Singing a New Song // God is a God of New Beginnings, Part 5

Sometimes – sometimes God decides to do something radically new in our lives – it’s as though He puts a new song in our hearts. So what do you do with that?

When we feel trapped by our circumstances, which happen to so many people, sometimes we need to change something inside. In a difficult relationship, sometimes we have to change our attitude or forgive someone. In our work, sometimes God might be calling us to a whole new thing that can be scary so we need a change of heart; I mean, imagine if God wanted you or me to be a missionary in Timbuktu and didn't give us the heart to do it.

When we feel trapped God is a God of new beginnings and when He has a radical new plan for a new beginning, sometimes, just sometimes He puts a new tune in our hearts and a new song on our lips and that's exciting but it can be scary.

I feel trapped! Should I stay or go? I had to make that decision a few years ago, I'd spent 17 years building an IT Consulting firm with about 50 people and we worked for hundreds of organisations, I was the heir apparent to run that consulting firm and there was lots of money in it and plenty of interesting work and travel and status and position but I felt like God was putting a new song in my heart, a desire to do something completely new, completely different, a desire to do what I'm doing right now in the ministry of Christianityworks.

Today, as I sit in a radio studio, what I say goes to hundreds of stations in over 80 countries around the world and today, looking back on it, it all looks pretty obvious now but I have to say, back then it was far from obvious. I was an IT consultant not a broadcaster, how would I ever get onto just one radio station? But God put a new song in my heart and at those times, you know, it can be unsettling and uncertain and exciting. Do I stay or do I go? Is this just me dreaming this thing up or is it God? Will it succeed or will it fail? Are you with me?

Some people, at that time, said to me, "Well you know Berni, God needs people in business too!" And others encouraged me to do it. I had this dream, not to become a missionary in Timbuktu, not to pastor a Church, not to do TV. At the time when I was a young Christian I knew I had an ego the size of a small planet and my prayer was, "God, I want to use this gift of story telling I have but I want them to see you, not me." I didn't know that it was radio but doors began to open in the area of radio broadcasting.

We can end up hugely frustrated with the status quo; the job we're in or the situation we're in and we can think, 'is it just me acting up or is it God changing my heart to move me onto something new? Is God putting a new song in my heart?' Can I tell you something? It seems to me whenever God does that, certainly in my life, whenever God has given me something new it's outrageous and it's unconventional and it's so big that unless God’s in it I'm going to fall flat on my face. So for me, I stepped out and I said, "God, if this isn't from you I want it to fall flat on its face." I decided I was prepared to be a fool for God but I just couldn't ignore what I thought He was doing in me and through me and in my life.

When God's doing something new sometimes He calls us out of our comfort zones into very uncertain places. Paul the apostle writes in his letter to the Philippians, if you're interested it’s in Philippians, chapter 2, verse 13:

God is at work in us, enabling us to both will and to work for His good pleasure.

In other words if He wants someone to become a missionary in Timbuktu, first He'll give them a heart to do it. If He wants someone like me to go from lucrative IT consulting to Christian radio broadcasting, first He had to give me a heart to do it because unless it's in my heart I'm not going to be interested. Unless we really want to do something we don't give it our best, it's not a joy whereas for me, doing what I'm doing right now is just such an enormous joy. When God calls us into something new, He's a great God, He gives us a heart for it and it’s unsettling and sometimes it's scary but you just know. God is a God of new beginnings.

When we looked at creation, a few days ago we went through Genesis, chapter 1, if you were with us on the program, and creation was so surprising, out of darkness He made light. He made the land, He made the oceans, He put all these weird animals on the planet, He created you and me, even weirder.

God is a creative God, God does some amazing things and the apostle Paul picks up on that and he says:

If anyone puts their faith in Jesus Christ they are a new creation.

Just the way God created a whole new universe, when we put our faith in Jesus we become like a new creation. All the old stuff passes away and everything, everything is new. He takes our skills and our abilities and He uses them in a new way.

I met a woman in the UK a couple of years ago called Fran McGuiver and Fran was a woman who didn't have a background in story writing but she just felt to take some of the stories in the Bible and rewrite them as radio scripts in a really fresh, contemporary way, to bring them to life. She was sitting there and she said to me over breakfast, "Berni, I don’t know if I'm doing the right thing." And I just felt to say to her, "Fran, you do what Gods put into your heart." And just now, a couple of years later these scripts are now being recorded and I have to tell you they are just brilliant and I know God is going to do some amazing things with those right around the world.

If God is putting a new song in your heart, don't ignore it. Please don't misunderstand me, I was talking with a woman recently and she said, "I don't know if God wants me to stay with my husband. You know this, that, relationship." Women, God is not calling you to leave your husband. Men, God is not calling for you to chase a younger woman. Divorce is difficult and it's painful and sometimes there is violence and abuse involved and sometimes it happens and I'm not condemning anyone but if we're in a difficult marriage, God will work even in that. Will you invite Him into that place?

But sometimes in the area of work or ministry, sometimes God puts a new song in our hearts, it can be unsettling but can I ask you something? Don't ignore it just because it's unsettling. God sometimes creates new beginnings right where we are, in that job, in that relationship, in that situation and He does the most amazing things, He does.

And I come back to, I just feel to say, if you are in a difficult marriage and you're just not getting through to your wife or to your husband, invite God into that place. Pray and stick in there and hang in there and watch what God will do but God also sometimes creates new beginnings in different places. He calls us into radical new things that aren't obvious, that seem risky. Sure, talk to people. Sure, seek advice. Yes, think things through. Yes, test things to see whether the doors are open but if Gods put a new song into your heart, sing the song at the top of your lungs, follow the dream for Christ’s sake, do the new thing no matter how scary it is.

Father, I just pray for anyone today who feels that you have put a new song into their heart. Call them into something fresh and new and surprising.

Lord, I just pray that you take the words that we've been talking today and just pour them into their hearts and give them the quiet, still assurance that you are in that place and that you will walk with them through what you've called them to do.

Father, we ask that in Jesus Christ name. Amen.