11th August 2024 All Age All Nation Service - Dave Food - To WHom should I go

It's great to be in church. Just before I get

into the words, let me do something here of the

microphone on the floor. That was not what we planned.

One of the things. We're a growing church. New people

are visiting us every week, nearly every week, and people

are wanting to call us home. And what we want

to do is on a regular basis, as we plug

people into church.

You want to recognize that so.

Arash ash Aris is now wanting to call us home.

So Arish, we want to welcome you into church. Great.

And what that means now is this morning he got

some emails from the church giving him access to the

study systems and you know, various other tools that we

provide us church. And let me take this as a

moment to remind you that we.

As church invest in stuff. There is plenty.

If you have an evening wasting, I don't I don't

know what I want to watch tonight. I don't want

to watch the I want to watch something to encourage me.

There's millions of hours available to you as a member

of church. You're going watch stories, testimonies, Bible teaching. It's

all available there. If you don't know, you should have

got an email saying welcome to join it. If you

haven't joined it, then speak to me, especially as we're

having a picnic today and we'll explore how to make

that happen.

We're studying this this month. Good neighbors, and do.

You know something I want to say to you is

the best neighbor that you can be is to be

a follower of Christ. I'll say that again, the best

neighbor that you can be is to be a follower

of Christ. Because wouldn't you like God as your neighbor?

Would you?

Well, we kind of think yes, But to be honest,

I'd be going yes.

But and I'm going yes.

But because I'm thinking okay, he can look over the

fence and see what I'm doing. He can see whether

what I say is what I do. He can see

whether I keep my garden well, and he can see

whether it's looking through my windows, whether I keep my

house well. But the reality is he knows that anyway.

So I want to ask us the question this morning

about neighbors, and that's to whom should I go? Whom

should I go? Jesus said in John chapter thirteen, Verses

thirty four and thirty five, a new commandment I give

to you that you love one another as I have

loved you, that you also love one another. By this,

all will know that you are my disciples. If you

have love for one another? What does God say? What

did Jesus say? He said that by your love you

will be known. I wonder what our reputation is. I

wonder what your reputation. I wonder what my reputation is.

I remember once visiting John, who I've mentioned him before

now Big John.

He used to call him God's taxi.

Driver, and he used to any time I needed someone

to be picked up at the airport, any time of

day or night, he would do it for me. There

was one time he actually went. We were not in

the house, and he went and picked somebody up at

the airport, took them to our house, let them in, showed.

Them their room, and then went home.

And anyway, I was visiting John, and I said I'd

be round about I think eleven o'clock in the morning,

just for coffee, just to visit. And like you, I

like to be busy. I'd probably do too many things. Anyway,

I turned up late. I knocked on the door. I said,

I'm sorry, I'm late. John, and this is the ouch moment.

He said, Oh, well, that's what we expect from you, Dave.

I'm gonna say my first response was, oh no, but

I was busy. I was doing something. And then I thought, okay,

he's got used to me turning up late. That cannot

be good. Okay, it happens from time to time, but

when it happens nearly every time, and so people it's

light with chur church starting late. I want us to

start on time. I want us to start on time,

not because we're a stickler and we're religious, because as

soon as we kind of start maybe five past ten

past ten, people say, oh, I'll turn up at five

past because church hasn't started yet. I once went to

a church in South London. I turned up at I

was told that pre prayer would start at ten thirty.

The service would be at eleven.

So I thought, as a guest speaker, if I turned

up about twenty two, that would be about right. I

turned up. Door wasn't even open. I knocked on the door,

nothing and then somebody came up, so I'm sorry, we're

just opening up, and they were just opening up and

pre prayer started about ten past eleven and the service

started nearly half past eleven. I think we can get

into bad habits sometimes. So what kind of neighbor are

you and I? That we will be no by our love?

You know, there is a journey as a disciple. As

a disciple, first thing we can do is become a Christian,

put our trust in Christ, declare Him as our savior.

Most of us have done that. But you know, there's

a journey beyond being a Christian. There's a journey beyond

just coming to Christ. That is not the end. It's

not oh, I'm a Christian. Now, everything's okay, Everything is okay.

But there's a journey, and there's a journey for us

to be baptized, to declare, to show, to proclaim that

we have you know, our old life has died and

our new life will come. We've got some baptismal candidates

who are coming forward to be baptized. It's a symbol,

it's a sign, it's a moment. It's a moment in history.

You can put in your diary and say this was

the day that I was baptized. Let me ask you

a question, because I think it ought to be somewhere

in our memory when were you baptized, and I'm not

going to ask I'm just asked asking that question because

some of us will go, well, I remember the moment

Julia and I were baptized in the sea. I remember

it was in the sea. I remember where it was.

But if you ask me specifically the day, I'd have

to dig out some diaries. I know roughly when it was,

but maybe I need to remind myself. You know, we

know our date of birth, but do we know our

date of rebirth when we became a Christian? Do we

know our date when we were baptized? Jesus said, I'm

leaving you now. He said this to his disciples, I'm

leaving you now. But God is going to send a

comforter and an empower. So do not be afraid. We

need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Do you know what? I run out of my own

energy on a regular basis.

Jully will tell you sometimes I'll fall asleep in front

of the television when I snorch it. Oh, but you know,

we do run out of energy. But when God enables us,

when God empowers us, we can run on empty because

He's filling our tank. He's enabling and so we need

to be filled with the spirit. I said, okay, we

know our date of birth? Do we know our data rebirth?

And then Debbie talked about being parents and then being grandparents.

Do you know there's a spiritual dimension to that. You

know we actually spiritual parents. Is someone you've led to Christ,

someone you've asked the question said, do you need Jesus?

Do you know him? Is he your savior? That's the

beginning of making new disciples, asking the question. Are you

saying do.

You know where you will go if you die today?

But it doesn't just end with asking the question, because

it says about making disciples. We read in Matthew twenty

eight birth nineteen and twenty you'll know this, you'll know

it very well. Go therefore and make and make disciples

of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of

the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.

And lo I am with you always, even to the

ends of the age. I want you to notice it

does not say go everywhere. It says go anywhere, says

go to all the nations. But that's not our job

to go to every nation. There's two hundred and forty

something nations in the world.

I believe God is.

Not calling us individually to go to every nation, but

he is calling the church to go to every nation,

but our nation, our ethnic group. Because if we translate

that that go to all nations, all ethny groups, one

of your ethnic groups will be your neighbors. There'll be

the people you hang out some of you will have

groups on. There will be places you hang out online, Facebook, YouTube,

those kinds of things. Others will use Instagram that there's

groups we hang out with and we have influence, and

we have a place of influence, we have a place

to say something. I wonder what your reputation is on

your social media now. I have a foot on most

of my slides that I use whenever I teach almost anywhere,

and it says this, and I'm talking about in the

business world. Then my last slide that has my phone

number on at the bottom says, please ask me because

if I can't help you, I know someone who can.

And that's not just a natural statement, that's a supernatural statement.

Because sometimes people come to me and say, Dave, I

need a job, can you help me? And I'll go

in the natural. No, but I will pray. I will

pray go there into all nations. So what is our reputation?

Are we going to go and share with our neighbors?

Last week I challenged you and said have you talked

to your neighbors? We had the challenge of the suites

and Debbie's going to ask in a moment later on,

have you given away your sweet because today's a day

are sweet exchange. Our journey at RCF is this people

call us home like Arash and other people do. We're

going to see more and more people calling us home.

Do you know what?

We're in the summer season where people are way and

on holiday. When we get to the beginning of September,

this place will be full. Now, it's exactly the reason

why we're investing and getting ready to find somewhere else

to go to. On a Sunday, Jonathan's wrestling with technology

this week because we've had the ability to invest in

some other technology. The last piece of technology we will

need to be portable and go somewhere else is now

on order.

So we're freeing ourselves up.

When you transplant to plant, the first thing you have

to do is loosen up the roots. Now we're not

going to stay here on Sundays. We won't fit here

on Sundays, and so we've got to get ourselves ready

to be planted somewhere else. Not that we're changing anything else.

What we will be being church and our journey as

part of our CF is firstly for people to call

us home.

For encouraging people to pray.

And pray. There are plenty of opportunities to pray in

the church. There's a pre prayer The room was nearly

fall this morning as I went in there, and you

know there'll be We'll have to grow the pre prayer room.

We'll have to create God, you need to create some

elastic walls for pre prayer. And I'm expecting miracles to

happen in pre prayer.

Why not.

We don't have to just have to be in church.

It could happen in your home. We pray before church,

we pray in church. We pray on Fridays, online and

face to face. We have a day of prayer and

fasting at least once every month, and as the leaders

also another day of prayer and fast things. There's plenty

of opportunity to pray. But please do not think that

it's Captain Jesus says, go and pray, And so I

want to encourage you pray with your neighbors. Offer it

if you see your neighbor limping up their path one day. So, oh,

that looks a bit painful. I just want to encourage

you with some simple suggestions. Here, Oh, that looks a

bit painful. Did something happen? And the'll of course tell

you exactly what's going on. And here's the moment they've

just told you their need. Just jump in there and say,

do you know what I'd happily pray for that?

If you want me to. Now.

You may not have a PhD in prayer, it really

does not matter. It really does not matter. All God

is asking is our availability. We've asked the question, how

are you? That looks sore? Your neighbor tells you, so, do.

You know what I believe? In prayer?

I'm going to ask if you would like me to

pray it? And they probably think, go away and pray.

Please. Okay, if you want to go away and pray, yes,

but please pray with them as you feel come.

Even if your simple prayer is Lord, my neighbor has

a need right now they've hurt their leg, Lord, would

you heal them in Jesus' name? Doesn't have to be

more complicated than that. You want to pray a bit more, fine,

but don't make it twenty minutes because it's just a

simple prayer. We're just asking God to do what he's

best at So church, God calls, we call arsif home,

we pray, we give. That's what the offerings about. And

one of the things I felt really challenged over the

last probably a few months now is I think we

need to get better at giving. And I'm not talking

about the amounts. I'm talking about what goes in here. No,

are you excited when you give someone a present? If

you've thought somebody's birthday, you've thought about what you're going

to buy them, you've shopped around, you've chosen something very specific,

you've wrapped it up, and you give it to them.

You're as excited as the person who's opening it because

you're thinking, well, they like it, they like it, and

then you get excited together. Do you know what I

feel the same about giving to God. We need to

get excited about giving to God because we're giving into

His kingdom, we're giving out of faithfulness, we're giving out

of a response to his call, and then finally a

place to serve. And I want to be really ouched

today and just say, do you know what? Each of

us needs to find a place to serve what we

do here because there's so much, you know, there are

so many jobs to do, and some of them we like,

some of them you're good at, and others people are

standing in the gap for a moment. And please, just

because someone's already doing it, don't volunt not volunteer just

because Jonathan seems to be the king of technology at

the moment, if somebody came up to him, somebody knew

came and joined the jest, do you know what? I

love technology? I'd love to help you. He'd be going hallelujah,

wouldn't you?

Jonathan? Absolutely? Do you know what?

Let's find a place to serve as we journey together. Now,

Jesus was asked by Jesus said to the disciples.

What are we going to do? Where are we going

to go?

And in John chapter six, verses sixty seven to sixty nine,

it says this, Then Jesus said to the twelve do

you also want to go away? But Simon Peter answered

him and said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You

have the words of eternal life. Also we have come

to believe and know that you are the Christ, the

son of the Living God, to whom shall we go.

I think one of the places God starts is by saying,

talk to your neighbors. Talk your neighbors and let them

know what you know. That Jesus Christ is Law's And

so I want to make a quick journey, a very

quick journey here with four steps. And the four steps

are number one, to be available. I think that God

calls us to be available. And we've been talking a

lot about making room, probably for the last eighteen months now.

And making room starts in our heads. It starts in

our hearts, it starts in our diaries, it starts in

our credit cards, it starts in our bank accounts. It

starts in lots of ways. But we make room by

making some choices. Now I'd been made this week. I've

been making some choices to try and get rid of

some rubbish. Let me give you a simple little example.

I'm unsubscribing from things. How many things do I open

and think, oh, that's it's not really interesting. I've just

wasted ten seconds. I don't need to do that. I

just need to unsubscribe. It was useful once, it's not

useful anymore. I'm just unsubscribing. You might call it a

health chack or a life cleanse. But I want to

be more available, so I have to get rid of

some stuff. I have to prioritize differently. So God wants

us to be available, He also wants us to be

part of the solution. You know, sometimes we can come

along and say, yeah, I can see there's something here

that needs doing, and I'm available, Lord, but not to

do that.

Can you bring someone to come and do this?

You know, I think there's a place where we can

be part of the solution, and so we say, Lord,

show us the need. Now, some of us get overwhelmed

by need. Do you know what if we ask.

God to show us the need.

If we see the need, then that should drive us

to prayer because we will run out of ourselves.

We had a few weeks ago about finances.

We need finances to be able to make a move

to a bigger place in one sense, to move somewhere

on Sundays. We can't afford not to. We can't afford to.

We're in that place of faith. That's a great place

to be. Now, we've had some problems with our broadband

over the last couple of weeks, probably the last month,

and they said to us this week, okay, the broadband sorted. Now, okay,

they're now talking about compensating us, you know.

And it's it's going to be it's going to be

a significant number. I said. It's already provided some of

that gap.

So we're all thinking this is about giving, and God's

found another way to give back into the inter kingdom purposes.

And I'm believing that, you know, there could be one

thousand pounds worth of benefit that comes.

Our way God's provision. So we can see the need,

and then we need to pray about the gap.

That's a great place to be between we can't afford

to and we can't afford not to. That's a place

of faith, and the gap gets closed by prayer as.

God answers and provides. In one p.

Four, as I kind of draw things to a close,

it says this, and above all things, have fervent love

for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins.

Be hospitable to.

One another without grumbling, and each has received a gift

to minister it to one another as good stewards of

the manifold grace of God.

Do you know what you are?

A gift? You have gifts, and you are a gift.

Some of you are good at things and we didn't

even know it. We still don't know some of its secrets.

Who knew that Colleen, who bakes a beautiful cake for

our thirty year celebration could cook cakes like that?

Anybody have any ideas?

No?

And then she brings this beautiful cake. Thank you, Colleen.

We're praying peace upon you as you watch us today,

and we would not have known. You know what, if

I want another cake once babies arrived and everything's back

to normal, whatever that means for parents, I'm going to

be saying, can you bake another cake? Good gifts, good stewards?

To Whom should I go? I should go to my neighbor?

Whom should I be the best Christian that I should be?

How should I do it? With God's help? Let me pray, Father, God,

thank you, thank you so much for all that you've done,

all that you're doing. Father, Help us to do more,

help us to be who You've called us to be Father.

Let your light shine in dark places. Let your wisdom

flow in us.

And through us.

Father, we pray for your provision on areas where there

are gaps, where there is a place where we do

not see your hand at work. Father, open our eyes

to see the flame burning brighter. Let light drive back

darkness in Jesus' name, Way Amen,