084 | Are you AWKWARD with God? 😬

What’s good, Faith on the Air fam? Mariah and Jakob Logan are back in Episode 84, “Are You AWKWARD with God?”, and this time they’re back together in Illinois! Jakob’s repping his RTBI gear and hyping his Texas summer plans, while Mariah’s stoked for camp meetings in West Virginia and Illinois (save the date: August 29-31!). Today, they’re tackling that weird moment when your prayers feel like awkward small talk—like chatting about the weather with God. Diving into Acts 2:42, they break down how to build a real, no-fake-vibes connection with Jesus through the Word, prayer, church fam hangouts, and good ol’ potlucks. With funny stories (Jakob’s “driving that dozer” ) and tips like praying Psalms to spark your worship, this episode will fire you up to ditch the stiff prayers and go deeper with God. Tune in, grab some biscuits and gravy, and let’s make fellowship your new favorite thing. See you next Wednesday!

Transcript

 We are back with another episode of Faith on the Air, and glad that you're here with us today. Glad that you're joining. This is Mariah Logan and we have another surprise. We have Jacob Logan, my brother, the evangelist back with us here in Illinois. For a little surprise visit for us, a little surprise podcast.

So Jacob, welcome back to the Flatlands. Back in Illinois drove in yesterday, stopping by, dropping in. So we get to make this podcast in person again for our YouTube watchers. This might be disappointing for you, but you know what I say right now? This is gonna be our last one that we do that we are not gonna record.

There you go. I know I'm right. Isn't like that because. It is easier. Just hop it on here. But yeah, but it's good. We need to keep on moving forward and excellence. See, right now we couldn't be heading, we wouldn't be in video. But Jacob, we're on video right now. I'm actually like sponsored. Looks like I'm sponsored right now.

I got my RTBI hat and RTBI shirt on. Yeah, I'm not sponsored, I just. This is my closet. Yeah. So anyways. Well, speaking of RTBI, why don't you tell everybody a little update about we can update both of our lives. What are you even here doing? What are you on your way to doing? What's this summer gonna look like for you?

Yeah, this is, um, a awesome summer ops awesome opportunity. I'm going down, I'm on my way to Texas. I get a awesome opportunity down there to help out with the youth and get involved there. For, um, this summer, uh, that's my, I'm interning, I was actually interning with the youth and started in Pittsburgh, but now I gotta go down there for this summer, so I'm excited about that because, and that's, shout out to RTBI.

If you wanna send somebody to Bible school or somebody's called to the ministry, RTBI is the place for them. Yeah. I honestly believe, and it's not like, I think everybody says that, and I do think people believe it, but like if they would go to actually good Bible school, like RTBI, they would know the difference, but.

Even Mariah, she went to a different Bible school, but I believe she would say, if you feel called to the preaching ministry pastor evangelist. You would go to RTBI because it's the hot spot right now in America. Yeah, absolutely. It's, it's amazing. It's, uh, we're sending Bible college students there from our church this fall and we're just excited.

Uh, you know, I keep telling them, I'm like, it's like we're sow and so many seeds, you know, you sow seeds of money, but it's like we're, we get to sow seeds of, to say like there's gonna be ministers from Edgewood full gospel church, that that's where they got their start. So I'm really. Just excited and expectant for that.

And so Jacob's gonna be a, a Texas kid for the summer. He's going down to Fort Worth. And then, uh, for me, updates here in Edgewood, uh, we're just plugging along. We've got lots of exciting things coming up. But I'm gonna be in West Virginia for a few weeks. I'm gonna be down in Texas, gonna go visit Jacob for their camp meeting that they have down there.

What? No, I. Scene. Then we'll be back in West Virginia for camp meeting. Then I just wanna keep, um, uh, everybody informed and so you can write dates down. But we are having Illinois camp meeting again this year on Labor Day weekend. And that will be, I'm looking at my dates here, the 29th, the 30th, and the 31st of August.

So that very last Friday, Saturday and Sunday, last weekend of August. We are looking forward to it. It's gonna be an awesome time. Um, I, I, I, we always, uh, we honest, I, I'm trying to think. This is terrible, but I think it's our third one. Yeah, yeah, our third annual one. It feels a lot longer than that, but it also feels like we, we, uh, not longer than that, however that works out.

Um, but we're excited for it. It's gonna be awesome. And we invite you to come wherever you're at. Uh, we're gonna be putting out like Airbnb's hotels. Uh, we do have a few camp spots. A few host homes. So if you are interested in coming out, make sure that you let me know and we will have, um, a place for you.

But Jacob, let's go ahead and get right into the word today. Uh, what are we talking about? Yeah, I think I'm excited about today because this is something that growing up in church, growing up the best way possible, and I know I always say that. I feel like I say, oh, I grow up. Didn't know this because there's things that you learn.

Points of your life that you can look back onto and it changed the whole trajectory of your life. Yeah, and I think one thing, and when I say I grew up. It's not even that I was taught the wrong way. It's just like, oh, I never realized that. Yeah. You know, like when you, I think you just had it this morning, like, this might sound stupid and then you read me something.

It's like, no, nothing stupid. That like catches you and changes you. Yeah. That's why people, you might go to church and like, man, the preachers preaching this. Again, the most simple thing, but it's the simple things that change your life. Yeah. It's a simple truth. It's the simple gospel and we know. Um, brother Ted telling, um, his son only preach these truths.

Yeah. Only preach a simple gospel truth over and over and over until you've mastered them. Don't move on to anything else. Yeah. Well, everybody needs to do it for their own life until you know the simple truth and there's a difference in knowing it and, and like living it and believe and Yeah. There's a difference in, I'll say it this way, there's a difference in believing something and knowing something.

Mm-hmm. You have to get to the, where you know it. Yeah. Because. There's a, there's a lot of believers that go to church and that's a good part. You have to believe. If you don't believe, well, you're in, uh, a kayak without a paddle. I'll just say that 'cause I'm looking at the pod right now and there's kayaks on it.

But you are upstream without a paddle. Yeah, because if you don't believe then. Nothing's possible. Yeah. Because to the man who believes all things are possible, but if you don't believe nothing's possible. Yeah. So you are stuck and it stop and hope is lost. Um, joy is lost. Peace is lost when you don't believe.

Believing is the start of that. So don't get me wrong when I'm saying that, but believing can't be your only thing. Yeah. There has to go with Yes, there's people. I believe that. I believe that. I believe that too. I know that. Yeah. And what do I mean by that? If someone comes to you and they're talking about.

Just normal stuff and sickness and stuff like this, and they, and someone says, or let's say this, you're in a situation where you're met with the, the news of, Hey, this thing happened. You're sick, this happened, this happened with your finances, whatever. Are you strong enough to where you say, no, I know that I'm healed by your stripes?

Yeah. Or. Well, I believe that I was, but okay. There's a difference in standing up and saying, I know something. Yeah. Because I want you to understand that there's a difference in knowing something and having it, I know this, and it comes up, out, out, out of you. It's like, I know this. It's like me always, I always get joked and teased about I'm not the best at letting something slide and whether, when it comes to like a debate situation, I'm big on like debating and getting my, uh, opinion out there.

But my purpose of that is. Because if I know something, why would I let somebody believe something that I know is right? Yeah. So you have to have that. Well, I think that that is like the, I was using this example when I was preaching the other day that my biggest pet peeve. Is, no, I've got two. You know, I, she's got multiple order her.

Last week we were talking about my pet peeve of when people don't like the food. I like, let me tell you about another pet peeve I have. This is Mariah's. Is this Mariah's Pet Peeve podcast or what? Maria Pet Peeve podcast, Maria Minute. But I cannot stand when I know someone intimately like I know them. I, I have a relationship with, with them.

I know exactly where she's going with this. And then someone, Joe Schmo walks up someone that like, barely knows that person walks up and wants to act like they know that person better than me, that they know information that I don't know. And it's, it's like I, again, I don't want to just like. Look at them and just be like, are you serious?

Like, that's my brother. I, I know everything about him. I've been with him since the day he was born. Like I know him. But it's like when they act like that, and that's, I think what you're saying though is like when you know somebody, but then someone else just knows like things about that person. It's really annoying.

And you know, I think that goes into a little bit of like relationship versus fellowship of someone that just like there's, most people believe that there is a God or Yeah. Or know that there's a God or whatever, but it's like to, I guess, believe that there's a, God is the word you'd use, but to know that there's a God and know what he says.

Totally different. And ever since you feel like we talked about last week where Jesus says. There apart from me, I never knew you. Yes. You have to have a knowing and he has to have a knowing. Yeah. Not just a believing. And that's what I was like ever since, um. Does he go by evangelist Jesse De Planus?

What's his brother Jesse? Brother Jesse de Planus. Ever since he said this at a meeting I was at, of like, I don't have relationship with Jesus. I have fellowship with Jesus. It's like every month some kind of like new revelation hits me or just a new way to preach it. Explain it. Because I think it is like people go, well, isn't that the same thing?

Well, I heard this and this is like my new nugget for this month of relationship is like. It's just a, it's just a definition of how you're related. Like for instance, Jacob and I are brother and sister. It doesn't matter if we don't, if, if he leaves here and goes to Texas and we don't talk again for 30 years, he's still my brother.

Like that's just what it is. That's just the cards of, yeah, he's my brother, but Fellowship takes me talking to him and him talking to me. Fellowship means that we have. Like relationship that goes beyond just, oh, well this is our definition. We're brother and sister. No, we have a friendship. We have a fellowship.

We spend time together. We take time out of like our lives to spend with each other and make sure that we know what's going on in each other's lives. And that's where a lot of people just have. Uh, that shallow relationship, which he's like, yeah, he, he's God, he's Jesus like I know about I, I, I believe in him.

But then knowing somebody, that intimacy with that person, that's the fellowship. And that takes both of you talking, both of you, uh, listening, both of you coming together and spending time together. And I love that because this, it'll show you and it'll. Enlighten you and why is church important? Well, this is what if me and Mariah we're still brother and sister, but depending on how we communicate and communicating how we fellowship is gonna very well determine on how we act in a corporate setting.

Yeah. When, let's say 20 years down the road, we haven't talked and we have a big family reunion, it's gonna be very awkward. We're gonna be stiff. Yeah. Make small talk and lemme put this example, you come to church. There hasn't been that fellowship. It's good. You're there, you're meeting it. There's that awkward, small talk.

Amen. Hallelujah. I'm not saying that's awkward, but I'm saying that's all you. You don't know how to open your mouth when the worship leader says, make your own praise to God. Oh, there's not leaders. You don't know what to say to him because you haven't talked to him and there's an awkwardness. So the, that's a good litmus test of is your spinning fellowship personal time.

Now, other, if I am quotes to my family, so when there's a corporate setting, I can go to them and talk to them. I can walk up to them and make. An off the wall joke, like a funny joke. That no one else would get, but it's an inside joke and it would instantly laugh. I don't even have to say hi. I don't have to say I love you.

I might hug them a little bit, give 'em a side hug and go right into joking around. But it's like that's because there's a closeness. That's because there's a fellowship ness. There's no awkwardness at all. Yeah. That's how you should be at church. There should be no awkwardness when you can see it. There's different levels of people at church where people can go into worship, can go into praise, can get and receive from the word, can go to the altar, can pray, can, can.

Receive can receive from the, from the man of God or the woman of God, whoever's preaching, they can lift their hands and not worry about who's next to 'em or who's to the right or to the left, because they can have that fellowship. Yeah. When you're com comfortable with something at like a, somebody at a corporate setting, let's say corporate setting, like a family get together where there's a bunch of people, different, um, people and from different walks in different areas, when you're close to somebody else, it's so much, I hate that feeling of like, when you're a failure by yourself and it's like, okay, people are watching me.

If I have two of my friends there or two of my family members, I'll just. Plug in with them and I don't care what everybody else is looking at where I think, yeah, that's good. That's what you are at church when you, if you feel like, man, people watching, you're not plugged in with the one person you should be plugged in with.

Yeah. You get close with God and it doesn't matter what other people are caring, what other people say. Oh man, what if I say amen too loud? What if I shout? What if I speak in tongue too loud and people look at me? And what if I say something dumb and, and people hear what I'm praying about when you, I don't care if people hear what I'm talking about.

Yeah. When I'm with my family or with my friends. Same thing with God. If you're locked in with God and you have that. And this comes with the personal time. Yeah. That's the, throughout the week of spending time with God, praying and in your word. Then when you get to that corporate setting of church, there's not that awkwardness.

Yeah. Yeah. So if there is that awkwardness, this is your call today. Maybe let's crank up the fellowship and get, and I'm not saying it to like, we're not saying it to like punish. We're saying it to encourage. 'cause I promise you it's so much better and you get more out of church. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, everybody's went to like a birthday party.

It's like, well, that was the worst birthday party ever. You didn't have relationship with anybody there. When you have closeness with somebody there, yeah, it's like the best. Yeah, and that's what I'm like. You should I think about that in this setting of like when you are in this huge group of people, you're looking for those that you have fellowship with.

Yeah. You're looking for those. That's like, okay, who am I gonna talk to? Am, who am I gonna be comfortable with? Who is go? Who am I already? Have that background with, and that's the thing is with God, it should, he should be your most comfortable relationship, your most comfortable fellowship. The one that it's not like, oh, I guess I'll have to, I'll have to think of something to say to them.

Yeah. I've been in a place where it's like, okay. You go through your list of like, okay, we could talk about this, we could talk about this, we could talk about that. And then when it's with my family or my friends, I don't have a list. It just, yeah, that, that's so true. Just talk. But people get that way with God.

Okay, I've gotta ask about this. I've gotta make sure I pray about that thing. This thing. Make sure I do this many, this many like this time and I'm all for like. Praying at least this amount of time. I get that. And I think there has to be a time, but it's also like if you're just doing everything like this amount of time, this, this in tongue.

Yeah. This and that. It, it gets to a place where it's robotic instead of just fellowship. Yeah. Like sometimes you might spend your whole time in prayer just praising Yeah. Sometimes, you know, just in tongues, like whatever. It's like, but it's about like. When you have fellowship long enough, you know, like, you know what, it's not a list.

It's just like fluid. It's just flowing with that, with that person. And it's the same thing with God. It's not, he's not a, he's not a robot. He's not, you know, he is God and he's your father and he wants to just have fellowship with you. Yeah. And that takes time. That, that's the thing, is like, it does take time.

It, it don't. I like what you said about not caring what everybody else said, because I think that's also, also like, we're like, well, my prayer is not like this person. And as a pastor I do hear these things of like, so, well, my tongues doesn't sound like this person's tongues or this, it's like, it is not about sounding just look it up and dead down, but you're faking it.

It's not sounding like everybody else. It's not, um, like even just like. You just have to have your own relationship with God. I'm not saying go off and be crazy and like I don't go to church. I'm saying it's, it's just like you have to fellowship with him. The words will come, the things will come, but get in the word.

Know the word. That's the number one to me. If you want to have a good praise life, you have to know the word. Yeah. If you don't know the word, you're not gonna know what to pray. You're not gonna know what to praise. But then when you read the word, that's where you get of like, oh yeah. Like, this is who he is.

That's what he does. It, it's your, it's your, uh, your, uh, way to understand who you're fellowshipping with. And that's probably one of the best feelings in life. And I know that's a bold statement, but when you do have the word inside of you and you're praying. And we're in this barn right now at Mariah's house, and if you didn't know this, I used to live here until Mariah kicked me out.

Yeah. Because I wasn't paying rent, but I, I was praying in, I've been praying in here, in this living room and walking back and forth and screaming. At the top of my lungs, but I wasn't doing it yet, but I was, was praying loudly. But when you have word come out of you and it's like, yeah, and you can pray a scripture to a situation, I'm telling you it's the be one of the best feelings.

'cause you know, yes. We were just talking about before this, that scripture that he spoke it and it was done. Speaking of God, if God said it, it's done. Yeah. And when you have that conf, I promise you it's the best thing. It's like, yeah. It's like when you have that perfect comeback roast, when you're in an argument or teasing somebody and you have a perfect comeback to whatever they say.

That's like the situation mouths off to you and you have the perfect comeback and that's the word. And it's like boom, roasted. Yeah. And it settles it. I love that feeling. I loved getting in arguments and having that perfect comeback that no one could say another word. Yeah. That's you to your situation.

You can see the devil's laughing. He's mouthing whenever a situation arises or whenever something tries to trick you up or stumble you, boom. The word is the final roast. But like you were saying, like that small talk where it's like, I've been there where I've go, I've been to church and it's like. Church was like that person that all you see is, Hey, it's hot.

Hey, it's cold. Or hey, uh, I see you got a code red there. You like Mountain Dew, like awkward, small talk. But it's like, yeah, I, there are people and I, I was thinking about like the last time, like every time I meet this person, I literally say what the weather's doing, how's it going? There's a joke in our family that there was this guy that every time I saw him for at least.

Probably a year. And it wasn't like I saw him that often, but I would say like once a month, every time I saw him been driving that dozer lately, been driving that dozer lately. I'm saying every single time. 'cause this is when I was still home, I was still working with my dad. I was driving the dozer and it was like the first, it started in like winter, so we didn't have, like, we weren't riding the dozer late.

And I'm like, no. No. And finally, yeah, I was driving the do I was pushing, oh, you've been pushing dirt. Oh yeah, yeah. You've been on a pond Dam. Like, it's like ev, and you can ask Mariah every time I saw this person driving that dozer lately and drive that dozer lately. I'm like, yes, I have been driving that dozer lately.

But anyways, there's that small talk. Yeah, but you can get to a level where there's not that small talk where it's like, yeah, Mariah doesn't know what I'm gonna say when I see her. I don't know what she's gonna say. Yeah. But I know that it's gonna be like actual conversation and get something from it.

Yeah. And it's gonna be good conversation. That's how you need to be with God at church, where it's like I take you at your word. If you said it, I leave it and just singing the lyrics on the song because that's all you know, because that's like talk me talking to Ryan with the script. Is it bad? No. You do need to sing and it helps you, but then there's a time where spend, like you can fellowship with God, with your own words.

Yeah. And that's the best place to get. Yeah. Well, and that's, I'm like, I feel like whenever we were at camp meeting the year that Kevin Powers came to camp meeting and he, like everyone began to sing in tongues and people were like. Kind of like, like first I know it was weird to some people. Mm-hmm. Like they were just like, what This is?

Then all of a sudden, to me, I felt like it was like a glimpse of heaven. Yeah. That's what it, it felt like, but it's like, then everyone was like, that was amazing. I'm like, and that's how every church service can be. Yeah. If you get off the script. Yeah. If you just begin to. Praise the Lord. And that's the beautiful thing about praying in the spirit, being filled with the baptism, with the Holy Ghost is, yes, you have the word, but then you also can pray in the spirit.

Praise in the spirit of, you don't have the the head knowledge of what you're saying, but it's your spirit praying through you, building you up. And everybody, like I pray that everyone listening gets to experience that on earth, gets to experience that at your church, gets to experience that every day.

Every day with people. 'cause it's. It's incredible what happens. And he was talking about that. It's like the church just doesn't praise anymore. Yeah. Because the church doesn't take the, you look at like Acts chapter two and on of what the church was like. They were together all the time. I. They, they were with each other.

They weren't, you know, it wasn't a scheduled like, we go to church at 10:00 AM Yeah. You know, it was, they were just together praying and praising. I love the story of the little boy utic and it says Paul was preaching late into the night. He like, after midnight, and he falls out a window. Can you imagine if, if like most churches, they would never.

Be like preaching at midnight, it would be like, well, we had to have time. People can only take so much. It's like, no, they were together. Who knows how long their worship services were? Who, who knows how long it took just to exhort each other, exhort the Lord. And now it, you know, it's, we're missing something because we're not taking that time to adequately, adequately praise.

And I would just say, even in your prayer time, I would, for me, in my prayer time, if I don't take the time to adequately praise the Lord. It, it's, it's doesn't feel right. It, it's, you gotta take the time to really praise him, to really let, like fellow, that's the fellowship part. And so make sure that that's a part of, of your, don't, I dare you.

Close your eyes and even when everybody else is singing the songs, just begin to even under your breath, just begin to tell the Lord. Lord, I thank you Lord. You're so wonderful, Lord, you're so great. And another great just practical thing. Turn to the Psalms and just start. Reading a psalm, Psalm 1 0 1, Psalm 23, whatever it is, and just in your own home or you know, at church or whatever, but just begin to say, the Lord is my shepherd.

God, I thank you that you're my shepherd. I thank you that you never leave me. You never forsake me. You're always there leading me, guiding me. You know? And, and it is. Sometimes it might feel a little like, I don't know, like outta your comfort zone at first, just like it is. I was thinking as you were talking about like.

When you first meet somebody like to go on a date and it's like, what do you say? What everything you're, you're thinking like, okay, was that weird? Should I have said that? Like, I, I don't know. What are they gonna say? But then when you're married, like Jacob and Beth have been and it's like you don't think about, yeah, you, you just talk and you talk about everything.

At first it might feel like, okay, this is weird 'cause you've never done it before. But then as you continue to do that, it's, it's not gonna feel uncomfortable. It's gonna feel amazing when you are at that dating, you can't talk about our thing. 'cause there's like Yeah. Awkward. You're awkward. Like, well, if, if that's what it's supposed to be like, I'm just gonna get past the awkwardness.

No, you can't because there has to be a relationship built there. Yeah. In order to do that, you can't just start the bat like, okay, you're a psycho. Never talk to me again. It's, it's, it's built in. But like you were saying, I think, and in one sense, yes, it can't be, um. Strict and scripted, but like you said, like when you let, when you go off the script, it's going off the script, but it's also purposely making time for it.

Like when we were at camp. Yeah. It was like people, because in. People that go against it argue like, well, you're just, you can't like say, pray in the Holy Ghost or like sing the Holy Ghost. 'cause like it's, as he wills it's different than the, the gift of tongues. Yeah. It's a prayer language. So there is just like, make time for it.

Mm-hmm. And like you said, I gotta, I, I like to have time of praise. Make time for that and like purpose. Do stuff with a purpose. Yeah. Not as much as like scripting it and like, but doing stuff purposefully every single day and doing that. And it'll make a difference in your life and, you know. We were talking about that, that feeling at camp when we were praying.

And in Acts chapter four, or Acts chapter two, here you see the um, blueprint of the early church and how they grew. And in verse 42, it says, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine, that's the word, the preaching of the word, what the doctrines or the apostles we're preaching and fellowship and breaking of bread and in prayers.

So two of those things we talked about, we talked about the word, talked about, you have to have the word. Yeah, we talked about praying. Praying corporately, having your prayers personally and how wonderful that is. And I, you know, Sunday nights is something that you added to the church and it's something that's, I would say you can, you know, a lot more than I do.

It's a lot of people's favorite services. Yeah. That go to the Sunday nights. Why there's something special about a corporate prayer. Mm-hmm. Because why? It's the blueprint that the early church was following. Yeah. That we are given in scripture to follow, to see this church grow and to be the strongest church it can be.

Yeah. The next two. So two of these are spiritual, the word and then prayer, but then two of them are practical breaking of bread and fellowship. Mm-hmm. Now you can say breaking of bread is communion. Or you can say it's just regular, whatever way you wanna take it. Yes. Communion is important and you should do that.

But if we take it in the practical sense of breaking bread, and Mariah, the last time I was here in Illinois, we had the baptism party. Mm-hmm. And we both sat around here. Outside this barn right here, and just talk about how amazing it was, because that's how the church was. Yeah. The church was that family that you had somebody, and this is why Sunday, like at bare minimum.

You gotta be there on Sunday because there're And get connected with people. Yeah. Yes. Get connected with God. Yes. Have that where you're not awkward with God, but it also when you get, so when you have a connection with other people Yeah. And everyone there, then you don't care what they're gonna say because.

Oh yeah, that's what's his name? Yeah. We're like, that's brother. That's what the Bible says. Old time church. That's brother so and so. That's sister so and so. That's brother so and so. Oh, that's brother so and so's grandson. Yeah. Like, you know, and you have this family where it doesn't matter. You're all pursuing God together and you're all connected.

Yeah. And you're all having these potlucks and all having these baptism parties and there's fellowship and that community grows into what the early church was. Exactly. The later you continue reading it, it says he added to their number daily. So the church was growing. Church was multiplying. Yeah. They were sending people out.

People were becoming missionaries. People were becoming evangelists, becoming elders and bishops and all these things because the church was following this blue blueprint. But you follow it in your church life. Yeah. And this is like for pastors and people like that, but then also follow in your personal life, you follow these things in your personal life where you're, are you getting the apostles doctrine?

Yeah. Are you going to church to the person that God has ordained? The Bible says that God chooses the authority. Ha. He's chosen you to sit and I, I, I don't wanna get another rabbit trail about how people can go to a church and say, God put me here, and then two weeks later they're gone. Yeah. It's interesting.

If God put you somewhere, God's not a schizophrenic God put you there for a certain reason. Listen to the doctrine. Yeah. If it's according to Word, be like the, the Church of the Breens and go back home and look in their own word. And so, yeah, that is true. Yeah, that is true. What he, what he was preaching or what she was preaching.

Yeah. I, I can see that word. Oh look, I have three more scriptures that support that whole point that she was making. Yeah. And that is where you get strength and then you go to fellowship. That's why churches have Fellowship Hall. I mean, these people bill it back in the day because there's a reason their fellowship is important.

Yeah. And spending time with people, whether that be. Some people go into co. To have a friend is basically have a friend that goes to church or get your friends to come to church. Yeah. Have fellowship with people, like-minded people who are on the same path as you. Yeah. And then breaking bread, eat. Yeah.

Pentecostals do this best. Eat with people. There is something different about like having a meal with somebody. Yeah. You might just say, oh, that's just a Pentecostal 'cause that's, I can only do with that sin. No, there is something about having a meal with somebody that is different. It makes it, yeah, it makes it more real.

Which, you know, I'm just reading this, I have it in the NLT pulled up and then the, the new King James, and it says that 3000 were added to them. I was, I, I remember having a conversation a long time ago with someone. That we're talking about church growth, they're like, well, when your church gets to a certain amount of people, like you can't have felt like meals anymore.

You can't have fellowship anymore. And then I'm like, but the bi, like I'm just coming to the Realiz, like the Bible's talking about there's 3000 here. Like Jesus had it with at least 20,000 when he said The 5,000 men, like you can still have now, it might not look this, you might not talk to everybody that day.

But you should still have fellowship. And the other thing that I just love is that it's talking about all these practical and spiritual things. And, and, and here's the thing, I, I think I, I was Sunday morning, I just wrote this down. It's amazing how many practical things are spiritual, but if we aren't listening to the Holy Ghost, we're not gonna realize it.

And this is what I mean by this. Sometimes when you can feel something come up from your spirit or you, you feel something, it's like, okay, why am I. That seems very practical. The Holy Ghost will tell you practical things to do, but it's leading you on the right course of your life just like this. Go to the brook of Cherish.

Okay, that doesn't seem spiritual, but what was it? It was gonna be a miracle of Ravens bringing food to the prophet. Like sometimes don't. I guess what I'm trying to say is people like to Pete, things in practical things in spiritual, but if the Holy Ghost tells you to do it. It, it's for your benefit. It's gonna be spiritual.

So we have these things and then it says, and then fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. And you look at them and go, people want the signs and wonders, but what got them there? Prayer fellowship being, uh, devoted to the teaching. Like people wanna skip all the natural things.

And, and they're looking for these spectacular things. And missing what's Supernatural. Yeah. And they're missing like, the signs, the wonders and miracles because they, they don't wanna be devoted to any church. They don't want to be mm-hmm. Devoted to prayer. They don't wanna be, they don't wanna be in fellowship with other people.

They just want these spectacular things. It's going no, they're really like, you keep seeing a blueprint. There is a blueprint there of like, they did these things. And then all of a sudden, miracle sides and wonders begin happening in the church. And if you wanna see this blueprint, you gotta be to an old fashioned camp meeting.

Mm-hmm. Because you'll see this play out and you're gonna say, wait a minute, why is camp so special? And why is it awesome? Every year they're literally doing this. There's preaching, there's fellowship, you eat together and then you pray. Yeah. That's literally all you do all week. And you minus everything out and.

Oh, wow. You get what the Bible says you can get because you follow this blueprint. But I'm saying you can use this blueprint in your life. Yeah. And you can have that, and you gotta have a camp meeting. Like, you gotta go to a camp meeting a year and have this if you're not doing it. Yes. Because it, it changes your life.

Yeah. No, and it changed our lives, and that's why it's like. Uh, we can look back and just go like, oh, thank God. Thank God that we, we have experienced these things because it really is heaven on earth. Yeah. You're, you're experiencing, uh, what we're gonna experience in heaven, but you don't have to wait. You can experience it.

And, uh, and I think this is the one thing that I would say, uh, you're going, it's going to seem maybe like a sacrifice or like. I think the devil presents it, or just li the, the world can present it, of like, man, well, it's inconvenient. It's gonna, there's, it's gonna be inconvenient. I, I've said this several times lately, but you know, when Paul and Silas were in the prison cell and it says about midnight, they were praising and they were singing hymns and they were praying, okay, about midnight when you're in jail for something you never really didn't do.

That's a really inconvenient time to be praising. And they were, and guess what? The prison walls fell down. So don't, I think that's where Jacob a lot who said, well, I don't have time this week to do that. Even when you take it down to devotional time, all the way to camp meetings or, or being in church or be, he's like, well we've, we've got this, we've got that.

It's going. If you don't make this a priority and do it, there will never be a convenient time. There's never gonna be a time, I promise you, things will come up and you have to set it and going, no, this is my priority. This comes first, and everything else can come after. And it's so simple, but it's, it's the scripture.

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these other things. And I'm talking about practical things, ball games, your work, all these other things, they're gonna, they're gonna be taken care of. But the problem is, is that when you put those things first. And God's second. You get all stressed out and, and it's like, well, nothing's working.

And I don't feel like God's here. It's, it's obvious it's 'cause you're not putting him first. If you put him in church and being at camp meeting, and, and again, I know we're just coming up on seasons of, of camp meetings, it's, it's summer and if you've just, well, we just don't have time. We have to do this.

I am telling you, switch your schedule around. You know, I'd even go as far as like if it's this or vacation, you should go to camp meeting. Yeah. Instead of vacation, because you can have a vacation and think you're gonna come back rested and all these things. Not, not come back with a, with a better mindset.

Not come back with, with a fire, not come back with fresh oil. You need these moments, these times to do these things. Get the fire rekindled so you can go on and do what God's called you to do so you can have your, your lamp full of oil and be ready for the return of Christ. And, and just have deeper fellowship with him.

It goes on of like, if you want deeper fellowship with the Lord, you have to put something in. You can't just have deeper, I can't just have deeper fellowship with Jacob wishing to have deeper fellowship with him, it, it, he's moved away and that's what we used to be together all day, every day. But I can say like, you know, it's been a year, over a year since you've moved.

We're as close as we've ever been. But that didn't happen just by me being here and going, I wi I, you know, I wish me and Jacob were close and him, you know, I wish me and my, no, we've had to call each other, FaceTime each other, keep up on this podcast, spend time together. Uh, and it's, it's both of, it's our effort of putting that in and going, I'm gonna make Jacob a i, us being close is a priority to me.

So what do I have to do to make that happen? It's the same. It's the same way. You can't just want people, let me say it this way. I think some people just look at other people and just think it's natural the way they're close to God. Yeah. Like that's their personality. That's the, that just happened for them.

It didn't just happen. They devoted themselves. To prayer, to fellowship, to, to, um, camp meetings. They, they went to those things when, when no one else wanted to, when, when it wasn't convenient, they were up in the night praying. They were up in the early mornings praying, because it takes effort on our part to have that deep fellowship with someone, uh, human, but also with the Lord.

And you said like sacrificing and, and practical stuff. If I look back, and this goes for. I'm talking about camp meeting and like something like that, but then your church, your church, every single Sunday, every single week. Not missing a week. If I go back to, and it's not like it's okay, we're talking like, oh, it's a sacrifice, but I promise you if I go back, if I could go back and do it again, and all the travel basketball games and football practices and opportunities, air quotes, opportunities and stuff like that, that I missed.

My friends and people that didn't miss it and did went to that instead, now where we're at only a few years later, I would not swap my life with anybody that didn't swap that with Yeah. I wouldn't go back and do it again. I'm, I'm, I'd be more in, I'd be, yeah. I'd miss more things because it's, I, I look, I can look now and go, yeah.

I, I take my life over any of them. Yeah. None of them are in, in NBA, none of them are in NFL. Yeah. And, and so it's like, don't, you're not even sacrificing. It's when you look at your life, it's like, man, my life is awesome. Yeah. Because of those things. 'cause God is not like, I need you to be like, be like the lowest of the low and like, just like barely get by.

No. God knows what's best. Yeah. And I think that if we're going into anything here. If you haven't heard numb or figured this out already, where I was going at the beginning of this podcast is not where we went. And when I said, this is like something that changed my life, this is something that changed my life.

This is not where I was going, but if we reel it back, God's word, the B-I-B-L-E, basic instruction before leaving Earth, the Bible, basic construction before leaving Earth is God speaking to you. What is best? Yeah. Not, don't do this. People read the Bible like, oh, I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't do this.

It has that in there, but this is God's instruction to you of this is how to be. God's children have his inheritance, walk in his power, do what he wants to have, what he says you can have on this earth. This is your basic instruction. Yeah. And it's how do he get the best outta life? How to have the God, what God wants you to have.

How to have the perfect, the good and acceptable will of God. This is how it is. And when you read it and it's like, oh yeah, if I follow this and I do this, life gets better. Yeah. That's, yeah. That's just ba, that's just simply. Put how it works. Well, you were talking about like you wouldn't trade it in in, in my spirit, the scripture for Philippians three eight popped up.

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. And for his sake, I have discarded everything else. Counting it all as garbage so that I could gain Christ. Let me read it from the Amplified Classic. It says, yes. Furthermore, I count everything. Think about that.

Everything that we think is so important. Paul is saying here, like, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege. The overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage. You know, fellowship with God gives you an advantage, Supreme advantage. The supreme advantage of knowing Christ, my Lord, and a progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with him.

That that's amazing. Yeah. A perceiving and recognizing and understanding him more fully and clearly. What is that? That's, that's thinking about, we've talked about dating, marriage, all these, that's it right there. You're perceiving. You're perceiving Beth, you're recognizing Beth, understanding Beth more fully and clearly that's the same way with God.

Every day we're getting that fellowship deeper and deeper. And for his sake, I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish in order that I may win Christ The anointed one. Yeah. And we, going back to that analogy of the family and family reunions and get togethers, I think the most awkward interaction.

Is someone that you're related to but you're not close to. Yes. And that's people with God, like he's supposed to be your father, but yet there's that awkwardness when there's like that cousin that's like, yeah, we're related, but I only see you twice a year on a good year. Once a year. I'm not close with you at all.

I you're on the far side of the family. And it's like, yeah, we're cousins, but it's like. This is awkward. Yeah, because you're your family. You're like supposed to be close. You're supposed to be like related like, oh, that's my cousin. But then there's not, yeah. Don't get that with God. Have that supreme advantage if you get anything from this podcast.

It's a supreme advantage to have that fellowship with God. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, you know, and that's, I'm like, just understand this like count at all. Loss. It's all about like fellowship with the Lord. And we talked about it last week too, but just that like, you don't want the Lord to look at you in the face and go, I, I don't know you.

Yeah. Like, and that's again, that's like that, oh, that customer being like, yeah, like, but I don't know you. I don't know anything about you. And that's, I'm like, and how do you fix that by being. In fellowship with him. But this, uh, is, man, I've enjoyed this episode. I've enjoyed thinking about this because here's the thing, it doesn't, it's not like you get to a place where you're like, well, I'm good to go.

It's like, no, this makes me go like, okay, I wanna go spend some time with the Lord. Yeah. Like, I wanna go spend some time getting to know him like I've got. I've, there's so much more to know. There's so much more, uh, time to spend wi with him. And so I hope that that does the same thing for you listening today, is don't just turn off this podcast and go about your day.

Turn off this podcast, put on some praise music, or put on some worship music, or just even in your car, and just begin to praise the Lord. Begin to fellowship with him. Begin to tell him I want to know you more. I, I want to have. Deeper relationship with you. And with that, we're gonna sign off. We're going over cross the pond to have some biscuits and gravy.

And so whatever you're doing today, I hope, I hope that, uh, you get to eat some good food. And we thank you for listening. Be blessed and we'll see you next week.