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Welcome to "Beyond the Outpost" Podcast!
Join the adventure with us as we explore the depths of personal growth, inspiration, and purpose. Hosted by Jordon Good and CJ Shaw, this podcast is your guide for navigating the path to becoming everything you were created to be.
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Join us as we dive into the stories of individuals who have triumphed over adversity, discovered their passions, and embraced their unique calling. Through candid conversations and insightful reflections, we illuminate the pathway to self-discovery.
Whether you're at a crossroads in your life or simply seeking inspiration to fuel your journey, Beyond the Outpost is here to accompany you every step of the way. Tune in, subscribe, and let's go on an adventure together.
Jordon Good (00:00)
you
hear about God. I'm inside her house now looking at statues and things going around. I'm like, she's not interested about God. And I'm playing that game in my head and I walk away without praying for. Yeah. And that was a lesson learned two years ago. You're still walking. Well, I tell people all the time. I'm like, man, like if you feel the opportunity where God's nudging you to go pray for this person, you don't need to have any fancy words to say, just pray for this person. I'm never missing out on that again.
All right, welcome back everybody to another episode of Beyond the Outpost with your host CJ Shaw and Jordan Good. We are excited to dive into our topic this week, which actually in our little prayer time there beforehand, I wanted to talk about our topic, but we didn't get to it. So.
We're just going to go with it here. What do you want to talk about today, Jordan? You actually said something in prayer there at the beginning. maybe just a little behind the scenes for people of, you know, there's a lot more that goes into this. This is the easy part. The, just sitting here talking and brotherly love and diving into stuff and seeking understanding. That's the fun part. That's the fun part. Everything else is challenging. Life. Life. Yeah.
but you said something during our prayer about bearing fruit and it made me think of obviously John 15 chapter five.
And the other day I was watching a video of someone pruning some trees and it just really got me back into the pruning process. Like talk about all the time, God, pruning season, people are like pruning season. I've said it, it's so hard. It's not fun. It hurts. And my perspective on that is starting to shift a little bit where, it can be challenging. And here's why for the first time ever, I don't know why.
You know, sometimes you read a Bible verse 9 ,000 times and on 9 ,001 you're like, it's funny, Rachel. I were talking about the same verse today. John 15 five. Yeah. Okay, cool. Then we're going to, I guess we'll just start with this topic. Sounds good to me. John 15 is Jesus is divine. great chapter to go read. I encourage you to go read that, or if you're in a car or whatever, read it with your wife and just let the Holy spirit lead you. But in John 15 five, it talks about, I, I'm going to use the passion translation.
For this one. I am the sprouting vine and you are my branches as you live in union with me your source Fruitfulness will stream from within you. But when you live separated from me, you are powerless And I thought it was interesting when I was watching this clip the other day about this this guy was pruning this tree and I'm like He's not now he talks about dead branches in there. But for the what I was going through when you prune
trees, sometimes you've got to get rid of the branches that are beautiful. Sprouting leaves, sprouting, you know, vegetation, things like that. And it's like, you could be going through your life and you're like, I'm doing this thing and look at the fruit I'm bearing. Look at, look at how it's sprouting and God's like, no, I prune the branches so that you can bear more fruit. So you have multiple branches going off. And sometimes God's like, even though this is good,
And you're in my will and you're walking with me. You're doing everything right, but you don't understand my thoughts. I have so much more for you. This branch has to go and clip. You lose a job unexpectedly. You lose, sometimes you lose family members, it all the way into death and you don't understand why, but sometimes God prunes these things or allows these things to happen. And it just really.
put it into perspective like just because something isn't going the way you planned and it looks good and you're ministering to people, you're expanding the kingdom and it's bearing fruit. Galatians 5 .23 fruit, it doesn't necessarily mean that that's what God has for you. He's like, I actually have another branch that you're bearing fruit through that is more robust and it's gonna produce more fruit. Let's not get distracted over here. Clip and it hurts.
that was five years of my life. I sewed into that. I followed you. I read the scriptures. I sought wise counsel of many. I walked with you, the whole, all this stuff. And God's like, yeah, you did it. And I taught you a lot and I'm going to use that. And I'm going to bear much fruit in this other area. And I think that when it comes to pruning, people get afraid to let that branch fall. It might not be a dead branch. He's pruning. So.
Thoughts on that. It's interesting because my focus is more on the before first verse five. Read it please. So I'll just, I'll read one four and this is the NIV. Let me follow along with you here this week. Last week we had a little trouble there. Right. It says, I am the true vine and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit while every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
You are already clean because of the word I've spoken to you remain in me as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. And, I was just sitting there today and I'm just like reading it. And like in my mind, I wasn't delineating between the cutting off the branches and the pruning. Right. And my wife, she's, she's taken on a heart of gardening.
over the last few years, she loves it. So I was asking, I was like, what's the difference between the difference between cutting off something and pruning it? Because when I hear like, I'm going to prune the branches that are fruitful in my mind, I was like, well, why would you cut off a fruitful branch? But then she's like, well, pruning isn't cutting off the fruit. It's going like, if that stem has fruit on it, any little suckers that are coming off any other dead branches, like the tree is trying to put more energy into that dead branch.
to revive it. And so you're putting energy in places that it doesn't belong. Yes. And I'm sitting there going, okay, that makes a lot more sense. Why was I thinking about it the other way? It's not like why in my mind I go, okay, so logically speaking, why would Jesus take something that is good, right? That you feel like called me into did that and shop the fruit off. Right. I'm sitting reading. I'm like, this, this makes no sense to me. And she's like, he's not chopping the fruit off. It's all the waste that.
is like sucking the life out before it gets there. But he's, he's pulling these fruits or these suckers off and it's just getting rid of the waste. It's like these things aren't bearing fruit, although it's on your path to get there. I'm going to get rid of those things. There's a flower. I'll probably say it wrong. So the gardeners listening will be like wrong flower, but I think it's dahlias when they come through, they have like three little leaves sprouting up and you find the main one and you clip it at the bottom.
And then it'll sprout up two or three out of that one. Now I could be totally wrong on which flower I'm picking, but that's what you're talking about. It's like, man. Well, and the one I knew about was the tomato plant. Right. Right. When the tomato plant comes up and you got the main stem and then on the bottom, there's these two little, like basically a Y shape that comes out and you're supposed to prick those off. So the plant stops trying to grow and I'm like, okay, I see what you're saying now. So in
How's that impacting you right now where it's like you see things kind of getting clipped away in your life and you've also You and rachel have stuck your heads above the crowd like you're like, yeah, we're gonna do this discipleship thing We're gonna walk with the lord. We're gonna be about kingdom business and when you step out And basically put your stake in the ground say now i'm a kingdom. We're a kingdom family. Yeah,
sometimes God calls you to prune some things, but in most cases he's going to do it for you as you're experiencing. And it's interesting because like, if I, if I just look at it for face value, I can look at my situation right now and go, you know, why me? Like why, why this situation? Why, why right now? Like it'd be really good God, if he just let things continue to go because things were, things were good.
But then as I'm digging in and hearing more and understanding more of the situation, I'm going like, God might be protecting me from something. Ooh. You know? And like, again, like the struggle for me, especially in work, for those that don't know, just work issues, still have a job, but issues. Yeah. But the struggle for me is, I seek, I find a lot of value for myself in my work. I enjoy working no matter what it doesn't have to be my job.
I just enjoy working. It's the earmark of a child of God right there. Work. But I do. And I enjoy my job. I enjoy the company I've worked for and I enjoy those things. But sometimes I can put that too far ahead of where it belongs in the sense of like where I'm at right now. My job is a means to do more for God, not to take all my energy and just live for work. It's I work to live for God now and I can see in the background of things happening and just getting hints of,
what I'm hearing through the grapevine going, I think there's more at play here and God's trying to protect me from something. There's a lot of things that God is doing right now, I believe, not just in our lives, but in many people's lives. And he is taking all of the pieces of your life, all of the lessons learned, all of the things that you have done, the places that you've trusted him and the places that you've tried to do it on your own. And he's taking all of that knowledge and understanding.
and he's getting ready to just start clicking pieces together this year, 2024. And I think people are looking in the natural at bank balances, retirement accounts, situations with marriage and all these things with people and their church and their ministry and their job. And they're like, it's no, this isn't how it was supposed to go. And God's like, you're right, because I have so much more for you.
There's a scripture I can't think about it off the top of my head But it's like the thoughts that I have for you much higher than you have for yourself No, I've always loved that because it just makes me stop and think the things that I'm dreaming of and imagining right now God's like Try to keep up. I got so much more than that. That's just what you're thinking You have no idea what I have in store stay with me and if you're walking with the Lord Then you choose that path that narrow path?
farther down that road you get, the more you hear his voice, you can't really screw it up. I mean, you really can't unless you just completely take a dive into some stuff. Deny God. Correct. You really got to screw it up. Right. But I think he's getting, I don't even know if it's a testing right now. I don't even think it's a testing anymore. I think God has tested. Would you consider pruning testing?
I think it can test your faith a lot and build your trust. but I don't think God just starts pruning things in your life at the beginning of your journey. Right. I think he's just more gentle than that. Thank God. Man, you'd be like, I'm done with this stuff. I'm going back to whatever I was doing. I think I made a comment here. I just said. I'm not going to say it, but I made a comment before we started today. If I could just go back to that, woo, everything would be easy. Yeah. But that's not the way it works.
you know, and.
It's just, I'm excited to hear the testimonies as this year impacts and I'm hoping people are journaling their season right now. I can't wait. Once we get the setup, we need to have more people on because like our wives, I know definitely have things going on, but having firsthand experience to what my wife wrote back in the new years, she had journaled about just a bunch of things that the Lord had laid on her heart of what she would love to see this year happen. And already many of those things getting checked off.
and already reflecting back and just seeing how God's already moving. Yeah. It's super encouraging. Does she go back and, so like when you go back through and read your journal and prayer requests and things God's put on your heart, do you then leave space to fill in how he did it?
Talk to her about that when she goes back. I started doing that last year where I have a prayer journal and then I do three prayer requests and then I go back and some things we get answered. And if I, when I'm rereading it, I'm like, here's how he did it. And I was just talking with Gary Groff today. We were talking about him a little bit earlier, pastor at Lifeway. And he was just sharing some of his story. And it's like, we were just talking, it's like, you can't.
We try to make these plans and it's like consistently God proves like your plans without me are worthless. Like submit your plans to me and then I'm going to direct your steps. Like I want to go with you on this journey. So when you learn like, that's how he answered that prayer. Never would have even imagined it that way. It just gives you this, I can take a deep breath with the situation I'm in right now. And Gary was walking me through just kind of like,
a lot of his journey and Just how like the farther down the road you get and you reflect on these seasons of life and these challenges and how God overcomes if you're looking for him you see how he did it. Yeah, you start taking less of your mind out of the things you're in now and you're just like Just follow the Lord. That's good. I love I love looking back at situations where it's like in the moment I was just like what the heck is going on. Yeah, and then looking back and going all right
I see you in every fiber of it. One of them was like, I shared a little bit about it in my testimony, but when my parents were initially moving up to Pennsylvania from North Carolina, I didn't want to go at first, right? Cause I had some interest in football from like South Carolina and Navy and other people that would have been like, I really want to chase this Kentucky.
And I was like, I really want to stick around and see what happens. To do that though, in the state of North Carolina at the time, my parents would have had to technically like abandon me legally and leave me with my grandmother. because they were moving up here. Because they were moving up here, like they had it all set. So for me to stay down there and go to school, my parents had to legally abandon me, give me to my grandmother, and I would stay with her for the last year. And it just wasn't sitting right. Yeah. Right. And.
looking back at the situation and just thinking about what happened and everything. I was like, you were right in the middle of it. And gracefully you guided me in the direction you wanted me to go. And we made the right decision. And all that led to, you know, today where things have happened. I think this is where people really miss the mark. Maybe I shouldn't say people, I should say this is where I have missed the mark. And I think a lot of people probably fall into this category is you look back and you know, God's got you and you see him.
and you're spending time with the Lord, but right now in your situation today, you're like, he's not, I don't see him. And immediately you start questioning, am I sinning? I need to go repent more. No, if you're walking with the Lord, you're not walking around sinning, like.
That's the thing you don't need to do. I need to go and just repent for two hours. I need to go work myself back to Jesus. Right. No, no, that's not it. That's wrong. That's the enemy messing with you. Like if you're bearing good fruit and you're, you're a good tree, you're walking with the Lord. You're walking with the Lord. Right. Just flush that thought and just go spend time praising and worshiping him. Yeah. Not, I need to repent some more today. If you got to repent every single day for things, you probably.
have a lot more going on in your heart than following the Lord. Like, all right, just go praise him in the storm. Yeah. And we talked about this last week, just about how, you know, that has changed some things for me of like, wait a minute, I'm walking with the Lord, the Holy spirit dwells in me. I'm seeking him in everything. I just need to trust that I'm walking with him as a son. I need to trust what he says. It happened to me today.
Something came in my thoughts and I'm like, no, here's the promises of the Lord. Like Lord, your word says this and I trust your word. So get rid of this other junk that is, whether it's flesh or demonic attack, it could be a combination of both. Like I trust your word and let's walk with that. To walk like that all day, every day, I'm excited for that process to continue to grow on me. And it just,
The older you get, I think the more you just calm down and that like, God's really got it. When you're younger, you know, our age and even younger than that, even in your forties, like maybe you just don't have enough life experience yet of God coming through in those ways. What do you got? Do you want to, you got some scripture to go with that? As I was getting started here after we were praying, I was told to open up Psalm one.
So this is one of my favorite chapters in the entire Bible. You are spot on with this and it doesn't matter the reason why, but yes, you are. Yes, go. And I think it just blends into exactly what you were just saying, but it says blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season.
and whose leaf does not wither, whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked, they are like chaff, that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction." And that's just something that has been like, ooh, I don't know. It's been very important in my life ever since I moved up from North Carolina. I've heard it over and over and over again. It's just something that sticks.
over and over and over again. I read it with my guys when I started the men's group. I continue every once in a while. We studied again, but it's just, there's so much truth in it. And what you're going through on a day to day basis to remember that no matter what, go plant yourself next to those waters, which is Christ, which is God, give him praise, give him glory, and dig in. Because with him, he's that river. When you plant next to him on that river, you will grow, you will flourish, and you'll
produce fruit, which then he can prune. Yes. You know, it all goes into that's a good point. CJ like, are you even planted by the right water source to even bear any fruit that needs pruned? Some people are like, I don't know what you mean by that. Step one, got to understand the river of life, who the source is and go get planted by him and just start watching what happens in your life and see how he pieces everything together and take some risks. We talked about that last week.
people getting comfortable. You know, growing up different generation, you know, coming out of world war two and then even their kids get a job, stick around 30, 40 years, good retirement pension. Boom. Like that's it. Now I don't know many people that are, I don't hear that talk right now. It's like, pay attention to where you're going. People are bouncing around from job to job and God is like building this skill set.
in his children through these things to prepare them for something that's yet to come. Like... The kingdom? Yes. Meaning like, not necessarily that. I don't mean like eternal life. I mean like for what God's doing on the earth right now. that's what I mean. Right. It's kingdom on earth. Yeah. Kingdom on earth and preparing the remnant to have these skills and value, to know they have value.
And I think just people feel undervalued and if they just started looking to God like God, how do you see me? Matt Uber just last night we were talking in a parking lot super late and He was sharing a story So I'm always taking photos of people and I see him doing God stuff when they're representing Jesus I'm like, I'm just like kingdom photographer and one day he goes you're like my personal photographer might do it I do it to everybody like snapping photos man and
One day I was walking out of church and there's like an oak tree decal on the door and it's hollow in the center. And I'm walking out the door and I look out and there he is kneeling down praying with a homeless guy sitting on a park bench. And I'm like, this is beautiful. And I just snapped a photo of it. And there's a whole story there that I'll let him share sometime. But last night he said, Jordan, he said that day I was praying, God, how do you see me? I want to know how you.
see me and he goes and you snap that photo and he goes right before I prayed with that guy I asked Lord again Lord how do you see me and I think he said how do you see this guy and it was just such a beautiful picture but in that like most people don't even ask the Lord how do you what's my value in the kingdom well I'm a good speaker so I have to be a preacher or a teacher not necessarily I'm a great
XYZ like Lord, what is my value and how do I utilize what you've given me to advance your kingdom purposes here on earth? it's a great question to ask and just pay attention. That was actually one of the questions that we left off with last week was, you know, ask God, what are my strengths and weaknesses? Did you ask him?
Thanks for putting me on the spot, Jordan. I just wanted to beat you to the punch before you asked me. No, but I finished up, you know, editing it today and I was, I typed it up at the end there and I'm like, okay, that is, that's not easy to do because again, which is so often is that we have to reflect and we have to look in, in first and go, how am I aligning with God and how does he see me right now? He always starts in her.
And then it becomes an outward thing. It always starts with the heart. Just like the log that everybody likes to quote whenever, don't judge me, right? Don't judge me. It's like, take the speck out of your own eye. You know, before you take the speck out of your brother's, I take the log out of your own eye. But in that passage, it tells you to reflect. Look at you, like how do you line up with God right now? It doesn't tell you not to judge others. It doesn't tell you not to go look at your brother. It just says, first look at you. Deal with your stuff. Yes. And then go.
So I'd love that picture because that whole passage has a lot of good stuff in there. But that's an interesting journey in itself too. you know, that's the nice Christian way. Don't judge people. Meanwhile, go around and judge everybody, you know, versus no, go get right with the Lord, do the inner work, get a relationship with him, hear his voice. And now he'll bring people to you and he'll drop a word of knowledge on you. you know,
adultery, pornography, alcoholism, workaholism, anger. He starts dropping things or hey, you know, bum knee. What are you talking about, God? Like he'll start, cause you're coming out of compassion then at that place. And then when you approach people, it's not received as judgment because it's like, there's no way you knew that. And now they're open and like, okay, there's something else going on here in this conversation and they can feel that heart of Jesus.
You know, and that's a journey that you've just got to walk and do. Yeah. So words of knowledge are something that I am open to and I've, I've seen too many things and heard stories and God like moving people's lives to be like, that's not a thing. Yeah. Right. I know it's a thing. It's just more so being open to, doing it, you know, letting God tell me and.
actually having faith and saying something. It can be scary because you're putting yourself out there and you're representing the Lord and you don't want to look like a fool. You have to put yourself out there. And that's what I was getting at before with like that is the, I'm in situations all the time where it could happen, but I'm not really putting situations or put myself in situations to allow it happen, to happen. Like I'm not going out and seeking people to talk to, to explain this Jesus thing. You know what I mean?
It's like, and it's not like in our, in our church and in my circle, it's not like we, we give ourselves time for this thing to happen. it's typically routine get there. It's been kind of the opposite for me in my life. Like,
Now.
You know, some people are like, I'm going downtown to preach on a corner and just cool. Like go for it, man. Like I'll cover you in prayer. Like that's not what I'm called to do. I just, when you read about Jesus and how he walks, we just covered this last night too, in a conversation. When you watch how he walks, he was just good with being interrupted. It's not necessarily, am I going out there and doing it? it's more cause man.
I don't want to speak against anybody who's doing that because that's really good stuff. And if you're called to do it, like go do that. It's amazing. But if you're not called to do that, don't go do that. Cause you're just going to end up representing God wrong and you might not be walking with the Holy spirit. So you're just out there looking weird. Like people are like, I don't want to be involved. That's weird. Where if you're just available to be interrupted, God will just bring the people to you. He will just, Hey,
I have this word of knowledge woke up in the morning and it's just like, man, just feeling this heaviness today of something. And it's like, that's not me. What is this? Like, Lord, is this me? If it's me, please give me peace. If it's not me, who is it? And just be ready for a random person to swing by you at any moment throughout the day, a phone call, a text message, like just be available to be interrupted. And then in that moment,
This is why you got to walk with the Lord. It's why you start your day with the Lord because he gives you these things. And he's not like now in 30 seconds, I'm going to test it. Like walk with me. Don't forget what I told you this morning. Walk with me. Keep your spiritual eyes open throughout the day. And this person comes out of nowhere and you're like, huh, wonder if this was for them. Have a conversation. Hey, you know, can I pray for you in any way?
You don't gotta pray for people on the spot. You don't gotta... You... You... I mean, we certainly, if the door... Here's how I do it.
You swing down here, you're a stranger. This just happened the other week. A young girl stopped down here. I don't know how old she was. She couldn't have been more than 17 or 18, just looking for a job. Pregnant, could definitely tell kind of down and out. And I'm like, I just, I don't have anything for you right now. I'm like, we're kind of seasonal down here. And right now we just don't have it. So I'm like, all right, Lord, like you brought this person here. You know, what are you good at? So she shares, you know, a little bit of what her.
what she was looking to do for work. So I call a couple of places around here, some Christian places I know. And then I followed up with her the next day, let Lindsay know like, hey, this girl might need some ministry. And I was just available to be interrupted that day. I was doing other stuff. The last thing I wanted to do was stand 20, 30 minutes, but I wanted to spend 20 or 30 minutes. And at the end, I always end kind of like this, like try and get a little bit of their story and just listen.
Listen for that pain point. Is there a place where Jesus can touch here? And you know, Hey, is there any way that I could be praying for you when I pray? And my gosh, like if they say yes and give you the thing, the next thing you say is, do you want me to pray right now? No. Eh, not really. Okay. Well then I'm, I'm going to pray for you. Have you ever had anybody say no? yeah. Have you? Dude, I've been out with people in a restaurant and they're like, we need to pray for the waiter. And I'm like, no, we don't.
No, we need to pray for the waiter. And I'm literally sitting there, I'm like, no, we don't read the room, dude. He's working. The last thing he wants is us standing here in front of his tables. And this guy got to see enough to do it. Like it was awesome to watch him do it. The guy's like, no, no, I want you to pray for me right now. I'm like, dude, you got to ask the Holy spirit if you should do it right now. You've got to pay attention to the environment you're in. and yeah, I've had people say, no, you know what I do? Just pray blessing over them as they walk away. God, they don't even know.
They don't even know that you're nipping at their heels. They're walking away. It's not me. I've never had anybody say no to like offering. I mean, I've prayed for mechanics. I prayed for other people and just be like, Hey, I'm just hearing what you're going through right now. I'd be really happy if I could pray for you. Would you be willing to pray with me right now? And I've never had anybody say no, but the story I have to go along with that is the one time I didn't listen to the spirit and I didn't offer prayer to somebody. and he just, he just got at you. No, it's still.
in me of just like, I always remember that time. And, I was doing just some side work. I got home from work, grab a pressure washer, was going to somebody's house. Don't know the person. I just had a call and, pull up to the house and this lady comes out older lady, probably in her early seventies, late seventies. And she's just like moping around the house. And just, you could just tell like, man, something's up. Like this lady just, she's had it, but she's walking me around the house, like points of interest that need washed and everything. And just wanting to.
go over the details of it all. And she goes, when you're done, I'll be inside. Just come get me and I'll pay you for it. So I spend the next two hours or so pressure washing the house and the back deck and stuff and finish up and I knock on the door and come in while I'm pressure washing the house. Let's just say I was seeing a bunch of like, not idols, but statues, the pictures of things and stuff where I'm like, this person's into some things. It's interesting. So it's like right there. I'm playing on my hands. Like, I wonder who this person is or what, what they do or what they're into.
And as I come in, she opens the door and she goes, Hey, I just wanted to apologize. Sorry. I'm so like sad and moping and walking around like this. My husband just passed away three days ago. I'm like, lady, like that's okay. It's fine. And I felt like right there, I was like, I need to, I need to pray for this lady. And you know, she's writing the checkout, doing everything, taking care of me. And then in my head, I'm like,
well, look at all the stuff you just saw. Like she doesn't want to hear about God. I'm inside her house now looking at statues and things going around. I'm like, she's not interested about God. And I'm playing that game in my head and I walk away without praying for her. And that was a lesson learned two years ago. You're still walking. Well, I tell people all the time. I'm like, man, like if you feel the opportunity where God's nudging you to go pray for this person, you don't need to have any fancy words to say, just pray for this person. I'm never missing out on that again.
I've had plenty of those and I just, I know the feeling of walking and you're like, I just missed an opportunity. I asked God for an opportunity. He gave me one and I didn't take it. And eventually I was just like, you know what? Like, I'm not carrying this God. Like if you put it on my heart, the next person that touches this woman's doorstep, her phone, whatever, put it on their heart to pray. And I'll intercede right now and just like, God, there you're, she's your daughter. You're going to get her. Sorry.
Please give me another opportunity. because we, quite frankly, you probably missed one or two opportunities today. yeah. And so did I. We miss them every single day. by just not asking the Lord in line at Jersey Mike's Lord, this lady's talking to me. Anything you need me to do here. I'm available and I'm willing to do it. Yeah. You know, and sometimes yes, sometimes no.
recently I just had a phone call with a brother in arms you know I'm not gonna say who it is but this guy is the real deal and he walks with the Lord and I'm not gonna say who it is but you would know right away who it is and I was outside working we were doing some stuff over there and I'm like I just need to go lay down for 10 minutes I'm like okay so I came in here and lay down and like two minutes in my phone rings and
This guy and I, we talk every time we see each other, but we haven't had like a nice long conversation in many, many months. And he's like, Hey, what are you doing? I'm like, I just actually laid down for a couple of minutes. He goes, I'm doing the exact same thing. I'm laying on my couch and the Lord just put on my heart to call you right now. I'm like, dude, what about what? He's like, let's just pray. And he prayed and I thought we were going to go into other topics and boy.
He opened in prayer and invited the Holy Spirit in and the Holy Spirit did a work for 53 minutes in a direction that I had no idea. And it taught me a lesson about why end in prayer? Why aren't we starting in prayer? Hey, how you doing, bro? Just like we do with this podcast. We always start in prayer. What about somebody from your men's group calls? Yeah. Dude, I don't know what's going on in your heart. You're blowing smoke up my rear end right now. things are great.
Hallelujah, things are awesome today. Dude, you're a human being living on planet earth. There's junk going on. You're calling me and I want to talk about God and God stuff. So let's pray and invite him into this before we get into it. But we always pray at the end. Pray at the beginning. And then it's just, it was a very valuable lesson for me in discipleship and those that you're mentoring and discipling. Like, it really changed the conversation. So I heard a very encouraging story. This.
this week from a mutual friend of ours. we got a lot of mutual non -spoken friends right now. We're gonna have to piece all this together. We will. I'm sure at some point when that story comes or that person comes on, you'll, okay. You will let the people find the connection. Gotcha. But, he was talking about mowing lawns and went to most somebody's lawn and the person had a, was getting a hip replacement soon was so asking, was asking for a little additional help and he went and did the help mow the lawn, did those things, and then went and asked him if he could pray for him.
doing the right thing. And the guy said, yes, he prayed for him, you know, encouraged him in that way. Well, somebody from our church lives across the street from that yard. And he, the guy that was prayed for went to her later and was telling him about this awesome interaction he had and how he had tears from it and was just affected in a great way just because this guy, our mutual friend decided to just stop and pray for a minute and ask God to be with him during this time of a hip replacement and just that simple little thing.
You know, some, some people might blow it off and be like, yep, great. Thanks. Other people, man, you're going to change their hearts. Because I think I know who you're talking about, but I don't know. So maybe we'll clarify there, but just, I always like to be like, okay, God, what, what if this was the scenario? What if that neighbor person was judging this guy in some way and put any person in here, it doesn't have to be this guy, but what if that person was making judgmental or a pre formed opinion of that person and the neighbor, because he was obedient, it's like,
this guy with such and such a company, man, he just prayed over me and things changed and so much and really humbled that person. That probably isn't the scenario here, but God's ways are higher than our ways. Yeah. It's just amazing to see how you just take one little step of faith and where God can take it. And it's just like, it did what God wanted it to do today. It bolstered a man, a man's faith who decided to actually step out in faith and pray.
It gave a person a just renewed spirit for what's about to come. And then it lets somebody witness that God's kingdom is working and moving. And it's like, you know what? What more can he ask for? Or one other scenario. What if that neighbor person was interceding for that guy? Man, I just see the way he gets out of his car in the morning. He just heads down and just like trying to get in there to do it. But just the opportunity. She witnessed God answer the prayer.
And that guy then delivered the message and she's like, I knew my prayers worked. So there's one or two scenarios there. There's it's amazing. Yeah. It's just a little acts of faith. And that's bearing much fruit. Yeah. So I love hearing those little stories, especially the guys from a men's group and stuff of just like stepping out, taking a little bit of a risk and going quit, quit, quit letting that little voice in your head, talk you out of it, go be bold and do something that you typically don't do.
It's interesting how I think speaking of like men's groups or life groups or church on Sunday or all the stuff that we do in the church, how I think we get it wrong. I think we get it wrong in, you know, I need to go to church on Sunday and I need to, I need to X, Y, Z, whatever. I really am starting to view church on Sunday, men's prayer groups, the community nights we're going to do. These are, this is locker room, man.
This is training out there. Like I'm not looking to drop a word of knowledge just on my life group. I'm looking to drop a word of knowledge on some random dude at the gas pump. You're coming here tonight because you want to pray and we want to talk about things. But like if you leave here and don't go out and do it, quite frankly, I just wasted my night sewing into a bunch of people that just wanted to sit on that knowledge for seven days and not do anything with it. Kind of selfish.
Yeah. As kingdom people to go, all right, I'm going to go Sunday, get up, get poured into by my pastor and other people and then not do anything. And not share it. Cause I mean, so what's your perspective on church? Is it for the sheep? What do you mean? A lot of people will look at church and I mean, there's different kinds of churches in the sense of like their seeker friendly churches, just things like that, that always seek an evangelistic focus of bring the people and bring them in, bring them in, bring them in, bring them in so that we can evangelize.
where really the church is for those who have already been evangelized to. Yeah. And to equip. To equip. Yeah. And I think there's been this big shift over the last couple of decades of, well, church was this place for the Christian to do life together, to build each other up, to go. Aren't we doing church right now? In a way. But aren't we the church? Right. And like church can be used for like, hey, bring your friend or whatnot if they haven't heard, like they can hear it here. But.
I feel like a lot of churches have gotten like surface level with messages because they're trying to just seek the lost in church when church is for the found to build up to go seek the lost. And I just, I feel like there's just this shift that needs to happen and is happening where it's a church is to equip those who have been found called by God so Jesus can guide and go get those who need to come back or need to come. man.
How many people do we want to tick off this week? So I've had this thought recently where I'm, I'm reading about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. And he's very clear in the new Testament, lay aside your mother, your father, your brother, your sister, your family, your spat, like you have to lay aside at all. And you're not even considered a follower of me. all these things, you will hate your life. All this stuff. We've talked about all of that. And I'm like, am I really a disciple?
Jesus, not some man or some denomination or some whatever. Am I a disciple of Jesus Christ? Yeah. Am I growing in that? Am I making mistakes? Have I made mistakes? Sure, we all have, but you're not growing if you're not making mistakes. Yeah. And then I'm like, okay, what is, who are the disciples in my life? Who are the examples of people that they're out there doing it? They're getting their hands dirty. They're out there putting themselves out there and
willing to look foolish for the kingdom. Who's bringing new people to church consistently? Boy, I got down to a real small group of people that I know that are like, maybe not consistently as in like every week, but throughout the year, I see them bringing multiple people to church. It stretched me. I'm like, Ooh, that's a small group. And then on the flip side of that, we want to get people into church on Sunday.
but we sort of coax them into it. Like you need healed and we get them in there and then they just get institutionalized and they just sit and they're just like, I'm just here to receive because I'm broken and I'm this and I'm this and this. No, you should be in here recognizing that we're all sinners. We all are broken, were or are, or in some capacity healing, but we're being equipped to go out there and do it. Like, can you imagine that person that you bring in off the street?
And they're just at the end of their rope and three, four, five, six weeks of good counsel and good structure in the Bible, get them pointed to Jesus. The people that somebody who's in the depths of it can reach. I can't go into their, whatever area they're in and minister to those people as effectively as if they were there and 12 weeks later they came back or four weeks later they came back and they're.
glowing, their eyes aren't black, they're smiling, they're speaking differently. People are going to be like, I remembered Jane Doe. She was hunched over in the corner on drugs and now she's carrying a Bible. She's dressed nice. That speaks way more than you and I going in there and suits being like, let's talk about Jesus today. They're like, let's not. This person's life looks changed. And what changed it? Not letting people sit in their guilt and shame.
And how do you do that in a compassionate, loving way to want them to crack their heart open to Jesus? And there's something in that where...
You really can't do it without the right community. Talk about that with your men's group community, the walking alongside like -minded believers as your core group of people that you do life with and everybody else is invited in. But you've got your core where it's like things are getting tough. Like, do you have two or three guys where you're like, bro, I need prayer this week. I need some intercession. Definitely talk about that for a little bit. I think we're going to talk about it this week, actually.
At, my men's group, because we're talking about Moses on the hill with his hands being raised, right? Go into it. They're going to have listened to this a couple of weeks after. You can prove to them that we were praying about it beforehand because this will only drop by two years from now. This is on the 15th, by the way, guys. No. let's see. So we talked about man and quail last week, but the water from the rock is this week and then fighting the Amalekites.
And just to keep it brief, but you know, Moses was on top of the hill while the Israelites were fighting the Amalekites and God told him while your hands are raised, you'll win. If they fall, you'll lose. Yep. And there's a lot of beauty in the picture that we're not going to dig into today, but this idea that when Moses got tired from standing and having his hands raised and he started to droop, guys came alongside of him, sat him down on a rock. And what were the two guys names?
Please find those. When Moses's hands grew tired. This is verse 12 in chapter 17. When Moses's hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and her held his hands up one on one side, one on the other. So that his hands remained steady till sunset. So unpack that stone foundation. Nope. Rest in Jesus, right in the middle of the battle. And I always think about that story too. The other thing is,
when his hands were lowered, like people were dying. Yeah. And like the guilt and shame that could have come upon him in that moment. Like I can't even hold my hands up. And every time I lower my hand, I just see thousands. Like you read these Bible battles, 400 ,000 people died. We can't even in a day. Yeah. Like this is massive. Right. Armies. And I don't know. That just, I always thought about that. Like.
Yeah. And it's just, there's so many cool images there just because like Josh was down there fighting no matter. Put your arms up. Right. And no matter whether or not Moses hands are up or down, still fight. He's still fighting. Yeah. Right. And no matter what situation we're in, we still have to go do right. We, we got to pray. Moses is up there praying. He's got his hands up. Yep. But Josh was still going and doing so how does prayer affect your life? No, you can't just sit still forever and pray. You have to go do pray while you do.
You know, just keep going. Man, you're speaking to some intercessors right now that might be listening. Your intercessor prayers, like you think they don't have power. Yeah. Read that story. Right. And then to have two friends, not as you said earlier, not to have a whole group of crazy, but he's got two guys that are coming alongside of them, helping them bolster them up. You sit down now, Moses will hold your hands up. And it's just like, you don't need a thousand guys to pour into your life. You need two faithful men. Yep. Right. And it's just.
Sure. More, more is fine. Like that's not saying you can't. Yeah, yeah. Joshua down there fighting. Like you've got other men, but like. But to have two faithful guys by your side that you can lean on. You got the two guys that you know, I need you here doing this. And they know who they are. Joshua knows I'm a warrior. I need to be on the battlefield. Imagine that Aaron's down there leading the battle and Joshua's up there holding up his arm. Like you guys are, no, no, no. You're a quarterback trying to play center. Like get in your spot. And.
That's a powerful message for some intercessors. My prayers aren't working. You have no idea the battle that people are facing and they're fighting and don't stop because people are dying and you let off one day because the enemy wipes you out and distracts you. Hmm. Yeah, it's crazy, but it's amazing though when you start seeing like those people who come alongside you and to build you up and those people that have done it in the past of those kinds of people that have come alongside you and just helped you giving you strength to carry on.
and I shared it in my testimony a little while ago about, one of the churches that I attended in the past, crossway out of Millersville and how the youth are not the youth. The worship pastor was the one who, denied Rachel and I first entering into the church's members. Well, we went to a funeral this week, Rachel and I, somebody in our life group when we went to crossway had passed, an older lady, their marriage was wonderful, her and her husband, and they, they poured into us the three years that we were there.
We were in their life group. They were older. She was like 60 something when she passed, late 60s. kind of young. Yeah, pretty young yet, but an awesome lady loved people. Well, she loved well in general, but they poured into us. So we're like, we got to go. We got to go to this thing. I had planned over the summer to go visit this church just to catch up with people. So it was a little sad that it happened this way, but I ran into Doug, who was the worship pastor. And before the service started and I went up to him, I'm like, Hey man,
I don't know if you remember me cause this was like eight years ago at that point. And I'm just like, look, Rachel and I, she was with me. I said, we used to be members here. We've, you know, since moved on, but you were the one that brought us in as members and we started introducing ourselves and he remembered, just our faces and stuff. And I was like, I don't remember if you know, if you remember the situation, but you first denied us membership. You first told us no, because we had some things going on in our lives. And he looks at me, he's like, boy. I was like, I want to tell you, thank you. Yeah.
And I want to encourage you to keep doing what you're doing because that was one of the things that kicked me on the right path. Somebody who held me up, took care of me, even though it was painful. Yeah. I'm sure Moses's arms were hurting. He's judging me. Right. But he, I was just like, I just want to encourage you right now. Like what you're doing is right. What you're doing is good. Keep it up. Yeah. And it was just cool to see like the reaction of that and just to see like giving somebody a little bit of hope, a little bit of encouragement to continue on. and that was a lot of fun, but.
That's awesome that you had the opportunity to do it and you took it. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I've done that in times and ended up biting me in the body. It's like you go to encourage someone and like thankful and then they take it as an opportunity to like go full blown. Like, let me teach you another lesson. Like, no, shut up. That's not what I'm saying. It was, it was so good. Like we, as the service started, they're saying it as well.
man, that song. I can't get through the song without tearing up and like, I sang it. You guys sang it the Sunday we were there. Yeah. How do you go? As I'm crying, but it was just him and a lady, acoustic guitar singing like he would like back away from the microphone at the time. And there was maybe like three or 400 people in the service, but to hear their church to just belt it out.
Old school hymn stuff. my gosh. I was like, this is worship man. This is worship like they're worship leaders. They're not the team like doing the worshiping. It's like everybody out here is worshiping. I love getting around the old hats, man. It was so good. You got the lady singing. Rachel and I were sitting there just like, she took a video of it cause it was just so awesome. And I'm like, this is so good. Read the backstory on that song. read it when you get home. I'm not going to go into it now. Read why it read about the story behind it as well. Who wrote it and why they wrote it.
And you'll understand why you cry every time you hear that song. It's powerful. yeah. How do we want to wrap this up this week? I think a lot of people are bearing fruit and there's some pruning going on right now in their life and they're questioning whether or not they're bearing fruit and they're thinking about throwing the talent or, you know, have I even grown in the last six months, five months, 10 years, like,
The enemy is trying to stop something right now. I'm not sure what, well, I know what he's trying to stop, but I'm not sure in your, in your story, whoever's listening to this, what he's trying to stop. But what I do know is he's trying to stop something. And maybe we need to switch this week from a posture of repenting and trying to figure out where we went wrong to just worship the Lord. Yeah. Find two people and just reach out to two people and just be like, can you intercede for me this week?
If they're walking with the Holy Spirit, you don't need to tell them why. You just need to say, Lord, here's, here's, here's what I do. Lord, this sucks. I don't see the way out. I know you're in it. I need some backup. Who can I have intercede for me this week? Raise up my intercessors this week and you'll see some random people start texting you and you'll be like, Ooh, he did raise up some people.
You don't even need to call anybody. Just Lord raise up my intercessors, raise up my intercessors this week. I need backup. He'll bring your Aaron and your her and just keep your hands up. Keep your hands up. Don't get distracted. Do that for a week versus feeling like you're screwing up. You're not growing. Things aren't working out the way you planned. No, they're probably not because your plans are not as good as the Lord's. So if they're not working out the way you plan, you're probably on the right path.
Well, I just said something right there. That one's going to challenge some people. Yeah, I'm probably going to see a couple things on that one, but that's truth right there. If it's not working out the way you planned, it's probably a good thing because your plans will probably get in the way of the Lord's plans. So that would be my advice for this week. That's what I'm going to work on this week. Yeah. And just the truth that you can have as much of God as you want. Yeah. And just.
again, just like diving in and going, God, I want you first in my life. It's not a, like you were saying, like I'm not going to tell everybody, yeah, repentance is good. Repentance is good. Continue to do that and just, you know, have a posture of repentance, but know that you can seek God and that He loves you with all His heart and that you can have as much of Him as you want. So go get Him. Yeah. Yeah. So let's see.
A few announcements, number one, by the time this podcast drops, we probably already have had the first one, but the community nights, I know our wives were talking, we're gonna get that in the books here. So just follow us on Facebook, we'll announce it on there, Beyond the Outpost on social media, Beyond the Outpost website, we'll put it on there. So we're gonna do the community nights here, where bring your families out, bring your kids, we're gonna have kick.
volleyball, long drive competitions, campfires. People can walk the path, they can play with the animals, whatever, just a community night where we're all together just being the body of Christ and just letting the Holy Spirit just connect people. It's all about connection. You've got to get in the right network. So everyone will be invited to that, more to come on that. And then, yeah, you and I are going to start praying for our first guest.
there's a couple in the mix right now, so we'll see, we've got a couple of topics I want to cover. One is pornography and how you can protect your spouse, yourself, your children through technology and things, systems you can put in place to protect people. there's a person for that. There's some people with men's ministry, Matt Uber, we wanted him to come on and talk about the freedom group coming up and share his story and his testimony, special operator, things like that.
And then you have some friends as well. So we're going to start shifting our podcast here. It's got the dynamic is going to start shifting here in the next couple of weeks. Can't wait excited for it too. And again, we are moving towards, you know, sponsorships and donations. So some of the money is going to be going into one area is Haiti. You have a friend that has a ministry down there we were talking about, and we'll probably do a podcast on this and put stuff on social media.
So if you're looking for a place to donate or tithe, or if you want to be involved in helping with the podcast, anybody who has social media experience, cameras, things like that, we're all about it. So yeah, we'll be unlocking some opportunities there. And also thank you for the support for KK's journal. I'm not going to say what the number is, but I didn't expect there to be a comma in that number. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Big time. Wow. So,
That money is going to be going to a family. I was talking with the father today, about, you know, who, who needs the money, you know, kids with cancer and the family. So there'll be some stuff going out with that as well. So thank you guys for the support. Give us a like, give us a follow a comment on our YouTube channel, share this thing around and, yeah, let us know your thoughts. We're open to all feedback. Awesome. Anything you got to wrap it up? Love Jesus.
Love Jesus. Team Jesus, baby. Cool, man. Cool. Thanks for coming over today. And, well, you and I'll be talking in about 20 minutes. I'm sure we'll continue from there. All right. Have a good week.