Podcast appearances and mentions of mike sparrow

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In this episode Susan talks to Mike Sparrow, deputy Chairman of Richmondshire Climate Action Partnership about the forthcoming event being held at Tennants in Leyburn to help beat the cost of living crisis. If you are worried about increases in the cost of living - fuel, energy and food, and need to know what help is available, if you're struggling, then this event is for you. Helping Richmondshire Heat, Eat and Meet event is being held at Tennant's in Leyburn on Friday 1st July providing information, advice and practical help in these areas and more. Admission is free and the event runs from 10am to 3pm. If you can't get to it or are listening to this after the event there will be live streaming on the day and presentations will be videoed and uploaded afterwards. More details can be found on the Richmondshire Climate Action Partnership home page at  www.richmondshireclimateaction.org About the Host: Susan is actively involved in promoting Yorkshire businesses with audio production and  on social media, as well as sharing her love of the area where she lives. She moved to the dales over 30 years ago and is passionate about the county she has adopted as her home. Never ceasing to be amazed at the wealth of talent ‘Inside Yorkshire' Susan shares news and views, interviewing some of the inspirational people who reside there. Contact Method for Inside Yorkshire  Susan Baty-Symes www.insideyorkshire.co.uk susan@insideyorkshire.co.uk See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1 (0s): this morning. How good is it to be in the new worship center? Woo. It's good to be in his house this morning. It's good to meditate on his word. It's good to be together to praise his name. Thank you, Jesus. That you are here. 0 (19s): God, we worship the God who Wiz. We worship the God who ever more be. He opened the freezer. He haughty the raging sea Baca holds the big . 0 (1m 29s): We seem to the God who said we seem to to God always. Cause he hung up on that cross and he rose up from that gray good. 0 (2m 20s): Now we now running free. We offer care except by his grace that the house and we won't be quiet. 0 (3m 11s): We shut out joy in the house. We won't be quiet, please. Shout out. 0 (3m 24s): 2 (4m 16s): Hey everybody. Hey, welcome. Wow, everybody's looking beautiful. Looking amazing. We've got like a gap over here. If you're looking for a spot anyway. Great to have you all here today. Turn and give your neighbor a high five. Yeah, both. Both of them. All right. Well we are, we are in the new worship center. I don't know if you realize that when you came in, but here we are. 2 (4m 56s): If you're unfamiliar with this building, we've got restrooms here in the back, right behind me. We've got more restrooms up the stairs, handicapped restrooms downstairs, and then more restrooms up the stairs in the back. We've got water as well. There's water drinking fountains right behind me here and then coffee out the patio right there. So check that out. We've also got some parking available. I don't know if you have found a spot, but check out the, the Klondex parking lot is available. It is paid parking, but we can validate your tickets at the info center. So don't be shy about that. And then all the other spots around the village are also welcomed. 2 (5m 39s): So, so glad you made it here. It's such an exciting day to be here such a long time coming. We've been working on this space for a year and it's just amazing to see it. So we're going to pray also. Oh, sorry. If you've got fifth grade and up kids, they're going to meet up the, in the back here, meet the teacher after a worship and they'll walk them over to, to their classes. So without let's pray and we'll jump back into worship. Jesus, we love you so much. This whole space, this new building. We just want to worship you Jesus, because that's what this is all about. It's all about making room for more people to experience you more people to come into a relationship with you and Jesus. 2 (6m 25s): We just want to do that. We just open ourselves up to you right now and we just pray that you administer that you'd be with us and God just be worshiped in this place today in Jesus name. Amen. 0 (6m 45s): to perhaps we will see I don't know. 0 (12m 16s): big songs of praise to shake. the truth. 0 (12m 58s): Mitch please. 0 (14m 47s): 3 (15m 32s): Yeah, 4 (15m 33s): God, you are faithful. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your faithfulness, Lord God. Thank you for your power Lord. We are so honored to be in your presence today, Lord, we bless you. We thank you for meeting us here that we're two or three are gathered together in your name that you are there in their midst. Lord God that we celebrate you. We're thankful for you. We lift up your name, Jesus, and we celebrate and we worship you today. Lord. So thank you for this first Sunday in this new worship center. God hallelujah. We thank you, Lord. We bless you, Lord God. You've been faithful all through the process and Lord, we know that you will be faithful moving forward. 4 (16m 18s): So we, we bless you, Lord, we thank you for blessing us Lord and we just, God just wants to give you praise and say, thank you, Lord, God, Lord use this place for your kingdom. Work in this community. Lord God that we might be salt and light Lord to more and more people that we might see people saved and delivered, filled with the holy spirit transformed in Jesus name. Lord, give a new life, a new purpose in Jesus' name. So Lord God do something so wonderful and supernatural something beyond our expectations. We pray. We invite you Lord. We say yes, Lord Lord. 4 (16m 59s): We're committed to saying yes to you. Yes. To your plans and yes, to your purposes, we bless you, Lord. We love you. We're all in. We're so grateful that you indeed are all in with us. We love you because you first loved us. So we bless you, Lord. Thank you for this time in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Turn to greet your neighbor. We'll come right back. 4 (19m 18s): Well, I tell ya, I feel like a little kid on the first day of school. I, I didn't quite give myself permission for service to like be too excited because there's just like so many things that are happening all at once. And so as I'm worshiping, I'm like, oh, I feel like it almost feels like the first day that we planted our church and back in 2003 where you're like, is anybody going to show up? Is everything going to go? Well, like what's going to happen? You know? And cause it's been a long, long time. April 9th, 2021 is when I first took a picture of the, for lease sign that was on the outside of this building. And going back 10 years ago, we tried to get this space 10 years ago and the timing was just not right. 4 (19m 60s): And so when I called John Hayashi, who owns the building on April 9th, 2021, I said, Hey, John, we're interested in your space. He said, I'll meet you down there like 15 minutes. And we met down here and on a handshake, it was hours. And we did, you know, the whole, you know, agreements and rental agreements and lease agreements and that sort of thing. But it was just so cool. So roughly like 59 weeks later, here we are. So it's been a lot, a lot of work. And so what I'd like to do is just kind of take you through some slides to show you I'll stand over here and just show you, this is kind of, hopefully I'm not blocking. You're fine. Okay, good. So how's that better? 4 (20m 40s): Okay, good. So this is when the building, before we got it, it was a, a antique store. And before that it was a clothing store called the wardrobe and many of us remember that. And so they had these pole posts were all built out with these, these boxes for, you know, putting shirts and clothes and that sort of thing for merchandising things. And so we got to get rid of all of those things. Let's go to the next slide there. And then we got to get rid of the drop ceiling. So the drop ceiling was a huge project because at first sight it looked like, oh, it's just some panels and some, you know, T-bar but there were like three panels deep of, you know, just the, the, the ceiling tiles. And so we took out truckloads and truckloads there's piles of insulation on top of the, the, the ceiling tiles and the T bar. 4 (21m 23s): And so it was a huge, huge undertaking and a there's de Bedford, the rockstar of the show. I'll talk more about Dave in just a moment, but he was here all the time. And then this picture represents the prayer nights that we had here in this space where we just decided to pray and give this space to the Lord and just really honor him and say, you can see on the back in the back there, there's pictures of people's names that are on that sound booth wall there. So over the course of the year, we just re recorded people's names that we're praying for. We want this person to get saved, this person getting healed, whatever it was. And then throughout the space, we wrote Bible verses on the concrete floor before the floors went in on the framing and all, all around. 4 (22m 8s): So Bible verses and promises of God. So this is kind of what it looks like before as the, as the place is kind of beginning to take shape. And so was just, as you can see, it was just a ton of fun. So keep going there. And so this is the nursery. So in the nursery required quite a bit of work. And so this is the kids' space in the back. So if you haven't seen that yet, go check it out. It's really been transformed. Here's the, the courtyard. And so beginning next week, let's leave that up for a minute beginning next week, we're going to have it like an 80 inch TV out on the courtyard. So if you're drinking coffee, sitting out on the tables, benches out there, you can enjoy it out there. But that, you know, we had to completely renovate this whole space, Stripe stock, a reset, go clean, just everything up. 4 (22m 50s): And so that was a labor of love to say the least next, Hey, there's my son and my wife, they're planting trees. You know, putting those trees out front just to soften the front next, Hey, there's our friend. Jim, Jim helped Aaron with polling on thousands of feet of cable to make all of this work. You know, so Jim was here, he built, built out the tech room in the back with desks and all that sort of stuff. Jim, Jim was here with Stephanie, like every Friday, Saturday for months and months and months volunteering their time to get so much of the infrastructure, the electrical infrastructure, and just donated hundreds and hundreds of hours to get this project done. 4 (23m 33s): Perry too, has been here nonstop and doing all kinds of electrical stuff as well. Just doing whatever we needed him to do. We call them up, Hey Perry, can you show up today? He's like, I can show up and he'd be here. And just taking care of stuff. Noah has been just constantly around here as well, doing all kinds of cleanup and there's been a ton of cleanup that is needed to happen. And so thanks Noah for that next slide there. Yeah. This is the floors going in. So obviously a lot of space here. So a lot of laminate flooring went in and so it's just beginning to take shape the paints in the floors, going down and starting to feel like a, a building, but we're still months away. Like we're still months away from being able to move in. So let's keep going. 4 (24m 13s): Is that the last seven? Okay, good. Good, good. So what I'd like to do, we could have shown you like a thousand pictures, but you kind of get the point, right? You kind of get the point. So what I'd like to do is just honor my name, those people who have donated their time and treasure and talent to get this thing done. And so I'm going to start with where it all begins with our elders. I'd like to honor Jim and Gary and Neil and Ron, because when we propose projects like this, it's a big project. We have to have the buy-in and the agreement with the elders. And I just want to honor our elders today. The guys that serve, they've been serving with me for a long time. 4 (24m 54s): They are men of faith, men of character, men of prayer, and they are so ready to do what God has called us to do. And they just go for it with Gusto because they believe in God's big plan for harvest church and for the gospel that he wants us to communicate. So I want to thank my elders. I want to thank John Hayashi. I texted John yesterday. He owns the building and I said, Hey, John, I've been giving him updates. You know, I said, Hey, John, tomorrow, we're having our first service in the new space. I just want to say, thank you so much for taking a chance on us and with us, his brother Howard is my doctor. One of my doctors and I had been to see Howard recently. 4 (25m 35s): And so I just said, Hey, John, your family that the high ashy claim has been such a blessing to our community. And I just want to say, thank you. And so this big, long taxed, and John's such a man of few words, all he responded was congratulations. So like I'll text him all this stuff and you'll say thanks or great. And, but John's been awesome. I want to thank the Pacific justice Institute. Initially, when we wanted to make this building a church, the city said, no, I don't think we want a church in the village. Downtown core. I said, is that, is that legal? And Patrick said, I think so. I said, I said, I've got a letter from the Pacific justice Institute saying that it's actually not legal to keep us out of the village downtown core. 4 (26m 18s): He said, really? He said, send it over to me and I'll run it by our city attorney and just see what he says well, within a day or so he emails me back and says, Hey, congratulations, let's move forward. We can't keep you out. And we want to bless you as you move forward. So it was like, the Lord just changed their hearts as I mean, because we never wanted to be like hard charging. We just want to do what we do with grace and with tenderness and with just faith that God's opening doors and we never want to kick a door down. So I just want to thank the Pacific justice Institute for what they did. And you saw the picture of Dave Bedford. Dave has been a part for 19 years of projects around here. We've been, we started at Lopez high school on the Mesa. We were there for a couple of years and we've been in this space next door for 17 years buying space and renovating space all along. 4 (27m 0s): And so when I talked to Dave about this space, he's like, I'm in, you know, I'm your guy. And so he's been here tirelessly to get the job done. And so I'm so thankful for Dave Bedford, Steven, Julie Schumann from SoCo data and they print, they print up all of our principals, everything that's in print is printed by those guys free of charge. They don't charge us a thing. So God bless Steve and Julie shoe Schuman of slow code data. Aaron looters, who's been a part of every project. I think for the last like 17 years has been just a blessing to us installing all of the, all of the sound, audio, video stuff. He's, he's one that's been behind all of that. Rich brown. One of our plumbers, we've had a few plumbers in here, but rich has done so much of the finished stuff. 4 (27m 44s): And so much of the infrastructure stuff regarding plumbing, my brother, Larry and another guy, Alex, both in charge of painting. So everything has been painted. Those guys did that painting. And so we're blessed to have people like that at our disposal, Sammy, Quavis the dry wall guy. We didn't originally plan to take out all the drywall, but the drywall was in such bad shape that Sammy said, Hey, let's just pull it all off because I could float it all. But it's going to take me twice as much time and let's just tear it off and start over. So that's what he did. And so Pete Kurzy, he did all the stucco repair around the building. See Mondello did all of the heating and air conditioning. It takes so many people to get a project like this across the finish line. 4 (28m 25s): So see, Mondello been a friend of mine since high school. He's done all of our HVAC stuff throughout all of the buildings. And he just did a wonderful job. Doug Wilson did the check valve and the trenching for all the, to get water to the building so that we could power these fire sprinklers. And so Dave's been, or Doug's been busy with that paradise plumbing. Travis white was also involved in the process. We had a bad sewer line here that he discovered because before we got here, he said, I was always here because they always had backup toilets. So we said, let me scope the line to tell you if the line's in good shape. So he scopes the line and the, the sewer line was completely gone. I mean, the, the bottom of it was complete. So all that sewer was running in. 4 (29m 5s): So we had to cut an 80 foot trench replaced the sewer line. And so Travis was all part of that. We had electrical engineers, we had architects, obviously. I'd like to think my friend, pastor Mike Sparrow, because Mike's been a friend of mine for decades, but we were at a crossroads in need of an architect. And Mike just happened to be walking through the community of the, our pro our property recently back going back about a year. And he had an architect with him and I said, we actually need an architect. And, and so we've, we're blessed with that introduction that Wayne's Stewart worked with MW Mike peachy and Wayne Stewart, who own MW architecture gave us a tremendous discounts on the work that was done here. 4 (29m 53s): And our project manager, Derek Carter has been just priceless for us. He's been on the he's. I called, I texted him last time, Derek, we're going to have our first service. He's like I got COVID. I can't go so brave for Derek, but so many, so many amazing people. Chris outlined with the floors of wood herb, with Cal flooring to the carpet, the sign shop guys did all of the sign, the printed signs that are in here, Ronnie and Janet . Janet told me this morning, she said, this is, this is the third building I've been in with you because she was in the beginning with us at Lopez high school, and then over here and now here. So running and Janet did the, the new fence and rod iron stuff out there. 4 (30m 36s): They've been so amazing chase with alpha, the whole team. We have so many electricians to thank because this project required so many electricians just to get it across the finish line. So alpha, they were great. They came in exactly when we needed them to come in to get us across the line. Corey sole Meyer, all the lights. He get consulted us with about all the lights and everything got her in here. So thank you, Corey, Larry and Carrie D I don't have my glasses on LD termites. Anyway, we had some termite issues. I should wear my glasses once in a while, but I just don't like those things. So anyway, the termites we had the windows tinted. Jim Schmidt was our tech assistant, built out the tech desk. 4 (31m 18s): Steve Henry built the wheelchair. He didn't build it, the lift, but he assembled the wheelchair lift. So you look at that thing, it looks pretty straight forward. It's not straightforward. It took weeks to get that thing assembled. And then we have the painter come in and paint, paint it. Cause it was all white. Like the back of it was anyway. Thank you, Stephen. An amazing, just he's an amazing man. So Luke and Aaron with Frank's lock and key, they have been so good. They've been such good friends to us over the years. They take such good care of us with this building and every building that we've ever had. Aaron and Luke have been amazing. I want to say, thanks to Patrick Holub, who is our planner or assistant planner on this project? 4 (31m 59s): He, he just did an amazing job, actually emailed the, the, the mayor, Karen Ray Ross, some says, I just want to say, thank you for your team, Karen. And I go back to high school. We've known each other for a long time. I said, man, your, your team just did a great job, including bill Robinson. And so they did a wonderful job walking us through the process process. I'd like to think our CBO and building inspector, Mark Myers, and his wife, Nancy and their team. They've been so good to us. The inspectors. I mean, they've done their job, but they've been so gracious and kind to us. And so now volunteers, again, Jim Owen, you saw Jim in the picture. Jim volunteered with Craig and Stephanie, his kids, countless hours of electrical work in this place mat lists, but they built the cabinet over the info center. 4 (32m 47s): Lynn Colette, who built the cross at the chapel in our old space. He also built the cross here. And it's just interesting how the Lord brought him by just at the right time. It's actually at the entrance. When you come in now, since then they've moved. I think theirs have moved. Now they're gone. So God brought him just for a moment. So we can have him build the cross Perry Lupin and his friend, Chris, again, tons and tons of electrical work. Cory, Joseph, my brother and his girlfriend AC they did tons. They rescued us at a moment when we needed some expertise with our panel back there, they came in and replaced the panel and just did a amazing workforce. Would not charge us. 4 (33m 27s): Chris Lacey, again, more electrical work. Sean D bull and Noah Clark did tons and tons of cleanups. Seth McMillan did the courtyard design and the install Maggie Sutherland was in charge of the design elements throughout, upstairs and downstairs just did an incredible job. Mark towns in a professional camera operator, worked with us to get cameras set up and ready to go. Jerry Shaw design drawings, Dan Hennessy, graphic design, Mike Ferris. He's been working tirelessly to get these windows cleaned up. And so Mike's a teacher, but he used to have a window cleaning business. Well, we couldn't get anybody to come out and clean windows we call and people wouldn't return the call. 4 (34m 9s): So I said, call Mike Ferris. So Mike came out on his own time and diamond and got our windows cleaned and did a great job. Steve rice, what can I say about Steve rice? He is always here. He's always, always here working behind the scenes. He's in the booth right now, working behind the scenes to make sure everything is working. And so I love that guy. Shannon Kessler with century 21, God has connected with Jack Hardy who gave us permission to use the century 21 parking lot over there. As Curtis mentioned, you can park over there. We'll validate your parking. So when you leave, you don't have to pay. That is a gift to us from century 21. And now the new owner of century 21 has agreed to the terms and is happy to help us. And so God bless those guys. 4 (34m 50s): Thank you, Shannon Kessler, for all of your hard work, making that happen. Anderson Burton, the construction company behind us, same deal. They gave us a parking agreement and they've been so, so gracious with us. And we're so thankful. Workday volunteers we've had many work days. There's too many volunteers dimension. I would miss people. And so I'll just say thank you to everyone who came out on workdays to get this place squared away and cleaned up and ready to go. Thank you to the people who prayed. We showed pictures of prayer meetings that happened in here. People prayed and people believed God for what he might want to do in this space. And it was the prayers of God's people and the grace of God that got us across the finish line so that we could sit here today and have shirts. 4 (35m 33s): So thanks to you prayed to those who gave financial gifts to make this happen. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Also, I don't want to forget my staff. We we've got such an amazing staff team. When I say staff, I mean paid staff, people who work here pretty much, all these people work full time. They are all like my elders, like the elders. I say mine because I just feel such ownership around them. But like the elders, th these guys and gals are so filled with faith and excitement about what God wants to do. They're willing to jump in and go. The extra mile to moderate was here until like 10 o'clock last night, just putting the finishing touches on everything. Working seven, eight hours on Saturday, the day is his day off. 4 (36m 14s): And so it's just to speak. Generally, the team has been working so hard. What's going on? You guys. So Tim, Tim mater, Curtis Henry, Jeremy Sutherland, Amanda Henry Jolene, Henry Carson, Lacey, Julie spill, or Leslie and Ron. So thank you guys for being the team that you are doing this 19 years. I'm so blessed to have the team that I have staff and elders and volunteers. You guys, we did this together. My God's grace. 4 (36m 54s): Amen. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. All right. Let's get into James chapter one, but before we do, let's go and stand up. I just feel like it's time to pray again, Lord. It's good to pray. That's really good to pray. So we, we praise you Lord God. And we say, thank you, Lord. Thank you for every person. And for those that we may have missed, ah, we're so thankful. And Lord forgive me for missing somebody. If we did Lord, Lord, thank you for who you've brought together and how you've knit us together for common purpose and common goals. Lord God. And I pray that you would continue to do that. You would knit our hearts together, that you would keep us unified and strong in Jesus name, powerfully declaring and proclaiming the gospel that people might be saved and sanctified and filled with the holy spirit and live new lives in you being born again and set free in Jesus name. 4 (37m 46s): So do what you want to do through us and with us, Lord God, we are yours and we are in your hands and we are your conduit. So work through us and administer through us. We pray, Lord, thank you for your grace. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Go ahead and have a seat. We're going to be James chapter one verses one through 18. I'm pretty amped up there. So I'll start a slow down here. Hey, the title of the message. Faith that is tested is faith that endures. And so we're gonna be talking about testing the testing of our faith today. And I love that James, the half-brother of the Lord, Jesus Christ writes this epistle because he communicates something of power and something of clarity to a people who need power and clarity in their season of life. 4 (38m 34s): So James, the half-brother same mother, different father, Jesus had half siblings, same mom, obviously different father. So James writes this text for us as a believer in the Lord, Jesus Christ. We're going to unpack his story a little bit. As we talk about this person, James, who God used to pen these words in the book of James, it's encouraging for us to know his backstory a little bit because, and knowing his backstory, we realized that God worked wonderfully and supernaturally in his life to give him a kingdom gospel story. 4 (39m 14s): He took what was broken in James' life. What was faithless in James' life. And he did something wonderful and supernatural to bring about eternal kingdom fruit that no one could ever have expected. James one, one through 18 verse one. The first part of verse one says this letter is from James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. So James, the half-brother of Jesus could have said, James, the half-brother of Jesus James, it's the half brother of Jesus speaking, but he says, no, I'm going to do loss. We're talking about do loss. Last week, I do loss as a servant, a slave, a bond servant of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 4 (39m 57s): And I love a friend of mine pointed out earlier, or last week she said, she said, what's beauty beautiful about that term do loss. And that term servant or slave is that these people who are the bond servants that do loss of Lord Jesus Christ or serving at a free choice. So the backstory is that if a slave was released from his duties, but wanted to stay serving in the household of his master, he would be, he would get his ear pierced and you'd have a ring put in his ear. And it indicated that he was a bond servant by choice because his master was so, so good. And that's really our story, right? 4 (40m 37s): We, we are choosing by God's grace because our master is so, so good. We are choosing to be bond servants, slaves of the most high God. And so this is James. He is a bond servant, a slave of God, choosing to serve the Lord Jesus Christ because his master is so good. It's a half-brother they had the same mother, but different fathers. This is the same James that Jesus intentionally revealed himself to after his resurrection. So Jesus resurrects. And he goes after and finds his brother James to reveal himself so that he might know so that James might know that what has been said about his brother is true. 4 (41m 22s): Paul writes about it in first Corinthians 15 seven. It says then he, Jesus was seen by James and later by all the apostles. So after his resurrection, he was seen by and later by all of the apostles, many believe that it was in this moment, let James gave his life to the Lord and believed that Jesus indeed was the Messiah. Imagine growing up and your older brothers, you're being told that your older brother is the Messiah, right? Oh yeah. Your older brother, he's the Messiah. You're like not in this life. Like never, I can't believe it. I've watched this guy grow up, you know? And, and so James is having a hard time coming to grips with the reality as brothers, indeed the Messiah, until, until the resurrection, he watches his brother, be crucified and then buried and then resurrected from the dead. 4 (42m 13s): So many believe that it's at this moment that James became a believer until this resurrection, Jesus brothers did not believe he was the Messiah. I love that. Jesus seeks out his brother because I feel like he seeks everyone out individually. He goes after us, out of his great love for us in a great commitment to us. He seeks us out, revealing himself in wonderful and powerful ways so that we might believe he did the same thing then, and he's doing it now. He seeks us out by his grace and because of his abundant love is unconditional love. He seeks us out in our brokenness so that we might know his grace, his kindness, his love and his compassion. 4 (42m 56s): So again, even Jesus' brothers struggled with believing in John seven five in the new living translation. It says even Jesus brothers did not believe in him. And in mark chapter three, Jesus families didn't know Jesus family didn't know what to think about him in mark three 12, the second part there says he's out of his mind. They said, he's out of his mind. Maybe somebody has said that about you. And, and you're going to identify right now. So Jesus' family didn't believe him for the most part. They thought he was just a bit off and a little bit out of his mind. So James, the half-brother of Jesus, one who maybe like a lot of us struggled to believe that Jesus is who he claims to be one who after experiencing the resurrected Christ he chose to believe. 4 (43m 51s): And we all have that opportunity before us, will we choose to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the savior of the world, will we choose by God's grace to be followers and disciples of the Lord? Jesus Christ, James one who after experiencing the resurrected Christ chose to believe he James chose to believe what, what I believe the holy spirit of God was trying to convince him of all along. Maybe you're on a journey of your life, where you feel like God's been trying to get your attention. Like the spirit of God has been trying to reveal the power of God and the grace of God to you. But you've been struggling to believe it into receive. 4 (44m 32s): It's the holy Spirit's always working in our hearts and lives to draw us to the savior and to draw us into a deeper respect and admiration and adoration of the Lord that we might know him and follow him. So I'm convinced that the holy spirit of God was working in James to bring him to a place of brokenness and repentance, acknowledging that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. James became a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, James, along with the rest of his brothers, the brothers of Jesus were with the apostles at Pentecost, according to acts chapter one. 4 (45m 12s): So they're present and they believe in are they're beginning to follow Jesus. According to acts chapter 15, James became a major leader in the church and the church of Jerusalem. So we see James who goes from a doubter, this place of doubting unbelief, questioning wondering about this, Jesus is he the Messiah. He goes from this place of doubting into a place of believing into a place of influence into a place of kingdom fruitfulness that is eternal. That's the beauty of what God will do in our lives. If we just say yes to him and submit to him and allow him to work through us and use us, he will do something radically to transform our lives. 4 (45m 60s): Often we, or sometimes we can minimize our effectiveness as Christians because of our past. But if we look throughout the scripture, everyone, that God got ahold of how to pass. And then everyone that God got ahold of had the opportunity to be used powerfully by God and was used powerfully as, as the Lord director. So if you've got a pass today, I've got to pass today. Anybody else got a past, thank God for our past, because we can learn from it, but let's never let our past hold us back. But let's say thank you Lord, for our past. Thank you. That you've cleansed me, forgiven me. That you've set me free and you've set me on a brand new path in Jesus name so that I can believe be all in and be a kingdom, a soul-winner for you, Lord Jesus. 4 (46m 43s): So James goes from a doubter to just a great man of prayer. It said that James prayed so much that they called him camel knees, camel knees, because his knees were worn out from prayer because he prayed so much. One of his nicknames was James. The, just according to anybody who knew him, he was the most righteous man who ever lived. He was a man of integrity, a man of intense discipline. He loved Jesus, loved the gospel, loved what God had done in his life and was all in camel knees. James, the just again, as far as people were concerned, no one was as righteous as James. 4 (47m 29s): And so we see his backstory and I love that these men and women of God have a backstory because as we sit here today, again, we all have a backstory, but God is able to, in spite of our backstory and because of our backstory use us and work through us wonderfully and supernaturally. So James, according to historians was martyred in the year 80, 62, he was taken to the temple Mount the top of the temple Mount at the pinnacle of the temple Mount. There are the pinnacle of the temple, which is about a three-story building. And the Pharisees were so angry with his message and his conviction and his commitment to Jesus that they said, we will throw you off this. 4 (48m 11s): Three-story building. If you don't recant your faith, if you do not deny Jesus, we will throw you off from the pinnacle of the temple. This is the same place. By the way that the devil took Jesus to tempt him, took him to the same place. And so it's the same place that James has an opportunity to stand firm and Jesus come life or death. He was going to stand firm. So they throw off, they throw them off, but it didn't kill him. Listen, God's not gonna allow you to expire until he's done with you. So he gets down, it gets up, he's begins to begin to intercede and pray for his is the people that had thrown him off. 4 (48m 53s): Those people who were persecuting him, begins to pray. And they're so distraught. They go down there and they finished them off by stoning him to death. But all the while James is faithful, he is faithful. He was at first one tells us a slave of God and of the Lord, Jesus Christ. What else does James? One, one tell us, it says, I'm writing to the 12 tribes, Jewish believers, scattered abroad, greetings. He's writing to the church. It's not just to Jewish believers, but he's writing to Gentile believers as well. 4 (49m 37s): He is speaking to the family of God, but just because you're born Jewish, doesn't actually make you Jewish spiritually. We'll see that in the scripture, you can be born a Gentile, but then be grafted into the family of God because of his grace and because of his mercy. And so if you're a Gentile, a believing Gentile today, meaning you're not a Jew, but you believe in the finished work of the Lord, Jesus Christ, that Jesus is your savior. You have been both adopted into the family of God and then grafted into the family of God. Let's take a look at some verses here in Romans 11, 17. It says this, but some of these branches from Abraham's tree, some of the people of Israel had been broken off. 4 (50m 17s): Why? Because they're N believing they've been broken off. And you Gentiles who were the branches from a wild olive tree had been grafted in. So now you also receive the blessing. God has promised Abraham and his children sharing in the rich nourishment from the root of God's special, all of tree. Isn't that neat? So at one point we are outside of the family of God. When we chose to believe and receive the grace and mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ, he's adopted a sin and he's crafted a sin. I don't know if you've ever tried to graph two fruit trees together where you're trying to get multiple fruits off the same tree. You can successfully cut off one branch in and grafted into the next one. 4 (51m 1s): So you begin to grow fruit, a different of a different kind in that tree. This is essentially what God has done. He's grafted us into his family tree, Romans 2 28 and 29 says this for you are not a true Jew, just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the ceremony of circumcision. No, a true Jew is one whose heart is right with God. So this is, this is what God is examining in our lives. He's examining our hearts. You say, well, my parents are Christians. And so I'm a Christian or my grandparents are Christian. So I'm a Christian it's in my heritage. So of course I'm a Christian. 4 (51m 42s): I was talking to one of my doctors recently. It's an, a guy that I just met. And at the end of the consultation, I just felt compelled. I said, Hey, do you know Jesus? Are you, are you a believer? And he laughs. He's like, of course I know Jesus. He's laughing at me, you know? And he said, well, that's kind of a convoluted story. I've got a, you know, Catholic background and blah, blah, blah. So there was more, there's more to this story. And I said, ha, I dunno why I just felt compelled to ask you that question. He said, that's your job. He knew I was a pastor apparently. And he's like, I get to ask you if you're a smoker, you get to ask me if you know, Jesus, I'm like, Hey, good. I've got permission now. 4 (52m 22s): I'm moving forward with that. So anyway, so we have to decide on our own. It doesn't matter what our background is. If we haven't made a personal decision for Jesus, then we're not in his family. And so you and me, our kids and our grandkids in our nieces and our nephews need to know Jesus. And so take the opportunity. It's apparently your job, right? You're a Christian. So you're supposed to be telling people about Jesus and then leading people into a place of salvation. No, true jewelers, 29 says is one whose heart is right with God. And true circumcision is not merely obeying the letter of the law. 4 (53m 4s): Rather. It's a change of heart produced by the spirit and a person with a change chart, seeks praise or receives praise from God and not from people. So there's a heart transformation that God wants to accomplish in our lives. And I've seen firsthand and too many people, heart transformations for God just works powerfully and wonderfully and supernaturally. So when people are yielded, when people are yielded, God just works in and through their lives. In spite of their past, in spite of their mistakes, God is faithful. All right, let's continue James one, verse two. Do your brothers and sisters, when trouble of any kind comes your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. 4 (53m 48s): Is that your first response when trouble comes? Woo. Thank you, Lord. Right? That's the first thing that's just naturally flows out of our mouth. It's not actually what naturally flows out of our mouth, right? And Romans five, three, Paul says we can rejoice too. When we run into problems and trials, why for, we know that they help us develop in Durance faith. That is trusted is faith. That endures number one, in your notes, your faith must be tested if your faith is to endure. So the testing of your faith is actually part of the process that builds within us. The endurance that we need to face life, to face the next test to build us up. 4 (54m 31s): And our most holy faith. I like saying it's like building rebar into the foundation of our faith, that tests that we endure and go through, build us up, cause us to be strong in Jesus. So we might endure what God has asked us to endure on Wednesday morning, this past week, my son Curtis, and my son-in-law Logan, we all went on this backpacking trip, the three of us, and it's about seven miles in and we've been on this backpacking trip before. So we knew we could do it, but it was so hot that day. We'd never hiked that trail when it's been like the mid eighties. And so, you know, it's super hot, dry wind. And so you're just, you're just winded the whole time, first mile. 4 (55m 11s): We're like, oh, that was easy. You know? And then you get into the second mile where you're really beginning to climb and you're feeling the heat. And man, it was a test of endurance. Would we really make it like many of us have been through spiritual tests before and we know we can make it, but it seems like with every test with every new test, there's just a slightly different elements like that throws a curve ball into the scenario. Like I've been through this before kind of, but not exactly like this. So it causes us to dig deeper by God's grace to find the strength and the wisdom and the energy to do and to succeed in this test to get passed the test. 4 (55m 52s): So anyway, we, we were really, really struggling. I, I was, you know, I'm the old guy out there, so I'm struggling more than anybody. And, but I knew that I wasn't going to be the guy to throw in the towel because it was like, you know, there's like six or seven campsites before we get to the narrows where we were headed seven miles in. So we get to stop at a mile or two or three or four, but there was no way that we were stopping. And I think that's the beauty of the fellowship of the church. We spur each other on like, I'm not quitting because I know others are counting on me. Please don't quit because there's people around you who are counting on you. Don't be the person who throws in the towel because God will give you the grace to accomplish what you need to accomplish, to get through to the place that you need to get through to. 4 (56m 40s): So we're on this trail and seriously, we're sucking down so much water. We got to stop like every five minutes just to take a breath and get our legs back under us. Cause it's just a climb all the way. It's a climb. It's actually uphill both ways. It's kind of a weird deal, but it's not really, it makes the story better anyway. So it's not, it's not, but on the way to the trail and on the way to the, into the campsite, it's so, so much work. And so we just had to decide that we weren't going to give up there. You know, there's so many parallels in life in, you know, the work that we do, the hobbies that we have, the relationships that we have, there are so many parallels that can help us to understand spiritual truth. 4 (57m 24s): If we'll just listen and pay attention. And so there's, so somebody parallels, you know, you're hiking, you got 35 pounds on your back and you, you know, you can hike so much easier without 35 pounds on your way. There's so many things, the backpack and represent sand or you know, different things. We just need to be aware that in the test, whatever it is in life, God is building something of endurance in our lives. So that the next test we'll have endurance for this, for that, for the next test. So our faith wasn't tested in this scenario, but our stamina certainly was, everybody gets tested in many ways, but people who put their faith in Jesus will certainly certainly experience victory. 4 (58m 9s): So my challenge to us, when we're facing tests, let's get our eyes on Jesus. Often we're focused on the task, the test, the difficulty. But if we'll just shift and say, God, I know that you're going to get me through this by your grace. I'm going to develop something even Durance endurance that I've never had before in preparation for the next test or for the next thing that you asked me to do. So Lord build within me, whatever is needed so that I might have endurance James. One, three tells us for you know, that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow back to James. 4 (58m 49s): She had his faith tested when he was told to recant or die. His faith was a life and death decision for him. I am convinced that along the way, in preparation for that faith test, there were many faith tests that built his endurance so that when it was a life and death scenario, he could say by God's grace and in his strength, I'm going to stand for him. And I will never recant my faith in Jesus Christ. So there was something, a preparation. We don't know what the future holds, but we know that there's preparation in our lives, building endurance in our lives so that we might stand firm until death in Jesus name, verse four, James one. 4 (59m 36s): So let it grow. Endorse. Let it grow for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete needing nothing. Isn't that the goal perfect, complete needing nothing. Jesus told us that is the goal. Matthew 5 48, but you are to be perfect. Jesus said, even as your father in heaven is perfect. So this is what God is trying to develop within our lives. Perfection. That word means mature. It means to be finished. It means to be complete. God is working in our lives so that we might experience perfection in Christ, as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ, that we might be mature and finished and complete. 4 (1h 0m 16s): We'll never be perfect in our own works or own righteousness. That's why Jesus went to the cross, but there is a standard. And I think it's important for us to understand that there is a standard in Jesus. Sometimes we get a little loose with the grace of God and the unconditional love of God. And we kind of get loose with our living, but this is the standard James tells us, and Jesus tells us, but you are to be perfect. Even as your father in heaven is perfect. Perfect, mature, finished, complete in Jesus name. So verse four describes the results of the testing, that, that we would be perfect and complete needing nothing. So this is the result of what will happen when we allow endurance to grow in our lives. 4 (1h 0m 60s): And we decide to stand firm and decide to follow Jesus. First five gives us the steps to get through the testing so that we may become perfect and complete needing nothing. So verse five helps us to understand how do we accomplish this faith that is tested is faith. That endures, number one, your faith must be tested. If your faith is to endure and number two, your faith will be tested, but God will give you what you need. And we're encouraged in verse five, James one, if you need wisdom, if you need it and you will need it, I need it. We all need it every day with every test, with every circumstance and scenario, we need the wisdom of God. 4 (1h 1m 40s): So James tells us, I'm sure out of the function of the anointing of the holy spirit, but also just out of his own experience. If you need wisdom, ask our generous, God, I love that. He throws that in there that God is generous. Sometimes we see God as heavy handed and angry or whatever James is saying, ask your generous God, and he will give it to you. And he will not rebuke you for asking. He won't say, you'll keep asking for wisdom. Can't you just get it through your head. He's not going to say that. He's like, oh, you need wisdom. Let me help you with that. Right? He's just going to bless us with what is needed. He's a good, good father. But when you ask him, so you're asking for wisdom there's criteria here. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. 4 (1h 2m 23s): God is your plan. A and there is no plan B like Lord, I'm fully needing your wisdom and I'm not looking to the wisdom of the world or to the wisdom of my friends. I'm looking to the wisdom of your word through your spirit, that you would speak to me, guide lead and direct me. And that is my plan. And so Lord, if you don't speak, I'm not moving. I don't have a plan B. So you gotta just speak. We need to be completely devoted to him. And when you ask, be sure that your faith is in God alone, do not waiver for a person with divided. Loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. So maybe you're feeling unsettled today. 4 (1h 3m 5s): It may be because you're divided in your loyalty. And so we always need to be checking in with ourselves and my fully committed to you, Jesus. Or am I committed to you in this area, but not to you in this other area. I'm counting on your wisdom for this, but I got it figured out over here. Listen, we come to Christ by faith because we need his wisdom. But way before that we need salvation. We need just grace. We need his kindness because we have botched our lives apart from him. And when we come to faith in him, come to him by faith, he, he rebuilds restores, heals, sanctifies, delivers, fills he's about doing wonderful and supernatural things in our lives. 4 (1h 3m 53s): But we have to be careful for a person with divided loyalty. It's like that person who was just lukewarm, like I not quite all in kind of in, I'm not quite sure, lukewarm unsettled, divided, divided loyalties. That person is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. You know what happens when you're fully committed to Christ? You know what happens? Peace. You're settled in Jesus because you know that Jesus is the Lord of your life. And you're committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. No matter what test or temptation comes, you're settled. 4 (1h 4m 36s): And if there's a stumbling in the journey, you're quick to say, Lord, that's not my life. I do not want to do that. I'm repenting. And I'm getting right in alignment with you. There's just something of confidence. A holy spirit given breeds confidence, not arrogance because God opposes the proud, but it is a confidence is I'm a follower of Jesus. And so Jesus is the Lord of my life. In every arena. Every season, I'm going to trust him and follow him and believe him. There's just a peace and a confidence and a reassurance that comes when we make Jesus, the Lord of our lives. So don't waiver and quit wavering for a person with divided. Loyalties is as unsettled as the wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 4 (1h 5m 16s): Such people get this such. People should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Wow. Like he's like, it's challenging us. You really want my wisdom or you just want a quick fix. Do you really want what I have to say already? You just trying to find the easy way. Or do you have a plan B that you're going to be kind of comparing a, well, God judge this, but I've got to think this, or God says this, but you know, so-and-so says this, God says this, the world says this. What is your plan? Plan a God, no plan B no plan C nothing else. God is your priority. Those people should expect to receive whatever they need from the Lord. But people who are double double-minded first aid, their loyalty is divided between God and the world. 4 (1h 6m 3s): And they are unstable in everything. They do. You want stability in your life, stability like shakable stability in your life. Just make Jesus, the Lord of your life. Open up the word every day, allow the spirit of God to fill you the word of God to direct you be obedient. No plan B. My plan a Jesus is you. Everything else is submitted to that. I'm moving forward. You will find such stability in your life, such grace for your life, such peace in your life. Such joy such can temperament such God godliness. I mean, there's just so much joy and wonder that comes out of that. 4 (1h 6m 44s): Undivided loyalty to God. Faith that is tested is faith that endures your faith must be tested. If your faith is to endure, your faith will be tested, but God will give you what you need. Number three is we get ready to wrap up your faith tests will come in many forms, but God is the one who will reward your endurance. So beyond just the reward of peace and confidence in Jesus and, and assurance that God is with me and filling me and leading me and directing me in that. He's my Lord. He's my king. He's my everything. And in spite of it, in addition to all of those blessings, there's rewards coming for those who put their trust in the Lord. 4 (1h 7m 31s): First-time believers who are poor, have something to boast about for God has honored them. And that interesting for believers who are poor, have something to boast about for God has honored them. That's an interesting statement. The word poor is tapped by nos in the Greek. It's, it's a word that describes a person's state describes who the person is in their soul. It's it's also described a low li poor is described or defined as lowly in Matthew's gospel. Jesus uses that same word, tap by Nasir for himself. 4 (1h 8m 13s): He describes himself in this way in Matthew 1129 in the king James version, it says, Jesus said, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for, I am meek and lowly. Tap by nasi. Jesus is describing himself as meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest on to your souls and Matthew 1129 in the new living translation. That same verse says, take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you because I'm a humble and gentle as heart. You will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear and the burden I give you is lights. 4 (1h 8m 53s): So there's a blessing for those who are poor tap by nice type tap ins. There there's a poor in spirit that God blesses because it speaks of dependence on him. Appreciation of him, a love for him. And Jesus has come to me because I'm the same and I will lift your burdens. I will bless you in second Corinthians, seven, six. We see it again, says, nevertheless, God that comfort with those that are cast down comfort. If us by the coming of Titus tap a top. I know. So it uses that word, tap on ice there, comfort to minister, to the people of God. 4 (1h 9m 36s): And so we see that there's a blessing for those who are lowly, who are poor in spirit verse 10 says, and those who are rich should boast that God has humbled them. It's so backwards, right? From our thinking. We think if you're poor in spirit report financially, that that you should be sad. And if you're rich, you should be happy, right? But the gospel turns the world's philosophy on its head. And he says those who are rich boast Shabbos, that God has humbled them. They will fade away like a little flower in the field. So the temporal nature of our riches and our wealth will fade verse 11, says the hot sun rises and the grass Withers, the little flower droops and falls, and its beauty fades away in the same way. 4 (1h 10m 19s): The rich will fade away with all of their achievements. And it's talking about worldly achievements, things that we've used our money to, to, to enrich our lives and to, to bless our lives instead of for the kingdom. So wealth can be a test and a temptation that test, this is the test around wealth. Will I trust God or will I trust my wealth? So that comes back to being double-minded person. Are you a single-minded that your trust is only in God doesn't matter how much wealth, much or little that I have is my trust in God, or as much my trust in my resource, the temptation while I serve God, or will I serve money? The Bible says you can't serve God and money. 4 (1h 11m 2s): So the temptation is what am I going to serve? What is going to be my priority? Am I going to protect my resource at all costs so that I have what I think I need for the future, or is God on throne of my life. And I will do whatever he asked me to do with my resource. You can't serve God and money. So a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways because there's a mix-up in that person's life about who is on the throne of his life. Sometimes God, sometimes money, sometimes relationships, sometimes whatever you fill in the blank, sometimes something else is on the throne of my life. And it's causing me to be unstable in all areas of my life and it's wreaking havoc in my life. And so we need to decide to be single-minded in our focus and our devotion, making Jesus, the Lord and the king of our lives in every arena and scenario with everything in our lives. 4 (1h 11m 54s): God Wes that verse 12, God blesses. Those who patiently endure testing and temptation afterward, they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And remember when you are being tempted, do not say God is tempting me. God has never tempted to do wrong. And he never tempts anyone else. What does that temptation come from? Right? You're right. We're always tempted by something. This is where it comes from. Temptation comes. I love it. When the Bible answers our questions for us temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. So you can't say, well, the devil made me do it because the devil, the world, the flesh and the devil is using the raw material that is in your life to entice you in a drag you away. 4 (1h 12m 39s): So if you've got unresolved sin or unresolved issues or unresolved, whatever in your life, the enemy is going to use that raw material to entice you and drag you away. So we have to be constantly doing business with the Lord, allowing him to examine our hearts and take, and we need to take a personal spiritual inventory. Lord, what is going on? What keeps getting my attention? What keeps tempting me to look away or tempting me to go a different direction. It's coming from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. 4 (1h 13m 20s): That's the process, right? We have to take captive every thought into the obedience of Christ. We have to recognize what's going on, going on in our hearts. And we have to repent. Hold short accounts. God, I'm struggling in this area. I need to bring it out into the light, confess it, get somebody around me who can help me walk with integrity in this area. And then you're not giving the enemy any raw material to work with because these desires, if we are not careful, these desires will give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ. Jesus. Our Lord, I know is his grace and his mercy are sufficient. 4 (1h 14m 1s): So don't be misled. Verse 16 says my dear brothers and sisters, whatever's good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God, our father who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow his. So he's the same yesterday. And today and forever, his ways are the same yesterday, today and forever. We get out of the testing. We get through the testing and we get out of the temptation the same way by surrendering to him not being double-minded but saying, yes, Lord, I want purity. I want integrity. I want honesty in my life. As a follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, verse 18. He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. 4 (1h 14m 41s): And we out of all, creation became his prized possession, good stuff. Worship team come forward here, wrapping up faith that is tested his faith that endures your faith must be tested if your faith is to endure. So go through it. Allow God to strengthen you with endurance. Number two, your faith will be tested, but God will give you what you need. So just call it to the Lord. Number three, your faith test will come in many forms, but God is the one who will reward your endurance. And so with that, let's go and stand up and we're going to pray and we're going to worship some warm. So Lord, we stand up. We pray. And we thank you, Lord, for the message of truth. 4 (1h 15m 23s): Spoken to us out of James chapter one, we're grateful for what you will do as we unpack the rest of these five chapters, Lord, we, we, we commit to say yes and amen to whatever it is that you guide and direct us. And Lord do say yes and amen to your plans and purposes yet to say yes and amen to your Lordship and leadership in our lives. We want to be stable. Knots tossed to and fro but stable in Jesus name. So we trust you, Lord. We love you, Lord. Thank you for giving us insight into how to endure testing and temptation. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. 4 (1h 16m 2s): Amen. 0 (1h 16m 11s): his song is . 0 (1h 18m 3s): Yeah. 1 (1h 18m 30s): First. We're going to go out with a song of praise. If you feel comfortable, would you clap along? 0 (1h 18m 48s): Y . 1 (1h 21m 54s): Thank you, Jesus, for your presence. Thank you that we get to sing to you. We only want to sing. Thank you for this new worship center. Getting to be in your house this morning in your name, we pray. Amen.

1 (15s): one with your hidden . 1 (4m 36s): Now what a beautiful name. It is. What a beautiful name. beautiful name. 1 (5m 7s): . 1 (11m 38s): We can hear them. 2 (13m 6s): You. Jesus. Thank you Jesus. For your presence. God, we thank you for your power. We love you Jesus, in your precious. 3 (13m 21s): All right, you can go ahead and be seated. No better place to be than the presence of God and God's people. So I mentioned earlier that pastor Steve is down in Santa Barbara, helping out with Don Gaynor's Memorial service. And so we do have a guest speaker this morning, Mike and Jan Sparrow. They've been friends of ours since the mid eighties. I think so our kids and Steve and Jolene's kids and Mike and Jan's kids, they all kind of all went to school together at coastal Christian school. So we've known them for many, many years. 3 (14m 2s): And also Mike has served as pastor of a GABA church in San Louis for many decades. He'll tell you all about that, but Mike is going to be sharing God's word with us this morning. And so Perry, you want to go ahead and bring the podium up front. And so let's give a warm welcome to pastor Mike Sparrow. 4 (14m 23s): And there we go. Test. I am. I got your stuff. I'm using it for a second. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Good to be with you. Good to see you all see some familiar faces. And I was here, I don't know, several months ago and Steve actually invited me back. So Hey, something must have went, right? Maybe. I don't know, but it's good to be with you. I also have a twin and a, not quite like this and his name is pat Sparrow and because it was Halloween, I was tempted to open today with a slide of pat and I. This was a long time ago, 45 years ago. Actually it was the Halloween before we received Christ. Pat was dressed like a nun and I was dressed like a devil. 4 (15m 4s): Then we were dancing. And, and if you saw that picture, you'd say those two guys need to get saved and I'm, and I'm sure glad we did. It was, it was the Lord totally working on us in us. And so here we are, I, I got some things in my heart, Steve, when he asked me to speak, it was several months ago, he started setting up this date and he said, Hey, would you want to speak on that day? And I asked him, what do you want me to speak about? And he says, I don't know, whatever's on your heart. And so there's been lots of things on my heart because the season the church is in and what's going on with the big church, the big C church. And I am a regional director for our association. So I get to travel something as COVID opens up, talking to pastors all the time, I'm also helping to coordinate the pastors fellowship in San Louis. 4 (15m 52s): So I keep a tab on what's going on in churches and in the body of Christ at large. And so there's been a few things that just been stirring in me that I'm hoping to share today and that you'll you'll catch it, that you'll, you'll see it. And you'll begin to pray into it and the impact you and it'll impact your church here. Likewise, last time I was here, I talked a little about family care network. I'm a liaison for them helping to recruit foster kids where we can be. When I speak, I tell them I'll put a plug in for family care network where I can, and then I need right now because of COVID, there's a big need for re rescue homes or the emergency shelter homes. 4 (16m 37s): Sometimes the middle of the night for various reasons, the police are called the authorities come and that children need to be removed from their home sometimes at short term and as they get family or others, or the situation gets revolt, resolve to put the child back in the home. And so there's a great need for that. We had a 16 year old gal Spanish-speaking only a few weeks ago. Crises came into her house, a single mom, single parent situation. And for cause there was no homes for three days. She stayed in the offices with social workers. And that, that shouldn't be, there's a strong community here. We love families. We want to see families prosper. 4 (17m 17s): Amen. We want to see families be healthy. And most of them are children in our community. And they've had about 60 of them had to go out of the community recently because partially because of COVID parents have kids coming back from college, they're not staying on campus. They moved back in the house. Also. Sometimes there's a concern in the house for people coming and going. There's there's many reasons, but if you have a heart for that, or just want more information about that, we'll be at a table outside and just can fill you in. I know it's a calling. I can't persuade you to do that. And it's nothing that you can, you know, it, it's gotta be something that God puts in here. And every time I've presented it, there's been people that have come up to, God's been dealing with me about that for a long time. 4 (18m 2s): So if that might be you come see us at the table out there is that okay? Well, it's exciting to see, you know, hanging out with Steve, your new plans for the worship center, seeing that things are moving here and, and growing and getting back on track. And we find that in different places that even at our church at God bay, I'm no longer lead pastor, but I'm there probably half time. And I'm still speak once in a while. They're involved in ministry that this, this season we've been in is coming to a close in Jesus name. Amen. And, and yet you see people's hearts. You see some were saying where's so-and-so or where's this family, or where's this group of people. And, and we're, we're asking those questions and then talking to some people, I just seen their, their hearts disengage. 4 (18m 48s): They've just pulled back sometimes offense sometimes because this season we're in how many know it's a time of offense, things over politics, things, things around COVID mass, no mass, all the stuff that's been in the culture the last 18 months, two years has, has brought some division and divided the church. So people's hearts, I've met some, their hearts have grown called you probably never have right pastor. No. Okay. No comment. I'll take that as a yes. And so this is, so he asked me, what do I want to share on? And we, our last song was about it. That God, you would bring a revival that you would bring a renewing that you bring a refreshing. 4 (19m 30s): And I usually PowerPoint things. And so I'm usually a four or five point guy. I I've tried to do that. This is an exhortation. So just trusting, it's going to go into place that encourages and go in a place that gives you some insight. Is that okay if you have your Bible Psalm 85, it's a great one. It's from the sons of Cora and the sons of Korah were Levi's rights. And part of their job was to serve in the temple. And this is their prayer. They saw people coming and going every week to temple to they saw the spiritual atmosphere sphere around their temple campus. And here's what they prayed. Will you not revive us again? That your people may rejoice in? You show us your mercy Lord and grant us your salvation. 4 (20m 14s): I will, I will hear what God the Lord will speak for. He will speak peace to his people and to his saints. He said, revive us again. Oh God. And that's been our prayer. And I'm in a couple of prayer groups and we're praying weekly two times. And we have an all night prayer meeting coming up Thursday. We're praying God revive your church. God help us to be the people that you dreamed of in the season that you wanted a church without spot or wrinkle. You want a church United Jesus. You prayed in John 17. That we'd be one. And it seems like the gates of hell. They're the ones that are winning, but that's not the truth God's at work. Do you believe that? And so how many have ever been in a real revival? Like not just a good meeting, but in an extended time where God moved in a community or area or a country, any bin, but part of that, yeah, I I've had the privilege of being in a few of those places where when we pray for revival, it was more than just a good feeling. 4 (21m 11s): It was more than just an emotional stirring. There was a shift in the atmosphere. There was a shift in the community. There is a shift in the thinking of the people and how families related to each other. The biggest shift was hearts towards God. People's hearts turning back towards God. I I've been in the community will at one place in Kenya where we were working. It's almost on the village of Uganda. We started a partnership there in 96 and pastor shad, reco lo he came to Cal poly. We met through that relationship and we started working with him and there was a part of Kenya that nobody had been there for evangelism for a long time. There was any Piscal church there that was planted way back in the sixties. 4 (21m 53s): And so we rented a tent from the Methodists and we went to this community. But when we went in, they said, you're going to need armed guards. There's lot of robbery, there's thugs that are tormenting people. The atmosphere was just heavy. The people were oppressed and we went up, put up 10 up and we went for like eight or nine days. And in those eight or nine days, we saw God just move supernaturally. The village demoniac this guy literally was a crazy guy in the village. And I don't know if I touched on that when I was here last time I was speaking about compassion. This, this guy came forward in the tent just crazy. And we prayed for him. And I just, under the authority of the Lord, I pointed at him and said, God wants to change you into a different person. 4 (22m 34s): And he fell down on his knees and we prayed for him and the team got him some clothes and he hung around for a couple of days. And just, just something began to shift because God began to move. We baptized 150 people that week. And there was just this, something in the, in the community that changed the atmosphere that heaviness broke loose. And it was a true move of God. And I went back 16 months later and here comes this pastor and a friend across. And I said, who's that guy? They said, that's, that's David. He's the guy that got delivered. And now he's part of our, our recovery ministry here on the campus. And besides that, there's a teacher ran across the playground there, the, the soccer field. 4 (23m 15s): And she said, you don't know me, but since you guys came in, this church started, this whole community's changed. I went driving at night with the pastor and he said, you know, a year ago, we couldn't go out into these little town area. People are afraid. They're frightened. They're locked in. They're out shopping. They're out meeting with one another. Something shifted in the atmosphere. How many believe God can do that? Here? He's no respecter of places. He's no respecter of persons where people's heart are for revival to invite his presence into place where people position themselves and, and call on him. He will come and he will change and he'll move. And he'll, he'll renew marriages and families. I don't know about you. 4 (23m 56s): That's what I'm living for in these days. Amen. And I think that's what you're preparing for down the street, huh? Making room for God to move. If you have your Bibles, go with me and Malakai three 13, I've heard this from people. And at the same time that this time we're in right now, Matthew three 13 or Malakai three 13. Malakai's the last book of the old Testament. And Malakai's prophesying here, prophesying here about some challenges that he's facing amongst the people. And this is new living translation in three 13, he said, he said, God saying through the prophet, you have said terrible things about me. 4 (24m 37s): How would you like God to say that to you? You have said terrible things about me. And he's talking to who grew up in a group of people says the Lord, but you say, what do you mean? What have we said against you? Verse 14. You've said, what's the use of serving God. You ever heard anybody say that? What's the use of serving God, especially in the season we've been in. There's been lots of challenges. I've had pastor friends, deaths in their family. I have a good pastor friend. Now he was fighting cancer in the season. And then he had just retired from a secular job. And now his wife's facing early Alzheimer's and he's been in very, very tough situation. 4 (25m 16s): Used to be the strongest encourager. He would walk up to your, Hey, bless God, brother. How goes the battle? And just an encourage pouring out of him. But this season he asked me not too long ago, Hey Mike, pray for me that my faith wouldn't fail. I'm in the, I'm in the trial in my life. And so when we go through those things, sometimes that thought comes our way. What, what uses it to serve God? And then Malakai's gone. It goes on and said, you said, what's the use of serving God? What have we gained by obeying his commands? Or by trying to show the Lord of heaven that we are sorry for our sins from now on, we call the arrogant, blessed for those who do evil, get rich. And those who dare God to punish them. 4 (25m 58s): They suffer no harm. He's saying there's people that sin, go ahead, God, if you're real, punish me since there's nothing happening to them, life just goes on for them. It's a crisis of faith. And he goes on and 16, then those who fear the Lord spoke with each other and the Lord listened to what they said. And his presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared him and always thought about the honor of his name. So they're saying, there's a group here saying, what good is it to serve God? But God said, wait. There's people that still fear me. There's people that still honor me. And how many know God's a good accountant. God can keep track. God's a good listener. 4 (26m 38s): He knows what's going on. He said, there's a group of people that are still faithful to me. And I'm going to write a book and remembrance about them. I'm going to keep track of who they are, those names because they fear me and they honor my name. And then they will be, my people says the Lord of heaven's armies on the day when I act in judgment, they'll be my own special treasure. I'll spare them as a father, spares an obedient child. And then again, you're going to see the difference between the righteous and the wicked between those who serve God and those who do not now, right now, that might be confusing. It's so mixed up the parties and the agendas and all that. But God said here through Malakai, there's a day coming. You're going to see real clear. 4 (27m 18s): Who, who knows me, who fears me, who honors me and those that don't, I believe we're coming into that season. I believe there is a favor. That's going to come on the church once again to make a distinguishing distinguish between those who have a covenant or walking with God and those who don't give a rip about them. Those that don't care about them even to the farther side there's blast femurs around that are just undermining Christianity, attacking us, trying to intimidate the church. I just asked you, hold on and don't give up right now because there's things coming. There's I believe there's a tide turning John 1633. Jesus says these things. I spoken to you that in may, you may, you may have peace in the world. 4 (27m 58s): You'll have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've what I've come on. I've come on. Overcome the world. That, that word there. Tribulation is the Greek word. Litmus. It means pressure. Squeeze down, sit in the world. There's going to be a squeezing that comes. It's the same word they use to get oil out of olive oil, out of oils or out of all us when they would step and crush them, that that oil would come forward. The same word was used when you're squeezing grapes to get the juice out, flip us. There's pressure coming. But our good friend, Ron Salsbury had a word that I loved and it was perseverance. You remember what that word is? 4 (28m 39s): Anybody that knew him, Hoopa Monet. Remember I saw that. Joe, who, who? Pomona? It's the Greek word. That's just not patient endurance. Not like just, okay. I'm going to buckle down in the storm. And I wait this thing out. No squeezing comes, slip us, squeezes you down, but hupomone it lifts you up. It's a word for patient endurance. It's a word with about staying on course. It's the idea that if the storms coming, some sailors would say, pull down, pull down the sails, wrap it up, set the anchors. We're going to hunker down and wait this thing out. But this word Hoopa Monet means we're going to adjust our sails. We're not going to shut down, but we're going to adjust our sales. 4 (29m 20s): We're going to use this storm for an advantage. It's it's having an expected in it, seeing the finish line. So where we are right now with this thing's coming against the church. I encourage you. Don't give up there. There's a season coming. We're going to see a move of God. I totally believe that I've had promises about that. We hear that in different parts of the world where we're serving that God is at work. Is anybody excited about that? Just a little bit. Amen. How many want that in a waiting for that and position yourself for that and pray into that and believe God for that. Because some of us now are our words, our mouths, our hearts. I hear what we're speaking and help us Lord to be ready for what you want to do. 4 (30m 0s): Scripture says where there's no revelation or prophetic vision that people go unrestrained, but happy and blessed is Hugh who keeps the laws of God without a vision in our heart of what God wants to do with us and in our homes and our families. Without having that vision in us scripture says, we go unrestrained where we're just kind of tossed around. And there's a, another passage of scripture that I've gone through over and over through the years, it helped me just stay on course. And I want to share that with you, especially those that might think what, what purpose or what use is there to serve God. And it's found in second Samuel seven, it's about a thousand BC. David has become king. And after he kills Goliath, he goes through this whole series of things where he's anointed king, but doesn't come in to his rightful reign for a while. 4 (30m 49s): And as he's being positioned to rule all kinds of wars breakout in the Philistines and the surrounding enemies and even battles from within own family members contending for that, that, that place is king and David battles, all those things. Also the tabernacle of God, which is where God would manifest his presence that got captured. The Philistines have it stashed. And finally David gets it back and brings it to Jerusalem. It's rightful place and there's peace now. And he takes a walk up the mountain to this, this tent, and he tells Nathan the priest and prophet, Hey, come with me. I, I just want to hang out in his presence for a little while. 4 (31m 29s): And so in front of this tabernacle, Nathan and David have a conversation. And second Samuel seven one, it says now it came to pass. When the king was dwelling in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies all around the king said to Nathan the prophet, see, now I dwell in a house of Cedar, but this Ark of God, God's tabernacle. It dwells inside 10 curtains. He said, something's wrong with this picture? I've got my temple being built for me, my, my house. And yet I come out here to this tent and that's God's dwelling place. And then Nathan Nathan said to the king, go there, do all that's in your heart for the Lord is with you. 4 (32m 9s): But it happened that night, that the word of the Lord came to Nathan saying, go and tell him my servant, David thus says the Lord, would you build a house for me? And God starts challenging David through Nathan. He says, you know, I, I was in a tabernacle. I moved with the people of Israel through the wilderness for those 40 years, I was with them. And, and as we moved, my presence went with you. And now you want to build me a house. He's asking David in verse eight. He says this now, therefore you say this to my servant, David. I took you from the sheep fold from following the sheet to rule over my people over Israel. And I've been with you wherever I've gone and, and have cut off all your enemies from before you and have made you a great name, like the name of the great men who were on the earth, wherever our point of place for my people, Israel, and when plant them that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more nor show your sons a witness, oppressed them anymore. 4 (33m 6s): As previously, since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people, Israel and have caused you to rest for all your enemies. This is the point I want to make right here. And then God says, also the Lord tells you that he will make you a house years ago. I read that passage in context and I thought, well, this is the deal God wanted to make with David. He told David, if, if you build my house, I'll build your house. And something went off in me over that. And I've seen over the last 40 some years of ministry, God be faithful to that promise because I truly believe he looks for covenant people. And throughout scripture, he cut covenant with men and he cut covenant with families. 4 (33m 48s): And that Kevin is, I'll be your God. And I want you to be my people, but you're going to get involved with family business. You're going to help me carry out my plan and we'll and in. So doing, you're going to see my goodness. You're going to see my blessing. You're going to be a CMI protection. It's never, problem-free, there's always challenges. There's always opposition, but God said, I'm going to be with you and David, as you build my house, I'm going to build your house. And there's something right now that I have in my heart is like, where's the men and women that have a desire to build God's house. Not, not just the church, but a spiritual house. Where's the men and women of God who are, are as concerned about what God's dream is for this place than our dreams and our plans. 4 (34m 32s): When we walked by a school and we know the turmoil, some of the schools in do we ever look at a school and say, God, what's your dream for the school. Once you what's your dream, God, what do you want to see happen in my neighborhood? As I walk my neighborhood, there's, there's divorce, there's abuse in some of our neighborhoods. God, can we dream with you? What's in your heart. And God says, if we concern ourselves with those things, if we help putting our focus on making a difference there, the promise to David is you build my house and all build your house. Now I I'm, I'm going to share just some personal stories about this, but it's not bragging on Mike Sparrow. I'm a very, very ordinary guy serving a very extraordinary God. 4 (35m 14s): I'm serving a very good God. And, and years ago we got married in 1981 and I was already in the bay area. My degree was in geology. I was working in research and development for Sohio petroleum. And we, when we got married, we got involved with this church, hard to the bay. And in that church, there was a bunch of young couples. We probably had a dozen young couples plus or minus five years of age. And the pastors were dynamic and, and the church was exciting. We're meeting a multipurpose room and, and we were just excited to serve it. It became our life. We had services three, three days a week and our friends were there. But as young couple we were looking around and we said, and we were passing out flyers to something going on at the church. 4 (35m 58s): And I remember Jen and I were talking, gosh, it would be fun to have a house. And we don't have much money in the bank. I don't know how this could ever work, but I remember where we stopped and I prayed God, would you bless us some day with the house or show us how to get in one, we probably had 500 bucks in the bank and at Sohio petroleum, I had a bachelor's degree in us. Bachelor degree guys served the PhDs. They hired a new guy from Tulane university. His name was Mike and Mike came to work there and they gave Mike some money for a down payment on a house. He had one year to use it. And at nine months he came to me and said, Hey, Mike, I need to use this money within three months, or I'm going to lose it. 4 (36m 38s): And do you want to buy a house? And I'll give you the $10,000 and you buy the house. And when you can pay me back, the $10,000 you can, I just need to be on title for a while. Long story short, that was our first house. I didn't even know how to start, but I met a real estate guy and this older guy, Ray, and I remember going into Ray's office. I sit down and the phone rings when I'm in Ray's office. And we don't, we hadn't even seen too many houses that are, he hadn't really showed us anything. Phone rings, guys in a good neighborhood in San Leandro, little house he had on the market for 93,000. He said, I'll let it go for 82,000. I'll carry back some of the money ratio. Let's go look at the house. 4 (37m 18s): We looked at the house a day or two later, we owned a house that how in the world did that happen? God reminded me of his promise. You build my house. I'll make a way for you and your house. I'm not just talking about material things. We're just talking about houses right now. Right? So we, we left the bay area in, in 1986. My twin brother was down here and he called, said, we need a youth pastor. And we had gotten involved with youth ministry and my heart was going more towards ministry than geology. I went from Theo geology. I say rocks in the ground to theology rocks in the head and heart. I made a shift and we get down here. No, the church we left 55,000 a year. 4 (38m 0s): Those are $86 to come down here for 70 bucks a week for youth ministry. It was a really good economic deal. Jan's dad was thrilled. I made that choice and he was a professional us steel. And he, he came down, he was shaking his head. He looks at the church and he says, so when you, if you do good, you get one of these. He thought it was like a franchise or something like that. He had a different mindset. We came down for 70 bucks a week that we're renting a little house in shell beach at first, but I was at a home group meeting and Grover my twin. Brother's speaking on a Sunday night and I'm around this house during worship. And I felt in here, the Lord says, you're going to live in this house. And first I said, really, it's got shag green carpet smells like cats, these old Mediterranean style curtains, but it had an ocean view. 4 (38m 48s): And it, and it's here in Grover beach. And within a few months, the gal that was renting that house from our church, moved out, we were in, I helped buy through real estate, helped her buy a condo, made a little money there. And we're in this house. And then with just in a few months, the owner of the house says, Hey, do you guys want to buy this house? And we looked at each other. I said, you know, we just moved here. I don't have any real job established. I'm making 70 bucks a week. I told the owner w w we'll make a run at it. But in my heart, I felt like God said, yes, go for it. So what happened? I met a lender that just moved to town. He knew as I was a new realtor, wanted to start a partnership. And he got us a loan for the house. And to this day, I don't know how legal it is. 4 (39m 30s): I don't know how it, I don't know how it worked. It was an ugly loan, but within a very short time, we were in a house and God was keeping his promise, that house, you know, Grover beach on the hill, 98,000, we converted it and changed it. All that made equity that got us in the house. We're in now last house story. So we moved across this freeway. We made some equity in that house and our kids were growing up and we had a teenager living with a five or a six year old that wasn't working well. So we need an extra bedroom. And we looked across the freeway and there was a house there that seemed out of our price range. And again, okay, God, we're going to go in by faith. 4 (40m 10s): We made the offer and it, it it's on Irish way. And I was born on St. Patrick's day. And on my birthday, we moved into that house and we're coming down the street. I had the driving, the, the moving truck. And in my spirit, I heard God say happy birthday and moved into a house on Irish way. And I've seen the faithfulness of God. I'm saying this, not to brag on us. I been somewhat faithful. I've had mistakes and my share of just discouragement net, but I've seen the faithfulness of God when your heart is to Zuora. I want, I want to build your house. We've seen that on our children. When our kids were in tough times, God was always faithful to bring somebody, to encourage our kids. 4 (40m 52s): Both of my kids got into Cal poly with less than a averages. Now you have to have it like a 4.5. Both, both of them were like B plus students. Somehow God got both of our sons at Cal poly. I looked just about time after time, where we've seen his faithfulness. I've, I've never made a lot of money in ministry. I, I looked at my salary once and I said, it's somewhere between a prison guard and a teacher. That's probably real appropriate for a pastor. You're kind of balanced it out, but I've seen God be faithful time and time again. And it's, it's not about the money. It's just about the provision of God and feeling like God, I'm in the family business. I am, my, my heart is toward your house, my hearts towards your people. 4 (41m 34s): And when we're oriented that way, Jesus said, seek first, the kingdom of heaven in his righteousness and what happens, everything else gets added. And I, and I'm not saying it's all been smooth. We've had lots of challenges, but I've, I've found this when, when, when your hearts for God and you want to see God's people grow and you want to see God's people strengthened as you pour your life into them. He's always got people to pour life into you, as you want to, as you give out and you're serving, there's always people that want to come around side and support and encourage us. My older brother bill was on the streets because of alcohol for 20 some years. And he was down in Southern California. And I could do nothing about that from a distance. 4 (42m 15s): Sometimes we didn't even hear from him, but I know up here when we would help at our recovery ministry and I'd be talking to people that are struggling, the same thing, I would throw up a prayer. God help my brother, bill God delivered a brother bill. And it wasn't too long. It took several years. He ended up up here at a ranch, getting sober, receiving Jesus as Lord and savior. And I think God, you're just faithful. You're faithful. And as our hearts towards building his house, I promise you his heart will be towards strengthening and working in your house. Does anybody believe that this morning? Amen. Well, these are some quick things. What can we do to help build God's house? We're not building just a physical house. 4 (42m 57s): Ephesians two 19 says now, therefore you're no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ, himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord in whom also you are a billing built together for a dwelling place of God's spirit. So we're not just talking about a building. Scripture says, now we are the temple of God, right? We are the temple of God. We house the spirit of God, God. He used to dwell in Solomon's temple. That's where they would go to encounter his presence. But after Jesus was crucified, the scripture says that veil was rent into the temple doors were open. 4 (43m 43s): And now the spirit of God lives in you and me. And so we're not just about trying to get God's presence to come here. Part of building up the body of Christ is encouraging people that God's presence is in them and help strengthen them and encourage them. And so when we're building up the house of God, I I'm talking about encouraging one another to use their gifts. And you know, I just got four quick points on, how do you build? First of all, Jesus said, my house, God said, my house will be a house of prayer. How do I build? I build with words, I build with prayer. We were in India in this village, we planted a new church or help plant and dedicate a new church in this village of India with Billy Graham Palouse. 4 (44m 25s): And I met Billy Graham's mother, but this other lady that came to that part of India, there was murdered going on. They said weekly, something was getting murdered. It was just a dark, dark area. And here we're dedicating a church and it's vibrant and alive and worship's going on. And I said, how did you guys transform it in such a short time from that to this? I said, we pray. We pray. Prayer brings breakthrough. Do you believe that the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much, one verse version says it makes tremendous power available. So when you and me pray, it makes a difference. Prayer is the key. I know I'm going quickly here. It's winding down. Number two, prayer changes things. 4 (45m 7s): Number two, determined to be an encourager life and death is in the power of the tongue. This season. I have met so many people that just need some encouragement. Somebody to say, you can do it. Somebody to lift them up, somebody to give them a word in season, just to help float their boat a little bit. Tell your neighbor, you can be an encourager. Come on and tell him that man, you guys don't believe that who you're sitting next to right now, holy mackerel, come on. You can be an encourager life and death is in your words. Do you believe that this season, you know, I don't even have time to go in the story. 4 (45m 50s): So what's over even the last couple of weeks, the times of just people coming that just need to be lifted up and prayed for, and our words can make the difference in how their day goes. Our words can help turn a life, can bring freedom to people. There's power. In your words, do you believe that church, I throw in another one here and especially the season we're in T to have, I think the most infectious thing and the most inviting thing. And the most life-changing things for people that don't know the Lord is to see someone live like they're loved. And when we realized that, that when we were yet sinners Christ died for us, I don't even have time to go into my testimony, but how God pursued me. 4 (46m 35s): When I was running from him, I, we, we got into the drug scene in the Southern California, my twin brother, and I, and things went, you know, it started out fun. And then that fun goes into the partying and the drugs changed. And it wasn't too long. A friend of ours got killed by a drug dealer. That was a wake-up call for me. And I remember praying, God, I only have one life to live Lord, and I don't want to mess it up. God, Jesus come into my life. And shortly after that, he did. And then the revelation through time because of guilt and shame from my past, I would struggle with this. God really loved me, but I was bringing a missionary back to the airport. 4 (47m 14s): And, and this is in Santa Barbara one day. And this happened years ago. And as I was coming back by lake Katoomba, I just felt this urgency to pull into this turnout. And I don't know why, but it was just so strong in me that I even passed it and went a mile down the road. And I came back to the turnout and then pulled in and nobody was there. And so I'm looking around and I'm saying, what was that about? And I was youth pastor then, and super busy just trying to make it all happen. And I was sitting on the wall. And again, you know, I say I heard God's voice only a few times in my life. Has it been that loud and clear that it's almost audible? And this was one of those times. And he asked me, why do you live? Like, I don't love you. 4 (47m 55s): And I argued with them. I don't do that. And, and he reminded me that you, you, you're struggling so hard just that you always got to provide that you always got to keep it together. And you're always just, just on this rush. It was like calm down and know that you're loved. And so now it's been years. And that idea that I I'm, I'm living like I'm really loved, not because of how special I am, but because how good he is, how wonderful he is. And when, when people see your life differently, as Malakai said, once again, I'll make a distinction between those who serve me and those that don't when we live like we're loved. And we truly believe that the God's for us, that he he's got a plan for us, then he'll never leave us nor forsake us. 4 (48m 41s): See, that's the, one of the things he said to David at the temple, my hands always been on you. David ever sent you, you were raised up as king. My hands always been on you when you believe that God's with you. And you know that, and, and you live that way in a confidence that no matter what's coming my way, God, you're bigger. You're bigger. No matter what's coming my way, God, you said you would provide a way of escape when we live that way, it's impactful to others. There's a couple of times in our family where people come, come to us and said, we want what you have. We want the God you serve because of how they see the goodness of God. And again, it's not us. I know it's the Lord in us. 4 (49m 21s): I know when Dean Braxton was here, I think it was here. He said, when you see a tortoise on top of a fence post, you know, it didn't get there by itself. And I can say that with God, what I have today and how I live today. I know it's all because of what Jesus has done. And when we live with that infectious faith and we live with that infectious joy, truly we can, we can build up other people. We can build that spiritual house. We can build this spiritual house. Amen church. Amen. Well, I think it's time to worship Ron. We got a couple more songs and I want to pray. And so worship team come on up and I have a few more pages of notes, but we'll just end it right there. 4 (50m 5s): It's one of those times where over the last season, my, my heart's been filled and, and stirred and father, I thank you for hungry hearts in this place. I thank you for a renewed desire Lord, to see your move, Lord God, in our families and homes, to see some things shift where they need to shift for joy to be restored Lord for your strength to come. I pray great grace Lord, over homes that are still in recovery mode and still struggling God, even from this COVID season businesses that are stuck businesses that have been damaged by this current culture. 4 (50m 52s): Lord, I pray God, just your great grace there. And Lord, I would confirm, I'd ask that you would confirm God in hearts, it's worth it to serve you. I pray that you would renew that, that you said when we come to God, it says in Hebrews six, you said, when we come to you, we must believe that you are. And that you're a rewarder of those that diligently seek you. And I've seen that in every culture. We've been able to go to Lord that you are a rewarder. And I, I pray that we do it out of love for you out of honor for you. We serve you for because of who you are, God, and how good you are. 4 (51m 32s): But I pray as we serve you that others see the fruit of it. And this season they'll see the fruit in our own life, the change in our own life and how you do indeed take care of our houses. And I lift up those that might not know you here, Lord, or have drifted away. And those that might be watching online that have been frustrated. And even in their own heads said, what good is it to serve God, I pray today, Lord, that you would just open their hearts and Quicken their minds again, God, and bring back remembrances and bring back understanding of when they did serve you or that hunger to get to know you or to surrender to you, to put you first and see what happens. 4 (52m 13s): Thank you for that Lord. Thank you. Holy spirit for filling your people as we worship in Jesus name. Amen. 1 (52m 59s): we were away without hope. 1 (59m 28s): We thought you . There was mercy to fill the law and draw two. If the Virgin came from it, throw new, then this glory to Cray Linda the creation. 1 (1h 0m 41s): You do not despise the Soundation Jesus save that you rose all that had spread and that stone was moved for good for the land had conquered Dan rose from Vanuatu's . 5 (1h 3m 24s): Thank you, Lord, for those truths. Thank you for the gospel. Thank you for the power of what Jesus did on the cross for us. And you love for us. Thank you for, for sending us the helper for sending us the holy spirit to convict us of sin And for just your power in us, in our lives. So thank you. God, who would you just give us the power of encouragement as we leave today for others and for ourselves, Lord, encourage us in you.

This message was given by Mike Sparrow during our Sunday morning service. Mike faithfully serves as an elder at Northgate.  

Mike Sparrow & Brian Redin came by to talk about what it takes to become a Foster Parent, and about the Incredible work they do.

In this episode Susan talks to Mike Sparrow whose recent project has involved him in researching climate change. This episode begins with the depressing facts about where we are rapidly heading if we don't radically change our impact upon planet earth. It is not all doom and gloom however because there is light at the end of the tunnel. About the Guest: Mike's passion is to draw attention to conservation and his recent project highlights the speed at which human behavior is impacting our climate and the future of earth as we know it. He has a dream for the benefit of all citizens of our planet; to safeguard the security of our climate for future generations. In his dream, The COP 24 UN Climate Change Conference resolves to make carbon capture the priority initiative of all member governments to combat global warming and actively decarbonise our atmosphere. Valuable Resources: www.mikejsparrow.org www.smashwords.com About the Host: Susan is actively involved in promoting Yorkshire businesses with audio production and  on social media. She has been living in Yorkshire for over 30 years. She is passionate about the county she has adopted as her home and she never ceases to be amazed at the wealth of talent ‘Inside Yorkshire’ and the tales that people have to tell.   Contact Method for Inside Yorkshire  Susan Baty-Symes www.insideyorkshire.co.uk susan@insideyorkshire.co.uk

Welcome to the Inside Yorkshire Podcast, a podcast full of stories and tales from the people of Yorkshire. In todays episode Susan talks to Mike Sparrow about his debut book "Native". This is a fictional story about the American Indian's fight to sustain their traditional way of life and is the first of the Manifest Destiny trilogy. "Native" is an epic tale that tells about the plight and destruction of the American Indian, the trials and tribulations of the pioneers that travelled the vast landscape and cruel and corruptible men in power. About the Guest: Mike's passion is to draw attention to conservation and the preservation of indigenous cultures.He lives with his wife, Adele, in their seventeenth century farmhouse in the Yorkshire Dales and travels extensively to research material for his books. Valuable Resources: www.mikejsparrow.org His book can be purchased on Amazon www.amazon.co.uk and also at Waterstones shops or via their website www.waterstones.com  It is available in hardback and also on kindle. About the Host: Susan has been living in Yorkshire for over 30 years. She is passionate about the county she has adopted as her home and she never ceases to be amazed at the wealth of talent ‘Inside Yorkshire’ and the tales that people have to tell. Contact Method for Inside Yorkshire  Susan Baty-Symes www.insideyorkshire.co.uk susan@insideyorkshire.co.uk  

Talk yo’ faith. Replace “Mike” with your name, and make a bold confession of faith in God today! God feeds and takes care of the sparrows/birds…so you know He's got you! (Matthew 10:31 // Luke 12:6-7) http://www.smarturl.it/thepsalmsofmyn

Message from Mike Sparrow on Apr 22, 2018