Northside Church - Sydney
Never Ending Story Week 1 AM: His, Ours, Your Story
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Well guys, it was the must, the must see movie of 1984, particularly if you had kids, which we did. Hours were eight and six, and I remember going to a cinema in Glimeauge, South Australia, and we saw the movie, The Never Ending Story. Who saw that movie either as a kid or had, oh, stacks of you, just met all of you. It was a great movie. It involved a boy called Bastion, and he started to read a book called The Never Ending Story, even though he was warned not to read it by the owner of the bookstore, but he ended up spending a whole day reading this book. And as he went along, he discovered that the characters in the book are searching for an earthly child to help save their land, which is called Fantasia, to save it from disappearing. And the final scenes of the memorable movie, Bastion makes his startling discovery that the earthling child they are looking for is him. He's the one, and he's meant to get involved in the story and become part of The Never Ending Story. You remember the song that was associated with this movie? It kind of went on and on and on, and if I started a humment now, it would never leave your mind for the rest of the day. Sam caught me singing. You caught me whistling at Sam. He came into my office. He said, "Oh my gosh, Gee, are you whistling at The Never Ending Story?" I said, "Am I?" I wasn't even aware of it, but once I was in preparation, all part of God's preparation for this message, I'm sure. So look, Bastion, he takes this magical step of faith, and he becomes directly involved in the story and saves Fantasia, and it's got a great ending. He was the one, the characters in the book, were looking for to participate in their world, their story. It sounds a bit like the Bible, doesn't it? The Bible is a very different book. It's a unique book. It's different to anything else that we read in this life. Its pages contain not just any old story, it's God's story, the story of his interaction with people down through the generations, and as we read its pages, we, too, are meant like Bastion. We are meant to get involved in the ongoing story of God's plan for his world. I mean, take a passage like Ephesians 2, which was just read to us by Jane. I mean, this is not just, these aren't just static words on a page designed exclusively for the people of the church in Ephesus. No, no, this is a living word, this is a living message. It's meant to ignite passion and enthusiasm in all of us to become part of God's story, to actively participate in his mission to redeem the lost world. Take a look at verse 10, for instance, Ephesians 2, verse 10, God has made us what we are. And in our union with Christ Jesus, he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he's already prepared for us to do. Now, guys, when Paul talks about a life of good deeds, he's not talking about a lifelong sort of scouting bobber job week, you know, where you're helping elderly people across the road or putting trash in the rubbish bin, these things are very important. But that's what we normally associate with good deeds. This is not so much that sort of, this is a lifestyle. This is a lifestyle that arises out of what God is doing in my life and in your life. Are you aware something beautiful is happening? If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, something beautiful is happening in your life. You may not recognize it, you may not give it full credit, you may not give God full access to your life, but potentially something beautiful is happening in your life through the power of the Holy Spirit. And you are designed to make a difference, we all are. We're designed to make a difference in this world. Our world, we are intended to increasingly become part of God's story, his story of redemption and transformation in the world. And friends, you and I have an opportunity to write a few lines every day in that story, maybe even a paragraph or two on a really good day. This is our life for it can be. Rick Russo is a man who's the senior pastor of the church where Tim Foot, those of you remember Tim Foot, what a marvelous contribution he made to life of this church as our worship pastor. Tim Foot is the worship pastor in this church today in Denver, Colorado. And his senior pastor has written a book called Living a Life on Loan, which relates specifically to this topic. And he talks about the components of our existence that we have to offer to the ongoing story. And he talks about our loves for a start. And he says these are our passions, these are our priorities, these are our values. Bill Heibels, we've quoted him many times from this platform, he's the guy who says we ought to get involved in the things that make us cry. Things that really get us to tear up, that get us right there. When we stop to think about it, I think all of us can identify areas of life that touch and nerve within us that are our special feelings of compassion and care and sympathy, maybe even some feelings of righteous indignation under certain circumstances. It might be the plight of the elderly, the plight of children, disadvantaged children. It might be the homeless. It might be those with disability. It might be the plight of people in developing nations, you get the sense that that's something one of the things that presses a particular button in Sarah and in the members of our team, that's where they're going. These represent our loves in life and they're an integral part of the life that God has given to us. It's who we are, it's part of our makeup. And then there are the intersections in life, how we connect with others, the relationships that we form in a thousand and one different ways. The see each intersection as potentially a ministry moment or a ministry opportunity can mean a very interesting, although at times a very scary, ride through life. Within a caring church like Northside, of course, we're making these intersections all the time. I have great delight in introducing established members to new people and I did it several times during the break between services this morning. People who've never met each other before. Piled the same church. Hey, meet so and so and it's great to see people intersecting and relating in that way. Of course, beyond the church, there are many more intersections in our lives. There's the wider family, there's our work colleagues, there's neighbors, there's friends, there's fellow students, if that's where we are in life. And there are people we meet in random situations. Our openness to the opportunities that come our way in these intersections can have a profound effect on our lives and on the lives of those with whom we're meeting. I had a great chat last Sunday with two of our new members, both guys. And they were telling me about their first experience of going to the Gleeb area for our backyard Blitz Ministry. James Kennedy's here this morning. James and Veronica, they're involved heavily in this along with the Toby's earner and others, Anthony Lowe and so on. There's a whole bunch of people go and descend every month on Gleeb, a little community, and under the banner of Hope Street, they clean up backyards and just do crazy stuff and then have a big barbecue. These two guys were having their first exposure and they could not contain themselves as they told me about what it meant to them. And one guy said, "I can't wait another month. I can't wait a month. I want to go back. I want to go back next week." I said, "Well, I've got some jobs at my place, if you want to go." "You're really excited." I said, "No, no, no, I want to go back to the Gleeb." Now, it just really touched my heart that here were some random intersections and these guys got it. They got what it means to just get involved in life like that, to really develop and be ready to intersect with people that in surprising situations and just see where God leads it. Ben Russo talks about our fortune. He means our resources to help and assist others, our gifts and abilities. We often say, "Yeah, that person is worth a fortune." We usually mean their money, their possessions, but an even greater application of this sort of term is in respect to our gifts and abilities. That person made you worth a fortune when it comes to possibilities and giftedness. I love the many references in the ministry of Jesus to people who bought their fortunes to Him. In some cases, large, in some cases, quite insignificant. These are the people who brought things to be used by Jesus, like the little boy of these five loaves and two fishes, the widow's mite and Jesus used that moment to speak a lot about giving, about stewardship, the guy who gave the donkey for Palm Sunday, the people who made available their houses and their boats. Jesus did a lot of preaching from fishing boats, didn't know any of them. People just said, "Look, Jesus, he's my boat." How about the guy who made the upper room available for the Last Supper? These are just some of the things that were brought to Jesus for Him to use, gifts and abilities, fortunes, both large and small. People made them available. The question, of course, underlying in this series is what gifts and abilities am I bringing? Are you bringing to the never-ending story of God's love and justice? Have we got on board with that yet? I mean, in any given month or week, we see that a lot here at Northside. As people are bringing their gifts and their abilities, we would not be the church we are if a lot of people didn't do that, but there's a need for many more to get on board so that we can truly aspire to our full potential in Jesus Christ. That's what this year, we want more and more people, more and more of you on the ministry team exhibiting the sort of passion we saw with Sarah this morning, really just seeing their whole life as an unfolding experience of love and service to Jesus Christ. And our lives have a vital component finally, which Rousseau simply calls eternity. And that's how we can make a difference for eternity, that's what he's talking about. And of course, anything that impacts someone spiritually has enormous impact for eternity. No matter how insignificant, if we touch somebody spiritually, then the impact for eternity is huge and we need to be able to appreciate that. Two of the inhibiting factors here are one, our difficulty in imagining eternity. I mean, how do you get your head around that? And secondly, our preoccupation with things in this life, if we were to measure eternity by starting a ribbon right here, and this is going to be eternity, how far would that ribbon go? If we go to the back wall, if we go to the far western wall of that complex, it would go through Lane Cove, through Ride, Parramatta, right across Australia, beyond Circle the Globe, go beyond the Globe, out and out of space, that's eternity, it has no ending. If we were to describe our lifespan on that ribbon representing eternity, there would be a stopping point, depending on what sort of scale we were using. Beginning point, it might be the back wall, it might be where my office is, who knows? But there'd be a stopping point, there'd be a marker that would indicate that's our life on the total ribbon. Most of us have a preoccupation and an inclination to spend all of our thinking, all of our energies on those two dots, start and finish it, rather than seeing that there's a much longer ribbon unfolding that we can make a contribution to, that gets into the area of getting excited about people, seeing people receive Christ and having their salvation secured, reconnecting with God, discovering new meaning and purpose, that's eternal, and discovering the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Guys, this is the story we're trying to write at Northside. This is the area we're concentrating on, we're looking at things not just temporal, things eternal. A serviceman came to my home just recently, and as inevitably happens, he said, "What do you do?" And I told him, "Pastor, it's different kind of results, depending on who the person is." This guy said, "Oh, church, right, okay," he said, "Church, yeah, I went to church for a while up in service paradise," and he said, "When my wife left me, I thought maybe God's got the answer." And he said, "I went along for a while," and he was quite sort of full on as he said, "Didn't do anything for me, nothing for me." And he said, "Now I'm faced with the particular challenge where my wife is legally trying to keep my three kids from me, and I'm really in strife." And look, I just listened to him, I got to talk to him, I said, "Look, don't base your impression of God on one church." We found out he doesn't live very far from this church. And I gave him my card, said, "Look, give me a call anytime, but particularly I'll have to see you in church." A lot of people in your similar boat, you can connect with them and so on. Look, guys, you know, there was no Hallelujah Chorus, and no sort of, you know, this guy coming dramatically to Jesus, I wish they had been, but there wasn't. But just a chance to listen, to help a young man maybe get a different perspective on the part God wanted to play with him in his moment of crisis, our loves, our passions, our intersections, our relationships, our fortune, our gifts and abilities, our journey through eternity. The acronym, if you haven't already picked it, is life, L-I-F-E. It pretty much encapsulates all we are and all we hope to be. And of course, there's a divine plan unfolding in all of this, in the words of Paul, in that key verse of verse 10, you know, God has made us what we are. And in our union with Christ Jesus, he has created us for a life of good deeds, which he has already prepared for us to do. Friends, there is unbelievable potential in each and every one of us. You know that, don't you? That's why I love holding the little babies up here. You know, when we have a parent child dedication, I love those days. When you can hold a little child, whenever you hold a child in your arms, you just don't know what you're holding. The potential in a life is mind-blowing. Of course, the quest of life is finding out what that potential is for us. And when you've got Jesus Christ in your life, you've got that added dimension because you're not just looking at the physical possibilities and aspirations. You're also moving into this eternal area as well. Many factors inhibit us in the quest to discover our full potential. One of them is the fear of failure. Oh, if I get too involved, if I just go for it, what if I fail? We're seeing all that with the Olympic Games, you know, the drama, you know? Whoa, very scary. We have the potential to make a difference, to use our gifts and abilities, to write a powerful story, but we sometimes lack the courage and the faith to get involved as we really should. And this series is designed to get us involved. Somebody has said, "Don't die with potential. It's better to die with at least I tried." That's far better than dying with, "Yeah, he had potential. We never really saw it, but sure he had it. He wouldn't be there." I love the words spoken by Robert Schuller, a great preacher from America. Many years ago at the memorial service for the astronauts who died in the challenge of disaster of 1986. And Schuller made this comment. He said, "You know what, they died climbing. They died climbing." It's a powerful comment. I've never forgotten it. Yes, the mission failed. But what about the faith, the courage, the commitment, the resilience, the resilience, the resolve that got those astronauts, those seven astronauts to the point where they prepared a step onto that craft in the first place. They died climbing, going for it, doing something. And so this message and this series is about urging and motivating us all to become active participants in the never-ending story of God's love and grace in the world, to become instruments of His peace and justice, in the spheres of influence in which we move. It requires us to be available, to be willing, to just give it all a hope of the God in the knowledge that that move is going to lead us to freedom. It requires a choice, a definite choice of our will. You know, dear Annie Bennett, our business development manager here at the conference this week on her Facebook page for all the world to see, she put this comment, this is Thursday, "16 years ago today, I chose faith and Jesus," and she added, "Best choice I ever made." There's only Bennett. She's writing the story as so many of you are and countless millions of people out there around the world following Jesus Christ. We're participating and partnering with God. We're writing a few lines every day, you and me, as we serve Him, as we seek to make a difference in our world as we live for Him, just writing a few lines every day. It's all part of the never-ending story. As Christians, we're saved from something, but we're saved for something, we're saved from our sins and from eternal death, but we're saved for the task of making a difference. In this way, my story becomes our story as a church and ultimately his story for eternity. It's all part of the privilege of being a participant in the never-ending story. Remember Jimmy Carter? If you're old enough to remember, President Jimmy Carter, he was the man from the South President of the United States for, I think it's one term, I think. He was a Bible teacher. There will still be a Bible teacher in his home church in Plains, Georgia, a great man of God. And this is what he wrote on my occasion, and I close with it, it's very powerful. He says, "My faith demands," it's not optional, "my faith demands I do whatever I can, wherever I can, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try and make a difference." Guys, make a difference this week. Write a few lines on your better days, write a few paragraphs of the never-ending story. We're all participants in it. It's a great plow to witnesses have gone before, and many who go ahead, but this week, right now, as part of a living Word of God, we've got a chance to write some pages, go for it this week in his strength.