Growing Together
Step into a virtual garden of spiritual growth and community connection with the "Growing Together" podcast. This podcast is a nurturing space for individuals seeking to deepen their faith, cultivate relationships, and explore the boundless beauty of a shared spiritual journey.
Each episode of "Growing Together" is a breath of fresh air, where Pastor Michael, Syd, Nic, Pastor Holly, and Pastor Roger try to navigate the twists and turns of life while staying rooted in faith. Their warm and inviting presence makes you feel like you're sitting in a cozy living room, engaged in a heartfelt conversation with old friends.
Diving into topics ranging from personal growth and self-care to building resilient relationships and fostering a sense of community, the podcast aims to equip listeners with the tools to nurture their faith in all aspects of life. Through scripture readings, open discussions, and interviews with experts in various fields, "Growing Together" provides a holistic approach to spiritual development.
Whether you're a lifelong believer, a seeker on the spiritual path, or simply someone curious about how faith can shape lives, "Growing Together" offers a welcoming haven for everyone. Tune in during your morning routine, while taking a leisurely stroll, or even during a quiet moment of reflection – the podcast fits seamlessly into your daily life.
Join the "Growing Together" community and embark on a journey of discovery, growth, and genuine connection. In a world that can sometimes feel disconnected, this podcast reminds us that nurturing our faith and cultivating meaningful relationships can lead to a life that's deeply fulfilling and spiritually abundant. Subscribe now to start your journey of growing together in faith and fellowship.
Growing Together
What do You Understand the Holy Spirit to Be?
Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, and if so, how does it manifest in your life? This question sparks an intriguing conversation where we navigate the profound yet personal journey of understanding the Holy Spirit. Joining us is our wonderful guest, Dawn, who shares her heartfelt perspective on how the Holy Spirit serves as a source of strength and resilience during life's challenges. We explore the idea of the Holy Spirit acting as our conscience, akin to a modern-day Jiminy Cricket, guiding us in decisions big and small. The discussion takes a thoughtful turn as we tackle the complexities of discerning our inner voice amidst the noise of daily life.
As we continue, the conversation shifts to the impact of modern entertainment on our spiritual well-being. We peel back the layers on how the content we consume—whether through TV shows or movies—can influence our thoughts, morals, and even our senses. The nuances of visual temptation are dissected, particularly how they differ between men and women, illuminating the importance of being mindful about our media choices. Together, we reflect on the conscious effort required to avoid media pitfalls that might lead us astray. Listen as we confront these compelling topics with honesty, humor, and a touch of introspection.
So I've got it. I know what it says and actually this was this. I had already had a topic in my mind, something I wanted to talk about, but it was how do you talk about it without it being super sensitive? So this will ease us into it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, Boy you sure, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:For sure You're positive. Well, what I'm positive is I'm going to stir the pot. I'm positive of that. What?
Speaker 5:else is new.
Speaker 3:I know that's what I do.
Speaker 1:You know, on the last episode, I was thinking of something when we started it and it was a story I never told. I don't remember what that story was.
Speaker 3:It was a good one though.
Speaker 1:That was a great segue, beth. You didn't even know it was a great segue. Here's tonight's topic Do you believe in the Holy Spirit? What do you understand it to be, do you?
Speaker 4:believe in the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:What do you understand it to be? Oh yes, it's a good topic, it's a good conversation. Nobody, he is my conscience. Okay, you're Jiminy Cricket. Yeah, okay, I agree, that's good.
Speaker 2:Sometimes when I go, something's coming out and something says shut up, and I know that's who's telling me.
Speaker 5:I think I fight that too much.
Speaker 3:I'm just like I'm not gonna actually holy spirit is my strength yeah, okay there's things I don't want to do or maybe not feeling up to it, just anything like that a lot of times it's like yeah, yes, like okay, this is how I'm gonna carry on.
Speaker 5:I'm glad you said that, dawn, like you're conscious, because I've always thought that too, but I'm like, well, no, that's not that's me, but really like that's him, the still small voice, the still small voice.
Speaker 1:You could call that a conscience to some degree. That's the good versus evil conversation. You joke about the good angel and the little devil on your shoulder.
Speaker 3:that could be yeah, because if you just did what you, as a human, wanted to do all the time, you're in trouble.
Speaker 4:You're in trouble you wouldn't, get nothing done well, yeah, same way like with the last episode. I mean the shows that I used to watch before I was a christian. Once I became a christian, it's like you know. Or if I'm in another room and you've heard the F word three times and you're like what are you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, what is?
Speaker 3:happening. Turn that off. Yeah, your wheels start turning.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Just to loop back to that, and we talked about it in the last episode. But I have also realized that, while occasionally vulgarities fall out of my face, I can't watch TV shows that do it a lot Like my, or else you'll pick up on it more. Not just that, but there's something inside of me that's just like. I just shudder and it's weird and I don't like any movies that there's excessive nudity and things like that, which is weird. And again, that's part of the Holy Spirit working on that.
Speaker 1:I talk about this a lot when I preach because I think people don't quite understand how the brain works for men and women and how different it is, but men are tempted with their eyes, like we want to see where, we're excited by things that we see Visual Right, which is why pornography is such a hot button for men and things like that. Like that doesn't typically work for women because they need touch, like yeah, that's what excites a woman. So there's a difference in.
Speaker 5:There's two words that I'm thinking of, because I've heard it too Like women need the time and like but men it's like bah, yes, right, exactly yes, there's two words that they compare and I just can't think what it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what I was talking about has absolutely eluded me at this point. The point that I was trying to make there. It was about the things that we watch, things like that, just how like I know that watching those things creates that like weird trigger in your brain.
Speaker 1:And so like. And the Bible tells us that if we look lustfully, then we have already sinned. And so you know, avoid that at all cost. But yeah, and so you know, avoid that at all costs. But yeah, I have a unique perspective on the Holy Spirit that I want to challenge you guys with.
Speaker 2:I think that the Holy Spirit encompasses the prophetic yeah Right, so think about it Somebody like Holly who is incredibly prophetic, is very connected to the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:Right, Mm? Think about it. Somebody like Holly, who is incredibly prophetic, is very connected to the Holy spirit right. I have a relationship with Christ. I nothing wrong with my relationship with Christ, but I am not as prophetic as she might be. I don't think the prophetic lives in everybody. No, I can operate in it when it happens, like don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1:Last Sunday man, if you were here last Sunday dude, like I was like it was something. Something happened about halfway through worship and I just lost it. Like I was like all right, we got to go. I said to sis, I'm like prayer music after this, like I got something to say. So and I never interrupt worship. So I step into the pulpit, I say what I need to say, step back out. They played what one more song? And I'm like all right, I got to deliver the word. Like this is like it's got to happen right now and so I start preaching and it just was like pouring out of me and I got probably five or six people were like, hey, great sermon, hey, good job. I'm like none of that was me. That was one of those, right, but that was like a very prophetic very high, like that was probably more prophetic than it was apostolic.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 1:I tend to operate more in the apostle than I do in the prophetic, but I think when you uh, I will say chase, and I don't mean that in a derogatory way, but when you chase the Holy Spirit, you tend to be more prophetic, and when you are prophetic you desire to chase the Holy Spirit because- Wait, say that again.
Speaker 5:That was a lot to just say it again. Sure.
Speaker 1:So when you are prophetic, you tend to chase the Holy.
Speaker 5:Spirit.
Speaker 1:And I don't remember how I said it, so we'll have to. If you want to hear that again, go back and listen to it again Again, that was prophetic. That was not me saying that. So I believe, genuinely believe, that there are people who desire to have a closer connection with the Holy Spirit not then with Jesus, but like I know that I can see into the heavenlies. And that sounds weird to some people listening, but it is a thing Like there are people who can, like they visualize things in their head. Then they say it to somebody, like an apostle or whatever, and they're able to say, oh, that vision that you saw represents this thing.
Speaker 1:And so Holly and I have been on this kick about rusty gates Bizarre. She's like she had a dream about a rusty gate and it just starts to swing open and yada, yada, yada. And then she comes back to me about when Paul and Silas are in prison and they're singing praises and the gates swing open wide and their captor is set free, he is saved. So like this whole thing. And then I'm thinking in the book of Revelation they talk about the gates and the gates that surround the city, and I'm like there is something in this and so we're like trying to put it all together, but that's operating in the prophetic, which is much different than just reading the Bible and trying to write a sermon.
Speaker 5:For sure.
Speaker 1:So I think that the prophetic there will always be a closer connection to a move of the Spirit, and we know that the gift of speaking in tongues is from the Holy Spirit and that tends to be prophetic, right. Yeah, so weird connection, but that's just how I've always viewed the Holy Spirit. That is the prophetic. Now, that doesn't mean he's not all of the other things, because you know, we know that the Holy Spirit is omnipresent, we know that God is, you know everywhere, that we are, you know, we know that he understands and has designed all of the things.
Speaker 5:But but it's not Holly, it's the Holy Spirit. Correct, correct it's the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:That's what we always say.
Speaker 3:That's who usually speaks to Dave, it's the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:But here's what I want to say about that and, coming off of a very prophetic conference, I think this needs to be said. Prophetic words are spoken over a lot of people about a lot of situations and a lot of things in their lives, and I'm going to also tell you when I'm done with this why I don't trust the prophetic sometimes. Okay, we have to understand that those prophetic words are in season and that means that if a prophetic word is spoken to you today, let's say that you know. Pastor Valerie Swisher was here and fantastic, she's a prophetess. I've seen her build as an apostle. A prophet like in Florence was the same way. She could operate in all the things. She's just picker lane today, but she let's let's assume that she prophesies. That prophesies that I'm going to open another church, that we're going to have a second church. It doesn't mean that's today, it doesn't mean it's tomorrow. That may be 10 years down the road.
Speaker 5:And if that were to happen for you, would you start, you know, planning it.
Speaker 1:If she said that to me, no, I wouldn't. Here's what I would say, because I also know that my life is in season. I know that where I'm at is where I'm supposed to be, and I would say God, should it be your will, allow that to happen. And if I got a call and they said hey, the Cambridge church is floundering and we need you to save?
Speaker 5:it Sure.
Speaker 1:Okay, this is potentially, potentially that prophetic word coming to pass, and so I'm going to lean into it, but I'm not going to hang my hat on it yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, right, because the reason that I don't always trust the prophetic is sometimes people say things in the prophetic that they don't understand, like I would never tell somebody.
Speaker 1:One time somebody prophesied over Alyssa and I that we were going to have another baby and I laughed because I was like that ain't going to happen, like it can't happen physically, can't happen in our life. But then after we thought about that long term, I mean that could have meant adoption, that could have meant even birthing, something in the church. That could have been like another type of ministry or another style of ministry. And I'll be honest, like the Elvis thing came to pass really after that. So maybe that's it, like it's another form of ministry. We don't always know what it means and we don't clearly convey that to somebody. Because when they spoke that, I laughed because I was like we're not having another baby, a physical baby that cries and you have to run. We're not having one of those, it's not possible. And so I looked at that and then what was the first thing I thought about that person.
Speaker 5:They're crazy.
Speaker 1:This is false prophecy, which is a very dangerous place to be, and then you have to question whether or not you trust them, and so there are a lot of people that I question. And it's not a bad thing, because I don't think we should ever just blindly believe something that somebody says to us. We should study it out and we should understand it, but we also have to understand that sometimes people will say things to us that aren't necessarily in season in our lives, but that has maybe something down the road.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's important to understand what the prophetic actually is and how it actually works.
Speaker 2:But everything has to play for that to come in. Sure, you have to continue your walk with the Lord. You have to begin to. I think we talked about this, you know, the seeds planted. It's got to grow. It's got to be pruned. It's got to be, it's got to grow well, it's got to be pruned, it's got to be taken care of for that gift to yeah, come out.
Speaker 1:Last sunday. When I got really fired up because you weren't here last sunday, said nick, you weren't here last sunday because you were dealing with your, your wife who was feeling so well.
Speaker 1:He was a little down I became. I had this righteous anger about people not planting their roots, about people chasing blessings but they can't even plant their roots in order for their blessing to be watered. You know so many people and I don't mean in this church or I don't mean, but the people come for the prophetic and when somebody speaks into you like you're going to start your own ministry, you're going to do this, that or the other more, whatever the case may be, and then you chase that blessing by jumping from this church to that church, from that church to this church, from this ministry to that ministry, and I'm going to do this event and that event You're going to walk in the door and just say hey, you're here, we want you to do this.
Speaker 1:It doesn't work like that. You have to plant, you have to put roots in the ground, those roots have to be watered, you have to get a little bit of miracle grow, you have to be loved and the hardest part, beth.
Speaker 2:Beth said this to me on the phone.
Speaker 1:I was like holy smokes. You're going to have to be told you can't do that. You can't be that way, you can't act that way, you can't do these things. And if you choose to be offended and you pull up your roots and try to plant somewhere else, you're going to die. It's not going to work Because you're doing it out of season and it's such a hard thing to get people to understand because we're not planting roots.
Speaker 1:So the prophetic doesn't really take place in our lives that prophecy that's spoken. We can't be watered, we can't be nourished, we can't be fed, because we're offended that we also have to be pruned.
Speaker 1:Yeah the prophetic's a weird place for me. I don't understand it. Holly and I we had a very, very real conversation on Sunday after church, very real, and I told you guys like candor is my word this year we're going to have uncomfortable conversations and we're just going to do it. And she gave me so much grace in that conversation Cause I said I'm going to ask questions. That might sound offensive, but that's not my intention. And we just talked and she said, pastor Michael, just like sometimes you don't understand me in the prophetic, I don't understand you in the apostolic.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's fair.
Speaker 1:She's like sometimes you make a decision that doesn't make any sense to me, I get that, and she's like I have to watch it come to pass. She's like I don't want to question it, but I also need to understand it to some degree. And so I think back to like if I tell you, you hear me. If I tell you, you hear me, but if I show you, you really understand. Right.
Speaker 1:Most people need to be shown why something is happening the way that it is, or what the situation is, and the prophetic is very much so that way as well. So typically in our church, if there's a message delivered in tongues and an interpretation, I step into the pulpit, regardless of the time that it happens, and I explain what just happened, because I feel like anybody who is hearing that for the first time, who hasn't experienced that before, they need to understand it Right. It's only fair, because otherwise you're like these people have lost their freaking minds and they're all crazy. Yeah, somebody's over there jabbering out loud and then somebody else is pretending like they know what they're saying. It doesn't make sense, and so you have to clarify that.
Speaker 2:Now the hardest part is when there's a message in tongues and no interpretation comes Right right, but sometimes that's because the person has been given that interpretation, chooses not to use it.
Speaker 1:Chooses not to use it and so that's why I say it gets tricky, because now we're in the prophetic. But my responsibility as the lead pastor and as an apostle is to make it clear to people who don't understand it.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's my responsibility. So now I have two options it's to step into the pulpit and beg whoever got that word to deliver it, or to say well, what you just heard was Roger delivering this very prophetic message. We know Roger loves the Lord and that was something between Roger and the Lord. Roger knows that's not true. I know that's not true, so I don't want to lie to people. But at the same time, if there is no interpretation, that word is not valid. And so when somebody gets the—they have to deliver the interpretation. And I will tell you, there has never been a single time, other than once in this building, where I've ever gotten an interpretation.
Speaker 1:And you know how mad that makes me, you get this epic thing happen, and here's the one that I got. So this is how I know that I can operate in the prophetic when I need to. I don't remember I think it was Ed that delivered a message in tongues and immediately almost immediately somebody started delivering the interpretation and I knew it was wrong. I knew it was wrong, I did nothing about it, I let the word be spoken, I didn't correct it and it was just out there. Everybody had just heard it and it took a long time for me to process that. I had a conversation with somebody. They're like oh no, no, no, no. Like I've been there and I've just stepped into the pulpit and I just said, hey, that word that was delivered, don't believe that was in season. Here's what I believe the Holy Spirit actually said. After a long time of thinking, I realized that the person who delivered it delivered it intentionally divisively. The message that they delivered was to create division in the body because they were feeling left out At the time Now.
Speaker 5:they probably don't even go here anymore.
Speaker 1:They don't know they don't, they do not. And here's the thing. It's really hard to understand that. It's really hard to like as a pastor, to see somebody leave the church.
Speaker 1:it's really hard, but I've gotten really good at it recently because, I'm like I, but I know, even if it is me, it's not me. Even if they say that it's me, it's not me. This is not their season in this house. This is not their season in this storehouse. They need to go somewhere else and be filled up in a different way, and I believe everybody has a season in every place that they go. There are people who go to some mega churches that aren't. They should be in a prophetic church. They should be in a spirit-filled church because they have those gifts they choose that. That's not what they want. They want to just live under the radar. They don't want to serve. Yes, exactly, they don't want the Holy Spirit to stir them up.
Speaker 1:They don't want any of the prophetic to affect their life. And then I see some people who are in a spirit-filled church. That probably just shouldn't be. They should probably be in a spirit-filled church. It probably just shouldn't be. They should probably be in a slower, quieter environment, because when the Holy Spirit breaks out and there's a fire of revival taking place, they're sitting back there going well, I don't believe any of this and this is just not. This is. And now you've become, you've had, you have a spectator spirit and you have a religious spirit, and those are really hard for a church body to overcome when you have somebody sitting there doing that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I will say the first time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, beth was there once.
Speaker 2:I went to the conference and they were a lot of tongues, a lot of prophecy given, and I'm like I don't know if this is right or not, and I'm like, lord, this is not right, you get me out of here. I'm sitting there, I'm by ball and doorway.
Speaker 1:I'll make a door. And he stuck you to the seat, didn't he?
Speaker 2:I said, if it's you prove it. Oh, he proved it. He pulled me out right now. Right now and said said you know, child, you are where you're supposed to be and that's what I'm saying about the prophetic.
Speaker 1:That's when you know nobody knew that but me. Yeah, that's when you know that that's real. Yeah, sid, I'm just now realizing my wife was supposed to leave a check she did, oh, she did, okay, you got it.
Speaker 5:Great, perfect. But it says Sid, so I'm taking it.
Speaker 1:My money now. She must have been leaving stuff for everybody. I got a sticker. Oh, I saw that. I saw that laying on my counter. I thought it was for me, though, geez.
Speaker 2:Nope, it's for Roslyn, oh, it's not even for me. Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, BFF, BFF, BFF, BFF, BFF. All the way across the back Stickers all over.
Speaker 4:Yeah, love, all over the bottom. Yeah, love, love love Real quick.
Speaker 1:This is completely off topic and if Emmett ever hears this he'll be absolutely mortified that I told this story. Adeline always writes me little love notes I love you, daddy, so so much and she just leaves them in random places. And I'm always finding these little love notes and I get a text from Emmett that said hey, look in your cups when you get home. Now you use static cups for my like pain relief and for headaches. So he told me to look there and I was like why Was somebody playing in them? Because Easton will occasionally get them out and play in them. And he said no and I said well then why would I need to look in there? Never answered me, never thought anything more of it.
Speaker 1:I walk in the bedroom and I see my cups sitting on the end stand, cause I just used them the night before. So I opened the lid and there's a little card from him just cute little, and it's a picture of me and him, um, and he drew a dragon on the front of my shirt to look like the dragon jumpsuit, and it was. It was a super cute card that he had hand drawn, but on the inside it was just so sweet. Thank you so much for all you do for me. I love you so much. Thank you for spending so much money on my new bedroom. Just this, like, and I'm like you, like how you can't you can't bribe a kid to do these things, like I'll spend another $30,000. But it's like you know what I mean. Mean like it, just it. There's just something about that. But then again, that's how we know we're raising our children yes, right, yes he doesn't know how much that bedroom costs, but he knows it's not cheap.
Speaker 1:He knows it costs a lot of money oh, he's doing the bedroom in the basement he's getting the bedroom in the basement correct, so he's getting that. It's a huge bedroom. It's bigger than allison's bedroom.
Speaker 3:It's stupid but yeah, maggie did something similar. I think it was for my birthday. She wrote me this big long Best gift you can ever get. I thought I was blown away.
Speaker 5:Especially you being the stepdad, you know, best gift you can ever get I'm like hey, I said she just raised the bar, everybody has a better stepdad.
Speaker 4:Yep, yep, yep, yeah, it was amazing. Yeah, my son was never one to say I love you and I called him out on it one time when he was a teenager, probably a junior in high school, and I went out to my car that morning to leave for work and he had a card out there on my windshield and flowers and I'm like, okay, he loves me, he just doesn't say it.
Speaker 1:It is weird. Let's just cover that real quick. Because for men it is weird. Because for men it is weird Like we can say it usually to our spouses, but even saying it to our kids is a little bit challenging, because there comes a point where it's like I can't show that emotion because I also need to, I need to assert some level of authority, I need to be dad, I need to be strong. And then we definitely don't say it to one another, right, like that's not a thing. We don't say it to our friends. Right, right, right, right.
Speaker 2:And if we do, I think you and I say love you every time we're signing up.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, but see, now we just I was just getting ready to say this I believe, genuinely believe there's an inherent difference between saying love you and I love you, right.
Speaker 4:Oh, yeah, oh absolutely Love you.
Speaker 1:I could say that to anybody. I'd say that to you.
Speaker 3:Or at the Family Dollar.
Speaker 1:Or at the Family Dollar. Oh, did I tell you guys about the Family Dollar? What's?
Speaker 4:our Family Dollar episode update.
Speaker 1:There is a slight update, so I don't I this is Wait, I gotta tell everyone you just moved your. My microphone with my knife.
Speaker 5:With his phone. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:So my wife went into the dollar store the other day. She walks. She walks in, goes and gets her stuff, goes to the counter and the lady goes oh, are you michael's wife? I have no idea who this lady is, okay. So my wife goes, I am, and she goes oh, you guys just bought one of the new houses. And she said yes, and she's like is yours? You're the one that you did. You guys have a bidding war on your house. We paid over asking for our house. The reason we paid over asking was they covered a large portion of our closing costs, so we financed closing basically.
Speaker 5:But let's say that is very common right now.
Speaker 1:Yes, certainly In the market. Yes because-.
Speaker 5:That's nothing crazy going on.
Speaker 1:And here's the reason that we opted to do that was because when you buy a brand new house that doesn't exist, they estimate your taxes really, really high, and so we knew that that tax bill was going to be crazy high. So we overpaid but we were able to finance basically the closing costs so we weren't losing our equity that we had from the old house.
Speaker 1:Okay, so they assumed that there was a bidding war on our house, which she said. I didn't correct them and she just went about her day. She calls me immediately. She's like I swear, do you make a name for yourself everywhere?
Speaker 3:that you go.
Speaker 1:And I said, it just kind of happened. I have no idea who the lady is. I don't know which one of them it is. I don't know how she knows me.
Speaker 2:You will realize in that small community they will figure out how many times you flush your toilet.
Speaker 1:She said to Alyssa she's like, yeah, it's kind of good being in a small town. The bad news is, everybody knows your business. And I said business and I said to a list I said you know what it had to have been beth that had to have walked in there and said something about me. This is the only because I can't think of another reason that they would know me. But they do not talk about what they do? I mean there's facebook now, guys yeah, but still, how are they gonna look me up on facebook?
Speaker 5:it's a small town.
Speaker 1:They know like they just gonna go through all the pictures until they find one that looks like me, probably Go through the address. No, not on Facebook. I guess they could have looked at who bought that property.
Speaker 3:When you take a picture of something to see like oh yeah, Reverse image search Can you do that to a person's face.
Speaker 1:Yes, certainly.
Speaker 4:Oh, my daughter can find anybody for any.
Speaker 1:Oh, alyssa did that for me, so if I took a picture of your face, you could do a reverse Google image search and it would try to match it with somebody else and likely here's what you would find for me. If you did that, you would find even if you search organic church.
Speaker 2:I'm not bragging about this, but my Elvis article is the first thing that pops up and so the first picture you see of me me in a jumpsuit, standing in the pulpit one of the beauticians that works with freaks people out had just moved to the yurixville area and she's like I need to find a church and she's like we need, you know, to check out my mom's church and then she's like nope no, so she, she googled it and she's like your mom's preacher is elvis you know that drew a lot of controversy.
Speaker 1:I was so surprised by it, with how offended people were by it. It was because of the way they titled the article, which I wish I would have had some say in that Filled with the spirit of Elvis, and so people didn't even read the article. They assumed that, like we were preaching some weird Elvis gospel.
Speaker 1:Like every Sunday, right Then I wear a jumpsuit and so, like anybody who read the article, was very clear and I said that those two worlds never cross. Like I make an Elvis joke, every whip stitch and whatnot, but those two worlds don't cross. I don't preach in a jumpsuit, I'm not like it's.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's two different lives or not, elvis, you'll sing a.
Speaker 3:Steven song once in a while. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, oh oh. They didn't even have to try to convince him, he just did it. And that is not true. It is not Like I tried to go on and it was not happening, like that was. I wasn't going to preach another word, because you and Margie were probably the two worst. You're like oh, just do it.
Speaker 1:Just do it. If you listen to the live stream, you can hear the two of you saying it. You can hear the two of you saying it. It was hilarious and I was prepped for it because I knew once I went there, because I told Alyssa, I told Alyssa.
Speaker 3:You were already there.
Speaker 1:Right, and it was in the plan. But Alyssa was like no, you really shouldn't. And I was like you know what, if they make a fuss, I'll just do it and it'll be fun and yeah.
Speaker 4:You're like, please make a fuss.
Speaker 3:I just love how you slipped the microphone out of my back pocket.
Speaker 1:What's funny is because my lapel microphone is not conditioned for singing, and so I told Dan Lumpstick I'm going to take my handheld just in case. And so I had it in my back pocket the whole time. I was pretty confident that it was going to happen, but at the same time I was like ah, and I told Roger at the beginning I'm not going to if it doesn't happen, I'm not just going to force it. I was glad that it did because it was fun.
Speaker 4:We had visitors that morning too, I think.
Speaker 1:Yes, we did. And they stopped me afterwards and said we absolutely loved that because it brought some great humor. I had one girl tell me I cried, I laughed, I cried some more, I laughed, some more, and then they never came back. Like three weeks they were here two weeks in a row. Haven't been back since. So oh no, here we are.
Speaker 2:Here we are. Did you pull out the snake story that day too?
Speaker 1:Probably, probably, probably.
Speaker 4:Yeah. Well listen, because years ago that's what I heard about this church.
Speaker 1:Oh that we had snakes. Yes, oh yeah.
Speaker 4:And that you beat people up in the parking lot if you didn't speak in tongues.
Speaker 1:I mean that only happened once or twice. That's how Vicky Hickey got slain in the spirit. We beat her up in the parking lot. I heard so. Yeah, we beat her up in the parking lot and we're like you're going to learn it now Of all people.
Speaker 2:That's right Right.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I think she could take me. I don't know, I think she could take me. I'm just being honest. She might have a trick hip, but I think she could take me. That's why you're nice to her. I know I'm afraid of her, right, she's one of the sweetest people I've ever met in my entire life. Love her so much. She texted me the other day and said I just want you to know I appreciate you and love you, and I'm like aw.
Speaker 5:She fun fact. Did you know she was from Bethel when I was there?
Speaker 1:I did not, so we've known each other a long time I did not.
Speaker 2:It's neat.
Speaker 5:Now she's like I saw you grow up. Now I'm seeing you have a baby. It's cool.
Speaker 1:Oh goodness, okay. So let's hop back to the prophetic, because I think that's important.
Speaker 3:Well, you, know, within a few weeks of going to this church, florence came up to me and she says I can't wait to hear you preach someday. I thought you're nuts. I'm like there's no way.
Speaker 1:Isn't it?
Speaker 5:annoying that she knew things. She did that to me, not that.
Speaker 3:No, you hardly know me, it's just the way she would look at you.
Speaker 5:That was the thing with her. You were like don't make eye contact.
Speaker 1:She just had this way of looking at you You're thinking you're crazy.
Speaker 5:But then you're looking her in the eye.
Speaker 1:She's very confident about what she said. She could almost melt you just a little bit. She was very sweet, very soft, but very direct she's never even heard me speak before.
Speaker 3:What is she talking about?
Speaker 1:I had a really cool Holy Spirit moment with her. This is one of those healing stories that people are like oh you're crazy. This is legitimate, 100% legitimate. This actually happened to me and I would have never believed it if it didn't happen to me, if somebody else told me this story. So I completely understand if nobody believes me.
Speaker 1:I was living in Cleveland at the time and I had broken off one of my teeth towards the back. Eating banana, laffy, taffy, split the tooth in half, pulled it out, nerve exposed, wicked pain. But I was tolerating it because I couldn't afford to go to the dentist. It didn't have extra income, but I was miserable with this tooth and she called me one day when I was in Cleveland. I was at the house and she called me and I don't remember what she would.
Speaker 1:She wanted something like we were having a conversation about something and she said are you okay? I said no. I said my, you know, I'm having a little bit of pain in my tooth. And she's like okay, well, I'll, I'll pray about it. And I was like all right, I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:She's like no, no, we're going to do it right now. And she I'm not kidding while she was praying, pain gone immediately. I'm like this lady's crazy and I've known her for a long time, been through all the stuff with her, but you don't think of things like that. But I wasn't like she couldn't have known that I was in pain by the way I was talking like, or the conversation we were having, but just something told her that she needed to pray for me, that she needed to ask me that question and she needed to pray for me. It's just bizarre the stuff that the Holy spirit can, can do. And I always tell people there is no distance in healing, like if just because you don't come up front for healing on a Sunday morning, like just know that we're praying for that healing, because it can happen anywhere.
Speaker 3:Right. If it was really prophetic, though, she could have told me to be a little more concise, except she could have gave me.
Speaker 5:I'll say, you know, when she gave me my word, like she wasn't always rainbows and butterflies.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 5:My word was hey, your life's about to change. I don't know if it's going to be good or bad, but just be ready for it.
Speaker 1:Oh, dear Lord, what does this mean? The one thing that I always loved about her, too, is she was one of the few people in this world that never took my crap. Never took it, didn't. There was no such thing as an excuse.
Speaker 1:They didn't exist in her world and it didn't matter if it was legitimate. I got hit by a bus. I'm sorry I can't be at church on Sunday. She's like, no, you to be here and we're going to pray for you. She's like wheel yourself into the hospital bed. You need to be here Exactly. And when she was the pastor here, you were here. If you served in ministry, any area, so, like this team, if you were on worship, if you worked in nursery, whatever it may be, when the building was open, you were here. You were here on Saturday night for prayer, you were here on. What did we do Tuesday? Friday that was Tuesday was prayer, worship practice.
Speaker 5:No, it was worship practice, worship practice, yeah.
Speaker 1:So we had worship practice on Tuesday. So I'm thinking of my life and what we were doing, but you were here basically Tuesday night, wednesday night, saturday night, sunday morning, and it was not an excuse to not be here. And I'm going to tell you what. If she was ever upset with you, you knew it and she was honest with you.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, when you get to church you sit, you don't work. That didn't mean stay home on Sunday. Your butt better be here on time and you're going to sit, You're going to take the word and you're going to do something with it. I mean, that's basically what it felt like. I'll never forget the one time it happened to me. I was mortified. I was like I didn't feel like what I did was wrong, but I was being punished for it. But it was never like a punishment, Like you're in trouble. It was like you need to take a break, you need to refocus, redirect and then we can talk about where this is going to be on a spiritual mindset, yes, business, yes Like it was very.
Speaker 1:She was very direct about what she expected, how she expected you to behave. I remember one time it was the very first sermon I ever wrote- by the way.
Speaker 1:I had this wild idea I had gone to the bathroom after worship, which I always did. I'd sneak out, go to the bathroom, then I would come back in because I would chug like three bottles of water during worship. I would come back in and I had gotten like this like oh, this passage of scripture, I want to write it down. So I snuck into what is now the cafe used to be a little library and I snuck in there and I wrote on a sticky note and I looked up the scripture and I stuck it in the Bible and I was like, oh well, that matches with this and this walked back in and after service she stopped me and she said hey, where were you? I said I went to the bathroom and then I like I was catching some scripture that was popping into my brain and I went to write it. And she goes never again. She said if you need to use the bathroom, that's fine, but you come right back and I was like, okay, like there was just an order and you just followed order. Like that wasn't games, it wasn't like.
Speaker 1:This is something that's currently happening that you know. We haven't made an adjustment to children's ministry in our building because we don't have enough volunteers at this point, and so it is. I don't remember the ages, but it's up to fifth grade is the highest grade that we have for a kid's class for right now. Anybody above that stays in the sanctuary. There are some people who don't like that and they still try to send their kids who are too old for that classroom back to that classroom. I'm going to tell you what if you'd have done that with her, she'd have dragged your kid back in herself. I watched her snatch my kids up off the floor. I can't tell you how many times. Poor Blake. One time I thought she was going to kill him. This is not a joke.
Speaker 3:We were doing worship, Listen we were doing worship.
Speaker 1:We're doing worship and we're up front and we're singing.
Speaker 5:And I see her, her grandson.
Speaker 1:Great Was it great, great grandson yeah, great grandson, she's raising him. So he's living in her house and I see her leave the front row. She was always in the front row, always Okay, because she wanted to be able to tell you this, which means, do it one more time, she'd swirl her finger. Keep going, don't stop. So I am full-blown worship mode and I open my eyes and she's gone, and so now I'm scanning the sanctuary trying to find the lady and I see her making a beeline to Blake and I immediately Lord whatever it is that she's going to do just allow it to be tactful, lord.
Speaker 1:I just thank you for his life and, lord, I pray that you just allow him to live, to see another day. And I mean, I'm not joking Like this is real life happening in my brain while we're doing worship. He's sitting down with his arms folded and his head is on the chair in front of him, so like he's like sleeping. She snatches him out of that chair and stands him up like sleeping. She snatches him out of that chair and stands him up and you can't hear her telling him, but you can know there's noise, there's ruckus and I'm like I don't know what to do. Worship is almost over. We're going to sing it again because we can't stop at this point, because I'm like she's going to beat him to death. I don't want this, but it was very much so. Like this is how we operate. I remember.
Speaker 1:I remember that I was so terrified for him, so terrified for him, but just it's. It was the expectation. But she also believed that when we were out of sync and we had people who were spectator spirit or we had people who had spirit of religion and things like that were happening in the building, that the spirit wasn't moving. And if the spirit wasn't moving, we had a dead word. And if that word wasn't being planted in our hearts, if we weren't take, then what was the point of being here? Right, like she was very, very much so. She knew how she wanted it done. It was one of the the things that I loved about her the most was she just didn't take my crap, so I couldn't tell her what, what God said, could she? Oh, he did, did he? What's your confirmation?
Speaker 3:Yeah, he didn't run this by me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's basically what she would say Listen, remember that he told her that I was going to preach before he told me I was going to preach. So apparently he also knew the pecking order. I don't know. He let her know before he let me know, but it was. She was again. There was nothing wrong, in my opinion, with how she did it, but it was a very strict like. This is just how we do ministry. And you didn't. You didn't play around with it and it worked. It was. Church was built in 1982 by her family's hands and here it still stands in full operation. Her name is out on the front sign. You can't make a ministry survive that long. We talked about finances. This church should not survive based on the numbers. It shouldn't still be open based on the numbers, but it still survives. It survives because we fully rely on god in all things and just we know that he's going to make it happen.
Speaker 4:Holy spirit you are welcome okay, sorry, I've been all right if it had been just a little bit of music there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, or maybe like if I would have sang it on key too, that yeah, well, would have been helpful.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you was pretty low.
Speaker 1:It's okay. It's okay, we'll let it slide this time.
Speaker 4:Next time.
Speaker 3:I'm getting fired Next time you're getting fired.
Speaker 1:Yeah, next time I'm getting fired. Anybody else have any fun thoughts? We're live. By the way, on the Sabbath, the other episode, our last episode, is live. I'm like we've been live it just.
Speaker 5:I'm like we've been live Populated, so we'll see how many people listen to that episode.
Speaker 1:Our viewers have been down a little bit.
Speaker 5:I'm a little nervous about that I think it's because we've been pre-recording.
Speaker 1:I agree with you. I said that because people anticipate, like Now.
Speaker 5:What's going on with you?
Speaker 1:Correct, correct, so we might have to shake it up a bit Correct, so we might have to shake it up a bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, go back to the Well, because the purpose was for anybody who's listening and wants to know this. The purpose was we're all very busy and so sometimes we're like on a Wednesday night we just can't be here, and so we didn't want to go without a message on a Wednesday night because of that. Our goal is basically 52 episodes a year, one episode a week, all year long, no breaks, just all in, and so we wanted to record a couple of extras so that we'd have a buffer in case we had to miss one. We would still have episodes to record, but now we've got really four in the bank, quote, unquote, so we could go back to releasing that days and then these ones these four could be the fill-ins if we were to need them.
Speaker 5:so that's kind of what I was thinking when you had given the idea that was originally my plan as well.
Speaker 1:The hard part is keeping track of them and finding a place that they can live Right. So that's the hard part, which I think we can fix that.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because they can't be getting bored. No, no, they could be going. I don't know what these people are talking about. That's a valid argument. Like that are crazy, very valid argument. But I'll be honest, we've had 62 downloads in the last 30 days, which is, again thinking about this tiny little. That's more people than that's more people than attend church on sunday. Yeah, right, like yeah, 62 people listening to this and, honestly, we have the podcast from the sunday morning services that gets listened to pretty well. Not great great, but it was never intended to be a popular podcast, more so for anybody who misses a Sunday to have the opportunity to go back and listen. Let's see here.
Speaker 4:You think maybe some of our listeners are listening to that instead of.
Speaker 1:No, because that is a much lower listening than this one.
Speaker 2:I enjoy listening to that during the week at work. Listening to it again, I always get something else. There's something new.
Speaker 1:Right, because you get fixated on one part of the message and so then you might miss another part.
Speaker 4:When I'm taking notes it's like, oh, what else did he say? What did?
Speaker 1:he just say, like that thing that I said in the last episode, that was very prophetic, but I couldn't say it again if I wanted to. So far since we've started publishing, we've had 1,743 downloads. So I mean we got excited when we hit 1,000. And so I mean it's definitely driving Is there an achievement for 1,750?. I don't think so. I don't think so either. I just wanted to look real quick.
Speaker 5:They gave you like little ribbons or something.
Speaker 1:Here's what. Maybe this is what's happening. Maybe everybody is just behind a couple of weeks. You think, yeah, because we actually on season three, episode one, which was balancing tradition, technology and togetherness, has 17 downloads. Then on the 15th it's at eight. And then what is your faith lineage, which it was last week's episode, is at 10. And so it's almost like we get there, because we're usually in that 20-ish range, but it's almost like everybody's behind, because even our new year special was a total flop. Our christmas special total flop. Uh, holiday grief did well, which was me, and alissa's. That one was fun, um fun. Yeah, I shouldn't say that my wife cried through the whole thing Like she felt terrible for her, but cause I didn't prep her for it, she didn't tell her anything about it. We just went for it, we walked, we walk into the studio. I'm like, hey, we're going to, we're going to record and it was good though.
Speaker 4:Right, Like it was real life stuff of mine for years years.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Anytime I'd hear his name, I'd cry and break down.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:That's grief.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 4:Yeah, don't let anybody tell you you have to grieve a certain way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and crying is okay, it doesn't. It's not going to hurt anybody, like I'm not going to be hurt if you cry. Now, if I fire you and you cry, I'm going to tell you to turn off the water, off the waterworks?
Speaker 2:I'm not firing you.
Speaker 1:I'm just telling you that you're fired. I'm informing you that you have fired yourself. That's basically what's happening. So, yeah, maybe we'll go back to those live episodes and see what we can do. You know what I was thinking about doing? Another fun thing to do would be to put a camera in here somewhere and actually they can see our faces. When, once, some sometime, when we do it like old school, when we actually were live live like while we were talking, people were hearing, I'd say I think we ought to have phone conversations too we could do that.
Speaker 1:Now, the hard part about phone conversations is people can't just call in because I have to, like my phone has to be muted because every notification I get, every you know work notification to get, is going to ring through. So it would have to be like kind of almost preplanned conversations. But I love doing that. With Dale, yeah, other than we couldn't see his face so he didn't know when we were trying to talk. And Dale, just he just likes to talk man, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:The one podcast that I normally listen to. I've I know their faces like, but I never watch them. And some people like people just watch them and how they talk, and I I did that this morning and I think it was weird like, because I just would always listen. But you know, even just like their faces, like when the other one's talking, and they're like yeah, you know, and I'm like well like when I pushed my microphone in with my nose nobody saw that
Speaker 4:what do you say?
Speaker 3:you think you listen to him so long, you, you?
Speaker 5:you have a thing I know. I feel like they're my best friend, okay, and I'm like but then when you see him, you're like oh, I don't look, anything you do that with radio hosts all the time.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, well, roger's son. I got to meet roger's son when roger was in the hospital so he had been listening to our podcast. I'd never met him before. So I go into the hospital, meet he and linda his son and linda in waiting room, and I walk in and I sit down. I was like hey, where are we? Like she's like oh, he just went back to prep whatever. Yada, yada, yada. And she introduces me to Rich and Rich says oh, I know him, I listened to the podcast.
Speaker 1:And he says to Roger later I look nothing like what he anticipated me looking like. And I would guess, just because we talk about Elvis so much, you expect the big sideburns and the hair. Yeah. Yeah, the mutton chops and the big hair, and yeah, it's just not.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You expect me to walk around in jumpsuits all the time, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, I think we've covered it. Have we covered it?
Speaker 2:I think so.
Speaker 4:When we're praying for wisdom, you know, and then you hear something. Or you're in a service or you hear something and you get that discernment that it's just not the truth or it's not right, or yes you know, I've only ever gotten some true discernment a couple times.
Speaker 4:But, you know, and it's like for me, I'm like am I hearing this right? Yeah, you know, should I be thinking the way that I'm thinking, you know? But then it was like, after the service, it was like, oh, three of us had the exact same yeah, we got a problem.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have a problem, nobody else.
Speaker 4:Nobody else had that discernment but, three of us had that exact same discernment and I'm like, okay, yes, yeah, yeah, so and I.
Speaker 1:That's why, anytime I deliver a message and this I it's not often that I don't say this I always, lord, let this be of you, not of me. Any word that I speak that it is not of you, allow it to fall dead to the floor before it reaches the ears of those who are listening. And the reason I do that is because I am not going to get it right every time. Sometimes you're going to get the gospel according to Michael, and that's not okay. I should never be interpreting the Bible for you. I should be reading the word for you, I should be delivering the word to you, and so that sometimes is a challenge, and so I don't ever want that to be the case.
Speaker 2:We'll backpedal and make sure that all the listeners know it was not this it wasn't, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I would say, though, is like, even when you listen to the podcast, like the old messages, you need to listen to the whole thing, because sometimes I say something that is controversial at the beginning intentionally in order to build to the point at the end, and I will say last Sunday, I made a comment in the middle of my sermon that I had to, like, walk back in the moment because I was like that came out wrong. That is not what I meant, but I think everybody gave me a lot of great. It was bad. It was. It wasn't intentionally bad, it like wasn't offensive or anything, but if somebody took that clip and put it on the internet, they'd be like can you believe? This pastor said this and it would be a thing, and it was obviously. It's your turn to pray, my friend.
Speaker 3:Lord, thank you for bringing us all together again. We're so thankful that we are now in our third season together and we're just thankful for every opportunity that we have to bring you closer to everybody, all of our listeners. Just always help us always have the Holy Spirit as part of our relationship with you and just always help us to be on the lookout for when that Spirit is meant to drive us towards something better, to help us communicate more in fellowship, and just always help us drive to just be more in fellowship and just always help us strive to just be more in discernment with you and just always be looking for what your true word is supposed to be and how it is supposed to lead us.
Speaker 3:I pray that everybody will get home safely tonight and I'll be really excited to get back here next week. I say all these things in your precious name, amen.
Speaker 4:Amen.
