27th April - Teaching Service - Dave Food - Resurrection Purpose

Thank you for the priceless someone him. Thank you for

your word that you're prepared for us here in the

room and those on my spiritual the Living God flow

through him, energized the word manfest upon him and upon

us as we're here so we can be changed Jesus

day as today, Thank you.

Morning Church, wanting wonderful people. I'm looking at you. You

are wonderful people. You might not feel wonderful, but you

are wonderful people. And I'm going to look at the camera.

I'm go look at the cameras to those at home,

those who are listening later, you know you are wonderful

people too. And we're going to press into something this morning.

It's after Easter. We all know what happened to Easter.

But just imagine if you were one of the disciples,

you'd be kind of did it really happen? You'd be

wondering in a bit of a dream, did it really happen? Yeah?

But you know what, we can millennia later say yes,

it happens, and we can live in the truth of that.

And we can live in the reality of that because

there is a purpose to God's resurrection of his son Jesus.

It wasn't just to write it in a book and

put it on a shelf and say that's nice. There

is a purpose to resurrection. Unless we get hold of this,

then everything else we believe is disconnected. Jesus Christ went

to the cross for you and for me and for

everyone else who's listening. And I went to the cross

for all of us to carry the price of our wrongdoing.

Anybody get things wrong this week? I'm putting my hand up. Yeah,

oh well, okay, we've got a really honest church this morning.

I think everybody's hand went up, and probably those at

home too. Yeah. We don't get it right, do we?

And when we don't get it right, what do we

do with that? Have you ever said something you wish

you'd never said. I used to love comic books when

I was a child. Some of you might remember The

Beano or The Dandy or some of those other coming books,

And I know they've all gone online these days, But

do you know out of every person, there be a bubble,

and in that bubble would be the words that they've said.

And sometimes we speak words and we want it to

be in a bubble that we can kind of shove

back inside and go alcause I didn't mean that, kind

of put it back away. Because sometimes we say things wrong,

don't we Sometimes we say hurtful things, Sometimes we say

things that are not encouraging. Do you know what Christ

died for? All are wrongdoing wrong words, wrong thinking, wrong actions.

And so I want to press into our theme for

this month as we come to the end of April.

Next month will be next week will be May Wow,

And I want to press into resurrection hope. Hope is

a good thing. Hope is a good thing. When we've

got hope for something, we have a different attitude to it. Yeah,

if you're looking forward to a birthday party, if there's

a birthday party you have to go to it's your

auntie's birthday party, and you know what the food's going

to be like, and you're thinking, I don't really want

to go. You'll go with an attitude with your head

down and you'll go oooh, and everybody will know you

don't want to be there. But you know what, when

we've got hope in our hearts, yeah, it could just

be two of us and we'll have a brilliant time

because hope stirs us up. And I want to press

into resurrection, hope and resurrection purpose. John chapter twenty verses

twenty one and twenty two says this again. Jesus said,

peace be with you, as the Father has sent me,

I am sending you. And with that he breathed on

them and said, receive the Holy Spirit. The resurrection is

not just about a victory for Jesus. It's a victory

for all of us. I'll say that again. It wasn't

just Jesus who won the victory. It's a victory for

all of us. And I love using the phrase are

we resurrection people? Are we people who live in the

truth of resurrection, because you know, if you live in

the truth of resurrection, that anything that has died has

the possibility to rise again, anything, anything at all, hope, dreams,

even a body, even you know, there are stories in

the Gospels and talk about Jesus bringing others from death

to life. And that didn't just end with Jesus. It

still happens today. Men and women of faith come and

pray and see some people come alive again. Do you

know we're not saved to sit on our bottoms. We

are not saved just to have a nice time. We

are so what for to be sent to go somewhere.

You know, the church for decades and many churches. I

like you to say, come, come, Come, Well, yes we'd

like you to come, but we also want to go.

If I said I want everyone in the room and

those listing online, I want you to go and pray

for someone to die. I want you to physically go

and meet them and pray for them. Some of you

might say, well, I'll do that in my front room.

That's safe.

I'll do it in church, that's safe. But some of

us might actually go out there and meet someone in

the high street and say, can I pray for you?

Just have to be a long prayer. It does have

to be a PhD in prayer just means to be Lord.

You know.

Maybe you might meet someone who's walking with a limp

down the high street and say, well that looks painful?

Can I pray for you? And then we hand it

over to God and say, God, you do your best,

because I've done my best. I've talked, I've reached, I've

gone out and been sent, and I'm now going to

do something. Jesus breathe the Holy Spirit on his disciples,

sending them out to live life in all its fullness

to send them out with mission in mind. Now, what

is that resurrection purpose? That resurrection purpose number one comes

with peace. He gives us peace in trouble times, in

a trouble world. Anybody needs some more peace today, anybody

had a lack of Yeah, okay, there are lots of

hands going okay, we need more peace now. Peace doesn't

mean silence. Peace doesn't mean nothing happens. Peace sometimes is

a sol You can be in the midst of a

storm and have peace. You can be in the midst

of an argument and have peace. You can be in the

midst of a fight and have peace. That sounds crazy,

how's that possible? But you know, if you are with

God and God's with you and there's an argument going on,

just share what you have to share and then see

what his word will do. Resurrection purpose also means we

have a purpose. He sends us to represent him to

walk on his behalf. In Two Corinthians, Chapter five, verse

twenty is nine the snides. In two Corinthians five, verse twenty,

it says he sends us to represent him, and he

doesn't send us. He sends us with power. With power,

He fills us with his Holy Spirit to accomplish that purpose.

So are we living like resurrection people? Does somebody notice

some difference in you and me? And I'm including myself

in this. I'm testing myself too and saying, do people notice?

Do people notice that when there's a lot of disruption

going on, we have piace? Do people notice that when

there's a lot of gloom and doom going on, we

still bring a message of hope? The people notice that

we love people that maybe they wonder why we love them?

Do you know the early church needed people who were

full of resurrection purpose and power? The church today needs

people who are full of resurrection power. Resurrection life flew

out of the disciples, flowed out of the disciples into

the communities they touched. Do you know what happened when

they did that? Challenges arose, murmuring went on in Acts

chapter six. It's just read it from Acts chapter six.

In those days, when the number of disciples were increasing,

the Hellenistic Jews amongst them, complained against the Haybraic Jews

because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution

of food. So the twelve gathered all the disciples together

and said it would not be right for us to

neglect the ministry of the Word of God in order

to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men

from amongst you who are known to be full of

the spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over

to them, and will give our attention to prayer and

the ministry of the Word. This proposal met the whole group.

They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of

the Holy Spirit, also a Philip, Procurus, Nicanon, Timon Pear, Pomenaeus,

and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented

those men to the apostles, who prayed and laid hands

on them. So the word of God spread. The number

of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number

of priests became obedient to the faith. I want you

to notice there was a bit of arguing going on.

My mom's not getting fed, she needs food, she's not

getting fared. It distracted lots of people, distracting lots of

people saying, well, if we say we love God, then

why are the widows going without food. The disciples said, well,

we've got to do something about this, And what did

they say, appoint some men and women there deacons as well.

I'm talking about deacons this morning. Briefly, Deacons those who

would serve at tables, and they would serve at tables

because they wanted to free up the disciples to preach

the word and pray. You know. Firstly, what I want

to say is that growth bought need. You know, when

you grow, when families grow, there are needs and their

new needs that maybe you didn't have before. Some of

the widows who were being overlooked the apostles realized they

needed help. They couldn't do it all themselves. They didn't

want to neglect prayer. Prayers an important part of what

we do. Ministering the Word is an important part of

what we do. So what did they do. They appointed

those who would serve servant leaders filled with the Holy

Spirit and wisdom. Deacons are not just helpers. Helpers are

not just people who have just got a nice idea.

They are filled with the spirit. And then we show

the love, We go that extra mile, we do that

extra thing. In One Timothy three, verse eight to ten,

it says this likewise, deacons must be reverent, not double minded,

not given to much wine, not greedy for money, holding

the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. But

let these also first be tested, then let them serve

as deacons being found blameless. You know, there's a pretty

strong list of what we look for. We're looking for respectability,

people who will organize, people who have certain level of

spiritual maturity. Now, I don't want to say we're all qualified.

I don't want to say that because I'm still learning.

Anybody else still learning, yeah, anybody like learning. Yeah, sometimes

the lessons are tough, sometimes they're not easy. But do

you know what some of the tough lessons are the

best listeners, some of the best lessons. I was asked

it was probably about eight or nine years ago. Now,

I was after about my life and draw a map

of my life, and I decided to kind of create

a bit of a cartoon. I've still got it actually,

And then I was asked to map in that journey

the highlights, the moments that were good, the moments that

were wonderful. Then I was asked to highlight the low lights,

the things that I maybe didn't like, difficult things that happened,

things like redundancy and those kind of things, sickness and

then I was asked to highlight when I learned lessons.

Do you know what I went through that I did

all of that, And then I looked at it all

and I realized most of the times I learned lessons

were in the difficult times most of the time. So

if you're in a difficult time right now, if you've

got a challenge going on right now, get alongside someone

and do it. Don't do it on your own. The

enemy loves to isolate us and go see no one cares.

Do you know what we care? Your neighbor cares, your mum,

your dad. People care, and they want to show that care.

So one of the reasons, and I hate this when

it happens when somebody tells you about a difficult thing

that's gone on in the week. I'll give you an example,

which the one that sticks in my mind. Irene Brett's grandma,

who's now with the Lord. I remember going around to

visit her for a small group in her house. I said,

how's your week, Irene? She said, oh, it's been a

bit difficult. I needed to get to the hospital and

I couldn't get there, and I just thought, well, why

didn't you pick up the phone and ring me. I

could have got you there, but she struggled to get there.

She's got on the bus, and then the bus was canceled.

And anyway, it doesn't matter about the details. The point

I'm making is I just I could have done something,

if only I'd have known. Do you know what, Church,

Sometimes it's okay to ask for help. It's okay to

ask for help. So when, especially when somebody comes and says,

is there anything I can do? That's obviously a prompting

of the Lord. Can I help you in any way today?

Is there something I can pray for? Do you know what?

When we get asked to do things that we do

not have the capacity to cover, we do not have

the capability to deal with it, or we don't have

the resources to be able to deal with it, that

ought to drive us straight to prayer and not to shame.

When somebody says, oh, I'm not a mechanical person at all,

Julia would totally agree with this, you know. So when

I see someone with a broken down car, I'm thinking, well,

what can I offer our ash? You could probably help,

but I can't, you know, And do you know what?

But I still want to stop and say, can I

do something, because the least I could do maybe it's

actually they just just need to water in their in

their radiator. Well I could do that. I could feel out, well,

I could give you. I could go and get some

water and fill up. I could do that kind of stuff.

But you know what, unless we ask, we will never

find out. And if we don't find out, then we

won't know what to pray about. And when we when

we run out of ourselves, then we run into God.

We run into a tent full, a barnfull, a vista

full of His provision and his purpose. So that's what

we need to be. We need to be servants who

will serve one another. And we're putting in place some deacons.

In a couple of weeks time, we had Ian and

val who were with us, and they're going to be

at the Life Links conference this weekend coming up. And

also Clem came through as well. And Clem and Ian

and Vaugh haven't met one another for five years. We

know them well and we've had them both through, but

they haven't met for five years because they're all around

the world doing different things at different times. In my

front room they met, I just thought yes, divine appointment. Fantastic.

And we talked a little bit about and we're going

to be putting Jonathan and Sarma and Robin as deacons

in a couple of weeks time, not next Sunday, but

the following Sunday. Men and women who are respectful, respectable, spiritually, mature, trustworthy,

self controlled. Sometimes, guys, I don't want to raise the

standard so that you never lose your temper, because I

lose my temper sometimes too. I don't want to. But

do you know what we need resurrection power, but we

also need structure and strength. We are going to grow

as a church. There are room for people to come

and join us. We're doing mission together with Saint John's

at the beginning of June, just over a month away,

and I was just thinking, what happens if five families

turned up through the mission week. Fantastic. I'll be excited.

There'll be some work to do, and there'll be some

Oh my goodness, what are we going to do? But

do you know what the deacons modeled and what the

disciples modeled. They modeled a couple of things in Romans

Chapter eight, verse eleven. Did I put that in there?

I can't want it. Yes, thank you. But if the

spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells

in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will

also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit

who dwells in you. Do you know what? There's nothing

more exciting than meeting with God and being filled with

His spirit. In his presence, I can be exhausted. There

have been times in my life when I've been completely

exhausted and I've just spent five ten minutes with God

and His presence has filled me, and I've walked back

out of the room ready to go again. Anybody not

slept well recently, you know, yeah, Okay, you get up

the next morning and you're walking around a bit like

a zombie, going, oh, how am I going to get

through today? Do you know what the best thing you

can do, and it's probably the last thing you want

to do in that moment, is pray. Seek God's presence,

you know, Praying when you're tired, Praying when you've had

a bad night, praying maybe you had some nightmares, some

night terrors and that kept you awake. Well, that's a

more important reason to pray, because being filled with the

spirit will carry us into the day. And there's nothing

better than having somebody say there's something different in you today.

There's something different in you today. What is it? You

could say, it's just God at work in me. Because

God as at work in us, will give us love,

which is more than we have ourselves. He will fill

us up. Sometimes we have to give love to people.

Maybe we don't want to love. I mean, Scripture talked

about loving our enemies, and do you love your enemies?

You know, we run out of love for our own children,

and our own families and our own friends. But loving

our enemies, Wow, that's a tough one. Christ gave of himself.

He gave all of himself and more. We read as

he died on the cross that you know blood flowed.

But you know, there's a joy in serving one another.

I sometimes come to the end of a busy day

of doing stuff, and in doing that stuff, I think,

thank you, Lord, You've helped me. And you didn't do

it because it was anything I did. You empowered me

to do this. Jesus empowered by the Holy Spirit. And

there's a call to serve and to rise up and said,

as I said, resurrection is not a call to sit

on our bottoms. A resurrection is to call, is to

serve and to go. Resurrection sends us out, some to preach,

some to lead, some to serve, some to be faithful,

some to just bless others, some to be conduits for others.

In one Peter four, verse ten, it says each of

you should use whatever gift you have received to serve

others as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms.

Whatever gift you have, some of you are talented at

creating things. Some of you are talented at talking to people.

Not everybody's comfortable talking to people. I'm really comfortable in

front of a really large crowd. The bigger the crowd,

the better I come to life in front of a crowd.

Put me in a small room with four or five people,

I find it harder. For some of you, it will

be completely the other way around. You'd freeze if you

had twenty people. If you had to go on a

stage and pick up a microphone, you'd be a bit

like staring in the rabbit in the headlights and you go, oh,

I don't know what to do here. Each of us

is gifted and talented in different ways. I want to

encourage you use the gifts that you have for God's glory.

And if you haven't found a place to do that,

come and speak to me. Come and speak to someone

on the leadership team. Let us know. I've been surprised

by some of the gifts some of you remember Colleen.

Colleen and Brett moved up north with Matthew a few

months ago. Now, I didn't realize you had some brilliant

cake making skills until the cake was made on our

third thirty year anniversary and there was these beautiful case

And where did you get this cake? Oh? I made it? Wow?

You know, and I am sure there are hidden gifts

and talents in the room today. There are hidden gifts

and talents in those who are not here away on holiday.

But do you know what I want to encourage you?

Use those gifts for His glory, Use those gifts as

acts of service. Be full of the Holy spirits wherever

you are the You know. One of the things I

didn't want to put this into my sermon, but it's

just kind of been promp did Where are we Maine?

So January last year? I wanted to make more up

until then I'd work four days a week for a

company and done that for twenty odd years, many different companies,

and then you know the other four days of the week,

and I know my mass is gone wrong, and you're

going you know it doesn't add up, but you know

what I mean, four days for the church, and I

wanted to give more time. I just sensed we'd had

this prophetic word from Albert. I just sensed that the

growth was coming. We moved into Strode. Since then all

those kind of things, I just said, Lord, I need

to need more space to do some of this. I

just sense he was nudging, and so I went to

my boss and said, I'd like to go from four

days a week to three days a week. And he

went a bit awkward, Dave, we need all of your time.

In fact, we'd really like you five days a week.

So I'm thinking, okay. So I gave it back to

God and you say, okay, God, back to you. That

was back in January last year. Then in May last

year I got made redundant. Now, the fact, I don't

know why you've ever been through that. When somebody says

we don't need you anymore, do you know where the

place it starts and I might be speaking people to

here today. It starts with, See, you're no good, You're

not any good, nobody wants you. Now. There were various

business reasons. It wasn't just me. There was a whole

group of people the company decided to get rid of.

But then I got into this place where I thought, Okay,

I now need to find a new job. God, how

are you going to do that? And I only remember

now I only want to work three days a week. Prayed.

God gave me a strategy, do you know? And I

started writing a blog about the kind of stuff that

I'm into, supply chain. That's the kind of stuff that

I teach on and do those kind of things. That's

what I do when I have my business hat on.

And I started writing a blog and suddenly I've got

lots of inbound inquiries and found a job two days

a week paying a reasonable salary. And that's what I've

been doing ever since then, two days a week. But

that's freed me up to do something else. She is

to do more for the church. So I started writing

a blog about church things. I called it Prophetic Encounter,

and it was just about encountering God in the prophetic

but at work church, and for those listening, I want

to encourage you. Please do not think the gifts of

the spirit are only for in a meeting on a Sunday.

Please don't think they're only for special meetings. The gifts

of the Spirit are manifest through His believers and through

His disciples.

For all.

You know, I've had prophetic words at work. I've just

I can't say I heard the ordible voice of God,

but I've sensed a direction. I sensed something that I

should say. You know, I didn't used to go. Oh,

hang on a second, guys, I'm sitting in a business

meeting with all the other kind of executives around me.

Now I go, thus says the Lord. They'd all immediately goo.

I wouldn't do that because I want to bring glory

to God, so I put him first. I just say,

I've got this idea, guys, can I just share it

with you? And I share it with them. And there

were many times, and in fact, there's still some projects

running fifteen years after I launched them, and I don't

even work for the companymore. But they were God ideas

fifteen years later. Now I'm sure some of my worldly

ideas would not still be running. But some of these

projects are still running. Now. I want to share this

because I think there's a purpose for a few people

in this. I would share it and just say, here's

an idea, and then I would go, Okay, why don't

we just give it a try. If it fails, you

can blame me. Remember what am I saying there? Remember

God gave me the idea. I'm sharing it with you,

and I'm saying, if it fails, blame me. And then

I'll go but I won't say this to anybody else.

But then I'll go back and have a word with

him upstairs and say, excuse me. I thought this was

some but it's never happened. I've never had to have

that conversation. And so I said, please, let's give it

a go. And now, there was one particular meeting when

I worked for an American software company. I was in

the same meeting every month and I came up with

a number of ideas over a number of years. And

a guy came up to me after I said, Dave,

where do you get these ideas from? I said, I'll

tell you. Let's meet for a coffee and i'll tell

you so I hadn't said, thus says the Lord or anything.

But now the fruit of his word goes before me,

not me. The fruit of his word goes before me.

And so I meet this guy for coffee and I said, okay,

I'm going to do two things. I said, I've got

a book that I regularly get my ideas from, and

I've got a source that I regularly pull those ideas

through from. And he said, oh, tell me what is it?

I said, but you probably won't believe it. So I'm

going to tell you. And then I'm going to illustrate

the examples of what I shared. And I said, firstly,

some of my ideas come from a book called the Bible. Anyway, pardon?

I said, yes, the Bible. He said that's for church people,

isn't I said, yes, I'm a church I go to church.

He said, well, give me an example. I gave him

a couple of examples of ideas that I shared that

have come from the Bible. I'm not going to unpack

them now, it'd take too long. He said, I never

saw that. He said, where's your good source? And I said,

that's what When I pray sometimes God gives me those

ideas and I then said okay, and I showed him

a couple of examples of stuff that I shared and

he said wow. I said, So, all I'm asking you is,

will you take away this copy of the Bible that's

for you and read the Gospel of Matthew. And over

a period of a number of months at work, he

read the Gospels we met for a number of copies.

I don't know whether he's become a Christian yet, but

do you know what, he's still reading the Bible. I

still have a message fromhim. This is years ago now.

So church, I'm encouraging you take the gifts that you

are and the gifts that you have into the marketplace,

into your home, into your fan money, into the street,

and use them. Don't go weird about it, just use

it for His glory. Each as I just read from

one Peter Poutne, each of you should use whatever gift

you have received to serve others as faithful stewards of

God's grace in various forms. Do you know? And if

we haven't got the right wisdom, we just need to pray.

So I'm going to close now, but I want to

encourage you to be men and women of prayer to

be men and women of action, to be men and

women of purpose and hope. Father, God, we thank you

the Lord, you make space and room, you give us opportunity. Father,

help us to step into the fullness of who we are.

In you, help us to step into the fullness and

purpose of whom you call us to be. And so Father,

I pray Lord for all of us, every single one

of us. I pray that Lord, you'd help us to

be more bold than we've been before, to be more

confident that we've been before, with a heart with a

little more hope, and Father, with more faith, to see

your kingdom come and your will be done. In Jesus' name, Amen,

Juliet