Unashamed with Markus & Nehemiah
Join Markus and Nehemiah as they discuss life, ministry and living unashamed for Jesus.
Unashamed with Markus & Nehemiah
Episode 2: Are You Resisting the Breaking?
Markus and Nehemiah tackle relationship challenges in this Q&A episode, focusing on how to share faith with family without damaging connections.
• Letting your authentic Christian life speak before your words
• Understanding that people don't care what you know until they know that you care
• Why Gen Z wants truth, not gimmicks, from church leaders
• Finding your calling requires community and people who can see potential in you
• The breaking process required to produce spiritual oil and maturity
• Releasing what God wants to remove makes room for something better
• Overcoming negative self-talk by embracing your identity as God's child.
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Welcome back to the Unashamed Podcast with your host, marcus and Nehemiah. We are excited. Man, you ready to get into it? I'm ready to get going, bro, Come on we've got some Q&A that were asked by you guys online, so thought that we would just dive right in. Yeah, man, let's go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we did a poll on Instagram and there was a lot of stuff based on relationship, so I'm going to jump right into this first one. First question is how do I preach to my family but not ruin the relationship? Marcus, so I know, with your backstory, you did not grow up in a Christian household, man. So how are you today and how did you, when you first found God, shine the light of Christ to them, even when they were maybe not receiving it and you didn't want to burn that bridge with them?
Speaker 1:That's a great question. The Bible says let your light so shine before man so they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. The first thing I would tell someone who wants to share jesus with family members is when you first got to live this thing out. Because if you're light, yeah, I don't have. If I turn a light on, I don't have to tell you that the light is turned on right, you walk into a room and you already know it, and so am I living my life in such a way that people can tell who I spent time with in the secret place, simply by just me spending time with God.
Speaker 1:Like proximity is everything, and so I would say one develop an intimate relationship with Jesus. Don't allow the doing for Jesus to replace being with Jesus, because when you are with Jesus, people will be able to tell. And then look for those strategic opportunities that you can come in and you can speak truth, maybe when they ask a question hey man, what do you think about this? Or, man, you know, I think there's so many of us that want to win our families to Jesus, but maybe it's not from the motivation of love, you know. And so just be full of love. What would you say?
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, I would say like, just because my parents are from Christ Forest, so is my brother. So a big one for me is my cousins and my classmates, and I've found that people don't care what you know until they know that you care. So you have to show that you care, you love them. Like you said, let your fruits talk for itself. I mean you just being there for somebody. I think presence is the most powerful thing you can do. It's not even word, it's just you being there.
Speaker 1:Come on, you got two different trees. You got a tree that has no fruit and you got a tree that's full of apples. What are people going to want to pick? You're not going to go to the tree, that's bad. You're going to go to the tree that's got fruit because you see the fruit of their life and you're going to go to them because they have something that you want. In the Lord, you develop these things called the fruit of the Spirit, not the gifts of the Spirit Fruit.
Speaker 3:Uh-oh, oh. Jesus said that you will know them by their fruit not by their gifts Uh-oh, that's a different one.
Speaker 2:Come on, hold that one. We're going to hold that one For sure.
Speaker 1:But yeah, man.
Speaker 3:I just keep thinking about how there are people who are so offended by Jesus yeah, who are so offended by Jesus and I feel like I just think about this analogy when I go outside at night and you can't see the sun, but you can still see the stars.
Speaker 3:A lot of people have denied the sun but, you can still be that small star in their life that leads them back to the sun. And I just encourage anyone who has parents or cousins from any sort of relationships that are far from God that you just be that small light and that small light. My dad always says preach the gospel and use words if necessary. So sometimes we can just live that life.
Speaker 1:But so many people get mad at that statement? Why? Because they say that well, what do you mean? Preach the gospel and use words when necessary Like that's just saying that you're afraid to share Jesus. Here's what I would say to that. You ever taken an Advil?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's sugarcoated yeah it's sweet.
Speaker 1:But it's still Advil. Easy for it to go down. Oh, but you preaching sugarcoated gospel? It's still the gospel. It's still the gospel. I'm not minimizing what Jesus did. Let's not preach the finished work of cross, and there's no other name by which a man may be saved. But there's ways of reach them where they're at preach the truth of who Jesus is and the way that they can receive it. That's why Paul said I became like the Jew so that I may win some. He didn't compromise the gospel. He never compromised the gospel, because we don't compromise the gospel, but we change the method.
Speaker 1:When we change the method to reach the person, then we can win souls for Jesus. I'm all about losing arguments and winning brothers. So many people want to get into these debates and talk about theology, this and theology that listen. Perfect theology is jesus christ himself. Amen, period, amen. And as long as we don't major in the minors and we want people to jesus man, I don't. I don't get caught up in that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I want to talk about something you just said, and it was how paul would. Would act different around different people. He wouldn't. He wouldn't compromise his morals in any way come on, but he, he, he acted a certain way so that they can receive the gospel come on tell me what that looks like. Maybe in in sports yeah in school, um in relationships, how, if I'm struggling with my relationship with my parents or my classmates? I just recently gave my life to christ yeah what does that look like for me?
Speaker 1:yeah. So for me, someone who did play sports, it's easier for me to speak the language of an athlete. Yeah, because I speak a language that the athlete can understand, like if it's baseball. I didn't play baseball but I understand what baseball is. I understand what first base, second base, third base, shortstop, I understand what it means to be in the outfit, I understand the basics of the game and I can sometimes communicate to baseball players saying hey, man, listen, sometimes you're going to be down, you're going to be an account. Yeah, sometimes you, the picture might be up, yeah, but you got to keep on fighting and you just start communicating the way that they can understand. Obviously, it's easy for me to do it with football, yeah, but what I've learned is man, there are other ways of communicating the gospel to people maybe that don't fully understand sports. Right, let's look at people that like pokemon, for example.
Speaker 1:Some of our listeners probably like pokemon and digimon and yeah and so what I've done is I've actually educated myself, because education is important. I'm not naive, I'm not wanting to bring them up to my level. I'm going to get down on their level to reach them where they're at, and I'll talk about man, how I had a holographic Charizard. Somebody just freaked out, right now, I had a holographic.
Speaker 3:Charizard in 1999.
Speaker 1:Back in the day. And so when you understand their language, it actually breaks down barriers and it breaks down walls and opens up their hearts. And maybe what you have to say yeah, and I'm a firm believer in being you know spirit led and everything that I do.
Speaker 1:For sure, instead of purpose driven, there's a lot of people that want to do a lot of great things, man, but when you're led by the spirit of god and your obedience to that, you always see fruit come from it yeah, man, I I completely touch and agree with all that.
Speaker 3:I think, think that in the sports world I can really talk about this because my whole life I was in sports. My whole life I had been raised up with these kids who I played sports with and we had no relationship with Jesus and out of nowhere God had touched my heart. And so now I have this heart that God has given me around this world that I'm now set apart from because of his grace, and for me, a big part of that was I just presented it to them like it was love, like it is, it's just truth.
Speaker 3:And so my, my guy Sean, the reason why he started coming to church, it's because I announced the baseball team. He was like hey guys, team, chemistry, faith, family, church, so you know, let's get going, let's all gather together. He's never stopped coming since come on you just present it like it's something I feel like a lot of people are scared of. Like they like we want to write you out the church, yeah, and then they take that as offense. Well, talk.
Speaker 1:Talk to the little. Talk to that a little bit about your generation and their view of church. So you're 18 years old. Yeah, we're from different generations. What is the Gen Z mindset when it comes to church and church?
Speaker 3:yeah, man, I think that we look out. We look out from the like, from the outside in, and we can see the, the youth pastors, and then they're trying to make it cool for our generation. We don't, we don't want cool yeah like cool, cool is jesus and we, we like everything how church is right now.
Speaker 3:We don't have to get the trends, sure, we don't have to play games, we don't have to do any gimmicks, we just want to say guitar heroes not gonna save nobody bro I'm saying the little tick tock trends in order to get us to the church is not gonna do nothing for us, for sure it might get people there, but it's not gonna, it's not gonna come from. There so I think we're so focused on just getting people to church but not keeping them there, and so we get them there. We do like. We do like these things, these gimmicks to like, bring them in. We do a lot of giveaways, but the giveaway should be the gospel, the giveaway should be access in the heart is this free, it's free, it's free, and it's what grabbed my heart it
Speaker 3:wasn't a giveaway. It was the gospel. And I think my generation's outlook on the church and on the Bible is that we, we want somebody just to tell us the truth. We feel like there's been a whole generation of people who just trashed yeah, jesus loves you, come to church. No, we know that we're doing. We feel conviction like there's a lot of, there's a lot of people out there right now or in sin, who don't go to church, who don't read their Bible, have no relationship Jesus, but they feel convicted because God's calling their heart come on.
Speaker 3:They want somebody to address that conviction. And I figured out that when I started just addressing that conviction, people started coming, people started staying. They didn't just come as attendants or guests. First-time guests, you get a check-in, you just get a QR code. No, you get intentional and you connect with them.
Speaker 1:Well, ultimately, we want to invite people to church so that they can encounter the same person that changed our lives. And it's not come and belong, it's come and behold. When you come to church and you behold who Jesus is, you can't help but become like the one you're beholding. We want to walk in the character and nature of God. So it's going to take us by coming. Yes, absolutely coming Like God is all about. Yes, you know, I started an organization called Reach One. Yes, we want to reach one, but God also wants his house full. We want to reach as many people as possible, but I don't want to reach you for the sake of gathering you. I want to reach you for the sake of introducing to someone who can change you, because you can come as you are, but don't expect to stay the same. And when people come to church with that same mentality, I just have seen a disconnect in you know, gen Z.
Speaker 3:Oh, he cultured, I did.
Speaker 1:Good job, mom and dad.
Speaker 3:They train a child up when they're young, in the way that they should go. We was getting it in.
Speaker 1:But it's like that isn't going to save someone's soul. They're going to stand before a God who is a holy and just God. If they're not equipped, if they don't understand what the full gospel is, then we're actually doing them a disservice. And I just have learned in my years of ministry and I was a youth pastor for a couple of years people need to be introduced to Jesus. But I don't knock the youth pastors that try to find creative ways of getting people there, trying to become relevant to the culture. Like you, help me out with that. You make sure that I'm relevant, make sure that I'm not just stale and boring. But at the end of the day, the only thing that's going to change and transform people is Jesus.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure. I think the transparency in that is so important. I think that it's scary when church leaders think gimmicks are more important than the gospel, Like you're hooking people with gimmicks and not gospel. Well, like, who do you trust? We always think about. Like, at the lowest point in your life, the thing that you turn to is your idol, Okay, so if you feel like your ministry is at the lowest point of its life and you're turning to gimmicks, not the gospel, who? Would you trust in the beginning, the.
Speaker 1:Bible says there's a way that seems right to a man. So there's a way that actually seems right to us in our thinking.
Speaker 3:We're like, oh, this is a really good idea.
Speaker 1:I'm going to get my church really full on Easter. Well, most churches will be full on Easter. It doesn't lean on our own understanding. We have to lean on the understanding of God, and we're living in a world there's this tension, man where I've seen this doctrine I'm actually we're on a Christian campus right now. I've seen this new age doctrine, this progressive Christianity start to take over, and it's I'm my own God. I can pick myself up by my bootstraps. No, you can't. You don't got the ability to fix you. But I see so many people they struggle with this statement that I'm about to say and it bothers me so much because we're living in a generation that does not read their Bibles. Here's a statement I say the Bible is the only thing that has the authority to tell you who you are.
Speaker 1:I have gotten more. You just tell you who you are. I have gotten more. You just offended a whole bunch of people because it's the truth. The bible is the only thing. It's the written word of god that's inspired by god. He holds his word above his name. And yet so many people struggle with that because, well, you're trying to confine, no, no, no. Why don't you just read what he says about you first, and then maybe you'll understand what I'm talking about, you know? He says I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. He says I'm accepted in the beloved. But he also says that he who knew no sin became sin so that I might be called the righteousness of god in christ jesus. But not everybody is a child of god. God loves everybody, yeah, but as many are called and have said yes to the call, or sons of god, yeah. And there are people who are burning in hell right now because someone did not preach the gospel to them and I never want to be that person, never man.
Speaker 3:I really want to hold on to what's something you just said and one of the questions was like God's call on your life? Like how important is God's call on your life with going to church and finding a community along with reading your Bible?
Speaker 1:Yeah, church and community is everything, because we were created for community. Psalms 133 talks about how great and pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity, not uniformity. Uh-oh, uniformity is doing it because you have to. Unity is doing it because you want to, and there's a lot of people that just do stuff for the sake of doing it. But if you want to grow in your relationship with Jesus and you want to say that you're a Christian, how can you say that you're a Christian but you hate his church? How can you say you love Jesus but your head is bright? It just doesn't make sense to me. You actually you sound foolish, and that's not a dig at anybody. You just have to understand the weight of what you're saying, because the Bible says life and death is in the power of what we say, and those who love it eat of its fruits.
Speaker 1:But it is so important for a young person to get connected in a community of people and a Bible-believing church that is going to lift you up.
Speaker 3:You are going to make mistakes. You are going to make mistakes.
Speaker 1:Amen. Again, you are going to make mistakes, you're going to fall. But the Bible says a righteous man falls down seven times. What makes him righteous is he does not stay down.
Speaker 1:So if you want to grow in your relationship with Jesus, you need a local church, you need a local pastor, and if you're a youth, you need a youth pastor. That's all up in your business. But here's what I've learned, man. There's a disconnect even sometimes when it comes to church culture, because we find ourselves building things that doesn't look like church anymore and it kind of goes to what you're talking about, about gimmicks, and we just want to gather people for the sake of gathering. One thing I've learned, man, is I want to go deep and be in a relationship with people so that I can actually know, like I know, what's going on in your life. That's why we're walking and running together and that's what true discipleship should look like yeah, bro, and everybody needs it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think for me. I don't think I would have found my call unless I was in the church Come on. Because I wouldn't have known what my call would look like if I had not been in a community of people who could see it in me.
Speaker 1:Well in me. Well, let's identify what church is too like, what is?
Speaker 3:church to. To gen z my, yeah, because church is more than just sunday attendance, for sure. I, I think church and I know church is more than just that building. Yeah, that church is being intentional people outside of that building too. So you're building a family is what it is. It's a gathering of people and you're taking that gathering not just on sundays or wednesdays, but when your brother or sister is lacking, falling, stumbling into sin. You check up on them on a Monday or on a Tuesday Come on.
Speaker 3:We love that song from SU Monday Morning Faith. We need that Monday Morning Faith man.
Speaker 1:Hell's not scared of. Sunday faith Come on.
Speaker 3:I'm going to say this in Chelsea I love Chelsea. It only leads to empty praise.
Speaker 1:What really made darkness run when the saints are quiet? Something?
Speaker 3:like that Praise and quiet. It's talking about the gathering. We know what it is. S-e -U we love you Come on. But I think the gathering.
Speaker 1:I want that to you. Come on For real. Come on, that's you online.
Speaker 3:Bro the oh, you didn't pass Gathering. That's your own line, oh you didn't pass gathering of you're right come on.
Speaker 3:I think the gathering of believers in and outside of that location is so important, but if we're talking about the call on your life, I believe that it is essential to have somebody in that call, recognize that call within you, because you can be so deceived by your fleshly thoughts and you can be so deceived by your fleshly thoughts. Come on, and you can. You can be so deceived by your fleshly desires too, because you can easily look at somebody out on a stage or a platform hmm, and you feel called by God and because of that influence that they hold, you want what they have.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you're not even called to that, you just want the influence that they have see, I just didn't want the perception of it.
Speaker 3:I think about this. I think when Peter went to go walk on water and then he eventually fell into the water because he saw the winds and the waves. You see, we all want to walk on water, but we don't want to consider the winds and the waves. We want everyone's blessings but we don't understand the breaking that it took to get there. So if you want something, be careful what you ask for come on.
Speaker 1:Here's the thing, man. I'm going to be very transparent. A lot of people want to walk with the oil, but nobody wants to go through the crushing. We want the oil because the oil is good. We've seen that olive olive oil bottle that looks beautiful and it's shiny, it's got the beautiful, it's got the wrapper and it's like, oh, it's premium, it's cold pressed, yeah. But you didn't see what that all went through. To get to that. It went through a process and a crushing and a consistent crushing and then went to another crushing and then went through a purifying. You see, we don't want to be purified because we don't want to go through the fire with god, but if we want to walk with you, oh, we're going to have to be crushed by the king. We have to be crushed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just like it says in matthew 14, there's a story, um, for those of us that know the story of jesus feeding the multitudes, and you know what's so key about that story is he takes what many believe is a little kid's lunch, with some bread and some fish, and he takes it. You see, god will take what we call insignificant and he'll do something significant with it. You take that little bit, that little bit of oil you got. You put it in the hands of the father. He'll take it, yeah, but then what does he do? Breaks it. We got to go through a break. I cannot walk with the anointing if I have not been broken by the king. And then he doesn't just send us out, then he lifts up to heaven and he blesses us and then he multiplies this and he said, and he sends us out.
Speaker 1:So what god is doing for some of you that are listening to this is he's taking you from the situation. Maybe he's taking you out of that relationship. Maybe he's taking away from those family members that don't love you the way they're supposed to. Maybe he's taking away from those friends that all they do is want to get, get drunk and get high and do stupid stuff. He's taking away from those friends that all they want to do is get vape and numb out their problems. And what he's trying to do is he's trying to break you. But you're resisting the breaking because you're saying, god, why me? He's saying, no, let me break you from the things that used to trouble you.
Speaker 1:It's the same thing he did to the children of Israel. When you read Exodus 14 and 15,. He took the children of Israel out of Egypt but then they had to go through a breaking. They actually, when you read Exodus 15, 14 to 15, it talks about how they came to this body of water and they couldn't drink it because the waters were bitter. And he had to. He told Moses to throw a tree into the water and the bitter water became sweet. What many don't know is when you begin to study that out, what happens is all the impurities sink to the bottom of that river. The children of Israel get to drink the water, but it was still full of magnesium and these different things that began to cleanse their system.
Speaker 1:God wants to cleanse us from the world, but sometimes we neglect the cleansing because we don't want to wake up in the morning and read our Bible. We don't want to, you know, listen to the Bible. We don't want to go to Bible study. We don't want to be in relationship with people that can call us out. But if I want to walk with the oil that we're talking about, I've got to go through the process. And here's the thing it's not just a one-time thing, it's a consistent process and it's a consistent breaking.
Speaker 3:Daily man. Oh, my goodness, I think about what you just said to the generation of people who are resisting that breaking. They're holding on to something that God is trying to let them release. Let them release. It's not something that God's taking from you. It's holding you bondage. It's holding you captive. I just want to encourage anyone who's watching this. There's nothing that the Lord will remove from your life that he won't replace with something so much better.
Speaker 1:And it doesn't always Say that one more time for the people in the back. Say that one more time.
Speaker 3:There's nothing that God won't remove from your life.
Speaker 1:Come on that boyfriend that you know you're not supposed to be with.
Speaker 3:That he won't replace with something so much better.
Speaker 2:Come on.
Speaker 3:I think we all know. I think we all know. Big time and I'll put it like I was in an unhealthy relationship and we broke up. We both found God separately, didn't even know, and then we came back together as something new Come on.
Speaker 3:And sometimes it just takes a separation. Yeah, it does. It does take a separation, and I think about God's call on my life. I would have never knew God's call on my life if I was still blinded by the sin that I was indulged in. I would argue this that I think that I believe that you won't be able to know God's full call of your life if you're held captive by holding on the things of the world.
Speaker 3:You can't, you can only serve one god yeah so, in this moment, the person who's watching this knows what they need to drop yeah and knows what they need to receive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know come on so it's just time to let go yeah and it's a simple step of faith jump off the roof without a parachute and watch god save you. Hold him at his word. I, I believe I mean what god did in my life, how he transformed my life. I believe that he was who he says he was. I didn't go to rehab to get off drugs. I went through to get a completely new life. I got hungry.
Speaker 1:The Bible says those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, according to Matthew 5, shall be filled. It's time to get hungry for something other than yourself. Mm-hmm. Most of us are just. We're not hungry because we're so full of ourselves, so we've got to empty ourselves out. Get hungry for the things of God.
Speaker 1:Don't beat yourself up. Listen, there's so much grace for your journey. Like I said before, you will make mistakes, for sure. You will make mistakes. It's part of the process, though. It's a process of learning how to become and walk like a son and knowing that Jesus died for those same mistakes that I'm continuing to struggle with, but know that there's grace for my journey to continue to be an overcomer. That's why, when I mess up, man, I tell myself man, marcus, man, god.
Speaker 1:I think that's not who I am. God, I thank you, that you love me and you see me, that he who knew no sin became sin, so that I might be called the righteous of God. In Christ Jesus, holy Spirit, I pray for a deep conviction. God, I know that's not who I am, because what we do when we mess up up is we communicate about ourselves in a way that is completely opposite of what Jesus says. Talk about self-talk. Come on, let's talk about it. We talk so negative about ourselves because we've been conditioned by the society in which we live in If I do good, then I am good. Wait a minute.
Speaker 3:That's not the gospel, it's not the gospel that I read.
Speaker 1:None of us are good. Listen, jesus is what makes us righteous. Jesus makes us good now, but for sure. But once I receive that, justify Just as if I've never sinned. Now, listen, I can't bypass the sanctification process but I'm a son now and I walk like a son.
Speaker 1:I never question who my dad is, and I believe there's someone here right now that's listening to this man. You've been in a position where you've been walking around with this orphan spirit and you've been plagued by so many different things and so many different thoughts that have been coming against you and maybe your dad didn't love you the way that he was supposed to. I understand, I get that. I get it, but you do not have to let what dad did prevent you from receiving the love of a father in heaven who's been with you every step of the way. You don't have to let all that sin that was done to you produce so much anger and sin and bitterness within you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that god is for you and even right now, man, I just believe the lord wants you to even stop for a second. I just want to take like 30 seconds for you just to receive the love of the father, because even right now, just go ahead and close your eyes, and that he's for you. He sees you, he loves you. He is not mad at you, he's calling you. He sees you, he loves you. He is not mad at you. He's calling you into a love relationship with him. So all you have to do is receive his love, repent of your sins, which means to turn away the stuff that you've been doing to try to medicate and make yourself feel something that's never going to satisfy you. All it's going to do is continue to put you in a position where you're angry and upset and bitter and hurting yourself more and more. It's time to let go of those things and grab a hold of Jesus, because he's for you.
Speaker 3:Amen. Well, that wraps up another episode of Unashamed Podcast with your host, Nehemiah, and Big Mark. And Big Mark man. I appreciate the questions. Please continue to tune in and we'll see you guys next time.
Speaker 2:All right, fam. That's it for this episode of the Unashamed Podcast. If it hit, if it challenged you or it made you say yo same, go ahead and follow, drop a review and send it to your group chat. You know the drill. We're here for the real ones, the bold, the honest, the ones who refuse to play small. So keep showing up, keep speaking the truth and stay loudly unashamed. Catch y'all next week. Until then, be real, be bold and be you Peace.
