Northside Church - Sydney
Family Service
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Wow, well in that clip that you have to sing, how do you think Blue felt when he was trying to fly? Do you think he might have been a bit scared? Did you hear him scream? I'm pretty sure I hear him scream. Oh, you know, we've been learning a bit about how we can always trust God no matter what, haven't we? And sometimes life can be a bit scary. We don't know what to do, we don't know where we're going, we don't know how to get through, but we can trust in God. Well, put it this way. If a bird couldn't fly, a blue couldn't fly, imagine if all he would do was walk around. Do you think his life might be a little bit poor? Do you think he'd kind of been missing out on something? Well, he couldn't have been soaring through the sky with his friends, but he was just walking along. He was kind of missing out. You know, God intended for us to keep on growing, and not just physically, but also in our relationship with him. Just like Blue had to trust in the direction of how to fly, we need to trust in Jesus because he's got some things that he wants to show us. I think he's got some things he wants to show us today, too. Well, we've been talking about how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, haven't we? And what about when he healed the centurion's servant and did he come a crazy raging storm? Yeah. Yeah. Well, Jesus is amazing, and we can trust in what he's doing in us. And if we trust in God to show us, he will grow us to be incredible people and use us in amazing ways. So if we don't really want Jesus to grow us, I wonder what things he wants to show us. Why does he even want to show us? Well, do you remember our very, very first memory verse this turn? It's a long way away. How about I help you out, was it he cares for, who does he care for? Oh, he cares for you. And one Peter four, verse six, it says that God cares for us. He cares for us so much that he wants to grow us, he cares for us so much, he wants us to be the person that he created us to be and to do that, we have to grow. So what things do we need to open our eyes to in our own lives? See, as I mentioned, Blue had to realize what he was missing out on by not flying, right? So he could have been soaring in the clouds, watching everyone below, watching everyone play underneath. He could have even been hanging up with his friends up there, just chilling out, talking, I don't know what they do up there, but maybe, or if you're a bird, right? He could have been looking at his friends and they go, you know, today I want to go over there. Now, for Blue who couldn't fly, he couldn't just get up and fly. He could watch all his friends, just get up and go there instantly. But if he wanted to go over there, he would have to walk. It's a bit long as another few are a bird, well, just like Blue, we have to see what we're missing out on so that we realize we need to change and grow, too. So what things might be stopping you from being more like Jesus? What about anger? Do you get angry? Yeah. Do you get angry? Sometimes we do get angry, we get really grumpy when things don't work out, they don't go the way we want. Maybe you even have your brother or sister when you shouldn't have, or say some words that you maybe shouldn't have, so sometimes we can get a little angry. What about disobedience? Do you disobey your mum and your dad sometimes? Yeah. Maybe you're told to go and pick up all your toys and you just keep on going and playing and just ignore it. Well, maybe your dad tells you to turn off the TV, so you just keep on watching TV and pretend you didn't hear it, sometimes you can say. Sometimes we just are bad. Well, there's another one that I can think of and that we've been talking a bit about this this term is not forgiving. We learned about forgiveness, didn't we, and imagine if your brother accidentally hurt you or he pushes you, you might want to turn around and hit him back, might you? So that's kind of not really forgiving. Maybe we should just talk it out and say, "I forgive you, I'm sorry." Or how about lying? What about at night when mama asks you to brush your teeth and you're kind of like, she asks you, she's like, "Did you brush your teeth?" And she's, and you're like, "Oh, yeah, of course I did. Did you really brush your teeth?" Or are you just not quite telling the truth? What about not showing love? That lonely person in your class who's just new to school, doesn't have any friends. You walk straight past them or that annoying kid at school who irritates you so much. Have you thought about asking them to come and hang out with you? You know, sometimes we don't like the things that God shows us, they're not very nice things are they? But let him show you, let God show you how he can grow you and change you. So if you guys ever tried to grow anything, anyone here ever tried to grow anything? Well when I was younger you might not pick this but I had a bit of a green thumb and so my parents let me have two garden beds in our place and I used to grow these plants. I'm not actually sure what I was growing because some of them grew and some of them didn't and I'm not a very great gardener and so some places there would be more weeds than there was actually plants because I just was pro let's let everything grow including weeds. And some places there just was a lot more rocks than there actually was plants and I couldn't work out why these plants wouldn't grow. So this term at youth we have actually been looking at parables and if you ask one of the youth I'm sure that they're going to be able to tell you that a parable is a story that Jesus taught that has a meaning for us about how he can live like a kingdom person. So maybe this morning come and find a youth kid and ask them what a parable is and hopefully that's the answer they'll give you. So one of the parables that we looked at this term at youth was the parable of the sower which one of our youth leaders and youth kids read so beautifully this morning. And so just like me God is trying to tell us how he can grow how he wants to grow but he's not talking about how he wants to grow plant. Jesus is talking about us about how God wants to grow us and so the story about Jesus is sharing is about different seeds that were dropped on different soils. So some of the seeds that he dropped along the way he dropped them along and they dropped along a path, don't worry I will clean these up, dropped along a path but they were eaten by the birds and then along they dropped over like a stony place and they grew fast but then the sun came out because the roots went very deep they died and then they kept on growing they were dropping along like a weedy place and they grew but like my plants the weeds out grew the plant and killed it and then it kept on coming along and it got to the good soil and look what's at the good soil. It's a tree that grew and the tree that grew in the story also had fruit on it. And so Jesus was talking about how he can grow things so what does this parable mean for us in our lives and not only did our youth learn this this is a great story that all of us can learn. So for some of us it might be how the stories about how we respond when we hear God's word. So for some of us we might be like to see that's dropped along the path and when we hear it we don't really want to pay attention we're not really interested in what's going on and so nothing comes of it. For others of us it might be when we're along the weedy place and we hear the truth that faith is suffocated and taken away by things that we're scared of and so it doesn't find steady ground and it doesn't grow. Or it might be in the stony soil and where we hear the message and we're really excited and things grow but it dies when situations come along that are too hard for us to handle and we go it's just too hard. But for some of us we also might be like the good soil in which when we do hear the word and we put it into practice then our fruit is grown from that and so some things we want to talk to you about how Jesus wants us to grow and so for us we need to identify for God to be able to grow us we need to identify the things that are stopping us from growing. So for some of us it might be an element of fear that's stopping us from growing we're scared about what others might think of us but we're also scared of what might happen if we actually do trust and grow. But for others it might be our friends, it might be what our friends think they might say or trusting in God is silly but that stops us from growing. It might be time we might be like I don't have too much time I might play too much play station I might play watch too much TV and so time is a big thing that's stopping us from growing. Others of us might think you know what this Christianity stuff is just a little too hard it's too hard for me to work out I just can't be bothered it's too hard and for others of us it's just where our priorities lay it might be like you know what it's gray about Jesus but I'm just not going to put it as a priority and so there might be things that are stopping us from growing but the thing is God's plan is that through trusting in Him that we will grow in Him so that He can flow through us. So how are you going to let God grow you because amazing things happen when He grows Him just like a tree grows out of a sea we can be changed in shapes to be incredible people. So just like our hearts can be different soils there's really only one soil that I think God wants to be like right and He doesn't want us to give up when things get hard you know Jesus really wants to show you so that He can grow you and then He can flow through you but sometimes these things in life just block the way sometimes they're given the way maybe it's anger or disobedience or fear or time well sometimes they're a bit like the weeds in our life right they can block the way and you just can't see where you're going they can get in the way well sometimes we can get stuck and the good things don't grow well God doesn't want us to be boxed in because He created us for more than that and just like blue had to learn to fly we have to knock the boxes out of the way and let go flow through us because He wants to grow us to be something better well do you remember the story about the lost son he went away he wasted all his money didn't he and then he came back and his father forgave him that was incredible forgiveness and the widow who gave everything do you remember how many coins she had Jesus was watching her at the temp she had two coins that's right and she gave her everything now that was pretty amazing generosity what about the good Samaritan he showed incredible love to even his enemies so just like God can use those people he can use us when He grows us and shapes us to be more like him he can flow through us and we can shine his love his light his forgiveness his kindness to our friends to our families and even our enemy so I wonder what soil you are what do you need to take charge of in your life to become the good soil what weeds or things in life are boxing you in because when God shows you what you need to change he can grow you and flow through you now in the next few moments we're going to have some time to respond and the children will have given you a little leaf when you came in if you didn't get one there's some spares and there's also some pens up the front here but we wanted you to think about what God might be showing you that you need to work on and you can change so that you can grow you so write one thing on your leaf and then bring your leaf up and we're going to put them on the tree there are the dead looking at the moment but when we continue to work on those things and allow God to grow us these trees will bring life so when we trust God and ask him to help us change us he will grow us so that he can flow through us and as we respond we also have the time of communion as well and so did you know that like plants when they need to get their nutrients and they need to grow they need to be realigned with the sun and for us when we come to communion it's about us realigning not with the sun but with the heavenly sun and so as you come forward and you respond on the trees and you put out the thing that you need to trust God with will you please also either bring your family or someone that you're with and partake in communion as remember what Jesus did thank you.