Welcome to the God's Goodness podcast, where our mission is to encourage as well as highlight
God's goodness and modern-day miracles.
We are your hosts, Josh and Shelly Hankins.
Today we have with us a special guest.
You might know him from our church, and his name is Johnny Miller, and he is going to be
sharing some things with us that the Holy Spirit has led him to, and we'll have him open
up with a little prayer.
Alright, thanks guys for having me.
I appreciate it.
Thanks for being here.
Awesome.
Yeah, so my hope, my goal for what we're about to do is that the people who are listening
would capture some fresh hope.
I feel like that's so critically important for this season.
So kind of the thoughts and the, you know, the path that I'll be sharing, it's all kind
of geared towards that.
Like how can whoever's listening walk away and being like, man, I know that God has my
future in mind and a good future, right?
So Lord, we thank you for your faithfulness.
We thank you that you give us a hope in a future, Lord, and that you're always in control.
And all throughout your word, Lord, there's all these amazing stories of people who, on
the journey, whatever their path may be, there's good times and bad times and highs and lows,
but the theme that rides through everything, Lord, is your faithfulness and that you have
our future in mind and is a hope in a future and it's good.
And we thank you for that.
Amen.
So obviously that we were talking earlier, like the, I would say the theme of the whole
podcast is just people's stories.
I don't have any like crazy story like you guys have.
You guys have pretty good stories, right?
So, but I think in all of our lives, there are moments where we see God working through
things and ordering our steps and leading and guiding us.
And so I was thinking before as we were coming on, you know, I was going to come onto the
show like, what do I want to talk about?
And so what I really felt was in my heart to share with your audiences, if it was going
to be a sermon, I call it like from the promise to the palace, you know, and it's like the
story of Joseph.
And basically so many of us, I would say it's a universal theme, these stories that we find
in the Bible, whether it's the Moses story or the Joseph story, there's so many of these
stories that the reason they resonate with us is because they're universal truths, right?
And so like for, for so many of us, and I'll share some of my own story, but you know,
in that story of Joseph, there's this seed of a dream that he has, right?
It's a promise.
But then how does he end up going from, I'm the king of the world, you know, the Titanic
thing where he's on the balcony, right?
Well, to use the Titanic metaphor to being on the, hanging on the side of the door, right?
Like in the water, right?
And then why wouldn't she let him on the door, right?
Yeah, plenty of door.
Yeah, come on, man.
My groom, my groom, bro.
But yeah, so ultimately, you know, in my own life, I grew up in an amazing family Christian
home.
My dad was an entrepreneur, but he also was on staff at the church that we grew up at.
So I had this heritage of being in faith in Christianity, like my, from the beginning
church, whatever you want to say.
Now again, that could sound good, but I think to be honest, a lot of people that grow up
in church end up not in the church because there's a lot of baggage that can come with
that too.
So that's interesting.
Like that it cuts both ways, right?
So I know you guys have amazing stories of how you found God, maybe a little bit later,
but I just was always in this, like my whole life.
And even from like a young age, I just always knew that ministry and serving the bride or
the body of Christ, whatever you want to say, was going to be probably not only a part of
my life, but ultimately kind of as in this, I'll kind of get to this in the story, but
like where the convergence would happen, you know, where I would be like, Oh, I see
now.
And I think that's the beauty of these stories, whether it's our story or whether it's the
Joseph story or the David story, right?
There's always this time where you think, you know, how it's going to go.
And then it doesn't go that way, right?
The plot twist.
Yeah.
And then the beauty is like, it always ends up better, doesn't it?
It's like a better story.
It's deeper.
It's richer than just the linear path that you thought was going to be your path, right?
So yeah, I mean, again, I just, I grew up in all this.
Actually, it's pretty neat.
My great grandfather, he was also kind of very similar.
He was like an itinerant minister and basically also like an entrepreneur or business kind
of guy.
So everybody in my family's named Johnny, you know, it's like John, John, Johnny, you
know, so my dad, I'm junior, but I'm named after him, but his dad was John as well.
They just kind of swapped the middle name out.
Maybe I don't know why, but either way they got creative there, right?
But then my great grandfather, his name is the same as Johnny Miller.
And my parents gave me a card, a business card of his at one point when I was old enough
to like not lose it.
You got to watch when you get your kid stuff, right?
You give him something too early.
It's like, oh, I threw that away, you know?
But it was really cool to see.
And it was basically like his name, which is my name, you know, and that he's, you know,
he was a minister of the gospel and, you know, this kind of stuff.
It's just really cool to see like this journey in this path.
Do you think that was like a seed, you know, seeing that maybe?
I saw that later, but I think just always being in it, put a seed in my heart, honestly,
to love the church because I know a lot of people, like I said earlier, they like grew
up in the church, they hate the church, but there was just always something in me.
And I think it's part of that whole seed, that like that dream, that the Joseph moment,
like something was in my heart for that.
And so, you know, then I did the usual stuff.
I mean, I was an idiot, like always no major trouble, but you know what I mean?
Like they were always teenager kind of thing and all that.
But I never strayed.
I never was like away from, I was never prodigal, whatever you want to say, you know?
It was just like, I'd have fun on Saturday night and I come to church on Sunday, you
know?
But then, you know, there are these times in all of our lives that mark us, right?
And so, when I was probably, I think I was basically like just getting into college.
So like either late teens or early 20s, there was this movement, there were these like hot
spots of what God was doing, you know, in America.
One was in Toronto, where there was like this move of God and they were, and at the time,
so this was like 90s, but there were, the thing, it was like when God started moving
people for whatever reason just decided they were going to have church like every day of
the year, right?
And then I think ultimately what we saw kind of as a fruit of that is that's not actually
reproducible and that's not long term like a lifestyle that you can live.
It's kind of like if you go on a diet, right?
You can go on a diet for a little bit, but if it's something like crazy where I only
eat chip tam and celery or whatever, you know, at some point.
Yeah, Adkins diet.
Yeah, right.
There you go.
That was a big one.
At some point you're going to go down.
Yeah, right.
And then as soon as you eat that first French fry, you're like, then it's over, right?
But so the other one that was in Florida was called Brownsville.
It was in Pensacola and I can just remember like my parents, they were always, and this
is one of the things that I know was like imparted to me like as a spiritual gift that
is like one of the defining things of who I am.
And especially when I'm doing like church stuff, it's just a hunger for God, like for
whatever reason, just like, I just want to be in his presence.
I don't want to go to, it's not, I want to be in church.
It's I want to be in his presence.
You know what I mean?
Like there's a difference.
It doesn't matter wherever you are.
Yeah.
It doesn't matter.
It's not a place you go to that you walk out your door.
There he is.
Well said.
You get in your car.
There he is.
You get to Walmart.
There he is.
Like you ever get like wrecked in the grocery store?
Like I'm not saying be a weirdo, but like every now and again, it's something like God
will just encounter you in the strangest place.
Oh man.
He gets me in the back of an ambulance all the time.
There you go.
Yeah.
All the time.
Yeah, right.
But it's, it's crazy.
And it's one of those things.
It's like, I think one of the, if we can learn to always like be like looking, you know,
it's like that whole ask, seek, knock thing.
You know, like in the Hebrew, well, sorry, that's a Greek, I guess, New Testament, but
in the Greek, it's like, keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking.
It's like a continual process, but it's like whatever you seek, you'll find, you know,
and if you're looking for God, and that's I think a big part of this podcast, right?
If you're looking for God's goodness, you're going to find it.
Absolutely.
It starts to, oh, I see it everywhere.
Right?
It's like whenever you buy the new car, right?
You never noticed that car, but all of a sudden you're like, Oh, there's another.
Like they call it the white Tesla syndrome, right?
You know, there's another white Tesla.
There's another white Tesla, right?
And I feel like that's how it is with God too, you know, when we start to focus, but
back to like the journey.
So my parents were just hungry and they were like, we just, we know, like, look, we're
good Christians and all this stuff, but like, there's got to be more.
Like what I see in the Bible is all this awesome stuff.
But what I see, like for the most part, what's happening, let's just say like our perspective
in the American church on a day to day, week to week on a Sunday is like, why is this amazing
and signs and wonders and, you know, whatever it might be, like, you know, go into the book
of acts, right?
And then what we see is kind of the, just not that, right?
So we found that there were these pockets and it still happens.
Like even the thing in Kentucky this past year with, right?
Right.
Yeah, that was amazing.
Yeah, right.
And so it's weird, isn't it?
But like what I see, like when I look through the history of America, because I've been
kind of studying like, I love histories, right?
So I'm always like, but I've been lately studying moves of God in America, because I honestly,
like my perspective is this, like without a, without the Holy spirit, there is no change.
Like you can bootstrap it, you can like bite the bullet, you can do everything you want
to do.
There's so many people that like, whether it's an addiction, they're trying to break
or whether it's just, I want to be a better dad, whatever it is, right?
There's so many people that, yeah, okay.
And I'm all about Tony Robbins and self-help and John Maxwell and leadership and personal
development and, you know, I can name them all, right?
But there's always that thing where it's like, I keep falling short, but the Holy spirit
is the thing that brings the change, that brings the breakthrough.
And so like, just like the Great Awakening or the Second Great Awakening or the Jesus
Movement, there was this thing happening and my parents were like, we want the real deal,
right?
So we, it was crazy.
We like went on vacation to church, you know what I'm like, what's wrong with us, right?
But like, so we drove down to Florida and I can remember vividly when we were getting
close, my mother's always been like very prophetic and like, she could like open up the phone
book and like get like a prophetic word, you know what I'm saying?
Like, oh, well, this is Smith plus whatever you get the point.
Like she's just kind of was always geared that way.
But I can remember when we were, we were driving there, she said, we're getting close.
And we're like, what do you mean?
She's like, I can feel like the presence of God.
And it was weird.
And if you have ever been in a situation like this where like, it's whether it's a church
service or the back of an ambulance or whatever, there's this thing that like, I don't know
what it is, but I know every person has that tuning fork in them, you just are like, there's
something else going on here.
Like it's like the Moses burning bush thing, like I got to turn aside, it wasn't that the
bush was on fire because they were probably catching on fire all the time in the desert,
right?
There was something different about that one, right?
And so that was a marking moment for me, you know, so you have this history of me growing
up and seeing a my parents in business and entrepreneurship and then B, seeing them in
ministry.
And then I would say, even, you know, there's always these journeys and you know, I've had
other stupid moments where I like, oops, shouldn't have done that.
But like in that moment, in that season where we were, where we would go to these God encounters
for lack of a better way to say it, that marked me.
So then fast forward, got out of college and then Erica and I were married.
So this past year we've been married for 21 years.
So we got.
Congratulations.
Yeah, absolutely.
Congratulations.
I think you get to that point where you're just like, all right, you know me, I know
you, you know, and it just gets better and better.
You know, there's always those times in the marriage.
Absolutely.
You don't have that in the first five.
No, right.
Yeah.
Right.
So, and I always was like, oh, I guess this is good.
But you know, it turns out she wasn't always terribly happy with things, but, but you know,
she put up with me.
She trained me, right?
But all that to say, we got out of school and didn't really, I knew like ministry was
a part of what I was supposed to be doing, but I also felt this weird draw to like business,
you know.
And so we got married and just we ended up, we were working in different places and all
the time, the whole time we were like, there were a couple of different throughout this
period between our twenties and our thirties where we were on staff at other churches in
this area that, you know, there are large churches that you would know the names if
I told them.
But so we're always kind of in this thing where we're doing both, right?
And I'm always like, Lord, why can't you just let me just pick one?
Like, I don't want to be, I feel like I'm double minded here.
I feel like I want to do X, but you want me to do Y and I never could figure this part
out, right?
And so fast forward, I was working in this place and they got acquired by a national
company, like a Fortune 500 publicly traded company that I had already worked for.
And I hated the place because I'm not a big like corporate guy.
I'm a bad robot, you know, like I'm a terrible employee, but I'm like a great owner or leader
or whatever, right?
And so I was like, well, we're going to just start doing our own thing.
So we started doing it and basically it was real estate development.
And it's weird because again, back to the, to the Joseph story, like I thought when we
started that, that it was going to be one thing.
I thought it was going to be like, oh, we're going to build some McMansions, you know, that
kind of stuff.
Because that was what I had come out of in the real estate part of it, that kind of construction
part of it.
And then over the course of 10 years, what I've seen in that business realm is that
Holy Spirit kind of moved us from doing some of this to doing some of that until ultimately
like, I started to get wisdom and clarity on the path that he had for me and everybody's
got a different journey.
But it was like, I'm supposed to focus on multifamily, which are like apartment projects,
right?
So this will all tie together.
So while we're doing that at the same time, we decided, Erica and I decided like with
some friends.
We didn't really know at the time it was going to be a church, but we were going to start
like some type of like thing and it became ultimately a church.
Our heart was always like, this is a big part of my heart for the church was always like,
I'm tired of seeing people just show up on Sunday and sit in a pew and like, they're
just punching the card.
I want to see like an expression where every single person, if they have a heart that they
want to start a podcast, like how can they be equipped and empowered to take the dream
in their heart and to take that and to take it out and do it?
Not just like for the world or for a buck, but like for a calling for a worship, you
know, hey, Lord, this is my acceptable act of worship, right?
And so we started doing that and the whole idea behind it, which is a big part of my
philosophy when it comes to the church.
And I think church kind of has a name with baggage, you know, so lately I've actually,
I've heard some other people saying this, but eklatia, which is the word in the Greek,
which is in the Bible when it says, you know, the church, right?
So like, what is the eklatia?
What is the body of Christ?
You know, and again, what I've seen just in this whole being in this game, in this thing,
my whole life is like so many times we have this model that we've taken from the world
that we've tried to bring into the church, which is like, I'm the leader and here's my
vision and you need to come under my vision and serve my vision.
And then we wonder why people are like, man, I'm not feeling this, right?
It's because that's not the way the kingdom works.
So like in the culture that we've had in the church, especially in America for the last
like 100 years, it's a pastor culture, pastoral culture is what I would say.
So basically like you come to the church and the man of God comes and like he gives you
the word and he gives you and he prays for you.
And if you need a prayer, you come to him and if you need, he would you come to him.
And if you, you need counseling, you come to him.
But if you read in the New Testament, that's not how Jesus did it, right?
And I shared this on a Sunday a while back, but it's like, Jesus didn't feed the 5000.
The disciples did.
He gave them the bread and was like, go feed them.
And so when you look at New Testament culture, it's actually, it works the other way.
It's upside down.
The leader is the servant who's there that says, what's your heart?
All right.
Now, how do I help you accomplish that?
And so I'll kind of like start to tie this together.
So was it like a home church that you guys?
No.
So it kind of started there.
It started as a home church and the whole heartbeat behind it was like, how do we equip
people to like live life?
And there was a lot of lessons to it.
Yeah.
And multiplication.
Now, what you said right there is that is the key to the kingdom, everything.
That's the whole deal.
Like Jesus actually says, when he's telling the parable of the sower, he says this, if
you don't understand this parable, you don't understand the whole rest of the game.
Everything else is locked because it's all about multiplication.
Yeah.
You need to invest in things that are faithful and the multiply.
Love it.
I think it's proverbs.
It's from seed time money.
Anyway, go ahead.
Yeah.
So again, let's talk about that for a second.
Listen, this could be a three hour podcast.
If you want to guide the ship a little bit, that's fine.
Well, I was making a joke, but the point is you can kind of guide us where you're feeling,
but multiplication starts in the beginning.
That's Genesis 126.
Be fruitful, multiply.
But all that to say, what I've seen growing up is this upside down thing that's not the
kingdom, which is like come under this vision and serve it.
And then like, if you're a good little boy or girl, you know, you get a pat on the back
but the kingdom works like this.
Everybody here is equipped.
It's a priesthood of all believers.
That's why a lot of times from the front on Sunday, like when you hear me, I'll say,
Hey, put your hand up if you need prayer.
And then now if you see somebody with their hand up, put your hand on their shoulder and
pray for them.
Why?
Because that's how the kingdom works.
It's supposed to be activation and that leads to multiplication, you know?
And so all that to say on the path, what I've seen in the last probably like year or two,
because you know, you come on these Joseph journeys, right?
Where you're like, Lord, I thought you promised me this.
And then you said I was going to rule and all my brothers are going to bow down to me
like this, the Joseph story, right?
But now here I am.
Why have I been in Potiphar's house serving for years?
Why have I been in the prison?
But the reality is he did not know that God's destiny was much bigger than that dream.
And that's how it is for all of us.
And it's like, you thought it was one thing, but it was so much bigger and so much more
full and so much more vibrant.
It was like black and white, like the Wizard of Oz, you know what I mean?
It was black and white and suddenly it's color.
And so Joseph goes through from the promise, right?
Then he ends up in the prison, right?
But he ends up, the prison is the open door that took him to the palace.
And like, listen, this is a little bit of a sermon here that I'm preaching now, right?
All right, get the organ out.
Like, look, like there's people listening today that are like, why am I in the prison?
Like, Lord, you told me I was going to be wealthy and unbroke.
You told me I was going to live to be a hundred and the doctor said I'm going to die or whatever
it might be.
You said I was going to have a beautiful family and suddenly we're on the rocks and...
Right.
Who do you choose to trust?
Do I trust this person who told me this?
Do I trust my lifestyle or do I trust what God's promise is for me?
Love it.
Yeah.
So we all have to make a decision, see when we run into the prison or we're...
They're all in the Bible, right?
Like when you're Elijah and God says, go tell Ahab and he's like, no, no, I'm good.
You know, even the sermon, he's like, I can't remember who comes to Elijah, but he's one
of the boys and he's like, I can't go back to Ahab.
He'll kill me if he knows that.
So there's all these moments where you're like, I don't get this.
But then ultimately, like, you have to make a decision there.
Do I give up on the seed?
Do I give up on this little sapling, this thing that God promised me?
Oh, that wasn't God.
You know?
Or do I say, hey, I'm not going to change my theology.
I'm going to stick with this until the situation changes.
But that's the hard moment, isn't it?
Right.
Yeah.
Nowhere does it say that Joseph rebuked God.
Nowhere does it say Joseph was in prison.
He's asking why, but he's not saying, nope, we're done.
Right.
He's like, we're no longer...
It's the Joseph...
He's like, you're going to put me in, right?
Absolutely.
He says, all right, well, I'm going to water this little tree.
I'm going to go take care of this.
I'm going to make the best of my moment.
Right?
Yes.
And God found him in that hole because he knew where he was the whole time and said,
all right, now is the time.
Yup.
Well, and that's a big biblical theme, right?
It's always about the fullness of time.
And so many people, like whether it's you guys, whether it's me, whether it's people
listening, why don't I have this Lord?
Well, here's the issue.
You don't have it yet for two reasons.
One, because it's not the fullness of time.
Two, because the preparation so that you can steward the thing that God has called you
to isn't done.
Because I always say it this way, like God has to put his super on your natural.
But if your natural can't carry the weight because you haven't developed it, like if
you go to the gym and you haven't been there in five years and you put three wheels on
that baby and you're like, I'm going to squat this man.
I'm the man.
You're going to end up on your butt, right?
You're going to end up with me in the back of an ambulance.
There you go.
That's right.
So, but it's the preparation that creates in you the ability to carry the thing that
you're called to.
That's good.
And that's the thing we all, because we want it, man.
This is our culture, right?
We want it right away.
I want it every time.
The microwave, man.
A big, I bet you a way.
You know.
Nathan loves that big case.
But yeah, it's funny.
We live in the tyranny of the urgency.
That's obviously the enemy that has produced a society has produced a way of thinking that
wants immediate results to the things.
You know, why do we have a microwave?
Because we couldn't wait for the oven, right?
Right?
Well, why do we have the air fryer?
Because it's better than a microwave and it's still faster than the oven, right?
So we live as slaves to tyranny of the urgency.
And when you develop your relationship with Jesus, you start understanding to be still
in no.
And you start understanding what you were speaking about, strengthening your spiritual
muscles so that you can take on the load of the super to your natural.
And so that's when you're perfected in the time.
And the longer you are on this earth in God's love, the easier that is to understand.
But even young Christians flounder with it sometimes because, you know, it's like, you
know, Lord, it's getting a little close, man.
It's getting a little close.
And some of us need reminders.
Constantly.
Yeah.
I'm a key one that needs reminders because I forget quick.
Yeah, we all do.
I'm like Peter, I'd be right on that water and then I'd be right in it.
Yeah.
Because, you know, whoops, I forgot.
Just like that.
I heard, now this isn't my idea.
This is Randy Clark said this, but you know, in this, the story where Jesus is on the shore
after the resurrection and Peter says, it's the Lord.
And he jumps back in the water.
He puts his clothes on first, then he gets in the water.
Now, again, this is brilliant, but like this is Randy Clark's thought, not mine, but he's
like, I think the reason that Peter put his clothes on first is because he expected to
walk on water when he went that time, you know, and I just love that because that is,
it's the testing of your faith.
That's James one that brings about perseverance, you know, all these things like without that
moment where you're in the prison, without the David moment where you're running around
from Saul, without all those things, you don't become who you're supposed to be.
And so like on my own journey, just like you guys have your journey, what's cool now.
I finally, you know, like when you're on the road and you're driving, say you're going
like on that commercial, are we at the ocean yet?
You know what I mean?
And then you come over the horizon and suddenly you're like, there's the ocean, right?
I'm just now at the point of my journey.
It's called convergence, right?
Where all the things that you didn't even know about that God was doing, it are coming
together.
It's kind of like the opposite of the whole two roads, letting the woods, you know, the
frostbomb, you know, it's like all these roads, all roads lead to Rome, right?
It's like everything coming together.
That's Romans eight, by the way, right?
He's going to take all the stuff and make it work for you.
And so what I'm seeing now, which is really brilliant and amazing is all the business
acumen and savvy and like all the experience that I would have never got, whether it's
from being in front of like local county boards or, you know, municipal boards, all, you know,
all these places of government, all the financial, you know, thinking and processing and all
those things on business, managing hundreds of people, all this kind of stuff, right?
That's converging.
But then I see all of a sudden like how the desire of my heart, like to build the body
of Christ, right?
That was always like, how does that work?
Lord, you keep telling me I'm supposed to do this business stuff.
I don't get it.
I want to do this, but you're telling me to do that.
All I want to do is just be with your people and build your kingdom, build your church.
Now all of a sudden I'm like, oh, I needed all those pieces to bring to the church.
And it's really cool because now I'm in a position where even like next weekend I'll
be traveling, but I'm going to be consulting with a pretty large church organization with
like a lot of campuses on leadership development, on how to create generational wealth, because
that's the thing the church doesn't get.
Like we don't think strategically in the church.
We're always just about a lot of churches eat their, eat their seed as bread.
You know, like we don't think multi-generationally.
We don't think a hundred years out.
God thinks eternally and we can't even think past the next year, right?
But so it's cool.
So I'll be taking all this stuff that I was like, God, this is such a waste of my time.
This is why am I doing this?
Like, and I'm going to bring all this back to where my heart has always been, back to
the people, back to the church, back to the Ecclesia.
And so I see this awesome, beautiful convergence of like, for me, that whole, oh, like I'm
not in the palace yet, right?
But the, what was it?
The wine maker, right?
No, he, yeah, the, the cup bearer got whacked.
Was it the baker?
The baker got whacked.
Okay.
Bare remembered him.
Yeah.
So there you go.
So the baker got whacked.
Took a whole year.
Oh, thanks for remembering.
By the way, it's because he wasn't supposed to remember because Joseph wasn't done simmering.
Right?
He was still, he was still on low, you know, and, and coming to a boil and, and he's being
stirred and then when it was time has come, his time had come.
You needed that extra year.
And so like, whether it's the Joseph journey, whether it's the journey that I find myself
on where I'm like, Oh, cause suddenly the, the cup bearer calls, Hey, we need you.
Like I just remembered there's a guy that already knows this stuff, right?
So the cup bearer from me called, right?
And so it's beautiful to start to see like, Oh, I see this, the plan of God, like that
I couldn't see until I came over the horizon.
And I was like, there it is.
There's the ocean.
There's the thing.
And so like the people, you know, listening to this podcast, right?
It's like all the way through this journey, if you will be faithful, if you'll continue
to just every day, get up, just Lord, I know what you call me to, I'm going to be the best
version of myself.
Like, you know, even every Sunday when I'm on my way here to church, I'm like, Lord,
I'm on my way to give the best that I have to your bride.
I'm on my way to serve your body, whatever you want me to do.
You just, I'm here to be your hands and feet.
But when you do that every day, it's not just what you do once, right?
It's the every single day that builds character that builds your life.
That's the key.
I think that you were speaking earlier about not all churches have this and you, and you
sought this and your family sought this, that comfort breeds complacency.
And you cannot grow if you're complacent.
You become content with the meagerness that you have.
You miss out on the finest things that God asked to offer you that you could do if you
would just step out, that you just make small movements, you know, especially if you go
back to the weightlifting thing, don't start big.
Start walking down the aisle.
Yeah, don't start around a marathon.
Start shaking someone's hands.
Start praising Jesus a little louder, you know, put your hands in the air, pray for
the person next to you, you know.
Don't have that complacency in your heart.
Seek him with your whole heart.
Like us, I can't imagine not seeking him.
I've prayed prayers where I prayed that he would kill me.
Not literally, but the fleshy part of me so that the spirit can shine so that he can shine
through me.
Like, Lord, I am in the way.
Like, you need to kill me.
Yeah.
Like, you need to put this body to death.
Like I am just shaming you.
I am spinning my wheels and doing my own thing.
You need to kill this body.
Yeah.
And, you know, I've had people that say, hey, I need patience.
Pray for it.
Well, then he'll test me.
Let him.
That's what you want.
Yes, you're going to be tested.
That's going to happen.
That's how you, that's how you refine something.
Yeah.
I don't understand why you would shy away from that.
That's what I found too is God always does his sneaky work during worship, right?
Because you're like, oh, Lord, I love you.
Lord, I give you my heart.
You know what?
You know, you're praying all these dangerous prayers and then all of a sudden later you're
like, why am I going through this?
You know, because you prayed it, bro.
Like you ask God.
Yeah.
You're like, I'm over again in this song.
That's what you want.
I just, I give it all to you.
No, Lord, you took it all away, right?
But yeah, no, it's funny.
I always like the joke because it's like, it's kind of like in life too.
You know, you put the music on, you know, oh, this is the best time ever, you know?
But like all kidding aside, like not, not to be crass, but like that's where God does
put the seed into you.
That's where he, in those moments where you're, you're like, Lord, I give it all to you.
I'm just open.
I want to be, I want to serve you.
I love you.
I give you my heart.
And I know that the Church is, this is the great commandment, but like it's beautiful
because in those moments, that's where he's like, he puts that whatever that dream is,
that's when he puts it in your heart.
And then it starts the process, right?
And it's just like, it's just always that the thing I love about God is this, he can
do miracles, right?
You see him all through the Bible.
We hear about him in church.
If I'm being honest, we should be doing a better job of talking about the miracles.
All of us should.
Well, now we're trying.
No, no, all of us, you know, but yeah, that's part of this podcast, right?
Yes.
I, Sam was mentioning that they used to have a bulletin board and they would post miracles
that have happened and blessings.
Yeah.
I told Pastor Pete, we should bring that back because people could actually see and read
and be encouraged that way.
Yeah.
That's beautiful.
Yeah.
So what I love though about the miracle is God can do that, right?
But he works through process.
So he's able to do a miracle, right?
But his nature is process.
And I love that because it's always, if you look, it's always the seed.
He's always gentle with us, gently guiding us.
Yeah.
It's like, no, no, no, not that way this way.
Yeah.
And you don't feel it like that maybe like just like, you don't feel your hair grow,
like the seed grows, you know?
When you continue to, like it's like what it says about Mary, she, she treasured these
things in her heart.
When you take that thing and you protect it and you, you bring it back to the Lord again,
that's like 1st Timothy 1, 18, right, take these things that were spoken over you and
keep bringing them back to the Lord, you know?
But like, you don't feel it growing, but then the next thing you know, 10 years down the
road, you, you just turn around here like, wow, this is a story.
That happened.
This is a God size story.
And the other thing I would say just so like, if the thing that you're aspiring to, you
can do on your own, you're not dreaming big enough.
Like God, it says, you know, like that the power that raised Jesus from the dead is in
us.
Like if God put that deposit into us, like you shouldn't be dreaming of the thing that
you can do yourself.
Oh, I just want to use, just to use car, Lord, and an apartment, you know?
I'm using that as a metaphor, but like dream big, dream God size dreams that like, if God
doesn't show up, it ain't going to happen because those are the moments where you're
just, you find yourself in a miracle.
You find your, your faith is stretched and you've grown and, and you've become the thing
that you dreamt that seed and that's the path.
It's a good work.
It's awesome.
Yeah.
Awesome.
I love the way you phrase things.
I love the way that you put things together and analogies.
I appreciate it when you're on stage, you did the same thing.
This is, this is, this cat can think out of the box, you know what I mean?
And I really appreciate that because it, it lightens the load.
I think it makes more people pay attention.
Yeah.
When you bring something across that they actually have to think about, not something
that's an automatic like, mm-hmm.
Amen.
Yeah.
They go, wait, what did he say?
Yeah, yeah.
All right.
Yeah.
I appreciate you.
I appreciate what you do.
It's nice to finally meet you officially.
Yeah.
Long time watcher, first time talk.
That sounds creepy, right?
I've been watching you a lot for the past couple of years once you know.
Sounds really wrong.
It's a, you know, I really, I really like worshipping with you.
I love your heart behind it.
I love, you know, I'm not a Pentecostal at heart and, and I'm not a hooting and hollerer.
I don't hooting holler at, at sporting events either.
Just not who I am.
Yeah.
Right.
I got you.
But I love watching his people worship.
Yeah.
I love watching.
I love when I see people.
I don't know why.
I just love seeing them love on him.
Yeah.
And, and it just feels really good to me.
Yeah.
It does.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
I love it so much.
I think I say it like literally every week to people, someone in this building, but
it's like teamwork makes a dream work without what you do, without what you do.
Like all of us there, even the person who thinks, oh, I just came to just sit there,
you know, at the end of the day, like what, when they raise their hand, it might have
moved your heart, you know, so like it is a beautiful thing where we all need each other.
It's that body.
And when we, when we come together, that's why I love again, the church, like it's Jesus
chose it.
We didn't make it up.
Jesus made this.
And he said, this is my body on the earth.
And I love it too.
God's crazy.
He doesn't have a second string.
He doesn't have a backup plan.
He's not like, hey, angels, get ready.
These guys are really messing up right now.
He somehow is just so confident in us.
It's beautiful.
But again, it's when we come together.
Well, you kind of cheat because he knows the end.
That's true.
Right.
So yeah, it is confidence because in the very beginning, he knew what the end looked
like.
He's got all kinds of backup plans.
He's the author and benefactor of all humankind that he knows.
He knows what's up.
He's accounted for our stupidity and dumb choices.
When he put me in my mother's room, he said, that boy's going to be a dummy for a while.
He's going to have to be tough.
He put a lot of extra choices and then chances in there for me too, but he made me super
tough because he's not a good learner.
I like it.
So here we are.
So thank you so much for being with us.
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Yes.
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