Pastor Terence Paraso [00:00:00]:
How'd you guys summer? I hate to admit it, but summer is halfway over. Teachers and students, we're halfway in the middle. This is the peak. It's as good as it gonna get after. No, I'm kidding. No, no, no, no. Summer is still good. Going strong Jesus still the same as he was yesterday.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:00:17]:
So it's all good. Amen. Yes. I'm a teacher now full time, so occupational hazard, right? You kind of judge everything according to how the school year is going, the seasons of school. So that's kind of like where I'm at now before we open in prayer, man. Gosh, it's so like. And Jeff was saying last week, it's so timely that Pastor Glenn in prayer, God told him to have us preach on this book. Because I don't know about you, but I feel the opposition and things that.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:00:57]:
Yeah, out of all the places, even the aloha spirit, basic aloha spirit is challenged. I don't know about. I've been challenged to maintain my own aloha spirit. At times it just feels. There's a lot of tension. So it's a timely book to help us, encourage us, to exhort us to keep our faith strong. Strong. Because we cannot judge things by what we see and what we and we experience in the moment.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:01:23]:
It is far bigger than that. So let's enter into prayer as we seek him and accept what he has for us today. So, Father, we come before you. God, you know everything. And that's an understatement. I mean, when you know everything, you know the depths of everything that we've been through, everything that's happening now, even stuff we can't even name ourselves and the things even yet to come. Father, we have no idea what you do. And in that we have great peace.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:01:54]:
Because you are always reigning past, present or future. It's all now for you. It's like all one for you. Nothing surprises you. So, Father, we trust you. Father, we know that you have exactly what you have for us. And we will walk, take step by step, knowing that you will guide us and that we're not alone. Thank you so much for a church like this and churches all around the world who continue to seek your word and lift your name and seek your will according to your word and encourage one another and also to share the message and pray for the lost.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:02:30]:
Father, we thank you for this church of faith. We thank you that you have a word for us. Help each one to receive what you have for them personally, what they need in Jesus name, we pray. Amen God is good. God is good. All right. So anybody like watching movies? I'm such a movie watcher. Like pop culture stuff.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:02:55]:
I could name a lot of movies that a lot of you would know. And it's not like that doesn't determine my faith, but it kind of gives you a judge of what is popular in the minds and hearts of the world out there. And I don't know about you, but you notice human nature never changes, right? Technology may have been evolving, but people like you and I are still capable of amazing, awesome things. At the same time, we're capable of amazingly terrible things. So we need God no less than we ever needed him before or ever in the future. So the context. So whenever you see a movie, the situation is always depending on the situation. It determines, oh, hey, a friend of ours.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:03:44]:
It all determines how you experience the present, right? So, for example, when we used to teach this class about worship and using media and worship at New Hope at Pack Rim, sometimes we would show this clip. And in this clip you would see this little baby playing on the beach, just kicking and playing in the sand and all this. And then in a beautiful day with the family all around the waves, the sun is beautiful, weather's beautiful. And you'd be like, wow, how do you feel? People when watching that scene, they're like, oh, the baby's so cute. I remember when I used to do stuff like that. And then we played the same scene and we changed the background. Same baby, same behavior, same everything. The background is fire, lava, dinosaurs, and everything with foreboding, music.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:04:30]:
And all of a sudden you're like this, like, poor baby, same scene. But the context is everything. And God knows the context, even if you don't. I don't know about you, but I've tried to figure everything out in every situation. And I still miss some things. Anybody resemble that? You try to figure everything out before and you're trying to make the best decision based on what you know. And you find out half the time you're wrong. You know, and you might get some things right, but, you know, thank God he makes up the difference.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:05:02]:
So the context I want to paint for us today. And you know, there's a lot of blanks today for this because it's a teacher's. Teacher's device to have you take notes. You'll be more active. So the first point in our context is Jesus will return. That's a fact. You can put the money in the bank on that one. Yeah.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:05:18]:
John 14, 2, 3. In my father's house There are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you so plain. Yeah. Jesus is so honest, straightforward. For I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself. That where I am, there you may be also.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:05:39]:
Period. It's not a question mark. There's no comma. It's a period. So praise God for that. I'm not going to go on, but Jeff, you went off on a great joke last week about that. And he'll show up in Kalihi first, right? But no, we're all going to know and we're all going to receive. There's going to be no doubt.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:06:03]:
And that is so reassuring. So it's one less dinosaur in the picture in us as little babies in the context of stuff. Huge Number two, this life is full of trials and temptations. That's another thing Jesus said. So John 16 also Jesus is speaking, Behold, an hour is coming and has already come for you to be scattered, each one to his home and to leave me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken to you so that in me you may have peace in the world you have tribulation. He didn't stutter on that one either.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:06:45]:
But take courage. Take a breath on that one. Let's say it to ourselves. Ready? Take courage. Be like Paul, Paul and other men of faith before us. You speak to your own spirit at times when you need to say that. Take courage. Jesus is coming.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:07:04]:
Tribulations are here. But Jesus is here with me. And he says this at the very end. I have overcome the world. That's a crescendo right there. That should be exclamation. But yeah. So he also says this in Isaiah 41, do not fear.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:07:22]:
I don't know about you, but I still have fear. I have anxiety. And I need Jesus. But he says, do not fear, for I am with you. Do not anxiously look about you like trying to factor everything around every corner. What's going to be expected and then the 50% chance, right? Playing the odds. And yet he says, for I am your God, I will strengthen you. Surely I will help you.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:07:47]:
Surely I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. So I was told something to remember this other than do not fear, which is a great phrase. It's that it's not how great my faith is, is in God. Because we try to God build my faith. I need more faith. Which is true, right? But it's just having Faith in how great God is, because I always need him. I don't know everything. I can't know everything.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:08:20]:
And I will not have the strength for all the things to face. But in God we can. In God we will. So that's number one. And two, return trials and temptations. And then number three, we have God's word and the testimony and example of the faith of the saints. God's word. Yeah, and the testimony and example of the saints.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:08:42]:
The writer of this very book, I mean, he's going to talk about the things that he's gone through and only in one place. But this is in the middle of his second missionary journey when he wrote this letter in Paul, and he went through crazy stuff. I don't know about you, but I don't know if my faith would have lasted what he went through. Right. How many of you survived a snake bite? How many of you thought you left you for dead more than once because you got beat up on the bloody pulp and running for your life several times? I don't know about you. I really hope I would be able to face those things. And believe it or not, there's people around the world still facing those kind of things today. We get jaded over here in America.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:09:23]:
There's a famous saying that. I don't know a famous saying, but I remember seeing this interview of two missionary people. I think I was in, like, high school at this time. It was an interview of these two missionaries who were rescued because they were hostages in some Third World country. I don't even know what it was at the time, but they were free after like a year and a half of captivity. And they were praying, praying, praying, you know, and then they interviewed them a year later, I think was on 60 Minutes. How is your life now that you've been back after a year? And the husband and wife did a little pause and they looked at each other holding hands, and something was going on, right? So the interviewer was like, hey, what's. What's going on? I'm going to prepare for this.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:10:04]:
And the husband and wife turned, said, we don't mean any disrespect to anybody, but being here and back in America, we already beginning to forget how much we need him. Back over there. We always knew we needed him every minute, but here we get kind of lazy. And it's a test. And some people think there's a test of trials, but sometimes it's a test of lack of trial and comfort. I think it's the bigger test. I think the pastors and I were talking about this last week in our time together, praying like, man, it's a more insidious test to have a test of abundance. And we lose.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:10:44]:
We get kind of weaker. We get in our faith. We kind of get a little lazy. We get a little jaded. And even this week, I was teaching in summer school. I was teaching participation in democracy. And all of my students were born here. And they never knew what it's like to come from another place that's foreign and don't have the rights and freedoms that we do.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:11:03]:
And definitely I said, regardless, you guys are jaded. We take stuff for granted. So at the end of the class, I told him what you're gonna do. I'm gonna test you to show you what it takes to know to become a citizen. It takes a lot. It's not cheap. But so we forget sometimes. And then so.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:11:23]:
But there's a testimony of those who come before, and it's God's word we can lean on for us. And then we're not alone. Because if you ever read Hebrews 11. Ever read Hebrews 11, there's a whole list of people, the Bible that are heroes of the faith. Yeah. And it's, like, super encouraging because if you read their stories, actually, in the Old Testament, none of them were perfect, but for God, the things that God called them to do, they were faithful. They weren't perfect. They made mistakes along the way.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:11:53]:
They had all these weaknesses and made some terrible mistakes, and yet they pushed through. And God could still use them. That encourages me. I don't know about you, but I made some big mistakes that I'm thankful God gave me. You still call my number. Are you still. I think I'm worthy. It's not about that.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:12:13]:
He said, I called you, and I have a job for you, and I will change you in the process so we get to experience that. Okay. Number four. We have each other at the church. We have each other. We don't just get to read about people, people in the past, our movies about. We get to journey with people at all walks of life. Right.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:12:33]:
Somebody was a mentor to you. A key scripture that I think we. I like to use. And in our. The church I came from, Island Family Christian Church. One of our anchor verses was second Timothy two. Two. We're in the presence of great.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:12:47]:
Of many witnesses. Right. You take what I've taught you, and you teach others to teach others. It's a perpetual thing, so you need three relationships in your life. You might want to make side notes on this. Three relationships you need to stay growing in your faith. One is mentors. And they could be people you read about that lived in the past, that wrote memoirs and history, right? Or somebody tangible.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:13:10]:
Now you can touch and feel. You need both in a way, because there's not enough people around you physically, personally, you can sit eye to eye with that can give you all the wisdom there is to know. But you can read about those guys. Many people before us, a great cloud of witnesses, right? So we have mentors, and then we have peers we journey with. It's really helpful to know that people have the same questions and struggles that you do and the same area, you know, part of your faith, like, nobody has it figured out, but you're not alone. You can journey together in that. You can hold hands and take a breath for each other and then step into the tomorrow. That's pretty awesome, right? A physical, tangible group of people like we have here.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:13:55]:
And then you need a mission field. You need people to mentor. And then being a teacher for a number of years, the famous saying goes, you know, you really want to know how much you really know? Go ahead and teach it. Then you'll find out how much you really don't know. And that's so true. The teacher always learns more than the student. So keep myself growing, and I'm accountable to my students. I have to keep.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:14:20]:
You know what encourages people the most? That they see pastors growing. We're not. We don't have it all figured out. We're just like you guys. We just have a different calling. That's all there is, only by God's grace. I have a lot of friends who didn't make it, who aren't here today because they were either in and out of prison or just maki. Because they made.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:14:40]:
I could have easily been one of those guys, only by the grace of God that I stand before you. And he had me do this crazy thing called pastoring. And I'm not perfect. Go ask my wife. Good thing she's not here. Don't ask her. But she'll tell you, you know, you know, you get the aye. Okay, I said something I shouldn't have said there, but you can.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:15:01]:
Hi, honey. To the camera. So, okay, so we have each other, the church. So the big question is, but why does he have to test us? I could really do without that. And there's a whole. There's three main reasons, simple reasons. In the next section, three reasons why God tests us. Okay? The first is to expose what's in our heart.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:15:25]:
We don't know what's in there. We pick up all kinds of stuff in our minds, in our hearts along the way. Little offenses here and there that we keep with us and we don't realize we still carry with us. All kinds of stuff. Little bits of unforgiveness, little bits of things we just let fester in there. And we don't know until something happens to shake us up and it comes to the surface. And then now we can deal with it. That's what confession is all about, mutual confession.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:15:57]:
We bear each other's burdens. Is there someone that you have that, that you can trust, that they love God more than you, that you can share and they can hold you accountable? Because there's a relationship. Accountability doesn't work. It's just if it's like. Like a law and a legality thing. But if you know somebody loves God and loves you, it's easier to admit something and say, I'm broken. I need help. I just screwed up.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:16:26]:
Can you pray for me? It's huge. Yeah. So expose what's in our hearts so that God can now name it. When it's not exposed, it stays in the dark. And that's what the enemy does is ugly work. And it's not fun to go through that. And you're not alone. So number two, to refine us.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:16:46]:
Just like under purifying gold and silver, right? Heat and pressure. Heat and pressure. And it says here Psalm 66:10. For you have tried us, O God. You have refined us as silver is refined. That's not always fun to go through. But if you know there's a bigger purpose and God's in there somewhere, even if you can't see him, that you trust God, you're gonna make sense out of this. It hurts like I can't make sense of this, but you're refining me.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:17:24]:
I'm going to have to change. Oh, shucks, I got to change. Change is not fun until we have to change, right? Who likes to change? It's not the same as your technology changing. You can just upgrade and update stuff. But when it's about transformation, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty stubborn in some things. And if it wasn't for God needing to expose stuff from my heart and said, I got to refine you because I'm preparing you for the next thing you're going to experience. You have no idea. But you got to let me go take you through this so that you'll be prepared, better prepared.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:17:58]:
Otherwise you would quit. Trust me. I don't want you to quit because I got lives to touch through. You receive that? Yeah. Number three, to mature us. I had a lot of friends over the years who were in the military, officers and captains and sergeants and all that. And the biggest frustration they have is what one of them called, one of my friends called them mandolescents. You get adult adolescents that don't know how to.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:18:28]:
Adults doing a life or death thing for our country, and yet they're super immature. They can't handle the responsibility, and they crash and burn their finances, crash and burn their relationships and. And yet they're called to do this crazy thing that risked their whole life for us. And they got to raise them. They got to raise them, and that's tough. So I don't know about you, but when I've seen people, I don't know, have you ever broken somebody's trust that you really, really trusted in you, and you're like, oh, you fell short. In elementary, I experienced a terrible, terrible thing. And one of my favorite teachers said, I cannot trust you anymore.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:19:14]:
That was a wake up call. That hurt so deep. And it made me change. It made me cry out to Jesus. That hurt because it was the truth. I compromised something in my own character and I had to mature that much more. And I had to see the weight of my own mistakes, how it hurt and broke that trust and maybe hurt someone else. And that sometimes we don't want to.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:19:36]:
We don't change for our own sake. Sometimes we don't change just for the good reason. Sometimes, unfortunately, we're stubborn. We change only because we got to. Because either we lost something and we hope God can replenish that. But hopefully before it's too late, before you count the cost, it's better to pay the price up front and let God do this, then pay the 10 times worse price by not letting him do it up front. Right. Because it's.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:20:03]:
It's a big cost. I don't know about you, but I've experienced that too many times. And I don't want to learn that that way as a pattern in the future. Getting too old for that. Right. It kind of hurts the witness. Yeah. But let me encourage you this way.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:20:18]:
It's not in here, but I feel God saying this is that, you know, we like to think that our victories minister greatly to people about Jesus in our life. But really, you know, what really ministers to people through our life is when they see us make those mistakes and become vulnerable and how we walk through pain and confusion and Suffering and mistakes. And they watch us. And unless we're different, they're not as encouraged, right? They'll be like, oh, you were just talk. That's rough. That's rough. But there are times when you will go through that. I've experienced that.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:21:03]:
I felt God's conviction. And yet he's not done with you yet. He's not the one that kicks you to the curb. I want you to add this to your notes. This is a big one. Because before we get into what Paul is saying is this. Hang on. Jesus is a master builder and he doesn't make mistakes because of what man did.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:21:49]:
We broke our image, what we're designed and destined to be. We're broken, right? But imagine this is you and me. Jesus is a major master craftsman. He said he built this beautiful thing for this one purpose. And Jesus does this sometimes to us and Satan does this to us. You have two different reasons, but it feels the same. Where is the weakness? Where is the weakness? Satan does that to break you, to condemn you, to make you feel like you're less than. He's going to find the weak point and press on it till it breaks.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:22:31]:
Jesus, as the good physician, will test to find the weakness so he can fortify, so he can strengthen, to work with you. And sometimes he'll do it for you. Sometimes he'll say, you got to do this with me. This one I can't do for you. You got to come along with me. You got to agree or else it's not going to go anywhere. And together we'll convict and fortify. That's that.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:23:00]:
So you got to know the difference. It feels the same when the pressure is on. But when you pray, pray because. And then the glorifying thing is this. Satan is the most confused. And this like he's insane. He should be the most discouraged and frustrated person in the world because we know the end of the book, right? That's the one thing. And he's also under the lordship of God, Jesus on the authority.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:23:32]:
He's not outside of the authority. So everything he does to condemn you and break you, if you're a child of God and you're in his will and God has purpose for you, Satan is only part of the plan. That's it. And he must get upset about that. And you can laugh because the last laugh is God's and yours, because Jesus is mine and I am His. Amen. Amen. All right, so there.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:24:02]:
Now we're going to finish strong with Paul's example to emulate each verse going through in 1st Thessalonians, chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, bold in the face of persecution. Paul is saying this. You guys, you imitate me. I had this example, and this is what I come with. So keep, keep imitating these things. So I designed these notes so that you can put it on your mirror. When you fill it up, put it in your wall or your refrigerator, and it'll be right there like a checklist of the things that God is going to build in you or is already building in you. And you can see, and you'll be able to see like God has done a pretty good job.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:24:41]:
And I can feel him working on this area right now. And it's clear when you, when you kind of see those kind of things, because you can know you can cooperate more easily, right? You can kind of know his plan for you. It's like God, I know I'm really lacking in this one spot. And you can agree with him, God, I knew you're going to work in me in this area and those kind of things. And you can also look, not to measure against other people, but for your own growth, right? But the only reason why you look at other people is that, so you can know how to emulate people like Paul. You look at who has that characteristic that I can look up to and learn from, learn under, and you put the name there. So hopefully you'll be doing, be able to do all those things with these notes after it's completed. So, number one, Paul was bold in the face of persecution.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:25:29]:
Bold. Verses 3 to 6. He was pure in motive. Pure in motive. He said it wasn't for money, it wasn't for fame, it wasn't for power. I'm just here to serve. Jesus changed my life. So I'm going to give you exactly what he gave me.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:25:51]:
Yeah, pure in motive. Because if it's not, that will be revealed soon enough and God will work on you. And if he's called you, that's part of the process. Again, none of us, barely all of us, have all of these things perfect. And we're all a work in progress. So this is how you know verse seven. He was gentle. He was gentle.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:26:13]:
He didn't come across like, well, I teach at a school that teaches a lot of Hawaiian and dream house and olelo no e au and things like that. The history. So then the word colonization, right? Colonizer. Such a negative connotation. When you come in, like a missionary, missionaries often have done in the past, you come in with the word of God and you know Better than the people you're ministering to. You don't have to ask them a single thing. You don't. In fact, you don't.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:26:40]:
You just think you know better and you say, this is what you got to do. You never bother get to know the people in the first place. He came gentle. He came getting to know them. He came asking questions and saying, where do you need help? Where do you need prayer? Where can I come alongside you? Not the answer man. If anybody says they're the answer man, run. I know Ronald Reagan said this famous phrase, the worst things, few words you can hear from a government person is, it's okay, I'm here to help. I'm from the government.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:27:15]:
I can solve all your problems. He said, run away. Nobody can say that. Okay? Verse 8, get deep affection for them when you come gentle people, and you treat people with respect, knowing that you got to get permission, their permission to let you into their life. You cannot come barging in, running people over and expect people to say, oh, you're great. Let me confess, let me trust you. No, it doesn't work that way. It totally doesn't work that way.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:27:48]:
And you know what? I in the ministry in the first maybe 10, 15 years, actually, all the way till today, there's parts of me that bulldoze still, and people have to hold me in check. That could have been said a little better, Pastor Terrence. You couldn't approach that a little better. And, you know, we always continue to learn. It's always the basics over and over again, right? And verse nine, he says straight up out of the scripture, hard working and persevering. Hardworking and persevering straight out of verse nine, man, I don't know about you. How many of you guys work hard and get tired? Everybody work hard and get tired. I do.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:28:38]:
Yeah, but you rest and you come again, right? And you have. You tag team. That's why. Awesome. It's awesome to not be alone. Because when you work with others, you can tag team. You have each other's strengths and weaknesses to come on, accommodate and cover for. And then you take shifts and you rotate.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:28:53]:
You don't have the same people doing worship or doing all these other jobs week after week. When you serve in a church, I mean, Sundays come around with amazing regularity. It's quick. It's like, oh, Sunday again, Sunday again. You know, unless you're not careful, you can get caught up in the work and not the ministry part of the work. The reason and all that, that you're here to Journey and learn with people. Not just to serve, just work and work. That's not what it is.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:29:27]:
Right. It's for a greater purpose beyond our own understanding. So then we persevere. Because we know God has a plan. And when it is time to rest, his. There will be a time to rest. Yeah, he will give you that rest. In fact, it's something that he says.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:29:48]:
He stresses, you gotta have the Sabbath. The church staff don't have the weekends for Sabbath, so they gotta figure something else out. Right. Another day. So we're not made for the Sabbath. The Sabbath is made for us. It's a principle that when you need the rest, tell the team, tell the community. Says, I hit something.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:30:11]:
I need to pause for a second. I need my soul to catch up with me. Something like that. My body to be strengthened, my mind to be clear. I need a few days or a day and then inform. And everybody adjusts. It's such a great thing. We give each other room for that.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:30:27]:
So don't try to be lone ranger and think you can do it all forever. It's not gonna work. It's not gonna work. Right. All right. Verse 10. Paul said he's upright and blameless. That's a hard one.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:30:38]:
Anybody upright and blameless in here? Paul is amazing. Yeah. But we know his background. He is talking about all the things that he's been through by the people, every city he went to. Right. In his missionary journeys, they were doing the things that he used to do to believers of Jesus. So he knows his own motives. But upright and blameless.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:31:05]:
And you know what? Because we're not perfect, that's what keeping short accounts is. You don't let things build and it's again, confession. You bear each other's burdens. You pray for each other. You gotta get it up, up, expose it, because it might drive you crazy. Right. After a while. That little.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:31:21]:
Little rock in the shoe, it's gonna bug you enough. And you got to tell somebody. You got to tell God and then somebody to come alongside you, side you sometimes so you can get. So you washed again. And it's not because you don't. You're already forgiven. God knew you're gonna do that thing, but it's for your own encouragement. Yeah.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:31:44]:
It won't discount you necessarily, but you gotta walk through the process. Yeah. Pretty awesome. And then he comes in verse 11. He comes exhorting and encouraging. Exactly. Exhorting. It's such a weird word.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:31:56]:
Exhort, exhort and encourage. They're totally different. Encourage is like coming alongside you can do this. You got this. I'm supporting you. A little nurturing thing. But exhortation is stronger. Get up.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:32:13]:
You need to. This is it. Boom. This is what I prepared you for. This is warfare time. Boom. I'm with you. We're warfare for God.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:32:22]:
That's kind of. That kind of thing. It's strong. Exhortation is like, move. Yeah. And a lot of movies, you see priests. The spirit of God compels you. And it's almost like a joke, almost when somebody's doing exorcism.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:32:37]:
But no, that's true. The spirit of God, in the right moment, when he. He will equip you and exhort you. I remember one time I was in this conference, and there was somebody speaking, and I felt God tell me to get up and get on the stage. I'm like, hello. It's like a stadium full of people and they're talking. I was fighting against that really strongly. I thought I was kind of going crazy.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:33:04]:
And then two of my mentors on the side of me, one of them reached over, grabbed my hand. You got to obey God. God told me tell you to obey him. Boom. Kick out of my chair. And I was on stage. I was like, whoa, that was crazy. So, you know, you never know.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:33:23]:
Availability and willingness is huge. And children, too, because children don't have as much arguments as we do with God when things like that come up. Oh, God said, just go ahead and do it. To be like a child again, right? And just do it. They don't need as much exhortation. But for us, sometimes we're like, I've been through this before, or I've seen what somebody else did and all these fears and come up and Moses become like, Moses tell you about my brother, Right? But no, he doesn't tell you you can get away with it. He says, no, I designed you for this. Just trust me, and you can have as much pity parties as you want.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:34:05]:
God is a big God. He'll take it. He'll encourage you. He'll pick you up and he says, are you ready now? Eventually, yeah. He'll always give you what you need. 10 to 11. Holy living. Same thing.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:34:19]:
Yeah. And the famous phrase I think goes with this holy living is we're all crooked sticks. But God can still draw a straight line with a crooked stick. Yeah. And a bunch of us are crooked sticks. All of us. And yet the problem, the cool thing, is this. When reeds bend, right? When things bend, they don't break.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:34:47]:
Are we brittle and don't want to Be humble. To be holy, you got to be set apart, and you got to be willing to set yourself apart. And that's sometimes tough because you say, I'd rather do what they're doing, but great God, my reward in heaven, I'm gonna do this. And sometimes it is like that, right? And he knows what you give up for him. He knows the road is narrow. He sees it. And it may not be fun in the moment, but again, it refines us. It makes us stronger.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:35:24]:
And somebody's watching. And it's not that you go, oh, like a child. Even if. When you argue and then you finally give in, if somebody's watching really closely and say, wow, I see you really go through it. But your God is real now. I seen you go through that. That's amazing. So don't worry about how you walk through it.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:35:40]:
Just know that God is working on you, and you'll eventually learn, become more holy. Step by step, Step by step. Verse 13. Accept the word of God. He said, just accept it. Accept. Paul is like, trust me, I was there. And I didn't.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:35:57]:
I argued against. He fought against God. Right. Until Jesus knocked him off his high horse, literally. And he just. And he said, who are you? God? Right? Yeah. All right, so second Timothy 3, 16, 17 says, all scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching reproof, for correction and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be adequate and equipped for every good work. We must know God's word.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:36:25]:
And second Peter 1:21. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will. But men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. That's all we can be. Yeah. I can't tell you how many times I preach. And then somebody. Well, every so often, somebody would say, wow, I'm glad you.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:36:47]:
When you said this, it really spoke to me. And I'm thinking, I play the record back in my head. I'm sure I did not see it. That wasn't even my notes. I know you. That was something of God that you get that because of that atmosphere. Necessarily. It's not about me.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:37:02]:
It's sometimes it's you being here and able to be willing to accept and study the word of God. And God can drop anything he wants to, in that moment, pull on you. And you were here to receive that. That's just for you. I have no control over that, and I can't take credit for that, but God bless you. And verses 14 through 16, he endured suffering and suffering not by just anybody, but his own countrymen. How many of you been wounded by a loved one or a fellow church member? And you know what? That is part of the journey. It's just like church is a little different.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:37:42]:
But I want to parallel this family. You don't get to choose your family. You just got a deals. God chose who's going to be the personalities that you get to meet when people come along generation by generation. And there's a purpose for that too. Yeah, you get some degree of choosing what church you go to, but you don't choose who walks in the door. Your enemy might walk in the door. Your ex might walk in the door.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:38:08]:
The one who hurt you. The money who embezzled from you might walk in the door. Who you don't know. And God does that kind of thing. And then you deal. Right? I've seen and prayed for. At one time, one of my mentors was at odds when the parents was mentoring her and her son at my hip hop class. Right.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:38:31]:
And then she asked me to mentor her son and she told me she had something offense against the pastor. One of my mentors. And then I saw them going for it outside when the church service one day, just arguing. And God said, just pray for them. Just pray for them. I was praying for them both. You know. You know, people are just people.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:38:48]:
You can't please everybody. Not everybody's personality is going to fit yours. But you're the people. We're the people of God. And we learn. We're here to learn. And you're gonna, you know, and God's gonna bring the very person at once in a while, you bring the very person you wish it wasn't there to test you, to grow you, to become more holy. And you gotta thank God in the process.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:39:11]:
And I ask your forgiveness because I probably am that for you one at some time or another. So. And we endure so enduring your own countryman. It doesn't matter what it is. Even missions. This church is so big on missions. The biggest problem with missions sometimes is not the people you minister to, but it's the people you're ministering alongside. That's the biggest test of missions half the time.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:39:34]:
Right. It's crazy. So. And everybody's watching that that ministers or allows you to grow with each other. So this journey is not perfect. But Paul is an example of that. Look what he came through again. Hebrews 11 people just like Paul, none of them were perfect.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:39:52]:
Some of their issues they died with. Still having issues. But they were faithful to do what he asked them to do. Yeah. Okay. And that so I think I want to end there. God is good. Amen.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:40:09]:
So this is how we shall live. We're in the Second Advent. Do you know when the Second Advent began? When the end times really began is when he ascended. It began that day. And we don't know when it's going to come. But he's doing a mighty work in you and through you. Unlikely vessels, humble vessels with a treasure that everybody needs. And he will use you even when you think he's not.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:40:45]:
Let's pray. Father, we are just so thankful that yout are at work in so many ways where we can't even fathom. And that whatever we are short, you are more than sufficient. You know exactly what we need. You know exactly what we lack. And sometimes it is again in the beauty of our imperfection and our flaws that you want people to see how we grow, how we surrender, how we fall and get up again. Because it's not about perfection. It's just obedience and availability and taking things a day at a time.

Pastor Terence Paraso [00:41:25]:
Praise God for each one here, what you have for them as you're preparing them for the surprises that you have for them, and that the enemy's plans that he's trying to plan against them is already only part of your plan to make them better and more like you. And in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.