Northside Church - Sydney
Christmas: Tis the Season to be Daring Week 3: Will You Take A Risk?
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Guys, did you have any imaginary characters when you were growing up? People you spoke to, confided in, had adventures with? Nobody could see them. You could see them. I had a character called Kerry, I don't know why I picked that name, but he was a famous racing car. Is there something about that Lisa? I just thought of that, you being a psychologist, you might have picked something there. Kerry, and he was a famous racing car driver, and so I would in the person of Kerry do all sorts of laps in racing in famous races, and it was sort of just understood in our family. That's Graham, you know, yeah, he does that. I was about seven, and invariably used to pick one and only seat in most bathrooms to do most of my racing driving. On this particular occasion in our house in Wiley Park, I'll never forget this, there was a moment I had some friends over, and they were having great conversation, and there was a lull in the conversation, just as I entered the last lap of this important race, and there was this huge place to do, the noise of fair effects, everything. And this lull in the conversation, he said, "My gosh, what's that?" And my mother just simply apparently said, "Oh, that's Graham, it's race day, you know, he's racing, he's having a race." And they, I don't know what they thought, but you know, it was, but you know, I've always been fascinated by the imaginative powers of little children, you know. My own two kids, Tomara and Cameron, they had it, and now of course I'm reliving it through my four grandkids, and we're in Adelaide the other week, just overnight for a birthday, and I happen to show the kids a photograph, among other things, of a limo that we'd taken on holidays, it was a long stretch, pink limo. And as we went to the car after showing these photos, my little seven-year-old granddaughter, Kaynes, sent our grandpa, you know, "Can the car be my limo? I'm the princess now, and you are my driver, you're my servant." And like for the next couple hours, I'd take on this voice, you know, sort of poshy voice, you know, and she's talking in this flowery way, she's a princess, I'm the driver, there's a limo, and she could carry this on for a couple of hours, it was fantastic, you know. Mind you, the same little girl, it is a worry, she, we rang a few months or so ago, and we're chatting away with her on the phone, had it on speaker, and at one point said to Kaynes, "Look, we'd better have a talk to mum, our daughter, Tomara." And she said, "Oh, okay, no worries." So a bit of a gap took place, then she came back and it's her impersonating our daughter. She said, "Hi mum and dad, how are you going?" Because you've got to carry it on, you know. And so I thought the obvious question would be, "Oh, how's Kaynes?" "Oh, Dad, you unbelievable, she's a fan, she's such a great girl." She really deserves a lot for Christmas, like as you've given her a list of it, whoa. Now, I'll grant you, there's a very fine line there between imagination and deception, and we are monitoring that very carefully. But you know, look, we're all born with an amazing ability to imagine. Fantastic. Sadly, as the years go by, we lose some of that ability, and we're actually encouraged to believe that imagination is something that needs to, we need to outgrow it. We need to get back in touch with the real world to focus on things as they are right now. And of course, it was Einstein who said that imagination is more important than knowledge. He actually believed that there were children who, if given the opportunity, could solve some of the problems he was grappling with because of their uninhibited, unbridled imagination. That was his belief. But once we hit our adult years, we're expected to be a lot more down to earth, a lot more grounded. But you know, friends, that's not how it's meant to be in the kingdom of God. That's not how it's meant to be in the faith economy. It's God, our Father, who leads the way in this, by the way. And that's where we drop on to the verse that was, or one of the verses that was read to us by James, Ephesians 3, 20, have a look at it. God is able to do much more than we can ever ask for or even think of. God is able to do much more than we can ever ask for or even think of. Some versions say more than we can ask for or even imagine. Our God is an imaginative, creative, inventive being. We can trace this, well, his gift of Jesus as the Savior of the world is one of the most amazing expressions of his imagination and his creative genius. But creation itself is a magnificent expression of God's imagination. The Bible tells us that in the beginning, the earth was without form and desolate void, some of the versions say. And so that was the blank canvas on which God had to work in terms of the creation, the beautiful creation that we see all around us. And earth that was desolate, devoid of form and feature. Now let's face it, everything that is created, everything that is fashioned or achieved at first is the product of somebody's imagination, you know, jewelry, a garden, inventions of all kinds, machinery, buildings. They're all the product initially of somebody's imagination, like I've seen in the CBD, where a giant skyscraper is just about completed, in fact, they're having an opening day. And it's a product of all the latest architectural and engineering design work, it's beautiful. And somebody happens to remark to somebody in the crowd, isn't it sad that the architect unexpectedly died a couple of months into the project. He never lived to see it, and the person wisely replied, oh, he saw it all right. He saw it. That's why it's here, you know. He saw it in his imagination right at the beginning. Well, throughout the Bible, God stimulates people at their point of imagination. It's one of the ways in which he motivated people, Abraham, you're going to be the father of a great nation. Imagine that, Moses, you are going to lead my people out of slavery. You imagine that, David, you are going to slay a giant against all odds. Imagine that. Dear Maya, you are going to lead a group of people who in record time will restore the broken walls of my city, Jerusalem. You are going to do it. Imagine that. Mary, you are going to be the mother of my son. You will facilitate the process of the Son of God, the Messiah, coming into the affairs of men. Imagine that. You. Friends, in each of these cases and in so many other moments we could bring the bear on this, these people had their faith stretched. They had their capacity in terms of their ability expanded beyond their wildest imagination. That's the way it was. All because they responded to a specific call, a call from God which had arisen out of his imagination. He could see it. Now we may never receive a call on the same scale as some of these biblical greats, but you know, there's a strong sense in which we're all being invited constantly, day by day, to get involved, to participate in God's creative, imaginative mission. That's life in the kingdom. That's life for a disciple. And it's never more obvious and more possible than at Christmas time when the opportunities are many more because of people's receptivity at a spiritual level. Friends, you see, the birth, the life and ministry of Jesus were intended to stimulate people's imaginations. What I'm getting out of here is prior to the arrival of Jesus, his love, his grace, all of his attributes were real, they were always there, but there were somewhat obscured for many people amid the plethora of traditions and customs and laws, whereas Jesus was God in a body, God in a visible form. The people could see something, they could have a relationship with someone, made all the difference. Remember, John the Baptist, at one point in his ministry when he was in prison. John the Baptist started off in such a flurry of fans of activity, preparing the way of the Lord, preaching a message of renewal and repentance, bringing people to a point of receptivity and readiness for the coming of the Messiah, then it all went pear-shaped. And John the Baptist finds himself in prison. And in one of the most poignant moments of the whole of the New Testament, it's recorded in Luke chapter 7 verses 18 and following, John sends some of his followers to Jesus to see if he's the real deal, to ask if he's the one they've been looking for, or should they be looking for somebody else? It's recorded in verse 19 of Luke chapter 7. Are you the one John said, sorry, are you the one John said was going to come, or should we expect someone else? Now, friends, that's a severe expression of doubt, would you agree? I mean, that's not a mild query about Jesus' methods, that's not just a comment or a question about his teachings, I mean, that's a profound statement of uncertainty about his very identity. So, take heart if you've ever had any serious doubts. He's John the Baptist riddled with doubts. And what is the response from Jesus? What does Jesus say in response to this question? And of course, this question would echo down through the generations. It's expressed in many forms by anybody who's got doubts about who Jesus is. What was Jesus' answer? It's recorded in verse 22. Tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind see, the lame walk, those with dreaded skin diseases are healed, the death here, the dead are raised to life, and the good news is preached to the poor. You notice Jesus doesn't say, well, tell John I've got answers to all the great philosophical questions of life, and he just want to stick with the course, it'll be okay. Well, John, I have rules for him and for all of you to follow. It doesn't say, I have a formula for a long and lasting life. Keep listening. He simply says, you tell John to imagine lives being transformed forever. You tell John to imagine people who previously had no hope, and now they are being reborn with life, with hope, with eternal joy. You tell him to imagine that, and you tell him you've seen that. Well Jesus, through the sheer power and impact of his ministry, was stimulating people at the point of their imagination as to what is possible as to what was possible at that time. If he's in 320, doesn't say God is able to do far more than we can remember. It doesn't say that. It says he's able to do far more than we can imagine. People of faith live primarily out of their imagination, not out of their memory. People of faith live far more out of their imagination than out of their memory. Memory's good. We have an amazing facility called a brain whereby we can remember all kinds of things, and memories are good, and memories are good. We learn from the past. We grow from the past. It's all good, but it's our ability to imagine that brings us into alignment with where God is heading, with kingdom values, with his plan and purpose for the world. He was 11, verse 1. You know it so well. What does it say? To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. To have faith is to be sure of the things we cannot see. So, one of the questions to ask this Christmas, and I ask it of myself, what kind of Christmas are you thinking about? What kind of Christmas are you imagining, just another predictable Christmas, or one in which you are going to be more open to God than ever before, a Christmas in which your level of generosity to all the needy causes around the place is going to be higher than ever before, higher than you've imagined. Is it going to be a Christmas in which your willingness to have some of those risky conversations we talked about the other week? In response to people's receptivity, the other question, what are you doing for Christmas? Well, part of my Christmas will find me in church. This is the best season of the year for me. Is it going to be a Christmas where your prayerful availability to God is higher than in previous years? You say, "Well, Graham, my Christmas is a fairly routine." They're fairly predictable. We've got to go certain places, we've got to meet certain people. It's all pretty well set out. It's been like that for as long as I can remember. And my word to you and to me, first and foremost, is people of faith live out of their imagination. What out of their memory? So guys, have an imaginative Christmas this year. Have a risky Christmas. Put your hand firmly into the hand of the God who says, "I can do more than you can ask for," or even in your wildest dreams, imagine, trust me, let's do it together. Have a risky, imaginative Christmas. Do you believe that's possible? I hope you do. Let's be on prayer. [BLANK_AUDIO]