The New Life Podcast
The New Life Podcast is hosted by Pastors Devon Patton and Luke Evans. Two pastors. One decade apart. Both Pastor's kids who grew up together and now serve side by side - one as a youth pastor, the other an associate pastor. Each episode they dig into Scripture, share real ministry experiences, and teach to help others grow in their daily walk with God.
Affiliated with New Life Church in Trumbull, CT
The New Life Podcast
The Confirmation Part 2 (Ep. 25)
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In this episode, Pastors Luke Evans and Devon Patton talk about the confirmation of when they knew God was calling them to something specific, and how we can recognize that in our own lives.
What's up and welcome back to the New Life podcast? I'm not gonna lie, without the monitors on the week. I was just looking at that camera, I was like, is that one even on? We have no monitors. We have no monitors. Normally we can see ourselves, but Spencer's slacking. Yeah, Spencer came in and was like, guys, I'm completely unprepared today. Yeah. That's my bad. I was up late last night. I'm really slacking. If you want to. I don't even know if anything's on. Everything's just it's just black. We don't know. But if this is recording, at least we'll have the audio version, I guess. Yeah. So we hope that you guys are having an awesome day up to this whenever you're listening, and hopefully you can see us because we can't see us. But we're glad that you're here. True. We are filming on a different day this week, too, than we normally do. We normally film on Tuesdays. Now it's Fridays. Just for this week. Just one. Just one. Just this week. But I'm excited to be here. I also, though, like I was super amped up because I thought we were filming earlier, so I told Luke, I'm like, all right, I'm ready to go. And then we had like a two-hour meeting. I told you we were gonna meet my energy's low. Give us your fun facts. No, no, no. Ryan has to go last week. Mateo's going first on the fun facts. He was the last one to come up with one. That's how this works. And by last we mean 10 seconds ago.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yep. Go ahead. Um, chainsaws were invented for childbirth. Did you know that?
SPEAKER_02There's no way that that's true.
SPEAKER_00What do you mean? It was developed in Scotland in the late 18th century to help and speed up with the process of uh a big word that I don't know. Widening the uh something.
SPEAKER_01Oh. He literally just was like, you know what? I'm gonna make the thing.
SPEAKER_00And then just starting It's cartilage, cartilage, cartilage.
SPEAKER_01Yo, that's crazy. Don't take widening, dude. Literally when he said it, I was like, careful now.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's crazy talk. That's what the C that's what the C and C section stands for, chainsaw.
SPEAKER_01Chainsaw section, that's a good one. I almost was just like, yeah, that's what it stands for.
SPEAKER_02Wow. Dude, if you are an expecting dad, you need to go into that. Like, and the doctors like, you guys have any questions? You're like, is the cheat the chi? The C and C section, is it chainsaw? And he did bring that up because you'll just get flames. That's great. Nice job, man. Because I watched the New Life podcast, and uh the guys on there said that the first C section was done by Chainsaw. Oh man. Man, dude, that was almost got really out of hand really. I don't even know if we learned anything, but it was pretty I don't think we need to know the details. No, I think he started to read the details and you and then he uh got caught up there. Yeah. Uh mine is not as graphic. Okay, thank you. I just thought it was kind of kind of interesting. Did you know that a drop of water, the National Parks Department has come up with this data that it would that it takes a drop of water ninety days to travel down the Mississippi River? So single drop of water, single drop of water at the top of the Mississippi Mississippi River River, fourth largest river in the world, by the way. That's also a fun fact. Uh Amazon Nile and the what is it, Euphrates, Ganggies or whatever in China or wherever, Siberia, whatever it is. Um we got the four we got a top five river here. Top four. We got a top four river in America, fourth largest river. Math and science, no, but we are top five. Drop of water, top of the Mississippi River or start of the Mississippi River. 90 days because the Mississippi River at any one point goes 1.2 to 3 miles an hour. That's it. That's it. We're not talking rapid. We're not talking rushing, rushing. Who's that guy in the cartoons or whatever in the book who went? Did he go to Tom Mrs. Tom and Huck? Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Tom Huck. So confident. Because the movie was called Tom and Huck. Jonathan Taylor Thomas. You're just making stuff up at this point. Bro, look it up. Tom and Huck. Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Classic. Look at it. Boom. Enjun Joe. Come on. Oh, dude, you're right. That's the guy from. Did you guys have to read Tom Sawyer in school or is that? Yes. Yeah. Okay. I don't know. I didn't know I was going to date myself right there with that. That was it. Alright, the Mississippi. 90 days. Alright. Can't wait. But Devin was so excited about it. Oh, dude, I thought this was great. Alright, so throughout the world and throughout the United States back. Shout out. United States, we're back on this train. There's some interesting town names. For those of you again, you've driven through the United States, you've seen them, you've been there. Like most states have a Springfield, I think. Correct? So this one I thought was interesting. It's in Texas. It was founded in the 1930s. It's called Dingdong.
SPEAKER_01Ding Dong, Texas. It's like a I don't even know if it's an official town, but it has a Wikipedia page. Look it up on Google. Look it up on Google.
SPEAKER_02So it was named after the Bell Cousins who owned a country store in the town at the time, and they created a sign for their store that had two bells. And so a news reporter at the time said, like, what's the sound of two bells? Ding dong. So they went with ding dong. It says right there on the Wikipedia that in 2000 they did a census of the people who lived in ding dong. What's the population? 22.
SPEAKER_0122 in ding dong, dude. Hilarious, dude. Isn't that hilarious? I was like, 22 ding dongs. 22 ding dong.
SPEAKER_02Man. Just so it looks pretty close to Dallas. So like south, south of Dallas, probably. Ding dong. Cheap Airbnb. Yeah, we should go. Ding dong, Texas. So uh a couple of other ones that I thought had a uh like honorable mention, just to kind of throw these in there. Nope. Um Coward, South Carolina. I was like, oh, it's in Mateo's hometown. Moving on. Coward. That's not even that funny. Just funny because he said it. No, no, no. I mean the name of the town.
SPEAKER_01No, it's just so I could make fun of it. Mateo.
SPEAKER_02Um Monkey's Eyebrow, Kentucky. Dude. I was like, there we go. That's an interesting one. Spencer's Spencer's Adams Apple, Connecticut.
SPEAKER_01My new favorite is uh Cheesequake, New Jersey. Cheesequake? Cheesequake. Dude, we could go there. How far is it? How far is it?
SPEAKER_02Cheesequake, New Jersey from here. We need to, we need to. It's all one word. Cheesequake.
SPEAKER_00Why is it called that? There's no way that's how you pronounce it. It's probably Chesuquake.
SPEAKER_02Cheesequake. This guy's a Native American guy. What are we talking about?
SPEAKER_01It's a cheesequake until I say otherwise. All right, Pocahontas. Oh, give us the cheese guy. Ches a quake. Chesnequake. Chesuquake. Yeah. Make fun of me all you want. Nah, we're going to cheese quake. Give us cheese stories. We're going to cheese quake. How far is it from here?
SPEAKER_02I thought you were going to say it's in Pennsylvania because of all the you know the Amish.
SPEAKER_01I mean, if it was actually, is it C-H-E-E-S-C-N? It is. It's cheese. Cheesequake. Chesquaka bowl.
SPEAKER_00Chesquaka. That's probably how'd you do that?
SPEAKER_02That was cool.
SPEAKER_00It's cool when he does it. Are we serious?
SPEAKER_02He wasn't being like annoying about it. Yeah, yeah. I wasn't being like, I'm smarter than you about it. Like how you are.
SPEAKER_01Obviously not. It's like two and a half hours. I thought it was cheesequake until eight seconds ago.
SPEAKER_02That's why I was so excited to share Ding Dong and Cheese Quake. How long of a drive? Two and a half hours. Oh, easy. We're going. We're there. We're going to Cheese Quake. How far on horseback? How far in the Oscar Meyer Wiener mobile? Dude, did you did that ever come to Christianity when you were there? We did a whole I have a picture of myself in front of it. We did a commercial for them. Really? Yeah. We shot a commercial for Oscar Meyer Wiener. Did you sing the song? Yeah. All of us. On the stage, and we had to, at the end, we had to pull up a bologna sandwich. That was the only time I've ever eaten bologna sandwich. Yeah, I wish I. I wish I had an Oscar Meyer sandwich. That's it. Break me up a piece of that.
SPEAKER_01Break me up a piece of that. Fancy beast. Football cream cream.
SPEAKER_03It's football cream.
SPEAKER_02Alright. Wow. Those are the fun facts. That was good. Ding dong, Texas. Ding dong, Texas, and cheese cream. I wonder how far it was it is from Waxahatchie. From Waxahatchie, actually. Well, we should ask our resident Native Americans. Yeah, true. Can't win, huh? Waxahachi. Waxah. Can't win. That was just crazy. Yeah, that's wild. Alright. There you go. Fun facts. I don't know if they're fun, but go to Ding Dong, Texas. That's right. You guys ever eaten a ding dong? I don't really like it. I don't like them, but is it a devil dog? Those are different things. There's different things. Devil dog, ding dong, twitch dog. Ding dongs are like the ones they're uh covered in chocolate. Right? Oh yeah, those are so good. We've said ding dong way more than I ever thought we had. How many ding dongs on a podcast?
SPEAKER_01How many times can we say ding dong? Shout out.
SPEAKER_02What is this five? Hashtag ding dong. Some like five-year-olds are gonna be watching this. You're listening to this in the background of their parents and be like, what are they talking about? Talking about ding dongs. Alright.
unknownCool.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't like I don't like anything with that cream in the middle like that. Like, I don't like Boston cream donuts. I don't like Twinkies, ho-hos, ding dogs. I don't like any of that stuff. Oh, Swiss roll, dude? Oh man. No. I could eat a whole box of Swiss rolls. Is it little Debbie though? Or is it Auntie Ann's? What is that? This is hostess. Hostess. Holsters. Holstess too. Oh, dude, their Swiss roll is the ho-ho. What's a zinger? We should do a taste test of all of them on here. Zoom that in again. What are all those ones? I've never seen those. The snowballs. Snowballs. I know the cupcakes. Those just have cupcakes?
SPEAKER_01They got a trademark on the name cupcakes.
SPEAKER_02They got a Danish fruit pie. Kazarb.
SPEAKER_01What's a cosbar?
unknownKazarb.
SPEAKER_01Like, what is a gazarb? Middle Eastern treat. Those little donuts are good, though.
SPEAKER_02Baby buns? What's a baby bunts? I don't know. Lemon drizzle? Oh, bunt. I thought you were saying buns. What's that one to the left? Second one down. Metamores? Metamorphosis. Melt Meltamores. Meltamores. Meltamores. Metamorphoses. Danish. That one's just called Danish. How can you even get away with uh donuts? And coffee donuts. They got coffee cakes, cupboards. The powdered sugar ones. We said that. Did you? With a glass of milk. And cinnamon rolls. They got all those locked down. And snowballs, dude. Shout out to Winter. That's crazy. That's a snowball you can enjoy all year round, right there. That should be the slogan. That's good. That's pretty good. That's good. That's not bad. Anyway. Yodels. Haven't had any of this stuff in so long. Oh, now look up the little Debbie's ones. What are the little Debbie's ones? I thought all those were little Debbie's. See, this is why. This is why we have a pocket. That's why we don't play games at the end. Oh, yeah, the little bites. Oh, no, no, no. Oh, you typed in the wrong thing. Yeah, there you go. Oh, yeah. Here we go. We need a full lineup of what these are. Come on, Debbie. Oh, the cosmic brownies. Cosmic brownies, oatmeal cream pies. Those are so good. I thought cosmic brownies were like. Strawberry? Yeah. Oh, the Zebra. Oh, Star Crunch Slaps. I don't I don't think I've had any of that. Yeah, dude, Star Crunch. When we were at Evangel, they used to give out expired ones of these to us in the cafeteria. Like they'd be like expired, but it's not. It's not the expiration. Don't get me started on the three nights. Like it'd be like once a month you'd go to the bottom. It's just there so you buy more, dude. It's a racket. It's a racket. Bro. Milk? Oh, milk. If it's not curdled, then it's still good. Nah, dude. You gotta open it and smell it. Yeah, I can't do the milk. No. If it's getting close, I just dump the whole thing. Or like tortillas or bread. If there's no mold on it, just pick it up. Yeah, but what if you don't see it? That's the thing. Maybe you don't see it. It's green. Can you pick it off? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I pick it off and eat a tortilla or bread or something. If I don't have any other option, what else is it? Good for you, bro. That's how they found uh moxicillin or whatever. Penicillin, not a moxicillin. Penicillin. You mean found it? That's how they discovered it. That's how they discovered penicillin, dude. It was mold. There's your fun fact for next time we look that up. Look that up. No, I just mean like ding dong. I mean like you ding-dong. Moved to Texas, you ding-dong. Uh I just mean like extraction dates on like toothpaste. Like what like what are we talking about here? Or like Advil? Like what's make what's going bad in there? It's gonna buy more through the casing. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00What Advil does to begin with. Like the the think about you take it. But like how does it know?
SPEAKER_02I that does freak me out too. Like what do you mean, how does it know? Like you take advil when you have headache when you have a pain. I hurt my finger last week and I took ibuprofen. I was like, how does the ibuprofen I'm going to that finger? But but my aunt said it's gotta be like your nerves. Yeah, it's like the pain receptors, like your nervous system. Come on, that that wasn't a real question. Because every single time I take two excedrin, my headache disappears. What's Excedrin? Yeah, I heard of that. It's a migraine. Some bougie one. Yeah, this guy's rich, dude. I get I get eye ache. I'm using acetametaphine from the thing. I can't even pay for Tylenol. So this guy's like, I'm straight oxy. Whenever I got like, man, I had a headache. It's unhinged on a Friday. I had a headache, and those two Vicanin really, really took it down.
SPEAKER_00At least I like that scene in the office. He's like, what do you want? Ferguson. Ferguson. Cody?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, what? What? How Maddie gets when she doesn't know. Anyway, who's it? We had uh a great last podcast with Devin telling us uh his story of uh you know we called it the uh what did we call it? The the it moment. Yeah, the moments that eclipse the moments that it clips. So we decided we had we had some fun with that and we we thought that it was beneficial. Uh and so we're Mateo's gonna share his today. I did actually recommend. Yeah. I've been telling everybody I know about this. There's a song by The Belonging Co. that I wanted to share with everybody. It's called The Joy. Yes. Just a good recommendation if we're throwing out recommendations one more time. Probably could have saved that for the end, but instead of in the middle of the No, it was just since we were doing the facts a recommendation. Let's throw that out. Yeah, Devin showed us that song this week and it has been on repeat. That's all it just came to my brain. I really wanted to let it slip by. All right, continuing on. So Matteo is gonna share his kind of it moment today, and then uh if we have time, I'll share mine, but we'll see what happens. But tell us, Mateo, about your moment it clicked.
SPEAKER_00Um so you've alluded to this story um because you were my youth pastor at the time when I was in school of rock, which for those of you that don't know, Pastor Luke. Um school of rock was like an extracurricular like type of thing where you would kind of learn music, take lessons, do some seasonal shows, kind of rehearse throughout the weekend, stuff like that. And I was kind of climbing the ladder of it, so I was in like their elite band called the House Band, when you like tour around like you know, Westport and neighboring towns and stuff like that, do some festivals. And school rock is like a franchise thing, so it's like a national thing. And I auditioned for a team that would have toured nationally. Um I didn't get in one year, I think I was like 12. And the year after that, I auditioned, I made it through the first round, made it through the second round, and I was getting the the director knew me and was kind of putting me on in a position to go on a team that would have that ended up going to uh play at Lollapalooza, uh the Red Rocks Theater, um, they flew out to LA to a recording studio, like a bunch of really cool stuff. And during that time that when I was 13, at this time I'm at um in between auditions and then going to junior high camp. So our district camp, we me, Spencer, Chrissy, Jake, like a bunch of different people went to camp. And you know, at this time I'm starting to get involved in youth and all this stuff, and I start to, you know, get this tug of like, man, I'm really enjoying being in worship and really enjoying being involved in youth. And I'm just like praying at the altar, like, God, I don't know what to do. Like, you know, I the I have the typical dream of like I don't I want to be a rock star, I want to, you know, do this and be famous and tour and and all this awesome stuff. But I didn't know like what that looked like. I didn't know in what capacity. There's so many different nuances in the music world. And um I'm just like praying, like, God, like, what do you want me to do? Like, I've I feel like there's so much pressure, like I'm I'm so young and I'm around all these older people all the time. Like, you know, everyone here is older than me at the church, everyone at school of rock was older than me, like I was, you know, in eighth grade, ninth grade, and then these guys are upperclassmen. And I'm just praying to God, like I'm at the altar, I'm like, God, like, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do? Like, I like it would be so nice if I could just like hear someone tell me like what I needed to do right now. And my camp counselor comes over and prays for me, and he says like a super short prayer. He's like, God's gonna use the gifts and abilities that he's given you for his glory. Like, and you know, is that uh, hey, you're gonna do this, you're gonna work at this church for two years, and like no. But what it was is it was a confirmation of man, like I should be pouring all of my time, all of my ability into the opportunities that God has given me with my talents. Right. So, like at this time, you know, our fine arts program at the church is kind of ramping up a little bit, and like in that moment I'm kind of thinking, Alright, well, I don't have time for anything else. Like, I gotta go all in on worship, I gotta go all in and on what God has for me. And that I might not know what that is right now, but um a verse that came to mind while I was um looking for this, which is very typical type of thing, but um Jeremiah Jeremiah 29, 11, right? For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord plans for welfare and not for evil, uh, to give you a future and a hope. And the reason I when I was looking through some verses to kind of align something with this was because I didn't know what I wanted to do. And and to be pretty honest, I don't I don't know, I don't have a five-year plan, ten-year plan, like I don't have those things that I I I really want to end up being like, yeah, I have aspirations. Like, uh would it be cool to be you know a big worship leader or do these things and work with you know these awesome people, whatever, sure. But God knows the plans that He has for me. Right. So my job is to worry about what's in front of me. All right, what are we singing on Sunday? What are we singing next Wednesday? What are we gonna do with our students? We have a young adults event tonight, what are we gonna do for that? Those types of things like I was so worried about the you know, what am I gonna do? What am I missing out on, right? Because, you know, for a long time I ended up having a lot of FOMO on the team that didn't get to go and tour the nation and go to Lollapalooza and meet all these cool people and stuff like that, and you know, we had a bunch of uh guys from school rock go to Berkeley and Juilliard and like up in schools that I hadn't talked to that I ended up not going to. Um because God called me here and he knows the plans more than I could ever know, and all it takes is hey, you just gotta trust and take that first step. You know, and that ended up me quitting school rock, and then that ended up me um you know, interning here right out of high school, and then you know, I got a job and I started doing school and all these different things, and like things just started placing. Like I was thinking I was talking about this, I think it was Spencer the other day. Or like if I was to talk to my 18-year-old self right now, there's no way he would think I'd be where I am right now. You know like living on my own, being able to afford the things, like the the desires and the pleasures that God has blessed me with, and and being able to work with my friends up in the church and all the things, these things like it's super cool to think about. And that was kind of like the moment that you know, like you talk about it a couple times on stage, where like it was weird. Like it made no sense in the moment to quit school rock. Like it was my thing, it was what I did, it's how I learned how to play music. But it took me a little bit to realize hey, God can use those experiences that aren't inherently. Glorifying or edifying him to prepare you for what's to come. Right? Like I wouldn't have if I never went to school rock, I wouldn't know how to play guitar people. I wouldn't know how to do these things. I wouldn't be able to have taught our new students that didn't know how to play an instrument or you know help our um current worship band members or whatever it is like those things kind of came to fruition because that's what I went through. And I I'm I'm very grateful that those things went in place. You know, I went to school rock and then I auditioned and didn't get in because if I had got in then I would have been locked in and I'd auditioned and then I had this moment at the altar with God and and so stuff like that. And so yeah, that's kind of when it picked for me long ten years ago now, actually. Which is crazy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. Well, I remember you coming to me and telling me that, and I r I remember uh you know, some of those conversations and kind of being like, well, if that's what you want, you know, if that's what you want to do, if that's what you feel like God wants you to do, and you know I mean we we could all see the giftings that you had, and I I you know, I think some of us probably not even you, because you were probably still in college. I was in college, you know when you were but some of us, you know, me, my dad, stuff like that, we obviously saw the talent and the ability, but then for you at that age to make that type of decision was like a big deal and it definitely stood out. But it's just I mean, that's a big decision for like an adult. Forget about a middle school kid. Yeah, you know what I mean? It's like I'm gonna quit this thing I'm super passionate about. And super good at yeah, and super good at, and there's successes right around the corner, and the dreams that I have are right around the corner. But I'm gonna let God do what he needs to do because what you said is just based on trust and trust alone.
SPEAKER_00Like, which that and it was like there was so much conviction, like some of the songs that we would play, like you know, you have like these older like heavy metal songs, right? Like things like that, like you know, a lot of them not you know, specifically glorifying the devil or things like that, but like of the world, and I'm like, dude, I'm punching my ticket like right to hell.
SPEAKER_02Like, yeah, this is not like I can't well school rock, dude.
SPEAKER_00You're not hardcore unless you live hard. Unless you live hardcore. Yeah, so it's like I would think about that stuff and it would just like weigh heavy on me while I would come to church or youth group and I'd be like, Man, like I was just playing Led Zeppelin.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like now I gotta play Hosanna.
SPEAKER_00I just played Highway to Hell, now I'm playing mighty. So it's like, you know what I mean? Like they don't they're not meaning to glorify, but it's just what the genre it's the genre too.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Well, but I think it I think that that's important, you know, because there might be some people listening that, you know, obviously we talked about it when you gave your story of like how God's in the details of you know, I like how you said that you learned how to, you know, God used that to for you to learn how to play all those things, and then he was like, Okay, that's enough now, you know. Yeah, which I think God does with with uh us often. Um, you know, he he we think that it's our plans being fulfilled, but we're just all we're doing is working on the skills that God wants to use for his glory, and then all of a sudden he's like, Okay, enough of that. You know, you've you've done your own thing for long enough, get over here and watch me do, you know, what I can do. But I think to a lot of people watching, you know, or listening. I I think the encouragement to them in your story, which is cool because in everybody's story, you know, there's always something different that you can, you know, that you can pull out of it. And I I think that the fact the fact that you felt that conviction and then you uh acted on it. I think a lot of times we feel we feel some sort of and it's not conviction, like you said, uh conviction's the wrong word because it's not it's not like you were sinning or whatever, playing those things, but it's that it's that Holy Spirit speaking to you, yeah, it's sermon of like, man, this doesn't settle well with my spirit. And I think there's a lot of people watching or listening that you hang out with people or you go places or you watch things or you do things or you listen to certain music and you can feel it not sitting well with your spirit, but yet you don't act on it. And I think our call as Christians is to figure out, man, if I want to have discernment, then I gotta act on the discernment. Like I you you can't have discernment unless you act on it because that's the difference between having discernment and not having discernment is the action. And so, you know, that's challenging to people of like, hey, maybe every time I go there, I feel a little uncomfortable. Every time we do this, I feel uncomfortable. Every time I listen to that artist, or every time I watch that show, I feel like this kind of tug of war going on inside. And again, it's not this conviction of like this huge sinful thing that you're doing, but it's just man, how do I get closer and closer to Jesus? Yeah, I agree. The other thing that was like cool to me was looking at your story now, like yours, you said you're like, I'm talking with Spencer, and it's like you're not sitting there with like, oh man, I really blew it. You know what I mean? It's like a God guided and like, oh yeah, one day I'm gonna call you to do this, and then you're just gonna regret it for the rest of your life. Like, it's like, no, it's like you got to the other side of it now, you're continually doing now what God wants you to do, or like what you would say is like, well, this is what he's called me to do, right? And it's like, yeah, and I'm more fulfilled. I am like I'm I'm super happy. Like, look at all these blessings, look at all these good things, and that's what I always think about in my story of my life, too. It's like this there's all these ideas that I had when I was 18 years old. There's all these different things when I was in college, and I'm like, oh, I'm gonna go do this, I'm gonna go do that. And then it was like, no, you gotta come to grips with this is what I've called you to do. And until I do that, um it's nothing's gonna fulfill that. Nothing's gonna make me feel the way that the way that God can make you feel. Like it's nothing's gonna, again, there's gonna be that hole in my heart, that hole in my life that I'm continually chasing after until I do that, and then we do it, we step out and trust, and it's like it's better than we could have ever imagined or or hoped. You know what I mean? It's better like youth ministry for me, or um, whether it's uh my marriage or or having kids, like these different things that like they're blessings, and it's like, but you give it over to God and you trust him with it, and it's like it's a thousand times better than than I could have ever hoped. I think it's you know, if it's funny, we were talking earlier, we talked yesterday and we were talking earlier today about you know, like pastors that we are like youth pastors, young adult pastors, whatever, people in church and in ministry that we know that you know they bounce around here, here, there, and everywhere, and they're somewhere for 18 months, and then they're here for a year, and then they're here for two, and it's like, uh, I don't really, you know, I wasn't really feeling it, or uh, I didn't really work out there, uh, this yeah. I think my my this is kind of harsh, but what I would say to those people in ministry is well then I don't know if God ever called you to that. Yeah, because I truly believe that when we do step out, I've never heard anyone who actually stepped out in faith, got confirmation from the Lord like you did, like he did, like I have, got confirmation of the from the Lord of this is what I this is what I want you to go do. I don't know, I don't know the specifics, I don't know where, I don't know what age group, I don't know this, I don't know that, but this is what I want you to do. I want you to take the talents that I've given you, and I want you to go and do something for me with them. Yeah. I truly believe that if that's real and you are obedient to it and you go and you do what God had called you to to do, you're not gonna have a spirit of discontent, you're not gonna have a spirit of uh unsatisfaction, of like, well, you know, I really wish I did that, I really wish that I didn't go here. Like, like if it's really the call of God in your life, then you'll put your hand to the plow, you'll go to work. And I know I sound like the old guy in the room, but I I truly believe that. That when it's when God is really behind it and when you are truly obedient to him, and I get so frustrated when people blame their life decisions on God when they've rushed ahead, like, oh, you know, God's telling us to move to Florida, and then they move to Florida and they can't find a church, and their pipes burst, and this and that, and they're like, I wish I never left Connecticut. It's like, yeah, it's because you God didn't tell you to go to Florida, you wanted to go to Florida and you use God as an excuse for it. I think the people in at least in my life, the people that I have seen where they truly listened to God and got the confirmation from God and and did things in the right order and were obedient to him, God brings this satisfaction that you're talking about where you can talk to your friends in private and go, Man, I can't believe, I can't believe where I am. I can't believe where God's brought me. I can't believe what I've been able to accomplish or what God has done through me. I I'm in awe of the fact that he would want to use me to do something like this. That and like Matt was saying, it's like I don't have like a five-year, 10-year plan. Like, I think if you're living in like you're calling what you're supposed to do, like I don't know why I would. Like, again, I I know your skull isn't it? No, yeah, but it's like I told you this before, like, like we've joked around. It's like, you want to do this for the rest of our lives? Like, you want to do that. We're sharing an office until like 75. Like, do you want to do I think we were like on our way back from New York or something one day, and like we had like talked about the and we were like just like joking around. I was like, you want to do this for the next like 30 years? And it's like, yeah, like let's do it. Like, until but uh, but that's the thing, is like until God specifically tells me, He's like, Yeah, no, you need to go do that. Like, I'm not doing it. Like, I know it's like I'm not going to go and do it, I'm not going to make that decision, I'm not gonna make my life harder or take away again, put myself in a situation where I'll take away from what he has called me to do because of my own selfish ambition. Like, it's not you'll always be searching for something. We've talked in pop in previous podcasts, you know, about dying to self and all those all those things that that Paul talks about in the New Testament. But it's a spiritual thing too, in a sense of like you're saying, I like I I don't I don't ever want to allow my feelings to overtake the will of God from my life, right? So like I don't I don't need to wake up going, oh what do I you know well should I do today? Work, you know, it work didn't really that meaning didn't really go as I planned, or like, you know, things aren't really going the way like if if this is where God has placed me, then I'm gonna need like an audible voice to come and tell me like, hey, this is this is what I need you to go do because it it's it when you get and and we're talking about ministry, but it could be anything. Yeah. If you you you know you work in the corporate world or you're a teacher or you're a nurse or whatever, like if God has placed you there, if you know, man, God's gifted me with this ability to go and do these things, to teach third graders, to manage accounts, to be an accountant, to do people's taxes, to you know, be a school nurse, whatever it is that God has given you the giftings to go do, then go do it. And just live in that. Live in the in the in the peace of knowing, man, I'm just doing what God has called me to do. Yeah, live in the peace that comes through obedience, right? Like I think you've talked about it over the last few weeks of in in preaching and different it's like obedience is huge, and it's like, yeah, there's peace that comes in that. Will it always be easy? No, obviously. But you don't have to wake up every day second guessing if this decision is what I'm supposed to be doing. If that for and forget about it, like you're a single guy, like you don't have kids, like forget about it when you get older and you have kids and you have bills to pay and you have other stuff. It's like you gotta make a decision. This is what God has told me to do until He tells me something else, because it's gonna affect a lot of people. That's like the ministry one, that's why it gets us so fired up, especially in like youth ministry. Yeah, it's like it's like a stepping stone job, and it's like, yeah, but what about the 40 people that you just affected their lives? Like I was talking with a young adult. Um, we had lunch the other day, and I was talking about this aspect because he was talking about careers and different options and different things. And I was like, Yeah, what if I had just willy-nilly just got up in the middle because he was in ministry, he's been like he just graduated a couple years ago, and he was with us throughout the whole time, and he was like, Oh, dude, that would have been terrible. Like, uh like it's just that would have been weird. Like, I'm glad that wasn't it's like, yeah, it's like because that's you're affecting more than just yourself at that point, too. Well, it's the whole idea. I always joke that ministry is like c is like college football, right? Like that, you know, you you like college football coaching, and that you know, oh I I took this youth pastor job, but the minute I get offered an exec an executive pastor job, I'm leaving, and the minute I get offered a associate pastor job, I'm leaving. The minute I get a lead pastor job, I'm leaving for the next big church that uh and it's like this stepping stone of like, you know, I'm going from sacred heart to to Duke, you know, just just working my way up the ladder. And it's like that's not how God works. And it's that idea of how, like you said, we've been talking about we've been beating a dead horse, but I think people need to hear it is that that my peace that I feel inside will always be related to my proximity to God, and the proximity, the only way I can get closer to God is to be obedient to him. The more disobedient I am, the further I am from him, the less peace I'll have. The more obedient I am to him, the closer I'll feel to him, and the more peace that I'll have. And so you relate those two things to man, I want to live in the will of God, I want to try to be righteous, I want to try to be holy, I want to try to do all the things that God has called me to do. And in so doing, I'll now have that peace where I can wake up in the morning and go, man, I know I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. Yeah, like I might make mistakes, I might fail, I might have bad days, I might have good days, whatever, but I know that I'm doing exactly what God wants me to do, and that's you can't put a price on that. No.
SPEAKER_00The the two things that I'd think of, one, and I won't speak for you guys, I'll speak for myself, but like, you know, we'll be in the car or something, and like I'll be like, Man, sometimes like I miss kicking. Like, it's not something that like it was an easy decision, and I never looked back and I don't think about it at all. And like, you know, I still follow my friends from school of rock, and like you know, some of them are in a like I know my friend Jake he's in a pretty successful band in New York, and like I have some guys that are like in a in a cool like group, whatever. Like, but there's a huge difference between like me, like man, like that's fun, and like I miss that, and like thinking about memories and like sulking in the fact that like oh, like I'm doing what God called me to do, like all this stuff like I really regret. Like, you gotta find love in and the things that God has called you to do because you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01Like, and to what I was like, I guess you gotta play in the band at church instead. He hates playing the drums, dude.
SPEAKER_02I don't hate playing the drums, guys. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. But seriously, he does.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, but like just finding, you know, like seeing God's love and and the calling that he's given you and things like that. Like, yeah, do I is it fun? But which leads me to the second thing, like, if you have this desire to go do more, right? Like, if God's called you somewhere and like, all right, like I'm here and I'm doing like, and you have a desire to do something else. Like, I've had a desire the last couple years to start writing and producing music. I can do both. Like, I don't have to go leave and go sign and try and send my resume out to Columbia Records just because I feel like, oh, you know what, I'm done with this, like I wanna know. Like, you know, like I think you and you know, your dad are are uh huge and good proponent of this aspect of start small, like or like things like that. Like if you have a desire, pray about it, seek out about it, see counsel, and talk to people about it. And you know, and like I think people like you said, like people moving away and doing all their big stuff, like taking too many steps, too big of a step, where it's like, all right, what are you what are you really looking for?
SPEAKER_02You know, yeah, yeah. I agree. But yeah, it's that con it's the confirmation, right? And God usually confirms things, you know, as as we're obedient to Him, like you said, not running 10 steps ahead, but you're just taking one step at a time of like, okay, all right, God, I did that. Now what do you want me to do next? All right, I did that, now what do you want me to do next? You know, and and getting that process.
SPEAKER_00Which not not for nothing. If I didn't take that step by myself to like learn a little bit of music production, this podcast wouldn't exist. Yeah, because I wouldn't know how to do any of this stuff. Yeah, which is crazy. I just thought of that.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, the only like other thing that I would say is like it's we're talking about ministry and like specifically ministry because that's the area of life that we are in, right? We're not in corporate jobs, we're not in these different things, but yeah, bro. Sometimes, yeah, yeah, sometimes people tell me I'm like there, this, and I'm like, there's no way I could do that.
SPEAKER_01There's no way I could handle all of that responsibility.
SPEAKER_02Devin can hardly pay attention doing this, yeah. Forget about it, bro. I'll be a fine worker, relax. I'd get stuff done if they needed it to. Um 95 cubicle. Yeah, no, but it's like, but you can apply, I mean, in every area, big or small, whether it is your career, whether it's your marriage, whether it's decisions and daily um accountability with you and your relationship with Jesus, right? That's what it all boils down to is this small act of trust and obedience, um, but action, as we've talked over the last couple weeks, of all right, stepping out and doing it. Um, but again, because God hasn't told me to do anything else. His word hasn't changed where it said we need to yeah, only read your Bible. Pray when you want to, right? Like, do those types of things. Like his word hasn't changed on things. So I don't know, in our spiritual lives as well, I don't I don't see how that would ever change either. So I thought that was interesting. He fits into every aspect of your life, and that's the cool part about God, right? It's not just for me or for you or for you, or for you know, it's it's for everyone. And I think that's the cool part is that we we grab hold of it and we then apply it and then we watch as it grows and grows and grows into something beautiful, and that's how God works. Actually, on Easter, I had this like older gentleman who came up to me. He was like, they were visiting family, so they came to our church, and he was like, Are you one of the pastors? I was like, Yeah, I'm the youth pastor. And he was like, Oh, he's like, the service was great today. But he like stopped on that kind of point. He was like, he's like the other great thing. He's like, I he's like, I love the service today. He's like, but he's like he's like the gospel. He's like, Isn't it great that it's just for everybody? Yeah, like and he was like, doesn't matter what part of life you're coming from. And I was like, Yeah, I'm like, yeah, right. Like he's like, it's like for everybody. He's like, isn't it just really cool that the gospel is just for everyone? Like it's diverse, it's it's inclusive, like it's for anybody, and it's all this. And I was just like, Yeah, I'm like, you're right, man. But it's like you said that and it made me think of it. And I was like, Yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_00For God so loves the world. It's such a cliche that that's my favorite verse, but like it really is. Like the simplicity and the hope of the gospel is just like it's the other challenging part of whosoever would believe.
SPEAKER_02It's not again, it's it is for the whole world, but it takes the the whosoever uh believe. Accept it. Which is also a cool aspect. Love that. What verse is that? I don't think I'm familiar. I'm just kidding. He was what he was about. It's John Burretis. He's locked in. Uh, that's great. That's great, great pod, guys. Well done. I'll share mine next time. All right, I love that. Very spiritual. Yeah, dude. We but we haven't had our Christian Christian podcast through and through. I know, dude. We've been getting we've been getting after it. Eliminated the games, conversations are just fun. They're probably gonna throw us out of the Christian category because we said ding dong 48 times. That was this podcast? That was earlier today. Yeah. Oh, that's crazy. Spencer's over there just hard at work, dude. Yeah. Whatever he's doing. On farmsimulator.com. He's on eBay. He's checking his profile. Oh, we gotta talk about that. Yeah, let's talk about this. So, Spencer bought a ticket to um go see a movie, correct? Dune 3. Dune 3. What's that rated, by the way? PG 13. Okay. Yeah, let's wait. We gotta, we gotta, we gotta set the scene here. Okay. All right. So we talked about this already. No.
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_02Are you gonna talk about the previous Dunes we've watched? No, no. No, I've set the scene with Spencer. So he's belongs to this movie club. He gets all these, he goes to movies like five times a week, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so he's a ton of popcorn. So he he likes to go see movies. I'll speak for him. He likes to go see the big movies, these famous movies, in 70 millimeters. 70 millimeter IMAX, which is like what they film the movie in or something like that.
SPEAKER_01He likes to go look at the little clippings of the movie. He goes like that. Just like this.
SPEAKER_02He's got them on a piece of paper and he goes brrrrr like that. So he so he got tickets, one ticket, to go see Dune 3 in Lincoln Center in New York City on the 70mm IMAX. If that's your thing, dude. If that's your thing, cool. And then he got the ticket. No, no, no. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not cool.
SPEAKER_01If that's your thing, do it to the best of your ability, man.
SPEAKER_02So he got the ticket, and then because he didn't get as many tickets as he wanted, he went on eBay to see if there were other ones, and he saw that two had sold for $2,500 on eBay. So he went and put it on his Instagram and was like, oh, do I sell this? I don't know if you guys message him. I messaged him immediately and was like, Yeah, bro. I mean, you know, tell. And so I didn't vote because I knew he wouldn't. He's not gonna sell it. There's nothing in my life other than my wife and kids that aren't for saving. But he's gonna wedding. He's got a wedding. He's got a wedding to pay for. It's a nice little bit. It's a good chunk of change. How much are the tickets? Like base, like the regular price. $35. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01You know that it's a good thing. I thought it was like you paid like $300 to come to the $60. No, that's yo! That's a no-brainer. Double my money, basically, dude.
SPEAKER_02That's a no-brainer. I'm knocking those down to $500 at the end of the weekend. I'm putting a little bit of a discount. So he put them on eBay for 900 bucks. Wait, how many tickets do you have? One. Just one. He only got one. So it's you need to sell it anyway. You're not going to go see it by yourself, right? He would. I mean, no, he would. I've been to the movies by myself. No, no, he's gone to New York. I would, I mean, I've been to the movies by myself, but not if I could sell the ticket first. Yeah, he's not going to sell it. So you're not selling it anymore. Oh, you took it off. No, he's up.
SPEAKER_01It's up there.
SPEAKER_02It's up there. He's gonna be upset if it's up there. He can be persuaded. But then all of a sudden. $1,000 is a thousand dollars. All of a sudden, yesterday, Complex, which I don't know if you guys know what Complex is, it's a media organization in out of New York City, right? They'd have they do sports and politics and everything, you know.
SPEAKER_01Huge social media.
SPEAKER_02Uh huge social media. Yeah, how many how many followers do they have on their complex? 15 million. Complex posts a post on Instagram with the caption that says, This is why we can't have nice things with a screenshot of Spencer's eBay selling the game and it says like Derby, Connecticut. Complex, if you're listening to this, we want to be on one of your pods, or we're suing you for everything that you're worth. You can't track his username on eBay and the fact that he's in Derby, Connecticut. What if that brought in a sale though? Somebody's like, ooh, that's cheaper than that. That's what I said in the group chat.
SPEAKER_03I said people messaging in that were like interested.
SPEAKER_02What's the lowest you'd take for it? $950. Yeah, he doesn't want to hear it, bro. It costs you $35. You wouldn't take $600 for it. It's the experience of a life. And then go see Dune 90 times in regular iMac. Or go, or just wait for another movie to come out and go see the Odyssey on it or whatever.
SPEAKER_01Do it anyway.
SPEAKER_02Tell me, the real question is where do I have to sign up to get alerts that they're going on sale? Because I'm the movie. That's a great side all day long. 70 millimeter side hustle. How did you get one then? You should get a box. Gotta go to war, bro. Yeah, you should get a watch.
unknownNo, no, no. There's like there's probably four shows.
SPEAKER_02Oh, I was about to say, that's a crazy dude. Dude. Dude. Dude. Yeah, the first other two movies are garbage anyway. Oh my gosh. Let's be honest. The experience of seeing them were garbage. The movies themselves.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, first one garbage. Hotel room the night before we went. Yeah, three in the morning. Three o'clock in the morning with probably COVID. I'm sitting there like.
SPEAKER_02Because he was in Florida, so obviously it was COVID. In and out of sleep, second night on a roller coaster trying to watch it. Yeah. First two movies, hot trash.
SPEAKER_00Dune 3 better experience. The reason I I sympathize, empathize, whichever one of those. You do both I think both works. Um was because I you remember those uh thighs. Those Jordans I got in high school, the OG pair of fours that I got for 40 bucks on Depop. I thought I was gonna go to school, so I ended up selling them for like 1100 bucks, but I regret it to this day.
SPEAKER_02No, you don't. There's no way I don't have dollars anymore, so there's no way you wish you had those Jordans. More than 1100 US dollars.
SPEAKER_00Money comes and goes. I'll never find I'll never see those shoes ever again. You're crazy, bro. Money comes and goes, but it's not a good thing. It's not like I do on my iPhone.
SPEAKER_01I went and saw that movie opening weekend in iMac.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's sick.
SPEAKER_01I get it. One of the only people, like there's people who fly to New York City to see the theater that I get it.
SPEAKER_02Why are there not more 70 million mil 70 million dollar? Why are there no not more 70 millimeter theaters?
SPEAKER_01Because it's like an exclusive thing.
SPEAKER_02There's like 30, yeah. What's the next closest one to New York City? Pennsylvania, I believe. Philly. Lancaster. That was Amish. Sight and sound, dude. I'm going to see Noah and 70 millimeter. Well, so either anyway, that was hilarious yesterday when Spencer sent us the screenshot. I was like, there's a car wheel. He was like, oh my gosh. And the caption, dude. Did they tag you? No, no, no, no. Bro, they didn't tag you and they put bro well they wouldn't have known. It's just a screenshot from eBay, right? We're taking legal action. Dude, I'm gonna go on and bid. I'm gonna go. What a loser. Probably a burner. I'll buy it and go. Just to aggravate him. I sold it, guys. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01Guys, I'm gonna go.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna buy it and then sell it for $1,400.
SPEAKER_00Like afterpay, just $20 a month dispenser.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's cool.
SPEAKER_02That's wild. I hope somebody buys it. I do too.
SPEAKER_01If someone's willing to pay $950 for one movie ticket, I'll find out.
SPEAKER_02Do you have best offer on there? Yeah. But you said you're not taking less. That's my I hate that's one of my biggest movies on eBay. When it says best offer, and then you offer and then and then you message them, you're like, what's the best you'll take? And they're like, that's my price. And you're like, well, what the heck you have best offered? Or what like when the offer auto-declines? Oh yeah, it's so annoying. Nine? Should have taken it. They probably it was a typo. They probably meant nine hundred. Someone told you they'd kill you? I had multiple death threats. Threats, yeah. Dude. What? Was it Timothy Chalamagne? Charlemagne, Charlemagne. Timothy Chalamagne. Yeah. Was it Kylie Jenner? Yeah, sure. Yeah, his wife, dude. They're dating. Because they're dating. I have a fiat.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if anybody's been able to hear anything Spencer has said.
SPEAKER_02No, he's been talking to us this whole time and nobody can hear it. Nobody can hear it. Well, anyway, if you're looking to go see Dune 3 in 70mm IMAX, hit up Spencer's uh hit up Spencer's eBay account. And also Complex, if you're watching, can't do it, or coming for you. So wow. Alright. I'm glad we talked about that. I'll be the next host of the sneaker sneaker pod.
SPEAKER_00You know that doesn't exist anymore? I know. Man. Because what's his face left? Brendan done. Brendan Dunn. He was the man. Yeah, he was like, that's also true.
SPEAKER_02That's true too. Sneaker culture. Sneaker culture is in shambles. I saw a video the other day. This guy went in trying to sell a bunch of Jordans, and the guy was like, dude, I don't know. Nobody's buying them. Nobody's buying them. Like ones that you would have bought for like four grand years ago. Yeah. People are paying $250. Dude, all the sneakers flows, though, right? All the sneaker stores sell like Pokemon and sports cards now to try to float it. Try and get a little bit back. That's crazy. Wow. We should go to a card store today. Oh, don't tempt me. Alright. Well, we'll hope that you have a great rest of you. Yeah, I'm not going without him. We can't buy any of the good stuff. Sea free for lunch. Hey, Pastor Mark, you look great today. Did you lose some weight? Do you want to run down to the car store? Also, we're going. We got an extra seat in the car. I don't know. It's funny. Have a great day. Yeah, when he comes back from the dentist, high as a kite. All right. That's it! We hope you have a great rest of your day. Great week. Peace.