Consider Will Speer

This episode is not about me! Have you ever googled your name before? I did, and I learned a crazy story that has helped me consider myself and my relationship with God in a new way. In this episode we will consider 1 Corinthians 10:12, how we are not as different as others than we think, how great God's grace is, and how far our story is from being finished. Please listen to this last episode of season 2! 

Transcript

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Consider one another as a podcast focused on each other. Thank you for tuning into this podcast that is all about stirring up love and good works in one another. So I thought it would be fun to do the intro live and maybe even do this episode with as little editing as possible. We'll see how well I do at that. But I want to jump right into things before you stop listening, because I don't want you to think that I am just talking about myself. I am not. Today is not about considering me, but it is about considering Will Spear. I'll tell you what I mean in a moment, but first, thank you for this awesome season. These seasons are 16 episodes, that's four months. So this has been going the entirety of 2026, and I'm just so grateful for all the feedback, all the people who've shared their stories, and all the people who have connected with folks who have been vulnerable with us. Thank you for making this happen. I am having a great day today. I want to share this with you in opening, uh, that at 6 30 this morning I opened up my door uh to Jonathan Keene. He just came over for coffee in the morning, and that was so fun to me because it felt like community, people who are close and spend time together, no matter what hour of the day it is. I love old TV shows. My favorite old TV show is I Love Lucy. And in I Love Lucy, people are always just like coming and going to people's apartments, uh, just like at the most random times of the day, including right at the very start of the day, having coffee together, having breakfast together, and then we each go to our separate workplaces. That was awesome. It felt like having all things in common. So here is the offer for all of you. If anyone wants to come over at 6 30 and have coffee and breakfast with me and my wife, you may do so. We will provide the coffee and the breakfast, and then we can just chat and start our day together and go from there and consider one another. So thanks to Jonathan for doing that. It was so much fun, and thank you to whoever's gonna take me up on that. I look forward to having coffee with you. I really do mean that offer, but just like Jonathan, please plan it in advance. Let me know, send me a text, we'll put it on the calendar. Don't show up unexpected, but do show up at 6 30. I think it would be so much fun. Let's plan it out, let's make it happen. One more plan to talk about before we launch into this this Saturday. So this is Friday. This is airing. If you're listening to this before Saturday, May 2nd, come to the singing. Invite your friend, your mailman, whoever else, have them come to this singing. We want to see them, we want to sing with them. Thank you to Tim Warrington who's worked so so hard on this singing, putting it all together. We're hoping lots of people come out for a night of worship to God. It's so important to do that, and I am so looking forward to it. But now I'm really going to jump into things because I'm so excited about what I'm sharing today. Have you ever Googled your name before? Have you ever been curious to see what other people are doing with their lives who have the exact same name as you? Someone else having your name can be weird. Shout out Will Bibe, we have the same name, and Tim Turner was telling me how I'm the old Will now, because I've been here like two months longer than he has. But it's especially weird if they have the exact same name as you, first and last name. So I searched my name and found another person named William Speer. Same spelling with two E's and everything, S-P-E-E-R. And the first article, and really the only other Will Spear I could find anything about, is about a man in Texas who is on death row. This is not what I was expecting or hoping to find, but his story really gave me a lot to consider, and I think it will give you a lot to consider too. So let's consider Will Spear. Again, not me. But first we'll start as we consider this concept, we'll consider scripture. I'm in 1 Corinthians 10. I'm gonna read a decent chunk, verses 1 through 13. And if Paul were to title the sections of his letters like I title podcasts, this section would be consider your ancestors. Listen to what Paul writes. First Corinthians 10. Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and have all ate the same spiritual food. All drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted, and do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty three thousand fell, nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents, nor complain, as some of them were also complaining, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happen to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, verse twelve, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you, except such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. Paul retells part of Israel's history, showing how the people of Israel were delivered. They were blessed, they had these unique spiritual experiences, and yet they still fall. So Paul says, Take heed lest you fall, because you have all had similar experiences. Yet maybe you are thinking you won't fall like they did. Paul says, like they were baptized into Moses and had passed through the sea. The implication is we have all been baptized. They had all eaten of the same spiritual food and drink, because that rock they were partaking of was Christ. And I think there is an allusion to the Lord's Supper here with the spiritual food and drink we partake of. Paul is saying, consider your ancestors, because you have more in common with them than you might like to think. So Paul lists their sins and what they did, making us realize that we have the same capacity for error and faults like they did. Like us, that the Corinthians who are receiving this letter, we're probably used to reading their history and thinking I would never do that. But Paul is showing how close they are to becoming like their ancestors. So to give away this episode and why it is so important to me, if it were not for Will Spear having the same exact name as me, I would never think of myself as having anything in common with someone who is on death row. I would think these are two completely different lives, two completely different capacities for sin, and two completely different outcomes. But as soon as I saw that first article that said I was on death row, I realized I am not as different as I thought I was. And the more I read, the more I realized this to be true. So I'm gonna hit the highlights with some paraphrasing uh through the articles and a couple of videos that I watched. Here's his story, and it is amazing. In short, Will Spear grew up in a Texas high school that was known for gang violence, and at the young age of 16, he was pressured into shooting and then fatally killing his friend's father. This landed him in one of the state's most dangerous prisons, also known for its gang violence, and in an effort to have protection and support by joining the Texas Mafia gang, in 1997 he strangled and killed his cellmate, who was falsely accused of telling authorities about the gang's efforts to smuggle tobacco into the prison. So that's how Will Speer ended up on death row. Mr. Spears, says the article, is serving a life sentence for a fatal shooting he committed at age 16 and has since been sentenced to death for the 1997 strangling death of Gary Dickerson in Barry B. Telford Prison in New Boston, Texas. During his time on Death Row, Mr. Spear dedicated himself to the study of Christianity and has since become a prominent prison minister. In 2022, the Department of Criminal Justice began a faith-based program for men on death row. They selected Mr. Speer to participate in this program following a rigorous application process. While in this program, Mr. Speer participated in upwards of 30 hours of study and community discussion surrounding religion, repentance, and responsibility. Since graduating from the program with honors, Mr. Speer has taken on the inaugural role of prisoner coordinator for the program, where he mentors and ministers to other men on death row, as well as teaches classes and mitigates conflict. Mr. Spear talks of his continued desire to minister to those around him. Mr. Spear in his role as field minister hopes, quote, to help others by sharing his story of hardship, sin, repentance, and peacemaking. In a video he submitted with his clemency application, Mr. Spear told the board that he is so aware of the things that he has done, and he is so aware of the pain and the hurt that he has caused, and he is sorry. Fellow death row prisoners have confirmed the positive influence Mr. Spear has had on them. David Rentiria, who is scheduled to be executed in November of 2023, wrote that Mr. Spear's willingness to lay himself bare before others has served as inspiration for many in our community and made a difference in how we as a group relate to one another as part of creation. For Mr. Rentiria, testimony from Mr. Spear has caused many on death row to look deeper when it comes to repenting of our own broken paths. The most exciting part to me of all this, as I was reading this for the first time, is his execution date was for October twenty sixth, two thousand twenty-three. For that murder he committed over twenty six years prior. But then the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay of execution for William Speer. Following the TCCA's announcement of a stay execution, Amy Flynn, an attorney for Mr. Spear, said in a statement that his defense team is relieved that Will Speer will live to see another day so he can continue to spread his message of hope and healing in Texas prisons. Will's life of ministry and his efforts to offer some measure of peace to his victims' families are an inspiration. We are grateful for the thousands of people, including faith leaders and his victims' survivors, who told the state of Texas that Will's life was worth saving. And I'll just add this that on the article that I'm reading here, the title picture is Will Speer seated in a baptistry at his baptism in 2021, just with a beaming smile on his face. That's the story, and when I first saw that article pop up, I thought that it would be about someone who was like the worst person ever and was given lethal injection to end his completely evil life. But instead, I learned more and more that I was not as different from this person as I thought. But instead, there will be no execution date. To my research, it seems this cannot be appealed, and instead he will have a life lived out in that life sentence. And as he was appealing that execution date, there is a video that he made where he says this about his ministry in the prison. He said it's not about being death row anymore, it's about being life row. Because of the changes in the lives that are being made, regardless of the sentence, it's about the lives that are being changed. While still looking ahead at an execution date not far in the future, he did not care about being on death row. He wanted to live on life row, this life row that was all about changing other people's lives through Christ. So let me give you just three things to consider based on this story. One, you are not as different as you think. This is what we have been considering so far. If you had told me about this story without mentioning this person had the exact same name as me, I would not have considered there to be any similarities between me and someone who is on death row for killing two people at two different times. But because of the same name, I was forced to realize how similar we really are. Both sinful and destined for death, we found our need for a savior and were baptized into Christ to be raised into newness of life. And then from there we both decided to be ministers, hoping to use our lives and our words to show that we are changed by Christ and hope to change other people's lives as well. With so many quotes about being changed by Christ and hoping to change others, it felt like I was reading another one of my sermons about being changed by Christ, except it was written by a different will spear. Even though you do not have the same name as this person, consider that you are not as different as you think. Even if it is someone who you think is completely different than you, learn their story and consider them lest you fall. We are not as different as we think, even from someone on death row. Consider number two, God's grace goes further than you think. I know we are all fans of God's grace, and we like to think that we can fully understand it, but when I consider where I thought this story was going and where it actually went, I realized my understanding of God's grace was still limited. And this video that I watched, they interviewed Will Spears' cousin, and here's what she had to say. She said, My cousin has been baptized, and now he says, Look, I sit here today on death row, but I'm still going to teach you the word so you can change your life. Then she adds, God works even in prison. We can all academically understand that God's grace works even in prison, but until we start learning more about stories like this, we won't think about what that really looks like. In the Bible, this is emphasized, prisons specifically. Hebrews 13 3 talks about considering and remembering those who are in prison. In Matthew 25, as Jesus is talking about doing unto the least of these, he mentions visiting him in prison. He says if you visited someone in prison, you visited me in prison. Consider how far God's grace reaches, the lives he is changing, and consider who you might be if it were not for God's grace. We can look at people who have been put into bad situations and ended up making bad decisions themselves and think that we are somehow superior than them. Yet there are people whose lives will be spent entirely in prison, like Will Spear, who are living lives now more dedicated to Christ than I am. Consider that God's grace goes further than you think, especially as we consider number three, that your story can change more than you think. For better or for worse, your story is not finished yet. It can be easy to think that certain sins will never get us. We might say because I am a baptized believer and I've been going to this church for twenty years. Or you might say I'm an elder in this church, or I might say, I am a preacher in the church. And then we say, Therefore I could never blank. But what we come to learn is that as soon as we think we are immune to something, that is when we are most vulnerable to it. Don't let your guard down, don't give up. As we talked about last month in Philippians three, keep pressing on toward the goal. Keep pressing on because you can change more than you think. Like we read in 1 Corinthians ten and verse twelve, take heed lest you fall. Your story can change more than you think. On the brighter side though, your story can change more than you think. So your story can definitely change from better to worse. But it can also change from worse to better. If you are struggling with a sin, or you have always struggled with a certain attitude, it is easy to think that you can never change. You say, Yes, I'm a Christian, yes, I read the Bible, yes, I love God. But when it comes to anger, that this is just who I am. Or when it comes to lust, I just can't stop struggling, or I am never going to be able to stop being a greedy person, or I am never going to be able to stop having anxious thoughts control me. Well, consider Will Spear and how much his story changed. If he can go from killing people to baptizing people, then you can go from an angry person to a gentle person, from an anxious person to a peaceful person, from a lustful person to a pure person. You can go from a greedy person to a giving person. Consider the changes we see in the Bible. I love pointing them out. Paul went from killing Christians to then baptizing and making disciples. We see so many lives changed by Christ in Scripture, and here we see someone today with my very same name who has gone through this same exact transformation. If we look at Scripture and we believe it. If we read these stories and consider these people, their change is so dramatic that we should also believe that God's grace can reach us. If we are not that different than Will Spear or Paul the Apostle, then we should truly believe that we can change. We can be freed from sin. We can be freed from whatever is holding us back, whether it's anger, lust, or greed, God promises gentleness, peace, purity, and generosity. Maybe think about this too. Think about your relationships. Unfortunately, it is becoming more and more common for people to give up on marriage when things start to go wrong. In America, people hear about marriages that go downhill and continue to go downhill from that first moment something went wrong, so they think that's the only way that their story can go wrong too. Consider your marriage. If there has been struggles in your marriage, like all of us have had, everyone's struggles are different, but everyone has had struggles in their marriage. No matter how great a degree your struggles are, your story, your marriage can change. You are not destined to continue your story and keep going downhill. Maybe consider your relationship with your kids. Specifically, I'm thinking about people with adult kids. You are not destined to continue the relationship that you have right now. Maybe that relationship is not where you want it to be. But your story can change. Relationships can be reconciled. You can change, they can change, relationships can change. Don't give up. Press on toward the goal. Believe in the stories that we read in our Bibles and on the internet about lives that are changed by Christ. Relationships that are changed by Christ. The same is possible for your story. Consider your life if it had an execution date. Knowing, like Will Spear did, that your life is scheduled to end on October twenty sixth of 2023. I can't imagine living like that. Imagining that October twenty sixth of two thousand twenty-six would be the last day that I live, it would be hard for me to keep going. But Will Spear lived in a way, even knowing his execution date that was supposed to be coming, he lived a life that changed so many lives that the state erased his execution dates, and now he has a whole life to live where he will keep doing the same thing, living for Christ and encouraging others to do the same. If his story can change, so can yours. Consider Paul's words in First Corinthians ten, and consider that someone who has fallen into sin is not as different from you than you think. Take heed lest you fall. Consider God's grace and how it goes much farther than you think. If we only know people who remind us of us, have similar stories as we do, then we may think that God God's grace is only for a very certain demographic. But God's grace is working everywhere. This story I was able to find because he happened to have my same name. But God's grace is working everywhere in many prisons, with people named Will Spear and all sorts of other people that Will Spear was able to reach. God's grace is working in other churches, in prisons, in other families. God's grace is going so much further than we could understand. Believe in that grace. Go look for it. You will see it everywhere, even and especially in prisons. And then consider that your story is not as finished as you think. Take heed lest you fall. Don't give up on that relationship, whatever it might be, a marriage, a son, a daughter, a church member, a brother in Christ. Don't think that that story is finished. Even if it seems like it is eminent, like this is destined to fail, God can change anything, even an execution date. Keep living for him and watch him work. And maybe if I can encourage you to do one more thing this week, search your name and see what comes up, and you might find a crazy story like this one, and you might be able to consider yourself in a new way. The Bible tells us to consider one another in order to stir up love and good works in each other. So thank you for stirring up love and good works in me just by listening to this episode. The intro and the closing, I must say, we're all done from memory. I think I got it right. I've listened to it enough times. And one more thought in closing. This is the close to season two. Thank you again for being so kind and encouraging to me. This will be episode number 16 in season two, which equals episode 32 that we have done so far here in Bremerton. There's gonna be a summer season coming up in just a little bit, which we have lots of interesting interviews and plans for that I'm really excited to share. Thank you again for stirring up love and good works in me, and considering these other members of our church family and other stories that we happen to hear about. God is working in this church, and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. We'll see you in season three.