With The Perrys - The Warfare of Ministry

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

Any time we attempt to be faithful to the gospel and build anything of eternal value, there will be opposition. Listen in as Preston and Jackie share their experience with temptation, fear, and victory in gospel ministry.   Take our brief listener survey.  Subscribe to the Perrys' newsletter: https://withtheperrys.myflodesk.com/zhfus4jx1s Join Preston's discipleship community for men: https://www.patreon.com/PrestonPerry/membership To support the work of the Perrys, donate via PayPal: https://paypal.me/withtheperrys Shop BOLD Apparel: boldapparel.shop Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, Saints and names, how are you? What's up with y'all? How are you today, sir? Shilling, chilling. You're chilling. You're always chilling. That's me. Okay, so yesterday I was on TikTok and I saw a video of a guy who got a knee-b-el.

You ever heard of that? Yeah, you showed me the video. You're supposed to act like I didn't tell you. I mean, I'm not. So basically, for the Saints, the dude, he was, you know, he was born into the world, and then he grew up, and then I guess his height kept at 5 foot 5. And he wanted to grow up again. And he wanted to be born again.

And so he's got a knee biel, which they extended his limbs so that he went from 5, 5 to 6 foot. And he had the forest gum braces on his legs. And they was like reteaching him how to walk with his new height. I'm like, bro, is it that serious? You ever consider getting that? No. Look, God made me in his image. and he made me a shorter man.

I have no problem. You never wanted longer knees. Oh, when I was younger? Okay. Oh, absolutely, because I wanted to be in the NBA. And so my cousin told me that if I stretch like every single night and if I hang, I had these little handlebars. Oh, you thought you were a rubber band. Yeah.

Yeah. It didn't work. Did you eat carrots? No, that's the thing I was eating flaming hot. Part of me thinks that you, part of me honestly, thinks that you could have been taller if you weren't malnourished. Wow. You ever thought about that?

So we're just going to start the podcast off from disrespecting me? That's crazy. Wow, what did they do that at? You didn't eat a lot of vegetables. And I'm just wondering, like, if you ate more vegetables, if, like, your life would have been different. No, I mean, I married a woman that loves me for who I am. I got four kids.

And maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe if I ate a little more carrots than broccoli, I probably I'm just saying you could have got another two inches, maybe. Nutrition matters. No? Yeah. But anyway. I've never wanted. What does it have to do with the topic that we talked about?

I've never wanted a knee BL personally. I did want to be taller. I really wanted to be at least five. I have a question for you though. Oh, a question. You have a question. If you dated a guy and you later found out that he got a what is it called? A knee BL.

A knee BL. What would you think? I feel like I would see it because I really feel like he would walk strange. I just can't imagine somebody walking normal with it. It just gives like he'll walk like he on stilts. And you got to think about it.

If you was a 5 foot 5 man and you don't want to 6 foot 6'0, your arms is still 5 foot 5 arms. Oh, I didn't think about that. He probably looked like a T-Rex. No, you're giving dinosaur. Legit. And so even that would throw me off. Because now he got to get a, Why are your hips so far from your fingertips?

He got to get an elbow BL. He got to extend his arms next. I'm like, why is your fingers so far from your hips is not adding up? Can you imagine if he went and went to the doctor and you know their little thing where they like bang your knee? He probably don't even feel it. You got these little fake knees. No, I don't feel that doctor. No, it ain't working.

When that man gets 62, he's going to start crimp. He's just going to not going to be. It's probably going to cause a lot of pain for him when he gets a little. It's going to get cold outside. It's going to set up in his knees. Discontentment does that. It does that. What we're talking about today?

So you had an experience yesterday. You went out to share the gospel like the evangelist you are. Yeah. And you had some hindrances, some distractions. And we basically got into a conversation about how in ministry there is an element of spiritual warfare, element of just men. that you have to be mindful of. And in particular, because you haven't been doing

both TV, you know what I'm saying? Like, I think the distraction threw you off. Yeah, for sure. And so we just wanted to talk about, like, when you're doing evangelism, when you're doing marriage ministry, when you're doing discipleship, when you're raising your kids,

like the enemy comes for you. And this ain't going to be all about the enemy because he can only do so much, right? It really is he's leveraging our flesh. But, yeah, tell us that story. What happened? Yeah, so I have been feeling like for a couple of years that the law was leading me to do both TV again.

And one of the things I was telling people on the live this morning was that, you know, when the pandemic happened, you know, of course it stopped that. You can't be out there like talking to strangers with COVID breath. But, you know, after that, you know, I felt like, you know, like when COVID kind of like released a little bit, I felt like, let's get back into it. And it was this thing after thing after thing.

And I know our life became busier in a different way during the pandemic the podcast took off and all of those things and so for a while i was thinking man maybe it's just busyness that stopped in bold tv or the reason why i'm not you know asked my my attention that's not on it as much as it was but then i started to go on trips and every time i go on trips like people was like yo bow tv blessed my life and it was just like you know people telling me that more than usual and i felt like the lord was like president i want you to do this again long story short you know i i made the I made it my initiative to go out and look for, you know, different videographers to start shooting with me again.

And yesterday when I went out, I really felt like the Lord was like, you're going to experience some, like, some spiritual warfare. Like, the enemy doesn't want you out there. So I walked up to three Jehovah's Witnesses to, you know, talk to them and show the gospel. And when I did that, you know, it went well at first. But then after a while, it started to get like real, real chippy, right? And the reason why it was because it was, yeah, like. What does that mean? Like, like, petty.

Like, like, like the one of the ladies. So it was. Chippy can be happy. So that's what I was just. Oh, yeah, yeah. Or chipper. Chippy. Yeah, yeah.

Well, I guess chipper chippy is the wrong word. It started to get like real argumentative. There we go. Yeah, yeah. And it was three Jehovah's Witnesses and two of them were really adamant about I guess trying to win me over right but it was this one particular

Jehovah's witness to the left she was an older lady and she was just really irritated at me the whole time and so you know you know all while I was giving you know giving them the gospel just talking

and trying to understand what they came from like every time I would come to a point she would like get in my face and be like can you leave and I'm like not your face I'm like why do you want me to leave

I'm like, she really wants to talk to me. You know, and every time you tell me to leave, your friend is pulling out another passage. Let me ask you this. Is that typical in engaging with Jehovah's Witnesses? Like, is that a part of their doctrine to cut off a conversation instead of continuing it? Yeah, so what that's all in the watchtower organization. Is that if somebody opposes what you believe and it's adamant of trying to convince you, otherwise to like refuse them.

Got it. You know, and so a lot of times when I talk to, well, one, I think it's good to know that when you talk to Jehovah's Witnesses, there's always elder and there's always younger people. So the elders supposed to, you know, they understand discipleship in ways. I feel like the Christian church should. You should, A. B. To pick up. But it's always an elder. And so I always typically have problems with the elders and the younger people are more zealous for their faith.

And so they always want to engage with me more. And so, you know, the older lady, she wanted to engage with me. But then when she saw, I knew my way around scripture, she was just like, can you leave? Yeah, yeah. Because she didn't want me to influence them, right? And so I had to be very strategic in how I interacted with the younger ones, right? And so I asked questions, positioned myself like a learner so it could be conversational and not just me spewing a whole bunch of Bible with them, right? And so, you know, we went through John 1.

We went through Colossians 17. We went through Hebrews 1. We went through Revelations. We went through all the scriptures, you know, discussing the deity of Christ, the trine human god of scripture, why they think that's false, why I believe that's true. You know, Charles T. Russell, we went through a lot of stuff, right? And, you know, after a while, the lady was really irritated at me.

And so she told me, you know, she said, basically, I'm going to ask you nicely to And so I had to stop and I said, why do you want me to leave? She said, because I feel like this is being disrespectful. So is that the spiritual warfare? No. Okay. I'm getting to it. And so what happened right after that, I said, let me pause this conversation.

Let me pause this conversation and ask you why you are offended. So I asked why she was offended and so what I did was I stopped talking about theology and I told her that I honor her as an image bearer that I'm not here to discourage you. I think that what we're doing really. what we're doing right now is wrestling through what we believe is true. And I feel like God is pleased when we try to figure out what he has communicated us through his word, right? And I said, but no, by no means, do I ever want to disrespect you like you guys remind me and my mom and my aunt, right? That diffused, right?

And after that, she said, okay, she said, okay, she stepped back. And immediately after that I felt like I had their ear, right, which was encouraging to me. It was stressful and it was draining, right, that I had to go through that. I just want to present truth to them. But I felt like I had their ear after that. I felt like they were more willing to hear me because I expressed my heart to him. Immediately right after that, a guy came out of nowhere.

Like, came out of nowhere. And the only reason I knew he was standing behind me is because I saw them looking behind me. And when I turned around, it was a guy with chains on, moon rocks on, hanging from his chains, looked real, like, eclectic, you know. And he was just staring at me.

Almost as if he was mad at me. And I knew as soon as I saw him. That spirit was mad. I knew as soon as I saw him, I knew it was not good. I knew he was going to cause a problem. So I kind of just said a quick prayer and I was like, Lord, help me. You know, and so as soon as I got to John 1 to explain to them why I believe that the New World Translation has added words to that passage to make it make sense,

as soon as I got to the end of my point, he was, he just started yelling. And nope, Jesus ain't God. Jesus ain't God. I'm like, oh my gosh. And so I turn around and I say, bro, I'll talk to you right afterwards. But, you know, can you just give me a couple of minutes to talk to them and I'll talk to you right afterwards? All right, aye, aye, aye, aye. So as soon as I get to another point, nope, nope, nope, that's false, that's false, that's false.

Turn to Proverbs. Turn to Proverbs. And I'm like, what? It's the randomest book. I'm like, what is he doing? And I'm like, why do you want me to turn to Proverbs? He's like, it says in Proverbs that Jesus is not God. And I'm like, I don't think it says.

Proverbs. Yeah. And so basically, long story short, you know, I turned around two more times. And basically, in my best attempt to plead with him to like, low-key leave me alone. Yes. I get that talking with him. But then eventually, you know, it was just too much for the Chauvin'V's witnesses. I got this little black boy asking me questions I ain't ever heard before.

And now I got this dude now talking about Turner Proverbs. and won't even let him get the sentence out. And so afterwards, you know, we walked away and he said, man, I want to talk to you, man. How old was this person? He's around, he's probably in his 30s, you know. We walked down the street and I said, my videographer is going to record.

And then I said, what do you want to talk about, bro? And then he just starts staring at me, like really intently, as if he was trying to intimidate me. And I'm sitting there looking at him like, what does this dude on? I really couldn't tell if he was like on some or what. And then I guess, I don't know if he was trying to fill me out or intimidate me, but I don't think any, I don't think none of it worked.

And so he just said, turn to Proverbs, bro. So I turned to this passage in Proverbs. I read the scripture. It had nothing to do with the deity of Christ. I said, what is this? What do you think this means? You just read it? You tell me what it means.

And then I said, no, you told me to turn to the passage. Right. Teach me. Because you believe that this passage is. communicating that Jesus is not eternal. So can you explain to me? Was it Proverse 31? No.

Okay. It wasn't. And so then he goes on to say, you out here talking about Jesus is God, but what you need to be out here doing is talking about these spirits out here. I said, tell me about that. He said, I got to go, man. I talked to you later. He did his finger that way.

And then, yeah, and then literally walked away. And I thought to myself, I said, wow, this dude was sent just to be a distraction. He didn't even want to talk about the past. He didn't even want to talk about scripture. So I, you know, immediately after that, I was discouraged because I felt like when I had their attention, this guy came and, like, took it away from me. And I came home, talk to you. And, you know, you got your way of encouraging me. You was like, that's good.

You know, just proves that the enemy doesn't want you out there. And then I was like, hmm. And then after, you know, this morning when we prayed, I felt like the Lord was telling me, Preston, don't be discouraged. I use everything. I use everything. I use it all. Like even if this video is to teach people that the enemy doesn't want you out here telling truth.

I use it all. And so I was really encouraged after we prayed this morning about it because I was like, man, this is my first day out back doing Boat TV. Of course the enemy wants to come and discourage me. Now, I'm looking for a passage that I'm going to read, but how do you, how do you, how do you discern that one

that is just not random, right? Like, because I could see somebody saying, yeah, you were out talking to Jehovah's Witnesses, a guy, you know, he wanted to voice his peace and say what he had to say, like, why are we saying that that's the enemy? Why are we saying that that's spiritual warfare? Like, what proof do you have that that's what that was?

Yeah, I think, I think, one, I'll say, I can't really explain it, but it's a feeling, right? that I feel. And it's not even a paranoia. It's just kind of like this spiritual alertness to be aware of my surroundings that I feel like the Lord kind of gives me when I'm talking to people. And so it's not really over-spiritual or deep at all. It's just like the Lord showing me like, you know, like be careful, like, you know, be mindful

when you're talking to this person. But also, too, I think sometimes when people talk, when people think about spiritual warfare, I hope this can make sense, but I think we don't understand how much we over-spiritualize how much the enemy and the Lord uses natural things to accomplish your will. That's great. Right. Because people always talk about like these deep spiritual things, right? But what's also deep is providence, God's providence, right?

What a miracle is, is God's suspending the natural to cause something supernatural. to happen, right? We don't see this done in the New Testament as much as God's providence. Because what God's providence is, is God using everyday natural events. People who are demonically oppressed, people who, the Roman officials, every man, like the free will of men to carry out his will, right? And so, like, the enemy is, we don't have to be deep about it. The enemy is going to use people who don't know him to come.

and try man's free will. I don't think this man would say, oh, demon rise up in me and come and disrupt Preston. It's like, no. Like that, like, like, both God and enemy, any enemy uses natural things to try to bring out, carry out as well. And so I think that if we think about it like that,

you know, like not only is this the enemy, but it's also God. Yeah. He's very much in this too. And so, like, I think if we thought about it like that, we won't have to like question like, Are you over spiritualized? It's like, no, actually all of it is spiritual, you know.

I want to read a couple texts just to give some biblical basis for your experience because when you read through the scriptures, any time people attempt to be faithful to the gospel, there is opposition. There is opposition that you can anticipate. Yeah. And there is opposition that will also irritate. But it's opposition all the same.

So one is Acts 16. I think this is typical, or not typical, I think this is what you experienced yesterday, where it says Paul and Silas stay on their way. It says, as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune. She followed Paul and us crying out,

these men are servants of the most high God who proclaim to you the way of salvation, which was true. And this she kept doing for many days, Paul having becoming great, Paul having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out that very hour, which he ended up going to jail for and all this type of stuff. But I think one thing that that shows you, Paul is minded his business.

He had no intention to do ministry to this girl. Like he is going to, I don't know, chick-fil-A. You get what I'm saying? Like he's on his way to crack a barrel. Right, right, right. You know, he just minded his business. And he didn't even want to do ministry. ministry to her. He did it out of his irritation. That's the, that's the most gangster part of that

passage. He was like, I'm tired of you following me. You're getting on my nerves spirit. And it wasn't the girl that he was irritated by. It was the spirit. And it's like, oh, if you want to keep getting in my face, I'm, I'm going to give you what you want. I get what you're saying, basically what you're saying is I should have turned around and cast that spirit out of that man. I don't know if you got the adjoining for that yet. I don't know. That's a different level. That ain't my ministry yet. Maybe the Lord might move me in that, you know what I'm saying? But in the meantime, I'm getting a gospel to these Jehovah's Witnesses, though.

I don't know. But what I am saying is that even distractions are opportunities. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And so being mindful of the sovereignty of God, but also having a sense of compassion that leads you to see what you said is that like if God is in control of all of the things that are happening, even this is an opportunity for me to give the gospel. Even this is an opportunity for me to pray

Even this is an opportunity for me to be used by God to deliver somebody Yeah, and that's what I felt yesterday, not yesterday this morning Because when you attempted to encourage me I was like semi-encouraged. Attempted. Yeah, it wasn't. But this morning after we pray, it worked, but I'm saying, this morning after you pray for me and we pray for one another,

I was like, you left and then I felt like the Lord was like, Prest and I use it all. Like I waste nothing, you know, and you have it in your mind of what you think, how it should have went. But it's like, I use it all. And I hope that would encourage the listener here who, who is an evangelist. Because I think sometimes the church conditions, condition us to want right now results.

The church, like, we put a high emphasis on. We did an altar call. 50 people came to the altar. I gave this person to gospel and they fell down and, you know, said, what must I do to be saved? The whole church said, amen, we praise God. And I think that's good in some ways. Because I think what it does is shows us that we have.

an expectation for the Lord to move. But I'd really think that the Lord wants to raise up a generation of evangelists who are not okay, who are content with not seeing the fruit of their work until we get to glory. Right. I think God wants to raise up an evangelist, a generation of evangelist who are okay with being seed planters, right? Who are okay with planting the sea and allowing somebody else to come in water their seed? because we're not always going to see somebody's conversion.

We're not always going to see someone, you know, turn from their sin and repent, right? But we're not always going to see, you know, when they come to the Lord, but like, God is still calling us to be faithful. And my mind is going to a very interesting direction. I think knowing your role in your place in the kingdom can temper your expectations. Yes, that's good.

that is, I think the Lord, especially in recent weeks and months, has positioned me kind of as a prophetic voice. I'm not saying I'm a prophet in that. Like, I prophesy what is to come. You know what I'm saying? But I do think that the Lord has given me a prophetic voice where I testify to the truth of scripture and who Jesus is and repent and believe in all the things. That's what prophecy is. But as a prophetic witness, that means that my expectation is not always necessarily that I'm going to see salvation, but is that I am a witness so that if you do respond or if you don't respond, you cannot say that God did not tell you.

Yeah, that's good. And so I already have an expectation that, oh, yeah, they're going to get mad. Oh, yeah, they're going to hate me. Oh, yeah, they're not going to like it. I'm not even, like, I'm praying for salvation. I'm praying for repentance, but I'm also grateful because God is using me as an element of justice so that when you stand before the Lord, he might bring this poem back to mine

or this sermon back to mine or when she went in on Beyonce back to mind to say, I told you, I sent a witness. And so I think that that kind of governs your expectations when you also know your place in God's church. Yeah, yeah. Tell us the time when you felt like

the enemy tried to distract you in this truth. All the time. Oh, I want to know. All the, everything, first of all, one, I think sometimes you won't experience. spiritual warfare in the act of ministry, sometimes you may experience it afterwards, right? And so I think you experienced both. Yeah. So not only did you feel distraction and all that, but you were soaking and

discouraged and felt shame and felt insufficient after the ministry, which did what? It made you not want to continue in it. Yeah. And so I think even being mindful of the ways that the flesh and the enemy can show up after ministry is important. So I say all that to say, I felt, I think one of the earliest lessons of spiritual warfare is I had this poem

come out when I was a very new Christian called my life as a stud, right? Yeah, you got a perm. I did. Yeah, a little slick perm. And you had like a really long goatee. Yeah.

You like a goat. I did. It was kind of goatish. It was Barry Billy. Anyway. Very Billy. You're a jerk. It was funny.

So I did the poem, my life is a stud, right? I've probably been a Christian maybe, maybe six or seven months by that time. Yeah. I have no concept of this being one the means that God starts my ministry. I have no concept of this being the means

by which God saves a lot of people. I don't even know that the person I met when I was doing the poem is my husband. Like I had no idea how monumental that moment was. I was just doing a poem. Yeah, because I literally met you that night. So I go back to, you know, the church I was going to in L.A. And there was this girl who was a part of the ministry who we start hanging out.

And she used to be a lesbian. I used to be a lesbian. And we just started acting like lesbians. Two days. Which I stopped holding each other hands. No. It never got, we never got the chance to go that far. But like we were being, I think the way people, when they come out of the

gay kind of world, the way you kind of end up back into it is it usually starts emotionally. There's some bonding, there's some, oh, I get you, I understand you. Like it scratches an emotional itch that ends up leading to something else. And so I think that's what it primarily was.

I say all that to say, we was probably talking maybe 36 hours before the Lord snatched me out. And he snatched me out through my discipller, who was also gifted with prophecy and she was at she was at work and the lord dropped it in her spirit that jacky was on some mess they called all the ministry leaders together to say hey uh-oh like you are like you

plan with god by doing this what i did not understand which i understand now is that anytime you coming against the kingdom of darkness you need to gird yourself up and you need to be aware that something someone some like some is going to come to try to get you off track you know what And so there's somebody recently who they were venturing into a new element of ministry and I called them and I said, I need you to read Ephesion 6. Like, pay attention to the arm of the spirit and I walked them through the arm of the spirit. And I was like, the enemy is going to come through friends, going to come through dreams, going

come through irritation, going to come through depression. He's going to do whatever he can to stop you from doing what you're doing. Yeah, yeah. Because nobody told me that. nobody prepared me to fight well I had to fall to see that oh this ain't like this ain't light work

Yeah when when Were you taking a back Taking a back When they all kind of like set you down Like how did you feel Did you feel like they were doing the most Did you feel like this was Completely

Because I had no concept of spiritual discipline You know Because a lot of churches don't practice Discipline like Paul tells us Like the elders and all of them like if you call to sin, two or three need to come and confront you. You know what I'm saying? If we care about the purity of the church.

And so, yeah, I was confused and I was irritated, but the Lord used it. And what he primarily used is Santoria, she told me, she said, Jackie, you're on your way to being a very famous hypocrite. Woo! She was like, because the Lord is going to use you. Like, you know, your gifts are going to make room for you. But if you don't get your act together, you're going to be used, but you're not going to go to glory. And so I think what that did for me is it put the fear of God in me

that has carried me this far. That's good. Because I realize that God doesn't care about my gifts like that. He cares about my heart. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? That's really good. Because if you think about the weight of that poem

and what that poem did, it really helped a lot of people. And then, I mean, the enemy knows things in ways that we don't know. He knows the magnitude or probably don't understand the magnitude. too, but he sees, right? But you know how you had access to me? What? You want to know?

It wasn't just ignorant. So Paul talks about like, we are not ignorant of the devil's schemes. I was completely ignorant of his schemes. That's why I didn't gird myself up. But it also was, before I ever did that poem, I was still entertaining homosexuality. Right? And so he had a door through my lack of purity.

And so I think if we were, like, you can't just be ignorant. you also have to be holy. That is the way you guard yourself in spiritual warfare. And so I have a guess that a lot of the public ministries and ministers that we've seen fall from grace or fall from holiness or fall from truth is because y'all was out here having the audacity to be in ministry and preach the gospel but living a ratchet life. So the enemy got you. Yeah.

Like if you want to be out here talking about Jesus, but living like the devil, I'm going to need you to stay on the sidelines. Yeah, because he has access. Yeah, because I think a lot of times people, you know... I'm getting excited. Am I getting... Am I loud?

No, no, no, no. You're not loud. You're just passionate. I'm sorry. It's all good. You don't have to apologize. I think a lot of times we... I think you said this in one of your sermons recently,

but we so badly don't want to be legalistic that we start entertaining a whole bunch of stuff that the enemy wants us to. entertain. And when we do that, like, like we just become so vulnerable to the enemy attacks and we don't even realize it. Right. And so I think when, when one, it's not about legalism, but it's about faithfulness. Come on here. Right. God wants us to be, he wants us to be faithful people. This doesn't mean that we have to be self-righteous. This doesn't mean we have to look down on people. This doesn't mean we have to call everybody's a center when they operate in liberties that we feel

like we don't, we shouldn't, you know, we shouldn't operate in. But it does mean that God is looking for faithful people not to just use for outside ministry, but he wants his children to be faithful because he knows that that's how you guard yourself from the enemy, right? He already came and did the work. But just because Jesus did the work doesn't mean we can't undo it with the way we live our lives, right? And so I think God just wants us to be like faithful. to strive to be holy. Yeah, I really think we believe this lie

that you can be a hypocrite and be useful. You know what I'm saying? And it's because the Lord uses everybody. Yeah. But there is a sense in which purity clarifies your gift and I think increases your effectiveness in a way that you will only experience when you start to cut that arm off

that causes you to sin or to gouge that eye out. that called, like even that, like, you can't even see the plank in your brother's eye if you have one in your own, which means that you are ineffective even in your discernment. Yeah. When you have something in your way. Because I think the reason why is because we think as long as we're being useful in the kingdom of God, God is pleased or that's good enough. Pharaoh was useful. Yeah, we got the praise of men. But when you, it's something about when you live in a clean.

life, what God can speak to your heart. Yeah. And tell you the things that you need to know. Yeah. It just, it just, it just, it just filters and it, it helps how you commune with God and how you do ministry with others. It just makes everything clear. Because you can go out and use your gifts and, you know, and send people led to the

Lord. But it doesn't mean that the Lord is intimate with you. Yeah. And I would hate, even Paul, he says somewhere in here, about how like, where do you say where like I would hate to do all it is and then I'm disqualified? Yeah.

That's in Timothy somewhere. Yeah, Second, Second Timothy. I think it's in Second Timothy. I feel like it's First Timothy. I think it's Second Timothy. You're talking about... You want to do a bit? I say it's First Timothy.

I say it's Second Timothy. Okay, I'm going to find it. Because First Timothy is when he's writing all the letters. I mean, all the letters, when he first started writing the letter and then second Timothy, when he started encouraging him. I hope I'm not wrong. Well, we bet.

You're probably right. Nothing. We got to bet something. No, we don't. I used right. It's all right. My security is in Jesus. I don't got to be right.

We're going to leave that in here. We're not going to edit that out. That's fine. That's all right. God gives grace to the humble. He resists the proud. When Paul's 2nd, 2nd, 4, I fought the good fight.

I have finished the race. I've kept the faith. Now the prize awaits me. The crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge. will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me, but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.

Where is it at? Keep reading. It's not in it. That ain't it? Oh. So it's 1st Corinthians 9. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize.

So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control less

after preaching to others. I become disqualified. I myself should be disqualified. But yeah, that's the point, is that purity preserves you. And so in ministry, we don't want to be ignorant of the enemy scheme.

So just being aware of the different ways that he can access your unbelief or stir it up, whether that's due shame, whether that's due discouragement, whether that's through fear. Fear is a big one. Where God has not given us a spirit of fear,

but of power, love, and a sound mind, right? But one of the things that fear tempts you to do is to not trust Jesus. Unbelief, right? And so even in the kind of realm that God has me in now, there's still, but there's a lot of fear that I have to continue to push through because the fear will keep me from being honest.

The fear will keep me from being faithful. because I will be more fearful and more concerned about myself and other people than I am about what the Lord is telling me to do. And so I think just all of that is a part of not being ignorant, but also being pure and recognizing that we don't want to leave any room for the evil one by functioning according to his ways,

which is what sin is. So that's it. Yeah. And I think sometimes when people, especially who don't hear this language of just being pure, or it almost can seem as if, you know, we might be saying to be perfect. Or I know what you're about to say. But what I'm saying is it's like it's not that we're not still falling,

but I do think that God wants us to remain in him. Like we're made perfect through the perfect work of Jesus Christ. And so when you messing with stuff that it don't know me alone to the Lord, It's like, no, like, know that the Lord, that it grieves God when we, when we operate outside of His will. And so we can be called, we can be a Christian. But if we dib and dapping and stuff that don't honor him, it's just like, man, like we really leave ourselves out there to be attacked and discouraged by the end. Because the attack's going to come regardless. Yeah.

But when you, when you, it's something about being in the will of God that just protects you. Yeah, because, I mean, the New Testament alone, let alone the Old Testament, is very clear that God has commanded us to be holy. Yeah. Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord, right? And so we're not saying, we're not talking about sinless perfection. Yeah. But we are saying pursue perfection.

Why? Because even Jesus says it. Yeah. Be perfect as my father in heaven is perfect. Yeah. And so what that does is that actually puts you in a position to be, incredibly dependent on the spirit of God, even the people of God, prayer, fasting, to even try to be that because what keeps you also from pride, which is an enemy of effectiveness,

which is a door to the evil one. What keeps you from pride is neediness and dependence. And so I think even God's, how do you say it, like God's standard, low-key is like, oh, man, I can't even be like you without you. That's really good. That's so good. And that's so good that you brought up community because a lot of times when we talk about God's protection, right?

We have to understand that God's goodness and God protection often comes in the form of his body. He sherebe. His people, right? Yes. And so a lot of times when you see people... I like this overseer arm you're doing. Well, that looks like Adolf Hitler, but this overseer arm.

I didn't do that. When you see people fall away, The first thing that happens is the enemy detaches them from a community. Well, before they fall away. Before they fall away. It's always signs before they fall away. For sure.

That's what I meant to say. The enemy detaches them from a community. And that's, like, that's God's protection too, right? Oftentimes, God speaks to you through somebody in the body, right? He encourages you through somebody in the body. And so we have to know that God hasn't called us to an island. Yeah, I wanted to, because I'm just trying to start bringing my body. on these podcasts so that people know we're not

talking outside of our net. But in Hebrews three, where is Hebrews at? There it is. That's the Bible I actually used when I was talking to Joe's Witnesses yesterday.

Did you? It didn't burn on fire. It was like, hurry up, son. I couldn't find a passage. It looked like I didn't know what I was talking about it first. Okay, Hebrews 3 verse 12,

take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart leading you to do what? Fall away from the living God. How do you guard yourself from falling away? But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. I need us to see the plural, but exhort one another. That means that I need to be around Christians exhorting me, challenging me, praying for me, building me up so that I'm not hardened by the

deceitfulness of sin, which leads me to falling away. And so I think, I'm glad we did get to this because I think community is such a huge part of even like running the race that is set before us as it relates to ministry. Because ministry is hard. It is. Even ministry in relationship with each other. Yeah. Like as a merry couple or ministry as parents. You'd be getting on my nerves.

Sure. But the enemy does not want me to love you. Oh, yeah. He does not want you to love me. He does not want us to be examples for our children of what the gospel is because primarily that's our witness. But we is. We're trying. We is in Jesus' name.

All right. I do think we need to talk about prayer. Because what does prayer do for you in ministry as it relates to just guarding yourself from the evil one? Man, that's a really good question. I mean, you know the journey that I've been on in prayer, right? And I've always prayed my whole walk, but recently the Lord is like, no, I want you to seek me. And we, you know, get up in the morning, we pray. And when I started to be intentional about prayer some months back, I realized I was not as anxious anymore.

And it wasn't like I didn't have, you know, worries, concerns. We're really busy people. And when we get really busy, like, I just, it becomes overwhelming. And then I can't think. And then I ended up dropping, you know, dropping, you know, things, important things that I shouldn't drop. And then I become stressed and, you know, anxious and then fearful. And then it's just, you know. But, like, ever since I've been praying, you know, and seeking the Lord, like, it's just been this clarity.

Like this, like, like, the Lord. Like, my prayer has allowed the Lord to come in and just clean up all this messiness in my mind. That's good. Like, you know how you often talk about, you often talk about how you can't think when our room is dirty. Yes. And, like, what was crazy was, I was sitting in my bed and I was like, I feel like I hear from the Lord better. When the room was dirty? No, no.

Now that I've been praying. Oh, like, your mind is a room that God is cleaning. That's what I was about to get to. There we go. Yeah. Like I felt like, I was like, I see what Jackie means when she can't sit in the room because it's like, I couldn't think clearly because my mind has been so junky. You know, so filled with stuff. And the Lord, it's like the Lord said, okay, son, now that you've been able to talk to me and commune with me in this way, I'm going to clean out all this stuff that you don't need to be thinking about.

Come on here. I'm going to get this, all this worry or whatever. So I can, so you can focus on what I want you to focus on. That's good. And so I feel like prayer helps us to be better husbands, better wives. better brothers, better sisters, better disciples, better ministers, better pastors. It's just, it helps us. Like when we commune with God and when we talk to him, he has this beautiful ability to make

things clear. And to just take burdens away from us that we don't need so that we can, one, commune with him more clearly and to do our work better. I'm going to read something from Nehemiah. So Nehemiah, you know, the temple has been torn down. They've gone into Babylonian exile. And Nehemiah comes and he makes it his business to rebuild the wall, right? And then the funny thing is that he just rebuilt it a wall.

But there's opposition against him. Yeah. Like there's people coming in that got beef with him doing this. And it says that verse 7, Nehemiah 4. But when Sanballad and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were angry. And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. And we, not I, we pray to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night. I say that because anytime you are trying to build anything of eternal value, there will be opposition.

Yeah. But God is stronger than the opposition in every way. Every way. And so if we believe that to be true, we can ask them for the protection, for the help, for the resolve to keep building, even with our weapons on our side, like our weapons in one hand and a brick and another one, then we're going to be all right. Same question, though. How's prayer helps you? That's my answer. Oh.

We done? Yeah. All right. Bye. Peace. and Channing B. McBride. Editing by Xavier Fairley, video recording and audio production by Kim Powell,

artwork by hop, and music by swoop. If you'd like to support The Perrys, you can visit the link in the show notes. This is with the Perrys. Thank you for listening. Now go with God.