The Holy Spirit offers a solution to all the ash heaps in our lives today; for the spirit of heaviness that weighs us down and for those who continually mourn: God is willing to trade with you: if you trade your ashes, your heaviness and your mourning, God is willing to replace it with beauty, praise and comfort!

Listen to this sermonThe Trading Post

Isaiah 61:1-11

Playing for The Ashes
Right now England and Australia are battling it out at Lords famous cricket ground for the prize known as The Ashes. It is the remains of a burnt out cricket hut where all the equipment was kept. The Australian captain sent it in a small container as a gift to the Englishmen and the original article remains in a cricket museum at Lords. If Australia wins they take a replica of the genuine article down under because the original was a gift. It seems strange that so much effort and so much time would be spent every year to play for ashes…but in a sense that speaks so much of all our efforts in life. It is a reminder that we do not really accomplish as much as we would like to think. Very few people actually get to the top of the ladder of success in their field. There is only room for so many at the top. For instance, only eleven cricketers can play for their country – even though there might be other brilliant players at that time that just never got noticed. So in fact, only eleven players achieved their dreams.
That is why there are so many bitter people in the world. Some who achieved success also get bitter because success at the highest level only lasts for a short while – then you are forgotten again and new heroes arise.
Ashes lead to a spirit of heaviness and that causes mourning. Many people are in mourning – not just those who lost loved ones, but those whose dreams have vanished; those who tried, but failed; those who marriages did not last; those whose children have been influenced by wicked friends; those whose business did not succeed; those who grew up in the wrong side of town and had no hope to succeed; those who tried their best but never really came up trumps; those who knew they had the potential but never had the opportunity to be trained; those who spent their best years in a time of war; those who changed the course of history but have never been honoured; those who deceived themselves and thought too much of themselves, like Don Quixite who thought he was delivering his country from evil giants and all the time he was simply attacking windmills…
Mourning clears the wounded heart, but if mourning becomes a life-style it makes the wound in the heart fester.

The Holy Spirit offers a solution to all the ash heaps in our lives today; for the spirit of heaviness that weighs us down and for those who continually mourn: God is willing to trade with you: if you trade your ashes, your heaviness and your mourning, God is willing to replace it with beauty, praise and comfort!

The problem in our modern world is pride and selfish ambitions. Wherever selfish ambition is at work there will be envy and jealousy and confusion.

James 3:16
16 For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
The King James Version

The problem in our modern world is that everyone wants to be the best and be the winner and there can only be so many winners. The rest of the field is behind the winner. There is nothing wrong with trying hard and having the right attitude, but when it turns to pride all sorts of problems creep in. But because we are self-centred and proud we cannot admit that there are ashes in our lives, and that we actually have heaviness in our hearts and that we are mourning about something that did not work out the way we hoped it would. We harbour these things in the deepest recesses of our hearts where no one else can see what is going on. But when we are alone, we look at our ashes and sigh because of the heavy spirit and weep because of the loss…

God has seen you in secret and he has looked into your heart and today He is offering you a solution. If you will hear what the Spirit is saying to you today, He will bring about a change in your life that you never thought possible. Give your ashes to him today. Admit that some dreams have turned to ashes; admit that there is heaviness in your soul that you just cannot get rid of; admit that you are mourning about something and bring it all to Jesus. He will trade it for beauty and praise and joy!

Come to the Heavenly Trading Post and trade with the things you want to get rid of! It costs you nothing! Come and play for the Ashes today!

The reason why we have ashes
Life as we know it is mostly selfish because everyone is only looking out for number one. That is why the life and teaching of Jesus Christ seems to be quite the opposite of the spirit of the world. He told his disciples if they want to find life they must be willing to loose it. He meant they should let go of their lower, selfish and sinful life in order to discover eternal life, the higher life. He said, if you want to follow Me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. He said, learn from Me for I am meek and lowly of heart and you will find rest for your soul.

The amazing thing is that He hand picked a few unknown individuals, not the best achievers or the most intellectual Nobel prize winners of his time, but ordinary people, like you and I, and made their names household names for the past 2 000 years! Now that is something they never dreamed of!

We used to sing a song: ‘The Holy Ghost can set your feet a – dancing! The Holy Ghost can fill you through and through!’

Today, the Holy Ghost wants to set your feet a – dancing too! He wants you to give him your ashes and your tattered garment that causes heaviness in your heart.

Ashes cannot be used for anything. It is burnt up wood. You cannot build anything with it. It is worthless. The place where we throw away all the rubbish in our homes is called the ash heap or rubbish dump. That is why it is an image of utter hopelessness and complete helplessness. That is why we have as saying to describe someone like Job on the ash heap of life. We say, ‘my dreams were turned into ashes’. All our ambitions can be burnt up too. Then we get depressed and a spirit of heaviness controls our lives. Nothing is worth while any more. Live is not worth living – if your dreams have turned into ashes.

Peter, Andrew and John also had dreams…they thought that Jesus would conquer the Romans and make them rule over the nation. For three years they walked with the Messiah and experienced his power and compassion. They saw how he healed the sick, raised the lame and opened blind eyes. They fed the multitudes with the loaves of bread and the fish he multiplied. They saw how he calmed the waves and the wind like a master speaks to a dog to lie down. They were there when he made a whip and chased the businessmen out of the temple and declared His Father’s house a place of prayer and not a den of thieves! They walked with him when the little children shouted, ‘Hosannah in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the Lord!’ They saw how the people threw their clothes and palm leaves before him as he humbly rode on a donkey with a little foal behind it. They knew what it was like to try to catch fish all night and not catch a thing – then the Master appeared on the shore and told them to throw the net out on the other side and then they caught so many fish that their net wanted to break!

They heard how He taught the people in parabl