Daddy, Up!

How are you today? You're good? Fantastic! Wonderful, wonderful. Let's see, I need 2 small volunteers. Are you willing to be a volunteer? And you? You guys, would you do this for me? Can you go stand up on the victim's carpet there? I mean volunteer's carpet. And Robert, would you come and stand on the, uh, I warned him just briefly. You may have seen me do it on the piano before we started. I didn't want to warn him at all, but I didn't want him going off to hide somewhere and not know that he was needed. I should have asked you guys your question, your names. Can you tell Robert your names? Okay, so now that you know Robert— Robert, I want you to stand in the middle of that carpet, and I want you to stand with your feet about half a meter apart, so there's a good ways between them. When I used to come home— well, my dad. When my dad used to come home from work, I was already there. My brother and I, we were 1.5 years apart. So you guys are a little more than that. But what we would do, Dad would walk in— Dad was a logger, and he spent all of his time out climbing mountains and cutting trees down. So he had these big tree trunks for legs. He was strong. And he had size 12 boots. He still does. And his boots were so strong— and his legs— that we would sit on his boots. Can you guys sit on your boots and hug Robert's legs? Sit right up on those boots and hug Robert's legs, and then my dad— I'm not going to make you do this, Robert. My dad would walk up the stairs to our bedrooms, but just walk across the carpet here. Oh! Well done. A hand for Robert. Okay, everyone back to your comfortable places, back to your comfort zones. Kids back here. Robert, anywhere you want to be. Probably anywhere but here. Okay, so that's one way that my dad carried me. What are some ways that your dad carries— probably still sometimes carries you? What are some ways that your dad or your mom carry you? Who wants to say? Yep. On his shoulder. Oh, that's my favorite! On his shoulders. When I used to be a chaplain at a school in Geelong, there was a girl there who would run straight at me and somehow run up me and flip around and land on my shoulders. Stephanie. You knew her name. Yep. This is horrible to say. She broke both arms, not climbing me, but I was relieved for a while because she couldn't climb me. So yes, on dad's shoulders. That's awesome. What about some other way that mom or dad carry you? Somebody else want to share? Anyone? What about— What about— what happens if you do this? What happens? You get thrown up. You get thrown up. That's good. Yeah, that means you've got a stronger dad than me. When you put your hands up, Mom and Dad reach down and they pick you up. And there's something amazing that happens, because I can remember when I was like a teenager and stuff, you'd see You see moms walking around with kids like even your size, big kids, and they just put them up on their hip and they walk. And you think, "How is that possible? She's, like, not that strong." But amazingly, God has made us so that when you are born, you're little. And so Mom picks you up, Dad picks you up, and you're easy to carry. And then as you grow bigger and bigger, it's like adding a little tiny weight to the routine every day in the gym that Suddenly— well, not suddenly, years later— Mom and Dad are carrying around, like we saw— sorry. Damian. Just Damian, yes. We saw Damian with both kids on his arms and the only thing he couldn't do was— well, he couldn't read as well because he couldn't get his piece of paper out. But he could talk and he could walk and he could— it was like nothing for him. So Robert, that's in the future. You're going to be able to just carry kids around. But do you know what is amazing about the picture that the Bible gives us? God is used as a parent, or the illustration of a parent. God is our mother, God is our father. It's all over in Scripture. And do you know what it is when we pray? We sometimes, we make it really complicated and we think that, "Oh no, I don't want to bother God about that," or "I don't want—" It's just doing this. Up, Daddy. Up, Daddy. And when Jesus prayed, he would say in his language, "Dear Daddy," and then he would say his prayer. And he even taught his disciples— you may have never thought it like this, but think about this— he said, "Dear Daddy up in heaven." He taught us that the only way really to come to God is to say "up" first, because that's what God would love to do all day, every day with us. How many of you, when you want down, you start wiggling? Your mom's holding you and you start doing that, and you just wiggle your way down mom. God will let us wiggle down too. But he's always there ready and hoping that we'll say, "Up, Daddy," because that's his greatest joy is to hold us in his arms. And he's so strong, he can hold you no matter how old you get, no matter how big you get, and no matter how far away you get. He can just reach down when you say, "Up, Daddy," and he'll pick you up again. So maybe start your prayers with, "Dear Daddy, can you pick me up?" And then say what you want to talk to Jesus about. Thank you for listening so much and so well today and having fun with me. You can go back to your seats.