Be Patient, Take Courage, Don't Grumble First B Jackson 2022-05-16 Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record. ---- I think she might have gone to the bathroom. Okay. Great. Do you guys do this every Monday night? Every Monday. And so far Yep. Alright. Hey, my friends. Can you hear me okay? Hi there. My name is Carl and we have... I'm I'm making an introduction because we've got some... So we got some new friends tonight. And so Rod, can I can I have you come up here too a little bit? Because we're just meeting these folks too. So Seth here on my right and Michelle on my left. Like, we literally just met like an hour ago. And Gracie in the back and we said, hey, do you guys play music? And they said, sure. And so we're gonna just play music together suddenly with no practice really. Yeah, wish us luck. But I want you to know who these guys are and what they're doing. Rod's gonna share just a little bit about that. Rod, could you use that microphone right there? Well, good evening. So good to be here. Thank you so much for for dinner and for opening your your your home to us. Feels like family in here. We're we're very much used to this. We we're actually from the Big Island Of Hawaii. We we have a a discipleship training school there and these are students of ours and part of our staff that are with us tonight. We we just finished eight months school year and we we're on a road trip to well, from Kansas City to Seattle. We'd be ministering in many different places over the next week and a half. So, I just wanted to kind of give you just a little bit about who we are just so you kind of understand. We we my wife and I, my wife back there with my granddaughter. She's a young looking one with the glasses. We've been married thirty, oh, four? No. Really? We're going on thirty nine years. Wow. Time has gone by. But we have a a discipleship school that the first year is just really to to give give the students a real grounding in the word, in identity, and getting their hearts in a good place with the Lord and and just even some, you know, inner healing type stuff. Really, it's if you put it in a nutshell, it's Christianity one zero one. That's that's first year. Just really getting them solid. Second year is more of putting them into starting to learn what leadership is about and helping them step out and and kind of stretch their wings a little bit. So, our vision, our school is called Echbalo which is a really weird word and it means nothing to most people. They they usually say, Eboli, what is that? Echbalo is a Greek word that means to send out. Matthew nine thirty eight, Jesus said, you know, pray for the Lord of the harvest to thrust forth laborers. That's Igbollo. That's the word right there. It's where it comes from and that's our vision. That's our heart to to raise up leaders, to raise up laborers for the harvest whether it's in The United States or hopefully around the world. We, you know, there's 3,000,000,000 people on the planet that don't know who Jesus is, that like have never heard his name. And we want to we want to send teams. We want to send people to nations where we haven't been able to to establish churches yet. So that's the end goal between here and there. We're working to establish strength and unity and and raise up mission teams and and raise up leaders. So, this is part of and we have a house of prayer there on our, we have a 100 acre farm, 96 acre farm. We grow coffee and we're going to do food, other food production but we have a house of prayer there. It's it's the... Probably the southernmost house of prayer in The United States. And and we pray, Lord, send forth laborers. Raise up laborers for the harvest that that is that is ripe right now. So that's a little bit about who we are, and thank you for having us here. Thanks, Rock. Yeah. And I... I'd like to do this too. There's a little basket back there in the back, and it'd just be great to bless them as they go. So just know it's it's there. And... But Monday nights, we've been in the book of James. We'll be in the book of James tonight. It's gonna be absolutely applicable to what what they've just talked about, their mission and purpose, which is our mission and purpose. And... But before we get to the gospel conversation, and it is a a conversation at the end. So if you have something you're oh, just just grab a hold of me. I need I need to share this. There's room for one minute testimonies at the end too. So... But before we get there, can we worship in song together? Alright, I've got a firm only king forever. A mighty bring our expectations. I hope and thank you in the name of Jesus. And we trust. Amen. God, this is fun. It truly is because this this is true. What we are singing is absolutely true. In Psalm 29, you say, the Lord reigns as king forever, and we believe that. And then so that's why we're seeing that with conviction. In Jesus name, amen. Our father, our father, creator, you hold our hearts together. There's no one higher than you. Redeemer, defender, our great mighty forever praise the glory beyond your name. Is no one higher, no one greater, no one like our God. There is none more able. Christ our savior, great and glorious. There is no one high, no one greater, There is no one higher than you. Let's sing that again. There is no one. And there is no one higher than our God. We're midst the Us... We're would you finish it? Oh, God. What a life you call us to truly. I think of in John when you say, I want you to be where I am. You tell your disciples that. You're telling us that. You want us to be where you are. Thank you, God, for that invitation. Thank you for always extending your grace, your unmerited unmerited favor toward us. Thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. You can have a seat for a minute. I got a little a little video I wanna show you. I hope it I hope it shows up. Look at me. You can have crew stacks but you can't have them right now. Okay? You gotta wait. You gotta wait until mommy and daddy come back. Okay? You can't eat these yet. You gotta wait until we come back. I'm gonna leave them right here. Don't... Hello. Did we lose it? Should I just should I just share what happens? Okay. Let me ask you this. Do you think those kids waited for the fruit snacks? They didn't. So they made this cute little face at one another. This like mischievous face like, should should we? Should we? And then they did and they eat the fruit snacks and it was really cute. But remind me of patience. Who's good at patience? Here, would you say. I'm not seeing a lot of hands because I don't think any of us are. Those little guys, they just couldn't wait. I... And the reason I think of that in that little video is James tonight says, be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. Be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. And I'll be the first to say, patience is so hard. Like, I'm just... I'm not there yet. I'm just sharing. I'm I'm not a patient person. I I have a hard time waiting for anything. I would have failed the fruit snack challenge, by the way, I think. But in tonight's case, in James, James is talking about the Lord's return. And Jesus is coming back. There's no doubt about it. James is saying be patient until then. And that's just one of four instructions that he he gives to the church. He says this. I'm... He... I... Let me let me try it again. I'm gonna turn it on, then I'm gonna point at it, and then it's then it's not gonna work. Could you just make that slide go forward, please? Thank you, Nick. Here's four instructions. He says, be patient, take courage, don't grumble, and let your yes be yes and your no be no. K? Easy enough to understand. Right? Comprehend. Harder to put into practice. I had that conversation with somebody this week. They're like, yeah, I get it. I know what it says. These are tough ones. K? Instructions for believers as we wait for the Lord's return. And just to put this into context, so the church, these believers that that James is writing to, they were persecuted and they were scattered and they were going through some major trials. Tough stuff. Now just imagine, you know, it's... Sometimes it's hard to put ourselves there, but just think about what's what's what's happening right now around the world. Think about if that... What if that was us? What if we weren't of the 6,000,000 people that were displaced and tossed out of our country or forced to leave right now? You know, I would imagine that many of them in James' day were like, would you just come now, God? Could you just come now? You know? And maybe you've had maybe you've had one of those moments too where you're like, God, would you just come now? Like, it would be really good. And I can just hear James saying. I just can hear his hear... His heart for the the church going, be patient, take courage, don't grumble, and and stay true to your word just with a simple yes or no. So this is coming from James five seven through 12, and I'm gonna go ahead and read it. And then if there's something that grabs ahold of you from this text, please make a note of it, mental note of it or whatever, because at the end, it's been conversation style where you give a chance to share, a one minute testimony or something that grabbed ahold of you from this text that can... That really can encourage the church here. Okay? So here's what it says. Nickel, track with me as I read. It says, dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. Consider the farmers who patiently wait for the rains in the fall and in the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen. You too must be patient. Take courage for the coming of the Lord is near. Don't grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. For look, the judge is standing at the door. He's going, it's here. It's coming. Verse 10, for examples of patience and suffering, dear brothers and sisters, look at the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We give great honor to those who endure under suffering. For instance, you know about Job, a man of great endurance. You can see how the Lord was kind to him at the end for the Lord is full of tenderness and mercy. By the way, that was my favorite verse of the whole thing. So I'm just sharing my little testimony. God is full of tenderness and mercy. Thank you God for your tenderness and mercy toward us. God, would you help us to show tenderness and mercy toward others? This world is hurting. People are hurting. They're searching and God, we've got the answer and it's you. Jesus, in you, there is life, and there is love, and tenderness, and mercy. Thank you. Help us to show it. Help us to be it. Amen. Verse 12, but most of all, my brothers and sisters, never take an oath by heaven or earth or anything else. Just say a simple yes or no so that you will not sin and be condemned. So that's all I wanted to go. That's all the farther I wanted to go verses seven through 12 in chapter five. I wanna pray first and then just work our way through it. Just just verse by verse. God, thank you for this word to us tonight. This is what we need to hear. I I believe we're not here on accident. You you brought us here on purpose and there's something in this word God that you want to share with us. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would reveal, illumine, enlightened in Jesus name. Amen. Again, here here they are. Just a few of them. Okay? Be patient. Take courage. Don't grumble. Stay true to your word. Let your yes be yes. Your no be no. Beginning with be be patient. Verse seven here. Dear brothers and sisters, be patient as you wait for the Lord's return. And here's the example that he gives. Consider the farmers. We've got farmers here tonight. So they're gonna be able to speak to this. That's so cool. They patiently wait for the rains in the fall and the spring. They eagerly look for the valuable harvest to ripen. Okay. So when I think of farming, I think of Dassault, Minnesota. Okay. So I I grew up in in in Minnesota, and that was our that was our home before we moved to to Jackson, Wyoming. And right there, those are two of my three children. This was before our our little Addy was even born. They're just standing in front of some corn because that's what you do. You live in the Midwest and the corn grows and then you put your kids in front of it and take a picture, I guess. So here here's a more recent picture of my kids, by by the way. But... So living in a a farm community. Harvest time. Harvest time is a big deal. So in this little community in in in Dassault, Cocato, two neighboring towns, they do something called a corn carnival. A corn carnival. They bring truckloads of corn, you eat corn. That's all. Here's the here's the point I'm trying to make. So James uses this analogy of the harvest to point to something greater. Like, he's going, okay, modern day. People in Dallas, this is greater than the corn carnival. Right? This is wonderful. His return is coming. And for a church that's scattered and persecuted and facing trials, I would imagine. I mean, this is me speaking. I would imagine they'd say... They were thinking, God, would would you come... Would you... Could you just come now? How many people in the world do you think right now are are are just going, lord, I've lost everything. I've I've lost my home. I've lost my my my family. I've lost my country, my nation. And this is hard stuff. Verse seven in patience means to persevere. To persevere, long tempered, refusing to retaliate with anger. That's interesting that he puts it that way, refusing to retaliate with anger. It shows divinely directed patience. I'm just gonna tell you that's what spoke to me probably most in this study this last week is God's divinely directed patience. Oh, how we need it. So bad. It's the opposite of being quick tempered. So this waiting patiently for the harvest also means not retaliating with anger toward enemies. And they had enemies. Right? Someone takes your land, they're persecuting you. What are you going to think? I hate these people. Right? I think this is why he said earlier when he said in James one one nineteen... Sorry. Don't have that verse. If you would just keep it there for a second. But in James one nineteen, do you remember this verse? He says, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. I think this is why. Patience. Patient endurance. So verse eight... Sorry. There it is. Nick, forgive me. I'm so squirrely. Patient endurance. Oh, I love this guy. We have... I just wanna tell you, I love our staff here. We we just... We do. But we love each other. Verse eight, patiently endure, take courage. I think I hear James' heart for the church going, I know this is hard. I know this is hard for you right now, but the Lord is coming. It's near, and God will give you his divinely directed patience as you wait for him. He'll give it to you. You don't have it on your own. He will supply that divinely directed patience for you so you don't have to hate your enemies. You can leave room for God's judgment there. And the same goes for us. God will give his divinely directed patience to us as we need it and we need it. It makes more sense when we look at verse nine. Another imperative he says, don't grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you'll be judged. There's a consequence there. To grumble means to groan within oneself. To sigh with frustration. Guilty. So this whole patience thing, it's more than just being patient for the Lord's return. It's about being patient with one another. How divided are we right now? Just think in our own country. Ouch. This so speaks to us. Ephesians two, it says it this way. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with one another. Make allowance for each other's faults because of your love. So we're, you know, all in this room, we know we're we're far from perfect. We know it. We know our own quirks and our... You know, we know our stuff. We got our stuff. We got our baggage. Right? Ephesians is saying, make allowance. Give some room. Give some room for each other's faults because of your love. You know what's so interesting? Here's what caught me. First Corinthians, the first on that list, love is patient. The first on that very... On that list. The opposite of being quick tempered. Why be patient? Back to James. For look, the judge is standing at the door. Boy, that feels close. He's going, look, the Lord's coming back. Let's not be grumbling against one another when he returns. If anything, let's be making allowances for each other's faults. So there you have two of them. Be patient. Don't grumble. And here's another one from verse eight. He says, take courage. And other translations, establish your hearts. Strengthen your hearts. However you wanna say it. The idea here is that our hearts are set fast. They are secure. They're solidly planted as we direct ourselves toward God's return. I like this. Take courage. Establish your hearts. Strengthen your hearts. Even in suffering. Even in suffering. Take courage. Establish your hearts. And then Job is the example that he gives in verse 11. James calls him a man of great endurance. Oh, he was. You remember the story of Job? He... Everything was taken from him. Absolutely everything was taken from him. His family, his health, his home, his livelihood. I mean, can you imagine? And yet, he says, the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Like, I wonder how can someone say something like that? How how could you? God, would you give me that? Would you give... Could I could I possibly say that if everything was taken away from me? Why? Maybe so. With God's divinely directed patience, maybe so. Not me on my own. Job took courage even in his suffering. Real life application here for us church. You and I can take courage even in our suffering. It's true. We could even have joy in it and it's not like a fake. It's like, no, really. God has given me a deep down joy that I can't explain. A peace that passes understanding because that's what God does. That's who he is. That's what he delivers. It doesn't mean we're going to like it. It doesn't going to mean we're going to like suffering but we can take courage in it, In it. Because our hearts are set fast and secure in the Lord. In the Lord. Do you know one of my prayers that I probably pray most often these days? God help me. I mean, I, that's it. That's all. God, help me. I have no idea what to do right now. Would you help me? That's all I got. God help us. Here's one more reason to to take courage. The Lord is full of tenderness and mercy. So good. He's compassionate. We look to him for help in our time of need. And he answers. And sometimes he answers differently than we would hope. And our circumstances don't change a whole lot, but the way we look at them does. Does that make sense? And we can go, okay. God, I don't get it. I wouldn't choose it. But I see that you're working things out here. For my good and for your glory. Help me and understand. God, help us to understand when things do not make sense. Amen. Draw near to him and he will draw near to us. That's another of my favorites in James. Draw near. Draw near to him and he'll draw near to us. Think of Isaiah 4,031, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain you strength. May it be so, God. And he is able. And what? We're going to end with verse 12. Here's here's the end of this. Though most of all brothers and sisters never take an oath by heaven or earth or anything else. Just a simple yes or no so that you will not sin and be condemned. That was a really important thing that he's writing to to the church. He's going, guys, stay true to your word with a simple yes or no. Build your your credibility that way. You know, we shouldn't have to say, I swear on my blah blah blah blah blah. No, just let's build credibility by, yeah. If I say that, it's a yes, it means a yes for me. If it's a no for me, it's a no. So that's the last imperative. And that covers James five:seven through 12. Let's just look at them all here in a row. Be patient. Take courage. Don't grumble. And let your yes be yes and your no be no. And here's what's true. Here's what I know it is true. God stands ready and able. God stands ready and able. With his... And he will give us his divinely directed patience as we are going. So that's a good word from James tonight. So I wanna stop talking for a moment. We might even have a microphone. Ready? There are people that watch online. So my mom probably watching. Hi mom, love you so much. But if there's like a, just just really a a word of encouragement from James, a one minute testimony from this. Like, I know we've got some farmers here. Maybe you wanna maybe you wanna share an analogy about farming and and the Lord's return, but I wanna give you the the chance to do so. And nobody usually likes to be the first one to start and I actually I have this pastor right next to me. His name is pastor Ray and and maybe maybe Ray would even be willing to just share just a a word off the cuff from from what we read. Tick, tick. I I something hit me while you're going over it that I had not considered and there are couple of the fallen under judgement, I think usually we go immediately to what God is the judge. We're not supposed to be judging others so that we're not judged and but a couple of times in here, it doesn't give the the referent who it's referring to and I think it is God in most cases. There's certainly one of them. It says, because the judge is at the door. That's a capital J in my Bible. That's that's the imminent God is right there but when it says, let your yes be yes and your no be no. What caught me this time is so that you don't fall under judgement. People pay attention to what you say and if you say, oh yeah, we're going to be there. We're going to help you. We're to help you Y'all going to help him move. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? If you if you say you're going to do something, follow through on it but so that you don't fall under judgement. That maybe it's heavenly but I think that there's a bit of if you make plans with someone, do your best to follow through on those plans. That's a hard one for us in this time, isn't it? In Jack. Oh, boy. Coach. And helping helping someone move comes up a lot around here too. Anybody else? Yep. Yes, I see that hand. By the way, this is Florin. Hello, hello. Yes. My name is Florin. Today was a kind of beautiful day at work, Good energy. People are in good mood. So I'm thankful for that. I went home and I told my wife, I think I'm going to go fishing. I'm not going to Monday nights tonight. It's so beautiful outside. I'm going to go at the Maverick, buy some worms. She's going to go probably going to listen online Monday nights tonight. And then I took a short nap. And then as soon as I woke up, told my wife, nope, I'm going to Monday night. Because this is the place where I like to be. Why I shared this? I prayed so many times for these tables to be filled like this. And if I wouldn't be here I wouldn't witness this. So, I'm thankful to God for you guys. I love to see the tables on Monday nights like this, filled and actually, I can tell you the other way. When they're not filled, it kind of bothers me. For real. For real. It's it's a Romanian culture. Come on people. Come to Monday nights. You know that's my desire. Anyway so one thing that really really love from this text was be patient. Man isn't that easy. Definitely it's not easy. But you know what? When we wait, the Lord is working in our lives, in our hearts so much. I'm going to share this very quick. Many years ago, six, seven, I'm not sure. Pastor Ray's office, I want to go to Romania, be a missionary. Yeah, we're going to help you. Yeah, yeah. So positive. I thought, wow, sounds like next year I'm there. But then I said, no, no, no, no. It's not going to be that fast because I know that I'm I'm not ready. I have so many problems here, a lot of problems in my heart. So, and then I've been praying and praying and praying and when I saw that be patient over there, it reminds me about wait on the Lord, wait for his time, but in the, in the meantime, say, Lord, would you teach me? Would you show me? Would you mold me? How do you call when the sculpture does Yes. Yes. Scold. Scold? Okay. Okay. Would you would you just call me and and help me and do the work that only you God can do in my life and today, I can say, thank you lord for the patience. I'm ready more than ever. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. We we are not as ready to to see you go to Romania but we we are never going to stand in your way and we know that you're going as God leads. So, yeah. Yeah, I think when we're going through testing and trials, it's it's easy to talk about doing that when you're not going through testing and trials but when you're going through testing and trials, it's not and for me, one of the things that helps me is when I get on my knees and I ask God, what is his perspective in this? What am I supposed to learn? Because I've learned that if I don't, then I get to take, there's an old song, take another lap around Mount Sinai. I don't know if you, any of you know that song and I've done that a few times but there's another verse in everything give thanks for this the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. It doesn't say that it's going to be easy but it's a sacrifice of praise. We're supposed to give him thanks in everything. Even if we don't feel that way, it's an offering and I find that eventually, I get to the point where I feel thankful even for the trials because on the back end of it, you learn why it happened but you never know that on the front end, I don't think. So. Yeah. Yeah. Somebody that once said to Ray, it's going to be a whole lot better on the backside of this. Is that how we put it, Ray? It's good from the backside of it. So we get really happy when there's rain Because rain means that the trees are going to flower which means that the trees are going to have cherries which means we will have a coffee harvest but I think Annie probably has a whole lot more with farming. This girl took a pickaxe to the volcanic rock and pioneered a garden by herself out of determination for the joy that was set before. That's that's what we're doing. Oh, wow. I mean, hey, you're you're up, ready or not. It's interesting because the the garden. I I... So I moved to Hawaii with, like, this, like, very clear plan in my head of what I wanted to do. And I wanted to... I was... It was, like, so so beautiful. Just, you know, hundreds of kinds of fruit trees because there's so many tropical fruits. And just like... Just picture it so green and so many, like, tropical flowers and just, like, fruit pouring out of it. And and then and then I had to figure out how to actually do it. And and it's been, like, two and a half years and haven't planted any fruit trees yet. And it's like waiting, being really patient to to do it in the right timing because I could have, you know, planted fruit trees in the ground, but we're still... You know, we're figuring out where they're supposed to go and just the design of it. You know? Because if we plant them in the wrong place, then we're gonna have to uproot them or move them. So I think a lot of that patience has been, like, the step by step waiting for the correct time and for the correct moment. So just like you're talking about moving to Romania and being a missionary, you gotta do it in the right time and it's the same with with planting and with farming. There's even even in Hawaii where we have a twelve month growing season, and that's kind of overwhelming all in itself. It's like I can't grow lettuce all year. It's it's... You gotta wait for the right time. And so we just put up this beautiful greenhouse, but I have to... I still keep waiting. I keep waiting. And so that patience has been really real for me as far the dream. Yeah. Totally. It's it's the past Consider the The past two two and a half years of my life has been... Just so much of it has been working really hard, but also waiting. And just whatever is directly in front of me. So when I first moved, it was... I was walking... And I didn't have a truck yet, so I was walking an hour to an hour to work on the farm and try to, like... I did... I... The garden I first put in, there's no garden in that spot anymore. It was a terrible spot. So I spent an hour walking to work. I'd farm all day, and then I'd walk home Wow. Every day. And it was like... And now there's nothing growing there. I think it's like a sage plant left maybe. You know? So so much of... Yeah. Patience. I don't know. If you got anything from that. So much more that since you've been working so hard to do too? Yeah. Put blood, sweat, and tears into Yeah. When we when we finally have those fruit trees and they're, you know, dripping with mangoes and avocados are falling on our heads. I love this we're now. Giving it away. More now that I hear your story. Yeah. That's all I got. Thank you, Amy. Yes. Okay. I haven't been here the whole time. This is Tanya. It's Rick. I can tell how this analogy is We is were thrilled when we got back from the field to meet a couple that had been in Pakistan for years. So they they were sent out at least... Yeah. They were sent out at one point to... For them to do this during the times that they did it, the seventies and eighties, late sixties, early nineties. It crossed several decades. This meant at the time that missionaries had to send their children to European or American boarding schools and there were several things that are just are not the same now. Yeah. So, two things one of the things that they said was when they left, they grieved for the people that they left. They had to for visas or some civil war or something or another, passports and okay. So, then, the second time, after twenty three years in the same place that they left. Now, they've they've not their children haven't been there. They've worked tirelessly in that environment and when they and when they left, basically, what they said is we saw no fruit. No fruit. The entire time they were there. They were diligent. They were prayerful. They were patient. They you, I'd know they're loving. No one can stay in Pakistan for that long without a very serious calling from the Lord and when they left the second time, there was serious hardship going on in the country. It wasn't like they said, oh, we're not safe. We're gonna go. The government said, get out now. So, it wasn't like their... It was their choice. So, they were starting to keep up with people. I think the Internet had just... It was just getting going. And after they left, all of a sudden, people started coming to Christ. Like, all of a sudden and it spread and the women that she had met with, none of them had committed and in the tea parties and all the formal things that missionary to Pakistan, the wife has certain duties and the the husband has very certain duties and all of that that she'd done with grace and love and proper and worked and cleaned and washed and did everything perfectly. No fruit. And then when they were left and forced all of a sudden. It was amazing. And how many she talked about the spread and with the men too was... It was helpful for us because we were slightly to mostly pushed out of Mexico. And I didn't wanna go home. I wanted to be there with my people. It was home and that was where my child was born. So, I really had planned on staying for an eternity and we saw growth when we were gone to the teachers, the deaf children were starting to gain a language where they could understand the gospel and things like that but we didn't have the same trials that she had. We got to see lots of awesome, wonderful, huge blessings but my point is, you never know. You never know. Take courage. Make sure you're in impatient. Make sure your calling is true. Bounce it up against the Lord as often as you have. Look to him for the encouragement because if it's a calling, he's gonna tell you and he's gonna say, be patient and he's gonna say, actually, this is all mine. It's not really yours anyway. And so, the seeds that you have, they're still his. He used you but they're still his and he's gonna take care of it and that that story that we got in 2008 has carried me through for a long time. I wish I had known it before then but I was amazed and I've always held that in my head for this exact circumstance. Hey, my name is Steve. I'm with the Iqbalo Hawaii Group. Just knowing Annie, and I remember the day I met Annie actually, she was a... Had a weed whacker with headphones on. And she was in like the jungle just like just going at it. And she was just so excited and so like filled with life. And I could stand up so he would seem better. But... And I remember being like, hey Annie. I was like, what are you doing? She's like, I'm making a garden. She's like, it's gonna be beautiful. You know? And and that was and I watched Annie walk to work every day and to to that garden. And I remember I used to be like, man, this girl is like hardcore. Like, she comes up the mountain like every because it's a uphill walk too. And so she didn't give herself as much credit there because she actually... She planted an incredible garden that was just with nothing. I mean, she bought her own seeds and she took lava rock and made raised garden beds with, like, just rock. And then we don't have a lot of dirt either too, so you have to make your own... She made her own dirt with making compost and doing different things. And the... We had this, like, little Garden of Eden around our prayer tent. And so we're we're just like tent dwellers. We... But not like in like a squatting way. We're not like homeless or anything. You know? Like, we're... We have homes, but we pray in a tent. You know? And so... But we we took a high tunnel tent, and we turned it into our house of prayer. And so... Which is really cool because it's like a a greenhouse, you know, where God is... You know, we're all seeds of... You know, in the the father's garden. And so... Anyway, the story just with Annie of Patience really was inspiring to me because she planted this incredible garden. And we were doing some research to try to figure out if we could get some money from the Department of Agriculture for grants. And the guy came and he was walking our farm and looking at things. And then he said, well, do you have any produce? Have you planted any? Like, do you have a garden anywhere? And I said, yeah, we have a garden over here. And I took him around and showed it to him. And he said, oh, like, this is really... This is a good square footage here. He goes, we actually have a program where we'll give you a cost per square foot of crop that you have in the ground that would benefit from a greenhouse. So it's with NRCS, with Department of Agriculture. And so he said, if you take square footage of this, he goes, send it to me and I'll see what I can do. So the story of Annie's patients was that we literally measured it all out. And I sent it to the guy, and it equaled a $20,000 greenhouse. So we just built that greenhouse. Where Annie really just she was sharing with us the other day with the team of like, we had to rip that garden out to build that greenhouse and that was painful, you know? I mean, like, that was a hard day like but but it was beautiful though in the same sense because it was like we it was like we had done something and then God was taking us from glory to glory and I feel like that in that patience and and having courage in patience, I feel like you have courage that that the Lord has something better for you. So you're like, you're patient where you are and so that's what I really learned from that was like not to not to look at like small beginnings and and grumble and be like, oh, I would. You know, you've been praying for this room to be filled and now you're here seeing it filled. You know, so I just feel like it really inspired me of of Annie's story of just to to take courage in the small things, to be patient in the small things knowing that God is preparing me to give to give me more ground, to give me more space. And so now we... We're gonna create an incredible... Andy's gonna have a small business and we're gonna start... It's actually gonna be a whole new program of how we reach the community that we're in. Because we wanna start a produce community garden type function where we can maybe even sell to the local school. So how much more is this garden now gonna be from what we originally thought? So I just thought that was super cool. So taking... For me, it really stood out of the two of that story of being patient and taking courage in that patience that that the Lord will honor my integrity as I as I honor him to with more more land, more more to gain more ground. So, praise God. Anybody else? Thanks. My name is Ben. I had a couple of thoughts. So, kind of reminded me of a couple devotionals. Be patient is kind of like the Lord acts on those acts on behalf, the Lord acts on behalf of those who wait for him and then take courage also kind of reminded me of act on behalf of the Lord and the consequences of your actions are his to bear. That's a really good one that I try to remember. You know, if I'm doing something for the Lord, the consequences of my actions are mine, they're his. Don't grumble kind of reminded me of of Israel a little bit. But my my story is is a little different other than impatience. God has kind of told me like you know, I've been perfectly happy doing something for some length of time and God has basically said, okay, we're not doing that anymore. We're we're doing this now and it's like, what? Wait, what? And you know, that kind of reminds me and that's happened to me several times and that's kind of like Abraham's story. You know, Abraham was like 90 years old and living in his parents' tent and and God is like, hey, let's do something cool, you know, and so, you know, that happens to me more often than than I'd like to have it happen sometimes. And then, I I mean, I don't want to get too sidetracked but talked about Job a little bit and I just I love the story of Job too much not to say something. It's it's really incredible, you know. The Lord has taken him. It's it's hard to say, you know, if if you lose you know, if if you lose your spouse, if you lose your family, if you lose your job, right? And you lose all these blessings that are from God. What do you do? Do you do as Job's wife said, curse God and die or do you, you know, blessed be the name of the Lord and that's hard because if if if in one instance, you have nothing and the other instance, you have everything and it's it's kind of like that's kind of like the Joel Osteen like I love what God gives me type. You know, I love God because of all my blessings and that's not why we're called to love God. We're called to love God because we love God and it's just that story. I love that story. Job has these three useless friends and and they all tell him, you know, curse God and die. Job, you're a sinful man. This has happened to you because you're a sinful man and you're wicked and repent and and and you know, how many times do we hear that today even in in some churches, it's like, oh well, you know, this happened to you because you're unrepentant and it's like, well, no, that's that's not that's not true and yeah, I just love that story of Job and and and it's it's got a happy ending that God sows tenfold what the devourer has has reaped. So, yeah. So, that's important. Lot of lessons there in Job to keep in mind. So, Well, welcome to all the people from Hawaii. And I... This is... We... And it really was very refreshing to come in tonight and have all these young people be very outgoing and come up and say, hi. My name is thus and such. So, it that was a wonderful introduction. So keep it up wherever you go. But what I... And the other thing... That's only one little... One of... I did wanna say that this evening. But while we're going through this patient courage, don't grumble routine, you who come from Hawaii or have been living in Hawaii, this is probably a cool day. But for those of us that live here, this is the warmest day we've had this spring. And when it's raining one day and snowing the next, and we have to be patient, we have to take courage because we know the sun is on the other side of the clouds. And sometimes we grumble and sometimes we don't but any rate, I just, it just hit me that that those verses can come in handy when it starts raining in a day or two. Thank you. My name is Mike and and I think this is a great passage. Especially coming out of winter. I mean, it's it's good but I like what everyone has said. I just had a couple of notes here. Can you guys hear me? The the thing that jumped out is just the the patience. I think it's huge and when I think about patience, the way that it's speaking to me tonight is just patience and emotion. I think that emotion will get us into more trouble than anything and we've just been teaching the youth about the importance of our faith and kind of the the pillars of how people leave their faith. There's really two reasons that people leave faith. It's either temptation. It's trying to get something. It's outside of God's garden and saying, I think I'm going to go after that. You get tempted out or it's a hardship. It's a hardship. Something hard happens in your life and we end up with the question of how could a good and loving God allow something like this to happen. If he is in charge, I'm upset with him, that type of thing and I think that patience is so key. Our what what's speaking to me is our faith is so valuable but our faith is only as big as what takes us out. Our faith is only as big as what crushes us. Whatever it is that comes into our life and has the ability to remove our faith. It's only that big but if we can be patient in those few minutes, if we can wait on the Lord, God will come through. He will sustain us and so I think those were two things that spoke to me and then, I just think it's it's so hard to get it perfect the right time. I love the stories that were shared because I don't think we get a greenhouse without a garden. Like, we do not get a greenhouse without a garden. We've got to be willing to get our faith wrong in order to get it right. We can't expect to love people perfectly or forgive people perfectly if we're not willing to just go at it with what we've got with a pickaxe into some volcanic rock, you know? You you go at it with what you got and then one day, you'll get the greenhouse. So, those were kind of the and the fruit trees. The fruit trees will come. You know, we've got faith for that but just to to be patient, I think those were kind of the things I was thinking about. Yeah. So, my name is Gwen. I'm also with the Ecbalo Hawaii crew And the verse that was standing out to me was, John ear to God and he'll John ear to you. At the school, we talk a lot about God not only being our savior, but our Lord. And I was thinking about the picture of Jesus' savior. You he's he's up on the cross. But for him to become lord, that means he's on the throne of our hearts. And so in order for that to happen, for him to come down from the cross and be living Jesus inside of us, we have to draw near to him. Like, we have to come to the cross. We have to come and bring him our stuff, our our burdens, and our sins in order for him to really dwell inside of us and fully fully encompass us. We have to give him our yes. And so, yeah, just that that verse, draw near to God and he will draw near to you was really highlighted to me. I love spending time in our prayer room, and I really feel like just coming and seeking his face has really given me the opportunity to realize, oh, man. Like, Jesus has always been my savior, but is he really my lord? Are there things in my life? Are there are there things that I'm holding back? And so, yeah, just as an encouragement to all of you, really check even if you've been a Christian your entire... Like, I grew up in a Christian home, but, like, it's been such a revelation lately to be like, oh, I'm gonna give him my full yes. I want him living inside of me fully encompassing me. So... Yeah. Thank you. That's a good word. Monique. Hi. My name is Monique. Yeah. Welcome to all you guys from the Big Island. I actually... There's a gal here from Jackson who had wanted to move to Hawaii for ten years, and she just did. And she thought she was gonna be there for six months to learn how to surf, and the Lord's called her there indefinitely. Yeah. At a farm. So I just where she's at so they can... Because I I don't... My... I've been stuck Hilo, and so I just came back. Is that near you guys? Oh, Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Yeah. So I was just with her on a farm. And so I experienced, yeah, just the Hilo rain and how it can be like a a blessing and, like, just, you know, like, planning your day around the rain and and everything, and then also saw that volcanic rock. So just huge respect for you to, like, pickaxe volcanic rock and plant a garden. Like, if you haven't if you haven't been to Hawaii in a while or if you haven't seen it, that volcanic rock is like no joke. You're like, wow. Like, the God can bring life out of that. I mean, there's so many nutrients and stuff but yeah. I think the thing that stood out to me was the don't grumble. I heard a sermon this morning just about the time in the wilderness, a preparation, and how God... Yeah. I mean, it's very biblical. Many of the greats like Abraham and Moses and and... Yeah. Just so many, like, even modern day... Oh gosh. I can picture his face, but who has, like, great sermons. But, anyways, I've endured some wilderness seasons too in my life and just how the grumbling, the sermon that I heard this morning was John Revere and I haven't really heard him talk before but my aunts, my godmother sent me a message and it was talking about the severity of complaining and how in Corinthians, there was a list of of of sins to beware of. Yeah. And that the... So just the seriousness of complaining and... Yeah. So just that highlight and how, like, people are watching. And even in our own hearts, I think when we open the door to complaining, it really does, like, I think allows the enemy to to, yeah, just plant doubt and and those things in our hearts. Like, is God really for us? Will this really come to pass? Those promises that he's made us and so, yeah. So, it was just good to think about that to so just encourage us like in different wilderness seasons that we maybe are going to endure here soon or just to guard our hearts against that because it really is a warning there for a reason. Yeah. Thank you. It said consider the prophets one time too and he went straight from consider the prophets and then Job but when it said consider the prophets, I thought of Jeremiah, forty years, forty years of absolutely fruitless ministry. Amos, he's telling us, we don't want to hear that message. We don't want to hear that message. You can't tell Jeroboam that message. We don't want you around here. If you're going to tell that message, go back home. We don't want you here. We'll listen to Jonah who's telling us everything's okay. Seriously, there are a lot of prophets that put a just kept putting the word out there. Thus, saith the Lord. This is what he says is going to happen and it did and but man, that's that's tough. Consider the prophets. They were letting their yes be yes. They weren't wavered by by the resistance, right? And they were patient, patiently enduring. I think of three different times in Jeremiah where he calls out to the Lord and he goes, I can't do this anymore. Please, you should have gotten somebody else and he says, you're my man. You have been. I put you together in your mother's womb. You're the man to do this and just such comfort from a loving God that's taking care. When this guy isn't hurt and then, he calls him from the pit the next time. He calls him from the pit and he answers back and says, yes, you're right. It's bad. God says that. He goes, and it's going to get worse. Ain't that something? But he said, he, when he gave him the message after the people, you know, bottled up, threw it in the river, burned it, whatever they were doing. They kept on taking the message and ignoring it. When he gave him the message, the next time, it was the same message. It's the same message and they ignored it but he was still faithful in doing what he was supposed to do and we can be that too and I think with all without grumbling and complaining. Paul says, do all things without grumbling and complaining. That's that's easier said than done. And it's easy to sneak into that. And caregiving sometimes. Caregiving for family members or caregiving for other people. It's funny. Just kind of walking in from the outside. You stop at the door and you think, okay, I'm here to help, you know? And I I think that's a really good way to think about that every time we walk out of the door here. Hey, I'm here to help. This is not to add to the problem and grumbling, complaining really can add to the problem. So, anyway. It's true. You're going to invite the rest of the band back up? Think we should say, would you guys come back again? By the way, aren't these guys talented? Like really? They just jumped right in. I... I'd love to pray, though, first. Would you stand? And and I... I'd like to pray. God, thank you for this word tonight, truly. And we ask that you would divinely direct us toward patience, encourage, and the ability to bear with one another according to the grace that you've given us. In Jesus' this There it is. Here it is. Proverbs three. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. No. Just depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do. He'll show you which path to take. Hang out for a little while. Get to know some of the people that are here. Love you guys.