Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - New Orleans Coach Uncovers a Chain of Miracles [Featuring Joey Favaloro]

Episode Date: December 15, 2024

The simplest gifts can bring profound changes when they remind us to put our trust in the Lord and His plans. In this episode, Pastor Allen sat down with his friend, New Orleans Basketball Coach Joey Favaloro, who tells us about how a small gift set off a chain of miraculous events. When he gave a little olive-wood cross to a friend, it prompted them to invite the Lord into their circumstances, leading to outcomes doctors said would be impossible to achieve. As the cross continues to be passed from one person to another, stories of faith, hope, prayer, and healing continue to unfold. From infertility to cancer recovery, the cross has become a reminder of God's willingness to supernaturally intervene when we invite Him into our circumstances.__ It’s up to us to bring God’s truth back into our culture. It may feel like an impossible assignment, but there’s much we can do. Join Pastor Allen Jackson as he discusses today’s issues from a biblical perspective. Find thought-provoking insight from Pastor Allen and his guests, equipping you to lead with your faith in your home, your school, your community, and wherever God takes you. Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3JsyO6ysUVGOIV70xAjtcm?si=6805fe488cf64a6d Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/culture-christianity-the-allen-jackson-podcast/id1729435597

So the next time she goes for what would be her last chemo, and the doctor was telling them, they'll do it, but we haven't seen any results yet. Before they even get started in chemo, they do whatever testing they're doing. He said, I've seen this on occasion. This is a miracle. You have no evidence of cancer.

So now she's cancer-free. And these doctors said, one of them said, I can't explain it. I've never seen this before. Another one said, I've seen this a few times. There's no doubt. It's a God thing. Welcome to Culture and Christianity, the podcast.

It's Christmas time, and it's such an exceptional season of the year. It's a time where joy and family and friends and the blessings of our lives tend to be more at the forefront of our thinking. And I think that's amazing. It's not an easy time because if you've lost somebody you loved this year or if your life isn't going really well, sometimes Christmas seems to kind of compound the disappointment. So there's a wonderful, wonderful window of opportunity to lead with your faith in the Christmas season. And that's the invitation I want to give you. I don't mean you have to preach a sermon.

You don't have to be a biblical scholar. You don't have to know how to exeat complicated passages of the text. What you have to be willing to do is share joy with another person. And you can do that in a way that fits your personality. You know, I have done it in a variety of ways through the years, and I can tell you some of those stories. There used to be a chocolate store here. They made custom chocolates.

It was one of my favorite destinations. I know that's hard for you to imagine, but I would stop by at Christmas time. They would do boxes of Christmas chocolates, and I would go buy several of those one-pound boxes and keep them in my car. And if I met somebody that I thought needed encouraged, it might be somebody that in a grocery store,

It could be somebody I knew or somebody that was just a random acquaintance. And I would share a box of Christmas chocolates and just say Merry Christmas. And I hope God blesses your Christmas season. I did that for several years. Then I tried Poinsettas. I was someplace and I saw Poinsettas on sale. So I bought like a carton of Poinsettas. And I would visit people that I knew were either alone or single or Christmas might be difficult for or, you know,

maybe they had a new baby and they just felt a little more confined with the responsibilities of life. whatever it would be, you can knock on somebody's door who's kind of a casual acquaintance, wish him a Merry Christmas, hand him a poinsetta, and you change the tone of the day for them. Lead with your faith at Christmas. Folks, there are so many ways. Rather than turn the season and make it about yourself and what you want and what you want people to do for you, let's walk through this Christmas season saying, God, I want to be a light for you. I want to make an impact for you.

It doesn't take a stadium filled with people or a podcast. You can do it in the context of where you work, with your family, in your neighborhood. If your children are involved in sports, maybe you do it with some of the parents that you're used to sitting and watching ball games with. All of those places where you have a little bit

of a sphere of influence, lead with your faith this Christmas season, and we will make a difference for the kingdom of God. Folks, we have to have a change of tone in our nation, and we can't leave it to the professional politicians.

It's got to start in the hearts of those of us who are living in the heartland. So this Christmas, join me in leading with your faith. and then let's see what God will do with that. You'll enjoy our podcast today. He's a friend of mine who has impacted countless lives by leading with his faith. He thought he was retired and I connected him to a high school basketball coach

and he's changed the lives of that coach and dozens and dozens of young people. I think you'll enjoy the story. God bless you and Merry Christmas. All right. Well, welcome to Culture and Christianity. I've got a special guest with us today. I think you're going to really enjoy getting to know a little different topic, but it's a, ultimately it's a story of the faithfulness of God. And anytime we can have a conversation around how God is faithful to you and me and how that works into the fabric of our lives, I'm up for those conversations.

And today's kind of an unlikely source in that Joey's about as irascible as I am. and in the midst of that there's a God story. So Joey Favilaro, I know him as Coach Fav. I'm going to get him to tell you why. That's not just his nickname. That's really his life assignment. And now he's been promoted all the way to the assistant coach of Grundy County men's team. But that's not where your coaching career started.

Welcome to our culture and Christianity and Culture Podcast, Joey. Thank you. Glad to be you. So you're going to hear your accent while we have this conversation, and you're from the south, but you're from further south in Tennessee. You came here from New Orleans? Right. You're going to put subtitles on there? They'll adjust after they listen a little bit. You're born and raised in New Orleans. Graduated from Tulane University, started coaching at Tulane, then in Dallas, L, High School, Holy Cross High School, big Catholic high schools in New Orleans, boys. coached six years in AAU basketball and coaching two teams, one eight, one six, six AAU national championships. Only six?

Just six. Slacker. There's two teams, I know, I know. And then coached University of New Orleans women's basketball for 24 years, retired, came up here. That was our plans. Boy, I found out to retire in Mon Eagle. and then ended up doing four years at Swanee, University of South, the women's basketball there for four years.

And then I thought that was it. And I had done enough. And then you come along and you hook me up with the coach at Grundy County high school boys, Kevin Butler. And he asked me to come on in and put more of a college slant into the high school game. And for six years, we've done that. for six years. We've made the playoffs. And we've had, uh, it's, it's been a very, uh, good time, a lot of fun, a lot of, he's just some quality young men that play there and they want to do it

the right way. Uh, they come from some very, uh, impoverished background, some of them, but it has been a delight to work with them. Yeah. Well, you and I have, have had lunch when our schedules allow. Oh, yeah, about 12 years ago. Yeah. But you told me some pretty remarkable stories about some of those teams you coached and some of the people that you got to know along that journey. Do you have some highlights from those years coaching those women? Who are the people you've been? I know we've talked about Al McGuire because I grew up watching him on television from Marquette.

Yeah, I got to visit 45 minutes one-on-one with John Wooden at UCLA. Did you teach him something? Well, sort of. I gave him some direction. back in 1992 and he and I sat literally on a park bench outside of Pauley Pavilion and we

were completely by ourselves, people walking by and nobody noticed him and we got to talk a lot of basketball. It was a lot of fun. Quized him. I would have given anything to have a video camera then and would have anything to have a tape recorder with me. But I remembered an awful

lot of what he said. He was very very generous, very kind, very kind young man. in 2005, I got to go to Washington, D.C., and have lunch with Red Alback, the Boston Celtics. Do you smoke a cigar when it was time for lunch to be over? Yes, he did. Yes, he did, as a matter of fact, when he got in his green Lexus, and, of course, the front license played a Celtic one, and he parked, or he did, parked that vehicle anywhere he wanted in Washington, D.C., and they never gave him a ticket,

because they said that's right all back you leave him alone some of our listeners are too young they won't know the story yeah but when he was coaching the boston celtics sitting on the bench as the coach when he got to the point in the game that he thought it was over not that the clock was run out but he just thought the score was such that's it that the Celtics knew they were going to win he would light up a cigar that's right which you know how infuriating that would be to the other coaches or the other team all home games that's what he did yeah so he was more than a character Oh, he'd like to stick the knife in when he could. He was a character.

He was great to visit with him at his favorite Chinese restaurant that he went every Tuesday. And I had a friend that coached to George Washington University. And when I was reading their book, which, you know, alone to you, I was reading the book, I see in the middle a picture of his Tuesday lunch crew. And there were a couple of rules. You didn't have any stories to tell. He told them all. And he picked up the tab.

and that was it and no women. Because it got a little x-rated to some of the language, and he didn't want any women around. But my buddy said, well, if you're ever in Washington, I said, why don't you tell me you do this every Tuesday? He goes, oh, you didn't ask. I said, well, how about next time I'm in? He says, yeah, next time you're in Washington,

as if I go up there every week. So I said, see if I can come up next week. And he came back the next day. And so he said, I talked already. He said, yeah, come on up. He loves coaches to come visit with him. And so I flew up there the next week and had lunch with him. It was fantastic.

I asked him a lot of questions. He signed a bunch of those autographed bunch of books for me for my brother and for a couple of my buddies that I played ball with. I loved the Celtics. So it was a great time to visit with him. So I felt I felt real blessed that I got to literally go have dinner with Al McGuire and talk with him when he coached at Marquette. and then visit with John Wooden and then get to have a lunch with Red Albaugh. So it was fun. Between those three guys, I'd say they qualify as a little bit of basketball knowledge.

Yeah, they might know a little bit about the game. And I took away something from each one of them and tried to put it in my programs from that point on. And we're actually putting the press that John Wooden ran for years that I ran for years. We're now running that at Grunda County. Well, it would help. If you could recruit Bill Walton or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. We got a 6-6 boy, and he's got curly hair. We've been hauled at him.

We gave him number 32 for Bill Walton. So that's as close as we can get at the moment. All right. That'll play. But if you know any around here, you can send him to grunt. We don't recruit. We just play with what the Lord brings. You're right.

I know. Okay. What about Paul Westhead? Wasn't he a big influence on some of your coaching style? I never met him face-to-face. It was always on the phone. The first time I saw them play when he was a loyal Ameriomont, and they was scoring $150 a game and running like crazy,

said, I got to talk to this guy. Now, the chances of calling a head coach at a major D1 program that's winning like that and getting him on the phone is about, you know, one in a hundred chance. Well, I called, and his secretary was very nice. She goes, oh, coach is in class. I said he's in class. She said, oh, yeah, he teaches a class of Shakespeare.

Shakespeare in English every semester. That's part of his deal that he wanted to do. He's really big in Shakespeare. She says, oh, wait a man, Harry comes now. And so she hollered. She said, I got a coach here from New Orleans that wants to talk to you. He said, yeah, put him in. So I sat down, he was very nice.

We talked for like 45 minutes. So the break that we run at Grundy, is loyalist break. And he was very, very good. He said, I'll see you some video. I'll send you some tapes. And I'd come about once a week. And he was always in his office because I knew when he was in class,

and we got to talk a lot of fast break basketball and a lot of press. It was an awful lot of fun, too. But I've never met him. I'd sure like to face to face, but I must have talked to him 100 times. Well, I got one more basketball question, then we're going to get to the God story. But there's a young woman that's... I watched her when she was still in college,

but now she's played in the WNBA. Getting a lot of conversation. Caitlin Clark? I'm not familiar with her. The scoring, you don't stop. It's the best play I've ever seen. Really? Best play I've ever seen.

Anybody that says different, it's goofy. She has the longest range of any shot I've ever seen. She's a real student in the game. She's already set the WMBA record for assist in one year, and the season's not over yet, and she's a rookie. So nobody's matched that, and she's only going to get better as her teammates learn to play with her. She's fantastic.

Absolutely fantastic. Love watching her play. I wasn't sure that she was going to be rugged enough to hold up to the WNBA, but it looks like she's going to. She's tougher mentally than she is physically. She just lets that stuff and then buy me. I'm going to play my game. And I admire her.

I had a player years and years ago, Sandra Hodd, she was one of the first females to play for the Harlem Globetrotters. And her game was very, very similar. She would drive on you every chance she'd got, but if you started banging her and knocking her down, she just back way out and shoot. Unfortunately, when Sandra played, they didn't have the three-point line. Because she had really racked. There was a couple years where she was averaging 30 a game, you know, and we cared at her about

in-bounds and range. You're in-bound just shoot it. And she had a tremendous range. And he got to play four or five years for the Trotters. But very similar in style. She'd drive on you. Caitlin drives on people. She's fantastic.

That's a lot of fun to watch. I said one more basketball question, but I lied. I got one more. Pete Marevich, how many points would he have scored if he had a three-point line? Well, what I heard, and I got to see Pete a bunch of times at LSU, one of my good buddies who's attended church here, John Carr, played with Marevich. In fact, he guarded him every day in practice. I'm sorry. Yeah.

Well, he's got the nickname aggravation because all he does is failure. And he was told Press Marevich, Pete's dad, to get up in his face and guard him as close as can and be as physically as you can. So he brought that to our game and so he's playing with us and he's beating us up like he did, Maravich. But Dale Brown contracted this guy. I think he paid him $10,000 to take all the film, because they didn't have video back then, all the film and look at all the Maravitsch's games, envision a three-point line, what would he have had? Because he averaged 44 a game for his three years of varsity. And back then, you know, you can only play three years. 44 a game at LSU they said had they had the three point nine he would have averaged 55

that's just insane yeah it was a different day that's for sure with the baggy socks that's it all right well I want to I want to get to the God story part of this for years for a long time now we take a tour in the summer to Israel about a 10 11 day trip kind of an overview of the the biblical perspective on Israel. And you got to make that trip with us. Yes, sir. A few years ago. What year did you do, go?

18. 18? Wow, it goes fast. It does. And we stopped at a place that was selling things made out of olive wood, nativity sets and such. And you took out of that place some little olive wood crosses to bring home. Right.

We have one of those with us. we can hold that up, everybody can see. It's just a little pocket cross. Two and a half. The edges are smooth, so it's easy to carry. I had asked you what was something that I could bring back for family, for friends, for people in general, other than the key chain that went, I'm Israel on it. And you should get those? And, of course, I said, I mean, should I get 15 to 20?

And you go, now, how about 50? You'll give those out within a month. And sure enough, in a month, they were gone. So I had to order 50 more. So I'm on my third set of 50s now. So, but that's a tremendous gift to give people. So there's a story that goes with one of those crosses, and that's really what was the initiated this little podcast. Yeah.

You had one that you'd kept and you shared it with a friend of yours. Why don't you tell that story? It'd probably be best to call them woman A, woman B, woman C, because it was passed down, passed down. A, taught at... Sounds like you're in the witness protection program. That's right. Taught at Grundy. Now, I knew her husband.

Young, he was in his 50s, very fit, very strong, hardworking guy. And I find out that he's having some heart problems. And he was concerned about it because it'd be the last person you'd think would have any kind of problems like that. And they, the first couple of doctors that saw him couldn't find anything wrong with him. Couldn't find, couldn't get to. to the problem. So when I saw her a few days later, I just said here, I just kind of spur of the moment because I had some of my backpack. I said, you need this. And I gave her the cross.

And there's some people when you give them the cross, they go, thank you. And they kind of look at other people, it's like I gave them a check for a million dollars. She was one of those. She was so great. She says, oh, I can't believe this. This is wonderful. I said, I want you, you two to pray over this thing and ask for direction, ask for guidance from the Holy Spirit and see how it works out, you with your husband and these tests. So I see her about two weeks later, and she tells she comes out and runs over, and she says, I can't believe it. She said, I never leave home without this cross.

And she said, everything is good. They found out what the problem is. He's got the medication he needs. It's good. He's going to be fine. I said, that's wonderful. She said, I'm never going to give this cross up. I said, no.

She said, I carry it with me everywhere I go. Well, then I find out that about a year later, there's another woman that teaches there in school and we'll call her woman B. She said, woman A said, I did not know her that well. I just tell her high in the hallway and stuff like that. But she said, for some reason, I felt compelled to walk up to her and give her this cross. And she said, one day I saw her and I was hesitant and I didn't do it. And she said, I know that the woman had had a number of miscarriages. She and husband were trying to have their first child. And it wasn't going so good, obviously. And this lady was pretty much down, down, tried down on her dumps, I guess she'd say.

Because, you know, she couldn't have it. And the doctor said, you've messed up your inside so much, you probably are not going to ever have children. Well, she said, the next day she saw her, she said, I just felt I needed to give with this cross. And she said, you know how I didn't want to do that, but I felt compelled. And I gave it this cross. And she said, I don't know that well. So she said, all I'll do is say hi in the hallway, but I never really had a conversation. She said, look, I think you need this.

And she said, the woman looked at her like, what am I going to do with this? And she said, hold it, pray about it, the God, Holy Spirit's going to help you, going to help you out. And she said, at the time, she said, I gave this cross. I didn't know the half of it. So the woman takes it a couple of weeks later, said, I know why you gave me that cross. And she said, it has really helped us, calm us down, giving us peace on these uncertain times. So the next thing she hears a few months later is that this woman is expecting her first child, which the doctor at that point said, you're not going to have any.

So now she's going to have a child. Then in a second examination, they go, you can have two. You're going to have twins. And I don't know how we're going to deliver them just yet because you can't have it naturally. You can't have it normal. But she does, two healthy boys. and her husband knew woman A and every time he'd see her he goes, ah, he's cross, you know, something like that.

And she would go like this and always point up like that. She said, he didn't say much, but he didn't seem to be in favor of his wife Karen the cross. Well, she has the twins. Everything is cool. Everything is going well. So now that was woman, woman B, as a friend, woman C, now she's having the same. problems. Now, who had understood, she had multiple miscarriages and then had that IVF treatment, and it didn't work. And so there they were looking to adopt, and they were working on adoption,

and adoption wasn't going good. And so woman B gives woman C the cross, and she said, this meant the world to me, I'm giving it to you. It's not magical, but it'll call attention to you. You'll walk through Christ with the Holy Spirit, pray about this, and see where it's what happens to you, who give you the direction you need. Well, they finally get, if I understand it correctly, they finally get the permission, whatever they need to adopt. And then the wife finds out that she's expecting a child.

Miracles of miracles. So now she has a child when her doctor said, you're not going to be able to have one. She has it naturally, normally, healthy baby girl. So now they got these two. this crosses work in overtime. So the next thing is the husband of woman B was either a player

or he was a physical therapist on the staff with the New York Giants and was very good friends with Michael Strahan, TV personality now, former NFL player. Husband B of wife B called Mike to give him the good news that they have had their first child.

He said, that's fantastic. That's great news I'm happy for. He said, man, my daughter's not doing too good. They said she's got stage for brain cancer. They're trying to do treatments on it. She's lost all over here and all, but it's not going very well. So the chances are she's not going to make it. So the husband-wife, B, if we can follow all this crazy, said, I'm going to send you this cross.

It's meant a lot to us. Give it to your daughter, have her pray it. The whole family pray over us. and ask for guidance direction, what the Lord has in store for you. So the next they do. So the next time she goes for what would be her last chemo, and the doctor was telling them, we'll do it, but we haven't seen any results yet.

Before they even get started in chemo, they do whatever testing they do. And he said, I've seen this on occasion. This is a miracle. You have no evidence of cancer. So now she's cancer-free. So now we go back to a woman A. She's drastically, frantically trying to get the cross back, as you would imagine. And I told her yesterday, I said, listen, let it go.

Let's see where it goes. I'll get you another one. So I'll see her in the next day or two, and I'll give one of these. So I think that's fantastic. That's miracle and miracle and miracle. And these doctors said, one of them said, I can't explain it. I've never seen this before. Another one said, I've seen this a few times.

There's no doubt it's a God thing. No, there's pieces of that that I think are so remarkable. One, it happened in the midst of the medical arena. You know, the doctors are involved and they're doing what they can do. People ask me a lot of times if I believe in miracles or medicine, and my answer is yes. Yes. You know, I'm absolutely willing to go to the doctor. but I pray before I go and I pray after I leave.

I'm grateful for somebody that's invested that many years in training and the sacrifices that go with it. But only God brings healing. And so I love that reminder that God can do what doctors can't, but it doesn't mean we're not grateful for doctors. But I think they need to, your wife, I mean, you're just a crazy basketball coach. That's correct. From New Orleans.

But your wife is a sophisticated person. I'm working on her. Yeah, we're getting there. She's an MD. Retired physician, yes, that's right. So she wouldn't let you tell tales out of school if she didn't think they were somewhat credible. She loved it when she heard the story.

I also think it's, I mean, you came, you worked, I heard you in the Catholic high school for a long time, and you wound up in an interdenominational church in Tennessee. That can't be a life plan that you had scheduled when you came to Mount Eagle. No, not at all. I was actually looking for a church.

And my banker in Mount Eagle said, why don't, and he attended Lee. Lisa, why don't you? I said, you know, I've been watching TV church too long. Churches I didn't like in my own. So I was watching you, like Jeremiah, people like that on Sunday. That's when you had that 30-minute show on regular TV. Yeah. Channel 2.

And he said, well, I go. to World Outreach churches. So how many of them are there? I thought it was like a bunch of churches. He said, there's only one. I said, that's in Murphosboro. I said, you go there? And it turns out one of his twin sons, I think, was the mayor of Murphshire. He said, we go there every Saturday, and as a family, Saturday service and we go out the day after. Why don't you try it? I said, Murphy's Pearl. I said, that's a little bit much. He said, go one time. Go one time. So I said, I said, I like what I hear. It's a biblical message is what I grew up with and I said we'll try it so I told my wife we're

going to Murphysville to church and her reaction was oh you sure I said yes we are we're gone and that was eight years and we've been going ever since so it's been a tremendous blessing to us tremendous blessing to me you've taught things like the Holy Spirit something that I in all of my Bible teachings never really went in that direction. And so I've learned an awful lot about the work of the Holy Spirit, which I thank you that for that. And I thank you for twisting my mom and taking me

to Israel in 2018. How was that? Were you afraid while you were there? A lot of people were afraid to go. Not at all. Good gracious, no. Especially when we were walking, when we did the wall, walk of the wall that one day.

And I went back to the Western Wall. And here comes. like 15 little middle school boys and their teacher. And their teachers all are 30 years old. And he's got a oozy strapped on his leg. And I asked our guy, Ronnie, Simone, after. And he said, oh, yeah, he said, they do three years. The boys do three years of active duty and the girls, two, after graduating from high school.

He said, so they all know how to handle weapons. But he said, if you go through an extra training, like a shooter in school kind of thing, He said, then you get paid more money, plus you get to carry. And he said, don't anybody kid you. He said, these students feel very comfortable with their teacher because they know their teacher's arms. It's not that they're scared of the gun. He said, don't buy that.

He said, they feel very comfortable. And you were right about the thing. Everything that you said, because I was kidding. You remember, I said, man, you're painting a bright, big picture about what this is where trip's going to be about it. And it was that much and more. So, in fact, trying to be a clown at the end when you were asked me and the Tel Aviv Airport.

How could we improve this trip? I said, have a direct flight from Nashville straight to Tel Aviv, bypass Newark. And you go, we've looked into that. It's a little too expensive at this time. It was a fantastic trip. I hope we get to do it again. Yes.

A lot of stress in that part of the world these days. Yeah. Well, I've got one not related to any food in New Orleans. If somebody's making a trip to New Orleans, where do they need to go eat? Depends on what you want. Yeah. Uh, it's Italian, you go to Venetius on Carleton Avenue.

And you ask for Mr. Tony. That's my buddy. Mention your name. It's okay? Yes, indeed. Mention my name, say, that I sent you. There's such things as Chorabroald oysters, and that would be Droghos. And, uh, you asked for, uh, Tommy, Svetanovich.

Uh, he'll take care. of you. And then all that Cajun food and all that stuff. None of that stuff. I eat the Italian food. All that stuff I don't fool with. Okay. People think I'm absolutely crazy growing up in New Orleans and I didn't eat all that stuff. And I said, it's it true that Cajuns will eat anything? I said anything that doesn't eat them. Yeah. That's how they live.

But I said, no, I'm not like that. Do you get more Italian blood? Yes, sir. Well, Coach, you know from being around church, I don't like religious lectures or just theoretical Christianity. If we're going to talk about it, we're going to invite the Lord to do something in our lives. And I think if we're going to take the time to tell a God story as remarkable as that string of people's lives who God changed, that we should pray for the people who are listening that need a God event.

You know, I have learned one thing. How God does it and when he does it is beyond – that's beyond our purview. We don't get to dictate that. But the fact that God will be involved in our lives, I'm absolutely confident of. And I know somebody, by the time this releases, they're going to want to how they can get one of these crosses. My bad, I don't have a plan to have them here at the moment. But we'll work on that. But in the meantime, I would say it's not the cross that heals anything.

You know, it's not some lucky charm or talisman. I don't believe in that. It's God who heals and God who does miracles. And you don't need an olive wood cross from Israel in order to, invite God in. I went to a Robert University 100 years ago. They had a pretty good basketball team when I was there. Yes, they did.

And President Roberts used to always talk about a point of contact for our faith. And there is something to that. That's why praying with somebody has a value. Or taking somebody's hand when you pray has a value. Well, we may not have that, but we have got a podcast.

And so we've got a digital point of contact. And we're going to pray for the people that have listened to this story. or this set of stories, and they have a need. Our God does heal, and he does deliver. It makes me smile. He brought a whole new season to your life. I knew a young man that was coaching basketball in Grundy County,

and for him it was a bridge too far. And when I met you, I said, there's a young man that needs your help. And I've watched it and bring new life to Kevin. It's brought some really good things to you. And it's changed a lot of young people's lives in Grundy County, which God knows how to work out things that we don't. So if somebody's listening and there's more despair or there's a diagnosis you don't like

or there's a future that seems bleak, God can change that. And I think if we're going to spend this time to ask them to listen to us, we should pray for them. Does that seem reasonable? Yes, sir. I'll pray and you at an amen. Yes, sir.

Good Cajun, amen? You got it. Lord, I thank you for the reminder today that you are still involved in the earth. that because of what Jesus has done for us, we can not only have our sins forgiven and our lives cleansed and restored, but that you and your grace and mercy

will bring life and health and peace and hope. And I pray for all those people listening today that have had the time to be a part of this podcast that whatever challenges they're facing, whether it's physical or emotional or professionally, whatever arena it may be, I thank you that through the blood of Jesus Christ, we have been made triumphant over every attack of the enemy.

And we agree together today for life and hope, for health, for healing, for forgiveness, for deliverance. I thank you that through the blood of Jesus, we have been delivered from all the influence of Satan. I praise you for it. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Coach Fab, thank you for coming down to mountain. My pleasure. Come down to Flatland to talk to us hillbillies a little bit. That's for sure.

Well, we'll get you back with an update on some of this. There's going to be some more stories. When I get enough of these crosses in here, we'll bring you back in and figure out of help people get a hold of one. That works for me. All right. Well, our culture needs a big dose of Christianity. It's not a theoretical faith.

It's a faith that changes lives that writes a new future for us. That's more than about attending church or being religious or being kind or tame or polite. In fact, I'm not really sure that the point of knowing God is being. tame and polite, I think God will make you a bold renegade in many ways. So whatever challenges you're facing today, you take him to the foot of the cross, and I trust the Lord to meet you there. I'll see you soon on our next episode of Culture and Christianity. Thank you, Coach Fav.

My pleasure. Glad to be here. Hey, thanks for joining me today. Before you go, please like the podcast and leave a comment so more people can hear about this topic, too. If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe to Alan Jackson, ministry's YouTube channel and follow the Culture and Christianity podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Together, let's learn how to lead with our faith and change our culture. I'll see you next time.