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Series Code: TIJ
Program Code: TIJ004113S
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00:31 Do ever feel like celebrating spring? Well there's no better 00:35 place to do it than Canberra. I'm standing here surrounded by 00:41 a sea of flowers, over one million blooms. The colors, 00:45 variety and shapes are overwhelming. The sculptures and 00:50 designs of the flower beds are truly magnificent. It's a 00:54 blaze of color and beauty. Floriade, the name of this 01:00 flowery extravaganza, is an annual month long celebration 01:04 of spring in the heart of Australia's capitol. It's become 01:08 Canberra's most iconic annual tourism event. You'll find 01:13 cultural celebrations, horticultural workshops, market 01:17 traders, artistic displays, music, markets and food. But 01:23 it's all centered around flowers Flowers mean love, happiness, 01:28 peace and beauty. But that's not all. They also symbolize a very 01:34 important flowery language. They remind us of the power of 01:40 beautiful words. When flowers blossom the fragrance and beauty 01:45 spreads. They permeate the environment and make it a better 01:50 place and the same is true of kind and beautiful words. They 01:54 spread, build people up and change the world by making it a 01:59 better place. So today we're going to admire the beauty of 02:04 flowers and discover something about a very 02:08 important flowery and powerful language. 02:12 ♪ ♪ 02:30 Floriade is a flower and entertainment festival held 02:33 annually in Australia's capitol city alongside Lake Burley 02:37 Griffin in Canberra's Commonwealth Park. 02:40 This is Australia's biggest celebration of spring. It's a 02:44 stunning floral display of exotic bulbs and annuals. 02:49 I'm Andrew Forster. I'm the head gardener at Floriade. I've been 02:54 doing this for 23 years. I love what I do. I have a great team 02:58 of people who plant and make Floriade happen. It's just 03:03 a wonderful experience. Floriade is a wonderful 03:06 event for Bicentenary and 75th Birthday of Canberra 03:10 1988 and 32 years later it's still going and it's a wonderful 03:14 tourism event in Canberra. Preparation starts in February. 03:19 We mark out the outline of the garden areas. 03:21 We put down granite paths. 03:23 We put drainage in. We put bases of soil, mark out the 03:27 pattern, plant the bulbs. It takes us from February till 03:31 about mid-June to finish planting the million bulbs and 03:34 annuals. 03:40 Now there's something in gardens that really strikes me and I 03:43 think it will strike you as well Taking in such rich lovely 03:47 colors you start thinking about what might create a rich lovely 03:52 life. Wouldn't it be great if our day to day existence 03:56 blossomed too. Imagine a life of color and beauty. Wouldn't it 04:02 be great if real flowers could be cultivated and came out in 04:07 your life. Well, I'd like to share with you one huge aspect 04:12 of a good life. You know what it is? Encouraging words. Don't you 04:18 have memories that, someone who told you something wonderful? 04:22 Someone who brought out the best in you, lifted you up. Someone 04:27 who helped you see a much better life. It's wonderful. It's a 04:32 reminder of the power of words. We have the power to change 04:38 someone's life for the better simply by the words we speak. 04:42 But sadly it's pretty rare. It's not that often that some words 04:48 coming your way brighten things up dramatically. However, I 04:54 believe there's a great source of encouraging words. There's a 04:57 place where they grow. What if you could become a great 05:01 encourager? What if you could cultivate beautiful words? 05:05 Yes, like these beautiful flowers growing up at Floriade. 05:11 And here's the very best source of great, encouraging words. 05:16 Here's where they really come from. The New Testament in the 05:20 Bible. I'm going to share with you how these gospels, these 05:25 letters, actually can create the best of words in your life, 05:30 what you can share. Here's how it starts. What do flowers grow 05:38 out of? What do they blossom from? Dirt of course, the ground 05:44 Pretty basic, pretty simple. But think about this. Plain, 05:49 ordinary kind of ugly dirt actually produces this amazing 05:54 variety of flowers, so beautiful from just plain, brown 06:01 soil. Well the New Testament shows us what can come out of 06:06 just ordinary human beings. Yes, we have our problems, we have 06:11 our dirt, that's human nature. We're far from perfect. But 06:16 God's purpose is to make beautiful things come out of our 06:21 nature. And when we believe in Christ, Christ believes in us. 06:26 He has great promises. This is what the apostle Paul said about 06:31 this Messiah's gift. In 2 Corinthians chapter five 06:35 and verse 17:... 06:45 In other words, you don't have to stay in the dirt, in the 06:50 weakness of human nature. You can bloom, rise up and blossom 06:54 as a new creation. In fact, all these flowers, all these colors, 06:59 all these shapes reflect a variety of qualities that can 07:04 come out of dirt, out of human nature. Here's Paul again 07:08 writing to Galatians. In chapter five he reminds people about the 07:13 sad things that emerge from sinful humanity. Everything from 07:18 hatred to selfish ambition to drunkenness. Then he says this 07:24 in verse 22:... 07:36 What grows out of the Spirit of Christ? The fruit of the Spirit 07:40 is all these great qualities. They are identified, they are 07:46 made, just like garden flowers. Now here's how all this relates 07:51 to encouraging words. Here's what's important about becoming 07:55 an encourager. It's very easy for human beings to just keep 08:01 staring at the dirt. In other words, we keep focused on the 08:05 bad things out there; the threats, the disappointments, 08:09 someone who puts us down. We can keep thinking about those dark 08:14 words, those ugly words all day long. We've all experienced them 08:20 in some shape or form whether you're 18 or 80. You can 08:24 probably recall the pain of someone's harsh words scolding 08:29 your soul. Maybe you still hear the message from years ago 08:33 etched in your memory playing an endless loop in your mind 08:37 echoing inside you every day. If you listen to your life, you can 08:44 recall moments when you felt the brutal sting of words; words 08:49 like you'll never amount to anything! You're nothing like 08:53 your brother. I'm sick of you! I never loved you. You'll never 08:59 change! You're useless! When the other kids called you fat. When 09:06 that boy dumped you for no reason. When your dad called you 09:10 stupid. When you received that letter of rejection. When your 09:14 boss told you that you were fired. Yes, you personally know 09:20 the impact words can have. Words can be devastating. They can cut 09:25 to the bone and leave us crippled. But you know what the 09:29 New Testament tells us? Drop the dirt. Let it go. That's not what 09:35 real life is about. Instead focus on good qualities, focus 09:41 on flowers. Look for that in your own life and in other 09:45 people as well. As devastating, as hurtful as words can be they 09:51 can be offset by words of truth, hope and love. Yes, we all have 09:57 our troubles, we all have our limitations. But God is working 10:01 to bring out something beautiful From the dirt beautiful flowers 10:06 grow. Try to get a glimpse of it. Try to see it blossom. Yes, 10:12 so important. Don't just stare at the dirt. Look at the flowers 10:17 In fact, the New Testament emphasizes the impact simple 10:22 words of encouragement can have. Everybody has moments when a 10:27 kind word could make a big difference. And that's why the 10:31 New Testament takes the words we utter very seriously. Jesus 10:36 talked about casually cruel words getting into judgment. 10:41 We're advised to avoid hurtful words and focus rather on 10:46 positive, uplifting ones. His apostles give us this advice 10:52 over and over. Build up one another, encourage one another. 10:56 There's one piece of New Testament advice that stands out 11:01 We're asked to speak edifying words to each other daily, 11:04 regularly whenever we meet together. So what's the secret 11:10 to becoming a great encourager? How can our words have great 11:15 influence for good? Some of us think we can't come up with a 11:19 beautiful flowery language. Well let me tell you about a man we 11:24 once interviewed. This is about a man who should have been tone 11:29 deaf. Richard had a father who was tyrannical and abusive. 11:34 No good words were ever spoken to him. It was all negative, 11:40 depressing stuff. And so through his teen years, Richard felt 11:45 very isolated. Relationships of any kind were a strain. This 11:50 young man seemed to have very little chance of experiencing 11:55 normal life. And yet some years later this same Richard actually 12:00 became a wonderfully nurturing father. People noticed how he 12:06 calmly diffused quarrels between his boy and girl. He had a 12:10 wonderful way of dropping little words of encouragement on his 12:15 kids, telling Krista why she would always be beautiful in his 12:19 eyes, telling Samuel how he was growing into a fine young man. 12:23 This was a man adored by his wife and children. What had 12:29 happened to Richard? Well in his 20s he collided unexpectedly 12:35 with something called grace. The unconditional love of a very 12:41 different father finally got through to him. He found 12:45 acceptance in Jesus the beloved Son. God began speaking to him 12:51 in a wonderful new language that penetrated his wounded soul. 12:56 So Richard was passing on that language, beautiful words, the 13:02 language of grace. He was giving his boy and girl a childhood 13:07 immeasurably different from his own. Yes, I do believe that any 13:13 human being through God's grace can become a wonderful 13:17 encourager. Do you find yourself looking for the right words? 13:24 What should I say in this situation or that situation? 13:28 The New Testament simply urges this... 13:43 To speak encouraging words tap into grace. Grace gives you the 13:49 right answer. That's a life changing promise. Here's a funny 13:54 line that I heard recently that has a point... 14:03 Ever thought of that? Well here's the point. If you can't 14:08 build people up stop and take a good look. Look at the grace 14:12 blossoming in the New Testament. Yes, it's like a gorgeous public 14:17 garden full of so many flowers, full of such potential. Take a 14:22 good look, take in grace that rescues the undeserving. Take in 14:28 God's terms of endearment that come through in the epistles. 14:32 Children of God. Beloved. The chosen. The anointed. Vessels to 14:38 be used for noble purposes. Temples of the Holy Spirit. 14:43 Trophies led by Christ in triumphal procession. Have you 14:49 really savored these nicknames? They're not just theological 14:52 categories to be dissected. They are flowers you can hold in your 14:58 hand. Look at grace, the confluence in its beautiful 15:02 language. It's the most powerful language there is. It's how we 15:07 speak to one another with psalms hymns and spiritual songs. It's 15:12 how we put a song in other people's hearts. So let's look 15:17 at two specific things about that language. Here's something 15:21 grace typically says: I believe in you. Now that line is really 15:26 a matter of passing on the faith God has in us to others. If God 15:32 can look through our sinfulness and see citizens of the kingdom 15:36 the we can adopt the same perspective. We can afford to 15:41 affirm. What kind of people did Jesus believe in? Well there was 15:50 Simon the zealot, member of a violent political group. There 15:54 was Matthew who'd been collecting taxes from his own 15:58 people for their hated Roman oppressors. Thomas was plagued 16:01 with doubts. James and John had such violent tempers they were 16:07 called sons of thunder. And their leader Simon Peter rarely 16:12 got his foot out of his mouth. What was Jesus supposed to do 16:16 with this motley crew? How could he get the best out of them? 16:20 Well here's how. Express great faith in them. Show that he 16:25 believed in them. You'll become fishers of men and they ended up 16:29 making a fishing pond of the whole world. Saying I believe in 16:34 you is the opposite of judging. That's one thing Jesus warned us 16:39 about very pointedly. To judge our neighbor is to stand back 16:44 and issue a verdict. Judging is simply staring at the dirt, 16:48 digging into the mound. Grace, however, is about looking for 16:53 the blossoms. It's about pointing to all the flowers out 16:57 there. Grace is about being genuinely involved in other 17:02 lives. Think about the difference our words can make. 17:05 Judging raises an eyebrow. Grace raises expectation. 17:12 Judging assumes you owe me. Grace proclaims our debt is paid 17:18 Now let me show you one more essential factor of the language 17:23 of flowers. And Floriade reflects this point too. Did you 17:28 know that each year in this celebration of spring Floriade 17:34 comes out with a specific theme. Each year all the flowers in 17:38 this place circle around something. Just a few years ago 17:42 the theme was "Embrace Passion: Bringing Spring to Life in 17:47 Canberra." Before that in 2011 it was "A Feast for the Senses." 17:54 Taking music, taking special food as you are surrounded by a 17:59 field of color. Well all these nice themes suggest this: 18:05 Flowers are expressing something Flowers are a gift, beautiful 18:10 gift. You can embrace them with passion. They can be a feast for 18:14 your thinking. They can color your world day and night. They 18:18 can lighten up your mind, body and soul. And all those Floriade 18:24 themes suggest something about encouraging words. They're also 18:29 about seeing a gift, seeing a gift in other people, seeing 18:33 something special and unique in them and expressing it. That 18:38 builds people up. And this is what helps us see gifts, see 18:43 them as vastly as you see a garden of flowers. The New 18:47 Testament emphasizes this: Every person, every single personality 18:53 has an irreplaceable role. Listen to what Romans chapter 12 18:58 and verse six says:... 19:05 And 1 Corinthians chapter 12 asks us to value a wide variety 19:11 of gifts. There the apostle Paul uses the analogy of the human 19:16 body and all the different parts of that body that are essential. 19:20 He says this in verses 21-23:... 19:46 That's what an encourager does. You see gifts in people that may 19:51 seem plain, may seem ordinary. But do you see how that gift can 19:56 be a contribution in life? And that actually helps the gift 20:00 in other people to bloom. Yes, it's like seeing how a little 20:05 seed in that soil, that dirt, can rise up and blossom into a 20:10 colorful flower. Also, looking for gifts in others neutralizes 20:16 a tendency a lot of us have. It's easy to zero in on mistakes 20:22 to spotlight disappointment. Yes just staring at the dirt. Plenty 20:28 of that around. Human beings in general put something like 20:32 unfaithfulness, adultery, in the headlines and an act of kindness 20:38 gets put in the footnotes. Criticism. Pretty basic isn't it 20:43 pretty common. But this New Testament grace that helps us 20:48 look for gifts in others, that can replace the language of 20:52 criticism, replace the put down. God's grace can definitely be 20:58 like a huge garden of flowers, blossoming all kinds of colors 21:03 into the world. God's grace is such a big antidote to chronic 21:09 criticism. Think of these contrasts. The critical puts 21:14 people in their place. Grace takes people to the throne of 21:18 mercy. The critical shoo a bunch of noisy kids away. Grace says 21:24 you have to become like them to enter my kingdom. The critical 21:29 take cheap shots. Grace makes a portrait of possibilities. Big 21:36 contrast! We definitely want to become encouragers. 21:41 We definitely want to absorb those New Testament words of 21:45 grace. I believe each one of us can become a great encourager 21:51 in any circumstances. Yes, grace can seep in even in the darkest 21:58 hour. A teenager named Jeremy had a great Christian father. 22:05 But he was going through some rebellious days just finding 22:09 ways to goof around here and there and one night he ended up 22:14 in jail because he'd grabbed a few things he wasn't supposed to 22:18 at an empty golf course food shop. Jeremy sat in the holding 22:23 cell a few hours frustrated. And then he noticed another very 22:28 troubled young man behind the same bars. Andrew. This one's 22:33 matted, greasy hair and dull gray eyes spoke of years in and 22:38 out of jail. He began talking about his troubles. But 22:43 sometimes insightful intelligent phrases flashed through. Jeremy 22:49 got the distinct impression this bloke could have made something 22:52 out of his life, but he just kept blowing it. At one point 22:57 Andrew rambled a bit about the possibility of God having a plan 23:02 for your life. Suddenly Jeremy remembered a story of 23:06 footprints and he had to share it. He was feeling for his cell 23:10 mate. He felt compassion for him So he told him about a man 23:16 looking back over his life and seeing two sets of footprints 23:20 traced along in the sand via the tracks of God walking beside 23:25 this individual through his ups and downs. At the very lowest 23:30 point, however, one set of footprints disappears. The man 23:35 asked in dismay, God did you desert me then? No, God replies. 23:42 That's when I was carrying you. After Jeremy finished the 23:47 parable, Andrew's dull gray eyes lit up and then to Jeremy's 23:53 astonishment he dropped from the iron bench to his knees and 23:57 began praying out loud. He poured his heart out to God for 24:01 20 minutes, sobbing uncontrollably forehead to the 24:06 cold cement floor. Guards took Andrew to another cell and 24:12 ushered in a new prisoner who asked, what happened to him? 24:15 Jeremy, still in awe, could only reply, he found God. And that's 24:22 when Jeremy almost hit the ceiling. Why? Because he felt 24:27 now he had a life mission. He had run face to face into the 24:33 awesome power of encouraging words. It swept him up in a kind 24:38 of exhilaration he'd never felt before. Yes, even behind bars, 24:44 even in a cell this teenager could say very excitedly, God 24:51 where do you want me to go next? That's just one example of those 24:56 words of grace making an impact even in the darkest hour. 25:00 It's an example of flowers coming up from bare, black dirt. 25:06 So I challenge you, become an encourager. We speak on the 25:12 average somewhere between 10 and 20 thousand words a day. Just 25:17 think of what a difference we could make at school, at home, 25:21 and at work, if we use those words to encourage people and 25:27 build them up. It will help things blossom all around you 25:31 and best of all it'll give you a real boost as well. Flowers have 25:37 to be cultivated. It takes care and effort to grow a great 25:42 garden. And we can do the same with our words in the garden of 25:47 life. It just takes care and effort. If you want your life 25:52 to blossom, if you want a life of color, beauty, and fulfillment 25:57 if you want true happiness and inner peace and want to share 26:01 that with others through encouraging words then I'd like 26:05 to recommend a free gift we have for all our Incredible Journey 26:09 viewers today. It's the easy-to- read booklet Superpower of Words 26:15 This small booklet will only take you a few minutes to read 26:19 but it could help you find the right words to be a real 26:23 blessing and encouragement to others. This booklet is our gift 26:28 to you and is absolutely free. I guarantee there are no costs 26:32 or obligations whatsoever. So make sure you take this 26:36 wonderful opportunity to receive the free gift we have for you 26:41 today. 26:43 Phone or text us at 0436-333-555 in Australia or 020-422-2042 in 26:52 New Zealand or visit our website TiJ.tv to request today's free 26:58 offer and we'll send it to you totally free of charge and with 27:02 no obligation. Write to us at: 27:16 Don't delay. Call or text us now 27:20 If you've enjoyed our journey to Canberra and Floriade and our 27:26 reflections on the power of our words and the importance of 27:30 encouraging people, then be sure to join us again next week when 27:35 we will share another of life's journeys together. Until then 27:38 may your words reflect a beautiful life. Let's pray. 27:44 Dear heavenly Father, thank you so much for this flowery 27:49 language of grace that comes through to us in the New 27:52 Testament. Thank you for your forgiveness, your acceptance 27:56 that enables us to live in grace So please enable us to take in 28:03 this language. Enable us to say I believe in you and I see your 28:09 gift. Take us into your blossoming world of 28:12 encouragement. In Jesus' name, Amen. 28:16 ♪ ♪ |
Revised 2021-08-25