All right, so what's going on, everybody?

What's up everyone?

We are here.

We are here and you are now listening.

And so the world is right.

Yeah.

So last week we kicked off our like beginning of the year series, you know, kind of.

And it was being the example, setting the example, setting the example.

And I stumbled across a guy by the name of Wesley Huff.

I don't know if you've checked him out, but he had a debate with, with a guy who is kind of mainstream social media dude.

And anyways, so it was a couple of months ago that it happened, but he, the Internet's basically has said like he destroyed him, you know, in this Christian theology debate thing that they did.

Now, was this Christian first Christian or.

Was this Christian versus Christian adjacent Adjacent?

Well, I mean like he doesn't claim Christianity necessarily, but so who want.

But he was talking about Christianity.

So like he was, he was, it was Christianity.

A guy who, who is a Christian apologist.

Yep.

From Canada.

Right.

Okay.

Wesley F.

If you haven't checked him out, you should.

So he's the Christian apologist.

Yeah, he's the Christian apologist.

And then the other guy is, I'm sorry, I forgot his name already.

And Chris Christian apologist won by lines.

Landslides.

That was, I mean that's what everybody was like.

Billy Carson was the other one.

I'm gonna have to look this up.

Billy Carson, he is, he's, he's one of those sensational dudes.

He's, he's very, he's got a lot of out there theories, okay.

But he points them as though here is, here's the truth.

I've been studying this for a long time, kind of a mentality.

And Wesley Huffman is an expert in biblical ancient languages, studying, you know, the scripts and all that sort of thing.

So, okay.

And not just biblical, but ancient scripts, not just Bible.

And he just like he knew exactly what Billy Carson was referring to.

And so he asked questions in order to like basically set up his, his own correction, you know, because he was like, you say this is in the Sinai Bible.

Are you referring to the Codex Sinaiticus or whatever?

And yes, actually, no.

I saw a clip of this.

Yeah, so I saw a clip.

Watching the video is great.

But I saw the video was awesome.

But just listening to him afterwards and going and searching him out.

Solid dude.

Like he, he's very, he explains things really well and simply, like big things really simply.

And it's great.

Like he's even got, he's got a video I just watched the other day.

On Christmas and how Christmas was not actually a pagan holiday to begin with.

And it's really interesting.

I'll send you the link to that.

I love this stuff, but he's the first person I think I've ever heard give an argument for Christmas not being originally a pagan holiday.

Cool.

Which was fun.

And a lot of the.

Even the traditions and stuff, not actually pagan, which is pretty cool.

I don't know.

It's just.

It's fun.

So, you know, anyways, the reason I bring it up is because the way that he quote unquote, destroyed Billy Carson was super respectful, gentle, loving, you know, and he, like, he made sure to.

To be gentle whenever he did the corrections, you know, and he didn't attack Billy himself.

He just, you know, explained why his sources were wrong or what.

Whatever that might be, helped him clear.

See the clarification in what he was saying.

Right, right.

So I just want to toss that out there.

Want to give out a shout out to.

To Wesley Huff.

You know, I think I'm gonna add him or tag him or do it, however that works.

But yeah, so if you guys haven't checked him out, Wesley Huff, he's a pretty solid dude.

It's really good.

I'm gonna have to check this out the full thing.

I think I saw a clip of this, just the middle part, because I remember hearing something about the Sinai Bible, and he's like, the Sinai.

The Sinai.

And he's like, yeah, that's not what it says.

Well, he was actually referring to a different text altogether.

He wasn't even meaning that text that he got corrected to.

So it was.

I don't know.

I'm gonna have to watch it.

Point is not necessarily to watch that debate, although it is a good debate, but go check out some of his stuff because it's a lot of fun.

It's really, really entertaining.

It's really educational.

That's the word.

Not entertaining.

I mean, it is entertaining.

I mean, it's a super educational.

And some.

Some things that you would normally think are like a tough concept he makes easy to understand for the average person, which is awesome.

So he was also on Joe Rogan.

That.

That one was amazing.

That.

That was a good.

I don't watch a lot of.

I've seen some different clips from Joe Rogan.

I've never actually sat and watched an entire episode.

Sadie has, but I haven't.

I'm gonna have to do this more often.

It's totally worth it, the whole.

The whole thing.

Because he's the first person I've ever seen have Joe Rogan go.

Huh.

About something with Christianity.

So, like, it just was good.

It was so good.

So shout out to Wesley Huffman.

You don't know us, but if you do ever watch us, hey, keep doing what you're doing.

So I just wanted to throw that in there.

I know that doesn't necessarily go with the topic today, but it went with our topic last week, and it was something that I ran into just the other day, so.

Nice.

Yeah.

If you haven't watched last week's podcast, go check it out.

Yep.

And then there's also the podcast of the rabbit hole that we're tossing out there for free for all yalls instead of having to go to Patreon and get it.

Okay.

The first one.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay, good.

Cool.

Yeah.

All right.

What are we talking about today?

But this week.

Yeah, today.

So last week we talked about what it is to be the example, but part of that, we're gonna break it down into something that is important about that when it comes to a life following Jesus.

And we are calling it letting go and letting God.

And that sounds like.

To some people, that sounds like an easy thing, or at least on paper.

And for some people, that sounds like a really hard thing.

And I think it all depends on where you're at, where your heart's at, and your journey.

But we want to talk about that today and kind of talk about some of the realities there, I guess.

Yeah.

And even our own experience, because.

Yeah.

I mean, it can.

Sometimes it feels like it can be an easy thing, and sometimes it is definitely not.

So.

Yeah.

Letting.

Let go and let God today.

Sweet, sweet.

Welcome to the truth response.

All right, I'll pray this week.

I think you should pray this week.

I think I will.

I prayed last week.

Yeah.

But it doesn't have to be like that.

It doesn't have to be like that.

It doesn't have to be that.

All right.

Father God, I just want to thank you for another day, just for another day that it's not just, you know, we get to walk through life, but, like, another day we get to really explore life with you.

And I just.

I thank you for the knowledge and the wisdom that you've given us, the love and the mercy and the grace and just the things that you've equipped us with, the kindness and the gentleness and the things that are still growing and that you're still teaching us and allowing us to learn God.

And I just pray that as we go through our day, that we're looking for opportunities to grow in you and.

And opportunities to share that with others.

Lord, as we have our conversation today, I just pray that you guide it and you.

You light the path that we're walking down.

It's in your precious and holy name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

All right.

So letting go and letting God, as I said, this might sound easy, or this might sound like you just picked up some anxiety by listening, but let's talk about this.

So what do we mean here?

I guess let's put a baseline in when we say that.

What are we trying to say?

Well, scripture lays it out pretty good.

There's some pretty good one liners in here.

Hit it.

One way you could go with this is first Peter 5, 7, cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Proverbs 3, 5, 6.

Right.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways, submit to him and he will make your paths straight.

That's right.

Trust God, bro.

Yeah, trust God, bro.

That's two weeks in a row we've shouted them out.

I'm gonna reach out to them and tell them we're talking about them.

Yeah, we need a sponsor.

But that's my life verse, so, I mean.

Yeah, do we get a sponsor with just some swag?

Right.

Just.

I will rep your hat on the show.

I wear a hat every show.

Like, let's go.

Yeah, me too.

Yeah, let's do this.

We need some hats.

If you got a different hat.

So it's, well, take the cheap.

I'll rep to be like, I'm not stingy.

All right, so you got Psalms 55, 22.

Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you.

He will never let the righteous shake.

Oh, shaken.

Yeah, can't read.

I mean, so it's really just less worry, you know, like worries.

Good.

So, I mean, to think about it in another way, it's, you know, we feel like we have to carry all this stuff.

We don't have to carry it.

Yeah.

You know, some of this stuff is God's, and I think some of the Christian walk, some of the journey is learning more of what we have to give to him and not hold in our hands anymore.

So, yeah, you gotta learn.

Yeah.

Because that's how we start out.

We start out thinking that we have control.

Right.

For those who.

If you haven't accepted the Lord.

And some people will say that they have varying degrees to this, but everything's on your shoulders, everything is in your hands.

And so, I mean, some people think that's freedom.

But that's a lot of pressure.

That's a lot of pressure on you to make every decision.

And you might try to tell yourself it's not, but that's the reality.

Whereas when you can let go of some of that stuff and let God handle that, oh, my goodness, like, it's.

It is freedom.

The hard part is actually doing it to where you let go.

And unfortunately for many people, myself included and perhaps you included.

Right.

The only way to learn how to do this sometimes, unfortunately, is the hard way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I actually, the other day was talking to a buddy who said something, and this is slightly different, different track on.

On this is.

But he was.

We were talking about his.

His wife, and she has some medical stuff going on.

And he said, you know, I don't.

I don't always like to talk about it because I don't want to be a burden to others.

And I said, dude, scripture literally tells us to help each other carry.

Carry our burdens.

And I'm like, that is part of the letting go and letting God, because God is directing us to not carry this alone and not try to do everything by ourselves.

And sometimes, sometimes we start to run into metaphorically brick walls in our life where we're like, for some reason, we can't do certain things.

And that can be a source of anxiety.

One of the biggest ways that this happened for me was financially.

Interestingly enough, if you talk to a lot of Christians that have been going through their walk for a long time, that you can ask them if they've ever had something related to God and their finances.

I think you'll find a remarkable amount of people that have had something happen where somehow the money was just there or they weren't sure how they're going to get into a financial situation or out of it.

And then God has pulled them through and messes have happened.

There's all kinds of stuff.

I've heard plenty of stories where checks just came in the mail.

We've had it in my life, my wife and I, we went through periods of time where money was really a scarce source of things.

Things.

But somehow the random crazy things would happen, and somehow a check would show up in the mail and we could feed ourselves and pay our bills.

And it was.

It's wild what can happen.

But I tell you that.

To tell you that I didn't always.

Even with things like that happening, I didn't fully release that there was a period in my life where I was very much thinking I was in control of my financial situation.

And although I appreciated, I was a fan of the fact that money would come sometimes and somehow we would get through, but still, I was always trying to figure a lot of things out myself.

And so I had to find out like this the hard way that, nope, you gotta let go.

And it came at the back end of some anxiety attacks, some really bad ones, you might want to call them panic attacks.

Whatever you want to call it was bad.

And I just one day gave up.

I submitted, I said to God, all right, I can't, I obviously cannot do this.

I obviously, I don't know how to do this.

I'm not equipped for this, but I know you are.

I know that somehow you can help me get through.

And so that means that you got this more than I've got this.

And so at a time when I was at my absolute worst financially when it comes to anxiety and everything, I laid it down on his feet and I said, all right, I got to trust that you have got us.

And I don't understand how, but I got to trust that you do.

And so I did.

And I told him, I was like, I'm going to go about my days like you have.

And then within no time, actually God did do something with it.

But the thing is, I had to run into that brick wall first in order to understand what it meant to actually let go.

And that can be the hard part.

Oftentimes we think we're letting go and we haven't.

We keep trying to drive a bus that we don't have any place being behind the wheel of.

And if we don't do that, then we like to try to pick it back up.

In fact, one of my favorite things I saw on the Internet one day, here's one plus for social media.

I saw somebody post something up one day.

It said, lord, I apologize for picking up what I placed at your feet.

And I'm like, yep, that is so real.

Yeah, because we do that.

We, we think that we're all in and we haven't actually done it.

We're like, yeah, but I, yeah, but let me just, let me, let me, let me do this thing.

Or I think it's.

And, and I get it.

There's a fine line, right?

There's a fine line between what's our responsibility and what God's doing for us.

And you know, like cuz there, there are some things that we know that are pushed and put in our hands.

But yeah, ultimately.

Right, like, yeah, but yeah, but ultimately we gotta trust.

Yeah.

And that's.

That's that's the thing is the fact that like when, when we're trusting him, he'll show us the right path, even if it's okay.

Now I want you to do this, you know, could have to wait for it.

But I was working security and I started out, I was making 1650 an hour, which is the most I'd ever made.

And then I shifted into a position where I was making 19 an hour, which was pretty darn good for not being in management, you know, and security.

And so then my boss had some real integrity issues that he also wanted me to follow through with.

And I said nope and quit.

It's one of the first jobs I've ever just straight up quit for something like that, you know, and started working job for 1250 an hour.

So $19 an hour to 1250 an hour is quite a large little jump there.

And my bank account didn't change, like, which blew me and my wife away.

We couldn't figure it out.

I mean, like, it's like, this is wild.

So sometimes whenever you're just doing what God wants you to do, you know, you get to see the benefits of him just taking care of you, you know what I mean?

So if you're in a time like where, I don't know, you're just following God, look into what he's doing for you, you know, don't take advantage.

I mean, take advantage of that opportunity to see like, oh, this is what God's doing here.

This is what God's doing here.

If you're not, trust us when we say, like, when you start just letting God be in control of it, wild things happen.

I mean, it was seriously one of the craziest things.

And you were talking about money situations or whatever, but like, that was one of the craziest things.

I mean, we knew that God was going to take care of us because it was just the right thing to do.

But it was wild how it didn't affect our finances at all.

I mean, going from full time to part time $19 an hour to $12.50 an hour and our finances didn't change.

It was just nuts.

God's impossible math, you know, actually another great example of that when it comes to God's impossible math comes with the show the Chosen.

So this is, I thought was a really interesting thing.

So first off, if you haven't watched the show the Chosen do it.

It's awesome.

It is an EP show on the life of Jesus.

But not only Jesus, but especially from the disciples points of view, often and it's a really cool look at the Bible.

The purpose of the show is really to help inspire people because they get to see kind of what it looked like and maybe inspire them to go back and see those stories in their Bible and read them.

But it's really good.

It's actually top quality production and quality.

And it's not.

It's not campy or cheesy.

It's worth every episode.

And they're getting ready to launch.

I think season five will be coming out.

I think they're doing it in the theaters in March.

So I haven't finished season four yet.

Quick promotion for them.

But anyway, so when they.

This was a crowdfunded show, and so in order to make season one, they did crowdfunding and they basically asked people to kind of buy into what they were trying to do.

And then when they launched it, they had a pay it forward program where in order to watch the episodes, you could.

They would have you pay it forward and then they'd open you up to more of the episodes.

But then they moved to a whole different thing.

And this was the miraculous.

This is the God's impossible math.

So it wasn't necessarily a charge.

The idea was that by paying it forward to someone else, you unlocked more.

In this case, what they did is they decide, you know what, instead of that, we're going to make the show completely free.

And so the seasons end up online and you can watch them as many times as you want, but they wanted to make it completely free.

And then if you like what they're doing, then you can donate.

While that sounds like it might not make as much money, they funded way more doing it that way, where more people gave more people a chance to see it that might not have saw it before.

It didn't feel like a requirement.

People were more open and free with donating to the show and buying more merchandise and stuff that helped fund the production.

And now they do even more things where they offer like showings in the theaters and stuff like that to help with production costs and all this stuff.

But it worked.

I mean, the idea of charging less helped gain them more.

And he called it.

That's why I love calling it.

I got it from Dallas Jenkins.

He's the creator of the Chosen, and he called it God's impossible math.

And I was like, yep, I'm stealing that forever.

But it's true.

Sometimes letting go and living more on faith can lead to a more fruitful life, especially in faith.

It's an amazing thing.

So, yeah, I mean, it doesn't always have to make sense to us.

It doesn't.

But the thing is that what we got to do is we got to find those places in our lives and you can dissect them one by one.

Or if you're brave, you might want to try more than one.

Find those places in our lives where we still are trying to be behind the steering wheel.

So what.

What would you say?

Like, what are.

What are some of the challenges that we face?

Like what?

Like, when it comes to that, what are some challenges you faced Fear with.

With letting go and trust right off the bat.

Fear.

Fear is like.

What do you mean, afraid that it's not gonna work?

Well, I mean, like, fear, because.

Okay, so finances is one of the easiest ones because it's easy to be afraid if you're gonna be able to pay your bills.

It's easy to be afraid if you're gonna have enough money for food, clothes, whatever it is.

It's that it's.

In this day and age, my goodness, it's one of the easiest things to be afraid of.

But.

So fear can make you want to not give it over to God, But I'm not sure if that's going to work.

But can I just.

You know, God's telling you to do this thing, and you're saying, I'm not sure if that's going to work.

I mean, I've been there.

No, I mean, that's really, like, a thing.

But it's just funny thinking about it like that is just funny because it's like God is telling you to do this thing, and you're saying, I don't think this is going to work.

It's frightening.

The thing is, it requires you to step out in faith to where?

All right.

Yeah.

And I want you to understand that it takes real courage to do this.

And I'm going to define that for you.

It's not about.

I'm going to define courage, especially courage and faith.

Courage is not the lack of fear.

Fear is real.

Fear is going to be surrounding you and trying to speak to you and lie to you all the time.

It's the seeing the fear.

It's the feeling the fear and moving in a step of faith forward anyway.

It's going forward anyway.

That is courage.

That's what you think.

Firemen are just completely fearless.

My dad was a fireman.

I grew up around firemen.

You grew up around firemen?

We know these guys.

They might put on a show that they're not afraid, but every single one of them walks into A situation where it's a bit scary and there's some unknowns, but the courage that comes from these men, what makes them courageous is that they still walk into the danger anyway because they realize that they're the difference between saving a life and not saving a life, saving property or not saving whatever it is.

And so they have to put the fear aside and step forward.

That's courage in faith.

To see the fear of.

I'm preaching to myself right now, to see the fear of the situation and the unknowns of the situation and even the dangers of the situation, if you let that defeat you, that's not courage.

The courage is to go, okay, this is what needs to be done.

So I have to step into this.

I have to step forward.

When God told the Israelites to go and step into the Jordan river, and he said, then I will stop the waters, he didn't say, I'm going to stop the waters, then step into the Jordan River.

He said, no, go get in the water.

I'm going to stop the water.

That took a huge step of faith.

Sometimes you need to take a step first.

He needs you to say yes and step into the darkness, step into the scary bits, step into the unknown so that he can show up and his glory can be shown in your life.

And that is incredible.

So that's a really good summation of what challenges and even what you need to do about it to a degree.

However, what kind of practices could help you deepen your trust in God?

What are some things that you can do that like.

I mean, most people don't jump out of an airplane without, like having a parachute.

Well, not just a parachute, but even with a parachute, like most people don't jump out of an airplane without having.

Yeah, something.

Some kind of something practiced built up.

You know, whatever class, you know, somebody jumping with them.

You gotta have some trust built up.

I mean, one of the things that I would tell you to do, so an easy way to help you is to build the reputation of who really God is in your head.

And one of the ways to do that, and this isn't fabrication, this is just collecting information.

So I want to clarify that.

If you.

Skydiving.

Let's look at that.

Okay.

If you were going to go skydiving, I'm not ever going to do that on my own free will unless I'm 80.

And I said I want to go skydiving so bad.

So.

But yeah, you do use expensive.

If I'm 8, if I get to 80 years old, I will consider it Just because.

Why not anymore?

You know?

But anyway, so it's, it's one of those things, like if you're going to look into going to skydiving, you're going to look for a company that's reputable, that has had many successful jumps, that knows how to pack a chute, that takes all the safety precautions and like, they don't have accidents.

Those are the things.

So you're going to look at their history, you're going to look at what's currently going on with the company.

You're going to take a good look at that airplane if you get a chance.

You're going to look at that equipment and wonder if it's, you're going to inspect it, right?

Same thing with your faith.

I want you to ask yourself, how has God been working in your life up until this point?

Like who?

How has he sent people into your lives that have gotten you into this life of faith, first off?

But also how has he shown up for you?

How has he given you examples that he can do more than you thought he could do?

And it might start small, but if you allow yourself to really start thinking about it, sometimes faith is easily vindicated by looking in the rear view mirror and just going, oh, okay, wait, wait, wait, I see what God did there.

Think about the situations you got into that might have not been easy, that might have actually scared you.

And you thought, I don't know how I'm getting through this.

And think about how you got through it.

Think about the fact that God might have sent those key people, those key situations, those key checks, whatever it is that got you through there.

Build up your information.

It's not fabrication.

Like I said, this is real.

And then when you lay it all out there, there you go, now you've got a report that says, this is trustworthy, this is safe.

And then you start thinking about making that jump.

Okay, so what would you say to the person who says, yeah, I get, I get that, Matt.

Like the.

God's not failed me yet, but what about the law of averages, right?

Like, what would you say to that person?

Because when, when, when you're thinking about it, like that is a factor when you're thinking about a company or an airline or whatever, like, okay, they've never had a wreck, they've never had a plane go down.

They've never, you know, had a failed shoot, they've never had law of averages states that that means their chances are getting closer to that failing.

What would you say to that person?

I would say that that's where.

I mean, that's where trust comes in.

So for me, it's amazing you said that.

And using the flight thing, which is still applicable for me.

So I.

I'm not a flyer.

I'm not a big flyer.

I like to keep my feet on the ground.

I really do.

So jumping out of plane sounds crazy.

Getting on a plane is hard for me, and I've done it many times now, but every time it scares me.

Just the idea we're about to leave the ground.

And my mom has tried to help me shout out to you, mom, that, you know, when I would bring this up to her, she says, well, you know, when I get on a plane, I just say, all right, Lord, if it's my time, it's my time.

And some people hear that and they're like, that's really comforting.

And other people would be like, that's crazy.

And I was the second.

So.

But the thing is, realistically, I mean, your time's going to come when your time's going to come.

It doesn't matter if you're in an airplane, in a car.

It doesn't matter if you played it safe or you took some risks.

So in that metaphor, I mean, like, sometimes the only way forward is to go forward.

There's no staying where you're at.

There's no taking a step backwards.

You gotta move and, you know, yeah, the law of attitude.

Will it work out?

Maybe not like you thought it would.

That's a good answer.

But God has a way of taking everything and working it for those who love him and do and live to his will.

You know, there's been situations that I've been through where, yeah, it didn't happen like I thought, but it was okay.

And even in moments that were completely obedience moments where I know this is what God wants me to do, so I'm gonna do it.

And so I did it.

And then it worked out for a bit, and then it stops working out.

And you're like, but didn't.

This isn't what you.

This is what you told me.

I was so sure, and I was right.

This is what God told me to do.

Did I understand what his long game was?

No.

Did that mean that hardships were going to stop coming?

No.

Sometimes they are going to come.

Sometimes you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs, man.

God sometimes needs you to break down a little bit so he can build you back up.

Continuing to live in faith, you'll be amazed, amazed at what God can do with that.

When you finally relinquish.

I want you to understand also that you won't be the first people in history, whoever you are, even myself and Derek and anyone else, to think that things will go a certain way and they are not going to go.

I just want to point out that the Jews at the time of Jesus, actual birth and through his life to his crucifixion, and even some of them since his resurrection, have believed that the Messiah was going to be someone a little different.

They thought that the prophecies were telling them that Israel was going to be put back on top of the world above other kingdoms of the world, which meant they were going to get a kind of more of a militant Messiah who was going to come over and free them from Rome and you know, write the world according to what they saw.

They didn't realize what they needed to be free from first was sin.

They didn't realize that this guy who was going to set everything right was going to bring God's kingdom, not their kingdom, specifically God's kingdom, to the forefront and he was going to do it in his time.

They were going to get something better than they thought.

But a lot of them missed it for what they wanted.

For those who are willing to see what God was doing and get on board with it and put their trust in it, I mean, that's why we have the church today.

So, okay, so I get that.

How can I incorporate letting go and letting God into a daily routine?

Like what can I do on the daily to start letting go and just letting God take control?

What's a routine?

Something routine things.

Well, on a daily routine, trusting God with your day.

It's interesting that I've heard a lot of people that have, and myself included, have done things where you wake up and say, alright, God, if this is for me, if there's anyone you need to send to me today that I can help, let's do it.

Teach me something today.

If I was doing morning Bible study and sometimes I do it in the morning, sometimes I do it later, I would go through and be like, alright, if you want me to use this today.

And it's amazing how many times he would show me that I could use it.

Maybe that's one of the easiest way to do it.

Break open your Bible, start a daily reading thing if you can do it.

Or if you're an early person where you can give yourself even five minutes a day to open some scripture, read it and say, God, can you show me how this is alive today?

How can this be Used today.

Show me and you will see.

Maybe not every time, but I think you'll find moments where God will use that scripture well.

You'll see how that applies or how it is still alive today.

I think that's an easy way to do it if you want a good weekly thing.

And I swear I don't care what church you go to.

Tithe.

One of the ways that God says we can test him in the Bible is with our money.

I know.

And this isn't.

This is not a prosperity gospel thing, okay?

This is just learning to trust him with your money.

The first time I heard this, it blew my mind.

And I didn't know how much I believed in it until I put into practice.

But I had this mentor a long time ago that told me that, hey, you know, it was hard for him to give 10%.

But then he did, and he said somehow he was still paying his bills and everything was going fine.

And then he felt God challenging him to give more.

And he thought, well, how's that going to work?

But he did.

And somehow he was paying his bills and doing fine and gave a little more.

And he tested and gave a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more.

And then suddenly he realized that, look, God's got him completely.

And to him, it didn't matter if he felt God ask him to give anytime, anywhere, any amount.

He did so because God had proven to him in that faithful giving that he had got his back.

Does that mean that if you give and tithe that you're going to become rich?

Nope, it does not mean that.

But by thinking of the kingdom first and putting God first and realizing, number one, that everything you get comes from him anyway, by being faithful at that and sowing some of that back into the kingdom.

And like I said, this is an advertisement for the church that I'm at.

It's an advertisement for your faith.

I honestly strongly believe by sowing that back in, you'll be amazed what God can do with that.

And you'll be amazed at how when you test him in that, he still gets you through.

And you might be thinking to yourself, seriously, Matt, that sounds great, but I'm really tight.

I'm paycheck to paycheck, still try it out.

I did the same thing.

I had to learn this the hard way.

When I first I grew up where my kid.

My parents would just hand me a couple bucks and put it in the offering plate.

And that's what I thought tithing was.

I thought that it was maybe I'd throw a 20 in.

If I was a little.

Sitting a little high one day in church or I just happened to have the cash on me, I had to be challenged to give more than that.

And the idea of giving 10% of my income was, to me, one of the craziest things someone ever came to me with.

But you know what?

One day I felt like I should, so I did.

And I got through.

Just.

And this was also my wife and I have been through some times where, like I said, we've been tight with money tight.

And yet somehow we continue to get through.

And we gave.

And, you know, I'm not going to argue with you on.

Some people think you should give pre tax.

Some people should say it's fine to give after tax.

I don't care which way you do it.

I don't think that part matters.

No, it's out of your heart.

This is what you've gotten, and this is what you give.

And when you make that part of your worship and part of your trust in the Lord, he honors that.

He does.

It's crazy, but it's something you can start doing.

And you know what, Testament a little bit first.

If you want to build your way up there, then do it, you know, but start getting into a practice of what it is to trust God a little more and a little more.

You know what it is when you're not willing to trust God with your money?

It's because money is the Lord of your life.

Yeah.

Period.

Like, I mean, a lot of people misquote the scripture, but the.

The passage where it says that the.

The love of moody money is the root of all evil.

All evil things, or something along those lines.

It's not just, you know, money is evil, but whenever you place God first with your finances, it makes it really difficult to let it Lord your life.

Does that make sense?

Absolutely.

Like, it makes it really hard for money to be the thing in charge if you've given money first to the one who is in charge.

Right.

So it's really that.

That's a really powerful routine that you could be in.

So, okay, so all that.

Well, and it's not even just money.

This wasn't supposed to be an episode of trust God with your money.

No, but money is a big part of it.

It becomes an idol team.

And actually, one of the things you can when it comes to money, I will say this, and then I want to have a different thing I want to talk about.

But if you aren't sure if something has become an idol in your Life.

Ask yourself what's easiest to put money towards.

If it's God, then you're good.

If the easiest thing is something else, check it out.

Might not be good.

So that being said, here's a hard one.

This one's, even for some people, is harder than money.

Trusting God with those you love, that's a hard thing.

So I think I've talked about this line before from Star Wars, Star Wars Episode 3.

Not everybody likes the prequels, but Star Wars Episode 3, Anakin Skywalker is all worried, and he goes to Master Yoda, and Master Yoda says this line that I think is brilliant.

He says, train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.

We are afraid to lose all kind of things.

We're afraid to lose our house.

We're afraid to lose our car, our job.

But think about how much more you're afraid to lose your spouse, your kids.

I want you to understand when I say this that fearing to lose my spouse or my kids is probably the hardest thing.

But I have to prepare myself for the fact that God, what he says goes, not me.

And you can try to protect your kids as much as you can, but ultimately it's not what you say.

And that sounds scary, and for some of you, you just got really uncomfortable, and I don't blame you.

But God also loves your kids more than you love your kids.

And you be like, now.

No, he does.

He loves you more than you love your kids.

He loves your spouse more than you love your kids.

He doesn't wish any of your.

The people that you love ill.

But he's got a plan for this world, and ultimately you got to trust him in that, no matter what that means.

One of the hardest things to go through is the idea of you might lose your loved one.

I thought I was going to lose my wife once.

Trying to be in that night will forever live in my life, my brain, the night I thought I was going to lose my wife.

Trying to understand that if this is what God's will is, then I've got to come to terms with it.

But also pleading with him not to go through with this.

I didn't want her to.

And thank God.

Thank God he performed a miracle that night.

And I did not lose my wife.

And I know that you guys with your daughter have had some really rough years, really.

And it's hard to think that you could lose someone like that.

And it's really hard in those moments to not try to argue and put your will above God.

It really is.

It was interesting how he shaped our prayers in the midst of that.

I mean, because ours was a long, a long term illness for serenity that he's allowed us to see what the issue was and it's been fixed and all that.

But praise God, amen.

But he used that time to shape our prayers.

It was really an interesting, scary and neat process of like, at first it was just like, look, God, make me the one who's sick.

That's the initial.

Like, I can take this, I can take this on, you know, bartering with God.

And then it goes to, okay, well I can have enough faith to say like, alright, God, just, you can heal her.

Just take it away from her, you know, to like, okay, God, what is the opportunity in the midst of this?

Like, what, what is it that you want us to do in the middle of this?

What it, how is this working towards your will?

Which was really neat to see our prayers transform over that time in the midst of that.

So, yeah, it was cool, I can tell you.

So I don't know if I can never remember what I do or do not bring up on this show.

I just bring it up again.

You're going to hear all my stories again and again.

But I tell you, one of the hardest things is sometimes we don't realize that what we're arguing for is not what we need.

One of the greatest examples of that is when I went through in my early 20s of divorce.

You know, I, you know, there might be some listeners and who knows that hear this and you're in a situation that you're like, but if God loves me, why?

Why am I here?

Why is this this way?

Why?

Why do I feel this way all the time?

Why do I feel like my life's over?

Why doesn't this person love me?

Why am I being hurt?

Those are hard situations to go through.

I get it.

When I went through my divorce, I was so hurt and I was so.

Well, at one point I was desperate for God to just fix it.

Why?

Why was, why is this happening?

I was actually for real life, standing in the middle of a cornfield screaming at him out loud about, why?

Why is this happening?

Why?

Why are you doing this as if he was doing it?

Why?

Why are you letting this happen?

What?

What?

All the questions that come with situations like this, I was just pouring my heart out.

I was angry, I was hurt.

And I thought for a moment I wanted to in my life.

I thought I needed to fight for something that I didn't need to fight for.

And it's hard to trust God, when we're in that much pain, it's hard to trust God when things seem that messed up in our lives where something's not going at all as we planned.

But I can tell you in the long run that I'm so glad that he did not answer those prayers the way I wanted them to.

Because the wife I have now, the life I have now, my children that I have, I would never trade any of it for that.

What God had in store for me was so much better, was so, so much.

It was worth the pain.

It was worth everything.

And that's hard to say when you're in it, but it was worth it.

I'm so glad that he let me scream at him and he didn't admonish me any further, that he was patient.

And the fact that he has shown up like that in my life has made it easier.

Sometimes, unfortunately, like I said before, you have to go through something to fully start to grasp.

My prayer for everyone that hears this is that you don't have to hit the wall first.

I pray that you start putting this stuff into practice now.

Allow yourself to start learning how to trust God more and more.

And if you do it in small bits, if that's what it takes, then do it.

Sometimes we have to learn the hard way.

But please, I hope that you don't.

I hope that you, and also somebody might be listening to this right now.

And if it's you, that you have not, and I mean this, you've not put your trust in the Lord for whatever reasons you're coming up with in your head, where you haven't.

You haven't even brought him into your life.

You're not even sure if you want any of this.

Man, there is a God that loves you so much more than you can possibly fathom.

And he's just waiting for you to say yes.

He's waiting for you to stop putting barriers in front of Him.

He's waiting for you to finally let go of all that stuff that you think you need to hold on and all the freedom that's a lie in your life that you think you have and go into the ultimate freedom which is in his embrace, to let him in, let him reshape your life.

It's worth it.

I guarantee you it's worth it.

Especially in the long run.

It's.

It's worth it.

You don't know what you're missing.

You really don't.

Yeah.

And you may not think you deserve it, but that's the trick.

None of us do.

Nope.

That's the cool thing about God.

I didn't.

That's.

That's the cool thing about God is that it doesn't matter if you deserve it or not.

He did it anyway.

Yep.

You love me anyway.

Yep.

Yeah.

Also, when you're trusting God, sometimes situations do get hard.

I want to point out something to you.

One of my favorite.

Well, I've got lots of favorites you guys will hear me say.

Lots of parts of the Bible are favorites and it's pretty much the whole thing.

But John 9 is an amazing story.

John 9 is when Jesus comes and he comes upon the man that was born.

Born blind.

He's been blind his whole life.

And the disciples start asking the questions that everybody asks when things are going rough, you know, well, whose sins is he?

Is this here for?

Why?

Why is he blind?

Is it because of his sins?

Is it because of his parents sins?

And the people ask that all the time.

Is it because, did I do something?

What did I do?

Why is this happening to me?

Is it somebody else?

Is it me?

Am I paying the penalty for me?

Am I paying it for someone else?

What is this?

You're asking yourself all these crazy questions.

Jesus reply is awesome.

It's none of that.

I'm paraphrasing.

It's none of that.

It's so that the glory of God can be shown through him.

That man was blind for his life until Jesus came on the scene to open his eyes so that the glory of God can be shown through him.

And that man stood in front of the religious leaders at the time and told them, here's what I know.

I once was blind, but now I see that.

And I guarantee you in eternity that man is not regretting being blind.

Sometimes we get in a situation and we start to ask ourselves those questions.

Sometimes you need to ask, well, how am I going to be able to use this for your glory later?

And it sounds, for some people, it's like, it sounds like a church answer.

Yeah, yeah, make that your answer.

I'm telling you that divorce I went through I thought was one of the worst things possible.

I said I didn't want to wish that on my worst enemy, what I went through.

And yet now I use it to the glory of God.

Not only because I told about it right now, I mean, that's one example, that's whatever.

But like I've been able to help people that are going through divorce.

I've been helped being able to help people before they've gone through a divorce to save them help.

And I didn't save them.

The Lord saved them from divorce because he sent me to tell them, look, man, it's possible to say that, hey, you know, it just takes a different perspective and that everything can be okay.

And all the ways that I can speak into a situation that I would never have been able to speak into if I had not gone through something so terrible.

He can take the worst things we can go through and bring them to not only his glory, but ours.

Sometimes it takes just asking that different question, like you said, praying a little different that day.

Yep, yep.

Totally, totally changes things.

I think I want to end on some scripture.

Yep.

Philippians 4, 6, 7.

Do not be anxious about anything.

But in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ.

Jesus.

Sums it up, man, I love that piece.

That transcends all understanding that when you learn to let go and let God, when you know that he ultimately has your back, when he's ultimately got you, brings in that peace that transcends all that.

I mean, you can go through some stuff with a smile on your face when you can.

Like Not a psychotic one, but like, genuine.

Everything's okay because God's got you.

Because you've let go and you have let God.

Yeah, it's good stuff.

It's good stuff.

So regardless of where you're at, let go and let God.

Yeah, let him.

Let him take it.

It's a whole lot easier to live life stress stress free than it is to be stressing all the time.

Yeah.

And it's gonna come and go.

There's none of us that are perfect.

There's gonna be times where you're gonna be having to kick your own butt off of the throne of your heart and letting God sit back down and lead you.

And it's gonna happen time and time again.

But life is so much better when you're just letting him do his thing and following after him.

So, yeah, I would say, hey, if.

You have, by the way, testimony time, if you have an example of how you've done this in your life, if you've got a really great story, even if you don't think it's a great story, if you have a story about how you learned how to let go and let God and your life, post it for us.

Put it in the comments, message us if you want to do that.

We'd love to hear it.

I know.

If you post it up where other people can see it, People will be inspired by it.

Let's put it out there.

Let's give testimony what God's done in our lives.

Let's help other people who have heard this, maybe today, help add your story to help other people make those steps.

That's the challenge I would give today.

And if you have not experienced that, I would also challenge you to take that first step, whatever it is.

Yep.

And thanks for joining us.

I mean, it's.

It's always an honor and a blessing to be able to join with you guys on this journey.

If you guys got any questions, any topics you want us to hit, let us know.

We'll definitely throw them in there.

We.

We're trying to.

To schedule things out a little better.

We're trying to do a little more structure, Not.

Not super structured, still conversational, but just go into it with a little better structure.

So if you like what you've heard and seen and you want to support us, you can go to Patreon, where the first tier and all tiers actually will get you access to the men's and women's video podcast.

You can still listen to it on Spotify, but as far as the video goes, it's only exclusively on Patreon.

And with the exception of the first episode of the Rabbit Hole, which is a podcast that we produce that we sit down and we just have a conversation and see where it goes.

It's.

It's a longer form.

I think the Last one was 2 hours and 10 minutes.

With the exception of the first one, which is on Spotify and YouTube, you can only find those on Patreon.

And then at the higher tiers, there's.

There's things like weekly devotional, and I think if you are on the top tier for three months, you get a T shirt sent to you, that sort of thing.

So go check it out.

Always, like subscribe, but most of all, share with somebody who needs to hear it because that's.

That's gonna help not just us, but that's gonna be you helping expand the kingdom, God, and share Jesus with the world.

So thanks for joining us today, and God bless.

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