God's Got A Sense Of Humor | Talking Donkey Edition

TRANSCRIPT

In case you don't know me, I am Megs. I was super excited to actually bring the first part of hilarious because I've always read through some of the things that God's done and laughed not the whole way through, but there's been some really funny things that have happened. And so this series is all about highlighting maybe some of the nature of God that we sometimes forget.

And so I hope that you can lock in for the next few weeks because who needs some lightness in their life as well. Yes, please. And I think it's really good for us to take some time to think about how is God in these light parts of life. But if you were here earlier today, we started off with a comedian.

If you didn't see it, I'm sorry, you can, you'll have to go online and check it out. But he was doing something that I love, which is called situational comedy, where you take something that's happening in real life and you just find the funny parts. And this is how standup comedians they make their entire living is just off situational comedy.

And I love it. I think it's great. And so some of my favorites, Michael McIntyre. Does anyone like Michael McIntyre? Yeah. Awesome. Another one is Jim Oen. He did great stuff. Carl Barron is another one who just was like, situational comedy is great. And I've also noticed that in my life there's a lot of situational comedy.

It goes on all the time, and it's the same for everybody. There are ridiculous moments. Reg, I think for every single person, if you stop to think about it, you would identify it. Now, because I'm so authentic and transparent, I'm gonna share with you just a couple of mine today of some things that have happened in my life that I thought were hilarious later.

Not at the time, I did not think that were hilarious. Here's one. I went to a party of a friend's just allowed myself in the door. The party was three doors down, so I was just standing in some random person's house. So always check that address and don't assume all the cars out the front is in that home.

I had a bad cough. I was overseas, I had a bad cough. I took some cough medicine and I just, before bed, I forgot I'd had a little tipple of something small, but it made me so drowsy and I fell from the top level of the townhouse to the bottom down the stairs. 'cause I fell asleep while I was walking down the stairs.

Funny afterwards not at the time. I missed a flight. I was in Newcastle. I was flying back to the Gold Coast. I missed a flight 'cause I got my AM and my PMs mixed up and I thought, how am I gonna get back in Newcastle That time, there were not many flights that were going out of that place to the Gold Coast and my cousin just happened to be coming up my way on a surfing road trip and I was like, I need to.

Catch up with him. He'd left early in the morning. I was like, I need to catch up with him. So my other cousin, Peter, he's just hop in my mini, my little mini and we'll go up the highway. So there's me and another guy in a mini going, trying to race up the highway, just trying to catch up because I had to try and get myself home somewhere.

And then this, I think, I haven't asked my husband to share this one, but I'm going to, okay, so you have your honeymoon. You've got this really nice hotel room, and you have a big suite. There's two rooms in the suite, and you walk out of your bathroom, like you walk outta the bedroom area to go to another part of the suite, to the bathroom, having a shower, come back.

We've locked all the clothing in the other bedroom, so now we're stuck outside our room in the. And we had to make a really awkward phone call and I was like, I'm not going to the door. You are gonna the door. Little things in life that pop up the, are you serious right now? Moments, and I think a lot of us have the, are you serious right now?

Moments that happen and in our home we have this saying, and we use our most Aussie accent. We go, you wouldn't read about it. You wouldn't read about it. Oh, you wouldn't read about it. Anytime something happens, you wouldn't read about it. And so in our life, I think many of us can relate. There's these moments where weird things get thrown our way, and life can sometimes be a mess.

And sometimes there'll be multiple ridiculous things happening. And you are like, really? How can God be in this mess at the moment? Is there anybody here who's ever experienced that just like mess after mess and you're like, are you serious right now? You wouldn't read about it. And we in this society where we, I guess we applaud people that are doing everything great.

We see their perfect workouts online and their perfect breakfast that they've made, and they've got all their kids looking great and they're out the door like, look at you, go. You got life all sorted out. Well done. But then there's a bunch of us that actually I, this is me. I try and avoid as much mess as possible in my life.

I'm trying to be super organized and I'm like, I don't want the ridiculous things to happen. I want things to just go smoothly and. It doesn't, it just does not because it's not real life. Real life is chaotic. It can be chaotic and sometimes it's actually laughably absurd. And this is where our whole series of, our whole series of hilarious really lands.

The laughably absurd things that happen because did you know sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes the laughably absurd things that are happening in your life actually have a little bit of. God flavoring to them. He's sprinkled a little something in there to maybe get your attention. And with people that are part of the Church of God, we have actually had this stereotypically.

Presented thing that we're really serious. Has anyone experienced this before? That we're super serious. And what we do is we come into these vast buildings and we sit on wooden pews and we sing songs. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Mr. Bean referenced, just in case you aren't sure quietly nodding. Yes.

That's a very good point. Yes. You can take notes to say if you want, but, there's this whole idea that has created God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It's painted a picture of them being just so serious, irrelevant. Why would I bother going to that serious thing? To get advice for my life. And unfortunately, it can do damage because you don't have to be hopefully if you've been here long enough, you know that's not the case.

We are, we're all about embracing the mess of God. We're embracing the mess of God, seeing what God's doing and running with it and following the Holy Spirit. And it does, it gets sometimes just ridiculous. And God has always embraced the ridiculous he has. The hilarious, he embraces it. He embraces us.

Are we not ridiculous? Some of us we are. And he says, I love you exactly like you are. So what if instead of having us avoid the ridiculousness in our life, God actually uses it to teach us. What if that is what happens? He uses it to reach us and then to teach us. And instead of thinking, why is this happening to me at the moment?

We start to change it and we question how can this be used in my life at the moment? This ridiculous, hilarious thing that's going on where I'm in it right now, and I'm not laughing about it, but what is maybe happening within this? And if you think you're the only person that's ever had something crazy happen to you, think again, there are many examples and this is what we are gonna be diving into over the next couple of weeks.

You wouldn't read about it. Actually you will, and we're going to today and we're gonna have a look at how hilarious God can be when he really wants to get our attention. And we're going to be entering into the animal kingdom today as we have a look at some case studies. Now, I don't think like animals are hilarious.

If you ever watched any animal TV shows, those sorts of things, animals. Funny, and God uses his creation all the time to do some pretty impressive things as we have read throughout the many years of scripture. But I wanted to, first of all, I did a deep dive into having a look at just some weird animals, and I'm gonna share a few with you 'cause this, just like God created these things.

All right? Just keep this in your mind. All right. Number one, this is, I got a photo of it

that is an animal called the Probos monkey. Now have a look at that guy. His nose is huge. That is a funny looking animal. All right, here's another one. This is the red lipped batfish. Oh, that makes sense. It's getting ready for a night out on the town. That one just got a little bit of lipstick going on there.

Alright, have a look at the next one. Oh, how did that get, that's just mean. Sorry, sibo. I had to do it. God's creative. Alright, look at one. The platypus. How about the platypus? An Australian animal. It's like a duck and a beaver. It's Australians own diva. There it is. The Australian diva. That is a strange animal.

So God has a sense of humor, and today we're gonna dive into. Some examples of how God has used his creation to do some pretty interesting things. So we're looking at numbers 22. I'm gonna be reading a whole bunch out of numbers 22 today, so you can feel free to follow along. Some of it will be up on the screens.

Otherwise you can just listen to my fantastic storytelling skills and have a listen along with us. But I thought I'd introduce you to the who's who of the story for today. And first one, we've got this guy, this is King Baic, an actual photo of him. He was the king of a place called Moab. We're gonna find out a little bit more about him after, but he was a really fierce protector of his land being the king.

Of course, that's a party job. But also he had been seeing at this particular time when we're reading this. The Israelites on the move, and they're just annihilating place after place with God's favor. So King Baek is one of our people for today. All right, next one. We have got Baam, who's a friend of the SCUs Monkey.

It's got the exact same nose, I think the brothers. Not an exact picture of him just saying, but bail him. He is actually a prophet. In the same time God has been speaking to him, he's been giving some great prophecies to the people of his area, and we're gonna find a little bit more out about him after.

Insert intrigue. Okay. And then next, my last one, donkey. Donkey. He has four legs, short hair. He likes talking about onions. And in the morning he's making waffles. That's donkey. So we've got. Lac King Blac Baam sounds very similar. And then we've got donkey. These are our main players in the story for today.

So let's click kick on in and see what's happening. All right, I'm gonna put up a little map here first to show you what's going on. So in the center here, you can see this is Moab and just above Moab. Up the top here is the planes of Moab to stop. A little bit north. And so in the plains of Moab there, the Israelites have started to move in.

They've come into this area up the top, up near Mount Nebo, up near there, and they have taken up the land there, and they're getting themselves comfortable. And King Moab is down here. We saw him before sorry, not King Mob. King Bela. And he has heard that the Israelites are on the way and he's worried.

He knows I do not have enough people to be able to overtake the Israelites. If they come through here, they're gonna annihilate us. We are not prepared. We need some help. And so he knew that up over in this area, like way up in the sides over here to the left. This to the right. This is where Balum lives.

And he says to his men, okay, we need Balam. He's got it in with God. We need him to come and help us. And so he sends these two messages over there with money trying to make sure that he can come back to help them. And this is where we pick it up in verse number five. These two come to Bal him and they say, all right, we've got a proposal for you from King Blac, and this is what it says.

Look. A vast hoard of people has arrived from Egypt. They cover the face of the Earth and they are threatening me cover the face of the earth. Maybe not the face of the earth, but we could tell he was desperate. Please come and curse these people for me because they are too powerful for me. Then perhaps I'll be able to conquer them and drive them from the land.

I know that blessings fall on any person that you bless and curses fall on people that you curse. And this says they're bringing this to Baam. And Baam says to them why don't you stay here overnight? I'm just gonna go check this out with God, see what God has to say about him. And so that night, God comes to Baam and he has a discussion and God says, so Baam, who are these guys?

And Balaam tells him This is the deal. He wants me to curse them and he wants me to do all this stuff. If I go back with their with them, then that way we will. I'll be able to help the people from my lab. And in verse 12 very clearly says this, but God told Baam, do not go with them. You are not to curse these people for they have been blessed.

And at that point, Baal, him. He's like, all right. God said, no. Sorry guys. I'm not going. So the two messengers head back ticking Blac, and they say he's not coming. No. God said no. God said no, he's not coming. Bail king Bach's not taking this. He says no, we're going back. We're taking more people, we're taking more money.

Come on, let's go. Sends back even more officials, even more money. They come up to Blac and they to Bailor and they say, alright, same deal boy, giving you more money this time. What do you wanna do? And this is what happens. Number 18, but Balum responded to Bach's messengers. Even if Blac were to give me his palace filled with silver and gold, I would be powerless to do anything against the will of the Lord, my God.

But just stay here. Maybe one more night. I'll go and see if the Lord has anything else he wants to say to me. Now we all know what that code is for, right? Maybe I'll just double check. I know he said no, but I'll just go double check one more time. I'll just go and ask him one more time. He might say yes this time, right?

And that night God came to BA him and told him since these men have come for you, get up and go with them, but do only what I tell you to do. Now this can seem a little bit confusing, right? God was pretty adamant. He's Nope, you're not going. And now he's come back and he said, yep. Okay. Get up and go with them.

So God being a little contradicting here, but I found out that if you actually look at these scriptures in the way and they way they were originally written, the word go means something different in each of them. So the first time when he was saying, go, I don't want you to go, I don't want you to go physically, I don't want you to go mentally, that was the first one.

In the second time when he said go, he was basically saying to him look, you've already made your decision, haven't you? That's why he came back. So you can go physically, but do not go with your heart. Follow what I'm gonna tell you to do. And so that's why we can get that little bit of a confusion in there.

And so now we're gonna continue on from 21 onwards, and this is where things get interesting. So I'm just gonna continue reading. You can listen and some of it, oh, we are on here. So the next morning, Baalam got up. He saddled his donkey and he started off with the Moabite officials. But God was angry that Baalam was going.

So he sent the angels of the Lord to stand into the road to block his way as Balam and the two servants were riding along Balaam's Donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand. The donkey bolted off the road into a field, but Balum beat it and turned it back onto the road.

Then the angel of the Lord stood at a place where the road narrowed between two vineyard walls. And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it tried to squeeze by and it crushed baum's foot against the wall. I've had that happen to me with a horse, by the way. It hurts. So Baum beat the donkey again.

He's got anger issues. Continue on. Then the angel of the Lord moved farther down the road and stood in a place. I got a little picture of it to give you an idea. Then the angel Lord moved further down the road and stood in a place too narrow for the donkey to get by it all. And this time when the donkey saw the angel, it just laid down under bail him.

And in a fit of rage, guess what happens? He beats the donkey again.

Then the Lord gave the donkey the ability to speak. What have I done to you that deserves you? Beating me three times? It asked Baalam, you've made me look like a fool. Baalam shouted. If I had a sword with me, I'd kill you, Don Donkey, but I'm the same donkey you've ridden all of your life. The donkey answered, have I ever done anything like this before?

No. Balaam admitted. Then the Lord opened balaam's eyes and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the roadway with a drawn sword in his hand. Balaam bowed his head and he fell face down on the ground before him. Why did you beat that donkey three times? The angel of the Lord demanded. Look, I've come to block your way because you are stubbornly, resisting God.

Three times the donkey saw me and shied away. Otherwise, I would certainly have killed you by now. But I would've spared the donkey then bail him, confessed to the angel of the Lord, I have sinned. I didn't realize you were standing in the road to block my way. I'll return home if you're against me going.

But the angel of the Lord told Balon, go with these men. Say only what I tell you to say. So Baam went on with bail officials and it continues on. He ends up there king bale's gosh, you took a long time. And then he says look, I'm here, but I'm only gonna do what God tells me to do. So he does listen.

Now here's Baam, right? He's a prophet. He's talked to God before. He's had one-on-one time with God. He's heard from him before. He sits and talks with him, and he couldn't even see God's messengers standing right in front of him. He could not see them. In fact, his donkey had more spiritual insight than he did.

Ouch. Ooh, this could happen to any of us. The donkey would be really weird if that happens. You tell me about that, please. 'cause I would like to know. But this donkey, it starts talking back to him. And I love the fact that his initial reaction is just to start arguing with the donkey. That's normal.

It's like this donkey starts, oh, you've made me look like a fool, donkey. Oh, you are a fool. You're talking to a donkey. Hello. It's a hilarious moment in time. God steps in with this completely absurd experience. And the reason is God tried. I told you once not to go. You decided you wanted to go. All right, I'll send an angel.

No, that hasn't worked. I'll send the angel again. No, hasn't worked. All right. I'll send another angel. Okay, talking donkey, this is your result. It seems totally impossible for the human brain, but this is totally possible. For God. And so truthfully, when we're looking at these sorts of stories in the Bible, it doesn't help us in being able to convince people that it's true, does it?

Thanks for that, because our human minds can't grapple with it. So why is it in there then? Why did God want this included in the scriptures? And I think the reason why is because he wants us to have faith that God can do miraculous things. He wants us just to believe deep down that he cares enough about you, that he will go to extreme, hilarious levels to be able to have you not miss him when he wants to move.

He has this pattern that when life gets absurd, he gets creative and maybe that thing for you today. A thing that feels really impossible or ridiculous in your life right now. Maybe it isn't actually God being cruel, which is sometimes where we'll go mentally. Why is God doing this to me? And we've already talked a little bit about this today and last week we did a whole session called about letting go.

Maybe there's something that needs to make a change in your life. Maybe there's something that, there's been a tug for you to change. You have to let go of a certain situation or step away from something and you just haven't done it. And maybe God's been trying it the regular way and maybe he's starting to have to get a little creative to get your attention.

So maybe it's not him being cruel, but it's him being creative. And if you are in this situation today, or you know of people that are in this situation where there's just crazy things happening in your life, then here's a few things that I wanted to just outline today as we're heading to, to take something as like an application out of this.

'cause you're not gonna go home and go, oh, great, I'll keep my eye out for talking donkey today. That's not really an application for today. But here are some things that I want you to have a think, think about. First of all, if you are finding yourself in any of these situations, start asking your question.

What if this isn't happening to me, but it's happening for me? Whatever ridiculous situation, it's not happening to me. It's happening for me. What is the reason behind maybe this happening? Maybe there are some little God fingerprints in there to this ridiculous stuff that's going on. Next one, identifying the nudge that you've been ignoring.

Look, I can say I've been there. I felt the nudge, and I'm like, not too hard basket. I'm ignoring that. But maybe you need to start identifying that little nudge. He's trying to get your attention. Perhaps. Are you listening? Are you opening your eyes to see what maybe he's wanting to do? Next one, looking for the patterns of interruption.

Is there a plan that continually is failing? Have you got maybe a door that's you're trying to open for something and it just keeps closing for now? Maybe it's not the right timing. Maybe you're feeling uncomfortable in something you always used to love doing, and now you're like, oh, that makes me feel a bit off.

Check out what are the patterns that are happening. Invite God into the process. Don't just try and deal with the ridiculousness of life on your own. Don't try and do it on your own. God, I don't fully understand what you're doing. I'm gonna just trust you. I don't get it, but can you help me? Those sorts of authentic conversations are really important.

And then last one, take one obedient step. Just one little step. If you're feeling like you're in something ridiculous, just take one little step. And if all that fails and you can't do any of those things, just be prepared for your cat or dog to say something to you when you least expect it. Because you know he can do it if he wants to.

Oh, yeah. Hey, parrot can talk, can't they? Who says any other animal couldn't talk? I had a little bit of an expert on this. I've got a little clip from the expert, so we'll just play this for a quick second. If you don't know, before this is over, I'm gonna need a whole lot of serious therapy.

Look at my eye twitching. You might need some serious therapy. Look, the talking donkey said it himself. Depending on your situation, who knows what's gonna happen, but one thing I do know is that whatever is happening in your world, you've got someone there that can help you walk through it. Even with Baam, he went through this crazy experience.

They didn't just leave him like that. Eventually the angel was like, hi, I'm here. Hello. I had to use the donkey to get your attention, but I'm not gonna let just let you beat the donkey and then keep going and never know what I was gonna tell you. He made himself known. And so for us, let's maybe stop trying to edit out some of the uncomfortable moments in our life.

By trying to avoid something that maybe God is wanting you to go through, just because we don't understand it. And imagine if we stopped trying to edit out all of the absurd mo absurd moments, and we started looking for the fingerprints in God in everything. And think of the stories that'll come out of that for somebody who's trying to figure out stuff about God.

They're like, that could never happen. I know it could never happen, but it happened. Oh, that sounds ridiculous. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it happens. So how do you explain that happening? Maybe there's something greater than you expected in your life. Maybe God is actually there. And so I think for all of us, we need to start embracing God's creativity in our lives, even when we don't like it.

Even when we don't like it. And I think for us, that are Christ followers and say that we follow God and we love God. Then I think we're being reminded, we're being reminded that when we embrace the chaos and the stuff that's happening in our life, even though we don't like it, that we can fully stand as one that shows that we faithfully believe that God's got everything.

And if there's something in your life that's crazy that God is orchestrating, he's got it. And if there's something crazy in your life that's going on that God isn't orchestrating, he's got it. Wherever you are, whether it's of him or not, he is there and he's gonna help you through it. And instead of then sitting in this state where we can start to then have complaint and Whoa, woe is me.

Look what's happening in my life. Look at this craziness. Like how is this happening and this happening complaint and woe, maybe we can actually flip it. And take these opportunities to become one of praise and wow, what did God just do? Which is super counterculture. And as we mentioned earlier, fun and wow is one of our family values here, and the reason it's a family value is because it came outta scriptures.

We searched to see what is God like, who do we know him to be? Who do we know Jesus to be? And fun and wow stood out for us. That's why we added it. We need to trust that God is sometimes going to be a little bit crazy and hilarious. Our own eyes, but for him it makes total sense. And when those things happen, I get to trust him even more.

I'm just gonna put this little list up one more time. The different things that we had from today. What if this isn't happening to me, but it's happening for me, thinking about the little nudges that I've been ignoring, looking for the patterns of interruptions in my life, inviting God in the process and then taking one obedient step.

I believe that today for many of us, there is one or all of those things that we could actually be doing right now in whatever situation you're going through. And I believe that God's spirit will also highlight that to you. 'cause he knows what's going on in your world. I don't, I'm just here talk about donkey today, but he knows what's going on.

God is able to work. He's able. Do you believe that he's able? Do you trust that he's faithful? Are you on the journey of trusting that he's faithful? Awesome. Are you willing to take a little step into something that seems so ridiculous and bizarre and wait to see what he does? I invite you to. Yeah, that is how you change.

That is how you grow. That's how you see God's spirit actually move. When you go beyond what you could physically do yourself and something amazing happens, that wasn't me. That was God's spirit working through me, and I believe that is what we're being called to for today. I am just gonna get you to close your eyes just for a moment.

This is just to take out distraction. That's the only reason. There's nothing special about closing your eyes. God can meet with you, with your eyes open just telling you.

But think about this. Has the Holy Spirit been nudging you today? All thanks to a talking donkey.

Has he been reminding you that I'm here to get your attention because I want to partner with you in your life. I wanna take you from where you are now to where I see you are going to be and you can't see it yet, but you've just gotta hold my hand and reach out and say, God, I trust. I believe that you are faithful.

I believe that my foundation built on you is something that is firm and something trustworthy. And what is one area today that you feel you need to hand over to him that are you serious right now, moment that's maybe going on in your life and you are just saying, God, I'm ready to let it go. I'm ready to give it to you, and I'm ready to allow you to be creative with it.

And just as we worship just now for a few moments, I just wanna pray for us. But I think the main thing I wanna really pray about is the fact that we can grasp a new vision of the God that you think you know, and start to allow him to reveal himself to you maybe in new ways that you haven't thought before.

Everything you think you know about God, awesome. There's more. Every opportunity where you've walked with him, there's more every mess that you've had to live through and he's been there. Even if you didn't know it, there's more things that he wants to take you to. And so Father, we just ask that today.

Through Baam and his inability to see your messenger. God, we just pray that right now that you will open our eyes. You'll open our ears to hear from you, God, that we will say that we want to put our trust in you no matter what. No matter how ridiculous or hilarious the situation is, God, we trust that you have got it.

And we welcome you Holy Spirit, just to speak with us right now, God, to sense your presence with us and just to whisper to us where do I let go and where do I step in.