Latest / Sermons on the Side / 62 | What is Your Watchword?

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62 | What is Your Watchword? · Sermons on the Side

0:01
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Sermons on the Side.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm Brad.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: And I'm Richard.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: And life can move pretty fast.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: So we're here to slow down, dig deep, and find the story hidden in everyday moments.
0:14
SPEAKER_01: With years spent in ministry, friendship, and navigating real life together, we're all about blending humor, honesty, and faith into conversations that meet you right where you are.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: So whether you're brand new or you're back for more, we are so glad you are here.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: So relax, listen in, and let's discover meaning together.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: In the ordinary, the messy, and everything in between.
0:38
SPEAKER_01: Sermons on the side, finding meaning in the everyday.
0:44
SPEAKER_01: So I have, you know, some churches will print out a little half-page insert in the material they hand to you when you walk in the building, and it's to take sermon notes on.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
0:57
SPEAKER_01: Right?
0:57
SPEAKER_01: And this particular church would do even like fill in the blanks.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: Heck yeah, dude.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that the best?
1:02
SPEAKER_00: Oh, bro.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: A childhood game of mine was to sit with the youth group and you'd guess what the words are in the and you'd be keeping a tally with you and your boy, be like, this is the blank of God.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, the love of God.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, that's the power of God.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: And then it's like the battle around, oh, that is so cool.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: Talk about training up some young pastors.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Sermons on the Side.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: That's right, we've got the good music back.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: Come on, well, well.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: They're both good music.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: It's just the correct, it's just the OG music.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, this music is canon to Sermons on the side.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting across the table from the one, the only.
2:00
SPEAKER_01: Richard Moore, how are you, sir?
2:01
SPEAKER_01: Man, I'm doing good, and I am just grooving on your uh T-ball colors that you're wearing today.
2:08
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if everybody in Sermons on the Side land knows this, but Mr.
2:13
SPEAKER_01: Williams, he's Brad to you and I, but he's Coach Brad.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
2:18
SPEAKER_01: Coach Brad to a T-ball team.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: The ice creamers.
2:23
SPEAKER_01: The ice creamers.
2:24
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
2:24
SPEAKER_01: It is a, I'm telling you, it is a gaudy uniform.
2:28
SPEAKER_01: This uniform.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: You can't miss it.
2:29
SPEAKER_01: You got wrinkles, you got ice cream cones.
2:34
SPEAKER_01: And I'm just wondering, is there merch available?
2:37
SPEAKER_01: Are they getting it?
2:38
SPEAKER_00: No, it's limited edition.
2:41
SPEAKER_01: Our ice creamers gear.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'll try to make it happen, but uh this is right here, it's limited edition.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I came straight from the ball field tonight.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: We had our game, and uh man, Shep and Becca did everybody on the ice creamers did fantastic.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: And uh I'm telling you, it's a it's a lot of fun.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: Oh, indeed.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: But speaking of a lot of fun, dude, oh my goodness.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: How about Easter week last week?
3:02
SPEAKER_00: What?
3:03
SPEAKER_00: I got some incredible feedback from some friends, some family that Holy Week was just such a beautiful journey.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: You know, we set out this whole concept of just preparing our hearts for all of us to experience that Easter celebration and our home churches wherever we are celebrating that.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: And man, I it was awesome.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much for all of your preparation and just the prayers, those calls and responses.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: And it was so much fun to have some music time, you know, to sing and to worship.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm thinking.
3:38
SPEAKER_01: I love the feedback as you said that we got.
3:41
SPEAKER_01: I mean, during the week, we had people texting us, checking in, thanking us for that new approach, including, but not limited to, but boy, the the the love that we're getting for bringing in the Brad Williams vocals.
3:57
SPEAKER_01: Man, seriously, that was such a cool thing to do.
4:02
SPEAKER_01: And thank you for bringing that because that took our experience, I think, to another level.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think it's something that I think you and I both are are excited to continue to explore.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: How can we incorporate that in in future episodes?
4:16
SPEAKER_00: And so uh that might be a recurring thing, but um indeed.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: Thank you all for that.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: Thank you all for yeah for doing that.
4:22
SPEAKER_01: Do going though on that journey, absolutely, and with that in mind, uh how what was it like?
4:27
SPEAKER_01: How was it like for your you and your family?
4:30
SPEAKER_01: Uh, Easter Sunday worship.
4:32
SPEAKER_01: How did it go?
4:33
SPEAKER_01: Did you guys get rained out?
4:34
SPEAKER_01: It was a little rainy here in Georgia.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: I know it was a little rainy, it was overcast.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: We do an incredible sunrise service at 7 a.m.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: It's only one service.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: It's outside in our little outdoor amphitheater, and it's just such a beautiful celebration.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: The first note of the first song is in the dark.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: But then by that last few songs right before the the sermon, that that sun starts peeking out.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: And it did, it kind of peeked out from behind some clouds, and you know, the radar looked horrible.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: It was supposed to rain.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I took a screenshot and it said that it was raining on us at that very moment, but it wasn't.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: Oh, see.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: And uh it was it was awesome.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: So it was an early morning for the kids.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: And uh they had a big day, but it was it was awesome, man.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: It was it was so much fun.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: And uh one of the coolest things that happened on that Easter Sunday morning was you know, we got back home and it was it was like nine o'clock.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: We we got back home.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: Most of us hadn't even been to church yet, and uh, and I got to take Shep, my three-year-old, to another church here in town to go see my dad, Shep's granddad Pops lead worship at just an incredible gathering uh at Evangel Temple, which is an incredible church led by Pastor Thomas.
5:54
SPEAKER_01: Um Evangel E.T.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: E.T.
5:58
SPEAKER_01: Evangel Temple.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and um, it was just really special.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: And Shep got to see his granddaddy, and um it was just a really, really sweet time.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: And we had lunch with my mom and Fred, my stepdad, and then that night, I mean I could go on and on.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: It was just a really, really special day filled with celebration, obviously, for our risen Savior and for him conquering the grave, but then also just some incredible time spent with family.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: And I did I sent you a picture of some carrot ring, too, by the way.
6:27
SPEAKER_01: Carrot ring made an appearance, and I loved it.
6:31
SPEAKER_01: I said, it's not just for Christmas anymore, baby.
6:35
SPEAKER_01: Or Thanksgiving and Christmas.
6:36
SPEAKER_01: Now you bring it out Easter, but uh that that is wonderful.
6:40
SPEAKER_01: I love that story, and I know your uh uh Erin Williams, she is called Honey Grand Kids.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: Honey saved us a seat that day, yeah.
6:49
SPEAKER_01: Well, and she just posted a great video of uh of Johnny Pops, your dad, uh Shep's granddad, leading worship on one particular song, and uh loved seeing that, man.
7:01
SPEAKER_01: That was amazing.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite compliments that I still receive to this day are people that knew my dad as a worship leader way back when, and that know me as a worship leader, and they'll come up to me and they'll say, Man, you sound so much like your dad.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: And I just it's one of my favorite compliments that I receive from people.
7:18
SPEAKER_01: That is so cool, man.
7:19
SPEAKER_01: What about you, man?
7:20
SPEAKER_01: Tell me about Sunday morning for y'all.
7:21
SPEAKER_01: Man, we had a great Easter service at my church uh that we attend at Solid Rock Church here in Midland, Georgia.
7:28
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Jay.
7:29
SPEAKER_01: Pastor Jay Bailey.
7:30
SPEAKER_01: Boy, the it was just such a wonderful experience.
7:33
SPEAKER_01: Two services.
7:34
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we went to the second service because we're old and we don't want to wake up early.
7:38
SPEAKER_01: Now, but listen, so many, you know how it is on Easter Sunday.
7:43
SPEAKER_01: Shout out to all the church, local church volunteers who do double duty and extra work to help make an Easter service happen.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
7:52
SPEAKER_01: And and that was certainly true at Solid Rock, and I know these other churches we're mentioning, uh, but it was a wonderful experience.
7:59
SPEAKER_01: A lot of friends uh came uh and and and I will tell you, Pastor Jay Bailey just brought the message.
8:08
SPEAKER_01: You know, the the title of his message was this quote from the angels who who greeted the women who came to the tomb and found the tomb empty that Sunday morning.
8:17
SPEAKER_01: And the quote is, Why do you seek the living among the dead?
8:20
SPEAKER_01: And Pastor Jay just broke it down, and man, there was just a lot of people that found found faith Sunday morning in the house and and and returned to their faith as well.
8:32
SPEAKER_01: So uh it was just a powerful thing, and then great family time afterwards, real rainy all day.
8:38
SPEAKER_01: You know, it kind of put the damper on some of the outside.
8:40
SPEAKER_01: Hey, we had to hide the eggs in the house.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: It was indoor Easter egg week.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, that's right.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: That's correct.
8:46
SPEAKER_01: Wow, man.
8:46
SPEAKER_01: And so you got to get creative, right?
8:48
SPEAKER_01: There's no flowers to hide the stuff behind.
8:51
SPEAKER_01: You're putting it behind picture frames, candles, yeah, pillows.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: Pillows.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
8:57
SPEAKER_01: Kids had a great time, though.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
8:59
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, great week.
9:00
SPEAKER_01: So thank you to everyone uh for doing their Easter week journey with us.
9:04
SPEAKER_01: What a cool thing.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, man, we're back at our regularly scheduled programming.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: So why don't we just dive straight into another incredible Sermon on the Side.
9:14
SPEAKER_01: Well, this Sermon on the Side comes from some memories I have from early on in my addiction recovery journey when back in actually 2009.
9:23
SPEAKER_01: So we're coming up on 17 years of uh of addiction recovery, which is really cool.
9:29
SPEAKER_01: But in that first year, boy, it was just a lot of a lot of upheaval in my life.
9:35
SPEAKER_01: And I found so much help in the 12-step groups that I was attending during that first year.
9:41
SPEAKER_01: And I remember one thing that I learned a few months in, and or sometime in that first year, and some of the my sponsor and other people I would hear in the meetings, and they would say, Hey, you know something you need that helps you when you start getting depressed and you start getting overcome by you know regret, and that that's part of the journey, you know, is kind of dealing with those emotions.
10:04
SPEAKER_01: And they said, one of the cool things to do is get yourself a mantra.
10:08
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, Okay, never had a mantra, don't know even where to shop and get one.
10:14
SPEAKER_01: Uh how much are mantras?
10:17
SPEAKER_00: Buy one, get one on mantras?
10:18
SPEAKER_01: Well, you can find them on sale.
10:20
SPEAKER_01: Uh, but um yeah, and uh seriously though, a mantra is a phrase uh or a thought that you repeat uh in your in your mind in moments when you kind of need to center yourself and you sort of need to steady yourself.
10:37
SPEAKER_01: And uh I don't really use the word mantra, that's more of a Eastern religion kind of thing, but uh some people call it uh slogans or catchphrases.
10:46
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:47
SPEAKER_01: Um in 12 step, some of the famous mantras or or catchphrases are things like one day at a time.
10:55
SPEAKER_01: That that comes from the the 12 step, you know, uh take it easy, live and live things like that.
11:01
SPEAKER_01: Well, I found uh I found a phrase, and this is the story of how that phrase came to me.
11:09
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and I actually don't use the word, like I said, I don't use the word mantra or catchphrase or slogan.
11:14
SPEAKER_01: I use an old English word uh that's called uh watchword.
11:19
SPEAKER_01: Watch word.
11:20
SPEAKER_01: A watch word.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
11:21
SPEAKER_01: It's a word that you write on your watch, and every time you look at, I'm kidding.
11:25
SPEAKER_01: That's a joke.
11:26
SPEAKER_01: It's not you.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: I was going I was going there with you.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: You pulled out your watch.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: I was waiting for you to show me the word on your watch.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: I was like, I got an Apple Watch dog.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna be able to do that.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: He wrote it on the band, maybe?
11:39
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you're just pulling a fast one on me.
11:41
SPEAKER_01: See, I'm I'm just I'm that way.
11:43
SPEAKER_01: Y'all pray for Brad.
11:44
SPEAKER_01: It ain't easy being a co-host with this this clown over here.
11:48
SPEAKER_01: But seriously, a watchword in old English, actually Middle English, but what in in some of that that ancient kind of language, they would uh say a watchword was was words or phrases that were said by a watchman.
12:03
SPEAKER_01: A watchman is somebody who stood on the walls of a city or an encampment, and they were the protection at night to make sure no invaders got in.
12:13
SPEAKER_01: And so if someone tried to enter in, they would need to know the watchword.
12:18
SPEAKER_01: So it was sort of like a password.
12:20
SPEAKER_01: Or the watchword could also be something that the watchman himself would call out to the people to let them know everything's okay, or let them know, hey, we're in danger, or whatever.
12:32
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
12:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
12:33
SPEAKER_01: So a watchword actually that's what it its original meaning was, and now it has it it kind of became a phrase in English culture that meant a core value kind of statement, an important a statement that was a reminder of something important.
12:51
SPEAKER_01: A reminder of something that really mattered.
12:53
SPEAKER_01: And so I found a watchword.
12:56
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you how that story went.
12:58
SPEAKER_01: Well, it was one Sunday morning.
12:59
SPEAKER_01: I was in church, okay, and I was sitting with uh two of my kids.
13:03
SPEAKER_01: Uh my my youngest Bryce was in the kids' church thing.
13:06
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm sitting with two of my kids in church and listening to the sermon.
13:11
SPEAKER_01: Now that sounds like a simple undertaking, right?
13:14
SPEAKER_01: Right.
13:14
SPEAKER_01: It's what we do.
13:15
SPEAKER_01: Go to church on Sunday and hear the sermon.
13:17
SPEAKER_01: This was a little different though, because I was in such a difficult time of my life in those in that first year of recovery.
13:24
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I had a lot of mental battles that I was going through.
13:31
SPEAKER_01: I would but based on some of those regrets and realizing that here I am, I'm I'm sitting in this church.
13:40
SPEAKER_01: I I used to be a staff pastor at that church, but because of my addiction, because of my sin, because of my brokenness, I was no longer serving as a leader there.
13:52
SPEAKER_01: I was still a part of the congregation along with my kids.
13:56
SPEAKER_01: But it still was a very difficult time because it life had changed so much.
14:02
SPEAKER_01: And so I, you know, I was there and I was in church.
14:05
SPEAKER_01: I was grateful to be with my kids, but I was riddled, absolutely riddled with shame.
14:11
SPEAKER_01: Just the shame.
14:13
SPEAKER_01: I mean, fear of what was gonna happen in my future.
14:17
SPEAKER_01: And was my life ever, was I ever gonna stabilize again in my life?
14:20
SPEAKER_01: Those kind of fears uh were constant in my I I mean, they just bombarded me, those fears every day, right?
14:29
SPEAKER_01: Guilt uh was like I mean, I I felt like I was running a guilt gauntlet every day, you know, because I was it was so easy for me to beat myself up.
14:42
SPEAKER_01: And that on that day, for some reason, and really it was wasn't anybody else's fault, it was my all my internal struggles, hearing sermon, that sermon was just like a uh it was hard for me because I was all twisted up in my own mind.
15:00
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
15:02
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
15:03
SPEAKER_01: So I'm sitting there just wanting to crawl into a hole, but I'm also trying to be strong and be grateful for this time with my kids.
15:14
SPEAKER_01: And so what happened that day is I remembered a song, a Christian song that I had heard recently, and it was a song that was based on a verse, Hebrews 13, verses 5 and 6.
15:31
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and in those verses, it said the verses say, The Lord has said, I will never leave you or forsake you.
15:40
SPEAKER_01: Now that's good news.
15:43
SPEAKER_01: Love that verse, that's in verse 5.
15:45
SPEAKER_01: And in verse 6 says, So we say with confidence, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.
15:55
SPEAKER_01: And for some reason, because I couldn't tell you if my life depended on it, I couldn't tell you what the sermon was about.
16:04
SPEAKER_01: Because, and no fault of the church or the preacher, it was all just in your own head.
16:10
SPEAKER_01: Oh, bro, I was struggling.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, been there.
16:14
SPEAKER_01: And so that song lyric pops into my head.
16:19
SPEAKER_01: So I have it, you know, some churches will print out a little half-page insert in the material they hand to you when you walk in the building, and it's to take sermon notes on.
16:31
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
16:31
SPEAKER_01: Right?
16:32
SPEAKER_01: And this particular church would do even like fill in the blanks.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: Heck yeah, isn't that the best?
16:37
SPEAKER_00: Oh, bro.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: A childhood game of mine was you would sit with the youth group and you'd guess what the words are in the and you'd be keeping a tally with you and your boy, be like, this is the blank of God, and you're like, the love of God.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: He's like, It's the power of God.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: And then it's like this, I don't know.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: It's like a battle to see right.
16:55
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that is so cool.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: You talk about training up some young pastors, you'd get them in this.
17:00
SPEAKER_01: And I'm telling you, shout out to this to the churches to go to the trouble and the pet preachers put put that in the the bulletin.
17:07
SPEAKER_01: That was with the fill in the blanks.
17:09
SPEAKER_01: Hey, man, sometimes you get the sermon notes as just lines.
17:12
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're like, what am I supposed to do with it?
17:14
SPEAKER_00: Fill the whole phrase in what are we living in the 1980s?
17:18
SPEAKER_00: What are we doing?
17:19
SPEAKER_00: Do we have a barcode?
17:20
SPEAKER_00: Give a QR code for the fill in the blank, please.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: All right, I'm starting to.
17:25
SPEAKER_01: I'm sitting here on this moment, on that Sunday, back in 2009.
17:30
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and I'm sitting there, God saw me struggling, I know he did, and he dropped that phrase in my mind.
17:38
SPEAKER_01: So I sit here, and I I find some instant comfort from that phrase, but it's almost like that battle is still raging in my mind.
17:48
SPEAKER_01: But with the shame and the guilt and the fears and all the question marks.
17:52
SPEAKER_01: And so I take that little sheet of paper and and kind of at the top, where there's some blank space, I write down, The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.
18:05
SPEAKER_01: And it felt like it helped me a little bit.
18:09
SPEAKER_01: And so I wrote it again.
18:11
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.
18:15
SPEAKER_01: And I found myself over and over again writing, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.
18:22
SPEAKER_01: And it's as if while the as the ink rode out of that pen onto that page, it was like the very voice of God helping me.
18:33
SPEAKER_01: And I kept writing it, and I kept writing it, and I'm turning the page sideways, and now I'm writing it in those margins.
18:42
SPEAKER_01: Every fill in the blank on that sermon was the Lord is my helper.
18:46
SPEAKER_01: I will not be afraid.
18:47
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm writing between the print of the different verses that they I'm telling you, and and if people saw me, they saw me down here writing, and they said, This guy's so into this sermon.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: He's transcribing the pastor's sermon right here.
19:02
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna have it word for word.
19:04
SPEAKER_01: But you know what I was doing?
19:06
SPEAKER_01: I was just diving deep into this one truth, which is it's almost like that's all my mind and my heart could handle.
19:14
SPEAKER_01: It's all I could take in at the moment, but I'm telling you, bro, it's all I needed.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: And by the time I was done, I wish I had saved this sheet of paper because I was gonna ask you if you and I'm the guy that usually does save that kind of stuff, you know.
19:31
SPEAKER_01: And uh, and so I looked and I looked at it at the end, and I was kind of like hoping nobody else could see it.
19:38
SPEAKER_01: Because if you looked at it, you would go, that was written by a crazy person.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, it just filled up the whole page.
19:43
SPEAKER_01: The scribblings of a madman.
19:45
SPEAKER_01: I but you know what?
19:47
SPEAKER_01: It was life, it was life, it was a a part of the scripture that just somehow sunk into my heart just enough to make me believe and give me some hope.
20:00
SPEAKER_01: And this was at a time, and and brother, I want you to know that from that Sunday forward, things did not get any better.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm not trying to be cute or or or silly, but stuff got more complicated almost some days.
20:16
SPEAKER_01: It felt like by the hour, yeah, and it was a long time, it was probably years before I really started feeling all the all the health and the stability that God had began building in me, but he began a lot of it on that day, yes, and that phrase to this day is super important to me.
20:40
SPEAKER_01: It has been of a stabilizing watchword for me.
20:46
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.
20:53
SPEAKER_01: And so that story is told just because just to say that there is value, there is much value.
21:00
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I think it's critical for believers to search the scriptures and to and to let the Lord show you something that would pop for you to give you a watchword kind of thing.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: I I love this, and I know that for somebody like me, or maybe we have some listeners that can really identify with that broken moment, that moment where everything did come to a head and every seeker was brought to light and it was the worst, you know.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: And but I I feel like that makes that prepares us so much for those mantra moments, you know.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: And so I I just because I know I've I've got several from when you know, that shame, that fear of the unknown, of what the future holds, that I just I'm you're just spiraling in your own mind, and how there are times where I all I know to do, I don't.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: I don't necessarily even believe it yet.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: All I know to do is to write out whatever it is that the Lord's asking me to write out.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment for you, it was He is my helper.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: I will not fear.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: I will not be afraid.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: I just I I so appreciate your vulnerability in sharing this story, man.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: It's so powerful.
22:22
SPEAKER_01: Do you have uh could you share with the listeners a uh maybe maybe one?
22:27
SPEAKER_01: I know for me that this is one of many that at critical times God has uh carried me through with those words.
22:35
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
22:35
SPEAKER_01: Uh do you have one?
22:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've got several.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: We were we were talking a little bit before we we went live.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: We should have been recording it then, but another one of mine is in Hebrews 4.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: Or it's in Hebrews, but in Hebrews 4, and um in verse 14, those three verses start talking about how we have a great high priest who has been tempted in every way as we have been, and is yet without sin.
22:57
SPEAKER_00: And and the beautiful part for me is it says, so then we we can draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, not the throne of judgment, not the throne of discipline, not the throne of shame, condemnation.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: It's to the throne of grace.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: Another one is is uh Genesis 50-20 at the end of Joseph's life, and you know, he's reunited with his brothers, and they think that he's about to, you know, off them, and and he essentially says, No, man, what the enemy meant for evil, God meant for good.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: And I don't I don't fully even comprehend that verse.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: I I don't know if I can theologically unpack the totality of that truth.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: I just know that my life has experienced that, that what the enemy intended to derail, God somehow intended to redeem.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: Yes, and I believe that.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: And then sort of the last one is is in Philippians 4.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, we we have this super well-known passage about do not be anxious, but everything with prayer and supplication, you know, it's the whole rejoices in the Lord always.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: That's the stuff we focus on.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: But the the very first line of verse five is the Lord is near.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: The Lord is near.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the ESV version says, the Lord is at hand.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: And then it goes on and on and on, you know.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: And that the Lord is near.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: That's not that's that's a promise.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: That's a that's a statement.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: That's a God is near, and there are so many times, and there have been so many times in my life, and maybe we have some listeners right now that are going, Man, I I don't think the Lord is near, I don't feel like the Lord is near.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: And and brother, sister, the Lord is near.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: And what the enemy meant for evil, God means for good.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: And no matter how far you've run in the wrong direction, all we have to do is to stop and turn.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: And the throne of grace is ready for you.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: And so I don't know.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: I listen, you talk about like, I don't know if it's a if it's a um if it's a life verse, if it's a mantra, if it's a tattoo, if it's this, what do you call the old English?
25:24
SPEAKER_00: It's a watch word, whatever it is, but but friends, we you gotta get some of these in your back pocket because the enemy is coming after us.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: And these right here, these are these are arrows in our at our disposal to kind of combat some of that, I think.
25:42
SPEAKER_01: Oh, come on, come on.
25:43
SPEAKER_01: So, and and listen, when when when you take a portion of scripture that is important and and strong, and you begin, you know, just speaking that over and over again, writing it down a thousand times on a small piece of paper, whatever it might be, the thing is that we're not uh we're not just saying words, we're not just writing down words.
26:07
SPEAKER_01: The the Bible, the words of God, they're alive, man.
26:12
SPEAKER_01: It's not just words, it's like God's breath on a page.
26:17
SPEAKER_01: And when we can bring that into the into the moments of our life, like what we've been discussing tonight, God can carry us.
26:26
SPEAKER_01: There's life in it, and he will breathe life into us.
26:29
SPEAKER_01: So get yourself some watch words, people.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: I love it.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: Good stuff, good stuff.
26:33
SPEAKER_01: Thank you all.
26:34
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for uh helping me there and sharing those with us, brother.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Yes, thank you, brother.
26:40
SPEAKER_01: Now I do have a segment that I I just need some help with.
26:44
SPEAKER_01: Um I just so my darling wife, Rhonda, is a shopper extraordinaire.
26:51
SPEAKER_01: She finds deals, she's just she's just so good at it, right?
26:56
SPEAKER_01: But I can't hang with it in many ways and for many reasons.
27:01
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
27:01
SPEAKER_01: I do my best, but I just I have to tap out a lot on the shopping thing.
27:06
SPEAKER_01: But when she's shopping online, that would seem simple, right?
27:13
SPEAKER_01: We're we're sitting on the couch, she's like, hey, check this out.
27:16
SPEAKER_01: Do you like this?
27:17
SPEAKER_01: With something on Amazon.
27:18
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna decide together on a purchase, right?
27:22
SPEAKER_01: Brother, my darling wife, she reads every review about a product that there is, and I'm telling you, exhausts me.
27:34
SPEAKER_01: I can't, I have to, I'm just like, what in the world?
27:37
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, she we can decide on what what we want, and we're not even near getting that thing in our cart.
27:45
SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, not even close.
27:47
SPEAKER_01: She's gonna read them all, and she gets two reviews in, and I'm like, sorry, sorry, that's it.
27:54
SPEAKER_01: I can't.
27:55
SPEAKER_01: I haven't read a review in my life, and I don't plan to.
28:00
SPEAKER_01: If I like the the the look, I like the color, yeah, the size looks to be right.
28:06
SPEAKER_01: I'm going for it, man.
28:07
SPEAKER_01: I ain't got time for that.
28:10
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
28:10
SPEAKER_01: Can somebody help me?
28:12
SPEAKER_01: Talk to me, Brad.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: Hey, man, listen, it's so funny that you're talking about this because so much of my job that I did today for Home Depot was about reviews.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: A huge part of my job is about the online shopping experience.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and so I have found that a lot of customers will leverage the reviews section of an item to determine whether or not they're going to make a purchase or not.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: But the overwhelming majority of online shoppers do not.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: They will just type in whatever they want, one of the top search results, which is typically a sponsored product.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: And they go, Yeah, add the cart, boom, there you go.
28:50
SPEAKER_01: Two days later, and then send your house.
28:52
SPEAKER_01: So you're saying I'm a part of the idiot majority.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: I know.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: I didn't say idiot.
28:57
SPEAKER_01: No, you're just sorry.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: That's how I get in trouble.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: Because if I say yes to that, then listen, I I'm on the fence.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: Because if it's if it's a normal, just a BAU, all right, business as usual, do you like this toilet paper or that toilet paper?
29:14
SPEAKER_00: Okay, sure, buy it.
29:16
SPEAKER_01: Right.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm not I'm not reading a review for toilet paper.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: All right.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm just not.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: Right.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: But if it's like a hey, this thing's gotta work, okay?
29:25
SPEAKER_00: The like the size of it or the the the feel of it or the durability of it, or if it's a higher ticket pro, you know, product, you know, if it's higher investment.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if it's like ten dollars or less, you're I'm with you.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm not reading a review.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: If it's a hundred and ten dollars, it's like I'll read a review or two.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: Let me just check out and see what the majority say.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: I will also I'll go, I'll say this though.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: Instead of reading reviews, I will compare how many reviews an item has.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: You know how five star, four star.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know how on Amazon, if if an item has, you know, four and a half stars, but it's got like 1,200 reviews, and then another product has like four and a half stars, but it's got like three reviews.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I'm not buying the three review, and I'm buying the one that 1,200 of my closest neighbors that I've never talked to.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: And we'll never talk to about this product, but they've bought it, dadgummit.
30:25
SPEAKER_01: Hey, can I also say again, my wife, she's a wise shopper, she spends well, but uh wisely I I got I mean it's about it's about restaurants too.
30:36
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I don't know, man.
30:38
SPEAKER_01: I can't I can't go there.
30:39
SPEAKER_01: I can't go.
30:40
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: I might draw the line.
30:41
SPEAKER_01: I might draw the line at restaurants because people You gotta give them a fair shake, right?
30:46
SPEAKER_01: I mean, and it's you're gonna come across a couple of bad reviews.
30:49
SPEAKER_01: You know, Gladys from Toledo got a bad burger one time.
30:54
SPEAKER_01: What am I holding?
30:56
SPEAKER_01: I'm still making my decision.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm with you on this because I don't trust Gladys and her opinion of food.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: Now, if something that says it's supposed to be a green wrench and it shows up and it's a purple screwdriver and that's a review, that's a hard fact.
31:13
SPEAKER_00: But if Gladys doesn't like the chicken fingers, you know, what if I like the chicken?
31:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm with you.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm with you on the restaurant.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: So so, all of our listeners, we need to know.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: It sounds like there's two people in this world reviewers and non-reviewers.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: Who are you and why?
31:31
SPEAKER_00: We must know.
31:32
SPEAKER_01: We need to know this about our peeps.
31:34
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: Um I need to know who we're talking to every week.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: Because if it's a bunch of reviewers, I'm gonna be mad at you because you haven't left us a review.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: So you know what I'm saying?
31:41
SPEAKER_00: If you're if you're a review person, wait a second.
31:44
SPEAKER_01: We do need reviews.
31:45
SPEAKER_01: You like that?
31:46
SPEAKER_01: It's a horrible segment.
31:48
SPEAKER_01: I am so sorry.
31:49
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: Well, actually, we love everybody who does reviews.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for the five-star reviews.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: Oh, heaven help us, dude.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: What a it's great to be back in the saddle with you, man.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: Love it.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: After every single week last week, I was I kind of missed the beginning of this week.
32:04
SPEAKER_01: I was like, where's the podcast?
32:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, where's it coming out again?
32:09
SPEAKER_00: But here we are.
32:10
SPEAKER_01: Oh, man.
32:11
SPEAKER_01: Well, blessings to all our Sermons on the side listeners.
32:14
SPEAKER_01: We will be back here next week with another episode of Sermons on the Side.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: That was awesome, dude.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: Oh, dude, okay, all the way back to the fill in the blanks.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the fill in the blanks?
32:42
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk fill in the blanks.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: Coach.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: All right.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: We we would, when we were done with the fill in the blanks, we would snag the offering envelopes.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: You remember the offering envelopes?
32:55
SPEAKER_00: That's how we passed notes to each other when we were in, like, when you were sitting with the youth group.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: That's how we like did tic-tac-toe.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: I can't imagine being on this side of like church staff or like church leadership.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: The amount of like offering envelopes that had to be restocked every single week for the youth section at our church growing up, dude.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: They'd be like, man, the youth are getting serious about the donations, man.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: Like the donations were not going up at all.
33:25
SPEAKER_01: No spike in the oh, that's funny.
33:28
SPEAKER_01: Bring back build the blades.
33:31
SPEAKER_01: Put it in the bulletin.
33:32
SPEAKER_01: I need it.
33:33
SPEAKER_01: No doubt.
33:34
SPEAKER_01: No doubt.
33:35
SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm just to me, keep to keep you going, keep you in game.
33:40
SPEAKER_01: I love that game though that you guys are playing.
33:43
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna get you to the dude game.
33:46
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna guess what the Lord is gonna say to us.
33:50
SPEAKER_00: It was it was such a horrible way to like become more spiritual than your friends when you'd get it right.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, me and the pastor, yeah, yeah, yeah.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: You didn't see that's where he was going.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: We were in First Peter.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: Of course, we were talking about the power and the spiritualness of it.
34:07
SPEAKER_01: Gotta love it.
34:08
SPEAKER_01: Gotta love it.
34:09
SPEAKER_01: Good stuff, man.
34:10
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that was a good thing.