Israel & Rachel Campbell "SOUP" Podcast
Join us for an exciting Season 2 of our podcast, which garnered over 7000 downloads last year! Your hosts, Rachel and Israel Campbell, are back to take you on an incredible journey. In this podcast, we invite you into the ongoing dialogues about life, love, parenting, relationships, spirituality, and whatever else sparks our interest!
Our motivation for creating this podcast remains unchanged: we believe that discipleship should encompass more than just a classroom experience; it should be a way of life. Drawing inspiration from Jesus' interactions with his disciples, we see that it was far from a traditional classroom setup. Instead, it was a continuous exchange of teachings and discussions encompassing all facets of life.
Imagine savoring a delicious bowl of soup – that's what our podcast is like. We're here to engage in honest and unfiltered conversations, covering a wide spectrum of topics. And now, we invite you to share this podcast with your friends, family members, or coworkers, just as you'd share a great meal. Just like Jesus and his disciples, we're here to explore the richness of life together!
So, come join us for another season of candid conversations as we dive into a little bit of everything – from the profound to the lighthearted!
Israel & Rachel Campbell "SOUP" Podcast
Israel & Rachel Campbell "SOUP" Podcast Season 2 Episode 22 ''Why Didn't I get a Wagon"
The essence of true discipleship often involves a path less trodden, marked with sacrifices that refine our spirits. In this conversation, we peel back the layers of carrying God's anointing, a mantle that comes with its own set of trials and triumphs. We draw from the lives of Biblical heroes and intertwine tales of our own to illuminate the weight—and the rewards—of spiritual leadership. If the allure of ministry fame has ever beckoned you, discover why the path to such recognition is laden with challenges meant to prepare your heart for the journey ahead.
Wrapping up, we explore the transformative power of praise through the inspiring account of Paul and Silas. Their story is a testament to the triumph of purpose over personal liberation. We also introduce the concept of a "miracle list"—a personal ledger of the divine fingerprints in your life. This list serves as a reminder of God's fidelity, offering strength during times of envy or dissatisfaction. We pepper in a bit of humor (yes, you'll hear Israel's best John Wayne impression) as we invite you to reflect on the miracles of yesterday and eagerly anticipate those yet to unfold. Share your thoughts with us as we together navigate this spiritual sojourn.
Hey everybody, we are back with another episode of Israel and Rachel Campbell soup podcast. Campbell soup fun doing it, israel.
Speaker 2:I love it. You know, there's a couple things that I love is number one I get to spend some time with you. Number two, oh number two I do like talking things out with you, so that's always fun. And then I think that 2024, what is discipleship? What is that like? How do we do it on Sunday mornings? It's not necessarily always the moment, sometimes it's ministry on Sunday morning or community, but discipleship is that constant. Jesus was walking from one place to another, and that's really what discipleship is.
Speaker 2:We never saw him sit them down and, like in a circle, pull out your you know notepads, and I'm going to tell you everything. It was oftentimes he would disciple on the run. And so maybe you're in your car, maybe you're on a treadmill, maybe you're on vacation. I don't know. Do people listen to podcasts on vacation? Would you ever listen to a podcast on vacation? Sure I would. Well then, maybe that's what they're doing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and today we're going to talk about something kind of fun that I think you know what. The reason why I like this Campbell's soup podcast too is because you know it's kind of like what the Holy Spirit is speaking to us in our life and we pray that that really resonates with you. And what I find is usually, when I talk to all of my friends, god's speaking the same thing to all of us, you know, at the same time. And when we come into tune with that, usually it's pretty amazing. So we want to talk about something today, and the title of this podcast is why Didn't I Get A Wagon or why Don't I Get A Wagon, and so I wanted to start off today maybe asking you Israel a hot question Was there ever a time in your life where you saw somebody get a gift and it disappointed you?
Speaker 1:Or maybe you were getting a gift that disappointed you. Or why don't I get a wagon moment in your life?
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, I probably have a lot. I don't know if you have any, because you have a million. You have a million. Yeah, I can think of one, and it's really my parents' fault for hyping it up. I think I was 12 and they kept on hyping up that they got me this incredible gift, which I mean, you know, at 12 years old, any gift is awesome and I appreciate the effort that my parents went into, but I don't think psychologically, they understood what was going on, because they kept on saying, oh yeah, oh, you know, like just hyping it up, this is a gift that nobody else your age has, this is a gift nobody else your age can get. And I was like you know, and so my 12 year old mind is thinking car, my 12 year old mind is thinking you know that none of my neighbors have a Mongoose BMX bike.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, you know all these kind of things.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh, I was just, I was like could not quite handle it.
Speaker 2:So then the day of my birthday, I got given this gift and you know, and kind of close your eyes, open it.
Speaker 2:And I opened it up and my parents, bless their heart, were really trying but what they had done is I was in Boy Scouts and my dad's old house in Vista, California, had gotten demolished and the contractors found in the addicts or stuff in like a wall my dad's old Boy Scout bandana and somehow they had you know, this is pre Facebook but somehow somebody had found out who it was contacted, they got it, washed it and then framed it for me and that was my birthday present and, of course, very sweet, very sentimental, but for a 12 year old, I was like what I was in my mind, thinking it was something else. And then even the Boy Scout thing just to add insult, the injury. I was in Boy Scouts but couldn't go to Boy Scouts because we had church on Sunday, so I couldn't do any of the campouts and all those things. And then hindsight, 2020, maybe that was a good thing. Boy Scouts of America, you know all was protecting me.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so I think I do remember going. Why didn't I get a, you know, a wagon, but it would have been something different. What about?
Speaker 1:you, I want to hear your story. Okay, I remember when I was like maybe I guess it was like 11 or 10.
Speaker 1:And my dad had been, my dad was very theatrical and he had been kind of don't laugh, he was, he was very theatrical, he loved the theatrics and he had been talking to me about getting me a pony all through the fall and we had 10 kids and we lived in the suburbs of Portland Oregon Like there's no room for a pony. But my little 10 year old mind was like what a pony. And so on Christmas Eve my dad had my older brother and him go out to the deck and they were making like these stomping noises and my dad was yelling like whoa, settle down. And all this stuff and like whipping noises. It was so like I was like this is a wild horse that I'm getting in the morning. And then in the morning I had. It was really cute.
Speaker 1:It was like a little, my little pony you know kind of a little bit bigger than the normal my little ponies, but it was like a my little pony horse that was it a knockoff?
Speaker 2:Tell the truth. No even, not even a real, my little pony.
Speaker 1:It was a knockoff, my little pony, no, but then one year my I really wanted a cabbage patch doll and my mom got a second. Like she went out and had a job, she already had 10 kids, yeah.
Speaker 1:And my sister was special in these, like my mom, had like five full time jobs and pastoring people too. But she went and got a job so she could raise money to get us gifts. And at the Christmas Bazaar she got Hired at they had these look alike cabbage patch dolls knock off and it was like a ton.
Speaker 1:It had like things coming out of its nose. So it's like an inverted cabbage patch doll nose and that was what gave it away and it didn't have a signature on the butt but it was cute and the face was fabric instead of hard like the cabbage patch kids and all the things. And I remember opening it up in front of her, knowing her labor Of love, and just being like, so over, like, of course, what you say I always do, overcompensated with the. But inside I was like, oh my gosh, my cabbage patch doll has permanent boogers.
Speaker 2:You overcompensate, you get in trouble because I know at some date I'm getting that bandana back for a gift.
Speaker 1:I know that too.
Speaker 2:It'll all be like wow, very good heart, that count yeah, yeah yeah, well, let me read this scripture and this is kind of what Jumped us into thinking this and it's a couple verses, so hopefully it won't be too much and I hopefully I won't all the Bible scholars, I won't pronounce these words too bad. But numbers chapter 7, verses 6 through 9, says so. Moses took the wagons and Oxen and presented them to the Levites. He gave two wagons and four oxen to the Gershanite Division for their work, and he gave four wagons and eight oxen to the Marriott Division for their work. And all the work was done under the leadership of if the Mars, son of Aaron the priest. But he gave this is what we're talking about he gave none of the wagons or the oxen to To the Colothite Division, since they were required to carry the sacred objects of the tabernacle on their shoulders.
Speaker 2:And so you and I just kind of talking and processing and stuff like that. It's so true here's an Old Testament scripture verse and it would be so easy to go. How come they get a wagon and I don't? And and that that mentality can actually keep you from really being everything that God's called you to be if you're always consistently comparing and wanting somebody's wagon when maybe God has called you To a different thing. So let's kind of unpack that and talk about that and maybe add that to how does that apply in our lives today? Discipleship, all that stuff, right?
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness, I love this conversation because right now this week is lent, right where a lot of people are taking something away from their life and they're saying before the Lord, I'm putting you first, I'm suffering Because you suffered, kind of thing, and you know that can be really a religious thing or it can be a practice that's not really from the heart. It's more like this is what we do right before Easter. But if you really think about lent, it's the taking away of something for the sake of coming closer to God, and I just think this is a great subject to be talking about this week, because there are Seasons in our life where we are not going to get what everyone else is getting, especially If we are called by God to do a specific thing. If you're, if you're wanting to be anointed and you're like God, use my life, I really want you to use my life Well, that requires being set apart, and the truth about being set apart is that usually it means you're not gonna get the Wegan, you're not gonna be able to do the same thing everyone else does.
Speaker 1:There's a price to the anointing on our lives and sometimes that looks like loneliness, sometimes that looks like sacrifice, going without or giving up all and, like Abraham, abraham was called to leave everything that he knew In order to chase after the things of God. And God promised him don't worry, you're not gonna miss out, I'm gonna give you all of those things back. But there's this season where, like these people in this Old Testament story, where it's like that right in that moment, they didn't know why they weren't given a wagon. Yeah right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's so true and it's. It's all around us, isn't it? I mean just that. Why do they get it and I don't? And really, if Rachel and I can pour something into your heart, is they're actually, though, it's one of the biggest privileges that anyone has ever been given in the history of the Bible is to carry God. That was their job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it would be so easy to Look at what you don't have versus what you do get to have. You know, that's just one of the Observations from that text is just like, wow, we could get so focused on the wagon, the oxen, you know, even one group got four oxen, the other group got eight, you know, and it's like, well, how come? How come it seems easier for them? How come it seems like they've got more help? Or how come? You know we're, we're pastrated LA. How come it seems like we're still church planting and then somebody else is doing you know this. It's so easy to compare. Or like, look at yourself, like, why don't I get?
Speaker 2:When actually they were told You're not gonna be able to have a wagon because what you have you have to carry yourself, and there's a like almost a cost for the leadership, or there's a cost for the burden of God's Anointing and things.
Speaker 2:And I can remember when we were youth pastors and we had been, you know we, we had been I don't even know the right we were voted in as pastors in Wilson, north Carolina. And I remember the immediate like wow, we were on a walk in Orlando, we had our phone on speakerphone when they told us that we had been, you know, kind of elected or voted in as the pastors and there was an immediate Like this weight that came on us because it was we, we'd been on a team, we had helped a team who, we had been the wagons for the team, but we had never necessarily carried the pressure of that leadership moment. And I think that sometimes we don't realize we're called to be different and if you, if and I think that that's something that we want to kind of talk about- yeah, you know it.
Speaker 1:It's really heartbreaking to see right now so many people feeling called to the the stage of ministry but not not equipped to carry the weight of what it takes to minister. Wow, I think we have an epidemic right now of young people wanting to be famous for Christ and it's actually very scary. It scares me because we have been through the hard yards of what it what that costs and so many Pastors giving sons the church and the son quitting within two months, yeah, needing to go on sabbatical in six months, or someone who's given you know Paul talks so much about like, don't give a younger person, which doesn't mean age, it means like, is your strength level, is your maturity level? It? Can you withstand the pressure it's gonna take to carry the anointing, to carry God? And God never withholds from us because he doesn't love us and I pray that this really encourages Somebody because sometimes you can feel like this call of God on your life, maybe even you feel the anointing or you feel the prophetic, or you have these gifts that you know God wants to use through your life and God never withholds from you or holds you back from your ministry Because he doesn't love you. He withholds from you because he does.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think when we push the cart forward and we insist on the wagon Instead of learning how to carry the weight, it hurts us, yeah, and it actually makes it so that we can't last be outlasting through seasons, lasting through storms. You know all of those things, and so the the season of learning how to carry the weight but not have anybody seeing it is so important. And I remember hearing these messages when I was 23, 24, 25 and being like, yeah, but I, but I'm different, you know. But the truth of the matter is you're not, none of us are, and God loves us too much to just release us early. And we need to recognize when we're not given a wagon, it's because God's hand is on our life, not because he's pushing us out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean this, this, these three verses I'm just thinking about when we gather with pastors and leaders and stuff like that. This is one that you just can keep on talking about, because that the message never changes and there are so many New nuances to it. It's the nuance of how come I didn't get a wagon, and then the nuance of, yeah, because God's called you to carry, and then, like you said, just being able to carry that and not go, oh, I can't do this anymore. And so there's a you know, I think of when I wrote down, I wrote down a couple of the New Testament scriptures, because, or, and even in Psalms but you know, psalms 55, 22, very famous cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you. Uh, first Peter 5, 7, having cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. So we're not talking about carrying a weight, that of a weight of stress, or a weight of Striving stride all those things.
Speaker 2:No, no, no. We cast that. But there is a weight that comes with um, the calling and the anointing on our lives and I wished it wasn't. I wished, I wished at times we just had a wagon. Wouldn't have that have been nice.
Speaker 1:A wagon sounds nice.
Speaker 2:We just had a wagon, and not not just a wagon. But wouldn't it have been nice to have eight oxen Pulling the wagon? We wouldn't even have to have pulled it. Do you know how nice that would have been to have eight oxen in a wagon? When we planted the church.
Speaker 1:It would have been so nice, but this is what would have happened, babe. We would have forgotten it was him doing it instead of us. Yeah, and that's why it's so important.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and and so just, I mean just that thought of you know, trying to, it's it so many times you see somebody else and you're you're not getting the full picture and then you're not getting. And I hate to even say this, but, like you were talking about, there's this epidemic, but there's also this church hurt, um, and there's this, you know, um, toxic culture and all those things, and I, I agree that there are are some of those things and I cry before god if we've created that in some ways, and I'm sure we have in our sinful nature. But there is an element of Part of why we're able to be who we are today is that we weren't given.
Speaker 2:The cart and we weren't given the oxen and we had to just go Okay, god, but you're with me. And that's the part that is so crazy about the text is the text is actually Saying that you're gonna be required to carry the sacred objects of the tabernacle On their shoulders, and so that's the art everything that was sacred in the tabernacle they got to carry. They were carriers of the presence of god and and and. So sometimes I think we've looked back in our life and and we could have complained and we could have whined and we could have stayed focused on what we didn't have. But I think that there's a, there was a least a grace to go yeah, but we get to do this. Or yeah, but god's with. I'd rather have god with me, yeah, than a gold wagon, and you know what I mean spray painted cows like I'm caring. I'm just not caring about the things that I've been doing and I'm just not caring about the things that I've been doing, and so I just unpacking some of that too.
Speaker 1:I think that we just need to realize that sometimes when we're Going without it's an honor, and I don't think that that's talked about quite enough, I just remember it.
Speaker 1:Usually the call of god requires Set apartedness and I think we've forgotten about this. Anointing requires being set apart, and I remember when we were young, married, and there were people that we were really close friends with people in our wedding and they just started not living so passionately sold out with a, with a line in the sand of. This is going to be how we Live our life. We're going to have strong boundaries, we're going to be wholeheartedly serving god all this stuff, and not in a religious way, but just like a. We. We're saying yes to the price, we're saying yes to the not getting the wagon, we're saying yes whatever that looks like, and I remember Loneliness, you know even you know thank god, we had each other, but there was this element of. There will be moments when there's a lot of people around with the wagons and you're gonna feel like you're doing something wrong because you don't have a wagon.
Speaker 1:Yeah and maybe the blessing of the lord feels like it's slow coming. And can we just encourage you? You're in such a good place. Um, you're in a good place because god sets us apart before he anoints us, and it comes with a cost, but the cost is so worth it. And I do want to say with my story about my dad who, um, did the trick and he gave me this little plastic pony.
Speaker 1:You know, when I was in high school, my parents took a church in Canada and god gave me horses not a horse Is and my parents found this property with 30 acres and there was a barn and had the acreage, had alfalfa, hey, which is high-end green hay for really night, like people pay way extra for it. And my dad traded 300 bales of that hay for this gorgeous horse, my own, very own horse. Her name was seika, she was an arab, she was a bay color, which means like brown, with black mane and tail. She was gorgeous and she was a runner. I mean, I had this horse All through my, um, junior, high, high school years and we were like one. We would just go galloping and swimming in the river together. But god gave me that horse.
Speaker 1:My family could have never Afforded a horse, but god put us on this property that provided this beautiful horse for me, and then after that we ended up having like six horses, and I think about that's what god does when we are willing. It's just a story of god saw that I was so excited about this thing that I didn't get. I didn't get the wagon, but god remembered that because it was something really important to me. Didn't matter in the church, it didn't matter in the ministry, but it mattered to me and god is a god I have found, and I know you have to israel is. We've had seasons of takeaway, seasons where god's asks us to give something back to him and surrender and sacrifice. But Down the road you can never out give God. You can never out trust God. He knows exactly what he's doing and he knows the diet is going to take for our life, for us to be able to handle it.
Speaker 2:I love that. I'm glad you got the horse. I'm not quite sure what bandana is coming my way, but I am looking forward to it. I am too this is good I can't wait to see it.
Speaker 2:No, I'm you, can't. I, like we've always said, you can't out give God and you can't out sacrifice, and you can't do that. Let me ask you a couple questions. Here's a listener and or a watcher. You're watching and you're seeing others with wagon wheels and oxen. How do you not get bitter? What are some practical like? Just what are some you know practical things? Not what are spiritual bumper stickers that we just say cliches that just go, you know, get over it. But what are maybe some practical things that you and I can do to not get, yeah, to not give up on the, you know that. Or somehow let the wagon wagons distract us?
Speaker 1:Okay, so maybe this is not on.
Speaker 2:this is not on our notes, so I'm throwing this.
Speaker 1:I'm just thinking about our life and my life personally and what I've learned, and then you can give some to. But when I am starting to look around more than I'm looking up, you know, when I begin to see, oh my goodness, my friends just got given this gorgeous new building and they have all these staff and I'm praying to death for a copy machine and some volunteers for kids ministry can just think about church or maybe even in a personal way. When I feel like we gave up our dream house in North Carolina and we moved to California and drained our savings account planning the church and then we didn't have a house and it felt like we were back to what we used to have in college when we were young college and it's like all night like, wow, yeah, we were underneath what we were. When we were young, married, we didn't own a house because we had sold our house in North Carolina where rent it was just a season of a lot of it could have made us very insecure and we really had to trust God in that season and not let our hearts not look at other people's wagons.
Speaker 1:Right, and the thing that helped me was that I, whenever I felt myself looking at other wagons. I would just go okay, god, help me minister to someone else, help me not get fixated on what I've lost or what feels like it's been lost, and help me minister to someone else and that, to me, is such a secret weapon when you can. Hey, I'm called the minister, I'm called the LA. So who can I pastor? Who can I bless? Who can I encourage? Who can I? And I know you do that the same thing, but that's something that helps me is just remembering my why. Remembering what God has spoken and then not getting stuck in those seasons can make you really selfish and almost start trying to build your own kingdom instead of God's, because it feels like everything's being lost.
Speaker 2:I 1000% agree, and then I would take it to the New Testament and this is part of our life too. It's just the power of praise. The Bible says at midnight Paul and Silas begin to praise. And so Paul could have easily been looking at the wagons in that moment because he could have thought about Peter. Well, peter escaped, they just opened up, you know what I mean. The prison doors opened up and Peter went and knocked on the door and then now here I am and I've been unjustly, I'm a Roman citizen, all these things. And he praised.
Speaker 2:You know, we know the famous story of praise, but probably the story that we don't talk about in that text. That really goes back to what you're saying. So I would say mine is the praise. But going back into that story, it's crazy, because the Bible says that they praised and then when the doors opened, they didn't actually get out, they didn't leave, which, if you really look at the text, it is mind-blowing. Paul wasn't wanting a wagon wheel or a wagon. He wasn't praying for things to be easier. He actually was praying for the jailer's family, and the reason he didn't leave is because he was caring for their family. And then it says their entire family got saved. And so then it goes back to what you're saying is what's my purpose? It's gotta be bigger than just me. It's not just about me getting out of jail, it's not just about me having a wagon, it's about something bigger. So mind was praise. But then that story ties even into your story too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then I would just say Galatians 6-7. Memorize that, have it in your heart. Not just don't know the address, but know it. And it's do not be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, he reaps, and we can count on that. We can count on whatever you're willing to sow, that's the fruit you're going to reap. It's true, and we're living. This house behind us is the reaping of trusting God and giving it all and knowing that God was not going to be mocked and God will not be mocked in your life. And what causes God to be mocked is when it feels like the enemy's winning. And so when we trust him, when everybody else has a wagon and you know that God is calling you to carry his presence and to carry out a specific purpose, don't you worry.
Speaker 1:Galatians 6-7, do not be deceived. And why does it say that? Because the enemy will try to deceive you. The enemy will try to talk you into chasing the wrong things, grabbing a wagon from somebody else, being competitive, all of these crazy things. And so the Bible says don't be deceived. Your God is not mocked. If you sow it, it's coming. And even if you don't see it right now, if you sow it, you will reap it. And the same goes for if you sow self-sufficiency you're going to reap only what you can multiply. And that's not very. For me that's not very much. But when I sow my trusting God, when I sow into what he's called me to do and I obey that, oh my goodness, there is no limit to the blessing of the Lord, to his provision. He knows what he's doing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and mine, I guess. Then, back to that, even tying onto yours, is I just think of, while you were saying that, I think of the story of Obed Edom, who actually they kind of like left the Ark of the Covenant in his house, and it says that everything in his life was blessed. So can you imagine complaining that you don't have a wagon wheel when you're actually carrying the actual blessing of the Lord, and so we don't necessarily historically have it listed, but we do have historically listed that Obed Edom's house was blessed because of what these guys were actually carrying. I think for me, then, sometimes, is just stopping and looking at what has God blessed us with helps me not get distracted by the wagons.
Speaker 2:And just whoa and really paying attention to whoa. I'm being blessed in this, I'm being blessed in this and I'm being blessed with this. Yeah, there's wagons. Yeah, there's still. You know, there's still deserts, there's still a journey, there's still we gotta get somewhere. There's still something on my shoulder, but taking a moment and looking what it is on our shoulder can kind of help us with that. So that's it, unless you have one more.
Speaker 1:I just wanna encourage you maybe to do like if you know that this is something that it's hitting home for you. We have a miracle list and I actually made a really cool one for the women in our church and it's my miracle list and it's personalized, but it's feeding on the faithfulness of God from your past. What did God do for your grandma? What did God do for your parents? What did God do for you? And not forgetting what he's done always reminds us to not pick up the wrong wagons or be jealous of somebody else's wagon. But, like God, your hand is on me. It's undeniable. If you could do this in 1998, if you could do this in 2003 for us, if you could do this, then you're going to fulfill your promises. You will not be mocked in my life.
Speaker 2:Oh, I absolutely love that.
Speaker 1:Make a list, check it twice.
Speaker 2:We love you guys. Give us some comments, some feedback, and can I do John Wayne voice? Why did I not get a wagon? Was that?
Speaker 1:John. That was so good, Dave. I was picturing John Wayne.
Speaker 2:Wow, wagon wheel this whole time MUSIC.
