3rd September 2023 - Communion Service - Dave Food - Harvest time, ready?

So what we're going to be focusing on today and what we're going to be

focusing on for the month of September is this time. Are you ready?

We have an apple tree in the garden that used to have lots and lots

of apples on it, and it got a bit too big and trisagally,

so we had it trimmed nine months ago. Well, anyway, and I

found an apple round in the last couple of days, and I said to

Julie, there's an apple. And then I looked up in the tree and

there weren't many apples, because all the growth that had been cut back meant

that there weren't going to be many apples this year. But that's one one

kind of harvest. But I also read in the newspaper this week that there

were other apple trees that were so heavy with apples that they were calling out

to the locals to say, come and help us pick the apples, because

if we don't pick the apples, they're going to fall on the ground.

They fall on the ground, they're going to go bad. And so they

were saying, the harvest is ready. They were looking at these trees full

of apples and saying, we need help. The harvest is ready. In

Matthew chapter nine, verses thirty five to thirty eight. Then Jesus went out

to the privileges, preaching in the synagogues and heeding other people. But when

he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them, because he

was weary and scattered like sheep a shepherd. And then he said to his

disciples, the harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore,

pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

The call that went out from the apple growers in I guess the midwest of

the UK was to say, come and help us, Come and help us,

because the harvest is plentiful. And I just said so. The Father

says the same to us. The harvest is ready. We're at a season

where they'll be changed, at a season where there'll be new faces in our

midst They'll be at a season where new people will be moving into Egham from

many nations. We have the privilege of being a multinational church. I celebrate

that. I just love the fact that I can look around the room and

see people from different nations, and even people online from different nations, watching

from different parts of the world, and when you walk into Egham over the

month of September, you'll see different faces, different nationalities, different cultures,

different dress even notice Tesco's changes. Tesco's changes for just a couple of weeks,

where they stack up pilohine, stack them high as all the students arrive,

as will come from and some of they'll come and join us, and

join us, they'll be different. We just just look around the room for

the moment and just think, Okay, I do I know what these other

people eat for breakfast? You know, some people will have no breakfast at

all, Some people will have cereal, some people will have toast, some

people will have chillies. And some people go no, how how can anybody

do that? Another people will go yes, because we just celebrate diversity.

And I'm sure God with God's just giving us a little glimpse of heaven.

Now we've changed our second Sunday of the month's service from an all age service

to an all age, all nation service, just because that's the way God's

making us, shaping us, God's developing us. Let me read to you

the same verse now from the amplified version. I love the amplified. Anybody

appreciate the amplified as times when I just want to go a bit. And

Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synergods androclaiming the

good news, the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing all kinds of disease

and every weakness and infirmity. When he saw the throats, he was moved

with pity and sympathy for them, because they were bewildered, harassed, and

distressed and dejected and helped like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to

his disciples, the harvest is indeediful, but the laborers are few. So

I pray to the Lord of the harvest to force labor to his harvest.

Just want to go back to this verse. Here the state of the people,

the state of the sheep. In verse thirty six, it says this

he was moved with pity. I want to ask us, so we moved?

Are we moved when we see need? Or we moved we see people

who are struggling, Because he goes on to describe they were bewildered, harassed,

distressed, dejejected, and helpless. Yes, anybody recognize a little bit

maybe of their their year at some point where we've been. Some of us

have been harassed, some of us are disdressed. Sometimes we feel helpless.

But God loves us so much that he sent his one. And there's a

sodom that I love that I think talks to this particular topic. Let me

read to you the verse first of all the verses, the white hardest.

You can guess which scripture this came from. But the laborers are so few

to give myself to help the reaper to gather precious souls unto you. And

where does it come back to? It comes back to the chorus, as

it says here, I am wholly available. As for me, I will

serve the Lord. And we'll be having a young lady coming and joining us

in a couple of weeks time, who's going to be studying at Royal Holloway.

And she lives on a farm down in Devon. And I know that

her dad, Ben will be up early in the morning right now. He'll

be getting up when it's dark, and that is a he's going to get

up when it's dark, and he'll get into his tractor and he'll be in

the fields and he'll cut the harvest and he'll be driving his tractor for hours

and hours, and his son Klb as well, you know, probably into

the dark of the evening as well, because the fields are right unto harvest.

And he doesn't go, oh no, I've had enough today, I'll

stop gather the harvest. As a farmer, he knows if he doesn't gather

it when it's dry, and maybe there's a forecast of rain in a few

days, if he doesn't gather it when it's dry, it's going to go

bad. And so he pushes through. And I think we're talking well maybe

maybe wrapping outation something, but we've pushed through. And one of the interesting

things are thinking about Ben is sometimes he'll reach out to his neighbors come and

help with the harvest. I'll bring them a tractor and they'll help to maybe

cut some of it as well. And I'm believing for a time when actually

we'll be saying, coming up, how's come, and we could easily go.

But I'm not qualified. I'm not qualified to cut the harvest. Do

you know what? Okay, you may not be as fast attractor driver as

Ben, but you could still drive a tractor. You may not be a

pass fast an apple pickers as the farmers in Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, but you

can still pick apples. We may not have a PhD in biblical studies,

but we can still share our faith and say that because it's so easy to

disqualify holps and say I can't do that. Jesus is just looking for willing

laborers right in the nation, for words of power of authority. God's looking

for a people who are willing to be counted in his glorious victory. Are

we willing to engage battles? Are we willing to engage with be willing to

engage with stuff, sometimes messy, just to say here, I am holy

available. And then we read the final verses from the Gospel of Matthew and

it talks as salt. Are we ready in darkness? Are we ready to

be light? Seeking for a very special people to manifest his truth and his

mate. You know, sometimes we will find ourselves and God wants us to

bring some light in dark places. And in bringing light in dark places,

we have to choose to define no, if you, if you, if

you, if you, if you stand in a dark room and hold up

a light. Everybody looks at you and really focuses on you because you're you've

got And it's the same sometimes when we bring light difficult situation that actually people

look at us, and we sometimes make a choice. We say, do

I want to be the focus today? God's looking for a very special people

to gather people unto hit him, to gather people in his name. In

John chapter twenty one Versus forty six, just as the day was breaking,

Jesus stood on the shore, yet the disciples did not know that it was

Jesus. Jesus said to him, children, do you have any fish?

And they answered him no, And he said to them, cast them on

the right side of the boat and you will find some. So they cast

it, and now they were not able to haul it in because of the

quantity of fish. Not only do I want to say that the harvest is

ripe, but actually we need the storehouses, the barns, the places to

keep harvest. Thanks to be honest, that's space in our lives. I

could look at the room and think we all live busy lives. I'm sure

I could open up your diary and it would be packed full of stuff.

But when we say here, I am wholly available, that includes that includes

our priorities, that includes what we do. That probably includes things like sleep

and eating as well. Tuesday first Tuesday, we're praying and fasting as we

as a church, and that'll be to go without. But it's not just

to go without, because I don't know what you feel like when you go

with that. So you think, oh, I'm hungry. Yeah, when

you fast, if you focus on the hunger, then we're focusing on the

wrong thing and we're sacrificing something so that we can so that we haven't got

the distraction of food, so that we're just showing God we are. We

are focused on you right now, and focus is related to priorities, and

priorities are often reflected in the things that we do and how we do them.

Now this story I read here, Jesus is saying, have you got

any fish? Chat? He's obviously a bit hungry, but he also knew

that there was a small catch, nothing much to be eaten. Now,

they'd been fishing again or probably all night, and they hadn't got much.

So they're pretty expert and they're fishermen. They know how to fish. They

went to the right place. They put down the nets where they thought there

was going to be a catch. They didn't bring in much. Now they

come in having labored all night, and Jesus says, just one more time,

just cast the net. I don't know what you think, but to

be honest, I'd probably go I've had a tough night, Jesus, I've

finished for fishing for today. Now. If they'd have done that, if

they'd have said that, they'd have missed out on a catch which was so

big they struggled to pull it into the boat. I think sometimes we might

use our Spanish friend's words Manyana. You know the harvest is ready. Come,

Come, Come help me pick Manyana tomorrow when I've got a bit more

time, when I've got a bit of space in my diary. I'm tired.

I need to sleep. If some of the greatest breakthroughs come just before

dawn, they're come in the darkest night of the day, echo through history.

And I just sensed that God would say this to us this morning,

as we focus on the harvest. He would say this in Isaiah forty three,

verse ninety Behold, I will do a new thing now it shall spring

forth. Shall you not know it. I will even make a road in

the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Now, part of the definition of

a wilderness is there is no clear path. If you've ever wandered through jungle

and you get off the track, you're immediately starting to look at gaps in

trees, maybe you where animals that walked through and things. Oh, there's

the path, and then you get deeper and deeper into a mess. But

we read this it says I will make a road in the wilderness. And

the definition of a desert is a part of the world without water. And

yet God talks about making rivers in the desert, not just a few drops,

not just a bit of rain, a river, a river that floats.

Behold, I do a new thing. And so we're going to gather

around this thinking now we're going to sing the song. I dropped this on

Cherry and the team fairly last minute. But I'd love to sing this song,

and I'd like us to sit and I'd just like us to consider.

And I don't know where that harvest might be as they're coming up. Just

let me encourage us to close our eyes and just think about this harvest that

we're focusing on today. It might be in your workplace. It might be

the harvest of rightening, might be some of your colleagues that you've been sharing

faith with for a while. It might be somebody else who's been sharing faith

with your neighbors, and then they knock on your door door on today or

tomorrow and just say you go to church, don't you. I've got a

question for you. I had it today, so I had it this week.

I was on a call with a colleague of mine and he said,

he said, Dave, can we after the meeting had happened, He said,

Dave, would you mind hanging on? And so everybody else went and

it was just me and him, a guy in Saudi Arabia, and he

said, Dave, you're a man of faith, aren't you. I said,

yes, I am. What makes you say that? He said,

I'd like you to pray for me. We got to talk, We've got

to pray. It's still a working progress, but I just sense that God

is going to start going. Look, see here's some harvest. Here's some

more harvest. Here's some stuff that needs picking. And it won't just be

plums and apples and strawberries. It'll be melons and avocados and other ripe fruit.

And you could walk past and say, well, I'll leave that for

someone else to pick. But a sense the Father says, behold, I

do a new thing. The harvest is ripe. And so as we sing

this song, I just want to encourage you to keep your eyes closed if

you want to, or focus upon the areas, focus upon what God leads

you to, what God brings to your heart. And then when we get

to the chorus, I'd like you to choose, maybe to stand and say,

here I am Lord, wholly available. As for me, I will

serve the Lord