Guest Speaker Q&A from session 2: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 You don’t have the answers, no problem. Okay, so we have a question out of Psalms and Job. It says it before. Okay. Well, hold on everybody. Here we go. He’s going to share about the Bible. We we left out something about the Bible. The a lot of Bibles have chain references and footnotes. And you guys have got to watch the footnotes. Those footnotes can lead you astray. The Catholic Bible, in my uh experience with it, I’ve read it is a great version of the Bible, but the footnotes are out in orbit. Uh it has nothing to do with scripture, and they have seven books that are just stupid books.

▶ 0:55 Uh so avoid the footnotes Scofield reference Bibles and uh shepherd staff Bibles and things like that. They are promoting their doctrine. Just get you a good Bible with a chain reference that only takes you from one verse to another. Thank you. All right. The question is, if the wrath of God comes for disobedience, why do the wicked prosper as it says in Psalms and Job and anyone that question, but I’m going to give you my version of it.

▶ 1:47 Okay. Yeah, that’s what I’m gonna give you. So, I went through a pretty deep study on tithing and about the whole thing and it, you know, I study things from a different perspective from most folks because I’m not a Bible scholar. I didn’t go to Bible college. I didn’t do any of those things. I went to Tony’s read the Bible college. Okay? And and and so, uh, you know, there’s a lot of things that I don’t know. I am not a Bible scholar. But this is what I found about the wicked being blessed. I found two different scriptures that said that the wealth will be taken from the wicked and given to the righteous. Okay. And then you know we’ve got the scripture that says that I just read it last night I believe that God causes his rain the sun to shine on the just and the unjust. Causes it to rain on the righteous and the unrighteous and uh you know out of mercy and all those things. But I’ve often wondered myself, you know, I’m over here struggling, tithing, doing all the things, you know, and it’s like sometimes it’s like, you know, Lord, why is this person out here that we know that doesn’t care anything about the Lord being blessed, you know, and that’s the best explanation I have that it literally says that the wealth will be taken from the wicked and given to the righteous, you know, and so I don’t have a a great explanation for that.

▶ 3:01 Sometimes I think, you know, it’s like I don’t even understand Lord why some of these things, you know, I don’t think that I will ever understand him either because I am definitely not him. Amen. Oh yeah, if you want to. I just want to add something to this because we see different things with different people all the time and I think it really comes down to what you define as prosperity because you know I don’t serve the Lord to have material things or to have wealth. I serve the Lord so that I can have a relationship with him and I can live in a place of peace. Why? Because the Bible says that storms are going to come, it doesn’t say if they do, it says when they do. I need to make sure that my house is built on the rock, which is the foundation of who Jesus is.

▶ 3:56 So whenever we see other people gain different forms of wealth and they’re clearly living in rebellion to the Lord, what I have found in my experience is once you start digging in and counsel, you find that every part of their life has little fires burning where people are failing and things are failing and relationships are failing. And so from the outside it may appear prosperous, but it really just depends on are you looking for solidity in the Lord because you have a solid relationship with him and you have peace and he is your father and you are his child or did you really just come to the Lord for a lifestyle upgrade? So if your goal is a lifestyle upgrade and it’s not holiness, then I believe that he sometimes I see that he allows people to gain wealth and prosperity.

▶ 4:50 But lifestyle is not going to bring you to the place that God created you to be. Obedience to his word is the only thing that’s going to bring you to the fullness and maturity of who he created you to be. So,. Well, well, what also what do you consider wrath? There’s another great question. Okay, because if it’s just if we’re judging that people are not under wrath because they’re prospering financially, you know, how do you know their children are not a mess? How do you know everything in their lives are not being destroyed behind the scenes and it just looks pretty because they driving nice stuff and they’re prospering in ways of wealth and those kind of things, you know, because because wrath comes in many different ways, you know, and I know many of y’all have probably read that thing by Steve Jobs that had, you know, all the money he knew what to do with what he read in the end and said, “I’ve realized my money can’t save me.” You know, that it’s all for nothing.

▶ 5:48 I don’t know if you’ve ever read that or not, but I encourage you to read it. Thank you very much. All right, question. What’s some advice for people who play church, like those who still use drugs actively and sit in church every Sunday? Repent. Well, I I don’t know if if if uh did I hear that right? What’s some advice for people who play church like the ones who still use drugs actively and sit in church every day?

▶ 6:52 Well, I just preached I hope whoever wrote this message was here last night because I just preached a whole message on exactly the context of this. So, I’d like to say to you, maybe you’re in deception. Okay? Do you know when you’re in deception? You don’t know you are because it wouldn’t be deception if you knew, right? Okay. I would advise you to do whatever you can do to come to the end of yourself. Come and cry out to God and repent and turn to him with a whole heart because I assure you, you see, last night when I did that illustration, let me let me give you this advice. Okay? Where’s that card? Do I still have that card? Just a wonder that thing worked if I accused it all the sin last night. Okay?

▶ 7:43 So, listen. So, this is going to represent the sin again, right? Here’s your advice. Okay? And in order, this is the sin that you’re still doing while you’re playing church, right? Okay. Well, what you’re doing is you’re you’re trading the glory of God. You’re trading a piece that in the things that you’re doing while you’re actively going to church, but you’re doing that and you’re going to church to make you feel better. Okay? What you’re doing is you’re trading a momentary counterfeit fake peace that was created by the enemy. You’re trading that in for the glory of God, which is the real peace, the prince of peace, Jesus. So, there will never be any true peace in your life. You will always be chasing the pile of poop I talked about last night that you think is everything, and you’re trading it for everything that really is good, holy, and righteous, peace, all the things.

▶ 8:39 I was sharing with with my brother yesterday when he come to talk to me, you know that the reason that I in that I became who I was is because I was that person. But when I got to to church to New Life and I began to hear the truth for the first time and peace came upon my life, I didn’t have to smoke a joint to be at peace anymore. I didn’t have to have a Marboral. I didn’t have to have a drink. I didn’t have to have anything but the presence of God to be content. I thought, like she said last night, you knew. You knew and you didn’t tell me. You mean I’ve been chasing all this garbage all these years for nothing and I’ve been wasting all my life and my money and going to jail and all I had to do was hit my knees and repent. Well, that’s just stupid.

▶ 9:31 So then you know what happened? And I said, “I got to go tell everybody I can.” And that’s truly how I got here because I started telling all of my people that I grew up with, I would go find them. I started going to their house. Hey, let me tell you what happened. They like, “Get out of here.” But you know what happened within the next 20 years? They started calling. They started calling because their life was a disaster. And they knew I had been the same for years and years and years. And I hadn’t gone back to where they were because I gave up what I thought was everything so that I would quit playing church and go all in. So yes, go ahead. Um, there is a scripture that says for you to be hot or cold that if you’re lukewarm that the Lord will spew you out of his mouth.

▶ 10:36 And so I will say this, if you’re using drugs and you’ve started going to church, the reality is is you’re looking for something in the Lord because you were already unsatisfied by the life that you were living. Okay? And you know, part of my own testimony was I I really was not a drug addict. Like I I used drugs, but it wasn’t it was not my thing. I really liked alcohol because it made me forget the misery. So after we started going to church the fourth time, um I didn’t quit drinking. I didn’t drink in front of my kids or in front of my husband, but I would still sneak and drink. And I will just tell you that in that season of my life, I was in deception.

▶ 11:32 And I really thought that I could have it. Let me let me see if I can convey this correctly. It’s not that I thought I could have both worlds. It’s that I had been so broken and I was so laboring trying to keep myself trying to survive. Okay? And I wasn’t a 100% certain about the thing with the Lord because I had done been to church three times and all my problems didn’t get solved because I still didn’t understand the whole gospel. I didn’t understand that it required something from me. So I had finally got to a place in my life that I could get intoxicated and forget the pain and forget the misery. And so I really didn’t want to give that and my friends up until I was certain about this next thing I was trying. And it’s just because the survivor instinct in me couldn’t let go.

▶ 12:28 But see, my heart posture was that I wanted to be right. I just didn’t know what right was. And because my heart posture was that I wanted to be right, the Lord was faithful. And he his Holy Spirit would minister to me. And I almost died two times from drinking alcohol. And I could go into all those details, but I don’t really right after that, I don’t really think that the details are important. But what I will tell you is that the Lord made himself real to me because I wanted what’s right. And so my question would be, if you are still doing drugs and you’re going to church, what is your motivation? Do you want to be right and you’re just unsure?

▶ 13:23 Or do you think that you can have the best of both worlds? Because if you think you can have the best of both worlds, you’re really just a mocker of the word of God. And that is a very dangerous seat to sit in. See, that’s that’s the lukewarm that gets spewed out of God’s mouth. And I don’t know what that really looks like to get spewed out of God’s mouth. But I do know that it’s not ever going to be me. Do you hear me? So, if it’s you, I really would just challenge you to get along with the Lord and ask the Lord, “What is my motive here?” because you don’t want to be spewed out of his mouth, right? Yes, that was a great answer. She brought up a great point though, a very great point.

▶ 14:18 Why are you going to church? That’s a great point because evidently whatever you’ve been doing wasn’t working. So you started having to go play church and it made you feel better about it, right? So obviously the drugs or whatever it is wasn’t working for you and you started searching for something else. So that’s very powerful. It’s good. Let me take it from another angle. [clears throat] We want the unbeliever and the unlearned in our services so they can keep hearing the word and have an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to convict them and change them.

▶ 15:12 And as long as they don’t recruit into the LGBTQ lifestyle and into the drug and all that, and as long as they don’t promote it, they’re very welcome in God’s church. But once they start recruiting, they endanger the body. And leadership has to deal with that by kicking them out really. But, [clears throat] you know, as as church leaders, I mean, I I have just the last person I saw converted from LGBT PQ took three years coming to our church before. Yeah. Three years of hearing the word. But they never recruited and they never promoted.

▶ 16:04 It just took time. Okay. Uh, I’ve seen drug addicts healed right in the service, come right down. Not a lot, but most of them had to go through the fight. And we have to go through the fight with them. As long as they are not bringing people into their lifestyle, we can work with them. But when they endanger the flock, the shepherd has to do something. What is your favorite scripture about being nice to those who are baby Christians?

▶ 17:02 Your favorite scripture about being nice to those who are baby Christian. A baby Christian, just so those who don’t know, is somebody who is just accepted Christ, just starting their walk with the Lord. They’re just getting started. They may be a 40 years old, but they are a baby in Christ. And that’s what a baby Christian mean. It’s very simple for me. Treat other people the way you want to be treated. Right? Weren’t we all baby Christians at some point in our lives? Don’t we have a memory that we can remember when we were learning how to walk with the Lord? Don’t we know how we wanted to be treated? It’s simple. You love them, obviously.

▶ 17:54 Um, but you treat other people the way you want to be treated. I don’t have one scripture for that, Brother David. Okay. I Okay. I don’t I don’t I don’t I’ll give it to you in a minute. I don’t have one scripture for that because when people come in and they’re baby Christians, all I can do is love them. You know, the love that is what we see that changes the heart. She started sharing last night. If we got into some of the depths of the things that we deal with with you guys, we we had this Revelation. Why is it, and I’m going to share about this tomorrow, okay? But why is it that the ministry is so effective? Why is it that we were able to affect so many people? You know, and I do agree with you, David, on what you said. It was a kind of a two different questions. You went about that a different angle on you.

▶ 18:44 Of course, we let people come in. They’re a mess. We let them stay as long as they are changing and you know, all those things and they’re not causing a ruckus and all that. Of course, we do. That’s what we want, you know. Of course, it is. But it’s how we get in everybody’s business in their life. Love them, you know, and we share things that we experienced in our own life. We overcome by the blood of the lamb and the spoken word of our testimony and we testify to them about the mess that we were in and how God did it for us and how we know he can fix this for you and we encourage them that we know this can change, you know, and whatever scripture comes up by the Holy Spirit in the moment I’m doing that or however many does, you know, that’s the way that goes with me. So, and uh Amen. Okay, I’ll add a little to that. We got to define what a baby Christian is.

▶ 19:40 John 1 John 1:1 defines a baby Christian as they just believe in Jesus. Okay, that’s where they’re at. But 1 Corinthians 3 defines their behavior. They are carnal. They’re divisive. They’re argumentative. They create problems just like a baby does. You got to change their diaper. You got to, you know, feed them. You got to clean up after they puke and everything else. And so that’s where what they said come in. You just got to be patient. You got to love them. You got to keep preaching to them and let the Holy Spirit do the work because they are difficult to work with. Okay? The more new believers you got in your church, the heavier the load you got on your hand.

▶ 20:35 All right? All right. One more question and then we will end. How should churches handle a new visitor who shows up high or is homeless or different by normal standards? How should churches handle a new visitor who shows up high or is homeless or different by normal stand? You can get into a lot there with the homeless part. Okay, for sure I’m gonna start with the person that shows up high because it happens on a regular basis at our church in Dothan there and not at our place.

▶ 21:26 Sometimes we have visitors coming to see residents that are high and you know it’s kind of like it’s one of those things that where you don’t work by the letter of the law. I can assure you that you have to do it by whatever the Holy Spirit says in that moment. And that’s like uh in other words, so if somebody shows up to church at New Life in Dothan and say, and we know they’re high, maybe they walked in off the street, maybe they just showed up high, you know, because they’re searching for something. If they don’t cause a problem, they don’t cause a ruckus, they don’t cause a bunch of uproar, they’re more than likely going to be able to sit in that service and things are going to go through because we want them to come back. We want to love them. We want them to feel the spirit of God. We want their lives to change, you know. And then as far as the homeless people do, man, I have many times done multiple things.

▶ 22:19 I won’t get into that, you know, trying to help and trying to do this and trying to do that. And then you can quickly see whether somebody’s homeless and they’re at a humble place in their life ready for a change or whether they are just there to uh hustle, you know, and so you know and so that is some one of those things that genuinely has to be done by the Holy Spirit and whatever the Holy Spirit says in that moment. And listen, yes, I want people that are homosexuals to come into the church. Yes, I want drug addicts to come in. Yes, I want lost people to come in. I mean, that’s where they’re supposed to come, right? But they’re not allowed to come in and spread their propaganda. They’re not allowed to come in and stay the way they are. They’re not allowed to come in. Yes, the sanctification process, man. Man, some people are callous, bro. Some people are hard. Some people have got years of that fortress wall built around their hearts.

▶ 23:12 And you don’t just step in there and start preaching to it. It takes one little layer at a time. And I used to get so frustrated when I first started doing this, man. It would be like, why aren’t they getting it? You know, I would just be preaching and giving them everything they needed and doing all the things and they wouldn’t be getting it. And one day, the Lord said to me, when are you going to figure this out that it’s one layer at the time? That’s all you can do. You peel back another layer and then you allow the Holy Spirit to enter into that and cultivate it a little while. Then you peel back another layer and you eventually wake up one day a fairly sanctified old boy after you do that long enough. Amen. Good talk again. Come up now. Look at her go ahead, girl. I just think that one of the things that I’ve really learned with the Lord here recently is there’s not a oneandone.

▶ 24:10 We see so many different things, you know, when people come in. And um number one, there’s a difference in someone attending church and someone trying to serve or lead in your church. And um we just kind of have a rule that anybody’s allowed to come as long as, you know, they are pretty respectful of everybody else’s, you know, space and what have you and they’re not causing trouble. But um sometimes we see people come in and they have family that come in and they’re high and we’ve seen conviction come. Like one time we had a man in there. He stayed the whole program and his his she wasn’t even really his wife. Well, maybe she was his wife. They got married in the courthouse. They never had an actual wedding. And she came and visited him the whole time that he was in the program.

▶ 25:04 And we knew that she was high, but we watched her closely. And she never tried to give anything to, you know, the husband or what have you. And she was very respectful while she was there. She was just clearly high. And so they wanted a ceremony performed whenever they graduated. And Tony prayed about it and he decided to do it, you know, and give him a place of honor. And they both looked really happy that day. I think she might have been sober. Um, but then whenever he graduated and he left, we thought, okay, they’ve gone back to hell. You know, it was just a matter of weeks before he went back to using drugs also. And um it was pretty discouraging and then he got arrested again and he wanted to come back to the program again and he came back and he stayed for what about two days and he got offended and he left again. Um now they’re both there. And when I tell y’all that this woman is receiving the truth and applying it to her life and she told me the first day she sat down in the chair, she said, “Mom, I’m just going to tell you whenever I was coming here to visit, I just did not like you.” And I said, I just kind of smiled and I said, “Did I do something?” You know, she said, “No, you never said anything to me out of the way.

▶ 26:19 You were never ugly in any way. I just knew that you could see me and I hated everything about it. And I said I said, “Well, I want to apologize to you for that, but I guess I’m not sorry.” And she said, “That’s why I’m here today.” Because when she reached the end of herself and she wanted something, she said, “Real with substance.” She chose Freedom House because even in her rebellion, she had experienced the Lord. And so, you never know what the outcome is going to be. That’s why it’s so important to be led by the Holy Spirit. So, there’s a lot of things that could be said there. We also had a man come high and eventually his wife, you know, left with him. Um, we don’t know because when people come in, I’m like, “This person might make it.” And then they don’t.

▶ 27:13 And then somebody else comes in and you’re like, “Oh my gosh, it’s going to take 17 miracles in three hours for this person to still be here tomorrow.” And then they become a leader a year later. You know, we don’t know. There’s no way for us know. So, it’s really important to to be led by the Holy Spirit. Before we end this, I want to Yeah, go ahead, please. I’m so glad this is my wife. Amen. I was I was about to say that exact same thing when she started talking about that. I started thinking about, you know, we we’ve had over 350 people all together come through the program. Okay. We were doing this years before Freedom House. Not like [clears this of course throat] but now it is like we we see somebody and I’ll give you an example.

▶ 28:10 So we had a guy we called him Delmare. All right. And Delmare he was in every communic everything we did. He spoke up. He he even said I mentioned Matthew 5:48. When I miss it I’m not okay. He said, “If you’re okay with missing it, you’re not okay.” It was a statement that he made. He was a special character, but this dude was was he was like giving he was solid. And there was a guy that sat right beside him, okay, that we thought this dude ain’t a ain’t no way this dude’s gonna make it, okay? And they graduated on the same day. Well, Delmare went straight back to wherever you want to call it. Okay.

▶ 29:02 And the other old boy, he commented last night when we shared in our group that I’m going to try to be there. He didn’t realize I was in California anyway. But he tried to watch the thing last night. He’s still coming to church. So, we can say we think you going to make it and you going to make it. And when somebody comes in off the street, high or whatever, you just don’t know. It’s my job to love them and act like Jesus to them. Whether that means put up the guards, whether it means love them, whatever that means, that’s my job. And you know what? Because you don’t ever know the outcome. And sometimes some of the people that run off and do dumb stuff, we got a guy there that’s fixing to go on a mission trip with us that went through the program, went off and and graduated, went and did a bunch of dumb stuff, came back, went through it again, and he is the house boss now. I mean, so you just don’t ever know. Amen. Okay.

▶ 29:56 Number one, you see how important it is to hear different voices. You notice the female voice is totally different than us males. Isn’t that precious? I I love how women bring out things. I do. But I’m going to give you another perspective. And I think we’ve hit this in the other question already. But from a church leader point of view, having a congregation of 200 or 100 in your church, homeless come in, drug addicts come in, it is imperative that you leave it to leadership. You invite them to your home, they’re going to rob you. You invite them to your home, they’re going to rob you of your children.

▶ 30:51 Uh with their lifestyle. Leadership should know how to handle these people. I have seen people invite these people into their homes. A a a man that they’re trying to uh correct and then his daughter and him get into a relationship and pregnant. Well, and and it’s not one incident. It’s all over. Let the church leaders deal with this. And this is Freedom House is already geared for this, but when you’re a church, put give it to the church leaders. It will save you a lot of headaches and it will be a much faster trip to recovery than the the congregation trying to overload them. No.

▶ 31:44 No. So, I want y’all to hear this, and I want you to hear it with everything what he said. 100% spot on. And I’ll tell you why. See, it’s our heart. We’re like, well, we want to love like Jesus. We want to bring them in our home. We want to help them. Our we get that warm little fuzzy spot in our heart. Well, you know what? We did that, Brother David. We got some experience in this because we we we’ve always ever since we’ve come to the Lord, it was prophesied that we had this rescuing spirit on us and we want to rescue everybody. Well, we brought one family in. And it was people we knew. Okay. Well, that little boy ended up uh trying to mess with my daughter, okay, before it was over with. She ended up watching pornography for the first time and got addicted to to maybe not addicted, but she got what she saw it and got exposed to it over this little kid. Okay? And then another time, uh, we we’ve got several experiences. I won’t go into detail, but I’m going to tell you right now, do not do it because when you invite those spirits into your house, they will affect the spirit in your house.

▶ 32:43 Okay? I promise you. So, you need to allow the people that are uh not just structured, but that are seniors, so to speak, uh people with experience to deal with and do it accordingly so that your family don’t get jacked up, for a lack of a better word. Okay? Amen. All. Right. Amen. So, I just want to close with a reminder. Uh we have invited Tony Wood and his wife Lynn from Alabama and they are running Freedom House. I know I’ve said this already and it’s a place where uh people can go and commit and to be in a program for six months to get their life turned around.

▶ 33:34 You have to submit yourself. You can’t contact anyone for two weeks because people try to get out of the pro, you know, do all kinds of things. Uh there’s rules in place, but if you’re looking for um a something where God is in it, where they’re sharing the scriptures with you every day and uh giving you an environment that you need to get out of your situation, that is what they’re offering and and more. Okay, I’m not explaining it all. Uh, Vinecluster Church here in Lake Senor will get you transportation to their place if they have an opening, if you uh commit to uh uh signing.

▶ 34:25 They have paperwork that you have to sign and agreements you have to sign, but we will get you over there uh and uh get you into the program. Okay. So, we want to remind you of that that we are supporting that and we’ve been supporting their ministry as well. And uh we’re just just one of many churches supporting. So, we’re going to close in prayer and again we want to thank you for joining us. Uh Mr. Barnes, again, let’s see who hasn’t prayed yet. Who are you pointing at? Donna, come on up, Donna. Donna Dagel. I used to work with Donna in the office as a teenager for Carbon Canyon Christian School and uh worked with her for four years.

▶ 35:23 I grew up with her daughters going to school, Suzanne, Jennifer, and Nikki and Dusty grew up with my older brother and sister. Of a wonderful woman of God and we’re blessed. Michael was my right-hand man. He was Lord Jesus. We just come before you again and we just thank you and praise you for the abundance of wisdom, experience, love that you’ve brought to this group of people. You wanted to put this in our hearts today. You want to plant it so that it will grow and flourish and bring life to many many people through us.

▶ 36:26 We thank you for that street Tony and Ben are committed to. We ask you to bless them Lord. Bless that home. Bless that church and help us to be good stewards and do all we can to touch lives, Lord, with you, with your presence, with your realness where there is true change in people’s lives. We thank you and we praise you and we honor you, Lord. Your precious name, Jesus. Amen. Well, we want to thank you for joining us again. We will be here for Sunday service tomorrow starting at 10:00. Uh we’ll be here at 9:30 to pray. And uh today we had to solve [clears throat] a lot of issues