Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / August 20,2017 | Discovery Sunday 2017

Transcript

August 20,2017 | Discovery Sunday 2017 · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
0:02
SPEAKER_01: Mulvaine Building and College Avenue Building.
0:05
SPEAKER_01: Great to see you this morning.
0:06
SPEAKER_01: Now you understand why so many people on staff are wearing, you know, um camo, my wife calls it.
0:16
SPEAKER_01: Military garb.
0:18
SPEAKER_01: So uh because we are not on a cruise ship, we are on a battleship.
0:23
SPEAKER_01: So this is a morning that's a little bit different.
0:25
SPEAKER_01: If you're visiting this morning, we're not doing a normal message.
0:28
SPEAKER_01: If you want that, come back next week.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: We'd love to have you uh as we rejoin our series, Really Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe.
0:36
SPEAKER_01: That's next week.
0:37
SPEAKER_01: This week, a shorter message plus, since this is the one day a year that we call Discovery Day, and the center of gravity this morning is not here, not in the auditorium, but it is out in this tent, which is halfway between the two buildings, College Avenue, Mulvane Building.
0:59
SPEAKER_01: Uh, center of gravity is in that tent, and so we're gonna end 10 minutes early, like we always do, and propel you out into the tent, so that you can walk around with hundreds of other people and get recruited.
1:13
SPEAKER_01: And that's where the donuts and coffee and that kind of stuff are.
1:15
SPEAKER_01: So um, anyway, that's where that's where uh it's all happening.
1:20
SPEAKER_01: But I get to talk to you first about um about Discovery Day, and I'm gonna get uh my theme this morning is of course military, but it also has to do with light and dark.
1:31
SPEAKER_01: Uh, my title is Advancing Against the Darkness.
1:36
SPEAKER_01: So I get to use a picture from my favorite book, which when we get to heaven will be the 67th, 68th, 69th books of the Bible.
1:45
SPEAKER_01: No.
1:46
SPEAKER_01: Lord of the Rings.
1:48
SPEAKER_01: No, um, but we are uh advancing against the darkness today.
1:53
SPEAKER_01: There is darkness all around us, isn't there?
1:55
SPEAKER_01: When I was young, my favorite book as a boy was called The Shining Sword, this simple little book about I think I was 12 or 10, and this boy in this book was 10 or 12, and he got this gift of a sword that would shine whenever it was dark, and there was evil around, and he would go, sort of like a pilgrim's progress kid's book, and he would go against this terrible castle and all these evil people, and anyway, it was just awesome.
2:22
SPEAKER_01: I would go out to the fruit orchard and work my way through eating apple and then peach and then cherries and whatever as I read this exciting book.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: And that's what you and I are.
2:32
SPEAKER_01: In my view, in God's eyes, we are carrying a shining sword of the word of God and we're fighting against the darkness, of which there is a lot of darkness today in our world.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: I think of North Korea and their dictator, right?
2:47
SPEAKER_01: Kim Jong-un, who is who looks like a junior hire, you know, who's eaten too many donuts, and who's actually really just a weird guy, and July the 4th this year, and really through the month of July, he was warmongering.
3:05
SPEAKER_01: It's not just war, but warm, threatening war, threatening to bomb South Korea out of existence, threatening to to to bomb the America, not just the mainland, but mainly Guam, and so everybody's really scared.
3:17
SPEAKER_01: And he's back down now because uh Trump responded, you know, like, don't even say that again, or we'll do terrible things to you.
3:25
SPEAKER_01: So he's he's back down, but I mean, we're having war exercises this week over in that part of the world with South Korea because there really is a chance, since he's crazy, that he's gonna dump nukes on Seoul Korea.
3:40
SPEAKER_01: There's darkness there.
3:41
SPEAKER_01: There's also darkness, as you know.
3:43
SPEAKER_01: I talk to you about it semi-regularly because our military people believe the greatest threat in the world today is Islamic fundamental terrorism, and it's happening.
3:52
SPEAKER_01: I mean, just three days ago, again, in Barcelona, Spain this time, they strike, and innocent people get killed.
3:59
SPEAKER_01: It's happening in France, it's happening in Europe, it's happening all over.
4:03
SPEAKER_01: Now, ISIS, it's true, is being pushed back in many places in the Middle East, but unfortunately, Iran is moving in in those places, and Iran is uh it's not ISIS, but it's uh it's it's bad.
4:19
SPEAKER_01: So there's there's a kind of the darkness of terrorism, and it's an anti-Semitic, an anti-Christian terrorism that that that that finds Jews and finds Christians and deliberately kills them.
4:32
SPEAKER_01: Or you have to think about here what's happening in America most recently, eight days ago, the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.
4:39
SPEAKER_01: You I hope you know something about that.
4:42
SPEAKER_01: This horrific, you know, seeing people march down a street with a Nazi insignia.
4:48
SPEAKER_01: I mean, some of you had relatives like I did, my uncle died fighting Hitler in World War II.
4:54
SPEAKER_01: I can't stand by and watch a Nazi swastika go down the middle of a street.
5:00
SPEAKER_01: And you know that racism is totally antithetical to everything that Jesus taught.
5:06
SPEAKER_01: It's against Revelation chapter 7 that one day people of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, every tongue, tribe, people, and nation will praise God together around the throne.
5:18
SPEAKER_01: We may not, as Christians, even breathe a hint of racism.
5:24
SPEAKER_01: So we must not, I know there's racism on all sides, but but most recently we've had this ugly white supremacism, nationalism in Charlottesville.
5:35
SPEAKER_01: So this is a kind of darkness as well, and it's all spiritually motivated.
5:40
SPEAKER_01: It comes, as the Bible says, from a kind of spiritual world where the devil and his legions are on one side, and Jesus Christ leads the angels on the other.
5:52
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible wants us to be really clear about something that God is only on one side.
5:57
SPEAKER_01: Unlike Eastern mysticism, yin and yang, where it's sort of a mixture of light and darkness, and you can express Godhood no matter what happens.
6:06
SPEAKER_01: No, the Bible says God is light, and in him is no darkness at all, 1 John 1.5.
6:13
SPEAKER_01: And in fact, God promises us something.
6:16
SPEAKER_01: In John 1.5, he says, you know, the dark, the light shone in the darkness, the light of Jesus, and the darkness could not overcome it, and never can overcome it.
6:28
SPEAKER_01: So today, uh we want to I want to talk to you about how we're advancing against the darkness in sort of a military way and uh acknowledging.
6:38
SPEAKER_01: Let me just be really honest here.
6:40
SPEAKER_01: Souls and Eatson once said that the line dividing good for eat good from evil runs right through the middle of each one of us because of the fall of man.
6:49
SPEAKER_01: Yes?
6:49
SPEAKER_01: And the lie the line dividing light from darkness runs right through the middle of us.
6:55
SPEAKER_01: And so we have to remember that we are not naturally light.
6:59
SPEAKER_01: It is only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ that we move to the side of light and we fight as saints with the Lord Jesus Christ.
7:09
SPEAKER_01: And so that's why we come to this great verse, sort of our key passage in Ephesians chapter 6, that I want us to say together.
7:17
SPEAKER_01: And it goes like this put on, say it with me, put on the full armor of God, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
7:37
SPEAKER_01: So you see, armor on, says the Bible to we saints.
7:42
SPEAKER_01: You have these two sides, light and darkness.
7:45
SPEAKER_01: Dear Saints, put your armor on and join the side of light in the battle against darkness.
7:51
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we intend to do here at Topeka Bible Church.
7:55
SPEAKER_01: By the way, let me add, isn't it interesting?
7:57
SPEAKER_01: This is all happening when tomorrow, what's the big deal tomorrow morning?
8:02
SPEAKER_01: The total eclipse, which which happens every once in a while, which is remarkable for a couple of reasons.
8:09
SPEAKER_01: And and it doesn't have anything to do with war, but I'm driven to tell you this so that you can think about this tomorrow morning.
8:16
SPEAKER_01: So uh especially for those of you who wonder if there's really a God, maybe uh because of a college professor or a book by Dawkins or somebody else, and you wonder, does God really exist?
8:27
SPEAKER_01: Because after all, we can't prove him by you know, like you can prove two plus two equals four mathematically.
8:33
SPEAKER_01: And I say, yes, but you can know God exists the same way you know that someone loves you, or the same way I know that electricity exists, though I can't prove it.
8:43
SPEAKER_01: Philosophers talk about an argument from design, that is, the beauty and intricacy of the world points to the existence of God, and that's where I come to the total eclipse.
8:56
SPEAKER_01: Did you know that the let me explain it for you with some astronomical facts you know and some you may not know?
9:02
SPEAKER_01: How far is the sun away from the earth?
9:06
SPEAKER_01: 93 million miles.
9:08
SPEAKER_01: You you you knew that, I I hope you learned that in second grade.
9:12
SPEAKER_01: So, and the moon is 240,000 miles away from the earth.
9:18
SPEAKER_01: Now, that happens to be a factor of almost precisely 400.
9:22
SPEAKER_01: The sun is exactly 400 times farther away from the earth than the moon.
9:28
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's an interesting fact the diameter of those two bodies is the same factor of 400.
9:35
SPEAKER_01: The moon is 2,160 miles in diameter, the sun 400 times that, 864,000 miles in diameter.
9:43
SPEAKER_01: And the combination of those facts means that when you stand here on Earth or sit or lie down and you look up at the moon and the sun, they look like they're the same size.
9:58
SPEAKER_01: Not close to the same size, like if you looked at the moons when you're on Jupiter or Mars, but they look exactly the same size.
10:09
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is not mathematical proof of anything, but if you were the grand designer of a planet on which you were going to create people whom you decided that you wanted to be in partnership with you forever and create a beautiful planet, wouldn't it be neat to create a planet where this remarkable fact existed that there were two heavenly bodies far apart, but they appeared to be precisely the same size.
10:41
SPEAKER_01: Just saying.
10:42
SPEAKER_01: And as a result, we're able on this planet to have what we're going to see tomorrow.
10:47
SPEAKER_01: We're able to have total eclipses where these two things match absolutely perfectly, only an hour away from Topeka.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: It will last for two, little over two minutes, which is remarkable.
11:01
SPEAKER_01: And that total eclipse, is it proof that there's a God?
11:05
SPEAKER_01: No, but it is another little strange, wonderful, amazing pointer to the design of God.
11:15
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I I think it's a pointer to two things.
11:19
SPEAKER_01: I didn't share this with any of the other services.
11:21
SPEAKER_01: You're special.
11:22
SPEAKER_01: So I'll just a pointer to his to his design, to his design and to his plan.
11:30
SPEAKER_01: To his plan?
11:31
SPEAKER_01: You say yes, because we're talking about light and darkness, and God is going to allow tomorrow in his heavenly light show, this remarkable light show, he's going to allow the darkness to block out the light completely for two minutes.
11:47
SPEAKER_01: And then he's going to allow the sun to reappear and light to reappear, and it's almost as though he's saying, Listen, this is my plan.
11:54
SPEAKER_01: I know how hard life is at times and how the darkness seems to win, but you need to know it's only winning in an eternal sense for just a couple of minutes of eternity.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: And then the light will win again and it will win forever.
12:08
SPEAKER_01: My design for you is beauty.
12:12
SPEAKER_01: And my plan for you is that you be on the side of light.
12:16
SPEAKER_01: Darkness is winning so temporarily now on earth, but it will not win for eternity.
12:24
SPEAKER_01: So if tomorrow, as you see the total eclipse and you think of this, and you go, wow, what a beautiful design.
12:32
SPEAKER_01: What a cool plan.
12:33
SPEAKER_01: And you happen to say, thank you, God, you're amazing.
12:39
SPEAKER_01: It'll be fully understandable.
12:41
SPEAKER_01: All right?
12:42
SPEAKER_01: Okay, now back to my point, which is about war and it's about advancing in the darkness.
12:47
SPEAKER_01: And I'm dividing it into two parts today.
12:49
SPEAKER_01: Advancing, I'm gonna call some people up, and how we're advancing uh into the future with children and so forth.
12:56
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna call up Jason and Amanda right now because we're always moving forward here at TBC into the future.
13:04
SPEAKER_01: Jason, as you know, is our children's pastor.
13:06
SPEAKER_01: He's in charge of our largest programs, I wana program, Camp Catapult this summer.
13:12
SPEAKER_01: How many kids were at Camp Catapult?
13:14
SPEAKER_04: Uh we had over 400 who went preschool through elementary.
13:18
SPEAKER_04: So yeah.
13:19
SPEAKER_01: And now you're starting, you're moving into September when you have these huge Sunday school and uh and uh Wana programs.
13:26
SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
13:27
SPEAKER_04: We're advancing our Iwana program, advancing our lunch buddy program, advancing our uh Sunday school program, and of course we need helpers for that to advance.
13:36
SPEAKER_04: So, yeah.
13:37
SPEAKER_04: Do you need a lot of helpers?
13:38
SPEAKER_04: Well, that's a hard thing to quantify.
13:41
SPEAKER_04: Uh we will never turn more volunteers away.
13:44
SPEAKER_04: We could always use some more because uh the volunteers that we have are so valuable uh in helping each child relate individually to another adult that loves Jesus so that possibly they could learn to love Jesus more as well.
13:57
SPEAKER_04: And I I was thinking a lot about this uh throughout this last week, and I have a I have three children, a lot of you know that, and I have a perfect case study in my home for how the ministries are doing, just a kind of a small case study in my home because I have my daughter is eleven, our oldest son is nine, and our son is uh younger son, the youngest child is seven.
14:18
SPEAKER_04: So almost eight.
14:20
SPEAKER_04: And so uh, you know, there's not really a week that goes by when they don't tell me about something their Sunday school teacher said or their wana teacher helped them learn how to do, and it's it's every single week, and even my son Athan, who is kind of a funny guy anyway, but he was just out of the blue.
14:37
SPEAKER_04: We were in the playground playing in the backyard, and he said, You know, my small group leader, Mr.
14:42
SPEAKER_04: Haas, he's taller than Michael Jordan.
14:44
SPEAKER_04: I said, Really?
14:46
SPEAKER_04: And then I said, Did he tell you that?
14:48
SPEAKER_04: And he said, Yeah, he did.
14:49
SPEAKER_04: And uh Mr.
14:50
SPEAKER_04: Haas is six foot seven, so if you ever see a is how he works with the third third grade boys uh class at an insummit school class at 11 o'clock.
14:58
SPEAKER_04: But I said, Oh, yeah, that's that's kind of cool.
15:00
SPEAKER_04: And he said, But you know what he said, that he'd have to grow over two more feet to be as tall as Goliath was.
15:07
SPEAKER_04: And I thought, that's so cool how my son is even relating Bible story to a small group leader to hopefully learn more about God's word.
15:14
SPEAKER_04: And every single person that helps has the potential to do that and is so very important to every one of our programs here, which is why we're out in the tent drumming hard to try to get some more volunteers.
15:24
SPEAKER_01: If I'd be interested in having at least a conversation with you about possibly helping, uh would you be out in the tent?
15:31
SPEAKER_04: Absolutely, out in the tent with all the different children's ministries explained out there.
15:35
SPEAKER_04: And like you said, if you're if you're kind of on the fence or think, well, maybe I could help with something, you can.
15:40
SPEAKER_04: That's the answer is you can definitely help with something.
15:43
SPEAKER_04: But uh if you sign up just to have a conversation, I'd love to just talk to you with you our needs and see if it's a good fit.
15:49
SPEAKER_01: Thanks.
15:49
SPEAKER_01: And we have this new program that you're starting this fall.
15:52
SPEAKER_01: This is cool, called uhuse, yes.
15:56
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, how now where did that come about and what's it about?
15:59
SPEAKER_06: Well, this this came about um we had Camp Catapult this summer, and we loved it so much, and the kids loved it, the leaders loved it, and we started thinking, how cool would it be if we could have a children's worship arts ministry?
16:11
SPEAKER_06: So more than just choir, more than just a play, but to have a whole worship arts ministry and have kids that can dance and sing and use instruments and have movement and art.
16:21
SPEAKER_06: And so if you have a child that really isn't into being up here singing in the choir, but they'd love to help paint like a set design or something, or maybe some of these kids, kindergarten through sixth grade, some of them even sew a little bit, like costumes or something eventually, maybe.
16:35
SPEAKER_06: So, yes, our goal is to connect children to God through worship art.
16:40
SPEAKER_06: And we meet Sundays, 4 to 5:30.
16:43
SPEAKER_06: There will be an event for Thanksgiving service of praise.
16:46
SPEAKER_06: They'll be a part of the service, and then we'll have a Christmas event partnered with Jason for Christmas.
16:51
SPEAKER_01: So if I have a child or grandchild and I'm interested, you'll be out in the tent.
16:56
SPEAKER_06: Yes, we'll be out at the tent at the worship table, and we have a slip of paper we can give you that has more details.
17:01
SPEAKER_06: You're gonna sign up at discovertbc.com.
17:03
SPEAKER_06: So it'll have all the information on there for you.
17:05
SPEAKER_01: Online.
17:06
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, thanks.
17:07
SPEAKER_01: Thanks, guys.
17:10
SPEAKER_01: Arnon, Jessica, come on up here.
17:12
SPEAKER_01: Grab those microphones from them.
17:14
SPEAKER_01: And now another way of advancing, a little bit older, a couple that I met down in Brazil about a year and a half ago, I think, a little more than that.
17:23
SPEAKER_01: I was speaking in Brazil.
17:24
SPEAKER_01: I'm sp I speak overseas in different countries.
17:27
SPEAKER_01: I have interpreters.
17:28
SPEAKER_01: I was blown away by this, by this, by this guy who interpreted for me down there, and we had a lot of interesting talks.
17:36
SPEAKER_01: And uh, well, you're gonna hear the rest of the story now.
17:39
SPEAKER_01: By the way, first, I heard a wana mention, and you told me that Brazil has a wana as well.
17:44
SPEAKER_01: Is that right?
17:45
SPEAKER_02: Yes, uh, we do have it down there, and it's a wonderful place for children.
17:50
SPEAKER_02: I actually grew up going to a wana meetings every week, and my grandmother uh brought the program to our city in the Amazon.
17:59
SPEAKER_02: Oh well.
18:01
SPEAKER_01: You had a wana in the Amazon?
18:03
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
18:03
SPEAKER_01: In canoes with crocodiles and piranha and all that stuff on the Amazon?
18:08
SPEAKER_02: Not actually inside the jungle and the river, but in houses, normal houses.
18:14
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I come from a big city in the Amazon, almost two million people there.
18:18
SPEAKER_02: So the Amazon is not only crocodiles and canoes and trees.
18:23
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
18:24
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, go ahead.
18:24
SPEAKER_01: So you have you have a wana there, but it's not called a wana?
18:28
SPEAKER_02: No, it's called.
18:30
SPEAKER_02: It's a word in Portuguese, but it's just the acrostic, uh, and it means uh approved worker that is not ashamed.
18:40
SPEAKER_02: So it's uh quite similar.
18:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm ashamed.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
18:43
SPEAKER_01: So um so how did we meet?
18:46
SPEAKER_01: How did you get from the Amazon clear over to where I met you at this school and then up to America?
18:52
SPEAKER_01: You've been here, you and Jessica have been here for nine days, I think.
18:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
18:56
SPEAKER_02: Yes, um so uh I wanted to study theology to be probably a pastor, and I went to the seminary in the northeast of Brazil, east coast.
19:07
SPEAKER_02: And I went there because I love the professors, they're really good professors.
19:11
SPEAKER_02: It's a traditional seminary, 70 years old.
19:15
SPEAKER_02: So after a couple of semesters there, this professor, she's been there for 55 years, so more Brazilian than my wife and I together.
19:26
SPEAKER_02: And her name is Janet McClanahan, or Rowdy Bush.
19:30
SPEAKER_02: Some of you know her.
19:32
SPEAKER_02: And um and she came to me and said, Um, do you know what?
19:37
SPEAKER_02: My pastor and a group from church are coming to Brazil, and I would love if you could translate his sermons.
19:45
SPEAKER_02: And also, okay, that that would be nice.
19:47
SPEAKER_02: So I knew nothing about Jim Congdon.
19:50
SPEAKER_02: I've never heard of Topeka before.
19:52
SPEAKER_02: I knew of Kansas and Texas and the US, but not Topeka.
19:56
SPEAKER_02: And um he finally came and I got to meet him in the seconds after his second sermon.
20:01
SPEAKER_02: Um we could have a very good talk about theology and books, and w both of us were very excited.
20:08
SPEAKER_02: And we also talked about seminaries uh in the US.
20:11
SPEAKER_02: And he said, you know what?
20:12
SPEAKER_02: If you wanted to study there, um I could be a reference for uh for you uh at the seminary.
20:19
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Wow, that would be so neat, I would love that.
20:22
SPEAKER_02: And he said, Okay, so maybe pray about this.
20:25
SPEAKER_02: And I went to the seminary's website, Dallas Seminary, and I found out that I was never going to be able to pay the tuition and the fees and everything.
20:35
SPEAKER_02: Uh it's so beyond our reality in Brazil.
20:39
SPEAKER_02: So then uh I was discouraged and I said, No, I should stay here and take care of my wife, and we're pastor at church, maybe around nort northeast or back in the Amazon.
20:49
SPEAKER_02: Then a couple of months later, um Janet again came to us and she said, Well, you know what, Pastor Jim was asking about you.
20:57
SPEAKER_02: He wanted to know if you still want to go to the US to study.
21:01
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Wow.
21:02
SPEAKER_02: The man has over a thousand people to shepherd, and he's worried about some seminarian he met in one of his trips during their year.
21:11
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'll send him an email.
21:13
SPEAKER_02: So we we've been exchanging emails for a while, so I sent another email, and I said, Well, I'd love to go and I love to study, and I would work to pay part of my studies, but I cannot afford everything, and I don't have ascending church.
21:28
SPEAKER_02: Next day, when I come back from uh morning classes at seminary, I saw this email and he said, Well, TBC can be your ascending church, and we will be glad to help you with the fund that we're raising for my 40th anniversary in the church.
21:44
SPEAKER_02: So it was amazing to us.
21:46
SPEAKER_02: Um, we saw as something very powerful to our lives, and a deep deep um display of kindness that we had never seen before.
21:55
SPEAKER_02: So it was such a blessing to meet him.
21:57
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
22:01
SPEAKER_01: So as you can see, Armand speaks very good English, and he was a terrific translator.
22:09
SPEAKER_01: But Jessica is not uh nearly as learned in English.
22:14
SPEAKER_01: In other words, she doesn't speak any.
22:16
SPEAKER_01: And so um, so anyway, I I feel for him.
22:19
SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm thinking she's sort of in a cocoon of silence, and yet every time I uh talk about this and feel for her, she's feels blessed.
22:26
SPEAKER_01: And so I uh I would like to ask you a question, maybe through Arnon, and that is why why is it or what is it why is it that you feel so blessed to be here in America?
22:44
SPEAKER_02: And what would be the most of start here in Students United?
23:00
SPEAKER_00: A family cristan, and perceive this is maravilloso.
23:14
SPEAKER_02: And perceive that seven years much, the case, and this is so to Jessica by far the most wonderful blessing she has received in the US is seeing that her family in Christ is way more b beyond and bigger than what she expected.
23:39
SPEAKER_02: So she said that in the Bible we find out and in Lord's the Lord's words about discipleship, that he said if you leave your father and your mother for my sake and your brothers and your houses, you will receive even a hundred times more in this life and in the life beyond to come.
23:58
SPEAKER_02: So Jessica is saying that she's so happy to see so many fathers and mothers and sisters that she's meeting here, and we are glad as a family to have you as our family in Christ.
24:11
SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's cool.
24:12
SPEAKER_01: Thank you very much.
24:14
SPEAKER_01: Um wait.
24:17
SPEAKER_01: So let me ask, let me ask one more question.
24:19
SPEAKER_01: You were talking to me this week, and you were talking about you were saying thank you, and I said thank you.
24:24
SPEAKER_01: I'm learning Portuguese, thank you.
24:26
SPEAKER_01: Obrigado, or something, and you said, now this is a you need to know this is a different thank you than the thank you in American or Donka in German.
24:34
SPEAKER_01: And you and you explained it to me, and I thought, that's really it's really theological.
24:40
SPEAKER_01: So would you mind explaining that to us?
24:42
SPEAKER_02: Um yes, um, most people don't know that in Brazil, but um some um it was a couple of months ago I heard this Portuguese professor from Portugal talking about how different languages express gratitude with def different levels of deepness.
25:00
SPEAKER_02: And he referred to Thomas Aquinas and his work on um gratitude, and he talked about three levels of gratitude, of thankfulness.
25:10
SPEAKER_02: The first one is a more superficial one, that you just it's intellectual, cognitive.
25:16
SPEAKER_02: You recognize in your head that someone did something good to you.
25:20
SPEAKER_02: The second level is when you express that.
25:24
SPEAKER_02: And many languages have words to say this second level.
25:27
SPEAKER_02: He said that English, the word um the words thank you or thanks, um, they stay in the first level, the most superficial one.
25:36
SPEAKER_02: It's just um you know that someone is doing something good to you.
25:40
SPEAKER_02: And other languages express the second level of gratitude.
25:45
SPEAKER_02: When they say, for instance, in Spanish, muchas gracias, or in French you say merci.
25:51
SPEAKER_02: So you're saying I'm giving you grace, or you're giving me grace, and I recognize that, so I'm expressing my thankfulness.
25:59
SPEAKER_02: But in Portuguese, and as far as he knew and I know, there's a very strong word, the word we use daily, but uh most people don't know, it's the word obrigado.
26:11
SPEAKER_02: It means it it's from the same root uh that you have in English for the verb oblig, to be obliged to someone.
26:20
SPEAKER_02: So it expresses commitment, bond.
26:23
SPEAKER_02: And it's something very strong.
26:25
SPEAKER_02: So when you say obrigado, you're saying now that you have a bond to that person, you're that you have a commitment, and this is our feeling toward TBC and the Congon family.
26:36
SPEAKER_02: So we must say obrigado to all of you.
26:39
SPEAKER_01: Well we want to say it back to you.
26:41
SPEAKER_01: Can you pronounce that one more time and then we'll all say it?
26:43
SPEAKER_02: Okay, obrigado.
26:46
SPEAKER_01: Obrigado.
26:48
SPEAKER_01: Cool, thank you very much.
26:56
SPEAKER_01: And I want to thank you for uh for this fund that you set up for my 40th last year.
27:03
SPEAKER_01: So exciting to be able to bring over a couple like this to study in the stage.
27:09
SPEAKER_01: So uh now I want to move to the darkness side, the darkness and light.
27:12
SPEAKER_01: This is all the advancing, and now darkness and light.
27:16
SPEAKER_01: In July and August, we have to decide, the staff has to, what our Christmas month theme will be.
27:22
SPEAKER_01: And we decided this year we wanted it to be light, L-I-E-G-H-T light.
27:26
SPEAKER_01: So that fits with what we're talking about today.
27:29
SPEAKER_01: Well, we've had a wonderful light show for the last 10 years, one of my favorite things that we do in town, but because did you notice we're renovating?
27:38
SPEAKER_01: Did you see that?
27:39
SPEAKER_01: So, anyway, because of things being torn up and even the side of the building being changed, we couldn't start like we needed to here in August, you know, designing that light show, especially with the changes.
27:51
SPEAKER_01: And so we go, wow, what are we going to do?
27:54
SPEAKER_01: And we decided instead of just being sad to ramp up.
27:58
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna ask Jeremiah to come and explain how we're moving from the light show we've done before to sort of I think this we're calling it light show 2.0, which is sort of a you know, a ramp up of the whole thing.
28:13
SPEAKER_03: We're advancing, that's right.
28:14
SPEAKER_03: Light show 2.0.
28:15
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
28:16
SPEAKER_01: Okay, talk to us about the light.
28:18
SPEAKER_03: Well, uh raise your hand if you're if you're here and you've been to the light show.
28:23
SPEAKER_03: Pretty much everybody.
28:25
SPEAKER_03: Well, I hope you come to Light Show 2.0.
28:27
SPEAKER_03: This is going to be amazing.
28:29
SPEAKER_03: You you know the the grid and the snowflakes and the pinwheels and the the RGB lights and all of the megastar and the mega tree and all of this kind of stuff.
28:38
SPEAKER_03: We are going to bring that inside.
28:41
SPEAKER_03: And we're gonna do that over in the College Avenue building.
28:44
SPEAKER_03: Hi to our friends over there.
28:45
SPEAKER_03: So if you're over there, visualize this for me.
28:47
SPEAKER_03: On the on the left side of the stage, we've got scaffolding, and we've got the the grid work with the lights hanging from the ceiling, and across the stage, we've got scaffolding with live musicians on them.
28:56
SPEAKER_03: With multi-level.
28:58
SPEAKER_03: Across on the stage right, we've got more scaffolding with all of these light show elements hung in there.
29:03
SPEAKER_03: This is going to be an immersive musical entertainment experience, but we're going to share the gospel like we've always done.
29:12
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's great.
29:12
SPEAKER_01: Well, that'll be interesting.
29:14
SPEAKER_01: But but you know, we've always wanted the last 10 years to get people eventually to get out of their cars and come to the church.
29:20
SPEAKER_01: We've invited them to programs that hasn't been too effective.
29:23
SPEAKER_01: So we're trying to get them.
29:25
SPEAKER_01: How what other what other things are we planning to offer them to get them inside?
29:30
SPEAKER_01: There's one I really like called hot chocolate.
29:33
SPEAKER_03: We will have a hot chocolate bar, and we're thinking about walking tacos and some other uh family-friendly things and refreshments.
29:39
SPEAKER_03: But when we when people pull on campus, we want this to be a full family experience.
29:44
SPEAKER_03: So from the parking lot, we are welcoming and greeting visitors to our church.
29:49
SPEAKER_03: We're bringing them in, we're we're getting their kids engaged in in crafts and and the families engaged in family activities that they're doing together.
29:56
SPEAKER_03: And we're entertaining them, we're sharing the gospel.
29:59
SPEAKER_03: It's a fun family Christmas experience all around.
30:02
SPEAKER_03: And yes, hot chocolate.
30:04
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
30:04
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of But we're gonna need a lot of help.
30:06
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
30:07
SPEAKER_03: You need help?
30:07
SPEAKER_03: We need lots of help.
30:08
SPEAKER_01: We need lots of help.
30:10
SPEAKER_03: We've needed a lot of help in years past with the light show, but since this is a new effort, we need people to help us build and help us to set up and and the hospitality in.
30:20
SPEAKER_03: This is this is even more important than it's been in the years past.
30:23
SPEAKER_03: Because we're going to have opportunities to have personal conversations with the people who are coming into our building.
30:30
SPEAKER_03: We want to greet them, we want to make them feel welcome, and we want to invite them back.
30:34
SPEAKER_03: Our big goal here is that people sit through this show, they experience this uh this family thing that they love to do, but they hear about Jesus Christ and they want to bring their families back to hear more about it.
30:49
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I love it.
30:50
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
30:50
SPEAKER_03: Congratulations.
30:51
SPEAKER_03: Thanks so much.
30:52
SPEAKER_01: So you're gonna be in the tent?
30:54
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
30:54
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
30:55
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
30:55
SPEAKER_03: So we're in the tent this morning.
30:57
SPEAKER_03: If you're interested in helping with the light show, just come by and I'll write your name down and your email address and we'll get you going.
31:02
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
31:02
SPEAKER_03: Thanks so much.
31:03
SPEAKER_01: Advancing against the darkness in a new way this December.
31:06
SPEAKER_01: Uh, one more thing, and then I'll let you out early, is uh when you read in the Bible about darkness and about the military and so forth, they always include two things: the word of God and prayer.
31:19
SPEAKER_01: The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, right?
31:22
SPEAKER_01: And then Paul says there, talks about prayer.
31:24
SPEAKER_01: These are our two greatest weapons.
31:26
SPEAKER_01: By the way, I hope I hope some of you are still reading through the New Testament with me, one chapter a day to finish at the end of December this year.
31:33
SPEAKER_01: Uh, if so, then you like I finished 2 Timothy yesterday, we move into Titus tomorrow.
31:39
SPEAKER_01: If you're way behind, read eight books in the New Testament this afternoon, you'll be caught up.
31:43
SPEAKER_01: So, but but what I want to talk to you about now is prayer.
31:46
SPEAKER_01: Prayer.
31:47
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is a hard thing for all of us, okay?
31:50
SPEAKER_01: Now, some of you signed up for the 24 hours of prayer that we do every Monday, okay?
31:55
SPEAKER_01: We could always use more, but I'm uh on that, but but I mean that's that's a whole hour.
32:00
SPEAKER_01: That's difficult.
32:00
SPEAKER_01: I want to share with you now something every one of you can do with me.
32:04
SPEAKER_01: Teresa, come on up here and and and introduce us to this 1212 program we've got going that that we're just starting.
32:13
SPEAKER_01: Rosie, I like that.
32:14
SPEAKER_01: Rosie the Riveter.
32:15
SPEAKER_05: Yes, Rosie the Riveter.
32:16
SPEAKER_05: There's more of us outside.
32:17
SPEAKER_05: Come see us in the tent.
32:18
SPEAKER_05: Well, 1212 Prayer is an initiative started by Can you hear me?
32:23
SPEAKER_05: 1212 Prayer?
32:24
SPEAKER_05: Yes.
32:24
SPEAKER_05: Okay.
32:25
SPEAKER_05: It is an initiative started by Women's Ministry, but it is for everyone, any age here at TBC or even friends of yours who prayer, who pray.
32:33
SPEAKER_05: You know, Jim, you and I have talked about how important that is those first few minutes that we give to God in the morning for prayer and reading scripture and just quiet time.
32:42
SPEAKER_05: If we don't do that in the morning, the day just doesn't go right.
32:46
SPEAKER_05: So this is a way to re-engage with the Lord during the middle of the day at 12-12 p.m.
32:51
SPEAKER_05: It's inspired by Romans 12-12, which is be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
32:59
SPEAKER_05: Faithful in prayer.
33:00
SPEAKER_05: And one way you can be faithful is to set a reminder on your phone, your watch, your alarm clock for 12-12 p.m.
33:07
SPEAKER_05: every day.
33:08
SPEAKER_05: And we as a church will provide you with a monthly theme.
33:12
SPEAKER_05: September's theme is children, families, and parenting.
33:16
SPEAKER_05: And so it's a pretty broad theme.
33:18
SPEAKER_05: Each Sunday, we'll give you a new, updated, more targeted and focused topic to pray on specifically that week.
33:26
SPEAKER_05: And then we'll also give you scripture for inspiration.
33:29
SPEAKER_05: And for folks who don't yet have that prayer habit, we'll provide you with some tools to get in the habit.
33:36
SPEAKER_05: For example, the ACTS, the Axe mnemonic device that Jim talked about when he did a sermon on prayer.
33:42
SPEAKER_05: Uh we've got that right here on the bookmark that will be out at the tent along with the monthly themes.
33:48
SPEAKER_05: So one way you can engage in 1212 is to uh go onto Facebook and look for TBC or Topeka Bible Church 1212 prayer.
33:58
SPEAKER_05: It's on the bookmark if you don't get it jotted down right now.
34:01
SPEAKER_05: Uh and then you can also look on our Facebook, go to the bottom, or I'm sorry, our website, go to the bottom of our webpage.
34:07
SPEAKER_05: There's a little search box down there.
34:09
SPEAKER_05: Just put in 1212 and all the information will come up for you.
34:13
SPEAKER_05: So come see us out at the tent.
34:14
SPEAKER_01: I love it.
34:15
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
34:18
SPEAKER_01: So um, so listen, at noon, just afternoon, every day, 12 at 1212, right about the same time you pray, thanking God for your McDonald's hamburger, whatever it is you eat for lunch.
34:30
SPEAKER_01: So then you go, okay, I'm gonna call on the Lord.
34:33
SPEAKER_01: You don't even have to close your eyes, but you call on the Lord and you say, Lord, and the moment you do that, the moment you enter into prayer at 1212, you realize you are joining.
34:43
SPEAKER_01: You are doing Ephesians 6.
34:44
SPEAKER_01: You are joining the forces of light, you are joining the angels who are led by the Lord Jesus Christ, and in that moment you are advancing against the forces of darkness in prayer, and you are doing it with hundreds of TBCers at that very moment.
34:58
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
35:00
SPEAKER_01: Okay, are we part of a cruise ship?
35:02
SPEAKER_01: I love cruises, but no, we're on a battleship.
35:07
SPEAKER_01: Let's let's pray.
35:08
SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, we thank you.
35:10
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we are so thankful for what you've done for us.
35:13
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for the design, the light show you're gonna put in the stars in the heavens tomorrow to remind us of your power and of your design and even of your plan for us to comfort us.
35:23
SPEAKER_01: The light will win, it will overcome the darkness, and the darkness can't overcome the light, though it seems sometimes temporarily like it does that in our lives.
35:33
SPEAKER_01: Thank you that here at TBC we get a chance to participate in this battle, in this move of onward Christian soldiers against the forces of evil and the forces of darkness.
35:42
SPEAKER_01: We pray for the advance in our children's department.
35:46
SPEAKER_01: We pray for Arnon and Jessica as they attend seminary and have a determination to be a leading professor in the nation of Brazil in four years.
35:55
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we we we pray for the uh light show, for for getting people into the building to be able to see and think about the Lord Jesus Christ for themselves.
36:06
SPEAKER_01: And Heavenly Father, we ask for a move of your spirit as at 1212 each day.
36:11
SPEAKER_01: We bow our heads and we pray.
36:13
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name we pray these things, and all God's people said, Amen.
36:18
SPEAKER_01: You're dismissed.
36:18
SPEAKER_01: See you in the tent.