Confess The Mess with Johnny and Jess
An authentic and humorous take on Faith, Family, and life.
Confess The Mess with Johnny and Jess
🎙️S3: Ep.5 - Living Life through a Heavenly lens
As we navigate through the brick and mortar of life, we often forget to look up and see the celestial blueprint that shapes our existence. We delve into the transformation that a heavenly perspective can bring, reflecting on the recent Gallup poll findings and what it means to truly fear God in a world that sometimes seems to only casually 'love Jesus.' The discussion becomes a deeply personal one as we share stories that will challenge you to consider your own eternal identity and how it reflects in your day-to-day life.
Finally, we wrap things up on a note of spiritual anticipation, teasing future conversations on the unseen battles between good and evil, and the awe-inspiring depiction of angels in scripture – a far cry from their pop culture renditions. We explore the immense joy and challenges that come with walking the path of discipleship, emphasizing that our primary ministries begin right at home. Whether you're looking to find God in the everyday or seeking to understand your role in the grand tapestry of faith, this episode is an invitation to view life through a heaven-focused lens.
Hello friends, welcome back to.
Speaker 2:Confess the Mess, Confess the Mess. And I won't even mention Confess the Mess Nation that's died. Clearly no one's getting on board.
Speaker 1:But we have a shout out.
Speaker 2:We do.
Speaker 1:We have a shout out. What's the shout out To all my Ireland folks.
Speaker 2:Yo, what's up Ireland?
Speaker 1:So guess what Confess the Mess Nation Ireland likes us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not a big deal. We are the 69th most popular Christian podcast in Ireland, so we cut the top 70. Unbelievable.
Speaker 1:So if you're from Ireland and you're listening. Please email us, Let us know your story. We want to know more about you.
Speaker 2:We love you Ireland.
Speaker 1:We want to come visit you guys in ireland we really do.
Speaker 2:I actually have wanted to go to actually do so.
Speaker 1:That's the thing how cool is that?
Speaker 2:but anyways okay, let's dive in.
Speaker 1:We're gonna just dive in, but before well, you know I'm gonna update we're diving in, I'm gonna update, we're just gonna get right ahead and get started silence.
Speaker 2:So I'm just going to dive into this portion my own thing. I'm diving into what I want to say Do your thing, do your thing. So Jess and I are trying to rent a house. Oh, my gosh so we live in an apartment Some of you know this and we're trying to rent a house. Now I'm going to let you in on a little secret. If you've never attempted to rent a house before, it is the most painful post-covid experience, I feel like it's post-covid man?
Speaker 2:I don't know. I would rather get punched in the face by someone with axe hands than trying to figure out how to do this is horrible like literally, the market is so hot where we live, like the moment, and we're in the charlotte suburb yeah, the moment you put an application in, boom, it's gone.
Speaker 1:Someone's already gotten it somehow, some way I'm not sure how it's it's like, it's like you know, black friday, like 1201 am, like there's like 15 grills and you didn't get it and you were like the 10th in line somehow I almost wish it was like black friday for the house.
Speaker 2:You, just like everybody, lines up at the end of the street and you race to the house and you're tripping people. I'd rather do that. At least I feel like I have a chance I can't even see my opponent yeah, oh, it's been hard the other person signing a lease is my opponent. But yeah, we're on our third home that we're trying to get. We just put our applications in today, so we're waiting to hear back. But, man, it has been an arduous, painful journey.
Speaker 1:It's horrible. It's not been a pleasant experience. Now I will say the realtor we've been working with is absolutely amazing. So if you are in the Charlotte area and you are in need of a realtor, we will get you hooked up. You just message us and we'll get you our guy David's information and you can work with him.
Speaker 2:He's such a cool man.
Speaker 1:He's West Coast all day. Baby from Colorado, if that's even considered West Coast.
Speaker 2:But we're all the way in North Carolina. We're going to go ahead and call it whatever.
Speaker 1:But no, it's, it's been um, it's been a humbling experience living in an apartment at 40 years old and 44.
Speaker 2:It's funny that we say that right Like oh, I'm so humbled and it has been a humbling experience.
Speaker 1:Well, no, it has been, because the things that you have as an adult with like families right, when you have a family and you live in small quarters, you, you, you have already taken for granted everything Like every time we go to somebody's house, I'm like in awe that they have a house.
Speaker 2:And we and we've, we've. You know our world, like the pinnacle of adulthood is home ownership.
Speaker 1:Oh, I don't care about that, I care about just a yard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I know, that.
Speaker 1:But I'm saying, like that's a, it's a pride thing, like we, we've made it, we've we've bought a home. See, not for me it's not a pride thing, and that's because I'm not a man. For me it's a. I stay home and I homeschool our kids and I need a yard for them to go out base. We need space. So for me it has nothing to do with pride. It has everything to do with the fact that I took all of my house for granted. I did not appreciate the space, I did not appreciate the freedom of sending my kids outside and lock in a sliding glass door on them. Yes, I'm the mom that does that. Boom, go outside, you're locked outside.
Speaker 2:Stay there.
Speaker 1:And yes, it was 120 degrees when I did it.
Speaker 2:No, I'm just kidding. Here's a water bottle.
Speaker 1:But I'm just saying it's, it's. You know, we have two dogs, we have two bed of fish, we have a leopard gecko. We have six people living in a house and it's a 1300 three bedroom. So we are currently in our sunroom right now doing our podcast. Yeah, you know, it's just.
Speaker 2:I'm just, we're ready space you know we need space, so that's how we're going to open that up. Boom, all right now I've done diving into what I want to dive into.
Speaker 1:I've complained about home rentership and now we'll move on.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to read a verse and we're just going to bounce off this Bible verse and talk about what we're going to talk about. So 2 Corinthians 5,. I'm going to start in verse 15 to 17. And he died for all. Talking about Jesus, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, talking about Jesus, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him, who died for them and was raised again. So, from now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new is here. Why don't we live like that? Why don't we live as though we're new creations? So the the the reason why we're talking about this is we've been having this conversation, jess and I, about viewing the world, our circumstances, our lives through a heavenly lens yeah what does that mean?
Speaker 1:well, I mean, it could mean so many different things, like, like you know, there's been times in the past where johnny's like prayed for, like to be like king, like not just kingdom minded right, but heaven minded. Like how can I live my life today if heaven is the finish line, like what can I do today that I didn't do yesterday? That would make me heaven minded, or heaven like through the lens of the heaven being the outcome. And you know, we have this cheat, this cheat book right To tell us what we need to do. It's called the Bible and it's not that we have, it's not that, it's a work.
Speaker 1:And it's funny because a lot of people look at Christianity or, you know, faith in Jesus, as work. It's work. It's easier not to be a Christian, it's easier to just keep doing what I'm doing, but I don't know if you guys knew this or not and lean in on this one. It's for us. The Bible is for us and it's not about like doing the things to get to heaven. It's about the peace and joy and all the things that you feel when you're doing those things. Yeah, it's for us right, like.
Speaker 2:What would you like? How would you handle situations? Or how would you deal with things under pressure? Or how would you handle a relationship, relationship that maybe wasn't going well, if you lived a life that truly was viewed through a lens of heaven, an eternal lens, like you are an eternal being.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You love Jesus. You are a new creation. Yeah, so says 2 Corinthians. Like, what does that look like? Why do we fall into these traps where it's like I know I'm going to heaven, I know this, so why do I let little things here on earth bother me, when I'm an eternal being and my reward is waiting for me? This life here on earth is a blip. Yet we stress and we suffer from all this anxiety and and jess and I've been battling with this right now, as we're trying to get in the house it's like like why, man, I trust god, I know god's gonna do what god's gonna do and it's gonna be his plans better than my plan. He has good plans.
Speaker 2:red rocks worship yeah, but it's man, it's, it's like, like, we don't, we just don't do it, we forget, we forget. So Gallup if you've heard of Gallup, they do polls for everything every year.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So Gallup did this poll about the percentages of Americans who believe in each of the five religious entities. When I say religious entities, I'm talking about God, angels, heaven, hell and the devil.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I find this interesting. They do this every year. Back in 2003, almost 90% of all Americans believed in God. Today we're down to 74%. That's a huge drop in 20 years.
Speaker 1:Can I talk about that real quick? Because belief in God, I think, is one thing, in relationship with Jesus is another. It is and I'm going to say that because I believed in God like 15 years ago you would not have known that I believed in God, because now that I'm walking with Jesus in a relationship, I'm not perfect by any means of stretch and I never will be, never, I'll never have arrived, will ever arrive. Okay. So the thing is is coming out here to the east coast, the bible belt, everyone, and their mom, aunt and uncle sam says that they believe in God because their grandma took them to church when they were like five and they've been a believer their whole life.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But it's weird because in the West Coast people don't do that. People don't claim to be a follower if they're not. In my experience, like not not if they're not, but like it's not, so it's not so prevalent, like like I don't know how, but like it's not, so it's not so prevalent, like like I don't know how. Do you know what I'm trying to say? Can you help me with my words?
Speaker 2:Do you know what I mean? Well, what's you know here, here in the Bible belt, it's you know everybody grew up in the church in some way, shape or form.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that doesn't necessarily make you a Christian, though. Yeah, and so well, and I think that meaning. That's what I'm meaning, because believing in god and having a relationship with jesus are completely separate.
Speaker 2:Just so we're aware. Yeah, yeah, okay, because there's people that believe in god, that don't believe in jesus. Correct, so, even a god. So 74 of americans believe in god, roughly 58 believe not only that jesus was a real person, yeah, historical human being but you can't argue that, by the way, that's you can't argue that Almost all theologians would agree that Jesus existed.
Speaker 2:Was he more than a religious leader? Only 58% believe that Jesus was a person, and not only a person. He was also God. So there's a big mix there 74% believe in God. Now, I find this, this progression, uh interesting. So so, as of 2023, 74 of americans believe in god, 69 believe in angels, 67 believe in heaven, 59 believe in hell and 58 believe in the devil, and I find that interesting. It's easier to believe in the happy, good stuff, the stuff that makes us feel good Sure there's God, sure there's a heaven. Ooh, I don't know about that heaven and hell stuff, because if I believe in that, then I have to stop the crazy culture and society that I'm a part of. That's going to affect me. So, no, I don't believe in in heaven, or I don't believe in hell or the devil. I believe in heaven and God. Sure, absolutely. That sounds great. Sign me up for that. And not so much the devil, though.
Speaker 1:So can I take a side note real quick. I am ADD. So I was watching a reel the other day and this guy was talking about how there was this big wig pastor.
Speaker 1:I don't know a name I wish I did and he was this mega church pastor right, best not to call him out, in case he's listening Mega church pastor and he did some stuff and he broke some laws and he did some things and he ended up in prison. And this guy goes to interview and talk to his buddy, his pastor, and he says to him Pastor, so-and-so, I have a question for you. He said yeah, what's up? He said when did you fall out of love with Jesus? You know what he said. He said I never stopped being in love with Jesus. The problem wasn't that. The problem is I didn't fear God.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't fear God man the wrath of God that hits. It hit me when I watched it. I was like dude.
Speaker 2:That is good, because I mean honestly, so many of us, we, we, we may love Jesus, we're not following Jesus. You know what I'm saying? Like I see, I see it every day, I know. And people who claim Christ, you have, you have. You have a couple of different camps. You have the people who claim Christ. You have a couple of different camps. You have the people who claim Christ. And then you view their life and you're like that's just not true. You don't claim Christ, you don't know Christ, you don't know Jesus, you have never been transformed by the power of.
Speaker 2:Jesus, and then there's the other camp.
Speaker 1:And for the record, friends, if you're like, I don't know if I've been transformed, read Galatians 5.22. And transform.
Speaker 2:Read Galatians 5.22. Do you have the fruit of the?
Speaker 1:Spirit. Do other people see that in you? Do you have some of the fruit? Well, I'm saying we all struggling, yeah, yeah, go ahead. Sorry.
Speaker 2:But I mean, the other camp is man. These people are deeply devoted Christians, they love Jesus, they're pursuing God and we still screw it up. Right, that's us. I'm a pastor, I still do this.
Speaker 1:I still mess it up. We're just broken, we're sinners.
Speaker 2:And this is the thing. If we're living our lives through a heavenly lens, wouldn't that change our behaviors? Wouldn't that change our reactions? Wouldn't that change our relationships? Wouldn't that change our life at work? Wouldn't it change everything? If we live a life with a heavenly lens and that means heaven's here on earth, because now we're experiencing joy, we're experiencing the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, right here where we are in this broken world, knowing that our reward, our eternal reward, is waiting for us just around the corner. And we mess this up, we forget, we do. And we mess this up, we do, we forget, we do. And it's not only that we forget. It's Satan's plan to help us forget, to distract us, to pull us away, to make us believe in God, but not Jesus or the devil. Satan doesn't want you to believe in him. He doesn't want you to believe in him.
Speaker 2:He wants you to not believe in him so he can continue to lie and deceive and manipulate and move you here and there and help you in your sin.
Speaker 1:That's what he wants you know and honestly, like you know, it's in the hard seasons of life where we're walking and it's like people are like why would God, if God was real, if he really loved me, why would he let me go through this? Why would this be? First of all, I want you to go back into Genesis and I want you to read the fall. So that's partly why because we live in a broken world. That was not intended. But also, I don't know if you've ever heard of the word sanctification, but when you're walking with the Lord and you're in relationship with Jesus, there's going to be times in your life where things are going to, they're going to occur and that's going to sharpen you and it's going to sanctify you. It's going to help get you prepared to follow Jesus even more.
Speaker 1:Right, like so, for instance, I feel like I have failed in this process of finding a home because I've kind of lost, like some of the days I get, I get, I feel, I feel depressed about it, it makes me upset, I I feel disheartened and I feel like let down and and and. Then in those moments when I like check myself, when the holy spirit like checks me, like dude, like god is still good, even if dude like, even if calm down, girl like but like, but. Then it's like, and then I'm like man. I'm sorry, lord, that like I have this heart posture. You're so good Like this apartment is everything we needed it to be.
Speaker 1:How dare I question that? Yeah, right, and that's. But that's for me, that's my relationship with the Lord and that's God like saying are you ready? Because I believe God gives you things in your life, because he's like she's ready. Yeah, like, we've walked through this chess, we've been here, girl, I parted the ocean, I parted the sea, then I'm going to do it again. So that's why, like, I love to journal, because I like to go back and see through a heavenly lens of what.
Speaker 1:God's done in my life and how he's moved and I love the opportunity that we've had being able to come out here on faith and I love how God just continues to glorify himself. But that's also part of being a follower of Jesus is sharing your testimony. So I don't know if I'm talking to any closet Christians right now, and what I mean by that is, yeah, you know, the coming out saying for when people say they're gay, they came out of the closet. We're going to flip the switch on that and we're going to say closet Christians, where it's time to come out of your closet and don't just like send the private messages to your Christian friend like the reels about something to do with Jesus. You know, check that. I thought about you.
Speaker 2:What would my non-Christian friends think? Why don't you?
Speaker 1:share it on your stories, don't you share it with your? You know what I'm saying, because that breaks God's heart, by the way. Share your faith. That breaks God's heart. And guess what that's doing? That's paralyzing your walk with Jesus. Because you, because you're not being bold in your faith.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you're clearly not living with a heavenly lens. No, because if you were, you would not fear what other people think about your faith. In fact, you'd be so in love with Jesus and proud that you follow Jesus that you wouldn't be afraid to share your faith.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, never live for a man, because you're going to be let down all the time. You can't live with the idea of being accepted here. That's why you have to have a heaven lens, read your Bible and look at and in the process of that you are going to feel more fulfilled and more joyous and more peace that you could ever get from validation from any person.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like I could never expect Johnny to validate me the way that I need to be validated. Like no, cause I'm broken.
Speaker 2:I'm a terrible sinner. We're broken human beings.
Speaker 1:And it's only Jesus in us that continues to carry us forward. But we have to. But we won't know what heaven lends is if we're not reading our Bible.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We need to know Jesus. Who is he? What did he do? What did? What did he do? How did he act? What would he do? Like the bracelet WWJD what would Jesus do.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you I can live with a heavenly lens, knowing that my heavenly father loves me. You know how I know my heavenly father loves me. Maybe you think this is a joke, but I don't find it to be funny at all. So the Arizona Cardinals just released their 2024 schedule. Yeah, for the second time in three years, the Cardinals are coming here to North Carolina to play the Panthers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that never happens.
Speaker 2:So we're going to get tickets, and so two out of three years I get to see my beloved Cardinals play.
Speaker 1:And some of y'all are like's not proof of God?
Speaker 1:yes, it is it is proof of God. But, friend, lean in. He cares about the little things. We always want God to move in these mighty, huge ways, but he's all about the. He's about the fine print. He's about the fine print. That's why God says to be still and know that I'm God. So hush your face, hush your heads, and I'm saying that to myself too. We've got to hush it out. But check it out. Right around the corner from I think I've talked about this in a podcast before I'm going to talk about it again there is a business around the corner from where we live called Sunstate, and it's founded out of Phoenix, arizona. So, and that's, I'm a girl, I'm an.
Speaker 2:Arizona girl, we used to drive past all the time. It's funny, it's right next to where we live. We could drive past it every day. Every day.
Speaker 1:we leave this apartment we see our little cactus. Sunstate sign, Sun State sign. I can't speak and I believe God's. You know, god is in the detail.
Speaker 2:God is most definitely in the details and that's why and he loves us, he loves you. If you slow down long enough and if you put some blinders onto the distraction and the noise, like you will see all the ways in which God loves you specifically. Yeah, you can find it. You can find it in everything and everywhere you go. You can find it in your conversations with strangers, you can find it in your interactions with your loved ones. You can find it at your workplace, at your school, no matter what. If you're looking for it, you will see it and many people will be like well, that's just coincidence. No, I don't believe that. I believe that God is working for your good all the time and if we are living a life through the lens of eternity and what's waiting for us man like?
Speaker 2:what a beautiful world we live in, despite its brokenness, despite the pain and the hurt and the hardship. What a beautiful world.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's incredible, I see trees. I was waiting for that to go you know, and, and, and.
Speaker 1:We're going to start something new at the end of this podcast and we're going to do it every.
Speaker 2:That's news to me.
Speaker 1:That's news to me and we're going to pray over the person, or the people that are feeling the stirring of wanting to say yes to the Lord and have them be the leader of their life. Like, we want an opportunity for you to be able to start your relationship now. Um, maybe you're alone in your own house and you don't have anybody to talk to. You don't even know where to begin. Like, we want you to start your love story right now, tonight, today, this morning, whatever, whatever time of day it is, um, so I think we're going to just be when we close out from here on out. I just I feel, I feel the Lord telling me to say that. So, like, we're going to pray over our listeners.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe that haven't been able to have a. They don't know. They've been listening and they have not said yes to Jesus. They have not asked him to be the leader of their life, so this kind of sounds foreign to them. So let's give them an opportunity to see what God can do in their life?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's do that. Now you brought it up, let's go All right, let's just do it. Father, god, lord, I just pray. I pray over any and all listeners tonight, father. I pray that you bless them, lord. I pray that this podcast blesses them.
Speaker 2:And maybe there's that one person who is listening tonight, father, and they're feeling a stirring from you, father, from your Holy Spirit, lord, they're feeling this stirring. Maybe they've just lived a life far from you. They've rejected you, they've denied you, they just haven't been close to you, father. So we ask, father, we ask that you come into this person's life, father, that they would just give their lives to you right now, Father, that they would just surrender all to you, that they would acknowledge that they are a sinner, father, and they would repent from that, they would turn from their sin tonight, father, that they would say yes to you, that they would invite you in to be the leader of their life, that they would say yes to you, that they would invite you in to be the leader of their life, that they would surrender all things to you tonight, father, father, we just pray over anybody listening, lord, that is feeling this stirring in their heart to say yes to you tonight, father, that they can have eternal life with you.
Speaker 2:They can begin living a life with a heavenly lens right here and right now, just by saying yes to you tonight, father. So we ask, father, that you just bless this person. If that's you, I just pray for you right now that you would invite Jesus into your life to be the leader of your life. Yes, to take hold of all things, to surrender your past self and become a new creation, right here and right now.
Speaker 1:Covered in the blood of Christ. In this prayer.
Speaker 2:Yes, Jesus. So, Father, we lift everybody up listening to this tonight.
Speaker 1:Father Amen, amen, gosh. And what a joyous celebration that is. I remember when we first came to the Lord. Oh my gosh, what an emotional moment. Maybe nobody even felt that, but man.
Speaker 2:Man, if that's you today, if you have given your life to Jesus today, I would love to hear from you. Oh, please To email us just a thumbs up or anything. I would love to continue a conversation with you.
Speaker 1:I know I would love to be able to walk. We have so many listeners. I'd love to interact with you guys. It's just like. That's just like.
Speaker 2:But maybe you said yes to jesus and you have no idea what to do now. Yeah, so I would love to be able to walk that we walk with you in that. So email us, we'll. We'll leave our, our email, yeah, yeah, in the bio or whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you know, yeah in the section below, and there's so much beautiful discipleship that follows. You know, when you surrender your life to the Lord, like it's so it's so impactful and gorgeous, beautiful, and God is so good and he's going to move in such a mighty way in your life if you'll just let him do that. But on the flip side of things which I feel like this is another topic we need to probably tackle, maybe even next week, like spiritual warfare and what that looks like. Like because when you say yes to jesus and you start living a life for christ, you just better get ready to take up your armor.
Speaker 2:We can definitely talk about all our attacks because it it is legit, it's fast.
Speaker 1:Maybe that's what we'll do, let's, let's, let's touch on that next week. Let's talk about spiritual warfare. Oh, that's good yeah, that's always a fun because nobody wants to talk about the hard stuff like that. It's like oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, the statistics tell me right here that only 50 of y'all think there's a heaven or hell. The rest of you think there's.
Speaker 1:It's all butterflies and rainbows, and there's not gonna be little chubby angel babies on a cloud. And if you haven't, if you have not read your scriptures y'all, what are the three words that follow anytime somebody sees an angel in scripture? Do not fear If it's a little chubby baby, or do not be afraid. Four words Whatever. Do not fear Whatever. Whatever version you read, you know, but like these guys are some boss bosses, you know. That's why, whenever our kiddos get good.
Speaker 2:If you ever want to read Ezekiel's description of what an angel looks like, or Google that and you'll see what an angel looks like, and it's. There's a reason why they're like do not be afraid. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you say donut, donut, you want some donuts? Baby Dude, I'm totally thinking about donuts right now. I'm sorry. No, I just, I really I love, I love this topic tonight.
Speaker 2:It's such an amazing and incredible reminder of like and I think a good practice for this, a good practice for this is is taking a moment, and it's funny Cause we just talked through this, through through our marriage class. We just, you know, about forgiveness and we're talking about the video that we're watching through right now media art of marriage, which is fantastic, but they're talking about there's a difference between reacting and responding.
Speaker 1:I'm a reactionary person.
Speaker 2:I have to work on that and it's five second difference between your reaction and your response, and those are two different things, there needs to be a five second.
Speaker 1:So what if?
Speaker 2:you took. Leave man just take five seconds or four like Daniel Tiger's mom. To acknowledge.
Speaker 2:Take a deep breath and count to four To simply acknowledge yeah, in all circumstances, what's waiting for you? Like you're eternal, your soul will live forever in one place or the other. Where is it that you want your soul to end up? And, man, if you're following Jesus, if you're pursuing Jesus, you're going to heaven. And what does it look like to just practice being heaven minded? Like everything we do, I'm going to work today. I'm not going to be upset about going to work. Thank you, jesus. I have a way to provide for my family.
Speaker 1:Well, and we got to remember something too, friends, because, listen, we've all had those jobs right when it's like oh my gosh, I hate my boss Every. I hate my boss Every time. I don't hate my boss, I love my boss. You go to work, right, every time you go to work Because so many people be like well, I'm not a pastor, I can't like minister to people. That's just not true, bro. That's not true at all. That's not true at all. God has you in the perfect place. Hey, Esther 414, you were made for such a time as this. That means that you legit were made for this time in this place, in this space, in this time in history, to be the eyes, hands and feet of Jesus.
Speaker 2:It is crazy to think you literally were created for this exact moment. Yeah For the job you're in the family you have.
Speaker 1:You have to believe it.
Speaker 2:You were put on this earth for that reason, the people that are in your sphere of influence. You're meant to minister to those people.
Speaker 1:And for the record, ladies and gentlemen, your first ministry is always your marriage and then your family. Please take care of your family Then your family, then your family, and if you are a fellow pastor, you know this you have to take care of your family. You have to take care of your family and your have to take care of your family and your marriage.
Speaker 1:Don't let your work, burn you out, because God has given that to you. First right God marriage, kids, then church work or whatever. And then football. And then let me hear for some football. In the morning, not noon, yeah, so anyways, we're going to cut it probably short tonight. It's probably one of our shorter ones, not that it's really short.
Speaker 2:You know what? It was short, but impactful.
Speaker 1:It was so you know takeaways from this. You say you're a follower of Jesus.
Speaker 2:Don't hide it.
Speaker 1:Don't hide it. What are you?
Speaker 1:afraid of Go hide it Because, listen, go, hide it. Friends, we've talked about this before. We do not want to stand before the father in heaven and hear him say depart from me. I never knew you. I never knew you when I was hungry. You didn't feed me when I needed a place to say, you didn't house me, preach. We never want to hear that. We, we want to hear well done, good and faithful servant, please. We want to hear that it doesn't mean you're not going to get, you're not going to get it. Every time you're going to you're going to fall off. You're going to, you're going to need to be redirected, but do not say you follow Christ and you will not take up your cross and follow him. It doesn't mean you need to be that preachy guy on the corner of the boom box, but what it means is when you send your friend that personal DM because that's reals about Jesus and you love it, you share that on your story. Instead, you send it to a friend you know could use it from your work.
Speaker 2:Do the people you work with know you follow Jesus? Some of you? The answer is no.
Speaker 1:And also and I'll'll hey, I'll be convicted with you on this, let's work on our reaction responding.
Speaker 1:Let's be responsive instead of reactionary I'm with you like, let's let the lord be the forefront of our life. But, as always, if you ain't reading your bible, take it off the shelf, dust it off, and if we had a budget, I would send you one. If you ain't reading your Bible, take it off the shelf, dust it off, and if we had a budget, I would send you one if you didn't have one. But if you have a phone, you can get one for free. The Bible app, the Bible app. But, friends, don't miss this. I don't want any of us to miss this. Living a heaven-lens life is more for you than it is for anybody else, because you are going to have a joy filled, full and fruitful life. Yep, ain't nothing, ain't nothing gonna break.
Speaker 2:You always sing. We only know like a couple of the words.
Speaker 1:Is that?
Speaker 2:how your dad was. Yes, yeah, he hummed half this, half the music. But no, in all, da, da, da, da, da. Yeah, he hummed half the music.
Speaker 1:But no, in all seriousness, I'm so grateful for this space. As always, yep, we love you guys and, as always, if you are listening, because you obviously are, make sure you're following. I usually say leave a review, like us. Whatever, make sure you're hitting the follow button, because we don't know who is watching or listening all the time and we want to know you.
Speaker 2:And we really would love to interact with you so if you listen to us on a regular basis, you like the content.
Speaker 1:Don't be a closet Christian, come forward we would love to have a conversation with you.
Speaker 2:Hit us up. Hit us up. Yeah, we could be pen pals. You know what? I'm bringing it back. It's coming back. Should we have a shirt? I'm getting a shirt made.
Speaker 1:Would you guys buy one, email us and say yes, just write one word yes, and then we're going to get your email. We're going to write you back. No, but seriously though, share it with a friend. If you've prayed the prayer with us tonight and you're ready for the Lord to be the leader of your life, please message us and let us know that you did, because we would love to get you set up and, if you're not going to church in your local church, all the things, the next steps of discipleship and things that happen like.
Speaker 1:That's so exciting, it's going to be a new beginning.
Speaker 2:It's so amazing Angels are partying in heaven when there's a new believer. You are a new creation. Praise the Lord.
Speaker 1:So next week we shall tackle spiritual warfare, let's go to war.
Speaker 2:Let's go to war. Let's go to war. Let's get down and dirty. Let's do it. Let's talk about that. We love you guys. Confess the mess nation. We'll check you guys out next week. Peace out, friends.