Episode Transcript
[00:00:08] Speaker A: Hey, everybody, it's Rick and Rob. Welcome back to the Nomad Pastor podcast.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: Min, how are you?
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Live and well?
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Yeah, good. Good.
[00:00:15] Speaker A: You know, I could complain, but nobody would listen.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Well, it doesn't do me any good.
[00:00:19] Speaker A: Just makes you unhappy.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: That's true. It does.
[00:00:23] Speaker A: Cause. It really does cause a lot of stress and anxiety.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: I like what you did there.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: I thought that may be okay.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: Yeah, that's great. That's great. That's our. That's our intro.
[00:00:33] Speaker A: No, I think, you know, I've been doing good works. Been crazy. You know, I know your travel schedule has been crazy, but. Yeah, works been the same for me.
I think I've told you this before, and I don't know. We talked about on here, though, but I traveled enough last year that I hit platinum pro on American Airlines. That's 125,000 miles an airplane in one year.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Wow. Yeah, platinum pro.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: It's crazy.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: That's nuts.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: It has its perks, but.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Well, yeah, but at the same time, to get the perks, you had to put in a whole lot of heartache.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: Yeah, it sucks.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I get it. You know, we've. I've been on the road. This would be the first weekend in, like, since 4 July weekend that I have not been on the road.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Which is crazy.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Because from. And the crazy thing about that was from June 23 until that weekend, you know, being in the fireworks stand every day from, like, 06:00 a.m. to like, 06:00 at night.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: And so then you get out of that and. And you're on the road every weekend.
[00:01:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: And so this weekend is just. Sit back. Yeah.
[00:01:48] Speaker A: Just some time with. With the bride.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Just chill.
Veg out.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: That's good.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Yeah, it is really good. It's really good.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: So what do we want to do today? Stress and anxiety.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: We're going to talk about handling stress and anxiety, how we do that, and what our perspective of that should turn into.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Good.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: So I'll tell you what have you got? Philippians, chapter four, verse six, seven. Why don't you read all the way down through nine?
[00:02:20] Speaker A: Okay, so this is in the nIv. Okay, so we'll start with verse six. Philippians, chapter four. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation. By prayer and petition with thanksgiving present. Your request to God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy. Think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put into practice, and the God of peace will be with you.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: Here's a cool thing. I love the way that verse nine ends. And the God of peace will be with you.
[00:03:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:09] Speaker B: Because we're talking about stress and anxiety today.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: And so peace is the furthest thing from our mind when we think about stress and anxiety. Like, I'm so stressed out. I've got so much anxiety going on because my work is killing me.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: My marriage is in on the rocks.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: My kids are stupid.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: You know, let's clarify.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Not your marriage, not your kids.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: No, exactly. I'm just. I'm role playing here.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:37] Speaker B: You know, so there's so many things that we can blame stress and anxiety on.
[00:03:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: You know, and we can let those things build up and we can let those things overtake us.
And the bottom line is the way that we approach it and the way that we should approach it is from Philippians, chapter four, verse six, do not be anxious about anything, but in every single situation, every situation. By prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: How often, though, do we. I say we.
How often do we, in the moment of stress and anxiety, think about by prayer and petition, with Thanksgiving.
Key. Those two words. With Thanksgiving, present your request to God.
[00:04:42] Speaker B: How often do we do that?
[00:04:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: No, Jess.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: Because when I'm stressed out and when I got tons of stuff going on. Right. The beginning of this year was, from a professional point of view, one of the most stressful I've been in a long time.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: You know, there was just. It was crazy. And then I had a bunch of stuff personally going on that we've talked about.
[00:05:03] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: And, you know, so in the midst of dealing with that, in the midst of dealing with some personal stuff. Right, right.
Am I sitting down with God and saying, lord, thank you?
[00:05:22] Speaker B: So I relate to that.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: I know.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: Okay. I completely relate to that. And I heard of. I heard. I was listening to something. I don't remember who it was or what he was talking about. Ray van der Lon or something like that. Anyway, he was talking about how the Jews initially would be so thankful for everything. It'd be like they can have a sinus infection and they're like, God, we thank you for the orifices, for this mucus to come out of our body. You know what I mean?
[00:05:54] Speaker A: But no. True.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: Why can't we be that? Why can't we be that thankful, why can't we?
Because here's the key to that.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: I want to say it.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: Go ahead.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: Me ism.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: Thank you.
See what I've done here? So here's the thing. And I wasn't trying to lead you.
[00:06:13] Speaker A: To say, I know you weren't. I know you weren't. But I just came.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: But look at it this way. We have all these opportunities to be thankful in everything that we do, but we allow other voices, other vices ourselves to block that.
And all that does is create stress and anxiety.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
What's interesting is this, you know, this is one of my many study bibles. It says anxious is self centered, counterproductive worry.
[00:06:53] Speaker B: Mm hmm. And what's worry?
A sin.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
You know, but think about that first part. Self, self centered, and it's counterproductive.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: It is. It is. Because what are you going to be able to achieve or accomplish?
[00:07:12] Speaker A: Nothing.
[00:07:13] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: Spin yourself out.
[00:07:15] Speaker B: Yeah. What call that spinning your wheels and watermelon runs?
[00:07:18] Speaker A: Just spinning out.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: One of the greatest wedding tricks you can do to the bride and groom is put their wheels, put their tires of their car, their getaway car and watermelon rides. You can't spin tires fast enough to get out of watermelon rye.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: That's awesome. I may have to try that, actually. You gotta try just to see how it works.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: It works great, but so when we allow that to overtake us, when we allow that to seep in, because it, and it's not something that's just all of a sudden, boom. It's a gradual thing.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: You know, it.
[00:07:58] Speaker A: So what are the things? What are the tools? How about that?
[00:08:02] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:08:02] Speaker A: What are the tools that we have that God has given us to help with, you know, anxiety, to help with stress?
You know, I know there's prayer to.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:15] Speaker A: What are the other things that you think God has given us?
[00:08:18] Speaker B: I think. I think we have the.
One of my favorite lines in a movie, and I'm going to go here for a reason.
[00:08:28] Speaker A: Okay, I'm listening.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: Is Kevin Costner when he's pitching, and I'm trying to remember the name of the movie.
[00:08:33] Speaker A: Field of dreams.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: No, no, not field of dreams. He didn't pitch well. I mean, he was the baseball player that was retiring and was blowing his.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: Arm out Ful Durham.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: No, no, no. He was a catcher in that. Okay.
For the love of the game or something like that. Anyway, I'll have to look it up later. One of my favorite movie lines is he's looking down for the sign from the catcher and all of a sudden, you hear the crowd noise go, whoo. And he goes, clear the mechanism.
And so all he's doing is focusing on what his arm movement needs to be the grip of the ball, the release, and the sound of the thud in the catcher's mitt.
Right. Everything else is gone but that. So I use that for myself and I'll tell myself, clear the mechanism, get this junk out of my mind, and focus on what I have to focus on so that what God is expecting of me and what's God calling me to, I can walk through, because everything else is just a blur. Everything else is out of my peripheral, and my focus is totally on him and that ball hitting that catcher's mitt.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: So I love that. I don't ever remember hearing that. I'm sure I've seen it, I'm sure I heard it, but it just never resonated with me. But when you talk about clearing the mechanism, I immediately thought about social media. Yes, right. I immediately thought, this is my belief. Right. Social media is created to stir things up.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: Absolutely right.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: People on social media, its whole intention is to create this drama that keeps you coming back, and that drama that keeps you coming back creates fear, creates anxiety, creates stress of not living up, creates anger of, you don't have this when somebody else has that. Right.
Clear that mechanism.
If you want to remove that noise in your life, which when you have anxiety and stress, it's because of noise.
[00:10:47] Speaker B: Right?
[00:10:48] Speaker A: Right.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: It is. It is.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: If you want to remove that noise. I love that. Clear the mechanism.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: Mechanism.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: And that mechanism for a lot of people is social media.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: Yeah, but what keeps bringing them back to that.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:11:06] Speaker B: I think it's the. I think it's the desire to belong.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: I could see that. I could see the desire to belong. I think people are gonna hate me for saying this, but I'm. It is.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: Look, how many times have we said that? Have we started off a sense like, people gonna hate me for saying this?
[00:11:25] Speaker A: But I think to some extent, everybody's an addict.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: 100% believe it.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: You may not be an alcoholic. You may not be addicted to drugs.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:38] Speaker A: You may be addicted to social media.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: Everybody's got a hurt habit or hang up.
[00:11:42] Speaker A: Yeah, everybody. And I think that there are some people who may say, well, at least I'm not drinking.
At least I'm not hurting anybody.
I will say that before. Yeah, but when you say, well, I'm not hurting anybody, have you read some of your comments?
Like, that's what I want to ask people.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: Right?
[00:12:06] Speaker A: Right. Have you read some of the stuff you say?
[00:12:08] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: You're creating stress and anxiety.
Right. You're creating anxiety in somebody else.
[00:12:16] Speaker B: Right.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: Because they have a fear of abandonment or they have a fear of not being good enough.
[00:12:21] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:12:23] Speaker A: Post some comment on their feed because you don't agree what they say.
And you. It's.
I don't know. I don't want to say bullying, but.
[00:12:35] Speaker B: Well, it possibly could be.
[00:12:39] Speaker A: I mean, if you're intentionally trying to do it. Right.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: Right.
I get. I get what you're saying. I agree with what you're saying. I think. Excuse me. I think the way that we need to attack this so that we have kind of. That we have that movement to go forward inside ourselves.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:08] Speaker B: Is we need to not just.
We need to go back to garbage. In garbage. Outdoor.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: Yeah. We do.
[00:13:18] Speaker B: You know, and that's been. That's been overlooked for so long because, you know, you can fly your own kite now. You know, be your own person.
You be you.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: Right. You know, your truth is. You know, my truth is different than your truth.
[00:13:33] Speaker B: Exactly. And we just have to accept that. Wrong. We don't.
[00:13:36] Speaker A: We do not.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: That is the truth.
[00:13:38] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:13:39] Speaker B: The Bible is the truth. That's our moral compass. That's our. That's our foundation for walking every single step of our life.
[00:13:51] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:13:53] Speaker B: And when we look away from that, we get off the road. Had a one percenter one time that told me we were talking about coming out of addiction.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: And we were talking about how that addiction defined us at the time.
But being out of that addiction defines us now. Right. And he said, be careful because the road you're walking on may be a mile long, but there's a mile of ditch on both sides. That means 2 miles of ditches for you to fall into.
I'm gonna have to call him back when this is over.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: That's fine.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: But anyway, so I look at that and I think of, this is. This is how we. This is how we can work this out, because we're walking and trying to make sure that we're doing the right thing, but when we allow other things to come in, that temptation to come in.
[00:14:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: Right. Whether it be to get on social media and make this kind of post or whether it be whatever it is, we still have 2 miles of ditches that we need to be careful what we fall into.
[00:15:06] Speaker A: Well, that's what they say. Right. The path is narrow.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: There's one way.
[00:15:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:13] Speaker A: Right. There's one door.
[00:15:14] Speaker B: I got a little emergency here.
[00:15:16] Speaker A: You're okay.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: All right. So anyway, sorry about that. That's all right. That's all right. We'll piece it together.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: Yeah. We'll work it. We'll work it.
What we were talking about how we walk through this.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: Right?
[00:15:30] Speaker B: This is our go command.
I think we have to start with the petition, with prayer and thanksgiving. But I think we also need to understand that when we try to hold on to our stress and our anxiety, that it doesn't make our life any better or easier. Right. And I think we need to understand that the only way for us to be able to. That once we have, do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation. By prayer, with petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. I think we need to continue to remember that first peter five seven. To cast your anxiety, all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
[00:16:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: Because we can. I can pray about it and still try to hold on to it. Because I'm Batman. Hear me roar.
[00:16:36] Speaker A: Right.
[00:16:37] Speaker B: You know what I mean? Or I can go, I'm just Batman. God has got this.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: I love verse seven. You know where it says, and the peace of goddess.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: Which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds.
[00:16:56] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: In Christ Jesus.
[00:16:57] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: Right. He's saying there's this piece that is not.
I mean, it's. It's more than anything.
[00:17:05] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: It's not just this state of mind.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Right, exactly.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: It's. It's that it surpasses all understanding.
[00:17:12] Speaker B: Every no other yet comprehend.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: That's right. Nothing we can comprehend is close to that peace above everything.
[00:17:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:25] Speaker A: He says we'll guard your hearts.
[00:17:28] Speaker B: Guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:33] Speaker B: What is the difference? Let me ask you this. What's the difference in the peace of goddess guarding your hearts and your minds and us guarding our hearts and minds so that the garbage in, garbage out doesn't happen? What's the difference?
There's a reason I'm asking.
[00:17:56] Speaker A: Yeah. I think if it's. Well, I mean, I think both things are important, but I think if it's me guarding my heart and my mind, that I'm not that powerful.
[00:18:06] Speaker B: Hey, that's where I was exactly going.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: A weak, weak person.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: And I'm gonna wreck it every single time.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Right. And look, for almost 40 years of my life.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: Here we go again from.
[00:18:24] Speaker A: I'm trying to, like, I'm getting old enough now that I gotta try to count. And, yeah, it's not working out. But for a long part of my life, I tried to do it my way, my own way through my understanding.
And. And while there may be glimpses of guarding my heart, they were short and easily extinguished.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: Right.
[00:18:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:56] Speaker A: It was a very small fuse that burned out quick.
[00:19:01] Speaker B: Yep. Yep. And because of our. And this is because of what my power is versus what God's peace is.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:16] Speaker B: There's no comparison.
And in the times when I tried to guard myself, I couldn't do it.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: No.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: That's the reason I'm an addict. A former addict.
[00:19:28] Speaker A: Right.
[00:19:29] Speaker B: You know, that's. That's the reason that I. I fail so hard so many times, is because I tried with my own strength, with my own power, with my own might to do my own thing.
But as. As somebody who humbled themselves. And I'm not patting myself on the back. Okay, but I had to learn to humble myself.
[00:19:51] Speaker A: Yeah, but it's not about you. Humbling yourself has nothing to do with you.
[00:19:53] Speaker B: Exactly. It's putting myself in under the care of the authority and the direction and the leadership.
[00:19:59] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:20:00] Speaker B: Of the Almighty God, the great I am.
And so until I realized I had to do that, there was no beating an addiction. There was no understanding how to lay down stress and anxiety. There was no figuring out how my marriage should work, you know, and praise God that he has brought me through those things. Praise God that he is continuing to stretch me into who he wants me to be, because who I want to be is not anywhere close to being in accordance with his will.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: Amen.
You know, there's one thing that we deal with, I think, when it relates to stress and anxiety, that maybe we don't talk about enough. I don't know. Maybe we do. But your stress and anxiety, some, like, so if I'm stressed and I. And I've got a lot of anxiety, and I bring that to you, Batman, that can cause you stress and anxiety.
[00:21:04] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: Right.
[00:21:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:05] Speaker A: And what I'm supposed to do is take that to God.
[00:21:08] Speaker B: Right.
[00:21:08] Speaker A: And I say that because I've seen this. Not a lot, but I've seen in churches where it's this, you know, you walk into church, oh, how you doing? How was your week? Oh, it's just horrible, this going on in my life, and I want to be like, why don't you praise God that you're here?
[00:21:29] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:21:31] Speaker A: Why don't you praise God that he woke you up? Right.
[00:21:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:35] Speaker A: You know, and when I hear that stress and anxiety, it impacts me.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
How many.
What would be different?
Let me. Let me rephrase that. How would it be different? For us to walk into church, for people to be finding a joyous thing or a positive thing or even an optimistic thing to praise the Lord with instead of Monday just sucks.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:14] Speaker B: You know, I had to be here. Yeah. Didn't sleep last night. I got gorders and boils. You know, you're breathing.
[00:22:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:25] Speaker B: We start off. We start off a crew call.
[00:22:28] Speaker A: Now, let me. Let me just say this real quick, though.
There are countless people I have been to church with through the years that every time I see them, they're like, praise God for today.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: There are.
[00:22:42] Speaker A: Right. And so I want to acknowledge those people.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: Because I'm not trying to disgroup everybody who goes to church.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: But it only, you know, you hear that thing, and I know you heard it growing up a lot, you know, but one bad apple spoils a bunch.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: Right.
[00:22:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:22:56] Speaker A: It only takes one.
[00:22:58] Speaker B: It does. It does.
[00:22:59] Speaker A: You know, don't be the one.
[00:23:00] Speaker B: Yep. And so we try to. We try to bring in that positivity. I do. And Rick does, too. I'm gonna speak for Rick on this, too. We try to bring in that positivity, you know, all the time. For instance, where we start a crew call, you know, with the Lazarus crew. We open up in prayer, and then we start talking about wins.
[00:23:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:21] Speaker B: You know, what can you praise God for, you know, before we ever start talking about any business.
[00:23:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:27] Speaker B: What can you praise God for?
[00:23:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: You know, and looking for those things has taught. Has taught me, especially the. The difference in that mentality of trying to be positive for the Lord versus.
Well, my day's shot.
[00:23:45] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:46] Speaker B: You know, and it's 830 in the morning, and it's already just shot.
[00:23:50] Speaker A: Yeah. The whole day's ruined.
[00:23:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Ain't nothing good gonna come out of this. And, boys, let me tell you, but the difference, you know, in looking for it and looking for the ways to praise him and looking for the ways to thank him, you know, like we talked earlier about, you know, the jewish people that got a sinus infection and thank you, Lord, for the orifices, for the mucus to come out of.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, because what if there was no way for that mucus to get out?
[00:24:16] Speaker B: It would be miserable.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:24:18] Speaker B: You know, so it's a bad for talking about snot, to be thankful for snot, but.
But praise God in all things.
[00:24:26] Speaker A: That's right. That's right. If you can be thankful for that.
[00:24:30] Speaker B: Amen. And how much would that help to relieve your stress and anxiety, you know, and I think that's where that prayer and petition with thanksgiving to present yourselves, present your request to God. I think that's the importance of that.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:53] Speaker B: Is because we can get negative real quick. And the more negative, more negativity we have in our lives, the easier it is for us to realize that stress and anxiety are upon us.
[00:25:05] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, for me, the most important thing I can do every day is trust God.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:25:15] Speaker A: Right. And that may sound like a cliche, easy thing to say, let me just tell you. It's not.
[00:25:22] Speaker B: No, it's not.
[00:25:23] Speaker A: Right. But if every day I trust that, like I trust God, he's got a plan.
Now, that doesn't mean I'm not gonna do something dumb.
[00:25:33] Speaker B: Right.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: That is opposite of God's plan.
[00:25:35] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:25:36] Speaker A: But he does have a plan.
And even if I'm dumb and don't listen to that plan, he's still waiting.
[00:25:47] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:25:48] Speaker A: Right.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: So because I, every morning, can wake up and say, God's got an amazing plan for me today, I can really look at any moment of anxiety or stress. Right. You know, I said earlier in this, you know, this podcast, how, you know, the beginning of the year was super hard for me, but I knew God had a plan to get through it, to walk away.
[00:26:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: He didn't put us in it.
[00:26:18] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: It wasn't his doing.
[00:26:20] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:26:21] Speaker A: Right. But he had a plan to help us get through.
[00:26:23] Speaker B: Right.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: We just had to lean on him, not on ourselves.
[00:26:28] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:26:29] Speaker A: And by leaning on him while there was still a certain level of stress, it was manageable.
[00:26:35] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: Right. It didn't take it away.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: No.
[00:26:38] Speaker A: But it was manageable because we leaned on God.
[00:26:41] Speaker B: Right.
[00:26:42] Speaker A: And I think that's what we, in our worldly, secular selves, forget.
[00:26:49] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:26:50] Speaker A: To lean on him when it's worse.
[00:26:53] Speaker B: Because it's not our nature.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: Yeah. But also to lean on him when it's best.
That's the hard one, you know, and.
[00:27:03] Speaker B: You hear people talk about, well, it's easy to praise God on top of the mountain. Hard in the valley.
[00:27:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:08] Speaker B: You know, and here's. Here's my point to that. This is my response to that. You're on top of the mountain so that you can go to the valley.
[00:27:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:19] Speaker B: Because without getting to the mountain, you've got to go to the valley.
[00:27:22] Speaker A: Yeah. And there's going to be a valley.
[00:27:25] Speaker B: Every single time on. On the other side of each mountain peak.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: Yeah. There's a valley.
[00:27:31] Speaker B: There's a valley.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Everywhere you go, everywhere.
[00:27:34] Speaker B: It doesn't matter which direction you go.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: It could be a deep valley or shallow.
[00:27:38] Speaker B: Or shallow one. Yeah, right. But there's a valley there.
[00:27:40] Speaker A: There's a valley. And you got to lean on God, you know? And it's like it says at the end of verse nine, and the God of peace will be with you.
That's a comfort every day of my life.
[00:27:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Because without him, I'm nothing.
[00:27:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:00] Speaker B: I'm nothing.
[00:28:01] Speaker A: I'm an anxiety filled ball of stress.
[00:28:05] Speaker B: Yep, yep.
Yeah.
[00:28:09] Speaker A: So we got to trust it.
[00:28:10] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, and that's. I was just looking at proverbs three, five through six. Trust the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways. Submit to him, and he will make your path straight.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: One of my favorite.
[00:28:23] Speaker B: I love that verse. Love that passage.
[00:28:26] Speaker A: Trust in the Lord with all your.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: All your heart.
[00:28:30] Speaker A: That doesn't mean you're gonna get everything you want.
[00:28:36] Speaker B: No, absolutely not.
[00:28:38] Speaker A: I think it's a misconception about some scripture. Maybe not that one, but there are some scripts, right. You get what you pray for, but, yeah. Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
[00:28:47] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:28:48] Speaker A: Lean not on your own understanding, because for me, I don't understand why things happen.
[00:28:54] Speaker B: Well, and look at job.
[00:28:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:57] Speaker B: You know, God asked him, were you there when I told the sun to set?
[00:29:01] Speaker A: Right.
[00:29:02] Speaker B: You know, were you there when the waves. When I created the way? Where were you, Joe?
[00:29:08] Speaker A: Right.
[00:29:09] Speaker B: You know, I don't get it.
[00:29:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:11] Speaker B: Because I'm not God.
[00:29:13] Speaker A: That's right. Well, and we learned. I can never remember the exact verse, but it's Deuteronomy 20 913, maybe, where, you know, I think it says we're not meant to know everything.
[00:29:25] Speaker B: Right, right.
[00:29:25] Speaker A: There's things that he's going to. And that's probably the wrong scripture. Well, I mean, it's somewhere in there.
[00:29:31] Speaker B: And deuteronomy, you're in that ballpark.
[00:29:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:29:34] Speaker A: But, you know, he says you're not going to know everything.
[00:29:38] Speaker B: Nope.
[00:29:40] Speaker A: And he says it here again, lean not on your own understanding or in proverbs. Right.
[00:29:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Proverbs three, five, six. Yeah. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways, submit to him, and he'll make your path straight.
[00:29:53] Speaker A: So what's hard about in all your ways?
[00:29:57] Speaker B: Because I want my way.
[00:29:59] Speaker A: Right. Right. It is absolutely right.
[00:30:02] Speaker B: And because of that, I get sideways in a wagon rut.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: Totally, y'all.
[00:30:10] Speaker B: You know?
[00:30:12] Speaker A: Oh, it's crazy.
[00:30:13] Speaker B: I mean. I mean, I want to do my own thing, and my best thinking got me in my worst situations.
[00:30:22] Speaker A: It's Deuteronomy 2929-2929 I knew you'd look.
[00:30:25] Speaker B: It up and tell me.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: It says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the world of his, of this law.
He's saying, there are secret things that belong to God.
We are not meant to know them.
[00:30:44] Speaker B: We don't. Yeah, right.
[00:30:46] Speaker A: But the other part of that is, which I think can help with anxiety, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever.
The things revealed. So if you think about.
Just look at creation.
[00:31:01] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
[00:31:02] Speaker A: You can't look at creation and not know that there was a creator.
[00:31:07] Speaker B: There's absolutely zero ways to do that and not know that.
[00:31:12] Speaker A: Right. I mean, literally, I agree with that. Right. And so when it says the things revealed belong to us.
Yeah.
[00:31:24] Speaker B: Why not lean not on your own understanding?
Because you don't know it anyway.
In all your ways, acknowledge him. In all your ways, submit to him and he'll make your path straight.
You know, it's easy for you and I to sit here and say that.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: Yeah, but we've both been in the ditch. Yeah, we've both been in the ditch when we were not leaning on him.
[00:31:51] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. So how do you convey that to somebody else without making this a two hour podcast?
[00:32:00] Speaker A: Well, go back and listen to all the other ones and you'll understand.
[00:32:05] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I think. I think the first way that we can do that is by our example and showing other people.
[00:32:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:14] Speaker B: You know, I don't have it all together.
[00:32:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:17] Speaker B: But I know the one that does.
[00:32:18] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:32:19] Speaker B: I don't have all the answers. Yeah, but I know the one that does.
[00:32:23] Speaker A: But that's why I love this, because we are honest.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:32:27] Speaker A: I am a flawed human being.
[00:32:30] Speaker B: Completely flawed.
[00:32:31] Speaker A: Right. And without God, I got nothing.
[00:32:33] Speaker B: Nothing at all.
[00:32:34] Speaker A: Right? I may be able to stumble through life, and that's the best way I can put it. Stumble through life.
[00:32:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:41] Speaker A: Right. But if I want real joy.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:32:46] Speaker A: If I want real peace.
[00:32:47] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:32:48] Speaker A: I need God.
[00:32:49] Speaker B: I heard. I met Randall Reeder. He's a friend of mine.
And when I met him the first time, we were talking and he would kind of.
We talked a little bit about our elevator pitch, you know, and he goes, I don't necessarily have a walk with God as much as I have a stumble with God.
And I was like, dude, I appreciate that honesty.
[00:33:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:33:20] Speaker B: Now, it was obvious through our conversation that's not what he wanted to end up as. You know, he wanted it to be walking with God and being in step with that.
But his point was so many times, and he'll tell you this today, it's like, so many times, I try my best instead of God's best, and I fail.
And so his walk is a stumble up to this point. But God is still holding him up, but he wants to be able to lean, not on his own understanding.
[00:34:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:03] Speaker B: And in all his ways, acknowledge him. Yeah, that's. That's. That's what the goal is. And so I would tell people and. And people listening or people that. That want to know more about this. I don't have it all together.
And there's going to be times when you look at my walk, then it looks more like a stumble.
[00:34:24] Speaker A: I was thinking when you said that, that sometimes my. My walk looks like a run. I run to you and then I run away from you.
[00:34:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
It's a zig zag you can't give me now.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: It's like I'm running away from an alligator.
[00:34:35] Speaker B: Exactly. That's right. That's right. So that's what I would encourage people. Just because your walk may look like a stumble doesn't mean that it has to continue to look that way.
[00:34:48] Speaker A: Yeah. So here's how I want to land this.
[00:34:50] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:34:51] Speaker A: Right.
In verse eight, it says, finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is pure, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is true. I kind of put that backwards. Whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about those things.
[00:35:10] Speaker B: Well, on these things. Yeah.
[00:35:11] Speaker A: So when you have that moment of anxiety, when you have that moment of stress, that's a playbook right there.
While you're going through that moment, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, whatever is true, think about that.
When it may feel like your life is turning upside down and you're worried about it, think about all of the amazing things that have occurred in your life.
Focus on the things that have brought you joy.
[00:35:57] Speaker B: Focus on the God wins.
[00:35:59] Speaker A: Focus on. Well, that's why I said the word joy.
[00:36:01] Speaker B: Not happy. Exactly.
[00:36:04] Speaker A: Focus on the amazing things God has.
[00:36:08] Speaker B: Done in your life.
[00:36:11] Speaker A: Right. God put my wife and me together for a reason.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, absolutely.
[00:36:17] Speaker A: Right.
[00:36:18] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:36:18] Speaker A: And no matter how much stress or anxiety I may have in a instance of time, and that's all it is, it is a flicker time.
[00:36:27] Speaker B: Right?
[00:36:27] Speaker A: That anxiety.
It may feel like an eternity to me, but it is a flicker.
[00:36:33] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:36:35] Speaker A: But if I look at what God has done in my life, in the last ten years, how can I be anxious?
[00:36:44] Speaker B: Well, because you take your. If you. If you end up anxious, it's because you're taking your view and your focus off of him.
[00:36:52] Speaker A: Which means I'm not looking at whatever is true.
[00:36:54] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:36:54] Speaker A: Whatever is pure. Whatever is noble.
[00:36:57] Speaker B: Right.
[00:36:57] Speaker A: Whatever is lovely. Right. I'm not looking at those things.
[00:37:02] Speaker B: Right?
Absolutely.
[00:37:04] Speaker A: I'm looking at the last 200 posts on Facebook.
[00:37:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Or on threads or whatever.
[00:37:12] Speaker A: I don't even. What is threads?
[00:37:15] Speaker B: I have it and don't even know what it is.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't have that or tick tock or none of that stuff. Right.
[00:37:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:20] Speaker A: And honestly, the only reason I got Facebook is to see the grandkids.
[00:37:23] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:37:28] Speaker A: So that's how I would end it. Right?
[00:37:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:30] Speaker A: Just focus on the things that. That God has done in your life, whether you accept that it was God or not.
It was.
[00:37:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
I like that. I like that. That's a great way to land it. Yeah, it's a great way to land it, man. I've enjoyed it today.
[00:37:51] Speaker A: Me, too. It's been awesome.
[00:37:52] Speaker B: It's great to be back.
[00:37:54] Speaker A: We'll try to stay focused.
[00:37:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
Hey, I want to come to a shameless plug real quick.
[00:38:03] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:38:04] Speaker B: Okay. So, August 24.
Forged brotherhood Motorcycle club. Lazarus crew is having a revival. We calling it revival 62 at the grace church in Gallatin. 16 oh, 116 oh. 416 oh, 416 oh four. Yeah. Long hollow pike in Gallatin, Tennessee.
It's going to start at 12:00 and it's going to go through 06:00. We've got a couple of speakers. We've got three different worship times, one of them with a band called tricord. And we're getting to know Tricord pretty well. Some great guys. Great guys.
They're a little edgier, but, hey, it's praise and worship, and these guys love the Lord. We're going to have a kids zone. We're gonna have food trucks and vendors and all kinds of things. It's free of charge, free to the public. We want you to come out and see us. You can go to our website at revival 62 dot and check us out. But we would love to see you at revival 62 on August 24.
[00:39:12] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's gonna be an amazing day.
[00:39:15] Speaker B: I think so. I think so.
[00:39:17] Speaker A: You know, we're gonna be there to provide as much support as we can. Well, we appreciate that, but it is. It is going to be. The speakers are going to be phenomenal.
[00:39:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:27] Speaker A: It's going to be a great time for shit. But more than anything, it's going to be a great revival for families.
[00:39:32] Speaker B: It really is. It's for the entire family, you know, and the.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: And it's not dedic. Let's just clarify. It's not dedicated for the biker community.
[00:39:40] Speaker B: No, it's not. This is for everybody.
[00:39:42] Speaker A: Anybody who wants. Right, right. It's going to be just an amazing day.
[00:39:46] Speaker B: Yeah. A truly amazing day. And, and if you guys come out, look for Rick and I will be around.
I'll be around all day long. And Rick is probably going to be there most of the day too, long as he can. So we won't be doing a podcast from there, but we'll be around.
[00:40:04] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:40:04] Speaker B: So come check us out. And we, we want to thank everybody for checking us out. We're on every single podcast platform and YouTube. You can actually see our ugly mugs there.
[00:40:15] Speaker A: Yeah, sorry about that.
[00:40:16] Speaker B: Yeah, me too. So in the meantime, we want to remind you to love God and love people. It.
