Episode #7 Nobody Told Me THIS About Following Jesus… | The Truth Every New Believer Needs To Hear

0:00 SPEAKER_01: Like like the woman who had the the issue with blood for 12 years.

0:03 SPEAKER_01: Just grab the hem of his garment and just have enough faith in him.

0:07 SPEAKER_01: It took only a second.

0:15 SPEAKER_01: What's up, guys?

0:16 SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to another episode of Call and Running.

0:18 SPEAKER_01: Uh my name is Jonah Rowland.

0:19 SPEAKER_01: I'm here with uh my brother, Uncle Cody, Dakota Christopher.

0:23 SPEAKER_01: Um it's good to be back.

0:25 SPEAKER_01: Dude, this is uh this is weird.

0:26 SPEAKER_01: We haven't seen each other in like two weeks.

0:30 SPEAKER_01: When do you think?

0:31 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, actually two weeks, really.

0:33 SPEAKER_00: Because we didn't see each other at church that weekend in between, did we?

0:37 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, not at all.

0:38 SPEAKER_01: Because I uh for those that don't know, I've been down in Savannah the last two weeks uh on a on a work trip.

0:43 SPEAKER_01: And man, I was going crazy in that hotel room just sitting there by myself, and and um but uh it was a great opportunity for me to get in the word and just be alone with him.

0:54 SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah, I was I was thinking about that going into this episode.

0:59 SPEAKER_01: Like, dang, we haven't seen each other in in two weeks, and I think that's the longest we've ever been without seeing each other since we met.

1:07 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.

1:08 SPEAKER_00: Um, I mean, just for those that don't know, um, like Jonah and I see each other minimum, like three times a week.

1:16 SPEAKER_00: So uh yeah, it's it's it's definitely been weird without them, you know.

1:21 SPEAKER_00: Uh it'd been weird without you.

1:23 SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah.

1:24 SPEAKER_00: Um it's been kind of like one of those things where like uh everybody's asking about you at students and you know, like when you're gonna be back, and I'm like, well, uh, yeah, he's in Savannah.

1:35 SPEAKER_00: It's okay though.

1:36 SPEAKER_00: He's gonna be he's gonna be back, you know.

1:38 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh but it it crushed me having to leave, and especially with the well, with my kids, man, the sixth grade boys I got.

1:47 SPEAKER_00: Um it just it didn't sit right being away from the dude.

1:50 SPEAKER_00: Color wars was insane.

1:52 SPEAKER_00: Um, you probably would have lost your absolute mind.

1:56 SPEAKER_00: Because I know we all were.

1:57 SPEAKER_00: It was it was insane.

1:59 SPEAKER_00: Those kids were like, uh man, uh it looked like they were all hopped up on Red Bulls and and sugar, dude.

2:06 SPEAKER_00: Like there was no controlling them with the with the powder.

2:10 SPEAKER_00: But it was a lot of fun.

2:11 SPEAKER_00: It was it was kind of interesting to see everybody coming up with a face full of colored cornstarch.

2:17 SPEAKER_00: It was interesting.

2:18 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I saw the pictures, it looked uh really crazy.

2:21 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but um yeah, let's get going.

2:25 SPEAKER_01: So uh so today we want to kind of talk about um really a couple things I had on my mind and kind of a uh topic I shot at you last night, um, was just on my heart.

2:35 SPEAKER_01: I was really struggling to find something to just a topic to land on for this week, but I I was kind of I'm it's still really fresh in my mind, like a quip that we had a couple weeks ago, uh, which was a young adult thing, and and like I like I've been saying, like it rearranged something in both uh well myself and many, many other young adult souls.

2:58 SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people are uh among that crowd, and they're just like, hey bro, I'm like I'm I'm a newer believer, not sure what to do here, or maybe you're a more mature believer, and and you want to best cater the times that we're in, because me and you can both testify and as well as many others that what's going on around us is not normal, and we're literally living in a hurricane of grace right now where God is pouring out his favor amongst uh our nation and um and all especially within our young adults, I'm just seeing a fire that I've never seen before, and it's uh blessing to be a part of that, and people need to know how to steward that in a proper way.

3:38 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

3:39 SPEAKER_01: So I think that's something that we need to discuss as well.

3:42 SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, absolutely.

3:44 SPEAKER_01: But yeah, uh what were some what were some mistakes that you might have made when you first started walking with the Lord that you would kind of maybe uh advise some or some newer believers against.

4:03 SPEAKER_00: Um stop I think the biggest thing that I struggled with um was trying to control things that I was never meant to be in control of, number one, um, such as uh somebody else's salvation, somebody else's faith.

4:20 SPEAKER_00: Um I struggled with that really hard.

4:22 SPEAKER_00: Like, especially when I was like first on fire for the Lord, I was just like gun-ho about it so much so that I was like doing too much.

4:31 SPEAKER_00: And it people that I was trying to give the good news to would eventu would initially just kind of be like, hey, like that, like I'm not there, like you know, and instead of going, okay, tell me why, you know, or what in a in a kind, loving way, it was more like, well, what do you mean?

4:50 SPEAKER_00: Like, like look at the sky right now.

4:52 SPEAKER_00: Look at like, what do you mean like you're not there?

4:55 SPEAKER_00: You know?

4:56 SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I I found myself doing the exact opposite of what I was trying to do because I was in the way, you know, and I I wasn't I wasn't leading with my story and and praying over them or praying for them or whatever and letting God work from there.

5:12 SPEAKER_00: I was trying to play God in the moment, I think.

5:15 SPEAKER_00: Uh at least that's what my flesh was trying to make me do, um, out of excitement.

5:19 SPEAKER_00: It wasn't out of you know bad intentions, but I think when we're when we're young in our faith, um again, we we're in the way.

5:29 SPEAKER_00: We're we're trying to like uh subconsciously play God in that moment because you want to like you're so worried about trying to reach that person.

5:38 SPEAKER_00: You're so worried about them getting to uh experience what you're experiencing in that moment that you forgot that you were them once.

5:45 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you know, like you and I both, you know, struggled with you know, in our high school days of like um uh persecuting those who were following Jesus, you know, like you know, Bible thumper, you know, get out of my way.

6:00 SPEAKER_00: I don't want to hear that crap, you know.

6:01 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

6:02 SPEAKER_00: Um, we were once there, you know, and I think um when you're new in your faith, young in your faith, you forget that you were once in that person's seat and you and you forget what it felt like to hear the word, you know, and the enemy hates us hearing the word.

6:18 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

6:18 SPEAKER_00: Um, and so, you know, sometimes we have to meet that person where they're at, meet them with grace, and just kind of be like, hey, you know, I love you.

6:27 SPEAKER_00: How can I pray for you?

6:29 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, and if they don't receive that, that's fine.

6:31 SPEAKER_00: If they walk away from you, just go find a quiet place and be Lord.

6:35 SPEAKER_00: I just, you know, um, I need to pray for this person.

6:38 SPEAKER_00: You know, I need you to have a radical encounter with them, you know.

6:41 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

6:41 SPEAKER_01: Um, I think I think where a lot of people can go wrong with that.

6:44 SPEAKER_01: And this is some something that I especially went wrong at when I first came to the Lord.

6:49 SPEAKER_01: Um, I was just so on fire and had, I mean, just honestly, little understanding of scripture.

6:56 SPEAKER_01: And I just wanted people to feel like I felt.

6:58 SPEAKER_01: And I wanted people to know the Jesus that I had this radical encounter with.

7:02 SPEAKER_01: And I would just go around and just say, hey, bro, can't do that.

7:05 SPEAKER_01: Can't say that.

7:07 SPEAKER_01: It's probably not best that you're living like that.

7:09 SPEAKER_01: And what I have failed to do is just show people Jesus.

7:12 SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of times people just, especially when witnessing, they'll try to like just shove a 20-ounce steak right down that person's throat.

7:20 SPEAKER_01: And man, that just don't work.

7:22 SPEAKER_01: They're just over there, they're they're choking, they can't breathe.

7:24 SPEAKER_01: Like we've got to take baby steps here.

7:26 SPEAKER_01: And uh Josh Howardson, pastor, I uh I I love his stuff.

7:32 SPEAKER_01: I listen to his stuff all the time.

7:33 SPEAKER_01: It's so encouraging.

7:34 SPEAKER_01: Um I I saw him use this sermon illustration that was extremely helpful with witnessing.

7:41 SPEAKER_01: And it was pretty much like, hey, like a person's either uh and in their relation to um giving their life to Jesus, they're either at like a negative 10 or they're at like a zero.

7:53 SPEAKER_01: Um sometimes, like when you're talking to a person, you might bring them from a negative 10 to a negative eight.

7:59 SPEAKER_01: And you might just make this person like, okay, oh may maybe maybe Christianity is not all that bad.

8:05 SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm still out on it, but now I've got a new perspective on it.

8:09 SPEAKER_01: And sometimes that's all it is.

8:10 SPEAKER_01: Like you'll just bring them from one spot to the next, just a little bit closer.

8:14 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you don't have to close the deal, yep, when you're witnessing to somebody for the first time.

8:20 SPEAKER_01: Your job is just to plant the seed and pray that it uh falls on fertile ground.

8:24 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and well, ultimately closing the deal is not even our job, anyways.

8:28 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, like that's closing the deal is Jesus.

8:31 SPEAKER_00: You know, that that encounter that they have with him is when the the deal is signed, you know.

8:37 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

8:39 SPEAKER_01: Um, I think uh really one of the most practical uh witnessing things that that people just they have to do.

8:47 SPEAKER_01: You've got to move past um a surface level relationship.

8:50 SPEAKER_01: It's more it's gotta be more than, hey bro, how you doing?

8:53 SPEAKER_01: Doing good.

8:54 SPEAKER_01: And then that's the end of it.

8:55 SPEAKER_01: Like get to know this person.

8:56 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

8:57 SPEAKER_01: Like, okay, what what makes what makes everything good?

9:00 SPEAKER_01: If you say it's good, what makes it good?

9:01 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

9:02 SPEAKER_01: What is good?

9:02 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what is good.

9:03 SPEAKER_01: And just get to know this person like a real way.

9:06 SPEAKER_01: We we've gotten so comfortable with surface level interactions in today's society, like, hey, I'm doing good.

9:14 SPEAKER_01: And like, no, you're not.

9:14 SPEAKER_01: Stop lying, you're not good.

9:16 SPEAKER_01: Um, tell us how you really feel.

9:18 SPEAKER_01: And for us as believers, and especially somebody trying to evangelize and and get other people to know Jesus, um, you've got to make intentional steps to move past that surface level interaction.

9:32 SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes when you get past that, you'll kind of understand uh the stuff in this person's life that makes it maybe not so good.

9:40 SPEAKER_01: Because everybody's got something.

9:42 SPEAKER_01: There's always something that they're going through and they need help with.

9:46 SPEAKER_01: And a lot of times people just don't know the answer.

9:48 SPEAKER_01: So that's when that's that's when you can step in when that person starts opening up to you after you've moved past that, like I said, surface level thing, and and be like, okay, well, can I pray for you?

10:01 SPEAKER_01: Or maybe you've been through something similar yourself, and you can just say, Hey, here's what Jesus did for me.

10:08 SPEAKER_01: And just just be just just be gentle with it.

10:11 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

10:12 SPEAKER_01: And don't just shove a bunch of theology down their throat because they're not gonna understand it.

10:16 SPEAKER_01: That's first Corinthians three, I believe.

10:20 SPEAKER_01: Uh Paul tells the Corinthian church, first I fed you with with milk, and now I'm like trying to give you real food, but or you weren't ready for the real food yet.

10:28 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like, hey, we gotta we we gotta breastfeed here for a minute, yeah, and just get a little bit of of the booby milk.

10:35 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.

10:37 SPEAKER_01: But uh, but yeah, yeah, I think that's good, man.

10:40 SPEAKER_01: Um I would say another thing that I also struggle with, which I'm sure you did too, uh, was just kind of being overwhelmed with with with scripture, knowing where to start.

10:53 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

10:54 SPEAKER_01: Um, would you have any advice to maybe the newer believer who's looking at this?

10:58 SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's 66 books.

10:59 SPEAKER_01: Where do I start?

11:00 SPEAKER_01: How do I understand this thing in the best way?

11:03 SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, man.

11:04 SPEAKER_00: I mean, honestly, uh, I just say it like I've always been told starting the gospels.

11:09 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

11:10 SPEAKER_00: Um, because the old testament is great.

11:16 SPEAKER_00: Um, but as a new believer, it's it can be, like you said, a little overwhelming, you know.

11:21 SPEAKER_00: Um, getting into Genesis and figuring out genealogy, you know, you're you're sit like you get kind of tongue-tied and your eyes get googly because you're you're reading literally genealogy from Adam and Eve until hundreds of years later, you know, and you're learning all these names and they're hard to pronounce and they're hard to say, and then you kind of just get, you know, holy crap, what is this?

11:43 SPEAKER_00: You know, um, I found, you know, I love reading the gospels.

11:47 SPEAKER_00: I read them all, like I constantly start them over and read through them because they're so cool, right?

11:54 SPEAKER_00: You know, um getting to hear and visualize what Jesus went through, what his words were, what um, you know, his guidance, um, his seeing his mission unfold through each book and and watching how they all correlate.

12:13 SPEAKER_00: There's differences between each book a little on certain things that happened, but it's all the same idea.

12:19 SPEAKER_00: It's all you can tell that it's all fluid.

12:21 SPEAKER_00: Everybody was seeing the same thing, experiencing the same thing, um, and you just you learn the fluidity of it.

12:27 SPEAKER_00: You you you really just find the evidence that you need um through the Gospels.

12:33 SPEAKER_00: Um and it just gives you that that fire and that hunger and that desire.

12:37 SPEAKER_00: And when you when you get through the Gospels, maybe you read it once or twice.

12:41 SPEAKER_00: Um, but once you do that, then you can go into the the Old Testament and really deep dive into that and study into that, and you get a you gain a whole different perspective, right?

12:52 SPEAKER_00: Um when you're going through the Old Testament after the New Testament, you start picking out where they're talking about Jesus because you can recognize from the Gospels, like, oh holy crap, they were they were talking like this this happened.

13:07 SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, the evidence is already there.

13:09 SPEAKER_00: You've seen where this happened and you can correlate the two.

13:12 SPEAKER_00: Whereas when you when you read the Old Testament first and then go into the New Testament, you miss that.

13:19 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.

13:21 SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think where I definitely went wrong.

13:23 SPEAKER_01: Um, I start so uh the way I went about it when I first became a Christian, like I just went to Genesis, and that's that's really the the first place that I knew to go.

13:31 SPEAKER_01: Like, okay, let's start on page one and let's get to the book.

13:34 SPEAKER_00: That's what society teaches us, right?

13:36 SPEAKER_00: Society teaches us start at page one and read to page thousand, and and like that's what school teaches us.

13:42 SPEAKER_00: We start at the beginning of the book, and you know.

13:45 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

13:45 SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, so I started in Genesis and I read all the way to Revelation, and it w it was weird when I got to the gospels because I'm learning about uh the I'm learning about Jesus now, and I mean I've of course heard about him at church and all that, and it was just it was it it no wonder to me.

14:05 SPEAKER_01: I had kind of a lot of times in the Old Testament when I was reading, I just didn't understand something.

14:10 SPEAKER_01: It's like okay, it's because I didn't understand who Jesus was.

14:14 SPEAKER_01: And I mean, ultimately, all of scripture points to him.

14:19 SPEAKER_01: So it's hard to have a good understanding of the Old Testament until you have a good understanding of the New Testament.

14:27 SPEAKER_01: So when you go back and and try to learn about, okay, why did why did Jesus need to come in the first place?

14:34 SPEAKER_01: It's hard to understand that if you don't even know who Jesus is.

14:38 SPEAKER_01: So let's go to the Gospels and get that get that solid foundation.

14:42 SPEAKER_01: Um, let's get that concrete poured and let's get it hardened first.

14:45 SPEAKER_01: Let's get a good understanding of the gospels, know it like the back of your hand, and uh even get into Paul's writings too.

14:53 SPEAKER_01: Um I think Romans is a great place to go too.

14:56 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Romans is where it's at.

14:58 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

14:58 SPEAKER_00: I love the book of Romans.

14:59 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Romans is is great.

15:01 SPEAKER_00: And I really like what cr Bryce Crawford's done with Proverbs, too.

15:06 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Proverbs is is like reading a proverb a day and and really studying and and and um uh stirring on you know a proverb a day and just like really gaining an understanding for each one uh intentionally as they go.

15:21 SPEAKER_00: Um I like that idea.

15:23 SPEAKER_00: I actually know a few people that are doing that.

15:25 SPEAKER_00: And it's uh it's kind of cool because I'm getting to watch them grow uh through that, and I'm excited for them to get into the gospels.

15:35 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

15:35 SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I I think that's great too.

15:38 SPEAKER_01: Definitely.

15:39 SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I know some people will just mix in a proverb every morning, and that's um nothing wrong with that at all.

15:46 SPEAKER_01: I think that's a great tactic to do.

15:48 SPEAKER_01: Um really encourage that.

15:50 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

15:50 SPEAKER_01: Um, what would you kind of say to the person who's who's going over maybe the newer believer who's going over scripture and they come across something that maybe just doesn't sit right with them?

16:03 SPEAKER_01: Maybe they they they just don't have a a good understanding or they're they've got maybe like a real emotion based on wrong thinking, like they think scripture is saying this, but it's actually not.

16:13 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

16:13 SPEAKER_01: Um, what would you say to that person?

16:16 SPEAKER_00: Man, um first off, uh, it's like we we've spoken about in previous episodes, man.

16:23 SPEAKER_00: You gotta have community.

16:24 SPEAKER_00: Yes.

16:25 SPEAKER_00: Um, you've you've got to have other godly men around you.

16:29 SPEAKER_00: You have to have a godly man around you that is older and and a little wiser than you, and you have to seek wise counsel on things.

16:38 SPEAKER_00: If you if you don't understand it, if you're reading it over and over again and it doesn't make sense, you have to seek wise counsel.

16:46 SPEAKER_00: There, there is always somebody out there that has been there, done that, and and maybe even thought the same thing on the same scripture that you're questioning, and they can pour into you a little bit and help you understand it.

16:57 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

16:58 SPEAKER_00: Um, and man, like really, I encourage a lot of people to seek out your pastor.

17:04 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

17:04 SPEAKER_00: Um, it is totally a lot of like, um, just for example, you know, we we've we've got a guy in our group that um had this wrong idea of like, oh well, you know, I'm a believer now, so you know, my pastor's time should be more well spent with somebody who's who's doesn't know Jesus or whatever, and you get the wrong idea.

17:26 SPEAKER_00: Like, no, like that is what that man is there for.

17:29 SPEAKER_00: You you are a part of his flock.

17:32 SPEAKER_00: So if you have a good, godly pastor that's preaching straight from the book that that really truly loves the Lord and is following what his calling is to a T, he would love to spend that moment with you.

17:45 SPEAKER_00: He would welcome you to come with a question.

17:48 SPEAKER_00: And I encourage people that are listening, seek out your pastor.

17:53 SPEAKER_00: If you don't, if you're not a part of a community yet, you haven't found good godly men around you yet.

17:59 SPEAKER_00: If you have that pastor, go to him and say, Hey, look, man, I don't understand this.

18:05 SPEAKER_00: Do you have a minute to explain it to me?

18:07 SPEAKER_00: Do you have a minute to break it down to me to where it makes sense?

18:10 SPEAKER_00: And you might walk away and it may not make sense yet, and that's okay.

18:13 SPEAKER_00: Go home and pray about it.

18:15 SPEAKER_00: You know, go home and and just ask the Lord to take what you just heard from your pastor or from your wise counsel and and and and help it make sense.

18:25 SPEAKER_00: Um that's that's first things first.

18:28 SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, secondly, um, I would really challenge you to look inward at your heart posture when you're trying to read um these things too.

18:38 SPEAKER_00: Um, make sure that you're going into it with an open mind and an understanding that you're not always going to know.

18:46 SPEAKER_00: It's not always going to make sense, and that is okay.

18:50 SPEAKER_00: Like scripture tells us that our human brains are not meant nor are they wired to understand everything in this book.

18:59 SPEAKER_00: Because if we if we did truly understand it and it truly all made sense, like would we need Jesus, right?

19:07 SPEAKER_00: Would we need God, right, to come in and and help us, you know?

19:11 SPEAKER_00: Because if we were just made to figure everything out and understand all things, like then we would be able to read this book from from cover to cover and be able to go, okay, I got it figured out.

19:22 SPEAKER_00: I'm you know, I I know Jesus, I I don't I don't need this thing, you know.

19:25 SPEAKER_00: Yeah but there there's we're gonna be 85, 90 years old, hopefully one day and still not have it all figured out.

19:32 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

19:32 SPEAKER_00: And that's okay.

19:34 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I knew people in my life um who were like around that age and they've been studying the Bible for six or seven decades, and they're still figuring things out like every day.

19:47 SPEAKER_01: And I mean, that's that's something that that we need to be careful uh to not get to.

19:53 SPEAKER_01: Like we need we cannot get comfortable with with being okay with I guess what I'm trying to say is you can't get to the point where you think you know everything because you don't.

20:01 SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

20:02 SPEAKER_01: There is so much in scripture and God's word will always speak to us.

20:07 SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah, I think community is is definitely big.

20:10 SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of men fall short in that area where they get to the point where they're like, well, I mean, I'm a man, I'll I'll do it myself, and I'm gonna beat my chest like a grill, I'll figure it out, do it myself.

20:21 SPEAKER_01: But that's that's the gospel, amen.

20:23 SPEAKER_01: Uh, you just you don't have it.

20:25 SPEAKER_01: You don't got it by yourself.

20:26 SPEAKER_01: You we need each other.

20:28 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

20:28 SPEAKER_01: And we talked about in the I believe it was the Stanford Mac Like Men episode, uh kind of like the Mat Carriers.

20:36 SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.

20:37 SPEAKER_01: You need to have the uh that person when you're broken, you're bruised, you're down, you're beat up, they're gonna take you to the feet of Jesus.

20:43 SPEAKER_01: And scripture says that it was the faith of the friends that that healed the man.

20:48 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it had nothing to do with the man.

20:50 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

20:51 SPEAKER_00: It it was the fact that those people had enough faith to bring him to him and face the persecution and the questioning that they were going to face afterwards.

21:01 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

21:01 SPEAKER_00: You know, and that's what Jesus saw.

21:03 SPEAKER_00: You know, uh you even see it with the Roman soldier that came to Jesus asking for him to heal his son.

21:10 SPEAKER_00: You know, um we're talking about a Roman, someone who kills and persecutes Jews and um and was just not welcomed at all in the faith and um in people's homes even, you know, and uh he was welcomed into you know Peter's home and and he just had enough faith just from what he had seen, what he had witnessed, um, that Jesus could heal his son from afar.

21:40 SPEAKER_00: You know, like he he knew that if he were to bring Jesus to his home, it would not be good for him.

21:45 SPEAKER_00: You know, bringing him to like a Roman home would not be good for him for the people that live around him, for the other Romans, for all the things.

21:54 SPEAKER_00: And he knew that Jesus could do it from afar.

21:57 SPEAKER_00: And that faith alone.

22:00 SPEAKER_00: Jesus was like, go home, he is healed.

22:02 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

22:02 SPEAKER_01: He said, In all Israel I have not found such faith.

22:06 SPEAKER_01: That's that's an that's really encouraging.

22:08 SPEAKER_00: He looked at all the disciples and was like, All of you men have been following me for how long?

22:14 SPEAKER_00: And this man has shown more faith in just a couple of minutes than you guys have in the entire time that we have spent together.

22:22 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

22:23 SPEAKER_01: You know?

22:24 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, dude, that that even reminds me, speaking of the disciples, like when they were on the Sea of Galilee and there's this there there's this big storm that's coming over them, and they forget that that Jesus said, Hey, like we are going to go to the other side of the sea before they even went.

22:39 SPEAKER_01: So the Lord has said, We are this is something that we are doing.

22:43 SPEAKER_01: And and he's in the boat.

22:49 SPEAKER_01: While the disciples are freaking out.

22:51 SPEAKER_01: Yep.

22:51 SPEAKER_01: And he and he's like, Hey, you have little faith.

22:55 SPEAKER_01: Like, did you not you just forget what I said before we left and got on this boat?

23:01 SPEAKER_01: I said we're going to go to the other side.

23:03 SPEAKER_01: Did you just forget when I fed the 5,000 right before we got on this boat?

23:08 SPEAKER_01: Did you forget when I did all this other stuff that you personally witnessed?

23:13 SPEAKER_01: And he said, Oh, you have little faith.

23:16 SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah.

23:18 SPEAKER_00: And all he's got to do, all he's got to do is speak.

23:20 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, all he does.

23:21 SPEAKER_00: All he's gotta do is speak and everything calms.

23:23 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

23:24 SPEAKER_00: It's like mic drop.

23:27 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

23:28 SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm kind of shooting myself here.

23:31 SPEAKER_01: I we call it stories.

23:32 SPEAKER_01: It's not stories, it's something that really happened.

23:34 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

23:35 SPEAKER_01: And if it's if it's written on the pages that we have in front of us, it's something that really happened.

23:40 SPEAKER_01: Um I think uh kind of taking this different direction.

23:45 SPEAKER_01: Just an example that I had coming across, like when I was a new believer, coming across scripture that maybe I didn't understand.

23:53 SPEAKER_01: Um I think a big one that hung me up was bond servants obey your masters.

23:58 SPEAKER_01: And uh I think that's a really popular argument thrown again against Christians.

24:05 SPEAKER_01: And um but can can I address that real quick?

24:08 SPEAKER_01: Uh just kind of first of all, no, scripture does not uh permit slavery of of any sorts.

24:16 SPEAKER_01: Um what so so basically what what what's going on here in that cultural context, um slavery is not the same thing as as we as we know it today in America.

24:28 SPEAKER_01: Like we'll see that and then our minds will go to okay, American slavery, but no, that's not at all what had happened.

24:34 SPEAKER_01: We're not talking about the 60s here.

24:36 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's not what we're talking about.

24:38 SPEAKER_01: And I've I've had that argument thrown against me, and basically what's going on here uh when you look at the cultural context is you have to um uh well what what it's called is it's indentured servitude.

24:51 SPEAKER_01: So what that is is somebody owes a debt to somebody, but they're choosing to pay it off with their labor because they cannot pay it with uh with money.

25:00 SPEAKER_01: And it was actually a very common thing in uh uh in in ancient Rome for somebody to willingly put themselves under that authority to have a bond servant and and work for them, because that person would often provide them with uh with with shelter, they would provide them with with food, they would provide them with the things that they would need to to support and sustain their family.

25:25 SPEAKER_01: That was a very common thing that would happen back then because you gotta remember too, like they were under extremely heavy taxation, like almost like like cruel and inhumane taxation.

25:36 SPEAKER_01: So a lot of people were in that position where they could not afford to to get by.

25:42 SPEAKER_01: So that's something that that would happen all the time.

25:45 SPEAKER_01: And that's what that that scripture was talking about.

25:48 SPEAKER_01: And in my mind, would like I had mentioned, like, develop a uh like wrong emo uh uh like a real emotion.

25:58 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like I would have like real feelings about this, and like, okay, I don't agree with that.

26:03 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but it was based on wrong thinking.

26:05 SPEAKER_01: So I what I have failed to do was I failed to to seek wise counsel on this at the time because I was like I had said, beat my chest like a grill, I can handle it because I'm a man, I'll figure it out.

26:19 SPEAKER_00: Um well, I mean, to to piggyback off of that, I mean, like we still go through that today.

26:24 SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

26:25 SPEAKER_00: You know, like if a lot of us would stop and think about it, like how many times has somebody loaned you money or loaned you an object, and for that object you gave your time to help them with something.

26:38 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

26:38 SPEAKER_00: You know, like how many times has somebody loaned you some money that you couldn't pay back, and you were like, hey man, I'll come mow your lawn, or I'll come paint your house, or I'll come help you knock out that bathroom project or whatever to pay you back.

26:50 SPEAKER_00: Like we still witness that today.

26:52 SPEAKER_00: We just don't think about it.

26:53 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

26:54 SPEAKER_00: You know, um, that's essentially being a bond servant.

26:58 SPEAKER_00: You know, like somebody's given you money that you didn't have to help you in a situation, and you're in turn paying that back with your labor, your your help.

27:07 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

27:07 SPEAKER_00: Um, it happens every day.

27:09 SPEAKER_00: We just don't think about it.

27:10 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

27:11 SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, more of the more of the story is if you if you're a new believer, you come across something you don't know, go to somebody who who has been doing this for for longer than you have.

27:22 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

27:23 SPEAKER_01: And they may or might not may not know the answer.

27:26 SPEAKER_01: And just because they don't know the answer, that doesn't mean that scripture's not true.

27:30 SPEAKER_01: That just means that, hey, that person just may be they're they're just not at that point yet.

27:35 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

27:36 SPEAKER_01: Um, which I mean, bro, I got asked a question this week that I'm still trying to f find an answer to.

27:40 SPEAKER_01: And it's and it that's what motivates me when I get asked stuff that, oh crap, I just let me get back to you on that.

27:47 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

27:47 SPEAKER_00: Um and I mean, and don't, don't as a new believer or a younger believer, or you know, however long you are on your journey, if you're at this point where like maybe you get frustrated at that, don't.

28:00 SPEAKER_00: It's okay.

28:01 SPEAKER_00: Like again, back to what we said earlier, none of us have it figured out.

28:06 SPEAKER_00: Oh, none of us.

28:07 SPEAKER_00: Some might have it a little more than others, and that's okay.

28:10 SPEAKER_00: Don't get upset, don't get discouraged because that person can't answer your question.

28:14 SPEAKER_00: There will be somebody that can.

28:16 SPEAKER_00: You just have to seek it.

28:17 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

28:18 SPEAKER_00: You know, um, it's like it's like scripture says, knock and the door will be and you know, it'll be answered.

28:24 SPEAKER_00: You know, you have to seek it, you have to ask.

28:26 SPEAKER_00: Um, if that person doesn't know, maybe they know somebody who does.

28:30 SPEAKER_00: But again, just back to what I said earlier, man, seek out your pastor.

28:35 SPEAKER_00: If you go to somebody who you consider your wise counsel and they don't know, or that maybe, maybe their answer didn't uh satisfy you, that's fine.

28:45 SPEAKER_00: Go to your pastor, go to him and say, hey, look, I've see I've sought wise counsel on this, and I still don't get it.

28:52 SPEAKER_00: I still don't understand it.

28:54 SPEAKER_00: And and and let them pour into you.

28:57 SPEAKER_00: That's what they're there for.

28:59 SPEAKER_00: You know, at the end of the day, their their job, their duty, their calling is to pour into their flock.

29:04 SPEAKER_00: If you can, if you regularly attend their church, you are a part of their flock.

29:08 SPEAKER_00: And they should be, and and honestly, um a lot of us uh miss that too.

29:16 SPEAKER_00: You know, if that if that pastor is not willing to do that, or if um they don't know, um I mean I wouldn't say that they don't know because like I said, we don't all we don't all know everything, but it's a good chance that if they spend enough time with Jesus, they've been in the Word long enough, they probably have an answer, right?

29:36 SPEAKER_00: Um, but if they're not willing to spend that time with you and pour into you, then maybe you need to take a second look at where you're going to church.

29:44 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

29:45 SPEAKER_00: You know, um, I think, you know, like with with with James, you know, there has never been a time that I have not walked up to that man and he's not answered the call.

29:58 SPEAKER_00: You know, there there has never been a time that I've had something that I didn't understand that when I went up to him, he would stop all things and be like, hey, yeah, okay, let's let's talk about this.

30:08 SPEAKER_00: Let's let's figure this out, let's come to an understanding.

30:11 SPEAKER_00: Um, and even more so, there has never been a time where he wasn't like, hey, I'm I'm not going to break that down because I think what you need right now is you need prayer more than anything.

30:22 SPEAKER_00: Let's let's pray about it.

30:24 SPEAKER_00: Um, and then maybe we'll we'll talk about it.

30:27 SPEAKER_00: Let's pray about this first.

30:29 SPEAKER_00: Um if your pastor is not willing to do that with you, man, maybe it's time to to look elsewhere, you know.

30:39 SPEAKER_00: Um, because it doesn't matter if there's 20 people in your church or if there's 10,000, you know, um I think that it's their calling to do that, to stop and give you five minutes of their time.

30:55 SPEAKER_00: Um so if they're not willing to do that, that's something that I would absolutely be praying about and thinking about, like maybe maybe this isn't the church for me, you know.

31:04 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and uh even one thing that I love about our church too, like we are um I guess people would label us as mega church.

31:13 SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think we just got a mega lost city, and we got a lot of people that are hungry for the word.

31:18 SPEAKER_01: Um but we've we've got a lot of people that go to church, and past our pastor, he cannot be available to every single person whenever they need him to be available.

31:29 SPEAKER_01: That's just I'm sure like he would he would love that with all his heart to be that person for every person, but he just can't.

31:36 SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's only so many hours in a day.

31:38 SPEAKER_01: But what's so great about our church is is they have uh allocated uh resources and responsibility to people who uh who of like of the same capability can meet these needs of these people.

31:53 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and we've got like multiple people and leaders on the front lines who are serving our church and feeding and pouring into our church, even beyond the pulpit, like even in a lobby, like like Pastor Carlos and and Jacob or our elders, they're out there pouring into people, and we've got people pouring into them and like the things that they're going through, the questions that they have, and it's a beautiful thing to see.

32:18 SPEAKER_01: People being vulnerable about things that they're going through or scripture that they don't understand, and it's it's awesome, yeah.

32:25 SPEAKER_01: And I love being a part of it.

32:27 SPEAKER_00: Well, what's even more so great about that is all of them are some of the most humble people that I've ever met.

32:32 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

32:33 SPEAKER_00: Um, like Cullen, you know, uh, we're gonna have him on soon, which is gonna be so awesome.

32:40 SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited for that.

32:42 SPEAKER_00: Um, so shout out to him.

32:44 SPEAKER_00: But man, like him and Jacob both, um there's been many times in group with the students or just in conversation with them one-on-one or in a group setting, uh, when we're in leader meetings or whatever, like they are humble enough to say, hey, like I've struggled with this.

33:03 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

33:04 SPEAKER_00: You know, like both of them struggled with with pornography, both of them struggled with lust, both of them, you know, still fall short, you know, in their lives each day, and they admit it.

33:16 SPEAKER_00: You know, they're humble enough to say, hey, like, uh, I had I got angry with this person today and and had to really have a heart check.

33:23 SPEAKER_00: You know, like the the the fact that they are so raw and real and up front, you know, it just it's just a testament to how um how lucky we are how to have a church that we can go to like that where we can walk up to these men and say, hey, I'm struggling with this, and they can put their hand on their shoulder and say, Me too.

33:47 SPEAKER_00: You know, um I think that's huge.

33:50 SPEAKER_00: And like you said at the beginning, you know, it's not normal.

33:53 SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just not.

33:55 SPEAKER_00: I I think it's it's it's really hard to find a place like that where you walk in and you can go to somebody and seek that that prayer or that um that wise counsel, and that person can look at you and go, hey man, you're not alone.

34:09 SPEAKER_00: I went through that same thing, and here's what helped me.

34:12 SPEAKER_00: You know?

34:13 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

34:14 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's good.

34:16 SPEAKER_01: Um kind of sp going off what you said, I mean, yeah, things are not normal right now.

34:22 SPEAKER_01: And it it can be extremely overwhelming for for a lot of people who are in pursuit of some sort of leadership in in what's going on and just kind of fanning the flame that's that that's happening and tossing logs on the fire, man.

34:38 SPEAKER_01: Um I want to kind of talk about some things that that that would help equip us, um not just my generation, but everybody, um, to continue to be a part and like I said, feed the flame of what's of what's going on.

34:57 SPEAKER_01: Um and I came across something in uh Joby Martin's book that I've been reading, Stanford Mac Like Men.

35:05 SPEAKER_01: Um and it's gosh, it's so true.

35:09 SPEAKER_01: Uh a lot of people want big muscles, but they don't want to be sore.

35:14 SPEAKER_01: That's being in the gym.

35:15 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

35:17 SPEAKER_01: Dude, me too.

35:18 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

35:18 SPEAKER_01: Uh I need to take more creatine.

35:20 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I hear you.

35:22 SPEAKER_01: But uh I do that's so true.

35:24 SPEAKER_01: I mean, so many people want the they want the platform, they want the title.

35:28 SPEAKER_01: Um they want to be seen and a lot of times for wrong reasons, and they just and even sometimes for the right reasons, but at the same time, they just don't want to they don't want the pain that comes along with that.

35:41 SPEAKER_01: Uh they don't want the the the struggle, the the the time, uh the time in the trenches just growing and and uh getting to that poise uh to that point where you can actually lead and be the person God's called you to be.

35:57 SPEAKER_01: And that's something that um it was it was a process for me, which I've got a long way to go.

36:05 SPEAKER_01: And I'm humble enough to at least I'm trying to be humble enough to admit that I'm I mean I'm still young, I'm 21, turning 22, like next week.

36:16 SPEAKER_01: Um and I've got a lot to learn.

36:18 SPEAKER_01: And I've got a lot of life ahead of me, and I'm gonna learn some things the hard way, and I'm gonna fall short and learn from it.

36:28 SPEAKER_01: And uh even with scripture, I've got a long way to go, and I'm so encouraged by older, wiser people in my life and being able to learn from them.

36:39 SPEAKER_01: But I guess the point of what I'm trying to say is if if you're if if you want to be a leader, like you've got to spend time alone with them.

36:47 SPEAKER_01: A lot of it.

36:48 SPEAKER_00: You gotta be okay with being a disciple first.

36:50 SPEAKER_00: Yes.

36:52 SPEAKER_00: That's that's what a lot of us forget, miss in the beginning.

36:57 SPEAKER_00: Um, is you cannot lead without first being a disciple.

37:02 SPEAKER_00: If you're not being discipled and poured into, you can't lead.

37:06 SPEAKER_00: You're not equipped.

37:08 SPEAKER_00: Um now somebody could kind of hit you with the argument of, well, if I have enough time in the scripture and enough time with the Lord, I I'm I have all the equip I I need.

37:19 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can I could I can I can yield a little bit to that, but again, you know, think about Jesus' disciples, right?

37:31 SPEAKER_00: He spent three years discipling them and growing them and teaching them and and getting them to the point that they needed to be at before he was going to leave this earth, before they were sent out to preach the gospel and preach the word and and and reach people.

37:48 SPEAKER_00: And they still didn't have it figured out then.

37:51 SPEAKER_00: Some of them still had doubts, some of them still had struggles and issues, um, but it took a few years of being discipled, being poured into, being held accountable, being um starvation and and lack of sleep and lack of pleas places to sleep, um persecution, um witnessing uh good things and bad things before they were entrusted with leadership.

38:19 SPEAKER_00: Right?

38:20 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

38:21 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, that's good.

38:23 SPEAKER_01: I mean, it takes it takes a lot of time.

38:25 SPEAKER_01: It really does.

38:27 SPEAKER_01: And I mean it's it's kind of the same way with uh I mean, I'm sure the the the day you met your wife, y'all weren't like as far from what you are now.

38:40 SPEAKER_01: Like you're not you were not as close as you were, you didn't know each other very well, and I mean it it it just takes time and as time went on, I'm sure you guys got to know each other better and got uh grew uh grew closer to one another, and it's kind of the same way with the Lord.

38:57 SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's gonna uh as as you walk with him, and the more time you spend with him, he he's gonna show you the things in your heart that like, okay, I need that.

39:07 SPEAKER_01: Like, okay, I want that to change.

39:10 SPEAKER_01: Let's walk together.

39:12 SPEAKER_01: Let's correct this, or let me teach you this through this, through this circumstance or whatever.

39:18 SPEAKER_01: Um, it just takes time, man.

39:20 SPEAKER_01: And that's something you've got to be okay with.

39:22 SPEAKER_01: Patience.

39:23 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

39:23 SPEAKER_01: Patience is such a uh such a strong quality that you need to have.

39:29 SPEAKER_01: That's key.

39:30 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's key, and it's rare.

39:32 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

39:32 SPEAKER_01: Uh I I mean, especially especially now in today's world.

39:37 SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

39:37 SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's something that I had to really uh grow and learn in, man.

39:41 SPEAKER_00: Because like if you if you were to know the the 14 to probably 27, 28-year-old me, maybe even wow, maybe even 30.

39:51 SPEAKER_00: Dude, patience was not my virtue.

39:54 SPEAKER_00: Patience was the last thing I had.

39:56 SPEAKER_00: Uh, I was quick to get frustrated and upset and call people out and and and do all the things, man.

40:04 SPEAKER_00: Um, it's something that the Lord's really, really had to convict me on, and I still struggle with it, you know.

40:12 SPEAKER_00: Um uh, but it's definitely not what it used to be.

40:16 SPEAKER_00: Um, I think that's a lifelong lesson.

40:19 SPEAKER_00: That that's something like you're gonna be on your deathbed and still be struggling with patience, you know.

40:26 SPEAKER_00: Um I know I will be because on my deathbed, I'm gonna be waiting for that last breath to finally close my eyes for the last time and and and see Jesus, man.

40:36 SPEAKER_00: Like, um, I know that's where my head's gonna be at.

40:40 SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be like, Lord, please take that last breath and let me close these eyes.

40:43 SPEAKER_00: I'm ready to go.

40:44 SPEAKER_00: You know, like we're we're all gonna be struggling with patience until that last moment, man.

40:49 SPEAKER_00: But um, but that's definitely something, again, that's key, you know, and it's something to like really pray for is patience.

40:58 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

40:59 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and he he might throw you some uh uh some some fish that'll swallow you up, yeah.

41:04 SPEAKER_01: That'll help test that patience, which is uh harsh reality of of that prayer.

41:10 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, be careful what you wish for because he'll give it to you.

41:13 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he absolutely will.

41:14 SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's done it to me a time or two, and man, have I have I learned something, learned my lesson.

41:20 SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, I think uh I think people need to if they're looking to step into that that leadership role as well, like, bro, you've gotta have you've gotta be a spirit-driven man.

41:34 SPEAKER_01: You need to lead from the overflow, and you need to do um, or you need to let everything you do and say be something that is spirit-led.

41:43 SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people can skip over that as well.

41:47 SPEAKER_01: And um it's something we need to be continually asking, like, Lord, just fill me with your spirit, equip me with the things that I need to do and the things that you've called me to do.

41:58 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

41:58 SPEAKER_01: You need to be like a a man or woman that wakes up every day and and just cries out to him out of desperation and just says, Lord, I cannot do what you've called me to do.

42:09 SPEAKER_01: I cannot live the life that you've called me to live without your spirit.

42:13 SPEAKER_01: So, Lord, would you just fill me and equip me for the things I need to do today?

42:18 SPEAKER_01: And just let that be a daily thing, man.

42:20 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

42:21 SPEAKER_01: And lead from the overflow.

42:23 SPEAKER_01: Um you cannot pour out into somebody else if you've got nothing in your cup.

42:29 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

42:30 SPEAKER_01: So you've got to be feeling yourself being poured into by um by your pastor, by your uh, by your mentor, by your wise counsel, but most importantly, you need to be filled up by the word of God.

42:44 SPEAKER_01: And you need to be filled up by time and prayer.

42:47 SPEAKER_01: Like spend intimate time with him and don't just tell him the things that that you think is gonna make him happy or proud or or just I mean, don't don't put some feng shui on your on your prayers.

43:01 SPEAKER_01: I mean, just be honest and and be intimate and just cry out to him out of desperation.

43:07 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just knowing that you need him.

43:09 SPEAKER_00: Like, let's be real.

43:11 SPEAKER_00: What part of you in your mind and in your physical, uh, all like what what part of that doesn't he already know?

43:19 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what part of that has he not already foreseen?

43:22 SPEAKER_00: You know, like your story was written before you were even here.

43:26 SPEAKER_00: Every move you're gonna make, every word you're gonna say, who you're gonna say it to, how you were gonna say it, where you were gonna be at the time, it was all a storybook from the beginning of your first breath, from the moment you were created in the womb, he already knew, you know, and he knows every thought, he knows every action and where it's gonna happen.

43:47 SPEAKER_00: So why not just be upfront and honest?

43:51 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, why why not just going ahead and be like, hey, you already knew this happened, but I I just need to say, Lord, like I I messed up.

43:59 SPEAKER_00: I'm Sorry, this is what I did, this is why I did it.

44:02 SPEAKER_00: Um correct my heart posture here, you know.

44:05 SPEAKER_00: Um and I think like we've talked about this before, um that can't be the end of that either.

44:14 SPEAKER_00: Um it's it's like you said, I believe in the last podcast episode, um sin is like a fungus in the dark, it thrives, it grows, right?

44:26 SPEAKER_00: But it can't live in the light, it dies.

44:30 SPEAKER_00: So just because you were real and honest and and up front with the Lord, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't take it to a brother, somebody who you trust, and say, Hey, um I did this or I said this or I looked at this or whatever, I'm struggling with that.

44:49 SPEAKER_00: I have a problem, I need some help, I need some prayer.

44:53 SPEAKER_00: That's how you grow.

44:55 SPEAKER_00: That's how you're going to kill that sin.

44:57 SPEAKER_00: That's how you're going to truly give that thing the boot, is by taking it from darkness to light.

45:04 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's where, although I don't agree with the way that they do it, that's that's where I think uh Protestants uh like ourselves um could take a page out of the Catholics book with confession.

45:20 SPEAKER_01: Um I mean, it's scriptural, it's James 5.16.

45:24 SPEAKER_01: We confess other people for healing, but you can't skip over the step of confessing to the Lord.

45:29 SPEAKER_01: You've got to bring that to him too.

45:30 SPEAKER_01: Yep.

45:30 SPEAKER_01: Like, bro, you just got to bring bring it to him first and bring it to your brothers for healing.

45:36 SPEAKER_01: Because odds are they've been through the same thing that you have.

45:40 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

45:41 SPEAKER_01: And or maybe they haven't and they're going to.

45:43 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

45:44 SPEAKER_01: And it it's really such a freeing feeling, um, getting that off your chest and just telling somebody.

45:53 SPEAKER_01: Even if that person might not have the right words to say to you, just getting that off your chest and and releasing that off of your soul is is so is so freeing.

46:04 SPEAKER_01: And God's word does not return void when I read that.

46:08 SPEAKER_01: When it tells me I'm gonna, if I confess, I'm gonna receive healing.

46:11 SPEAKER_01: That's true.

46:13 SPEAKER_01: I've never heard anybody come to me and say, hey, bro, I I I regret confessing.

46:19 SPEAKER_01: I regret telling telling my my godly men or women in my life what I went through.

46:24 SPEAKER_01: Like I've just never heard that.

46:26 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

46:26 SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's a powerful thing, man.

46:29 SPEAKER_01: It's something that I think we need to do a better job at.

46:34 SPEAKER_00: Then it's okay to cry.

46:36 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

46:37 SPEAKER_00: I think especially us as men, we and I'm guilty of this, man.

46:41 SPEAKER_00: I try and hold it back as much as I can because I I've always struggled with crying in front of others.

46:47 SPEAKER_00: But yeah, um I think it's very important that we understand, especially as men and even women um that might be listening, it's okay to cry.

46:58 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, don't hold that back, let that out because that is the Holy Spirit moving and helping you kill whatever it is that's coming out of your mouth.

47:10 SPEAKER_00: Um, that's you feeling let that's your spirit encountering freedom.

47:17 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

47:18 SPEAKER_00: Um, and it all of us can can relate in a sense, like through our whole lives.

47:23 SPEAKER_00: When you have cried, more often than not, did you not feel better afterwards?

47:29 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, like when you were just so upset and frustrated, and you had to yell for a minute and scream in your pillow, whatever it is, and you cried, and then afterwards you're like, oh, okay.

47:39 SPEAKER_00: You know, yeah, you can breathe now, you can breathe now because you got it all out.

47:44 SPEAKER_00: Let it all out.

47:45 SPEAKER_00: It's totally okay.

47:47 SPEAKER_00: You know, um I've I've found healing in it.

47:51 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, dude, I am beyond sick of the narrative that's pushed on men and even women that the things you're going through, like you can't cry about it.

48:02 SPEAKER_01: You can't tell anybody about it.

48:04 SPEAKER_01: I mean, bro, I think the evidence is in the writing on on how effective that that method is.

48:11 SPEAKER_01: When you look at the the rates of of depression and anxiety amongst uh men and women, especially younger men and women, and especially the the rates of suicide and suicidal thoughts, I mean the evidence is there.

48:25 SPEAKER_01: That crap does not work.

48:27 SPEAKER_01: And it I mean it man, it it breaks my heart because I I've had people I know that are close to me who who've followed that ideology and and they held it in.

48:40 SPEAKER_01: They didn't say anything, and they didn't go to somebody that they know and trust to say, hey bro, I need help.

48:48 SPEAKER_01: I've had people close to me do that, and now I can't call them or text them because they're not here anymore.

48:56 SPEAKER_01: And they've they've fallen victim to the to the lies of society and the lies of culture.

49:05 SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a heartbreaking thing, man.

49:08 SPEAKER_01: And if if you're listening to this and you're and you're pushing that message to to men and women, stop.

49:16 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

49:17 SPEAKER_01: You were causing so much harm.

49:19 SPEAKER_01: You're causing so much man.

49:24 SPEAKER_01: You're you're just you're doing a lot of damage.

49:27 SPEAKER_01: And even if you think you're helping them, bro, you're not.

49:31 SPEAKER_01: You're not helping.

49:32 SPEAKER_01: The message that you're spreading is not solving any problems.

49:37 SPEAKER_01: It just it sounds cool.

49:39 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

49:40 SPEAKER_01: But it's not the answer, man.

49:42 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

49:42 SPEAKER_01: And what I hate is that what we're saying is is labeled as weak or even toxic by our society, man.

49:51 SPEAKER_01: We just get it backwards.

49:52 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's the exact opposite.

49:54 SPEAKER_01: I mean, man, we we have just gotten so backwards as a society.

50:00 SPEAKER_01: I mean, if I start living the way scripture tells me to live, if I start doing what scripture tells me to do and saying the things that scripture uh tells me tells me to say, and I mean, even if you look back in the garden, like before sin had entered the world, um, Adam was given three things to do.

50:21 SPEAKER_01: Um, be in the presence of God, uh, do what he's called to do, and he was also given a will to obey.

50:28 SPEAKER_01: If I start doing those three things, all of a sudden I'm Darth Vader.

50:33 SPEAKER_01: Like I'm labeled as as the toxic uh biblical uh Christian conservative man.

50:40 SPEAKER_01: Like, man, we've just gotten it backwards.

50:43 SPEAKER_01: We've gotten it so backwards.

50:45 SPEAKER_01: And anyways, sorry, I got a little tangent, but if you're spreading that message, just stop.

50:51 SPEAKER_01: You're not you're not making any difference.

50:53 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and especially in that if you're if you're calling yourself a follower of Christ, like if you're doing that with people, you need to really take a hard look in the mirror and check your heart posture.

51:07 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

51:07 SPEAKER_00: Like you should be you should be accepting people's vulnerability.

51:13 SPEAKER_00: Like, I think a man coming to a group of men and confessing something to his brothers and bawling his eyes out is probably one of the strongest things that that man can do.

51:27 SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, you know that that that is real strength to me.

51:31 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

51:31 SPEAKER_00: If if if if you're not welcoming that, man, you really need to take a take a check to the heart posture uh department because like dude, let them cry, let them get it out, and you know what you do?

51:47 SPEAKER_00: You walk over there and you give them a hug and you shake their hand and you tell them you love them and you pray over them.

51:53 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

51:53 SPEAKER_00: You know, how many times have we done that in group, or how many times have we done that, you know, really in both groups, or even just in general in church, man?

52:02 SPEAKER_00: Like, um, seeing somebody being vulnerable and crying tears, man, and just getting up and everybody putting your hand on them and praying over them, like, dude, there's no no greater feeling and no no more beauty than that.

52:16 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the the feeling that I have after that is like, man, I'm so grateful that I got to be a witness to that, that I got to be a part of that, that I got to watch God move.

52:28 SPEAKER_00: You know, that person crying and letting that weight off their shoulders and being prayed over is like man, it's it's it's such an incredible thing to be a part of.

52:41 SPEAKER_00: Um, it's such a humbling experience.

52:44 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

52:45 SPEAKER_00: Um, and and and you never know, man, like that might stir something up in you to where you kind of have something like, holy crap, I've been dealing with this.

52:53 SPEAKER_00: Maybe I need to let it out.

52:55 SPEAKER_00: You know, like, dude, before you know it, the whole group's crying together, and that's okay.

53:00 SPEAKER_00: That's nothing.

53:00 SPEAKER_00: That's not wrong with that.

53:01 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

53:02 SPEAKER_01: That that happened recently.

53:03 SPEAKER_01: I mean, we did we have one guy confess something, and then next thing you know, we've got 15 guys that have confessed like real demons that they're battling.

53:12 SPEAKER_01: And man, it's just I say it all the time, what I receive is not what I deserve.

53:18 SPEAKER_01: When I get to witness and be a part of uh people radically being transformed by the gospel and and by the power of confession, just like scripture calls us uh to do.

53:32 SPEAKER_01: I mean, I've seen suicidal thoughts flee, I've seen addictions break, I've seen family trees get entirely turned around and turn in the opposite direction.

53:44 unknown: Yeah.

53:44 SPEAKER_01: I've seen entire families repent, bro.

53:48 SPEAKER_01: Like, that's that's the power of the gospel.

53:51 SPEAKER_01: And that's the power of being vulnerable.

53:53 SPEAKER_01: I mean, not even not not just with I mean with with with with your your boys that you love.

53:59 SPEAKER_01: I mean, do that with your family too, bro.

54:02 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

54:03 SPEAKER_01: Um but also I would definitely um I'm not dumb enough to to skip over the fact that there's not some there, that that there's some people that you just simply should not tell what you're going through.

54:16 SPEAKER_01: Yes.

54:17 SPEAKER_01: Like you've got to be careful and strategic with who you confess to and and who you open up about your life with because not everybody is going to receive that in a way that scripture calls us to receive that.

54:37 SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm not going to to tell a broken part of my life to somebody who has not met their knee to Jesus.

54:45 SPEAKER_01: I'm just, I'm just not.

54:46 SPEAKER_01: Like, they're not going to pour into me the the the wisdom and biblical counsel that I need for that situation.

54:54 SPEAKER_01: I'm going to go to somebody who's who's been walking the walk maybe longer than I have, or somebody I know who's been through something similar and is going to receive that well and pour into you well.

55:05 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

55:06 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

55:07 SPEAKER_00: Or I mean it it's even it's even like this, you know, like sometimes um there's certain people in your group that you need to go to with something because you know that they've directly dealt with it, right?

55:21 SPEAKER_00: Like, um you don't want as a married person, it's it's tough to go to somebody who's not married and seek wise counsel.

55:32 SPEAKER_00: I know because I deal with it all the time.

55:33 SPEAKER_00: It's very hard.

55:35 SPEAKER_00: Uh so you so in those situations, I have to seek wise counsel from somebody who's married, right?

55:42 SPEAKER_00: Um you can't, it's hard to go to somebody who uh which most people have struggled with pornography or some type of lust or addiction in that in that department.

55:56 SPEAKER_00: But it's like if if you're if you're struggling with porn big time, right?

56:00 SPEAKER_00: Like it's your biggest thing, it would be really difficult to go to somebody who's never watched it, never seen it, never understood it, right?

56:07 SPEAKER_00: Because how are they how are they supposed to help you?

56:10 SPEAKER_00: I mean, they can pray for you, but so it's very important to be intentional with who it is that you bring that to as well, and make sure that um you're bringing it to somebody who has experienced it or who has maybe confessed that same thing to you in the past and you've seen them grow with it.

56:27 SPEAKER_00: Um so being intentional and and and mindful of who you're seeking your wise counsel from, yeah.

56:35 SPEAKER_00: You know, that's that's big too.

56:37 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

56:38 SPEAKER_01: Um kind of uh getting to closing time here, but um, I was I had this I had this story um in mind, kind of something that uh that happened to me.

56:53 SPEAKER_01: Um and it made me realize how much we need him, and this is very important if you want to um if you want to be a part of what's going on in in in the world right now, if you want to be a part of of this revival that we're seeing unfold right in front of our eyes.

57:12 SPEAKER_01: So we have um uh we we have family in in Auburn, Alabama, and I'll go down there every now and then and and do some do some deer hunting.

57:22 SPEAKER_01: I wish I could go down there and see them more.

57:24 SPEAKER_01: Uh schedule's just been crazy.

57:27 SPEAKER_01: But anyways, I was down there uh this this past winter and and my cousin uh Mitchell and his wife uh Caitlin, they have a they have a daughter, I think she's around three years old, she might be four now, and I was sitting around uh their their dining room table helping her put this puzzle together.

57:48 SPEAKER_01: And I'm like watching her um try to try to do like like try to put this puzzle together without my help, and she's like trying to jam pieces in places where it doesn't fit, and she's just trying to figure it out.

58:02 SPEAKER_01: She's got not a clue what's going on.

58:04 SPEAKER_01: But that's when I stepped in and like, okay, no, that doesn't go there.

58:08 SPEAKER_01: And um I was like, hey, um that's that doesn't look like that piece belongs in that part of the puzzle.

58:15 SPEAKER_01: I think maybe it's over on this side of the puzzle instead.

58:19 SPEAKER_01: And it's kind of the same way within our relationship with God.

58:23 SPEAKER_01: Like we try to put things um in our life or take things out of our life that just simply uh that that stuff just does not need to happen.

58:33 SPEAKER_01: And we try to uh jam things in this place or uh take things off here, and it just it just doesn't work.

58:41 SPEAKER_01: And then that's when we need we need the Lord to step in and direct our steps.

58:47 SPEAKER_01: Like we need the Holy Spirit every single day uh to to guide us and direct us because without him, it it's literally like I would just let her uh the the picture is letting her try to put that puzzle together by herself.

59:02 SPEAKER_01: It just doesn't work.

59:03 SPEAKER_01: She she's she's it's just it it would take her forever.

59:08 SPEAKER_01: I mean it this might be a uh lax daisical analogy, but uh yeah, it just it doesn't work.

59:15 SPEAKER_01: So if you want to be a part of this, you need to be a spirit-filled man or woman and and just be in total reliance for him on everything.

59:25 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

59:27 SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, there was something that like we haven't touched on yet that I wanted to kind of get out in this episode too.

59:34 SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, another thing that we were talking about yesterday, um, when we were kind of like, you know, just catching up.

59:42 SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, what do you what do you say um to somebody who maybe's been in the faith for a while or maybe they're young in their faith, um, who's wanting to approach a brother or somebody in a group or somebody just in the congregation about something that they see that they don't agree with them doing, you know, how how would you approach that that conversation or that situation?

1:00:11 SPEAKER_01: Your first step is pray.

1:00:13 SPEAKER_01: Can't skip that.

1:00:15 SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think a lot of people look at situations and they'll be like, Well, I guess the only thing I can do is pray for them.

1:00:21 SPEAKER_01: And like James says, like, are you kidding me?

1:00:24 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

1:00:24 SPEAKER_01: The first thing you need to be doing is praying.

1:00:26 SPEAKER_01: So pray and ask, ask the Spirit of God, hey, give me discernment on how I approach this.

1:00:33 SPEAKER_01: And if the answer is maybe I'm not at the point to where if I were to approach this person, uh, that they would receive it well, or maybe I'm just not at the point where I can do it in a right way or in a wise way, then I'm gonna I'm gonna go to somebody who can who can maybe point them in the right in the right direction in a in a biblical way, in a way that's not watered down with with grace, or not uh too strong with truth.

1:00:58 SPEAKER_01: Like it there's gotta be a mix of both.

1:01:01 SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah.

1:01:02 SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of people get this wrong, and people will say, Oh, Christians can't judge.

1:01:06 SPEAKER_01: Like, no, the Bible does not say that.

1:01:09 SPEAKER_01: It does not say it at all.

1:01:10 SPEAKER_01: We actually have a biblical obligation to judge those within the body of Christ.

1:01:16 SPEAKER_01: But outside of the body of Christ, I mean, we don't really have a we don't have a place to judge them because they don't even know what they're doing is wrong.

1:01:25 SPEAKER_01: They don't have the Holy Spirit to convict them, and they don't have uh God to lead lead and direct their path.

1:01:31 SPEAKER_01: So we just want to get them to Jesus.

1:01:32 SPEAKER_01: But within the church, out of love, we correct a brother or sister who is who is falling short, and maybe they're failing to repent.

1:01:43 SPEAKER_01: Um, and we do that out of love, and we do that in a way that's that's super maybe non-confrontational, but at the same time, like we still want to uh we don't want to we don't want to sacrifice truth.

1:01:59 SPEAKER_01: We want to tell them what's true and um and just just walk with them through that.

1:02:06 SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of times people they'll be doing something and maybe they don't necessarily know that's wrong, and especially like a newer believer, if they've been maybe living this way with with whoever, um, and they just simply don't know it's wrong, that's when we just step in and say, hey man, um this is what this is what I would do about that, and um yeah kind of walk with them through that.

1:02:31 SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I would say first just pray.

1:02:34 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

1:02:35 SPEAKER_01: Is this something that in my walk with the Lord, like am I able to to do this without it being received wrong?

1:02:43 SPEAKER_01: And if the answer is if the answer is even slightly leaning towards no, then don't do it.

1:02:50 SPEAKER_01: You need to tell somebody who you can trust to to do that for you.

1:02:54 SPEAKER_01: Or I mean I had that happen to me this week, and I said, no, I will not approach this person about that because they were not to mention names or make the story too obvious, but they were pointing something out and somebody else, and I had been having conversations with this someone else, getting to know his heart, and he seems to have a extremely repentant heart.

1:03:18 SPEAKER_01: And the things that he sacrificed and cut out of his life have been um monumental, and I'm over the moon proud of him.

1:03:28 SPEAKER_01: So he is making active steps to repent, and I can't him I I can't expect him to repent on my timeline, but rather on the Lord's.

1:03:39 SPEAKER_01: And if that if it looks like baby steps, then fine.

1:03:42 SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

1:03:43 SPEAKER_01: That's fine.

1:03:43 SPEAKER_01: At least there's steps.

1:03:44 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's steps, and the Lord's working on his heart.

1:03:47 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

1:03:47 SPEAKER_01: And there's nothing that I could say or do to speed up that process.

1:03:51 SPEAKER_01: It's gotta be something that the Lord is He's just gonna work on His heart.

1:03:56 SPEAKER_01: I cannot convict this person of sin.

1:03:58 SPEAKER_01: It's only the spirit that convicts people of sin.

1:04:01 SPEAKER_01: We don't do that.

1:04:02 SPEAKER_01: We're just the messengers and we plant a seed and hope it gets planted on fertile ground.

1:04:06 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

1:04:07 SPEAKER_01: And that's when we pray and we ask, we ask God for a discernment, like, hey, remind me what to say here.

1:04:13 SPEAKER_01: Or remind me if I should even talk here.

1:04:16 SPEAKER_01: And Lord, I pray that what I say, if I say it, is landing on fertile soil that's coming from you and not my flesh.

1:04:23 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

1:04:24 SPEAKER_00: What would you say to that?

1:04:26 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man, I mean, just to kind of like piggyback off of that, um, you know, I think we I said this when we were when we were talking um, you know, about this.

1:04:37 SPEAKER_00: Man, I think too too often we want to cast stones at people for something that they're doing and not taking a look at ourselves, right?

1:04:49 SPEAKER_00: If you cannot go and have that conversation with that person, um, one from a place of love, but two from a place of uh uh like just for example, right?

1:05:03 SPEAKER_00: No sin is greater than the other.

1:05:05 SPEAKER_00: Sin is sin, right?

1:05:07 SPEAKER_00: So you if you're living in a glass house, you can't throw stones.

1:05:12 SPEAKER_00: Because when the stone flies back at you, it's gonna shatter the house.

1:05:15 SPEAKER_00: Right?

1:05:16 SPEAKER_00: If if you're if you're actively uh engaging in something, or if you're actively having um, you know, something that you need to repent over, or something that you're working in repentance over, you really need to take a look at that and go, okay, am I am I actually in a place to actually go and have this conversation with this person, right?

1:05:39 SPEAKER_00: Because like, you know, if you're uh struggling with uh you're your your past big sin is alcoholism, right?

1:05:52 SPEAKER_00: Um and you've you've been a year without drinking on a regular basis, you but you're still having one.

1:06:00 SPEAKER_00: One one or two, three, four here and there, whatever, right?

1:06:03 SPEAKER_00: Well, let's think about that.

1:06:05 SPEAKER_00: You know, if that other person is doing something that you don't agree, agree with, but they but you see that they're taking steps, you see that they're on the right track.

1:06:15 SPEAKER_00: Well, do you really have the um the right really to go over there and call them out on that issue because you have something that you're working through yourself.

1:06:26 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

1:06:27 SPEAKER_00: You know, so um again, you can't throw stones from a from a glass house.

1:06:33 SPEAKER_00: You know, we we we we we see this in the in the gospels, you know, when the the lady who's caught in adultery is drug out in the middle of the street, and the Pharisees and all the people are picking up rocks to to stone this woman, and Jesus started through this whole process, he remains calm and he crouches down in the dirt and starts writing things in the dirt.

1:06:59 SPEAKER_00: And we have no idea what he wrote, but when he stands up, he says, Now the first person without sin cast the first stone.

1:07:07 SPEAKER_00: And what happened?

1:07:08 SPEAKER_00: From oldest to youngest, they all started dropping their stones, turning around and walking away.

1:07:13 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

1:07:13 SPEAKER_00: And he turns to the lady and he says, Where are your people who were trying to condemn you?

1:07:19 SPEAKER_00: And she says, Nowhere, they've all left.

1:07:21 SPEAKER_00: And he says, Okay, go and sin no more.

1:07:25 SPEAKER_00: You know, I I am not going to judge you.

1:07:28 SPEAKER_00: Go and sin no more.

1:07:29 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

1:07:30 SPEAKER_00: We we have to think about life the same way.

1:07:33 SPEAKER_00: You know, um, we're all struggling with something and he's forgiven us.

1:07:38 SPEAKER_00: You know, we're we're all falling short in one way or another, and he has forgiven us.

1:07:44 SPEAKER_00: So, you know, if you don't have a repentant heart and you don't, and you're not um past something of of of similar nature in your life, you it's not your place to go and call that person out.

1:07:57 SPEAKER_00: And I think that, like you said, you need to start in prayer, and that's where the Holy Spirit's gonna tell you, hey, yeah, you need to go confront that person, or hey, this is how you need to go confront that person, or he's gonna say, no, you need to get out of the way of that and you need to go tell somebody else and let them have that conversation with that person, let them confront that person because we're all equipped differently with different things, and that may not, in it, in that that situation that that person that you aren't feeling comfortable with or you want to call out, um, you know, you may not be equipped to have that conversation in that moment, but there probably is somebody else that maybe is a little more equipped to have that conversation.

1:08:40 SPEAKER_00: And again, it all comes back to heart posture.

1:08:43 SPEAKER_00: It all comes back to how much time are you spending in the word?

1:08:46 SPEAKER_00: What is your relationship with the Lord in that moment, and using your discernment, like you said, um, to really go, hey, what that person is doing is probably wrong.

1:09:00 SPEAKER_00: I cannot judge them.

1:09:03 SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna go to wise counsel or I'm gonna go to my leader or whatever it is, and I'm gonna say, Hey, I witnessed this.

1:09:12 SPEAKER_00: Um, I've prayed about it, I've realized that it's not my place to say anything to this person, but I just wanted to bring it to your attention, you do with it as you see fit, and and let God work with that person.

1:09:30 SPEAKER_00: If God tells that person to go and have that conversation with them, they will.

1:09:34 SPEAKER_00: But if God says not to have that conversation with them, let him handle it, let him work on it, okay, that's fine.

1:09:40 SPEAKER_00: That but you have to be okay with that.

1:09:43 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

1:09:43 SPEAKER_00: You have to be able to be okay with relinquishing the control, feeling like you got to be the hero or feeling like you got to be the one to go over there and convict them.

1:09:53 SPEAKER_00: Because what you don't know is is if you go over there and you convict them the wrong way, you're gonna do, you're gonna unravel a bunch of work, a bunch of progress that has happened.

1:10:03 SPEAKER_00: You know, how how often is it that people that go and, you know, I I think that's why we have a lot of the wrong idea from the outside world uh looking at us as Christians?

1:10:15 SPEAKER_00: You know, like how many times have people called people out for things, you know, and then they're like, Well, what about you?

1:10:22 SPEAKER_00: Well, what do you well, what about what you did, you know, not knowing that you've grown in in as a person and you may not do those things anymore or as much.

1:10:31 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but there that's why that stigma is there, you know, and so how many times have we gone to somebody and brought something to their attention the wrong way and we don't get the reaction that we were wanting, and then you may not ever see that person again, or that person may never come back to that group because they're embarrassed or they're upset about how you brought it to them or whatever, and then you've created a whole issue that you weren't trying to create in the first place.

1:10:57 SPEAKER_00: Your your heart might have been in the right place, you might have had the right idea, but you didn't pray about it, you didn't seek wise counsel about it, and so you you fumble the football, and then what?

1:11:08 SPEAKER_00: Now now you've got to try and find a way to correct the damage that you've caused because you thought that you were the hero, that you had it figured out, that you were gonna go over there and make that person repent and they were gonna stop doing what they were doing.

1:11:21 SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work that way, yeah, yeah.

1:11:24 SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.

1:11:25 SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, I think uh I think there was a doctrine that was uh maybe more heavily pushed um uh a couple decades ago.

1:11:37 SPEAKER_01: Um that it kind of said don't judge.

1:11:40 SPEAKER_01: And I I always find it funny.

1:11:42 SPEAKER_01: I mean I think people they would just they would look at that verse and they just shut the Bible, oh, don't judge.

1:11:48 SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna judge anybody.

1:11:49 SPEAKER_01: Like, no.

1:11:50 SPEAKER_01: Uh keep your let's keep reading.

1:11:52 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

1:11:52 SPEAKER_01: Um it says, it says, why do you judge the little speck in your brother's eye when you've got a log sticking out of your own head?

1:12:02 SPEAKER_01: You forget to read that part.

1:12:03 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

1:12:03 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that that's there too.

1:12:05 SPEAKER_01: So what what what the Bible's getting at is there's there's a big difference between judgment and correction.

1:12:14 SPEAKER_01: So judgment is me saying, like, hey bro, you can't be you can't be drinking all that alcohol, and then here I am slamming a half bottle of crown every night.

1:12:23 SPEAKER_01: Like that no, that's not how it works.

1:12:27 SPEAKER_01: Uh correction comes from a place of love, and correction is something that we do within the body of believers.

1:12:35 SPEAKER_01: And it's there's like we had talked about, there's a right way to do it, and there is a wrong way to do it.

1:12:40 SPEAKER_01: And if you can't do it the right way, then don't do it at all.

1:12:44 SPEAKER_01: And especially if if you're struggling with it, don't do it all either.

1:12:48 SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

1:12:48 SPEAKER_01: Like there is a right way to do it.

1:12:50 SPEAKER_00: And you have to take the log out of your eye before you can be even at all concerned with the speck that's in your brother's eye.

1:12:58 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

1:12:59 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, that's uh Sermon on the Mount talk right there, uh, it comes out of Matthew six, six or seven.

1:13:06 SPEAKER_01: I can't remember.

1:13:07 SPEAKER_01: Um I think seven.

1:13:09 SPEAKER_01: Uh I think.

1:13:10 SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I mean, a lot of what Jesus is getting at is like the condition of your heart in the Sermon on the Mount, and pretty much identifying that there's a problem there.

1:13:22 SPEAKER_01: And um, and cutting out your your hand isn't gonna work, gouging out your eye isn't gonna work.

1:13:28 SPEAKER_01: Um the only thing that that you can do to to change the external is is we've got to work on the internal.

1:13:38 SPEAKER_01: And that requires you giving your heart to Jesus.

1:13:44 SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

1:13:45 SPEAKER_01: And and he will radically transform you from the inside out.

1:13:49 SPEAKER_01: So if you want to be a part of the external revival that's going on, you need to open yourself up to allow internal revival to happen.

1:13:59 SPEAKER_01: And that that means keeping him at the forefront center of what's of what's going on in your life and and what you're what you're doing.

1:14:08 SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's got to be Lord of everything.

1:14:11 SPEAKER_01: He can't be Lord of the 90%.

1:14:13 SPEAKER_01: He's got to be Lord over 100%.

1:14:17 SPEAKER_01: I mean, partial obedience is disobedience.

1:14:20 SPEAKER_01: And he gives us he gives us these commands, not because he needs us to follow them, but because uh excuse me, not because he needs us to follow them for him, but he wants us to follow them for us because it's really what's best for us.

1:14:37 SPEAKER_01: His commands are not burdensome at all.

1:14:41 SPEAKER_01: So if you want to, if you want to be a part of what's going on in the external, and you want to see uh lives change, addictions break, entire family trees flipped around, then you need to open yourself up and just say, Lord, let revival start me first.

1:14:58 SPEAKER_01: You got any closed comments?

1:15:00 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.

1:15:01 SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, something like I think that we could touch on too is like the the why me or why did this happen uh conversation, you know, or like why did God let this happen?

1:15:17 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

1:15:18 SPEAKER_00: Um I think that's something that we all uh struggle with uh through this life of like, you know, well, why did that person die from cancer, or why did that car accident happen, or why all these things?

1:15:30 SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, it's kind of it's kind of like the analogy of like uh like when you're when you were a kid and your mom or your well, I just use the example of your dad, right?

1:15:42 SPEAKER_00: You're in the kitchen and the stove's on, right?

1:15:45 SPEAKER_00: And uh you you you're fascinated with that red light or you're fascinated with that flame, and your little kid mind is telling you to touch that, touch it.

1:15:54 SPEAKER_00: You want to touch it, you want to feel it, you don't want to just see it, right?

1:15:57 SPEAKER_00: And your dad's looking at you going, hey, don't do that.

1:16:00 SPEAKER_00: It's gonna burn you, it's gonna hurt, and you're not gonna want to like experience that, trust me.

1:16:06 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you're that kid going, uh I don't want to listen to that.

1:16:09 SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm I'm still gonna I'm gonna go I'm gonna go touch it anyway.

1:16:11 SPEAKER_00: And then when you touch it, it burns the crap out of you, and you want to cry and freak out about it and do all these things, and your dad's going, hey son, I told you not to touch that thing.

1:16:19 SPEAKER_00: It burns, don't it?

1:16:20 SPEAKER_00: All right, now let's go treat it.

1:16:22 SPEAKER_00: Let's go, you know, let's go, let's go set it up so this thing can heal.

1:16:27 SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, there there's that analogy, and it's just man, instead of looking at it from a lens of like, well, why did that happen?

1:16:41 SPEAKER_00: Why did that person have to go through that, or why did I have to go through that?

1:16:45 SPEAKER_00: Let's look at it from a lens of like, thank you.

1:16:48 SPEAKER_00: Thank you that I had to experience that.

1:16:50 SPEAKER_00: Thank you that I had to uh that I that I saw that, or you know, because like at the end of the day, man, when it comes to death, I think, I think society has the wrong idea.

1:17:03 SPEAKER_00: Um, especially with us as a believer, man, like death for us, like, dude, like that's the beginning.

1:17:12 SPEAKER_00: You know, like this life is just um it's nothing in comparison to what we're gonna experience after, you know.

1:17:22 SPEAKER_00: And if that, you know, I pray to God that that that family member or that friend that passed away or that struggled with cancer knew the Lord, you know, I hope and pray.

1:17:32 SPEAKER_00: Um because like, dude, like we should be when that person passes, like absolutely we're gonna mourn a little bit and we're gonna be upset and we're gonna hurt.

1:17:42 SPEAKER_00: That's a good thing.

1:17:43 SPEAKER_00: But man, like that's a good thing because like we should be saying, Thank you, Lord, that that person's not struggling or or um or hurting anymore.

1:17:52 SPEAKER_00: Thank you, God, that you have welcomed them with open arms and they're gonna spend the rest of eternity with you.

1:17:58 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, yeah.

1:17:59 SPEAKER_00: I think that's something that we all as as human beings we overlook, especially in the moment.

1:18:05 SPEAKER_00: Um, but as that new believer, that young believer that's experienced that or gone through that, like try and think about it from that standpoint.

1:18:16 SPEAKER_00: You know, like suffer well.

1:18:18 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

1:18:19 SPEAKER_00: You know, like we we we we have the wrong idea of what the the word suffer means.

1:18:26 SPEAKER_00: You know, um, the disciples suffered, Jesus suffered, you know, on the cross for us, and look what came from that.

1:18:35 SPEAKER_00: Look what happened from that.

1:18:37 SPEAKER_00: Um, good things come from suffering well.

1:18:40 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

1:18:40 SPEAKER_01: Um man, I have a heart, I have a heart for that, man.

1:18:44 SPEAKER_01: Um I think people have a hard time grieving and and and mourning the loss of a loved one.

1:18:57 SPEAKER_01: And let me just say for an encouragement to that person, maybe it's you and and it was me.

1:19:06 SPEAKER_01: Um at a certain time in my life, I mean, I lost a very dear friend to me, my sophomore year.

1:19:15 SPEAKER_01: And um of high school, I did not know the Lord then and did not handle that well.

1:19:21 SPEAKER_01: But let me just say, if that person placed their trust in Jesus Christ, no more suffering, no more pain, no more crying, no, no more, no more, uh, no more heartache for that person, and just one second with the Lord.

1:19:45 SPEAKER_01: All of that's gone.

1:19:47 SPEAKER_01: All the pain, all the suffering that this person might have gone through with the cancer, with the with the disability, uh, with the with the old age, all of that's gone.

1:19:58 SPEAKER_01: Pain free in the presence of the Lord.

1:20:02 SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

1:20:03 SPEAKER_01: And I think the cross is absolute proof that God can turn the the absolute worst thing in your life into one of the best things.

1:20:15 SPEAKER_01: We talked about that this morning.

1:20:17 SPEAKER_01: Um, but if God can take the the very worst thing, which is uh I mean the worst thing that's ever happened is the is the murder of the brutal murder of the perfect son of God.

1:20:30 SPEAKER_01: If he can take that, the absolute worst thing that's ever happened on this earth and turn and turn that into the absolute best thing that's ever happened, what do you think he can do for you in your life?

1:20:40 SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

1:20:41 SPEAKER_01: I mean, the bad things that you're struggling with, I know they hurt.

1:20:43 SPEAKER_01: And I'm not belittling anybody's problems.

1:20:45 SPEAKER_01: I'm sure people have major problems and issues that they're currently battling and struggling.

1:20:51 SPEAKER_01: But if you can just hang on, just grab the hem of his garment.

1:20:56 SPEAKER_01: Like the woman who had the issue with blood for 12 years, just grab the hem of his garment and just have enough faith in him.

1:21:03 SPEAKER_01: It took only a second, one second.

1:21:06 SPEAKER_01: And I promise you, there will be fruit from this.

1:21:11 SPEAKER_01: And the and good will come from this.

1:21:15 SPEAKER_01: No matter what that might look like, good will come from this because God's word does never never returns void, and he's a good dad.

1:21:23 SPEAKER_00: It's the one thing that's never gonna die.

1:21:25 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

1:21:26 SPEAKER_00: This, you know, all people will die, this earth will die, but his word is eternal, it'll it'll never, never die.

1:21:34 SPEAKER_00: And, you know, guys, like you know, like Jonah just said, it only takes a second of repentance and a second of welcoming Jesus into your heart.

1:21:46 SPEAKER_00: And we had an example of this when Jesus was on the cross, the man sitting right next to him on a cross, dying with him, dying alongside him.

1:21:55 SPEAKER_00: He put his faith in Jesus right then and there in that moment.

1:22:00 SPEAKER_00: And Jesus looked at him and said, Today, you will be with me in paradise.

1:22:07 SPEAKER_00: You know, that's all it took was just that one moment, that one second of belief.

1:22:12 SPEAKER_00: And for the rest of that man's life, he's gonna be dining with Jesus.

1:22:16 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

1:22:18 SPEAKER_00: You know, um but yeah, man, I I just strongly encourage everybody as we close to just really lean into that.

1:22:29 SPEAKER_00: Um understand that uh the one thing in this life outside of eternity that we're promised is death.

1:22:38 SPEAKER_00: It's gonna happen.

1:22:38 SPEAKER_00: It's coming for all of us one day.

1:22:40 SPEAKER_00: Yeah and and there's something beautiful in it.

1:22:45 SPEAKER_00: There's something beautiful in it.

1:22:47 SPEAKER_00: And I know some people listening that don't believe in Jesus yet or don't understand it, they look at that as a morbid thought that I'm sitting here saying death is beautiful.

1:22:54 SPEAKER_00: But it is because if you believe in Jesus, if you put your faith in him, when you die, you're going to a place that is much better than this place.

1:23:04 SPEAKER_00: It's you're gonna have so much, like we're we're gonna spend the rest of our eternity singing and dancing and eating and dining and rejoicing with the Lord, and that is so much greater than anything that we can experience here.

1:23:20 SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

1:23:21 SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, just for my closing comment, I would say uh life more abundantly doesn't have to start when you see Jesus face to face, it can start now.

1:23:33 SPEAKER_01: That was his promise.

1:23:36 SPEAKER_01: Uh your your your life does not um necessarily start when you see him face to face at all.

1:23:43 SPEAKER_01: When you the moment you you meet him and have an encounter with him on this earth and surrender yourself to him, that's when your life starts.

1:23:53 SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't have the struggle doesn't have to continue.

1:23:57 SPEAKER_01: The pain that you're feeling, the addiction, the the the suicidal thoughts that doesn't have to be something that you take to the grave.

1:24:08 SPEAKER_01: Your your life can start now.

1:24:12 SPEAKER_01: He's a good dad and he cares about his kids and he wants you to be a part of his family.

1:24:17 SPEAKER_01: And he wants to give you a piece that surpasses anything that you can humanly comprehend or understand.

1:24:26 SPEAKER_01: He wants that for you.

1:24:28 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he wants that for you.

1:24:31 SPEAKER_01: He wants you to humble yourself and and know him intimately and personally.

1:24:37 SPEAKER_01: That's my encouragement to the audience.

1:24:40 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

1:24:41 SPEAKER_00: And uh for some reason the Lord's telling me to mention some scripture here.

1:24:46 SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna read it because it's long, guys.

1:24:49 SPEAKER_00: Um, but I really encourage everybody to go to the book of Acts in chapter 5, read verse 17 to 41.

1:25:00 SPEAKER_00: Um, for those of you that are uh struggling with talking about God, talking about Jesus, talking about um the good news.

1:25:13 SPEAKER_00: Um, those of you who are having a hard time with just going out there and doing what you're called to do in the Great Commission.

1:25:20 SPEAKER_00: Um, go and read through that chapter and look at what happens with that scripture.

1:25:32 SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they they were literally being told, stop or we will kill you.

1:25:37 SPEAKER_00: And they say, I do not answer to man, I answer to God, and I'm going to preach his word until my last breath.

1:25:44 SPEAKER_00: And what happens at the end of that chapter?

1:25:46 SPEAKER_00: A Pharisee comes out of nowhere and is basically like, Hey, we need to back off of these guys because what happened in the past when we did this to somebody, uh, there was an uprising, you know, when we killed them, because you know, it there's always going to be somebody that's gonna hear it and is going to uh approach those people and say, hey, you know, like what they're saying is true and legit, you know, and if it's not, it'll fall apart.

1:26:14 SPEAKER_00: But if it's built on something of truth, it look at Charlie Kirk.

1:26:19 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

1:26:20 SPEAKER_00: His his ministry was built on truth and what happened when they when he was killed and martyred.

1:26:26 SPEAKER_00: This revival happened out of nowhere.

1:26:28 SPEAKER_00: It's the same thing in this text, the same thing was being talked about.

1:26:34 SPEAKER_00: Um man, just I I encourage all of the listeners to go and read that chapter and really think about it.

1:26:42 SPEAKER_00: If you're struggling with going out and preaching the gospel and and reaching your one more, read that.

1:26:50 SPEAKER_00: Read that and and and pray on that.

1:26:54 SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

1:26:55 SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.

1:26:56 SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Lord, thank you so much for for today.

1:27:01 SPEAKER_01: Um Lord, we pray for our one more that listens to this episode.

1:27:06 SPEAKER_01: Lord, may they just uh even now, would you just stir something up in their in their hearts as we're recording this and allow them to come into this with an with an open heart and uh just a heart that says, you know what, I want to I want to learn more about this Jesus that these guys are all fired up about.

1:27:26 SPEAKER_01: God, we just uh we pray that you would intercede in their heart and do a work that only you can.

1:27:31 SPEAKER_01: Um, because our voices are not loud enough, they're not strong enough, Lord.

1:27:34 SPEAKER_01: They need the Spirit of God to move something radically within their heart, and we just pray for that.

1:27:41 SPEAKER_01: Um and Lord, we just pray for our audience as well.

1:27:44 SPEAKER_01: Lord, would you just be with the one right now who is who is struggling with whatever, maybe uh maybe the fear uh of sharing your word, uh, maybe it's the addiction, maybe it's the maybe it's direct home life.

1:28:01 SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's uh maybe it's that prodigal friend or the prodigal parents.

1:28:05 SPEAKER_01: Lord, we just pray that you would be with that person and give them more boldness, Lord, as they as they prayed for it in Acts when they were being persecuted and had fiery darts coming their way.

1:28:18 SPEAKER_01: They prayed for boldness, and I pray that you would just give our audience this the same thing to be bold about the truth of the gospel.

1:28:27 SPEAKER_01: And one final thing, Lord, we just pray that you would disgust us and break our hearts for the things that break yours.

1:28:36 SPEAKER_01: We love you and we're thankful for your word.

1:28:38 SPEAKER_01: It's in Jesus' name.

1:28:39 SPEAKER_01: Amen.

1:28:40 SPEAKER_01: Awesome.

1:28:41 SPEAKER_01: We appreciate you guys watching today's episode, and we will see y'all in the next one.

1:28:44 SPEAKER_01: Peace.

1:28:45 SPEAKER_01: See ya.