[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I want you to have a think about a time when you have experience a change in leadership.
[SPEAKER_00]: It might be a manager that you worked for, might be a boss, it might be like the CEO of the whole company.
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of our children are here in the room with us this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: They experience a change of leadership every single year.
[SPEAKER_00]: As they go into a new school year, you get a new leader, you get a new teacher, you get a new head of your class.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember when I was in grade three, I had the best teacher I had ever had.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mrs. Gristidi, she was smart, she was funny, she was fair, she just wanted all of us to be the best that we could be.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, she did take a couple of days off for professional development during the year.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we got Mr Smith.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was the worst CRT in the whole district.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was grumpy and strict and big and tall and mean.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I even remember when some kids up the front were talking when they shouldn't have been.
[SPEAKER_00]: He slammed the desk down just to get their attention.
[SPEAKER_00]: For those couple of days, our class was completely different.
[SPEAKER_00]: It had a different feel, the different values that were put across by the leader, a leader can make a significant difference, not just to the people working close with them, but to the whole class, to the whole organisation, to wherever they are leading.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are currently in a series called the Kingdom of Heaven is like.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're looking at parables that Jesus tells to explain and to describe what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, this, we do not live in heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: Heaven is that wonderful place that we learn about that we aspire towards, that we know we will experience after this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: This place where there is no suffering, there is no pain, there is no injustice, there's no hate, there's no greed, where God is the king and ultimate ruler.
[SPEAKER_00]: and his values and his character is so strong throughout the whole area.
[SPEAKER_00]: Throughout all of heaven that there is worship and glory and everyone acts in accordance to who God is, what an incredible place.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we don't live in heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: We live on earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And while we get a glimpse of this and while we learn about it and hear about it and get to know God more to understand a little bit of what that might be like, we are well aware that we live on earth, where there is injustice, where there is pain and suffering and grief and hate and selfishness.
[SPEAKER_00]: and that there are things in this world that are so difficult for us to bear and for us to endure.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, even in Scripture, it is very clear that there are different rulers in this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, the evil one, the Satan, in two Corinthians four is called the God of this age.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the Gospel of John, the evil one is referred to
[SPEAKER_00]: There are different leaders and different rulers in this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, we have different actions that aren't in line with God, and aren't in line with who He is and who He desires us to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, Jesus came to this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: A manual, God with skin on came into this world to show us exactly what heaven can be like.
[SPEAKER_00]: He to give us a glimpse of what heaven could truly be and to remind us.
[SPEAKER_00]: that there is another king, that there is another way, that there is a prince of peace and a god who is more powerful, more majestic, more loving than any other ruler that we could have here on earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the thing is, is that the Jews at the time when they were waiting for this Messiah, were waiting for Jesus, someone like Jesus to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were expecting Him together and army to take over the powers and the King and the Pharaohs and the rulers of the time who were evil and not doing what was best for all people, there was injustice and selfishness and power and greed.
[SPEAKER_00]: and they expected that the Messiah would sit on a human throne on earth and through that he would have power and dominion.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we are only a couple of weeks past Christmas.
[SPEAKER_00]: We remember that that is not what God did.
[SPEAKER_00]: God often and almost always does the unexpected.
[SPEAKER_00]: We expect one thing and God moves in a completely different way.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll have a quick look at a video that we usually see around Christmas time, but it is a reminder for us of the unexpected way that God moves and the unexpected actions that God takes even today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks.
[SPEAKER_06]: It is a wonder what we might say if we could pull back the curse on of time to that very first Christmas.
[SPEAKER_06]: If we kiss, I imagine the story began in heaven, something like this.
[SPEAKER_06]: God was looking over Haven's balcony one day, shaking his head at all the wrong things he'd were doing down on earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh man, this isn't quite my head, I don't know, I created earth.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just hard to be friends of Eve when you don't like what they're doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's time.
[SPEAKER_05]: Time for what?
[SPEAKER_05]: What?
[SPEAKER_01]: Time for us to step in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Shall we read in the animal?
[SPEAKER_01]: Take a little listen?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I don't think we should see an army.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe just one person.
[SPEAKER_01]: What person?
[SPEAKER_01]: Brilliant!
[SPEAKER_02]: They must be expecting that!
[SPEAKER_02]: Lord, they're sitting just one person.
[SPEAKER_02]: Life is someone very powerful and very strong.
[SPEAKER_02]: Does these tons of people tell me?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, they're dry to be strong.
[SPEAKER_01]: That'd be gohazni, boy baby.
[SPEAKER_04]: A newborn baby?
[SPEAKER_04]: Brilliant!
[SPEAKER_04]: They'd like to be expecting this!
[SPEAKER_04]: Lord, this plan is rather risky, and newborn human baby is small and weak.
[SPEAKER_04]: This baby must be born to people who protect them.
[SPEAKER_04]: Maybe a great ruler or mighty king?
[SPEAKER_01]: Actually, our thinking accuracy in the dream and pizagirl has had a beautiful and full of courage.
[SPEAKER_04]: This girl is brilliant!
[SPEAKER_04]: They might be speaking good!
[SPEAKER_04]: My Lord, I see your plan is to take Earth by surprise.
[SPEAKER_04]: No one will be expecting a newborn baby born to a humble villager, but what good can a baby do?
[SPEAKER_01]: This will not just be any baby, I'm sending in the Prince of Heaven in disguise.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, Prince of Heaven, our Prince.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're us!
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm... Boo!
[SPEAKER_02]: I've webbed...
[SPEAKER_02]: The dead!
[SPEAKER_02]: Look, this is too risky.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sending the prints and disguises a tiny baby, born up to kings, but to humble villages, surely our prints cannot be born on a cottage.
[SPEAKER_02]: He must be born on a palace.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're right.
[SPEAKER_02]: He shouldn't be born on a cottage.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: He'll be born to this table.
[SPEAKER_03]: Ah!
[SPEAKER_03]: Jail!
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh!
[UNKNOWN]: It's the round goodbye!
[UNKNOWN]: And the moon will hide!
[SPEAKER_05]: Fill with hope!
[SPEAKER_05]: Brilliant!
[SPEAKER_05]: They're blood-picked, dig, dig, dig, dig!
[SPEAKER_05]: Blood?
[SPEAKER_05]: How old people are these people?
[SPEAKER_05]: What should they do in my class?
[SPEAKER_01]: Those who are lucky will find him, and his mission will bring all people closer to me, even if it isn't ready wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the prince is done, nothing will get between him and my love.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can we leave some clothes for the people looking?
[SPEAKER_01]: Like in the stars?
[SPEAKER_01]: Closing the stars?
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure, why not?
[SPEAKER_01]: Becoming one huge on that point storm.
[SPEAKER_03]: We sing for him.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, can we sing?
[SPEAKER_04]: Sing for us, can we?
[SPEAKER_04]: Please, say we can sing.
[SPEAKER_06]: I looked at the heartful faces, and as heart was touched by the love for the fence.
[SPEAKER_06]: All right, you can sing.
[SPEAKER_01]: But not from the whole world, that would just be weird.
[SPEAKER_01]: And no kings or rulers.
[SPEAKER_05]: How about we sing for some sugar?
[SPEAKER_05]: That's a lovely draw, but as much as could do as I'm cheering up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Brilliant.
[SPEAKER_01]: There were big-spicting that.
[SPEAKER_00]: The unexpected.
[SPEAKER_00]: God came in such a way to this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: That truly, they were not expecting that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we find as we go throughout history, and as we experience ourselves, that God continues with that unexpected thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when we come to this passage where Jesus is talking about the kingdom ahead of heaven, he too is talking and using examples of things that are unexpected.
[SPEAKER_00]: He uses the mustard seed and that of yeast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, when you look at those words, you know, they're even familiar to us today.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet,
[SPEAKER_00]: Theologians, for years and years have been debating about why Jesus used these examples, why he would use a mustard seed, and why he would use the east, because actually they create a bit of conflict as to what they actually mean.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just like any word can have different meanings.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, for me, for the last three weeks, I have had a viral infection in my sinuses.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been so much fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has made me lose sleep, it has given me headaches, it has made stuff come out of my body that I have never wanted to see before.
[SPEAKER_00]: It hasn't been the best of times.
[SPEAKER_00]: However, when I say the word viral to most people these days, we think of a video or some content that we find on the internet that millions of people have seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, if a video goes viral, it can take someone from obscurity to fame overnight because of how many people can access it and see it.
[SPEAKER_00]: one word with different meanings.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's a little bit the same when it comes to these parables.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, the mustard seed, we think of mustard and you either like it or you don't, you put it on your sandwich or you don't or on your hot dog or whatever it might be.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the thing about the mustard seed is yes, it was a very small seed and something very small to what they knew at the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it didn't grow into this great mighty tree that kind of we almost want this analogy to have.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even in the Old Testament, when it talks about God and his nation and his power, you know, it talks about a great seeder, rather than a mustard seed, really, it only grew to a bush.
[SPEAKER_00]: Might have been three, six feet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe even a little bit more if they look at the context
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was actually, well, it is a herb.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a great and mighty tree.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in actual fact, even in this passage, the man plants it not in the garden, but in a field, because it was recommended not to plant in a garden, because it would take over.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a little bit like a weed, and it would really infiltrate the whole garden.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as you can see, it kind of had a bit of a mixed message, sometimes seen in a bit of a more negative light to what we hear Jesus talking about in the kingdom of heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeast, yeast put into flour mixed with dough to make bread.
[SPEAKER_00]: Surely yeast is like the greatest gift that God has given to us beside Jesus himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, if I look at it, whenever I am eating fluffy white bread, I am never sad.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is always a good, sorry to everyone who's gluten intolerant in the room, but I mean, seriously, bread, such a gift.
[SPEAKER_00]: because of the yeast that rises and makes it grow and develop.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, yeast, particularly in the Bible, was often used in a negative way.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, after the Passover, they had a seven-day feast of unleavened bread.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bread that had not been risen without with yeast.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Exodus, it says, seven days, you shall eat unleavened bread.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the first day, you shall remove 11 from your houses for whoever eats 11 bread from the first day until the seventh day.
[SPEAKER_00]: That person shall be cut off from Israel, like that's pretty serious consequences.
[SPEAKER_00]: May you gluten and tolerant people must be super holy, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But, see, this was to remember the actions that God had done to free the Israelites from Egypt, to allow them to be out of Pharaoh's power and dominion and to free them from slavery.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was how they responded.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even Jesus himself used yeast in a negative way, in Luke 12, it has beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
[SPEAKER_00]: this negativity that can get into a community or into an organization and spread out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so then Jesus is using the same word and bringing it into this parable where he talks about the kingdom of heaven being like a mustard seed.
[SPEAKER_00]: So small yet gross so birds can nest into it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The kingdom of heaven is like yeast, in the flour it grows enough to feed many people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus takes the unexpected, sometimes that which is used for negative purposes.
[SPEAKER_00]: and he explains what the kingdom of heaven is truly like.
[SPEAKER_00]: Michael Green, who was a British author and theologian, says this, these parables most clearly declare that God's kingdom had arrived in some sense in Jesus' ministry in a hidden and anticipatory way.
[SPEAKER_00]: far from baptizing the wicked in fire and overthrowing nations that his first coming, Jesus had come as a meek servant, wandering around Galilee with a group of obscure disciples healing some sick people.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see,
[SPEAKER_00]: We read history and look at first century through the Bible and through Jesus' eyes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which is very good.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the Bible, one of the greatest books, V, greatest book, you could ever read.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, great to focus on him and learn more about him.
[SPEAKER_00]: But let's be honest, if you're anything like me, the Bible's the only history book we're reading, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet,
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus in the first century was such a small part of so much that was going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was so much more going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, we believe it was the most important thing going on, but there was so much more going on in first century.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, Green goes on to say, the Romans took no notice of Jesus until angry Jewish aristocrats brought him to their attention.
[SPEAKER_00]: And even this didn't happen until Jesus attacked the temple system, which was well into his ministry.
[SPEAKER_00]: In a world with governments in turmoil and full of wandering teachers and magicians, Jesus' initial arrival as a meek and politically inconspicuous servant rendered his mission as opaque as his parables.
[SPEAKER_00]: except to disciples bearing the insight of faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: Only those who press into Jesus' circle truly understand his identity.
[SPEAKER_00]: He came, as we saw in the video, in such an unexpected way, unobtrusive, quiet, humble.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was meek, that's what he preached, the sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 spoke of a totally different way of living a totally different way of how we are to live and how he desired for people to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: He came in such an unexpected way as a ruler who was going to take over the earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, even his disciples, sometimes struggled to see who he was and what his purpose was.
[SPEAKER_00]: And was he truly the Messiah, even John the Baptist, who was there to pave the way for Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: John the Baptist who did baptize Jesus, who heard God say this is my beloved son whom I am well, please, even him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Near the end of his life, sent his disciples to Jesus to say, are you the coming one or do we look for another?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is how unexpected Jesus was.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is how it just meekly and humbly he came and he lived.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it gives us a little bit more insight for people who didn't grow up in the church, for people who don't come every Sunday morning and spend time learning about Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: When they hear about Him, or when you speak to them about Him, or when they see the difference in your life, they have to start to think, or who is this Jesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like was he a significant as, you know, Christians say that he is?
[SPEAKER_00]: They have to ask questions as to who he is.
[SPEAKER_00]: What he actually did, did he really around?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did he really do all these miracles?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's understandable for them to ask that even people in first century who could brush up against Jesus were asking the same questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why I love that we have things like the Alpha Course in our church because it allows people to come and ask those questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who is Jesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is he really all that he's cracked up to be?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did he really do everything that Christians and ministers say that he does?
[SPEAKER_00]: And if he did, then what does that mean for my life?
[SPEAKER_00]: And does that actually mean that I need to change anything about my life?
[SPEAKER_00]: Timothy Keller says that this way, in the beginning, as you explore Jesus, you'll say, will I want to stick with God?
[SPEAKER_00]: Will it be worth it?
[SPEAKER_00]: But it won't be long before you start to say, why in the world is God putting up with me?
[SPEAKER_00]: The thing you'll be most scared about, and you'll say, in light of the sin in my heart, and in light of the brokenness, I am experiencing in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: How can I be sure he's sticking with me?
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet he does, because he moves in an unexpected way.
[SPEAKER_00]: He takes the small, the simple, the meek, the humble, the everyday, and he changes it to make it something great and significant for his kingdom.
[SPEAKER_00]: Michael Green goes on to say, common, uneducated, fishermen and farmers, carpenters and women, tax collectors and disreputable characters.
[SPEAKER_00]: It would all seem rather distasteful.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God has liked that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He takes this tasteful characters and transform them and then transform society through them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Despite its appalling failures and sins, it is beyond question that down the ages the church has had an amazing record in medical care, social work, education, liberation of women and slaves and the defense of prisoners, the age, the helpless and those whom society neglects.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first institution for the blind was founded by Falsias, a Christian monk.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first free dispensary was founded by a Polynes, a Christian merchant.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first hospital was founded by Fabiola, a Christian woman, hidden and obscure the kingdom may be.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it has had and continues to have an undeniable effect upon society.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is the yeast in the flower.
[SPEAKER_00]: God takes the unexpected, he takes the small, he takes the insignificant, we look at what we have in our hands and we think it's not enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: We look at what we have compared to all the needs in our world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we think, I don't have what it takes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if we all did something, would it be enough?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what, you're right.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have enough.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have what it takes.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have the resources, the money, the wisdom, the discernment to make an impact on our world.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we believe that the king of our life does.
[SPEAKER_00]: We believe that the king who is the head of our kingdom, who is the head of our lives has enough to change and make a significant difference.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in that, we need to trust God with what we have.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to be like the mustard seed and the yeast.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes what we do is negative.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes what we do is too small.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes we think what we have and what we can give is insignificant.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we,
[SPEAKER_00]: We worship a God who is powerful and majestic, who is a way maker, who is a promise keeper, who can do things beyond our understanding.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when we give that to him, he can truly make something so small into something significant, just like he does with the mustard seed, just like he does with yeast.
[SPEAKER_00]: taking something small and making it something of worth and value.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you notice with these two parables that he uses, it doesn't just impact the person who plants the seed, or the person who puts the yeast in the dough, but it actually impacts the whole community that they deal with.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, the mustard seed, when the man planted it, a bush grew and birds came.
[SPEAKER_00]: to rest in its branches.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has an impact on the things around it.
[SPEAKER_00]: When the woman put the yeast in the dough, what did it do?
[SPEAKER_00]: It grew.
[SPEAKER_00]: 60 pounds, that's 27 kilos of flour.
[SPEAKER_00]: This isn't something insignificant.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, it was enough to feed over 100 people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because when we do something faithfully with the small,
[SPEAKER_00]: and makes it great.
[SPEAKER_00]: Was it the man who planted the seed who then went back the next day and kind of cracked it open and then like encouraged the vine to grow out of it?
[SPEAKER_00]: No!
[SPEAKER_00]: After he planted it, what does he do?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got to step back and let it grow.
[SPEAKER_00]: What about the woman who put the yeast in in with the dough?
[SPEAKER_00]: Did she every five minutes go and kind of spread the yeast out a little bit more?
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely not.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have had the absolute pleasure of making your own bread or a cinnamon scroll or whatever it might be, once you need through that yeast, you put it in a warm place and what do you do?
[SPEAKER_00]: You walk away.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got to let it grow.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got to let it do what God has created it to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so often when we feel small and when we feel insignificant and when we feel that what we have isn't enough, we're forgetting that we worship a God who does the unexpected with the small things that we have to offer.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have to keep coming back and praying over the things that we do and trusting in God that He will make the unexpected happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: with the small finances that we have.
[SPEAKER_00]: We pray over every single service.
[SPEAKER_00]: We pray over our giving, knowing that it is not enough to do all that we wanna do, even in our small vision for our church, but we pray over it trusting that God will do something great without finances so that we can continue to build His kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: With the time that we have, often we're busy where there's lots going on, whatever we have, we pray over that, God use what I have, use what's in my hands, use my time, make it something significant because what we have, just like the disciples, back in the first century, we are common, we are everyday, we don't always get it right,
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet when we do things in Jesus' name, when we take what little we have and put it before God, and ask Him to make and do what He would have done with it, He takes the small, the insignificant, and He grows it to something beyond our understanding and beyond our expectation, not just for our benefit,
[SPEAKER_00]: So that all can catch a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven here on earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that more people can turn their eyes to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And ask Him to take their simple humble everyday lives and make it something significant for Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Will you pray with me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a God of power and majesty of love and grace and acceptance.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are a God of creativity that you could take anything that we have and transform it into something even greater than we can understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, we thank you that you loved us so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: that you desire for your kingdom of heaven to be here on earth.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you for Jesus, how He showed us how to live and how to love, so that we can capture a glimpse of heaven here on earth, and so that we can show others that there is a different king who wants to rule over our lives and wants the best for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holy Spirit, we ask that you will continue to remind us, to turn our eyes to the king of kings, to the one who has the best in store for us, who desires for us to live like him with his
[SPEAKER_00]: to accept, to be wise, to be generous just as you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holy Spirit, help us, to be consistent and generous in what we have.
[SPEAKER_00]: To give our little, to share our little, little, to speak and act with the little that we can.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holy Spirit, may you work within the small acts that we all do in God of heaven and earth, may you take the little that we have and do the unexpected with it so that we can experience your kingdom here on earth and that others will desire to know the kingdom of heaven as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: We pray this in your mighty name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.