A conversation with Young Voices for Christ Part 2

Welcome to Young

Voices for Christ, a podcast brought to you by a passionate group

of young adults from Crofton Park Baptist Church here in South London.

in Brockley.

Here they come together to share their faith, explore life's

big questions, and celebrate the journey of following Christ.

Join them as they delve into inspiring stories, engage

in discussions and heartfelt reflections,

all aimed at encouraging and uplifting your walk with God.

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Welcome back.

In the second part of this discussion, the group talk more about

how they would like to improve their relationship with God.

For reference, this was recorded back in June before Father's Day.

And the question

is in the context of relationships with fathers and father figures and how

that can be templated on our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

So let's catch up again where we left off.

How would you describe your relationship with God?

We call God our Father.

So how would you say your relationship is with him and

how would you seek to improve that?

Chris, what do you what would you say to that?

First, I'm gonna ask you first on this reason why

I'm asking you first, obviously.

But I know the day that was.

I don’t know how to answer that.

So I'll give you a few cues.

I did mention,

Father's Day is coming up, and I'm going to do the preach.

But unfortunately, it's not all-age, so, you’re not going to hear what I'm going to

say. When’s Father’s Day?

The sixteenth.

Yeah.

I made you a card.

Have you.

What?

Have you been checking my room? No.

Okay. Fair enough. Anyway.

So a couple of days back, I did talk

about that kind of relationship,

with the father.

And I was kind of examining my kind of relationship with God.

What has it been up till now?

So, I mean, if you,

let's talk

about the earthly father, then let's talk about

what's your relationship like

with your father, grandfather or uncle,

whoever your father figure is in your life.

And yes I can ask you that question, Chris,

even though I am your father, and I'm sitting right here.

Let's make it doubly awkward.

I don't always get my way.

You don’t always get.

I'm doing my job then. We never do.

But that's interesting. That was a bit much.

That's good.

It's interesting because when you think about it, it's what Rhian

was talking about the other time about praying and what's going on here.

You don't always get your way, even if it's something you feel is

good for you, isn't it? Yeah.

So what about you?

Would you summarize yours in such a short ways?

I don't I mean, it's not been easy, but it is.

I think my relationship with my dad is in a good place.

Yeah.

My relationship with you my uncle's

very good, I think.

Why would you say your relationship with the dad is in a good place.

So it wasn't. No.. What made it.

What helped to make it get to that stage being in a good place?

I think communication.

I think, like, talking about

how I feel

and actually being heard and also listening to how,

my dad might feel as well about, like, things I do

and actually listening and then taking, actually taking those things on board,

so you can go somewhere and there can be like some progression.

Yeah.

Lemara?.

So from a young age, I will make it sweet and simple.

I mean, my dad's relationship was very weak.

Very weak.

Even the days when I had to go down to his house just to,

I don't know, have a weekend, but then I'll know that I'll be going to

church is when have a lot younger.

I'll be screaming and crying and say, “no, mom, don’t take me.” “No, no, no.

” Everything like that.

I even faked once being sick so I wouldn't have to go, but that didn't work.

Literally anything.

I tried to get out of it, but, it has progressed,

and it has, become a lot stronger and better

because he was the one person actually brought me into Christ.

And really showed me that this is not a religion

like you don't just go to church, sing a few hymns,

read the Bible, and then come home and live your life as normal.

You need to come into church, have a change and come out,

and then keep on living that change and I was like.

Wow. Like, okay, so he is the one that really got me really started up.

And I must say, I'm very my relationship’s very mutual.

You have respect for me, I have respect for you.

No boundaries are pushed.

No boundaries are shoved.

What you say, I will listen because my dad's a minister.

So what he.

He teaches me every so often, or I'll have a question.

I can go to him about it.

There was even a time when I would struggle to say, like, I love you. Like,

because I just had that the oppression on me, that spirit of oppression.

I was just like grr And it just doesn't allow you to express

love the way that Jesus wants us to express love, right?

So then I struggled a bit.

But then, as I learned how to forgive, and as God taught me to

to forgive and to have mercy on others, just as he has mercy on us.

That's when I was able to really show love and care and hug him and

really say, I love you and mean it.

So I would say the relationship we have now is good.

I was just thinking ‘cause it's interesting, all the answers.

And this is kind of, for me,

what that preach is going to be about, because I think fathers are misunderstood.

How so?

And it affects our relationship with God as well.

If we call God “our father”.

You know why I say this?

Mother's Day, yeah.

I'm not going to I'm going to [...] I haven't got much beef about it,

but you know your Mother's Day breakfast in bed.

Flowers. We all go out to a restaurant we eat.

Mum doesn't do any work for the day. Father’s Day.

Socks.

It's not about the material things. Yes.

He is.

Here’s a thought, breakfast in bed.

I get healthy food like you're fat.

Oh, I get, I get healthy food.

I drive us to a restaurant, to go eat a meal.

Drive. Chris will drive next time.

I don't trust your driving, and I'm not sure you trust mine Here's the thing.

Here's a thing. Right? Communication.

We don't get that much communication with dads

Like our father in heaven.

Yeah, because most of the time, the communication with dad is do as I say.

End of.

But isn't it?

It is. So. No, I'm not saying I'm not blaming.

I'm not blaming children.

I'm blaming dads as well, because we

not all dad's are like the same.

I hear good stories about dads who have time for their kids

and can have conversations, with them and they see them.

I grew up in a household, and maybe most of my generation

grew up in households where you are seen and not heard,

because sometimes you'll see how shocked some of us are

when we're having conversations with adults.

And then Chris was half his height, and he would just come in between us and go,

“daddy!, [...]” and I’m like can’t you see I'm talking to a grown up.

It's not like

they would say they just have that shocked look on your face going there.

Can't you see we're having a conversation? What's going on here?

So fathers don't have that kind of that kind of,

Time, well, time is a big one as well.

Yeah, especially in the traditional kind of homes.

I think it's. Kind of good to have. The.

Kind of break from constant attention, because not every person wants constant,

constant attention. But I think the point is

that the attention might not be given in the first place.

And sometimes it's difficult as well

to actually get to know, because we talk about communication

getting to know fathers can be difficult when you're a teenager is cringe.

Yes, I used the word.

But that’s just given me given me more cringe.

Yep But so when when when you're young, it's like, oh, hero carries you on

his shoulders, does all the heavy stuff kill spiders and stuff like that.

But when you're older, it's like, He wants you to do stuff for yourself.

He hasn't got time to actually listen to what you're saying.

So you're starting to question things.

And he's like, no, this is look, that's dangerous.

This is wrong. This is sinful. That is bad.

Who are those friends, you’re not going out dressed like that

and all that kind of stuff.

So that's another blocker for you to actually get to know this person.

But your mum, most of the time, you, not all the time.

But most occasions you've got [...] your mum is the kind of person who,

you get to know.

The good cop? because [...] it's not even that.

Because even, even if you don't ask her how

she's feeling, your mum will tell you how she's feeling.

In many words.

[...].

But dads might just be there quietly going, “okay, fine, I'll just go and ...”.

I think it's.

Because.

Fathers especially.

Well, to be honest, if you're a father, you should be married.

I'm just going to say it.

I'm just going by what the Bible says. Okay?

So don’t fight me no one.

When you're a father, you're put on an assignment

before you even become a father.

So that's why we say there's physical father

and then there's our spiritual father.

So as a physical father, you have an assignment over your life to

to direct your child, to direct your children to

who God has placed in your hands to lead to the kingdom of heaven.

Right?

And so it’s like [...] that's why I understand Father's Day.

It could be seen as vain even to,

even birthdays can be seen as vain, and even Mother's Day can be seen as vain.

But Fathers Day,

because they have so much pressure on that, their heads on their shoulders.

You're meant to be in the man of the house.

You're meant to to walk and talk with God like you've never walked

and talked with God before.

You meant, your known to to do the bills, to pay this,

to pay that, to sort out this.

If there's a plumbing issues, if there's a lighting issue,

if you're a part of the church, you're meant to do that and do this.

There's a lot on your head, there's a lot on your shoulders.

But the thing is, that's why God has developed men to be strong.

That's why God has developed men

to be a certain way, look a certain way, act a certain way.

And that's why there's this whole thing of like a man of God.

When you're a man of God, you you make sure that you do things

that are aligned and assigned into what God has for you, for your path, right?

That title always scares me. Yeah, yeah.

So as long as you're in that line, you actually be fine

because it says no weapon formed against you shall prosper, right?

It’s like even, like husbands.

So fathers, if you obviously are a father, it says in in the Bible

that husbands shall love their wives just as Jesus loved the church.

Do you know, how do you know how Jesus loved the church like that?

Do you know mad that is?

That means you have to worhip your wife.

It was actually nice to lay down your life.

Yeah.

That's like That's even more.

Literally.

Literally like, that's even more weight.

So Father's Day, I would say it shouldn't

glorify fathers or father figures because my granddad, he's

like my father figure for me.

He's been there for me since birth till now.

That's almost 18 years of my life.

So far, still many more to come.

Amen, Amen.

So it's

very much like it shouldn't be a time to glorify, but to acknowledge

that Jesus has placed you in,

in this life or in the certain position.

And we're going to thank God for you.

Yeah. We're not going to thank you and only you.

Because it's not your breath in your lungs.

Right. It's God that gives the breath in your lungs.

Amen. sister!

So. I think same with Mother's Day, too.

We should thank God for the mothers.

But Fathers Day, we should thank God for the fathers.

Because without them, like,

we wouldn't be. Here.

I was coming from the kind of relationship we have with our God,

our father, God in heaven.

That the maybe our relationships with our earthly fathers

is because we're time poor.

So you don't really get to know us, but, you know us as “the provider”.

And are we having that same relationship with God, our father?

Are we just getting to know God?

Our fathers are provider and that's it. We don't want to know.

God? Deep and inner.

We need to have a deeper relationship.

We need to get to really know God needs to spend time.

So ‘cause he already like you said, he sees us.

He knows us.

Yeah.

Sometimes when we pray, when we pray for stuff, he already knows what we need.

But do you think there's a reason we say, like God our father instead of God

our mother since like, oh, obviously we know like

people will say God's “he” and stuff like that, but

obviously as you were saying before people see fathers

as the provider and mothers is maybe like a nurturer

That's probably why we have that,

why we have [...] Maybe that's why sometimes it's so difficult

to have relationship with God.

And Jesus came and showed us the way because until then God

was Adonai, our Lord, gracious, provider, all that kind of stuff.

Yeah. But unapproachable.

You had to go to him through priests and sacrifices and stuff like that.

But Jesus was like, he's our father.

You pray to him as “Our Father”.

So that made him that made it, an even, a closer relationship.

Yeah.

Because I guess in Judaism, whatever they still want not call them

out of any other religion because God “Our Father”.

But like you say, well there's no way I'm going to call God “Our Mother”.

I know there's been some Craziness.

Okay.

But there's some craziness.

I don't know whether everything they want

everything to be gender neutral in the Bible.

So what would you call God?

They? he? No. God.

You can say God is a father.

You can say “He” because Jesus came down as a he.

Yeah, but then with the same [...] you wouldn't

say, God, my mother, you would say, you can say

God is a mother to the motherless, and he is a friend to the friendless.

Yeah, yeah.

But I mean, he is a comfort to those who do you.

Oh, in the Bible says he comforts those who mourn.

But he will comfort you in your time of need.

So [...] You're exactly like he can be a friend.

That's also great.

Yeah, but yeah, this has been a

nice I don't I don't I could go on for a long time.

Yeah definitely.

But yeah we'll have something else to talk about next time.

But this has been great.

Thanks for inviting me along to be part of your young,

[...] You're my personal VIP.

The last time to be young again.

What are you trying to say?

I'm. Well, he's always young. He doesn't.

Look a day past 20.

Those grey hairs say something different, please.

When they call me, It’s in the Bible that your grey hair’s a sign of wisdom.

That you should be good.

That you’re seen as good.

So when you get your grey hairs. Yeah.

I got one. Style!

It got plucked out though by who?

Yeah, I plucked it out.

I’ll help you pluck out one or more. Come

I’ve had my gray hairs since I was seven.

I haven't [...[ It’s going to cut out.

Bye! bye!.