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Interruptions: God's Divine Plan for You · The Rhett Palmer Show

0:01
SPEAKER_03: He is the great I am.
0:03
SPEAKER_03: His first friend was Abraham.
0:06
SPEAKER_03: Surely said to Abraham, I am that I am.
0:26
SPEAKER_02: All right, we're just having some fun this morning with Mike, biblical historian.
0:31
SPEAKER_02: I'm Rhett Palmer, and we're talking about our favorite subject in all the world and out of the world.
0:36
SPEAKER_02: And that subject is Michael.
0:38
SPEAKER_02: It's you, Rhett.
0:40
SPEAKER_02: You.
0:41
SPEAKER_02: Oh, heaven forbid.
0:43
SPEAKER_01: Thank God it's Jesus.
0:44
SPEAKER_04: Thank God it's Jesus.
0:46
SPEAKER_01: Oh my word.
0:47
SPEAKER_01: Our subject today is um, well, there's so much when you read the gospels, and I've been reading the book of Mark uh these last couple of weeks.
0:59
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and it causes me to kind of reflect as I look at Jesus' life, uh, reflect, of course, on my own life.
1:08
SPEAKER_01: Mark wants us to know that Jesus is a man of action because we don't even get to.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Jesus uh appears in the uh in the screenplay here.
1:19
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's alive and going.
1:21
SPEAKER_01: Uh he's in fact, he's going immediately.
1:23
SPEAKER_01: That word immediately is used nine times in the first chapter.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: We don't even have Jesus being born, he's like a man of action right from the beginning.
1:33
SPEAKER_01: Things are happening that Mark is describing, and it causes me to reflect a little bit on my own uh path and what I'm uh what how I'm walking down.
1:42
SPEAKER_01: And so I read a verse as a brand new believer uh that really changed the way I think about my day.
1:50
SPEAKER_01: It's found in Ephesians chapter 2, it's verse 10.
1:55
SPEAKER_01: And Paul's writing to his friends in Ephesus, and he says, You are God's poema is the Greek word, you are his masterpiece, his handiwork.
2:04
SPEAKER_01: Poema.
2:06
SPEAKER_01: Poema.
2:07
SPEAKER_01: He uh he created you anew in Christ Jesus so that you could do the things he planned long ago.
2:17
SPEAKER_01: Now, when I read that, I've been a uh in the Navy for ten years, and I had no real plan of my own except to have uh a life full of fun and adventure.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: Then I realized that God has a plan for me.
2:35
SPEAKER_01: So that's when I actually began trying to per uh pursue that plan.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: And as I'm reading, uh Proverbs every day uh when I wake up, I uh a couple days ago I could was at chapter 16 and Proverbs 16 says this the plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
3:02
SPEAKER_01: All the ways of a man are clean in his sight, but the Lord weighs the motives.
3:07
SPEAKER_01: Commit your work established.
3:11
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so verse three is a real key for me, Red, in having plan for my life is because I don't want to come up with my own plan.
3:23
SPEAKER_01: I have tried that, usually that doesn't work out as I have tried that as well as having his plan, okay?
3:34
SPEAKER_01: And if I want to have his plan, what I get from Proverbs chapter uh 16, verse 3 is that if I commit my daily works to the Lord, if I don't lie to people, if I don't cheat people, if I don't insult people, if I uh make my bed in the morning, if I wash dishes, if I serve the people around me, if I do these things, these uh all the gospel with directives and commands for what we should be doing in the course of uh speaking with kindness to our wives, Rhett.
4:16
SPEAKER_02: Last night we're in the car.
4:18
SPEAKER_02: It's your tone, it's your tone.
4:21
SPEAKER_02: I said, Well, Michael has had the same situation where we talk enthusiastically, uh women take talking enthusiastically, okay.
4:31
SPEAKER_01: That's good.
4:32
SPEAKER_01: Enthusiastic talk, yes.
4:34
SPEAKER_01: They think that we're yelling.
4:38
SPEAKER_01: Well, uh, so I think what Proverbs 16:3 is telling me, Rhett, is that if I am diligent to do the things that God has called me to do on a daily basis, that I obey him in the small decisions of my life, then he will reveal his plan, his big plan for my life.
5:04
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
5:06
SPEAKER_01: That as our works are uh commit our works to the Lord and your plans will be established.
5:13
SPEAKER_01: I think he has a plan for you, he has one for me, and we're constantly waiting for him to reveal what that plan is, and uh we have to be faithful to do the last thing that he told us to do.
5:30
SPEAKER_01: And as a witness, I'll just say this.
5:32
SPEAKER_02: No, this is this this is about me, sorry.
5:36
SPEAKER_02: But I was going through a heartbreak uh 35 something years ago.
5:41
SPEAKER_02: I was in a uh home of uh of Jewish people that believed in Jesus, their new converts, converts, and uh going through, and there was about five or six of us in a circle praying.
5:51
SPEAKER_02: And this man put his hand on my shoulder and he said, The Lord told me you're gonna move out of Schenectady, Albany, Schenectady, Troy, New York, and you're gonna move down to Florida, and somewhere outside of Orlando, you're gonna have a radio show.
6:04
SPEAKER_02: Well, I forgot about it.
6:06
SPEAKER_02: So then I went to Africa, then I went to Haiti a couple times.
6:10
SPEAKER_02: I ended up in Vero Beach, Florida, and they asked me to sing for the Dodgers.
6:14
SPEAKER_02: Anyway, say I was on a radio show.
6:16
SPEAKER_02: The manager called me in the next day, said, You have personality, would you like to be in the radio business?
6:20
SPEAKER_02: Then two years into it, now it's been 32 years, uh, I realized, oh my word, the prophecy came to pass.
6:28
SPEAKER_02: The reason I bring this up is what he did for me.
6:30
SPEAKER_02: I I'm nobody special, believe me.
6:33
SPEAKER_02: Uh, but if uh if uh in his tenderness and his mercies that endureth forever, if he will do that for me, let it be a witness to everyone listening to this.
6:42
SPEAKER_02: He has a plan for you as well, right, Michael Bagley.
6:45
SPEAKER_01: Right.
6:46
SPEAKER_01: I I I'm so with you on this, and I would encourage you that God's plan is going to take you places uh where you didn't plan on going, but he has equipped you with skills and experiences that are going to be very useful as you walk out his personal adventure with you.
7:06
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me ask you this.
7:06
SPEAKER_02: Now, I want to get about you now.
7:08
SPEAKER_02: You happen to be celebrating while we're doing this live on some social media, it'll also be on the radio in the future and on the podcast later today.
7:17
SPEAKER_02: You are celebrating 15 years.
7:20
SPEAKER_02: And it's a remarkable, your story is remarkable too.
7:23
SPEAKER_02: I want to say congratulations on 15 years.
7:26
SPEAKER_02: Now, you've been a missionary for over 40 years, you, your wife, and your four children, but you're you're down at and you have uh a coffee shop in where?
7:34
SPEAKER_01: It's on the Western Caribbean island of Utilla.
7:37
SPEAKER_01: That's where I'm at right now.
7:39
SPEAKER_01: It's the Rio Coco Cafe.
7:41
SPEAKER_01: This is an island, uh part of the Bay Islands of Honduras, former English colony, and the people here have an English culture, and everybody speaks English.
7:51
SPEAKER_01: It comes for scuba diving and free diving.
7:53
SPEAKER_01: So we opened the Rio Coco Cafe here in uh August of 2011.
8:00
SPEAKER_01: And so Saturday, we're gonna have our quincineta, our 15th birthday party, uh uh 15th year birthday party.
8:07
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna have uh cake and coffee for all of our friends that come in.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: And uh it's gonna be a nice uh celebration because God tells us, I think it's in 2 Chronicles.
8:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm not sure of the address, but he says, Publish his glorious deeds among the nations, tell everybody about the wondrous things that he has done.
8:30
SPEAKER_01: Oh, and say that again.
8:31
SPEAKER_01: Quit quote that again.
8:32
SPEAKER_01: Uh, publish his glorious deeds among the nations, tell everybody about the wondrous things that he has done.
8:40
SPEAKER_01: And that's in 2 Chronicles, uh, somewhere in the 20s something.
8:45
SPEAKER_01: I memorized the verse, but I don't have the uh the address.
8:50
SPEAKER_01: But I think this is a good opportunity for us to do that.
8:53
SPEAKER_01: So, yes, we are celebrating, and this was part of God's plan for my life.
8:59
SPEAKER_01: Uh, that I never imagined uh being in the coffee business.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: I never imagined living in Central America.
9:07
SPEAKER_01: I've been living here on and off since 1984, and uh I just look back, I find it incredible.
9:16
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but it's been a very remarkable experience.
9:20
SPEAKER_01: And in my dictionary, the word adventure is defined as a risky undertaking, but a remarkable experience, and I believe God has that for everybody.
9:31
SPEAKER_01: Uh, so I would encourage you to ask the question, read chapter two of Ephesians.
9:38
SPEAKER_01: What is it that you planned for me before as you were uh forming this earth that you now want me to be part of your plan?
9:49
SPEAKER_01: So, what do you want me to do today?
9:52
SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah, and so Proverbs uh 16:3 says, if I make decisions to obey God and the small things of life, he'll reveal his big plan to me.
10:04
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we only notice it when we look back.
10:09
SPEAKER_01: So uh, but as you read Proverbs 16, it goes on to say in verse 9, the mind of Rhett plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
10:22
SPEAKER_01: The mind of Michael plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
10:27
SPEAKER_01: So I think this has been one of the key verses, uh, principles in my life, that I am allowing God to direct my steps.
10:37
SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes, when I give him permission to do that, my life will suddenly be filled with interruptions.
10:52
SPEAKER_01: Interruptions.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: Well, we see this in the life of Jesus, and Mark records in chapter four that Jesus is uh is says in the evening, let us go over to the other side.
11:10
SPEAKER_01: This is verse 35.
11:13
SPEAKER_01: And so they were leaving the multitude, and they took along with them just as he was, and the boat and other boats were with him, and a fierce gale arose.
11:23
SPEAKER_01: The winds were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was filling up, but he himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion.
11:34
SPEAKER_01: And they awoke him and they said to him, Teacher, do you not care that we're perishing?
11:38
SPEAKER_01: And being aroused, he rebuked the wind in the sea.
11:41
SPEAKER_01: Hush, be still.
11:42
SPEAKER_01: And the wind died down and became perfectly calm.
11:46
SPEAKER_01: And he said to them, Why are you so timid?
11:49
SPEAKER_01: How is it that you have no faith?
11:51
SPEAKER_01: And they became very much afraid and said to one another, Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?
12:00
SPEAKER_01: All right.
12:01
SPEAKER_01: So here's uh Jesus saying, Let's go to the other side.
12:05
SPEAKER_01: And uh, if you've ever been to the Sea of Galilee, this is uh the largest freshwater lake in the Middle East.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: It sits in a bowl that's uh 600 feet below sea level.
12:18
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of this literally, it's kind of a bowl of uh uh of land, and on the north end is a 9,400-foot mountain, Mount Hermon, that has snow on it.
12:29
SPEAKER_01: And a lot of times cold air from the top of Mount Hermon can come rushing down that south slope and hit this uh hit this uh lake.
12:41
SPEAKER_01: And I've been on the lake when it's been perfectly calm, but in 20 minutes the wind starts blowing, a storm comes across, and all of a sudden you've got three, four, five-foot sets coming across this lake.
12:53
SPEAKER_01: And this is what happened.
12:54
SPEAKER_01: So his first interruption on his journey was a storm.
12:59
SPEAKER_01: He was interrupted.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: Now, he gets to the other side, chapter five, uh, the country of the Garrison, and immediately he comes out of the boat.
13:10
SPEAKER_01: A man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met him.
13:15
SPEAKER_01: And he and his dwelling, he was dwelling among the tombs, and no one is able to bind him anymore, even with chains, because he'd often been bound with shackles, chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.
13:31
SPEAKER_01: So now there's another interruption.
13:34
SPEAKER_01: This man who is uh living out among the tombs with shackles and chains having been torn apart comes and meets Jesus.
13:47
SPEAKER_01: What an interruption! Okay, and seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed before him and crying out with a loud voice, What do I have to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
14:01
SPEAKER_01: I implore you by God, do not torment me.
14:06
SPEAKER_01: For he had been saying to him, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit.
14:12
SPEAKER_01: Okay, this man is obviously possessed or oppressed by demons.
14:17
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus recognized that, and he commanded them to come out, but this demon-possessed man comes and runs to Jesus and says, Please don't bother us, leave us alone.
14:32
SPEAKER_01: Okay, don't torment me.
14:34
SPEAKER_01: And then Jesus was asking him, What is your name?
14:38
SPEAKER_01: And he said to him, My name is legions, my pronouns are they and them, for we are many.
14:46
SPEAKER_01: Now I threw in the pronouns thing.
14:48
SPEAKER_01: That's a uh current cultural uh uh But he did say he was legion, meaning there are many of us.
14:56
SPEAKER_01: There are many of us now.
14:57
SPEAKER_01: A legion is uh about six thousand to eight thousand soldiers in a Roman legion.
15:02
SPEAKER_01: This guy was uh uh possessed.
15:07
SPEAKER_01: Now there was a lar big herd of swine feeding out there on the mountain, and the demons entreated him, send us into the swine so we may enter them.
15:15
SPEAKER_01: And he came out, gave them permission, and coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them, and they were drowned in the sea.
15:30
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I we really can't get into this, but that's a weird story.
15:34
SPEAKER_02: Why would they want to be in the swine as opposed to just being cast out?
15:38
SPEAKER_02: And then why did the swine go over and kill themselves?
15:41
SPEAKER_01: Well, there's there's one spot on the east side of the lake, and it's the only spot where there is a a high embankment, and it's about a almost a hundred yards down the steep slope right into the water.
15:59
SPEAKER_01: And there's a uh when you're driving along on the east side, there's a like a turnoff there, it's like an observation spot.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: And so we were there one day and we were uh thinking about the pigs running down.
16:14
SPEAKER_01: It's the only place where pigs could actually run down a hill into the water.
16:19
SPEAKER_01: This had to be the place where this event happened.
16:22
SPEAKER_01: Now, first of all, the fact that there's pigs around indicates this is not a Jewish part of uh of the Galilee, okay?
16:35
SPEAKER_01: These are not Jewish people because they have pigs.
16:39
SPEAKER_01: Jewish people don't have pigs.
16:41
SPEAKER_01: This is actually part of an area called Decapolis.
16:44
SPEAKER_01: It's an area that's settled by Greek and Roman people and other people that are non-Jewish.
16:51
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
16:52
SPEAKER_01: And the herdsmen, verse 14, ran away and reported it in the city and out in the country, and people came to see what had happened.
17:00
SPEAKER_01: And they came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed, sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had the legion, and they became frightened.
17:12
SPEAKER_01: And those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man and to all the swine.
17:20
SPEAKER_01: And they began to entreat Jesus to depart from the region.
17:25
SPEAKER_01: Now, how interesting.
17:27
SPEAKER_01: The Son of God shows up, he cast out this legion of demons from this man.
17:34
SPEAKER_01: The man is sitting in his right mind, he's totally normal now, but the pigs are floating around in the lake.
17:50
SPEAKER_01: Look what you've done to our economy.
17:54
SPEAKER_01: I'm serious.
17:55
SPEAKER_01: What a reaction to have.
17:57
SPEAKER_01: I know.
17:58
SPEAKER_01: You have just taken our herd of pigs, and now we're gonna have to pull them out and butcher them and make bacon and make uh jerky and uh because it's very inconvenient to have the messiah come along at this time.
18:13
SPEAKER_02: Please, you're you're inconvenience us, you're interrupting our lives.
18:19
SPEAKER_01: So, verse 18, as he was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed was entreating him that he might accompany them.
18:29
SPEAKER_01: And can you see the scene?
18:31
SPEAKER_01: After all this scene, and Jesus says, Okay, now remember, they're on the eastern shoreline of the uh of the lake.
18:39
SPEAKER_01: Capernaum is on the northwest side.
18:42
SPEAKER_01: They've come across the lake.
18:44
SPEAKER_01: Um the lake is about in some places about six miles by thirteen miles in length, okay?
18:55
SPEAKER_01: As they're getting in the boat, the demon-possessed man comes up to Jesus and says, Take me with you.
19:01
SPEAKER_01: And can you see all the disciples standing behind the guy going, No, no, no, no, no, no, don't okay?
19:11
SPEAKER_01: Don't bring no, don't Jesus did not let him, but he said, Go to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how he has shown mercy on you.
19:25
SPEAKER_01: And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.
19:34
SPEAKER_01: Now, Rhett, I want you to notice something about this.
19:40
SPEAKER_01: This is the first recorded instance where God commissions a missionary to go out and tell what God had done for him.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: Be a witness.
19:54
SPEAKER_01: He says, Return to your people, report to them the great things the Lord has done for you, and how he showed mercy.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: If this took place in the 21st century, here's what we would probably say to the guy Okay, now God has just relieved you of all those oppressive demons that have been bothering you for years.
20:16
SPEAKER_01: So here's what you need to do find a church, go to church every Sunday, okay?
20:24
SPEAKER_01: And make sure that you read your Bible every day.
20:28
SPEAKER_01: You got to read it every day.
20:30
SPEAKER_01: And um make sure that you put money in the offering, and especially when the missionaries come to the church.
20:39
SPEAKER_01: And um now, if if you think God is going to use you to tell your experience, then we have a school for you to uh sign up for.
20:50
SPEAKER_01: It'll be a four-year education.
20:53
SPEAKER_01: You have to go um uh out of state to our denominational Bible college.
20:59
SPEAKER_01: There we will teach you all the things that we believe about the Bible.
21:03
SPEAKER_01: Then, when you've shown yourself to be part one of us, then we will actually put our hands on you and commission you to go tell the great things that God has done for you.
21:14
SPEAKER_02: You know, I have I want to tell this story.
21:17
SPEAKER_02: I have a friend of mine.
21:18
SPEAKER_02: He was selling uh very handsome young guy, Sean, uh Sean, yeah.
21:24
SPEAKER_02: And he um he sold uh oil down in Key West to the beautiful women on the beach and men for getting tans.
21:32
SPEAKER_02: Well, I don't know exactly what happened, but he got born again and went to a church and met Kathy.
21:37
SPEAKER_02: Uh both of them had been divorced.
21:39
SPEAKER_02: They fell madly in love.
21:40
SPEAKER_02: As a matter of fact, they came to a, I think it was a Methodist church.
21:43
SPEAKER_02: I was giving a concert, and they came, and that's how I met them.
21:47
SPEAKER_02: And then after that, they moved up to uh near Dothan, Alabama, and he went to a pre Bible school to get a four year degree so then he could go to Bible school.
21:57
SPEAKER_02: So they're they're they don't have much money.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: They have four children.
22:01
SPEAKER_02: So they go and he gets the four-year degree.
22:03
SPEAKER_02: Then, after the four-year degree, then he goes to the Bible school, whatever, whatever that is.
22:07
SPEAKER_02: The seminary.
22:08
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, seminary.
22:09
SPEAKER_02: He goes through that.
22:11
SPEAKER_02: He graduates.
22:13
SPEAKER_02: And I remember, I remember honestly sitting at their table and they brought out a little tiny chicken for the four children, them and me as a guest.
22:21
SPEAKER_02: And I just like I can't eat any of that chicken, you know.
22:23
SPEAKER_02: And they didn't have much money.
22:25
SPEAKER_02: And he worked all night working in a 7-Eleven in the night to pay for his schooling during the day.
22:30
SPEAKER_02: And so uh he sacrificed all this.
22:33
SPEAKER_02: And then after he graduated, it was a Baptist ministry, and they said, Let me guess, let me guess.
22:38
SPEAKER_01: Because he was divorced, they said you're not allowed to be an ordained minister.
22:46
SPEAKER_02: Isn't that a horror story?
22:48
SPEAKER_01: It's a horror story.
22:50
SPEAKER_02: Listen, here's the bad bad.
22:52
SPEAKER_02: All those years, this beautiful, beautiful man of God, he graduates, he finally gets some kind of a little church in upstate Florida.
22:59
SPEAKER_02: And he by this time, you know, he was poor, so he was he got an overweight.
23:03
SPEAKER_02: He's walking on the beach and falls over dead of uh heart attack.
23:08
SPEAKER_02: And uh all those years he could have been telling people about Jesus instead he was getting some fool.
23:13
SPEAKER_02: The Bible warns it says in the end times, many of them they'll be forever learning, never coming to the knowledge of truth.
23:20
SPEAKER_02: You know, what's what's what's the latest craze, what's the latest top-selling book?
23:24
SPEAKER_02: I had a young man on the phone last night.
23:26
SPEAKER_02: He's reading this book and that book.
23:28
SPEAKER_02: I I wanted to tell him, well, I think this is the really the number one run you got to continue in, you know.
23:34
SPEAKER_02: But um, yeah, people want pop, yeah, yeah, mankind, uh, you know, forever learning to the knowledge.
23:41
SPEAKER_01: It's unfortunate that uh many uh denominations have taken a verse out of uh Titus, and I think in Timothy, but Titus, uh, whenever you choose an elder uh or uh among you, uh let him be a man that is not addicted to much wine, and he's the husband of one wife.
24:04
SPEAKER_01: Uh okay.
24:05
SPEAKER_01: So they've taken that passage, the husband of one wife, and they've understood it to mean if you've ever been in a relationship, if you've been married and divorced for any reason, that you're ineligible to uh be an elder or a pastor.
24:23
SPEAKER_02: Well, that technically would eliminate most men because uh in the old biblical times, if you slept with a woman, you went into the tent, or she came into your tent, you were biblically married.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, and uh when you read the Greek language here, what uh Paul is writing to his disciple Titus, the phrase he uses it literally says, a one-woman man.
24:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
24:48
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
24:48
SPEAKER_01: Now, could this be a reference to uh polygamy?
24:52
SPEAKER_01: Like he's just married, only has one wife.
24:56
SPEAKER_01: Uh first century uh Greek Roman times.
25:00
SPEAKER_01: Probably not.
25:01
SPEAKER_01: It's probably not referring to polygamy.
25:03
SPEAKER_01: Is it referring to divorce?
25:06
SPEAKER_01: Well, uh, there's uh there were a lot of marriages in the Roman Empire, only one was a contractual marriage, uh conteferrario, I think it's the the word for it.
25:21
SPEAKER_01: Uh and there are ways to dissolve that, but the the literal translation of this one woman uh man seems to mean, at least in all the commentaries that I read, is a man who only has eyes for his wife.
25:39
SPEAKER_01: In other words, a non-flirtatious man.
25:43
SPEAKER_01: So when you pick out elders, pick out a non-flirtatious man who only has eyes for his own wife and is not looking at other women in a uh unclean manner.
25:56
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I remember I was sitting, yeah.
25:58
SPEAKER_02: That to me makes so much more sense.
26:00
SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
26:00
SPEAKER_02: I remember one time I was sitting with a famous uh politician uh regionally, and uh we were at a Panera Bread or something, and every woman we're talking, and behind me is the door, and every woman that comes in, he's staring, uh undressing her with his eyes, and I thought, gosh, I mean, it's just it uh and yet he was a brilliant man, but yet seduced uh it lowered my opinion of him, certainly.
26:25
SPEAKER_01: Well, uh I that's unfortunate because um there are many of us that have had uh relationships before we became Christians, and uh once we become Christians, then we understand God's principles and God's ways.
26:42
SPEAKER_01: Uh the disqualification of uh for any sort of ministry is is totally unbiblical, uh, especially for things that happened uh in uh well.
26:55
SPEAKER_01: I'll give you one example, Red.
26:56
SPEAKER_01: When there's one church that I was part of where uh one of the small group leaders was actually a convicted murderer uh that had been uh pardoned from his murder uh in South Carolina, and he moved to Florida and he became a Christian and he became part of a church and uh and was a small group leader, one of the small group pastors.
27:19
SPEAKER_01: There was another guy who uh was part of the church who was from somewhere up in New York or somewhere and had been married, but his wife fooled around with the guy and divorced him.
27:32
SPEAKER_01: And he moved to Florida, married, became a Christian, and he's one of the most uh uh righteous people that I know.
27:41
SPEAKER_01: Uh sweethearted guy, willing to pull uh out anything out of his pocket that you need.
27:47
SPEAKER_01: And uh but because he had been, quote, divorced, he was not allowed to be one of our small group leaders, and he's a natural small group leader.
27:59
SPEAKER_01: Turns out the guy, the convicted murderer from South Carolina, had a daughter, we found out, uh, from a woman that he was living with, but because he never married her, he wasn't divorced.
28:13
SPEAKER_01: And so the misunderstanding and the just this whole scene was just to me so unreal that a man who was a murderer, divorced, and had a daughter from a relationship but hadn't got married, was allowed to be a small group leader in this church.
28:32
SPEAKER_01: But someone who was an honest, uh true believer, sweethearted guy whose wife had left him uh was not allowed to be because she had divorced him.
28:43
SPEAKER_01: That to me just was religious, nonsensical.
28:48
SPEAKER_02: Let this be a warning.
28:50
SPEAKER_02: And this includes you and me and everywhere else.
28:52
SPEAKER_02: It's great to belong to a church.
28:56
SPEAKER_02: It's good because and I tell people, people tell me as a I rent and rent to a man who has two children recently, and he said, Listen, it's not what you get out of it.
29:06
SPEAKER_02: You might be sitting lost your entire family in a car accident this week.
29:11
SPEAKER_02: It's about going and being part of a community giving, but I will say this put your trust, even King David said, cursed is the man that maketh man his trust, blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust.
29:24
SPEAKER_02: Even Michael Bagby is gonna let me Rhett Palmer down, and Rhett Palmer will let Michael Bagby down.
29:30
SPEAKER_02: Because we are imperfect, we're in process of becoming, uh as they say, you you know, when you go fishing, you don't clean a fish and then catch him.
29:39
SPEAKER_02: God catches the person, and then for the remainder of his or her life, he is working to etch his character within that person, don't you agree?
29:48
SPEAKER_01: Well, uh I agree.
29:49
SPEAKER_01: And one thing that you said, I've I really like the word you use.
29:53
SPEAKER_01: You don't go to church to receive, you go to church to serve your community.
29:59
SPEAKER_01: And that's such a big part of uh the body of Christ is you go not to be, I mean, we get fed at our local churches.
30:07
SPEAKER_01: If we have a pastor that's teaching the word of God, we we get fed.
30:11
SPEAKER_01: But I know I've met a lot of people that change churches.
30:15
SPEAKER_01: They say, Oh, well, we're just not getting fed, you know.
30:17
SPEAKER_01: And the whole point of going to church is to exercise your own giftings, community, and and serve, meet the needs.
30:25
SPEAKER_02: But with this, but with this uh caveat though, be careful because when you do get close to people, suddenly they if they begin to tell you what to do, you get it's gonna be hard to resist and just kind of not be offended.
30:39
SPEAKER_02: But but remember, um it is hard.
30:42
SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm part of a 12-step program.
30:45
SPEAKER_02: And if they if somebody tells you, for instance, in sobriety, I did not drink till I was 55, and then I had a death and a breakup, and whole things went wrong, and I ended up drinking for about a year, and and it became something.
30:59
SPEAKER_02: So now they say if somebody tells you how to stay sober, they are spreading the disease of alcoholism.
31:05
SPEAKER_02: But if I tell you how I stayed sober, then I'm spreading the cure.
31:10
SPEAKER_02: No one is allowed to dictate, and people get kind of odd that you come into a church and they can get really controlling and they think Yeah, this is the whole point, is uh okay, you're absolutely right, Rhett.
31:22
SPEAKER_01: We are we when we're in a church community, yes, there are elders, there's a pastor, there are people that have been given authority to shepherd us, yes, and when we need correction to correct us, but not to direct our daily events in uh the authoritarian manner that some churches do.
31:41
SPEAKER_01: It's crazy.
31:42
SPEAKER_01: But let's get back, let's get back to our story here.
31:45
SPEAKER_01: Beware of tribes, in other words, beware of tribes.
31:48
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: Um, so uh the first interruption was the storm that Jesus had.
31:54
SPEAKER_02: I thought you were the first interruption was me.
31:58
SPEAKER_01: Well, uh that was that was a big uh side road.
32:02
SPEAKER_01: And um Do you have your belt?
32:04
SPEAKER_01: Do you have your belt today?
32:05
SPEAKER_01: I don't have a belt here.
32:06
SPEAKER_01: Let uh my bell, let's see if I can come up with something here.
32:12
SPEAKER_02: No, I can't hear it.
32:13
SPEAKER_02: Back in our studio in Florida.
32:15
SPEAKER_02: Uh uh we've given uh Michael a bell, so when I interrupt, he can he can ding it so we get back on target.
32:22
SPEAKER_02: Okay, let's get back to the interruptions without the interruption.
32:27
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so uh the point of our discussion so far, guys, is God has a plan for us.
32:34
SPEAKER_01: Uh we uh we uh walk with him in the small areas of life, he reveals the big plan.
32:41
SPEAKER_01: But once he has uh the plan, once we think we have the plan now, he's going to direct our steps, and often that comes with daily interruptions.
32:49
SPEAKER_01: So, what we're looking at is Jesus on a one day having some interruptions.
32:54
SPEAKER_01: And the first one, he gets in the boat and there's a storm, it's an interruption.
32:59
SPEAKER_01: He gets to the other side, there's a demon-possessed man, it's a big interruption.
33:05
SPEAKER_01: And then, verse 21, and when Jesus had crossed over again to the boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered around him and he stayed by the seashore.
33:17
SPEAKER_01: But one of them, of the synagogue officials named Jarius, came up upon seeing him and fell at his feet and treated him earnestly.
33:27
SPEAKER_01: My little daughter is at a point of death.
33:29
SPEAKER_01: Please come and lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.
33:33
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
33:34
SPEAKER_01: Here's our third interruption.
33:36
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is coming back home to Capernaum, and he's at this point probably the storm, the demon-possessed man, the pigs running down, the uh people telling him to leave, coming back across.
33:50
SPEAKER_01: He's probably ready to go home, kick his feet up on the uh bed, have something cold to drink, relax.
33:58
SPEAKER_01: But no, Jairus is here, and now he's on his way to Jairus' house.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: It's an interruption, okay?
34:07
SPEAKER_01: And he went off with him, verse 24.
34:09
SPEAKER_01: And a great multitude was following him and pressing in on him.
34:14
SPEAKER_01: And a woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse after hearing about Jesus, came up in the crowd behind him and touched his cloak.
34:36
SPEAKER_01: For she thought, if I just touch his garments, I shall get well.
34:42
SPEAKER_01: Now, actually, uh Matthew and I believe Luke both record that she touched the hem of his garments or the fringes of his garments.
34:54
SPEAKER_01: And now Jewish men were uh called to have tassels coming off the bottom of their garments, and the tassels had to have a blue thread in them.
35:08
SPEAKER_01: Now, blue dye is very expensive, so the more blue threads you could have, the wealthier you were, but you had to have at least one.
35:17
SPEAKER_01: Why?
35:18
SPEAKER_01: Because this is what Numbers chapter 15, verse 37 to 40 says that when you tie the bottom of your garment, you tie it in knots, and you put a uh a blue thread in as a symbol that of your uh relationship with God.
35:37
SPEAKER_01: I could read that to you, but uh I won't right now.
35:40
SPEAKER_02: I believe it.
35:41
SPEAKER_02: Wow.
35:42
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but these these uh fringes, uh these uh usually what rabbis uh would do is the four corners of their garment that they're wearing would have knots tied, and they're called titsis, tzi, tzi, tits.
36:00
SPEAKER_01: And the rabbis would tie certain patterns of knots that were their own.
36:05
SPEAKER_01: And oftentimes, when a rabbi was uh conducting a transaction of some sort and they had a wet piece of clay to mark this transition and scribe in it to record it, he would take his knot, knotted uh symbol of his own personal authority and smash it into this wet clay and leave the impression there of a certain pattern of knots.
36:34
SPEAKER_01: Okay so this woman was aware that Jesus is wearing this garment, and she says, if I can only touch the hem of his garment, the titsis, that I know is the symbol of his authority.
36:53
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm just thinking, I'm just trying to think what the woman is thinking here.
36:56
SPEAKER_01: Why does she, as um Matthew record and Luke, why does she want to touch the hem of his garment, the titsis?
37:04
SPEAKER_01: Okay, all right.
37:07
SPEAKER_01: Okay, she says in verse 28, for if I just touch his garments, I shall get well.
37:13
SPEAKER_01: And immediately the flow of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body she was healed of her affliction.
37:21
SPEAKER_01: And now here's interruption number three.
37:24
SPEAKER_01: And immediately Jesus perceived himself that power had proceeded from him and forth and turned around and said, Who touched my garments?
37:34
SPEAKER_01: Now isn't it interesting that uh and his disciples were saying to him, You see the multitude pressing in, you how can you say who touched me?
37:44
SPEAKER_01: And he was looking around to see the woman who had done this.
37:48
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus is walking through the crowd, and he feels that power has gone out of him, and then this is what Matthew records yeah, power has gone out of me.
38:00
SPEAKER_01: Jesus knew something had happened.
38:02
SPEAKER_01: His spiritual battery had suddenly had a discharge, and he knew it.
38:08
SPEAKER_01: And immediately that woman uh was healed of this malady that she had had for twelve years.
38:19
SPEAKER_01: But the woman, fearing and trembling, became aware of what happened to her and came and fell down before him, and she told him the whole truth.
38:30
SPEAKER_01: Very interesting that Jesus required something of this woman.
38:34
SPEAKER_01: She she told the whole truth.
38:37
SPEAKER_01: Right, so she told her testimony.
38:40
SPEAKER_01: Jesus made her tell this crowd her testimony.
38:46
SPEAKER_01: This is what God just did for me.
38:49
SPEAKER_01: Twelve years I've been bleeding and I've been unclean, and I can't be around people because when you bleed uh as women do, you're unclean for at least seven days.
39:01
SPEAKER_01: You have to go through a process of of cleaning.
39:04
SPEAKER_01: You're ceremoniously unclean.
39:06
SPEAKER_01: This woman was an outcast.
39:08
SPEAKER_01: She was not polite company, and she was desperate.
39:13
SPEAKER_01: She was desperate to uh have uh this healing rabbi to touch her.
39:20
SPEAKER_01: She said, if I could only touch his symbol of authority, I know I will be healed.
39:26
SPEAKER_01: What faith this woman had.
39:28
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus requires her to give a public testimony.
39:34
SPEAKER_01: And there's something in that, writ, that we should be aware that giving our public testimony not only helps those people around us, I think it helps us ourselves.
39:46
SPEAKER_01: When we declare something that God has done, there's something in our conscience and something in the spiritual realm that causes that to be, if I can use the phrase, cemented into us.
40:00
SPEAKER_02: Well, he said though if you if you if you confess me, uh you confess me before man, one day I will confess you before my father.
40:09
SPEAKER_02: But if you deny me before man, one day I will deny you before my father.
40:13
SPEAKER_02: Now, my friend Bobby Vendetta, he he took me to New York City when I was a non-believer, and so was he.
40:19
SPEAKER_02: And he introduced me to a place that was not a very wholesome place.
40:24
SPEAKER_02: It's the first and only time I went, and you put a quarter in a machine, and there were live women behind this window.
40:30
SPEAKER_02: Anyway, so he taught me that.
40:33
SPEAKER_02: A couple of years later, he comes up to me.
40:35
SPEAKER_02: He's a bass player.
40:36
SPEAKER_02: We were down there because we were almost signed to Columbia Records.
40:38
SPEAKER_02: It's a long story, but uh, he he starts to tell me about Jesus.
40:42
SPEAKER_02: I got born again.
40:43
SPEAKER_02: I said, Well, what does that mean?
40:45
SPEAKER_02: He says, Well, it means I made a commitment to Jesus Christ, believing he died on the cross, and now I'm a witness.
40:50
SPEAKER_02: And I said, Well, what's a witness?
40:52
SPEAKER_02: He said, Well, I'm witnessing to you that this happened to me.
40:54
SPEAKER_02: Now, you know what happened?
40:56
SPEAKER_02: I wasn't saved for a year.
40:58
SPEAKER_02: I think it was about a year on God knows, but I was watching him and I went, there is a change in him.
41:04
SPEAKER_02: I saw that change.
41:06
SPEAKER_02: And then this started happening a lot.
41:08
SPEAKER_02: And then, of course, you know, it led to me being born again a few years later in my living room alone, just me and Jesus in my living room.
41:15
SPEAKER_02: And so, anyway, uh we know speaking out uh to to declare the works of the Lord, we're all called to that, right?
41:22
SPEAKER_02: Where Paul said we all have the ministry of reconciliation.
41:27
SPEAKER_01: Right.
41:28
SPEAKER_01: I think that uh our public testimony is a very powerful uh expression of what God is doing in the world, what he did to us.
41:37
SPEAKER_01: Nobody can deny our public testimony.
41:40
SPEAKER_01: Uh, when we're talking to unbelievers, what happened to us is much more important than giving them a theological understanding of what happened to us, as we often try to do.
41:52
SPEAKER_01: So uh this woman was healed, and Jesus made her tell everybody what just happened.
42:01
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
42:02
SPEAKER_01: And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well.
42:08
SPEAKER_01: Go in peace and be healed of your affliction.
42:11
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I wonder where she got the faith to get down on the ground and touch Jesus.
42:15
SPEAKER_02: Only touch his garment.
42:17
SPEAKER_02: You know, Mary was visited by the angel, and it said that she believed the angel, and her faith was accounted to her as righteousness.
42:25
SPEAKER_02: Abraham meets Jesus in the desert uh uh uh before he even entered the earth and and and and believed God, and it said his faith became his righteousness.
42:35
SPEAKER_02: For some reason, I remember Dr.
42:37
SPEAKER_02: Norman Vincent Peel, who wrote The Power of Positive Thinking.
42:39
SPEAKER_02: I had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times in his lifetime, but he said it, I think it was 95 years of age.
42:45
SPEAKER_02: He died in 96.
42:46
SPEAKER_02: I think the whole of it, the whole reason we're here, is to learn faith.
42:52
SPEAKER_01: Well, uh, this is what's happening because the crowd is watching this guy who's teaching at the synagogue.
43:00
SPEAKER_01: He's casting out demons, and they know he's a healer.
43:03
SPEAKER_01: He's an extraordinary guy.
43:05
SPEAKER_01: So as he was still speaking, there came from the house of the synagogue official saying, Your daughter has died.
43:12
SPEAKER_01: Why trouble the teacher anymore?
43:16
SPEAKER_01: Jesus overheard what was being spoken and said to the synagogue official, Jairus, Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.
43:24
SPEAKER_01: Only believe.
43:26
SPEAKER_01: And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
43:31
SPEAKER_01: And they came to the house of the synagogue official, and he beheld a commotion, people loudly weeping and wailing.
43:38
SPEAKER_01: And they entered in, and he said to them, Why make a commotion and weep?
43:42
SPEAKER_01: This child has not died, but is asleep.
43:46
SPEAKER_01: And they began laughing at him.
43:47
SPEAKER_01: And but putting them out, he took along the child's father and mother and his own companions, and entered the room where the child was.
43:56
SPEAKER_01: Now it was a tradition that if somebody in your family died, That there would be people that would be known as official mourners and they would be in the room or outside the house or in the house and they would be making lots of wailing noises.
44:12
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you had to hire these guys to come and do this.
44:17
SPEAKER_01: That was considered to be uh appropriate behavior to have official wailers.
44:23
SPEAKER_01: Maybe Bob Marley uh uh thought that na knew about this when he named his band, the wailers.
44:31
SPEAKER_01: It it seems so ins insincere, though.
44:33
SPEAKER_02: I mean, to hire somebody to wail.
44:35
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I haven't needed to hire anybody to wail in my life.
44:40
SPEAKER_01: Well, sometimes there's some of us that take uh emotional things differently.
44:45
SPEAKER_01: There are other people that are very much outwardly uh emotional.
44:49
SPEAKER_01: Demonstrative, though.
44:50
SPEAKER_01: So for them to cry and to make noise over sorrow is uh normal.
44:54
SPEAKER_01: For me, it's not necessarily normal.
44:58
SPEAKER_01: And taking the child by the hand, he said to her, Talitha kum, which translated means, Little girl, I say to you, arise.
45:10
SPEAKER_01: And immediately the girl rose and began to walk.
45:13
SPEAKER_01: She was twelve years old, and immediately they were completely astonished.
45:20
SPEAKER_01: And he gave them strict orders that no one should know about this, and he said that something should be given to her to eat.
45:27
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
45:28
SPEAKER_01: So here's Jesus starting out his day saying, Let's go to the other side of the lake.
45:35
SPEAKER_01: And that nice voyage across the lake suddenly gets interrupted by an incredible storm, and people think they're gonna die.
45:44
SPEAKER_01: We're perishing.
45:45
SPEAKER_01: Don't you care that we're perishing?
45:47
SPEAKER_01: Hey, wake up, Messiah! And Jesus, uh, we know uh that's a quite a little detail that he's asleep on the cushion.
45:55
SPEAKER_01: Only Mark records that he's asleep on a cushion.
45:58
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, we know Mark gets his information from Peter.
46:03
SPEAKER_01: This is really Peter's gospel, not Mark's gospel.
46:06
SPEAKER_01: And Peter's in the boat, and when he's telling Mark this story, he said, Yeah, and when the storm came up, there's uh waves uh uh crashing over the bow.
46:16
SPEAKER_01: We're starting to bail, and we look, and Jesus is asleep on the back seat, he's got his head on the cushion.
46:23
SPEAKER_01: What a detail, right?
46:25
SPEAKER_01: So the storm is the interruption.
46:27
SPEAKER_01: He gets to the uh eastern side of the lake, and he's met by a demon-possessed man that's been chained up but so strong he breaks the chain.
46:38
SPEAKER_01: Another interruption, and he frees the man from his demons, they go into the pigs, two thousand of them, and they go down that steep slope into uh the lake, and the people tell him, Go home, look what you've done to our economy, get out of here.
46:57
SPEAKER_01: And the demon-possessed man says, Can I come with you?
47:00
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, No, look, there's a big big uh Bible school down in Decapolis.
47:05
SPEAKER_01: Would you go and enroll there and get your degree and then come back and talk to me?
47:09
SPEAKER_01: No, he didn't say that.
47:10
SPEAKER_01: He said, Go tell the people what God has gets back in the boat, gr crosses back to Capernaum, and he's on his way uh home, and now he's interrupted by Jairus.
47:25
SPEAKER_01: My daughter is sick.
47:26
SPEAKER_01: So he heads off to Jairus' house.
47:28
SPEAKER_01: Then he has another interruption, yeah, and it's this woman bleeding.
47:33
SPEAKER_01: So we see Jesus' days is filled with interruption.
47:37
SPEAKER_01: Now I submit to you, Rhett, that when we give God permission to control our day, and most of us are remember Jesus' outline for prayer, we call it the Lord's Prayer.
47:51
SPEAKER_01: Our Father in heaven, great is your name.
47:53
SPEAKER_01: Let your kingdom come, let your will be done on heaven, on earth as it is in heaven.
47:59
SPEAKER_01: Now, if we actually are uh saying that or saying it in some manner, the only place that God's will will be done on earth that I have control in is these next twenty-four hours of my life.
48:13
SPEAKER_01: So I'm giving God permission to take my next twenty-four hours, and now they're his.
48:21
SPEAKER_01: Now, Proverbs 69 says, Michael makes his plan, but God directs his steps.
48:27
SPEAKER_01: I can expect there's gonna be interruptions to my plan.
48:32
SPEAKER_01: It's very good that we would have a plan, and we should make a plan, because one of the worst things you can do is just sit around and say, Well, I'm not doing anything today until the Lord to tells me to do something.
48:44
SPEAKER_01: Well, he's already told you make your bed, wash the dishes, help your uh family, help the people, go out and earn a living, go out and cultivate uh garden, go out and uh serve people.
48:55
SPEAKER_01: He's told us all these things in the Bible that we're to do.
48:59
SPEAKER_01: Uh so yeah, so as we do that, stand by for interruptions.
49:05
SPEAKER_02: Well I'm sure you've had this happen.
49:08
SPEAKER_02: I've literally been behind somebody who's a poke in the car.
49:12
SPEAKER_02: Now, a lot of people can relate to that today.
49:14
SPEAKER_02: He's a poke in the car, or she's a poke, and I'm behind them.
49:18
SPEAKER_02: And next thing you know is you come upon an accident.
49:22
SPEAKER_02: Had you been ahead of that person, you might have been involved in an accident, or somebody else has pulled over for uh speeding, and you know that if you'd passed her, you would have been speeding, you would have been the recipient of that ticket.
49:34
SPEAKER_02: So sometimes the delays are a blessing.
49:38
SPEAKER_01: Well, right.
49:39
SPEAKER_01: So uh I a lot of things that used to irritate me, Rhett, was uh telemarketers calling me up while I'm involved in doing something in my office.
49:48
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
49:49
SPEAKER_01: And those interruptions used to bother me, and then I started considering this whole concept of interruptions.
49:56
SPEAKER_01: And so I uh took a completely different approach to those uh telemarketers.
50:02
SPEAKER_01: Um I got a call from a guy, there's a prominent uh ranch in uh Florida that the Florida Sheriff's Association supports sending kids to this ranch, and they have a big fundraising campaign where people call you and ask if you want to pledge 25, 50, uh hundred, five hundred.
50:25
SPEAKER_01: And if you pledge a certain amount, they give you a little sticker to put on the back of your car.
50:31
SPEAKER_01: And if you pledge a large amount, it's a metal uh star that you actually attach to your license plate.
50:38
SPEAKER_01: And what I figured was uh basically what I'm doing is uh buying protection when the cops pull me over, they're gonna see this star attached to my license plate and know I'm a contributor to their charity, right?
50:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
50:52
SPEAKER_01: So I used to get a bit irritated when these guys would call me up, and I uh my line used to be, well, send me your information because I don't make donations over the phone.
51:02
SPEAKER_01: Then one day I realized, wait a minute, this guy that's talking to me, he's a fundraiser.
51:08
SPEAKER_01: I'm a fundraiser.
51:10
SPEAKER_01: I'm uh I'm managing and funding a school project in Nicaragua with uh 1,600 kids in 14 schools along the Cocoa River.
51:19
SPEAKER_01: We have a child sponsorship program and a place uh where people to give donations.
51:23
SPEAKER_01: I'm a fundraiser too.
51:25
SPEAKER_01: So as this guy's talking, I said, Wow, that's really a good project that you're doing.
51:29
SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure a lot of these young men and women are being touched by that.
51:33
SPEAKER_01: I said, I want you to know that I'm a fundraiser too.
51:36
SPEAKER_01: And he said, You are?
51:38
SPEAKER_01: He said, What is your project?
51:40
SPEAKER_01: And I told him about our project on the Cocoa River, and I said, and we have a child sponsorship program, and so for$21 a month, you can sponsor a Mosquito Indian child on the Cocoa River in Nicaragua and provide them with education.
51:55
SPEAKER_01: And he started laughing, and we both were kind of laughing because now we're fundraising each other, and so I took a completely different approach to this interruption that day, and it caused me to change the way that I dealt with telemarketers because they're doing a job, they're getting paid for the job, they're doing it diligently, and so I started treating them with courtesy.
52:25
SPEAKER_01: I paused and let them do their one or two or five-minute uh uh presentation because I think they get paid if they give the presentation, whether they get a donation or not.
52:40
SPEAKER_01: I think that's part of their compensation.
52:42
SPEAKER_02: I think maybe I'm wrong.
52:44
SPEAKER_02: A little side thing here.
52:46
SPEAKER_02: You know, I I've never understood why people can be rude to people.
52:50
SPEAKER_02: And if you're listening to this, there's a lot of you out there.
52:54
SPEAKER_02: Somebody calls now.
52:55
SPEAKER_02: What happens to me is I've learned this.
52:57
SPEAKER_02: Somebody calls me and they want to sell me something.
52:59
SPEAKER_02: What I do is I'm not rude.
53:01
SPEAKER_02: He's a human being, and I'm supposed to be in service.
53:03
SPEAKER_02: I said, sir.
53:04
SPEAKER_02: I'm uh having, I think a well.
53:08
SPEAKER_02: I said, sir, I said, uh uh, you know, you sound like a fine man.
53:13
SPEAKER_02: Uh I don't want to take up your time, but I'm not going to buy your product, so I just want to let you know you should go on and go to the next customer, you know?
53:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're frozen.
53:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're having a little trouble with the uh with the video, but it'll be repaired.
53:30
SPEAKER_02: Hopefully we're getting the audio.
53:32
SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, we're we're getting the audio over here.
53:34
SPEAKER_00: I'll fix it in post.
53:36
SPEAKER_02: Okay, sorry about that.
53:37
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I don't know what's going on.
53:38
SPEAKER_00: I think I think Mike might have we might have lost Mike on the feed, but no, he's here.
53:44
SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay, you're back on.
53:45
SPEAKER_01: Go ahead.
53:47
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
53:47
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm um I'm here in Honduras and the internet connection sometimes is a little bit in or out, so I I didn't get most of that story.
53:55
SPEAKER_01: But uh I just want to encourage uh uh all of us that when we give God permission to uh take our day, take our hours, take our minutes, that there will be interruptions.
54:10
SPEAKER_01: And so know that sometimes an interruption is God's divine appointment for you.
54:17
SPEAKER_01: It's part of his schedule.
54:19
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna uh introduce you to someone that needs something from you, whether it's a word of encouragement, whether it's a helping hand, whether it's a good cup of coffee, whatever.
54:28
SPEAKER_01: I bet you this is a good thing.
54:29
SPEAKER_01: So this is what uh interruptions are all about.
54:32
SPEAKER_01: They're God's divine plan for sometimes uh divine encounters.
54:37
SPEAKER_02: Well, did you ever meet somebody and you found them very irritating and you almost said something to them like, your voice irritates me, or you're talking and you you hold it, and later on you end up meeting that person and they become good friends with them or accomplish something together, you know?
54:52
SPEAKER_02: So the very person that may irritate you, right?
54:56
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm gonna say, Rhett, right?
54:58
SPEAKER_01: What when I met you in uh 1996 and you interviewed me for a book that I just written called Just Another Lump of Clay, I thought this is one of the most irritating guys that I've ever met because all you did was talk most of the time.
55:15
SPEAKER_01: Oh and then Rhett, 20 years later, 25 years later, we started uh studying the Bible together.
55:27
SPEAKER_01: And by golly, you're one of my friends now.
55:31
SPEAKER_02: I continue to interrupt you.
55:37
SPEAKER_01: No, guys.
55:38
SPEAKER_01: Uh hey, we really appreciate you taking the time to listen to Rhett and I bantering back and forth and going down these rabbit trails that we do.
55:48
SPEAKER_01: Uh we started off our relationship.
55:51
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Rhett is a very well-known broadcaster uh around the state of Florida.
55:56
SPEAKER_01: He's known as the mayor of the airwaves.
55:59
SPEAKER_01: And uh like me, Rhett um can come across as having a uh could come across as having a very high opinion of himself.
56:08
SPEAKER_01: And I, as a uh pilot in the United States Navy, I was told by our government that you are somebody special.
56:18
SPEAKER_01: Now there's only uh 3% of the people that are physically qualified to be military pilots, and of that 3%, uh only less than 5% of those 3% ever attempt to enter military flight school, and of those 5%, half of them wash out.
56:37
SPEAKER_01: So by the time you get your wings, you're told you're somebody really special.
56:42
SPEAKER_01: And I think I think the Navy told us that so that the first time we were uh coming in uh on the uh aircraft carrier in bad weather, uh, that we would have confidence that we could do it, rather than, oh I wonder about if I can make this landing.
56:56
SPEAKER_01: Oh I start freaking out.
56:59
SPEAKER_01: Hell yes, I can do this, you know, I can do this.
57:02
SPEAKER_01: But uh the because of the God's spirit in red and God's spirit in me over these years, we have realized that it's his identity that's most important to us, not this person that we were or we thought we were.
57:16
SPEAKER_01: And I just have to say, Rhett, you're one of the kindest, most genteel people that I have in my life these days.
57:21
SPEAKER_01: And uh really you you really are, and I'm just very uh happy to be spending time with you as we do.
57:28
SPEAKER_02: Well, I think I'm getting the better end of the deal, but thank you very much.
57:32
SPEAKER_02: I agree with you.
57:34
SPEAKER_01: Well, but you started off, you started off on that little rabbit hole uh side trail, and I thought you were describing our relationship.
57:42
SPEAKER_01: You're gonna meet somebody that's so irritating, you think I'll never be friends with this guy.
57:49
SPEAKER_02: Well, you know something.
57:51
SPEAKER_02: Truth is, like I I've I always thought more highly of you than I did of myself, and then I realized later on, not only was not only was I filled with self back 20 years ago, but you have admitted that it took you 20 years of marriage to relisten to your wife, but you know, you know what I'm saying?
58:11
SPEAKER_02: So you've you've grown too, right?
58:13
SPEAKER_01: Oh, oh, well, you know, this is the thing about Christianity.
58:17
SPEAKER_01: When we become uh a member of God's family and he puts his spirit in us, uh 2 Corinthians chapter 5 says, Old things pass away, behold, new things come, because we are a new creation, a kanos kistis, as it says in the Greek, which translates a previously unseen biological entity that comes from God himself.
58:40
SPEAKER_01: So uh this thing called Christianity, called walking out with the Lord, is going to be a change.
58:46
SPEAKER_01: It's a it's a his agenda is to change us into his people, into his sons and daughters.
58:53
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes that's very difficult because we're so habitually caught up in our own ways and our own thinking.
59:02
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it takes traumatic events to change that, or it takes a very sensitive wife who says that your speech is.
59:11
SPEAKER_01: How did you say it?
59:13
SPEAKER_01: But that Barbara said last night that you were uh I say urgent, but you say uh enthusiastic?
59:19
SPEAKER_01: Is that the word you use?
59:20
SPEAKER_01: Enthusiastic speech.
59:25
SPEAKER_02: So uh I have to say that you know, even Dolan, uh Dolan is our producer, and at times she's had to say, Rhett, you interrupted me.
59:34
SPEAKER_02: And I I real no, I really I I if I were to ask anybody to pray for me at this time of life, I was I was never hugged or listened to as a kid.
59:43
SPEAKER_02: There was alcoholism in the household, there were no adults that ever paid attention to me.
59:47
SPEAKER_02: So to this day, it's embarrassing that I need attention.
59:50
SPEAKER_02: I'm trying I'm learning more and more, though.
59:52
SPEAKER_02: My my joy of my life is giving other people attention.
59:56
SPEAKER_02: And the more I can do that and help them, the happier truly I am instead of vying for attention.
1:00:02
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes I have to say I've interrupted uh Dulan.
1:00:05
SPEAKER_02: He's been very patient with me, but I apologize officially on the air, Dulan, for my interruptions.
1:00:12
SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, look at where your uh where your professional life has taken you at this phase is now your business is all about giving other people an opportunity to express the things that God has done for them.
1:00:26
SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
1:00:28
SPEAKER_01: And you're not making, I mean, I don't know if you don't look like you're making a lot of money doing this, you're providing people with a service.
1:00:34
SPEAKER_01: Doolin does a great job.
1:00:36
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he does an incredible job of taking what we do and turning it into something.
1:00:41
SPEAKER_02: No, the radio show I make nothing.
1:00:43
SPEAKER_02: When I was on secular radio for 26 years, there was a time I really prospered.
1:00:47
SPEAKER_02: I'm on Christian radio now because I don't feel comfortable asking people for donations or anything.
1:00:52
SPEAKER_02: I make nothing, not a penny.
1:00:55
SPEAKER_01: And the same same for me, Red.
1:00:56
SPEAKER_01: I'm I haven't had a salary job since I left Hawaii in 1984, but God has been very faithful to provide for us.
1:01:03
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
1:01:04
SPEAKER_01: So all of you out there that uh are enjoying this, we do have a uh a line of coffee that we roast in Vero Beach, Florida.
1:01:13
SPEAKER_01: It's called a cup of friendship.
1:01:15
SPEAKER_01: And if you go to a cupofriendship.com, you can buy uh three different blends that we've put together.
1:01:24
SPEAKER_01: We roast them right in Vero Beach.
1:01:25
SPEAKER_01: It's all high-altitude handpick specialty grade coffee.
1:01:29
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you can buy uh kindred spirits, a light roast, hearty handshake, a dark roast, and bridge builder, a medium uh roast blend.
1:01:38
SPEAKER_01: And you can enjoy a good cup of coffee uh while you are uh listening to uh us banter back and forth.
1:01:47
SPEAKER_01: And in the process of that, uh that might help us with some of the needs that we have where we reach in our pocket and give to people that uh God brings to us.
1:01:55
SPEAKER_02: So friendship, I think we should have a coffee called Rhett's Redneck uh version because we need to have a cheaper coffee for me, a blend that's like for the common palate.
1:02:06
SPEAKER_02: You know, you've got these high-end stuff.
1:02:08
SPEAKER_02: We're losing half of the market because they just want normal, you know, so-so coffee, you know?
1:02:14
SPEAKER_01: Well, normal so-so coffee is an abomination to the Lord.
1:02:19
SPEAKER_02: All right, folks, we're gonna say goodbye for today.
1:02:22
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Michael Bagby.
1:02:23
SPEAKER_02: It's a pleasure spending time with you.
1:02:25
SPEAKER_02: Uh, he's uh he's an amazing uh biblical historian.
1:02:28
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we've gotten closer over the years because he teaches a men's group on uh Tuesday mornings as well as other groups.
1:02:34
SPEAKER_02: Some are some are uh male and female on the weekends, but uh great biblical scholar.
1:02:39
SPEAKER_02: And um thank you, Randy.
1:02:41
SPEAKER_02: My prayer would be this I long to go back to Israel, and I hope it's with you and that other fellow that you have uh you you know uh well Dr.
1:02:51
SPEAKER_01: Randy Smith, uh Christian travel study programs.
1:02:55
SPEAKER_01: I've been working with him since '97.
1:02:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'd love to.
1:02:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
1:03:00
SPEAKER_02: Well, listen, thank you, Mike Bagby.
1:03:01
SPEAKER_02: Again, cup of friendship.com.
1:03:03
SPEAKER_02: Uh, aloha, peace.
1:03:05
SPEAKER_02: Lord, Lord bless our listeners and those who participate and go out and tell somebody about Jesus today, okay?
1:03:13
SPEAKER_02: All right, thank you.