ. I'd rather he'd have called it Participation in Christ, but the book is full of gems.

Read it, live your life by it, and within it there's a check from our church fellowship. God bless. Thank you.

Bye-bye. Jo, where is she? All the way from Germany, previously from Russia. She's been completing some, or doing some more education in Germany, bordering Switzerland at college there.

She did say that I should just identify her this evening, but then she came along and said she'd like to say hi. So, not just hi now. Okay.

Yeah, this morning I was here too, when Steve said about who's had a good year, and my hands were down too. I think, for me, this has been one of my bad years. But as I've been thinking today, just about at the end of the year and everything, I thought about a couple of verses that have been really special to me.

My favourite song in Russian is actually these verses, but I'm not going to sing it for you, okay? It's from Psalm 139. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. And I think, for me, many times when I'm rising on the wings of the dawn, or if I'm going to the heavens, yeah, of course I know God's there. That's where I expect Him to be, etc.

But this year, I learnt that if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. And that's been really special to me. I went to Bible college, probably on a really low ebb, and I wasn't really sure that I wanted to be there.

But God's done some really lovely things while I've been there. He's shown me a lot of His love and a lot of His care. But just as I was sitting back there, I remembered something that Dick Gammage said to me once before.

I had my hopes totally set on going to Bible college about three or four years ago. And all my hopes were pinned on going to Bible college. And Bible college rejected me.

And I came out of Bible college and I burst into tears because I knew they'd rejected me. And when I got the piece of paper saying, sorry, you're not accepted for Bible college, I showed it to different people. And Dick was one of these people that I showed it to.

And Dick looked at me and he gave me this big beaming smile. And he goes, Joe, God must have something really special for you to do. And I just looked at Dick and I wanted to kill him.

It's like, here I am, I'm really upset, and all you can do is smile at me and tell me that. But you know, that's true. God did something really special for me.

I ended up in Russia, which was my heart's desire. And it was much better than going to Bible college for me. And now I've ended up in Bible college.

And although it's a different time and a different place, but still I've ended up in Bible college anyway at the right time. And it's right now a real big blessing to me that I'm here and I'm just remembering all these things right at this time. Because next year is going to be an excellent year.

I know it is because I know that God's got something really special for me that I couldn't have had if all the other things that I'd been expecting to happen this year had happened. So I just want to encourage you that even in the depths, God's there. And God's got something really special just around the corner.

A little boy from the West Indies who had a sweet tooth on one occasion went through the delightful experience of falling into a huge bowl of treacle. On the point of total immersion, he was heard to pray, Lord, give me a capacity equal to my opportunity. Jesus was walking on the water.

It was a dark night. The disciples were in the boat, feeling somewhat uneasy. Out of the gloom, they see a ghost.

As he comes nearer, they appreciate that it is not some mystical apparition. It is none other than the Lord who fed 5,000. The Lord who had taken them on one side and addressed them and tutored them and trained them.

And Peter, who was always the first one to speak, said, Lord, if it's you, tell me to get out of the boat and I'll come towards you. And Peter clambered out of the boat and he started to walk. He had an opportunity to use a faith in a fashion that he had never employed it before.

But, though he got out of the boat and made the initial steps for which I honor him, I would never have got out in the first instance. He then lost it. He started to sink.

He didn't have a capacity equal to the opportunity. And when you psychoanalyze his predicament, you discover that his problem was this. He started out looking towards Jesus.

But the wind was blowing down the Syrian hills and the waves were high. And he was deflected into listening to the velocity of the wind and seeing the size of those heaped up mounds of water. And as a result, he started to flounder and to sink.

He got so preoccupied with the problem, he took his eyes off the solution. Two thoughts for me, for you, to take on into 1996. May you have a capacity for faith equal to your opportunity to exercise it.

May this church have a capacity for faith equal to the many opportunities that present themselves to us down here and elsewhere to serve Christ. And the only thing that will stop us from being successful is should we take our eyes off him. When my eyes were fixed on Jesus, I lost sight of all beside him.

One of my greatest needs is to have a fixed point on him and to forget the wind and the waves and the distracting circumstances. So whether you come from Iran, Armenia, whether you're going to Moscow or you're going to Durrington or you're staying put in the tab whether you're going to Germany or back eventually to Russia whether you're working for God in Pakistan or in the Middle East whether you're preparing to serve God in Turkey or you're doing a job looking after the creche at Worthing Tab whether you're ministering in the thrift cabin or in the coffee house or just trying to be a decent neighbor, an honest father, a good husband a wife or son or daughter in these areas of life where you have opportunities to exercise faith may you have the capacity and may that come to you as you fix your eyes on him on whatever you're about do it for his honor and for his glory. Hallelujah.

Sing to Jesus. His the scepter. His the throne.

Hallelujah, not as orphans are we left in sorrow now. Intercessor, friend of sinners, earth's redeemer, plead for me where the songs of all the sinless sweep across the crystal sea. We lift a peon of praise to our great God as we sing in honor of King Jesus, 207.

Sing to Jesus. Jesus, Son of every nation, God within us, by his blood, in sorrow now, he is near us. Faith with ease, the rest can stop.

The sun is seething and the forty days are of his promise. My alleluia. Intercessor, friend of sinners,