0:05 [Music]
0:09 Good morning,
0:12 church. As uh Pastor Sean just
0:15 mentioned, I've never been up here
0:17 before, and it's amazing to see everyone
0:21 here celebrating God. And maybe some of
0:24 you have never met him before, but I
0:26 want to just take a moment to celebrate
0:28 another community, which is the Star
0:32 Wars
0:34 community. Okay? It's their very special
0:37 day today. This is their Christmas.
0:40 Okay? So, as soon as I was asked to
0:43 speak today on May the
0:48 4th, hands up those who don't know what
0:50 I'm on about right now. Not as many as I
0:53 was expecting. Okay, so in Star Wars the
0:57 movie there is a saying and it's their
1:01 way of saying may God be with you but
1:03 instead it's rewarded may the force be
1:06 with you. So the the play on words is on
1:10 May the 4th May the fourth be with you.
1:13 Okay. So, I'm just going to go off on
1:18 that Star Wars tangent a little more and
1:21 a story in Star Wars when the main
1:24 character Luke
1:25 Skywalker is trying to find his way to
1:28 find the force to find God. He's goes to
1:32 a remote location, a planet which is
1:35 pretty much all a swamp. and he's in
1:37 seek of a great warrior, a great mentor
1:41 of the force that has gone away in
1:43 hiding. Okay? And he crashes his
1:46 spaceship on this planet and he's met by
1:49 a little green alien who looks like he's
1:53 escaped from the set of a Muppets movie.
1:57 Okay? And even if you're not familiar
1:59 with Star Wars, I'm sure you've seen
2:01 him. His name's Yoda. He's got big ears
2:03 and he talks in a roundabout way in a
2:06 funny voice which I'm gonna do
2:16 it. Luke, you have found you have.
2:22 [Music]
2:27 But Luke doesn't realize that he's met
2:29 this great warrior, this great man of
2:32 the force, God. And he thinks he's a
2:37 recluse, a
2:39 centric hermit. But this
2:42 hermit says, "I'll take you to Yoda."
2:45 And it takes ages. And Luke gets
2:47 frustrated. But when they're sitting
2:49 down in this little mud hut, Yoda says
2:52 something profound. And I didn't look up
2:53 the movie, so I can't remember. But then
2:56 Luke realizes that he has actually been
3:00 walking with this great man all this
3:02 time. Okay. And this is what leads into
3:05 my message today. It's not about Star
3:07 Wars. It's not about educating. It's
3:09 about those unlikely people that we meet
3:13 who we maybe assume they're they're a
3:16 hermit, a recluse, or someone who has no
3:19 impact on your life. But when you get to
3:23 know them, when you spend time with
3:25 them, then you begin to see that the
3:28 gift that they can bring to your
3:32 life. Now, I tie it into my story. And
3:36 it wasn't a swamp, but it was close. It
3:38 was a swimming pool. Okay? I was there.
3:41 I'm Luke Skywalker in this story, by the
3:44 way. Of course, I see myself as the main
3:47 character because I was an
3:49 atheist. Okay. stone cold atheist,
3:52 totally focused on being a great
3:56 athlete. And I was pretty great, just
3:59 ask
4:02 me. And I see this poor fellow in the
4:05 name lane next to me, this little
4:10 old also green
4:14 dog, Scott Greenwood.
4:18 He goes to this church a bit. And he was
4:21 struggling. I've got to say he was he
4:23 was really struggling. So I took pity on
4:27 him and gave him some tips. Said a
4:31 friendly hello. But after that friendly
4:33 hello, I I
4:36 realized there was something different
4:38 about him. There was something special.
4:40 Okay. He had a light to him. And at the
4:42 time being an atheist, I just ah
4:44 friendly bloke. We got to know each
4:46 other. We said friendly hellos at the
4:49 pool. I gave him technique
4:51 tips. Probably didn't want them, but I
4:54 gave them to him
4:55 anyway. But in time, I realized, a bit
4:59 like Luke did with Yoda, that Scott was
5:04 really the person that was going to
5:06 bring me to Jesus.
5:12 Okay. It took a long time. Luke caught
5:15 on to Yoda a lot quicker than I did to
5:18 Scott. But over the years and the
5:20 persistence and his shining light,
5:22 leading by example, okay, he he didn't
5:26 need to say a word about Jesus to me
5:28 because he led by those deeds, okay? He
5:31 led by his actions. And it I guess it
5:35 was unlikely that here I am thinking,
5:38 I'm a great swimmer. I'm going to show
5:41 this man how to swim a bit better. But
5:43 really he was guiding me how to live
5:47 better. Okay, to live with
5:51 Jesus. So, uh, that was an unlikely
5:54 thing. There's so many stories in
5:57 scripture about unlikely friendships.
6:00 The one that sprung to mind for me, and
6:02 I'm not going to put anything up on the
6:03 screen, but it was Prince Jonathan.
6:07 Okay, he was King Saul. He was a king of
6:10 the Israelites. He was ready to take his
6:13 dad's throne. And then along comes a
6:16 lowly shepherd boy, David, who had been
6:20 anointed by God. But even though they
6:23 were rivals, even though they were vying
6:25 for the same job, they had a deep love
6:28 for each other. Okay? It was an unlikely
6:30 friendship on paper, but it was very,
6:33 very likely to because it was a
6:37 friendship that had the love of God at
6:39 its heart.
6:41 Okay. Another unlikely example in the
6:44 Bible of friendships that probably
6:46 shouldn't be is Ruth and Naomi. Okay. I
6:50 got a massive rundown by Scott's wife
6:52 Allison the other night about all the
6:55 reasons why that that would be an
6:57 unlikely uh friendship. Essentially, the
7:01 one word that I remember was
7:03 mother-in-law.
7:10 But now I must I must get to the most
7:16 unlikely friendship of my life, which
7:20 essentially isn't unlikely, and that's
7:22 my friendship with Jesus.
7:25 Okay?
7:28 as as that
7:30 atheist not knowing anything of God, the
7:33 idea of the perfect human, the the King
7:36 of Kings being friends with a sinner
7:39 like me was just unlikely. But I didn't
7:43 see it through the lens of Jesus, the
7:45 forgiving heart and the open heart of
7:48 Jesus. Okay. So if you are here in the
7:52 audience today and you were like me and
7:54 you didn't know God or you don't know
7:55 God, just please take that step, have a
8:00 chat to someone, see see that light in
8:02 someone and follow that light and you'll
8:06 find that for yourself and it will start
8:09 shining from you. And for all of the of
8:11 you, and I'm sure there are more of you
8:13 that do know Jesus in this room, please
8:16 just look find someone who you might
8:18 think it's unlikely that we'd be
8:20 friends, okay? And say good day. They
8:23 might be a different age. They might
8:25 come from a different place. They might
8:27 have a man
8:32 bun. Just say good day. And not just
8:35 that, hi, how are you now? I forgot what
8:37 you're saying. I've been pleasant by a
8:40 proper hello and get to know them.
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