00:00:00 [Speaker 1] All right. 00:00:00 [Speaker 2] Well, good morning again. 00:00:02 [Speaker 2] We're gonna go ahead and get started for real this time. 00:00:07 [Speaker 2] Welcome again to Faith Stories. 00:00:08 [Speaker 2] My name is Matt Sefco. 00:00:10 [Speaker 2] I'm gonna introduce Keith Preston, and he can get started with his story. 00:00:14 [Speaker 2] So Keith has attended Faith Church for twenty four years. 00:00:18 [Speaker 2] Is that how old you are? 00:00:20 [Speaker 1] My age minus one. 00:00:21 [Speaker 2] One minus one. 00:00:22 [Speaker 2] Okay. 00:00:24 [Speaker 2] Keith plays guitar on the worship team. 00:00:25 [Speaker 2] You've probably seen him up front. 00:00:27 [Speaker 2] He also teaches Sunday morning classes during the first hour. 00:00:31 [Speaker 2] He and his wife, Ellie, have been married for almost four years, and they have a one year old son, Henry. 00:00:36 [Speaker 2] Keith is a Purdue graduate, and is a control systems engineer in Indianapolis. 00:00:41 [Speaker 2] So I'm gonna pray and you can get started. 00:00:44 [Speaker 2] Heavenly Father, we thank you for this morning and the opportunity to fellowship and, be in community together. 00:00:49 [Speaker 2] Just pray for Keith as he shares his story. 00:00:52 [Speaker 2] Thank you that he's able to do that this morning. 00:00:54 [Speaker 2] In Jesus name, amen. 00:00:57 [Speaker 1] Alright. 00:00:57 [Speaker 1] Well, good morning, everyone. 00:00:58 [Speaker 1] Can you hear me okay? 00:00:59 [Speaker 1] Yes. 00:01:00 [Speaker 1] Do that? 00:01:00 [Speaker 1] Okay. 00:01:00 [Speaker 1] I see a lot of familiar faces. 00:01:02 [Speaker 1] So good to see most of you. 00:01:04 [Speaker 1] And for those of you I don't know, I'm Keith Preston. 00:01:06 [Speaker 1] Nice to meet you. 00:01:08 [Speaker 1] So as I was reflecting on what to talk about this morning, I I struggled at first because I don't really have that exciting of a, of a testimony per se, but I I do have a long story of God working through, men and women in my life just to consistently sanctify me, particularly at this church, but also outside of that. 00:01:29 [Speaker 1] And sometimes that advice has come through, direct guidance or advice, but it's it's also come a lot through just watching people live a Christ like life. 00:01:37 [Speaker 1] So what I'd I'd like to do this morning is just talk through some examples of how that's happened, and, hopefully, that can be edifying to to you guys this morning. 00:01:46 [Speaker 1] I actually called one of those men last week, and as I was trying to find some verse that encapsulates what I'm trying to communicate, He actually quoted one just off the bat, and it was perfect. 00:01:57 [Speaker 1] So, this is act 17, right as, Paul is entering into the Areopagus and is gonna talk to, everyone in that area. 00:02:06 [Speaker 1] And he starts off by giving, a summary of of history according to scripture. 00:02:10 [Speaker 1] And he says, the god who made the world and everything in it, being lord of heaven and earth, made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. 00:02:27 [Speaker 1] So that verse has been a driving force in his life, reminding him that, God is sovereign. 00:02:31 [Speaker 1] He's placed him intentionally wherever he's been in. 00:02:34 [Speaker 1] He's a teacher right now, and so he's lived his life with that mindset of of sentiness. 00:02:41 [Speaker 1] If you were in e shift, that was a a phrase that they like to use. 00:02:44 [Speaker 1] So I've certainly been a recipient of men like him who, consciously or not, have been living, a life of sentineness, in obedience to Christ's commands. 00:02:53 [Speaker 1] So, the stories that I'm gonna share are examples of people who have, obeyed Christ's commands in scripture, and that has, sanctified me slowly, but it has. 00:03:03 [Speaker 1] So, let's move on to childhood. 00:03:08 [Speaker 1] Most of you know the people in these pictures. 00:03:12 [Speaker 1] I am the oldest of well, four. 00:03:14 [Speaker 1] I was the oldest of three. 00:03:15 [Speaker 1] We adopted Lana when I was 16, and so now we're a family of six. 00:03:20 [Speaker 1] I was born in Illinois, and then we moved here when I was a year old, started attending faith, I I think more or less as soon as we arrived here, and then joined a community group around or within six months of joining. 00:03:32 [Speaker 1] Yeah. 00:03:33 [Speaker 1] So my first exposure to faithful witnesses was my parents. 00:03:38 [Speaker 1] They were they're godly examples. 00:03:40 [Speaker 1] They taught me to to know the gospel, know the Lord, and walk in obedience to his commands. 00:03:46 [Speaker 1] So that was impactful from before I could remember. 00:03:50 [Speaker 1] But I do have one impactful memory of, up on our old house in 90 Sixth Street walking down the stairs in the morning. 00:03:56 [Speaker 1] And if I came down early enough, I'd find my dad with the Bible on his lap. 00:03:59 [Speaker 1] And that was that that was impactful for a couple of reasons, but primarily because that was it taught me early on that faith is not something that you just go do once a week on a Sunday morning. 00:04:10 [Speaker 1] It's it's a it's a daily decision to walk with the Lord. 00:04:13 [Speaker 1] So that has impacted me for a long time. 00:04:16 [Speaker 1] The next area of influence where I see faithful witnesses, was home group. 00:04:21 [Speaker 1] We call it community groups now, whatever you want to call them. 00:04:23 [Speaker 1] It was a group of families that, my family joined, and we, hung out together, did life together on a regular basis. 00:04:31 [Speaker 1] These pictures are of, our annual lake day. 00:04:34 [Speaker 1] I think we did that the first year we moved here and that's probably still one of my favorite days of the year. 00:04:39 [Speaker 1] I think we have one a week from today, so looking forward to that this year. 00:04:45 [Speaker 1] And then the next circle out of, people who were faithful witnesses to me, was Faith Church. 00:04:52 [Speaker 1] You might not be able to see on the screen, but I was able to find a picture from, I think, 2005 maybe of, when the sanctuary looked like this right after the renovation. 00:05:01 [Speaker 1] So this this is kinda what I remember faith church looking like. 00:05:04 [Speaker 1] So my earliest memories of of Tom Macy preaching and then Jake Brothers leading worship. 00:05:08 [Speaker 1] And those two men were really impactful for me. 00:05:12 [Speaker 1] I think most of you remember this, but, most kids, would go to Sunday school hour or Sunday school class both hours. 00:05:20 [Speaker 1] For some reason, I started wanting to go to, big church around kindergarten age. 00:05:25 [Speaker 1] Couldn't tell you why. 00:05:26 [Speaker 1] Maybe it was the music. 00:05:28 [Speaker 1] But for some reason, the Lord really used that that time to capture my heart particularly through the preaching. 00:05:35 [Speaker 1] Tom is an excellent, preacher, and so, his just rich teaching gave me a strong desire to just soak in the word in some way from a young age. 00:05:45 [Speaker 1] And then I also remember watching Jake Brothers lead worship, and if you've if you've seen him lead, you know he has this just really bright, exuberant smile when he leads. 00:05:55 [Speaker 1] And somehow that just caused me to think, oh, that looks really fun. 00:05:58 [Speaker 1] I would love to do that someday. 00:05:59 [Speaker 1] So God used him to really build a desire for worship from an early age as well. 00:06:04 [Speaker 1] I would love to find pictures of the two of them together. 00:06:06 [Speaker 1] Wasn't able to do that. 00:06:10 [Speaker 1] So, so between family life, home group, and church, I was really blessed to have a lot of different, examples of people living lives of obedience from a young age. 00:06:18 [Speaker 1] So I grew up surrounded by that type of community, and God really used, I think, the health of this community, just seeing how how good and healthy, a community of Christ followers can be, to just help me taste and see that the Lord is good from a really young age. 00:06:34 [Speaker 1] So I don't I don't remember a time where I really doubted the truth of the gospel. 00:06:37 [Speaker 1] There was a point where I accepted Christ, but I I don't really remember a time when I didn't know that God was real, and I'm grateful for that. 00:06:47 [Speaker 1] So I grew up kind of sheltered is not the right word, but my my primary community was was primarily believers. 00:06:55 [Speaker 1] And so it wasn't until, middle school when I really started to see, an overwhelmingly large amount of people who were unbelievers, who who were surrounding me. 00:07:05 [Speaker 1] So what you're seeing on the screen right now is, GMA. 00:07:08 [Speaker 1] Mom, I wasn't able to find a picture somehow of the old building. 00:07:12 [Speaker 1] This is, the building that I started elementary school in. 00:07:15 [Speaker 1] My or the size of the school was about 60 kids when I started, roughly 10 kids in each grade. 00:07:21 [Speaker 1] And so we, were pretty close to each other. 00:07:24 [Speaker 1] This is a friend of mine from childhood named David. 00:07:27 [Speaker 1] He also attended here, for a couple years. 00:07:30 [Speaker 1] And so even though I had friends that were close to me, of of different faiths, I know I had a good Muslim friend, a Catholic Christian friend, the the differences in those lifestyles, it wasn't really notable or significant to me at that time because we were all fairly close. 00:07:46 [Speaker 1] So it wasn't until I moved to Fall Creek Valley, which is that building, which is many times the size of GMA, that I was really surrounded by people who were different than me, and that difference felt significant. 00:08:00 [Speaker 1] So that that was the time that I remember being just constantly and sometimes overwhelmingly surrounded by people who were not like me, so who did not know Jesus and who didn't live, in a way that showed that they did. 00:08:11 [Speaker 1] And so the differences between a Christian life and a non Christian life was really magnified for me, around middle school, high school age. 00:08:18 [Speaker 1] And I could see that in the students and the faculty. 00:08:22 [Speaker 1] There were two individuals at, Fall Creek Valley who I would say were the first individuals who really showed me the the difference between, a Christian life and a non Christian life in a secular setting. 00:08:34 [Speaker 1] And those two individuals were Jason Williams and Josh Quinn, and they were my, engineering teachers in seventh and eighth grade. 00:08:42 [Speaker 1] I remember noticing very quickly some sort of a difference in their class, between the other classes that I was attending. 00:08:48 [Speaker 1] I had about seven a day. 00:08:52 [Speaker 1] I could I could only think of a few examples, but, they were they would continually ask students not just how they were doing, but how's your family doing? 00:08:58 [Speaker 1] Like, they would remember that their parents had a surgery, and so would ask how the surgery went. 00:09:02 [Speaker 1] And just they would intentionally remember details and build relationships with students that was really impactful, especially for students who didn't have that stable home life like I did. 00:09:11 [Speaker 1] They highlighted student successes. 00:09:13 [Speaker 1] They actually, sometimes allowed students to teach the class. 00:09:17 [Speaker 1] I was a recipient of one of those at some point. 00:09:20 [Speaker 1] That's not something that teachers do for seventh and eighth graders. 00:09:24 [Speaker 1] So that was they were doing things that were intentionally, setting themselves up to be a a healthy adult figures for kids who didn't who didn't have that, growing up. 00:09:36 [Speaker 1] And I know I now know that that was because they were believers. 00:09:38 [Speaker 1] So a lot of the the life lesson that they were talking about in class that wasn't necessarily related to the curriculum is because they were trying to instill biblical values in these kids who who didn't have that at all. 00:09:48 [Speaker 1] So a lot of the quotes that are in my head that are from them, I can now point back to scripture that they that they pulled that from, which is also really impactful. 00:09:56 [Speaker 1] So they were the first two examples of people just living, like, quote, normal jobs, who really lived out their faith and made a difference. 00:10:04 [Speaker 1] The other individual is a guy named Danny DeSalvo. 00:10:06 [Speaker 1] Some of you may know him. 00:10:07 [Speaker 1] He he drums for us, once a month. 00:10:09 [Speaker 1] He lived in the neighborhood that, my family grew up in or that my me and my siblings grew up in. 00:10:16 [Speaker 1] And he is another example of someone who just has a skill set. 00:10:19 [Speaker 1] He can he can take trees down. 00:10:21 [Speaker 1] He can fix cars. 00:10:22 [Speaker 1] So he helps run a ministry at his church, and so he's constantly, interacting with other unbelievers and is a blessing to them and serving them without asking anything for in in return. 00:10:33 [Speaker 1] That was impactful for me because it it really just again showed me that faith isn't it's not something you just go and participate in once a week. 00:10:42 [Speaker 1] It's a it's a weekly, daily activity, that does impact people when you're obeying Christ's commands. 00:10:49 [Speaker 1] And so Jesus's words in in the Sermon on the Mount, I think encapsulate these three individuals I've just talked about. 00:10:55 [Speaker 1] So this is this is Matthew five. 00:10:57 [Speaker 1] You are the light of the world. 00:10:58 [Speaker 1] Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. 00:11:03 [Speaker 1] And that that was certainly true in my life, and I know many of the other people who who interacted with these these men, gave glory to their father in heaven because of the way that they saw these men living. 00:11:13 [Speaker 1] And I I can think of several people who have come to faith because of just the way they live, in addition to the the way they spoke to them. 00:11:21 [Speaker 1] So so by this point, I had seen the goodness of God both in a healthy community at church, but also in, men living out that lifestyle. 00:11:32 [Speaker 1] But I I didn't really have a lot of practical habits to live out that faith. 00:11:36 [Speaker 1] I was I was certain that, this is a faith that I wanted to live out, but I wasn't entirely sure how to do that. 00:11:43 [Speaker 1] But I did start serving in the worship band. 00:11:46 [Speaker 1] So this is a picture that I was able to dig up of me and Matt Witham leading on Sunday morning. 00:11:51 [Speaker 1] I don't remember when this was taken, but, I remember, serving in the worship band beginning to build in me a desire to just do more, do more of my faith, whether that's daily habits or serving more. 00:12:01 [Speaker 1] I wasn't quite sure what I I needed that to be. 00:12:04 [Speaker 1] But between worship and then going to youth group on Wednesday evenings, those two activities were really impactful in just convincing me that I want to do more with this faith in in some way. 00:12:18 [Speaker 1] For those of you who know Joey Wiesman, I was really tempted to put, like, a history of his hairstyles on the board. 00:12:24 [Speaker 1] I think I found four of them among all the pictures. 00:12:26 [Speaker 1] So this is just one. 00:12:27 [Speaker 1] We can find some pictures later. 00:12:29 [Speaker 1] So, yeah, Joey Wiesman is my youth pastor. 00:12:31 [Speaker 1] And similar to hearing Tom preach, you guys know Joey is is a rich, gifted teacher. 00:12:37 [Speaker 1] And so coming to to youth group for me was really all about just hearing him teach, or or hearing teaching of some kind. 00:12:45 [Speaker 1] And god really used Joey and Tom to to continue to build in me this desire to just soak in the word, think about it. 00:12:53 [Speaker 1] To this day, I really just enjoy listening to to people talk about serious stuff. 00:12:58 [Speaker 1] And for me, at this age, it was just hearing, sermons or talks on the word. 00:13:05 [Speaker 1] So at this point in my life, this around late high school age before college, God was really building a desire in me to do more with my faith, primarily through worship band and and just listening, but I also wanted to start building some practical skills. 00:13:19 [Speaker 1] So when I got to college, God really met that need and provided several men to help me do that. 00:13:25 [Speaker 1] So moving on into college, I went to Purdue, as Matt mentioned. 00:13:30 [Speaker 1] Started in 2018, and looking back, it was pretty amazing to realize how many different men, God placed in my life at specific times throughout college. 00:13:40 [Speaker 1] I think I think I can point to two or three men each year, who were in in some sphere of life, whether that was home life or or Purdue, a professor, or a campus ministry director. 00:13:52 [Speaker 1] So a a good verse that, I think captures my college experience was Proverbs eleven fourteen. 00:13:59 [Speaker 1] Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors, there is safety. 00:14:03 [Speaker 1] So that idea of an an abundance of counselors just that that is what I felt, and to this day, as I continue to feel, God's hand at work there. 00:14:13 [Speaker 1] So I tried to find a picture of the first man who really poured into me in college age. 00:14:20 [Speaker 1] I couldn't find it, so this is a picture of the navigators crew that I was a part of freshman year. 00:14:25 [Speaker 1] His name was Tom. 00:14:26 [Speaker 1] Around the time I graduated high school, and started at Purdue, there were a couple, yeah, just spiritual doctrinal questions that I was really wrestling with and then also a couple of sins that I was wrestling with. 00:14:37 [Speaker 1] So between all of all of this going on, I looking back, I needed someone to reach out and just ask me, what's going on? 00:14:46 [Speaker 1] Would would you like to talk about these specific questions? 00:14:49 [Speaker 1] That's actually what happened. 00:14:50 [Speaker 1] So, I think the second or third time that I showed up to a nav night, which is our weekly gatherings, Tom had asked me to get together with him just to grab coffee and get to know each other. 00:15:01 [Speaker 1] And that morning, whenever we met coffee, maybe ten minutes into the conversation, he asked me a question, and I I don't remember what the question was. 00:15:08 [Speaker 1] I wish I could, but it felt like a very clear open door. 00:15:12 [Speaker 1] The spirit prompted, me to just to walk through, and that was an opportunity to start asking some of those questions I was wrestling with. 00:15:21 [Speaker 1] It it sort of felt like what I imagined the woman in the well feeling when when Christ comes up to her and starts telling her all that ever happened. 00:15:26 [Speaker 1] It was that that same, like, oh, this is definitely the spirit moving in that moment. 00:15:33 [Speaker 1] So we started meeting regularly. 00:15:35 [Speaker 1] Met for coffee and met with another guy for probably three or four years after that. 00:15:39 [Speaker 1] So we were just accountability partners, read through the word, memorized scripture, started talking about how do we how do we share this with our friends on campus. 00:15:48 [Speaker 1] And that was that was really impactful just because that was the first time I'd had a consistent, mentor who was who was that close to me. 00:15:55 [Speaker 1] I'd had a lot of mentors, but this was someone who just walked life with me almost daily, which was really helpful. 00:16:01 [Speaker 1] God was also preparing me, to meet Ellie around that time because it turns out that after I started meeting Ellie, I found out that Tom's wife, Ashley, had been mentoring Ellie for, I think, two or three years, around that point. 00:16:13 [Speaker 1] And so Tom was in a really unique position to, speak into our relationship as we started to figure out how how do we date and live out our faith, then also do college well at the same time. 00:16:25 [Speaker 1] So God used him to really, foster a healthy relationship early on. 00:16:30 [Speaker 1] Which brings us back to Indy. 00:16:35 [Speaker 1] More pictures of Ellie. 00:16:36 [Speaker 1] I think the one on the top right is the earliest picture I could find of us. 00:16:39 [Speaker 1] I'm on the right there somewhere. 00:16:45 [Speaker 1] So when I moved back to Indy, I got a co op in Indianapolis. 00:16:49 [Speaker 1] I started living there for four months stints at a time, every four months, and so I had an opportunity to continue, being engaged with Faith Church, which is a huge blessing when I was in India. 00:16:59 [Speaker 1] I got to live with my parents. 00:17:01 [Speaker 1] So I never really felt like I left Faith Church. 00:17:05 [Speaker 1] I know I saw many of you on and off, and that was a great blessing. 00:17:10 [Speaker 1] But before I had left for college, god had been building relationships with with several men that I needed when I came back to faith from college. 00:17:19 [Speaker 1] Before I left for college, I had been on the worship team, so I got to know, Matt Witham because he was leading, Nick Carter was doing audio at the time, and then Nathan had been hired, as the youth pastor my senior year. 00:17:29 [Speaker 1] So I had started building a a relationship with him before I left. 00:17:34 [Speaker 1] And so when I I got back, I more or less got to pick up on those relationships because it had been maybe a year since I had since I had seen them. 00:17:42 [Speaker 1] So, Matt, we continued to serve on the worship team when I was in Indy. 00:17:47 [Speaker 1] Ellie started hanging out with the Witham kids, and they became a a very consistent source of just community. 00:17:54 [Speaker 1] They were a family that we could hang out with. 00:17:57 [Speaker 1] They knew my family pretty well, so that allowed us to to start to build roots, in Indianapolis, as a new couple. 00:18:05 [Speaker 1] Even though I'd grown up here, it was nice to start building our own ring of community as well. 00:18:11 [Speaker 1] So Nathan, was another Nathan Kingsley was another, mentor of mine that really started to become, helpful, when I started dating Ellie because Ellie started working for Nathan. 00:18:24 [Speaker 1] Once Ellie finished school, she came back and started working here, part time then transitioned to full time as a assistant for student ministry. 00:18:31 [Speaker 1] And so she got to know Nathan and Claire pretty well on staff, and then I got to continue to build that relationship, through Ellie's work, but also outside of that as well. 00:18:40 [Speaker 1] And so between Ellie working with the kids and then me and Ellie work interacting with Nathan Kingsley all the time, they became yet another couple of just consistent community at that time. 00:18:50 [Speaker 1] Nathan and Claire also ended up doing our premarital counseling, which was a great experience. 00:18:54 [Speaker 1] It was it was really helpful in a lot of ways. 00:18:57 [Speaker 1] One one particular experience that stood out to me, since then, so Nathan and Claire, because they had met with us individually for a long time, they had I had history with Nathan, they had a very unique, insight into the dynamics of our relationship, and were able to challenge and point out when they saw sins or things that were unhealthy. 00:19:16 [Speaker 1] So God used, that that experience of them being willing to step out in courage and challenge us, to show me the the beauty and goodness of two particular commands in scripture that, I at least didn't remember hearing growing up a lot. 00:19:30 [Speaker 1] So that was really impactful to hear those acted out. 00:19:32 [Speaker 1] And those those two verses are are the first is Galatians one Galatians six one. 00:19:37 [Speaker 1] Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in the spirit of gentleness. 00:19:42 [Speaker 1] And then James five, my brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. 00:19:53 [Speaker 1] So Romans eight talks about how god is working all things specifically for our sanctification. 00:19:58 [Speaker 1] And one of those ways that I learned that time is is through people directly challenging and pointing out sins, which is uncomfortable, not fun, but it's also extremely powerful at times, because it's the spirit can work in you, but also you need people to speak into that as well and help you interpret the spirit. 00:20:16 [Speaker 1] So I'm very grateful for those men in my life who have had the courage to step in and and speak those words when needed. 00:20:21 [Speaker 1] And there's there's absolutely more than just Nathan and Claire. 00:20:24 [Speaker 1] So, one of those men is Nick Carter. 00:20:26 [Speaker 1] So he gave Ellie a job working on their family farm. 00:20:28 [Speaker 1] And so between that and then me beginning to teach on Sunday school mornings, we kicked off a relationship that, has continued to this day as well. 00:20:36 [Speaker 1] And so that's how I got involved in teaching was through Nick inviting me to do that. 00:20:40 [Speaker 1] And then another way that was that he provided for us was a wedding venue. 00:20:47 [Speaker 1] I don't know for those of you who were there, I don't know if you noticed this, but, when we were standing at the front, there was a tarp behind us. 00:20:55 [Speaker 1] Six feet behind that was a manure pile, or a compost pile. 00:21:01 [Speaker 1] So that was I don't I don't remember smelling it at the time. 00:21:04 [Speaker 1] There were a few other things going on, but, just a unique unique story from that wedding. 00:21:10 [Speaker 1] So, yeah, Nick gave us their property to get married on. 00:21:12 [Speaker 1] It was it was a great experience. 00:21:14 [Speaker 1] Got married in October 2021. 00:21:17 [Speaker 1] And a neat way that I or a neat thing that god did that I hadn't even realized until, as I was preparing this is that all three of these men that I've talked about, got to play significant roles in our wedding as well, and they kinda were kind of the three main significant men who had helped us get to that point. 00:21:32 [Speaker 1] Nick Nick had hosted, Matt led worship, and then Nathan officiated the wedding. 00:21:35 [Speaker 1] So that was a really special time. 00:21:38 [Speaker 1] I graduated in 2023 and then, started working at, an engineering firm in Indianapolis that did some consulting for where I work now. 00:21:49 [Speaker 1] And so as we moved to Indy, I I continued to be mentored by these men, but then also see, lives of obedience being lived by men that in the in the workplace that I got to experience now too. 00:22:03 [Speaker 1] So we'll we'll get to that in a little bit. 00:22:04 [Speaker 1] But, eventually, we moved to Indy, bought a house. 00:22:07 [Speaker 1] Henry was born last year, March. 00:22:10 [Speaker 1] There's our house. 00:22:11 [Speaker 1] That's Mark West's house for those of you who haven't been there. 00:22:13 [Speaker 1] That's another example of a man who, has mentored me and provided for us. 00:22:19 [Speaker 1] There's Henry. 00:22:20 [Speaker 1] I think you probably saw him about twenty minutes ago, wandering around. 00:22:27 [Speaker 1] Yeah. 00:22:29 [Speaker 1] And so right now, we are learning to live in community as a part of Faith Church, which is a a really it's a special gift because it's somewhere that I've I've grown up in, and so I I still have roots here, and yet it somehow still feels new and fresh because there's there's more people coming, there's more relationships that I'm building, and the the mentors that I've been able to, to work with here have really sanctified me in many ways. 00:22:52 [Speaker 1] I'm thankful for that. 00:22:54 [Speaker 1] So moving outside of the of Faith Church now, I've been working, as a mechanical engineer for or since I graduated, so almost two years. 00:23:04 [Speaker 1] In that time, I've I've started to figure out that similar to, when I was just observing people live godly lives, when I was growing up, Very similar thing can happen by just observing people who are living, again, quote normal, right, non ministry lives, in the workplace. 00:23:21 [Speaker 1] So there's a lot of stories that I could tell about that, but there's there's a couple that have been recently very impactful, so I wanted to share those. 00:23:29 [Speaker 1] So the time I joined, the engineering firm in 2023, there was a a pretty large population of of young engineers, maybe a year out of school, maybe two. 00:23:39 [Speaker 1] And I very quickly realized that I could get all of my work done in less time than they were expecting. 00:23:46 [Speaker 1] And so the question then came up, what do I do with my time? 00:23:50 [Speaker 1] Right? 00:23:50 [Speaker 1] I can use it to spend time with my family. 00:23:53 [Speaker 1] I can do more work. 00:23:54 [Speaker 1] I could sit around on my phone because there were plenty of people doing that as well. 00:23:58 [Speaker 1] That was, something I struggled with for a bit. 00:24:02 [Speaker 1] And so the question came up with my team lead, what what should I be using my my time for? 00:24:08 [Speaker 1] And by the time that question came up, I had already established a relationship with this guy, Joe. 00:24:12 [Speaker 1] He's my team lead. 00:24:13 [Speaker 1] And he happened to be a really strong believer. 00:24:16 [Speaker 1] And he was the first of many strong believers that I just happened. 00:24:19 [Speaker 1] Right? 00:24:20 [Speaker 1] This is God's sovereign sovereignty working out, that I just happened to come across and who God is using to to shape me into, a more Christ like man. 00:24:29 [Speaker 1] So I talked to him about, how I should be using my time, and, of course, his answer was do some work if you're at work. 00:24:36 [Speaker 1] Right? 00:24:38 [Speaker 1] But he being a believer, was able to support that with scripture, which, again, sounds fairly obvious, but, hearing that is is still impactful. 00:24:46 [Speaker 1] So I I think just off the top of his head, he quoted a couple of Proverbs from Proverbs 12. 00:24:51 [Speaker 1] The hand of the diligent will rule, and while the slothful will be put to forced labor. 00:24:54 [Speaker 1] And whoever is slothful will not roast his game, but the diligent man will get precious wealth. 00:25:00 [Speaker 1] Fairly clear answer to what I should be doing with my time. 00:25:02 [Speaker 1] Right? 00:25:03 [Speaker 1] Being productive and and helping out others while I'm there. 00:25:07 [Speaker 1] And so by the time our contract with Rolls Royce ended, their hiring freeze was lifting. 00:25:12 [Speaker 1] And so I was able to be I had someone reach out to me from the Rolls Royce side and pulled me over. 00:25:17 [Speaker 1] So I got I think I joined in December. 00:25:20 [Speaker 1] And at that time, I remember Joe looking me in the eyes and saying, remember that those couple of proverbs we've talked about? 00:25:26 [Speaker 1] This is this is not working out, which was affirming. 00:25:30 [Speaker 1] It was good to hear and nice to see scripture working out. 00:25:34 [Speaker 1] Also a great opportunity for pride to come up. 00:25:36 [Speaker 1] Right? 00:25:36 [Speaker 1] If you when you see a lot of engineers who, you you have left behind because someone reached out to you to go work, great experience. 00:25:46 [Speaker 1] I'm grateful. 00:25:46 [Speaker 1] And also a great opportunity for sin to come up and bring a lot of pride with that. 00:25:51 [Speaker 1] So by the time I was working at Rolls Royce, I have I I was gonna say had, probably still have a fairly large head at times about getting to work there. 00:26:01 [Speaker 1] And so I found it increasingly easy to make maybe some side comments to Ellie about, the poor quality of work that I was seeing in other people, right, or complaining about how things were done at work. 00:26:15 [Speaker 1] And so even if some of my observations about peers were justified, my attitude was absolutely not. 00:26:22 [Speaker 1] Right? 00:26:22 [Speaker 1] Your hard attitude, is what matters. 00:26:25 [Speaker 1] So while I was still at at Bell Canyon, I had started to get to know another strong believer who I I didn't know as a believer before I met him. 00:26:31 [Speaker 1] Now I do. 00:26:32 [Speaker 1] His his name is Doug, and he was also just living a life of obedience in many different ways. 00:26:40 [Speaker 1] And so at one point after I joined roles, I was struggling with pride quite a bit. 00:26:46 [Speaker 1] We were in a meeting together, and this meeting got particularly tense, particularly heated. 00:26:52 [Speaker 1] A lot lot of not so nice words thrown out. 00:26:55 [Speaker 1] And about about two hours in, there was a particularly hot zinger that was thrown out, and and the room just sort of went silent for maybe maybe a minute or two. 00:27:06 [Speaker 1] And it felt like eternity. 00:27:08 [Speaker 1] And then about two minutes later, Doug spoke up, and he was calm, collected, kind. 00:27:14 [Speaker 1] And in about five minutes we resolved what took a bunch of heated engineers two hours to figure out. 00:27:21 [Speaker 1] So that was it struck me in the moment of, okay, there there's a there's a difference in how people interact at work that that that does make a difference. 00:27:32 [Speaker 1] Even if the quality of your work is different, your your attitude and the way you're interacting is is clearly important. 00:27:38 [Speaker 1] So that alone was was noteworthy. 00:27:42 [Speaker 1] The next morning, I sat down, and opened up, Proverbs 12, which is where Joe had pointed me to about six months ago. 00:27:50 [Speaker 1] And one line above, the proverb that, Joe had given me was Proverbs twelve twenty three. 00:27:55 [Speaker 1] A prudent man conceals knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaims folly. 00:27:59 [Speaker 1] And then again, Proverbs 10, when words are many, a transgression is not lacking, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent. 00:28:06 [Speaker 1] That was convicting. 00:28:08 [Speaker 1] Right? 00:28:08 [Speaker 1] The the idea of, the heart overflowing into attitudes and when words and actions, can lead to a lot of transgression if you're not careful. 00:28:18 [Speaker 1] And Doug Doug's way of living very clearly and quickly changed the way I started thinking about, how I should be using my words at work and at home about about work. 00:28:30 [Speaker 1] God wasn't quite done yet. 00:28:32 [Speaker 1] The next couple weeks, I I started reading through Daniel again. 00:28:36 [Speaker 1] And this scene from Daniel was another sort of a a gut punch feeling. 00:28:39 [Speaker 1] This is, when Nebuchadnezzar has built up his kingdom, and is feeling pretty good about himself as well. 00:28:47 [Speaker 1] So this is this is Daniel four. 00:28:49 [Speaker 1] Nebuchadnezzar was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king said, is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence, and for the glory of my majesty? 00:28:59 [Speaker 1] And while the words were were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, king Nebuchadnezzar, to you it has spoken, the kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. 00:29:11 [Speaker 1] And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you until you know that the most high rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he wills. 00:29:20 [Speaker 1] And then verse 37 says, those who walk in pride, he's able to humble. 00:29:24 [Speaker 1] So uncomfortable and and convicting, but also also very needed, that god has been using other men in my life to show me the difference between, living a a worldly life with a worldly attitude versus, a godly attitude and a heart of humility. 00:29:42 [Speaker 1] So I found comfort in Hebrews 12 recently that, which says, my son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 00:29:49 [Speaker 1] For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. 00:29:54 [Speaker 1] So thankfully, I didn't end up eating grass like an ox. 00:29:57 [Speaker 1] I wasn't with Nick's cattle on the farm after that experience. 00:30:02 [Speaker 1] But it was still a similar feeling of, like, okay. 00:30:04 [Speaker 1] The lord is disciplining me in this way. 00:30:06 [Speaker 1] Right? 00:30:06 [Speaker 1] Through other men, showing me, how to live a life that is not the way I was living right now. 00:30:11 [Speaker 1] So that there's many other men, who have lived similar lives, who the lord has worked through in similar ways, prompting by the spirit. 00:30:21 [Speaker 1] But those are the those are the two that have been really impactful recently. 00:30:24 [Speaker 1] So, I think those are the stories I had for this morning. 00:30:29 [Speaker 1] So I'll open it up for questions.