And so let's get into our study together here. Let's begin reading here in Luke chapter 18 at verse one. We'll read to verse eight and we'll get into our study. Luke chapter 18, beginning at verse one, reading to verse eight. Luke writes, then he spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. Saying there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God, nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city and she came to him saying, get justice for me from my adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming, she weary me. I think he was married to her, but I'm not sure. Just kidding, I shouldn't have said that. Ah, who cares? And the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said, and shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him, though he bears long with them. I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? And so Luke now here in chapter 18 introduces to us a parable. And it's interesting how he actually gives to us its heart when he tells us in verse one, he spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. And so this isn't a mystery to us. He tells us right from the beginning, this is what Jesus intends to communicate, that men ought to pray and not lose heart. So from the very beginning, he makes it clear that believers are those who pray. We know that prayer is the heartbeat of every believer in Jesus Christ. And we know that prayer is simply put a conversation that we have been given the privilege of having with the God of the universe. And the interesting thing about prayer is that we actually have been invited to speak to God. We actually have been invited by God, encouraged by him to have a conversation with him. In Jeremiah, the Bible tells us in chapter 33 verse three that God says, call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. Call unto me and I will answer thee. That's an invitation that God gives to us to speak to him, to have a relationship with him, to communicate to him. And he even promises that he's gonna reveal things that are beyond our comprehension. He's gonna show us things about himself and all that are beyond anything that we would understand normally. And so he says, call unto me in Psalm 50 verse 15. God says, call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you shall glorify me. And so call unto me, I'll deliver you. Call unto me, I will deliver you to the point that you will actually bring glory to me. Again, in Matthew, Jesus in chapter seven verses seven and eight said, ask, it will be given to you. Seek, you will find. Knock, and it will be open to you. For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds and to him who knocks, it will be opened. And so we have access to God and promises from God that as we call unto him, he will answer us, he will deliver us and reveal things to us that we don't know or don't understand, but we do ask with persistence. We ask, we seek and we knock. And when Jesus said, ask, seek, knock, when you study the Bible, you'll discover that there are certain tenses, Greek tenses, that you can actually gain deeper understanding of the point he's making. And so ask and seek and knock are in a sense in the Greek that means persistent or continue to do so. So he's inviting us to continually be asking, continually be seeking and continue to knock. And he says, the door will be open, you will find it. He says, I'm gonna reveal myself to you. So we have access to God and promises from God because we have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Now, before we got saved, we had a bit of a problem in the problems called sin. And sin made a separation between God and ourselves because that's what sin does. Sin interrupts communication, sin interrupts communion, it interrupts, it destroys actually fellowship. I mean, every father knows that if you have a problem with one of your kids and it's a sin issue, that there's no relationship with that kid until that problem is settled, until that issue is dealt with. Every husband in this room knows that when you have a difficulty with your wife and your marriage, that if there's an issue that relates to an offense, somebody has done somebody else some harm or hurt, that there's no communication until that's settled. And we understand in human relationships, and it's also true in our relationship with the Lord. The Bible tells us that sin makes separation in Isaiah in chapter 59, verses one and two. The writer says, behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear.  Sin makes separation. But as Christians, we know that the sin issue has been dealt with through Jesus Christ because the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, has cleansed us from all sin and has restored us to a relationship so that we now as God's children can call unto him and bring our concerns to him. And because we have a relationship with him through Jesus Christ, we can pray to him. The Bible in Psalm 34, verse 15 says, the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their cry. Now we're righteous, not because we have made ourselves righteous, we'll see that in the second parable that we'll be looking at in verses nine through 14. It's not because we've done something on our own to somehow warrant a relationship with God. It's through God's grace that we can take our concerns to him and we can come with a confidence because he's our Father. Hebrews 4, 16 says, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. And so we have access to the Lord and we can come with a confidence to find the help that God has made available to us. And that's what happens when we pray. Now sometimes, and we know this, every person in this room has prayed and had unanswered or prayers that seem to be unanswered and there are various reasons scripture outlines for us that that can be true.  I'm just making a selfish prayer. James tells us in chapter four verse three, you ask and do not receive because you ask a miss that you may spend it on your pleasures. I'm asking something very selfish. I wonder in American Idol, I wonder if the contestants are lifting up prayers as they go up. I wonder, possibly, maybe not, possibly. Maybe they're saying, you know, God help me, help me to hit notes I've never discovered before. I don't know, help me to win. Do you think that's possible? I think it is. Do you think that people when like professional baseball player, do you think he might pray when he's at bat, you know, God, give me a hit? I think it's possible. Do you think that people who are playing any sport might be praying to win, I think so. Do you think that God pays attention to that? Well, that'd be an interesting thing. That's not the point of my message, but I wonder about it. You know, hmm, let's see, he wants a hit, but there's somebody right now in Iraq who really is calling unto me. Do you think, sometimes I wonder if my prayers might be a bit selfish, a bit self-centered, a bit about me, and then I get mad at God because he didn't let me get that hit or become the American Idol or whatever it may be. I mean, I think it's possible, don't you? That we can sometimes ask a miss, hoping to consume it upon our own lusts? Well, absolutely. There are times that I ask for the wrong thing and I believe that that's gonna end up with a prayer that seems to be unanswered, even though the answer came, it was no. But it can seem to be unanswered. We call it unanswered because we didn't get what we wanted. Sometimes we will pray, but they're half-hearted prayers. They're kind of like, hmm, well, if you're there, can you kinda prayers? You know, I wouldn't mind if you kinda stepped in, big guy. I think some people pray like that too, but we have these half-hearted prayers that we really don't expect an answer from God at all. James in chapter one, verse six, says, let him ask in faith, this is how he puts it, let him ask in faith with no doubting, because he says, he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. There are times that we can be like James later on, says a double-minded man unstable in all our ways. You know, we're asking, but we're not asking with the confidence that God is listening. We're not asking with the sense that he even cares. Sometimes God seems not to answer my prayer or doesn't answer my prayer because it simply doesn't line up with his will for me. It just doesn't line up. In first John, chapter five, verses 14 and 15, John said, this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us, and if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of him. But of course, we ask according to his will, and so I spend time seeking the word of God to see how the Lord works and the things that please him, and then I learn over time how to pray according to his will and ask him for those things that would bring pleasure to him, and ultimately, will be a blessing to me. And so as Christians, we believe in prayer. As Christians, we learned and have learned to take our requests to God, to make our requests known to him. And we realize that sometimes he will say yes, and then sometimes he will say no, and sometimes he'll say wait. And so it's up to us to simply look to discern the will of the Lord, try to pray according to the will of the Lord, and wait on the Lord, and I know that there are times of difficulty that I have found myself in, that I've cried out to the Lord, and I've asked God to deliver me, and sometimes he doesn't seem to deliver me in the way that I would have liked him to, or as quickly as I would have liked. And yet I still made that prayer and I still asked the Lord, and I knew that ultimately he would hear me, and I knew that ultimately whatever it is that I'm going through is gonna work out for good because the Lord loves me and makes sure that those things do occur that work out for my blessing, and so I just trust him, and that's what prayer basically is all about. And so as we look at here, look at this passage here, we need to remember the context, and also you need to remember that the Bible, the New Testament, as well as the old, the New Testament wasn't written with verses and chapter headings. This is actually a continuation of chapter 17, and what Jesus had been speaking of concerning the end days and troubles that people would be finding themselves in, and a variety of things as we looked at last time. Remember in chapter 17, verse 22, remember how Jesus had said to his disciples, the days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man and you will not see it. And so he went on from there to give, according to Luke's account, basically a synopsis of the last days and gave an insight into the times that would be prevailing just prior to the return of Jesus Christ, especially as we consider a period of time that is called the tribulation period, a very difficult time in all, and he was making it very clear that it would be difficult times for believers. And so sometimes he allows us to go through the hard time because he has something that he's gonna do within us. Now Matthew records much more information concerning the return of Jesus and makes it very clear that the days just preceding his return will be very difficult. And I wanna refresh your memory by turning you to Matthew chapter 24 for a moment. I'm gonna read a few verses to develop this with you so that we can get an understanding of what Jesus is referring to here in this parable that we're examining in Luke chapter 18. But in order to do so, let's remind ourselves of some of the things that Jesus said in Matthew chapter 24. I'm not gonna read all of these verses to you in terms of the whole chapter, just pick up a few things just to give you some insight into what he's referring to because he's speaking of difficult times in the last days and how that he's not gonna necessarily deliver them from that. So in Matthew 24 and verses five through seven, he said, many will come in my name saying I am the Christ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you're not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet. Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines, pestilences and earthquakes in various places.  You'll be hated by all nations for my name's sake. Then many will be offended, will betray one another and will hate one another. Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Notice in verse 17. Let him who is on the house top not go down to take anything out of his house. Let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. Woe to those who are pregnant, those who are nursing babies in those days. Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. There will be a great tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time. No, nor ever shall be unless those days were shortened. No flesh would be saved, but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened. If anyone says to you, look, here's the Christ there. Do not believe it. False Christ and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive if possible even the elect. Notice verse 29. Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened. The moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from heaven. The powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Now we're all used to think it said with power and great glory. No, with power and great glory is what he says. That's a corny joke, but I like it. And he will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. So turning back to Luke 18, Jesus was describing the conditions that people would be going through and so it could appear as if God wasn't listening to their prayers and that's why in chapter 18 as he speaks this parable to them he gives a heart of it that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. What he's been saying, the kind of information he's been giving to them could cause his disciples to become discouraged. They could lose heart thinking he was not returning at all. So his point is hold on and do not lose heart. He had said in Matthew 24, 13, he who endures to the end shall be saved so hold fast to the Lord Jesus Christ. So in light of that what are they to do? Well they're to pray constantly.  Now obviously being constant in prayer is not just for those who are going through the tribulation. Habitual fervent prayer is something that should be practiced by every believer. All believers ought to be prayer warriors. The Bible tells us in James 5, 16 the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. That ought to be our lifestyle. Prayer for the believer is the oxygen that we breathe. I mean it's our communion with God. It's our opportunity to speak our heart to him. When we read the word of God he speaks his heart to us. And so we have communion with him because as we read through the word of God and he communicates to us and says this is what I want for you. This is what I have done in the past. This is what I'll do in the present. This is what I will do in the future. Then we communicate to him in prayer and we say Lord even so come quickly Lord Jesus or let your will be done in heaven and on earth Lord. And we do that in our prayer life Lord. We communicate with him and we commune with him constantly that's what we do. Romans chapter 12 verse 12 says that we are to be rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer. And so Jesus is teaching us that. Don't give up, hold fast. Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. Don't be discouraged. Don't think he's not listening. Look at your heart. See whether you're lined up with the things he desires for you. Then ask and hold fast to his promises and watch what God will do. He can do things abundantly above all that I can ask or think. And God's desire to bless me is beyond my understanding of what he wants from me. I have a tendency of limiting him so much. I have a tendency of saying oh, you wouldn't want that for me. I have a tendency of saying how can you say that in your word? It's easier for me to think the negative than it is to think of the blessings of the Lord. But one of the things I'm discovering is if you hold fast to the Lord, he holds fast to you. We are to persist in prayer. We are to continue in prayer. Even when the answer doesn't come immediately. You know, sometimes we may get an answer we don't want. The apostle Paul had a 10th stake, a thorn in his flesh. And he refers to it in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and he says that he sought the Lord three times to remove it from me. Three times he said, God, this is torture, this is destroying me. This is a messenger from Satan sent to buffet me. And God in Jesus' name removed from me. It's a 10th stake. It's not just a little thorn. When you hear about the thorn that Paul had and he uses the word thorn, oftentimes when you read 2 Corinthians 12, he speaks concerning the thorn. We think of like a rose thorn or something like that. No, he's speaking about a stake that has been driven into him. And he says, and I sought the Lord three times that he might remove it from me. And he did, all the Lord said to him is my grace is sufficient. He says, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. And he said, well, seeing that that's how God works, then I'll glory in that thorn. I'm gonna allow God to do what God wants to do. Though in my great desires, it would be to remove whatever it is that was bothering him, whatever it was that he was dealing with. My greatest request is for him to remove it. God said, no, my strength is made perfect in weakness. You come to the end of yourself in order to discover where I begin. And you need to understand that, Paul, because I'm gonna use you. And by the way, when you got saved, there was a man by the name of Ananias that I had sent to pray for you. You remember that, Paul? You remember how you were breathing out threatenings about those who were of the way and you were taking them and arresting them and they were being condemned to death? You remember that? You remember how you obtained papers, documents, so that you could go to Damascus and any that you encountered who were Christians and you could put in shackles and bring them on back? Try them as heretics and witness their death. You remember that? Do you remember how Jesus encountered you there on the road and how you were blinded and led by the hand and a man by the name of Ananias came and prayed for you? Do you remember that? Well, Ananias had been given instructions by God to go and pray for Paul and Ananias thought, you know, Lord, I know that I'm not hearing you properly, so let me communicate something to you. Perhaps you've been busy running the universe and haven't noticed that Paul is a very dangerous man and I really don't want to go and pray for this guy because if he discovers somebody is a Christian, he puts them in shackles, takes them back to Jerusalem, they end up being killed. So I know that you're busy running the universe, but if you don't mind, I'd rather not do that. And the Lord says, no, you go and you pray for him. As a matter of fact, Paul is praying right now.  You go and you deal with it. And Paul, throughout his ministry, went through one affliction after another and ultimately learned what some have called the glory of the thorn. He came to understand that even in our difficult circumstances and situations, God has not abandoned us. God is still there doing the work that we may not be aware of at that moment, but it's a work that's lasting because he's bringing us to the end of ourselves and we might discover where he begins in terms of how he works in our lives. And so Jesus is giving us a parable related to prayer. Here's your parable, verse two. There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. And so he set in the tone of the parable by using the illustration of an ungodly judge. This is a man who's described as not caring about God and this is someone who doesn't listen to the opinions of others. So what it does is it shows us that he's insensitive about the feelings and concerns of people. And so this is an ungodly man. He does not fear God. But verse three says, there was a widow in that city and she came to him saying, get justice for me from my adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her less by her continual coming, she weary me. And so widows. He uses a widow as an example because widows were amongst the most vulnerable people in Israel. They had no source of support. They needed someone to defend them. As a matter of fact, when you look in the Old Testament, you'll see that God chose great concern for them in his commands to the nation of Israel. In Exodus in chapter 22, for example, verses 22 and 23, he says, you shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child.  Psalm 146 verse nine says, the Lord watches over the strangers. He relieves the fatherless and widow. The way of the wicked, he turns upside down. So this woman represents a vulnerable person and she's in need of help. Now she comes and speaks to him and she says, get justice for me from my adversary, but he doesn't want to listen. At first, he just doesn't listen, but then he says to himself, I don't fear God and I don't fear man, but this woman's driving me crazy. So it's not out of concern, it's out of fatigue, and he finally acts on her behalf. Now it may be that he knew her claim was just, but he also knew that she couldn't afford to bribe him, so he's going to act just to relieve himself. Well, Jesus says in verse six, hear what the unjust judge said. Shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him though he bears long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? Now there will be believers crying out to God for help and thinking that help is not coming. In context, this is going to be taking place in the time preceding the return of Jesus Christ. But it gives to us a lesson on persevering in prayer. The Bible makes it very clear that God loves his children in response to those who cry to him for his help. Again, sometimes it may seem that he doesn't listen, sometimes it may seem that he doesn't hear us, but he does. The Psalmist in Psalm 22 verse 2 said, oh, my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not hear. And in the night season and am not silent. In Psalm 86 verse 3 be merciful to me, O Lord, for I cry to you all day long. I think some of us understand what that means. I cry to you all day long. I am not silent. I am constantly taking this petition before you. And sometimes when you pray like that, sometimes when your prayers can be even punctuated by tears, when you go through what the Psalmist refers to night seasons, darkened seasons of the soul where you're crying out to God sometimes it seems like you're all by yourself and sometimes you can lose heart. Sometimes you can begin to think God isn't listening to me. Every believer understands that. Every one of us understands that.  I want to have marriage.  Somebody listen, it's like you're crying out against the hurricane force and your voices drowned out by everything else around you. I can't tell you over the years. I've been a Christian for a while now.  There have been so many times that I've looked at Scripture and I've seen Lord, you heal the sick. He's a dead Lord and sometimes it's like the Lord is just saying but I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that now. You know I'm standing there at the bedside of my father-in-law and he had had a stroke and I had spoken to him a couple of days earlier but he slipped into a coma and we the family are there and we're all silently praying sometimes out loud Lord in Jesus' name and it seems like well the Lord just he didn't heal him. He didn't bring him back and there have been times with my kids that I've said God in Jesus' name Lord, do you know my concern right now? The brokenness of my heart over this and Lord says, you know my strength is made perfect in weakness. Trust me, I'm doing something you can't see. There's a church writer, influencer his name was Augustine Callum Augustine and he was known for being a very rebellious man. He was known for being a very worldly man and his mother was a Christian but he was anything but and so he comes to his mother and he says to her, Mom I'm going to go to Rome she says what? I'm going to Rome now Rome was the center of debauchery during that period and I don't know what city in your mind might give you the image of something that's pretty bad San Francisco comes to mind but there are various other places that are just known for being debased and she began to pray and she started saying God anything but Rome anything, any place but Rome Father any place that is an evil, evil city please God in Jesus' name, please any place so let him go to Rome and that's where he got saved that's where he got saved so mama's greatest fear was that he'd get worse but God had an appointment with him in the city of Rome and so that's why it's always wise for us not to give God conditions do things this way Lord you know I've got it all figured out and the best thing you can do is what I'm telling you to do you know Jeremiah says Lord I'd like to speak to you about your judgments you know sometimes we think that we can command the Lord and tell God what to do a long time ago I began to learn the lesson of simply saying Lord you do right you do what is right and you will you know everything the end from the beginning everything that's going to go into this kid's life everything and I don't like some of the things that I'm seeing but I know it breaks your heart a lot more than mine I know you love them more than I do see that's one of the things I as a father had to come to understand my God loves my children more than I ever will more than I ever could my God loves my kids more than I ever will and I love my kids and with that knowledge of how deep my love it gives me a strength to know that God loves them more because they were lent to me but they belong to him you see so I say Lord they're yours your kids acting up would you take care of them please now wouldn't mind if you broke his legs it's up to you it's up to you you know what I'm trying to say there are times when you hit those seasons of the soul that are so dark and so difficult that your prayers cease being with words and there's simply groans that you can't even utter there are times and Paul speaks about that in Romans chapter 8 how sometimes we make moans and groanings into God that the spirit can actually interpret because we can't put our need into words there have been times and some of you understand this there have been two words you know that's it you know God you know I don't you understand what I'm trying to say and I have a God who does know I do he understands the psalmist says that God has our tears in the vase and he remembers you see so if we understand that about God then we can trust him and he says and he will avenge he says in verse 7 he goes on in verse 8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily when the son of man comes will he really find faith on earth though God may not act quickly as I would like him to he does act now sometimes he doesn't act quickly there's that delay because he's giving people a time to repent you know I've been saying come quickly Lord Jesus ever since I got saved but people were saying that before I got saved and so think about that what if he had come before I got saved you know I wouldn't have been a good thing at all so he has his own timing and so I want to trust him in that in 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 9 the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness but is long suffering toward us not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 4 God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth and so he waits until the right moment but when he comes he will deal with now in his return notice the question will he really find faith on the earth when he returns true faith will be extremely rare even as he had said earlier even as in the days of Noah and during the days of Lot the days prior to his return will be filled with unbelief filled with apostasy and filled with persecution Matthew 24-12 says because lawlessness will abound the love of many will grow cold the love of faith on the earth there will be such an absence of it is the point that he is making now moving into verse 9 and we will touch this briefly this isn't going to take that much time in verse 9 also he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others two men went up to the temple to pray one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector God I thank you that I am not like other men extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this tax collector I fast twice a week I give tides of all that I possess and the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast saying God be merciful to me as sinner I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted when I got saved at the age of 20 ancient history time when I got saved in 1970 at the age of 20 the long hair barefoot raggedy jeans torn up t-shirts perfect Calvary Chapel guy when I got saved at the age of 20 there were people religious people who were absolutely opposed to what at that time was called the Jesus Revolution and for some of you who are too young to know what I'm talking about giant revival God began to move in wonderful ways he used various pastors in various places including my own pastor Chuck Smith and Chuck and his wife Kay used to go to Huntington Beach and they would be there right off Main Street and Beach praying for the kids that they saw the hippie kids that they saw now at first Chuck didn't like us Chuck Chuck we were everything that Chuck and my mom and dad's generation everything that they hated everything we were slobs we were druggies we were dirty we let our hair grow long we didn't wear shoes we were everything that his generation did not like and at first when pastor Chuck would see the hippies it would do something inside of him and he did not like hippies but Kay did Kay did and Kay would go with Chuck and she'd say we gotta pray for these kids Chuck and they would be there and indeed they would pray and Kay would cry as she saw the lost kids walking pastor and that touched the heart of her husband Chuck and so Chuck said I gotta meet one of these hippies and so his daughter happened to know one and invited him over and he walked in and Chuck got to know him and before he knew it a young man by the name of Lonnie Frisbee from San Francisco came on down was an evangelist kind of guy and before he knew it Lonnie and hippie kids started showing up and the little church they there's a song called little country church that love song did it's just a small church it only sat two three hundred people they had to take the walls and they removed the some of the wall there and they actually put in glass windows and so if you came in late you would actually be sitting out there in a patio area and you had to get there early in order to get into the Bible city people actually went early and the whole place was filled and God began to do incredible things he moved in wonderful ways and I was one of those kids I was one of those kids who would walk in their barefooted and Chuck speaks about now the elders got upset because these hippie kids would stick their toes in the communion cup holders in the pews and I remember specifically doing that because if you crossed your legs your big toe would get stuck in that community I still remember that I still laugh about that because the elders got upset about that and they had just put some new carpet there in this chapel and somebody put a sign up that said no shoes no entrance because they knew that bare feet would be carrying in the oils on our feet and the dirt and it would be ground into this brand new carpet but Chuck had showed up early in that sign and he took it and he had a meeting with his elders and he said to him if this carpet is going to keep one kid from coming in here and finding Jesus Christ and I am in favor of removing the carpet and that's how Chuck was and that's how he reached people like me he didn't put these barriers there he didn't put some false thing there at all but people didn't like it people didn't like people like me and others of my generation getting saved they cut their hair if they are really saved they put shoes on me a break because I used to say you know what Jesus I was a brand new Christian but I said Jesus I like him I like him because he is so cool because he wore sandals he had a beard long hair and I would say he is like us he is a hippie I am telling you he is like us he is the number one hippie because we talk about love and he is love and that message just reverberated but there will always be people who will say things like I thank you God that I am not like other men I am better than them so how do you feel when you see some kid with tattoos up and down her neck see I come from a generation that tattoos only bikers and gangsters and prisoners had tattoos you know and girls who weren't really nice wore tattoos my cousin who is just a few years older than me had a tattoo on her hand some of you have seen these tattoos maybe you have one I will see you hiding your hand it was a cross with little points on it and during my early years that was what was called Pachuco and so she was like a gangster is what she was and my aunt took a razor blade and cut it off of her people didn't like tattoos when I grew up they didn't only certain people had them piercing are you kidding me only girls have their ears pierced and do you know what we do now I thank you God that I am not like like that sometimes we had complaints what are you going to do about these people of these tattoos nothing who knows they are reaching people you can't reach they are reaching and talking a language that I can't talk see people look at me and they say that's some old ex hippie but you know what there are a lot of kids in this church who may not look like I would dress them and I say come on man you know put on a Hawaiian shirt man what's wrong with you grow your hair what's this shaving grow your hair come on Jesus is speaking about that outward appearance of righteousness that so many people are taken by because it looks good because it looks good you know and Pharisees they looked righteous and that's the picture that Jesus is giving now notice again in verse 9 this is the second parable he gives in chapter 18 and again he gives us the heart of it he said he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others because when you're self righteous you can't love somebody else there's not too much in love with you and so he says two men went up to the temple to pray when a Pharisee the other attacks collector and so these are the two whom he refers to obviously Pharisees during the time of Christ were a very influential religious sect they had the majority of scholars and they held sway great influence over the majority of the Jewish people the Pharisees were guarded as holy they were separated from all the outward appearance of moral purity and so people looked at them as being righteous and not only that they saw them as extremely intimidating and so during the time of Jesus the Pharisees had actually degenerated to simply an outward show of religious faith they kept up the outward appearances of faith but had lost the spirit they had lost what it's all about to love to serve God and what they became during Christ's time was an example that Jesus uses often an example of religious hypocrisy Jesus in Matthew 23 said the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat therefore whatever they tell you to observe that observe and do but do not do according to their works for they say and do not do they are in Moses' seat in the sense that they are communicators of God's word to you when they are dividing God's word do what they say but do not follow their practices because though they are speaking the truth they are not living the truth see so the Pharisees now tax collectors as a class were hated and they were hated specifically because of the greed many Jews especially hated them because the tax collectors collected taxes for the Roman government and because of this they were considered betrayers of their country for helping their conquerors what's interesting is a tax collector as well as a Pharisee go to the temple to pray in other words it's just another way of saying they both went to church both of them the Pharisee and this one who was an outcast each one has a different reason though for going to the temple I want you to see in verse 11 how the Pharisee stood and prayed thus within himself he stood by himself but he also prayed by himself and may have been that he was just praying to himself obviously he doesn't want to associate with a tax collector and notice he doesn't even pray for this tax collector outwardly he's addressing God but in reality he's talking to himself about himself and he speaks of the things that he doesn't do in verse 11 he says I'm not guilty of extortion in other words I see no man's property through false intentions he says I'm not unjust I don't take advantage of people when buying or selling I'm not an adulterer I am qualitatively better than the average person is what he's saying here he goes on to say I fast twice a week I give tides of all that I possess so long with prayer these were the basic actions that demonstrated religious faith fasting giving and praying are the disciplines of every godly person that's why Jesus in Matthew 6 when he's speaking concerning what really makes you a righteous person he uses prayer uses fasting and uses the illustration of giving because he's saying that these are the three elements of a genuinely religious person a genuinely religious person is somebody who takes time to fast a genuinely religious person is somebody who prays a genuinely religious person is somebody who's generous these are the basic elements of true faith and that's what he's talking about you see and so as this guy is there to pray he also eludes to the fact that he gives and that he fasts now the problem is his outer appearance is spotless but it's not coming from the heart so he's guilty of hypocrisy because he doesn't care about other people Luke speaks of it as being that he despises others you see true religious faith is always expressed by generous concern for other people in Galatians 6 verses 9 and 10 Paul said let us not grow weary while doing good for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart and therefore as we have opportunity let us do good to all especially to those who are of the household of faith he was guilty of practicing a religious faith that was only external on the other hand you have the public and the tax gatherer notice how he's described as one who would not even raise his eyes to heaven but he smote his breath saying God be merciful and to me I'm a sinner this is the point Jesus is making this is what the Lord would require of of us of me of us humility and brokenness humility and brokenness that's what you're seeing here he won't even raise his eyes to heaven he's not looking at the Pharisee he won't even look up to God he just has this attitude of brokenness and this genuinely humble spirit in Jesus's story here and he's beating his breast mea culpa mea culpa mea maxima culpa he would say in latin it's my fault my most grievous fault it's my fault I am the sinner so that would be I'm the one who was at fault nobody else Micah chapter 6 verse 8 says he has shown you oh man what is good what does the Lord require of you but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God the Psalmist in Psalm 34 18 says the Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and save such as have a contrite spirit Psalm 51 17 the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart these oh God you will not despise so you go to the Lord instead of lifting up your eyes saying look at me how good I am look at all the good things I do I'm better than everybody including this verse next to me now you say Lord be merciful into me I am a sinner God without you I am nothing oh wretched person that I am what is Jesus saying verse 14 I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted he approaches God humbly the Pharisee is filled with contempt and lacks love so God hears the broken man and rejects the other one if you were to be judging on the basis of outer appearance the Pharisee wins but God doesn't see as man does because man only looks at the outer appearance God looks at the heart God looks at the heart God knows the internal workings of our heart and God gives mercy when we ask for it God be merciful unto me I'm a sinner that's how you got saved that's how I got saved it wasn't a long flowery prayer I didn't start reciting every sin that I could remember God forgive me for this and God forgive me for that 27 times I did this 27 times I did that and I didn't do that that was my religious tradition bless me father for I have sinned it's been three weeks since my last confession I lied to my mother six times I was angry four times always reducing by the way and always forgetting always doing a rosary rosary was the worst that you would do I mean a priest told you go out and do a rosary and if your mom caught you doing a rosary she knew you'd been pretty bad it wasn't anything like that at all God be merciful to me a sinner and I tell you that sinner went home justified and not the other why Jesus? because the other was proud I truly believe this with all of my heart that there's something about brokenness that attracts Jesus Christ there's just something about needs that attracts him that he's drawn to and I know that arrogance repels him arrogance pushes him away the brokenness humility draws him how do I know that?


Hey friends! Today we are hanging out at Universal Studios Orlando. I'm going to be meeting up with a friend and we're going to be trying some snacks around the park but also I want to go ride Shrek 4D. Universal recently announced that they're going to be closing the attraction permanently and I really haven't rode it in such a long time so I figured today would be a perfect day. Anywho's, let's go do this. It's been a while since I've been out to Universal Studios and made a video. I have been here for Halloween Horror Nights but every time I've come it is literally a downpour and I haven't been able to make a video. I don't think there's any Halloween Horror Nights tonight so we're just going to enjoy the park as it is. Let me know in the comments what you guys think about Shrek 4D closing permanently. I feel bad because I've only rented it maybe like a handful of times. It's not like my go-to attraction but I know a lot of people really really did like it and hopefully they replaced it with something amazing. I mean it hasn't always been Shrek 4D. There have been a lot of amazing attractions in there before and I'm excited to see what they're actually going to bring about. I think I'm going to start off the day by grabbing myself an ice coffee from the Today Cafe. This is one of my favorite places to get coffee. I like it a lot better than Starbucks actually.  That's the good stuff. And I think it's time we actually hop in line to see Shrek 4D. It's only a 15 minute wait which is a little shocking. I thought there would be a longer line here. Hi friends and I ran into my friend who we're going to hang out with today Taylor and he owns the Orlando Informer and I'm going to pick the day today so I'm going to actually pick all the things we do and we're going to vlog it together. It's going to be fun. All right Shrek 4D first. Let's do it. Take a look at Lord Fawquat's enchanted tick room.  We're missing all the good action over here. Donkbo! A punishment in here is called a vlogging. Does anyone know what a vlogging is? Okay now vlogging is a severe meeting with a wooden stick. While you're being tortured there's going to be no video typing. Oh no. You ready to go Taylor? I'm nervous. No vlogging or you're gonna get a vlogging. So I really like that show. I just think it's a little bit long. Like it takes a long time and if you're in the park you have to be you know on the go because you want to get everything done. What do you think? So my favorite part of the show is in the graveyard scene. There's a gravestone that says coming soon.  They were great. Wow. Yeah. Wow they have a lot of code. It actually got me with the seat belt. He did. He laughed at me. He's like buckle your seat belt and I reached the seat belt and he's like you know the seat belt thing is fake right? So I fell for it. But it's a good show and I'm sad to see it go. As soon as we come out of Shrek 4D, Donky's out talking to guests. So maybe we'll go over and say hello real quick. I would like to get his thoughts about the vlogging. I'm not too sure if I got that part in. The reason I keep on saying vlogging is because vlogging means getting beat with a stick. It's a form of torture.   Cool. Cool. I'm cool. Hello. How's it going? How's it going? You know I asked you first. I asked you second though. Okay. I'm doing good. How are you? I'm doing well. Yeah, okay. I thought you were gonna steal my answer. C.C. What's your name? My name is Taylor. Taylor, have you been here before? I have. You've been here? I'm still familiar. Yeah. Who's your friend? This is Nate. Hey friend. Hey friend. Hey friend. What's going on? Nice shirt. Oh thank you. Where did you get that thing? Fancy. It's a Roosevelt. Dinosaurs. Dinosaurs. What's it say? It's all dinosaurs. Jurassic Park. Oh! Oh! It's multiple parks. I see. Now I think it's time we head on over to Diagon Alley and I want to get myself a butter beer but I actually want to try something special with the butter beer and I'm not too sure how it's gonna go but we're gonna give it a go. As I'm hanging out with Taylor I'm helping him make a video where I choose what he does today and I kind of feel like he's missing something and I spotted some fedoras over here so Taylor's about to get fedorable. Oh look at that. Nice. There we go. That's the right stuff right? So how many of these do you own? Hundreds. Hundreds. Hundreds of fedoras. Yep. I go through them a lot but each fedora is like a little special you know? Yeah. That one special it's a universal one and you know actually I don't think I've ever got a universal fedora. If they come out with one that says like universal studios on it I have to get it but these ones are kind of just like regular fedoras but if they came out with a universal fedora that would be amazing. I think we're gonna head on into the Leaky Cauldron now and because it being October and I'm in the pumpkin like stages like I feel like I'm all about pumpkin I want to get a butter beer but also I want to get a pumpkin juice and maybe we'll just combine them together and have a pumpkin butter beer. I don't know if it's gonna work but we're gonna try it out. So here we have a pumpkin juice and a cold butter beer and like I said we're just gonna mix them together and see how it comes out. I'm really excited because I think it would be amazing. Also I tossed around the idea of going to Starbucks and getting a pumpkin cold foam like the pumpkin nitro cold brew and actually adding some butter beer to it because that would be actually more realistic but we're gonna try this one first.  What do you think like a 50-50 ratio? Yeah 50-50 right? You're the barista. All right and now we're gonna dump a little bit of this. Oh lordy that does not look good. That does not look good at all. Maybe it don't. I don't know actually it's got a nice color to it doesn't it? Yeah. Like a creamy pumpkin juice? I'm trusting you here. I don't trust me. I don't know what I'm doing. There we go. Okay that seems good right? Yeah. All right. Yeah I like it. Cheers. Is this something that might be really good or really bad? Yeah. We'll find out. We got a mustache. It's not bad actually. If you like pumpkin it's actually pretty good. Yeah wow I would do this again without the mustache though. Wow I think we got a win here. Cheers. Here we go. Taylor's favorite is hot butter beer. Now that would mix pretty well though I think with the hot butter beer. My favorite is cold butter beer. I don't know why I just think it's refreshing. I like it. I would put hot butter beer number two and then frozen butter beer as my last. Like it's not my favorite. Well you haven't had potted. I haven't had the potted butter beer. Oh fudge. Fudge. Well maybe we should get some fudge. Here we go. All right now we're gonna get some fudge. Now we're really getting I mean pumpkin butter beers and fudge. I'll take this. You might need to add a little bit more of the pumpkin juice in there. And funny that the foam is it really going down. It's kind of just what went on the top there. The butter beer fudge was really good. We tried it out on Taylor's channel and honestly like I tried all the different butter beer things here. The butter beer ice cream is one of my favorites but I never had the fudge before so that was fun. And now I think we're going to continue around Universal and stop over in the Simpsons area. Maybe play a game. I think that would be fun. I don't think I've ever played one of the games and I'm a little bit competitive so it'll be fun.   Or what does the winner get? Oh that is a good idea. Oh man there should be a wager. We'll have to find some kind of stakes. Yeah we have to. Our choice is a game. Our Wacka Rat. Mr. Barnes Radioactive Rings. Arie Crumba. Santa's Little Helper. Sideshow You and Wild Willys. So we're going to figure out which one we're going to do. I don't know. I want something competitive so we might actually do Santa's Little Helper because that's a race. I feel like that's probably head to head.  Oh tough decisions. There's going to be one made. I think we're going to do Help Santa's Little Helper. I think it'll be fun. It's like one of those water gun where you race the dog. But it's like a dog race because it's Santa's Little Helper and I don't know. Yeah. Kind of reminds me of Gracie. I think Santa's Little Helper kind of looks like Gracie. Like her face does wise. It does yeah. It does. Right. It is eight dollars to play and you need at least two payers because it is a competitive game and I think we've come up with an amazing wager. So if one of us loses it's going to be bad. But it's going to be fun I think. We both decided loser goes and rides Dudley do right. The biggest water attraction here at Universal Studios guaranteed to get soaking wet and both of us do not like being soggy bottom boys. So loser is going to get soaked and I think that makes it even more fun. I want to let you know I will hold you for door while you ride when you lose. Oh look at he's already saying he's going to win. Wow. All right. I'm excited. All right. I'm going number two. I'm going number one. Game straight at the orange here. Do not watch your dog. If you do he will get shy and you will not run. Ready. Three. Two. One. And go. Oh no. We are neck and neck. Come on. Come on. Wait. Wait. Wait. Who won two or one. Oh no. Oh I won. Who won. I won. I won. I won. Jay said so. So Jay totally said I was the winner. It was a full game. So there was more than just me and Taylor playing and it was for Choice Prize. But there was a winner between both of us and Jay said number two one. So he's got to go down Dudley do right. I mean I don't know. Let us know what you guys think because it did look a little close. Maybe it was the angle but I mean I'm going with what Jay said. Yeah. Of course. I know. I bet you are. Yeah. Jay you're the man. Well since we know that Taylor's going to be doing Dudley do right a little bit later on I thought it would be fun to also do something that he's never done and we're going to go over to Fibles Playland and they actually have a waterslide right here at Universal Studios. Now it's kind of like a kid ride and you don't get wet. You're actually in a raft but I thought it would be fun to actually do something that you don't do at all and he's never done before. Never. First timer here. Yeah which is rare. There's a few things here I haven't done before. Yeah this is like a big thing. I actually feel honored man. Yeah. I feel honored. I'm happy to share this with you. Yeah. This is going to be great. Like I said I'm not too sure. I don't think you get that wet in there. No you don't get wet at all. But it's like a pregame. It's getting us all warmed up for your Dudley do right fall. I mean are you excited? For which one? Dudley do right? For both. I mean that's it's a lot of waterslides. Yeah. A lot of water attractions in one day. This one I'm excited for. Dudley do right you know. Not so much. Rock paper scissors shoots to see who goes first. Okay. Okay. Ready? Rock paper scissors shoot. Rock paper scissors shoot. You go first. I got the luck of Jay behind me. All right so Taylor's going first and you can't film on it. Well number one it's a water ride so you really don't want to. So we're actually going to wait down here and film each other coming down the slide. I thought that would be fun and yeah hopefully like I said we don't get too wet. I don't think you get any wet at all. He took his hat off. Yeah you don't want to ruin it. Look he's going to be coming down right here. I love it.  That is so awesome. All right my turn. I'm going down now. All right Taylor just came down. I'm going to keep my hat on and I'm not sure if I can film on here. Probably not but he's going to be filming me down there so it'll be probably on his video when I come out the bottom. I'm just excited to do this. It's really fun. Wow this is really nice up here. It's like we're up in a gigantic barrel. It's like a whiskey barrel or bourbon barrel. Very cool. I am next and I can't film so I'm sure Taylor is going to catch me coming out the bottom but this looks so much fun. I am really excited. All right I'm hopping aboard here. I'm a little nervous. That was actually really fun and I didn't get wet at all. You got more wet than I did. Like I didn't get wet at all actually. I blame Jay. Oh it's Jay's fault. Now I think we're going to head on over to Highlands of Adventure. Somebody's got a date with Dudley Dewright. Thanks to Jay. No no I won that fair and square though. Thanks to Nate. The assist. Oh yeah the official. Yes not the assist. No way. Everything was legit. No no no never said that. Never said that. I noticed we got some dark clouds up there and fingers crossed. He's hoping and praying Dudley Dewright closes for lightning in the area. I mean it'd be a shame but you know. Oh shucks. Safety first. Safety first yeah but I think we'll be okay. I think we got enough time before the storm comes in. I might need to slow down. Oh yeah. We've made our way over to Islands of Adventure and I want to check out some of the wait times. It actually looks not too busy here at all. The cat in the hat is a five minute wait. Dudley Dewright 35 minutes but you got expressed right? I do have expressed. Oh and Velocicoster 55 Hagrid 75. Do you think it's shocking that Hagrid still has a higher wait time as Velocicoster? Well so I feel like more people can ride Hagrid you know. That's true. Velocicoster kind of intense. Yeah. He's like Velocicoster 8. Yeah I like Velocicoster just for the thrill. 100% but Hagrid's a better themed ride. Yesterday I was at Hollywood Studios. Slinky Dog Dash had a longer wait time than Rise of the Resistance. Wow. Isn't that kind of crazy? So it's kind of like the same scenario. Funny. So we decided to give Taylor a redemption. Hopefully or maybe not hopefully there is a water gun game here at Islands of Adventure so we're going to double or nothing and if Taylor wins then I'm going to end up riding Popeyes which is a ride that you get way more wet than Dudley Do Right. Drenched. Yeah you get drenched but if he loses then he's got to do Popeyes and Dudley Do Right. Are you excited or are you nervous? I am very nervous but I'm feeling confident. Although I felt confident last time and it didn't work out well for me. We just need to get Jay over here. No. I need to get Jay over. I need to stay at USM. And I think it might just be me and you so this is like going to be definitive right here. I love this game. I love this whole video actually. So far. Yeah. Oh yeah. Right here it is. Not like Santa's Little Helper. This is Top Glow and instead of having a dog race it actually goes upwards and we got a llama. So we're going to be racing llamas and unicorns. I like this one. This is a little bit more festive. He got lucky. Honestly it's because I didn't have Jay on my side. Team Heather for you though. I think you got an assist. No problema. Team Heather. Honestly I think mine wasn't lined up right on. I think he had the better line up and I hear what the game it is actually skill level that you just need to be able to have like a steady stream at the get go. And mine wasn't right. I would like those guns checked. Someone needs to go inspect that ride because or that is that game because I think there's some foul play there. Right. He agrees. He don't care. I'm going on Popeyes now. All right. You're going first though. I sure am. Dudley do rights for you first and then I'm going to do Popeyes. And the fun thing is is we're going to be able to film each other. So like I'll be able to film you coming down on the bridge. Man I can't believe I lost because I'm going to get a great shot of you on Popeyes. Oh I'm sure you will. Taylor is going to be taking that big drop right there. This is intense. I mean I really do like this ride and honestly if I knew I was going to lose I probably would have like recommended me to ride this instead of doing Pluto's. I don't like Pluto's as much. Look at that. So also as an added boost you can actually buy tokens to squirt water at people that are coming off Dudley do rights. So of course I'm going to do that. Five dollars and I get 12 tokens. Thank you please. Taylor got lucky because the guns or the water guns that he could pay to get people wet aren't working. It's only cash only I don't have any cash or else he would definitely be getting a double dose of water. But now I'm just going to sit here and wait for him to come down and hopefully not get wet myself. Holy Moly do you see that? He got soaked. We're going to come back over on this side. Oh you're soaked. Look at the walk out right now. I'm laughing but that's going to be me soon. Definitely more wet than Fible huh?  I'm only cutting up my shoes but then the last drop. Oh yeah. But cash only I was happy to hear about that. Yep cash only. It was satisfying to see him go down but now it's time for me to live up to my end of the bargain and we're gonna head on over to Popeyes. I'm telling you like Popeyes you get soaked. So basically this is like a more intense Cali River Rapids and like I said you get soaked. Look at as they're about to take off right through here and this is going to be me soon. Right under the bridge and over on the other side and I'm gonna bring no problema with me. He's gonna go along the ride and I don't know honestly I'm excited. I don't mind getting a little wet right now. I mean a little but we're gonna get soaked. That's the part I don't mind in. I'm gonna be walking out of here definitely a soggy bottom boy with completely soggy shoes. I gotta go to my water cannon. Oh yeah guess who brought cash with him. Guess who has cash huh figures that. Did not. Well that's why they call it the no problema. Yep no problema.  It's a no problema. No problema. Now I figure we'll go do one fish two fish and this is a game where you can potentially get wet if you follow directions. If you don't follow directions you can get wet so either we're gonna decide whether we are gonna get wet or we're not gonna get wet. I mean I'm soaked now I don't care. Yeah we could dry off though you know air dry a little bit and it'll just be fun to ride look at that I love sous landing look at this you have the option to avoid all these water sprays you just gotta follow the directions so when they tell you to go up go up and when they tell you to go down go down oh someone didn't listen oh so hopefully it's not going to be us but this is like a really fun ride it works you don't want this to be fish and I believe in all of our girls want to find their land. Please follow along to the median and then when I'm higher all children must be treated with idea at all times. Welcome boys and girls to our fishing ride. A wonderful adventure where you won't stay dry. Come on in and buckle up. So we ended up still getting wet but it did say red fish down down down and we did follow the directions. Maybe we were in like an orange fish. Were we in an orange fish? No I don't think those exist. But we did get tricked we got wet and Taylor protected the no problema he did a good job his mother really instincts kicked in and he said no no so much fun though I love this ride it is like more than just one of those traditional spin around rides like it's like a whole thing I love it. Take a look at the skies isn't that beautiful honestly I love coming to Universal just to see the beautiful sunsets and with that I think we are going to call it a day here. Such a fun day right yeah fun I did a good job I picked everything out and I hope you had fun right I had a great time even getting wet yes even on the water rides you get like fear building up to but once you go down and you just ride the ride you have a great time like I love Pluto like that was fun and the friendly competition was fun as well I know we're going to do it again like there is going to be a part two make sure you check out Taylor's video I will put a link in the description for his channel and uh yeah it's such a fun day so I hope you enjoyed the video I enjoyed making it we'll see you next time bye see ya


to Hawaii together on the ThinkTech broadcast network. My name is Ted Gafales and I work as the Director of Strategic Campaigns at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. I'll be filling in today for our regular host Dr. Kilii Akeena. As many of our viewers know, Hawaii is currently dealing with a critical housing shortage. Governor Josh Green has made it a point of his administration to increase the number of homes that are available to local families. The governor and his administration have also issued several emergency proclamations related to home building and permitting. But is there a role that our churches, synagogues, and other religious institutions can play in all of this? And if so, what would that really look like? A few weeks ago, we hosted a guest to discuss California's Yes in God's Backyard Law, which will streamline and relax housing regulations for religious as well as educational groups in order to build housing in the state of California. Well, today I'd really like to dig deeper into this topic with someone that knows the ins and outs of building housing for nonprofit religious groups in Hawaii. My guest today is the Reverend Joshua Hayashi, the CEO of Mission Management Company, a group that focuses on helping churches build housing on their land. Josh is also a middle school chaplain at Punahou School. And in the past, he's also worked with the YMCA of Honolulu and the first Baptist church of Vancouver, Canada. He has a master of Divinity degree from Regent College in Vancouver, Canada. Good afternoon, Josh. Thank you for joining me on the show. We're really excited to have you today. Thank you so much, Ted. It's great to be here with you folks. And I'm excited we're going to talk about this really important and I think maybe unknown or underutilized topic of these properties that these churches and nonprofits own. And I think that if people knew how strategic these properties were and really, I think the game could change about how we talk about affordable housing, we're going to utilize some of that. Yeah. So before we start, could you kind of tell me the story behind Mission Management and, you know, how you guys got started? So a couple things. So I'm ordained the United Church of Christ, which is, you know, a large denomination here in Hawaii. So it's churches like Kauai Ha'au Church, Central Union Church, Makiki Christian Church, and Wai'ola Church in Lahaina, and Lihui, this church in Lihui and Kapa'a in every little town that's part of our legacy and our world here. And the reality is that there are about 150, 160 churches in our denomination across the state, across the islands. And there are only four ordained ministers under the age of 60 who are from Hawaii. Wow. And so there's one thing there that the need to think about doing things a little bit differently is pretty significant. And that's just one denomination. That's not the Lutherans and Presbyterians and the Catholic Church, but also it's also the knowledge that there are so many church properties that are out there. And so if you, you know, just kind of thinking about it, if you were to add up all the church properties across the state, from the Mormons to the Catholics to the United Church of Christ, and you put them all into one lump, it would be in the top five of individual landholders in the state. So it's quite a significant amount. And it's also what's important is that most of our churches, especially in the UCC, are in populated areas. They're at the center of every little town, whether it's La Porrohoi or it's Kapa'a or Waimea or Kaunanakai, it's at the center of all of these places. And so it has very strategic, there's a lot of strategic importance as well. And so for me, I was in the process of getting ordained at a church called Makiki Christian Church, right across from McKinley High School in Honolulu. And it is in the shape of a Japanese castle. It's the only Japanese castle outside of Japan. And they have this huge, incredible, beautiful property that's on the state historic register and they're trying to figure out, how do, what do we do with this? Our insurance bill continues to go up, we have termites, we have all of these deferred maintenance issues. And it's also simultaneously, they ask that question when everything in Kaka'a was going up. So that question, what could possibly happen? The Makiki was open to a discussion. And so we started to give them options about how about we had a partnership with these developers or in this kind of a way and really helping the churches see that there could be something different about their properties themselves. And so that has kind of gone on to be able to kind of look at different properties, bringing partnerships together. We're doing about 80 units of affordable housing in Wailuku town across from City Halls to be the equivalent of the old Mission Houses Museum property in Honolulu, the equivalent of that in Wailuku. And we're in permitting right now and we have a partnership between the church landowner, between a developer, the county gave a million dollars, the state gave 350,000. So people are really excited about the types of potential in these partnerships. Sure, that's absolutely, that's very exciting. And you know, you obviously work in a unique part of this building industry. And you know, I would expect there aren't many other companies that focus on doing what you guys are doing and helping churches and religious institutions putting housing on their land. How did you get from being a reverend pastor to now being a CEO in your part life in helping this mission management company? And how did you get involved in the development home building side of things? Well, I mean, I think it's funny, I don't consider myself part of the building industry. But I do feel like a lot of the work that I have to do is kind of build these bridges mentally and emotionally and theologically, right? And helping us rethink what to do with our space. And this is the hardest part here is that the building world, whether it's at, you know, the construction side, whether it's on the lending side, whether it's on the real estate end commercial and residential, on the fund, a large funding end, they only operate on a single value. And that value is called highest and best use. The highest and best use that's really maximizing value, the financial value out of a property. Now churches and nonprofits do not operate on that value system. And so oftentimes they're really, the challenge is really on the front end, the philosophical end about why? Why should these landowners that are not driven by profit, why should they develop? And what is that, whatever that happens next, how is it connected to their mission? So what I'm really excited about is being able to connect mission to future projects. And so churches can have mission and they can have some form of sustainability. And if they are able to bring those two things together, then something special can happen. One of the things I'm really excited about is that because churches don't necessarily need the same return on investment on these projects, then a private landowner. And so the ability to do something with that extra value becomes highly, highly valuable and important. So that's what is really interesting here. They don't need the same amount on the back end like everybody else. And so we can use that little extra to be able to kind of share that with the community to make the prices a little lower to negotiate more with different partners. And so I think something special can happen in that way. But for me personally, I think it was really seeing several things. Churches get taken advantage of by developers because a lot of the churches don't have the bandwidth anymore to be able to kind of make these decisions. And I think because they aren't able to make those kind of connections between value and cash and look at the long term effects of that. And so I saw churches getting taken advantage of in one end, but also I saw the needs in Hawaii on the other end increase. And it just makes sense, right? Like if the churches have the ability to be able to connect their values, their mission to real needs, then something can happen. Yeah. And we are absolutely glad that you are taking the reins there and helping some of these nonprofit religious organizations just try to navigate some of the difficulties that comes with whether it's working with home builders and getting projects up or working with the government bureaucratic officials to get permits and whatnot. But let's just say, let's pretend I'm on the board for a religious group that's interested in putting housing on its land. What's kind of your sales pitch for mission management to get me to build more units on my property? So first and foremost, we have a thing called an audit. And so the churches can go and put in some of their financial information, put in some of their property information, and put in some of their organizational information. And it can really give them a handle on what can actually happen. And so because there's so much conversations about like so many conversations right now about like, oh, everybody, all these churches should build affordable housing, but do they really understand the zoning? Do they really understand what they are financially capable of doing? Can they take on a construction loan? What kind of partners should they have? And so what we ask first and foremost is the conversation about values has to happen first. What's more important? The long term needs? Is it the short term needs? Is it mission? Is it preserving Sunday morning? Is it making sure that you're able to kind of keep the roof over your heads? Is it fixing up this property? We don't even talk about cash and the value part until we have these much more important conversations about what is the long term goal for this place? Is it about that we continue to have this Sunday morning service? Those are the kinds of questions we get through first because then it gives the churches what they're really good at, which is talking about values. And if they can identify their values, then we can say, well, let's try and find a partner that shares those values, but can follow these financial guidelines to make those values happen. So we need to have the data first, and then we take them through a process. And then they have the upper hand on negotiating. Instead of the developer telling them, I'm going to give you the X for this amount. The churches don't have a way to kind of actually take that through a system or structure of decision making. Right. And that is definitely something that is well needed. As I mentioned earlier, it's great to have a group that's kind of helping these organizations out and just just helping hold their hand a little bit and getting through some of these difficulties because it is inherently confusing. But as we talk more about mission management, I am I'd love to hear more about your company's success stories and what are maybe one or two of the projects that you've worked on that have really addressed that critical community need in terms of housing? Yeah. So well, housing, the Wailuku project is the one we are most excited about. And so we are very, very close to getting through the State of Sarc Preservation Department. But one of the other things that we've been doing was not so much housing, but we were able to create a partnership that allowed the Soto Academy was a private school in the Soto Mission on Niuwanu Avenue. And for some reasons, they're having to exit out of their home. They were out of Soto Mission at the Buddhist temple there on Niuwanu. So we found them a temporary home so they didn't have to close at Makiki Christian Church. It ended up being a win for everybody. So that's one. Another one was a preschool that was looking to expand in Kalihi, Lava Keiki. And they were meeting at another, I think it was a Shinto church, right off the freeway. But they were growing and expanding and they're looking for another forever home. And then we were able to find a place where they can grow and they can continue in Kalihi, Mouna Lua. So a lot of the work in some ways is like matchmaking these non-profits or other organizations that need the space with the entities that do have the spaces themselves. So those are two success stories that we have on that are immediate. The rest of it, as you know, is a lot of these really long games on development, development partners. And we've been having, we've been having groups now contacting us from all over the country. I had a group in Cincinnati, Ohio, a church in Cincinnati, Ohio. We helped them start, get their commercial kitchen going and be able to get multiple partners in this. They have a separate income stream coming. A church in K and I, which is what I think the one we're really excited about on the road to Hana, this little Hawaiian village that this church right in the center of it, they were down to their last three members. And the roof in the church started to fall. And so we're able to kind of create some momentum within the church by having the granddaughters of these last three aunties come back and through working with them and coming up with the financial performance, you know, what they need. What they did was they created one of them created a business that's a farmer's market that's capturing the tourist traffic in K and I. And from one day of that farmer's market, so in farmer's market once a month, they're able to pay, to be able to make money, but also to pay for all the church's expenses. And so like that's what the aunt keep bringing business into the local town because most of the vendors were all members of the of the community as well. So it's really helping these churches think of creative solutions, mission focused creative solutions and using their properties in all different kinds of ways. Yeah, that's fascinating. And it's truly seems like it's creating a community based form of housing where you have people that are creating almost like these businesses where they live and work and play. So that is amazing. You know, I touched on it earlier and about the governmental regulations and I'd be curious to get your thoughts and just characterizing some of the state and city regulatory environment. But then also going through and just touching on, you know, how many city and state approvals do you typically need to get housing built on a typical church property? So we'll start with that one first. You know, there are some challenges with a lot of our churches in building. First of all, most of them are historic, right? They're old, they would fall under the state and state preservation department's rules that are anything built before 1965 or something. I forget the exact year. It requires specific work. So that's a big hurdle that we have to hit. A lot of our properties have graves on them. So A, we will never be able to touch any of those. And so those are two kind of inherent challenges in that. Not all the properties, I like that however, but I think the biggest challenge is the mental model. And I think, and the first mental model is that it's the highest and best used thing. The county and state are not, they are really geared towards protecting these properties and the land against these developers that will just max value out and have historically taken advantage of our communities. This is not like that at all. These are non-profits that have been part of the community for like 200 years. One of the things that has been wonderful is that the aunties can go out and talk to their congresspeople or talk to their representatives and say, this is what we want to do. This is to help the community. It's not like some guys coming from California with the suit and say, hey, we're here to build housing for all of you folks and everyone kind of winks about that. But I think it's a very different thing. It's really from the individual members of the community that's driving it. And so the mental model is different. So we're not doing this. No one is getting rich off of this. And I think that's one of the big challenge for a lot of our, for the regulatory system set up to prevent that kind of predatory behavior. But it's making it impossible for everybody because we can't, we can't pay those exorbitant fees that like BlackSan can or like, you know, Kowai-ashi Group can. Like we don't have the time to take these things. A lot of our churches are in real financial distress. And so there are run runways not that long. And so in order for things that feel to happen, Yeekbee would be a big help. And so like, like for example, like to get through state of store preservation, to get past that, the, some of these things, now we will never build on graves, but it will take time, if not years to get through that. And then the other mental model that's the challenge is that, and this is probably the more important one, affordable housing. What we typically do affordable housing, it would put that outside of the center, right? Kalihi. We put it out in, you know, out by Wahia. We put that out in Evelay, right? Our churches are in the most prime places. And we think actually that's a gift. Something special could happen. Not, not like putting poor people, but we make this a community again. That everybody deserves to have a place here. Not, and that includes those who need the most support. And so that's the bigger challenge is a lot of people were giving our most prime properties to affordable housing, if the church is allowed to do that. And I think that's going to be part of the, the hurdle that we get over. That already is actually. Yeah, definitely. And, you know, I know you touched on it a little bit, but a lot of times we hear from folks about the lengthy delays in the permitting process and how oftentimes any kind of delays, quite frankly, will add to costs when it comes to homebuilding and developing. Can you speak to your experience with the Honolulu permitting process? Have you guys faced any sort of delays when you're working on projects that something like a yes in God's backyard bill might be able to, to fix? Oh yeah. I mean, I can think of like five or six projects right now that that would be, you know, would be able to kind of sail through because of that. Now, the one that we are most for this long is in Maui, so it's Maui County. And so it's similar. And, but yes, so the State Historic Preservation Department, the Cultural Resources Commission, those are two of the regulatory entities that we've had to get through on on the county council. We have full support from, from the, from Maui County Council, or at least from, at least from our folks who've had a ton of support. And, but it is, it, it is, I mean, obviously COVID and now with the fires, it has affected quite a bit. But just by the county, Maui County willing to give us a million dollars to a church to build affordable housing, that has been helpful. But at the same time, it's taken us four years to get to this point, because the State Historic, or the Preservation Department in planning does not want these churches to do, to change because it is so, so key for it to look the same. The reality is that if they, if we, not on the other side of it, if they don't allow churches to kind of figure out what to do with these properties and would be willing to do different things, some of these properties will be abandoned like churches on the mainland and become light. And that, I know it seems hard to think of that, but there are six to seven thousand churches closing their doors every single year on the mainland. And that's, that's going to be happening to us more and more. Certainly, I mean, as we see more and more churches throughout the state are seeing declines in membership, you know, a lot of them don't have a lot of the cash available to build housing. And we've already talked about some of these regulatory delays that, that increase costs. But have any of your clients, any kind of these religious organizations decided against building these affordable housing units because of the uncertainty associated with the permitting process or the link? Yes, yes, for sure. So we had, we have one project in Waipahu that because the church wants to retain ownership of the property and not and do a lease, then our partners through the, through the lie tech process and how they raise capital would have taken six or seven years to go through the regulatory process. Then most of the churches said we don't, we can't do that because we won't live due to their age to be able to see it happen. Wow. And so to think six or seven, these are large multi-billion dollar national entities that have the bandwidth to do it maxing out. And six or seven was a conservative number of years. So the church said we can't do it because we won't last. There's another one in Kailua similar to that. Yeah, that's certainly understandable. I mean, it's six to seven years that I don't know any kind of organization that can wait that long. You know, we've kind of, now Josh, we've skirted around and we've briefly touched on California's new yes and God's backyard law. We actually discussed it here on the show quite recently in Hawaii. There was a similar bill. I believe it was HB 814 was proposed earlier this year that would have allowed nonprofit, religious, educational and healthcare organizations to build housing on their property by right. And essentially that means without discretionary state or city approvals. Do you think that kind of approach is going to help companies like yours? Yes, I think it would significantly. And I think, I think it'll be helpful. It's also, I mean, just it also makes it a little bit, we don't want it to be these other predatory groups to be there as well. But I think it would help a lot because it would allow these churches, like I said, time is really of the essence for them. They are running out of time quickly. And unless we're able to mobilize on some of these properties in less than six or seven years, then they will be abandoned or sold. And what I tell churches that we don't want to sell because it does three things. One, it jacks the property values. Number two, it makes a public space into a private one. And number three, like real estate is at the heart of all injustice on the planet in the way that we currently think about real estate. And so this is a way for us to make a move to make Hawaii equal. And I think we have the opportunity to really bring some change. And we would say like there's some spiritual values that we want to drive of everybody coming together. Sure. Sure. And, you know, in order to kind of expedite that process and just help to navigate it, do you guys coordinate with state or city housing officials on any kind of specialized projects that you're proposing, just to expedite the process, as I mentioned? Yeah. Yeah. So one of the things, the million dollars that we've got from Maui Kani was attached to the experimental housing ordinance. I forget what state bill state law it is, it is right off the top of my head. But it was with the express intent that this would be an example for other churches to make these kinds of partnerships. Because let's say, you know, like, why Luca, there are five churches within 500 yards of each other. Five church properties. It's a significant amount, right? Like the hui is like that. And I think that the bigger challenge that we have often thought that housing is always going to be like a one big fix, right? Like going to build these huge 5,000 unit entities. But really, we think that it's going to be these smaller boutique things that create community, walking, multi-use. And that's what we're hoping for, is that these smaller boutique properties can really create something special. Sure. Definitely. You know, we've done a lot of talking about a yes in God's backyard bill, or a Yigbee bill. But are there any other sorts of reforms that could help religious or other nonprofit organizations to build on their land? I think that would be that the Yigbee is, to me, is the best place to start. Because it gives us hope. Because we can't compete with those folks. But I think being able to create ways for OCS, for grants from the state, to be able to go to these properties, into these churches, and with the right controls, obviously. And I think that that could help. We have to create some separate legal stuff so that one of our churches could receive OCS grants or state level grants. But also, this is a way for the communities to come together. I can't think anything off-hand about any other type of bill specifically. But the Yigbee is going to be, to me, is the dream situation. If we could do that, something could really happen. That's great. That's great. Anything else that you'd like to add today? I think the big part is that Hawaii is changing at a fundamental level. I mean, it always has been. But it's important for us to kind of have to work together to be able to keep us moving forward together. And doing some of these things that may seem challenging or hard because we have to do it. We have to do it to make Hawaii livable for the next generation. If we don't, it's going to be impossible. That certainly resonates with us here at the Grassroot Institute. Our motto is a hanakako, which, as many people know, means let's work together. So that is a fantastic note to end on, Josh. I really appreciate you taking the time to join us today. Again, Reverend Josh Hayashi with Mission Management Company. We thank you for your time. And until next time, here on the ThinkTech Broadcast Network, my name is Ted Kefalas, signing off. Take care.


Okay, let's go ahead and get it started. We're gonna do a quick little recap. Forson watches something. Off to a good start. Guys, the subodon is over. We're turning off the stream. What? Why does that exist? I'm gonna be 100% honest with you guys.  I like, this is just disgusting. This, what is happening here? I don't even know. Will Nef being out of pocket. It seems as if somebody's name doesn't necessarily match their face. But don't worry, that may change in just a little bit. But yeah, I thought a song would be a brown guy. That's what I thought too. But turns out it's a little different. Exclusiveness himself. Perfect. Excuse me. Welcome aboard. As you know, he's sitting. Dude, how does he get his legs like this? He has like negative stomach. He hacked into the motherboard and until XQC figures would work around. Hey XQC, could you give us some of that signature French? Give us a little French. Probably do fromage. Perfect. The sprains have been in my head since I was five. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, I did the dexter's lag. Lag? Lab. That pla-pla. Ledwig responds to a Twitter user creating an NFT playing card of popular streamers. Dude, what is wrong with people? Dude is getting sued to death? Watch this video. Hey, what's going on, everybody? I'm Derek Z, creator, founder, artist of MetaDex. And I just want to make a quick little video because we just got retweeted by the slime machine. Nice reaction. What am I going to say? I don't care.  Like what the frick, how did this even turn into a drama? How did he find out about it for it to turn into a drama? He DM'd me too. Let me see if he DM'd me. Oh yeah, he totally DM'd me as well. I'm also popular. Yeah, guys. He DM'd me so much. It was crazy, man. Soda is almost scared straight. No. What? Is this safe? OK, that's a good one. Norlin Lyons' inner voice speaks. I'm trying not to be rude, but the dark passenger inside of me wants to say something. I'm not saying this, but it wants to say something. What is the dark passenger? The only people who think pancakes even come close to waffles think it's exotic to travel to the capital city of the state where their hometown is. That's what the dark passenger inside of me wants to say. Now, I'm not saying it. How many people do you think Norlin Lyons murdered, chat? On a scale of 1 to 10. Co-Carnage shows what an unsafe working environment looks like. I need to form a union in this house. Wait, why is there what the frick is the cat doing?  That's right. You better settle down. Giving loves? Dude, Co-Carnage was married. Cat, are you serious? Is cat forcing CD, dude? Someone gets tutoring on how to do a proper butt shot. I don't think we should watch this. Is it just Russell? Oh, yeah, we should watch this. Oh, yeah. Bye. All right, it worked. Hi, guys. What is it doing? Isn't this the angle that you guys do sometimes? You're like, the angle is more like that? Oh, my gosh. OK. Destiny clicks on a random ASMR channel. The ASMR section is insane.  Oh, hello. She's scratching her nipple.  But man, I just for me, dude, I can't do it. I absolutely cannot. Austin gets rolled on Name Your Price.  The house and a Porsche. That's it. What's the crazy thing? I love the Porsche. I love the Porsche. Excuse me.  My car. OK. Sierra, what's the $375,000? $375,000. Wow, that's cheap. Sierra, how much for your car? What'd you purchase? What's the craziest thing you've ever bought? Plan B for your mother after I finished dinner last night. Oh! Wow. My mother had a vasectomy. Wait. No. And she's throwing cookies in the front yard. That's Austin. What is it? OK. OK, let's take a look at my subreddit. And then we're going to do some green screen stuff, OK? Chad Paladin in the three cucks. Why are you all right for the two months? Wait, when did they look at this, dude? When did they look at this picture?  I was setting up the stick, the wheel. I mean, never give up Joe Burr. Don't be discouraged, Joe Burr. I also came out short in the Super Bowl my second year. If you have the rest of your career to never make it back. Tamarino. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, why does Dan Marino look like Tim the tool man Taylor in this picture? Jim Kelly. Exactly, Joe. I also lost my first year old. But the next year, we made it again. We lost that one, too. But then we made it again the very next season. We also lost that one. But then it's just laying there again. Actually, how do I do it? When you were waiting for the light to turn green, it reminds you of the one true Paladin. Wait, 8.1? Where is this? Is this real? The balls. Oh my gosh. What the hell, dude? No way. No, that's so dumb, dude. How? This can't be real. This is fake. S-Fan after the Sub-A-Thon Pepe laugh. The Sub-A-Thon is not going to last this long, OK? It won't last so late. I'm not going to be bald by the time the Sub-A-Thon is over. OK, it's not going to. We're not going to break the all-time sub record. OK, it will be scaling down the whole time. It's not going to happen.  All right. The Sub-A-Thon and Majora's are both all about time. What if you leave Majora's mask when the timer is 54 minutes, the three-day cycle? So when you try to do the dungeons and all the mask, gifters get immersed in the time and the falling moon by adding to it to help you. Way too dank. Holy hell, that's a good idea. Spoilers. Spoilers? Are you taking any game requests? OK, let me give you guys a little sneak peek at what we expect. Dude, Grayson. You're already at $46. Dude, yeah. I told them I would give them bonus time. I said I would do one minute. It was 45, and then I was going to do one minute. And then they just. What was it at before? I still haven't taken it. It's still one minute. I'm going to drop it soon, but I keep forgetting. You're almost at two days. I'm already almost at two days. So, yeah. Oh, Frank.