WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.440 What's up Wayfam. We are back with another episode. I'm Zach. I'm going to be a host. 2 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:11.440 My co-host is Zoe right here. Say hi. Hi guys. We're so excited for today's episode. 3 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:17.520 If you haven't, if you haven't already subscribed, subscribe, tune into our other channels on 4 00:00:17.520 --> 00:00:25.040 Instagram to talk all that. And we are so, so excited to have a special guest on today. 5 00:00:25.040 --> 00:00:30.480 We have Philip, Anthony, Mitchell. Come on in the house. So excited to have you brother. 6 00:00:30.480 --> 00:00:34.400 And thank you all for having me. I appreciate it. Welcome. Welcome to beer. 7 00:00:34.400 --> 00:00:37.360 Well, we're going to dive into, we're going to dive a little bit into your story, 8 00:00:37.360 --> 00:00:42.720 and we're just going to try and learn from you. So yeah, we hope you guys enjoy this episode. 9 00:00:42.720 --> 00:00:44.480 Let's get into it. Let's do it. 10 00:00:48.320 --> 00:00:53.840 Philip, we would love to, I mean, I'd love to just start kind of where things started for you. 11 00:00:55.760 --> 00:01:00.640 And you, I mean, we are just talking and you said that you're originally from New York City. 12 00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:01.200 Yeah. 13 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:05.120 And you grew up there. Tell us a little bit about growing up in New York City. 14 00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:09.440 And how did that transition to where you're at now in ministry? 15 00:01:09.440 --> 00:01:16.560 Yeah. So I'm a first generation American. My parents were immigrants from the nation of 16 00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:22.240 Trinidad. So I was the first person my family born in the US and raised in Queens, New York. 17 00:01:22.240 --> 00:01:29.360 My parents were believers. And so I was not aloof to faith. I see my parents reading the 18 00:01:29.360 --> 00:01:34.400 scriptures. My parents had a small ministry that we went to on Sundays in the basement. 19 00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:40.240 So my parents read in the word of God. And so I was not disconnected from some idea of God 20 00:01:40.240 --> 00:01:46.320 in faith. But the environment I lived in had urban environment had a stronghold on my life. 21 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:53.600 And so from a very early age, you know, I was in the street and involved in everything that comes 22 00:01:53.600 --> 00:01:59.200 with a life in the streets. I'm a very deep darkness from the age of 12. And it was really 23 00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:04.400 separated from my own life. I would come home and those things went across the threshold of the 24 00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:08.880 door. I have respect and honor for my parents. But as soon as I walked out that door, I lived 25 00:02:08.880 --> 00:02:15.120 a different life altogether. And I'm not proud of those things in a very dark life. I heard a lot 26 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:20.640 of people damage a lot of people in that life. And it was in a life of darkness until, you know, 27 00:02:20.640 --> 00:02:25.840 the Lord found me at the age of 24. What did that look like? You say the Lord found you at 24? 28 00:02:26.720 --> 00:02:35.200 Yeah. So at age 17, I was, I had be in a case. I was supposed to do some time and I'd be the case. 29 00:02:35.200 --> 00:02:43.040 And legal trouble. I had turned 18 actually in Rikazal in prison when I turned 18. And I had 30 00:02:43.040 --> 00:02:48.560 beat this trial and my mom was really concerned for me. I had a friend. She was living in North Carolina 31 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:55.120 at the time. And so I saw that as an out from New York City. So legal trouble forced me out of New 32 00:02:55.120 --> 00:03:01.120 York City. I had been locked up twice in like a six month time frame. So my mom thought it wouldn't 33 00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:06.960 be best for me to remain. So I end up in North Carolina with the host, my mother thought I would 34 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:12.800 escape that life. I was living. But when I got to North Carolina, I met a group of dudes from New 35 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:18.720 York that were older than me. And they were far more ruthless than I was. So, you know, I end up 36 00:03:18.720 --> 00:03:23.440 in a life that's even darker than I have Carolina in, you know, trafficking drugs up and down the 37 00:03:23.440 --> 00:03:30.160 eastern seaboard. And I've been in shootouts and had bullets graze me. And, you know, and by 38 00:03:30.160 --> 00:03:39.840 God's grace, He kept me alive and all of that. And at age 24, I had come to a place where I 39 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:47.360 was dealing with a lot of emptiness. And I was feeling very suicidal. And from the outside, I had 40 00:03:47.360 --> 00:03:54.400 all of the trappings of what would look like worldly success. So luxury car. I had a dope girlfriend, 41 00:03:55.120 --> 00:04:00.720 dope apartment, you know, some money in the bank and whatever. But I was very empty on the inside. 42 00:04:00.720 --> 00:04:05.200 And in that season of my life, I was very hopeless in suicidal. In fact, 43 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:10.480 my first suicidal attempt in that season, I'm sitting in my apartment alone one night, 44 00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:19.280 shotgun to my lap, shotgun to my chin, ball of alcohol. And there was this Christian girl who I knew 45 00:04:19.280 --> 00:04:22.960 she used to twist my locks. I had locks back in those days. And for whatever reason, I looked 46 00:04:22.960 --> 00:04:28.000 back now and I know it was divine providence. She came to visit me that night and my door was 47 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:34.000 unlocked. She walks to the door. She sees me sitting there on the floor. She walks over to me. She 48 00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:42.400 sits down on the floor. She doesn't say one word. She holds my left hand and her silence and her 49 00:04:42.400 --> 00:04:49.120 presence talks me off of that ledge. But I would return back to that ledge six months later. 50 00:04:49.760 --> 00:04:56.400 When my girlfriend at the time who became my wife was in a car accident. She survives this car accident. 51 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:02.400 She comes back to the apartment. She puts on gospel music. This is the very first time in my life. 52 00:05:02.400 --> 00:05:07.760 I've ever heard gospel music. And she's walking back and forth where her hand lifted and she's praising 53 00:05:07.760 --> 00:05:14.080 God. And I had to store in my mind that I know now a retrospective was just a grace of God. I 54 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:18.960 had to store in my mind and said, you know, whatever that is, I want that for myself. 55 00:05:20.480 --> 00:05:26.400 Crawling toward bathroom with my hands and knees. And I started yelling at this God, I would see 56 00:05:26.400 --> 00:05:31.600 my parents praying to thinking he was just a name in a book. And I realized that God existed. 57 00:05:32.400 --> 00:05:39.920 And God met me in that bathroom. He revealed himself to me in that bathroom. I was saved and rescued 58 00:05:39.920 --> 00:05:46.480 in that bathroom. And I knew something had happened to me because that night, you know, I went 59 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:52.000 and I laid down with my girlfriend at night. And for the very first time, I feel conviction for sin. 60 00:05:52.960 --> 00:05:58.240 Is the very first time in my life I have an awareness of sin and awareness that my behavior is not 61 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:04.560 right. And it was in that season when I realized man something had transpired in my heart. 62 00:06:04.640 --> 00:06:09.360 God had rescued me. I had been regenerated by the power of the Holy Spirit. 63 00:06:09.360 --> 00:06:15.680 Come on. I met a dude at that week. He put a Bible in my end and started reading that Bible 64 00:06:15.680 --> 00:06:21.520 and that's when I said, God found me in that bathroom. Do you remember what book you started reading 65 00:06:21.520 --> 00:06:31.280 first? I do. The first book I ever read was Revelation. It's crazy, right? Like don't do that, 66 00:06:31.280 --> 00:06:37.200 right? People get saved. They say, oh, go read the gospel. Start with John. 67 00:06:37.200 --> 00:06:42.160 Right? Start with John. That's a start with John. I had no common sense. So the first thing I 68 00:06:42.160 --> 00:06:47.600 read was Revelation. But that same week, the Passion of the Christ came out. Oh, wow. 69 00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:53.040 All right. Mel Gibson's movie about that graphic depiction, crucifixion of Christ. 70 00:06:53.760 --> 00:06:59.360 And so in the week that I'm saved, I see the Passion of Christ. I read the book of Revelation. 71 00:07:00.080 --> 00:07:05.200 I had a profound effect on me from the very beginning, right? And so from the very beginning, 72 00:07:05.920 --> 00:07:10.000 what Christ did for us on the cross was really burned into my heart from the very beginning 73 00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:15.360 and then having some knowledge of what was coming in the end, both for the believer and the 74 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:20.960 unbeliever. The glories that has been prepared for us for the believer, but the damn nation that 75 00:07:20.960 --> 00:07:24.480 is waiting for the unbeliever. All these things was in my heart from the very beginning. 76 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:30.160 And I think it had a very profound effect on me. It left an indelible imprint on my heart from 77 00:07:30.160 --> 00:07:36.320 the very beginning. Wow. Yeah. Wow. That's so cool. Yeah, man. And then just sorry, just carrying on 78 00:07:36.320 --> 00:07:42.880 in the story. Yeah. How, because like obviously most people when they become Christians, they don't 79 00:07:42.880 --> 00:07:52.560 then go into professional ministries. How did you then make that leap from you've now committed 80 00:07:52.560 --> 00:07:58.880 to Christ has changed your life to, okay, I now want to serve him full time. Yeah, that's a 81 00:07:58.880 --> 00:08:07.680 little question. So April 14th, 20 2004, it's like six months later, I'm reading the Word of God alone 82 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:12.640 in a room. And this was my practice. I was sitting in room alone and open up the Word of God. 83 00:08:13.280 --> 00:08:18.000 I'm reading Proverbs chapter three and I come to verse five and six, trusting the Lord with all your 84 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:24.080 heart, lean not on your own understanding in all of your ways, acknowledge him and he will direct 85 00:08:24.080 --> 00:08:28.960 your path. And I mean, that's better than a GPS. Like, and that first became a life verse. Like, 86 00:08:28.960 --> 00:08:36.000 that is a, that is a, that is a, a Bible come GPS for life. Right. And so I'm reading that verse. 87 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:41.920 And for the very first time, I sense that God spoke to me on the inside of my heart for the very first 88 00:08:41.920 --> 00:08:48.160 time. And he began to speak to me about pastoral ministry. He began to speak to me about 89 00:08:48.160 --> 00:08:53.280 evangelistic ministry. And everything I'm hearing on the inside, I get a pen and I just write it 90 00:08:53.280 --> 00:08:58.000 down as fast as I can. I type it up. I fold that piece of paper and I tuck it in the back of a 91 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:04.400 picture frame. I put that picture frame up on the wall. But then I ran from that call for the next 92 00:09:04.400 --> 00:09:10.480 four years. I heard God clearly, but I want to know parts of ministry, right? I want to know parts 93 00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:15.760 of pastoral ministry. I want to know parts of preaching. So I run from that for four years. 94 00:09:15.760 --> 00:09:21.040 Why, sorry to jump in. Why, why were you disinterested in that? Yeah. I think for me, it was a 95 00:09:21.040 --> 00:09:27.120 myriad of things, right? And so I think one, it was, it was just fear, natural fear of 96 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:33.200 pulpit ministry. I had a fear of that too. I think it was a lot of insecurities, right? And so 97 00:09:33.280 --> 00:09:42.400 for me, I felt as if God could not use a urban dude like me for that type of ministry. So I 98 00:09:42.400 --> 00:09:48.880 felt, I felt I was a bad pick for the Lord. If that makes sense, right? I felt I was a bad pick. 99 00:09:48.880 --> 00:09:53.120 You know, like in New York, when we play sports like in the park, I say, you're going to play ball 100 00:09:53.920 --> 00:09:57.600 and you have two people who are the captains. You shoot for captain. He said, I'll take him. 101 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:02.160 Let me get her. I take him. I would have been the last person picked for the kingdom. 102 00:10:02.800 --> 00:10:07.040 So I felt I felt I wasn't a good pick for the Lord. So I didn't want no part of that. So for me, 103 00:10:07.040 --> 00:10:13.680 it's fear, it's insecurities, right? It's just feeling like I'm not going to be able to do that. 104 00:10:14.480 --> 00:10:19.680 And then it's also seeing the struggles that my parents went through a ministry. 105 00:10:20.880 --> 00:10:25.120 I feel like I didn't want no parts of that struggle. And so I just, I just ran the opposite 106 00:10:25.120 --> 00:10:30.240 direction like it was full-blown Jonah anointing, right? So I ran the opposite, the opposite 107 00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:36.160 direction. And I'm running for four years for a surrender to that call. Yeah, four four years. 108 00:10:36.160 --> 00:10:42.320 What changed after four years? Man, I was in I was in Columbus, Ohio at the time in Bible college 109 00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:49.280 and the passes up the preaching. And I was in the back of the building in the back of the room. 110 00:10:49.280 --> 00:10:52.880 And I'm watching the whole gathering happening. And he says across the microphone, 111 00:10:53.760 --> 00:10:58.480 if somebody in this room right now, you've been running from God for years and God is saying to 112 00:10:58.480 --> 00:11:03.600 if you don't surrender tonight, you will do nothing in this kingdom at all, right? And so I 113 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:08.640 felt like God was talking directly to me through him. I fell down on my hands and my knees in the 114 00:11:08.640 --> 00:11:13.680 back of that church gathering. And I said, God, a surrender at this point, whatever you want me to do, 115 00:11:14.400 --> 00:11:20.080 I will do. And so I fully surrendered. And from that point, it would probably another four years 116 00:11:20.880 --> 00:11:25.600 before I would really intend to ministry. My wife and I and 10 other believers, 12 of us, 117 00:11:26.240 --> 00:11:31.040 we found in our ministry from scratch in a small hotel room, you know, in a hotel room, 118 00:11:31.040 --> 00:11:36.720 in a hotel room, 12 of us, bro. That's so cool. And I was just wondering as you were speaking, 119 00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:43.840 it's clear that God had a call of leadership over your life for our audience, other young people 120 00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:49.200 who are watching that feel like they have that same call of leadership. What would your advice 121 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:55.440 be to them to like stepping into that, just being obedient to God's call? That's a great question. 122 00:11:55.440 --> 00:12:01.280 So I would say to your audience, I would say to some degree, everybody is called to leadership to 123 00:12:01.280 --> 00:12:06.800 some degree, right? I think sometimes when we think leadership, we think platform, we think 124 00:12:06.800 --> 00:12:12.800 stages, we think lights. And so there are people who feel if God does not call me to something 125 00:12:12.800 --> 00:12:17.200 called, I'm called greater grand, they're not leaders, but essentially everybody's called to 126 00:12:17.200 --> 00:12:22.640 leadership. Because leadership at his core is just really influence, right? It is influence, 127 00:12:22.640 --> 00:12:27.840 it's an ability to influence others. And I think the first person we have to learn to lead is ourselves. 128 00:12:29.120 --> 00:12:33.920 So I think because we are called to lead ourselves and our walk of salvation with God, 129 00:12:33.920 --> 00:12:38.880 I think to some degree, everyone is called to leadership. And then when we think about the fact 130 00:12:38.880 --> 00:12:43.360 that in every sphere of influence, we must be witnesses. This is what the Lord said to disciples, 131 00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:48.880 you will be my witnesses in these various places. And so no matter age, whether somebody's in 132 00:12:48.880 --> 00:12:54.080 their 80s or their 16 years of age, we all has spheres of influence. We are navigators, 133 00:12:54.080 --> 00:12:59.920 fears of influence, others in our home, whether it's in school, on the college campus, on social media, 134 00:12:59.920 --> 00:13:04.880 on TikTok or IG, we're all navigators, fears of influence. So wherever we are navigators, 135 00:13:04.880 --> 00:13:09.600 fears of influence, there is an opportunity to lead. And so I would say that first, I think 136 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:14.240 everybody is called to leadership at some capacity, right? And then I think that we have to have 137 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:19.040 a sense of accountability for the people in which we influence. I know that it is in it. And 138 00:13:19.040 --> 00:13:24.000 into something that will develop over time, as we are submitted to God, as submitted to the work 139 00:13:24.000 --> 00:13:29.280 of the Holy Spirit, as we have good mentors and coaches, as we absorb in God's Word and read 140 00:13:29.280 --> 00:13:33.760 in great books, we will grow as leaders. But there is no one who escapes the call to leadership. 141 00:13:34.400 --> 00:13:39.200 If you are alive, and if you are in spheres of influence, you've been called to leadership 142 00:13:39.200 --> 00:13:44.640 for the glory of Christ. That is the calling upon God on how much to be witnesses for Christ. 143 00:13:44.640 --> 00:13:49.440 If you are witness, you are leader. Period. Period. 144 00:13:49.440 --> 00:13:56.240 Period. That's man, that's so fire. Because I see, well, I'm actually, I'm a part-time youth 145 00:13:56.240 --> 00:14:02.080 pastor. Come on, bro. And one of the things that we're seeing in our young people, actually, 146 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:10.160 I think probably young people around the world, is that there's this tendency to want to show up 147 00:14:10.800 --> 00:14:18.960 and be involved to receive, but not to, as you're saying, become a leader, become involved 148 00:14:19.520 --> 00:14:24.320 in what the Lord is doing. So I love that. I like that. But you know, there's something about 149 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:30.640 that that's very important. And I think some of that is lost on our generation, 150 00:14:31.280 --> 00:14:35.680 that everybody's called to put their hands to the plow. I think one of the things that modern 151 00:14:35.680 --> 00:14:41.600 churches do that I think is a disservice to people is that when we talk about serving, we only 152 00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:48.320 attach platform ministry to serving. So that is my pastor's job. It's the apostle's job. It's the 153 00:14:48.320 --> 00:14:53.920 evangelist job, the prophet's job. This is this is this is antithetical to biblical teaching, 154 00:14:53.920 --> 00:14:59.600 right? The apostle Peter wrote something very important, right? And first Peter, he wrote, he wrote 155 00:15:00.160 --> 00:15:05.520 about gifts, right? He said, everyone who's been given a gift, a carus in Greek, you've been given 156 00:15:05.520 --> 00:15:10.480 that gift to serve other people, right? And the Holy Spirit has given everyone gifts. And when 157 00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:14.400 God expects us to do it, those gifts is to use them to serve other people beginning with the 158 00:15:14.400 --> 00:15:21.040 body of Christ. And so I would even say to your audience, serving is not a option. It is not 159 00:15:21.040 --> 00:15:25.840 a suggestion. It is a commandment and scripture that, oh, God has given you a gift you're supposed 160 00:15:25.840 --> 00:15:30.400 to use it for the benefit of other people. And so whether it's a gift of service, it's a gift 161 00:15:30.400 --> 00:15:34.960 of administration, a gift of proclamation, a gift of giving, whatever God is giving you who 162 00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:40.240 expects to use that for the good of other people, we also see this show up in the parable of the 163 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:45.200 talents, right? And so when Jesus is telling the parable of talents in Matthew chapter 25, this 164 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:51.120 represents both our stewardship of resources and our stewardship of our opportunities and the 165 00:15:51.120 --> 00:15:55.520 stewardship that the gifts that God has given us, right? The last man who had a talent, he went 166 00:15:55.520 --> 00:15:59.840 and dug a hole and put it in the ground. And right now, as I'm talking to you, there are people 167 00:15:59.840 --> 00:16:03.600 who you are passing, when people aren't passing who are digging holes and putting their talents in 168 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:07.680 the ground, they're being poor stewards of their resources, they're being poor stewards of their 169 00:16:07.680 --> 00:16:12.000 gifts, they're being poor stewards of their opportunities now. This is crazy to me because 170 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:19.920 if you've ever dug a hole, I have and takes work to dig a hole. So you're still being active, 171 00:16:19.920 --> 00:16:25.680 you're just not being fruitful. So. And so you have a lot of people who are busy, but they're not 172 00:16:25.680 --> 00:16:31.600 fruitful. They are active, but they're not fruitful. They are digging holes, but not using what God has 173 00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:35.760 given them. So if you're going to dig a hole, you might as well be fruitful. We need to encourage 174 00:16:35.760 --> 00:16:40.560 more people to put the shovel down and start using what God gave them for the glory of Christ. 175 00:16:40.560 --> 00:16:45.760 In whatever way of influence you are, use what God has given you for the glory of Christ. And don't 176 00:16:46.720 --> 00:16:52.400 handcuff it to the four walls of a church gathering. Man, if your school teacher be faithful there, 177 00:16:52.400 --> 00:16:57.280 if your student man be faithful there, like whatever God has given you, use it in his fifth 178 00:16:57.280 --> 00:17:05.520 influence for his glory, serving is not an option. It is a calling and incumbent upon every child 179 00:17:05.520 --> 00:17:11.600 of God has been called to serve the body of Christ and serve others in some capacity. Nobody gets 180 00:17:11.600 --> 00:17:21.520 a pass on serving. Bro, that eight, that eight. Bro, we clock in tea right now. 181 00:17:21.520 --> 00:17:24.560 We're going to clock tea, right? Yes, sir. It's about his tea right now. 182 00:17:24.560 --> 00:17:29.520 I was, could I circle back something you said earlier? Bro, let's do it as your podcast. 183 00:17:29.520 --> 00:17:39.200 So you said you were talking about self leadership. Yeah. I think I think it's so hard for, for, 184 00:17:40.160 --> 00:17:46.160 probably particularly our age and younger, where we're growing up where there's so much worldly 185 00:17:46.160 --> 00:17:50.880 influence. Come on, man. Let's try to lead us other directions. Yeah. How would you, 186 00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:57.840 how would you coach someone into tuning out all of the worldly influence that we're receiving? 187 00:17:57.840 --> 00:18:04.880 Yeah. And tuning into how the Lord is leading us and then leading ourselves towards Him. 188 00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:13.120 So I would, I would first say, I got a level set and say, we will never escape worldly influence. 189 00:18:13.120 --> 00:18:17.600 So long as we are alive, we will have to battle with worldly influence. 190 00:18:18.240 --> 00:18:22.960 That's why the scripture says that we must be in this world, but not of it, right? The only way 191 00:18:22.960 --> 00:18:27.120 to escape worldly influence is to never leave your house, to never go on your phone and never watch 192 00:18:27.120 --> 00:18:33.200 TV, right? Essentially to live in a box somewhere without any external stimulus or social media. 193 00:18:33.200 --> 00:18:36.000 That's the only way to escape that. So as long as we have phones, 194 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:40.000 as long as we have TVs and social media, as long as you have a job or you go to school, 195 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:43.920 if you're engaging with human beings, you're going to deal with worldly influence. So let's 196 00:18:43.920 --> 00:18:48.800 establish first that you cannot escape worldly influence. And when I was little, there was this 197 00:18:48.800 --> 00:18:52.160 game we used to play. I don't know if you've played anymore because it's kind of, it's kind of old 198 00:18:52.160 --> 00:18:55.840 school. And it might be wack, right? But when I was younger, there was this game we used to play 199 00:18:55.840 --> 00:18:59.440 called tug of war, right? And then you have a group of people on one side of the road, 200 00:18:59.440 --> 00:19:03.120 open a group of people on the other side of the road, and you will pull in one direction. And if 201 00:19:03.120 --> 00:19:07.440 whoever was stronger, you will pull the other people until they fall in and cross the line, right? 202 00:19:08.240 --> 00:19:13.280 For the believer, we're always playing tug of war. We're playing tug of war in our relationships. 203 00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:18.240 They're playing tug of war on your job. You're playing tug of war every time you swipe, 204 00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:24.240 every time you go and take tag ID or social media. The question is not about worldly influences, 205 00:19:24.240 --> 00:19:29.920 who is influencing who? Either my walk is going to be strong enough that I'm pulling people from 206 00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:34.480 the darkness to the light or your walk is going to be so weak people in the darkness of pulling you 207 00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:40.160 into the darkness. So if I'm on my job around unbelievers, there is influence happening all the time. 208 00:19:40.160 --> 00:19:45.840 Either I'm pulling unbelievers closer to God, or they are pulling me away from God. If I'm on 209 00:19:45.840 --> 00:19:51.120 social media, I'm swiping and I'm posting, I'm active on social media. I'm either pulling people 210 00:19:51.120 --> 00:19:56.080 closer to God, or what I'm seeing is pulling me away from God. If I'm on a college campus, 211 00:19:56.080 --> 00:19:59.360 and I got friends who are college campuses, they're going to say, if I'm even pulling them closer 212 00:19:59.360 --> 00:20:04.480 to God, or they're pulling me away from God. So we don't escape the battle for influence. 213 00:20:04.480 --> 00:20:08.400 Is whether or not that my relationship with the Lord is strong enough that I'm winning that battle. 214 00:20:09.040 --> 00:20:12.320 You do not escape the battle. Is it whether or not you win or you lose? 215 00:20:12.880 --> 00:20:17.600 And in some seasons, we get around the wrong company and we find ourselves drifting in the wrong 216 00:20:17.600 --> 00:20:22.320 direction, that moment we're losing that battle of influence. And then there's times when people 217 00:20:22.320 --> 00:20:26.240 come around and say, like, man, you're really making me different. Now I'm winning that battle of 218 00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:31.200 influence. So we don't escape the influence battle. It's just always strong enough to win the battle. 219 00:20:33.040 --> 00:20:37.760 Can I level set with you a little here? Let's do that, bro. I feel like first for me, I don't know 220 00:20:37.760 --> 00:20:43.600 maybe it's maybe it's different with others. But for me, it sometimes feels like my side of the 221 00:20:43.600 --> 00:20:51.440 rope is so much weaker than the darkness. How do I talk to me about strengthening the pull 222 00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:56.960 toward the light on my rope? Man, that's such a powerful question. I think what's so powerful 223 00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:04.160 about what you said first is that in this life, now hear me, right? I think your audience might 224 00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:09.760 give me some pushback, but I'm going to put some theological hands on this, right? Do it. 225 00:21:09.760 --> 00:21:13.360 All right. So I will say to you what you feel is the feeling of every Christian. 226 00:21:14.080 --> 00:21:20.560 There are less people outside of the rope. Let me put Bible on that. Jesus said, 227 00:21:20.560 --> 00:21:27.520 broad is the road that leads to destruction. But narrow is the road that leads to life. How many 228 00:21:27.520 --> 00:21:34.000 people on that road? Few find it. So if we take the words of our Savior, not the words of Philip 229 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:38.800 Anthony Mitchell, if you take the words of our Savior, there are fewer people on the road that 230 00:21:38.800 --> 00:21:44.240 leads to life than there is for people that lead to destruction. So if we look at the rope, 231 00:21:44.240 --> 00:21:48.720 there's more people on the rope leading people to darkness. There is leading people to light. 232 00:21:48.720 --> 00:21:54.000 So we have less people outside of the rope, but the force behind us is much greater than the 233 00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:58.640 force in the darkness. On that side of the rope is the power of the devil. On this side of the 234 00:21:58.640 --> 00:22:04.160 rope is the power of the kingdom. There is no duality here, right? The devil is already lost. 235 00:22:04.160 --> 00:22:09.760 As Paul said, when he wrote to the church of Colossi, Satan was disarmed on the cross. So although 236 00:22:09.760 --> 00:22:14.240 there's less people on my side of the rope, we have more power on the outside of the rope. 237 00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:18.080 They may have more physical bodies on this side of the rope, but their power is not stronger than 238 00:22:18.080 --> 00:22:23.920 ours. And that's how God gets glory. Come on. There's less people over here, but we have more strength. 239 00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:27.760 There's more people over there, but they got less strength. So when we finish this battle, 240 00:22:27.760 --> 00:22:32.800 we have one ultimate God will get the glory. They get less soldiers in this life in physical 241 00:22:32.800 --> 00:22:37.600 bodies, but we are part of a greater kingdom. And so the way we strengthen what we do on 242 00:22:37.600 --> 00:22:46.080 the outside of the rope is our community, our time in God's Word, our time in prayer, 243 00:22:46.080 --> 00:22:51.920 and the ringing out of sin from our life. The more we ring out sin from our life in our pursuit 244 00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:58.560 of holiness and purity, the more we fill ourselves with God's Word, the more we surround ourselves 245 00:22:58.560 --> 00:23:03.760 with strong biblical community, right? And the more we accountable for what we do in our life, 246 00:23:03.760 --> 00:23:08.800 we become stronger on our grip at a rope. And the more we surround ourselves with other people who 247 00:23:08.800 --> 00:23:14.080 are going after that, they become stronger on their side of the rope. This would be like you being 248 00:23:14.080 --> 00:23:19.760 a youth pastor. This would be like you making a personal decision watch as a youth pastor. 249 00:23:19.760 --> 00:23:26.480 And not have any close friends who have poor character. Well, we're full of compromise. 250 00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:32.320 We see the scriptures as suggestions and not as commandments. All right, they may be acquaintances, 251 00:23:32.320 --> 00:23:36.080 but they cannot be close friends. If you have close friends like that, they will weaken your 252 00:23:36.080 --> 00:23:41.440 ability to pull that rope. Wow. So for me personally, I know the pain of having friends who have 253 00:23:41.440 --> 00:23:47.920 poor character and what has done to my life. So I made a personal decision. Hear me. I have plenty 254 00:23:47.920 --> 00:23:54.800 of acquaintances. And I know people I make all friends. I have no one who I say I am intimate with 255 00:23:54.800 --> 00:24:01.680 who has poor character. I am not intimate with not one man or one woman who has poor character. 256 00:24:02.560 --> 00:24:07.200 Wow. I close a circle of friends, a very small group, a man of great character, 257 00:24:07.840 --> 00:24:12.880 men who love their wives, men who love their children, men who stand in on business for the 258 00:24:12.880 --> 00:24:18.800 kingdom of God. And I will not go outside that circle because what I will not do is walk 259 00:24:18.800 --> 00:24:22.880 intimately with men who have poor character because if they do, they will ruin the character that's in 260 00:24:22.880 --> 00:24:27.680 me or they will weaken the character that's in me. So I don't play those games. So that's how you 261 00:24:27.680 --> 00:24:33.520 strengthen your side of the road. Strengthen with community. Come on. God's word and tense prayer. 262 00:24:34.080 --> 00:24:38.880 To bring it out of your heart from sin, the pursuit of purity and watching the people you have 263 00:24:38.960 --> 00:24:42.560 around you. If we do that well, you'll have a firm grip on your rope. 264 00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:51.280 The evil don't know we're standing on business. We've got Jesus on our side. We've got Jesus. 265 00:24:51.280 --> 00:24:56.480 That's easy. I was just I was just thinking about some people that might be listening to what you're 266 00:24:56.480 --> 00:25:05.520 saying and maybe being unsure of how to approach loosening their connection to people that may 267 00:25:05.520 --> 00:25:11.680 have poor character. How would you say that they should do that in a loving way? Yeah. 268 00:25:12.480 --> 00:25:18.240 Yes. That's a really good. I like y'all too. Do you like y'all too? I feel the spirit of God 269 00:25:18.240 --> 00:25:24.480 all over y'all. True story. That is an excellent question and it is difficult, especially 270 00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:30.240 difficult for people like me who really love people. And when you love people, sometimes it's hard 271 00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:33.840 to hurt them even when you know you have to do something that God is calling you to do. 272 00:25:34.080 --> 00:25:38.640 Right. And so there's somebody watching this right now and they feel that in their life there's 273 00:25:38.640 --> 00:25:43.680 a friend who they can't walk in with anymore. There's a friend that they have who has a bad 274 00:25:43.680 --> 00:25:49.680 influence on them. And I would say this to them. Number one, I start with prayer. I start praying 275 00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:54.960 for God to give me the strength to do what is right. And I start praying for God to help this person. 276 00:25:55.680 --> 00:26:01.040 And I want to say to somebody who's watching that this is very important. Right. Yours is to be 277 00:26:01.040 --> 00:26:07.440 obedient. God will care for those who get hurt as a result of your obedience. Right. This is 278 00:26:07.440 --> 00:26:13.120 very important. God will care for the hearts of those who get hurt as a result of our obedience. 279 00:26:13.680 --> 00:26:17.280 And so one of the easiest ways to do this as you're praying for yourself and praying for that 280 00:26:17.280 --> 00:26:22.640 person is that you slowly begin to create distance and boundaries between you and that person. 281 00:26:23.200 --> 00:26:27.760 You don't always have to announce that with a trumpet, but you do be able to create some 282 00:26:27.760 --> 00:26:33.120 distance between you and that person. And then the thing is this and why somebody needs to hear 283 00:26:33.120 --> 00:26:39.280 this, that you can't feel guilty for doing this. Love is a grace gift. We owe that to everybody. 284 00:26:39.280 --> 00:26:45.760 Access must be earned. You do not owe everyone access, but you do owe everyone love. So I could 285 00:26:45.760 --> 00:26:50.800 love you from a distance and I can broaden that distance. That's me keeping a boundary to protect 286 00:26:50.800 --> 00:26:55.680 my witness from being ruined by your character. So the more boundaries in it now, you can have 287 00:26:55.680 --> 00:26:59.760 poor character. I could still die. You up and yo, let's go to the movies with Hangout, but we're 288 00:26:59.760 --> 00:27:04.880 not going to be intimate though. I'm not calling you to pray for me though. I'm not talking to you 289 00:27:04.880 --> 00:27:08.720 about the things that have in my heart. I'm not going to do that. So we have to come to a place 290 00:27:08.720 --> 00:27:13.760 of wisdom and awareness where we know who to be intimate with and who not to be intimate with 291 00:27:13.760 --> 00:27:18.560 and how to create boundaries and where people are in our lives. And Jesus did this. Right. So 292 00:27:19.520 --> 00:27:28.640 the scripture says about Jesus. He had 400, 500 plus followers, 72 disciples, 12. He made 293 00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:34.800 apostles, but of those apostles, three are a little bit closer. Peter, James and John. So even 294 00:27:34.800 --> 00:27:40.720 Jesus had boundaries. So it's not unbiblical to have boundaries. Jesus had relational boundaries 295 00:27:40.720 --> 00:27:46.400 from the three to the 12 to the 72 to the hundreds. You have boundaries. And even when it came to 296 00:27:46.400 --> 00:27:52.960 intimacy, he had boundaries. So there's a powerful text in the scriptures where the Lord is coming 297 00:27:52.960 --> 00:27:58.560 down to the end of his life. There's just a few hours before the sun comes up and he's headed to 298 00:27:58.560 --> 00:28:05.120 the cross. He takes his disciples into the Garden of Gethsemane. By this time Judas has already 299 00:28:05.120 --> 00:28:10.800 committed suicide. So now there is 11 men with Jesus. He goes into the Garden of Gethsemane and 300 00:28:10.880 --> 00:28:17.760 there's a detail in the text that people miss in the text. Right. He goes into the Garden. 301 00:28:19.120 --> 00:28:24.080 He tells us the disciples, y'all wait here. He takes Peter, James and John just a little bit 302 00:28:24.080 --> 00:28:31.760 further. And then the Lord says, my soul is sorrowful unto death. He does not say that in the 303 00:28:31.760 --> 00:28:38.080 presence of all 11 men. He only says that in the presence of Peter, James and John. So that 304 00:28:38.080 --> 00:28:43.760 means eight men. He leaves over here, three men. He takes over here. And now he expresses his 305 00:28:43.760 --> 00:28:52.640 most deepest intimate moment of struggle, vulnerability and struggle with only three men, Peter, James 306 00:28:52.640 --> 00:28:59.520 and John. So he had the boundary in terms of relational boundaries. He had information boundaries. 307 00:28:59.520 --> 00:29:04.560 He had vulnerability boundaries. He shared his heart in a certain place. These same men he's 308 00:29:04.560 --> 00:29:09.280 sharing his heart with are the only three men that see Jairus' daughter raise. These only three 309 00:29:09.280 --> 00:29:14.000 men he takes on a mountain top when he's transfigured. And so boundaries is not unbiblical. 310 00:29:14.880 --> 00:29:22.240 And even if it hurts, it has to be done for your safety, for your witness, and for what the Holy 311 00:29:22.240 --> 00:29:27.280 Spirit is telling you to do. You notice when Jesus came down from praying all night from the mountain, 312 00:29:27.280 --> 00:29:31.520 he goes up on a mountain top he plays all night. He comes down. He's looking at all of these 313 00:29:31.520 --> 00:29:37.200 followers and he takes 12 and makes them disciples. I'm sure some of them others probably feel some 314 00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:41.600 type of way like how come they get to be apostles? Do you ever see Jesus making apology for that? 315 00:29:43.600 --> 00:29:47.680 When he takes Peter, James and John into Jairus' house and leaves the others on the outside, 316 00:29:47.680 --> 00:29:52.080 do we ever see Jesus making apology for that? No. When he takes Peter, James and John, 317 00:29:52.080 --> 00:29:55.840 just a little bit further than the God that gets him. Do we ever see Jesus making apology for that? 318 00:29:55.840 --> 00:30:01.120 No. He does not. The Father would take care of the feelings of those who get hurt as a result of 319 00:30:01.120 --> 00:30:08.160 your obedience. Yours is to obey. God would take care of the hearts of other people. Amen. 320 00:30:10.320 --> 00:30:16.000 What? That was a bar at the end. Wow. Yeah. The Father would take care of them. Yeah. 321 00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:19.600 He will. Amen. You know when I learned that lesson when I was a youth pastor? 322 00:30:20.320 --> 00:30:27.840 Come on. I took over a youth ministry that had like four students and like in a year it grew to 323 00:30:27.840 --> 00:30:32.560 like a thousand students in a year. In a year. That's crazy. Like a thousand students in a year. 324 00:30:33.680 --> 00:30:38.320 At the height of that ministry, when we thought we were on our way, 325 00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:46.240 the Lord told me you have to walk away. Whoa. I need you to put this down. That thing I spoke to 326 00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:51.680 about eight years ago in that room. The time has come to do that. So the Lord was telling me the 327 00:30:51.680 --> 00:30:57.440 time has come to walk away from youth ministry and to start the pastoral ministry gave me. So I had 328 00:30:57.440 --> 00:31:03.440 to go and talk to the pastor and I had to resign and I remember the night I had to go in and tell 329 00:31:03.520 --> 00:31:15.040 all those kids that I had to leave them. That was very difficult because I love those kids. 330 00:31:16.240 --> 00:31:23.520 I love them. I love those teenagers with my whole heart. They meant everything to me. 331 00:31:25.120 --> 00:31:27.360 I was in an urban environment in South Atlanta, 332 00:31:27.920 --> 00:31:35.440 pastoring urban kids. Kids who had no parents, drug addict parents, girls coming in and they 333 00:31:35.440 --> 00:31:40.960 thung, dudes coming in with weed in a pocket. Like I mean, and I just love them because I saw 334 00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:48.080 myself in them. I remember the night I had to stand up until all of them that I would have to 335 00:31:48.080 --> 00:31:52.880 walk away from this position as their youth pastor and it was crushing to me and I was in the 336 00:31:52.880 --> 00:31:59.520 back room. No, I had to go out there and I had to tell them that and I did not have the courage 337 00:31:59.520 --> 00:32:06.240 to go out there and tell them and I'm on the floor face down them shedding tears and my wife, 338 00:32:06.240 --> 00:32:11.440 who was with me, she gets down in the floor. She puts her hand on my back and she's praying for me 339 00:32:11.440 --> 00:32:19.200 and she's saying, honey, you gotta obey God in this moment. You just gotta do what God is telling 340 00:32:19.280 --> 00:32:24.240 me. You just gotta trust them with the outcome. And it was around that time. I remember a man, 341 00:32:24.240 --> 00:32:33.680 I respected so much. I could hear his voice. Obey God, his name was Dr. Charles Stanley. He's a 342 00:32:33.680 --> 00:32:37.680 Southern Baptist preacher who went on to be with the Lord. The first preacher I started listening to. 343 00:32:38.720 --> 00:32:44.960 He had to say in obey God and leave all the consequences up to him, right? And I could hear 344 00:32:45.040 --> 00:32:48.880 his voice as I'm laying on the floor, obey God and leave all the consequences up to him. 345 00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.240 And Holy Spirit speaks to me, God will assume the responsibility to care for those who get hurt 346 00:32:54.240 --> 00:33:01.120 as a result of your obedience. I was as to obey and trust God to care for the hearts of people 347 00:33:01.680 --> 00:33:07.440 who get hurt. So there's a young lady listening right now and God is saying, break up with that boy. 348 00:33:09.040 --> 00:33:12.160 There's somebody right now in the Lord saying you gotta come out of that frame group. 349 00:33:12.960 --> 00:33:17.120 There's somebody listening right now in the Lord is saying that's not a healthy relationship for 350 00:33:17.120 --> 00:33:21.680 you and they are thinking about the feelings of the other person and they should. 351 00:33:22.800 --> 00:33:28.000 I want to say that that person was watching just obey God. You have no idea what God would do 352 00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:32.960 it on the other side of obedience. You have no idea what God would do when you give him a complete 353 00:33:32.960 --> 00:33:38.080 yes. He will take you to your next level and then he will care for the person you have to leave 354 00:33:38.160 --> 00:33:47.520 behind. He will do it. It's painful, but he will do it. That reminded me of Matthew 19 verse 29 and 355 00:33:47.520 --> 00:33:54.080 everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands 356 00:33:54.080 --> 00:34:00.240 from my namesake will receive a hundredfold in one life. Eternal life. There you go. 357 00:34:01.520 --> 00:34:07.440 And I also think I want to I want to encourage Evan who's watching as well that I don't think 358 00:34:07.520 --> 00:34:12.560 we're in a time particularly in the UK I can speak for. I don't think we're in a time for waiting 359 00:34:12.560 --> 00:34:18.720 around. We're not. I don't think we're in a time for waiting to be faithful to the Lord to be 360 00:34:18.720 --> 00:34:23.920 obedient. I think this is a time to be a radical disciple of Jesus because he's on the move 361 00:34:24.640 --> 00:34:29.520 and we're seeing it. We're seeing it. And I had something today. Please do. 362 00:34:30.320 --> 00:34:33.520 Not only is Jesus on the move, but Jesus is coming back. 363 00:34:33.760 --> 00:34:40.480 Right. And I want everybody who's watching right now your audience, you know, this Gen Z audience. 364 00:34:41.280 --> 00:34:46.880 I want to tell them that they are young. And when you're young, you think you have a lot of time. 365 00:34:48.080 --> 00:34:52.240 And I want to tell them that we don't have a lot of time left. I want to tell your audience 366 00:34:52.240 --> 00:34:59.680 that time is running out on us. Right. Time is running out on us. Right. The scripture gives us 367 00:35:00.560 --> 00:35:07.760 things that we should look for in the last days of the church age. And I will say for those of us 368 00:35:07.760 --> 00:35:11.520 who are paying attention, we are seeing those things happening right now in global society. 369 00:35:12.160 --> 00:35:20.240 From the rise of AI to the rise of evil to the rise of secular humanistic doctrine or to the rise 370 00:35:20.240 --> 00:35:25.520 of false prophets and the love of many grown cold to all the things Jesus said we can look for 371 00:35:25.600 --> 00:35:29.760 even in the tribulation period. I'm telling people everywhere I go time is running out. We are 372 00:35:29.760 --> 00:35:35.520 running out of time. This is the hour to get right with the Lord Jesus. This is the hour to be 373 00:35:35.520 --> 00:35:40.400 serious about their walk. This is the hour to pick up their Bible and read. This is the hour to 374 00:35:40.400 --> 00:35:46.560 develop a deep intimacy with God through prayer. This is the hour to lay down the idols of our heart. 375 00:35:46.560 --> 00:35:50.480 Like, especially in your generation, I'm going to put it out there. Your generation is one of the 376 00:35:50.480 --> 00:35:57.600 most narcissistic, ambitious, self-absorbed generations in the history of the world. And right now, 377 00:35:57.600 --> 00:36:03.760 these things are crippling your generation. And what your generation need is to lay down its idols. 378 00:36:03.760 --> 00:36:10.480 Right. It's love affair and its exaltation of men above God himself. It's rampant ambition. 379 00:36:10.480 --> 00:36:14.720 Right. Like in your generation, everybody want to be a king or something. Everybody want to be a queen 380 00:36:14.720 --> 00:36:19.120 or something. Everybody want to build. Everybody want to do nobody want to serve. Nobody want to listen. 381 00:36:19.120 --> 00:36:24.160 Nobody want to labor. Right. And so there is radical ambition, radical self, 382 00:36:25.360 --> 00:36:29.440 self-absorbed people. There's radical people that's just doing everything. So you have to all 383 00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:34.080 this radical individualism. And I want to say to your audience time is running out. 384 00:36:36.240 --> 00:36:40.960 We are in the final hours at a church age. And although we do not know the day of the hour of 385 00:36:40.960 --> 00:36:45.760 Christ's return, we can feel the wind of the end times blowing right now in society. 386 00:36:45.840 --> 00:36:49.760 We're on from New York. You're from Canada. So we know what it is to be around cold weather. 387 00:36:50.640 --> 00:36:54.720 You know when the leaves start falling off the trees that winter is coming. 388 00:36:56.160 --> 00:37:00.960 Nobody cannot. Nobody cannot tell you otherwise. You know when the leaves is falling from the tree 389 00:37:00.960 --> 00:37:05.760 in Canada or New York, you know winter is coming. You know snow is coming. You go get that jacket. 390 00:37:05.760 --> 00:37:11.600 You go get those boots. I go get some tins. We prepare ourself for the winter. Right. I'm telling people 391 00:37:11.600 --> 00:37:16.880 right now the leaves are falling off the tree. Wow. The pieces all around the globe are being 392 00:37:16.880 --> 00:37:21.680 moved to prepare the world for the return of the sun. And the real question is, is this generation 393 00:37:21.680 --> 00:37:28.320 pain attention? Is my generation pain attention? Is the church pain attention? We don't have all this 394 00:37:28.320 --> 00:37:35.680 time left. Now is the time to be serious about their walk with the Lord. Time is running out. 395 00:37:36.880 --> 00:37:40.400 Because one of the things we know from me and times that Christians will be greatly persecuted 396 00:37:40.400 --> 00:37:44.480 in the end. Christians will be in persecuted right now all around the world. And there is an 397 00:37:44.480 --> 00:37:51.360 increase of hostility towards Christianity right here in the UK. In my nation, it is growing. 398 00:37:51.920 --> 00:37:57.200 All around the world, there's an increase of hostility towards Christianity. Even this is a 399 00:37:57.200 --> 00:38:01.520 sign that we're living in the end times. But the Lord tells us that the closer we get to the end, 400 00:38:02.160 --> 00:38:06.800 the love of many will go cold. They will not listen to biblical preaching. There will be an 401 00:38:06.800 --> 00:38:10.880 increase of hostility towards Christianity. So all the signs right now are in society. 402 00:38:11.760 --> 00:38:16.880 It's just all we pain attention. Are we praying about it? And then are we being faithful 403 00:38:17.840 --> 00:38:24.960 to label together to push out this gospel as far as we can to win as many people to Christ as we can 404 00:38:25.680 --> 00:38:31.760 to multiply as many disciples as we can before time is run out. There is nothing else more 405 00:38:31.760 --> 00:38:36.000 important right now than the spread of the gospel and the multiplying of disciples. 406 00:38:37.760 --> 00:38:43.840 Well, we have something that's being coined as the quiet revival going on in the UK where there's 407 00:38:43.840 --> 00:38:50.560 like, have you basically just an increase in Gen Z returning back to church? I think like 34% 408 00:38:50.560 --> 00:38:55.120 of 18 to 24 year olds are now saying they're more spiritual. So they'd agree that there's a higher 409 00:38:55.120 --> 00:39:00.000 power or a God. Not necessarily that they believe that that's Jesus Christ, but that they believe 410 00:39:00.080 --> 00:39:06.080 there's something out there. Yes. I'd say in my church, we're seeing an increase in God doing 411 00:39:06.800 --> 00:39:12.960 amazing miraculous things of just bringing people in off the street who had no like grid for what 412 00:39:12.960 --> 00:39:17.520 Christianity looked like before just walking in because they're curious. Yes. Joining seeing a 413 00:39:17.520 --> 00:39:23.360 run club, Christian run club, everyone in their neon gear and a guy walks past coming back from 414 00:39:23.360 --> 00:39:27.600 work, decides to run with them in his work gear and then by the end of the run he's given his life 415 00:39:27.600 --> 00:39:37.520 to Jesus. That's powerful. It's all God. Jesus. And we're seeing this like revival. I'd be 416 00:39:37.520 --> 00:39:45.680 really curious to know if you're seeing something similar in your church setting or yeah, I want 417 00:39:45.680 --> 00:39:50.720 to know about first just about the quiet revival that's happening in the UK. Yeah. Yeah. 418 00:39:51.680 --> 00:39:57.440 My prayers that will not be quiet for long. Amen. Amen. My prayer will be loud and it will be 419 00:39:57.440 --> 00:40:01.680 boisterous and it will push back against the darkness that is happening right now. And so 420 00:40:02.400 --> 00:40:08.480 I'm praying that the UK would no longer have just a quiet revival, but a very substantial one 421 00:40:09.200 --> 00:40:14.080 caused the entire country to pay attention to what God is doing. Yes. Amen. Right. Like even right 422 00:40:14.080 --> 00:40:19.440 now as I'm talking to you, we're getting ready to have a crusade here in the UK in the beginning of 423 00:40:19.440 --> 00:40:27.280 2026. And so we're coming to add to what God is doing here in the UK and believe in God that he 424 00:40:27.280 --> 00:40:35.200 will use that to help fuel the fire that is happening right now. And our country, I'm not so 425 00:40:35.200 --> 00:40:41.120 sure if they're talking about a quiet revival. You know, our country, I'm seeing a rise of 426 00:40:41.120 --> 00:40:47.520 spirituality that is disconnected from Orthodox Christianity. I'm seeing a rise of secular and 427 00:40:47.520 --> 00:40:54.240 new age spirituality. We've seen a rise of new age religion where people are trying to find 428 00:40:55.120 --> 00:41:00.640 spirituality and circumvent Jesus on the way. And so there's something different happening 429 00:41:00.640 --> 00:41:07.280 in America. There is also a pseudo Christianity in America, what I would call a Western version of 430 00:41:07.280 --> 00:41:16.480 Christianity that has been infiltrated by materialism and by compromise and by comfort. Right. And 431 00:41:16.480 --> 00:41:23.120 by lukewarmness. So there was a lukewarm Christianity in America. And I believe by God's grace 432 00:41:24.880 --> 00:41:30.320 that my staff and I, our team and people connected to 2019, I think we are seeing revival. 433 00:41:31.120 --> 00:41:35.440 At least in our church and there are other churches we're seeing revival in America. And we're 434 00:41:35.440 --> 00:41:41.280 doing our part to Stuart. What we feel is God trying to wake up our culture in America to some 435 00:41:41.280 --> 00:41:46.480 degree. But I thank God for the revival that's happening here. My prayers that it will not remain 436 00:41:46.480 --> 00:41:54.720 quiet. It will be loud and push back against the darkness. Okay. Well, I feel like we could just 437 00:41:54.720 --> 00:42:01.520 like keep chatting all day long. I'm loving this. But I think this just might be like final question 438 00:42:01.520 --> 00:42:09.520 here. I'm curious. What would you say to a young person who's living in this environment where this 439 00:42:09.520 --> 00:42:15.680 quiet revival is taking place? What's what's the play right now? What's the most important thing to 440 00:42:15.680 --> 00:42:22.240 focus on? Really specific, really applicable. Last thing will hit before we sign off. Last thing. 441 00:42:23.200 --> 00:42:26.640 I would first want to thank you for that question. I think it's a powerful ending question. 442 00:42:28.960 --> 00:42:31.200 So this is the last thing I would say to your audience. 443 00:42:31.520 --> 00:42:40.880 Jesus, in his most famous recorded sermon, the sermon of the mount, he gave your audience an 444 00:42:40.880 --> 00:42:45.840 identity. Because one of the struggles of your generation, they also have identity issues. 445 00:42:46.720 --> 00:42:50.480 Never in my life, I've seen a generation that has so much identity struggles. There's a lot of 446 00:42:50.480 --> 00:42:56.000 struggles around identity and we're asking all kind of questions about identity. But you know, 447 00:42:56.560 --> 00:43:01.120 in the world, you can choose whatever identity you want. But in the kingdom, the identity has already 448 00:43:01.120 --> 00:43:05.840 been chosen for you. It's just a matter of fact, whether you're going to embrace it. So in his most 449 00:43:05.840 --> 00:43:14.320 famous sermon, Jesus said, you are the soul of the earth. You are the light of the world. He did 450 00:43:14.320 --> 00:43:21.200 not say you will become the soul of the earth. You are right now, the soul of the earth. So for 451 00:43:21.200 --> 00:43:25.760 everyone who is a follow of Christ right now, as we are talking, if they are follow of Christ, 452 00:43:25.760 --> 00:43:33.200 they are with their insecurities, with their failures, with their hangups, they are the soul of the 453 00:43:33.200 --> 00:43:38.560 earth. Now you and I read that today and it doesn't really affect us because we have to understand 454 00:43:38.560 --> 00:43:45.920 historical context. When the Lord said that, refrigeration did not exist. And salt was one of the most 455 00:43:45.920 --> 00:43:51.120 valuable commodities in the world. Salt was such a valuable commodity. You used it to pay people 456 00:43:51.120 --> 00:43:56.800 their wages for work. They used it for contracts. But the number one use of salt in the first century 457 00:43:56.800 --> 00:44:02.800 did was to act as a preservative to keep meat alive. And so if you had meat in your home, 458 00:44:02.800 --> 00:44:07.680 or lamb in your home, you did not want it to decay. You would pack it with salt. So when Jesus 459 00:44:07.680 --> 00:44:12.240 said to his followers, you are the soul of the earth. You are the people I put in the earth 460 00:44:12.240 --> 00:44:18.240 everywhere in America, in the UK, in Africa, in Australia, everywhere to keep back decay. 461 00:44:18.960 --> 00:44:25.680 So he has packed in the church into the world like salt to keep back decay. And wherever we lose, 462 00:44:25.680 --> 00:44:31.840 our saltiness decay begins to spread. So I will say to your followers, man, that they are salt 463 00:44:32.480 --> 00:44:38.080 and they need to be salt in the UK. They need to pray against what's happening. They need to 464 00:44:38.080 --> 00:44:43.360 pray your kingdom, come, your will be done. They need to take a stand for Jesus on social media. 465 00:44:43.360 --> 00:44:48.000 They need to be bold in this fair of influence. Come on. They need to stand up for Christ and 466 00:44:48.000 --> 00:44:53.520 every fair of influence. And so the more they take the responsibility to be salt on social media, 467 00:44:53.520 --> 00:44:59.360 on their campus, in their college, wherever they are, if each one of us take our responsibility 468 00:44:59.360 --> 00:45:04.000 to be salt, we can keep back decay. You ain't never been to a restaurant and take one grain of salt 469 00:45:04.080 --> 00:45:09.280 and throw it on a steak. So he never did that. So there's a community aspect of that. 470 00:45:09.840 --> 00:45:15.200 If we as a community of believers assume the responsibility, watch this word together, 471 00:45:15.920 --> 00:45:21.680 that we will be the salt of the earth. We will stand for Christ. We will stand for the values of 472 00:45:21.680 --> 00:45:26.080 Christ. We will stand for the kingdom of Christ. We will pray for His kingdom to come. We will 473 00:45:26.080 --> 00:45:31.440 be good witnesses. We will not live double lives. We will go after holiness. We will go after 474 00:45:31.440 --> 00:45:35.760 holiness. Come on. We will stand for Christ. If more of us took the stand to live that way, 475 00:45:36.960 --> 00:45:43.280 we could keep back decay. They are the salt of the earth. And if they would embrace that 476 00:45:43.280 --> 00:45:52.240 identity, and we could do damage to the kingdom of darkness. Wow. Need to drop the mic. That's 477 00:45:52.240 --> 00:45:59.040 crazy. Wow. Wow. That was so. Philip, thank you so much. You guys heard it here first. 478 00:46:00.400 --> 00:46:06.640 Get your friends around you. Get those people of character that are going to build you up and 479 00:46:06.640 --> 00:46:13.040 strengthen your side of the rope and and ring out sin and stay connected with the Lord. And we 480 00:46:13.040 --> 00:46:18.400 are going to do some damage for the kingdom. Damage is going to be awesome. Yeah. It's going to be 481 00:46:18.400 --> 00:46:24.400 awesome. Philip, thank you so much. We are so blessed to just spend some time with you and learn 482 00:46:24.400 --> 00:46:28.000 from you. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. 483 00:46:28.000 --> 00:46:32.080 You cannot pray over your audience really quickly. Please. Please. 484 00:46:34.880 --> 00:46:42.240 Eternal God and of a wise Father. Well, we thank you for rescuing us from darkness and bringing 485 00:46:42.240 --> 00:46:47.120 us into the light. We thank you for opportunities like this where we have a chance to discuss your 486 00:46:47.120 --> 00:46:52.720 word and to discuss your kingdom. I thank you for my brother and my sister to my left. 487 00:46:53.440 --> 00:46:57.920 Are you set their souls on fire? I can feel your presence in the studio and I can feel your 488 00:46:57.920 --> 00:47:03.440 presence all over their life. I pray for them and I pray for their audience that you would draw 489 00:47:03.440 --> 00:47:10.080 them closer to yourself. I pray you would deepen their intimacy with you in prayer. I pray you 490 00:47:10.080 --> 00:47:14.800 would give them a love for the things that you love and give them a deep hatred for the things 491 00:47:14.800 --> 00:47:20.320 that you hate. I pray they would hate sin. They would hate compromise. They would hate the things 492 00:47:20.320 --> 00:47:25.680 that are hindering them from walking into intimacy. I pray they will pursue purity of heart and 493 00:47:25.680 --> 00:47:31.120 cleanliness of hands. And I pray God they will have a deep love for your word and for the things 494 00:47:31.120 --> 00:47:35.920 of your kingdom. God, I pray their feet will not go to the left nor to the right, but that you would 495 00:47:35.920 --> 00:47:41.360 lead them down the paths that lead to righteousness. God, I'm asking something like scales will fall 496 00:47:41.360 --> 00:47:46.400 from their eyes and that you would burn them in their hearts like you did Isaiah at the age of 20. 497 00:47:46.880 --> 00:47:51.120 I pray they would hear the counsel of heaven saying who can we send and they would 498 00:47:51.120 --> 00:47:57.200 hurl themselves on the altar of sacrifice and run after you with all of their heart. Awaken them. 499 00:47:58.160 --> 00:48:05.600 Set them on fire. Use them mightily. Give them a deep love for eternity and deliver them from 500 00:48:05.600 --> 00:48:13.520 being tethered to the things of this life that are vain and fleeting and futile. Set this 501 00:48:13.520 --> 00:48:24.000 audience on fire. Yeah. I asked this Lord in the mighty and the majestic and the mashless name of 502 00:48:24.000 --> 00:48:32.320 our soon-coming King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. 503 00:48:32.320 --> 00:48:38.160 Family, thank you so much for joining us. This has been an awesome episode. Watch it back two, 504 00:48:38.160 --> 00:48:44.160 three times. Write some notes. This is some valuable stuff and we hope that you guys press in 505 00:48:44.160 --> 00:48:52.640 in this season. We'll see you on the next one. Thanks for joining us. Bye.