Consumer Christianity

Welcome to the Testament Faith Podcast. In this episode, we explore a modern cultural phenomenon known as consumer Christianity, where faith is treated as a commodity and churchgoers often prioritize personal preferences over spiritual growth. Together with my guests, John Paul Murphy, John Quinn, and Daniel B. Bill, we discuss the implications of this mindset and how it affects our relationship with God and the church community. 

**What Is Consumer Christianity?**  
Consumer Christianity refers to the practice of individuals shopping for churches that best meet their personal preferences, similar to how one might choose a retail outlet based on its offerings. This mindset can lead to evaluating congregations based on production value, worship music, or social programs rather than theological truths. As we dive into this topic, we emphasize the importance of understanding that church is not merely about personal satisfaction, but about worshiping Jesus and following His guidance.  

**The Dangers of a Me-Centered Faith**  
One of the key issues with consumer Christianity is the tendency to focus on personal desires rather than the community's needs. Many people approach church with the mindset of "What can this church do for me?" instead of asking, "How can I contribute to this church community?" This self-centered approach can lead to disillusionment when congregations fail to meet individual expectations. We discuss how crucial it is to shift from a consumer mentality to one of service and growth within the church.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Testament of Faith Podcast. I'm Ray Bradchar. Joining me again tonight is John Paul Murphy and John Quinn from the Word of Faith Ministries Church in Kingsville, North Carolina. And we have Daniel B. Bill from Stump Hill Farm out of Kingsville, North Carolina, joining us tonight. Earlier podcast, Daniel gave his testimony. I'm sure to go check that out. Topic tonight on this podcast is going to be consumer Christianity. Consumer Christianity is a modern cultural phenomenon where faith is treated like a commodity. In this framework, individuals shop for churches that best accommodate their personal preferences. And God is often reduced to a service provider who meets personal, emotional, and financial needs. For a lot of people that don't know what consumer Christianity is, one of the key characteristics of like church shopping is like treating congregations like retail outlets, evaluating them based on production value, worship music, or social programs rather than theological theological truth. Luke 9 23, Jesus, then he said to them all, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. So with that being said, I feel like the Lord's gonna lead you to the right church. So when you get to go to church, you're not going just to make yourself happy. You're going to worship Jesus and to follow him and let him guide you. It's not it's not about you. What do y'all think about it?

SPEAKER_03 1:26

That scripture in here stands out to me the most that says deny yourself. That's right. Deny yourself. Deny yourself. It's not where I'm happy at. It's not where I'm doing what it is. You know, a lot of people come to church and it's like, well, I I'm I want it to be like this, I want it to be like that, and they don't realize that you're supposed to, if you you know, you're not looking at that of how you can get the level to where you want it to be. Sometimes God's placing you in a place for you to help that place grow, for you to do things. You know, it's not where I'm happy at, it's where the Lord is leading you to. Amen. For as much a time as this. Yeah, God is leading you to a place, just like you were just saying. I mean, you know, you God is using you and leading you into a place to be used by God. Yep. And, you know, you've got to answer into that calling as God's leading you into that place, because in, you know, he'll lead you in the place, and then he'll place you in that place to be a help ministry to that place to help grow God's kingdom. Because the one thing about it is not about your kingdom, you know, in church is not about our kingdom, right? Oh Lord. It's not about our kingdom. Well, it's not about mine and Ray's kingdom, it's not about mine, Daniels, or mine and John's kingdom. It's all should be about Christ's kingdom and where he's building us up inside the church. And, you know, that's a very important thing. You know, don't get outside of that thinking that I wanted it to be like I want it to be. Well, if there's a problem inside of a church, then why don't you start changing it?

SPEAKER_02 3:00

Don't ask what can this church do for me more more, what can I do for this church? Yeah, and help build God's kingdom. I'll build God's kingdom. You could be the change that it needs.

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Absolutely. That's that's what I was gonna say. I mean, you you start getting a the consumer mindset where like, what's in it for me? Or evaluating sermons and purely based on, you know, is it is it for me? Music, is it for me? And so, you know, it it turns into a me, me, me situation instead of just being about God.

SPEAKER_03 3:32

Well, yeah, that that that singing didn't move me, brother, and that you know, I hear this all the time. It's her that that didn't move me, that didn't do this for me. Well, I thought we were here to worship God. Yeah. I thought we were here to praise God. I didn't know we were all about you. It ain't about entertainment. Yeah, I didn't know it was about you. Because here's the thing. When somebody tells me that, I say, look, I can go to I go to preach at Spanish churches. I don't understand a thing. I don't understand their word that they're saying. You go in there and see me, my hands is lifted to the Lord. I'm praising God with just as wild as I am in our church praising God. I'm just the same way there because I don't know what they're saying. I know they're praising the word, I know the melody. Right. So I know the melody of the song, I know they're praising God, so I'm gonna give it all I got because it's all about King Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

It's about the same God you're serving in both places.

SPEAKER_03 4:30

That's right. I'm praising God. So, you know, I get called to minister to places, and it'll be the same way when I anywhere I go across the world. I might not understand what they're saying, but I'm gonna praise God anyhow. Amen, brother. I'm gonna praise God. So um, you know, if you look in this, Jesus kind of preached a hard message in John, I think it was John chapter 5. I haven't got it exactly pulled up where he started on a hard message, but in my my Bible here, and many of the people that heard this, this is a hard saying who can understand it. A lot of people when he was, this is in uh, I think ver chapter six, yeah, chapter six, verse sixty. A lot of disciples, people that was following Jesus heard him have a hard message, and a lot of them I don't know about this weird, they left. And then Jesus even asked the disciples, are you gonna leave now? Where will we go? Where are we gonna you gonna leave now? So a lot of times talking about consumer Christians, when somebody gives a hard message that it ain't, you know, what they wanted to hear, that's right. They get on sin's toes or they preach on something that's not necessarily what they want to hear. They they leave. And they get upset and they leave the church or they leave wherever they're at, and a lot of them know that they're called to be there. Yep. And they leave anyhow. Then sometimes, sometimes they don't ever go back to another church, they just go home. Yep. I can watch it on the internet. Yeah, I can watch it on the internet. Well, that's been the biggest thing ever that you know could really hurt hurt everybody because when you get into that thing of I I'll just do it whatever I need to do, there's something about being in the church, getting ready to make not yourself the assembling of the brethren.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

And people I'm and that falls back to what we were talking about in on our last podcast, spiritual wellness wellness.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

I mean, if you're right with the Lord to start with and you're in that book, you're not gonna let somebody in a church hurt your feelings and really have to understand is the messages that you're given, well that may not be specifically for you, but the Lord gives it to the ministers for somebody. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Yep. That's right. I mean that I had one of my was John chapter six, twenty-six and twenty-seven, Jesus answered them and said, Most assuredly I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loose and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you because God the Father has set his seal on him. I mean, that if you're practicing consumer Christianity and you're not getting in that book and understanding what it truly means to follow Jesus.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Well, a lot of people you know, it it talks about in there in the Bible, it talks about crucifying the flesh. People still have that me, me, me mentality. It's all about me. When that that is the furthest thing. Once you get a right relationship with Jesus, once you get that relationship, once you get in this word, you understand that it's not about you. It is it's bigger than you. But I I'll let you know, just in case you didn't notice, the world was spinning before you were born. And it will spin after you're gone. But the one thing that's not gonna change is this word. It will not change, it's the same.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Yesterday, today, and forever.

SPEAKER_03 7:58

And when Jesus preached this hard message, I want you to notice something because Sumers left. Peter didn't say he agreed with everything. He said, Where would I go? Yeah, that's right. He understood the calling. Where can we go? Yeah, where are we gonna go? You have the answers. Yeah, he understands he's called into this to be a part of something. You know, how do you know if you're called into a church and where you're supposed to go? That comes to one of them things that we were talking about, being praying. The Holy Spirit will lead you, and there's something on the inside of you telling you, this is where I'm supposed to be. I know there's a greater call in here for me. And, you know, I hear people sometimes I feel like I'm left to leave to go to church and leave somewhere else. And that's fine, you know. I have people tell me that all the time. But then I find out, you know, six weeks later, they're found out they were led to go sit in a lazy boy. They weren't really led to go to another church. They weren't really led, they just had lead in their bridges. They just went to their they're at home.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

They went to the LED church, the TV.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

Yeah, that's right. And they're at home. And I'm like, you know, all right, well, I guess you know Then they start using, well, God can touch you anywhere you are.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

He can. But there's an anointing that is in a service that you will not get just from listening to a podcast.

SPEAKER_03 9:17

That was a meeting this week. Meetings that we were in in South Carolina. There's meetings that we've been into that we listen to sermons. I listened to sermons we went over this the other week. But there's a an anointing that when you're in the building, you can feel it.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Like, we like people like faith. When you were like-minded people, I mean it's just like if you're doing drugs or drinking, you're gonna go hang out every time.

SPEAKER_03 9:40

When you get in there, there's a really uh anointing that falls on you that starts working at you hard.

SPEAKER_02 9:46

And when you're at home, distractions. Distractions. The dog runs through and knocks the water over. The dog comes in and wants you to rub his belly. Something, I mean, if you ain't got a dog, you know, go buy one. Your kid, you'd buy one. Your life will be a lot happier. You'll buy a dog. You'll actually find out that there is true love, and it is from a pet to you. And I know from where you can get a night or might love it. We all might like dogs here. Might love bird dogs especially.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Uh so I was on the way to a meeting two weeks ago and I was halfway there and Christy was sitting beside it. I mean, she says, What is it? I said, Nothing right. She said, Don't lie to me. What is it? I said, the anointing's gonna be there tonight. She said, Huh? So I can feel it. It just fell on me a while ago. I mean, I I can feel it. I know what it feels like. I know I know what it feels like when God's moving, he's already moving, and I'm not even there yet.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

Well, people don't realize that they bring part of that. You're either like the man said, you're either a thermometer or a thermostat. That's right. You set the mood if you're a thermostat, you set the temperature.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Well, you you gotta come expect. And that goes back to you're going to the to the right church, you discernment of spirit, you're going to the right church, it's got to be Bible believing and spirit-filled. And you need to come expecting. If I told you I'm gonna be preaching Saturday at such and such a place and we're gonna give out prizes to everybody that comes in the door, look under your chairs when you get here. Everybody's gonna come expecting something. But when you tell them just to come to church, how many people come to church expecting something?

SPEAKER_03 11:23

Or how many and then how many people just come because that's what you're supposed to out of out of a status, yeah, that I went to church Sunday, out of I came here, you know, that's not what it's about.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

No, you know, we sure do talk about that a lot, though.

SPEAKER_03 11:39

What's that?

SPEAKER_02 11:40

How about Well, I went on Sunday. We mentioned that a lot, I went into a barn one time, I didn't become a jackass.

SPEAKER_03 11:47

But that's the thing is, if you it looks at people look at it like that.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

And it it really bothers me about like That's why I'm saying it really is something there because we do end up talking about that quite a bit.

SPEAKER_03 11:58

Because people do that. They they go to church just so they can say they went. Yep. And they don't you see their lives, and it's the same week after week after week after week. And it's not the preaching because other people get healed, other people get ministered to, other people receive because it's like he's saying they came respecting something and they get it. That's right. And the other ones are sitting there like, I showed up. And I mean, I see them sometimes in there and I'm like, and you'll have half the crowd get it, and then somebody else don't. And I'm like, might be it easy. They said it. I thought it was a good idea. I said it again. I thought it.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

I mean, it's just you know, that's not if if you're gonna be a Bible-believing Christian and follow Jesus to the core, you need to get in the church, you need to get in that Bible, and you need to live it daily. That's just not a Sunday and Sunday night or Wednesday thing. It's seven days a week, 24 hours a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

The flesh is corrupt. It is. You have to crucify yourself daily. You have to get in a book. That's why it says crucify it, not kill it.

SPEAKER_00 13:01

Killing's quick.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

Crucifying and take some time.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

I mean, you know, you're just like the rich young ruler. I mean, he wasn't willing to give up anything to fall across. Nothing. He thought about it, but he was like, No, I like my worldly things too much. That's what holds a lot of people back. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

So God I heard somewhere that you had to give everything you had away. No, you don't.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Yeah. Speaking of that, I did have Timothy. Second Timothy verses three and five. Let me shoot back. What? Well, hold on. I gotta get it. Chapter three verses. Chapter three verses one through five. But know this that in the last days perilous times will come, for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanders without self control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power, and from such people turn away. For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts. I know when I heard that preacher started preaching down, I was like, Man, that's funny. I already got that down on my on the list for the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

And then you can you can go right over to chapter four, verse three, and it says, For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

And this is right after God says to preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. So it's telling us it doesn't matter that the world wants to hear what the world wants to hear for their consumer Christianity. We're supposed to preach what we're told to preach. That's right. And we're still supposed to to follow the gospel, whether you like it or not. I've got an answer to God. That's right. That's the ultimate.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

And that's why, you know, people don't understand that when they go hear a sermon, that's something that God has laid on that preacher's heart. And if he's preaching it out of that Bible, and not just from what he thinks it ought to be or by you know if he's preaching it out of that Bible, out of that holy book right here, if God's laid it on his heart, then you ought to go with it. Yeah. Be re be responsible to the And if you have that kind of question about it, open that Bible up and read what that Bible that preacher's preaching to you.

SPEAKER_03 15:21

Take some notes.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

Yeah, take some notes.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

That's that's another thing about the modern church that's that's kind of a double-edged sword. You know, you can have your phone or you can have the Bible on your phone, or you can read the verses on the screen in the church, and it stops people from bringing their own Bible to church and and looking up their own stuff. So when they get home, there's no memory of, well, that was that was here, that was there. I read it while I was there. That's not it.

SPEAKER_03 15:44

I take a book with me everywhere I go. Most times I have this one, I have one the year before, I have one every year. And when I go to meetings, I take down notes. When you quote out a scripture, I take down that note, I take it down. Even if they put it up on the screen, take that scripture down, put it up, take that scripture down, and then I go out on my desk, out of my building. Prove it and flesh it out. I read it for myself. What did it I heard what it means said, but now I'm gonna read chapter, I'm gonna read before it.

SPEAKER_00 16:14

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 16:15

Make sure it's in context. I'm just gonna read it and check it myself. Not because I'm thinking somebody's alert. I just want to read it.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

I want to know You want to know why it was said.

SPEAKER_03 16:23

Yeah, why it was said. That's what and so you know I What were they going through when it was said? And I take my Bible with me everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

I've got this Bible that toasts with me. I was gonna say, if I bet if I if I could find my grandma Bratchall's Bible, I don't know if one of them that thing's probably had a hundred big pens wore out in it. Yeah. Taking notes and underlining the you know stuff. Yeah. And so it's constantly that preacher's something she'd be like.

SPEAKER_03 16:46

Yeah. So I carry I carry that's something that is important. Take notes and study yourself.

SPEAKER_00 16:53

But getting into Well, I will say one good thing about it, because like me, like I'm running the camera at church, so I really don't get take notes, but we're recording it. And and I and I and I think about it like, well, you know, what do you say about that? And I can come back and I can watch it again. Yeah and I can take my notes. I do appreciate that part of having the technology.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Yeah. Well, the technology is amazing. Yeah. If you use it correctly. Because we're supposed to go out in all corners of the world and try the gospel.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Yeah, you know, we've talked about using like AI for this stuff too. If you use correctly, it can be awesome. Like anything else. I mean, it's the way you use it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Yeah, if you run the camera when John Paul's preaching, you you don't hear much of what he's saying. Wednesday night, I was the cameraman.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

Did you get tennis elbow before you left?

SPEAKER_02 17:36

No, I had Taylor on the back row. She was a distraction.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

And churches, good godly, Bible-believing churches split over trivial things that don't make a hill of beans.

SPEAKER_02 17:48

The carpet. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Oh, I know growing up or a tree that needs to cut down because it's a it's a hazard. Yeah, growing up in church. My granddaddy planted that tree. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

I re I remember growing up in church artists, it sounded like every five years they were voting in a new preacher. Then you see people leave that been there their whole life, and all of a sudden the preacher says something they didn't like, and the next thing you know, they're gone.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

Well, you have people that are church hoppers, they go from one church to another.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Their ears are longing to hear what they want to hear. Right.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

Well, and have you got that scripture in Psalms 92, 13?

SPEAKER_03 18:23

Yeah. Okay. Right here. I was fixing to read it. Read. You read it. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall bear fruit in their old age and they shall be fresh and flourishing. You know, that's it. Some people wonder why all the things that's I mean.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

If you take a tree, I'm gonna ask you a question.

SPEAKER_03 18:44

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

If you take a tree and you plant it in your yard, and I go dig that tree up and I planted in my yard. Three weeks later. Three weeks later, and then Daniel comes and gets that tree in three weeks and buries it in his yard.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

It's firewood, no.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

And then Ray comes and gets it in three weeks, and I wanted it at my house. My house. How long is that tree going to live being uprooted every three weeks? And that's how you see people in Or every year it's still gonna never flourish, never bear fruit like it should.

SPEAKER_03 19:13

Because it can't put down roots. That's right. Right. And I I've seen so many people that they'll go from church to church, to church, to another church.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Wear out four vehicles just trying out new churches.

SPEAKER_03 19:26

And you know, and and here's the thing a lot of times, and I know people don't always want to hear this, but a lot of times, pastors, we pray for you. Yep. We stay up, we fast when you're eating. I spend time fasting throughout the week every week, praying for our church, fasting, taking time out of my schedule to study the Bible. I'm believing God for my people that's in the church, and I know people that are called that have left because they got mad over one thing or another.

SPEAKER_02 19:58

And the thing is because you didn't say good morning. You you went further than that.

SPEAKER_03 20:03

Because you didn't give them a juice. Yeah, I went down. I was that guy, I guess. Inside joke, but anyhow. That they'll have they'll have problems and you'll realize that you know they're here for a reason because they've been benefiting the church, they've been helping, and they'll get uprooted. The thing is, when you pull something up and you move it from place to place, you should find somewhere and stick in it and and get rooted into the ground and start being a service in that ministry. Start giving into it because what does it say? When you'll flourish in the courts of our God, you will start bearing fruit. And what's I mean, fruit will come off of you. You'll be blessed, you know, the longer you stay. Fruit comes after it's been planted, it grows. But the devil wants to get people angry, he wants to uproot them, but you need to understand God wants to plant them and get you planted into a place that he can use you. Yeah, I go to a lot of different churches, but I don't miss our church. I go to a lot of churches. I do, I go all over everywhere, doing the different churches, but I know where I'm planted at. So, you know, be be planted in something.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

It's just like, you know, if you're one of them people out there that's church hopping. Tell them about it. Th think about it like growing a garden. If you plant that seed and never water it, or keep just like that tree we were just talking about, if you keep moving, well, I don't want that real corn there, I want it ten foot over there. If you keep moving that, you're not gonna have anything. Yeah. You're gonna be just as dead as the fig tree that Jesus cursed. I mean, because you you're not getting watered. You need to get somewhere and get them roots planted and get watered. It talks about that in Acts.

SPEAKER_03 21:43

I'm flipping over there now again. I don't know if anybody's got it, but it's Acts two, I believe. I think but being planted inside somewhere, I think it talks about in Acts, I believe it's two, they continued in to the continued. Following the disciples and steadfastly, I think the words used there. Taking me forever to get to Acts. There we go.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

Got it. Go ahead, because it's software. We got it. Cuts out all the poses.

SPEAKER_03 22:10

Yeah, I got you. We got it. Acts 42. And they continue steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and follow in fellowship and breaking bread and in prayer. They can in this is the early church. This is in Acts second chapter. They continually, steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in fellowship, and breaking the bread and in prayer. They continue steadfastly. You know, it staying committed. There was a faithfulness, there was accountability that was even in the early church that should continue out. It's not about their own comforts of what they wanted. It was about being dedicated, being into it. So, you know, a lot of people don't like to hear, you know, the word spiritual authority unless you're talking to them about their self. I got spiritual authority. Well, some things people don't want to hear comes from a man of God that's been studying and praying and fasting and been standing there for it. And it says in Jeremiah 3.15, he says 3.15, and I will give you shepherds according to my heart who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. You know, pastors are a gift of God that he's given to his people. And I'm not saying this, this makes me as uncomfortable as anybody. I'm a pastor, you know, don't I don't like sitting there talking up about myself because I'm not a private person, but I am trying to say God gives a flock a pastor to lead a congregation. And because these guys in this room know me, I'm not a guy that braggadates about myself or anything like that. I'm I'm very humble when it comes to this. But it gives you somebody to pay attention to and to listen to. And you should take your ears instead of getting rejected and getting hard from them and take a heed to it. You know, just like me, I've got spiritual, spiritual authority over me. I'm not talking about just Jesus. I'm talking about there's men that pour into my life that I listen to. I take heed to. Do they say stuff sometimes, Ray, that that rubs me a little bit, and I'm like, Yeah. But they're growing me. Right. And and that's the thing I could get. Oh, I'm I don't want to hear nothing.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

I I want to hear it because I when I hear something like that that rubs me, it just drives me to go to that book. Yeah. And start reading it and get it from my understanding. Yeah. Because sometimes if somebody said something in church and it rubbed you raw, you might not you might not have been listening.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

No. Well, in First Corinthians 1 and 18, he says, For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved is the power of God. So when you're talking about the spiritual authorities and these the gifts of the Spirit and all this I mean, you have people who get it. They understand what the Bible says. And then you have the consumer Christians who may not like what you said, and they become and they can fall into that foolishness side that perish. He chose the foolishness of preaching.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

I feel like too, sometimes when people are reading our Bibles that have been translated to English, they they forget how to use the pronunciation, semicolons, and the colons and the periods, and they just read it straight through, just like we've had this discussion too, like it's a knot, a lot of things in there that people don't stop and say, wait a minute, if that's got a colon there, that means and or but before they read the rest of it, and it drives them to read it out of context. And me myself, I've had to learn to go back and say, wait a minute, now what does that mean when somebody puts that in a sentence? I mean, because I'm I I I am not a as you can tell from my accent, an English major. But you know, but I had to go back, and that's part of my learning and wanting to know read something in that Bible and then tell it to somebody else. I want it to be told the way it was written. Yeah. And it and it's even drove me to look back at words of like weight and stuff like that. What did that actually mean in Hebrew? What did it say in Hebrew? Because we use words now that are totally opposite than what they were what they are.

SPEAKER_03 26:08

I actually that's what I've got at the house. I've got a Hebrew and a Greek that translates the words because I'm I'm a nerd when it comes to learning something. I I learned a I want to get one of them. I don't have one.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

I've been doing I've been doing it on like chat GPT and Google. You can do one with them.

SPEAKER_03 26:25

You can get you can get a book that has a lot of your information about what the Bible is in Greek and in Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the new. And you can look into that because I I I seen people the other day that was running down a different translation of the Bible. And I'm not saying one's good as another one, but he used this word that he was just slamming it. I mean just slamming it. And it took everything in me not to copy and paste out of my Bible. Right. I took a picture of it. You know how many times I took a picture of the Greek word and was getting ready to post it, and I was like, nah, that ain't gonna help me because I'm probably not gonna be able to get to him after I do this. And then I took it down because I know, because if I got a question, I look it up in the Greek if I'm reading New Testament. Right. I was I've got it. I mean I just I I do the in-depth study on that.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

I think one of the words that sticks out in my head the most is fear. You know, because I mean it says fear thy God. But in in Hebrew, yeah, it was like worship, bow down to respect. Yeah, honor. It's honor. Yeah. It wanted to be scared of him and sit in the corner and shrivel. Yeah. It's like when you if you see him, you bow down. Reverence.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

And people people would do a lot better if they could actually understand how Greek is actually wrote. And, you know, because you know, you got some people that's like, well, if it ain't a King James, I'm like, do you realize the Bible's written in Greek? Like I get it. I like a King James. I got a I got a new King James here that I read, and I love him. I don't get me wrong, I love it. But um, you know, it's in Greek. I mean, I'll be honest with you, it is. And I was wrong.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

We're getting off, you know, the topic, but still, it's still we need to talk about because, like you said, people are bashing certain translations. But a lot of people don't realize a lot of these newer translations come from more recent, like the Dead Sea Scrolls that were found in the 40s, and now people are like, wait a minute, it says it this way. Yeah, it's being translated the way it's said from what they found.

SPEAKER_03 28:22

I've and that's what I was like. I was like, look, you know, you're gonna talk about it. I got proof, baby, because I can read. I got Greek here. I don't read Greek, but I've got a book here that tells me here's the Greek word, here's what all the definitions of it, and tells you that. So, you know, you got to do your own homework and read stuff and not just knock it off because Jimmy on Facebook told you that. Right. I mean, that's why I tell you about it.

SPEAKER_00 28:48

Wait a minute. Now, my grandma, I have my mother's mother lived to be 101 with the King James version of the Bible her whole life. Right. And believed in Almighty God. Now you can't tell me that she's gonna go to hell because she was reading a certain Bible.

SPEAKER_03 29:02

Yeah, that's that's right. I don't believe it. I think if you're getting the word in, that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

Any any translation of the Bible is better than watching Days of Our Life.

SPEAKER_03 29:11

Hey, man, preach it, brother. Yeah, I mean, I mean, there is some things in uh different ones that dull it down some, but uh if you go back and check it, check's degree, because I checked it on a bunch of different ones. Double check it, actually. I do. We got off topic on that, but anyhow.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

I mean, that's why I got an Ethiopian Bible over there. I got a cephyr. I mean, I got all kinds of stuff out there because if I seek something and I want to translate it or check it, I'll go back and go, how's it reading this one?

SPEAKER_03 29:36

Yeah, I got a stack of them at a house. That's why I was getting back to, you know, people that are given to be shepherds over your life. You know, the Bible even tells us that He gives some people apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. That's the bid, that's the whole thing that people don't get. You know, we get a message just like he was saying this a minute ago, we get a message, a download from heaven. I can be sitting out in the building, and the next thing I know, it's like, man, that's it. And then I start praying, and then the Lord's like, giving me word after word after word. And sometimes I can't even write them down quick enough because he's giving them to me, and I've got a pen over there, and I'm about to scratch this book in two because I'm trying to take it all down. I mean, really, it's just so fast when God starts just giving you one thing after another.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

Like Yeah, I opened I opened a book up in the Bible the other day and I was reading it. I knew the story front, sides, upwards, downwards, backwards. I knew it ever which way it ever could go. Yeah. I've heard the story preached from the time I was old enough to cut my teeth and remember words. And I saw a verse and I'm like, wait, well that would make wait, look at this. I didn't see this. And and all of a sudden I'm starting to to get this new realization from one verse in the middle of the story that it's coming soon. But I'm like, this is amazing. I I never saw it. I never I I never even comprehended it until it was Thursday night.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

I mean, that that's me. Every time I sit down and get in that book and reread something, I learn something new every time. Yeah. You'll catch something. The more you read it, you'll catch something because you'll be like, wait a minute, I don't remember that last time, but it's right here. Nothing's been added to it since last time I read it. No. But it is I just read by it so fast that it's a lot of things. God added to your knowledge. That's right. And and He keeps adding to it every time I read to it.

SPEAKER_03 31:31

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 31:32

That's why they call it the living word. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_03 31:36

But did y'all did y'all cover the the the way of a fool is right in his own eyes? Nope. No, we didn't get that one. Okay. I get I'll get it. We'll put you on that one. Proverbs uh 12, 15. A fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds to counsel is wise. The fool will always say, I'm right. And he don't but a lot of times, you know, God's placed you in a place not to be a consumer of it, just to come and get what you can get, but he's actually working on you. Uh-uh. He's working on you, on top of you, trying to get things to you that you really need to get and understand. But the first time that you say they see something, I don't, I don't like this.

SPEAKER_02 32:20

And then they're supposed it's supposed to mature you. Yeah. But what you're learning is supposed to mature you. All lessons that you learned as a child were not easy lessons.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

Right. There's an old saying, a smart man can learn from anyone. But a fool can learn from no one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

That's right. Yeah. You said you had that verse uh most fools think they already knew it. You say you had Hebrews 13 17. Go ahead, read it out if you got it out read it. Obey them that have rule over you and submit yourself. Yeah. Obey them that have rule. Submit to authority. It's it's the thing. That's the thing. People do not like to submit. They don't like to the flesh does not like to submit. It does not. What does it say? People like to say resist the devil and it'll flee from you. But right before that, the exact words before it, submit yourselves therefore unto God. Submitting. Submitting to a pastor, submitting to what he's saying. You know, you have we see people all the time where we just don't agree with that. I didn't write the book. I'm just reading the book too.

SPEAKER_00 33:33

Right. I mean, and that's why we don't go to church to follow a pastor. We go to church to hear the word of God. And like like on consumer Christianity, if you don't believe what that man's saying, go back and read it in the book yourself. Yeah. I mean, that's what we have that book for. Yeah. I mean, we're not back in the fifteen hundreds and fourteen hundreds where the Catholic priest didn't want anybody doing a Bible because they didn't want anybody to know what was in it. Yeah. That way they could tell them whatever they wanted to tell them.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

We all have access to it. There's churches still today. Still today, you would not believe it. That read from a I think it's the Greek Orthodox Church, they speak a l they read a language that no one in that church understands but the priest.

SPEAKER_04 34:16

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 34:17

Because they don't want the people knowing what the Bible said. That's why they'd done it in Latin back then. And then nobody could speak it. Here's the thing, if those people, if those people die, they're going that they ain't gonna make it to heaven because they don't know they don't know the word.

unknown 34:32

Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:32

They're not doing anybody any favors, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01 34:35

This book is hope. Yeah. When a government wants to crush its people, it wants to take away that book. That book.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

That's the first thing they target. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

Because if you don't have hope and faith, that's the first thing they go for. They can get them. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 34:53

The first thing they go for is to take it. They want you to think government is that Bible away. They want to take the Bible away. They want to get it out of there. That's the reason, like the other week when I was slamming my finger on that Bible and I thought about it. I was kind of apologizing everywhere because I was so rough on that podcast. Because I was like, this Bible. Because the people but you gotta understand that's that's the main thing that you need.

SPEAKER_02 35:15

What was the first thing they took away in China?

SPEAKER_03 35:17

Yeah, I mean, especially North Korea. North Korea.

SPEAKER_02 35:23

Matter of fact, they they some uh they're fixing to open up Venezuela and let uh pastors back in there to minister. They need it. Uh-huh. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 35:31

I mean, co countries like that and Russia, and I mean they're all Germany, China, Venezuela, Cuba.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

That's what that's what I'm saying. People think the world is just they just want to talk about how dark the world is. But they ain't nobody talking about that Venezuela's fixing to open up, and it ain't just it's the new government of Venezuela that is inviting these pastors in. And I know a couple of pastors that's going over there, and I know what they preach, and I know that I mean they're wanting them to pretty much tour everywhere in Venezuela now.

SPEAKER_00 36:02

Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. That's awesome. That's just like that our podcast we did on revival and we showed that video clip of them digging the O in Africa over there and walking to my right, and nobody is doing anything about it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, there's a lot of personality. When we're gonna start standing up for that kind of stuff instead of somebody getting persecuted in Iraq. Yeah. I mean, when we're gonna start helping them kind of people out. It won't be long before Iraq comes up.

SPEAKER_03 36:26

Yeah. There'll be some more things opening up. Yeah, it's gonna start. And uh but you know, one of the things is over in Africa you were talking about one of the largest churches. I watch it every week. It does my faith good.

SPEAKER_02 36:39

There's over a hundred thousand people. They got like five thousand, I think, in the choir.

SPEAKER_03 36:45

No, I've I've watched it's on I watch it, it's on my my uh YouTube. I watched their service. I don't understand. It's sometimes tough to understand all what they're saying, but a hundred thousand people in one church building, praising God. I need to find that one. It's on I can show it to you later. Send me a link to that. And it's a hundred thousand uh no, it's uh a hundred thousand people in there that has uh that's awesome. Yeah, it's amazing. It's the largest churches in the truly amazing. Yeah. So they have revival over there like like wildfire. Yeah, it's daily. Yeah, they they have a big time. So here's one thing you need to know when you get to the place that you're all about yourself and consumer, you might want to think about a guy that was in the Bible that started looking upon only himself. And that was a friend named Saul, and I'm talking about Saul. He started being all about himself, how big Saul was, and how he wanted it his way, and he wanted it his way. And Saul was anointed of God, was used at one point. Used mightily, used mightily the window, and and everything was good for a season. But when you get big headed and you want it your way, and it's gotta be done my way, and I'm not gonna listen to the con to the man of God is pouring into my life.

SPEAKER_00 38:07

Yep. He he thought he he started thinking he knew better.

SPEAKER_03 38:11

Yeah. Mm-hmm. He did. That's right. This is what I'm telling you. When that happened, he lost everything. His life, his son. He I mean, he was killed. Yes. Heir to the throne. Everything was gone.

SPEAKER_00 38:26

I read something in my daily devotional the other day, you're talking about that. That said and it made me think about my wreck. Hey, just like a parent, I hate to use the word punish, but disciplines a child. God does it saw down, you're done.

SPEAKER_03 38:41

Yeah. He took him out because Saul wouldn't listen. Yep. And uh the one thing good now though is we do have Jesus making intercession for us. Yes. Thank God that Jesus is making intercession for us. So then he picked up a man that would listen. Here's the one thing you gotta understand. Even if you were being used by God and you understand now that I'm not out, you need to understand that one thing about consuming Christianity, if you don't want to be there, God will rise up another. That's right. He will. He'll do it. I've seen it throughout church. When somebody else decides they're not gonna listen and heed into it, God'll say, I got somebody over here I was wanting to use, and he'll rise them up and use them into the ministry of God. So it's not all about you in the church, it's not all about you following Christ, it's all about Christ. Follow after him, listen to his counsel, follow Christ. That's what it should be about. People have made it where, because like you said earlier, we can go shop for a car. I can go shop for a pair of clothes I want to wear, I can shop around for a house, I can shop for everything else. Well, why can't I shop for a church? Or why can't I shop the house? Why can't I get somebody to preach his the way? Because I'm telling you, you know, be be pay attention to what you're listening to, especially when somebody, this is the one thing we've talked about on this podcast. If your church is not giving you a bunch of opinions, it should be all about that Bible right there. That's right. It should be that word, you know. A lot of times when I get up there to ready to preach, I'll have 70-something scriptures I'm covering in a Sunday morning because I'm preaching the word of God. I'm not trying to preach what John Paul says.

SPEAKER_02 40:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:21

That's what that right there says. That's the only thing that's going to bring forth change.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

So Yeah, that's something else I wanted to add to the pastors out here that have a big turnover in your church. I mean, maybe you need to stop and think about what you're doing also. Are you preaching from that Bible? Or are you or are you preaching your opinion? Mm-hmm. I call it opinions one nine. Well, you you hear you hear that a lot and we see it a lot on YouTube. A lot of these YouTube pastors and stuff. I mean, they're preaching their opinion and not preaching from that Bible. So that might be one reason you have a lot of turnover.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

So in in 1 Timothy 6 and 10, this is one of the most misquoted verses in the Bible. It says, For the love of money is the root of all evil. Right. But money ain't the root of all evil. It's love. But the can the the Christians who are looking to be consumer Christians, they're thinking about money. Right. Well, why do they have to put that driveway in? Why do they need to do this? Why did they're they're wasting my money? Which while which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Thou, O man of God, plead these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness. Now, if you follow after something, if you follow after something, you don't catch it, you don't run past it and get in front of it, follow it. If you're following something, now walk with me. If you're following something, it'll lead you where you're going. I'm about ready to go climb a mountain right now.

SPEAKER_03 41:49

It's like chasing the rabbit. Where were you at in there? First Timothy, what?

SPEAKER_01 41:52

That was first Timothy 6, 10, and 11. Good fight of faith. I can start shouting now. My God, my God. We got a big audience. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I'm telling you, Shout it. I can feel it. It says, quench not the spirit. Amen. I'm telling you right now, if you follow something, it'll take you where you're supposed to go. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 42:13

Lead it. Let it lead you. Let it lead you.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

Exactly. Where he leads me, I will follow. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 42:18

I'm guaranteed, dude. Remodeling. Yeah, the podcaster is growing. We got gaming tables get kind of small.

SPEAKER_01 42:24

It works, though.

SPEAKER_00 42:26

Yeah, it does work. It's been a good one, that's for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:29

So even when Jesus was going around, he was, you know, submitted, saying, I'm following God. I'm listening to everything I hear comes from God. Only do what my father does. Only do what my father says. So, you know, it's not all about you. Even when Jesus walked on earth, the greatest example of anybody. My favorite pastor. Yeah, the my fa I mean, just he was being led of God. That's right. He didn't get to do what he wanted to do. He said, Lord, if it be your will, let this cup pass from me. And it wasn't nevertheless. Nevertheless. Not my will.

SPEAKER_00 43:12

That's what I was trying to lead up to. That is the point. He didn't ever say do what I say do. He said, Do what my father said.

SPEAKER_02 43:19

And Matthew 6, 33, don't say, seek ye first the kingdom of yourself. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added into it.

SPEAKER_01 43:30

Jesus. Telling him. Amen. So that's what it does. I don't know if y'all can feel it, but the spirit's in here tonight. I'm telling you, right now it's in here tonight.

SPEAKER_03 43:38

I got chill bumps thinking about it. So that's the whole thing is following after a leader that's willing to lead you. That's right. Don't uh being on a feeling, because people go by feeling. Oh, this feels good. This feels good.

SPEAKER_00 43:52

I mean, we were put here to follow God. That's right. Nothing else. Not money, not Chevrolets, tell you. Cadillac or anything else or vanillies.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

God's buttons.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

How many people how many people let their feeling be their guide?

SPEAKER_01 44:13

If it feels right, does make them out of church because they're upset. Their feelings are hurt. Your feelings don't matter when I'm behind the pulpit. If God tells me to say it, I'm gonna say it. I'm not gonna be ugly because God is a gentleman.

SPEAKER_02 44:28

Well, so you know I'm gonna say what I'm told to say. I'm hungry around John Paul enough, I got things to do.

SPEAKER_00 44:33

And another and another thing that goes wrong with that dude. I mean, if I walk in your church, say I'm there three Sundays in a row and you say something that I don't agree with or don't quite understand, I should be able to approach you.

SPEAKER_04 44:45

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 44:46

Yeah. And nowadays in a lot of these big so-called mega churches, you can't even get nowhere near the pastor. He's like protected like he's some kind of celebrity. Yeah. I mean, I personally know one here in this town that a small preacher from Pendry County went to one Sunday and said, I want to speak to the pastor, and he had to talk to like six different assistant pastors, and he still didn't get to talk to the guy.

SPEAKER_01 45:08

I mean, what kind of what is that? If somebody sees this podcast and you've got a question for me, I'm easy to find. I mean, that that's not right.

SPEAKER_04 45:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

I mean, I should be able to walk at any church, and if I want to speak to that pastor after the service, hey, I'd like to talk to you a few minutes if you got a few minutes. I won't take up much of your time, but I want to ask you about something you said. Because I don't quite it's not sitting with me, and then maybe I just don't understand it. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 45:31

I mean Well, a good shepherd walks with his people.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

Yeah. Because that's what a pastor is. He's a shepherd. Yeah, he's a shepherd, that's right.

SPEAKER_03 45:39

And a lot of people don't realize that just to be a pastor, you don't just have to be a somebody that has the pulpit all the time. If you're leading people, a shepherd leads people. He guides them.

SPEAKER_01 45:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:53

He leads them.

SPEAKER_01 45:54

They follow him down the path.

SPEAKER_03 45:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:57

And if you if you lead your people. You know something. I just the the thought came to my mind. David wasn't leading his own sheep. He was tending to his father.

SPEAKER_01 46:09

You remember I told you I read that verse the other day that changed my view of it. That's verse 15. It says, But David went back to feed and tend to his father's sheep in Bethlehem. He was going about the father's work. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:23

Right. And that and that verse goes right along to Jesus. Who in the same way? If you look at it with us, I was getting rid of it now.

SPEAKER_02 46:30

That's right. It's taking work taking care of the father's sheep. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 46:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 46:33

That's like your your Sunday school teachers. Your your children's ministry worker, they're leading children. Yeah. They're they're leading. They're I mean, that pastor is doing the job of a pastor.

SPEAKER_03 46:45

That's right. People don't see that though. And I see it clearly as David.

SPEAKER_02 46:49

Even though you might not have your own church, your own flock, you're still tending to the father's sheep. You play a vital role. What I said yesterday in church, the church, Jesus is the head. We're the body. Every part of the body has a purpose. If you don't believe me, take your heart out and lay it on the table and say don't have a purpose.

SPEAKER_03 47:12

There's a lot of people that don't realize this in church, though, but it's supposed to be more than just one leader. That's right. Because there's many barred parts of the thing in a church. There's a lead pastors.

SPEAKER_02 47:26

Yes. He shouldn't be the air conditioned mechanic, the grass cutter, the bottle washer, the electrician. Yeah. I mean, he shouldn't.

SPEAKER_03 47:36

Children's ministry. He goes in there, preaches 10 minutes to one minister and runs to the other room to preach.

SPEAKER_02 47:41

He gets up there and sings and he sings one word, goes by here and plays the drum, then goes hitting the keys on the keyboard. And there's there's a plenty of parts of the body of Christ.

SPEAKER_00 47:49

That's right. And so, you know, you know, a lot of people feel that in church too, though. See that. No. I mean, everybody in that congregation has something to do with it at church. You're not joking.

SPEAKER_02 48:00

And nobody sees I'm just gonna look at the ceiling. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

SPEAKER_01 48:09

And if everybody's the problem, maybe you need to look at the mirror and see who the problem is. And I don't know who I'm talking to, but I'm talking to somebody tonight. Right.

SPEAKER_00 48:17

I mean everybody needs to wake up and see trying to offend you. So I don't add a try.

SPEAKER_01 48:23

Nobody understands what the shepherd goes through.

SPEAKER_04 48:26

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:28

Before David killed the lion and the bear, he had to have knowledge of how to do it, how to handle the situation. All right. Before you go to battle or you go to battle with the bear or the lion with your prayer and fasting, the church doesn't see you.

SPEAKER_00 48:44

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 48:45

They don't see you studying. They don't see you in your prayer closet for hours at a time. That's right. I I don't know, I I don't see them when they're studying because I'm not at their house, but I I can attest to seeing my daddy up at two o'clock in the morning. Yeah. Because he needed to pray for somebody. That's right. Come on his heart in the middle of the night. Nobody nobody saw that. They didn't see the times that the preacher had to leave and go to a hospital to pray for somebody. It may or may not even have been from the church. That's right. But somebody asked for prayer.

SPEAKER_00 49:14

I was telling these guys one night, you're talking about debt debt on. I had a pastor one time in a church I used to go to. When they hired him, one of the first things out of his mouth says, I will not go to the hospital. And they hired him anyway.

SPEAKER_03 49:25

We got all the time. If somebody calls and says, I mean, what kind of pastor is that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:29

I had a uh not very good. Sound like a commercial consumer or consumer pastor. He's a consumer pastor. Well, I had a drill sergeant come in at a place I was working, kid had been shot, military. He was in my ER and it was grim. And he's like, I need a preacher to come pray for this kid. I'm like, there ain't one here. He said, Is there anybody that can pray? I said, No, I can't pray. He said, Will you please go pray for him? So I can tell his family that can't be here because they're across the country that there's somebody in there talking to him about God and praying to him and praying with him, hoping he can hear it. I'm fixing to cross another line that's gonna make somebody really, really, really mad. If that boy heard me and that boy had enough consciousness in his mind to have to ask the Lord to forgive him and save his soul, you know where he is right now? That's right. He's in heaven. Now somebody's gonna say, no, he's not. There's no such thing as a deathbed confession. What about a thief on the cross?

SPEAKER_00 50:19

Yes, there is too. She was one of the best Christians I've known growing up. Matter of fact, I told my brother one day he'd come see me when I was in the hospital. I'm glad Granny Sealshirt prayed for me every day, because I know she did. I've seen her do it. She's one of them. If you walked in and said, Grandma had this problem in her, she wouldn't say nothing in her head, just go right to Babylon and start praying. My granddaddy weren't right at it. But and I I am a firm believer that he's in heaven. Just like you said, the thief on the cross. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 50:46

He couldn't come down and get baptized. The Romans weren't gonna take him down and say, Hey, protocol says you gotta be baptized.

SPEAKER_00 50:51

That's right, where Jesus told him, I surely I tell you today you will be with my father in heaven. Yes with me. Yeah. So that's exactly right. I mean, if he can do that for him, he'll do it for all of us.

SPEAKER_04 51:01

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 51:02

Baptism is our public display display that we are burying our old self and our new self is risen, and we're gonna lead a new life.

SPEAKER_01 51:11

And and when you look at that, Jesus on the cross, we're talking about consumer Christianity. All right. So he's on the cross and there's two thieves there. One thief is in heaven and the other one's not.

SPEAKER_04 51:22

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 51:22

Both of them saw the same man, both of them had the same chance. Both of them could have gotten the same touch, but one of them failed it to hurt it differently. He knew who he was.

SPEAKER_03 51:35

And that's the same thing like we were talking about early in church. You know, one person hears it, yeah, yeah. They they were thirsty a little shrimp. Somebody some person can hear the word, and then another person, both of them need the same thing. Right. Need healing, need peace of God, and then they just uh they don't the other one don't get it because they didn't come expecting or wanting it. Like the one thief that was on the cross beside Jesus. He wanted it. He's like, I want to be saved. I don't want to, I don't want to. Remember me. Remember me. Remember me. People don't it's uh it's a big thing that goes into all the ministry in church. You know, you're called to do something. You know, I we've said this on the podcast before. When I came to Christ, I needed a blessing. I needed God, I needed help. I had a lot of things messed up, but it comes a time in in Christ that you go from needing a blessing to being a blessing. Now I'm no longer I don't need you to, you know, I always need Christ. No doubt about it. I'm not saying that, but it's not that this playing, you know, I came in, I had a lot of things I needed to work on and cleaned up, and then when he got that cleaned up, now I go from that to helping other people.

unknown 52:44

Right.

SPEAKER_03 52:45

And so that's where a lot of people don't ever get out of that consumer, I needed something to the place I can help others in Christ Jesus. You see people come into church and that that, like you said, it's just Sunday morning, they get it, go home, and that's it. You know, it it should be about working throughout the church, helping people, going out. If you don't want to work in a church, how about going out and just at least ministering on the street, talking to people? We have witness everywhere you go. Start asking God, how can I be used by you? What can I do? So I live all this stuff. I'm not just up here on the podcast telling you this is really, I mean, my desires. I was trying to really need to know my God.

SPEAKER_00 53:27

I was trying to find a comment on one of our YouTube shorts that somebody left. It was the one on I said that, you know, I I mentioned that Jesus is the bridegroom and baptism is a ceremony just like a wedding. Yeah. I mean, we're committing our life to Jesus. A public display of committing your life to Jesus at the baptism, and he got on and said, I mean, he said he said we were wrong. No, it's a sign of the new world. We're saying that. And I thought and I told him, I politely told him, I said, Man, I think you misunderstood what we were getting at. You you didn't get the context of it. And then I broke it down like that. He never replied back, so I'm praying that he got it and understood. Yeah. It's it's a symbol. Yeah. It is.

SPEAKER_01 54:06

You're putting the old man away. That's right. And you're coming up as a new man. A new man, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 54:11

All your sins are washed away and done. Exactly. And you're starting a new life. Yep. Mm-hmm. So man, I that one I I enjoyed that one, guys. I did. Yeah. I enjoyed it. Anything God against the bunch? I tried to beat your table to death. All hearts pure and clean. Yeah. We hope y'all enjoyed it. You've been listening to the Testament of Faith podcast. If you haven't already, please go give us a subscribe and a like on YouTube. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, all the good social media websites. You can also go follow Word of Faith Ministries out of Kansve, North Carolina on all the above. And Stump Hill Farms on order above if you're looking for a good bird dog. Got one from there and he's a good one. Short plug. Appreciate it. Yeah, I'll tell you.

SPEAKER_02 55:01

They also do dog training as well.

SPEAKER_00 55:03

Yeah, dog training. They have bird dog puppies, house training, potty training. I mean just obedience. It's not just all about the hunt dog, they do it all. They have grooming. So if you need anything, look them up and follow them on Facebook. They're easy to get to if you're in eastern North Carolina. With that being said, always try to read a Bible verse at the end of each one, and then John Paul's gonna close us out with a prayer. My Bible verse for this one is 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 6 and 7. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him. For he cares for you. And he does. I'm telling you right now, as a witness to it myself, when I handed everything over to God, my life got so much better. Yeah. I mean it's just like you just took this table and just lifted it right off of me. Yeah. Or that jeep Cherokee that was on me down there. I mean, I just felt that just weight just laying in the hospital bed that weight just lifted. I mean, it was like I was a totally different person. That being said, John Paul, I'm about to closing us out in a word of prayer, brother.

SPEAKER_03 56:05

Lord, we thank you that we're called to follow you and to listen to you. And it's not about us, but it's all about you, Lord. We thank you today as our listeners tune in and listen. Lord, that let this word sink deep into and minister to. And we thank you for it in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 56:24

Hope you all enjoyed this show. Remember have a good week.

SPEAKER_03 56:28

Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do we.