3rd July 2022 - Communion Service - Dave Food - Dare to dream

M giving your father. We just thank you for Dave. Thank you for

his faithfulness. Thank you for using him as your mouth piece. Lord.

You pray that you open our eyes, ears, hearts to receive from you

today. You pray that you've blessed Dave, you protect him, you have

left him. You fill in with strengths and its mighty spirit. Thank you,

Lord, Jesus name my man. Thank you Nikki. Morning everybody.

Great to have you with us, those in the room. Great to have

you joining us online from those around the world and saw us first for the

first time, I think someone joining us from Ghana. So welcome, whoever

you are. It's great to gather around God's words. And we step into

as Nikki said, we step into July. I know Yasmin's enjoying July because

he's the middle of Wimbledon, and she loves Wimbledon. So I don't need

to ask what Yasmin's been watching in the in the week this week. But

the sunny shining, it's a glorious day. And we step into a new

theme that in July. We're stepping into a theme of dreams and visions.

I wonder how many of us dream I wonder how many of us remember our

dreams. It's funny when you get a conversation over a couple couple of people.

So I had a strange dream last night, and somebody will turn to

you and say, well, I don't think I ever dream, you know,

And we have a strange old spectrum of dreams. Some people dream.

And my understanding of something of what's going on inside our minds is that our

minds are processing the things that we have learned and thought through the day.

And that's one of the reasons why I understand and believe that little children sleep

a lot and older people sleep a lot because they've got a lot to process.

I don't know whether that's true. I might be completely wrong, it

might be a complete myth, but it feels nice, and so we go.

I want to bring as the first in our theme today, dare to

dream? Can we dare to dream? There's plenty of stories in the Bible

about dreams and visions. Let's start with the one that we all know so

well that you could probably sing some songs to go along with, which is

the story of Joseph. In Genesis thirty seven, verses one to four,

it says this now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger,

in the land of Canaan. This is the history of Jacob. Joseph,

being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers, and

the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilphar and his

father's wives, and Joseph bought a bad report of them to his father.

Now, Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son

of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors.

But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers,

they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him. So there's Joseph,

not liked by his brothers. Special son. And as we know in

the title Joseph's Coat of Many Colors. Anybody name of color in the Coat

of many Colors? Right, yep, yep, yes, well done.

And I'm sure you're already if anybody's ever sung it, you're probably already singing

a red and yellow and and off we go. So he was a special

son. And the first thing I want to start off after this, after

this afternoon, sid no, not quite. This morning is your special.

Just like Joseph was special to his father, you're special to our father.

You're special, and in being special, you're unique. And being unique,

there's no one else like you. So let's view Joseph as a special child

of God. In verse five, it goes on to say, now Joseph

had a dream, and he told this to his brothers, and they hated

him even the more. So he said to them, please hear this dream

which I have dreamed. There were binding sheaves in the field. There behold,

my sheaf arose and stood also upright, And indeed your sheaves bowed down

all around and bowed down to my sheaf. And his brother said to him,

shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over

us? So they hated him even the more for his dreams of his words.

Then he dreamed still yet another dream, and told it to his brothers

and said, look, I've dreamed of another dream. And in this dream,

the sun, moon and the eleven stars bowed down to me. And

so he told it to his father and to his brothers. And his father

rebuked him and said, what is this dream that you have dreamed your mother,

and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before

you. And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in

mind. The first thing I want to say to you is there are dreamers.

I have actually performed in Joseph and His technicallor dream Coat, and I

remember there's a moment in the music or when we shout out here comes the

dreamer, Here comes the dreamer. And you've probably got friends who are a

bit like that. They're always in dreamland. They're always you know, you

ask them a question and they go, what pardon that? They're away sometimes

we might say away with the fairies, or they're somewhere else. They're not

in the room. They're physically in the room with us, but they're daydreaming.

They're thinking about something else. And the thing I want to say to

all of us this morning is there are dreamers. That's a statement of truth.

And when I'm talking about dreams here, I'm not always talking about night

dreams. I'm talking about have a concept of picture of who you are and

where you're going. Because one of the reasons I believe the sons the brothers

hated him because this dream was because a dream gives us hope, a dream

gives us a forward purpose. Whenever we describe ourselves, we typically describe ourselves

from our history. Where we've been, what we've done, what we studied,

where we lived, what jobs we did. That's how we tend to

describe ourselves. We look back, we look in the rear view mirror.

Now, let me just ask you a question, for those drivers in the

room, for those drivers at home, how many of us drive our car

by only looking in the rear view mirror. Nobody does. Okay, we

do look in the rear view mirror from time to time, sometimes just to

see whether we made the right decision and to see what's going on behind us.

But we really drive looking forward. And that's where I want to set

a picture today and say, Okay, let's get a dream, let's get

some hope, let's get some purpose. If we're always looking backwards, if

we're always looking about where we've been, where things have gone wrongs, where

our hopes have been dashed, hope is gone. Any hope in the past

is in the past. Any hope for the future leads us to a place

of momentum, of destiny, of purpose, and that's what I believe.

Dreams are often about. Dreams are often about calling us forward. If as

a small child you had a dream of a particular birthday present, you'd ask

your mum and dad for this present all throughout the year, and then you

wake up on birthday morning. You don't lie in bed as a little child

kind of going I'll wait and see what happens. You don't think back and

think, oh, I didn't get the present I wanted last year. You

leap out of bed, you run downstairs, probably at four or five o'clock

in the morning, and you then want to wake up mom and dad because

you want to open your presence, and you look at the presents and you

think, ah, I'm so excited because there's anticipation. It's hope in your

heart. Dreams give us hope. So I want to encourage you. Get

hold of your dreams, listen to God, hope and believe. Now,

I guess there's a question that we're asking here, is okay this dream that

David, this dream that Joseph had, did he know it was a dream

from God at that point? Was he just a dream? Did he sense

that it was something that God was showing him, because there are times when

we have dreams and we don't know whether they're quite aligned with God. And

when I'm using the word dream, now, we have a dream to do

something, to be something, to have achieved something. We're not quite sure

whether that's a dream from God or just a nice idea from us. Do

you know what I would encourage you, as I believe Joseph did. He

brought the dream back to God and said, Lord, if this is from

you, show me, confirm it to me. So we align our dreams

with what God is saying. We bring God's perspective. You know what has

God got for us? In Jeremiah twenty nine, verse eleven, it says

God has good for us, plans for us, purposes for us. Well,

let's align ourselves to those plans. There's nothing wrong with having healthy,

wholesome dreams. Let's say, for example, you wanted to go and watch

your favorite team, whatever your team is. You've never been before, you've

never been to the ground, and you want to. That's a reasonable dream.

It's not unhealthy or unwholesome. And the day it happens, you'll be

sitting on the edge of your seat. Thing I'm here, I'm sitting in

the ground. A young man who used to come to she's no longer a

young man, and she's but Alex, who used to be part of our

youth group. He went to the new Spurs stadium, and I'm a Spurs

supporter, and I didn't get to go. That's that's okay. I've never

been to the new stadium. But he brought me back a shirt, so

at least I've got a shirt to say I know the shirt has been to

the stadium. Now, there are other dreamers in the Bible. Another dreamer

would be David. And let me just read to you something here. This

is why I think dreams are important. In One Chronicles, chapter seventeen,

verses four to seven, it says this, Now it came to pass when

David was dwelling in his house that David said to Nathan the prophet, See

now I dwell in the house of Cedar, but the ark of the Covenant

of the Lord is under the tent in curtains. Then Nathan said to David,

do all that is in your heart for God to do, for God

is with you. God has shown David something about worship and the tabernacle,

and so he shared it with the prophet Nathan. He goes on to say

this, But it happened that night that the word of God came to Nathan,

saying, go and tell my servant David. Thus says the Lord,

you shall not build me a house to dwell in. For I have not

dwelt in a house since the time that I brought up Israel, even to

this day, but have gone from tent to tent, and one, from

one tabernacle to another, wherever I have moved about with all Israel. Have

I spoken a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded

to shepherd my people, saying why have you built me a house of Caesar?

Now? Therefore, thus you say to my servant David, Thus says

the Lord of Hosts, I look you from the sheepfold, from following the

sheep, to be ruler over my people of Israel. David had been a

shepherd, he'd been a faithful shepherd, and now he wants to glorify God,

and he wants to build a house of God. And he shares it

with the prophet, and the prophet brings God's perspective. Nothing wrong with dreaming,

but Now we get a shaping of the dream. Now we get a

nudging. David listens, David pays attention. David also, when he was

troubled, would use his dreams and his hope to drive him forward. In

one Samuel thirty, at the end of verse six, it says this,

but David strengthened himself in the Lord, He's God. He took hold of

the promises. He looked back and said, God, you have been faithful,

and I believe you will be faithful in the days ahead. Something I

think I can honestly say to you is this, we will not fulfill dreams

that we choose to let go. I am sure most of us in the

room probably have a had at some point a dream to do something, to

be something, to go somewhere, and we've laded them. Well, really,

very very unlikely that dream is going to be fulfilled. And I can

I am absolutely sure that we know people who keep on telling us about their

dream, their aspiration. There's a beautiful story in a book called by Rob

Parsons called The Heart of Success, and he talks about how a young disabled

man that he knew wanted to build and an assault course for disabled people so

you know the kind of thing I'm talking about now, the kind of thing

where you pull hisself up ropes and you go across high wires, you know,

and everybody around him, still around him, said you're crazy. How

can we have wheelchairs up in the air and things like this. So anyway,

he found a wife, they got married and they both had the dream

to create this as salt course. And they bought a house and they did

it up, and then they sold that house and bought another house and did

that up, and then they had enough money to buy some land, and

they brought some land and they built this assort course. This assort course is

still there in Northamptonshire. It's a place where you can safely take disabled people

around, you can even take that I've seen pictures. I've never been to

it, but I've seen pictures of blind people walking down rope walks and I

just think, Wow, what must that feel like? Or are they completely

unscared at all because they have no idea that they're forty feet up in the

air. I don't know, but I find it fascinating. He had a

dream, He and his wife had a dream, and they did not put

it down. It took them near twenty years to get that, but they

got there. They built this assault course and it's still there, and it's

a legacy that they will leave behind when they pass on. Hold on to

your dreams, they speak of hope. Another story in the same book that

I talk about, The Heart to Success, Rob Parsons talks about his dad

and I don't know what your attitude when you have a dream to do something

for God. But his dad was a postman and he caught his dad one

day polishing his shoes. I've just been polishing yet most of us probably polish

our shoes, probably less than we used to. But he was polishing his

shoes and he watched and he observed his father polished the soles of his shoes.

Now most of you are looking at me thinking that's a bit strange,

that's crazy. And Rob said to his dad, he said, Dad,

why are you polishing the show the soles of your shoes. No one will

ever see them because they're always down. He said, son, I am

delivering the royal Male And he said, maybe the Queen will not see that

I'm polishing my shoes, but I'm going to be looking the best that I

can possibly look in all directions. He said, that's why I polish the

bottom of my shoes. And I thought, here's an interesting thought. What's

our attitude. We're messages of the King. You know, some of us

will be part of fulfilling other people's dreams. Some of us will be part

are fulfilling other people's prophecies. I might take you back and give you an

earworm right now. But here's two great quotes that I'm sure whenever we talk

about dreams you think of I have a dream, a song to sing.

Where does it come from? Abbat? Yeah? Absolutely? And then another

very very famous person said, I have a dream Martin Luther King. See

I don't I don't even have to prompt you. And you're not I don't

know whether you're abber experts. I mean maybe yasmin is, but we all

probably thought, yeah, and now you're singing LII and now that ear where's

stuck in your head? But that's what I wanted to do. I want

you to have that song in your ear today because I want you to get

to a place where you can say I have a dream. And if you

don't have a fresh one, maybe you've laid it down maybe you need to

pick it up, check it out with God. Maybe time has passed and

it's not biologically or clinically possible for some of those dreams to happen. Well,

okay, ask for a new one. Let's pray and see. Because

the Bible is full of dreamers, and I don't think it's unreasonable say here

comes the dreamer. I think that's a really positive thing. I think some

people are kind of going away. He's away somewhere else, or she's away

somewhere else. If you've got a dream, tell someone about it. If

you've got a dream, share it with someone. Keep on sharing it with

him, because I'm pretty sure that's what happened with Josie. Josie just didn't

tell his brothers once. He told them again, I had a dream.

He told them again and again, and they were not just frustrated with the

story of the dream. They were frustrated with the fact that he had a

dream in the first place. And then it was a dream that had hope.

And I hope that every one of you has a dream that will give

you hope. I hope that you have a dream that you can share with

a few people around you, and they can pray into that dream and they

can journey with you. Many many, many years ago, scholar who's a

good friend of ours, who will be coming to speak in September. He's

now based in Berlin with his wife Canbe. He's just celebrated their wedding anniversary.

And he said that the men's breakfast, how he had a dream to

play golf. It's not it's not it's not wrong to play golf. It's

healthy, you get out. Some people describe it as a long walk spoilt.

I don't know whether that's true, but anyway, said I have a

dream to play golf. He said, I feel it's a nudge from God.

And so some of the men decided we're going to be part of this.

So he put some money together and said there's some money for one club.

So we contributed to this one club. Choler learned to play golf.

He learned to play golf in an incredibly short amount of time. He got

to a handicap very very quickly, and he started sharing his faith on the

golf course. And here's the interesting thing. He didn't know this at the

time, but some of the business meetings he then had to have ended up

being on golf courses. He was ready to prepare and we were part of

it because we bought that golf club. There's nothing better than mean part of

someone's stream. When somebody says I've done it, I've got my degree.

I am sure. You can think of people who struggle to get degrees,

mate, you know, or come from families whose parents never had degrees and

nobody'd ever been to you. They're the first person to go to the university

when they then come home and say I've got my degree. There's been quite

a few messages flying around on my Facebook account in the last couple of weeks

because students I taught are now collecting their degrees and they're all excited about and

some of them are from countries abroad and the fact that they're there. One

particular student I think of. She comes from Kazakhstan and she comes from a

less wealthy family. She said, if it wasn't for the fact that I'd

want a scholarship with the government, I would never have done this degree.

So we didn't have the money to do it. Yeah, she was such

an excellent student, such an excellent student, I didn't I hardly had supervisor

at all, and maybe I shouldn't say that. She's such a brilliant student.

Such a brilliant student. She produced the best paper of the year last

year, such a brilliant student that the university that I'm teaching at has put

that forward as a paper to be presented at a research conference. And when

I said, okay, why did you select that paper? So we've never

selected a paper before, We've never selected an master's student paper before to be

presented at this particular conference. So this is breaking ground. I'm having to

have conversations I've never had to have before. And as I was having this

conversation on the phone only on Friday, I said, well, we don't

know whether we're going to be able to get the airfare for her to be

able to come from Kazakhstan to the UK. And I'm sitting there thinking,

Okay, here's a student who could not afford to go to the university.

You got sponsored by the government. She did the best paper she could ever

do. I think an airfare is this in the in the plans of God?

And so I messaged her on Friday and said are you interested in coming?

You know, and she said, well, I don't know how we're

going to get the airfare. I said, let's believe for that. And

she's not a Christian, but I'm saying, let's believe for that. I'm

bringing my faith into the conversation. I said, let's believe for that.

The academic tutor, who was involved in the conversation on Friday, she said,

well, I don't know who's going to pay the conference fees. I

said, well, let's believe. You know, if this is all going

to line up and this dream is going to be fulfilled, let's believe that

the airfare will be paid, the accommodation will be paid, let's believe for

it. And the academic tutor went, yeah, let's do that. This

is a first, this is a first on so many fronts. Let's believe

it. So I'm sharing that with you. That's a journey I'm on with

a student i'm studying with, and who knows what will happen. But I'm

believing for the airfare to be paid. I'm believing for the conference fees to

be covered. I'm believing that the other travel costs will be there. And

that's what I'm praying. So let me ask you the question, then,

are you willing to dare to dream. Are you willing to get a hold

of your dreams? Are you, like Abbott, going to say I have

a dream. If it happens to turn into a song, that's fine as

well. Or if you have a dream that's going to change history, like

Martin Luther King, let me encourage you. Don't put it down. Just

imagine a world where that speech had not been made. I can't even work

out what the world would be like. You know, it's a foundational moment

in time that changed our world, a moment in history. And not every

one of our dreams will change the world's history, but they will change ours.

So let me pray God, You've given us brains to think and to

do and to be, and Father, those brains, when they rest,

and sometimes when they're on pause, they create great ideas. And so Father,

I pray that you'd help us to be dreamers again, Dreamers for the

future, dreamers and believers, and hopers for our friends and our neighbors to

come to Christ, Dreamers and hopers for a better world, dreamers for a

life that he is being changed, and dreamers that have hope in our hearts

which we share with others and bring to pass that which we've aligned to do

with you in Jesus's name. Amen. Do you want me to do the

notices whilst I'm up hearing? Yeah, okay,