Matlock | 15/03/26 | Journeying With God | Jenny Hardy

Matlock

Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/354059/episodes/18848356-matlock-15-03-26-journeying-with-god-jenny-hardy.mp3

Jenny spoke about journeying with God through the seasons of our life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

At university, there. And I think she was sent me this so as I didn't feel left out. Because she's gone to vet the new boyfriend. You know what we mothers are like, you know, we want to see him, so does Granny. So he looks a lovely lad and is an Anglican, a spirit-filled Anglican who leads worship. And I don't have favourites in our children. But Ella loves Judah so much that she touches my heart. And so I'm always interested, and she often texts me and tells me what favourites have been doing, what she's led. She's preaching at this one. She's preached at the Anglican church that's across the road from the university. And uh, you know, she just got such a heart for Jesus. So I felt one with them this morning having this photograph. I'm going to talk this morning about journeys. I love journeys. We're often trying to make journeys. Uh in the natural, we love going on coach tours. And I will give an advert for slacks if you want fun. Slacks up the road is brill. It's like going away with your family. They are brill. And when we got off the last one, which we went to Denmark, and uh uh they was people were getting off the coach, they said, see you at Lake Garda, see you for Lake Garda. That's where we're all going next in September. But we had a treat, uh, an unexpected treat. We went to the Dolomites for Christmas, and uh that's a story in itself. So if you want to know, come and ask me. And uh it was great, and then we we enjoyed the Dolomites, but when we came to watch the uh the Olympics, oh look, look, there's them and there's them in, look, look, can you see them mountains? We were there, you know, and that's us, I'm afraid. We're very boring when we're watching telly. If something pops up that we've hey, we've been there, look, look, there's there's where we were. So that's us. Um I as I say, I love coach travels because I don't have to drive. It's great when I don't have to drive. Uh, I love the friendship. We went out for lunch the other day with a couple that we met two years ago on a coach trip. You know, the friendship is precious, and uh the beauty of the things that we see. We came over Switzerland two years ago and it was pitch black, couldn't see anything. The next morning when we got up, opened the curtains, we were top halfway up a mountain, looking down at one of the lakes. It was awesome, wonderful. But that's that's our God's creation, isn't it? It's wonderful. But journeying, journeying for me brings out a change in the seasons. Because in with God we live in seasons, don't we? He takes us into one situation, and then we move on later on to another season. And the children of Israel did a lot of journeying as and it became very special to me this time because when we were coming out of COVID, I was reading all about the journeyings of the children of Israel, and God really stirred up my lethargy of being in COVID and being pathetic, and he really stirred it up. And and I was I I just was renewed and refreshed as I read about all their journeyings because I thought you're just like me. You keep repeating the same mistakes, you keep forgetting where God has brought you, you keep forgetting what he said and how great he is, and you go back into the misery, and that's where I was at that time, forgetting all that God did. Uh, and and yet these journeys brought me to a place of renewed trusting in God. I could see that I was repeating those mistakes, but God began to deal with my heart, and I feel again that I'm on another little spiritual journey at the moment. In the scriptures, we hear about many journeys, and there's a little verse at the end of uh chapter 11 in Genesis, and it says, Tarah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot to Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarah Sarah Sarah, his wife and his son Abraham. And together they set out from Ur of the Chaldees to go to Canaan. But when they reached, came to Haran, they settled there. And that was a thought that really touched my heart. They settled there. And I wonder how many of us have settled through COVID. I'd very much settled. In fact, I'd vegetated. But you know, um, God speaks to us about the the freshness and the newness of his walk in us and through us. And he's asking the question this morning, have you settled? Or is there something more? I was I was going through such a place, but many years later God spoke again to Abraham, and it's in Genesis 12, 1 to 5, and it says, The Lord said to Abraham, Leave your country, your people, and your father's household, and go to the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all the people on earth will be blessed through you. So Abraham left as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abraham was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. He took his wife Sarai with and let Nephew Lot all the possessions they had accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan and they arrived there. And the thought just comes to me when they gathered up all that they possessed. I wonder if there were some things that we've talked about this morning that God would have us to leave behind in the place where we settled. Don't bring it all with us. And I and this is just this moment. God's dropped this into my heart. You know, have a look at what we've said this morning and let them go. The things that would cause us shame, leave them behind and move on in God. Is God asking you to continue on your journey from that settled place? Are you continuing? God wants us to be refreshed. Uh, I can hardly stand still this morning because God met with me over there. And and it's so precious when he does. I just wish he'd do it later so I could stand still, but my legs are going, and uh so so I apologize. And uh to experience a new season. God just might have something waiting around the next corner, you know. We we launch into things, and sometimes I go a bit ahead of God, and I launch into things and I I get settled into things, and then God has to deal with it and and bring me around again and back into where he wants me to be. Now there's another journey in the scriptures that uh let me see if I can find him. This was a good idea at one time, but there we go. Um, Jonah chapter one. Now Jonah was a different journey, and Jonah was a uh a rebellious man because God had told him to go and do something, and he refused. He didn't want to go and speak to the Ninevites because he knew, though they were so wicked, that God would forgive them, and he didn't want God to forgive them, he wanted him to pour down fire from heaven onto them because they were wicked, he didn't want them to be forgiven, and he rebelled and he wouldn't go on that journey. And I'll read to you from um verse 14, and it says Then they cried to the Lord, Oh Lord, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. That's when they threw him over. I've missed a bit, haven't I? But anyway, um they he got on a boat and he went into the opposite direction, and they uh they realized that there was something wrong with this man on their boat, and they were good men, they didn't want to just throw him over the overboard, but they knew something had got to happen, and so they eventually did throw him over, and you see that God had got a plan. You see, God doesn't doesn't forget what we're doing or or think we're making mistakes. God had got this plan for them, and they he got it all prepared, and there was a fish just yonder, just waiting, just waiting, because God had primed him. That fish knew, yes, God, I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm going to be there ready for Joe for that man. And so when they threw him over, he was there waiting because he was obedient. Jonah wasn't, and the fish swallowed that man and spewed him out right where God wanted him. You know, what lengths will God go to for us? But he spewed him out. The strange thing was that they were a fish worshipping people, and and so when this fish appeared on on the shore, spewing out somebody, they got to listen to him. So all his rebellion had just made it even clearer to those people that this man had got something to say, and he preached to them, and everyone turned to God. That's God for you, you know, but he was still grumpy. It says he had he was angry with God for for forgiving them, and he he didn't want to be do anything nice, and the word it says up there, and I'll read it, the word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of whoever it is, and a bit more, no, never mind, I'm making a mess. Uh and it they threw him over, as we've said, and they said, The O Lord, have we done as you please. Then they took Jonah, threw him overboard, and at this the men greatly feared the Lord, and they offered a sacrifice. But the Lord provided the great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside for three days and three nights. Is that significant? Coming back. From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said, In my distress I called to the Lord and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You see, he was in such a dark place inside that whale that he repented from all his anger and all his uh, I don't want to go, Lord. And and so there was a change in Jonah, but not enough, because he was he was angry. And I'm sorry, I've made a mess of these verses. And uh he found uh he still had this task to do, and he preached, and he he won the people over. It's no good as fighting God because he's he's already got the answer. And and and he's he wants the people to turn back from their wicked ways to him. And and so when when Jonah had preached, they couldn't do nothing else but accept the truth from this from the God that Jonah was preaching about. And God will always have the last word, he will always make the way. Where we we try to confuse it, God makes the way, and so Jonah was there. Let me get this back on track because there's a lady that you all know in the scriptures, and we all love this lady, Ruth. Now, Ruth's story was very, very different because she unknowing was going to go on a great journey. The story we we read in Ruth is of Naome and Elimelech going on a journey that perhaps they shouldn't have taken, because they were trusting themselves more than they were trusting God. Because they left Bethlehem and went to Moab, where there was some food, because there was a famine back in Bethlehem, but they should have stayed and trusted God to meet the need, but they went uh to Moab. And then the sons did also what they shouldn't have done. They married Moabite ladies, and they shouldn't have, because the scripture said that they weren't to mix, they should stay within their own people. Anyway, this is the the mess they got themselves into, and uh so these girls lived in in the house and they uh listened much to Naomi. She was a loving lady and she talked to them and talked about their God, the God that they serve, and and so they they became interested, they became acquiring, and they they loved their mother-in-law, and uh so they they uh everything seemed so well, seemed to be working well, and then Elimelech died, which was a big disaster, obviously. Uh he was the head of the house and and and he'd gone. What were they to do? They got the boys there, they were they were there working to provide for the ladies that lived in the house. But uh a few years on they died also. And so we've got three ladies abandoned, left alone. What were they to do? Because, you know, there was no uh provision for them. They needed a man to watch over them, to protect them, uh, and but there wasn't. So Naomi had heard that there was food back in Bethlehem, and uh so she decided that she would go back. And I haven't read the scriptures, have I? I'm sorry, I'm really uh all place all over the place. And verses one to seven in Ruth said, In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and his sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. The man's name was Elimelech, and his wife was Naomi, and the name of his two sons were Marlon and Killion. They were Epaphorites of Bethlehem, Judah, and they went to Moab and lived there. Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Opha and the other Ruth. After they lived there for about ten years, both Mylon and Killian had died also, and Naomi was left without her sons and her husband. When she heard in Moab, when she heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there with her two daughters-in-law. But then where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah. Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, go back each of you to your mother's home. May the Lord show you kindness as you as you have shown to your mot your dead and to me. May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband. So Ruth encouraged them to go back. And Opha did, but Ruth didn't. Ruth said, No, I don't want to go back. I don't I want to stay with you, and I want your people to be my people, and I want your God to be my God. And so she she went back with Naomi, and they went back to Bethlehem. These journeys held purpose, and this is what's on my heart, really, because these journeys were purposeful, they were in God's plan. And uh in the book we see God's overarching plan of redemption for these two women waiting in the wings. Uh, we need to remind ourselves: are we walking with God or have we settled? Like Abraham, our journeys have purpose and are part of God's plan. Do we need to take them up again and walk on where God is is seeking us to go? Uh, only your heart knows where you're at. God knows, and you need to think about am I really settled or do I need to continue this journey? We have not been abandoned by God, and in his grace and mercy, he is building our characters. And in in Ruth we see real great character, and I think this is the one that God would set before us as a fellowship. The characters in Ruth. Uh, you see, as the days get darker, God doesn't want to be like Jonah and run away and hide. He wants us to be like Ruth. In Ruth, we see a depth of relationship with her mother-in-law. We see loyalty to Naomi, who was the widow like herself. She would have no means of income, food, etc. And Ruth chose to be the one to care for Naomi. We are told to care for widows, aren't we? And for the lonely. And I had an experience a couple of weeks ago. I met up with my sister. Now, my sister has the glorious position of being a Chelsea pensioner, and she lives down in the barracks, and everything is provided for her. She wants for nothing. But as we spent the day together, I realized that actually she was quite lonely because she hadn't brought friends with her. She'd left them in Cyprus, she'd lost her husband, she'd left her friends in Cyprus, and though she had everything, she was actually quite lonely. And she wouldn't admit to it, but you know, we could see this in her that uh she she longed for a pal or someone just special for her. And and people are like this. People put on a brave face, but deep inside there is a loneliness. And and as a fellowship here, we need to be sensitive to this because sometimes they they want uh just want a friend who will be faithful to them and and and stand with them and care for them. And I and I really believe that as a fellowship, this is what we should be known for the fact that we stand alongside one another in friendship and in compassion and tenderness towards one another, because who knows. What's something what's going on in someone's heart, and they they need a place to open up sometime, and that's what God's calling us to. And she went on to be really loyal to Naomi. And they went back into Bethlehem. Love had really grown to a place of complete trust in each other. They knew that they were always there for each other. Kindness. Ruth would physically do for Naomi what she couldn't do. And I want to tell you a little story, not for my sake, not to boost me up, but as you know, I belong to a group that uh is a cancer group. And uh, and though I'm I'm well now, um we're part of this group and we care for one another in this group. And we also are on offshoot off this group is a swimming class uh on a Monday, and this uh we go swimming, and there is real kindness there. Uh friendship grows with people, we've got uh something in common. Anyway, we we uh it used to be run by uh Western Park, but the council have now taken it over, and they were coming to observers, so we'd said sort of at a at the meeting, if you can get along to the swim, can you come just to make uh the numbers up so we look like we really were using this facility? And there was a lady that comes along to the group I didn't know, but she put on the WhatsApp site, I'd really love to go swimming, uh and but I've had a stroke, so I would need some help. And as I read that, it's as if God was stood in front of me, says, That's you, Jen, that's for you. And I knew I just couldn't do anything about it. I'd gotta be there, and I said, I sent her a photograph of me so she knew who I was, and uh because you know there's a crowd in the meeting, you don't always know names. So I sent her the photograph. I said, I shall be there swimming, and I'm sure I could help you. So we met up. Well, we had a whale of a time, you know. She she was quite completely uh useless down the left side. We get her on the lift into the pool, and we got the barn bands on her and all sorts of things to keep her upright, but she was a strong swimmer prior to the the stroke. So once we got her confidence back, she was floating along. But when she tried to swim, you can guess what. She just went round and round in circles, you know. So you were standing there trying to sort of get her to move along a bit, and then if you took your eyes off her for a minute, she was floating, you know, so you sort of had to bring her back. But we had, but you know, I got so much joy out of it because she was grinning from ear to ear. She hadn't been for two years and thought because she'd had this stroke on top of the cancer, you know, there was no hope for her doing anything, and she was quite a strong-willed lady, and we had a whale of a time. People kept saying to me, you know, it's not your responsibility, Jenny. I said, I know, I know, but if if I can let her swim, then I will. And that's what, you know, I didn't get quite so many lanes in myself, but uh that doesn't matter. It was the joy of seeing what she was doing. There was a lady that came along, all an official and being official, and she says, We haven't got funding for you. Said to her, you can't we you can't come because we've no funding. I says, Well, I'm here, I'm her friend, I'm here, I can do it. Yes, but you haven't got insurance. I says, I know, but he has. That's the guy sat on the doodle, you know, uh, in his red outfit. He has, so if anything goes wrong, he can jump in and and and sort it. So she hadn't got any answer to that one. So she still comes and it's great. And no, I don't get 25 lengths in, I get about eight, because there's another lady that says, Go and have a swim, gent, warm up, because you get a bit cold when you're just standing, don't you? Go and have a swim, and I go and have a swim. So, but that's it, isn't it? Kindness means sacrifice, kindness means putting someone else first, kindness means enjoying the joy that that person is experiencing, and that's what was such a blessing to me. And then as Ruth went and gleaned in the fields to bring food for for Ruth, for uh Naome, Boaz, the man who owned the field, saw all this kindness and uh he he began to have an effect on him that he he wanted to be kind to Naomi, because uh to Ruth because for Naomi's sake. And and so he he left more grain than usual and gave her more grain. Naomi began to realize that he was protecting them and protecting Ruth when she was in the fields. She also realized that he was their kingsman redeemer. That was someone who would come along and say, Yes, I will redeem this field, these this people, this family, because of uh the the husband that's died as my relative. So that was uh where what she thought, he's a kingsman redeemer, perhaps a husband for Ruth, perhaps a home for us both, you know, you know, and she is beginning to see that God knew more than he was letting on, because there was this uh situation beginning to develop. So, you know, you read the book of Ruth, it's better than Mills and Boone's, it really is. Read it and see, because that's our God. It isn't by chance, it's our God. He brings things to be happening that we would never know. You see, this journey that Ruth went on, it had heartache. She lost her husband, she decided she would uh forget her own home and come and be with Naomi. She needed to trust Naomi and she began also to trust Naomi's God. Divine providence. Uh, Ruth didn't know what the future would hold, never dreaming that she would become the great-grandmother of King David. You know, things happen in our lives, and I can remember, and I'm sure Sandra won't mind me saying, I was talking to a friend that said, who would have guessed Sandra would do what she does out in Namibia, but God in Uganda, sorry. But God knows. God knows all about us, our circumstances, our situation, and puts us into places that we can't envisage ever being, but that's God, and He does that for us. Compassion is something that Ruth had, and the story is full of compassion. The story challenges us to reflect on our own lives, our own relationships, and it inspires us to act with compassion. I said to Ian the other week, because of all this involvement with the cancer group, that it's time we started to speak about Jesus into these situations. How we do it gently. You know, we've done little bits, but we need to be able to speak into these situations. If anyone needs Jesus, it's this bunch because they have all this added problems in their lives. And so it's something we've been praying about. Last Sunday I noticed that I got a shredded rear windscreen wiper. So whether God starts to send angels to shred your windscreen wipers, I don't know. But it was suddenly falling apart. So Monday morning I'm at Halford's having a new uh windscreen wiper put on. Ian sends me into there because I used to send me when I was a blonde. Uh, you know, if if the lights, if the lights wanted changing, he'd say, Go take the car in, they'll do it for you. And so, and so, you know, I'm used to going in there, and now it's a sympathy vote, I think I get now. And and so I'm standing there paying for me wiper, and suddenly this voice says, Hiya, Jenny, how are you? I said, Hello, look around. And it was Peter, a guy, some of you might know him, Peter Greenoff, I think. He used to be, he's he's in Chesterfield now. Anyway, he's um he says, Oh, I'm glad I've seen you, I want to talk to you. So I go out and wait for him, and he says, How are you? I says, I'm fine, how are you? He says, Well, I'm not very good. I've got cancer. And it's another door, another door I know that God is opening. I says, really? He says, Well, I want you to pray for me, certainly. And we've been praying for him every day since. That is an opportunity, isn't it? So I said, Well, we've got the group down at the football ground every month. Come along and you can talk to people who know what you're going through and share, you know, and it then it's it's a social group as well. And and it's this place of meeting up with like-minded people. Anyway, Monday afternoon, I'm in the usual place, sat on the bench waiting for the people to move lanes so we can go in and have our swim. She says, What have you been doing this morning? And I says, Well, I've met a friend I haven't seen for a long time, and he asked me to pray for him because he's got cancer. And I thought, well, I'll leave it at that. That's enough for the moment. But I thought, God, you are just opening doors and you are making ways, and we speak to them and we say, Jesus will care for you, Jesus watches over you, we'll pray for you. So God will do what he will do when he opens the door and we have the courage to step in. And that's it, isn't it? That's simple. He will open the door, and if our doors are closed, it's because he doesn't want us there. We wait and we pray until the door opens. So one door for me is closed, and and I question, well, what's all this about, Lord? You've seemed to close this door off, but then he's just opened another one. And now I'm daring to go in and see just where it leads. What door is opening for you when we take off the shackles that we've been talking about this morning? When we leave the baggage behind and we say, Yes, Lord, I'll continue in that journey where you started me off, and we leave the rubbish behind. What door is he opening for you to continue on? Or have you pulled up the drawbridge and say, No, I'm settling? No, don't settle. Let the drawbridge down, let the Holy Spirit speak into your heart and mind. Who knows where you will go in God? Who knows what He will ask you to do? The things He's He's He's opened up before me amazes me when I think of where I've come from. But God is faithful, He is so faithful to us and He takes us on. And you look at your family, well, yes, we they they're great, but I want something more in my life now. They've all grown up, fled the nest, and I just look at them from the distance now as granny. Um, but there's something for each one of us to take hold of. There's a door he's opening for you to go through and say, Yes, Lord, I will give me the courage, give me the strength, and I will go through that door for you.

unknown 35:54

Amen. Oh damn.

SPEAKER_01 36:05

Thank you so much, Jenny. I could have I could have listened to you all afternoon. So and that it's like having having a chat, and it's brilliant. And just um I think it's great to hear. And I know um Jenny Sherry just a couple of weeks ago about the door that had been closed. Um, and actually it's great to see that actually God is directing her into new new paths and into new ways. And um perhaps for some of us we might be at crossroads, we might be thinking, is it right for me to continue doing this? Um or God's perhaps tapping on your shoulder saying, Um, hello, hello. Maybe it's been tapping on your shoulder for something for a long time. If you're like me, you might need to start digging really hard into your shoulder. But actually, this is a time Jenny's challenged us really well this morning to think about the journey that we're on. Obviously, what things do we perhaps need to set down so we can continue on this journey, and um, and what things is it that actually God is calling us to do?

SPEAKER_02 36:54

Oh, sorry, I was gonna share that. I'll be really quick. I should have shared it earlier, um, but um, we were a bit late, and I sort of disqualified myself from uh participating. But it was really just to echo some of the other words that had been shared, and of course, what Jenny's been um teaching us about this morning, about letting go. And um, we went down to an arboretum yesterday, and on the way there, we're seeing that all the hedgerows were starting to spring um out with this lovely fresh green um as all the new leaves start to appear. And as we were walking around the arboretum, a couple of the trees um were still holding on to their old brown dead leaves from last year. Um, and I just sense that God was saying something about that, about letting go, um letting the Holy Spirit blow away those old leaves. They were once beautiful and they once served a purpose and were useful, and now um they aren't. Um so just to let them go and uh and to shake off things that hinder. Um, and also a reassurance that um those little leaf buds that have been um waiting through the winter to open up, um they're there, and you're not going to be left bare and exposed for for long at all. Um, and I just couldn't um not share that because I mean Jenny's dressed in like green leaf prints. As you look around the room, there's quite a few leaf prints, Hamela. And I just felt that that was a real symbol of um of yeah, God saying, uh let things go, whatever that might mean, whether it's a mindset, whether it's a a job or a relationship. But um, yeah, those new things.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

That's brilliant. I think God's speaking really clearly this morning through what Sarah brought and through all the different words that we've had this morning, that it's a a morning for setting things down, but also for picking things up. So um we're gonna um we're gonna finish the meeting now. But um please, if you have anything that you want to come and pray through with anyone, please um please come and do so because we want this to be people changing and we want to see lives moving forward and new doors opening. So bless you all. Don't forget what I'm gonna say, kids before coffee, um, and that. But have a great, great week, everyone.