Podcast appearances and mentions of gary tucker

Caught up with Gary Tucker on his season both at home and on the road. He's been everywhere and back! Also talked plans for next year. Check it out, ohhh yeahhh

Fathers and sons. Mother and daughters. For some reason, these relationships seem fraught with conflict. Is this because we would never separate from our parents if the relationship was too good? Maybe.  Is it because the devil knows if he can attack the family at this point, he will do damage to the greatest safeguard against evil known to man? Definitely. That's what I would do if I were the devil.  Join us this week on A Time to Sharpen as we talk with Gary Tucker (aka “Papa Tuck”) and his son Keaton, who “headlined” at Whetstone's Father Son Retreat last weekend. The four of us will have a frank discussion about failure and success, and in the end (spoiler alert!) we'll all be reminded that God has a plan. And as my father is fond of saying, “You don't have to like it.”  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/time-to-sharpen/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/time-to-sharpen/support

In the latest episode of Around the Table, Gary Tucker, director of environmental health and safety with CHS transportation and logistics, highlights advances that help maintain safety on the road.

In the latest episode of Around the Table, Gary Tucker, director of environmental health and safety with CHS transportation and logistics, highlights advances that help maintain safety on the road.

1 (3s): Good morning, 2 (6s): Let's all stand together in worship. 1 (37s): He has to see what a savior has. See how his love overcomes. He you conquer the be every and break every, Oh God, you have to great. We, you in. 1 (1m 18s): Oh, you have done, you'll, you, you conquer the A. 0 (3m 8s): You've 1 (3m 9s): Great 0 (3m 12s): Hero. 1 (3m 13s): Heaven. You conquer the you every captive, and oh, the faith can. 1 (4m 27s): The s lets we with expectations. Waiting here for you, waiting the Lord. And still, everything you promised, your faithfulness is 3 (9m 13s): You just to come into the presence of a creative God and know that you love us, that you busy yourself without every step. You care about the ups and downs of our lives, and you carry us through. Father, we just honor you this morning. Jesus name. 5 (9m 41s): The Lord looks upon you and he is pleased. He loves you with an everlasting love before the foundations of the world. He sings over you. Lord, you are a pleasing sound to his ears. He is near you, near than you think. And he delights in being near you. Call out to you and peace and grace and truth to yours 4 (10m 18s): And the Spirit. Spirit and the bride. Say, Come and let him who hears say, come and let him who first come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life free. Or I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of his book. If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the flags that are written in this book. If anyone takes away the words of the book of this prophe, God shall take away his part from the of life, from the holy city. And the testifies to things says surely. Amen. 1 (11m 17s): Praise God from praise him creatures. Praise Father. Son. 1 (11m 59s): Praise the praise. Praise the spirit. Every mom praise 0 (13m 17s): Us. 1 (13m 19s): Praise the Spirit every moment. Praise God. Praise, praise. 0 (13m 37s): Praise us. Praise 1 (13m 41s): Us Spirit. Praise God who died, Who? 0 (14m 38s): Praise. 1 (14m 39s): Now, praise the spirit. 0 (14m 55s): Now, 1 (14m 58s): Every moment, all our praise, praise, praise. We praise you, 0 (15m 12s): Son. 1 (15m 13s): We praise you spirit. 0 (15m 16s): Now, 1 (15m 19s): Moment, all our God, praying, God praise, God, praise God. Praise, praise. 1 (17m 44s): Every dark is your name. Is the, your name is shouts. 1 (20m 2s): Jesus, the holy name Jesus. Shout Jesus. Darkness is healing. 1 (21m 46s): The Jesus I, 6 (22m 9s): Yeah. Look, we praise your name, Lord. We come here today in, in response to what you've done, Jesus, what you've sacrificed for us. You paid the ultimate price so that we can walk in freedom and joy and peace, and so that we can approach your throne without hesitation. Jesus, you give yourself to us over and over and over again, Lord. And so I just pray that each heart would be encouraged this morning, that each heart would be challenged this morning where we need to be challenged. And Lord, I just pray that we would as a church, glorify your name this morning, God, because that's the greatest act that we can do in response to what you've done, Lord. 6 (22m 51s): So we bring our hearts, we bring our minds, we bring our attention to you this morning, and we're so grateful for you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right, You can take your seats if you'd like The beautiful time of worship. My name is Curtis. I just wanna welcome you all here today. If you have not been here before, if this is your first time, we've got coffee and tea out on the patio and restrooms down these hallways here, so you can find your way there if you need it. And also, if you're new here, we have communication cards in the seat backs in front of you. So they, they're double-sided. There's notes and communication cards. So if you'll take that communication card and fill it out with your information, we'd love to reach out to you, get to know you and connect with you in that way. 6 (23m 37s): So please do that. If you're new or if we have outdated information, you can do that as well. Also, we had a Bonko for Babies event this last week, and it was incredible. It was an awesome time. The ladies showed up and they were super generous. We have a gift, or we have a photo of all the gifts. They brought all these to donate to Lifeline Pregnancy Center. And so hopefully that'll be a huge blessing to the community and those who have unplanned pregnancies. And then also, we have a child dedication Sunday coming up. So if you're a parent and you want to dedicate yourself to raising your child in the faith, then you can do that October 23rd. But let us know. 6 (24m 18s): Go sign up at the info center, and we'd love to get you signed up for that. The last thing is that we've got Halloween outreach happening here at the church. If you haven't heard about it, basically thousands of kids are gonna be coming down this, this street right in front of our building, and we wanna be able to bless them and load them up with candy and just love on them. So we're gonna be opening our doors. We're gonna have a carnival in here, free carnival for the kids. It's gonna be really sweet. So if you'd like, you can get involved in two ways. You can bring candy, donate candy for us to give out, and then you can also sign up to serve at this event. It's gonna be really great. So we encourage you to do that. 6 (24m 59s): And then after, so after this, right at the minute, mingle, the youth are gonna be dismissed. But first we're gonna bring up Jeremy, Pastor Jeremy, Pastor Steve, and the elders, and we're gonna, we got a little something for you. So, Yeah. 8 (25m 32s): Yeah. Good morning. So as you know, this is Pastor Appreciation Sunday, and so we're here to pray for our pastors. But first I want to give a little bit of introduction, little bit of, not introduction, but their background, background background. So I'm Steve, probably already know Steve and Jeremy, so I don't need to introduce them. But Steve started serving in church when he was a teenager. And then by 17, God told him that he wanted him to be a pastor. So after he finished high school, he went to numerous bible colleges and, and has a master's in Pastor Pastoral leadership. 8 (26m 17s): And so that was his beginning into ministering. He's served as a youth pastor. He served as in street ministry in homeless ministry. He was a chaplain for the county jail. He's Sunday school teacher worship on the worship team and all that. And, and youth, youth pastor. I know worship, that's probably life was 9 (26m 46s): Off, I'm sure 8 (26m 48s): Youth pastor and then associate pastor. Oh yeah. And then God spoke to him again and said, You know, you need to go plant a church. Steven know how to plant a church. But he was following God's direction. And so out to Lopez, we went, this is when I got involved with Pastor Steve about 20 years ago. And what we've been doing as a church following Steve's leadership is we first moved from Lopez, then to the West campus, the sanctuary, which is now the chapel. And then we started acquiring more and more buildings. We were renting them all. And then finally it came up for purchase. 8 (27m 30s): And so we decided to purchase. Now the thing is, following Steve's leadership, it's, it's always do, can we do this? And, and the answer's no by ourselves. Yeah, yeah. But with God, we can do these things. And so our budget increased every year. Every year when we do the budget, do we wanna put this much extra in? And we go, Well, God's always been faithful to meet our budget, so maybe we oughta set it like, No. But Steve also is the pastor of the area. 8 (28m 11s): Pastors meet once a month for a, a praying and leadership and lunch. And, and Steve's involved in that. He actually runs that, heads that up. And so I just wanna say that it's been a blessing for Becky and me to serve along with Pastor Save. He's my friend. He's, I look up to him. He's my pastor, and I'm just so grateful, so thoughtful. And so we're looking for another 20 years. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Or more or more. As long as, until Jesus comes back. 10 (28m 53s): Until Jesus, every, 8 (28m 55s): So Pastor Jeremy, Pastor Jeremy, a little known fact. He was born in China. I lived there for all of one year. One year. One year. So he is not fluent in Mandarin? Nope. So after Jeremy and his family, he, he was born in China because his parents were missionaries. They were serving there. And after a year, they came back to the States and Jeremy did the high school thing, and he, and he went to U csb straight to high school. Yeah. Graduated U C S B. He's a brilliant man. He didn't have to mess around with grade school. 8 (29m 37s): And yeah, he was straight, just high school. But then about four years ago, Jeremy was working in construction, and him and his family started attending Harvest. And a little bit later than that, we were in the need for a youth pastor. And so Jeremy came to mind. So we, we interviewed Jeremy and I got to know his heart and his passion for, for the youth. And I thought, Okay, we need to hire this guy. There was no doubt in my mind that, that we needed him. So we offered him a job and, and accepted, thankfully. 8 (30m 18s): And so now Jeremy's, he's doing the youth Wednesday night meetings and teaching youth on Sunday mornings high junior high and high school. And that's why there's so many not empty seats now because of the, Jeremy hasn't taken all the youth away. And so those of you that are sitting, are sitting and waiting for a seat, you'll, you'll find a seat pretty soon. So he's, he's been thank serving graciously, humbly, thankfully, and is such a tremendous influence on our youth. And it's, it's good for me. 8 (31m 4s): And I, and I love seeing this. I'm also, many of, you know, I'm a teacher. I teach at high school level. And so we kind of have the same goal in mind because the youth is our, it's the next generation that we're raising up. And if, if we don't raise up the, the youth, then things are going to go downhill. And we don't want that. So we're, we're grateful for Jeremy. I'm glad that he came on board. He's a team player and of asset to harvest, and we love you so much. 8 (31m 45s): Right? 13 (31m 49s): Why do you have a sticker on? Why do you have a stick? Neil and Jim, if you could go grab your whatever it is a way of honoring our pastors, throwing our appreciation from the children's ministry, the kids' ministry grades first, second, third, and fourth have created something that I would like to narrate, which will be their way of honoring this one over here is, is honoring Pastor Steve. That's why I have the stick, if anyone gets out of line, I have a stick. And this will be honoring Jeremy. And so I'm gonna start right over here. All right. I'm just gonna read it to you. 13 (32m 29s): Hopefully you can see what we got going on here. So again, Pastor Steve, this is for you. Heartfelt from the children. Our pastor is a rock star and a sweet tart for everything he does. We wanted to take five to thank you. He is always there to pick up the pieces. He makes us snicker and chuckle at his jokes, which he happens to buy from the children. By the way, he deserves a hundred grand every payday. 13 (33m 15s): Jim, we gotta raise a budget. You are m and ms, which means mighty manager of our church. The higher please. Neil, thank you. You have made mounds of difference in our lives as we journey down the rocky road of life and a lifesaver for many. You will be in our hearts now and now and later. Now and later. Thank you, Neil. All right. Tell you what, let me stand right over here for this one. 13 (33m 56s): Okay. Pastor Jeremy, Heartfelt from the children. You ready? Yeah. Ready. Okay. You are truly Mr. Goodbar. You are such a, a sweet tart and go the extra mile for our youth. You bring so much. It says Almond joy, Joy to so many. You are m and ms, which means mega mellow man. You give us airheads, you give us airheads advice and guidance and a lifesaver when it comes to helping our youth over the rocky road of life. 13 (34m 38s): You always make sure we have donuts. You are a rockstar with youth. Little higher dare Jim. Thank you. You are a rockstar youth minister and a, a outrageous baptizer, Okay? No big kisses to you for all you do for our church. We love you two pieces. 13 (35m 22s): So what we'd like to do now for, for Steve and Jeremy, is we just like to pray for them. And so we would ask you to, you know, pray along with us, agree with us, Neil, we're gonna start with you, 10 (35m 34s): Right? Good morning. 13 (35m 36s): Just so, 14 (35m 37s): So glad I said at first service, and I'll say it again, that these men said yes to serving and also just wanna share a little story. Got to church early this morning to prepare for this, and Jeremy was out in the parking lot with a little broom sweeping up cigarette butts that were out in the parking lot. So I just, I just, it just illustrates the preparation that goes into this morning. You know, that last song we sang, you know, I just wanna speak the name of Jesus. You just, you just need to know that, that that happened in prayer before we all met this morning that happened with the worship team back in the green room this morning before we all gathered that you really are prayed in every day. 14 (36m 24s): You really are looked after in a special way. And these two men lead the way. And it's just an honor to serve with you guys. Father God, we ask your blessing, Lord, on their sacrifice of service, Lord, on their family sacrifices. Service Father would pray Your wisdom and grace and your Holy Spirit would fall in a powerful way, Lord God, all the days of their lives, Lord, instructing and motivating for them to reach and teach all of us, Lord God, to bring the word, Father God, to bring their wisdom and their insight, Lord God, and their willingness, Lord, just to say yes to you. I thank you and praise you, Father. And we ask in Jesus' name. 15 (37m 6s): You know, the Bible says, Jesus says that the greatest in the kingdom of heaven is the servant of all. He was a servant. He came to die. He came to lay down his life. And he said, And I will give you shepherds after my own heart. And truly, these men are shepherds after God's own heart. They care about you, they pray for you. They're there when you need them. If you want to some counseling or prayer. And they study. They give hours in studying the word of God so that they don't miss giving you the whole council of God from cover to cover. 15 (37m 49s): These are mighty men in God's kingdom. He looks at them as his soldiers, as his servants, as his fellow heirs. And we honor them today. We bless them in Jesus name. And we're so thankful that we don't have to worry when they open the word of God, cuz we know they're gonna teach it and not just talk about it. So let's just pray and, and again, give thanks for them. Father, we thank you for these men of God and Ron too, Lord, even though he's retired. And Lord, we thank you for all that they've done in this fellowship, all that they continue to do. 15 (38m 33s): We pray, God, that you would continue to feed your flock through them. Raise up others who will be able to go out and do likewise. We commit this church into your hands, and we thank you for their faithfulness. In Jesus' name. Amen. 7 (38m 53s): Okay, 8 (38m 59s): So, Lord, thank you so much for these, Ben. I know I've said a lot about 'em and talked about their background, but what's most important is they follow you. They desire to be your servant, Lord. And we, we thank you that they have a servant attitude, and it's easy for us to follow them the way they follow you. It's easy for us to follow Jesus just the same, because they set a good example for us to follow. Thank you Lord for these two men. And Ron, who just recently retired, was our pastor here for a number of years. 8 (39m 40s): And we just honor honor them today. We, we, we just thank you and praise you and give you, give you all our love and devotion, Lord. And for these men, it's in your precious name. Amen. 7 (39m 57s): Amen. Amen. 13 (39m 59s): And Lord, we trust that you're gonna fill both Steve and Jeremy fresh with the power of your spirit. Lord, without you, they can do, they can't do anything, but it's through you. They can do all things through Christ who strengthens them. Lord, we know we're all in a battle, but especially our leaders are in a battle, a spiritual battle. And we, we know we have an adversary. We'd love to take them down and take them out. Lord, we pray for them. We lift them up to you to lift up their arms in the battle, to give them strength in the battle, encouragement, confidence, knowing Lord, that all they are able to do really comes directly from you. So let bless these two guys, bless these men. I pray for their families, for their marriage, that their, their marriages would continue to grow stronger and stronger, and their children would be blessed. 13 (40m 44s): Pour out your spirit upon their families. We pray we commit these to godly men, to you, and we thank you for your faithfulness. In Jesus name we pray, and all God's people said, amen. Amen. All right, Yeah, there's one more thing we wanna do before we let Steve preach. And what it is, is actually one of the most wonderful things that we get to do as a church body. And that is we're going to set apart, pray for and orain another pastor for Harvest Church. And so Curtis, I'd like to invite you to go ahead and come on up here. 13 (41m 30s): Hi, Clark. Yeah, go ahead and stand right in the middle there. So we're, we're gonna talk about, about you just a little bit. So personally, I've known Curtis since, I think he was about five years old. He went to school with one, one of our kids as well. And, and most everybody on the stage here has known Curtis for a long, long time. This is Clark Curtis's wife. We haven't known you quite as long, but she, she hails from Alabama. Got that right. Go tide. Go Crimson Tide. Yeah. Yeah. So we've been meeting with Curtis for, for a number of years and we've been trying to determine a few things. 13 (42m 10s): But one is, a pastor's role is not like any other courier pursuit. It's a calling. And so what we did in our meetings with Curtis is we wanna affirm the calling that's upon his life. And part of that come, comes with, you know, really difficult questions and really giving him, you know, a run through to make sure that you know that he's prepared and equipped. There's no perfect pastor, you guys know that, right? But God calls a man and equips the man to do the work of a shepherd. And we have multiple pastors because we, we want to shepherd the body of Christchurch Harvest Church really well. So wanna read a scripture to you, Curtis, that you know very well. 13 (42m 52s): It's from Ephesian chapter four, verse 11 and 12. Now, these are the gifts Christ gave to the church, Apostles, prophets, evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. So again, by definition, the role of a pastor, the job of a pastor is to be a shepherd. You know, the Bible talks about us being sheep, right? And, and that's not really a compliment. I don't think that we're called sheep by God, but sheep need shepherds. Now, Jesus is the chief shepherd. We, we know that, we understand that, but he's appointed shepherds that we can relate to. 13 (43m 37s): And again, as I said, you know, none of these men up here, perfect men, we all deal with the same things that, that hu humans deal with. But God has still chosen to, to use men to, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. So being a pastor is, as I said earlier, it's not a career path that you would choose. It is simply a calling that is upon your life. And as, as we've seen Curtis on this journey, again, we, we wanna affirm you, Curtis, that God's call is upon your life. And by him being up here, for all of us that know Curtis, this shouldn't be a surprise. This should be like, Well, of course Curtis is being set apart for the work in the ministry because he is been doing it all along and we see God's hand upon your life. 13 (44m 20s): And so we're just in agreement with what he's doing. Curtis simply said, yes. He said yes to God's calling upon his life. And so with that, some of Curtis's qualifications, in addition to, if you want to read through first Timothy chapter three, there's kind of a list of qualifications there for church leaders. But in addition to that, Curtis' qualifications are as follows. He attended Bible college in New Zealand for a year to study ministry. He completed a master's degree in pastoral leadership. He has served on the Harvest staff team in various areas for the past seven years. And he started out doing, these were his original jobs. 13 (44m 60s): He did landscaping, cleaning, and facility maintenance. So one of the ways that we determine if somebody actually has a shepherd's heart, a servant's heart, and they'll say, Hey, I wanna do ministry at Harvest Church. We say, Well, you know, we've got some bathrooms that need to get cleaned and we've got some, you know, stuff to do on the property. And it, and it shows a lot about a person in your heart in particular, Curtis, because you've been eager to do anything and everything that you've been asked to do unto the Lord. And so we wanna affirm that again. And also, Curtis is currently serving Harvest Church in these following areas. He leads our young professionals group, He's in charge of our facility maintenance team. So apparently you're never gonna get away from that one. 13 (45m 41s): Curtis. Yeah, Yeah. He also leads our welcome team, which is greeters and the info center here at church. Maybe most importantly, he leads our coffee team. Okay. Pretty, yes, he o he oversees our missions. And so these would be, he, he's our primary contact for our missions effort locally and throughout the world. He's over our marketing and branding. What does that mean? Well, he's over the website, the app, and all the kind of digital media stuff that goes out there every week. So in the future, Curtis will be taking on more responsibilities in the area, mainly of pastoral leadership. 13 (46m 21s): We're talking about teaching, counseling, shepherding, and basically, you know, caring for God's people. And so we're gonna lay hands on Curtis right now in, in the scripture. That's what we see is the model is as for example, the Apostle Paul, when he would plan a church in a new community and it would get established, he would raise up leaders for that local church and they would lay hands on the leaders and basically set 'em apart for the work that got us calling them to do. So we ask that you would agree with us as we pray for Curtis, and we ask that you would encourage him, that you would support him in the work that God is calling him to do. So we're gonna pray for Curtis right now, and Neil, I'm gonna have you go, go ahead and start 14 (47m 8s): Heavenly Father, lift Curtis and Clark up to you or God, and thank you Father, that they've said yes Lord God. Father, we thank you for the sacrifice, Lord, that they know they're gonna make along the way, Father God. And your word says, Your grace is always sufficient, Father God, it underpins everything, Lord. Father, I'm just, I'm blessed to lead with this man and to be led by this man, Lord God. And we thank you and praise you, Father, and just pray your Holy Spirit would empower every day, Lord God, there would be grace every day, Lord abundantly applied Lord in his marriage with his kids, Lord God in his ministry here. Father, we thank you and praise you. 14 (47m 48s): We asking Jesus name. 15 (47m 55s): Father, I just thank you also that I have had the privilege of seeing Curtis grow up from a little boy to a man of God. He's following in his father's footsteps, Lord. And you've called him, you told him, I want you to be my servant. I want you to be a pastor. And Lord, we thank you for giving him Clark a godly woman Lord, as I've seen so far, and I know God, that she loves him dearly and she wants to walk beside him every step of the way. Whatever you call him to we pray, Father, that you would just continue to add to his ministry, enlarge his borders, just use him and both of them, Lord, in a mighty way, reaching the generation that they're from, as well as younger, younger kids, Lord. 15 (48m 47s): And we pray God, that you would continue to give them a hunger and a thirst for your word and power in their lives, Lord, as they watch you make them the man and woman you want them to be and use in your kingdom. We commit them into your hands, Lord, in Jesus name. Thank 8 (49m 4s): You Lord. Amen. 16 (49m 7s): Lord, thank you for the character that you've developed and built up in, in Curtis through the good times, through the struggles and the hard times, Lord, that character is, is how you laid upon your calling upon his life, Lord, that he responded and said yes to the colon of, of, of stepping into church ministry, Lord. And he said yes in a number of different ways. He said yes, by mowing lawns, by, by cleaning toilets, by doing all those things just under and and out of sight of everyone else. Lord, He did that because he was doing it unto you Lord. So thank you for the, for him saying yes, the calling Lord. And, and thank you Lord for the com, the chemistry that harvest Church staff has Lord, and how we work together as a team to, to, to carry forth your mission and your vision for harvest Church and our community as well as in around the world, Lord. 16 (49m 54s): So thank you. That's that. All those, those three things, there Lord are, are there in Curtis. Lord, thank you Jesus. Thank 8 (50m 1s): You Lord. Lord, what a blessing it is to lift up Curtis and Clark today. This is a special day for him. Lord witnessed Curtis grow physically, academically, and spiritually over this last 20 years or so. But what's most important is, is his maturity in act in spiritually where we see his desire to honor and follow you. We thank you for the, the servant's heart that he's given, Curtis, thank you for the His being ready and willing and able to do what you want him to do, Lord, because he's following your call. 8 (50m 46s): Lord, we see a humble spirit in Curtis pray that we continue to see that as they grow and mature in their marriage, in raising kids and everything that this life has to offer Curtis, but mostly keep his eyes focused on you. Lord, that's the most important and Jesus name we pray, 13 (51m 13s): Lord, we know that every passer feels inadequate in one way or another, but Lord thank you that you have said that whom you call you also equip. So Lord, in the areas where Curtis might feel inadequate or unqualified, Lord, I pray that you would build him up, that you would speak to him, that you would work through him, Holy Spirit, that you would not only enable him, but empower him to do things that are way beyond what he thinks his normal scope of ability is. And so, Lord, we, we just pray for the two of them in particular, they're one flesh. They're walking this journey together. So Lord, as these other men of God have prayed, I agree, Lord, that you would use these two specifically to strengthen the body of Christ here at Harvest Church. 13 (51m 57s): Encourage us, use him as your instrument to take us, you know, to the next level and that he would have certainly a key influence on the young people of our church. 17 (52m 11s): Thank 13 (52m 11s): You so Lord, we just, again, we just affirm and agree with the calling that is upon Curtis's life. Bless him and use Him for your glory. Glory we pray in Jesus' name. 17 (52m 20s): Thank you Lord, thank you for this amazing couple and so blessed to have, watch Curtis grow up as his dad and so grateful for the blessing of Clarky and his life and his sweet son, Emerson. Lord, we just bless them, his family, His calling, their calling upon their lives. Lord God, they would just trust you all the days of their lives, Lord God. God, they would just, they would just be a humility that marks their life, an integrity, godliness, faithfulness. So Lord, bless him, we pray, Lord we love him. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. 17 (52m 60s): Thank you guys. Alrighty. Over here. Yeah. Oops, sorry. Ah, thanks guys. Thank you very much. Thanks Gary. As these guys make their way off the platform, thank you so, so much for honoring us today. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you so much. It takes so many people to do what we do. And so I just wanted to talk about our elders just for a moment here. 17 (53m 41s): So Jim, as he said, he's been with us, Well, he came, he didn't come the very first day of the church plant. He said he wanted to see if it would make it. And so he made, he came the second week and he is been with us ever since, ever since. And so he is just been a faithful, faithful man, just a brother, a friend, just an incredible encourager and faith man, faith filled man. Gary Tucker was my youth pastor in junior high school. I talk about him a lot. He's just was in my life during my formative years. And he came to the church in the early, early, I think first year. And it's just been such a huge blessing. Neil, Neil has been an incredible addition to our team. 17 (54m 24s): I think it's been 5, 6, 7 years, it's been a while now. And he's just been incredible. Just a man of integrity, a man of great wisdom and wit and, and just, he's just been a great, great friend over the years as well. And then of course, Pastor Ron d who just retired this year, we honor him. He's, he came on the team and joined our staff team about 15 years ago in a time when I really, really needed an associate and someone to just partner with me and with us. And so Ron's been on and off the elder team over the years currently serving on. And so I just wanna say thank you to these guys. And apart from that, we've just got an incredible staff. So again, Jeremy, so Jeremy been here three years and has been a rock star. 17 (55m 9s): He, not just because he does what he does so well, but he's just a godly, humble, hardworking, faithful guy. Whatever you ask him to do, he's on it. You don't have to even think about whether it's the job is gonna get done, It just gets done. And so it's just an amazing, he's talked about just the, the, the synergy and just the closeness of our team. He's a big part of that. Who else do we have up there? We've got Curtis Henry again. So yeah, Curtis, Curtis asked me a number of years ago, he said, I feel called to the ministry, should I go to another church to walk out my call? He, he didn't want to presume or assume anything, he just wanted to do what was right. 17 (55m 56s): And I told him, absolutely not. You gotta stay here. And it's such an honor. A lot of the staff members are family members and it's just such an honor that I was thinking about the folk Rods up here leading worship, Jim Folk, Rod, I've known Jim since we were young and yeah, Violet and Levi and Jack all up here playing music. Those are all his kids that he taught how to do the, the work of the ministry. And so we're so grateful for that type of a heritage and dynamic that we get to experience within the church. And so we're getting to experience that here as well. Leslie, my youngest, she's 27 years old, she joined the kids ministry team 10 years ago as an assistant. 17 (56m 37s): She actually has been teaching since we planted the church for 20 years. She's been a teacher or a teacher's helper, and then she was the children's ministry assistant, the director's assistant for five, six years. And then she went off to college, finished a, a psychology degree up in northern California, came back and at that point Christie Swo, who was the director, said, Hey, I want to change positions within the team. And I said, Well, who do you think would be a good fit for your job? And she said, without hesitation, she said, Leslie. And you know, I just said, Hey, don't, don't just name Leslie because she's my daughter, but make sure she's the right person. And, and she's definitely the right person. 17 (57m 17s): She's amazing. Amanda Henry, my daughter-in-law, she wasn't my daughter in-law, she started coming to the church. But my son was wise, Steven was super wise in snatching her up. And so they've been married now for the last eight months or so. And so she's the creative director. She spent five years in Australia learning training to be a worship leader, a songwriter. And then she came back a number of years ago, continued the work of ministry just as a volunteer. She finished her psychology degree about year or two ago, and she's been on the team now for the last year and a half as our creative director. 17 (57m 58s): So, so thankful for Amanda. Who else do we have here? We have Tim Mo. Tim, I like that Stash. Dude, what happened? You shaved off the stash. Anyway, so Tim Modern feels like he's part of the family. He's been with us for a few years now, and Tim did training in New Zealand in the audio video world there at a large church and then came back and joined Harvest and began to volunteer and be a part of what we're doing and then finished his degree just in this last year or two. And so he'd been an amazing part of the team and we're so, so grateful. Abby's sitting next to him. I'll talk about Abby. Abby's actually an intern right now working on her degree in film. 17 (58m 41s): And so she's working behind the scenes and putting stuff together and making us look really, really good. So thanks Abby. Appreciate that very much. All right, who else we have up there? Carson, what can we say about Carson? Where is she? Is she in here? Yeah. Carson, what? Raise your hand, Carson. Is she hiding? Carson's amazing. So this is the story behind Carson. Carson was here during her high school years. Her family moved out from Nebraska and they were attending church here and, and she was super impacted by the youth ministry here at Harvest Church. And then she went off to Grand Canyon University and finished a degree in entrepreneurship. And then she came back and she's here at church serving everywhere. 17 (59m 23s): And the team came to me and said, Hey, we need to hire Carson. I said, Well, what is Carson gonna, Why do we need to hire Carson? What, what is he gonna do? And they just, everybody was like trying to convince me to hire Carson. So I said, do this, draw up her job description, draw up the number of hours that she'll work and what we'll pay her and submit that to me. And then if it looks like we've got a position for her, then we'll interview her and go, you know, go through the whole process. Well, Carson's been a rockstar. She's just amazing. She works with kids and youth as an assistant. She is the, the administrative genius behind all kids and youth stuff. And so we just love her. She's been a great part of the team. 17 (1h 0m 4s): Who else? Who is that beautiful lady? Jolene. So let's all sing that song to Jolene. No, you guys know what song I'm talking about? Okay, nevermind. We gonna do that. So Jolene's really does not like that. Her pictures up there, she really does not like to be up front at all. She'd rather serve behind the scenes. And so for 32 years we've been married and been doing ministry together. And when we planted this church, she said, Listen, I'll, I'll go along with this little plant here, but I don't want to do the typical pastor wife thing. You know, I play piano and lead women's ministry and that sort of thing. 17 (1h 0m 45s): And I said, You don't have to do anything that you don't want to do, just do what you're called to do. And so she's been doing that. She loves being behind the scenes, she's in the office administrating everything that happens there, working just hand in hand with us every day and just doing an amazing job. So thank, thank you, Jolene. It's such a sweet thing to see what God will do in bringing the right team members to the church. And you guys are all a part of that. It literally takes like hundreds of volunteers to minister to the people that come to Harvest Church. And so you guys are a part of that. And I want to just say thank you for all that you do to volunteer to make everything happen that happens every week. 17 (1h 1m 27s): There's a lot, a lot, a lot that happens. And if you'd like to be involved, we've got this flyer called Get Plugged in with Great Service Opportunities. So that's the front of the flyer, it's back on the info center and on the back there's just lots of opportunities listed. So if you'd like to be a part of what we do, there's entry level things all the way up to not so entry level things that, And so we encourage you to check out the list, figure out what you want to do, sign up and be a part of it, and we'll be happy that you did. All right with that, we're gonna take about a 32nd break and then I've got about 15 minutes, 15 minutes to do a sermon. So this will be my shortest sermon ever. So go ahead and stand up, greet somebody and then we'll reset for the sermon 18 (1h 2m 24s): And 0 (1h 3m 18s): It will be 17 (1h 3m 42s): All righty. Come on back, come on back. We're going over our core values, those core values that the Ministry of Harvest Church kind of rolls forward on. So the first one is committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The second one is confident in the Word of God. The third one is created to serve God and others. And the fourth one is called to love all people. So we're jumping right into number three. And so really we've kind of demonstrated what it means to be created to serve God and others. We just talked about all of the amazing ways in which people here are serving and just giving of their lives. 17 (1h 4m 26s): And really it's what we are created to do, We're created to serve God another's. Another, another, another way to say it is we are created for good works. My microphone sound sounds really hot right now. Is it hot? Thanks Steve. We are created for good works. The Bible in the old in the New Testament declared this to be true. Abraham declared his faith, demonstrated his faith in the good works that he accomplished. Rayhab the prostitute demonstrated her faith by her works. Noah, we can go through and list all of the patriarchs, the, the leaders in the Old Testament who demonstrated their faith with their works. 17 (1h 5m 13s): They proved that their faith was real by the things that they did. And the New Testament is true. Mary, Martha, Peter, Paul, John, Ringo, all of these guys, not Ringo, sorry, take that out. All of these people demonstrated their fa, Ringo. Is anybody missed that joke? Beatles? Think the Beatles. Okay, nevermind. We'll just let that one go. People, The old people got it. Thanks Mike. All of these people demonstrated their faith by their good works. Good place to start. Your good works is at home. 17 (1h 5m 54s): You thought I was gonna say church, didn't you? It's actually better to get it figured out at home. And then out of that overflow of that ex, that joyful experience of serving you get a chance to do it with others. So this guy, this story about this guy who he just, he was fed up with his marriage, wanted to divorce his wife and wanted to cause her as much pain as possible on his way out. And so he talked to a psychologist and this, he told the psychologist what he wanted to do. And so the psychologist said, Okay, do this. Go home and listen really, really well to your wife. Take her on romantic getaways, feed her breakfast in bed, write her love notes, read books with her, spend just a lot of time just in quality, quality time with your wife. 17 (1h 6m 47s): Do that for about two months, the psychologist said. And then at the end of two months, just pack up and go. She'll be devastated because of the change. And so the guy's like, ah, this is, I'm gonna do it. It's exactly what I'm gonna do. So he, he did all of the things the psychologist told him to do. She treated, he treated his wife like a goddess and fed her breakfast in bed and brought her flowers and sent flowers for no particular reason. Took her on romantic weekends, read books with her, spent time with her, and just did all of these amazing things. Well, at the end of two months, the psychologist calls the guy and says, Hey, have you done it? Are you happily unmarried? 17 (1h 7m 28s): Are you a bachelor again? Did you break it off with your wife? And he said, What? Are you crazy? She's a goddess. She's the best thing that's ever happened to me. I can't imagine this is the happiest I've ever been in my whole life. This is a great story, right? Like if we're struggling at home, we need to, instead of doing the opposite, the thing that we kind of feel like doing and kind of pulling away, shrinking back, getting quiet, what would happen if we just started serving each other? Like looking for ways we're created in Christ Jesus for good works? Why, why shouldn't that start at home where we have the best opportunity to love on our spouse, to love on our, our families, to love on our kids. 17 (1h 8m 17s): And then through all of that experience, get to see the beauty and the blessing of it, and to begin to do that with others that we come into contact with it. It's a great recipe for just an amazing home life if we will decide, I'm going to serve, start with your spouse, serve them, love them, treat them like royalty and watch what God will do to turn things all around. Some of you are doubting, just try it, right? And you can even tell your spouse, Listen, we're gonna try this out. It's gonna seem a little pushed or unnatural, but let's just try it out. And so maybe you say, Hey, let's just find one way, one way to serve each other. 17 (1h 8m 59s): And then, and they just surprise each other with that service. I, I promise you, I I promise you it'd be, it's gonna be so good for your marriage. Everything's gonna get better. You were, your communication will get better. Are there kids in the room? Your sex life is gonna get better. I'm serious. Like everything is gonna get better if you just humble yourself and begin to serve the people in your life beginning with your spouse if you have one. Ephesians two 10 says this, For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in then. 17 (1h 9m 41s): So God has given us purpose in the earth that we would be people who demonstrate the good works that God has created us for. So if you're a married person, those good works need to start at home. So don't be nice to everybody else but not your spouse. Start there and out of the abundance of that experience, you'll be able to love others and serve others. Hebrews 10 24 and 25 says this, And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together as the habit of some, but encouraging one another all the more. As you see the day drawing near, what is that day that the writer is talking about there? It's, he's talking about the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord's return. 17 (1h 10m 26s): It's the last day of this present church age. It's the beginning of the newness that will enjoy all throughout eternity. It's the, it's the return of Christ from heaven where he will raise the dead, where he will hold the final judgment and perfect his kingdom. So we know that we're all, if you're in Christ and well if you're, even if you're not in Christ, we're all headed to that day. And so if we keep that in mind and realize that we're actually created for purpose to do good works, and if we keep that end part in mind, we'll actually be more encouraged and motivated to do what God has called us to do because at one point we will give an account for our lives and an answer for the way that we've spent our time. 17 (1h 11m 11s): James two 14 through 17 says this, What, what good is it my brothers? If someone says he has faith but does not have works, can, can that faith save him? Can that kind of faith save him? In other words, the question is, is faith without works saving faith at all? Is faith apart from works? Is that saving faith at all? If, if a person states that he or she believes all of the right doctrines, but their life does not show obedience to Christ, what good is this type of faith? 17 (1h 11m 54s): The the answer which is implied? The question is, well, it's not good faith at all. It's not real genuine faith at all. Just like love without external work works is meaningless. It's like rain clouds that that give no rain. There's a proverb says Proverbs 25 14, like clouds and wind without rain is a, a man who boasts of a gift he does not give. It's like a promise without follow through. So, so his faith apart from works, it's actually worthless. So what a good works look like. 17 (1h 12m 34s): We can look in the old, in the New Testament and decide and figure out what good works look like. This is kind of what it looks like. It's what we are created to do. But back to James two 15, it says, If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. So it's a one point message today. Point number one, our faith is meant to be evident in our daily lives. 17 (1h 13m 15s): It it's meant to be obvious to onlookers people within our sphere of influence. Our faith is to be obvious to those who know us. Why? Because we are known for our good works. We're demonstrating our faith by our good works. I love Matthews chapter 25 because it helps us understand how everything's going to wrap up at the end of time. In my Bible, this is titled The Final Judgment. Let me just read it. It says this, But when the son of man Jesus, when he comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit upon his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered in his presence and he will separate the people as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 17 (1h 14m 2s): He will place the sheep on his right and the goats at his left. Then the king Jesus will say to those on his right, Come, come you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger and you, you invited me into your home. I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you cared for me. I was in prison and you visited me. Then these righteous ones will reply, Lord, when? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you something to drink or a stranger and show you hospitality or naked and give you clothing? 17 (1h 14m 52s): When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you in the king Jesus? This will be his response. And the king will say, I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you are doing it to me. And so we've got this amazing opportunity and responsibility to serve others. And in our serving others, we're actually serving God. We're doing what God has created us to do. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. This is what you are here for. You are here for good works, to build up the kingdom, to let people know about Jesus and to serve in the kingdom work that God has called you to serve in. 17 (1h 15m 37s): This is exactly why you're here in the earth. When God is done using you in this way in the earth, he will take you home. So if you're warming a seat and have a pulse, you've got purpose. So what is your purpose? What is your purpose? What has God called you to do? The verse goes on, the chapter goes on verse 41, then the king will turn to those on the left and say, away with you, you cursed ones into the eternal fire prepared for the devil. And as demons, for I was hungry and you didn't feed me, I was thirsty, and you didn't give me a drink, I was a stranger, and you didn't invite me into your home. 17 (1h 16m 23s): I was naked and you, you didn't give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn't visit me. Then they will reply, Lord, when in when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or stranger or naked or sick or in prison and not help you? And he will answer. I tell you the truth, when you refused, when you refused to help the least of these, my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me. And they will go away into eternal punishment. But the righteous will go into eternal life. 17 (1h 17m 6s): And the only difference between the sheep and the goats is what they did and didn't do. So we're saved by grace through faith. We prove that we've actually been saved by grace through faith in the way that we live our lives. We've got three orange trees on our property and they're all three planted. And they're all three these, There's amazing three different types of oranges, one's like little cuties and a couple different types of oranges. And they're just so good. 17 (1h 17m 46s): So you go around and pick 'em up and eat 'em and just eating all kinds of beautiful stuff in the garden. You know, I've never actually seen those trees stressed out. Like I've never seen 'em like doing this, trying to push out the fruit. It's like they're never like, we've planted a tree recently. What's it called? Acher Moya. I'll never get that. I'll never remember what that tree is called. It's acher Moya tree. And we're, we've planted it in another part of the garden and we've got it on drip system in good soil, it's planted where it needs to be with a little bit of shade, little bit of sun. And that tree, because of where it's been planted, we'll just naturally produce fruit in, in time. 17 (1h 18m 32s): It will naturally produce fruit. So when you and I are abiding in Christ, when we're planted in Christ, when we're connected to the vine, we will naturally produce fruit. And so the, the natural part of it is that a part of abi abiding in Christ is just listening to him throughout the day, opening up the word of God and allowing it to speak to you. Just being filled with the Holy Spirit. And then the natural overflow of that kind of life will be fruitful. Fruit, The spirit of his love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And then in the scripture, we see all kinds of ways that we've been gifted to use our talents within the kingdom so that we can be fruitful, so that we can demonstrate what we believe by the way that we live. 17 (1h 19m 23s): If we don't demonstrate what we believe by the way that we live, chances are we actually aren't saved in the kingdom. If there's been no transformation, no sanctification, no real life change and fruitfulness, then we just need to ask ourselves what has happened. A good tree can't actually produce bad fruit in a bad tree can actually produce good fruit. So a good tree will produce good fruit. A bad tree will produce bad fruit or no fruit. So where are we today as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ? 17 (1h 20m 5s): Some of us been like brand new in the faith. Others have been doing this for decades and decades and decades. And we're always called to be fruitful as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your your life will change and your fruit will look different. But you are always called to be fruitful. I was talking with this gal, Granny Frida Moroni Fria, when we planted the church, we'd do these potlucks and she would make spam cobbler. Bear had spam cobbler. No, you haven't missed anything. So Fria grew up and was super poor during the depression and she, she loved her spam cobbler. 17 (1h 20m 45s): So if for every potluck she'd bring spam cobbler, and so poor Fria got, she just kept getting older and older and older. And she's like, Why isn't the Lord taking me home? And so she got put into a home and I'd go visit Fria. And she would ask me that question, Why is the Lord not letting me go home? And I say, It's because you still have work to do. God has given you life so that you can pray for people so that you can love people in this home that you are in. But so don't waste. Don't miss out on what you are here to do, but pray for your family. Pray for your loved ones, and pray for the nursing staff here at this hospital. 17 (1h 21m 29s): And when the Lord's ready, he will come take you home. And then after years, I, I can't remember how old she was, but she was like in her nineties and just she was. And then finally she passed and we were able to celebrate her life. So part of the beauty of being a believer in Christ is that we die and then we get to celebrate what God has done in that person's life. And we Bible says we don't grieve like those without hope, but we have a sense of appreciation for this life and for what is waiting for us. On the other side, you are created in Christ Jesus for good works. 17 (1h 22m 10s): You're created to serve God and others. What does that mean to you guys? I just kinda open it up a little bit here. What does it mean that you're created to serve God and others? And then with the refreshing of this information, maybe the first time you're hearing it, what is it gonna do to change your life? Who wants to go first? I can't call you. I can. Who should I call on? You guys are scared to death right now. Aren't you all in the back? Speak loud so we can hear you. You. 17 (1h 22m 52s): That's amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Someone said in first service that if you can get through your day and not only think about yourself, but think about others and how you might serve and bless others, that that's just an amazing way to be fruitful. Just be mindful of others' needs and be thoughtful of others' needs and be prayerful about others' needs and watch what God will do. Mikey, 20 (1h 23m 18s): I think serving is another way to die to 17 (1h 23m 20s): Yourself. Ah. Serving is another way of dying to yourself. 20 (1h 23m 24s): So the more we do that, the more we build with this joy. Especially if you're not feeling joyful. 17 (1h 23m 29s): Yeah. 20 (1h 23m 30s): And it's just a good way to just serve, but also that prayer is not an undervalued way to serve people 17 (1h 23m 37s): As well. Yeah. Prayer is not an undervalued way to serve people. Yeah. So I 20 (1h 23m 42s): Think a lot harder on, it's harder for me to serve people and loving people face to face right now, but it's a lot easier for me to do. So I think that I was feeling adequate in that part. That you confirm that it's not 17 (1h 23m 54s): Inadequate. Yeah, it's not. It's not. It's powerful when we can pray for people. I'm driving down the road sometimes and I'll feel like the Lord put it on my heart to pray for someone. And I just pray. I pray for their whole clan. I pray for everybody they touch. We get saying, I just, I just believe for great things because I feel like if Lord called me to pray for them, and then I'm gonna pray for big stuff. Richard Harrison, what do you think? You wanna talk or should I talk to Kathy? You can talk to, All right. Kathy, what do you think? What does that message mean to you 21 (1h 24m 22s): About serving others? 17 (1h 24m 24s): Yeah. 21 (1h 24m 25s): Well, I think that you have to be close with the Lord to know which direction he's gonna 17 (1h 24m 29s): Take you. Okay. So you have to be close to the Lord to know what direction he's gonna take you. I love, I love it. True. 21 (1h 24m 34s): And I think that once he leads you, that he opens the door, like with us in counseling, you know, we, we've been doing this for over 20 years. Yeah. He just said, Lord, you could stop us at any time. We don't advertise. God just keeps bringing, hurting people to us. So it's being available, it's caring, and it's giving them the Lord when you counsel them. Just not advice. 17 (1h 24m 59s): Ah, good, good, good, good. So these guys did pastoral ministry for years and then God moved them into marriage ministry. And so now they're ministering to couples who are in trouble and, and others, but they're just doing a wonderful job giving people hope through Jesus Christ. So it can look in a thousand different ways. What is God calling you to do with that? Let's go ahead and stand up, and we're gonna invite the worship team forward, and the next week we'll get to our last core value. Thank you Lord for who you are. Thank you Lord, for the opportunity to worship you and to honor you with our words, our thoughts, and our deeds. And so, Lord, awaken us to areas that we're maybe not even thinking of, ways that we might be able to serve you, encourage, and serve and love people. 17 (1h 25m 45s): So, Lord, you've called us to good work. Show us what that looks like in our personal lives. We love you. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's worship 0 (1h 26m 4s): The So Made, made, made the, and there is 1 (1h 29m 22s): So, Make me a vessel, Make me an offering. Make me whatever you want me with all you. New wine, 22 (1h 30m 2s): Lord. Daughters, our prayer this morning that you'd fill us and then you'd use us even in a new way. Thank you for your word this morning. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for leading us, being here with us. We praise you in Jesus name. Amen.

It was once claimed that the medicinal cannabis industry would be a massive economic enabler for Guernsey, that it would revitalise the growing industry and see the Bailiwick lead the way in cannabis regulation.That hasn't happened yet, and as mainland Europe starts to relax its laws surrounding recreational cannabis, it could never happen.The issues surrounding regulation are complicated. Some argue that it should be fully legalised, regulated and taxed. Some adamantly stand by it's classification as an illicit substance that should never be used recreationally. Who is right?To get a better understanding of the situation Express spoke to Gary Tucker from the House of Green. He's seen the evolution of the cannabis market first hand in the United States, developing from a black market commodity to the multi-billion pound industry it is now.

0 (0s): Happy Sunday to you guys. Good to see you all. I'm filling in for Amanda. If you guys didn't know, she, she got married last week to, to Steven pastor. Steve is going to tell a story later about how him and his family want the dance off. Please don't believe him. He's lying. I was there. He doesn't dance as well as you think you can, but yeah. Excited to worship with you guys this morning. So let's let's think together. 2 (51s): Christ Jesus. Believe in the resurrection that we will arise. 2 (1m 34s): And And now we get that chance. 2 (8m 3s): The same swing wide. You heavenly gates is the people of the Lord enter into praise him. That's what we're here for this morning. Praise our Lord and savior. Let the praise go up as the walls. 2 (10m 42s): Oh, geez. Fred is king. 3 (11m 26s): We were waiting without hope without from him. There was You rose all of his breath to that. 3 (13m 46s): Stone was moved for good for land. And the dead was from there too. And just for the 4 (15m 46s): Got we bless you, Lord. Yes, Lord. We bless you, Lord. We love you, God. We're so grateful for your presence. Holy God, God fall fresh on us in a special and a profound, in a powerful way. We pray, Lord, we thank you God for your holiness. God, we thank you. God that you've imputed your righteousness. God you've made us the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, by your grace, Lord God, you filled us. You've overcome the world in us. God, you've obliterated the sin in our lives. Lord, God, we're so thankful. God, we invite you to continue that work of sanctification, that work of holiness, God that we would say yes and amen to everything that you want to do in our lives. Lord, God, we are so thankful for who you are. 4 (16m 28s): Jesus. So thankful. Holy spirit. Fill this place. We pray. Lord. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your grace. Thank you. 4 (17m 20s): Got for every, for every person gathered Lord, we just pray for got the touch that is needed. God, that you administer God, grace and healing and deliverance, encouragement. God that you would set people free today and welcome people into your kingdom. Lord God, the souls will be added to the kingdom as a result of this service Lord, this time of worship and prayer and time in the word and hearing testimonies, Lord God, we just want, we invite, you got to do supernaturally abundantly above everything that we might hope or imagining Christ Jesus, God, that we would just be surprised. 4 (18m 5s): And yet we shouldn't be surprised, but we will be surprised by your goodness, Lord God. So continue to surprise us and work in our lives in our church and God for every church that lifts up the name of Jesus here on the central coast here in this area, Lord, we just bless them. Lord, we bless them. We pray grace upon them. Lord God provision for them. God that the power of God would fall heavily and substantially Lord God and move wonderfully. So in the hearts and lives of our brothers and sisters and churches all over the central coast, Lord God, we bless your name, Lord God. We love you. We thank you for this time. Jesus, your name. We pray Lord. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. You may be seated. So we're going to do things just a little bit differently today. 4 (18m 47s): We're going to take communion up front before the service is preached. The sermon is preached. And so if you need elements, go and raise your hand. If you need communion elements, raise your hand. We have runners who will get those to you. So who are runners? We got runners. Good. Thank you. We might need another runner. We might need another runner. Levi. Why don't you do that? Once you be a runner Levi, you want to be a runner. Elements should be over there. There we go. And Jack thrown his brother under the bus. It's no fun. 4 (19m 28s): We're getting them. Keep your hands up. If you need them, keep your hands up. Here we go. Fourth, Sunday of the month we take him union remembering just the grace and the goodness of our savior. The Lord Jesus Christ. We've been singing about him all morning and we're going to celebrate him some more as we take in union. All right, did we get everybody? I think we got everybody. All right. Paul wrote in first Corinthians 1123 and following he says for, I pass onto you. What I received from the Lord himself on the night, when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. 4 (20m 16s): Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me. Let's take the way for the bread. Thank you, Jesus. We remember Lord, we remember our desperate, desperate need for your grace. 4 (20m 58s): If you're here today and you've never accepted the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, but you know, you need it. I would just say, reach out, pray to the Lord. And he will come into your life. He will forgive your sins. If you simply say Jesus, I need you. I don't even know why I need you, but I know that I need you. I need you to come into my life and I need you to forgive. My sins. Need you to make me whole again, need you to guide and direct me to take over the leadership of my life. As you declare your heart to the Lord and the quietness of your own mind and hearts, God hears. And he responds and he, he runs to you as you run to him. So Lord, we just invite you to move today. And for those who have maybe been hesitant about accepting the grace and the mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray that today would be the day of salvation God, over all over this campus, Lord God. 4 (21m 49s): And for those who watch online, Lord God, we thank you, Lord. We thank you, Lord God, thank you for salvation. If you've received the grace message, the mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ and the blood of Christ has washed over your sins. And it's a peculiar, supernatural, wonderful thing that God does. We don't fully grasp it, but we can fully appreciate it and live in it. And so thank you Lord, for what you're doing. Thank you, Lord Verse 25, first Corinthians 11 in the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. 4 (22m 45s): Do this to remember me. As often as you drink it for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. Let's take these use God. We're so refreshed by your grace. It never gets old. The goodness of God, the grace of God, the patience and the forgiveness of God. 4 (23m 29s): It just never, ever gets old. And we never run out of need to have it Lord. And so we thank you that you are patient with us. She love us. Your grace is sufficient. Your love is unconditional. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Lord, help us to walk in the new life that we've been given and the power that we've been filled with with a grace that has washed over us. Lord, we love you, Lord. We bless you, Lord. Thank you for this time. And for the balance of this service we just gave you. We give you permission control authority. 4 (24m 12s): We asked for you to reign and rule Supreme in our space, all over the campus, online Lord in our hearts and in our lives. We pray. Thank you Lord, for your goodness. We love you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Now stand up and then meet somebody that you've never ever met before. And we'll come back and just a few minutes. 4 (26m 4s): And you met somebody new brand new. All right. So a third of a part of you did the job, right? Thank you for that. Welcome back. So my son and his wife are now married off. They've been married for a week and a day. So I tried to call my son yesterday just to check in on him, you know, right to voicemail, right to voicemail. So a few minutes later he texted me, Hey dad, everything. All right, what's up? I'm like, no, I'm good. I'm just checking in on you. He said, Hey dad, we're still in the honeymoon phase. So we're not taking phone calls. 4 (26m 44s): Like whatever, whatever do your thing while they're home now, they're home. Now. They went, they spent three nights in Cambria and then like four nights down in Palm Springs. And so they're back now. We had a wonderful time. And some of you, some of you may have heard of the dance off at the wedding. There's been a bit of a rumors going about, about this dance off. And so the, the tradition with the Coles, which is Amanda's family, they've married off for their, for their kids now I believe. And so every wedding, they have a choreographed dance and there's a dance off between the parents of the bride and the parents of the groom. So we got sucked into that. And, and so the results of the dance off, of course the Henrys killed it and we, they would tell you different, but we had a wonderful celebration last Saturday. 4 (27m 36s): It was just so, so good. So, Hey, remember to pray for our youth. There, there are 39 young people and six adults up leaders up in the mountains at a camp right now. I think there may be heading back today. So I remember God really supernaturally touching my life in junior high school is where I formerly gave my life. Formally, gave my life to the Lord and under Gary Tucker's leadership here and God's been faithful. So my prayer, every time youth go off is that they would just be slammed by God's goodness and filled with his presence and his spirit. And that God would do wonderful life changing life, altering things. And so life altering things alternating, probably not a word and altering things. 4 (28m 16s): So, Hey, today we've got a good friend of mine. Fred and Pam are they're here. They've been Fred and Pam, come on up for it. They've been in this area for in fact, Pam going to come up as well. These guys have been here since 2016. I remember the day that I met Fred at a pastor's gathering and we've been connected for the last 16 years. We met each other in Hawaii, a number of years ago and just connected there. And I was talking with Fred recently. I needed some counsel about some things. So I said, Hey, Fred, what do you think? And, and then we started talking and he wrote a book and he's going to tell you all about that. And the book really is about modern day heroes of faith. 4 (29m 2s): And we just went through the first half of Hebrews 11, talking about the heroes of faith. And next week I'll finish up Hebrews 11, finishing the stories there in Hebrews 11. But I thought in the middle, it would be a great idea just to have Fred come and share just 21st century stories about how God uses someone who's available just to do his work and his will to accomplish his plans and his purposes. So here we are, we've got Fred and Pam here. So I just want to pray over them, pray, blessing upon them. And why don't you extend your hand and just bless them. So Lord be blessed. These guys, we are so thankful for Fred and Pam Lord, and for who they are in this region. Lord, they love you. 4 (29m 42s): They've served you faithfully. And in this new season, a new life of ministry, we pray God that you would strengthen them, continue to give them clarity and vision and wisdom and open doors. We pray Lord open doors for a ministry all over the central coast, all over the state, all over the country and all over the world. Lord God. So we just pray blessing upon them. Bless this work. This book that has been written, pray that it would touch a million souls Lord. We wanted to touch a million souls, Lord God. So we just invite you to do that. Be glorified. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. 5 (30m 30s): Well, we really love pastor Steve and Jolene, and they've been such good friends to us through all the years over here. We, we used to have a small group of pastors. We met for three years every week, getting together and this such a special, special time and really appreciate. And Hey, Hey, I was going to begin by telling you how great I was, but I decided not to waste your time and instead tell you about how great Jesus is, but I want to pray. And then the Lord has given me a word for someone here. 5 (31m 13s): And so let's just pray right now, father, we thank you again for the convenient. We just had celebrating what you did for us. We thank you for the power of the blood of Jesus and your body that was given so that we might be made whole. We thank you for that. We thank you. Holy spirit that you're here and we acknowledge you right now. Holy spirit, come on, everybody acknowledge him. He's right here in this room with us and holy spirit. There's some things you want to do. And some things you want to say, and we just submit to you and relinquish ourselves to you and have your way in our lives. Let my words be spirit in life to everyone that hears. I pray that in Jesus name. 5 (31m 53s): If you agree with that same man. Well, I got a word for this brother right here on the front row, in the middle. If we met before, okay. Would you stand up? What's your name? Noah. Noah. Well, there you go. I'm going to get in the boat with Noah. How about you Noah? I was just sitting over there and the Lord just highlighted you to me and gave me this verse of scripture for you. You may not be, you're probably not unfamiliar with it, but it's in found in second Chronicles, 16 verse nine. It says this. This is for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. 5 (32m 38s): It says seeking to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is holy. His and the Lord said to me that you're that man, that the eyes of the Lord, I have been searching all over the earth and his eye is on you right now. And, and I just see, I don't know what that means that I know it's going to be powerful through your life. God's really going to use you because he's found a heart in you that just wants to be his heart. Is that right? You want his, your heart to be in his heart. So I want to pray for you, Noah father. I thank you for Noah. And I see that you've been through a lot of hurtful things in the past, but God says, forget those things. 5 (33m 23s): Let them go. Forget the past because there's a new day ahead for you. And it's a big day. It's a powerful day. And because he's found his heart in you, his heart is wholly yours. Your heart is holy his, I mean, and so Lord, I pray a blessing over him and I pray for an increase in his life. I prayed that for a whole new ability. As you read the word of God, it's going to open up to you. Like never before. It's going to be like, you're reading the Bible and God's going to be speaking directly to you over and over again through the word of God. I pray that in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's give Jesus a clap for that one. 5 (34m 9s): Well, today my assignment is to talk to you. Not, I guess I did write a book, actually. I wasn't planning on writing a book. It started in March of last year, this last year I was being interviewed on a national network and they were just interviewing me. And I was just sharing stories. And I kept talking about one act of obedience, one act of obedience. And the person that was interviewing me said, you gotta to write a book about this. And I thought, yeah, I should. And then as I realized, oh, it's really the Lord telling me to write this book. 5 (34m 53s): So I began to write and it just flowed. It was just like easy to write and I'm writing the book and then I'm thinking, well, I'm going to publish this book. I have a daughter in Berkeley who is a novelist. So she's published some novels and so on, but I'm like, okay, how am I supposed to publish my book? And then I, all of a sudden, I come across an advertisement from Trinity broadcasting network TBN saying they looking for new authors and especially if it had to do with evangelism. And so I called him on the phone and I said, Hey, I'm writing this book. And they said, well, you know, we don't know if we want to publish your book or not, but send us a couple chapters and we'll get back to you. 5 (35m 34s): So I sent him a couple chapters and seven days later, they called me and said, we want to publish her book. And so it just went off to the publishing company just this week. Actually I was waiting to get acknowledgements, but pastor Steve wouldn't acknowledge me, but I'm like, okay, I'm sending it in anyhow. Now I'm just kidding. And so, and so it's off and the title of the book, I'm kind of debating there. I titled it one simple act of obedience, but the really the phrase God gave me was one act of obedience. And I'll show you where it came from. It's found in it's going to be on the screen here in Romans five verse 19, Romans five verse 19. 5 (36m 18s): Notice this, it says as by the one man's disobedience talking about Adam many were made sinners. So by the one man's obedience, many will be made righteous. Now the one man, some versions do it different. You know, the man is talking about Jesus through the disobedience of Adam. We all became sinners. We're not sinners because we sin. We sin because we were born into sin. Right, right. No, just checking. Okay. And, and so, but then it says through one man's obedience, which is Jesus, perfect obedience, many will be made righteous, but I got caught with the phrase one active obedience. 5 (37m 2s): I saw, you know, how many of you think we might be living in the last days? Three people. Okay. The rest of you are in for a surprise. Okay. And, and so the question should be for every one of us, what should I be doing? What should I be doing? Well, I don't think we even have to wait for the last days to know what to do, but what should I be doing for sure right now? And so my wife and I were in Israel in 2017 and it was, I've been in I've ministered in 41 different countries, but I'd never been to Israel. 5 (37m 42s): So we were in Israel. And while we were there, kind of give you a little background here. We had, we were just turning our church over to a young guy. And so we were stepping out of being pastors. We were pastors for 32 years and I traveled in ministry for a number of years, been in full-time ministry, whatever you want to call it for forty one forty two years. But we're in Israel. And while we were there, God said, I want you to call your ministry, that what you're going to do now, as you go ministries, as you go ministries now share kind of how that came about. 5 (38m 23s): And so I came back from Israel and while I was there, it's just like, if you've ever been to Israel, the land speaks to you wherever you go. It's just, you hear the voice of God speaking to you over and over and over again. And so I came back and I had a renewed desire to study Matthew 24. Now Matthew 24. How many of you ever read Matthew? 24, same three people. Okay. Now at the 24 is where Jesus disciples ask him, tell us what the signs of the end times will be before you come back, tell us the science. So you've probably, most of us here have heard this. 5 (39m 5s): Well, there'll be wars. Oh my gosh. And rumors of wars, there'll be earthquakes. Just had one yesterday. Bank-to-bank went all the way around the world. There was an earthquake that happened in multiple places around the world. There will be pestilence or sickness and diseases that will come. There will be, it says, people will hate one another. Don't look at anybody right now. People will hate one another. And here's another one. The science many will be offended. Come on. I'm about to offend you today. So you might as well get ready to forgive me ahead of time. 5 (39m 47s): May have you ever seen, at least in my lifetime, I'd never seen anything like how many people are so easily offended today. No matter what you say, you know, that offends me well, get over it, grow up, stop it. And so, and then Jesus, here's the last sign, this numbers at the end of the list, here's all the signs that are going to happen. And then he gives one more sign. And here's what it is going to be on the screen here, Matthew 24 14, Jesus said this and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations. 5 (40m 32s): And then the end will come. You all see that? And then so we're like, okay, what? We got the wars, we've got the rumors of wars. We got the sickness, we got the hating, one another, we got the people being persecuted. We got all these things happening, but the one thing that's going to end it all is going to be this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the nations and then the end will come. So I just got arrested. I come back from Israel and I'm just looking at Matthew 24. And I just landed on this verse, like God said, this is this. You got to get this. 5 (41m 12s): So, you know, throughout my history with the Lord, I've been, I got saved in 1970 on the side of the mountain and lake Tahoe, Nevada. I was a hippie drug addict and just had a sovereign encounter with the Lord. But all, you know, and by the way, do I have any ex hippies here? Any ex hippies? Okay. I got a couple of us hippie Christians when we got saved in 1970, we heard about this book came out called the late great planet earth, my hell, Lindsey. It was all about that. The rapture was about to come. So we were fixated on the end times I knew I was going to be raptured at any moment. I was afraid. 5 (41m 52s): I didn't know if I felt anything, got to shaking her though. I hope here we go. We're out of here. And, and so we were because of that, we were desperate about getting people saved. We believed that Jesus was coming back. We're going to be raptured and so on. And so throughout my years, as a pastor seems strange to me. I don't know if you do this, Steve, that I keep having to come back and to the gospel and say, do I really understand the gospel? And to keep asking my, I have to go back and say, okay, do I really get it? And so here in this passage, Jesus says the major sign of my coming back is that this gospel, not just any gospel of the kingdom, everybody say of the kingdom, this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed or preached in all the nations. 5 (42m 49s): And then the end will come. So I'm focusing on that and I'm like, okay, I got to get this Lord. What is the gospel of the kingdom? And the Lord led me to another passage, which is found, we're going to put it on the screen here in Matthew 10 verses seven, eight. So we might Pam and I have a ministry, the name of our ministry, what we're still, we still are, are part of our church. We turned our church over to a young guy three years ago and the church has moved to, to Santa Maria. It's exploded. We're there every week. I tell you, I didn't tell you this, but I think I told you this, you know, we have nine speakers that rotate at our church nine. 5 (43m 35s): I was talking to the pastor today. He only preached once this last month, we were like, we'll get back to you for a password right now. We're preaching and both men and women. And it's awesome. Anyhow, I don't know why I went there, but anyhow, so this gospel of the kingdom. So I had to go back and say, well, what is the gospel of the kingdom? And it's found in Matthew chapter 10, verses seven and eight. So Jesus is now assigning his disciples to go out and preach the gospel y'all with me. And so here's what he says. He says, and this is the name of our ministry. 5 (44m 17s): And as you go like, whoa, okay, as you go proclaim, the kingdom of heaven is at hand heal. The sick cleanse, the lepers raise the dead cast out demons freely you ever received freely give. And so my understanding of the gospel of the kingdom is that is, it is a show and tell, gospel a show and tell it's not just words, although words are important. I, I hear people quoting this quote all the time and I, it makes me angry actually, just to be honest with you, they're saying, you know, by all means, preach the gospel and if necessary use words, okay, that sounds really spiritual, but it's totally wrong. 5 (45m 2s): Totally unbiblical because the gospel is words. And then they say St. Francis of Assisi said it. And the fact is, he didn't say it. I don't know who said it, but they needed an, I do know who said it was actually a writer back in the early 19 hundreds here in America. And he was just telling Christians, you ought to act like Christians. And, and so that the gospel of the kingdom is a demonstration of the reality of the react resurrection of Jesus and the power of Jesus being manifest with the preaching of the word of God, of the declaration, that there is a kingdom and it's Jesus' kingdom, the God who was raised from the dead who's alive right now. 5 (45m 46s): And, and so, so I, you know, I'm just honing in on that. And, and then I began to kind of, when I started getting into this book, I realized that's kind of what God's been doing with me for many, many years. I began, I would demonstrate the kingdom. Not that I, although were sent out to, to do that. And I would demonstrate the kingdom and then see people get saved at the encounter they would have with Jesus. And it came in all different forms and different ways. And so on. Now, one of the things, this is last verse, I'm going to share as I just want to share some stories with you. So as I talk to Christians, let me back up here. 5 (46m 31s): Let me just tell you what's wrong in America. They may come on CNN, Fox news. Everybody's telling you what's wrong when America that I'm going to tell you the truth what's wrong in America is the, is the average Christian, whatever that means stopped sharing Jesus with people in America. We would not be in the situation we're in right now because the enemy saw the open door. The enemy saw, okay, the church is backing off. So I'm moving in and Hey, you know what? The first service told me that you guys were there like the on fire ones. 5 (47m 14s): I was just wanting to double check here. And so we it's actually possible for a Christian to get saved, born again, go through their whole life die and never share Jesus with anybody else. So God, when he says what's wrong with a nation, he says this in second Chronicles, seven 14. If my people that are called by my name will humble themselves, pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then I will heal their land and I will forget. So the problem in America is not the leftist or the rightest or the, any of that. It's the church it's us. 5 (47m 55s): We've got the answer. America was founded to be actually a nation that would be a Christian nation. And somehow I'm not, I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about all those other Christians out there. Somehow we have lost our way and for God about our responsibility to represent Jesus every day in our lives. So let me, so I was talking to one of my past friends years ago, and he's been a missionary in difference of the world and all this. And so we're talking on the phone just a week ago. And I was just talking about this thing about sharing Jesus with people and so on. He says, well, you know, I'm really not called to be an evangelist. 5 (48m 39s): And I'm like, what is, yeah, that's not my gift. I said, well, wait a minute, let's stop here. I totally disagree with you. Yes. You're not called to be an evangelist, but second Corinthians, let's put it on the screen. Chapter five verses 18 through 20 says this. And God has given who, okay. Turn to your neighbor and say, we as us, God has given us, ask us the task of reconciling people to him for God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. 5 (49m 20s): And here it is, again, case we didn't get the first one. He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation, this the gospel. So we are Christ ambassadors. God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ. When we plead, come back to God. Now, I don't know if you know this, I'm assuming you do. I'm trying to assume some things here. You know that the Bible tells us in Genesis chapter one, that all people were created in the image of God, in the image of God, they were created both male and female and God gave them dominion in the earth. 5 (50m 3s): So God's original intention was to have a people that represented him on the year. Ambassadors. An ambassador is someone that represents their country and they have authority and they have a responsibility to represent their country in a foreign land. In case you haven't checked lately, we're in a foreign land. If you're a born again, Christian, you're not of world. Come on, you are on another kingdom. We come from God's kingdom. We've been born into a completely new species of people. You know what I discovered the other day. Now you're even a while back that I believe in aliens. 5 (50m 47s): I pastor, if you taught on aliens, I hope you have. I believe in aliens. It's just that I believe that we are the aliens. We're not of this world. We're here to represent the kingdom of God wherever we go every day, come on and go tell your neighbor. Did you know I was an alien? And so understanding that then I, so in, as God gave us this ministry, as you go proclaim, the kingdom of God is at hand heal. The sick cleanse leper cast out demons, raise the dead freely, received freely. Give as God gave us that, I realized that what then God said to me, I want you to activate in America, 1 million Christians in lifestyle Christianity. 5 (51m 40s): Now, what do I mean by lifestyle Christianity? It's not going to church on Sunday. It's representing Jesus on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday. And yes, on Sunday, we are to a lifestyle. Christianity is Jesus is my life. Watch Bernie. If you've ever read any of his books, somebody asked him to define what a Christian is. And he says a Christian he's is Galatians two 20. I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. 5 (52m 23s): A Christian is Christ. Living his life through my life are y'all with me. It's like, we can come to church for this. Yes you did. So what does that look like? So my book is simply a 22 chapters of stories of how that's happened through my life. Not that I've been perfect. I've messed up. I missed it. I missed all divine opportunities, all that. I don't want to paint myself as anything, but I'll just give you a couple of examples. How am I doing on time? 5 (53m 3s): Okay. I got another hour. Is that what it's okay. All right. Well, they didn't say that in the first service who give me five minutes, raise your hand. 5, 10, 15, 20. So just what happened to me. So it's not about me. It's about, so my goal is in this book, what I mean activate is that I want to get 1 million Christians in America who will do acts of obedience. They'll do acts of obedience. And the thing the Lord showed me is that it says through one man's active obedience, many will be made righteous through your act of obedience. 5 (53m 50s): It's going to make somebody else righteous. Come on. So well, are you telling me to go door to door and witness? No. Unless God tells you to do that. When I am telling you to do is to obey the holy spirit. Oh baby. I'll look for the opportunity. I'll explain all that. So let me give you an example. So I get saved. I know before I got saved, when I was in high school, before I was in high school, when I was a little kid, we had this neighbor friend, Amy Piedmont. She was the wildest one. She could have outdanced pastor Steve. She was the wildest woman in our neighborhood. She could, she could drink bourbon, smoke a cigar and Gantz all at the same time. 5 (54m 31s): That was wild back then. And my mom came home. They were friends with my mom and dad, and she came home one night, one day. And she said to me that Amy is no fun anymore. She's got religion, which was my mom's interpretation of Amy got saved. So I didn't think anything about it until I was in high school. Freshman year, I'm walking to school and I made the mistake. I thought of walking down Amy street, I'm walking down the street as I'm going past her house. Eight o'clock in the morning. Amy walks out of her house, walked into the middle of the street, grabs me by the arm. And she's trying to put some little booklet in my hand telling me I need God. And I looked at her and I shook her off and I ran down the street and I yelled back. 5 (55m 17s): Amy, you're a fanatic. And I determined to never go down Aimee street ever again. And I never did until at the age of 22. And I had an encounter with God on the side of a mountain. I got born again, folks, I got saved and I lost all my friends. I was part of a commune. Somebody, you don't know what that means. But then I was hippie drug addict that blah, blah, blah. And I get saved. And I lose all my hippie friends. They think he's had this God encounter. It's weird and stay away from him. And so I didn't know who to talk to. And then I remembered Amy Piedmont went over her house, knocked on the door. 5 (55m 58s): She comes to the door here. I am standing with buckskin clothes beads, you know, and I have a new added attraction. I'm wearing a big wooden cross hanging around my neck. And I said, hi, Amy. I'm a fanatic too. And she got a, took two steps back and count, looked up, looked me up and down. She will come in here and tell me about this. So I shared with her and she just started balling. She says, Fred been, you've been born again. You've you've encountered Jesus. And she became my mentor for the next six months. I was over her house every day after work. And she would pray with me. She would teach me, she would show me things in the Bible and so on. I'm totally indebted to an Amy Piedmont who did one act of obedience, like coming out on the street, taking that risk of being rejected, not caring about that. 5 (56m 49s): Loving me enough to risk her time, risk her life, risk her rejection to tell me that I needed Jesus in my life. I only had three people like that in my entire life that ever did that kind of thing. And so what we need is more Amy Piedmont's right. We need to realize that you are the supernatural answer to your neighbor's condition right now. She does. Jesus said this. He said, he said, the harvest is what harvest is not that good. No, he said the harvest is ripe. 5 (57m 29s): But the problem is there's few workers. There's not many workers willing to, to represent the kingdom of God. And so I'm on a mission. We're on a mission to activate people. And so you guys are the first victims this week and to activate us. So let me just tell you a couple more stories here. This one. So I have lots of these special, Steve would tell you I got a boatload of these, but so this happened several years ago. I was, I was in Wisconsin and I was teaching in churches and stuff in Wisconsin. And I was going to have went back to the airport in Milwaukee to go home. 5 (58m 12s): And it was only going to have like a couple of days at home. And then I had a fly out again and so on. So I get to the airport and the fog comes in and they keep announcing the plane is delayed till 12 o'clock the plane is delayed till two. O'clock the plane's delayed to four o'clock. So I started getting the idea that the plane isn't going anywhere. So I went to the counter and I just said, Hey, let's be honest here. We're not flying out of here today. Right? They go, right. I said, well, listen, I know what's going to happen. Everybody's going to be looking for a hotel room, get me a hotel. And so I went and stayed in a hotel and I was mad. I was angry with God. I was kicking the walls literally. 5 (58m 53s): And like, God, I only had a couple of days home. And now I'm stuck here in Milwaukee and I want to go home. And I, this is not fair God. And so, you know, I had my little tantrum and got over it, but so the next day I go to the airport, they start the same thing over again. Well, the flights written, I'm like, oh no. And then they go, okay, the fog is lifting. We're going to fly on like, oh, LA loo. And so I'm just so excited. I'm going to get to go home. And so I go get on the plane and I just go to my seat. I'm like, I'm so happy because I get to go home. And so I'm sitting there and there's nobody sitting next to me. 5 (59m 34s): And I happened to, you know, when you fly a lot, you look down the island, you just observed people coming in. Well, this big old guy comes in, looks like Paul Bunyan. You know, he's got the beard. He's just a huge guy, six foot seven. I don't know what and big and he's drunk. And he's literally banging his way down the aisle, bumping into people and talking really loud. And I'm watching this guy. And I think, man, I feel sorry for whoever that guy sitting next to him. Now you got it already. It was me. So he comes in, he gets on the plane. He sits next to me and I literally looking up at him and he turns around, he goes, I want to talk. 5 (1h 0m 18s): I'm like, oh. So he proceeds to tell me what a mean guy. He is, how he's beats up people. And he's talking about all this stuff. And he, he caught his wife at a bar with was, was there with two other guys. And he's telling me, I knocked one guy out with a cue ball, the other guy through the plate, glass window in the front of the bar. And he says, he's just going on and on about what a mean mad, terrible guy he is. And so I'm sitting there and his name is bill. And as he's going along, I said, well, bill, why are you in here in Milwaukee? And I sure heard a little crack in his voice. And he says, well, I'm my nephew got ahold of me and said, you know, uncle, bill, are you ever going to come and go fishing with me or something like that. 5 (1h 1m 3s): So I heard this little crack crack. And then, so then I'm sitting there. And then I think, I think I got to confront this guy. And so I turned to bill and I put my finger right in his chest. And I'm thinking I'm not ever going to see this finger again. I said, I said, bill, you need Jesus. And to my shock, I'm getting ready to like get pummeled. He breaks down and starts balling. And he said, you know, there's this guy at work. And he's been talking to me about Jesus. And, and he gave me a Bible and I've been reading this Bible and all that stuff. 5 (1h 1m 47s): And right there on that plane bill gets born again, received Jesus as his savior. And he, we get to the airport and Kansas city is where we're going to, we get there. He grabs me because my mom's coming here. He's razzing KV, mom, mom, look at this preacher guy, man. He just blessed me to Jesus. You know, he's all changes. He's got, she's shiny. And he's doing all this stuff. Now. Here's the significant thing about that. God changed the weather. God changed my schedule because of one person that he wanted to bring into the kingdom of God. 5 (1h 2m 27s): It was. Then I began to understand, whoa, this is a bigger deal than we ever thought about. God will move mountains for one person, but we've got to be on the move. We've gotta be what Isaiah one 19 says, willing and obedient so we can eat the good of the land now. So again, I have lots of these stories, but let me move forward. And I'll just tell you a current story I shared in the first service. So Pam and I, we lived in Nepal for the whole time. We've been here since 2006 and then three years ago, we bought a town home in Santa Maria and we moved to Santa Maria. All my Navajo people said, no, you don't want to go to Santa Maria. 5 (1h 3m 8s): It's a terrible place. You don't want to go there. And, but we've kept feeling God want us to go there. And by the way, eventually our church, we were pastoring moved to Santa Maria is now within a mile of where we live. And just so God set it all up. So anyhow, so we moved to this condo and then a little while after we're there, this young couple moves in next door with the adjoining wall on the other side of our are not Nakano, but townhome. And so, okay, great. This is exciting. We got this young couple moving in. The only, only issue was that they really liked music. I mean, they really liked music. 5 (1h 3m 48s): They liked for everybody in the whole block to like their music and we've got the adjoining wall and especially their base. And so I would be trying to take a nap, but the bed is vibrating from the base. You know what you call it, waves coming through the wall and everything. And then I thought, oh man, I'm going to have to say something. So having met him yet. So I go over, knock on the door, the young husband comes into the door and I said, Hey, welcome to the neighborhood. But I I'm not enjoying your music. Might as quite as much as you, I didn't say it that way. But I just said, would you mind turning the music down, which they did? 5 (1h 4m 28s): And they have was great. Especially when I had my gun strapped to my side of us. I knew that they would comply. I'm just kidding. So some time goes by and then I pull, our drivers are right next to each other. So I pull in one day and there's an older man standing in the driveway at which I later find out is the, is the young man's father. And he's got a brace on his knee. And so I get out of the car, I see him. And I go, I just yell across the driveways. Hey, what happened to your knee? He said, oh, I've blown my knee next week. I'm going in. And I'm having an operation on my knee. 5 (1h 5m 8s): And I said, well, how about if I just come and pray for you right now? And he's like, sure. So I go over into his driveway. I kneeled in front of the guy and I grabbed his knee and I just began to speak healing into his knee. Don't see anything dramatic happen. And that was it. So then I went on into my house and so a couple of weeks later, I see him, he's there in the driveway. Again, it doesn't have the brace on. I said, well, what, tell me, how's your knee doing? He says, oh, I went to get the surgery. And they said, you don't need any surgery. And he's fine. I'm like, cool, thank you, Jesus. 5 (1h 5m 50s): And so then period of time goes by. And now we're in 2020 during the beginning of the COVID situation, I was around November, something like that. I get a knock on my door. I go to the door and it's the, it's the son. And he's standing there and he goes, Hey, can I borrow an egg? I'm like, sure. I'll give you two. And so I go in and get a couple eggs and, and so I go out, I give them the eggs and he goes, well, he says really what it is. I need you to pray for me. He said, I've been in bed for over a month in depression. Cause I lost my job and all this and I don't know what to do. 5 (1h 6m 32s): And so I just put my arm around him and said, Hey, just like a dad would, you're going to be okay. This is no big deal. Yeah. We have things that happened, but you're going to be all right. And all that. He looks at me. He says, you don't tear in his eyes. He goes, you don't understand. God made me come over here for you to pray for me. And so no problem. I said, I got faith for jobs. And so I just laid hands on him. And I prayed that God would give him a great job and blah, blah, blah, blah. I didn't see him again for like three weeks. So three weeks later I see him and he, and he goes, I go, Hey, how you doing? Oh, he says, I'm so sorry. 5 (1h 7m 12s): I didn't tell you. He said the very next day I got offered three major jobs that I didn't even apply for. And I took them. I'm doing great. They even started paying me ahead to take care of us for this job. I'm like, cool. Then we'd come up to again, 2020. And we come up to December and here it is right at Christmas time again, another knock on the door. Here's the dad and the son standing at the door with a big gift basket and they go, Hey, we just, we just wanted to come over and give you this. We don't do this for anybody else, but we love you. 5 (1h 7m 53s): Now. They're coming to our church. Come on. And so you know, this, those are just a couple of examples and there's, and you, you gotta understand you're the miracle that then is waiting to happen for the people that around you. It doesn't have to be as dramatic as what I'm talking about. I threw some fairly dramatic ones out there. It could be a text. It could be I'm praying for you. Or it could be give them a little money. You're standing at the gas pump. Hey, can I buy your gas and all kinds of ways. But the key is one act of obedience. 5 (1h 8m 37s): You just obey. Now you say, well, as soon as God talks to me, I'll all day. Well, he doesn't have to talk to you. You can just be moved with compassion. I was in, I walked my neighborhood and pray over everybody there. And the other day I'm walking on and there's a lady in her garage and I noticed that she has a brace on her knee. So I thought, well, I don't want to like yell at, I'll take another lap around and I'll come back around. She's still there. I'll come back around. And she's still standing there and I go, Hey, killed this lady in her garage. Hey, what's wrong with your leg? She goes, I have cancer knowing that this has been the worst year of my life. This year, my parents died. My son died. 5 (1h 9m 17s): And they told me I had cancer. I said, well, can I pray for you? She said, yeah. So I laid hands on her. The next week. She went to LA for special clinic to get some tests done on her cancer and all that. So I didn't see her for a couple a week or so. And I see her and I said, Hey, how are you doing? She said, they tell me I don't have any cancer. So God's just looking for us. You don't have to have, I didn't have God speak to me. You ought to talk to that lady. I was just moved by compassion, seeing her situation, by the way, that's how God talks to us. Many times. He just moves our heart with compassion. So I want to end with this. I want to give you some simple steps that will help you to begin to activate one act of obedience through your life. 5 (1h 10m 2s): Here. They are there on the screen. Number one, acknowledge that it is our responsibility to demonstrate the kingdom of God. You don't have to be an evangelist. If you're a Christian and by a Christian, I mean, you have God living in you. It's your responsibility. It's my responsibility to demonstrate the kingdom of God. Number two, ask the Lord to fill you with love. For the lost gave you a heart for the loss. Number three, stay filled with the holy spirit. Ephesians chapter five says we are to be being filled with the spirit, speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our heart for the Lord. 5 (1h 10m 43s): So it isn't just a one-time lay. I got baptized in the holy spirit or filled the holy spirit back in 1972. Now I need the holy spirit every day. I need to get filled. Why? Cause we all leak, right? We got to get refilled because it's really the holy spirit working through you. That's what's happening. Number four, present your body. This is Romans 12 one. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your body, right? Present your body, a living and holy sacrifice. God's not looking for dead people. He's looking for live people. One of my chapters, as I mentioned in the first service is the title is God wants your bod. 5 (1h 11m 26s): God wants your bod. Well, I gave him my money on Sunday. I gave him like, you know, an hour and 15 minutes on Sunday. I mean, c'mon no, he wants your body on Monday and on Tuesday on Wednesday and Thursday. And so on. God wants your body ever five walk around with the eyes of your heart open. We've got to break out of this. My world, my bubble, all I see is what's happening with me and we need to lift up. Jesus said, lift up your eyes and see the harvest is ripe, right? To told his disciples that twice, lift up your eyes and see the harvest is ripe. So we just need to walk through life with our eyes open and look around us. 5 (1h 12m 8s): There's plenty of need out there right now. Let me just tell you the harvest is super ripe right now. People are desperate for someone that will just look at him and say, you know what? You're going to be okay. I believe in you. I believe God's going to do something great in your life and you don't have to just go in there and blast them with the gospel necessarily. You're going to get to that, but you're you just want to approach them and say, how are you doing? Tell me your story. What's going on in your life. And then listen for the need and say, can I just pray for you right now? Number 6, 5, 6, be willing to take faith risks. So somebody said one time, how do you spell faith? 5 (1h 12m 50s): It's spelled R I S K. Faith is a risk. And you, you and I, if we're going to see God got by the way God works through moving objects, not through objects that are like, I'm immovable. I'm just going to heal. If God wants me, I'll be watching TV. He can get ahold of me. Now. He works through moving objects as we're w when we see the opportunity or there's a line in front of us. And on this side of the line, we're afraid, or I don't know what to say here, or I don't want to do it, or I don't want to take the time, or I don't feel like it right now, Lord. But if we'll step across the line, his grace will come upon us and his power will become off on us. 5 (1h 13m 32s): And we'll become a different kind of person. We'll be, we'll have a boldness we didn't know before. So let's all stand. I want to just end with this. I want to pray over us. I hope this message was convicting. If it isn't, then I'm in the right church. Come on. Then we need to get this message out to everybody else that needs to hear this message, right? That's all. I want to pray for us and pray for myself. You know, I just want to, you know, the Bible says we're to redeem the time for the days are evil. What is redeem timing? It means bringing natural time into time. 5 (1h 14m 13s): It breeds to bring natural time into kingdom time. It means it means to buy the word actually means to buy time, to buy back time. And so, I don't know how many years you have. I dunno how many years I have left, but I want to make sure I'm using the, doing the best use of the time while I have on this planet are y'all with me. How many of you say I'm in for that? Listen, if you're over 60 or 70, you're like, I'd better be into that. So father, I'm going to pray for you. If you want to receive prayer, just lift your hands to the Lord right now, father, I thank you for the precious people of harvest church, saints, people that know you and want to make you known God. 5 (1h 14m 58s): I pray for just your word says when we come together in Hebrews chapter 10, where to stimulate one another, stir up one another into love and good deeds. God, I pray for a whole new level of divine appointments. I pray for a whole new level of acts of obedience to be released upon the people of harvest church. I pray for a grace. I pray for a power of the holy spirit to come upon them. And they're going to have a new level of boldness and confidence, and they're going to be miracle workers. Lord, I decree that over them in the name of Jesus. If you receive that, say, amen, let's say you a shout. Amen. 0 (1h 15m 42s): And then what guys as we finish up this morning. Yeah, I left my phone over there and there was a thing I was going to have on my phone. There was deep and moving. I can't remember it now, but we did this, this, this, some we're going to finish with this morning is called fresh wind. And it was, you know, several relatable to what Fred was saying earlier. But the way that, you know, the worship pastors who wrote it when they were saying is they really feel like there is a time right now, I'm just in a world in our country that we're just dying, where we're calling out for this, this loyalty of the holy spirit in this new kind of wave of his presence, just to fall upon us. That's what this song is about. It's, you know, asking and it's declaring like, Lord, give us a fresh wind. 0 (1h 16m 23s): Give us a new, exciting opportunity to, to just to worship you. It's honor to have you in our, in our midst. So just think of that. As we, as we sing this out, as we worship to, to close up on 3 (1h 16m 55s): , As we repent and turn from sin revival And see 0 (1h 21m 37s): Father. That is our, not our prayer this morning that you would just pour your spirit out. Father, Lord, be with us as we, as we leave this place and go back into this as well, father, that would lead change. Lord, just knowing that we have just encountered the true and living, God has placed this morning. Lord Jesus, that we would go out into this are an unbelieving world largest as believers seeking to just enter your kingdom in this place. But the, you would just blow through this nation Lord low through this state, through this town father, the people who were once far from the Lord, which are close to you. 0 (1h 22m 18s): Jesus, we thank you. Thank you that you are a God of miracles. You are a God who wants to fill us father and Lord see your work and your kingdom. Come in this place. Jesus, on how fast you seek to further your kingdom. We thank you, Lord. Thank you for this time. Let me thank you just for, for a touch of heaven. They were able to experience this load. We just, we lift these things off and we give you thanks father, and your precious, precious name. Amen.

1 (5m 14s): Way. When was the clues? When I look at the space between what I used to be and this record, I know I'm never be standing next to me. There was another in holding back the scene and shoot, I need reading of how I've been set free. There is a cross that bears the bird died for me. 0 (5m 60s): my dad left no, the name, the name that he who was and still is, and be may in the space between all I know would be, I know I'm closed all stuffing us. 0 (11m 49s): 2 (19m 28s): Yes, Lord. That is our aim today. That is our goal, as we gathered together, or thank you that you are Dan from the beginning, that Christians would gather for the purpose of worship. Lord, we worship you today for the purpose of being a witness to the world. How awesome, how mighty, how wonderful you are. Thank you. That you've put us here also to do good works and to be about your business. As we just desire every day, just to be filled by you, to love you, to serve you. And so Lord week, we give you our lives, a fresh thank you for meeting us here today. 2 (20m 11s): We are gathered together in your name. Your word tells us that you are here, you are with us in our midst, and we welcome you. We look to you for everything we submit to you, and we bless you in Jesus name God's people said, amen. Amen. Amen. So go ahead and have a seat. That would be wonderful. So just a little bit of background information, pastor Steve and his family, they, they try to take an annual trip to bass lake. And so they are gone for about a week. So pray Steve Henry and his, his clan. They couldn't go last year. 2 (20m 51s): Can you imagine why they couldn't go last year? Reason? None of us could go anywhere last year. So anyway, my name's Ron, I get to share with you today. So I want to welcome all of you in the sanctuary and also in the loss and in the patio and online, it's an amazing thing that we can really touch the world with the message of the gospel through technology, you know, and it's kind of an amazing thing. So as we begin this morning, as you know, yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the events of nine 11, the terror attacks of nine 11 being on the west coast, not on the east coast square at all took place. 2 (21m 33s): It's easy to be kind of disconnected, but just know this 2,977 people lost their lives on that day, 20 years ago on nine 11. What I've done this past week, just as a way of, I love history, but I want to know, I want to know what happened more fully be reminded about what happened 20 years ago on nine 11. And so I watched the documentary, it was done by national geographic and it's I think six episodes where they take you through day one. So it's just prior to, you know, the first Northern tower getting hit by, by the airline and then, and then it all unfolded from there. 2 (22m 21s): It, I think it's important to, to approach our lives and our world through a good sense of, of history of who we are, and not only 20 years ago, but certainly prior to that. And when we experienced something like that, it's becomes part of our lives. It's etched in our, our mind. Can you remember where you were on nine 11, 2001? Probably almost all of us can remember where we were, but out of that documentary, that documentary that I watched national geographic, it gave me such a overwhelming sense of appreciation for first responders, especially firefighters, and mainly because as everyone is pouring out of the buildings, they're rushing into the buildings to rescue people, to bring people to safety and not only the fireman, but also the medics and the police, you know, anyone that is a first responder. 2 (23m 24s): And it was so amazing to me to see their commitment to rescue people's lives in them, even in the midst of the potential of their own loss of life, but the, the comradery between them, between the firefighters. I, I've never known that the only I can even compare it to, and maybe, maybe the camaraderie that we share as believers in Christ in a moment of crisis. And so I'll tell you very quickly where I was on that day 20 years ago, DJ and I were actually, as it turned out, we'd spent a few months preparing for a fundraising event for lifeline crisis pregnancy center. 2 (24m 8s): And it was a fundraising event that we did for many years. It was a golf marathon. And so we were putting on this event and it landed on nine 11. And so we're all there at dairy Creek golf course up by quest college on highway one. And we got there really early, about five 30 in the morning because we had to get things set. And when you have maybe 30, 40, 50 people there golfers and, you know, raising money for lifeline and all the volunteers. And so we're in the cafe area, getting all the tables set up and the TV was on in this cafe area and a little after 6:00 AM, we heard some commotion and we walked in there and we see the Northern tower on fire. 2 (24m 48s): And of course, nobody really knew what was happening at that moment. And so we're sort of in awe, a shock and I guess, of, of what was going on. And then shortly after we see the plane going into south tower, and now this sense of soberness come, came upon us. And so, as we're thinking about what to do that day, do we cancel our event? Do we do, how do you do business as usual, knowing that on the east coast, 3000 miles away is this trauma, this tragedy that's unfolding that we, you know, we cannot comprehend. 2 (25m 30s): We weren't there. I wasn't there. And so what we decided to do, we gathered together for breakfast and to pray. So we prayed and we decided we're going to, we're going to go ahead and, and have our event. And we felt that in light of what was going on that raising money, raising funds to help save babies alive was important. But the strange thing about that day, there was roughly again, 30 or 40 golfers. So we go out on the golf course, we're all on a different, we all start in a different hole. We pair up, but it was this surreal feeling of we're playing golf, beautiful sunny day at dairy Creek, knowing the suffering that was happening in New York city and also at the Pentagon and also with flight 93. 2 (26m 24s): And, and one of the people in this documentary pointed out, you know, the, the terror attack was to bring about two things. It was to bring about an undermining of our freedom in America. And secondly, it was to establish a sense of fear among the people of America to undermine our freedom and to bring a sense of fear, to have us live in fear. So fast forward 20 years, I think we're still dealing with that feeling like we've lost some of our freedoms. Literally we have, and many people, not only from that tragedy, that terror event, but also what we're experiencing now. 2 (27m 11s): And so what I want to talk about this morning in a moment let's pray, Lord, we cannot fully understand the events that take place in human history. We can't fully understand what the people there experienced, what the first responders experienced and that they carried that with them after nine 11 and how it impacted them. And then with the events in Iraq and Afghanistan and in Florida, it's, it's almost too much for our us to handle, but Lord, we look to you. You're the one that makes sense out of things that don't make sense. 2 (27m 54s): You're the one that brings a sense of peace where otherwise there would be no peace. And so Lord, as we think about, even now, the people that are 20 years later are still suffering Lord, that you would give them peace, give them rest, Lord and father bless our first responders today. Lord, thank you that there are men and women, even in our midst that they're trained to go towards the danger to protect lives and save people. Lord bless them. We thank you for them in Jesus name. Amen. So what I want to look at today is we're going to be continuing where pastor Steve left off. 2 (28m 35s): So what we typically do at harvest church, as we go through books of the Bible and we finished one week, you know, go into the next one. So we've been going through the book of Titus. So if you want to turn to the book of Titus, we are in Titus chapter three, beginning with verse one. Now the way this typically works. So I knew that I was going to be speaking today about a month ago. And I, I wasn't sure where Steve was going to end off, but a few weeks ago he was his plan was to go through chapter two in one Sunday, but that didn't happen. And so he finished it last week. And so I'm looking ahead, I'm thinking, well, I'm going to be in five Lehman, which is the book right after Titus. So I realized, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to be in Titus chapter three. 2 (29m 16s): And I read verse one and I call Steve, Hey Steve, get your Bible out. Have you read Titus chapter three, verse one. So he reads it like, that's not fair, big. And I'll, I'll, I'll tell you why it's not fair and just a minute. Okay. And, but that's just the way it goes. And the beauty of teaching through books of the Bible is you have to hit everything. You can't, you can't say, well, I'm not, I'm uncomfortable with that. Or I don't understand that or be best to, you know, that's gonna make people upset or whatever you can, you can't do that. And it's a blessing. It's God's word. It's all. It's all good for us. So in the letter, this is a letter that Paul wrote to Titus. 2 (29m 59s): So Paul was a apostle. We know that everywhere he went, he's planting churches. So you spend some time on this island of Crete. It's a very big island. There's lots of cities, they're major cities. And so he's ready to leave. And he has left at this point and he appointed some people to be in charge of the churches that he planted. Well, one of them is this young man named Titus. So he's telling Titus, I need you. I need you to do a few things there to establish these churches, to help them grow, to become vibrant communities of believers. And so just by way of review, I'm looking at Titus chapter one, verse five, the scriptures will be up for you as well. So he says this to Titus. 2 (30m 40s): He says, for this reason, this is why I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking. So there's still some things that need to be done there. And I want you to appoint elders in every city as I commanded you. So church leadership is super important overseeing the work that God was doing. And so Titus was responsible to help establish leadership in these churches that were planted. And then, and then he continues in this letter. He says to Titus, Titus chapter two, verse one, he says, but as for you, so now he's speaking directly to Titus speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. 2 (31m 21s): Titus. I want you to focus on doctrine, teaching establishing a solid firm foundation for these believers. He's talking about teaching the Bible. Now they didn't have the new Testament in that day. So it was, it was the new Testament. I, sorry, they didn't have the new Testament in that day. They did have, they had the old Testament scriptures. They get that right. Second time. Okay. So they had the old, old Testament books of the Bible. And that was sufficient because the holy spirit was speaking life into the words from the old Testament and illuminating them to show how they transition and fit and establish what would become the new Testament and sound. 2 (32m 3s): Teaching sound doctrine is super important. And then it continues in chapter two, verse 11. He says for the grace of God. So now he's going to talk about a bigger picture thing for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust. We should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age. So now he's talking really, I think to the, to, to the believers there through Titus believers, followers of Jesus, he says you've received salvation through the grace, but it teaches us something. 2 (32m 43s): And it taught them something specific 2000 years ago, roughly. And is speaking the same, the same thing to us today. What did he say? It teaches us that denying ungodliness and worldly less. We are to live soberly. That is, we are to be, clear-minded clear thinking. We, we understand who we are in Christ. We are educated in the word of God in the scriptures. We are wise, we are discerning. We understand what's going on in their world. They understood what was going on. And in our world, we understand what's going on. 2 (33m 25s): And he also said, I want you to live righteously and godly in the present age. So we're going to fast forward because now we're, we're taking that. What Paul wrote to Titus is saying, this applies today, believers, we need to be thinking about this and applying this in our life as well. Living soberly, righteously, the righteousness of God and Christ, not our righteousness of course, and godly in our, in our present age. And then he sort of concludes that again, this is all just for intro chapter two, verses 13 and 14, w you know, why should we be doing all these things? Well, he tells us here looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and savior Jesus Christ. 2 (34m 13s): Sometimes we get caught up in the muddle of, of just life and, you know, Christian life and day-to-day life. And, and yet he, he wants us to keep in focus, something that is promised to us that will happen. And he says, what is it? It's the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us, set us free from every lawless deed and purify for himself, his own special people who are zealous for good works. So again, one of the things I want us to take away from this this morning is that we have purpose in the world in which we live today. 2 (34m 58s): I like in, in a king James version of that same verse, you know, new king, James says a special people. King James says a peculiar people, and I can test you a peculiar bunch of people. Okay. But if you think about it, we don't fit in. You know, we don't w we kind of go against the flow of the world against the stream. We resist some of the worldly things that are being indoctrinated into the world system today. And, and part of the teaching is we don't have to accept all the things that the world is, is, is telling us. We have to comply to these things were we're set apart. 2 (35m 39s): We're special, we're peculiar. But one of the things that we all were all zealous for his good works, we're going to talk about that. You may remember there was a song. I think it was done by crystal Lewis. It was either the eighties or nineties, but the sermon title for today is, is the title of her song. The song title is people get ready. Jesus is coming. People get ready. Jesus is coming. It's inevitable. It is a fact is a prophecy that will be fulfilled perhaps in our lifetime. We don't know. So now we're jumping into Titus chapter three. So there's four words that we're going to look at this morning. 2 (36m 18s): The first two are things that, that, that we're being encouraged to do. And the last two are things we're encouraged to be, to be aware of. So the first one is remind, we need to be reminded of some things and, and also affirm the other, another word is affirm, affirms some things in our Christian life. And then the other words are avoid certain things we need to avoid. And other things we need to reject. Now, if things are consistent in second services, they were with first service. I'm probably not going to get to the things that you need to resist and avoid. So you're probably going to ask steady that on the, on your own. Sorry about that. All right. So look at me now, Titus chapter three, verse one, Paul is talking to Timothy to Titus, sorry, Paul talking to Titus. 2 (37m 6s): He says, remind them, remind the believers to be subject to rulers and authorities, and to obey and to be ready for every good work. Alright. So part of the reason that Paul wanted Titus to be reminded or to remind the believers about these things is because Crete, the people of Crete, they had a long standing reputation of being very corrupt. It was a corrupt society, a corrupt culture, corrupt leadership, even it was part of their culture, but their culture needed to change. You see wherever the gospel goes, we're not looking to westernize people. 2 (37m 47s): We're not looking to bring democracy to people. We're looking to transform their life and their culture, which is going to set them free. And so Paul is reminding Titus. This is what it's all about. They were corrupt society that needed to be transformed. So once again, he says, remind believers to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey and to be ready for every good work. So Paul talked about the same thing in other letters that he wrote, which I want to unpack just a little bit. The scriptures will be up on the screen for you. Romans chapter 13, beginning with verse one, it says, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities for there is no authority except from, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 (38m 40s): It's kind of a sober thought. Isn't it? Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God. And those who resist will be bring judgment on themselves for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. So here we have a little bit of a breakdown now of what leadership is supposed to look like. Even civil leadership. We're not even talking about godly leadership, civil leaders in a civil society. It says here, rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good? And you'll have praise for the same four. 2 (39m 20s): He's talking about whoever's in authority for he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid for, he does not bear the sword in vain for he is God's minister and Avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience sake for, because of this, you also pay taxes for their God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. So what thing are they continually this very thing attending, attending to what thing are they attending to continually? 2 (40m 7s): And again, it's for his God's minister to you for good render, therefore to all their due tax, their due taxes to whom taxes are due customed to whom customs and fear to whom fear honor to whom honor. So the premise here is that leadership is intended to give a foundation for a civil society and it rewards good people, and it has consequences for evil. All right? And he brings in there. He says, and also, I want you to do this for conscience sake. You see I've found in my life. When I violate the laws, pick a law. 2 (40m 49s): When I violate a law, my conscience says red light alarm. What are you doing? Stop? Because I say, we have this intuitive understanding that, okay, this is the law. And as a, as a good citizen, or we would say, as a godly Christian person, we obey the law. We want to do. What's good. Peter also talked about this in first, Peter chapter two, beginning with verse 13, he says this submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king, as Supreme or to governors as to those who are sent by him by the king for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. 2 (41m 44s): We see the same thing Peter's talking about encouraging good behavior and punishing evil doers for this is the will of God. That by doing good, you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men as free yet not using Liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bond servants of God. And then he concludes with this honor, all people love the brotherhood, fear, God, and honor the king. So there's a bit of a hierarchy there. And both Paul and Peter talked about, Hey, the authorities that exist, God ordained these authorities for a certain purpose, but then he says, you know, honor, people love the brotherhood. 2 (42m 30s): I think he's talking about the community of believers, fear God, and honor the king. So what is our, what is our priorities in all this? And again, I'm kind of unpacking this to answer that question of Titus chapter three, and look at it, maybe in a more relevant way that you and I are facing right now. So remember Jesus, he was confronted by a religious ruler and you know, the religious Lew said, Hey, what, you know, what's the most important commandment of all, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses. So Jesus replied, you must love the Lord, your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. 2 (43m 11s): The second is equally important. Love your neighbor as yourself, the entire law and all the demands of the profits are based on these two commandments. So Jesus is affirming that same thing. Number one, love the Lord, your God. Everything flows from that with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. It is impossible to love our neighbors as ourselves, without first loving God and honoring him. So back to what Peter said, honor, people love the brotherhood, fear, God, and honor the king. And so if we want to prioritize all those things, fearing God is on the top. 2 (43m 51s): Loving the Lord with all our heart. Soul mind. Strength is on the top. Everything flows from that. So based on that verse, I read a moment ago, first Timothy three, remind them to be subject to sorry, Titus chapter three, verse one, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities to obey, to be ready for every good work. First question of the day. Is it ever appropriate to disobey those who are in positions of authority? Is it ever appropriate to disobey those who are in positions of authority? So the answer is yes. 2 (44m 31s): Okay. When is it appropriate to disobey? When by submitting to and obeying those who are in authority, we're actually disobeying God. The Bible has a number of examples for us of this very thing. I'm not going to have the scriptures up. I'm just going to read them to you. And the first one is in the book of Exodus, chapter one, you guys know the story. So Pharaoh's the king of Egypt. He's like the dictator of all. He gave this order to the Hebrew midwives and it names, the midwives Shipra and poor. This is what he said. When you help the Hebrew women, as they give birth watch, as they deliver, if the baby is a boy, kill him. 2 (45m 19s): If it is a girl, let her live. So again, the king of Egypt, the Pharaoh has made this decree to these midwives, but because the midwives feared God, they refuse to obey the King's order. They allowed the boys to live too. So the king of Egypt called for the midwives. Why have you done this? He come, he demanded. Why have you allowed the boys to live? The Hebrew women are not, this is their response. The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. The midwives replied they're are more vigorous and have their babies so quickly. The, we cannot get there in time. 2 (46m 1s): So not only did they defy Pharaoh's decree to kill the boys, they actually lied about it to what was the response. So God was good to the midwives and the Israelites continued to multiply growing more and more. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own. He blessed them as a result of the fact that they refused to obey the command of Pharaoh. Another example, you guys know this one. Well, this is in the book of Daniel chapter three. And it's when Nebuchadnezzar had made this golden statue that I think was about 90 feet tall. And the command was given that everybody needs to worship this statue. 2 (46m 44s): He had created all the officials came and stood before the statue that came that never set up. And then a Herald shouted out people of all races and nations and languages listened to the King's command. When you hear the sound of the horn flute, zither Lear harp pipes and other musical instruments, bow to the ground to worship king Nebuchadnezzar, his gold statue, and anyone who refuses to obey will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace. You know the story, there were three Hebrew, young men who, who basically said, we're, we're not doing that. 2 (47m 26s): Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied, oh, Nebuchadnezzar. So they're speaking to the utmost authority in the land of Babylon. At the time they said, we do not need to defend ourselves before you, if we're thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, your majesty, but even if he doesn't, we want to make it clear to you, your majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue that you've set up. 2 (48m 6s): You know, the rest of the story, similar situation. Now we're in, in the book of acts where the disciples, the apostles, they're going all over predominantly in Jerusalem at the time. And they're declaring what had occurred. That Jesus had been crucified that he'd been put in a tomb. And then he had risen from the dead. And they also blamed the religious authorities that they were the ones that actually put Jesus to death. So they brought the, the religious leaders, brought the apostle before the high council where the high priest confronted them. Didn't we tell you never again, to teach in this man's name. 2 (48m 49s): He demanded, instead you have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching about him, and you want to make us responsible for his death, but Peter and the apostles replied, we must obey God rather than man, or rather than any human authority on to say that again, Peter says, we must obey God, rather than any human authority. The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus. And every day in the temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message. 2 (49m 29s): Jesus is the Messiah question. Once again, is it ever appropriate to disobey those who are in authority? The answer is yes. When is it appropriate? When by submitting to an obeying, those who were in authority were actually disobeying God, and why is this well? Because we ought to obey God rather than any human authority. All right. Remember the verse I read earlier, it was Titus chapter two. It says that we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age. So let's fast forward. 2 (50m 9s): Now. Now we're talking about real life. We're talking about the things that you and I face decisions. We make things that we're being told to do restrictions that are being placed upon us mandates that are being put upon us. And we have to make a decision. And I want to say, I'm not going to tell you today what your decision should be. I only know what my decision is and what I have discovered in my life, personally, something about my personality, my character, which I didn't really fully understand before. Is it the more I'm being told? What I must do? 2 (50m 50s): You must comply to this. You must, this is a mandate upon you. I find what I do is I just dig my heels in all the more, and I'm not trying to be obstinate about it or rebellious about it. But in my spirit, in my conscience, I'm sensing God does not want me to do this. And at some point I think it is our responsibility to push back. Maybe not about everything. And I'm going to talk about that in just a minute, but what I have here in my hand right now, it's a document and it's titled order. Number six of the county health officer requiring face coverings in all public indoor settings, attributable to the rise in SARS, cov two Delta variant. 2 (51m 35s): So this was put in place September 1st, what what's today? The 12th. So 12 days ago. So I'm going to read one paragraph. This order directs that face coverings shall be worn regardless of vaccination status over the mouth and nose in all indoor public settings, venues, gatherings, and workplaces, such as, but not limited to offices, retail stores, restaurants, and bars, fitness centers, theaters, museums, personal care services, family entertainment centers, conference centers, and government offices serving the public. 2 (52m 17s): So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to give you two things. I'm going to give you my personal opinion on some things. And I'm going to give you also the position that harvest church, the leaders of harvest church have taken concerning some of these things. And so I'm going to give you, first of all, my personal opinion, let me backtrack. So at harvest church, what we typically do is the elders gathered together. The elders of harvest church are Steve Henry, Jim Erickson, Nilo Hagen, Gary Tucker and myself. We take these things very, very seriously. So we, not just this, but we, we gathered together. 2 (52m 59s): There's a decision that needs to be made, something that needs to it's impacting our church and we pray. And we, we, we communicated about it and we, we attempt to always be unanimous in our decisions about what's best for harvest church. And just please know that whatever decision we come up with, it's something that we feel that God is having us do a direction to take a decision that's made for the benefit of the church. Now things may happen. And I'm sure in any church, things happen where we might not understand, or we might not agree, or why are they doing that? And I don't think they should do that and whatever, and that's totally fine. If you ever have a question about anything that we decision we make, but feel free to come and come and talk to us about it. 2 (53m 43s): But more importantly, please be in prayer for, for the elders of harvest church, because it's a, we have a big responsibility. We're responsible for God's people. And, and we want our church to have a solid foundation and we want all of us to grow and, and just be confident that as a, as a body of believers, we're, we're on the right track. So personally, back to the mask mandate, all right, personally, I don't have a problem wearing a mask. If a business establishment requires me to wear a mask, I will gladly wear a mask. I don't have a problem with that at harvest church. 2 (54m 26s): So now we're talking about our church in particular, we've chosen to leave the decision up to you. So the decision is up to you, whatever you feel is best for you. So I want to go backtrack this a little bit. Remember it was, I believe April and may of 2020, where we were told. In fact, I think all businesses, all churches, we are were told, you must shut down and everything came to a screeching halt. You guys remember that? And we complied. We stopped having church. We did everything online. We didn't gather our, our space was utterly empty. 2 (55m 5s): And so w w for a couple of months, we agreed to do that. But, but then we began to sense that God was wanting us to do something different. And so he began to meet again. Now we, we removed a bunch of chairs. We set up a big outdoor venue. We encourage people to sit outside, you know, wear a mask. If you want to have some distance between you. So back to if you'd like to wear a mask in any of our venues, we encourage you to do so. And that is perfectly fine. 2 (55m 46s): In fact, backtrack just a little bit when we were doing church outside exclusively, I think we did it for like about three months, four months. I remember I thought it was super fun, mainly because we lived on the central coast of California, where you can pretty much have our outdoor church all the time. You know? So I have fond memories of that. But at harvest church, our leaders have chosen not to mandate the wearing of masks and our worship venues. We leave that decision up to you see all along, our default has been. How about if we let individual people, individual families decide what they're comfortable with, what is safe for you, safe for your family and those around you. 2 (56m 28s): So in that regard, we are pro choice. We're pro choice. It's up to you, we're supporting a Christian's right to choose. So now back to my opinion, in my opinion, it's really not about the mask mandate. That concerns me. Perhaps you heard our president last Thursday, he is putting in place. I'm just reading from my notes here. He's putting in place vaccine mandates, not only for all federal workers and contractors, but also for all businesses with 100 or more employees. And again, to be clear, in my opinion, I don't necessarily have a problem with the vaccines. 2 (57m 12s): I do have a problem with our government potentially forcing us to get them. And by the way, by definition, they're not actually a vaccine. They are in fact gene therapy, which is a new technology, never been used before. A new technology that has no long-term data to determine its safety. In fact, a person who is fully recovered after having COVID has a superior immunity against the virus and all the variants compared to those who have been fully vaccinated. 2 (57m 59s): Again, that was my opinion. So ultimately what I personally have a hard time with is the sense that we are being manipulated. We are being lied to about many things. I have the feeling that we're being set up. And in my opinion, our leaders seem to be sewing and fueling division and discord within our country. I don't know if you guys are aware of this. There's the thing is called the Nuremberg code. The Nuremberg code was established prior at the end of world war two, when they were holding those accountable for the atrocities of the, the Nazis, the Germans, and one of the things that was being done during world war two is the Nazis were doing experiments, medical experience, experiments on Jewish people and, and others without their consent. 2 (58m 55s): So the Nuremberg code, which was established and voted on by the international community, this is international treaty in the Nuremberg code. It is said that you cannot, no nation can coerce or force its citizens to take medical procedures that they, that they do not want to receive. So it's international law and it's in violation of our laws as well. So it seems to me that our leaders are sewing and feeling division and discord within our country. Do you remember what Jesus said about this in Luke chapter 11? 2 (59m 38s): He said this every kingdom, every nation divided against itself is brought to desolation. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. Do you remember the, the two things that the terrorists, those who committed the terrorist attacks on nine 11, they, what they wanted to do is they wanted to undermine our freedom and they wanted to keep us in fear. I see that same thing, continuing, and, and maybe even being more impactful now in our day now, to be clear, I'm not ignorant of the seriousness of COVID. 2 (1h 0m 26s): In fact, about two weeks ago, one of our dear friends died from COVID and he's 58 years old, relatively healthy guy. So I'm not in any way saying that this isn't a serious health issue that we need to be dealing with and, and praying about and ask God how we should approach it. But again, the census that we're being manipulated and lied to my opinion, is that as much as we would all like things to get back to normal, things are never going to get back to normal. 2 (1h 1m 16s): Things are quickly moving in the direction of what the prophets foretold in the Bible. One world leader, one world government, a cashless global economy that is controlled in such a way so that a person cannot buy or sell without receiving a special mark on their right hand or on their forehead, back to Titus three, one, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities to obey. But here's the thing I really want to focus on this morning to be ready for every good work, to be ready for every good work. 2 (1h 2m 1s): So as Christian men and women, we are all about being a godly and a good influence in our community and in the world. We're all about being ready for every good work I trust. God will give us the wisdom, the discernment, the ability to make these decisions as we need to make them. But we're all called in whatever area of life you live, whatever sphere of impact you have to be ready for every good work. In fact, actually, I would say this, you were born for this Ephesians chapter two verse 10 for we are God's workmanship. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. 2 (1h 2m 44s): You're born for this, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Perhaps we are here today for such a time as this, when I would pray, we would pray that people's hearts could begin to be opened up to the gospel message. Maybe such as never has happened before. Jesus talked about, you know, the fields there they're ready for the harvest. He said, but you need to pray for laborers to go out into the harvest and to bring them in. Jesus is returning that that is the first certain thing. We don't know when, but until he comes back again, I think our priorities should be bringing the gospel, taking the gospel to as many people as possible in our world and bringing them to Jesus who will give them that sense of living a life without fear, living in the freedom and the Liberty, where in crisis set us free. 2 (1h 3m 47s): Finally, this is the last scripture want to present to us today. And this is from Matthew chapter five, verse 16. Jesus said, this, let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your fathers and head that isn't heaven. Lord, I pray father that you would instill in us. Lord a sense, not a fear, but a sense of victory. Lord, I pray that as there is this, I don't know if I'd call it a conspiracy, but this movement to undermine our freedom in America, undermine our liberties. Lord, I pray that you would help us understand that if any man is in Christ, that we are free, our freedom comes from you and Lord. 2 (1h 4m 36s): I also pray that as we are confronted with all the decisions, the mandates, the challenges, the forcings upon us, that comes our way. Lord help us to make the decision that is obedience to you, where we need to comply, help us to comply, where we need to disobeyed, help us to do that with humility and Lord, I know many of us in our workplaces, we're being mandated to do these things. And it's a difficult decision about either complying or, or losing our job. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to come to the conclusion that obedience to you is far superior than a job that you will provide for us, no matter what happens, no matter what threats might come our way or because we belong to you. 2 (1h 5m 26s): So Lord, we just look to you for everything. Build us up in our most holy faith, give us in this day, discernment like no other. And we bless you. We thank you in Jesus name. We pray. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand. We're going to continue to worship this morning. 1 (1h 10m 45s): I'd like to invite the prayer team up. I think now's a good time. And then if anybody would like to respond and just receive some prayer, what we're going to have, we're just going to have them up here during the last song. 0 (1h 10m 57s): Good morning. 1 (1h 14m 3s): Thank you, Lord, for setting us free. Thank you. That like true freedom from, from sin and death only comes through Jesus and we have it right here, Lord, I just thank you for the access we get through through Jesus.

0 (3s): Holy spirit. What'd you just come now and just calm our hearts and minds to help us to just take captive. Every anxious thought this morning, we welcome you to your way. Thank you. You promise to be in our midst when we gather, and when we worship you, as we lift our hearts and our voices, all of our cares and concerns to you, God, would you meet us with your presence? Power change. Set us free. 0 (44s): Want to draw near, see you this morning and experience your holiness and goodness, your grace and your mercy. 0 (1m 4s): might be hard to believe what we're singing. 0 (11m 33s): Do you believe he's good today? Do you believe he's never going to let you down? Maybe some of you do feel like God let you down, you know, and that's okay. I love that. Actually, the Bible gives us that example on the song, this David songs, if you read one song to the next there's one song where like you're a good God and the next one he's like, Lord, I am in the pit. My enemies are surrounding me. Where are you? Right. So I don't think God's afraid of our doubts. I think he encourages us to bring our doubts to him, to be honest with them, about where we're at and the crowd to him from the pit and invite his rescue. 0 (12m 18s): And to believe that he is faithful and he will pull us out. I just want you to know that I have moments even today, where I struggle with a battle is happening in my own mind of do I believe he's good this morning? I believe he's never gonna let me down. I just want you to know you're not alone. And if you're in that space today and there's there's room for that here for you to say, God, I'm hurting this morning, I do feel like I need breakthrough in an area I've been crying out and praying and asking him begging for change. And I haven't seen it yet. He welcomes us to call it what happened to him? Good hearts seasoned near to the broken hearted and the crushed in spirit. 0 (13m 1s): So if you're crushed in spirit this morning, that's why these mirror to you. So lean in to him this morning. I'm leaning in with you even as my own soul, sometimes as doubts and questions. I trust that he is God. I trust that he is faithful. 0 (13m 46s): Try that again. 0 (13m 58s): that you love us. 0 (18m 7s): Lord. 1 (18m 10s): Thank you that you are thinking about us this very moment. Your love is very real, very present. I pray that every person would experience that maybe some for the first time, experiencing your love and a real profound and obvious way. Lord God, for those who are hurting today, we pray God that you would just show yourself faithful. Thank you that you do that, Lord God, we are humbled by your presence. I love it, Lord, that when we feel the least deserving, you show up with your great love. 1 (18m 54s): I think we see that throughout the scripture. This thinking about that woman with the issue of blood, just sick, her whole life and unclean feeling just outside and unwelcome and unloved. But yet if she, she knew that if she just could push through, press through and touch the hem of your garment, that something might happen and something did happen. The power of God that went out from Jesus' body that flooded her life, changed her forever. 1 (19m 36s): She experienced love from Jesus, grace, from Jesus power from Jesus and, and she was no longer an outcast, no longer unclean, no longer sick, but she was brand new in Jesus name. I pray for each of us. Lord that we'd be brand new in Jesus name, be brand new in Jesus name, Lord God, whatever it is that we're up against have been up against, have dealt with, have failed in Lord God. We are in you now. And that's what matters, Lord God. So if you're here today and you, you, you need Jesus. Just call out to him. 1 (20m 18s): He's as near as your next breath, your next word, you call him the name of the Lord. Jesus Christ. You shall be saved, welcomed into his family and loved unconditionally and wonderfully. So let Jesus know that you need him and that you want him and then walk them into your life. Maybe you need to welcome him into your life. A fresh today because circumstantially you've been distant him or even Cheryl Lynn talked about, maybe disappointed, disgruntled, welcome him in welcoming, back into your life. 1 (20m 59s): He promises never to leave you nor forsake you. He loves you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. We love you. Thank you for this time. Lord bless the word and we pray, blessed it to our spirits Lord and bless it to our minds and bless it to our lives. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You can be seated. You can be seated. Thanks team. Appreciate that. Very much. Very powerful word. We're continuing our study on faith today. So title of the message is faith believes God is sovereign. And so in light of those things, I'm going to talk about a couple of things in light of the fact that we believe as believers, as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, that he is sovereign, that God is sovereign. 1 (21m 46s): That simply means he's the Supreme ruler over all things. That means nothing is outside of his control. Nothing is outside of his realm to influence to direct. And so we're asking God to do a couple things today. We're, we'll be talking to you about our new space at one oh two west branch, one minute walk from here. It's the old something different building before that it was the wardrobe building before that it was bank of America back to 1952 when it was built. And so more in the process of kind of navigating some stuff with the city right now. So this is what I want you to pray about specifically. Remember I've said, Hey, can we pray every day? Like every day for this process, because things just come up and we need to pray through the process. 1 (22m 30s): And so the hurdle that we're up against now is a hurdle that I thought we had squared away. It was the parking hurdle because the city needs to make sure there's enough parking for that new space over there. They're saying, Hey, you need to come up with 60 parking spaces. And so we thought we had remedied with parking the parking lot across the street. But now they're saying that shared parking on Sunday morning. So anyway, I have gone back and forth with the city no less than like 20 times. And I'm a bit exasperated at this point. I don't know if you've ever been there. So I wrote an email to the city. 1 (23m 10s): I prayed about it first. I said, Lord, what do I do? Right? Like, what's next? Right? So I praying, I'm saying Lord, so this is me typing an email. So I said, Patrick, he's our planner, good guy, by the way, very good guy. This parking situation is getting ridiculous period. The truth is, I said, I'm still typing my email. I said, the truth is our people who will be attending Sunday morning services will be parking where they have been parking parking for the last 16 years at our spot at one 24 west branch, which is place here and at the village center village center has given us parking on Sunday mornings for free for the last 16 years. 1 (23m 52s): So I said, the truth is that's where our people will be parking. So there's not actually a real need for additional parking. So I'm asking that you guys would reconsider and think through your position because with a simple decision from the city, we can move past this and get moving with our project. So I said, sincerely, Steve. And so a few hours go by and I don't, I don't hear from Patrick. And then so like maybe I overstepped, but I prayed. So I'm thinking I'm okay. So, and I was gracious. I wasn't angry in the email. I wasn't, I was gracious. 1 (24m 32s): I was gracious. So he responds back, Steve, I totally understand you're there. You're frustrated with this situation. He said, I'm going to call a meeting with the city managers on Monday that's tomorrow, so that we can try to navigate this with you, for you so that you can, so we can move past this. And so with that, I want us to pray together today that God would open the door for that. One of our partner ministries ministry that we partner is coastal Christian school. They're also up against a situation with their facility and they're asking that people sign a petition. So this petition is actually available out there at the welcome center. It's a petition to approve an expansion of their conditional use permit, which allows them to put an, a gym on their property and multipurpose buildings and that sort of thing. 1 (25m 22s): So we're gonna pray for them. And I'm going to ask you to go out and sign there. They're looking for a thousand signatures from churches across the central coast, which I don't think it'll be a problem at all, but if you can sign the petition and then pray for them as well, that would be great. So with that, let's go ahead and stand up is what I'm going to ask of you. I'm going to ask that you would pray for CCS and pray for the parking meeting tomorrow for harvest shirt and, and ask that you would come up here and do it. So come up to Vox one 21. This is box one, by the way, box ones. 1 (26m 3s): There it is. So if you're in the campus somewhere else, like at the loft or in the, on the patio and you'd like to come pray, I'd like people to come and pray into the microphone, into the screen so that people at the rest of the campus can see what we're doing and see online and know what we're feeling know what's going on. Otherwise 2 (26m 22s): It's just kind of a dead noise and people can't hear what's going on. So I'm going to pray. And then I'm going to invite you guys to come up and fray into the microphone on the platform and nothing to be worried about 1 (26m 34s): The world wide 2 (26m 36s): Web, we'll be recording everything that you say, 1 (26m 39s): And everybody who's watching online 2 (26m 41s): Will be ridiculing and criticized or your prayers. Now I'm just kidding. 1 (26m 45s): They will be praying with you in agreement 2 (26m 48s): With your prayer. So as I pray, I want to invite you guys to come up forward, come forward and do the same thing. We're just going to take a few minutes to pray and just trust the Lord here. So Lord, we pray right now in Jesus name for his coastal Christian school, we pray that they would get their thousands of signatures on their petition and beyond that, that they would get their approval for their conditional use permit to add to their campus so that they can have the space that they need and be able to expand as their, their capacity. The number of students that they have, I think has doubled in the last year. And so they're in desperate need of more space. And so we pray that you'd bless 1 (27m 23s): Them with more space, with resources 2 (27m 26s): To build on their current property and blessings from the city and the county, Lord God. So take care of them. We pray Lord. And we pray for this meeting tomorrow with the city managers, whoever they may be. I, I don't know who is all going to be involved in the meeting, but for this me, this parking meeting tomorrow, we pray the God that you would remedy that for us in Jesus name, we pray that you would give us favor that you would go before us God, that you would open the doors and, and just, just pave the way for us to move forward with our project. Lord God. And as we have a new architect on the, on the project, Lord, we pray that you would bless him, that his company would be able to turn the plans around quickly. 2 (28m 6s): Lord, that would be able to get, get those into the city and that the city would give us our building permits. And we built be able to move forward with the plan, with the idea, the hope to be opened by Christmas Eve, Lord. So we just pray for your wisdom. We thank you for it, Lord. Thank you. Who else be bold? Come on up here. Don't make me wait. Just get up here. There we go. Gary Tucker. So here you got to stand right here up on the platform. Father. We just thank you, Lord, that your word tells us there is nothing too hard for you and you will do exceeding, abundantly above all that we could ask or imagine Lord, you are God almighty. As we sung this morning and we pray, you'd move the hearts of everybody involved Lord in this decision. 2 (28m 52s): And we trust God, you're going to allow us to move forward. Or parking is nothing for you. You own the whole world Lord. So we just pray father that you would work it out and have them agree that we're going to be able to still park where we haven't been parking more. And we're trusting you for the rest in Jesus name. 1 (29m 13s): Thanks Gary. Who else? Who else? Who else get up here? Don't make Berio come on up. You got a word for us too, David. All right. Speaking to that. 2 (29m 26s): Awesome. Cool. So Lord, we just cleaned to your word right now. God, because we know that your promises are true. And so in John 14, 11 through 14, God, you say, believe me, when I say I am in the father and the father's in me or at themselves, truly, I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I've been doing. And they will do even greater works than these because I'm going to the father and I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the father may be glorified in the son. You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it. Father. We know that you say ask and you shall receive God seeking. You will find knock and the door will be open. God. We know that if we ask for a stone, you won't give us a serpent. God. So father right now is your children. 2 (30m 6s): God, we just petition have him saying, Lord, we know that you want to partner with us. God, we know you want to partner with us in the expansion of what you're doing here. God, because you know, this is kingdom business. God. So father, we just commit this project to you. We already know it's in your hands Lord that you are the God of the impossible Jesus father. We know that we've seen time and time again, where things seemed impossible that you came through, like after the destruction of Solomon's temple, Godwin was unable to be built again, Lord, with the few workers and the few materials you were the one who rebuilt it. God. So Jesus, we trust this with you. God, we say this is nothing like the last guy. This is nothing for you, father. We don't even break a sweat because we trust our father. 2 (30m 48s): So God we thank you for the grace and the meeting tomorrow. God, we thank you that you would just move their hearts with your holy spirit Jesus in Jesus name. Amen. 1 (30m 58s): Hey man. Thanks brother. Appreciate it. Who's next? Who's next? Come on. Up here. Right, Diego. Right there. There we go, 2 (31m 13s): Father. I just want to thank you for harvest campus. I want to thank you for coastal Christian and the work that you've already done at each campus. Lord and father, father expansion is coming. It's your expansion, Lord father. I thank you again for the work that you've done and father, I thank you ahead of time that this expansion will come. I think you ahead of time that your kingdom is coming, that your kingdom is expanding father. 2 (31m 56s): Thank you. Thank you, Lord. Amen. Come on up. Stand up here. 3 (32m 12s): Thank you father. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My heart is bubbling and full of joy because the city knows we're going to grow and they're worried about where are they going to put us? Praise you, father praise you, father, that you are letting this town know that you are on the move or God, I just praise you. I praise you. I praise you. I can't wait to see. I can't wait to see all the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people. You're going to bring both here and to coastal Christian academy, praise your name, father 1 (32m 45s): More. Anybody else? Linda, come on. What'd you stand right up here. Here we go, 3 (33m 3s): Father, God, I am just so excited because maybe the world sees us as a problem. But this is an answer to prayer because we have been praying that the work of harvest would go forth through the city and it airs and it has, and we keep growing and growing because of your grace, Lord God. And so we're not looking at this as a trial, even Lord, because this is part of the joy that we are experiencing because of your growth. And we know that you have answered our prayer and desires to continue to let us grow Lord. And so we know that you're going to provide a way for us to expand. And so far this event, Lord. So we just stand in agreement together, everyone right now, who is praying, we stand in agreement against anything the enemy would try to do to prevent this from happening. 3 (33m 53s): Lord, we stand together and you have told us where two or more are gathered. There you are in our midst Lord and where we got a lot more than two or morally here, Lord. So we stand together. We praise you. We honor you. And we say, Lord, bring the blessings. We receive it in your name. 1 (34m 10s): Amen. Joy. Come on up. Thanks Sheila or Linda. Sheila's the other one. 3 (34m 20s): God, you're awesome. You're a mighty God. Your control. We praise your name and we thank you. We thank you for this opportunity. It's who cut to worship you and to grow our faith. God would you, would you deepen our faith and brute us in your love that our church would grow and be on fire for you? God that this, this is so this is so little as it, as it's been mentioned before it God, this is so nothing is just a drop in the bucket, but God, this is a way to grow our faith. And I pray that you would, you would grow us as a church. You would encourage us through this, that you would strengthen our pastors and our elders and deacons through this there, this trial, God that you you're in control God, you are unstoppable. 3 (35m 11s): This whole nuts top here where your word. So we praise your name now. 1 (35m 16s): Amen. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Let's give the Lord anybody, anybody. All right. So my, my, my belief is that I'll come back next Sunday with a good report. So be seriously being praying all week long, but especially today and tomorrow, I'm not sure what time the meeting is, but be praying and the Lord do what he's going to do. Amen. And then yeah, you can be seated. There we go. You can be seated. God bless you guys. So as I mentioned in the prayer, we've got a new architect. The original architect was great. Christian loves Jesus, but so busy. So she said, Hey, I'm a couple of months out before I can even get to it. 1 (35m 57s): So then I met another architect last Saturday, just by accident, kind of happenstance, if there's any such thing. And he said, Hey, I can turn this project around quickly. And so he had a meeting with him and talked with the other architect and she said, yeah, if he can do it quicker, let him let him do it. And so he took it over and it's in the works now. So now we're hoping to get some plans here in the next couple of weeks versus a couple of months. And then those plans go to the city for plan approval and for permit issuing. And so we're hoping that doesn't take three months, like they're saying it could possibly take three months, but ultimately our plan is to be in the new kind of thought. 1 (36m 37s): It would be like Christmas Eve would be a great opportunity entity to have Christmas Eve service in there. So that's like six months away. It's already six months into this year. So time goes so incredibly fast. So in, in the beginning I was a little frustrated, but six months is quick. It's going to get there before we know it. So be praying for God's timing, but then also God's provision. So all along, we've just said, if you feel like you want to be a part of it, then here, here from the Lord and just be obedient. The price actually is, has gone up significantly. I don't know about you guys, but every time we do a remodel, the price goes from one number to another number we Jolene and I, we remodeled our house a couple of years ago, price doubled in the time of the remodel. 1 (37m 22s): When we remodeled this sanctuary 16 years ago, the price started out at like 35,000 and went up to like $85,000. So we're looking probably closer to $225,000 for that remodel. Originally it was like 125. Now it's probably closer to two 25 cost of materials. Everything is high right now. If you've done any kind of building right now, you know, everything is very, very expensive. Yeah. So, so, but we believe that God is faithful. Just like he was when we did this project, 16 years ago, we had 60 people on the jury 16 years ago and we did the project. Debt-free now we've got more than 10 times that, and we're believing for God to do the same thing. So if you'd like to join us and be a part of that, just, you know, be a part of what God is doing. 1 (38m 8s): God has been so faithful. I don't know if you guys realize God's faithfulness through your obedience. The church, when we planted the church, our budget, literally our budget every month was $1,500. Cause we rented a little school and I was working full time and we had a worship leader that we gave a stipend to, but it was really like 1500 bucks a whole month. Like it took him and we were like some months wondering if that was going happen, right? This, this year, we're watching God as he's been doing it every year for the last 16 years just increase what he provides for us this year. On average, we brought in $95,000 a month. 1 (38m 51s): So was like, you know, our old budget or original budget was 1500 for the month. Now it's bringing more than $3,000 every single day of the month. And so it's kind of interesting to see God's faithfulness. This last month was our, I think our biggest month ever, we brought in like $128,000. So, so God has response. I share that to say that God is responding to the need and there's a big need. So if you'd like to be a part of that, that then jump in, be a part of what, what God will do and watch what, how he blesses it. And anyway, with that, let's jump into Hebrews and continue to talk about faith. They amen. This'll be, we'll be wrapping up our faith study of Hebrews, be weaving it into the messages going forward. 1 (39m 31s): But Hebrews chapter 11 verses 35 through 40, as part of the examples of faith that we've been studying. We see one more story of God's faithfulness to his people of faith. So we pick it up in verse 35 and then we go into 36, 37, 38, 39 40 in those closing verses of chapter 11 are pretty difficult. In fact, I didn't want to preach this message today because like I said, Lord, I want to encourage the people with faith. And I don't want you to discourage them with the last part of Hebrews 11, but there's, there's a purpose in us communicating the whole counsel of God's word. 1 (40m 12s): And so we communicate the whole counsel of God's word because God uses the whole counsel of his word to instruct us and to grow us up in our most holy faith. And so as we get to the end of Hebrews 11, we're going to see examples of God's faithfulness to his people of faith that looks different than we might imagine. Like we so far we've been studying about God's profound impact in the world because people of faith have stepped up. We're going to actually see the people of God go under severe persecution for their faith. Many of them giving their lives for their faith. And in the midst of that, we see the faithfulness of God because we don't carry just a temporal earthly perspective. 1 (40m 56s): We carry this eternal perspective where we believe that this life in the earth is important, but also what we do for eternity matters. And so we're living not just for this life, but for the life eternal as well. And so when we have that kind of perspective, it changes things. So the long game is that we don't live for this life alone, but for the one to come also even more so, but we'll get there in a few minutes. Let's look at Hebrews 1135 as we wrap up this study of faith and God's faithfulness. So, so far we've talked about all kinds of people, right? We've talked about Abel Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses parents. 1 (41m 37s): We've talked about Moses. We've talked about the people of Israel, Ray Hab, Daniel Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We've talked about Gideon and we've talked about all of these people of faith. And now we'll spend some time on the story of this nameless widow in verse 35. Oh and Elijah. We'll talk about Elijah. In fact, we're going to talk a lot about Elijah as we get into this text. So Hebrews 1135 says, and again, this is after all of those other stories of faith, he says women received their loved ones back again from death. So let's take, take a look at one of those stories relating to this, this verse first Kings chapter 17. It says this now Elijah, who is from Tisha and Gilly ad told king Ahab. 1 (42m 23s): As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, the God I serve, listen to his competence, right? This was a man of faith. He understood that he heard from God and he was committed to obeying God. So he said, listen. As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel lives, the God I serve, there will be no Dew or rain the next few years until I give the word, no, do no rain for the next few years until I give the word. So we declares this to the king and stands firm. Why? Because he's heard, I heard from the Lord, number one, God directs the elements. 1 (43m 10s): We, we have to believe that God is sovereignly in charge of everything, or he's not sovereignly in charge of anything, right? We believe that God directs the elements he told. He told the prophet, it's not going to do. There's not going to be any Dew or rain for the next few years until you the word we, we, we have to expand our capacity to believe God for things that maybe we wouldn't have believed God for in the past, God directs the element. Remember Jesus calmed the storm, right? Because he directs the album. Remember when Jesus walked on the water because he controls the elements. 1 (43m 51s): So he's in charge of everything. He controls everything. Then the Lord said to Elijah, go to the east and hide by Karath Brook near where it enters the Jordan river, drink from the Brook and eat Raven, eat what you want the Ravens bring you for. I have commanded them to bring you food. That verse tells me that God directs the wildlife. He doesn't just direct the elements, but he directs the wildlife. So he's Elijah. Here's some, the Lord and God tells me to go by this body of water, this Brook and eat what the Ravens give you, because God's gonna provide for you through the Ravens and through this water. 1 (44m 35s): And so God directs the wildlife. How do we know this is true. Look at Noah's Ark. You ever wonder how all those animals got into the arc? I mean, how much work would it have had been if Noah had to go around and gather up all of the animals, right? But this is what it says in Genesis six 20 God told Noah pairs of every kind of bird and every kind of animal and every kind of small animal that scurries along the ground, we'll come to you. We'll come to you to be kept alive. God directs the elements and he directs wildlife. He can direct every aspect and element of your life. If you just let him, if you just trust him, he can direct and provide and take care of all of your needs. 1 (45m 16s): Back to first Kings verse five, five says, so we lied. Yah did, as the Lord told him it can't beside Kira Brook, Easton. Jordan. What happened you suppose is brought him bread and meat each morning and evening. So I think about the people of Israel wandering through the wilderness for how long, 40 years and every day they wake up and there's fresh manna on the ground. Why? Because God is faithful to do what he says. He's going to do. He's he's providing for this prophet through the Raven to bring bread and meat every day. And he drank from the Brook. But after a while, the Brook dried up, why did the Brook dry up? 1 (45m 59s): Because there was no more do and no more rain because God stopped the do. And he stopped the rain and it wasn't going to come back until Eliza spoke the word. And so everything that God says in his word is unfolding before our very eyes. And this is true. Whether we see it in our own personal lives or not, we can see the faithfulness of God unfold as we trust him and believe him doing what he asks us to do. But after a while, the Brook dried up for there was no rainfall call anywhere in the land. Number three, we're seeing how God is speaking to Elijah. Number three, in your notes, God directs people he's speaks to people. 1 (46m 43s): Then the Lord said to Elijah, verse eight, then the Lord said to Elijah, what has God been saying to you lately? What has he been speaking to you lately? What has he been communicating for your soul lately? I think God wants to speak to us. I think he wants to speak to you. Then the Lord said to Elijah, go and live in the village of Zerephath near the city of side-on. I have instructed a widow there to feed you. So now no longer is the bird of the Raven going to feed him. But this widow is going to feed him and it, and it doesn't even make sense that this widow would meet him because the winter doesn't have a resource to feed him. But this is what happened. So he went to zero path and see arrived at the gates of the village. 1 (47m 25s): He saw a widow because God was speaking to him. And so it wasn't coincidence that he saw a widow, God spoken, directed that widow to do what she was doing so that when the prophet showed up, Elijah sees the widow. See, he arrived at the gates of the, of the village. He saw a widow gathering sticks, and he asked her, would you please bring me a little water in a cup? And she was going to, as she was going to get it, he called to her, bring me a bite of bread. But she said first, well, I swear by the Lord, your God that I don't have a single piece of bread in the house. 1 (48m 9s): Okay. Why would God direct Elijah to this widow who didn't have any bread? If she was the one responsible to feed him while he was there, he's unfolding his plan. He's unfolding his plan. It's like the, the, the offerings of the, of the widow. She, she gave all that. She had, she, she provided the Lord everything that she had as an act of worship. And now this widow, woman's going to have the opportunity. We need to do the same thing. I swear by the Lord, your God, that I don't have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking wheel in the bottom of the jug. 1 (48m 53s): I was just gathering if you six to cook the last meal and then my son and I will die. But Elijah said to her, don't be afraid. You're you're out your external circumstances, your outward circumstances. Don't have to dictate how you deal with life. We need to who in those desperate moments, reach it, cry out to the Lord and say, okay, God, I'm in this desperate place, much like Carolyn was talking about I'm in this desperate place. What are you going to do now? And then just watch what the Lord will do and obey, listen and obey. Don't be afraid. Go ahead and do just what you said, but make a little bread for me first. 1 (49m 35s): How selfish is Elijah? Right? I know you're going to die. I know you only got a little bit, but make me a little bread, right? Do you think that was a lie, led you to being selfish? This was Alijah being used by the Lord to test her faith all throughout scripture in the old and the new Testament, we're called to give God our very best. The very first fruit of our offering. We're called to do what he's asked us to do with obedience and faith. Believing that he's going to come through in a supernatural way. He said, then use, what's left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says. 1 (50m 17s): There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again, there will always be all of oil and flour for how long, as long as the Lord wills. It said it wasn't gonna rain for a few years. And so God was going to take this meager bit of loyal and flour and multiply it because this is what he always does. And we always see that he's in charge of number four. God has power over in animate objects, lifeless objects. 1 (50m 59s): God has power. Even over those things. We see it. When he feeds the multitudes, he feeds the multitudes twice. One time, he feeds 5,000 plus women and children. The next time he feeds 4,000 plus women and children. Each time they gathered up baskets of leftovers. Yeah. Beers that they actually gathered up more at the end than they had in the beginning, because God has power over in adamant. Yes, we need to believe that he will provide supernaturally. When he asks us to do something, our tendency is like, Lord, I'm I'm down to the end of it. 1 (51m 39s): Like, this is all I've got. Whether it be money or time or whatever it is, Lord, I don't have the ability to give. And it's probably in that moment that he asks you to give. In fact, I love it. I'll just say, Lord, I don't want to be tested in this, but I do love when sometimes I say stuff and I get tested on it, like immediately. And so I'm putting a disclaimer, Lord, I don't want to be tested in this area, but I love it. Like when we're at the end of our resource, either as a church search or in our family and the Lord says, give what you have leftover, give it away and watch what I will do. 1 (52m 19s): So, number of years ago, we were trying to buy this property and we tried to raise money and we couldn't raise any money. I've shared this story before, but I'll share it again because it's fun. So we had worked hard. We tried to raise money. This is like two, $2 million property or whatever. And we're trying to raise money. We need at least 15 or 20% down or whatever. So that all of our money, we raised $15,000. Boy, they all of our money. That's all we get raised, right? Hardly anything. It doesn't put a dent in things, but CCS is also raising money for their facility. So we said, let's take our $15,000 and give it to CCS. Clearly we don't have enough money to do anything, but maybe it will help them. 1 (53m 3s): So we go down the road a little bit longer and, and this place, we were raising money for this place when it did come available, but it still wasn't available to us. But the house next door became available and we needed to raise, I don't know, a hundred thousand dollars or something like that to, to buy that house next door. Cause it was like $470,000 or whatever. So we needed to raise like, I dunno like 8,000, whatever the number was. It does. It doesn't matter. God provided that money. Like immediately. It's like there was no effort needed at all. We, we had, after we gave that money to CCS, we just started raising money again. And all of a sudden we had a hundred thousand dollars. We're like 98,000 bucks or something like that. So when we needed money, my coffee, when we needed money for that place, God provided it for us because we, we took our measly $15,000 that we had, which wasn't a much DAS, but it blessed them. 1 (53m 56s): And we gave it away and God provided and, and took care of the need for that. And then when a couple of years later, when this place became available, we needed it. We had remodeled that place and the value went up like, I don't know, 150 or $200,000. And so the value of increase, they're putting these properties together. We hardly had to raise any money at all. We raised a little bit of money that we did need to raise so that we could put the down payment on this property. So God love it, leverage that property. So we get out, buy this property. Now we owe, we own like $3 million in property in the beginning. Remember our budget was $1,500 every month, right? 1 (54m 37s): And, and then I'm going to camp out on this for a bit here. We, we wanted to rent this facility. It wasn't for sale. Yet. We wanted to rent this space and it was $3,000 a month, 3000 that's twice what our budget was 3000 bucks. And we were still renting the school because we needed a place to meet while we were renovating this place. So now we're at 4,500 bucks. About the same time we started renting other space. And at the same time that board said, Hey, we need you on full time to, to run the projects we're remodeling and building and painting and doing all that kind of stuff. So I came on full-time when the church has 60 people in it and the church was able to pay me plus pay this plus pay for everything else that we were doing. 1 (55m 24s): And we've never looked back. That was 16 years ago that we made the decisions to move here. And we've been able to renovate space and build space and all kinds of stuff. So God's been faithful because this is what God had done as period is faithful period. And he will call us to do unreasonable things so that he might do supernatural things. Let's go back to first Kings. I'm totally out of time here. It says a matter. And we're going to keep going. Let's order some pizza in, and then I'll just keep preaching until like three years, verse 15. 1 (56m 5s): So she did, as Elijah said, she, this is where it starts. Like, what is the Lord saying? This widow who was on her last meal, preparing to die. She did, as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her family continued to eat for many days. There was always enough flour and all of oil left in the containers. Just as the Lord had promised through Elijah, sometime later, the woman's son became sick. He grew worse and worse. And finally he died. Then she said to Elijah, oh man of God, what have you done to me? Have you come here to point out my sins and kill my son. But Elijah replied, give me your son. 1 (56m 45s): Then he took the child's body from her arms, carried him up the stairs to the room where he was staying and laid the body on his bed. Then Elijah cried out to the Lord, oh Lord, my God. Why have you brought tragedy to this widow who has opened her home to me causing her son to die. And he stretched himself out over the child three times and cried out to the Lord, oh Lord my God. Please let this child's life return to him. What happened? The Lord heard Elijah's prayer, right? The Lord heard Elijah's prayer and the life of the child returned. And he revived. Then Elijah brought him down from the upper room and gave him to his mother. 1 (57m 24s): Look. He said, your son is alive. Have you ever been in the room when somebody died? And when somebody has expired, it's not awesome. The person is dead lifeless. The warmth of their body is leaving them. And they're becoming this cold lifeless shell. It's not fun. This is what happened to this woman, her son, she's a widow. She's already lost her home. He's dead. And then God shows up and got it. 1 (58m 5s): The stores him saying, man, it brings the back to him. And he said, look, your son is alive. I share that because God has the power over life and death. And I want to say physically, but also spiritually. And some of us need to hear that spiritually. He's got power over life and desk because some of you are feeling dead spiritually, and God wants to resurrect your, your spiritual life. God wants to resurrect your spiritual life so that you're feeling alive again. But this is how it's going to happen. It's going to happen as you step out in faith, in obedience to do whatever it is that God has asked you to do. So what I'm, I'm not even talking about the building. I don't care about the building. 1 (58m 45s): I know that God's going to take care of the building. What I'm saying is whatever God has asked you to do. The last thing he's asked you to do to go back to that thing and then watch as you will be gently do what he's asked you to do. Watch the spiritual life in you. Refresh. I talked with a guy yesterday, Friday, talked to the guy Friday and heard from a guy Friday. He was sharing kind of a story. And he had gone through a terrible divorce. His wife left him, took his sons, moved out of state. He had no custody. He had no ability to see his kids. And, and it went on like this for, for a decade. I think it was a decade. He was driving in his truck one day and he felt like the Lord said, you need to call your wife's husband and apologize to him for the way that you have treated him during this, this time. 1 (59m 33s): And oh, by the way, you need to apologize to your wife as well. And he's like, you have got to be kidding me. And he decided to do it. So he calls the son to get a stepdad's his son stepdad's phone number. And he said, Hey, God's done a work in my life. And I just want to call and apologize to you for the way that I've acted and the way that I've lived before you. And if it's all right with you, I'd like to call your wife, my ex-wife and apologize to her as well. And he did. And the Lord completely reconciled that family. You didn't get remarried to his wife, none of that. But they, they had a relationship. 1 (1h 0m 15s): He was able to be at his son's high school graduation, sitting at the family table. There was his son was able to forgive him. His son had been angry with him for a decade, I think is what he said for a decade, for the way that his father had been acting in God, through that obedience reconciled the whole family. What is God asking you to do? That seems impossible. That doesn't seem like it's going to bear any fruit. And it seems like something that you're not even interested in doing. If God is asking you to do it, go back to that. You might be feeling spiritually separated from God. Spiel is spiritually dry because you're just flat refusing to be obedience. God cannot bless disobedience. He will not bless disobedience. 1 (1h 0m 56s): God can resurrect your spiritual life. He's got power over life and death physically, spiritually Jesus raised gyrus daughter from the dead mark five raised a widow's son from the dead in Luke chapter seven, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and John chapter 11, Jesus himself was raised from the dead. And we see Elijah raising this widow woman's son from the dead. Then the woman told Elijah, I know for sure that you are a man of God and that the Lord surely speaks through you. So we've heard a lot of amazing stories of God's faithfulness, but the reality is number six, in your notes God's plan. Doesn't always unfold. As we expect God's plan. 1 (1h 1m 37s): Doesn't always unfold as we expect. So let's take a look at how, how his plan, and I'll say his plan unfolded in the, in the lives of these people. So now I'm not saying that God had caused what happened with he allowed it and he's been glorified through it. Others who didn't experience the victory, like we've been talking about others, tortured refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They place their hope and a better life. After the resurrection, somewhere jeered at and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons, some died by stonings and were sawed in half and others were killed with the somewhat about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute, and oppressed and mistreated. 1 (1h 2m 25s): They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground around just as a for instance, this is how the 12 apostles died. And I'm going to give you kind of the rundown here real quickly though. I hear so often I want a first century Christ experience like people like I want to do you really want a first century Christ experience because what you will get is what they got. Some of our hardest decisions as Christians is, do I go to the nine o'clock service or do I go to the 11 o'clock service? Right? Do I go to, you know, out to her Mexican food after order? 1 (1h 3m 7s): Or do I get pizza afterward? You know, what, what sporting event do I watch on the television afterward? You know, where, where do I, my wife and I go out to dinner. I mean, those are, these are the things that we wrestle with. This is not first century Christianity. This is first century Christianity. This is how the 12 apostles died. Ad. This is from the, the voice of the martyrs or excuse me, Fox's book of martyrs to book. Andrew was crucified, but he wasn't just, he was crucified in an X shaped cross and he wasn't nailed to the X shape cross. He was actually tied to the cross to, to extend the time that it would take for him to actually die because you're, you're hanging and it's causing you to suffocate and you have to push up to get a breath. 1 (1h 3m 58s): And then you're useless. He just suffocate. So while he was dying and it took days for him to die, what was he doing? He was preaching to passers by people who would go by watch and mock him. He was preaching the gospel. Andrew was crucified, Bartholomew beaten, then crucified, James son of Alphaeus was stoned to death. Others think that James son of Alphaeus was actually crucified in lower Egypt and then sod in pieces. So it wasn't good enough that they crucified him. They cut him in pieces. You really want to first century Christianity, this is what you're going to get here. 1 (1h 4m 42s): James son of Zebedee was beheaded, just like the apostle. Paul says Paul John exile for his faith died of an old age, but they did try to kill him. They put them in a VAT of oil, boiling oil, trying to kill him, but like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace, nothing happened to him. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fiery furnaces. They didn't even smell like a barbecue, but they'd been in the furnace, right? John, the apostle John Kent comes out of the boiling oil. He's got no, no injuries. He will not die while he's in the Calder. And his historian said that while he was there, he was actually preaching the gospel. 1 (1h 5m 22s): They're like, get him out of there. Exile him to the island of Patmos, where he can't have anybody preach to you. So while he's there though, God's got a purpose for them. Jesus reveals that revelation to him. He writes revelation, the book of revelation and the rest is history out of an old age. But after living his whole life for Jesus Judas, not a scary. He was stoned to death. Matthew was speared to death. Peter crucified upside down, Phillip was crucified. Simon crucified, Thomas, a spirits of death and Matthias was stoned to death. So that's kind of, that's what happens. All these people earned a good reputation. 1 (1h 6m 2s): The scripture says verse 30 and all these people are in a good reputation because of their faith. Yet none of them received all that God had promised forgot. It's something better in mind for us so that they would not reach perfection without us remember back in Hebrews chapter 11, verses 13 through 16. I think we covered this week too, in our studies in Hebrew and Hebrews, it says, all these people died. Still believing what God is. I promised them they did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on the earth. And that that's the perspective of the first century church and needs to be our perspective of the 21st century church that we are. 1 (1h 6m 44s): This is not our home. We are foreigners and nomads were passing through with the sole purpose of glorifying God in our lives waves for the life to come for all eternity. They were foreigners and nomads here on the earth. Obviously, people who say such things are looking forward to a country. They called their own. If they had long for the country, they came from, they could have gone back, but they were looking for a better place, a heavenly Homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God for. He has repaired a city for them. So number six, God's planned. Isn't always what we expect it to be. Let me get there again. God's plan is not always, does not always unfold as we expect, but number seven in your notes, as we wrap this thing up, God's plan can always be trusted. 1 (1h 7m 34s): God's plan can always be trusted. So if you're at a crossroads in your life and you're just perplexed by God and what he has done or what he has allowed, go back to your big picture, long game plan and perspective and say, okay, God, clearly things are unfolding for me the way I think that they should unfold. What is your long game? I've been praying for the Methodist camp for 16 years. You guys have been praying with me for the Methodist camp that God would give us that Methodist. It's 29 acres back there for 16 years. And God hasn't seen fit to give it to us yet. Right? Things don't always unfold. The way that we hope that they would unfold difficult, have hit our family, things that we didn't expect or wouldn't welcome in, in a million years, but things have happened. 1 (1h 8m 22s): And we got to believe that God is in control. He is unfolding things. So don't lose heart before you see the answer. Don't lose heart. Before you see the answer. Did I read Hebrews 11, 13 through 16? Did I finish that? I didn't. Okay. They were looking for a better place at heavenly Homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God for. He has prepared a city for them. God is what has got up to in your life. I know what he's up to you. I think in the church and I'm trying to figure out what he's up to in my life as well. What does he have to in your life two weeks ago? 1 (1h 9m 4s): I said by faith, we will, by faith, I will. We asked you and challenge you to fill in the blank. And then we had people come up and talk about my faith. They will. What is it that by faith, God is taking you through and you will do, will you choose to be obedient? We choose to love him. We, she used to be faithful to him. Will you choose to do what he's asked you to do? Whatever that ask may be. I promise you this. If you do that, your spirit, your spirit spiritually, you will come alive again, where you've been struggling spiritually. You will, you will begin to come alive. Like you've never been alive before. Just simply confess your sin and say, Lord, I I've not done. What you asked me to do. 1 (1h 9m 45s): I'm going back to what you asked me to do. And I'm going to do that thing. And then moving forward, I'm going to do what you asked me to do was with that. Let's go and stand up because really that's what Christianity is all about. We follow Jesus. He says something. We obey it. That's Christianity. There's if it's, if your Christianity is something other than that, it's not Christianity. It's just not Christianity. So what is it that God is asking you to do? Speak it out? Anybody? What is it that God is asking you to do? Serve him. Good. Yeah. Specifically? What does that look like? Anything specifically? 1 (1h 10m 28s): Yeah. All right. Good. How about perfect. Perfect. Who else? There you go. All right. What else? Serving children. Good. Who else? Serving marriages. How long are you going to do that? Until I die? He says, what else? Healing. The sick. Awesome. What else? Preach the gospel. So real quick. David's the one that prayed for my knee. I'm running. I've been running ever since. So it's a win brother. Good for you. Good for God. 1 (1h 11m 8s): What else? Teaching Bible says, is there anything new that you like Lord's put on your heart? Anything new? Okay. All right. All right. Giving, giving more each week to what God is doing in the church. I repeat so that people online can hear and see people at other places. What else? All right. Awesome. Awesome. Just make yourself available for media skills, mediation. 1 (1h 11m 49s): Okay. Now. Okay. Good mediation. Well, thank you very much. What's your name? Donna. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. What else? Anybody else? It's gotta be something burning in you right now that you're afraid to say. You're afraid to say it, that's it? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. A cattle helping people helping to be a catalyst that people might share the gospel downtown. Very good. Something else is burning in your soul that, you know, if you don't say it, you're not going to be obedient to it, helping with the coffee. 1 (1h 12m 32s): So that's wonderful. We need more of that by the way more, more coffee. Elbers anybody else on the platform? Anybody come on, there's gotta be one more like big thing that the Lord has said. One more, one more. Who is it? Great. Good, wonderful, good stuff, Laura. Thank you for what you're speaking to us. We want to say by faith, we're going to do that for eating those things that lie behind straining forward. The things that lie I had, Lord God. So we just pray Jesus, that you would help us by faith to step into those supernatural plans. 1 (1h 13m 15s): Lord use us mightily. We pray, help us smiley. We pray. Thank you for your grace in Jesus name amen. Hey man, let's worship. 1 (1h 13m 22s): 0 (1h 14m 25s): . 0 (1h 17m 45s): helping you this morning to lead us this week. 0 (1h 22m 10s): Take those steps towards those things are challenging us to be brave, to be bold, to make a difference, to be salt and light in the earth, to extend your love to those around us. We thank you for this time to reset her off hurts on you to be ready to ground it in your word. Spend time in your presence and with one another to each other's burdens and reminding each other the truth. So would you seal these things upon our heart? We love you. Thank you for this time when your precious.

Zubie chief executive officer Gary Tucker talks with senior editor Joe Overby about the pandemic's impact to fleet and rental markets, trends in connectivity and shared mobility, plus much more.

APOLOGIES for the iffy audio... The famous five reconvene, this time with 12 questions from Gary Tucker. Also features the song We Remember Gabi Angella. Post your scores on Twitter @ronnyandramage #jft96

Watford draw a winnable game at Brighton, lose a drawable game at Old Trafford and...beat the European Cup winners while keeping a clean sheet. Gary Tucker joins Jonny Brick in another pod in the 'Let's Not Get Carried Away' series.

Gary Tucker returns to the pod in person to express his joy at adding ten points to the tally since the last R&R. Let's not get carried away, though.. All the best to listeners as the new decade begins!

Paul Tucker and Jonny - plus questions from an absent Gary Tucker - wear brave faces in a sombre pod after two defeats and a sacked manager.

Paul Tucker is away so Gary Tucker tells Jonny Brick his feelings on Watford after two losses and a no-score draw. With Tottenham next, which of the recent three formations will make an appearance for a potential first league win? Get in touch if you share Gary's optimism on Twitter @ronnyandramage.

No need for panic (yet), as Gary Tucker gives his views (in Paul's absence) on the losses to Everton (0-1) and West Ham United (1-3) and the 1-1 draw at Newcastle United. He also took his two boys to Watford 3-0 Coventry City, which gets a brief mention amid talk of defending, depth and Doucoure. Congratulations to Matt on his wedding - we'll see you down the Bunker soon! Follow us on Twitter @ronnyandramage

On July 19 - 20, 2019, Town Hall brought together nearly 100 local actors, journalists, and activists for a 24-hour live reading of Robert Mueller's (redacted) 448-page special council report. Audiences across our region attended by the hundreds, with more than a 1,000 more joining in throughout the livestream. To maximize access to this collective civic endeavor, Town Hall is releasing the recordings as a special In The Moment miniseries: Town Hall Seattle Reads The Mueller Report. In this episode, Emily Batlan and Gary Tucker read pages 155-166 of Volume 1.

On July 19 - 20, 2019, Town Hall brought together nearly 100 local actors, journalists, and activists for a 24-hour live reading of Robert Mueller's (redacted) 448-page special council report. Audiences across our region attended by the hundreds, with more than a 1,000 more joining in throughout the livestream. To maximize access to this collective civic endeavor, Town Hall is releasing the recordings as a special In The Moment miniseries: Town Hall Seattle Reads The Mueller Report. In this episode, Emily Batlan and Gary Tucker read pages 155-166 of Volume 1.

One of Watford's greatest ever victories is discussed by Paul and Gary Tucker, with Jonny Brick also chipping in with a song, Far From Wembley. See you on May 18 for the 138th English FA Cup Final!!

Gary Tucker and Jonny Brick look forward to the Semi-Final of the FA Cup and go over the last two games, which included a fine home win against Fulham. Look out for a song before Sunday April 7: "Tell me something, Troy..."

With Paul off on his bike somewhere between the Right and Left Parc, it is left to Gary Tucker to celebrate three points against Leicester. The word 'integrity' is not mentioned in this pod.

Three more points, this time against our vanquishers from 1984, are discussed on this third birthday pod. Thanks again to all who take the time to listen to the witterings of Paul and Gary Tucker, pulled together by Jonny Brick.

With Paul in (not so) sunny Italy, Gary Tucker takes the reins as Jonny Brick nods and prods points out of him about the FA Cup fourth round win in Toon.

With recording device in hand, Paul and Gary Tucker fly in tandem, remarking on a draw snatched from the jaws of victory. There's plenty on the defence and what Watford ought to do better against Cardiff City this weekend.

With Paul Tucker absent, Jonny Brick waggles the dictaphone in front of Gary Tucker who talks club badges, errant full-backs and The Bunker (hellooo...). A home defeat to one of the two teams who could win the league is no disaster, but trouble will loom if Watford cannot take advantage at the KP Stadium next time. As ever, @ronnyandramage is the Twitter account.

Another magnificent home win is analysed by Paul and Gary Tucker, with Jonny Brick holding the dictaphone to capture perceptive commentary then edit for your ears. But can you help the Tuckers secure a ticket for the Newcastle game?

Back to winning ways and edging closer to '36 points', Paul Tucker and Jonny Brick recap the victory at Molineux and warn against a potential slip-up against Huddersfield. Gary Tucker sends apologies.

Ronny Goes Rogue in the first in a series from Ronny & Ramage in which Gary Tucker and Jonny Brick provide commentary on some of the pod's most beloved songs, With recollections and digressions, the pair start with the ode to Watford's number nine, captain Troy Deeney.

A business decision based on past conduct (or lack thereof) means another head coach has been replaced. Hear what Paul & Gary Tucker think of the news, with the latter penning a version of Exitlude by the Killers, and reminisce about the last gasp of the Marco Silva era: an away defeat to a team we'd beaten four weeks previously.

Sure to be another much-listened-to pod, Paul Tucker talks the two defeats while Jonny Brick tries to play devil's advocate. He also sings a song, with lyrics by Gary Tucker, about how Watford FC have 'come from Slater to Pereyra', with thanks to Biggie Smalls for the inspiration...

A late winner brings cheer to the pod this week, as Gary Tucker, Jonny Brick and Paul Tucker breathe a sigh of relief. They also see if Paul ‘Robbo’ Robinson, who played for Watford and our next opponents West Brom, is worth the whiskey.

Stay to the end of this podcast, where Paul and Gary Tucker take positives from the home defeat and anticipate the trip to Swansea. Gaz has reworked a song by Plan B to make it Hornetcentric, and Jonny Brick uses his rapping and strumming skills to bring Gaz’s creation to the pod. Gaz also introduces a feature about players who have represented Watford and our next opponents.

Thanks to the now-christened Abs and Chabs, Watford won a solid three points down on the South coast. Gary Tucker was there to see it and report back, while Paul Tucker and Jonny Brick try not to become too carried away, what with Manchester City on the way at the weekend. Gaz brings back an old feature for the end of the pod.

A quick summary of the Brighton game (and briefly the cup defeat to Bristol City) later than planned due to illness, but the main focus of the pod, in advance of the Southampton game, is on the depth of the squad. Includes a poem at the end from Jonny Brick, admirably indulged by Paul and Gary Tucker.

A superb away win, with many positives, is the topic of this week's pod, which anticipates two home games against Bristol City and Brighton & Hove Albion. Gary Tucker shares his new cuisine, and Paul Tucker is effusive with his praise for the midfield. Get in touch on Twitter @ronnyandramage...

A stunning draw to open the league season provides much to discuss for Paul Tucker, Gary Tucker and Jonny Brick. The three welcome new strikers, bring up familiar issues with some players and look forward to the next game, at Bournemouth. Jonny closes with a blues tune. Tweet @RonnyAndRamage to ask questions and get involved!

In one room, sometimes with three opinions, Jonny Brick, Paul Tucker and Gary Tucker share thoughts on Watford FC five days before the season proper begins. Includes a musical ending which you can find separately too... Get in touch @RonnyandRamage with questions or to say hello, and subscribe on iTunes if you want!

Gary Tucker and Jonny Brick talk two meaningless defeats and two more booking for the man we may call Hol15as.

After six points, this was always going to be a loss. Was it bad? Find out if anything redeemed Walter and the Golden Boys Live on TV (hint: not much...). At least we got to see the number ten for a full ninety minutes! Someone Like Capoue returns and Gary Tucker shares his Win-Motivation Matrix with regard to the remainder of the season.

Commentary and analysis from Paul and Gary Tucker on the entertaining, rip-roaring defeat at Selhurst Park, interspersed with news of Watford’s financial success in the Quique season. Jonny Brick is positive Watford are playing Stoke after Sunderland – it’s West Brom – but is on surer footing on his Someone Like Capoue. Play along at home and guess the Pozzo-era player. As always, we have Almen news and bring up Slavisa Jokanovic when discussing our wonderful current manager. This podcast contains swearing, for good reasons, and opinions on the manager, for bad ones.

Gary Tucker, CEO, Zubie, talks about how his company is working to improve the relationship between the dealer and the customer when it comes to keeping track of fleets and potential diagnostic problems. He explains how the transparency of automotive information that is available changes the ability to make decisions and discusses new solutions aimed at monitoring the driving progress of the elderly and teens.

Gary Tucker, CEO, Zubie, talks about how his company is working to improve the relationship between the dealer and the customer when it comes to keeping track of fleets and potential diagnostic problems. He explains how the transparency of automotive information that is available changes the ability to make decisions and discusses new solutions aimed at monitoring the driving progress of the elderly and teens.

Finally the Sir Nigel Gibbs story is revealed in a pod that once again focusses on a game with one shot on target for Watford. How will the Hornets beat Southampton next week? Who are the players like Capoue? What do Paul and Gary Tucker have to say?

Gary Tucker returns to the pod after the birth of Easton ‘M’Baye’ Tucker. Paul Tucker runs through the highs of the 2-1 win, with Richard Brick guesting as an away fan who admired Niang and Deeney from the away end. Gary also introduces Someone Like Capoue, where shortbread is up for grabs for the man who guesses the player from the clues. Congratulations are also due to former Watford gaffer Aidy Boothroyd, who will lead England Under-21s this year and prepare the next crop of future England go-out-on-penalties full internationals.

Paul and Gary Tucker reminisce about twenty seasons ago, back when Watford were not in the top division, did not have England internationals returning on loan, did not have a Greek maestro delivering great corners and did not look forward to an FA Cup game against Millwall. Jonny Brick provides information on the Lions’ woes, and Gary brings back the Hellos for one week only.

We have a winner in What If Hogg was One of Us, the Watford FC-based quiz that stops the pod becoming an analysisathon, but fans of critiques will enjoy points taken from the away game at Stoke and the home game against Burton. Gary Tucker takes the lead on the former, having sat through the magnificent shot on target and a poor lapse at a corner. The latter enjoyed the attendance of all three podders, who delighted in Jerome Sinclair, Brandon Mason and the lesser-spotted Brice Dja Djedje. High-quality drivel of the usual order.

Three goals conceded and none scored, but a great deal to analyse and comment upon. Gary Tucker is less sure than before on the manager’s grasp of formation, while Paul Tucker reserves his frustration for the off-form attackers and set-piece choices at Sunderland, as well as the annoyance of scoring nil. We all wish a speedy recover to Roberto Pereyra, and we hope the festive period is full of chocolate, if not of family and friends.

As Dan Fleming announces he will no longer contribute regularly to R&R (but the door will always be open, with duck pate held by a waiter on a tray beside the door), Paul and Gary Tucker run through formation changes, potential marking changes at set plays, and not learning from mistakes that cost Watford dearly. As always, the next game is on our minds, so we ask who can come in for the suspended folk next week at West Brom. In the regular quiz, some questions for old-in-the-tooth Hornets fans populate What If Hogg was One of Us.

Gary Tucker witnesses four goals at the Rookery End, while Paul Tucker is in Oslo as the lone Hornet in an Arsenal pub. The chaps fill an hour with words for the departing Matej Vydra, WFC facts that you should Know By Now and praise for the new guys.

With two men abroad, it falls to Gary Tucker to remain hopeful after the Chelsea game, and he raises good points about the goalkeeper and the captain. Gary also has some anagrams up his sleeve, and Jonny celebrates a goalscorer who used to play for Watford and shares his first name.

Discussion about Barcelona-Real Madrid, England-Netherlands, the upcoming game against Everton, the players out on loan from Watford's squad... ...and Arsenal 4-0 Watford. Includes Dan Fleming on a new favourite corporate snack, Paul Tucker on deficiencies in the lineup and Gary Tucker on laziness.

This week Gary Tucker conducts a post-mortem of Watford’s loss at home to Stoke City; Paul Tucker wants to talk Guediora; we all sympathise with Troy Deeney in light of his omission from the England squad for this month’s friendlies; Jonny plugs his Watford Family broadcast featuring Paul and Troy Deeney (https://www.mixcloud.com/blastocast/the-watford-family-featuring-troy-deeney-and-fans-of-watford-football-club/) and Dan Fleming praises Leicester City.

A new podcast, hosted by Jonny Brick, discussing football and all things Watford FC. Download it here or on iTunes. Please leave a 10-word review! Recorded February 21 2016. Thanks to the 400 listeners who heard the first podcast! If you want to say hello it's on twitter @ronnyandramage. Present: Paul Tucker, Gary Tucker, Dan Fleming 1.1 Introduction to Dan 1.2 Watford 1-0 Leeds United 1.3 Etienne Capoue 1.4 The Once-Famous Leeds United 2.1 Watford Goalkeepers 2.2 Player Focus - Heurelho Gomes 3.1 Next Opponents: Bournemouth (h) 3.2 Juan Iturbe 3.3 Next FA Cup opponents 4.1 Season Ticket Renewal Price 4.2 Words from Jon Moonie, From the Rookery End 4.3 Saint Graham Taylor and the final words

Ron Siegel of Anaheim Hills CA Jason Kutasi and Gary Tucker discuss: current events, financial markets, politics, and even poking fun at the rest of the media in a live radio broadcast from Anaheim CA on ESPN and NBC Talk Radio.  Ron, Jason and Gary discuss: Mortgage Payments Are More Affordable Than Ever With Rents at an All-Time High; Two-Thirds of Americans Believe Social Security Is In a Crisis State; 8 Ways To Avoid Overpaying for a Hotel Room; Using Search Engine Optimization to Get Business Leads; the Great Brain Race 5K At Mile Square Park Benefiting Alzheimers Association; How Does Tech Compare to Real Estate: Mortgage Minute; Your Credit Matters; Real Time Real Estate; Word on Wealth; The SLT will Provide a Complementary Real Estate Action Plan (R.E.A.P.) Semi-Annually, and so much more. Ron Siegel, consumer advocate and mortgage lender, discusses anything that affects the roof over your head, your bank account or other items that will benefit you / your family. Reach Ron at                   ·         800.306.1990  ·         Ron@RonSiegelRadio.com ·         www.RonSiegelRadio.com ·         Award Winning www.SiegelLendingTeam.com at VIP Mortgage ·         Twitter: @RonSiegel ·         www.Facebook.com/RonSiegelRadio

Operators need to be mindful of cultural and procedural differences when flying internationally, said Gary Tucker, a pilot for the Ball Corporation who has flown … Continued

In this Podcast we talk about a great new website DealerRater, AAA Battery Serivce and review the all new Jaguar F-Coupe

In this Podcast we talk about a great new website DealerRater, AAA Battery Serivce and review the all new Jaguar F-Coupe