13th April 2025 All Age All Nations - Dave Food - Hope restored

But I just want I just want to thank you

for today, thank you for your way that is coming forth. Lord.

I pray that Father God, you would open our hearts

and our minds to receive from you in Jesus name.

Amen, Thank you.

Rob.

Let me turn this out. I can see the scriptures

that you're seeing morning Church. Are you good? Is the

person next to you good? You're not so sure, now,

are you? I'm excited. Today's Palm Sunday. You might you

might think it's summer because I'm wearing a summer shirt.

I just thought I wanted to wear something that symbolized

palm Sunday. You know, Palm Sunday, lots of greenery, lots

of things growing in the garden. The day's a day

of hope, the day's a day of purpose. To day's

a day of joy. So let's really dive in. Let's

come to the first scripture. Thanks so, pet. Yeah, we

read the story as we've heard a little bit from Rob.

It says in Matthew twenty one, verses one to eleven. Now,

when they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethpage at

the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples saying

to them, go into the village opposite you, and immediately

you will find a donkey tiede and a cult with her.

Loose them and bring them to me. And if anyone

says anything to you, you shall say the Lord has

need of them, and immediately he will send them. All

this was done that it might be fulfilled which was

spoken by the prophet, saying, tell the daughter of Zion, behold,

your king is coming to you lowly and sitting on

a donkey, a cult the fall of a donkey. So

the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They

bought the donkey, and the cult laid their cl them

and set him on them. And a very very great

multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cutting down

branches from the trees and spread them on the road.

Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed

cried out, saying, Hosanna to the son of David, Blessed

is he who comes in the name of the Lord,

Hosanna in the highest. And when he had come into Jerusalem,

all the city was moved, saying who is this? So

the multitude said, this is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth

of Galilee. The people at the time were hoping for

a king. Now, they were hoping for a warrior king,

not the kind of one that comes in a donkey,

quietly with glorious robes, probably on a stallion, riding into

town saying I'm here, and Jesus comes in on a donkey,

in on somebody else's donkey, not even his own. He

comes in on somebody else's donkey. And here's the thing.

Can you imagine you're sitting there and you've got a

donkey in your yard and suddenly somebody walks in and says,

the Lord has need of this. I don't know whether

it's ever happened to you, whether you've had to grab

hold of something. I just need this right now. You

see on FBI programs and an American police programs FBI

and they jump into your car and drive away. It's

that kind of thing, that kind of authority that says,

I have the authority to take this donkey right now.

If you were one of the disciples and we're told

go into this yard, and when you see the donkey,

take it, and when they ask you say the Lord

has need of this. Wow, that's boldness. That's confidence. Do

you know what when you know what you know what,

you know you will do it. When you really know

there's an instruction from the throne room of heaven, then

we'll do it. If we hear it's second hand, third hand, Well,

well I heard someone say. Somebody else told me. I

heard that. I think we need a donkey. No, he

heard from Jesus. They heard from Jesus. They went in

with confidence and boldness, and Church, I want to encourage

us as we head towards Easter. Let's have confidence and

boldness today. You know, we know the beginning from the end,

unlike the disciples, unlike those who were there on the

Holy Week who were kind of celebrating. Oh, Jesus has

been doing some great teaching. There, some healings going. There's

been some crowds that have gathered. You know, you know

where they're heading. We know the rest of the story.

Just imagine you didn't know that, and then you arrive

on Mandy Thursday and he's in the garden and he's praying.

Then he gets betrayed, and then he gets crucified. We

know that's all coming, but that means we can walk

with confidence into Easter. We can walk with boldness into Easter.

We can press in with boldness and with purpose because

Jesus has gone before us. He's paid the price for

you and me. He set us free, and he set

us free with his purposes and with his power in

Jesus' name. There's a survey that came out this week

called the Silent Revival or the Quiet Revival, and it

came from the Bible Society. And I'm going to share

a few thoughts from this because I'm encouraged by this

kind of thing, and I'll send this out afterwards as

a PowerPoint. Here, I'm only sharing you some of the things,

and there's also a full piece of research behind this.

I want you to look around the room and look

at the age of the people in the room, Look

at the different nationalities in the room. Look at the

beautiful people sitting near you. Who's in the church. Well,

I did a piece of research in twenty eighteen and

there were asked thousands of people and they were asked

how often you went to church in twenty eighteen. You

can just look at the difference between twenty eighteen and

twenty twenty five. Okay, church attendance is on the up

church attendency on bottom number there from eight percent to

tw opposite of the population said they go to church

a number of times. It's on the up. But what

I really want you to notice is the second bottom line. Yeah,

under thirty five's there is a silent revival, a quiet

revival going on in the younger generation gen Z. They

are hungry for something. They're hungry for something.

More.

Church attendance in that area is you know, more than doubled.

So this is fascinating stuff. It's fascinating stuff. Well, won't

let's go a little deeper and ask why the respondents

who were asked in this serve and they weren't just

church goers. By the way, respondents who are asked in

the church they one, well one and a half times

more likely to go to church than they felt back

in twenty eighteen. What can we say, but let's click

on the impact of going to church. What can we

say say about the impact of going to church. Respondents

who said they went to church were one and a

half times more likely to have meaning in their life,

you know, another fifty percent more. There's hope in the

church because people who go to church are one and

a half times more likely to be hopeful about the future.

I mean, I don't know whether you read newspapers or

apps and get those kinds of things. Do you look

at the headlines and do you know where I start?

I go, huh. That's my response to the news, mostly

because the news is you know, do you know what

sells newspapers bad news? Somehow we like bad news. You

know you won't buy if it's allful of good news,

we won't bother at picking it up. That's I think

it's something about how we feel. Yeah, we can also

say that there's a greater sense of community. People are

twice as likely who go to church to feel connected

to their local community and their local area. Do you

know mental health is a big issue today. Loneliness is

an issue today. Now church goers are less likely to

suffer from mental health than those who are not. And

here's a really interesting one. Church going respondents are more

engaged in activities such as giving, volunteering, and community projects

acts of kindness. So church's doing good, Well done, church,

good church, well done, press in press on. But do

you know what if this is true, then that means

there is a big harvest out there. There are people

who are hungry for something more. They're hungry for something more.

Here's some statistics about people who were asked who weren't

going to church, and ask one in three so that

they would be willing to go to church. One in three.

Think about your neighbors on either side and over the road.

One of those potentially would be interested in going to church.

They just haven't been invited. And that's a third of

people who don't go to church who'd be willing to go.

You know, some of the reasons why they don't go

to church is they don't know a church. Now we're

going to get more. We have got quite vocal since

we moved here at Stroges College. You'll notice that we're

shouting in lots of places. You'll see more signs of

peering up outside now as we're confident to be able

to set this all up and run this well. But

you know, they'll typically be the best way to invite

someone is a friend or a family member, because they

know you and they trust you. Being asked by a stranger,

you'll probably take the leaflet and go thank you, and

you'll put it in your pocket or walk on. Friendship

evangelism is key in this time and in this season.

What about the Word of God, that book that we

think is so precious to us. One in four respondents

said they would consider giving the Bible a try. These

are people who don't read the Bible one in four people,

and especially in eighteen to twenty four year olds, it

got up to nearly a third who said they'd be

willing to read. They're looking for purpose, they're looking for meaning,

they're looking for a framework to life. And here's the

bit that I find fascinating. Two thirds of the people

who responded who didn't go to church, two thirds said

they'd be appreciate prayer. That means the majority of people

you come across who don't know Jesus would be willing

to have you pray for them. So what do we risk?

What do we risk by asking, I'd love you to

test some of these statistics. Why not invite someone to church?

You know?

Why not invite two or three or four? And then

then you can come back to me and say, Dave,

I invited eight people and nobody said yes. Might be

surprised that three out there might say yes. Two thirds

of people responded they would appreciate prayer, you know, we

need to get better at witnessing church. These are amazing statistics.

This wasn't a small sample. This was thousands and thousands

of people. Some questions that arose from the survey. Did

you know, for example, that over five million people go

to church born again believers here in the UK. More

traditional churches maybe not growing in the same way. Some

churches are dying. But those who have a strong faith

and a strong belief, who are declaring what they believe

and are sharing about the Cross and Jesus Christ are

growing with passion, with purpose and with energy and so on.

One of the challenges is that we don't know our

Bible as well as we ought to do. Heads and

hearts and do you know the Bible speaks to our

head with knowledge, but it also speaks to our heart.

Not only speaks to our heart, but it speaks to

our hands. It calls us to service. And here's the thing,

it's speaking to a younger generation. Some people might say

that the UK is a post Christian society, and maybe

that's true. If you ever watched then I'm showing my

age now. If you've ever watched Monty Python Life of

Brian and they said, what are the Romans done for us,

and then they listed out a whole load of things.

What else are the Romans done for us? I could

imagine the same thing happening when we say what has

Christianity done for the UK? And then we go, well,

what about schools? What about hospitals? What about universities? And

I could keep on going and going. What about the

abolition of slavery? And I could keep on going and

going and going. There's a quiet revival going on in

the church. There's a quiet revival going on in the marketplace.

There's a quiet revival, and we need to catch hold

of this. Let's go on, opay. I that's okay. Let's

come back to another scripture. You know, we're called to

be different. We're called to be different. In Romans twelve

chap It says this Roman's twelve verse one. I beseech

to you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that

you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God,

which is your reasonable service. And do not notice, do

not be conformed to this world, but be transformed our hearts,

our minds, our hands, our works and service be transformed

by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove

what is good and acceptable and the perfect will of God.

For I say that, through grace given to me, to

everyone who is amongst you, not to think of himself

more highly than he ought to think, but to think

soberly as God has dealt to each one of us

a measure of faith. God has called us, got us,

called us with purpose, got us, called us with passion.

And people are not just looking for content. They're not

just looking for a book that gives them wisdom.

Do you know?

They're looking for other seas. They're looking for community. As

we journey through COVID, lots of people jumped online, We

went to church online. We're still doing church online. But

you know it's more than just content. We've got access

to so much stuff today. You can find a better

you can find a better sermon somewhere else. You can

find someone who's got more PhDs than me preaching somewhere else.

You can find someone who's passionate. But you know what,

it's not just about content. It's about community. It's about

being church together. And I don't just want to limit

that in the room, Yasmin, I think we'd not an

agree here. We have a group on Tuesday that meets online.

There's a whole bunch of people who do not live

anywhere near us, sometimes in South Africa, sometimes Scotland, sometimes Carlile,

sometimes Derbyshire. And I know that we've had messages back

from those folks saying this is important to me. This

is my highlight of the week. Now they go to church,

but this is the highlight because it's community, and community

means looking out for one another. Look around at the

other people in the room. They're special people. They're precious people.

God loves them, and we're called to serve. And we're

going to have a fellowship meal today where we're going

to eat together. Take let me turn today's luncheon a

bit different. I want to make it musical chairs this afternoon.

I want to encourage you well play some music. But

what I want to encourage you to do is not

sit at the same table all the time. Sit at

one table, have a small helping of something, go back

and get some more. Now, go and sit at a

different table and talk to somebody else. You know, we

get stuck in ruts, we get stuck in habits. There's

probably some of you who are sitting in the same

chair you sat in last week and the week before

and the week before. When I was a student a

long time ago, I went to a particular church and

they had pews, and I went to this church for

the first time Sunday evening service. I sat down in

a pew and a lady came along and she looked

at me, and she stood there and she looked at me,

and then she looked up, and she looked around, and

she looked at some other people, and then she looked

at me again, and I felt a bit awkward. I said,

can I help you? She said, you're sitting in my place.

I said, I'm terribly sorry. I got up and I moved.

But do you know what that made me feel? Made

me feel like, please go away, please leave church. If

every chair in this room was full today, I'd sit

on the floor. I'd sit on the floor because I

want to make room for the guests who's coming. If

there's not going to be enough food, and I'm sure

there will be always more than enough food for our

fellowship meal, but do you know what if it looked

like there wasn't, the first thing I would do is pray.

And the second thing I would do is I'd go

without because I want you to be blessed. And so

community matters. People are looking for more than content, they're

looking for community. And in community there is relationship. Community

is built up of families and people connected. And when

I say families, hear me right here. I'm not just

talking about blood relatives. I'm talking about households. Arash brings

people who live in his house with him to church. Welcome, issoud.

Now they live in the same house. They're not blood relatives.

Are you not related in any way, but they share

the house. Yeah? Absolutely, Yeah, we're so pleased to see you,

and we're so pleased to see now. So when I

say in families, I mean families and households. You know,

we have people who've lived in our house who are

in this room who are not blood relatives. But it's

as you say, let sie mi casa sukasa my castle

is your castle. I love the I love the Spanish

translation's not my house is your house, My castle is

your castle, says I've got a castle. Yes, yeah, hope restored,

hope renewed. But do you know, in the midst of

community is family. In the midst of family, in The

midst of family is relationship, and relationships matter. You know,

when you haven't spoken to a member of your family

for a while, you kind of get a little anxious.

Are they okay? You pick up the phone, they don't answer,

and you pick up the phone again, and you pick

them up again. Yeah. Part of that relationship is the

strength of that relationship. And I'm going to come to

my most important sea today. Covenant. Covenant is important in

today's world. Covenant relationship. Yeah, we're really good at making promises.

You and I can make promises. I promise to do this,

I promise to do that. Do you know if you

look at the money that we have. If I got

out a ten pound note and just got it, do

you know what it says? On most I believe it

still says I promised to pay the bearer. Yeah, I

promised to pay them. So there's value in this. That's

where the value comes from, the value of the promise.

But you know what, anybody in the room really good

at keeping promises. I do my best, but I get

it right wrong from time to time. I once you

remember going to visit a guy called John, who I

call God's taxi driver. He'd retired, and the reason I

called him God's taxi driver was I could ask him

at any time of the day or night to go

and pick someone up at the airport and he would

be there. He picked them up, and in one particular situation,

not only did he pick them up at six o'clock

in the morning, but he delivered them to our house,

let them in because we weren't there, and showed them

to their bedroom and then left them to it. You know,

he was God's taxi driver for me. He really stepped

up a number of times. I remember one bank holiday Monday,

we're heading towards a bank holiday at Easter. I remember

one bank holiday Monday that I said to John, I'll

pop around to see you about eleven o'clock and I've

got lots of things in my diary. And I turned

up about quarter to twelve. I said, I'm sorry, John,

I'm sorry, I'm late. And he said, well, that's why

I get to expect Dave, that's what you normally do.

And I was thought, Okay, that's not good. That's not

good when people expect you to be late. Okay, things happen,

Traffic jams happened, trains break down, all that kind of stuff.

But when they expect you to be late, that means

my word is no longer valid. I'm saying I'm going

to be there at eleven. I turned up at quarter

to twelve. It's not good. I mean a few minutes. Yeah,

that happens. Reputation is reality. Reputation is reality. It doesn't

matter what you say. You can say to your children

do what I say, not what I do, but they

will see you again and again and again and again,

repeating things. I just want you to think about this.

I'm going to give you my story, but I want

you to think about this. When did you make a

covenant relationship? God made a covenant relationship with Noah. He

put a rainbow in sky and said, never will I

ever do this again? He made promise after promise after prince,

and we know because we say this, he who promised

is faithful. So covenant relationship is important. And you know,

covenant relationship goes way beyond how you feel. Covenant relationship

is king. Covenant relationship is foundational. And let me let

me let me talk about some important promises. First of all,

some of you probably bought, got a mortgage or set

you signed a rental agreement, something pretty big, probably the

largest amount of money you'd ever signed before. And you see,

it's a big thing. But you know what, a house

is a house. And if you ran out of money

and had to move it because you couldn't pay the mortgage.

I know we've had people who've been through that kind

of stuff, But do you know what if that happens,

it's just a house. I don't want to break covenant relationship.

I made a promise when I became a Christian. I said,

Lord Jesus, take your place in my life, take your

place in my life, rule and reign in me. That

means sometimes I have to yield to him and to

his spirit and say, Jesus, what is it you want

me to do here? And he'll ask me. I could

think of a number of times when he's asked me

to do the thing I don't want to do. He said,

please do it, Dave, it's important. And because of that

covenant relationship, I go, Okay, Jesus, I'll do that. I

made a covenant relationship on our wedd day on the

fourteenth of May to my wife Julia. You know, and

I can't promise every year has been perfect because it hasn't.

There's been quite a few years that have been tough.

But you know what's carried me through, maybe it's carried

Julia through as well. Is I made a covenant relationship

for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness

and in health. My wife is an inch and a

half taller than when I married her. It's not because

she grew because she had some surgery to straighten her spine.

And do you know when I first hugged her once

I could hug her once she'd had her surgery, it

felt awkward, It felt a bit strange, it felt a

bit different. I remember her putting her first coffee cup

or tea cup down. She drinks tea teacup down and

she dropped it because every surface was an inch and

a half lower than she expected it to be. Covenant

relationship matters. I'm a covenant relationship with the church thirty

plus years ago when I said I'm going to lead

this place, and that means I'm here till it's over,

or until i'm through, until I get permission to put

my feet up. And that's a covenant relationship. You know,

it has every year in the last thirty plus year

has been easy. No, but I am very, very very

excited by what God is doing. There was another gentleman

who came in church this morning from another nation, who

came and joined us and helped us load stuff. This morning.

I have to get another flag, another flag for the Sudan. Yeah. Absolutely, yes.

Covenant relationship and covenant relationship with me is we're here

for the long term. What about you? You made a

covenant relationship with Jesus. Have you made a covenant relationship

with your community the church? Have you made a covenant

relationship with other people? He said, I'm with you until

it's over. Let's take the next scripture, please opelief. That's okay.

In Hebrews ten twenty four, it says this, and let

us consider one another in order to stir up love

and good word. Let's consider one another's pay attention to

one another. Let's look at one another. Let's be aware

of one another. Let's consider why and how in order

that we may stir up love and good works. Pay attention,

pay attention to stir up love and good works. Julius,

or we have round on a regular basis on a Wednesday.

What we call our grandson Edison, and Julia often bakes

with him. Now, so he has the great fun of

baking some cakes and making some icing and all the

fun of doing that. But here's the thing he's learned

to share. So when it comes to the Wednesday evening meal,

he says, Nana, this one is for you, grand Dave,

this one is for you, Mummy, This one is for you, Daddy,

this one is for you Adeline. Is is that this

one is for you. He's learned to share in the

midst of family and community. Now where has he learned

that from? He's learned that from watching other people. What

do other people learn from you? Do they learn exactly?

As in this scripture Hebrews ten twenty four, let us

consider how many consider one another in order to stir

up love and good works. And so I want to

bring this all to a clothes because I want to

ask some questions about you and God as we look

towards Easter, as we walk through the celebration of Palm

Sunday and say Hosanna, Hosanna to the son of David,

I want to encourage you. Are you in this for

the long long haul? Are you in this until all

your road is saved. Are you in this until all

your family is saved? Are you in this until some

of the people you work with get saved? Are you

in this until the whole of Egham or wherever you

live is saved? And for those online, take that for

wherever you live. We can reach far beyond the natural

world because of what we do and how we do it,

we church are reaching all nations. That's why you put

flags up every Sunday and church, if your flag is

not represented on a Sunday, please let us know we've

just not got it out. There are plenty of flags

for plenty of nations. We're a multicolored, multinational church and

we're doing what God's calling us to do. And that

covenant relationship will cause you to pray for your neighbor.

That covenant relationship will cause us to pray for one another.

That covenant relationship will cause us to step in with

boldness and faith and say, Lord, whatever it is you

want me to do, I will do it, and I

will do it with confidence and faith because you went

to the cross for me, you rose again from the

dead for me, and you walk reign victorious. That survey

said people are looking for prayer. Two out of three

people need prayer orho would be willing to or would

love to be prayed for. One out of four would

love to read the Bible. Sorry, One out of four

would be love to be invited to church one and

three would be willing wants to read more of the Bible.

There's some statistics in there just so we just need

to ask what do we risk? So I'm going to

encourage you, wherever you are, to choose this Easter to

invite someone to something that's going on this Friday, Good Friday.

We'll have a walker witness will start outside the Everyman

Cinema in Egham High Street and we'll walk down the

high Street together and we'll sing some hymns, we'll read

some scriptures, but we'll fellowship and declare together what Christ

has done on the Cross for us. Amen. Okay, just before,

just before we I've got a video. It's a little

bit cheesy, but hopefully it will work.

Welcome everyone to my seminar. How do invite your neighbor

to Easter services? Let's get going. Number one, Pray for

your neighbor. This isn't just an Easter thing. You should

be doing this. Number two, get over there, walk over

to your neighbor's house. Yeah, I said walk. Sorry, you're

gonna have to get your pajamas for this one. On

second thought, let's back up. If you haven't met your neighbor,

you should meet your neighbor or this is gonna be awkward.

There we go. That Bill's right. It's common decency. People.

Who else are you gonna play hide and seek with?

After work? Let's do a little switch room? Okay, beautiful

to review, meet your neighbor. Try your neighbor. Walk over

to your neighbor's house. You with me so far? Number four,

Resist the urge to do a little dancer make a

face in front of the doorbell camera. They won't answer

and you'll probably end up on their TikTok. Nobody wants that.

Just be an adult, a normal type of adult. Number five.

Invite them here. Let me illustrate. Hello, would you like

to go to church with me? See? It's that See everybody,

get out of your number two parcels. It's time for quist.

There you go. I said it was a little jeezy.

I'm sure you know someone like her, but do you

know what it get to know what did she say,

let's see if you remember what did she say? What

was the first thing? Yeah, pray, then get to know

your neighbor. Yeah. Then go and knock and invite them

to church. You know, there we go. Thank you,