Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / November 19, 2017 | Thanksgiving Service Of Praise

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November 19, 2017 | Thanksgiving Service Of Praise · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, good morning.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_02: Bass Pro Shop.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: I am gonna kill somebody.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: Now it was.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm in the back and we go.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't wear it that much.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: And Teresa says, six times.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: I thought it was a cool shirt.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_02: Two cool shirts.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: So anyway, welcome to Thanksgiving service of praise.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I need to get in the mood.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: But we've done three good things already.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we had that video where other than a couple of parts of the Mark and Jeremiah show, it was pretty funny.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: And then, oh boy, those kids, the fuse kids were amazing.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: That was incredible.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: So thanks to Jeremiah and Amanda and all the people that made that happen.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: And then you responded with worship, which is really good, those last couple of songs.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: So we've got three things left.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: There's really busy, a busy service, and because it's a holiday, as usual, we try to make it one hour instead of an hour, 10 minutes.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: So the three things that are left are uh I have a homily.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: Homily just means a short sermon.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's still boring, but it's it's shorter.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: And so I have a homily, and then uh I'm gonna Jasmine, I'm gonna introduce to you a young girl named Jasmine, who's also gonna help you understand what gratitude is and be grateful to God, and then uh we're gonna end by the reveal, the big reveal of our 2017 Christmas project.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: So let me direct you to our uh our text for the TBC's 40th annual Thanksgiving service of praise and Thanksgiving feast.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: I was thinking this morning that 40 years ago, when Melody and I began this, we were meeting in one auditorium and only had one service, and we weren't filling this auditorium, but uh but it's just developed and grown over the years, and it's just awesome.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe this is the best one.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: This is the title of my message this morning: Grace and Gratitude.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: I want to share with you the cool connection between these two things.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: You've already seen the verse on the screen, 2 Corinthians 4.15.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: Say it out loud, read it out loud with me together.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_02: Now, so be quick, but I want to uh have you look at that verse.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_02: And by the way, the verse, um, I don't know how many of you are, how many of you are reading through the New Testament with me and the young uh singles uh this year?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: Are you yeah, really?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: You and me, just you and me.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: So anyway, so I happen to be reading this year, and we've got about a little over the book of Luke to go, uh, and I'm reading it in the New Living Translation.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I've never read the Bible through before in the New Living Translation.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: So I've been showing you a lot of New Living Translations and the because it's the revision of the old living Bible, but done by scholars who were told, you know, keep as much of the old living Bible, that paraphrase as you can, but still, let's make it more scholarly.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a wonderful translation that I give to new Christians.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: And here in this verse, uh it goes, all of this is for your benefit.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: And by all of this, what Paul means is all of his ministry, everything he does, everything he does, he says, it's not about me, it's for you.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's for your benefit.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: And as God's grace, what is he talking about?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: He's saying, uh, everything I do to spread the grace of God that he gave his son Jesus to die for us, as that reaches more and more people, he says, there will be what?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: Great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: So Paul's talking about his ministry.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: He's telling us that thanksgiving is a really critical and central part of his ministry.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: It's very important to him.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: Now, I have to say that the translations have missed a golden opportunity.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: Not just this translation, every translation that I've seen, and I looked up about a dozen, have missed a golden opportunity to keep a uh a uh play on words that's in the original here.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: In the Greek original, there's a play on words.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: And the play on words is between two words that are different in English.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: The first word is grace, and the second word is thanksgiving.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: Those words don't even sound the same in English.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: They could have, if they had translated the second word gratitude, then they would have at least sounded alike.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: And that's really what the play on words is.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: In the original Greek, the word for grace is caris, C-H-A-R-I-S, and the word for thanksgiving is eu-c-h-a-r-i-s.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, there's the same word if you're if you signed up to go to the on the Greek tour with me next May, there's about eight spots left in case you're interested.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's how you say thank you in Greek.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: You say f-choristo.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: F-choristo means thank you, even today, in Greek, and that's that meant thanksgiving back then.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: So there's a play on words, and and if only they said God's grace spreads out throughout the world, and as people recognize that God's grace came upon them, they respond with gratitude.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: In Latin, it's gratia and gratitude.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: So, anyway, so you have this uh you have this connection here, but let's talk about.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: I want you to think with me about gratitude for just a second, because I think sometimes we confuse gratitude with saying thank you.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: And so I but but we say thank you for all sorts of reasons.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: We say thank you because it's customary.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you get that 10-year-old tie for Christmas or the pair of socks, guys, right?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: And you say thank you.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: You don't feel a speck of gratitude in your heart because you've just made a resolution.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: You will never, those socks will never see your feet.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: That tie will never be around your neck.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_02: You will keep it around for a while and just wave it so they can see that you have it.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: Okay?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: No gratitude, but there's thanksgiving.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: And in fact, a lot of times you just say thank you because it's the custom or because you want to get out of an argument, or you don't want to get in an argument or whatever, right?
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: Because gratitude is more than just saying thank you.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: Gratitude is actually a feeling that arises in the heart.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: You can't coerce gratitude.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: By an act of the will, you can say thank you, but there's no act of the will to gratitude.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's a feeling that you have that rises in your heart, and it's a feeling of sort of happy delight at something.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: What is it at?
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well, going back to Christmas, you can tell what it is if you think about what it isn't.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's not a feeling directed at the gift.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: Okay?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: Let's just say later on around the tree, you know, you you wrapped up a video game for your 11-year-old.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, and your 11-year-old opens it up and screams with delight when he gets to the video game, right?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: Now, if asked at that moment, who gave you the gift?
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_02: Does your 11-year-old have any idea or even care who gave him the gift?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: His mother will say, Now you need to thank Papa for giving you the gift.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: Who?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: And because, because, because he's his that's not gratitude, because he's there's happy delight, but it's directed at the gift.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_02: No, gratitude is a feeling directed at the giver.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_02: Or you go, that's that I'm really grateful because that person gave this to me.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: I'm grateful to the giver because he or she gave me something.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: And here it goes even further, that I didn't expect or I didn't deserve.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: You didn't say thank you to your boss for handing you a paycheck or whatever this last week, because you knew you deserved it, right?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: If there's something you think you deserved, generally you don't say thank you.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: Now we're we're polite here in America, and sometimes even though you know you know you're gonna give the waitress or waiter 20%, you know, tip, you still say thank you.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: Now you do that, you might do that to encourage them.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: You can tell they've had a hard day, or you might do it because you're humble and and you want them to know by saying thank you that you don't feel like you're above them, right?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: Or you do it, you can do it for for, or maybe they gave you a little bit extra service, and you think they sort of went, they went the extra mile.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: But generally, gratitude is is uh wells up in your heart when you um when you don't feel like you deserved it.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: So so in the next triplet that I want to give you, gratitude, therefore, actually flows out of grace.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: In other words, it arises in me in proportion to how undeserved or gracious I feel the gift was.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't deserve it, therefore it was gracious, it was full of grace, and the more grace I feel I've received, the more grateful I feel.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's what Paul is saying.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: Now, if you look at the verse again, notice what he's saying.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_02: The grace that is reaching more and more people, as more and more people recognize that God in his incredible grace sent his precious son down to earth.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: Because the fact is, none of us were deserving of heaven.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, the justice in the universe, justice and all that is good and all that is right and all that is true and all that is beautiful, demanded that people like you and I, rebels against our Creator, should be dead forever, right?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: That we should have absolutely no future.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's what we deserve.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: But God in his grace sent down what turned out to be the coolest young man who's ever lived, absolutely magnetic, generous, kind, walked around, healed people, was really kind, but be but but out of grace knew he had to go farther than that and went all the way to a cross to die for us so that he could take our death and justly God could welcome us into heaven.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: And when you see that, and the Bible says only the Holy Spirit can help people see that, the moment you understand that grace, your heart wells up in gratitude because you're going, oh wow, I can't believe that God did that for me.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: For me.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_02: I'd been a Christian, I'd been a Christian for 16, 17 years.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: I was in a second-year seminary, sitting in a class, when I it suddenly hit me.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: The class was about salvation, and and the and the teacher was telling a story.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: And it suddenly hit me, oh my.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I saw myself as the sinner, even though I trusted Christ I was four years old.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: I saw myself as the utterly lost person that I deserved to be.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I was just overcome with a sense of how undeserving I was, and the gratitude that welled up in me afterwards is a gratitude that wells up on you when you feel that grace is undeserved.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: Does that make any sense to you?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: I noticed it this morning.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if any of you, there was a great game last night.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: K-State upset, 13th ranked Oklahoma State at Oklahoma State.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: And they did it because a young man aged 24, you know, uh uh made four touchdowns.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: Uh uh, they threw them three four times and he and he caught three balls for touchdown and returned one.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: His name is Byron Pringle.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: Now, the last line in the newspaper article today at the Capitol Journal was a strange line if you don't know the story of this kid.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: And that line, as as as as Ken uh got the paper, wrote the article, quoted another player who said last night, Byron had a big smile on his face and gave the offense a speech about how blessed he was.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you don't expect that.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: You expect it, especially if it's an NFL player, about how good he was, or how talented he was, or how what a stud and how they ought to be passing to him more often if he's gonna be that.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: But no, it's how blessed.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: Now, why would he say that?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: And the answer is he said that because he's meffed up so often this year.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: When Coach Bill Snyder's called a play for him at an important time of the game and thrown him the ball, more often than not, Pringles has dropped the ball.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: And so he understands that that's why Snyder hasn't been calling his number, calling plays for him.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: But yesterday Snyder trusted him again.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: He had four plays called to him, he made three touchdowns.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's just astounding.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: You know what?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: When you feel like you don't deserve those opportunities like he doesn't, and and then you tell everybody, I feel so blessed.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: There's an attitude of gratitude.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: Let me give you let me give you another story.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_02: This is pretty bad, but you can relate to this one easier because it has to do with melody and me, and it has to do with getting up in the morning.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: We have sort of an understanding that the second person who gets out of bed, not the first, but the second person who gets up, the last person who gets up, makes the bed.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: That's our understanding.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: That's our understanding.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: Now that works whenever she's the second person to get up.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: It works really well.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I do the shower thing and I get out and so forth.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: And generally the bed's made by the time I come out of the bed and she's gonna go in.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't always work that way if she's the first one up.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: Because there's just something about 545, 65, whatever, and making the bed.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's just never come natural.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: I don't wake up going, oh, I can hardly wait to make the bed.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: Never.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: I know it's only a minute, it's only a minute for me, two and a half, probably, but but it's only a short little thing, but I always delay it.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: So here's what here's what happened this week.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: And it happens every occasionally.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: I come, I wait, and then after she's done, and I go to the shower, and then I come out of the shower, I open the bathroom, and I'm all ready, and the bed is made.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't make it.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: She made it, even though I was supposed to make it.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: I hate to tell you this, but at that moment, when that happens, I feel this unbelievable gratitude while loving me.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_02: Because I know I didn't deserve that.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: It was my turn to make the bed.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: And so I go, Valley, thank you for making the bed.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: So that's really stupid.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's a bad example, but it it actually illustrates, I think, pretty well the fact that gratitude is really linked to feeling how undeserving you are of whatever gift it was, small or large.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, the gift that God has given us is not small, right?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: The gift that Paul is talking about is the hugest of all gifts.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: And he says a couple chapters later to the same audience, for you know the grace, there it is, of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_02: And there it is.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: This is the gracious, undeserved gift of God who gave us his son Jesus Christ, that we might join the family of God and become insiders.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: If you've never said, Wow, you need to say wow.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: If you've never said, Oh, I don't deserve that.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I pray that the Holy Spirit may come into your heart today and he may whisper to you, do you understand how little you deserve this?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_02: Have you do you can you see the grace of God upon you?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_02: Because the moment you see that, you'll respond with gratitude.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: And in that moment, you become a Christian.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: You're saved.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: All right?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_02: So that's the verse, and I'm going to challenge you to complete that circle of gratitude this Thanksgiving.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: Because notice the whole circle starts with God.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: God gave Paul grace.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: Paul responded with gratitude, and then Paul says, you know what?
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: This is all for your benefit.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: So then it turned to other people.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: Paul shared that grace.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: He maybe had a Thanksgiving table.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's when asked, what do you thank God for?
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's when you share, oh my God, God was so great to me this year.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: And so you pass that on to others, and then they realize the grace of God and they express gratitude, and that completes the circle because that overflows to the glory of God, where all things are supposed to end up.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: Starts with God, goes through you, goes to other people, goes back to God, complete the circle of gratitude this Thanksgiving.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: Amen?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: Is that clear?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: So now I get to introduce to you Jasmine, who's a great living illustration of what we're talking about here.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: Jasmine, get up here.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: So um, really pumped about this.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: Great, this is a great young mother, and uh, and but you're not a Topeka natural, you're not even a Kansan.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: You actually wanted to come to Kansas.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: So tell us tell us about where you grew up.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um I grew up in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: I um just arrived here in Topeka, Kansas, mid-July.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: Now, but your upbringing was not, shall we say, uh ideal.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um I grew up with both my parents, um, but it was kind of a hostile environment only because uh my father was an alcoholic and my mother was a Christian, but she was an angry Christian.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so there was constant chaos and fighting all the time.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: I think me and my brother were your father's already passed on, hasn't he?
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: No, he's he hasn't.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: No, he's still here.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we were kind of the yeah, we were kind of the background, and so we had to do a lot of things for ourselves and on our own.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so um I that started my search for love and acceptance kind of really early in age, and so around 13 I got pregnant.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I had my daughter at 14, and through that experience is when I actually came to know God and and and to accept the Lord as my savior.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: But it was a really hard time, and my parents pretty much Well, they told you they they did not want you to keep the baby, and you said I'm gonna keep the baby, and they said if you do, then then we're not helping you.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: So at um I started working when I was pregnant.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: So when I was early 14, I was looking at a job at age 14.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: It was hard.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: No one wanted to hire me because I was so young, so I started writing letters, and then um Chick-fil-A responded to me and said, We'll hire you.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I started working for them, and uh that her name was Kimberly, and she owned that particular Chick-fil-A, and she was amazing.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: She took me under her wing and threw my baby shower and kind of helped me along the way, so I was able to provide what I needed to for my children.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: So that's that's really the first illustration of many in your life about how God has come through for you when you felt undeserving and he's just yeah.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, wow.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: And um, it's actually kind of crazy because when I was pregnant, I was pretty suicidal.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: I had already been dealing with some emotional issues, and um one day I just kind of reached out to God, not knowing who he was, talking to him.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: In the overwhelming presence I felt I knew that I wasn't alone and that I was loved.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: So okay.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: Fast forward.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: Well, first of all, you have so you have that girl.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh tell us about your three children.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: I have Olivia, that's 11.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: I have uh Kimberly, that's six, and Geis, that's five.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: So then uh let's fast forward to this year.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_02: Now you're in your young 20s, and you need for a number of reasons, you're gonna move out of Virginia, and you have you have relatives here, right?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: I do.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: I have an aunt and an uncle here that are in Topeka, and so this past June I was going through a lot emotionally and mentally, and I was talking to my aunt, and she was like, Come here and I'll help you, I'll help support you.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I kind of made uh I said a prayer, but I kind of made um a quick decision without waiting for a response.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so I said, Lord, if this is where you want me to be, I need you to make a way because I didn't have the money to actually get here.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I was selling all my possessions to use that money to come.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so I sold a few things here and there, but the day before I was supposed to get on the road to drive here, um, everything sold.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: Everything sold.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, praise.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: Now, who did you say was here?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: My aunt and uncle.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, your aunt, oh aunt.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I thought you said aunt.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm I'm sorry.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: So, no, excuse me.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: So, oh, okay, okay.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, so your your aunt and uncle.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: Got it.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, that sort of must be an Eastern thing.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um so so anyway, you get here, but now then the question is, I mean, what are you gonna do?
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: What are you gonna do with the kids?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: What are you gonna do for everything?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: And it God, I mean, again, you experience some grace.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: Tell us about that.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I came here and um I knew I kind of wanted to get them into a Christian education.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't have money, and so uh when I came here I didn't have a job set up, so I was looking for a job as well.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: But um my aunt's supervisor son went to Care Paravel.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so I had been looking at schools in the area, but I was thinking, like, these are expensive, I don't know how I can do this.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: And she told me about Care Paravel, and even though I I couldn't afford it, I decided to just go in and speak to someone to see uh what was available.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: Who did you talk to?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: I spoke to Stacy Hickham, who is absolutely amazing.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um I got in there, we literally sat for about an hour, and um she gave me all the information and told me about the tuition assistance.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: I went home and maybe the next day she called me and said, Hey, um, come back in um because I really feel like God has his hand on this and I want to see what we can do.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: So we started um the process.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um she waived the application fees for me.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: I started the application and and completed that, and then I was able to receive the tuition assistance, but that still wasn't enough.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so um she was like, you know what, let me reach reach out to Ace Scholarship.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: ACE um does scholarship.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's only in the spring, though, usually, right?
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's only in the spring.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: The application deadlines end in April or May, and so she reached out to her contact.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: In her context, she said, Hey, we actually had an anonymous donation this week.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Let me see if maybe we can help one child.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I have three, and normally the max is two thousand per child, but she wasn't thinking that she could do that.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: So she looked, um, checked the donation.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: She called Stacy back and said, We have 2,000 for each child.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I was able to get this total$6,000 for them.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: Oh so um so there now you got the kids taken care of, but but still, I mean, you're a girl, and you've struggled with, you know, you've struggled with some emotional issues and so forth, and so you're really you're looking for people to surround you, you're looking for Bible study, you're looking for that kind of stuff.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: So tell me about how that worked out.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: Uh multiple things happened.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: I reached out to the church who referred me to Pastor Doug, and he was amazing.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: He prayed with me.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: No, not Doug, yeah.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_02: He must have met a Doug, I don't know.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'm guessing he had something to do with the shirt thing on the video.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: So anyway.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: He prayed with me, and um I didn't have the the supply list for this the kids for school was extensive.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I, you know, it was gonna be about 300.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, I don't, I don't have this at the moment.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: And he um he had asked me what I needed, and I said 300.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so he said, he prayed with me, and then he wrote the check and said, Come get it when you can.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so that was a blessing in itself because normally at churches you got to go through a process or you have to be a member, or things like that.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I was just amazed at how willing the church was to help me and how everybody was um dealing with me in the situation.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: I love the story of you standing over in the in the welcome center there at the College Avenue building.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, um, so there was a church service where you're preaching, and then after or during the service, I they were talking about um some classes that were gonna start in the fall for the women.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: And so I prayed um during the service because I I didn't have any money at that time, and so I said, Lord, you know, I really want to get involved, but I don't have the money for these classes.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: If if this is your will, then make a way for me, please.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so um that was the end of service.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: After you preach, I standed out.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: I went to the lobby, and it was, you know, everybody's in the lobby after church, and a woman walks by me, and then she walks by and then she backs up and she says, Um, hi, what's your name?
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, I'm Jasmine.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so she said, Hi, I'm Patty.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I didn't really know who Patty was at the time, but she starts talking to me and about the classes, and um she said, she she said, Follow me.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so she took me over to someone she works with and she said to her, Um, put her in any class she wants free of charge.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I was just amazed at how quickly that prayer was answered, you know, and for her even to stop me, and I didn't know she's the women's director.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it was a pretty amazing.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and Pastor Doug actually introduced me to uh Miss Deb Parker, who is the leader of the single moms ministry.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought that was amazing.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: I got involved in the single moms on Sundays, and um we just bonded, and the class has been such a blessing to me spiritually, emotionally.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm able to go in there and just kind of vent about what I go through as a single parent and just um spiritually what I battle with.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so um we me and Miss Deb have a great relationship now.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: We actually go to lunch probably like once a week, and everything about this church, um, the school and the community has been amazing and such a blessing for me and my family, especially coming to such a different culture and environment.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: And um it's it's definitely been gratitude, like what you've been speaking about, that uh feeling towards the giver and you feeling in your spirit, it's more than a thank you.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's more than a thank you because as a mom, you always want to make sure your children are taken care of first.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I was happy that I could get them well adjusted and that I had support and help.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you've uh thanks, Jasmine.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_02: Now you've still got a tough time.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you're a full-time student online and and full-time worker, full-time mom.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um can I ask Debbie and some other people to come up, maybe lay hands on you and pray for you and your kids right now?
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: So uh good.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_02: Come on forward.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_02: If you if you're connected with Jasmine in any way in a ministry, thanks.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_02: Uh come on up and and I'll take this mic and uh and uh Melody, would you mind praying for her if I give you the mic?
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um hi Patty.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, guys.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for coming up.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_02: All right, Leslie, somehow let's make a connection here, and um and we want to pray for you, and we want to pray for your three children.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_02: We want to pray God is blessing.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: Father God, we stop and acknowledge you are the giver of all things.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we want to thank you and praise you for all the blessings that have come Jasmine's way and how you prepared the way for her to come to Topeka.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: We never know what lies around the next corner.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: And she took a leap of faith and stepped out, and we're so thankful to be a part of her journey and her life story.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we have been blessed by being able to help her and her children.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh God she um still has a uh tough and challenging road ahead of her and uh raising three children and being a single mom and the energy it takes and the resources she needs, and yet God you have provider for her.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we appreciate the body of Christ and how they each play a part.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so the people around here and my cell phone going off.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Father God, we we thank you for the circle of people here who represent all the different um things that uh play into her life.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: God put a hedge of protection around her for Satan would like to destroy her story.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we know that you are not done with her yet, so God uh keep your hand on her and the children, and again, thank you for all that you've done in Jesus' name.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: So how cool is this, huh?
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: Now the last thing I've got for you is the big reveal on our Christmas project.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_02: There's no Christmas project that we've ever done that I'm more excited about than this year's Topeka Bible Church Christmas Project.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_02: Drum roll, drum roll.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: So, what it is, and this has been this is what uh has been approved by the elders and by the deacons, is a combination of something in cahoots with the Topeka Rescue Mission, and then something for the Trash Mountain Project.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: Something local, something international.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: And locally, it's a rescue house for human slavery.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_02: And internationally, it's school teachers for the Honduras trash dump kids.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: Now, let me explain both of these to you very quickly.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_02: Honduras trash dump kids.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_02: Some of you know that we had a team that went down there a month or so ago.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: 180 kids pulled off the trash dump, being educated right now, being fed, and we don't want them to have to go back on the trash dump.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_02: The funds have fallen.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_02: We want to enable these kids to stay off the trash dump.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_02: When it comes to Topeka rescue mission, it has to do with something that has just exploded in the last couple of years uh uh with in the knowledge of people like Barry Fieker here in Kansas.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: Just four or five years ago, uh uh the KBI knew of a hundred girls and women in Kansas who were sex slaves.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_02: Now it's nearly 500.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, Barry told me uh uh just a few days ago, he said, here in the Topeka area, we have rescued over 100 girls and women this year already.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_02: He says, I've seen broken people all my life.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: I have never seen people more broken than the people that we're rescuing right now.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_02: So here's what we want to do.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: When it comes to Afe in Honduras, uh, this wonderful organization that is saving these kids and educating them, these teachers have gone without money for several months just out of commitment.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: These national teachers who are helping them.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_02: I want to pay these teachers, I want to give them bonuses for Christmas, I want to let them know how much we appreciate their commitment to saving the lives of these kids.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_02: When it comes to TRM to uh to the rescue mission and to freeing these uh uh these slaves, uh there's a three-part mission that Barry's come up with.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: The first stage is rescue, where where they sneak in, and when the slave masters uh uh leave, they go to the house, they quickly, with a use of a couple of cars and some men and some help, they sneak the woman away and they take her to a to a safe house outside Topeka and uh and and and rehabilitate her and help her for a month or so and find a place for her to live elsewhere in the country and move her out of state.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_02: That's the rescue side.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_02: Now, Barry also is starting an educate side where four times this next year in 2018, there'll be a class for all kinds of professionals, nurses, police, and so forth on human trafficking, and eventually it will go nationwide because Kansas is leading the way in this whole thing nationally.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_02: But what we want to do, what I want us to do, uh is partner with First Assembly, which has donated the house, with Fellowship Bible, which is gonna renovate the house, but but they need they need a house parent, which is gonna take money, they need the utilities paid every month, and so forth.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: I would like our funds to go to the rescue operation.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_02: Does that make sense?
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: So, whatever money we give this year, the money that we give this year, and you were so generous last year, gave over$100,000 that we split uh between a local and an international.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_02: Half of it will go to the rescue house for human slaver, half for the school teachers down in Honduras.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_02: I am so excited about this.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: I know that God will move on your heart as he has on mine already to help this project.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_02: And in that way, we will complete the circle of gratitude.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_02: Join me in a closing word of prayer.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for coming.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: Heavenly Father, we thank you for this for the service.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_02: We thank you for the uh for the laughter, for the humor, for the children's singing, which motivated us, motivated us to sing and worship you, for the reminder that uh we are undeserving and that makes our hearts respond with an outpouring of gratitude to you.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_02: We pray that this week we may complete the circle of gratitude and that you may receive uh you may receive praise and glory this Thanksgiving.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_02: And then as we give to this project, that that circle may be complete uh uh financially.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_02: In Jesus' name we pray.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for coming.