SPEAKER_00: Woo! All right.
SPEAKER_00: Well, good afternoon, everybody.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, my name is Liam, not Levi.
SPEAKER_00: And uh before we get into it, I thought I'd just take a moment just to introduce myself a little more.
SPEAKER_00: Aaron said he's been over heaps, and that's true, so not everyone's had the honor of being over yet, but you're all welcome.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone's invited.
SPEAKER_00: Kayla will cook for us, and it'll be um a good good time.
SPEAKER_00: But yes, I'm Liam, married to Kayla, and we've been married for 11 years, and we've been dating for 14.
SPEAKER_00: I know we look super young, but we're not as young.
SPEAKER_00: Um we've got four kids, uh, Mike and Naomi, Chloe, and Bailey.
SPEAKER_00: And in terms of ages, they're 10, 9, 7, and 3.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we're from Wellington, born and raised Wellingtonians, and uh we've been up here in the Bay for about a year and a half now.
SPEAKER_00: And it's probably been the best thing for our marriage and for our kids, uh, for our family.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we do miss home a little bit, but we love this place so much more.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, in terms of work, what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's something you ask people you've just met.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm a banker.
SPEAKER_00: Crazy, right?
SPEAKER_00: I know I look like one and sound like one.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, my wife is also a banker, and we work at the same bank, different places.
SPEAKER_00: So it's good times.
SPEAKER_00: But I am honored to be able to share today.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and just a couple of quick disclaimers about this.
SPEAKER_00: Um, firstly, I'm a simple guy with simple thoughts, right?
SPEAKER_00: So if you're looking for something theological and complex, this is not it.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the second thing is I don't like to talk for too long.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Levi asked me to preach a couple of months ago, and I told him I would give him 10 of my best.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Can you make it 15?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, It would be a miracle if we get to 15 minutes.
SPEAKER_00: So, so we'll see how we go.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but let's pray again, and then we'll get into the word, eh?
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
SPEAKER_00: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us of our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
SPEAKER_00: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That is the Lord's prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you have a Bible, we're going to go to the book of 2 Kings.
SPEAKER_00: Um, if you don't have a Bible, someone's made slides.
SPEAKER_00: So um, here we go.
SPEAKER_00: Second Kings chapter 7, and we're going to verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: My version might be a little bit different to that, but that's all good.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it says this.
SPEAKER_00: Now there were four leprous men at the entrance of the gate.
SPEAKER_00: And they said to one another, Why are we sitting here until we die?
SPEAKER_00: If we say we were into the city, the famine is in the city, and we shall die there.
SPEAKER_00: And if we sit here, we die also.
SPEAKER_00: Now therefore, come, let us surrender to the army of the Syrians.
SPEAKER_00: If they keep us alive, we shall live.
SPEAKER_00: And if they kill us, well then we shall only die.
SPEAKER_00: And they rose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians.
SPEAKER_00: And when they had come to the outskirts of the Syrian camp, to their surprise, no one was there.
SPEAKER_00: For the Lord had caused the army of the Syrians to hear the noise of chariots and the noise of horses, the noise of a great army.
SPEAKER_00: So they said to one another, Look, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to attack us.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore they arose and fled at twilight, and left the camp intact, their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, and they fled for their lives.
SPEAKER_00: And when these lepers came to the outskirts of the camp, they went into one tent and ate and drank, and carried from it silver and gold and clothing, and went and hid them, and then they came back into another tent, and they did the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Well, today, everyone, I want to share a message based around two words.
SPEAKER_00: Two simple words that are powerful because they provoke a lot of conversation and a lot of thought.
SPEAKER_00: Two words that we have all probably said at some point in conversation with ourselves, our family, our friends, our spouses, and those two words are what if.
SPEAKER_00: What if?
SPEAKER_00: I love these words because, like I said, they have they are powerful.
SPEAKER_00: They have the ability to either imprison us or they have the ability to propel us.
SPEAKER_00: Because the words what if, they either become the language of fear or the language of faith.
SPEAKER_00: One thing I missed from my introduction is that I'm a massive movie fan.
SPEAKER_00: I love movies so much.
SPEAKER_00: Not that my opinion on movies means anything.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you ask Levi, he would tell you I've had some wild takes over the years.
SPEAKER_00: I'm about to have another one in a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Um but I love movies.
SPEAKER_00: And I think in recent years, the movies that have had an absolute chokehold on cinema and cinema goers has been the MCU.
SPEAKER_00: Every movie in the lead up to Endgame had people talking, had people asking questions.
SPEAKER_00: How would they connect these characters?
SPEAKER_00: How would they bring the story together?
SPEAKER_00: What's going to happen next?
SPEAKER_00: In fact, they had everyone sitting in the movie theater until the credits finished so that we could see what was coming.
SPEAKER_00: And outside of the movies, they've also released series.
SPEAKER_00: Now here comes my wild take.
SPEAKER_00: At the top of the list of series to watch, a lot of people have Loki or Wonder Vision, right?
SPEAKER_00: I'm not promoting that you should watch these, I'm just saying that's what people do.
SPEAKER_00: They watch these too as the best.
SPEAKER_00: But for me, the what if series is probably up there, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because it takes stories and it takes people and characters that we have come to know and come to enjoy and come to love, and they introduce something different at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: A different decision, a different question, a different change, a different action.
SPEAKER_00: And I've often thought that life is similar to that.
SPEAKER_00: That if there was a different action or a different decision or a different thought, how different would my future have been or could be?
SPEAKER_00: And as we read about the lepers, they have their own what if moment.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: They are doing what they are supposed to be doing.
SPEAKER_00: They are doing what is socially acceptable for them in this time.
SPEAKER_00: And I just imagine that one of them is just fed up with the law.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one that pipes up, he's the one that says, Why are we all waiting here to die?
SPEAKER_00: Because if we stay where we are, we're gonna die.
SPEAKER_00: If we go back to what we know, we're gonna die.
SPEAKER_00: But if we go forward, I mean we might die, but we could live.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: They have their own waterf moment.
SPEAKER_00: And they decide to start walking.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And as they're walking, we realize that God is working.
SPEAKER_00: They don't know, but we know from reading the text.
SPEAKER_00: They don't know that every step that they've been taking here on earth is causing heaven to create a sound in the ear of the enemy that is causing them to fear and to flee.
SPEAKER_00: And I guess for me, I as I read that, I was thinking to myself, man, what if all we need to do, all I need to do to reach that blessing or to receive that promise or to fulfill that prophecy that was spoken over me so long ago, what if all I need to do is to start moving again?
SPEAKER_00: Whether it be steps on earth or a conversation or a decision or a plan that I've put on the back burner, what if, what if it's time to start moving?
SPEAKER_00: And I think for us the question isn't, should or shouldn't be, what if it all goes wrong, but should be, what if it all goes right?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: What if God has already gone before us?
SPEAKER_00: What if, with every step we take here towards what God has asked us to do, what if he's already won that battle?
SPEAKER_00: We would never know until we started moving.
SPEAKER_00: And I always think that God never makes mistakes, right?
SPEAKER_00: Everything that happens is on purpose and for a reason.
SPEAKER_00: That this job that we're in, this church that we're in, the season, this challenge, that it's not random, but that God is preparing us and positioning us so that he can share that plan and that purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Um back in 2010 is when I gave my life back to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So I grew up in I grew up in church, went away from church, came back to church.
SPEAKER_00: Just a classic church story, right?
SPEAKER_00: Um so in 2010 is when I gave my life back to Christ in December 2010.
SPEAKER_00: But in the year leading up to it, I was studying at the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuit Center.
SPEAKER_00: So if you don't know what that is, that's you basically go there and you learn about rock climbing and kayaking, sea kayaking, white water rafting.
SPEAKER_00: Well, everything to do with outside, we were learning that and learning how to take groups of kids out.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And that year I met a really good friend of mine, his name's Marcel.
SPEAKER_00: And Marcel and I, we decided that year that we would live in an eternal winter for the rest of our lives, that we would jump between the north and the southern hemisphere, winter to winter, for the rest of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I think Marcel's uh still doing it.
SPEAKER_00: He's still still doing it to this day.
SPEAKER_00: Um but that's what we decided.
SPEAKER_00: That was the dream.
SPEAKER_00: So we did what most people do when they have a dream is we start to work towards it.
SPEAKER_00: We start applying for jobs, we start putting aside money, we start chasing this thing that we decided that we would do.
SPEAKER_00: And as we get closer, I apply for this job over in Aspen, Colorado, and I get this job.
SPEAKER_00: Mark Sowell gets his job at Whistler, I get this job in Aspen.
SPEAKER_00: We're about to begin what we think is the dream.
SPEAKER_00: And because I'm so young and have no idea how to do this thing, I get someone involved, like a third party, like a travel agency or some someone who's gonna help me book flights and accommodation, sort my visa and do all that stuff that an 18-year-old doesn't really know how to do.
SPEAKER_00: That guy calls me two weeks before I'm due to leave, and he says, bro, your visa's gonna be a little bit delayed, everything else was sorted, but you'll get it about five days, six days later.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Oh, that's sweet ass.
SPEAKER_00: And as an 18-year-old, I was like, that's all good.
SPEAKER_00: My employer will be happy as that I'm coming six days late.
SPEAKER_00: So I call the mountain and they're like, nah, you have to be here at this time.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna do training, season opens here, you gotta be here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, sweet.
SPEAKER_00: So I call the guy back, I tell the guy, I was like, yo, I need the visa on time, otherwise I'm gonna lose my job.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, sorry dude, like I can't help you.
SPEAKER_00: So we go back to the mountain, tell him again, and they said, All the best, mate, you're gonna have to give your job to someone else.
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, I think I do what most 18-year-olds do who have saved up a bunch of money, and it feels like they've just lost their dream.
SPEAKER_00: I decide to spiral, right?
SPEAKER_00: And my best mate and my brother, they're so supportive that they decide to spiral with me.
SPEAKER_00: Not that they lost their dream, but they just they just want to help me out.
SPEAKER_00: That's just what they do.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so we're doing that, and we're at this party one night, and our cousin's there, who's not really cousin, but is kind of a cousin, and she said, You should come to church, it would be good for you.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, sweet ass, we'll go to church.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have a job, we've got nothing else to do, we'll be there.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so we go to church with her the next day, and we're sitting there and we're just enjoying the bright lights and the loud music, basically, just a big concert.
SPEAKER_00: And we're sitting there and we feel like something's moving inside of us, and that night I give my life back to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That night I'm like, yo, I've got nothing else to do.
SPEAKER_00: I feel God moving, let's respond, let's go down the front.
SPEAKER_00: And in those days, when you responded in the altar, you come down to the front, there's a big party, and then you get taken out the back to be cancelled or whatever, whatever they call it.
SPEAKER_00: It was probably Levi that actually took me out back in 2010.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but as we're doing this, I realize my brother and my best friend they also respond.
SPEAKER_00: We're down there having a moment together, and we're being led out the back.
SPEAKER_00: And on my way out, I see Kayla for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: And right then and there, I decide I'm coming back to this church.
SPEAKER_00: Like this, this church, I'm coming back for Jesus and that girl.
SPEAKER_00: And um so that's exactly what I did.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I commit to the bit.
SPEAKER_00: We are involved with church now, and you know, serving in teams, and we do three years of internship together.
SPEAKER_00: I get to know Kayla, we start dating, we get married, we start to have our first kid.
SPEAKER_00: And in 2015, when Kayla's pregnant, my boy Marcel's back in Wellington, getting ready to go to Cadrona for another winter, because that was the dream, and he was still living it.
SPEAKER_00: He stays with us on our couch, and we're just talking, and he goes, Bro, what if you had just gone?
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Yo, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: Like I lost my job.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, But you could have still gone ahead of holiday.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Oh, yo, that's actually that that's a good shout, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I didn't have to sparrow, I could have still gone and enjoyed myself.
SPEAKER_00: And I had a moment there, and I was like, Man, what if what if I had gone?
SPEAKER_00: How different would my life had been?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Do I still give my life back to Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Probably.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, there are churches in America, so it might it might have happened.
SPEAKER_00: Um, do I still meet Kayla?
SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I go down this rabbit hole of what if?
SPEAKER_00: Like, what if what if I had just gone?
SPEAKER_00: What how different would this have been?
SPEAKER_00: And I realized in that moment that God hadn't closed that door to punish me, but he had closed it to protect me.
SPEAKER_00: Like we hadn't, I hadn't realized that you know God's no was so important to the yes that he had that for us and for our family and for this, for um our lives.
SPEAKER_00: So I think as we read about the lepers, as we as we go through the word, they they do something pretty incredible.
SPEAKER_00: That they realize that the miracle isn't where they are sitting, but it's where they're willing to walk.
SPEAKER_00: Had they not gone, nothing would have changed for them.
SPEAKER_00: If they had not hadn't moved, they would still be doing what was acceptable and expected of them at that time.
SPEAKER_00: But because they did go, they were able to realize the blessing that God had gone before them and that um they would receive that.
SPEAKER_00: So today, instead of asking, what if I fail?
SPEAKER_00: I guess for us as a church and as a personally, I think uh you know we should ask, you know, what if God has already gone ahead of me?
SPEAKER_00: Uh what if he's already made a way?
SPEAKER_00: What if he's preparing people for conversations and decisions and plans that I put on the backbone?
SPEAKER_00: What if what if God is already working?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: All right, well, that's 10 of my best, everybody.
SPEAKER_00: Um that after this, we're gonna have a great feed.
SPEAKER_00: I've actually got nothing else for you, so I think from here, uh we're gonna hand it over.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.