13th November 2022 All Age Service - Dave Food - Mission Impossible becomes possible

Yeah, a little bit younger possibly, or if you like a more modern

version, you might recognize the title mission impossible. Anybody feel that they've got

a mission to do and it just feels impossible. I don't know how to

start. I don't know where to start. I don't know what to do.

Well, let me start by taking people back to a place maybe they

might remember. Good morning, mister Phelps. The man you're looking at is

Walter Townsend, one of our high ranking intelligence officers, whom we recently discovered

as a top enemy agent. Upon learning this, we allow Townsend access to

false information which will cause his country severe embarrassment if believed and acted upon.

Unfortunately, this man, George Simpson, Townsend's only contact in America, discovered

the information was false and reported to his superiors that Townsend had detected. However,

his superiors are aware Simpson is jealous of Townsend. The truth or falsity

of this information is so important that they are sending their most brilliant intelligence officer,

Stepan Niklos, to investigate your mission, Jim, Should you design to

accept it is to make step On believe Tanzan's information. As always, should

you or any of your im force be carved or killed. The secretary will

disavow any knowledge of your actions, distinct will self destructing five seconds. Who

loved Jim? I want you to allow those words to ring in your ears.

For those people who don't recognize that that is a series from the nineteen

sixties and seventies. There's a modern film version of it today which has Tom

Cruise in it for those who want it up to dated. But the phrase

I want you to take out of that little introduction was your mission, should

you choose to accept it. Then he then went on to say, your

purpose is to persuade this man that this is the true Well. Isn't that

part of our mission to go somewhere and persuade people, or at least to

show them the living Gospel? And so let me bring this back to a

commission that we've all been sent on in, or we've all been commissioned with.

In Matthew twenty eight verses nineteen, it says, go therefore and make

disciples of all nations, baptizing them, and in the name of the Father

and of the Son and 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. Your mission, should you choose to

accept it? Well, yeah, I read the Gospels and this isn't just

in Matthew. I could read it again from other versions as well. Your

mission, should you choose to accept it? Jesus said to his disciples,

your mission. He didn't just say it's your job. Off you go.

The verse that came before this in Matthew twenty eight, verse eighteen says,

and Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, all authority has been given

to me in heaven and on earth, and therefore go and make so Jesus

didn't say, okay, off you go, go and do it. Jesus

said, I'm commissioning you. He said all authority. And so you might

say me, who am I? What can I do? Do you know

what? One of the things I want to encourage us comes from the Book

of Isaiah, and it says this, and it's the second part of verse

forty three, verse one, and it says, fear not, for I

have redeemed you, I have called you by name. You are mine.

So as we're being commissioned, and as we're being sent he's saying you're my

children, my children, so go now. I don't know whether I really

want to linger in this verse for a few moments and draw it out in

some different dimensions. Focusing on the second part of forty three, verse one,

you can see that I've highlighted some keywords there, fear not, I

have redeemed you, I have called you by your name. You are mine.

So who's it about? It's about us. It's about you and me.

It's not like you. You're looking over our shoulders as if to say

somebody else behind us. It's about you. God is commissioning you and me

to go into the world. Now. I don't think that means that we

have to get our passport was ready and jump onto a plane, because the

world is out there. The world's just walked past our door with a band

and a whole bunch of people. You know, people walk past this building

on a on an hourly basis. People walk past your house on an ali

basis. You have neighbors, you work with, colleagues, they're all in

the world. And fear not, because that's the first thing we do.

Got well, I don't think I can. I'm not qualified, I'm not

ready. But he starts off by saying, and let let let let me

emphasize it a different way. Then let's emphasize some different words. It says,

fear not for I have redeemed you and have called you by your name,

you are mine. So I'm not focusing on you now, I'm focusing

on the purpose of the calling. You know, you know, God didn't

just kind of randomly pick us out with his children. And He's redeemed us.

He saved us, He's pulled us out of a place where we struggled.

We struggled with sin, we struggle with failing. Okay, yeah,

and the followers of Jesus, you and me, the disciples, we weren't

just redeemed, we were caught. And so there's a place for us to

do something. And each of us will have slightly different callings, slightly different

talents, and we'll use them in different ways. And why are we so

proud of it? Because we're his we're his children. Let me emphasize it

one more different way. Fear not for I have redeemed you. I have

called you by name, you are mine. So this is focusing on who,

not us, but Him, Him who sent us, the Father.

I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, So this is

part of his plan and part of his purpose, sensing submission. And I

want to encourage you as we as we gather around the word today, to

think about some of the things that God has said to you, whether it's

through his word, whether it's through dreams, whether it's through prophetic words.

However God has spoken to you, I want to allow those words to come

to the top again, to be refreshed in your spirit. Because one of

the things that I would say is I sense that sometimes we say, well

I can't do you know what I can't. In Mark chapter nine, verse

twenty four, the father of the child cried out and said, Lord,

I believe help me in my unbelief. If we're going to listen to God

and we're going to listen to his commissioning, we're called. And sometimes you

just want to go. Can I do it later? Can I go and

pray about it. I'll tell you a story about something that happened for me

many many years ago. Now. I felt I was praying at home one

day and I felt God say go to the high street. And I thought,

okay, that's something I'll do later on or maybe even tomorrow. And

then later on the day I felt God say go to the high street.

I said, okay, God, I'm listening. I was thinking tomorrow because

I'm busy today. And then a third time I felt the Father say go

to the high street, and so I went to the high street. I've

got some shopping because I thought, well, that's a good thing. That's

what you do in high streets, isn't it. And I walked up and

down a bit, and then I bumped into someone that I haven't seen in

Egan for years at that time, just bumped into them. We had a

conversation and I just thought, I wonder if i'd have ignored that, whether

I would have seen them tomorrow. And so it's so easy to go,

Oh, it's a bit inconvenient God. In fact, let's go there.

Let's go there. And a story in the Gospel of Luke, the Gospel

of Luke, and I know it's about a different story, but let's just

think about some reasons why people wouldn't go. And when you give a feast,

invite the poor and names and the lame and the blind, and you

will be blessed because they cannot repay you. You shall be repaid at the

resurrection of the Just. Now. Then one of those who had sat at

the table with him heard those things, and he said to him, blessed

is he who shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God. And then he

said to him. A certain man gave a supper and invited many, and

sent his servant of supper time to say to those who were invited, come,

All things are now ready, the great feast has been set up.

But they always won accord began to make excuses. The first I said to

him, I have brought a piece of grounds, and I must go and

see it. I ask you to have me excused. And another said I

have bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm going to test them. I

asked that you have me excused. Still another said I have married to a

wife, and therefore I cannot come. And so the servant came and reported

these things to the master. Then the master of the house, being angry,

said to the servant, go out quickly into the streets and lanes of

the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed, and the

lame and the blind. And the servant said, Master, it is done

as you commanded, and still there is room. Then the Master said to

the servant, go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come,

that my house may be filled. I know this is about a feast,

but church can be a feast. Over the years, I've had people

say I wish I'd come earlier. And I don't mean earlier in this.

I wish you know, people who said I'm not ready for you, I'm

not good enough for church. I need to get my life sorted out.

And one of the things I've been reflecting on, probably for six months now,

is Okay, who would I invite to church? Am I proud of

church? And therefore I want to bring people here because if I'm not,

then we need to do something, we need to change. And actually,

I believe things happen as we do church, as we are, church,

as we gather together. And I want to encourage you are able to do

more than you ask or imagine. That's what Scripture says, you are able

to do more than you ask or imagine. So I want to encourage you.

This is not mission impossible. This becomes mission possible if we make ourselves

available to a God who wants to do more than we can ask or imagine.

And so I want to say, you know, let's not let's not

always think about excuses. Let's say, Lord, I'm here. As in

other stories in the Bible, other people said, Lord, I'm here.

How can speak clearly? Speak to me? Let me know. And so

I'm going to play another video now, and it's from a film that I

hope some of you might remember. But I want you to just think about

going, going further, allowing God to take you further. Your attitude is

like the aroma of your heart. Your attitude speaks your heart's not right,

h what as your attitude rock? It's fine, and you'll be ooking with

the death row. Right, let's go. No, me's some power.

No did fifty not the ground me. It's not the downy ben yard numb

as the Bible numbers the power. Give me the hard go marry good boy,

very good? Do it blown some coach? How strong is westc this

year? What strong wheeler? You already risen Friday Night? Guys lost Broough

Well not hoo, we can beat him to me? Bruck you too,

jermy, what about in trouble now? Not yet? I want to see

you do the death crawling here, and I don't want to see your absolute

best. What you want to go the thirty and you can go to fifty.

I got the fifteen. Nolize on my back and you do a jermy

on your back. But even if you can' you promise me you're gonna do

your best, all right, your best? Okay, you're gonna give me

your best. I'm gonna give you my best, all right. The little

thing want you do? Why not want? You've given up a certain pointment.

You can go further, you know. Here on his back, let

do a good type hole Jeremy. All right, let's go, Brock,

give me use off the ground, just your hands and feet. There you

go a little bit left there you go, give me do that for allway,

Brock, I keep coming. There you go. It's a good start.

A little bit left, a little bit left. Here you go,

bron good strength that I said, Brock, I said, twenty gets the

twenty. You give me your best. You keep going. That's it.

No, don't stop rocking. You got moren you than that. You gotta

kep mumba. Let's keep mother, let's go. Don't quit till you've got

nothing left. There you go, keep moving, keep moving, Yeah,

keep moving, Brock, I said, you keep driving. If your knees

off the ground, keep driving very best. You're very back, you're very

fast. Keep moving, Brock. That's it. That's it, that's it.

Keep calling, don't quill, keep going, keep driving that keep keep

your knees off the ground. That's it. You're very best. Don't quill.

You're very beast. Keep driving, keep driving. There you go,

there you go. You keep driving. If your knees off the ground,

keep driving. Don't quit till you got nothing left. Keep moving, Brock.

That's it. That's it, that's it. Keep talling. I'm on

every time you got Come on, keep going, Mark, don't quill.

You bury met big riding, been riding, the doing, the doing.

He's heading. I don't sit. The plan is straight and you go ship

with your buddy and Bob swit. But don't you give up on the frock.

You keep going, you mammy, You keep going and doing good.

You keep going. You're not quell on me. Now you keep doing hard.

I know her. You keep doing. You keep doing. It's a

hard from there, nor you're going down. You get doing rock, Come

on, get doing b he ld it bar the bar and the hard you

keep doing rocking them. Come on, it's going you fling me, you're

bat You're bath nomb down. Get going hard, it's down the lord.

You can't dollar Come on rock, get me hard, give me hard,

kick dollar twenty mark death twenty hard, Get going hard, give me your

back. Don't when dollars cat dolling, I cat dollar half dollar now clack

down plack now black rime gall you know well har yeah, don gag dolling,

dow wow, galling yell wow and now you get yo gang galla now

dear then bar then d r gag doll dot wat yet the yard gang yellow

gang my mar my, don't when don't wr war Well, good Brock,

you're in the in zone. Rock. You are the most influential play of

this team. And if you look around defeating soda, I'll tell me you

can't give me wood what I've been see you just carry one hundred and forty

pound me across this whole field in your arms. D I need you.

God's gifted you the ability of leadership. Don't waste it, Hups. Can

I count on you? Yes? Humes? What is the journey? Hold

on? Let says to alight Nick that prats y'all more man for the first

time in Wilts you feel good about Friday night? Yeah? Why, just

no more than what you're doing. Thank you a whole of it, and

change their lives. Count me in all right, me too? Yeah?

Yeah, fell like how in a poll, I just want you to know

that I'm with you. Thank you? M m h. Would you say

when such a powerful image sits before us? And I don't think God's screaming

at us like a coach, but just in the same way they all stood

and they just saw a moment of greatness happening. Is God calling you to

step one more time? You know? I in my time as I prepared

for today. So Lord, I want to be a bit like that.

I want to be, you know, going the extra marm. Do you

believe? And why was he blindfolded? Part of the reason he was blindfold

is he's so easy to find as a reason to not rather than the reason

to do. We give up so easily. And God's calling us to make

a difference. God's calling you and me to make a difference in our world.

God's calling you and me to make a difference in our workplace. God's

calling you and me to make a difference where we live and where we have

lunch, and who we sit next to on the bus. And sometimes it's

the difference between there and there. It's a difference with choosing choosing to say

something and choosing not to say something. How many people in the room this

week, I wish they can look back and say, I wish I'd done

something and you hadn't done it. I'm putting my hand up. It's true

for me, there's some things in my week that I wish I'd said something,

and the moment's gone. The moment's gone. We're able to do immeasurably

more than we ask or imagine. The coach said that God has gifted you.

God has gifted you. God has gifted you and those online God has

gifted you too. Just because you're not in the room doesn't mean that you're

a watcher on the sidelines. You're as much as part of the team as

those who were sitting in the room. In the same way that there were

kids on the bench that would come down and play when someone had to be

replaced. There will be moments in God's plan when he's saying off the bench.

Time for you to step up. Well, I haven't done the training.

I haven't done that. I haven't done the I haven't got a PhD.

I haven't I haven't got the qualifications. God will equip us. God

will enable us. God will enable us to do. And one easy way

to kind of think about this in Matthew six twenty one, it says this,

for where your treasure is there, your heart is also. I from

time to time will take stock. Maybe it's your bank account. That's one

way to taking stock. Another way of taking stock is stuff. Another way

of taking stock is my diary. Looking at my diary thinking am I am

I making the best use of the time that I have. Every day we

all get one day closer to an eternity with God being in heaven with him,

and our time here on earth is getting shorter. There's a book by

a guy called Rob Parsons. He wrote sixty Minute Father and sixty Minute Mother,

and he also wrote a book called The Hardest Success. And one of

the things he said was as he was a busy guy and he had a

son who played football, and his son got to thirteen, he got into

the school team and he was in the school team, and he was playing

regularly, and you know, if you're playing the winter, probably ten weeks

of the year, maybe five eight matches in that time, thirteen till sixteen.

Because once he got to sixteen, he's not going to be interested in

dad being at the football match. And suddenly he realized three years, ten

weeks, that's thirty weeks. That's possibly maximum thirty football matches. So everyone

he says no to is one thirtieth of missing the opportunity. He said,

I had to look at my diary and say, okay, is this meeting

more important than spending time with my son? And so I want to kind

of draw things to a close and say, what has God called you to?

There's a personal calling for each one of us as a place where we

can serve. There's a place where we can do stuff. And so I'm

going to ask you, has mission impossible become mission possible for you today?

I'm going to ask you to close your eyes and just think what is God

nudging you into? What has God called you into you? We, as

a church of Rudding me Christian Fellowship, need to be making a difference.

I think we punch above our weight sometimes in certain areas, but in other

areas we're just not there, not where God wants us to be in prayer.

You know, it's just interesting. You know, Rica's here traveling through

as a friend of the church. You know, she's over here for a

couple of weeks. She said, would you like me to lead worship?

And I said, yes, please, Because we've been used to recorded worship

for such a long time, and the atmosphere in the room was different.

I'm sure the recording will be different. As a consequence live worship, worshiping

God coming together. Scripture says, do not give up meeting together as summer

in the habit of doing part of the fruits, part of the consequences,

maybe not the fruits, part of the consequences of COVID as people people hold

back, and I guess sometimes we possibly feed that by providing online church.

But do you know what, there are people who are watching us who don't

go anywhere else. There are people around the world who every Sunday watch our

service. We've got to think about how we engage with them, because they're

not going to church anywhere else, so we are their church. What they

say see here on a Sunday, What they participate in makes a difference.

People giving testimonies, people praying, people sharing scriptures, people being real.

It's just part of the mission field. But it's something we can do together.

So I just want to encourage you to think about what is God nudging

you into? What is He reminding you about right now? Is it to

go and speak to someone, Is it to write a postcard? Is it

to pick up the phone? Is it to do something, to do a

sacrificial gift of love? What is it that God's nudging you into. Here's

my little suggestion, my little suggestions, have a go give it a world,

because when I am absolutely sure if the coach on that video had been

God, they'd have ended up in touchdown. Because when we run out of

ourselves and we feel I've got to give out, I don't have any more,

those are the moments when we live in faith. Those are the moments

when God has to fill us. Those are the moments when miracles happen,

when strength comes again. Those are the moments when we want to give up,

but we say, Lord, I'm willing. I just don't have the

power, the energy, the finances, the time, doors open, opportunities

come, and so I'm just going to ask you very simply, if God

has rekindled a passion in you today for going on mission, whatever that means,

whether that's just one thing for today, but you're going to do it,

would you stand at home, would you stand make a movement towards God?

Would you make a movement towards God and say, yes, I'm going

to do that thing that I put on hold, that thing that I said

I'm too busy for that. I'm leaving that between you and God. I'm

not I'm not going to define what that is. But if there's a mission

step that you need to take today, if there's a mission step that you

need to take this week, if there's a new journey you need to go

on, maybe you need to adjust in certain areas, then please just make

us stand and stand up right now, and let's just show God that we're

serious about some stuff. God's not looking at our credibility, He's looking at

our availability. He wants us to believe that through him we're able to do

more. He wants us to trust him, he wants us to know.

So just before I pray, as you know, let me pray, Father

God, thank you, Thank you. There is such a calling. There

is such a step, Lord God, to step into purpose, to step

into now, to step into the reality of what You've called us to do.

And so, Father, help us to do it in faith, Help

us not to do it in our own strength. Help us to align ourselves

to you and to your purpose. Help us to take steps of boldness.

Father, help us to tune our ears and our hearts to your will and

your ways. In Jesus name, and Father, I pray for many testimonies,

many testimonies of a breakthrough, many testimonies of a new faith arising,

of people making decisions as we just tell them the simple story of our own

journey in simple ways. And so, Father, as Jesus said to his

disciples, go ye into all the world, make disciples, teaching and baptizing

them in the ways that I have shown you. Father, help us to

do that. We pray in Jesus Name. Amen. Well, I'll just

end with the reminder your mission just be cocked or killed. The secretary will

disavow any knowledge of your actions. Distate, will self distract in five seconds.

Bill, So I'm going to play that again. Because I managed to

press the button in the wrong place. Your mission, Jim. Should you

design to accept it is to make step on the lean Tonsen's information. As

always, should you or any of your iron force be caughcked or killed,

the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Distate, will self distract.

In five seconds I lock him