Welcome And Ways To Connect

Seth 0:06

Hey, good morning, everyone. We just want to take a moment and welcome you to the Followers of Christ podcast. Today is our fourth episode, and it has been a little while since we last posted, so we apologize for that. But we're excited to just jump back into things with each one of you today and just have this opportunity just to share some things on our hearts and just you know go with what God has laid on our hearts to share. Just as a quick reminder, we always love to interact with each one of you. We would love to hear from you. A couple different ways you can do that is either through our website, focpod.com, or you can email us at contact at focpod.com. We would love to just hear your prayer requests. We would love to just hear about what God's doing in your life. But I think you're gonna be excited just to kind of get into today's episode and get to hear what's going on. Brother

Gospel In A Nutshell And Prayer

Seth 0:55

Jonathan is gonna kick us off here with a gospel message and opening prayer.

Jonathan 0:59

Hey, good morning, y'all. This is uh Jonathan. We'd like to take the time and thank you guys for listening. I'm gonna open us up with the uh gospel message and just kind of briefly explain what what that is. So the gospel to me is in a nutshell, Jesus coming down and dying on the cross for our sins. And and I just want to read a couple verses real quick. It says in Romans chapter 10, verse 9 and 10, it says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart, God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. So that scripture right there tells me that if we believe our sins to Jesus, he is faithful to forgive us. It doesn't matter what kind of sins that we have committed, it just matters that we confess it to him and we believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, then we'll be saved. But we have to believe in what Jesus did on the cross, and I believe the the gospel is something that needs to be shared with everybody, and that's just in a nutshell what the gospel is. So I'm just gonna pray for all of us if that would be all right, dear Lord. I thank you for this day. I thank you for the listeners, I thank you for the group, I thank you for everything that you've done. Lord, your word says that if we have sinned, we come before you, Father, and we confess our sins to you. We thank you for your son Jesus for dying on the cross for our sins. And we know, Lord, we can't do this without you. We just thank you for everything that you've done. Just Lord, bless this conversation, bless everything, and we pray that if this touches somebody's heart, Lord, that you plant the seed and just let the people know that there is salvation out there and that Jesus is the way. And we thank you for this and we ask you to be with us now in your name, amen.

Mike 3:37

Good

Mission Statement You Are Not Alone

Mike 3:38

morning, guys. This is Mike. Our mission statement is to reflect the love of Jesus by walking with our neighbors, nurturing and growing in faith, fostering curiosity and building community along the way. And basically, it just states that we're not in this alone. You know, the Bible never talks about ever being alone. Jesus never sent anybody alone by themselves. It's the Bible also says that when two or more together are together, there I am too. So you're not alone. So just know that. Just know that, right? And that's it.

Steffen 4:28

Well, good morning, everybody. Today's episode is entitled What God has laid on our hearts. What God has laid on our hearts. You know, everyone has something that that that is tugging at their heart, that that's God is calling them to do. And today we're going to express what that is with each and every one of us. So we uh pray this is fruitful for you and that you just see what's going on in our lives, and maybe it's something that God is trying to tell you through us. Thank you.

What God Laid On Our Hearts

Seth 5:09

All right, and so without too much delay, we'll jump right into the episode content. This was Brother Jonathan's idea. So, brother Jonathan, take us away.

Jonathan 5:17

Yeah, good morning, everyone. Again, I just want to take the time and say thank you for uh just listening to us. You know, I had been praying about this for a long time, and you know, I had gotten with the guys and just threw this idea with them, and they said, Yeah, man, I think you should really do that. I think you should just tell tell the listeners how you really feel. And I said, Okay, so I'll be honest with you, I was struggling all last night and this morning, and if it seems like I'm talking kind of fast, it's because I'm kind of nervous, because right here I'm just gonna kind of lay my heart out on the line. So, with with that being said, though there's a few things that I want to talk to everyone about today. I apologize for the delay, but one of the things that I wanted to talk about and late and and then in just a few minutes I can get everybody's thoughts on this. But

Truth And Deception In 2 Timothy

Jonathan 6:38

something that I've been struggling with, and I know that my fellow co-hosts they can agree with this, my brothers can agree with this, is we're seeing a lot of deception going on in today's world, and you might say, Well, Jonathan, what do you mean by deception? If we look around, we see what God created. God, it says in his word that God created everything, the heavens and the earth. That's Genesis 1:1. But if you fast forward to now, everything is being distorted, and it's kind of hard to find what's the truth. But you know what? That's why we hold on to God's word, and I believe in my heart that that's the truth, and it says in his word that the truth will set you free. And I just want to read if I can find it real quick. I kind of wrote it down, okay. I want to read in 2 Timothy 3, 12 through 15. This is kind of similar to what I'm talking about, not exactly right on the dot, but it taught it says that if we follow Christ, then we will be persecuted. That's kind of the baseline of it, but I'm gonna look for it real quick. If some of you guys want to jump in, go ahead while I look for it, that'd be great. In 2 Timothy, right? Yeah, that's right.

Steffen 8:27

But no, the uh I understand the the gist behind what you were just saying, how things are getting distorted. I know brother brother OG had said in the past about looking through a worldly lens versus a spiritual lens. It's both in that correct, brother OG. But yeah, uh, you know, as we look through worldly lens, which we try not to, but you know, we see all kind of crazy stuff going on. Well, but with you know, Christ showing us the way, Christ opening up our eyes, well, we we know we know we got a battle. We we know it's a fight, and it is definitely a fight.

Jonathan 9:23

I found it right here. Okay, we're gonna read 10 through 17. It's gonna be kind of lengthy, and I apologize, but this is Paul's charge to Timothy. It says, You however know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings, and what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch. Continuum and lastra and persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ. This is the verse that I love. All scripture is God breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and teaching in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped in every good work. So I know that was lengthy, but I'm just gonna kind of give you what I think that verse means. It means this that if you're a believer in Christ, don't think for a second that you're gonna wake up and everything's gonna be sunshine and rainbows. That's not what he's talking about. He's saying that you're gonna have you're gonna be persecuted, and not just persecution as in death, but persecution as people are gonna come against you, it's gonna cause that friction, it's gonna cause things that um that you wouldn't normally get from a fellow brother or sister in Christ, right? That's the that's what he's talking about in this verse, and God's laid it on my heart to share that with with you all because I believe that the misconception and the the deception is that oh, when I become a believer, that everything is gonna be perfect and everything's gonna be alright. That's not what the gospel and what the word says. It's not gonna be alright. If anything, things are gonna get worse than how they used to be before. And I say that with love and compassion because I know what it's like to be living for Christ, and you have and you feel like the whole world is not necessarily against you, but is not with you, and that's when you just have to remember who is with you, and that's Jesus. And

Shame And Guilt Return To Jesus

Jonathan 12:50

another thing I want to reiterate is that when we sin, sin can do this. This is what I was struggling with, y'all. Sin is followed by shame and guilt, and when we hold on to and we think about it a lot, it hinders us from that relationship with God. God wants the relationship with us, but when we sin and we think where we can't go to Jesus because of our sin and it's greater, then that hinders us from the relationship that God wants. And we have to remind ourselves that yes, we sinned. I sinned, Stefan, Mike, and Seth. We've all sinned, we're all sinners. We we're not gonna sit here and say we're we're holier than you guys because we're not, we're just like oh. But the difference is that we have Jesus in us and that Jesus paid the price on on the cross for our sins. And I just want to take the time to just remind you and to kind of encourage all of you that if you feel like the world is is shifting, don't let that discourage you and keep keep faith. Because just remember that you have brothers and sisters in Christ that are feeling the same same thing. So, with that being said, I want to kind of open up the floor to my brothers at this time if they want to say anything.

Steffen 14:32

So, can you uh I'm just sitting there thinking about you know what you just said. So, how how would you deal with like somebody who you know didn't uh said something that you didn't agree with, or and you know you know that was not their intention. Can you give me some advice on what are you doing in that type of situation?

Jonathan 15:00

And that's a good question. Me personally, I would first and foremost open up the word, but before I even open up the word, I would pray for them. I would ask the Lord, Lord, what is it that the reveal yourself to me what this person is asking or wanting, and the Lord will he'll reveal what it is in that other person, whether you agree with them or not, he'll reveal to you what it is, and then go to the word and see where in the word you can confront that individual, but confront that individual with politeness, I guess if that makes sense. Yeah, yes, it does.

Steffen 15:51

Yes, it does. Thank you.

Mike 15:52

You're welcome. Um, I can add something. I know it's Stefan, you mentioned about looking at the world from a uh a worldly lens and a and I use the heavenly lens and Psalm 103, chapter 103, verse 12. It says so great is his love for those who fear him, as far as the east is from the west, so far as he removed our transgressions from us. And that's an example of a heavenly lens who we are in Christ, you know. He forgave us that he s he forgave us so much that he separated us from our sin as far as the east is from the west. Like you can't you can't measure that distance, you know. And that's how we even though yeah, we are sinners, but the the Bible also says that in Christ, in Christ, there is no condemnation. You know, the shame and guilt, you can put shame on the east and guilt on the west. If if you know, if that paints a picture for you. Yeah, man, we just need to. I know it's hard to do, but we just that's how we gotta look at ourselves, you know.

Steffen 17:24

Yes, sir, yes, sir. And we and by doing that, we we help each other, we lift each other. Yeah, we uh not only us, uh my brothers, my our co-hosts, my brothers, our brothers and sisters in the world, we need to lift each other up. None of us are perfect, not by a long shot. There's only one one being. You know, that's it's so important, y'all. It's so important. Love each other, you know. Even though it's hard to do, sometimes you just don't understand why people do what they do or why they say what they say. But we know we have just like our brothers just said, Christ, that's who we are in Christ. He meets us where we are, he loves us where we are. That's what we're called to do, and that's all I got on that.

Jonathan 18:29

I would just say that to to the listeners out there, stay in your word, because that's what's gonna pull up pull you through, and not just staying in the word. Seek other believers, because that's how you grow. When you go from reading the word to being in a community of other believers, then you all have one goal, and that's to spread the gospel and share each other's burdens, and that's all I got.

Seth 19:05

All right, thank you, brother Jonathan. Now, brother Mike, we're gonna kick it over to you.

Stir Up Faith In Hard Seasons

Mike 19:10

All right, thank you. And that was good, man. I needed to hear that for sure and remind myself who I am in the Lord. And I might have something to uh piggyback on what you just said. And my message is just a message of encouragement. This is this specifically goes out to those who just feel crummy. You know, the key verse from my message is from 2 Timothy 1 and 6. And it basically says and on this is Paul talking to Timothy, which is kind of like he's kind of like Paul's like his father figure in the faith. And he's basically telling Timothy to stir up the gift of God, which is faith in the Lord. And in context, Paul Paul is he's uh he's he's being persecuted, he's a prisoner, and I believe Timothy was just um struggling in his faith. And Paul was just trying to encourage him. And the root of the message is coming from Ecclesiastes three, one through eight. So if if I may read that, it's coming from the NIV. It's uh Ecclesiastes three, one through eight. There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear, and a tear, and a time to mend. I don't know if that was tear or tear, I'm not sure. A time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. There's a time for everything, guys. Sometimes, some days you just feel like crud. And here lately, for me, I felt like crud. And my message for you is to stir up your gift, stir up your faith. And this may be, I may be getting. Out of context here. This is me pulling out from the book of Mike, the book of Mike OG, the book of my life. And I just wanted to share my heart and to encourage you. Sometimes we need to be strengthened. And sometimes ourselves, we need to strengthen ourselves. We need to look in the mirror and look at yourself in the heavenly lens. God has separated us from our sin as far as the east is from the west. We need to stir up the gift of God. What brings you joy? What motivates you? Is it exercise? Is it art? Do you like to draw? Do you like to paint? Do you like to sing? Everybody's got a pillow. Sometimes you just gotta put that pillow up to your face and scream at the top of your lungs. If you work at the grocery store, open up that freezer door, close it. Nobody's gonna hear you. Just scream. If you gotta scream it out, scream out to the Lord. If it's prayer and devotion time, you have a favorite gospel worship song in your car that you just like to sing. Is it a friend that you can talk to? Is it serving? Can you you know whatever that looks like to you? Is it going to play basketball? Go go shoot some hoops, go play some horse or pig, whatever animal you you can think of. A hippopotamus, that'd be a long game. Whatever it takes, as long as it's peaceful, as long as it's not harming anybody. Do whatever you gotta do to stir up the gift of God. For me, I do music, mom. You know, I I do hip hop music, something I've done since I was a kid, something that's never left me. And basically that's it, man. That's my message. Just whatever you do that brings you joy, just do it for the Lord, you know. And that's my message.

Steffen 24:08

Brother, wow, that that's incredible. And I'm gonna tell you, so I know I was talking to y'all a while back about a brother that I had talked to over the phone. This was right around the holiday time, and he serves at this ministry called I Serve Ministry, right? So it's a food bank that go around from you know city to city helping to give out the people in need. Well, I talked to this brother over the phone, right? And I was so tired because I worked night shift, right? And this was right around like 12 o'clock in in the afternoon, and I knew I needed to go to bed. I was dead dog tired when I started talking to him. That brother lifted my spirit up so high. I was so pumped up, I felt like I could have ran around the world. This brother was just, you know, a man of God and full of the Holy Spirit. He had me so pumped up, and that and I was just like, man, I can I can do anything because his spirit connected with mine and just lifted me like crazy. And it was incredible. And I'm gonna tell you, the one thing he said, this was right around, let's say, about a month ago, he told me about 2 Timothy 17. He said, For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. He told me that over the phone, right? And when he said that, that just sat on my heart, that sat in my heart ever since he said that. And Mike, and when you just said that, that just jumped right to the forefront. Jumped right up to the forefront. I met this brother in person about a week ago, maybe two weeks ago, in church. And it was just it was incredible. He he prayed over me, right? He just just I mean, I was so pumped and so so excited, so so wired up. You know, it was it was just such a blessing. It was incredible. But the the whole gist of everything was he ended that prayer with 2 Timothy 1.7. He said, You have that spirit of power, you know, God gave you a spirit of power. He said, You hear me, Stephanie? God gave you a spirit of power. I said, Yes, sir. He said, sir, you have nothing to fear, nothing. And I said, Praise God, praise God to the highest. So, oh brother, I know exactly what you're saying, because he just, I mean, wow, when you said that, I guess everything just jumped right out. So man, that's all I got.

Jonathan 27:27

I just I just had to throw that in there. Yeah, Mike, I want to kind of piggyback off what you were saying earlier when you were reading in uh Ecclesiastes. That's that's something that we can all feel. You you know, we feel it when we look around and we see what the world is going through. We see the we like everything that you listed in Ecclesiastes that God listed, it's there. And all those seasons they happen, and people during those seasons is what either drives them to the Lord or what pulls them away from the Lord. And you know, I just want to encourage again people to really lean into the Lord when when those seasons of of uh doubt come in and everything when you feel like the whole world is collapsing, or you feel like your back's up against the wall, and you don't know where you're gonna get your next meal, or the your finances are low, or you got a kid in the hospital, or whatever, and all these situations are going. Who are you gonna run to? Are you gonna be like, Well, this is it, this is this is my season. I guess I might as well just run back into the world and try and do everything on my own, or are you really gonna just say, Lord, I don't understand what's going on, but I truly trust in what you have for my life, and it's in those moments that God reveals himself. And like I said, I just wanna like I said, Mike, I I I I appreciate you reading that because it kind of struck me as something that I've been dealing with in my life, and so thank you, brother, for sharing that. That's all I got.

Mike 29:31

Oh man, no man, it's my pleasure. Um also I'm gonna end with uh with a little extra you know, we recently had like a little ice storm and you know, have you ever you ever been up at night and you just start thinking maybe you start having some fearful thoughts, start deep diving in your thoughts. Maybe you have some dreams and goals, and like, man, once I once the once I see the sunlight, man, I'm gonna do all this, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna shoot for the stars, you know, seize the day. You start having all these dreams and goals, and as soon as the sunlight comes out, oh man, you know, you're back to you know, doubt, you know. And I think faith is in those moments when you're just having when you're so hopeful and you got all these goals and dreams in mind, and you feel like you can just do it, you know, nothing can hold you back. And then and then once you know that doubt comes, that's that's the devil like trying to steal your joy. I just wanted to say to everybody you know, if you have a goal, if you have a dream, write it down so you won't forget it, but and just um pray pray because you know, I feel like that you know, those hopeful thoughts and those dreamful thoughts are from the Lord, and you just gotta act on those thoughts and just have faith. And and the Bible says that in Christ we can do all things, and that's it, man.

Seth 31:25

Man, brother Mike, that was awesome. We that's just great. Thank you for sharing all that. And now we're gonna have Mr. Stefan come in and just share what's on his heart.

Faith With Works Serving The Homeless

Steffen 31:36

Well, good morning, everyone. I would like to read from James 2, verse 15 through 17. If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and you do not give them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. So for me, what God has laid on my heart is is helping those people in need, right? Trying to help whoever it is that we can that are in need. So I've touched on in the past about us helping out the the homeless people. Right. So what we do is we try our best to meet a physical need while we're planting the seeds for a spiritual need. Now, so all my life I've always been the quiet guy, you know, my comfort zone would be just to stay in my corner, not speak to anybody. You know, I'd go to work and speak to people at work, but to speak. There will be no conversation, of course, at lunchtime after work or any of that stuff, right? Go to church, I'll just come into church. People speak when I walk in the door, and I would sit in the corner, listen to the service, get up and leave. And that's all I did of my life, right? So meanwhile, you know, and I knew and I felt it that because I would see things out there in the world, like, man, I wish I could help this person, or you know, I would love to do something to help this individual. I kept talking about it and talking about it, and never did anything about it for years. But then, you know, like my brother had stated earlier, you know, because I know what gives me joy is to be able to do that. So this one particular day, we say, you know what, let's just pack up our stuff and go do it. Right. So, you know, we, you know, now I've been helping, or we have been helping a brother in Gainesville every month for Santa for the homeless, right? Shout out to Brother Randy, love your brother. So we we help them once a month, and we would sit there thinking, once a month is cool, but we know people that need help more than once a month, right? And we would drive 45 minutes or so to go out there and help people. We said, There's people around here that need help. Well, my wife and I were talking one day, we just said, all right, let's go. We just packed up what we had and we drove around and we went to the first place that we seen somebody who had the appearance of being homeless, right? So I went out, started talking to him, stepping out of my comfort zone because I felt I was led to go do that, right? And when that first conversation happened, the doors just started opening. Started meeting people, you know, and we started talking to various individuals. I mean, you know, brothers, sisters, it's been definitely an eye-opening thing to talk to people and to hear their story. And everyone that wants to talk, because trust me, everybody don't want to talk, but we try to, you know, communicate with everybody. Hey, what's your name? How are you doing? You know, my name is Stefan. Uh, that's my wife, Angela, you know, but they just come grab their stuff and go. They said, How you doing? Thank you. They're very courteous, and they leave. Not everybody wants to talk, but then you do have those people that just want you to listen to them, right? Some people just want you to just to hear what they have to say. Because they, brothers and sisters, they might not have an actual uh brick and mortar house, right? But one thing we all need to remember, everybody, they are people too. Right. We, when I say we, I mean society shouldn't talk down to them. They should be talking to them, right? Because all we want to do, all we want to do is get back and show God's love the best way we know how. Right. So every time we do have conversations with people, we share God's goodness, you know, saying, hey, you know, this is what God has done for us. Tell the people God bless you. And I know one brother I told me, you know, you know, he has a different religion. He said, But your God can bless me. I have no problem with that. I said, brother, it's okay. God bless you. He loves you no matter what religion you think you may have, or that you have, I should say, God still belows you. I have one brother want to stop and argue with me over politics. Man, the president, he took this stuff, he did this, and he did that. I said, brother, do you believe in God? Well, yeah, yeah, I believe in God. I said, God is in control, man. All this stuff is temporary. All of this stuff is temporary. God is in control. And he just went on and on. He was just upset about all the changes happening up in Washington, right? I'm like, brother, that's just temporary. Put your faith in God, put your trust in God. You know, do not let your circumstance dictate who you are in life. All right. I said, so I said, God has done wonders, wonders for us. Look, years for years growing up, we didn't have much of anything. You know, my mother got a rest of her soul, worked two jobs, trying to take care of three boys, all knuckleheads, and we were. Yeah, I tell you, I was the king of the knuckleheads. So, but you know, she she worked and worked and worked and tried her best, tried her best to take care of us. And all I remember is we were we never had all that good stuff like everybody else, right? Everybody that we seen in school. We never had all that, you know, new clothes and this, that. So, I mean, but that's how we grew up that uh helped us shape us to who we are today. Had no idea what our lives would look like, of course, because going through that, you can't think about the future, you're just thinking about the now. So that's why when we go out and we meet people and we we talk with individuals, like we met a brother who just had a brand new. Brand the baby. The baby was born prematurely and they were homeless, right? So I mean it definitely broke our heart when we found out. You know, we prayed together and talking to them, and and you know, got the contact information, like, man, you know, Lord, how can we help him? What can we do? Ask him God. You know, this brother had had a few more challenges, of course. They were staying at the hospital with the baby as they were going through this whole transition. So we go back out to the same place that we normally go, you know, giving back and sharing some donations with some other folks, ran it to that same brother, and he said they were on the list to get a new place. And to show you how God worked, they end up getting that new place. So they got in earlier than most. And the day they got in to their new place, the baby went home the very next day. Because the the old fear was the baby getting released, but they don't have a home to bring the baby to. And to show you how good God is, he made everything happen. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when we were out there and we were sharing, you know, help give it back, talking to people. That same brother came out there with us that same one, and he was talking to everybody that he could, ministering to people about the love of God and about how giving everything to God can change your life. It changed his. This brother was talking about all the all the stuff he used to do, the stuff, you know, let's just say drugs and all that other stuff. And this one brother in particular that God put right there for him to talk to was doing the exact same thing he was. So the brother that just got the place was ministering to this brother out there, telling them everything could change. You gotta trust God, you gotta trust God, give it all to God. So, fellas, I'm gonna close with uh James 122. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Show love to whoever you can, whenever you can, wherever you can. Meet people where they are. Nobody's perfect, everybody's gonna make mistakes. That don't mean you shouldn't love them. Christ does.

Mike 42:30

That's all I got, and that's that's encouraging, man. Dude, I am myself the kid in the corner. I've struggled all my life to step out of my comfort zone. I know the Bible says what I read earlier, that there's a time to be quiet and a time to speak. And sometimes you got those moments that I have, those moments where I just have that urge to speak, and a lot of times I don't what you just said really encouraged me to just I just need to step out. Like I know you got your, you know, your small groups that you go to. And you know, I have I have priorities that I that I need to to handle in my life, you know. I'm a father, and but like sometimes I just make an excuse. Sometimes I use it as an excuse or a crutch not to go, and I'm I really need to go to those things, those events and stuff, and you know I just uh I struggle, man. And I struggle in my insecurities, you know, my fears. But you know what we all all all of us uh are I don't know. This is just such a blessing, man, that all of us can come together and encourage each other. And the main thing that I got from this that for this episode is what you said earlier, the 2 Timothy 1.7, which is God doesn't give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. And um that's just such a blessing. But hey, before you before you end your uh your part, Stefan, you gotta share the story about the red trumpet.

The Red Trumpet And God’s Timing

Mike 44:33

That's just that's an awesome story, man.

Steffen 44:37

Oh, uh yes, sir. Thank you, my brother. So we we were in uh a different city than what we normally go to. So we normally go to Athens, Georgia, right? But this day, we left Athens to say, hey, let's go check out Lawrenceville, Georgia, right? So my wife and I riding out there, riding out there, lucky. So we're like, man, who can we, you know, get stuff to? So we had two stops. The first one, we seen two brothers, you know, and we were able to get out and talk to them. And, you know, this one brother was taking care of an older brother looking out for him who was partially blind. We prayed with him, prayed over him, and just shared what we had, right? So we get back in the car, we drive up the street to this Walmart. There's a lady sitting outside the Walmart, right there at the edge of the driveway, coming into the parking lot. My wife gets out to go talk to her, and I look over, there's a guy sitting right there at the edge of the Burger King parking lot. I walk across the street, start talking to him. And, you know, the the mind-blowing thing to me is as we started talking, he started referencing first Jude 3, right? Then he was talking about all of the references in the Old Testament, and it was mind-blowing to me because as he was talking, we myself and my brothers here were discussing that same verse, saying that exact same thing three hours before that. Those words he said came out of my mouth, right? So I was kind of shook. I was really surprised, right? But as the conversation went on, uh he asked me if I knew anybody who had an old trumpet to let him know, right? Because he used to play music. I said, okay. And then, you know, the conversation went on, and I stuck in the back of my head, right? Got his contact info, and I went home, went to sleep, got up, went to work, and I was thinking about that trumpet. And so when I came to work, there's a brother who we work with that plays music. And I asked him, I'm like, bro, where did you get your stuff from? He said, Well, what do you need? So I told him, and he said, What type of trumpet? And I see I'm not a you know a musical guy because I was like, okay, I didn't know there were types of trumpet, but hey, it's a learning experience for me too, right? He said, find out what type, and then let me know. I was like, okay. So as I shot my man a message the next day, and he told me, he told me the type, and then he said, Man, if they have a, he said, man, I would love red trumpet if they have one, right? He said, there's not any trumpet would do. I said, okay. So I told my man at the job. I came to work that night, brother man had me a brand new red trumpet and gave it to me. I'm like, okay, well, I know we're gonna find this brother, right? Look, next day we were out and about in Athens, and I'm trying to call him and text him and find out where he is. And I finally got a hold of him. He said he was on the bus. He didn't say where he was going. He said, Well, everything all right. I said, Yeah, I have something for you. Right? He said, You have something for me. I said, Yeah, and I wanted to give it to you because I know I need to give it to you. He said, Well, is it any way you could take it to my mom's, right? I said, sure. Gave me the address and he gave it to me. He said, Is it a is it a trumpet? He said, Is it a red trumpet? I said, uh, something like that. No, he said, it's an old trumpet. That's what he said. I said, something like that. You know, I didn't want to give away the surprise, right? So we left after Jove over to Lawrenceville. We, you know, found the address, went over there and knocked on the door. The lady comes to the door. I said, you know, are you? And I said the gentleman's name, are you his mother? She said, Yes, I am. And she had to look like old Lord, what'd he do? And I said, Well, we have something for you to give to him. And she said, What is this? He said, It's a trumpet. She said, Oh my God. I said, Yes, we must have a red trumpet. She said, What I said, he mentioned this to me. And I had a brother of mine at work bought this for him, and we wanted to make sure that he got it. She said, I will make sure he gets it, and you can see the tears forming up in her eyes. All right. So she said, uh, I just, you know, he's gonna be so excited, and I can't believe it. I said, Hey, listen, we want him to know that he matters. We want you to know that you matter, and it is such a blessing. Listen, we love you. More importantly, God loves you and God loves him. All right, and you see the tears coming down the cheek. Wife gave her a hug. I gave her a hug. And we just turned around and left, right? I think nothing else to provide. I get to work that night. He calls me. He said, Man, I cannot believe you did that. I said, Uh oh, what'd I do? You know, I thought he was gonna say I ate the last chicken wing or something, you know what I mean? I said, uh, what did I do? He said, Well, man, uh, you brought this trumpet over to my mom's house. I said, Yes, sir, that was a brother of mine who had blessed me to bless you, and I wanted to make sure you had it. Right. I wanted to make sure you had it. He said, I just cannot believe that. I just I just cannot believe that. You you took time out of your day to do that. I know you're a busy man. I said, brother, this this is all God. This is all God. You know, that feeling hit us. The feeling hit me, I had to make sure you had it because God wanted me to put it, you know, give it to you. God bless you, brother. I said, listen, God loves you. We love you. He said, Man, I hope we we we ever uh touch base again. I said, brother, once we're connected, we always connected. We brothers in Christ. Don't matter where you are, we we always gonna be connected. Just know, just keep giving God the glory, give God the glory, man, and you have a blessed day and enjoy. Enjoy. That's what God wanted you to have. And praise God to God, brother. And it was just it was so touching it, and it was just such a wonderful feeling to see God at work. You know what I mean?

Jonathan 51:24

But yeah, thank you, brother. Had shit it. I want to say something about what you guys said mentioned earlier, was fear, right? God

Armor Of God Against Fear

Jonathan 51:36

doesn't give us fear. I'm gonna read a real quick. I won't expound upon this. I'm just gonna kinda keep it brief and simple, but I want to this is also another encouragement. I want to read from Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through I'm gonna go to 18. And it says, Finally, be strong in the Lord in his mighty way. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's scheme. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of the powers of of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything to stand, stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. When when you guys mentioned fear, that's the very first thing that popped into my my mind was this soldier getting ready to go out for for battle. And I I just wanted to read that to encourage that again our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, like Ephesians mentioned. So safe strong. That's all I got.

Closing Prayer And Sendoff

Steffen 54:14

Well, everybody. Thank you. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to us, and and we hope and pray that there was something that jumped out to you, something that uh that you can relate to, something that tugged on your heart. This this is uh such a blessing to be with my brothers, my family in Christ. It's just it is uh such an honor, and I thank all of y'all, and I'm so happy and blessed to be a part of this, and we pray that we're able just to share some love and bless somebody somewhere in this world. All right, with that being said, gentlemen, I'm gonna close us out. Father God, thank you so much for allowing us to open eyes and to have another day. Thank you for for blessing us beyond what we could ever imagine. Lord, we pray that this conversation has been fruitful, that that that your word, that your love touches someone's heart somewhere. Lord, we pray that you pour out your favor to everyone who is listening. That that when when people feel that tug in their heart, that they know that you're telling them they're called to do this, and they are to follow what you say. We pray that your will be done, not ours. We pray that we answer the call when you tell us to, Lord. We love you. We love you, we love you, we love you. Thank you for everything that you've done. Thank you for everything that you're doing, and thank you for everything that you're gonna do. We love you, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.