The Word of Our Testimony

Hello and welcome to the Arise Church Podcast.

We are so glad you're here and want to thank you for joining us

today for the audio version of our Sunday morning message.

We want to invite you to join us in person at our Sunday morning

celebration every Sunday at 10 AM.

We are located on Old Jenks Rd. in Apex, NC.

Well, hi, my name's Terry Austin.

And my wife Beth, you see her sometimes.

And we had the privilege of being the parents of our

pastors, Ty and Lilia, and they're traveling.

And so I was asked to share my testimony today.

We're going to talk about the 1st 20 years.

And before we get there, Tim, you were talking about our

generosity and and how when God gives us seed, it can help

others. We have a, a lady in our church

from Jamaica. Anybody seen Jamaica in the news

recently? So she contacted us and

contacted the church and, and we worked just communicating,

trying to and and it's ongoing process.

It's not a one day fix, but we gave some monies the church did

to help her family because she has a lot of family still in

Jamaica. So I got a picture this morning

and I just saw it before service.

I didn't. It would have been nice if I

could have got it up there, but by helping one family, they

helped 17 families have food. And sometimes in the grand scope

of things, 17 families and all the devastation you see may not

seem like a great significance, but you guys applauded it

because for those 17 families, it's very significant.

And it's not just the food that it puts on the table, it's the

hope that's delivered in Christ. And so as I go into my testimony

this morning, I've, I've done notes and I got about two weeks

notice and that was too long. Do you know how much I can

meditate on in two weeks and how many messages that I can put

together? And so I, I put down some notes,

but, and, and I had a conversation with our 13 year

old and 15 year old grandchildren.

I didn't include Jewel that they were going to hear some things

that are going to be some dark moments in my life, but also in

the life of the Austins. And I want to say first and

foremost before I share that I speak from a place of victory.

So don't come up this morning say, oh, Terry, we're so sorry.

No, God has worked to good those things which the the enemy meant

to destroy and had used in generations to destroy families.

God has used it to where I can now testify.

And I have seen children in homes like what I experienced

who got hope that God could one, rescue them and redeem their

life from destruction and use them.

That when people talked about God having a purpose and a plan

for you, a future and a hope that it included them.

Even though many times sociologists and scientists and

folks say if you come from this kind of home, there's no hope.

And I traveled with a couple of other men in our church and we

discovered that all three of us came from similar broken

situations. But we're not broken anymore.

God has worked it to good because we now love him and

we're now called according to his purpose.

And like in Joseph's life, what the enemy meant for evil, God

used for good. And so we come from that place.

So I want you to know that. I want you to understand that.

And then I also want you to to hear this verse.

It says this is in heaven and John's there and he's receiving

this revelation. And in Revelation 12/10 and 11,

he says, then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven now

salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God, the power of

his Christ have come for the accuser of the brethren who

accused them before our God day and night has been cast down,

and they overcame by the blood of the Lamb.

Do you know you can go to a lot of churches?

And when they all came by the blood of Lamb.

Amen. Yes, yes.

Thank you for the blood, all the blood of the Lamb and the word.

The testimony. Yeah, we used to have testimony

nights, but we don't want to glorify the devil.

Remember, my testimony is not glorifying the devil.

I'm speaking from a position where the devil's been defeated.

So. But what it does say that my

testimony can do is help they overcome not just me, overcome

others who maybe need to be reminded and encouraged to what

God's done for them and what he will do for them.

It it it is a multiplication. It's a seed, that song that can

go for generations of setting people free when they hear the

testimony of one who has been rescued and redeemed from the

destruction that the that the enemy had reaped over

generations. And I keep using that word,

folks, because there's some generation stuff in the past,

Austins, that we don't see with the present generation and our

children and our children's children and their children.

May His favor be upon you to 1000 generations and your family

and your children and their children and their children.

It's awesome. I won't see 1000 generations

here, but you know what? I'm going to be waiting for him

in heaven and greeting them every how, every how long he

tarries. I'm just going to keep welcoming

Austin's and, and whatever name they take when they get married,

we're just going to keep welcoming them in.

So, so when I say the 1st 20 years, we're going to go a

couple years before I was born, my mom was one of three girls

and, and I want to share this just a little bit.

Her mother did not teach them how to cook.

My grandmother was an incredible cook, but she did not teach her

daughters to cook. And so you know what they

learned on their own, but they were never as good a cooks as

their mother. Also in my mother's house, I

never my grandparents. They helped raise my brother and

I and you'll understand why in just a few minutes.

But I never remember hearing a Bible verse.

I never remember there being a devotion time I never remember

talking about. And their last name was Brown.

And the Browns don't do that because God's Word says or the

Browns do this because God's word says.

There was a term that was used last week that that hit me when

I was looking at this. There were no gatekeepers in the

Browns. Well, on my dad's side of the

family, he didn't know his grandfather and his father had

served time in prison in the last five years of his father's

life. They didn't talk because the

only time my grandfather called my dad was when he was drunk and

it was the middle of the night. And dad said, why can't you ever

call me when you're sober and in a decent time a day?

And he said, don't worry, you'll never hear from me again.

And he didn't. Consequently, when my paternal

grandfather died, Dad was the only of his children.

They took any responsibility to go see what needed to be done.

And he asked if I would go. And so the first funeral that I

ever did was my paternal grandfather, and I had to ask

his name. I never remember meeting him,

though my older brother said that we did.

That was generational. My dad didn't know his

grandfather. I didn't know my grandfather.

I know my grandkids. The curse has been broken.

You got to laugh so you don't cry.

You also just want to look at the devil and say we stopped it.

So when my mom was 15 she found herself pregnant.

How many believe 15 is pretty young, especially if you have a

15 year old? And so it's like 1958, she's 15,

she's pregnant, my dad's 17, and they get married when she's 16.

She was about six weeks into her 16th year when they get married.

Dad's still 1720. Days after dad turned 18, he

became a father. So mom 16, Dad 18.

The only reason she got her high school diploma was because she

had three aunts that continued to teach her.

They were teachers and so they continued to teach her and she

got her high school diploma, not a GED, actually, her high school

diploma. My dad went into the Navy, I

think it was like 2 year mandatory service.

He went into the Navy and so mom's got this little baby and

her parents are helping raise this baby.

And then when she's 18, she has a second baby.

Me, Dad's 20. I'm born a few days before he's

discharged. So I'm a cheap baby.

My brother and I were cheap babies.

That's, that's the way the story was told to us.

We were cheap babies. That was the last time we were

told that we were cheap. From there on out, we just seem

to get more expensive. And so when my dad came out of

the Navy, somebody encouraged my dad.

And I want you to hear these two things that my dad was

encouraged in. Someone encouraged my dad.

And of course, he had the GI Bill to go to college.

And so my dad went to college. Now he's got two kids at home,

he goes to college and he takes three jobs.

But my dad excels in the field of education and in his early

30s gets his doctorate of education.

And when he retires from education, he's the associate

Superintendent of Guilford County Schools, which is one of

the largest school systems in North Carolina.

Very prestigious position. My dad was also encouraged while

he was in high school and in it from there on out to officiate

baseball, basketball, football, any sport that he could get paid

to be a referee. He did.

And again, in his young 30's, the ACC had a lot of guys

retiring, so they were looking for officials.

And my dad being encouraged and being mentored now and

officiating becomes AACC basketball and football

official, which we all know which was the more prestigious

position. But it was the NFL that very

quickly had a lot of guys retiring and needed some

officials. And so Dad, I think just barely

40 years old, is hired by the NFL and excels in the NFL and

does 26 years of officiating in the NFL and does 3 Super Bowls.

He's got the bling. It's called a ring.

They're whopping big. And so my dad is recognized in

airports and all kinds of places because he excelled in the two

areas where someone encouraged him and mentored him.

No one encouraged or taught my dad how to be a father.

No one encouraged or taught my mom how to be a mom.

And what's sad is, do you know that's true of a lot of people?

And we may bash the mom and the dad, but really, it's kind of

like, so you taught him how to succeed and work, but you

weren't interested in his soul. But see that responsibility is

not given to the field of education or the field of

officiating, though you would hope that there would be people

in those fields who are letting their light shine.

So last week when Pastor Ty was encouraging us to be gatekeepers

first for your family, mom and dads, don't just make sure your

kids get a good education so they can get a good job and they

can make good money and they can be successful according to what

the world calls success. But train a child up in the way

that they should go, that they should not depart from it.

Understand that you've been given the role in the to be a

gatekeeper of their life. So that when we had a child and

he wanted to do something stupid, we said no because

you're going to hear some of my testimony.

I know stupid and my parents practice some stupid and we got

some pretty bad results. But I didn't just say no in my

own wisdom, I had learned some things through some people who

let their light shine. So when I'm thirteen years old

and we're going to go quicker now, so when I'm thirteen years

old, I go to basketball camp at Campbell University.

I paid for half of it. My dad paid for the other half

because it was sports. He invested in sports.

Just telling it like it is. So, so I go to basketball camp

and and you know, it's fun. It's it's awesome.

You know, you're there with a bunch of 13 year olds and, and

you feel like you, you got no care in the world.

In the morning you get on a bus and you go play basketball.

In the afternoon you get on a bus, you go play basketball.

In the evening you get on a bus, you go play basketball.

It's awesome. And they got a ice cream machine

in the cafeteria and nobody's there to tell you you can't have

it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

It's pretty awesome. And I get home in Biltmore and

our house is empty. I should back up.

So when I was 10 years, seven years old, my parents got

divorced. At 10 years old, my dad moved

about four hours away to Greensboro.

And This is why I should look at my notes.

But then so when they got divorced, OK, I was 7.

So it's like 1968. And as far as I can remember, I

was the only person I knew whose parents were divorced.

There was a stigma. And people said, your parents

are going to go to court and they're going to fight and

you're going to have to decide who you're going to live with.

And, you know, they just, and my dad taught in the elementary

school I was going to. So everybody knew our business.

So at 10 he moves. At 13, I come home from

basketball camp and the house is empty.

I later found out we were skipping town.

We moved in with my aunt and two cousins.

So there's my mother, my older brother and myself, and then my

aunt and our two older cousins. They were older than my brother

and they were very rich. They had 16 acres, 6 bedrooms, 4

bath, swimming pool, movie stars.

Beverly Hills, actually Flowery Branch, GA Chestnut Mountain.

The mailing address was Flowery Branch.

You heard of either one? Falcons fans.

They are now in Flowery Branch. But we moved there because she

had become a a widow and she had space and she was going to take

care of her younger sister. But that home was empty and void

of any light. It was even darker than what we

had known at 13. What little bit of a gatekeeper

there may have been, there was none.

When I was 13, I don't know that anybody cared where I was or

what I was doing. See, where there are no

gatekeepers, darkness invades. I want you to remember that

because, you know, sometimes we'll hear a message, you know,

that's really good. You know, like pastor teach on.

He taught on being gatekeepers and, and it can just go off of

our back and we just don't really capture the significance

and the importance of it because it was an Old Testament story

and we don't have gates. You go to is it foxtail coffee?

I, I went there Friday and there was a bunch of people, some of

them work for the town of Apex. They were having like their

staff meeting at the coffee shop.

I'm like this, this is like a gate where people go in and out.

We used to have business card meet the pastors at Starbucks.

Sorry, OK, it was before they went off the deep end.

But but we used to meet the pastors at Starbucks Wednesday

night at 7:00. That was our Wednesday night

church service. That was our initial point,

where people could get to know us.

But where there are no gatekeepers, darkness invades.

So now being left to being raised by two, no, no

boundaries. You know 16 and 18 year old

cousins when I say no, no boundaries, they knew no

boundaries. One of the cousins took me to

middle school to register because we had moved to their

house. My mom got a job, she didn't

take me to the school and and they had this application and

I'm trying to fill it out. And they said, what do you want

to do after after high school? And I put I want to go to

COLLEDGE. Anybody know what that spells?

Anybody know what it doesn't spell?

So guess who got put in all remedial classes?

And the problem was this. Midway through, they realized I

couldn't spell, but I was really good at a lot of the other

stuff. But it was too late and I had to

play catch up all through high school that that's one of the

areas. So that's an area where you can

say, oh, wow. I mean, you know, they didn't

even take him to sign him up for school, didn't bring his

records, No, but that's nothing compared to didn't raise him in

the admonition of the Lord, didn't use the word of God to

train him up. Didn't point him towards Jesus

as being savior, healer, baptized with the Holy Spirit

and coming King as some people heard in the pathways class.

Didn't nurture their spirit, didn't create boundaries.

See, that's what gatekeepers do. And where there are no

gatekeepers, darkness invades. And so when I'm 16, my mom gets

remarried to a guy 20 years older than her.

At least when she wasn't around, it didn't really impact me

negatively. You know, as far as an

independent 13 year old would feel.

But now I had to go live in the house with this stranger and my

mom and go to a different high school than what I had finally

gotten grounded in. And I, and I understand the

challenge now that this man faced a little bit more than I

did back then. About two months into their

marriage, my mother was diagnosed with cancer.

My brother's in the Navy. I'm living in a house with a

stranger, though I had a bedroom at my aunt's house and spent

more time there probably than in my mother's house.

But I watched my mother begin to deteriorate.

It gets better people, it does, but part of it.

I said share your testimony of the 1st 20 years because those

of you that are regular here, you see the fruit of what God

overcame. He done good.

Just to show you I finally got the English class down.

You know he, he done good again. If we don't laugh, we'll cry.

After my junior year, for whatever crazy reason, it was

like why don't you go live with your dad for the summer so you

can get to know him. Well, I have a younger brother

that has a different mother and he lived with my dad and I found

out he didn't really see my dad any more than I did and they

lived in the same house because dad was a workaholic.

Because see, Jesus didn't break the cycle in his life.

So he wasn't an alcoholic, but he was a workaholic and he

excelled it. And he could use the excuse that

he was providing for family or who was doing this.

But if he had been trained to be a husband and trained to be a

father, he might have understood there's a little bit more

required than just bringing money home.

And dads, if you see yourselves in any of these pictures, just

take it that Jesus is saying today would be a good day to

make some adjustments. Moms, today would be a good day

to make some adjustments, but all of us who are believers in

Jesus Christ should hear the part that's coming up.

So while I'm at my dad's that summer before my it's actually

after my senior year in high school and it's before I go to

the University of Georgia, they diagnosed my mom with cancer

again, back then, they just kept taking parts.

And I didn't know what to do, so the main thing I did was just

not be around. So I go to the University of

Georgia my freshman year of college.

I'd already started junior college because I hated high

school and I got out early. But I go to the University of

Georgia. Oh, let me tell you something

that happened in the high school.

I got to tell you about a gatekeeper that at least in one

way help me, though not spiritually.

I had an English teacher, me and English.

There's something about it. I had to take at least I I

needed five more credits to graduate.

If you take any credits, you have to take an English.

So I'm my senior year, fall semester, high school, I go, I'm

taking English and I'm flunking it.

Halfway through the semester, I'm flunking the one class I

have to pass to get out of that stinking school.

And guess what? I'm flunking it.

And the English teacher knew my family.

She knew what was going on. She knew I didn't like the

school. I'm going to tell you a little

bit about the school. I had a lot of friends of

different shades than me, but the second high school I went

to, everybody was my shade or lighter and they did not like

anybody any darker than me and kicked in my car door because I

still had friends of different persuasions.

So there's a lot of reasons you wouldn't like it.

And so this English teacher, she says, Terry, I know what you're

going through at home. I know you don't like it at this

school, but I will not give you a passing grade.

You have to earn it. That's a gatekeeper.

That's like if somebody doesn't help this young man.

No, he must apply himself. Even in desperate or bad

situations. He may never learn that.

You have to. You have to push through.

I ended the class with ACI, made all A's after she told me that.

So the the capacity, the ability was there.

It just took somebody to draw it out.

So I go to the University of Georgia.

This man that I don't know, that's married to my mother

says, hey, I was a member of a fraternity.

You should join a fraternity. You can make friends.

Well, you can buy friends. And since he was paying, I

figured, OK. And then these friends, they

provide a lot of beverages now. All the homes I lived in, there

were beverages, but I never partook of them.

But all of a sudden I'm like, yeah, and, and, you know, if we

sit down at a restaurant, I'll drink a gallon of tea.

I'll drink 5 glasses of water. I'm going to, you know, I just

drink. Well, some drinks have a

different effect than other drinks.

And then I had a couple of friends from high school.

They like to partake too. And so I, I met some new

friends, not people, but products and, and I was quickly

becoming an alcoholic and alcohol had a depressing.

Do you know if your life's already messed up, you don't

need any help being depressed? And I was becoming very

depressed. Also during this time, my high

school sweetheart, I had a high school sweetheart.

We were on and off for three years.

You know, you just know you're going to get married.

You know, she's the one. Her parents went to church and

sometimes she went to church with them and it took them three

years to finally decide I was not good for their daughter.

Parents, open your eyes. You're the parent.

Guard the gate. Keep guys like me unsaved out.

So my freshman year college, she's told she can't see me

anymore. My mom is like really getting

bad and I'm getting really drunk and I'm getting really

depressed. I did some, you know, so there's

there's some signs when you realize that when it's 11:00 in

the morning and you're mixing, there's your sign.

When you wake up in the morning and you don't know how you got

home, put your cars out in the driveway, there's your sign.

When you wake up in the morning and you have your arms instead

of around a person porcelain, there's your sign.

And in all my brokenness, because now it was all

manifesting, there were two friends from high school.

Their maiden names were Kathy Bell and Donna Barrett.

And I do not know how the conversations came about.

I don't know who initiated them. I don't know how it just

happened, but one day they looked at me and they said,

Terry, we can't help you. You need Jesus.

Would you come to church? I had been to church.

I had been to their church. I never remember anybody telling

me, I'm 18 years old, broken, that I need Jesus.

Like there was something that he could do that nobody else could

do. There's there's a blurp on

Facebook. I can't remember if I shared it.

There's some things only Jesus can do.

And so I went to church. The very next time I went to

church, it was in an evening and there was a 16 year old young

man preaching a week long revival.

He had started when he was 12, sharing his testimony.

And I don't know how you get prepared to speak to all ages at

the age of 16. Bobby, you talked about somebody

finding their voice. This young man had found his

voice, and he's up there, and I have no clue what he said, but I

know what God said. I want you to do what he's

doing. And that night, I found this a

song. Later in life, Kathy Bell

married Steve Curse. Her name's Kathy Bell Curse.

They have a son named Adam Curse.

And I was at a men's retreat, and I heard this song.

And lo and behold, I'm like, I got to find out how to get this

song and I look and one of the four guys that wrote that song

is Adam Curse. I just like lone in my sorrow

and dead in my sin. That was the first line.

I'm like, that was that 18 year old and then it goes into it.

Then death was arrested and my life began.

See, not only was my mother dying, not only was I becoming

an alcoholic and depressed, I had a place picked out where if

I drove my car off the road between University of Georgia

and home, it could look like an accident and nobody would have

to feel like I took my life. But then Jesus arose and death

was arrested, and my life began. Oh, your grace so free washes

over me. You have made me new.

My life began with you. It's your endless love pouring

down on us. I heard that song and I was

like, death was arrested. That's exactly what happened.

But you know what? I'm convinced it never would

have happened because the Bible even says it.

How can they believe in whom they have not heard?

And how can they hear unless someone preach or share the

gospel? And how will somebody preach or

share the gospel if they're not sent?

You see, part of what we want to see happen at Arise Church, it's

not only that we make disciples, but that we make disciples that

make disciples, that we're equipped with the good news.

That takes salvation to people. That takes freedom to people.

That takes restoration to people.

That takes deliverance and hope to people, restoration to

people. That sees people filled with

life. It's not just so people can have

good jobs, a better community, no, people are dying and going

to hell, but people are. They're being destroyed.

Generations are being destroyed. And if nobody steps in, these,

these two girls were gatekeepers to their friends.

And this young man that was preaching, he was, he was like 5

foot 6 and a receiver on the football team.

I don't know how that works, but he did it.

But he was a better preacher. And by the time he was like 18,

he had 200 kids in a youth group.

A church let him open the church doors like on Thursday night and

do a Bible study when he was 16. Because somewhere there was

something called that. It's not just so that my life

gets fixed, that there's other people out there who need Jesus.

And if I don't have my eyes opened, I won't see them if I

don't take the responsibility as a gatekeeper.

So first and foremost, let me tell you, be the gatekeeper of

your heart, but be the gatekeeper of your family.

And if your family has been a mess, be the first one that

admits Jesus needs to fix this. Because I got saved when I got

married, I looked for somebody else who was saved.

What's interesting, in college, she had an encounter.

She's like, God, there's got to be more to it than this.

And he sent her me. No, first he first he said,

there is. Would you let me show you?

And all of a sudden, her eyes were opened up to these

Christians that were on the college campus and a revival was

breaking out and she just got pulled in.

She received baptism of Holy Spirit praying in tongues on a

sidewalk in inside outside of Cone Dorm and McReynolds Dorm at

UNCG. We got married, we had a baby.

We taught him Jesus. He's your pastor.

One time out in Anaheim, I had a picnic with our three grandkids.

I said I want to tell you all a story.

There was a little boy who grew up in a home and he didn't hear

about Jesus. They didn't tell him Jesus

stories and he didn't grow up knowing Jesus.

And things got really bad in his life and some friends told him

about Jesus and he said yes to following Jesus.

And then he was in college, he met this girl and she loved

Jesus and they got married and they had a baby and they taught

him to love Jesus. And then he found a young lady

that loved Jesus and they got married and they had three kids.

Here's the Austins. It's a lovely story once you get

past all the brokenness and shame 'cause God brought us a

new life. He brought it in Jesus name.

So I mean I practiced that for two seconds before I sang it.

But my older brother got saved. I got to lead him to the Lord

Beth and I've been married 42 years.

My older brother and his wife who were on a road to

destruction, but God redeemed them.

They've been married 47 years, Carolyn and Jerry y'all been

married 30 years. All of our children have said

yes to following Jesus and now our grandkids, though we're

waiting that Carolyn's my sister-in-law.

When she showed up, I'm like come here.

I got to tell you I'm going to be telling some stuff, but y'all

got to meet Caitlin first. See how did a 180 in the Austin

there's still way more room for the generation before us and

there's more room for us to grow in my generation, our

generation, but our kids and now our grandkids.

Oh, that seed multiplies. It's worth it's worth being the

one that says started with me. Jesus, thank God I had those two

friends, but also had an athletic director at UNCG who

had he was the college Sunday school teacher.

He invited us to his house on Friday nights.

He was a gatekeeper for college students, gave us a place to

fellowship around our common relationship with Jesus.

He didn't just always preach to us, He gave us a place to

fellowship around our relationship with Jesus.

And in one day when I don't have anywhere to sleep, I knock on

his door and for a month I sleep on his couch.

I'm about 20 years old. For a month.

They had just moved into the house.

There were still boxes and they had a brand new baby and a four

year old and they invited a 20 year old saved, just starting to

get discipled young man, into their home.

And you know what I got to see A husband who loved his wife and

who loved his children with the love of Jesus.

It wasn't by chance God ordained it, but somebody said yes.

Tony Ladd said yes. God later showed me that when I

was a kid, my parents divorced and I would cry on a woodpile

out in the woods, He says. I was there with you before you

ever knew me. I was there.

John Shuford, who would take you to ball games and and let you go

on family vacations and do all those things every once while

you'd go to church with them. That was me being a father to

the fatherless. So I, Terry, I knew you and your

mother's womb. We've had many of people stay in

our home, short periods, longer periods.

Well, when we pastored, Beth would usually come up and land a

plane. She's been doing a lot this

weekend. She didn't want to land the

plane. But I, I covered a lot of

different areas of life. Some of you may have just said,

I know he said that was the Austin's, but that sounded a

whole lot like the house that I grew up in.

If Jesus did that for him, will you do it for me?

The answer is yes. It starts by saying Jesus, I

need you. I can't fix this.

No man, no woman can fix it. I need you.

I ask you, Psalm one O 3 says bless the Lord, O my soul, bless

the Lord and forgetting out all of his benefits.

Who forgives all your iniquities?

Say, Jesus, I need you first because I recognize some of the

symptoms of brokenness that have manifested and it's led to sin

and I need your forgiveness. And he says forgives all your

iniquities. Whoever calls on the name of the

Lord shall be saved. That's right before how can they

believe in him who they've not heard, but now you've heard and

you're like Jesus, honey, some are like what?

What happened to your mom? What happened to your mom?

She she died the day before I turned 19.

I didn't know Jesus's healer. In the 1990s, there were two

ladies in our church that were diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

Given months to live, they're both still alive.

We got to be a part of a church that says, I'll say the first

name of one of them, Rosa the healed.

You know the old screensaver, they said Rosa the hill, Rosa

the hill. All the members of the church

just kept walking around. Rose of the hill, Rose of the

hill, Sandy the hill, Sandy the hill just shall live and not

die. And they're still alive.

And some people need to know that Jesus still heals today.

It's in his word and I've experienced it in different

areas of my life. And then it says, who redeems

your life from destruction? I shared a little bit of

destruction with you. I have a picture of my dad, my

son Ty, well myself, my son Ty, and my 3 grandkids. 4

generations of Austin's. I don't have a picture except

for my brother's wedding of my mother and I or my dad and I.

What's funny is the one picture I have with my parents is at a

wedding where they're not married.

It's a little bit before my mom passed away, but I got a picture

of four generations of Austin's and it got better with each

generation. I hope my grandkids say it's

better. So some of you may be there,

some of you may be an adult man my age or close and you see

things going on in your kids lives that you know where the

seed came from and you need to find a way first confess to the

Lord and he forgives your sins, cleanses you of all

unrighteousness. But you need need to find a way

to talk to your kids and say, I'm sorry for the destruction

that I entered that I introduced to your life.

I'm sorry for the sin that I introduced to your life.

I'm sorry for the brokenness that I brought into our family.

I can be hard. That's probably like it would be

good for you to start. Terry, What you have something

you'd like to say? I don't know.

Well, let me wrap up with this. Red letters.

There is truth in the red letter.

So what all of us who are followers of Jesus can do you

say, Lord, open my eyes to see the broken around me that need

somebody that will help people know they need Jesus in a very

loving and compassionate way that will bring them out of the

darkness into His marvelous light.

I think I've heard something about that.

What's to say of rise, shine? Your light has come, and the

glory of the Lord is risen upon you.

For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth.

Deep darkness, the people don't forget it's not just darkness

Covering dirt covers the people. Where there's no gatekeepers,

darkness invades. But the Lord will arouse over

you, Kathy and Donna, and his glory shall be seen upon you,

and Taria, unbeliever will be drawn to you.

Not quite the way it's written in there, but that's the way it

happens. When we start shining the light

of Jesus, people will be drawn who need him, and they may be in

deep darkness and we may or may not know it.

Father, I thank you. You found this little boy who

was crying and not knowing who he was crying out to, who was

broken and didn't know that there was really as much

brokenness there as there was. And even a decade and years

before he would recognize your voice.

You were showing glimpses of your love and glimpses of your

hope that when his eyes were open, when my eyes were opened,

death was arrested and life began.

Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your goodness.

Thank you for your mercy. But Lord, I also thank you for

laborers. I thank you for a room full of

laborers who will arise and shine, acknowledging that their

light is coming, your glory is risen over them, and that they

have something others need. They know someone that others

need. I thank you in Jesus name, Amen.

We want to thank you again for joining us for the Arise Church

podcast. We hope you were encouraged by

what you heard today. You can find

[email protected] and on Instagram at Arise Church NC.

If you need prayer or support or are interested in learning more

about Arise Church, we encourage you to connect with us online or

in person at our Sunday morning service.

Thank you and God bless. I'm not.