2nd October 2022 - Communion Service - Dave Food - Healthy Harvesting

And then you pick them up and wrap them up and put them away in

storage. So we're going to be looking at various forms of harvesting throughout October.

And I wanted to I've really felt a challenge to look at healthy harvesting.

Why would I talk about healthy harvesting. Well, I'm not an expert

at gardening. You probably picked that up already. JUNI is much more the

green finger than I am. But under instructions, pick those ones up,

wrap them up in this way. You make sure there's no blemishes on them

before you put them away for store, because in the future that harvest will

be useful. And I want to talk about a harvest that matters, a

harvest that we're all involved in. A scripture says the fields are as white

unto harvest, but the laborers are few. There are plenty of places that

we can serve. So let me pray, and then we're going to gather

around two key scriptures today. Father, thank you for your word. Thank

you that your word is living and effective. Thank you the Lord you continue

to speak to us. Father, thank you that your word comes alive to

us. And so Father, as we gather around your word today, Father,

we pray that you pour out your spirit, reveal something more of your

superabundant nature, and Father, help us to get a glimpse more of Heaven,

of that banqueting table. We pray it all in your mighty name.

Amen. So two scriptures, one from Deuteronomy and one from the Gospel of

Luke. Actually quite long scriptures, but let me read them in context,

and actually I'll read them on screen. So Deuteronomy twenty eight, verses one

to fourteen. If you obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his

commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above

all the nations on the earth. These blessings will come on you and accompany

you. If you obey the Lord your God, you will be blessed in

the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be

blessed, and the crops of your land, of the young of your livestock,

and the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks,

your basket and your needing trough will be blessed. You will be blessed when

you come in, and you will be blessed when you go out. The

Lord will grant that the enemies who rise against you will be defeated before you.

They will come at you from one direction, but flee from you in

seven. The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you

put your hands to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land

he is giving you. The Lord will establish you as His holy people,

as he promised you on the on oath. If you keep the commands of

the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him, then all the peoples

of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord,

and they will feel you. The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity in

the fruit of your womb, in the young of the livestock, and the

crops of your ground, and in the land he swore to your ancestors to

give to you. The Lord will open the heavens and the storehouse of his

bounty to send rain on your land in season, and to bless all the

work of your hands. You will lend to many nations, but will borrow

from none. The Lord will make you the head, not the tail.

If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God, that I

give to you this day, and carefully follow them. You will always be

at the top, never at the bottom. Do not turn aside from any

of the commands I give to you today to the right or the left,

following other gods and serving them very clear instructions. And I want you to

notice it's not just about the crops in the ground. It also talks about

your barns will be blessed. So you know, Ben and Lowis, who

are the managers of Gidead Foundations Dan in Devon, stayed with us for a

few days this week and as they stayed with the me, I've got to

talk to Ben about the season and the season that they've been through where you

know, we had that dry period he said. We put fertilizer down and

it did nothing because there was no water. He said, But Dave,

we're believing that the crops that we're harvesting, the silage that we're harvesting,

the things that we're gathering will store well. So it's not just about gathering

the crops but also storing the way you could lose. You could lose one

hundred percent if you store it badly, and so it's not just about picking

the crops, but also storing them well and then using them well. Sometimes

you'll find that there's you know, I think about the apple tree in our

garden that just seems to keep on dropping, keeps on producing apples forever.

It's I think it's one of the oldest trees in our garden, and it

looked old. You can see all the lichen on it, and you can

see how it's gnulled in places, but it's still fruitful. A church,

I want to say, I want to look at you and say, you

can still be fruitful whatever your age, whether you're twenty thirty, fifty,

seventy, eighteen ninety, you can still be fruitful. Think about the Queen

who's gone to be with the Lord. She was in her nineties, still

faithfully serving, probably doing more work than I do, if I'm honest with

you. You know, she put her hand to the plow and she carried

on with all that she was called to do. And so whatever age you

are, be bold, be confident, expect a harvest. You know,

farmers do not sow seeds and then expect nothing. They sow seeds because that's

the way seeds work. When you plant a seed in the ground, and

it gets watered, it grows. It needs water, and it needs nutrients,

and it needs the seed itself. And then it puts down roots,

It draws the water up, it puts up shoots, and ultimately fruits comes.

And so I want to ask you, in terms of healthy harvesting a

couple of things. How good are your roots if the wind comes and blows?

Are you concerned? I've been told that if you stake a tree,

you don't stake a tree vertically. You stake it horizontally to allow it to

move, because that will allow the tree when the wind blows, to need

stronger roots, and therefore it will put down stronger roots. And so actually,

if you make it really solid, then it's actually dangerous because it doesn't

put down the roots that make it safe. And so have you got good

roots? Are you putting down good roots? Are you continuing to put down

good roots? Now? What's the purpose of roots? The purpose of roots

is to get down and get water. And again I've been told that,

you know, if you go to water a plant, give it a soaking.

Don't just give it a little sprinkle, give it a good soaking,

because then those roots go down and they draw out the water, they become

healthy plants. Therefore they have a better harvest. And let me ask you

in church, at home, where you work, are you putting down good

roots? Do people see that you're stable? Do people see that you're reliable

and faithful? I once remember, many years ago, John fooage, dear

friend who's gone to be with the Lord. I used to call him God's

taxi driver, because quite often I'd just say, John, I need someone

picked up at the airport, and he go and picked them up for me.

And there are a number of times when he dropped them off at our

house and we weren't even there, and people stayed in our house from around

the world. But one of the things I turned up at John's house one

day, and I don't know what you're like. I'm the kind of person

who probably does too much sometimes and consequently I say yes to things. Consequently

I'm often late. Anyway, I turned up at John's house one day.

I said, I'm really sorry, I'm late. And this was the thing,

the telling thing, because this is about fruit. He said, well,

Dave, that's what we expect. And I went, ouch, okay,

he's got that impression. It was probably true. It was probably true.

But ouch, you know, I've resolved after that, I was going

to be a bit more attentive to try not to be like trying not to

overcommit myself because people know you by your fruit? What fruit do people know

you for? Do they know you because you're peaceful? Do they know you

because you're a generous Do they know you because you're a man or woman of

faith? You know? What is it that you in part? And I'm

not just talking about in church, I'm talking about at work in your family.

I was only talking this week about Terry who Terry was in the church

for many, many years, and Terry worked in the building materials industry,

gravel, cement, those kinds of things. In fact, he saw a

number of people die in front of him when trenches collapsed. So it's a

rough industry. And if you imagine a gravel pit, some of the gravel

pits around here, they go there early in the morning. They'd been working

with heavy machinery with earphones on. Then a great big hooter would go,

everybody would stop, and they'd all go to the canteen to have a cup

of tea for fifteen to twenty minutes, and then they go back out to

work, and then they come back for lunch and then teeth break in the

afternoon. And that was where Terry worked. And so when the hooter went

and he went to get his cup of tea and he's bacon Sanni. He'd

sit down and he got out of his Bible, and he'd sit and read

his Bible. And he got a bit of a nickname, as you might

imagine in that kind of industry. Oh, Terry's reading his favorite book again.

But people said it with a smile. But here's the thing. Terry

was known to be reliable. Terry was known to be faithful. Terry was

known to be a man of faith. And so there were people who said,

maybe maybe not in the tea room, but they would say, Terry,

can I have a little chat, and maybe people have a little chat

about something that was going on in their world, something they could do nothing

about. So Terry, would you pray? And he prayed, and he

saw prayer answered. But they came to him because of the fruit of who

he was. They saw him as reliable and faithful. And I wonder if

I went to your colleagues at work, or the stendy part of your family

and said, Okay, Dave, what's he known for? You know,

if I said, if I asked you to say three words, what would

it be? One of them was late. I'm working on that one.

But what do we want to be known for? And it's not just the

fruit of the harvest, it's also the way it's stored and then also the

way it's used. And so I would take Matt's example there he was drawn

to someone as they were gathering in the crowd talking about in different churches,

and I'd agree with Matt. I would say, the most important thing you

could later a student when they come to university for the first time, he

is, I don't care which church you find, but find a church,

make it home, and settle down. Because what happens is people drift and

drift and drift, and suddenly it's Christmas and they haven't found a church and

they don't go to church anymore. So I just encouraged people find somewhere,

settle down, find a place to serve, find a place to give,

find a place to produce a harvest. Because I could ask the same question,

not just about people, but as a church, what are we known

for? What is the fruit that we're known for. For go to the

New Testament now and look at the Gospel of Luke, and you'll kind of

recognize some of this story. Again, it's fourteen verses, but let me

read it all in context. And he told them this parable the ground of

a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, what

shall I do. I have no place to store my crops. Then he

said, this is what I'll do. I will tear down my barms and

build bigger ones, and there I will store up my surplus grain. And

I'll say to myself, you have plenty of grain laid up for many years.

Take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry. But God

said to him, you fool, This very night, your life will be

demanded from you. Then you will get what you have prepared for yourself.

This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves, But

it is not rich towards God. Then Jesus said to his disciples, therefore,

I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will

eat, or about your body what you will wear. For life is more

than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens they do

not so or reap. They have no store room or barn. Yet God

feeds them. And how much more valuable are you than the birds, who

of you, by worrying, can add a single hour to your life.

Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the

rest? Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin.

Yet, I tell you not even Solomon, in all his splendor,

was dressed like one of these. If it was how God closed the grass

of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire,

how much more will He clothe you of little faith? And do not

set your heart on what you will eat or drink. Do not worry about

it, for the pagan world runs after all such things, and your father

knows that you need them. Amen. Do you know we live in a

world where we want more. We live in a world where the signs on

the railway stations all are trying to say, get the next, latest,

greatest, biggest, best. And I've heard some statistics that say, if

we lived like an American, and these are any statistics, and many picking

on the numbers that I know, if we live like if everybody in the

world lived like an American, then we'd need four worlds. If everyone lives

in the world like a brit we need two worlds. If everyone lives like

an Ethiopian, we've got enough already. One world is enough. And there's

something in this to say, what is enough? What satisfies. I don't

know whether you've been to one of those places where they offer you eat as

much as you want, one of those endless book base and I think,

okay, that's interesting. But here's the thought. Why do I want to

eat as much as I can possibly eat? Probably not good for my waistline,

probably not good for my health. And so I want to encourage us

because scripture says godly contentment is great game godly content I was looking at my

I haven't done it much ironing for a while, for about three weeks.

So the part got really, really enormous, and so yesterday I had time.

So I got through the ironing part, and then I got to put

all these shirts back in the cabin. I thought, do I really need

all these shirts? You know, personally I need to iron them, then

I need to wash them. It just made me think, you know,

somebody else could use them. Some of them are perfectly good. Do you

know what? I actually think that God wants us to share with one another,

with community. That's why I love food bank, the fact that we

have food bank hosted here as the church. Some people say, why should

we need food bank? Well, people need food bank at the moment,

and so it's important that we share what we have just a little extra.

So what harvest are you known for? What are you doing with the harvest

that you have? Is that harvest actually being useful and utilized? You know,

if you store the right things in the right way, they taste better

and when they're first put away. I've been told a certain apples and pears,

if you store them in the right way, then when you eat them,

they're even better than when you put them away in the first place.

What you might call vintage saying can be said about whiskeys and wines. You

put them, you put them away, keep them for a while, and

they get better. I wonder if that's true about you and me, And

actually, as we get older, we could get better. We could get

rito in the flavors that we bring. I'm looking at the room and thinking,

there are people in the room who I know are encourages people who are

in the room who are intercessors. I know there are people in the room

who are good with creative stuff. I want to say to each one of

you, use the gifts that you have, and let's see the harvest grow.

Let's keep on seeing the overflow of God's Kingdom flow into the world.

I actually believe that if we go and be and do who God's called us

to be and do, then the overflow of who we are will impact the

places you work, the families you live with, and the streets that you

live in. People will come to you and ask you questions. People will

seek you, and they'll seek you because of the wisdom that you share.

And sometimes you will run out of yourself, maybe you'll run out of time,

maybe you'll run out of resources. Well, that's a great place to

be. If somebody's coming to you with a need. Don't be frightened by

that, because that's a place of faith. If somebody comes and says,

as happened last week, somebody said, Dave, I need some advice.

And I hadn't sat down and had a conversation or copy with them, and

I was really thinking, I don't know much about this. Industry at all.

I don't really feel I've got any advice to give them. Anyway,

I went to the loop and I prayed. When I came back, I

just had a couple of thoughts, and I shared these couple of thoughts.

He said, that's fantastic, Dave. I didn't realize you knew so much

about my industry. And I said, I'll be honest with you. I

didn't. Actually, I've just been to the loo and prayed, and that's

what God gave me. And he then said, what do you mean prayed

prayed in the lou Yes, yeah, you mean you don't just pray at

church. I said, no, I pray wherever I need to pray.

I talk to God wherever I need to talk to God. He says,

so, where did this idea that you just shared with me come from?

And I said, just claim to me as I was sitting in the cubicle

just a few minutes ago. He said, Dave, well, I can

only say you must be an expert in my industry. I said, I'm

not an expert, but he is. And all I am is a conduit.

All I am is a mouthpiece. And so whenever you find yourself in

a situation where somebody asks you for something you do not have wisdom capacity time

just to ask God, would you help me here? I'll give you one

specific example. As I draw to a close, I was praying with the

lady. The lady reached out to me after church, a complete stranger to

me reached out on what happened and asked for prayer. So I reached out

to her and said, how can I pray? And she said, well,

I've got this significant debt that needs paying. She said, I don't

have the money. I really don't know what's going to happen. Would you

pray that God would give me the money? I said, I'll be really

honest with you, madam, I think that's limiting God. Why don't we

just believe that the debt is gone, whether you pay for it or whether

it's canceled. And she said, no, that won't happen. I said,

but I'd rather pray that if that's okay with you, because that gives

God room to move and God could do it in his way anyway. We

prayed, and a little while later she came back and she said, Dave,

they canceled the debt. They just wrote it off. She said,

I don't know why if I just got this letter. She shared me the

letter and just said the debt is canceled. Said to see, you didn't

need any money at all. And sometimes we look at gard and we look

at the harvest and we say that harvest is not enough. I don't have

enough food to feed my family. People will remember Jim and Nell, who

used to worship with us, used to live around in Ripley Avenue. I

know in their younger lives they would sit down to sit down to dinner with

their children and there would be no food in the cupboard, and they would

sit down to pray, and they sit down around the table with the table

laid with plates on the table, with knives and forks on the table.

They'd take hands together and they'd pray, and then there'd be a knocklage door.

Some turn off said I thought of you, so I've brought some stuff

for you. And Jim said a number of times they had literally did not

have their dinner, and they sat down to pray, and they sat down

and gave thanks for empty plates. They gave thanks for the food they were

about to eat. I won't to encourage you if you don't see it,

then pray for it and open your spiritual eyes and see what God will do

in you and through you. Because a healthy harvest needs healthy harvesters, and

the healthy harvesters will bring in a healthy harvest, and that will feed not

just you, but others around you. People will live in the overflow of

who you are. So let me pray, Father, God, thank you.

Your word is so clear. Your word is so clear that Lord,

you're a god of abundance, or we've just read that in the scriptures that

we've read. You're a god of abundance. You're a god of plenty.

You're a god of generosity, and you look for us to do the same,

Lord, that we would be generous, and sometimes that means going beyond

ourselves. But that's a great place to be because that's a place of faith,

that's a place of trusting you. So Father, help us to be

who you called us to be, Help us to do, watch according us

to do, and be glorified. We pray in Jesus' mighty name. Amen.

Mm hmm, Okay,