Latest / Millennial Mustard Seed / S6 215. Update from Rod - MMS, Heartfelt Reviews & Year 5 Complete

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S6 215. Update from Rod - MMS, Heartfelt Reviews & Year 5 Complete · Millennial Mustard Seed

• 0:21
  Welcome back to the Millennial Mustard Seed.
• 0:25
  Yeah, today actually is the completion of five years
• 0:31
  hosting, creating, producing this podcast, ministry, whatever
• 0:38
  you want to call it. Ripple effect, airwave effect, I
• 0:44
  don't know the new radio, whatever podcasting.
• 0:49
  I started this journey long time ago, but it was in 2020 that I
• 0:58
  released the first episode and today marks A5 year completion
• 1:05
  and into season 6. Now early on God spoke to me
• 1:09
  about Year 5 powerful things happening.
• 1:12
  That's where it would start to take off.
• 1:16
  So much has happened over the last year, I don't even really
• 1:20
  know where to begin. So many victories, so many
• 1:26
  battles fought, territory gained back into the rightful hands of
• 1:33
  where it belongs. Relentless warfare.
• 1:37
  I'm talking the middle of the night.
• 1:40
  And this is not every night. Like it's not, you know, daily
• 1:44
  horrific. And then to this extent, I'm
• 1:46
  sharing climaxes, but literally fighting with demons,
• 1:50
  principalities, powers. It's it's been it's been a
• 1:54
  journey. God has shown me that I am here
• 1:57
  for a reason. And when I still have breath,
• 2:00
  while I still have breath in my lungs, I'm here to do exactly
• 2:05
  what I'm here to do his will and accomplish that.
• 2:09
  I don't want to ramble, didn't randomly just say things on
• 2:13
  this, but but this is a personalized message where I'm
• 2:17
  just going to talk a little bit about the last couple years,
• 2:22
  some of the reviews, some of the emails.
• 2:25
  I'm not going to read emails per SE.
• 2:28
  I don't really have permission to do that.
• 2:30
  And even if I did do that, I wouldn't use the person's name
• 2:32
  and e-mail address. But we've gotten encouraging
• 2:35
  emails. But I think just doing a quick
• 2:40
  overview, you know, for me, I've learned a lot of lessons in the
• 2:45
  last few years. One of them is there there
• 2:50
  shouldn't be a secret backdoor to Christianity.
• 2:53
  A lesson that I learned is the ancients knew they had a
• 2:58
  mindset. They had framework that
• 3:00
  understood the complexities of the nations around them and the
• 3:07
  ideas that were in the world around them.
• 3:10
  And it wasn't like a sacred secular divide with the ancient
• 3:14
  worldview that like God was combating and defeating the
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  lowercase G gods of the nations around them.
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  Most Christians today don't hold that worldview, although it's
• 3:25
  swinging in favor of them discovering it's much more
• 3:30
  complicated than they've been taught in their seminary or
• 3:33
  their 30 year journey within the building of a denomination.
• 3:39
  It's way more complex than that, and I congratulate that.
• 3:42
  I don't judge anybody who comes out of that place.
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  It's like we all have a little something wrong.
• 3:47
  We all have a little something right.
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  We're all waking up to this reality that we've been
• 3:51
  hoodwinked and it's OK to wake up and look around and find
• 3:57
  other people like you and and to make the best of it, allowing
• 4:00
  the Word of God to be the ultimate authority, but not
• 4:03
  being afraid to put in the time and take that journey.
• 4:05
  So what I've really learned is that you got to do it with a
• 4:11
  tribe, but you have to be willing to do it alone first.
• 4:17
  And you have to be willing to come back to that at any point
• 4:21
  in time. You have to be malleable enough
• 4:22
  to understand people will stab you in the back.
• 4:25
  People will switch up on you. You're not always if you can't
• 4:30
  do this alone, and I don't mean alone like as in God's not with
• 4:33
  you. I mean, if you're not willing to
• 4:37
  take this journey and, and let the truth be the truth and just
• 4:41
  get all of your preconceived notions out of the way, it
• 4:44
  you're not going on the journey. That's one thing I've learned.
• 4:47
  Another thing is you got to be honest with where you're at and
• 4:51
  what you've been through. You got to be honest to God
• 4:54
  first and foremost. If you can find a tribe, a group
• 4:58
  of people, a band of brothers who can do this with you, it's
• 5:01
  even better. But that that's complex as well.
• 5:07
  It's not always as easy as you might assume.
• 5:15
  Another thing that I've learned is that this information that
• 5:18
  that satiated me that would fill these gaps and voids of me not
• 5:23
  understanding or not knowing. But but as soon as I would learn
• 5:27
  these things and study it out and see that it's really as it
• 5:31
  has been presented to me in my deep research, in my seeking and
• 5:37
  searching out, I would understand that the rest of the
• 5:40
  world does not hold that view. So I would I would have to train
• 5:44
  myself to be like the measure that I give people is what I
• 5:47
  perceive they're able to handle because I can get as weird as
• 5:50
  you can possibly get. I can sit around the campfire
• 5:53
  and have an extreme conversation and not even miss a beat and
• 5:59
  then laugh at a joke like it. It doesn't disturb me anymore.
• 6:02
  I can, I can get weird, but I don't have to get weird all the
• 6:06
  time. Learning how to gauge that is
• 6:08
  something that's been really important for me.
• 6:10
  Like I don't need to run around and hit people with, you know,
• 6:16
  this perspective that, that I'm learning that that's the ancient
• 6:19
  Near Eastern perspective. And I've learned to stop
• 6:26
  expecting people to reciprocate me a certain way.
• 6:29
  It's like you get so excited, you learn, you get the answer
• 6:33
  finally, after all this time, you start getting the answers
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  and you're just excited. You want other people to
• 6:38
  understand that also. So your energies, like you're
• 6:41
  just hoping that they can, you know, pass the, the, the
• 6:46
  understanding back and forth and sharpen you.
• 6:48
  And that's not for everybody. I've learned that the hard way.
• 6:51
  Sometimes you just got to understand less is more.
• 6:56
  That's totally fine. I'm just being transparent that
• 6:59
  I've been learning this. I think all of us have some
• 7:03
  experience in this area of growth and just understanding
• 7:06
  how to gauge our environment and, and sometimes it's too much
• 7:10
  for other people. And, but if we can go through
• 7:13
  that journey with the Lord in sincerity, with a true and pure
• 7:17
  heart, he will work together all of it for the good.
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  And some of the other things are, I don't agree with
• 7:24
  everything I've heard on my show.
• 7:26
  I really don't. I am not planning on creating
• 7:31
  content that points out the flaws of people's perspectives
• 7:36
  and and understandings and teachings around the world.
• 7:39
  I try to highlight what I agree with or what's interesting to
• 7:42
  me. And you guys are taking that
• 7:44
  journey with me, capturing the growth journey, wading through
• 7:50
  the million messages and signals that cause confusion and chaos.
• 7:53
  The premises, the original premises of the show here, you
• 7:57
  know, back six years ago when this was just in the planning
• 8:00
  phase and God was giving me the name of this podcast.
• 8:02
  I, I was literally thinking like, I'm starting off I feel
• 8:07
  like an imbecile. I feel I feel smaller than a
• 8:10
  mustard seed and not much has changed.
• 8:16
  Although I have to give myself some credit and not be my own
• 8:20
  worst critic. A lot has changed at the same
• 8:23
  time. And now the clarity.
• 8:30
  I've just learned what I feel like a young man would have
• 8:34
  learned in the ancient Near Eastern mindset, but in my in my
• 8:38
  30s, like how to navigate the harder conversations and how to
• 8:43
  understand the biblical worldview and totality of
• 8:46
  everything going on around us. The the spiritual war.
• 8:50
  It's it really should be the standard for men and women to
• 8:55
  have the upbringing where they understand what God has been
• 9:00
  conveying to us since the beginning.
• 9:03
  No one should stumble into this through hardship and through
• 9:07
  misunderstandings and and bad lessons dealt.
• 9:10
  But that's the way it all panned out for me and so I don't regret
• 9:16
  any of my decisions and journey. If anything I would have I
• 9:19
  should have walked a little bit more of a narrow path.
• 9:23
  But it's not in my heart to deceive any of you or to lead
• 9:26
  anyone astray. As quickly as this podcast
• 9:30
  started, it could end. I don't have a confirmation on
• 9:34
  how long this will go. I have new visions and ideas
• 9:37
  that have been birthed, and I'm trying to facilitate that in the
• 9:41
  midst of a lot of change. The geography of the world is
• 9:45
  changing extremely, but the geography of my heart has
• 9:50
  changed extremely over the last six years in a good way.
• 9:59
  And so just as an overview, it's like what I wrote in my book.
• 10:06
  The words are salt. I had these original quotes in
• 10:09
  the first like I think 7 to 10 pages, just quotes that I
• 10:13
  wrestled through and I wrote down that I thought might be
• 10:15
  helpful for someone else who's on a similar trajectory as I am,
• 10:21
  which is seems to be like many of you, I said growing and
• 10:26
  learning while healing and hurting is only for the wild at
• 10:32
  heart, and it stands true. I'm going to shift into talking
• 10:41
  just a little bit about how the podcast has been perceived via
• 10:47
  ratings and responses from people.
• 10:52
  On a personal note, I've had much rejection over the years
• 10:56
  and I've been told even in person and at a distance, many
• 10:59
  things. Stay away from that.
• 11:01
  You know, I've heard, I've heard a little bit of all of it, you
• 11:04
  guys. But on a positive note, you guys
• 11:08
  have made a difference by sharing this and making this an
• 11:11
  international show. I mean, I'm not a big numbers
• 11:15
  guy, but I looked at it and we hit 112 countries and all 50
• 11:23
  states, fair to say. And in total, we're getting
• 11:29
  close to the half a million download marker across all all
• 11:34
  spectrums. That's crazy.
• 11:38
  I never really thought that would be that would be.
• 11:43
  So in the beginning, I was just happy if like my mom and one or
• 11:47
  two of my friends would have listened.
• 11:51
  And sometimes it's a little bit surreal that so many people do
• 11:54
  TuneIn and resonate with this. It's humbling to me.
• 11:57
  It's not a major focus. I've had that adjustment and
• 12:01
  shift as to being tender and hard to people.
• 12:06
  You know, I don't want to hide money behind a paywall because I
• 12:09
  want this to resonate with people and help people just like
• 12:12
  it's helped me. And so the way that it's been
• 12:16
  received is much greater than I originally anticipated.
• 12:20
  And then on a personal level of reading through the emails and
• 12:25
  the reviews that you guys write has, has just been an emotional
• 12:29
  roller coaster. It's been a game changer in a
• 12:31
  lot of ways. I'm going to read a couple of
• 12:33
  the newer reviews from Apple podcast.
• 12:37
  I don't remember, it was maybe 20-30 episodes ago.
• 12:40
  I did one of these, you know, me talking speak pieces and I, and
• 12:45
  I read some reviews. I don't know where I left off so
• 12:49
  if I don't read your review, don't be offended or be like oh
• 12:52
  Rod didn't like that. It's just I'm just taking a shot
• 12:55
  here at reading a couple of the new ones.
• 12:58
  So March 11th, 2025 C Colton back-to-back Bangers episodes
• 13:05
  2:12 and 2:13. Doctor Sanger is on point with
• 13:08
  everyday mortal life we are living and then Ryan Peterson
• 13:13
  takes us into the unseen realm and gives us a clear context to
• 13:16
  the word. Rod does a great job directing
• 13:19
  the pace of both interviews. Both episodes could have gone
• 13:22
  another hour. February 24th, 2025.
• 13:27
  Love this show Joel SW. I'm a new listener, but I'm
• 13:33
  thoroughly blessed and enjoying Rod's podcast.
• 13:36
  He's an excellent interviewer with fascinating guests and I
• 13:39
  love the Christ centered focus and he has amazing hip hop
• 13:42
  tracks. I love Christian hip hop and lo
• 13:45
  fi. Keep it up brother.
• 13:48
  February 13th, 2025 CHIG 77889999.
• 13:55
  I love this show. I'm intrigued with every episode
• 13:58
  and I'm always happy to see a new release.
• 14:01
  January 2nd, 2025. Darwin.
• 14:05
  I hopefully I said that right. Weekly staple.
• 14:09
  This podcast continues to deliver provocative knowledge
• 14:12
  for truth seekers. As I have been learning to
• 14:14
  exercise my spiritual authority, I've appreciated the depth,
• 14:18
  integrity, and humility of Rod and his guests who have
• 14:20
  challenged my paradigm and encouraged me to investigate my
• 14:24
  full potential and purpose. I am here in this world, in this
• 14:27
  season for a reason, as are we all.
• 14:32
  How can I better understand how to apply all that I am for the
• 14:36
  glory of Yahweh? How can you listen to this
• 14:40
  weekly staple and join the journey?
• 14:46
  December 21st, 2024. So relevant Doc Rock Dottie,
• 14:53
  Dottie Rock Rod and his guests are doing great work, very
• 14:56
  interesting and relevant to equip God's people for the days
• 14:59
  ahead. October 25th, 2024 Philip.
• 15:02
  Official, official pain. Hopefully I said that right.
• 15:06
  Sorry Philip. Awesome, the title says it all.
• 15:10
  October 5th, 2024. Rod, keep going.
• 15:14
  I really appreciate this podcast.
• 15:16
  Rod is generally into whatever subject he is discussing.
• 15:20
  He approaches the discourse intelligently, enthusiastically,
• 15:23
  and thoughtfully. I would not miss an episode.
• 15:26
  Keep doing what God leads you to do and keep saying what God
• 15:29
  leads you to say. September 19th of 2024.
• 15:34
  I love the Vicky Joy episode. Dang, that was a keeper Rod.
• 15:38
  Make sure you get her on again. I'm going to stop there.
• 15:41
  Those are the written reviews on Apple Podcast.
• 15:46
  And if you're listening to this and you want to write a written
• 15:48
  review in the future, I may end up reading it on the show.
• 15:53
  But it's a great way for people that are finding us through the
• 15:56
  algorithm or through word of mouth or through just sharing
• 16:00
  these podcasts that they, they have a representative of a
• 16:03
  reference point to go and say, when I go to Apple podcast, a
• 16:07
  public podcast catcher, I can read and see the reviews and,
• 16:12
  and you know, all the people that have written in about this
• 16:16
  podcast. That's our first line of defense
• 16:19
  with people that are finding us randomly or or referred to us.
• 16:24
  Now Spotify does not have that option for you guys to write a
• 16:27
  review, but you are able to grade me by giving me 5 stars
• 16:33
  and many of you have done that as well.
• 16:34
  Over 100 people have given us a five star rating on Spotify and
• 16:40
  I really appreciate that. But what's more important is
• 16:43
  some of the emails I've gotten, which I'm not going to read, and
• 16:47
  maybe someday I should. I don't know.
• 16:49
  I, I'm still trying to understand what to do with this,
• 16:53
  but I've, I've set it out in my heart to, to give up on this
• 16:57
  more times than I can count. I, I've literally thoroughly
• 17:01
  have been frustrated. There's no time, I mean you, no
• 17:06
  one gets in this Christian podcasting game and revealing
• 17:10
  the truth to get rich. That's like the opposite.
• 17:13
  It cost money to do this and spiritual warfare and you're
• 17:18
  belittled and estranged to most people.
• 17:21
  But some of the emails there, there's been times where I felt
• 17:24
  like giving up and just walking away from this whole thing.
• 17:27
  It was just too much to bear year after year after year and
• 17:31
  all the things to wade through. And it's been heavy.
• 17:36
  But I've gotten emails from some of you out there at very
• 17:40
  specific times and I would read it and man, on the other end,
• 17:45
  I'd just be weeping tears are just streaming down.
• 17:48
  I'm reading it and I'm like, man, I was going to give up on
• 17:51
  this and not forever. Not like I'm walking away from
• 17:55
  my faith, but I need to walk away from the complexity and the
• 17:59
  the how laborious this is and intensive.
• 18:02
  And, and I would see how much an episode or something I said or
• 18:08
  someone else that I interacted with on the show said or did,
• 18:12
  and how much it helped that person.
• 18:14
  And it was like genuine, like this person.
• 18:16
  Most people are not trying to just, you know, get their
• 18:21
  message out there or something. It's like a private e-mail.
• 18:24
  Hey, I want you to know, I was going through this and this is
• 18:28
  what I needed to hear. And, and I've been weeping and
• 18:31
  crying and, and, and God is moving in a different way of my
• 18:34
  life. And it would be these like
• 18:35
  personal emails. And I have a whole library of
• 18:39
  them now. I have, I have audio messages,
• 18:43
  emails that you guys have just blown me away with comfort and
• 18:48
  reassurance through some of my own doubts and difficulties
• 18:53
  navigating some of the most complex things that have been
• 18:56
  hidden in Christianity. Many of you out there have been
• 19:01
  an encouragement to me and I just want to make that known As
• 19:08
  far as the podcast game goes, I I love podcasts because it's
• 19:12
  hands free listening like YouTube.
• 19:15
  You know, you're draining your battery on your phone if you put
• 19:19
  your phone in your pocket while listening to YouTube and you
• 19:22
  have a headset on or you know, for example, and you're out
• 19:25
  doing yard work. Yeah, you're just next thing you
• 19:29
  know, you, you pull your phone out of your pocket and you're on
• 19:31
  some ad, you're about to purchase some new insurance
• 19:34
  upgrade because, you know, one, one touch to the screen and, you
• 19:38
  know, launches you somewhere else and you you lose that.
• 19:41
  But with podcasts, I love the fact that you guys get this
• 19:44
  audio library and the video contents cool too.
• 19:49
  Obviously I'm not up to par with editing video, although I have
• 19:52
  invested in equipment where I can do that.
• 19:56
  It's just a time restraint right now.
• 19:57
  But I really like the idea and the fact that like, I travel a
• 20:04
  lot. And when I do that, it's just
• 20:06
  hands free. I can listen to podcasts.
• 20:09
  So I'm biased. Although some people say, Rod,
• 20:11
  you need to do video content, you need to start a YouTube.
• 20:15
  Yeah. Any of you out there, try doing
• 20:18
  what I do for six years and then tell me if you can add more on
• 20:23
  to it while juggling everything that needs to be juggled in
• 20:26
  life. But I love podcasting.
• 20:30
  I love the creativity of it. I love having the ability to
• 20:37
  create. I mean, I'm made in the likeness
• 20:41
  of my father. I'm fearfully and wonderfully
• 20:43
  created and I love to create. And I get that ability to do
• 20:47
  this here with no opposition, with nobody telling me what I
• 20:51
  can and can't say. And it's podcasting is amazing
• 20:55
  and I love doing this, but I also feel like it might slow
• 20:59
  down a little bit. And that's not to be
• 21:02
  discouraging. It's just if you guys don't get
• 21:05
  your two or three episodes a week, which you've many of you
• 21:07
  have been very spoiled. I've produced a ton of content.
• 21:11
  If it trickles down to 1 episode a week or less than that, don't
• 21:17
  be offended. But things are shifting in my
• 21:21
  life right now. So I may slow down a little bit.
• 21:23
  I don't know, maybe it explodes and and it picks back up again.
• 21:27
  All's I know is that my main ministry is my my family and
• 21:32
  that has been jeopardized through a lot of my learning
• 21:35
  process. And I need to come back to the
• 21:36
  heart of what's the most important thing first.
• 21:41
  And that's my household, my children, all who I love dearly
• 21:50
  and fine tune that and make sure that that's OK and make sure I'm
• 21:55
  doing the right things there and then I can increase.
• 22:00
  But the new visions and ideas that are birthed within me, I
• 22:05
  don't think it's ever been done before.
• 22:07
  I have things I will not talk about with other people because
• 22:10
  I don't want the ideas stolen. But I have communed with God and
• 22:15
  I've seen glimpses of what it very well may be like in the
• 22:20
  future and it's exciting to say the least.
• 22:28
  I'm going to wind down from this rant with asking you guys to
• 22:32
  like, share and subscribe to the podcast.
• 22:37
  Leave us a five star rating and review.
• 22:40
  If you click on the option that is 999 a month.
• 22:44
  It helps us keep the lights on. That's super important.
• 22:46
  We got 7 people now, which is helpful.
• 22:50
  I mean, it's very helpful and if you want to do a one time
• 22:54
  donation, you can find those options in the details of the
• 22:57
  show notes. And my book, The words are Salt
• 23:00
  is still available on Amazon. And it would be an honor if you
• 23:06
  guys would leave me a review for my book if you've purchased it,
• 23:10
  that is on Amazon. And I couldn't do this without
• 23:16
  you guys there. I have so much gratitude and
• 23:19
  humility no matter how big we get or what happens.
• 23:23
  I'm just the guy next door who loves the Lord and I'm trying to
• 23:27
  be the voice for the people who don't have a public voice.
• 23:31
  I always wanted to relate back to a real, genuine, authentic,
• 23:37
  hard working population, which all of you guys are as my
• 23:40
  listeners. Some of you are the best moms
• 23:43
  and the best dads, the best small business owners in the
• 23:48
  world. Listen to this show and I don't
• 23:52
  take that for granted. My only pledge and sincerity is
• 23:58
  I will capture my growth journey and I will always give God the
• 24:05
  glory and recognize that He is the author and the finisher of
• 24:09
  my faith. Everything else is dangerous
• 24:13
  territory. And I'm just kidding.
• 24:15
  I mean, you know, a lot, a lot of weighty topics get talked
• 24:19
  about here, but I, I want to give you guys something and, and
• 24:24
  I want to pass these audio journey of my life.
• 24:29
  This, this audio discovery of the truth on to the next
• 24:36
  generation and be like, I want to walk away from it being like
• 24:39
  I gave it all I had, which might not be much to some big
• 24:43
  production companies out there that are capable and have a
• 24:46
  team. But for me, I know that I have
• 24:51
  strived and ran the race and put in the effort.
• 24:56
  I know that I had because I believe in this and I'm thankful
• 25:02
  for every single one of you. So with that, that's it coming
• 25:06
  to you from an undisclosed location somewhere on the East
• 25:09
  Coast. Share this episode because it's
• 25:13
  just the right thing to do. God bless and goodbye.
• 26:12
  Music. None.