11th December 2022 All Age Service - Dave Food - A Promise of Presence

So let's come around the word. This morning. We're looking at the promise.

We've been looking at the promise as we've looked into December, and the

title for what I want to share this morning is a promise of presence.

And I haven't misspelled it for anybody who's thinking Dave, you know, because

it's just a title that I felt led to and then I thought, oh,

it can mean two different things. The promise of presence has in gifts.

So let's dive into firstly, where we left off last week. I

think as we were looking about the promise of Jesus coming, and in Matthew

chapter one, verse twenty three, it says this the Virgin will conceive and

bear give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which

means God with us. If there's one word you can carry around this word

here, Immanuel is one that's a great word to keep in your head,

to keep in your heart, because in those moments when you kind of feel

isolated and alone, you can say, your Manuel, God with us,

God with me. But this was a promise, a promise that I've been

foretold in Isaiah, a promise that was going to be fulfilled and In Isaiah

forty one, it says this, fear not, for I am with you.

Be not dismayed, For I am your God. I will strengthen you.

Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous

hand a promise. How many times do we hear in the Christmas story fear

not? The angels appeared to the shepherds, And what's the first thing I

say? Do not be afraid or fear not? Actually, if you look

up fear not in scripture it comes up many times, and God recognizes that

there are moments when we go something makes us, and in those moments,

God wants to say, fear not, do not fear, do not be

do not be dismayed, For I am your God. I will strengthen you.

Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous

hands. A different version of this from the Amplified, which unpacks this,

says this, you whom the Lord have taken from the ends of the earth

and have called from the corners of it, and said to you you are

my servant. I have chosen you and not cast you off, even though

you were exiled. Fear not, there is nothing to fear, for I

am with you. Do not look around in terror and be dismayed, For

I am your God. I will strengthen you and harden you to difficulties.

Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will hold you up and

retain you with my Victorian right hand of righteousness and justice. You know,

there are times when I want to I want to dive into different versions.

I think, I I think I've got nine versions in what I'm sharing this

morning. I think sometimes just looking from a different perspective gives us a freshness,

gives us a reality. Sometimes we can get stuck into scriptures we know

so well because maybe we may maybe maybe maybe there. I mean, I

used to sing in cathedral choirs, so I used to sing the psalms.

Every every day of the week there would be a psalm we would sing,

So I know the psalms almost off by heart. In King James, you

know, if you start giving you a phrase, I can probably give you

the next RaSE. So actually sometimes that becomes a bit of a prison because

I can only think of those words, and then then I'm into automatic mode.

Do you ever get into automatic mode where sometimes you just him over things,

you don't really read them because you've read them before and That's why I

find different translations great sometimes to go somewhere else, look at it from a

different perspective. And I think when we think about the promise of his presence,

there are things that I want to unpack this morning. I want to

unpack this. I want to say that when God promises us his presence,

this also includes and I managed to make this five piece. Sometimes it's easier

to remember. If you do those things. You can see a little bit

of the teacher in me five piece that God promises when he promises us his

presence. Firstly, he has a plan for us. This is not when

God promises his presence. He's not turning up to go, oh, fancy

seeing you here. I mean, we do that, but God doesn't do

that. God has a plan and a purpose. There are times when he

invades our world, he invades our situation and he wants to sit us down

and have a conversation with us. Also, his presence promises protection, and

will unpack that. Also, he comes with provision. His pockets are not

empty. But he's also a peacemaker and a peace giver. So he promises

his peace, and not as the world knows it, but peace which passes

all understanding, and finally he promises his power. So as I unpack the

promise of his presence or the promise of presence, I want to look at

these five peace, and let's start with the first one we can read in

Joshua. Joshua says this, Have I not commanded you? Not suggested to

you? Have I not commanded you? Be strong, vigorous, and very

courageous. Be not afraid, neither be dismayed for the Lord. Your guard

is with you wherever you go. You might not recognize this because it's the

amplified versions been expanded unpacked a little here. Have I not commanded you?

When you read God's words? Is it always something that you read as a

kind of suggestion or nice to have? When God speaks to you in prayer

or through prophecy, you just say, well, that sounds interesting. Let

me go away and think about it. For me, Jesus is my commander

in chief. And if you know anybody who works in the armed forces,

you know that they're trained that when Captain says do something, you do it.

And so when God speaks to us, and I've done this, I'm

being honest with you. Now I've done this. Sometimes I've turned to God

and said I have a pray about that. Now what am I actually saying?

When God speaks to me and I go, hm, I'm going to

have a prayer about because I thought prayer was about talking to God. So

God tells us to do something, and then we say, I'm going to

go away and have a chat with you about it. Do you think he's

going to change his mind? I don't think so. And then also what

I think we're saying is hmm, I'm not sure about that, and he's

saying I'm not sure about that. We kind of put it on hold manyana

maybe later because again, what comes in these words in Joshua be not afraid,

don't be afraid, fear not, neither be dismayed, for the Lord

God is with you wherever you go. So God has a plan and a

purpose for us. We can see that in Jeremiah twenty nine, verse eleven.

Again, you probably know this one. So I picked the New International

Reader's version just to shake it up a little, because otherwise I know the

plans I have for you, says the Lord announces the Lord. So just

I know the plans I have for you? Is the Lord, I want

you to enjoy success, not just have success, enjoy success. You know,

sometimes as Christians, I think we feel like we kind of need to

beat ourselves up and not enjoy life. God a God to God who wants

to bring joy into our worlds. He wants to bring joy into our lives.

And so it's okay to enjoy success. So when Shahn shared about the

group and how that's going and the minibus has been provided, yes, I'm

going to enjoy that. I'm not going to be there, but I'm going

to enjoy that. Why not? You know, sometimes we can kind of

get a bit more. God's blessed so and so why is he not blessing

me? Why can't we live in the enjoyment of others as God blesses them.

God does not plan to harm us. I will give you hope for

the years to come, so not just now, not just give you hope

now, but in the days and years a head. So God promises what

does he promise? He promised his plan, and he promises his protection.

Genesis twenty eight, verse fifteen. Look I am with you. I will

guard you wherever you go and will bring you back into this land because I

won't leave you until I have done what I have promised. God's not going

to leave. God doesn't kind of give us a promise or give us something

and then say, Okay, off you go, leave you to it.

God's there all the way through until what do we read here? We read

here until I have done or what I have promised. And there's plenty of

promises in the Bible that are still yet to be completed. There are prophetic

words that are still to be fulfilled. So God does not leave us even

as he promises. So God has a plan. God promises protection, He

promises provision as well. In Philippians, chapter four, verse nineteen, for

I am convinced my God will fully satisfy some needs you have. Oh was

that wrong? Did I read it wrong? Yes? I did, Yes,

I deliberately did. I'm just making sure you're awake. I am convinced

that my God will fully satisfy, not partially satisfy, fully satisfy every need

you have. For I have seen the abundant riches of glory revealed to me

through the anointed One Christ, Jesus. So this promise of Christmas, the

anointed One Jesus Christ, the glory of what God wants to reveal is in

the full provision of what Christ gives us, what Christ brings us peace,

perfect peace. That's what he promised. And then we go on to read

in Isaiah fifty four, verse ten, though the mountains will move and the

hills shake, my love will not be removed from you, and my covenant

of peace will not be shaken, says your compassionate Lord. My love will

not be removed. We probably all experienced where somebody's love has led us down

in some way or other. They promised to love us, and then something

has happened, and then we've wondered or even doubted. But God's not that

kind of person. God says, my love will not be removed, and

my covenant of peace will not be shaken. You know, there is there's

a very interesting different perspective here. We could read this is my love will

be there always, but we'll kind of review it as ninety eight or ninety

nine percent. But when he turns it around the otherwise and says my love

will not be removed, that means full, that means complete, My covenant

will not be removed, not be shaken. Because he is a compassionate Father,

He compassionately loves us. And so let's look at how many we've looked

at so far, We've looked at his plan, his protection, his provision,

his peace. And in Ephesians chat to one, verses nineteen and twenty,

I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God's power made

available to you through faith. Then your lives will be an advertisement of this

immense power as it works through you. This is the mighty part. You

might say, I don't recognize that scripture. Let me read it in a

different way. That's the Passion translation. Let me read it to you from

Oh sorry, I'm sorry. That's the rest of that's verse twenty in the

Passion translation that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted into

the place of the highest honor and supreme authority in the heavenly realm, I

might say, I don't recognize that. So let me go to one that

might be a little more familiar to you. And what is the exceeding greatness

of His power towards us who believe according to the work of His mighty power

which is worked in Christ. When He raised him from the dead and seated

him in right hand in heavenly places. And what is the exceeding greatness?

This isn't small greatness. I mean greatness is great anyway, but exceeding greatness.

I don't know whether anybody's been around Windsor Castle or been around Buckingham Palace

and you walk around some of these rooms and think some of these rooms are

big enough for a family to live in, and you look at the decorations

on the wall and think they're gold leaf and they're old and they're valuable.

How can anybody But it's beyond my world. When I've walked around the palaces

that belong to the king, now I walk around them and say, wow,

But that's not greatness. What this is, that's not exceeding greatness.

That's way beyond my world. But Scripture here talks about exceeding greatness. I

believe bless her Queen Elizabeth had a calling to be queen, and she recognized

this truth. So even though she lived in a great palace and had great

riches and great wealth, and was built upon centuries and centuries of truth,

she still believed this to be true. The exceeding greatness of his power towards

who towards us who believe, and according to what, according to his mighty

power. So when you run out of yourself, this is a great scripture

to dive into, which is where at work in Christ. So the power

that raised Christ from the dead is available for you and for me as children

of the living God. And I don't know whether you get that. I

mean, how many people in the room have seen someone raised from the dead.

It'd be pretty exciting, wouldn't it to be there to see someone raise

from the dead? Wow? And yes, not just Jesus. For some

people that want's only Jesus who was raised from the dead. No, there

are other examples in scripture of being people raised from the dead. There have

been people in this century that have been raised from the dead. So God

is still at work. It's not historical. He's not hysterical either. He's

a God who wants to work in our lives day by day. And so

the work that raised Christ from the dead is available for us in that exceeding

greatness of His power towards those who believe. And so hopefully I've unpacked this

this morning before I come to my final scripture. And when God promises us

his presence, and God promises us his presence, He shows us that he

has a plan for us. And I believe it's quite legitimate to go to

God and say, Lord, what next? Lord, what next? What's

next in your plan? But be ready for the answer. If you're going

to ask that kind of question, Please don't just go oh well, go

away and pray about that. That's interesting. Let me think about that,

because I'll be honest with you. I think that God is for us,

and he has a plan for us, and in having a plan for us,

he wants to share it with us. So he has a plan for

us, and he will protect us. And so we've heard a number of

times from different scriptures, do not fear, do not be dismayed, half

courage in those moments, we have to recognize that God is going to protect

us. Doesn't mean difficult things won't happen, doesn't mean that we won't go

through trials and tribulations, but his protection is there in his presence, and

when we come to the end of ourselves, we come to a place where

we're going to dive off the end. I don't know whether anybody's ever been

hang gliding, but you set up a hang glider and you set up the

frame and you're on the top of a hill and you get the training,

and the training that says you just got to run. Yeah, but what

happens if it doesn't work? But it will work. What happens if it

doesn't work? And you get people who walk to the edge of the hill

and the escarpment and the wind's blowing up the escarpment and they walk to the

edge of the hill. And that's not how you create uplift. You have

to create uplift by getting momentum. So by standing still you will probably go

a it's not gonna work. But you know, honestly, actually, if

you run into the wind of God's presence, his uplift will come. And

if you do the same with a hang glider, you run into the wind,

the wind catches the sail and off you go, Off you go.

He promises his peace, and not kind of a world without war, a

peace that is deep, deep seated and lasts. Not something. God's peace

when you have it, when situations come day after day after day, say

it's okay, God's got this. I have his peace. And he promises

his power that all comes when he promises his presence. And so what I

can read to you now from Joshua twenty three, verse fourteen, this is

this. Now I'm about to go to the way of all the earth.

You shall know with all your heart and soul that not one of the good

promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Notice not one. Every

promise has been fulfilled, not one has failed. This is a promise.

But God's a promising God, and he promises his presence. God sent his

one and only son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have

everlasting life. Let me pray, and I'm going to put that list up

on the on the screen as we pray, because maybe there's one of these

piece that you sense that God promises. God promises his presence. Maybe there's

one of these that you're working on, you're working with God, and so

whether you're at home, whether you're listening later, whether you're in the room,

if there's one of these that you need a freshness on. Maybe you

need fresh peace. Maybe you need a new plan for twenty twenty three.

Maybe you don't feel like you're on track. Maybe there's a moment where you've

run out of yourself and you need God's provision. And if that's you,

whether you're at home listening later or in the room, would you just stand

because I believe God's presence is promised where God's people gathering together, with God's

people meeting together, and I want to pray that God's presence would fall even

as we worship, that God's presence will fall again and would fall and bring

peace to those who need peace, will bring power to those who need power,

would bring a fresh promise to those who need a new promise, provision

where provision is needed, and protection where protection is required. We just ask

you to stand. If that's you, We're going to pray. Actually,

I feel even a nudge to stretch it a little further. Maybe there's maybe

there's a plan you're praying for for someone else. Maybe it's a plan of

salvation. Maybe you want to stand in the gap and be an intercessor this

morning and pray for provision in somebody's situation. You want to stand in the

gap right now. So, Father God, we thank you for your presence.

We thank you, Lord God, that you do not leave us,

You do not forsake us, just leave us to get on with it.

Lord you are there, and so Father, I thank you for your strength

and your power and your hope and your joy. I thank you your promise

is reliable and faithful. I thank you that you are a God, but

he's not limited by our earthly limitations. You are a supernatural, amazing God.

And so Father, I pray that Lord, you release to those who

are standing, those who are standing right now in your name, Father,

would you release your presence, Oh God, Father, would you release your

touch? Would you bring provision? No? God, And as we press

into you, Lord, we thank you for your blessing and your purpose.

In Jesus' name, I mean, please, don't sit down. I just

want to everybody who's in the room who can see people standing, would you

stretch out your hands if you want to just reach out and pray for these

people. Let's not just Dave pray, but let's pray. If you've got

a prophetic word for them, go and share it with them. If you've

got a particular prayer you want to pray over them, then please pray it.

This is church at work, this is ministry. So Father, God,

I thank you Lord, as we stand in prayer, in prayerful presence,

Father, I thank you, Thank you, Lord, pray for a

release of your spirit. Lorger says, it's someone I don't know whether it's

in the room or listening at home, but there's someone who who effectively wrote

a letter, folded it up, putting it on below, and they said,

that's it, as though something had come to an end. But it's

not yet posted. There's still a niggling doubt in your heart about whether this

is the end of the chapter. And I just sense the Father encourages you.

Don't send it yet. Just see what I will do, See what

I will do to bring breakthrough, to bring completion. Don't close the door

yet, give me space to work. Keep on asking of me on a

daily basis, and see what I will do. And so, Father,

we thank you for answered prayer. Lord. We're expecting. Lord, we

prayed, Lord, and we are expectant. And so farther as we head

towards Christmas, we believe there will be gifts of presents spelled with the ts,

not just your presence, but gifts coming from you in Jesus' name. Amen.