Parish Retreat 2018 Session 1

I'd like to thank the Academy for this lovely award. Every time I get recorded, I have to make, my name is Bill, and I'm holding up this little book.

! We took a two and a half week cross-country road trip, which we know is a miracle when you can spend two and a half weeks in one truck with your kids. And we, my kids don't have telephones, they don't have iPads. You know, we have a little one, we watch a few, but we feasted on one another. We feasted on one another. It was beautiful. Now, if you guys have iPads, your kids do, I'm not chucking a rock, just saying that's what we do as a family. I'm convinced like, you know, we're the, the wilder family. You know, we're like from a time long ago. But as we're driving down the driveway, I started to laugh and I reached down the pocket of my truck and I pulled it out. And I'd taken my daughter's silly joke book with me. So mile after mile, they were getting silly jokes. And they're supposed to tell you like, pastors always have to start a sermon with a funny joke. So I'm like, yeah, okay, let's, let's find one. I will randomly do this. Lucky dipping. Again, because those are bad words. What happened when a little boy dropped his ice cream into the pool?

You made an ice cream float. They're not mites. I'm here all week, people. Is it a good idea to eat ice cream on an empty stomach?

Nope. You should eat it on a stick. And because we're Trinitarians, we'll have one more. What most resembles half a berry?

Yeah, they're half. So if you guys, you can't see it as we're recording, but if you happen to notice too, our jar we shook up, the chaos is starting to settle all the more.

I do these things. We have object lessons. As I was talking with my beautiful hosts this morning, you know, we're talking about nature, nature and creation. You know, we have in the Psalms, it says all creation proclaims the glory of God, right? But when we look at all of nature, what we have to do too is it's systematic. We believe in a creator God. Amen. We have design.

We have a very great creator and she's crafty and smart and even made a platypus, which is just awesome. Right? I mean, the Lord knows what to do with leftovers in a good way. Right?

He gave us a duff-filled platypus and man, but all those things are being made new. In our devotional, my kids and I read, it talks about the new earth, right? We're going to have a new earth.

Great professor in seminary, my Old Testament professor would always remind us, I want to remind you from the start, as believers of Christ, right? As followers of Yahweh, our final destination is not heaven, is it? Where is it? The new earth. The new earth.

You know, Tim Keller preaches a great sermon. It talks about the Bible being just nothing but a gardening book. It starts in a garden and ends in a garden. In the midst, we have chaos and disorder.

But we are called to be gardeners. We're called to prepare and to live that. How do we do that? We live it actively, not passively. There's a guy, George or John Nespitz, a prophetic artist.

I did this picture a while ago and I bought one. It just spoke to me. It's a picture of a woman waiting at the wedding. She's standing on a sea of glass. And the picture is over her shoulder. So I see his hair tousled over her shoulder.

And she has a hem of her garments hiked up and she's standing on the sea of glass in this colonnated room. And you can follow the artist inspired by the Holy Spirit all the way down to the end of the hallway. And if you buy the $100 large print, you can see it, which I did, right?

Because I love this image, right? You can look in the distance and you see coming out of the hallway in the midst of the midst, the Lion of Judah. In church, there's our call. We're to wait as a bride with our garments girded. Amen?

Waiting for the groom to come back and claim his bride. We're to be busy about the work. Not earning our salvation, but doing it because it's been given to us. And just like everybody in Scripture who had been set free, their desire was, I want to go where you go.

I want to be what you're being. I want to do what you're doing. And right now the church is waking up in a beautiful way. And in such creativity, the Holy Spirit is a very creative and crafty little guy.

One of my friends starts to pray. But we do that and we can only position ourselves and be released by the Spirit of God when we enter into that understanding of our level of humility before this incredible God who made himself nothing to save us while we were yet dead in our sins, right?

We have to approach that. So one of my favorite Scriptures we've been going through is 1 Corinthians 15.10. And Paul talks about it's by the grace of God, right? By the grace of God, I am who I am.

And His grace to me was not without effect. By the grace of God, I am who I am. And His grace to me was not without effect. And it goes on to say, I tried all the harder.

Now that wasn't to earn His salvation. We know fully that Paul was convinced that His salvation came by the sacrifice of Jesus because he had an encounter with Christ, right?

Now it wasn't just the Jesus. It was which one? It was after the resurrection and ascension and when He came back down, right? It was the justified Jesus that He met walking on the road.

That's really important because Paul was a really good churchgoer, amen? He went to all the conferences. He would have been a Plano. He would have had the belt buckle, right?

He would have had like all of his... His Bible would have been signed by Eugene Peterson. Amen? Rest his soul. And yes, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, for Eugene.

We praise you for him. And then here Paul thought he was getting it all right. And then people look, we look at the Bible when we read like Sadducees and Pharisees. We get our holy, oh, those people.

Kind of guy. Never forget, they were the ones that God first spoke to you to say, look, I want you to live these things out. They were trying. God came and said, look, I got a different way. So here's Paul literally getting knocked off his high horse by the resurrected Jesus.

The one who had been justified, brought into a right relationship with the sovereign God of the universe just because of Jesus. And his life was never the same. When we get to that point of realizing that we have been saved by grace through faith, our lives are never going to be the same.

Now look, they might not look like mine. You can all say, whew, thank you, Jesus. Not that odd. But there's going to be a change.

There's going to be a change. You know, Spurgeon was equipped at one point saying, you know what? If you do not have a burden of souls and you really paraphrase, have to double check your salvation.

If you don't have a burden for the loss, you really don't get it. I was on staff with Young Life for a long time and we would often say it's a sin to bore a kid with the gospel. And if you can bore a kid with the gospel, you have to reassess what your belief of the gospel is.

Amen? So while I was in seminary, we prayed this one prayer every day except for Wednesday. We had Eucharist and it was a general prayer of thanksgiving. That prayer changed my life.

We've become what we pray. This is really important stuff, right? And as we got to this prayer, I mean, people in my seminary are like, oh man, Brian's praying again. Look out. We'll go on forever, right?

Because I'm a thankful man. I can't shut up because I'm so thankful. But I put these rocks out so we can get stoned in church. Don't stone. We're not Colorado. Don't stone me.

All right? But if you remember this lovely passage from 1 Samuel, 5th chapter, I'm sorry, 7th chapter.

I'm going to begin in the 8th verse. And the people of Israel said to Samuel, do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that he might save us from the hands of the Philistines.

So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered as a whole burnt offering unto the Lord. And Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel.

But, God's got a big but. But. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines, and threw them into confusion.

And they were defeated before Israel. And all the men of Israel went out to Mishpah and pursued the Philistines, and struck them as far below Bethkar. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mishpah and Shenn, and called its name Ebenezer, for he said, Till now the Lord has helped us.

We do all of this work, and a lot of us are afraid to engage in justice or mission ministry, because we're afraid we're going to have to share our story and our testimony.

Some of us, like, I have done it literally. Last year we gave out 7,000 pairs of underwear. Praise Jesus. That was 7,000 face-to-face encounters that we got to meet people.

That we could explain that there's a sovereign God of the universe who knows him and loves him by name. That's really important. But we forget our story, right? And we're supposed to recount this story.

One of my favorite parts about, and I learned this, so I'm a low church Trinity grad, but check it out. I know that, you know, when they would set up the churches in choir, and they would read the Psalms back to one another, the Psalms of God's mighty acts, we'd do it responsibly.

And it was, I'm telling you what God had done, and you respond back to me. Church, we're to respond to one another. God is for us. Because who can be against us?

Some trust in horses, some trust in riders, but as for me, I will trust in the strong name of the Lord. Amen? Amen. That is what it's about. So look, I've got these stones today.

We're going to take a couple of minutes today before we go on, recounting how the Lord has helped us in our lives. We're going to build a little Ebenezer. We're going to spend five minutes, and we're just going to say, Lord, thank you when you, to your own self, and put it down.

And then take another one and put it down. But I want to remind you as well, think about this. This is incredible. We often think, you know what? I've gotten to my place of absolute despair, and then God showed up.

The amazing, I'm sorry, behind the pole. The amazing got the cheap seats. You should go online quicker and buy your tickets. But also remember, right, that it's the difficult times in life that are pivotal for our sanctification.

Right? The Lord talks about testing, and we should know that's about when you refine metal. It makes us stronger. I woke up this morning really early before coffee, and God was speaking to me. And it's so exciting to do, and I'm not jacked up on caffeine yet.

And the Lord is like, look, Brian, the most beautiful word in the Scripture is repentance. It means no matter where you've done, no matter how far you've gone, you can turn and come back to the Lord. A true and contrite heart he will not despise.

God is waiting and willing, always and everywhere, to receive back one of his lost children. Amen? It's beautiful. So when we get to these places of discouragement, when we find ourselves stuck, when we find God sending these things upon us, like when he had sent his people out, like when he had sent Jesus out into the church to be tempted by who?

Say, Satan. When the church says, look, I want you to go to send these people out that have not repented of their sins, off into the darkness, into the hands of Satan, that they might repent and come back. That's the goal, is return and restoration.

So when we get our stones, you also have to thank God for the rough times in life. I was sharing this morning, one of my biggest things that scares me to no end, is standing in front of a bunch of people talking.

When I was a young kid, I had lots of speech difficulties. I suffered horrific things, and it was hard for me. And it took me so long, I would practice the prayers when I was starting to go through seminary, that I wouldn't stumble over words.

I had a lot of stuff. So I quake in my boots when I show up. But I show up because I have a big, mighty God. And I believe he's asked me to speak. So I thank God for my fear of speaking in public.

Because in my weakness, God's strength is made manifest. So when we sit here and put our little stones out, thank God for your weaknesses. And remind yourself where they started.

I'm going to give you guys like three minutes. Go before the Lord, and then just make a little pile. And then if anybody wants to share one or two in one sentence, we can do that. And as you're getting your stones out, I'm going to pray a prayer for you as you're thinking.

Amen. Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we are unworthy servants to give you humble thanks for all your goodness and loving kindness to us and to all whom you have made.

We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life. But above all, the immeasurable love of the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ for the means of grace and the hope of glory.

And we pray right now, you give us such an awareness of your mercies that with truly thankful hearts we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking with you in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life.

So, Father, please recount to us the moments in life where you were. Amen. Amen. I have 45 more pounds of rocks.

You know we have a whole pile. Just think of a couple of specific ones. What?

You have a world? It is. So, for I have a world. as a world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. A world. we praise you.

Interpoled his precious blood O to grace how great the death dearly I am constrained to be Bless you.

You can sing it. Go ahead. Go ahead. Sing it Jesus. O to wonder Lord I fear Father you've searched our hearts right now with your Holy Spirit and we're grateful Lord for these small piles of rocks.

Father we pray right now that you could just have us pick one, one moment and that you would just help us draw that one rock out that one time that stands out most to us and that would be our story that would be our testimony and we would we would know that story well and that we would know how your character and nature interceded in that story with scripture and we'd be ready willing and able Lord to do that and to share that for your glory in Jesus name Amen.

So really grab one and then take that and keep it in your pocket it's really important to do that right? So we talked about this scripture also says that they shall be saved by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony you get a gold star in the chart thank you Jesus and the words of our testimony the blood of the Lamb and the words of our testimony why is that important?

Because you know what? You know they're not going to know the words of a testimony they're not going to know about Jesus unless we speak of them Yes God can go and find people when they're not looking after him he does but that's important So 1 Corinthians 15 10 goes back to your stone God's grace this is your story of God's grace this is your testimony this is going to save people if you want to be able to start to share the gospel pray the prayer I pray every day Lord just give me one chance When you're willing you will be used When you're willing you will be used And we were sharing this morning our job is to love the Lord our God with our heart, mind, soul and strength When we do that it's saying Yes Lord I'm willing and the Lord will start to send people to you I'm an evangelist with Church Army David asked me to speak about that Church Army was started a bit over 100 years ago in England by a guy named Wilson Carlisle Crazy man did incredibly well with business right and the Lord said look I have a different plan for you

He had a burden for the broken people all over England So he played the trombone which is something that's lacking in your worship band I don't know many like you know so he would go off and he would take his trombone and he would bring the euangelia and he would be a herald of the good news that's what we are we're heralds of the good news that we know we're heralds of when God has intervened in our lives so Carlisle went out into the worst places imaginable because light has nothing to do in light places amen light only works in the dark places we were sent to go off in the dark places and we shouldn't be afraid of the dark children the dark is afraid of the lights amen and man the world's a dark place right but we went back last night to John chapter 1 right and the light has come into the world right we if we embody the fullness of God the fullness of Christ is pleased to dwell in you you might think that you're not gifted enough talented enough you have Jesus you have the fullness of God what's lacking what's lacking if you have the fullness of God

I have to go to one more conference oh no I don't do what Brian does thank goodness you have gifts and here's church army went marching off and now it was it got really big they were overseas doing all kinds of stuff just it was a salvation army you know for the Anglican church and it was part of the Episcopal church and then when the second of evangelism tanked out church army did as well right but you know the Lord said what I have started I will see to fruition so church army is raised back up we had gotten down to just a few you guys were six we were about the same we have about 22 evangelists right now and we literally take a life out of one another I'm an Anglican priest but I have vowed to my brothers that I will spend my life on the behalf of the poor in the advancement of the gospel I'm a full time domestic missionary I have to raise all my money you know I walked away from I was sharing we had a decent job in a decent church when I was in seminary my wife and I spent all of our savings so we got out debt free

I mean we were broker than broke we would go to Walmart and just look at stuff for a date you know we would get like popcorn and you know what our shoes haven't worn out because God is faithful and the work God did in us was not to provide everything God changed my wants and my needs and my desires and we got to a place because of God's grace and one of my stones was the death of my son because when I got to that point I could look at the Lord to say indeed Father your grace is sufficient for me because I ain't got nothing else then my wife and I sat there one day and we prayed it's like honey where are we going to go my wife looked at me and said Brian he alone has the works of life where else can we go when you're convicted of that your life is going to burn for the glory of God it could be in Wedman's right it doesn't matter Hannaford's it doesn't matter right you could be flipping burgers for Jesus it doesn't matter right if you think any job is beneath you then rethink God uses everybody in every position there's ordained plumbers there's ordained newspaper deliverers there's you name it

God just doesn't use these people for his glory amen I mean come on now so what you have you're ordained just simply say Lord how can I how can I progress and expand the kingdom where I am right now so that's what Church Army does what I've done with Church Army it's been a little bit different as I had said the Lord put this big burden upon me you know to go off and start this homeless ministry so I would partner up to another church and notice how they did things was all wrong right I've been in Africa and had nine trips to Tanzania I keep going back to an area that has no electricity and no tarmac they would often say Brian I don't get it why do you come here we have nothing to offer and I said look I have one clear message God send me here to remind you that you are not abandoned you are not orphaned that's the whole meta narrative of scripture you are not abandoned you are not orphaned go back to Genesis chapter 3 we all have an orphan spirit amen all of us that's why we want the love from our wives our husbands that's why we want the love from our children we feel as if we're not amen now a lot of us have really good reasons but we got beat up by life that's the lie of Satan so if anyone's gotten beat up by life

I want you to hear this today you are loved and adopted by the most high God and you are my sister and brother and I love you to the end of the earth and now give me five bucks no ten I'll give you ten right on buddy parents give these kids their wall it's fast I use K-PAL I got a car meter coming up real soon so what the Lord asked me to do was ridiculous right I've gone off I saw what they gave and again we go to Africa with everything we do you can write this down in your note I know I'm hard to take notes with it's less about what we give and how we give it's less about what we give and how we give right Paul talks about that I can speak in the tongue to the angels but if you don't have love I'm sounding gone I'm nothing how you give is really important so you need to search your heart for your motivation why are we doing these things now it might not just be to grow your church it might be to cover your brokenness right

Henry Allen was really great great book way back when about wounded healers God's going to use our brokenness in our lives to go and minister to people I spent five years going to this juvenile prison because my brother grew up in juvenile prison I spent my birthdays visiting this guy it was horrible I was angry I was frustrated I was ripped he stole my childhood I would say that up until five years ago but what James talks about in scripture that love covers a multitude of sins the sin wasn't my brothers the sin covered was mine my anger my resentment my refusal to give him the forgiveness that I had received from Jesus and when we can walk in that healing walk in that power things are going to happen so I started to do this it started with an underwear ministry right and we started giving out clothes the first thing I learned here's a tip for you guys when you give out clothes like I said most people give out the clothes they wouldn't be caught dead in anymore amen

I wouldn't wear it to some homeless guy and then what we're saying is beggars can't be choosers so we tend to give brand new but we're smart we rip the tags off if you give somebody who's caught up in homelessness we have a lot of folks will take those clothes rip the tag off and then resell in a bodega right a lot of those places resell or anywhere else it's got cash value that's why you have all of the baby formulas are locked up in CVS right now huge street value you steal that stuff and sell it that's why it's locked up I know these things because I know my people right again like I said last night Jesus said offer your first fruits when you give somebody something brand new if you know them and know it's not going to get resold you're going to watch people weep and then you get the opportunity to just simply say you know what God gave me his best in Jesus I just want to do the same for you and they're going to honest to

God say I want that God churches have gotten accustomed to getting you know people from churches just enough just good enough right we've got we just we'll send those things off so I started to do that and then the Lord was like well Brian I heard from people the one thing that no one's getting in shelters and I'm trying to encourage every Anglican church to get involved it's underwear right now people make blessing bags I know the homeless guys I watch the homeless guys how many blessing bags do you think they get a day a lot if you see someone at the corner if you look around you'll see a trash bag pretty close that's for all the leftover stuff right or if they get too many things they're going to go and sell them you might say I'm going to give somebody a gift card this is some practical stuff right gift cards have cash value all the check cashing places around here how many do you know a bunch right if you look on there you're going to find a sign say to cash for gift cards right the only thing they're not giving is underwear right underwear

I'm a captain of church army I start giving out underpants so they call me captain I wear it well laughing up because you got bunch of little kids right so I started to go like Lord I'll do that but then I started asking Father God what is it about this and again I always go back to Genesis chapter 3 you know it's very Genesis chapter 3 and Revelation 21 these are two books I go to all the time two chapters it's about destruction and renewal right the broken garden and the renewed garden and when you go back to that you know we have the orphan spirit we also have that spirit of like I said last night the shame and indignity and nakedness that's what it's about that's why people hide if folks find out this is happening in my life I won't be able to walk out in public right so why don't why don't you think why don't people donate underwear do you guys give away underwear haven't yet good answer but why not because we give away our clothes to make room in our closet for new stuff right we're downsizing we're making way for ourselves most of our donations are about us right when you give away and I'm just

I'm not trying to be a jerk that's a theological word I'm trying to convict us and what the Lord wants to do and saying if the church did these beautiful things so we don't give away underwear because it has to be new right it has to be new then it has to fit the first thing you lose when you're homeless is your name you don't have a name you're that guy who went through this that woman over there names are very important it's a whole teaching on theology of name it drives me Isaiah 49 your name is inscribed on the hand of God inscribed not written down with a sharpie inscribed right I work with people in nursing homes that have dementia they forget who they are God has their name inscribed in the back of his hand when you get into a homeless situation for whatever reason everybody's got a story you lose your job bill collectors don't care your spouse leaves you you know you get sick

I've got one guy I mean I have people that have fused backs that are living in homeless shelters because they lost their job and had no insurance how do you recover in a bed in a shelter with a fused spine with this electronic thing stimulating what is that about that's that's this that's this all shaken up that's all shaken up so we bring a little bit of dignity just enough to waken them up so when we show up with underwear it's all brand new we have choice choice is the second thing you lose they're used to getting a bag oh here you go and they say thank you and then folks will say beggars can't be choosers I'm like okay so we offer them choice they're not being told what would you like boxers or briefs whatever you got no no sir what would you like boxers or briefs oh I like to have boxers great you want boxer boxers or boxer briefs I don't care what would you like boxers or boxer briefs boxer briefs great would you like the gray the blue and it takes time but it's restoring dignity when you find yourself in a situation when the bottom of your life is fallen out and you have one small piece of dignity you feel amazing now I'm going to be honest the Jehovah's

Witnesses know that and tap into it you'll find them on the streets in the inner cities the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses go knocking on the door and if they have any confrontation I mean when they come to my house I follow them I literally do and I pray healing prayer over them and deliverance from satanic forces that have lied to them and if they go into one of my neighbors house I go behind them I don't let her do that they're poisoning my block and I'm like thou shall not pass it's like yeah you know so I'm marked I'm a marked man it's kind of fun but these people if you notice they'll have a whole little bracket set up sharing stuff up church we have better news than it would be just great I would love it and they start putting like a meme on Facebook it's like you know a guy hiding behind oh no it's Venice people again you know it would be beautiful so we bring choice and then also when we show up we bring them where they are we have a mobile underwear shop right we serve like I said 7,000 people last year we bring 12 gallon crates and it's all lined up and it's all sized and we give a shopping experience it's all hello how are you today and we welcome people down the line even with our socks we give black or white socks why we want to give back choice choice is really important why we can help them choose the color of their underwear today then they can choose to call their strange sister in

Florida who has her children because she had a divorce and ended up getting addicted to the pain medications it's the start of a choice later on because we're there all the time in all weather we can start to introduce them to choose this person named Jesus Christ who was born of a virgin as she was waiting to be engaged to this man named Joe and say he came here and he was crucified and died and gave them the whole story and they're going to believe it why because we gave them what they needed there's no condemnation they don't know that yet remember they're all image bearers of God and all are deserving of that respect right so then what else happens when we set these things up while we're sitting there with all of our underwear we're outside in the public we're a spectacle we're a spectacle you know

Paul talked about that right here I am Captain Underpants Paul would say I'm being put on display for all the others and then we have people that will say you know what that's really good but the Lord's really clear he says look when you give your alms do it a secret so that no one can see but wait a second Jesus also said not Jesus you know when you do your good works do them outside in public that they might see your!

glory! Father in heaven so we have these both in so when we do that we have to make sure we're doing these works with a clean heart not out of bad motivation the good news is even if our motivation is bad God can still use it amen so you can't mess it up and while we're lined up in there we have people all the time you think it's a spectacle when you have 12 gallon tubs of underwear lined up under tarps in the rain we'll use plastic bags because I've got like $3,000 of underwear at any given moment with me you know and sports bras because no one gives those to women I have daughters and I said that word in church but you know when someone doesn't have some things and they're walking down the street you can't pick your head up can you and Jesus is a lifter of heads isn't he we're just giving him good reason to do so and then folks walk by and they're like what is that that's our mobile underwear shop what what church do you belong to and

I'm like oh this church where do you meet we here where's here on the sidewalk this is my church okay whatever why are you doing this because we love people yeah but why are you doing this oh because I was love first and I'm just paying back the favor to a really beautiful God and no one's ever yelled at us no one's ever told us that our faith and our religion is stupid against love there is no law it's the love language of the people right now Chapman's books a while back the five love languages of God one he never wrote that I would love to write it's a love language of mission right so the five love languages if I can help me remember if you do there was deeds right acts words of encouragement right a bunch of others when you do these things you're encompassing all of them the Lord's going to reach everybody with a different way remember Jesus brought the gospel in many different ways right when I encourage somebody with my words that's going to speak to them the love of

God when I hand them a pair of underwear it's a gift of love it's an act of love for getting this stuff but then when I go and buy brand new underwear here's a beautiful piece too I it's our task amen and when you're out looking how much fun do you think it is when I go to Walmart with a whole cart full of underwear they look at me like man you need to have like a reality TV show about this guy you know it's like my stupid obsession it's like I just love boxers you know in the line of Walmart because I have these things I start to talk about Jesus Christ I share the gospel at Walmart all the time and then you know what happens people start asking for prayer and

I might not be I'm sorry look at that cute baby all right come back to me I don't want my collar right all the time when I go shopping you know and then people start to say what is that and I share what it is and we pray and the line stops and I know it's a miracle because I never have anybody behind me in line going what a jerk buying all this underwear he's holding up the whole line no I've had people run back and buy more amen because they want to participate in something that's good something that's lovely and something that's beautiful because the world right now and praise God it's his but there's not much love and there's not much beauty going on these days right so then when all of our volunteers come down we're bringing in again we have like between five and we'll have 32 today it's going to be a torrential downpour folks are still going to show up in the rain because we are right church here this one too serving him is supposed to be inconvenient we pray for rain and bad weather if you go to we used to say it's the book of home brewing before I stopped drinking and brewing beer right

Hebrews chapter 11 I've got like all these learning problems and I'm like wait wait wait which one is Hebrews going back this way it talks about they went about in caves they went about in the great hall of witnesses by faith and it says oh here's all these great guys there's a great book it's called reading the bible with a damn and a beautiful chapter in there it's called a non-heroic reading of the patriarchal narratives because they were all a mess right so it's really really good so if you go to Hebrews chapter 11 verse 32 what more than shall I say for I don't have time would fail me to tell Gideon Barak Samson Jethath David Samuel the prophet who through faith conquered kingdoms enforced justice obtained promises stopped the mouths of lions quenched the power of fire escaped the edge of the sword were made strong out of weakness became mighty in war put foreign armies to flight thank you Jesus women received back their dead hallelujah by the resurrection some were tortured refusing to be released so that they might rise again to a better life others suffered mocking and flogging even chains and imprisonment they were stoned they were sawn in two sign me up man this is a great church

I want to be in that they were stoned they were sawn in two they were killed by the sword they went about in skins of sheeps and mistreated and here's the word verse 38 of whom the world was not worthy you know we're all going to have a great getting up morning amen death is no respecter of people it's going to happen to all of us I'm not afraid to die I know that when I close my eyes in this life I will see Jesus face to face I don't pray for revival I don't pray for renewal I pray for Jesus to come back maybe because I hang out with such broken people all the time I'm tired of it but you know what just like with Paul I'm here so it's better for other people but I would love to have in my tombstone I've told my daughters I said look man when daddy's dead and gone whatever you do there's never a marker for me I just want to say just say that he loved Jesus sit he loved

Jesus and the world wasn't worthy of him church what would it be like if we understood what God has done for us out of recognition for how far he went to get us how abased he became for us that we lived such a life that the entire city of Syracuse would say you know what we're not worthy to have Holy Trinity Anglican Church here in our town you know what I'm not worthy to have a neighbor named David because the way he loves and receives people I'm not worthy to receive such a gift like that that's what we're called to strive for people and it's not trying to earn our salvation I'm going to beat that up it's because we've received that as a free gift so look I did the underwear ministry I encourage people only because it's a hole that's missing it's just it's not done right and you know wouldn't it be cool if like the Anglicans became synonymous with underwear I think it would be great

I'm trying to get Bishop I'm like Bishop please it would just be beautiful we do things called unday sundays when people process up their underwear you know it's like fruit of the loom fruit of the spirit we get all fruity right and then we place these things up for the spirit of God too and it's about again remind yourself this is why the Lord said to do these things restoration of dignity when you do these deeds right when you when you give acts of love it's to remind yourself all the time now look sometimes I've gotten ripped off two weeks ago I had two people that were just I was giving out my underwear by myself on the sidewalk off across the Hartford stage and someone was like covering another person they stole my entire bin of sports bras right it was like 250 bucks so I worked out some anger issues you know what I'm saying and you know the Lord's got a rod and a staff for good reason and wants to shepherd the people back the staff is to clunk people with amen a little catholic nun taught me that one thank you

Jesus you know and then I just started to stop and to pray I'm like you know what God I believe acts of Satan I'm not going to be discouraged I'm going to keep moving now look it might not be some great historic move of God but I woke up the next day and I had back at it and what happened is the people that I worked with in the streets word started getting out you don't mess with Brian and you don't steal his stuff because he's a good man he's a good man remember when Barnabas was a letter of recommendation to Saul Saul was a wicked man did awful things in his life when he had his crazy conversion Saul became Paul he came back in right and he started to live this gorgeous life and in his life he couldn't go to places for Barnabas was a letter of recommendation do you guys remember what they said about Barnabas how he was known he was a good man full of the spirit and the faith and a courager I pray you'll be a good church full of the spirit and the faith and when we can do those things in crazy ways creative ways legal ways we can bend that part right we have a king not a governor amen then we can start now I want to stop there

I'm hoping you guys might have taken a word or two did anyone get stirred by the spirit like anything resonated with you guys something you might want to do something you might feel engaged in you haven't thought about before who's got a passion who's got a passion yes ma'am yeah they do amen there was a time I would agree a lot of elderly do but we have to be careful of when we go off and engage in ministry especially like with homeless ministry or elder ministry we're never going to go to the assumption they don't know you have a burden of soul thank you Jesus I've had people that have just offended you so bad they put tracks in their sandwich bags to handle the homeless just because you're homeless doesn't mean you don't know Jesus amen right bad things happen to good people someone wrote a book about that right sin is no respect for people right and when you're living under a bridge and when you pray

Lord give us this day our daily bread you need it and it's the same with the homeless we want to make sure they die well right but the Lord also says let's not neglect to meet with one another there's saints that are there waiting as well right and when we show up the beautiful piece we know it's a true act the scripture says to visit the widow and orphan it's full of them they're all widowed they're all orphan amen and when we do things start to happen right when you guys go and visit nursing homes most people that work there like we were saying you know they're coming from Haiti they're coming from West Africa I mean there's like a lot of satanic stuff how many of you guys have gone to a nursing home and before he left said hey can you please pray an exorcism over me because my neighbors are sending demonic spirits from Haiti happens all the time right well you don't count that's what we're talking about right and then you show up and there's all these staff they're working they don't get the weekends off so it's not just the nice old people it's the whole place you transform all of it when you go and you minister to them you minister to their families who can't get there because they have to work and if they take work time off from work in this economy they're going to lose their jobs so they're laden with guilt so here's a church ministering people they don't know releasing and healing guilt from families from that far over

I mean it's just crazy fun I had another woman she had the gift of scrapbooking I had no idea it was a gift I thought glitter was not from God you know it's like the thing it's not especially when you have kids I'm like my kids come home from daycare with glitter I'm like sweet baby Moses so this was the abomination that desecrated the temple with glitter but she scrapbooked right and her whole story was beautiful she had a very an alcoholic abusive husband she left so she wouldn't die they were divorced for 12 years then they got to be married because she came to faith it's beautiful right so she was in this town and she was called all kinds of names because of her husband so she went to this nursing home and ministered to these people that used to call her all those names right in this senior center and she would sit down and she was like oh pastor yes you need to say yes every time you ask her something yes pastor whatever you want and she would be blessed by it and she would make these cards and she'd pay for it and was all just spending time with people sharing her stories and she would share hers if you have a passion like that

I don't care what it is y'all like to fish or hunt fish and hunt for the glory of God share the gospel you like photography bring someone along teach them about pictures right talk about your whatever and ask the creative force of God to stir in your hearts man there's just praise God for the nursing home ministries archbishop foley beach loves it right so we want to follow Jesus and her archbishop it's pretty important you know what I'm saying so yeah praise God for that we prayed last night I believe the Lord's gonna send you when we go to nursing homes we pray healing prayer over people you know we sing right the music team you know when you sing to people it gets to a place that the brokenness can't affect it's just gorgeous so we sing old timey gospel because old timey gospel sings old timey truth is amen amen it's like you're sitting there you're washed in the blood of a lamb you know I love contemporary worship but I want to sit there and if you're not there and we sit already washed in the blood of a lamb it floats down the hallway and all these non-believers

I had one lady this old Jewish woman she's a woman because she just wanted to do something what's so important about the blood what's so important about the blood why the blood she used to be a philosophy teacher and about atheism and a Jew so I explained to her about the blood sacrifice of Jesus out of her testament it was amazing Lois and then when her atheist friend was sick and near death she said you need to come and pray for my friend crazy stuff happens if you just show up right do I stop now we can take a short break and come right back if that works for you whatever you want me to do it is your call you're driving the train let's take a Jesus is driving the train I'm a train wreck let's pray and take a break and then again we're going to look at what's going on and see how he does father we thank you again for the rocks we thank you lord for who you are and what you've done we give you all the praise and all the glory and lord we want to be we're thankful that we're spotless brides because of what you've done and our dress has no blocks but father we do want to gird our loins hike up our hands as we await lord the return of the great bride lord and that the wedding feast will start and never end and lord I thank you for all these party guests and all these party hosts and father even as we break may we just start to talk with one another about you know what god was nudging me towards this now we can just flesh it out lord because we do that you hone us through one another and father we give you all the praise and all the glory in jesus name amen talk amongst yourselves sure sure