What Does Faith Look Like?

We believe for victory by faith. We see victory Lord by faith. We know that you're at work in our lives. Moving in our circumstances, you're meeting our every need by faith. We believe that you will always meet our, every need. Our emotional needs God, for those, with real significant emotional needs today, we pray that you rest on them and speak to them and bless them. Lord, thank you that they're here in church, where they might receive the grace and the goodness of God and God's people or God, I pray that you'd minister to your people. For those who need a physical touch, emotional touch, just a spiritual touch, relational touch, Lord. 1 (15m 4s): Whatever's going on, Lord. We just pray that she'd be ministering all over the campus. Lord, for those who are watching online, we just pray God that you would be ministering powerfully. Lord God, thank you for who you are and for who we are in you by faith. We know that we are your adopted sons and daughters. If we've come to you by faith, we know that you take us in that your grace is sufficient. Your mercy is unending. Your love is unconditional. Your kindness is supernatural. Lord God, we just thank you Lord by faith. We just want to walk in all of that truth and that reality Lord will help us to do so today, Lord. And then as we kind of getting our heads around that and our hearts around that and our lives around that truth, Lord help us to walk in that all the days of our lives. 1 (15m 52s): Lord, thank you, Jesus, God, thank you for who you are and for what you're doing at harvest church and all over the central coast, wherever the name of Jesus is being lifted up all over the world. Wherever the name of Jesus is being lifted up. You're doing wonderful and profound things. So thank you, Lord God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your grace. For those struggling. We know we've got lots of brothers and sisters in the Ukraine, People just struggling right now. Lord, we just pray that you would strengthen them and help them to protect the innocent Lord and work supernaturally in that place. 1 (16m 37s): Like we already know that you are Lord. I pray that you would bring, bring the conflict to an end Lord, a peaceful and God that you'd be glorified, that we would see the supernatural hand of God quelling that and stopping that and ending that and bringing health and healing and freedom in Jesus name. So Lord God, we pray for your grace upon our world and our nation, our community and our church. Lord, we need you. Thank you for this time in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Turn and say hello to somebody that you've never ever, ever met. 1 (17m 23s): Excellent. And you just start first place. You just different place. Yes he did. I love Nancy. Thank you for that. Where did you see Nancy? Oh, Clark center. Oh, next time you see her, just give me a, give her a hug for me and just tell her how much I love her. 1 (18m 3s): And she does when she was Ron's assistant. I interacted with her. 1 (18m 49s): It's always hard to bring people back after the greeting time. It's easier just to let's just keep going. Right? Come on back here. People have been asking me why don't you take your glasses off when you get up to speak. And I really hate, I don't like hate is a strong word, so I'll use it. I hate these things. So what I did is on my iPad, the beauty of an iPad is you can make the font really, really big. So I'm going to set these here on the front row. Don't confuse those with yours cause you won't like trifocals as much, but Hey, we're, we're going to do some things a little bit different today. 1 (19m 31s): I'm going to preach and teach for a bit and we're talking about faith. And so as an illustration of faith, so last week we had Fred crop coming up and he came up and he spoke to us about one act of obedience, his book that he's writing and the things that kind of stir or spurred that on. And so as we teach through Hebrews 11, the heroes of faith, I think it's important that we think in the 21st century, in terms of what does it mean to be heroes of faith, people of faith who were just excited about doing the will of the Lord? I think that's really what heroes of faith are. There. They come in all shapes and sizes. 1 (20m 11s): And in fact, Don gainer, a lot of you remember Don gainer, but before he passed, he was writing a book about all of these unknown heroes of faith, right in our community. And some, maybe somebody will pick up the Baton and, and be able to complete that work. But it's so true. People are doing all kinds of incredible faith things behind the scenes. And most of us never hear about them, but those I'm, I'm convinced that those are the heroes of faith that we're going to be celebrating in heaven when we get there. And we're going to say, man, I had no, I D I what was going on the scenes. And so as we think about our lives, as people of faith in a, a religion, for lack of a better term of faith, where God has called us by his great grace to be people of faith. 1 (21m 4s): I mean, you think about it. We, by faith, we trust an invisible God for his grace to forgive us, to cleanse us, to set us free from the bondage of sin, we trust the invisible God who does visible work in our lives. But we attributed to him by faith, believing that he is omnipresent omnipotent, that he is everywhere, president one at once ministering in our very needs. And so we're talking about faith. I looked at Hebrews 11 in my notes and I taught on Hebrews 11, four weeks in a row back about a year ago. 1 (21m 46s): And as we were getting ready to go into 1 0 2, 1 0 2 is our new worship center. We should be in the next month. Maybe I say, you know, whole everything kind of loosely, you know, but our new worship center is up the road. And, and as we got ready to take on that challenge, I just thought felt it was important to talk about faith and build us up and our most holy faith. And, and then almost a year later, we're almost done with the project and we spent way more money than we expected, but God has been so faithful. And so by faith, we continue to get the project done and we'll be in there hopefully in April, but our whole lives are about faith. And so when we think about our faith lives, we're gonna be interviewing Shane here shortly, who just got back from Africa, spent six months in Africa. 1 (22m 31s): I don't know if you remember, but we prayed him out about seven months ago and he'd been back for a few weeks now. And, and I, I, it's easy to think, okay, I'm in Africa, I'm, I'm here to minister by faith and to do all of these things. And that's like one of our greatest fears right in the world, like, Lord, I want to serve you, but I don't, I don't want to go to Africa. Like, please do not send me to Africa. Right? But listen, if God sends you to Africa is because he's got work for you to do, and he'll prepare your heart and your life. And when you get there, it's going to be like a hand and a glove. It just fits who you are, your gifts set and all of that sort of stuff. So most likely, God won't send you to Africa. But if he does where then wherever he sends you or whatever he asks you to do in your neighborhood and your place of work, faith is a part of every response to God. 1 (23m 22s): As you're sitting here today, you're by faith asking the Lord, Lord, speak to me. I know you can hear me by faith Lord. And so you're believing God to speak to you. I was talking to a woman in between services and this is the anniversary of her husband's passing and her daughter's passing. And she's here in her brokenness, my faith, believing that God's going to minister to her. I talked with a woman as I was out in the U area and Kelly, Wade. She has her little bundle wrapped up next to her body. 1 (24m 4s): And it's this precious little girl that they brought into their lives by faith. I said, how many does that make? And she said, well, that's number seven, number seven. I said the number of completion. So, so maybe this or that, I don't know. Anyway, I think she's hoping for that. Anyway. So number seven she's by faith, just she and Tom had brought this precious little baby into their lives, hoping to make it a permanent thing, believing God for great stuff or that little, little, little baby. So on the macro level, on the micro level, we walk by faith doing what God has asked us to do. So we're going to answer the question today. What is faith look like part of the way that we grow in our faith just by being plugged in, in church and Bible study throughout the week. 1 (24m 52s): And there's lots of great stuff going on. So get involved in a small group, the journey groups are kicking off. I did the journey last year and spent nine months in that. And it was just an incredible opportunity to grow in my faith as a believer in the Lord, Jesus Christ to grow, to grow in my ability to just comprehend God on a new level. It's just, it was powerful. It was powerful. I've been hearing all of these testimonies about people going through the journey and just half of their lives have been transformed. And a lot of people just keep going through it over and over again. So there's, women's groups, there's men's groups. If you're interested in joining the journey group, just fill out a communication card, let us know. And we'll, we'll get you in touch with the right people. Sound good. 1 (25m 32s): Do you, do you do the necessary things to build yourself up? And your role is totally faith and watch what God will do powerfully in you. So we're going to ask you the question today. What is faith look like before we answer that question? Let's first define the word faith. And we define it right from the scripture in Hebrews 11. One where it says faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen. It gives us a short sense about things. We cannot say it with me. See if we can see it. It doesn't require faith, right? But if we can't see it, that's when faith is required. And so everything about God and everything about his plan for us requires faith to believe him for things we can not see. 1 (26m 20s): And so we were to pray without ceasing, where to walk in relationship with Jesus, filled with the spirit and allowing God to direct our steps, to direct our conversation. So that by faith, we might do what he has called us to do by faith. We might speak the life-changing words that we need to speak by faith. We might pray the life changing prayers that need to be prayed over somebody's life. But where does his faith come from? Where does all this good stuff come from? This strong faith come from where it comes right from the scripture in Romans 10, 17, we're told. So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so we're built up in our most holy faith. 1 (27m 3s): We're strengthened in our faith as we turn our attention to the word of God as we, and that's our hope, every time we teach or preach is that people will be built up in their faith so they can move forward as followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ in their faith to encounter the world, to conquer the world for Jesus and to do great things for Jesus. And so faith, faith comes from it's like the reading of the word, like in Jack sass with faith and confidence in God, we read stories about the people of old, like Hebrews 11 talks about, we read stories about what those who have gone before us have done, and it builds us up and it gives us courage to do what God is asking us to do in the simplicity of our own lives and the complexity of our own lives. 1 (27m 53s): What is God asking us to do? So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So if you're struggling in an area of your life to have faith in an area of her life, if you're struggling with a relationship to have faith that God is working and reconciling healing and restoring, just turn your attention to the word of God and ask the Lord to speak to you. I still do this to this day. Lord. As I opened up the scripture, would you speak to me through your word? Would you, would you bring truth to illuminate truth to my understanding so that I might understand what you're saying to me and how I might apply it to my life. And then as I am able to do that, I'm built up. If I neglect the word, if I neglect time with, with, with my father, if I do that, my faith begins to wane a bit. 1 (28m 34s): I began to struggle, but when I come into relationship with him and read his word, faith is it's injected again. It's powerful. So what does faith look like? Number one. And I'm going to give you the first point to the message today. And we'll wrap up the rest of the points next week. Cause I want to leave time to have a conversation with Shane and the clock never got started. So it's may go along today because I have no idea how long I've been up here. Right? Has it been five minutes? Has it been 25 minutes? Do I have five minutes left? Do I have 25 minutes left? I have no idea. So we might have to order in some lunch fellowship around some food and take little naps. We'll get little blankets and that sort of thing. So what does faith look like? 1 (29m 16s): Faith is obedience to God. Faith is obedience to God, especially when God directs us to do something we don't fully understand. And it's been my experience that God usually directs us in a, in an arena, in an area to do something we don't fully understand. I don't fully understand preaching. If I'm honest, I think why can't people just read the Bible? What's the point of somebody expounding and preaching and leading in that way. I'm always perplexed by it. My Lord, it must be a supernatural thing. Cause I'm just a normal guy up here trying to teach and preach and trying to explain some things and God, for whatever reason does something with it beyond any of my capacity or ability. 1 (30m 5s): So there's all kinds of things that God does supernaturally. When we just surrender ourselves to him. Shane, we'll be talking about that today. So faith is obedience to God. It will be in Scott, especially when God directs us to do something. We don't fully understand God's plan. They don't always make human sense. Has that been your experience like Lord, I don't understand why you want me to do this. Like I've already got six kids. Why, why do I need a seventh kid? Right? Like, like I I'm getting older and I just want to chill right in this season of my life. Why are you asking me to do this uncomfortable thing? This thing that takes me out of my comfort zone or God, I'm just a kid. Why would you want to use me? I was having a conversation between services with a five-year-old and I asked him, I said, have you given your life to Jesus yet? 1 (30m 51s): He's like, no, I'm going to wait until I'm 12. I said, I said, why 12? And we talked about baptism or something like his plan is to get baptized at 12. I said, well, why don't you just accept the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ right now? And he said, ah, I will, when I'm 12, I said, do you know what the grace of God is like I, so I explain it to him. And I've known this kid since birth and now he's five. And anyway, so I'm just sharing the gospel with this guy. And he's listening patiently and being just polite with me probably. But, but I'm sharing the gospel with him. Cause I'm like, man, if you can get it at five years old, why wait till you're 12 years old? Like right now. So if you can get the gospel now in your season of life, why would you wait? 1 (31m 31s): Why would we wait to by faith? Just welcome the goodness and the grace and the kindness of Jesus. If you are beginning to understand the grace and the mercy of Jesus Christ, his welcome his message in his life, into your life and watch what will happen. God's plan. Doesn't always make human sense. It can be even counter-intuitive like, like this is not something I would normally do. Lord God's plan will always test your faith. God's plan, always tests our faith. We're gonna be talking about a man, Abraham, who is tested in his faith and who came through it with flying colors, by the way. And we're gonna learn some stuff from him and God's plan for his people always requires faith. 1 (32m 16s): So picking up or pastor Jeremy left off last week, we're in Hebrews 11, 17. We're just going to get through a couple of verses today. It says this in Hebrews 11, 17, it was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him, Abraham who had received God's promise was ready to sacrifice his only Isaac, even though God had told him, and this is a quote from Genesis 2112, Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted. So Abraham and Sarah received this revelation as child lists people, they received this revelation from God, go to this land that I will show you. 1 (33m 5s): And I will make you the father of many nations, like the sand of the seashore and the stars in the sky. That will be the number of your descendants. So their child lists, Sarah is barren, unable to have kids. And so time goes on and then Sarah's like, Hey, take my servant Hagar and go, you know, do the thing. And maybe God will provide a descendant through her. And so she was born that God reiterate, this is not the son of promise. So that's not as pro center promises, born supernaturally wonderfully. So Abraham was a hundred years old. 1 (33m 48s): Maybe your family time is maybe you got some more family. Sarah was 90. Abraham was a hundred. So if you're in that rate range, maybe you've got another kid coming. I don't know. I don't know. I don't pretend to know these things, but Isaac was the son of promise. And he was the only son that Sarah gave to Abraham. And so Isaac, the only son of Sarah and Abraham, God is being, is asking them to sacrifice him. Literally, literally speaking, literally sacrificing their son. And so they make plans. 1 (34m 28s): I love the story because it's a hard ask. Would you, I mean, maybe you've got asked you to sacrifice one of your kids. It wouldn't be so hard, but this was the son of promise, right? This was the son of promise. This was the son of promise. And so this was a hard ask and there, all right, so there's not like a plan B like we could try, but probably not going to have another kid. He's the son of promise. And so he had to decide, Abraham had to decide what, what am I going to do with this direction from the Lord? And he did what all of us should do with the direction of God. And we say, yes, Lord, because no Lord is not actually it's, it's, it's a contradiction in terms when we say no Lord, because Lord means Lord ship leadership priority. 1 (35m 27s): So if we say no Lord, it means he has no, actually no longer Lord, but something else is. And so he said, what he and all of us should say, yes, Lord, yes, Lord verse 13. This is what Abraham did or shoot me first, 19 Hebrews 11, 19 Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead. Why? Because the moment that God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac was as good as dead in his mind because the answer was of course, yes, Lord. 1 (36m 7s): I don't understand. But yes, Lord, I will do what you've asked me to do. Believing that God is supernatural by faith. Believing that God, if the son died, God could resurrect him from the dead. And so this true story, the historical account of what happened in the life of this family might remind us of another story in the Bible. This story points us to the reality of the sacrifice God made in sending his only son to die for the sins of humanity. There are similarities. Genesis 22 tells us that it was a three-day journey for Abraham and Isaac to get to the land of Moriah, the place of the sacrifice. 1 (36m 52s): And so immediately hearing the voice of God, the plan of God, the direction of God in Abraham's mind, Isaac was dead because that was the plan took him three days. So in his mind, Isaac is dead. Now for three days in his mind, because this is what God directed. You might consider it conclude that Abraham had walked in such obedience that his son was considered dead. And so after three days, when the sacrifice, the Ram caught in the thicket to sacrifice, to replace the sun, it was like a resurrection. It was like a life giving resurrection, even as Jesus was dead three days before the Rez resurrection, it was, there was something about this and we see old Testament stories. 1 (37m 39s): Pictures of that point is to Jesus in the new Testament. Really that's what the old Testament is all about. The old Testament is all about preparation, pointing people for 39 books, pointing people to Jesus, the resurrected Lord in the new Testament. We see the same example in the story of Jonah. When we read Matthew 1240, it says for, as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights. So will the son of man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. Faith is all about obedience. I want to invite Shane up right now and we're going to hear about his faith journey, his obedience and all of that stuff. 1 (38m 25s): So let's turn our attention to the front with Shane Shane. Why? Once you introduce yourself, let me give you a microphone first and 3 (38m 35s): Then you good morning, everyone. My name's Shane. 1 (38m 38s): Hey Shane. Yeah. Shane, thanks for, for joining us today. When you showed up. So three weeks ago, when, when Shane got back three weeks ago, I think it was three weeks ago today, right? So we're having church in. I know Shane's in Africa. I know he's coming back soon, but he just shows up and he's sitting over there and I'm like, what's going on? So he told me he flew 25 hours and then drove three hours from lax to get to church that morning. So if you had a rough day getting to church, it didn't require 28 hours of inflight and on the road travel. 1 (39m 21s): So welcome. I've been trying to figure out a way to get you up here because six months plus ago, so almost seven months ago, we prayed you out and we've been praying for you. And we've been excited to hear your updates. So tell us kind of your story. How, how did you end up experiencing this fear that we've all had about being sent to Africa? What, what did God do to present that to you and to get you there? What does that all look like? Sure. Let me 3 (39m 50s): Rewind back to 2018. When I started coming to harvest, I joined a men's group and Lou was actually in that group. Yeah. And Mike Maddie also, he started the bold faith journey, which is how I went to Africa, the door that opened. And so Mike started a S a zoom group that we would meet seven days a week for 30 minutes each day. And pray through the Bible. We would read a scripture and pray. I'm still doing that. And it's been three years, two years, two years. I've been on three years. That they've been all right. So, so how did that then? 1 (40m 31s): Yeah. What, when did you hear thus sayeth the Lord go to Africa. That's where 3 (40m 35s): That, that's how the Lord that happened. When I, when I read the scripture that it says to go and make disciples. Okay. 1 (40m 43s): And so to you, that meant go to Africa. 3 (40m 46s): Yeah. Well, to me that means my neighbor, you know, meant to be willing to serve wherever I am with whatever I have. You know, I think a lot of us think that we have to be educated or have to have something special. Yeah. But me, I, I can't even speak very good, 1 (41m 5s): Like Moses. Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. 3 (41m 6s): Good. Yeah. But you know, I just wanted to get out of my, get out of my comfort zone and see the world, see what God's doing in the world. Yeah. Through me, it's not about me. It's about what God's doing. So yeah. 1 (41m 21s): Well, faith is all about obedience, surrender, all that kind of stuff. So what happened when you got there? Yeah. 3 (41m 26s): Yeah. I got to a village in Zimbabwe or a student Zimbabwe for four months and we share, we shared the gospel to a, a village of about 6,000 people. Only about 300 people would come. Okay. But 300, 6,000 people didn't have running water or electricity, sewage. So we would take them the gospel and, and water. So we call it a water ministry twice a week. We'd bring two, 3000 liter trucks full of water. They would line up their buckets and we'd fill them up. They would carry them home. And that's how they drank washed dishes, showered, anything. 3 (42m 10s): They lived out of a bucket. Yeah. 1 (42m 11s): What was the result if you didn't bring that water? How far did they have to walk? 3 (42m 14s): Probably a mile, mile and a half. Okay. Pretty far. All right. Yeah. Round, round trip to two miles. Yeah. Wow. 1 (42m 22s): So what did that do for the people when you met their most basic need for water? 3 (42m 28s): Yeah. Water is a blessing to them. They were really blessed and happy to do have that. And 1 (42m 35s): I love that you went not only to bless them spiritually, but to bless them in a real, tangible, and physical way as well. I think that's really consistent with what we see in the scripture and with what God has called us to that we're meant to minister to the whole person, body, soul, and spirit. And when we can do that, I think we have the greatest impact. So tell me about leading. How did you guys tell people about Jesus besides the water ministry? You talked earlier about going door to door and knocking on doors 3 (43m 6s): And that sort of thing. Yeah. Pastor shepherd would share. He's a, he was our shepherd, he was our name. He was our mission. 1 (43m 12s): So it's like pastor, pastor or shepherd shepherd. Right. Okay. I 3 (43m 17s): Should have a name like that. Here's our missionary family. And, and so he would teach and preach and yeah. And I would share a message once in a while to 1 (43m 29s): That's awesome. So when you knocked on the door, tell us about those cubes. Those, 3 (43m 34s): Yeah. So we had a Vanji cube. It's a little block and it's kind of the size of Ruby. Cute Rubik's cube. Yeah. And it would fold out and had images on it. And we would share scriptures with each image and explain a story. And it took about five minutes to go through and share the gospel. Wow. And before I would even finish, they would be ready to accept Jesus. And so it's called the Vanji cube. Huh. 1 (43m 60s): So if so, so simplistic, but yet so powerful. 3 (44m 3s): Yeah. They were very receptive. I didn't have, people are just open to hearing about the gospel of Jesus Christ. 1 (44m 10s): So we talked earlier and that's, that kind of got a little pre privy information, but Y so you talked about the intentional spiritual warfare. So talk, we'll talk about a couple of things. Talk about the witchdoctors that you encountered and kind of the culture spiritually in that place. 3 (44m 29s): So which doctors are kind like their preacher, their religion is ancestral worship. They believe in spirits. And so they would consult a witch doctor and they would perform spells if they wanted a spell cast on somebody, they could do that. The witchdoctors very powerful. They would could cause illnesses, death, and very oppression. Oppressed. Dark. 1 (44m 58s): Yeah. So what about the gospel do you think? I mean, cause they, they're obviously part of a culture where there's just darkness and oppressive spiritual stuff going on. What, what, what about the simplicity of that five minute presentation spoke to, 3 (45m 12s): We spoke to two witchdoctors while I was there. They were receptive to the gospel. I was so nervous more than I am right now. And I just couldn't believe that she, it was two, two women which doctors and they were just receptive to the gospel and I was, yeah. 1 (45m 35s): Yeah. So I think part of what makes people receptive is just the preparation and the spirit realm. So talk about the hour, a day. Prayer that I believe is what prepares people to hear the gospel message. 3 (45m 53s): Yes. We would go in or they would wait, I didn't always do this, but they would wake up and pray for an hour at 3:00 AM or 4:00 AM. Wow. And, and also, yeah, it was just to break the demonic spirits, the plans of the enemy each night. Cause the darkness spirits operate in the dark realms of dark also dark. Yeah. 1 (46m 16s): Yeah, absolutely. So they would, they understanding the culture and the spiritual battle. We wrestle not against flesh and blood enemies, but against principalities and darkness. And so they understood something about that. I think we can learn from what they're doing and their culture and their lives. They recognize now spiritual darkness here looks different than spiritual darkness there in their culture, but it's spiritual darkness, all of the same. And so there are generational things that we need to break through. There are things that we need to pray through and ask God for grace and strength and opportunity to share the gospel. And so that's essentially what these guys are doing. They're saying, Hey, because the enemy has got authority where he's been given authority, he's, he's able to possess what he's been given to possess. 1 (47m 1s): And so we need to break all of that in the spiritual realm and there's too much to go into it today, but, but there's really something that needs to be addressed in the spiritual realm that opens people up to the gospel. And so when we do that spiritual battle, God has an opportunity. We have the opportunity to speak life and grace. And so as you spoke to the witch doctors and they, what does it mean that they were receptive or responsive? What 3 (47m 27s): Does that mean? They listened to everything and then they wanted to accept Jesus. And so they're going to have the pastor, the local pastor there in that village. It was a very rural area. It took us about three hours to get to wow. And driving on dirt roads doesn't even look like a road. Yeah. And so the pastor there is going to follow up with them. Okay, 1 (47m 49s): Good. Yeah. Very good. Good. Again. What was your highlight? The highlight of your experience there? Oh, 3 (47m 54s): Do you have any do make it, yeah, just to everything that God planned for me, I, I didn't really plan anything and I always had somewhere to sleep and ate better than I've ever eaten. Yeah. And what do they eat there? A lot of corn maze. Yeah. And, and organic everything's organic beef. Okay. The cattle walk around the streets and grazed it's green. So they just eat grass everywhere. Yeah. 1 (48m 25s): So then when it's time to eat, they grab one of those cows and that's it. Yeah. There we go. Okay. Good. Good, good. And you've got some pictures and so let's throw some, the first picture up here and you just kind of talk us through and walk us through. 3 (48m 38s): Yeah. So the first week I got to, we went to PA I was staying with pastor ZQ. So after Zimbabwe, I went up to, I went to South Africa, then Tanzania. So this is Tanzania. We went to pastor ZKO, who was my missionary family in Tanzania. This is his in-laws. We went to their house and stayed for a week. And we would also, we would go to the third church six days a week and pray for an hour at 6:00 AM. And, and then at night we would eat dinner together and then pray and have a teaching, a Bible study. And then we would sing songs and it was just very centered around God. 3 (49m 20s): That was my initial initiate first week there. So it was very, 1 (49m 24s): I'm kind of, I'm got to stuck at the thought of staying with my in-laws for a week. 3 (49m 29s): It wasn't like that. They were it's when you're it's you're always with family there. Yeah. And it's not like, okay, when are they going to leave? That's kinda how I felt like I, you know, but yeah, but they don't, their family is everything to them. Yeah. Yeah. 1 (49m 46s): So they, the a stay for together for a week, pray and worship and just enjoy life. Let's see, didn't know 3 (49m 51s): The next picture here. This is where we set up Jesus, a Jesus film. It's a projector stand and we can project a movie on to it. So we would show Jesus film and they could learn about who Jesus was. This is in rural, rural, a rural area village. And there's about 200 people there that showed up for this one. 1 (50m 11s): Talk about the speakers that draw the people. 3 (50m 12s): Yeah. The speakers is a very loud, they can amplify and reach about two, a mile, a mile away. Very they're very loud. And so people just hear and they come curious, what's what's going on. And then they'll just sit and watch and then out yes. In their language. Yeah. And then people would get saved afterwards and it was just very powerful. 1 (50m 35s): Yeah. So how many pastors equals the one that plants all the churches, right? Yeah. 3 (50m 38s): Zip pastor's EQL has been planting churches for 20 years. He's planted about 27 churches. Wow, 1 (50m 47s): Incredible. Yeah. And there just seems to be such a hunger there. What do you attribute the spiritual hunger to? 3 (50m 55s): They just, they don't have anything they don't have, they don't know where their provisions are coming from. So they depend on the Lord and they believe in God, but they don't know about Jesus. Many of them don't. Yeah. 1 (51m 7s): Tanzania. Okay. So when you present the gospel to them yes. Yeah. Wonder how transferable that is in this nation and our town and our neighborhood. What in your, with your experience there and knowing the culture here, what, what can, I mean, what can we do? Can we expect similar, I mean responses or what's it going to look like for us? 3 (51m 30s): Sure. To go into Africa or just for us in 1 (51m 33s): This ring light to our neighbors in our community here in Asia. 3 (51m 36s): Yeah. Definitely. I encourage where wherever you are. You know, I, I have a short story to share that I sharing the gospel. I try to share it wherever I go. Yeah. Whenever I have a couple of minutes and I had just chaired my, with my tax accountant guy. Yeah. On online, I said, do you know Jesus? He said, yes. You know, so something so simple as that taking a risk, you know? 1 (52m 1s): Yeah. Just bringing Jesus into the conversation or the story. I think it was a week or so ago, a guy just given his life to Jesus and it was trying to find a job. And so he was at a job place and he walks in and says, Hey, I've just rededicated my life to Jesus. And I'm trying to find a job I'm like, that is so bold. Right. I mean, it was so bold. And so the gal was a Christian as well. And so she was grateful to hear that, but I think we miss opportunities to bring Jesus into the conversation. That's what pastor Fred was talking about last week. And I went to lunch with pastor Fred and Pam last week. And sure enough, you shared the gospel with the cashier and that's just because I was there and he's trying to display it or anything, but it was just because that's who he was and that's who they are. 1 (52m 42s): So I think we've got missed opportunities all around us, if we'll just slow down, pay attention. And if you would go back 3 (52m 49s): So win. When we first heard about Jesus, somebody was bold enough to share with us. Yeah. Like me, I'd heard about Jesus before, but nobody really told me about the gospel. And so 2017, I met somebody who was bold enough and, and then got me. Yeah. Just kept pressing and saying, Hey, check, you know, look into this. Yeah. 1 (53m 12s): That's awesome. Yeah. The 3 (53m 14s): Next, next slide. Yeah. A lot of the kids there hadn't had never seen a white person before. So they were, these kids weren't scared, but many times little babies or kids, young kids would see me and they would cry because they would be scared. I had that same effect on people. So what are they doing here? They're just what's happening here. Yeah. We were just playing. I spent about a few hours. I was there in this village for three days and I spent about three hours with them just playing. 3 (53m 58s): And they were showing me all kinds of little games that are simple without you don't need anything, but like with rocks and just, just so simple, how, how they have fun. That's obviously without a PlayStation. That's awesome. This is the youth group at the church. That's to meiny, which means hope in Swahili. And he was very good with the kids. He also led the Jesus film. He's a pastor as equals assistant. Okay. Okay. Next slide. This is how they get around on motorcycle for people on the next slide. 3 (54m 40s): There's me with his granddaughter and or with the guy in the motorcycle. That's his granddaughter. Next slide. There's me with as pastor Zico watching Jesus film on my phone next. And there's, we're praying for a lady. Next slide. We're just going to go through these kind of fast because a time next, this is me sharing with the college students at a university and pastor ZKO prepared a message or a teaching on a drug and alcohol. Next slide. There's where Buendia is. 3 (55m 20s): That's where we went for our three day trip. And then we went up to another town called meiny meiny, which is a mining town. Gold. They have a lot of gold there. And the Hills it's about two hours from where I was staying. Next slide. They're singing God. There there's none other like you. And I just thought their, their voice is so beautiful. The way you could start it over. If you can Hmm. 3 (56m 3s): You could play it again. Akuna come away. Way God. There is no So this church is a church that is eco planted on a hill of granite, no roads, all trails. And they carry up the bricks to my hand. Wow. To build any the houses and churches. Next slide, please. 3 (56m 44s): This is the village. One of the side streets. There's 4 million people in this town. Next slide. This is a little market where they sell beans and goods. That's oil in the, in the bottles, cooking oil. Next. This is when we were sharing the gospel and we were just going around. 3 (57m 28s): So you could go next slide. Next. This is them praying. We prayed for an hour in church and they just walked back and forth and pray or some lay down and pray. So it's a month. It's January is a month of prayer. And, and to prepare the next slide. Yeah. On the, on the buses there, they have a glory to God and Jesus. Yeah. So very God is very real. And, and for those who have, have heard Jesus there display it everywhere. 3 (58m 13s): So what's next for you? I would like to go back to Africa after I finished the job at it. Out of Diablo canyon. Yeah. Yeah. And what's, what's the longterm plan. I would just like to get, get equipped, go to a Bible college and get equipped and go back out to Africa and wherever the Lord sends me. Yeah. Yeah. Huh. What's the biggest challenge about going to a place like that? For me, it was just finances. I, I really pastor Zeke hill, his biggest obstacle was finances. Yeah. For me it didn't, I didn't, it wasn't about, I don't need the money. 3 (58m 53s): Yeah. I'm going to work so I can help as equal out. And he is just such, such a big vision and dream for a, what he wants to see happen in Africa. And I think finances is the only thing that's the obstacle, right? Yeah. So we're just waiting on God's timing. Yeah. He's faithful. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's a theme running through what we're talking about and just your, your, your surrender and your trust and your faith and just your availability and all that, that 1 (59m 21s): Sort thing. And I think that is transferable to us as well, surrender faith availability, you know, to our point earlier obedience, and then just watch what God does with all of that raw material. Like you said, you know, we've, we feel like we need to be S we have certain gifts or talents or abilities, but God really just works best with the raw material of an obedient, faithful, willing person. So thanks for being that person. And thanks for sharing your story with us really, really appreciate you. I want to pray for you as we get ready to release you here, Lord. So Jesus, we just want to pray for Shane. We thank you for what you're doing in his life, Lord and God that he's available. 1 (1h 0m 4s): And it's just holding onto his life loosely, ready to go, where you would call him to go show us how to do that. Lord, not all of us are single and able to do, you know, at the drop of a hat, what Jane's been able to do. Lord, show us Lord in our contacts with our kids and grandkids and jobs and responsibilities. Lord, show us how to do what you've called us to do to live by faith Lord. So thank you for the opportunity to hear this story and to be a part of this man's life bless. And we pray in Jesus name. Amen.  Thank you, Jesus. The battle belongs to you. Thank you that you have gone before us. Thank you for the faith that we have in you. Thank you for your love. Thank you for your protection. Thank you for salvation. Thank you that we get to be your hands and feet on, on this earth. God, and that the gospel gets to spread spread wide. We love you. Jesus. It's in your name. We pray. Amen.