One Kingdom: Unity, Revival, and the Church Beyond Our Walls | Kingdom Authority Podcast

In this episode of the Kingdom Authority Podcast, Pastor Aaron sits down with Pastor Clint Hopper for a powerful conversation about the heart of God's Kingdom. Too often, churches fall into the mindset of protecting "our people," when Scripture calls us to build His Kingdom not our own.

Together, they discuss what true Kingdom unity looks like, why churches are stronger when they work together instead of competing, and how pastors and believers can celebrate what God is doing across their cities and communities. They also dive into what it takes to sustain revival, explaining that revival isn't just a moment or an emotional experience it must be built on discipleship, holiness, prayer, repentance, and unwavering obedience to Jesus Christ.

• Why there is only one Church under one King
• Breaking the "our church vs. their church" mentality
• Building relationships between pastors and congregations
• The biblical foundation for Kingdom unity
• How to sustain revival after the excitement fades
• Protecting revival through discipleship and sound doctrine
• The role of humility, honor, and servant leadership
• Keeping Jesus at the center of every move of God

Whether you're a pastor, ministry leader, or believer who longs to see revival spread throughout your city, this conversation will challenge and encourage you to pursue God's Kingdom above personal platforms and denominational divisions.

"There is one body and one Spirit... one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all." – Ephesians 4:4-6

Subscribe for more conversations that equip believers to walk in their identity, authority, and purpose in Christ.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:11

Hey, good morning, and welcome to Kingdom Authority Podcast. We are grateful that you are with us. Uh, this podcast is centered around walking in the authority that Christ has died to give us. So many people walk and they never're saved but still battling. They're they're no longer slaves, but they're not yet free. And so this is a podcast all about walking in the authority. Uh this morning we got a crazy special guest, Pastor Clint Hopper from Voice of Faith Church in Crofton, Kentucky. Um, you don't know where Crofton is, I'm sure. Um, I I was I was curious this morning, and I looked up population of Crofton, Kentucky, 624 people. You know everybody, don't you? Yeah, we brew a little bit. Well, welcome, man. Um, Pastor Clint is um he has been a friend, he has spoken to my life. Um, he has guided me um in times, and um, you know, I I always go back to a story, and I've I've told our entire church before about this. Um, you know, we had went to a pastor's leaders conference, and and they have uh they have a room over for all the senior pastors, and uh I didn't go. And it it wasn't that I was boycotting, I just didn't feel worthy of being in there. You know, I glanced in there and there's Bishop and there's there's Roberts Learden, and there's all these, and I'm like, oh, I don't need to go in there. And so I went out and you came up to me. Um, I think it was the second day and said to go in there. Yeah, and I'm gonna tell you, I have been eternally grateful for that moment. Not only did it tell me and show me who you were, but I walked into that room and sat down and got surrounded by these men and women of God that are just giants in the face. Right, and they started pouring into me and Victoria, and it it really changed the trajectory of our ministry. Um, and and I know that that's what your heart was, you know. So we appreciate it. But uh Pastor Clint's coming up, and he's doing uh a weekend of revival for us, and um, you know, you've been you and Pastor Howard have been in revival for 288 weeks.

SPEAKER_02 2:38

288 weeks, five and a half years basically. We've been going every two days, two nights a week. It started out three nights and then we backed it off to two after the first year. It's a lot, isn't it? Yes, it is. It's two nights a week, but it's very worth it.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

It is, and you know, we've I I say this, I don't I'm not waiting on revival, we carry it, right? You know, and I'm not waiting on breakthrough, I carry it, he's in me. That's right, and so but getting that culture of revival into people, into a congregation, into a city is a challenge.

SPEAKER_02 3:17

Amen. It is because you got to re-change the thing. I know I might have said this, you know, last night or not, I don't remember, but uh you know, learning things as you were growing as a Christian, especially as a leader, as a pastor, you learn ways that work and what don't work. But then there's when revival hits, you gotta unlearn stuff. And when you start unlearning things, it takes some time. I mean, you you you gotta realize that hey, I would this work, but how well did it work? You ain't sustaining, you know, revival was was just a flickers of a move, you know, now and then. And to sustain something, you gotta unlearn the way I've done church. You know, one of the hardest things we're doing right now, and I know you're doing it here, and I'm I'm so proud of you for what you're trying to establish here, is have a church without church people. And because when you have church people, that's your religious mindset, they're routinish, they show up, they need they they know what to do in the church environment, they even know what to say in the church environment. Uh to these. Yeah, and they know how to talk and you know, and and just to be left alone and have some kind of spiritual connection with God, you know, because I'm affiliated and still having a walk-in relationship with the Father and having a where they can have an ear to hear and an eye to see theirselves, you know. And so it's hard to raise a church up and not have the church people. Uh but as they come in, and if you have that culture already established, a revival culture where we let the Holy Spirit lead the church, yes, you know, and still a bad idea. Very profound statement. And you know, I told him I said it, you know, before I said, if you come in my house and put your feet on my coffee tape, amen, and then tell me to leave, we're gonna have a hard time.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

You're gonna have a problem.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

We're gonna have a hard time. But yet we do that in the house of God every Sunday. We say, Lord, we got this, we're gonna sit up. If you'll just be quiet over here, we're gonna borrow your house for a little bit, and then we'll give it back to you as we go back or we run all over to the Mexican restaurant or we run down the here, we'll give it back to you later. Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Isn't that crazy? You know, um, you understand this, and but it for all of our listeners, if you've ever truly heard God speak to you, and I'm not we we say that so haphazardly sometimes. Oh, I know but when when God truly speaks to you about something, now I get uh just like you, I get these unctions. I kind of I know that okay, there's a vein there that I probably need to run, but when he really speaks, right? Yeah, it's different. It is different, and you know, you look at you look at the Israelites coming out of Egypt, uh, fact check me, I love it when they do, but I believe there's only five times that God spoke to Moses in that time frame. Five that he clearly it says the Lord spoke. You know, so we don't we get these holy holy ghost unctions and we we understand that that's what it is, but when he really speaks, and when when you know when he called us to plant our church, God truly spoke to me, and I usually tear up, yeah, because it was so humbling, first of all. The God of the universe is speaking to me, right? You know what I mean? Yeah, but he had told me, he said, the unchurched will convict the church, right? He said, You go after those that nobody else is going after, yeah, and and then this was the statement that changed everything. It was January 19th of 2025. I wrote this in my journal. He said, You protect the move of God with everything, even if it cost your life, right? But don't you ever touch it. Yeah, and that's that's what you guys have been doing for 288 weeks, and I honor that. You know, I I've been as you've been um, we've been advertising for you to come, and I don't say this lightly. Um, when I think of pastors that walk truly in the office of a pastor, you and Howard Jones are at the top of the list. It's the way you guys operate in a church setting, but in your home settings, in your in your daily lives of pastoring people. You know, I I came out of life in Christ Church. We call him Pastor Chris. He's not a pastor, and he'll be the first to tell you.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

Yes, that's right. And so he's more pastoral, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Yeah, but Chris is a lot more rapostal. But you guys are you guys are the pinnacles of in my in my sight and heart of what pastors look like. But tell me a little more about some of the challenges that revival has caused. Um because it does, it does, it causes challenges.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

There's always a cost to revival personally, if you're gonna be a revival person. But we understand God's always at revival. Yes. 365, He's always at us, He's always wanting to save, set free, He's always wanting to deliver, He's always wanting to heal. Um, so we become that revival atmosphere. We carry that wherever you go. You know, it's not uh something we just show up to an event. And I think that's been something that's been misled by churches. You know, it's if you're already revival, every service you walk into, no matter what building you walk into, you're already carrying revival. So you're in revival. That's right. You know, and uh how do you sustain that? It is costly. It is. Um, it's mainly based off a life of prayer and yielding um and the what's the Lord burning you? I mean, it really is. You know, you was talking about the pastoral part of it. You know, I still pastor my church, and then two nights a week I'm in another man's church, you know, but we do it together. Most people think I pastor there because I do all the announcements, I pick up all the offerings, I do all the transitions. You know, years ago, and just to and I'm gonna try to come back on this, but years ago, God told me he said, I want you to learn to see me. And I didn't really understand what he meant. So as a pastor son at the time I was a youth pastor, yeah, and he said, Don't close your eyes during the service, never pray with your eyes, come on, watch me move in a room so you can watch me and know what to do, and you know, see me move in the room. Jesus stuff.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

So yeah, he looked to heaven when he spoke to his father. Yeah, I've always I've always had a problem with this. Go ahead, but it's been taught.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Yeah, it's part of unlearning, you know, you gotta unlearn. But you know, you know, God called me the pastor, and I and I love being a pastor, and I know that's what my call is. I've had people say, you know, some people are frustrated, you know, stand up if you think you're an apostle or a prophet. Now I operate in a lot of gifts prophetically and teach a lot. I do, I do a lot of that. But but a pastor, and and one time God spoke to me and he said, tell me, you know, if you're a shepherd, when is the shepherd celebrated? Just because the sheep stays alive? That's the job that's given. If you let your sheep die, then you ain't a shepherd. Come on. So, and we want to be celebrated just because our sheep are alive and healthy. That's the that's the ordinary, that's exactly what it's supposed to be doing. You know, that's what you signed up to do. I'm I'm keeping I'm keeping my sheep alive. I'm trying to keep them as healthy as possible. And here's what I found out if I have a sheep that's wounded and I don't have the the material or the time to heal that sheep, I gotta find someone that can. That's right. And so one time I had a person who was going through some stuff I had never dealt with. I didn't know how to counsel them. You know, I could give them biblical scripture, but they needed more time than that. And I sent them to another church to sit under another shepherd. And that way they could be healed, you know, and they just maintained in our church because everybody would ask it, well, you just, you know, but there's a lot of times people have come to me as a shepherd and said, Hey, I live here, I live there. I hate I know a good pastor in that town, I'll connect you with that pastor because I'd rather you be in the kingdom than just be in my church, you know, and and that and that changes a lot of a pastoral mindset. You know, I mean, they're thinking, well, you know, I got to grow my flock. No, wait a minute. God says, feed my sheep. That's right. So even in this environment where we're coming together as multiple pastors into one building to have revival, it's creating opportunities for people to encounter God. My goodness. You know, so so if if, and I hate to put it this way, but it makes sense to worldly people. If you're a church and you want people to encounter God as much as possible, how many opportunities are you making that happen in your church? That's right. If it's just Sunday mornings, how are you expecting these people that you're shepherding to be effective in the kingdom of God when you're giving one time, a few hours maybe a week, there you go, for them to have that kind of offer opportunity. And if you're a Christian, you need to look at that. You need to say, I want as much opportunity as I can to encounter God. When people first get saved, they'll look for revivals. You know, they're having a revival in another town, they'll go. Yep, you know, they'll go because they want to be in an environment and have an opportunity to encounter what God's done in their life. And over time, we lose that and we settle in in routines, and routines kill relationships. That's probably what I'll be preaching tonight. Is uh routine and relationship and learning the difference. Yeah, go back and watch it. Yeah, yeah, because a routine Christian to me is what's killed the American church.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

It is it is the rut that we have all we do it in our work life, we do it in our marriage life, we do it in our church life. We look for what we like in our routines, and if anybody messes with it, then we get out of sorts most times, you know.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Yeah, people have talked to me a lot about they want what Victoria and I have. How do you all stay so madly in love? And it's the simple, it's so simple that it most people can't accept it.

SPEAKER_02 13:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

We make sure we never make a rut. Yeah, I don't care what it is in life, we don't make a rut. Because if you make a rut, you get stuck in it. It's the same thing with Christ. Right, right. If you well, if I'm gonna get up at 5 a.m. and from 5 a.m. to 5 20, I'm gonna drink my coffee and I'm gonna read my Bible. You're in a rut. You know, I intentionally change my whole life basically every day. And that's hard for someone that likes structure. Yeah, but God told me to turn it upside down, right? And what I have honored about you all, because it's it's our heart here as well, uh, I catch a lot of flack, especially in this town. Um, you know, I I'll I'll preach at a Baptist church, we go support Baptist church, um, and nothing gets Baptist at all. We're non-denominational. And so when you get those those denominational lines, you know, it gets people get weird. We'll go support their their revivals. If they're having a good Bible teaching meeting, we're there as a church. And I caught a lot of flack, and I'm still catching it, uh, about we bring in you guys. I mean, we're on a constant rotation, and it's it's because I want people to experience something else. I don't have everything, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:39

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

We don't designed to carry everything. No, that's right. And you know, I've had I've had other people ask me, and I'm sure they've asked you, how are y'all doing this? How do you get all the egos in the room? And I have always said this, and I mean it with everything in my heart. If you know your identity in Christ, I don't I don't have to be Clint. I don't have to be Chris McDonald. I don't God created me fearfully and wonderfully made me in my gifting. Amen. That's right. And and so I don't, and that's when we get into these revival deals, and you guys have so uh seamlessly done this, and that has been like we Victoria and I watch we watch the the revival services every week with you guys. And I I see these you know mat scots and everybody come rolling in, right? And in pastoring big churches and doing all this stuff, but there's that ego is checked at the door because they want to see God move in people's lives.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

But there is a new season of ministers now, too, that have are are all recognized, and what you recognize as well is that you know, 2020 we was all deemed unessential. Uh the church should have been the first thing to help through the pandemic and still the last thought. Yep. Um, and we had got to that, you know, and and really it was a scoreboard that we saw an elf in, you know, as as a church. Come on. We have failed the American church, it's failed the people. And so you have to have a, I got, I can't go back to do what I did. I can't. I can't go back and tell everybody that their mean kids was great, and you know, and I love to have them in the service and do all that, do all that stuff that pastors do that really are political more than it is spiritual. Man, come on, say that. So, but uh, you know what what you're saying there, God showed me something years ago, and we had a right when this revival first started, the first year of 2021, uh, we called all our pastors that thought they might want to be part of it under the under the eye of Bishop Lance. And he he said, Hey, get all these guys that you're connected to in a room. So we all called them out, I don't know, it was 15, it's probably maybe 14, 15 senior pastors there. And uh we said, we're just gonna pray together and seek the face of God for a region. So we did. You know, there's only four or five of them still existing with us, you know. Uh, but that's okay. But that's okay. That's right. But what God told me in the room is when David tried to bring the presence of God back, okay, when he tried to bring the presence of God back, he did it the way the Philistines done it. Yep. Because they had said, hey, we're gonna put it on a new cart and we're gonna move it. And so he just thought, hey, it worked for them, I'm gonna do it for us, and we're gonna, but he used the way the world does it. And we turned the church into trying to get the presence of God in the way we turn our churches into worldly thinking and worldly process. But what he said is he said when he decided to get the presence back the right way, there was priests that had to carry it, there was people that had to sacrifice the bulls, and David danced out front, you know. So everybody had a part to the six-step, sacrifice, six-step, sacrifice, you know, and he said, Sometimes, Clinch, you'll be sacrificing, sometimes you might be out front doing the dancing. He said, But sometimes you might be the one that praise, you know, depends on what, but as long as the presence of God is moving back into the house of God, do whatever needs to be done. Yeah, and so when we started getting in the room with with uh pastors and leaders, you know, I don't have to be the one out front. I don't have to be the David. I can be the one that's killing the bulls if you need me to kill the bulls, you know, and and I'll do whatever that that I'm needed to do in the room. And these men of God that we're connected to, it's amazing what God's done. And you know he'll bring them in, and like you said, you know, you were talking about you know, the local pastor here you connect with. You just know there was a God. Yep, yep. Because they have a heart that you got. Yeah, and when they connect, it's like I don't have to have a microphone. I've been in rooms and we've been preaching, and they'll just say, hey, you know, what you got? You know what I mean? And you you're like, what? You know, and you have to go. Uh, but but it it's good because it ain't about me and my show and my thinking, yeah, you know, and um, and sometimes I'm just scared we're gonna drop a microphone because there's so many pastors there and they can just preach it up, you know, and you never get it back. Uh, but but it's been so good to see men of God that was willing to say, I'll sit at the table, um, and I'll say this, and then I'm gonna turn it back over to you. No, you keep it. In the first year of the revival, I was studying one morning early, and and God took me to Luke 14. And Luke chapter 14 is the invitation to the wedding feast. And he said, you know, come sit at the table. And we still do this today in our ceremonies, in our wedding ceremony. He said, take a seat at the table, but take a lesser of the seat. There you go. In our wedding feast now, you know, we know the groom and bride, and you know what they sit in the middle, and then the least go out. Yeah, the best man, made them honors, then it goes out that way, way from the center. And he said, Take the lesser of the seat, because it'd be better for you. It'd be better for you if you take the lesser of the seat. Yep, then me come get you and say, Why are you way down here? Come up to the more honorable seat. Come on. And so, what we want to do is push our way into the honorable seat because we want to be the closest we can. Instead of, and God said this, he said in the Bible, he said, I'll have to remove you from the most honorable seat, and it'll be embarrassing for you. As he said, so it'd be best for you to take place. So I just thought, hey, if I'm in the room, that's at the table. You know what I mean? I'm at the table, and if you know, if nobody asks me my opinion, I'm good. Yes, you know, but very rarely happens because I'm I can't help but talk. It's just something that flows out of. But uh, but I just want to be in the room, and wherever God wants to place, even though I'm a senior pastor, you know, and everybody's like, hey, you're a senior pastor, you need to do this, you need to do that. Like, man, I'm good. I'm in the room. I'm at the table. Yes. And when he wants me, yes, he'll come get me and say, Hey, I need you to sit right here. And then there's times that I've I've went in, he's uh he's called me up to minister or do whatever, and he used me, and then it's like, okay, and now he goes gets Howard or he gets Bishop or whoever, you know, create, and he'll bring them into the room and he'll set them down, and you just go take the lesser of the seat. You know, you're at the table, man. I mean, look how many people that don't get to sit at the table.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

That's so yeah, it's so rich right there because you know, one of the things that I have always it's almost a telltale side, and it's just because I walked it so I I understand it. You know, I I can't speak into your your um experiences. I may I may be able to relate some ways, but you know your experiences, right? And so when God called me to preach, it was the absolute last thing that I ever wanted. And it's always a telltale sign when I see someone say, Man, I want that microphone. No, you don't you have no idea the way that comes with this. But when people People just want to sit at the table.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

Just man, I'm guess what? This is the crazy thing about if you look at that Luke chapter 14. This is God gave me this revelation in this. When you are, even if you're sitting at one of the lesser seats, you're eating the same food. That's right. And you're getting served the same way. You get served the same way. And that has always been just that mentality. I'm like, listen, you show up for the wedding to see the ceremony and for the food. Let's just be honest, that's what you're there for, right? So it doesn't matter where you sit, you saw the ceremony and you eating good.

SPEAKER_02 22:38

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

And this is that mentality, but people want so badly the platforms and the, and I think it's part of the culture that we're in. You've got these influence. Man, listen, I don't, I there's a reason I have no social media. Because I, you know who I want to impress? That's right. I could care less what your opinions. I mean, I'm human. Right. They say things, sometimes it's things, but at the end of the day, man, I got to see the ceremony and I got to eat good food.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

That's right. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 23:16

That's where my heart goes.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

He ain't removed me from the table. No. You know, and honestly, even as a pastor, even though we're pastors, you know, my obligations are the same, is the same. You know, and my spiritual father, the first time I sat down with him, I was so nervous. I thought, this dude has forgotten more about the Bible than I would ever know. Yep. You know, and I thought he's gonna ask me my nine points of eschatology. You know, he's gonna ask me. Oh, but you know where to begin. Yeah, he's gonna ask my doctrine and what's your process of hermeneutics, you know, and how do you study out the word and you know, and all this stuff. And I was, I mean, I was I didn't sleep at all that night. We wouldn't have dinner that next day, but lunch. And his first question with me was, How is your marriage? Oh my. And I thought, I got this one. We're good. He said, Wrong answer. And so I thought, well, failed anyway. And so he set me down for the next three months and worked out priorities of a leader and ministry. And he said, if you don't get this right, Clint, you'll never be effective in the kingdom of God. And so he said, at the end of the night, there's only two covenantal, really, two covenantal relationships that you're in God and your wife. There it is. He said, if those two are pleased with you, you had a successful day. My goodness. And when you put it in that perspective, it's not as chaotic as you think it is, because you know, those are the two I love the most. Yes. And so if I look at it and say, I gotta keep God first, my wife second, then everything else will flow after that. Yes. Even ministry, the church, pastoral roles, preaching, traveling, whatever it may be. My kids, everything fell in line after that. And so now, like, let's say I want to go fishing. You know, I like outdoors, I love to hunt, I love to fish. If I want to go do those things, first thing I do is God, what do you got for me today? Yep. Is there any time that I don't have gotten a lot of times? I get a phone call or God says, nope, I need you to go do this. You I call that person, you gonna call me yesterday, you didn't call them today. You know, so whatever. God gives my first. Then I go to my wife say what's going on today, what's what's happening today, here's where we're at, what would you say? And if she clears it, then I've cleared the two things I need to do, then I can go fishing.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

Amen.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

But I gotta keep my priorities in order, or if not, your your other things will keep you like your priority. As a pastor, this is what he told me. He said, if you don't schedule your priorities in a day, people will schedule them for you. Oh my goodness. They'll make everything in their life your priority. Yep. And he said, you'll have to learn that these are the priorities. Be secure enough as a pastor to tell people, no, I can't do that today. Yep. You know, I'll get to that later, or we'll talk later.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

When I see pastors that burn out, it's always this. And when you put it in very simple terms, they set their self on fire to keep somebody else warm. And you will burn yourself out. The greatest piece of advice I got um when God called me into ministry was I I was told, do not let ministry become a mistress. That's right. And when I heard that, because there are times in in as a pastor, you you know this, there are times that there are things that start to creep in and they grab priority, and the next thing I know, I'm I'm turned around and I haven't I haven't spoken to my wife today. Right, that's right. I we're two ships passing in the night. That's right. Because, you know, when we are one, it's just like you and Ed. Yeah, y'all are both the pastor. That's right. You are one flesh, and so Victoria's going this way, and I'm going this way, and then I have to stop and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Ministry is being a mistress right now. That's right. And and I am so grateful, Pastor Church, and I know you do too, of people that get it.

SPEAKER_00 27:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

Because I'll tell them, hey, hold up, I can't today. That's right. I'm not, and and because I have to go back to this and make sure this is okay. God showed me something. We had a blessing service. I didn't know we were going to go this path, but here we go. We had a blessing service this past December. And, you know, we're not reinventing the wheel. You know, Victoria and I sat under two of the most loving, gifted pastors on the planet. And I honor them and I love them, and they are really a mom and dad in our lives. So they had blessing services. So, you know what? We'll have blessing services. Right. And I had experienced several of their blessing services. They would stand in agreement with people and pray. What we're believing for then. Well, I thought that's what we were gonna do. No, the Holy Ghost came into this building and just wrecked this place. I mean, we had churches, I think, I don't hold me to this, but I think there were nine different churches represented in the building. Victoria and I begin to pray with people, and I noticed this. This was so wild. And God, in the middle of all of this going on, starts to speak to me. We would pray with people, and then we would join hands and stand in agreement, and God would just whack these people, yeah. And every time we would touch, and I know this sounds weird, God would like we had people. Victoria and I would hold hands, and before we laid hands, before we said a word, they would fall out. Catchers were, it was chaos. People are just dropping like flies, and God said, The anointing comes through you two. I'm working in your marriage because you're one flesh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I I don't know if you do this, but I do this a lot. I'm like, is that really God? So I let go of her hand, and I noticed like this whole shift in the atmosphere. You could feel it in the room. That's right. And we reached over and touched each other, and this lady, praise God for a loving, gracious God. God's a great catcher, yeah. Because our catchers wasn't there, they were still laying others down, and when we touched hands, this lady went boom and hit the floor. Like she bounced. I thought she was dead. I heard Victoria say, dry bones live. I said, Oh Lord, she's dead. What are we gonna do now? We got to resurrect her. But you were talking about how you know that is so rich for young ministers, right? For just people, it you it's not just for pastors, yeah. If God in your spouse is not your number one, number two priority in that order, yeah, everything else will take control.

SPEAKER_02 30:11

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

And yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

Well, I want to say that too. You said something very vital there, but preachers burn out and stuff, and pastors do. And I was raised a pastor's son, so I've you know, I've been around this a long time, you know. Kind of feel like that farmers insurance commissioner. I've seen a few things, I know a few things, I've seen a few things, you know. And one reason that a lot of these pastors burn out, but one thing is they're doing it all by themselves. Come on. They they and we know as pastors we we call we can't bleed down. That's right. You know, I mean, you don't go to your congregation and say, hey, I'm struggling. That's right. You know, I don't even want to do this, I'm feeling like this, and why why? And so you don't bleed down on your congregation, you don't bleed on the sheep. So then you they brought some people they try to connect to, but then they want to take over, you know, and then or take some of the people away. And so now you're thinking, well, I can't do that because they'll come in and people will look to them as the shepherd, you know, and then I'm out, and then they take them away. You know, so there's insecurities as pastors. Now we all have them, you know, to say, hey, I'm not doing this right, and maybe they feel this, and if they see that person. Actually, you know, a lot of pastors don't even bring other preachers in because they're scared, they're insecurities, you know, they like them more, or they'll even tell them, hey, you know, someone in the congregation comes and says, Did y'all hear about the revival in town? Yeah, you know, this church over here, they're having revival, and God's been moving, they've extended it, and people's been saved. Like, oh no, no, no, no, don't go, don't go, don't go. Because they don't want them to see it's like they're going to a better restaurant, right? You know what I mean? And they even the pastors are consumer-driven. So, so what happens is they dry up their cells.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

My goodness.

SPEAKER_02 31:43

And they put on their faces, they come in and it becomes a job instead of a calling. And so that they walk through their job and then they're miserable inside and they'll give up and quit and go back to secular work or whatever. But what God had in the apostles was amazing. The the connectivity they had in the 11. Yep. You know, the only one that really broke that was Judas. But even that, you got to remember that Judas slept with Peter. Yep. He ate with James and John. Yep. He walked the same path, he saw the same heavy. He stripped over the same rock on the road. Yeah, yeah, you know. But when Judas betrayed Jesus, Peter and John didn't leave because of what Judas did. They didn't get mad and say, hey, you know, you know, this is all bad. This is all wrong. This is what Peter said. Peter told him, hey, he he left. He did what he did. Let's get someone else and let's go on. Yep. You know what I mean? But but the connectivity they had as a brotherhood where Peter could talk, and Paul wouldn't have disagreements. This is what I believe God's called us to into this fellowship we're in now. Where pastors can actually be open. You know, Bishop says, you know, he pulls back his shirt and shows you his scars, not physically, you know, spiritually, you know, but even as pastors, you need to connect with men of God and other pastors in the in the communities that are have the same heart that would say, hey, I'm going to show you how what's going on with me. Yep. And if we can connect and help build up this community, then we all win. So in this in Lynchburg, if if you're having church here and God's doing something amazing, and you said Pastor Lonnie, all right. If Pastor Lonnie's church blew up and all of a sudden, you know, they're looking for new buildings, they're people are getting saved. You're winning. Praise the Lord. You're winning here in this church. They might not be in your building, but the kingdom of God is growing. It is it is growing, and we've got so mindset that the only way God's going to grow in the kingdom if they come in my church. So churches fell into the sheep shipping, is what I call a business. You just ship sheep around. Yep. Yep. You know, and I mean there's nobody going out getting lost. That's it. There's nobody, you know, anybody gets saved in the church. You wouldn't believe how many pastors. You know, even in the Great Awakening, I just talked to our church. There was there was a man named Gilbert Tennant, who was a pastor. And Gilbert Tennant is one of the pastors for the Great Awakening. Um, and and he wrote a book that he believed that all pastors ought to be saved before they become pastors. Isn't that wild? That they were truly converted men. What he said. That had a walk-in relationship with the Father. And I thought, why would that be revelation in the Great Awakening? Because the pastors have become they they had dead men. And this is this, he's the one. I think I think he's the one. Maybe George Whitfield has said it or John Liston, but the one of the four men that was really credited for a great awake. But they said, the reason we have dead churches because we have dead men in pulpits. Come on. You know, and that is so true. We got dead men in pulpits who don't want to be there, who's giving book lectures. Come on, come on. They're doing book lectures, they're not having an anointing.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

In today's world, they're chat GPT sermons. That's all it is. Because they don't get into this and study for God's revelation to them. Right. I'm not saying that I listen, AI is a great tool. I use it. Hey, you can learn a language. Show me, pull all scriptures here. But when you start allowing Chat GPT to write your sermons, yeah, you sound real polished.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

You look real pretty.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

But that's an outside covering for fruit that's not right. Right.

SPEAKER_02 35:28

But now I'm telling you what, anointed people though, can recognize it. Oh. You know, I watched, I watched some people on Facebook, and I thought, when did you get that sharp? Come on. But I mean, I thought, when did you be able to get you know, something is up. You know, it was not this sharp six months ago. Right. And then, you know, and then all of a sudden they're up, you know, they're like, hey, do you know this, this, this, and I thought, but when you when you spend all day Saturday on a golf course and then go in and throw in a 30-minute message and then say, hey, we're a church, you're you're a social club. Come on. You know, that's a coffee club. You're a social club. Yep. And and and I want to say this, and I'm not, I want we can talk a little bit more about this. We have got so programmed as pastors to uh meet the needs. Yeah. Meet the needs to meet the needs of the church, of our people, of the community, like y'all do. Y'all got needs here in this community, y'all recognize, you know, uh feeding the hungry and and helping the homeless, and that's definitely a need. But but you know, when you look at it scripturally, I was thinking about this the other day. You know, scripturally, when God when God had the demoniac, demoniac ran to him. You know, he was naked. Yep. He was malnutrition. Yep. Malnutrition say right, malnutrition. He was skinning mouth. He was skinning mouth. Yep, yep. He was cut up, he'd been in chains. God didn't address none of that. He freed him. Yep. And then what does the next thing say? He says, and he was talking in his right hand. Fully clothed. Those things need to happen. Yep. But the freeing's got to happen before the feeding. And so to me, we got to spend more time in our churches and our board meetings, which is awful, most times, in our board meetings, talking about, hey, this need and that need all needs to be done. But the freeing of the people by giving them the gospel and giving them the love of Christ has to be priority. Yes. That was the church's whole ordeal. When you go back with what God established with Peter, he established the church was of freeing the people, giving them the gospel, giving them who they are. You know, let them know who Jesus is. And when we can re-establish that back at our churches, and not as soon. Years ago, I talked a message on David and Goliath. I forget what it was, but it was basic. You know, I thought everybody, I had somebody come with me after church and say, What do you mean? Wow. You know, and I thought, you don't know about the five stone. And they said, Well, we've heard of it, but we don't really know of it. Yep. And so when you start running in church people that don't know the basics, you know, and I thought, oh my Lord, I said, You know Nor's the Ark? You know Daddy on the Lions then, do you know these stuff? They're like, Well, we've heard of them. So I started to start a class and go back and teach basics on Wednesday nights. But but we get so program-oriented, we think everybody in the room knows, and sometimes they just need to have an encounter with God, and they need to know the true, true relationship with the Father and how to free people is with the gospel and him. He's the only one that can do it. Yep. You know, and that's the reason, like when you're talking about to come back to the revival that we've been part of. It is in the room to not have a service. We got good services. You do. We are a lot of churches that have good services. You know, that we used to say, Well, how was your service, Pastor? They say, Well, you know, we had three people fall out, or we had uh Sister uh hoop and diddle ran and shouted and you know and did her thing, you know, so the Holy Ghost moved. But how many souls was saved? Come on, how many people were set free? Come on, you know, and you know, they can't hardly count that. Yeah. Sure. You know, I had a guy tell me he said you can only track so much. So we uh we only thing we track is attendance, and and I thought, well, you know, if you're just tracking attendance and uh money, nickels and noses, yeah, if that's all you're tracking, then then you're probably missing what guys want to do. Come on.

SPEAKER_01 39:21

It's you were talking about basics. I uh growing up in the faith in life in Christchurch, all I ever heard was one message you're gonna get faith, or you're not yeah, that the and and early on in my walk, I was eating it like it was filet mignon, and then I got to this place for about a year that it absolutely drove me nuts. I would get in my truck after service and I'm like, dude, do you not know anything else?

SPEAKER_00 39:57

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:59

And I was, you know, you you know, part of my journey. I when I first got sober, I was doing all the other stuff that all people do, most people do during sobriety. I was going to all the meetings and all the stuff, and I had a sponsor. And he had told me, he said, You're gonna go to a meeting every day, right? This was early on. And um, I said, How long I gotta go to meetings? He said, Until you want to go to meetings. Made no sense at the moment. But when I was screaming at God one day about Chris McDonald preaching faith because I was fed up with faith, faith, faith, faith, faith, you know, he said, he's gonna keep preaching it until you get it. Yeah, I stopped my truck literally on highway 60 in the middle of the road, middle of the highway, and repented. Cars were going around me and I didn't care. I didn't even pull over. I thought, wow. I went into that next service. Guess what he was preaching on? Mark 11, faith. And here he was with fastballs, and I'm just trying to catch them. Yeah, and I thought, my gosh, here we go. Because you if you don't understand the basics, it's right, and you can't assume, you can't assume. I one of my first preaching gigs was in a nursing home. You see physically mature adults, right? And so I'm I'm going in and and I'm I'm trying my best. I have no idea how to bring, I don't even know how to put a sermon together. I was just asked to do it. I knew there was a call on my life, it had been confirmed multiple times, and so I okay, let's go preach. Go in week after week after week, and they're sitting in the table drooling on themselves, and you know, I mean, they're in nursing home, right? That's what you know. So I'll tell you this story and I'll we gotta wrap up. But I had there was a guy that liked to expose himself in the nursing home. They told me about this, but it didn't register, like I don't know why this didn't register. And so I'm standing up there and I'm doing everything I can to put the preacher and he exposes himself. And I thought, if this is all you've got for me, God, I'm out. I'm not doing this. This is crazy, you know. I get done with that sermon, and there was a lady that had they would roll her in and she would sit beside me where I where I was what podium was at. She sat right there, and she was drilled, and they they kept napkins. She could speak a little bit, but that's what she and after the service was over, and this guy had exposed himself, and I'm done, and I don't want to ever come back here. She reaches over and she touches my hand. And it took probably three or four times of her saying it before I could catch what she was saying. But she finally said, Miss Jesus. She said, She was 97 years old. Four days later, she got told me you should never stop speaking on a basis. And I that that changed everything in my heart. You know, we we go around our everyday lives, man. I was gonna cry early on a Saturday morning, but we go around our daily lives. You talked about this last night. We go into dollar stores, we go into Walmarts, we go, and we never see the people. No, we never we're so consumed in what we're doing to understand what we're really supposed to be doing, you know, and so when we're walking around and we're we're encountering people, are they seeing Jesus in you? Are are you are you being a an ambassador for Christ? I'm not talking about sitting there slapping them with a Bible, I'm talking about how are you walking? Are you walking in the authority that Christ gave you? Are you are you walking in the freedom that He has died for you to have? And that, you know, I see it all the time, and that's why that we have this podcast, because I want people to understand it doesn't matter if you're in a Mexican restaurant, if you're where you're at, you are an ambassador, you carry authority, you are walking with the authority of heaven in you, and everybody that you see should see Jesus in you. Amen. And so that's right, Pastor Clint. It has been an honor. No, it's an honor to sit here, man. We uh we love you guys, and uh we're just we're grateful. We're gonna pray us out. And so, Father, we love you, we thank you, we praise you. What an amazing father. What an amazing father. Thank you. Thank you. There are days that all I can do is just thank you, and today is what I'm doing. God, I ask you just to bless our listeners. Help them to find the authority that you die for them to have in Jesus' name. Amen.

unknown 45:57

Amen.