Growing Together
Step into a virtual garden of spiritual growth and community connection with the "Growing Together" podcast. This podcast is a nurturing space for individuals seeking to deepen their faith, cultivate relationships, and explore the boundless beauty of a shared spiritual journey.
Each episode of "Growing Together" is a breath of fresh air, where Pastor Michael, Syd, Nic, Pastor Holly, and Pastor Roger try to navigate the twists and turns of life while staying rooted in faith. Their warm and inviting presence makes you feel like you're sitting in a cozy living room, engaged in a heartfelt conversation with old friends.
Diving into topics ranging from personal growth and self-care to building resilient relationships and fostering a sense of community, the podcast aims to equip listeners with the tools to nurture their faith in all aspects of life. Through scripture readings, open discussions, and interviews with experts in various fields, "Growing Together" provides a holistic approach to spiritual development.
Whether you're a lifelong believer, a seeker on the spiritual path, or simply someone curious about how faith can shape lives, "Growing Together" offers a welcoming haven for everyone. Tune in during your morning routine, while taking a leisurely stroll, or even during a quiet moment of reflection – the podcast fits seamlessly into your daily life.
Join the "Growing Together" community and embark on a journey of discovery, growth, and genuine connection. In a world that can sometimes feel disconnected, this podcast reminds us that nurturing our faith and cultivating meaningful relationships can lead to a life that's deeply fulfilling and spiritually abundant. Subscribe now to start your journey of growing together in faith and fellowship.
Growing Together
Rapid Fire (With a dose of Random)
What happens when humorous wordplay, spiritual exploration, and financial achievements collide in a single episode? Join us for a lively discussion as we uncover the intricate interplay between natural immunity stories and the great Lysol debate, with a dash of thrombosis humor. We recount the ups and downs of our golf simulator fiascos, all while navigating the complex terrain of COVID-19 vaccine discussions. Personal anecdotes paint a vivid picture of how illnesses have reshaped our routines, from missed Bible studies to co-op group gatherings.
Shifting the spotlight, we celebrate the harmonious blend of music and financial wisdom. Hear about the birth of our new band and the challenges of reaching out to former Elvis impersonators. Our financial journey takes a triumphant turn with our successful completion of Financial Peace University, marking the end of our debt journey—except for the enduring mortgage. Revel in tales of budget-savvy renovations and strategic financial maneuvers that have reshaped our family's approach to money management.
As we venture into deeper reflections, we tackle the mysteries of the afterlife, the significance of communion, and the challenges of mental health care in rural areas. Engage with our spirited conversations on Christian beliefs, the enigmatic fate of Jesus's body, and the role of personal energy within social dynamics. We weave humor and introspection into every topic, including a playful nod to Kirk Franklin's unique musical style. Join us for a journey through faith, finance, and fun, with stories that inspire introspection and laughter.
Well, I think we're going to rapid fire. Oh no, I pulled a bunch One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13. But they're all easy, they're yes or no, they're direct questions. So I shouldn't say yes or no, but very simple, what I would deem simple. I would think that you guys will be okay with most of these.
Speaker 2:I was just going to share a story, but I'm not. I don't know if we're live or not, so I'm not sharing.
Speaker 1:That's a good idea. If it's a questionable story, you probably shouldn't share it. Sid's sick, nick's sick. We missed Bible study. What two weeks ago? Nobody showed up because everybody was sick. Here Alyssa said for co-op, not last week but the week before they have like 30 plus kids in co-op every week. There were 12. Wow, because everybody was sick. So knock on wood, our family hasn't gotten any of it yet, right? But we also let our kids eat dirt and play outside.
Speaker 3:That's what I'm saying. You got to let them expose themselves, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Those people are always using that hand sanitizer.
Speaker 4:You can't live in a bubble.
Speaker 1:Do you remember the? Did we talk about the hand sanitizer thing in here, or was that just during coffee morning one morning? The hand sanitizer it doesn't actually kill germs, it mutates them. Now it makes them mostly harmless, but it's like 99.8 or whatever, but like lysol has to be on a surface for 15 seconds before it can be wiped up, otherwise it doesn't do what it's supposed to do. But that lysol used to be used as a contraceptive yes real yes yes like that was like the.
Speaker 1:OG contraceptive was Lysol. Would you drink it? They realized, no, we're not going to explain that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we won't explain what you did with it, but it ended up causing serious health issues for people. But they didn't know any better until they knew better, which is also why I don't take any type of drug that's new to the market. I'm like we'll wait a little while. Give me some Aleve, some Tylenol I'm good with that, but anything that's like oh hey, this is experimental, hard pass, hard pass, like you start growing an extra arm out of the side of your head or something you don't know, and they don't know the long-term side effects of really a lot of that stuff at this point I had no option at the hospital on my COVID vaccine Right.
Speaker 2:There was no option yeah yeah, and that makes sense.
Speaker 1:I mean, you're going to be exposed to it every day. I don't know that that's something that I would have done, like we didn't my wife and I didn't get the COVID vaccine.
Speaker 3:I did one and done, and that was only because I was traveling. And once I got to my sons they're both teachers in Massachusetts. If they were around anybody who was not vaccinated or exposed, then they had to quarantine for 14 days.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 3:They were young and have a child. It's like I couldn't, so I said I'll do one and done.
Speaker 2:I had to do two, because I did the Moderna when it first came out, and it was two.
Speaker 1:Was Johnson and Johnson the one and done, done out, and it was two. Was Johnson and.
Speaker 3:Johnson the one and done.
Speaker 1:Done. That's the one I opted for. That's the one I said if I was going to do it that would have been the one, but they were hard to get. They weren't real easy to find.
Speaker 3:I wasn't planning on doing it at all because my home health agencies weren't forcing it, they weren't pushing the issue.
Speaker 2:Now, the hospital's never pushed for the boosters or anything.
Speaker 1:That's interesting.
Speaker 1:My mother-in-law and I'm not saying this is what caused my mother-in-law's stroke, but my mother-in-law had her stroke four days after getting her COVID vaccine. And you know what's crazy? She's in the hospital trying to recover from that and they're trying to send her to her doctor to get her second shot, Like she's a stroke patient at this point. And they're like, well, if you take her from here, you can take her over to her doctor and get the second shot. I said to my wife well now, why would we do that? Yeah, Like I was. I don't want to say that again. We don't know what caused her stroke. It could have been a coincidence, but she wasn't the only person that that happened. To hard to process all of that and she was in bad health to begin with. So, like there was, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, my dad developed all of those clots.
Speaker 1:After his shot.
Speaker 4:After his shot yeah, it's just crazy, but he'll be in line for the booster.
Speaker 2:But, he won't miss them. He won't miss them.
Speaker 3:My cousin's husband ended up with thrombosis and he ended up with clots after.
Speaker 1:Thrombosis Is that the thing that you play in the band? No, that's thrombone.
Speaker 2:Oh, jeez, yeah, what are you gonna do?
Speaker 1:What are you gonna do I?
Speaker 4:don't know.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 4:Are you selling?
Speaker 1:horses? No, I'm not selling horses, but I am dealing with a golf simulator. Oh okay, Give me just a second.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's why I wasn't talking to him, because he was all engrossed and he was doing like six different things at the same time, I can tell by the look on his face.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I definitely had. I was pretty sour, it was pretty sour. Give me one second, yeah, that thing had. I was pretty sour, it was pretty sour. Give me one second, yeah, that thing sounds a little problematic. It's actually not.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:No, I, yeah, I have no idea what the problem is and how it happened or what's going on. Normally it just fires right up, I can sign in, I turn it on and you walk away. But today it's now it's telling us that it's not activated.
Speaker 4:So maybe it needs activated.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, that sounds like the most common thing, but there's no reason we should, because it's a one and done.
Speaker 4:Maybe somebody put the wrong key in to turn it on key and to turn it on. Ooh, let me push in buttons.
Speaker 3:I wish I could type that fast Right. Or the kids that just use their thumbs and type that fast.
Speaker 4:Oh well, yeah.
Speaker 3:On their phones.
Speaker 1:We're going to have to cut all this out. This is just me breathing weirdly into the microphone for a few seconds. All right, I have to talk to the person that has an appointment, which is never fun, because you're basically telling this person hey, sex to suck.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because there's nothing I can do about it. Oh, they couldn't get it fixed. He's still working on it, but he said he's not entirely confident that he's going to be able to get it fixed. So which is will just be a call to tech support to get it reactivated because, for whatever reason, it's just saying that it's not activated, but there's no reason it should need to be activated maybe he got tired, maybe. Anyhow, there we are. So ta-da Messaged, my guest Sent it to him. What do you got? Oh well, I've got a story.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 1:Let me hear the story. So well, you already know the story and anybody who saw it on social media knows the story too. Oh, but to catch everybody up to speed on the Elvis jumpsuit saga, my tiger arrived to work yesterday. I immediately stripped out in my office and put it on, because I have no shame and it fits beautifully. It's fantastic. I love it. It's on social media, I missed it. Just it's just a snippet of the collar. You can see the tiger stripes on the collar. I never share the full jumpsuit until it's on. I want everybody to get to experience it for the first time on Because they look silly, flat, they're saggy in weird places and whatnot, but anyhow. So that came yesterday and then today arrived a new belt from Australia that I bought and it is beautiful and fits perfectly. Now we're working on a band. Nick is going to play rhythm guitar. We're super excited. Sorry, answering guests again, he's not very happy Huh.
Speaker 1:What? Oh, he's okay, oh okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I had seen the post that you were looking for a band.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll tell you, okay, oh, okay. Yeah, I had seen the post that you were looking for a band. Yeah, I'll tell you what I don't know. So do everybody know who the 8-track band is?
Speaker 4:Never heard of them.
Speaker 1:So the 8-track band typically plays with Carl Dreher as Elvis. Oh, okay, so the 8-track band plays first and then Carl drums for them, and then he goes and changes, puts on an elvis jumpsuit, comes out and sings. So I try to get them to back me. I have two shows, that said. He said I want two shows, I want one for here at the church and I want one at the railroad festival. And apparently eight track has broken up and they're not together anymore we'll snag some of them.
Speaker 1:they, he won't give me any of their information. I don't know any of the guys in the band. He's the only one that I know because he's a tribute artist. So, like most of us know each other, he and you can tell it's this. Like I'm encroaching on his territory, like this is his, these are my guys and we have our thing and we're not going to play for you. And so I sent him some pictures of my jumpsuits and stuff and I was like listen, like this is legit, like I'm not just a fly by night kind of guy.
Speaker 4:I'd really love to work with you guys, but nothing. Your car's a little different. Yeah, I went to school with him. He's old.
Speaker 1:He is older. I won't ever call anybody old anymore because I'm starting to feel that way. But he is older and he doesn't do Elvis like I do. I tried to reproduce the Elvis um stage presence. He has like jumpsuits that his grandma made and they're like it's not great, but you know it's what it is, so people still enjoy it yeah what are you gonna do?
Speaker 1:oh, there's a really funny video that I sent my wife today. It says when you order Elvis on Teemu, and it's, this is terrible, it's this old guy and he's very obviously doing a nursing home show. There's lots of old people in wheelchairs sitting around and the music the intro music starts to play and here he comes and he's got this like electric guitar strapped across. Mel was never played an electric guitar in concert, ever, like ever in a jumpsuit that doesn't fit him, with a belt, that with without a belt, so he's looking like super foolish.
Speaker 1:Gets to the front to go to start singing. He's like like in his microphone, all right, and then somehow manages to like stop the music right in the middle of the of the song, so he never sings and he goes, oh sorry, hit the button, whoops, and then he plays another song and starts to sing and it's so bad. There's an old lady in like a wheelchair in the front and she's laughing hysterically. And I said to my wife I'm like can I use this as an advertisement? Like this is the $150 Elvis that you get when you book, like book us today. She said no, because my wife is a stick in the mud. She's a wise lady.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah yeah, yeah, so fun. Just Financial Peace University update for my family we will be debt free in a week, 100%, with the exception of our house. We will be completely debt free. Here's what we've decided. This is for anybody who's doing Financial Peace University Understand that the baby steps matter.
Speaker 1:You have to do one, you have to do two, you have to do three and you have to do them in order. Right, Right, Okay. So we are actually technically on baby step three right now. So we are building three to six months. We already have three plus months in our savings account. However, we're in debt in baby step two, so we're still snowballing, but we've got this huge pocket of money sitting over here. So we're going to take that pocket of money, we're going to pay off the debt, including her car, which will free up I don't know $800, $900 a month between payments and the car payment, and then start saving all of that money again back into that baby step number three. Then, when we get it to six months, then we'll go into four, five, six and seven. So we're excited. We decided to wait to do it until the basement project was finished because we wanted to have a nest egg in case that basement project went over our estimate. It will actually come in $1,000 under Well that's a good deal.
Speaker 1:We projected $30,000 for that project and it will ultimately be just under $29,000. It'll be $28,000 and some change.
Speaker 4:That's a good deal.
Speaker 1:Although we're having a really hard time coming off any of the money, because when you look at your checking account, we had that money from the sale of our other house. That's the only reason we can do that. Let's be very clear. I don't just have $30,000 laying around, so we have that money. Plus, we have our nest egg all in the savings account and you're looking at it and you're like I'm about to write a check that will just wipe out all of that money. I don't like the way that feels. Can I make payments? Can. Can I make payments? Can I put it on a credit card? No, no no, you cannot.
Speaker 1:But we have canceled almost all of our credit cards because we know we don't need them. We've always just had them just because we felt like we did. It was that comfort, that nest egg. Um, it's like a security. It was an emergency fund, is what it was. It was our emergency fund, which was not good for us, because then we just abuse it. So, yeah, we're excited to just wrap up baby step two and then focus on three.
Speaker 4:So good deal.
Speaker 2:Jarvi just had this discussion.
Speaker 1:The other day and I'm like I'm going to ask Michael, what's the question? Let's wait, connect your phone. We're going to call Jarvi and we're going to let him in on the conversation. That only seems fair.
Speaker 2:Well, he was talking about because we have that charge card that he uses all through the month, because you get 5% off, oh geez.
Speaker 1:But he pays it off there, yep, so do we, so do we.
Speaker 2:I can't do that, but he can do that. They upped his credit limit and he's like I hate when they do that, I hate. I'm like why? He's like because if I would go to get a loan or whatever he said, that amount counts against me as debt, even though I don't owe that. I'm like oh, you're crazy. Nope, he is right.
Speaker 1:It's not that it shows his debt, it shows as an open line of credit, exactly. So it's still a negative impact. Now you can call and have it reduced. You can call and tell them I want this to be $5,000 and no more and they'll reduce it for you. But it does count as it's a negative impact because it looks like you have an open line of credit for X amount. That's what people who do home equity line of credit through you know. There are some third party companies that basically they give you a credit card that's a home equity line of credit. So their hope is that you're going to max this thing out. So I'll give you an example.
Speaker 1:When Alyssa and I put the windows in our old house which why did we ever do that? I didn't know I was going to sell it. That's why we did it. But when we decided we were going to put windows in, we did a home equity line of credit because we knew it was going to be about $12,000. We didn't have 12,000 laying around for that project. We had our nest egg, but this wasn't considered an emergency.
Speaker 1:So we took a home equity line of credit because we had a huge amount of equity in the house. They gave us $30,000 and they give you a card and just say just spend it as you want, right? Yeah, they want you to spend a full 30. Well, yeah, because I spent 12. My payment was $275 a month and what they're hoping is that you default on that payment because now they've got your house for $12,000. Wow, which is basically all they're trying to do, and so I try to explain to people that home equity line of credit is okay if you really have to, but most people don't really have to. They choose to because they want something that they can't afford otherwise.
Speaker 2:We had a banker. Well, jarvi had a banker that tried to talk him into a home equity line on our home. That way. That's when we were buying rental properties up and he said said, and then you can just buy, you know, the rental property you don't have to worry about. You know waiting for everything to go through, or you know, take everything out of your savings.
Speaker 1:Jeremy's like nope no way, no listen. I think we shared this at financial peace university, which, beth? You'd be the only one that didn't hear it, but we lived um. Hold on one second here. All right, talk, sorry I have to fix this real quick. He's working on working on the golf machine again. I'm well, I'm doing 15 things at one time again well, it's, either.
Speaker 4:It's so you're the golf machine again. Well, I'm doing 15 things at one time again. Okay, well, it's either. See, there's a golf machine.
Speaker 3:If someone said that to me, like with your home equity line of, I would have never known anything back then.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:I would have just taken that at face value and never thought a thing about, oh, if I miss a payment now, they've got my house, they've got my.
Speaker 2:Listen, I'd be thinking about how many pairs of shoes and purses I could buy.
Speaker 3:I said she needs another closet just for her shoes and purses.
Speaker 4:You just need to buy one big purse and then you can put all the smaller ones inside and you go in the house. I only got one purse. Well, that one you had Sunday, it was a pretty good size. Oh, she's just a baby. Oh gee, Merry Christmas, you could put a small child in that.
Speaker 3:Probably.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I better not have saggy pants and make a mark on my inside of it, though.
Speaker 4:So you got a bag of peanuts in there.
Speaker 1:No, hey, I've realized I struggle to spell the word inconvenience. Do you spell check? Well, it automatically underlines it in red for me. But I have, I can't tell you, on countless occasions put incontinence instead of inconvenience. Can you imagine sending that to someone? Sorry for the incontinence anyhow, especially if there's no person.
Speaker 3:anyhow, instead of inconvenience, can you imagine sending that to?
Speaker 1:someone. Sorry for the incontinence. Yeah, anyhow, especially if there's no person.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, anyhow, what was I? Oh so, alyssa and I, we bought a car. We drove the car for probably four or five months and the bank that financed the car called us and they're like hey, we noticed you have a lot of credit card debt. How about we hook you up with a debt consolidation? It's a signature loan, no collateral that we were aware of. You're just going to sign a little form, you're going to FedEx it back to us and we're going to pay off all your credit cards for you. We're like well, certainly, that sounds great, sign me up, right, because now I'm combining all of that interest into one payment, I'm combining all of those debts into one. But then those cards are free and clear to use again. So what did we do? We went out and ran those cards up again, right, because that's the logical thing to do when you're young, dumb and don't know how to manage your credit. So we did that.
Speaker 1:And then I went out to go to work one morning and I walk outside and my car's gone. No idea where my car is at, like losing my mind. I thought it was stolen. Go back inside and alice is like I made the car payment. She did not make the signature loan payment and they repossessed the car because of it.
Speaker 1:And so then we were like, what do you do? They wanted like three months worth of payments. They wanted the past due payment, they wanted the current month payment and then they wanted one month in advance in order for us to get the car back. And I laughed and I was like, well, where can I go collect my personal belongings from the car? Because I don't have it. If I had it I would have paid you in the first place. You want me to go get a loan to pay you? So yeah, and I think that a lot of times it's predatory because people don't understand it, and all of these consumer laws like, oh well, they have to tell you this and they have to tell you that You're right, they do have to tell you in fine print on the back, very last page, the very bottom, yada, yada, yada.
Speaker 3:That you barely read the first page, let alone anything on the back, correct?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, because I was just excited to be like paying off that debt. Like there was. No, I wasn't thinking anything about like what's the what? Like there was. No, I wasn't thinking anything about. Like what's the what's the repercussions of this? Okay, ready for game? We're playing cards. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. 13 rapid fire questions. There's only four of us here, so we have to be quick, okay.
Speaker 2:Listen, I don't think real quick on my feet here, well, but these are— we're not on your feet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good thing you're sitting down, man huh, good thing you're sitting down. The good news is, this is actually—I have no idea how to do this.
Speaker 4:Like I'm just making this up as I go, guys, I can tell Well, this like I'm just, I'm just making this up as I go, guys, I could, I could tell well, yeah, anyhow, uh let me do it.
Speaker 1:I can really. Oh yeah, you could. You could monkey this thing up something fierce. You click on stuff and new things pop up. I don't know how to do any of this. I don't. I have no idea what I'm doing. No idea, no idea.
Speaker 4:Well then, see, I couldn't mess it up, no idea idea.
Speaker 1:Okay, anyhow, I'll deal with that in a little bit. Okay, all right, here we go, rapid fire. I'm just going to ask the question. We can take turns going around the table or everybody's just going to jump in and answer. Okay, just chime in. These are very I don't want to call them basic questions. Yes and no, they're not yes and no.
Speaker 3:They are no, they are not true and false.
Speaker 1:Yes, this is not multiple choice. You have to have. This is a short answer. I don't like short answers, like they're not quite essays, but you have to have an answer, so I'm going to give. I'm going to find an easy one, real quick.
Speaker 3:Oh, an easy one, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Probably the hardest one is stat right.
Speaker 3:No, no, no because.
Speaker 1:I want it to be easy.
Speaker 4:Well, evidently there's no easy one.
Speaker 1:No, I needed to see them all before I knew which one was the easiest. If I said, oh, this one's the easiest, and then didn't look at the last one, listen these people on podcasts.
Speaker 2:They just don't realize how much they miss on your face. I know well.
Speaker 1:So I one time I'm, I'm in a, I'm in a, I'm a member of a play reading committee for a local organization, and so what they do is they tell directors, submit shows that they want to do, and then we have to read all of them and then we read them and then we go back and we decide what the season is going to be Okay. So I get asked to be on that group a couple of years ago. I've probably been doing it for three years at this point, and this year there were some new people on there and there's one girl I've worked with several times on other boards and other capacities and other things, and she sent me a text. She's like I've missed you so much. She's like your face is amazing. She's like so tell me about X. And was asking me about. She's like because the look on your face. When they said it, I knew something was up. I'm like my face doesn't hide anything. At this point I've kind of lost all touch with caring too.
Speaker 3:It's just whatever I know.
Speaker 1:I'm that person that rolls her eyes and I try not to, but I still do. Mine is not usually rolling of my eyes, mine is usually like that duh.
Speaker 2:I'm bad at rolling my eyes, do you remember?
Speaker 1:How about?
Speaker 2:band camp. Do you remember in band when Mr Peronis yelled just for you, Williams, we can do that 10 more times. Roll your eyes again. I'm like I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Sorry, Sorry. That's why we're wet in that field. That is now a big parking lot.
Speaker 4:Where'd you go to school?
Speaker 2:Indian Valley South. A rebel? Yeah, you still are, no.
Speaker 3:Yes, we were rebels.
Speaker 1:Guys, I am so sorry.
Speaker 2:I feel very rude, but so where'd you go to school, Roger?
Speaker 4:New Philly.
Speaker 2:New Philly.
Speaker 1:With the cavemen. Nuh-uh, you rode a dinosaur. All right, here's your first question. Are you ready? This is an easy one. So right, here's your first question. Are you ready? This is an easy one. So this is just like the test. Okay, you ready?
Speaker 4:I always flunked them tests.
Speaker 3:I didn't flunk, Roger, but I usually had time to study.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you don't have time.
Speaker 2:I didn't study, I just sat close to her and then just Alright, you ready.
Speaker 1:You're sitting close to her, so, dawn, don't write anything down Ready. First question what is baptism, sinner, go in, save, come out Right, it's basic, it's a very simple concept. The concept is of water. Baptism is that a person who has decided to follow Jesus is submerged underwater, in our case, fully submerged underwater in the name of the Father, the Son and the.
Speaker 3:Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1:And the reason that we do that is because that's how Jesus was baptized. And I think it's the Apostle Paul that tells us that that's how we should baptize people as well. And then later on, somebody says something about baptizing people in the name of Jesus, but us that that's how we should baptize people as well. And then later on, somebody says something about baptizing people in the name of Jesus, but it's that contradictive. So there are some religions that believe in baptizing people in the name of Jesus, but we go with the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, because that's how Jesus was baptized, down with the old up with the new.
Speaker 1:Correct Down with the old, up with the new, and so the idea is that this is an outward sign of an inward work. You don't just like, you don't go. I want to follow Jesus and get baptized, because a lot of times you go in a center and come out of the center and the only difference is is now you're wet.
Speaker 1:So there is Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. It is a lifestyle choice and that is simply a sign of said choice. It's an outward declaration of that choice. See, was that easy. That was an easy one. That was an easy one. Now the rest of them aren't so easy. Oh, this is an easy one. No, I'm not going to ask that one yet.
Speaker 4:We're going to skip that one, skip that one. Well, you're going to have to pick a whole new pile if you keep skipping them.
Speaker 1:I know. Okay, here's a good one Ready. What is the Lord's Supper or communion?
Speaker 4:Oh, it's a commemorance of uh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, last Supper, mm-hmm and the upper Last Supper.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So what's the purpose of doing it as a church? We do it once a month, four Square. I don't want to say they direct, but they encourage us to do it once a month first Sunday of every month and that way everybody in the Four Square denomination is taking communion at the same time At the same time Roughly.
Speaker 2:Listen, I'm afraid to say my answer. I might be wrong.
Speaker 1:Well, it's okay, you're allowed to be wrong.
Speaker 2:It's in remembrance and reverence of the sacrifice that he made for us.
Speaker 1:That is correct.
Speaker 2:See there, you're not wrong.
Speaker 1:That is correct.
Speaker 2:We examine ourself.
Speaker 4:Yep.
Speaker 3:And we don't want to take it if we are not, if we haven't examined ourselves.
Speaker 4:Right with the Lord.
Speaker 1:So this will get us into another fun conversation. What's the age of accountability? At what age do you feel like somebody should be taking communion? And I don't think there's a right or wrong answer on age. I think it's maturity.
Speaker 3:Same, but I think anything under 12 to me is you know. The chances are they don't understand Exactly. They don't have that maturity.
Speaker 1:Agreed, and I don't know why 12 has always been my number too. Anything less than 12 is kind of like if you don't, because at that point you should be able to have some understanding of who Jesus is, the sacrifice that he made Like, my daughter right now knows that Jesus died on a cross, but her mind can't comprehend the sacrifice that was made.
Speaker 3:She doesn't fully understand that, but I would probably trust her to take communion before I would trust some adults to take communion or being honest and I didn't become a Christian until I was 30. So you know, I wasn't taking communion right away. You know, just because I was saved and was baptized, I had to experience, I had to dive into my Bible and I had to research and learn?
Speaker 1:Yeah, certainly.
Speaker 3:So it wasn't like it's something you did right after I was saved anyway.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, that's great. See, these aren't hard. Okay, I think that one's in here. I think that one's in here. Hold on, I think it's in here. I think it's in here, okay. So we'll just keep going on that topic for a second. What does the cup represent? The wine, grape juice for here.
Speaker 2:The blood that was shed.
Speaker 1:And then, what does the bread represent?
Speaker 2:The body.
Speaker 1:The breaking of the body. See, these aren't hard guys we're going to run out of.
Speaker 2:Speaking of the bread, how I've been going to church and reading the Bible and I just didn't get this and I said something to Holly about it and she kind of like, yeah, that they used unleavened bread because Jesus was without sin, and the leavened bread that has yeast and it kind of rises and grows.
Speaker 1:It has risen, just like sin does when you have it in your life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I didn't know that it just kind of, you know, you let a little bit in then you let it go and it keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger, then pretty soon you're bloated, exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was watching somebody make pizza dough the other day, and not that this is relevant at all, but you were talking about things rising. And it's interesting because they would cover the pizza dough with a warm, damp towel. And the pizza dough rises inside of the bowl. When they take the thing off, they punch it down. Now I was like, what does punch it down mean? So I had to watch a video and there's this girl in her little Domino's uniform and she's punching this dough inside of the bowl and she's punching it down. So she takes it out of the bowl, she rolls it around, gets it in a nice little ball and she says now, if you're not going to use this right away and you're going to use it later, that's okay. Cover it, keep it, but don't punch it down again, otherwise it will stay flat. Isn't it amazing the things that you learn, like who would have known that? Who figured that out?
Speaker 1:Same way if you're making bread, you don't punch it down twice. But again, who figured that out, Grandma? Yeah, grandma Reed, I'll tell you what my grandma made shepherd's pie the other night, and I didn't get any, so I'm not really friends with her right now.
Speaker 4:But we'll let it slide. Well, the way she was talking, I thought she was going to give you some Well that's kind of what I thought too.
Speaker 1:She was like guess what we're having for dinner tonight? I'm like fish and she's like nope and I'm like shepherd's pie. She goes yep, and I'm thinking all right, she go hook me up with some shepherd's pie. Nothing, nada, nothing.
Speaker 2:She warned you. She normally To give you a heads up. It was for dinner, but it should have been there.
Speaker 1:But here's the problem though she I know that she didn't make enough for me and my grandpa she makes, so I eat the whole dish by myself.
Speaker 4:The whole thing. I love it. That's why you're Elvis seasonal.
Speaker 1:I know right, Woof. Yeah, she left enough on the tiger jumpsuit that I can get a little bigger around in the middle.
Speaker 4:Yeah, a little spread room, yeah right.
Speaker 1:Just a little. I emailed her and I was like hey, love the suit, thanks so much, yada, yada. Oh, by the way, love the fact that there's a little extra in the middle, in case I decide to grow front to back. All right, next one.
Speaker 3:How can you please God, seek his face Right by doing his will?
Speaker 1:Okay, I like being obedient by doing his will. What was yours?
Speaker 3:Be humble.
Speaker 1:Be humble. Okay, so does anybody have their Bible, can you? I almost I'm not going to tell you what I almost- called you, I got mine, but I can't read. I can't. Oh, you didn't have his glasses. On 1 Peter, 4.11.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Do you have yours?
Speaker 1:Are you going digital?
Speaker 2:I'm going digital Beth's going digital.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right, by loving him and doing what he commands, is the general consensus of that answer. What was it?
Speaker 3:1 Peter, what 1 Peter 4.11.
Speaker 1:Love him, love others. Yeah, I don't like the second part of that Me neither. That's the part we have to do, but it's a lot harder than the first part.
Speaker 3:It's very hard.
Speaker 1:You know, and it's not hard to love God or to be obedient to God. In my opinion it's not hard because he does all of the good things. And so I look at that and I say, okay, this is easy because only the good things come from him. The problem is is when you get around the people of the world who you struggle to love, but that's because, like, they're really not lovable. But then I start to identify with them too. I'm like also, I kind of said that to them and did that to them and acted that way towards them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I heard a statement today that there are still good people in this world, and if you can't find one, then be one.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I'll be honest with you I genuinely believe there are more good people in the world than there are bad people. We just like to focus on the bad people.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's easier to focus on that negative stuff, right.
Speaker 2:Do you want me to read this? Yeah, it's easier to focus on that negative stuff Right.
Speaker 1:Do you want me to read this? It's long. Well, I just want 411.
Speaker 2:I don't need 411, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30. Tell me if I'm in the right place. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking.
Speaker 1:Are you in 1 Peter 411?
Speaker 2:That's what I'm saying. It doesn't jive oh jeez, hold on.
Speaker 1:Let me just pull it up myself.
Speaker 2:Now it's taking me to Timu, yeah.
Speaker 4:I wonder where.
Speaker 1:You looking to order an Elvis?
Speaker 2:1 Peter 4.11.
Speaker 1:Well, it's just a note on the card. I don't know what the reference is. That's why I asked.
Speaker 2:We'll see if we can put it together. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ, all glory and power to him, forever and ever.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, it ties in. Yes, it's perfect.
Speaker 3:Yes, just kind of turn me off there.
Speaker 1:The beginning was a little bit uh, 411. What, what, um, that was NLT, that was New Living Translation. Okay, all right, we got that one out of the way. All right, we got that one out of the way. All right, you ready for the next one? Ready, Ready, here we go. Is God one person or many?
Speaker 4:He's one person.
Speaker 1:This is a good one, because it depends on how you look at it, it's the Trinity.
Speaker 1:There you go. That's where we were headed. That's where we were headed. So it's Father, son, holy Ghost. Yeah, so there are three, but they're not necessarily separate because they are all in one. So it's kind of a trick question, but we've covered this before. So God existed before Jesus ever walked the earth, right, right? Which means the Holy Spirit existed before Jesus ever walked the earth, and that the Holy Spirit would have been one with God. So God sends Jesus, who then calls on the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit comes after.
Speaker 1:Jesus is ascended Right, he's sent as the comforter. If you listen to last Sunday's message, you know that right. So they are all three different in what, not what they do, because I guess they're all the same. They're all three different entities but are all of one body, all of one God yes, of one God yes. So okay, that's what I said. That's just what Roger said, exactly what he said.
Speaker 3:All right, exactly.
Speaker 1:Why do you need Jesus Christ as a prophet? This is a good one. Ooh tricky, all right. Dawn To give me salvation. No, that's Savior.
Speaker 2:Savior okay.
Speaker 1:Okay Dawn, do you have a digital Bible?
Speaker 3:I don't, no, all right.
Speaker 1:Beth, look this one up, Psalm 25.4.
Speaker 2:I won't pay for it, so you have to go through it.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, it's free.
Speaker 2:Mine doesn't. It makes me go through all the Timu ads.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:What is it 25-4?
Speaker 1:Psalm 25-4, and I'm looking for Jeremiah. I would much prefer to have my Bible.
Speaker 3:Psalms. What Make me to know your ways, O Lord, teach me your path. Let's see.
Speaker 1:That was a good one.
Speaker 3:That's 25-4.
Speaker 1:25-4.
Speaker 3:Okay so read it again.
Speaker 1:Read that one again.
Speaker 3:Show me your ways, Lord, and teach me your path.
Speaker 1:And teach me your path. Okay, Jeremiah 17-9 says the human heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked. But who really knows how bad it is? But I, the Lord, search all the hearts and examine the secret motives. I give people their due rewards according to what their actions deserve.
Speaker 1:Why do we need Jesus as a prophet? Because we don't know what to do to please God. The flesh does not know what to do to please God, so without the prophetic we will continue to do whatever we want to do, recklessly for the most part, and let's so. We'll jump into five-fold ministry for a second. A lot of people don't believe in it. Don't care, I do, I think that it's. I don't believe that any ministry operates without a true five-fold. Some way, somehow I believe that a lot of people can operate in all five, but I don't think that a church could ever survive with one person running all of the things. So, for instance, here I am apostolic.
Speaker 1:Holly is very prophetic. So when Holly operates in the prophetic, sometimes I have to look at that and go okay, no idea what just happened over there. Something crazy happened. But I have to work it out. I have to figure it out because it's my responsibility to then grow that. Like what if?
Speaker 1:If there's a prophetic word or there's a prophetic statement or a move of some sort, it is my responsibility to take that, explain it to the people around me and make that grow Right. That's like. That's how it works hand in hand. But you couldn't just have a church that operates in the prophetic all the time, because then that church will eventually either scare everybody off or it will start to kill people. Like you'll have spiritual deaths because you have this overwhelming guilt all the time. Like I can't imagine being Holly. Like how do you live inside of that constant state of emotion? Because the prophetic is very emotional. I mean it has to be a crushing burden. But again, that's why you need the other parts of the ministry in order to support the prophetic. Okay, we like that one.
Speaker 3:So what is the five folds again?
Speaker 1:Okay, so you have the pastor, the apostle, the teacher, the evangelist and the prophet.
Speaker 1:That is the five fold. Evangelist and the prophet, that is the fivefold. So it's interesting because the fivefold is those are offices, not positions. Let's make that very clear. So you can be an evangelist and not be a member of leadership, but every church needs one, a good one, a really, really good one. You can be a prophet and like I look at Ed anytime we talk about the prophetic like he's very prophetic. He doesn't have an office, he doesn't have a position in the church, but that doesn't mean his anointing is any less important.
Speaker 1:Teachers a lot of times teachers are confused with, like teachers who teach class. A lot of times a teacher is somebody who you can ask a question to and they can give you an answer off the hip very quickly. That is a good teacher. That doesn't necessarily mean that they teach a Sunday school class or have a Wednesday night group or anything like that. The apostle tends to be the administrative. They're the ones who are keeping everything kind of buttoned up, tight and close together. And then you've got the prophetic and they live in their own world Like it. Just the prophetic is it's. In my opinion, it is its own world, and the Bible even tells us that we cannot stand on just the apostle and the prophet, but they are the center of the church. That's how you keep a church moving is with your apostle and your prophet. So we're very fortunate that we have a strong ministry in the building. All right, next one In whose name should we pray? I love this question.
Speaker 2:In Jesus' name In.
Speaker 4:Jesus' name.
Speaker 1:Okay, who do we pray to, heavenly Father?
Speaker 3:The.
Speaker 1:Father Pray to the Father in the name of the Son. Yes, so this is one of my favorite things in my house. So Emmett will go Dear Jesus before he starts the blessing. I'm like Nope, we don't pray to Jesus, we pray in the name of Jesus. He's like Wait, I don't understand. So we have this conversation. It is important to understand because we are thanking God. Last Sunday I tripped myself up when I was praying at the end of service and then I got in my head and I was having a hard time buttoning up because I was like I'm driving myself crazy, but anyhow, we're praying to the Father, but Jesus is interceding.
Speaker 1:Jesus is the one who—so when I say in the name of Jesus, that means that I'm believing, whatever is said, jesus is going to give that to the Father in a whole and complete thought process, something that maybe I didn't do well myself. So, yeah, we pray in the name of Jesus, but we pray to the Father.
Speaker 4:Oh, I don't like this one.
Speaker 1:This is an easy one. Where is God?
Speaker 2:He's everywhere, Everywhere yep, omnipresent.
Speaker 1:God is everywhere. So that means he's in the bathroom. That means he's, so I heard this story today. Anybody listen to you guys don't listen to podcasts, do you?
Speaker 3:I don't very often no.
Speaker 1:There's a podcast called Armchair Expert. It's Dax Shepard who is an ex-drug addict. He's a celebrity but he's a super great guy. I think he's hilarious. A lot of swearing on there, so don't let your kids listen to it. A lot of adult topics, but it's like get you thinking kind of stuff. It's not just like trash. And they do this series called Armchair Anonymous where people come on and they tell stories and this girl. It was like embarrassing moments. And this girl went to a pizza shop and she ordered a couple of pizzas and she had to show them a coupon on her phone. And when she swiped the tab open on her phone and she shows them, it turns out that there was pornography on her phone that she had been watching earlier in the day.
Speaker 1:And I thought to myself embarrassing is the only word you want to use for that Because I think to myself God is present everywhere, everywhere. So whether you're in a pizza shop, in your own home, wherever you are, god sees all of those things, and I can't imagine putting myself out there. It was an accident, but why was it there at all? Because if you were even entertaining this, god has seen it. He knows what you're doing. That is not good.
Speaker 1:The Bible tells us that if you even have lustful thoughts, you have already committed the act. If you've committed the act in your mind, you have already committed the act in the flesh. That is bizarre to me that people would put themselves at risk like that, because when I talk on Sundays about there are people in our building that are going to go to hell, there are some people sitting there going yep, that's probably me Because they do not desire life-changing experience. I think when people can truly understand that God is everywhere, that he is in every place that you are, you will realize very quickly that this isn't good. Yeah, like my, what I'm doing, my lifestyle, my choices. It isn't good. The things I'm thinking really not good. I've got to clear my mind and think about things that are good and holy.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 1:Oh, my mind and think about things that are good and holy, right, oh, why do you need Jesus Christ as a priest? This is a weird one. It's not weird the word priest we immediately go Catholic, right, yeah, okay, not quite what we're doing here, not quite what we're doing, so just to share with everybody. This is out of a box. Hold on, it's called Talking Points and these are for Christians, so this particular box is all Christian topics and talking points.
Speaker 2:No, Googling Don.
Speaker 1:No phoning a friend, so think about as a teacher.
Speaker 2:Well, but that would be a friend, so think about as a teacher. We.
Speaker 1:Well, but that would be a teacher, not a priest. So think about this If you were Catholic and you were to have done something wrong, you would go to the priest and confess, and you would confess Okay, because we are constantly breaking God's commandments, we are constantly in a state of sin, and so we need that person that we can go to and say father, forgive me, for I have sinned.
Speaker 3:The Google says he acts as a mediator.
Speaker 1:Yes, so see, dr Google's always got it right. Dr Google's always got it. That's a tricky one. That's a tricky one, but yeah, but when you broke it down, yes, dr Google's always got it. That's a tricky one. That's a tricky one, yeah, but when you broke it down, it was easy. Are you ready for the next one? Why do you need Jesus?
Speaker 2:Christ as a king, because he's the ruler. He's going to be ruler over all of the earth.
Speaker 1:So typically a king rules over a kingdom, that kingdom is filled with what Subjects.
Speaker 1:Poor and weak people who cannot protect themselves. Right, that's the reason we elect presidents. That's the reason we have elected kings in the past Because we know that we have to have one person in charge in order to protect everybody, right, to protect the masses Now, whether or not they do that in a fair or unbiased way, that's a completely different conversation. But we need Jesus to be that protection, as our king he is, to keep the kingdom safe and protect all of us from the crazy world around us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank God.
Speaker 1:No kidding, we've only got three more. We've got lots of time left.
Speaker 2:Oh no, so we're gonna have to tell jokes at the end. We're gonna have to rip some more off the wall.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, I could do that. Actually, I have one laying here that I really like too. Yeah, maybe we'll cover that one. All right, why should you, please God? We just covered this one, guys.
Speaker 2:Because for my salvation I want many jewels in my crown to lay before his feet there you go, there you go.
Speaker 1:So I should be. I should be doing things pleasing unto god, because that's what he has commanded me to do. It is my desire to grow the kingdom and to make him happy. And I don't mean people hear that from christians and they're like, oh, that's creepy. I don't mean it like that, like god is not the kind of person who needs physical things. He wants to see that I'm healthy, that I'm happy and that I'm living under good rule and law. That doesn't mean, like Leviticus tells you not to eat pork or to not do X, not do X, not do X, and that you have to have all of those things. Exactly right, you know, during Lenten service, don't eat anything, no meat, just eat fish, whatever. Like all of those things that people think. That's not what God is expecting of us. He is expecting us to love others and to love him. That's really it. I mean he tells us that the greatest command is to love others, so it's really not difficult.
Speaker 1:All right, you ready for the next one? This is a really hard one, really hard one.
Speaker 3:You'll have to break it down for us. Okay.
Speaker 2:I'm going to Google this one.
Speaker 1:What does Jesus Christ do for us now? Really, this is such an easy one. What does he do for us today? Where?
Speaker 4:is Jesus at Well, he's everywhere.
Speaker 2:No no, he's in our heart.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Well, he's my comforter.
Speaker 1:The Bible tells us where Jesus is sitting.
Speaker 3:The right hand At the right hand of the Father. Doing what Interceding for us?
Speaker 1:Interceding for us. So when I do something stupid, he looks at God and says Father, forgive him, for he knows not what he does. So what he does for us now is intercedes on our behalf in all things. Yes, he is our attorney. He is our attorney, God is the judge.
Speaker 1:Yes, and he is not paid enough. For my stupidity, I can tell you that he is not paid enough. Yeah, okay, that's an easy one. That one wasn't too difficult. This is probably the easiest of all of them. However, I think it could elicit some conversation, some conspiracy theory maybe. I love a good conspiracy theory. Did Jesus?
Speaker 4:remain in the tomb after his crucifixion.
Speaker 1:No, he didn't Three days, he was there for three days, three days.
Speaker 4:Right so then, where did he go he?
Speaker 1:left. Where did he go?
Speaker 4:Did he go to the Bahamas?
Speaker 1:no, he went to Florida got a pair of Mickey ears. Came back with a churro footlong churro bucket of popcorn, a footlong churro and some Mickey ears everybody's like.
Speaker 3:Jesus, where'd you been?
Speaker 1:hanging out with the mouse. I picture Jesus in one of those. Everybody's like Jesus, where'd you been? Hanging out with the mouse? I picture Jesus in one of those goofy hats with the floppy ears and the snout, with the teeth hanging off the front. Yeah, yeah, that's what Jesus wore.
Speaker 3:You got it.
Speaker 1:Hawaiian t-shirt maybe? Yeah, so Jesus didn't? He stayed in the tomb for three days. After the third day, he rises, he starts to present himself to the disciples. So here's the conspiracy theory that I just love this because I think it's one of the like I used to believe this by the way.
Speaker 1:It's just so we're all clear. Before I was a Christian, I used to think all Christians were stupid. I thought you were all dumb because you believed in something that there was no possible way it could even be real, in something that there was no possible way.
Speaker 3:It could even be real. All right, walk by faith, not by sight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah Well okay, even today, it's still hard to do that.
Speaker 1:So there is a belief that Jesus's body was in fact stolen from the tomb by Mary Magdalene because Jesus had told her that he would rise on the third day, and when he did not rise on the third day, she stole his body and it's buried in France. Now you think all of this is bananas. Right On the surface it sounds like bananas, but they've got this trail that Mary would have followed in order to get Jesus's body there, and the point behind getting him there was so that nobody would know where he was, and then this elaborate story would unfold on him still being alive and that he is in fact the risen savior.
Speaker 2:But they didn't. I don't think they comprehended that he was going to rise again.
Speaker 1:Well, no, they didn't. No, they were all baffled by it. But that's why they think that it was Mary Magdalene, because he would have told her, because, again, there's a lot of suspicion on whether or not Jesus ever married.
Speaker 4:Right yeah.
Speaker 1:And that Mary would have been the one whom he did in fact Mary and that they had children together as well. That there is a bloodline from Jesus, because there is no doubt that Jesus was, in fact, a real person. There's no doubt about that. I mean, every, just about every religion refers to Jesus as a prophet, so he was somebody who walked the earth. There's no doubt that King David walked the earth. All of those people we very much know are real.
Speaker 1:This isn't just a book about randos, this is real life, and we know that they existed. So if Jesus lived and we know that he was a man like, we know that he was a fleshly man did he marry, Did he have children? And what does that bloodline look—are there descendants of Jesus still walking the earth today? And so the purpose of the bloodline theory is that there could potentially be descendants of Jesus and that he never—either he never really died or that he was stolen and buried so that people would be able to believe the narrative that the Christians again, the little Christs wanted them to believe. No, we're not buying any of that. I'm not buying any of that.
Speaker 3:I didn't figure you would.
Speaker 1:I didn't figure you would.
Speaker 4:I'm telling you— why did he show himself to the apostles then?
Speaker 1:Well, you don't know that he did. That's the point. They're saying that by his body disappearing, that he was able—that narrative was able to be able to be spread as truth Because his body is gone. If his body was still laying there, this story would be BS. There would be no—like how can you say that, oh, he's risen because he's not in the tomb anymore? That's easy to say. If his body is still laying there, you wouldn't be able to say that no, he's still dead, he's still laying there. So they steal the body in order for the narrative to work.
Speaker 4:The rest of it's made up. I'm just telling you what. That's the story. I don't believe that Mary Magdalene could have carried him out?
Speaker 1:Well, maybe it was her and her six kids, we don't know.
Speaker 4:Well, they needed to get some more facts straight.
Speaker 1:They're going to be telling stories like that. There are some really great conspiracy theory documentaries out there about the bloodline of Jesus and they are bizarre. But again, remember that people who aren't saved will indulge in that and will never get saved because of it, because they can't comprehend that. Again, like you said, that we walk by faith and not by sight. There's a huge debate and I shouldn't call it like a huge debate like, oh gosh, we're having boxing matches over this but a lot of people, some in our own congregation, have this burning desire to understand death and what happens.
Speaker 1:And do I go into a grave and wait until the trumpet sounds and Jesus returns in order to go to heaven? Because it also says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, which is true. Here's the answer Nobody knows. I haven't died, so I haven't figured it out yet. I'll let you know when I die. Oh wait, no, I won't, because that's not how it works, and so you have to just have faith, to believe that whatever God says is what's best for me. And I've always had this theory about death that when I die, you'll put me in a hole in the ground. And if I'm wrong and there is no Jesus. I'll still be dead, just like everybody else, but if I'm right, I'm going to have everlasting life, and all those people who are wrong will be in fiery pits of hell, and that can't be fun.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to do my best to get into heaven, right.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So even if I go into a hole in the ground and I stir around in that box for the next you know, thousand years waiting for Jesus to return, Like even if that's the idea, because I don't remember where it says it, Does anybody know what passage of scripture says that at first the dead in Christ will rise and then those of us who are still alive will be? I don't remember the actual passage, but anyhow that exists. But then there's other passages that say to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
Speaker 2:But there's also the ones that said that you will be in deep sleep.
Speaker 1:Right, that's what I'm saying. So, like all of that is like what's the right answer? Because we've gotten to the point, to where Christians want to be placated and we want to just make everybody feel good and comfortable and warm. So we tell them oh, they're in better hands now. They're with. Jesus. I bet the first thing they saw was Jesus' face when they got to heaven, because we want to say those things to make people feel good, but we don't know. We don't know what that's like. It's impossible to know.
Speaker 4:But we will know, but we will know.
Speaker 1:We will all know the truth at some point, and that's whether or not you get to go to heaven or not. You're going to find out, one way or another, what is real and what isn't real. Now I'm curious if we'll wonder, like, when we get there so I die and go to heaven am I ever going to remember that I had that question? Or when I get there, am I going to be like ha.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think your mind will be clear, yeah.
Speaker 1:So you don't even think, like you won't have any recollection of Nope.
Speaker 2:I think we'll be so absorbed in just the worshiping.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Stuff that isn't even remember Okay.
Speaker 3:First Thessalonians 4 says For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God and the dead in Christians 4 says yes.
Speaker 1:And then 2 Corinthians 5 says so there's nothing that says I mean again, the passage that says to be absent from the body is to be present with the lord, is the like, the end. All be all for the people who think you go directly to heaven. But here's what I think, and I've interpreted this passage of scripture like this a million times to be absent from the body is to be present with the lord. To be absent from sin is to be present with the Lord. To be absent from the fleshly world is to be in the presence, the spirit, of a living God. That's how I take that.
Speaker 1:But, again, I'm no biblical theologian. I interpret what I feel like God has given me. Yeah, beth's got this look on her face. People can see it. They know the wheels are turning. The wheels are turning.
Speaker 2:My thing is if you die and go straight to heaven, are you just hanging out with him then until Judgment Day? And what if you hung out and you really like it up there and now you've got to go to heaven?
Speaker 1:Well, but I think that's the point. People are trying to say it's instantaneous judgment. So when you die, picture it like this say it's instantaneous judgment. So when you die, picture it like this you know how people see people standing at the pearly gate and St Peter's there and he's got his little checklist. You die, you're standing in line, elevator music playing. You get out there and St Peter goes oh sorry, you didn't make it Bye and you go down to hell. The gate's never open. They're thinking it's instantaneous judgment the day that you pass away and you either go to heaven or you go to hell.
Speaker 3:Well, like John 14, 14, 6, when Jesus was on his cross with the thief, truly I say to you today you will be in paradise.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes so wow, you're throwing a lot out there.
Speaker 1:I know it's just, but that's the level of like faith walk by faith, not by sight. I can't possibly begin to understand it all and I can't possibly begin to make anybody else understand it all and that's that deathbed confession.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yes. What does that mean? How does that work? Because if you've lived your whole life being an absolute butt to everybody around you, but all of a sudden you want Jesus to be your savior, how does that work? Does it work? I don't know. I hope that it does. People who commit suicide we talk about things like that Like I don't. Like the Bible says that they don't get into heaven, but I don't know. Like did they live for 15 seconds afterwards and they were able to ask Jesus into their hearts?
Speaker 2:Like I don't know, but I've never been able to find a verse that says they don't.
Speaker 1:I think it is about—I don't think it specifically says suicide. Hold on one second.
Speaker 2:It's murder, because it's murder to your own body, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yes.
Speaker 3:Well, and the funny thing is is when you have that in your own family, people who have committed suicide, and then you talk to a pastor or someone and they always want to make you feel better and they'll say well, only God knows the heart. You know because you know I've had two people in my family commit suicide, so an uncle and a cousin, and anytime you know I searched it in the Bible, I you know. But my grandmother always said you know, you can't take your own life and end up in heaven.
Speaker 3:You know, that was her belief. But you can kill, take your own life and end up in heaven.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, that was her belief and, but you can kill somebody and ask for forgiveness. Exactly, yes, exactly what. What's the difference?
Speaker 1:and again, I think that's a rabbit trail that you get down, and you're exactly right and I think there's some people that that, like ones, people that take overdoses, they have enough time oh yeah but have a serious talk with God about it. The question is, in that state of like you know. So let's say somebody has taken a mass amount of drugs and they're convulsing, right? Is their brain in a place where they can make those decisions? Is somebody who's in a coma can they? Does their brain have the function to?
Speaker 2:But they have that time before that stuff is digested and broke down before they get to that. I don't yeah right.
Speaker 1:But I don't like, I can't say that if you come to me and you say, well, what happened, I have to tell you I don't know. I wasn't there, I didn't hold their hand and lead them to the lord, I didn't get to exactly right, you know.
Speaker 2:But I also believe you know it's says in the bible to take care of the feeble-minded and I truly, truly believe in my heart when somebody gets to that point in their life that they're feeble-minded yeah, I agree I agree that desperate they're, that right yeah now there's some that will do it just to be mean, and I don't think they, when they did it, they were maybe going to die or whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, sometimes it's a cry for help or right.
Speaker 1:Whatever the case may be, I yeah, but the I, there's those that are feeble-minded, just well, and there are some people that you know they experience extreme bouts of mental health issues and they don't get the care that they need, and whether that's the system's fault, their fault or the fault of the people around and they don't get the care that they need, and whether that's the system's fault, their fault or the fault of the people around them who don't push them to get that help, whatever the case may be, it's not something that we can assume the end of. I don't know. I genuinely don't know. It's impossible to say one way or another.
Speaker 2:Well, our mental health in the United States is terrible, yeah, terrible. There was a time when they were so abused and could be locked up away for life. Just for maybe about that, they've put all these laws in place to protect them, but now those laws are so tight that, unless you can't force them to get help, yeah, you can pink slip somebody.
Speaker 1:for what? Three days?
Speaker 2:Three days. Three days, and then they have the right to walk away.
Speaker 4:Yeah yeah, you can pink slip somebody for what? Three days, three days, three days, and then they have the right to walk away.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, Unless somebody takes it to court and basically finds them incompetent.
Speaker 1:Which, most of the time, by the time you've gotten through the courts and all of that, something has happened. Yeah, something has happened and whether or not they've killed themselves, they've disappeared or they're in a manic episode, you know, 10 states away or whatever, it's hard to find them and to really get them the help that they need. You know it's interesting because you know mental health, I think, is a regular topic for us. I think it's a very real topic, Absolutely, and I think in the community that we live in it's even more real than it is most other places.
Speaker 1:You know it's a rural area, money is tight everywhere around us. Most of the people who are living here are living in some level of poverty. They don't have the resources that they need and they honestly don't know where to go to get help, because if you call some of the more well-known places, they're usually full, like they've only got X amount of beds and they, you know, if you call, there's really nothing they can do for you over the phone. Do you know what I mean? And people have to also understand that there's a difference between seeing a counselor and talking to somebody and psychiatric help.
Speaker 1:Exactly Like if you're having, you know, hearing voices and things like that, you probably need more than a counselor. You probably need to seek psychiatric help. The problem is we don't even know where to begin doing that. Most people don't even know how to begin processing that. People who have severe depression they go to their doctor. What's the first thing their doctor does Give?
Speaker 4:them a pill.
Speaker 1:Give them a pill, fine, okay, I understand that. But they say that you can give antidepressants to a teen or a young adult and it can worsen suicidal thoughts. It can worsen like how are we helping?
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, that's a side effect to a lot of those medicines.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it doesn't make sense, you're suicidal already and now.
Speaker 3:the medicine I'm going to give you might make you more suicidal, yeah and what's the follow-up.
Speaker 1:So this is my theory as a pastor. This is my theory as all things biblically related, and this is why I don't like revivals. When you think about like large tent revivals and things like that, I was asked to be involved in one in Dover big ordeal, huge ordeal. I don't know if you guys remember this. A couple in Dover, big ordeal, huge ordeal.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you guys remember this a couple of years ago, Huge ordeal. They're like we really would like to have your involvement. And I said, no, I'm not really comfortable doing that because I didn't really like not to be mean. But my people are down south, Like we're not up there, and they're like, oh, but man, we're going to need help. Like when we're baptizing people we're really going to need you there, we're going to need some. And I was like, nah, I'm going to come and support you, but I'm just going to come and support you.
Speaker 1:So we went a couple of nights we did not go on baptism night and they're baptizing people left and just in this space of what was the follow-up? How did they ever get planted in a church? Who fed them after? Right, If you did no follow-up, what was the point? And I say the same thing about mental health. You give me drugs and then you send me out to the world. The world is still just as vicious. Now I'm just medicated, but now that the side effects of that medication are making me worse, and where's the follow up?
Speaker 2:I get one doing home health. For so many years in this area my heart's been pulled to mental health and even now, you know, working at the hospital, these people, they come out of the facilities. You know they've had an attempt. They come out of a facility. Did you make a follow-up appointment with them? No, I give them a number.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that they're never going to call. That they're never going to call.
Speaker 2:Or, yeah, we scheduled them appointment. You know they've got an appointment, you know, in six weeks. Okay, and how much medication did you give them? Yeah, we sent them home with two weeks worth of medications, really, but their appointments in six weeks yeah, yeah it just it drives me insane, not yeah no pun intended. Yeah, no pun intended but I it's just, it's infuriating.
Speaker 1:Yes, because you can't and the system is broken. So that's a large part of the problem is nobody's and nobody's prepared to fix it. Nobody knows how to fix it. Nobody knows, really knows the answers. But you're just in this. It feels like in this constant cycle of brokenness and confusion and people just being lost and people just being lost.
Speaker 1:And again, when you do outreach ministry and you go out and you hand people cards and you're like, hey, come to church on Sunday, my question is where's your heart? Are you trying to fill seats? Are you trying to save lives? Because a lot of times we want to fill seats, right, like I want to be able to say oh well, we've got 175 people every Sunday in our church. How many people do you have coming? Oh, yeah, well, I've got 225. How many of your people are saved? How many of your people are tithing and supporting the church in other ways other than just showing up and sitting in a seat on Sunday? Because I think that's the problem is somebody's calling me from Florida. I don't want to talk to them. I can guarantee that.
Speaker 2:They probably want you to sign up for Medicare. Or maybe I want a free Disney cruise Dang it.
Speaker 4:It's Mickey calling. Sorry, that was pretty good, I know it was.
Speaker 2:Almost as good as his cow. Oh geez.
Speaker 1:But again, I feel that same way about churches. The churches run out into the community and they want to do all of these things, to quote unquote support the community. One time I was and this is a long time ago I was driving through New York City and there's a church standing out there and at the stoplight they were handing out bottles of water with their church logo on it and whatnot, and they were just. It was just a kind gesture, is all it was, really. But my thought was like that seems really kind. But what's the purpose? Right, what are you solving with that? Right, we're not solving hunger by handing out bottles of water. We're not feeding people, souls by handing out bottles of water. Really, all you're doing is saying, hi, our church exists and here's where you can find us Now, not saying there's anything wrong with that.
Speaker 1:This podcast is one of those things. We drop it every week and it reaches people that wouldn't normally be reached and we just hope that somebody gets saved. But this isn't about the church necessarily. It's not even often that we talk about our church. I think it's in the, in the intro now like hey, if you're not doing anything on Sunday mornings or Wednesday nights, we'd love to have you. You know it's very basic, but that's because that's really what we should be doing. We want to foster those people, but we're not actually trying to save them, we're just trying to get them to come to church so we can say they come to church. I'm not in the business of questioning people's salvations, but sometimes you meet people and you're like, well, that person is definitely not saved and they're like, oh well, I go to such and such church. Woof, what are they teaching you there? You know what I mean.
Speaker 4:You can tell.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what I'm saying, and so there's that level of concern Anytime you see that in somebody who says that they're attending a church but they're attending.
Speaker 2:might've been speaking into that person and speaking into them, and speaking into them, and they're just sitting there.
Speaker 1:It's like hitting your head off the wall. We've got people like that you know what I mean Like and and I don't give up on them, like I continue to to try to lead, guide and direct. But I also at some point understand that God's going to have to do some of this because it says that his burdens are light. Well, not with everybody they ain't. Yeah, it's just one of those things you have to really buckle down and say, okay, I'm not going to be able to solve this, and so I'm going to engage to this level, and then I'm going to let God engage the rest of that. I can give sound advice. What they do with that is up to them. They choose not to take it, so be it. I just have to learn to not be bitter when they don't take it, and that's the hard part.
Speaker 2:Right, but that's because we're human. Yes, right?
Speaker 1:Well, because I think that I've got it figured out. And I'm not saying that I'm perfect, but I've been doing life for a long time. Maybe not as long as some other people, but I've been doing life for a long time. I've been to jail, I've filed bankruptcy, I've been dirt poor, I've been filthy rich, I've run the gamut. I've done all of the things. I see where you're at in your life and I think that there is a way to help.
Speaker 1:But when I say there's a way to help, that doesn't mean I'm going to write you a check to pay off your debt. It doesn't mean I'm going to give you an open line of credit so that you can take advantage of me. That's not what I mean at all. What I mean is I'm going to give you advice. I'm going to give you sound advice. I'm going to pray for you and I'm going to continue to lead you and hope that you will find that piece that I have found as well, and a lot of people go well. He just wants everybody to be like him. Honestly, I don't, because now you're just competition in the Elvis world right.
Speaker 1:If you guys all start putting on jumpsuits, we're in trouble. Like we're going to have a problem, I have to start picking you off one at a time. It was a joke. If the NSA is listening, that was a joke. Wait, has Doge dismantled the NSA yet it was a joke too, for everybody listening. It was a joke. It's just a joke. Jeez, people are so sensitive.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we plant the seed, we're not always the watering can.
Speaker 1:Correct, and we definitely are not most of the harvester. We typically are not the harvester, which is a real problem for me, because I like to see the fruits of my labor. I like to pick the fruit Only when it's sweet though, yeah, but you have to take the bitter with the sweet. I know, I know I feel like I got a lot of bitter fruit, is that?
Speaker 3:persimmons, is that what?
Speaker 1:that is, prunes that's what I'm thinking.
Speaker 4:No, that thing Never mind.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying. Creates a whole lot of stuff.
Speaker 3:A lot of crap. All right, do we have anything?
Speaker 1:else Listen, this is a disaster. At this point it is. It's a disaster. We speed ran through the questions, then we got on a topic. I don't really.
Speaker 2:No, I listened to. I can't remember what pastor it was that was talking and he said when it's all over and done with, the only thing we have left behind is character. That's what people's going to remember about us is our character.
Speaker 4:Yeah like.
Speaker 1:Mickey Mouse.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah. So we need to focus on being that good character, being that good person that helps others, loves others, loves the unlovable. Every day I kind of think okay, god, you've got to help me be a good character here, because I just ain't feeling I can do it on my own today, I like the word character because I have a.
Speaker 1:I had a running joke with a girl that used to work with me. I had lunch with her a couple of weeks ago, last week, I don't know and we always used to joke that she had main character energy, mean Main, main, main character, energy, main, main character energy. She, it was her story. You just lived in it Like it didn't matter. You could get hit by a bus in front of her and she would go oh my gosh, can you believe that almost got on my shoes? Like that is her mentality in all things.
Speaker 1:And so I feel like, as Christians, we can't do that. We have to know where that like. Ok, I, if I walk into this, like I know I'm going to do a marriage counseling session, if I walk into that session and I'm big and I'm animated like I normally am, those people are going to be like what is this guy doing? Especially if they're not Christians or don't know Jesus the same, to the same level that I do. So I'm confident in myself. That's the difference between me and a lot of other people.
Speaker 1:I'll walk into a room, right, exactly, that's not the case at all. I'll walk into a room and my hope is that I can light it up. That doesn't. That makes some people wildly uncomfortable, my wife specifically. She's always six steps behind me when I go anywhere because she's like he's going to walk in there and it's like just lighten the place on fire. She's like he's going to walk in there and it's like just lighting the place on fire, because I've always told people I'm a thermostat. I set the temperature when I walk into the room. I want to set the temperature when I come in. I want people to go. Okay, he's here, party time, let's have some fun. And I don't mean that in a like a we're going to get drunk kind of party time. I mean like we know that there's going to be good conversations, going to be lots of food to eat and we're just going to enjoy our time together. And my wife, on the other hand, is like I'd be super okay with just walking in there and sitting down, eating and leaving.
Speaker 2:And I don't, I just don't.
Speaker 1:I just don't play that way, right. But I also know that when I go to certain functions, especially high-end functions for work or whatever I'm on a board in Holmes County, I cannot go into that meeting with that energy, because these are older Amish people who don't really engage in that energy. So I have to okay, we're going to bring that down a notch we can't, as Christians, always have main character energy, because we have to be cognizant of the people who aren't saved around us, because then we become, um, arrogant, we become self-centered, we become obnoxious, and then you are that christian and then all christians are exactly as you are right so who was uh, I can't remember the song artist that always said Christians are the biggest reason for a large majority of the atheists in this world.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:He used to sing with Toby Mac, but I can't think Kirk Franklin.
Speaker 1:Kirk Franklin. Oh, good old Kirk Franklin. Kirk Franklin has never sung a note in his life. He talks, he talks through every song he does. I promise you listen to any Kirk Franklin. Oh good old Kirk Franklin. Kirk Franklin has never sung a note in his life. He talks, he talks through every song he does. I promise you, listen to any Kirk Franklin song. I ain't never heard him sing a single word. He doesn't.
Speaker 2:I don't know if I've ever paid that much attention I have. He doesn't sing.
Speaker 1:He talks, that's his like, it's what he does.
Speaker 2:I guess the only song know is Jesus Freak so and he talks through that.
Speaker 1:See, told ya, just go tonight when you get home, pick three random Kirk Franklin songs and listen to them. Any three Doesn't matter. Promise you Never sings, somebody else will sing. He never does, which I find fascinating. It's a gifting. Okay, everybody heard Roger scratching his walrus tusk. Okay, that was fun. I miss Sid, miss Nick, but here we are right, I was all ready for Nick's.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too. That'll be a good one. That'll be a good one for later on. That'll be a good one for later on. Yeah, when we've got a full table.
Speaker 3:Yeah, then I thought, the one that you sent to us too, so we could prepare yeah. That was an okay one. Yeah, we'll do that one still.
Speaker 1:We'll do that one still. But the rapid fire was fun. That was Because the looks on your faces was really fun for me. Deer in the headlights, yeah, Well, because the question seems so simple on the surface, but you're like wait, should it really be that simple? Is that what he's looking for?
Speaker 4:Okay, looking for the hard answer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, whose turn is it to pray? We're all out of sync, because it would have been. You prayed last week.
Speaker 2:So that means it's your turn?
Speaker 1:No, because I covered his the week that he was sick, so technically it would be Sid. So now Don has to pick up and then we have to bump back to Sid. It's just going to be confusing.
Speaker 2:Nobody's really going to know Will you just do it and start over.
Speaker 1:What Start the Circle. Circle over so you can start with you. No, we start with you. You started it, so you get to start it again then. Alright. So, who's praying? It's Dawn's praying, dawn's praying, dawn's praying. I was going to say let's get this straightened out before everybody starts to pray at the same time. I'm going to sound like a Pentecostal church up in here, Dear precious Heavenly Father.
Speaker 3:We come to you, dear Lord, to thank you for this day. Lord, Thank you for the pray that we seek your wisdom, Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, and that sometimes we would seek that wisdom before we open our mouths. Lord, yes, Lord God, I want to pray for all of those who are out sick. Lord Jesus, Touch them, touch their families, heal them and bring them back this week. Lord Jesus and Lord, I just pray for this world. Lord, I pray that you could bring peace and Lord, I pray for any who are experiencing natural disasters. Lord Jesus, Lord, I just pray that you comfort them. Lord and Lord, God, I just ask all these things in your son's most precious and holy name, Amen.
Speaker 1:Amen.
