20th October 2024 Infill Service - Dave Food - Let's talk about Abundant Living

He's so excited.

I I was bawling my eyes out at the front

through worship. Not sad, not sad at all. And it's

great to see faces I haven't seen before. Welcome to

our service this morning. My name is Dave, and I

have the privilege of leading this wonderful group of people.

You are a wonderful group of people. I want to

declare that over you. On to proclaim that over you.

I want to say that we haven't finished. This isn't

this isn't the end, this is the new chapter. Yeah,

you know, so I just give you a silly little example.

The price for this place went down this week. No explanation,

no reason that. He just said it's cheaper. Okay, was

I likely to go?

Sorry? No? No, put it back up again, you know.

And we've got lots of lessons to learn, and I

see it's great to see some wonderful faces.

Debbie.

Can you run me down a contact card from the

table at the back, please. We really are growing up

in lots of different ways, and you know these where

are the four of you? Four students? Thank you very much,

four students. Last week we asked, we said we needed

a bigger welcome team, and they straight away after the

service said we want to join the welcome team.

So welcome, Welcome, Welcome, welcomers.

Yeah, and you might notice we've got badges on because

we're preparing for growth. We're preparing for people don't know

who you are, and therefore they want to know who

to go through. So anybody's wearing a badge, you can

ask them questions. If it's your first time here, welcome,

If it's your second time here, welcome. If you've been

here for thirty forty years, welcome, But do you know

what it's Church's RCF is not just about what you

see in the room here. One of the reasons why

we needed to move from Virginia Lodgeter here was because

because if everybody turned up on Sunday and some people

come all the way from Yovol, Maggie and Howard, great

to see you. You know, we've got people from Devon.

We've got people online from Turkey and Italy that I saw,

South Africa, Nigeria and Sweden, the countries I already saw

joining the service so far, and guys who are watching

online apologies that maybe the net's not been as good

as it should be. I think we're really pushing the

college network pretty hard on a Sunday. Maybe they've turned

some things down, but so you know, and we've seen

the team step up. So if you haven't, if you

haven't been given a contact guard, somebody who's new today,

you should have been given a contact guard just to

give us your contact details, just because we want to

stay in touch. Because absolutely we're a church who not

only meets face to face, but we meet online as well,

and so welcome to those people are joining us from Lincolnshire,

from Scotland and from other places who join our midweek groups.

Let me start as I talk. I want to talk.

Our theme for this month is abundance. Anybody feel they

have abundance in their life? I'd like to say yes,

Some people are kind of I don't know whether to

say yes or no.

Yeah, thanks harsh amen amen.

But do you know what, sometimes we don't want We

don't want to say yes because we want more. Can

you if you've got abundance, can you have more? Because

for me, scripture talks about abundances more than enough. It's

pressed down and running over. Yeah, when when you when

when somebody says can you fill it?

Up.

You know that you give a cup to somebody and

say fill it up. You want a coffee, fill it up. Yeah,

we're always very polite British people, aren't. We fill it

up to near the top or three quarters four. We

never fill it up so it might overflow, because that

will make a mess. But do you know what church

is messy? Church is messy because we're people and we're

getting together, and we'll upset one another and we'll get

stuff wrong. John chapter ten, verse ten says this. You

probably know it well. The thief does not come except

to steal and to kill and to destroy.

Let me just focus on that.

The thief, the enemy has only come to steal, kill

and destroy. But this is not a negative scripture. I'm

not focusing on the first part. I'm focusing on the

second part, which says this, but I have come that

they may have life and have it more abundantly.

Abundant life.

Or if we've got abundant life, it ought to notice

if we've got overflow.

I live near students, and what of the houses near us?

You can tell when the students are having a bath,

because they don't seem to know about the overflow pipe

on the bath. I'm not going to tell you which else.

You know, when they're having a bath, there's always water

coming out of their house and falling. That's meant to

stop you flooding your house. But they're having an abundant bath.

They're filling up really deep, and they're saturating themselves and

they're enjoying it. And you know what, that's the picture

I want you to have, not of somebody in a bath,

but that sense of we've got more than enough, and

therefore God wants to overflow in our lives. And that

means that you will affect somebody sitting next to you.

There's nothing better than sitting next to somebody who's overflowing,

because you get you get the splash, you get the

splash back, you get that extra bit, you get that more.

And so.

God is a god of more than enough. In Matthew

Chapter twelve, thirty four and thirty five, it says this,

I'll leave out the first first three words versus how

can you, being evil speak good things? For out of

the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If I

come up to you and make you jump, you're probably

going to go.

Oh.

And if I really make you jump. You may say

some other words. Now they might be nice words, or

they might be not nice words. Out of the abundance

the mouth speaks. What flows out of you? What flows

out of me? What are you and I known for?

I'd love to encourage every one of you to be

known for carrying Jesus, carrying light, bringing hope. There will

be people, I honestly believe there will be people who

come to you and ask you and say, what is

it that's making you smile today? I don't know why

you can smile today because we've got a tough piece

of We've got a tough lecture today. Let's talk to

the student. But we've got a tough lea, we've got

an exam coming out. How can you smile? Well, we

can smile because God's with us. We can smile because

God sent his one and only son, Jesus to die

for us. And we can smile because God wants to

bless us and he wants there to be light in

dark places. So let's do some good things. What is

your reputation? What are you known for? Are you known

as a so mighty person? Are you known as a

happy person? Are you known as mister grumpy, missus grumpy,

miss grumpy, master grumpy, I've better.

Cover it all. What is your reputation? Do you know what?

You will have a reputation, whether you know it or not.

Just imagine someone says, oh, you know that person at work,

you know that person that can't remember your name, and

then they'll start saying, oh, the desk in the corner,

you know, the one who's always laughing. Those are the

things that people will remember. And do you know what,

if we can't laugh in life, then we need to

wake up, grow up and get on with it. Wake up,

grow up, and get on with it. Because you know,

there's enough things to make us sad every day, every

moment of every day. Enough news in the headlines, there's

enough algorithms in Facebook to make us depressed, to.

Rob and steal from us.

Exactly where I started in John ten ten, I'm not

going to allow those things to steal from me. I'm

going to press it in and say, do you know what,

I'm going to smile when when maybe inside and it's

a fifty to fifty thing, we get a place to

make a choice. Okay, if you're going through really tough

times and it's ninety percent sad and temperatu.

Ask someone to pray for you, Ask someone to pray

for you.

Do you know what, Elizabeth, I just sense God's giving

you great grace in this time. I know it's been

a really difficult week, but I sense God's giving you

great grace at this time, and He's giving you a

fortitude that you cannot explain. I would even sense you

woke up this morning and thought, I don't really want

to go to church, but I do want to go

to church. You had that tension going on. But do

you know what? God is with you? God is God

is leading you. He's that going.

Ahead of you.

And even though sometimes it feels like walking through a fog,

do not worry, Do not be afraid.

He is with you and will lighten your path.

Father God, I thank you for the battles that are

being fought in lives around us.

I thank you for the loved ones.

Lord that we're believing to come into the Kingdom. Father,

would you give us a light in a dark place?

Would you help us to be men and women of

reputation where people come and ask us for help, and

all the help we can offer sometimes will be do

you know what. I don't know, but I'm going to pray.

I'm going to pray because that's what I'm going to do.

What fruit are we known for? You know?

I was talking only yesterday.

I went to a party yesterday of a young person

who used to be in a youth group in this church.

And he's fifty years old now, and I thought I.

Was his youth leader. Makes me. That makes me feel

really really old.

Fifty years old and his sons off, his sons are

qualified paramedic and you know, you know, and he introduced

me to some people I'd never met before, and he said,

this is my former youth leader, me and Julia, and

it's just great to prey. So what fruit are you

known for? What fruit do they find on your tree?

Galatians five, verses twenty two and twenty three says this,

but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace,

in my translation, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and

self control. Against such there is no law. You do

not have rules about how you grow fruit on a tree.

You plant a.

Tree and it bears fruit. That's what it is designed

to do. We are designed to bear fruit. And sometimes

you'll find there's some thought processes that are not fruitful

for you or they produce the wrong fruit. Well that's

where Jesus talks about pruning, talks about, you know, cut

off the things that are not bearing good fruit and

pressing to the things that are.

So I just like I'm going to read them slowly.

Again, I just like you to think, number one, what

fruit do you bear most readily? And then also think

about the other side and think about what fruit do

you struggle to bear?

Because we're going to pray in a moment.

Because I really want this to be a very very

active service. But the fruit of the spirit is Remember

you're looking for the one that you bear most readily

and the one you struggle to carry and bear. But

the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

and self control. Father, I pray for all the fruits

that are big upon our lives. Lord, would you multiply

them that we have more than enough to give to others. Father,

I pray where we struggle to bear some of the

fruits of your kingdom and your nature. Father, would you

teach us, would you show us, would you grow us,

would you enlarger hearts and fill our spirits with your spirit,

Lord God, that we might live more of your spirit

and less of our flesh.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

And Paul wrote in Romans because I want to end

my prayer with this in Romans fifteen thirteen. Now, may

the God of Hope fill you, fill you. I'm declaring this.

I'm not just reading a scripture. I'm declaring this over

us as a church. Now, May the God of Hope

fill us.

With all joy and all.

Peace in believing that you may abound in hope of

the power of.

The Holy Spirit.

You know, this is the first time we've been able

to use these speakers the way they were designed to

be used. We've been testing all this technology for weeks

and months, but Jonathan's been just cranked it down really low,

because otherwise our ears would have been blasted out. But

do you know what, I'm really believing that, you know,

we are going to fill this place not just with people,

but with worship. The Holy Spirit will come day by day.

I am hoping and believing that Strokes College will change

because we worship here, we leave a.

Deposit when we go.

I know we will leave some stuff where we shoudn't

leave suff in rubbispoons. But I know we will leave

an atmosphere. You know, some of you have come in

with some beautiful perfume. Thank you for doing that. You

know I enjoy that. But when we leave, some of

the perfume will remain. And that's also a spiritual statement.

That's also a spiritual declaration. That's also something that we

can declare. Colossians, Chapter three, Verses twenty two and twenty three.

Actually i'll just read twenty three. You get the context

from twenty two. It's up on the screen now. But

whatever you do, do it heartily as the Lord, as

to the Lord, and not unto men. You know, those

people who came early. There were people in Virginia Lodge

at twenty past nine.

Thank you.

We will work out the plans and making this better,

but thank you for the people who came early. There

was a crowd of people outside the door at ten o'clock.

Now there was a group of people who are all

ready to come and help and put stuff up. Thank

you so much, because some of us might go, well

why are we doing this? But I'm looking at the

crowd from the front. You don't have the privially, it's

faces I've never seen before.

Thank you for setting up and thank you for.

Helping us, thank you for pressing in and being who

you are.

But we do it unto Christ. You know that. I

think there's probably everyone in this.

Room at some point you've done something you thought, what's

the point? Nobody even notices? Do you know what the

Lord notices when you clean? So when you clean up

a messy toilet, and I'm really going to an awkward

place now, but i want to because it's the kind

of place where we all think I don't want to

do that. And when you do it, and you do

it maybe for your family, maybe for the church, maybe

for work, but you do it as unto the Lord.

You know, when there is mess that is horrible to

clear up or maybe difficult. And I'm not just talking

about physical mess now. I'm also talking about conversational mess,

relational mess, spiritual mess. And sometimes it's hard work, but

we do it as unto the Lord. Because where did

I start? I started in John ten ten and I

said that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

I'm going to pray in a moment and we're going

to come back to worship. Then we're going to take

and we're going to take communion as well. We felt

it was very important. The first thing we did in

this place was take communion together and letsie, I hope

you put up enough wine cups.

You know, one of the very.

Interesting things when you move into new space is how

big is your faith? I shared with the Life Links

network that we're part of that we're moving into a

bigger space. And one of the guys put ping me

back and said, Dave, put out every chair. We put

out three quarters. You know, maybe, but you know, we

put out every chair. You know, Please do not think

because there are only a few chairs this morning, and

that's fantastic. Please do not think there is not room.

There's plenty more chairs at the back.

You know, we can get.

Ninety people in and so that's amazing. So more abundantly,

and how are we going to do that? Philippians Chapter four,

verse nineteen. And my God, your God, my God, our God,

and our God shall not maybe shall supply all our

needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Do you know what one of the things is if

you want to go, If I wanted to go to

the bank and get money to buy this place. I'm

not suggesting I'm even thinking of doing that. But if

I wanted to do that, let me give you a picture.

If I went to the bank, they'd say how much

is your income, how much have you got in the savings,

and how are you going to fund this?

Do you know what?

And they'd look at the physicality of what we've got

as a church, do you know what. One of the

things that's missing, one of the things that gets left

out is there's a great, big warehouse behind us. That

is God's provision. He talks about a storehouse in heaven.

And so when we run out of love, there's more.

When we run out of peace, there's more. When we

run out of joy, there's more. When we run out

of people, then God will bring other people. And so

I am so blessed to be part of this church

and what we're doing. And so let's press into all

of this that we might do life more abundantly. Let

me pray, Father, I pray in still gentle voice, the Lord,

the five of your spirit would fall upon us. Lord,

you'd consume all the things that are not of you,

the things.

That are fleshly and of ourselves.

And Father, the things that are of you would burn brightly,

would shine brightly through us. Father, help us to be

a people who are full of your abundance. That the

fruit of your spirit will be manifest in our lives. Father,

I pray for spiritual grow more to be poured upon us. Father,

I pray for routes to go down deeper, that we

will be stronger. I pray that the shoots will go

up higher as we head towards the light of your presence.

And Lord, I pray that you do miracles in this place. Father,

I pray that people will come here because you're at work.

I pray that people would start talking about what you're

doing in Strodes College, in Cooper's Hall. This hall is

the oldest part of this central block is the oldest

part of the the oldest part of the college. It's

been here for a long time. And so Father, we

thank you for this place, and we pray that your

fruit would be manifest not just every Sunday, but in

the week as well. So we're going to come back

to worship. We're going to sing a song now and

go to take communion.

Lowis Chris