Growing Up // The Life That Almost Wasn't, Part 2

Imagine starting out life as the baby of a 15-year-old mother, with a drug habit … growing up bumping from one uncaring foster home to the next – when you grew up that sort of a past would mess with your head wouldn't it? Every now and then God makes a divine appointment for us, have you noticed that? What appears to be a random decision or a chance twist or turn in life, all of a sudden you run into a God moment and go, "wow". It happened to me the other Sunday. I woke up, said to my wife Jacqui, "Hey, I feel like going and visiting the Oyster Bay Baptist Church." That's the Church I first went to about seventeen years ago now. It seemed like a good idea; Pastor Phil is a great guy, great teacher, so off we went. Kind of to my disappointment it wasn't a regular service and it turned out Phil wouldn't be teaching, there were some young folk from YWAM - Youth With A Mission visiting and leading the service and this young guy Mike got up to preach, I thought this would be interesting. Well can I tell you something? What he had to say and how he said it just blew me away, what a preacher! And the thing that really made my hair curl is after the service I found out this was the very first time he'd stood up to preach. Unbelievable! And his life story, more to the point. His life story is one that's going to make your hair curl. So today, and indeed for the rest of this week we're going to be joined by Mike Ricchini who's going to share his story which I guess is like a live case study of what we've been talking about this last couple of weeks on the program which is knowing the truth because it's the truth that's going to set you free. Berni: Hi Mike, welcome to the program. Thanks for your great message last Sunday. Mike: You're welcome there. Berni: How old are you? Mike: I'm twenty. Berni: You're twenty? I was twenty once a long time ago. So we're going to share a bit of your journey today, in fact over the coming week but today I'd like to start with the beginning of your life, tell us about that, where were you born, your parents, how did all that happen? Mike: I was born in 1991 in Miami Florida. I was born to a fifteen year old girl, she already had a baby ten months earlier so I was her second child and I really don't know how old my father was, I think he was a little younger than thirty at the time when she had me but they never really knew how to take care of me, just a young girl and you can just imagine the stress that involved not even knowing how to take care of kids or anything like that. So when they had me I was born two months early, premature and there was a battle whether she keep me alive or put me down just because of the inexperience that she had. Berni: So yours was the life that almost wasn't. Mike: Yes. So praise the Lord they ended up letting me live and I was able to talk to my mum a couple of weeks ago and she said she had made the decision to let me live so I'm very grateful for that. And then after living out of cars, motels for a couple of months they moved up to Maryland which is just east of Washington DC in the States and I grew up there for about a year before I was taken from her with my two other siblings and put into foster care. Berni: And that's because she had a drug habit. Mike: Drugs, abuse, malnutrition, other sorts of stuff. Berni: It's not your perfect start in life is it? Mike: Not really, no. Berni: So you have met your birth mother? Mike: I have a couple of times and she just found me the other day on Facebook. Berni: Ah cool. Mike: Yeah. Berni: So what was that like, meeting your birth mother after all those years? Mike: My first time meeting her was a few years ago and that was probably the scariest moment of my life up to that point. Just knowing that your mum was about to come in there, the lady that brought you into the world was about to step into the room and you don't have really any idea what she looks like, what she sounds like, you don't really h

When the people around us start behaving badly, as they invariably do, we sometimes want to use that as an excuse for us to end up stooping down to the same level. And at the end of the day – that just doesn't work. We pretty much all understand the concept of the lowest common denominator. You look across a group of people and you pitch your message or your idea or whatever at the lowest common denominator. TV does that all the time. It dumbs down the complex issues of life. It turns values into spin, people into stereotypes. And you know something? We do it too. We have a tendency to pitch our approach or our behaviour or our principles or our ethics at the lowest common denominator. We can be in a group of people, say at work, and we can have the best intentions, the best ethics. But when things start getting competitive or feral, when people start tearing one another apart (as they do in work situations), we want to stoop down to that level and get involved. Principles, ethics – out the window. It's the law of the jungle buddy. Kill or be killed. This is the last program in a four-week series that I've called, "Living the Life God Always Intended". Living life to the full, living a life of deep satisfaction, of peace and contentment, even through the bad days, and the good days. God has a plan. God has a plan for your life, God has a plan for my life. It's a good plan. It's a plan of blessing, it's a plan of peace, it's a plan of joy, it's a plan of love, a plan of grace. And for me, it's all about getting close to Him. I used to think it was self-help, hard work, trying to change myself and it doesn't work! Change this, change that in me. It would last a while but I'd always end up going back to my bad habits. I'm as smart as they come but I discovered I couldn't change me. And then when I met Jesus, finally the penny dropped. Duh! It's about getting close to Him. It's about drawing close to God and spending time with Him in the morning. I'm a different person after that. His living water just washes over me, it's fresh, it's life, it's peace and I can go into that jungle and you know, I don't much feel like devouring people anymore. Being first, being top dog, winning is no longer my number one priority. I love that saying that "It's a dog-eat-dog world and there's plenty of dog to go around". Some people just live to win: to beat others, to make money, to be the top salesman, whatever. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great to set goals and to achieve things. But when we get this competitive spirit, this spirit that says, "I have to win at all costs and if you have to lose in order for me to win, then so be it. I'm going to devour you and chew you up." When we live life like that, it doesn't bring us peace and joy and satisfaction. Now, we may not naturally be like that but we get into that sort of environment and other people tend to drag us down. We want to become one of the pack. I used to have a saying, "Don't get angry; get even." And finally God gave me a revelation. If you live that sort of life you won't have God's peace, won't have God's joy, and won't have God's satisfaction in life. When we tread on people and beat them and defeat them and drive them into the ground, come on, where's the joy in that? Where's the peace in that? Whatever happened to living the life God always intended? And when other people are behaving badly we have this tendency to behave badly too; not to let them drag us down. We rationalise that. We say, "Well, I need to protect myself." Jesus said: He who lives by the sword will die by the sword. (Matthew 26:52) Paul the Apostle in Galatians said: Don't grow tired of doing what's right because we will reap a harvest in due time. (Galatians 6:9) When other people are off their rockers and behaving badly that's precisely the time to be different. One of the things I learned in seventeen years of consulting in the IT industry, is that behaviour is often situational. In other word

Everyone goes through stormy times in life. And when we're bobbing around like corks in the ocean, what we really need is a solid rock beneath our feet. But what if God means us, you and me, to be that solid rock in someone's life? I hate being on the water in a boat. I don't mind swimming, I don't mind being beside the water looking and I don't mind diving under the water but I absolutely hate being on the water in a boat. Up and down, up and down … I get sick! I can just feel the waves of nausea crashing over me … up and down. I've always preferred terra firma, the more firma the less terra … up and down. Now, if you enjoy the water, God bless you but not this little black duck. No way! I like to have a rock beneath my feet, solid, firm, no movement, no up and down. To me there's nothing more terrifying than looking out over an angry, stormy ocean, grey water, white caps, wind howling. The ocean's a scary place in a storm don't you think? There are storms in life too. And today on the program we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at what it means for us, for you and me, to be the rock beneath someone's feet. This week, and over the last few weeks, we've been looking at what it means to live the life that God always intended. God has this great plan of joy and peace and grace and wisdom for us to live through all the things – whatever they are, ups and downs – that God has planned. Life has its downs. There's beautiful poem called 'The Weaver'. You may have heard me read this before but let me share it again. Life is but a weaving between my Lord and me, I cannot choose the colours as He weaveth steadily. Sometime He chooses dark threads and I in foolish pride, Forget He sees the upper and I the underside. Not 'til the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly Will God unroll His canvas and explain the reasons why The dark threads were as needful in the weaver's skilful hands As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He hath planned. It's the reality of life isn't it? Amongst the richness and the joy and the blessing, sometimes there's the odd dark thread as well. And so much of what we do in life is about being servants rather than being served. I spent most of my life living for "me" but I was never satisfied. And these days I'm living for Him – for Jesus and other people, and for you – and I am the happiest man, the most blessed man on this planet. I wouldn't be doing anything else because God is just blessing me through this life of laying it down so that I can take it up again in Him. Jesus said, "I didn't come to be served but to serve."(Matthew 20:28) And that's where the satisfaction is in life Today, we're going to look at another practical way that we can serve someone else. One of the most wonderful things that we can be for someone is a rock beneath their feet in the midst of one of life's storms. A storm out on an angry ocean is a horrible thing but a storm when your feet are on solid ground, well it's not overly pleasant but it's not as bad as being on the ocean. Looking back at my life, I hated Christians and everything they stood for, before I met Jesus. The important things in life were clearly money and career and the big flash car and the success. And that had consequences. They caused a storm of mammoth proportions in my life. And on the dark days I felt like a cork bobbing around in this angry ocean in the middle of a storm. And here's the funny thing, the Christians, who I hated in my life (there were three of them), they were the ones that stepped up to the plate and gave me a home to live in, gave me support, gave me encouragement and gave me Jesus. They were the rock beneath my feet. I can't much remember what they said but I will never, for all eternity, forget what they did for me. We all need solid foundations. So many people have cracks in their foundations. So many people are living life-like that cork bobbing around in an angry ocean feeling as though they'

What's Providence? Well, it's when God goes ahead of us and prepares the way. Pretty cool. But what if – I mean, just think about this – what if you and I could do that for other people? What if you and I could be God's providence for them? I was looking up in the dictionary the other day the word "providence" because I wanted to know exactly what the word meant. Like most people, I'd always thought that providence was God's provision, but literally, the meaning of the word is this: Care and preparation that takes place in advance. Foresight, wisdom that goes ahead of you. Isn't that cool? God's providence is Him going ahead of us, with all His wisdom and knowledge and love and grace, and preparing the way, smoothing the path so that by the time you and I walk into that place everything's ready. Ah, it's awesome! That's what the Apostle Paul meant when he wrote: We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God prepared beforehand for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10) Well, imagine just for a minute if we could do that for other people, if God used us to be His providence for someone else. What would the world look like then? Over these last few weeks we've been looking at living the life that God always intended. Now, sometimes when I say that, people picture one long holiday, luxury and wealth and health and happiness, but that's not it. Life's for living, all the ups and downs, all the good times and the bad times. There's this rich fabric that we call "life", and you and I, we're people with gifts and talents and unless we exercise those in life, there's no satisfaction. And no matter what our gifts and talents are, real satisfaction comes from serving other people. Whether you're an artist or a musician or a brain surgeon or a shop attendant or a mum or whatever. Isn't it about impacting other people's lives? When you're a parent and seeing your kids grow and become wonderful and mature adults who contribute to society, as they say, to give to other people. This week we're looking at living a life of service; serving other people, practical ways of doing that, of making a difference just like Jesus did. When Jesus came and He said: I didn't come to be served, I'm the Son of God, I came to serve you, I came to die for you, I came to give my life as a ransom for many." (Matthew 20:28) Yesterday, as a really practical way of doing that – of living a life of service, we looked at the fact that when we let people be – when we let them just be who they are with all their strengths and weaknesses, when we let people be – God sets us free. I don't think my day is meant to be ruined by other people's weaknesses. There's enough in me of my own that I have to deal with without putting up with someone else's. And so there are people who are quite different to me in my life and I value their strengths and I love them in their weaknesses. And ninety-nine times out of one hundred those weaknesses just wash straight past, because God wants us to be mature and lacking in nothing. God wants us to have joy and peace and that comes when we lay down our lives and we say, "That person drives me nuts some days, but I love them and I'll serve them and I'll bless them." Today, we're looking at going ahead of people, exceeding their expectations. And if we're going to live the life God always intended, what if God intended for us to be His providence in other people's lives? Remember, providence is when God goes ahead – when He sends His wisdom and His love and His mercy and His grace and His power ahead of us to get things ready – so by the time we walk into them they're exactly the way God meant for them to be. What if God used you or me to be His providence in someone else's life? When we think about it, that's what we do for our kids. As mums and dads we have greater wisdom because of our years of experience, so we let them walk through things and experience consequences while being there for them. We think ahea

Other people can frankly drive us nuts. But they are who they are – and here's a thought, when we let them be, God sets us free. Great theory – but how does it actually work? Over the last three weeks or so we've been talking about living the life God always intended. We have one chance at this life, that's it. It's not a dress rehearsal. And what's so incredibly sad for me is to run into people, so many people, who aren't enjoying their lives. That's not to say we don't go through some rough patches. Obviously, we do, but by and large, life's there for living, for making a difference, for touching other people. There's incredible satisfaction in that. So this week, we're kind of having a poke around in that, looking at what it means to live a life of serving other people. Today, we're going to explore one way, a practical thing that we can do to serve other people. It's so simple, it's so profound it will touch people so deeply, it's amazing. Here it is, just let them be. Let them be who they are. Let them be what God made them to be. And it turns out when we let them be, God sets us free. We're all different, have you noticed? We're good and bad at different things. We like different things. I like this colour, you like that colour. You like that taste, I like this taste. You like those clothes, I like these clothes. So different. And sometimes we get annoyed by those differences. Maybe you've heard me talk about this in the past but it's a big issue. One of the biggest things that ruin our lives is other people being who they are. Their differences grate and annoy and drive us nuts. You know what I mean. But the fact is, we're all different and the fact is, we always have to live with those sorts of people around us. God makes sure of it. God never puts us in a group where everybody is just completely the same. Let's face it, that would be boring to start with, but God wants steel to sharpen steel. God wants us to learn to humble ourselves and to get on with other people. I had a recent experience. I was involved in a really large piece of work, a big complex project. And I was the key man doing the job and there were other people around me, helping me. It was a huge job. It took a lot of months to do. And what I'm good at is communicating, telling a story. I think in concepts and stories not detail but the job involved an enormous amount of detail and what I really appreciated were the people around me. They quickly understood the things that I was good at and also the fact that I wasn't good at ferreting out and sorting through a lot of the detail. And so they served me and they helped me with the things that I wasn't good at. They could have criticised me, they could have complained, they could have attacked me. Instead, they helped me and when that happens, it so validates who we are. It's wonderful to work in an organisation like I do and to experience those things. The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 12, figures it out. He said (my paraphrase): We're all different. We all have different motivations and abilities. Some people are good communicators, others are good teachers, and others are good encouragers, others are good leaders, others are good at caring for other people and serving. Others are real givers and yet others are great at showing mercy. (Romans 12: 6-8) But the flip side is, we all have weaknesses. Communicators like me, want to talk over people. Encouragers want to encourage so much that they end up running other people's lives for them. People who are good at caring and showing mercy, well, sometimes are not the best time managers. And on top of that, we all have our own foibles; we all have our own 'Achilles heel', the things that we do wrong. So when we have people around who are different what does it look like to live the life God always intended? How do you do that, when people's weaknesses disrupt our peace and joy that God wants us to have? You know, you have a great time with God in the