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

Hey, everyone.

This is the final episode of Spirit.

Warfare, the final frontier, episode 12.

Not the droids you're looking for.

So the final frontier was Star Trek, though.

Yeah.

So I'm Matt.

I'm Derek.

Yep.

And if you have been on this journey with us, then you know that we have been going.

This is a 12 12th week of spiritual warfare.

We've talked about what it is.

We've broken down the armor of God.

We have talked about what is to live in that way, to pray in that way.

We've talked about victory.

There's all kinds of things we've talked about.

We've also talked about spiritual warfare in our daily lives.

And now we are going to be answering some of your questions that were sent in.

Yeah.

So we had six questions.

Feels like a short amount.

It does feel like a short amount.

Maybe we should take that as a compliment.

Maybe.

Our Spiritual Warfare series was so good that we answered so many questions, and there wasn't much left to give us.

So you guys should be experts.

And for those of you that we know that are watching, we expect you to be able to answer all of the questions for any question in regards to spiritual warfare because you didn't have any to send to us.

Yeah.

So you must be pros.

Yep.

We did a good job.

Found it.

Boom.

We rocked it.

All right, class dismissed.

No, I'm just kidding.

Obviously, we're kidding.

We know that there are some very active listeners that have sent in some solid questions.

Some of them play off of each other, which is good.

It'll help us to move through them a little bit.

But let's start with.

We're gonna start with an icebreaker.

What has been your favorite or most impactful episode or concept from this series so far?

Oh, my favorite.

Yeah.

What's been your favorite?

Oh, man, that's a good one.

I think the Truth.

I think the Truth episode was my favorite.

Yeah, I think it was your favorite, too.

You were, like, so stoked and prepared.

I was.

You brought in this whole long list.

I'm like, you didn't share that with me?

No, no, I didn't.

I did.

Well, you know what?

I was excited about that and fate.

Can you get that to me so that I can post it for people?

It would be awesome to be able to post stuff.

Yeah, I can get you.

So go ahead, explain why it's your favorite.

Well, I think that, I mean, that's the number one thing that we can battle spiritual warfare with, is the truth.

And These are things that definitely have helped me in my understanding of spiritual warfare and my battles.

And so that was the thing I think I was most excited to bring to the table, you know, because they were important to me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mine was definitely the breastplate.

Just the car heart.

So good.

Yeah, The Carhartt.

It was just so good remembering that it's not my righteousness, but Jesus.

Yeah.

And it's one of those things that it's hard sometimes to think, okay, well, what is the belt of truth?

Belt of truth is kind of easy, right?

The things that are true, you know, that God.

God says are true.

If you really dig, they're easy to just come up with.

But, like, some of the other ones, like, breastplate of Righteousness, like, you're like, what is that?

What's it mean to put on, you know, righteousness?

And so, like, I think that one hit me.

Hit me the hardest.

Just the fact that, like, getting up every day and saying, it's not anything I've done, but what Jesus already did, and it's his righteousness that covers me and protects me.

Like, that was probably one of my most impactful points.

Yeah.

It takes us out of that first person.

It's nothing that we did.

It's all about him, what he did.

So.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's a good one.

Between those and last week, I thought last week's was solid, and it just was.

It felt like natural conversation that was like.

It just.

It flowed really well together, I thought.

So.

Yeah, it went pretty good.

I always enjoy having Kevin on.

He goes real well.

So I don't know.

I think that went pretty good.

I think, actually, it went so well.

I remember we skipped a whole bunch of things.

We.

Originally, it was the most we skipped in an episode.

We have a plan.

Until today.

Until today, we're gonna just skip a.

Whole lot of stuff, throw it all out.

But no.

Yeah.

On every episode we've done, we've had kind of an outline going into it, and I messed up the truth one because I brought in a lot of my own material.

But then.

But last week, we were just throwing out sections at a time because we realized that we were spending so much more time, which I think was good time.

I think so.

I think it was really good.

I think it was worth it.

But we spent so much more time on that, that we were like, all right, this section's got to go.

We're just going to summarize this.

Yeah, it was just kind of fun to see.

But that's when, you know, it's good is that things.

And it was a long episode too.

It wasn't like, a short episode, so.

And challenge.

Go back, count how many times I passed him a note saying, we're gonna change things.

If you look close enough, you can probably see it.

If you do.

If you look close enough, you can see him, like, writing.

Okay, we're gonna pray here.

Oh, okay.

We're just gonna skip this section going on.

Okay.

I'm just gonna summarize.

Yep.

Yeah.

So, all right.

So today we're gonna take the questions.

Yeah.

Right.

And we're just gonna take them one at a time.

And if there's still plenty of time left over, we're gonna draw from our random box, because that's always fun, and I know I enjoy it, so.

But I don't think there's gonna be.

I think we'll.

We'll be able to fill this.

I don't know.

We'll see.

I think it should be fun.

I will find out.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So buckle up and welcome to the truth respons.

Sam.

All right.

I'll pray today.

All right.

Thank you, Lord, for this day.

I want to thank you for the blessings that you pour down on us, God.

And the little things and the big things and just the air we breathe, God.

The things we forget to thank you for, Lord.

And the things that, well, we can do nothing without you.

So we thank you for walking alongside us so that we can do things too, God, thank you for going before us and knowing what's coming and still walking with us and holding our hands through it.

God, thank you for the lessons you teach us.

And I just pray that you guide the answers and the questions today to be pleasing to you.

And I pray that we can all learn something from it.

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

Amen.

Amen.

All right, first questions.

First question.

Oh, man.

The way I'm gonna do this is I'm gonna read either, like, the at name, depending on where you posted, or first name, so.

Yep.

Because everybody can see it, those things if they're on the things, so.

All right, so from Diane.

From Diane.

So, two thoughts.

I have been having a tendency to pray for God's will to be done when I pray for someone or something, that it be his will in the outcome and not mine.

I have just felt that even though I would like a particular outcome, God may have other plans, and I have to accept his will, not my own.

What do you think about this kind of prayer?

Also, it helps to write things down.

So I tend to write them in my prayer journal.

So what do you think about this kind of prayer?

That's the first question.

Okay, the first question.

I think that.

I think sometimes maybe we're too careful in how we pray, but.

So I think sometimes we get little worried about if we're asking the wrong things.

Honestly, I think that God would want us to pray for the things we do desire.

I mean, anything that is big enough to worry about or to consume our thoughts is big enough to bring to him.

So I think it's not that it's on the wrong track.

I don't think it's that.

I think maybe we should reframe the thought process a little bit.

I'll give you, for instance, there was a period of time where I was really afraid of losing my wife because of a medical thing.

And there was one day in particular where I thought it was it.

I thought that she was.

She had a medical emergency.

And I thought, I'm losing my wife today.

And it was a terrible thing.

Obviously, there's much more to that story, but the basis is when I thought I was losing her, how I prayed to God was kind of a mixture of this.

I was very.

I wanted to align myself with what he willed, for sure.

And.

But the thing is, at that point, you're more saying, I trust you in this than you are, oh, don't think about what I want.

Think about only what you want.

So I would say, God, listen, I don't know what you're doing, but I'm going to trust you no matter what the outcome.

That being said, this is what I want.

And just flat out.

So with that particular prayer, it was God, I don't know what's happening here.

I'm afraid I'm losing Sadie.

I trust you with her more than I trust me with her.

I don't know what's going to happen here, and I want to trust you in it.

I know that if this is your will, that she's going to be gone.

And I want to, you know, you'll somehow get us through.

But I don't want to lose her.

Please don't take her.

Please heal her.

Because I, you know, and I made it very clear, like on one hand, yes, I am.

I'm trusting that whatever this outcome is going to be, you're going to be there for me or you'll be there with us and my kids and all that.

But here's what I want, and I made very.

Both very clear.

I think there's a balance of trusting in God.

And I think there's also us being able to go to him with just anything, you know, flat out, this is what I want.

So when we pray for people, let's say.

Let's name Sally.

I don't know a Sally, but let's say I know a Sally and Sally's sick and you pray to God.

God, I don't know what's going on in Sally's life, and obviously your will is above mine, but I want Sally to get better.

So, Lord, I'm asking you to help her get better.

I think that is a good way of thinking of it, where we want to respect God and his authority.

Absolutely.

And we acknowledge that his plan is definitely always better than our plan.

But we need to be able to come with him and go, but this is what I'm asking for in boldness.

We trust him, but we still know that he wants to hear from us.

Yeah, I think that we can always pray better.

Like, I mean, the more we do it, the better we get it, I think, naturally.

Right.

But I think the most important thing, not that.

Not that both aren't important, but I think the most important thing is the how we pray more so than the what we pray.

Like, is there reference.

Is there Thanksgiving?

You know, are those things happening?

Because, like, if we're.

We're told to come with Thanksgiving in our hearts and present our requests before God.

Right, absolutely.

And Jesus example of doing that has the idea of your will be done.

Right.

So there's a how that is more important than the what.

So the words we say are a little less important than the heart in which we come to him in.

I think that's the biggest thing in it is that, like, we don't always have to say, your will be done, but if we come to him with a heart that says, your will be done, then that's enough.

You know what I mean?

That's good enough.

And I think that he wants us to pray bold prayers, as we've talked about several times throughout the series, that we are being transformed by the renewing of our mind so that we know what God's will is.

So the more we do that and the more we transform, the more we're walking in his will and we'll know what to ask.

Yeah.

And asking for.

I mean, God is a fan of people getting better.

He is the great physician, you know, so to ask him for healing is not a terrible thing to ask him for.

It's not a selfish thing to ask him for.

Even if you're asking for Yourself, you know, it's not necessarily.

You know, he is a healer.

He has done it.

He could do it again.

But I think your heart.

Yeah.

Your heart being in the right place about it is more important than the exact words we're using.

Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

So cool.

Yeah.

Second half of that, what she write, it helps me to write things down.

I tend to write my prayers in a letter to God form in my journal.

I like that.

Have you ever done that?

Well, right now we're doing the experiencing God thing.

And you're doing it with the youth, though, aren't you?

Yeah, I'm doing it.

So I don't know what the format is for you guys, but at the end of each day, we have to write, like, what was the thing that stood out to you most?

Whether it's scripture, just a phrase or something.

And then we have to rewrite it in a letter to God.

Yeah.

And a prayer.

And I've been writing it in letter form.

And then, you know, what is God calling you to do from this?

And so that's been kind of cool.

So writing it down.

That's awesome.

I think that not only does that.

That give you something to look back at and save it for your rainy day file.

Right.

Whenever he answers it, but you have something that tracks and you can look back and you can see God is transforming my prayer.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think it's really great.

Honestly, we don't even think about the fact that when we orally pray, it's pretty much in letter form.

How often do we start with addressing him and end with amen?

It's like a letter form.

Dear our Father, Father God, Lord, we address him.

We get through the letter, and then we end it in Amen.

So we do it in the same way orally, but when we write it down, it's kind of neat.

It's actually, for some.

And I'm hoping that this person.

This is kind of behind it.

And I feel like it is.

It's a good way of putting our heart into it.

We feel more organized.

It comes out a little differently because we're thinking about how we're wording everything.

We're thinking about how we're writing it all down.

And the processing becomes different and the pressure of saying it the first time goes away.

And you can really just write it out the way you want to write it out.

Yeah.

But I've found myself multiple times being like, I. I'm writing it down.

And I'm like, nope, that's not right.

And I'll Scratch that out, and I'll keep going.

But it is processing.

It's a different kind of processing.

You're thinking deeper about it.

So I think that.

Yeah, I think it's a solid practice.

Yeah.

And as you said, it's really cool when you do have something in writing that you wrote to God and then to see how he interacted with that.

Dude, we could use that as an adult sticker book.

We go back and we put a sticker wherever God has answered prayers.

Wouldn't that be great?

That'd be freaking hilarious.

That'd be awesome.

Amazing.

Look, guys, I got five gold stars today.

God is so awesome.

And I say that somewhat in jest, but not entirely.

I mean, you got to mark off.

You got to acknowledge when God answers prayers.

Right.

So I think that going back and looking at.

That's good, too.

Yeah, I think that's good.

I don't do it a lot, but I do from time to time.

I sit and I write to God.

I have certain little journal books that I will write out my prayers specifically for different people.

And, yeah, it's a strangely different experience, but I like the feeling of knowing I have thought this through.

This is really where my heart's at.

So, yeah, that's how I feel with my songs.

Several of my songs have been, like, really, like, here, this is.

This is to you kind of a thing.

God.

Yeah.

Now, I tell you what, my.

My grandfather, I didn't even realize until he passed away.

Like, he was a champion journaler and prayer to God person.

Yeah.

To a point where, like, I kind of wish I.

He had boxes of his journals and such that he had written and did his prayers and his Bible study with.

And I. I passed on the majority of them because I was like, man, that's just a lot.

I kind of wish I'd have kept a bit more of it because I think it would have been awesome to go back and see that journey and.

Yeah.

And look for more things.

But I.

You know, at the time you're looking, he passed away, and we're looking to get through cleaning out his stuff quickly.

And, dude, that's tough sometimes.

It's a lot of stuff to go through.

It is a lot of stuff.

A lifetime's worth of stuff.

Yeah.

But, I mean, boxes and boxes of these journals.

And I thought to myself, man, do I really.

I don't know.

Part of me kicks myself for not taking more of them and reading through them.

But then again, those letters weren't to me, so they weren't necessarily for my Eyes.

So I'm trying to make peace with it.

It's kind of like they're not to you, but they might be for you.

Yeah, yeah, I know some other great work that was like that.

It holds more authority.

But there's a bunch of letters.

Bunch of letters.

And, you know, other written things that are super important.

Yeah.

If you know what we're referring to, leave a comment.

All right, you ready for the next.

Next.

Let's go.

All right, so this is from work in progress, T3K.

I wonder what the T3K means.

I don't know.

I love the name Work in Progress, though.

Yeah, I do, too.

That's great.

All right, so I'm going to do these not in the order in which they posted them, but I think this will flow with our conversation better.

All right, so rewatch the episode with hubby.

This time we thought of another question.

How do you know if something is a distraction by your own doing or spiritual attack?

Example, you forget to fill your car with gas causing you to be late to work.

Does that fall on you or would this be spiritual warfare?

Oh, interesting.

Well, we got to be careful.

Sometimes it's just because we view things as a negative, they may not ultimately be a negative.

I'll stop you from going too far there because that's going to be something we're going to talk about.

Let's stick specifically to this question because the next question is going where I know you're going.

All right.

I mean, okay, well, then they're tie right into each other, right?

They are.

How do you know if something is direction by your own doing or spiritual act?

I think if.

I think the number one way you can know it is spiritual attack other than yourself, or maybe another source would be if what it's distracting you from is something that's like doing your Bible study or calling that person who you know is on your heart to call and check up on them or anything that kind of falls into that realm of like, this is my prayer time, but I got distracted.

I didn't do my prayer time.

This is my study time.

This is my ministry time.

This is my Bible study.

I should be going to this Bible study.

But now this other thing came up.

I'll give you.

I'll tell you what I remember.

Many years ago, there was this kid.

I'll just use his first name.

His name was Brandon.

And Brandon came to me one day and he said, hey, man, I'm coming to your Bible study this weekend.

I think it was.

I can't remember if he said it on a Friday or Saturday, but the Bible study was on a Sunday night.

And I said to him, okay, great.

I said, now that you've said that you've never been.

And he was really starting to come into more of a belief and understanding.

And he started to.

I said, okay, now that you've told me that something's going to come up, I'm just warning you ahead of time, something is going to come up and it's going to seem like a better idea.

You need to not do that.

You need to go to Bible study.

He's like, nah, nothing.

I'm gonna be there.

I said, okay.

I said, but I'm telling you right now, something's gonna come up.

And I don't know what it is, but something's gonna try to distract you and to keep you from going to Bible study.

You need to go to Bible study.

And he said, nah, it'll be fine.

And then Sunday comes, Sunday night came and Bible study happened and he wasn't there.

And I hit him up and he's like, oh, you were right.

I was like, why?

He goes, well, I think it was like the basketball game was on.

He's like, or maybe a final four.

Can't remember exactly.

He's like, yeah, the game came on.

I started watching that.

I'm like, yeah, I told you.

Yeah.

The enemy doesn't like us continuously progressing to God.

Now here's a question for you.

Yeah.

Is that the enemy's fault?

All he has to do is plant.

It's the suggestion, it's the option, it's the.

Sure.

But what I'm saying is we just went through this whole breakdown of the armor of God.

And if he was diligently putting.

Oh, he wasn't.

He didn't know.

I mean, he was still new.

He didn't.

The armor was there.

I gotcha.

Yeah, I understand.

But Right.

Like, if he had been.

Right.

So it's a tricky one.

My answer, and I don't.

I don't disagree with you on that.

I think that I tried.

That's a solid.

To give him the heads up so he could be armored.

Right, Right.

So my answer to this is more along the lines of.

It falls on spiritual warfare, in my opinion, when it's excessively emotional.

Excessively.

Not to.

What it should be.

So, like, extreme example of what it should be emotion wise is Jesus praying in Gethsemane, right in the garden, right before he dies.

Right.

Like he's being put to death.

He sweats blood.

Like that is not excessive.

That is the weight of the severity of the situation.

Right.

Like, his emotion there was legitimate.

It was sincere.

It was where it should be.

When I say excessive, I mean, like somebody cuts in front of you in the line and you go nuts.

Right.

When you go crazy on them.

I think a lot of times spiritual warfare happens, since it's more suggestive, like you were talking.

Like it's more of that planted seed, that suggestion.

I think a lot of times it's mostly that excessive, like, things make you madder than they should.

Things turn your.

Your emotions all kinds of which way.

Like delighting at something that you shouldn't.

You know, those sorts of things.

Because that's really the opportunity set up of.

Not like, for the example of this gas.

Right.

You waited too long to get gas.

You should not have waited till then to get gas.

However, what the devil's gonna do there is be like, you should get upset about this.

Yeah.

Or you should just blow off work.

Just blow it off.

You know, like, there's things like that.

I think that's the spiritual warfare in the midst of those situations that I would agree.

I don't think the other is.

I think our enemy takes advantage of situations that either that could be caused by us or even caused by God.

Sure.

Like, he'll suggest that we get mad.

He'll suggest that we need to be.

More upset, that it's just okay.

It's okay to be completely upset about this.

You know, like.

Yeah.

It's okay to get angry about.

Justification.

Justification.

That's dangerous.

Yeah.

Actually.

But, yeah, I think.

I think there is an element of.

That we can find in it.

But just because that we.

If you're gonna be late for work because you forgot to get gas, that's not necessarily a spiritual attack.

Right.

In itself.

You gotta be looking for the spiritual attacks around in it, within it.

Yes.

It's not the fact that you did it.

And actually, it's really just setting that golf ball on the tee.

It's like, all right, you're set up.

Yeah.

And so it's at that moment that we need to really make sure our armor is tight because things happen.

And maybe they're for good reasons.

And maybe they're.

Or we just don't understand them.

And maybe they're just because we messed up and that's all fine.

But then we gotta make sure that we tighten up that armor because it's real easy.

I mean, I get really hard on myself if I know that I've done something dumb.

Well.

And see.

And that.

That is the attack in the midst of it.

Right.

Like, okay, so we screwed up, whatever.

Like, admit it, Move on.

Right.

Like, that's how we should react to those things.

But a lot of times we allow that attack to happen and we just get so frustrated and hate on ourselves so much and.

Or on others.

I mean, there's plenty of that.

I mean, like, people get shot for cutting people off in traffic.

Like the excessive craziness that happens, you know?

Yeah.

I mean, yeah, there's so many things that you just don't want to give the enemy a chance to play.

Really.

For sure.

So, okay, so leading in that.

That leads into actually a question that.

That was sent in before that question, but I think it's a good flow.

So work in progress.

T3K sent in two questions, sort of several times.

I've heard people saying not today, Satan, when things aren't going the way they think it should be going.

So how would one know when it is an attack from Satan or a lesson from God for us to grow?

I know that's where you were going earlier, because you and I have had these conversations before.

We may have even talked about on the podcast, but not in that way.

So how do you know when it's an attack from Satan or a lesson from God?

Okay, so it can be difficult.

First off, I want to kind of talk about the not today Satan thing.

I think that's.

It's comical.

I mean, number one, it's awesome.

I love it when people say that.

It makes me laugh, especially when it's in the best context.

The thing is this.

On one hand, who are we to try to take on Satan?

We are no good at it.

So we call upon Jesus to take on Satan.

That's just a side note.

I don't know.

Hang on, hang on.

Even Michael.

Hang on.

Resist the devil and he must flee.

Scripture says him, but we're not taking him on.

No.

And neither is the statement not.

I use it a lot.

So not today, Satan.

Right.

I'm saying, like.

I'm saying I say it a lot because not today, Satan is me resisting the devil.

I'm not gonna let you have this one.

You're not.

It's not for you today.

Okay.

I'm feeling you.

Okay.

I'm not.

Look, first off, I'm just.

I'm just.

I'm just kind of putting out a little.

Kind of pretty.

We're not actually trying to take him on ourselves.

Right?

Right.

I mean, even Michael was called on Jesus.

So let's just.

I just wanted to put that out in the forefront.

Although, like I said, it is funny, it is interesting when you do recognize that spiritual warfare is happening or that you're getting tempted to do things.

When you.

To take that cap and go, oh, not today.

I think that's awesome.

I love when people can feel that kind of thing going on.

I think that's, that's, that's good to recognize that you've got your armor on at the moment.

It's good to be like, nope, this is not how this is going to go today.

But conversely on that, not everything's Satan's fault.

Not everything is Satan's fault.

You know, the thing is, is that I love how she said, going the way the things they think it should be going, they think and I love it.

It's in quotes.

So, yeah, we often have an idea of what we think things are going to be like.

And do people make plans and God laughs?

Actually, it says in the Bible that we think how our life is going to go and then it's God who actually plans our steps.

So we need to sometimes take a step back, get back in the back seat and realize that we're trying to take over the wheel that we didn't have any business touching at all.

Right.

Yeah.

So sometimes things don't go the way that you want them to go, or you had it thought out.

That's not necessarily spiritual warfare.

Sometimes things are just not going to work out.

You know, one of the things when we talked about prayer before, and I think we've talked about this, we did a whole thing on prayer, and Nick and I talked about this was a year ago or so.

Nick and I talked about how God answers prayer.

And I always pray, drop it into four.

He dropped it into three.

But the two can kind of be combined.

Sometimes God answers prayer in a yes, sometimes he answers it in a no.

Sometimes it's a not yet, and sometimes it's a grow.

You got to grow into that.

Ask sometimes, but we have a plan sometimes what we're asking and we don't realize sometimes when it's a no, that's just a no.

Sometimes you're not going to get it yet.

It's not for now.

And sometimes you need to grow before you ask for something like that.

And the only reason that's the biggest reason is like, in ministry, there's things that we ask to do and God goes, you're not ready for that.

You need to take it a step back.

And I thought that's one of the biggest reasons that I'm like, I've recognized sometimes grow is an answer.

You need to grow into what you're just asking for.

Anyway, that being said, just because the situation isn't going the way you want doesn't mean it's something demonic.

In fact, it could just mean one of two things.

One, it could mean that you did something dumb and it wasn't going to work out that way.

Or two, God just.

That's not part of the plan and we got to be okay with that.

Doesn't mean that's not when the attacks are going to happen.

As we just talked about.

I think that's.

He loves to come.

The devil wants to come and play.

He wants to mess with us at that moment.

He wants us to get angry about it.

He wants us to get frustrated about it.

He wants us to even get angry and frustrated with God, you know, and it's easy to do that.

Look, my wife and I are no strangers to thinking, even thinking that God wants something in our lives and then getting really confused, even frustrated, when that doesn't seem to be working out.

And we look to him like, okay, but you.

We felt like you said this.

So what is that?

My wife has been in a place like that lately with some things where she's like, I think this is it.

I'm like, okay, cool.

She's like, I feel like, okay.

So we go down a rabbit hole of chasing something, and it's like, that's not it.

And that's really frustrating.

Don't get me wrong.

And it's confusing, but it doesn't necessarily mean that anything bad's happened.

Sometimes that's just not it.

Or maybe it's not it yet, you know, because God puts things on our hearts that are going to happen.

God's things puts on our hearts that we can start to prepare for, but it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to happen right away.

And then sometimes we just got to check our desires and start to ask ourselves, is this from God or is this something from our heart?

And as we know, our heart can be deceitful, our heart can be selfish.

Our heart can want things that we really have no business wanting.

Like, I could go, God, I want a new car.

And God's like, you don't need a new car.

Yeah, but I want.

It doesn't mean you need it.

You know what I mean?

So, yeah, yeah, that's good.

That's really good practical advice for this.

I think that.

Let me, Let me, Let me retell a story that I think will help with some of this answer, because I think that a lot of times it's both.

And so.

And here's why.

So Joseph was given a dream.

Yeah.

You know, and it was given by God.

And he was super excited about this dream.

Yeah.

And so he couldn't contain it.

He had to tell, you know, the people that were in the dream.

Right?

And the devil was like, hey, guys, he's gonna be better than you.

He wants to be better than you.

You know, you should just.

Just take him out, you know, like, just do something about it.

You guys.

You guys are the older brothers.

Like, you can handle this.

You guys can do this thing.

Like.

And.

And so they took him and they chucked him in a well, right?

And then they sold him.

And then.

And, well, hang on.

I'm not there yet.

Right?

This is why they call it spiritual warfare, right?

So he's in a well, and they're like, we'll just leave him here to die right there.

They're at that point, their hearts are hardened enough.

And then Judah was like, we probably shouldn't kill him.

Why don't we.

Why don't we sell him?

Like, there's that battle within him.

He's like, that's a step too far.

Right?

Like, he's like, that's.

We've already done enough.

Like, we shouldn't.

So let's sell him into slavery, right?

So.

So God spared his life, right?

So there's that.

And then, like, he goes into slavery, ends up with Potiphar, right?

And then.

So all this greatness is coming from Potiphar's house.

You know, he's managing it.

He's doing awesome.

I mean, he.

Everything is going well for him.

And then Potiphar's wife, right, is like, the devil's like, hey, you can have anything you want.

You know, all you gotta do is put it out there.

You're in charge of this place.

You really run this household.

So Potiphar's wife tries to get him to sleep with her, and it's like, no.

And Joseph runs off to the point of leaving his cloak behind, right?

Like, he literally ran out of it.

Like, so he leaves there, right?

And then, of course, gets in trouble, right?

Thrown into prison, right?

And so his life was spared, for one.

I mean, that's a big deal.

I mean, he could have been killed for that, you know, so then God's at work there, right?

And all the while it's talking about how, you know, God's like, you know, the scripture says that he was, you know, seeking God and his eyes were on God.

So.

So then he's in.

He's in prison, right.

Bummer place to be.

And God gives these two guys visions.

Yeah.

Right.

And he's like, well, I can, you know, I can tell you what that.

That means.

And they're like, oh, great.

You know, so he's.

He's getting this set up, right?

And he's like, but you remember me, you know.

You know, when.

And so he's like, yeah, absolutely.

And so then all the things that he tells them, their dreams meant come, come to be.

And they forget about him.

Right.

The.

The one that.

That didn't get killed forgets about him, right?

So he's spending this time in prison knowing that, well, God's got me, you know, it's gonna happen someday.

Something's gonna happen, you know, and that is just.

That is as simple as, hey, you know, just go on about your life, you know, that was the distraction.

That was the attack, right?

And then all of a sudden, Pharaoh has this dream, these dreams that he can't.

Nobody can tell him what it is.

And was it.

Was it the cup bearer?

Was it?

Who was it?

Who was it the.

I think it was the cup bearer.

So he's like, yo, oh, yeah, there was this guy.

Yeah, I forgot this guy.

And so God uses him then to, you know, relay that he's, you know, he's.

He can help with this.

He goes.

He helps.

You know, he tells him this is what's going to happen.

Yeah.

And then he gets put over all of Egypt.

Yeah.

And his brothers end up, you know, coming along.

And the first dream that God had originally told him that he had gotten super excited about comes true.

It comes true.

So that's what happens in our life, right, Is it?

Our life is spiritual warfare, Right.

It's not an instance.

And I know that we've talked about it as though it's an instance a lot.

And that's a battle, right?

But this is a war.

Wars are fought over a period of time.

There's battles within wars, right?

So our life is an ongoing war of spiritual warfare.

And it happens to be very much like what Joseph's life is now.

Not necessarily we're gonna be put over top of, you know, a whole nation or anything like that.

But sometimes the simplicity in the midst of it, right, is that it was, hey, God told me something and I'm super excited about it leads to somebody or something happening to where the devil sneaks in and just gives a little suggestion, you know, and is like, hey, this is.

This is how you get what you want and then it's that back and forth.

Yeah, back and forth.

Fighting.

I mean it's not, it's not a one and done each situation like it is an ongoing thing throughout your life.

So just, just to.

I love the story of Joseph because not only is it a back and forth warfare, but it takes place over a lot of years.

It's like 20 something years, 30 years, something like that somewhere in there.

And it's like we look at things in the day to day, sometimes hour to hour mindset.

And Joseph's this big grand thing that happened from him getting this dream and being sold into slavery to him being second in command of all of Egypt happened over 20 years.

And we don't look at it with that distance.

But he had daily battles too.

So just keep your eyes on God in the midst of it.

Right.

And resist the devil and the whispers.

Right.

That are just suggestions.

Yeah.

And just because something's not going away doesn't mean it's.

I mean, him tempting you to be angry about that.

That's probably him.

But just because something didn't go your way doesn't mean anything necessarily bad.

Sometimes it's for our good.

I can tell you that there's some things that I'm glad that God didn't give me that I asked for when I asked for them.

For sure.

There's a song, I think it's a country song.

I thank God for unanswered prayers.

Yeah.

And that's so real.

Oh my goodness.

There's been things that I thought I wanted and God said no.

And I'm glad he didn't because what he had in line for me was so much better.

So much better.

Yeah.

I think that a big thing that ties several of these all together, it's just crazy that these are tying together so well.

So let me read the second half of that and then I'm going to tie it back to something else we talked about.

For example, if someone asks, prays for patience and then is presented with a situation that requires much patience, wouldn't that be an opportunity to grow in the area where you need growth instead of just blaming Satan for the situation at hand?

And I say, yeah, totally, that's exactly what that is.

But expect Satan to try to show up in the midst of that because he doesn't want you to grow.

Right.

So there's that.

But I want to point back to like, it's important to remember what you're praying for.

Right.

Like, I think journaling can help that.

But like when you're praying for something and you're asking for something intentionally, like, you need to also have the mindset of looking for that to show up.

Yeah, you need to look for it.

And I think a really important question you need to continue to ask yourself.

If you're looking to grow in patience or kindness or whatever it is, keep asking yourself, what's the lesson here?

Once again, it takes taking a step back and really seeing more of the situation than with our blinders on.

Only in our perspective.

Somebody has been wording that question just a little bit different a lot in my ear lately.

And that is, where is God in this?

Not just what's the lesson, but where is God in this?

And I was crazy because I was gonna bring that up too, but it's such a serious thing.

You gotta be intentionally asking those things, you know, things.

Yeah, even things that feel so out of our control, which is, you know, the reality of most things.

But, like, you know, sometimes the world just feels like it's crashing down around us.

And sometimes the lesson is like, you just need to learn how to be trusting and faithful in that time.

And then maybe more lessons will come.

But take what you can get and then just think about it.

If you're going to, you know, some of the easiest ways to see what God's doing is to see it in the rearview mirror, to see what he's done.

And that's great for learning is to look and for also that rainy day file.

But also, like, it's good to see what God did and see how he did it and try to learn as much from that as possible.

But you don't want to live there.

Your faith can't live in the past.

It can learn from the past, but it doesn't want to live in the past.

You want to try to live as in the present as possible.

And you also want to be thinking to what God's doing moving forward as possible.

We don't want to get too caught up in the future because God says tomorrow will worry about itself, but try to be as in tune with God in the moment as you can.

Past is great to learn from, but you can't live there anymore.

You have to keep moving forward.

So take what you can learn from that and try to figure out how to apply it to today.

Yeah, absolutely.

Not like pirates, right?

You take what you can and you give back.

Sorry.

Anyways, so, yeah, absolutely.

And I'm excited to get to our final question just because, like, I am genuinely interested in some of your answers as well, and just to see what God lays on my heart to say as well.

So hopefully, hopefully all of that kind of flowed together really well.

Yeah.

Overlapped a bunch, but it did.

But I think that all those questions kind of laid.

Laid in to each other in a good progressive way, so.

And not like the bad progressive way.

Okay, so the next question is KPrincess311 when you encounter.

Huh.

I wonder if that's the band 3 11.

Just wondering.

I know there was a band 311.

What?

Okay.

I don't know who they are.

When you encounter a Christian that has been away from the church for several years and is doubting their worth, what are some scriptures and other readings you all would suggest?

Yo, maybe not a reading, but you could listen to this spiritual warfare series starting with the Armor of God.

I mean, like the Bible.

The whole thing is about the fact that Jesus came to reconcile us because we are his image bearers.

I mean, that's what the whole book's about, right?

It is about us not having worth and Jesus saying, here, have mine.

Like, here, you can have my worth.

You bear my image.

I love you enough that I'm choosing to give my life up and I don't have to.

Like, there is no, I don't know, there is no greater worth that you could have than the fact that the God of all creation came here in human form simply to give you his worth.

Yeah, I mean that's.

It's so good.

I mean there's probably so many verses.

One of the first ones that came to mind, I'll read a bit of, but just trying to figure out where I want to start.

I'll start there.

Think about scriptures like, and that's not what this is.

Scriptures that talk about how special you are even before you got here.

For instance, God talks about he knew you before you.

He knit you together, right?

Yeah.

And he formed you in your mother's womb.

You've been important since before you were conceived.

You've been important, important since before you were born.

You have a purpose and you're not an accident.

You were on purpose.

Our Lord knows you by name.

He's known you by name before.

You were given a name by us anyway.

He knows you, so that is something that's always important to understand.

You were important enough not only for him to form, but to die for and to offer Himself as a sacrifice.

That's important in itself.

But what I.

What first thing came to my mind was the section from Matthew 6.

Because they were asking, you know, what what scriptures?

Matthew 6 is so amazing.

It's part of, you know, Jesus's great sermon.

But I'll start at verse 25 into about 34.

Yeah, I'll just start.

I'll go all the way out.

So 30:25 says, therefore I tell you, don't worry about your life, what you will eat, what you will drink, or about your body, or what you will wear.

Isn't life more than food and the body more than clothing?

Consider the birds of the sky.

They don't sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your Heavenly Father feeds them.

Aren't you worth more than they?

Can any of you add one moment to his lifespan by worrying?

And why do you worry about clothes?

Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow.

They don't labor or spin thread.

Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these.

If that's how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won't he do much more for you, you of little faith?

So don't worry saying, what shall we eat?

Or what will we drink?

Or what will we wear?

For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things.

And your Heavenly Father knows what you need, that you need them.

But first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.

Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself.

Each day has enough trouble of its own.

It's kind of tied into what I talked about earlier, but it's that.

I mean, God knows exactly that we need something.

We're more important than the birds.

We're more important than the flowers.

God knows this.

You know, we worry about clothes.

God clothed us from as early as Adam and Eve.

We worry about food.

He gave manna in the desert when there was no food.

Drink.

He gave water from a rock when there was no water.

God is the God that can make it happen.

And what we have to do is just stay faithful to Him.

The thing is that you are so special to him that as long as you.

He just wants you to be in relationship with Him.

And he will make sure everything else is sorted out.

And ultimately we can also know.

We can also know.

And Romans 8 will tell us this, that nothing that we can go through in this life is going to compare at all to what we have coming to us.

The inheritance we have come in our eternity with God.

Nothing that can happen on this side of that.

Nothing good.

So doesn't Matter how good it is, and nothing bad, doesn't matter how bad it is, is going to compare to the glory that we have ahead of us.

And with that hope in mind, if you're important enough to achieve that, if God has got that plan for you, then that should help you get through a little bit.

What was the reference on that again?

On the verse?

Yeah, that would be Matthew 6, verses, 25 to 34.

Cool.

Just so that they have it and pass that along.

Some people may respond with, yeah, but I've done XYZ or I don't have enough faith or whatever.

And, man, how many times did Jesus tell his own disciples, ye of little faith, right?

Like, and still pressed on with them and decided that, you know what?

These are the guys that are going to build up the church for the future.

I'll deal this second part first.

The little faith thing.

God has told us what he can do with a little faith, right?

Little faith moves mountains.

Little faith can take over your whole garden.

Like, give him your little faith and see what he can do with it.

All right, so the idea that I don't have enough faith, I only have a little faith, give it to him, then let him multiply it.

Right?

Honestly, that's the bet on God, right?

Bet on him.

He's gonna.

He will.

He's.

He's always good.

What was the other thing you said?

You don't know what I've done.

What I've done?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Let's take a look.

Okay, let's not look into your life.

Let's look into the Bible and talk about the fact that God has used murderers and drunks and adulterers and.

And that was all before what, Exodus?

I mean, like.

I mean, really?

Yeah.

He used people from all walks of life that have done all kinds of things, even.

He's even used people that have persecuted his church and killed his followers.

He can use you.

Your faith, even if it's little, is enough.

What you've done in your life can be forgiven.

It's time to turn back to him and stop thinking about these other things.

Those other things are lies.

Those other things are distractions.

Those other things are weightless and pointless.

God is what you need.

You need to turn to the Lord and give him what you got.

If it's what you've done, give it to him.

If it's what you have and you think it's a little bit of faith, give it to him and he'll show you how much faith you really can have in your life.

That's a multiplication.

That's God's impossible math.

It is an incredible thing to behold.

Look, if you want him to rock your world, that's hell.

400 years of generations is what.

God withheld judgment even on the nations that he wiped out, right?

Like he withheld judgment for a long time on generations worth of people.

What you've done doesn't even compare to what generations of people do.

You know, you can turn your life around at any point, right?

He's there.

He's right.

He was there for them.

He was waiting.

He wanted them to just be like, hey, sorry, I screwed up.

Yeah, that's all.

That's all he wanted.

And then it would have been right as rain.

And so, like his patience and his love and his grace and his mercy is so big that whatever you've done, especially if you're in Christ doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter because it's not your righteousness anyways.

Right?

It's not your worth anyways.

He sees Jesus.

Yeah.

It's really important to remember this.

I mean, we get so wrapped up in this other stuff, and it's distraction.

It's cluttering is what it is.

And it's time to kill the clutter.

It's time to just get rid of it.

Ooh, maybe that could be our next series.

What?

Kill the clutter.

Kill the clutter.

I like it.

I'm giving him bad idea.

Well, maybe that's not a bad idea.

It was your idea.

It wasn't necessary.

It was just a thought.

But yeah, I mean, seriously, it's important, you know, dealing with students, for instance, some of them, even at their young ages, have been through a lot of.

And they feel marked by it.

They feel kind of trapped by it.

I'll tell you what, when you can reach in a student's life and help them connect to the idea that they are not those things and that their identity is not in those things.

Their identity is in God.

And what God actually thinks about them is that he loves them and he doesn't.

Yeah, those things he didn't love, but he loves you.

And he wants to walk forward with you.

And out of that, I mean, there's a new spark that happens.

That is.

That's the kind of spark God loves right there.

And I tell you what, doing that with a student is amazing.

I don't know why adults make it so difficult.

Why we get so stubborn in our own ways that we feel like we should have all the answers and you might.

I think that's why when you talk about the Bible come to.

Let the children come to me, people, they should be like a child.

Yeah.

Put away that stuff that says, you should know everything.

You can do it all on your own and go to God like a kid and go, well, let me discover God for the first time.

That is good.

We do have to.

So maybe that's the next thing we talk about.

To be honest, like, a lot of people toss that whole, like, oh, we're supposed to be like a child.

Well, yes, but it also.

Scripture also tells us that when I became a man, I put away childish things.

So.

And that's two different things.

But I want to at some day.

Not today.

Yeah, not today.

I want someday maybe go over those differences because I feel like so often we adopt all of it as a child or all of it as an adult, and there's different aspects.

The thing I want to comment on with.

With that is that whenever you ask a child a question that they don't know the answer to, generally they're like, I don't know.

Yeah.

And in my ordination training.

Right.

Because I had this whole long, big thing that I had to go through as a part of the Baptist church.

I love you guys still, but it's a thing.

Was that it's okay to say I don't know.

Oh, yeah.

And then go seek the answer.

Right.

Like, that's the thing, is that it's 100% okay to say I don't know to a question.

You don't know.

In fact, it is way better to say I don't know than to make something up.

So.

Yeah.

So when it comes to, like, the childlike thing, like, it's like, okay to not know everything.

It's okay.

You know, it's okay.

It's okay to not know all the answers.

Yeah.

And still have faith.

Yeah.

Right.

Like that the things are true.

You don't have to understand it.

That's hard.

That's hard coming from me, like, because I'm one of those people that there's logic for everything.

And there is, but God has all the information.

Only he knows the logic behind all of it.

Right.

Yeah.

So.

And we got to stop thinking that we have that we're going to know all the answers, because we're not.

But also to, you know, the pressure.

The pressure.

It's not supposed to be pressure.

It's supposed to be joy.

Stop letting it be pressure.

It's not meant to be that.

Let it be joyful.

Hey, I know this or I don't.

But, you know, I'D be really happy to look into that.

It's not about being pressured.

It's not supposed to give you anxiety.

It's not supposed to give you stress.

It's not supposed to bring you down.

It's not supposed to give you negative emotions.

It's not supposed to create chaos.

You know, like, it's.

It's.

There's order, there's love, there's joy, there's peace, there's patience, there's kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self control in the midst of the things that God wants for you.

And so like, yeah, absolutely.

He doesn't want it to be something that's like, oh, my gosh, this is the worst thing I've ever had to go through, you know, like, because he came so that we might have joy, right?

Have life and have it abundantly.

There is something amazing about though, instead of making something up or trying to figure it out on the spot, there's something amazing about if someone's genuinely coming and asking you a question because they want to know, not because they're trying to trap you or be how some people can be.

That's an amazing moment for you not to know the answer.

That is actually an amazing moment because now you get to go on a journey together.

You get to take that journey together.

Hey.

Okay, I'm not sure, but let's look into this.

And then you get to share the experience of the finding out, the discovery, the revelation, whatever it is, you get to share in that.

It becomes something you can not only put in your toolbox and help them understand as well as yourself, but now that's a shared experience.

You're connected now.

It's an amazing thing.

And, you know, don't look down on that.

Yeah, it's good.

All right, before we move to our next question.

Did you hear Welch's grape juice died?

I found it's ghost.

Oh, my gosh.

Okay, so that came to my head.

I had to say it.

Anyways.

I'm drinking ghost energy drink and it's a Welch's grape juice flavor.

All right, so it's dumb, but sometimes we gotta break things up.

What from akprincess311?

Maybe it is the ban.

Maybe it's a bullet type.

I don't know because I don't know guns, but AK sounds like a gun thing.

So anyways, so there's my question to you, AK Princess311.

What is behind your name?

I'm interested.

I am too.

The last one today is what is in your rainy day file, Right?

Like So first off, Matt said something to me whenever he read it.

And that's such a personal question.

It really is.

It's such a personal question.

And you know what?

It's incumbent upon us to share those things.

Yeah, it really is.

Because those rainy day files, if we hold on to them, they're just edifying us.

But everything that we do is supposed to edify the body, right?

And so I think it's a great question, and I think it's something that we all should be doing more often, because if we're sharing the things that God has done for us, that he just showed up in our hard times, that then we don't have time to complain about the hard times.

You know what's in my rainy day file, There are so many things, and they vary from, like, larger situations to even small, very, very small moments.

So they can be as small as, like, rainy day file stuff to me can be like, if I just gave a sermon and somebody's like, man, you explained it in a way that I could understand.

That goes in the rainy day file.

Like, I'm like, I love that.

That is actually probably what I want to hear more than anything else.

Or, hey, that hit me in a way you just don't even know.

Great rainy day file.

Recently, a new one came in.

Somebody told me that when I preached, it gave them goosebumps in a good way.

And I thought, I've never heard that one.

Rainy day file, that's good.

But also, I mean, it's things that God does.

I love seeing God move sometimes.

It's not even something that happened to me.

It's something that I've observed.

So instance I found there was a kid I knew.

His name is Chris.

And when I met him, he wasn't doing very well for himself.

He was making a lot of bad decisions.

Even his appearance was that he wasn't a desirable person to even kind of look upon, so to speak.

And I think he was involved in maybe some drugs and such like that he encountered God in a way that radically changed him from the inside out.

And he.

Even his appearance, like, he cut his hair, wore completely different clothes.

God just completely changed him in ways that I never would have saw coming.

And his life now is completely unrecognizable.

And I watched him even be able to handle things like his mom passed away, unfortunately.

But, you know, he handled it so much better than he probably would have back then.

And that is a rainy day file thing for me, because that's something like I could.

I saw God Work.

The time when he saved my wife, definitely in the rainy day file, the time that he told me that my daughter was coming.

Rainy day file, like, it's.

It's.

Anything that I can.

It's.

Any revelation, big or small, can go in there.

Anything that's encouraging.

I'll tell you something.

Some things that are in a rainy day file, when it comes to students I have, I'll give you two from up north, and I'll give you one from down here, first one up north.

There was a kid who was introduced to me as a troublemaker.

And I recognized that, yeah, he's causing trouble, but a lot of kids are looking to him.

He's got power, he's got sway.

And so I went to him and instead of condemning him, as people continued to do, going, oh, man, you just need to get together and just causing trouble, I was like, hey, man, do you realize that you're a leader?

And he never had anybody say that to him before.

I said, yeah, they're looking to you.

That's why you get them off topic is that you're a leader of this group.

And I said, man, you could use that power for good.

You really could.

You could do amazing things.

I don't think he ever had somebody talk to him like that.

All that to say that I lost touch with that kid.

And then years later, I run into him and he is leading Bible studies at his grandfather's church.

Some time went on, he told me he felt called to ministry.

And then some time went on, he preached in his grandfather's church.

And I was like, wow, that is a rainy day.

That is God going from one direction to another.

Another one was as simple as sometimes you just don't know the impact you're making.

Until later.

When we were leaving to come down here, there was a student who, I mean, I spent time around, I tried pouring into them, and it was really hard to read where I stood with this kid.

She was just very quiet.

And so it was really hard to gauge, you know, what kind of impact you had.

And so when we left, we had kind of a goodbye thing and she came and gave me a gift she had.

It was like this little felt craft.

She took felt and she crafted me a little Bob Ross.

She knows I love Bob Ross the painter.

And it's at my desk right now.

And I promised her the one.

She gave it to me.

This is going to my desk and I'm going to hold it forever.

But she gave me this thing and then broke into tears and then just grabbed Me and hugged me for a long time.

And obviously I hug her back and I'm almost brought to tears.

It's hard for me.

But that was an amazing moment where I was like, wow.

I didn't even realize.

It was so amazing.

I will cherish that memory forever.

And I love thinking about that when I see that little doll sitting to the side of my desk.

It's only about this big.

It's a little felt thing, but that's one.

And then down here, honestly, let me choose.

My brain just gave me a bunch at once.

I'll tell you this one.

There's a student who last year we took to move, and I had been trying so hard.

And this isn't a me thing, this is totally a God thing.

And everything's a God thing.

But so don't think I'm trying to put myself into anything.

But there was a kid that I felt like I just needed.

I wasn't satisfied with him pulling away from the group.

He was constantly pulling away from the group, pulling away so quiet, didn't want to be involved with anything.

And I was like, come on.

No, there's more to this.

And the kid later admitted to me that he's like, he just wouldn't.

Every time you saw me, you just had to say something.

Every time you saw me, you just wouldn't let me just stand by myself.

And I was like, no, I wanted you in.

But he went on move and he didn't even want to go.

He heard it might be fun, and then he was really resistant and he thought he was going to have a terrible time, but then he didn't.

God met him on that trip in a way that he didn't see coming.

Not only did he open up, I mean, in the first major way I had ever seen this kid open up, but he is so different now.

You know, he came back just raving about the trip.

He went on this year's trip and had another amazing experience, which was.

I was, like, unsure if that was going to happen, but he did.

And now he's talking about maybe he is called to ministry.

And I'm looking at this kid like, wow, God did this.

He took the kid that didn't.

That thought he was not going to be part of the group, that thought that he had nothing to say, that thought he didn't want to even be a part of it to a degree, and flipped him upside down.

That's gonna stay with me forever.

Yeah, those are good.

I got a few that are near and dear one's recent Obviously, most of you guys have heard a little bit of my story with my work thing.

God was working through frustrations in one other family's life and, and also in mine.

And it converged into God's plan of getting me into this laser engraving thing.

But then also, like, every time I was like, okay, God, but I need this.

He was like, okay, here you go.

It's like, okay, you know.

Well, we weren't even looking for a new car with Lizzie's car.

That was just a simple, hey, thanks for following me.

I don't know what else to call it.

I mean, it's God's blessing, right?

And then I was like, okay, I need a truck, because I'm having to have all of the pieces of everything cut there because I can't get it home, right?

And I was like, okay, here's a truck.

Yeah.

And not only that, but like, selling the vehicles, often in times in which we're just a little short, you know, and just being the right.

Right amount of money, you know, and.

And also being able to bless other people with who just in those moments needed vehicles as well, and.

And that sort of thing.

So that's one of them.

Another one is, my grandmother was given.

This is a long time ago when I was like, 16, 17, she was given six months to live.

And she laughed and said, I'll go when God.

God takes me.

And she lived 11 years, like, or 10 years or something like that after that.

And so it was one of those things that, like, it's something that reminds me that God's got me.

He's gonna take me when he takes me, I don't have to worry.

And that brings me joy.

But another thing is something I haven't shared, didn't ask permission to share it.

I'm just gonna share it.

So for about 20 ish years before this happened, I had struggled with a pretty severe pornography addiction.

And I finally had gotten into a group where I was working with some guys, trying to, you know, get out of it and fight the struggle or whatever.

And I finally decided that I was gonna tell my wife because my wife had no idea.

And so what's crazy is she had just started.

So she.

I had been in discipleship group for like two years, and she then started a discipleship group.

And so this was like a year, year and a half after she had started her discipleship group.

And they had been going through.

Let me back up.

So I had finally, you know, I finally decided somebody was pushing me, pushing me, pushing me, pushing me to tell Tell my wife.

And.

And I finally said, okay, I'm just gonna do it, you know, and see what happens.

I was terrified.

You can think of any number of things that could possibly run through someone's head.

And I thought it like it.

I was.

I was completely just scared out of my mind.

So I go to her and she says, how can I help?

That was her response.

Right.

Like it was none of the things.

Yeah.

And so what's crazy is she had been.

And this ties.

This is.

Put a great bow on the thing.

She had been doing a study with her ladies on spiritual warfare.

Yeah.

And God had just prepared her for that moment.

And so God knows what we're gonna go through.

Yeah.

And what all the people around us need to be able for us to go through it.

So spiritual warfare is an ongoing thing, but God is in the midst of it, and we can't forget that.

And he is the only thing stopping us from being completely destroyed.

So as far as worth, as far as where he's working, whose fault it is, all of that.

God is in the center of everything in that.

And it's not asking the.

The situation, whose side are you on?

But rather asking yourself, whose side are you going to be on?

Right.

So in the midst of spiritual warfare, know that God is in control and he wants to turn everything that the enemy is throwing at you into something good.

Yeah.

So that's what I got.

That's the answers to your questions.

I'd love to know what's in your guys's rainy day files.

Like, for those of you who responded.

Yeah.

And since there were only three of you guys that responded, I think I'm gonna give something to each of you.

So we'll work that out.

I know two of the three of you personally and kind of know the other one.

So thank you for being so in tune with us, for giving us drive, for giving.

Giving some confirmation to what we're doing here.

And man, just stay strong, you know, be courageous in the midst of the battle because we win.

We do win.

So.

Yes.

Know that you are worth more than.

The birds and the flowers.

Birds and the flowers.

So, like, share.

Subscribe.

Yep.

Comment.

Thank you for coming on this journey with us.

Yeah.

And who knows what we'll talk about next.

I don't even know.

Maybe we'll have a random day, random pull day, so we can prepare for the next.

Whatever.

Maybe we'll see.

But thanks for coming and God bless.

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