Faith-Full Expectation

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.040 --> 00:00:03.040 Do you know that duds like excited right? He seems like he's always an 2 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:07.150 expectation bouncing. We have pouncing around now. I know like we don't want 3 00:00:07.150 --> 00:00:10.550 to fake it and put it on, but we have to remind ourselves that 4 00:00:10.710 --> 00:00:16.910 we serve a faithful God. I Am Yours, I am yours, I 5 00:00:17.230 --> 00:00:22.899 am yours, and me Lord, I am yours, I am yours. 6 00:00:23.379 --> 00:00:28.460 I'm welcome to the Gospel centered pro life podcast, a podcast design to equip, 7 00:00:29.179 --> 00:00:33.460 encourage and challenge you in pro life ministry, and always with a focus 8 00:00:33.539 --> 00:00:42.250 on the Gospel. Stay tuned. I felt show passish, touch your heart. 9 00:00:44.649 --> 00:00:51.799 Use Me. Welcome back to the Gospel centered pro life podcast. Appreciate 10 00:00:51.880 --> 00:00:56.759 you guys joining us and we would appreciate that you guys share this podcast with 11 00:00:56.840 --> 00:01:00.280 other folks. Shoot it out and, I don't know, an email or 12 00:01:02.320 --> 00:01:06.670 put it on your social media or something, or you can get folks to 13 00:01:06.750 --> 00:01:08.069 listen to this podcast. We think that this episode is going to be a 14 00:01:08.150 --> 00:01:11.989 real encouragement. Do you guys? It's been an encouragement to us just what 15 00:01:11.109 --> 00:01:15.230 we're going to be talking about and a challenge for you guys, for two 16 00:01:15.269 --> 00:01:22.099 thousand and twenty two, to really be in faith full expectation. We're going 17 00:01:22.099 --> 00:01:25.260 to talk about that a little bit more as we go through this podcast. 18 00:01:26.099 --> 00:01:29.459 But yeah, we want to be an encouragement to you guys and we want 19 00:01:29.459 --> 00:01:32.780 to just challenge you guys to step out in faith, to believe God, 20 00:01:33.689 --> 00:01:38.290 to do miraculous things, to do the impossible. Listen this ministry. For 21 00:01:38.489 --> 00:01:42.010 us to see baby saved at an abortion clinic from MOMS who are walking in 22 00:01:42.290 --> 00:01:46.890 about to kill her child and to see them to a hundred eighty under, 23 00:01:47.010 --> 00:01:51.000 a hundred eighty degree, turn and choose life is a miraculous thing. This 24 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:57.640 ministry is a miraculous ministry and as believers in Jesus, we serve a miraculous 25 00:01:57.680 --> 00:02:01.109 God and we should be an expectation that God's going to do miraculous stuff. 26 00:02:01.109 --> 00:02:07.909 A man, Amen. That was beautifully said. I Love I love this 27 00:02:07.189 --> 00:02:12.789 topic. I love it. So the way it came up was that we 28 00:02:12.990 --> 00:02:19.180 have encouraged our national missionaries, Yep, to be faith full, with a 29 00:02:19.259 --> 00:02:23.939 full, yeah, full of faith expectation. Right, faithful expectation. And 30 00:02:23.060 --> 00:02:28.819 as I was pondering that, it occurred to me that I get asked all 31 00:02:28.900 --> 00:02:31.810 the time, how can you be out there with so many babies dying, 32 00:02:32.289 --> 00:02:37.810 how can you be out there for nine years now? And this is why, 33 00:02:38.610 --> 00:02:43.689 this is why I expect God to do miracles. Yeah, like you 34 00:02:43.689 --> 00:02:46.759 said, not just a baby being saved, even that they stop for us 35 00:02:47.240 --> 00:02:53.520 at all, take information from total strangers. Yeah, in that moment of 36 00:02:53.599 --> 00:02:57.439 crisis, is a miracle. It's pretty much a miraculous thing that we get 37 00:02:57.479 --> 00:03:00.469 to be a part of. It really is. It really is an and 38 00:03:00.789 --> 00:03:06.469 so I think it helps anyone contemplating being out, well, really in all 39 00:03:06.509 --> 00:03:12.069 of life, but especially in a difficult ministry, as you're approaching being out 40 00:03:12.270 --> 00:03:20.099 on a cold sidewalk where you're going to be taunted, ridiculed, probably threatened 41 00:03:20.219 --> 00:03:23.699 for three hours. Yeah, Fo half people yelling at you. Yeah, 42 00:03:23.819 --> 00:03:25.419 there's going to be a lot of agreement at yes, they're driving by, 43 00:03:25.819 --> 00:03:30.969 there's going to be you know, you are going to face intense adversity for 44 00:03:30.129 --> 00:03:36.050 you to have in your heart. But God is faithful. Yeah, and 45 00:03:36.530 --> 00:03:39.770 I expect him to show up and you're going to look for him. You 46 00:03:39.930 --> 00:03:43.520 look for him, I think, in a different way. You look for 47 00:03:43.639 --> 00:03:50.360 him in everything, in what others might describe as the mundane things that happen. 48 00:03:50.639 --> 00:03:54.159 Yeah, yeah, or a pastor. This is a couple of weeks 49 00:03:54.199 --> 00:03:58.509 ago or so. I can't remember exactly who said this, but they were. 50 00:03:58.669 --> 00:04:02.030 They were talking about not having an e or spirit. You know what 51 00:04:02.150 --> 00:04:04.310 they or you know? I sure do. Oh, yeah, one of 52 00:04:04.349 --> 00:04:09.830 my favorite one meader donkey, right on the food. Oh, it's just 53 00:04:09.990 --> 00:04:14.219 going to be another bad day, right, it's the worst day because I'm 54 00:04:14.300 --> 00:04:16.339 in this day and always has a rain cloud over his head and all this 55 00:04:16.379 --> 00:04:20.100 stuff is like every day is the worst day. And this pastor was talking 56 00:04:20.139 --> 00:04:25.970 about not talking about not having an ear spirit, rejecting the EOR spirit right, 57 00:04:26.370 --> 00:04:30.250 of always is bad and the worst day ever. But really have a 58 00:04:30.050 --> 00:04:33.050 I mean he didn't say this, but I'm thinking like a tigger spirit. 59 00:04:33.889 --> 00:04:36.730 That let's cheesy on that. You know that dudes like excited, right. 60 00:04:36.930 --> 00:04:42.240 He seems like he's always an expectation bouncing. We have pouncing around now, 61 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:44.199 I know, like we don't want to fake it and put it on, 62 00:04:44.680 --> 00:04:49.879 but we have to remind ourselves that we serve a faithful God and so kind 63 00:04:49.920 --> 00:04:54.910 of backtrack just a little bit. This faithful expectation. Where did that come 64 00:04:54.990 --> 00:04:58.629 from? So, as Love Life Staff, we were seeking the Lord at 65 00:04:58.670 --> 00:05:00.430 the end of the last year, just trying to get a theme for this 66 00:05:00.589 --> 00:05:04.949 year, something that can encourage us, something that can help help focus our 67 00:05:04.990 --> 00:05:08.459 vision on what God has for us. Like we know what the vision of 68 00:05:08.500 --> 00:05:12.220 Love Life Is. Unite, mobilize the church to create a culture of love 69 00:05:12.259 --> 00:05:14.980 and life. That resulted into abortion in the orphan crisis. That's like. 70 00:05:15.180 --> 00:05:17.019 That's like the mission that God has given us, the vision uniting, the 71 00:05:17.139 --> 00:05:20.850 mobilizing the church. But for this year in particular, like what in the 72 00:05:20.930 --> 00:05:26.930 scope of that, what are some things that we can really laser focus and 73 00:05:27.050 --> 00:05:29.810 help us really laser focus in on what God has given us as far as 74 00:05:29.810 --> 00:05:34.839 a mission, and it is faithful expectation, to be faithful in what God 75 00:05:34.920 --> 00:05:38.879 has called us to you know the word faithful, that's one word right. 76 00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:43.959 We's broken it up into kind of a hyphenated word, faith full expectation, 77 00:05:44.839 --> 00:05:47.399 for good reason, because we want to be faithful doing what God's called us 78 00:05:47.399 --> 00:05:51.029 to do day in and day out, the mundane stuff. Being faithful in 79 00:05:51.110 --> 00:05:57.230 that really that's that's where faithfulness is really proven. Is the Monday nine every 80 00:05:57.230 --> 00:05:59.949 day, doing the stuff that you know you ought to do, whether you 81 00:05:59.990 --> 00:06:00.949 feel like it or not, doing that stuff. So you want to be 82 00:06:00.990 --> 00:06:03.540 faithful in that stuff, showing up to the sidewalk. If we are a 83 00:06:03.620 --> 00:06:08.220 volunteer or if we're a missionary and our job is to be out there on 84 00:06:08.300 --> 00:06:11.139 the sidewalk, we've committed to certain days. We need to be faithful, 85 00:06:11.180 --> 00:06:14.819 whether we feel like it or not, be faithful, right, but also 86 00:06:15.060 --> 00:06:17.730 be full of faith. So when we are faith when we show up out 87 00:06:17.730 --> 00:06:24.089 there, let's be full of faith and expectation, expecting God to do some 88 00:06:24.730 --> 00:06:29.730 miraculous stuff. Right. We we can show up in this area of ministry 89 00:06:29.730 --> 00:06:31.730 a lot of times to the sidewalk and expect the devil to do some stuff, 90 00:06:31.879 --> 00:06:35.680 and reality is like, the devil's doing some stuff, whether we expect 91 00:06:35.720 --> 00:06:39.240 it or not. Right, devil is going to be doing sprice out yeah, 92 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:41.600 but that shouldn't be our focus. That should not be our focus, 93 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:45.000 right, because you can, you can focus on what the devil is doing 94 00:06:46.079 --> 00:06:50.509 and really get sidetracked, really get derailed, really get disillusioned and just being 95 00:06:50.670 --> 00:06:56.629 anger and being that ere spirit. Right, because the devil's always trying to 96 00:06:56.709 --> 00:07:00.350 destroy lives. He's doing that in mass inside of these abortion clinics, destroying 97 00:07:00.350 --> 00:07:02.579 the lives of babies and women and men and all of that. So he's 98 00:07:02.620 --> 00:07:05.019 doing what he's going to do. But let's let's shift our focus off what 99 00:07:05.139 --> 00:07:10.379 the devil's doing and focus on what God is doing it and be an expectation 100 00:07:10.540 --> 00:07:14.100 what God is going to do. Yeah, let's be an expectation and we 101 00:07:14.899 --> 00:07:17.810 pray some bold prayers. Like God, I pray that women would run out 102 00:07:17.810 --> 00:07:23.050 of that abortion clinic. And does that always happen? It doesn't always happen, 103 00:07:23.449 --> 00:07:25.889 but it has happened. I mean have literally seen it with my own 104 00:07:25.930 --> 00:07:30.480 eyes. A young lady. We were up in southern California. We're praying 105 00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:32.800 that. I had a group of pastors out praying and just prayed an expectation. 106 00:07:32.959 --> 00:07:36.000 It really felt like, you know, this powerful time of prayer after 107 00:07:36.079 --> 00:07:39.079 that time of prayer, and we were praying. God, I pray that 108 00:07:39.120 --> 00:07:42.879 women run out of that place. Thirty minutes later, this young lady comes 109 00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:46.910 literally running out of the place right she saw her baby on the ultrasound, 110 00:07:46.029 --> 00:07:49.750 got a glimpse of her her baby, ten week baby's foot on the ultrasound. 111 00:07:49.790 --> 00:07:55.230 And what we found out was actually the abortionist told her you don't want 112 00:07:55.230 --> 00:07:57.990 to do this, you probably should. You probably should should not be here. 113 00:07:58.189 --> 00:08:01.579 It really this is abortions. So that's pretty amazed. That's a bad 114 00:08:01.620 --> 00:08:07.139 alone. Is a miracle of yeah, yeah, we've heard other miraculous stuff 115 00:08:07.180 --> 00:08:09.540 like that. I mean you think these people, they get paid to murder 116 00:08:09.620 --> 00:08:13.970 children day after, day after day, these abortionists, he's abortion workers, 117 00:08:13.009 --> 00:08:16.649 the ultrasound text and all that stuff, like day after day they're responsible for, 118 00:08:18.290 --> 00:08:22.009 you know, across the nation, literally thousands of babies dying. And 119 00:08:22.009 --> 00:08:26.129 yet for some reason, from time to time we'll hear stories of abortionist convincing 120 00:08:26.529 --> 00:08:30.000 women not to have the abortion. We've heard it here at Latrobe, the 121 00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:33.279 ultrasound tech saying hey, you don't want to do this, go and talk 122 00:08:33.320 --> 00:08:35.399 to these people out there. This is the same person that like cusses us 123 00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:39.360 going into the door when they go into their job. You know, they're 124 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:41.509 cussing us out one minute, next minute they're telling somebody to come out and 125 00:08:41.629 --> 00:08:46.789 talk to us. Like, how does that happen except for God doing miraculous 126 00:08:46.950 --> 00:08:50.590 things? Right, right, right, yeah, yeah, and so that's 127 00:08:50.629 --> 00:08:54.549 kind of the theme, being expectation. God has done some stuff in the 128 00:08:54.590 --> 00:08:58.700 past that's miraculous. God's going to keep doing stuff like cheer some some other 129 00:08:58.779 --> 00:09:01.659 cool storage. One story, okay, and then you want to talk about 130 00:09:01.659 --> 00:09:07.139 I'm just I'm an expectation, exacting all Daniel. In another story from Southern 131 00:09:07.179 --> 00:09:11.090 California, there was a guy who works a security team. So they don't 132 00:09:11.090 --> 00:09:13.169 really have a lot of proboard people out there, but they do have some 133 00:09:13.250 --> 00:09:18.929 pretty nasty security guards. So they plant parent who hires these security firms to 134 00:09:18.090 --> 00:09:24.600 do security for them. Yeah, and this one security guard ultimately, and 135 00:09:24.639 --> 00:09:28.200 I don't know how this all happened, but ultimately he quit with that security 136 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:35.320 firm or got fired or something, ended up being with the same security firm 137 00:09:35.799 --> 00:09:39.269 that does security for the Church of the majority of the people that go out 138 00:09:39.269 --> 00:09:41.870 to that abortion centers. So now he's doing security for that church. Here 139 00:09:41.909 --> 00:09:45.750 in the Gospel Week in and week out, he sees the people that he 140 00:09:45.789 --> 00:09:48.309 used to oppose and of course he knows that they're people that love Jesus and 141 00:09:48.389 --> 00:09:52.590 he gets to see their interactions with each other in church and just these are 142 00:09:52.750 --> 00:09:54.940 genuine people and so I'm trusting and believing that guy is going to come to 143 00:09:54.980 --> 00:09:58.019 the Lord if he hasn't already. So stuff like that. A guy works 144 00:09:58.019 --> 00:10:01.740 at the abortion clinic next week because he got fired or whatever. He's working 145 00:10:01.820 --> 00:10:05.620 out the church from the people who go out to the abortion clinic to minister 146 00:10:05.740 --> 00:10:09.649 there. That's that's that's amazing, that's miraculous, right. God so often 147 00:10:09.690 --> 00:10:13.850 works that way. Yeah, well, when when you you had talked with 148 00:10:15.210 --> 00:10:18.649 our missionary group about fearful expectation and that was safe thing, faithful, I'm 149 00:10:18.690 --> 00:10:26.000 sorry, not's Weirdiful, faithful expect dictation and and I think it was the 150 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:31.559 very next day that I was really, of course, focused on that theme 151 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:39.110 and it was really a miraculous day. But it wasn't really I mean from 152 00:10:39.629 --> 00:10:43.149 any any other human perspective, looking at the day, it might have been 153 00:10:43.190 --> 00:10:46.789 a disappointing day. Yeah, there was one baby saved, but it wasn't 154 00:10:46.789 --> 00:10:50.940 a confirmed save. But anyway, as I was as I was thinking about 155 00:10:50.940 --> 00:10:56.820 that day, that day and and faithful expectation, I started to list the 156 00:10:56.100 --> 00:11:03.059 things that made that day for me a day of rejoicing and seeing God everywhere 157 00:11:03.100 --> 00:11:09.169 I looked and and kind of tried to think about how to categorize what happened 158 00:11:09.210 --> 00:11:13.090 during that day. So one of the first things that I thought of is 159 00:11:13.289 --> 00:11:18.960 that if you can rejoice in the positives, no matter how small. Yeah, 160 00:11:20.080 --> 00:11:24.200 rejoice in the positives. That starts to shift you from an Eoor to 161 00:11:24.279 --> 00:11:26.440 a tigger right away, right. Ye, you joy seeing, rejoice in 162 00:11:26.519 --> 00:11:31.120 the small things. The first thing is covid is rampant in our nation, 163 00:11:31.240 --> 00:11:35.509 but in our ranks we've had, we've seen a lot of COVID. Yeah, 164 00:11:35.710 --> 00:11:39.990 I mean all over the really. I know of so many people who 165 00:11:39.990 --> 00:11:46.029 have covid right now and it has really devastated our volunteer pool. Yeah, 166 00:11:46.230 --> 00:11:48.620 because I they're faithful and careful not to come and in fact, others when 167 00:11:48.659 --> 00:11:54.340 they're when they have covid. So we just have had really small teams, 168 00:11:54.940 --> 00:12:01.529 two or three tops. Yeah, four weeks now, and that is usually 169 00:12:01.610 --> 00:12:03.529 not enough. Few did. There's not enough people for you to leave to 170 00:12:03.570 --> 00:12:07.370 go to the bathroom if you need to go the bathroom. There's not enough 171 00:12:07.370 --> 00:12:11.129 people to go on the RV if some mom wants to look at her baby. 172 00:12:11.490 --> 00:12:16.399 So, but instead of looking at a gosh, there's only two people 173 00:12:16.480 --> 00:12:22.559 here. Today, we said, praise God, there's two people, yeah, 174 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:26.559 here to day. It changed everything. You change everything to think of 175 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:31.750 this is good to people who showed up. There are two people willing to 176 00:12:31.789 --> 00:12:35.990 stee more gather in my name. There I am in the midstactly, exactly, 177 00:12:37.590 --> 00:12:39.669 you know, don't despise the day of small things. Yeah, is 178 00:12:39.909 --> 00:12:43.909 is kind of that that I remember a time that out here at Latrobe, 179 00:12:43.070 --> 00:12:46.940 there was not even two people that could be out there on it. Well, 180 00:12:46.980 --> 00:12:50.379 this was a Thursday, I believe the right yeah, it Thursday or 181 00:12:50.419 --> 00:12:54.700 Friday. Yeah. Yeah, so I remember back in the day I first 182 00:12:54.740 --> 00:12:58.179 started, it was only Saturdays that we had people out there and we'd prayed 183 00:12:58.259 --> 00:13:01.490 for people to be out there every day of the week and just never happened 184 00:13:01.809 --> 00:13:05.769 until yeah, God made it happen right, right, and so just rejoicing 185 00:13:05.850 --> 00:13:09.889 that there's anybody out there. Yeah, yeah, can add it from a 186 00:13:09.570 --> 00:13:15.399 positive perspective. Yeah, fateful expectation. Yeah, perspective. Sometimes I think 187 00:13:15.480 --> 00:13:20.200 we can put our eyes so firmly on our goal, on the mission, 188 00:13:20.960 --> 00:13:24.759 that we lose the side of God's schools. Yeah, and God's mission out 189 00:13:24.759 --> 00:13:30.870 there. And that was the second thing that I thought of is expect the 190 00:13:30.950 --> 00:13:37.549 unexpected. In a way, look for the unexpected opportunities as you're out there. 191 00:13:37.629 --> 00:13:39.470 You know, our mission on the sidewalk is we are we want babies 192 00:13:39.509 --> 00:13:43.100 to be saved. Yeah, we want to glorify God, but we want 193 00:13:43.100 --> 00:13:46.820 to be able to promote life and mostly and seeing baby saved, because they're 194 00:13:46.860 --> 00:13:50.419 the ones whose lives are on the line. But in, in, in 195 00:13:50.659 --> 00:13:54.769 this little thing that happened in Uber driver stopped and she didn't know it was 196 00:13:54.809 --> 00:13:58.649 an abortion center. She took our information, she was horrified that it was 197 00:13:58.690 --> 00:14:03.690 an abortion center and she said, I'm going to take take this information, 198 00:14:03.730 --> 00:14:07.210 I'm going to give it. Yes, someone who maybe is thinking about an 199 00:14:07.210 --> 00:14:11.240 abortion. Yeah, a little thing, yeah, not a big thing, 200 00:14:11.679 --> 00:14:16.919 but praise God it is. That maybe God's mission for us being at that 201 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:22.919 moment, right then, was exactly where that Uber I mean, we did 202 00:14:22.080 --> 00:14:26.190 podcast months ago about an uber driver that got a piece of literature who ended 203 00:14:26.230 --> 00:14:30.950 up resulting in it was two moms that chose life. Yep, and one 204 00:14:31.029 --> 00:14:33.389 of those moms are both of those moms that I remember them, gave their 205 00:14:33.429 --> 00:14:35.789 lives to Jesus. It's like wow, so we got to think in the 206 00:14:35.870 --> 00:14:39.740 terms of sewing seed and watering seat, and that's what you did. You 207 00:14:39.860 --> 00:14:43.100 sowed seed and, Gosh, I'm an expectation that we're going to hear back 208 00:14:43.100 --> 00:14:46.220 from that Uber driver or maybe when we stand before the Lord, we're going 209 00:14:46.220 --> 00:14:50.899 to find out this was a baby that was saved because that Uber driver took 210 00:14:50.940 --> 00:14:54.169 that piece of liturgy you gave them, handed them to a handed it to 211 00:14:54.210 --> 00:14:58.570 a young lady. Yeah, possibly got a not a call, but got 212 00:14:58.690 --> 00:15:01.529 a ding on their phone to go and pick somebody up, to take them 213 00:15:01.570 --> 00:15:05.769 to thirty two, twenty lit robe drive and right, you wouldn't pick that 214 00:15:05.809 --> 00:15:07.399 person up? Instead, share the Gospel with him? Who knows? You 215 00:15:07.519 --> 00:15:11.399 know, you planted to see. They didn't know it was an abortion clinic. 216 00:15:11.480 --> 00:15:13.639 Now they know. So now they can run with that and they've got 217 00:15:13.679 --> 00:15:16.399 some information. Yeah, and be able to help plant seeds as well. 218 00:15:16.759 --> 00:15:20.629 And they're just an uber driver. Yeah, are quotes, just auber driver, 219 00:15:20.750 --> 00:15:24.549 but I told that story to that Uber driver and I said that Uber 220 00:15:24.590 --> 00:15:28.029 driver, the last one that I gave Litt I don't know if it was 221 00:15:28.070 --> 00:15:33.029 the last one, but that I gave literature to, had the result was 222 00:15:33.429 --> 00:15:37.259 two babies being saved and two lives being committed to the Lord. Yeah, 223 00:15:37.340 --> 00:15:39.820 that could be what happens with you and and that Uber driver kind of like 224 00:15:41.779 --> 00:15:48.620 set up tall and I think it changed his perspective on I I could save 225 00:15:48.659 --> 00:15:52.090 a life today, and it was like now his mission had to had become 226 00:15:52.529 --> 00:15:56.210 part of God's mission out. Yeah, so the next thing you have here, 227 00:15:56.570 --> 00:16:02.370 which I think is we talked about expectation, is expect the vine encounters. 228 00:16:02.409 --> 00:16:07.200 Yeah, and believe that all encounters are divine, I guess, and 229 00:16:07.440 --> 00:16:11.879 they are right are. And so you share in this article a little story 230 00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:15.320 about somebody who came out to the abortion center. They were there at the 231 00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:19.710 pond looking for ducks. SHERE's an abortion clinic, there's a pond not far 232 00:16:19.870 --> 00:16:25.830 from that abortion clinic and for whatever reason she decided to go to that pond 233 00:16:25.870 --> 00:16:27.110 at that time while you were there. So share a little bit of that 234 00:16:27.190 --> 00:16:30.750 story. Well. So, so I approach every car if they pull over, 235 00:16:32.070 --> 00:16:36.139 because I can't tell immediately if their mom and she was an older woman. 236 00:16:36.220 --> 00:16:37.379 I knew as soon as I approach. I said, Oh, you're 237 00:16:37.419 --> 00:16:40.620 not here for an abortion and she said, Oh, no, no, 238 00:16:40.980 --> 00:16:42.980 I although. She said, but I am pro choice. Okay, said, 239 00:16:44.019 --> 00:16:48.049 but I'm here to look for ducks and I had just noticed on that 240 00:16:48.250 --> 00:16:52.009 pond just a couple days ago that there was a hooded merganser. Now, 241 00:16:52.129 --> 00:16:56.649 for you people that don't know, ducks this is exciting. Hooded mergansers are 242 00:16:56.690 --> 00:17:00.450 not common, I don't think, in our area and you don't usually see 243 00:17:00.490 --> 00:17:03.840 them on a little pond, but it was clearly a hooded merganser. I 244 00:17:03.919 --> 00:17:06.400 went home and looked it up after I saw it. So I told this 245 00:17:06.519 --> 00:17:10.480 lady, you would not believe what I saw. What lives on this pond 246 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:12.880 is a hooded Bergancer. Well, she knew what they were because she's a 247 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:18.390 duck watcher. So she's all excited. So we are bonding over ducks and 248 00:17:18.190 --> 00:17:22.349 we're talking about the ducks, but I was not going to let that comment 249 00:17:22.589 --> 00:17:27.950 about being pro choice go on challenge. Yeah, so from ducks we talked 250 00:17:27.990 --> 00:17:33.700 about I talked about how I knew because my daughter was an artist and we 251 00:17:33.779 --> 00:17:37.299 used to paint. Hoo Did merganser said, oh, for the for the 252 00:17:37.380 --> 00:17:41.019 Federal Duck Stamp Contest, one of the odds. I said yes. She 253 00:17:41.660 --> 00:17:45.529 said, well, I used to too. I used to faint ducks for 254 00:17:45.650 --> 00:17:48.289 this duck contest. She did your daughter ever win? and Said No, 255 00:17:49.009 --> 00:17:53.089 she got first place in her age category, but she never once and was 256 00:17:53.250 --> 00:17:56.730 placed on a stamp. And Anyway, so we're we're sharing. And then 257 00:17:57.089 --> 00:18:02.720 I was able to shift the conversation to a discussion of God and the Gospel. 258 00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:07.559 And she comes from Catholic roots and she was she had been turned off 259 00:18:07.640 --> 00:18:12.829 to God because what she saw as the hypocrisy in the Catholic Church and and 260 00:18:14.150 --> 00:18:21.589 was concerned about the works versus faith issue. Yeah, and so I was 261 00:18:21.710 --> 00:18:25.029 able to talk with her and share the truth of the Gospel, gave her 262 00:18:25.069 --> 00:18:27.539 a Gospel tract, which she was very willing to take because we had now 263 00:18:27.700 --> 00:18:34.700 shared this common interest about ducks, and she thanked me as I had to 264 00:18:34.819 --> 00:18:40.819 leave then and get back to my work, but she thanked me and and 265 00:18:41.180 --> 00:18:47.569 she said that she recognized this as a divine encounter. Yeah, well, 266 00:18:47.569 --> 00:18:52.809 which was really I mean again, what were the chances? And where will 267 00:18:52.890 --> 00:18:56.480 that encounter lead? I don't know. She's got a gospel tract. It 268 00:18:56.480 --> 00:19:00.759 might have been a soul that now comes to the Lord, all because of 269 00:19:00.880 --> 00:19:03.079 ducks. Yeah, yeah, and my only question about the duck that you're 270 00:19:03.119 --> 00:19:07.319 talking about is, does it taste good? That is exactly what the RV 271 00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:11.549 driver said, who happens to be hunter, and I told him pretty sure, 272 00:19:11.549 --> 00:19:17.230 told them you shot that right. Oh, I forgot. The best 273 00:19:17.230 --> 00:19:21.349 part of the store wree okay, as we're finishing up, and she said 274 00:19:21.390 --> 00:19:23.460 she felt that, oh wait, that's why she felt it was a divine 275 00:19:23.460 --> 00:19:27.900 encounter. As we're finishing up and I'm starting to move away, guess what 276 00:19:29.059 --> 00:19:33.539 I saw swimming across the pond. The Blah Blah Blah Blah, did look 277 00:19:33.660 --> 00:19:36.819 answer and I said I stopped her in the middle of a God discussion and 278 00:19:36.900 --> 00:19:41.250 said Look, look, look, it's the hooded merganser. And she was 279 00:19:41.450 --> 00:19:48.450 in thhralled. Any duck watcher would be. Okay, and and that at 280 00:19:48.490 --> 00:19:52.049 that point she said, not only have you raised some questions I'm really going 281 00:19:52.089 --> 00:19:55.759 to think about, but I got to see the hooded MERC answer. This 282 00:19:55.960 --> 00:19:59.640 was and if I hadn't talked with you about God, I would have missed 283 00:20:00.079 --> 00:20:06.039 the hooded mercancer. Yeah, so expect the unexpected and every every encounter is 284 00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:14.430 divine. Don't be discouraged. Don't let the opposition discourage you. Yeah, 285 00:20:14.990 --> 00:20:18.990 and that is an easy thing to do because, especially here in Charlotte, 286 00:20:19.950 --> 00:20:23.019 if you guys have watched any of our videos or any of our stuff, 287 00:20:23.700 --> 00:20:27.019 you've heard us even talk about on the podcast, we have some pretty pretty 288 00:20:27.019 --> 00:20:30.940 venomous probortion. Opposition out here. Yeah, but even, you know, 289 00:20:32.059 --> 00:20:36.289 cross the nation were places where they don't have like a consistent pro abortion opposition. 290 00:20:36.369 --> 00:20:38.089 There can still be people that come from Tom to Tom. I know 291 00:20:38.210 --> 00:20:42.529 I was up in Washington state with our team there a couple of months ago 292 00:20:44.410 --> 00:20:48.529 and they don't have really any pro bows, poor probortion opposition. They have 293 00:20:48.609 --> 00:20:51.480 people that come by and flip them off and yell him, yell at him 294 00:20:51.480 --> 00:20:56.039 and stuff like that. But this day this young lady came and she decided 295 00:20:56.039 --> 00:20:57.680 to get her piece of poster board and make up a sign. I forget 296 00:20:57.720 --> 00:21:02.279 what it said on it, something about us being bigots or something like that, 297 00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:06.829 and held the sign about there. That happens from time to time. 298 00:21:06.829 --> 00:21:08.430 You're going to have opposition, you're going to have people decide they're going to 299 00:21:08.549 --> 00:21:12.829 voice their opinion against you or whatever, and it can be discouraging because at 300 00:21:12.829 --> 00:21:17.470 the end of the day, all of you guys are listening, you're just 301 00:21:17.829 --> 00:21:22.140 people that love people and love Jesus. You love Jesus and because of that 302 00:21:22.940 --> 00:21:27.500 he loves people. You love people and people come and they cuts you out 303 00:21:27.539 --> 00:21:32.779 and they have all these misconceptions about who you are. We're, in reality, 304 00:21:32.859 --> 00:21:33.890 like none of that stuff's true about you, right. You're not a 305 00:21:33.970 --> 00:21:37.650 bigot, you're not hateful, you're not condemning these women or whatever. You're 306 00:21:37.650 --> 00:21:41.529 not trying to control their bodies or anything like that. You're just a person 307 00:21:41.569 --> 00:21:45.650 that loves Jesus, that loves people, and so those false accusations can really 308 00:21:45.690 --> 00:21:49.799 be heavy and they can really weigh heavy on your mind and in your heart. 309 00:21:51.119 --> 00:21:55.799 It can take your eyes off of and they can discourage expectation and discourage 310 00:21:55.799 --> 00:21:59.279 you. And one of those it went on this particular day. One of 311 00:21:59.359 --> 00:22:04.430 them was terrible, one of the proportion people blowing his horn into our face 312 00:22:04.710 --> 00:22:11.549 and screaming at us and it very angry and confrontational and I just ignored him, 313 00:22:11.589 --> 00:22:15.099 as I always tried to do, not not get distracted. But later 314 00:22:15.180 --> 00:22:18.980 in the day, I don't know, I felt the Holy Spirit kind of 315 00:22:19.019 --> 00:22:22.980 tug at me. And he's married to someone I really like. She's also 316 00:22:23.059 --> 00:22:26.339 out there, but I really do like her. I pray for her. 317 00:22:26.380 --> 00:22:32.049 Yeah, and and I told him just it popped out of my mouth, 318 00:22:32.130 --> 00:22:37.329 you know, your wife is so sweet. I really like her, and 319 00:22:37.529 --> 00:22:41.049 he said she really is. That's what attracted her to me. And he 320 00:22:41.329 --> 00:22:48.839 started this very civil discussion about his wife, how they met. She was 321 00:22:48.920 --> 00:22:52.720 the first person, he said, who recognized his or the only person that 322 00:22:52.920 --> 00:23:00.029 recognized his potential, which gave me the opportunity to launch into a god discussion 323 00:23:00.069 --> 00:23:04.069 when I said she is great, but she's not the only one that recognizes 324 00:23:04.109 --> 00:23:11.230 your potential. The God who created you seize your potential and created you for 325 00:23:11.549 --> 00:23:15.140 great things. And he had said his wife had saved him, and I 326 00:23:15.220 --> 00:23:18.500 said, and your wife can't save you, sweet as she is, it's 327 00:23:18.579 --> 00:23:23.460 God who saves. He ended up listening to me without a word for about 328 00:23:23.460 --> 00:23:29.690 a half an hour. I shared the Gospel. So what began as very 329 00:23:29.769 --> 00:23:33.089 discouraging opposition became one of the highlights of the day. I had the opportunity 330 00:23:33.130 --> 00:23:38.289 to share the gospel with someone who had not listened to it before, at 331 00:23:38.329 --> 00:23:42.240 least certainly not not from me. Yeah, that's good. So, yeah, 332 00:23:42.240 --> 00:23:48.200 yeah, and viewing that now, we do talk about prioritizing who we 333 00:23:48.359 --> 00:23:52.039 talked to. We always discourage, don't get distracted with pro abortion people, 334 00:23:52.720 --> 00:23:56.470 but they are still people, yeah, that God would save if they would 335 00:23:56.470 --> 00:24:00.750 turn to him. God has a love toward them and, when given opportunity, 336 00:24:00.829 --> 00:24:03.390 as long as it's not going to distract us from while we're there. 337 00:24:03.670 --> 00:24:08.029 We should minister to them, share the Gospel with them. I think it's 338 00:24:08.069 --> 00:24:11.180 in we should be intentional. It's important for us to be intentional about sharing 339 00:24:11.259 --> 00:24:15.900 what the Bible says, not to get some lengthy conversation about things that don't 340 00:24:15.940 --> 00:24:19.700 matter, but really get into the Gospel and get into a Gospel conversation. 341 00:24:21.299 --> 00:24:23.890 God Open that door for you. Be Praying for God to open those doors. 342 00:24:23.930 --> 00:24:27.890 Maybe there's security guard that gives you some problems when you're out there on 343 00:24:27.930 --> 00:24:33.210 the sidewalk and you know you you don't want to get distracted with them and 344 00:24:33.329 --> 00:24:37.009 get in some kind of heated argument. Just stay away from getting into heated 345 00:24:37.089 --> 00:24:41.240 arguments back and forth with pro abortion people's security guards or anybody at the abortion 346 00:24:41.519 --> 00:24:45.119 he just don't do that. It's not helpful. But be praying for God 347 00:24:45.160 --> 00:24:48.279 to open up doors for you to be able to have a civil, oneonone 348 00:24:48.319 --> 00:24:52.789 conversation where you can plainly lay out the Gospel, plainly lay out your convictions 349 00:24:52.869 --> 00:24:56.269 as a believer in Jesus. God can open those doors. YEA, and 350 00:24:56.349 --> 00:24:59.910 be an expectation that he's going to do it and he's going to use that 351 00:24:59.990 --> 00:25:03.309 conversation to draw them to himself. Yeah, and what you said about prayer, 352 00:25:03.349 --> 00:25:07.099 I don't think I actually put any that here in this article that I 353 00:25:07.180 --> 00:25:14.700 wrote, but pray for those opportunities to arisees. Is Part of being faithfully 354 00:25:14.700 --> 00:25:18.740 expectant. Yeah, you've prayed for it. Now wait and watch and and 355 00:25:18.019 --> 00:25:22.450 see how he's going to answer it. It might not be exactly as you 356 00:25:22.569 --> 00:25:25.609 prayed, but he will answer it in one way or another. Yeah, 357 00:25:25.970 --> 00:25:30.329 but you know, like you said, our goal is our mission, our 358 00:25:30.369 --> 00:25:34.009 reason we're out there is to hopefully save the lives of these babies. We 359 00:25:34.130 --> 00:25:38.480 don't of course God does, but where the instrument he uses? And one 360 00:25:38.519 --> 00:25:45.680 of the things that I thought that gives faithful expectation is having an optimistic outlook 361 00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:51.589 on events. And what I meant by that was there are oftentimes, and 362 00:25:51.789 --> 00:25:55.390 everyone in ministry knows that, there are people. Some sidewalk teams will call 363 00:25:55.430 --> 00:26:00.509 them turnaways. Yeah, others will call them saves. There are mom who 364 00:26:00.630 --> 00:26:04.619 left, who didn't abort. Yeah, and there are some people who are 365 00:26:04.819 --> 00:26:11.099 very, I guess, sticklers about if they don't have a confirmed save, 366 00:26:11.299 --> 00:26:14.779 the MOM has said I chose life, then they don't think of it as 367 00:26:14.819 --> 00:26:19.170 a save to baby. Yeah, I'm a little bit more lenient. Okay, 368 00:26:19.690 --> 00:26:23.690 and the reason, I think, does have to do with faithful expectation. 369 00:26:23.769 --> 00:26:26.730 Yeah, I know God send us there to do that. I know 370 00:26:26.849 --> 00:26:33.640 that's our mission and if I see a lot of indications that this mom probably 371 00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:37.799 chose life, there are lots of clues. Yeah, we've gone into that 372 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:41.920 in other podcast. I won't go into them now, but if there's enough 373 00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:45.400 of those, I'm going to tell my team. I think that was a 374 00:26:45.599 --> 00:26:48.269 safe and I'm going to, I guess, count it as a save because 375 00:26:49.190 --> 00:26:56.910 it is such an encouragement, yeah, to us who have been weathering some 376 00:26:56.150 --> 00:27:02.099 pretty rough hours in most cases out there. Yeah, so I don't think. 377 00:27:02.099 --> 00:27:07.220 I don't think we should be grudging with the opportunity to be optimistic. 378 00:27:07.299 --> 00:27:12.220 Yeah, without I'm not saying lie, I'm not saying fudge facts, but 379 00:27:12.339 --> 00:27:15.849 I am saying have an optimistic outlook. If God has sent you there to 380 00:27:15.930 --> 00:27:21.049 do that mission, he's going to make that mission happen. Yeah, absolutely. 381 00:27:21.130 --> 00:27:22.970 Yeah, I mean I think we could, and we probably do a 382 00:27:23.009 --> 00:27:26.170 whole podcast about this. As far as numbers and how account that we didn't 383 00:27:26.210 --> 00:27:30.799 report. Did do one. Yeah, yeah, but you know, we 384 00:27:30.960 --> 00:27:34.599 have a kind of unique scenario here at La Trobe abortion clinic in that it 385 00:27:34.799 --> 00:27:38.039 is just an abortion clinic. Right. They're not doing other things. They're 386 00:27:38.039 --> 00:27:44.549 not doing plant parent whood does do other things besides abortion, hormone therapy and 387 00:27:44.789 --> 00:27:48.309 things like that, right. We've already talked about that some on other podcast 388 00:27:48.430 --> 00:27:52.430 as well. At the La Trobe abortion center, we know because we've talked 389 00:27:52.509 --> 00:27:57.069 to many abortion workers that have worked inside of that place for years and of 390 00:27:57.190 --> 00:28:00.059 course, just by their own admission, they're an abortion clinic. That's all 391 00:28:00.099 --> 00:28:04.460 they do. And we've also over the years been able to kind of put 392 00:28:04.539 --> 00:28:07.819 pieces together. Right, yeah, we can tell if this is happening. 393 00:28:07.859 --> 00:28:11.779 We know when the abortionist gets there. So white possibly they leave before the 394 00:28:11.779 --> 00:28:17.130 abortion it's gets there. They didn't have an abortion, and so if there's 395 00:28:17.130 --> 00:28:21.210 other indicators and other clues, we kind of put those together. I'm confident 396 00:28:21.329 --> 00:28:23.130 to say it was a baby saved, and the reason why is because we've 397 00:28:23.130 --> 00:28:27.680 had so many that have come back over the years that have told us just 398 00:28:27.839 --> 00:28:32.359 drove back to the troube abortion center just to find us. This has happened 399 00:28:32.960 --> 00:28:36.720 several times where they tell us I was here and I chose life. So 400 00:28:36.880 --> 00:28:40.359 we can be confident. God's doing stuff behind the scenes and at the end 401 00:28:40.359 --> 00:28:41.430 of the day, we're not trying to put a notch on our belt, 402 00:28:41.670 --> 00:28:45.390 but we do want to be optimistic, we do want to be an expectation. 403 00:28:45.549 --> 00:28:49.829 God's doing something. Babies are being saved and what we're doing we're doing 404 00:28:49.910 --> 00:28:52.950 in faith. But God graciously lets us see the fruit. Now the vast 405 00:28:52.990 --> 00:28:56.460 majority of the babies are saved, or, you know, mom stops and 406 00:28:56.539 --> 00:28:59.779 tells us she chose life, or they go on the mobile unit. We're 407 00:28:59.779 --> 00:29:02.299 able to minister more in depth to it. But we need to be an 408 00:29:02.339 --> 00:29:07.460 expectation. Yeah, and and don't be afraid through that expectation. If you 409 00:29:07.579 --> 00:29:11.089 have some solid indicators of that mom chose life, then don't be afraid to 410 00:29:11.130 --> 00:29:15.529 say it. I'm confident that young lady chose life. Right, right. 411 00:29:15.049 --> 00:29:19.569 It's a good mentality to have a thing it is and the results are often 412 00:29:19.650 --> 00:29:23.440 not immediate. We are planting seeds sometime in on that same day, and 413 00:29:23.519 --> 00:29:27.480 this was the final point on that wonderful day where I was trying to pin 414 00:29:27.640 --> 00:29:33.799 down what made me faithfully expectant. The I got a text from my mom 415 00:29:33.960 --> 00:29:38.990 that I had counseled five years ago and she was text five years ago. 416 00:29:40.150 --> 00:29:42.150 She had been, I matter, when she came to a board. Yeah, 417 00:29:42.390 --> 00:29:48.190 and the text today said that she the text on that day, and 418 00:29:48.230 --> 00:29:52.259 you're talking about in this that is right on that day, because all these 419 00:29:52.299 --> 00:29:55.940 things happened on the same day that I just talked about. But on that 420 00:29:56.059 --> 00:30:00.859 day she texted and and told me she was pregnant again and she wanted to 421 00:30:00.980 --> 00:30:07.329 come to our ministry get the help that she knew she could get from us 422 00:30:07.450 --> 00:30:10.450 and come and see your baby on the mobile ultrasound unit. And that to 423 00:30:10.569 --> 00:30:15.289 me was just such an encouragement that instead, that's the whole mission of of 424 00:30:17.089 --> 00:30:21.720 love life, is that instead of running to the abortion center, the women 425 00:30:21.759 --> 00:30:25.160 will run to the church. And that's what she did. Yeah, so 426 00:30:25.680 --> 00:30:30.960 praise God and and it reminded me that the more that we look for God 427 00:30:32.519 --> 00:30:36.549 and expect his miracles, the more we will see them, because they are 428 00:30:36.549 --> 00:30:41.549 always there. Yeah, he is always working. Yeah, yeah, expectation 429 00:30:41.549 --> 00:30:45.990 is a posture of our heart, and expectation, in light of who God 430 00:30:47.109 --> 00:30:49.900 is, is a posture of our heart toward God, knowing what he has 431 00:30:49.980 --> 00:30:55.859 promised. Right. And so how are we going to be in faithful expectation 432 00:30:56.019 --> 00:30:59.420 before the Lord will? First of all, we need to see who this 433 00:30:59.579 --> 00:31:03.740 God is that we serve and we need to have our eyes constantly focused on 434 00:31:03.980 --> 00:31:07.049 him. And so for this year I would encourage you, guys, and 435 00:31:07.089 --> 00:31:11.650 I think probably everybody that's listening. This is already a regular part of your 436 00:31:11.690 --> 00:31:15.130 life, rigor regular rhythm to your life. But if it's not, it 437 00:31:15.289 --> 00:31:18.680 needs to be where. You need to be in the word of God. 438 00:31:18.440 --> 00:31:22.880 You need to see, because the Bible says faith comes by hearing and hearing 439 00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:25.480 by the word of God. You need to have the word of God in 440 00:31:25.599 --> 00:31:27.640 your heart, have it in your mind, have it on your tongue so 441 00:31:27.720 --> 00:31:32.720 that you're proclaiming the truth of God's word, because God's Word is in contrast 442 00:31:32.839 --> 00:31:36.150 a lot of the fear and, especially in this day and age right the 443 00:31:36.269 --> 00:31:41.230 fear mongering that's out there, faithlessness, doubt, dread, all of that 444 00:31:41.390 --> 00:31:45.670 stuff that has permeated the atmosphere of our nation. All of that stuff is 445 00:31:45.829 --> 00:31:49.539 contradicted by the word of God. We can have faith in this God, 446 00:31:49.700 --> 00:31:52.380 we can be an expectation. I know there's a heaviness, there's like a 447 00:31:52.460 --> 00:31:57.019 political heaviness. People are under it thinking that because a Democrats are in power, 448 00:31:57.940 --> 00:32:01.049 all of this and all of that. But let's just forget that garbage 449 00:32:01.049 --> 00:32:05.490 and let's be an expectation, because we know who our God is. What 450 00:32:05.569 --> 00:32:07.089 does it say in Daniel, in the the Prophet Daniel? At the end 451 00:32:07.089 --> 00:32:13.289 it says those that know their God will do great exploits. Know God, 452 00:32:13.329 --> 00:32:15.490 and if you know God, if you know the god of the Bible, 453 00:32:15.650 --> 00:32:19.240 the God who made the heavens in the earth, the God who raised Jesus 454 00:32:19.319 --> 00:32:22.880 Christ from the dead and whose spirit lives and you, if you know him, 455 00:32:22.519 --> 00:32:27.279 you have every reason to be full of faith and an expectation of what 456 00:32:27.440 --> 00:32:30.430 he's going to do, even at these places of darkness and these places of 457 00:32:30.549 --> 00:32:35.950 death. And so be encouraged by this. Spread this spread this. Listen, 458 00:32:36.109 --> 00:32:40.509 faith can be like a good disease. He's right, maybe definitely contagious. 459 00:32:40.589 --> 00:32:45.700 Be Contagious. Optimism is contagious and in the conversely, so is pessimism. 460 00:32:45.819 --> 00:32:51.539 So you be optimistic, faithfully expectant and you will just you'll see it 461 00:32:51.700 --> 00:32:55.059 blossom around you. Absolutely yeah, and you have every reason to be in 462 00:32:55.259 --> 00:33:02.569 faithful expectation because you serve a faithful God. Amen. Yeah, so hope 463 00:33:02.609 --> 00:33:06.609 this was an encouragement to you guys. Again, we hope that you'll share 464 00:33:06.650 --> 00:33:07.529 this. If you want to reach out to me. Maybe you have some 465 00:33:07.569 --> 00:33:12.730 questions, ofthing to add, maybe something, a story to tell that encourage 466 00:33:12.809 --> 00:33:15.680 you along these lines. Reach out to me, Daniel Love Life Dot Org. 467 00:33:15.799 --> 00:33:17.359 You reach out to Vicki, Vicky at Love Life Dot Org. We'd 468 00:33:17.400 --> 00:33:21.160 love to hear from you, guys, but until next time, God, 469 00:33:21.240 --> 00:33:34.150 bless God, bless you all our love for love. Give me our love 470 00:33:34.430 --> 00:33:45.819 for gratitude. I know it will cost me my love. Nothing's too precious 471 00:33:46.140 --> 00:33:47.500 in some you