The Hope Hotline - The Hope Hotline | S01-E42 | 06-09-23

Episode Date: June 9, 2023

Question #1In light of the problems people and companies are having and have had in the past with insurance companies sometimes not paying claims, auto, life, health, and property; should we stand on Matthew 6:34 and pay our tithes and offering to allow God to be our assurance?Give what we would give to them as a seed offering? Question #2Should we care about what people think and say about us?Question #3What are a couple of your favorite pictures you took or received this week?

real talk real talk real talk real talk hello everybody welcome to friday's hopeline podcast, live and in person. Thank you so much for joining me. And you're probably wondering what the heck kind of shirt is she wearing right now because I'm looking at it in the camera. Let me show you the shirt. This, that my friends is my son's shirt. I would say I'd embarrass him by you seeing it, but he's not going to be embarrassed at all.

He's actually quite proud. He did not want this shirt, and we were going to play a trick on Heather's son for his birthday, which is coming up. It's July, right? Or is it July? Yeah, July. We were going to play a trick on Eli and give this to him for his birthday. But Eli's way

too sweet. I can't do it to him. Heather, I just can't do it to Eli. He's too nice. He went, I know. Well, no, it was not my idea. That was your idea. Your idea was say, let's, or was it Creighton's? I don't know. It was not mine to give it to him. I thought I was like, that's mean. But so here's the thing. How many people like that shirt? That's what I want't know it was not mine to give it to him I thought I was like that's mean but so here's the thing how many people like that shirt that's what I want to know it's anime so here's the thing uh Logan when somebody says they like it let me know okay when you see somebody now that we listen people we have lots of different social media platforms. So I will go back and forth to this until somebody says they do like it. Okay.

And then we've got a plan. So a couple things before we move on to the questions is, one, people are asking about merchandise, Hope Hotline merch. I love this cup, but to be perfectly honest with you it's I just can't see making a lot of those cups we already have it for sale I know Heather's making a facial expression over there at me I know we have them but they're two they're just I just can't justify that. We only have two left. You're kidding me. No, I was right.

Only two left. She goes, I was right again. I love it. Oh, gosh, I love it. That was so funny, Heather. Okay, so we'll make some more cups. How many cups did we have? 20. How many cups did we have?

How many did you give away? Oh, my gosh. Okay, we'll make more Hope Hotline cups. Listen, whoever bought one and is drinking out of it, do it proudly. Because, man, 25 bucks. So here's the thing. Heather, I mean, Tracy thought of something really cute, not cutesy, but really great for men. That's Hope Hotline.

If you guys can think of some things that you want that say the Hope Hotline on them, send them to us. We're pretty much up for anything. Like, I know T-shirts and stuff like that, but I don't know. T-shirts get old to me. Like, I don't know. I'm up for something new. And, like, girls wear hats.

Logan was thinking trucker hats, which are cute. But I don't know. We'll think of some things. But we will come up with merchandise right now. The only thing we have is this glorious mug. What is that? Cell phone covers. I want one of those.

Hope Hotline. Can you make it in teal? Yeah, of course. Teal with a Hope Hotline. Can you make it in teal? Yeah, of course. Teal with the Hope Hotline on the back. Okay. Like that. Okay. We can do that.

Okay, so we'll do cell phone covers with the Hope Hotline logo on them. What does everybody want? Just tell us what you want. Who likes this shirt? I'm trying to prove. Yeah. Who else? Who wants the shirt? Who wants, likes the shirt? I'm trying to prove a point. My, who does? Tracy's mom. Of course she does.

I'm sending it to you. Kim, it's yours. Kim, I'm sending this to you. Actually, that's, here's the thing. Whoever said they liked it first was actually going to get it because I think it's dang funny, but this shirt is yours and I want a picture of you in it and we're going to get it because I think it's dang funny. But this shirt is yours. And I want a picture of you in it. And we're going to put you on the podcast.

And then Tommy, my son, which is even better. He'll even laugh harder than that. It's Kim. It's perfect. Shocker. OK, so let's see. Hope Hotline March. This thing.

I got rid of it. Ha ha. The other thing was. Oh, the other thing was, is a couple people have asked about Zumba. I talked about Zumba because right now a few of us are like trying to get in shape because we were challenged by Magalas. Adalas was backing her up, but Magalas is a force to be reckoned with, so it's really all her. So I want to do Zumba, but here's the thing. We can't do Zumba, and Vanessa is all in in teaching it. We cannot do anything, anything at all, until the church is put back together, because the rooms that we potentially would use they're a hot mess they're so that's not going to happen for a while so anybody who

goes to the church that's wanting to get their dance on it's not going to happen for a while just be prepared for that um so I would say I'll I'll talk to Travis Travis knows this the the plan but I will probably be sometime in the fall I would think that something like that would be available to us because we have a lot of projects that we have to get done here at the church. Okay so the next thing was is our conference. You want to put our little thingy up girlfriend? So the Beloved Conference, a new you. Super excited about that. That's August 24th through the 26th, which is a Thursday through a Saturday. Heather and Rexanne are killing it right now with the plans and figuring things out.

And let's see, Heather, we're going to have, are we going to do the font? Are we going to do the fondue thingy like we were talking about? Possibly. That's a possible. She's not committing to anything. So what's Friday? Can you tell me what Friday is? The Friday will be, no. So Thursday night is teaching with me and potentially Fondue.

Fondue and you. What is that? I knew you and Fondue and you? Oh, Lord. She's not in charge of any marketing as far as verbiage. Okay. Then there, so it would be chocolate, right? Like a chocolate kind of thingy.

White chocolate and chocolate chocolate. All right. Which, listen, the biggest form of a compliment you could ever have is when somebody copies you. So the thing is, when we went to PA to Revival Today's uh they did something every night yeah which was super yummy so we were like well we can do that so Thursday night will be something like that uh and then I'll speak uh Friday morning uh Magalas is going to speak we're going to do a brunch. Correct, Heather?

Now, there's 300 seats for the brunch. Last year, we were limited, but we figured it out. Huh? 1.45 last year. Yeah, we only could have 1.45, and then we had to turn people away, which we were not really happy about that, but we couldn't figure it out. We figured it out. We figured it out, people. So we're going to be able to do 300

people for the brunch. And then Friday night, Adalys speaks. And then Saturday is kind of up in the air still. So I'm not going to commit to anything on that, but it'll be good. It's definitely something happening on Saturday though. I got two different options. And then we will have something for everybody to snack on or eat Saturday morning. Heather still, I think Heather has a plan, but we'll figure that part out. So put on your calendar. Save the date, August 24th through the 26th. Before you know it, you blink. It'll be here.

Trust me. I know. It goes so's it's go so fast it's crazy I can't even believe it's June already I know like it's insane to me that it's June already yep like crazy it's like time is flying by I can't even keep up with it. Like, little baby Brinley. What grade is Brinley going in, Heather? My baby Brinley is going into second grade. I want to throw up.

And Tootie's third, right? Oh, my gosh. I know. Logan, before you know it, your child be getting married. Be getting married. You haven't even had her yet. You haven't even had him or her yet. And they're going to be,

you're going to be giving them away. Like it goes by like that. Yeah. Like you can't even imagine. It does. It's unbelievable. I can't even believe like Will and Allie's daughter. None of you people know who I'm talking about.

So I apologize for this. But like I cannot, I'm not going to name her name but I cannot believe she's going into junior high that I like she was in like nursery when her toddler class when she came they came here like that one hit me hard yeah her being going into junior high makes me sick sick I tell you okay let's go to our first question that's not a good transition but i don't really care i'm sorry in the light of problems people and companies are having and have had in the past with insurance companies sometimes not paying

claims auto life health and property should we stand on matthew 6 34 and pay our tithes and offering to allow god to be our assurance give what we what we would give to them as a seed offering listen I know a lot about insurance right now they stink okay I'm not I'm not a big proponent of insurance and nothing has made me more clear on insurance and how much of a scam it really is until you go through like a hurricane or a tornado or a fire or whatever it is because they listen they're going to keep all they can even though they owe you what they're trying to keep it's just ultimate it's just ridiculous so Matthew 6 34 let's that scripture was referred to in this question.

So let's look at it. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. So I agree with that scripture. I mean, I agree with even like you should never worry about anything because no matter what even though we're having to work through this situation with the the church and everything and the and the insurance company is not giving us money at all God miraculously every week is giving us money that you sit there and go, you know, Tom, every week is just like so astounded.

Not because he doesn't believe God's word. It's just he's so like blessed by seeing how God's word comes. And he's not worried a lick. But he's so blessed to see how God's word just plays out it's like I said it's it's super exciting to live out on that ledge and just trust God and know that he's got everything ready and planned for you and also to know that no matter what like vengeance is his whatever that insurance company owes us we're gonna. He's going to make sure we do. And whatever somebody steals from you, you get seven times back.

So if they steal from us somehow, some way, we're going to get that back seven times. I don't worry about like people get so mad when somebody takes something from them, like money or whatever, somebody steals something from them. I literally am like you can take from me if you want to first of all God's you're you're gonna pay a heavy price for that because you know I'm I'm one of God's kids so the his righteous uh his righteousness his his his child or righteousness in his eyes and so you're you're going to, it's a pretty bad thing for somebody who steals from one of his kids. But the other thing is, is I already know the promises of God.

And that is that I'm going to get it back seven times. So you just made me like get back way more than I ever had before. It doesn't bother me but the insurance companies right now like people they refer to um health auto life things like that well here's the thing you don't have an option in some of it like uh like if you don't own your own property if you don't own your own house like right now we're having to work through my house I don't oh i don't own my house outright so i have to have uh uh insurance on my on my house i have to have insurance on this building because we don't own it outright but i will i can tell you this tom has literally said as soon as we buy pay this building off he's like i ain't

paying the insurance company one dime because they don't want to give us anything. He's like, I'm done with the insurance companies. They are thieves. And he's like, God will make sure that we have what, if we need it, God will make sure that it's, and the money's there. He's like, I'll stock away. Like what we have to pay for insurance every year

on this building is ridiculous. He's like, we'll just pay and for insurance every year on this building is ridiculous he's like we'll just put that money away every year yeah we'll just put it away smart and then um we'll use it for whatever god's kingdom wants but like first of all nothing's ever going to happen to this building ever again because we're going to do all night prayer vigils like the river did and we're gonna like i'm gonna send that thing out back out into the to the water i ain't sending it inland i'm sending it out it'll harm nobody and it'll dissipate out there you know so nobody has to deal with this ever again i'm not sending it anywhere to anything or anyone outside of empty like vacant areas i don't want anybody to deal with what we've dealt with um but if you

don't own on the property you don't get to not have insurance okay so the goal is to not to owe no man and then you don't have to have insurance I mean I hate to use this verbiage but screw them I mean seriously I cannot stand them uh and god hates things and so i don't hate a person but i sure hate the insurance business because it is a scam it is it really is it is such a scam people have no idea until they walk in this right um in this situation um and you have to carry auto insurance you don't have a choice even if you own your car outright you're you're gonna have auto insurance so you can have the minimal on it but some insurances you can't get around it's gonna it's gonna be there now health insurance is health

insurance is almost as big a joke as um as uh having property insurance because Because it's crazy because I know people who don't have any health insurance and they are self-pay. And what the doctor charges for self-pay is way less than what you do. Because the health insurance, the insurance companies take so much money and then

they it's it's all rigged people prefer self-pay yeah yeah it's it's crazy doctors prefer self-pay guess what they make more money on self-pay thank heather's from the uh the insurance industry as far as on the side of dental so she said correct. They make way more money when somebody pays self-pay than when you have insurance, health insurance. And you as a self-pay person pay far less than you do when you have health insurance. It's a scam, people. It is a scam.

I grew up in a house all my life, except for one time in my life, did my parents have health insurance. All my life we had one time in my life did our parent my parents have health insurance all my life we had no health insurance at all and my parents just stood in faith and said nothing ever will happen and nothing ever did they did not need health insurance all my life still to this day my parents never had health insurance and the thing is is the couple times that they needed it they did self-pay and it was far less than what they would have paid if they paid insurance every month right and the hospitals and the doctors made more money on my parents than they would have if they had insurance it's

it's a nut it's a nutty nutty thing but life insurance, I'm not a big proponent of life insurance either because God's word is you don't need it. Tracy's saying yes. Yep. So it's like I'm not, I just think work out your own salvation in certain things. Some things you're not going to get around it. Some things you're going to have to have. But if life insurance makes you more more comfortable then so be it but i can tell you this that god's word

like my parents never had life insurance and they just trusted they just trusted god when my dad passed away my they had no even they had no retirement my parents had no retirement they had their own business but they had no retirement so what my parents did is they bought some houses for real estate and um they used them as rentals they've made way more money than somebody who has a retirement of other rentals it's crazy yeah but that's trusting god yeah and not doing it man's way but doing it god's way correct and they just knew yeah my parents never worried about retirement they were like god's got it they were not doing it man's way, but doing it God's way. Correct. And they just knew. Yeah. My parents never worried about retirement. They were like, God's got it. They were always smart with their money. They never, uh, they never spent more than what they had. They paid cash for everything.

And, um, they were just good stewards. They also were big tithers, big on offering, and they just trusted God's word God's word was was real to them it was true like I've told people so many times I grew up in a faith-based home my parents budgeted but at the same time we still went on vacations we still went out to eat where they were not married to the budget right like some people are just like with the budget and I'm just telling you you're putting God in a box when you do that you budgeting is not being a good steward of what God is giving you is different than being somebody who is married to a budget that's good yeah it's

way different than that so I'm not saying go out and spend money that you don't have but what I am saying is don't act like you have no money right there's a difference um so uh I think I think if you can I think that's a very wise suggestion is if you um don't have to pay property um insurance and you send like what you would monthly for insurance and you send that off as seed as an offering you're just sending that as seed so in case like my mom's house was she has three properties two of them all of them she owns outright two of them are rentals one of them is her own home she lives in the two rentals and no damage done to them and they like they should have been wiped not wiped out but they like they're old yeah they're old damage should have been done they had nothing her own personal house like my mom was floating in her house during the hurricane literally heather goes literally

yeah literally my mom was she she said no i'm not leaving my house i'm sticking it out i'm like i'm not because me and my sister live in town we're like come and you can stay with us and she's like no i'm not leaving my house um i'm staying here so my mom she had water like up to her knees oh my gosh and norma goes what a beast yeah my like my mom is like she is i love her yeah she was on top of her dining room table at one time at one point but seriously like she laid in her bed she just laid in her bed and prayed listen to the storm like listen to the the sliders rattle back and forth. She knew God had her. She was like, but literally she was floating in her house.

Everything, like pretty much she had, she had to buy everything new. She had major renovations done. But you know what? She has no, she has no property. I mean, she has no insurance on her. She had all the money to fix it. God put in one of the best men in the church came in I mean she paid him he did he didn't do it for free yeah I mean he went in and fixed everything

for her her house was fixed and done in two months I'm still waiting yeah same I'm still waiting yep I just settled with the insurance company and I'm still not even settled because they didn't keep the word. And they, like, that's a mess. But you're not done, Tracy, and neither is Heather. No. You guys aren't even close. No. Logan, are you done?

Officially done. Officially done. So four of us had major damage done to our homes. I mean, we didn't have small stuff done. No. We have big stuff that's wrong. And two out of us. But you just, I just got my, like, I'm supposed to get my first check.

Like, I just got notification yesterday. We went with appraisals. So we had to go and get money to get money. Same here. So did you already get your money? Are you done? We're waiting for it. Yeah.

See, it's a scam, people. My mom was done in two months. That's insane. From beginning to end. But I believe it. It's ridiculous. She had all the money. She had to buy all new furniture, everything, all of it.

Paid cash is all done. Yep. Goals. Uh-huh, paid cash is all done. Yep. Goals. Uh-huh. Goals, exactly. That's where you owe no man anything. Right. And my mom and dad always huge tithers, huge in giving their offering.

Yep. And I grew up that way, and I've seen it. It works. Mm-hmm. Correct. I've seen it for myself. It's not, they're not special people.

They're not special. My parents are special to me. My dad has since passed. They're very special people, but in the Christian realm, they're not special. They're like everybody else. They just apply the word.

They look at it, they apply it. And, and it's all a matter of what you believe and how far you're willing to go out on that ledge and risk, you know? Yeah. Risk things and believing in things, right? Some people will go, I think that that's irresponsible. Well, try it.

You might like it. It's like you might think it is, but in all actuality, I don't think it's going to be as irresponsible as you think it is, especially being on this side now. Right. You really find out. Right. The insurance companies are crap.

Yep. It's crapola. So, yeah, plant that seed, plant that money that you would, or sow that seed of money that you would pay for insurance, monthly insurance or yearly or whatever. Sow that seed somewhere in the ministry to a, I say this all the time, but you really need to be careful where you're sowing and make sure it's good ground because that matters. If you sow into good ground, you're going to reap a better harvest. It's just like when a farmer farms, he could, he can either make the soil rich so he has a better crop or he can sow seed wherever and he

just gets a moderate crop it's sow the seed in great soil and get a great return that's super important all right next question should we care about what people think and say about us now a lot of people would say that like tom and myself and some other people um that are a part of this ministry we don't care what people um think or say about us and i'm gonna be honest with you i don't i really don't care how tracy. I really could give a rip when anybody says, do I go out of my way to tick people off or to have them say something about me? No, because that's not biblical. But do I care? Is it going to keep me or hinder me from doing what God's word says? Or be what God's called me to be no i'm not i i don't care because i care more about

what he thinks than what they think and fear of man is is dangerous it'll cause you to do things that covet for example is a great example people were so fearful of what man would say or do to them that they put masks on their face so that when they went into places, nobody called them out. Listen, I never put masks on, never. And people were not very nice, but I don't care. They can go pound sand for all I care because I was not putting a mask on my face so that people would not have something, so that I wouldn't get an ugly look or I wouldn't have something said to me. And listen, after they said it, they stopped very quickly because the look on my face was not very kind. And it was basically, you better back off or you're going to get something back in return.

And you don't have to put up with people's nonsense if they say unkind things to you you can stand up for yourself so but let's look at scripture Galatians Galatians 1 10 says for do I now persuade men or God or do I seek to please men for if I still please men I would not be a bondservant of Christ we do not we do not do things because of what men will say and do we do them because we do them for the Lord who we want to please is the Lord every single time if men are pleased by it that's great but if they're not so be it Proverbs 29 25 says the fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe. It's so funny because a lot of us were considered called dangerous. We were considered to be people who don't respect the science, things like that, because we are not vaccinated.

But I would say because I didn't get that vaccine, I'm safe. A lot of people are very, very sick right now because of that vaccine. And a lot of people have regretted, regretted taking the vaccine. Some of them, some people have lost loved ones because of it some some people have watched their loved ones suffer and become very very sick because of vaccine and um so for for me that scripture paid off because the fear of man brings a snare people took that vaccination because they wanted to keep their jobs because they were afraid of what their co-workers would say but this is the the second part of that scripture is very clear but whoever trusts in the lord shall be safe people should have trusted in him instead of

trusting in the science or or being fearful of man and what they would say to them um i mean literally people took the jab because they didn't want to deal with their co-workers and their um basically what would happen is if you worked with a group of people and uh they were all vaccinated but you weren't vaccinated. And one of them got sick. Then some of them wouldn't be able to go to work. And you wouldn't go to work. And so peer pressure caused everybody to get the jab together so that if one didn't have the jab and the others did and they all were out of work, they didn't get paid.

Well, the one that that didn't take the jab would be the bad guy does that make sense yeah yeah yeah i mean i cannot tell you how many i heard that by several um it was in companies it was in coming back okay we're good we're good it was serious on black robe live people we're live right now we're live some people took the job because it was um like some of it was like the police it was if you work for the police department or the sheriff's office and you didn't take the jab and then other people. I mean, it was bad. County jobs and everything.

You had to do testing. Huh? Testing, too. If you didn't take the jab, then you had to test weekly, daily, whatever it was. Oh, yeah. For your job. Or if you wanted to travel. It was virtually impossible.

If they were mandating and you said no, they made it so hard for you to. But then there's people that stuck to their guns and they fought through the whole process and now they're the ones that are not and then people are like yeah I shouldn't have done it right travel too people were doing a travel and that went away so they did it for no reason exactly yeah I know I know people who took it to go on cruises right Right. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. It is crazy.

Like, to go somewhere, you're going to take a shot that normally takes 10 to 18 years. Right. 10 to 20 years, really. Right. And it was done in less than a year. Right. That's the other thing people don't realize. Yeah. people don't realize yeah normal vaccinations take 10 to 20 years to produce test and can and

confirm that they are they are no risk to people to take correct and this one took less than a year and people took it like that yeah workers know that so why were they so on board i know i don't get it that's why but that's why a lot of them walked right that's true too yeah that's true too Heather very good point yeah a lot of money involved excuse me so in case people did not hear what Heather said is she said a lot of people got got money and that's true they did that's why they did it it's it's crazy but fear of man yeah uh caring what people say about you or what they'll think about you and people don't read the bible no it's super i'm stretching out kim's shirt sorry kim um people

people people caring about what others think about them, pastors, I mean, seriously, they care more about getting a good review on Google than really preaching the word. It's frightening to the level of what's going on. We're talking about the black robe thing. Erin, if you're watching, thanks for changing the split screen to black robe, not me. That's what happened. I'm not going to do it again. Are we blaming Erin?

I'm 100% blaming. Okay, there we go. I'm blaming Erin. I can deal with that. He changed my little button that makes me go neon to black robe. And forgot to tell you. Well, I don't think it i don't think it's on purpose but i'm mad at you right now erin thanks a lot how dare you i found some

really great quotes in regards to this you didn't make you didn't put these quotes on there did you you didn't need to quotes no okay just want to make sure just versus she just does scripture verses so one of the there's two really great quotes that i found um the first one was by a guy named david ick and you guys might want to write this down to remind yourself because scripture is super important but great i love quotes too so um if you have issues with uh caring about too much caring too much about what people think about you. Write these scriptures down to remind yourself, especially in the times we live in, to not care. Like you've got to get a place where what people say and think does not matter.

What God says matters most. But God not being tangible a lot of times causes people to care more about the tangible than the intangible. But you need to remember, people are irrelevant when it comes to his word. What he says is number one, and everybody else is second. The greatest prison people live in is the fear of what other people think. I was just listening to Kenneth Hagagan talk about this this morning, and he said that, who was it that had a great quote? But it basically said, people are prisoners of their own words because of how they care about what others believe and say about them.

This is basically the same thing, but it was a Christian quote, and I cannot remember who he was using as the example, but the greatest prison people live in is the fear of what other people think, which is basically the same quote that I just quoted to you that this other person said that Kenneth Hagin was talking about. The next one is, and it's by somebody, nobody knows who said this, but what God knows about me is more important than what others think about me. It is so true. What God knows about you is totally way more important

than what other people think about you. What other people think about you is based on what their interpretation is. But God looks at your heart and he knows how you feel, how you think. And that's what matters the most. People will put their spin on things and what they believe isn't most of the time true. It's a judgment call on their part. And judgment calls can be wrong a lot of times. Joshua 1.9 says, Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Write these down. So when you care about what other people think about you, it affects your confidence in making the decisions that you're going to make.

It's going to, again, like COVID. A lot of people, if they were confident in the Word of God, confident in themselves, they would have never, ever, ever succumbed to COVID. The church would have stood up. And if the church would have stood up, COVID would never have happened. And we would not be where we're at right now. That's why they made it so that the church was not a place that people should attend. And they shut the church down when you could go to the Walmart or the bar. Like you could still go to the porn shops, but you could not go to church. Why do you think

that is it's because the forsaking of the assembly if you get people together and they start saying we're going to stand on the word of god then everything shuts down but no what happened is churches decided to be good neighbors in part uh you know good neighbors and community partners and like, I don't know what's another good term for it, but they just became weak. And that caused the whole world to be weak. So let's see where I want to go with this. No matter what, do what God tells you to do. Don't care what other people tell you to do or think you should do.

Don't ever follow the crowd. There's good peer pressure. There's bad peer pressure. Positive peer pressure, negative peer pressure. No matter what it is, don't listen to it. Just follow what the Word of God says. Like right now, I'm following positive peer pressure, no matter what it is, don't listen to it. Just follow, follow what the word of God says. Like right now I'm doing, I'm following positive peer pressure, right? The positive peer pressure is to get into shape, to eat healthy. That's great and all, but if the word says opposite of that, then I don't do it. Right. Even though it would seem like it's positive peer

pressure, because a lot of people fought taking the vaccine helping out helping out uh grandma so she doesn't die so you take the vaccine that seems like a positive peer pressure it isn't it but it wasn't it was totally opposite of that so no matter if it seems right if it does not line up with the word of god do not do it it the word is clear uh father will hate son mother will hate daughter vice versa um because people will make stands and they're gonna have to make tough decisions and people will not like you when you make tough decisions but that but God didn't say well if they if they end up hating you because of me well well, then don't follow through with it. Just keep at peace with everybody.

That's not what he said. He prepared you to know that you're going to have to make decisions, and those decisions might even cause your own family, your own parent to disown you or to dislike you. You still do it. That's the truth. You have to forsake anybody that doesn't go along with the word of God. Another thing is, is do people know that you're

a Christian? Do people at your work, in your friend circle, where you work out, where you do sports, or you do hobbies, do those people know that you're a Christian or do you keep that from them because you don't want uh to have people think you're crazy think you're weird you're a peculiar person because depending on like we're Pentecostal some people think we're weird some people think we're crazy um but like we work where we work out like all of us girls there's four of us there's a whole bunch of people in the room with us. But the instructors already know. We've only been going for three weeks, right? Yeah.

Three weeks. And all of our instructors know we're Christians. Yep. All of them know that we're saved. And they've all pretty much been invited. Except for one has not been invited to church yet. Okay. And that's the owner.

I don't think we've invited her yet. But the other two do. The other two do know about church. We invited them to church. The gym people. Yeah, the people from the gym. Yeah. In fact, one of them used to come here.

Not one of the girls we go to the gym with. One of the first times we went. Yeah. She was like, oh, no. They're here. And we loved on her she left the church super sweet girl yeah like for whatever reason she has her reasons but but um we've invited her back and loved on her and who knows maybe she'll come back yeah but yeah you can't be afraid of those

things everybody everybody should know you're saved. Everybody should know that you go to church. And everybody that you know at some point should be invited. That's just the way it is. You should not worry whether or not they think you're crazy or not. You should be crazy about Jesus. And through that craziness, they might be saved Matthew 10 33 says but whoever denies me before men him I will also deny it before my father who is in heaven do people know you're saved if you don't tell people

you're saved are are you ashamed of him why are you not telling people you're saved is because you care too much about what people think about you if you deny him before like if you are ashamed to tell people that you're a Christian and you're saved then you need to evaluate why that is and are you doing that scripture because if you are he knows your heart that would be a very scary thing if you're did not if you're not owning him if you're not owning Jesus, God, the Father, whatever, because of your fear of man, then he will disown you. It's just, it's what the scripture says. Mark 8 38 says, for whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels so i

would seriously contemplate whether or not you're not telling people about um your walk with god because you're afraid or ashamed of admitting that you're a believer because of god evaluate that does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. There's a lot of people out there who will never tell anybody they're saved.

I know. Because they're embarrassed. Yeah. What will people think about me? Well, Jesus is going to say the same thing about you. What will people think about me because I associate with you? Ooh.

Burn. Not good. Burn. Burn. Yeah. Yeah. Let me see. Somebody just, I got to just make sure. All right. Um,

so another thing is people, um, people always have to like, uh, don't want people to know they're Christians or whatever. People always are keeping up with the Joneses. They always have to have the latest and greatest things. They always have to have the biggest and best jobs. They always have to have the greatest outfits and the clothes and the latest gadgets. I mean, like, people are so materialistic today. Yeah. And sometimes being a Christian, they don't want to, they don't,

like, it's outside of that realm, right? Let me give you an example proverbs 13 7 says there is one who makes himself rich yet has nothing and one who makes himself poor yet has great riches are you um again i ecclesiastes 4 4 says again i saw that there i say i saw that for all toil and every skillful work a a man is envied by his neighbor. This is also vanity and grasping for the wind. Are you, let me see, how do I want to say this? How do I want to say this the proper way? Do you want things?

Why do you want things? Like for me, I'm a Christian. I don't like want things so that people look at me. And I want, I like nice things. I don't know how to explain this very well. I might not should have added this one in here. Because you like nice things. I don't know how to explain this very well. I might not have should have added this one in here. Because you like nice things, not to impress anyone else. That's true.

But how do I want to correlate this with being afraid? See, some people think, some people always have to have nice things or look a certain way. because if they don't, what will people say about them? How will they be perceived? Be perceived by people. So you always have to have the latest and greatest. And I'm not saying that that's wrong. This one's so. Yeah, no, you got it.

Because the thing is, is God wants you to have all those things. Right. But why do you want to have all those things? Heart condition. What's the heart in it? Yeah. Your heart position. I know.

So I'm hoping that's conveyed correctly. Yeah. But that's a tough one to explain because we are, God wants to give us, it's like your child. You want to give them and spoil them but it's not so that other kids are envious of what they have right it's because you just want to shower on them and then you don't want them to be puffed up and like look at me look at me right you have to be careful of all that why do you want the things that you want right is it because people will look at you and say good things about you

yeah or is it because you just like nice things and you know that god wants you to have nice things right right there's a difference that's good i don't know how to explain no ask yourself that question that's perfect why why are you doing that i don't think i'm saying it the right way though you're you are you're doing great All right, sometimes people when I explain I'm not always the greatest teacher. Yes, you are. Yeah. Yes, you are Not always Because sometimes how I explain things Heather's correct Sometimes how I explain things I don't explain them the greatest and so i have to sit here and go that doesn't make sense to me either yeah but you got it okay as long as you're fine with that ask those questions and the last thing i will say is

watering down the gospel yeah which is huge fear of man or fear of what people will say and think about you do you water the gospel down we We're seeing this in churches. Pastors are doing this left and right. Luke 6.26 says, Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets. Woe to you, meaning like this is not good. This is not good when all men speak well of you. Do not let this happen. Okay. You know, a lot of people think today that

like the sweeter, the kinder, the more inviting, the more grace conscious the church is, the better the church is. That is opposite of what the word says. Opposite. But the church is big right now on making sure that everyone speaks very well about them they're very inviting everyone is accepted as they are that is so not the truth and they're going to be stunned and shocked but they care more about what the community says about them and how big their church becomes how uh popular they are that is way more important to them than the true word of god another one first thessalonians 2 4 says but as we have been approved by god to be entrusted with the gospel even so we speak not as pleasing men but god who tests our hearts so So that one is, out of almost all of them,

that one's so important because truthfully, God is going to test each and every single one of our hearts and why we do what we do, why we say what we say, why we don't say what we should say. Is it because we're fearful of what people will say and think about us? Because if it is, woe to us. We should be willing to say and do whatever God tells us to say and do and let the chips fall where they may. Do not count the cost and that's why we're in the position we are in today right now too many people counted the cost and thought it was too much to ask or too big of a

deal to stand and so they they dropped you know and um like tom always says says, I'll die on my feet than, you know, on my knees. You know, he will not. I'd rather be standing. I'd rather be standing than on my knees. You know, and people are going to really be shocked either on the day of judgment or when they go to heaven. They're going to really be shocked at either on the day of judgment or when they when they go to heaven they're going to really be shocked at what God really considered to be I consider myself in this to a certain extent my you know too because what you think God wants from you or expected from you or what you never attained because of fear of man you will be shocked and dismayed at all the things that

you could have accomplished and all that he had planned for you but you got in the way you got in your own way and a lot of times it's because we care too much about what other people say or think about us and so I hope you wrote down those scriptures if not you can push rewind and write them down there next question is what are a couple of your favorite pictures you took or received this week okay this is very interesting people this is very interesting. I have a variety of pictures that I received this week by text or yeah, I think by text pretty much all, all the ones that I gave you are by text. Heather says, oh gosh, Heather should be oh goshing it. So my first picture this week at the very beginning of the week, I got the best news ever. And she actually texted me during the podcast.

Bia had her baby, little baby Z. I'm not going to say his name just in case. Well, that's not the reason why. They might not want everybody. Yeah. So show the picture. I got this. See that beautiful picture? Oh my gosh. Best,

best thing ever. Got this beautiful little baby boy. She had him this early this week. She had him all natural. Yeah. Crazy. She's, she's a beast. Yeah. That girl's a beast. Logan's going to do the same thing. Right? Mm-hmm. That's right. And I'm going to hook her and Bia up because Bia's going to be here in August. Good. Yeah.

So I'm going to hook you two up. She's going to give you all the positive. See, the thing is, is people love the drama. I told Logan, listen, do not listen to people. People love to talk about how bad having a baby is and they love it. They feed off of negativity. I told her if any, and I'm telling you, if you go to this church and you're listening to me right now and you go to Logan and talk, start telling her about all your dramatic, you know,

delivery stories, she's going to shut you down. I told her, do not listen to them. Do not listen. That is not what the word of God tells us to do. We are not to feed off of negativity or what the word says. She can have the best experience ever. We speak that over her. We believe that for her. Her childbirth is going to be a piece of cake. If you want to come to her and talk to her, or any other person that's going to have a child and vomit your crap all over them, keep it to yourself.

That's not what the word tells us to do. It's going to be a great experience. You're going to love life. Amen. Listen, it wasn't bad for me. I hated being pregnant. The stretching of the skin, the uncomfortableness. I'm not a big pregnancy person, but I will tell you, I'd have children for somebody.

I'd go through labor 100 times over. I loved it it was not bad at all that's amazing so you're gonna but seriously you're gonna love it it's gonna be the best thing ever next picture was oh Daniel Daniel with his baby yeah I got that picture too yeah so Bea sent me one Daniel sent me some this is okay that's the reason why next picture which one do you want to do I haven't Next picture. Which one do you want to do? I haven't done one yet. Which one do you want to do? We're still Daniel. Do you like that one? You can, you're done with Daniel. Okay. Do you want to do this one? Yeah. Okay. Then this one,

everybody's getting ready for Beloved. Yep. So Heather had all these people stand with different things trying to get, it's not the way it's going to officially look or anything like that, but we're working through it. So Heather sends me that how cute is that yeah super cute boys and some rexanne and was that janelle in there yep yep janelle next picture that was that was sent to me by my girlfriend kim because i was supposed to choose my roof my what my roof so okay those are roof yeah those are roof pictures for me to choose from okay uh which bring that back okay real quick coming back I think I chose the one on the left just so everybody knows oh phew yeah I went with the standard good standard send you that is that what you said Heather Heather needs that heather needs a new

roof so my roof is getting replaced on my house because it got obliterated yeah next picture this is from my daughter she was dog sitting for one of our good friends and the dog decided to make her airpods a chew toy. Yes. Yeah. That happened. Quite funny. Quite funny. We have plenty of those AirPods, though, so it wasn't a big deal. She was crying, she said. But they're already replaced.

I have, like, four. Heather came over to my house. She was like, what are all those AirPods? They're Apple AirPods. What are all those doing on your desk? I'm like, Tommy sweats through so many of them. Then they start working again. It's true.

I don't know. So I got four. There you go. Next picture. That's a lot. Next picture is the building. That was from Heather's husband, Travis, asking me a question about a paint color that I wanted.

I know. It's so random, people. It's so random. Like, it's so random. It's ridiculous. But this is my life, people. This is my life. This has been my pictures this week.

Next one. I have no idea what happened, so we're going to cut to a video. Oh, okay. We'll play the video. I don't know. And then i get this that's heather heather heather's in pain yeah heather's laughing okay one more time one more time yeah let's do it again okay we did biceps on monday she could not, like, Heather, like, I don't think, this is as far as Heather could go. Heather, show them how far, like, show them how far your arms would go down. No, scoot over to Logan.

Scoot, scoot. Okay, so Heather calls me up. Heather tells me, she goes, I can't move my arms. They won't go any lower than this but i'm better now so she had to take the massager yeah and uh massage but still it wasn't until was it yesterday heather it is there it is heather says we're in a group chat all of us that work out we're in a screw chat and heather sends that to all of us yeah it's bad uh but that was a that was a rough workout that day

yeah arms was a rough hour so she can only do that but that's fine so let's see is that it of all the pictures that's it and the videos that was there we go yep i got two minutes left almost three minutes left and uh so let's talk about jesus see i'm not ashamed of the gospel amen they hear me i don't care it's so funny to me i cannot tell you how many people in life have told me uh when i was saved and when i wasn't saved truthfully yeah i wish like how is it that you don't care what people think i wish i could be more like that i wish i like didn't worry so much about what other people will say or do listen it has gotten me into trouble I can promise you that because it's a great and I'm having to learn I've had

to learn and I'm still having to learn and I think Heather can probably relate to this because Heather's very much the same way and I don't mean this in a negative way at all I mean this in a very way at all. I mean this in a very. It's amazing. A very good way. But one of the things that Heather and I have is a. No soul. Yeah, no soul. Truth. Yeah, no soul.

But one of the things I will say is about both of us that I think both of us is our great, a great strength of ours is that we don't care what people say or think. We're going to do what we believe we're supposed to do and what we believe is right. Here's the negative. The negative is, is when you oftentimes don't care about what people say or think, you often are very careless or callous with the words that you

say to people because you have that mentality so your greatest strength one of your greatest strengths can be one of your biggest weaknesses okay and through that you have to learn that just because you're not a person that gets offended easily or carries the weight of what others think or feel, the thing is you still need to be sensitive to other people and how they'll receive what you say to an extent. Because sometimes because you don't care, and you like when people just kind of just don't hint and beat around the bush with you, like that drives me crazy. I don't like people hinting and beating around the bush with me. Like just say it.

But there are other people that that's how they prefer that. They still want you to be honest with them but not so straightforward that it crushes them or hurts their spirit and so what I would say to that is one of the things that Heather and I often remind ourselves and I can speak for her because she's she's we've talked about this is we have to remind ourselves to be more careful about what we say and sometimes we get it right and sometimes we get it wrong but to be more careful what we say to people because we don't want to hurt somebody's feelings and we don't want to crush someone's spirit but I will tell you at

the end of the day, if I have done those things and you still get hurt and you still get bothered, then I can't be bothered with that. I have to still be honest. I have to still be true to what the word says. And I still have to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord. There will be people, no matter how nice you say something to them, they will still be hurt, mad, and offended. There's nothing you can do about that. What you have to do is be responsible for your part that you play in saying or conveying what needs to be done. That's where I take responsibility for that. But at the end of the day, I'm going to be true to God's word, to the best of my ability,

and I'm going to be honest and not care what other people say or think. And because of that, I can promise you that if you don't know the Lord today, and I'm being totally 100% serious when I say this, there are people that believe right now that being a good person is all you need to be and you'll go to heaven. And I'm telling you with the nicest way that I possibly can is that is simply not true. It says that the only way to get to heaven is through Jesus. And that is it. If you do not accept him as your Lord and Savior, you're not going to heaven. If you've walked away and you believe that grace will cover your sin and you can live like however you want to

live and still go to heaven, that is not biblical. That is not true. Anybody who's told you otherwise does not either know the word or is misrepresenting the word. So if you are, if you're living like the devil, if you're living in sin, you need to come back because just because you said the sinner's prayer a long time ago, and you feel like you can do whatever you want to do, and you're going to heaven. That is not the word of God. It says if you do these things, you'll not inherit the kingdom of heaven. And then it gives a list of sins. And it's from fornication to adultery to gossip to jealousy to envy to covetousness, fits of rage.

It's a list of things that if you decide to live like that, you'll not inherit the kingdom of heaven. So if you're living like that, but you said the sinner's prayer a long time ago, you need to get your life right with God. And you need to step away from all that. Struggling with sin is different than a lifestyle with sin. Struggling with sin is knowing that you've sinned and saying, that's not how I'm going to live. I'm not going to do that again. God looks at the heart. He knows whether you mean what you say,

but he also knows whether or not you intend to do it again. He knows the heart. So if you don't know him, you've walked away from him and you need to get your life right, here's your chance. It'll be the best weekend of your life if you do this. And then you're going to let us know that you got saved. So say this prayer with me right now. Heavenly Father, I come to you right now. I ask you to forgive me of my sin.

Lord, I accept what you did on that cross, providing me salvation. And I will live for you the rest of my days and when I grow old I will go and live with you forever. Eternity is yours if you received him today.

That's it. That's all you need to do. Ask Jesus to forgive you of your sin. If you don't do it with me right now then in your own time ask the ask the lord to forgive you of your sin repent live for him repenting means 180 degrees or 180 right 180 because 360 is a circle 180 degrees going the opposite direction you go opposite of the way that you were living and listen it doesn't happen overnight he's going to tell you little things to change

and little things to fix and eventually you're going to sit there and go I don't even recognize the person I used to be you'll be so different but your life will be so great you just have to when he says don't do it you don't do it when he says do do this then you do that then you do that and you start walking that way and you'll be shocked and amazed how far you go and how quickly it happens and then the life that you live i mean logan is is a perfect example. How long has it been since you've been saved? Two years? Almost two years. Do you recognize the person you used to be? No. You do not recognize the person you used to be. Are you much happier? A hundred percent. Yeah. I'm just telling you, Logan is not special. She's special. She's special to us, but I'm saying in general, Logan's not special she's special she's special to us but i'm saying in general logan's not special

she's no different than you yeah what's happened for her can happen for you all you got to do is say lord i accept what you did on that cross for me i thank you that you you've forgiven me of my sin i live for you and make you the lord and savior of my life whatever you say to do i will do and whatever you say not to do i won't do do. And then when I die and grow old, because you do not have to die when you're young, when I am old and die, I will live with you forever. Eternity is yours. A mansion is being made for you in heaven if you accept him as your Lord and Savior. Have a great weekend. Thank you so much for tuning in and I will see you on Wednesday bye you you