The Hope Hotline - The Hope Hotline | S01-E69 | 09-13-23

Episode Date: September 13, 2023

Question #1My husband and I are definitely not on the same faith journey. I came to Jesus in 2008 after 20 years of marriage, but he has no interest. I want to enrich my relationship with God without alienating my husband. Any suggestions?Question #2My question is knowing when the Lord is speaking to me. I have never been able to know or guess felt confident in knowing when the Holy Spirit is truly speaking to me. I have always worked full time since I graduated high school and even as a parent since having my children. The more and more I follow and learn from Foundation Church, the more I don’t want to work anymore and be a stay-at-home mom and homeschool my kids. How do I know it’s not just me being selfish and not wanting to work versus making a better decision for our kids? Every time I feel like it’s the right thing to quit, I feel the guilt sink in that it’s just me not wanting to work.

Real Talk Hello everybody. Welcome to the Hope Hotline. It is Wednesday. It's Happy Hump Day. And I mean that in the most purest form. Happy Hump Day. So, I mean, if you're married, that can mean whatever you want it to mean. I don't know what to tell you. Hey. Hey. If you're single, then it's just Wednesday and it's halfway through the week.

That's all you're getting. Yeah. I know what some of you guys are going to be doing tonight. Oh, my gosh. For real. And Norma is like, Mom, good Lord. Listen, Norma, someday it will be you. No. She just, whatever.

It will be. I was going to deny it, but I can't deny it. No, you. It will be. No, you can't deny it. No denying. All right. Now that, oh my word, people. You didn't hear her, but she just told me she'd be thinking of me. That sounds a little incestual and lesbian-ish all at the same time.

Oh my gosh. I don't even know how that works. But please don't think of me. Or at least if you do, don't tell your husband. Divorce proceedings will begin the next day. Oh my gosh. Oh dear God. She's still looking. Hello, Norma.

Goodbye, Norma. Okay. That was an interesting first two minutes. Here we go. But, you know, not a lot of you are on right now. So if I'm going to say anything like that, it needs to be in the first five minutes. I don't know. While people are logging on. There's a decent amount watching.

But okay. It's okay. Yeah. Only on the replay. I don't know. They're here. People are here. Hashtag replay.

Well, you get it. Otherwise, I got a crew. I got to my right, your left, Tracy Logan, Talia, who's putting on her makeup. Oh, if you could see her. Show your mirror. She's got the whopper of a mirror. Like, she's putting on makeup right now. Yeah, there you go.

And then we got Vanessa. My ride or die today. You can't see you, girl. There her is. We sweated. We sweated to the oldies today. It was a good day because it was like 70s music. Oh, actually.

She knew nothing. I do like 70s. Vanessa knew not one song. Like Bee Gees? Pretty much. No, no Bee Gees. It was rock. It was rock.

No. She knew nothing. So it was all about me today. Yeah, she wasn't even born. No. None. She knew nothing. So it's all about me today. Yeah. She wasn't even born. No. None of us were. So what?

What? None of us were. But. That's true. Yeah. You were. All of you guys were just a memory. We were.

You were the fruit of someone's loins. True. You just weren't there yet. So, today was a good day. Today's been a good day. I've been wearing a little pain from our workouts the past couple days. It's been a little rough, but it's been good. I did have my jacket off before the podcast, but then I saw what I look like without it on, and I put my jacket back on very quickly. But soon, people, because it's so freaking hot in here, by about 20 minutes in, we are all sweating. And it's not because we have a bad air condition. It's because the air condition is so loud that you will hear it.

Yeah, that's true. So the prices we pay to put this podcast on, we're losing weight as we're doing it. Hey. Listen. Hey. Normally about, how many months ago is May from now? Five months? Yeah.

About five months ago? No. June, July, August. Before then? September. I didn't care. Yeah, four. Now losing weight while I'm doing the podcast, it means so much.

So, listen. I'm accomplishing two things at one time. There you go. Pop up that little thingy for me because I'll forget this. If you had not made this for me, I'd be in big trouble. Please like and share. Please like and share. God bless.

I need it. Big time. So, and oh my gosh. I cannot wait for you to see what Heather had made for the Hope Hotline. It is so funny and cool all at the same time. And all you mamas, you're going to kiss her face for it. I promise you. But it's awesome. Logan's going to get the very first one. Logan, I promise you. Just don't let me forget to tell Heather, or you won't get it, because I'll forget.

Logan will get the very first one. She's the new mama to be. I'm just telling you, you guys are going to. We ordered about five to make sure we like them. But if they are good, listen, I am going to be the talk of the town in good and bad ways. Yeah. It's going to be awesome. And then for any of you that live out of state, I'll gladly support you with this.

But please like and share. Comment. Commenting is huge. Please don't make us be the only one commenting. That's all I'm going to say. Please like and share, comment, subscribe, tap that bell. What's the other stuff? Yeah.

Subscribe, like, share, comment. There we go. You got it. And away we go. Are we done? Yeah. Are we good? Yeah. Hey, good? Yeah.

Hey, hold up that new, listen, this is a brand new drink. Hold up this drink that I bought you. I had one today. Now, it's good for you, people. It's not a Red Bull. You can't see that. What is that? Is it from the light? It is cream soda.

Is it cream? What's it called? It's a Lonnie. It's a Lonnie. Dream float. Dream float. It's a Lonnie. Dream float. Dream float. It's creamsicle. If you like energy drinks, oh my goodness. No, you can't see that very good.

The light is blinding me. I can see it. Hey. Come here. Bring me that thing. Let's just do this right. Okay. Listen. For all of you Red Bull people who are, like, against it, I can't even do it.

Wow. What a surprise. Woo-hoo. Listen. This is it. Okay. Hold on. Okay.

Go put your hand on my hand. Oh, there we go. Woo! She did it. Okay, hold on. Okay. Oh, there we go. Woo! She did it. Okay, that is so dang good. It's brand new. It just came out, and it's called Cream Float. Dream Float. And listen, have you tasted it, Vanessa?

Okay, and when I... Yeah, real time, Vanessa's tasting it right now. You like it? It does taste like a creamsicle. I'm just telling you people. It's got 10 calories. No, yeah, 10 calories. I felt like I was drinking heaven.

Heaven on earth. I felt like I was drinking a dream. That earth. I felt like I was drinking a dream. That's what I felt. It's good. Yeah. So if you need a good energy drink, Monster, I don't drink Monster, but a good, would that be considered clean, that energy drink? Because there's nothing bad in it, right?

Except for like taurine. Is there such a thing as a clean energy drink? No. No. Am I dreaming about dreaming about that yeah you're dreaming is it better than most no because even says naturally it's better than most okay if you're looking for better than most probably not go out and buy that sucker but they do have some really good like i love a lot of their drinks I'm like I I drink Red Bull but not near as much as I used to because I'm hooked on those but dream float people dream all right that's enough of my my um what do you call it commercial for a Lonnie all right we ready to go what are you doing over there okay so she's gonna try and

get Vanessa and the picture so So when we're talking. Oh, you did it. You can't see it. But, okay, you can show it. Can you show it so everybody can see it really quick? There we go. Now you can see. You can see Vanny on the block.

That's her nickname, Vanny on the block. Actually, I'm not kidding. That is her nickname, Vanny on the block. I didn't just make it so, like, it sounds like she is standing on the block on the corner ready to get picked up no it's actually her nickname Vanny on the block but that's not because she was standing on the corner waiting to get picked up if you knew her then not many people would have been picking her up she's too heavy to do that. She was husky, as she said. Not many people could have lifted her. Oh, my gosh.

No, it's true. Have you seen pictures? She was like Tom Likely. Not too many people were chasing down that dream. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Now, I mean, look at you for crying out loud. Daggum.

Like, if you were single, you'd be beating them off with a stick, but she's happily married, so it's not a point. Let's get to the questions, because really that's what you're tuned in for. Are they? I think that's what they're tuned in for. Okay. Like, it's really about the questions. It's a little bit of both. What is that?

A little bit of both. A little bit of the crazy, and a little bit of the... Well, that's always... Yeah. That's whether we read questions or not. It's going to be crazy. But let's go. Let's do it. So I'm getting to some questions for this month.

So send in more questions. Because not that I'm running out of them because they're always coming in. But I'm catching up to some more recent ones, which makes me happy. It says, my husband and I are definitely not on the same faith journey. I came to Jesus in 2008 after 20 years of marriage. Wowzers. 20 years of being married, and you finally get saved. That's awesome.

So 2008, it's 23. That's 15 years ago, right? That's 15 years ago? 2008. So now you've been married 35 years. If at 2008, you were 20 years in, isn't it 15 years? Yeah, because the girls are in six. Yeah, they're 17 and they were born in 2006. Yeah. So now you've been married 35 years. That's a long dang time. That is. That's a long dang time. So 15 years you've been married.

So I came to Jesus in 2008 after 20 years of marriage, but he has no interest. I want to enrich my relationship with God without alienating my husband. Any suggestions? So this is not uncommon. Like a lot of people get married, both lost, not saved at all. And through time, one of them will get saved. Now, I think it's way easier when the man gets saved first.

Women by nature, we're like, we're followers. We're dependent. And I don't mean that in a bad way. I'm an independent person. But I'm very dependent on that relationship that I have with my husband in a healthy, godly way. But I want to be together. I want us to be like-minded. I want us to be following in the same path. I find women, because we're nurturers by nature we tend to want to have that cohesive work as guys like they can be very independent now it's not unless he's a not unless he's a this isn't true of every guy because some guys are so whipped no not like Jer Jer when I say Jer's whipped Jer is totally enamored and in love with his wife.

And he wants to make sure she's happy. But when the rubber meets the road, he ain't messing around. It's his way or the highway for the most part. True. What? True. It is true. Yeah, it is.

Tracy knows this. It is. But I'm talking about men that will never cross their wives because whatever they should say goes and they're they're afraid there are some of those there's a lot of men that don't kind of care what their wife thinks like if if they go in different directions for whatever period of time um they're okay with it because they know the relationship would be fine, but they don't have to have that constant. Women by nature are. And it is even biblical, like men are the priests of the home, that if the husband, if you have kids

and the husband is the leader of the home and he goes to church, the statistics are like ridiculous. It's over 80%. If the husband gets saved, then he takes the family to church. The percentages of the children staying with their walks and with God being saved, never walking away, or coming back, or whatever. The family unit will serve God at a higher percentage than, like, it's ridiculous. I think it's over 80% the last time I looked. Whereas if the wife does the very same thing, like, the percentages are less than 10%. So a man following Christ is huge. So I get what you're saying. But in your case, there is scripture that clearly show, and I'm going to tell you, you should claim these scriptures over you and your husband. Matthew 19, 5, and this is New King James Version, it says, for this reason a man shall

leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. You guys are a unit. That's why you really, what in the world are you showing me? 3.5% of families get saved if the child is saved first. Tracy, thank you. You're very welcome. That's what I'm here for, Hope.

I'm not just a little pretty. Okay, show that picture, though. Okay, so read that really quick. 3.5% of families get saved if the child gets saved first 17 percent of families get saved if the wife is saved first and 93 percent of families get saved if the husband is saved first boom boom and it how recent is that this article because mine was from October 21 okay yours more recent mine was in... October 21. Okay, yours is more recent. Mine was in the 2000s when I saw the

statistics, but that's actually... Thank you for confirming what I said. You're welcome. I appreciate that. That's awesome. Not to say that that statistic will be your family, but there are... But the importance of a man being the first saved is

huge. It is huge. It's huge. So when you guys joined together, whether you were saved or not, you became one flesh. It's the design and the purpose and the will of God. And it is very tough when you are one to be unequally yoked because you're one. It's like you're fighting. It's like fighting within yourself, right?

It's not fun. Here's the great, no, this isn't it. 2 Corinthians 6, 14 through 15 says, Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness, and what communion has light with darkness, and what accord has Christ with Belial, or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? So I give that scripture for people who are dating somebody. See, in your case, you both weren't saved.

And then you got saved. So you had no option in this. But there are plenty of people who are in relationships with a non-believer or are willing to date an unbeliever. And the Bible is very clear. It just said don't do it. Do not be unequally yoked together. And people will say, well, I can go out on one date. Somebody just recently said to me, John Bevere, he went out on a date with his wife, Lisa. She wasn't saved, and he got her saved.

And I said, okay, so just because he got her saved, that makes being disobedient to the Bible okay? Like, it's irrelevant. He shouldn't have done it. It worked out for him. Kudos. But guess what? He was biblically wrong and immature.

He should have never dated her until she was saved. Period. It doesn't happen like that. Are you guys okay? Oh, you're hot. It doesn't work like that. We don't, like, we We do not place ourselves into temptation. It is very tempting to have feelings for somebody who is not saved, go out on a date with them and have to continue

to go out on a date with them and control those feelings and hope that they don't go anywhere until they get saved. That's why that scripture is very clear. Don't be involved with somebody who's not saved. You don't do it in business. You don't do it in relationship with somebody who you want to be your spouse. And you definitely don't do it with friendships. Your best friend should never be somebody who's not saved. It shouldn't be. Should you be acquaintances with people like that? Absolutely. That way you can get them saved, but you don't have close relationships with the lost. You don't. So whatever. So do not date somebody who's not a Christian. Big deal. Big deal. Now this is your, this scripture right here, I want you to write it down.

I want you to hang it up somewhere that he might not see it because it might take him off. But this is your promise, and this is your hope. Not necessarily a promise. This is your hope. It says in 1 Peter 3.1, Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands. Then even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives. So how you behave will determine and help determine whether or not he gets saved. I can't tell you how many times I've had women come and talk to me about their husbands being lost. And just their hearts are broken, obviously, because they want their husband to go to heaven.

But also, they go to church by themselves. The thing I tell them this scripture all the time, 1 Peter 3.1, I tell them it all the time. And when they do it, I cannot tell you how often, as soon as they start doing this and behaving, closing their mouths, quit nagging, quit trying to push Christianity, but be the example. It says that without a word, without a word, he may be won by the conduct of his wife. So be a biblical example. Now that does not mean if your husband asks you or wants you to do something that is not in the word that you do it. Like if he tells you, you can't go to church, you don't submit to that. If he tells you, you can't

pay a tithe and you have a job, you pay your tithe because there are some things you don't submit to him under. But the things that he's not, the things that he's asking you to do that are not, not a biblical principle, then you submit to them. You honor him. You love him. And through that, you might or will probably see him come around. I've seen so many women, when they start doing this, their husbands are now willing to come to church with them, or they'll go to like, if there's like, here at our church, we have a lot of times where these groups of people will get together just for like a barbecue or whatever.

The husband would have never gone before, but this time, all of a sudden, out of the blue, he'll go, I'll go with you. He comes, he meets the people, and he the blue, he'll go, I'll go with you. He comes. He meets the people. And he's like, okay, they're not weird. They're actually really nice. I see why you like these people.

I see why you want to go to church. I'll go to church with you. And then they go to church. And then little by little, the Holy Spirit starts chipping away at that hard-heartedness. And then they're saved. It happens. I can't tell you how many times I've seen it. One of my closest friends here at the church, her husband wanted

nothing to do with Christianity at all. Not one thing. And she lived this principle out. I said to her, I said, why don't you just, why don't we all, this is when the church was smaller, why don't we go out, a double date? He met us. He was like, they're not weird. It wasn't even like two months later. He was like, I'll go to church with you. And now he's sold out, saved, does major things for the church. He plays major roles with the church.

He's actually a very good friend of ours. And that was through her obedience doing the First Peter principle. So I would say to you, hang that up, remember it. But the other thing I would tell you is use the fruits of the Spirit, which is in Galatians 5.22-23. So when you're an example, when you're being the example and showing the conduct that needs to be done, that would be the fruits of the Spirit. Galatians 5, 22 through 23 says, but the fruit of the spirit is love,

joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. You have to exemplify all those things. And when you walk in the fruits of the spirit, your husband, I mean, it's not that, it's not the easiest of things to do. It isn't, but it is absolutely doable the closer you get with your walk with God. And your husband will be saved by walking in the fruits. But another huge scripture that I would tell you to walk in. And everybody should walk in this, whether or not they are married or single. And it's Philippians 2.14, which says, do all things without complaining and disputing. Okay. If you want your husband to be one to the Lord, and if anybody wants a successful relationship with anyone in their life, guess what you don't do? You don't complain and

you don't argue. You don't complain and you don't argue. And the word is very clear that all of us are to do everything without complaining and without arguing. The arguing part's not so hard for me. The complaining part, I have a little bit of an issue with. Because like, I'm not the biggest complainer, but like, if I see something I don't like, I have a problem not saying it. Right. And I might say it again.

Other than that, do all things without complaining and arguing or disputing. I love the one that says grumbling or complaining. So you do those things. Live the fruits of the spirit. Walk out the fruits of the spirit. Do everything without complaining and arguing. Listen, you stop arguing with your husband, he's going to feel your pulse because he's going to make sure you're not dead. He's going to be like, what the, are you even alive?

Like, because a lot of times we're always doing this. Lots of friction. Not in my marriage because we live by that principle. We do not do anything. If there is something that can't be said in the right manner, then we don't say it until we can in the correct and proper. We, I don't think there's ever been a word that Tom and I have ever said to each other that we have no regrets with. I don't think that there is. Because we are very careful with our words. Very careful. And everybody, and the other thing I would tell you, people throw around the big D word a lot, which is divorce.

That word should never, ever, ever, whether you're living with somebody who's saved or not saved, the word divorce should never, ever, ever be spoken when you're in the middle of a fight or argument or just in communication with one another. That is off the table forever unless you're abandoned or she is cheating. If a spouse is cheating, talk about it all day long. If you've been left

and there's no chance of anybody coming back, then you can talk about it because that's what the Bible says. But otherwise, it should never be spoken of because once you, it's a seed that's planted. And once you start planting that seed, people start thinking, what would it be like if I was divorced? Life would be pretty dang good. At different times, you start planting that seed, people start thinking, what would it be like if I was divorced? Life would be pretty dang good. At different times, you start thinking, oh, I could never do that. And the more you talk about it and the more the seed gets deeper and starts taking root, then you start thinking, let me think. Let me think, what would life be like?

How could I leave this marriage? What must I do to get out of here? I financially probably could do it. This is what I could do if I have kids. Like I'm just telling you, you plant that seed and your mind runs amok. It's not good. So never speak of divorce. Neither one of you. That should never be on the table when you're having an argument. Not once. Does anybody have anything to add? That's really good. Very good. Nothing to add though, about what she should do with her spouse? No, I think that's great. I think, um, if they,

if she just stays consistent and loves him, like you were telling her to, and doesn't argue with him, like it does, it changes everything. If she does it often and she starts looking different, he is, he's going to check her pulse. I love that. That was really good. The whole dynamic. Yep. And if you divorce is off the table, then this is your option. Yeah. So I truly think that you like, I've seen it so many times. I think there's truly hope. It's definitely possible. A hundred percent. God wants it. He hates divorce. Yeah, he hates it. But Satan loves it. But Satan loves it. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Right.

So if he can steal your family, if he can steal your marriage, it's a great thing. And if you have kids, your kids may be older, but I'm just telling you, from my mom's parents divorced, and rightfully so because her father was having an affair having had multiple affairs um on her mom so she rightfully divorced but it it didn't make things easier for anybody like nobody wants their parents divorced they obviously thought not very highly of the the dad but even so you never want your family to be like that's like you're the most stable relationship even with tom tom's parents got divorced when he was older my mom's parents got divorced when they were older it's very tough on on the family satan loves it

but i will say this like i know personally people who have blended families. And if that marriage is really good, then the family flourishes because God can take and work everything for his good. So just because it happens and it's rough on the family, God can work it and turn it around and be even better than the other relationship if obviously it was divorced for not good reasons. What if you did want your parents to divorce? What if you did want your parents to divorce? Yes.

Because you got tired of seeing them fight? Fight. My mom get hurt. Me get hurt. Physically. Well, that's different. Okay. Yeah.

I mean. I wanted desperately for my parents to get divorced. You were young, right? Junior high. Yeah. That's rough. But here I would say that to that, Logan, but ultimately for you to been brought up in an intact loving environment would have been ideal. Absolutely. ideal absolutely yeah so in even though you were wanting her to get out of that situation

the end and that's where satan satan creeped in made things violent made it so acceptable and then but so what you don't what you don't realize is the innocence and purity of a loving parental relationship now you have one in your marriage, but the problem is you don't have that to fall back on. That's where Satan wins. It's not cool. He takes the innocence of relationships, and he destroys them, and it's generational.

Now, you will fix that for your family, but you should have had that. And that's where I literally get so angry with Satan over these things. But when parents aren't saved, that's what you get. So, next question. My question is knowing when the Lord is speaking to me. And you can sum this up however you want for the podcast. So here's the question.

I have never been able to know or guess or guess felt confident in knowing how the Holy Spirit is truly speaking to me. I've always worked full time since I graduated high school and even as a parent since having my children. The more and more I follow and learn from Foundation Church, the more I don't want to work anymore and be a stay-at-home mom and homeschool my kids. My husband and I both work and make a very good living for ourselves and we've always been that way. I'm very grateful we've never had to worry about where our next meal would come from or if we'd have a roof over our heads. How do I know it's not just me being selfish and not wanting to work versus making a better decision for our kids. Every time I feel like it's the right thing to quit, I feel the

guilt sink in that it's just not, that it's, it's just me not wanting to work. So I literally wish I could speak to you personally about this. I don't. So you come to Foundation Church. So, listen, I'm going to answer this question. But if you want to, I can meet with you personally about this. Because it's a toughie. So I might not be able to answer those questions exactly. But I can personally talk to you and maybe help you with it. Okay.

So I may be able to answer it but you might need more detail. So let's just try it. I don't know how long you've been saved. This is part of the question. So depending on how long you've been saved will depend on how well you feel like you can listen to the, you can hear the voice of God. See, for me, I talk to God all the time.

And I remember like being in my twenties, I think I was like 24 or something like that. I remember I, I, I could hear him when I wasn't like when I was younger and I was saved before I walked away from God, I, like, was very immature in my spiritual walk. Okay, can you hear the air condition? That's the reason why we don't have it on. I don't know why it popped on, but we're taking care of it. So, it sounds like a jet engine. I know.

It literally sounds like a jet engine. I know. It literally sounds like a jet engine. It's so loud. So when I wasn't saved, I mean, so when I was saved, I was very immature in my walk because I was so young. But I still prayed. I still could hear his voice. But not

like when I turned 24, got my life right with God, and then I started going, I really need to know, like that still small voice. Do I hear that still small voice like how do I know that I'm hearing God and I'm going to tell you the more the more you pray but more importantly the more you talk to God in a friendship way the more you talk to God in a friendship way, the more you'll know that you actually hear his voice. I mean, I've heard him tell me names of people that I've never met before. And then we introduce ourselves and God, I mean, literally the person will say their name and it's exactly what, who

God told me their name was. Okay. He gives you confirmation so that you know, you hear his voice, right? The more you, you talk to him, the more relationship you have with him, the louder he becomes. Okay. So if you don't know whether you can hear him or not, it's probably because you don't pray enough or you don't have a friendship with him. That or you're, you do, but you're just very immature still, or you're a nervous ninny. Some people are fearful. So, like, there's a gamut of things, but the two are probably the most likely. And I still could be wrong about that, but it's highly probable that you haven't spent enough time with him because you're working, trying to be a mom, trying to be a wife. It's still

unacceptable. God comes first, but we allow life's life to get in the way of what's truly important, which is your relationship. So there's been things like prophetically, God will give me a word for somebody and I have to step out and I have to go and talk to them or I have to, when I pray over them, I have to speak that over them. And I can't be afraid to say it because I've asked God to use me. So when I speak those things into people's lives or if I prophetically go to somebody and say, the Lord told me to tell you this, I'm taking a chance that I miss it. Do I miss it? Yeah. Some people, like you are going to miss it, right? But on the whole, you should be

getting it all the time. Well, I know I'm getting it all the time. And every time I get the confirmation and every time I speak something and then the person responds like, how do you know that? Then I know I hear the voice of God, right? You learn that you hear his voice by using his gifts and his callings, and then also a friendship and a relationship. Instead of praying and just asking him for things, God wants to commune with you. It says that we are a friend of his, right? I am a friend of God, or God is our friend. What is the one that talks about no greater love than this, that he lay his life down for us? No, that's not it. What's the scripture about we are friends? Look it up for me really quick. John 15, 13, greater love hath no man than this. No. That a man lay down his life for his friends. No, that's the one I was thinking, but there's

also one that's not the one I want though, but that's a good one. It talks about that he calls us a friend of his, and it's based on I'm a friend of God, which is, which is the song that Israel Howton sings. No longer do I call you servants, but I call you friends. No longer do I call you servants, but I call you friends. So he wants to be your friend. And he doesn't just want, and I'm talking about Jesus died on that cross, right? But God wants to be our friend. He created us because he was lonely, because he wanted to commune with us.

When he created Adam and Eve, what did he do? He would walk with them in the evening through the Garden of Eden, and they would talk and communicate with each other. Okay, he wants to communicate with you. He wants a relationship with you. The more you talk to him, the more you hear him, the more you hear him clearly. Now, I will tell you this. Let me ask, I do want to ask this. Like, Logan, you've only been saved. So people who've, like, I've been saved now since I was 24 when I got my life right. I'm 56 now. It's a long time.

I've had a lot of time to be able to speak to the Lord, hear him clearly, and then walk in the gifts and callings that he's called me in. But then I've also daily been able to communicate with him and create a friendship and a relationship with him. You've only been saved for a year, a little over a year now. Do you know when you hear his voice? Are you still trying to figure that out? I know now, but it took a long time.

How do you know? Confirmation. Confirmation of what? Repetitiveness. So I'll hear something, and a lot of times it sounds like me saying it, and then I have to wait, and either it's revealed or repeated. Right. So let me give you an example.

So sometimes, let's give an example. If you're walking through a financial situation and the Lord says, Logan, do not worry. I have this taken care of. Do not worry. Be at peace. Take comfort. And you sit there and go, is that me or is that you, Lord?

And then you go, no, I know your voice. I know that I can rely on this. And then it may be a day later, an hour later, two weeks later, and you see a financial blessing come through or you see some, that's your confirmation, correct? Okay, that's how we know. Tracy, how about you? You've been saved not as long as me, but a long time.

So how do you know you hear the voice of God? Risk reward. What? Risk reward. So like you were saying, sometimes you'll get it right and sometimes you won't. Um, so I kind of stepped out a lot and was like, okay, I think he's saying this. And then I would go with it. And then it panned out. And there's definitely times where I was like, okay, maybe I missed it. But I was close. So maybe I was a little bit like carnal about it. But a lot of the times, like I just stepped out in faith. And if he said like, hey, I really want you to pray this over this person, or I really want you to read the scripture. And now what about like, so you're going your own business. She's, she's saying, I'm going to potentially quit my job. We financially have never had to think a lick about being secure in our financially secure because we've been our own providers.

Now I'm going to have to, if I quit my job and I homeschool my kids. Right. And I'd be a wife and a mother. Yeah. And we hit financial difficulties. How do I know I'm really supposed to do that? Yeah. You, I know, I've had to take these risks before.

Financial, like I had to quit. I heard the voice of the Lord. We were making killer money the market was crashing but even still I could have gone to work but the Lord told me no you're not working you're homeschooling your kids which was the best thing I've ever done in my whole entire life just for the record I make fun of it like I make fun like my kids are still alive it's they're lucky that they're still alive that those those kinds of things, they should be dead. You know, those things.

But I will tell you, it was the most beautiful and sweetest time. It was, listen, homeschooling your kids is rough. No teacher comes home every single day from school going, that was the best day ever. Like, because there are going to be difficult days. There's students that are going to be difficult. There are times that kids don't want to do work. It's not going to change in your house. You're going to face days where your kids are not going to want to do school.

All they're going to want to do is lay around or whatever. I mean, that's life. Then you have to put your teacher hat on and you have to be strict. It's not always pleasant. But I will tell you, it's more pleasant than it is tough. And it's more spiritually rewarding than not. So I will say this and then you tell me whether you can agree with me or not. There have been decisions that I've had to make that were risk or reward.

And the times that I've missed it, which aren't very often, but there were times God knew my heart. He knew I was going after him. He knew I was trying to be obedient to what he wanted me to do or what I felt like he wanted me to do. And so he saved my hide. Yep, 100%. Because it was all about the motive of the heart.

So there really wasn't any risk because God looks at the heart, and he will save your keister when he knows that you were trying to be obedient. So if you miss it, there's nothing to really worry about. 100%. If you're paying your tithes, you're golden. Yeah. You can't miss it. If you're not paying your ties don't quit

don't quit your job yeah Vanessa homeschools give it but you're gonna have to go to Logan's like Logan's little thingy over there okay so um in a lot of ways this was our scenario not exactly but I did um quit my job to stay at home with, I'm looking over here, right? Yeah. To stay at home with my kids. And because I heard the voice of the Lord. And one thing that I have found true is that favor follows obedience. Amen.

And because we decided and we were obedient in that decision like God increased our territory 100 percent he always does and never once did we ever have to like where worry where our next meal came from and but you're tithers exactly and so if the Lord is speaking you got to be obedient. Yeah. But here's the thing I will say even with Vanessa. He says he'll meet every need, not every want. So the righteous will never be seen begging for bread when you're used to going and buying whatever you want at the store, whenever you want to buy it, that might change for you. We've all been there, correct? We've all been there because he says he'll provide every need, not every want. The best thing that ever happened to my family is going through periods of time where we wanted things and we didn't have them. Because what we wanted maybe wasn't the best for us.

It's not always the best to be able to walk through the store and just pull things off the rack and say, I want that. I want that. Because it's like Paul said, I know what it is to be in need and I know what it is to be in plenty, but in all things I'm content. And that's where you really need to know. Like it's very important in the times that the needs that are being met, not the ones that you learn to be content in those things. It's not healthy to be spoiled. It's not. It's very healthy to be well-rounded and to be able to, whatever comes your way, to be able to handle it, to be able to trust in him and to know that no matter what he's coming through, he's your provider. So that doesn't mean if you quit, like the money's still coming in and that he's going to enlarge

your territory. The enlarging of the territory happens through time. It happens through faithfulness. It happens through when, when like a bill needs to be paid and it looks like it's going to be tight you pay your tithes and then the bill is paid because faith is action how you and faith is trust in so much that you trust god you will you will live out and you will act out that faith if you don't trust god then your actions will follow that. You won't pay your tithe because your trust won't be in him. Your trust is in yourself. But that's faith. Faith is action. Faith equals trust. How far do I trust you, God? And so that will determine it. But I will say to you, there is no greater thing. There's no

greater investment. I remember when Tom and I were deciding whether or not to, for me to quit and stay home with the kids and do homeschooling. One of the things is we went around and we talked to different parents that did it. And one of the greatest things was as a guy, and I, like I said, I've said, told the story before, I didn't think his wife was the greatest homeschool mom ever like she did not do it she's willy-nilly with it I'm not I'm not they're very structured like they're laughing Tracy's laughing like we sit down at the table at this time yeah we will do these are the tasks that we will do every day. And this is the timeframe in which we have to get them done. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it, because

if you're in school, guess what? That's how it works. You don't get two hours to do math. Guess what? You got 55 minutes. You got to get it done. And then you have homework afterwards right that's life so I tried to structure things like real world some days were successful some days were not they didn't have any structure if they did school whatever that was them but the one thing I will say and all their kids are saved and all of them are doing something for the Lord. So they did something right. And all of them have successful jobs. One of them sings for Bethel. Like, seriously.

Like, they're good people. They did something right. But the thing that he said is, do you, what's more important? For eight hours for your child to be reared and taught by the world? And have the peer pressure of them or the peer pressure of you? You can have them where you mold them, you make them, and they develop into the women and men of God that you believe God's called them to be, or you give them to the world for eight plus hours, you let them be developed by the world and hope for the best. And in today's world where the school system is teaching things that are off

the charts, I'm sorry, I would not have my kids in a public school system if my life depended on it. I wouldn't. And now listen, I have lots of friends who have their kids in the public school system. I'm not saying that they're horrible parents. It's just nothing I would do. I would not cast my kids to the wolves. I just wouldn't. So if God's telling you to do that, he's probably doing that as a good investment for your child. Yeah. To be able to save them from the world. I love, and I want you to remember something, too. You can always work from home, which I ended up doing some stuff like that, too.

But if you quit your job, there's plenty of jobs. Tracy works. She's very successful, has a business, still able to homeschool, is able to structure her schedule around it. Other moms do that too. But I'm just saying there's options out there. If you quit your job, that doesn't mean you quit working, period. You can have other jobs that you do from home, which is very popular very popular yeah I worked for home my last not my last job the job

before that I worked for home for like three years yeah it was great but can you play I want you to listen to this I had Tracy pull this video it's about hearing the voice of God and it's so good it's Jesse Duplantis play it it's about hearing the voice of God, and it's so good. It's Jesse DePlantis. Play it. It's so good. See, I have an idea that you are creating with the humor and with your stories just a hunger for people to have the same relationship with God that you do. Is there a prayer that you can pray to jump start us no what it is is that you just sit down

and try and get out of the religious way of thinking sit on your couch wherever you are in your house and just say lord i need to talk to you i want to be your friend see that's another thing i read that abraham was a friend of god Wait a minute. If Abraham can be a friend, how come I can't be a friend? You know what the Lord told me? He said, I need friends, Jesse. I need, see, most people pray to him and never talk to him. Now I want to tell you something, what's going to happen. You're going to feel foolish. You're going to feel silly because your intellectual activity, your range and research, your induction and reason, and that's all in the mind. But see, you get out of your mind. You say, Lord, all of a sudden, you're going to hear something.

First, you'll sense the presence. You'll come in that room. I mean, you're going to get some goosebumps. You go, whoa. Because see, the body can't handle anything spiritual. It just reacts. It doesn't know what to do. But that spirit goes, it'll pull real quick.

Your spirit is in 100% contact with God if you're born again. What your problem is is in your soulless realm. You want me to prove it to you? If you go to a mall today, you see somebody in a wheelchair, ready for this? Your spirit says, go over there, grab them, pull them out, in the name of Jesus, rise and walk. Your spirit goes, yes! Your mind says, control yourself, fool, you crazy? You're going to get a lawsuit here if you don't watch yourself.

You see, that's the intellectual activity. There you go. Just sit down, be still, and just ask God to be your friend. And I promise you, and I speak from experience, he will talk back. You just have to trust yourself that you're hearing him. And that takes faith. Faith is like in the crazy. It's like he said, you're going to be like, oh my gosh, that's crazy.

No, it's not crazy. God wants to talk to you as much as you want to hear from him. You just got to be willing to do it. Now I'm going to share this Instagram post. It's a, I just, I was just, it just came up today, which is crazy. So one, one of the things that I love about being in the sphere of the river is the people that you meet and the pastors that you meet and that just they're just amazing people but there's one girl that i she's gorgeous she just her and her husband were um with the river tampa and i think it was a year and a half ago or two years it might be maybe three but i doubt it i think it's two

she was on the worship team beautiful girl like hair that you would kill for. Her hair is amazing. Just a beautiful girl, though, sweet as pumpkin pie. And she has three kids, very small, ranging from I think it's six to like maybe one. So she posted this today, and I texted her. yet no I didn't text her I I DM during I said can I use this for the podcast and she's like yeah you can she's a beautiful girl but she homeschools her kids unless there's sacrifices that have to be made when you're in one income family her husband

and her pastor a brand new church that they planted in Cincinnati so if you need a really good church and you live in that area, I highly suggest you look them up. It's the River Cincinnati. Good pastoral leadership, good all-around people, wholesome, like salt of the earth. Like if you meet them, you're like, God, they're good. Like they're just, there's nothing pretentious.

They're just real, real people. So I asked her, I said, can I use this? And she said, absolutely, I can. Put that up for me because I'm going to read it. Today I think was her kid's first day of school, and she homeschools it. And she put this, she goes, this may be an unpopular opinion in today's world, but investing truly, but investing, truly investing into your kids and their education, who and what teaches them,

what they are learning and seeing and hearing a thousand percent matters. It does. Like hands down, it will develop your children, good or bad. What they are taught in the system will, there's purposes behind what they're doing in the school system right now and the education of them, like the CRT, which has been changed, the transgender, all of that has an agenda and it will penetrate the heart of your child. That's why are we are to guard our children's hearts that's the word is very clear and that's one of the reasons why we pulled our kids out of the school system because that's one of the things we would say it's our job to guard our children's hearts lots of people would say well my kid I put my kid in the system or in the

school so they can win the lost okay I. I'm sorry. They're a child. That's not their job. They can go to, they can go soul winning at their church, which is what we do. Our homeschool kids are out soul winning in a safe environment. I'm not going to put them in the school system to win the loss so that they might be lost because they're so busy winning the loss that the agenda got them. Does that make sense? Yeah, that's actually what happened to me is- Wait a minute. So hold that thought one second. I'm going to finish that because that's very interesting. And it's good that you are able to give an example. I'm talking to Talia because Talia's like, that's what happened to me. So let me just tell you, let me finish this. And no price

can be put on how valuable this honestly is. I am so thankful we are investing in this for our kids, not just for today, but what it's going to do for them in days and years to come. And remember that when you take your kids and you bring them home, you will have to sacrifice financially, potentially. They're the only investment, though, you can take to heaven. Who cares how many vacations you can go on? Who cares how many gadgets you can buy them each year because of the salary that you make? At the end of the day, all of that will be meaningless. What will a man gain?

If he gains, what will the man, how does it go? What will the man gain if he something in the world, but loses his soul? If he gains the world, but he loses his soul. I mean, who cares? You can have all these things. You can have the boat. You can have the RV. You can have the trips.

You can do all of the parties for your kids that are the best, you know, for birthdays and stuff. Are you finding it for me? Yeah. For whoever will save his life shall lose it, but whoever shall lose his life for my sake gains the whole world but he loses his soul? That's what I wanted to... Who cares?

And it's a moment in time. Like your kids, you're only going to have them where you're teaching them. Like my kids was kindergarten to 12th grade, second grade to 12th. So it was a very short period of time. It goes fast, a blink of an eye, and it's done. And it will affect them for years to come, just like that Instagram post said. For just a fraction of time to live within, maybe you'll never have to worry about living within a certain budget or anything.

I don't think you will because I believe what the Word of God says, that he is our provider. And if you make, like Tom and I, we never budgeted. We went on vacations. We never did without. We never, we didn't always have what we wanted, but we never had a need that was never met. Not a bill was never paid.

We always had every bill paid. We never missed a mortgage payment. Nothing. Your trust is in him. How far you trust is how far you'll act in faith. So Talia, I got three minutes. Give us your story really quick because I think it's important. So I was in public school, and I was thinking about being homeschooled again.

And I was like, but I could, like, I should stay at school and try to save people, you know, like bring them to the Lord. Is this high school? Yeah. But as I went back, like, I realized I started to get further from God and like nothing was happening. And it just, it wasn't good for me. So I went back to homeschooling and then I got closer again. And I realized that, and now I am bringing people to the Lord from high school. I was being homeschooled. Now, how is that possible?

I just. How is that possible? Maybe through sports, maybe through life. Like my kids danced, did sports. I mean, your kids are still going to interact. You're socially going to see people. Yeah. So you can still win the loss through social events.

You just don't have to attend school correct? because you did cheer and everything else are you doing cheer anymore? but I still go to the field and like I bring my bible with me and people see that voila

which makes a difference thank you Talia thank you don't throw your kids to the wolves. Everybody can do it. It's just how far. Like Tom and I used to say, if we get to a place that we can no longer afford the house that we live in to keep our kids home from school, keep our kids out of the public school system,

then we'll sell the house and we'll live in something smaller. Because it was that important to us. Investing in our kids and their eternity was way more valuable to us than owning things, having the next best car, having the, having, being able to go out on the boat during, on the weekends, all of that stuff. You know, people play sports like there's no tomorrow. I kid you not. The, like, there are so many different, baseball and football are just at an all time. And it feel, I feel like cheerleading and things like that, because they go hand in hand. Like they keep you out of the church on the weekends. And you're going away on these trips, and they're not cheap.

Travel ball, like it's not cheap. So my kids didn't get to do that. Guess what? Tommy wrestled. And if it involved the weekend and it involved not being at church, guess what? He didn't wrestle on the weekends. He only went to practice. Oh, well, his soul was way more important than baseball, wrestling, basketball, football. I say this all the time, but listen, most people, if they're lucky, will play college.

That's even like pretty slim. But to go pro, listen, I work for a sports management law firm. I know what those athletes look like. I know what it takes to get to that level. It's less than 1%. And you are, what will a man profit? What will it profit a man for him to gain the world but lose his soul? Parents who are living vicariously through their children and sports, I hope it's worth it.

I hope it's worth it because I can promise you the odds are it's not. You're going to these games, and then you're all going out to dinner afterwards. Most of you can't afford that lifestyle to begin with. You're going and you're drinking and you're doing stuff afterwards that you have no business doing. Your kids see it. They saw you one way when you were like going to church every week. You got involved in sports. Now your lifestyle is a little different because you've now become part of that social environment and the things that were important to you are no longer important to you and church takes a back burner and then you start going to church during the week like on a wednesday night just to make sure your kids can make can say you can say we went to church so they go to youth group youth group is

not the same as going to a church service on sunday. Please. Again, sports have taken a, have been taken to a whole new level. It's very, very bad. So anybody got anything to add? Jonathan said growing up, like church was a non-negotiable. So he loved hockey and stuff, but they never missed Sunday. And now as an adult, like he, it's like so foreign to him to like miss on a sunday and you would think yeah jonathan evangelist but like even before that he just never missed church on sunday you don't miss it like we just had our first sunday off like where we actually the tom took his first sunday off march, but that's because he had hurt his back. So he was out because of that.

This past Sunday was our first Sunday off since then because Tom never takes off. I think Tom has missed in the 20 years that we've had the church to shy, maybe 10 services. Out of the 20 years, he's missed 10, which is ridiculous. Even he's realizing, I got to take off. I like, this is not good. I need to like, so we did. I literally sat next to him. He was in the pool swimming while we were, I was watching the service. And Sunday was so good. Sunday, it was healthy for the congregation. It was healthy for us because we so enjoyed it. But he told me, he's like, next time we're getting

in a plane and we're flying to, well, we're going to fly to the Bahamas, but then Vanessa's husband told us, don't go there, go somewhere else. Because he has a better place. Yeah? What is it? Yeah. That's what he's like, no, don't go there. So, you have, like, there's nothing wrong

with taking off. Okay? It's actually healthy to go away on vacation and do things, especially when you're in ministry because we're never off. Right. Like there isn't a day of the week now, especially with this podcast, that we aren't doing something. So, and people don't understand how much, it's a lot.

We are never, it's a lot. But Sunday was very sweet for us because we actually did take it off and we really had a great time. Like it was, it was awesome. Yeah. I ain't gonna lie. Yeah. Not doing Saturday night. Yep.

Like he was like, this is so relaxing. I'm so loving this. But he was excited to get back Tuesday. Like it makes you like. I know. Yeah. It makes you be like, okay, let's get back in that chair, you know? Yeah.

So there's something to be said for it. But when it becomes a lifestyle that church is a back burner and it's infrequent that you actually go to Sunday service. Right. Because you're always gone doing a sport or being gone fishing or boating. That's the other thing. People with the boats on the weekends and fishing, that's not negotiable. And my family, when I grew up, you went to church on Sunday, period. If you were sick, it was one thing. But if you were sick, you stayed in bed all day long. Like you better be sick because you're going to be in bed all day long. That's funny.

So it didn't matter to you. Otherwise, you're getting your keister up and you're going. We've allowed just to be far too relaxed in church attendance and thinking that it's an option. But we don't treat work like that. We would never treat our job like that we treat god like that but we don't treat we don't treat our job like that so yeah what are you saying logan we may or may not have had unlimited sick days at our previous agency in another state we may or may not have like taken a rest mental health day so we've ditched work a couple times

yeah it's it's good for you it's good it's uh sometimes it's just but on the whole your butt should be there yeah absolutely it's good for you you have a job people always think it's it's like the leadership's job no everybody it's the body of Christ. Everybody has a part to play. And when you're not there, that part's not functioning. True, true. You're not there to be fed. You're there to serve.

Yeah. And to do stuff. So on that note, anybody need to get saved? You need Jesus? I'm just the girl. If you need to be saved today, if you need to get your life right, say this prayer with me. Let's get her done. Get you on your way and have a great rest of your week.

Heavenly Father, I come to you right now. I thank you for what you did on the cross. I thank you for dying on the cross and bearing the sin that each of us have done in our lives. I ask you to forgive me of my sin. I thank you that from this day forward, I will live for you. You will be the Lord of my life. And Father, I ask that you would show me what you would have me do, and I will do it. And whatever you tell me not to do, I ask that you would show me what you would have me do, and I will do it.

And whatever you tell me not to do, I will not do from this day forward. We thank you. We praise you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. That's it. Super easy. Nothing fancy schmancy. I'm not a fancy schmancy girl. Have a great Wednesday. Hopefully, if you don't live in the area, you have a Wednesday night service. You'll be going there, hanging with your friends. We have them throughout the week here. We have youth group tonight. So if you're a youth, get your butt here. Right? Yeah.

Get here. We're going to have fun. Because Tracy's husband is the youth guy right now. Who knows? He might stay the youth guy. I don't know. But he's the youth guy right now, and he needs people. And we have a special guest tonight.

We have a special guest? Oh, yeah. Is the special guest actually going to get to talk this week? Yes. That's nice. Since we had a special guest last week, and they just watched. That's lovely. Sweet. We got a special guest last week. And they just watched. That's lovely. Sweet.

We got a special guest, and he's very good. So, all right, people. Love you. See you. And thank you for joining in. See you Friday. Or not. I might not be here Friday, so be watching.

Kid you not. There's some things behind the scenes going on that I can't talk about, but I might not be here on Friday. So watch and see. Watch and see. Bye. Real talk.

Real talk. Real talk.