Nephilim Death Squad - Is Holy Spirit Working Today？ w⧸ Pastor Rick & Raven

00:00:00.000 in the studio.

00:00:02.020 Top Lobson Productions.

00:00:30.000 very special guest today everybody pastor rick this is uh top and raven's pastor that's right

00:00:37.400 a lot of people are going to be incredibly intrigued about because they wonder like where

00:00:42.140 would these guys go to a church and what would that pastor be like so it's going to be very

00:00:47.300 intriguing for you to kind of uh talk to us a little bit about your life and uh and what you're

00:00:52.520 doing i feel like this was a mistake already how this is yeah yeah you could feel his energy right

00:00:56.460 By the way, our audience, Pastor Rick, is already passively familiar with you because we say things about you.

00:01:05.080 Always good things.

00:01:06.220 I bet you said something about the crimson worm.

00:01:09.660 We did mention it.

00:01:11.140 We mentioned it, and I would love if we can get into that conversation just a little bit today because it is fascinating.

00:01:17.620 You want to unpack that right now and then we get into your story kind of after that?

00:01:21.380 I know that was like a very moving sermon.

00:01:23.220 What was that, a week or two ago?

00:01:24.400 Top Heather's Day.

00:01:25.760 yeah it was father's day so top said it was great man yeah it was a it was a really fantastic uh

00:01:31.620 what is it it's an isaiah 50 something pretty close uh psalms 22 okay

00:01:39.000 and uh by the way since then i have spoken to you and you said there's more to it to unpack

00:01:52.560 and you're planning on doing that.

00:01:54.660 Did you already do that

00:01:55.500 or is that happening this coming summer?

00:01:56.700 That's coming July 19th.

00:01:58.920 We do a show,

00:02:00.920 our show,

00:02:01.840 a service where we bring in

00:02:03.620 the Spanish church.

00:02:04.920 That's right.

00:02:05.500 With us. 0.66

00:02:06.400 We call that One Church Una Familia.

00:02:10.440 The pastor of that church

00:02:12.400 interprets me as I preach.

00:02:15.240 And so we go from there

00:02:16.740 and I've already given him

00:02:18.480 the first sermon

00:02:19.300 so he can listen to it.

00:02:20.680 And I've already prepared

00:02:21.820 the second sermon. So I've got that information if you'll want to sneak it in about the second

00:02:27.880 one. Yeah. So can we lay the groundwork for this? This is something that you said you organically

00:02:34.340 came upon, right? Which is remarkable because how long have you been reading the Bible?

00:02:39.820 Well, I've been in ministry 49 and a half years. I was a youth pastor for 14 years,

00:02:49.780 lead pastor for 35, and I've been a senior associate now for six months.

00:02:56.860 And still, the Word of God is revealing itself to you in ways that it hasn't, you know, in all

00:03:03.220 those decades. Absolutely. One of the joys of my life, I tell young preachers this all the time,

00:03:11.720 my favorite thing to do is to study God's Word and then get ready to preach it by prayer and

00:03:19.760 fasting and seeking God. And so it's cool. You know, what's a wild thing I heard in the last,

00:03:25.260 I don't know, year or two, and it kind of pierced my heart a little bit. You familiar with G. Campbell

00:03:29.080 Morgan? He said if he hadn't been preparing sermons, he'd think he'd be backslidden at this

00:03:38.200 point. Is that something you could relate to? I can understand that. One of the downfalls,

00:03:45.200 if you will say, about pastoring is you don't have the time to study like I do now. Since the

00:03:52.580 other guy has taken my senior pastorate, I have more time to read and study what I want to.

00:04:00.380 And so it gives me the time to dig deeper into God's Word. When I ran across this, I almost

00:04:06.540 lost my mind. It was so good. I mean, it was so powerful. And I keep digging into it, and it gets

00:04:13.360 deeper and deeper. And if I get emotional, you know, just hang with me because it's touching

00:04:20.380 for sure. Do you want to get into that teaching right now? Can I say something real quick? Because

00:04:26.100 the way that I spoke with you about coming on the show and you were telling me a little bit

00:04:30.900 about the sermon and I heard and I go, man, how crazy is it that like, because Pastor Rick doesn't

00:04:36.200 preach every Sunday anymore. And I go, you know, it's just crazy that David said he's going to

00:04:42.240 come back to visit the church and then you told me the message that you were giving i'm like

00:04:46.040 i don't want to hear it but i already knew it was like it's one of those things where it's like

00:04:49.900 bang like a shot in the dark and it seems to happen that way more often than not oh yeah

00:04:55.760 oh sure in fact our my first um my first time attending your church it was like i don't even

00:05:02.520 know if i ever ended up telling you this but we were going through something very particular and

00:05:05.740 And actually, Top and I kind of sought you out for counsel on the matter.

00:05:10.160 And when you gave your sermon, that visit that I had made that Sunday, it was like, and I'm sure this happens to all sorts of people all the time.

00:05:21.620 But even my wife was like, he was talking to you.

00:05:25.040 and and i remember in particular you had given an anecdotal story regarding uh a relationship

00:05:31.900 of yours a friend that you had fallen away from because of some differences there was some

00:05:36.980 contention and you were i believe periodically reaching out to him praying for him and just

00:05:43.100 just trying to bridge that gap and um and i think in the story you might have made leeway like there

00:05:48.380 was finally some sort of a breakthrough but you know my entire issue was a falling away with

00:05:53.640 someone who i was feeling compelled to to reach out to so such a you're soft you know you such a

00:06:00.940 unique circumstance uh in my life at that time and it was like it was you know like the sermon

00:06:07.020 was made for me and i can guarantee you that there was countless others in the congregation

00:06:10.860 who probably felt that way too because uh despite being a unique situation in my life

00:06:15.540 it's a very relatable one in everybody's life and so um but that happens very often that what

00:06:21.620 you're saying and what you're reading, God is working through that in people that are listening.

00:06:28.000 Well, one of the things I've found is that if I will be real with people and I will tell them

00:06:36.260 I have issues with people, with personalities, with conflict, with family, with everything like

00:06:44.820 that, people are going to relate to that because people definitely have conflict. Everyone has

00:06:51.920 conflict. Everyone has issues they have to work through. But the standard for a Christian is a

00:06:57.640 whole lot different than the standard for somebody that's in the world, if that person's in the world. 0.94

00:07:04.020 But then the standard becomes even a little bit harder if both of you are Christians, because 0.90

00:07:09.160 then you've got Matthew 18. If you got ought against your brother, you go to him, you try to 0.86

00:07:14.120 work it out. And if that doesn't work, you get somebody else go with you. And so I try to

00:07:20.980 express real life to people. My pastors that have worked for me for years and years say,

00:07:28.220 you're a storyteller. And I said, well, that's my life. I love telling stories. And matter of

00:07:34.440 fact, the sermon I did about the crimson worm, I ended it on a story about my son and reconciling

00:07:43.140 with with him sorry it was uh it was tremendous well let's let's let's get into that well the

00:07:48.160 guys kudos to you too though because the guys are very in this world of fake and real and spotting 0.97

00:07:53.440 fake from a mile away and one thing they've always said about you is that you're just a real ass dude

00:07:57.520 like they've always said that but no matter what you know regardless of anything else they're like

00:08:02.400 this dude is real man yeah so that's very cool and very needed very needed in the church today

00:08:08.000 I've always said what you see is what you get and don't expect me to give you a preachy answer.

00:08:13.860 If you come to me privately, I'll give you the word of God and I'll give you what you need to hear.

00:08:20.620 But I'm not going to just, you know, brush you off with something that's going to make you feel good when you leave the room.

00:08:27.300 So you have to you have to be real with people.

00:08:31.120 Amen. So so let's get into this story because we've already alluded to it a bunch.

00:08:36.940 And it's a fascinating one

00:08:39.020 So this topic of the crimson worm

00:08:41.300 How did you

00:08:42.160 Put us in the mindset of

00:08:44.260 Where you were when you stumbled upon this

00:08:46.820 I think that's very interesting

00:08:47.700 What was that like?

00:08:49.860 In my study

00:08:51.580 And rightfully called

00:08:54.960 The study because I was in there

00:08:56.880 Just reading and studying

00:08:58.440 And then I forget

00:09:01.060 Who alluded to

00:09:02.820 Psalms 22 and the worm

00:09:05.360 And as soon as they said that, I said, well, wait a minute, that's a prophecy about Jesus.

00:09:11.660 And I asked myself, I said, would Jesus consider himself a worm?

00:09:17.020 And then I go to Psalms 22, verse 6, and he says, I am a worm, not a man.

00:09:25.660 That blew me almost out of my seat.

00:09:29.260 And immediately I started digging into that.

00:09:32.460 And as soon as I looked up crimson worm, because the original Hebrew is that it's a tola, which is a type of worm.

00:09:44.600 Well, tola means crimson worm.

00:09:47.820 And so I looked up crimson worm on the Internet.

00:09:51.700 And as soon as you do that, it shows a worm, but it also shows the cross.

00:09:56.420 I was like, whoa, what's going on here?

00:09:58.560 And so I started digging deeper and deeper into that.

00:10:03.640 And then you start reading the life of the crimson worm.

00:10:10.500 Everything about it is so identifiable with the cross and what Jesus went through.

00:10:16.720 We actually have some images here on the screen.

00:10:19.240 You want to make that picture big, Top?

00:10:22.200 It's a little blurry, but yeah.

00:10:23.700 That one. Yeah. That's actually, if I'm not mistaken, the one that you showed that day at church. Hard to see a worm in all that mess. Looks like a gigantic bloodstain. So already we're off to some interesting imagery in regards to this.

00:10:39.480 The image that you just saw is when the tola or the crimson worm actually gives up its life, and when it does, the fluid in the worm gushes out, and I'll have to get a little bit ahead on my next sermon,

00:11:00.400 But not only does it stain the tree, which is like symbolic of the cross, it covers its babies, its young.

00:11:11.300 So from the Tola worm, once it gives up its life, and it knows when it goes up on that tree, it's going to die.

00:11:21.840 It knows that. And so when it dies, the cross or the tree is stained, but the kids are covered in the blood, which is so symbolic.

00:11:34.280 The blood ends up saving the children.

00:11:35.620 Exactly. And so they become blood red for the rest of their lives.

00:11:41.200 And those who are females that do the same thing will go through the same process and be willing, which you can carry that further, too, because that's what we should do once we have accepted Christ.

00:11:54.620 Amen.

00:11:55.460 It's remarkable, too, because you're saying it climbs this tree knowing that this is going.

00:12:00.120 I mean, that's its purpose.

00:12:01.840 Right.

00:12:02.220 Right.

00:12:02.460 That is its purpose.

00:12:03.280 That's its destiny, ultimately.

00:12:06.180 And it's fulfilling it.

00:12:07.400 Yeah. And I found this so interesting when I read this. The whole time I was sitting there, I was just blown away with what God was speaking. But the young, before the mother even dies, before the worm even dies, start feeding on the body of the mother.

00:12:28.300 Jeez. And Jesus said, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part with me.

00:12:38.500 And so here is this these babies that are partaking of the body of their mother so that they can live.

00:12:49.280 And and it's so interesting to me that when Jesus did that teaching, when he said, unless you eat my, you know,

00:12:56.920 eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no part of me well the bible says that many turned away

00:13:02.680 and never followed him again yeah we laugh about that passage in regards to church growth like in

00:13:07.820 the modern 501c3 system is like church growth church growth church growth it's like well then

00:13:12.340 jesus is the biggest failure if it's about church growth because he i'm guessing had thousands at

00:13:16.900 that time he says you got to eat my flesh and drink my blood and then he's down to 12 right

00:13:21.020 I think he even asked them, you guys going to go too?

00:13:24.460 Where would we go?

00:13:25.720 You have the words of life.

00:13:28.180 I love that statement.

00:13:29.380 And that's true.

00:13:30.940 And all these church growth specialists that come to me and want to come to our church and want to, and I'm all, and I ask them the same question.

00:13:42.360 Why do we think numbers are the thing that God is looking for?

00:13:47.820 I thought he was looking for disciples.

00:13:49.740 Amen.

00:13:51.020 Not for just to get a number so you can be in a magazine or be on TV or be whatever.

00:13:58.240 We're to make disciples.

00:13:59.880 And when you look at it, 11 out of those 12 turned the world upside down after they became the disciples Christ wanted them to be.

00:14:08.640 So it's not so much.

00:14:11.060 And that's why I've tried to invest in people like Pastor Mark and my other pastors who are there a whole lot, because they can do twice as much as I've ever done, you know, by discipling them and watching them grow and mature.

00:14:27.200 Yeah, you're right.

00:14:28.160 Get a couple of real ones that are serious about it, because I think they even say that about Paul and Silas.

00:14:33.180 They say these are these men that have turned the world upside down and now they've come here.

00:14:37.720 Yeah.

00:14:37.920 You get a couple of real ones. It's way different than just a giant building of people who may or may not really be dedicated to it.

00:14:45.140 Well, one of the and I don't want to regress too far back.

00:14:48.800 But when I was a youth pastor one time, I I had a youth group that I took from six.

00:14:55.240 By the time I left there three years later, it was like one hundred and twenty and about 30 of those went into full time ministry because I pumped it into their heads.

00:15:06.760 Jesus said, pray the Lord of the harvest that he'll send forth laborers. And so I kept telling

00:15:13.740 them, God didn't just save you to sit on the pew. He saved you to be a world changer. And so go out

00:15:19.980 there and do something and make something out of your life. And so every now and then I'll hear

00:15:24.800 from some of them and they'll tell me what they're doing. And I just rejoice that, you know,

00:15:29.140 that's powerful. To me, that's what we should be doing. We concentrate way too much on things

00:15:36.520 that matter very little to the kingdom of God, you know, and so it's about the show most of the

00:15:43.620 time. It's about how we appear, what we look like, but if we make disciples, Jesus will take

00:15:50.420 care of the rest. Amen. Yeah. No, that's the staggering thing for me, man, is like the thrust

00:15:55.360 of Jesus' teaching revolves around don't be a hypocrite, like don't be a stage player, don't be

00:16:01.220 an actor, that's really the thrust of his teaching. And then somehow we do kind of find

00:16:07.580 ourselves in a place where, like you're saying, it becomes more about what things look like as

00:16:12.240 opposed to what's actually happening. And I am one, so I can say this, sometimes pastors get

00:16:21.060 caught up in the presentation. We get caught up in the information. And where God teaches us,

00:16:31.340 and I'm learning this more now that I've stepped back than I did while I was there, is that

00:16:38.720 if I will spend time with Him, when I get up there to share, I'll be ready.

00:16:46.640 But if I don't spend time with him and I'm always polishing that sermon, you know, trying to make it look good and trying to make it sound good, this will make them cry.

00:16:57.800 This will make them laugh. This will make them engage this.

00:17:01.880 It's not about that. It's as I seek God with all of my heart.

00:17:07.020 then his anointing comes, his power comes, and he'll speak to someone like you who just showed

00:17:14.620 up for a service because you're needing some answers. And I may say something that had nothing

00:17:20.880 to do with my sermon. Amen. And I'm like, where'd that come from? God knew someone was sitting there

00:17:27.880 and there have been so many times that I have said, I don't know why I'm going to share this,

00:17:33.340 but I'm going to share something that God did in my life one time.

00:17:37.880 And there will be people sitting there who needed to hear that.

00:17:41.820 Yeah.

00:17:42.140 Well,

00:17:42.320 that only comes from prayer and seeking God and being filled with Holy

00:17:46.940 spirit,

00:17:47.700 you know,

00:17:48.000 to be filled and,

00:17:49.940 and to walk in there ready.

00:17:51.520 And I don't think you're ready until you've been filled with Holy spirit and

00:17:54.940 spent time in prayer.

00:17:56.320 Amen.

00:17:57.220 I'm very intrigued by this.

00:17:59.580 Um,

00:18:03.340 uh preparing i do show like once a week and there's a lot of preparation to do it

00:18:08.100 and and so that morning time that i'm typically just spending with god for an hour or whatever

00:18:13.760 it is that it can just be like hey god what whatever you want to talk about right and then

00:18:18.840 it changes to hey god i love you this is what i'm working on though like this is what i'm preparing

00:18:25.080 right now and um you know by the grace of god i got kicked off the show like i was telling you for

00:18:29.980 little while and so i got a little bit of a break i got a little bit of a break and it was wild how

00:18:35.260 i was like wow yeah we did that for your own good i know i was like this is so nice to be kind of

00:18:40.540 back to like hey god we can talk about whatever you want right but i'm trying to live in the

00:18:44.780 balance of that because i don't think god's like oh that's so cute you just hang out and me and you

00:18:49.500 just hang out every morning and you just like you're saying they're just sitting the pews and

00:18:53.900 it's like you know this is the next thing and i'm just trying to live in the balance of that now

00:18:57.340 but well if i could if i could interject for a second too because i think you know matt has some

00:19:01.500 valid criticisms of the church um but i think doing this what we're doing now i'm like do you

00:19:07.820 realize what we're what's happening like if we're talking about a show if we're talking about the

00:19:12.620 production look around you yeah um if you're talking about the preparation that the pastors

00:19:18.860 do and then like you know maybe they they can't focus on this is like in in a way like i feel

00:19:23.740 like you're you're going through this now you're seeing this but like i i still struggle and i i

00:19:29.580 don't think i'll ever want to understand exactly what is necessary to bring this forward without

00:19:34.380 like this takes a lot of work yeah doing this helps to understand yeah the slippery slope that

00:19:39.340 it is because well how do you balance it right well you also have this this sense of like i am

00:19:43.660 bringing uh the word of god to people that that's that's what i've chosen to do in my service and

00:19:50.700 And so to say there should be a standard of the way that it's presented should be the highest.

00:19:57.640 Yeah, yeah. I can understand that jump. It should be of the highest standard, right?

00:20:01.680 We're talking about bringing people to Jesus Christ. We're talking about salvation.

00:20:06.840 This is the most important subject, full stop.

00:20:11.220 And therefore, dedicating resources to having it look good and sound good and all these other things.

00:20:18.260 they're important but then i guess the question is where does that line get drawn and we're just

00:20:25.140 men so we're fallible and we tend to slip on these slopes you could easily just go in a direction

00:20:31.220 where all of a sudden you're going through the repetition of it and you get caught in the groove 0.99

00:20:37.760 almost and you turn around one day haven't we done that just on our stupid show well i think 1.00

00:20:42.420 what saves us from that is um on our on our stupid show well it is is that i am never 0.99

00:20:48.740 preparing like anything and and i i don't want to say i humble myself but i'm constantly presenting 0.99

00:20:56.400 myself in a way to the audience that is to say like i'm an idiot and i'm here for the ride and

00:21:02.020 and we're we're going through this together um and maybe that's part of it but like i'm never 0.76

00:21:07.200 preparing anything and and i just and also something that pastor rick that you taught me

00:21:13.880 and you don't know this but um you have such a a big emphasis on holy spirit that i began

00:21:21.800 you know probably around the time that we opened up in here um every time i come to do a show i

00:21:31.260 always ask for holy spirit and it's like it's not what i want to talk about it's whatever

00:21:35.600 needs to be said through me so that someone will be drawn closer to god by the words that we say

00:21:40.380 here so please father send holy spirit and like over and over like that's every day every day and

00:21:46.980 my my my walk is new and i've never been to a church before your church and um so i don't have

00:21:55.160 a framework for maybe a church that doesn't really push the idea of inviting holy spirit in

00:22:03.560 um i even maybe it's a little bit silly but i i say the show is god's show and to send holy

00:22:10.060 spirit to be you know in the studio with us on the show on the show with us yeah i don't know if

00:22:15.100 those words are um silly but i think that that's been my saving grace for a lot of it is like it's

00:22:21.100 not on me um it's it's on you know it's it's god i'll i want to serve and whatever happens through

00:22:26.920 me is great but i don't really have a lot of plans but i do always ask for holy spirit to come

00:22:31.740 Yep. The just to add a little balance, the scriptures say, Paul says, and when he's talking to Timothy, he says, study to show yourself approved.

00:22:42.680 You know, you don't want to be ashamed. And so study, you know, do that.

00:22:47.180 But then as you minister, make sure your dependence is on Holy Spirit, not on knowledge.

00:22:54.760 You know, knowledge puffs up, you know, but but if you have Holy Spirit with you, he will guide what you're saying.

00:23:03.480 And he will say to a person in the building, like I said earlier, something that you hadn't even really thought about.

00:23:11.920 And I've had literally had people come to me and say, you said this.

00:23:17.780 And I was like, I didn't say that.

00:23:19.340 but I believe because of Holy Spirit's presence,

00:23:24.240 he lets them hear what they need to hear for that moment.

00:23:29.020 And they try to give me credit for it.

00:23:31.000 And I'm like, no, no.

00:23:32.000 I said, that was just God speaking to you in that service.

00:23:35.940 And so preparation is good.

00:23:39.500 I would never go to the platform going like,

00:23:42.920 we're just going to trust God today and flip a coin.

00:23:46.560 Okay, Timothy, today, let's do that.

00:23:49.340 But I would never do that.

00:23:51.560 I always go in with a plan, but my plan is always subject to the presence of Holy Spirit.

00:23:59.040 And if he says, go this direction, then I just put down what I have prepared and say, okay, Lord, lead me.

00:24:08.220 And can I give you an example of that?

00:24:11.400 Years ago, we had one of those services where the presence of Holy Spirit was so strong.

00:24:19.340 And maybe later I can tell y'all why I started doing that about inviting Holy Spirit.

00:24:25.360 But let me tell this story first.

00:24:27.740 And so, I mean, the presence of God was so strong.

00:24:31.600 I felt Holy Spirit whisper to me and say, give an altar call.

00:24:35.300 People are here and need to be saved.

00:24:37.720 So I gave an altar call.

00:24:40.440 Five people came forward weeping, gave their hearts to Christ.

00:24:44.360 We had people praying with them, getting ready to move on with the service.

00:24:48.580 and he said there's more i was like oh okay so i gave another altar call and i said okay i believe

00:24:58.120 there's some other folks here god spoke to me well like three more people came forward for salvation

00:25:03.940 and so i said okay you know we've taken care of that and then god says there's one more

00:25:10.340 and the word for that person is desperation they came here desperate today today is life 0.97

00:25:20.040 or death for them so i repeated what god said to me when i said that this lady screamed out

00:25:28.340 in the service and started weeping just uncontrollably she was with her husband i

00:25:34.060 I mean, he was freaking out.

00:25:35.080 It was their first time in our service, and she was freaking out.

00:25:40.820 He was wondering what was going on.

00:25:43.280 About 20 ladies came and got her, and they brought her to the altar, prayed with her.

00:25:48.540 She had planned her suicide.

00:25:52.200 That afternoon, she would have killed herself.

00:25:56.280 She said, I woke up this morning, and something inside of me told me to go to that church on Pixieola Road,

00:26:03.100 and take one more chance.

00:26:07.740 Give me one more chance with your life.

00:26:09.960 So she came to our church.

00:26:11.400 And I wonder how many times we miss what Holy Spirit's trying to do

00:26:18.320 because we have our plan.

00:26:21.080 We have our program.

00:26:23.020 We've got to do it this way.

00:26:24.920 And if it's not done by 1120, then we're out of sync.

00:26:29.840 We need to figure this out.

00:26:31.220 but back up and give room to Holy Spirit just to come and to do whatever he wants to do

00:26:38.120 and be sensitive to that. How much of a hindrance do you think it is of people that operate

00:26:43.580 in the intellect, like just in the intellect or just in their knowledge, as opposed to

00:26:49.780 surrendering and being guided by the Holy Spirit? I think it's one of the reasons people are turned

00:26:55.820 off from the church. I think there's a reason that people, you know, kind of take a step back

00:27:03.060 and they go like, well, that feels kind of canned. That feels kind of, you know. But saying that,

00:27:09.720 I still think the church is the best thing to float. And even though it's got its problems,

00:27:19.280 I played team sports. Every coach I had, every team I played with, we had our problems. We had

00:27:26.480 our arguments. We wanted to fight. I traveled on a tennis team. We had our struggles. We had our

00:27:32.480 fights. I worked at the paper mill and we've had our struggles. We had our fights. And so I'm not

00:27:38.320 going to abandon the church just because we've got struggles. We've got things we need to figure

00:27:44.700 out. But one thing I have learned that if the church will come together, work together, love

00:27:50.600 each other the way they're supposed to, they can touch the world. When I went to our church,

00:27:56.060 they supported nine missionaries. Now we support 240 because I kept presenting that vision to all

00:28:06.200 these people for all these years. And every year we add to that number. The gospel is being preached

00:28:13.040 all over the world, not because I've done anything exceptional, but because the church has come

00:28:19.300 together and we put our resources together and our hearts together. And it's made the church

00:28:25.600 more real to me of what we can do together compared to what we can do separate. And so

00:28:32.200 let me go back to the story of why I invite Holy Spirit. We were having a Christmas Eve service,

00:28:40.800 uh great service everything went well you know god was glorified we felt like we felt good about

00:28:48.040 everything this guy comes up to me i'd never seen him to this day i think he was an angel

00:28:54.280 yeah i don't know if you believe in that but we just read it in hebrews in the earlier show

00:28:59.440 there you go entertain angels unaware there you go and uh so he comes up to me and you know i i

00:29:06.320 hadn't been the pastor very long, and he said, great service, really enjoyed it, the singing was

00:29:12.460 great, he said, what you shared was good, and he said, but can I offer you some advice, and I'm like,

00:29:20.400 of course, I think a lot of us would be a lot better off if we would listen to the people

00:29:27.060 God puts in our lives, and so I said, yeah, sure, he says, you would be blessed, and this church

00:29:35.480 would be blessed if every time you did something anything invite holy spirit wow that was right

00:29:43.760 when you started you're saying not not long after i became the lead pastor wow and uh that was

00:29:49.600 probably that's probably been i would guess 28 29 years ago so i'd been the pastor for about seven

00:29:58.500 years and this guy shows up i turn around to talk to somebody because they tapped me on the shoulder

00:30:04.120 I turned back and he was not even there. I was like, this is kind of freaky. But from that time

00:30:10.140 to this, everything we do, we invite Holy Spirit. Yeah. How about your personal life? I mean, like,

00:30:17.600 it's not just a church, right? You're going places if you have something going on, because I try to

00:30:23.260 get in the habit of that. It's like, you know, for, I think, leaning on God, you know, even on

00:30:30.500 small struggles or or i think he um wants to participate and and wants to be a part of

00:30:39.220 doesn't have to be the the show right it doesn't have to be the church uh what about just your

00:30:45.280 life the holy spirit is probably the most important thing person he's not a thing he's not a

00:30:56.780 just a spirit he's a person he's the third person uh it's like my best friend when i go to the gym

00:31:06.340 to work out i invite him because there's people there that need god yeah uh when i i i kind of

00:31:16.640 make fun about this but i i have a restaurant ministry when i go to restaurants i'm going to

00:31:24.000 witness to that waitress or waiter i'm going to share christ with them uh we've got a family in

00:31:30.760 our church right now that for five years i invited this waitress to our church and thank goodness it

00:31:40.900 was a mexican restaurant because i love mexican food and so so she uh she finally went home and 0.91

00:31:48.080 she's Mexican. Her husband is gringo. And so, uh, so he, you know, uh, she went home and she 0.99

00:31:55.360 said, if we don't go to this church, this preacher is going to drive me crazy. So can we go to his

00:32:01.040 church? Well, they came, they both got saved and they've been in our church for the last five

00:32:06.900 years. And so we take Holy Spirit with us everywhere we go and we invite him to be a part

00:32:14.620 of that because it's so important. I think that's the intriguing thing. The more you read the Bible

00:32:19.500 is like, wow, and the life of Jesus specifically is like, if this Bible was written today, it would

00:32:24.160 be the story of Jesus at Walmart, like at the restaurant, at the gas station, at the kids'

00:32:29.180 sports games, at the job, like at all of these things of life. It's so tied into our everyday

00:32:36.680 day late. Absolutely. And one of the reasons the church does not grow is they meet him at the door

00:32:46.060 of the church, Holy Spirit, and they tell him goodbye when they leave and they don't have any

00:32:53.220 relationship with him until they get back. Holy Spirit was never meant to be just someone to make

00:33:02.260 you feel good about being in church. He was to be there to lead your whole life. Jesus said it is

00:33:10.540 necessary for me to go away because if I don't go, Holy Spirit won't come. Yeah. And so when I leave,

00:33:19.840 I'm going to send him to you. And when you read John 14, 15 and 16, he tells you he's going to

00:33:26.940 teach you. He's going to guide you. He's going to lead you. He's going to glorify Jesus in your

00:33:32.960 life. He's going to. And it just goes on and on and on of everything that he's going to do. And

00:33:38.920 so we need him not just for church. We need him in our we need him in our family. We bring that

00:33:45.380 up a lot. Even the John 14 passage where he says that the Holy Spirit will teach you all things

00:33:50.800 and bring all things to your memory. And it's like, yeah, if you're going to read a Bible,

00:33:55.580 you're almost wasting your time if you're not saying, God, explain this to me.

00:34:00.520 If the Holy Spirit's the author, that's how I understand it,

00:34:03.960 then certainly I don't really care so much what a commentary says.

00:34:07.460 Like if you wrote a book, it wouldn't mean very much if I went to the Raven and said,

00:34:10.440 hey, what's this passage mean?

00:34:12.480 It'd be a lot better for me to just come to you and ask.

00:34:14.980 And I think that's what that passage is telling us, is the Holy Spirit will teach you.

00:34:19.500 Absolutely.

00:34:19.900 And he will let you know when people are not preaching the truth.

00:34:25.580 you'll be grieved in your spirit when you hear them because you'll know it's not real. And so,

00:34:32.740 so you can tell, and, and a lot of people just get comfortable coming to hear a message. They,

00:34:39.240 they have a little concert with the music and everything, and they feel good about that. They

00:34:43.920 like the contemporary music. Some people like the hymns, whatever. And so that, that I want to have

00:34:50.720 in service on Sunday makes them feel good about themselves, but I need Holy Spirit teaching me

00:34:56.880 all the time. I need to learn about Jesus being called the worm. Can I tell you something else

00:35:03.360 about the worm? Yeah, absolutely. Once the worm dies, when it's still on the tree, he's burst

00:35:12.320 open but his shell is still there guess what color that shell turns solid white thought you

00:35:21.200 were going to say that and then isaiah 118 says though your sins be as scarlet scarlet worm same

00:35:33.240 word yeah tola same word though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow amen so

00:35:42.040 did i get the verse i told top there was an isaiah passage i'll tell you you nailed it we yeah you

00:35:47.160 were ahead of me we moved past it before you know we said this then we moved on to some to some you

00:35:52.700 know some of your stories and and i was still hanging on there about the the first you know

00:35:58.260 chunk of the crimson worm that we're talking about it's just such an unbelievable parallel

00:36:03.160 we find this all the time you know uh the show that top and i do is is very heavily into conspiracy

00:36:10.000 through a christian lens and there are all these elements about the nature of reality that echo

00:36:17.120 christ and lots of other people of of you know different proclimate would you say new age

00:36:24.920 practitioners occultists they will look at these elements that you could point to so many of them

00:36:30.740 and they will say there it is jesus christ is purely allegorical it's a metaphor for this

00:36:37.000 natural phenomenon that takes place it's the bible is a metaphor it's an allegory for the stars for

00:36:42.000 the mazeroth the the the story of jesus christ in some people's eyes uh might be an allegory for

00:36:49.080 the crimson worm uh for the tola and what i find is that god's creation echoes and all of it seems

00:36:58.420 to point towards jesus in this unbelievable way it's uh much like in like an orchestra works

00:37:06.000 together to to make a song creation all points to jesus christ and there's some that do it a lot

00:37:12.140 more um i don't know what the word would be on the nose that i mean that's an unbelievable one

00:37:17.960 and then i i want i want to go around and just present that to people like hey what do you think

00:37:23.120 of this because it's incredible it really is incredible i and i was just caught up there

00:37:26.700 before when we were talking about it like that is if i didn't believe what i believe i would say

00:37:32.920 that is bizarre yeah but there's so much like you're saying that it's supposed to bring us

00:37:37.580 back to god right but we see it like in the food forest community we grow our own food we have a

00:37:42.440 food forest and in that world most of the people are like oh man mother nature is so incredible

00:37:49.800 you know and nature becomes god right no no no no there's a god of nature like like all of this

00:37:55.360 should be pointing us back to the creator not the creation itself but the one who created it

00:37:59.780 It should be pointing us back to that.

00:38:01.620 But you're right.

00:38:02.100 That happens in all these different aspects of life.

00:38:04.420 Yeah.

00:38:05.360 Say mother nature is good, but father God is better.

00:38:08.980 Amen.

00:38:09.960 Because he's always pointing to his son.

00:38:12.280 Yeah.

00:38:12.840 He is always pointing.

00:38:15.120 And that's one thing that makes unity.

00:38:18.260 If you read John 17, you know, Jesus is like one of his last prayers is that will be one.

00:38:25.560 the father is always this is my beloved son in whom i'm well pleased yeah but jesus is like oh

00:38:33.980 it's my father and my father loves and holy spirit's like i'm no i'm here to magnify jesus

00:38:40.760 what would happen if the church did that that's if we began to to lift each other up instead of

00:38:48.180 ourselves and to be other-centered. And the beauty of the Trinity is that God invites us

00:38:57.000 into that Trinity to be a part. That's what John 17 is all about. You got Father, Son,

00:39:02.560 and Holy Spirit, and there's this unity that's so great. But he says, Matt, come on in.

00:39:08.440 Yeah, it's staggering. That whole John 17. Guys, come on in. You're welcome to be

00:39:14.120 a part of this. And again, that's why I would never, you know, I've been part of churches that

00:39:21.880 have hurt me. I've been part of churches and stuff, but I still think the church is the best

00:39:26.440 thing. It's staggering because he's saying he prays that the church would be one as he and

00:39:31.620 the father are one. And then he says even more staggering things than that. He says, you love

00:39:35.840 them as you love me. Right. That God loves us as much as he loves Jesus. The whole thing's

00:39:42.580 staggering oh sure but it's based on that unity and there is a a wild thing in the godhead that

00:39:47.540 like for humans we think that servanthood means lower than it means less than but like jesus was

00:39:53.400 setting up his life as a servant to the father he was no less than the father and the holy spirit

00:39:57.520 sets himself up as a servant to jesus saying he'll only he'll only say things of me he's not going to

00:40:02.800 say things of his own so you have the holy spirit's a servant to jesus jesus is a servant to the father

00:40:07.900 but nobody's lower than anybody else in the godhead you're giving pastor rick a softball

00:40:12.700 there when i first arrived at the church i showed up in the middle of i believe it was a seven part

00:40:17.420 sermon on late you showed up late no no i didn't show up late but i did show up i mean i didn't

00:40:22.680 know that you were starting and i would have started attending a few uh weeks earlier it was

00:40:26.980 a uh several part sermon on humility humility was and it was it was fantastic and you're talking

00:40:35.120 very much about exactly what matt is highlighting right there can we just go back to the um mother

00:40:40.840 nature is good but god the father is better was that the quote can we get that on a shirt or a

00:40:45.600 bumper sticker yeah yeah i like that was solid that's for all the pagans out there um i love

00:40:51.780 that you know there's something that i did want to talk about in regards to the church because you

00:40:56.080 have something that it's centered around it's centered around jesus christ it's centered around

00:40:59.720 the word of god this is incredibly powerful thing and the more you spend time in it the more it

00:41:04.360 reveals itself to you you're talking about this relationship that you're having with the word for

00:41:08.120 uh how many years now it's four or five decades and you're still exposing or being exposed to

00:41:16.000 different revelations how how and you guys are going to know better than i because i've only

00:41:22.360 been on this walk for it's like four years or five years um how does something that is centered

00:41:29.100 around something so powerful and so important you know being your salvation and being welcomed into

00:41:34.660 this trinity like you're talking about turn into for some people um a you know an appearance once

00:41:42.520 a week you talked about like for some people it feels good maybe they like the music things of

00:41:46.400 that nature it seems to be a almost a cultural phenomenon that i wonder if it's unique to the

00:41:53.520 west because i hear testimony from other countries where it seems radical radical these people are

00:42:01.460 especially in third world countries you had missionaries from oh well they spent some time

00:42:06.820 in africa sorry to interrupt but maybe uh maybe you can tell us that story that you told on

00:42:10.980 pentecost uh on the pentecost service about the mission that you did in uh and i guess it was a

00:42:16.860 spanish country because i think that's what he's asking god called me uh is that what you're

00:42:23.000 talking about so yeah yeah the we were on a um missions trip to mexico and uh for the food

00:42:30.800 so we you know we were doing our typical trip we would go into a village having no knowledge

00:42:47.120 of what was going on there. We would pass out literature all day long and then have a service

00:42:54.900 that night. We took our own generators. We took our own food. We took everything. It was pretty

00:43:00.180 much roughing it, you know, as far as Americans are concerned. And so, you know, before that

00:43:08.040 service that night, I was preaching that service that night. And so I was on the backside of a

00:43:13.840 mountain behind the church. The church was way up on the side of a mountain. And so I went behind

00:43:18.840 it and I was praying. And it was one of those biblical Holy Spirit moments where the wind

00:43:28.000 began to blow. The presence of God was so strong. And I was begging God. I'm one of those guys that

00:43:36.300 I wanted to be a missionary. I was begging God to let me stay there in that village. I said,

00:43:41.600 I won't even go home. I'll just stay here, and I'll pastor this church. They didn't have a

00:43:46.920 pastor for the church, and so I said, I'll stay here, and then the presence of God just got

00:43:54.260 stronger and stronger, and then he spoke to me. He said, you're going to go back to the United

00:43:59.500 States. You're going to eventually become a lead pastor, and your job will be to make that a great

00:44:05.960 missions church, and I mean, I began to weep and cry, and of course, you know, he's Lord, so whatever

00:44:14.320 he says, you're like, yes, you know, even though my heart was to be a missionary, he let me know

00:44:21.300 that what would happen in the church I would become the pastor of, and this is the only church

00:44:27.260 I've ever pastored. I've never went built up through the ranks and made it to where we ended

00:44:33.980 up being. But the first thing I did when I came to this church after they called me to be the

00:44:41.200 lead pastor, I was a youth pastor and was plan a missions conference because I said, if this is

00:44:50.800 going to be a great missions church, it's going to have to start now. And I can't deceive these

00:44:57.620 people and make them think that I'm just here to fill a position and get a salary. I'm here

00:45:03.360 to build God's kingdom. And so we started with those nine missionaries, and we have just added

00:45:09.800 to that every year. We have a missions convention every year where we add more and more. And this

00:45:17.360 year is going to be, and for our size church, y'all may not think this is very much, but this

00:45:23.260 year we'll probably give $600,000 to missions. That's a lot. And that's not a very big church

00:45:30.940 to be able to do that. Well, that's because people have caught the vision of missions and

00:45:36.540 to be a part. Is that the story you were talking about? No, you had mentioned a story in the

00:45:41.560 village. I think you brought a pair of speakers there and things went kind of crazy in this

00:45:46.960 village when you were given the word of God there. I'm trying to give me a little bit more

00:45:55.920 information. Well, even before we get into that, so you feel like that was the call of God at that

00:46:01.900 time when you went around the backside of the church, and was that when you were a youth pastor,

00:46:05.680 or is that even before you were a youth pastor? I was called by God to preach before that.

00:46:11.340 I was like you. I was not raised in church, never went to church. Matter of fact, the year I gave

00:46:19.080 my heart to Christ, my doctor had told me, you keep doing the drugs you're doing. You're going

00:46:23.940 to die within the next two months. I said, I guess I'll die because I can't quit. I was addicted to 0.99

00:46:31.420 drugs. I was drinking like crazy. I was just doing everything in the world. Where did you live at at

00:46:37.100 that time? Louisiana, Louisiana, North Louisiana, born and raised in Louisiana, born and raised in

00:46:43.120 North Louisiana, a community called Bastrop and just close to Monroe. Okay. So like straight

00:46:49.560 cajans or no that's no no cajans they're mostly just country people yeah uh big paper mill town

00:46:56.280 two paper mills there you could smell when when you came into town and uh what is that ink ink

00:47:02.740 or you're talking about the actual smell of of the paper the the chemicals they use for the

00:47:08.260 processing of the wood you would smell it when you came into town oh yeah so you were smoking weed

00:47:12.980 and drinking and doing didn't smoke weed but i was doing you know a variety of drugs and stuff

00:47:19.200 like that and the my doctor told me and i showed him what i was taking and he said two or three of

00:47:26.680 these would put an elephant down are we talking about pharmaceuticals or okay got it got it and

00:47:32.060 so uh he said how many are you taking i said 18 a day and he said yours and he showed me a vow

00:47:40.100 he he held it up to me and he said you know what this is i said that's nasty he said that's your

00:47:46.320 blood we just drew your blood he said your blood looks like nasty water you were going hard in the

00:47:53.720 paint and so and and then uh two months later god god put a christian bounty hunter in my life that

00:48:02.040 would not leave me alone for two years a christian bounty hunter he would not he would chase me down

00:48:09.740 wherever i was it's a kingdom man that's very logical word i like that so he would chase me

00:48:16.000 everywhere and finally after about two years of him driving me nuts he said go to a revival with

00:48:23.480 me i didn't even know what a revival was he said go with me and i said okay i'll go with what year

00:48:29.560 uh that was 1974 who who so who was doing revivals in 74 in louisiana uh let's see

00:48:37.080 oh it's so long ago is that william branham or is it like uh no uh i i can't even remember the

00:48:45.180 guy's track of oh i can't believe i couldn't think of this the guy that became the pastor

00:48:51.700 of that church was doing the revival uh mike cheshire and so probably not very well known

00:48:59.620 But I went to the service.

00:49:02.980 I was very frustrated sitting there.

00:49:05.600 I was very antsy.

00:49:07.140 I didn't feel comfortable.

00:49:09.140 I was not in an environment.

00:49:10.280 Was it in a tent or was it in a...

00:49:11.720 No, it was in a building.

00:49:13.200 It was in a big church.

00:49:15.180 And it was an Assembler of God church.

00:49:17.220 And so I'm hanging on to the pew in front of me, just waiting just to get out of there.

00:49:27.460 And I even said to God, I said, God, once I get out of here, I'll never come back and you won't have to worry about me again.

00:49:36.500 And about that time, the evangelist who used to be an ex-football player, huge guy, he sat down beside me and grabbed me, pulled me up close.

00:49:45.080 He said, hey, Rick, how are you doing?

00:49:46.520 I went, how do you know my name?

00:49:48.080 He said, everybody knows your name.

00:49:50.240 He said, this church has been praying for you for over two years is what the pastor told me.

00:49:55.200 No way.

00:49:55.600 and uh and i said well that's i said i can tell i've been miserable and for perspective how many

00:50:01.680 people in that town you think if you had to guess uh it's about the size of leesburg okay yeah about

00:50:08.880 the size of leesburg and he says you want to live for god don't you i said i do but i can't

00:50:15.280 and then he he said the words that changed my life he said stop trying

00:50:21.600 i went i said great now the preacher's telling me to give up i said my life is already he said no

00:50:29.580 wait a minute let me share with you so he opened the word of god and he shared the scripture

00:50:34.260 galatians 2 20 for i have been crucified with christ nevertheless i live yet not i but it's

00:50:42.320 christ who lives in me and the life i now live i live you know and then it goes on and tells

00:50:49.840 that, and what I got out of that was I didn't have to live a life I couldn't live. I needed

00:50:56.400 Jesus in me to live his life through me. Amen. That sounds simple, but it's profound. And so I

00:51:02.780 gave my heart to Christ that night and, uh, and, you know, and started serving God, went straight

00:51:09.120 to the paper mill where I work and told all those guys, you know, and they pat me on the head and

00:51:13.320 said, you'll be all right. You'll get over it. And, and that's been since 1974. So I never got over it.

00:51:19.200 So that's profound, man. I mean, I think there's a lot of people today that are trying to I mean, even if you look at like Thomas Akempis, it's a great book, The Imitation of Christ.

00:51:27.160 But that's not what we're doing. We're not imitating Christ. We're just surrendering to him and letting him live through us.

00:51:33.240 That's a hard concept, though, because culturally speaking, like from the outside looking in, you know, you and this is a lot of the judgment that I'm experiencing now because I wasn't always a Christian is, well, you're supposed to behave like this or you're supposed to do that.

00:51:50.340 this is what a christian looks like and and these standards are in your mind because give me an

00:51:57.260 example of something else that has a standard and if you are that thing you're not supposed to try

00:52:03.580 to sure that's that's what you're saying it's a difficult concept actually to grasp even though

00:52:08.360 it's simple and it is profound it's a little confusing and i i think i'm getting better at it

00:52:14.820 as time goes on but it's um it is uh uh you know you're like you're letting go and and a lot of it

00:52:22.700 is maybe i don't know if i'm doing it right but it's you know talking to god and and trying to

00:52:29.780 to let go and and allow this thing to happen instead of trying to do this thing it's allow

00:52:35.600 this thing to happen yeah and and i don't know it's hard to put into words for me but it is um

00:52:40.880 no you're explaining saved by grace through faith like that's what you're explaining

00:52:44.200 it's just surrender of your life but i can see how from the outside looking in like people that

00:52:49.200 will criticize christians or you know whatever ideas they have um that is not the lens allowing

00:52:59.080 christ to live through you dying to yourself so that christ can live through you is uh man it's

00:53:05.900 it's a it's a hard concept to grasp well and i think because for a lot of people christianity

00:53:10.940 is just another um division of society it's just you know yeah maybe you know you're this type of

00:53:16.540 person this type of oh there's that type of people they're called christians yeah yeah no well this

00:53:20.460 is going back to the question that i had originally which is like how do you how do you have something

00:53:24.220 that is so profound and for some people it is just um it's like walking the dog or doing the

00:53:30.560 dishes it's just a thing that they do they're not in this yeah it's a monotonous repetitive thing

00:53:35.800 where um especially if you were raised in it i think for a lot of people if you're raised in it

00:53:40.840 it can become habit sure instead of relationship and um and once again the most important thing

00:53:50.940 in your life the most important thing in your life has for some been reduced and i don't think

00:53:56.940 necessarily like the fault of the church or or the everybody's walk is their own um but you do

00:54:03.460 see it you see i was in a a church once where it was uh i stepped into one before i stepped into

00:54:10.380 yours and i i left and the reason that i left is because it was i had felt like i had walked into

00:54:17.360 uh the walmart of jesus christ and there was several floors with balconies that overlooked

00:54:23.880 and they there was um you know an entire what would you call that uh you go and get like lunch

00:54:30.680 it's there's an entire restaurant a breakfast spot you go and you buy breakfast and i didn't

00:54:34.880 think that was too bad honestly i said this is kind of fantastic i had to get a little coffee

00:54:38.760 and a sandwich and then i'm looking at this thing and it is so um the word that came to me was

00:54:46.460 manufactured sure and i felt like this doesn't feel i don't know what it's supposed to feel like

00:54:51.920 But it doesn't feel like that. And I think there are certain people that gravitate towards that.

00:54:57.060 And I'm not saying there's not real people there that have real relationships with God.

00:55:01.460 And I'm not saying that that church isn't helping people in their walk.

00:55:05.460 But there is this person who has just gone through the motions and it is now just a repetitive thing.

00:55:14.200 You might catch your favorite show on Saturday every week and you might go to this one on Sunday every week.

00:55:21.080 And it almost carries the same weight. And I don't know how that is happening around something so profound.

00:55:28.920 yeah well put man the one of the things that to me is so dangerous about

00:55:37.820 the way the gospel is presented now is that we're becoming more and more secular

00:55:45.860 if we can appeal to them by being a super walmart we have everything for you your children your

00:55:52.540 family. We, you know, one-stop shopping, you can get everything here. But the message of Jesus

00:55:59.020 is deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. If I wonder how I'm supposed to live,

00:56:07.140 if I follow Jesus and watch him, I'll know how to live. And so, and this whole concept in America

00:56:13.960 of denying yourself, man, we live in a society, I've got to have more, I've got to have better,

00:56:19.680 I've got to have a new car every year.

00:56:22.200 I've got to have a bigger house.

00:56:23.580 I've got to get this boat.

00:56:24.940 I have to get.

00:56:26.160 And for us, we have been preaching and teaching our people, deny yourself and give to missions.

00:56:32.280 Don't you?

00:56:32.620 You don't have to have everything now.

00:56:35.080 Lay up treasures in heaven instead of trying to lay them up here, you know.

00:56:39.760 And so it's a hard sell because no one wants to deny themselves.

00:56:45.340 Sure.

00:56:45.740 And so it's tough for sure.

00:56:47.820 Have you experienced anything resembling a, I don't know, like a revival or a resurgence or an uptick, a dramatic uptick in not just, you know, appearances in the church, but an interest in this?

00:57:03.580 because our show is kind of got our finger on the cultural pulse and and i would say that after um

00:57:11.500 the charlie kirk situation there was a nationwide um if it wasn't a full pivot towards christ

00:57:19.660 people at least started looking over their shoulders with interest and i wonder if that

00:57:23.580 resulted in anything meaningful um did these people come did they stay they one of the

00:57:31.100 heartbreaking things to me about that whole situation was there was that strong emphasis

00:57:37.740 on Christ. All the politicians, you know, were talking about Jesus. Some who admittedly said,

00:57:46.600 you know, that I normally don't talk about Christ and, you know, in my public life, but now I'm

00:57:52.900 going to be bold. I'm going to be. And it kind of has drifted away because of, you know, the cares

00:58:00.900 of this world. We are so self-centered that it is hard for us to stick with something, even

00:58:08.860 Charlie Kirk dying. Now, I believe a lot of people's lives were changed, and I believe a lot

00:58:14.280 of people came to Christ because of that, but I don't know what the long-term effect of that will

00:58:20.660 be. Yeah, I wasn't in the church game in 2001, but I remember hearing that after 9-11, a lot of people

00:58:26.040 started to go back to church too that was a thing back then oh yeah we we had one of the largest

00:58:32.700 services we've ever had the whole time i've been there right after 9-11 we had like 800 people in

00:58:39.620 that building wow that we have which that was just that same building that same building and

00:58:44.120 it just kind of fizzles out is that like kind of oh yeah people are touched but they're not changed

00:58:54.200 the comforts of life we we we we're touched by you know people dying we're touched by

00:59:01.860 buildings falling down we're we're touched by that but until we're changed you know until we

00:59:09.960 receive christ and let him live his life through us there's not going to be a permanent change

00:59:17.200 yeah the change is so is a profound thing my wife and i were talking one time about how uh

00:59:22.300 why is the bible different every time you read through it like if you read through she's she

00:59:27.180 started a few years ago to read straight through also genesis to revelation and then pick back up

00:59:31.380 genesis and go to revelation and we were talking about it and she came to the conclusion that like

00:59:36.360 because you're a different person now every every time you you've been changed like every time you

00:59:41.040 read through the bible you it's changing you sure i know you're talking about the born again experience

00:59:45.800 that until you're born again and changed in that sense but even like as you read through the bible

00:59:50.660 like the second time you read through it you're not the same person you were the first time and

00:59:53.940 then the third time you're not the same person you were the second time right there's also something

00:59:58.260 interesting about like the prophets like daniel elijah these guys that have this very strong what

01:00:04.260 seems like unbreakable connection to god because what david just described it's something that

01:00:10.340 i i've done to i've done as well it's like you get like hot and cold and like you don't want

01:00:16.100 like i don't want to it makes me not want to i don't want to burn too hot because i know 0.82

01:00:20.180 that i'm going to then get cold on this and forget and then now i have to be it now i'm a hypocrite

01:00:25.920 within myself you know what i mean i remember people in church telling me that when i first

01:00:29.660 started to go to the 501c3 system they tell me now brother matt slow down don't get too passionate

01:00:34.560 we've seen a lot of people come and go they're on fire for god and then it fizzles out and i also

01:00:39.660 remember hearing this from the pulpit uh people would say think back to when you first got saved

01:00:45.560 Think back to when you, very early in your relationship with God, think back to how good

01:00:50.400 it was in those days.

01:00:51.660 And I remember being like, dude, I wouldn't go back to that for a million dollars, dude.

01:00:55.460 I would never go back to that time.

01:00:57.240 Like, I'm so grateful for where I'm at today.

01:01:00.260 And I was like, what do you mean?

01:01:01.660 Like, that was your best time with God was in the beginning.

01:01:04.060 Like, I don't know anything about that.

01:01:06.300 I don't know that experience.

01:01:07.780 All I know is that it gets better the closer you get to him and the more time goes on.

01:01:12.020 but that does seem like a thing that happens is that like people get hot and

01:01:15.940 they fizzle out or I don't, I don't know.

01:01:18.160 We're event oriented.

01:01:20.920 We are as excited as the last event we had.

01:01:24.980 And we always look back to that event to measure any upcoming event to see if

01:01:31.320 we're going to be any better. And, you know, my whole thing,

01:01:35.440 and every pastor has a struggle, you know,

01:01:38.660 we're not like some kind of super spiritual. I mean,

01:01:41.880 you've seen enough going on in the news for the last 30 years to know that pastors are real,

01:01:49.360 but every person that has a relationship with Jesus, and back to Holy Spirit, every time you

01:01:56.860 open this book, you should say, Holy Spirit, come here. I'm about to read. Please reveal to me what

01:02:03.540 you're saying to me in this book. I need your revelation, because if I don't have his revelation,

01:02:11.160 It's just going to be information.

01:02:13.260 But if I have the revelation of Holy Spirit, if I invite him, every time I read this book, it's going to be life changing for me.

01:02:21.960 And I'm going to find new stuff that excites me, you know, more.

01:02:27.060 Even Pastor Mark, the new pastor at our church, he's like, man, he said, you know, when you preached about the crimson worm, he said, you got more information?

01:02:38.020 I said, I said, well, matter of fact, I do.

01:02:40.860 And he said, well, you want to preach again?

01:02:42.820 I went, sure.

01:02:43.580 And so he sees that we don't have to fizzle out.

01:02:49.240 Yeah.

01:02:49.580 Amen.

01:02:50.400 We all go through life.

01:02:52.340 Life hurts.

01:02:53.820 Yeah.

01:02:54.040 You lose somebody you love.

01:02:55.760 It's rough down here, man.

01:02:56.660 Yeah, it's rough on this side of heaven, and it's tough.

01:03:02.180 But with Jesus, it's definitely better, and it could be without him for sure.

01:03:08.180 Amen.

01:03:08.540 So earlier you were talking about, you know, we talked about the Walmart of churches and how there's something for everybody.

01:03:15.940 And one of the things that dawns on me as to the danger of this trying to appeal to everyone is that it results in some of the things that we're seeing today. 0.87

01:03:25.720 Wasn't long ago that I saw a trans pastor, something like that. 0.62

01:03:30.460 And I saw another pastor, it was a female, talking about how Jesus Christ isn't the only way to salvation, but she's standing in front of what purports to be a Protestant church.

01:03:44.340 And, you know, so in other words, in order to please everyone, there is no standard. 0.79

01:03:51.160 and we're living in this era now

01:03:54.180 where maybe the most egregious thing

01:03:56.400 was one of the mega church pastors

01:04:00.520 with the jets and things like that

01:04:02.900 and that was egregious enough

01:04:04.060 that was the talk of the town when it was happening

01:04:06.560 look at the wealth that they're hoarding

01:04:08.580 but now we have something totally different

01:04:10.840 we have something totally different

01:04:12.460 where everything is flying in the face

01:04:14.600 of what scripture says

01:04:16.100 we're even now changing this idea

01:04:19.120 not we in this room

01:04:20.500 But there are those who claim to be, you know, shepherding people towards Christ or maybe not.

01:04:26.380 Maybe, I don't know, if you're standing up there and you're saying he's not the way, then I don't know what you're doing.

01:04:31.520 But this has it's it's gotten to clownish places.

01:04:37.300 And I don't know, maybe you could speak a little bit to this idea of what we should be doing instead of trying to appeal to everyone and being all inclusive.

01:04:50.200 I mean, we've seen what that spirit that goes under the guise of inclusivity, the fruits that it bears.

01:04:58.480 I think there should be a lot of caution to the church that when you start trying to make everyone feel accepted, even in their sin, you know, we welcome everyone at our church.

01:05:15.140 But the call is to repentance. 1.00

01:05:17.140 you know the homosexuals welcome to come to our church but they're called to repentance 1.00

01:05:23.340 if you come to christ you can't stay in your sin you've got to repent and ask god to help you 1.00

01:05:32.460 if i would have stayed in my sin when i came to the church i would have died because i was lost

01:05:39.780 i was empty i needed that call to repentance and uh and when they confronted me with my sin

01:05:46.620 And they said, you know, you need to get right with God.

01:05:50.160 And fortunately, the church was patient.

01:05:54.740 And this is how bad it was for me when I first started coming to the church. 0.64

01:05:59.440 Every lady who had a child, if I walked close by, the ladies would grab their kids and pull them away and say, stay away from that guy.

01:06:07.980 No, we have customers like that when Top of Raven walks through.

01:06:10.700 I'm very familiar with that.

01:06:12.120 We love children.

01:06:12.820 The children love us.

01:06:13.640 They come and they hang out in the studio.

01:06:14.800 And this was old school back then.

01:06:17.840 And I would wear like a sleeveless shirt to church, no socks, tennis shoes, shorts, you know, and I was just glad to be in the kingdom.

01:06:26.960 I had no sense, you know, of any type of rules or anything like that.

01:06:32.620 I was so, you know, I was so happy to be free.

01:06:35.920 and every now and then the pastor hint hinting for me to dress better would say we're going to

01:06:42.140 take an offering for uh rick to get some socks this week maybe that's quite a heavy hint

01:06:47.520 i'm like really yeah so the evangelist that kind of you rubbed elbows with you it ended up i don't

01:06:56.000 know if we finished that part of the story but it ended up that uh that night i received christ

01:07:01.020 I invited Christ into my heart, into my life, and life-changing.

01:07:07.920 I went home and told my dad.

01:07:10.480 Of course, my dad was not a Christian.

01:07:12.740 My dad and mom were not raised in church.

01:07:15.220 And I went home and told my dad.

01:07:17.040 He knocked me flat of my back with his fist and spit on me and said,

01:07:21.040 don't ever talk about that in this house again.

01:07:24.500 And through the tears, I told him, I'm going to love you into the kingdom of God.

01:07:28.960 Respect.

01:07:29.120 and he just uh every time he'd see me he'd kick me slap me spit on me my dad was an ex-boxer so

01:07:37.400 he was strong you know golden gloves and all that stuff and so a young adult at that time you're a

01:07:42.900 young man yeah i was 19 yeah wow and so and i was a pretty big boy that's profound though a lot of

01:07:49.800 people in this nation don't know anything about suffering loss for christ and so so i kept sharing

01:07:55.360 with them, and then God called me into the ministry, and I went off, and there are so

01:08:01.480 many stories, but I went off to Bible school when I was leaving Bastrop, Louisiana to go to Bible

01:08:08.200 school. My dad was punching me through the car window and yelling at me, cussing me, because I

01:08:14.560 quit the paper mill to go into ministry to go get trained. How many years later was it from when

01:08:21.720 you were 19 until you left for Bible school? One year. So within a year, you were like,

01:08:26.900 I'm all in. Within a year, I'm out of here. And of course, that's a story too. They had to help

01:08:33.040 me a lot at Bible school. My first semester, I got in four fights. They told me if I got in one

01:08:38.580 more fight, I was going to be kicked out. Did you win? Did you win? Yeah. Dad was in golden gloves,

01:08:45.880 But what makes that story so beautiful about my father?

01:08:51.280 Before that happened, I hated him so bad.

01:08:54.320 When I was lost, I hated him. 1.00

01:08:56.660 I used to dream of hurting him, killing him. 1.00

01:08:59.680 I used to dream of ways of getting rid of him. 0.99

01:09:03.220 One time he beat my mother and I told him, I said, you got to sleep sometime. 1.00

01:09:08.320 I will cut your throat. 1.00

01:09:10.260 And that's how deep the hate was. 1.00

01:09:12.440 i could go off to bible school been at bible school for like four months i run into a guy

01:09:20.040 from my hometown which was 320 miles away he said hey i ran into your dad at safeway grocery store

01:09:27.280 and uh and your dad told me to tell you he's praying for you oh well and this guy started

01:09:32.920 to walk away and i just grabbed him i said what did he say he said your dad said that he's praying

01:09:38.440 for you he said let me go and i i said i said what what did my dad look like he said well he's about

01:09:44.620 your height and he's built like a gorilla i said that's him and so i ran to the phone and i called

01:09:50.760 my dad and i said tell me what happened and he said why don't you come home this weekend i'll

01:09:57.120 tell you what happened so i went home he had invited the whole family over and uh and he stood

01:10:05.220 my dad never did anything like this and he started telling the story of how that he and mom got up on

01:10:11.400 a sunday morning and he told her to put a dress on and she's like why he said we're going to church

01:10:18.020 they went to the nearest baptist church that they could find because they knew they'd give an altar

01:10:23.720 call so they went there and when the preacher gave an altar call they gave their hearts to christ

01:10:29.720 and he came over to the place where I was sitting

01:10:34.060 and he grabbed me and picked me up

01:10:36.700 and he embraced me and he said,

01:10:38.740 it was your love that led me to Christ.

01:10:41.940 And so it was just unbelievable.

01:10:44.400 So I can't wait to see my mom and dad in heaven.

01:10:48.860 So how long was that after you got to Bible school?

01:10:52.340 About almost six months.

01:10:55.060 Wow.

01:10:55.200 And so, and his words were, the only light I had in my life was gone when you left.

01:11:05.320 And he said, I needed someone in my life.

01:11:09.140 And he said, it made me realize how much I needed God.

01:11:13.100 And so, and he was faithful to God till the day he died.

01:11:19.100 I mean, he he got every kind of award you could get for not missing a day in church or missing Sunday school or anything.

01:11:27.460 He was all in. And and right after, you know, he got saved.

01:11:34.920 I went home and he snuck in my bedroom and which terrified me because I had flashbacks like a gorilla.

01:11:42.480 I had flashbacks of when he used to come in there and be, you know what I'm saying.

01:11:50.120 And so I see him get my wallet.

01:11:52.660 I'm like, oh, no, he's a thief now.

01:11:55.820 And what he was doing was opening my wallet.

01:11:59.080 My dad never gave me anything.

01:12:01.760 Yeah.

01:12:02.300 And putting money in my wallet to help me at Bible school.

01:12:07.200 Wow.

01:12:08.000 And I knew that he was changed.

01:12:11.140 and so talk about dominoes or or ripples right i mean from that one guy pestering you

01:12:17.200 what happened to that guy huh what happened to him you know the guy that was the christian

01:12:23.440 bounty hunter yeah yeah yeah still in my life still in my life good friends currently yep they

01:12:29.700 they're uh they live in uh munro louisiana so he was about the same age then maybe a little bit

01:12:35.560 older. He's like three years older than I am. And, uh, but there's still, he and his wife and I are

01:12:42.320 still good friends, you know, and love them. She had a stroke a few months ago. I check on her

01:12:48.060 every week. And, uh, but he, he, I mean, he took such abuse for me. What, what my father did to

01:12:58.000 me, I was doing to him, except I was not hitting him. I was verbally abusing him and I would mock

01:13:04.960 Kim, we worked at Safeway grocery store together. And so, I mean, I abused that boy every way you

01:13:11.920 could be abused, but, and he would tell me the same thing I told my father, I'm going to love

01:13:17.520 you into the kingdom. That's where you got it from. Those little things, right? Earlier in

01:13:24.300 this conversation, you were talking about, you know, saying things that you don't even know why

01:13:29.640 you say them and it just means something to somebody somebody out there hears that and it

01:13:35.520 sets them off in the right direction this guy over had every reason to stop trying to push you to do

01:13:43.700 this and and this seed that he plants it's your whole family it's more yeah not his whole family

01:13:51.520 his whole town i mean this whole church 240 missionaries all over the world that's an insane

01:13:57.460 that's an insane thing. You never know, man. You start looking at how many people are going to be

01:14:03.220 in heaven because one person comes to Christ. And that's why we have to, you know, Jesus said

01:14:12.620 the fields are white unto harvest, but the workers are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest

01:14:20.460 that he'll send forth workers, and that's our job is to not only be senders, you know, we want to

01:14:28.340 send people, but everywhere we go, you know, Paul says, I make the most of every opportunity,

01:14:35.660 whether it's in the gym, whether it's in the restaurant, whether it's in Walmart,

01:14:39.640 God forbid, because I don't go to Walmart. That's my wife's job, and so I do not go to Walmart.

01:14:47.360 Not after 9 p.m. anyway.

01:14:49.220 Exactly.

01:14:50.180 And so, but it's so important how,

01:14:54.620 and we've all probably seen the movie, Jimmy Stewart,

01:14:57.480 you know, It's a Wonderful Life,

01:14:59.500 how one life touches so many other people.

01:15:03.300 Have you ever seen that?

01:15:03.980 No, it's a little before my time.

01:15:05.320 Yeah, definitely before your time, I'm sure,

01:15:08.980 but they show it every Christmas.

01:15:10.760 Really?

01:15:11.140 If you get a chance to watch that,

01:15:12.420 I'll take you up on that.

01:15:13.580 I'll have to watch it.

01:15:14.540 It's a Wonderful Life.

01:15:15.800 And the whole premise of the show is to show how his life, he was going to commit suicide.

01:15:23.700 And God sent an angel to save him.

01:15:27.060 And the angel let him have his wish of seeing what life would be like.

01:15:32.940 He said, I wish I'd never been born.

01:15:35.500 And he let him see what life would have been like without him being there.

01:15:40.820 And it was way worse?

01:15:41.780 It was bad because he wasn't there?

01:15:43.260 because he was not there so many lives were affected negatively and so uh and and i believe

01:15:50.780 that's true with all of us yeah we touch more people than we realize yeah i believe that what

01:15:56.280 you guys are doing here is touching a lot more people than you realize it's touching people yeah

01:16:01.080 yeah that that is like one of the worst things though right to to look back at your life and

01:16:09.060 say, what would it look like if I never existed? And if there's no difference? I remember thinking

01:16:13.580 that. I remember thinking that when I was young. I was like, yeah, what if I just look back on time

01:16:17.920 and there was no difference whether I was ever born or not? That would be the worst feeling.

01:16:23.860 Yeah. And that's why it's imperative that we figure out what it means to deny ourselves.

01:16:30.560 i'm not here for me i'm here for every life that i can touch amen every person at there there's

01:16:40.300 people i i can call names right now of people that i'm working on trying to get them into the kingdom

01:16:45.980 of god you ain't retired man you say you're retired no i'm still working full-time because

01:16:53.380 I'm the senior associate. But everywhere I go, I have what I call a project, somebody that I'm

01:17:01.840 working on trying to get them into the kingdom of God. And so it's important that what would the

01:17:08.160 church look like if everyone did that? If every family just won one family a year, the churches

01:17:17.200 would explode sure with growth but instead we we don't reach out we don't try to help people we

01:17:25.820 don't try to love people and because of that the church gets smaller and smaller but if if we could

01:17:31.340 ever catch the vision of you know one leading one to christ and then do that again and do that and

01:17:38.620 and they do it and and as we do that you know lives can be changed for sure yeah that every

01:17:45.280 time i think of something like that it reminds me of the story when paul's on the ship to rome

01:17:49.080 and they get in the terrible storm they start throwing all the food overboard and everything

01:17:53.940 and then uh he gets up in the morning he says relax everybody an angel of god visited me last

01:17:59.820 night of whose i am of whom i belong to and uh the angel tells him like you're not gonna lose

01:18:05.840 anybody on the ship and i always i even like the first time i read that i always remember thinking

01:18:10.380 like i wonder who's on my ship right you know i wonder who like if i don't do my part who else is

01:18:18.260 getting absolutely toasted by that they're just not like i don't know i want to be aware of who's

01:18:24.600 on my ship and who all am i affecting and who's not going to make it if i don't not that i have

01:18:29.620 to come up with my own story or my own life but if i don't surrender to god and live out whatever

01:18:34.140 destiny he's made me for how many other people are not going to make it because of that yeah

01:18:39.620 And we all bear that responsibility that I've got to care about the souls of the people around me.

01:18:48.340 I looked in the eyes of a couple the other day, and I told them, I said, stop defending your child's lostness and start being concerned about their soul being lost for eternity if you don't do something.

01:19:06.500 Yeah. I said, you just keep pampering them, babying them in their sin. You keep supporting

01:19:13.980 them in their sin when you should be crying out every day, night and day for their soul to get

01:19:20.460 right with God, for them to come back to Jesus or to serve him. And I said, I said, you can measure

01:19:27.280 a person. You can measure how much you love a person about whether you care if they go to heaven

01:19:33.360 or not. And so, so it's so important. And the story I told the other day about my son, Joshua,

01:19:40.960 that was hard to get through to share, you know, to share about that.

01:19:45.180 That was like a continuation of the Crimson Worm. And, um, you know, you talked about John

01:19:51.820 the Baptist becoming less or decreasing so that Christ could increase. And, uh, that was a really

01:20:00.580 heavy idea you know i'm a father and and everybody here is is a father and and it's

01:20:07.500 this idea that at some point you are going to have to decrease so that your son can increase

01:20:16.340 um can you talk a little bit about that because that was that was a great yeah my son also pastor

01:20:21.940 rick if you're um we want to respect your time too we've been going for a while so no he's got

01:20:27.080 time you're right now right there you go it's a preacher are you kidding me okay i just want to

01:20:31.840 make sure we're ready to rock well i'll share this story and then we'll call it a day perfect

01:20:37.200 all right the uh my son growing up uh because i played tournament tennis i taught him tournament

01:20:44.220 tennis any good uh was i good no i was all right i got an offer to play pro and and a guy was going

01:20:55.920 to sponsor me. And I had a choice to make about ministry or being a pro tennis player.

01:21:01.800 You suffered loss. And I didn't lose anything. Amen. When I accepted Christ, when I accepted

01:21:08.360 the call and the fleece I put out before God was that if a pastor calls me and tells me he needs a

01:21:15.680 youth pastor by this Friday, I got to let the guy know on Friday whether I'm going to play pro

01:21:21.160 tennis, he was going to pay me very well and pay for all my travel, for everything. And I told him,

01:21:30.280 I said, well, if I hear from any pastor, I don't care what they pay. I shouldn't have added that

01:21:37.100 part. That was the bad part. And so I ended up that Thursday night before the Friday, a pastor

01:21:45.680 called and said, I need a youth pastor in South Louisiana. So I called the guy and said, I can't

01:21:52.280 play pro tennis. He said, you got to be kidding me. And I said, nope, not kidding. And so three

01:21:58.060 weeks later, I left to go be a youth pastor where they couldn't pay me anything. I worked part-time

01:22:03.820 as a bricklayer in South Louisiana and that heat, you know, but I would do it all over again.

01:22:11.180 you ever have like a church tennis competition we did you ever show anybody oh yeah he did who

01:22:19.360 they're dealing with yeah we we had another guy in the church that kept telling everybody he could

01:22:25.080 beat me so somebody got the idea of having a uh you know a tournament and inviting the people

01:22:34.200 to come out and we used it for a fundraiser you know for missions of course and uh and i beat him

01:22:40.660 of course but anyway back to the story but josh was a great uh joshua our son was a great tennis

01:22:48.800 player uh lived for god seemed like you know all of his young years and everything about 17

01:22:57.000 a shift happened in his heart in his life and he started drifting started uh going the other

01:23:04.220 direction very rebellious that was in louisiana or that's here here in florida yeah all of my

01:23:10.460 kids were raised in this church and so you know and so he to make a very long story short uh he

01:23:18.760 was doing the drugs he was you know he was drinking like crazy we we would get calls from

01:23:24.480 new york state your son is in a rehab up here he fell and he's got 18 staples in his head because

01:23:31.340 He was so drunk, he couldn't walk.

01:23:33.820 Dale hit his head. 1.00

01:23:34.760 He went to South America with a girl he didn't even know, swimming in rivers with anacondas and just all kinds of stupid stuff. 1.00

01:23:43.340 And we kept praying that God would save him. 0.98

01:23:47.120 And so finally he came home because he just ran out of money, ran out of hope or help or anything.

01:23:56.580 And he came home.

01:23:58.220 He was angry at God.

01:23:59.260 he was angry at me he was angry at the world but he was especially angry at me and so a couple of

01:24:07.060 weeks after he got home we were sitting at dinner everybody else got up and left and and he was I

01:24:14.080 mean he he was angry and I told him I said son and this is where the John the Baptist thing comes in

01:24:21.400 God laid on my heart that if I would be willing to decrease, my son might be able to increase.

01:24:31.360 And so if I was willing to die to myself, then my son could live. And so I told him, I said,

01:24:39.040 you can say anything you want to me and I will not get angry. I'll not be mean to you in any way.

01:24:46.060 You can say whatever you want. He said, you're lying. You knocked me in the head. I know you

01:24:51.160 will. And I'm like, what was he mad at you about? Uh, being raised in a Christian home. He felt

01:24:57.300 like, you know, that he was restrained from doing all the stuff he wanted to do. And, and we, you

01:25:03.240 know, we were just trying our best to raise him the way God wanted us to raise him. And so that's

01:25:08.140 a rough, that's a rough, that's been a rough balance for us. Oh, sure. Sure. And, and I

01:25:12.460 understand that, you know, I understand that in kids that's been raised in church, there was a

01:25:17.320 battle there for our kids and man it's it's a tough battle but you got to be careful because

01:25:23.080 if you if they live like restricted like that so restricted then when you're finally allowed out of

01:25:28.620 it they just go haywire oh yeah so there is a balance of allowing some stuff i i would say

01:25:34.100 that's ultimately what we came to the conclusion of is allow for some stuff be open and honest but

01:25:38.620 like man that you it does end up for a lot of kids especially pastor's kids uh just kind of 0.99

01:25:46.080 carry that burden right in a grudge and oh yeah oh yeah and and if people in churches said stupid 0.98

01:25:52.380 things to them they don't forget that yeah if someone prophesies over them what they're going 0.98

01:25:58.720 to do or what they're going to be and that's not true it scars our kids and so people need to be

01:26:04.460 careful i was very protective of our kids you know i would tell from the pulpit don't say anything to

01:26:09.920 my kids yeah about what they're supposed to do with their lives yeah and if you do say it and

01:26:14.940 it's not God. I'm coming to you. Yeah. And I'm going to believe in the power of words.

01:26:19.520 And so, you know, the point appropriate. Yeah. Yeah. When appropriate. But anyway,

01:26:25.080 for three hours, he told me, uh, you know, everything he thought I'd ever done wrong.

01:26:31.720 Wow. Every, every, and, and, and Holy Spirit said, you know, this is a setup and this is how

01:26:39.240 to answer him and so one after another after another things that he said i would say i am so

01:26:46.760 sorry please forgive me and he'd go you're not gonna argue with me and i'm like nope i am so

01:26:54.040 sorry please forgive me after three hours the atmosphere changed his heart got softer he became

01:27:02.760 more open and not long after that we had a guest missionary of course it had to be a missionary

01:27:09.140 they came to our church and gave an altar call and josh gave his heart back to the lord wow

01:27:15.060 and so it it's you know and he's doing great now beautiful wife two beautiful grandsons

01:27:23.360 that's awesome man it's a hard thing for a father to sit there for three hours and

01:27:27.440 and just respond with i'm sorry please forgive me i mean that's or even with everything you got

01:27:32.500 wrong like as yeah well even though in your heart you know 90 of it is just filtered through a mind

01:27:39.660 that's all messed up i knew it right but the the the benefit of doing it was worth that it was

01:27:49.600 worth me dying for to see him live amen and the uh somebody asked me did it hurt i said dying

01:27:57.980 usually does yeah yeah but seeing your kid walk with god there's not really any you can't put a

01:28:03.580 price on yeah what is the thing i wouldn't give for that right and so and so you know he's been

01:28:08.680 living for god now all my kids are living for god and so he was our prodigal he's the one that kept

01:28:14.960 us praying all the time like the prodigal some sounded very similar but you said something wild

01:28:20.020 right there you said it was a missionary and you said of course it was a missionary what do you

01:28:24.140 mean by that? Well, the passion of my life has really been three things, and we've covered all

01:28:31.040 three of them, is missions, Holy Spirit, and one-on-one soul winning. And so, to me, it felt

01:28:39.760 so appropriate that a missionary was there speaking when my son gave his heart back to Christ. And so

01:28:47.160 it just felt right. Do you think it's easier for people, though, when it's a foreign person 1.00

01:28:52.640 for whatever reason? He was not a foreign person. He was actually someone who was saved in our 0.97

01:28:58.220 church, raised in our church, sent out from our church to Honduras and was back preaching, you

01:29:05.940 know, and raising money to go back on the mission field. And he gave a great message and gave an

01:29:11.740 altar call. And, you know, they always say, close your eyes and bow your head. But my Bible tells

01:29:18.160 me to watch and pray. So I was doing like this, watching my son. And when that hand went up,

01:29:26.020 I was just like, yes. And so it was a beautiful thing. We did read the scripture of Jesus when

01:29:33.800 they asked him how to pray and he lifted his head. He didn't close his eyes. I'm just saying

01:29:38.620 something to that. And I'm not against people falling down if Holy Spirit or the presence of

01:29:46.220 God is real strong.

01:29:47.660 But most of the people who fell down in the scriptures fell on their face.

01:29:51.120 They didn't fall backwards.

01:29:52.540 True.

01:29:52.980 Just a thought.

01:29:54.000 No, it's interesting.

01:29:54.680 There is some interesting parallels.

01:29:56.520 Or like when they prayed and the whole place was shaking, not just the person shaking, but the whole place was shaking.

01:30:01.960 There you go.

01:30:02.580 Was that the story?

01:30:03.580 Did something shake?

01:30:04.900 Man, I'm going to have to re-listen to that.

01:30:07.140 Yeah, I'm trying to figure out what you're talking about.

01:30:09.500 That night that I preached some weird, it was, there were two people in the service that Holy Spirit spoke to me about.

01:30:21.620 And he said, call it out and give the altar call.

01:30:28.080 And it was two people in an inappropriate relationship.

01:30:31.780 I didn't know those people from Adam's house, Cat.

01:30:33.960 You know, I had no idea.

01:30:35.520 And I was like, God, you're asking me to do something that's kind of tough.

01:30:41.260 And he said, okay, I'm good with that.

01:30:44.040 Go ahead and do it.

01:30:46.500 And so I said, okay.

01:30:48.600 Well, then when I said it, the interpreter that I was preaching through it, 0.99

01:30:52.400 I'm not saying that.

01:30:53.500 I said, you're going to say it.

01:30:54.760 I said, you're going to say it.

01:30:56.740 And I yelled at him.

01:31:00.220 I yelled at the interpreter or the translator. 0.99

01:31:03.280 And I said, say it.

01:31:04.500 Well, when they call these two people out, they both the person over here and the person

01:31:09.960 over here jumped up and ran to the altars to get their hearts right with God and revival

01:31:17.040 broke out.

01:31:18.140 I mean, we were there for the next three hours praying for people because God was moving.

01:31:23.620 But people knew something was wrong, but they couldn't figure out what it was.

01:31:27.780 And it was those two people living in sin that had stopped God from doing it.

01:31:33.080 It affected everyone.

01:31:34.500 And when we called it out, God, you know, did something.

01:31:38.480 I don't think that's the story.

01:31:39.800 It's a good story, though.

01:31:40.820 It's a great.

01:31:41.340 It reminds me of, I think that's Joshua, where they brought the forbidden stuff into the camp, right?

01:31:45.440 Oh, yeah.

01:31:46.140 Yeah. 1.00

01:31:46.400 The sin of Achan. 1.00

01:31:47.880 Yeah. 1.00

01:31:48.600 My Achan body. 1.00

01:31:50.460 It was by the time they got through with it. 0.96

01:31:52.780 It's a whole family, too, man.

01:31:53.960 A whole family.

01:31:54.460 And that's it.

01:31:55.140 Boy, that'll preach.

01:31:56.140 Yeah, the cursed thing.

01:31:57.600 Bring it into your home, and the whole family's cursed.

01:32:00.480 Yeah.

01:32:00.640 Well, Pastor Rick, we really appreciate your time, man.

01:32:04.580 And we've had you for an hour and a half.

01:32:06.300 And I know he went to the wrong standard shop

01:32:08.560 and then he drove over to the store.

01:32:10.620 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:32:11.240 But thank you for coming and talking with us.

01:32:13.960 Yeah, always great to hear you speak.

01:32:16.660 And what a great conversation.

01:32:18.640 I'm glad that you came and spoke to Matt.

01:32:20.800 He's a little slow.

01:32:22.080 So this is great.

01:32:25.060 I like you, Matt.

01:32:26.280 I don't care what they say.

01:32:27.320 He's all right.

01:32:28.120 He's all right.

01:32:29.040 You're all right.

01:32:29.640 thank y'all for the privilege i appreciate it very much and you'll be in my prayers for sure

01:32:34.960 i appreciate that a lot and that story about your dad's powerful man it makes me cry every time i

01:32:41.080 talk about that yeah because uh he he was so lost so lost and so it's a little thing you do you never

01:32:47.960 know right you do a little thing for someone you you you preach a little bit to somebody and you

01:32:52.560 could have 50 years worth of uh dominoes oh hey do you want to ask like it's not a question that

01:32:58.600 Matt asked, but yeah, this is a question that we ask.

01:33:00.740 We like to ask this at the end of our other show to all of our guests.

01:33:05.540 I mean, man, you just laid out a really crazy life story in so many ways for us.

01:33:11.760 Are you having fun?

01:33:13.740 Am I having fun?

01:33:15.480 Right now, I feel like my Christian life is the best it's ever been.

01:33:21.960 That relationship with Holy Spirit just gets fresher every day.

01:33:28.600 Matter of fact, at our staff meeting today, I challenged our other pastors to tennis.

01:33:33.760 I said, come on, guys.

01:33:36.220 I said, depend on the Holy Spirit more and more and more and stop giving information and start doing transformation with people by the power of Holy Spirit.

01:33:50.780 So it's good.

01:33:53.100 Amen.

01:33:53.880 It's good.

01:33:54.620 Amen.

01:33:55.340 Life's always challenging.

01:33:56.680 you know last year went through cancer uh 45 treatments with you did prostate cancer never

01:34:03.660 missed a day working out i said i'm not gonna miss a day they're not gonna stop me beat it

01:34:09.560 and so i did beat it and it's doing well right after that i got a a bowel and and you know

01:34:17.360 obstruction lost 18 pounds in five days and my daughter had called her son said dad's dying

01:34:24.620 He's done. And God touched me through that. So within a day after I got out of the hospital

01:34:35.360 with that, I was back in the gym. So I'm driven personally, but I'm driven more by Holy Spirit.

01:34:45.860 How old are you?

01:34:47.080 How old do you think I am? You better be nice.

01:34:49.360 Fifty-five.

01:34:51.040 Just telling you, man.

01:34:52.300 What are you thinking?

01:34:53.420 When you get some time, read Revelations 21.8.

01:34:57.880 Liars.

01:34:59.560 All liars have their part in the lake of fire that burns forever. 0.99

01:35:06.020 71.

01:35:07.020 71?

01:35:07.780 You look good, dude.

01:35:08.800 You're just steady in the gym like every day, too?

01:35:11.540 Six days a week.

01:35:13.020 Six days a week?

01:35:14.160 Got to have a day of rest.

01:35:15.220 Well, that's my day to prepare, sermon, study, pray, seek God, you know, and Pastor Mark has me doing a lot of stuff.

01:35:24.520 I'm doing a lot of teaching training at the church.

01:35:27.020 And so just because we have Holy Spirit doesn't mean we don't do things with excellence.

01:35:34.900 Yeah, I think we should.

01:35:36.440 Quite the opposite, right?

01:35:37.100 Right.

01:35:37.600 The more of God you have in you, the more you should do everything with excellence and integrity.

01:35:43.440 Amen.

01:35:43.780 we thought that even with the coffee shop was like if we're if our claim is we have rocket fuel that

01:35:48.300 we're running on that the rest of the universe doesn't have it should be the coolest coffee shop

01:35:52.640 around there you go there you go something that we're just uh you know making excuses to have

01:35:57.280 weak coffee everything we do should be great yeah i guess to answer matt's question too is like that's

01:36:02.640 kind of why i started i i started wanting to play guitar in the church is something i haven't done

01:36:07.960 a long time but it's like i have this skill and it's like what am i doing with this like i'm yeah

01:36:13.380 put it toward that we have this skill of what we do here put it toward that like all all effort

01:36:19.940 for a full court press put put it towards this it just makes the most sense and it like look at the

01:36:24.240 rewards that it reaps it's it's almost uh i don't know it's like almost selfish because you know

01:36:30.420 it's like yeah duh like the more i do this the better my life gets it's like so then just do

01:36:35.180 more of this but what about for other people because is it true that they don't necessarily

01:36:38.940 really like him on guitar i have been told that i don't know if you've heard that get tired of it

01:36:45.180 i'm a punster for sure that was a fast one that was a fast one 71 and you're still that was pretty

01:36:58.800 fast man that was good all right so we're wrapping it up we gotta go let's bring it in for a landing

01:37:03.580 you done no you do it smooth man this is your show oh yeah you're the one that ends it how

01:37:08.460 gonna end no no we're just gonna end did you have anything else you want to say and would you ever

01:37:12.300 consider coming back on because i had a really good time hanging out with you you'll come back

01:37:15.820 yeah all right we love that and i'm and i'm sure like i said like the the whole fan base loves you

01:37:21.500 and knows you and knows stories of you and you're talking about really real people that would spot a 0.88

01:37:26.940 faker from a long way away and so we just really appreciate you a lot and i and i like i feel like

01:37:32.220 we just scratched the surface of like your life and your stories man i was already moved very much

01:37:37.100 i appreciate that your story of your salvation your dad especially hits hard that's very heavy

01:37:42.860 man your son i mean it the whole thing was just great i'm really grateful you came on today

01:37:47.660 well thank you very much i appreciate the invitation and it was better than i thought it

01:37:52.860 was going to be i was terrified for sure no i told you i told you i have never done cameras very well

01:38:00.860 Well, during COVID, I was just freaking out with the camera looking at me.

01:38:05.980 Yeah, I was in front of Zoom.

01:38:07.540 And so they finally pulled it way, way back and then Zoomed in real far, so that's better.

01:38:12.860 But thank you.

01:38:14.120 Thank you very much.

01:38:14.840 Thank you.

01:38:15.460 And you guys will be in my prayer every day.

01:38:17.680 Thank you.

01:38:18.420 Appreciate that.

01:38:19.600 For sure.

01:38:20.680 Great episode of Straight Bible.

01:38:22.420 Let's get out of here, Matt.

01:38:23.560 Tell the people goodbye.

01:38:24.580 Wrap it up.

01:38:30.860 We'll see you next time.

Nephilim Death Squad - July 11, 2026

Is Holy Spirit Working Today？ w⧸ Pastor Rick & Raven

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