Yes That Costs, Community That Covers with Mehki Key

What happens when you say "yes" to God's calling? Is divine peace supposed to wash over you, confirming your decision? Or might God's most authentic invitations be the ones that cost you something significant?

In this raw, unfiltered conversation between Ashley and her friend Mehki Key, they dismantle the myth of the painless "yes" that pervades much of contemporary Christian culture. Drawing from their personal experiences—including Makai's military service and Ashley's decision to turn down lucrative job offers for ministry work—they expose how true discipleship often feels like death to our desires and preferences.

"Your yes to God will cost you something, but it's worth it because it establishes the kingdom in you," Ashley reflects, challenging listeners to consider what they've surrendered for their faith. The conversation examines how biblical figures like Jesus himself experienced no peace in Gethsemane, sweating drops of blood as he faced the ultimate sacrifice.

The pair wrestle with how American individualism has infected Christian thinking, creating a "me-first" spirituality that bears little resemblance to the community-focused early church described in Acts. They share stories of church unity creating transformative change, including how Savannah was desegregated before the rest of the country when churches united to support Black citizens during economic boycotts.

This episode invites you to reconsider your spiritual journey not as a solo expedition but as a communal pilgrimage where "we're just trying to get home" together. It challenges you to stop focusing solely on your salvation and start championing others along the way. As Mehki powerfully states, "Stand in awe of what people have to carry rather than in judgment of how they carry it."

Join this conversation that will shake your understanding of discipleship and leave you examining whether your commitment to Christ is truly costing you anything meaningful.

Transcript

Welcome to Kingdom Over Culture

Speaker 1 0:16

What's up everybody. My name is Ashley. Welcome to Kingdom Over Culture podcast. I'm super excited to have my friend, my buddy, my partner in crime, makai that's the ain'ts and the saints. Please, brother, please, it's not the ain'ts, the saints and the ain'ts.

Speaker 2 0:36

You see how I flipped it, so they didn't get mad at me. You know, I feel you, I feel you.

Speaker 1 0:43

Me and Makai are causing some ruckus in the city of Savannah when it comes to worship and I really just wanted to have him on here with me. Maybe you know.

Speaker 2 0:54

I'm trying to be a Chad Ocho Cinco to you know what I'm saying? The Shannon Shark.

Speaker 1 1:01

What's up, shannon? So you know what. Let's just get right into this conversation. Well, you know, no, before we get into the conversation, introduce the people. Who are you, what are you about? Um, let them know you know who you are before we get started yeah, what's going on?

Speaker 2 1:15

y'all again. My name is makai key. I'm a transplant to the city of savannah. I'm originally from san diego, california, um, and went to bible school, bi Biola University out in Los Angeles, california. I got my degree in commercial music and biblical and theological studies and I had dreams and aspirations as an athlete my whole life to use all the giftings and the talents and the blessings that God has blessed me with in my life and go to the military as a military chaplain.

Speaker 2 1:44

So I just got here, january the 6th, and I've been a transplant in Savannah for a little bit now. So I'm just I'm excited to be here, I'm excited to see more about how this city is and what this city is about, but at the same time, go to the margins, not to try to save people at the margins. Go to the margins not to try to save people at the margins. But you know, see, see where God wants to meet me at those margins and stand in awe of what people have to carry rather than in judgment of how they carry it. So I'm here with an open heart, open mind and Holy Spirit. Have your way with me. And I got to meet with my home girl go way back, ashley. So I'm excited to be here, man.

Speaker 1 2:24

I'm excited that you're here too. You know it's been, it's definitely been a blessing, yeah, and I'm excited for what's to come. But let's go ahead and jump right into our conversation. Let me pull open my notes, because today, you know this conversation. Every week, we're talking about the thought of kingdom over culture and what that looks like, what it looks like to live as a believer in today's ratchet days, in you know age, and so today, you know, I was praying about what to talk about today and I came. The topic came to me the cost of your yes.

Speaker 2 3:01

Yeah.

The Cost of Your Yes

Speaker 1 3:02

The cost of your yes, cost of your yes, yeah, the cost of your yes, um, and just what that looks like. As a believer, I feel like, um, it's easy to say yes to something that's don't cost you nothing. Yeah, um, and I wrote this down your yes to God will cost you something, but it's worth it because it establishes the kingdom in you. Wow, um, so yeah, I just I want to. We can just start this conversation of what? What does that mean to you? How have you seen the cost of your yes play out in your life?

Speaker 2 3:34

Well, I appreciate the question. Um, man, when I said yes to the Lord, I met uh, for me that means um. I said yes to the desire to not only belong to people, but people belong to me, and not only that, we belong to God, and that's going to be people that you agree with, that's going to be people that you disagree with, that's going to be avenues and spaces where there's a lot of gray area. But we grow in the gray and we learn to love in the gray and we learn what, we learn how to lay down conditions in the gray, and I think it's a, it's a beautiful thing, not only to belong to people, but in the same space, like you have so many brothers and sisters that that belong to you.

Speaker 2 4:24

When I was in basic training, I had this brother named Vincent Duarte and a vent. He's at 173rd Italy. I miss you, bro. I love you, but he was man. This is a savage man, like every ounce of the day, every minute, every tick of the second of a day, it was always effort and effort and effort and effort and effort, and he would put in so much effort where it was just so inspiring. I sat down with him one time, like almost at the end of basic training, I felt like he should have got distinguished honor grad. Another good friend of mine named Ross Galace got it.

Speaker 2 5:03

But there's something about Vince Duarte. He was a devout Catholic man. Like we would have Bible studies 4am every morning and right before bed I'd be trying to go to sleep. At the end, hey, key, you got to wake up. You know what I'm saying. We got to do our Bible study and connect with the Lord and he was just such a blessing, a blessing for me. But I asked him at the end of the cycle. I said hey, vince, bro, let me ask you a question. Man, why you? Why you give so much effort every single day? He was like, bro, the effort that I put in as a determining factor of whether you get to come home or not. And when he signed that contract he said yes to me and yes to the brother next side to him and to himself.

Speaker 2 5:50

Yeah, and that's costly. Yeah, to a point where you get to put your life on the line for the sake of of somebody else. And I feel like in the culture that we live in, we don't really understand that, because the stakes aren't high, or at least our expectations of the stakes aren't high enough. So, to answer your question, man, I just think what's that meant for me and my life? It's been a different perspective since I've been serving.

Speaker 2 6:21

It's been a different perspective since I signed to allow my freedom to be taken, to know that not only am I signed enough to put my life on the line for other people but, at the same time, time away, to deploy time away in a field, time away from my family. You know, I missed six months of my daughter's life, but to provide for her, that's costly, man. I was gone, so I just. Every day. You have to wrestle with something. Every day there's things to get over and it's a costly, yes, but it has grown me so deeper in my faith to a point where there's a different need that I have for God, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 7:09

And I feel like that's that's what the yes should bring you to, I think like kind of to piggyback off of what you're saying our culture has such an individualistic mindset. I was talking to the worship team about this last night. We have just like this this me, me, me, god, save me, god, deliver me, god, free me. But God doesn't have an individualistic mindset. He does care about our needs, but more so he is. He has a community mindset.

Speaker 1 7:38

Our yes is never just for us. It's for the people that we have in our reach, the people that, um, he's placed us around, um, and I think that, yeah, one of the things that we just have so twisted in our culture is this, this me mindset, like, if it don't benefit me, I don't want nothing to do with it. Or or even the thought of like I got to be self-made. But what happens when you give your life to Christ and God says the thing that you created I never blessed, put it down and follow me? Wow, that sounds crazy, yeah, and that's Countercultural and that's costly, yes, and I think that there is this mindset, or this thought, even in believers, that when you say yes to God, it should be painless. Yeah, like the, the myth of the painless.

Speaker 1 8:34

Yes, like if God says it, it should give me peace so crazy to say like we really, really, really just desire happiness and physical fulfillment, like and feeling at peace and all these different things. But I feel like our, even our definition of peace is skewed because it don't align with what the peace that God provides us with, and like we really chase after feelings rather than allowing our faith to guide us amen, yeah um, but that kind of brings me to this scripture that I was I was thinking about and luke. You don't got your bible, it's all right we're gonna read it together.

Speaker 2 9:19

Hey, pray y'all, pray for me please, because she had told me to bring it to you. That's the crazy thing about I'm gonna out myself.

Speaker 1 9:26

She told me to bring it and I just, you know, I'm saying but for real, like when you think about the people in the bible who god told them to do something and you're like, oh, if the lord tells you do something, you're gonna get peace about it. Yeah, jesus didn't even have peace. Yeah, he said lord of this couple could pass come on.

Speaker 2 9:44

He's sweating droplets of blood in the garden of Gethsemane. Yeah, come on now. Stressful.

Speaker 1 9:49

I'm thinking of Jonah, I'm thinking of Gideon, I think of Moses.

Speaker 2 9:55

Yes.

Speaker 1 9:56

Like no peace. That is not people. Peace is not your notification on the inside that says that this is God Nine times out of 10, if you have no peace with it, that's God, Because the Bible says that your flesh and your spirit is at war all the time. So if it's pleasing to your flesh, it's probably not God.

Speaker 2 10:18

Yeah, yeah, I'm done. Okay, come on now. Shout, you know what I'm saying, please, the scripture.

Speaker 1 10:25

Scripture, I think, is somewhere.

Speaker 2 10:28

Luke 9, luke 9 you can take your time.

Picking Up Your Cross Daily

Speaker 1 10:34

Yeah, yeah, yeah, 23. I'm reading from the ESV Bible Open your Bibles to Luke 9. When you have it, say Amen.

Speaker 2 10:44

Come on. And he said to all Open your Bibles to Luke 9.

Speaker 1 10:46

When you have, it say amen, come on and he said to all if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily to follow me, daily to follow me. And I feel like I was in. I was talking about this, which is so funny because I didn't plan that. I don't know how we got there, but in our rehearsal last night, um, I usually do like a little Bible study before worship rehearsal and we got on this scripture and one of the girls, um, she had like a different upbringing and so I'm she's still going into things of Christ and she's the person you know. You always got that one person in the group that just asked the hard or not the hard questions. Just ask the questions that I feel like people low key want to ask, but they don't ask.

Speaker 1 11:33

They don't ever want to ask, they feel too timid to ask, or they don't want to sound like they don't know, and she asked the question. She said what does it mean to pick up your cross? Yeah, and like I can see the looks in the room, like, what do you mean? But she really she wanted to know.

Speaker 2 11:52

she said, half of us, 99 percent of us, don't even know the fullness of what it means to pick up your cross, because that's a heavy, that's a heavy thing to carry, right you may, you may lay down all the stuff. You know what I'm saying? All the trauma, all the weight, that's heavy, all of it, even the things. I don't think I have this part. There's traumas in the cross. We're called to bear and give to the Lord and pick up that we don't even know about. Yeah, things that happened before we were even here, come on, but anyways.

Speaker 1 12:24

What it say after that, though. It's crazy, for whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? This culture, our culture, is all about this thought process of like I got to get the bag, I got to get to the bag and like I have found myself in that thought process. Actually, when she asked what does it look like to pick up your cross and die to yourself?

Speaker 1 13:08

When I took this job at the church, I had two other job offers making more than double my salary that was being offered here, but the Lord had already told me this is where you need to be and I didn't want to Like. When the Lord told me this is where you need to be, and I didn't want to Like. When the Lord told me, honestly, my first response was no, and I had to repent. Like Lord, I know that your plans are better for me, but I did not want to work in ministry Because, for one, I liked being able to sit in the crowd. I like to not be so close to where you start seeing the ugly side of things, cause I had parents that worked in ministry and things like that my grandparents and who are pastors, and I know that there is a side of ministry that does not look pleasing and I didn't want that to shake my faith and I was comfortable where I was being distant enough from having to actually operate in ministry. I didn't want to get my hands dirty, wow.

Speaker 2 14:13

Yeah.

Speaker 1 14:13

And the and I knew the Lord told me like no, I'm calling you to be a worship pastor at your church. Well, I have no experience. I have, I barely had management experience. But the crazy thing was I was already operating in most of the job description because my leader was depending on me in these areas and so. But I was like no, like Lord, I got this experience in accounting. You know, I can make some money. Yeah, and the church is offering me pennies Like this is not Not sustainable living, not sustainable living.

Speaker 1 14:55

But when I got down to it, these two jobs, they were paying me, you know, more than double, more way more than double. One job take you to Disney World every, every year oh, my orlando the devil will throw disney world in the pot.

Speaker 2 15:10

Come on moldy bread. You know I'm saying you hungry moldy bread.

Speaker 1 15:14

Listen to keep you from doing what the lord says? Yeah, and I feel like what the lord really wanted for me was he wanted me to learn and to know that he is my source, that he can sustain me, and I don't have to depend on my own wisdom. I don't have to depend on my own ways that I can make, because, essentially, those are ways that I made. God was making a way over here, but what I love about the Lord is he always gives you a choice. He don't make himself the only choice. He always gives us a choice to choose him or to choose our own way, or choose the kingdom, or choose the world.

Speaker 1 15:52

And so I have this. You know, on one side I'm serving, I'm walking in the purpose that God created me for and I'm, more than anything, I'm obeying Kim. Wow, or I have this way that will be better for my family, better for my life. Yeah, seemingly I don't know what could have happened if I took that. I don't know what kind of stresses or sicknesses or things that could have came on me because of this job. I don't know. But from the outside, looking in like, this is a lot of money and I get to go to Disney World every year.

Speaker 2 16:34

Come on now.

Speaker 1 16:35

Like what I had to die. Yeah, I had to die in that thing. And my mom was here a few weeks ago and we were talking about this transition that I've been telling you about, that the Lord's bring me through right now, and she said, she said something. She said it feels like it feels like death because it is Wow.

Speaker 2 16:54

Your mom be having words to listen, come on now. She really do. I don't even want to go to church. I got to go to church again.

Speaker 1 17:02

She be having the word, but for real, like dying to yourself feels like death.

Speaker 2 17:07

Yeah.

Speaker 1 17:08

And it's hard to explain to people what death looks like for you.

Speaker 2 17:12

Yeah.

Speaker 1 17:12

Because I don't know what your surrender looks like.

Speaker 2 17:14

Yeah.

Speaker 1 17:16

But I know that the cost of our yes is going to have to be it's going to equate to the weight of our surrender.

Speaker 2 17:24

Wow.

Speaker 1 17:26

I mean and that's different in different levels of life Like, right now, the cost of my, yes, look like waking up at 5 am and praying, and that is costly for me because I value sleep. Yes, but the Lord's like I need you to surrender that right now. Yeah, but this scripture is so rich. Yes, yes, if you want to be my disciple, that's what you have to do. Yeah, Like and we, we throw that word around like crazy in our, especially in, like the church culture. Right now, like, oh, I'm a disciple of Christ. What did you deny yourself of today?

Speaker 2 18:02

What is a disciple actually to you? It's something that you just created.

Speaker 2 18:06

Right, right, right, if you add value or definition to something that ain't even ain't even it at all. So, man, I was as y'all. Y'all probably don't know this organization, but it's called Homeboy Industries in Boa Heights, california, and the founder and leader of this organization, his name is Father Greg Boyle, father Gregory Boyle, he's a Jesuit priest and he's just planted himself there for like almost the last 40 years, 40 years or so. You know, y'all can fact check me but look up Father Greg Boyle, but anyways, he always has all these stories because Homeboy Industries is the largest gang rehabilitation center in the country and I think they get like 15,000 individuals that walk through the doors every year and it's just been such a blessing to just the city of Los Angeles. It was started between two public housing projects, aliso Village and Pico Gardens, and at the time it was eight rival gangs that were just shooting at each other. So I think it was seven Latino gangs and then one African-American gang, boyle Heights. And. But what I love about Homeboy Industries, it put enemy gangs and helped them learn how to work together. There was.

Speaker 2 19:25

He has a story that he talks about. I got these two individuals. One is named Youngster and then the other's name is Puppet. You know they're getting each other nicknames. Know how we are. You know saying little man. You know saying meech meech. You know I'm saying um, but um, in the midst of this story, um, I think it's youngster, yeah, youngster, so youngster's been around. You know I I'm saying they're, they're working. I think it's like a silk film kind of circumstance to do Father Greg creates jobs for these people to work at. So I think they're, they're making shirts or something like that. But he's, he's working at Homeboy Industries.

Speaker 2 20:05

And Pedro, you know, a puppet walks through the door and puppet's like man, I'm not working with this dude. You know I'm saying they. You know he tries his best, you know. And then he gets to a point where he's like you know, I'll work with him, but I just want to talk to him. And then they're like okay, you don't want to work, you don't want to talk. There's a lot of people that's coming through these doors that want a job. So you know they got. You know they got their act straight. Um, but at the time it's still um, in the midst of this gang war. So at the end of the day, youngster is walking home and he wants to get home a little bit faster. So he makes a left turn in this alleyway and at this time there's 10 people in an alleyway from a rival gang. So he runs into him from a rival gang. So he runs into him, ends up getting into a fight 10 versus one, and he's beat senseless to a point where he's transitioned to the hospital.

Turning Down Earthly Success

Speaker 2 21:04

Father Greg hears about this circumstance and drives down to the hospital where Youngster's at At this particular time. Father Greg has seen so many different, you know, horrific things. He, he, you know he's buried already 280 kids. He's seen very, very horrific things in the community, but nothing as horrific as this. Because he sees this individual and he's pronounced brain dead to a point where the individual is unrecognizable and they're keeping him on this type of ventilator for about 48 hours just to try to get a seamless flat line and also for the family just to be able to come in to say their last remorses.

Speaker 2 21:50

Youngster ends up passing away and it brings tears to Father Greg's eyes. So later in the evening he gets a call from Puppet and Puppet said yeah, man, it's messed up. What happened to Youngster? It's messed up, man. Can I give him my blood? Is there anything that I could do? And they. It goes to silence and pup is like choked up right now. He wasn't my enemy, he was my friend. You may lose some friends too, but the cost of your yes to the Lord can be so transformational.

Speaker 2 22:50

There's a good mentor of mine that says don't give up on the miracle before the miracle even happens yeah and I just pray this over any of the viewers there's a lot of things that you're going to say no to, but when you're walking into a circumstance where it seems like God's voice is clear, obviously lean on mentorship, obviously lean on individuals and situations and the word of God to give you the wisdom to be able to navigate yeses or nos. But at the same time, don't allow a timid heart, a frustrated heart, a hurt heart, to stop you from the miracle that God wants you to walk into. Yeah, it can be transformative, Like I love. I love how you are, Ashley, because I get to this city. I get to with my family, don't know what's going on.

Speaker 2 23:47

We, a new family, newly married, trying to figure this stuff out and I'm trying to. You know we everybody's trying to start something in the city nonprofits just to be know. Everybody's trying to start something in the city Non-profits just to be able to help out whatever's going on in the city of Savannah. But what I love about your heart is you down and, as long as it aligns with the calling that God has for your life and your family, there's a yes that's available because you love this city so deeply. What I'm learning in this culture is that there's a lot of timid, quote-unquote believers very very there.

Speaker 2 24:23

We're, so, we're, so we're, we're so, more so interested in, and, like you said, our peace. Yeah, yeah, that word that you read. You got martyrs for the faith, people dying, lord, you know, you know, if the Lord is my Lord, you know I can't, I can't die in the same way that he passed away. Crucify me upside down. Come on, peter. Those are the people that were martyred for the faith that we so-called believe in. Lost my cap, you good Come on.

Speaker 1 24:59

That's no cap, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 25:00

I ain't saying no lies.

Speaker 1 25:03

It's no cap, no cap.

Speaker 2 25:08

You can have mine. I'm good, Thank you, but no, I just. I'm good, Thank you, but no, I just and I bring these stories up because I've seen so many different things. You know I've had a hard life can actually move if we commit to such a presence, such a God, such a God who would die for me, lay down his life for me. He said yes to me and it wasn't contingent upon a yes back, yeah, yeah, it was just a yes to me. What if we viewed each other like that? What if we had open hearts and and and and and, a love and a care for each other so deeply that our yeses to one another wasn't a contention upon something that we could receive back? It was just because of God's grace that we've received mediated to each other. What kind of world.

Speaker 1 26:12

You know what we would live in, yeah, and that's honestly the world that God has called us to and honestly the world that God has called his believers to create, one that is so united in such a way that we take care of each other's needs. We care for each other's needs, we care for each other's families the way that the Lord structured the church to be. I believe that we've created and I don't want to say we've gotten so far away from it, because I know that there are different pockets of. One of my favorite things about church is small groups, because I feel like it looks so much like the original church yeah, but there's a lot of churches that don't have that.

Speaker 2 27:01

Yeah.

Speaker 1 27:01

There's a lot of people that say that they go to church, but they don't, they don't, they aren't the church, yeah, and.

Speaker 2 27:09

Let me ask you a question what would, what do you feel like is a better depiction of what the church should and could look like?

Speaker 1 27:16

in today's age. Yes, I feel like it should look like community. I think that our buildings that we create and call the church some of them need to be torn down buildings that we create and call the church. Some of them need to be torn down. Yeah, one of the things that I do every year is host worshiping a park, and I believe that the Lord put that on my heart, not just for the unbelievers, but for the believers. Yeah, there's a scripture that says where unity is, that's where God pronounces his blessing.

Speaker 2 27:53

Amen.

Speaker 1 27:54

And on Sunday mornings is one of the most ununified days of the week.

Speaker 2 27:58

Yeah, it's always been 11 o'clock.

Speaker 1 28:00

You know, and it's like it specifically in Savannah, it's hard to get believers outside of what they are Comfortable with, side of what they are comfortable with. They're comfortable with, but it's like they're not even attached to um, like their church is almost like their country, and they're submitted and committed to this little country. And if someone from the outside, unless their church, is directly connected to that church, they don't have nothing to do with them. And it's like, if you believe in God and I believe in God and you follow Jesus and I follow Jesus, certainly there should be some sort of coming together, sort of coming together, amen, and one of the things that kind of like.

Speaker 1 28:58

I question about the overall churches. We have so many leaders and I hope I don't get in trouble for saying this no, come on, we have so many great leaders. Yeah, there is no way certain things in our country should go down the way that it is. Yeah, when do the churches come together? Yeah, when do the great leaders come together and say, no more, this is what we're going to do, this is how the church is going to come together, and I love, I love the city of Savannah and one of the stories that I love about Savannah so much is that Savannah was desegregated before the rest of the country, was one year before and it was because the people of Savannah, the black community in Savannah, said we will not be treated like this anymore.

Speaker 1 29:38

They started doing sit-ins, they started, you know, boycotting the businesses down on Brighton street, and after I feel like and I might be wrong, but this is what I believe I remember that after three months, broughton Street lost over a million dollars Wow. Just because the black community were no longer OK with coming through their back door and being customers Wow. And here's what the church did, and this is what I believe our country and the church needs in general. The church said we're going to come together and make sure that every need is covered so that you don't have to go to those stores and purchase anything. Wow. So what they would do is, after service, all the women and the people, they would come together and they would bring old clothes Wow. They would bring different things and basically create like a shop.

Speaker 2 30:38

Wow.

Speaker 1 30:39

So that the people wouldn't have to go to these stores and buy these things, so that they can maintain the boycott. Wow, every church it would be a different church every Sunday that will open their doors and the people will be able to come and get what they needed. This went on for, I believe, 18 months. Wow, and the city of Savannah hurt badly, wow, financially. Wow, because they were missing the black dollar. It got to the point where the people, the NAACP here in Savannah, went out to the surrounding counties and said don't. And they changed the law in the city of Savannah. Wow, before the rest of the country.

Speaker 2 31:24

Wow.

Speaker 1 31:27

I believe MLK said made a statement before that, like Savannah, was one of the most desegregated cities in the South.

Speaker 2 31:35

Wow.

Speaker 1 31:36

Which is crazy. Yeah, because we in Georgia you know no country and people like to talk about the ugly past of Savannah. And yes, there is an ugly past. You know we have one of the biggest ports, so we had one of the biggest trade trade areas for slavery, um, but it's so crazy how God will reclaim things right now. Savannah is one of the blackest cities in in in Georgia. Like we got black mayor, black city council, black commissioner, all these different things black sheriff yeah which is crazy yeah, um 14 years.

Speaker 1 32:10

I'm like that crazy yeah, um, and I'm not saying that to say that a people is greater than another people, but I'm saying that god will reclaim something.

What the Church Should Look Like

Speaker 1 32:21

And it all started started from the churches coming together in unity and not like, oh this is my creation, oh, I made this, or oh, you know, I need to have my face on this. There is no face. Fifty, sixty years later, there's no face on that movement, but we're still living in the fruit of it and I think that, to answer your question, that's what I believe is missing. Everybody wants to have their name on it, everybody wants to say I created this, I started this, but when we become glory hungry, we lack it completely, because God puts his hand in his blessing where there is unity, not just under your building. But what happens when we create community with the Latina church down the street? What happens when we create community with the Korean community right there on the corner? I believe that that is what the church is missing, and it's not something that we see. Um, it's, it's. It's not something that we see.

Speaker 2 33:22

Yeah.

Speaker 1 33:23

It's not something that, um, we even have a template for it from what I know, um, but I believe that a lot of the things that we need are in the church, like the way that God, the way that they started the church in Acts, and how it said you know, they had no need among them. Wow, that could be right now. Yeah, we don't need the government to do anything if the church would do what it was supposed to do.

Speaker 2 33:53

Yeah, and just care.

Speaker 1 33:54

And just and just care Like we want to impact the world. But what about the church?

Speaker 2 34:02

Yeah, First and foremost in order to impact the world you got, to impact the little world that God has blessed you with. You know, yeah, you got. You got breath in your lungs and you live in a community that's hurting, but you want to go to Uganda. You want to. Please don't get me in trouble. You know what I'm saying. I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 34:20

For real, though For real, for real, though for real. There's need amongst us.

Speaker 2 34:31

Yeah, um, and I think that we, we need a restructured hold on and pay thirty thousand dollars to go to uganda, when that thirty thousand dollars can really help your community I'm sorry, where's my camera?

Speaker 1 34:38

I have a tyler moment from abbott elementaryare at the camera.

Speaker 2 34:45

For real, these little kids hungry right now, you know, they relying on other individuals to be able to pay for their food breakfast, lunch and dinner. And we out here going to Poland, the military in Poland, we don't need y'all over there, you know what I'm saying. We there right now. Don he's all over there. You know what?

Speaker 1 35:01

I'm saying we, there right now, don't want to be, and I'm not saying that there's no need for missionaries and things like that, because there is, there is. But what about the people that are amongst you?

Speaker 2 35:11

Yeah, I really feel like, for example, say, there's people in my house that are starving and going through it and hurting and surviving off of scraps and I leave my house to go feed another house, how would the people in my house feel, the people that I was blessed by and I'm not saying that that other house isn't hungry but utilize the resources that you have to bless your house so that there's more people that can actually go and bless the world? If we don't feel ourselves, if we don't feel, if we don't receive the grace of the Holy Spirit amongst our community, we will be no help to the greater world.

Speaker 1 36:00

Yeah.

Speaker 2 36:01

I'm not saying that other people don't need help, but in order for us to be the best help not only to ourselves but to others we have to take care of ourselves. So I don't know, I just yeah, yeah, no, for real.

Speaker 1 36:15

I mean, I know, and people, people are hurting everywhere.

Speaker 2 36:20

Yeah.

Speaker 1 36:23

And I think that the church needs to do a better job with seeing people. Yeah, um, yeah I I think. I think that that's just what it comes down to, like seeing people.

Speaker 2 36:37

Yeah, it's an access, it's a big aspect of of grace that I feel like humanity has struggled to receive for so long. Yeah, from Adam and Eve. Yeah, it's a reception that we would be, that his grace is actually sufficient, that who he is as God is enough. We go eating apples and putting ourselves in circumstances and situations that God never told us that we needed. You know, our curiosity peaks and we step outside of the confines of the safety and the love of God to fill our own needs and our own desires. We become little gods ourselves and I think that's the biggest thing that even breaks, breaks my heart, going to sleep every night knowing not that, not that people are making certain decisions, but that there's, that there's an aspect of grace and love and kinship and community and togetherness that we haven't, that we're not willing to receive.

Speaker 1 37:41

Yeah, yeah, for real, I mean, and I think, I think that the enemy has done a really, really, really good job at demonizing community. Yeah, because what happened 60 years ago was sin seeped into community. Yeah, and when I talk about community, I mean it within the church aspect. Sin seeped in and perverted community, and so we have a generation that's the fruit of that sin and the fruit of that perversion.

Speaker 2 38:25

Yeah.

Speaker 1 38:26

Check one enemy, yeah, and I'm. I'm talking about black community, yeah. And then that generation, because of their pain, did not take their children to church. Wow, they've they came up with a mindset that we are better on our own, and certainly, if this is what church is about, if this is what God is about, he is not real.

Speaker 2 38:53

Yeah.

Community Over Individualism

Speaker 1 38:55

It's easier to believe that God is not real than to believe that Satan did his job. Yeah, to believe that Satan did his job, yeah. And now I feel like we are walking in the fruit of a godless, churchless culture that says I don't need community because it's perverted, because there's hurt, because there's pain.

Speaker 2 39:25

Yeah.

Speaker 1 39:26

And I can do bad all by myself.

Speaker 2 39:27

Yeah, come on.

Speaker 1 39:31

The enemy, really, really, really. And I, I, I laugh a lot because I feel like I think about the ways of the enemy a lot, um, and I don't think that he's as individualistic as people think. I think that he's been watching humans for centuries and his mindset is much bigger and greater than our everyday aches. I do believe that he, you know, is at work in our lives in different ways, yeah, but I think that when we look at the broader scale, yeah, there he is. And I think that we, as believers, have to fight, yeah, for Christian community. Yeah, and we have to hold each other accountable. Yes, we do. We have to stop sweeping things under the rug and approach sin for what it is, and I think that that one of the worst things that we did as a church was try to Try to appease people into coming back to church by not approaching their sin. Yeah, church has become more about blessings and purpose than it has been about sin and repentance.

Speaker 1 40:57

We can't get to the other things. If we don't approach where we are and where I am is I'm a sinful human that does not deserve grace. But because of Christ, because of what he did, I can have it, I can access it. But if the moment that I believe that my good works determines that I have, like me, and my mom has had this conversation often about, like what is good, because if God is good, how can we determine good outside of him? And we like to say, well, I'm a good person, yeah, I just try to be a good person. Yeah, what does that mean? What is good outside of him?

Speaker 2 41:44

And I'm not even speaking to myself. Yeah, what does that mean?

Speaker 1 41:47

What is good outside of him. And I'm not even speaking to myself, Like what does that mean? Yeah, Like what does that really mean? And I mean, I'm not saying that we sit here, and create an answer, but it's a thought. Like if God is good.

Speaker 2 42:04

How could anything that I do be good? Yeah, I want to claim that I I'm good but still live as an individual when I'm supposed to be in belonging with, with others, and we would say that all the time. But just being in the army man, that dude's just an individual man. Just go, let him be an individual. You're not team player, he an individual. And it gets back to like the even man.

Speaker 2 42:24

We trying to come home, bro, like you know, we got families we want to come home to, but right now this is all we got. Yeah, all we got. And I know there's probably going to be some soldiers watching. Like y'all know, like y'all know, when y'all are in those environments of hard and difficult circumstances, that core, that core knit of the individual, y'all have four hood or y'all have four drum, y'all in the field. And you know, in the field, 45 days and it's cold or it's hot and you can't go home, you know cell service ain't working and y'all are there and all y'all got is each other. For that time being, you know I'm saying the last thing that y'all will want is for an individual to come in and and a person to come in and be an individual. This is gonna mess up the whole vibe I feel jesus because I'm not a soldier.

Speaker 1 43:11

I've never been in the military. I don't know military terms. I don't know nothing about the military, except they wear a uniform yeah um, but what I hear is us and this world, like Christians living in this world. This isn't where we belong, and it feels like it's hard, it feels frustrating, but we're just trying to get home.

Speaker 2 43:33

Exactly Come on, come on, come on, come on.

Speaker 1 43:35

We're just trying to get that well done, yeah, and so keeping our eyes focused on why we are here. And it's not about, it's not about building ourselves up. It's how we can impact the people that we're around, and it costs our whole selves. Some of us are introverts.

Speaker 2 43:54

Yeah.

Speaker 1 43:55

Some of us this doesn't come naturally to all of it is costly. Yeah, even just sharing who God is it may it may hurt somebody, it don't. Yeah, even just sharing who God is it may it may hurt somebody. It don't hurt me, but for some people I know like that is. That's so uncomfortable for them.

Speaker 2 44:11

Yes.

Speaker 1 44:12

But it is costly. On is like we cannot spend all of our days getting an earthly bag and leaving with an empty spiritual bag. Yeah, and when I say empty spiritual bag, I don't even mean like fruits of the spirit and stuff like that, because that's necessary too. You need all of that. Yeah, come on, but I'm talking about the people that you're supposed to impact. Our yes is attached to someone else's yes. It's not just, not just about us, and what we don't want to do is get before the Lord.

Speaker 1 44:59

And he says what did you do with the gift that I gave you?

Speaker 2 45:04

Yeah.

Speaker 1 45:05

And you're like well, god, you know I made a $5 million business. You know I took my family out the hood, I did this and I did that and I created this and I created that and God was like I planted you in that community that you love.

Speaker 2 45:20

Yeah.

Speaker 1 45:21

So that you could reach, yeah, the single mom that was next door to you or that you could be reached.

Speaker 2 45:27

There's probably some saving that you needed from that. Come on that single mom like that's what I love.

Getting Home Together

Speaker 2 45:32

uh, that's what I love about so many people that are doing so much work in communities and are actually seeing a lot of results. I'm not. I'm not investing my time into a community to try to save an individual. I'm investing my, because then I become the hero, I become the person that should be honored and served, and I'm serving this community because. That's Ashley and you know. That's Ryan and that's Dominic. I've known them, I know them by name and I know their families and I know what they've gone through in their lives and, like I love how you say, like we're all trying to get home. But I think as we, as we become sanctified, as we become more of a version of ourselves that God wants us to meet, I'm less concerned about my journey home and more concerned about my brother getting home.

Speaker 1 46:28

Yes, yes.

Speaker 2 46:32

And that's, and that's the cost. And that's the beautiful cost of yes. Yeah, I'm championing my brother, because if I get him, you know, if I can, I'm gonna get home, regardless if I focus on him. But let's get him home too. Yeah, yeah, cause I want to see him again, right?

Speaker 1 46:46

One thing that worries me is Christians that, like the unbelievers around you, doesn't break your heart.

Speaker 2 46:52

Yeah.

Speaker 1 46:52

Like you, will never pray for the salvation of your brother.

Speaker 2 46:55

Yeah.

Speaker 1 46:55

You never pray for the salvation of your, of your cousin or your uncle.

Speaker 2 46:58

You don't even pray for the salvation of yourself because you think you got it all figured out. Come on, there's a book called Humility. Once you think you've gained humility, you've lost every bit of it.

Speaker 1 47:06

Yeah.

Speaker 2 47:07

And I think God's looking for humble servants and open hearted individuals to say, ok, there's needs that we have that we can't offer ourselves, that we can't receive ourselves, but there's a God. Receive ourselves, but there's a God. There's a beautiful God and omnipotent God and omniscient God and overwhelming God that is filled with so much love and grace, that is offering us an opportunity to be in community and connection with him. But it's so dependent upon the relationships we have in the communities that God has blessed us with. And I just I pray for our generation, I pray for our culture right now that we would lean on each other, that we wouldn't demonize each other, that we would stand in awe of what we have to carry rather than in judgment of how we carry it, take each other by the hand and actually be a representation of that Bible that we read. Amen.

Speaker 1 48:01

Amen, well, that's read. Amen, well, that's it Boom.

Speaker 2 48:09

Can I pray out?

Speaker 1 48:10

Yeah.

Speaker 2 48:11

Well, dear God, lord, I just say thank you for who you are. Lord, I just pray that you have our way, not only in the community of Savannah, but you would have your way and continue to have your way to break down the walls and the barriers that we put up between you and us. I pray for, I pray for sanity, I pray for clarity, but over but over it all, lord, I pray that you will remind us or teach us or instill within us that we belong to one another and that our yes, yes, it is costly, but it's, it's such a determinant factor of getting home to you. So, bless us, oh God, be with us, guide us and protect us, and, lord, give us the strength to receive you In Jesus' name, amen.

Speaker 1 49:07

Amen. Thank you, brother. Bye.