10th July 2022 - All Age Service - Dave Food - A vision to change the world

Bye is dreams and visions. And my title, if you like a title,

is having a vision to change the world. Does that sound like a

small vision? Could we all be part of that? Yeah, brilliant.

Thanks Julie. Let me pray and then we'll get into this. Father,

Thank you, Thank you that Lord, you've created this world in which we

live in. Father, we sometimes forget how an amazing god you are.

And so Father, we open our eyes to your creative power. We open

our hearts to your creative love, and we say this morning, Lord,

show us more of yourself. Father, help us to dream, help us

to have a vision, Help us to go somewhere and do something that would

enlarge your kingdom. Reach the lost, heal the sick, raise the dead,

bless others. Lord, that your kingdom will be enlarged in established.

We pray in your mighty name. Amen. Well starts in the book of

Acts, So let me just read to you a bit of a story from

Acts chapter ten. There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a

centurion who was called the Italian Regiment, a devout man and one who feared

God with his household, and who gave alms generously to the people and prayed

to God always. About the ninth hour of the day, he saw clearly

in a vision an angel of God coming in and saying to him, Cornelius,

I guess that's great if he calls you by name. And when he

observed him, he was afraid and said, what is it? Lord?

So he said to him, your prayers and your arms have come up for

a memorial before God. Now send men to Jobber, and send for Simon,

whose surname is Peter. He is lodging with Simon, a tanner whose

house is by the sea. He will tell you what you must do.

And when the angel spoke to him he had departed, Cornelius called two of

his household servants and a devout soldier from amongst those who waited on him continually

and will read on. So when he had explained all these things to them,

he sent them to Joffa. The next day, as they were on

their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up to the household to

pray about the sixth hour. Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat,

but they were made ready, and he fell into a trance, and

he saw heaven open and an object like a great sheep bound on four corners,

descending to him and let down to the earth. In it the kinds

of four footed animals in the earth, wildbeasts, creeping things, and the

birds of the air. I'm not going to read on into that vision.

But there was a faithful man of God who had an angel come and call

him by name. Now, I don't know whether you ever had that happen.

Have you ever had an angel come into your room and say, Dave,

Peter, Simon, Maria? Have you ever had that happen? When

God calls on you, you sit up and you take notice. You don't

just roll over and go back to sleep. You sit up and you take

notice. You know the reason people call you by name. They don't go,

oh, you come here. Let's say Cornelius. God was calling him

and saying wake up. And as he called him, he had a task

for him to do. And I'm not going to go in that today.

But the point I'm making here is God speaks to his people in dreams and

visions. There are lots of dreams and visions throughout the Bible. One of

my favorite Bibles that dear Terry introduced me to is date's Bible and whether anybody's

got a copy of Dates, but date before computers were invented, went through

every book in the Bible and came up with every prophetic words, counted every

prophetic word in the Bible, and then mapped it to every prophetic word that

have been fulfilled. So you come to each book and it says there are

thirty seven prophetic words in this book, and twenty two of them have been

fulfilled already. You imagine doing that manually. Imagine just I mean great to

be reading the Bible, but just that diligence. And as I was looking

through my Dates Bible, I realized that dreams and visions come up many,

many, many, many many times in the Old Testament and the New and

whether it's conscious, as whether it's whether it's with your eyes closed or whether

it's with your eyes open. As Matt was saying, God speaks to us

in pictures. God shows us pictures. And so I want to encourage you.

If you have a dream, if you have a vision, write it

down. You know, I don't know what your memory is like mine mine.

Yeah, what what did I do the other day? I walked into

I walked into my study where I work, and then I walked back into

the kitchen. And I walked into the kitchen and saw, why did I

walk into the kitchen. So I walked back into my study again and then

walk back into the kitchen. Ah, I remember, Now, maybe you

don't do that. But so God speaks in dreams and visions. Now let's

look at Ephesians chapter three. I think it Isphesians chapter three, verses fourteen

to twenty one, because God does speak to us. For this reason,

I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, from

what the whole family in heaven and Earth is name. That He should grant

you according to the riches his glory, to be strengthened with might through His

spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts, through

faith, that you are being rooted and grounded in love, that you may

be able to comprehend with the saints. What is the width, length,

death, and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that

you may be filled with the fullness of God. Now to him who is

able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to

the power that works in us to Him be glory in the Church by Christ

Jesus, to all generations, forever and ever Amen. Christ has called us.

Christ has a calling for us. And God speaks about and even here,

as we read in Ephesians, Paul talks about exceedingly abundantly more. We

think of the widow who had nothing and was encouraged to gather bowls and pots

and jars. And she gathered all that she had, and she filled them

from the jug and kept on filling them, kept on filling them, and

when everyone was full, the oil stopped coming. God does exceedingly abundantly more

than we ask or imagine. He goes before you, He goes ahead of

you. He opens doors, and you didn't even realize there was a door.

I'll be very very simple. You probably stood and held a door open

for somebody, because I've done this and I'm sure you have as well.

You stand and hold a door open for somebody, and somebody walks through,

doesn't even acknowledge you, doesn't say that that happens. I'm sure it happens.

But then probably didn't even recognize they were walking through a door. And

I think it's the same with God. Sometimes God holds the door open for

us, and we walk through, and we don't even realize that there was

a door and that could have been shut. And so God goes before us,

and God goes before you, and he goes before me. And as

he goes before us, he provides, and in providing, he fulfills his

visions and his dreams that he's given us. And you might say, okay,

a dream to change the world that's too big for me. There's a

story that I've been told. I've been told that Mother Teresa was asked.

She said, as she was serving the lost and the broken in the streets

of Calcutta, and somebody came to her and said, how can you serve

in this ocean of need and those particular works where there is so much need

and you're doing what you can, how are you making a difference. When

she turned to the gentleman, she said, sir, an ocean is made

up of many drops, and I'll start with one drop at a time,

and a similar story. And I've seen something similar to this when I was

in Patronugenna. You see these seasons where suddenly there is an overflow. I

remember looking out from my house at the top of the hill down into the

sea, and along the edge of the blue ocean was this black band,

this black band right along the coast, and all the local people were in

the water with baskets and everything out what's going on. Everybody was in the

water, and so I went down to find out what was going on.

And it was a season when the fish came in, and they literally just

went and stood in the water and put baskets in, and they scooped up

lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of little fish, lots and

lots and lots of them. They just kept on coming in. And there

are those seasons when we have this kind of flow which is just God's creation,

and this story relates to those kind of seasons. A gentleman walks down

the beach and as he walks down the beach, he sees all these starfish

getting It's that season when starfish are getting washed up on the beaches. And

as he walks down the beach, he looks at these starfish and as the

tides going out, he thinks, if these starfish don't get something doesn't happen,

then the sun will burn on them and they'll dry up and they'll die.

And he walks a bit further down the fish, thinking what can I

do? Further down the beach and thinks what on earth can I do?

And it comes across a man. And there's a man bending down and picking

up and one starfish and throwing it into the water, and then bending down

and picking up another starfish and throwing it into the water. And he says

to the man, and a similar question to the one to Mother Teresa,

how can you make a difference with such a large need? It's pointless what

you're doing. And the man turns and looks at him, and then bends

down and picks up another star vision and says, and I'm making a difference

to this one, and I'm making a difference to this one, and I'm

making a difference to this one. I want to encourage you, however big

your vision is. It starts with the first step. I believe it might

be a Chinese proverb or an African proverb that says every journey starts with the

first step. I think if you read one of my favorite books, you'll

find it similarly echoed in a book called The Hobbit by J. R.

R. Tolkien when it talks about the journey and the first steps. And

it's so easy to have a vision and do nothing because we sit at home

and we don't know how to start, and we look at what we've got

to do, and we think, where can I start? And we need

something of Mother Teresa's spirit, we need something of the Man on the Beach's

spirit. Well, I'm going to start with this one. It may only

be one, but I'm going to start with this one. And I want

to start with some simple questions, which is okay, if we're going to

enlarge the kingdom, if we're going to reach the lost, let's start with

one at a time. Let's not worry about ten or twenty or fifty.

Let's start with one. If every one of you in this room pray for

somebody this week and God answered that prayer and that person turned to Christ or

that and we read in scripture so many times about how you and your household

will be saved. So one gets saved, and then the household gets saved

as the household gets changed. And I think people are looking for life,

they're looking for hope, they're looking for life in all its fullness. In

the Book of Psalms. David wrote this. Davy gave us an illustration here

out what it was like. He shall be like a tree planted by the

rivers of water that brings forth fruit in its season, whose leaf will shall

not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. There's life that speaks of

life. People are people are drawn to life. Some of you have heard

us talk about a guy called Keith Hazel, who was the founder of the

network that we're part of. A lovely guy from Essex who spent decades in

Canada. And I remember being at a conference once and it was conference with

of all ages. And at this conference, at the end of the worship

there was a time of ministry and then the kind of service broke and there

was a big gathering crowd. So Keith was in his late sixties. There

was a big gathering, a crowd down the front, twenty thirty young people

all gathering around somebody and something was going on. God was moving. Went

down the front to join in and realized amongst all these twenty somethings and teenagers,

right in the middle was Keith. You know, people gather around life,

and when we show life, people come to us. Why are you

so happy today? What makes you smile? Why aren't you miserable? Why

aren't you stressed about what's going on in the news today? Well, I

have a piece in my heart. Okay. The government's that, the Prime

minister's changing, okay, but God's still in control. It's very, very

easy to have the boat of our lives kicked off course, blown off course

by the winds of news. Do you know what if we allow the headlines

to decide how we feel today, we've missed something somewhere. If we allow

the headlines of news to decide whether we're up here or down here, Actually

we need to be a firmostat, not a thermometer. We need to be

setting the temperature, not following what's going on. And then let me read

on into Ephesians now, as it says this in Ephesians chapter two, verses

nineteen and twenty. And this is a great, a great scripture. And

I remember we had a he wasn't a young man, he was a mature

student from Ghana, and he spent a year with us as he studied actually

at Brunel University when Brunel was up at Englefield Green. And I remember having

a farewell barbecue, and he quoted the scripture. He said, you welcomed

me as a stranger. You made me feel at home, and I felt

part of the family very very quickly. And therefore this we read from Ephesians

too, Verses nineteen and twenty. Now, therefore you are no longer strangers

and foreigners, but fellow citizens, with the saints and members of the household

of God. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

Jesus Christ himself the cornerstone. So when we start to realize, when we

start to recognize that Christ is the corner staying the foundation, So whatever dreams

and visions we have, there is a cornerstone upon which we can build our

faith. And how can we build well? I'll read one of my favorite

psalms, some forty six says this. Some forty six says this God is

our refuge and strength and a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will

not fear. And I'm probably reading this prophetically for some people this morning.

Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth shall be removed, and

though the mountains will be carried into the midst of the sea. Though it's

waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling. There

is a river whose streams shall make glad. The City of God, the

holy Place of the Tabernacle of the Most High God, is in the midst

of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her. Just

at the break of dawn, nations raged, the Kingdom's were moved. He

uttered his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of Hosts is with us.

The God of Jacob is our refuge. There's a lot of noise going

on around you run to him. If you're not sure, stand on the

cornerstone that is Christ. But whatever dream or whatever vision God's given you,

our mission is clear. There's a film series. There used to be a

TV program called Mission Impossible, and some of us, sometimes, I'm sure,

feel that this mission is impossible. It's in Matthew chapter twenty eight and

begins at verse eighteen, and it says this. Then the eleven disciples went

away into Galilee, to the mountains which Jesus had appointed for them. When

he saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubt it, and Jesus

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

in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them 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 end of the age.

Our mission is clear. Go into all the world. And that world starts

with one, starts with the next step. It starts with reaching somebody,

sharing love, sharing a meal, sharing a blessing, praying, telling them

about Jesus, whatever visions and dreams God gives us, whatever journey He calls

us on. Behind it is this mission statement, Ye into all the world,

and start with one. Don't point to the church and say it's it's

the churchy stop. Yes it is the churchy stop. But we are the

church. You can point at me and say it stay's job. Yes,

it's my job, it's our job. Go ye into all the world.

Doesn't mean we have to get on a plane. Doesn't mean we need to

get all our inoculations. There's plenty of people doing that already. There are

many people who are traveling around the world reaching. But if we just reached

our neighbors. Then we like that man on the beach, and like Mother

Teresa would say, Okay, the world. Up is the world. Yes

there is this ocean of need, Yes there is this world's desperation. But

I'm going to make a difference to this one. And I'm going to make

a difference to this one, and I'm going to make a difference to this

one. For God is good. Let me pray, Father, I pray

that for the dreamers amongst us, Lord, you give us a dream,

for those who see pictures, Lord, give us a vision, and leaving

for those who don't, Lord, show us something of how you're calling us

into the next season and to the next days. Father, you do exceedingly

abundantly more than we ask or imagine. So Father, I pray that you'd

help us to look beyond the limitations of what we ask for, to see

your provision, to see your kingdom, come, to see your kingdom enlarged,

to see lives changed, to see circumstances turned around, just as Maria

share with us, Lord God, as that child and that situation. Lord,

now that family has a home, and the husband has a job,

and the children are well. Father, thank you that you go before us.

Open our eyes to what you see. Help us to do the one

thing that you call us to do today, will help us to do it.

Joy, help us to do it. Passion, help us to do

it. Purpose and Lord, when we run out of ourselves, help us

to be men and women of faith, because that's when we need to lean

on you. Lord, when we run out of our capacity, when we

run out of the words to say, or the wisdom and the knowledge of

what to do. Father, would you give us gifts of wisdom and knowledge?

Would you give us words of prophecy? Lord, would you release miracles

and healings and tongues, o God, to speak into situations? For Father,

God, you call us as your people to follow your son Jesus.

As we follow him, we want to follow him and do what he called

us to do. Go ye into all the world and make disciples. Help

us to be disciple makers, that we might change the world one step at

a time, one person at a time, one moment at a time.

For your glory, we pray and Jesus name, Amen,