It May Not Look Like What You Think

0:00 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's law, and it never will. That's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by the same spirit living within you. That was funny. Gosh, dang it. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Bumper Sticker Wisdom. I'm John. I'm Terry.

1:30 Oh, man. It's going to be an interesting day, I'm guessing. Yes. I hate how that works because sometimes... The audio is already up, and sometimes it's not. And it's like right in the middle of trying to share one or share something on the show, it's like, oh, no sound. And whenever I'm just trying to get on it, it's like, oh, let me drop this music in the midst of your thing. Okay, perfect. Thanks a lot, turd bucket. Anyway, yeah, I probably need to say a quick prayer, and then we'll get started. Yes, let's do that. Please, Jesus. Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us this time, this opportunity. We just want to take the moment to, Submit ourselves to you. Submit our minds and our hearts to you.

2:17 Submit our tongues to you, Father. Just ask that you work through us. Allow your Holy Spirit to fill the atmosphere and allow everything that we say only be focused and pointed towards you. We want to lift up anybody right now who's listening to us. taking a chance on us that we have something for them that we can share that will uplift them or guide them in your direction, Father, that we are not the answer. You are the answer. We are here to plant seeds, Father. We just ask that you reap a harvest of goodness, Father God. We love you. Thank you for your goodness and mercy. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. So anyway, yeah, that happened. That was funny. I was like, ooh. There's nothing I can do about it now. It wasn't me. Start over, but I'm not going to do it. Why? Why? Well, you know, it's not like there's somebody back here doing it for us. You know what I mean? I'm doing it all by myself, all by ourselves. And, you know, recently I've been doing, you know, for probably almost a year and a half, I have a content like a cadence that I like to use. I've changed it up a couple of times and used to on the day of episode drop. Uh, we, I would do, I would share, um, we would do a dad joke and then I would share the wisdom of the week or whatever. And I just, I don't know why, for whatever reason, I decided to do something a little different. And I started doing my jokes are getting terrible. Yeah. You

3:48 suck at that. Just so you know, just kidding. You're hit or miss one time. You're really good. And the next time it's really bad. It's like life. I mean, you know what I'm saying? Jeez. Yeah. I mean, yes to me. You said it first. You have to agree with me. Jeez. Getting old, you know what I'm saying? Just trying to be funny. Sometimes you're funny and sometimes you're not. So rude. Just like sometimes I'm smart and sometimes I'm not. Sometimes I'm a God -filled man and sometimes I'm not, right? That's just life, right? But a few weeks back, I decided to do something a little bit different. Just kind of do an episode preview. Just me to the camera. kind of talking to the audience inviting them into our conversation right we like to call it it's not really a small group but a small group conversation and we welcome anybody to join it and and all that kind of stuff add subtract whatever uh and obviously i've been using help right because i'm not that intelligent to write uh a script or whatever so i take the uh the transcripts from the episode and and Me and ChatGBT play with it, and it comes up with, like, what's the central theme? What's the idea?

5:04 Here's some of the things that came out. Here's some of the conversation that you had. I'm like, okay, so let's summarize it into 30 to 60 seconds worth of share or whatever. And I didn't notice it until I had already recorded it, but I started with basically the same question two weeks in a row. Way to go, John. Good job, John. Way to go, John. I'm blaming Chad GPT this time. Well, you're going to tell Chad GPT. It's my fault. It's my fault. Hey, it's two years, two times in a row you made me do that. Yeah, I'm blaming myself because I was like, that sounds familiar. You know what I mean? In the middle of recording, it's like, that sounds familiar. Now, everything that came after that was different. But for whatever reason, it connected the same dots for whatever reason. And I was like, yeah, I need to be better.

5:51 That's my job. I should be editing that or paying attention to that. And I missed it. And I had already recorded it and edited it. And I was like, I'm not doing it again. And it's okay because, I mean, it happens. We're growing, right? That's what I think makes us appealable and makes us palatable for people. We're just real regular people doing a thing that's a lot of... We're doing it ourselves. No one's helping us do this. No one's... Yeah. Well, a lot of people don't have the guts to take the first step, which... Hey, we have 100 and... We're almost 150. It's 144 today. 144 today. Yeah, 144. You know, it's funny that we had... We did the tent revival thing and one of the kids go, whoo, you're TikTok famous, y 'all. I was like, I'm TikTok famous?

6:38 She goes, I see you on TikTok. I was like... Really? And they're like, yeah. Well, y 'all share it. I said, are you watching it? She goes, yeah. I said, are you watching the whole episode? No, I just watch the TikTok stuff. Gosh, it's funny that happens, but yeah. But it's funny because they're like, I see you on TikTok. You're famous. Yeah, yeah, you're famous. Are you liking it and sharing? Yeah, I'm sharing. I'm like. Y 'all liars. They're sharing. Hey, they're seeing me and I'm excited. Yeah, I think it's pretty cool. It's a little interesting now. People are starting. I've always been kind of somebody that people are scared to talk to. Right. And now people are starting to find a little bit more commonality. Right. And I've had, I've had several people recently like mentioned something that they saw and I'm like, thank you. Thank you.

7:23 Yep. Thank you. Yeah. It's because of me. Michelle. Shut up. You're welcome. You're welcome. It's a woman's point of view. You're welcome. No, just kidding. Probably. You're the flavor of the show, really. Hey, my jokes not might be funny, but I'm pretty funny myself. I never said your jokes aren't funny. Oh, man. It's the same thing every time. It's not about perfection. It's just about understanding how to deliver. Absolutely. Jokes are the same way. It's like when you... When you get out of sequence or you say a word out of place or whatever, it ruins the entire joke. And so it's like, it's hard to get better. You can't rewind that. Start over.

8:07 You can try, but it doesn't work. You know what I mean? He did for Ace Insurer. Okay. He was funny. That was phenomenally funny when he did that. This is an initial replay. He's funny though, but yeah. But anyhow, let's not go too far off the rails. Before I get started, this episode will be dropping on the day that Texas is an OU play. And I just want to take a moment to say, OU sucks. Hook them horns. Hook them horns. That's all I got to say about that. We haven't looked particularly great, but I will say this.

8:48 We pulled it off. I mean, I don't care. At the end of the day, champions figure out how to win whenever they're not playing their best. They beat a very difficult Ohio State team. People can say Ohio State lost the game, and they did. But we had to make it count, and we did. We did. And then against Tennessee, they – I mean, it's a – I was gritting my teeth. I know how Texas fans are. We're like Cowboy fans. They're spoiled. They have a high expectation. And I get it. I do too. But it's going on the road against a talented football team in the SEC. We're number one. They want nothing more than to beat us so bad. Everybody wants to beat us. Yeah, so you're the hunted, and they played a very good, sound, defensive football game, but our defense was far better. There was a ton of miscues, a ton of penalties. Like 11 penalties for like 110 yards. Yeah. It's like ridiculous. It was ridiculous.

9:50 Holy cow, we gave them two touchdowns just off of penalties if you look at it like that. So, you know, we haven't played our particular – what is encouraging to me is they haven't played their best game and yet they've won. Yeah. Right? And so if both – all three phases of the – of the team show up on the same day they're hard they're going to be very hard to beat yes I think this is me talking before Texas OU I think that honestly Georgia is the number one team in the country and should be the number one team I think they're better than us right now but if best shows up and best shows up I think we edge them yeah we have to play that way though that's the whole problem Anyway, I'll stay on that all day if you want. I can go football if you want. But I'm not disappointed. I don't like having to grit my teeth, panic, or worry that we're about to let this game slip or whatever. But we have been able to pull them out against quality opponents.

10:55 So what else can you ask for? At the end of the day, it doesn't matter as long as it turns into a W in the standings, right? It doesn't matter what the score was. As long as you're one better than them, that's all that really matters. You can go 15 -0 by one point each, still wins a national championship. So I really don't care how that goes. So it doesn't have to look pretty as long as it gets done. So anyhow, yeah, you brought up the tent revival, which kind of leads into some other things. What's been on my mind recently? is worship and i'm curious first of all what does that mean to you when i say the word worship like what what does that even look like um worship means to me like when we're singing those hot things i like worship i love to be able to just sing the songs i want to sing yeah i get filled up my cup gets really filled up i love the worship i love the way i love This is my biggest thing in the tent revival. I love to see little kids. Oh, yeah. Youth. I love to see how much these kids love it. Because I'm telling you, when I was that age, hated it. Absolutely hated going. I was not going to lie. Nothing against. I was church of Christ. We didn't get that. We sang out of hymns. Yeah. And I'm not

12:29 saying anything ugly. It was just very bland. I think there was a change and a shift in the idea of what praise and worship looked like. Probably around the time that, I don't know, whenever it started getting a little more modern in the music part of it, probably in the late 80s and 90s is when it kind of started shifting and people started, you started seeing more and more of like the hand raising and stuff like that. I didn't really. I mean, even when I got married, we were still going to Church of Christ. And I really didn't get into it until we moved to Lubbock. And we moved to this church that was in a shopping center. Yeah. And we, of course, me and my kids went by ourselves, you know, on Sundays. And there was this black lady. And I don't know what it was about her that just made it seem. I mean, it was non -denominational.

13:28 Non -denominational, yes. And it was. Amazing. I would love to stand next to her and just listen to her voice and just sing. I think Southern Gospel, right? That's kind of where I think that that kind of developed into what we consider praise and worship now. I'm still, and I think that that is part of worship. I don't want to go too far off the topic here because worship. I'm talking about worship in a big picture, not just that one central moment, which I think it's a moment that kind of helps move you into the presence of God. It kind of gets you in the right framework and things like that. And I'm still trying to surrender in those moments to doing the hand raising. I can do it at home just fine.

14:13 Like I said, I was church of Christ. We didn't raise our hands. We didn't have instruments. We didn't have those things. You didn't even have a piano? No. We didn't have nothing. We had no instruments. We at least had a piano in the Baptist church. We had nothing. There was nothing. It was hymns. That was it. We didn't, I'm not saying it was boring. It was just not, I mean. Yeah, it's old. Yeah, it's old church. Yeah, yeah, I get it. Totally understand it. So it was cool, you know, so I'm like, I'm seeing, to see instruments and see guitars and those type of things. So that was, you know. I will tell you that worship is a central, it's a central behavior that we should be, having and I don't really it's a reverence toward right not just a respect it's a it's a a reverence meaning like it's like showing gratitude showing it's it's admiration it's it's It's surrendering to the Lordship. It's so much level what worship really means. It's such a bigger concept than just a simple singing of songs and dancing and raising hands, which all are good things. But I've been thinking a lot about what are acts of worship?

15:37 How do we truly worship the Lord? And yes, praise and worship is one instance, but I think that there's much deeper levels. Then just that, that one's kind of, that's really the, that's the base level of what worship really should look like. To me, worship really is, you know, we worship God in our giving. Oh yeah, absolutely. You know what I mean? We show our reverence and our love and our trust in him by giving. We worship him with our actions and how we act and how we treat people. Love others, love God, you know what I mean? We show our reverence and appreciation and respect. for his authority in our lives by how we treat people. We worship people, not people, excuse me. We just worship God by our faith in him and trusting in him and having peace in him.

16:29 And, you know, that rest that we've talked about a few times, just being rest assured that. God's got this. You know what I mean? Even in the challenging moment, he's got you. He's not going to let you falter or fail or fall. You know what I mean? Peter stepped out on the water and had a moment where he was fully focused and fully intended on Jesus. And in that moment, he's standing on something that can't be stood on. And it wasn't until he recognized the world around him that he began to sink. But what happened? Christ was there to pull him back out. You know what I mean? Christ was there to pull him back out. Jesus is right there all the time. I think just I just feel like here recently it's been a pretty strong focus of mine about how do we worship, not just that praise and worship moment at church. Right.

17:19 Which is it's part of it. Right. Without question. Yeah. But how do we worship God in our daily lives? Right. You know what I mean? Prayer. You know what I mean? When we're in prayer with him. showing our gratitude, acknowledging his presence, acknowledging his lordship of our life, acknowledging that he is the creator and that everything is his. I think it can go pretty deep pretty fast, but in all of that, they did the tent revival thing at the church for three days, and being very transparent, I wasn't really into it. I wasn't into it. I didn't even really want to be there. I went. Because I had an obligation, I felt like. And when I say that, I'm preface it by saying that I'm just being honest. Right.

18:13 And you should be honest. I mean, be honest about everything. That's why we're here at this table is to be honest and not to lie to each other or our listeners. That's why we're here. We want to be honest about things. We want to be able to tell people the truth and not lie. I didn't want to be there. Why? But by the end of it, because it was inconvenient, it was a disturbance to my life. It meant completely changing my rhythm in life. Can I tell you why I wanted to go? Sure. I needed it. I felt like, you know, that I felt like I hadn't been with the Lord or I felt like I needed, I felt like I felt away from the Lord for a while and I felt like I've backed up. And I don't know why. Can I ask you a question? Do you feel as though my own walk has caused some of that? Because just being me, the spiritual head of the household, do you feel like my personal experience and my personal difficulties have caused some of that? A little bit, yes. I'm sorry.

19:33 No, don't feel bad. Don't do that. Well, I have to be. A little bit. I hate that because I know that, right? And I wouldn't ask it if I didn't already know the answer. Obviously, I knew that. Continue, I'm sorry. But anyway, I felt like I needed it. And like I said, I told you, you don't have to go. And you're like, if you're going to be there, I've got to be there. And I'm like, okay, now I feel really guilty. I feel really bad. But it was really good, honestly. I got a lot out of it. And there's some things I believed in. There's some things that, you know, like Knox was there. He kept asking me, y 'all, y 'all. I'll preface, I'll bring all that up too. And it was funny because some of the stuff I loved, I loved being there. I loved connecting with people. There was a lady there that, her name was Tina. Tina that I played softball with a lot, a lot of years ago. She had some cancer. She said, I need to be there. I need to be here. I need to be here. My kids have gone.

20:34 They're away, and I need to pray for them. I said, listen, Tina, it starts with you first. Yeah. It starts with you first. She goes, God told me I need to be here. And she goes, I'm glad you're here. And I prayed for her when she got off the golf cart, prayed for her, and I prayed for her when she left and everything. And I prayed for her again Saturday when she. She goes, thanks. She goes, I needed that. She goes, my marriage, my husband said something about we've been putting God in our lives and everything's gone to crap. And I was like, listen, Tina, it's not that. And she goes, I've been telling him that. I said, come to my church. And I understand our church is a lot. I said, dude, sit with me. You know me. I've gone through a lot too. And she's known me since softball.

21:23 And I'm not the same person I was then. Yeah, 100%. Than I am today. I'm way different, Tina. Yeah. Come. Come hang with your husband. Dude, come. I will say that, yeah, I do apologize for my influence in that. I also appreciate my influence in that. Like, that is a, as much as it's kind of a negative thing, that is a respect. And I appreciate that because. it's a matter of trying to not put pressure on me is what it is, right, is what you're doing. Like I said, I don't want to push you to go. I was going to go anyway just because I needed to be full. Yeah, but you know who I am. I know. I needed to be full. I needed to go. I needed to be there. I don't know why.

22:12 I just, I needed to be there for those reasons. I never, now I said that because I was building to the fact that I know that coming out of it. I never, there wasn't one night I regretted being there. Me either. I was worn out. I mean, I had a great time riding the golf cart. I rode this big ass bougie golf cart. The limo golf cart. It was a limo. It had three seats. And of course, you know, I'm like, I mean, of course it's not yours. And you're just like. Yeah, being real gentle. You know, I mean, it was nice. I had a great time, you know. You just want to connect with people that you, our church is not big.

22:53 You want to connect with people that you've never, like, oh, when do you go to church? You go 9, you go 11. Hey, I see you. I'm going to say hi. I mean, I met with a guy, too, and it was Tim. And he's a blended family, and he says, I'm going through a lot. And he goes, what do I do? And I said, pray. Pray about things. Pray together. His ex -wife is a very talkative person. I said, you know what? you're going to get that and you're going to pray about it and pray about this and your kids and his kids are, you know, pray, pray, pray. He goes, well, I've been out for a while. I said, and? So? God has never left you. I said, it's you that moves, not him. You're here today.

23:36 That's all that matters. Pray about it. And he was like, you know, he's lost both of his parents. And I'm like. i'm sorry i don't know what that feels like but you know i'm sorry you know that's tough man that's tough i lost one parent and that's hard and you know we all obviously have to deal with that fact it's coming at some point but man i i will say that i did feel okay so um let's say it started on wednesday night and i grinded to get podcast stuff done by tuesday because i usually i try to i try not to put too much pressure on we did it on sunday right we recorded a day early yeah so i could have monday and then tuesday and like look i i try to not put too much pressure on myself because then it feels too much like a job yeah right this is i mean it's a licensed business we'd like to make some money out of it but we're not making any money okay so it's it's my time is valuable too. And sometimes I need to be able to just do the things that I need to do to just shut my mind off. You know what I mean? And, and so I grinded to get it done. We recorded early.

24:41 So I'd have more time. I had everything complete by Tuesday. And that's, I mean, that's complete. That's good. Way in advance. Right. I mean, completely edited all videos, clipped all everything, everything. Great job. And then there was this thing that whole first night was like, I already knew I was going to be there. I had a crap day at work. I mean, it was terrible. I remember talking on the phone with you, and you wouldn't even acknowledge me saying it. I said it three different times. You wouldn't even acknowledge it. I was like, I really don't want to do this today. I really don't want to do this. I just don't want to be there. I don't want to do it. I don't want to, but I got to. I know I need to. And so I showed up, and the whole time, Saying all of that, I knew I was going to go, right? Because I knew you weren't backing down, so I knew I was going to go. I wasn't going to leave work because it was like no point in me driving home and then coming back, so I stayed at work. Plus, since I was going to be there, I committed to help, so I'm already in it, right? What was your first night to do? The first two nights both I was altar. Which was weird, yeah. That whole thing was a different situation. We had no clue what we were doing. But anyway. I already had in my head that I'm going, even though I don't want to go. A lot of times, I think what I find is...

26:04 I had a headache that day, too. Yep, yep. I think it kind of reminded me of Jonah, right? It's like, I really don't want to go to Nineveh. God, I don't want to go to Nineveh. Man, those people are crazy. It's like, I'm going the other way. He's like... Watch this. Hold my beer. Let me show you what's fixing to happen. You know what I mean? And like, that's kind of how it felt in that regard. But I submitted and I went and the whole time as I'm leading up to it, I was like, God, if I'm going to be there, if I'm going to do this, I need to see you move. I got to see you move. I got to see you move because right now I feel very far away. Right. And I know that's not his fault. No, I know that's me. Yeah. I need to see you move in order for me to feel like, and of course, how selfish is that of me to even talk to God like that, right? How crazy is it that I'm over here like, okay, Mr. Creator of the universe, show me something. I agree with you. But I started to wonder, am I asking God, do I need to see God move for me or do I need to see God move for others? Right. I think that was the humbling question that I had landed on when I finally showed up that night, that first night, was, okay, I think God was trying to tell me, okay, you're going to see me move, but it's not going to look like what you think it's going to. Amen. It may not be for you. It may be for

27:39 that person over there. Or that one over there. And there's several stories and testimonies that come out of that tent revival. I know for sure. The random baptisms was cool. Ate that first night. Ate the first night. And I know that water was cold. It wasn't as bad as the last night after all that rain. Oh, we were like getting torrential rain. It was rain. The trough was a flood. And I got soaked. I helped baptize that last night, which was such an honor. It was an honor. There were some things that happened there that were kind of like out of my comfort zone. And I struggle with this because, again, I just, based off of my own study and my own understanding of God's word, we may all have, we may all potentially have access to all the gifts, but I don't think we all get access to all the gifts. I don't think that's how that works. I think that it's very clearly stated that Not everybody will be able to prophesy. Not everybody will be able to speak in tongues. And I refuse to manufacture things like that. Well, mind you, I came from Kurdish tribes. We didn't believe in those type things.

29:01 And so when people say, you speak in tongues, I was like, hmm. And it's hard because I'm just like, when I went to a Bible study one time, and a lady told me, she was just saying, bubble gum, bubble gum. And I'm like, no. See, that's manufacturing it to me, and I think that's dishonest. Look, I think, I believe, I know God can do anything. I agree. If he wants you to speak in tongues, he will make you speak in tongues, right? That's what I think. I think so, too. So I think, yes, it's possible that all of us could. I don't think we all. do it. And I don't think just because I don't get that experience makes me have any less faith or that my position is any lesser than. It just means that's not my experience.

29:55 I believe others can, but I don't believe that I can. I have never had that experience and I'm not going to fake it. I can't either. It's like the slain in the spirit thing that Pastor Richie was talking about, about how, you know, after he had done something he shouldn't have or whatever. And he shows up to the church, they call it. That's when they did true altar call. Yeah. Like make you come to the front and like repent, you know, and the pastor's got his hand on his head and he's kind of pushing on him and stuff like that. And he's like fighting him back. He's like, don't fight the Holy Spirit. He's like, I'm not fighting you. I'm not fighting the Holy Spirit. I'm fighting you because I refuse to manufacture God's good work. I refused a lot of people. I agree. And I refuse a lot of myself. You know what I mean? I'm not going to pretend that something's happening just so I can get a reaction or so that I can make others around me feel powerful or anything like that. But I'm not saying it can't happen. I agree with you. I totally agree with you. I'm not saying people don't get slain in the spirit and fall out. I'm not saying that that doesn't happen. I'm just saying it's never happened to me. Right. And if it ever does, praise God. Praise God, yeah. If it doesn't, Praise God. It's okay. I just feel like we should grow a relationship where he is pushing us forward and we're continuing to grow. And I don't think God asks you to believe for belief's sake. I may be wrong. I may be wrong. I truly think that

31:25 there is... scriptural evidence that states that we should question everything yeah like don't just trust people man don't just trust things right i i don't know if i'm right on that i could be wrong i don't want to again i don't want to lie right but i have this recollection of something and it may be scriptural that states to question right You know what I mean? It's hard when you try to, you know, knock his ass and he's like, what? And I'm like, I'm like, son, I said, is it something that happens? You know, the Holy Spirit's going through them. And my mom wouldn't explain that to me. My mom was just like, that's false. It's a little freaked out. It's a little freaky for young ones. So he's like looking at me and I'm looking at him. It's freaky for adults.

32:08 Trust me, there were plenty of people that were not comfortable with that, like when they saw that happen. And when they started hearing her start to pray in tongues or whatever. And he's like, why is she talking like that? And I'm like, well, that's just the Holy Spirit speaking to her. And he's like, he's looking at me like. So the scripture, okay, so the scripture states something to the effect that the Spirit prays for us in moanings and groanings that we don't understand, right? So like he intercedes on our behalf without our understanding. And so like I think that sometimes people interpret things the way they want to. I'm not saying that it's wrong. I'm just saying that I think that sometimes humanity interprets things the way they want to. And they attach this idea. I thought it was like God speaking to you so the devil can't hear.

32:52 Tongues? Yes. It's you speaking to God so the devil can't hear. Yes. Let's say it like that. Yes. I think that sometimes people overthink things a little bit too much and they take Scripture and they try to, they kind of, okay, well, it kind of sounds like, because we don't hear the Holy Spirit, right? And so if we're praying in the Spirit. Yeah. It sounds like maybe praying in the Spirit maybe requires a language that we don't understand. Yeah. Because it's moanings and groanings that we can't understand, right? And so I get it. I get it. I get it too, but I mean. I don't think that there's a concrete biblical foundation that states anywhere that we will all do that or that we all have our own private prayer language. Yes. And look, that may be against my church's theology. My church may believe that that's the case. And I may disagree with that. I still love my church. Yes, I do too. You know what I mean? I can fundamentally question that without questioning the whole thing.

34:01 You see what I'm saying? I think that's where people make dangerous decisions because they disagree on one little detail and they let the whole thing crumble. That, to me, sounds like your faith isn't built on much. Right. If you're going to let one little detail crumble the whole thing. You know what I mean? So I think the Holy Spirit is a complex conversation. The Holy Spirit's hard to understand, to get people to understand the Holy Spirit. Because it's really hard for people to grasp the Holy Spirit. You can say the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Because when you say the Holy Spirit, they're like, well, it's the Holy Spirit. Like, you know, it's really hard for them to understand that. Yeah. Or where it comes from or, you know, to do that, you know.

34:52 It requires somebody far more intelligent than me. You know what I'm saying? So, but Richie's been explaining it very well at church. So, I mean, I like the way he's been explaining things very well. I think that the Holy Spirit is something that's not really explainable, right? I think that. It was what happened that night when people started, there was a few people that kind of just fell down or whatever. And I'm not dismissing that like it wasn't real or anything like that. That person's heart felt it, you could tell. But I felt it too, but I didn't have to, you know. But trying to explain it to a six -year -old or seven -year -old doesn't understand that.

35:33 And it's very complex to try to teach them. Like, okay, and I was just trying to explain to them, it's like, It's like they can't even help it. That's what it means. It's like you can't. The reason that their words are coming out like that, the reason that they're falling down, they can't help it. It's literally being overcome by the Spirit, right? And whether he understood that or not, I don't know. Kids are kids. They're going to get bits and pieces. Your mom can tell you something. Oh, he's going to remember that. I promise you he's going to remember that. I mean, like I said, kids are only going to get bits and pieces of something. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I think that to kind of get back to the whole story there, I think that it ended up being far more than I anticipated. I did see God move. I felt God move also in my life and in my heart. We had some good conversation after that. I do think so too. A few times. It completely inconvenienced my life. And I don't like that. I'm doing a lot to you. I'm very tired this week. I'm very tired. We missed the gym last week because of it. Yes, we did. Because we weren't getting home until like 9 .30, almost 10 every night. You know what I mean? And we're talking about starting at 5 in the morning. I mean, by the time you want to get home, you're trying to unwind. Yeah. Get the dogs to unwind.

36:57 Like, where have you been? Where have you been? Every night. You know, so it's, you know. It was a lot. And then, you know, and then yesterday or Sunday, you know, we went to church. One of the people from the Tender Revival, Pastor Phil, which is our pastor's brother, gave a great word. He did get a great word. There's a lot of things that were there to unpack. So much information in four days that we got. It's hard because you're only going once a week. So you're processing that all week and you're dwelling on the all week. Oh, okay. But four days. Yeah. Or three days and Sunday, you're just like, it's a lot.

37:43 I'll give you an interesting, not interesting, but it was weird because, you know, we follow, I'm back to regularly serving in elementary again. And so I was filling in for one of the teachers yesterday. And we follow a lesson plan, right? There's a plan that these lessons come from. And we kind of shifted gears because what we were doing was like. Okay, man, I want to be teaching. Some of this is a lot, you know what I mean? Or it's very plain Jane. Or it's just a lot to try to teach elementary kids. Anyway, yesterday was about Jesus' resurrection, and I was like, five months from Easter? It's kind of weird. We're teaching about it. Why are you teaching that now? But I had a... What I felt like was a good class, and I had a moment where they all, it seemed like they were all hearing me. Oh, awesome. Not necessarily listening, but they were all hearing. And it was towards the end, and we were talking about, I walked them through the story. I showed a video, a short synopsis of Christ came. He was the Son of God.

38:59 Some people didn't believe he was the Son of God. They put him on a cross, right? He was beaten, abused. put on the cross, stabbed, the earth shook, the sun went dark, they wrapped him up, they put him in the tomb. Three days later, the tomb is empty. And I got into this question of, okay, so why does it matter that the tomb was empty? What's the point? And I'm asking them. I knew what the point is, but I'm trying to get them to the point. Yeah, that's good. Who cares? Who cares that Christ wasn't there anymore? What does that mean? What does that mean? It made them talk through it a few times before someone finally said, okay, listen, what did he beat?

39:45 If he walked out of the grave, what did he beat? What was defeated if the stone was rolled away and Jesus was gone and he was alive? What did he beat? Death. He defeated death. He defeated sin. Not physical death. This is going to die. This is going to die. Spiritual death is what we're talking about. And I just got an opportunity to say, look, this is the most important. This is the most important part of everything. This is everything right here. The whole reason you're here right now is this part of the story. That's the whole reason you're here. The whole reason we show up on Sunday and want to learn our relationship with him. The whole reason is because of this story, because of that third day, because of that empty tomb. You know what I mean? So good.

40:35 That's the whole reason we're here. That's the thing that our entire faith is built on, is that story, is that day. You know what I mean? And people ran away from that day proclaiming that he's risen, he's alive, he's here. Didn't you see him on the cross? Oh, yeah. Think about it. There was Roman centurions there. When he, Tetelestai, Tetelestai, Tetelestai. It is finished. When he said that, right, and the earth shook and it went dark, there's Roman centurions there like, uh -oh. What happened? What just happened?

41:16 You know what I mean? Like what kind of conversion they had. And there's all kinds of crazy stories that come from out of that. But at the end of the day, I just got to – there was a split second where you could tell I got their attention, which is what you do it for. That's what you do it for, yeah. You know, I got their attention. It made sense to them for just long enough. As long as you get their attention for that long, you're doing great. At the end of it, we have our Bible book store, which is, you know, during the month, kids earn Bible books, which is like for answering questions, bringing a Bible, whatever, whatever. And they can go through this little store and buy little toys or whatever. And the one kid that was freaking out because he didn't get no Bible book, he doesn't like to answer. He doesn't answer questions. Right? And he didn't. Why was he crying? Because he. They wouldn't let him answer any questions. And I'm like, they're asking questions that doesn't have anything to do with our story. He's like, I'm asking you about our story today. What happened? Tell me the story.

42:11 Tell me the story. Is he the one that was making a scene? Yeah. Yeah. You don't get to do that. Don't roll your eyes. Oh, trust me. He walked in there and he was yelling at one of the volunteers. Why? I was like, listen to me. You're not going to stand here and yell for nothing. Well, they wouldn't. I said, why? Was you on your phone? Well, yeah. I said, then no. You don't get to act like that. You were on your phone, so you don't get the privilege to do any of that. That's not fair. I said, then put your phone down. You don't get to do that. And he looked at me and I went, sorry, buddy. You don't know who I am, but you can't act like that either, sir. But at the end of the day, I asked him to tell me the story. Tell me what happened. What happened to the first? And he told me the whole thing, which means he heard me. Which means he was listening.

43:07 He was listening. While he was playing a game. No, he wasn't doing it. Whenever we're in class, if I see a phone, I'm going to take your phone from you. We're not going to do that during class. Now, after class has ended, if they want to play with their phone, whatever. Once the lesson is over and we're doing Bible Explorer or we're playing a game or whatever, you're welcome to use your phone. It's your phone. You can do whatever you want. doing anything serious at this point, right? So I don't harp on him too bad for that. But that was his choice, too. I wasn't in there. I was in the Bible book store handling that mayhem, which is freaking crazy sometimes. Oh, I can't. It's hard, man. You do a great job in elementary. I applaud you every day. Thanks. I will do preschool any day of the week. You got to think about taking five to 11 -year -old kids and trying to one.

43:57 Two, three. There's a handful that are very difficult. Pick your price. I can't. I'm like, can't. I can't. I'd rather do three to four -year -olds. We'd rather do that. I think that. Can't. I would rather do little kids because they listen to me more often than those big kids. You're scary. Yes. You put the fear of God in them. They're like, ooh, there comes the moon, daddy. Yeah, you are mean. I don't care. I do not care. It's funny because I had one of the little brown kids come in. She's the main boss. Yes, I am. Just to be clear, the name is Brown. They're not Brown.

44:41 The name is Brown. Yes, their last names are Browns. And he won't come in there because it got on to him while we were tenting rival and we had volunteers and he was throwing a block at one of my volunteers. Well, they're not my volunteers, but they were. The volunteers. She asked him three times, please do not throw that block at me. And it was at her face, not at the face. And she's sitting on the floor with his little brother. She asked him three times, do not throw that block at me. And finally I had to walk in, and I raised my voice, and he looked at me and was like, and I said, and he rolled his eyes at me, do not roll your eyes at me. And he just walked away, and I said, do not throw that block. He didn't. She's the main boss lady.

45:30 I am the main boss lady. Y 'all remember that? The difficulty that kids like that have with someone like you is you're a disciplinarian. Yes. You know, kids that don't live in a disciplinarian household, that's going to be a challenge for them. Well, their dad's a very disciplined person. He disciplines them. I mean, but almost like their mom does too, but not as much as she should. Well, so a lot of the issue that we have had. In our relationship with our children. But isn't Milt in your class? He's supposed to be. Okay. He was in there yesterday. Okay. Yeah. And yeah, I have to get on him too. So some of the issue that we had, especially early on with my boys and you, is the fact that they're used to me being a disciplinarian, not anybody else. Not a woman. Not a woman, right? So their mom is not like that. Yeah. And so here you come being.

46:26 a lot like me and it's funny because i'm the oldest but you're not but no i'm the middle but we're so far separated my brother's six years older than me i'm 10 years older than my sister you know yeah it's like that's a completely different world you know yeah my brother was moving out when i was 11. yeah you know what i mean i was out of my sister when my sister was six yeah you know what i'm saying so uh That's just, yeah, I think that that's where some of that struggle comes. I'm not saying that they're not disciplinarian, but you're a very, you're still a very stern person. Like that's the way, that's the way it was for us when we were young. Like grandparents were stern. Parents were stern. It was very.

47:14 These, these COVID babies right now are just, they, they, these COVID babies. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. We were just talking about me and. Lacey, you were talking about this the other day. These COVID babies now are just babied, which I get it. I totally understand it. But, dude, no, mama, you know, this is like the mafia people. You know how they, you know, roll out their little, you know, knives and stuff like that. You know, you pull it out, and it's like, hmm, what can I torture them with? No. It's like getting mom to roll these out. Here's a flip -flop, a floss water, a switch. What do you call these? cord and all kinds of stuff and he's like oh yeah belt belt yeah i know you know like i said you know it's come on man you know it's funny so uh i want to share this video because i watched it uh last weekend okay and it's something that comes into my mind as we go and do this specific kind of thing and you know i also teaching elementary school kids and i also have a men's group that i work with and i'm the quote quote leader i guess you would say um you're always a leader uh yeah so but in that comes some discouragement because you you really look i'm not the most

48:45 i'm not a biblical scholar you know what i mean i'm not a theologian i don't have umpteen hundreds of hours of study Going into what I do or what we do here. You have great knowledge, though. You have great knowledge. You have great words. And you're very good with your words. So don't sit here and downgrade yourself because you're very good at what you do. Right. And you really are very good at what you do. So don't tell yourself you're not. I didn't finish. Okay. I'm sorry. Let me let you finish. But I do appreciate that. And, look, I think that the point is it's like. We're all meant to be fishers of men. Absolutely.

49:26 All of us. Absolutely. And the hook that we fish with is going to look different for everybody. And the bait that people bite isn't going to be the same for everybody. Absolutely. Right? And that's what this video made me. Absolutely. And these are two very powerful pastors, by the way. Like Josh Howerton and Phillip Anthony Mitchell, they are phenomenal pastors. Oh, watch, the volume's not going to be up. I told you. See? I don't have a seminary degree. I remember going to seminary for one semester. It's a struggle for me sometimes because if I could be fully transparent, like I don't have a seminary degree. I remember going to seminary for one semester and I had to drop out because of my family. You know, it's like, man, you're always locked in a room. You're working on a paper and I'm going to drop out. And so for me, can I just be fully transparent? Man, sometimes I feel so insecure in my preaching.

50:20 Like, my preaching is so unpolished. Man, I listen to you talk, and when I hear you talk, like, I listen to this podcast. It's crazy that I'm sitting here at this table. I've listened to you sit here at this table and speak with such depth. I would listen to clips from you and clips of men that I see that have depth, and I would push back in the table, and I would just cry. Sometimes I would get down on my hands and knees, and I would like, Lord, like, I want that type of depth. Is it going to take seminary? Do I have to read more books? Sometimes, man, I feel like my preaching is so unpolished. Man, I'm just a hood dude from the street trying my best to be obedient. I hope you never become a polished preacher. Really? I hope you never do. No. I'm reading a biography of Charles Spurgeon right now. The Prince of Preachers. The Prince of Preachers.

51:00 He was like a British Philip Anthony Mitchell in 1880. Preachers. hated him. They hated him. He was called the vulgar preacher. In Britain back then, vulgar didn't mean like he uses inappropriate humor. It just meant he talks like a normal dude. He talks like a dude that swings a hammer, you know, or breaks his back throwing drywall or a farmer. And all the preachers in his day, they would come out of these seminaries and they would use this super lapsarianism. And preachers hated him because they said, this guy's vulgaring the pulpit. They hated him. And bro, he's got this fire quid. I'm going to butcher it. He was responding to all these guys talking about he's vulgar. And he said, I think we've had enough polite preachers. He said, these polite preachers can reach these polite people. And they said, you know who I'm for? I'm for the men from the highways and the byways. I'm for the men from the fields and the factories. And he said, if I am vulgar, let me be vulgar. These men belong to me. Shit!

51:59 That's what I'm talking about, man. That's so good. That stuff hit me hard that other night, man. It really did. It was like, wow, that's what I'm talking about, right? Oh, my gosh, that was. I'm obviously not a preacher. This isn't church. It's not a church. No, but you're very, like I was telling people, like I had two people that I gave, I worked this weekend, and I gave a lady my, our podcast. A card. A card. And she's like, I was meant to come here. I invited her to our church, and I gave her one of my cards, and she goes, I was meant here to come. I said, hey, I'm going to sit here and tell you, my podcast is not about, you know, preaching and this. I said, but do we talk about God? She said, absolutely, but we talk about the real world. We talk about these things, and we're not going to sit here and say we're perfect. We're not going to sit here and say we're. this or that or we're not here to judge you or anything like that or and she's like i was meant to be here and i said absolutely girl i said you know what listen share please we need our podcast to be we need to reach that one yeah we want to reach the one we want to reach your one yeah we want to reach someone else's one yeah and someone else's one If we're that person to reach everybody's one, then we are doing what we're supposed to be doing as our one. If my method of delivering my experience

53:31 inspires somebody toward relationship with Christ, I don't know what I could ask for. Absolutely. I mean, I don't know what else there is to be proud of or what else there is to be motivated by. I'll be 100 % honest with you. It's been really, it's crossed my mind a lot to just kind of quit. like to be done as much as I love doing it. It's just kind of, it's like, it's a tax. You know what I'm saying? I've talked a lot about like things filling up time and, you know, needing to separate and do other things. And I just, I'm making a commitment to myself to not let my discomfort with my situations allow my relationship with Christ, my church. my groups to be casualties of those things. If anything should be a casualty to those things, it should be the things that I do with my time outside of that. If my time is being filled with time with God, I don't see that as a burden. It shouldn't be felt like a burden either. It should be felt like a privilege because not everybody has that chance. Not everybody has that opportunity. You know, time with God is not a right, man. It really is a privilege.

54:58 He's given us the privilege to come into his presence, and we live in one of the few countries left where we're free to do it wherever and whenever we want. You know what I'm saying? And I don't want to take that for granted. We're just going to keep what we're doing, and we're going to keep doing what we do. And listen, my deal is we're going to keep doing this until we... Then there's nothing else. But you know what? We're going to keep doing this until there's an apocalypse. And we're going to keep doing it. And, dude, if we're the only person doing this and saying reaches, we're going to still sit here and still go sit here and talk. And we're going to talk to ourselves. We're going to keep doing this. I will say, if nothing else, we at least talk to each other for an hour a week. An hour a week.

55:43 We don't always just talk like this. We do talk. No, we do. We do. I think that, you know what? I'm starting to find those. Sometimes I don't want to talk about it because I don't want to ruin it because I'd like to bring it to the podcast. But then sometimes so much happens, you forget. You know what I mean? I had like 10 great thoughts throughout this last week, obviously. I know, right? I guess I carry a book with me all the time. I need a smaller book than I need to because there's some things I want to talk about this. You got a word. I did get a word. She got a pathetic word. A pathetic word. It was a good one. Just joking. It was a very sweet one. You were very scared to do it. I was very scared. But you were the first in line. Well, I wonder why. It pays to know people. Yeah. Brooke goes, come get nine.

56:36 And we're lining up behind Terry. And I was like, I'm that one. That's behind me. Yeah. Yeah. It was a really sweet one. You get to speak about it now. I set it up for you. Talk about it. We'll talk about it next time, but we'll, we'll put it on here and then we'll, I'll. Let everybody listen to mine. Oh, I forgot you had recorded us talking that night, too, that first night. We'll put that one on here, too, and we'll talk about it. But it was good. It was a good, sweet, it was sweet, and I really enjoyed it. It was good. I liked it. I said that, again, about, like, these are just feelings that you get, right? Like, it's like, I think it's just lies from the enemy, right? He's looking for any way to discourage you. Absolutely. And I don't want to at the goal line. let him discourage me out of it. You know what I mean? I don't want to have been persistent to the one -yard line and then quit. So I refuse, even if I only gain an inch at a time if I have to. It's funny because another thing, there was another girl there that came in and was like, her friend was like, tell her she's wrong. Tell her she's this. And I said, Kate, tell me what's going on. He was trying to tell her she's wrong. I was like, no. no, your control of your own happiness for this, for that. And I said, can I pray with you? He goes, she said, yes. He just was kind of like, he was kind of like, I said, okay, can we come

58:07 into agreement? And he just said, okay. Do you know what's so funny? At the end, he said, amen. Amen. Praise God. Thank you, Jesus. You know what's so funny? It's funny because I was talking to Lacey about it. I said, I think we're going to go. We want to go and do a podcast there. And she's like, you should. You should go there and do a podcast. At the bar? Yes. I want to get their permission to do it. I'm sure she would. It would have to be like one day through the week or something like that or something or, you know, it's not so as loud or just go in and just sit and just talk, you know, just talk to people and say, hey, what do you think about this? Hey, we got a word. What do you think about this word? Or something, you know? Just talk about it, you know? I think... It'd be a hell of a thing to edit because I think you'd have to go for a long period of time. Oh, yeah. To get comfortable, for people to get comfortable, you know what I mean? But the whole thing is we would have to sit in the back and people would probably be like, what are y 'all doing? You know, and just sit and just... Just me and you sit like we're doing here and just talking and and just you know Just in that people would come up and ask us. We are doing and we're doing the podcast and they'll be like oh And in ten months we'll just walk around the little mics that we have that you got You know and just like talk like that, you know, I think people would actually intervene I don't know. It would be something interesting to do. It would be interesting to do so, but yeah, you got another joke I do have

59:39 a joke I don't know if I've already said this one. I might have. Don't butcher it. Oh. Okay. I'm going to say the... Answer first. Answer first. I can do it with my eyes closed. I have no response to this. Ready? Yeah. I'm so good at sleeping. Because I can. You can do it with your eyes open. I sure can. I can sleep with my eyes open. That was a good one. Good job.

1:00:23 I like that one. I'll give you that. I'm going to have to get me a pegboard or something. One for me. Good. Bad. One. And I'm going to put it on my camera. So I'm going to put it right over here. Okay. Oh, you lost your little battery pack? I did. Okay. And go. So just based off of the end of that conversation about, you know, just like. Everybody having their, we're all meant to do it. We're all meant to fish for people, to bring people into the fold of Christ. And some of us, we all, the way I deliver a message and the way that I bring my faith across is different from others, but it's meant to capture somebody.

1:01:10 Just like yours is meant to capture somebody. I find this interesting. Plutarch, which is, it's got to be a Greek philosopher. Know how to listen, and you will profit from those even who speak badly. That's good. I'm not a great listener sometimes. I can be what I want to be. Sister, we are all guilty of that same problem sometimes. I'm not a great listener. I can be what I want to be, but I'm about 50 -50, I guess. I think it's like anything. You really have to be intentional about things. Okay. You don't get better at prayer by not praying. Absolutely.

1:02:00 Right? Absolutely. You don't get better at reading your Bible by not reading your Bible. Absolutely. You don't get better at baseball or swinging a bat or throwing a pitch or catching a ball or any of those things without practice, right? Yeah, absolutely. So if you want to be better at listening. Listen. Yeah. Hey, like we say, come listen to us. Come check us out, man. We love having you. If you've chosen to be listening to us, we're grateful to you. hey we might be getting some new shirts and new logos so check us out some new colors she stole my she stole my gig man i did