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197. These Are A Few Of My Favorite IFB Things - A Thanksgiving Special · 4-Freedom Podcast

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For freedom, you set me free. Not for change, not for guilt,
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not for Pharisee. Grace, lift the flame now I'm
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puffing. Peace signals and victory
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justified. Released.
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Welcome to the For Freedom podcast.
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This podcast exists to bring the freedom of the gospel for
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everyday Christians with everyday issues.
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I ain't. Saved by dress codes, not by
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what I eat. I'm covered in the
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righteousness. Washed from head to feet.
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No tally of tradition, No man made code.
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Blood bought my freedom. Now I ride that road.
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They clutch pearls when they see smoke rings rise.
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But my prey still ascends past the legalist cries.
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Christ plus nothing. That's the real math.
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So miss me with your fence laws and your extra path.
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He sat with sinners, I'm sitting with Saints.
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Slipping grace from the bottle, No room for face.
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I like one for liberty. Toast to the king.
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Every ash of sermon. Death has lost its sting.
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For freedom He set me free, Not for change, not for guilt, not
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for Pharisee. Grace lit the flame, now puffing
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peace, cigars and victory justified, released.
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For freedom, He set me free, not for change, not for guilt, not
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for Pharisee. Grace lit the flame now puffing
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peace cigars and victory justified released well.
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Welcome back to the Four Freedom Podcast.
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We're so thankful that you're here listening to us this week.
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This is Thanksgiving time. It's a time for Turkey and
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dressing and cranberry sauce. And I have.
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I'm going to start this out with before we get into our subject.
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You said something I got, I got apology right there.
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Is it dressing or is it stuffing?
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It's cornbread dressing, man. Oh my goodness, I'm a stuffing.
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I call it stuffing. Me and my sister-in-law, we get
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into it every year at Thanksgiving because it's
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stuffing and she brings stuffing and she says no, it's dressing
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because it's made a certain way. And she goes through this whole
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long diatribe of if it's made from this, it's called dressing.
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If it's made from this, it's called stuffing.
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And what she's making this dressing and I look at her and I
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say no, no, it's all stuffing. It is wonderful stove top
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stuffing. I love it all, but I'm going to
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call it stuffing. So I'll tell you why that is,
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because, you know, North Carolina is still considered the
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South, but you're a lot closer to the Yankee land than I am.
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OK, OK. You know.
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It's dressing the South and stuffing as the north.
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Is that what? It is and so you're kind of in
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that in in intermediary, you know, area where it's either or.
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Dear listener, it's stuffing. Comment on this episode.
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Let us know if it's stuffing. If it's dressing, comment on it.
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Let us know if it's dressing. Maybe Brett, we'll put a poll
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out on social media or something.
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And is it called? We're going to.
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Have to pull that? Well, here's the thing.
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Do you stuffing or dressing? Do you do the cranberry sauce?
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Heck no. Cranberry sauce is for the
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birds. Man.
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I think that if I see cranberry sauce come to my house, I open
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the dumpster up outside and immediately dump it into the
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dumpster. Let me tell you my opposite.
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I was like you. I was like, no cranberry sauce,
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throw that in the road, but get rid of it.
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But then I I accidentally tried it and it's not that bad
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accidentally. Tried.
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Accidentally tried it. Like I don't like it on its own,
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but man, you get just a little bit.
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You mix it up in that dressing or stuffing and makes it, makes
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it a little bit sweeter. It's kind of a sweet savory
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thing. It's not that bad.
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It's not that bad. But I'm I was, I used to be like
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you. It was a it was a no go.
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I'm never going to accidentally try stuffing because if it's at
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my house and one's not coming into my house, and two, if I see
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it at someone else's house, it's like a brick wall is built
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around it because it's not touching anything on my plate.
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OK, so here's what I want to ask you.
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I want you to give me because I didn't tell you about this
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before. This is this is in the moment.
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I want you to give me two Thanksgiving mains for meats
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that you like your favorite. Once you give me two sides that
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like your top two sides and then once you give me two desserts
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and then then we'll go back and forth.
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All right, we'll start with the beets.
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I'll give about two meats. Got to have got to have either
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smoked or deep fried Turkey. I have a movie on that Deep
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fried was the one is 1 of mine. Yeah.
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Deep fried, fantastic. My brother smoked a Turkey last
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year. Oh my goodness, it was
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fantastic. So either smoked or deep fried.
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Don't put it in the oven. Don't don't do that mess there.
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It's either going to be smoked or it's going to be deep fried.
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It's going to be fantastic. My other one, because that's
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Turkey is going to be one of them.
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My other one lately, this one may be that may be people may
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get may maybe they're going to tell me, hey, that sound effects
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give me a meal. Brisket, brisket on
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Thanksgiving. Oh my goodness.
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My brother-in-law, he makes some great smoked brisket.
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My father-in-law, he's got a smoker.
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He's been smoking some brisket lately.
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Ban brisket. It's out of this world.
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So brisket and Turkey, those two things, got to have them on
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Thanksgiving. So here's mine, my first one, of
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course is deep fried Turkey. And you got to have, you know,
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down the South, we got something called a Cajun injector.
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And you know, put that, that garlic and that spice and you
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know, the, the commercial is Cajun injector.
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Put all the taste in the right place.
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And so you got to have some Cajun injected deep fried
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Turkey. And then #2 my mom's family
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would always make this homemade fried chicken.
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And everything's given it's homemade.
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It's, I mean, he cuts it. My uncle Rick, he cuts the
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chicken, he batters it himself. He cooks it in a little electric
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deep fried skillet. Oh, it's so great every year.
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And so I would have to say fried Turkey and homemade fried
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chicken. Love it.
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You lead us off sides. Where you at man?
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Two sides, my number one side is my wife makes hash brown
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casserole and I love me some has now commercially the best hash
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brown casserole you're going to find.
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I think it's Cracker Barrel. Yeah, we are great Cracker
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Barrel. And to me my my wife's is just
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as good or better. This hash brown casserole is
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something that I make her. I make or make it every year.
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I have to have at least once a year.
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And the other thing, I'm a deviled egg guy.
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I could smash a whole tray of deviled eggs.
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I love me. And I don't care if the pickle,
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if the relish is dill, I don't care if it's sweet.
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If it's deviled eggs, you put it on there.
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You put a little paprika on top, give it, give it some color.
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I love me some deviled eggs. I always have.
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Yeah 100% I'm with you on the deviled eggs.
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Deviled eggs is my #1 idea when it comes to Thanksgiving.
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We've got some ways in our church they make some smacking
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deviled eggs. Oh so good.
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Nothing beats my moms deviled eggs.
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She, I don't know how she does it.
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I don't know if it's just the special love that she puts into
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it because she knows I'm going to eat them, but she typically
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makes just a tray just for me to eat.
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And then my my two boys that they'll smack on some deviled
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eggs as well. They love them.
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Now I will say nothing beats my mom's deviled eggs.
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No one will ever beat my mom's deviled eggs.
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Last year, my father-in-law made brisket deviled eggs.
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He took deviled egg sauce, took the Jack Daniels BBQ brisket,
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warmed it up, got it hot, mixed it in with the deviled egg
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mixture, and then piped it into the deviled eggs.
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Made it just like that. I'm not going to lie, it was one
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of the best deviled eggs I've ever put in my mouth.
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It's fantastic. So I'm hoping he makes it for
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Thanksgiving. It's going to be a great time.
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The thing that I have gotten enjoyed with with Thanksgiving
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lately is some crazy Brett broccoli salad.
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Me and my wife would make a broccoli salad.
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It's got the, the bacon, it's got the mayonnaise dressing in
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it that that you mix up with the sugar in the vinegar.
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It's got the sunflower seeds. It's got the crispiness of the,
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of the, the, the, the broccoli itself that I, when I make it,
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because I'm the one that cuts everything off, makes it, I, I
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pull out a portion of it and put it in its own container because
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my wife and my mother-in-law and my family, they like it with
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onions and I don't like raw onions at all.
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And so then they chop up the onions and they throw it in
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there. But I have my own container with
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my own broccoli salad and, and I really, you give me some brisket
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and some Turkey and broccoli salad and, and deviled eggs and
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a football game on with a cigar beside me.
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I'm, I'm really close to heaven in that moment.
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I mean, it's getting real close because we're about to get to
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desserts. That's where heaven really
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begins to to happen for us. Exactly.
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All right, now you do 2 desserts and I'll finish.
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All right, two desserts. I'm basic plain Jane.
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Really, it's got to be 3 desserts.
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But if I'm doing 2 desserts, if I've got to pick two top 2
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desserts, I'm doing pecan pie. And now mine may change here
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because I'm about to make that pecan cobbler that I talked
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about. I'm making it for Thanksgiving
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for my dad's house. So pecan pie is my #1 go to if I
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see it there, I've got to have it #2 is sweet potato casserole
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with the Ruth Chris style pecans butter brown sugar top on it.
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That's just delightful that you got to do, just got to dig into.
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I am my number one is pecan pie. You cannot beat the the that
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goo, that ooey gooey goodness in the middle of a pond.
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Pecan pie. I'm really not sure how people
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make it. I'm not sure if that's like the
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juice inside of a pecan. I don't know where it come from,
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but but I say I I absolutely love me some pecan pie if I own,
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like if I'm on a diet and you've got a whole table of desserts
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and I can only get one slice of one thing, it's going to be a
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slice of pecan pie every time. My number 2 is I love me like my
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honorable. What would your honorable
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mention be? My honorable mention will be
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pumpkin pie because I love pumpkin or sweet pie.
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One of those two would be that was the third.
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Like I, I was debating my head and I'm, as I'm looking at the
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dessert table, I'm realizing I would pick a sweet potato
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casserole over a pumpkin pie or a sweet potato pie.
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I, I can't tell the difference between the two.
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They're the exact same in my mind.
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And so that's that's sort of where I'm at.
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My my honorable mention is banana pudding.
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I love me some banana. I like jello banana pudding.
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I like the homemade banana warm banana pudding.
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They're really good. But I would have to say my my
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second dessert over banana pudding would be bread pudding.
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I was good sweet bread pudding. I, I, I mean, I like the kind
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where you can see that it was, they just took the bread out of
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the out of the, the loaf, you know, out of the, the package
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put in there. Yeah, they just put the bread in
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there and made it. I love me some bread pudding.
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If it's there, I'm going to get that too.
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And that is Thanksgiving, man, I'm getting hungry.
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I love it, ma'am. I love all of it.
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All right, so we want to do something different today.
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It's Thanksgiving Day. You're with your family.
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You may not be listening to this on Thanksgiving Day.
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Maybe you're traveling and you've got your kids in the car
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with you and you're like, you know what?
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Let's listen to these crazy guys talk on their podcast.
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I make my kids endure listening to podcast when they're in the
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car with me. So we've entitled this the the,
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these are a few of my favorite IFB things.
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And so we're going to talk through our top five as me and
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Brett have been mulling over our IFB upbringing.
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You know, there's some things that we can appreciate about our
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past. I, I just preached a message of
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this last year or this last week here on our Sunday night service
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called The People that remember. And I think it's important to
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remember that where we came from, the past, the good, the
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bad and the ugly. And we've talked about the good,
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the bad and the ugly of the IFBA lot on this episode, on this
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last series with the fundamentalism, the the past and
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the fundamentalism, the future of fundamentalism, the figures
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that we've looked at. But today we want to look and
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sort of digest sort of our things that we appreciate about
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our upbringing, the things that that made us who we are.
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So we're given our top five. I've put down my top five, Brett
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given his top five. We're going to start at the
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bottom of our list #5 working our way up.
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We're going to each go back and forth, tell us our favorite,
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maybe expound upon it a little bit, give you some context.
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So Brett, I'll start #5 the fifth thing.
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And it was tough just to put 5 because I really, as I got the
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right list down, there was a lot of things that I appreciate
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about my upbringing, that I appreciate about my pastors and
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about the IFB more so than what I realized.
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And so it's good to do that every once in awhile.
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But #5 for me, the view and the connection that the IFB had to
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missions and mission organizations.
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So I went to my very first mission trip at 17 down to Peru.
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I recently got to do a Chapel where I talked about all the
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mission trips that I went on. And I realized that the vast
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majority of my mission trips were connected to IFB
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missionaries. Even when I became an SBC guy, I
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still was going down and visiting IFB missionaries,
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taking groups down to see them because I had these connections
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that I had made 10/15/20 years ago.
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And just the view and the love that I have permissions, the
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love that I have to tell people about Jesus comes from the IFB
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in the model. They put it forward in my life
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growing up. I would have to say my number
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five of one of my favorite things that I took away from the
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IFB is a kind of like my MyHeritage of strong preaching,
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like my preaching style. Listen, you've got some great,
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awesome preachers in the SBC and some other churches, modern
15:22
churches, but man, some of these people in SBC, they don't know
15:27
what it's like to get AIFP preacher up there.
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I mean, listen, you, you take away the legalistic standards
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and the personal preferences. You take away the hobby horse
15:37
preaching and the pet peeve preaching and you insert an
15:41
expository preaching, expository preaching into that style.
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And let me tell you something, you had some IFP preachers that
15:49
could shut the corn, man. I mean, the dudes could preach.
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I mean, it's a bold, it's authoritative, it's passionate,
15:55
it's straightforward. I was thinking the other day
15:58
about Tony Hudson, you know, if you were to take out all the bad
16:01
stuff and they got all the, you know, the, the, the personal
16:04
preference driven, ego driven preaching.
16:06
I mean, the dude is a good orator.
16:09
I mean, if you really did it, what he does.
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He may only have 10 minutes of of what he has to say, but in
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those 10 minutes he's going to, he's going to pontificate
16:17
greatly on. Exactly.
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And you know, most IP preachers, there's no sermon prep.
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They don't know how. I wasn't used to use a
16:24
commentary on House Anderson, you know, but the but the style
16:28
of get up and confidence in the pulpit, the unapologetic stance,
16:33
humor, It's really good tool to use in preaching.
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And I'm thankful that I've been able to take the good parts of
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that style and you know, you know, insert the good parts and
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listen, let me tell you something.
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I'm I'm not God's gift to preach in there preachers around me
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that can preach me under the table.
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But it just from my personal experience, I'm telling you
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this, I I've been able to take the good parts of that preaching
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style and get up and preach and you know, you know, you preach
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like that and some of these southern after churches people
17:05
come up and say, Oh, I've never heard anybody preach like that
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before. And you know, you know, you got
17:11
them good sayings like you put that on top of your head, your
17:14
tongue will beat your brains out trying to get to it and stuff
17:17
like that. You know, it's all shut the corn
17:19
stuff. And so, you know, we are just
17:22
really, I'm, I'm really thankful that I've been able to take that
17:26
bring that preaching style. Yeah, Brett, why don't you go to
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#4 before you do that? When I got to the church where
17:35
I'm at, they came up to me out of man, come to me, who was 93
17:39
years old. And he's born and raised in the
17:41
church. He pulled me aside and he said,
17:43
young man. He said, we haven't had preacher
17:45
like that in this church for 50 years.
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He said they just weren't used to energetic, applicational
17:53
preaching, expository preaching. It was just really shallow in
17:57
the way of their preaching. And so I was like, well, hey, I
18:00
appreciate it. And I had to ask you, what do
18:02
you mean by that? And then he told me, you know,
18:04
just your excitement and your zeal for the, for the love of
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Jesus was great. All right #4 you go to Brett #4
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I'll go. I'll call you. #4 this isn't,
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this is one that's I'm going to turn a negative into a positive
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here and it's learning what not to replicate as a pastor.
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And I know we're doing positive things, and all the rest that I
18:25
have are positive. It's kind of like the one
18:27
negative that I have. But, you know, I learned not to
18:30
try to control people with fear and intimidation.
18:33
You know, there's a difference between leading with guilt and
18:37
leading with grace. There's a difference between
18:39
shepherding people and then manipulating people, trying to
18:42
control them. You know, and looking back, my
18:45
pastor, he would just get up and you know, hindsight, he would
18:48
just preach the same message over and over and just attach a
18:51
different Scripture to it. But he would always preach on
18:55
the same thing. It was the same 3 sermons over
18:58
and over. And it was go to church on time,
19:01
dresses on women, King James Bible, Tiger 10%.
19:04
And he would just, you know, rinse and repeat with a new
19:07
scripture. You know, and even today I, I
19:10
hear preachers preach a message that aren't IFD.
19:13
They're just like, you know, they're non denominational
19:15
Southern Baptist and a preacher get up and they preach something
19:19
doesn't have anything to do with the scripture that they're
19:21
preaching on. And I just cringe.
19:23
You know, I, I learned that, you know, that means I saw so many
19:30
preachers have a subject they want to preach on.
19:33
They take 2 words out of the verse and then they close their
19:36
Bible and they, they riff for 50 minutes.
19:39
And you know, IP preachers would use, you know, a platform to
19:43
humiliate somebody. You know, there's a difference
19:46
between preaching at people and preaching for people.
19:50
And so that that kind of I, I did learn what not to do in that
19:55
respect and I am thankful for that.
19:57
Yeah, my number 4 is the love for the Word of God.
20:01
They held the Scripture to a high standard.
20:04
Now it may have been a preferential standard of the
20:07
King James, but it was to a high standard, right?
20:11
The love of Scripture was. Preeminent in what they did,
20:16
they preached from the world, from the Bible.
20:19
They preached the love for the Word and for me it built into by
20:25
DNA the love for the Word of God.
20:28
I tell people that just two weeks ago I had a meeting or I
20:31
was at a really God ordained moment for me to share the
20:35
gospel. I never even have my Bible there
20:37
with me, but I was able to expand scripture and stories and
20:40
ideas from Scripture because it had just been drilled into me to
20:45
know Scripture that way. And so the love of Scripture
20:49
that they have the high view of Scripture is something that I
20:52
appreciate that I was taught. My number 3 is the value of
20:58
commitment and faithfulness that I got from the IFP.
21:01
And I believe the one thing that I was taught was faithfulness.
21:05
And that is like showing up faithfulness.
21:09
When I tell you that I was there every time the door was open.
21:12
I was there every time the door was open.
21:14
You know what, whatever can be said, but what whatever you want
21:18
to say about the movement, the folks showed up, you're in the
21:21
IFP and IFP church, the doors are open, you showed up.
21:25
You know, I'll tell you as a Southern Baptist pastor and you
21:29
maybe you can attest this. I have a lot of lot of trouble
21:32
getting, getting people to show up sometimes, you know, but in
21:36
the IFB movement, people showed up.
21:39
Now, once again, you got to take that with a grain of salt.
21:43
You know, you can't run yourself ragged.
21:44
You can't burn yourself out. There were days when I was at
21:48
the church every single day of a seven day week.
21:51
And you know, that's as a teenager and as a layman and,
21:55
and, but you know, they did take faithfulness and being involved.
22:01
It was a priority for them. And I, I, I translated that into
22:06
my secular life because I learned what it meant to show up
22:09
and be dependable. And you know, one of the reasons
22:12
why my last secular job, you know, once again, I'm not trying
22:15
to ring my own bell. I'm just giving you a practical
22:17
example. You know, my last secular job, I
22:21
got promoted and they almost made me president of the
22:23
company, not because I was anything special, because I was
22:26
the only guy that would show up. Everybody else would call in
22:30
sick and, and not go in. And I, I will only call in sick
22:34
when I was, I was actually sick and that was rare.
22:38
I would just show up for work every day on time and, and
22:40
nobody else at my job was doing that.
22:42
And that's why I got the promotion.
22:45
And I honestly believe I learned that in the IFB.
22:47
For better or worse, that's where it came from.
22:51
Exactly right. I agree with it.
22:53
I can attest to that as well. My number three, we'll go to my
22:58
#3 now. My number 3 is my love for
23:02
ministry and people. Being under Brother Eric for
23:06
those four years, he modeled for me, man, what it meant to love
23:09
people and be there for people. How to do ministry, how to be
23:14
with someone when they're going through hard times and just the
23:19
love of ministry and to want to be around ministry and do the
23:23
things of what God has called us to do.
23:27
So for me, just being there and being in ministry and the love
23:31
of what they had shown and modeled was so vital for me as a
23:35
young preacher boy. #2A passion for evangelism, passion for
23:43
evangelism. If there's one thing that the IP
23:45
churches are passionate about, they're passionate about soul
23:48
winning, they're passionate about personal witnessing.
23:51
Now you have to divorce that from the easy believism.
23:56
You have to divorce that from the 123 Pray after me and bring
24:00
it to real true discipleship. However, in my experience, what
24:05
I found in Southern Baptist, they don't have a lot of
24:08
experience going up to strangers and talking about the gospel or
24:13
going up to a door you don't know and, and knocking on it.
24:16
And that's kind of the one thing that where I am now really don't
24:21
have a problem with it because I learned about it in the IFB.
24:24
The IFB taught me to do that as a young age.
24:27
I'm I'm 1314 years, I'm knocking on strangers doors, talking to
24:32
them. I didn't say I've always wanted
24:34
to do that when I was coming up in the IFB, but you know, and
24:39
I'm not saying the door to door evangelism is the only way to do
24:42
that. In fact, there are other
24:44
probably better ways of reaching people.
24:46
But I don't have a problem talking to strangers about the
24:49
gospel because, you know, the 5th, the Lord lays on my heart
24:53
to do that because I learned to do that at a young age, like the
24:57
Romans Rd. I know the Romans Rd. by heart.
25:00
You know, I could quote it in my sleep with my eyes closed
25:02
backwards. It's going to come out King
25:04
James, but it's in there and and how to transition a conversation
25:09
to the gospel. Now, I will say that going to
25:12
New Orleans Seminary, you know, has done a lot of good for me in
25:16
the area of evangelism. It's expanded, it's improved it.
25:21
It's gave me a better understanding of evangelism that
25:25
I got in the IFB. But those seeds came from the
25:29
IFB movement, you know, I think in that regard, as far as
25:33
evangelism goes, I was able to spit out the bones or the bad
25:36
practices and keep all the good stuff.
25:39
Yeah, it's really good. My number 2 is.
25:44
The last two are pretty personal to me, my wife and my family.
25:48
So my wife was reaching the IFB in the bus ministry and the Lord
25:54
allowed me to go to Arkansas for college, which is where my wife
25:57
was at. If it wasn't for the IFBI
25:59
wouldn't have my wife and I wouldn't have the kids that I
26:02
have. I'm sure I would have kids, but
26:04
I'm sure they wouldn't be the way they are now.
26:07
And so just the, the, the structure that it brought to my
26:11
family was beneficial, but also just, you know, I look back and
26:17
every time I see brother Eric, I tell him, thank you.
26:20
Thank you for reaching my wife. Thank you for the love for Hot
26:24
Springs. Because he didn't have to go to
26:26
Hot Springs. He didn't have to plant a church
26:27
there. He could have went somewhere
26:29
else. And there's no telling where my
26:31
wife would have ended up and if we would have ever come
26:34
together. No, we wouldn't have.
26:37
So it's because of him following the Lord and, and doing what he
26:40
believed was right in that time I brought my family.
26:43
So it's, it's hard for me to sometimes be critical of
26:48
Champion and Eric because of that, because there's so much
26:52
good that has come out of what he did.
26:55
Now there's so, so much bad as well, but so much good as far as
26:58
my wife, my family, where we're at today.
27:01
And so I'm thankful for that. My number 1 is a deep reverence
27:06
for Scripture. You know, and you, you've
27:08
already hit on this for yours. Of all the things that were
27:13
messed up about the IFP, the one thing that the IFP taught you
27:16
was to love your Bible. I came away with a reverence and
27:20
respect for, for Scripture. I knew so much of the Bible,
27:25
they would make us memorize chapters in our Christian
27:28
School. I've memorized a different
27:31
chapter a month. And so much of that Bible is
27:34
still hidden in my heart. It's still there.
27:37
You know, we, we, we say this all the time.
27:40
You know, when we quote it, it's going to be King James.
27:43
But bless God, it's in there. And I'm, I'm happy for that.
27:47
I'm so thankful for that. I'm try to instill that in my
27:50
children. And once again, we have to
27:52
divorce that from idolizing the Bible.
27:56
You know, my pastor taught us that if you put the Bible on the
27:59
ground, it's a sin. If you put anything on the
28:02
Bible, it's a sin. Some people say don't write in
28:04
your Bible, don't highlight in your Bible.
28:07
I know some people might have to be that, you know, when they're
28:10
in that when the Bible gets worn out, they won't even they won't
28:14
even throw it away to have this ritual where they burn it or
28:18
they're or they bury it. You know, it it.
28:22
It's a bad habit in the IFP to use the Bible as a lucky charm.
28:26
You know, have it on. I always have it on your, your
28:29
dashboard, your coffee table, carry it with you everywhere you
28:32
go. Going to Walmart, Carry the
28:34
Bible like a sword so people can see that you have it been
28:37
through all that the the the old King James is more inspired than
28:42
the Hebrew and the Greek. You know, all all that stuff.
28:46
You know, that's kind of getting off on a tangent, but what I
28:49
want to get back to is once you divorce all that stuff from it.
28:53
I grew up in an environment where the Bible mattered, where
28:59
Scripture was important, where the Bible it needed to be
29:03
opened, it needed to be read, it needed to be honored, it needed
29:07
to be preached. And I still have that, and I am
29:11
so incredibly thankful for it. Love it.
29:14
My last and number one. Last but not least is my
29:17
salvation. So my mom and dad, when they got
29:19
married, they were not in church.
29:21
My mom did not get saved until I was a teenager in high school or
29:25
in middle school. And so for me, my family being
29:30
in church ultimately happened because of the IFB.
29:34
Someone worked with my dad, Rick Hildebrand, who invited him to
29:37
church. They live right beside the
29:39
church. The church began loving on them
29:42
and brought them to church. My mom was already pregnant with
29:44
my oldest sister. So she walks into the church 8
29:48
months pregnant. They shower her with gifts.
29:50
They begin loving on her and showing her what a community
29:53
looks like, which involved me being born in the church.
29:58
And so without the IFB, there would be a void of salvation,
30:05
the void of the love of the Lord that was not there.
30:09
And ultimately the pastors that preach salvation on a faithful
30:11
basis so that I could hear it. Not a watered down message, but
30:15
a message of faithfulness, a message of salvation.
30:17
That Jesus loves us, that heaven is real, hell is hot.
30:21
Turn and believe and repent of your sin was what I was taught.
30:26
And so I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful that I have
30:28
salvation in Jesus and then no other person but in him alone.
30:33
And I'm thankful for the bringing of salvation of my life
30:37
to the IFB. So that's our, our sort of our
30:40
top five things that we're thankful for in the IFBI know
30:44
often times we can, we can go over some things and sometimes
30:48
broad brush with a with a bad idea, but we want to sort of
30:52
share some of our favorite IFB things that have impacted our
30:55
life. And you know what, James?
30:58
You know, I don't know about you, but I I think I can smell
31:01
my wife taking the Turkey out of the oven.
31:03
Let's go, baby. It's gonna be great.
31:05
It's gonna be great. I'm ready to smash some of that
31:07
pecan pie. I'm ready to light up a cigar
31:10
with my family. It's gonna be a great time.
31:13
Thank you guys for listening today.
31:15
I know it's a holiday season and we hope you enjoy your time with
31:19
your family. We hope you enjoy your time with
31:22
if you're with the church family, maybe you do it outreach
31:25
on Thanksgiving. I know Eric and and gospel light
31:27
they do, which has been in fact, for me, I didn't mix this
31:30
breath, but they typically feed hundreds and thousands of people
31:34
on Thanksgiving Day. That morning they get there,
31:37
they make food, they make to go boxes.
31:39
They open up their facility, people come in, they run buses,
31:42
they pick up people that bring people to the church in cars,
31:46
they take them to to houses. When we were there just a couple
31:50
of years ago, I called Eric and I said, hey, I want to deliver
31:53
30 meals, give me 30 names. And so I showed up, they had 30
31:57
names there, 30 boxes of food. We went out, we took it to some
32:02
neighborhoods. You know, here's a family of
32:03
five that wanted meals. And so we gave them Thanksgiving
32:06
meal. It was just the way that they've
32:08
been doing it for years. They feed the hundreds of
32:10
thousands of people. And so it's a great opportunity
32:14
for what they do. So maybe you're doing that and
32:17
you're enjoying listening today, but I hope you have enjoyed it
32:20
today. And as always, like, share,
32:24
subscribe to our podcast. And we're thankful that for five
32:28
years the Lord has allowed us to do this and talk through just
32:31
some things that we have been going through in our life.
32:35
So until next time, to God be the glory.
32:38
Great things he has done. Found my new name, Found that
32:45
good grace, found that healing. And the tears fell down my face
32:51
when I found my beginning. It has no ending.
32:53
I found that second chance. Found my best friend, Found my
32:55
forgiveness, found my happiness. I've been singing ever since I
32:57
found my freedom. Thanks for listening to the Four
33:15
Freedom Podcast. If you enjoyed our content, do
33:18
us a favor by liking, subscribing, or sharing our
33:22
podcast or whichever podcast platform you use.
33:25
Be sure to join us next time for the Four Freedom Podcast.